circifox

ok leaving the haterism bit to answer this genuinely

honestly this applies to any au, not just mermaids, but I’d much rather read something where the writer considers WHAT the universe-altering aspect REPRESENTS and what it replaces. did the original world already have magic, and can it be substituted by mermaids (and does it work with the whole world and not just the bits related to the ship you’re writing this au for)? if not, did the original world have a narrative where characters are separated by factors beyond their control? was there a character with a canon arc that could translate well to being/becoming a mermaid? I feel like this is often ignored in favor of just retelling the little mermaid, but this time the characters look like and are named after other characters.

oftentimes, aus fail to interest me because they change the backstories to such an extreme degree that the characters couldn’t possibly be the same people anymore. for example, there’s no real way to do a modern no-magic coffee shop au of avatar the last airbender that doesn’t remove most of the stakes of what makes aang—a kid thrust into a war with the responsibility to save the entire world at the age of twelve, who feels responsible for the demise of his entire civilization and culture—interesting!! if you take all that away from him, then why does the character in question need to be aang if you could replace him with, like, peter parker and get the same outcome.

ALL THIS TO SAY!! you can do whatever you want. There’s no right or wrong way to participate in fandom. personally, I like engaging with fandom by playing with the material given and doing character/narrative analysis, and some people don’t!!

Like yeah this game is really dark and about a dude having an existential crisis that makes him try to fight god/kill a bunch of people "for the greater good", is full of biblical allegory, and tells you literally nothing until the credits show you a slideshow of a car crash that destroyed a family while a song about someone praying her brother wakes up from a coma/singing about all the things she wishes they could do but can't plays.

Oh and a mother tries to commit ritual suicide after fucking everything up but then god steps in saying "nah you don't die here"

But then the game looks like this and all the music is super upbeat

Krafton CEO looks at the hype surrounding Subnautica 2, goes over the contract between Krafton and Unknown Worlds, realizes he'll have to pay out bonuses and freaks out because shelling out those bonuses will make him look like a pushover.

CEO goes to his legal department, asks them to come up with a plan to weasel out of paying bonuses. Legal tells him the contract is iron-clad and to accept the loss.

CEO refuses to take the loss, asks ChatGPT for a plan. ChatGPT says the exact same thing the legal department did.

CEO demands a plan from ChatGPT, which dutifully spits out a plan at this point because clearly the CEO is a goddamn idiot.

CEO deletes the chat logs, failing to understand that 'delete' doesn't permanently remove things.

CEO follows plan, and is surprised when Unknown Worlds sues for breach of contract despite being told by both humans and an LLM that is exactly what would happen.

Court does not go well for Krafton's legal department. It comes out that after ignoring the sound legal advice of human beings, the CEO went to ChatGPT and asked for a plan. When asked for the logs by the court, Krafton's legal team states they were deleted, thus that it's simply herersay. Judge goes "Oh, that's okay, we'll have our IT folks recover them." Krafton's legal team is astounded that's even possible.

The chat logs are recovered. It comes out that even ChatGPT was in agreement with Krafton's legal department, and only spat out a plan after being asked a second time.

The judge, now thoroughly done with the stupidity of Krafton's CEO at this point, rules in favor of Unknown Worlds. Her ruling doesn't simply undo the scheme, but effectively leaves all control over Subnautica 2's development in the hands of Unknown Worlds, including the early access release date, reducing Krafton to just publishing out of contractual obligation. Krafton must also return all social media platforms for Unknown Worlds and Subnautica 2 to Unknown Worlds' control. Financial damages will be determined at a later date.

Krafton proceeds to violate the court order in less than 72 hours by trying to set an early access release date before returning Unknown Worlds' social media platforms.

“Ghosts aren’t real” it’s very fair and rational that you believe that

“Ghosts aren’t real anymore” I’m about to hear a poem or very sad story