This is buried in a longer post, but I think it's worth highlighting again.
The point of civil discourse is not to uphold Victorian manners, play nice for the oppressor, or constrain activism to a specific set of rules.
The point of civil discourse is to present and exchange ideas in a manner that is compatible with human psychology.
Being inflammatory/polarizing puts people's guards up. Once you've insulted someone in an argument, no matter what a horrid bastard they might be, you've sacrificed all your credibility/pull with them. Why should they believe you know best for them/society if you've shown you don't respect them as a person?
The thought of "I don't want to argue about human rights," is fair. However, through time immemorial, we've seen that rights are a thing you are born with but have to defend from outside forces. "Defend" means arguing. Arguing effectively means being patient, default assuming the person's mind can be changed, and walking away from a conversation you don't have the energy or the temper to continue with "This is not something I think I can change your mind on, but I stand firm on my beliefs. I will not be engaging further with you on this today."
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To be more specific I want to talk about her outfit because I have ALOT of thoughts (mostly want to explain why I love it).
Mostly the first thought I had when I saw it was “this isn’t at ALL what I expected it to be”….
but then I thought about Lila as a character and then I remembered a very specific line one of the last lines she indirectly told Gabriel “I’ll show YOU I’m not just some bottle of perfume”. Lila HATES superiority and she more-so hates being excluded Gabriel basically threw her away and mocked her. So her specifically mocking his persona as both Hawkmoth AND Monarch is sooo on brand like “I will ALSO get a tuxedo and I will look better”. Now on a more serious note the top of the outfit is all for her. We know that every costume is personally designed after the holder’s desires and Lila wants to be taken seriously now if saw this creature….
coming at me from the dark I would probably pee myself. I think that’s her main goal to look first of all not human and absolutely threatening the way she makes herself SIGNIFICANTLY taller and kind of yknow older (the hair helps too ofc)
However the costume also has this sense of ethereal beauty almost kind of like a fairy that wants to grant you every wish, so it kind of helps her tone down the creep factor abit. Even her physicality as Chrysalis being very calming and playful like she’s not taking everything seriously but she’s also internally not taking YOU seriously helps…. Overall I like it. It plays into Lila being secretive and more hidden than her predecessor Hawkmoth was very direct with everything he simply did not care about his persona to civilians Lila on the other hand is a nice change of pace.
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I think one of the biggest traps that White Wolf writers fall into is marketing the World of Darkness as "Gothic Punk" but misunderstanding the difference between Gothic Punk and Grimdark. There are superficial similarities between these two world building styles, but in the important details they couldn't be more different
Gothic Punk means three primary things. The world is like ours but has its worst problems, like crime, overpopulation, pollution, etc, all played up from how they are in reality. The world, despite its darkness, had a great deal of beauty to be seen within the darkness: that's the "Gothic" aspect. Finally, there is hope in the setting for change, and a chance to fight back against the powers that be and change things for the better, even if it's a long shot, and hard as hell, the chance for hope is there: that's the "punk" aspect.
Grimdark is where the world is hopeless. There's no chance for things to ever get better, and the best you can do is try to prevent them from falling apart as fast, and maybe creating a future for some small group if you play your cards right. Grimdark can be fun too, but things in a Grimdark setting are even more fucked up than in Gothic Punk. The fun of the setting comes from the whole "rage against the dying of the light" mood, where you know things are going to shit fast, but you plan to go down fighting
The distinction between these two moods is what separates the World of Darkness from something like 40k. Gothic Punk is a world where a dumb Brujah neonate can get lucky and kill the founder of the Camarilla, or, if you've played bloodlines, where a dumb neonate with luck and a lot of help can dust the Prince of LA and a Tzimisce elder. It's the world where the Garou maybe have a shot at taking down Pentex, even if it's a hard one. Where the Traditions can score major victories against the Technocracy every now and then, and hold their own.
There are some writers at White Wolf who just don't understand this. And most of the dumb choices that are made in the Metaplot, especially in recent books, can be traced back to this.
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i've been rewatching Gargoyles and the fact that Xanatos really just relocates their whole entire ancient castle to the top of his skyscraper never stops being very funny. their faces when they wake up too.
This is my second play-through of Legends ZA, a completionist run and my first time playing the DLC. I did all the sidequests, caught a living dex, and got max money and shards.
My trainer was called Zachary, a generic trainer named after the game with the ultimate goal of using a Zygarde and hair and clothes to match the games/mascots color scheme. I got all three gift Kalos starters as the generic option, and at level 36 (& rank E) I stop playing and waited until all there Mega Stones were obtainable before getting them and continuing. My lack of prior megas up to this point made the previous mega fights interesting. Also playing as boy meant I had Taunie as my rival, who was big improvement.
With a smaller early team, combined with rotating team-mates to avoid overlevelling them while training up and evolving other pokemon, made the Z-A Royal suprisingly challenging, and kept most of the challenging fights somewhat challenging.
I waited to unlock the Shiny Charm before progressing onto the DLC, which paid off due to sheer number of shinies I ended finding, both in realspace as well in hyerspace. I played the DLC mostly unspoiled, so my first "Catch a Shiny" hyperspace mission was a nice suprise, as were almost all of the new DLC Megas.
Sadly, the DLC gameplay was mostly bad. There was tons of grinding, it took ages for the ability to mass buy berries was added to the game making resource scarcity a constant for most of my playthrough. The time constraints and donut scarcity combined with playing it blind lead to some very stressful and risky fights while introducing a sunk cost and 'guess the right donut' metagame. The cutscenes were long, the plot was railroady and would sometimes lock you out of hyperspace until you did stuff. The level curve was bad, as a lot of dlc fights were gated behind winning fights with much higher levels and difficulty, making them trival. Similarly, some of the unclear instructions forced me to look stuff up instead of playing it blind.
The DLC however still fun, with the boss fights being both challenging and fun. The new Megas were mostly great, as were some of the tag battle sidemissions. Shiny hunting was so easy with Hyperspace Donuts I actually engaged in repeated long term shiny hunting, with more than two boxes filled with shinies.
The DLC was ultimately worth getting, and should be better on a replay but it had some very strong flaws. Similarly while I enjoyed the completionist aspect of doing all the sidequests, some of them were a chore, took forever or were very unclear. And doing them highlighted a problem with box space, as for the first time playing a pokemon game I was running low on box space and had to repeatedly release mons due to all the catching missions.
And now with pokemon home compatibility, I can finally finish my run at 196 hours! Team below.
First up is Elaine the Mega Chestnaught, with Earthquake, Wood Hammer, Stone Edge and Close Combat. She was tough and ended up with a great movepool capable of doing alot of damage. Her quad weakness held her back the entire game, but she powered through it to defeat Corbeau's Gyarados.
Second up is Mizukage my Mega Greninja, with Surf, Nasty Plot, Dark Pulse, and Ice Beam. He was done no favors with ZA gameplay changes, making bulk more valuable and his frailty a greater liability. Despite this he powered through his charge time to deal lots of damage with great typing and great moves. While he fainted regularly, he also took his opponents down with him. Finding the right time to use him was critical in the Flare Noveau fights.
Madame Rouge is my Mega Delphox with, Fire Blast, Psyshock, Fire Spin and Shadow Ball. Like her peers also obtained from the early sidquest, her early movepool was very good. Slightly sturdier than Greninja with equivalent coverage, typing and a hard hitting mega she was a great. The three Kalos starters formed a fire/grass/water core, and worked very well together as a toolbox against enemy trainers, even if they got worn down easily. Her Psyshocks ability to heat items behind obstacles was really useful in the overworld.
My fourth teammate, a Japanese Slurpuff with Giga Impact, Thunderbolt, Play Rough and Surf. As I was completing the dex, I tried to prioritise trade evolutions I had not used before and so decided on Slurpuff. After catching one on a rooftop and trading it ASAP after completing the quest to get the items, I luckily got one in Pokeball with a nice and stylish Japanese name. She was my weakest teammate, but she was very enthusiatic and good early one. Fairy is a great typing, and with a solid movepool she even took down Phillipe's Mega Skarmory with Thunderbolt spam. As my own non-mega, I would start with her by default in Rogue Mega Battles to stall for time to get a mega ring. Her Shell Bell was useful in the ZA Royal, and her Play Rought coverage was great.
Solomon, my Alpha Scizor with Close Combat, Iron Head, Lunge and Swords Dance. I had decided on Scyther and Mega Scizor as my fifth teammate, as a trade evolution and mega I had not used before. I caught both a regular and this Alpha Scyher ASAP in pokeballs to match my team, and switched in the Alpha my the regular Scyther caught it's level. Scyther was good, which was lucky as it took awhile to unlock the metal coat. After getting my now Alpha Scizor traded back, I now had a great mon with a great defensive typing. He played similarly to Elaine due to having close combat. His ability to fly even a Scizor was useful, and in the postgame he beat Mega Meowstic as my only mon.
My final pokemon was Zygarde with Core Enforcer, Thousand Waves, Outrage and Thousand Arrows. I caught them in a Pokeball to match the rest of my team, and didn't change their name or movepool for thematic reasons. Zygarde was slow moving and took awhile to charge their moves, but was incredibly bulky and single handily won my several of the DLC Rogue Mega Battles due to his bulk and ability to do massive damage.
They want somebody to overturn the political framework entirely and implement a wholly new system of government and economy.
This is usually called "a dictatorial coup", and as can be seen by observing the current US president, it happening tends to be A Bad Thing That Makes Things Worse.
what's your opinion on the "real winner of the space race" argument. I don't think you respect this type of discourse but it annoys me that people assume the moon as the end goal was shared by birth sides from the beginning and i was wondering if you are annoyed by similar misconceptions
its an interesting conversation in a sense, in that both sides are pretty revisionist. soviet space program apologia would have you believe that the Soviets were doing awesome at everything and just walked away for some reason. The Soviets in reality were seriously struggling to develop heavy and superheavy lift capabilities and the space program was riven by rivalry and backbiting. N1 and Energia, as programs, both failed bigly and in N1s case spectacularly. The Soviets really failed in having a vision on What To Do In Space beyond earth orbit. That's not to say they didn't have remarkable achievements - their Venus probes were a mark of tenacity and determination - but they often ended up going "So... now what?"
Which is an interesting reversal of circumstance! the Soviets got ahead at the beginning precisely because they, unlike the Americans, saw the usefulness of a space program and had a strong vision for what needed to be done. And they marched forwards implacably. Many are also unaware that the Soviets made real long term success and had scientific achievements which NASA never matched. The Soyuz was simply unbeatable as a cheap, safe and reliable medium lift vehicle, and a man rated one at that. It wasn't surpassed until Falcon 9 just a decade ago, and the US relied on it to get to the ISS because shuttle kept eating people and cost a fortune. Soviet metallurgy and materials science in rocket engines was also more advanced than NASAs (who thought the Soviets were lying until NASA got to pick the carcass after the collapse).
Still, it failed dramatically in the later years. they had no idea what to do and were competing over lift vehicles, not in the manner of sports teams but in the manner of mob families. these failures went beyond late soviet decay and grew out of the structure of the Soviet space program, which was built out of competing and independent facilities/projects, scientist gulags where you could be imprisoned while winning the hero of the soviet union awat for being a head scientist of rocket programs, and big egos who learned that they could send state goons after rival scientists who came down on the other side of the hydrolox vs metholox debate (yes, really, that example was real)
The NASA apologists meanwhile act as if the moon landing was the only thing that mattered and are simply completely ignorant of soviet accomplishments. the "first woman in space" is the most obvious case here, but most are also completely ignorant of the Soviet Mars and Venus programs - the venutian program in particular revolutionised our understanding of the planet. The yanks, as always, are focused on thumping their chests and jerking themselves off, they even miss the real victories of the American space program, which occured long after da moon. First, Mars: the Soviets failed, despite reaching mars first, to actually succeed in doing anything on Mars, while NASA's Mars missions, which began contemporaneously with the soviet program, needs no introduction. Secondly, space stations. Mir, for all it's accomplishments, ended up being neglected and finally abandoned with astronauts inside - actually stranded and in danger, who had to be rescued by the US and their space program. in fact the entire Russian space program would be rescued by forcibly joining it at the hip to the American space program by the frankenstation we call the ISS. This was done intentionally by the US to 1 - make decoupling physically impossible and thus politically infeasible 2 throw the Russian space program a lifeline so their many rocket engineers and facilities wouldn't start building for whomever bid highest (nuclear nonproliferation was the 90s watchword) 3 create a necessary point of cooperation to ensure a diplomatic and peaceful door was always open between Russia and the US. This worked specularly, to be clear. most are unaware of how well too.
An example which I said I wouldn't bring up is also the moon program. not the landing, which was a lovely show pony and acomplishment, but the program entire. NASA didn't go to the moon, they built a long program to go to the moon over and over and over again. The Soviets could have gone to the moon - but I doubt they could have built this kind of enduring program. It was always their weakness in deep space missions.
NASA and the USSRs space program were different because their method of organisation and leadership were different. The US opted for a centralised program with decentralised facilities to force political cooperation and gaurentee funding. The Soviets opted for a bottom up program of competing facilities and teams who had to petition the central organs for funding and approval explicitly against the others. While this lead to initial gains and diversity, in the end it lead to money being spent all over on programs which were dropped and on fierce and underhanded competition for scraps, where necessary failures resulted in abortions (N1).
NASA of course would end up being bloated and putrid because of its organisation method, beholden to congressmen who just cared that factories stayed open and without the authority to actually plan the building of their own vehicles - leading to the Shuttle death trap and the 20+ years of SLS boondoggle.
I love the tidbit that the American space program was based on centralization and cooperation and the Soviet space program was based on competition. Stereotypes of capitalism and communism be damned.
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