Ankylopoda Truther

frustrating when you are talking about folklore as the narratives a particular culture tells itself about itself and then someone else is talking about folklore as a dnd monster manual

you stumble into this a lot with dragons especially. it is impossible to talk about dragons as like, a broad term for mythological and folkloric creatures whose attributes and symbolism vary across cultures without someone rolling up to announce that actually what you’re describing is a wyvern, not a dragon.

9 out of 10 times I see people on here celebrating a new "landmark piece of anti-AI legislation" the legislation in question is inevitably some variation of "we propose making IP laws more restrictive but presented through the language of opposing AI". But that one from germany about holding google liable for the words of its AI overview feature is legitimately good I think. If they actively choose to shove that thing in everyone's face as the first thing they're going to see when they make a google search then they shouldn't be able to dodge accountability for the information it provides with a little "gemini AI can be inaccurate, please remember to double-check information teeheehee" disclaimer.

everyone is meeting me in the grotto

Mesopotamian girl sending clay tablets to her best friend who lives five city states to the west: what if..... Enkidu begot Gilgamesh with child?🤭

it’s actually not misogynistic to say astrology is bogus, and it is indeed way way more misogynistic to believe that things that can’t be proven rationally through science are More Female.

in general--although i don't think it would actually be worth the functional errata needed to implement this--i think magic would be a better game if it trimmed like 20% of its types. for example, i think every animal type with sub-15 cards that's not plausibly going to get typal support in the forseeable future should just be a 'beast'. capybara, giraffe, varmint (god OTJ was fucking awful)--beasts, the lot of them. also, unicorns should be faerie horses and pegasi should be angel horses, it's ridiculous that you can't build one typal deck synergizing the three types of animals that are all different types of horse

every time i think about overwatch's orientalism i go a lil more insane. 5 japanese characters all of which are tied to a very stereotypical mythologized version of japan. they're some of the few explicitly magical characters. all of them are part of clans and lineages and shit. every map that takes place in japan is an orientalist fairy land with idyllic old looking villages with shrines and gates and cobblestone and zero utility poles in sight. this game is so incredibly racist

what's interesting to me is that no other asian characters get this treatment. mei is a climate scientist or something. diva is a gamer. lifeweaver and symmetra are scientist. something about japan specifically makes the overwatch devs get a boner for the image of a permanently ancient magical other, japanese characters are simply not allowed to be contemporary

Star Trek equivalent of a "Glup Shitto" is some obscure class of Federation starship that was only ever seen on screen for 0.68 seconds as a battle-damaged wreck at Wolf 359, but which somehow has a model from Eaglemoss, multiple, lengthy video essays discussing its lore, and an extremely vocal fan campaign by people demanding that it be made playable in Star Trek Online.

I really wish we still had temnospondyls I want to see a triangle walking around 😭😭😭😭😭😭

Hermetic literature lacks the literary punch of gnostic mythology. I think the most interesting claim it makes is a throwaway reframing of genesis 1:22 from Poimandres. "Man will recognize that he is immortal and know the cause of death is Eros." Implying that humanity is the only class of being capable of erotic love because we are mortal.

marxist seinfeld: what's the deal with liberalism?