PushoverMediaCritic

something really deep but it

ends up sounding like

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!!

haterism bit to answer

this genuinely

Mermaids and Fishmen live in an underwater kingdom encased in a bubble underneath a tree that filters sunlight through it. They live there because the rest of the world was (and parts still are) super discriminatory toward Fishmen and Mermaids, and they couldn't (and still can't) live on the surface for fear of being kidnapped and enslaved. But they're still mammals, they evolved from humans, they need light and air (they can breathe water, but they prefer breathing both regularly), so that's why they live inside a bubble under a sunlight tree. A whole race, desperate for some small piece of the surface world, the whole thing is a Little Mermaid metaphor.

What does it change about the main characters' stories by making them mermaids? Changing them from humans to mermaids effectively switches them from the dominant and most privileged race in the world to one of the most underprivileged and discriminated against. How does that change the characters' backstories, their lives, their histories? Especially Nami, with her backstory of the Fishman pirate Arlong attacking her town and enslaving her, which he did because he hated humans since his old captain was betrayed and murdered by them.

How does Nami's story change if she's a Mermaid?! Does Arlong now hate Mermaids? Is Arlong now a human? Nami's adopted, was she just a mermaid adopted into a human family? Does that change Arlong's dynamic with her?

And One Piece is an adventure battle story, making the characters Mermaids also affects their combat ability. Mermaids are the fastest swimmers in the ocean. What does it change about these characters' fighting style that they're suddenly so much faster? Would these characters logically had different builds and body types to account for that change? Different fighting styles?

Especially if you're making Sanji into a mermaid, he ONLY FIGHTS WITH KICKS! Is he just doing tail-slaps now?! What does it mean if Germa 66 are ALSO MERMAIDS?!

And Nami fights with a science staff to control the weather and create lightning, is that still her fighting style as a Mermaid?! Underwater?!

we're looking to create an AI policy, and when we were talking about this, my boss (older millennial) was genuinely shocked to hear that younger people do not (seem) to view AI positively (a la the recent commencement speakers being booed)

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On an average, assuming genetic invariability with reference to allosomes (which can be premediated via presence or lack of the Y Chromosomes which can be identified by a simple blood test, yadda yadda yadda), you're talking an average of 8 weeks for the pregnancy to be readable enough in re sex of the kid. (Assuming the kid is Cisgendered.) This is typically followed by 9 months of pregnancy (- the 8 weeks) and about 18 months of recommended recovery period after. This gives the conception and birth of each kid an average timeline of 27 months in all, which is about 2.25 years.

Now, in re Lou Bega's Mambo No. 5, there are a total of 9 individuals mentioned. Angela, Pamela, Sandra, Rita, Monica, Erica, Rita (repeated), Tina, Sandra (repeated), Mary, and Jessica. Assuming the existence of a singular Rita and Sandra which were called upon twice in the song, we can assume that this would involve a grand total of 2.25 x 9 = 20.5 years of near constant pregnancies to produce the offspring in question.

Assuming that the embryonic host typically hits Menopause at around 40, we can assume that the primary conception in re the same occurs at around 19.5 years of age. Which is still premature in re sociocultural aspects but the body is more than capable of handling such a strain at that age.

Also, in case we assume that every one of the offspring remain in all cases, cisgendered (which is a variable that is very hard to account for), we can assume that there is always a possibility that the allelomorph of the embryo involved can occasionally involve an XY chromosome. The detection can successfully occur at 8 weeks, and in case an abortion ensues, conception can recur within as little as 2 more weeks. That is an added extra 10 weeks per in re the nondesired sex.

In case of purely clinical states, such as IVF, where the Ova are extracted and externally fertilised each time, a system of Preimplantation Genetic Testing for Aneuploidies (PGT-A) can be incorporated in order to identify XX chromosomal situations and ensuring further that only those are implanted. This, while making sure that the offspring in question are necessarily of the XX karyotype, cannot of course state whether a state of monozygotic twinning can occur or not. More often than not, in order to maximise chances of implantation, more than two embryos used to be implanted into the uterus, typically around five. But technology has significantly improved in the years following which makes sure that there is no need for the same. Elective Single Embryo Transfer (eSET) is now the standard in modern IVF, prioritizing the transfer of one, high-quality, genetically tested blastocyst to achieve a healthy, single-baby pregnancy. This shift minimizes severe risks associated with multiple pregnancies, such as preterm birth for babies and severe complications for mothers, while maintaining high success rates. Clinics now reserve multiple embryo transfers primarily for older patients or those with histories of repeated IVF failures, rather than routine practice.

In case there are more than one embryos that get implanted that are undesirable, the extra embryos can be removed through a medical procedure called multifetal pregnancy reduction (MFPR) or selective reduction.

In summation, assuming of course that we are talking about the most clinically ideal circumstances, where there is the implantation of a single embryo each time, that still gives you about the same timeline of about 20.5 years. In case of preferring to determine sex after (which is cheaper) as opposed to before (which is still pricey as fuck in today's economy), that adds another 10 weeks per embryo. Unwanted implants can be removed via MFPR.

I had to turn this off, but it's something that allows Windows and anyone using your device to generate text/images.

if you've made replies on posts there is now a tab on your blog showing every post youve replied to and your reply.

if this is not what you want, either go to your blog and click comments and disable it from there or just go to your individual blogs setting pages. just change it from blue to grey if you dont want everyone to see your replies AND the post you're replying to

PLEASE BE ADVISED that it is set to disabled for blogs that have not made any replies but it will turn ON if you reply with that blog in the future.! i just tested it with my main, which was greyed out but it turned on the moment i left a test reply

so couple of clarifications. comments are disabled as default for primary blogs that have their likes disabled. they are seemingly enabled for all other blogs that have replied to posts

He's also trans, kind of?

Namekians are mono-gendered but they still have a clear and important social and biological dimorphism. You can be born either Senshi Type or Ryuzoku. The Nameless Namekian was Ryuzoku, which meant he got mystical powers like healing and making Dragon Balls but couldn't be as strong as he would be as a Senshi Type.

After he ascended to Godhood, he split off his evil into Piccolo, a Ryuzoku Mazoku. When Piccolo reincarnated himself, he made his new self Senshi Type instead of Ryuzoku. In this reincarnation, he then merged with God, reuniting as the Nameless Namekian once more - Only now he's Senshi Type instead of Ryuzoku.

In her defense, he did start that fight.

But also, she was stone cold about shooting a child in the face. She very much expected this to kill him and had no reservations about taking a life. And the wilds she's exploring can be very dangerous. She and Goku run into no shortage of violent assholes once they start traveling together.

"Bulma hit Goku with her car" is one of those things people misremember about Dragon Ball, because the anime did it.

Time Patrol wears its gameplay function on its narrative sleeves. It transparently exists as a mechanism to facilitate the Xenoverse OC getting involved in iconic moments from the Dragon Ball series.

It's hard to really get invested in it as a concept because it's clear that any story considerations came after "But how do we justify Bob Create-A-Character teaming up with Goku and Piccolo to fight Raditz without his involvement having any influence whatsoever on the way Dragon Ball history played out?"

It's there to let the player's OC walk in Goku's footsteps without either being Goku or affecting Goku's journey in any way, getting involved in grandiose but by-design consequence-free alternate versions of those moments in history.

I've always been negative on the "Make your own OC and then retrace the steps of the series as if it were YOU that were doing all the things!' style of anime video game adaptation. Like. I know there's an audience for them.

Me, personally? I don't want to play through the story of Dragon Ball as a shallow OC with no personality. I want to play through the story of Dragon Ball as Goku and Vegeta and Piccolo and all the characters I care about. I don't need Goku to give me a thumbs up and go, "Wow, you sure did great in that fight! You're so good at martial arts!" That just feels like pandering to me.

Goku is not my dad. I am not seeking his approval. He's a character whose narrative journey and inner life I enjoy exploring.

There are barely any Xenoverse missions where you help the VILLAINS reset time back to the way it's supposed to be. It's always helping the heroes, even when the villains are supposed to win or in situations that don't have a clear win-lose outcome.

What's interesting about the hidden rule is that it's kind of a double-edged sword, with calculations that we don't get to talk about because it's introduced so late in the game.

Because. Like. It's self-defeating, in a sense.

Let's say there's eight players in the game.

-> Takumi -> Tsubasa -> Darumi -> Kako -> Hiruko -> Moko -> Kyoshika -> TAkemaru

Ignoring all considerations of personality and relationship because we're just talking about the way the rules work.

Okay. So.

If Kako kills Kyoshika, then Kako is guaranteed the #1 slot. Right? She's lifted into a sort of higher tier from which no amount of killing Battle Pets or Paragons can reach.

But what then happens if Takumi, Darumi, and Moko kill Tsubasa, Hiruko, and Takemaru?

Suddenly all four of them are in the higher tier, right? Kako no longer has a significant advantage. We have to count battle pets again.

But wait.

Uh-oh.

There are four rounds to this Killing Game and someone has to be executed at the end of each round. If there's only four players left, WHOOPS, everybody dies and the points don't matter anymore.

Every player that dies outside the Closing Ceremonies brings every other player one step closer to execution. There's a bit of a twist on the Prisoner's Dilemma there, where if too many players choose Betray then all players lose.

So it's actually not in anybody's best interest to take too much advantage of this Instant Win button. But it's there. Tantalizingly hanging just out of reach for anyone who's fallen behind and needs an emergency influx of points.

So if everyone kills someone, the Battle Pets suddenly matter again.

1,000,082 points is still lower than 1,000,230 points.

And if the Commanders count for the same huge boost, that adds a bunch of extra targets to the game. And also the Sponsor said that the regular Futurans counted for more points than Battle Pets.

It occurs to me that Takumi ALSO got splash points from Eva. And he got the main points from the Futurans, Tsubasa was brought above Takemaru just from the splash points. Takumi's point total in this timeline should be UNASSAILABLE. Shame there's no reward for being number 1.