Nienna Weeps

"Warning

Still, the kid’s thumb will have difficulty reaching both so rapid switches are not possible. On the left hand of the switch the stick is above and the dpad below, and the opposite is true on the right. This is a direct consequence of how a kid might use the controller. In most games the left hand controls movement - meaning an analog stick - and the right hand controls discreet inputs - meaning the dpad/button diamond.

Children’s also struggle to reach shoulder buttons and have lower grip width, so the natural gamer grip in which two fingers are resting on the shoulder buttons does not work at all for children. They usually have to use all four fingers to hold up a heavy device. The shoulder buttons go from being the most easily accessed buttons on the controller to the most difficult.

A child’s grip strength is lower, and thus so is their ability to hold a heavy controller comfortably, especially one not designed for their hand size. A single joycon in sideways mode, often used in child’s party games on the switch, is a far better controller size for a child while it is uncomfortably cramped for an adult.

It is not a coincidence that the Switch, which is marketed as a family console, comes prepacked with the controllers that are kid friendly and adult friendly controllers are a secondary purchase.

There are more things you can point out, but in a practical sense you can see these design principles applied by comparing something like Kirby vs Metroid Dread.

Kirby is almost entirely controlled through the face buttons, with only the rarely used defense button mapped to the shoulder buttons, and you can really get by with never using it. The triggers are not used at all. You rarely have to combination press anything. If my memory is correct, the shoulder buttons are never used for any temporary transformation abilities. The difficulty of using new abilities should not be compounded by hard to reach buttons.

Dread on the other hand uses combination presses a lot and ties three critical abilities (free aim, missile use, and sliding) to the shoulder buttons. The omega cannon, a rarely used but critical and time sensitive ability, is tied to the shoulder buttons for the easiest and most intuitive possible use. The stress of defeating an emmi should not be compounded by fumbling with controls.

Because with the 10+year timeskip, you're using the same actors to show people in their late teens/early twenties and then their early-to-mid thirties. And the difference is done very well.

‘this character is just infodumping and also talks too formally, the dialogue is not realistic at all!’ yeah except they are canonically autistic.

‘male viewpoint characters don’t tend to describe other men this accurately’ he is bisexual, next question.

‘the pacing is off, why does she think in full-ass pharagraphs before saying a word?’ it’s called general anxiety disorder look it up.

characters have a wider variety of skills, because they have a wider variety of backgrounds. This helps move the plot.

the story's just more interesting, because the characters are more diverse and it's not just a bunch of (for example) well-off white people Doing Stuff.

Magic ritual circle/focal point (everything about our use of “the ring”)

Requires focused, directed intent and will (chi/ki/qi/other spellings people use, it’s all spiritual energy)

Obeisance of ritual (bowing, stretching, specific uses of breath, etc.)

Utterances of power (e.g., the kiai)

Some practitioners use implements or fetishes (staves, etc)

Intensely bigoted/prejudicial factions that put the community on edge and constantly have to be shut down

Pompous assholes who know nothing start learning and immediately start to believe their one limited style is the only right one, and yours is trash if it isn’t exactly the same

Channeling ki or qi?

That’s energy work. That is exactly what it is. That’s what you’re doing. That, the breathing, the meditation, the focus, all of it.

It’s like weapons. You see folks argue all the time (Cough Skellagrim video comments sections cough) about which weapon is ‘strongest’. You’ll see hundred-comment chains arguing about if the longsword or the katana is ‘better’, and it’s all ridiculous, because that doesn’t even make sense.

If you just want to get some exercise in a structured group environment, then it doesn't matter too much. See what's available in your area, what suits your schedule and so on. Go and have fun.

But you should think about how much time you want to spend training vs in sparring matches, or how aggressive a style you want to learn. Not everyone likes getting into fights.

You need to eat some vegetables in your diet or you will become a lich.

You have to wear a life jacket or you will literally drown and die.

You need to be able to exist in public spaces with children.

—vegetable yucky? v8 actually tastes really good, and they have a variety that tastes exactly like koolaid…but it’s got all the nutrients you need

—cleaning/dishes/etc hard bc texture bad to touch? dedicated cleaning gloves! you can buy them for like a dollar a pop and then you don’t have to touch the gross

—loud and annoying public spaces? high fidelity earplugs! they don’t muffle sound like regular earplugs, so you can still hear everything but at a much lower volume

—shower floor texture bad? buy a cheap pair of flip flops as shower shoes! no more contact with conditioner gunk

—too hot in certain places? wet towel wrapped around your wrists keeps you cool while you work in the hot place

—too bright…anywhere? wear sunglasses! yes, even inside! nobody will even ask about it (source: I was prescribed sunglasses for my cataract and not one person in 15 years has asked why I’m wearing them)

And then I remember that Bruce personally sewed Dick’s first Robin costume.

And then I’m no longer sad.

[Note: When J. Elliot refers to her being classed as one of ‘your people’ in relation to black people of color, it’s based on her reputation of being an outspoken, anti-racism ally].

And then generative ai was created.

And now I get it. I get why nobody on Star Trek spends all their free time in the holodeck. I get why all the crew are putting on stage plays, and holding music recitals, and building models, and playing poker. I get why everyone was so skeptical and mean to the Doctor on Voyager. I get why the ONE TIME we see someone obsessed with the holodeck it infringes on people’s likeness rights and permissions.

Because fundamentally at the end of the day we are human beings and we ENJOY working with our hands and making REAL human connections. A person who learns to play an instrument is always going to be viewed as an artist over someone who asks the computer to generate music for them.

Even as recent as Lower Decks they were making fun of the fact that the crew were putting on amateurish plays and holding music recitals. But after living with Ai for so long and seeing how detrimental it’s been to the world… I’d much rather watch my friends put on a stage play than “participate” in a holodeck movie.

What’s most amazing about this is that it was completely unintentional. I do not for one second think that the writers of the time in the 90’s were really thinking about the larger issues that generative ai and chatGTP would cause. How could they? Text to speech back then was still robotic as heck. More likely they wrote that stuff in because it was cheaper to film on sets the owned than try to build, film, or rent out different locations each week.

That’s the down to earth logistical real reason Data is reciting poems about his cat or Riker is in a play put on in ten forward. It’s just cheaper to do that than to build a whole new set or move production to a new location.

Yet at the end of the day, I think that unintentionally speaks to a very human need that ai is making more and more prevalent to us day in and day out.

It's human nature to want to do stuff, to make stuff, to engage with things. So the holodeck would be a useful tool for certain things, but it wouldn't replace human effort (or sentient-being effort, since this is Star Trek).

For example, I can see some educational group makes immersive "tours" of places like the Grand Canyon, the Louvre or the Smithsonian, except a bunch of different places on a bunch of different planets. So schoolkids can see and experience all of these, safely and conveniently, without travelling all over the known universe. That would be a great holodeck function.

To get people to stay active, they do need to learn that actually things are still bad when they only hurt the marginalized group. People who don't internalize that make terrible allies that could betray the marginalized group at any moment.

I sincerely wonder if sometimes the conservatives' hang-ups are also related to language too. They hear "consent" and they imagine some kind of formal request: "Do you give me consent to touch your shoes?" But so many parents (at least that I recall from my childhood and who I know now as an adult) use age-appropriate consent-related language and it works great. Things like "Will you let me tie your shoes for you?" The child understands and the child answers.

Because like, I recently saw Charlotte and Elizabeth contrasted as the former being pragmatic and the latter holding out for a love match, because she's younger and prettier and thinks she can afford it, and that is very much not what's happening.

The Charlotte take is correct, but the Elizabeth is all wrong. Lizzie doesn't insist on a love match. That's serendipitous and rather unexpected. She wants, exactly as Mr. Bennet says, someone she can respect. Contempt won't do. Mr. Bennet puts it in weirdly sexist terms like he's trying to avoid acknowledging what he did to himself by marrying a self-absorbed idiot, but it's still true. That's what Elizabeth is shooting for: a marriage that won't make her unhappy.

She's grown up watching how miserable her parents make one another; she's not willing to sign up for a lifetime of being bitter and lonely in her own home.

I think she is very aware, in refusing Mr. Collins, that it's reasonably unlikely that anyone she actually respects is going to want her, with her few accomplishments and her lack of property. That she is turning down security and the chance keep the house she grew up in, and all she gets in return may be spinsterhood.

But, crucially, she has absolute faith in Jane.

The bit about teaching Jane's daughters to embroider badly? That's a joke, but it's also a serious potential life plan. Jane is the best creature in the world, and a beauty; there's no chance at all she won't get married to someone worthwhile.

(Bingley mucks this up by breaking Jane's heart, but her prospects remain reasonable if their mother would lay off!)

And if Elizabeth can't replicate that feat, then there's also no doubt in her mind that Jane will let her live in her house as a dependent as long as she likes, and never let it be made shameful or awful to be that impoverished spinster aunt. It will be okay never to be married at all, because she has her sister, whom she trusts absolutely to succeed and to protect her.

And if something eventually happens to Jane's family and they can't keep her anymore, she can throw herself upon the mercy of the Gardeners, who have money and like her very much, and are likewise good people. She has a support network--not a perfect or impregnable one, but it exists. It gives her realistic options.

Spinsterhood was a very dangerous choice; there are reasons you would go to considerable lengths not to risk it.

But Elizabeth has Jane, and her pride, and an understanding of what marrying someone who will make you miserable costs.

That's part of the thesis of the book, I would say! Recurring Austen thought. How important it is not to marry someone who will make you, specifically, unhappy.

She would rather be a dependent of people she likes and trusts than of someone she doesn't, even if the latter is formally considered more secure; she would rather live in a happy, reasonable household as an extra than be the mistress of her own home, but that home is full of Mr. Collins and her mother.

This is a calculation she's making consciously! She's not counting on a better marriage coming along. She just feels the most likely bad outcome from refusing Mr. Collins is still much better than the certain outcome of accepting him. Which is being stuck with Mr. Collins forever.

Elizabeth is also being pragmatic. Austen also endorses her choice, for the person she is and the concerns she has. She's just picking different trade-offs than Charlotte.

Elizabeth's flaw is not in her own priorities; she doesn't make a reckless choice and get lucky. But in being unable to accept that Charlotte's are different, and it doesn't mean there's anything wrong with Charlotte.

Because realistically, when your marriage is your whole family and career forever, and you only get to pick the ones that offer themselves to you, when you are legally bound to the status of dependent, you're always going to be making some trade-offs.

If Jane and Bingley had been married, Jane would have had everything she deserved, and Elizabeth would have been safe.

Better chances of finding someone she wanted, with access to a wider society and Bingley's web of contacts, and free to refuse anyone she didn't, because Bingley is sweet-natured and wealthy and there would have been no obstacle to staying with them as long as she needed to. (Other than his sisters not liking it lmao.)

Mary-Kitty-Lydia would have had better odds of escaping the trap their parents carelessly raised them into, as well. Mrs. Bennet would have had less to be horrible and anxious about. Mr. Collins wouldn't matter anymore. Bingley was literally going to save them all.

And Darcy took that away. Because he thought that they, and Jane by extension, weren't good enough. That Jane wasn't good enough!

He took away Elizabeth's other options and now he says she must endure his proposal? The hypocrisy. The gall.

The same presumption as Collins that of course she would accept, what choice did she have? To ask is to obtain. He has the means of survival in the palm of his hand. What could any woman in her position do, but go along with his life plan?

It's practically economic coercion, if you believe he thought it through, and awful even if you think he didn't. It fits perfectly into her Wickham-sourced understanding of the man, that he throws around his power and takes other people's chances away and assumes everything is his by natural right.

That he's the only person qualified to make choices, and that therefore no one else should.

(And enough of this is accurate that Darcy's mortified regret and determination to work on himself is founded in the reality of his fuckups and bad habits, but enough is wrong for Lizzie to feel bad and be more inclined to forgive him the rest, especially since he's helping and trying to be better. It's an effective romance!)

So yeah I think the the 'how dare he!' at Hunsford after he contributed to getting Bingley away from Jane runs deep, because of the money on the table. Lydia's indiscretion threatens the whole family; Jane's success would have helped them all just as much.

In a way I think, in addition to all the other things that are going on there, Darcy patching over the devastation of the elopement is him paying back the opportunity he carelessly took away because he thought he knew best, before.