i genuinely feel like we need someone to act like an idiot to piss people off (such as sigmund freud) just so that we can have a new wave of psychologists passionate enough to update current knowledge
its kind of frustrating how for szpd, most referenced and idolized books/research papers are all from the 1900s and theres rarely anything new. sure, there are some, but nothing widespread or notable.
not to mention that i am sure other people with different disorders (such as NPD, ASPD, etc) also feel this pull of needing something New in order to wash out the demonization and create a new generation of understanding.
recently ive been reading about people who are seeking diagnosis or understanding of the disorder that they might have, but are limited by diagnostic rules (example: cant get diagnosed with ASPD if you weren't diagnosed with conduct disorder first) that completely disregard the idea that idk... kids can lie and adults can fall for it. what legal records can there be if the kid got away with it?
so there is that gap,, plus some other gaps my brain is too dissociated to explain right now. i might discuss this further later.
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Iāve never really understood why people feel the need to police how much someone believes in HudCon. Maybe itās because this is my first fandom, but I just donāt take it that seriouslyāIām just having too muchā At the end of the day, it can be genuinely confusing to figure out whether two celebrities are actually dating or not. Thereās so much information, rumors, and gossip floating around that it can easily become overwhelming. And honestly, itās okay to talk, speculate, and have fun with it.
What I donāt like is when people say things like, āWhy are they spiraling over this?ā Let people talk and process thingsāweāre human. None of us actually know these people or their real lives; weāre all just observing from the outside. We pick up little clues and try to piece them together as best we can, but without the full story, itās naturally hard to know whatās really going on. Thatās why theories and speculation existāand honestly, thatās part of the funā¦ or it just makes me scratch my head and wonder if anyone is actually spiraling, or if itās just us gossiping.
I donāt knowāoh well, continuing.
Believing more strongly in something doesnāt make anyone better or more āright.ā No one here has direct access to the truth. Weāre all in the same positionājust sharing thoughts, gossiping, and enjoying the fandom in our own ways.
Personally, I might read comments pretty neutrally, so I donāt always interpret things as āspiraling.ā And I donāt really mind what sources people bringābecause at the end of the day, I just enjoy reading different perspectives.
Iām only human, so of course my opinions might go back and forth sometimes. And this isnāt a competition. Just because someone strongly believes in Hudson and Connor as a ship doesnāt mean others who are more skepticalāor just here for the fun of itāare any less valid. Thereās no reason to look down on people who are still on the fence. It is confusing, but itās also what makes being in a fandom so fun.
So there are three general things going on with dissatisfaction over Academy because digging to deeply into any of them feels like work, I'll do it. None of these takes are entirely wrong, but they do require a degree of working through them to figure out if the show is bad, if the show did something bad, or if you just don't like it.
Cut for length mostly. I won't really be talking too much about plot beats in any series.
Item One - Genre
So the first thing has come up before with Lower Decks. Academy is not a prestige drama, it's a coming of age drama (also known as a teen drama). The stakes are somewhat lower (generally, not always), and the goal is more character growth than the 'big question' philosophy of half of Trek, or the wild adventures of the other half of Trek.
So when talking about those aspects of the show, it's a little like complaining your Reece's cup has peanut butter in it. The goal in a Coming of Age drama is for the character or characters at the center to grow and become better people over the series run, on deeply personal emotionally volatile axis rather than the big moral changes in a prestige drama.
If this is your main complaint, you're in the wrong show, go rewatch DS9.
Item Two - The Burn and Hopecore Trek
So there's this timeless quality to Star Trek (TOS, TNG, and DS9 to degrees) that makes it feel divorced from the context it was written in. That feeling is a lie, it's bullshit, Star Trek is always going to be anchored in and conversing with the era of its creation.
Do you want a good cheap example? Why don't main characters in TNG wear the miniskirt uniform from TOS? It's a background joke that a few male extras are in miniskirt uniforms, but no main character ever wears it as their standard costume.
See, the miniskirt was an act of women's liberation at the time it came into popularity, it was a level of self-definition that women could do in the workforce when that space wasn't for them. And the few jobs that were for them required ultra conservative outfits only a Nun would be down for.
By the time we get to the late 80s that meaning changed, and women's equality was wearing the same uniform any man would wear at a job. Instead of one to make them a sexy pin-up.
This makes Troi's outfit in the early seasons a complete failure at Trek's intended message.
TOS and the 90s era shows were in conversation with a US moving forward, moving to better more equal standing (in theory, not in reality, the 90s was very fucked up. I know I was there). It felt hopeful, and so we could see a path from now to 'utopic future' without any major bumps in the road. It was easy to see how then to the future would go. (The path from TOS to TNG was equally mostly hopeful, as we were moving more toward equality and scientific advancement at the time.)
Then America elected a Used Car Salesman with an alleged coke habit as president.
The whole 'direct path to a utopic future' died that night. It died and we spent four years with a guy breaking every advancement the country has made since the 1920s. The nature of the conversation had to change to match the state of the country as it became.
If you're wondering why Enterprise was weird, a part of it was being in the 2000s over the 90s. Fear and ill ease was a key part of the 2000s.
So the conversation changed, that meant Trek needed to build hope from a different starting point. Enter 'The Burn.' a complete infrastructure collapse to the universe that shattered every culture to its core. The sort of socioeconomic collapse you might, maybe, hypothetically, see if a pandemic were to take the entire world to a grinding halt overnight and have to restart after it.
This turns Discovery era shows from an established power, to a reestablishing power. The sort of 're-establishing' we might need to see if a toddler destroyed every social safety net and ever scientific advancement of the past century because they hurt his fee-fees. For instance. Hypothetically.
Picard's tone pivot is on the same axis, but done in a different way. It's more narrowly focused on the bigotry (antisemitism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, islamaphobia) of the present, but centered on the 'some other culture is doing it to us' replacing Russians with Romulans (again), and any other group with Synths.
Picard seasons 2 and 3 have different problems unrelated to this and not really in the scope of this already too long post.
Academy is doing this through the War College. The 'current status quo' disliking a change of the guard because it weakens their entitlement to the system. It's a hypothetical version of what it'd look like if we actually defunded the police to replace a brute squad with specialized care for specific crises.
In any case, this is again a reflection of the world. If you don't like it, that's fine. I don't like the state of the world right now either.
Item Three - Hollywood kind of Sucks
The current state of TV production is such that they are trying to min-max profits in such a way it hurts everything. This is why shows are in this stupid 8-12 ep structure rather than cheaper production for 20ish episodes. A part of this is a rushed writing room structure for these shows.
This means that ideas that should absolutely get flagged as not okay (cutting Caleb's hair in Ep 1) don't, because nobody is double checking the work. Things have to play with a little more text and a little less subtext, because subtext is a subtle thing and TV doesn't have time for it. We can, and should, ask for better when the show fucks up. But for the most part the show is doing well.
And there are other fuck-ups, but again this is long enough...
Overall, Season 1 of Academy is doing fine. The only active main character I currently dislike is Reymi and... let's be clear, we're suppose to hate him a little bit for now. The more he grows past his worst traits, the more we're suppose to like him.
Caleb has protagonist privilege, we are suppose to get him most of the main cast. Jayden, Genesis, and SAM are all fitting their roles well, and likeable enough. None of the teachers are actively evil (they are various levels of quirky), and the show established from the gate that Nahla is a gremlin who does not give a fuck (affectionate).
Conclusion
And if this isn't your bag, it isn't your bag. That's okay. If the teen drama stuff isn't for you, that's fine. If the more dour tone (while still reaching for a better future) isn't your vibe, that's also your call. If you really hate the fucked up pieces in the writing, those writing calls are not all winners.
But every series has its losers (I am writing this on Threshold Day after all), they all botched some element of hope, or the future, or a plot that aged like milk as the world changed.
And if you don't vibe with the teen drama, or you're not down with the current tone, that's your business. I'm not Section 31. You can just not like things.
But not liking something doesn't mean it's a spit in the face of the past, or it ruins some core component of a show from 60 years ago. Please be chill, that's really all I'm asking.
People might think that becoming a meme would be great for a game and it's longevity but among us proves it's QUITE the opposite.
When a whole ass game (Or other media, see american psycho as well) becomes a joke like Among Us did, it soon becomes impossible to keep the game and joke seperated. When that joke dies, people who don't care about it view the whole game as a dead, unfunny joke. As such, they often view people who still like the actual game with the same stigma as those who still laugh at big chungus and ugandan knuckles. From this, comes an insane and completely unfounded stigma both in fans and non-fans alike that their interest is somehow wrong and stupid in some unique way. People try to make up reasons, but can never get past some variation of saying it's "reddit" or "cringe" like it's valid criticism.
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So, this is and it isn't a spoiler because it's only spoiling one minor thing and the rest is just a hypothetical shower thought.
The spoiler bit: Carl recently got an extension to his hotbar which allows for contingencies. We see the healing spell being easy as a contingency after the crash in the (I want to say) second heat.
The shower thought bit: If it were me (not that I would have survived past 6 hours on floor 1) my contingency trigger would be "When Donut dies" and then have it cast 'Run Little Gunter' followed by everything explosive and everything that amplifies explosions in the hope of just destroying the entire planet.
Because, let's be honest, if anything ever happens to Princess Donut, the only reasonable course of action is literally exploding the world.
Just a thought. As of where I'm at now (Chapter 56) Donut is alive and...as well as someone with that much trauma can be.
Do you have any tips / thoughts to give to someone who finds audio fiction voice acting interesting? Are there things that seem easy about it, but are harder than they look, or vice versa? Thank you for your time :)
Phew, it's a little hard to give advice on something as big as that. It's a huge field with tons of different avenues and approaches, and I think that finding the right niche for what feels fun, productive, and fulfilling within it will just a matter of time. But for some very general thoughts:
I always say that I feel that voice acting is a particularly challenging form of acting. You don't do it in costume, you don't do it holding props, you don't do it on a set. You do it from the same position whether your character is standing still, in the middle of a sword-fight, or running at a full sprint. You're very divorced from the physical reality of the characters you're playing, even though oftentimes the thing that will make it feel like a "good" performance are how well you are simulating being in that reality.
So I think the biggest advice I would have is do everything in your power to have the support system you need to feel connected to that reality. There's a lot of productions that will just give you some lines and ask you to record them on your own. Avoid these like the plague. (At least until you get some experience under your belt.) Look for something where you'll have a director, and where they will be working with you and giving you feedback as you record the material, either in person or through a telecommunications platform like Zoom or Google Meets. Have someone that can answer questions about the character and the scene, and give you feedback about whether the simulation you're doing feels appropriate. If you can, start off with productions where you record with the other actors, even if you're all recording remotely. Being able to hear one another and perform off of what your scene partners are doing is the easiest, simplest way to elevate the quality of practically any voice acting performance in my experience.
Prepare ahead of your recording sessions. Say all your lines out loud at least once before you start recording. Have a sense of where the story goes and what your characters are doing before the recording session begins. Some productions will only want to give you your scenes, or just the episodes you're in. Don't take that. Ask for as much as possible - immerse yourself in the tone, lore, and aesthetics of the project. Ask if the production has a bible or a style guide. If yes, ask to read it.
Ask thing. Ask things point blank. Ask what the acting style of the show is. Ask what the show's tone is, what it's relationship to humor is, what the desired effect of a scene is. Ask what the focus of a scene should be, ask where a moment of realization should come for the audience, ask how to pronounce that word you've never met before. Answering all of these questions (and many more) is what your director is there for, they'll be thrilled to answer these questions for you. (Although, if possible ask as many of these questions as possible ahead of the recording session, where time will be at a premium.)
In short, the greatest obstacle that you will face will be lack of information, so make sure that you have a system to get all the information you need to feel like you can be immersed in a character and in a variety of situations from your recording booth. If you have that and a collaborative team with you, all other challenges should be surmountable!
