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76

Discussion and Debate - The Philosopher's Plaza / Re: UK Politics 2022

« on: October 18, 2022, 08:37:57 PM »

Sounds like you see groups in the UK overlap with the groups in the US who want medical exams to verify sex in school sports!

Now that sounds like a great way to keep kids safe from sexual abuse. Can't imagine any unnecessary trauma there.


I did end up reading the tweets mentioned, the Green guy definitely came of as transphobic. I haven't bothered looking into his policy suggestions, I can't imagine I'll be voting green anytime soon anyway.
The Stonewall tweet was, a tweet. Not long enough to make it's position clear, it was in response to an article about a NB child not having their identity respected at a nursery, so I would assume that it was simply advocating for schools, nurseries etc to respect children's identities even at a young age, and maybe for some kind of age appropriate education on trans identity too (although the concept of age appropriate is obviously contentious by itself but anyway). The reaction to it did not seem great, not sure how twitter works but all the responses I saw (presumably the most popular?) were very much opposed to the tweet, either there's a lot of transphobes on twitter (or a lot of twitter transphobes are drawn to such tweets), or it's a topic that's easily misconstrued. I suspect that studies regarding the minds/brains of very young children are probably best left out of public debate for the most part, as it does sound very dubious without having read the studies (obviously it doesn't help when media outlets sensationalise studies without actually understanding them, or deliberately misconstruing their contents to make them sound more significant/relevant/exciting than they are).

Re transphobia in politics generally, again it's not really something I've looked into, but it does often seem to largely be a weird mix of people who are also homophobic and generally right wing, along with people who could be described as the "man hating" feminists that the reactionary types are always railing about. Those types seem to think (if I very crudely boil it down) men = dangerous/bad -> transwomen = men pretending to be women so they can take advantage of cis woman because men dangerous. There are also the genuine issues where more "normal" people get dragged into it and it's hard to guess the intent, like with sports or prisons.

77

Discussion and Debate - The Philosopher's Plaza / Re: UK Politics 2022

« on: October 18, 2022, 12:17:06 PM »

It wasn't actually mentioned in that article, but it did link somewhere to another article in which it did.
"On July 22, Stonewall tweeted, “Research suggests that children as young as 2 recognise their trans identity”, continuing by saying, “LGBTQ-inclusive and affirming education is crucial for the wellbeing of all young people!” Ali claimed that this was an “off the scale safeguarding risk”, and asked, “would we teach 2 year olds [the] concept of schizophrenia?”. He went on to brand Stonewall an “utter disgrace” and a “danger to children”."

To my very limited knowledge, the majority of children who express some kind of gender dysphoria will "change their mind" (I'm sure there's a better term but I don't know it). If that's the case, and you read Stonewall as suggesting that 2 year olds should be encouraged to question their own gender identity, or affirm any child that is questioning their identify or something like that, then I can see where he's coming from. But there I'm reading into his intent on top of his interpretation of Stonewall's intent, so unless he's clarified exactly what he meant it's hard to say. The link to schizophrenia does suggest he's of the opinion that transgender identity = gender dysphoria = is a negative mental disorder.
One thing I'm fairly confident of though, is that if Stonewall are actually trying to promote pro-Trans views to the wider public they need to seriously rethink their approach, these kind of statements can be very easily misconstrued. I'm guessing that twitter is probably not the ideal platform for such things.

78

Tolkien & LOTR / Re: Rings of Power

« on: October 17, 2022, 09:02:05 PM »

I don't think I mentioned it before, but something that really bugged me was the repeated dialogue references to PJs films. I think it bothered me because it basically just kept drawing attention to an adaptation that was a) much more entertaining, and b) closer to the actual lore.
I mean Galadriel is kind of annoying but overall fine as long as you forget she's meant to be Galadriel, if you remember then her turning down the offer to rule alongside Suaron kind of mocks her turning down the ring in the Fellowship (admittedly ruling "alongside" is different to ruling with the power of the ring).

79

Tolkien & LOTR / Re: Rings of Power

« on: October 14, 2022, 10:04:08 PM »

I'm currently watching it. I like this Harfoot Meteor man thing going on. But the Halbrand

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Celembrimbor arc was god awful. Nine episodes to get this far, it being painfully obvious that Halbrand is probably Sauron and the writers are probably trying to imply that meteor man is Sauron as a red herring and then Annatar just teaches Celebrimbor that metals can be mixed into alloys, and that making a small piece of jewellery uses less metal than a big piece, and they presumably forge the rings in like a third of an episode or so.
The moment Halbrand woke up and was told he should be resting for days I shouted Sauron at the screen, which was a little satisfying. And Saurbrand messing with Galadriel's head is pretty interesting

This show is such an odd mix of meh, ok, genuinely good and genuinely bad. It's a shame, you can see the potential it had in so many places but overall it's rather disappointing for me. I'll probably watch the second season if I have enough spare time and access to prime already, but I definitely wouldn't pay to watch it. Hopefully the pacing is better in future seasons.
I think if HOTD hadn't come out around the same time then ROP it might have compared better.

80

Writing, Poems, AARs, and Stories - The Storyteller's Hall / Re: What are you reading?

« on: October 12, 2022, 10:55:02 PM »

I'm not sure if it's so much that Arthurian themes don't fit into the story, I didn't express myself well there. It was rather that there wasn't much Arthurian imagery or plot before that final book (as far as I picked up), and then the story suddenly started drawing on it very heavily. It felt jarring for me, it wasn't just that there were new characters and locations that drew on Arthurian myth but the new framing device seemed to be just an attempt to bring in the Arthurian elements in a way that felt very incoherent.

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Writing, Poems, AARs, and Stories - The Storyteller's Hall / Re: What are you reading?

« on: October 11, 2022, 09:15:22 PM »

There are a few things I dislike, particularly Sapowski's writing about women: he uses sexual violence too cheaply in my view as a "hey the world is horrible" establishing frame that handles it rather clumsily.

Get used to it, the main plotline behind the series does a lot of this as it

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

essentially revolves around a bunch of different people wanting to abduct and rape a child because she has a magical womb or something. Oh and then there's a random creepy dude in a different world/dimension that wants to rape her too because why wouldn't that be a thing.

I remember really enjoying the first book of short stories, finding the second one a little so-so and enjoying the series enough to reading all of the books but absolutely detesting the whole thing by the time I'd finished. There's definitely too much grimdark "people are the real monsters and everything sucks" energy to it for my taste to start with, and then it really really really drives that home

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

with the ending

, it feels like an "anti-fantasy" with the anti turned up to 11. 
Oh and for some reason he decided to write the final book with a weird framing device that hasn't been used at all before and shoehorn in Arthurian imagery and themes into a story in which they really don't fit imo, which I found very jarring and hard to read. I wish I'd just given up at that point.


I know it's a very popular series but I absolutely do not recommend it, especially if you're not in the mood for depressing grimdark bollocks atm. But people are allowed to like things even I despise them and wish they didn't exist I suppose.


Edit:
Also the final book introduces new characters that you're meant to care about but personally I never felt any emotional investment in them, or any connection to them and the way they influenced the narrative just felt very contrived and boring to me. One was obviously just included to be a new big bad antagonist but I didn't care, the other was introduced to be a sympathetic character we would like and

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

really its a real spoiler

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

feel bad for when they died

but I found her annoying and really really didn't care.



Edit Edit:
In more positive news I finished reading Wheel of Time a while ago, I absolutely friggen loved it and even though I didn't particularly enjoy Sanderson's writing style I think he did a fantastic job of finishing the story after Jordan died. I loved that even though there was a lot of very, very dark stuff within these books it wasn't dark in tone and didn't focus on the horrahh, and it had so much light and hope to balance it out and had such a beautiful cathartic ending. I genuinely want to re-read it again already. But I'll have patience.


Currently working my way through Hillary Mantel's Wolf Hall series in audiobook form, quite enjoyable but also somewhat strange as a narrative, not sure if it's because it doesn't lend itself well to audiobooking or simply because that's how it is, but it's quite hard to get really invested into it. But I am still enjoying it overall and it's actually quite pleasant to have something I can listen to without being superglued to and spending hours hyperfocusing on it and having to turn back the recording if I lose track for a moment because I need to listen to that exact phrase five more times to make sure I'm hearing it properly and processing it.


Edit edit edit:
Remind me to write a proper appraisal of Wheel of Time at some point, I genuinely loved it so so so much and there's so much going on and so many things that feel unique to it and it's definitely one of my favourite series every now, it's probably second only to LoTR and it really is lovely.

82

Tolkien & LOTR / Re: Rings of Power

« on: October 11, 2022, 08:41:51 PM »

I haven't watched the latest episodes yet but the one that started with the Harfoot's singing a walking song doing a Harfoot walking montage started very well and I like the protohobytla now.

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Discussion and Debate - The Philosopher's Plaza / Re: Russia/Ukraine Crisis 2022

« on: October 04, 2022, 06:30:33 PM »

Ahh I see. Iiirc there were reports of quite a few explosions in Russian munition stores/supply centres in Crimea, do we know if these are acts of saboteurs already living in the area or strikes by the Ukrainian military?

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Discussion and Debate - The Philosopher's Plaza / Re: Russia/Ukraine Crisis 2022

« on: October 04, 2022, 11:20:42 AM »

The southern region is made of open fields and plains, whilst the northern region is heavily forested. Apparently this is a large part of why Ukraine has had more success in the north, as their infantry can move under cover and undetected, whereas around Kherson it is very difficult to hide troop movements so any counter-offensive is bound to be more of a gruelling push.   

85

Tolkien & LOTR / Re: Rings of Power

« on: September 19, 2022, 01:26:50 PM »

Yeah I agree, for some reason Dwarves have become an uncouth, uncultured race who live for work and practicality in these adaptations.

86

Tolkien & LOTR / Re: Rings of Power

« on: September 19, 2022, 12:40:36 PM »

Pretty similar, the first episode was rather dull but it got interesting eventually. The writing is very patchy, sometimes it's really quite good, sometimes it's absolutely nonsensical. Almost any scene involving Galadrrrrrrrrreyal is bad, I understand they're trying to make her into a character who needs to show development but she just acts like a total moron most of the time. The whole journey to valinor but jump off the ship and try to swim back to middle earth plotline was pretty funny but I don't think it was meant to be.
I dislike most of the Elfy scenes in general, the over the top Etonion school boy accents that most actors have gone with are really grating for me. Gil Galad's speech felt like a shakespearean play, but not a good one. I think it's always going to be a struggle to portray Elves as almost otherwordly beings when they're so prevalent in the story but I really dislike most of them. Elrond I'm warming to, mostly due to Durin and Disa I think.
Arondir? is the only Elf I've liked all the way through, also the only plotline I was interested in from the start.
Harfoots are kind of annoying, totally not Gandalf is interesting but there were too many plotlines from the start, I think this one should have been left until the others were more fleshed out, or just not included in the first place.
Speculating on who Sauron is and who's going to eventually become a wraith is fun. Pretty sure Harbrand is Annatar, don't see why else he'd be interested in working with the numernorean smiths otherwise. But then I also don't see why he's floating around on a raft in the middle of the sea, but since Galadrrrrreyal ended up there I guess it's the place to be.

Overall I'm enjoying it, the visuals are amazing, the rest is fair to good. Not a great show so far, don't imagine I would ever pay to watch it.

Oh and Elendil is top notch, very good casting choice. Not sure why they made him a nobody former lesser noble instead of next in line to the throne but I don't think it really matters.


Edit:
Also Adar is fun, I like the theory that he's an OG tortured Elf Orc, or perhaps the progenitor to a specific line of orcs (he seems to be Noldorin and remembers Beleriand so I don't think he could be an original Orc whilst fitting within the lore). He's definitely not Sauron.

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Discussion and Debate - The Philosopher's Plaza / Re: UK Politics 2022

« on: September 11, 2022, 04:13:46 PM »

I can't say I particularly give a unit of faecal matter about the Queen's death, but some of the outfits for the coronation were pretty fly.

Truss is an absolute tool, I really wish our next GE was coming up much sooner than it's likely to. Feels like we might finally get out of a Tory government again at least.

88

General Chatter - The Boozer / Re: Workshop Booze Up VII - New Year, Same Plague, Same Booze Up, Deja Vu

« on: September 03, 2022, 12:04:24 PM »

Folks are generally ok. Dog is very curious about the one chick we have had to bring inside a couple of times to warm up and look after in the mornings.

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General Chatter - The Boozer / Re: Workshop Booze Up VII - New Year, Same Plague, Same Booze Up, Deja Vu

« on: September 02, 2022, 01:20:23 PM »

Fingers crossed.
On the topic of chicken counting, my mother has finally admitted that having an adult non-neutered cockerel with her handful of hens may be a bad idea now we have 22 new chicks (plus 2 dead ones and 5 young chickens from an earlier hatching). 

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Computer Game Development - The Indie Alley / Re: Roadwarden [Fantasy/RPG Elements/Pixel Art] [DEMO]

« on: August 22, 2022, 10:52:36 AM »

Is Sodal a creature? That second sentence is a little confusing without context.