Hello, Tora here : )

elierlick

1921: four trans activists had their conversation interrupted by photographer Willie Römer. He took this shot outside Magnus Hirschfeld's Institute for Sexual Science 12 years before Nazis stormed the facility and burned its books. The picture is among the most captivating I've colorized/restored from the pre-war era. You can see each subject's expression so clearly. Gwendolyn Ann Smith, the founder of Trans Day of Remembrance, wrote about the photo a few years ago: https://www.ebar.com/story.php?ch=news&sc=news&id=263408

mythwoven

Alternate universe where I literally just to go to school forever (for free) so I can just learn about art and literature and history and languages for 100 years. No job skills. No credit requirements. No student loans. Just learning.

cephalopyrus

i find it very cool interesting that the girls all ended up with jobs that aren't what was expected of them.

sasha chose not to use her leadership skills to pursue a career, because she knows how her being a leader feeds into her worst qualities, like being controlling and manipulative. no, instead of "bossing her way through life" she chooses to help people. specifically by giving kids the therapy and help she so desperately needed when she was a kid.

and marcy, who has always been very intelligent, and was expected by everyone to take a very academic career path instead chose to become an artist. she creates a webcomic because she loves fiction. she pursues something she is incredibly passionate about and not what people (i have to assume including her parents) expect of her.

and anne who didn't know what she wanted to do, and who didn't really have any expectations placed on her... well, she was offered a job by god, declined, and then chose to become a herpetologist. seriously though the fact that she pursued science, and specifically biology, is also something unexpected considering how she was barely passing school, and always chose "the easy path". but she found her passion, and a way to keep her memories of amphibia alive, and she followed that path that she chose for herself.

jimerlins

A short, sweet game about playing as a cat is absolutely dominating the Internet. It’s easy enough to say “lol the internet loves cats”, but…

I don’t think that accounts for the level of interest and obvious enjoyment. Nor, when you look at the game objectively, is it truly groundbreaking- it’s got a great story, insanely great level design, breathtaking graphics and is clearly a labor of love- but it’s not a seismic shift in gaming.

No, I feel that the outpouring of love for this game and its characters, its story and its setting comes from the fact that three years into a global pandemic, slow-motion economic ruin, governments collapsing into corruption, and, well… gestures broadly at everything…

People are embracing the game because it’s such an escape, a respite from the world. You get to be a cat, you get to drop the pretense of being whatever humans have to be today, and knock shit off tables for fun, scratch carpets and maybe along the way rub some ankles and make some friends.

Even the chapter titles, once translated, tell a story.

That’s why people love Stray so much.

aicosu

I couldnt find the last energy drink so I screamed in front of a vending machine for an hour 10/10 game

sensitive-charmy

I actually love the intro to KH2.

Opening with Roxas, giving absolutely no information on where Sora is or who Roxas is is genius.

I hadn’t played COM. In fact, I didn’t even know it existed. So when I loaded up KH2, I wasn’t just your average Kingdom Hearts lost. I was lost. Which I loved! If you have that experience, you have Sora’s experience. You’re given just as much information as Sora has once he wakes up. Being in the same boat as Sora, knowing only what Sora knew, was such an interesting experience.

Aside from that, even if you did play COM, you’re still confused. You still don’t know who Roxas is. You have an idea of where Sora could be. But how long do I have to play as this guy in order to get to Sora?

It’s three hours of boredom and annoying chores as this guy you don’t know. And Roxas hangs around three other people you don’t know. And they’re in some world you don’t really know. Again, if you played COM, you have an idea. But COM didn’t explore Twilight Town to the degree KH2 does. And it’s not confusing or mysterious just for the sake of being confusing. It’s intriguing. You get all your questions answered eventually. It just takes time. It gives you this very mysterious feel. The calm before the storm almost. Roxas’ adventures are very chill. Exploring the world for homework, competing in a Struggle match, eating ice cream with his friends. There is a distinct lack of combat.

And as it goes on, you start to harbor some ill feelings towards Roxas. How much longer is this gonna take? I just wanna play as Sora. Why does this guy have the Kingdom Key? Who is he? Why does he matter? I don’t care about him. Where is Sora?

At least, that was my experience playing. I don’t think many of us actually liked Roxas until after KH2 or after Days. And to start out the game like that was utterly genius. Because DiZ makes his feelings towards Roxas very clear. He hates him. He thinks Roxas doesn’t have the right to be. Even Riku seems uncharacteristically negative towards Roxas. In this manner, you, the player, starts to reflect those same feelings towards Roxas. Gosh, I just want this guy gone so I can play as Sora. And once Roxas finally sees Sora, once he starts to fade, he looks at Sora and says,

And just like that, Roxas is gone. It makes his introduction and his end so melancholy. That you, the player, are forced to regroup and rethink. Wait, I know I wanted to play as Sora, but Roxas didn’t deserve to just disappear like that. Is that really it? Is Roxas really gone?

And then Roxas is gone for the duration of the game. Roxas doesn’t actually come back until the end of KH3. The payoff of finally getting him back, finally giving him a body and a heart of his own is so unbelievably meaningful. Because you genuinely fell in love with his character. It wasn’t, “He had a really great introduction, and I’ve always loved him.” No. He had arguably the worst introduction. You were set up to hate him. But you fell for him anyway.

iamnotshazam

Everything Everywhere All at Once: "Asian Lesbian conquers the multiverse to teach mother about nihilism, gets Uno reverse carded with love"