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What are you no longer a fan of?
As the title of the post asked, is there anything that you are no longer a fan of/support?
Feel free to share any experiences you have that made you change your mind on something. These could something smaller such as deciding to no longer support or engage with a brand due to store clerk being a bit rude to you in one interaction, to you disliking the actions or direction taken by a corporation/creator/franchise.
I did want to note that while this thread can obviously veer in to the negative based on the question, it doesn't have to be. You could no longer being a fan of something could be due to your tastes changing over the years, or a life experience making you decide you want to change your habits.
America. It amazes me how American media, politicians and businesses keep getting this wrong. Sure, the tariffs are bullshit, but I don't care about that. A convicted felon pedophile threatened the sovereignty of my country and it's a fucking joke? I have a friend who died and know other Canadians who died alongside Americans because they were attacked and we were there to support our ally and that's a fucking joke? America can get fucked. They have destroyed their relationship with Canada. I will never give that shit hole country another cent of my money as long as I can manage. I could be over the border in less than an hour and it will be too soon if I ever have to go there again.
Very much the same sentiment from Denmark. Danish troops fought and died in both Afghanistan and Iraq, and Trump has disregarded that as though we were merely hiding the back and not really doing anything. Which is completely false, as Danish troops where deployed in the most dangerous parts of Afghanistan and our casualties are percentage wise on par with the US. As you say, trade wars, demands for more NATO spending and all that is fine and within reason, but the amount of disrespect and total disregard of historical truth is impossible to shy away from. I see no recovery from that betrayal for many decades, even if the US government became sane tomorrow.
There is (clearly) a non-insignificant quantity of Americans who support these, uh, policy decisions. But for what it's worth, please know there are still (many) Americans (myself included) who resent them, who actively vote against them, and who can't wait for America to treat its allies like its allies again.
A few years ago, I was pulled into a conversation of someone shitting on France, and how "Without the US, there would be no France after WW2". My response was "Sure, but without France, there would be no America, or have you forgotten about their navy's role in the revolutionary war?"
America is what it is, because of its allies. I, and I would argue many other Americans, have not and would not forget that. But, that said, I'd like to formally apologize for our behavior and I genuinely hope things take a turn for the better.
I'm going to be careful not to make this a criticism of you personally, but I'm so tired of hearing Americans apologize and try to absolve themselves of their share of the blame for the current state of affairs between our countries. You want to show how sorry you are? Demand better from the democratic leaders who let things get this bad and recognize that the left is just as responsible for the chasm between the two sides right now.
For decades, I've listened to Americans joke about moving to Canada whenever a Republican president gets elected as though we're some sort of backup choice. Rather than fixing their own country, they want to bring their baggage here. American-style politics has already gotten a foothold here and we were a hair away from electing a MAGA Prime Minister last year. Unlike some leaders, our incumbent PM had the good sense to resign rather than run in an election he had no chance of winning.
Even the talk from Americans wanting to visit Canada to show their support feels dirty and politically-motivated. As though a parading yourselves through Old Montreal with an anti-Trump t-shirt will validate you as "one of the good ones" or something. A lot of democrats made jokes about Canada annexing their home states when the whole 51st state talk started, completely ignorant to the fact that a huge influx of Americans would be just as destructive to the Canadian identity as a military takeover. Personally, I don't think that most Americans ever really thought of Canada as an ally, at best we were America Jr.
While I hope your country gets itself together, the damage has been done and our relationship will probably never recover, at least not in my lifetime, and that's fine by me.
I get where you're coming from. And I don't think Americans grandstanding "through Old Montreal with an anti-Trump t-shirt" does anything for anyone except themselves, they may be just as much a part of the problem.
I hope one day you reconsider your viewpoint, though. I hate to be grouped into the lump sum for things happening I don't agree with, actively voted against, and that do not reflect my ideologies and world view.
I vote, I do what I can to have productive conversations with those who might actually be swayed to less "radical viewpoints". I'm no elected official, but I will and do reach out to them to tell them how I want them to vote when representing me.
I'm sorry America has made you feel the way it has. I get why. I'll continue to try and do my part to shape this country into what I, and I argue many others, feel it should be.
Thank you for that, sincerely. It's a hard thing to talk about since the Americans who are putting in the work are pretty much the only ones who would be willing to listen to a statement like that without getting too defensive about it.
While my intent wasnt to lump you personally in with America as a whole, I also dont have the emotional bandwidth to separate the "good" ones from the "bad" ones. Especially when 2/3 of you looked at Trump's first term and decided that they either wanted more or just didn't care enough to stop it.
What hurts the most about it all is that America really did kick ass. The last decade has been like watching a dear friend succumb to an addiction or an untreated mental illness. You want to help, but staying close to them just hurts you and doesn't help them. Even if the US ends up with a new, more stable leader in a few years, it's going to take a long, long time to regain the world's trust and show that you won't slide right back into this four years later.
Yeah, agreed. I await the day that America's political system comes up with a third option (or possibly even a fourth) that can play power broker.
I get that it's not as baked into your system as it is in parliamentary democracies, but for sake of everybody's sanity, please (as a country) leave binaries behind.
Canada loves our Danish brothers and sisters and I am glad that our two countries continue to grow closer. If you ever visit Canada, I'll have the whiskey ready for you.
Agreed. Of all the countries that Canada has a land border with, Denmark is my favourite.
That's like telling my only child that they're my favorite ;)
Yeah, as an American I'm with you on this, unfortunately my options are limited as far as who and what I support. I do try to leverage my skills and stuff to helping things that oppose the current administration.
Like I used to be a HUGE fan of the MCU and Iron Man, like Tony Stark/Iron Man/Marvel was formative to my development as a young adult and even for my career in the entertainment industry. And now I can't even watch those movies anymore. Like I have zero good feelings on any billionaire tech industry moguls, no good feelings around America or the government, and the entire Hydra thing hit way too close to home in reality, but reality just had more pedophiles.
And then it's frustrating to watch other people in this country fall so easily for propaganda. Not just the right, but the left too. Propaganda on the right is aimed to get them to coalesce together behind certain ideologies and candidates, while propaganda on the left is aimed at keeping the left fragmented and focused on single issues. And I'm powerless to do anything about it except for try to disrupt echo chambers when I can.
But even then it's becoming more and more apparent that left-wing leaders are controlled opposition at best and complicit in all this at worst. You've got left wing people like Gavin Newsom promoting 3D Printer bills that would work directly with the DOJ on a list of approved 3D Printers and report and send data to the DOJ to verify "gun parts", while turning around and calling the DOJ corrupt and fascist. Not to mention the OS-level age verification bill. Either they're controlled opposition, or they don't take words like "fascism" and "authoritarianism" seriously and just use words like that to pander to their voter base.
And for what it's worth, I do recognize and appreciate what your country and other countries have done as allies to the US, and I'm embarrassed to be considered an American at this point.
As an American, I'm so so so very tired.
Yeah, the vast majority of Democrats are rich, out of touch politicians who would be considered right wing in any other democracy so clearly the wrong people to stand up to fascism. Like it's wild to me how big of a deal people were making about Joe Biden handing over power to Trump normally. Is Trump Fascist or not? If he is a clear threat, why is everyone so proud that he was handed that power?
Trust me, I'm baffled and frustrated by that too.
I've criticized Joe Biden for not using the power he had in office at the very LEAST to order that the armed forces and generals brush up on their constitutional obligations of themselves and their troops so that if and when illegal orders were given they would know exactly what to do and what avenues to take.
Also to put resources into what the legal rights of employment federal workers had, so when they get emails or orders about their employment they weren't confused about what their rights were.
Most of the left wing cries from the rooftops that Biden couldn't do anything because the senate was controlled by republicans, but that only applies to bills. It doesn't apply to memos or executive orders, and I'm talking about the way they're supposed to be used, not Trump's use of them.
Anyways, Biden and his administration had 4 solid years to at least attempt to safeguard democracy and make it harder to dismantle, but instead focused on social stuff like college debt and a multitude of other things that almost immediately got torn down by Trump within his first 6 months in office.
I'm really bitter about that, and it's mind blowing that despite everyone's seeming inability to articulate how Joe Biden's 4 years protected us or did anything other than delay the inevitable, people still seem hesitant to criticize the left.
We still like you. We're not all in lockstep.
Also for what it's worth, Dear Leader also called our own military a "bunch of Suckers." Dude has no respect for anyone except himself.
In Gunnerkrigg Court comics, there is a ghost character called Jeanne who died a long time before the present day events, but she is still angry enough to try to kill the present day protagonists after saying this:
I don't hate the American people, but I do understand Jeanne's anger when I think about how little most Americans care about what's going on as long as their coddled, top of the world life goes on as normal. If ICE wasn't targetting Americans, if groceries prices actually came down, if tourism towns get hand outs from the admin, I feel like Americans wouldn't care at all what has been done to allies and is happening to everyone else.
How many Americans are aware of Canada's ongoing soft wood lumber disputes since 1982?
Edit: to be fair, Canadians are pretty coddled too, for example, I've never written my representatives about us selling asbestos until just recently even though we knew it was harmful and stopped using it ourselves.
I think this is just part of the human condition. Very few people are ready to jeopardize their wellbeing for complete strangers. We've been knowingly buying products made by slaves for many decades. Not because we support slavery but because it's the easiest option in a life full of mixed hardships and temptations.
This is why competition is a bad way to run an economy. It encourages this type of behaviour. I believe that we could already live in a utopian world if we would just teach our kids that caring for each other is more important than caring for ourselves, because then you will never run out of people that care about you.
I like this idea very much, it's exactly what we should teach ourselves and children. Even in practical applications, it's a much sounder advice than "looking out for No 1" because that's a world where no one else cares for you.
This is something my nephew figured out on his own when he started kindergarten. As it turns out, kids are so much smarter than adults give them credit for. We just need to keep feeding and praising that kind of empathy.
It's hard for a lot of people to care. They're overworked, underpaid and generally just trying to get by.
I get your frustration, I feel it too, even in the little things. I've been a board member and President of my community association for near 6 years now and basically begged people to show up and still nothing. I've had people complain at me about neighborhood issues when these same people do not pay their (voluntary) dues, do not come to the meetings, do not participate in neighborhood activities and generally just don't try to be a part of our community, but expect everything in return. I've told these people off... Politely and diplomatically, of course.
But we're a nation of 400-million, so attitudes vary. I've been out on the streets, marching in utterly packed protests, been out there since 2016, in fact. Didn't feel like our participation changed anything at that time, so it's understandable that people don't feel like bothering when they're already feeling the pressure and running as fast as they can just to get by.
But I've seen attitudes changing. My parents won't change, much as I've talked to them, but they're in their 70s. My sister, who is one of those who didn't care, hardly voted, not really politically active had her blinders ripped off. She's not out there in the streets or anything, but she realizes now that this shit matters and has come to understand that her vote matters and that it needs to be cast a certain way right now.
I have other friends who are similar, but are now more active. They've come to those protests, finally. People are becoming more engaged. Look at Minnesota, we won a small victory there because Americans kept up the pressure. It's minor and the fight must continue, but those brave people were out there in the cold, getting their asses kicked, getting murdered by jack booted thugs. That ain't nothing.
And that's the kind of stuff that makes me proud to be an American. I'm 41, I've voted in every election since I was 18. My first Presidential election was Bush/Kerry in 04; I was never proud to be an American. I was always ashamed of my country and my people, because I felt similar to you: "what the fuck is happening?"
But I've had that change of heart relatively recently. Seeing people out on the streets with me, seeing people pissed off and trying what they can to do something about it, it reminds me that I'm part of a long lineage of Americans, of all stripes, of all races that came out and protests and said, "this shit ain't right and I want a change." A lot of those people died, plenty in my own state.. But you have Americans like Jane Addams, MLK Jr., W.E.. Debois, brave Americans who I'm not comparable to, but who fought the power and won, who changed things, some at the cost of their lives. That's the shit that makes me proud to be an American.
I'm not saying I don't understand your frustration, I do, I feel it. But we're not all the same and many of us are doing what we can to fight those in power while still struggling along in our daily lives, to get through work, pay our bills, take care of our kids and all the other little frustrations and difficulties that come with life and life in the USA right now.
Thank you for that, I let my pessimism and anger get the better of me a lot these days.
You're absolutely right, there are so many people like you who come from a long proud linage of resisting tyranny, and it's because folks haven't given up that more people like your sister and your friends are standing up.
If one day our nation's are friends again, it'll be because folks like you are finally in charge again.
Gunnerkrigg Court! That's a blast from the past!
Thanks!
Same sentiment from Britain.
Fifteen years ago I would have jumped at the chance to visit or move to the USA. Now I really don't want anything to do with the country, I don't fancy the chances of being detained or deported because I typed some mean things about Trump, Vance or ICE online.
JD Vance genuinely insulted our lack of military contributions. We literally went into Afghanistan and Iraq with them...
And, somehow, I (currently) know more Canadians who support Trump and his policies than Americans. It's so weird hearing people try to justify the guy who wanted to take their country. Every single thing gets explained away by these people and they aren't even Americans. It's ridiculous.
Traitors. All of them. Red pilled by billionaires. Too stupid to see they are being used.
Elon Musk. My respect for him had been eroding, but the thing that convinced me that he's genuinely evil were his actions with DOGE in cutting USAID funding for life-saving medicine going towards the poorest people in the world. Hundreds of thousands of people have and will die as a direct result of his actions. And the worst part is that it was all for nothing since it didn't even move the needle in slowing down the US debt or government spending, which was his claimed excuse.
The final nail in the coffin is that he doesn't even show the slightest bit of remorse! He could help fund a project to save millions of lives and his net worth wouldn't even budge. The richest man in the world is directly responsible for the deaths of a deciHitler's worth of people and it was all done for no good reason.
It's not just that I'm no longer a fan: I won't let a conversation where his name is mentioned go by without bringing this up.
I got really interested in Elon after reading Wait But Why's post on him and his 1st biography. I had admired his ambition and intensity to bring about his aspirations, despite some of the allegations of toxicity and terrible workplace culture. He seemed like a person who was genuinely interested in clean cars and space exploration & colonization - not from a capitalizing view but out of his own curiosity and push to save humanity. I kinda related to his neurodivergent nature that I hadn't seen in other mainstream figures.
He began to sour on me when he tried that stunt of saving the kids from the cave. And totally lost respect when he went and bought Twitter. And for many other reasons he's been going downhill since.
I like to think he'd been corrupted by capitalism... But its just sad what he's turned into.
I followed the same chain and really learning about the work culture was the first strike. I hate people that have 100 percent agency over their lives trying to equate the time they put into things as equivalent to them forcing people to do insane hours who have no choice in doing so nor even what they are doing. They just never seem to fundamentally understand the difference between I choose to do this because I like it and am directly profiting from it vs I need to do this to survive and someone else will benefit from my labor.
I think in the end like everything we were fooled by good PR and at least social media has made it much harder for the billionaire class to hide their insanity when they make the mistake of directly posting.
The way he dealt with the ownership of Tesla before he bought it is flat out disheartening. Completely sidelined the previous leadership and left them without a penny. I think he's lacked a lot of love from his parents and is compensating for a lot of things. But that hollow heart will never find what it seeks without confronting himself about it. His exploration for the stars should be aimed inside himself.
I have a pet theory that Twitter is what killed Elon as a force for good. He couldn't stand not being universally loved on it and so he went completely insane. He turned it into a place where people would agree with him more, and that makes him the ultimate symbol of the evils of social media.
We all thought he'd be Tony Stark.
Instead he is Justin Hammer.
I remember thinking he was so cool for selling roofing torches on the internet. The facade started eroding for me around the time he called a rescue diver a pedophile for not accepting a useless submarine for a diving rescue
I had been a huge fan initially because of his go getter attitude and working hard. I really enjoy learning about being a more productive person and applying that. It all started to fall apart though, I'm sure it was around the same time others started to. It's a bummer because I want a cheap electric car in the future, and a used Model 3 is a nice option, but I don't know that I would even consider it now..
Harry Potter - For reasons that should be obvious. JKR and her hatred won't get another penny out of me.
My son wanted to read them, so we just checked them out from the library instead of buying them.
Steal steal steal!
Yea I had to pirate Goblet of Fire when we got to that book and it wasn't available at the library.
Yesss.
And the thing is, I really tried to separate the art from the artist while not contributing money. Like I even pirated Hogwarts Legacy.
But her continued attacks and mindless hatred and her inability to just STFU seeped away all enjoyment I had for that franchise.
I donated an equal amount of money to GLAAD when I purchased Hogwart's Legacy.
I've looked more into the comments she been making on gender and trans issues and yeah, she's increasingly gone off the deep end.
Rowling is part of the reason I haven't even tried Hogwarts Legacy, with the other part being the doxxing and harassment people got for even playing it, especially streamers. I remember the hate mob that Pikamee got forced her into retirement.
It goes beyond the comments tbh -- Rowling is one of the biggest funders of anti-trans legislation and court cases in Europe (and especially the UK, ofc). The comments are of course vile on their own, but she's very much also putting her money where her mouth is in a way that palpably hurts trans people.
Imagine having enough money to never want for anything for a thousand lifetimes and instead of just disappearing forever, choosing to burn through it all to spread ignorance and hate.
Unfortunately, she's a billionaire. It's almost impossible for her to burn through it all. If you had a billion dollars, even low-risk investments with moderate returns would give you something like an additional $80 million per year.
If you already have a house and spend "normal wealthy" amounts on living expenses, it's safe to say you can get away with taking a "salary" of a million dollars, and then you have an ever-escalating avalanche of money you can grow and occasionally throw snowballs of it at things. Lobbying doesn't even cost that much.
Solutions, I do not have. Just depressing arithmetic.
I can't imagine having that much money and not funding charities and schools and everything. I'd burn through it if I somehow made it in the first place. It's much easier if you give it away.
I know, right. I'd at least want to build up some public libraries and throw money at the EFF and ACLU or something.
Damn, throwing $100-200 to some charities probably makes one proportionately more charitable than Rowling.
Unfortunately, she does give away a lot of money. She just gives it away to support the causes that matter to her, and unfortunately, for her that cause is eradicating trans people.
Well I said charities and schools, not hate groups and anti-trans lobbying. But that was more in response to how it's hard to actually spend all of the money. I could absolutely find a way. And I can't imagine doing anything else with it frankly... It's one of the most frustrating things about the whole effective altruism "we must invest in the AI to stop the AI apocalypse and to solve all of our other problems" billionaire argument.
Yeah, very true. The sheer amount of good you could do with such massive sums of money... I don't think I would struggle to lower my net worth a lot donating to charities for causes I care about or even starting my own. There are so many people in need.
Pink Floyd
I used to listen to them religiously in high school. I went to laser lightshows. I would listen to their discography on repeat to go to sleep every night. I even saw their reprisal tour in 2006 with Roger Waters.
I cannot stand them now. It's been about 15 years of being unable to listen them. Some of it I'm just burnt out on, but most of it I just find shallow. It feels very "I'm 13 and this is deep". Nothing will get me to change the radio faster than the intro base riff to Money. I just can't anymore. I think it also reminds me of being in a phase of life where I was trying to reflect an identity, rather than build one.
Other than that I still love all the other classic rock from that era, including bands like Foreigner or other psychedelic groups. I even love modern day psychedelic rock, like Kind Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. The only other band that lost face in my opinion was Led Zeppelin (just because they ripped off a ton of music from black artists) but I still enjoy so much of their music.
I feel like this about a lot of the music I listened to in high school. Its because I’m still listening to it from the perspective of my 16 year old self and I cant listen to it without that bias. Who I was back then was shallow and undeveloped so I hear the song with that lens.
Money hits different for me as an adult, once I get past my young selfs anti capitalist interpretation of it and come at it as a part of the machine myself. Now I’m in the machine, playing the game, and Ive made it just like they did. Money.
Huh! Pink Floyd! Interesting.
For me this was more “my dad’s music” which I did like, but maybe because I was so young (pre-teen) that I may have liked anything he showed passion for. Either way, while I liked it, it never had a formative influence on me. I “get it” more now as an adult of course. I occasionally listen to Wish You Were. I guess I never overdid it with Pink Floyd to get sick of them.
There were, however, some bands that did have a strong influence on me, and I have mixed feelings about them. I’ll generally avoid them these days because they remind me of a time I was pretty unhappy. Yet sometimes they have the opposite effect and I find them soothing. I think it depends on my mood.
Yeah some I can go back to and some I cant. I used to love Taking Back Sunday but literally all of their songs are about failed early 20s relationships and I just cant get on that level any more
"Money" has always been annoying to me. It was played on the radio so much when I was a kid in the 90s. It makes me think of smug boomers. So I think I understand.
On the other hand I just got into Pink Floyd in the past 5-6 years. My favorites are the great gig in the sky. And the Wish you were here album.
I also got into KGLW at the same time.
Ooff, good thing I only started listening to Pink Floyd when I was in my twenties :-)
Do you play guitar lefty, know how to do 5x or 7x rubiks cubes, and have bad allergies that cause nasal congestion all the time?
Edit: Asking because your story sounds so familiar.
I do find that with some songs. Some songs are nostalgia vibe to how I felt in high school (in a good way) but a lot of those were songs I DIDNT listen to in high school.
Regarding Money, I never really listened to the lyrics or thought about what it was supposed to mean. Even listening to it right now Money doesn't seem to be about much more than a vibe.
All that said, it also doesn't have the same appeal to me as I get older. I went to see Roger Water's The Wall and loved it at the time. Today I don't think I'd bother going to see it.
What got me thinking of posting this thread was seeing the new Pokémon trailer that was recently posted. I haven't been interested in paying for the new games for a while due to becoming a parent and having less time/money for games, but I'd still look at some game play or think "that'd be fun to play". This was the first time seeing a mainline game that I had no interest in playing. I wouldn't say I've grown out of Pokémon entirely as I'm still interested in playing ROM hacks or some fan made games that look interesting, I'm just not the target market any longer and that's alright.
I also mentioned in another thread that when I was younger I used to be fairly in to Star Wars. Not the most dedicated fan out there, I didn't get too deep in to the Expanded Universe, but I loved the movies and playing Star Wars video games, had action figures, etc. I was actually somewhat optimistic when Disney acquired Star Wars and thought we'd see some new movies. When they said that the Expanded Universe was no longer canon, I actually wasn't that upset since I could see directors and writers for future movies feeling constrained by existing lore.
After the Last Jedi I lost interest in the franchise. People have complained enough about the sequel trilogy over the years, so I won't list my own complaints. Rogue One was decent, but I've had no interest in new Star Wars things. I've heard great things about Andor, and I'll probably watch it eventually, but I'm not in a rush to see it. I still plan to go and read some of the Expanded Universe books that you hear people recommend.
I do like to think that my tastes could change again in the future, and something new in those two IPs could draw me back. There are so many great things out there to explore that a franchise moving in a direction I don't personally like just means I can go and find something that I do.
I hear this. I was also somewhat of a mild Star Wars fan. Enjoyed the movies, enjoyed the games, even somewhat enjoyed the prequals as they released. But these days? Completely over it. Feel like Star Wars has been jammed down my throat and I just cannot possibly care anymore; feels like absolute slop.
I would like to share Star Wars with my kids when they get older, and it will probably be with the various film preservation projects and with some of the older video games and books if they're interested. If they want to engage with the newer content that's up to them.
I'm just so generally sick of it. We have watched some Clone Wars together, but they weren't super keen on it and given my general distaste for anything Star Wars these days, I had no real interest in continuing either.
I struggle to even play Star Wars games I once loved, like Dark Force 1/2, Jedi Knight 2, KOTOR, etc.
That's fair, maybe you'll be able to come back and enjoy some of those games/shows/movies you enjoyed after taking a longer break from the setting.
I've enjoyed exploring around, and we live in a time when there are so many great works easily available that it's easy to just drop Star Wars completely. It's sad to do, but you can always vote with your wallet.
This comment feels obligatory since it crops up whenever someone talks about star wars, but if you're a fan of the star wars universe you really should hurry to watch Andor.
I see all the positive mentions of Andor, and based on my brother recommending it and other people I know I'm sure I'd find it enjoyable.
I just don't consider myself a fan of Star Wars in particular anymore and with all the other shows that I want to watch, and I've been planning to watch, Andor isn't getting any priority on the watch list. Based on how fast I watch other shows these days I'll probably get around to this sometime in the next 5-10 years. With how popular it is I don't see Disney taking it off their streaming platforms in that time frame.
I’m not really a star wars fan but I watched Andor and then re-watched it because some of the scenes just hit me really hard in the context of the united states going through what its going through and the idea of having to fuel a rebellion when it seems like theres nothing left to save
I'm not trying to pressure you into watching Andor if you don't want to, but I did want to address some of the points you made because I get where you're coming from, but if if the only reason you aren't interested in Andor is that it's related to Star Wars, then you're doing yourself a disservice.
I'm not even a huge fan of Star Wars myself, but Andor is probably the least "Star Wars" thing out of the entire Star Wars franchise. Andor is grounded in a way that very few other Star Wars content is. None of the "fantastical" elements of Star Wars comes into play in the show like The Force, Jedi, Vader, etc.
It plays out more like a conspiracy spy thriller, with a plot and setting that pulls from real life examples of fascism and authoritarianism to the point that it rhymes very heavily with the current state of the world. It sheds light on the darker side of rebellions and what is needed for rebellions to win, instead of painting them as fantastical good guys who do no wrong.
Tony Gilroy, the showrunner and writer of Andor, also did the Bourne movies, and is an avid history buff who incorporated a lot historical precedents into the story which is why it feels so grounded and why it rhymes with the current state of the world right now.
As far as Disney keeping it on their service, I wouldn't count on it the way things are going, at least in America. A lot of Andor seems to rhyme with what's going on in America right now, to the point that protests tend to borrow messaging from it, and I fear all it'll take is someone doing something stupid in the name of Andor and for the federal government to blame "political violence and unrest" on anti-establishment media like Andor for Disney to just cut it's losses and take it off.
I appreciate you taking the time to recommend it and explain your point of view on the show!
Just to clarify from my end, I am interested in the show after getting so many recommendations to watch it from people whose opinion I take in to consideration for media and I do plan to watch it eventually. I was more trying to say that if it had released years ago when I was more of a Star Wars fan I would have bumped it to the top of my list and watched it right away by virtue of it being a great show that is set in the Star Wars universe. Now I'm just treating it like any other show that I'd like to watch and it being a Star Wars show has no bearing on when I'll get around to it.
I don't have a list of shows that I plan to watch in a specific order, but I also rarely watch shows in general. My wife and I will slowly watch through a series together, and then I'll watch an episode or two of my own show occasionally. Sometimes it is an episode a night for a week, sometimes (like right now) I don't watch any shows for a month or two and do more reading. Once I finish Armored Trooper VOTOMS I've been wanting to watch Legend of the Galactic Heroes, but that could be months to a year away and I might change my mind and watch something else entirely.
If Disney decided to not keep Andor on their service by the time I get around to watching it and I can't find a way to watch it legally where I live, I'll find a way to watch it.
I will counter some of the comments and say that I found the first season of Andor to be a solid but not great show. Its good enough that I'm sure I'll watch the second season some time, but its not something that I'm eager to seek out and watch.
I will echo some comments. It could exist outside of the Star Wars setting quite easily. Its a political/spy thriller. It does tell a good story about fascism. But I think every character out of Stellan Skarsgard's character is kind of bland (Though Stellan Skarsgard's character is 10/10) and frankly I don't care about any individual one.
i would say, if you like tv, you should watch andor. it's one of these once in a decade shows. everything just comes together perfectly. passion, style, pop and something real to say.
This is the eternal Star Trek vs Star Wars take… I grew up watching The Next Generation way before I saw any Star Wars stuff. I watched some older anime series and some 90s cartoons all before seeing Star Wars. Once I finally did, I was quite disappointed. I didn’t get what the big deal was. I did end up watching most movies, most of them no more than once. I played a few of the games. I think Jedi Outcast on PC was fun. And pod racer. I much preferred Battlestar Galactica, The Expanse, probably a lot of other sci fi over Star Wars. I never felt the characters to be super relatable. The plot was mediocre in my opinion, the robots too dorky especially that golden one. Data from Star Trek is a far more interesting character than any of these robots in Star Wars. Sorry, I’m not even a Trekkie, I just don’t see the mass success of Star Wars. Maybe I just had to be there to get it, and not experience it X years later.
The republican party. I turned 18 in 1996 (first year to vote) and my view started shifting slowly with medicinal marijuana passed in California, then shifting quicker during W. I'm very more centered now and quite despise most of the figureheads of the party these days.
Roller coasters. I grew up scared to death of them, but mid teens I managed to swallow my fear, scream really loud, and learned to enjoy (maybe even love?) them. Then after a long hiatus reaching my early 30s, I rode a few at Cedar Point (not worth visiting Ohio for) and got such a killer headache and didn't really enjoy any. At all.
Beavis & Butthead. I've obviously grown up enough to realize how stupid they are. The old stuff that I've re-encountered is still moderately amusing (probably due to familiarity), but the 2022 reboot had me cringing so much, just like when I hear kids singsonging "6-7". (GET OFF MY LAWN!!!)
Beets. I loved canned beets as a kid, but never encountered the raw version. But now, the smell makes me retch, and it's difficult to stomach the fresh stuff, usually encountered on salads or my FiL's stewed version (went over to their house, walked in, told them we had forgotten to go shopping and left for a couple more hours).
Sweets. I just don't enjoy them like I used to. I remember one easter, my parents let me eat all the candy I wanted and I ended up wishing I could throw it all up at the end of the day (and I abhored vomiting as a kid - the flu would send me into panic attacks). The sweet tooth quickly waned after that. Plus Turkish, I'm sweet enough...
Facebook (transition from semi-private space for friend interactions to external stuff constantly being "recommended"...and various terrible things about it in the news over the years)
Reddit (API-gate)
Magic: the Gathering (I still like the game itself, but hate the crossovers with other IPs, and feel that my favourite competitive format Modern was made significantly worse by direct-to-Modern sets that bypassed Standard. Have always hated their gambling 4 kidz business model)
About a year ago I tried getting into Magic after not playing it for almost 20 years. The IP crossover thing is such trash. I'm sure one could make it work, but I really enjoyed the simplicity of how the game played in the mid/late 90s.
I hate to say it because I feel it’s not a good thing, but I’ve grown increasingly tired of having to setup tech and tweak things. It started around 2016 when I moved from Android to iPhone. I used to love customizing my Android phone with launchers and whatnot. I haven’t built a PC since around 2012. Been on Mac. I don’t think it’s a good thing in general because it’s good to control your devices rather than be controlled by them. I definitely still manually adjust all the settings I can, but I rarely go out of my way into deeper customization. On one hand there is a desire to spend less time in front of screens. On the other, a resistance to just accepting what the device defaults to or what apps are popular. I remain aware of data privacy and still opt for options that don’t gobble up my data if I can. Thanks to Tildes, I discovered Kagi for example. I use a VPN. I don’t have Facebook. Back in the day I was dabbling in Linux and used a Linux laptop for several years in university. These days I kind of want to ditch Apple, but I don’t know if I got it in me to dive into Linux again. I still remember spending hours just to get a network driver to work.
Nah, all the experience you acquired (your taste if you will) is valuable, and as the rest of the post shows it still informs many of your decision. I have the feeling it's just the novelty of it that wore off and you transformed "having a device" from a hobby to an utility. I think I had the same arc with Windows customization and 3D printing.
Yup, this is true. We are also at a point in time where not having a smartphone is a significant obstacle to a lot of things. Not unsurmountable, but a pretty big disadvantage. Since these devices are so embedded in daily life, my efforts these days go more towards not using it rather than using it more or customizing it. Do I really need that app? Do I really need those notifications?
Windows customization! I did some of that maaaany years ago. Winamp themes and windows desktop customizations, registry tweaks, etc. It was fun for a while. The PC WAS the hobby. Now the PC is this thing I HAVE to use at work 8 hours a day. All I want from it is for Excel not to crash and for things to load reasonably fast.
I made a post above, but yes also this. I don't even change my desktop wallpapers anymore. Switch Windows to dark mode and let it ride. Most of the time I'm going to have windows up and I'm not going to see it anyway. The only time I see my desktop is when I'm using one of the folders on it and even then, I'm not paying attention to what the background is.
I've come to be fairly similar actually. I was a big Android nerd from like 2015-2021 and would agonize and argue with others about specs and features. I was one of those weirdos that would genuinely call Apple users sheep. I installed custom ROMs, launchers, app icon packs, even used KWGT to build my own widgets. However, as I grew, those things mattered less and less. My phone became less a part of my identity and more of a tool. I've slowly gotten caught into Apple's vendor lock-in since 2021 with an iPhone, Macbook, Watch, Airpods, and for a while, an iPad too. I've even started using some of their services and apps like Safari, Maps, etc. I'm very much an odd-one-out here on Tildes as I don't use Kagi, don't use a VPN except for my torrents, I have Facebook and use their products, but I do try to be privacy-conscious from time to time. That being said, I am the ultimate big-tech corpo dream as I really value convenience over most things.
I do recommend trying Linux again over a weekend. I actually currently use Ubuntu on a Thinkpad and I've been enjoying using it. Linux has really come a long way on laptops. My previous Linux laptop experience was in 2019, also with Ubuntu, but on a Dell XPS with discrete graphics and that was a bit of a nightmare. Nvidia GPU drivers meant my battery life was reduced to just 4 hours and sleep was broken. As I was a university student at the time, these two things were the most important things to me so I went back to Windows and eventually switched to a Macbook.
VPN I initially got because of Torrents, but since I am paying for it and it includes ad-blocking, I ended up using anytime I am reading news or surfing the web. It blocks most ads very well, so I figured might as well just use it. The only issues I noticed are that some apps won't work. At one point, podcasts over cellular didn't work if I had it on.
Kagi, I was torn about paying for something like this, but I did grow increasingly frustrated with even the "privacy-oriented" search engines including ads all the time (DuckDuckGo) and nagging me to install their own browser. So yeah I never thought I'd be paying for a search engine, but here we are. I may have a lower-than-average tolerance for ads, in that I really hate ads and will go to great lengths to prevent them from assaulting my eyeballs.
I don't get why not wanting to tinker is equated with just getting Apple devices. I've made the same progression of not tinkering, but I still have Android devices (Pixel phone and a cheap Samsung tablet that serves as an ereader) and have no desire to go back to iOS (haven't had an iPhone since the 7 Pro).
It's a sentiment I see somewhat frequently and it confuses me. Is it somehow unacceptable to use Android and not tinker?
Not at all! I can comment only on my own perspective. To me, when I moved from Android to iOS, the iPhone had much fewer options. The compromise was "do things the Apple way" because you couldn't customize very much. Skip forward about 12 years and I think you can tinker a lot more and may need to. In fact, I think it's almost becoming the opposite, where I feel Apple stuff "lost its way" to some extent. I was fiddling on my dad's Android last summer to help him setup some things, and I was surprised how smooth and clean it is these days.
In short, I think it's a sentiment that is founded in the past, and may in itself be outdated now. I don't really believe Apple = less tinkering anymore, but I do still think that if all your stuff is Apple, they do seem to work pretty seamlessly, which I don't know if it's the case for other platforms. I could be totally wrong too!
I think this happens to a lot of tech folks as we age. What used to be something fun to do in our spare time starts to feel like work. We also often have less and less “spare time” as we age.
Having Apple devices is no guarantee of not having to configure things. If anything I'd have to configure more, and I do have an iPhone/iPad...
This is true these days to be honest. In the past, Apple products used to usually mean less tinkering, but these days I am growing increasingly frustrated with my iPhone. I don't know how it is for other platforms, but the one thing that does feel pretty smooth still, is how multiple apple devices talk to each other. It's very seamless. My Apple TV will offer to switch the audio to my AirPods if I put them on somewhere near the Apple TV. Everything syncs well via iCloud between iPhone, iPad, MacBook. I can easily move what I am playing to a speaker and back to the iPhone without fiddling with bluetooth connections (beyond the first time setting them up).
Me too. I am currently running a Windows 10 install that got to that point where it accumulate lots of weird bugs and issues that are more easily solved by reinstalling. I should probably put Linux on that machine again but there are way too many settings, games and programs installed and I'm dreading having to do it all again. I just want my computer to run forever like a fridge. It's not interesting anymore.
Same experience here. I feel that as I've grown older, I have less energy to fiddle with things, and I'm more aware that in the end, no matter how customizable every aspect of your phone is, it doesn't really add that much value in day-to-day usage.
Agreed. Also, the older I get, the less time is left in life, so I'm more critical about how I spend that time. Fore example, I prefer to be here on Tildes rather than doom-scroll on Reddit or Instagram.
I still like tinkering to an extent.
Linux is a bridge too far for me, honestly. In theory I like it, but I find the 90% of my time with it is tweaking things and trying to get stuff to work and I absolutely can do it, but I just quickly lose patience because I want to use my PC for what I want to use it for, rather than dick with it constantly.
There's nothing wrong with Linux, I like it and even have it running a few things in my house; but the difference with those things is that they're setup and going and don't require constant futzing with.
Most traditional FPS games, especially war-themed and/or multiplayer
Used to be a huge player of Call of Duty, Counter Strike, Unreal Tournament, etc. I no longer get any enjoyment out of them. I've just completely grown out of it and I think most modern incarnations of this type of thing are just boring rehashes of the same stuff. Even things I would find interesting possibly (Helldivers) I just can't get into.
Multiplayer games in general
Aside from Rocket League and a very occasional co-op (or asynchronous cooperative thing like an ARPG guild in PoE for trading, etc), I generally stay far away from anything multiplayer. I'm just not interested in interacting with any random people through games anymore. Even on Rocket League, I have all "typed chat" turned off- quick chats only. Never voice chat (unless its with a friend external to the game)
Alcohol
Gave it up completely a couple of years ago. It's not that I hate it across the board, so I guess from a distance I could still be considered a "fan" of whiskey or whatever, it's just that I chose to move on. Decided even a single drink is no longer worth it. I don't like being around (or talking online to) people that are heavily under the influence. It all just gives me a vibe that no longer works for me AND also it's just bad for me to have at all (big headache trigger, even when drinking just one serving a day).
Most nu-metal, 98% of Christian music
I've slowly started shedding some of my nostalgia and find a lot of what I used to listen to in some genres/etc to be much more mediocre than I ever dared to realize. So much of the lyrics are cringey and awful and a lot of the music is mid at best. I was so bent on listening to certain things that it was preventing me from taking the time to enjoy new or better things. Nostalgia is a hell of a drug, and can easily cross a line from occasional fun to actually having a negative impact. As I left the faith, I also left behind nearly every bit of Christian music I used to listen to (and at one point, prior to being an adult- was the only thing I was allowed to listen to). There are a couple of artists I still appreciate, but it's just a past life for me I have no interest in revisiting (and often just feel uncomfortable doing so).
Some subgenres/very particular expressions of music
Some other stuff I've left behind too are just cringe / bad humor music in general. I have no idea what I used to get out of hokey "pirate metal" type stuff. Drinking at the time and playing board games around the themes probably helped it "fit" (and the fact that it was a friend's choice of music not mine), but I can't stand the stuff today and think it's awful, not funny, and really just kinda despite that it even exists as a type of music. If I'm going to listen to any kind of "folk" metal, it needs to be very genuine and not cheesy / overdone melodies / etc. Music + comedy rarely works, but there are exceptions to the rule. Comedy is a lot harder than most bands think it is.
Speaking of board games...
Used to play weekly with a group. Now, the reasons I stopped playing are more complex than just the board games. Politics/behavior were involved too. However, I did eventually burn out on playing board games in general. Just started to feel more like a chore than fun, and half way through I'd just not "feel it" anymore. After playing many hours in one sitting per week it just kinda got old, even though we kept getting new games.
A lot of bands with iffy politics / views / behavior
I used to not care at all and not even investigate bands for a split second before listening to them. Now I've done a complete 180 on that and am rather particular. I still leave some leeway for private listening, but I'm overly (and okay with being so) careful about recommending, representing (patches/stickers/etc), or otherwise promoting or providing financial support to plenty of acts that I wouldn't have thought twice about previously.
I'll say religion in general, especially Christianity, but no need for me to expand on that this time around.
Movies / TV Shows / especially Fiction, with games being the main exception to the rule
I watched movies and tv shows all the time as a kid and teen. As an adult, I don't watch any. It's only Youtube/Twitch style content, and when it's YouTube it's not fictional, it's science or trades or philosophy or technology, etc. I enjoy reading, but generally no fiction there either. I just don't get the same thing out of it others do most of the time. There can be exceptions, but 9 times out of 10 I want something non-fictional. Either educational, practical, social, political, etc. - and I understand fiction can still have something to say about these, I just prefer the directness of non-fiction.
Candy / sugary things
I like the occasional treat, but as I've changed my eating habits, I do not eat most of the sweet stuff I used to, and I have no desire to go back. 1000 calorie pints of loaded ice cream, sweettarts ropes, just pure sugar stuff. Now, if I have snacks, it's the occasional chip, or mini pecan pie, or cheesecake, etc.
I was pretty into that scene half a lifetime ago. The first concert I ever attended was dc Talk and Jars of Clay, in the mid ‘90s. My first job was corralling the CDs in a chain Christian bookstore. I was a huge Tooth & Nail fan, my tastes ran the gamut from The Juliana Theory to John Reuben to Joy Electric and The Echoing Green. Got into sound engineering running the boards for a few churches and youth groups, and rode that into broadcasting at a local Christian radio station. I spent the summer of ‘05 digitizing a huge library of the worst CCM from the ‘70s and ‘80s for an early “solid gold” streaming radio startup, now that was an interesting couple of months, ha. I had my sights on hosting a countdown style show of my own to boost new releases, hell I even made the pilot episode for that.
Well my career went in a very different direction and, I guess, I got old. It seemed like all the new music was either obnoxious scene kid screamo or absolute brainless worship sludge. I guess people’s musical tastes tend to anchor to whatever they listened to in high school… I knew it wasn’t for me anymore. I stopped keeping up with that world. Eventually (many years later) I lost my faith as well, and now I look back on my time in that culture as a sort of nostalgic curiosity. I wonder where I’d be today if I hadn’t changed career tracks.
From time to time I’ll look up bands I used to like and see what they’re up to. I’m kind of relieved that Five Iron Frenzy’s still playing shows. Most of what I see is tragic. I was shocked that Skillet went full MAGA but I guess most of them did. Newsboys too, but of course that’s all overshadowed now with the ongoing Michael Tait bombshells, which I grimly suspect could become the Epstein files of the Nashville CCM world. There’s something really troubling happening there, being kept under wraps, I think. Feels like the whole Christian recording industry is rotting, it leaves me feeling empty inside.
I’ve long wished I had the resources to make a “where are they now” documentary about the CCM scene I remember. I just want to catch up with people who were in it then, and either walked away or were pushed out. I want to catch up with Jennifer Knapp, Amy Grant, Ray Boltz, David Bazan, Ja’Marc Davis, Derek Webb… anybody who tasted that fame and controversy’d out. I just want to hear their stories.
I don’t listen to much of that music anymore, but there are definitely times when nothing else scratches the itch.
Spent a lot of time in Christian bookstores as a youth. Went to a Jars of Clay show myself early on. First CD I owned was DC Talk's Jesus Freak. I got deep into Solid State and Tooth & Nail releases. Went to small local punk and metal shows in a heavily religious town. Got into almost every genre outside of super benign radio CCM junk, started my metalhead journey in the Christian music scene first, first exposure to rap was Christian rap, etc. Later on was into the more extreme metal side of things. It's interesting looking back for sure, but putting on any of that music transports me to that era pretty quickly mentally and I don't like that feeling at all. These days I still listen to most genres, but completely outside of (or even adversarial towards) the Christian side of things.
I similarly lament a lot of what I've seen with many of the acts going super right-wing. Demon Hunter / Clark brother stuff went that direction too IIRC. I similarly think that entire scene is rotting. Like a comment I saw elsewhere said one time "I wonder if the Christian music industry is just a distilled form of all the more negative/toxic aspects of the church in general"
I am glad to see a number of artists that made it out, many of whom have good politics, or even have plenty of members that left evangelicalism, etc. Underoath are no longer believers. I am a massive Bazan fan- he has very publicly broken up with the faith and made that clear through his music and documentary (and is probably my favorite musician of all time). Love most Pedro The Lion and Bazan records. He wasn't shy even decades ago about really challenging the faith from within. Zao are no longer religious and still kick ass (and have good political views). There are quite a number of similar trajectories for bands from that era- so I'm glad to see not all of them remain trapped in that disaster. meWithoutYou later revealed some members weren't religious, others had varying faiths, etc. I was a HUGE fan of MXPX. I don't enjoy them as much now, but they also distanced themselves from religion quite a bit. Lead singer of Hawk Nelson no longer religious.
A Where Are They Now documentary about all of that would be so interesting. I'd be into that for sure
Huh. I was a big fan of UnderOath when I believed and am pleasantly surprised that they're not Christian anymore. Lead me to look up my other favorite band of that era, The Devil Wears Prada who also claims they're not Christian anymore according to their Wiki. I was at the last For Today show that was played in NYC but they split up a while ago. I think the lead singer from that band is still a Christian.
Yeah. I do find it somewhat amusing that I find Underoath's music was better when they were Christians, but that's just a matter of preference. But it's just funny to me that I like their views better now but their music a lot less. That said, neither era of Underoath is really my thing anymore, but glad they've taken the personal trajectory they did
I heard Jennifer Knapp play ~2018. I had never listened to her in her CCM days, so I didn't know anything about her going in. When I googled her, it turned up her old stuff. The tickets were cheap, and I thought my wife would enjoy it. Little did I know that she had come out as gay and walked away from her fame and audience. At least my wife did more research, so we were clued in before the night of the show.
It was a very intimate show in a tiny bar. Super chill crowd. It mostly had an LGBTQ vibe, but I saw a few people from our church there. One guy told me all about how important listening to her Christian music was to his conversion to Christianity.
The show was basically her laying her heart bare about the ways she had been manipulated or forced to make certain kinds of music that didn't feel right to her. You could see she was still very wounded and raw about it. She talked about how hard she the worked to find a way to express the way she felt in her music, and how much she has to leave her fans and her old life behind to be able to do that.
Even after saying all that to this crowd, when she was taking requests, some people (including my friend from church) were asking for her old CCM stuff, and she shut it down with a response that amounted to, "I am not playing that shit. Didn't you just hear all the things I just said?"
It was pretty wild to me that ten years and a shunning later, people were still trying to put her into the box they were comfortable with.
you and @balooga don't have to wonder about David Bazan, he does great solo stuff & introspective house tours and it's fantastic if a bit depressing (but that's kind of his whole thing, nothing wrong with it, I love a fellow eeyore). I saw him open for Jimmy Eat World a while back & he outdid them honestly.
I've seen him a few times and met him just as Control came out (still at least nominally a Christian). Super chill guy. Then I found out he had become atheist when he addressed it at a show in Newport outside of Cincinnati. Half the people looked shaken, half looked fine, and one guy in full punk gear clapped and cheered. David gave him a sarcastic "yeah, thanks." I'm sure he didn't want to make that part of his life a sideshow, but it did seem like he wanted to clear the air with his fans from before. Just a complicated moment burned into memory.
Yeah I hadn't ever heard that he grew up a pastor's kid, but reading that made me feel pretty certain that he did, & sure enough lol—it's the compartmentalization; I'm glad he's still thinking about it at all, after everything they had to deal with. Honesty is the best way tho imo
Loved your answer. Big list kept going!
I’m with you re: alcohol. I stopped 8 years ago. It had become diminishing returns and stated feeling the negative effects on my health, both mental and physical. I was gaining weight too. One of the best decisions I ever made for my health was to ditch alcohol completely.
Same with candy, recently I’ve started avoiding it as much as I can. Dessert after dinner? Not for me. Maybe a tea or a coffee instead. Candy from the corner store? Pass. Sweets as gifts from a relative? I take the box to work and leave it in the kitchen for others to enjoy. If I want sweet, I’ll aim for fruit.
Movies and TV Shows, I’m having a very hard time lately to find any of them really interesting. There is the occasional show and movie that I watch and find moving or memorable, but they are few and far between.
Thanks! Yeah for alcohol I used to drink heavily about once a week, then in the recent past 5-10 years maybe a couple drinks a week max. And lately even that small amount, just enjoying a single whiskey, would sometimes give me instant headaches, or make me feel awful, mentally and physically. A lot of the time it just consistently led to feeling bad in some way or another. I look back at it like "I had my fun, I had my moderation, now it's time to leave it behind" and I'm so glad I did.
Tea and coffee are huge parts of my life now and also take the place of a lot of sweets / other things for me too. Also go for fruit sometimes. If I do have candy, I have individually wrapped small pieces that are only a couple of grams of sugar each, and that's enough friction to control my portions and keep my daily added sugars at a minimum. I do still intake some sweetness/sugar via condiments, but I try not to go overboard there either (at least then it's on top of food that has fiber/nutrients/etc).
Others have mentioned some things that I used to be fans of (America, Musk, Harry Potter, Gretzky, Reddit, etc.) but I'm going to go in a much pettier direction.
George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire was a book series that I spent a lot of time with over my life. I got the first book in a whole different millenium from this one, so I have read and re-read the series a number of times, and I have spent a lot of time waiting for books. I realize that authors don't technically owe us anything - I don't blame Martin for however he spends his time instead of being an author. He's old and he wrote himself into a corner. But I'm not going to read or support his work any more. If The Winds of Winter ever actually releases, I have no plans to read it, and I no longer care about what happens to the characters, despite the fact that I spent so much time with them.
I find it so interesting to compare Robert Jordan's arc with GRRM's. At least superficially, they have a lot in common in terms of sprawling plots and huge character lists. RJ struggled to finish the Wheel of Time in a similar way, though he was hampered in the end by his health rather than a transition to different media. One thing RJ had going for him was his wife Harriet was very much a partner in his work, and it was her influence and vision that made it possible for Brandon Sanderson to complete the series in a satisfying way.
I don't follow GRRM that much, so maybe he has people like that around him too, but it really highlights to me how important relationships are in the legacies of what we leave behind.
If you liked GoT, have you ever tried Joe Abercrombie's work? It's a little on the grim side, so I can only read it when I'm in a really good place, but I have always enjoyed it.
I think that's one of the clear differences, and another would be his absolute refusal to allow anyone else to help, even in the event of his death. That seems to lack some internal consistency, since he effectively let the showrunners finish his work before he did, so I don't see the issue with books.
I enjoy Joe Abercrombie a lot - I have read The First Law trilogy, but have a bunch more on my reading list to get to at some point. Great recommendation, thank you!
My speculation would be that after seeing how the showrunners finished it he may not want to give up control on what he views as his magnum opus.
Even though I've been waiting for so long, I'd still like to see the series end at some point. Will I rush out to buy the next book when it does at this point? Probably not, but I did really enjoy the books that we have. I've only ever read one dunk and egg novella and would like to read the other stuff he's put out eventually, there's just so many completed series that are also excellent that there's no rush to get back there.
I remember I refused to watch GoT out of principle. I had been waiting for the next book since I was 18 (god, almost 20 years ago? That can't be right and I'm not gonna check), and I wasn't going to watch a series until the books were done.
I don't think I'll ever watch it!
Patrick Rothfuss is up there with him. Book two of three in The Kingkiller Chronicle came out in 2011. I lost track around a decade ago, but he was still adamant that he was working on it, despite his former editor saying she'd never seen evidence of it existing. (Former, because you don't need an editor if you're not actually publishing...)
I like Rothfuss's books a lot more (I wouldn't consider myself a fan of ASOIAF, though I've read the books), but I can't imagine going back and rereading just to have a clue what's going on after that long.
I'm empathetic to mental health and the difficulties of writing. I don't think I can forgive rothfuss for lying about having work done for the purpose of raising money for a charity - he never released the chapter and at some point it's just fraud.
I like to point out Scott Lynch (the Locke Lamora series) as the way to do it: he's had multiple long gaps between books, but has always been transparent about it being mental health related...and nobody minds.
Rothfuss has all along tried to cultivate social media presence and celebrity, but has no indication of actually doing anything. And fraud certainly comes to mind when he's leveraging that celebrity for other endeavors.
Tamsyn Muir has similarly taken a long time to finish the Locked Tomb series. And if she never finishes I'll be sad but not angry.
She's said she was still writing and is also dealing with her own mental health. Maybe she never hits a point where she can write the last book. Hopefully she does.
But she's not out here promising chapters to fundraisers.
I watched most of the first season of GoT and I felt the casting was generally off. The way that I would describe the issue is that one of the things that I regret about the Lord of the Rings movie is that after watching the movies, most of the characters in my mind have changed from what they were before I watched the movie into just the movie characters. The Samwise Gamgee and Gandalf of my youth are gone, and the ones in my head are now Sean Astin and Ian McKellan (and generally the same is true for the whole cast except for elves). For the most part, that didn't happen with Game of Thrones, except for a couple of characters. I will say that I actually already pictured Sean Bean as Ned Stark in my head-cast though, so they did nail that one.
And yes, if you don't want to watch the series until the books are done, you will never watch Game of Thrones. The books will never be finished. I don't even think the next one will ever release, which actually makes my above point even pettier.
Anime. It’s not that I won’t watch it, it’s that it must be exceptional for me to spend any time watching it, and almost no anime meets the minimum criteria for a watch. It has to meet three main requirements.
The main criteria is that the explanation of the plot summary can’t make me cringe. What makes me cringe? Most anime plots. To give you an idea, I have watched all the way through three shows in the past two years: The Fable, Dan Da Dan, and the last season of The Devil is a Part-Timer, which I originally watched when it was released, then like nine years later when they finished it.
I’ve genuinely tried to watch so many other anime that have been critically acclaimed and highly recommended, and none of them have hooked me. I can’t explain it, but it’s one of those “when I like it, I like it and when I don’t, I don’t.”
I just can't with anime anymore. Someone will recommend something, and there's some gross or incel-y shit within the first 5 minutes. I'm aware that there's more than that, but I can't seem to find a community that caters to my tastes.
Don't look at anime communities because they are all inevitably beyond saving. When they say "Oh there's some fanservice but not a lot" you can bet there's sexual tension between brother and sister or some other ridiculous nonsense. They're usually far beyond recognizing what's "normal" for most people and what's "anime normal".
"Anime normal" is also why I tend not to speak about anime much because almost everything has some sort of unexplainable thing. My wife knows I watch anime, she does not know which ones. It's not a secret or anything, but even for superb ones like Dan Da Dan it can be difficult to explain why those teens are in their underwear, so I'd rather avoid the subject.
That said, I'm not necessarily opposed to gratuity (within bounds, certain forms turn me away right quick) when it comes to anime. It's a form of media where gratuity can be found in a way that isn't found elsewhere. There's a series on YouTube by Mothers Basement (Geoff Thew) called "The Hottest Trash of" which specifically looks at anime trash (trash as in trashy, not rubbish) as a genre and I do occasionally pick one up from the dumpsters because it's fun to indulge... but I do think there's a time and place which anime seems to forget sometimes. Nothing is more annoying than a properly written show suddenly turning their female characters into one dimensional teenage bait. It's fine if I tune into a show wears that on its sleeve, I know what I'm getting into, it's not when I'm ostensibly watching a show that's supposed to be more mature.
Ugh, SPY x FAMILY anyone? I was having the time of my life with that one until they brought Yor's creep of a brother into the mix. Yuck! Look, I want to see the Forger family live happily ever after as much as anybody else, but the whole "sistercon" nonsense is completely unnecessary. I feel like there are plenty of ways the writer could have approached the notion that her brother is protective and suspicious of Loid without him having to have a locker full of creepy photos.
There definitely seems to be a rule that any trip to the beach/pool or the bathhouse requires a leering gaze for the camera. I was really enjoying Kamichu! until it got to the beach episode. These kids are 13, but even then, the animators were like "we better put a higher than elsewhere amount of detail on certain shots of their bathing suits in frames that crop their faces out."
I'm usually not looking for trash, but I do agree with what you're saying about shows that wear the bit on their sleeve. I can give Kaguya-sama: Love is War a pass so far (only two seasons in) because it's a romantic over-the-top bit comedy that explores different tropes, and the moments of fanservice are light, self-aware, and limited to the bit. Plus, there appears to be nothing creepy going on between anyone and their family members.
I was close to naming Spy x Family as the example myself but didn't because it's unfortunately more widespread, though yes that's the one I was thinking of when I wrote it. I genuinely dislike the siscon Yuri. It's wholly unnecessary and misplaced in a family oriented show like SxF. It's such a good, clean show otherwise and I enjoy the episodes that do not feature Yuri.
Nightfall on the other hand is funny, so they understand what can work within the framework.
Agreed! Nothing makes me nope out faster than gratuitous fan service. These days, even heavy violence is enough to turn me away.
What really kills me is when the fan service creeps in halfway through a show. It is devastating when you're immersed in the story and world, and then the writers/animators can't keep it in their pants any longer and you have to bail out. Hit it enough times that I just wrote off anime altogether, unless it's clearly something chill/vetted ahead of time by a friend.
I love the slice-of-life genre, but there's one show in particular that comes up in every recommendation list, which I've decided to avoid like the plague. Not because of anything that happens in the show, but because of what apparently happens afterwards in the manga.
The series Usagi Drop is about a 30 year old man who takes in a 6 year old girl. The anime covers the first half of the manga. Apparently, it's really cute and sweet as the guy adjusts to being a dad and builds a support network with other adults his age to ensure that this young girl grows up in the life that she deserves. The two bond and build respectable boundaries and trust, sharing a found sense of family.
The second half of the manga occurs after the anime, following with a time-skip. Apparently the author either hit their head or just plain woke up one day and chose evil.
Anyway, after finding out that things get amorous like that, I decided that even the anime was tarnished by association and worth avoiding completely.
I've had Usagi Drop on my PTW long enough that I've pieced together the objectionable bit from all the times I've seen it hinted at, but you should probably use some
<details>tags to warn/hide spoilers on principle.Usagi Drop is one of those terms (like Wolf Guy) that just creates a visceral sense of revulsion whenever I see it, no matter how much time has passed.
At the risk of being the kind of anime fan you find annoying, I actually keep a running list of shows that don't include the typical anime turnoffs. No sexualization of minors, and no incest
A long list of titles
Bolded titles are my top recs. Series listed in chronological order of my seeing them:
Castlevania
Vivy: Fluorite Eyes Song
Belle
A Silent Voice
Baccano
Deca-dence
Trigun
Akudama Drive
ACCA: 13 Territory Inspection Dept.
Fullmetal Alchemist
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Mushishi
5 Centimeters Per Second
Afro Samurai
Your Lie In April
Nichijou
Odd Taxi
Cowboy Bebop
Canaan
Sk8 the Infinity
Supercrooks
Bocchi the Rock
House of Five Leaves
Weathering With You
Haibane Renmei
BNA
Redline
Planetes
Witch Hunter Robin
Noir
Wolf's Rain
Boogiepop Phantom
Boogiepop And Others
Ghost In The Shell (1995 movie and Standalone Complex)
Niea_7
Serial Experiments Lain
Megalo Box
Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto
Bubblegum Crisis
Ergo Proxy
Read Or Die (OVA and The TV)
Madlax
Moribito
Xam'd: Lost Memories
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
Kyousougiga
Orb: On the Movements of the Earth
Cyberpunk Edgerunners
Sonny Boy
Kiki's Delivery Service
Sora no Manimani
Apocalypse Hotel
Death Note
Carole and Tuesday
Kino's Journey (2003)
I'm not insisting that anyone watch these, but if anyone wants to try and find anime that isn't gross, this list is a good place to start
Yay, Megalo Box mentioned! :D
I recently watched it on Prime video and was honestly worth every minute. It has that Cowboy Bebop kinda vibe with good pacing and the melancholy/reflective tone on season two can hit pretty hard if you can connect to it.
To add to this list Fang of the Sun Dagram (or Taiyou no Kiba Dougram) has none of the anime turn-offs. There's also no random beach episodes or any episodes that break out from the general pacing/plot of the show.
Yeah, Dan Da Dan I had to hold my nose for a lot of it, but once Grandma Seiko shows up it's a lot more watchable if for no other reason than she's the funniest character on the show. It's one of those shows that should've had a lot of bounce-off for me but had enough interesting secondary and tertiary characters that I kept watching.
The Fable happens to hit a particular niche for me, and I put it on the same level as other favorites like Grosse Pointe Blank, 2 Days in the Valley, Johnny Mnemonic, the TV show Barry, Pulp Fiction (Jules & Verne's story specifically, I mostly don't care about the rest), Collateral, In Bruges, Reservoir Dogs, Nobody, John Wick, Casino, The Irishman, Goodfellas, Gangs of New York, The Departed, The Untouchables, Cop Land, No Country For Old Men, Heat, The Town, Layer Cake, Logan Lucky... I don't know why but I enjoy movies centering hitmen, criminals, heists. It's all my favorite stuff. Probably why I love GTA4 and GTA5 so dang much, too. I don't think any of them are good people, but the stories are fascinating.
Edit to add: oh yeah, I love independent detectives like Monk, Columbo, Poker Face, Murder She Wrote...
I have a similar feeling with anime. For a bit in College I had a friend who was a huge fan of anime, and we would pick out 8-9 different seasonal animes to watch with the idea that we would pretty ruthlessly cut down on the ones we'd watch throughout the season.
So many of the plots just have zero interest to me, and since my kids were born I've only very slowly watched older anime. I'm sure there are great ones that come out, but with how limited my time is I'd rather just watch these older times that I know for sure I'm interested in than look into newer titles that I may be interested in.
There were three events that occurred around 2003 to 2005 that just made me go "nah, I'm done" and I ditched anime for around 5 years after that.
First was Fullmetal Alchemist. My favorite character was killed (a certain Lt. Colonel) and then The Godforsaken Chimera just depressed me too much to push on.
Second was Naruto taking a pause for some long race thing they did because the manga needed to catch up to the anime somewhere around 140-150 episodes into the show. I never got back to it after that filler arc, I just lost all steam and have never been able to pick it up again.
Third was watching Bleach. I was really into the substitute Reaper story line, and then they introduced the main villain and the big stakes and immediately it wasn't fun anymore.
The first anime I watched again was some of season one of Tiger & Bunny in like 2011, but when they revealed Blue Rose it made me not only lose all interest in anime, it made me cancel my streaming service which I think was Hulu at the time.
I didn't try any anime again until One-Punch Man season 1 in 2015, which I loved. But season 2 turned me off so bad I didn't try again until last year, where I watched Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (I was better prepared this time), Trigun Stampede, Dan Da Dan, and The Fable. That's about it.
I had friends that liked it but never managed to get into it myself. Other than Fullmetal Alchemist, the only two shows I can remember watching and thinking they were decent are Gurren Lagann and Gun x Sword. But I can’t recall the plots and have no idea how they’d hold up now.
Shoutout to DB / DBZ for the lolz watch.
Okey, don't answer if you don't want, but... First GiTs are still super good and Delicious in Dungeon is very good too. And... That's all.
+1000 for Ghost in the Shell, especially Standalone Complex
I'll add my own +1000 for Stand Alone Complex.
I’ve got Delicious in Dungeon started, but I haven’t spent much time trying to watch anything lately. I made of mistake of trying to watch it in French first (to practice my French listening) but I need to restart it in English.
It sounds like you just have particular tastes. For my part, I haven't seen any of the three you listed, and the only one I might even consider is The Fable. People have different preferences, but I don't think anyone could fault you for that.
Yeah. I actually watched a metric shitload of stuff with an anime club in college, and even ran it for two - good group of people, and we curated it well to do good crowd watch stuff at first before tapering off into the more niche stuff. Zero regrets, of course, I watched a lot of formative stuff. But the second I dropped out of college it was really rare I'd actually stick with watching any anime. Even JJBA, which I've watched parts 1-4 a good 2-3 times very happily, I just kinda dropped in the middle of 6 and don't regret. Feel like I'll need to eat my veggies and finish it before I watch Steel Ball Run.
I think a lot of it comes down to formula? Not just genre or "the anime tropes" but that there's kind of an interplay there where people who "like anime" tend to like certain things; it's kinda baked into the demographic, and I feel like I've seen too many shows which didn't want to show something outside of what the audience expects to want. So I ended up with a massive distaste for shounen, and the second I hear people recommending certain things like JJK I completely tune out. It's zero judgement or offense intended towards anyone who likes them, of course, I know some of these shows are legitimately solid. I just can't.
Plenty of exceptions, though. Bocchi the Rock is the best fucking TV I've watched in like a decade; it got me to pick up the bass again. I also loved Umamusume: Beginning of a New Era last week, which is a wonderful movie about sports, self-doubt, and why racing throbs in certain people's hearts. Also, y'know, horsegirls.
i don't see anyone asking so i'm curious if you've seen Chainsaw Man & what you thought; if not, do you have a moment to talk about Chainsaw Man, I have some literature lol jk /s ...unless?
It really caught me by surprise, I generally avoid over-the-top gore because, just, why, but I was actually blown away by both the anime & the manga.
I saw I think maybe the first two or three episodes? I’m not sure. I just remember a big fight in a warehouse and like a pile of zombies or something.
yeah i had vague memories of seeing that first one when it came out, and i was not impressed—I'll put it like this, my wife will watch some ghibli movies, and that's the extent of her anime desires; she was not interested in Chainsaw Man, understandably, but I just sort of had it on rewatching and after that slow start she was absolutely hooked lol, we finished the first season that night. So idk if you're looking for something or not, but dang it is very different from what I thought it was & I would def. recommend finishing it.
I used to love hockey (watching it). Then there was a bit of a kerfuffle a few years ago about showing support for LGBTQ which basically led me (and many others) to realize that a large portion of NHL players are homophobic/bigoted. I completely stopped watching after that. And I'm sad to see that I made the correct choice after seeing how (most of) the US players gleefully celebrated with a fascist government.
Hating on the news
Watch it, listen to it, pay attention. I've almost had it up to hear (reaches high) with people who just can't pay attention because it's too depressing.
Like, fuck off. (Rant beginning) This is the world you live in - the same world where terrible and beautiful things happened , are happening and will happen long after you're gone. Make peace with that and stay informed.
My sister shared a piece of wisdom with my wife a while ago when my better half expressed not wanting to see animals in cages at the zoo.
"If you don't think about it, it won't affect you".
Notice my crusty use of the word wisdom. People who can't be bothered to exit their bubble are the benefactors of the world we have today. Complacency gets you alternate, Evil Biff future.
(I think that's the end of my rant.)
Sometimes I feel like I am the animal in the zoo. It seems ridiculous for a monkey in a cage to spend its time stressed out about all the millions of suffering creatures out there in the world. Maybe I could just focus on the things that are in and around my cage. That's all I can really have an effect on.
Agreed, though I think that the difference comes from whether the monkey in the zoo feels the stress or not.
Knowing and not knowing will produce the same result in your life (ie: stock market goes up or down, bomb drops on your head or not), but what knowing gives you is perspective and confidence whereas not knowing asks that the monkey just bury its head further in the sand when times get complicated.
Not to get on a soapbox, but knowledge is cumulative experience. Those who pay attention only when things get hairy come to the table with half of the puzzle.
I agree strongly...but, on the other hand, having/"getting" to be informed and care about what's going on is a very recent development. Humans weren't made to boycott sex criminals, protest against fascists, etc. I agree wholeheartedly that it's the right thing to do, but, damn, it's impossible to actually live up to your beliefs.
It's not in our biology, but I'd argue that neither is democracy (or what's passing for it) at this scale.
It's rough - we're not built for shared societies this large and it's a lot of cerebral effort for citizens to live up to the name. I don't disagree - in fact, I sometimes wonder whether the ideals of the rule of law, individual rights and the marketplace that free societies claim to hold dear are just cover for bad actors to do whatever they want.
I guess that's where I see education and attention as a necessary ingredient in making this whole experiment work. Our societies are the result of people committing to and upholding shared ideals, and for me, I see paying attention to and contextualizing current events as the very least I can do to contribute to that.
Lots of things, mostly bands?
Used to be very into Melo-Death Metal, bands like Dark Tranquillity (yes, that's spelled "correctly") and some early Death Metal like Death. I'm pretty much over those things in general. I really very much enjoyed Melo-Death, but Death as a band is something I felt like I had to like, rather than genuinely enjoyed and I'm kind of over that now.
Multiplayer games: After I had my kids, I was still trying to play multiplayer games. I was deep into World of Warplanes and World of Tanks at the time. I kept trying to play them, but would get angry whenever I needed to stop playing a match to attend to my children. It was then I realized they just weren't compatible for me anymore and I stopped completely; since then, I've totally lost interest in them and multiplayer is never a selling point as it once was when I was a teen/20-something.
Fast cars: There was a time, again in my teens and early 20's where I really wanted a fast car. It was important to me that I could beat other guys my age in a stoplight race. I regularly tweaked and souped my vehicles to make more power, as well as took them to the drag strip to race against myself and see how I was doing.
Somewhere around 23 or 24, I realized that there was really no point in this and that I was generally a pretty slow and cautious driver. I sold my last fast car and bought a Honda Civic for the gas mileage and never looked back. I still like cars; I still repair and modify them, but I'm far more concerned with utility and comfort over anything else. I would so much rather have my ancient minivan than any of the fast cars I used to drive.
How old are your kids? I had a similar situation after having kids, but mutiplayer games made a comeback for me in the last year because my son is old enough to play now. We play Age of Empires through Steam together maybe once a week, and it is such a joy to connect through a game I've loved for almost 30 years. My friends who don't have kids occasionally join our games. I never play by myself though, whether online with randoms, against the AI, or with my friends.
Almost 6 and 8.
We've played a few games together; I recently bought Grounded to play with them, which was fun, but the time is still difficult to find. Their screen time coincides with my routine of cleaning my kitchen and cooking dinner and after dinner, they're all done with screens. So sometimes they'll watch me play a game after dinner, because that's finally my relax time and then they go to bed an hour or two later.
We'll see if it changes as they get older and become teenagers, but I honestly may still not play many games with them. I've been a solo gamer my entire life, even when I was playing multiplayer games, I generally played by myself with a brief period of time in my early 30's where I played a lot with a friend of mine. But even these days my buddies want me to play games with them, I usually don't because it's finally my time to unwind and relax, so I have to be in a certain mindset to want to play and interact with people and I'm kind of expecting this to carry through with my kids.
I really hear you on those particular genres of metal. It genuinely feels like an age thing - go to an extreme metal concert and the age of the crowd always trends quite young, average seems to be like 20-25 even for older more classic death and melodeath bands. Goes for black and other genres too. I think it's because it's a significant subculture for those growing up with that music, diving super deep into identifying with the music, but growing up and aging even just into one's 30's, you don't usually dress like that anymore, and start to be just fine with looking like everyone else because it's just more comfortable. 90% of the stuff I used to listen to was metal, nowadays it's barely 10%.
Actually, 90% of my music is still Metal, but otherwise the rest is absolutely correct.
I had my wife make all my band t-shirts into a quilt like ten years ago now; I don't spend my entire day sifting through forums and looking for new bands or music. I occasionally get some new albums or bands filtering to me through random sources, but I largely just follow the bands I like.
As for the shows though, I think that's just age, honestly! My favorite band came to town last year and I went to see them, but I was honestly sort of dreading it, because I knew how late it would be and standing all night with my bad knees sounded like hell. I was amused and hugely grateful when they went on at like 9pm and I thought to myself, "I'm going to be in bed by 11!" This is 40, apparently.
Haha concert and still early bed :D
I think for me all the imagery and leanings in the subculture is also something I just don't identify with anymore in any way. I used to think death metal lyrics were fun but nowadays I try to not listen to the words because it feels cringy to listen to these 50 year old guys still singing songs about viking raids, or about satanism, or zombies. It's become quite off putting. I do still like the music itself but definitely lean more towards bands with more meaningful songs with actual poetic lyrics like for example Deafheaven and Alcest.
I feel you on the fast cars (and also motorcycles in my case). I used to have tire-shredding V8-powered muscle cars with shitty gas mileage, but over the years I mellowed the fuck out and eventually found myself in a hybrid Honda Accord (ultimate dad car), and nowadays I drive an EV, and not a crazy fast one either.
I still have two gas-powered motorcycles, but one is a Honda CB from the 1970s that might make 60 horsepower on a good day, and the other is a modern Triumph Tiger ADV bike that is big and heavy and comfortable. My last hooligan bike was a 2016 Yamaha XSR900 that just wanted to wheelie all day. It was fun but I'm too old for that shit now.
My cars now are a 2004 Dodge Grand Caravan with 247k miles, a 2013 Honda Fit and my project 98 Jeep Grand Cherokee.
I still get enjoyment out of working on my cars, but there's just no reason to go fast. I've got nothing to prove, I just want to get my family to my destination safely.
Pokemon, specifically the games. While many other games have evolved in each iteration, Pokemon has mostly stayed the same. And that's not inherently a bad thing, but there are just too many other games competing for my attention, and most of them don't involve grinding.
I also am not a fan of Nintendo anymore for a variety of reasons, but primarily the Joy Con drift issue. Offering replacements is not a full solution - they should stop putting faulty parts in their consoles and peripherals to stop it at the source.
It blew my mind when the new Pokemon trailer came out, and I realized that the last time I'd been excited for a game in the series was back in 2011.
I echo that. I have a hard time imagining myself buying back into Nintendo's ecosystem.
Legends Arceus was the only game that I think changed up the formula. Then Game Freak regressed on the open world danger aspects with Scarlet/Violet and showed us why Legends Arceus was open-zone only, because that game had serious performance issues that only playing on the Switch 2 resolves.
Video games that last over 20 hours
Back when I was still in secondary school, I'd get a new game about every three months on average. This was before digital distribution took off on modern platforms.
Back then, I didn't care how long a game took to finish; I'd happily spend 30-35 hours playing titles like Ocarina of Time, several instalments of Paper Mario, and a few Mario & Luigi games. If someone handed me a massive RPG that stretched past 50 hours, I wouldn't complain either.
My daily routine was simple: school, homework, and a few chores, maybe eight hours in total. That left plenty of free time, most of which went into gaming or tinkering on my PC.
Naturally, long games felt like the best thing ever back then. But now that I have more responsibilities and far less free time, my perspective has changed.
These days, shorter games appeal to me more. They're usually more focused and easier to finish without losing momentum; the perfect balance of fun and manageability.
Hey, I'm the exact opposite. If the game lasts just 10-20 hours, I'm not interested.
There are exceptions though if the game is not AAA type - say Hollow Knight or Trine (I didn't play former and haven't finished latter).
But my playstyle of longer and heavier games stands on the fact that I get into the game like I would when reading a book - I fully invest my gaming time into this one game until I'm done with it. I wouldn't be able to play multiple 50+ hours games at once. Yes, i play one game for months, but I like it.
As bad as this is going to sound: Life.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not feeling suicidal in any way, but life has been a huge downer at times since I reached adulthood. The job market in my country (England) now is absolutely dire and this is the second time I've gone into further/higher education just to end up having my job prospects obliterated. First, it was the lack of graduate jobs, then when I spend a few years in customer service, pivot towards accountancy and spend years and thousands of pounds to obtain recognised qualifications, there's now an all-time low amount of vacancies in finance and accountancy. We're one of the professions quickly being replaced with AI...
My employment prospects (or lack thereof) despite having a university degree and accountancy qualifications is just part of why life has been so depressing lately. But a decent, well-paying and permanent job can go some way towards addressing the other things going wrong in my life.
On a more specific subject, World of Warcraft
Midnight is the first expansion I haven't bought and have no real desire to go back to. I just feel incredibly weary of getting back into the game, especially given the elitism, hostility and overall toxicity of the game's community. If there was a decent solo queue option for Mythic+ dungeons and competitive raiding, I'd certainly consider buying Midnight, but as things stand, I really don't give a shit about the player housing additions.
Likewise, as much as I could pay £50 to boost a character to 58, level through TBC Classic and finally experience TBC raiding for the first time, what I stated above also applies to Classic WoW. People have found ways to gatekeep 20 year old game content.
Rav (A League of Legends content creator who has also been playing Classic TBC and Hardcore) released a video on retail WoW and his experience of joining a dungeon group, being called a dogshit healer, then being votekicked out of a Nokhud Offensive Normal group by people too dimwitted to genuinely right-click one of the three harpoon launchers surrounding the boss and interrupt the Eruption channel which otherwise does unhealable levels of damage, pretty much sums up how WoW's community is a textbook study of the Dunning-Krueger effect in action.
Star Wars. Yeah I get it, it's popular to hate on now, but it had formed such a core part of my identity for a long time. As a youngster in the late 90s/early 00s, I devoured every book in the expanded universe I could get my hands on. I aspired to be like the characters I saw and read about - people who were larger than life, heroes to me. I loved the idea of a world which was larger than I could ever imagine, the escapism from my reality, the retro futurism, the idea that though things might be grimy, there was always hope for a better tomorrow.
I get that I see the past through rose colored lenses, but even I picked up on the fact that the prequels weren't what I wanted from the series. I eventually came to love them, in a way. The same love that you have for someone you never were close with yet still have a shared history with. My heart has and always will be with the period after the fall of the republic and the victory of the rebellion.
I think that's really what it was for me - a beacon that we can effect change against what seems like a monolithic institution. Something which seems unending, unyielding, unbreaking. I want to believe in the ideals Star Wars - the original series - espoused to me. Triumph, loss, redemption. The trilogy.
I eventually came to love the prequels in a "this is campy and silly but it still feels like star wars" way. I cannot feel the same about the new trilogy. Don't even get me started on the expanded universe.
Andor, rogue one, and to a lesser extent the first season of Mando felt like star wars - wonder, whimsy, and grit. It's still not star wars, though. I think the biggest problem for me is that I feel like the universe I grew up with was so casually discarded like trash for corporate interests.
Same, and the way that they had treated Fins' character throughout the three films was probably the worst fumble that I had ever watched. He went from an important character that might be force sensitive (you have to be to use a light saber without hurting yourself) to being the comedic relief character. He was probably the most interesting character from that trilogy and Disney absolutely fucked him over, to the point where the actor wants nothing to do with Star Wars any more. And what really gets me, is that they just rehash the original trilogy and called it new.
And Disney threw out a lot of interesting stories (like the Yuuzhan Vong War) and interesting characters (like Mira Jade) when they retconned all of the previous expanded universe for the new cannon.
Irony
Especially online but also offline.
Irony is now a vague, overly broad concept loosely applied to any kind of non-serious utterance. It is usually poorly conceived, providing no intellectual gratification. More often than not, online irony is an ad-hoc justification for abject statements. It is also made in social contexts where the members are not familiar with each other. Familiarity is a crucial element of well-crafted irony.
There are many necessary conditions for felicitous irony that are only possible in very small groups, preferably in person.
I do believe irony is often felicitous in fiction. Other than that, it is typically either a failure or a pointless display of (self-attributed) wit.
Some people believe I don't get irony because I am autistic, but the reality is that, in most cases, I'd rather ignore the irony because it is boring and poorly conceived. I take irony at face value not because I fail to perceive it, but rather because there is a serious tangent that is way more interesting.
It is also quite fun to take irony at face value, similar to how you can play dumb and ask people to explain their classist/racist/sexist/ableist/ageist/etc jokes so they have to own up to it in some way.
Much irony (but it's actually sarcasm imo) is merely a way to in-/out-group anyway.
I find this never actually works. Sure, I notice that they're racist and the other people who'd already noticed that they were racist notice that they're racist. But the people I'm actually talking to always feel like they gave a great explanation and just go on talking away.
It really only works on two types of people, the ones that think it's their true purpose to explain things to others (in my experience specifically to women), and the ones who think you'd agree that the thing they said is funny or true or whatever if only you understood.
It also doesn't work if the person has backup that'll jump in and "save" them vs the social pressure of embarrassment at the joke bombing.
It can absolutely make your point of "that's not cool" but it's just one tactic for that.
Hmm, interesting, I find that the clarity of the situation helps with showing what's OK or not. It helps passive bystanders to see what's what.
Everything in terms of consumable nerd culture.
Here's a short list of what I'm talking about:
I loved all that stuff. Still do. But I recognize that the stuff I loved, while still there in their original forms, don't exist anymore. Not the way I remember them. Because although my memories are mine, my nostalgia doesn't belong to me. It's been bought out and ransomed by huge corporations who want to take me for everything I've got.
None of it belongs to me. So that's why I can't be a fan anymore of the things I like. The longing and familiarity I have with the good times in my youth has been weaponized against me as a wage earner with a (marginally) disposable income. Spending the price of admission becomes a test of my principles when I choose to support mega corporations that exploit their workers, infringe human rights, and mine me as a resource.
It's honestly a bad time to be a fan of anything these days. Businesses are squeezing their grip on their properties, hiking prices to offer "premium experiences" knowing that it doesn't matter if you lock out the majority of your supporters when the diehard fans with the money are willing to pay.
The mistreatment is at its worst when you come to the way the "stewards of the IPs" treat their fans. Art is dead, everything is just content, an unending flow of ground-up fan service that doesn't discriminate between meat and gristle. It is beyond an atrocity how Paramount has betrayed the utopian principles and brave pioneering of Star Trek. It is downright insulting how Disney has reduced Star Wars and Marvel properties to becoming seasonal content drips that prioritize licensed merchandise above good storytelling. It is simply abysmal how my hard-earned money is used to support exploitative companies that will layoff their talent to cut corners for a tighter bottom line.
At some point, we all have to just admit that none of this belongs to us fans. It's their property, it's their story to tell, it's their price we have to pay. I don't deny that any of them could put out an undeniably good product worth buying, but it remains that none of it is interesting anymore, not at what is expected of me to give up in return.
Instead, I say goodbye to endless sequels, legacy sequels, remakes and remasters. I look to indie creators to provide the spark of my next inspiration. It could be that they themselves could become the next big thing (just look at James Gunn's trajectory from making superhero-satire Super to becoming the studio head that made the latest Superman movie), but here amongst unhyped spectacles, there's some charming gems to uncover.
It's so tough to say goodbye, but I need to let go of nostalgia and stop asking for more of the same. We have the original Lord of the Rings, the original first Matrix movie, the original Watchmen graphic novel... and that's enough. Enough for me as a money-paying fan who knows that asking for more when it comes to consumer nerd culture is asking for diminishing returns.
I agree with you on most everything you said.
What you said about the originals struck a cord with me, in that I wish I had physical copies of the movies/shows that I'd want to revisit in the future. I don't like being beholden to streaming services, and I also don't trust them to not go back and edit movie or shows as time goes on or just no remove them from their platform entirely.
If I could go back to my pre international move, I probably would have spent some time building my own physical media collection in the states through thrifting before I had kids. Now I have much less disposable income, and building that media collection isn't as big a priority. I had also planned on building a home media server at some point, but the price of everything computer related as ballooned recently so I've put that off until things settle down.
Hm. I should have better articulated that "We don't own anything anymore" should have been applied to streaming and the awful trend of subscription services. I guess I originally meant to say that question mark uptalk a la Michael Costa.
Thanks for pointing that out.
You're probably not wrong. But also, I'm kind of oblivious to most of what you're talking about.
I like the matrix movies. I have torrented copies of them on my hard drive and enjoy watching them often. That's all I need to still be a fan of them.
I feel the same about a few other things you listed.
I downloaded the lord of the rings trilogy recently and I'm looking forward to watching it with my kids for their first time. I have no idea what else is going on with that IP right now. I don't really care. They can do whatever they want. I'm good here.
Tales series is the first thing that came to mind, feels like after Vesperia and Graces the series nosedived.
Atlus too just occurred to me, I love Devil Survivor, Etrian Odyssey is one of my favorite series, but I think I got burnt by SMT and how often Atlus remade/remastered games. Persona was a gateway drug to SMT, which was a gateway drug to both EO and DS.
I guess I’m inclined to say Pokemon since it was mentioned but it’s more apathy than dislike.
Consoles, I feel like they peaked with the PS360 era, and since it’s been a downhill. Handhelds died with the Vita imo, it was the last “real” handheld to me, the Switch is more of a portable console than a handheld.
I still really enjoyed Tales of Zestiria..... But yes, it's not an instant buy and play on first day of release anymore for me either. They broke my heart too many times with the mobile games' suddenly shuttering servers.
I’m still wishing we’d get Destiny DC remastered and localized on modern platforms, at least Vesperia is actually accessible now with its additional content outside of Japan. And Graces f isn’t locked to the PS3 anymore.
I'm hoping for time the play the new Graces, definitely glad they remade it outside of ps3
Oh wow - that's a deep cut. Please tell.me - if I stopped after Tales of Destiny, did I miss much?
If by Destiny you meant the first Destiny on PS1, then absolutely.
Eternia(Destiny II on PS1, not Destiny 2 on PS2/PSP, name changes in localization are fun) is my personal favorite Tales despite not being one of my first Tales, got general gameplay improvements over Destiny in that spells no longer stop time, gameplay is faster overall and the world map is more polished than Destiny’s.
Then you got Destiny’s remake on PS2, JP only but those that played it love it, I intend to play it, one day.
Symphonia is a bit rough if you played the newer games that have a full 3D battle field, but I think it still holds up if you keep that it’s kind of 2.5D in mind. Its sequel, Dawn of the New World isn’t popular, I think it’s a hit or miss for most people but it gets more hate than it deserves.
Abyss is good, not as big of a fan of it as most people, but it is pretty good.
Vesperia has the most fun gameplay/battle system of all the Tales I played, I’ve got Graces but I’ve yet to actually start a run in it.
Xillia and Xillia 2 are most likely fine, I played the start of both, I like Xillia 1 more than 2 merely because of the story’s gimmick(Debt system in 2 is annoying).
I completely skipped Zestiria, most people aren’t fond of it.
Berseria is apparently good, I also haven’t played it, but see people actually liking it unlike Zestiria.
Arise is the only game I played after the Xillias, one of my friends described it as “Star Ocean at home”, I really didn’t like it.
There are other games and spinoffs like Legendia and Radiant Mythology games but I covered the more relevant/talked about games in my post. I’d check out Eternia, Symphonia, Abyss and Vesperia in particular.
Wow, I'm amazed that there are so many! Back when Destiny PS1 came out, it felt like Namco was entering an already crowded RPG space with something that played a lot like Star Ocean 2 (battle-wise) and storywise, felt pretty familiar to Breath of Fire's whimsy, but without the depth.
Frankly, the thing that I remember best was how many items you could have and that (correct me if I'm wrong) that you could eat different flavoured gels for HP.
Happy to see that it was a viable property that kept going.
I honestly thought I was crazy because I thought I was the only one who thought that about the Tales series. I swear that most of the more recent releases are jokes. It's crazy how the series could move so easily with one of my all-time favorites with the first one and just fall down to something that feels so by-the-numbers that I wouldn't be surprised if it was an early test of AI capabilities.
Kingdom Hearts, probably. KH1 was a foundational game for me, and formed the core of the first online community I was ever part of. Now about 23 years later, I don't think I care about what KH4 is about. It's unlikely to be similar to the game I feel in love with, but I think I'm in the minority there. It's a bit sad.
Well, if that's the minority, I'm in there with you.
I recently played through the series (but still haven't made it to the 3 DLC Re:Mind) and feel like each iteration is further away from what I enjoyed about KH1. I don't hate Chain of Memories - I think it was very ambitious to introduce a card based live battle mechanic, and it mostly works. I also think KH2 was decent, it at least feels like a full game.
Everything beyond KH2... the story is convoluted, the games feel half-baked (levels feel 1/4 of the duration of KH1, even KH3 levels feel like 1/2 the duration), and the integration with the Disney worlds is mostly lacking. I don't want to experience a 1:1 of the movies, I want to see some alternate events introduced by the heartless, Sora's unintentional "meddling", etc.
I went back to KH1 because it is a game I always wanted to 100%, and I still enjoy it. Playing on PC with some quality of life mods and minor cheats makes it a better experience with reduced load times.
Square Enix killed it with all the spinoff games (that are required to understand the increasingly convoluted lore) and the multi-generational wait for Kingdom Hearts III.
Even KH2 felt like it was only better in terms of combat, with everything else being a straight downgrade.
Apple and Nintendo (at the very least). I had and used their devices and was very pleased at the time, I loved how streamlined the experience was - iPhones and Switch Lite did what they were supposed to. But I moved on from them both eventually.
There were reasons but let's call the main one - I hate when corpprations behave in anti-consumer way; simply put, I have moved on in my.life and sorted my priorities. Anyway, let's go look at specificics why I moved from
Apple:
Nintendo:
Same feelings for Nintendo. I will not be buying any more of their consoles. I still like some of their things, example their repair policies are actually pretty good even out of warranty or buying used. But I love the freedom of my Steam games and I can't justify buying a other wall gardened console just to play their exclusives. Another thing I dislike about them is how difficult it is to get physical game cartridges, and how annoying it is to use their digital games library across my devices and accounts.
Oh, I completely forgot! Steam Deck opened my eyes whe it was announced and especially when I got it. It showed the whole world that there can be quite powerful yet quite portable gaming device that is absolutely open to anything you might want to do with it. Valve showed everybody - that means other companies AND users - that it can and also how it should be done.
Switch Lite was great. PS Vita was great, but Steam Deck is completely different league.
My PSP days were glorious, even though yes they wanted to wall garden as well but the modding community came through. By the time Vita and Switch came out I'm not longer travelling/commuting as much so the whole handheld appeal is lost on me.
I still think the Deck is too large and too hot as a handheld console, and I still long for ease of pulling out a PSP from girl clothing pockets to play Patapon.
I'm not commuting anymore as well. And I was playing Patapon on the train every day :-)
PSP was marvelozs thing. I got Vita at the end of life, but that doesn't mean anything, I played the hell put of that thing!
Steam Deck is certainly too bulky compared to those two. But it brings complete openness (is that a word?) to what you can do and play. And it's a PC on top of that, which I used a few times already (ie. terminal for my Linux servers, modelling in FreeCAD, ...).
And while I'm not commjting anymore and actually driving my family around, I still find the handheld factor absolutely dominating my gaming life. Being able to play for ten minutes here, another ten there and an hour in bed before going to sleep or on couch when my wife watches her favorite TV show... It's my kind of gaming.
I definitely hear you on the ten minutes here and there gaming. When we retire, we're going to play 12 hours a day again huh :)
Kind of a silly take, but I'm over people being over things.
Simply, so many of the times I've thought that some activity, person, way of life or point in history was getting old, I just had to remind myself that it's not the thing that's boring, it's that I've aged out of it.
... Or like many others have said, I just need a break from it for a while.
AI.
I'm over AI.
I originally enrolled at university to study Computer Science with specialization for AI, unfortunately due to health reasons I dropped out, and at this point? I'm glad I did.
I fucking hate commercially available AI. I hate what it's done to the internet. I hate what it's done to people.
I don't care to listen to people telling me XYZ reason for why their agentic coding AI is so so good. I just don't. No offense to Tilderers who are into this, but I don't care to hear why AI is a good thing.
Fuck AI.
Kicking in an open door but: Elon Musk.
Used to be a believer, read his biography. But then he got off the rails, just like his dad.
Sarcasm. Personally I find it’s just a way for the commenter to vent but is difficult to sometimes parse online, and doesn’t add any substance to discussion. The internet would be a lot nicer without it.
Nine Inch Nails
This kills me, in my teenage years and early 20's I lived and breathed NIN. Every release, all the singles, bootlegs, videos, t-shirts, everything. I believe that between Pretty Hate Machine, Broken, The Downward Spiral, and The Fragile there is not a single weak track. The whole works is amazing.
And then [With_Teeth] came out. It's a pretty decent album, some quite good tracks. But also some not so great tracks, especially the With-A Teeth-A thing. Still went out of my way to go to both the Seattle and Vancouver shows that tour and it was still awesome, also saw them at Coachella around that time.
Then I heard 'Capital G' on the radio and it was downright terrible. I actually did not even listen to that album at all, what was it, Year Zero? And then I never listened to anything Trent put out ever again, except on recommendation Ghosts I-V, that is good stuff. I decided this last summer that I was going to be brave and go back and listen to all those albums I never listened to. Maybe I was wrong. Honestly I wish I never did it. This music is no longer for me.
I remember when NIN released The Slip for free as a publicity stunt and it was easily the shittiest album I've ever heard. I think I stopped listening by the time I reached Letting You because that track sounds like distorted static.
What did you think of Hesitation Marks? I was way late getting into NIN, but seeing them at an electronic music festival in Asheville in 2013 when they were promoting that album got me into them. Disappointed, Come Back Haunted, and Copy of A were good tracks. I was coming at it from an interest in electronic music, which has fizzled a bit as I've gotten older.
I don't specifically remember it, I do remember not liking 'Come Back Haunted' at all. I'm actually backwards from you NIN was partially responsible for my gaining an interest in Electronic Music, it was the intro to 'Head Like a Hole' where I was like.... what is that sound???? Which then led me down the rabbit hole and today I listen to mostly Electronic Music.
As of recently, coffee. It started where my morning coffee was fine, but the smell in the afternoon became unappealing so I switched to afternoon tea. I enjoyed this, and found my self choosing tea more often in the morning, too. Then, for unrelated reasons I started cutting down caffeine overall (not unusual, something I do now and then), so right now I'm drink little to no tea, aside from herbal.
But even though I've cut out caffeine before, this is the first time I've ever not enjoyed coffee. Quite possibly I just need a break, and will like it again later.
This is the case with a lot of things in life. Sometimes you just take a break and then come back to enjoy it more.
I took a break from coffee for about five years back in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Then sometimes in 2014 I started drinking again and my god it was amazing those first couple of years. I still drink lots of coffee, but every once in a while, I'll take a break for a few days and then when I have my next cup, I enjoy the fuck out of it!
Honestly, just about everything. I've been a fan of a lot of things but I feel that society has kind of broken in a way that has made being a fan of things less fun. The niches that I still enjoy tend to not move much and so aren't really worth talking much about or being part of fan groups. Many of them feel really cringe in the "new web" we are living in.
I thought I was losing interest because of a bout of major depression but that episode of my life has passed, and most of those interests just never came back. For instance, retro computers used to take a lot of my time, but it became increasingly inaccessible for me because of a lack of space and until very recently, there weren't anyone making any new retro computers. Now I've given away most of my retro stuff and the stuff that remains is getting pretty dusty. I am interested in the Commander X16, but I'm not really willing to spend time or money on it at this point. I don't think I will ever get the sense of being on a new frontier that I was chasing.
This is not my answer, and I don't know if it says more about me or the Tildes demographic, but I'm pretty surprised no one's said the NFL yet. It seemed to have been the center of controversy at various times in the past five to seven years, I think, and probably one of the biggest/most recognizable things people were loudly settling into some stance on online. I could be wrong though, I'm speaking as a very casual observer of social media meltdowns.
That's what I came here to post. I grew up in East Texas when Troy Aikmen ranked just under Jesus Christ in terms of following, then lived in Pittsburgh through the Rothlesberger era and two super bowl wins.
Between the concussion stuff (basically sacrificing the long term health of the players for the almighty dollar) and the way they pushed Colin Kapernick out for kneeling during the anthem, I am pretty much done.
I watched the super bowl with my daughter this year in the interest of giving her an understanding of the game, since it is still such a prominent cultural touchstone.
One interesting (and nice) side effect is that the holiday vibe is much more peaceful and connecting. I never realized how much the layered-in crowd noise from a football broadcast pervades the environment until I stopped having the games on.