There’s non-mechanical eggs in the Spiders’ lair, they’re in there even before Syntax shows up, even before the New Year special.
Spider Queen, Huntsman, and Goliath are surrounded by centuries’-old eggs that will never hatch. Brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, that will never be born. Because they never existed to begin with. Or if they did, they’ve long fossilized.
And the Spiders haven’t gotten rid of them. Maybe they can’t bring themselves to.
The Spiders are constantly surrounded by proof that they’re the last of their kind and there’s whole generations of Spiderlings that never hatched and never will.
explaining gamergate to future generations: so video games were looked down on for being toys meant for little boys to play with and they didn’t like that, so they spent a lot of time and effort crafting elaborate arguments on forums far and wide that video games were serious art and deserved serious analysis, but then they were very unhappy when a woman did exactly that, so in order to prove they weren’t a bunch of racist misogynists, they went on a years long harassment campaign against a bunch of women which both ruined the fun of criticizing the star wars sequels *and* eventually helped the United States get rid of federal abortion rights, but at the end of the day it was worth it because all of our video game news is written by ai instead of women with dyed hair
it’s important to me to mention that the bulk of this is absolutely wrong. it was never about “ethics in games journalism” or games as art. those were covers for what it really was; a bitter nazi who got dumped by his non-binary partner (who went on to get major acclaim for their game, depression quest). he tried to start a hate mob on the something awful forums to harass them.
except… he was laughed off the site. so he went to 4chan where “ironic” racism had already begun to give way to genuine racism (which it always really had been, but that’s a different post).
this is what kick-started the movement, complete with the “it’s about ethics in games journalism” cover story (it was claimed zoe quinn traded sexual favors for good reviews) and was used as a means of harassing other women* in gaming.
*yes zoe quinn is non-binary, but chuds didn’t care enough to properly gender them.
This led to the full internet blitz and meme of “actually it’s about ethics in games journalism” and games as art cover; because “neo nazi got dumped and now wants to create a hate movement to go after his ex” isn’t really the noble cause he wanted it to be and even he knew it. 4chan was already in the middle of declaring women functionally evil as this was around the time of the rise of incels, and they had already begun targeting anita sarkeesian. even going so far as to…give her money? we’ll get back to this stupid idea.
the rebranding was unfortunately very effective. reddit ate that shit up (that’s what r/kotakuinaction was likely for; to reinforce the lie). it didn’t help that being a corporate space, games journalism HAD struggled with bias. but not for sexual favors. giant bomb formed because game studios were holding review copies “hostage” for good reviews. the late jeff gertsmann, games journalist and founder of giant bomb, was fired for reasons related to this!
this…didn’t seem to register though. oddly enough. because this happened in 2007, and even though gertsmann didn’t come forward (likely for legal/nda reasons) about what happened until 2012, gamergate didn’t really kick off until 2014. a 7 year gap between a point when everyone began to realize that ethics in games journalism really HAD been compromised… and gamergate insisting it had started. gertsmann creating giant bomb in direct opposition to this idea lead to a different games journalism landscape. 2012 was when polygon formed, even, predating the idea of gamergate in the first place. so there was already a push for this kind of thing before the dude even got dumped!
(fun fact; this is also the start of the rising star of the mcelroy brothers; justin and griffin mcelroy started at polygon as games journalists, but i digress.)
circling back to the “giving anita sarkeesian money was a 4chan op” thing, that organized a campaign to flood her fundraising for feminist frequency with money. why, you ask? because they’re fucking stupid! oh and also they wanted the quality she intended to be lacking for the funding she got to “prove” she was a fraud. this worked but not how they wanted; because of the influx of funding she postponed the release to make sure it was worth what she got. the postponing was all they had, insisting she “stole the money”, ignoring that she did eventually release the series as promised.
back to gamergate proper, however, steve bannon and i have one thing in common; we saw this shit happening in real time. so, him, being a scummy political leech, used it as an opportunity to kickstart a new, younger, more internet savvy far right movement. this is the reason 4chan is so inextricably connected to the far right these days, and why gaming as a whole is such a cesspool of far right dog whistles, yet why every far right dork seems to hate games journalism.
to summarize, it was never about ethics in games journalism or games as art. it’s was a bitter dude who got turned on to neo-nazi bullshit, got dumped by his more successful partner, and handled it by getting laughed out of the something awful forums until 4chan snapped up the burgeoning hate movement and steve bannon gave it legs.
i was there. like, day 1. i was on the something awful forums as well as another, much smaller forum, where we laughed at these dorks.
i watched this shit happen in real time. it’s INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT that we never forget that “ethics in games journalism” was the lie, and the POINT was always a harassment campaign against a queer creator who dumped him.
EDIT: edited because i thought jeff gertsmann died but it was another giant bomb founder, ryan davis who passed. i am so sorry jeff!
I never hear anybody talk about MK, Macaque, and Ne Zha’s reactions after the Jade Emperor is killed. But I find it so interesting that these specific people can literally SENSE it happening.
And it makes perfect sense why, especially after season 5!
Macaque: According to the Journey to the West, Macaque is called a “near-omniscient” being with knowledge of past and future, and comprehension of all things. He knew the Brotherhood would fail its attempted conquest of the Celestial Realm, and in the original legend, was able to perfectly mimic Wukong despite never having met him. He would’ve been able to sense the outcome of the battle, if not outright hear it.
Ne Zha: Ne Zha is a member of the Celestial Host, so I can see him having some kind of spiritual tie to the Jade Emperor’s power. I can’t find anything on his wiki page about his mythology though, so it’s more like speculation.
MK: As we learn in season 5, MK is tied to the five Color Stones since he is the Harbinger of Chaos. With the Jade Emperor being one of the guardians, it makes sense that he’d feel when somebody is tampering with the power/stone or it’s protector.
Sorry if this is kinda rambley, but I thought it was too cool of a detail to miss :3
Thinking about how the Beast probably spent every birthday alone in the West Wing, trying to ignore the Enchanted Rose as it wilted from another year passed. There’s nobody coming, it’s just him as his cursed servants. The rose petals keep falling and unless he leaves the castle, he’ll never meet anybody, let alone have anybody fall in love with him. Each year he probably dreaded his birthday.
One year he’s sulking by a slowly decaying rose, that mocks him with it’s allure and glow.
The next year he’s in a candlelit ballroom, dressed in his best clothes (that still fit), dancing with a woman he loves with all his heart.
The ballroom hasn’t been used let alone cleaned in the past ten years, yet here it is, brand new and grand. Most of his servants who haven’t done much for the last few years all helped put this together. They helped groom and style him to look his best. They helped clean the ballroom. They helped with the romantic candles, and the music, and everything else that had made the castle environments more inviting.
And for the first birthday in ten years, the Beast thinks not of a dying rose nearing closer to his doom, but instead he thinks about the woman resting her head in his chest, holding him close, treating him with all the care and love he’s always desired but never believed he deserved…
this is your periodic reminder that for all the artifacts and errors and “tells” one could possibly list, the only reliable way to actually determine if an image is ai generated is to investigate the source. it is becoming increasingly common for “fake classical paintings” to circulate around curative aesthetic blogs, and everyone should be using this as an opportunity to not only exercise their investigative skills but also appreciate art more in general. you’re all checking out the artists you reblog, right? 🫣
so what are some signs to look for? let’s use this very good example.
