Minorities in Comics and Other Media, etc

[Overhazard]

The success of Hogwarts Legacy just once again proves (among other things) the social media outrage/activism is a whole lot of nothing.

True, but too many people believe that berating others over their consumer choices is doing something. It's the laziest form of activism. No marching in the streets, no making signs or singing songs, not even donating money or signing a change.org petition, just screeching in all caps about how someone buying a video game is bad. A smug unearned sense of self importance.

"If you're playing Hogwarts legacy, I WILL be judging you harshly." -@PopDetective

Jonathan Mcintosh looks like he gets winded going up a flight of stairs, I think I'll be fine.

I honestly never got the hype behind Harry Potter. I read a couple of the books, I've seen the first movie, but that was about it. It never really clicked. I am looking forward to Tears of the Kingdom in May and the new Forza Motorsport.

[Username taken]

True, but too many people believe that berating others over their consumer choices is doing something. It's the laziest form of activism. No marching in the streets, no making signs or singing songs, not even donating money or signing a change.org petition, just screeching in all caps about how someone buying a video game is bad. A smug unearned sense of self importance.

"If you're playing Hogwarts legacy, I WILL be judging you harshly." -@PopDetective

Jonathan Mcintosh looks like he gets winded going up a flight of stairs, I think I'll be fine.

I honestly never got the hype behind Harry Potter. I read a couple of the books, I've seen the first movie, but that was about it. It never really clicked. I am looking forward to Tears of the Kingdom in May and the new Forza Motorsport.

Same here.

I’m not really a big Harry Potter fan so I’m not really that interested in the game.

I’m also looking forward to the next Forza game(that’s my go to PC game). The last Gran Turismo on the PS5 really disappointed me.

[Username taken]

https://us.yahoo.com/news/new-poll-s...222030915.html

[Agent Z]

https://www.themarysue.com/what-are-...mily-backlash/

What ARE Conservatives So Afraid of in This ‘Proud Family’ Backlash?

[G. Boney]

R.I.P. Trugoy the Dove (of hip-hop group De La Soul), a.k.a. Plug Two, a.k.a. Dave (government name David Jolicoeur)

[ed2962]

An interesting analysis of Falcon and Winter Soldier specifically and black superheroes in general. I disagree with certain things though...this idea of being disappointed that certain characters aren't more "revolutionary" in their criticisms of the system and she doesn't deal with the fact a lot of these characters were created canonically as part of the so-called military industrial complex. This isn't Disney getting conservative with the characters, it was already built into them.



Also, I'll admit I didn't see the whole show, but I thought the Karli Flag Smasher character was supposed to white?

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

https://www.murphysmultiverse.com/5-...n-shang-chi-2/

https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Tiger...on_(Earth-616)

I'm hoping they get used next same with Tiger Division.

[MindofShadow]

Also, I'll admit I didn't see the whole show, but I thought the Karli Flag Smasher character was supposed to white?

Her race was unimportant to the story but I don't remember her being "white"

[ed2962]

Her race was unimportant to the story but I don't remember her being "white"

Yeah, someone just corrected me in another thread. She could "pass" though LOL

[Username taken]

Geek stuff isn't what it used to be.

It's like everything is now viewed through a political lens and it's difficult to cut through it all these days. See the Hogwarts Legacy coverage for example (and I posted this in the games forum), I really don't even know if the game is really great or not because of how politicized (and generally ridiculous) gaming coverage and reviews have become. To be clear, I'm not a big Harry Potter fan and I don't have any serious interest in the game but coverage of the game is truly bizarre. Some folks have said folks should boycott it because of its connection to Jk Rowling and on the other hand, some people are "pre-loving" it because of the rampant transphobia (and staggering bigotry) in the gaming community. I've stopped trusting "neutral" gaming journalists because a lot of them simply "grade on a curve" and don't properly review games, seriously, how and why did Deathloop get so many 10/10 reviews??

It's just darn exhausting. Even critics that should know better now echo empty talking points popularized by bad actors without any critical thought. Now that everything is being viewed through a political lens, it's really difficult to properly appraise work without an unnecessary level of bias.

[MindofShadow]

Geek stuff isn't what it used to be.

It's like everything is now viewed through a political lens and it's difficult to cut through it all these days. See the Hogwarts Legacy coverage for example (and I posted this in the games forum), I really don't even know if the game is really great or not because of how politicized (and generally ridiculous) gaming coverage and reviews have become. To be clear, I'm not a big Harry Potter fan and I don't have any serious interest in the game but coverage of the game is truly bizarre. Some folks have said folks should boycott it because of its connection to Jk Rowling and on the other hand, some people are "pre-loving" it because of the rampant transphobia (and staggering bigotry) in the gaming community. I've stopped trusting "neutral" gaming journalists because a lot of them simply "grade on a curve" and don't properly review games, seriously, how and why did Deathloop get so many 10/10 reviews??

It's just darn exhausting. Even critics that should know better now echo empty talking points popularized by bad actors without any critical thought. Now that everything is being viewed through a political lens, it's really difficult to properly appraise work without an unnecessary level of bias.

What is extra dumb about HL is that there has been other HP properties released and no one gave a **** about any of this.

No one cared about lego HP, no one cared about Fantastic Beast Movies, no one cares about the insane profits of the universal studio HP stuff.

Yet... this is where they drew the line? It is bizarre. Not saying JK is even a good person (what billionaire is?) but this all seems a bit weird.

[Adam Allen]

What is extra dumb about HL is that there has been other HP properties released and no one gave a **** about any of this.

No one cared about lego HP, no one cared about Fantastic Beast Movies, no one cares about the insane profits of the universal studio HP stuff.

Yet... this is where they drew the line? It is bizarre. Not saying JK is even a good person (what billionaire is?) but this all seems a bit weird.

Eh ... honestly, I'd seen the words "hogwarts legacy boycott" for some time without giving a crap, because I've never given a crap about any HP stuff. Then I happened to randomly catch a trailer, and I kind of get it. If not for being pre-informed by all the controversy, this game could easily have been my ticket to finally being into HP stuff, where all the books and movies before somehow failed.

So just saying, if my initial response was in any way typical, and if this game stood a chance of being some kind of mega-success that, by crossing over to gaming fans who previously had no interest in HP ... I can see where this becomes a line in the sand.

Of course ultimately, pretty easy for me to just decide I don't want to play the game, when nothing in that world or its concept has ever been appealing to me anyway. So not like I'm judging anybody who does want to play it.

[Overhazard]

Geek stuff isn't what it used to be.

It's like everything is now viewed through a political lens and it's difficult to cut through it all these days. See the Hogwarts Legacy coverage for example (and I posted this in the games forum), I really don't even know if the game is really great or not because of how politicized (and generally ridiculous) gaming coverage and reviews have become. To be clear, I'm not a big Harry Potter fan and I don't have any serious interest in the game but coverage of the game is truly bizarre. Some folks have said folks should boycott it because of its connection to Jk Rowling and on the other hand, some people are "pre-loving" it because of the rampant transphobia (and staggering bigotry) in the gaming community. I've stopped trusting "neutral" gaming journalists because a lot of them simply "grade on a curve" and don't properly review games, seriously, how and why did Deathloop get so many 10/10 reviews??

It's just darn exhausting. Even critics that should know better now echo empty talking points popularized by bad actors without any critical thought. Now that everything is being viewed through a political lens, it's really difficult to properly appraise work without an unnecessary level of bias.

I think a lot of this stuff stems from loneliness.

Have you noticed that there are a lot of thinkpiece articles about how lonely people are with all these cool tips and tricks for making friends in your 30's, usually just basic stuff like 'put yourself out there', 'join clubs and organizations', 'play D&D' and the like. No one really stops to think about why so many people are so lonely in the first place. It's usually framed as an individual problem, often a moral failing, when it's a systemic one, caused by the erosion of civic institutions, the lack of third spaces, living in cities where everything is so spread out that walking anywhere is practically impossible.

We don't really have communities anymore, we have fandoms centered around media consumption, on top a culture that commodifies everything. It culminates into the following:

"I am a good person, I watch/play/read this thing, other people who enjoy this same thing must have the same beliefs I have, otherwise they're bad people!"

Too much stock is placed in individual consumer choices. They don't really say that much about a person.

[godisawesome]

An interesting analysis of Falcon and Winter Soldier specifically and black superheroes in general. I disagree with certain things though...this idea of being disappointed that certain characters aren't more "revolutionary" in their criticisms of the system and she doesn't deal with the fact a lot of these characters were created canonically as part of the so-called military industrial complex. This isn't Disney getting conservative with the characters, it was already built into them.



Also, I'll admit I didn't see the whole show, but I thought the Karli Flag Smasher character was supposed to white?

The real question for me is whether we'll ever see the MCU US Government begin to align with the comics version, especially as the X-Men are supposed to enter the field, and as the Thunderbolts are coming. Marvel Comics actually has a rather shady, resistance-to-them-is-heroic version of the US Government, and without needing Hydra to have infiltrated the Government to do so.

The Contessa showing up and her recent string of actions could be hinting at that direction, but yeah, they sort of missed an opportunity to explicitly make it clear that, similar to Steve, Sam could be an American paragon explicitly outside of an or even opposed to the government.

[80sbaby]

Eh ... honestly, I'd seen the words "hogwarts legacy boycott" for some time without giving a crap, because I've never given a crap about any HP stuff. Then I happened to randomly catch a trailer, and I kind of get it. If not for being pre-informed by all the controversy, this game could easily have been my ticket to finally being into HP stuff, where all the books and movies before somehow failed.

So just saying, if my initial response was in any way typical, and if this game stood a chance of being some kind of mega-success that, by crossing over to gaming fans who previously had no interest in HP ... I can see where this becomes a line in the sand.

Of course ultimately, pretty easy for me to just decide I don't want to play the game, when nothing in that world or its concept has ever been appealing to me anyway. So not like I'm judging anybody who does want to play it.

This is exactly where I'm at. And the difference between HL and those other things is that they were already around when it was revealed how despicable Rowling actually is. Hogwarts Legacy is a new product that could increase her popularity/influence so that's what people will focus on.

Now while I don't think buying the game means you're a transphobe or agree with JK, I can also understand why a trans person might still give a supposed "ally" the side-eye for buying it and giving money to someone who actively tries to hurt them.