Chapter 66: In Bloom

Chapter 66: In Bloom

The 14 Days of Valentine's continues with more poems, gifts, and pleasure.

*sigh* This isn't the oppression or misrepresentation Olympics. See what I did there? You saying anything you just said would be like telling an Asian person they didn't have it bad in America (compared to your ethnicity), because they are only fetishized and it's better to be portrayed as sentient sex toys. When a person from another ethnicity or culture (they're not the same thing), says they are upset over the misrepresentation or cultural appropriation of their people it is not in any way saying they don't like or want to see other cultures. It's not about other cultures and ethnicities. It's about theirs. No one can tell a person that feels misrepresented that they are wrong. That is literally a matter of their personal perception. (This should be obvious.)

Additionally, you are claiming they didn't have a right to be upset about forced diversification, but if they were to complain about "white washing" you'd understand their point then, right? Imagine if they made a piece of media about any Mesoamerican religion and none of the gods looked like indigenous Mexicans. Granted, you'd probably be expecting them to look Hispanic but the Spanish colonized Mexico and forced Christianity onto the people there. Hooray for Hernán Cortés. *This was sarcasm* Would you be condescendingly telling Mexicans they have no right to be upset about misrepresentation or (in the case above), complete ethnic erasure inside another cultures religious packaging (aka forced diversification)? No. No, you would not.

They're not upset that the game added other races. They're upset that the game changed the fucking race of their Gods. This is not a mythos. It is a religion that has been designated as myth by colonizers. Seeing as you are from a nation that was colonized by people under the same religion, I think you'd comprehend the issue here.

Hollywood or other big global influence can be a good thing when representing a culture or ethnicity correctly (but still ignorantly), like how the James Bond film Spectre caused there to be a Día de Muertos parade in Mexico City because they showed one there in the opening of the movie. Prior to 2016 (the year after the movie's release), due to the influence of the film, the Mexican government decided to have the parade in what seemed like the most logical place to the filmmakers. It was an ignorant and easily discovered piece of misinformation, but because they portrayed everything else so well and respectfully, the people were inspired and not insulted. It's called the Pizza Effect (you can look it up).

Point is that there are right and wrong ways to do this and changing the likeness of any deity is widely agreed upon by all religions as disrespectful af, especially to make them a completely different race or ethnicity than they were believed to look like. In fact, it is punishable by death in some religious factions. That's all there is to this. There is no debate. You can argue that gods are not any earthly races or ethnicities and can look like anything. In certain depictions, Grecian gods have blue hair, which is obviously not "natural". What you can't argue with is what the people that believed in and worshipped them say they looked like, or tell them they are wrong. Unless those people are part of a colonizer ancestry and have been systematically trying to claim said deities look like them for centuries. *cough* (Christianity) *cough* People in the Middle East aren't white. *cough*

This.^ This last thing right here? Has caused wars. Literally wars have been had over what Jesus looks like and you don't see why someone would be upset over the ethnic erasure of their gods? And are trying to argue their right to be upset (which is a hilariously futile and absurd pursuit). Who are you to tell someone they're not allowed to be upset because of unrelated misdeeds committed by other people in the region of their ethnicity? (A place they might not even live, btw.) Are you a god? And if so, is it okay to depict you as a white woman with blond hair and blue eyes? Or perhaps a nonbinary black man with hazel eyes and a shaved head? You can look like anything except what you believe you should look like. That wouldn't be a problem, would it?

Posts like this miss entirely the point 😞

There was controversy. As much as I ,as a Greek, enjoyed the game many agreed that the game was showing a diversity fit for the USA. The difference is that a post managed to get many views to cause a debate.

The point isn't what the artists did, who just did their job, is the studios and corporations behind the scenes that push the forced diversity into a culture that has been overshadowed.

Again i will say this example, had the game be about Chinese/Egyptian/ Hindu mythology would it make sense for the deities to be of different ethnicity?

No. So the same goes for the Greek gods.

People simply ask ,why Greeks are being tossed aside and forgotten and don't get respected for simply saying they want representation in the entertainment industry. It's nothing about racism or white supremacism or "haters are losing it right now".

Ethnicity matters and Greek culture is still thriving despite the hardships it endured. The bare minimum we ask is seeing ourselves being represented in media the way it's respected.

I apologize if you’ve been asked this question before I’m sure you have, but how do you feel about AI in writing? One of my teachers was “writing” stories using ChatGPT then was bragging about how good they were (they were not good) and said he was going to sell them. To put aside any legal concerns in that, I’m just trying to talk him down from that because, personally, I would not enjoy dream job being taken by AI.

The poor man.

Many magazines have closed their submission portals because people thought they could send in AI-written stories.

For years I would tell people who wanted to be writers that the only way to be a writer was to write your own stories because elves would not come in the night and do it for you.

With AI, drunk plagiaristic elves who cannot actually write and would not know an idea or a sentence if it bit their little elvish arses will actually turn up and write something unpublishable for you. This is not a good thing.

Chapter 65: Roses & Prose

The Valentine's Arc!

Gabriel begins making up for Claire's lack of romance and uncelebrated Valentine's by giving her gifts each day.

🤣

Has this been done

An Ao3 author seconding the last comment. Sometimes authors will write more when they know their story was loved. Sometimes they won't but they'll feel validated all the same. Share your love with people while they are still alive to receive it. Don't treat your appreciation like it's a dirty secret you couldn't possibly share with the source.

me, quietly whispering to the ao3 page of an author who doesn’t even know I exist: I am obsessed with you