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Taking a break from The Sword and the Brocade because the consent issues were wearing on me. They're not even that bad, objectively, but it is hitting a Button.
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But I am still feeling bored and sickly and kinda down! Boooo. Maybe I'll take the unprecedented step of buying something off my Steam wishlist that isn't on sale.

Or have a nap. That also sounds good rn.

Anyway I'll probably get back to the show eventually, I like it overall and the stuff that bugs me is a relatively small part. But we'll see, my brain is unpredictable about these things. (See: the fact it took until a few episodes AFTER the last scene that bothered me before my brain went Time To Stop)

Are there any fantasy stories with democratic gods who follow the conscious decisions of their followers as a group? It's like... a typical god may be similar to a king who tries to listen to his citizens else he be deposed, but I'm looking for something more like a democratically elected president who was voted in and can be voted out.

This is an off-shoot of a discussion of Baldur's Gate 3/The Forgotten Realms but I think it should work for any fantasy setting where gods can be deliberately created or are a job mortals can take on, with powers reliant on simple things like their number of followers instead of anything numinous or mystical. I'm mostly thinking high fantasy set in a secondary world, but I guess it could work in other sorts of fantasy too.
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I just saw one of many posts I've seen on tumblr praising the progressive messages in Golden Girls, specifically an episode about chronic fatigue syndrome. I don't remember the show very well but have no reason to question the praise. But this post went one about the great things the actors have done, implying they were the ones responsible for the nature of the show. Which is something I see a lot, and that's not how TV shows work!
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So. We have a 'villain' character who has done objectively terrible things. In a rigid good-vs-evil dichotomy, they would generally be classified as evil.

And we have a fic where this 'villain' is now the sympathetic protagonist, possibly involving some sort of redemption arc or AU.

There are some villains I just can't read such fic about, but in this case I am open to the idea.

My preference is for the fic to not have a rigid good-vs-evil dichotomy, and instead either see pretty much everyone as having the potential to be good, or cheerfully wallow in shades of grey. There can be some glossing over of the villain's sharper edges, but for the most part I want the moral framework to be consistent with the events of canon, just one which has space for sympathy towards characters as "bad" as the protagonist.

But a great many fics just create a new moral framework with it's own rigid good-vs-evil dichotomy, and set things up so the 'villain' is now on the side of Good, and other canon characters are on the side of evil, even though their actions in canon aren't significantly worse than the villain's.

Which is perfectly valid as an approach, but unless I think canon is wrong about the villain doing bad things, I will not enjoy this kind of narrative at all.

Note that this is about fanfic based on an existing canon. My feelings on original works which turn bad guys into good guys etc are broadly similar, but harder to sum up.
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It seems to me that the trends for romance arcs in fanfic are different in romances about two people, and those about three or more.

Specifically, while counterexamples exist, the kind of "everyone pines and doubts themselves" romance that is ubiquitous in romances about two people is almost entirely absent in romances about three people.

And I'm curious to know if other people (a) agree that this difference is real and if so (b) have any idea why it exists.
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Something I've been thinking about for a while is the assumptions people have about the motivations and purpose behind reading and writing reviews and analysis, especially the sort of amateur, social justice-tinged posts I make myself.

Specifically, as it relates to reviews and reactions on this blog: what is my goal here? And how much stuff I assume goes without saying isn't clear?

So here's a rough approximation of my goals, in vague order of importance:

• Let people who haven't consumed the thing figure out if they might like it
  
• Articulate and explore my own feelings about the work and how it fits into broader patterns, and express myself creatively
  
• Be entertaining
  
• Help others understand my POV and figure out their own feelings, even if we don't agree
  
• Give other people with similar feelings to me a chance to feel seen
  
• Have interesting conversations, both about the specific thing and broader topics
  
• Promote stuff I think is worthy or that my readers might like
  
• Encourage an environment where people can think and talk about this sort of thing without being made to feel bad or weird
  

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I looked up some interesting extra canon material and watched a bunch of videos (thanks sulla!). These videos go through some of the interesting things the game does with philosophy, storytelling, and the structure of games, the first two have captions/a transcript and are designed to make sense if you haven't played the game. There was a bunch of stuff I hadn't noticed/seen/thought about but I also had some more thoughts of my own. So! Here they are!

I've tried to make this post at least vaguely readable to those who can't be bothered watching the videos or reading my previous post, but you'll be missing some context, and if you know NOTHING about the game should probably at least read the first few paragraphs of my previous post.
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Content note: Spoilers, colonisation, abusive family dynamics with regards to queerness (these are established themes, but just in case anyone doesn't watch the show)
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A lot of western fantasy has worldbuilding involving a balance between two fundamental forces: usually Light and Dark but sometimes Order and Chaos. This often very explicitly draws on Chinese ideas about Yin and Yang, where in theory both are necessary and neither is all good or all bad.

Examples: Star Wars, Delta Rune(*), The Cinderella Principle

But in all the cases I can think of the cultural Christian influence causes one to be the Good Force and one to be the Evil Force. The Good may have it's flaws and the Bad it's useful/necessary aspects, but to a large extent, that's how it plays out. I don't think I've ever seen Western Fantasy make the two anything approaching genuinely morally neutral. Even stuff like The Legend of Korra, which is set in quasi-Asia, doesn't always escape.

Note: I would like to apologise in advance to anyone with a better understanding of yin and yang than me I am sure I am getting some of this wrong!
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From a twitter conversation with Ravenari/Pia since it seemed relevant to here.

So Pia was complaining about a thing I also find annoying: people saying they want "something like lj" when dreamwidth is right here. But I realised while I was replying to them that what a lot of people actually seem to want is livejournal as they experienced it ten years ago.

The issue isn't just that lj was more active at it's height than dreamwidth is now, though that is absolutely part of it. I mean I have plenty of people to follow on dreamwidth, and get a moderate amount of comments. But it's mostly new friends I made on dreamwidth, and I post the sort of stuff that will get strangers with similar tastes to follow me. Most people on social media are more passive consumers, which makes it harder to make friends, especially since dreamwidth tends to lack the sort of active communities livejournal had where you can just show up and say I LOVE [INTEREST] and find people to squee with.

But the issue is also that dreamwidth can't provide a, say, 35 year old fan in 2018 with the experience of being 25 in 2008, with the friends and emotions they had then. Especially not when those experiences are being overlaid with a rosy glow of nostalgia. Nothing can provide that, which I also think fuels some of the more bitter anti-tumblr rants from older fans (but not all. Tumblr is genuinely pretty awful in a lot of ways) Being an older fan/blogger can be great, but it's not the same as being a young one, especially for people with full time jobs.

There's also the fact that a lot of people who were happy enough with lj back when it was new and shiny have gotten used to the sort of easy image and post creation and sharing offered by tumblr etc, and would now feel frustrated on dreamwidth. Those people will genuinely be happier on something like Imzy or Pillowfort that combines lj-clone features with tumblr-esque image posting and reblogging. Well, if any of those sites...lasted...(MAYBE PILLOWFORT WILL BE THE ONE. YOU NEVER KNOW)

All that said: if you genuinely do just want something like livejournal but without as many Issues, dreamwidth is pretty great!

EDIT: A factor I didn't think of but that a few people have mentioned is how much more fractured social media is now, everyone's stretched thin over multiple sites and so no one site gets the same focus.