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Jack Jeanne Masterlist

So it turns out the reason I couldn't find these before was that I... had the title of the game wrong. It's "Jack Jeanne", not "JackJeanne", oops. I have thus now found a bunch of videos of the songs, with translations! Which belatedly added a bunch to my understanding, and I thought it made sense to write up my thoughts as one post, since it's the same songs in basically the same context for every route.

I unavoidably spoil the plots and casting of the plays, but I'll put route-spoiling thoughts under an internal cut.
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Over on transmediaclub, olivermoss posted a link to this collection of queer youtube essays and asked if anyone had any recs for other trans youtube creators before reccing caelanconrad.

Here's the comment I left:

Two creators I've enjoyed who are linked there are KatBlaque and verilybitchie.

Dropout is a big ensemble channel but has a few trans creators. Here's a cute moment involving the non-binary Ally.

I've watched an enjoyed a few videos by LauraKBuzz, who also talks about accessibility.

I think Vihart doesn't identify as trans but she posted a video about her agender-adjacent gender feelings, and otherwise posts very entertaining videos about maths, music, and other things.

moju_music is an amazing Indigenous Australian musician

CriticalProf is a pair of lit professors, one of whom is non-binary, who have had some interesting discussions of works inspired by the 18th and 19th century.

EDIT: Also since making this post I got around to watching the hbomberguy video about plagiarism that inspired him to make that list, and it was long but good! The fact that he's bi isn't always super relevant to his videos but it sure came up in this one, and he's donating all ad profits to the (largely queer) creators who were plagiarised.

Here's more answers to questions from this post.

fred_mouse: Tell me about something you can see from your window?

brainwane: Are there words you particularly enjoy reading, hearing, writing or saying? Or particular numbers that delight you? Could you share any words you remember learning in the last few years?

skygiants: If you could pick an iconic adventuring outfit, and practicality was no consideration -- say you were designing a personal sim for an immersive virtual world in which you were about to have a sff adventure -- what would it be?

Transcript below the cut, with image descriptions. The sound worked better this time since I made sure to shut down everything but the recording software and text editor.
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flamebyrd recced the Playframe Let's Play of Final Fantasy 14, and I've been really enjoying it, and so been checking out their other videos.

Playframe is run by Dan and Carrie Floyd, the ones I've watched have mostly been Dan talking and Carrie editing with the odd bit of added text commentary. Their Patreon describes them as "chill and positive" and that's definitely the vibe. It's mostly upbeat, gentle, and cheerfully chatty, with lots of squee. Dan has a background in animation and media studies, so there's some nice moments of analysis too.

These are the two series I've liked the most:

Final Fantasy 14: I was enjoying this fantasy MMO except for the unavoidable group dungeons, so it's nice to have a chance to see the rest. Here's the review I wrote at the time. He's going through the main storyline, and is currently at the level 38 quest. I gave up on the game at the level 44 quest so it's not anything new to me yet but still enjoyable, and it's fun seeing how a competent person plays haha, especially since he explains what he's doing. And it's a fun story, even if I'm being reminded how unfortunate the 'Beast Tribes' of Angry Indigenous Monsters That Are Mostly Brown And Black thing is (I hear it gets better but...ehh...) As he keeps reminding the viewer when things get bogged down in boring fetch quests, the story doesn't really get good until after level 50, so I'm looking forward to that!

Hollow Knight: this is a side-scroller full of fighting-while-platforming, so I am absolutely never playing it, but I kept hearing the story is great. Which it is! (the fighting-while-platforming is great too, from all accounts, if you're into that) And the cheery commentary helped lighten the scary bits and fill in what would otherwise have been boring watching-someone-else-jump-platforms-and-fight parts.

It's a cute, bittersweet tale of a tiny ungendered bug knight exploring and ultimately saving a ruined bug kingdom that fell to a mysterious Affliction. It's a perfect mix of cute, horrifying, and beautiful, with glorious art and good writing. The fact it's all little cartoon bugs stopped it getting too horrifying for me, and it's ultimately a compassionate and hopeful game. But there's still a lot of maggots, spiders, lumbering corpses, tragedy, violence, and death. And while the Affliction is more like a corruption than a real disease there's still a lot of Bulbous Infections As Creepy Threat. Also when I described one of my favourite parts to Cam he just stared at me for a moment then said "You know, you can be pretty dark", so, YMMV >.>

A summary of this SarahZ video about the TERRIBLE behaviour of the people who run Homestuck. You don't need to know anything about Homestuck to understand this post.

To paraphrase SarahZ, the company harasses and dismisses anyone who critiques them as 'poisoned', despite having openly admitted to some serious fuckups.

And watching Andrew Hussie(42) interact with SarahZ(23), I see a practiced combination of intimidation, condescending flattery, and the promise of secret insider knowledge trying to leverage Hussie's power as a loved, respected, and powerful creator talking to what they see as a weaker, star-struck, easily influenced female fan. Looking back on everything I know of Homestuck, it's clear Hussie has used this schtick successfully for a decade to mistreat, silence, and control those around them, and it's only really coming to light now.
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Some varied media which I am having a little trouble reviewing since (a) they unexpectedly hit my sex squick (b) it's hard to review them without mentioning the sex, and talking about sex squicks me. Also two of them were recced by a BL reviewer I have mixed feelings about because of how he handles his squicks.

Below: m/m reviewer KrisPNatz, m/m romance webcomic All About Lust, m/m romance anime Love Stage, m/f drama anime Beastars

Content note: brief discussion of fictional consent issues
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Books:

The Raven and the Reindeer by T Kingfisher aka Ursula Vernon: this is a very cute Gerta/Little Robber Girl retelling of The Snow Queen. It's in a light, fairytale style but has a bit more modern fantasy novel to it than the original 19th century children's short story. There also a bit more gore than I remember, of just the sort I like but other people may not. I haven't read the original in years so can't say how much is changed in general, but was attached to the Kay/Gerta friendship which is much more unhealthy here, I think it works really well as a new story but was still slightly sad to lose the old one. Also there's that undertone of slightly smug tweeness that tends to underlie all of Ursula Vernon's work, and it took me a while to get into it for some reason. Still, lots of well drawn, endearing, mostly female characters, and a cute fantasy story that hasn't lost the fairytale atmosphere, bittersweet bite and sense of place of the original.

(putting above the cut because "f/f fairytale" is relevant to a lot of my readers' interests :))

Aso, while I'm here: Steam is having a sale on anime themed games and I at least didn't get an email about some stuff on my wishlist which is discounted. So, check your wishlist!
( More books and some tv )

Via pooxs on Facebook. Yes, that's right, facebook was useful :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HeUixe_Lpg

That Mitchell and Webb Look: Explorers

Another one of those jokes whose intense appeal to my sense of humour may not be shared by others :)

Something reminded me to link to this clip, a scene from "The Muppet Movie" which I rewatched a while ago.

I hope that something better comes along

Now is it just me, or is this song:
(a) Rather creepily anti-women for a children's film
(b) Clearly all about how much easier life is if you're gay

:)