Growing up and first experiencing anime as a child and then again as a middle school, much like SuperDude's experiences, I also have complicated feelings surrounding that kind of "fan service". To oversimplify my own opinion (good luck strawmanning my own strawman of myself!!), I think it's unfair. It constantly sexualizes the female form, but rarely ever sexualizes the male form. More often than not, the closest we get to sexualizing the male form is shows of dominance, power, or skill, happening while the dude is exposing some skin or wearing some form fitting outfit. This is true even in a lot of the shoujo manga/anime I've seen. Do note that I'm a straight guy. I wouldn't be thrilled or "excited" to see more sexualization of the male form (hell, I'm pretty numb to its more common opposite at this point), I just dislike the unbalanced nature of things as they are.
I think if anything Kui unintentionally outed herself as an Undiagnosed Autistic, and considering that she’s a woman who lives in Japan It makes a ton of sense. women globally go undiagnosed more often due them being expected to “perform less” because sexism, and the fact that she lives in Japan adds the aspect of comformism and ostracization of the different, so many people go undiagnosed there since they learn to mask rather quickly. The more you think about it, the more it makes sense.
it could also be one of those scenarios where the author is autistic but isnt aware of it, so when they write relatable characters based on their own experiences they end up writing autistic characters. also I wouldn't say autism is culturally defined, instead I'd say that it is culturally perceived. If autistic traits fit into a culture easily, it doesnt mean that they don't have autism, it just means that don't need accommodations. a man with no legs in a country where walking is illegal, does not need special accommodations, since no one else can walk, but they still dont have legs.
In theater, to act drunk and truly look like it, you don't have to act drunk, but as if you were trying to convince people that you are sober. Something similar happens in media when it comes to autism, characters interpreted by neurotipical actors will seem stiff and unrelatable, as they are trying to act autistic, however, people on the spectrum in their real day to day life constantly try to socialize in neurotipical environments, trying to conceal our autism by masking, and yet, we simply aren't and won't quite replicate the way they navigate life. Same happens in writing, unintended representations of the experience will seem more genuine and relatable to us because autistic people are in fact just normal people trying to connect with others.
Your 'Spelunking on the Spectrum' video was absolutely wonderful to watch, and to me, you provided very compelling arguments. To even assess Kabru as autistic was so out there (I wouldn't have thought of it), but it made so much sense. I hope you make more of these videos in relation to anime because it's so nice to hear your thoughts imo.
tbh i found shuro to be neurodivergent (if not also on the spectrum) during that moment because it came across to me as a “thats not fair i played by the (social) rules how come this white boy gets away with it??” moment
I agree that Autism can happen without the author realizing or intending, because as you said it is very culture dependent(and I’d argue also knowledge dependent), but queerness is something personal and the author is the only one entitled to know (for real) the personal sphere and sexuality of a character. So if the author decides that a character is queer, than it is, if not than it is not. On the other hand, if the author decides that a character is not autistic, but culturally the character presents the “symptoms”, then the character might/can be autistic.
You know, queer stuff is definitely cultural, too. Great Britain is a pretty anti-trans country, so their authors aren't likely to make trans characters that aren't caricature. Muslim or Christian authors wouldn't intentionally make queer characters, either. There is definitely still a cultural and knowledge aspect of queer readings, too! And if the text supports the reading, I say it's still fine to do so with queer readings, as well as neurological ones. Authors aren't perfect, and they don't know everything. They may accidentally make characters that make sense in alternative interpretations; I would not draw this line in the sand as you have.
Plus, I think the fact that some autistic-coded behaviors are seen as kinda “normal” is sort of the point. Neurodiversity means recognizing that everything that happens in our brain is kind of normal and just happens in everyone to vastly varying degrees.
Great video. Another point in favor: neurological diagnosis are just shorthand tools we use to describe behavior. Writing a character without a specific quality in mind does mean that they don’t match that quality. Just as with real people, their written actions and behaviors are the basis on which someone can diagnose something. If an author is not able to diagnosis real people with autism, why should they have to with their characters?!
I haven't seen this anime, but I have heard people say this character resonates with people on the spectrum of autism. As someone who's also on the spectrum of autism, a character who displays a lot of traits of autism (even if they are not actually on the spectrum in cannon) makes those who are watching them feel a little bit less isolated. This reminds me a little bit of the dialogue about Peridot and Pearl from Steven Universe resonating with people on the spectrum because, they can see themselves in them
RU-vid ate my previous comment... I'm not saying the whole world is covered in white people, I'm saying colonialism and imperialism has affected almost every nation over the entire world. The African Slave Trade, the drawing up of the Middle Eastern after one of the world wars, the US-backed Coups in the South Americas... every continent has felt the affects of holier-than-thou white people in power in Western nations. And, to be clear: I don't like that! But history happens, and THAT'S what I'm referring to here. History happened, we can't pretend it didn't.
Fallour 4 is great with mods...it's choices matter and you can choose in most what faction you want to be in, or get mods that give you more choices but also that you can explore and do the main quest or not, you are never forced to do anything, in fact you can continue to play the game once the main quest if over or you can NEVER leave sanctuary if you want...there is so much to do in the game and you can choose how it goes...also with alternate start or other mods that let you have a different start up like Start up which you choose your profession and characteristics, tools and just about all kinds of different places to start the game out other than the main vanilla game start up.
Mods...Which is how and why Fallout series is still being played....then Fallout TV series...I don't think Skyrim is all that more popular cuz I don't really care for it right now, although maybe back then I'd of been into it since I was into magic, wizards etc...back in the day...but never got the game back then. I do own all those now, except the multiplayer online ones because I'm against paying subscriptions or fees to just play a game...If I buy a game it's only to own and not be told I have to buy a certain tool or outfit or DLC to continue on with the main quest to finish the game....this is Fallout 76 and Elder Rings...I think that is the name of the newest one. I only buy for PC and won't own a console since they like to limit console users to the mods they choose you can have simply because you have PS or an Xbox...so many more mods for these games on PC.And I get them from GOG so they can't be updated or not forced to use the DRM to play the game, I own it an download it and play it off line and no in game purchases or updates that break the mods like the Next Gen last one they did....nobody wants Bethesda to update games...and they got worse once they were aquired by Microsoft...so they wanted to make all these games Xbox exclusive till that blew up in their face. Microsoft ruins everything it touches.
Just like you, not speaking from everyone (I heard of many woman being bullied for being autistic), but about Falin From experience as autistic girl, people just tended to avoid me. I was just labeled as the "shy one" and that's it. Just like her, I was never outright called out in the face, or intentionally hurt, just people...didn't seem to like me. Though in each school, there was always one girl that "adopted" me. I don't think it was becoming friends per say. If there was a project, we worked together, that's it. Like people were pitying me, even if I had no idea why. I know it's not the same for everyone, but it felt as if just staying quiet and doing my thing was the only good way to go around. I didn't mask, and I don't think Falin is masking too. Just as a girl, people tend to let it go if you are quiet and submissive enough, not getting into their way. The party loved her because, well, most of them are in love with her XD (platonic or romantic) a bit like with Senshi was unconciously trying to provide food for "young people", I think many treats such girls a bit as a kids, which ends up with getting protective for no specific reason and the harmful stereotype that autistic women are "bubbly and childish"
It is a fact of art that once you show it to anyone else, it no longer belongs solely to yourself, or to your interpretation alone. The impression of that art lives then in at least two minds, each one containing a version of what you have created. Perhaps your intentions have a light to cast upon the meaning of that creation, but intentions alone are not enough to comprise the existence or nonexistence of a thing- as with anything else in the world, you must actually do something, not merely intend to do it. Most people can't keep their art to themselves; part of why most people create art is, after all, to express something of themselves to another. But the risk you take in sharing yourself with others is that what reflects back from their experience of your voice... might not be you. The only way to escape the shadows that other minds cast on art, is never to show it to them at all. But then, we can't all be Emily Dickenson.
This whole discussion reminds of Community, an American Comedy Sitcom created by Dan Harmon. I'm not sure if I am hundred-percent correct on this, but the main character in Community is called Abed and when the first few season were airing, many people pointed out how Abed exhibits autistic tendencies, and at first Harmon rejected the claims that Abed was autistic - he was writing how he and other people behaved, he wasn't thinking about autism when writing Abed. But as more autistic people resonated with Abed, Harmon did some research and concluded that Abed probably was in the Autistic spectrum and that Harmon himself was autistic. What does this mean? It means that just blindingly believing author's words and rejecting the commonalities many people find about certain characters or situation is flawed, because the author is not this prophet/oracle in which one dispenses the truth with absolute... authority. (Ha!) It could be the case that the author themselves do not know about certain interpretation and that they might change their minds as they explore these alternate positions - some might reject the alternate position, others might embrace it.
woah you have a lazy eyelid too?? my sister and I are the only people ive ever met who have it, we always said it was our secret sibling telepathy because they twitch at random times
Liaos is autistic in the way that marcile is blonde. Nobody has said that directly to the camera, but I have fucking eyes so i can see her hair is blonde. (at least I don't think anybody's said this. Idk not the point.) Like if in media somebody has a "bird who swims around around near lakes and honks and stuff" but doesn't know its a duck, you can still say it's a fucking duck. Maybe what they're thinking of was a goose but it's a fucking bird who honks near a lake who gives a fuck.
STEALTH? AHAHAHA! No. I am a lover of the stealth game franchise and the “Stealth” in Skyrim is amongst the most horrifically laughable mechanics in gaming history. at max Stealth, I can literally stand in front of enemies 3 feet away and shoot them in the head consecutively without them ever seeing me. 😂 “Must’ve been the wind”.
Skyrim feels like an MMO. I bet if an online mod was around role playing servers would exist. With players being hunters some being wood cutters, some may even be blacksmith.
Thank you so much for making this video! I wish people could be less hostile to the idea that other people can interpret the same idea differently than they do, but alas we do not live in an ideal world. The reason that fandoms are able to keep pieces of media alive through time is because discussions take place about the media whether between fans among fans or fans and the author(s). Even if Kui does not see or agree with Laios having autism, that doesn't take away the fact that many neurodivergent people relate to him or any other character from the series. By watching your video analyzing autism through 3 different Dungeon Meshi characters, I felt more connected and seen than I ever have in my life by anyone. It gave me the courage to finally get diagnosed with autism and I am currently working to get some accommodations and social training to make my life a little bit less unbearable. I look forward to seeing more videos soon :)
Freaking love laios, and all the characters, any other person’s opinion genuinely would not change a thing for my love or relation to them. I LOVE THIS SHOW!!!
A lot of work IS fun, i love my job (cnc milling). But a lot of the games you mentioned also represent work, if you don't acknowledge it as such, it doesn't mean it isn't. Killing demons for the doom slayer IS work, maybe not really paid but still... Killing/fighting, be it war or assasination contracts are also work (military service, police, knights of old and mercenaries...). Counter strike? Anti terrorist work. Call of duty? Military service work. For honor or other medieval knight games? Working for nobility as a knight. Hitman, dishonored? Work as an assassin. Kerbal space program? Work as a rocket engineer, airplane/rocket pilot. Rts games? Work as a real time commander. Tycoon games? Work as constructor, pr manager, city planner... I'd say probably MOST games include work of some kind.
I do want to say, about the college of winter hold quest; no decision any character makes is one that makes any sense for them to make it, even Ancano, who’s actions only seem reasonable because of how “bad guy” coded he is
My transition has nothing to do with the my amount of playtime in fallout new Vegas, and how dare you accuse me of being similar to any British person, let alone a video essayist
Hey! I just want to say thank you so much for both this video (commentary on authorial intent is one of my favorite topics in fiction and I've heard a lot of tired discourse about this situation specifically, so the timing was fantastic) and your previous video about Dungeon Meshi. Not only did that first video end up introducing me to all your wonderful content (which I've been enjoying a lot) but it sent me into a spiral of learning about my own neurodivergence, something that I'd previously dismissed. Seriously, it blew my mind. I always related to many typically 'autistic' experiences and often wondered if I could be considered neurodivergent or autistic, but never took it seriously nor even really understood what it meant. I rationalized commentary on it as a joke, told myself any connection to such experiences was just social anxiety, tried to mask myself to be someone more palatable to others. I denied I could ever be 'that way' because all the neurodivergent people I'd seen were approached from an 'autism first' mindset. They were Autistics. Not people, just kind of... others. Others that you didn't want to be, because then people would tiptoe around you or call you annoying or dumb or oblivious. Autistic people didn't make sense---I wanted to make sense, desperately. With the context of a character being neurodivergent, I immediately shut out all relatability and categorized them as an other to avoid attaching myself to any problematic status that being autistic would give. Seeing happiness from these characters, especially ones who were very visibly neurodivergent, always felt sickening; I kept wishing deep down that I was autistic, that I could feel that happy and be that dedicated to something, that I could communicate what I wanted to say without worrying about the implications and way people would perceive it. Seeing someone lay out almost the exact same points of everything I loved about Dungeon Meshi, everything that I related to, to give a name to it all and approach it from an actual analytical point of view instead of a quirky headcanon... it was incredible. It challenged my perceptions, and had me turn inward to something I hadn't wanted to let myself acknowledge. Hearing characters be praised, studied, and celebrated because of their autistic traits instead of being shamed for them, or dismissed as something 'everybody deals with so it's not that big of a problem,' I was able to recognize those own traits in myself not as something to be hidden, but to be explored and embraced. Even if remembering that is difficult sometimes, learning about why I am the way I am has helped me experience life in a way I never got to before, from a more honest and vulnerable point of view. Part of that has been watching tons and tons of video essays because I'm remembering that I actually like to learn and talk about things I like! You're an inspiration to me, genuinely. So again, just want to say thanks, for your insightful commentary and for starting this journey for me. I can't wait to see what content you make in the future!
I think an underexplored angle to this is that Laios and Falin both display behavior that is totally normal FOR CHILDREN, but becomes signs of autism in adulthood. The party "parents" Laios the same way Marcille parented Falin, and to them it's normal. All of the characters who act like "normal adults" are relatively old for their race. Maybe from Kui's perspective, the 20-somethings in her real life really are like that. She's known for being a CRPG completionist, so there's no way she's getting out much. "Normal" to her might not be a great reference one way or another.
I think Skyrim hit the spot because it’s one of those games that feels like it’s really about the journey, and not the end point. There really is no end to Skyrim, and by the time you complete 3/4ths of of the large quests, your character is a god, you’ve spent probably 20 ~ 30 casual hours, and you feel ready for a new play style, so you start the over, do the quests you didn’t do last game, become a god, and repeat. Now you’ve spent 100 + hours in the game. But what’s this? Mods you say? Now you spend hours fine tuning the game, making it beautiful, adding all the lotr stuff and you just keep playing. It’s an rpg in a beautiful setting, that rewards casual players well! I think why no game has come close to achieving what Skyrim was able to accomplish is because people don’t want to admit how simple the game is. There’s virtually no learning curve for the thousands of things you could do!
While i don't play Skyrim now, For me it was a comfort game. Something I could just slip into. If I only had a few minutes to play, or was stressed or had no other games i really wanted to play. I never played it for the story, I made my own story, with mods. However, after a while (2,376 Hours) it became boring. I then moved on to Fallout 4 which fulfilled the same comfort, Which i would fit around other games and life itself as needed. For me my problem is that I'm tired of Fallout 4 and wont touch anything Beth has made recently.
Big fan of discussing interpretations but sadly it's evident that when the interpretation involves ND or queer or etnichal representation there is malice in the denial stance. Obviously this malice is not transversal nor is equal to all the people that argue against the interpretation of the text, it can range from shameless hate to cultural-influenced distate but will always be present on these topics. The unshakeable feeling that some people are arguing against laios being autistic or falin and marcille relationship being potentially gay not only because they genuinely disagree but because they don't fundamentally like the idea of that kind of people existing in their media. And that makes this kind of discussion always feel loaded and unjust. Because that kind of people will always mold their argument around that feeling first and the text later. Sometimes they will take vague author statementents and pass it for absolute truth' like this and sometimes they will negate the will of an author or disregard the evidence that they would've support that view as it was the case with the Terry Pratchet trans characters discussion that youtuber Shaun covered some years ago. The important part is to negate le woke character
I completely understand wanting to see yourself represented in a character that you empathize with in media. But man it is wild seeing a video where the main point is “nuh-uh. The author is wrong”
I feel called out for putting literally all my games' master volume near 10% Though often it's just because I like TALKING TO PEOPLE ingame, and the default settings just don't allow it, ever. Seriously y'all ever use voice chat in Payday 2 with LET'S BREAK THEEEE RULES, AND REALLY PUT OUR BACKS INTO IIIIIIT
I honestly DO think it's a little bit of an accident. Not that they bought the game, but that BGS made just the right game. It creates an atmosphere that you just want to live in more than any other BGS game. The idealized skybox; the warm taverns contrasting the frigid tundra or wild plains; the rivers running down the mountains and through the valleys; the mix of mountain, the mix of rock, grass, desert, and snow biomes; the comforting Minnesota Nice of some of the NPCs; just-believable-enough NPC routines that let you "live" in the world alongside them; NPCs that take themselves, their roles in the world, and the situations around them seriously and just sound like the earnest, hard working people Skyrim is known for. Quests that are engaging enough to pull you through them, without making you feel like you have to binge it through to the end, letting you go at your own pace; combat that's simple to understand with enough depth to still allow you to feel like you're improving; a world so full of encounters and things to explore, while still feeling believable. ALL OF THIS together is, in my opinion, what makes Skyrim so perfect as an experience. It's not a perfect game, but it's a perfect experience (sans bugs obviously). And it's all very on purpose, but I don't think they were trying to make EXACTLY this. I think they were just iterating on everything they'd already established as a studio and happened to get it just about perfect.
