AlexArtsHere

Ike is very mean and I will never recover from the deep emotional pain he has inflicted upon me.

Of course. If anybody can stop the oncoming storm of a thousand myrms, it's Spring Xander, his unbreakable body, and his phallic, Freudian carrot that dashes a thousand dreams like bugs to a newspaper. Can't wait to see you pull FEdel next time and have Athena end up with Atk/Def Ideal.

A worthy cause. You have my sword. Okay, so it's actually Hellica's sword, but, y'know, semantics.

*angy betrayal noises*

Yeah and then it becomes another form of privilege which usually benefits white, cisgendered heterosexual males. You make it sound like white privilege is a curse for White people, and while sure you can see it as someone’s work being overlooked for their skin colour, at least when it happens to white people they still get those opportunities. And I can absolutely guarantee minority people being casted in entertainment for their skin colour happens on an extremely infrequent basis because the entertainment industry is stills dominated by White people, specifically white men. Sure, some tokenism occurs but to imply it’s a widespread practice then diminishes the work of the minorities who have been given those opportunities. And at the end of the day you’re still arguing semantics and distracting for the real issue which is that white privilege exists systemically, regardless of what name it goes by and whether or not you like that name. If we put more time into solving that issue rather than talking about how we don’t like the name of the concept, said concept would sooner cease to exist and any dissatisfaction with the name would be redundant anyway.

Not with that defeatist attitude. Bad as things are, they're still hugely improved over what they were 50 years ago. Things have gotten better and as long as we put the effort in they will keep getting better.

@FrostyFireMage Image is broke try again

Absolutely. It's why the VA industry for example will assign generic numbers to auditions sometimes. As I've said previously in the thread, I'm not somebody who is directly affected by systemic racism as I am white, so anyone more informed or experienced than I should absolutely expand upon and correct me where appropriate.

As someone who on principal hates the same concept, that doesn't apply here. White privilege refers to the discrepancy between the way white people are treated compared to people of colour in similar situations. It's not inherently a means by which to undermine the input or existence of white people, it's simply the term for how white people benefit over people of colour in white majority countries, even if said people may suffer in other areas (usually due to fitting into other categories that face frequent prejudice). Basic example, a white person and a black person each apply for the same job with the same qualifications and the same performance in the interview. If the white person gets chosen for that job because the colour of their skin leads them to be viewed more favourably in the eyes of the person responsible for hiring (either intentionally or unintentionally), that's them benefiting from white privilege. It's not they're fault, they're not bad for being white, but it's an illustration of how deeply embedded racism and white privilege is into not only the U.S., but the U.K. and parts of Europe too.

That's distinction without a difference. The implication that you believe white people ought to be considered the default shows just how deeply embedded our privilege is into people's worldviews. I have absolutely suffered in my life. I was bullied and isolated through school and it's had lasting consequences on my mental health. But I am absolutely privileged in the fact that I can exist without fear that someone meant to uphold the community may take my life simply because they don't like my skin colour. "Black suffrage", while perhaps still accurate, takes the onus off of white people. Sure, lots of individual white people are decent, upstanding people, perhaps even the majority of white people are, but white people are massively benefit from a broken system simply because they were lucky enough to be born with the "right" skin colour. And I reiterate the point about comfort. Taking the focus away from white privilege allows people benefiting from said privilege to feel comfortable. And when the people at the top are comfortable, nothing changes for the disadvantaged and disenfranchised.

So I've been reading through this thread and, although I'm white and across the other side of the pond, I've got some input here directed @Anacybele because the thing is, yours is a similar mindset to one I had in high school, when I was less aware. You're where I was maybe 5 years ago, so I understand you're coming from a place of innocence, but this mindset is one borne of indoctrination. I'm going to repeat some stuff that others have said throughout this thread but there are some really important points you need to understand on this. First, and I think most important for you to understand, is that we, as the privileged race, are not meant to feel comfortable about protests. When we're comfortable, it means we can look away and pretend all this isn't happening. When we're debating about the validity of a protest and whether people are protesting "correctly", the people who don't want the world to be a better place, who want to keep minorities underfoot, the same people who want you to be an outcast for having autism; they're winning. These protests aren't polite and they aren't pretty because that doesn't grab attention. This is happening now because those with power and privilege didn't listen in the past. Now we're being made to listen because things need to change. I understand the impulse to question the morality of the protests, but ask yourself what's more important: brick and mortar or real, human lives? If there's something you don't like about the protests, acknowledge it, but also accept that it's happening in the service of a brighter future (bad actors notwithstanding). Second, police in America are systemically corrupt and racist, we just don't see it usually because it doesn't affect us. If you use Twitter, then you must have seen at least some videos and posts about the horrific and reprehensible acts being committed by police during these protests. One of the more notorious examples of police brutality was committed against an elderly white man who approached the police in a non-violent manner; he was pushed back by the police until he fell over and began bleeding from his ears. His name is Martin Gugino. I won't link the video in the interests of keeping in line with the rules on forbidden content, but a quick search will turn up the relevant information. Bear in mind this is but one of the many documented incidents of police brutality that has occurred in the wake of the protests. This in particularly was something I had difficulty accepting because I, like many people, had bought into the idealised version of the police that we see on TV and in the movies, when in reality that isn't necessarily the case. As such, when people talk about defunding and abolishing the police, the idea is to redistribute these resources into other areas of society to improve quality of life in order to prevent crime. Now, I say this as someone who doesn't necessarily believe in the full abolition of the police, but the 2019-2020 police budget for Los Angeles alone was $1.8 billion. This money could and should be put into other services to fix the system and take away a lot of the factors that prevent crime. For example, a better schooling system that actively helps disadvantaged kids, allowing them to go into the world as adults with the same opportunities and basic standard of living as everybody else, so they won't be motivated towards theft out of necessity. People don't talk about defunding the police in a vacuum, they want to use defunding the police as a means of putting more funding into other essential services so the police won't be needed as much. And sure, there are some people who are just rotten, and we will need to deal with those people, but just because we might not see a way to make the system perfect right now doesn't mean we shouldn't try to improve it at all. And finally, there's Trump. Some people expected the Trump administration to turn out the way it has, some people didn't. I won't hold it against you for voting Trump because it ultimately achieves nothing, but throughout his term he has shown himself to be an unstable, selfish demagogue. Through these protests alone he has taken George Floyd's name in vain by baselessly claiming that Floyd would be happy to see Trump send in the national guard to quell the protests against the police brutality that lead to his death. He tried to pin the blame for Martin Gugino's serious injuries on the man himself by saying that he fell harder than he was pushed. Is this really the man you want to support? Consider that you're in a minority. You have a developmental disorder. Others with such disorders have said that their communication difficulties have led to tensions with the police in the past. If you're murdered by police brutality one day because they couldn't understand or respect your challenges (god forbid) and people protest your murder, would the man claiming that you're happy for people to be violently subdued in support of your murders really be someone you want to stand behind? If you take away nothing else from what I've said, take away this: It's never too late to change your mind. We won't think less of you for it. Adjusting your mindset based on new information as it's presented to you isn't defeat, it's growing as a person to respond to a more accurate view of the world. You're uncomfortable about protests which have been visible to use for about a month. You're uncomfortable about Disney retheming a ride and the idea that it may have come about because of these protests. People of colour are uncomfortable because there are government sanctioned officers on the streets who can and will brutalise them for any perceived slight. People of colour are uncomfortable because their existence is, for some people, reason enough to hate them, simply for the colour of their skin. There are people in this thread who have explained things better than I ever could, and there will be more who will do the same, but I'm trying to reach out to you because I understand where you are and I don't want you to fall into a mindset that turns a blind eye to suffering, and I think everyone else who's disagreeing with you would share that sentiment. As a final request, please give this video a watch, it's helped me understand so much better how privileged I am. It's not a hard or unpleasant watch for a white person, but it is an important one:

"Happy Birthday Jingle Jangle!" (pls get me a dupe Fjorm)

To preface these questions, I've not been watching the streams since I want to avoid spoilers, so I don't know where you are in the game, but here we go: 1) How's the difficulty curve in Warriors - Do you feel like you're being challenged enough, and how does the game do this? 2) Is performance consistent? Obviously Warriors comes with two modes, one being 1080p/30fps and 720p/60fps. What I most want to know is if the game sticks to these specs. 3) Who would be your top pick for DLC (again, please no spoilers for the base roster)? 4) How long does a gameplay session last in terms of completing a map - is it conducive to portable play?

A commission for an album cover I received via Reddit. I worked on this on and off throughout March. Probably the most fun thing on this was designing the armour. I was told to do something "cyberpunk samurai", but other than that I had free reign. As you can see, inspiration is taken from Ryoma's armour (the armour I drew was originally blue, but the commissioner request it be red instead). Speaking of commissions, they're now reopen until April 21st! More info can be found in the link in my description.

I'm almost afraid to ask, but does Anna show up? Even as an NPC? I need some sweet Anna Hidari art. ;^;