Rehab

I wouldn't wish as terrifying a thing as what you've experienced on anyone. You have and will always have a right to feel what it makes you feel, and to seeking support as you do so. I wish you the best of fortune finding that support as soon as possible. There is no one sort of person that commits suicide, and no one way to be affected by it, which are only parts of what make it one of the most difficult things to grapple with that I can imagine. It's so much to be forced to deal with, all at once. Again, not something I'd wish on anyone. For now, I pray you merely stay well, as much as your situation allows.

Dumb/paranoid editorial oversight somehow diminishing the dialogue during the localization process is a real enough phenomenon that wanting to guard against it is understandable, but that doesn't preclude the possibility that the original written material was itself constructed with a cynical, pandering mindset. Say, maybe the original Soleil support writing process went like "those shut-in creeps who get off on this and buy our games for the waifu pageantry will love it, and it'll keep them coming back for more next time. Plus maybe it'll get them to spend a little more on (racy) merch. (Gotta get that body pillow money, man)" Not that we know that. Maybe it was really just supposed to be lighthearted throwaway material, a joke that would largely not get much more than an "oh, you!" from its native audience and wasn't at all supposed to be seen as acceptable behavior or to make light of getting someone to unknowingly ingest a substance or anybody's sexual orientation or whatever; maybe it's just one more thing that genuinely fails to cross cultures well. (So, the sort of thing that "presents a challenge" for localizations.) I couldn't say with much certainty. I do think it's good to keep in mind, though, that editorial oversight, particularly in localization, isn't always born of evil or stiflingly cynical intent, and the original writer can be just as capable of cynicism and pandering as the next person in the production chain. (Or they may even be under instructions to so produce in the first place.) I do probably err on the side of sympathy for stifled creative intent, as far as which evil I personally think is worse goes. If the creator's just trying to cast the widest money net possible in the first place, though, (as I gather a good lot of video games and anime tend to be caught up in doing first&foremost, for both good and ill,) then losing such writing in localization doesn't seem so bad to me. It might even be in most everybody's direct interest. (Except the players who would've loved that shit but get a localization without it. But I think they'll live.) Moreover; A response from a forum where the average (mode) reaction was a lot closer to "so much of this game looks designed to grossly pander to backward otaku culture sleaziness that I'm considering not buying this" than I assume it has been on SF: I do at minimum agree that localization is worthy enough of creative distinction that I try not to immediately boil at the mere fact that anything has been changed. Such that I might pause before calling any old dialogue change alone censorship.

Chyef

Body language was the first thing to jump to mind

Having visible body fat in the area of "big-boned" and being roughly as fit as FE PC's tend to be, or being at least battle-ready don't necessarily exclude each other (and maybe an untrained eye like mine might have difference differentiating fat from muscle- weightlifters aren't exactly all ectomorphs). Image-search "fat backflip" and see if you get a particular gif I have in mind. It's no greater a crime than the minors and the slighter end of the playable cast in the series being able to shine in physical classes, at least. OT what is this shining knight's name

Lower temperature for me -would- just be a call for more/better layers (I love being able to wear as many layers as possible, before the point where they're more "making me sweat" than "protecting me from coldness." It's like wearing a sleeping bag! The world becomes my pillow!), -but- for the sniffles, dry air, and, yeah, cracked hands kinda stuff that has to be dealt with starting around a-bit-above-freezing temperature. Mostly just because I gotta start wearing -face- layers like scarfs or balaclavas to deal with that stuff, if at all, and those bring their own inconveniences. Plus none of my things in the face covering category are particularly high quality. When piling layers isn't really an option, probably about... low 50's in a tshirt? Whatever the point is where turtling up inside my shirt becomes a preferable option to not shivering and/or embarrassing myself publicly

I guess that's how I know- today was a good day

Hope nobody draws over it, then

and/or refrain from drawing over ancient Spike Siegel graffiti in the future https://instagram.com/p/32rXDjxlfg/ Thank you

Funny coincidence how they seem to describe it as hanging more towards Megaten than Fire Emblem, yet I've heard the odd SMT fan that I've run across here and there say "no demons, no buy." And that original trailer announcement now makes perfect sense. Too perfect.. Thanks to that interview, I finally know how to distill the game's concept into a single sentence: "Think of a Fire Emblem game, that only we at Atlus could make." *snrrrrrrrrrrk*

Some pebbles of passing mention: Putin is a buddy of Assad and his main arms supplier, he has his own Islamic (generally Sunni, I presume) rebels to worry about on his periphery, and there's still a Russian naval base in northwest Syria (albeit one of questionable current activity). And while China's interests both stated and deducible include "the US not shaping the region at its whims," China's also include a lot of trading with noted anti-ISIS entities Assad, Iran, and the nations around the gulf- a newspaper of the party's has said it would be especially anti-interesting for Iran (and especially its oil) to fall into chaos as a result of the whole series of messes. (However that would end up working out.) There are some complications sitting between them and being allies of Daesh.

God, this is all serious? Have fucking mercy on my worthless hide, there are people here honestly getting into this shit. I have to admit I thought essays about millenials (and, it is to be presumed, their flaws) were such a marginal, insubstantial enterprise as to almost doubt their existence entirely. Do we have to talk about millenials? At least the way I'm assuming we are meant to, from the first page of responses snowballing in KIDS THESE DAYS! negativity? Do we really fucking have to? Can we get all the other generational stereotypes out of the way first, just to draw the sheer misanthropic pointlessness of age group bickering into the center of the spotlight? Then the topic could at least be called half self-conscious of what it invites. There's so much that could actually lead to an interesting, productive, fun-for-me discussion, just briefly touched on in the bit of the thread I've managed to seriously read, and yet it speaks to the mass of bile that so much else in it has allowed my craw to stick in itself that I'd rather prove the generalization's disingenuous point, or rather one among its many, and not even fucking start. I'd feel at least a little bit guilty about writing off a whole topic where somebody at least went to the trouble of posting some links, but what a draining first page to overload my sense of confirmation bias this thread has offered.

I can at least attest to having heard things said along the lines of what you're distinguishing as traditional divine command theory. I can't say I knew where I could possibly take that conversation afterwards.

Just to not leave this unreplied-to: Respectively: 1. Thanks! and, 2. I guess I have that problem too. A completely idle aside: I wonder what kind of God a computer would make if all the world's known religious texts and oral traditions were tossed into a blender and amalgamated into a single portrait of divinity. I bet somewhere in the world a Unitarian is already on the job.

Too loon

Has somebody said "poorly" yet I am here to say: "poorly" (Closet for pants and non-pj shirts, drawers for other things)

I'd hazard a guess that Eclipse finds Christianity (or rather, whatever parts of it are most significant to her) a bit more applicable to her life, and more generally appealing, than she does Nazi propaganda. Or the search for/veneration of unicorns. I'd further venture a guess that this is probably also the case for other Christians, and religious people in general.Speaking of who-gives-a-shit-about-Godwin, religions can provide a powerful avenue for potential indoctrination, yes. I'd assume almost all belief systems which make value judgements on just about anything, in just about any capacity, share this capability. You could maybe argue of religions that their focus on the afterlife and the ultimate fate of the human soul, on our place and purpose in the universe, and their requiring/celebrating intense faith in the truth and righteousness of their beliefs (in a fair number of cases, at least) make them particularly good at it. But to say or imply that religions are synonymous with indoctrination and belief in nonsense is disingenuous and not like to be taken well. You yourself even hinted at possibly recognizing religions are more than that when insisting you understand why somebody would be religious; like that it gives them a place to take refuge, that they were raised in the tradition and so on. If you understand that somebody might be religious for those reasons, then I'd assume you'd have accepted that religions aren't just cosmologies, they also contain value systems, and provide foundations for the construction of communities, and lend people specific opportunities to see meaning in their actions. (Not to say they're the only things with these capabilities and aspects, but it ought to be apparent why they're more than just a guy insisting that unicorns are a thing and you can't convince him otherwise so there.) I mean, I imagine it'd be pretty hard to find a person who believes in the existence and Divine power of Christ, the Christian god etc, but doesn't even nominally give the least bit of a shit about doing ANY of the things the bible says people are supposed to do, or about at least considering them important. I'd assume that believing in god, at least in the case of Christianity, kinda also means believing in believing what's supposedly god's word, too. (Translation quibbles notwithstanding.) (This is absolutely not to say religious people can't do things that run contrary to the spirit (nyuck nyuck) of their religion, or even totally contradict it, of course. Or that religions don't also present any problems/dangers. Or that religion is Objectively Good/Better-Than-Not-Religion.)

In my case, the part of faith in religion has felt like a slightly more nuanced stumbling block than me just being unable to accept ever believing something difficult or even impossible to prove, or even, more generally, taking some figurative refuge in beliefs. I've done a bit of that myself at times. (Although I do often hear a voice in the back of my head asking "have I really come to a solid enough conclusion?" when I haven't given it the harshest possible leak-seeking rational inquiry, and find my preferences/biases aren't taking offense.) Inherent human goodness, or at least a common desire for it, for example; if you asked me, I'd say I've found more to corroborate my opinion on it (that it exists, in at least some form) than to disprove it, but while I have healthy doubts here and there, it'd be misleading to say I've held the idea up to the highest possible scrutiny, like the same needlepoint-focused side-eyeing that I'd immediately give to, say, an assertion that homosexuality destroyed the Roman Empire. (Again, I'm confident enough I could construct a, let's say a solid argument for both issues, but I could say I "take refuge in my beliefs" more in one case than in the other. And I probably wouldn't "enjoy" arguing both issues equally. And, just to be sure the point of this paragraph hasn't been lost, I can let what might be called "faith" affect my thoughts on the subject despite being at most areligious.) More difficult for me to accept has been an idea I seem to run up against as often as almost any other common thread I've found in religious thought- that I will not only be less than fully correct, but also somehow deficient, as in verifiably worse as a person, until I accept every part of a religion to be true, including (Especially Including, even) the parts that work on logic that's unnecessary or even impossible for me to understand. To be sure, many or even most religions have within them schools of thought that consider it unnecessary to accept only one right answer for absolutely every issue the religion speaks on, and to do so with complete conviction or not at all. (And, of course, I haven't found a single religion without different denominations whose views differ on every sort of thing in the religion one can think of.) Something about those bits where "capital f Faith is capital n Necessary, or (capital f) Fuck Off," seems to keep me at a distance from them all, though. Also, I guess my problems with the kind of faith religion requires aren't helped by there being so dang many out there, all of them (or at least a lot) demanding absolute, exclusive (usually/often) obeisance, and for it to be of... well, -religious- conviction. (This might actually be more of a thing in "Western" religious thought, but anyway.) For somebody who wasn't much raised in any particular tradition of spirituality and so on, deciding to subscribe to one ancient, exclusive, value- and ritual-proscribing cosmology, when there's another one that formed as far away and under conditions as different as possible, which also asks for and does all or a whole lot of the same things... it feels, kinda. "Silly" isn't quite the right word, because I know it has been done and don't feel like spitting on those who have, but, uh, let's say it would be, "difficult," for me to do that and keep all the conflicts in the back of my head. At best.

Hrm. Somehow I'm beginning to doubt many observing the thread, going forward, will be comfortable sharing how religion has affected their lives/lifestyles, from the direction it's going. I hope that isn't so. Not that I don't appreciate for anything sf's periodic back-and-forths on the subject, (as, if I'm painfully forthright, I'd probably be a different person if I hadn't observed them as a teenager,) but I'd very much appreciate a chance to just hear people speak to their own experiences with religion, and to the ways it now affects their lives day to day. Or the same with non-religion. Or atheism. Or whatever. No presumption intended. IMO the more and the earlier people learn that Columbus was an asshole, the better

I'd say our universe is pretty wondrous and romantic even with just the known explanations we have, though, of the complex depth in simple things and vice versa. Indeed, part of that is attested by how much of a challenge it is to give computers capabilities we take for granted. I'd never say stories are anything but great, and great to have, but the wonder of History (I was going to say nonfiction, but that sends a more argumentative implication than I intend) isn't hurt when comparing the two, at least for me, for its lacking an easily-derived moral.

Ok, I'll bite. My parents were some-kinda-Christians (visited Presbyterian, Unitarian, probably-some-others-too churches) who[se families] in large part went to church because that's just how their local communities organized and got together. They could kinda take it or leave it if they didn't like the preacher (and generally the community by extension) enough. Like, when I was in middle school I kinda blurted out "I'm an atheist! (*Ralph Wiggum voice*)" and my mom's reaction wasn't much more surprised or indignant than "that's nice dear" We didn't go to church for a long enough time that my experiences with religion and religious people growing up were limited, and unfortunately were often enough with the loudest idiots on offer, while my encounters with atheism were mostly with whoever was on hand to make the former look like the biggest possible idiots. (Blacken and company, with all their charms, come to mind) Something about the far, proudly nihilistic end of "no gods, only random quantum fluctuations, the determinism of the universe's laws and the Cruelty of Man" atheism has had a hard time sitting right with me, though (though it may have had a non-zero impact on at least some level). I guess I've come to some kinda self-satisfied sense of pseudo-"spirituality" that just thinks the (thus-far scientifically verified) circumstances of the universe's and life's and humanity's creations are, like, way too cool, man. Like, that people have gone from subsistence, hyper-local hunter-gatherer lifestyles and looked up at the sky and not known what the fuck, to being able to travel through the air? That's just too cool to not be amazed at, maybe even a little reverent of. And that for me leads into some (perhaps less than 100% scientifically verified, but anyway) belief, which I guess might be called faith, that at least in a really long view people generally trend towards seeking to improve themselves and each other and their lots, despite new challenges in our environments (many of them self-made) constantly slowing down and burdening our efforts to do so. And that the universe, at least the fraction I've seen (and again put into a really long view) also trends towards progress, maybe even to the extent I could say I believe in a "spirit of (positive) progress," for lack of a better word. Sorta more recently, I've been learning some more parts and factoids about a few different religions, just for fun (and possibly by way of diffusion/encouragement through Crusader Kings 2). Around the same time, it has occurred to me that for all the upsides of proudly secular/atheist rationalism, I haven't really been exposed to anything like a local community for something like it and wouldn't know what to expect from one or how to find one, at least not immediately. So while experiencing a kind of depression/social isolation that saw a lot of me wandering while rarely ending up actually going anywhere in particular, the thought has occurred to me that "...religious people have, like, their religious place as a place they can go when they don't know where to go, right? Kinda envying that bit in particular right now." But of course every time I've looked enough at any particular religion's schools of thought, values, philosophy etc and thought they sounded kinda interesting, I've run up against the "correct belief (faith involved) begets correct action," "the father the son and the Holy Ghost this stuff is important seriously," "no queers allowed," "don't eat/drink [edible thing]" orthodoxy type stuff, and generally felt like "Iiiiiii don't know if I'm compatible with this kinda shit." (metaphor or not) As far as the evolution bit goes, it's just that biology as we know it without evolution kinda... isn't. IIRC.Not that that's never been a thing science etc has had to deal with, but "best available explanations" and all that.

I remember hearing something like that, "don't condone the action [of homosexual love] but accept the person," while in early elementary school. I parroted it back to somebody else, who then asked "why?" Realized I hadn't thought about it and didn't have any reason to think it a problem. It's just a weird thing to say, I think. Sexual orientation isn't like a genre of music, or political stance, it's part of how a person is wired,. Would somebody who "doesn't like" the orientation then dislike the feeling of sexual/romantic attraction? That would beg the question of what makes them dislike homosexuality and no other orientation. Do they dislike the idea of homosexual couples receiving acceptance socially and legally etc? Exactly what negative/ undesireable-to-them consequences do they think that'll bring, then? It evokes the suspicion for me that maybe they just think gay sex and expressions of affection between gay partners are icky.

FE:if is for frightful, and try'n keep your trousers on