Le Communard

My first response on seeing this thread was "is that even possible?" so I wish you the damn best of luck. When I played EU vanilla Impossible/Ironman I basically had to give up in tears after god knows many tries, and this is after finally getting good enough to beat Classic/Ironman pretty handily. I never really got into Long War, through (I played a pirated copy the first time and I could never get the mod to work), so I don't know how much more (or less) difficult it is at the highest level. It seems like it gives you a lot more tools which is nice. Also, I'm just not sure it's possible to get harder than Thin Men already are <_<. Playing in panic mode was probably the single biggest reason for my XCOM playthroughs failing (well, after Thin Men) when I'd try and double down on a stupid decision by taking even more stupid risks, or even worse getting a little angry and doing something way to aggressive or careless. At least you made it.

I knew this burn felt like it was from roughly 2007.

Yo there's a whole world of difference between cultural specificity and straight up queer erasure. Just because something wasn't written as "gay" or whatever doesn't mean it's wrong to think about it that way or that there was *nothing* queer that went into the conception of a character. By foreclosing on queerness like that you're basically claiming there is no queerness in Japan, which is a kind of gross orientalisim. Queerness in Japanese media is something way more than "just a trope"--it has meaning and significance even if it isn't exactly the same and the recognition of difference is the beginning of a critique and not the foreclosure of it. People have plenty of right to find a problem with a character who expresses overwhelming attraction to women and only ends up with men, regardless of how she was "supposed" to be. A lot of you have empathy that's about three sizes too small.

I... I was linked to this thread from a "major" gaming news outlet. What? This was not the way I expected to end up posting on SF again. What started off as a small comment ended up as a long-winded meander through queer theory, oh my. [spoiler=Long Digression in Queer Theory Read at Your Own Peril]I guess the one thing I would add to this is beware the assumption that Soliel is *intended* to be lesbian/bi. Fantastical sexual deviance is very very different from real lived queerness, and a fictional character's over-the-top attraction to girls is not necessarily indication she was intended to be read as a queer person. It's much more likely that in the mind of the writers this trait was simply a set up for ad-nausea gender-bender jokes, and her essential "straightness" was never really in question (think of the way that women are free to admire each others physical beauty without being read as "gay"--I suspect this is more like than not an expression of a similar, though more pronounced idea, that it is possible to express same-sex desire without being a "homosexual subject"). Soliel never, to my knowledge, self identifies as queer or lesbian or bi or anything--in fact no such word ever seems to be used about her (could be wrong about this one, though). This points to me to the notion that her desire for women while real is intended as nothing more than a kind of surface performance--if anything it seems her desire is more towards the *feminine*, as seen in Foleo, rather than to women in particular, although she couches it in terms of women. Of course, in counterpoint to this we know she *does* expresses very real desire for women, which she is self-conscious of, so I can see where a reading of her as a queer subject might come from. This is less to suggest she be beyond critique and more to suggest that that critique probably shouldn't be rooted in the assumption that she was "supposed" to be queer. In fact, this almost suggest something worse, a world where queerness is a kind of disassociative heterosexuality, where genuine queer subjects are impossible since they simply become folded back into heterosexual ones--notice how in her interactions with women she overwhelmingly takes a "mans" aggressive role, even while she's very "feminine" in presentation. This also suggests new readings of that support where she argues with the fujoshi--both of them are shown to be engaging in this distancing strategy. She desires women in the same way the fujoshi is supposed to imagine a boy desiring boys, as something at arms length from the self. We can see her perhaps performing heterosexual desire from the "male" position, in a kind of flip dismissal of her own "femininity". Of course, were this desire actually enacted, it would be something like the butch (the "masculine" lesbian), but it isn't, and that's the very point, this contradiction in terms between performed "maleness" and embodied "femininity". ...maybe, but I'm getting into waters that are making me uncomfortable, hence the scare quotes. It needs to be reiterated--what we're looking at (perhaps) is not a queer subjectivity but a heterosexual fantasy that touches on queer things (of course, I wouldn't be a good queer scholar if I suggested those were actually entirely discreet). When Soliel aggressively flirts with women she is doing it in a kind of drag, but shes also enacting a kind of aggressive (but also sentimental) sexuality that "more ok" because shes a women. This makes sense if we read her as a fantasy site of the male player. Alternatively, this also suggests an entirely different reading in a Takarazuka context, where sex is downplayed in favor of a nebulous "beauty", and the question of gender is elided because were talking about relationships that happen on a totally non-physical level. In fact, looking back I'm more inclined towards this one since she doesn't engage in any illicit physical activity towards women--for example, groping excused by "but were both girls". This is also worth serious critique as a general rule, since it constitutes a shocking dismissal of queer persons (of course, queer person-hood is much less strong in Japan, where queerness has long been considered a safe domain of fantasy). This is of course all to say that when it turns out she desires men all along there should be nothing surprising about it--since what we're looking at is probably nothing more than a conduit of male heterosexual desire. This character isn't real, there is no "real" lesbian underneath her performance, only a male writer. Counterpoint--queerness has totally been gaining traction in Japan in recent years. What we might also be seeing is a "transitional" character--a character written in a culture with a kind of growing awareness that there is such a thing as "queer people" but one that doesn't quite know what to do with it yet and has one foot in two worlds (much like our own really). In which case what we might be seeing multiple strains of queer identity being worked out--the heterosexual fantasy coming into contact with the lived experience. Of course, the resulting hybrid is pretty awful, which is sadly par for the course. With this in mind I will also totally defend readings of Soliel as queer, especially because ambiguity is so essential to what constitutes queerness in the first place. There is plenty here in her narrative to look at it and see a queer person, and from that draw legitimately bad conclusions--I probably don't need to rehash those at this point. Simply because someone probably wasn't written as queer doesn't mean they can't be read as it. Also the original support conversation has serious consent issues and is gross, even if it isn't "date rape" per se (whatever still totally disrespectful and awful behavior close enough).

Both men and women must follow the will of the clan ring, yet no proud Orlanthi is required to remain. If a marriage match truly displeases you you may find another clan to adopt you into there fold. Actually, there is an event where you send your Lawspeaker to sue a ghost.

Your words mean little when you fail to act as Orlanthi! Were taking the clan magic until you shape up. To do such a thing to your own ancestors! Our clan will be known as stickpickers throughout the land!

So you're saying it was the Heortlings, with whom we have an ancient bloodfeud! Whose traders are a blight upon Issaries name and whose men lay with there sheep since there women be so grotesque! We should have known!

In the middle of Death Week, a gruesome delegation appears in your clan hall. These are the insubstantial spirits of your own dead warriors. "You have shamed the clan. You have turned from the old ways. You will face nothing but doom and disaster until you act in a manner worthy of our ancestors Promise them that you will do better in the future. Sacrifice to Humakt for protection from ghosts. Sacrifice to these spirits. Scold them for frightening their own people. Try to bind some of the spirits as magical servants.

Dont get me wrong Master of Magic is the shit, but I'm more partial to Master of Orion, which you can also get right now, and you get both one and two, so you dont have to worry about the silly debate about which one is better. The answer is two, btw. Also, I always thought Dominions was a better successor to Master of Magic than Age of Wonders, but that isnt on GoG. Its just so much more more strategically interesting and satisfying to play. If your into tactical strategy games, the do have Silent Storm which is flawed but interesting. If you get it there is a mod the speeds up the ludicrously slow animations, as well as one that helps fix the broken level up system. On a larger scale they have Panzer General 2, which is just fucking awesome. Still definitely the best WWII strategy game ever made.

I think its telling that I've been using literally the same strats, and this is the first time I've read about what anybody else has been doing. The only difference is I havent really bothered with warmongering, its too chance dependent on getting early affinity quests and not having a huge swathe of aliens and rugged terrain between you and you enemies. Also, Ive been tending to go Harmony each time because Transcendence is so much simpler than Emancipation or promised land, which is just BAD. I haven't really tried Contact yet, mostly because I haven't bothered and Ive never gotten a piece of the signal from a ruin despite having played a good number of games at this point. I could never consistently beat Immortal on Civ 5 and I find even Apollo pretty easy, although honestly I would say it is a little closer to Emperor than to King.

It is becoming increasingly clear the only way to root out this continued heresy is with fire and sword. I now have no choice but to write to Rome so that His Eminence can send out the call for a holy Crusade through all Christendom.

Blasphemy. To believe that any mortal could approach the divine transcendence is an insult to the very idea of faith itself and the majesty of Gods infinite splendor. God who is the one and everything, the alpha and omega. I demand this topic be looked as it is a den of Sin and Lies that risks leading the flock of this good board astray into Devilry.

In my mind you've always been the guy who isn't FESS Nightmare.

Sure, tier lists sucked just as much back in the day if not *more*. But that doesnt mean that they didnt take *effort*, someting you young folks would know nutin about. Honestly, I don't remember a lot of FESS folks as well as I should, but I was gone for a lot of those years. I've been Facebook friends with Nightmare, the old one, for a long time but its so hard to keep up. I should give it a shot again.

Of course we are. Wont you be a deah and tell your mother we should go out for cocktails,sometime?

I'm more like everyone's crazy alcoholic aunt, TBH. Wait ...who are you? I must be loosing my mind in my old age. Either that or your sense of humor is even drier than mine is.

Why, Pokemon love being owned by trainer! They have no responsibilities except to fight, which is there natural state, (although half the time they can hardly be bothered). The rest of the day they just spend in there cozy little pokeball fishin, dacin, and eatin watermelon without a care in the world. Sometimes it seems like ownin Pokemon is more trouble then its worth, but then I remember the trainers burden. Without us these creatures would be nought but tallgrass savages, and they need trainers to teach them civilization and work ethic. Most of the times it feels more like they own me! You know, God gave man speach and pokeballs and set man over as the guardian of Pokemon, and thats just the way the worlds supposed to be. Why, I would contend that ownin Pokemon is not bad, but a positive good!

No, Im not Thunk, Hero is Thunk. I got banned from FESS2 for accidentally saying I was under 13 and then kind of acting it, although I later came back for a while as General Veers. Spent a lot of time in those days in a little drama backwater called Fire Emblem World, a little bit of time at Fire Emblem Fusion. Now that place was mad cliquish. Fortunately, all of the archives of those days are I believe off the internet. And Der Kommissar was indeed Sword Saint, the old bugger. I don't think anyone has seen the people who were our age during the old FESS days in years.

Age gap? I hate to break it to you be we are old as fuck, man. Older than balls. Which is why youve gotta embrace it like me. As for goobergate, unless you enjoy conspiracy theories and harassing women you arent really missing much. I just happened to know a lot of people who were unwittingly involved. Good to hear about school stuff. I was supposed to be graduated by now but I ran into a little one of those disasters and it didnt go quite as well. Its funny, because Hero and I actually know each other and ended up kinda coordinating our interchangeability, but Der Komissar was just an mod back in the FESS2 days of yore (that was an effin long time ago now, like actually ten years. Jeez, we *are* old).

I aint gonna take no meds! they put illuminati dust in em and muck around all in your brain. I can hear the voices sometimes tellin me to do illuminati stuff in my head. Nuhuh this geezer is one hundred percent natural.

You young shits need to have some more respect for your elders. Why, lemme tell you, I helped build this board with nothing more than my two hands and my snark! It wasn't easy in those days. You had to type uphill both ways just to start a new topic. And dont even get me started with how hard it was to build a tier list with nothing more than a broken down chevy and a clock radio. You kids these days just take everything for granted, and never think of all the hard work your forefathers put in so you could enjoy the luxuries you do today.

Yes, surprising, I'm not dead. It turns out people think I'm a lot funnier on twitter, or something like that. I just popped in to see what goobergate was up to in my old playground. Turns out its pretty boring. Howve you been? Things the same as always?

Shutout to Hero for the magan mundi thread because that shit was bomb. Also, cant forget the followups, http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=18634 http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=18633 ...although it does seem a little crass to be complimenting yourself.

Basically, the answer to all of your questions is that Maelys Blackfyre lives and will come to cleanse Westeros with fire and sword.

Actually, I do this. Not necessarily at the time, but I pick up all the ones I don't have already. Really, though, most of the interesting stuff can be picked up by playing through the main quest in Morrowind, which is essentially about a massive theological dispute. True story.