u/country-blue

I mean, I know the reasons “why.” They wanted to keep the lore more accessible and make it familiar to returning players from Oblivion. And to be fair, by itself the conflict between Talos worship vs Loyalty to the Empire is interesting enough.

But man, every time I go back and read about the awesome shamanistic religion of old Nord lore, I can’t help but feel we missed something incredibly 😭

I guess like, does anyone have any insider info about the creative decisions that made them make the switch? I wanna know what they were thinking when they got rid of mah girl Kyne…

This is something that’s been on my mind for a while but I never consciously thought about.

In our modern media-saturated age, it’s entirely possible for someone to be exploded to dozens, if not hundreds of more video games (alongside shows, movies etc) they’d never a fault play themselves. For instance, I have a pretty good idea of what ARC Raiders, Pragmata, Subnautica etc is about, despite never having actually played those games myself.

So I got curious, and basically started wondering, how much personal hands-on experience do you need to have with a game or game franchise in order to have properly “experienced” the gameplay/story/lore yourself?

Take Halo 1 for instance. Growing up I never had an Xbox, but one of my parent’s friends did, so I managed to play parts of it a few times as a kid. It still forms part of my core “gaming memory”, despite never having actually beaten the game myself (I managed to buy the Master Chief collection a few years ago but I’ve never gotten around to playing through it all.) Does that make me an “OG Halo fan”? Plus as I got older I managed to read a bit more about the lore, I played a bit of Halo 3 in high school, etc. But again, I’ve never beaten any of the games entirely and despite having a solid grasp of the story a lot of the more intimate details I wouldn’t get (such as character quotes from parts of the games I haven’t played.)

But then AGAIN again, I still really love the whole Halo mythos, the characters, the backstory, etc.

So this is where I’m left confused. Can I say I’m a fan of Resident Evil, despite not playing the older games? What about Zelda? I was more of a Mario kid growing up, but Zelda (through friends, gaming references etc) has always been “there” as part of my life and again I know what it’s all about, despite me having almost no actual experience with the games themselves.

I’m not really sure what I’m asking, I guess it’s just, what’s the difference between a “fan” / someone part of a gaming community and just, a casual observer? How important is it to get into a game’s universe fully to truly experience the “spirit” of that franchise? Because I can see arguments on both sides.

Just kind of spitballing here. What do you guys think?

Let me paint you a situation - you’re in your teens or early 20s, you’re out at night hanging out with your friends, shooting the shit, maybe getting drunk - and another group of guys starts approaching you.

Something about them feels off. Maybe they dress different. Maybe they’re a different ethnicity. Maybe you just don’t like the way they look in general.

I’m assuming a lot of us have had a similar experience at one point or another, so how did you respond?

Maybe you tense up. Maybe you huddle together and try to make yourself look bigger. Maybe you put on serious expressions and try to make yourself look as intimidating as possible.

Usually this other group will pass by without incident (or maybe a few awkward, suspicious looks) but the fact remains, why do we treat each other like this?

Obviously, I am a man. Obviously I’m aware of the world we live in how easy it is to fall victim to some crazy crackhead, or a guy having a really bad day, or whatever other threats are out there. I’m not saying it’s not good to have a sense of self-preservation.

But at the same time, let’s ask ourselves, *why* do we do this? Whilst you were tensing up with the other group of guys approaching, odds are they were doing exactly the same.

Do you do it because of biology? You could argue that in a sense, but people have made similar claims about slavery or pederasty, yet we have transcended those. Is it for the women? Perhaps, but is acting like a bunch of tough-guy wannabes really the only way to attract a girl? Is it poverty and boredom? That’s another factor, but would getting into pointless arguments, fights, preening contests with our fellow men really solve that?

And look, I get the awkwardness. I get the desire to want to feel masculine and accepted and like “one of the guys” with your friends. Risk-taking and assertiveness are common male behaviours.

But again, why? It’s one thing to dare your mate to climb a tree and jump into your neighbours pool at 2am on a Friday night. It’s another to try and belittle, demean, ignore or fight your fellow man because you didn’t like his hat (and end up in the hospital with three broken ribs because of it.)

Is it really because we’re all emotionally stunted and feel like we cant express our true selves for fear of looking “weak” or “gay?” Is it because we only think we can be honest and chill when a woman is in the picture? Do we fear turning into the femboy catgirls being lusted over by big, sweaty bears?

So much of this feels self-inflicted, if I think about it. And so much of it feels increasingly outdated, destructive, violent and unnecessary as the world moves on.

A Ukrainian and a Russian man going at each other’s throats today may have been best counter-strike buddies just a few years ago. And now I hear you arguing that that’s to do with politics and ideology, but what is a war if not a glorified street fight with deadlier results?

Why do white men fear black men? Why do black men fear white men? Why do men fear other men at all?

Again, I’m not saying to give up looking out for yourself. I’m not saying to give that homeless guy $200 because “he really needs to send a present to his wife.” I’m just saying, surely there’s gotta be a better way right? I don’t know all the answers, but I know the problems when I see it.

What do y’all think?

Emperor Palpatine is pretty much the only example of a glup shitto character that successfully made the jump to being a decent character in their own right that I can think of.

Palpatine was basically the biggest nothing-burger character for the first decade and a half he existed for. He showed up in the last Star Wars OT movie way back in 1983 to look menacing and have a cool dialogue scene. He barely speaks in the movie and it’s tough to tell whether or not the actor is actually giving a good performance under the face paint. He has negative character depth. You pretty much know nothing about him and are given no reason to care about him. The most memorable thing about him was that he had lightning bolts.

Star Wars managed to take this glorified bathrobe of a character and actually develop him overtime through their animated shows into a fleshed out and substantive character in his own right. When Palpatine got reintroduced in the Prequels, it was definitely as a glup shitto character. “Yooo, look it’s the character from the Return of the Jedi that no one has thought about since the movie came out, remember him???”. Then he got several arcs dedicated to him that delves into his past, an apprentice to bounce off of, and he got to do actually relevant things in the plot.

He started off as nothing but a cool character design but managed to become a well rounded character overtime, unlike the other famous Star Wars glup shitto, Boba Fett who also started as nothing more than a cool character design but unlike Palpatine pretty much failed to develop past that starting point

Is he overused nowadays? Yeah. Did he need another trilogy? Not really. Is he just a fanservice character like Boba Fett? Not at all. Even if he gets shoved into everything, he’s at least interesting on his own merit beyond marketable design.