This week, I ramble about mobile games, not being able to finish shows I love, and spoiler culture.
View on YouTube: https://youtu.be/nfDMRqVjjCM
Links:
Animal Restaurant: https://animalrestaurant.fandom.com/wiki/Animal_Restaurant
Folding Ideas 50 Shades of Gray Review: https://youtu.be/qzk9N7dJBec
Ladykiller in a Bind: http://ladykillerinabind.com/
Transcript:
Ah, okay! Welcome to Tuesday Talks with Trick!
I’m actually recording this on Monday--the day before--so that I can release it on time on Tuesday, so we’ll see how that goes. But--uh--let’s start putting on some makeup and I had a couple things I wanted to talk about.
As far as stuff--get my ears--as far as stuff going on for me this week I’ve been absolutely obsessed with this--it’s like a little clicker game, like a mobile game called Animal Restaruant and it’s not a very good game and honestly it’s more like an ad delivery system. But it has really cute art and it’s like an idle game and you run a restaurant and earn fish. There’s a thing where you have to hold down a button to promote and it gives you that active engagement but I actually made a turbo button--I’m sure this violates the TOS--out of some hair clips. I can clip it and hold down the button, so it’s my turbo button. Engineering!
There’s like a community of people, like a friendship feature and have people come work at your buffet. Also the story is kind of dark. You how you’ve got some Pokemon, you read through their descriptions and you’re like--I’m sorry, what? Like, the polar bear’s coming in like, “I wanted to eat your sushi one last time before the polar ice caps melt.” There’s a lot of ecological stuff; it’s not, like, super deep, it’s just kind of dark.
Well, let’s put on some foundation I guess.
The thing I really wanted to talk about today for just a little bit was--I don’t know if y’all get this--but sometimes I’ll be watching a show or reading a book or a series, especially series, I noticed that I’m really into them and kind of mainline them and then it starts to get toward the end (like the last season or the last few chapters) and I just can’t finish it!
And I was trying to think about why. I’ve been mainlining for a while Babylon 5 and now I’m getting stuck at the end. I don’t know what it is. Like, it’s not so much that I don’t want to finish it because then it will be over, it’s like--I don’t know--the story escalation especially in later episodes starts to get really intense. There’s something about that intensity that I really like--that’s what makes stories engaging--but do you know what I mean?
It makes it really hard because I get really anxious about mind control stories, or forced preganacy kind of stuff. It gets me hard to follow. I find it kind of triggering. And that’s not the problem here. It seems almost overwhelming to finish when you’re invested so much emotional energy in watching it, binging it, being in that world, and then to think it’s coming to the end.
And it’s not about “Oh, if I put it off I can stay in that world” but I’m almost expecting it to be a lot, based on my experience with other media. THere’s some stuff I can watch the first three quarters and then it’s that last quarter or third that somehow just feels emotionally insurmountable because the story will escalate. A lot of times I find myself watching stuff that’s really fluffy because I know I can finish it.
Yeah, I don’t know. But then there’s other stuff--it’s rare for me to binge something all the way through. One of the things I’ve binged all the way through right when it came out in one night was Jessica Jones. There was something I think--like, I’m wondering is that something to do with media I identify with versus media I’m experiencing new things that I haven’t experienced in a way that I can identify with. I feel like a lot of women can identify with--maybe not the specific trauma in Jessica Jones but a lot of the associated stuff seems kind of familiar in some ways. Because it’s not like I can’t handle intense stories but there are other ones--especially ensemble casts that almost seems harder. I wonder if it’s because I haven’t…
There was a Dan Olson quote in his 50 Shades of Gray video--and I forgot where he got it from, I’ll look it up--about the visual novel called Lady Killer in a Bind. Some of it was the idea that fiction lets us--you learn empathy, right? It lets you experience things from a different perspective or a different experience that what you know and you can always relate different things back to it.
It’s kind of a way to do emotional tourism. I read a lot of romance novels--I love them--but one of the things he pointed out was that it’s fun to spend a few hours in these torrid love affairs but they would be exhausting in real life. I wonder is some it is that maybe in some ways, when you get really into a series it does feel a little bit more like your life. Obviously there’s a difference between fiction and other things but it starts to feel more emotional invested and it’s less tourism. You’re not just involved in the meta of watching it but you involved in the story in a way that crosses over into your own life because you’ve become attached to characters. I don’t think that’s unhealthy. Part of it is you want characters that people identify with, or root for, or root against, are emotionally invested in.
For me sometimes, it’s “Oh no, it’s too real!” I’m out of the meta and I’m in the story and I think that’s a testament to good storytelling but also to the fact I get really anxious!
Let’s do some powder.
So I don’t know. That was something I’ve been kind of musing about. I wonder too…
I’m like that a lot with video games. It’s not the difficulty but it’s more that the story is about to get real. I wonder if that’s something that affects how I engage with there media.
If you have stories about things you’ve binged but not finished, let me know!
But I will finish Babylon 5 because it is amazing. As an aside, the first time I watched the pilot and I saw G’Kar and he’s skipping around, and he’s delightfull machinating all these things, I was, like, “That. That’s gonna be the best one.” And Richard was like, “Well yeah, he’s the best character. And actually, I don’t have any spoilers for the end of Babylon 5.
That’s the other thing I think is related to this: I usually love spoilers. I love knowing what’s going to happen at the end and then watching it happen because it helps alleviate some of that tension.
I know for some people they find that reduces their enjoyment in the work. Some people enjoy surprises more and they enjoy those “Ah-ha!” moments and that’s not something that I enjoy because it induces anxiety in me because I startle easily and it has similar responses to that.
So I wonder if for the people that do like spoilers and don’t like spoilers--I wonder where the anxiety crossover is.
But it’s funny with Babylon 5 because it’s an old show and I’ve just somehow managed to avoid spoilers this long. And because it’s old, people aren’t really talking about it that much unless you seek it out so it’s really easy to…
It’s fun to have one you do that with except now it’s getting to the point where [the story] is like, “Oh my god, oh my god.” I’m trying to debate whether I want to read spoilers or not to kind of get through the end because it would probably help me finish it. But there’s definitely something unique about watching a thing unspoiled. I don’t think one is better or worse; I think sometimes when people talk about they’re, “Oh no! Don’t read spoilers! You have to watch it!” because they want to share that “ah-ha” moment with you. I think something--and I need to remember they’re just being excited--but different people are going to need to absorb media in different ways.
The way I try to frame it, too, is “Oh man, I watched it unspoiled and I had this ‘Whaaaa!!!’ moment!”
But I don’t know. You can talk about that and share that in ways that maybe don’t make people feel like they’re cheating for looking at spoilers. I don’t know--spoiler culture is always its own kind of thing, too. I think in some ways it’s gotten out of hand because people get--there’s sort of a train--about what is a spoiler, what’s not a spoiler, when can you say the spoilers…
And in general, I try not to do spoilery things because I want to be considerate of other people there’s a certain line of is this a spoiler or not a spoiler. For certain people, if you say anything about the media--even if it’s not directly to character or plot--people might get angry. So it’s… Just trying to make spaces where there’s an expectation that this is an extra spoiler free zone, and this is the medium no-plot or character spoilers but we might talk about things in the show, and then the free-for-alls… I don’t know what to do about it.
And again, these are all minor problems, right.
Let’s get a little taupe [eyeshadow]. It’s called “That’s Taupe!” I love the names of it. Grab a little mirror.
So that’s kind of how I feel about spoiler culture. I think that it’s completely valid to want to experience media in the way you want to experience it but other people are gonna experience it differently. It’s better to kind of negotiate what kind of space a thing’s gonna be ahead of time.
I just know that “When I Met Your Mother”--I never watched it--but the night the finale aired somebody posted the name of the mother in the top line of a facebook post that was going out to all of their friends and that I feel was an overline the spoiler-spoiler. But then there’s some other stuff that people consider spoilers that I would consider extremely minor. I also have to remember that spoilers do not really diminish my enjoyment of work. They help me actually do it. There’s some things that I find kind of uncomfortable that I like know about ahead of time because then someone can tell me what episodes to skip or that I know where the story is going so I can enjoy the ride without having that uncontrollable tension.
It’s like riding a roller coaster that you’ve been on before; it’s still really fun! You know what I mean?
Take my fluff [hair] down.
So that’s my feelings on spoilers. I forgot how we got here but we have arrived. So with that, I’m gonna sign off and try and get this all cleaned up. I really appreciate you guys supporting me on Patreon! Please check out my music. I’ve also uploaded all of my Dani Orthanc tracks on Soundcloud. All of those are available royalty-free for people to use however, remix. That’s the licensure they’re under.
But yeah! Tune in tomorrow--when you’re seeing this it’ll be Tuesday--on 6at6 our guest is gundo from the filk community. I hope everyone has a wonderful week and I’ll talk to you soon!