Empress of Mars: Undisputed @zebratron2084@awoo.space

@Austin_Dern @Owlor Okay, my new S-Rank goal for Parallax is that it's actively Sherlock-Game-resistant by the end. XD <3

So I just had the most bizarre realization.

For decades, I had been walking around with the notion in the back of my mind that my 2nd-uncle-or-something Joey was gay.

This was not a strongly held impression. I barely even knew Joey when I lived in Ohio. I think I've thought about him literally 3-5 times in the last two decades. But if you'd asked me, "Quick, was Joey gay?" I'd have said yes.

But now that I've puzzled out the math, I realized I would have been all of four years old when I last saw him. And somewhere in my four-year-old mind, I think I got Joey confused with Jack Tripper from Three's Company.

And that's the pisser: JACK TRIPPER WASN'T EVEN GAY. THAT WAS THE WHOLE FUCKING POINT OF THE SHOW.

And that's why I don't trust human brains.

"the twink > twank > twonk pipeline"

@Owlor That also looks really interesting! I'd love to look at how such an old and established and *particular* fandom has looked at issues like this!

And yeah, my basic stance is that it's a really fun and healthy intellectual exercise with zero actual ANSWERS behind it -- but looking for non-existent answers on purpose is basically one of my favorite things. :)

@Owlor Also, I have a huge soft spot for books and media with unreliable narrators so I probably couldn't afford to be a Doylist about most of them. Like, being a Doylist when reading American Psycho or watching Legion. OMG the pain. :D

@Soreth @zx3 No, but that would also be 22 minutes worth of hilarious. :)

@Owlor I would probably register as an extreme Doylist then. :) But it's complicated. I think there's a lot of value in putting on the Watsonian mindset, knowing it's not exactly "true" but it is useful, as long as people don't mistake it for... a certain specific value of real. Like I said, it gets complicated for me. :)

@Owlor Actually I'm not familiar with this but it sounds EXTREMELY interesting and I'm probably gonna spend a few hours digging into it sometime soon. :D

@zx3 @Soreth Two words, and I suspect that if there's anyone on Earth I don't have to explain further to, it's you two (because at the very least you know what Google is):

"North Takoma."

@zx3 @Soreth It's funny you should mention that. :) Look through my recent replies for the profuse apology for the extremely long post. :)

(I basically just went off on an extended spiel on that exact topic! <3 )

@001zlnv YES YES YES EXACTLY

@Owlor It's a great writing principle! But I'd say that what an author really does is create a good *illusion* that this is true of their characters? I mean that in kind of an esoteric and really specific sense, though, so let me see if I can clarify a little...

To give an extreme example, you know for years there were debates about what state Springfield from the Simpsons is really in? And people would rush in seriously insisting they could prove what state it was, because there were only 50 choices, and there HAD to be a real answer, right?

Well, of course not. Because Simpsons is a very, very low continuity show, where the creators not only don't always care about internal consistency, sometimes they go out of their way to make it impossible.

And yet fans will often try to apply this same kind of logic to series that don't even take place in reality. They'll try to figure out things like, say, the exact genetics of centaur hybrids in Centaurworld or something.

And those things are fun to play with, but when people take them as Objectively Real with only one solution, it's... kinda silly. And I feel like one of the fallacies fan theories like these commit is assuming that a literary reality has to work like a fictional one.

Like, to give another extremely silly example, "If Cap'n Crunch is a captain now, doesn't that mean that at one point he was an Ensign Crunch and had to work his way up the ranks? Yet there was never an Ensign Crunch cereal. So CLEARLY what happened is that he started out as an officer. But this practice was abolished by the British Navy in 1852*, so the only explanation left is bribery or nepotism. Is our Dear Cap'n CORRUPT?! Is he the true villain of the Quaker Oats Multiverse?"

It's that kind of stuff I'm talking about. There's a little bit of "because the author said so" in even the most realistic of stories, because that's just inherent to fiction. And sometimes there just is no answer to "what is this character doing in the moments we don't see them," just like the Simpsons... kinda don't have to live anywhere in particular, because there are really no "Simpsons" except for the actual moments in the show -- the "text" in lit-crit terms. (Well, except there are, but that's the "meta-text" and I have already rambled at you long enough, you are very patient and thank you. :) )

(*I have no idea if this is actually true. :) )

Of course, all this gets complicated for the furry crowd, where very often our characters live in our heads 24/7, and their lives are intimately tangled with ours! The leads in my webcomic are really just headfriends of my wife and mine, for instance, so they do have a tendency to leap in and rewrite themselves. :)

I'm not really saying that *that* sort of thing's a problem, if that's what you meant! If your characters have an independent imaginative existence that is completely awesome. :D And if you meant, like, giving them intricate backstories and motives and a life outside your plotline, that is also awesome. :D

@JulieSqveakaroo It's been building for a loooong time, although my encounter with the Only Murders in the Building fanbase suuuure accelerated it.

THE RULES OF FAN THEORY:

1) All creators are omniscient about anything related to their work.

2) The showrunner oversees all production personally, even props & background art.

3) A director will always choose "paying off" an easter egg over drama, characterization, or realism.

4) Every single aspect of a show is meticulously planned and wholly deliberate.

5) Making shows is easy & inexpensive. Nobody ever does something just because it's simpler or cheaper.

6) Characters exist and act independently even when not on screen.

7) All media symbolism operates on a strict 1:1 ratio. Each symbol signifies precisely one thing, which is consciously chosen by the creator and can be correctly and finally determined by a close examination of the "clues."

8) Nothing is ever random. Creators never script anything, ever, unless they are absolutely certain of its full thematic and plot significance.

9) It's all about you.

@Austin_Dern Didn't know Eero Aarnio had made a comeback!

Welp, got banned GOOD AND HARD from Reddit. Every account.

My offense: telling someone in DMs that they were "unlovable and unfuckable" after they doubled down on abusing someone and calling them "another moron"... because they did not know how to make Zalgo text.🙄​

My only worry was that Peg would lose her accounts too from being on the same IP... but yeah, not only does that now seem unlikely, apparently she doesn't really give a fuck either. It's fuckin' Reddit.

Really, this feels liberating more than anything else. Reddit was a huge sticky time sink, one of those places you waste multiple thousands of hours on but gain nothing. The whole site seems designed to prevent you ever making a single friend or acquaintance from it. It's like Usenet with a nanny.

I only showed up there in pursuit of a right-wing troll, honestly, way back when. Talk about mission creep. I'm glad I have a barrier that will keep me from ever going back.

o/` all i wanna do is break chuds for you o/`

@anthracite A dream, or a precog moment?

@Doephin @Soreth I mean, look at who I'm engaged to, there's no way that could not have been intended as a compliment. :D

@Doephin @Soreth YOU BEAUTIFUL MONSTER