Aion's AUKN Archaeology and Sociology Thread (off topic split from Anime Industry)

Aion

Time-Traveller
I know nobody at AL wanted that, but seriously- never use that distributor/shipping thing ever again. People are mad, and it just sucks that what should be a happy and celebratory thing ends up a disappointment.

And to add another suggestion, next year it would be wise to appoint a public relations expert dedicating to dealing with the fallout stemming from the inevitable future delays next Christmas. It may come across as somewhat arrogant on my part, @anime_andrew (perish the thought), but I would be willing to throw my own name into the hat, as it's likely I'll be here again, should I not find myself consumed by the sorrow of existence or have escaped from it. I would strive to help those not ignorant of Gankutsuou.

This was the thread, you sent me Tokko you generous man you (and possibly Hell Girl, I can’t actually remember where I got that). Your mind’s clearly going - That, or I was never quite antagonistic enough to leave much of an impression. The letter was indeed poorly handwritten and I believe threatened either to dox me or for you to come to my house and do nefarious things now you knew where I lived, I would have expected nothing less. Happily I moved away a year later.

I actually laughed at the sheer randomness and absurdity of that thread, interspersed with @chaos (RIP?) genuinely at a loss over whether I'd somehow doxxed Retro. I guess there were times when it wasn't all trolling, back in the day. My memory is as awful as yours is clearly not, although your description of what I wrote does ring a bell. Was it not you that posted a picture relating to "bird-watching" at your local park?... I think it's coming back to me.

I'll stop derailing the thread now. I mean, it's dead until the post is a thing again, but still: the younger generation knows not of what we type, for they are blessed. Typing of...

We ain't importing the third world lol, Just trying to show a little compassion and understanding :p

Ah Luke, my naive young friend: compassion and weakness are as interchangeable as kindness and cruelty. You would show compassion to people that would not attempt to conform to your own nation's identity and religious beliefs and leave a homeless man starving so you can feed people that are more likely to look down on you, for Allah does not accept difference and people seeking money are not the same as people seeking salvation. Multiculturalism is a lie when humans have only ever subjugated, be it by war or law.

Merry Christmas, btw.
 
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Ah Luke, my naive young friend: compassion and weakness are as interchangeable as kindness and cruelty. You would show compassion to people that would not attempt to conform to your own nation's identity and religious beliefs and leave a homeless man starving so you can feed people that are more likely to look down on you, for Allah does not accept difference and people seeking money are not the same as people seeking salvation. Multiculturalism is a lie when humans have only ever subjugated, be it by war or law.

Merry Christmas, btw.
Hi, Merry xmas.

As some who has been not only helping those in need but also feeding the homeless for 16 years I tend to try always think of being peaceful and helping anyone in need.
While understand why some may not be as welcoming as others but I feel we would be better off helping those who do need refuge as overall it isn't their fault for their situation.
We are all human so not everyone is evil or born evil then again I do get told always trying to see the best in some people isn't always the best idea but it is me who is generally happy go lucky and sometimes overly friendly lol.
Santa is technically a foreigner but we won't mention that :p

Though then again I also know some legal migrants who have minor issues with illegals trying to get into for free but this is not really an appropriate place for this convo.

I hope you have a nice xmas.
 
I didn’t realise we were staging an AUKN production of A Christmas Carol with Ebenezer Aion and Nephew Fred Luke. Can I be the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come?
I actually laughed at the sheer randomness and absurdity of that thread, interspersed with @chaos (RIP?) genuinely at a loss over whether I'd somehow doxxed Retro. I guess there were times when it wasn't all trolling, back in the day. My memory is as awful as yours is clearly not, although your description of what I wrote does ring a bell. Was it not you that posted a picture relating to "bird-watching" at your local park?... I think it's coming back to me.
Of all things you would remember that, wouldn’t you? I just want to make it clear, for the record, although I did at that time live in close proximity to Jimmy Savile we absolutely, categorically never had anything to do with each other. My real world deviancy only goes as far as your banana orgies.

Also am I imagining things or is that speech at the end of your post ripped from a collection of quotes by Kreia in Knights of the Old Republic II? Actually, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that she’d become your political heroine.
 
I didn’t realise we were staging an AUKN production of A Christmas Carol with Ebenezer Aion and Nephew Fred Luke. Can I be the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come?

Of all things you would remember that, wouldn’t you? I just want to make it clear, for the record, although I did at that time live in close proximity to Jimmy Savile we absolutely, categorically never had anything to do with each other. My real world deviancy only goes as far as your banana orgies.

Also am I imagining things or is that speech at the end of your post ripped from a collection of quotes by Kreia in Knights of the Old Republic II? Actually, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that she’d become your political heroine.
Banana orgies..
 
As some who has been not only helping those in need but also feeding the homeless for 16 years I tend to try always think of being peaceful and helping anyone in need.
While understand why some may not be as welcoming as others but I feel we would be better off helping those who do need refuge as overall it isn't their fault for their situation.
We are all human so not everyone is evil or born evil then again I do get told always trying to see the best in some people isn't always the best idea but it is me who is generally happy go lucky and sometimes overly friendly lol.
Santa is technically a foreigner but we won't mention that :p

Though then again I also know some legal migrants who have minor issues with illegals trying to get into for free but this is not really an appropriate place for this convo.

Hi again, Luke. I hope your Christmas was a joyous one.

I didn’t realise we were staging an AUKN production of A Christmas Carol with Ebenezer Aion and Nephew Fred Luke. Can I be the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come?

Of all things you would remember that, wouldn’t you? I just want to make it clear, for the record, although I did at that time live in close proximity to Jimmy Savile we absolutely, categorically never had anything to do with each other. My real world deviancy only goes as far as your banana orgies.

Also am I imagining things or is that speech at the end of your post ripped from a collection of quotes by Kreia in Knights of the Old Republic II? Actually, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that she’d become your political heroine.

Ayase, you ARE the ghost of both AUKN's haunted past and distant future: forever here, reliving a past that refuses to die. Have you thought about using your memory to write an Encyclopedia Dramatica, just for AUKN? I'm sure Lupus would be thrilled with his love of 'lulz'. Only the other week he was amused someone spammed my MAL page, suggesting I should kill myself. People never change, truly.

I tend to remember the worst things. Or the most funny. You posting about some father coming at you at the park as you 'innocently' tried to take pictures of birds was pretty amusing, tbh. It stayed with me, despite me being the goldfish that I am, anyway. Pretty sure I also saved your irl picture from that incudent for future blackmail purposes... must've been on my old computer. Oh well~

The quote in my signature is from No Longer Human: a happy semi-autobiographical tale that ends with a message of love and that life must go on. I have not played KotR. I have however watched The Force Awakens, which was SJW shite.
 
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Damn, wasn't quick enough to see the good stuff there. I'd have to care a lot more about what other people were doing and less about potentially ruining my relationships with them to be able to devote my time to a series of ED articles. My memories, for the most part, can stay in my head where they belong.

Speaking of horrible (albeit entertaining) corners of the internet, I do wonder from some of your posts if you may have spent a little too much time on /pol/ in your absence Aion. To be fair so did I, it was entertaining until the hivemind actually started to believe Donald Trump might be a good president rather than just a hilarious joke to play on the world. It's a little odd to hear someone I'd previously assumed to be the eternal cynic buying into partisan ideas, rather than seeing through both sides as the naive shrieking overreactors they are. I was rewatching Deadwood recently in preparation for the upcoming film and couldn't help but wonder what the internet would have to say about it were it released today - Token minority characters, lesbians, racist depictions of the Chinese, rampant misogyny, strong female characters, a massively wealthy capitalist as a villain, I imagine every compulsive clickbaiter of a YouTube reviewer would have found reason to hate one of the greatest television shows of all time over some petty dumb political bullsh*t they subscribe to. What a difference a decade makes.

I'll leave you with a quote also, one from Stanley Kubrick I think applies very much to our current climate of media reviewing - "People can misinterpret almost anything so that it coincides with views they already hold. They take from art what they already believe, and I wonder how many people have ever had their views about anything important changed by a work of art?"

Also, your return reminds me the number of people who now take things they read on the internet literally is a little disheartening.
 
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Roy was always on me like a flash. That has not changed. It is almost akin to a form of love; watching over my every post, sure I'm upsetting someone... and generally being right. I did intend to return in peace, having mellowed in my absence (no, really), yet people will always be people and I will always be me, I suppose. 'Tis a cruel fate for all involved.

I do not hold interest in 4chan /politics/. In fact, I have only ever looked at the place for slutty camgirls during my younger years, fyi. I developed a certain... interest in politics beginning with the Brexit shitshow and the comedy act that is Trump. Afterward I listened to Tommy Robinson's 1hr speech on Youtube and the hypocrisy of the left became irksome to me, in contrast to the enjoyable idiocy of everything else I'd enjoyed watching unravel. That's all. I don't hold any political beliefs in particular: I just have become aware of diversity quotas in entertainment, 'critics' vs. fans, Twitter SJW outrage, and all that good stuff. That and Sweden.
I haven't watched Deadwood so I can't comment on that but I have had similar thoughts about Persona 4, which included a gay guy, a wannabe transgender and other things that one would assume nowadays are added for... reasons. It's a question of context: like the The Last of Us 2 trailer at a game's show forcing a freckled, unwashed lesbian X kissing down my throat for no apparent reason other than scoring points.

The problem nowadays is that agendas, both internally and externally, are getting projected and inserted into what should be fun. People see what they want to see but there's no denying what is happening when you see things like Doctor Who 11, Star Trek Discovery, etc. In my case it was the Star Wars reboot that really got on my tits. A perfectly perfect heroine that needs no help from men and can win a lightsaber duel without training, vs. an expert... against a man, naturally. My main problem was the lack of creativity in copying the original trilogy badly, mind you.
 
It sounds like you got /pol/-lite filtered through social media. Probably less toxic than drinking directly from the source (which frankly wouldn't be recommended at all since November 9th, 2016) but it's funny how it all filters down into the same half a dozen repeated buzzwords and talking points. Politics has quite literally become a meme, and discussing it an utterly futile exercise because someone new will come along parroting those exact same talking points every five minutes. The nature of political "debate" on the internet now is hypocritical screeching bleeding heart liberals who want their enemies hearts to literally bleed and hypocritical reactionaries with their fingers firmly in their ears who believe in meritocracy but also segregation. Thanks Microsoft, Google, Apple, F***facebook etc. for ruining the internet by making it easily accessible to seven billion idiots.

The problem nowadays is that agendas, both internally and externally, are getting projected and inserted into what should be fun. People see what they want to see but there's no denying what is happening when you see things like Doctor Who 11, Star Trek Discovery, etc. In my case it was the Star Wars reboot that really got on my tits. A perfectly perfect heroine that needs no help from men and can win a lightsaber duel without training, vs. an expert... against a man, naturally. My main problem was the lack of creativity in copying the original trilogy badly, mind you.
I do get where you're coming from, and when someone's only reason for creating entertainment media is propaganda it's usually eye-rollingly obvious and of zero entertainment value (except of course to laugh at like some of the recent "woke" Marvel comics that make Captain Planet look like a work of ingenious subtlety). But then this stuff is really nothing new, there's just a particular focus on it at the moment and I think there is a severe tendency right now to see intent that just isn't there. Much as I like Star Wars, there was never really a huge amount of thought put into it and I sincerely doubt any of the decisions taken with those films were part of Kathleen Kennedy's sinister plan to undermine white men for the Jews/globalists/Illuminati or whatever.* I imagine Rey wasn't very well developed because well, neither was Luke honestly.

You will however get no argument from me about Jar Jar Abrams' lack of originality or talent though. Man is the most vastly overrated director since Shyamalamadingdong. One of the things I liked about TLJ was the none-too-subtle middle fingers it gave to TFA, so of course now Abrams is back again to presumably undo what was done and leave this trilogy as a testament to little but two directors' pissing contest with each other. Might as well be called "Star Wars IX: No Hope". If you wanna watch some good Star Wars, work your way through The Clone Wars 3D animated series if you haven't. Starts off a bit for the kiddies but gets really good by late Season 2. Rebels is okay as well. Not as good, but worth seeing for finishing up some loose ends from TCW.

I haven't watched Deadwood
I feel confident in saying you’d like it a lot. If you want to free yourself from modern media’s possible agendas for a few hours/days give it a shot. If you don’t at least get a man crush on Ian McShane’s Al Swearengen I’ll eat my hat.

*The same can't necessarily be said for Tommy Robinson, man is a tool in more ways than one. Farage and even Trump I can at least have some degree of respect for as their own men, but for the love of Satan don't listen to some f*cknut who either doesn't understand how trials work or pretends not to so he can play the victim for his American Zionist paymasters.
 
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there's just a particular focus on it at the moment and I think there is a severe tendency right now to see intent that just isn't there.

While it is maybe more popular now to do this kind of criticism, it isn't really new either. It's been a part of criticism for probably a long time to read into a work along social and political lines, and to use the author's biography as a tool too. Although anyone who engages in it should know it's entirely subjective, hence why there are so many different readings on a single work. You can find old literary essays reading Wuthering Heights as a Marxist novel revolving around Healthcliffs struggle for land. And you can find essays reading it in the opposite way, or as a feminist novel. But in reality, there is very little likelihood, I would imagine, that Emily Bronte intended to write a Marxist treatise, or a bourgeois one either for that matter. Critics just like read into these things, and I think sometimes it's just for the exercise of finding a fresh reading based on a new perspective rather than based on a belief it's the objective truth. Maybe the stuff online is less open to different perspectives though.

I have mixed feelings about this kind of criticism, because on the one hand I think it's only natural to read into a work, and I think it's fun to come up with and share our own perspectives on the meaning of a piece of art. We all probably do that with our favourite shows. But on the other hand I think it can sometimes be a bit irresponsible and unfair to stamp our own perspectives on an author's work as if it's irrefutable fact.

I read a couple books on literary theory earlier in the year haha, though about 95% of it went completely over my head!
 
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@Vashdaman I think it's totally normal to look for and examine meaning in media but yeah, the current trend seems to be for people to treat their own subjective interpretations as fact and either heap adoration (or more usually, scorn and hatred) on the creators for what they believe to be their agendas. It's the politicisation of absolutely everything, and it's bloody tiresome seeing people treat all media as though it has no use but propaganda.

A particular peeve of mine is people who seem to think all protagonists should always be admirable and virtuous, and if they aren't that's somehow the creator's endorsement of their negative behaviour. I mean how the hell do you create interesting and complex (let alone believable) characters if they never do or consider anything morally dodgy? It really does seem like the "think of the children" attitude of old, but now directed at adults as well as though adults have to be treated like children, lest they play Grand Theft Auto and go out on a killing spree.
 
@Vashdaman I think it's totally normal to look for and examine meaning in media but yeah, the current trend seems to be for people to treat their own subjective interpretations as fact and either heap adoration (or more usually, scorn and hatred) on the creators for what they believe to be their agendas. It's the politicisation of absolutely everything, and it's bloody tiresome seeing people treat all media as though it has no use but propaganda.

A particular peeve of mine is people who seem to think all protagonists should always be admirable and virtuous, and if they aren't that's somehow the creator's endorsement of their negative behaviour. I mean how the hell do you create interesting and complex (let alone believable) characters if they never do or consider anything morally dodgy? It really does seem like the "think of the children" attitude of old, but now directed at adults as well as though adults have to be treated like children, lest they play Grand Theft Auto and go out on a killing spree.
I'd argue that particularly in the last blurb, stuff like grand theft auto and morally grey protagonists still exist, but something leading back to the first part is that pretty much everything is political, that's not just the "on the left" stuff media powers in the UK seem to love preaching now, it's everyone and for pretty much everything on the scale.

I do miss when people just shared what they liked though, not get people to subscribe to their ideals like they are trying to get them made.
This is why I would say I hate ideals
 
I must confess I have fallen into that 'buzzword' trap, myself: I group some as 'SJWs', only meaning 100 gender Twitter outrage type. This does however kill any chance of a reasonable discussion before it starts. But regardless, that seems to be where political discourse is at: football club rivalry. There is 1984's 'wrongthink' and if you share an opinion that goes against someone else's values, you are the enemy. There is no recourse as neither side will back down. And that is the framework which lead to Brexit and Trump. People are tired of being told what to think is right when their own experiences contradict that. If it means trusting tw&ts like Trump and Farage, they will in desperation.

The reason I think the 'culture war' going on at the moment in entertainment differs from works being influenced by politics in the past is the internet, with its zillions of stupid people congregating. In the past you might have protests, or a bad review score in a magazine. Nowadays, if *insert title here* gets a bad score on Metacritic, people will not buy things. If something upsets people, 1000's will spam on Twitter and news articles will report on it, 'causing a shitstorm of negativity that will also affect sales. And this obviously leads to things either being toned down not to offend or targeting a set group directly hoping to market the product to them. Basically, the internet is a snake eating its own tail.

Some other points: I also hate the viewpoint that a character has to be 'holier than thou'. A character is most human when it is ugly. Or, put another way, flawed. Shinji Ikari, for example. But people do not want imperfection, or to see human nature. I like anti-heroes preciously because they are more relatable than some nice guy that happily saves everyone and anyone. People are self-absorbed k*nts, so why not characters too?...

As for Luke Skywalker, he at least had a character arc where he grew from some kid on a desert planet to learning from Jedi masters, discovering his dad's identity, etcetc. Rey was given a lightsaber and became a master seemingly via her having a vagina. No bloodline of talent, and she'd already bested Darth Angst 1v1 before even meeting Luke.

Ol' Tommy's not interesting, or indeed relatable because he's smart. He was a guy in a working-class region, there to watch Luton become... this: Luton - And now, he's an activist the government loathe. Farage is a politician like any other; just an excellent debater with a hatred of the EU. He is closer to the average Brit than Trump. And that is where Tommy's appeal lies.

He saw streets become Muslim enclaves and had friends/family be directly affected. This lead him, a naive fella and not an especially bright one, to create the EDL and to mask his identity after seeing how the police were treating the natives. Not out of racism; as a reaction. He said and did stupid things, and actual Neo-Nazis joined the EDL, but his persecution as a 'far-right white supremacist' is an absolute pisstake.
It was foolish of him to not know exactly what he could do outside a courthouse, 'tis true, and yet when he was recently put in prison without trial he had not actually done anything wrong and was following the rules, iirc; hence being acquitted.
 
In force awakens she won because he was cocky and underestimated her, yes she randomly powered up with no training in Last jedi but that’s the least of that films problems.
 
I'd argue that particularly in the last blurb, stuff like grand theft auto and morally grey protagonists still exist, but something leading back to the first part is that pretty much everything is political, that's not just the "on the left" stuff media powers in the UK seem to love preaching now, it's everyone and for pretty much everything on the scale.
I'm not saying things don't get made because of people griping, that's one thing I very much disagree with a lot of the moaners on the right with, people are still more than free to create whatever they like, it just now involves either avoiding social media or having enough backbone to tell some people to piss off when they complain about it - Either choice tends to endear creators even more to me, personally.

I do miss when people just shared what they liked though, not get people to subscribe to their ideals like they are trying to get them made.
This is why I would say I hate ideals
I don't really think idealism is the problem, someone can be idealistic without being entitled and censorious, or evangelistic about their beliefs. It's an individual's personality the leads them to be a d*ckhead regardless of where they stand on the political spectrum. If you’re familiar with the political compass, it’s where someone sits on the Y axis, authoritarian to libertarian, that determines whether they think they have the right to tell others what to do, unconnected to the left-right X axis.

@AironicallyHuman personally I think the economic effect of SJWs/soccer moms/whoever is negligible, and massively overstated. There’s a reason they generally pick on already niche products and creators, because as a tiny minority they stand a larger chance of destroying an individual’s livelihood by spamming them with death threats over their tumblr fan art than they do say, taking down a multi-million dollar franchise like GTA. They are essentially just a pack of awful bullies, and while it’s unfortunate when anyone caves to them, when people prey on the weak that’s a more likely outcome. But they can be (and are) easily disregarded by anyone with a reasonably strong will. And like all attention seekers ignoring them completely is the best option. I might return to some of your other points later, you would post while I was in the middle of writing this reply.

As for Tommy, my dislike for him stems from his playing into a divisive blame-game which does not serve the interests of his fellow working class white people at all, namely setting them against their fellow working class brown people. The picture he paints, whether you believe that to be his intention (personally I do, ymmv) is one where Muslims are the problem for the white working class, rather than depravation and a leeching upper class who decided to outsource all their jobs for their own personal profit. Most Muslims, like most non-Muslim white people, are not abusive pedos, he doesn’t show such conviction looking into the abusive white pedos in the British establishment as he does working class Muslims because he sees the problem as being Muslims rather than pedo rapists, which while not necessarily racist (a religion isn't a race as certainly should be open to criticism) is certainly discriminatory because he paints Muslims to be more likely to be pedo rapists than white people, which is bullsh*t. Again, an example of someone hitting down because it’s easier, I think. And he's aided and abetted in all this by people who have a vested interest in pushing that particular “Muslims are the villains” narrative due to their support for the idea of Israel as a Jewish supremacist ethnostate so they can continue to discriminate against/kill Muslims with relative impunity while the rest of the world just goes "Ah, so what, they're only Muslims". Which in turn plays directly into the hands of actual Islamic extremists who can point to people like him and say "Look, see, all the non-Muslims look down on you and hate you" to radicalise people.
 
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