The only thing I actually know about Stellar Blade is that it is a Site of Conflict. I didn't have a PS5 and continue to not have one, so it wasn't especially actionable at the time. Well, I guess I know one more thing about it - that there is almost certainly a Federal Bureau dedicated to apprehending the wicked men who… do what, exactly? Look at a picture?
I used to play Genshin, I lucked out with these crazy Wishes early on and the world was kinda shut down, but I got so much shit from my youngest for playing my porn game when I was mostly interested in elemental affinities. I put anime tiddies, simulated boobs, and paranormal romance all at roughly the same level of cringe. They are "things that other people like" and horni is not a crime. Later on, of course, all her friends were playing it so it was fine, and they were also honking some kind of "star rail," which I assume is a dangerous new street drug. It is simply the case that the rules around this stuff are just completely made up, a weirdo shibboleth puzzle room whose purpose is to determine with ever greater clarity who the outgroup is.
I used to say that I grew up Christian, but I think it's probably more accurate to say Evangelical, especially now that more people might know what I'm talking about. Sex was VERY naughty and we needed to be constantly on the lookout for incursions of this secular, demonic, but also somehow worryingly inherent force…? Breaking that pernicious notion down and enabling people to express themselves was the project I thought I'd more or less seen completed. Now it's come around some weird bend, with precisely the same energy as before, except now it's being done for the correct reasons. It can't possibly be this dumb. And yet!
It's incredibly fucking boring to have the tail end of the revolution you saw win shame the tools that gave them victory, dust off a bunch of regressive shit, and then have the pluck to feel righteous about it.
(CW)TB out.
