(I didn’t, largely since I’ve never watched a single episode, but the psychic damage and whiplash of Wholesome Pony Show having said this line was too fuckn much for me)

EDIT: More replies than upbears now. It’s probably an official struggle session now (although most of it is that one person). One must imagine SisyFEWs happy.

  • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    Wasn’t there also a Fallout crossover fanfic that completely missed the humor aspect that was always present in Fallout and was sort of edgy for edginess’ sake? I never read it, but its fandom was pretty scared-fash at a glance.

    • KobaCumTribute [she/her]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      The most infamous of those is the one I mentioned, Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons, but the original Fallout Equestria was also pretty bad just much, much more tame than FOE:PH was.

        • KobaCumTribute [she/her]@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          It predates it, but it is similar in tone and grotesqueness. Although thinking about the full depth of the problems with Made in Abyss that I covered exhaustively in a post last night, FOE:PH isn’t as bad. It’s a gratuitous, edgy spectacle that handles problematic themes poorly, but it’s merely making an exploitative spectacle of them while Made in Abyss is even worse. AFAIK most of the characters in Project Horizons are adults though, though I think there’s some nonce stuff in there too.

            • KobaCumTribute [she/her]@hexbear.net
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              1 year ago

              I compulsively consume problematic slop, and was even worse about it a decade ago when I was in the process of rebuilding my schema from the ground up after dismantling twenty years of calcified repression brainworms, which is around when I read part of the then-incomplete FOE:PH specifically because of its reputation. Made in Abyss has to be the only thing that’s actually made me sick to watch, however. I can’t emphasize enough how even the people who condemn it undersell just how vile it is; it’s in a league of awful all of its own. Like I feel even my “Made in Abyss is the worst thing anyone has ever made” rant is too soft, because I couldn’t stomach really dredging up the specifics.

              • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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                1 year ago

                From what I know about it, there’s a blurry line between “presents and does not condone, and maybe didn’t read the room and has hogs eating the slop now” to “presents and claims it does not condone and it’s clear the makers are also the hogs.” yea

                • KobaCumTribute [she/her]@hexbear.net
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                  1 year ago

                  I think there’s generally three fuzzy categories problematic content can fall into in mainstream works: presents [bad thing] and condemns it, clearly establishing that it’s bad; presents [bad thing] and shows that it’s harmful but takes no overt stance, leaving the audience to infer for themselves that it’s bad; and presents [bad thing] and really revels in how the spectacle of it being awful in a crass and gratuitous way.

                  Made in Abyss is a fourth category altogether: presents [the worst shit you’ll ever see] and revels in it, and narratively treats it as normal and ok. It transcends the whole “showing things are bad vs making a crass spectacle” spectrum by becoming a de facto endorsement of what it’s showing off.

                  Fuck, I really need to find something to take my mind of this and hope the brain poisoning from engaging with it wears off soon.

                  • Cromalin [she/her]@hexbear.net
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                    1 year ago

                    you mentioned watching utena, did you ever finish it? it handles a lot of the stuff that you described in made in abyss but like. it is good at condemning the way children are groomed and exploited in patriarchal societies, and never sexualizes them, and has all the characters grow and change over time

                  • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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                    1 year ago

                    Fuck, I really need to find something to take my mind of this and hope the brain poisoning from engaging with it wears off soon.

                    Aggretsuko is a good time and may work like brain bleach with a bit of cathartic rage. sicko-wholesome