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PaperclipPerfector  11mo ago (text post)   2790 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for May 12, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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I started Pentiment but sort of fell off and will probably try it again after working through Citizen Sleeper.

The description rouses my interest but uhh, what exactly is supposed to be woke about it then?

I have edited the introductory sentence to not imply it has something specifically woke about it. To me, indefensibly woke historical (or parahistorical) fiction implies that people back then were just like us, just more oppressed. If you picked a paragon of virtue from back then and a paragon of virtue from now, the only difference between them could be explained by unavailability of synthetic hair dyes. An equally indefensibly trad fiction ignores the real diversity and/or problems various marginalized people experienced back then. Pentiment tries to walk between two fires and mostly succeeds. It certainly beats bipolar AssCreed: Odyssey that lets you know how sexist Ancient Greeks were in one scene and has you win Olympic gold as Cassandra in the next one. Of course, Pentiment doesn't try to play on edgelord difficulty where it would force you into situations where the values dissonance was unavoidable.

An equally indefensibly trad fiction ignores the real diversity and/or problems various marginalized people experienced back then.

How many Africans were there in place and time this game takes place? This "real diversity" reminds of Rock Paper Shotgun claiming that since an African trader is attested in the same decade in Prague, KC:D being set in 15th Czech countryside has no business being all-white.

KC:D had Cumans gatecrashing the tutorial, I have no idea how that's not diversity. As I've said in the OP, Pentiment doesn't try to shoehorn historically implausible minorities into the setting.

I have no idea how that's not diversity.

Ask RPS?

On the other hand, who, specifically, is denying you'd run into a soldier from faraway lands, particularly around the time of wars between empires, or that maybe you'd see a pilgrim or a merchant if you happen to be at the right place at the right time?

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