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amaranth-witch
@amaranth-witch

"It doesn't look like Hestia..."

First off, are they mad she's Black? A lot of people are mad she's Black. Get over it. Myth isn't history, we need no excuses. Even if we WERE going for history, the Peloponnese islands and Asia Minor weren't a single-tone melanin region: they were widely known for trade even before any of the Great Kersmooshenings of culture, and even more widely known after that.

Second off, are they mad she's fat? A lot of people are mad she's fat. Get over it. This is a goddess who keeps her people safe and healthy enough to GET fat. This is a happy goddess. This is a goddess who does not care how much space she takes up, because it is her space to take, and her people should feel the same way. And on top of that, also a sign of hers...

Are they mad that she doesn't "look like the statues"? OK, here we can sort of dig into it. Thing is, Hestia didn't get a lot of statuary, because the people most likely to venerate her as a primary force in their life weren't the kind of people to build monuments, they were the housekeepers, the hearth-keepers. The cooks, the cleaners, the poor. No one would go without offering a prayer to Hestia first, but she wasn't a glamourous goddess for the elite, she was a stay-at-home caretaker. Her symbols are the cooking and warming flame, the brazier, the stove. Yes, classically, she wears a veil for modesty, but this Hestia still wears a veil: just more as a shawl, to keep the warmth close and nurture it.

Supergiant's Hestia bears two fires on her person: a warming fire in her throat, to welcome and encourage, and a cooking fire on her head, to share and support. As with all fire, they're dangerous if you don't respect them, but they're not here to serve as brands of war to hurl at an enemy's roof. Her staff holds fragrant herbs and other welcoming votives that would be left at the hearth as offerings, to make the home a nicer, more friendly place to not just sleep, but to live.

Are they mad because her hat and head design kind of blur together? Yeah me too, kinda, I really think that her hat should be a little wider just to break up her outline a little, maybe give space for a few carefully placed dangly implements. But honestly, the design is great.


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in reply to @amaranth-witch's post:

The funniest shit in this hellcycle to me was seeing folks on here going omg Aphrodite got them transgirl cheekbones and wanting to claim her and then the next day seeing people on Twitter complaining about Aphrodite having a masculine face, highlighting her cheekbones.

GOD SAME and the good thing that came out of that was I did get to see some game artists sharing communications about how this kind of pushback gets progressively more and more removed from female and femme designs as everything that could POSSIBLY be an edge or angle is ruthlessly sanded away, but then carefully rounded off so it's not FAT or CHUBBY and they just end up being even more indistinct than 27-to-35-year-old grizzled white male roughcut protagonist #447

And I got to go "oh! Oh good, it's not just me, lmao"

I thought I got it at first like- hey, you know what? People can be attracted to different things. If people are into the Stellar Blade protag instead of Nemesis Hades II, that's fine. Attraction is varied and messy. I was like getting all ready to write something on this.

Then I saw how this shit had developed and its fucking WILD how it's not even about ANYTHING. Like, Hestia isn't my favorite design in the game but she has a design, she's saying SOMETHING. There is intent. And then I see people throwing around anime girls and I just have to go, this is the most generic learn to draw manga shit I've ever seen. This is C-Tier character from a brand x gacha. How are you going to bat for THIS? And then I realize it's not even about the shit they are saying it's about.

I had an actual good conversation with someone - I'm glad I took the shot, I ALMOST ignored when they opened up with "I just don't like it, but I wanna avoid the discourse and controversy" and I was SO CLOSE to just letting it go by - but an actual good conversation about "hey let's talk about why I think it's a Strong Design with Something to Say, whether or not you like it" because it IS okay to just not like something

But that's almost the only instance because when I stare at anyone I don't already know talking about dislike specifically, in this case, I have to do a multi-level search of "how much can I trust this person to be talking in good faith here" because there are so many culture war shitstorms at play and I hate it.

I think the fact that the internet has primed us to assume bad faith is killing our ability to discuss shit. Like, I was talking about media criticism in an earlier chost and how you need to come at something with curiosity and be willing to ask why did a creative make the choice they did. And I didn't want to get into it there, but the biggest reason why I've seen people not be willing to offer that is they are exhausted and assume bad faith. But it's also a lot easier to just... assume the worst and bounce.

A thing I remember in this context personally was the phrase virtue signalling. Which was originally a useful term for a phenomenon before being snatched up by the right. But I didn't know that, I had just heard it used as a dog whistle so when I heard people say it, that was usually a red flag for me to dip. Later on, someone explained to me the origins of it and it's something where I went, oh yeah- I encounter that a LOT online, it's exhausting. (But it's also a phrase that's become completely worthless because of it's association with the right, so you can't really tell someone hey you are virtue signalling without them making that assumption)

But one of the things I am trying to do more here is to take a step back when possible and figure out the good faith interpretation of what people are saying... And if I can't find it or its still pissing me off, I just block them rather than engage. (Because I am fucking weak and if I leave that line of communication open, it's a mental splinter and I will just think about rebuttals)

"Look what they took from us" and it's legitimately the use of the phrase Virtue Signaling as a diagnostic and discussion tool for semiotics.

Also, I very much feel you in re: the mental splinter. That's not a specific one that I share, but I've got my own list of "no, I HAVE to close this loop, otherwise..." prompts that TASK me.