Well, that was Pride. As we gear up to put down our Pride and pick up our Wrath, what came by on the Press dot Invincible Dot Ink blog?
June had four Game Pile articles this month, which is the usual number. We have two text articles, and two video articles:
- Secret Little Heaven. In the comments from this, I saw someone refer to the idea of the word ‘trans’ being ‘cringe,’ and that’s how I learned there’s a way to disappear someone from your comments section.
- Some interesting queer games. This was part of my effort to use this month to platform some games I can’t or won’t play during a time when that’s important. If I can’t bring myself to enjoy or engage with other small-scale queer games, I should do what I can to promote it.
- Nier Automata, which I promised back in February. In hindsight, I think my big problem is that this game promises me a lot it doesn’t deliver – like the freedom of movement and scope of the story is at odds with providing me one very small invisibly-walled city.
- Asphalt Among Ashes. A really cool little journaling game I found by clicking the links in someone’s twitter bio.
I had a lot more fun with the Story Pile, though.
- The Owl House. Let’s check out a cool queer thing Disney made, then kick them in the teeth over not doing it sooner.
- The Old Guard. Let’s check out a cool queer comics movie, then kick the movies in the teeth for this being exceptional.
- This One Fucking Episode Of West Wing. Let’s just kick Aaron Sorkin in the teeth.
- Zombieland Saga. Completely unironically, an anime that I love even if I don’t think it’s very good.
What about this month’s Pridey articles? Well there was a weird runaway in this month. My article ‘Being Asked If I Am An Egg‘ got a lot of attention, including from people I did not know and had never heard of. Some of them went ‘she sounds like an egg.’ That was kinda annoying, but, you know, take it in stride.
I wrote about Ax, from the Animorphs. I wrote about Vent, a nonbinary brawly punk City of Heroes character that makes me happy. I also wrote about how Wizards of the Coast, and their want to be included at Pride, has to be regarded with some sincerity and some immense cynicism. I also did a primer on what we mean when we mention ‘TERF’ or ‘SWERF’ with the article Welcome To ERFs. After years of umming and ahhing about it (and the comfort I had with my Tatsuhime article), I wrote about Yoruichi and Soi Fon, another of Bleach’s errant plot alleyways. I also finally got around to writing, after literally months of putting it off, the Johnlock Conspiracy Conspiracy.
This month’s shirt is some candy hearts, showing things I like a lot – the Pride flags, and sincere attempts that maybe look a bit crap. You can check it out here.
Anything going on in the real world? Well, thanks to a COVID outbreak in Sydney and a possible vector into a suburb near me, my suburb is in lockdown. We’ve been told to shelter in place for two weeks, shopping for essentials only, meaning that I got to watch the toilet paper in the aisles empty out again.
Sucks, yo.