Ionathus's Random Banter #249 -- Directionless Rambling Is Now Mandatory

[Peelee]

This is a great day. Not only is Vivian canonically trans, but we have the Bedlam react for transphobic comments now.

Compared to, say, when Bridget was confirmed as a trans girl, but there was no specific character misgendering her, the presence of antagonism within the text has provided a point of comparison for individuals trying to deny the character's transness in the audience.

And that's beautiful. <3

Don't forget Birdo.

[Bartmanhomer]

Don't forget Birdo.

Super Mario Bros. 2/Doki Doki Panic reference.

[Anonymouswizard]

Just to let everyone know. I quit YouTube almost a year ago because it was very toxic. That is because you haven't seen me complain about YouTube here.

Ah, that makes sense. I hope your life is better for it.

Don't forget Birdo.

Wait, Mario was trans-inclusive before it was cool?

I should really play more Mario games, but I suck at platformers.

[Bartmanhomer]

Ah, that makes sense. I hope your life is better for it.

It has been a wonderful improvement in my life, my dear friend. Thank you for defending me by the way. I really appreciate the support.

[LaZodiac]

Don't forget Birdo.

Eeeh... Birdo's always been a contentious one for me, and never really been fully canon imo- and certainly not good trans rep, given the only word on her status is an instruction booklet that got her name wrong in the first place cause it swapped her with Ostro, and because it played it as a joke.

That said, much like Poison from Street Fighter, she's allowed to count by most because she was there when we had literally zero trans rep, and thus is grandfathered in as important. She's hasn't been AS fully reclaimed as Poison has, but it'll get there... if Nintendo uses her for things past this point anyway.

Relatedly, because of this incredible Paper Mario news, I ended up learning that a character I decently like in Fire Emblem is nonbinary and loves men, which I hadn't known before. Which is rad as hell!

[BisectedBrioche]

Yeah, I place Birdo in the same place as trans Samus headcanons (although I'm a much bigger fan of the latter, simply because a transfemme reading of her just kinda vibes), in that they're basically "no takebacksies" responses to attempts to make transphobic jokes, back when such things were socially acceptable.

[Ionathus]

Super Mario Bros. 2/Doki Doki Panic reference.

This reminds me of a fun story I learned about SMB2 recently!

I feel like it's common knowledge that Super Mario 2 (the American version where you can play as Peach or Toad, not "The Lost Levels" that's graphically similar to the original) started its life as Doki Doki Panic, like you said, before being reskinned with Mario assets and released as the sequel in America. This explains its weird mechanics and enemies.

But the part I never knew before watching a short documentary was that this wasn't just any old lazy reskin: Doki Doki Panic was originally designed by a proto-"Team Mario", led by Miyamoto, with the creative direction to "make it as much like a Super Mario game as possible." So Doki Doki Panic was, from the start, a spiritual successor to Super Mario Brothers, even if they'd never intended it as a direct sequel!

And then when Nintendo of America said "the lost levels are too hard, Americans are still spooked from the videogame crash, please make it less hard and more fun", they had this basically-already-a-Mario-game ready to go.

[Bartmanhomer]

This reminds me of a fun story I learned about SMB2 recently!

I feel like it's common knowledge that Super Mario 2 (the American version where you can play as Peach or Toad, not "The Lost Levels" that's graphically similar to the original) started its life as Doki Doki Panic, like you said, before being reskinned with Mario assets and released as the sequel in America. This explains its weird mechanics and enemies.

But the part I never knew before watching a short documentary was that this wasn't just any old lazy reskin: Doki Doki Panic was originally designed by a proto-"Team Mario", led by Miyamoto, with the creative direction to "make it as much like a Super Mario game as possible." So Doki Doki Panic was, from the start, a spiritual successor to Super Mario Brothers, even if they'd never intended it as a direct sequel!

And then when Nintendo of America said "the lost levels are too hard, Americans are still spooked from the videogame crash, please make it less hard and more fun", they had this basically-already-a-Mario-game ready to go.

Cool. That's go to know.

Anyway today I went to my job for a new job opportunity for working at 9/11 Memorial Museum Store.

[Rater202]

Is it weird that the thing that finally made me make a serious effort when it came to getting into Supernatural after like, a literal decade of wishy-washy attempts and catching random bits was a fanfic for a completely different fandom?

And that I rapidly lost interest when I got caught up to where the story in question was drawing from?

[Peelee]

Is it weird that

Do you want it to be?

[Bartmanhomer]

It's very hot in New York City right now.

[Rater202]

So, in the ongoing catalog of Rater's Weird-Ass Brain making up stories, and then he wakes up before they finish.

Last Night, I experienced a dream where I saw events from the perspective of a teenage girl named Charlie, who suffered from a trio of conditions that were referred to in the dream as "type-3 diabetes," "dystrophic muscular contraction" and "prenatal HIV exposure." The third one is pretty clear and in the dream, Charlie's right leg was permenantly curled up and unable to be moved at all which I guess might be what the second was referring to but I've got no clue what type-3 diabetes is supposed to be. At one point she describes herself as "three evolutionary dead ends" so I'm guessing it's an inherent mutation?

Her insurance is no longer covering the medications used to treat and manage the conditions, and she's seeking the help of a lawyer because she had previously been a test subject in a study run by the Alchemax corporation wherein she was bonded to a clone of the Misery Symbiote to see how it's abilities worked to treat and stabilize inherent/congenital conditions but at the end of the study they reclaimed the symbiote: The generic off-brand versions of her meds that her insurance is willing to pay for don't work and her condition is deteriorating, getting the symbiote back may be her only chance to not die.

Her argument is that the contract didn't actually specify that they would reclaim the symbiote after the study had been completed and that, even if it had, the Misery strain symbiote she'd been given had not been created until after the contracts were signed and thus did not consent to any such agreements—in fact, while this explanation was happening my perspective switched to ano overhead sho of Charlie on a lab table being injected with samples of Carnage and Anti-Venom. If this was meant to be a Flashback then her Misery was created from scratch, it's not even a bud of the orignal Misery—and furthermore that as the symbiote was a sapient organism that did not want to leave Charlie, Alchemax reclaimed it against it's will is arguably a kidnapping.

I woke up as she finished talking to the lawyer.

I have no idea why I was seeing this from her perspective but this was unusually coherant for one of my dreams.

[Bartmanhomer]

So, in the ongoing catalog of Rater's Weird-Ass Brain making up stories, and then he wakes up before they finish.

Last Night, I experienced a dream where I saw events from the perspective of a teenage girl named Charlie, who suffered from a trio of conditions that were referred to in the dream as "type-3 diabetes," "dystrophic muscular contraction" and "prenatal HIV exposure." The third one is pretty clear and in the dream, Charlie's right leg was permenantly curled up and unable to be moved at all which I guess might be what the second was referring to but I've got no clue what type-3 diabetes is supposed to be. At one point she describes herself as "three evolutionary dead ends" so I'm guessing it's an inherent mutation?

Her insurance is no longer covering the medications used to treat and manage the conditions, and she's seeking the help of a lawyer because she had previously been a test subject in a study run by the Alchemax corporation wherein she was bonded to a clone of the Misery Symbiote to see how it's abilities worked to treat and stabilize inherent/congenital conditions but at the end of the study they reclaimed the symbiote: The generic off-brand versions of her meds that her insurance is willing to pay for don't work and her condition is deteriorating, getting the symbiote back may be her only chance to not die.

Her argument is that the contract didn't actually specify that they would reclaim the symbiote after the study had been completed and that, even if it had, the Misery strain symbiote she'd been given had not been created until after the contracts were signed and thus did not consent to any such agreements—in fact, while this explanation was happening my perspective switched to ano overhead sho of Charlie on a lab table being injected with samples of Carnage and Anti-Venom. If this was meant to be a Flashback then her Misery was created from scratch, it's not even a bud of the orignal Misery—and furthermore that as the symbiote was a sapient organism that did not want to leave Charlie, Alchemax reclaimed it against it's will is arguably a kidnapping.

I woke up as she finished talking to the lawyer.

I have no idea why I was seeing this from her perspective but this was unusually coherant for one of my dreams.

That must be a very bizarre dream you have, Rater.

[Ionathus]

Rater, that reads less like a dream and more like cross-contamination from a reality running parallel to our own.

[Rater202]

Rater, that reads less like a dream and more like cross-contamination from a reality running parallel to our own.

Well then I hope the lawyer takes up Charlie's case and she wins then.

[Anonymouswizard]

Rater, that reads less like a dream and more like cross-contamination from a reality running parallel to our own.

I know, needing insurance to pay for medication, how utterly bizarre.

Although to be honest I've been wondering if Rater's been posting from an AU for a while, his schools seemed to have a strange tendency to hire bullies instead of teachers. So more cross-reality leakage is only to be expected.

[Rater202]

I know, needing insurance to pay for medication, how utterly bizarre.

Although to be honest I've been wondering if Rater's been posting from an AU for a while, his schools seemed to have a strange tendency to hire bullies instead of teachers. So more cross-reality leakage is only to be expected.

American public schools have been ****ty for decades. It's literally a genre of American literature much like how your folk have literature about nightmarish boarding schools.

Now consider that I'm an overweight, socially anxious/awkward, unathletic, working-class, neurodivergent, introvert of above-average intelligence whose interests are mostly either stereotypically nerdy or else were below my "expected" age range and who just flat out did not pick up certain social ques.

That is to say, that I am in nine or ten demographics that are likely to be singled out for mistreatment or have such mistreatment ignored, by peers or superiors, especially in a school setting.

my experiences are statistically improbable, yes, but that just means that I was on the far end of the Bell Curve, not that I'm lying or from another universe.

[Peelee]

I know, needing insurance to pay for medication, how utterly bizarre.

[Abe Simpson] And one day it'll happen to youuuuu[/Abe Simpson]

American public schools have been ****ty for decades.

Except for the zip code lottery winners.

[Rater202]

Except for the zip code lottery winners.

Even then that's not a guarantee that you went to a good school. That just means that the school was decently funded.

My high school was brand new with decent funding but they blew on the money on tech that didn't work right for the first year and a half.

[Ionathus]

I know, needing insurance to pay for medication, how utterly bizarre.

Yep, dang, you really got me there. What a fool I am, disbelieving a story about medical insurance.

I saw events from the perspective of a teenage girl named Charlie,

"type-3 diabetes,"

"dystrophic muscular contraction"

Charlie's right leg was permenantly curled up and unable to be moved at all

she describes herself as "three evolutionary dead ends"

she had previously been a test subject in a study run by the Alchemax corporation

she was bonded to a clone

of the Misery Symbiote

to see how it's abilities worked to treat and stabilize inherent/congenital conditions

at the end of the study they reclaimed the symbiote:

getting the symbiote back may be her only chance to not die.

the contract didn't actually specify that they would reclaim the symbiote

the Misery strain symbiote...thus did not consent to any such agreements

my perspective switched to an overhead shot

being injected with samples of Carnage and Anti-Venom

If this was meant to be a Flashback then her Misery was created from scratch, it's not even a bud of the orignal Misery

as the symbiote was a sapient organism that did not want to leave Charlie, Alchemax reclaimed it against it's will is arguably a kidnapping.

this was unusually coherant for one of my dreams.

Yep. The medical insurance. That was obviously the part I found strange.

[Anonymouswizard]

Except for the zip code lottery winners.

Why can't you just be civilised and decide people's entire academic career with a single exam at age 11?

Yep, dang, you really got me there. What a fool I am, disbelieving a story about medical insurance.

The rest was just standard Rater, but medical insurance? I still find the concept bizarre.

[Rater202]

Why can't you just be civilised and decide people's entire academic career with a single exam at age 11?

Whelp, that did it.

[Peelee]

Even then that's not a guarantee that you went to a good school. That just means that the school was decently funded.

Sure but the odds are better. Just like how any random public school in the country isn't a guarantee to be a ****show like you generalize.

Why can't you just be civilised and decide people's entire academic career with a single exam at age 11?

Last time checked your people decided "civilized" meant smashing powder on your faces until you looked like ghosts and then donning mop heads on top of that.



Apropos of nothing, but I've always found it amusing that whenever George Carlin told his "imagine how dumb the average person in the country is, and now realize half of them are dumber than that" bit, typically around 100% of the audience would laugh.

[Anonymouswizard]

Sure but the odds are better. Just like how any random public school in the country isn't a guarantee to be a ****show like you generalize.

Please, all public schools are ****shows. Why do you think the aristocracy goes to them?

Last time checked your people decided "civilized" meant smashing powder on your faces until you looked like ghosts and then donning mop heads on top of that.

And suppressing the rights of others! That was a very important part.

We're thinking we might to ship some mop heads across the pond...

[enderlord99]

"Type-3 diabetes" is, based on a brief googling, an unofficial term for dementia, used when that dementia occurs (or is suspected to have occurred) as a result of type-1 or type-2 diabetes.

It can also refer to gestational diabetes, which is an acute form of diabetes experienced by some pregnant people which goes away shortly after birth.

[Rater202]

"Type-3 diabetes" is, based on a brief googling, an unofficial term for dementia, used when that dementia occurs (or is suspected to have occurred) as a result of type-1 or type-2 diabetes.

It can also refer to gestational diabetes, which is an acute form of diabetes experienced by some pregnant people which goes away shortly after birth.

Neither of those seems relevant in the context of the dream, so the term is probably just dream logic.

Also, thank you for giving me yet another reason to fear growing old and desire to escape from the meat prison that is my body.

[DavidSh]

Apropos of nothing, but I've always found it amusing that whenever George Carlin told his "imagine how dumb the average person in the country is, and now realize half of them are dumber than that" bit, typically around 100% of the audience would laugh.

When I hear that repeated, I go down the mathematical rabbit hole:

1. It sounds like he is confusing "average" with "median", since the average isn't guaranteed to be the 50% point.
2. But does it actually make sense for me to read "average" as arithmetical mean here? Is "dumbness" really something you can add over a set of people, and divide by the number of people?
3. But maybe he is talking about IQ score. You can do arithmetic on that.
4. Now I need to check whether IQ scores are normalized to have a symmetric distribution, so the median is at the same point as the mean.
5. (Wouldm't a symmetric IQ distribution mean that, for each IQ 201 person, there is also an IQ -1 person?)

[Peelee]

When I hear that repeated, I go down the mathematical rabbit hole:

1. It sounds like he is confusing "average" with "median", since the average isn't guaranteed to be the 50% point.
2. But does it actually make sense for me to read "average" as arithmetical mean here? Is "dumbness" really something you can add over a set of people, and divide by the number of people?
3. But maybe he is talking about IQ score. You can do arithmetic on that.
4. Now I need to check whether IQ scores are normalized to have a symmetric distribution, so the median is at the same point as the mean.
5. (Wouldm't a symmetric IQ distribution mean that, for each IQ 201 person, there is also an IQ -1 person?)

All i know is every man in prison is innocent (except Red) and everyone I've met is above average intelligence. Ain't I a statistical oddity!

[Bartmanhomer]

It's good to drink coffee again. I haven't drunk coffee for a few days now.

[Ionathus]

When I hear that repeated, I go down the mathematical rabbit hole:

1. Now I need to check whether IQ scores are normalized to have a symmetric distribution, so the median is at the same point as the mean.

I realize this isn't the hot takes thread, but I just gotta say it: in 95% of common use cases, median and mean are close enough as to be functionally identical.

Like I'm sure it's important to plenty of industries and careers but if someone in casual conversation interrupts to "um, actually" about the difference? Stop it with your nerd talk, you big talky nerd.

It's good to drink coffee again. I haven't drunk coffee for a few days now.

I love coffee. I can't drink it every day but I relish every chance I get.