Elsewhere in the Universe: TERF Wars Edition (March 2021)
Welcome to the monthly segment I like to call Elsewhere in the Universe! I’ve had similar posts under different names, but I think I now have a permanent name for the segment.
Here I show off news, articles, videos, etc. that I find interesting. Not everything I showcase is stuff I found this month, or even this year. I usually try to be as professional as possible in the rest of the blog, but in this segment anything goes!
Daniel Miessler Tries His Hardest to Sell Attack On Titan
In the podcast Unsupervised Learning, security researcher Daniel Miessler has a section called “Recommendations” where he shares products and pieces of media listeners should try out. In March he recommended the anime Attack on Titan, which is on its fourth and final season. Skip to 21:56 for the fun part.
I can’t tell if the camera angle is weird or if these guys listened to the Terror Squad song “Lean Back” one too many times.
Having been exposed to both anime culture and the stigma against it, I’m used to compartmentalizing this hobby into its own little niche. However, it’s always amusing to see someone reach out to people outside the fandom and try and get them on board.
Proton Jon is Back!
Proton Jon’s YouTube channel has returned after a multi-year hiatus. Although he’s active on his Twitch stream and on his collab channel The Runaway Guys, he hasn’t posted a video on his main channel since 2017.
Jon has a flurry of Let’s Play videos lined up, including the beginning of Blaster Master Zero, the conclusion of Double Dragon, and the continuation of Superman 64.
Can the Mega Man X Series Be Written Better?
YouTube channel Reploid REVO posted a video at the end of February suggesting ways to improve the plot of the Mega Man X games. I really like his treatment of Mega Man X4, in which the main characters evolve rather than remain static over the course of the game. X still starts off as a pacifist, but gains the resolve to fight for his beliefs after the villains force his hand. By contrast, Zero is headstrong until he is forced to fight the people closest to him. Find out the rest of Reploid REVO’s takes in the video above.
The Wiggles Perform a Cover of Elephant by Tame Impala
Yes, this was a thing that happened.
The Main Event (New Segment)
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has gained notoriety after aligning with the Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist movement. If you’re unaware of the situation, here are a couple of videos by Lindsay Ellis (TSOA ‘07) to get you up to speed.
Some may view Rowling’s activity as a betrayal to LGBT+ causes, seeing how she previously contributed to queer representation by revealing that the character Albus Dumbledore was gay.
But what if I told you that she was always a problematic individual?
This article on the Cracked website chronicles the slights J.K. Rowling made toward individuals while writing the Harry Potter books, many years before her current controversy.
For those who don’t feel like reading, here’s my chance to plug The Cracked Podcast and one my favorite episodes, “Children’s TV Shows With Horrifying Implications,” which discusses those incidents and other topics related to children’s media. That episode is now five years old at this point, by the way.
So, it turned she always had a dark side. In a way, this is something we should’ve seen coming. It’s just a tragedy that she shifted from individual beefs to becoming a reactionary figure.