The depressing thing about the Spock cover is that it is clearly modeled after the original cover art, so.. Why not just use THAT? Why get it poorly remade?
Like, in comparison to that, the fact that their take on the Enterprise-D is… well, tragic, but at least it’s obviously an attempt at something original.
I’m trying to figure out the others, and the only one I can identify is based solely on the process of elimination - the Ferengi and Cardassians only really featured together in a TNG novel in one book, and the Cardassians’ involvement is supposed to be a reveal, so way to blow THAT on the cover…
Another fantastically crafted piece critical of BioWare/EA’s treatment of gay male characters (and how, yes, we can still find some joy in the scraps even though the studios actually suck at queer rep because #My Shepard really was written to be a hetero blowhard).
“And so, here was my gay ass, confronted by a challenge: ignore Mass Effect’s push to have you hook up with one (or more) of your squadmates over the course of the first two games, until I could pursue Kaidan as a romantic option in Mass Effect 3. What followed was an exercise in both extreme delayed gratification and a harsh reminder of just how unwelcomed I could feel playing a game series that I loved as it disregarded my experience and desire as a queer man…”
“To play Mass Effect as a story where Commander Shepard is explicitly a gay, male hero is not just to play the waiting game, but to push back against the series’ almost constant heterosexual assault on your senses.”
And then here’s where we remind you that it doesn’t have to stay this way. We’re still pushing for the studios to do post-release patches so we can have ONE (1) trilogy-spanning m/m relationship arc.
Kaidan’s is the easiest to implement since all the material that exists in the MELE code can be used with minimal editing.
Other characters - Ashley, Thane, Tali, Miranda, Jacob, and Jack - also have at least some usable material. We’re also pushing for their same-sex romances to be finished and included.
Here’s the petition link with all the relevant tech and open letter docs you need!
Sometimes tumblr activism is just. So tiring. They’re like “you are personally responsible for every world wide tragedy and need to solve it by guilt tripping on the internet” and I’m like. Y’all. I was sitting on the bench
I really want to reblog all the alternative disability pride flag ideas people are coming up with, but that would also mean reblogging the original post again (source), and seen as how the original flag design has caused some people to have seizures (!!) I’m really hesitant to do so.
Would creating a separate post help? (With credit to the creators, obviously.)
Are there specific tags we should use? I know it’s bad to tag epilepsy triggers as just #epilepsy. It’s like when someone tags flashing gifs as #migraine and suddenly you’ve got a migraine because it’s popped up in your tracked tag.
I also know it’s unlikely we’ll find a single design that works for everyone with visual triggers. Some of the suggested designs were fine for me at first, but during my migraine attack were too painful to look at. But that’s the nature of disability. One size fits no one. Which is why I feel it’s important to have multiple alternative versions. Disability Pride is supposed to include everyone. Adaptability is how we thrive. And having a flag that endangers members of the disabled community or worsens visual disturbances is something that needs rectifying.
I don’t know how or where to even begin. But I’d be willing to help facilitate a dialogue over it. Might as well do something useful with the infamy of that one post that shall not be named :P
Looking at some of the suggested designs showed (for me at least) the the narrowness of the stripes, the little gaps in between them, and the intensity of the colours we big factors to the eye issues.
I love the lightning, both because of its symbolism, and because it sets the flag apart from pride flags. Speaking of which, there are a lot of those around in lots of different colours and palettes – perhaps hearing from folks about which of those are the least likely to cause issues/are easiest to look at could be a good start?
Yeah, when I was in the worst of my migraine, the colors felt like they were searing my retinas off. The narrowness also made my eyes jump around a lot, too, which I imagine is way worse if you suffer from seizures or vertigo.
I did like @vampire-crimson’s suggestion to lower the contrast by using an off-black background. Along with the many other suggestions to make the stripes of the lightning bolt wider and less saturated. While I love the meaning ascribed to the colors, the shades of red, blue, green, white and yellow are really vibrant. Which I suspect would work well on a material flag with less issue, but online where everything is back lit by blue light it’s a bit of a sensory nightmare.
A less vibrant version of the flag from the original creator can be found here:
Yes, as I said in this recent post about the flag – I’ll quote, so people won’t have to click through and have to navigate past the problematic design at the top:
I originally designed it with bright colors in mind, so that it would
be visible from a distance in the physical world (on a flagpole, or
picket sign in a parade/march), and designed it with straight lines so
that it’s easier to make and sew.
But none of those
conditions need to come into play when it’s displayed on a computer
screen. In terms of symbolism, the important elements are the zigzag (to
represent navigating barriers), the five stripes running parallel
(diversity/solidarity), and the lighter stripe in the middle (invisible disability).
I think (hope) that as long as those things are
consistent, this design can be altered and adapted to be used
comfortably by as many people as possible.
I also tried to follow good flag design principles so that the flag would be recognizable without any color at all. Even the width and shape of zigzags are flexible. Would rounded corners, instead of sharp ones (an S-like shape, rather than a Z-like one), be better?
A flag with many different “official” versions may be unusual, but then again, the Disability Community is unusual.
While I love the zig zag and it’s symbolism, I don’t think it’s worth keeping as is, especially if it causes problems for photosensitive people. I do not know what specificly can cause these problems from this design, so correct me if I’m wrong, but wouldn’t the pattern itself be straining when for example simply scrolling can make the image appear to move like a wiggle?
I’d like to suggest a little alternative here:
Vertical stripes
I desaturated and darkened the colors to lessen the eye-strain, put an off-black for the background for lesser contrast and changed the stripes.
Why vertical stripes? The meaning behind the zig zag was navigating barriers, most pride related flags use horizontal stripes so I think the usage of vertical ones shows that difference in paths disabled people traverse on (while also reducing the risk for photosensitive folks).
I’m not part of this community by any means so I’m sorry if this comes of wrong, but I’d like to leave this suggestion here for all of you to take it further or leave it be.
Reblogging this because I’m curious to see others’ opinions on the straight line design, and this is the easiest way (only way?) Tumblr provides for tracking a particular thread in a conversation.
Reblogging so more folks can see it.
I’m not one of the people affected by seizures, but I am in the middle of a full-on migraine atm, and the vertical stripes are a lot easier to look at, as are the colors. It’s also not doing the fake flashing thing the zigzag one was doing this time last week when I started to get a visual aura, so hopefully, the same is true for others.
Cis White Male, He/Him pronouns, 33 This is predominantly a place for me to geek about my fandoms (heavy focus on anything and almost everything BioWare - expect much Mass Effect and Dragon Age, but also Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Star Trek, Supernatural, and some others) and things that make me laugh. The latter often overlaps with the former.
Organization here is a perpetual work in progress, but feel free to look through my tags at any time and reblog with more comments - if I've got commentary on something, I love talking more about it.
For the record, anything that I post is free to reblog unless it has the tag 'dg gets personal'. Those are posts about me, to get things personal to me off my chest, not to be reblogged.
Oh, and do note, I am a sucker for puns. There is a dedicated tag for them. There will be many.
