r/TwoBestFriendsPlay

You asked for it, so here it is. Subreddit rules still apply. Please also keep all discussions about Adi Shankar to this thread.

Who is a character who you think gets too much glaze or focus due to fan favoritism causing the quality of their overall product to get worse as a result? I've got a couple examples that come to mind:

1. Arya Stark - GoT: She was a common fan favorite through most of the series, but near the end of the show the writers started making her into a superhero to make the fans happy with her journey. Despite failing in nearly all aspects of her assassin training, she powers through and kills the Waif before leaving, somehow having gained the ability to steal faces and a mastery of dueling that put her on par with Brienne of Tarth, who was one of the most successful fighters of the series.

This all capped off with her being the one to kill the Night King, despite there being so many characters around that made way more sense to be the one to finish that plotline, most notably Jon Snow.

2. Soldier Boy - The Boys: Soldier Boy was clearly meant to be a much smaller part in the story, obviously the show has gone way off from the comics, which is a GREAT thing, but he was a bit part in the comics and is now the second most important supe in the series after Homelander.

Jensen Ackles does an amazing job and I totally get wanting to give the fans more of his performance, but at this point they don't seem to know what to do with him so he just keeps flipping sides every episode, repeating the same old jokes. Worse he seems to have completely taken the role Black Noir was meant to have in the ending, resulting in Noir getting killed off randomly after finally getting some spotlight, replaced in a panic move to keep "the character" around, and then killed again in one of the dumbest deaths of an already poorly written final season.

To note: there's actually been a shocking lack of coverage for this story, which is odd given how big the Discord censorship story was a few months ago (it was a few months, right?); none of the sites I could find that did cover it really gave a clear outline of the story...and had terrible article titles that left a lot to be desire regarding actually characterizing the story accurately. This was the best one I could find, but I had to replace the original title with the byline for the sake of clarity.

Kickstarter has published a new "Mature Content Creator Guide" that lays out clearer rules for crowdfunded projects involving adult themes, including comics, art books, photography collections, and intimacy-related products and states that it is intended to help creators avoid having projects flagged or rejected during review. The document states that Kickstarter "has long supported bold, boundary-pushing creative work" while also attempting to draw firmer lines around what it considers acceptable mature content on the platform. For comics creators in particular, the guide states that "romance and spicy literature, including comics" and even "erotic comics" are still allowed on the platform, but only if all project page imagery complies with the new standards. It also warns against projects "where the primary value offered is access to explicit content." And that it will now generally prohibit pornographic or explicitly sexual content, projects created specifically for sexual gratification, explicit depictions of sex acts, violent, exploitative or non-consensual sexual material. The guide repeatedly stresses that censorship bars, blur effects or pixelation will not make otherwise prohibited imagery acceptable. Kickstarter states, "If the underlying image violates these guidelines, censoring it does not make it compliant." Kickstarter closes the document by emphasising that mature creative work still has a place on the platform, writing, "Creative expression deserves a place to find its audience."

Keep in mind, up until recently, the only states rule Kickstarter had against NSFW content was "no pornographic material", and even had a newsletter called Kickstarter After Dark to highlight "bold, provocative, and proudly not safe for work” content.

Comic artist Mike Wolfer is one of the creatives to be notified of these rules on May 11th, and even received an email from Kickstarter regarding his NSFW comic, where it's revealed that these changes are almost 100% the work of Kickstarter's connection with the payment processor Stripe:

"Thanks for sharing "DAUGHTERS OF THE DARK ORACLE: RAGDOLL'S REVENGE" with us. IMPORTANT: We noticed that your project includes adult/NSFW content, such as mature horror imagery and pages with censored nudity. While your project has been approved on Kickstarter, all projects must also comply with our payment processor Stripe's rules. Stripe will conduct its own review and may decide that it's unable to support your project. This can happen before your project launches, while it's live, or even after it successfully funds. If Stripe determines that it cannot support your campaign, our Trust & Safety team will let you know. In that situation, we will do our best to request that Stripe pay out any funds owed to you, but this is not guaranteed. Because of this, we encourage you to be transparent with your backers about the possibility that payment processing issues outside of Kickstarter's control could affect your project."

There's more reactions from creatives included in the article, but it seems like once again, payment processors are trying to stifle NSFW content. Fun times.