When you're lost in the darkness, look for the light.

[rogueslayer452]

++ Zhu Yilong won "King of Weibo" at the Weibo Awards (or Weibo Night as I've seen it being referenced), an event that I wasn't even aware existed. You can see him accepting the award here.

++ We now have the casting announcements of Abby Anderson, Jesse, and Dina for the second season of The Last Of Us. I'm excited, although I hope that the actress set to play Abby is going to avoid social media, for her sanity and safety. Laura Bailey, who voiced Abby in The Last Of Us: Part II game, received so much hate and death threats that I don't want history to repeat itself.

This is a downside to having an adaptation of The Last Of Us, because while I'm enjoying seeing the different pieces of meta and discussions surrounding the characters and the story, there's also the continued wank too that I'm just so tired hearing about. I just want to enjoy the story unfold on the screen as I did with the game, and discuss things civilly with fellow fans, especially newer fans who are experiencing the story for the first time with the show. Furthermore, I don't want any of the actors to suffer because people cannot separate fiction and reality.

++ Learning that SAG-AFTRA has screwed over voice actors by approving of using AI for video games has been completely disappointing, but sadly unsurprising. Voice actors have rarely been taken seriously within the industry, since they're viewed as not being "real actors", and so while the strikes that happened recently were important they also gave voice actors the short end of the stick. I don't know what's going to happen. I wouldn't be surprised if they went on strike because of this because yeah, it's a shitty deal for them. Voice acting is a small but growing community for a niche part of the industry, but that doesn't make them any lesser than other actors. They deserve better.

Comments

[author_by_night]

Voice acting is a small but growing community for a niche part of the industry, but that doesn't make them any lesser than other actors. They deserve better.

I agree.

[profiterole_reads]

Congrats to Z1L! <3

That really sucks for voice actors.

[haebin]

Learning that SAG-AFTRA has screwed over voice actors by approving of using AI for video games has been completely disappointing,...
That is really sad. I discovered recently an actor/voice actor and no AI would be able to give the character so much personality like he did.

[trobadora]

Thank you for the award video, I haven't managed to keep up with anything recently!

[sunshine304]

Ah yes, the event that always takes one hundred hours to complete. XD I saw pics of Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo, mostly, who definitely looked like they’d love to be anywhere else but there. XD

That’s really shitty of SAG-Aftra but as you said, unfortunately not surprising. I know that at least here in Germany, voice actors very often have a theatre background and also act in TV/movies because yeah, voice work doesn’t earn you all that much.

[silverusagi]

Do you think TLoF is going to have a 'Red Wedding' online moment, where there are causal fans of the show who have no idea what's about to happen, while fans of the source material already know?

I mean, it's true that any adaptation is going to have people who already know what's coming, but this just looks like it has the potential to be big (and bad).

[rogueslayer452]

Oh, most definitely. TLOU2 has something massive happen that I'm sure will divide fans, depending on how they structure the season because the second game is told non-linearly. But yeah it's gonna be....interesting, that's for sure.

[rogueslayer452]

You're welcome. :)

[potentiality_26]

The SAG-AFTRA news is so disappointing. Voice actors really don't get the respect they deserve.

[rogueslayer452]

They really don't, and it's honestly sad. So many of them are incredibly talented and have done such good work that hardly ever gets recognized. And especially with video games nowadays, most VAs have to do motion capture for.

[rogueslayer452]

Many voice actors are incredibly talented. I've been discovering a lot of them in recent years (thanks to Critical Role leading down that rabbit hole) and learning quite a bit about the voice acting community as a whole, and it's a damn shame that they are constantly overlooked and underappreciated within the industry.

[rogueslayer452]

lol, Zhu Yilong had that look too, though more confusing than anything. To be fair, these kinds of events always take forever and are often considered boring to the attendees who are there, since you're just sitting there for most of it anyway. So I wouldn't blame them for wanting to be anywhere but there.

Yeah, voice actors are barely acknowledged for the work they do and are often overlooked, underappreciated, and go through a lot of bullshit. This is just another layer to that bullshit cake.

[night_owl_9]

Oooh Isabela Merced is so pretty!

Yeahhhhh, I hope Abby's actress avoids social media, too, for her own good. Like, don't even make accounts on the sites - just go dark. All contact through agents and shit. On a related note, ugh, the wank fucking sucks.

Voice acting is a small but growing community for a niche part of the industry, but that doesn't make them any lesser than other actors. They deserve better. - For real, though. Before this BS, I wanted to join the union because of the protections they offered (and higher pay entrusted to union actors) later in my career. Now I'm not so sure.

[elizalavelle]

I just started Season 1 of The Last of Us and have never played the game so it's all a surprise for me. I'm looking forward to seeing how the season unfolds. The first episode was a really good start. Love the cast I've seen so far and the effects are so creepy.

I saw with voice actors saying that they were confused seeing some of the game they were acting in as their characters were saying things they never recorded so... that's upsetting. Voice acting is important. Using AI is going to damage careers and the huge risk is that companies will start to opt into AI instead of paying people to get a good product going forward because they'll save money at the outset.

[svgurl]

That sucks about the voice actors getting screwed over. It always seems underrated in terms of difficulty - not everyone are capable, even if they are an otherwise talented actor, and that is sad that their work gets underappreciated and pushed to the side.

[rogueslayer452]

It's such an underappreciated line of work that I think gets overlooked too often because the misconception that it's just people in booths saying lines, when it's more than that. Especially for voice actors who consistently do video games, they have a lot more on their plate because it's become more common for them to do motion-capture for certain games (leading to a lot of issues surrounding their safety). Never mind in general the damage it can do to their vocal cords because of the hours long sessions they do by having to maintain the same volume without breaks. And they hardly get as much recognition for the work they do as they should, imho.

And here's the thing, whether it's onscreen acting, stage acting, or voice acting, it's all the same thing: acting. They're all for different mediums and require different skills, but it's still a skill that requires talent and they should all be treated with respect. You can't fight for one thing while pushing aside those who fight alongside you because you view their work as "lesser than". That's not how this works, and that's not how unions should work.

[rogueslayer452]

Oh, yay! I can't wait to hear your thoughts once you finished the season. :D

Yeah, it's already a small and niche community as it is, and this will no doubt make it smaller. Plus, they've already were on strike not too long ago for certain issues, which sadly many VAs were also not happy with how SAG conceded so quickly to an agreement that didn't really favor their demands. So again, it's not surprising that this was yet another blow to them. :/