#I can only think of these two games or gravity falls with 0 in between

[that0nebird]

Tamarack would be a tali/liara romancer if she played mass effect

[fabuloustrash05]

Yesterday I just realized something- I might have a hard time explaining this but- do ya'll ever think about Sal and Mona and what could have happened to them if the turtles didn't go back to the past in s4? The stuff we saw happen in the space arc was all apart of the past. It didn't happen in the present day or something. Meaning that 6 months before the events of season 3's finale, there was the salamander and tricerations fight and you get it. However, then you remember war in dimension X. Mona and Sal were trapped and held in a cell. Now this has got me wondering. What happened originally to them afterwords? Did they possibly get experimented on? Did they die? Did they save themselves and escape? What would have happened if the Raph and Mikey weren't there to save them? I just realized that something different could have possibly happened to Sal and Mona. And if they genuinely maybe died originally, then that would be pretty dark and disturbing. But something interesting to think about honestly. Idk if anybody understood this or nah

You just opened up a whole can of worms so get ready….

I have a very old TMNT 2012 theory that Mona Lisa was supposed to die in that war between the Triceratons that the Turtles interrupted by crashing their two ships.

The reason I say the theory with only Mona and not her and Sal is because every time we see Mona in an episode, she nearly dies and then Raph (or sometimes someone else) saves her.

The Moons of Thalos 3 — Almost killed by ice dragons and later almost dies from lack of oxygen and heat

War for Dimension X — Almost falls to her death (but again DX’s logic of gravity makes 0 sense)

The Evil of Dregg — Scorpinoid sting

When Worlds Collide is the only one where Mona doesn’t have a near death experience (to my memory)

I forget the name of what this term is called but it’s basically like in the game Life is Strange (spoilers) where the main characters friend Chloe throughout the game keeps ending up in near death experiences that you have to save her from, to which you end up finding out at the end that the universe needs her dead because the universe knows she was originally supposed to die in the beginning of the game.

Now, playing with the “Mona was supposed to die” theory, I got a story idea I don’t think I ever shared. Renet comes by to visits the Turtles and is shocked to see Mona among them. She freaks out, asking why she’s here and alive. Everyone is confused, including Mona and Raph, and Renet reveals the truth, Mona was not supposed to live and her and Raph were never supposed to happened, but because Raph kept saving her (preventing her death) history is at risk.

I feel the whole story would be Renet being forced to do her job (she doesn’t want to but she has to) and have Mona killed so history can be back on track and there can be balance, but Raph is doing every thing he can to protect Mona and the history he made with her.

[user-2-electric-boogaloo]

A Comparison of RTD and Steven Moffat: Saving The Day

So for this analysis I’m going to compare when Moffat and RTD save the day well and when they save it poorly. There are a few bits of criteria I need to explain.

 First I will only be including main series, no Torchwood, no spin-offs, and no mini episodes.

Second, I have to define what makes a good and a bad ending (my examples will come from episodes written by neither of them): 

Bad endings include when the sonic saves the day (see The Power Of Three) (there are exceptions, see below), when a character spouts some useless technobabble that doesn’t make any scientific sense/when it doesn’t make logical sense in general, when the Doctor invents/presents a machine/equipment that miraculously stops the baddy and is never referred to again (see Journey To The Centre Of The TARDIS), and any other ending I deem to be bad (see The Vampires of Venice)

Good endings include when the sonice activates a device that has been well established to save the day, when technobabble is used that actually makes some scientific sense, and just generally when the baddy is destroyed in what I deem to be a creative manner that makes sense with all the things that had been set up in that episode (see The Unquiet Dead).

There will also be cases where there isn’t really a day to be saved, however this happens more often with Moffat.

Let us begin (obviously there will be spoilers but the last episode in the list aired nearly 4 years ago so what you doing with your life).

RTD:

Rose: Bad

What even is anti-plastic?! Like seriously, he’s faced the Autons loads of times and has never thought to use it any other time.

The End Of The World: Bad

The Doctor just goes up to the appearance of the repeated meme (ha meme) and rips its arm off. He then just summons Cassandra back by twisting a knob which apparently everyone can do if “you’re very clever like me”.

Aliens Of London/World War Three: Good

Just nuking them all was a bit dodgy but I’ll give it to him purely because it had been set up earlier in the episode and it is a genuine option that could have been taken.

The Long Game: Good

The heating issue was set up within 2 minutes of the episode starting. It’s always good to see the Doctor using his enemies weakness against them.

Boom Town: Good

Only just. It’s technology that hadn’t been showcased ever before and came out of nowhere, but I’m allowing purely because it was setting up The Parting Of The Ways.

Bad Wolf/The Parting Of The Ways: Good

See above. It was set up the story before so it works.

The Christmas Invasion: Bad

This was so close to being good. If RTD had just let the Sycorax leader be honourable then everything would have been fine. Instead he had to let him be dishonourable and then the Doctor through the Satsuma at a random button that for no apparent reason caused a bit of floor to fall away.

New Earth: Bad

It only makes sense if you think about it for less than 10 seconds as just pouring every cure to every disease ever into a giant tub and then spraying said supercure onto them all, then having them hug each other to pass it on. That is suspending my disbelief just a bit too far.

Tooth And Claw: Good

Everything is set up in the episode so I’ll allow it but I fail to see how Prince Albert had the time to ensure that the diamond was cut perfectly.

Love And Monsters: Bad

It’s Love And Monsters. Need I say more?

Army of Ghosts/Doomsday: Good

It was very clearly set up throughout the episode.

The Runaway Bride: Bad

I don’t like how a few bombs can supposedly drain the entire Thames.

Smith And Jones: Good

All the events were well established

Gridlock: Good

It’s a fairly bland way to save the day, just opening the surface to all the drivers. But how else could he have done it?

Utopia/The Sound Of Drums/Last Of The Time Lords: Bad

As much as I like the idea that he tuned himself into the archangel network, he basically turned into Jesus. It is arguably the least convincing ending in modern Doctor Who history.

Voyage Of The Damned: Bad

Why was he the next highest authority? If he’s the highest authority in the universe why didn’t they default to him in the first place? If not then why not default to Midshipman Frame? And if he’s somehow in between them then why? Also Astrid killed herself for no reason when she easily could have jumped out of the forklift.

Partners In Crime: Good

It works in the context of the episode, but I don’t see why they needed two of the necklace things.

Midnight: Good

It’s human nature, you can’t get more well set up than that.

Turn Left: Good

It works logically

The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End: Bad

Donna just spouts a load of technobabble whilst pressing buttons and then the Daleks are magically incapacitated.

The Next Doctor: Bad

Why do the infostamps sever Hartigan’s connection with the Cyberking? As far as I remember it ain’t explained.

Planet Of The Dead (co-written with noted transphobe Gareth Roberts): Good

A good couple scenes are dedicated on getting the anti-gravs set up.

The Waters Of Mars (co-written with Phil Ford): N/A

The day isn’t really saved cause everyone still dies anyway.

The End Of Time: Good

Using a gun to destroy a machine is much better than using the sonic to destroy it.

Summary for RTD:

Out of 24 stories written by him, I deem 10 to be bad endings with 1 abstaining. That’s 41.7% of his episodes (43.5% if we don’t count any abstaining).

Steven Moffat:

The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances: Good

You’ll see this a lot with Moffat, he knows how to explain things without stupefying levels of technobabble. “Emailing the upgrade” is a perfect example of this.

The Girl In The Fireplace: Good

Some basic logic, the androids want to repair their ship, but they can’t return to it, they no longer have a function so they shut down.

Blink: Good

Always loved this one, getting the angels to look at each other, however they do look at each other sometimes earlier in the episode.

Silence In The Library/Forest Of The Dead: Bad

This is more of a problem with the setup of the episode, I don’t like that he can negotiate with the Vashta Nerada. I’d rather see them comprehensively beaten, but I guess it’s good for the scare factor that they can’t be escaped from.

The Eleventh Hour: Good

He convinced the best scientists all around the world to set every clock to 0 all in less than an hour. In the Doctor’s own words “Who da man!”

The Beast Below: Good

The crying child motif pretty much ended up saving the day (well for the star whale, life went on as normal for pretty much everyone else).

The Time Of Angels/Flesh And Stone: Good

The artificial gravity had briefly been set up earlier so I’ll allow it.

The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang: Good

Everything had been set up perfectly, the vortex manipulator, the Pandorica’s survival field thingy, the TARDIS exploding at every moment in history.

A Christmas Carol: Good

Literally the entire episode is the Doctor saving the day by convincing Kazran not to be a cock.

The Impossible Astronaut/Day Of The Moon: Good

The silence’s ability to influence people is their whole thing, so using it against them is a good Doctory thing to do.

A Good Man Goes To War: N/A

The day isn’t really saved, Melody is lost, but River shows up at the end so is all fine? I love the episode it’s just the day isn’t really truly saved (yes I know Amy was rescued but she still lost her baby).

Let’s Kill Hitler: N/A

There isn’t really a day to be saved. They all get out alive but no one is really saved other than maybe River but we all knew she was gonna live anyway.

The Wedding Of River Song: Good

Whilst opinion is divided on the episode, the ending still works. the Tesseracta was established in Let’s Kill Hitler, and the “touch River and time will move again” was established well in advance.

The Doctor, The Widow And The Wardrobe: Bad

I don’t like how the lifeboat travels through the time vortex for no reason but to rescue the dad. It don’t make no sense and I don’t think it’s explained

Asylum Of The Daleks: Good

Oswin had access to the Dalek hive mind so of course she should be able to link into the controls and blow everything up.

The Angels Take Manhattan: Good

Paradoxes really do be something powerful, and they even acknowledge how nobody knows if it’d work so I’ll let it slide.

The Snowmen: Bad

Lots of people cry at Christmas, why are the Latimers anything special?

The Bells of Saint John: Good

The whole episode is about hacking so why shouldn’t the Doctor be able to hack the spoonheads

The Name Of The Doctor: Good

It was the story arc for the season pretty much, so of course it was explained well in advance.

The Day Of The Doctor: Good

Both the storing Gallifrey like a painting and the making everyone forget if they’re Human or Zygon works in the context of the episode.

The Time Of The Doctor: Bad

Since when were the Time Lords so easily negotiated with?

Deep Breath: Good

I like the dilemma over whether the half-face man was pushed or jumped.

Into The Dalek: Good

It’s set up well with this new Doctor’s persona of actually not being too nice of a guy (at first).

Listen: N/A

There isn’t a day to be saved. It’s just 45 minutes of the Doctor testing a hypothesis and I low-key love it.

Time Heist (co-written with Steven Thompson): Good

It works logically so I’ll allow it however it isn’t very well set up at all.

The Caretaker (co-written with noted shithead Gareth Roberts): Good

The machine to tell the Blitzer what to do was set up well in advance so I’ll allow it.

Dark Water/Death In Heaven: Good

The fact that Danny still cares even as a cyberman is set up fairly early on after his transformation.

Last Christmas: Good

He does use the sonic to wake up Clara but he convinces the others to wake up through talking so I’ll allow it.

The Magician’s Apprentice/The Witch’s Familiar: Good

It’s set up well with that little scene from actually inside the sewers.

The Girl Who Died (co-written with Jamie Mathieson): Good

IDK why the vikings would randomly keep electric eels but they’re set up well so I’ll ignore it. 

The Zygon Inversion (co-written with Peter Harness): N/A 

Not including this one as it’s only the second part and I’d argue the ending is most likely Harness’.

Heaven Sent/Hell Bent: N/A

Again there isn’t really a day to be saved, yes Heaven Sent really is amazing but it’s only the first part and, being completely honest, he dies several billion times before finally getting through the wall.

The Husbands Of River Song: N/A

Again there isn’t really a day to be saved here.

The Return Of Doctor Mysterio: Good

He gets Grant to catch the bomb which is good. But he does just sonic the gun out of Dr Sim’s hand and says UNIT is on its way which just sort of wraps it up very quickly.

The Pilot: N/A

No day to be saved here.

Extremis: Good

You could technically call it the sonic saving the day, I consider it to be the Doctor emailing the Doctor to warn him of the future.

The Pyramid At The End Of The World: Good

The fire sanitising everything makes sense and it’s in character for Bill to love the Doctor enough to cure his blindness in return for the world

World Enough And Time/The Doctor Falls: Good

Yes it is the sonic just blowing the cybermen up, but it’s blowing them up with well established pipelines so I’ll allow it (also the story is amazing).

Twice Upon A Time: N/A

No day to be saved here. Just Doctors 1 and 12 getting angsty about regenerating.

Summary for Steven Moffat:

Out of 39 stories written by him, I deemed 4 to be bad with 7 abstaining. That’s 10.3% of his episodes (12.5% if we don’t count any abstaining).

Conclusions:

Moffat was much better at saving the day than RTD

Moffat liked telling stories where the day didn’t actually need to be saved

I’ve spent way too long on this and I need to sleep

If I spent as much time on this as my coursework I’d probably pass

If you’re still reading this, you probably need to get a life

[dumb-american]

The Rebuild of Final Fantasy VII: Your Expectations Will (Not) Be Met

I apologize for the stupid title and I promise I’m going to talk about the Final Fantasy VII Remake, but I have to get this out of the way first. Sometime in the mid 2000s, acclaimed artist and director Hideaki Anno announced that he was going to remake his beloved anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion the way it should have been the first time, free from technical and budgetary restraints. Evangelion had a notoriously strange ending when the original anime aired, consisting of character talking over still images, abstract art, and simple animations. It was highly polarizing and controversial. Anno, for his part, received death threats and the headquarters of the studio that produced the anime was vandalized. Soon after the initial uproar Anno would direct The End of Evangelion, a retelling of the final two episodes of the anime, and that seemed to mostly satisfy the fanbase. Looking back now, The End of Evangelion wasn’t “fixing” something that was “broken,” no, it was a premonition: a vision of things to come. Why remake the ending when you can just remake the whole damn thing?

The mid 2000s also saw the birth of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII: a sub-series of projects expanding the universe and world of the video game that had “quite possibly the greatest game ever made” proudly printed on the back of its CD case. The Compilation consisted of three games, all on different platforms, and a film. First was Advent Children, a sequel to Final Fantasy VII, where three dudes that look like discarded Sephiroth concept art all have anime fights with our beloved protagonists, culminating in a ridiculous gravity defying sword fight between Cloud and Sephiroth. Before Crisis and Crisis Core are prequels that expand the story of the Turks and Zack Fair, respectively. Then there’s Dirge of Cerberus, an action shooter staring secret party member and former Turk Vincent. Were these projects good? I’d say they were largely forgettable. Crisis Core stood out as the obvious best of the bunch and I think may be worth revisiting.

As a business model, the practice pioneered by the Compilation would continue on and eventually brings us FFXIII (and sequels), FF Versus XIII (which would later become FFXV), and FF Agito XIII (which would later become FF Type-0). If that’s all incredibly confusing to you, I’m sorry, I promise I will begin talking about the Final Fantasy VII Remake soon. Suffice it to say, both Final Fantasy VII and Neon Genesis Evangelion have a certain gravity. They punch above their weight. They are both regarded as absolute classics, flaws and all. And yet, in both cases, the people responsible for their creation decided that their first at bat wasn’t good enough and it was time to recreate them as they were meant to be all along. I think this way of thinking about art is flawed, limitations are as much a part of the creative process as vision and intent. Yet, we find ourselves in a world with a remake of Final Fantasy VII, so I guess we should talk about it.

From this point forward, there’s going to be major spoilers for every Final Fantasy VII related media. So, be warned.

So, is the Final Fantasy VII Remake any good? To me, that’s the least interesting question, but we can get into it. FFVIIR is audacious, that’s for sure. Where Anno condenses and remixes a 26 episode anime series into four feature length films, the FFVIIR team expands an around 5 hour prologue chapter into a 30+ hour entire game. Naturally, there will be some growing pains. The worst example of this is the sewers. The game forces you to slog through an awful sewer level twice, fighting the same boss each time. This expanded sewer level is based on a part of the original game that was only two screens and was never revisited.

Besides the walk from point A to point B, watch a cutscene, fight a boss, repeat that you’d expect from a JRPG, there’s also three chapters where the player can explore and do sidequests. The sidequests are mostly filler, but a select few do accomplish the goal of fleshing out some of the minor characters. You spend way more time with the Avalanche crew, for example. Out of them, only Jesse has something approaching a complete personality or character arc that matters. The main playable cast is practically unchanged which was a bit surprising to me. I figured Square-Enix would tone down Barret’s characterization as Mr. T with a gun for an arm, but they decided, maybe correctly, that Barret is an immutable part of the Final Fantasy VII experience. Also, it’s practically unforgivable that Red XIII was not playable in the remake considering how much time you spend with him. I don’t understand that decision in the slightest.

The game’s general systems and mechanics, materia, combat, weapon upgrades, etc. are all engaging and fun and not much else really needs to be said about it. I found it to be great blend of action/strategy. Materia really was the peak of JPRG creativity in the original FFVII and its recreation here is just as good. The novelty of seeing weird monsters like the Hell House and the “Swordipede” (called the Corvette in the original) make appearances as full on boss fights with mechanics is just weaponized nostalgia. In general, the remake has far more hits than misses, but those misses, like the sewers and some of the tedious sidequests, are big misses. It is a flawed game, but a good one. If I were to pick a favorite part of the game, I’d have to pick updated Train Graveyard section which takes lore from the original game and creates a mini-storyline out of it.

If that was all, however, then honestly writing about Final Fantasy VII Remake wouldn’t be worth my time or yours. The game’s ambition goes way further than just reimagining Midgar as a living, real city. There’s a joke in the JRPG community about the genre that goes something like this: at the start of the game, you kill rats in the sewer and by the end you’re killing God. Well, when all is said and done, the Final Fantasy VII Remake essentially does just that. Narratively, the entire final act of the game is a gigantic mess, but if you know anything about me then you know I’d much rather a work of fiction blast off into orbit and get a little wild than be safe and boring.

In the original games, the Lifestream is a physical substance that contains spirits and memories of every living being. Hence, when a person dies, they “return to the planet”. It flows beneath the surface of the planet like blood flows in a living person’s veins and can gather to heal “wounds” in the planet. In the original game, the antagonist, Sephiroth, seeks to deeply wound the planet with Meteor and then collect all the “spirit energy” the planet musters to heal the wound. The remake builds on this concept by introducing shadowy, hooded beings called Whispers. The Whispers are a physical manifestation of the concept of destiny and they can be found when someone seeks to change their fate, correcting course to the pre-destined outcome. Whispers appear at multiple points throughout the game’s storyline both impeding and aiding the party. The ending focuses heavily on them and the idea that fate and destiny can be changed. We receive visions throughout the game which some will recognize as major story beats and images from the original game. After dealing with Shinra and rescuing Aerith, the game immediately switches over to this battle against destiny and fate that you’re either going to love or hate. The transition is abrupt and jarring. While Cloud has shown flashes of supernatural physical abilities throughout the game, suddenly he has gone full Advent Children mode and is flying around cleaving 15 ton sections of steel in half with his sword. The party previously took on giant mutated monsters, elite soldiers, and horrific science experiments, but now the gloves are off and they’re squaring up against an impossibly huge manifestation of the Planet’s will. Keep in mind, in the narrative of the original FFVII, the Midgar section was rougly 10%, if that, of the game’s full storyline. This is, frankly, insane, but I’d be lying if I didn’t love it.

The Final Fantasy VII Remake, with its goofy JRPG concluding chapter, is forcing the player to participate in the original game’s un-making. We see premonitions of an orb of materia falling to the ground, we see an older Red XIII gallop across the plains, we see a SOLDIER with black hair and Cloud’s Buster Sword make his final stand, we see Cloud waist deep in water holding something or someone. We all know what these images represent, they’ve been part of imaginations for decades. But the Final Fantasy VII Remake allows us (or forces us, depending on perspective, I guess) to kill fate, kill God, and set aside all we thought we knew about how the game would play out post-Midgar. The most obvious effect of our actions is the reveal that Zack survived his final stand against Shinra and instead of leaving Cloud his sword and legacy, helped him get to Midgar safely. I have my doubts and my worries about the future of this series. I’m not sure when the next part of the game will be released or what form it will come in, but I can’t believe I’m as excited as I am to see it.

Of course, part of me wishes they’d just left well enough alone. Remakes are generally complete wastes of time and effort. Not all, but most. Maybe I’m, to borrow a term from pro wrestling lingo, a complete mark here and I just love JRPGs and Final Fantasy VII so much that I’ll countenance close to anything bearing its name. I’ve tried my best to be as critical and fair as possible to the game and I hope that if you’re on the fence and reading this I’ve maybe helped you decide if it’s for you or not. I think the Final Fantasy VII Remake is worth your time if you’re looking for a good, meaty JRPG. It’s not perfect and it’s final act is insane, but that just makes me love it more.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like for Zack, Cloud, and Aerith to face Sephiroth in the Planet’s core? I know 15 year old me did. And he may get his wish.

[holy-mountaineering]

This spread is for a donor who’d like to remain anonymous!

Here’s the full Qabalistic Tree of Life Spread that I do and here you are. What I’m going to do is go through and briefly explain each card, its position on the Tree, and then I’ll give you a summary/synopsis of the spread as a whole. You know the routine.

Think of this spread as a sort of quantum map, or even the land of a regular map, everything is happening at once, in each place. It’s important to think of yourself as moving “through” the map but you are also simultaneously everywhere at once. For the sake of this specific experiment, think of this as a map. Maybe as a person, the Qabalistic Adam Kadmon.

Where we’re starting the journey from is Kether, the monad, the first sign of creation. We’ll call this your hometown, since it is where you’re from originally. Here we have XVIII The Moon, Pieces, Qoph. 

This is the ‘Sun at midnight where you stand shines on the other side of the world’. The pull of night and day eventually rising illuminating what was once dark. As opposed to the old Aeon idea of the Sun dying, this is the cyclic motion of the push and pull of the day and night. The dark gives the light context and vis-a-versa.

See the light in the dark, accept the cyclic push and pull, if you don’t like what “time of day it is” in your life I assure you it will change like the tides.

In Chokmah, which is like your freeway getting you out onto the road out of  your hometown is the Knight of Cups, the fiery part of Water or acting on feeling.

Ideally this is the drive to seek higher connections and feelings and being driven by intuition and love. Just don’t fall 

for illusions and false ideals. This is the love that brings you closer to connecting with everything, recognizing connection and it’s drive. This is the Arthurian tale of chasing the Holy Grail *Insert Monty Python joke here* simply to have a true connection to their god. Seek love like that.

Act on what you feel and truly intuit but only to the ends of unselfish almost worshipful Love. Do things that get you really really feeling.

In Binah, which is ruled by Saturn and for the sake of this reading we will call the first stop on your roadtrip. You haven’t really arrived anywhere but you’re stopping and getting a chance to repack your car in a more efficient way. Sitting in Binah is the 2 of Cups, Love. 

Like all the 2s the deuces of Water is building towards completion. This is the ever becomingness of love. Love never dies, it is simply transformed like any other energy. Love isn’t a competition or something you can measure. You never stop loving someone/thing because you have “reached maximum love levels”, shake hands and walk away from it. There is no end-game to love and that’s why it’s scary and makes people act like idiots sometimes. Astrologically,   Venus in Cancer can be interpreted as nurturing your emotional growth.

Build on what you’re feeling and don’t try to think about anything too concretely emotionally or intuitively. This is a building process so try not to focus on the final outcome but work with what you have now.

In Chesed which is ruled by Jupiter and again for the sake of this experiment we’ll say involves your influence and benevolence in your current trip is the Princess of Cups, the earthy part of Water. 

We could consider this the substance in water or water hitting substance head on. This is the idea of the canyon wall being ground down over the millennia by moving water. The nutrients and minerals in the earth are transported down river to the fertile delta. This is the natural, “following your feelings” within your daily life. Try not to fool yourself, follow your intuition, not just passing whims. Feel, don’t necessarily react immediately.

Go with what you feel and intuit, let yourself go with the flow, if you will. Allow your situation to move with your emotions and be patient with your progress.

Across the Tree in Geburah, which is Mars Town, where you find your drive and what you’re trying to accomplish/conquer is, well, everything kinda, XXI The Universe, Saturn, Tau.

The Universe is the totality of what we can sense and know. The dance of the Woman with the cosmic serpent and the Eye destroying while everything constantly recreates. We see the Universe only from our position in it. You may send out your satellites to explore unknown areas but you can only process what they might mean from your place. The more we try to take into our restrictive minds and spirits, the more we know about the whole and ourselves and our place in the Universe.

Step back and look at the connections and totality of everything you know and experience. It’s quite a view.

In Tiphareth, the Sun and center of gravity holding all this in place, the heart pumping the blood through this, your heart is a big same AKA 0 The Fool, Aleph, Air. 

This is mathematical zero or total possibility. This is the desire to create one’s self into a form, the logos or word spoken that jump started creation. The beginning of a journey of discovery. Going outward from stasis to tangibility. Making a thing from no-thing

Since you are nought, coming from no-thing into some-thing everything is discovery, for better or for worse. Just get up, get out, and do something! What to do and the direction to take to get there aren’t on any map.

In Netzach, Venus town, where you have the realization about how this is going to change you as a person with a personality is the  Ace of Swords, the root power of Air or the mind.

This is the sword of the Magus and the magician’s Sword is the physical representation of our mind and it’s ability in its rawest state of being. Thelema is inscribed on the blade of the Sword in Greek because the Magus uses their mind to the end of their True Will. The Crown of light at the tip of the Sword is the illuminated mind, because in its singleness and sharpness it is the foundation of the mind, intellect, and communication powers.

Use your mind for what you need it to do. Remember that a sword is useless at best and dangerous at worst when it isn’t handled correctly. You can cut down an army with a sword, but you can also cut your whole-ass leg or arm off too with one too. Knowledge is dangerous and scary, be prepared. 

In Mercury Town Hod-ville, where all the Universities are and everyone has real intellectual shit going on is the Queen of Swords, or how you feel about what you think and your reasoning.

Ideally, this Queen is the “caller out of bullshit.” She is watery (intuitive) enough to feel when a facade is being put up and airy (intelligent) enough to cut the shit and address the fakery. The difference between someone trying to take advantage of another and a person who accidentally causes misfortune is the intention of said individual. Don’t be fooled by kind wolves or rabid sheep.

She rests at her throne with the head or mask of a man and the sword of her mind she severed the head/mask with. Her expression is one of disinterest, she’s done this many times before and shall again and again. It is her nature.

Be aware of intentions, even  your own. Be wary of situations and people talking from behind masks they wish to use to obscure their true meaning. Especially be aware of yourself and your masks you hide behind.

On the Moon in Yesod, the receptive and reflective place that is alot about the feelings that you’re picking up from all this is friend of the blog, V The Hierophant, Vau, Taurus.

This is being initiated into how things work in the material or normal world. This is the secrets of how things are and some of that is being revealed to you. This is a person, institution, or experience that is telling you “trade secrets” or how to do what you do better. 5s are the human or microcosmic number and Taurus reiterates this material theme. Once you find out how to improve yourself and your understanding of the world, you must now go out and actually use that skill. Knowledge is useless if it is not implemented in the knower’s life and behavior.

Get initiated into the cult of your sphere of interest. Learn how to improve what you do through being initiated in one way or another. Find what/who helps you to learn the “secrets” of how to do your thing better and then go out and do those things.

Down here in Malkuth-istan, the everyday life mundane, waking up pooping, and going to work world is the always a riot, the 10 of Swords (mental and communicative) Ruin. 

Astrologically, this is Sol the Sun or your center being split by the duality of Gemini or duplicity. This is like making a decision by not making one. Your intellect is collapsing in on itself due to building duality or otherness conflicting with how you think of you. This is being “of two minds” but they duo doesn’t seem to work together very well. The good news is that they’re damn near done working together at all. 10s are the highest number card or as intense as it gets. 

Try to integrate your splitting and increasingly destructive thinking and/or communicating, make meaning out of this chaos. And hey, don’t worry, it’s peaked and now you have to slide down the mountain of crazy you just climbed.

So, Basically, it seems dark right now because you’re not focusing on your Light enough and to do that you’ll need to act from a place of Love, that ever moving towards that leaves us both vulnerable and strong, in the same, but different confusing ass ways.

Then, we get to the part where the freedom of nothing is tempered by the restriction of everything, garnished with the substance in emotion and connection. That is to say, your heart is longing for ultimate Freedom, while your actions and goals are focused on the “Big Picture” and you can temper these by recognizing that value in both positions and finding middle ground by observing and participating in the “motion of the ocean” or finding the strongest currents and using them to your advantage.

Your personal growth from all this comes from hitting the “reset” button on your mind. That tool of the Mind that allows us to communicate is a sharp tool (for you, not everyone, as this hellsite constantly reminds me) and should be treated with respect and awe. This “Meh-ness” of realization shouldn’t slow you don’t if you don’t let it. Instead of being overwhelmed or underwhelmed, just be whelmed and move on, because you’re about to encounter a wonderful teaching moment, if you allow it/them in.

And, I feel like I say this to you a fair amount: Don’t break your brain. You’ve got a lot on the ol’ noggin, too much, really. Just allow this bit to wash over, through, and then the fuck up out of you.

 Ta Da! Hit me up with any questions, comments, concerns or Qabalistic queries!

[superchartisland]

A: Boulder Dash II (First Star Software, Commodore 64, 1985)

When I was seven or eight, I took my notepad and pens and started creating my own version of Commodore Force magazine. I imitated its multiple-reviewer approach to games reviews with my family members in place of its writers, complete with caricatures next to each review. A decade on from my imitation games magazine, still imitating formats that I loved, I initiated something similar with Stylus Magazine's multiple-reviewer feature The Singles Jukebox, getting my brother and sister to join me in reviewing new music releases.

AAA started from my brother Martin's plan to do a big video game blog project, and my suggestion for it to be a chronological history of popular games in the UK, with no small debt to Popular. From there and observing the lack of historical games sales charts came the idea of doing one game for each month, starting from just before when Martin was born. This involved an attempt to reassemble a sequence of the most popular games through a combination of memory, online information and magazine scans, guesswork, format partiality and the occasional outrageous fiddle. Any presentation as definitive is meant with humour.

I have loved reading everything Martin has written for it, and started joining in on writing some entries and loved that too. So I've decided to do a bit more of it, and write up my own pieces on the same set of games, a perspective from Player 2. Except as someone nearly two years older, it seemed right to start off by taking things a bit further back, to the time of my own birth. So the first thing I'll be covering will be the path from August 1985 to May 1987. Martin's entry #0 and #1 were on a behemoth of the Japanese video games industry and a behemoth, of its time at least, of the British computer games industry. And by happy coincidence, seeing that my first game got reviews in July, August and September 1985 lets me place my starting point at another massively popular Commodore 64 game with deep personal resonance.

The first game I wrote about and assigned in my role as family video games magazine editor was Boulder Dash II. I wrote that I was pleased to discover that it was a Rockman clone, which showed a good knowledge of the language of influence and a less good factual knowledge, because the game I obsessively played and somehow knew as Rockman was in fact the original Boulder Dash. That game's levels are burned deep into my mind in a way that its sequel's aren't quite, as familiar as they are.

Explaining Boulder Dash without reference to familiarity with some form of the genre isn't that easy. It's a most computer game-y game, with a concept which is easy to take in through  playing it but much more difficult to explain; it has board game echoes but is nonetheless impossible to imagine existing without the immediate feedback of interactivity. It takes place in a series of caves where you control a character moving from one space to another on a big square grid where any item takes up one space.

You can freely move up, down, left or right in a way which suggests a top-down view, as do the movements of the games enemies. Then there are diamonds (which you have to collect to complete a level) and rocks (which block you) which are, unlike you, subject to gravity and fall down the screen if there is nothing in their way. They're held in place by blocks of 'dirt' supporting them to their place in side-on view space, and that dirt is removed if your character moves across it. 

The critical mechanism: a rock is held up by dirt -> you move onto the dirt and instead you are now holding up the rock -> you move away and it falls into the space below. Thinking about the contradictions of Boulder Dash physics, the way that it exists as two different dimensional planes knotted into one space, is a real head-spinner.

It keeps you too busy to have a chance to do much pondering about that, though. You start moving rocks to get to those diamonds, and if you make one wrong decision you can block off your path, or drop a rock (or diamond) on your own head for instant death. Enemies move around the levels and you often have to drop rocks on them instead. You can outpace a falling rock, but only just. As such, rocks act as barrier, danger and tool, all in one, and turning them to your use needs both quick thinking and frequently quick reactions. 

As soon as things reach a certain level of complication, trajectories get too difficult to plan for, maybe why the game generously doesn’t stop when you drop a rock on your head but lets you watch things carry on falling into place as long as you like afterwards. The game alternates moments of careful assessment and planning with moments of fast action and sometimes exhilarating panic, and it’s a combo that you’ll often see come up in my favourites as we go on.

In truth, the original game’s careful exploration of the possibilities of its mechanisms is a much stronger piece of design from start to finish. Boulder Dash II, with little else to distinguish it, gets hung up on complications and set pieces, like the first level Cave A’s wall that magically converts falling rocks to diamonds for no apparent reason, and doesn’t give the unadorned gameplay the confidence it deserves. Occasionally these set-pieces are brilliant, though. 

Cave B’s management of rocks and diamonds pouring through narrow apertures drives exactly the perfect balance of thought and action as you try to prevent diamonds getting trapped in the unstoppably forming heaps. Cave I’s non-stop runaround skipping between enemy patterns is a delightful change of pace. 

Playing Boulder Dash II jogs happy memories but beyond that I can still easily see why it was the first game I wanted to rave about in my nascent imaginary magazine career. It’s nice to make it the first for this new enterprise too.

Twenty-five years on from that and more than a decade on from when I looked up to The Singles Jukebox so much I set up my own imitation of it, I write for and help run the real thing, putting forward songs to be reviewed by 6+ writers. It's a big part of my life. In one conversation about the Jukebox's direction with the site owner, he explained that his preference for reviews from multiple people's perspectives was a long established thing. It went back, he said, to growing up reading video games reviewed that way, in Zzap!64 magazine. A little later I discovered that his Zzap!64 and my Commodore Force were one and the same magazine, under different names. Sometimes thinking about life and the way things knot together is a real head-spinner.

[aion-rsa]

The Medium Review

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With The Medium, Bloober Team take a clever gameplay concept and uses it to weave a psychological horror story that is one of the most polished titles released by the studio to date but doesn’t quite reach its full potential. Repetitive gameplay elements and issues with pacing bring this game down quite a bit, but espite the game’s needling flaws, it’s still worth playing, particularly for those who have enjoyed the studio’s previous work.

The game is set in ’90s Poland and centers on Marianne, the titular medium who can communicate with lost souls in the “spirit world” by focusing on objects imbued with memories of those who have passed. The spirit world is a parallel version of ours, like a nightmarish reflection, and Marianne has the ability to traverse both realities simultaneously, which allows her to make connections between them in myriad ways. In-game this is conveyed via a split-screen presentation where the player can interact with both worlds at once and solve puzzles by searching for clues in both realities, which are tethered in strange ways.

Unlike Bloober Team’s previous games, which were presented in first-person, The Medium is in third-person, which recalls genre classics like Resident Evil and Silent Hill. The team handles this transition well, and they take full advantage of the split-screen mechanic, which is not persistent and only appears in select moments throughout the story (a tasteful decision on Bloober’s part—too much split-screen would have no doubt been headache-inducing). Overall, the game plays quite smoothly, from using Marianne’s powers to search for supernatural clues in the environments, to the directed camera angles and movements, which are all well thought out and never get in the way of the experience.

The story “starts with a dead girl,” a nightmare or premonition Marianne has of a girl being murdered by a lake. Haunted by this otherworldly vision, Marianne is getting her recently-deceased adoptive father’s house in order when she receives a mysterious phone call from a man who claims to know her innermost secrets, sending her on a grim detective mission of sorts, starting at the sprawling, abandoned Niwa hotel. There, she meets a young girl in the spirit world named Sadness, who helps her uncover the truth behind the man on the other end of that fateful call, as well as some shocking revelations about Marianne’s own past.

Narratively, this is one of Bloober’s strongest efforts. I found the story to be riveting, particularly in the latter half of the game. On paper, the dialogue and plot developments aren’t mind-blowingly good or novel, but the game’s unique presentation elevates the storytelling in a cinematic way. There are several surprising twists throughout the game that propel the story forward in a nice way, but the real strength of the script is its focus. Bloober Team has a knack for zeroing in on the intimately personal elements of its stories and exploring the human psyche in interesting ways both in the content and visuals, and the studio sticks to that philosophy here. 

Stories in games sometimes get too mired in plot mechanics and don’t focus enough on the characters and their internal journeys, but Bloober Team never falls into that trap. Marianne’s innermost fears and desires are always the going concern as the story unfolds. Even as other characters get folded into the story (you may even get to take control of them…), Marianne acts as the narrative center of gravity.

The dramatic elements of the story are done very well, with some cutscenes eliciting a physical response from me that I absolutely was not expecting. Without spoiling anything, I’ll say that the story explores some ugly aspects of humanity that haunt us all in one way or another, particularly if you’ve lost someone close to you or have deep-seated familial issues. Bloober Team always aims for poignancy of the dark and devilish variety, and the developers achieve that here.

Release Date: Jan. 28, 2021 Platforms: PC (reviewed), Xbox Series X/S Developer: Bloober Team Publisher: Bloober Team Genre: Horror

Another one of Bloober Team’s strengths is art direction, particularly when it comes to creating detailed, evocative environments that reflect what’s going on in the protagonist’s head in fascinating ways. The environments in The Medium are stunning not just for their visual fidelity, but for their interconnectedness with the mood and themes of the story. The deteriorating innards of the Niwa hotel clearly convey that some truly twisted stuff went down in there, and the surrounding forests are creepy but in a way that’s almost beautiful, with the game’s atmospheric lighting (bolstered by ray-tracing if you’re playing on a sufficiently powerful PC or next-gen console) setting the mood nicely.

And that’s just the real-world environments—the spirit world is a fiery hellscape of rotting flesh and viscera, which happens to be inhabited by a lurching monstrosity called “The Maw” whose sole mission is to consume you in violent fashion. While the two realities look distinctly different (Marianne’s got white hair and a glowing arm in the spirit world, a nice touch), they still feel artistically cohesive.

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Most of the game consists of puzzles, whether it be scouring the environment for clues that reveal bits of the central mystery, or condensed puzzles that force you to switch between the two realities, changing the environment in the spirit world to allow real-world Marianne to proceed and vice versa. The latter, more traditional puzzles are a bit of a letdown. They mostly consist of you walking around the environment waiting for icons to pop up so that you can collect objects and place them in other objects to proceed. The tedium of this is alleviated by the dual-reality mechanic. For instance, if real-world Marianne is impeded by a powered-down elevator, spirit Marianne can break off and manipulate objects in the spirit world to power up the elevator in the real world.

The dual-reality concept is super cool for a while, but it’s only a bandaid for the deeper issue of played-out puzzle design. Most of the puzzles you encounter are, at their core, as rudimentary as can be. There are a few that forced me to actually use my noggin (one involving a keypad comes to mind), but for the most part, one should have little trouble figuring out how to proceed at any given time, which is a letdown.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

I like that the game is more experiential than challenging in the traditional sense, but so much time is spent on these unimaginative puzzles that I found myself getting frustrated, more eager to explore and uncover the story than collect color-coded toy butterflies that I had to arrange in a certain order. The developers try their best to imbue these puzzle sections with storytelling details and dialogue but it does little to mask the monotony of the task at hand.

There are some set pieces later in the game that are exciting and fast-paced and dazzling to look at, but whatever momentum those moments create is stifled by the puzzles. It’s disappointing, because I think if there was a little less focus on the traditional gameplay aspects, the experience would be far smoother and the best parts of the story would shine. I know that many would complain about there not being enough in the way of traditional gameplay if the puzzle sections were reduced, but I think The Medium as an even more narrative-focused experience would be more effective overall.

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[ladyvegeets]

Letting Go - 4 Striptease

for @tpthvegebulsmutfest

He stood in her lab, eyeing the equipment and half-put together machinery. He had seen similar rooms before on Frieza’s outer stations. He did not much care for them. The room smelt unpleasant, of strange chemicals, motor oil, and burnt wires among other things. Bulma had asked him to take a seat but Vegeta remained standing, waiting for her to return from wherever it was she had ducked off to. He didn’t know why he was humoring her.

[Read more under the break or over on AO3. Read from part one here.]

Well no, he knew perfectly well why. He was here because it meant putting off another day of self-inflicted torture that would result, like all the others, in nothing. Another futile day where he didn’t become Super Saiyan, where no matter how much he hurt or sweated or bled or screamed, nothing he did made a goddamn difference.

“Ta da!”

Bulma returned from a side room carrying a long rectangular box. She bounded up to his side and handed it to him with a beaming smile, her face flushed in expectation. Her expression threw him. Her smiles were normally more mocking, or so he thought, as if she were privy to some amusing secret that he wasn’t. But now she looked so genuine, so radiant. 

He distrusted it. It needed to be crushed.

“Here,” she insisted, thrusting the box as this chest. “It’s for you, dummy. Go on, open it.”

Vegeta didn’t like surprises but he also didn’t like secrets, so he took the box and cautiously opened the lid.

Bulma couldn’t stand still for her impatience. “Well? What do you think?” she gushed.

“It’s… my suit,” he said, staring at the familiar blue fabric. His battle suit was neatly folded in the box with a pair of pristine white gloves on top.

“Pfft, please!” she scoffed. “Your suit, if you remember correctly, was a complete wreck. But I used it to formulate you a new one. A better one. See? This is lighter, stronger, more breathable and weather resistant. It won’t stain or tear easily, and it’s totally seamless for maximum comfort.”

She leaned in, digging under the suit to reveal his white and gold chest armor. 

“And look here! I made you a new breastplate too. It’s also lighter and more flexible, and way more durable than your last one. You’re really going to have to work hard to break this sucker.”

Vegeta stared dumbly at her gifts. She was giving him battle armor, the same that he had died in while attempting to defend his people’s pride. She hadn’t just fixed it, she had recreated it and made it better. So much of his heritage had been taken from him over the years, so much lost, but with this gift Bulma had given him the chance to fight again in his royal uniform. His hands tightened on the box.

She was still prattling on about her improvements. “—it’s even impact resistant and—”

“No,” he said, cutting her short.

Bulma blinked at him, bewildered. “No? What do you mean, no?”

He threw the lid shut and shoved the box back at her. “No to this.”

Bulma caught the box on instinct, her face paling in shock. 

Vegeta crossed his arms. “Is that all?” he asked curtly. If she had nothing else to show him then he had no further need to stick around.

Her cheeks flushed and her gaze narrowed. “Is that all?” she repeated, her voice rising dangerously high. “I’ve worked my perfect ass off to make this for you, and that’s the thanks I get? ‘No’?”

“I never told you to,” he said coldly.

“You’re not supposed to. It’s a gift, you jerk!” she snapped back.

“A gift?” he sneered, his temper rising to meet her own. “More like a debt I’ll owe you. Isn’t that your thinking?”

Bulma threw the box on the ground between them. “Is that what you think I’m doing? Because if you want to play the debt game, how about the debt you owe for my hospitality, huh? You’re living in my house, eating my food, using my inventions and equipment, taking up my time and barely being civil to my parents. But have I once asked you for anything in return?”

Vegeta thinned his lips and looked away, having nothing to say in his defense.

“Well?” she demanded, not letting him get away with silence this time.

“You invited me, remember,” he replied sullenly. 

“Well if you can accept that, then you can accept one stupid present!” she shouted with exasperation. 

Vegeta kept his eyes down, refusing to meet hers, his arms tightening over his chest defensively. An awkward silence stretched between them. It was abhorrent. He needed to leave.

“Enough of this nonsense,” he spat, and tried to step around the box for the door but Bulma side-stepped in front of him. She put her hand on his arm, and though her strength was minimal, something in her touch kept him in place. 

“Vegeta,” she said, trying to catch his eyes.

He looked away, feeling suddenly queasy. Claustrophobic. Trapped.

“Hands,” he snapped, desperately latching on to anything to regain some control of the conversation. “You promised no touching.”

Bulma let her hand fall away, but she didn’t back down. “I don’t think that’s the problem, is it?” she asked, her tone unnervingly soft. “Vegeta, why won’t you accept the gift?”

He stayed silent, refusing to talk.

“Why aren’t you training today?”

Still silent. Why couldn’t she fucking leave things alone that weren’t her business!

“Why won’t you even look at me?”

Goddamn her. To prove her wrong, Vegeta looked up.

And instantly regretted his decision. 

Her blue eyes shone with worrisome concern. The thought that she, a mere human, would pity him was more than he could bare. He mustered what pride he had left and took a threatening step towards her.

“I owe you no answers.”

“Vegeta, what are you afraid of?”

How dare she. 

“I AM AFRAID OF NOTHING!” he screamed at her, his anger kicking in from 0 to 100 within nanoseconds. “The only one I was afraid of is dead, defeated at the hands of two men who are more jokes than Saiyan, yet somehow they achieved a legendary power that I, the last true surviving Saiyan, haven’t been able to achieve no matter how much I bleed for it!” He bent down, snatching up the blue suit and shaking it in her face. “So what fucking good is this, Bulma? I don’t even have the right to wear it. They’re not the jokes, are they? I am.”

With that, Vegeta threw the suit at her feet and stormed out.

~xox~

 The sky was painted in pinks and oranges by the time Vegeta returned to Capsule Corporation having finished his not-so-little temper tantrum against a few mountains in the middle of a desolate desert. Or if it hadn’t been desolate before, it certainly was now.

Covered in dirt and sweat he headed straight for the bathroom to wash off, then for bed, too drained to even muster the energy to eat.

With only a towel about his waist, his skin still warm from his shower, Vegeta paused when he entered his room. A suspicious looking long box lay on his bed. He approached it slowly. Sure enough, when he reached inside he found the blasted battle armor. That cursed woman. Was she mocking him by leaving this here?

He grabbed the blue suit in his fists and wrenched but the fabric merely stretched accommodatingly.

Someone laughed. 

“I told you it wouldn’t tear easily,” Bulma teased, leaning in the doorway.

Vegeta glared at her over his shoulder. “What’s the meaning of this?” he demanded, holding up the suit in accusation.

“Who else am I going to give it to?” she asked, letting herself into his room. “It’s made for you.”

“Tch.” 

He dropped the fabric back in the box and headed onto the balcony to escape both suit and woman. The soft pat of feet on tile told him he was only half successful.

“You know what I think?” Bulma announced, bracing her arms on the railing next to him and looking out at the backyard. Vegeta grimaced, preparing himself for her lecture. “You’re trying too hard.”

Come again? He looked at her suspiciously from the corner of his eye. Of all the things he expected her to say, that wasn’t one of them.

Maybe it was weariness. Maybe it was knowing that Bulma wouldn’t leave unless she had said all that she came to say. Whatever the motivation, Vegeta found himself asking her, “…What makes you say that?”

“Buddha.”

“What?”

“Not what, Vegeta. Who. The Buddha is a very wise and holy man. Do you know what he says?”

He glared at her. Of course he didn’t fucking know.

She smiled and turned to watch the colors of the sunset. “You only lose what you cling to.”

Vegeta frowned, trying to process that. “Is this another stupid Earth lie you tell children?”

Bulma laughed and turned to face him straight on. “No. In your case, I think it means the harder you try to control something, the more it’s going to control you.”

Vegeta didn’t much care for that logic. “What kind of nonsense is that?”

She shrugged. “Well, I thought you might like to think on it. After all, your method isn’t working, is it?”

“My method?” he sneered.

“Mmm.” Her eyes roved over his half-naked physique appreciatively. “You’re in great shape, Vegeta, and if the gravity readouts are anything to go by, you’re stronger than Son was when he transformed. So it really makes no sense that you can’t. That leads me to believe there must be some mental or emotional component you’re overlooking.”

He narrowed his eyes, thinking over what she said. It sounded plausible, except for one matter—

“Are you suggesting that Kakarot is mentally superior to me?”

Bulma laughed again. She looked so carefree it hurt. “Oh my god, no. Don’t get me wrong, Goku understands fighting like I understand quantum physics, but you and I both know he’s about as mentally complex as a peanut when it comes to anything else.”

Vegeta’s mouth twitched, almost smiling. His esteem for Bulma went up a few notches. 

“So what then?” he asked.

“So, what I’m saying is, Son transformed, not because of this,” she tapped her temple, “but probably because of this.” She tapped her chest. “It just… happened. You’re overthinking things. You need to embrace the moment, not strangle it. Just… let go.”

“Let go of what?” he huffed.

Bulma shrugged. “Who knows? That’s the mystery, isn’t it? But maybe it’s worth experimenting. It’s got to beat throwing yourself around in the gravity room for 18 hours every day, willing something to happen that won’t.”

She had a point. They stood in contemplative silence for a while, the sky bleeding red to purple to blue. A soft breeze cooled the lingering water on his skin and tugged at her curls.

“…What do you propose I do?” he finally asked, his voice quieter than usual. It wasn’t easy for him to ask for help.

Bulma turned over, leaning her back against the railing so that she could get a good look at him. “Well, maybe you should start with something small. Ease yourself into the habit of letting go a bit. Let’s see… What’s something you’ve been denying yourself? Dessert? A rest day?”

Did today count as a rest day? Not exactly. Today had been more about giving up than giving in. But she was right, he needed to try something different because the more he struggled to stay in control, the less he felt he had.

Letting go, giving in, embracing the moment. Was that really the answer he had been missing?

“Oh!” Bulma announced, flashing him a cheeky look. “I know. You could start by accepting a present from a certain smart, beautiful lady-friend? And telling her how amazing she is, and…”

Her voice trailed off as Vegeta approached, placing his arms either side her on the railing. He leaned over her, biceps flexing powerfully.

“I have a better idea of how I could ease myself in,” he suggested in a low voice.

“Oh,” Bulma stuttered. There was just enough light for him to see her blush. When she did not push him away, he inched closer.

Her soft curls danced in the wind, beckoning him, so he pressed his nose against her temple and breathed deeply. His eyes fell half-closed, and he allowed himself the luxury of enjoying her scent, sampling it, burning it into his memory until every cell in his body thrummed from her. She was a woman, young and fertile and blooming open just for him, growing sweeter by the second. She wanted him, and fuck if he didn’t want her too.

Bulma’s breath caught in her throat. She tilted her face to meet his, her petal-soft lips brushing sensually against his cheek. The tiny caress sent sparks of electricity right down to his cock. Pressing his advantage — and his body against her — , Vegeta carefully drew her in. He cupped her face in his palms so that he might relish her scent more. She was overwhelming, like a fruit he wanted to sink his teeth into, and without meaning to he found himself mouthing the pulse in her neck. Her skin tasted like sunshine and syrup.

Bulma whimpered. He swelled in victory when she titled her head to the side, letting him do as he pleased.

Clever fingers soon found the towel at his waist and tugged. The fabric fell to the ground between them, releasing his pent up need.

“I have a confession,” she moaned, stroking his hips, her breath hot against his cheek. “I was hoping for a striptease when I made you that suit.”

He should have known. The sneaky wench. He growled against her throat as if to reprimand her, but it came out far too playful to be threatening.

When the scent of her arousal was so thick he could taste it, Vegeta picked her up and carried her inside. Bulma wrapped her limbs around him and crushed her mouth to his.

Letting himself go, Vegeta kissed her back.

 ~xox~

 AN: I heard you guys like cliffhangers. 

[betabites]

Borrowing from Shadow of Mordor

Been playing a lot of that and Shadow of War, so I’ve been thinking about how to steal interesting mechanics.

My first thought was actually about the Last Chance mechanic. If you haven’t played the game, if Talion (the protagonist) loses all his HP, he staggers and falls to his knees, and can only slowly crawl about. If an orc (or beast, or whatever) attacks you at that point, you get a quick time event. If you fail, you die (and the orc that killed you gets promoted, and you get an event to murder them horribly when you reform). If you succeed, you counter the attack and stagger back to your feet with a quarter of your HP. If, somehow, nothing attacks you for a good ten seconds or so, you get back up with a quarter of your health.

My idea here was modify the current death/dying state in the various D&Ds (I’m simultaneously working on two 3.5 games, as a player and a DM, planning a 4e game and a 4e-inspired one-shot, and planning a 5e game, so I am all kinds on confused). Currently, you drop to 0 HP and then sit around making death saving throws (or equivalent) until you die or someone heals you. And if anyone attacks you, you’re more or less dead. 

My idea then, is twofold - first, that dropping to 0 HP isn’t flat on your back unconscious. I know that’s not how some folks run it, but I felt it was important to state it for clarity. If you’re dying, you’re primarily occupied with holding your blood in, and the gray walls of death are closing in about your mind, but you can still sort of move (~5ft/1sq a round), and still sort of act (I’d eyeball it as a minor action every other round. So yes, you can pull that potion from your belt and drink it, or call upon your god to heal your wounds, but it’ll take an agonizingly slow amount of time.

Second, if you are attacked (in melee or otherwise), you can attempt to parry the attack and get back to your feet on momentum and luck. Now, the exact implementation of this will vary depending on edition. In 3.5, call it a Reflex save vs DC 20. In 4E (because everyone should have a good attack line), I’m tempted to call it a <Your main stat> vs enemy’s Reflex, or treat it as [Weapon] vs enemy’s AC. (Maybe verses a static DC based on what tier you’re in). 5E, I don’t know yet. If you succeed, you interrupt their attack and (3.5) become staggered/are set to 1HP, (4E) can spend a healing surge. If you fail, their attack proceeds as normal (and you probably bite it).

The second idea was drawn from the immense frustration I have in how Talion controls. Sometimes, he’ll jump twenty feet vertically up a wall. Sometimes, it’s only to the next handhold. As someone who enjoys parkour games, this is immensely aggravating. So, the idea here is to tie your Acrobatics/Athletics/Climb/Jump/Swim modifiers to a minimum performance. Now, this does take some of the joy out of the various ways to take 10 on skill checks in 3.5 (for instance, as a barbarian with a climb speed), but it also sets a consistent baseline for skillful mobile characters. Which, let’s face it, fly is a third level spell, and feather fall, levitate, and spider climb are all available earlier.

The real question here (that is subject to DM will) is what I’ll call the Wushu Threshold. This is the point beyond which everyone has lightness kungfu, and gravity is more like a guideline (with really harsh enforcers when they do notice you). I like to set the Wushu Threshold about at level 10ish for standard 3.5, with level 7 being whether folks could pick it up if they build their characters around it (just outside of E6, basically). For 4E... could be Paragon, could be Epic. Not sure yet.

Still thinking this one through, so I don’t have numbers yet.

The last idea is more big picture (and undeveloped), and it concerns Rangers. Specifically favored enemies. Basically, instead of the 3.5 categories, Rangers choose two of the following : Beasts (anything covered by Knowledge: Nature; so animals, magical beasts, lycanthropes, etc), Men (any humanoids, be they man, elf, dwarf, goblin, giant, etc), Mages (any arcane phenomena-things,- golems, elementals, actual wizards) and Spirits (mostly undead, but also outsiders, some fey). So Aragorn is a Beast and Man Hunter. Drizzt is a Man and Mage Hunter. Holtzmann from Ghostbusters is a Mage and Spirit Hunter. Between that and wanting Rangers to have more options to use/control/adapt the terrain, I may have to do a ranger prestige class in the same vein as my paladin prestige class.

[thefloatingstone]

Finally got around to watching the new Duck Tales premiere (I still don’t know if Duck Tales is one word or 2??? Curse you, logo!!)

I wasn’t really into the first half, but the second half was much better. Which is fine because it’s clear the second half is more the direction the series wants to go in. Better the first half be weak and the second half be strong rather than the other way around.

The art style isn’t really my favourite but I’ve enjoyed and even loved shows with bad art styles before (I’m looking at you TMNT 2k3) So I can at least ignore it. And hey. The art style is for the most part hand-drawn from what I can tell so I really can’t complain too loudly. I like the colour scheme though. And I could ignore the art style after a while thanks to some nice key poses here and there.

The triplet’s voices are... hmm.... not as painful as I thought. Mostly because as I was hoping, the really cringy stuff was all in the trailer and the rest of the show is far less interested it being “hip with the kids”. So I can... get use to it I suppose.

I found Donald’s dialogue to be pretty bad in the first half. It’s really out of character and written in a way that he talks pretty much the same as the kids but this improved in the second half. Although it still feels slightly off here and there. I dunno. Again maybe I’ll get use to it. It’s just weird hearing him use what I can sadly only describe as “millennium speak”. But they got him down pat in terms of actual personality so really his dialogue COULD be considered a nit pick since the actual character is in tact.

Webby is pretty annoying... but I was thinking and between “I am a pwecious angel evewybody wuvs!” and “modern female stand-up comedian shrieking” I GUESS I have to pick the lesser of two evils there. Seriously though... she’s gonna get grating VERY quickly. Webby was testing my patience in the original show too though so.... take that as you want I guess? At least she’s not gonna be a menace screwing up the boys’ plans and games and then in the end be the previous darling who can do no wrong and who never gets scolded.

Have I mentioned I don’t like Webby much?

Have I mentioned I generally don’t enjoy female characters in cartoons much?

Scrooge is top notch and I cannot think of a single thing wrong with him in this show. Tennant is nailing it, his personality is perfect and I like we’re getting some of his jerk persona in this show which is rather absent from the original show... just hopefully not too much jerk because the original show still has the best Scrooge so....

Honestly? Good so far.

Lots of tiny tiny nods to duck continuity in the show but done in a way you won’t catch it if you only know Duck Tales as a cartoon. So it wasn’t really referential humour as much as it was easter eggs and hints of what kind of backstory we get here. Also the show didn’t linger on any of it thank goodness. Nothing irks me more than a show nudging you with their elbow and winking insanely at you to get the joke.

All in all pretty good.

I’m hoping we keep Della at arms length though... because reintroducing her to this continuity is gonna open the biggest can of worms ever... and it’s either gonna be lots of tears and feels.... or it’s going to be a giant dumpster fire.

So..... looking forward to that I guess.

Oh but no trumpets in the opening theme song. 0 stars.

On a more serious note though, the sad fact of the matter is that the new Duck Tales is never going to be the original. And no, I don’t mean in terms of content. I dunno if the average cartoon lover knows this, but Duck Tales is actually one of the most important cartoons ever created. And no, that’s not a hyperbole. I actually state that as fact.

Quick history lesson;

Duck Tales was the very first cartoon created specifically for syndication. It wasn’t Disney’s first cartoon, which was Gummi Bears, but it was the very first cartoon, as in EVER, made with the actual intention of being syndicated. Before Duck Tales, once a cartoon’s run was over that was it. It simply would not be run on TV any more unless it was insanely successful like the Flintstones or Scooby Doo. But before that? Nope. a cartoon was made, then finished and forgotten.

On top of this, the only cartoons being made during this time were based on toys. And as much as we love them today, remember this was THE ONLY CARTOONS BEING MADE AT THE TIME. So whatever was being sold in stores was what you were gonna see on TV. Regardless of quality, story, concept or characters. And once that toy was gone so was its show. You were at the mercy of what was being sold. and the shows were at the mercy of writing episodes around new characters or items in the toy line. The original TMNT is a good example. Where toys were given to the show creators and told “write an episode around this thing we want to sell. We don’t care how or how good it is just do it.”

So along comes Duck Tales. a show created by Disney, expressly for syndication, trying to PROVE (and make no mistake, they were trying to prove something here) that you could have a successful show without relying on toy sales. Yes, Duck Tales DID have toys and characters like Webby were introduced as a marketing gimmick, but the show was independant from toy sales. It was a show first, toys second.

Also remember that this was 1987, The Little mermaid had not come out yet. Disney was still in a very bad place financially and was pretty much off people’s radar as far as movies and new content goes.

ALSO remember that Disney didn’t really have a “tv department” yet. So most of the key animation for Duck Tales was done by their animators coming from feature productions.

It ALSO aired with a premiere movie. Something completely unheard of at the time.

Duck Tales was an insane risk but guess what? it made MONEY. And people LIKED it. In fact they liked it so much that Duck Tales spawned the Disney Afternoon as we know it. All Disney cartoons following it owed their existence to Duck Tales.

And following this were competitors. Nickelodeon. Cartoon Network. Yes we also have several factors to help aid this, including John K. with Ren and Stimpy (showing that on network television cartoons had more free reign and could get away with more, thereby making it attractive to studios to go network instead) but If not for Duck Tales showing that it was possible to show Cartoons could exist without toy sales, we’d be in a VERY different world right now.

So simply... the new show just can’t be that. It can’t be a game changer because the Disney channel has no real game to change right now. Thanks to Gravity Falls things are swinging in a good direction for them anyway (despite some setbacks like cancelling Wander over Yonder).

However, the new Duck Tales can hopefully be a propeller to steer the Disney channel in the right direction that it’s heading in.

I bring this up because I know there are criticism that “well this isn’t the original”. and no. It’s not the original. Because the environment isn’t what it was when the original came out and thank goodness??? Like.. things were REALLY shitty when Duck Tales came out????

My point is; The new show cannot be the original, and so although comparisons in some cases and just, such as things like characterisation, art style etc etc. Other things are simply not something you can compare. like “Success” or “What the show is trying to accomplish”. And that Nostalgia blinding in this case is honestly not fair at all, simply because of context.

It’s not gonna be the same show because things don’t suck as badly as they did when the original show came and kicked down everyone’s doors and said “alright fuckers! We own this joint now!”

With that said, I’ll keep watching. I usually take about 3 - 5 episodes of a show to decide if I like the direction it’s going in. But at this point I’m fine with watching more of it.

If nothing else thank goodness Donald is actually a main character this time!!! If I’d criticise the original for anything in hindsight, having read the comics now, it’s that Donald wasn’t around in the original.

Just.... don’t fuck up the whole Della situation.... or there’s gonna be a trainwreck we’re gonna struggle to get past.

(although screw this Disney “trying to be cute” formula that rears its ugly head now and again)

[yuki-d-raizel-blog]

Hero

Chapter 4/??

Relationship: Todoroki Shouto x Reader (Your/Name), (Full/Name)

Summit: It all begin at the Sports Festival when Shouto’s other half met Endevour by mistake. The student never thought to see his partner fight against his father just to show him that he is wrong. It started from that instant, Shouto’s new path started exactly from that moment thanks to his friends and his beloved one.

---

Everyone is shouting and cheering for the winner, you prop your arms up against your knees and breath slowly. The last sprint cost you a lot of stamina without including the fact that you kept fighting against Bakugou to not let him pass. A little pat on your back, on your field vision there are white boots...

<<Good job Shouto.>> the girl gets up again just to greet her partner, <<You're getting stronger against my moves. That's not good for me.>> she tries to make him smile by cracking a few jokes.

<<We always paring during simulations, I'm getting used to your style.>> he replies, <<But you didn't use your quirk yet, so I supposed that I'm still easy to read.>>

<<I think that I need to use it soon.>> she speaks while looking at the other members, <<I was about to activate it when Izuku hit the mines, but I've restrained myself.>>

<<Why?>>

<<Mainly for two reasons: because I could hurt him, you and Bakugou and because we're at the beginning, I can't show my cards at the first turn. It's against my logic.>>

<<An answer that suit your image.>> he smiles a little, but that angry expression comes back, <<I'm sorry if I hurt you before... Today, my nerves are->>

<<I know, you don't need to apologize.>> now it's her turn to pat his back, <<And don't hold back with me. I can handle your quirk, given that mine is quite similar.>>

<<Your quirk is like mine? Really?>>

<<Mor->>

<<The first game of the first years is over!>> the heroine Midnight speaks again to get everyone attention, <<Then, I will show you the results!>> on the big screens all around the stadium, show the rank.

1st: Class A, Midoriya Izuku                6th place: Class A, Iida Tenya

2nd: Class A, Todoroki Shouto, (F/N)  7th place: Class A, Tokoyami Fumikage

3rd: Class A, Bakugou Katsuki            8th place: Class A, Sero Hanta

4th: Class B, Shiozaki Ibara                9th place: Class A, Kirishima Eijirou

5th: Class B, Honezuki Juuzou           10th place: Class B, Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu

Your attention is stolen by the R-18 professor again, who explains that only the first 42 students will go to the next challenge, and her whip activates the slot machine that will decide the next game.

"A cavalry battle? What's the trick this time? " the young woman has a bad feeling about this.

<<Let me explain! It's basically the same as a regular cavalry battle, but there is a little upgrade!>> everyone is pay attention, <<Based on the results of the last game, each person has been assigned a point value. The points assigned go up by five starting from the bottom; and the point value assigned to the first place is.... TEN MILLION!>>

"T-ten million... ?! Are you trying to kill me?!" everyone is staring Izuku like hungry predators, "Why me! I want to go home! "

<<This is a survival of the fittest, with a chance for those at the bottom to overthrow the top!>>

"This is bullshit, not a survival! Nobody wants to be in my team, come on!" the poor greenish boy is so nervous right now that even his brain can't think straight.

The teacher allowed the students to make their teams ready.

"I need those two if I want to protect my points... I need them!" walking shyly, All Might's pupil approaches you, <<(Y/N)-chan... D-do you want.... to p-pair with me?>>

<<Mh? At one condition.>> after a deep consideration, the girl adds, <<Actually two.>>

<<Y-yes?>>

<<Number one: no matter what happens, trust me until the end. Number two: I don't wanna be the horse.>>

<<Can I ask why?>>

<<I have someone in mind who's the horse, everyone will attack us from the start, so he can block them with his quirk...>> she looks angry, <<Shouto needs to be in the edge, so I want to use you. It doesn't sound heroic, but this is the best I can do for him right now. I will protect you Izuku, even with my life!>>

<<T-that's too much!>>

<<You finally smiled.>> she pats him on the shoulders, <<You're too tense, relax and think with calm. But first, let's call the horse in our team, then you can do whatever you want.>>

The 15 minutes are over and every team stand ready. Your plan was call Tokoyami and make him do the horse, you defend the sides, Uraraka uses her quirk on the squad and obviously, Izuku is the knight. Before the game start, you add one last thing, you leave the lead to Midoriya and Tokoyami, but when the strongest show up, you will switch place with Fumikage without break the rules. Everyone agreed because they trust your sense of judgement.

(Those are very interesting teams.) Aizawa's voice starts the commentary, when Mic takes the lead again.

(The bloody Yuuei battle is starting now! On your marks kids!)

<<Uraraka-san, (Y/N)-chan, Tokoyami-kun... I'm counting on you!>> Midoriya ties the value points on his head and the squad gets ready immediately.

(Let's go! Let's countdown for this brutal battle royal! 3! 2! 1! Start!)

Even a second is no wasted. Every single team is charging against the ten million one.

<<They're fast.>> comments Tokoyami, <<What's your decision, Midoriya?>>

<<Of course... Let's run away!>> when the three on the ground start to move, the floor is melting blocking the team right away.

<<We're sinking!>> Tokoyami and Uraraka are trying so hard to get out of that slimy mass, without any results.

"C'mon, so early? Guess I have no choice." <<Izuku hold onto us, Tokoyami-kun, Ochako-chan, be ready to run.>>

<<Eh?>> something almost broke Midoriya's balance. Something is pulling them out the trap... It's ice?

<<Now!>> (Y/N) drags the team along when she moves away, <<Let me face them!>> everyone stops to satisfy your request, <<Don't get burn Class B!>> moving her leg in an ascensional way, a huge strip of ice is moving towards the enemy and in another time, big spikes block their movements.

<<Wow, that's awesome! It's your quirk?>> asks Uraraka, <<So you control the ice too?>>

<<Look better, it's not only ice.>>

<<....White flames?! How your quirk works (Y/N)-chan?>> Izuku saw little white flames burn near the ice, how can the ice not melt near the fire. It's the same as Todoroki's quirk.

<<Dark Shadow!>> the monster moves to protect everyone from Jiro's attack, <<Good job. Protect our blind points.>>

<<Both of you are so cool!>> exclaims Midoriya, <<This is the spear and the shield we needed! A total defense combined with a strong offensive, you're the best duo, guys!>>

<<You are the one who chose us.>> they both replied at the same time.

(Let's see... Not two minutes have passed and we're already plagued in chaos! Everyone is stealing the headband from each other! Even without aim to the top, the positions from the second to the fourth are still great! And now mummy hero, what's your opinion on (Y/N)'s quirk? This is the first time she uses it in front of us, so...)

(I don't know, I can't see very well from here and I don't understand how it works yet. It's an interesting quirk, I must admit that.)

When your team is about to have the time to think again, a new one is charging. It's Mineta's voice, but the horse is Shoji. There's someone on the other side too. This is bad, like Tokoyami suggested, it's better to take distance, two teams are too much. Uraraka is stuck on a purple ball, and (Y/N) is freeing her as fast as possible. Now a tongue almost missed Midoriya. And now a storm of purple balls and whipping tongue is pushing your squad to the edge.

(Mineta team is using their dimension disadvantages as a weapon! How the Midoriya team will act?)

<<I’ve really enough of you!>> the balls frozen and fall to the ground, breaking into thousand pieces.

<<Midoriya, we need to get away from here!>> Tokoyami runs as the leader gives the permission, <<(Y/N), can you use a big amount of your ice?>>

<<Let me guess, to fly?>> both have thought at the same idea, <<Hold yourself Izuku!>> a circle of white flames surrounds them and in a blink of eye, a tall icy pillar is under their feet.

<<Kacchan?!>> Midoriya sees Katsuki uses his explosions to reach them, <<Tokoyami-kun, (Y/N)-chan!>>

<<Don't think to win so easily you damn nerd!>> Dark Shadow is surrounded by white flames that turned into an armor, fully blocking Bakugou's offensive, <<The fuck is that?!>>

The pillar reshape itself into a slide and Midoriya team skate on it, getting away from the chaos. They never stop running, while Uraraka is doing like (Y/N) said to her, light everyone's weight so they can move and dodge something easier than normal. The squad is working well together, all is well balanced.

<<Thank you guys!>> Izuku's stress level is rising rapidly, "Geez, these two are really fantastic! "

(Woah, what just happened?! Everyone is aiming at the first place. (Y/N) was amazing to made a way to escape and then an armor to reinforce their defense against Bakugou! Midoriya team is amazing! The entire A Section is chasing them! Will be there another development like before? These adolescents are super!)

<<Izuku, I can't use well my quirk if I need to apply it for too many things. Create an armor for Dark Shadow without hurting it or Tokoyami-kun is difficult, do it after made something big like a pillar it's too much for me. I can handle only another situation like that, so don't get into two versus one battles again.>>

<<Ok, I get it...>> "It would be hard if we keep like this; we can't run away in the sky anymore. We need to bet on the mobility of Uraraka-san's Zero Gravity, on the teamwork of Tokoyami's Dark Shadow and (Y/N)-chan."

While Mic keeps commenting the game, the screen with the results after seven minutes is drastically changed. Everyone in the Class A, Midoriya excluded, is at almost 0 points. It's Monoma from the Class B who stole every headband, even Bakugou's.

Meanwhile, (Y/N) opted to keep running and make some distance between the others, but when Midoriya was staring at Katsuki's squad, a strong change of movement almost unseats him off. In front of them there is Todoroki's team. Shouto seems another person, such scary eyes and aura... Something is wrong here.

"Well, it was obvious that wouldn't be so easy..." <<(Y/N)-chan what about the B plan?>> whispers Izuku.

<<Not now... Let's wait a bit more.>>

<<Finally, you're mine.>> even Shouto's voice is harsher and colder than before.

(This cavalry battle is on its second phase! In one side, we have an unexpected recovery from the B Section, and on the other side, we have Todoroki vs Midoriya team! Who'll wear the ten million points headband? Man, the tension is getting heavier here!)

---Continue...

Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 21.5, 22, 22.5, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, Last Chapter

[flauntpage]

Oklahoma City's Defense is Dominating in an Unusual Way

We’re waist deep in an era of NBA basketball that’s defined by offensive favoritism. Rule changes are viscerally accelerating the game's migration towards quicker shots from deeper distances. It’s a joy to watch, but has also nudged defensive strategy to the edge of its own dark age. And it’s there, in the shadows, where the Oklahoma City Thunder refuse to bow.

They don’t own the Western Conference’s highest winning percentage because the three-point line is their best friend, and their two All-Stars don’t turn every game into a fireworks display. Instead, games are won with the league’s best defense, one currently limiting opponents to fewer points per possession than any previous team in franchise history. Since they started 0-4, the Thunder has the NBA’s best net rating by an insane 4.1 points per 100 possessions. (That same gap stands between the league’s second and 11th most successful teams.)

Like any great defense, Oklahoma City has found synergy between its personnel and playing style. They’re long, quick, rabid, and experienced enough to let Billy Donovan conceptualize a formula that peels the roof from what those qualities can accomplish. They’re succeeding with an admirable degree of difficulty, too; their identity is aggression, and requires air-tight rotations sans safety net.

“They’re a little different from a lot of teams,” Brooklyn Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson said. “They’re coming. They’ll blitz that pick and roll. It’s a little different from what a lot of teams are doing now, you know, dropping their big, playing more conservatively, not giving up threes.”

It’s essentially a trust exercise and everyone on the team happens to trust everybody else. (This should make Jason Kidd—who actualized the same idea when head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks—feel emboldened and depressed at the same time.)

In theory, it’s a brilliant way to force turnovers, sow chaos, and mitigate their own offensive weaknesses. At their best, the Thunder turn each possession into a galactic struggle over every inch. At their worst, they’re a house of cards. So far, they have turned theory into practice in a way that will either carry them to the Western Conference Finals or, as we saw last year against the Utah Jazz, blow up in their face. Their personality offers very little grey area.

But even without Andre Roberson, Oklahoma City’s defense cedes little ground. They know it’s impossible to take everything away on a nightly basis, but their reach and anticipation turns an ostensibly elusive goal into reality more often than not. They collectively take pride in wanting to get a stop every time down the floor, headway that’s encouraged by new and improved characters who aren’t afraid to tap dance on a tightrope.

Terrance Ferguson and Jerami Grant are good, bordering on great, in the larger roles they fill. Nerlens Noel is an ideal backup center in this particular context. Dennis Schröder takes nothing off the table. Hamidou Diallo is anti-gravity. Paul George might be the Defensive Player of the Year. Steven Adams is one of a handful of seven footers who flourishes on the perimeter more often than he merely survives.

“The athleticism pops out,” Atkinson said. “Also it seems like they’re connected...they have a lot of continuity there, so guys know what the heck they’re doing.” On the play seen below, Ferguson illustrates what that looks like.

“I saw my teammate was fronting, so I knew I had to be on the backside whenever he threw the ball over,” Ferguson told VICE Sports. “And when he got the ball I was already there. I’ve got my teammates back at all times. I know my teammates got my back.”

Even with internal improvement and new pieces filling meaningful space, George’s growing comfort in year two has sanctioned enough institutional knowledge for him to dip in and out of passing lanes without ever being too reckless. Just like every other help defender on this team, he lives at the nail and in the paint, baiting skip passes that are ripe for a steal. (The Thunder rank third in deflections and first in defensive loose balls recovered.) He’s more familiar with teammates, and isn’t totally caught off guard when one of them (for example *clears throat for 25 seconds* Westbrook) flies off script for a steal.

But even as they dominate, meaningful questions remain. One being: Will their asphyxiating energy sustain against the best of the best? So far, OKC has breezed through the easiest schedule in the league. Their two games against the Golden State Warriors came on opening day and the night before Thanksgiving (when Steph Curry and Draymond Green didn’t suit up). They’ve already been blessed with the opportunity to pulverize Phoenix three times and Cleveland twice.

“The encouraging part is Andre has not played in any games this year and I know that we haven’t played ‘all the best offensive teams in the league’ yet. Our defense will be tested there,” Donovan said. “But...I think we’ve been a pretty consistent team defensively, and I still think we can get better.”

And, as Atkinson alluded to, most teams don’t defend like the Thunder because A) they don’t have the length, mobility, and cohesiveness, and B) they can’t stomach how vulnerable it’ll leave them against spot-up looks on the perimeter. It’s only one series, but the Thunder allowed a wide-open three on nearly one out of every four shots the Jazz attempted during last year’s first-round battle. That’s awful, and wasn’t a total outlier, either. In the regular season, they finished last (in a tie with the Atlanta Hawks) by allowing 20.8 percent of their opponent’s shots to be wide-open threes, per NBA.com. Unsurprisingly, the Thunder also allowed the most corner threes.

It’s tempting to compare this group to what the Thunder were last year, particularly before a ruptured patella tendon ended Roberson’s season. (They had the fifth-best defense at the time, and were 16th from that point on.) Schematically they are similar, a “no middle” team that fundamental desires to keep the ball on the sidelines. When facing a pick-and-roll, they bring their big up to the screen, pull help defenders in from the opposite side, and direct the ball-handler towards his screener’s man. It deters penetration and typically forces at least one difficult pass. (In the screen capture below, Alex Abrines is all the way over, persuading Rodney Hood to skip the ball to Collin Sexton in the opposite corner.)

“[Last year] we wanted to take away the middle of the floor, and in doing that you’re going to give something else up. And a lot of those straight line drives or drives to the basket put us in rotations,” Donovan said. “I think trying to put more of an emphasis on guarding the ball, squaring up, more of an emphasis on the three-point line, more of an emphasis on not fouling. I mean these were things we talked about last year—I don’t want to make it seem like we just totally blew everything up and started over from scratch—but there were some minor changes that I felt like from watching film that we needed to make.”

Today’s difference also comes from who they play—more minutes for Grant, Ferguson, Schröder and Noel, fewer minutes for Ray Felton, zero minutes for Corey Brewer and Carmelo Anthony—and how those players keep the ball in front of them while sprinting in and out of help positions. This roster is built to switch, too. And they’re more willing to do that for extended stretches, without fear of getting beat on the boards or off the dribble.

"Our length," Schröder said when I asked what stands out about Oklahoma City's defense. "Everybody is so long."

Their opponent’s three-point volume is down overall, and teams are only converting 29 percent of their open threes—the second-lowest number in the league. It’s an aggressiveness that’s yet to burn them, but keep your hand on the stove for an entire season and shots like this will eventually fall. (They still forfeit a bunch of corner threes, just not as many as last year.)

It’s reasonable to wonder if this is sustainable. The Thunder want to generate a ton of turnovers and they do so more than anyone else. But they also want to keep offenses off the glass and contest shots without fouling, two objectives harder than they have to be when trying to pull off a game plan that demands continuous rotations, pulls bigs out to the perimeter, and sucks guards into the paint.

But the Thunder swarm with purpose. Back-line rotations are crisp and there’s always someone with freakish tentacles waiting down low, either forcing another pass or protecting the basket. Only five teams are allowing a lower shooting percentage at the rim. Grant is a special brand of menace in this area. Instead of putting out fires early on, he’ll (intentionally!) wait for an opponent to go up with the ball and then disintegrate them in midair.

The Thunder get back on defense and drag out possessions, be it after a missed shot or a turnover. That discipline matters. (The Houston Rockets are the only team that chokes a higher percentage of their opponent’s field goal attempts with seven or fewer seconds on the shot clock.)

"Yeah, there’s a bunch of shit that goes into it.”

“It comes down to effort,” Adams said. “Wanting to actually get stops, forcing them to take shots that they probably don’t want. Yeah, there’s a bunch of shit that goes into it.”

The Thunder wouldn’t play the way they do if Adams couldn’t comfortably glide his 250-pound frame along the perimeter. Same goes for Noel, who’s so incredible at poking the ball from ball-handlers as they drive towards the rim. But the Thunder know they can’t trap every screen and rely upon help defenders to bail them out in the paint. Here’s what happens when Adams is a step too low and Ferguson is a step slow:

And so they’ve adopted a few new principles and tweak how they want to play based on different matchups. Sometimes they’ll switch everything and help accordingly, looking like an even more horrifying and clenched version of last year’s Rockets. (Don’t be surprised if in a few months this is how they treat most defensive possessions; fluidly switching every screen is the only way to stifle the Golden State Warriors, and if the Thunder aspire to make the Finals that’s the offense they’ll need to stifle.) Sometimes they’ll have both weak-side defenders in the paint before a roll man can gain any momentum.

“You’re not going to in today’s NBA have one cookie cutter defense that’s going to work for everybody,” Donovan said. “For instance, the other night against Blake Griffin, we felt like with our power forwards we needed to come a lot of times and provide help. There’s a lot of games where maybe at the power forward spot we don’t have to provide help, so those situations create different challenges schematically. But in terms of the things that are important to us, like contesting shots, defensive rebounding, trying to eliminate layups, trying to take away silly fouls and putting people in the bonus, those things are going to carry through for 82 games.”

Defense matters, but for them to actually defeat the very best teams in the league four times in seven tries, they’ll need to score a lot of points that aren’t directly leveraged by their excellence on one end. That means the Thunder need to add another three-point shooter, someone opponents won’t go out of their way to attack in the playoffs.

They can’t trade their own pick this year because they owe a first to Orlando in 2020 (and a first to Atlanta in 2022), but how about Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, Abdel Nader, and a future second-round pick for Wayne Ellington? Or TLC and a second-round pick for Sterling Brown? Or Patrick Patterson and two future second-round picks for Justin Holiday? For a variety of reasons, seeing these transactions through won’t be easy. Outside shooting is at a premium for a reason. The Thunder have instead chosen to secure the other side of the ball, then hope those players would eventually develop enough to balance everything out.

But they have a right to feel impatient. This is a championship-caliber defense right now, one that matches up well with the defending champs, along with the Eastern Conference’s most elite teams. Westbrook isn’t getting any younger, and there’s only so many years of embracing a frenetic struggle before the players who bought in start to lose focus. It’s far too dramatic to label this Oklahoma City’s last stand, but with a defense this good, it’d be a damn shame if their front office didn’t treat it that way.

Oklahoma City's Defense is Dominating in an Unusual Way published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

[cosmosogler]

hello. when i went to therapy on friday my therapist recommended i start writing every day again. then i didn’t write on friday. but i am writing today!

been having a lot of trouble sleeping. between feeling super restless and having nightmares i don’t get a lot of sleep. i tried taking wiley out for a long walk today and we’ll see if that helps me get a little more settled in when i try to go to bed.

i realized several days too late that i had left my pokemon in a timed mini game in poke pelago, where if you leave them in for a while their happiness goes up, but if they’re there too long their happiness starts to go down instead. so all their happiness stats were at 0 again and i accomplished nothing. i’ll try to be on top of it this time and take them out in the morning.

i have been utterly unable to eat more than a few bites at a time for the last three days. i try to break up my meals into halves and eat the leftovers the next day and i STILL can’t handle the half portions. it’s like, no matter how small i make my meals, i can still only eat a fraction of whatever i make. i guess i was hoping that exercising with the dog would bring back my appetite but it didn’t. i’ll have to try again tomorrow. i get super nauseous every time i try to eat even a little bit, to where i almost threw up immediately after getting halfway through a pb and j sandwich. that is not a hard to digest meal.

i’m not sure what to write about now... i haven’t really talked to many people the last week or so since my last entry. i am trying to build some new friendships since i don’t have the other physics majors to spend time with any more. but meeting new people is like trying to climb a wall using only my fingernails. 

i am trying to be at the very least nice, if i can’t be kind. i wonder if my trepidation makes me a bad person. 

star vs the forces of evil is an interesting choice for disney to broadcast. i guess the tv channel doesn’t mind letting its relationships get messy. the show has a lot of elements that i like in OTHER tv shows- but the way they’re put together in this particular show is somehow unsatisfying. i still can’t figure out why. i want to say the villain is too straightforward, but the lich from adventure time does that too and i like that villain in that show’s context. i think it’s really interesting how ludo is an ineffective villain without being sympathetic or too multi-dimensional. everything you need to know about him you learn in the first episode he shows up in. he never really shows hidden depths. you learn his dad was real hard on him and it’s like “yeah, i could have extrapolated that” and also i still didn’t feel sorry for him. i don’t think he deserved what happened to him toward the end of season 2, but it didn’t come as a surprise. he gets in way over his head and then he finds too late that he can’t swim. but having watched his first appearance, i KNEW he couldn’t swim.

i dunno. it’s a character i’ve seen before played in a way i haven’t seen before. like a captain planet villain that wandered into the horned king’s castle. the horned king is from, uh, the black cauldron. it’s not the most widely-known disney movie but it’s the best comparison i can think of.

i do have problems with the way it handles the protagonists. i was hoping that two seasons would sharpen up marco’s character but he still feels really... vague and not as perceptive as i thought he would be. i can’t get a handle on what his character is about, because it changes completely between the first and second episodes and i guess i never got over that confusion. i could forgive early installment weirdness, but the first episode is not the pilot. and marco doesn’t change over time the way finn or steven universe do. it’s a stark difference between the first and second episodes. like “these are his main character traits” differences. and the love conga line is frustrating at best. it’s not even a love triangle. it’s just a line of people pining for each other. but we know how it’s going to end because of the “blood moon destiny” thing so i don’t know why they’re bothering with all this unnecessary drama. the only thing i can hope for is that the whole “destined soulmates” thing gets directly subverted somehow.

i also am not sure how to feel about how it “gets dark.” but it’s not because i have a problem with kids’ shows getting dark? because i liked it in gravity falls, it seemed appropriate. and i liked it in adventure time and homestuck, i guess because i like getting mood whiplash. it’s been a few days and i still can’t put my finger on why it doesn’t feel right in this situation. the moment i realized i didn’t like it was very specific though. it was when queen moon goes to the monster king guy’s shack in the forest of death. ludo’s parents’ house. and you see the monster queen for the first time, and she has a black eye, and it’s very obvious that there’s some domestic abuse going on there. i saw that character and i said to myself “hmm, no, that’s too much.” but WHY did i say that to myself? i don’t expect every cartoon relationship to be happy or healthy. i guess i got too used to steven universe or something. the abusive relationship between the joker and harley quinn in the batman cartoon didn’t feel so... out of place. maybe because harley has a personality outside of “battered girlfriend/wife?” 

hey look at that! i typed for like 40 minutes. most of it was navel gazing about a children’s cartoon. 

i am beta reading an acquaintance’s story too. i want to talk about that now, but i think i’ve talked long enough about the media i consume for one night. i think i’ve said everything that is helpful to him, and everything that is not helpful to asher. so at least i’ve said it at some point. the story is not personally to my taste, but looking at other books that have become popular, i don’t think that the premise and direction necessarily make it a bad story. so i try to keep my critiques to the guy focused on the mechanics of the story rather than ruminating on potential metaphors and emotional payoff. 

my therapist says i think a whole lot. i wondered how she knew that before we even spoke for a whole hour, but looking back at what i just wrote i feel like some things about myself might be really obvious. i’m not really as inscrutable as i’d sometimes like to be. i wonder if, since it seems easy to get a handle on my personality, that makes me a less interesting person. 

i talked to asher last night about how i feel life is going for me right now and how my dreams might reflect that. he described my dreams as “fruitless tasks” and i think that is an accurate assessment. i don’t know how to summarize the feeling right now. i spent like an hour describing it last night and i don’t have that much energy left right now.

he did say something really interesting that i’ve been thinking about all day though. he said i could always choose to not do the tasks my dreams set up for me. i realized that that’s what my jumbi story is kind of about. the climax of the story, and where it kind of abruptly cuts off, is jumbi’s decision to NOT do something, and then the story ends there because she’s kind of refusing to participate in the narrative any more. she quits and goes home.

i think the only way i wouldn’t do one of my dream tasks though is if i realized i was dreaming and specifically remembered to try that, which doesn’t always happen. otherwise in my dreams i always feel like i’m going through the motions even suspecting or knowing that there’s absolutely no “reward.” feels like that when i’m awake too.

hey, sorry i talked so much. i didn’t think i had so much to say. i’m not sure how to wrap this up. everything just kind of fell out and i don’t have a pretty bow to tie it all up with. sorry, i guess.

[torentialtribute]

Liverpool won’t get 97 points again…so Klopp must pray for a Manchester City slump this season

The new season has already begun and the background noise is known. Until Liverpool Jurgen Klopp talks about money, the money from Manchester City . On the other side of the East Lancs Road, Pep Guardiola has hindered & # 39; because of what he feels like a misconception about his club's spending.

journey along the way of the new Premier League campaign.

Below, however, is a better picture; an image of two great European coaches reading themselves to fight for the league title again after a deep and sincere appreciation for each other's work

Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp have a true appreciation for each other's work

Klopp believes Guardiola to be the best coach in the world. He says it so privately and he means it. No wonder he strives so hard to beat him.

Guardiola also knows that his rival is formidable. He fears the way Liverpool plays and finds it a permanent challenge to try to fight a style that has no real precedent in modern play.

Proof of this admiration was found in the telephone call to Klopp by Guardiola in the moments after the final of the Champions League in May in Madrid. Not only does Guardiola know what it feels like to win that competition, but he also knew of Klopp's painfully deep desire to join the list of men who had done so.

So to get that call back right then in the city coach and Klopp & # 39; s next claim that his rival warned that & # 39; we will come back next season to kick you & # 39; was only half joked.

This is probably the core of the matter for the next nine months. City and Liverpool – nearly 200 points between them last season – were ahead of the rest and to describe the pack as & # 39; chasing & # 39; would be to give Tottenham, Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United a credit they didn't deserve.

Klopp thinks Guardiola is the best coach in the world and the Spaniard sees him as formidable

So who wins this time? For the neutral it shouldn't matter. If these two teams could struggle with the quality and excitement of last season, no one would complain. Personally, I think it will be the year of the city again and wonder if Klopp and Liverpool missed a trick by not spending much on a player or two in the summer.

Over in Old Trafford – nowadays some shrunken place – the great Mr. Alex Ferguson used to argue for reinforcement if you were strong. It was his way not only to keep his team one step ahead of the club's rivals, but also to guard against complacency in the ranks.

Liverpool has players like Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and the great defender Joe Gomez back from injury this season and will expect improvement from Fabinho and Naby Keita. Klopp finds that clear enough. But I do wonder what will happen to his team if he loses one of his gold-plated front three to injuries. To that end, I am surprised that Liverpool has not recruited any other attacking player.

If the title is to come to Merseyside, City will have to fall back. Liverpool can't improve 97 points – they certainly can't – and that means City has to go back to the field. Will that happen? It is hard to think that it will happen. The appeal of a triple of titles will be strong.

[1945902] Looking at the group of teams below, it's hard to much improvement for to state. Tottenham's pre-season was not characterized by talks about last season's near-miss Champions League, but by the idiosyncratic rhetoric of coach Mauricio Pochettino, which is disappointing. Chelsea has a new, but fairly trusted manager, but has lost his best player, while Arsenal can be expected to improve sufficiently under Unai Emery to challenge the top four, but not the title.

As far as United is concerned, it is hard not to fear for them trying to shift into forward gear under a manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who finished last season and looked dangerously out of his depth. United has spent money but still looks good and if the season does not start well, I wonder how long Solskjaer is expected to last.

It is the group of teams under the established order that have the most to win this time. Two Portuguese coaches – Marco Silva in Everton and Nuno Espirito Santo in Wolves – showed enough last season to suggest that they have the opportunity to bring European football to their clubs.

Nuno in particular seems to have a formula that works in the Premier League and a clear ability to teach players how to use it. United travels to Molineux in less than two weeks for a Monday night game on television and that can tell us a lot about the country's lie in the top half of this year's competition.

Marco Silva and Nuno Espirito Santo could lead their side to a European football bid

Similarly, we can expect a lot from Brendan Rodgers & # 39; Leicester and I especially want to see how one of the smartest young talents of English football midfielder Hamza Choudhury develops under such a fully accomplished and innovative coach

At the bottom, I fear for Newcastle, while newly promoted Norwich and Sheffield United will rely on the cleverness of two contrasting managers – Daniel Farke of Germany and Chris Wilder from Yorkshire – to resist gravity.

In Aston Villa, Dean Smith and sports director Jesus Garcia Pitarch have spent a lot since winning the last play-off in May. It was an approach that didn't work for Fulham last time, so Villa has to hope for evidence of a better judgment.

So. City to win the title. Newcastle to go down. Don't put any money on it either.

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[theaanimates]

Wreck-it-Ralph

Wreck-It-Ralph is a great reference because it deals with a lot of the same issues that we do in our story. It is about a video game villain who is tired of being evil and decides to become a hero, thus breaking out of the system of the video game. This is very similar to what we want to do, but while Wreck-it-Ralph focuses on what it means to be a hero, we will focus more on the comedy of self improvement and deviation within a rigid system. It will also be less sentimental than Wreck-it-Ralph and where they draw on arcade game tropes we will be looking at RPG tropes.

But what i find particularly interesting to look at with Wreck-it-Ralph is the animation. Much like in “Epic NPC Man” there is a contrast here between the two main characters, Ralph and Fix-it-Felix (Felix). Most of the animation in Wreck-it-Ralph is quite standard in terms of style and detail, and Ralph himself is very traditionally animated. Meaning he is animated in the same way that most other 3D Disney characters is, but Felix however, he is animated in a  more exaggerated way. But the most interesting this about his animation is the way they incorporate game elements into his movement. He has a tendency to skip frames and snap between key poses very quickly, (see 0:29-0:30) creating the feeling that his animation doesn’t have detailed blending and that he is snapping between different animation cycles. This of course is not how animation for feature films or TV works, but by doing this it gives the sense that he doesn’t belong in this medium and it reminds us that he is a video game character.

I want to pull special focus to this part of the video: 0:04 - 0:08 where Felix jumps on Ralph. This is a great example of incorporating video game elements to a fluid animation. The jump is fast and in an exaggerated arch, moving up before he moves towards his “target”, this is an impossible way to jump in real life, it creates associations to how characters in arcade games jump, such as Super Mario. The up then forwards movement is caused when the players press the jump button and then have control over the characters trajectory during the jump. Thus, arcade games jumps usually have a “floaty” quality to them that allows them to hover in the air for longer than possible.

The next segment of this sequence is the quick shift in emotion. This skip in animation harks back to the previous statement I made about how Felix feels like he is more of a video game character than a movie character. The last aspect of the animation in this segment is the drop. Which is probably the most prominent one. This portion doesn’t only take inspiration from the video game jump I briefly mentioned, but it also creates associations to Hanna-Barbera cartoons. Where “Gravity only works of you look down”, which you can see in the example below.

Pulling in these references is an interesting choice, cause it expands the reference points from just video games to cartoons as well. But I think it works, because it brings in classic cartoon (and originally 2D) animation tropes and implements them to 3D which creates and interesting mixed media feeling.

The animation may be clearly inspired by video games, what really drives this segment in terms of solidifying the game reference, is the audio. The jump, the contact, the release and the fall all have their own audio samples that sound like they were taken straight out of an 8-bit game. This use of sound fits seamlessly into the scene, so well that I didn’t even notice it straight away. The sound is what makes you really understand that Felix is from a video game, and without that element the animation choices might not fit as well as they do. Furthermore, this segment is in framed in the same way a 2D platform game is. A wide-shot from the direct side. Thus, even the camera angle is working with our subconscious to create a video game feeling. Since Fix-it-Felix (The video game that Ralph and Felix are from) is a 2D platform game this use of camera helps the viewer remember what game they are from. Then when you combine this with all the other elements, such as the frame skipped and game inspired animation and the incredible audio it makes the segment feel like it could be in a video game. This is a great example of how important it is to work with all different aspects of animation to create a good scene and to strengthen any references of “moods” that are trying to be created.

In general Wreck-it-Ralph is a good reference point because they have a lot of character from video games that are animated with “normal” (cinematic) animation. Finding that balance between game references and actual animation is critical to the style of our animation, and looking at scenes like this is a great way of getting inspiration.

You can also see this frame skip reference in this scene, in regards to how the Nicelanders move. They are even more stylized in their movement than Felix is.

[gianpdev]

[2018-07-30] What‘s been going on recently

LONG POST AHEAD!!!

Since July 9th, I’ve been coding in Haxeflixel to get back into coding and understanding it more. While I haven’t exactly been making games, I’ve been creating stuff like rebindable keys, multi language support and LAN (couldn’t successfully test online).

The only “game” I made was for my cousin’s birthday and it was just a meh clicker game that used audio from a youtube video and quick image editing skills (won’t say Photoshop as verb, since I used Affinity Designer), which I spent around 18 hours straight doing, although some of that time I was just getting sidetracked and testing various things. I don’t really count it as a game, since it had stuff that I didn’t make or have a license for.

I’m now gonna quickly go through all the projects I did from the start.

[2018-07-09] Making a Sprite

Yep. That’s a square alright. Was slowly remembering constantly checking the docs to make that square.

[2018-07-10] Experimenting with FlxNestedSprite & Multiple Tilemaps

Here I was messing with FlxNestedSprites. I couldn’t get everything to stop when that little square collided with something, instead that square just moved by itself and repositioned itself when it had free space.

I also was experimenting with placing tilemaps in random places and using multiple tilemaps.

[2018-07-11] FlxGroup things and audio

Here you click on the screen and it spawns that sprite that falls down plus makes a sound, when the sprite is no longer on screen, it kills it.

My goal here was mainly to test how FlxGroup’s recycle() works, but I ended up doing it a different way - .getFirstAvailable() from the FlxGroup and .reset(FlxG.mouse.x, FlxG.mouse.y) on the sprite whenever I clicked and doing a check if there are no dead members in FlxGroup ( if(shots.countDead() < 1) ).

This is also where I learned how to add audio and also how to do a recording in Reaper.

This is also where I learned that you could put classes within classes.

[2018-07-12] Nape, Keys and Key Rebinding

Here I learned something completely new to me: Nape - a 2D physics engine for Haxe, made easier with FlxNape. Nape uses it’s own “space” by doing FlxNapeSpace.init(); having it’s own gravity and more. Spent a lot of time trying to make it work.

But majority of the time wasn’t spent on nape. No it was the start of the saga of rebindable keys.

I spent many hours trying to find how to do it online using Haxeflixel, but I couldn’t find one post even talking about it. So I took it upon myself to teach myself how. This day I failed to do so.

But I was able to make a Key History and the Keys that are currently pressed. I was inspired by fighting game’s practice modes where you see all the buttons pressed. I’ll probably reuse this code and instead of text, It’ll be sprites representing each key. Still need to do a gamepad version though.

[2018-07-13] The Key Rebinding Saga - Episode 02 - Part 01/05

Semi Successful, main problem was rebindingKey stayed on after being true. Forgot why this works.

[2018-07-13] The Key Rebinding Saga - Episode 02 - Part 02/05

Was trying to use the number keys to rebind certain keys, also added a button to start the rebind, but couldn’t find a way. Did worse than the previous one. Note: The green bit at the end was the GIF recording program.

[2018-07-13] The Key Rebinding Saga - Episode 02 - Part 03/05

The moment where I found out, you can’t use an array of string for keys, even though you can do “ONE” or “W”. I couldn’t be bothered fixing this when I tried testing it again.

[2018-07-13] The Key Rebinding Saga - Episode 02 - Part 04/05

Success! Was able to press ENTER to go into rebinding mode, switch a key, then press enter again to confirm it. Also was able to implement a menu kinda thing, while also learning about borders and borderstyles for FlxText.

The solution to that array problem was to make a Array<FlxKey>, however the problem with that was it came up as numbers when you want to see what was pressed, so I had to make a function to translate the keys using the FlxKey.toString().

[2018-07-13] The Key Rebinding Saga - Episode 02 - Part 05/05

Just added movement to a sprite, using the binded keys. Also demonstrating the multiple keybindings (which was available before).

[2018-07-14] The Key Rebinding Saga - Episode 03

Here I put all that keybinding stuff into a FlxSubState, to open up like a pause menu and rebind on the fly, in addition to that, I added sound effects to when the sprite moved, moving in the rebind menu, and rebinding a key.

[2018-07-15] The Key Rebinding Saga - Episode 04

Here I think I just cleaned up some code and made the menu WASD & Arrow Keys, while also adding a cancel key (ESCAPE).

[2018-07-16] The Key Rebinding Saga: A new UI - Episode 01

So here I didn’t really do any rebinding stuff yet. But I did learn about FlxUIState, FlxUIButtons and firetongue. If I remember correctly, I spent most of the time making firetongue work and configuring it.

FYI, firetongue is a library for allowing multiple languages for your text, it also requires FlxUIState. I don’t know if you can use it on a normal state, I haven’t figured it out yet.

[2018-07-18] The Key Rebinding Saga: A new UI - Episode 02

Here I did a lot of stuff! Learned that FlxUIButton’s use a getEvent() function to detect each button’s status, they also have a params variable where you can add various parameters to do many things with the button and to change the label of the button you need to .getLabel().text on the FlxUIButton and add your string, in my case, I used firetongue!

Had a hard time figuring out how to “click” on a button using a Key and navigating through each button using keys. In regards to “clicking” with a key, I used FlxUIButton’s .forceStateHandler(”click_button”) when the ENTER key was just pressed.

Side Note: Had some issues recording this GIF with GifCam, then I found out a new version came out and fixed the issue I was having! Download & Donate: http://blog.bahraniapps.com/gifcam/

[2018-07-19] The Key Rebinding Saga: A new UI - Episode 03 FINALE

With this one, I added Text to the top and fading text on the bottom indicating what was rebinded (I got most of the fading text code from FlxSave).

[2018-07-21] The Key Rebinding Saga: A new UI - Episode 03.5 BONUS

Nothing really to see, all my classes up until this point was all in the PlayState.hx, this day I separated everything in separate classes.

[2018-07-22] (get, set) go? Variables in haxe

Here I tried to learn to use the var testArray(get, set):Array<Int>; just the things in brackets to try and get and set variables from other classes, instead of making a variable in that class and casting the variable from the PlayState. I pretty much failed at that and can’t even run it.

[2018-07-23] Help, Navigation Keys, Legend. I have no idea what to call the things in the bottom of the screen that menus have to tell what buttons to press.

Pretty much just put text in the bottom to say what keys the player can press, it directly reads what keys are binded, so it will change when the keys change.

[2018-07-24] LAN MULTIPLAYER?! - Part 01

No, not LAN, not just yet. But I did get a local sever running and connected to it. I used the library: extension-networking. Also, when the window isn’t focused, I think it stops listening for new network events, which is why the position doesn’t change on the server until I click on the window.

[2018-07-24] LAN MULTIPLAYER?! - Part 02

I got LAN working, although I had to change the IP in Client and Server Class the code in order for it to work. Was soo satisfying seeing my other laptop, GPD XD and my android phone all running this at the same time.

[2018-07-26] The Key Rebinding Saga: A new UI - Episode 03.7 BONUS

Just some code cleanup and making it easier to add more things using functions.

[2018-07-27] - 01 The Key Rebinding Saga: Return of the Sprite

I changed some colors, added collision to sprites spawned by mouse clicks (the first two sprites don’t collide).

[2018-07-27] - 02 FlxNape and FlxNapeSprite Dragging!

Now this took me a while, to get the ability to drag a FlxNapeSprite. I used some of the code from the FlxNape demo, specifically the shooter class, which contained the shooting and the dragging of FlxNapeSprites (which I noticed from the balloon demo). It was a lot of trial and error. In the end I found out it had something to do with anchors, FlxMouseEventManager  and a function from shooter class called createMouseJoint(). Still don’t know exactly how that last function works, hopefully I will soon.

[2018-07-28] Fun with Colors and Nape

So after doing soo a lot of non-gameplay stuff, I decided to do something a little fun. In this, I used FlxG.random.color() to get a random color, sets that as the background color and using FlxColor I get the complementary color and set that on the square.

I also added butons to switch between spawning and dragging sprites and a reset button to easily reset the game.

That’s all I’ve done soo far, besides one game I made for my cousin, which I won’t show here, because it has their face on it. The biggest issues I had with that game, was that I had 18 hours to do it, because the party was on the same day and I’ve been putting it off for a bit. Guess that was the first time I did crunch lol.

After that, I just took a break from coding for a day, although that might have just been because I had a hangover from the party that night, but I also took a break for today to think on what to do next and to make this massive post, which has taken me like 3 hours to make.