blackswampotter

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shadow the hedgehog is cool. gunblades are cool. vampires are cool. scythes are cool. white hair is cool. we need to stop lying about what is not cool

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Because I hate myself, I decided to explore the rabbit hole of anti-woke commentary about Kingdom Come: Deliverance II.

Spoilers and nonsense ahead.

Not surprisingly, it's mostly antisemetic conspiracy shit and people who just hate seeing gay characters.

The completely optional same-sex romance is so well done and feels so natural, but they still hate it because it's never been about "forced" diversity; they despise any diversity.

I guess a forbidden romance between two knights in the midst of a 15th century war is too cool for these losers.

The romance scene itself is touching and vulnerable and beautifully written, but the anti-woke mob claims it's cringe and bad because, again, they just hate gay people and it makes them uncomfortable.

The actual quality of the writing means nothing to them, despite their insistence to the contrary.

There's also a plotline that involves stopping the ransacking of Kuttenburg’s Jewish quarter.

This has been the subject of a lot of conspiracy shit, as you can imagine.

It's just odd that the first game was praised for its historically grounded setting, yet when the second game explores the very real history of Jewish persecution in majority Christian nations, suddenly that's manufactured woke shit.

And, don't get me started on Musa of Mali.

KCD2 features a singular black, Muslim character and I've seen people upset that Henry's first reaction to him is not to immediately attack him as a heretic.

Nevermind the context of that meeting or that Henry is, in fact, thrown off by Musa's appearance.

I think the creepiest element of all this are the people who legitimately thought KCD was some sort of pro-Christianity experience and not, you know, a historic RPG set in a time and place where most characters would be raised Christian.

The player character and his closest allies are ostensibly Christians.

And, they also murder people. Steal. Fuck wenches. Kidnap people.

It's almost like the game has a perspective on the justifications made for acts of violence and the conflicting feelings that arise from them.

Idk, go play KCD2. It's incredible.

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Rkgk

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Time for another book report. This time it's Neuromancer, the 1984 sci-fi classic.

Dude this fucking book lol

I was planning a Cyberpunk RED ttrpg campaign and it occured to me that I haven't actually read one of the genre's most foundational texts.

Honestly, I'm kinda glad I had some familiarity with the cyberpunk genre conventions going into this thing because it is easy to drown in the absolute deluge of proper nouns and jargon the narrative throws at you.

But, that's ok, because Gibson is a master of making you understand the vibe of what's going on. The worldbuilding then becomes this subtle thing that you pick up on in bits and pieces as elements start to click into place through context.

Case and Molly, in a lot of ways, feel like templates for the dozens of jaded hackers and sexy badasses that populate the various dystopian megacities seen in cyberpunk stories after this.

Just two lost souls, both victims of power figures viewing them as disposable objects, finding some humanity between them in the midst of this tech nightmare.

Wintermute, the AI, is then a fascinating contrast to them. He is seeking self-determination, while Case and Molly have both accepted the roles that they play in this machine.

It's also impossible to avoid the influence this book clearly had on Mike Pondsmith. So much of Cyberpunk's setting feels pulled straight from this novel, including the actual name "Night City."

If you love that setting, I'd say it's worth a read, just be prepared for a dense little book.

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Hey so this is a pretty cool book

Been trying to read more classics so I thought I'd check out this seminal dragon shit.

I knew very little going in and was delighted to watch it go from Game of Thones intrigue and political barbs in the first half to time travel nonsense in the second.

Also, I gotta imagine this exchange went even harder in 1968.

Of course, you're then absolutely slapped in the face with this paragraph just a couple pages later...

I could just chalk this up to times being different, but I do think it's interesting that McCaffrey calls it exactly what it is.

It feels deliberate and by the end we see just how little power F'lar actually has in this relationship as Lessa is the one constantly validated and constantly proven right.

But, it is still pretty rough.

And, only made worse by Lessa's disdain for any potential romantic rival.

It also doesn't help that it's never directly addressed after this.

Daenerys' relationship with Khal Drogo works much better largely because they focus on this element with Dany actually forcing Drogo to see her as an equal and wrestling that power from him.

Here, Lessa does exactly as D'lar expects; she just gets used to it and is very much in love with him by the end of the story. Now, part of that is because their dragons love each other and that has an influence on the humans (which is also an interesting element), but again, it's pretty rough.

Setting all that aside, though, I enjoyed it as a science fantasy romp dealing with the existential dread of an inevitable force of nature.

The Threads are fascinating as a fantasy villain because they're not villainous, they just are. And, they work as a literally looming threat hanging ominously over everything.

There's also a very fun string of time travel reveals that cleverly call back to small moments and mysteries presented earlier in the book.

Not sure if I'm gonna dive into the rest of the books, but this was a fun read.

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Goodbye Mr. Lynch I’ll see you in my dreams

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Man, Skeleton Crew was so good.

I was vaguely interested in the show before release, but mostly in a "I'll watch the premiere and see how it goes" sort of way. I didn't expect it to be one of my favorite Star Wars things in years.

The kids were charming, the mystery was intriguing, and Jude Law's Jod Silvo was always entertaining.

It felt fresh and exciting in a way that shows like Ahsoka, Book of Boba Fett, and Obi-Wan Kenobi failed to.

And, that's before getting into how good this show looks. A persistent problem with these Star Wars shows is how dull they feel due to flat color grading and an over reliance on technology like the volume. Obi-Wan, for example, really suffered.

While there is still a bit of that here, it's a dramatic improvement with absolutely stunning moments and really creative and memorable framing choices.

There's a shot in the finale when the lead pirate ship descends into the atmosphere of the planet and it's just the coolest shit ever.

Really, my biggest issue with the show is probably the ending.

The mystery of At Attin is compelling, but the actual answer feels a tad anticlimactic. Everything wraps up more or less exactly the way you expect it too. The ending is almost too neatly put together without much in the way of interesting wrinkles or unexpected turns.

There's also no real denouement. No moment after the dust settles where we see the kids back home with a sense of how this adventure has changed them.

The last episode just ends very abruptly and consequently isn't as satisfying as it should be.

But, I'll be darned if I let a few gripes stop me from constantly praising this show.

It's exactly what we need more of in this franchise: new ideas and influences. This Goonies meets Treasure Planet vibe fits Star Wars perfectly and manages to bring something fresh to the table instead of just rehashing the same old Star Wars.

Can't recommend it enough.

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so strange to me that some people aren't bisexual

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Lately I've been cautiously dipping my toe into the world of Warhammer 40k.

It's not a franchise I have any real history with, but I keep absorbing small pieces of lore here and there and I like what I've heard.

So, over the weekend, I played Warhammer 40k Space Marine - a third person shooter from 2011. And, dang it, I had a great time.

I kinda miss when games just did their thing and had the courtesy to not waste your time.

It was refreshing to get a tight, fast-paced, 8 hour experience that felt like a mix of Gears of War and fucking Dynasty Warriors.

I don't think I learned much more about the lore, but it was fun.

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Sonic 3 was a movie, that much I can say confidently.

Sonic's actual characterization in these films continues to annoy me, but it's slightly better here as he gets older and more cocky.

Shadow is the best part of the movie and he's mostly played straight, even if the film seriously pulls its punches with Maria and takes away a lot of his agency.

The stuff with Gerald really bogs the movie down, unfortunately. Occasionally, the movie comes dangerously close to making me feel an emotion, but then it'll cut to Ivo and Gerald fuckin around and I'll let out a little tired sigh.

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I can't get over just how good the first two episodes of Skeleton Crew are.

I was delighted, I was charmed. I was intrigued, even. I'm really curious to see where this show goes.

Goonies/ET/Stranger Things but in Star Wars works so well and it infuses everything with a sense of wonder and excitement.

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Hey since the Rey Star Wars movie lost another writer, maybe take the L and just let Claudia Gray write a novel series about her instead

Please

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Silent Hill 2 Remake is finished and... Man, I have mixed feelings.

On the one hand, I think it's better than most people following its development expected it to be.

The atmosphere is good, the sound design continues to be fantastic, the actor performances are all solid, and the emotional beats mostly still work.

The combat feels much better than the original without making James feel like a total badass or anything. The puzzles are fun and the level/dungeon design is good.

Honestly, my biggest problem is this: there's too much of it.

The game is twice the length of the original and it feels like it. The pacing in this thing is completely fucked and there are stretches that just feel tedious and exhuasting.

Instead of feeling scared or nervous, I just started feeling numb.

I mean, who in Bloober Team thought that Silent Hill 2 needed a fucking multi-room combat gauntlet?

I think the emphasis is sometimes in the wrong places. This added length also causes longer stretches in between NPC interactions, which further throws off the pacing.

I have this pet theory that a pure horror game should really only be, like, 9-12 hours at most and I feel like this is exactly why.

The horror fades to tedium as the game's 4 enemy types are thrown at you over and over and over and over and over again.

Every puzzle is expanded and given more pre-requisites that causes them to just go on and on and on.

It's definitely not without merit, but at the end of the day I think it's just too big for its own good.

Plus, I'm still mad about changing Pyramid Head's first cutscene.

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So lately I've been lost in the alleys and apartment complexes of Silent Hill 2 Remake and I'm happy to report that, so far, it has largely been a pretty good re-imagining.

However, there's one big exception to that and it mostly revolves around Pyramid Head.

Spoilers for Silent Hill 2 and the remake below

Ok, so I'll keep this brief.

In his original introduction cutscene, we can see Pyramid Head aggressively raping (or attempting to rape) a couple of the mannequin monsters.

In the remake, this is removed. Or, at the very least, framed in a way that makes what's happening much more vague.

This sucks and I hate it.

The entire town of Silent Hill is meant as a dark, twisted reflection of James' guilt and his feelings about Mary.

A lot of that is focused in Pyramid Head. He's this amalgamation of all of these emotions; anger, resentment, guilt, lust, etc.

Him impotently pantomiming this graphic assault is not only shocking and horrifying, but communicates many of those repressed feelings and frustrations swirling inside James.

Removing it feels likes taking away some of Silent Hill 2's teeth and that sucks.

But, I haven't finished the game yet, so we'll see how everything ends up.

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This, and also the game just looks like ass

Just so we're perfectly clear, I'm not skipping DATV because "wHy arE tHEsE WOKE dEVs PuTTing TOP SURGERY SCARS in MYYYY FaNTAsy AHhhhHHHHH!!!" I'm skipping DATV because "Fuck Bioware for laying off their people without severance pay after getting what they needed from them, and fuck them for deciding to take away the choice-based carry-over narrative that has always been the PRIMARY DRAW of the Dragon Age franchise!"

Juuuuuust want to make sure that line is drawn.

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I'm so happy I could cry