#THAT S ONE OF THE HANDHELDS I USED TO PLAY A LOT

[positivexcellence]

Is there garlic on this pizza? An oral history of Supernatural's 'Monster Movie' episode

THE BEGINNING

What started as a simple enough idea — a black-and-white episode — was then put into the hands of writer Ben Edlund, who’d already crafted some of the show’s more creative hours, including “Hollywood Babylon,” which marked one of the series’ first meta episodes, and “Ghostfacers,” which was shot like a cheesy ghost-hunting reality show using handheld cameras. Alongside Edlund was director Robert Singer, an executive producer on the series and a massive movie fan himself.

ERIC KRIPKE (Creator): I was an obsessive fan of The X-Files and in their prime, they got really bold and adventurous with their format, and they had a black-and-white episode. I was always hoping that we could start taking those same kinds of swings. I remember saying, “I want to do a black-and-white episode where Sam and Dean are up against the classic movie monsters.” But I think Ben came up with the shapeshifter. We were trying to figure out: How do you get a mummy and a werewolf and a Frankenstein and a Dracula in the same episode? That makes no f---ing sense. So this idea of a shapeshifter who loved those movies and was ultimately just a fanboy was the secret to cracking that one open. 

ROBERT SINGER (Director): I think that script was Ben at his best. I was really happy that I was in line to direct because I really loved those old movies, so it was fortuitous that I got to do it. 

JENSEN ACKLES (Dean Winchester): It’s all just paying homage to the old-school ways of doing things, which having Bob at the helm, he’s seen all those movies time and time again, so he was the perfect guy to direct this episode. 

KRIPKE: Bob has an encyclopedic knowledge of movies, especially older films. He’s a classicist and his directing style is a lot of that kind of beautiful, elegant Hollywood style, and I think he just really relished it.

SINGER: I shot generally with wider lenses than I would normally do with Supernatural to try to give it some of that old-time feel. I really took pains to make it look as old fashioned as I possibly could. I’m a big fan of James Whale, who had done Frankenstein, and there are a lot of great crane shots in those movies, so I did a lot of crane work in this. We did a lot of shadow play. 

JARED PADALECKI (Sam Winchester): You put Ben Edlund on writing and Bob Singer on directing and magic is bound to happen.

But there was another piece of the puzzle that needed to come together for the magic to truly work: Who would play the shapeshifter (and therefore spend the episode doing their best Dracula)? The answer was Todd Stashwick.

TODD STASHWICK (Dracula): They wanted a full-on replication of Bela Lugosi’s performance. I had the DVD of the 1930’s Dracula, so I was watching that just to get the mannerisms and vocal intonation down so that I wasn’t doing a Xerox carbon copy but rather actually trying to get that Hungarian dialect that he has. I went in [to the audition] and just swung for the rafters.

SINGER: We had him do one of the Dracula scenes and then do the speech where he’s telling her how he became the way he became and Todd just killed it. That was an easy call to cast him.

STASHWICK: They wanted to know that you were going to be able to bring both sides to it, the full-on studied Dracula performance and then to let that mask drop and see the wounded man that is the monster. 

KRIPKE: We needed someone who could stick the landing on the Dracula part and that’s really hard. It’s hard to do it and have it not come off like a bit. Todd is a remarkable mimic of Bela Lugosi and brings humanity and soulfulness and depth to it. There’s something in his eyes that made it deeper and sadder than had you cast someone who was just going for an impersonation.

PADALECKI: That episode belongs to Todd Stashwick. He’s so damn good. 

Alongside Stashwick was Melinda Sward, whose character Jamie, a local waitress, caught Dean's eye and marked a first for the show. 

KRIPKE: At the time, there was a young female fan named Jamie. She and her mother would write us letters and they were super fans, and we were still early enough that we’re like, “I can’t believe there’s fans.” Jamie had medical issues, so when the season was coming up, I wrote her a response and said, “If you concentrate on getting better, we’ll name a character after you.” And she responded and said, “That’s amazing, but can you just do me a favor? Can you make sure it’s a character that doesn’t die?” So the female lead in this one we named Jamie. That was one of the only times we ever named a character after a real person and a fan. The happy ending is she was thrilled and she grew up healthy and now tours around with a replica of the Impala. 

ACKLES: Jamie was one of my favorite Dean Girls. Melinda was so good and so fun.

From the instant the episode began, fans knew they were in for something special as the old black-and-white WB logo kicked off a very old-school credits sequence.

SINGER: Right from the opening of the Warner Brothers shield, you know where you’re going. It set the tone perfectly.

KRIPKE: That and “Changing Channels” are the only two episodes where I’ll sit down and just watch the credit sequence. The font, the way you list every crew member, and it just goes on forever. And [composer Christopher] Lennertz wrote real orchestral music for it. I just love the opening of that episode and the way we did that title sequence. But changing subjects, what that reminds me of is the singular genius of Ben Edlund to set this episode during Oktoberfest. Suddenly everyone looks like European villagers and everything becomes a real monster movie.

SINGER: And that location was a party site, but it worked perfect for us. 

PADALECKI: It was like an amusement park in the outskirts of Vancouver that we rented out. It ended up unfortunately getting torn down and turned into condos or something.

THE MIDDLE

With the setting and the cast locked, the brothers set out on their hunt, arriving at Oktoberfest to help solve a murder. And when the investigation made Dean late to his first date with Jamie, he found himself face-to-face with Dracula. So naturally, Dean punched the shapeshifter in the face. A fight ensued, one that ended with Dean holding an ear and Dracula ... riding a vespa?

ACKLES: I believe one of the many reasons this show lasted as long as it did is because it can be scary but then at the same time, you throw something like the scooter in and it layers in comedy with horror, with drama, with romance. It touches it all. Bob said it early on and it became a mantra of ours: “No joke is too cheap.” 

STASHWICK: That’s the infamous assault scene. I’m in full crazy mode and I’m supposed to clock Jensen in his beautiful face with my elbow, and for whatever reason in that moment — I perhaps leaned in, he perhaps leaned in — we closed that gap and I clocked him. So what you see on the DVD extras is me being all Dracula and then me being mortified that I just hit their billion dollar baby in the face.

ACKLES: He caught me with an elbow but he probably thought he hit me harder than he did. It was a mix between a good shot and a graze, but he immediately broke character. He was like, “Are you good?” And I was like, “Yeah, that one woke me up.” [Laughs]

Dean made it through that fight, but the shapeshifter had already planned its next move: While Sam checked out an eccentric local that they thought was the killer, Dean and Jamie shared a drink back at the bar where she worked. Her friend Lucy (Holly Elissa) then showed up just in time to spike their drinks. By the time Dean woke up, he was wearing Lederhosen while strapped to a table in a dungeon.

SINGER: Jensen was like, “Oh god do I have to wear this?” So to make him feel better, I put on the Lederhosen top. I didn’t go with the full shorts but I did direct that day in the Lederhosen top to take the edge off it a little bit for him.

ACKLES: I remember that! He directed in that shirt. [Laughs] Those were authentic leather Lederhosen from Bavaria. Only the best for Dean.

PADALECKI: When Jensen’s first getting strapped to the table, cause he’s a big guy, I remember them talking about how for the visual's sake, they wanted it to be like he’s a quote-unquote damsel in distress, so if they used a normal-sized platform, it would’ve looked comical, but not in a good way. So they had to make it a little bigger cause he’s kind of big.

Dean wasn’t in the dungeon long before Dracula left him to go answer the doorbell. It seemed the shapeshifter ordered a pizza … and he had a coupon.

KRIPKE: I just love how there’s the monster lab in the basement but then you go upstairs and it’s this mid-century ranch house. That’s almost a direct ripoff of the Steve Martin movie The Man with Two Brains.

SINGER: [Set designer] Jerry [Wanek] did a great job in building the dungeon set, and then when the doorbell rings, you realize it’s in the bottom of a suburban house with a pizza guy showing up at the door. 

KRIPKE: When Ben wrote the script, we talked about that scene more than any other scene in the episode. We were so specific about how we wanted the Dracula shapeshifter to react to the pizza guy and the way he’s scared when he says, “Is there garlic on the pizza?” And then the way the pizza guy’s so bored and over it: “Did you order garlic?” And then he says, “No!” It’s the way that he’s so bored of this Dracula at the door.

PADALECKI: I think Jensen and I must’ve watched this episode together in 2008 because I remember us looking at each other and going like, ”Oh my god, [the pizza guy] is way better than he needs to be!”

ACKLES: That line, because of the way that Todd delivered it, we used that line on set many, many times. Whenever somebody asked a question that had an obvious “no” to it, it’d be like, “Hey, did you want the big light on in the distance?” And Bob would be like, “Is there garlic on it?” So that became a little ism on set.

STASHWICK: I’m a Second City guy, so “yes, and” is drilled into my head and yet the two memes I’m most known for, I’m saying the word “no,” and that is Supernatural and Star Trek. I have the no's that are heard around the world. 

In the end, the brothers came out victorious and another monster was dead, but not before this one made you feel a little something (and gave one heck of a final monologue quoting King Kong). 

KRIPKE: Ben gets all the credit, and rightfully so, for writing the crazy episodes, but where I don’t think he gets enough credit is what a disciplined screenwriter he is in terms of character consistency and rule consistency and just the emotion and pathos he brings to every single story he does. No matter how crazy, he always has such a talent for capturing humanity. I wasn’t counting on the shapeshifter to have pathos but when he gives that speech at the end, it’s so sad. I give him all the credit in the world for that.

SINGER: Eric used to say, “Every villain is a hero of his own story,” so we always tried, as best we could, to give the villains something to do and learn more about them and give them full characters. So even with all this fun, we managed to give him something a little more to do. 

PADALECKI: He becomes an almost sympathetic character — I stress almost because he did kill a couple people — but what a great character arc all inside of one episode.

STASHWICK: Because this character wasn’t just a cartoon Dracula and he had that human moment, I think it made him stick in people’s minds more. This monster just really loved the movies. He was the ultimate cosplayer. It might be the thing I’m most known for outside of Star Trek, that one episode of TV.

THE END...?

Although Dracula didn’t make it out alive, the episode seemed to breathe new life into the series, marking perhaps its biggest risk yet, though not the biggest risk the show would ever take. 

SINGER: It kind of laid a template for other big swings that we took that were out of the ordinary, whether it was “Changing Channels” or “The French Mistake.” This was the first of our big swings of being totally different than what the show was generally week to week.

KRIPKE: I remember it getting a positive reception. I think people appreciated the swings we were starting to take. I just love that this small little supernatural show that’s arguably a Buffy ripoff on The CW got so experimental. I am really proud that we were doing legit avant-garde stuff, really experimental filmmaking, of which this was one, and then we just kept pushing it. 

PADALECKI: It’s such a great episode of television and I think we have a few in our 15 years that could stand alone as something fun to watch and out of the box, and it's certainly easy to argue "Monster Movie" is at the top.

ACKLES: This was really when we were hitting our stride. We were in the pocket with these characters, with the storytelling, with the writing. The first year was really finding our feet, the second was like, "Okay we somehow survived a network merge, let’s not mess this up." And then third season we started playing a little bit. So by the fourth season, we’re like, "Now we know where we need to be." This was the perfect time to do one of these outside-the-box episodes. This is definitely one of my top 10.

SINGER: I directed 48 episodes and if somebody asked me which is my favorite, I would probably say this one. I just had the best time doing it. 

Entertainment Weekly

[thewritetofreespeech]

Hello! Happy to see requests are open again!

Could I request the seven Obey Me brothers with an s/o who's a jewelry maker?

Obey me Brothers + jewelry maker s/o

Lucifer

He likes the concept of jewelry more than he actually likes it.

The style and fashion on how it’s made, plus the reasons why, have always fascinated Lucifer. Like any piece of art. However, he doesn’t really wear jewelry.

He has a few ceremonial pieces for balls & diplomatic occasions, and of course his chain in his demon form, but that’s about it.

If s/o was to make him a piece of jewelry, he would want a watch chain. One of interlocking silver & gold pieces to symbolize their bond, as well as something practical he could wear everyday.

Mammon

As the Avatar of Greed, of course Mammon loves jewelry.

He loves being around it. Loves touching it. Loves owning it. All the shiny, intrinsic value of it all.

He’s honestly never really cared about any of the pieces he’s owned (just hoarding them like his little ravens) until s/o gave him something. He would cherish and keep it close. It’s a real problem on photoshoots.

If s/o was to make him a piece of jewelry, he would want a new set of earrings for his ear. That way he could wear them around all the time and change out the studs with one or the other depending on his style.

Levi

He’s not a real jewelry person.

The only kind he’s ever owned his costume jewelry for his cosplay, or merch jewelry from his favorite characters. More for collectors’ value & clout than real money.

Levi thinks it’s pretty cool they can make pieces though, and commissions several for his outfits if his vision for a certain accessory doesn’t exist.

If s/o was to make him a piece of jewelry, he would want a new gaming wristlet to put on his handhelds. Of course he can’t have anything on his fingers, as it will screw up his accuracy, but he can use it to keep hold of his games and fun charms, and think of s/o while he plays.

Satan

Much like Lucifer (though he’ll never admit it) Satan appreciates jewelry for its art.

The symbolic and time period importance of a piece interests him, and he’s also read several books of smithing & traditional jewelry making to know about it.

He would like to learn as well and asks s/o to teach him. Then they have a hobby together.

If s/o was to make him a piece of jewelry, he would want a lapel pin he could wear on his jacket. Something with a flat steam so, when he’s out reading, he can also use it as a bookmark.

Asmo

Asmo as literally hundreds of pieces of jewelry. Of all kinds.

Most of them are gifts from admirers, but he’s also purchased a lot of them as fashion accessories. Every new trend needs to be owned by him.

He genuinely loves every piece he owns, but the ones from s/o are the only ones he honestly re-wears as he usually doesn’t like to repeat a look.

If s/o was to make him a piece of jewelry, he would want a ring. Something bright & flashy, and he would constantly tell people it’s their engagement ring; which annoys s/o but Asmo is so happy when he says it.

Beel

Beel doesn’t really get jewelry.

Likes it’s cool and all. Shiny and everything. But he thinks it just gets in the way of what you’re trying to do and is just another thing to worry about. Plus he’s broken a lot of it not thinking about his strength.

The only exception he makes is for his leather necklace & bracelet, and that’s because Belphie gave it to him. So he would probably make an exception for s/o’s gift as well.

If s/o was to make him a piece of jewelry, he would want a bracelet the same style as his human outfit look. It’s a strong enough metal weave that he can’t easily break it, plus it looks really strong. He’s always liked bronze more than traditional metals if he had to choose.

Belphie

Thinks jewelry is pointless. Just another thing you have to take off before you go to sleep, or it just sits in a drawer.

But anything [Y/N] does is of interest to him.

He would like to watch them make the pieces. Something about turning just ordinary pieces into something beautiful really moves him, and he can watch them for hours.

If s/o was to make him a piece of jewelry, he would want a necklace with an amethyst stone. He doesn’t have to take it off when he goes to sleep. Amethyst is said to help promote restful sleep. And purple is his favorite color. Belphie would wear it all the time.

[imagineanime2022]

League Of Villains With An S/O Like Marceline The Vampire Queen

Tomura Shigaraki X Reader, Dabi X Reader, Spinner X Reader

Requested: @supernatural-hunter1

Request: I’m thinking the LOV (Dabi, Spinner and Shigaraki) with a girlfriend, who has a vampire quirk like Marceline, the vampire queen (from Adventure Time) she has a bass guitar in a shape of an axe, she’s a great singer, she can fly, and she only drinks the color red (or eat the color)

Tomura Shigaraki

🤚 You were introduced to Shigaraki when you were young and as you started to develop your quirk became his protector. 🤚 He’d often find that his hand rested on your neck, two fingers over the bite marks in your neck. He matched skin tones with someone… Even if they were a vampire. 🤚 Indifferent to the guitar really, he often thinks that it gets in the way on more stealthy missions but he liked that you were able to fight without it, and found more joy in watching you punch someone across the room. 🤚 Sometimes people didn’t see you until it was too late, you might be the last thing they see after disrespecting Shigaraki or injuring him in some way.

No one could see you, you had been sitting on the bar behind Shigaraki, your legs dangling down behind him as he leant against your shins looking at the new recruits, Dabi and Toga. You were watching them carefully, your guitar rested behind the bar close enough to grab if you needed it, they talked but you noticed the movement of Dabi before Shigaraki did, you grabbed the guitar from behind the bar swinging it around stopping just short of Dabi’s neck “be careful now.” You warned, you held the forearm of your free arm resting on top of Shigaraki’s head and you rested your chin on your own arm. “Are you sure that you need him?” “We need them all unfortunately.” Shigaraki answered “Plus as annoying as he is, I believe he’s going to be useful.” “He does seem like the most capable of a lot.” You shrugged. “Mmm.” He hummed “you can drop the axe.” You sat up as you pulled back the axe, it rested on your shoulder as you slumped forward. “What?” Shigaraki mumbled as he looked at you posture. “I don’t trust him.” You answered as Dabi smirked at you, eyes easily moving over you seemingly assessing you. “So who’s the bodyguard?” Dabi asked. “None of your business.” Shigaraki answered as he turned his back to them, the conversation over as he rested the handheld console that he was playing on your thighs, as you played with his hair and Kurogiri showed the new arrivals to the rooms they could use if they wanted.

Dabi

🔥 Dabi met you before he ended up in the league, he actually went looking for you after hearing about you through the thugs that he was beating to a pulp. 🔥 Dabi then watched you like an absolute creeper for a couple of weeks, gathering information and trying to figure out just what your quirk was. 🔥 He definitely liked your style, the way you dressed, carried yourself and spoke to other people. 🔥 He approached you when he got all the information that he could from watching you.

You were sitting on the roof of the building watching people go by, there were a number of different objects next to you that had been drained of their colour, Dabi didn’t think that it was sunny enough to warrant the hat that you had decided to wear “thought vampires couldn’t sit in the sun.” He finally said, you glanced back at him, eyes moving over him for a second before going back to the people milling around under you. “Vampires can sit in the sun as long as we’re protected from direct sunlight.” You answered. “You’ve been watching me, what do you want?” “You knew?” He asked. “Thought you were sneaky?” You asked. “There’s a lot that you don’t know about me.” “Yeah?” He asked, he stepped forward and you leaned back resting on your hands. “I wouldn’t get too close, you know that guitar isn’t just a fashion statement.” You warned him. “I know.” He nodded “I’ve seen you use it, impressive.” He continued forward until he was sitting on the ledge next to you. “What do you want?” You asked. “You seem bored.” He mumbled. “I’m bored of you dodging the question, what do you want?” You asked. “I want to offer you a prospect.” He answered. “Uh huh.” You grunted. “I want to take down someone and you could help me.” He answered. “Who?” You asked. “What?” He asked. “Who do you want to take down?” You asked. “Endeavour.” He answered. “Now that is a challenge.” You smirked, your fangs flashing in the sun. “You’d better tell me how you plan to do this and I’ll decide whether I join you.”

Spinner

🦎 Spinner was very good at withholding judgement until he'd met someone or seen someone in action which is why he never judged you for your supposed vampire attributes. 🦎 He honestly thinks the guitar is pretty cool, an instrument that doubles as weapons, and always loves when people question whether it’s a real weapon or not. 🦎 On that note Spinner never gets tired of you singing, whether you're just singing to yourself or singing for the rest of the gang (Magni and Toga are often the ones that make requests). 🦎 Your ability to go from a warm presence to a threatening entity, was honestly amazing to him.

Spinner had lost track of you a while back, you had been split up during the ambush by Redestros men, he had seen evidence of you being around considering there were objects that were primary red that had lost their colour, if you were drinking during battle you were having you use your abilities in excessive amounts. Spinner should have been paying more attention when the hulking weight smashed into his side, he recognised the grunts, it was you in your larger bat form. “You need a hand?” He asked. “I mean if you're not too busy.” You shrugged as he looked behind you at the group that had followed the larger man, he noted that you were changing back to your humanoid form and bass guitar thrown over your shoulder. “Are you hungry, do you need anything?” He asked. “No there was enough around here to get what I needed now, I just really want these guys to go away.” You answered, swinging the axe end of the base cutting the closest man’s head clean off. “Wow.” He mumbled eyes widening and cheeks heating, if his skin wasn’t green you would have seen a blush. “You okay?” You asked a smirk taking over your face as you dodged a hit from one of others, Spinner napped out of it throwing a dagger landing it straight in his heart. “I’m fine.” He mumbled as you giggled, killing yet another one of them before moving over to him and pressing a kiss to his cheek. “Come on let’s finish this, find the boss and get this over with so we can get back to doing nothing.” You ordered. “Sure thing.” He chuckled, cutting down another attacker.

Request Here!!

[prinnamon]

notes on Chell's Mind (CyhAnide)! linked a playlist since this is one of the trickier ones to find, given that all the videos are unlisted. i'm not too worried about archival since they're on Internet Archive and Cyh, as of two years ago, seems to have no intention of ever taking them down/making them private. however, it does seem like the two bloopers episodes are probably lost for good! too bad.

by the way, outside this post, i'm probably going to refer to this series' protagonist as CyhChell instead of something like ChellMind because there were/are lots of other Chell's Mind series! i plan on at least watching the one by Rychotech eventually. CyhChell is the one elevated to the status of "mindverse canon" by other mind series creators, but that doesn't mean others' efforts aren't worth appreciating :3

keep in mind that Cyh wrote and produced this series before the release of Portal 2! as such, there are ways in which Chell's Mind might not be canon-compliant. feel free to point them out in a reblog. i'm not very well-versed in portal lore yet!

EPISODE 00

Chell wakes up and isn't feeling or breathing so good! instinctively searches her brain to attribute it to having drank something the night before.

pleased with the additional jump height granted to her by the advanced knee replacement prostheses.

wants some coffee…

recalls having answered a questionnaire of some kind. cuts herself off before elaborating.

when she hears that the particle field will vaporize the box, she immediately picks it back up. she wants to see that. she specifically uses the word "torture." she wants to do HARM to this inanimate object and while she does so she wants to pretend it can feel pain

it tingles to walk through the Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grill! feels like static electricity.

heavily critical of all the issues (shaky elevators, suspicious floor stains) in this "nice, new" facility supposedly worth billions

“i wanna go home”

12 is a good number. she feels this way because people have told her 12 is a good number.

creeped out by the cameras at first but then starts sorta playing with them and baby-talking them

VERY nervous at the prospect of losing a limb to a badly-timed portal closure

freaked out by GLaDOS's remark about "prolonged exposure to the button." gets away from it as fast as possible. when she's out of the perceived danger, she quickly realizes it sounds like bullshit and probably isn't dangerous

complains about the use of the word "emancipation." unnecessarily long and complicated word to use when a shorter/simpler one would work just fine, she thinks.

despite her distaste for it, she gets the word “emancipation” stuck in her head after GLaDOS describes the Emancipation Grill. uses “emancipate”/”emancipation” repeatedly after this.

feels completely fine until GLaDOS suggests that the Emancipation Grill sometimes emancipates teeth. then she suddenly panics and says she can taste metal. i'm getting the sense that it is very easy to get CyhChel riled up.

thinks the portal gun is AWESOME. very excited to have it.

“i wanna go home"… 2!

prefers blue (portals, but also the color in general) over orange (portals, but also the color in general)

says she has a "bad hair day" every day. doesn't like her hair i guess :(

wants to hold onto the gun. worried the emancipation grill will take it. elated when it turns out she gets to keep it

very hungry. can't remember when she last ate.

wants more oxygen? i guess she still feels like she's having trouble breathing.

EPISODE 01

ever-present desires: food, coffee, soda, companionship, and to go home

calls the portal gun her only friend in this place. immediately starts trying to think of a name for it other than Aperture Handheld Portal Device/ASHPD.

considers the name Sebastian (Sebby or S-Diddy for short); considers the name Quirinus (she loves the letter Q); tries to think of a good anagram of the letters ASHPD (Shapd, Shpad, Dash-P, or P-Dash)

tells GLaDOS to shut up, she's busy talking to her friend the portal gun.

settles on the name ASHPoD. thinks that makes it sound like "a vegetable or an alien"

starts appealing to "Miss Computer Lady" for something to eat or drink

apparently missing lots of memories/context, which she attributes to a lack of oxygen earlier. anyway, she cannot for the life of her remember anything about GLaDOS the computer's name other than that it starts with a G

her deep hatred of storage cubes continues. she wants to vaporize them soooo bad.

starts to pick up on GLaDOS's passive-aggression and dishonesty

"I wonder which unforgivable ass-hat decided to put me in a pure oxygen environment, anyway. Sure, it was probably so that my knee replacements healed faster, and I could get on with the testing, but still….Well, okay, there was some nitrogen, but no NOS. The least they could have done was give me laughing gas. Then suffocation wouldn't have felt so terrible." ✍️ This will be important later!

remembers that meatloaf is bad. doesn't remember eating meatloaf; just remembers knowing that it's bad.

claims to have signed up for this test. can't remember why she did, but she seems sure she's here voluntarily.

says that it was between Black Mesa and Aperture, and Aperture was offering more money (for what? you’ll see.)

considers briefly that her mom might have put her up to this. it's too hard to remember, so she quits trying.

"i feel like i've never ever eaten anything in my entire life, which is freaking me out."✍️ This will be important later! but that aside, this is real. sometimes you get so hungry you get Scared

smugly suggests Black Mesa is better funded and more advanced than Aperture

incredibly attached to ASHPoD. says they'll be best friends forever even if they can't hug or have staring contests or go to the beach

pronounces her name with a soft "ch" like she’s saying the word “shell”! (in the comments of one of the episodes, Cyh confirms the name is short for Michelle, so that would be why.)

remembers her name! and… not her hometown! wow, yeah, okay her amnesia in this is far greater than i was expecting! and she's handling not being able to remember key details of her life incredibly well.

shares the freeman brothers' trait of being easily hypnotized. she loves swirling ball of light.

"all i remember is taking that test, then being told that they'd fix my legs, then going out to party, then waking up in here and suffocating." JESUS. OKAY. so CyhChell's reason for being here is coming back to her. i'm wondering,,, was this a popular theory pre-Portal 2? that Chell was lured to Aperture for testing under the guise of it just being for experimental knee surgery? or was this just a Cyh original??? like, i recognize “Chell was visiting the facility because a relative worked there and she got kidnapped” is not exactly good, but damn!

uh. anyway! she's finally circled back to the questionnaire she interrupted herself about in episode 00. apparently it asked for her favorite color at two different points and then accused her of lying when her answer changed from one shade of red to another. that's a reference to the Enrichment Center Test Subject Application Process from the now-defunct Aperture Science website! check out an archive of all the questions here on Combine OverWiki!

Chell's answers, by the way, were crimson and sangria.

"Kill me now. Death sounds awesome at this point."

slur count: 1

notices and calls out the fact that there's no scientists in the observation rooms.

thinks GLaDOS's voice might be a figment of her imagination.

fun chellism: "son of a one-eyed prairie dog"

"i wanna go home"… 3! (there was a "can i go home?" earlier as well)

one of her teeth is emancipated after the seventh test. oopsie.

EPISODE 02

slur count: 2

really broken up about the lost tooth. demands medical supplies from GLaDOS (or, if she plans to just continue emancipating all Chell's teeth, to at least prepare some soft foods for her to eat once she's no longer able to chew).

begins threatening to kill GLaDOS in various creative ways

would "slaughter a man with [her] bare hands for a Mountain Dew right about now." *excitedly tabs over to the mindverse character soda preferences spreadsheet once again*

thinks briefly about drinking the sludge.

chell "not a fan of long and complicated words when a shorter/simpler one would work just fine" lastname is certainly having fun saying "emancipated" and "accursed" (accursed? as in farms???) and "egads!" and "mucosa" this episode.

claims that smelling the acid in this room is "worse than being trapped in an unventilated room after spraying an entire bottle of tilex on every wall and rubbing my face in it! which i have never done. not even when i was drunk….okay, maybe once. when drunk. but my friends told me to do it"

sings "mary had a little lamb" in japanese in the elevator to amuse herself. she loves japanese :]

FINALLY, an opportunity to vaporize a storage cube. she thoroughly enjoys it. she does a voice for it and pretends it's pleading for its life and then laughs maniacally as it is incinerated. she incinerates five cubes before deciding to do the actual puzzle

hasn't been promised food but is expecting it.

when GLaDOS says "quit now and cake will be served immediately," chell is ECSTATIC. like, she gets to stop doing this AND she gets food? exactly what she wanted.

black forest cake is her favorite type of cake.

realizes she's not getting cake and is very upset.

is going to call GLaDOS "HAL" now as a form of retribution and as a threat

"♪ mary had a little lamb. her father shot it dead. now it goes to school with her between two chunks of bread. ♪" why aren't we talking about this. can anyone hear me

EPISODE 03

notices signs of clawing/scratching on the elevator's padded walls. she says it looks "as though trapped individuals had once tried desperately to claw their way to freedom," but she seems not to believe that's actually the case.

going to call GLaDOS HAL "Hallie" now.

does a voice for ASHPoD. gives it a british accent and makes it address her as "madam." tells herself in its voice that she's going out of her mind

calls herself "short" and "a tiny person"! SHORT CHELL CONFIRMATION 🎉

finds the momentum puzzles significantly more enjoyable than everything that came before.

references Bleach, i think. i have not seen Bleach, i have no comment on this

hates physics. does NOT want a lesson on physics from GLaDOS "this early in the morning and prior to breakfast."

hearing an echoing whispered voice in her head! was just doing voices before but is legitimately hearing voices now.

the voice in her head claims to be CNN and ultimately leaves her alone because they "have to make sure [they] TiVo'd the game," prompting Chell to wonder, "Is there… TiVo… in my head?" and to request the voice also TiVo the show Fringe for her.

the voice does not like Fringe. for this offense, Chell dubs the voice "evil twin."

slur count: 3 (this one is said by evil twin)

so happy to get the second portal gun! "look, ASHPoD! it's your brother! let's hope he's not evil, like my imaginary twin. she's no fun at all."

in response to this, evil twin says "seven days."

chell thinks the situation is bad but not as bad as it could be

RED VS BLUE REFERENCE. RVB FAN CHELL.

if this is an rvb season 3 situation, she's excited to meet her clones. she'd love a clone army

more emotionally attached to the left side of her body than to the right. would sell her right kidney for $30,000 in a heartbeat if given the opportunity

assumes the result would be catastrophic if two portals collided. something about black holes and dividing by zero

getting a blister from carrying ASHPoD everywhere. it's heavy!

preferred ice cream flavors are blueberry cheesecake and pistachio

dreaming about food… cuts herself off with "i'm shutting up before i kill myself."

wants to be a ninja someday

dancing excitedly while she watches herself in the portal, now that she can put both portals on either side of a tight hallway

EPISODE 04

bets Hallie the computer has a goatee, since evil people always have goatees and the computer is evil

"along with goatees, eyeliner is shorthand for demonic possession….perhaps the computer wears eyeliner as well?" she is designing a GLaDOS humansona inside her head the likes of which the world may not be ready for

mistakes a wall light for daylight. bummed that she can't escape through it.

has had monster movie marathons. considers that a type of survival training

the only disease she'd like to contract is Worseley's Supplement. (from the comments: according to Cyh, Worseley's Supplement is "an obscure reference from an even more obscure book, the title of which escapes me every time I try to recall it. Basically, it means you're incapable of judging amounts, including zero, which leaves you guessing like a crazy person.")

"if ebola made you psychic, i think i'd wanna catch it." Okay

aware she's immune to gravity but still skeeved out by heights

needed to fill out a birth date and death date for a report she was doing on Ross Perot, but he was still alive, so she asked her teacher if she could pick a random date in the future for the death date. "'no,' says my teacher. 'wouldn't you feel bad if he actually died on that day?'…and i smiled at him and replied flatly, 'i wouldn't feel bad, no! i'd feel powerful.'" i LOVE herrrrr, this is a great anecdote

evil twin returns. apparently real-life power outages affect the headspace TV, interrupting the game evil twin was watching.

slur count: 4

new voice in her head who makes exactly one appearance. the fortune-teller. "virgos with beards who are brushing their teeth will die today." unhelpful!

makes an infinite freefall setup for fun and enrichment! it stops being fun very quickly, and she falls for SEVERAL MILES according to a title card because she cannot figure out how to stop. very shaken and relieved when it's finally over

is sick of the cameras staring at her. wants it to stop.

realizes she can knock the camera off the wall with portals. fascinated. elated. agog.

"(in a silly voice) i need mountain dew before i kill again!!!" she is so thirsty let her sip

"then again, illusion is preferable to despair." if she was offered a drug that would let her mentally escape from this situation, she'd consider taking it.

decides it's a good time to start plotting world destruction

references yu-gi-oh

"i've come to the conclusion that life is a game. my life, specifically. however, every game has its cheats." oh that's a good line

references sonic the hedgehog

she has retained the idea from earlier that the buttons emit dangerous radiation and that there are actual consequences for "prolonged exposure."

starts rambling about Erasmus and madness, seemingly trying to convince herself she "has every right to lose her mind. thoughts of terror and carnage are okay! they're totally okay because Erasmus says it's okay."

and now i have to interrupt the flow of this because this was the point when i decided to scroll down and read some of the comments on this video, and

[Start ID. A YouTube comment by @/CyhAnide from 14 years ago. It reads:

@/Whackjood: She's not starving or malnourished. She's just never eaten food, which causes the sensation of hunger. Because she's a clone. GLaDOS kept her in stasis in the relaxation vault prior to testing. Health-wise, she's theoretically perfect, since that's how GLaDOS operates.

End ID.]

and i didn't find this one until later, but here's a comment on a different episode along the same lines:

[Start ID. A YouTube comment by @/CyhAnide from 14 years ago. It reads:

@/MaxOfS2D: Unfortunately, none of that was ever confirmed by VALVe. Ergo, I can decide her story. They neglected to give Chell a background for the purpose of letting players choose what her past might be. There are also theories that she's Cave Johnson's daughter, a clone of a test subject from before GLaDOS was commissioned, she's actually an android, etc.... I don't like the idea of her getting caught on bring your daughter to work day, so I went the route that brings Black Mesa to the fore.

End ID.]

wowowowowow. that was a bombshell to just suddenly discover! the canon is that the CyhChell we follow through this series is a clone! so... whatever happened to CyhChell Prime? maybe she just came in, answered a questionnaire, had some of her DNA taken, and then got sent home with a check. i hope she at least got the knee surgery she was promised before being sent home. how many Chells came before the protagonist? what number is she? (twelve is a good number. or, so she's heard.)

huh. man. anyway..! after processing some of the implications of this, i went ahead and moved onto the last installments of the series.

EPISODE 05 (PART 1)

it's a weight off her shoulders to let go of the idea that she has to stay "sane."

remembers what it's like to rip your nails to shreds in a cheese grater obsessively trying to grate the last bits of cheese. sanity is a cheese grater

still believes the situation could be worse!

goes back to bargaining with GLaDOS instead of threatening her. "condition me to respond favorably by giving me things! preferably expensive things."

"I Lost You (Through a Portal to Hell)" is playing from an inaccessible radio in test chamber 14.

seems to believe portal guns will eventually be mass-produced. ("ASHPoD, you're gonna make people very lazy one day.")

undershoots a jump and slams into a wall.

hates mosquitoes.

can't remember speaking to anyone at Aperture since getting here. (so who administered your questionnaire, silly?)

she'd like it if someone was around to comfort her. anyone. she'd take an evil/creepy mad scientist.

vaporizes another cube for fun.

hates Valentine's Day.

wants a nap. mmm. elevator naptime.

EPISODE 05 (PART 2)

never mind about naptime, she gets up literally as soon as the elevator ride ends.

fun chellism: "oh, for the love of waffles"

reacts to GLaDOS's comment about complimentary grief counseling. "who's gonna be grieving? am i? will you be taking ASHPoD from me? or will ASHPoD be the one grieving? 😰"

"cripes, i throw like a girl. …wait, i am a girl." feels transgender in some direction

vaporizes one of the cameras.

"I Lost You (Through a Portal to Hell)" is playing from another radio. it seems inaccessible, but chell grabs it!! now that she can hear the song better, she likes it. she enjoys rock music.

trying to figure out a way to get the radio past the emancipation grill. "now that i've attained music, i can't imagine being without it. the silence was killing me inside."

"maybe i can hide [the radio] in my jumpsuit? uh… no. that won't fit. if my boobs were smaller, then we wouldn't have this problem, would we?" finally,,, a tiny bit of evidence i can point to for my transmasc/bigender CyhChell theory (wishes her boobs were smaller... just like me...)

hears the song say "portal to Hell" and gets so freaked out she vaporizes the radio. so much for music. and it makes a VERY unpleasant sound while being destroyed (she describes it later as "the radio that shrieks in pain") which hurts her ears

"portal…able… areas….por-tal-able. portable? portal-able?" can't find an easy adjective for "able to have a portal placed upon it."

doesn't understand trigonometry. feels that understanding trigonometry would make this easier.

oh, and she's been calling the high energy pellets "superballs" for a while. forgot to note it whenever it started.

"lucky for me, fortune favors the psychologically deviant."

doesn't like the phrase "more quickly." prefers her version: "quickler."

wants to get wasted at a bar after all this is over.

plans to take a nap in THIS elevator.

hears the elevator playing music for her and then talking to her (it's the voice of ian riley! yay!)

the mind series fandom wiki led me to believe that the series had been silently canceled, and that was true for a long time, but two years ago Cyh actually left a comment under episode 05 (part 2) which provided some closure!

[Start ID. An edited YouTube comment by @/CyhAnide from 2 years ago. It reads:

So. Now that pinned comments are a thing, allow me to answer some frequently asked questions... (WARNING: TEXT WALL AHEAD.) Q) Next episode when? A) Never. I'm sorry, but I'm not planning on continuing this series. Mostly because it's so old? And because I can't guarantee that I would finish it even if I did start it up again--which wouldn't be fair to the ten or twenty people who actually want it to go on. The YouTube environment is exhausting on the mental health, people. For cereal. And my channel a decade ago was nothing compared to some of today's numbers! Goodness, it even tore SBFP apart. How does Pewds survive? Q) What you up to? A) Life is going swimmingly~! I'm almost always on YouTube, but as a viewer only. You're most likely to spot me commenting on random spookytube/mysterytube videos. Also, the creator of Barney's Mind and I got married! Been together since the heyday of the MasterMinds, actually. No kids yet, but we do have an African Grey who is stealing my voice. Q) You gonna delete your videos??? D: A) Nope. At least, not all. I've made the bloopers and some of the extraneous stuff private because they're either purposeless or bothered me in some way, but I plan to leave the Chell's Mind main series up for the foreseeable future. They will be unlisted; however, I'm keeping the playlist front and center on my channel page. The reason for this is simple: I don't want them on the algorithm anymore, mostly because it only brings more people to the channel who are doomed to disappointment. To those who attach nostalgia to my series, however, I'm leaving the playlist of unlisted episodes up just for you. :D I'm sure various wiki links or whatever should also still be able to find them that way. Also, YouTube now monetizes EVERYTHING, and I don't want to contribute. =_= My videos were ad-free from birth, darn it. Conclusion: Anyway, I apologize for...ELEVEN YEARS OF SILENCE???? You all probably don't know or care, but I'm honestly kind of atrocious at keeping up with social interaction of any flavor. I'm basically the personification of every "sorry I vanished for three months" meme. Except I can vanish for years at a time without feeling pressured to return. As demonstrated by this channel. I don't even own a smart phone. Because I'd rid myself of its [ping! ping! ping!] presence within a week. XD Still, I'm happy that some of you still look back on this series and smile. It was immature at times--and probably even horribly non-PC by today's standards--but still, it's nice to know that I managed to entertain a few of you, at least a little bit. ^_^ Much love, my friends, and thank you. I hope that all my viewers, new and old, go on to lead happy, peaceful lives. =_= ~*(cyh)*

End ID.]

i think i got a little deeper into finding extra facts about one than i did for the others, but the series definitely deserved it! plus, it was short, so i could afford spending a little more time with it. although i started and finished the series and my notes for it yesterday, i took today to scroll through the comments on each video, looking for any more bombshells like "canon clone cyhchell" which i might have missed. none so earth-shattering as that, but i'll share some of my finds (in a reblog since this post is getting very long)!

[nekupen]

NEKUPEN #06: PORTAL!!!

Our story starts in the year of our lord and savior 2005. The seniors at the DigiPen Institute of Technology have a simple-to-do (Citation needed) senior project: Make a video game. A group of 'em, Nuclear Monkey Software, decided to make a first person puzzle game called Narbacular Drop. What the hell does "Narbacular" mean? No idea, but it makes the game easy to look up. You play as Princess No-Knees. That's not her God given name (Thank God), she's just called that because she can't jump. She got trapped in a dungeon by a demon because she was late on the Hospital bill, but there's a twist - The dungeon's a sentient being called Wally, and he can create portals! And thankfully, Wally's benevolent enough to let you use that to your advantage.

The game is played uniquely from a first person perspective (Hold your applause. No, seriously, your hands will fall off and sewing them back on is not within budget). You place portals at the click of your mouse, two at a time. One has blue eyes, the other has orange. These portals are only allowed on a natural surface and won't work on artificial surfaces, like metal. There's also switches, lava turtles to help you cross that piping hot magma, and boulders that can crush you. That portal thing sounds kind of familiar, doesn't it? No? Good, it'd be REALLY bad if we got dragged kicking and screaming into court over this portal thing.

Screenshot of Narbacular Drop

The game was shown at DigiPen's career fair. In the audience was one Robin Walker, who you might know as the person behind Ricochet. 

(Wait, he's NOT known for Ricochet?)

Sorry, what I meant to say was "Who you might know as one parent of the Team Fortress franchise". He thought the display of innovative puzzle design and disability representation was marvelous and contacted Nuclear Monkey Software, offering to show their work to fellow Valve employees. When they presented the game to Valve, jolly ol ' Saint Newell rose up from his dingy folding chair, spontaneously decided that the entire team was on the nice list, and gave them the gift of having jobs working at Valve Software. Two years later, the award-winning video game Portal was born!

[Please note that Narbacular Drop is responsible for the video game Portal and not responsible for the creation of the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, which was created in a pursuit of making shower curtains more hygienic.]

Portal itself was sort of like a side project in the scheme of things. It had a measly ten people on board, which might not seem measly with all the solo, self-made indie devs out and about these days, but it wasn't the norm with Valve. And that's not to mention that Half-Life 2's episodes and Team Fortress 2 were in production as well. The small team resulted in a lot of design decisions geared towards smart allocation of resources. Need other characters in the narrative but don't want to model or animate another person? Make spherical robots! Don't want to make a bunch of new assets? Reuse some from another game! Want to justify the use of reusing assets from another game? Make them set in the same universe! The person behind that other universe will complain, but it's a net gain. It's enough to make a grown scientist cry. Except me. I'm too busy taking notes to cry.

Portal is also a REALLY good demonstration of Valve's usage of play tester feedback to determine what sticks and what doesn't, kind of like how we use test subjects to determine what's shippable and what should be destroyed and left to rot in a vault. You know that whole "narrative" thing? Well, that didn't really come up until the testers asked about it. The idea of having Advanced Knee Replacements to justify the lack of fall damage stems from the snotty little know-it-alls yakking about how weird it was that the protagonist was surviving falls that a man from our competing company couldn't. And let's not forget the Weighted Companion Cube, which was brought up to encourage players to bring a vital object with them to puzzles (A box in specific). It also ended up adding to the plot of the game, giving the player a revenge angle while also giving an idea as to what the final boss would play like.

It'd be foolish not to bring up how Portal released. You see, Portal was a part of Valve's "The Orange Box", a collection of older and brand new spanking new games: The older titles make up two of the games (And older is pushing it, they were still pretty young then), Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One. The new games were: Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Team Fortress 2, and Portal. That's right, those folks at Valve dropped three big hitters on the same day, and they even made ports for the consoles of that generation! Except the Wii. You couldn't get any of these games working on the Wii if you got the finest minds from Aperture Science and the louts from Black Mesa working on it. But enough of all that, let's talk Portal!

Portal puts you into the brain of Chell, a Aperture Science test subject that's been in stasis for quite a while.

Our ever-so stubborn, orphaned, pudgy protagonist.

She finally wakes up but doesn't even get the chance to get her bearings, for a mysterious voice (GLaDOS, or Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System) starts yapping about testing! Enticed by the idea of receiving cake (Because who isn't a little famished from stasis?), she complies, and is introduced to portal technology! After getting through all 19 chambers, Chell is rewarded with a nice freshly cooked incinerator. But she's already lost her appetite by then, so she passes, and this annoys GLaDOS, ruining her already cracking guise as an apathetic emotionless robot. After traversing through the seedy unwashed parts of the labs, Chell finally gets face-to-face with GLaDOS, who, after having her morality core incinerated, tries to kill Chell with deadly neurotoxin.

A Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System

Dying's not in her schedule, so Chell proceeds to destroy all of GLaDOS' cores, which causes the facility to blow up, leaving Chell and GLaDOS outside in the aftermath. But Chell, luckily, gets dragged back into the labs by the Party Escort Bot Luckily in a relative sense. better to die in the Aperture labs than to die in the Black Mesa-created hellhole outside.

A still image of the ending

Like the story, the gameplay itself is pretty simple, but it grows more layers over the course of the game. The Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device is our pride and joy.

The Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device (Or Portal Gun for short)

You place a blue portal, you place an orange portal. Neither specifically are an entrance or exit, whichever one you enter, you go out the other. The fun comes from the tests. A common application of the device is the use of momentum to gain the speed and height needed to reach an area. Or in the brilliantly put words of GLaDOS, "Speedy thing goes in, speedy thing goes out". And you might be asking "What the heck's stopping me from just placing a portal where I need to go?". Well, there's various materials that are, in mild terms, absolutely awful as portal conductors, gray tiled floors and metal just to name the main culprits. And that's not to bring up the other part of the tests!

See those buttons? Those are our state-of-the-art 1500 Megawatt Aperture Science Heavy Duty Super-Colliding Super Buttons! They activate something if you press stand on them, but they won't stay pressed. That's what our Weighted Storage Cubes are for, and they come in Companion flavor too!

1500 Megawatt Aperture Science Heavy Duty Super-Colliding Super Button and Weighted Storage Cube Demonstration (Cube and Button for short.)

Your best friend, the Weighted Companion Cube

Generally, you'd want to watch out for all that filthy... Goo down there in the pits. We have no idea what it is or where it came from, but we do know that it's incredibly acidic and you'll probably die in 4 seconds flat.

Goo Demonstration

Look out for our High Energy Pellets! You'll be atomized if you don't. Your job is to lead the pellets from the launchers into the portals with clever placement of Portal. Although the pellets fizzle out after a certain amount of time, as long as they keep going through a portal they'll stay active.

High Energy Pellet Demonstration

You might be asking "What's that thin, blue field of particles in front of the elevator? That's our Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grill. It disintegrates unauthorized materials like the cubes, and while it won't disintegrate your portal gun, it'll snuff out your portals.

Emancipation Grill Demonstration

And finally, there's our Turrets. It's all the matter of whoever gets the drop on who. To ensure relatability with children every turret comes with a child-like personality. And if the children wakes up and starts to cry after the turret guns down a home invader, it'll play a lullaby to placate the child!

How to NOT deal with a Turret

How to deal with a Turret

Want some extra challenge in the chambers? Try out the Challenge modes in the Bonus Maps! Don't think those make the chambers hard enough? Well why don't you try out our Advanced Chambers since you think you're such a death-defying acrobatic smartass?

The Bonus Maps menu

Speaking of smartasses, if you want more tests to go through then you can look to the internet, as smartasses all around the world have made their own map packs, which you can download you can install more bonus maps by importing any you’ve downloaded online into the game. Alternatively, some might be “sourcemods”, which you just place in the sourcemods folder (and if you don’t have one by default then you can simply make one yourself). Of course, it’d be silly if we didn’t bring up Portal: The Flash Version, notable in that it came out before the actual game itself did! It’s popular in its own right, having a lot of Portal’s obstacles, but its own puzzles which are presented in a 2D space. It was popular enough to spawn a map pack that has its levels and original obstacles put into the realm of mind blowing 3D!

Portal: The Flash Version's menu

So where is Portal now? Well, it has a sequel (which has its own set of mods and custom maps), some non-canon side games, a compilation with its sequel on Nintendo Switch, a RTX version, a appearance in a LEGO game, a GEICO commercial, a educational program, A LOT of sourcemods for that sequel released on Steam.. I’d say it’s in a good place right now. This has been a Aperture Science blogpost, and we thank you for reading all the way to the end. We hope to see you again soon!

[ghostrabbitz]

South Park Splatoon Hcs??? Yes😀

Inkling

L-3 Nozzlenose main

B rank/Part-Timer

He would def be one of those motion controls players who make fun of stick players

He’s either a try hard or throws matches no in-between

He would focus more on splatting opponents rather than inking turf

Always rushes enemy base, he never inks team base EVER

Squidbagger

Ruins squid parties on purpose

Octoling

Hydra Splatling main

He also plays Tri-stringer quite a bit

A rank / Profreshional +1

Handheld/Sticks player

Prob would prefer rank or salmon run

Tower Control is his favorite rank mode

Has really bad luck with his super jump spot getting camped

Gets splatted in the stupidest ways ever istg

Hasn't completed After Alterna yet

Always gets #1 Popular Target, every single match

Octoling

Squiffer main

He also plays Flingza Roller

S+ rank / Profreshional +2

Prob uses motion controls most of the time

Prefers rank

Tower Control and Clam Blitz are his favorites

Makes silly doodles on the community posts

Literally carries 90% of the matches

Normally teams up with Stan

Would prob post gameplay clips + edits of his octoling on TikTok

Inkling

Splatana Stamper main

S+ rank / Profreshional +1

Sticks player, cant play motion to save his life

Prefers rank

Rainmaker and Clam Blitz are his favorites

Inks base before heading to mid

He does that thing where he'll stand at super jump spots with full charge to one-shot the opponent

Someone take zip-caster away from him, an absolute menace

He'd probably have all the gear tbh, like you wanna match with him? No problems just say the gear he's got it

Inkling

Inkbrush main

A rank / Overachiever

Motion Control player

Prefers Turf War

Carries tbh

Loves splatzones and Clam Blitz

She'd be one of those people who has like insanely detailed community posts and your left to wonder how the fuck someone does that on a switch

Major squid sisters fan

Teams up with Bebe a lot

Octoling

Bloblobber main

Motion Control player

B+ rank / Overachiever

Prefers Turf War

Rarely plays ranked matches, that's why her rank is low

She also has all the gear

Always matches with Wendy when they team up

Hasn't finished story mode yet, not because shes stuck on a level she just... forgets about it tbh

Beautifully decorated locker

Inkling

Luna Blaster Neo main

Usually uses motion controls

A rank / Profreshional Part-Timer

Likes Rainmaker and Splatzones

Always teams up with Tweek

They usually match gear/emotes

Beat story mode, hasn't attempted After Alterna yet

Usually carries the rainmaker cause no one else picks it up

Inkling

Ballpoint Splatling main

He plays handheld/sticks, he’s usually too jittery to use motion

A rank / Overachiever

Prefers Turf War

Likes splatzones and tower control

He finished story mode and refuses to touch After Alterna

Will usually demote his salmon run rank, the higher ranks are too stressful

Likes decorating his locker

Inkling

Dualie Squelchers main

He would probably play some blasters as well

Handheld/sticks player

A rank/Profreshional Part-Timer

Turf war’s his favorite game mode

Rainmaker is his favorite rank mode

It probably took him a month to beat After Alterna

So many dodge rolls

Allergic to not super-jumping

Octoling

.52 Gal Main

Motion Controls player

S+ / Profreshional +2

Prefers Salmon Run or Rank

Splatzones and Clam Blitz are his favorite rank modes

His locker is super nicely decorated like one of those themed ones people do

He’d post tiktoks of his gameplay

Inkling

Custom Splattershot Jr. main

Def plays sticks

B- rank / Go-getter

Turf is his favorite gamemode

Doesn’t play rank or salmon run that much

He likes those custom mini games people come up with like hide n seek, bowling, etc.

His locker is full of those furby looking things (i don't remember what they're called)

Inkling

Aerospray RG main

Handheld/Sticks player

A rank / Pro-freshional Part-Timer

Prefers rank

Rainmaker and Tower Control are his favorites

Booyah bomb spammer

Always carries the rainmaker unless someone grabs it before him

[crisiscutie]

I always wonder why SQEX use the title 'Crisis' to almost every prequel of FF7, i.e Crisis Core, Before Crisis, Ever Crisis. Is 'crisis' really implied toward Sephiroth?

Also, I'm apprehensive on playing the next part of FF7R because I don't want to beat up poor Sephy again (TT_TT). No matter how many ppl say he is strong or evil, to me he's just a poor baby.

But I'll definitely play when SQEX decide to release a sequel where Sephiroth as the main character. I even got in a habit of apologizing to the monitor whenever I finally defeat Seohiroth. Am I weird? Does anyone else feels like this?

No anon, don't feel weird about being yourself~!

༻❁༺ Crisis Cutie's Favorite Word?

Personally, I think "Crisis" could be applied as a collective term to FF7's cast. It's definitely one of Sephiroth's special words alongside reunion and despair, though. We know little about Sephiroth's role in EC now, but I wonder if his story arc will be another variant of his identity crisis, like in Crisis Core and Before Crisis. It'd certainly be an emotional crisis regardless, though.

I feel you on Sephiroth but at the same time; I understand the need to put him down, and it brings such heavy feelings to my heart. 💔💔💔 I've noticed that almost no one seems to give Sephiroth any empathy, even Aerith, who's pretty much the Sora of the series.

Sephiroth's actions brought everyone deep sorrow and crisis. It's clear why they felt such despair and hatred towards him. Quick disclaimer, I'm not blaming anyone or anything here, just pointing something out. Also Aerith just knows there is no turning Sephiroth from the path of evil. In 7R, she's completely right when she told him that everything about him was wrong, in every sense.

༻❁༺ Cycle of Pain

I knew Vincent indirectly expressed empathy (from what I remembered). He understood how the circumstances of Sephiroth's birth lead him to who he is. That's why he couldn't bring himself to confront Lucrecia with the harsh reality of what her son had become...

And we as the audience have the benefit of seeing both sides of the story. I understand why Sephiroth's trauma of abandonment, emotional abuse, and killing/fighting was became much to bear, leading to his breakdown in Nibelheim.

And I can imagine the despair and fury that Tifa and Cloud experienced when Sephiroth committed his abhorrent acts at Nibelheim. Tifa refused to be part of the cycle of pain that Sephiroth kept alive, and instead extended a hand to Cloud, saving him from his own descent. Without the bonds that Cloud had built, he could have easily become like Sephiroth.

Vincent, like Tifa, made the decision to break the cycle for himself. Despite his broken bonds and difficult circumstances, he was able to stay true to his inner goodness and remain on the path of good.

༻❁༺ Another Crisis Game Please!

I would love to play a game starring Sephiroth. Honestly, I think Crisis Core should've been the game for the First Class Boyos. It just had too much going on within the plot (IMO) and the game suffered from the constraints of originally being a handheld game. Zack is a great character, but honestly, he was just "there" a lot of times. He only took a permanent, active role closer to the end, which he had to for plot reasons. And I loved it!

Zack saw the results of his attempt to live heroically and play by the rules... It had not brought him to his hoped-for destination. He tried so hard to endure the terrible events and he did! But his prize was death and betrayal. Like Aerith, he was just too good for the world... It's interesting how similar his death is to hers. They faced immense hardships, but their powerful sense of morality and bonds kept them true to themselves while dying for a selfless and noble cause.

Honestly, the whole main cast of FF7 needs a fountain of hugs.

[wanderingnork]

Right. Found footage is, as we all know, a pretty polarizing style of horror movie. And, even though I adore it, I see why. Pervasive issues of shakycam, bad quality being used to hide sfx issues, audio problems, bad acting due to the affordability of making a found footage movie, and more can really wreck a movie. I’ve seen plenty of found footage that I just plain hated.

When found footage is done well, though, it’s very good. I’d like to offer five of my favorite found footage movies. These don’t just rely on a single, badly-used handheld camera: they get creative with the technology at hand to draw you in and help you to believe you’re watching something real. 

Top Five

The Bay (2012): Mutant isopods from a polluted bay come to exact environmental revenge on a small American town.

The sheer VARIETY of kinds of footage (home video, news tapes, security cameras from a huge number of angles, police dashcam footage) makes this stand out. It’s not just one single tape telling a story of a few people--it’s a compilation of tapes that provide a wide view of a disaster befalling a whole town. YMMV on whether or not that was a good idea (I think it was), but the segment of police dashcam footage is one of the single most unsettling things I’ve ever seen.

The Tunnel: A news crew investigates a possible conspiracy involving disappearances in the sewers under Sydney, Australia, and get more than they bargained for.

The guy playing the news cameraman (Steve Davis) is actually a professional camera operator for documentaries as his day job, so the camera work is actually very exceptional and deliberate instead of handheld shakycam. It avoids a lot of the common pitfalls like disorientation or focusing on the wrong thing, and I didn’t feel like I was going to get motion sick watching it.

Host (2020): During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of friends tries to hold a seance over Zoom. It doesn’t go well.

Maximizes the fear factor of all of Zoom’s constraints, from face recognition to custom backgrounds to the number of participants in the call. It also has to pack a lot into a limited time, since the length of the movie is the length of a free Zoom call, and it does so very, very well.

Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum: A group of amateur Korean ghost hunters decide to livestream a lock-in at the titular asylum. This also doesn’t go well.

There’s a really novel use of techniques like GoPro cameras to bring you up close and personal with the ghosts. I almost had to take off my headphones during one scene. It also adds the unique conceit that everything is being livestreamed, which creates a layer of complication for the characters as they try to navigate the terrifying night.

V/H/S 94, “The Subject”: An Indonesian scientist building cyborgs out of unwilling participants discovers what happens when his own creations finally turn on him.

The reveal of exactly how the movie is being filmed is extraordinary. It does a great job at presenting a point of view that I don’t think I’ve ever seen before, and it’s so beautifully well-handled in terms of sound design to foreshadow what’s coming. The horror is also absolutely gut-wrenching and I’m not sure I’ve ever cheered a final girl as loudly as I cheered Subject 99.

A few other movies under the cut!

Honorable Mentions

Cloverfield: A giant monster attacks New York City and a group of friends tries to survive the night.

Although it suffers badly from shakycam and poor audio, and makes the head of the Statue of Liberty bizarrely large, the movie uses the constraints of a home video camera to give us a terrifying look at what it’s like on the ground for civilians during a kaiju attack. That’s something most modern giant monster movies neglect to give, since we see it from the perspective of scientists, soldiers, and heroes--not the innocent, hapless citizens caught in the crossfire.

Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County (1998): A family Thanksgiving in rural Montana is interrupted by the arrival of Little Grey Men.

The movie effectively manipulates the constraints of a handheld camera’s limited view (keeping the viewer wondering what’s happening behind the character with a camera), which is quite nice. More importantly, though, it pulled a full “War of the Worlds” by presenting itself as a factual documentary (with no disclaimers), resulting in a fair amount of public concern, speculation, and paranoia. This was a year before Blair Witch Project came out with its early-Internet ARG stylings, so that’s even cooler to me.

For other takes on found footage I love, even though they didn’t feel terribly groundbreaking, see:

Grave Encounters: A ghost hunt goes terribly wrong during an overnight lock-in. Anything else would spoil the story.

Troll Hunter (2010): A small group of students follows around a professional troll hunter in Norway to learn about his work and the mythical trolls he hunts.

V/H/S, “Amateur Night”: Three friends attempt to pick up girls at a bar. Filmed with a camera hidden in a pair of glasses, we get a front-row seat to what happens when one of the girls turns out to be more than meets the eye.

V/H/S, “Tuesday the 17th”: Out in the woods, a bizarre entity that appears only as camera glitches hunts and kills a group of friends one by one.

[REC]: Zombies attack inside a Spanish apartment building--and when the doors are locked, the residents are left to fend for themselves to survive.

Noroi: The Curse: This “documentary” tells the story of a paranormal researcher who attempts to uncover the secrets of the supernatural in Japan, only to find himself caught up in the very curse he investigates.

[thedestinysunknown]

Tekken Bloodline (Season 1):

“Today was a very special day for us, Tekken fans. A new series premiered on Netflix, focused on Tekken 3′s story. I’m very picky, in terms of Tekken movies. I legit like Tekken: Motion Picture, I find Blood Vengeance quite boring, and both of the live action movies are awful...So, what about this show? First of all, I think it should have been a movie as well. Six episodes that last a bit over 20 minutes, so watching this show is literally the same as watching a film. It’s that small. Second of all, I do think, for the most part, this is quite a faithful show to the games. There are some changes that I do not love, but there are other little details that I really like. One of my favorite moments in the show is when Jun is talking to Jin about his strenght and anger, while he’s playing Tekken 2 on a handheld. Also, from what I can tell from the audio, Jin is playing as Heihachi while fighting his mother in the game, and she even loses the fight (I know, they are literally hinting her “dead” scene, minutes ago, but still). I love the crazy amount of references they made to the games. Also, love that all of the characters are doing the same moves as in the games. However...I do not like the way they told the story. It’s not a very complex story, so making a show about it feels kind of pointless, so there are scenes that could have been cut off. Overall, I do think every Tekken fan should watch it. It’s an entertaining series. It has awesome scenes, it’s faithful to the lore (for the most part), and it has a lot of incredible references.

PS: I hate those fucking triangle shadows. They are absolutely ugly and way too distracting...big no no.

[finchers-ipad]

Okay so i watched ‘The Killer’ for a second time and think my brain has stopped melting out of my ears enough to form some coherent thoughts about it (spoiler free for the most part but if i do put one i’ll put a warning before that :D)

My favourite scenes:

Firstly the opening like 30mins which i’m counting as a scenes and if not it’s my favourite sequence. I love that we are introduced to this move called ‘The Killer’ which it’s opening titles show different ways of killing people etc so as an audience we expect to be thrust into a violent environment. But Fincher subverts those expectations by having us watch a guy wait around for 30mins.

(SPOILER) I LOVEEE the use of handheld in this movie and this scene/sequence has my favourite use of it in the film. When The Killer messes up his job, the camera immediately switches from a steady cam to handheld, to me this represents how unstable and panicked he feels in the moment. He has to go against his mantra and improvise and the handheld really heightens the tension.

Again, i know this happens throughout the film but the SOUND DESIGN IS SO INCREDIBLE OMG. I love how it is used to align us with Fassbenders charecter (eg if we are seeing from his POV we hear ‘How soon is Now?’ at full volume, however if we see a shot of him we hear the muffled sounds of his headphones playing the song). I also love the song choice for this scene. The sound design is like it’s own character in this film and is up there with ‘The Social Network’ in terms of its use in Fincher’s films.

I also love how this whole scene is basically an homage to Hitchcock’s ‘Rear Window’, i just love that film. (also this isn’t really related but Fincher also added a little homage to ‘Rear Window’ in ‘Panic Room’ where Andrew Kevin walker makes a cameo)

Another one of my favourite scenes is the fight scene in Florida (KIND OF SPOILER):

THIS FIGHT SCENE IS SO FUCKING EPIC!! the low light which allows things like them being illuminated by the tv and bathroom light look so cool, the controlled chaotic carmera movement, the use of props and set in the fight

yeah i honestly cant pinpoint necessarily what i love about this scene but it’s just so cool to watch!

Random thoughts/opinions:

Tilda Swinton competes with Fassbender for my favourite performance in this film. The monologue about the hunter and the bear she gives is so captivating and she has me hanging on her every word. Also i don’t know if this monologue is in the novel because i haven’t read it but either way, it is the most Andrew Kevin Walker dialogue in the film and reminds me a lot of ‘Se7en’

I think this film contains the most handheld shots in all of Fincher’s filmography

The films this is most similar too is ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ and ‘Gone Girl’ but kind of if you replaced Amy and Lisbeth with a guy who listens to The Smiths.

Ah i really didn’t like the opening credits they SCREAMED Netflix original, like what was with those Adobe-Premiere-Pro-ass transitions 💀. but honestly nothing can top ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’s opening credits so i shouldn’t get my hopes up lmao.

If i were to rank this film in Fincher’s filmography i think it would be pretty low-ish. That’s not to say this is a bad or even average film in any shape or form i just like a lot of his other films more than this one :) i am going to be really awkward with my rating and give it a 6.75/10 but i do feel like i need to watch it again lmao.

i am SO SO SO happy that i got to watch this in the cinema. it was over two weeks ago now and im still thrilled.

Ty for reading rambles! If anyone has any thoughts about ‘The Killer’ please share them with me!! :D

[minuy600]

A Quick Look at all Games on the Kruidvat Famiclone (Part 3)

I live for this shit, as John Justice would say. Despite not really finding myself too motivated to make blogs at the moment, this dinky ass handheld keeps calling my name. Regardless of it's extremely cheap build quality, I find myself extremely charmed with the design, some of the bootlegs and the Kruidvat packaging. Junk food gaming at it's finest.

#017 - Fairy 2001

Behold, a game I actually played in remade form! Dunno how you could spin 'Blaster Master' into 'Fairy', but hey, at least I recognise a lot about this game. Blaster Master Zero's first level is really close to the original's.

A giant 'Let's Go!' replaces the visual of Jason going out on his mission, way to make the story more interesting. This Fred censorship will not be tolerated.

Sophia looks like a turtle, shooting angry blue guys whilst the music is the original being flipped upside down. Now this is a new high of weird edits in bootlegs. Even comes included with the puke colors this system appears to use for all their more elaborate junk.

#018 - Happy Angel

Sorry, Happy Angel

Legend, as the game calls it, features a happy Teletubby, a pensive Teletubby and a winking Teletubby as they attempt to rescue Babs Bunny from blue Mickey Mouses. ...Did a 12 year old sneeze on Wattpad and make a game from it or something?

Good game by the way, would like to try Tiny Toon Adventures in non-fucked up form someday.

#019 - Inclement Trip

More like InCREment Trip, as you start this hack of Super Spy Hunter on level 2 instead of level 1. If you like having a power trip (hahaaaaaaaaaaa), you play as a guy in a jetpack blowing up all kinds of vehicles, including cars and helicopters.

#020 - Raider

Another Famicom hack which is neat, this time it's Saint Seiya that gets a hilarious Engrish translation. With the heroes Bik (hello Jerome), Roal, Mier (Dutch for ant) and Dum (the only playable female??? Nice sexism guys) in tow, you first play through a level.

Once you got that figured out, some random soldier tells you 'You haven't enough power,go!'. Displeased as you are of course, you yell 'Die to shame!' back as you duke it out in a tutorial battle. Which according to the soldier, is 'too absurd' and 'now unallowed!'. Pfft, laws, am I right.

#021 - Rosker

Oh ye gods, it's spreading. Now you play as Mario with a TELETUBBY HEAD. The Teletubbies on the title screen also have 'Y2K' on their chest, which only makes it scarier. The first boss is a frickin' Star Wars sandworm. Creepypasta games before creepypastas existed, huh?

The realisation that this is a hack of Joe & Mac settles in when you get rewarded for your efforts in the list of 'Best Cavemen'. Thanks, I know i'm ooga booga.

#022 - Soldier-Boy

This soldier boy is gonna partake in some Wacky Races. While looking more like a karateka than a soldier. Can karate moves be used in a war I wonder? Most early enemies are pink sludges and SMB3's Nipper Plants if they grew legs.

#023 - Space Soldier

Holy sh*t, Roal has returned! He has been called into action as planets suffer from severe climate issues like consuming storms or weirdies!!!! The Cock asks the amazing space soldier to eggwalk, which he (or she apparently, there's a female portrait in use the one time we see them up close) gladly obliges to.

Infamously, this Bucky O'Hare hack kills you when an enemy hits you even once. That's because of an anti-piracy gimmick by Konami, as the title screen got changed up a bunch, like you would expect them to.

#024 - Storm-1

Do I even need to say anything? This is peak. Cowards won't allow there to be an episode of Tiny Toon Adventures where Buster is a stoner and loses his marbles.

Conclusion

Next time, we'll cover not THE final games, but the last ones that are hacked from games that have some meat on their bones. After that, expect a style change with how I do these things.

[mothykins]

You know, it really bothers me that we have this wave of would be internet historians and wanna-be gaming experts giving the "PIXEL ART WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE VIEWED LIKE THIS, YOU ALL HAVE NOSTALGIA FOR SOMETHING THAT NEVER WAS" speech from rooftops. And they'll often go on about how pixel smearing worked and looked on CRTs and show something like this:

And then they give us this speech on how we were never supposed to see the image on the left, because screen technology like that wasn't around and cheap enough for consumers until 2005, so our Nostalgia for that sort of pixel art is false, memories of something that never was. What was real was only the image on the right, and we all just decided that pixel art like the stuff on the left was a good aesthetic because of seeing the games later emulated.

There's just one Issue.

This is wrong.

"How can this be wrong, some internet smart guy and a Vice Article said it's right?" I hear you shout. Well, you see, in 1989, a very important video game console came out. It had a Dot Matrix Display. It was small, but it was one of the best selling game consoles of it's time.

The Gameboy.

See, here's the thing, This did have crisp pixel art. This did have that sharp sprite-work. And most of us who grew up between 1990-2005 can remember playing with one. If not this, then the Gameboy Advance. These handhelds are what Nintendo was most well known for in the n64 and gamecube era, when the Play Station and X-box dominated schoolyard talk for the popular console at home.

See, the other important thing about the GBA is it not only did it have backwards compatibility with the Gameboy and Gameboy Color, it started getting re-releases of NES and SNES games.

Even from this somewhat blurry cellphone shot, you can see the pixels in this version of A Link to the Past and in the Gameboy Colors Zelda Oracle game. And for a lot of people who are now in their late 20's or early 30's, this is likely how they experienced this game. This is real. this is not some imagined Nostalgia for a pixel art that never was. This is just how a ton of people experienced the game. Through small LCD displays on Nintendo handhelds.

These Internet Historians and Video Game Journalists seem to forget that the handheld consoles existed, that they were extremely popular, and that they also had a huge impact on how people remember games. They actively erase a whole subsection of gaming history, and tout their version of history as fact. They're decidedly wrong.

Your nostalgic view of old pixel art classics is correct in many cases, and that crisp, clean design was the norm for giant series such as Pokemon. It's no wonder it still captures the heart and minds of so many people.

[thuganomxcs]

I’m gonna start posting things like this more often. Like moments in video game since I feel majority of us are gamers, whether it’s on console, handheld or mobile. Okay question: That one time in a video game that made you cry/choke up/feel sad. (you don’t have to literally cry but you know just feel some emotional pain.

For me as dead inside as I am with some form of media, I can’t say the same for video games and for me it were two games that I remember..oh no Three. Infamous 2, Persona 4 and Spider-man PS4.  But this time I’ll talk about Persona 4 SOO spoilers for persona 4 under the cut. 

Nanako’s death scene. Nanako is the cousin of the protagonist of the game and I shit you not you will want to protect this girl on day 1. Cause you damn well know this is an ATLUS game and they really don’t hold their punches when it came down to angst. You’ll have to forgive me cause it’s been like...6-7 years since I’ve played this game and I’ve only done so once cause I’m still waiting for my PS4 remaster. but Nanako starts out as your typical little girl. She’s young so she’s happy-go-lucky and just about the sweetest cookie you’ve ever seen. Then you spend some time playing and one you realize that this girl is a lot more mature than you think. Her father Dojima-san is a hard working man (a detective or captain if I’m not mistaken) and whenever he does come home the man just clocks out so needless to say the girl is a little lonely. I mean I’m not saying Dojima’s a bad parent because he’s not (coughs at p5′s parents) but the man really doesn’t have as much time as he wants for family and you can see and feel that regret through both the story and his social link. BUT back to Nanako, this girl despite ALL of this loves her father more than life and she loves her cousin along with the family she’s managed to build through Yu’s circle of friends. You spend a lot of time with her, making this strong girl smile and laugh thus attaching your soul to this girl’s more and more and then that ONE fateful night in the game. Something’s wrong with her, she’s having trouble breathing so she’d rushed to the emergency room. You get there and you share a moment with her and she expresses the fear she’s feeling and THAT right there was what got me. I didn’t cry or anything but my heart sank into the pit of my stomach. I felt so bad for this kid and at that one point I REALLY did wanted to go ahead with the party’s plan. POINT for Yosuke the ever for being the first to speak up about that plan and even Naoto joining in to. Because seriously if you’re a child killer I’ve got no mercy for you.

Anyway THAT was one of the moments a video game made me sad. I’m curious about your moment. Feel free to post it in the comments or you know you can make a whole new thread and even tag me cause believe me I’ll read it. This is just me your neighborhood nerd wanting to know more bout y’all. We ain’t just mutuals we’re homies.

[simplyshelbs16xoxo]

2, 6, 10, 11, 14. 24, 25 for video game asks!

2. Game(s) you’re currently playing. Paper Cut Mansion, Bratz: Flaunt Your Fashion (2nd playthrough,) Call of Cthulhu, Link's Awakening, Bratz Rock Angelz on gameboy. I have an eclectic range lol

6. A series you’ve enjoyed since your early days of gaming and still enjoy to this day whether it still has games coming out or is one you return to. I don't play a lot of series games, but back in the day there was like 5 Kim Possible games that released for gameboy and DS, and I still play them to this day!

10. A console and/or handheld you’ve never played but would like to try. I've tried most of them, but I do wish I could get a GameCube. I used to play on my cousin's and I loved it. Either that or get a PS2 in order to play all the exclusives I never got to play.

11. Do you prefer ‘blank slate’ main characters you make yourself or otherwise project onto, or characters with a set personality and backstory? I actually have no preference 😅 both are fine.

14. A song that’s sure to hit your nostalgia buttons. The Grabbed by the Ghoulies theme and score music. Oh! And the Fester's Quest music!! I wish that game would get a port lol

24. A game with a cool art style. There's a few I could say, but the first one that popped into my head was Paper Cut Mansion! It's so unique!

25. A game’s art style that had to grow on you. Hmmmm. I was trying to think of one, but I can't 😂 I've liked all the art styles of games I've played so far.

Thanks!

Video Game Asks

[risu5waffles]

Finally Time Enough <glasses fall off and break> For Ten More

ONOR67 really did us dirty wiv that bug suddenly being hazardous. What wiv the level being, like, 15minutes of backtracking and no checkpoints. The environment is top-notch, which is to be expected, but the gameplay/story is nowhere near engaging enough to maintain interest. Kinda disappointing from the creator of the Proxima series, to be honest. Still, i liked the witch/demoness/whatever, and the slug things were cute, and the bit wiv the cheese.

Thankfully this one was not nearly as flashy as advertised, which i was a bit worried about; i don't think are nearly as concerned about photosensitivity as they ought to be. Not quite so thankfully, it's really over-long, and i was starting to want the checkpoint just about half-way through. Certainly by the point we got the grabbinator and bombs bit. That just dragged forever. Blowing things up to progress has never been as fun as it should be, even in LBP1 &2's story modes. The explosives never quite blow up as much as you need to progress, and then it's "welp, guess i gotta go back and do it all again."

Yes it's my level, i know. But hell, i'm proud of it, even if i did only rate it as an Orange Diamond. i'm the only gal running this archive, i can show off a little, as a treat.

Ehhhh.... i really wanted to give something by Efan8467 a look, since they've been doing an awful lot of work republishing old DLC levels in LBP3 for folx to play (i think there's some kind of glitchery-witchery going on, 'cause all the prizes here were, like, the actual prizes from the PSP LBP). Also i never got to play either of the handheld LBPs, so it's always nice getting a chance to see what they were like. That being said, this was the game intro, and you don't really get to do anything. Like jetpacking about on that track was neat, but also really limited? Also also, look, i love LBP to bits, and i honestly think MM's heart was largely in the right place, but they have never had a totally respectful take on other cultures. Very "It's a Small World After All" at best, and i can't imagine their take on Aboriginal culture in PSP was particularly sensitive, and given the history there, it's... kinda a lot, it feels like?

Nicely decorated, if a bit kludgy in shaping. Short, not particularly painful. i wish i could say more, but my mental index card just says "alright level. i had fun." Look, my memory is for shite. That's not on the creator, but i don't have time to watch the video again right now. Sorry MagicalMare!

This one's such a weird little thing, because Pign's levels were usually so polished and well-presented. It's not bad. i know i had a good time wiv it. But it really feels like they were tossing a bunch of things together to see how it all would work. They tell us they were trying stuff outside their usual comfort zone, and i respect that a lot. Even more that they went and left the level public instead of having it live for a few months to gather feedback and then pulling it down.

What the actual but this one is weird. Not weird bad, but definitely weird frustrating. You can tell that they updated some of the things in the dialogue when they re-pubbed it in 2012 (i think?), there are some cheeky references to being "back in 2009;" but if DrunkenFist_Lee got any feedback about, say, maybe having more clarity in communication wiv the player, they did not implement it. It's not a bad experience, but it's certainly not something i feel like i would want to go back to.

Back-to-back LBP1 goodness. This one is much more straight-forward, and manages a few nice presentational touches. Also, i will always love those old-school score bubble spawners. Definitely a fun trip in the way-back machine.

Oh, dear Entropy, what the hell Evandip-? Why would you think that gameplay bit was going to be in any way fun? Especially after a level that was smooth and cruisy? This is why difficulty spikes are such a problem wiv games. The sudden shift in gears can be way more off-putting than if the whole thing was just hard from the start.

Go play Firespike Tower. Unless you don't have LBP3. In which case you can just watch this video. It's a fun level, and i'm glad Morphology76 asked for plays over on the subreddit.

-------------------------------------

And that's that. Another 10 in the bag, and already 100 episodes deep. Just 9million+ to go!

[feuqueerfire]

Moonlight Chicken Live Blogging

 GMMTV Youtube

Another GMMTV 2022 BL that's finally been released! I do like it when Disney+Hotstar releases the shows 2 eps a week because I get to binge the shows sooner (as long as they still put it up on Youtube...)

I avoided spoilers mostly except after watching My School President and kind of getting into GeminiFourth, I also got spoiler for almost their whole storyline last week haha Also, apparently it's not a cheating story as expected but rather Alan and ? Wen? are exes.

NLMG was up wonky in its last few episodes, so here's hoping another of my most anticipated shows from the 2022 lineup doesn't let me down.

Ep 1: Only You in the Full Moon Night (Mar 1)

1-1

ah they're talking about the effects of Covid on the economy - I think I remember somebody talking about the gentrification that happens or something?

Ah, I don't know if this is one take but I loveee the handheld (?) camera following around Jim as he travels from Leng to Li Ming to Gaipa, etc. It gives the impression of there's always something to do, something's always happening

lmfao jinxing Praew still having her period cuz I think she's gonna get pregnant, right?

oh this was filmed September 10 2022

(Linguistics) Jim is using -ha ending particles with the grandma

drunk driving with no seatbelts lmfao

ah the 2 of them just praying and wandering around the streets

plssss I've seen the clip of Wen walking into Li Ming's room before but I didn't realize it was like this, I'm crying

"It won't be complicated, right?" lmfao

there was a kiss on the back in NLMG as well

this is a lot for me tbh I keep wanting to skip but ah I won't, I'm nervous about missing things. I'm just watching it not on fullscreen

Very good start but do I finish up this episode before sleeping or do I do a LeetCode like I've been meaning to all day instead?

1-2

Okay, I did my leetcode (very badly rip) so I get to reward myself with part 2

gbye Wen playing with Jim's cat after their one night stand killing me so bad

ohhh this is the cat food PPL people were talking about lmfaooo

lol pls Gaipa's mom covering for him about the Sour Soup even though Leng was right when he said it wasn't his mom who gave it but Gaipa himself

please my poor Gaipa giving the mooncakes to Jim out of his crush on him but Jim just thinking about sharing one with Wen last night

ah Khaotung my most beloved boy, I missed seeing him on my screen

Wen's back at his own apartment and I know it's exes living together instead of cheating storyline apparently but :< I wish it was cheating. who would've thought I'd want that but Love Mechanics did a number on me I suppose

two chargers

1-3

I should go to sleep but part 2's preview showed Heart and Li Ming so... here I am instead

both of them keep thinking of that night

Li Ming is so boyish and trickster-y when he manages to get the keys to the motorbike and ride despite his license

lol Li Ming really left poor Heart with the broken glass

ah, I know so much about Heart and Li Ming already :< like Heart became deaf a few years ago and his parents don't let him go anywhere and haven't learned how to communicate with him

pls "We both took turns" "Hehe, that's my slutty boy"

(Linguistics) I've noticed Thai people sometimes say "chill chill" in English instead of just chill and now this guy used "pure pure" to describe pure sex. I wonder if this type of repetition is common in Thai as well and I just don't know it because I don't know Thai or if it's specifically with English words. Actually, I think plural is just repetition of the word at least sometimes? dek = child, dek dek = children, so it's not just English loanwords

Wen's avoiding his apartment?

1-4

who's Mrs. Jinata? oh is that Heart's mom

rip not only are Li Ming and Jim poorer than the officer, the officer is also obviously a cop. So they could ruin them

ah Li Ming's gonna work for Heart's family to pay it off 7k baht

How come Heart let Li Ming take the fall? I wonder if his parents are just not listening to him saying what he's trying to communicate or if Heart's a jerk and is letting Li Ming take the brunt of it all

Wen taking lessons about one night stands from his P'Gong and yet still showing up to Jim's to drink a beer lmao instead he even wants to waitstaff at the restaurant like bro what about your real job. then again what even is his job? he was at his apartment and the gym and he seems to spend money much more casually than Jim but what does he do to earn that money?

Very good, delightful episode with good acting, writing (in terms of characters and sensibility of events), and directing/cinematography. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the episodes.

Oh yeah another big spoiler that I didn't wanna put up there was that I've been saying ppl post behind photos of MLC and saying Gaipa's mother is gonna die. It's ep 6 been released and she hasn't died yet I don't think from the way the tweets are worded, so I'v been spoiled about something that hasn't even happened yet lmfao

Ep 2: The Temporary Chicken Rice (Mar 1)

2-1

not Leng's premonition dream about their daughter

Li Ming is soooo teenage boy here my god I wanna be him so bad

like he's rude to his uncle and doesn't let Heart get away with sitting around and it helps that Fourth was 17 when filming but it really is so 17 year old behaviour

lol Wen's not gonna let up

2-2

please Gaipa starting shit in Leng and Praew's relationship just for the hell of it

why does Gaipa handle the chicken and everything else with the same gloves T.T

Wen vs Gaipa over Jim's affections lmfao this awkwardness...

I wish I knew Wen and Gaipa's ages like how old are they supposed to be

Li Ming giving me the most random gender envy like I think I could be fixed if I was a 17-year-old boy who was playing soccer while shirtless with some other boys

so does Li Ming know he likes boys/is starting to realize he likes boys/knows he doesn't like girls? like was his disinterest in the girl because of his lack of attraction to her or is it because of his worries covered up by apathy about the future?

What's Li Ming watching on his phone?

okay just kidding I don't envy his grades nor his lack of direction for the future and his money troubles

also quick insert from after watching the ep: he got a 2/10 on his English but he wants to travel abroad for work to like America or Australia

A tiny truce between Li Ming and Heart

haiaiai Praew's now pregnant and her parents will want her and Leng to get married but he doesn't have the money for it rip the stress making them fight is the worst because they were so cute so far this ep

2-3

I don't fully get what's happening with the Car Insurance letter thing

oh instead of paying that bill he bought gold jewelry for Praew?

lol ofc he'd run into Wen

So I guess Wen makes enough to have some income to spend on some things but not like he's freely spending

ah Wen saying "I have so much time for you"

Li Ming's hopes of going on America or Australia bringing back immigration time memories even though I don't remember much. I know lots of international students who come to study here but you gotta be loaded for that; Li Ming as a young boy who doesn't know the language coming here would be so difficult it's actually making me already anxious. I want him to break out of the small town/restaurant if that's what he wants but coming to work in North America with little education, skills, and command of the language is its own version of hell

but maybe at least knowing Wen's relatives would help him

Note upon rewatch: lol I think someone on Discord mentioned it so I rewatched this part where I initially thought Heart looked around, didn't see Li Ming, then went on his phone but instead Heart saw Li Ming and immediately went on the phone to cover up the fact that he was looking for him and ignored him until he was touched lol silly boy

Heart wanting to watch a Thai movie that doesn't have Thai subs but ironically MLC also doesn't seem to have Thai subs

the pimples and bumps on Gemini's face I love you. reminds me slightly of watching Not Me and getting to see their faces not just blurry

ah Heart said thank you for being my ears

oof Heart's mom forbidding him from going out is so

ahh yeah Jim did indeed get it for Leng to give the necklace as Praew's dowry

pls not Leng saying "one during the day, another at night" about Jim with Gaipa and Wen

2-4

not a fucking mistake when reversing a car that sends ppl falling - my worst nightmare

fuckkk not Jim needing the car insurance after he bought the necklace instead of paying the insurance bill

are the couple faking it? did they purposely go behind the car and pretend to fall and make a big deal and just leave with the money?

bro Wen's saying yeah I just gave them 3k baht and it's okay, you don't need to pay me back? be so serious

so how much money does Wen actually have?

Jim tryna get a home and a kiss from Jim but Jim not wiling to provide either

This show shows something about the small pleasures of the poor/those struggling with money. Leng's cigarettes that cost 4 baht for 1 and Jim drinking 1 beer a day. People who aren't in that situation say to save that money as if that little will solve their problems; instead, the small pleasures and vices help people to get through the day

Ep 3: The Dream of Eternal Moon (Mar 1)

3-1

ah yeah Mix is working on the Marina food court ting that Jim and Gaipa were previously discussing

Are those Wen's photos with Jim's cat? or a diff one?

ahh they're negotiating the demolition of the place where Jim's restaurant is

ah fuck the team Wen's in spoke to Gaipa's mom because she's the owner of the chicken restaurant and got her to speak to other owners or whatever about something for them (selling their businesses, I think?) and got the contact for the person who owns the property where Moonlight Chicken is. However, they didn't tell her they're gonna demolish it so she doesn't know and is complaining that these people keep demolishing things and should instead be preserving ahhh.

Also, Gaipa and Wen's staring at each other in during that conversation because only the two of them know both the facts that 1) Wen works at Moonlight Chicken and 2) The demolition stuff will be happening

Giddy little Heart at Li Ming learning sign language and trying to speak with me. My poor boy who has been so isolated and neglected for the past few years T.T

oof Jim thinks Wen's worried because of monthly bills and payments

oh Papang's character used to be Jim's boyfriend

Papang yelling out loud about their love is making me nervous

oh smiley, happy Jim

lmfao so dumb to just have the person you're cheating with's phone call background be a cutesy photo of you and them + have your camera roll be filled with them wtf

so is the homophobic sister the same as Li Ming's mother?

rip Wen just learns more than Jim can even say he loves his diner and his history with it; the whole time, his company's planning on demolishing it

3-2

no like Li Ming so true because when you're rich or have status, you get endless free things or it's easier to get to borrow things whereas poor people or those who really need said free help/loan have to fight tooth and nail to get a portion

Wen has Jim as Chicken Stranger on his contacts

bro people pointed it out on Reddit and Discord that Earth sighs too much and now I'm noticing it too. Even Wen sometimes sighs too much

Finally some angst and conflict between Jim and Wen

3-3

pls Gaipa's "Na?" with the smile reminded me so much of Ayan

ah more of Jim and Li Ming's conflict

I fully get Jim's concern because what the hell do you mean you're gonna somehow acquire money to go to the US and somehow manage to get work there and then have no plans after that? While having no money, grades, connections, English? But I also get 17-year-old Li Ming who is desperate to get out of this fucking place

omg Li Ming is so fucking teenager. Doesn't tell anything to Uncle Jim because "he's so annoying, all our conversations end in a fight"

Leng and Praew are so cute to me

ah my beautiful Li Ming sitting and gazing out to water

2-4

the fucking chin tickle thing will actually kill me one of these days. Li Ming to Heart, Gun to Tinn, Fourth to Gemini

not Wen inviting Jim to a dinner with his father my goodness

underage drinking ah it's typical but it makes me nervous that it's happening at Heart's home + Li Ming originally got in trouble because of the alcohol

it's so typical teenager, to drink from their parents' alcohol and water it down to make it seem like it hasn't been drunk from. or maybe it's not really typical teenager behavior and is just based on the YA novels I've read but hasn't appeared much in BLs

Heart doesn't even know it's Loy Krathong today

ah happy babies

insane to call Jim as Loong in front of your father

"A hard life over there is better than living here" hmm I guess? maybe? Well actually idk but Li Ming's in a bad position even in Thailand, so I guess only way it can go is up. Just that he'll be lacking a lot of the things he has in Thailand including familiarity, family and support, language

why does Wen keep saying he lives paycheck to paycheck when it's not true?

Well at least Jim calls him out on it

Next year Loy Krathong pinky promise please I'll cry if Li Ming and Heart aren't together for that next year

my beautiful dancing boys T.T

ah Gaipa with his mom

"I can't wait to see who your lover will be" man all the ep 7 clips I've seen have been the characters in black, presumably at Gaipa's mom's funeral fml man and all the talks about how long they'll do this together

Heart and Li Ming sleep over T.T

ah flustered Heart turning away and going to sleep is so reminiscent of when Gun did a similar thing after the eye contact with Tinn scene

the whole entire scene with Wen at home, grabbing a beer that has significance to him and Jim, looking at random things on his phone while smiling - probably something to do with Jim - and then going to the bedroom with Alan sleeping is so aklsdfj I wonder what it would be like to watch this show with little to no knowledge. Not only did I know about Alan, I knew he'd appear at the end of the episode while in bed because 1) people said he was there for 2 seconds and 2) in people's archives, I saw gifs of this scene even though I was trying to avoid these

Ep 4: The Midnight of Lifetime (Mar 2)

4-1

ah my beloved cute heartliming and once again heart pretending he’s not looking at li ming ahhh so cute pretending to sleep

i too love li ming’s eyes so i get heart

the fucking legs what if i died

naurrr Alan’s arm over Wen and Wen just continues to look at him with such contempt. even that 0.2 second glance in the last episode was similar

this Wen and Alan convo so tense my god and yeah they’re still living together but not actually together

First is so freaking beautiful with those glasses and glossy lips

pls not the underage smoking as well tho Li Ming didn’t look experienced

ah fuck ofc everything is so tense between them and Li Ming walks in the moment Jim looks in his drawer

fucking fuck this scene between Li Ming and Uncle Jim killed me so bad

my lovely silly boys heart li ming

also now Heart tickling under Li Ming’s chin is soooo cute

pls Heart being dazed at shirtless wet Li Ming so funny

pls Li Ming is sooo rough teenage boy with the colour complain

2-2

Wen planning a surprise birthday goddamn

beautiful Li Ming with the sweetest face like truly congrats to Fourth for having the face he does

ah so indeed Wen is almost 30

keep calm and eat chicken

Wen really is endlessly persistant and forward lol

ah Wen approaching for a kiss and all Jim can think about is sex with Ben or whatever Papang’s character’s name is rip

beautiful Wen

this fucking cat product PPL pls

I can’t think of Alan objectively as a character like I’m just delighted to see First

ah what did Alan do without asking Wen that broke them?

also Alan really going to Gong to ask about Wen’s relationship status lol

4-3

ahh Alan in banking sees the man from Wen’s IG story. He’s interacting with Jim already knowing about him negatively and as a rival while Jim’s clueless

sucks that Jim can’t get a loan rip

please Gaipa and his mom are so delightful

mom supportive of gay love for a liiiiittle bit of aroacephobia lol i’m gonna choose to ignore it bc maybe she didn’t mean it that way

i fucking love Gaipa and his mom I’m gonna be so mad sad when she dies

the show is going by so fast, it was September in ep 1 and then Halloween time October in ep 2, Loy Khratong was in November in 2022 for ep 3, not almost Christmas for ep 4

Heart’s parents really speak 1 sentence to him a day and like they’re so uninterested in his life that he just has Li Ming in hiding and they suspect nothing

Heart Li Ming so cuteeee what if I died

I have a class and then a project meeting so I can’t watch part 4 for like 2 hours what if i was a villain

4-4

I ate while watching this so I didn't write anything but it's just

(Fave) all the way through

I loved the way we got to see Li Ming take Heart to the mass for deaf people, got a little info sharing PSA about life and treatment of deaf people, and then that old man's answer was the throughline for the other storylines like Alan Wen Jim, Gaipa and his mom, Leng and Praew, and ofc Heart Li Ming themselves

Also, so far, my love for First kept overtaking any other feelings I could have about the character in the first 3 parts because I kept seeing him but in this part, Alan has started to take a stronger form. At that store, that was little bitchy Alan

Also, the pawn shop form... Leng sold the gold necklace lol I knew that was a possibility as soon as Jim told him not to sell it. I wonder what he's gonna do with the money? Spending it on baby related stuff is one thing, I just hope he didn't put it in the lotto stuff

Also, I get why they didn't translate Heart's signing in the first 2 episodes to make us go through the same things as Li Ming but now that Li Ming understand Heart, we should be getting translations. It's like [speaking a foreign language] when the main character is also not supposed to understand is fine but saying that isn't fine when everybody in the conversation is supposed to understand the language. By ep 4, Li Ming understands and communicates with Heart and what Heart says back should be understood by the audience.

Ep 5: Wrong You In The Right Time (Mar 3)

5-1

(Fave) ahh cute 1st year anniversary Wen and Alan

they gaveth me FirstMix and then they taketh it away T.T

so they were together for 5 years but by Feb 2022, they were broken up and living together as 'friends' and Wen's reasoning was just falling out of love

oh fuckkkkkkk AlanWen slept together after breaking up bc Alan kept initiating and Wen says he felt bad for Alan, that's why they slept together rip fr

ahhh not Alan being like come here, I'll dress your wound. girl you caused it?

This confusingly civil conversation at the table like idek, Wen does even know, Alan doesn't even know

I guess Wen's keeping it civil till he can actually move out

bro Gaipa, don't give your mother's land as collateral to Jim to get a loan to buy out the restaurant T.T mans doesn't love you

messy as Li Ming, first shouting out Gaipa and now Wen to come to the same table with him and Jim

I think this part gave me like 7000 emotional damage

5-2

plss Li Ming asking Jim about Wen and saying he seems like an okay guy

last part was just so much emotional damage but now Heart and Li Ming are so cute and adorable >.<

Engineering or Com Sci <- lmfao Heart is my friend group except for the one person who is doing bio

agh Heart's mother not letting him go to school anymore

they're sooo cute in their big costumes T.T also Heart-Gemini reminds me of Barcode here, so cute

cute beloved Heart having fun with his drink

lmfao Li Ming is such trouble, mentioning to Wen that now Gaipa works at the restaurant

Wen being like wow these bitches gay

Li Ming so funny getting involved in Wen's gay business and then involving Wen in his own gay business

Alan and Jim at the bank goddamn Alan was tryna kill Jim with his stare and also is he suspicious that the title deed is actually fake or something?

"I wasn't aware I was taking it" "That's alright. Now that you're aware, just return what you took from me" sure is some dialogue my god

5-3

I need to seek help, Alan's being a dick but he had a little pout at 1:40 and I've died my beloved beautiful First ah

lol Wen seeing Jim ignore his call

lol "We broke up but live together. no biggie" about Alan who came to cause a scene at the restaurant is certainly a choice

no I get Jim fr though like I am not gonna be involved in this mess, thank you and goodbye

I thought Wen lived with Alan out of some sort of necessity but it really doesn't even seem to be the case. He's just unable to really let go and just leave for real?

not this beef and chicken convo. with them both having teary eyes

oof Wen losing his feelings probably had at least something to do with him eating beef despite him not liking it because Alan does (ie. making accommodations for Alan to his own detriment?)

damn Wen even saying he was also hoping they could work it out

P'Aof sighting

bro Wen even had some promise ring or something still? they really had such a murky relationship

ah they've finally really truly broken up i guess. also Alan really now knows that even if there was no Jim, Wen wouldn't love him again

also did Alan really not do anything? idk what was being hinted at last episode

5-4

Leng calling Li Ming nong rak

oh yeah Leng sold the gold chain, right?

not the gay couple in the gay chicken restaurant

H <3 and Ming :)

I'm so nervous bc they're gonna get into a motorcycle crash soon ah

bro I feel like you'd need special training to teach a deaf person how to ride a motorcycle bro tf and Li Ming doesn't have a license either

girl, not the crash and Shit! from Li Ming

Heart injured his hand ahh

I don't wanna watch this conversation with Heart's parents, Jim all present

okay good I thought they'd just get mad at Li Ming but I'm glad Heart's also getting to say his piece

(Fave) The conversation between Heart and his mother facilitated by Li Ming... his mom literally having to hear all of Heart's frustrations and thoughts through this kid they've known for a few months because she hasn't learned to communicate with him for 3 years

I didn't realize originally that Heart seemed hopeful for one second when his mother started doing hand gestures but then rolled his eyes when he realized it was her signing

sad Heart T.T

Li Ming so teenager once again like he was correct to me in the sneaking Heart out but letting him drive the motorcycle was too much and the way he was like you don't have to help me, I'll take responsibility because I'm grown to Jim is so teenager but also I get it because while Jim tries to support Li Ming in his own way, he’s constantly opposing all of Li Ming’s choices and decisions and hopes

This episode was just so much emotional damage and also really realizing just how much every other relationship is more interesting than Wen and Jim. Whether it be our side couples, Li Ming with Jim or Wen, Alan and Wen, Alan and Jim, Gaipa and his mom, Heart and his parents. Gaipa and Jim are meh as well because it's just awkward how much Jim doesn't reciprocate while Gaipa's trying so hard but it's meant to be that way.

Also I wish I knew how long Li Ming has lived with his uncle. Jim’s missteps are more understandable if it’s been like just a year and he wasn’t prepared to parent/be the guardian of a teenager rather than if it’s been like 5-6 years.

Ep 6: The Walk to Forgive and Forget (Mar 4)

6-1

she really knows nothing about her son my goodness

kinda parallels about Li Ming telling Heart's mom that actually Heart's quite communicative because Li Ming tells Jim nothing but is communicative with Wen

oof, yeah I read a comment (on discord?) that Jim's ex died

6-2

oof Alan's immature to not be able to just process Jim's loan but at least he told Jim to go elsewhere rather than sabotage it - and he was right when he was like why is Jim coming to my bank instead of any other?

ah fuck Gaipa confession, I don't wanna watch this

not Gaipa's teary eyes ah and drinking water and avoiding eye contact T.T

bro not Gaipa literally wiping off his tears and everything and Jim also returning the title deed when tf will this scene be done I can't, like I'm watching it via my peripherals

"Come on, we already talked about this" Wen is so funny because he finally left Alan where he consistently had to be like no romantic relationship to go to Jim's who keeps telling him I don't want a romantic relationship

damn Jim fr the other man

"We just fell in love with a selfish man" ah. I do find it somewhat refreshing when characters talk frankly about a dead person rather than put them on a pedestal because they're dead

6-4

Heart and Li Mingggg

ah pls Li Ming is so excited at Heart's voice like my guy what do you mean how can he speak T.T He used to speak as his main form of communication till 3 years ago

I've been looking forward to "You're poor and now you're gay too" since starting the show and finally Jim has seen them kiss

pls Heart Li Ming sooo cute

not Alan wearing both the rings

oh mans was drunk driving

Ep 7: My Heart Represents the Moon (Mar 5)

7-1

ah fuck Wen as Alan's caregiver is so... does Alan not have family nearby?

ah so he wasn't drunk driving, he was sitting at the back of someone's motorcycle while drunk

okayyy so Alan's sister is here, nice

Alan and Wen are decent and nice but working on extracting each other from themselves

naurrr sad Gaipa

adfsjlkasfj Gaipa's tears around Jim T.T

pls Gaipa's already so sad but at least his mom's there - soon she's gonna die T.T

ah Li Ming and his mom's conversation here and their different demeanours compared to MSP despite being the same people is so good

wait does Jim know his sister's in the house? no, right?

ah this discussion between Jim and Li Ming... interestingly, he didn't yell at Jim at all. was just so apathetic to Jim's scolding like bro who cares

I once again wonder how long Jim's had Li Ming. he's so unable to have a decent conversation with him or navigate any topic

7-2

no like Jim is cruel to Li Ming but that stems from the fact that he can foresee these conversations by society and his sister. He defends Li Ming to his sister saying he did nothing wrong but he acts that way with Li Ming because his life just got harder

okay she said Jim raised Li Ming. that's too long for Jim to not have figured out some sort of way to navigate conversations with him

ah his sister is kinda bribing Jim to convince Li Ming to go with her by giving him the title deed

ah so they do touch on abortion just a bit but since Praew's parents said they'll support the child, it's okay

so will we also talk about the pawn shop certificate or no

None of Wen's friends are gay? Gong's straight? oh wait he has a gf that we literally saw, I forgot but still idk why I was fully convinced he liked men as well

so indeed Jim spells out that he can accept Li Ming but is just worried about him because of the state of gay acceptance

another marriage equality PSA and also a mention of the dinosaurs dying - like in MSP ep 12 also

lol the convo about Wen chasing Jim for the longest and being like I might disappear one day you know like you know if this a longer series, it probably would be that way

7-3

why are all the interactions in this show so fun like I love Gaipa and Leng so much, just teasing each other non stop and causing problems

Gaipaaaaa T.T Gaipa's mom T.T

omg she was only 49 years old? that's too young

lmfao not the Gaipa and Alan meeting pls like I've been conflicted about the possibility ever since The Eclipse aired and KhaoFirst became popular and became aware that this happened when the last 2 eps came out but I just... how do I feel about it? like if this weren't KhaoFirst but just the characters themselves

okayyyy Heart's mom is speaking to him using sign as well

Heart Li Ming my loves actually like I love them so bad

Jim's not vocal approval but he's laid up on Li Ming as well

bro Beam's family also such dickheads. Beam had all the bank accounts and stuff in his name and so his family took it all

this Alan and Jim convo is so exhausting and I'm not even a part of it

7-4

ah so Li Ming's been with Jim for 5-6 years

ahhh shy Li Ming after saying that he loves Lung Jim T.T

lmfao Li Ming being offering beer by Jim

Jim and Li Ming lovely convo that didn't devolve into fighting, so true

being told "he knows how to jack off" by my uncle in front of my mother would actually send me into an early grave like i'd just pass away

anyway, I hope they support Li Ming's decisions in the future

happy Li Ming having happy dinner with his mom and Jim >.<

(Fave) damn the singing as Gaipa's crying is actually killing me wtf I teared up for the first time while watching this show

Also the dynamics of the funeral arewild because it's consistently Gaipa-Jim and Alan-Wen paired up with even some occasional crossover like Jim and Alan

Wen returning the apartment keys to Alan ah

damn this ep is end of so many chapters, including the Moonlight Chicken lease being up

Ep 8: The Self-Made House and Home (Mar 5/6)

I'm gonna need to take a break from shows for a few days after this show because why am I starting this ep instead of doing my assignment due tomorrow, doing my interview prep for tomorrow, getting some sleep since it's 12AM?

8-1

Yeah, both Jim and mom are worried about Li Ming but let's support him even if the world doesn't

I watched the title credits finally and yeah after listening to the song a few tmes in the show, it's a good one. I should add it to Spotify later

Li Ming and mom touching times aw

goodbye to Moonlight Chicken restaurant

8-2

Alan being okay with leaving behind the photos of their anniversary behind to show that he's finally moving on actually

so Heart's also going to America for university for deaf people - I did get spoiled that they're both going to the states but wasn't sure why Heart's gonig

ah parallels of Li Ming and Heart at the temple to back when Jim and Beam were were praying there

pls Li Ming saying "But I didn't copy you for sure" to Jim is so cute and funny

ah Jim being explicitly supportive of Li Ming T.T

I love Jim and Li Ming so much now T.T

watched first 2 parts, time to go to sleep now. 40 more minutes left for tomorrow.

Bro here I'm back almost 24 hours later after an interview, an assignment submitted, and another one discussed sigh

8-3

2 months later

Alan Gaipa everybody's beloveds, convince me too since KhaoFirst are my beloveds

well at least it's been 2 months since they first met and have had some time to get over their previous love/crush and develop affection for the new person

not Alan asking for Gaipa's chatID T.T shocked Gaipa like kab? and Alan terribly covering his ass talking bout some headquarter documents

not Alan's pen again lmfao

oh, he's got a food truck now

ah Leng, he's beloved to me too

8-4

oh we're getting a lot of resolutions in these last 30 mins I guess like we're going to Jim's sister's house and also Alan's gonna show up at the food truck

ah Jim introduces Wen as his boyfriend finally

I fucking love Li Ming's teeny nods like I first noticed it when he was talking with Wen in 3-3 where they were talking about Work and Travel at 9:40 I think? (after I wanna work and get paid for it) and now at 3:52/3:53 he gives the smallest nod like idk if it's a Fourth habit or if it's just something for Li Ming (since I don't know if Gun does it? I at least didn't notice it). omg again at 5:46 here

Li Ming talking to his mom about America and also she hasn't said anything bout Heart but I know she realizes

Heart and the child ahhhhh so cute

I still don't fully get the deal with Heart's speaking beyond deaf people sometimes are uncomfortable speaking when they can't hear themselves

Li Ming and Heart my beloveds

Jim supportive of Li Ming's America dream T.T lending him 30k baht T.T and going with him to sign documents and stuff

no it's so funny like Alan and Gaipa are meeting to 'discuss documents' at Jim's food truck

asdklf not Gaipa not even knowing about Alan and Wen omg

pls Alan about to wither away vs Gaipa early being like join us for dinner ^.^ without knowing the history

Leng is so meddlesome heh I continue to love Leng and Gaipa ahhh

ah everybody at this food truck including Heart-Liming, Alan-Gaipa, Leng-Praew with daughter

cute mini endings - hopeful for everybody

ah Wen did reject the job promotion

added the song to spotify, it's good

Overall:

It's a good one! High quality with good acting and interesting storylines that are unique in BL. It didn't hit me as hard as it seemed to hit some other people though and I'm not thinking about it much at all since finishing. I think Jim/Wen's relationship was one of the weakest aspects of the show to me because I didn't care nor did I really feel anything.

I loved Heart and Li Ming, I enjoyed getting to see Jim grow and also how his relationship with Li Ming changed, I liked getting to see Wen and Alan's flashbacks and to present tense relationship, I like Gaipa showing up once in a while to be bright, I thought Gaipa and Leng's interactions were funny, I loved Li Ming as a character so much, I wished to be him so badly.

Rating: 7/10

Tiktoks

Ep 2 HeartLiming (bg: Little Freak)

[Fave] TinnGun x HeartLiming (bg: About You by The 1975)

Mix and First characters

HeartLiming Dancing - not answering phone (bg: Fly Me To The Moon)

heartliming this is gay - pink shirt

li ming learning sign for heart

heartliming vs the world - compilation 

Gaipa and his cool mom 

Ep 1 - 5 Li Ming (bg: i’m so sick of seventeen)

Trailers

New Trailer:

I watched the reaction with the cast and the trailer itself was okay, though it gave away too much, but it was fun seeing the cast being excited

Mock Trailer:

I've watched parts of this before but I hadn't actually watched it fully I think? Good enough for a mock trailer, definitely gave interesting story threads without giving too much away.