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scrappedtogether · 1 year

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Top 3 scooby movies and why?

Hi Swishy!! Thank you for the ask!! It was so hard for me to pick but!!!

1. Zombie Island: this has some of the strongest artistic style, some of the best music, and probably the strongest overall story. Likely the only movie that I would put on for someone who had never seen Scooby Doo that I felt at least 99% confident they would enjoy. It has some really significant character developments (Fraphne esp). The Gang had split up before in the franchise and reunited to continue their mystery-solving adventures but this was the first time where a narrative had really been constructed around what could drive the Gang apart and ultimately what would lead them back together. It’s a really interesting premise for the film. This also marks probably the first time in the larger cultural consciousness that Daphne takes on a more leadership role. I’d argue (and so would others) that much of the mystery-solving work is more divided in the likes of SDWAY/TSDS/TNSDM than people give it credit for but the Daphne here is allowed to take the reign much in the same way as the Daphne from 13G and TNSDMy that most people never had the chance to see (bc those shows sadly aren’t that popular). This movie has a Very satisfying villain twist (delicious, I love Lena and Simone) and one that feels startingly mature and dark. It’s really frightening to contemplate the absolute horror of the Scooby Gang being invited into what is ultimately an island of serial killers in which the ground is completely littered with the corpses of their past victims. Besides the cat transformation scene, the reconfiguration of Morgan Moonscar into flesh could easily be the most iconic chunk of animation from the film. It’s horrifying and evocative and complex. Morgan Moonscar was a villain—just as much if not more so than the villains the Gang are ultimately tasked to defeat—but seeing the reality of his curse, the depth of his despair as he’s horrifically reformed to wander as a creature not-quite-living in hopes of sparing others this fate is despairing and terrible. I the film’s moral ambiguity. We’re called to sympathize with Lena and Simone who have suffered an unimaginable injustice in watching their village pillaged and their people devoured. They enact such atrocities not just as a means for survival but also recompense, for a world that has wronged them. We understand them, even as we shudder to think of their past actions and volley for the Gang to overcome them. In terms of animation, this really feels like Scooby Doo going back to its roots in the overall pallet and landscape design (leaving behind the then recent Scooby Doo outings with upped saturation and suburban settings like APNSD) while breaking what people consider the classic Scooby Doo formula. Obviously this was not the first canonical appearance of the supernatural within the ScoobyDooniverse but it was the first time within the larger realm of the public consciousness that the final big bad was not “unmasked.” Unpopular opinion: “The Ghost is Here” > “It’s Terror Time Again.” Tho they are both excellent. I have to restate that this is literally some of the most gorgeous animation ever seen in a Scooby Doo film and truly an all around thrilling ride. The mystery is fun, the characters are all their loveable selves, we get to watch the Gang come back together like they never were apart, and the villains in this are an absolute delight. Great laughs, great animation, great story.

2. Ghoul School: I’m pretty upfront about how much I love Scrappy and it really extends to the whole red-shirt era. I’m one of those people who doesn’t mind that the rest of the Gang’s not along for the ride (tho I do miss them) and I absolutely adore this movie. I must have watched it 10000 times growing up. I love Matches, I love all the Grimwood Girls and the Calloway Cadets and I love Legs and Miss Grimwood and (Grim) Creeper. The tone of the animation of this movie is superb. Everything is dark and damp and rotting. The world of the movie is so twisted and fascinating. There’s such a wealth of ideas here that seem to be just the writers having fun and being silly. It’s so funny that for some reason the Werewolf loves lemon juice and that Elsa Frankenteen buys her dad a charger and that Dracula gets a bat-robe and checks it out in the mirror (where he obviously can’t be seen). I love how tenderly all the Monster Fathers love their daughters. I love the genuine bonds that begin to grow between Shaggy and Scooby and the Grimwood Girls and that the Calloway Cadets come around past their initial fear and hatred of the girls to protect and befriend them. I love that this is a story about how the humanity underneath the monsters instead of humans wearing monstrous masks. I love how kitschy and campy and kooky this little movie is. The friendship moments, Don Messick’s wailing vocal (no one does it like him, sorry Frank). I love Scrappy in this cute little flick where he’s just allowed to be a character without it feeling like the showrunners are attempted to centralize him or demonize him (yes he has a smaller role in this movie than in Boo Brothers but it is SUBSTANTIALLY larger than the role he gets in The Reluctant Werewolf smh its okay tho). The costuming in this is immaculate. Perfect holiday/Halloween vibes. I’m never going to let my kids watch anything else. Thank you.

3. Cyber Chase: “Hello Cyberdream” may rank as one of the greatest of all Scooby bangers and Eric Staufer is one of a handful of Mystery Inc. adjacents who actually felt like they could fit into the core four/Gang Dynamic without it being weird and overstuffed. The use of effects in this movie is gorgeous. I love the levels and just the concept of this movie. The animation style is smooth, VA’s are on point, Bill is one of my all-time favorite villains (he’s just so dumb I love him). This movie is so unapologetically steeped within its own time period (which is something really special about the Scooby franchise as a whole). I like this movie’s fearless dedication to embracing 2000’s tech with heavy chords and chunky computers and overuse of greens. It’s beautiful. The movie feels bustling and big. I like the callbacks to other iconic Scooby villains (I esp like that it branches out by not just having WAY villains but TSDS as well, that’s ace). The Cyber Doubles are a blast. 10/10 I appreciate that people felt it was a step-down from the other movies of its era and I can understand there wasn’t as much in terms of character happening and that the monster wasn’t really “real” even though he was at least as real as Eric’s bizarre, magic-science. But it’s still so unique and fun and colorful. I love the atmospheres of each of the different levels and that the Gang has to navigate through them by working together. I love the little details of this movie’s cleverness like how Cyber Scooby is so different from his counterpart because Scooby’s the only one Eric never actually met. I like the respect and genuine adoration it pays to the early series of Scooby Doo. It’s not trying to talk down or retcon or prove that it can rewrite itself into something better. It’s calling back to remind us how much there is to love about the franchise and all the fun of the golden years and how things are different now but fundamentally the same. I think Officer Wembley is so absurdly fun and so is Professor Kaufman. I like the stakes of this movie, the life and death reality of a silly computer game.

This is so cheating but I really, really wanted to talk about a Scooby movie from the more modern DTV era so also:

4. Camp Scare: You will never hear me say a bad word about this film. It was a cultural reset. Babyface Beretti was always going to be IT. But really, this movie is stellar. Truly embraces a summer camp slasher aesthetic while keeping it clean. The Woodsman’s backstory is h o r r i f y i n g, move over Jason. I love how this movie individualizes itself through its use of genre. The use of POV shots is so superb and the way the film plays with shadows and silhouettes. The constant voiceover as the Gang relays campfire stories and invites the audience to question what exactly is so terrifying about urban legends. Genius. Another win for the soundtrack. I’ll listen to “Summertime” any day, any season. Lots of very iconic and cool moments between the Gang in this one. We love a movie where Shaggy and Scooby spend the whole time giggling in the background. But really, some very iconic Scooby&Shaggy bestie moments in this like Shaggy SMASHING A BOARD AGAINST THE MONSTER (after it goes after Scooby <- not to mention Scooby goes after the monster to protect Daphne) and shouts “Hey Fishface, like, back away from my buddy!.” Shaggy is off-the-wall in this movie. The prison break scene is *mwah.* Also some pretty iconic outfits in this and side characters (who does not love Trixie and Luke? Also Jessica!!!!) Very spooky scary villain designs in this one and the movie wasn’t afraid to embrace scale (think of the canyon scene, the dam breaking scene, and lots of the forest scenes) to emphasize how dwarfed children feel by the natural world, the intense isolation of being alone in nature, and why that’s so scary. Also, really great animation style in general. Following on the heels of Abracadabra-Doo, it marks a nice clean balance between being modern and remaining iconic in deference to the classic appearances of the characters. There’s also some great character building in this movie, for both central and side characters. I really admire Fred’s arc about growth and letting go of his pride in order to help build a better community, even if it’s not exactly the same as the one he held nostalgia for. It’s a really great reflection on childhood and growing up and allowing yourself to invent new memories instead of trying to recapture the past, told through the bent of a summer camp which of course is such an iconic image and symbol for childhood. Toward the close of the movie, it has a bit of a shift in genre to something more action-based but I think it does so pretty seamlessly and to great effect so I love it still.

#the way I took so long to answer this 😭#thank you so much swishy!!! I loved talking abt these #feel free to send in other asks #I’m working on gif requests #should have more time in a week or two #meta #Zombie Island #Ghoul School #Cyber Chase #Camp Scare #mmmmmm I love talking about Scooby movies I love!!!!

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cursedsleep-blog · 2 years

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Updated Feedback for Neon Kamigawa

NEO is an amazing example of what a 1-Set Plane can be. It is an utterly tight and fine package. There are still a few things I wish were a little better, but it was an utter slam dunk.

Mechanics and Such

Transforming Sagas are great, and a smart take on Enchantment Creatures! Sagas in general are cool, but these were amazing (though Mirror-Breaker is a little much)

Reconfigure is really cool and fun, but I feel like there should have been a little more of it in U.

Modified was a very smart and intuitive batching tool, and Channel was a simple but fun and good mode. On that note, the Legendary channel lands were nice.

Samurai and Ninjas were also really fun to play, though the Samurai seemed to be too weak and grated a bit with some of the set mechanics. Vehicles also seemed to be too weak (Bankbuster aside), though I get playing it a little safe given Brother’s War. Limited seemed really good, though I didn’t play it as much as others.

Story, Setting, and Such

Whereas a lot of other 1-Set planes have felt a bit cramped, NEO managed to say pretty much everything it want to. I think the Asari Rebellion’s impact on the main plot could have been a little clearer, but otherwise pretty much everything in the setting and story were clearly communicated.

Also while I saw how people wanted to spend more time here, I honestly think 1-Set was the best call. Everything fit so well together here that its hard to imagine a second set improving the story or the mechanics.

Fantastic job to all of the people who worked on this set.

#kamigawa: neon dynasty #blockquote'd stuff is from the old feedback #cursedsleeps mtg feedback

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deadfictionalcamel · 2 years

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The Ship (1942) — Salvador Dalí

Gouache on a chromolithograph

Both The Sheep and The Ship demonstrate Dalí’s capacity to scrutinize and reconfigure the visual world, then present this new vision for others to see. Both of these images are conversions of other artists’ reproductions. Dalí applies gouache to the reproductions to add or blot out details, blurring the line between the original and his additions, transforming each work into a strange and fantastic scene. Dalí's The Ship, created at approximately the same time, is a transformation of Montague Dawson’s chromolithograph Wind & Sun... The Lightning (1938). Dawson (1895–1973) was a celebrated British maritime painter from the first half of the 20th century. This work presents the typical Dawson scene featuring a great vessel on the high seas, its sails fully opened and its details fully rendered. Scrutinizing the composition, Dalí finds a far more fantastic creature lurking. Painting out part of the bottom to suggest beach instead of sea, Dalí rigs the massive sails onto the back and body of a hermaphroditic creature, suggesting some mythological figure. Its face is darkened under a helmet, breasts are pulled out through the body of the ship with the rope knotted to its nipples, and a misplaced phallic or hipbone-like protrusion on the right also has a rope connected with it. From its bound position, the creature appears cursed, as if having crossed the gods, and perhaps is made to carry the heavy rigging on its back for eternity. It is Dalí’s intention to make it impossible to tell where the hand of the painter ends and where the mechanical nature of the print begins. In addition to helping the viewer understand how Dalí interrogated reality, both of these works have another particular distinction. They were both acquired directly from Dalí for the collection on the first day when the Morses met him—April 13, 1943. — The Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg, FL, USA

#salvador dali #surrealism #art #probably one of my favorite pieces of his #i couldnt find a high res upload online so this is a scan of my postcard of it

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thecornwall · 2 years

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Cornwall’s Random Card of the Day #303: Tanuki Transplanter

Tanuki Transplanter is a rare from the Kamigawa Neon Dynasty Commander thing.

I sure do love reconfigure! This kind of ability originally was found on the Licids, which were creatures which turned into auras and back cause they didn’t have the rules tech to make it be equipped and change back to a creature, and they didn’t even have equipment for another, like, four years. Still, having creatures you can equip onto other creatures is great fun, gives lots of decisions for you during a game and also sidelines the problem with equipment decks, that is, having all equipment and nothing to equip TO.

This one is a tanuki, a kind of raccoon-dog found in Japan, thus the “dog” typeline, not “raccoon”. It’s weird that tanuki in real life can kinda refer to both the physical animal and the mythic creature the Japanese believed them to be. I dunno if there are too many other animals in the world with that same kinda inherent mysticism to them, though where you draw the line from, for example, magpies being considered omens of death to the English, and Tanuki being ascribed all kindsa powers to the point of just being considered a mythical creature by the Japanese, I personally don’t know. Still, interesting to learn about, and yet another great reason why cultural diversity should be supported, rather than everything kinda being just drowned in Default Anglo-Christianism.

As for the effect of this tanuki, it ramps mana, and ramps equal to power, which is both a really green thing and also works well as a reconfigure creature, since you are encouraged to equip it to something to boost the power and ramp even harder.

The whole “doesn’t empty from the mana pool as phases end this turn” ability is being used a whole lot more nowadays than it once did, and I start to question whether mana emptying between phases is a good thing for the game or if we’d be better off without, like removing mana burn(of which this is a partial holdover). But then again, memory issues arise if your opponent can theoretically empty mana to their pool at the end of their turn and you gotta keep track of how much was floating, so probably it’s better to not go away anytime soon.

#mtg #i was gonna bring up morepork being omens of death to the maori but that was less recognisable #plus i don't know exactly how magical the morepork are in maori folklore #didn't wanna misrepresent them

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inventors-fair · 3 years

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Cyber-Surplus: Winners

Congrats to this week’s winners, @grornt, @arixordragc, and @machine-elf-paladin. Remember that this week I had three categories I was looking for winners in. I selected one winner for each category.

Best common: Synthetic Soloist by @grornt

Okay I really really love this. This is a great place for a common. In theory I’d say that untapping creatures at instant speed repeatedly like this might be a bit problematic because generally you want to avoid on-board combat tricks at common, but in this case it’s not too much of a problem. Cause if you want to untap a creature to use it as a blocker, you have to leave this up as a blocker, so your opponent can still reasonably assess the blocking situation. And I really love the channel on here. You can use this to repeatedly untap one creature each turn or mass untap all yours at once. My only suggestion would be to maybe consider having this also work with vehicles or artifacts in general? It very well might be better as is, but it’s something worth considering. Honestly I don’t have much criticism to give, I’m a big fan of this.

Best use of a mechanic: Kitsune Sashimono by @arixordragc

I have to say. That ability is extremely clever on a reconfigure card. This can make itself not a creature, so you can still make use of it by having it attached to another creature. I think this is well-costed and makes extremely good use of reconfigure- it adds a lot to this design over being on a normal creature. The vigilance is also a good call, since the deck that wants this probably wants pretty few creatures overall, so if you have only this out, or have this out attached to another creature, you can both attack and block to make full use of this card. I like it a lot. My only criticism is that the typeline seems a bit crowded? I can see how you got here though. It makes sense to be a samurai, since the samurai are the ones with the whole exalted-thing going on. And if it’s a samurai it prooobably needs a race too. Though you might be able to get away with none as some sort of robot-samurai-suit thing. I’m not sure what the flavor of this version is.

Best all-around: Okiba Supplier by @machine-elf-paladin

This has a lot of really cool stuff going on. I like how this works both as a payoff and as an enabler for modified, but doesn’t make it too easy to modify all your creatures since it requires some set-up. I like that you used “leaves the battlefield” instead of dies, to work with ninjutsu. And I just think the overall idea of this card is pretty cool. This isn’t really doing anything new or particularly interesting with modified, which is why I didn’t select it for that category, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a solid card. It really, really is. Most of the modified payoffs are in red/green, but there was a bit in black, so this is probably fine. All in all, I don’t have a ton to say here, but this is an extremely solid card.

~ ~ ~

Thank you all for your entries!! This was a fun contest to judge. I always love contests like this where we’re not just designing in a vacuum. Runners will be up shortly!

- @loreholdlesbian

#mtg #magic the gathering #custom magic card #inventors' fair #kamigawa contest #winners

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jennamoran · 4 years

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Many-Faced

I shared this with a few people on the discord, and decided I should share it more generally!

This is a power that I added to Creature of Delirium (last publicly seen as Alchemist, back when it was silver and not red) when balancing the level 0-1 Arcs:

Many-Faced

[[ METADATA:

Type: Miraculous Action

Cost (Arc 0-2):

0 MP—gain +1 to your Tool bonus (max +2) for mundane disguise and self-transformation

1 MP—change or disguise your appearance

Cost (Arc 3+):

0 MP—gain +3 to your Tool bonus (max +4) for mundane disguise and self-transformation

0 MP—change or disguise your appearance, 1-2x/chapter

1 MP—change or disguise your appearance, a third or later time per chapter

]]

You’re capable of changing or disguising your appearance or physical form in some fashion.

You have a relatively free hand to define what this means—you can be a robot with reconfigurable parts, a superhero that nobody recognizes out of costume, or even a shapeshifter able to mold yourself like a clay figure, assume any human or animal shape, and be as pretty or ugly as you choose! Shapeshifting is obviously more powerful than disguise but magical disguise powers are still pretty great so don’t feel bad if those are what your concept suggests.

Altered forms and disguises occasionally grant bonuses to your mundane actions—usually around a +1 Tool bonus and 1-2 Edge if they’re meaningfully helpful and there aren’t any other Tool bonuses or Edge sources complicating the matter. Similarly, they may sometimes impose an Obstacle 1-2 on actions that target you. For instance, replacing your arms and head with drills may grant a +1 Tool bonus to demolishing a house, 2 Edge in a contest to demolish your house before your neighbors get theirs down, and an Obstacle 2 on anyone trying to recognize you.

One way to understand this is that you’re a bit awkward, clumsy, or inexperienced at the higher end of physically possible transformations and disguises, while the higher end of metaphysical or impossible stuff is understated, semi-illusory, or vulnerable to subtle influences. You’re totally allowed to define a really potent shapeshifting or disguise ability, one that lets you turn into a bird and fly, or wriggle through a crack in a wall, or turn your arm into a laser, or copy the metaphysical blueprint of another person—but you’ll have difficulty exploiting a power like that to its fullest extent. It’s helpful, but not as astonishingly effective, productive, and preeminent as it might be expected otherwise to be.

Spend 1 MP to activate your signature shapeshifting or disguise ability. You can sustain this action and keep it activated if you expect to make further changes soon. Once you’ve transformed, it’s up to how you’ve defined the power how long the transformation itself lasts—whether it ends when the miracle does, whether it fades at the end of the scene or the chapter, or whether it lasts for what could be a very long time or forever—but the comfort and beneficial qualities of a long-term transformation will tend to fade over time, requiring the occasional top-up with MP to remain at their maximum strength.

Even when not using your signature ability, you may invoke Many-Faced for a +1 to the Tool bonus (max +2) you receive on any mundane disguise or self-transformation ability. You can’t combine this with the bonuses from another invocation of Many-Faced.

Arc 3. You become more facile with shapeshifting. Benefits from your altered forms and disguises become more common, the 1-2 Edge and Obstacle 1-2 you gain/impose tends to be 2 more often, and even occasionally 3! You’ve worked out most of the awkwardness with a physical power and manifested a conceptual power more thoroughly in the world.

At this point, you can also invoke Many-Faced for +3 to the Tool bonus (max +4) on any mundane disguise or self-transformation ability; again, this can’t be doubled up.

Arc 5. You become more facile with shapeshifting again, gaining three points of Will (max 15) every time you use your signature shapeshifting or disguise ability. This Will must be spent within the next few hours, and any leftover dissipates at the end of that time, although you could theoretically cycle it through successful or failed Intentions to add it on a longer-term basis to your pool.

If your group does not track Will carefully, you may instead power up your favorite mundane Skill two points or your favorite magical/Superior Skill by one point (both max 5) for a few hours after using Many-Faced; you can only have one application of this benefit at a time.

Examples

nobody recognizes you in your magical girl outfit

your body is a malleable substance

you can turn into a wolf

you can swap out your arms for various useful parts

you can use illusions to look like other people

you have a library of costumes that activate when you turn a magic dial

you’re so generic that people keep confusing you for whomever you think they should

#patreon-supported posts #cmwge #creature of delirium

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theredherb · 4 years

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The Red Herb’s Top 10 Games of 2020

Hey, fuck 2020. You might notice that many of the “Best Of” lists you read this year and last can’t help but mention how terrible 2020 was. That’s because every day was like hitting a new, splinter riddled branch on our 365 day plummet off a shit-coated tree. The year brought with it a viral pandemic that served as a pressure cooker for the societal and systemic issues boiling beneath the surface of our every day life. And we’re not out of it.

At least one positive holds true of 2020: the games were pretty darn good. One has to wonder, though, if 2020 was the last year of what can be called “normalcy” for the video game industry. Now that the remainder of titles brewed in pre-Covid times are out in the wild, what will the future of gaming look like as studios shift to work-from-home and distribution models migrate to digital as the primary bread winner? What will games look like going forward?

I have no fucking clue. We’ll get there when we get there. But looking back, I’m glad to have had such solid distractions from the stress and strife. If 2020 is any indicator for the industry going forward, then my takeaway is that games will continue to grow in prominence because of their ability to help us cope and, more importantly, stay connected.

Anyway, here’s video games:

10. MARVEL’S AVENGERS

Oh, Marvel’s Avengers. I know you expected to be on more prestigious Top 10 lists than mine. Truthfully, I debated whether or not you should be here. But I had to search my soul (stone) on this one. Really assemble my feelings. Tony Stark my thoughts (?). Here’s the short of it: Marvel’s Avengers has a great story campaign with a surprising amount of emotional weight thanks largely to Kamala Khan’s quest to reassemble the heroes of her youth. Once the final cutscene ends, though, players were expected to take their play box of Marvel heroes, jump online, and duke it out against hordes of villains for the privilege of precious loot and level gains. It would be impossible to get bored because Crystal Dynamics was going to continually Bifrost in new quests, cosmetics, and heroes -- for free!

Except, after fans blasted through the campaign (took me a solid weekend), they found a multiplayer mode filled with repetitive fights against non-descript A.I.M Bots, a handful of dull, un-Marvelous environments (the PNW?! In a video game?! Wowwee!), and a grind for gear that became useless minutes after it was equipped. Oh, and bugs. Tons of bugs. It must be hard for A.I.M. to take earth’s mightiest heroes seriously when they’re falling through the fucking earth every other mission.

So why the Kevin Accolade™? Of all the mistakes and underbaked ideas, Crystal Dynamics got the most important thing right: they made me feel like I was a part of the Avengers. Cutting through the sky as Iron Man; dive bombing, fists-first as the Hulk; firing gadgets at cronies as Black Widow; cracking a row of skulls with Cap’s shield… Avengers is a brawler on super soldier serum.

The combat is crunchy and addictive, and surprisingly deep once you unlock your character’s full suite of skills and buffs. The gear matters little. But choosing a loadout that works for you -- like ensuring enemy takedowns grant you a health orb every time or turning area clearing attacks to focused beams of hurt -- does matter. When it comes to games with disastrous launches, Avengers is the most deserving of a triumphant comeback story because, if you clear the wreckage, I think there’s a solid game here. If I was able to spend hours playing it in its roughshod state, I can see myself digging in for the long-term once it’s polished up and given a healthy dose of content. You know...if Square Enix doesn’t outright abandon it.

9. STREETS OF RAGE 4

Here’s a fact about me: I love beat ‘em ups. From Final Fight to X-Men to The Simpsons, I prioritized my quarters for the beat ‘em up machines (and House of the Dead simply because House of the Dead fuckin’ owns). Unfortunately, Streets of Rage wasn’t in arcades, and I didn’t own a Genesis growing up, so I didn’t get around to the series until Sega re-released as part of a collection. Though my history with the 29 year old brawler is shorter than some, the basics stand out out right away: it’s an awesome side-scrolling brawler filled with zany character designs and high octane boss fights.

SoR4 nails that simple spirit while adding an electric soundtrack, buttery smooth animations, and an art style that looks like a comic book in motion. You can button-mash your way through the game or master your timing to combo stun the shit out of bad guys. Same screen co-op is a requisite for the beat ‘em up genre but I have to call it out nonetheless given that it's next to obsolete these days. The story campaign is, of course, finite but a stream of unlockables and a Boss Rush Mode pad out the package nicely.

I really don’t have to go on and on. I’m on board with any game that captures the arcadey high of classic beat ‘em ups, and Streets of Rage 4 does it with flare.

8. RESIDENT EVIL 3 REMAKE

Resident Evil 2’s remake was my game of the year in 2019. It’s a pitch perfect revision that captures the pulse-pounding fear of the original while beautifully updating its graphics and gameplay for modern audiences. The most striking aspect of RE2’s remake is how it expands and reconfigures the classic game’s environments and set pieces. Capcom managed to recontextualize, and even improve on, the original’s design while staying faithful to its tone and atmosphere.

Resident Evil 3’s remake is less successful in modifying and improving on its source material. If the game feels like it was handled by a different team than RE2R, your gamer hands have good eyes (roll with it). It was developed by a separate internal team (three different teams, in fact), but that’s actually one of many choices mirroring its 1999 forebear. Just like the original, RE3R is a tighter (i.e. shorter) experience that launched less than a year after its predecessor. And just like the original, the game skirts away from survival horror in favor of action horror.

Unlike last year’s remake, however, RE3R paints in broad strokes with the original material much in the same way that 2004’s Dawn of the Dead remake shared a vague resemblance with Romero’s ‘79 classic. Capcom at least nails down what matters: you play as Jill Valentine, beaten and discredited after the Arklay Mountains incident, during her last escape from the zombie besieged Raccoon City. Her exit is complicated by Nemesis, a humanoid missile that relentlessly pursues her from minute two of the game. Her only chance of making it out alive is by teaming up with a gaggle of Umbrella dispatched mercenaries, including an overly handsome fellow named Carlos Oliveras that you control for a spell. But fans struggled to get over what Capcom didn’t remake. Several enemies, boss fights, and a “divergent path” mechanic that had you choose how best to escape the Nemesis in a pinch were omitted from the remake. Even an entire section set in a clock tower was cut. But, let’s be honest, the biggest omission is a secret ending where Barry Burton saves the day using only his beard. For real, YouTube that shit.

If you look at what the remake does instead of what it doesn’t, you’ll find a lightning paced action game highlighted by tense, one-on-one fights against the constantly mutating Nemesis. The tyrant’s grotesque transformations evoke the mind-rending, gut turning creature designs found in John Carpenter's The Thing. It’s sad that Nemesis doesn’t pursue you through the levels as diligently as he did in the original, or as Mr. X had in last year’s remake, but these “arena fights” end up being harrowing and fun, culminating in a memorable final encounter. The remake also treats us to the best incarnation of Jill to date. She’s a cynical badass, exasperated at how Umbrella upended her life, and can take a plunge off of a building yet still muster enough energy to call Nemesis a bitch. RE3R also shines thanks to its snappy combat, including a contextual dodge that feels rewarding to pull off, less bullet-sponge enemies than RE2, and an assortment of weapons to get you through Jill’s Very Bad Night(s). It makes for a necessary, though shorter, companion to last year’s stellar remake.

7. HADES

I’m experiencing a new type of shame including a title that I haven’t beaten on my Top 10 list, but I can assure you that I’ve dumped hours into its addictive death loop. It’s probably because of my resistance to looking up any tips, but given the skill-check nature of the difficult boss fights, I’m almost afraid the top shelf advice will amount to “die less, idiot.”

My failings aside, Hades is brilliant. It’s the perfect merger of gameplay and storytelling. You play as Zagreus, son of Hades, and your entire goal is to escape your father’s underworld domain. You pick from a selection of weapons, like a huge broadsword or spear, and attempt your “run,” seeing how far you can make it before an undead denizen cuts you down. It’s familiar roguelike territory, but where Supergiant separates their game from the pack is in the unique feeling of constant progression, even as you fail. With each run, not only is Zagreus earning a currency (gems or keys) that unlock new skills that make the next go a little easier, you’re also consistently treated to new lore. The fallen gods and heroes that line your father’s hall greet you after each death and provide a new insight into their world. The writing is bouncy and hilarious, the voice acting ethereal and alluring, and the character designs could make a lake thirsty.

Supergiant’s stylistic leanings are at their peak here. They’ve managed the impossible feat of making failure feel like advancement. Sure, it totally fucks up other roguelikes for me, but that’s okay. None of those games have Meg.

6. DEMON’S SOULS

Whereas Capcom takes liberties with their remakes, Bluepoint took the Gus Van Sant approach and made a 1:1 recreation of the 2009 title that launched the “Soulslike” genre. The dividing difference is a 2020 facelift brought to us by way of the PlayStation 5’s next-gen horsepower. There’s been online arguments (surprise) regarding the loss of Fromsoftware’s visual aesthetic in translating the PS3 original in order to achieve a newfound photorealism. It’s true, some beasties lose their surreal weirdness -- a consequence of revisiting designs without the worry of graphical or time constraints -- but the game’s world is still engrossing, morbid, and bleakly gorgeous.

That’s not to say all Bluepoint did was overhaul the graphics and shove this remake out the door. No, their improvements are nuanced, under-the-hood changes that gently push the genre into the next-generation. For one, the loading times are incredible. You could hop between all five archstones in under a minute if you wanted. And this game is a best DualSense controller showcase outside of Astro’s Playroom. You can feel a demonstrable difference between hitting your sword against a wall compared to connecting it with an attacking creature. Likewise, the controller rumbles menacingly as to let you know enemies are stomping across a catwalk above you. “Better rumbles” was not on my wish list of next-gen features, but the tactile feedback goes great lengths to make you feel like you’re there.

Granted, sticking so closely to the original means its pratfalls are also carried over to the next-gen. The trek between bonfire checkpoints is an eternity compared to the game’s successors, and Fromsoftware hadn’t quite mastered the sword ballet of boss fights prevalent in Dark Souls. Instead, a handful of bosses feel more like set pieces where you’re searching for the “trick” to end it versus having to learn attack patterns and counters. Still, it’s easy to see the design blueprint that bore a whole new genre. From having to memorize enemy placements to hunting down the world’s arcane secrets in the hopes of finding a new item that pushes the odds in your favor. Bluepoint’s quality of life improvements only make it kinder (not easier) to plunge into the game, obsess over its idiosyncrasies, and begin to master every inch of it. That is until you roll into New Game+ and the game shoves a Moonlight Greatsword up your ass.

5. YAKUZA: LIKE A DRAGON

Here’s a fact about me I’m sure you don’t know: I love beat ‘em ups. Streets of Rage 4 had an easy time making it on this list because it can be classified as both a “beat ‘em up” and “good.” Here’s another fact about me: I’m not the biggest fan of JRPGs. I’m told this is not because of any personal preferences I harbor, but rather due to a distinct lack of culture. I’ve made peace with that. At least my uncultured ways are distinctive.

But my disinterest in JRPGs is notable here because it illustrates how very good Like A Dragon is. Transitioning the Yakuza series from a reactive brawler (entrenched in an open-world SIM) to a full-blown turned-based RPG was risky -- especially 8 entries into the mainline series -- but it pays off explosively for Like A Dragon. Not only does the goofiness, melodrama, and kinetic energy translate to an RPG -- it’s improved by it. Beyond a new protagonist -- the instantly likable and infinitely affable Ichiban Kasuga -- we’re finally treated to an ensemble cast that travels with you, interacts with you, and grows with you. Their independent stories weave into Ichi’s wonderfully and end up mattering just as much as his.

The combat doesn’t lose any of its punch now that you’re taking turns. In fact, it feels wilder than ever and still demands situational awareness as your enemies shift around the environment, forcing you to quickly pick which move will do the most damage and turn the fight in your favor. RGG purposefully made Ichi obsessed with Dragon Quest (yes, specifically Dragon Quest) as an excuse to go ham and morph enemies into outlandish fiends that would populate Ichi’s favorite series. It’s a fun meta that never loses its charm.

This is the best first step into a new genre I’ve ever seen an established franchise make and I hope like hell they keep with it for future outings -- and that Ichi returns to keep playing hero. There’s plenty of callbacks and treats for longtime fans, but RGG did a masterful job rolling out the virtual carpet for a whole new generation of Yakuza fanatics.

4. GHOST OF TSUSHIMA

Sucker Punch’s dive into 13th century Japan doesn’t redefine the open-world genre. But like Horizon: Zero Dawn before it, Ghost of Tsushima takes familiar components of the genre and uses them exceptionally well, creating an airtight experience that can’t help but stand out. I can tell Sucker Punch mused on games like Assassin’s Creed and Breath of the Wild, tried to figure out what makes those games tick, and then brought their own spin to those concepts. You can feel it in their obsession to make traversal through the environment as unobtrusive as possible, letting the wind literally guide you to your destinations instead of forcing the player to glue their eyes to a mini-map. You can feel it in how seamless it is to scale a rooftop before silently dropping on a patrol, blade first. You can feel it in the smoothness behind the combat as your sword clashes against the enemy’s. Every discrete part is fine-tuned yet perfectly complements the whole. The game is silk in your hands.

The mainline story can be humdrum, though. It mirrors the beats of a superhero origin story, which isn’t surprising when you account for the three Infamous titles and satellite spinoffs under Sucker Punch’s belt. But Jin Sakai’s personal journey outshines the cookie-cutter plot. His gradual turn from the strict samurai code to a morally ambiguous vigilante lifestyle (to becoming, eventually, a myth) is a fascinating exploration in shifting worldviews. This is bolstered by the well-written side-missions dotting your quest, some of which play out in chains. It’s these diversions about melancholy warriors and villagers adjusting to life under invasion that end up being the essential storytelling within the game. Whatever you do, don’t skip a single one.

Before GoT can overstay its welcome with collectible hunting and stat-tree building, the ride is over. If you find exhaustive open-world titles, well, exhausting, Sucker Punch coded enough of a campaign to sticking the landing and not more. But if you were looking for more, the game’s co-op Legends mode is the surprise encore of the year. It strikes its own tone, with vibrant, trippy designs, and a progression system that embarrasses other AAA titles in the space (I mean Avengers. I’m talking about Avengers).

3. THE LAST OF US PART II

The Last of Us is widely regarded as a masterpiece. It’s a melancholic trek through a realistic post-apocalypse, driven by the budding bond between a world-weary survivor and a would-be teenage savior. The fungal zombies and violent shootouts with scavengers were scary and exciting, but ultimately just window-dressing compared to the level of complicated, and honest, human emotion on display throughout the tale. While a segment of detractors helpfully pointed out that The Last of Us’ story isn’t unique when compared to years of post-apocalyptic books, comics, and movies, that argument seems to forget that a narrative more concerned with the human protagonists’ connections to one another instead of saving the world or feeding into a hero complex is pretty unique for games -- especially a high profile, AAA budgeted game.

Still, fans made heroes out of Joel and Ellie because of their own connection to their journey. And that connection is almost instantly challenged in the opening hours of The Last of Us Part II to heartbreaking effect. But I’m here to tell you that any other sequel would have been dishonest to the legacy of the original game. To be given a hero’s quest as a continuation, an imagined sequel where Joel and Ellie do battle against the viral infection that’s swept the earth, would have been a despicable cash-in. It would have been a mistake to follow-up the original’s careful examination of human nature just to placate an audience that seems to have missed the point Naughty Dog made. The Last of Us Part II hurts. But it has to or else it wouldn’t have been worth making. It’s a slow-burn meditation on the harmful ripples revenge creates, how suffering begets suffering, and how, if we don’t break the cycles of violence we commit to, suffering will come for us.

To drive this point, we’re given two distinct perspectives during the meaty (and somewhat overlong) campaign, split between Ellie Williams, the wronged party seeking revenge, and Abby Anderson, an ex-Firefly whose actions set the sequel into motion. The greatest trick Naughty Dog pulls off isn’t forcing us to play as a character we hate, it’s giving us reasons to emphasize with them. It was gradual, and despite some heavy-handed moments meant to squeeze sympathy out of the player (how many times do I have to see that fuckin’ aquarium?!), I eventually came to love Abby’s side of the story. The obvious irony being that she unwittingly walks the same path Joel did in the original.

My love for the narrative shouldn’t distract from how well designed the world is. Being a King County local, the vision of a ruined Seattle strikes an uncomfortable note -- it was eerie seeing recognizable buildings overgrown with vegetation but otherwise devoid of life. Maybe the heart-wrenching story also distracts from the fact this game is, by definition, survival horror. Exploring toppled buildings in the dark, hearing the animalistic chittering of the infected, defending yourself with limited resources… It manages to be a scarier entry into the genre in 2020 than even RE3R. There’s a particular fight in a fungus covered hospital basement that easily goes down as my Boss Fight of the Year. Human enemies make for clench-worthy encounters, too, with incredibly adept AI that forces you to keep moving around the environment and set traps to avoid getting overwhelmed.

Admittedly, the subject matter -- or more to the point, the grim tone -- was tough to stomach during an actual pandemic which has happily treated us to the worst of human nature. Still, The Last of Us Part II is absolutely worth playing for its balance of mature themes and expertly crafted world, and the way it juxtaposes beauty and awfulness in the same breath.

2. SPIDER-MAN: MILES MORALES

The most impressive thing about Miles Morales is that, despite being a truncated midquel rather than a full-blown sequel, it’s a better game than 2018’s Spider-Man. It’s not because of the instantaneous loading times or the fancy ray-tracing techniques used on the PS5 version of the game. Rather, it’s how it takes the joyride of the original game and hones it into a laser focused experience filled to the brim exclusively with highs. Like Batman: Arkham Asylum going into Arkham City, Miles starts the game off with his mentor’s best abilities and tools. From there, he discovers his own powers, his bioelectric venom strike, which ends up feeling like the missing ingredient from the first game’s combat.

Your open-world playground -- a locale in the Marvel universe called “New York City” -- is exactly the same size as the previous installment, which helps avoid making the game feel “lesser.” But Insomniac wisely consolidated the random crimes Peter faced into a phone app that Miles can check and choose which activity to help out with. Choices like this really trim the fat from the main game and help alleviate “the open-world problem” where the story’s pacing suffers because players are spending hours on end collecting feathers. This is great because Miles’ story is also great. The narrative kicks Peter out pretty early on, focusing on how Miles assumes the role of city protector, primarily focused on his new home in Harlem. Insomniac avoids retreading the same path paved by Into the Spider-Verse by telling a relatable tale where Miles defines his identity as Spider-Man. With a strong cast led by Nadji Jeter as Miles, the game lands an impactful story that weaves its own new additions to Miles’ mythos (light spoiler: I loved their take on The Prowler).

Miles Morales was pure virtualized joy from start to finish. A requirement of the platinum trophy is to replay the entirety of the game on New Game+. I didn’t hesitate to restart my adventure the minute the credits were over. Everything I loved about 2018’s Spider-Man is here: the swinging, the fighting, the gadgets, the bevy of costumes. But it gave me a new element I adore and can’t see Insomniac’s franchise proceeding without: being Miles Morales.

1. FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE

I love subversive media, I do. And Square Enix’s “remake” of one the most beloved video games ever made subverts expectations by openly acknowledging that, yes, the original story you love exists and is consistently referenced in this game. But this is not that story. This is something..else. Because the truth is, SE could never have recreated FFVII and delivered a title that matched the Sacred Game fans created in their heads. That impossible standard is like an imagined deity, given power by feeding on raw nostalgia reinforced by years of word-of-mouth and appearances on Top 100 lists. I’m not saying FFVII is a bad game or that fans give it too much credit. Not at all. There’s a reason it’s so influential -- it’s good! But memory works in a funny way over time. We have a tendency to codify our perception of a thing over the reality of it. The connection we make to certain media, especially when introduced at a young age as FFVII had been to a whole generation of fans so long ago, creates a legend in our heads. Unfortunately, it’s a legend no developer could achieve when tasked with remaking it.

So Square...didn’t. Final Fantasy VII Remake has the same characters, setting, and plot beats as the first third of the original game but it’s not the same game, nor is it a remake of it in the traditional sense. It’s something new. And I fucking love that about it.

Everything is reconfigured, including the combat. After years of trying to merge RPG mechanics with more approachable (and marketable) real-time action (see FFXV and the Kingdom Hearts games for examples), Square Enix finally landed on the perfect balance. You fully control Cloud on the battlefield, from swinging your impossibly huge buster sword to dodging attacks. The ATB gauge (no one knows what the acronym stands for -- that information has been lost to time) gradually fills up, letting unleash powerful moves. But best of all, you fight in a party, and you can switch who to control on the fly.

That may not sound revolutionary, let alone for a Final Fantasy, but each character has a completely unique feel and suite of moves. At times, it feels like playing a Devil May Cry game where you can switch between Dante, Vergil, and Nero on the fly (that’s a free idea, Capcom. Hire me, you cowards). You can soften up an enemy with Cloud’s buster to increase their stagger meter, switch to Barret for a quick gatling barrage, and finally switch to Tifa to crush them with her Omnistrike. You can accomplish this in real-time or slow down the action to plan this out. It’s a great mix of tactics and action that prevents the game from feeling like a mindless hack n’ slash.

What really, really works here is the character work. Each lead walks in tropes first, but the longer you spend with the members of your party, the more their motivations and fears are laid out. You end up having touching interactions with just about the whole main cast. There’s a small segment, after Cloud saves Aerith from invading Shinra guards, that the two make an escape via rooftop.They make light conversation -- small talk really -- but it’s exchanges like this that feel genuine, perfectly framing their characters (stoic versus heartfelt), and grounding an otherwise larger-than-life adventure.

Many bemoaned the fact that FFVIIR only revisits a small portion of the original game, but I think it was a brilliant choice -- to massively expand on areas we only got to see a little of in the original. I honestly didn’t want to leave Midgar. It’s a world rife with conflict and corporate oppression, sure, but Midgar is beautifully realized, from the slums below the plates, populated with normal people trying to make the best of life, to the crime controlled Wall Market, adorned with gaudy lights and echoing honky tonk tunes. It very well may be years before FFVII’s remake saga comes to a close, but if each entry is paved with as much love and consideration and, yes, storytelling subversion as this introductory chapter… It’ll be worth the wait.

#gaming

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x--daughters-of-darkness--x · 3 years

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The Last Word: Shirley Manson on Fighting the Patriarchy and How Patti Smith Inspires Her

The Garbage singer also talks racial justice, living for now, and why legacy is an inherently masculine concern

Almost as soon as Garbage’s self-titled debut blew up overnight in 1995, their singer, Shirley Manson, became aware of the patriarchy running the music industry. Even though she was the group’s focal point — belting dusky electro-rock songs about making sense of depression (“Only Happy When It Rains”) and taking pride in nonconformity (“Queer”) — she was still a woman fronting a band of men, one of whom, Butch Vig, had produced Nirvana’s Nevermind. Almost immediately, she felt as though her role in the group was being devalued — not by the guys she worked with, but externally.

“There was a lot of stuff written about me in the music press, and that’s when I started to realize how I’m being diminished, how, in some cases, I’m being completely eradicated from the narrative because I’m female and not a man,” she says now. “I was talked over by lawyers; I was ignored by managers. The list goes on. It’s boring and tedious; there’s no point in me moaning about it now, but certainly, that was my awakening.”

That revelation emboldened her to speak out about equality and she quickly became a feminist icon, using her platform to bring attention to human rights, mental health, and the AIDS crisis. All the while, she wrote inclusive hit songs with Garbage about androgyny and reproductive rights (“Sex Is Not the Enemy”). On Garbage’s great new album, No Gods No Masters, she grapples with racial injustice, climate change, the patriarchy, and her own self-worth. But as weighty as the subject matter is, she approaches each song in her own uniquely uplifting way.

“I don’t think really the record is serious, per se,” the singer, 54, says, on an early May phone call. “I think it’s an indignant record. I think in indignance you can still carry humor with you, as well as softness, kindness, and love in your heart. I just felt it would be inauthentic to say anything other than what I was saying in my daily life across the dinner table from my friends and my family. I think as you get older as an artist, the challenge is, ‘How I can be my most authentic self?’ because that’s the most unique story I can tell. In an industry that’s just absolutely jam-packed to the rafters with ideas, opinions, melodies, and so on, you can’t afford to be anything other than your most authentic self. It won’t last.”

Authenticity and being true to herself are the qualities that have made Manson who she is. And those traits seem to guide her answers to Rolling Stone’s questions about philosophy, life lessons, and creature comforts for our Last Word interview.

What are the most important rules that you live by? I’m 54, which is ancient for the contemporary music industry. At this point, I feel like if it’s not fun, then I’m uninterested entirely. If somebody’s treating me poorly, I have to walk away. Life is so fricking short, and I’m three quarters of the way through mine already; I just want to have a good life, full of joy.

Who are your heroes and why? Patti Smith is a huge hero for me for a lot of different reasons. Most importantly, it’s because she’s a woman who has navigated her creative life so beautifully and so artfully, with such integrity and authenticity, and she has proven to me that a woman, an artist, does not have to subscribe to the rules of the contemporary music industry.

It’s very rare for other women to see examples of women actually working still in their seventies. That, to me, is really thrilling and really inspiring, and it fills me with hope. At times when you come up against the ageism, sexism, and misogyny that exists in our culture, I always try and picture Patti in my mind’s eye, and it always brings me back to center, like, “OK, adhere to your own rules. Design your own life. Be your own architect. You can continue to be an artist the rest of your life.” And to me, that’s life. That is a fully lived life.

You’re also a role model yourself. How do you handle that responsibility? I’m a bit speechless if the truth be told. I realize that I’ve now enjoyed a long career in music, and by default, I think people are inspired by that. I think whenever you see an artist, no matter who they are, when someone can endure, I think that’s exciting to everybody else, because it’s a message that says, “You too can get up when you think you’re done. You too can brush yourself off and try again.” By just continuing, you can help other people continue and fulfill themselves in ways that they thought they wouldn’t be able to.

I try to be a decent person. I make mistakes. I fuck people off. I say stupid shit. I’m not all-knowing; I am ignorant in so many ways. But I do try my best. I think that’s really all I can ask of myself.

How others perceive me is absolutely out of my control. There’s always going to be people who think I’m an arsehole, and that’s just part and parcel of being in the public eye. People are just going to hate on you, so I try not to take too much of it in; I don’t let it absorb me too much. I have gotten to that point in my life when I’m able to just go, “You know what? Fuck it. You can’t win them all.”

You once said that the idea of legacy was a masculine construct that you don’t believe in. Do you still feel that way? Yeah. I still very much believe in that. I know a lot of male artists who bang on about their legacy and their importance. Not to knock that if that’s what’s important to you but for me personally, what do I care? I’m going to be dead and gone and totally unconscious of any so-called legacy that I might leave behind. I want fun now. I want to have a good life now. I want to eat good food now and have great sex. It’s absolutely meaningless to me what happens after I’m gone. I want to use my time wisely, and that’s all that I really am concerned with, to be honest.

What is it about legacy that’s inherently masculine? This is armchair psychology, so please forgive me, but I’m sure it has something to do with how women have this uterus that can bear children. I think that’s profound. One of the few gifts that men have not been given is that ability to create with your body, and your blood, and your heat and all these nutrients from your body. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons why you don’t hear as many women banging on about the great legacy they’re going to leave behind. I think for women it’s their kids.

You’re Scottish. What is the most Scottish thing about you these days? I’ve got a lot of grit, and it’s served me really well in my career. I think that is a really Scottish trait. The Scottish people are tough, and they also have a good sense of humor. So, grit with humor. I should say “gritted with humor,” in the same way we grit roads.

As you were saying “grit,” it occurred to me that a lot of your songs are about survival and moving forward, going back to “Stupid Girl” or “Only Happy When It Rains.” They’re about perseverance. [Pauses] I think it’s funny you should say that because I’m just sort of like, “Wow, he might be right.” I do think that a huge theme for me is, “How do you overcome? How do we all overcome?” Things can be great for a while; things will not be great forever. And to every single life, these challenges appear. We all have to reconfigure ourselves in order to try to hurl ourselves over obstacles in order to have the kind of life we hope for. So I do think you’ve shocked me a little by discovering a theme for me. Yay, I feel thrilled. I have a theme. It’s exciting.

“Waiting for God” is one of my favorite songs on the album because of the way you address racial justice. How can we, as a society, fight white indifference? You know, that’s a question right there. It’s interesting that you use the words “white indifference,” because one of the things that shocked me so greatly is the ambivalence and the apathy of white people all over the world who are seeing what we’re seeing on our TVs and on the internet, and yet not having the moral courage to speak up. I think the most important thing we can do is pull back the carpet to see the mess on the floor in order for us to actually start cleaning it up.

If we could curtail some of the brutality of police against black people, that would be a good start. I think it’s going to be decades and decades and decades before we can start to really equalize our societies so that everyone is enjoying the spoils of Western wealth over in the developing world. It’s necessary that we try and help these countries that aren’t as powerful or as wealthy. It’s good for the whole world if we start to improve situations for everyone. Nobody will lose anything, and everyone has everything to gain.

But if I had the answers to how we go about fixing it, I would be in politics and not in music. I just know what I believe to be right, and I’m doing my best to use my voice to try and encourage my friends, my little ecosystem, to start with paying attention and supporting black businesses and elevating black voices and black talent.

What’s your favorite book? I have so many. The one that springs to mind would be American Pastoral by Philip Roth. I loved All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy. I loved The Collected Works of Billy the Kid by Michael Ondaatje. I loved Winnie the Pooh and Wuthering Heights. I’ve got so many that have really stuck with me that are classics.

My most favorite recent book that I’ve just finished reading is Dancer by Colum McCann about [Russian ballet dancer Rudolf] Nureyev. I was just absolutely mesmerized by it. It was just such a fantastic read, and he’s such a miraculous writer. He brought out Apeirogon last year about the struggle in between Palestine and Israel. He talks about this complicated mess with such clarity, kindness, and generosity. I couldn’t believe Apeirogon didn’t get more fuss made of it last year. Somehow it just seemed to get buried in the morass of other books, and of course the suffering that Covid had brought upon the earth.

What advice do you wish you could give your younger self? “Take up your space.” When I was growing up, to be a girl was to be told to minimize the space you took up: “Close your legs. Don’t be loud. Smile. Be cute. Be attractive. Be pleasing.” I inherently balked against that as a kid. I was a rebellious kid, and I wasn’t going to sit in the corner and be quiet. I’ve never been like that. However, looking back, I still notice some of the patterns of my own compliance. It’s not that I hate myself for it, but I just wish I could turn around and say to my young self, “Take your seat. If there’s not a seat there, drag a seat up to the table and sit down.”

I’m still really aware of the sexism and misogyny that I have had to battle throughout my career. I’m not crying, “Woe is me,” because I’ve obviously flourished in my career, and it obviously didn’t hold me back enough to hamper me in any way. But I feel for all the women who were unlike me, who didn’t have my forcefulness of personality, or my education, or my ability to articulate myself. I want that for all people, though; I want all people to stop trying to please, and accept that some people will like that, and some people won’t, and that’s OK. It’s OK that some people just don’t dig you.

On the topic of gender, I got a kick out of your song “Godhead,” where you ask if people would treat you differently “if I had a dick.” I’m really proud of that song, because I think it’s talking about something really serious, and it’s really fun. It’s about addressing the patriarchy, and how omnipresent it is. When I was young, I was so busy trying to make it, I didn’t see that there was a patriarchy in place. And it’s only as an adult, I start looking back going, “Oh, wow — when that A&R man told me to my face that he wanked over pictures of me, that was really uncool.” But at the time, you kind of laugh it off and just press on.

I was oblivious to it. In this song, I’m talking about how patriarchy bleeds into absolutely everything, specifically under organized religion. The “Godhead” is the male, and we are all under the godhead forever, and that’s unquestioned, and how crazy is that? Because a dude holds a higher position in society, because he’s got a dick and a pair of balls. Often, these balls are smaller than my own [laughs].

It just gets silly after a while, when you watch other men protect other men just for the sake of protecting the patriarchy. So few men are willing to speak up about bro culture and call into question the behavior of the men they are associated with. There’s just a reluctance by men to address this absolutely shocking, terrifying, depressing, pathetic assault by men of other people’s bodies.

In 1996, your bandmate Butch Vig said about you, “So many singers screamed to convey intensity, and she does the opposite. It just blew us away.” How did you come up with that approach? I don’t know. I’ve found that when people speak to me quietly, I feel the most threatened because I’m really comfortable with conflict. I thrive on conflict. It excites me in a funny way. When people are shouting, I don’t feel scared. I like to shout back; that’s just how my family were. We’d just start to shout at each other all the time. I’m not scared of elevated temper. For me, when people get really quiet, that’s when I know they’re really serious, because they’re in control of their rage, and that’s when they’re most deadly.

The last question I have is a shallow one. I love being cheap and superficial.

What’s the most indulgent purchase you’ve ever made? At the height of my success, I hired a person who would shop for me and then send everything in a big box to my hotel room. I would choose what I wanted and return anything else. One day, this beautiful pair of Italian leather boots arrived. I wore a pair very similar in the “Stupid Girl” video, and I thought, “Oh, yeah, these are really me. I’m going to keep these. These are amazing.” It was only when I got back from tour, I found out they cost $5,000. I can’t even laugh about it. It makes me so crazy. I still have these boots. I’d like to get rid of them just so that I never have to look at them again, but there they are every day, warning me of my own greed.

#shirley manson #garbage #2021 interviews

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chaoskirin · 5 years

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A Full History of Thericry

Thericry is one of the oldest stable magics, created by a group of several unnamed humans following the defeat of Erit’s original gods. Jealous of the long lifespans of other races like fauns and elves, humans sought to extend their age using newly found arcane arts. The experiments took decades, and the curse of thericry that survived is the longest standing failure.

While magic was new, science and scientific principles were well-established and it was widely understood that people–whether they be human or elf or harpy, et cetera–aged because of the degradation of DNA. The goal was to create several internal structures that would cause or harbor the production of telomerase without causing tumors.

The humans involved enlisted the help of the New Gods, who were less subtle about directly interfering in the world back then. The god Nebula would create a cycle of release. Antirrhopus would stabilize the new internal structures.

And Xax–the deity of disease–would create a method of distribution.

That was the first mistake.

With magic held closely by the gods and their conduits, and with a series of leylines holding the planet in a stable orbit around its star, the humans realized that there was no way they could harness enough energy at once to "treat" the entire population. Such a massive implementation would tear Erit apart and negate the entire purpose of their experiment. So the idea was to infect a vector, who would then transfer their near-immortality to everyone around them, and so on and so forth, until every human carried it. Instead of using existing viruses and modifying them over a number of decades, they petitioned Xax for a bit of a shortcut. Xax didn't earn their titles of "Deity of Death" and "Deity of Pain" until years after the Fall. Initially, the mortals of the world knew the god as simply the "Deity of Disease." And the human petitioners figured that if a disease could be bad, it could also be modified to be good. Symbiotic, even.

But Xax had an important role to fill. Death was, is, and has always been an important part of the cycle of life. Without it, and with a population allowed to grown unchecked, the planet may well have died. While Xax and the other gods knew that the denizens of Erit would find ways to prolong their life, snub disease, and cheat death, it wasn't their job to predict the future. It was their job to fill the roles they had, immediately, in the present. And Xax was neither altruistic nor benevolent. They were opportunistic, though. After conferring with the other gods, it was decided that this human foray into immortality must fail. Antirrhopus, who was chaotic at best, came up with the method to implement the disease, and Nebula, who was fair and kind, limited its scope down to a manageable level. It was the hope of all the gods that mortals would cease their quest into artificially extending their lives if such endeavors created disastrous results. Thus, the humans and the gods started work on the most infamous infection the world had ever known.

In the early days of the new gods, magic began to interweave with all the sciences to produce results the world had never seen before. Experts in human biology and chemistry decided that if this magical virus was to be maintained, the infected would have to change their physiology in order to accept their new, longer lives. And while genetic sciences had been making huge strides before the dawn of widely available magic, magical interference could only perfect their work.

And so it was decided that the infection would do several things. First, it would increase the production of telomerase in the body. And second--to prevent cancer--it would store the excess of this protein in a special fifth chamber of the heart, to be distributed when necessary. Last, it would create what the humans called a terminal cycle. Once a month, a failsafe mechanism would flush any unused protein out of the body.

The magic was written carefully, with input by the gods. Everything was covered. Everything was troubleshooted a hundred times over, then a hundred more. It would work. The internal structures would develop exactly as they were meant to.

And humans would have immortality.

When the time came, Xax donated their finest virus, developed over the course of years. Antirrhopus sent a golden Familiar Spirit, which graciously sacrificed itself for the cause. And Nebula sent a drop of moonlight, bottled and concentrated into a glow so bright that it hurt to look at it without special lenses.

With these boons, the humans built a genetic lattice for their spell. It would have been perfect. The humans would have lived longer than the elves. They could have built an infinite legacy.

No one expected the gods to punish them for their lofty aspirations. The spell was specifically designed to be irreversible. Every loophole was accounted for. Short of an ingenious magical solution that would account for every tiny detail in the original magic, the disease would be permanent and particularly virulent. To ensure reversal was impossible, once the humans brewed their potion, they destroyed the written formula. No one would ever see how they made it.

The names of those who first imbibed the solution are lost to time.

It only took days for it to begin to work, as it reconfigured their bodies to accept their longer lifespan. Everything seemed to be working as planned. And while it was impossible to see what was happening on a microscopic level, their hearts split into five chambers. Blood tests showed no excess of telomerase in the blood--as planned--which meant the protein was confined.

Side effects manifested slowly. The eyes of those who infected themselves changed colors. Some became yellow. Some green, or bright blue. Even purple, or orange, or everything in between. Their appetites increased, too. They seemed to be hungry all the time.

Most curiously, one especially vain subject sought to get the rather large wound at his injection site healed, but it only scarred over. The mark remained.

A few weeks later, they all changed.

Two of them became wolves, another a hawk. One of them hid away, so her change is unknown to history. One became a monstrous insect. Another, a tortoise. Each had their own interesting qualities; some were more animal-like than others, but they were definitely inhuman. Somehow, the Familiar Spirit gifted by Antirrhopus coursed through all of them, changing them into their closest animal kin.

Realizing they had been tricked by the gods, they approached the most amicable of them, Nebula, who inquired: "Did you ask every human on Erit if they wanted immortality?"

She said nothing else to them.

As time passed, the pioneers of immortality learned to control their spontaneous transformations. Most of them intended to never shift again, to hide their failure. One of the wolves, in particular, staunchly fought against the animal side of herself, vowing never to tamper with the course of nature ever again. The disease didn't seem to spread as intended, which meant they could all hopefully put this chapter of their existence to rest for good.

Then came the New Moon.

If only they could have hidden their blunder away forever. If only it were that easy! When Ammit, the closest moon to Erit, waned entirely, the humans who sought to challenge death itself shifted violently, painfully, maddeningly. Their minds were lost to them; they became the beasts they resembled and could only think of one thing--destroying every living soul around them.

Many died in the 34 days that followed as the first therics rampaged. One of the wolves--no one knows which--was killed in the first days. The tortoise was cornered and trapped, as he was particularly slow; though even he was able to bite one of his captors in his rage. The hawk traveled far and wide, her wings carrying her to all corners. Those she didn't kill, she left maimed or in great pain.

Two whole spans later, she was shot down and killed a whole continent away.

The insect was found to have a venom so terrible that it literally overkilled those it bit. It was neurotoxic and hemotoxic, and cause necrosis that spread from the site of the bite. Most who were attacked were dead within hours.

Notably, these new creatures seemed more inclined to go after other humans. In species-diverse areas, it would bypass elves or fauns to get to the human population, unless cornered. Of course we know today that non-humans are affected by theric venom, although in much different ways. That's a topic for another paper.

It's written that most of the original therics were killed as they rampaged. One was never found, and the tortoise, of course, was kept in captivity in hopes that he could be studied. The casualty count ranged in the thousands--hundreds dead and even more injured. Those that survived reported that their scratches and bites would not heal.

34 days to the second, the tortoise passed out, reverted to human, and seemed to only have a vague memory of what happened.

He was passive. In shock. Tired. He would remain caged for the rest of his life, as well; while he received a trial for the unintentional murder of six people, he willingly committed himself to captivity in order to sort out what the gods had done to him and the others.

It took little time to find that the new fifth chamber of the heart did not contain telomerase as planned. Thereafter, the reason for theric hunger became apparent: their bodies were producing adenosine triphosphate--or ATP--in extreme volumes. It was then attached to an inert protein and stored in the heart's fifth chamber. The ATP would flood the body when a theric shifted, providing them enough energy to change without killing them. The theric would then need to recoup their losses, usually be eating, in order to shift back.

While Erit's finest scientists were studying the tortoise, the survivors of the theric rampage began to change themselves. Every human became some type of animal--bears, bluebirds, badgers--each seemed to be different and unique.

In those early days where fear prevailed, many of them were killed. Or locked away forever. Of course some avoided that fate, as thericry continued to spread.

It took decades to discover the true nature of these people and how their affliction functioned. It was the tortoise--one of the original therics--that suggested Antirrhopus would have followed their recipe for a timer in some regard. Thus, they discovered that every 34 days, the ATP reservoir in the heart would undergo lysis--literally exploding and directly flooding the bloodstream with energy. This would force the victim to shift and lose all mental faculty as the ATP literally poisoned them.

And with the destroyed reservoir unable to contain the excess energy, it would continue feeding the theric's unwilling transformation until exactly 34 days later, when the reservoir would heal thanks to nebula's boon, and start regulating ATP again.

Eventually, it was discovered that the level of ATP could be moderated or degraded. That the body wouldn't store as much or cause the theric to feel so much hunger if the theric allowed itself to spend time in its animal form. Essentially, it was hypothezied that if a theric could prevent the reservoir from lysing, it could prevent itself from losing its mind.

After much trial and error, it was determined that a full day--28 hours, to be precise--spent in the theric form would degrade the ATP cycle enough so that the reservoir wouldn't explode on the night of Ammit's new moon.

With magic involved, of course, this cycle started anew when Ammit began to wax again, meaning therics were forever cursed to spend at least part of their time as their alternate self. Because of the size of Erit, it took centuries to educate the farthest reaches as to the proper way to handle theics, and discrimination against them still persists today.

In the end, because of the stress the curse puts on the human body, afflicted people actually find their lifespan reduced by an average of twenty to thirty years. While most humans may expect to live to the age of 90, most therics won't live past the age of 60; those who are more conservative with their ability might make it to 70, but there has never been a recorded instance of a theric making it to 80 years old.

Let this be a lesson to us all: pride we may have, but we must never again gather so much hubris that we seek to spit in the face of the gods. That folly may yet be our downfall.

#the bestiary #fantasy #modern fantasy #monster #myth #mythology #sci-fi #mythological creature #ck's art #ck's original art #ck writes #theric #werecreature #lycanthropy #werewolf #shapeshifter #shapeshifting

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dravidious · 6 months

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You're more amazing than getting rid of deathtouch

Just tried out my new thrown-together Magnetic Snuffler deck and tested it against Sparky. In the first game I drew through half my deck and couldn't find a snuffler. In the second game I drew two in the top 20 card of my deck. So yeah, it's about as consistent as you'd expect a deck built around a single card to be.

#asks #also it turns out that the strongest reconfigure equipment is the 3-drop Bronzehide Boar. so that's disappointing #i think the best place for snuffler is as a 2-of in a normal equipment deck that runs bronzehide boar #the deck i made also runs 4 For Mirrodin! equipments and uses tons of discard effects to discard them and draw to look for snuffler #but the discard effects take up so much deck space that there's no backup plan #so again maybe just a 2-of in a normal equipment deck #Bronzehide Boar also synergizes really well with Kemba Kha Enduring #and the reconfigure creatures in general work great with Affinity for Equipment #maybe there's a deck there

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kariachi · 6 years

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So, have been thinking about the common criticism of the Pern novels as to the whole ‘sentient beings are genetically engineered to bond to other sentient being for life and if the other being dies they die’ deal and am trying to figure out how I would reconfigure the set-up in an AU to remove that concern.

Remove the whole ‘created through science’ thing. There would need to be changes to the early plot to fit the dragons being native sentients, specifically to explain why the colonists still came to Pern despite specifically wanting to avoid planets with prior occupants (+would a new sentient species have been left alone? I think not)

Could go with the people who first checked out the planet straight not knowing there was a sentient species there. They show up not long after a Pass, so maybe dragons naturally moved deeper into their hives during Passes, since actively flaming Thread would’ve been difficult and dangerous for them at the time? So the exploration team shows up when the dragons are still slowly moving out of their caves, don’t spend long on the planet, don’t go too far compared to other planets they’ve explored, the two species just completely miss each other.

So, the colonists get to Pern and it turns out that actually, yeah, this planet is already occupied. Egg on their face. But there’s no real ‘turn around and go home’ option. They didn’t intend to go any further than Pern and so don’t have the fuel to leave for, anywhere, and the only other option for leaving would be to send for a rescue from the Federation (I can’t remember if it was a federation but you get the point) that would’ve put the dragons and sanctity of the planet at risk, as they would’ve wanted to take whatever resources they could to pay for the rescue. Dragons, humans, and dolphins are gonna have to take each other out or learn to live together.

The humans would prefer to learn to live together, thank you, most of them just came out of one war and they really really don’t want another, and the ones that didn’t are just straight up good people who feel bad about this whole mess.

Sean’s father is the most indignant person about all this, what with his family having been shipped off with this lot (because apparently even in a post-racial society people still don’t want Travellers around) only to apparently be forced into taking over some other poor sod’s territory.

Several dragons love him for this, yes, be aggravated alongside us, join us tiny brother!

Colonists learn early on about Thread because the dragons are already preparing for it. Nobody is caught by surprise by anything.

Things are awkward as fuck between the species for a long while, more on the humans’ end than the dragon

Only golds tend to be territorial and unless there’s a clutch on the sands that’s only with foreign golds, so the dragons don’t really, see the humans as a threat so much as a strange annoyance? Like, these small creatures showed up in larger, mute creatures they then tore apart to build little free-standing caves? And they don’t use proper telepathy, they make this wide range of weird sounds to communicate? But clearly they are sentient? The dragons start out more confused and annoyed than anything.

On the human end though, there’s big-ass motherfucking dragons already living here good fuck we’re all gonna die. Good job, Benden.

Eventually they work shit out, when the eruption at Southern threatens Landing a few dragon hives offer to help with the evacuation and let the humans move into a hive.

Meanwhile, Thread’s been falling for a few years at this point and the two species have realized that a human riding on a dragon’s back can keep them stocked with firestone, letting them burn the shit out of the sky. Suddenly farmland and hunting grounds both are safe from the ravages of Threadfall.

As time goes by they refine the whole thing, and come up with some solid realizations

Dragon’s ability to form psychic bonds comes in really handy, and while human minds can’t handle sharing a bond with more than one person- human, dragon, or otherwise- bonded pairs work together much better and are more likely to come out of Fall safe and sound.

Younger is better with regards to forming a solid bond- something the dragons already knew but that throws the humans off. As a result humans in their late teens and early adulthood find themselves on the list of potentials for a bond with a dragon hatchling.

The dragons find this doubly beneficial, as now each baby has a nimble set of hands on hand to tend to their specific needs, freeing up the adults to this newfound job of flying Fall and ensuring none of the young can be overlooked when it comes to care. Your parents may loose track of you in a crowd, but Yours won’t.

This adds a new level to Searchdragons, they’re not just finding humans who are capable to having that bond, but also determining which of those humans can be trusted with it.

In the end we have a system where dragons take on the role of guardians of these new creatures who’ve made themselves so handy in exchange for personalized childcare and aid in protecting both species’ food supplies. Dragons hunt, humans farm, riderpairs protect them all. Both species retain their own politics and so on, but count each other close allies.

Both species can live without each other, but surviving halves of riderpairs tend towards suicide because a massive part of their life just up and kicked it. You’d probably wanna die too if someone you’ve shared every thought, emotion, memory with died and left a gaping empty space in your mind where they used to be.

For the sake of this you’d have to make some changes to the dragons themselves, so let’s include that too

Are a eusocial species with between 1 and 6 gold queens who produce all the young and act as the head of the hive.

Should a hive lose all it’s golds, the largest green will become a small gold and take on the role.

Are omnivores, because I’m still pissed that canon is that the colonists took an omnivorous species and made them obligate carnivores at the same time they made them the size of a small bus.

Have their own name for their species. ‘Dragon’ has become a slang term and how they feel about it varies from individual to individual. Some find it cool that humans were depicting their greatness before they even met, others are annoyed at best by the comparison to mythical beings, others fall somewhere in between.

Were and are a hunter-gatherer society with little in the way of tool use due to their, well, not needing them. They can chew stone, breathe fire, have spears at the end of each claw, and can grow to nearly the size of a blue whale, tool use was not a big deal until humans brought over finicky little things like computers and sewing needles and even those are more viewed as human novelties than anything a dragon proper needs.

#dragonriders of pern

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moderator-monnie · 6 years

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the ending part 2 of ??????(portal 2 alternate story)

note from monnie: 2 of these will be uplouded perday here is part 2 please enjoy!

*maniplation sphere soon looked down at wheatley as he came up from the lift*

maniplation: Well Well Well welcome to the revealing of my plans! and my lair to an extent NOW THAT YOUR HERE I CAN FINALLY BEGAN! you see i stopped apature from exploding and such Ba ba ba baa ba ba ba space! ahem sorry about that anyway what are my plans exactly?

well you see that control panel lit up there? well acording to my calculations we that count down is how long till we began blasting out from under the ground and then get this INTO SPACEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! hehehehe i love space whats your faverite thing about space? mine is space! oh i can’t wait!

but sadly... you won’t be joining us wheatley once your dead glados or potatOS now ha ha ha see what i did there? will be placed into a trophie case and then once we are leaving earth you’ll be ejected out of the building well your corpse will be gotta say... i’ll miss you but hey you’ll finally be free in a way!

also i took the liberty of watching the tapes of you killing her and well i am not gonna make the same mistakes

*he chuckled gently to himself and giggled about space but then got back into his serious mode*

my four part plan is this! one no portal surfaces two start the neurotoxin immeditately bomb proof sheilds for me and that leads to part four bombs for throwing at you

you know what i’ll give you a good chance since we were once friends i’ll turn of the neurotoxin but in return my new planet grenade turret will also be summoned to help me blow up you but unlike that rocket turret these won’t just explode on impact

and i am sorry to say this old friend but... goodbye wheatley it was nice knowing you

*soon the new planet grenade turret comes out of a pannel on the ground and starts shooting grenades at wheatley along with bombs from above*

intercom voice: PREPARING FOR LAUNCH TIME TILL LUNCH 7 MINUTES

*wheatley begans to run away soon thanks to Ch3ll notices a tube with Conversion Gel inside he then runs behind it*

maniplation: where are you going? don’t run it makes this harder for us both! come on i promice let yourself be exploded it will be quick not painless but quick!

*soon enough one of the bombs blows up the gel container getting it all over the room meaning portal surfaces*

wheatley: H-HAVE A TASTE OF THAT WHITE STICKY GEL MATE.... oh that sounded so much better in my head ech... now i feel nasty for just saying that bloody hell

maniplation: no! ahhh no! don’t!... oh jesus hell... oh maybe your not a mouron after all but not like you could hit me!

*soon enough wheatley shoots a blue portal at the ground one above maniplation and made him shoot a bomb right at himself damaging him enough to make him black out*

potatOS: good work i delivered the first core over on the cat walk grab it and attach it to him!

*wheatly shot a portal up to the cat walk and soon grabed the first core that core being ocean core*

ocean core: OI YOU BLOODY HOE GET THOES FUKEN HANDS AWAY FROM ME MATE I SWEAR ON ME MOM I WILL REK YU LETS GO TO THE OCEAN LAND LOVER GOD I LOVE ME THE OCEAN THE OCEAN IS GREAT AINT IT? MUST ADMIT BLUE EYES ARE ME FAVRITE CAUSE THEY REMIND ME OF THE WATER! AND THE WATER REMINDS ME OF THE SEA!

HEHEHEHEH OCEAN OCEAN OCEAN SEA CREATURES CRAKEN AND ALL THAT JAZZ!

*she soon started to sing ocean man out of anger of being touched by a human*

*Wheatley sighed heavily but jumped down as the cat walk suddenly broke apart some Repulsion Gel fell out of another tube and he bonced up and placed her onto maniplation*

*ocean core soon stopped complaining her eye changing from aqua to pink*

ocean core: oooh now this is what i am talking about why hello their big fella

*wheatly soon jumped down and groaned seeing her suddenly become lovey dovey for the maniplation sphere he then looked up soon enough he came back online*

Intercom voice: warning core corruption at 50% vent system compromized oxgyen will be offline in four minutes launch into space will began in 4 minutes 30 seconds

*soon enough they even heard the sounds of several rockets beganing to come to life and the building shaking showing it was being taken out of the ground*

*after that happened maniplation came back online and his planet grenade turret went into the ground the corrupted core made one of it’s grenades blow itself up*

maniplation: w-wah.... what happened? hehehe are we in space yet? oh god i hope so! wait... oh no but soon we will be! w-what have you put onto me? what is that? hold on oh come on my turret is destoryed! that was the prototype too! ech... oh no my bombs are stuck on as well! this isn’t going space tastic so far

dosen’t matter i’ve reconfigured the sheilds

ocean core: why hello there sir~ i am ocean core heheheh

*she giggled*

maniplation: oh it’s a core you’ve put on me! who told you todo that? was it her?! IT’S JUST GONNA MAKE ME STRONGER YOU TEA DRINKING VAMPIRE!

#portal #Portal 2 #portal au #portal 2 au #manipulation sphere au #portal 2 alternete story #part 2 #wheatley #human wheatly #glados #potatOS #ocean core #Space Core #manipulation sphere

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happymeishappylife · 3 years

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The Great Intelligence (2nd Appearance): The Web of Fear

In the second meeting with the Great Intelligence, we learn a little bit more about this shapeless creature, but truly the highlight of this episode was the huge cast of characters we get introduced to. After all, the Intelligence hasn’t really changed its tactics just three serials from its first appearance. It still is using Yeti machines to terrorize the local population, but instead of being in a remote mountain range in Tibet, they decided that this would work perfectly in the London Underground.

The Doctor gets involved when after having to get the TARDIS back under control from its expulsion of Salamander, the team gets stuck in a landing pattern in the middle of space. Here the TARDIS gets wrapped temporarily in a bit of webbing that prevents the TARDIS from moving. But as soon as it comes it leaves and the Doctor and team manage to land in one of the underground tunnels.

Meanwhile the city of London has evacuated due to the threat of the Yeti, which is quite incredible considering there’s only about six of them. And it is also unclear why after having one come to life in the house of an art collector, they become such a big threat that the city evacuates and the military take control to try and hunt the Yeti out of the tunnels. Which is where the Doctor and team run into them as they try to traverse the tunnels and find out what’s going on. But what’s more incredulous is the fact that an old familiar face is among them:

Professor Travers and his daughter Anne are trying to help the military since they know of the Yeti, but as soon as they meet the Doctor again, the Doctor realizes they are up against the Great Intelligence again and much is at stake.

Now while there is a lot of trying to figure out where the Intelligence is hiding and what is its plan, we learn that the Yeti and the Intelligence now have some weapons. The Yeti for instance now have guns that shoot webs, much like the ones that covered the TARDIS. And these webs can prevent bombs from erupting so that’s some material even though it looks like common spider webs. They also prevent the military from being able to collapse parts of the tunnels to stop the Yetis, but this seems like a bad plan since you would just have to rebuild the tunnels again once the threat was gone. Still everyone in the small military camp is bewildered by the web’s power.

The other, much bigger threat though is a fungus. A fungus that is capable of traveling through the tunnels, breaking down doors and walls, and killing anyone who touches it. Now I understand the fear and the want to control this threat more than the Yetis, but what is more fascinating is the military already has the technology to track the fungus and how it spreads even if its just with a light up map of the Underground. But the only disappointing this is the fungus only really gets used to cause tension or control movement. The Intelligence doesn’t even really acknowledge that its their weapon and they never explain how they get rid of it at the end. For all we know its still in the Underground tunnels so beware:

Just as the Doctor is starting to pick up on what Travers is doing to help the military, but reconfiguring one of the spheres that controls the Yeti to try and control them, he gets thrown for a loop when suspicion in the camp breaks out that someone else is involved with helping the Intelligence. Everyone gets jumpy especially when they meet a colonel who randomly appears in the tunnels:

Hello Colonel Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. Its so good to see you come into Doctor Who, but while I know of course that he’s a good guy, no one else does and he is held in suspicion by just about everyone. Still that doesn’t stop our favorite military officer from being his best self as he quickly takes charge to try and help the Doctor. While he leads a team of military men above ground to try and get to a station where they can attack the fungus from the other side, a smaller team of people, including a scaredy cat named Evans tries to brave the fungus to rescue the TARDIS from who they then believe is working for the Intelligence, a report named Chorley. But the colonel’s men get killed slowly by the Yeti who track them down and are not affected by guns and grenade launchers. And the webbing kills all but Evans who has to report back to HQ. Or so we think. He we learn that Travers has been captured by the Yeti, but we don’t know for what purpose. With so little a crew left, suspicions high, the Doctor does his best to try and continue on with Travers work and stop the Intelligence.

This gets put into high priority though when the Intelligence, using Travers body finally makes itself known and threatens the Doctor to cooperate and do his bidding. It captures Victoria and gives the Doctor just twenty minutes to give himself up or have all his friends killed. Everyone else panics, suggest to even give into the Intelligence’s demands, but the Doctor stays calm and continues on with his work, which ends up being successful though not very well thought through.

With the help of Anne, the Doctor manages to reprogram a sphere and implant it in one of the Yeti. They then figure our a device to be able to control the Yeti via voice which is fascinating and impressive in just twenty minutes. But since the time limit is up he hides that he has done this and lets himself get captured and taken to the station at Piccadilly Square. Here he whispers to Jamie what he has done and gives him control of the Yeti voice controller to try and help later on. But this doesn’t quite make sense the Doctor also manages to stop the Great Intelligence’s plan before he ever gets taken to the room where the climax happens. And he doesn’t need the Yeti to do so.

The Great Intelligence finally reveals that he has been working all along with Staff Sergeant Arnold which is how he survived going through the fungus. He also reveals that he wants the Doctor to submit and allow himself to have the Intelligence transfers into his body. The Intelligence is surprised by the Doctor’s willingness to comply and continues to threaten his friends, but the Doctor goes along seemingly without a problem which is then that we learn he had a plan that Jamie and the others ruin.

His plan having switched the wires in the headset he was given was to somehow allow him to drain the Intelligence of life instead of becoming just a husk. But right before this can happen, Jamie uses his voice controller to have the Yeti attack the others and Arnold in an effort to save the Doctor. For the first time ever, the Doctor is mad and defeated that his plan was ruined, but that’s what happens when one, you don’t tell everyone the plan, but two, your plan isn’t that well thought through in my opinion.

Still the effort manages to save London and stop the Intelligence, though the body is still floating somewhere in space and someday will return again.

#prep for the 60th #the great intelligence #the web of fear

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dipulb3 · 3 years

Text

The 2021 Nissan Versa gives you so much for so little

New Post has been published on https://appradab.com/the-2021-nissan-versa-gives-you-so-much-for-so-little/

The 2021 Nissan Versa gives you so much for so little

Basic transportation doesn’t have to be barebones.

Craig Cole/Roadshow

The average new-vehicle transaction price in the US last year topped $40,000. That’s an astronomical amount of money to spend on an asset that typically depreciates like property values at a superfund site. But owing a shiny new ride with a factory warranty and plenty of tech doesn’t have to leave you a penniless pauper. The 2021 Nissan Versa ($212 at Amazon), for instance, offers so much content for so little cash.

Unexpectedly comfortable interior

Plenty of standard features

Roomy trunk

Don’t Like

Tepid performance

No center armrest

Sloppy steering

No, there’s nothing joyful or exuberant about this scrappy little four-door. It’s definitely a function-dictates-form kind of car, but the standard equipment and overall comfort offered are impossible to ignore. From the base Versa S to the pinnacle SR, every one comes standard with automatic emergency braking including pedestrian detection, automatic high beams, lane-departure warning and even rear automatic braking. Just a few years ago, features like these were hard to find on luxury cars and they’re now standard fare on the most-affordable Nissan in America. The two higher trims can also be fitted with lane-departure warning, rear cross-traffic alert, blind-spot monitoring and even adaptive cruise control. That last amenity is included in the $400 Convenience Package, which also gets you single-zone automatic temperature control and heated front seats.

The Versa’s high-end tech works surprisingly well. The blind-spot monitoring system in the SR model I’m testing is attentive to surrounding traffic and the adaptive cruise control — while not as fancy as Nissan ProPilot Assist, which includes lane centering — is eerily observant, able to spot other vehicles around turns and gently slow down so there are no sphincter-puckering incidents on the highway. Its performance is laudable at any price, let alone in a car that’s this affordable.

Other amenities include a standard 7-inch color touchscreen (which, unfortunately, is pretty washed out, even on overcast days), Bluetooth and three USB ports. Remote keyless entry and pushbutton start are standard equipment, too. Fancy SR models are also fitted with LED headlights, an easy-to-use 7-inch reconfigurable instrument cluster display and a leather-wrapped steering wheel. The Versa’s top two trims can also be fitted with a Nissan Connect infotainment system, which includes satellite radio plus Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The SR variant’s standard six-speaker sound system is also unexpectedly crisp and clear.

The Versa’s interior is a pleasant place to spend time. Constructed mostly of hard plastic, the dashboard and door panels nonetheless look good and there are soft surfaces sprinkled throughout. Both contrast-color stitching and seat fabric livens up what could otherwise be a pretty bleak cabin. The front bucket chairs are supple yet supportive and the backbench is upright and spacious, if a little tight on headroom. This car nails the basics, but not everything. An armrest between the front seats is not standard, leaving the driver and front passenger’s elbows dangling, which could get pretty tiring on long drives. Nissan does, however, offer a center armrest with an integrated storage cubby, but it’s an absurd $320 option, one this example is not fitted with. Why such a simple feature isn’t standard across the board is a real head scratcher.

Don’t expect fire-breathing performance. Sorry, this isn’t a sports car.

Craig Cole/Roadshow

When it’s time to haul luggage, this Nissan’s trunk offers about 15 cubic feet of space and is both broad and long. For added versatility, the 60/40 split rear backrest folds down for extra capaciousness.

The Versa’s only engine is a 1.6-liter inline-4. Without the aid of any forced induction, its output is modest, just 122 horsepower and 114 pound-feet of torque. As you might imagine, it sounds a bit taxed when laboring, but otherwise feels pretty smooth for what it is. The acceleration this engine provides is adequate, but in certain situations, like when passing dawdling tractor-trailers or merging onto the highway, you’ll pine for more gusto. Despite those lackluster numbers, the Versa feels feisty off the line, its throttle tip-in is tuned to be borderline jumpy, but whether you’re one-third of the way into the accelerator or flat out, the Versa doesn’t accelerate any quicker, plus its vigor lags at speeds beyond about 50 mph. Plan your overtaking maneuvers accordingly.

Functional, pleasant, spacious and comfortable are all adjectives that describe the Versa’s interior.

Craig Cole/Roadshow

A quick-witted continuously variable transmission is standard on the midrange SV and top-shelf SR models. It responds smoothly and promptly to driver inputs, making the most of the Versa’s available horses. Nissan’s D-Step Logic causes the CVT to “shift” like a conventional automatic when driven in anger, which reduces droning sounds and that annoying rubber-band feeling endemic to these transmissions. Providing a welcome bit of choice, the base S grade is available with a five-speed manual gearbox. It may be more affordable up front, but this three-pedal arrangement sure eats into the Versa’s fuel economy, costing you a whopping 5 miles per gallon across the board. Models fitted with the CVT are rated at 32 mpg city, 40 mpg highway and 35 mpg combined. In mixed use, I’m averaging about 38 mpg, which is pretty stellar considering how liberal I am with the gas.

Other aspects of the Versa’s dynamics are mostly likable. The ride quality is taut yet forgiving, which makes the car feel a segment or two larger than it actually is. No tinniness or fragility is detectable while driving over ravaged pavement or rough dirt roads, though it does feel a bit top-heavy in corners, with a wisp of body roll when pushed. Also, wind noise is pronounced at freeway speeds, though I wouldn’t consider it loud inside. Pronounced, yes. Raucous, no.

The 2021 Nissan Versa is an affordably priced all-star.

Craig Cole/Roadshow

This Nissan’s biggest dynamic weakness is unquestionably the steering. Light and laughably limp, it’s about the most lifeless you’ll find in any new car available today. There’s so little feedback, it almost seems like you’re driving a car in some video game rather than on real roads, which is unfortunate.

A frills-free Versa with a five-speed manual can be had for a skosh less than $16,000 including destination fees, which are $950. That total makes this Nissan sedan one of the most-affordable new cars you can buy today, yet despite the bargain buff’s price tag it still comes with a surprising amount of driver aids and other creature comforts. Of course, the pinnacle SR model I’m reviewing here is a bit steeper than that, though not as much as you might expect. Including $395 for Monarch Orange Metallic paint, a Nissan signature hue, and a sprinkle of other options, it checks out for $21,155, about half of what the average new vehicle goes for these days. And even though this Versa is a few grand richer, it’s more comfortable than either an entry-level Chevy Spark and roundly superior to the Mitsubishi Mirage. A Honda Fit, Hyundai Accent or Kia Rio might give this Nissan a run for its money, but that doesn’t detract from the Versa’s long list of virtues. It’s a good little car for a great price.

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