#cairfrey thoughts

[cairfrey]

I made this because I know that there are at least 4 people out there who sit in the middle of the venn diagram, ‘Dungeon Crawler Carl fans’ and ‘Baldur’s Gate 3 fans’

[lazyscience]

DCC Challenge, Day 5

Time To Floor Collapse: 25 days, 3 hours (give or take)

Time for the recap episode!

Crawler @quartzandsundry

New Achievement! "Dave's not here, man"

And neither are you - at least, as far as mobs, crawlers, and even your party can detect. Stealth is a critical advantage in the crawl; least in sight, least targeted. But watch out - when nobody can see you, nobody knows when you're falling behind. And the mobs?

the mobs can smell you.

Just a friendly reminder!

Reward: A silver Griffin box! Inside are High Elven Stormtrooper boots of +3 Stealth (unlike those city elf knobs, these work), and 3 scrolls of Ping because the only thing more fun than not being found -is knowing how to find someone else.

Crawler @kathrynalexao3:

New Achievement! Don't Stop Till You Get Enough!

The problem with fighting your way to the top is the fight at the top, of course, but you twisted, shimmied, slid and slipped through the grasping claws. Insufficient backup? you know what winners call that? MORE ROOM FOR FIREBALL.

Reward: A Legendary Who's Bad? Box, including a headset of Bard's Golden Throat and sheet music for Entourage, so you can be your OWN backup!

Crawler @king-ofconfusion:

New Achievement! Ya Gotta Have Faith!

After a long, painful slog (be sure to use your pedicure buff) you have cut through the Confusing Fog to achieve your objective. Take a deep breath and appreciate it while you have it, before the map closes in again.

Reward: A silver Shell Shocked box! inside, a tome of Wall of Fire, scrolls of Heal Critter x3, and 100 Pet Biscuits!

Crawler @oreniaa:

New Achievement! I'm An Old Gymnast!

Sometimes I even surprise myself with the shit I come up with. I'm just THAT GOOD, crawler. But here's the thing, it's all worth it when the screaming starts. I don't ask for much, just abject horror at the work of my hands. The pliable, pliable work of my hands.

Reward: A silver Druk box! Inside are 2 jugs of Rev-Up Toilet Grade Moonshine, a pair of Dexterity +10 ballet slippers, and an inexplicable bundle of white rhubarb.

Crawler @cairfrey :

New Achievement! Here Comes The Old Boss...Same as the New Boss?

A lot of people thought this one was dead, until SMASH goes the cockroach and up jumps the boss once more time with FEELING. What, you all thought crawlers were the only ones who could do that? That's precious. I didn't think anybody in here could have ANY scraps of naivete left.

Not you, though. What can I say, I do have to respect a challenge.

Reward: A Silver Don't Gaslight Me Jesus box! Inside, a box of impact-activated HobLobbers and Hobgoblin Smoke Curtains. They might be, um, a bit mixed up. I hope you've got a Sapper's Table to sort 'em out! Also included, 5 doses of Rev-up Immunity Smoothie. Tastes like ass, but takes the edge off. Also something tells me immunity is going to be more important than ever going forward!

Crawler @deathdovesong

New Achievement! Duck! No, Duck! In a top hat!

A sense of humor goes a long way in the dungeon. Well, it goes a lot farther with a great big blaster on your hip, but well, this ain't a Valtay crawl, I don't know what to tell you. But you're not boring me! and that's a good way to make it to the next floor.

Reward: a silver Angel of the Night box, including Claw Gauntlets of +5 piercing damage, two Poison Antidote scrolls and one of Phase Through Wall.

Crawler @clearbrightlight

New Achievement! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!

...you understand you're supposed to KILL mobs, not tame them and send them before you as your savage minion army, right?

I mean, not before you have the mana points to CAST that, at least!

Reward: A Gold Who's A Good Horde Then? box! Inside, Pet Biscuits x100, a Stable upgrade for your personal space so the Bopcas don't riot, and a scroll of Pied Piper in case you run out of pet biscuits and have to improvise.

Crawler @lazyscience:

New Achievement: Killer Queen!

You kept the PAT from biting you in the ass; the collaborator mob took a chunk out of your hindquarters (sorry about that, that glitch has been patched) but the mobs are down, at least until the next boss quest...Now go get your ass in the training room for your next level in Not Falling and Being Unable To Get up!

Reward: A silver I Want To Break Free! Box with a scroll of Get Out Of Jail x3, a scroll of Siren's Voice and a pair of Adidas Superstars with a +3 to Dexterity.

ATTENTION, all partied crawlers! Don't forget to update me on mobs, quests, or parties (defined at link) so I can award you achievements! Please let me know either in the replies to this post, reblogging with additions, or hit my askbox/DMs!

(please, do this, even with small and silly mobs/quests, it makes giving achievements so much easier!)

[cairfrey]

I love that Dungeon Crawler Carl is fairly new and I'm here for the start.

I've shared lots of quotes from it on here and every now and then I'll get tumblr notifications like:

The person liked your DCC post

The same person liked your DCC post

That same person even reblogged your post

And they added their own tags

And it's just like, "oh, I can see another person has fallen down the rabbit hole and has started search for DCC on tumblr."

Welcome to the world dungeon, crawlers!!!

[cairfrey]

I do love a film that makes you just repeat "that was *such* a good film" over and over after it. All of Bong Joon Ho's movies do that, and Mickey 17 was no exception.

Brilliant film. No notes.

[cairfrey]

Also, because if warp is used too often, it wears down the fabric of the universe and can have catastrophic consequences such as creating a rift in space. That's why the federation limited the speed of their ships to warp 5.

I'm not disagreeing with the points in the above post. In fact, I agree with them. And I'm sure you could stretch the analogy to include this...buuut I just couldn't stop myself from being that Star Trek nerd.

[cairfrey]

I love the three Star Trek shows that aired (at around) the same time.

There's Next Generation. Such a hopeful presentation of the future where everything is possible so long as we work together.

There's Voyager where, sure we're in a horrible inhospitable place, but we can get through it without becoming inhospitable ourselves.

Then there's Deep Space Nine. Nobody is innocent in war, and those you trust keep dark secrets from you.

[cairfrey]

Woke up to this headline

Feel the need to say, in my very best 'talking to small children' voice, "Yes, Rishi. That's why they're voting for them."

What else do you feel the need to warn us about, Rishi?

Sunak to warn, swimming in sea to make you wet? Running a lot can tire you out?

How about a headline that reads more like: "Public to warn a decade of Tories destroying the country will result in Landslide Labour victory"

I dunno. It's still early, and the complete lack of awareness of this article just got me.

[cairfrey]

So, I'm watching Nosferatu (2024), it's pretty good. I've not long reached the bit with Willem Defoe (who is brilliant in everything) as the kooky professor.

It cracks me up, how a common trope in supernatural stories is:

Person: I am going to get advice from an expert. He may be weird and unusual, but I trust him completely and he is the expert we need right now.

The expert: I put forth a weird and unusual theory.

That same person who called the expert: *shocked pikachu face* I cannot trust something so weird and unusual!

[cairfrey]

Well, it's clear what the next course of action is 🤷‍♂️

Reminder that jkr basically funds a large portion of the terf movement in the UK and promoting harry potter and actively giving her money is helping fund that movement and is actively encouraging her and her followers because they see this as support

[cairfrey]

Whichever genius thought to put Rhea Pearlman and Richard Kind together as a couple, I salute you. I especially love the fact that Richard Kind is the mob wife in the relationship.

I love you, you beautiful genius.

[cairfrey]

So I just finished Final Fantasy 16.

I kinda want to write a longer post with my thoughts and feelings on it, but I'll get round to that later. Right now I just want to sit with the ending (which is a feeling all good Final Fantasy's leave you with).

I did just want to make this post to say I REALLY enjoyed it. I'd heard mixed reviews about it, but I wanted to play it and form my own opinion. I'm glad I did

It's really good!

If you like Final Fantasy games and haven't played 16 yet, go play it. It took me almost an entire week to play it. And that's a week off work with late nights and long game playing days exclusively playing this.

It's really good

[cairfrey]

Thank you for asking this! I love any excuse to gush over one of the most formative TV shows of my life. I have so many memories of this goddamn perfect show, that I won't get into right now.

So, to answer your question, it's series 2 for so many reasons.

1- It still has the original (and best) intro. That beautiful opening music that shows you how empty it is for the remaining crew.

2- Talking about beautiful music and the vast emptiness of everything, the observation deck! Such a beautiful idea that really cemented the whole "they are in space"-ness of it.

3- Peak Holly. I love Hattie, but s2 gives us such gems as "we are talking April, May, June, July, and August fool", "It reminded me of that film, attack of the killer gooseberries", "it's a leak, right, in stasis, hence the name a stasis leak", "I'd listen to him if I were you, knows what he's talking about that bloke", and "if you want to start it, press start. You can work out the rest of the controls for yourself."

4- Lister and Rimmer still have the original dynamic. They're not yet resigned to being with each other, and Lister even attempts something nice for him (albeit misguided).

5- The hologram projection cage. Go-go cage dancing Rimmer, need I say more.

6- There's still the reminder that they knew people on the crew and that they miss them. By s3+ any reference to the crew is only made in passing.

7- Introduction of Kryten, and the build up to the most beautiful portrait and act of rebellion ever documented.

8- Lister is not making any attempts at appearing competent at anything. He's not a pilot, he's not a cracked shot with a bazukoid, he's not even interested in doing much except bumming around and having a few laughs. Life goals.

9- The original Kochanski! I love Chloe, but my heart is always with the Glaswegian every-girl rather than the posh one who eats cottage cheese with pineapple chunks in it.

10- "Arrrrrrrrrrrnold! Where are the nappy sacks?" - I love Rimmer's brain!

I have so many other reasons for choosing Series 2, but those are the ones that come to mind.

Interestingly enough, my favourite episodes don't come from Series 2 (Quarantine and Gunmen of the Apocalypse) but I think overall the quality of Series 2 is just top notch the whole way through.

As a complete side note, Red Dwarf has series not seasons. Now, the meta reason for this is that the distinction between series and seasons had not been firmly established among US/UK TV at the time. A lot of UK TV had "series" before the US preferred "season" took over and that's the way the world went. Therefore, the words can be used interchangeably and only a really pedantic smeghead would ever pick you up on this.

However, and it's a big however, I choose to headcanon that each series of Red Dwarf takes place in a completely different universe. Each crew shares a whole host of similarities and differences, but we leave one crew at the end of a series and pick up with a different one at the beginning of the next.

Because of the close proximity to the previous universe, there are some similarities, but they are different in small ways. For example:

Series 5's Lister never had his appendix out as a child.

Series 4 (where it's first mentioned) uses a light bee to project Rimmer rather than requiring the cages.

Series 1 Lister never had the guts to ask out Kochanski, but Series 4 Lister was dumped by her.

If you take the books into account too (Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers is just *chef's kiss*) then there are even more discrepancies.

The simple answer, every series takes place in a separate universe to every other series. And that is why Red Dwarf doesn't have "seasons".

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

I'm having a bit of an exhausting week and I really want to chat to the Red Dwarf fandom - hello everybody!!! Please tell me your favourite season of RD and why! You can be as descriptive as you wish (or you can just be like "idk I just like it" if that's true as well.) ^-^

I'll go first - my favourite is Season 5 because it just feels like the stakes of each episode are so much higher and it's super exciting! It's also lovely to see the sci fi concepts being expanded upon, I love Holly's design for this season (the way Hattie's screen has been edited makes her look a lot more ethereal imo), and I just adore seeing how close the crew became as a group. It's super lovely to me! A close contender would also be Season 4 because it's just straight up banger after banger imo, some of my absolute favourite episodes came from that season. :D

But yes, please tell me your opinions, there are no wrong answers here! 🫂🩷

[cairfrey]

So, I'm watching The Crow (2024) and as a long time fan of the original and the source material I thought I'd share my 2 cents.

First of all, let's get my overall review out of the way. It's bad.

Good things

Bill Skarsgärd. Honestly, he's really good. He would have been a really good Crow if the film wasn't awful.

The fight scenes. What few we have are good, and I like the creative way he kills some of the people in the opera house.

The soundtrack. It's got some bangers in it.

Everything else

The story. There is so much unnecessary bullshit in this film. We don't need 45 minutes of backstory to their relationship. That's not why we're watching The Crow. We're watching it for bloody murder. Backstory is happy couple, brutally murdered, guy comes back from the dead to avenge her.

The bad guy. So there's demons now? Every Crow film that leaned into a Supernatural villain sucked, and this is no exception.

Bill's hair. It's just so fucking stupid.

The mysterious stranger. Unnecessary and pointless.

The script. The first film wasn't going to win any awards for writing, but oh God the writing in this is just so bad.

The motivation. Without spoiling it too much, that is not why The Crow does what he does.

CGI Crows. I heard that studios use CGI animals because animal trainers have unions, and CGI artists don't. I hate seeing unnecessary CGI animals.

The Ending. No spoilers, but it actually ends worse than you'd expect.

Verdict

It honestly feels like every studio just got fed up of promising a Crow reboot and keeping it in development hell that they just released something to be done with it. Now I'm going to watch the original (1994) version to get the taste out my brain.

Where does it place in the rankings?

It is not a good film. It is not a good Crow film. But it's far from the worst.

1- The Crow (1994)

2- The Crow: Salvation

3- The Crow: Stairway to Heaven

4- The Crow (2024)

5- The Crow: City of Angels

A big fucking gap that makes the mariana trench look shallow

6- The Crow: Wicked Prayer

[cairfrey]

This, but Astarion.

[cairfrey]

Ding Dong, the Tories gone!

Still 139 seats to declare, buy even if they win all of them, they don't have a majority.

[cairfrey]

Duolingo do maths now.

I'm impressed that they've managed to find a mathematical equivalent to a phrase as useless as "the dragon buys peas and leeks."

(Draig yn prynu pys a cennin)