#i only had two revives left after the e4...

[goldensunset]

You wanna know something weird? You just did in a few weeks what 12 yr old me could never do.

My first Pokémon game ever was Black. Unfortunately I was also an idiot that relied on my starter, the Sawk that I caught for the second gym, and the Excadrill that I leveled up for vanity’s sake. So once Ghetsis took out my beloved Splash, there was little else I could do.

being 12 years old is a solid excuse for pretty much everything man. i don't blame you you know how hard i struggled on some of these fights? how stressful it was? even with greater skill and preparation i had a rough time of it. i say major props to you for having even three solid pokémon bc a lot of the stories you hear about this kind of thing are people who literally only have one pokémon, their overlevelled starter

[rationalnerd62]

Wheel of Time Screentime, s1e8

That first season finale was interesting, to say the least. Quite a few departures from the books, sure, but it does set-up some interesting things for book 2 and book 3 storylines. IMO, this is also the episode that suffered the most from the Covid situation: some late rewrites had to be done following Mat’s actor leaving, budget got tighter, the whole battle ended up being full CGI due to Covid restrictions, etc. Overall, I still enjoyed the episode, especially on a rewatch, so I’m willing to give them a pass for what did not work well.

Linked below are all the previous WoT Screentime and Speaking Time analyses. far-dareis-me did a fantastic job on those Wheel of (Speaking) Time posts, please check them out!

WoT Screentime: e1 | e2 | e3 | e1-3 | e4 | e5 | e6 | e7 | e8 

WoT Speaking Time: e1-3 | e4 | e5 | e6 | e7 | e8

Ep7 revealed who was the Dragon Reborn, and ep8 definitely developed on that. While Rand got the 2nd spot in four episodes this season, ep8 is the first for which our favorite sheepherder gets the 1st spot. His In-Scene time is 7min bigger than Moiraine’s, with who he was traveling, due to his dream and later on his mental fight with Ishamael. Rand also has 11min more than any other folks from the Two Rivers. This was definitely his episode, which was expected and deserved.

Talking about Moiraine and Egwene, both appear either in Rand’s dream or in the fake world Ishamael showed Rand. This isn’t the first time characters appear in other people’s dreams, and so far I have never made a distinction between dream characters and real ones. I considered making one here, but ultimately decided against for simplicity and better tracking of characters over the whole season. As a result, Moiraine’s dead time corresponds to when she is killed in Rand’s dream. Meanwhile, Egwene is considered as unconscious whenever she is frozen in the fake world. Without that mental fight, Egwene would have a lower screentime than Nynaeve: the two of them are mostly in the same scenes, except when Egwene is comforted by Perrin (a 52s scene) and when Nynaeve and Lan talk (a 1m57s scene).

Ishamael had almost 8 minutes and half of screentime, putting him 5th on this chart. However, I am guessing his rank will be higher on the speaking time analysis, as that man was quite talkative.

I was hoping to see more of Min in this episode. Unfortunately, she gets less than a minute in her bar, talking with the EF folks that haven’t left for the Blight, and then a few more seconds as she is leaving Fal Dara. Bets are on concerning where she might be going: my personal guess is Tar Valon.

While I considered Lord Yakota as dead in that scene with Perrin and Padan Fain, I marked both Uno and Loial as unconscious instead. We know those two characters are making a comeback in season 2, and we don’t get an obvious “death” moment for them like we got one for Yakota. Similarly, I marked Nynaeve as unconscious instead of dead: her make-up doesn’t appear as burned up as Lady Amalisa, and in the books the One Power cannot be used to revive someone already dead. This could change in the show (how come Aes Sedai don’t have some magical CPR and defibrillator, really), but for now I will stick to the “Nynaeve was only almost dead” theory.

Gender balance is somehow decent for this episode, as we have about 13min more In-Scene time for men than for women. This is pretty much in line with the rest of the show, as only episode 6 had women with more screentime than men.

As always, the data can be found at this link. I will follow-up in a few days with a summary for the whole first season. After that, I may do some random stats stuffs like “who did X spend the most time with?” and others, so if you have specific requests about some characters or some episodes, please send them to me!

[sketchs-trashcan]

so, it seems like tumblr ate my original post...*sigh* at least this means I can do the same thing but with the entire game now.

Since I ended up with PQ2 early, I wrote down most of everything that happened and decided to put it all together in a guide of some sort. I have a less-spoilery section full of general info and a much more spoilery section that pertains to the labyrinths. The labyrinth parts will be mostly about where to unlock special screenings as well as weakness to some FOEs and the boss of the labyrinth. Keep in mind that this is NOT a full guide and I definitely left some things out and/or vague. This is more like the bare bones of the game. Kinda. idk what to call it.

if you want something a bit more specific and/or want to scream about the game, feel free to message me!

Less spoilery stuff

•don’t play based off of knowledge from PQ, literally almost every shadow has different weaknesses and resistances

•hitting a (fill in the blank)bane lexy with something it’s resistant to can cause it to use holy wrath on a row (heavy damage, all binds) (seems to only be specific ones, i have yet to find a pattern though. i don’t think it started to happen until farther along in the game, which was an aboslute bitch in some cases)

•golden shadows always move first, don’t bother with moves like line guard unless that character is in boost

•FOEs can’t be knocked down

•speaking of knocking things down, you need all enemies to be down before you can do an all-out attack. also, all enemies will go back up after one

•after getting back up, enemies might attack. it’s a bit inconsistent

•you know what else is inconsistent? some of the in-game descriptions and explanations. i’m pretty sure armor smasher or whatever only lasts one turn, not three. also, blue is the weakest color for an FOE, not white. i refuse to believe that a dinosaur is somehow less threatening than a dude in a chicken suit. there’s other problems, but those are the ones i can think of off the top of my head

-i lied. i thought of something else

•in the shop, the “have” section includes anything in storage, while inventory is what you actually have with you. it’s a bit dicier when withdrawing items, i think that counting system’s just fucked

•the huge churros are a bit of a ripoff by the time you can get them unless you want to restore only 30 HP to a row in battle. otherwise, just use normal popcorn (as a side note, i was playing on hard, so my team had to be hella buff to take on the first boss, this could be why i view the churros with distain)

•the hotdogs and large dual dogs, on the other hand, are good. especially the dual dogs, stick to those once you unlock them

•selling FOE bits doesn’t really seem to unlock new items in the shop until later. very disappointing gosh darn it yosuke, stop messing with the game mechanics

•read item descriptions. i went into the first boss battle thinking gutsy fries were the same as revival beads. they are not.

•sacrificing personas doesn’t seem to create special materials anymore

•unison attacks can happen so long as at least one participating member is in the battling party. example: the unison attack with P3P and the other (human) 2nd years can occur even if fuuka is the only one present (she’ll need to be navigating the battle though)

•unison attacks occur at random from what i can tell. they’re very strong, but don’t count on one always popping up when you need one

•follow-up attacks are also random, but much weaker. they at least knock down the shadow that’s still up and gives you the opportunity for an all-out attack, so there’s that

•always take the opportunity for all-out attacks. enemies might recover before the rest of your team can attack and get into boost mode

•some special screenings seem to be unlocked only if you check the shop/box office at specific points in the game. i don’t know if they’re only at specific points or if they can happen after that, too

•wildcards do not all need to be at a specific level to unlock ultimate personas, so don’t feel completely obligated to keep them up to speed with joker (you should still train them a bit though). everyone else needs to be at least level 55 to unlock theirs afterwards

•if two FOEs end up running into you at different times during a battle, the most recent one will kick out the older one (aka you don’t fight both of them at once). which means if you win, the newer one dies, but the older one will still be lurking next to you (this is based off of one special screening where i got cocky and nearly paid the price for it)

-i am currently unconvinced that homonculi or however it’s spelled exist outside of chests. i beat the entire game, beat every FOE, and they still haven’t shown up in the shop

That was long. Oops? Well, next up is the labyrinths, so if you want to find out this stuff on your own, best not go any farther.

More spoilery stuff

Kamoshidaman

•i’m 90% certain that the goba-k more is in a golden chest somewhere in this labyrinth. if not, it was in junessic land

•Noir and Queen do not join until after boss

•P3P does not join until second floor (if I’m remembering correctly, otherwise it’s third)

•when rescuing P3P, take out the original shadow, then beat the shit out of tank with everything you have

•just try to stay alive during inital Kamoshidaman encounter, don’t bother too much with attacking (i don’t know if attacking is required for the battle to end, i tried to attack and quickly got pummeled)

•there’s a shortcut that leads to the stairs between the 2nd and 3rd floor, but you have to fight a battle before you can activate it. the battle is not nice

•Boss: Left is weak to fire, right is weak to electricity, middle is weak to fire once left and right are gone

also, the scene where the thieves make their move is fantastic, make sure to watch it. volume on also makes it better

Junessic Land

-lots of the enemies here have a weakness to psi, some of them have weakness to nuke. change your team accordingly

•you can’t sneak up on the pterodactyl FOEs. even if you sneak up on them. they “sneak up” on you and gain advantage (they’re weak to ice, resistant to curse, and can confuse you, btw) ::edit:: they don’t gain advantage so long as you approach them from the front

-t-rex FOEs only chase you if you walk into their line of sight (they’re weak to nuke and resistant to basically everything else, btw. highly recommend avoiding battle when possible)

•IT minus Yosuke does not join until the second floor

•Yosuke does not join until you rescue one of the herbivores

•dead end in area 1, D4: regain HP and SP

•for a certain special screening, ammonite is located in D3. don’t be a fool like me. avoid the pond until you find all the chests

•electric gates are essentially mean walls. you can walk right up to them, just don’t try to walk through them

•dead end in area 3, B6: unlocks new special screening

•can begin unlocking unison attacks after rescuing Yosuke

•dead end in area 3, E4: allowing Fox and Teddie to eat the fruit causes them to lose HP and gain SP (probably only matters if one of them is in your party, idk)

•dead end in area 4, F6: unlocks new special screening

•Boss: weak to electric, resistant (and eventually null) to wind

-Left back: Weak to psi. Resistant to ice, nuke

-Middle back: Weak to nuke. Resistant to ice, psi

-Right back: Weak to ice. Resistant to psi, nuke

-Based on context clues (those being the boss going from mostly chilling to beating the shit out of me), I’m 99% certain you do NOT want to actually knock out the “boss”, focus on the back line

A.I.G.I.S.

-for the most part, anything robotic has the exact weakness you’d expect it to have

•SEES minus P3 and Aigis join on the first floor

•the stationary FOEs are stupidly easy to defeat if you have electric attacks

•the other FOEs, on the other hand, are not. they will hurt you and some of them chase you through security gates. do not engage, do not pass go, do not collect $200 (unless they’re either blue or white on your map, in which case, go nuts)

•there are three possible tasks you can choose from to open the lab. don’t know about the other two, but power doesn’t involve battling

•Aigis and P3 join on first floor of lab

•dead end in zone 1, C4: unlocks new special screening

•dead end in zone 2, C6: unlocks new special screening

•dead end in zone 2, B5: unlocks new special screening

•southwest corner of small room in lab 1F (corner is in A4): unlocks new special screening

•dead end in lab 2F, B6: unlocks new special screening

•boss: no weakness initially, but weak to everything once hacked first time (it’s still on and can attack though, and the hack is temporary), weak to curse second (haven’t checked everything)

-has an attack that brings everyone to the same amount of hp, using all/line guard is probably a bad idea when it happens depending on everyone’s hp, recommend fuuka as battle nav for healing tide and bringing along someone with mediarama

-seals one attack from each person at random

-uses multiple magic attacks (have found electric, ice, fire, and wind)

-has attacks that can bind magic, strength, or speed

-make sure ALL elements are covered, preferably by more than one skill/person

???

•be very wary if you come across an actual set of stairs, there will be a battle in the next open space/beyond the next door

•some stage lifts have FOEs on them

•gnomes turn every three steps

•mr. bear can potentially change its path when you flip a switch

    -in case you were wondering. they are weak to curse. and they hit really fucking hard (as in, over 200 damage while under the influence of debilitate to a roughly lv 50 aigis in the back row, and she’s resistant to physical attacks. big yikes). but. if you use the combination of debilitate/masukunda/masukukaja/orb of haste. they hit you once in a blue moon. so basically never

•there is a goho-m more in the golden chest in the first act

•dead end in act 1, 4C: new screening

•(just assume the rest of these are dead ends) act 2, 3E: new screening

•act 5, 5E: new screening

•act 6, 7B: new screening

•act 6: 6F: i’m 99% certain this unlocked a special screening but for some reason i wasn’t given a notification

•boss: first off. can i just say. WHAT THE EVERLOVING FUCK IS THAT??? WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?? DISGUSTING!!! EUUURGHHHH!!!!!

-looks like a variety of attacks, including almighty. it depends on where the eye is

-eye is the only part that can actually take damage, the rest seems to be just for boost

-knows mamudo

-eye: immune to everything except physical/almighty

-left arm: weak to wind

-right arm: ?

-head: ? (never figured out these two bc i beat it before i could bother figuring it out)

-real weak point: weak to electric and ice

-later on, if you use any support skill other than your new one (you’ll know which one), the real weak point will bind you again. also happens once everyone is unbound

-side note, normal unbinding items don’t work, unless that was a very unfortunate glitch i had

[REDACTED]

-you have to actually step on switches to use them. that’s really all i’ve got

-wait. there’s a dead end somewhere that unlocks one of the last unison skills. i forgot to write down where though.

-there is also a “treasure spot” somewhere on the last labyrinth floor :) that has :) a special surprise :) have fun :):):):) *screams into the void*

-defeating the FOE that chases you is required to unlock the ultimate weapons. the FOE that mimics you is required to unlock ultimate armor. both things require parts from other FOEs, so go nuts, i guess

-rain leg musha is weak to fire and curse, resistant to nuke. wicked turret is weak to psi, resistant to fire

-there are “reruns” of the bosses you have to beat. they’re easy so long as you exploit their weaknesses. they’re basically the easy version of when you first fought them, no extra gimmicks. i found kamoshidaman in the lower left, dino boy in the bottom right, computer in the upper right, and big ol’ blob in the upper left

ENLIL

-weak to psi and nuke, resistant to electric

MAELSTROM INCARNATE

-ok, this battle was both fun an an absolute bitch (my entire team was level 72 and i was on hard mode, if that give you any context)

-first and foremost, this boss can change its affinity. you can tell what it is based on what attack it’s using. in all cases, it’s null to wind. not sure why

     -weak to ice, resistant to fire (and vice versa)

     -weak to light, resistant to dark (and vice versa)

-the boss can nullify buffs to your party and debuffs to itself. this makes those skills useless overall, but they can at least distract her for a move, which could give you the breather you need

-the boss can bind and afflict ailments

-retake undoes everything that happened in the previous turn (it’s like the turn never happened in the first place), so if the boss is “charging up” and there’s no sword in front, just have everyone guard

-if the sword is in front and it starts glowing in waves? fucking. block.

     -the attack seems to alternate which row it hits, but i beat the boss before i could actually think to look for a pattern

-there will come a point where the boss does an action you haven’t seen previously. see things through to the end (aka don’t turn of the game in a panic)

There’s another battle post-game, but it’s. uh. really. really. REALLY fucking hard. my team was all level 72, i switched to safety mode, and I still died before i could really do anything. the only tip i can give you is that when a new character joins the battle, for the love of all that is good, G U A R D, dammit

[papermoonloveslucy]

LOVE AMONG THE TWO-BY-FOURS

S1;E3 ~ October 4, 1986

[Photo © Getty Images]

Directed by Mark Daniels ~ Written by Linda Morris and Vic Rauseo

Synopsis

Lucy's old flame Ben comes to town looking to enlist M&B Hardware as a supplier. Lucy and Ben rekindle their old romance, which causes Lucy to have to make a difficult decision about her future.

Regular Cast

Lucille Ball (Lucy Barker), Gale Gordon (Curtis McGibbon), Ann Dusenberry (Margo Barker McGibbon),  Larry Anderson (Ted McGibbon), Jenny Lewis (Becky McGibbon), Philip Amelio (Kevin McGibbon), Donovan Scott (Leonard Stoner)

[For biographies of the Regular Cast, see “One Good Grandparent Deserves Another” (S1;E1)]

Guest Cast

Peter Graves (Ben Marshall) is perhaps best remembered for playing Jim Phelps in the Desilu-produced spy drama “Mission: Impossible” from 1967 to 1973. His screen acting career began in 1951, the same year “I Love Lucy” premiered. Graves won an Emmy Award as the host and narrator of “Biography” (1987-2002). In 1980, he turned to comedy with the film Airplane! and its sequel. Graves died of a heart attack on March 14, 2010, just four days before his 84th birthday.

Although the final credits list the character's surname as Marshall, he is referred to throughout the episode as Ben Matthews. Ben is president of the Beechwood Construction Company. He is a widower who has three grandchildren and lives in Beverly Hills. 

Curtis Taylor (Joe) started acting on television in 1980. He played Arnie on five episodes of “Knotts Landing” in 1988. More recently, he appeared on a 2017 episode of “NCIS: Los Angeles.”  

Ed Bernard (Tony) was born on Independence Day in Philadelphia in 1939. He played Detective Styles on “Police Woman” (1974-78) and Principal Willis on “The White Shadow” (1978-80).  

Joe and Tony are construction workers for Beechwood Construction Company. Although given names in the final credits, only Tony's is used in the dialogue. The two characters are there to establish the tarp over the hole in the floor that Lucy and Peter Graves will sink into at the end of the show.

This was the sixth episode filmed but was the third aired. After John Ritter's appearance the previous week, Ball hoped to continue to woo viewers with the star-power of Peter Graves.  

The title of the episode is a variation of Robert Browning's 1855 poem, “Love Among the Ruins.” Browning's poem inspired or gave its title to many subsequent works, including a painting by Edward Burne-Jones (above), a 1975 TV movie with Katharine Hepburn and Laurence Olivier, an episode of the TV series “Mad Men,” and an album and song by the band 10,000 Maniacs. The title of the poem is also made the title of a 1953 novella by British satirist Evelyn Waugh.

Lucillle Ball was featured on the cover of TV Guide the day this episode first aired. She shared the cover with Andy Griffith, who returned to series television with “Matlock.” Griffith's show fared much better than “Life With Lucy,” running nine seasons on NBC. Griffith had played Andy Johnson on an episode of “Here's Lucy” in 1973. “The Andy Griffith Show” was shot on the Desilu backlot.

This episode lost its time slot earning a 10.2 share behind “The Facts of Life” on NBC with a 15.2.

Although they are supposed to be playing characters of the same age, Lucille Ball was actually 15 years older than guest star Peter Graves.

This is the first of six “Life With Lucy” episodes directed by Marc Daniels, who directed the very first episode of “I Love Lucy” and 38 subsequent episodes. He is credited with suggesting to Desi Arnaz that Vivian Vance might be right for the role of Ethel Mertz. In a 1977 interview, Daniels noted that he left “I Love Lucy” to take another job that paid more. "Maybe it was a stupid thing to do but then we didn't know we were creating history. We were just doing a show." Daniels died at age 77, just three days before Lucille Ball, who also died at age 77 from a heart-related illness.  

This is the only time on the series that Lucille Ball wears a dress, rather than slacks, a housecoat or bathrobe.

At the start of the episode, Leonard is fooling around with a shower head display in the hardware store, pretending he is Scotty (James Doughan) on “Star Trek”: “Captain Kirk! Captain Kirk, it's Scotty here. Captain, the hardware ship Enterprise – it's losing power!”  “Star Trek” (1966-69) was a Desilu-produced show that owes its existence to Lucille Ball.  

Curtis: “I may become the bathroom king of Pasadena!”

We learn that Lucy Barker's maiden name is Everett. This is the first of her TV character that did not have the maiden name McGillicuddy. However, on “The Lucy Show” Lucy Carmichael first said she was originally Lucy Taylor. Later in the series she inexplicably claimed it was McGillicuddy.

Lucy calls Ben Matthews 'Goofy,' his high school nickname because he had an overbite and his ears drooped. This is a reference to the Disney animated dog Goofy, who shared these physical characteristics. Perhaps Ben had plastic surgery, because the description doesn’t match the handsome Peter Graves. 

Lucy: “I feel like a kid again!”

Lucy and Ben first met during a dance called the Big Apple. The dance dates back to the African American ritual dances of the mid-1800s. The name comes from its revival in the 1930s at The Big Apple Club in Columbia, South Carolina. In 1937 it became a national dance craze. It was mentioned in the films You Can't Take it With You (1938), Vivacious Lady (1938), and The Big Broadcast of 1938. The dance was first mentioned on “The Lucy Show” in “Lucy Becomes a  Reporter” (TLS S1;E17) in 1963 which dealt with Lucy Carmichael and Viv Bagley's high school days.  

Later in the episode, Lucy and Ben demonstrate the Big Apple. After their 'performance' (to one of Lucy's old records), Kevin mentions the dance craze of the 1980s, break dancing, while Margo and Ted demonstrate 'The Monkey' and 'The Swim', two dances that were popular with teens in the 1960s.  

Lucy and Ben dated for a year, until his family moved East.  

Lucy: (gazing at herself in a mirror) “I still have it!”

Lucy says Ben was her first kiss, which prompts Margo to remember that her first kiss with Randy Fargo, whose lips were all spongy; like two Twinkies.

When Becky is practicing kissing with a hand mirror, she says she looks “a little like Madonna, but a lot like a fish.”

Margo: (To Lucy) “Do you remember when I was 13, and all my girlfriends were going stead. Finally Randy Fargo asked me to go steady.  Do you remember what you told me?”

Lucy: “Yeah, I told you there was no future in the name Margo Fargo.”

Ben brings Lucy to a construction site for their date, packing a picnic with their favorite bubbly, chateau de Dr. Pepper. Ben brings along a mini-tape player to play their favorite song, “Too Marvelous for Words.” The song was written in 1937 by Johnny Mercer, with lyrics (that we don't hear) by Richard Whiting. Lucy and Ben dance among the two-by-fours, fulfilling the title!  

Lucy: (eating a chocolate chip cookie) “If this gets around my name'll be mud at the Happy Fig Health Food Store.”

In two episodes of “The Lucy Show” Lucy Carmichael dated Frank Winslow (Clint Walker) who owned a construction company and also took Lucy on a date to a construction site.  

In “Milton Berle Hides out at the Ricardos” (LDCH 1959), a construction site also figures into the comic finale.

Margo stays up and waits for Lucy to come home from her date just the same way Lucy Carmichael stayed up and waited for her daughter in the very first “The Lucy Show” “Lucy Waits Up for Chris” (TLS S1;E1).

This Day in Lucy History ~ October 4th

"The Business Manager" (ILL S4;E1) – October 4, 1954

"Lucy and Mannix Are Held Hostage" (HL S4;E4) – October 4, 1971

[monday11econlive]

If Economics improved my Chess game and Chess improved my mentality, does that mean Economics improved my mentality?

I mean if economical thinking reinforced how I go about playing a game of chess and my competitive mentality and overall character improved immensely through chess, does that mean by transitive property economics has improved my mentality?! Alright, this may have been a long stretch, but nonetheless I have to attribute the principles of economics to fortifying my thought process. I’ve been aware of my inability to think in high pressure situation and my constant struggle of dealing with my brain going on auto-pilot, or for use of a better term, my mind going blank.

So to elaborate a little more, competition has been a driving force in how I have grown as not only a person, but more as an individual. The staple lessons of hard work, determination, learning from failure, etc. have all propelled me towards my perceptions on a notable amount of things. Tennis, for instance, has been known as a game of mental fortitude as well as physical attrition. This lead to my build-up of willpower and persistence through endless hours of strokes with my forehand and backhand on the wall, the tiresome antiquity of court drills, and the gruesome conditioning that followed through, which I feel is one of my strongest attributes as a person. Through a “never give up attitude”, I have learned to always push through even when significantly behind and this later transitioned to just about everything I do within my daily life (an example being school work for one).

I tend to generalize on a lot of topics I have no real experience in. So with the case of economics at the beginning of the quarter, I had an initial impression of economics as a means of how to use and save money efficiently. However, I never would have thought that my first lecture on opportunity cost would leave a lasting impact on a lot of what I perceive. I knew of the idea of an opportunity cost, however, after learning it, I began to subconsciously apply it to everyday situations I experience such as should I buy a 4 for 4 at Wendys or walk 10 minutes to the Anteatery and not waste my flexdine.

First and foremost, I want to throw away some of my conceitedness, as social sciences have been but a second thought due to my bias and favor towards subjects like physics, chemistry, math, and computer science. I came into Econ 20A with an intention of trying to double major as a means of having a back-up to what I actually want to do. I had only a brief section in economics in high school, but even then I felt as though I enjoyed that ideas, and thinking around it enough to take up business. Classes like psychology and sociology sound interesting, but would never prioritize over my likes. However, I never really realized that the ideas that I took off from economics, through a social sciences lense, would be so applicable to my way of thinking over situations.

As stated earlier, competition has been a huge part of my life as I spent most of the time availble to myself playing video games. My love, dedication, and convenience led me to help revive the competitive community for my game and as a result led to the influx of tournaments that I would attend at every given chance. Just like with tennis, I had spent countless hours labbing fundamentals and complex inputs, as well as actively playing with people through a span of 12 years. So with the revival of the competitve community, I had cemented myself as a pretty good player due to all the time and effort I had already invested. My motivation was at the top of its peak, and I would strive to always get better by actively thinking about the game as I am playing it through observing what my opponent does in certain situations and what habits of mine they are picking up on as well as outside the game by thinking of certain strategies that could work in response to a certain situation.

However, after about two years or so of attending tournaments on the norm and just playing in general, I had burnt out. I became aware of this between the two year time span as I started to play on auto-pilot and not throughly think my actions through. As I couldn’t break through to the top of my scene, I felt as though I started to lose interest and more so feel the very mentality that I have built up slip away. All of a sudden you go from being one of the best players to constantly stressing out from whether or not you might lose to a person you normally always beat. As a means of alleviating the latter, I tried to come up with excuses for myself, and that further led me to not having fun with the game anymore. In its entirety, I was a very happy-go-lucky person who just had fun with the game in general. If I lose, I didn’t get mad because I just loved playing the game. However, it honestly came to a point where I went from actively thinking about the game to getting too used to the playstyles of the people I played against and as a result I became extremely counter-productive due to the lack of motivation. My competitive mentality was honestly at its lowest and I decided to take a long break to clear my mind in hopes of possibly making a comeback.

While on this hiatus, I had begun to think of ways in which I could bolster my mind into actively thinking about situations again and the first thing that came to mind was chess. I had played chess from time to time and got interested in the intricacies as well as the professional level as a spectator. I figure out who some of the best players in the world are and follow their games and even watch documentaries on the history of chess or certain players (ex. Bobby Fischer, Gary Kasparov, Magnus Carlsen, etc.). Honestly, chess is exciting to decipher and sometimes leads me to think I am a total nerd at times, but I love it. I got into playing chess when I was 14 or so because my brother got into chess and forced me to play with it. Like the little brother I was, I usually wanted to do whatever my brother did and so I learned to play chess and developed an innate love for it. When my brother, stopped playing, I stopped playing because I had no one to play with, but this basically sparked my interest in chess.

The play by play of chess really hones thinking on another level. It is so much more visible to see options in chess as compared to a video game. For instance, if I were to play white, I could open up d4 or e4 which first gives me center control, and second opens up my bishop. Black could react with d5 or e6 to contest white’s pawn and fight for center or b5 or g5 to give up center and open their bishop on the left or right side of the board. They could also start off b6 or g6 to contest spots where they would put their pawns that you could take. The amount of openings/set-ups are innumerable and a lot of the game has been discovered already, it’s just a matter of learning the strats and applying them in situations that you force or get forced into.

Economics helped me reiterate this type of thinking more so than inhibit me to think like this as I actually use play by play situations in chess whenever I play anything. The ten principles of economics apply really well to chess.

Understanding the Ten Principles of Economics

Economy is derived from the household as a household faces many decisions in which it much designate what household member does what task and what they receive in return. A household must allocate its scarce resources among its members. Scarcity means that society has limited resources and therefore cannot produce all the goods and services people wish to have. Economics is the study of how society manages its scare resources.

In chess, the household can in tandem with that of you the player. Your chess pieces being members of your household and each one serving a distinct function. For instance, the pawns can only move srtaight one space; the only exception would be when the pawn is at its starting space, in which it has the ablity to move forward two spaces. It can also only take your opponent’s piece if it is diagonal one space from where your pawn is placed. The benefit of moving this piece versus another piece is that, one its a bit more expendable value wise as compared to another piece like your rook, and two you’re applying board pressure by forcing your opponent to react to possible spaces that could be contested because you placed your pawn in an unfavorable spot for them (e.g. using a pawn to fork between a knight and rook).

Scarce resources could hint towards available pieces and favorable spaces left. A very risky opening that I favor when I play black is the Latvian Gambit, which basically involves sacrificing as many pieces as needed in order to gain a favorable advantage. So a common set up with this strategy is e5 in response to d4, and f5 in response to knight on f3. This in turn baits the opponent into either taking our pawn on f5 with his pawn or his knight taking our pawn on e5. In response to pawn taking out pawn we play bishop to c5 in hopes of sacrificing it to their king on f2. This forces the king out in the open on f2 and we check him with out queen on d4. If the king falls back on g1, then we checkmate on d4 with our queen. Otherwise, if king goes to e2 then we fork their king on knight with our queen on e4. Using the above idea, black takes the risk of sacrificing his pieces early on in order to gain an advantage on the board. Despite white winning in pieces in the beginning, they ultimately are put at a disadvantage if they decide to take the piece (or put bluntly the bait).

Sometimes when at a disadvantage, you need to make do with what you already have. Let’s say playing around the end game and you have a knight and a king whereas your opponent has a rook and a king. On the point to scale value system, a rook is more highly valued than a knight. In this position, since it’s black turn to move, the best course of action would be to get a draw as his king is pinned to the H column. So by moving knight to d7, king would be forced to move to g6 and so you just need to respond by dancing around his pieces by moving king to g8 and knight back to f8 when he moves rook to challenge your knight on d1. So just like how economics depicts of how society manages it scarce resources, chess emulates this through disadvantageous situations that are surely winnable.

Allocation in economics states that most societies determine allocation through the uncoordinated decisions of millions of individuals.

I think this is a good reference to metagame in chess to a certain extent. Certain strategies and this idea of optimality coin the word meta when the majority of people use a strategy whether it be in response to something or as an opener. Because these strats become the norm, people try to find ways to circumvent or mediate these strats and as a result these counter-measures also become the norm and its a huge cycle repeating to the point where every possibility has been reached. Chess, however, is seemingly endless as there’s too many permutations to count. Luckily, in my eyes, chess isn’t so condensed that the limits of the game would be cracked through means of permutation and combination.

The reason why i believe this to be true is because of the idea:

Markets provide incentives in order to make people act a certain way so that the resources get allocated in an efficient way. Choosing the best option may not always be the right choice. Chess , in itself. is a mental game for a reason. Like with the Latvian Gambit earlier, by sacrificing many pieces early on, black can gain a significant advantage early on. By placing the pawn on e5, black is incentivizing white to take what seemingly seems like a free piece and as a result be a piece up right at the third turn of the match.

Finally I feel as though, its important to talk about probably the most important piece of rational thinking from economics that truly depicts the play by play situations in chess.

How People Make Decisions

1.) People face trade-offs

“There is no such thing as free lunch.” All decisions involve a trade-off: reading someone else’s Econ Live project instead of mine! The time I take writing this is the time I’m giving up to study for my other finals.

2.) The cost of something is what you give up to get it - aka opportunity cost

I mean these ideas are the fundamentals of chess in its entirety!

So in this situation, had black not played e5 in response to e4 and developed his knight to c7 first, white wouldn’t have had the chance to check black’s king, thus leaving black with the inablity to not only castle now, but having to develop his knight in an unfavorable position as white can use d4 to take e5 and black cant take white’s pawn with his queen side knight due to bishop being able to check black’s king. The trade-off of putting pawn on e5 is that now they lose a pawn for nothing in return as well as center control. The opportunity cost of putting that pawn is that black gave up queen side control in the situation. So in a play by play analysis, black definitely loss that exchange. Does that mean black has lost yet? Definitely not! This is why chess is so enjoyable and exhilarating. White is in a pretty advantageous position because of that exchange, but black can still make a comeback just by outplaying white.

Just a few moves later, black is in an incredibly advantageous position despite being a piece down earlier. White moves bishop to g5 in hopes of trading bishops, however, black has a better move. by moving knight to c3, black forks white’s queen and bishop. Either white moves his queen to safety and loses queen side bishop, or trade queens with black and saves the bishop. However, if queen sides bishop is saved, then black can challenge white’s bishop on g5 by moving the pawn on f7 to f6 forcing white to retreat their bishop and giving black a free pawn to take on e6. Though white is winning in pieces still, this resets the board control which was heavily favored for white, giving black a chance to get back in the game.

Chess honestly helped me re-evaluate how I thought about problems in my everyday life. Having a clear set plan with an array of steps helps clear a lot of the situations I usually find myself in. If somewhere along the line that flow gets messed up then I know for a fact I can find another way to remedy that problem. How I perceive not only situations, but people definitely got better due to this way of thinking. I feel as though I try to be humble whenever I can, but there’s always times where my dark side can take over and turn me into someone I don’t want to be, especially in defeat. I take priority on whether not the game I’m playing is fun versus actually winning, but sometimes if I know I can beat the opponent and they win off some gimmick or play with the mindset of only winning when I am trying to have fun then I tend to get set off by that. Chess however gave me the motivation and mentality to play for fun, while also trying to win and just overall improve. In chess, it’s not fun when your opponent doesn’t take you seriously whereas in a video game, that’s fine. This thinking allowed me to see the connections in thinking in economics as they are incredibly similar. Though I mentioned earlier that I believed chess is biased towards math geniuses, I want to reiterate on the idea that chess is not as condensed where even if you know every available option you will always win (e.g basically chess a.i). Chess is definitely all decision based; so if a person thinks too optimally, they may get tricked out by a move that may seem out of place and ultimately fall into a trap. This brand of logical and bravado thinking formed my realization that I can think carefully, but also do things by the heart and stay true to my founding principles.

Justin Clenista

#56112446

[sketchs-trashcan]

Heyyy, looks like Persona Q2’s right around the corner! I was one of the fools who benefitted from amazon’s dumbassery, so I’ve gotten a good chunk of the game done. Figured I’d put up a small guide of some sort so that y’all might have an idea of what might have changed from Persona Q and maybe understand how some of the new combat things work. I’ll put it all under a cut once I get to a computer fuck you tumblr mobile.

I have a less-spoilery section full of general info and a much more spoilery section that pertains to the labyrinths. The labyrinth parts will be mostly about where to unlock special screenings as well as weakness to some FOEs and the boss of the labyrinth. Keep in mind that this is NOT a full guide and I definitely left some things out and/or vague. This is more like the bare bones of the game. Kinda. idk what to call it.

Less spoilery stuff

•don’t play based off of knowledge from PQ, literally almost every shadow has different weaknesses and resistances

•hitting a (fill in the blank)bane lexy with something it’s resistant to can cause it to use holy wrath on a row (heavy damage, all binds) (seems to only be specific ones, i have yet to find a pattern though)

•golden shadows always move first, don’t bother with moves like line guard unless that character is in boost

•FOEs can’t be knocked down

•speaking of knocking things down, you need all enemies to be down before you can do an all-out attack. also, all enemies will go back up after one

•after getting back up, enemies might attack. it’s a bit inconsistent

•you know what else is inconsistent? some of the in-game descriptions and explanations. i’m pretty sure armor smasher or whatever only lasts one turn, not three. also, blue is the weakest color for an FOE, not white. i refuse to believe that a dinosaur is somehow less threatening than a dude in a chicken suit. there’s other problems, but those are the ones i can think of off the top of my head

-i lied. i thought of something else

•in the shop, the “have” section includes anything in storage, while inventory is what you actually have with you. it’s a bit dicier when withdrawing items, i think that counting system’s just fucked

•the huge churros are a bit of a ripoff by the time you can get them unless you want to restore only 30 HP to a row in battle. otherwise, just use normal popcorn (as a side note, i was playing on hard, so my team had to be hella buff to take on the first boss, this could be why i view the churros with distain)

•the hotdogs and large dual dogs, on the other hand, are good. especially the dual dogs, stick to those once you unlock them

•selling FOE bits doesn’t really seem to unlock new items in the shop. very disappointing gosh darn it yosuke, stop messing with the game mechanics

•read item descriptions. i went into the first boss battle thinking gutsy fries were the same as revival beads. they are not.

•sacrificing personas doesn’t seem to create special materials anymore

•unison attacks can happen so long as at least one participating member is in the battling party. example: the unison attack with P3P and the other (human) 2nd years can occur even if fuuka is the only one present (she’ll need to be navigating the battle though)

•unison attacks occur at random from what i can tell. they’re very strong, but don’t count on one always popping up when you need one

•follow-up attacks are also random, but much weaker. they at least knock down the shadow that’s still up and gives you the opportunity for an all-out attack, so there’s that

•always take the opportunity for all-out attacks. enemies might recover before the rest of your team can attack and get into boost mode

•some special screenings seem to be unlocked only if you check the shop/box office at specific points in the game. i don’t know if they’re only at specific points or if they can happen after that, too

•wildcards do not all need to be at a specific level to unlock ultimate personas, so don’t feel completely obligated to keep them up to speed with joker (you should still train them a bit though)

•if two FOEs end up running into you at different times during a battle, the most recent one will kick out the older one (aka you don’t fight both of them at once). which means if you win, the newer one dies, but the older one will still be lurking next to you (this is based off of one special screening where i got cocky and nearly paid the price for it)

That was long. Oops? Well, next up is the labyrinths, so if you want to find out this stuff on your own, best not go any farther.

More spoilery stuff

Kamoshidaman

•i’m 90% certain that the goba-k more is in a golden chest somewhere in this labyrinth. if not, it was in junessic land

•Noir and Queen do not join until after boss

•P3P does not join until second floor (if I’m remembering correctly, otherwise it’s third)

•when rescuing P3P, take out the original shadow, then beat the shit out of tank with everything you have

•just try to stay alive during inital Kamoshidaman encounter, don’t bother too much with attacking (i don’t know if attacking is required for the battle to end, i tried to attack and quickly got pummeled)

•there’s a shortcut that leads to the stairs between the 2nd and 3rd floor, but you have to fight a battle before you can activate it. the battle is not nice

•Boss: Left is weak to fire, right is weak to electricity, middle is weak to fire once left and right are gone

also, the scene where the thieves make their move is fantastic, make sure to watch it. volume on also makes it better

Junessic Land

•you can’t sneak up on the pterodactyl FOEs. even if you sneak up on them. they “sneak up” on you and gain advantage (they’re weak to ice, resistant to curse, and can confuse you, btw) ::edit:: they don’t gain advantage so long as you approach them from the front

-t-rex FOEs only chase you if you walk into their line of sight (they’re weak to nuke and resistant to basically everything else, btw. highly recommend avoiding battle when possible)

•IT minus Yosuke does not join until the second floor of Junessic Land

•Yosuke does not join until you rescue one of the herbivores

•dead end in area 1, D4: regain HP and SP

•for a certain special screening, ammonite is located in D3. don’t be a fool like me. avoid the pond until you find all the chests

•electric gates are essentially mean walls. you can walk right up to them, just don’t try to walk through them

•dead end in area 3, B6: unlocks new special screening

•can begin unlocking unison attacks after rescuing Yosuke

•dead end in area 3, E4: allowing Fox and Teddie to eat the fruit causes them to lose HP and gain SP (probably only matters if one of them is in your party, idk)

•dead end in area 4, F6: unlocks new special screening

•Boss: weak to electric, resistant (and eventually null) to wind

-Left back: Weak to psi. Resistant to ice, nuke

-Middle back: Weak to nuke. Resistant to ice, psi

-Right back: Weak to ice. Resistant to psi, nuke

-Based on context clues (those being the boss going from mostly chilling to beating the shit out of me), I’m 99% certain you do NOT want to actually knock out the “boss”, focus on the back line

A.I.G.I.S.

•SEES minus P3 and Aigis join on the first floor

•the stationary FOEs are stupidly easy to defeat if you have electric attacks

•the other FOEs, on the other hand, are not. they will hurt you and chase you through security gates. do not engage, do not pass go, do not collect $200 (unless they’re either blue or white on your map, in which case, go nuts)

•there are three possible tasks you can choose from to open the lab. don’t know about the other two, but power doesn’t involve battling

•aigis and P3 join on first floor of lab

•dead end in zone 1, C4: unlocks new special screening

•dead end in zone 2, C6: unlocks new special screening

•dead end in zone 2, B5: unlocks new special screening

•southwest corner of small room in lab 1F (corner is in A4): unlocks new special screening

•dead end in lab 2F, B6: unlocks new special screening

•boss: no weakness initially, but weak to everything once hacked first time (it’s still on and can attack though, and the hack is temporary), weak to curse second (haven’t checked everything)

-has an attack that brings everyone to the same amount of hp, using all/line guard is probably a bad idea when it happens depending on everyone’s hp, recommend fuuka as battle nav for healing tide and bringing along someone with mediarama

-seals one attack from each person at random

-uses multiple magic attacks (have found electric, ice, fire, and wind)

-has attacks that can bind magic, strength, or speed

-make sure ALL elements are covered, preferably by more than one skill/person

[REDACTED]

•be very wary if you come across an actual set of stairs, there will be a battle in the next open space/beyond the next door

•some stage lifts have FOEs on them

•gnomes turn every three steps

•mr. bear can potentially change its path when you flip a switch

     -in case you were wondering. they are weak to curse. and they hit really fucking hard (as in, over 200 damage while under the influence of debilitate to a roughly lv 50 aigis in the back row, and she’s resistant to physical attacks. big yikes). but. if you use the combination of debilitate/masukunda/masukukaja/orb of haste. they hit you once in a blue moon. so basically never

•there is a goho-m more in the golden chest in the first act

•dead end in act 1, 4C: new screening

•(just assume the rest of these are dead ends) act 2, 3E: new screening

•act 5, 5E: new screening

•act 6, 7B: new screening

•act 6: 6F: i’m 99% certain this unlocked a special screening but for some reason i wasn’t given a notification

•boss: first off. can i just say. WHAT THE EVERLOVING FUCK IS THAT??? WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?? DISGUSTING!!! EUUURGHHHH!!!!!

-looks like a variety of attacks, including almighty. it depends on where the eye is

-eye is the only part that can actually take damage, the rest seems to be just for boost

-knows mamudo

-eye: immune to everything except physical/almighty

-left arm: weak to wind

-right arm: ?

-head: ? (never figured out these two bc i beat it before i could bother figuring it out)

-real weak point: weak to electric and ice

-later on, if you use any support skill other than your new one (you’ll know which one), the real weak point will bind you again. also happens once everyone is unbound

-side note, normal unbinding items don’t work, unless that was a very unfortunate glitch i had

~to be continued~