#i'd hate talking to him because id have to look up and that would piss me off

[july-19th-club]

nobody's being huge eric fan with me . doesnt anyone care about his ancient asshole sadness . doesnt anyone know how he spackles over loneliness and directionlessness with bombast and bravado

[thegreatallie]

This was a wild start to the New Year for me.

(someone please tell me if I did the image IDs wrong.)

Now, if there’s one thing about me I’d like you to know, it’s that I love adventure games. I was raised on classic Sierra point and click games, especially King’s Quest, and I love everything about them. They’re the perfect mixture of cinematic and interactive, the puzzles range from genius to bullshit, and they kill you in increasingly absurd ways the more you play. I lamented their death so hard and to this day I still do. Even when they make a rare reappearance, they’re just not the same, especially since the few they do make these days follow the LucasArts model of not killing you in ridiculous ways you couldn’t possibly see coming.

Anyway, years ago my brother showed me this article from OldManMurray.com, discussing his theory behind the death of adventure games.

In the article, he dreams up a new mascot for adventure gaming, who he calls Francis the Talking France.

I can’t tell you how hard I laughed the first time I met Francis the Talking France. I was taking French in college at the time and I don't even know how many times I had to try not cracking up in class because something reminded me of him. I even have this specific voice I do for maximum hilarity. It's probably not that funny, actually, but I only do it for me so it entertains the right audience at least. 

However, the years went by, and eventually it got to the point where I only occasionally remembered this article. And when I did, it was about how ridiculous that puzzle was. I mean, seriously. The entire puzzle requires you following this convoluted and unhinged train of logic to make a fake mustache when the person you’re impersonating doesn’t even have a mustache how am I supposed to know to do that what is wrong with you Jane Jenson I love you but this is kind of a lot. As time went on I rarely thought of myself thinking of Francis at all.

I was reminded of him out of the blue when I was making a list of foreign language songs on my mp3 player. I have about 18 songs in French, 50 in Japanese, 3 in German, and a handful of others. I was riffing on the word France to myself, trying to come up with some amusing sounds, when I remembered there was the name of this mascot I used to love. I didn’t even remember his name, I had to keep doing mouth sounds trying to remember what name sounded like France until I remembered the name Francis exists. But I remembered and cracked up all over again. It’s funny how, out of nowhere, things from our past can suddenly make themselves remembered almost as if on their own.

But that’s only half the story.

The other half begins last summer, when I first played the game The Stanley Parable. I'd heard of the game before, but never anything about it except that it was a very artsy game on the nature of choice. I wasn't interested in learning more because I was worried it would be up its own ass about it and I can't deal with that. But what changed my mind was this tumblr post.

I don't care if it's the most pretentious art game in the world, I have got to see what the thematic opposite of the Sims looks like. So I got the game and gave it a spin.

First off, I'm not ashamed to say I was 100% wrong. This is not at all the kind of art I hate. I don't want to get in too much detail about my opinions about art because it's not the point, I just want to say that the Stanley Parable works on so many levels that even if you disagree with the message you think it's trying to send (and it's hard to tell because it can be interpreted in so many ways, some of them contradictory) you can still have fun being a horrible little gremlin pissing off the Narrator, who does a fantastic job carrying the entire game on its shoulders. I love The Stanley Parable.

So anyway, in December, I was looking for more Stanley Parable videos on YouTube. I regret that I don't even know which video this was, but one of the jokes in it went like this: it was the scene from the Team Fortress 2 video "Expiration Date" where Spy places a bucket on the table and it goes:

Spy: Gentlemen, this... is a bucket. Soldier: Dear God... Spy: There's more. Soldier: No...

and it was captioned something like, "The entire Stanley Parable Fandom" or something like that. I laughed.

Then I remembered that I hadn't actually watched that TF2 video since it came out in 2014. My brother showed it to me when I came home for the weekend, saying it just came out and talking about why it was made and all the little trivia about it. I watched it, I laughed, I had fun, and then moved on with my life. I was never into Team Fortress 2, though I've been aware of it the entire time it's existed. It's just not my kind of game and, while the humor was funny, it always came off as kind of... tryhard, I guess? I don't know. It's actually hard for me to describe my opinion then because I no longer hold it.

But basically, back in its heyday my brother showed me TF2 memes and explained why they were funny, and I laughed. I used to do voice work for this teenage boy who also would talk about it, and I'd listen. I even remember watching the Meet the Pyro video the day it dropped and everyone on My Little Brony was talking about it, and thinking it was okay at best. I did love the cosplays of Spy undercover at other conventions, like at a brony convention in a Twilight mask about to stab a Pinkie Pie in the back or something.

I have no idea what changed in me, but this time when I watched Expiration Date it was the funniest shit I'd ever seen in my life. I laughed so hard I almost cried. And then I went back and watched all of the Meet the Team videos and laughed just as hard, even at the Meet the Pyro video. And suddenly I'm trying to get all the content I can like my life depended on it. For 15 years this game meant nothing to me and now that it's basically dead suddenly it's the only thing that matters? Why is that? Who can say? All I can do is enjoy the ride.

And then it happens. Two days after re-reading my favorite piece on the death of adventure gaming with a mascot I'd forgotten existed, I was on Issue #3 of the Team Fortress comic when I come across this image

His fucking shirt.

I swear, this wouldn't have been so bizarre if it weren't for the fact that, for a completely unrelated reason, this was the second time I'd thought about Francis in years, to the point where I had forgotten his name. Then I thought about him completely randomly, again, for the first time in years, only two days before actually seeing him for the first time in years, except for re-reading that article on purpose. If I had just seen Francis on Baby Scout's shirt I would have been, "Oh, wow! Awesome, I remember Francis! But what's he doing here? This requires research." It feels almost suspicious that I was thinking about him for the first time in years because my mouth felt like making sounds.

And like, I only got to this comic because I ended up playing not one, but two old games that are so outside the scope of what I usually play that they almost passed me by completely. Seriously, The Stanley Parable is nine years old, and Team Fortress 2 is 15 years old. If I hadn't seen that one Tumblr post, I probably wouldn't care about either of these games.

THE SYNCHRONICITY OF THIS OSTENSIBLE "COINCIDINCE" IS NOT LOST ON ME. NOSIR.

I had to look up dates because I was momentarily miffed thinking that the hilarious Adventure Gaming Mascot had been a TF2 reference this whole time and I'd been duped, only to realize that no, the article definitely predated the game's release and the guys behind the website worked for Valve so it makes sense Francis would find his way into a Valve property.

It just... it blows my mind in a way I don't think I can really get across to anyone who's just reading it and probably not nearly as impressed by it as I am, but... come on, it's gotta be something, right?

(also, as an unrelated footnote, SpyDad is my other raison d'être)

[captainshazamerica]

Yeah it's the same anon 💜 dude my apologies for the amount of crap I've spewed in your ask box but in my defense no one I know gives a shit about batfam or gotham rogues or Alfred (I've gushed here about alfreds fabulousness too opps) anndd I partly blame you for me falling back into the titans trap cuz s1 was meh I forgot I even watched s2 😅 then I seen some titans stuff on your blog and boom my brain latched onto it and now here I am experiencing maternal fear for my son jason 😢you are 1000% right this jason is PERFECTION as robin like actual perfection I dunno why but I thought this robin was like 16? So I was thinkin how tf is 16/17 yo supposed to be redhood!? It work in comics/cartoon but live action 16 y/o redhood seems meh I kinda want the lazarus pit just I freakin want TALIA but I don't think that's gonna happen I dunno

Tbh (this may be biased) but I think the Gotham tv show is literally the best dc comics adaptation of anything ever! it is superior to all thier shows movies animations and the arrowverse at least in my books lol

Tumblr is my only form of 'social media' and I don't keep up with updates or anything about shows cuz I like to pretend the fiction is real and I don't want reality wrecking that for me like hahahaa so I had no clue about timmy or babs but I'm so happy

DUDE YES this is literally the only time I can see bruce ever killing the joker on screen aww please I want it so bad I mean they probably won't but they should cuz this is the only capacity in which batman can kill the joker live action like if down the line somewhere on another show/movie bruce killed joker he prob wouldn't be dead dead or they'd bring him back some way so the kill wouldn't even matter but old bruce killing the joker because he's finally had enough he's old now, jasons death finished him and he's not gonna be batman anymore it's a nice end for batman and the joker, it's the only way we'll ever get this end cuz like you said they'll never have the balls to permanently kill joker any other way in live action everything is aligning perfectly for this to happen so dang dc just freakin let it happen c'mon

Yo whose your first fav rogue? Is it riddler? I feel like mines riddler haven't really thought much about whose my fav gotham rogue but I'd probably say riddler, I prefer the central city rogues but the Gotham rogues are just pure chaos and I'm living for that hahaa

I'd rather superheros/vigilantes/villians in live action not have relationship drama just put them in a relationship or dont like I came for the action and weird super shit not the ordinary relationship drama thankfully titans seem to be doing okay in this aspect I do quite like dickkory a lot but I mean in the supergirl show ughhh I was like I came here for the flying and the dope laser eyes I don't give a shit about her getting a boyfriend like seriously whyyy

My brain decides to jump about obsessing over characters like one week Kory is my wife next week detective grayson is my husband and I AM NIGHTWING then my brain is like no Barbara kean is wifey just basically fictionally I'm married to everyone 😅

Yikes this was so long sorry girl

Omg, pls don't apologize! I get so dang excited whenever i get an ask, yours always make my day, you don't even know! Like same about no one i know caring about dc/batfam! And talking to someone about it is so much better than yelling into the wind here on a text post that no one reads xD Don't stop sending your asks whenever you wanna dump your feels/talk about dc/batfam omg.

And Im so proud I got you into this Titans spiral xD My work here is done hahahaha. But yes, I feel like his looking so young for red hood over shadows how great his jason robin performance was! Love seeing him get that recognition! But yeah, the age is def off, like I cant remember how old they said he was in the show, maybe 16? but too young for red hood in live action form. Like its hard cause in reality 16 year olds and 19 year old boys typically don't look too different, for the most part, while comics you can get get away with it more. Huh, yeah, it doesn't seem like Talia is gonna happen, maybe just maybe a cameo or something? Cause we also weren't expecting joker but here we are(tho it almost looks like he wont be a big plot point/even see him much, it almost looks like it is just showing how brutal gotham is? But like its just the trailer and doesnt always give the full picture so who knows!)

Omg YES about Gotham! I 1000% agree! Im also biased cause its what got me into batman, again like exactly a year ago! It got me into the world like no other media of dc had before!(well, Shazam did, i guess tech thats the start of my interest in dc/first time i read the comics, but gotham is what really got me into this spiral). I hate how much hate it gets, like yeah its not perfect and they took creative liberties obviously, but i 100% agree that its the best adoption of DC yet! 100%! Its so nice to see the characters and rogues fleshed out more. I feel like it successfully did what Nolan tried to do in terms of making it dark and realistic, but in a way that was more accurate and true to the comics! I wish it wasn’t canceled so early and thus the last season had to be so rushed :(

thats smart, i typically dont look for spoilers and stuff anymore but I just got so hyper focused that I had to look at least what the stars were putting out on social media, but yeah, i use to get so caught up in all that that it took the fun out of seeing it live.

Oh my gosh, that would seriously be the PERFECT end to batman and joker story in this universe omg. Amen about all that! And like it would hopefully show Jason how much he cares? So maybe Bruce would kill him after red hood emerges? It will be interesting to see hat causes Jason to be so dang pissed in this version.

ahaha yes riddler is my fav! (my header gave it away didn’t it xD) I love most Riddlers but ESPECIALLY gotham riddler, Ed is like one of my fav character of all time. Oooh, I don’t know central city rogues all that well(well, way more than Metropolis rogues, I know so little about superman world), like I know some from the first 3 and a half seasons of the flash (I watched a couple years ago but got busy with school and couldn’t keep up and just never caught up/didnt have motivation to finish(plus i forgot so much id have to rewatch everything again), but I saw they finally just introduced Bart Allen, so I have have to randomly jump back in for a bit cause Bart is one of my favsss), and the ones in the cartoons and stuff

Ha! true, i dont mind it when its for character development or if I happen to be super into the ship(like Nygmakins in Gotham omg, I know they are super unpopular but they are like one of my OTPs omg), I feel like it has to be balanced right/not too much focus on the drama of the relationship over everything else. Like a minor subplot is good but don’t make it the focus of the show. And yeah , supergirl never appealed to me cause of that reason! i like drama and not JUST action (I like psychological drama, as long as there is comfort to follow xD) but yea i get what u mean by too much relationship focus . I think, for the most part, Gotham did that pretty well.

omg i love the disaster bi vibes you are giving off xD But omg I feel the jumping around thing so much ahaha. Like right now the 4 robins are constantly on rotation on who I’m obsessing over at the moment tbh xD

Omg mine responses are just as long, don’t apologize!!!! <333333333333333