#its just wild how the internet has developed over the years

[freebooter4ever]

I googled 'evgeni malkin painting' and the results were all paintings OF evgeni malkin rather than him doing the painting...i probably should have seen that one coming

[directdogman]

Hi, I hope you're having a decent day! I'm sorry if this is an invasive set of questions - feel free not to answer - but do you still actively like DSaF as your own creation, or is it more of a "it was fun while it lasted but i outgrew it and it's for the best to leave it behind" kind of project? Do you ever regret making the games? If you knew they would get so popular, is there anything you would have changed about them? Is there anywhere I could read more of your writing.

It fluctuates a bit. These last couple of years, I've really just been sorta nostalgic for it. I've seen a lot of people discuss those games being a source of comfort during bad times in their lives, people talking about how much the characters mean to them and it's hard not to smile when you see that.

It's a funny thing for close friends of yours to see people WITH fanmade DSaF merch out in the wild, or to watch a random youtube video and being hit with a DSaF reference outta nowhere. It happens from time to time, even today. On a few occasions, I've even had a person reference my work to me in real life and not realize who they were talking to, believe it or not. It's really fun to play dumb and get someone to explain your work to you like you don't know what it is.

I certainly didn't think any of that would happen when I first made the series, or even during development. I think the normal assumption would be to look at DSaF as it exists now and assume its release was a peak for it, but believe it or not, the official discord only had 30 people in it shortly before 3 dropped! The archive listing of the series (reposted to a single page after the series ended) is now sitting at over 1.1 MILLION downloads.

People kinda assume the true heyday of something is when it's new, when it's fresh and novel. For instance, some people look back at when FNaF itself was new and see that time as its peak because it had a lot of internet cultural relevance as big new indie thing on the block. But, raw numbers don't lie. The series has been continually growing since its conception and that growth has similarly bled over to its fan projects. This explains why DSaF, despite not having a new series release in almost 6 years, seems to be inexplicably growing.

Just recently, I saw someone post footage of a scene from DSaF 2 on Twitter, which got over 16k likes. People praised its writing and largely celebrated the scene. The ironic thing about that particular scene is that I remembered being unsure if it was good or not, so I showed it off in one of the FNaF community hubs. The response was broadly lukewarm to negative. Now, it's held up as one of the best scenes in those games. That's kind of the point I'm trying to make, my thoughts on the series have certainly changed with everyone's else with years of hindsight.

Heh. I'm not sure if I've talked about this in a long time, but y'know, the very first scene I implemented in-game was actually the very first Phone Guy scene in DSaF 1, more or less exactly how it appears in-game today. This was before I'd even written the bulk of the game. I was pretty unfamiliar with visual novels as a whole, pretty unsure if something like this would be palatable to a fandom that was really just used to sit 'n' survive stuff that were far more gameplay than text. I mean, there wasn't any FNaF fangames really LIKE DSaF before that point. Closest was FNaFb, a jokey turn based RPG made in the same engine.

The engine I made the game in is also not exactly fit for VNs out of the box either, and I wasn't 100% sure the idea would actually work. But, the very first time I added the image of the prize corner, Phone Guy, the audio of that iconic cheesy stock track and booted up a test screen, I had a little moment where I said "Oh. I think I'm onto something interesting here." I kinda remembering instantly realizing in that single moment how much potential the idea had. Over 8 years later, I still remember that moment like it was yesterday.

I think lately, that's the sort of stuff I think of when I see people coming to me and asking about the series. Yes, it's really rough around the edges, yes, there's jokes that've aged poorly. But, it is a source of comfort for people and entertains tens of thousands of people each month. And that's gotta count for something, right?

[jakes3resin]

im an advocate for bucky's curls™!! they're a very important character. it does mean i think about what if when they met and for the rest of the canon bucky has a military cut (or anything short) and that's how gale has known him. those curls don't make an appearance until they're in the camp and bucky's hair grows. gale already is "spacing out" when he sees bucky's longer hair but it's still matted with blood and dirt so he doesn't really get to see it properly. he doesn't get the full force of it until after the war when bucky has let it grow out more since and no dirt and grime can hide them. gale feels like he might lose his mind because he didn't think bucky could be any more prettier than he is but he nearly loses it when bucky mentions he might get a cut soon.

Anon you're so right about his curls being an important character. In my opinion and heart, they are the Main Character, and even thinking about them not being there hurts me. But I do like this scenario you've brought up!

Bucky with a shorter hairstyle during the war would be interesting. Maybe he lost a bet the first few days of training where he had to cut them short and decided he liked the shorter cut since he doesn't have time to take care of his curls during flight school. Gale never sees his curls at full power thus develops his obsession with them late.

Imagining the boys making it through the war without Bucky's Emotional Support Curls because Bucky just cuts them when he thinks they've grown out too much, its wild. But it compels me.

I think he'd look like the picture below.

(I'm adding this photo because I found it when I went on a wild internet journey this morning looking for pics of Callum. Enjoy)

After the war, Bucky decides to grow his hair out again, maybe to reclaim his Old Self, maybe because now he has time to take care of them which in turn is calming for him. The routine of haircare would potentially be very therapeutic for him I think. Maybe he even decides to grow them out to cover the scars on the back of his head. The reasons are endless, but very importantly, Gale does not factor into them (outside of Bucky potentially being into Gale pulling his hair during sex) because Gale's never expressed an interest in Bucky's hair. This will soon change.

His hair once grown out would look closer to these pictures.

Gale barely notices how Bucky's hair has been growing longer. It's one of those you see it every single day and don't really catalog the minute changes until it hits you like a frying pan to the head. The pair are both still trying to transition back into civilian life, and he's too focused on Bucky's health and his own nightmares to notice Bucky's hair, which he's never had to focus on before. Outside of battling for bathroom space now that Bucky's hair products take up most of the counter space (there are so many products, I lived with a curly haired girl for a few years trust me) Gale is oblivious to what is about to happen to him.

A while after he starts growing out his hair, Bucky goes back home to Wisconsin to see his mother for a few weeks. His hair grows more before the pair are reunited, so he definitely resembles the above photos. Bucky shows back up on their doorstep with a cheerful "Honey, I'm home!" that goes unanswered because Gale is frozen solid staring at him. Eyes wide, mouth open in shock, Gale experiences his first real look at The Curls.

Gale gets hit full force with the reality of Bucky's Curls, something he'd been vaguely aware of but didn't think about, and he wonders why he was denied such a sight until this moment.

With the sun setting just behind Bucky's frame, his curls are lit up. The rays showing off the highlights in his chestnut curls. The curls aren't tight and springy but loose and wavey. Bucky runs a hand through them, and Gale nearly falls to his knees.

It's official. Gale is enamoured. He's obsessed. He's running his hand over the soft curls (and pulling them just so), and Bucky melts into the touch. Gale will take any opportunity to touch Bucky's hair now. Walking by Bucky asleep on the couch? Perfect opportunity to run a gentle hand over his curls. A curl refuses to stay put and falls onto Bucky's face while he's reading? Gale's there to tuck it back into the style Bucky prefers. Bucky hurts his shoulder on accident and can't really lift his arm while it heals? Gale will gladly help Bucky wash his hair whenever he wants.

After a while, Bucky's hair grows too long, nearly hitting his shoulders, and he's starting to remember why he kept his hair cut short all those years. Maybe he offhandedly mentions over breakfast how he's gonna cut his hair, cut his curls off. Maybe he asks Gale to help him. Maybe he even mentions shaving them all off.

Gale would have preferred Bucky to shoot him.

Listen, those Curls are the 2nd most important thing in his life at this point (the first being Bucky himself of course). Gale won't admit to how much he relies on them to calm down on his bad days, but he will admit that he doesn't want them cut short, lost to him once more after he's just seen them. Gale begs Bucky not to, desperate to save Bucky's hair.

So the pair compromise. Gale will help Bucky cut his hair to whatever length he wants. He just won't help Bucky shave his hair off. Gale gets to run his hands through Bucky's hair, and Bucky gets to make Gale smile. A win-win if you ask them!

Bucky's Curls- keeping your flyboys sane since 1940!

[merp0515]

Healing Past Scars Ch.2 Falling inside a visible hole

Summary: After the dealing with so many traumatic incidents, our beloved meme guardain boys have to come into terms with both past and present scars. Will they be able to conquer them with an iron fist or will those same wounds destroy them both?

Tags: Suicidal Thoughts,PTSD, Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Healing , Developing Relationship

TW: The following story contains dark themes such as PTSD, and disturbing imagery.

Link to chapter 1's Tumblr version is here , Ao3 link is here and Wattpad link is here!

How many times must I carry on this living nightmare? It's been almost a year since Peach's Castle disappeared into the creepy hole. So much has changed ever since then. From finding the showgrounds, to getting a new castle, and me finally getting my own home/coffee shop. Although with new positives from everything..... there's bound to be some negatives that came with it.

The fact that we all got kidnapped from our train ride to the wild West and be stuck in a simulation for weeks!

My notebook getting stolen thanks to a certain avatar of ours. Thankfully I was able to get it back. Gave my ass a heart attack!

My new home being at risk of shutting down for good. I kinda anticipated that having this shop would be a blessing and curse. 

And to think just THREE MONTHS ago, we had to deal with a C class clown looking ass excuse of a so-called “villain”. The TV head may of had a catchy villain song, and was intimidating at first….In the end, I'm just so done dealing with everything going on.I never would have thought that it'd get this bad to the point where I may have to go back to the Internet Graveyard and leave them all behind. 

Leaving the crew behind.

Leaving HIM behind.

I shook my head as I felt my face heat up a bit from that though as I stretched my body, put on my pajamas and got comfortable in my big bed.

I closed my eyes, trying to relax and ignoring the dreadful reality that was sinking into my mind faster than I anticipated.

Lights flickered as I woke up sitting in an empty room. I looked around, seeing a board that had lessons of some sort. Inspecting closer made me realize that I was in Evil therapy. I stood up quickly. All of my gut instincts are kicking in as I try to see who I'd end up fighting.

I heard footsteps creeping up behind me. I quickly turned to that direction and raised an eyebrow confused.

"Egg man?" I asked, clearly confused about everything. "What are you doing here?"

The egg shaped villain stared at me silently. A huge frown formed in his face as he approached me.

"I'm honestly disappointed in you." He spoke with disappointment in his eyes.

I was baffled at that statement. Who the hell do you think you are telling me I'm anything BUT a villain?!

"I'm not entirely sure if you heard me last time, but I thought I made it VERY clear that pain and suffering IS my way of being evil to others!" I angrily glared at him.

All of a sudden the room around me started to change. Panic started to invade my body, unsure of what to do as I watched the other villain standing next to me unfazed by everything.

I opened my eyes to see the old castle in its original state. I felt my stomach turn, remembering what happened during THAT incident. I turned around for a second to see that the egg face villain I talked to was gone. Only this time it was replaced with someone I'm ALL too familiar with.

It was MY original version. The dark blue Mario Reskin. He faced me with such coldness. His eyes weren't in the classic blue eyes but instead a more yellow looking color with some dark veins all over his body.

"How could you let us stoop to HIS level?" The other me said with such hatred.

"I…..I….I just wanted to change the way I do things. I have more on my plate now and I can't always come up with evil schemes to destroy people in the way I once was able to." I told him, glaring back at the reskin.

"Excuses." The other me said. "Do you not realize the golden opportunity we have now that we are closer to my idiot rival and his crew?"

"That's EX rival to you."I growled not liking how he used the term against my meme guardian partner. We both looked back at what it once was, seeing old memories of myself constantly trying to ruin SMG4's plans.

"Ever since finding out about the meme guardian powers we have changed." He crosses his arms rewatching the memories as if it was a lost tape that got recently found. "Do you not realize how much more powerful you can become with those said powers?"

The scenario changed once more and we were on the third floor of the old castle. I could feel my heart quicken as it sank remembering how I nearly got possessed by that creepy keyboard. From a distance, I saw a familiar face with his back turned and into that scary state. Looked like absolute shit, and pink like veins were all over his body. The echoes of the keyboard could be heard in the eldritch gope infested room.

"S-SMG4!" I shouted, immediately running to his side leaving my doppelganger behind. I swear I could feel his sinister grin creep up as I tried to get Four off the chair he was glued in.

My former rival couldn't hear me call out to him out of desperation to get him off that damn chair. As I was about to grab onto him, a strong force held me down. I looked around me for a moment to see that I was wrapped in that same gope that almost tried to kill Meggy, Mario and myself when we were trying to save Four from his possession.

"Fuck." I cursed under my breath trying to break free from its harsh grasp. I look up to see the old me next to my possessed guardian partner enjoying the view he was getting. I grit my teeth trying ever so desperately to get away from the disgusting gope currently wrapped around my body.

My former self was smiling wickedly at my misery. I was ready to shout at Four when I suddenly heard the keyboard sound stop suddenly and watched him get up from his seat. His back still turned as the gope pushed me towards him.

"Why were you so desperate to be saved that day?" SMG4 began. "When will you ever learn that saving me was a mistake?" Four spoke emotionlessly.

I felt a lump in my throat when he said that. "W-what do you mean? We're friends, remember?", I told him with a gleam of hope in my voice.

I heard Four laughing darkly at that thought. My heart sank hearing him laugh so darkly like that.

"Friends? So you want to talk about being FRIENDS with me huh?" He turns around still in that same state, his eyes filled with pure hatred.

"All you ever wanted to do was to see my downfall, steal my channel, steal my friends, and KILL ME!" His voice rises with each statement. I tried to back away from him only for SMG4 to grab my overall strap and pin me to the gope. I was trapped in between the two, fearing for my life. I was breathing heavily seeing how up close his lifeless eyes were staring into mine.

"You were always jealous of my work, how people PRAISED me more than you. Don't you even think that I had forgotten when we TRIED to save Melony during the god box incident all you ever wanted was the unlimited power the god box possessed!" His voice shakes with such anger and tightens the grip on my overalls.

"I-I know! But after hearing everything that happened with Zero and losing Terrence to save OUR world I-" my sentence was cut short as I heard Four growling at my explanation pushing me further into the gope.

"You? Save the world?! DON'T GIVE ME THAT CRAP SUPER MEME GUARDIAN THREE! THE ONLY THING YOU WERE READY FOR IS FOR IT DIE AND YOU BECOME THE NEXT RULER!" Four shouted at me and threw me away from the gope. I felt myself flying as if I was falling to my own death. That was until I felt someone grab my leg stopping me from going further.

I looked up to see that we were replaying that scene again. Four hanging on to that cliff as he was torn between the USB that we use to work on his ultimate video and me currently being on the edge of death.

"F-Four what are you thinking?" I nervously responded seeing the other male debating on what to say. I could hear his breath quicken the more USB was going to drop to its demise.

"We can make another! Remember what I-AHHHH!" I screamed in pain, feeling my leg getting its life squeezed out. I looked up horrified, seeing SMG4 in his current state but with anti meme energy inflicted on his entire body. His yellow eyes were staring at my very soul, sending a chill down my spine. A wicked sinister grin spreads across his face.

"Long……Live……The King." He coldly said as he let go of my leg. I saw him get the USB and jumped upwards to safety as I fell into my death with tears in my eyes as I screamed into the abyss.

I jolted up from my bed covered in sweat, accidentally falling to the floor. I held onto my chest trying very hard not to hyperventilate from what I just dreamt about. I feel something fluffy tickle my face. I looked to my left seeing my son eggdog, he whines worried about me. I sat myself up and let my little boy crawl to my lap. I could still feel myself on edge with everything and at this point I didn't care anymore. Hugging the only child I had left tightly, I let all my tears run wild as this dark rainy night haunts me from a memory I wished never existed. When I fully calm down from this meltdown I'll be sure to write this down in my journal. I….I just want to live a carefree life with my son. Is that too much to ask for?

[gorbalsvampire]

Hiya, nice to meetcha. Anyway… I was a little curious since mentioned something about your treatment of the Tremere and was curious about that little detail. How exactly are the Usurpers treated in this little corner of the internet?

Short version: they're not mages and they never were: they're alchemists. They stumbled into vampirism by accident and decided to take over.

The context is...

Well, first up I find the Tremere/Tzimisce/Salubri metaplot very overcooked. It's top level Antediluvian find-the-lady that has no relevance to playable characters, just impact. It's superhero comic plotting, nerdism run wild. I have a fundamental distaste for how the official materials present those three clans in particular and I'll take any excuse to knock them down a peg or two.

But also: I'm tidy minded, and I've been a development editor for RPGs, and as such... I loathe Thaumaturgy. I see a power set that works nothing like any of the others (instead of 1-10 linear progression it's a series of 1-5 scaling options, instead of stat+skill like everything else in the game it runs off Willpower) and a) I want to know why and b) I think that needs a rework, because for some reason you, the developer, decided to break your own rules at publication point.

b) is easy. You, the developer, didn't need to do that. Kill your darlings, especially in game text where your darling is adding brain wrinkles to the whole process of play.

a) is fascinating. There is some industry scuttlebutt that I can't verify, and it goes like this:

Before Vampire, the same-ish team worked on Ars Magicka. (RPG where you play Hermetic wizards and their associates caught up in complex inter-House politics spanning a fantastic version of early thirteenth century Europe. It has a neat verb-noun spellcasting system, and the cool then-innovation of people running multiple characters so they can switch out to suit the needs of the scene or story. It's a good game. None of this is Ars Magicka's fault.)

When Vampire came along, someone on the team, someone without whom the new game would be dead on release, folded his arms and said he wouldn't work on it if he couldn't port in his Ars Magicka character, effectively holding Vampire development hostage. Thus House Tremere became Clan Tremere, and the wizard spells received a whatever-he's-happy-with implementation, and we have all had to put up with decades of "there's a Path for that" largely because someone had a mantrum back in 1990.

As I say, can't prove it, and it would be outright libel for me to name names, but it certainly feels true based on how the Tremere were implemented into both system and setting.

Anyway, Bloodlines did it right - here's a series of wizard spell powers that all riff on the theme of blood in some way, and that exist in the same mechanical framework and structure as every other Discipline - and I'm glad V5 took its design cues from there.

I'm fine with Rituals existing for that toolbox aspect, I just think the game loses something when you have someone literally playing by different rules to throw around fireballs and lightning bolts and do teleports, for no good reason other than internal company politics from thirty plus years ago.

[pitbullwithawig]

As a member of Gen Z I have something I would like to say, which is a lot more serious I feel like than a lot of the things I reblog or post or whatever. But it's something that I feel like needs to be talked about, which is the mockery of Gen Alpha for rudeness and ignoring social rules and politeness and all that. And so I am going to attempt to explain my thoughts in a way that other people can understand which can be hard for me if the thought has already formed in my head and isn't spontaneous as I type. So bear with me.

So like many people I am on Instagram and Twitter and all that and I see a lot of videos and posts and everything about the "brattiness" of Gen Alpha kids and how they're rude and unsocialised. And lots of these people, calling these twelve year old children out for these issues, have placed their finger exactly on the real problem, though I don't think they really have processed that. If they did they wouldn't be making fun of it.

The reality is that these children who at this point are now twelve years old and beginning to interact with the world in a meaningful way, are the first generation of kids who were fully raised with high speed and stronger technology. These are the iPad kids in the wild. Like, even me and my younger brother who are on the lower end of Gen Z were born at a time when the Internet was in its MySpace and maybe early years of Facebook era. Nobody was giving these things to children just because they were still always considered new. New and constantly changing. But now we have the kids who were born in the twenty teens, when technology was a fact of life and yes a handy way to distract small kids. What's more, nobody was aware of the harm screen's like IPad and phone screens can do to a brain in its very important early stages of development.

So here are these kids now, entering the world. And their entire life they've had a archive of information and other people and things to do literally at their fingertips. Since birth even! And these technologies have interfered with their brain development right smack dab in the crucial years where kids learn about language and social interactions and how the bloody world works. But they learned it looking through or around the skewed filter of a phone screen. So here was the first stage of messed up brain development where they learned that the world works the way it does on chatrooms and in movies and tv shows, where people speak to eachother the way they do online, where their brain is always stimulated by something new just a few taps away. I mean, they learned this skewed version of the world as toddlers! This, for lack of a better description, human code has been embedded at the very base of their brain and everything else that comes after is just building off of that.

Then a few years later comes the pandemic. The big bad pandemic that ruined lives and fucked everyone over, especially the people who were still developing. And suddenly the order of the world has changed and their brains are developing around that strange new order. And this causes them to miss milestones in their brain development.

They're not in a classroom anymore. They can't connect with friends. They can't physically connect with people outside their bubble, in any way. No roughhousing on the playground, no visiting parks to swing around in. Their class is squares on a screen, and if they want to say something without other people hearing there's always the mute button. My point is that already limited social interaction (something essential in reaching many milestones in neural development and learning how to interact with the world) has just dropped to almost zero. Now EVERYTHING is filtered through a screen. Right smack dab in the most developmentally important years of these kids lives.

Even people my age have missed milestones! People in Grade 9 and 10 were far too grabby and overactive because we missed the developmental period where we learned how much touching is too much touching, characterized by people wrestling eachother and poking eachother excessively. AKA middle school boys. Yes, that is an essential part of development. And we missed that because of the pandemic.

So these kids' already fucked up neural pathways get wired in all the wrong ways. And we're surprised when they do not have the capacity to behave as a functioning human beings!?

Yes they are being rude. Yes they are being gross and unnecessarily mean. No I am not excusing them (or their parents) for that. But these poor human beings have the wrong base code! Their brains were built wrong, in the wrong way and the wrong order and to the wrong extents! Maybe, instead of making fun of and putting these literal children down for something they can't help (aka their literal brain development), maybe we should be putting effort into explaining why this is happening and Finding A Way To Fix It. AT THE SOURCE! Inform new parents about neural development and natural milestones. Explain why screen's are not good for literal babies. Educate, educate, educate.

And maybe we can save the disaster that is becoming the human race.

[canichangemyblogname]

It’s so fucking wild how weird people act about not voting for incumbents. Y’all gotta stop uncritically calling people fascist for not voting for incumbents. Try voting for the candidate based in what they do for you rather than blind party loyalty.

An Example:

My local state rep is a dem. She has a 100% score from Personal PAC and the Illinois Environmental Council. She also has an F rating from the NRA and an A rating from the Humane Society. She also has an A/100% from the Institute on Public Policy for People with Disabilities. I like what she does. I like the bills she supports and has introduced. I like the way I ALWAYS see her in the community. I like how she makes an effort to reach out. I will vote for her. Why? Because I like what she does.

I do not, however, like my local mayor/president. I think he’s a tool. He doesn’t want to build affordable housing in the area because he doesn’t want “Chicago riff-raff” in his town (hi 👋, I’m riff-raff). He passed an ordinance that made it illegal/fineable to run a business out of your home just to spite his neighbor. He doesn’t want to bring more businesses into our town/neighborhood because he essentially wants to turn it into one large single family housing development. He’s been actively driving business out of town. I dislike him very much. I have never voted for him.

Every year, he runs unopposed and scrapes by with just barely enough % of votes to qualify. And every year the community tries to run someone against him and they just can’t outspend him. Nor can the candidate keep up (like… a school teacher or SAHM will try to run or something and just face too many barriers to entry).

Yet… no one talks about the implications of wide-spread uncontested elections for democracy. Upwards of 70% of races go uncontested in the US. It’s as serious an issue as a lack of voter engagement. And no one really talks about this because no one wants to admit that the US is only a democracy on paper (if that). Without choice, true choice, you do not have a democracy, and most districts lack choice and true choice (think: gerrymandering and its illusion of choice).

Every year I abstain. And he scrapes by with— like— just over that threshold % of the vote. However, when I have mentioned this on the internet (TikTok, Twitter, FB), some chronically online fool will invariably accuse me of supporting fascism by abstaining. And that makes ZERO sense.

Another Example:

I also am not a big fan of my congress member. He’s taken $$ from Islamophobic nationalist groups. (Yes, he’s a democrat.) He did not oppose a rail merger that is now bringing 5 mi long oil freights straight through the middle of my town, right along our river (which is also our drinking water). I never see him in the community, except parades. The only thing he’s done that I support is bring $$ into the district to clean up our waterways (ironic, I know). But the thing is? Nearly any politician can do that for you, if you lobby and press them with a large and varied coalition. He’s not special for getting us money when he can be replaced and we can get some other dude to give us money instead. He’s not special. He’s just an incumbent.

But when I tell people I vote 3rd party (if and when available) for that race because he always wins his primary (usually uncontested) and there’s no way I’m voting for a Republican, people cannot be normal about it. They act like I voted for the reactionary and right-wing Republican candidate rather than actively voting for the candidate of my choice and a passively non-voting for neither the Dem or the Repub.

“But if the third party splits enough of the progressive vote, the Republican is bound to win.”

A third party progressive vote isn’t splitting the progressive vote. The progressives and socialists have been voting for the progressive/socialist candidates (and have for a while) while the moderates and conservatives have often been voting for the Dems, and the fascists and reactionaries have been voting for the Republicans.

Like… this man has never enjoyed my vote. I campaigned for his primary opponent last year. What do you mean ‘splitting’ when he never received that vote?

There are so many races where the third party candidate— usually Green or Independent (former Dem)— gets more votes than the Republican. Explain to me how a Republican with no more than *checks notes* 15% of the vote is going to win in those districts? They never even get enough to meet the threshold % of votes to hold office. If a 3rd party is “splitting votes” as you claim, that isn’t paving the way for the “other party” to win, its paving the way for (drumroll) *none* of the candidates to meet the first-past-the-post threshold.

This fear of not voting for the incumbents is… strange. You’re allowed to change your mind and threaten them with your vote and campaign against them. In fact, you should be. Be more politically active. Openly criticize your elected officials. Be loud. Be demanding. Campaign. Run. Fuck, upwards of 70% of elections go uncontested.

This fear lacks an on-the-ground nuance of how our political system is changing.

The republicans are an increasingly niche (and aging) authoritarian-right party desperately trying to hold on to relevancy and power through undemocratic means.

The democrats have far too large a coalition as they cover everyone from right to left, which have wildly different demands, desires, values, and ideologies, resulting in a party that most often seems spineless at worse and anemic at best.

Everyone left of center has been left without the same broad, mainstream representation that the right of the political spectrum has in the US.

There very well may come a time when the Republican Party fades into obscurity (if they don’t seize power via undemocratic means), the Democratic Party splinters (with conservatives following the Biden ideology), and a new progressive movement emerges.

This fear is also based on the idea every district is competitive up and down the ballot. Most races are not competitive. Keep in mind that 70% statistic. Also keep in mind that in 2020, 373 of the 394 House members who ran for reelection won (that’s 95%). Your fear of not voting for or of campaigning against an incumbent is based on the assumption that every district will flip Dem to Repub; that this is an either/or decision and a black-n-white system. Your assumption ignores gerrymandering, it ignores the incumbent advantage, it ignores that 70% stat, and it ignores how the second most competitive party in “partisan” districts— specifically, in smaller districts and local elections— is often a 3rd party. In those “stronghold” areas, the only competition (and thus the element keeping democracy alive in that race) is often an independent or 3rd party candidate. The “other party” (Dem or Repub) won’t even acquire enough votes to meet the threshold to take office.

Statistically, you aren’t talking to someone in a competitive district. Like… a grand total of 99 house seats (22%) were competitive in 2022.

But— shit— let’s say that a district hypothetically elects a 3rd party candidate successfully. I want you to really, critically think about their platform. I want you to think about the active 3rd parties. There are— like— 2x the number of left-wing 3rd parties as right-wing. Ask yourself: would a right-wing party truly win in a “blue stronghold”? And do you really think a fucking socialist or a green or a progressive is a Republican ally? No, you don’t. Yet here you are on your high horse telling predominately black and brown socialists that they’re signing their own death certificates by voting for an independent for Sheriff instead of the only other choice they have: some crusty Republican with a thin blue line flag and the tag “All Lives Matter” on his campaign Facebook page.

Your fear of 3rd parties is based on propaganda and the fact that, since you were a child, everyone told you that voting 3rd is acquiescence because they never have a chance at legitimacy. And I want you to critically ask yourself: how in the hell did the Democratic and Republican Party emerge in the first place? Thin air? Magic? Why aren’t we still electing Federalists and Whigs?

[whiskeyswifty]

1989 is so odd to me. it's in my top 3, some of my favorite songs in her discography are on it, and i've always found it so wild the way it seems to be an either you love it or you hate it album? it's either near the top of an album ranking or near the bottom, in my experience, and i was wondering if there's a way to explain how polarizing it is. not even among the gp, i've seen a lot of swifties insist her other pop albums are better and it's the worst, while others think the opposite, and i just find it all so interesting.

you're totally right, it's so polarizing within the fandom, which is hilarious considering how for the general public it's her most widely agreed upon enjoyable album. soooo bizarre to me. you'd think it would at least be middling among fans, but no! in my experience, a lot of taylor's albums and how they're favored by a fan, or detested, come down to what that fan's involvement was with taylor and that album during it's initial release. i'm willing to admit that at this point, 1989 doesn't stick out as the groundbreaking body of work in the current lineup of her albums like it did at the time. it was the first of many like it, and over the years has given way to some songs that are better than some on 1989. also she's since developed that sort of synth sound with jack that is now commonplace and a bit of a signature for her. these days it's a bit more polished than the experimental version of that on 1989. there are many arguments you can make for how 1989 isn't that "special" in the vacuum of her ouvre as it is today.

but i'll say it's more than just the songs in a vacuum. the name for her current tour is apt because she truly operated like many pop stars before her and created those chapterized eras around her albums (sorry she didn't invent it, far from it, and she didn't even reinvent it. it's textbook). with the music came entire personas and aesthetics and narratives and ways of communicating. and while the internet has preserved a lot of things, the experiences of being a fan, or even a particular type of fan, during each of the eras is a singular experience that you cannot reconstruct through photos and articles if you weren't there or an active part of it. that's not to try and gatekeep, like i don't care when you became a fan lol it doesn't affect me at all or how you compare to other fans really. but i'm saying it has a direct effect on your relationship to an era and the album of that era, for better or worse. sometimes it is just that you weren't old enough to be an active late teen/adult fan during the time surrounding 1989 and you don't understand how golden that time was comparatively. sometimes it can be because they don't like that kind of pop music insofar as their personal taste and that's not what they came to taylor for whenever it was they came to taylor, be it country era or folklore era or whatever. sometimes its a combination of both, as when you were born dictates the musical landscape you were plopped into and thereby influences your taste and what you consider "your" music is sometimes more happenstance than anything you actively selected. i digress.

it really was a golden time for people who were a certain type of fan, the right age with the right taste and the right amount of history with her at that time. context and meta context of it as it pertained to her place in the world at that time, and not to mention the overall in-real-time experience of her IG presence and the clues she dropped for each track, her complete physical makeover from hair to clothes, the squad friend group, the way 1989 music contrasted the rest of popular music at that time and what we'd been used to from her. the real time evolution of just her public persona and the song subject matter and the production style. i could go on. but there was a lot about that era, and about all of her eras, that are more than just the songs that skew how people feel about them, or have no feeling about them at all. a huge part of it is it's about how you experienced them in real time, and how they imprinted on you and what you brought to it. it's funny cuz the only other album that has such a visceral polarity about it is reputation, but that's for the totally opposite reason. it is widely agreed upon to be her least enjoyed album by the general public (and many critics) but a large amount of fans will put it at the top. i still think the reasoning is exactly the same, despite the inverse circumstance. what it was like to be a fan of hers during the circumstances surrounding that album, the narratives and the relationship she had to her fans at that point, and going to that concert which for a lot of younger fans was their first taylor concert, have cemented that album as their favorite. it was about the ERA and whether or not you experienced it as THAT kind of fan at that time that makes you a rep fan. the same way that NOT being a fan of a certain kind during the 1989 era and experiencing that might affect how lukewarm you are towards that album if that kind of music isn't your taste to begin with. it means nothing to them. people can be sensitive about it because she's advertised that a huge aspect of her work that she's proud of is her songwriting, so fans are quick to point to songs on their favorite albums as having "excellent" song writing compared to others or whatever as to why they hold it on a pedestal. all of her albums have highs and lows in that department, so that's a moot point for the most part (and a matter of taste really when it comes down to it). the reality is it's simply the way life unfolded for them and when an era did, or didn't, capture their attention and devotion. there's nothing about that that makes someone a better or worse fan of course, it's just the way things happen and why some fans cannot be swayed from their favs or moved to give a shit about something that they only ever heard diegetically in their own life at that time in a CVS.

the last thing i'll say is that a HUUUUUUUGE part of why 1989 is such a benchmark for her, and the general public's relationship with her, was that it wasn't just groundbreaking for her. it was groundbreaking for pop music. it completely changed the sounds of pop mainstream music and was an injection of originality that now probably sounds old hat. i can totally see how a person who came to 1989 many years later was already a part of a world saturated with 1989 copycats and derivatives, and to them that was "generic" pop music, and so it probably doesn't sound that special if you heard it too late. or if anything it sounded like something else they'd already heard and not uniquely taylor in the way they may have been used to something being "uniquely taylor". i personally think 1989 is a cut above the copycats, and a cut above all her other pop work to this day, but i'm sympathetic to those who didn't experience it at the right time to be receptive to it in the way it was received by the rest of us. i'm sorry you missed out! it was a rip roaring time.

[undercityrezident]

My Thoughts on Tears of the Kingdom

Disclaimer: Please note there are many, many, many spoilers about the world, gameplay, and story of Tears of the Kingdom here. Don’t read any further if you want to avoid them.

Let me get this out of the way right off the bat. I went into this game with a lot of mixed feelings. I’ve been hyped up about this game for years now. From the moment it was labelled the “Sequel to Breath of the Wild” in a Nintendo Direct, I was intrigued. The last time we’d seen something like this was with A Link Between Worlds, which is largely a sequel or spiritual successor to A Link to the Past. Both A Link to the Past and A Link Between Worlds are games I hold dear to me. The former was the first Zelda game I first played and was a formative game that would go on to define my expectations for video games at large for the rest of my life. Suffice it to say, when A Link Between Worlds knocked my expectations out of the park, I was more than pleased and relieved.

It's this precedent that drew a lot of expectations from me when it came time to play Breath of the Wild’s eventually titled sequel, Tears of the Kingdom.

But where my mixed feelings come in is with how Nintendo has been acting as a company over the past few years (and perhaps longer if I deigned to look further back). As much hype as I had for Tears of the Kingdom, I found these feelings drained by my reservations about supporting a company that seems antagonistic towards its most passionate fans.

But I resolved to look at the game a different way, perhaps somewhat selfishly, to rationalize wanting to play it. I decided I wanted to support the hard-working and passionate developers who likely have no say in the company’s decisions versus the management who are responsible for all the legal decision-making that’s been making me eye Nintendo more stringently.

So, with those thoughts and some health problems hampering me as the game’s launch finally came upon us, I picked up the game and tried to go into it with even expectations. When it comes to pieces of media, I try to evaluate them independently of their publishers or even authors/contributors/developers, judging the piece on its own merits. Sometimes, that’s impossible, but I hope I’ve done that here. In any case, take this as a declaration of my biases toward the game before we dive into my thoughts on it.

So, without further ado, let’s talk about the actual game and my experience with it.

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Approaching Tears

In playing this, I took in the expanded world Tears of the Kingdom offered. I closed myself off from anything Zelda-related on the internet to avoid spoilers for over three weeks because I truly wanted to experience this game at my own pace and not have to rush through it. Through this, I managed to complete all the main quests, all but two side adventures (one I hadn’t discovered, and the other being the compendium), all the shrines and shrine quests, and only missed 30 or so of the 139 side quests. I collected all but 12 Bubbulfrogs, collected just over 300 Korok Seeds, and fully mapped out all three layers of the world map. All this, from the moment I first turned on the game until I stood triumphant at the end, took me a little over 150 hours. Perhaps a little obscene of an investment within three or so weeks, but I wanted to push through in my weird, exploratory form of gaming while still managing to get through the game unspoiled.

From the perspective of someone who did all this, let me break down each aspect of the game and how I felt about it.

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A World of Tears

A big point of debate online was the idea of this game being a glorified expansion or DLC for Breath of the Wild. Yes, it is set in the same world, but that world has changed in ways both subtle and substantial, making for a fresh experience on a map that’ll still bring a twinge of nostalgia to Breath of the Wild veterans. Many surprises await players new and old to this franchise, including caves that take you beneath familiar landscapes and connect places in ways that make you say, “Oh wow. That makes a lot of sense, actually.” For example, I’d always headcanoned that an underground river connected the Lanaryu Wetlands to a river south of Kakariko Village. And guess what: there is one now!

The general landscape of Breath of the Wild’s Hyrule will appear very familiar at a distance, barring a few major landmark changes. Of course, Hyrule Castle is one of the easiest to spot, as is Death Mountain. But the changes stack up as you travel around Hyrule and see it up close. Some of the physical landscape has changed due to the event in the game known as the “Upheaval,” something we’ll come back to later when I discuss the game’s story. But there are also changes thanks to continuing development of Hyrule’s populace, both its citizens and the monsters threatening it.

On the side of Hyrule’s citizenry, one of the biggest landmarks is the newly established outpost of Lookout Landing just south of Hyrule Castle. It’s nice to see that there’s been some attempt at re-establishing a foothold in central Hyrule. That said, this seems to be only a first step, as there hasn’t been much else done around the rest of Hyrule in terms of trying to resettle formerly held territories. It’s hard for me to critique this because the timeline for the gap between this game and the last is vague at best. It could’ve been a single year, or it could’ve been a few. What’s more, there’s another theoretical time gap between the game’s prologue and when you actually get into the meat of the game. And I’m not talking about the meat you shoot when fusing your arrows to items in your inventory.

I was hoping for a little more development of Hyrule from the kingdom’s population. Breath of the Wild was great for fostering a post-apocalyptic world for you to wander through and discover. In Tears of the Kingdom, I was hoping for more evidence that people were trying to reclaim these wilds. We certainly see the first steps of it, but it didn’t quite meet my expectations on that front.

With the Upheaval came the return of monsters in Hyrule who established new outposts throughout the land. To my recollection, they haven’t reoccupied any old ones, though you can certainly find remains of them here and there. Some have vanished entirely though, strangely enough. An example is the Bottomless Swamp in eastern Hyrule Field, once a pit of quicksand-esque muck, giant bones, and a plethora of monsters. Now it’s a simple pond atop a hill, one that you’ll likely fall into without realizing it after falling from the tutorial sky islands. I know I shouldn’t be asking too many questions about why certain things happen in a world ruled by magic and magical machines, but I still wouldn’t mind an explanation of why they vanished.

But on the note of magical machines… the biggest question and criticism I have is regarding the notable absence of the guardian wreckage present all over Hyrule. Once strewn from corner to corner of Hyrule’s map in Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom doesn’t seem to boast a single piece of the Sheikah’s ancient technology, despite how prominently it featured in the game’s prequel. Towers, shrines, wrecked guardians, and even the Divine Beasts have vanished without a trace and, as far as I saw, without an explanation.

This feels strange to me, as though the developers simply decided to ignore the presence of these very important pieces of Hyrule’s history. It’s likely for the sake of avoiding confusion between Sheikah tech and Zonai tech, especially for players new to the franchise (or at least for those who skipped playing Breath of the Wild), but some acknowledgement would be appreciated. All we truly get in the sense of Sheikah technology is their modern adaptations. In the place of the Sheikah Slate, we get the Purah Pad (co-developed with Robbie, as the name might have you forget) and the new Skyview Towers which seem to be modern Sheikah takes on the old Sheikah Towers present in Breath of the Wild. And when referring to Breath of the Wild’s old plot, there are only a few cursory mentions in the early game, the character profiles, and in some odd side quests here and there. At this point, it feels somewhat like Breath of the Wild erasure, which doesn’t sit well with me.

But on the note of things forgotten—in-game that is—are the two other layers of the map that you’ll have the chance to explore: the Sky Islands and the Depths.

The Sky Islands are a smattering of Zonai-enchanted landmasses that dot the Hyrulean sky. I can only imagine these islands evaded detection by people for so long because they might’ve been up even higher in the sky or obscured by Zonai magic of some kind. The upheaval not only affected the land but also began to bring parts of these islands down too. I imagine they all descended somewhat during this, with a great many pieces of them falling, and continuing to fall, to the earth. The landed sky island pieces have done their part in effecting changes in the surface landscape, giving the familiar Hyrule some new variety. But travelling up to those still aloft gives you not only some interesting traversal conundrums using ancient Zonai tech and some classic Zelda puzzle-solving wit but also some fantastic vistas. Some of the best sequences in the game’s main quest also involve climbing to absurd heights on these sky islands, leaving you with an amazing sense of accomplishment when you realize that few, if any other living beings—even winged ones like the Rito, have been as far up as you have. And the best part is that these, along with the Skyview Towers that shoot you up to a fair altitude, give you the chance to skydive and paraglide all over Hyrule for easy mobility.

On the other end of the altitude spectrum are the anxiety-inducing Depths.

These aren’t your usual pithy little caves that you can go into, spend ten or twenty minutes plundering, and then return to the light of day without batting an eye. The depths are reached through noxious chasms that have opened up all around Hyrule that you have to skydive down through until you reach a massive underground that sprawls in all directions, spanning the entire map of Hyrule in a dark, horrific inverse. Yes, this is Tears of the Kingdom’s take on a Dark World that’s been seen in other games, though a bit less literal.

Swathed in patches of a nasty substance called Gloom, something that you and the populace of Hyrule cannot endure for long, traversing the Depths is a challenge in and of itself. You’ll have to use your resources to not only make your way but also light your way through it. Thankfully, you’ll find inert landmarks in the Depths called Lightroots that you can activate to create beacons to light this dismal landscape. And as you light more and more, you’ll come to recognize that the Depths really are an inverted reflection of the Hyrule you know and love above. Its topography is a reflection of Hyrule’s. Mountains on the surface are treacherously deep ravines in the Depths, often containing abandoned Zonai mining facilities. Landmarks such as towns have formerly occupied Zonai forges beneath them in the Depths, and even the Lightroots connect back up to shrine locations above (and even the names of the Lightroots are inverted from the names of their surface-world counterparts). A skilled navigator will either be able to use the surface map to guide them to new light beacons below based on shrines they visited or find hidden shrines on the surface thanks to Lightroots they’ve already seen below. The connection between the Depths and the surface is amazing and adds so much more to it.

That said, I felt like I often went point-to-point through the Depths because I didn’t feel there was much to it besides a few notable landmarks. Aside from some bosses hanging around in designated places, a few Yiga Clan bases, some mines where I could farm Zonaite ore, and a few story-driven locations, the Depths lost a lot of its charm to me in the latter half of the game since I could easily tell from revealed maps whether a place had anything of note or not. While this and the sky nearly tripled the space you could explore in-game, most of the Depth’s appeal came from your initial, blind, bewildered, and terrified explorations of it. Once this veil was lifted, the Depths began to feel a lot emptier, with its only trials being its many difficult-to-traverse cliffs and Gloom-filled expanses. The sky avoided this pitfall by having only sparse landmasses above Hyrule, leaving each sporadic encounter up there segmented between portions of the game as I travelled about and left me looking forward to each time I’d ascend to those heights.

But one thing that all three layers of this map do is make Hyrule feel like a cohesive whole, despite being three separate sections. The borders between the sky and Hyrule is only limited by your tools and what assets you have on the surface (i.e. the Skyview Towers or fallen islands you can recall back upward), and your passage to the Depths is facilitated by many chasms available to you. Despite the very contrasting tones between the sky islands, the surface, and the Depths, they all still feel very much linked, giving variety to a massive world that I enjoyed exploring every corner of.

Thank the goddesses there aren’t Koroks in the Depths though…

--

Playing with Tears

One of Tears of the Kingdom’s main accomplishments is expanding on gameplay already found in Breath of the Wild and making it fresh and new once again. The Sheikah runes are gone with the Sheikah slate (save for the camera and teleportation functionality in the new Purah Pad… and amiibos if you want to use them), replaced with your strange new arm’s powers of Recall, Ultrahand, Fuse, and Ascend. It’s not an exaggeration to say that these things turn how you approach challenges in this world on their head.

The world encourages you to take interesting or unique approaches to tackle challenges. How were you going to scale a mountain? How are you going to raid that Bokoblin camp? Do you want to send a Korok to space? Now you can answer all of these questions that plagued you in Breath of the Wild—maybe not that last one, but the internet seems to have latched on that last one with this sequel—in entirely new ways in Tears of the Kingdom.

In quick summation, the Recall power turns back time for objects you target. Ultrahand allows you to pick up, move, and attach anything to just about anything, letting folks make those ridiculous mechas that you’ve probably seen online. Fuse lets you fuse weapons with various things in your inventory or in the world to good, great, or comical effect. And Ascend is the godsend to those who wanted to climb mountains in the rain by letting you travel upward through objects to their peaks in a fraction of the time.

Me? I preferred breaking puzzles in shrines and elsewhere by combinations of Ultrahand and Recall. I also found it particularly helpful for getting a decent launch for my flying machines when I didn’t have a nice runway: just Ultrahand the plane into the air, hold it there for a moment, bring it back down, get on board, recall it up into the air, start your machine, end the recall, and presto, you’re already flying!

I’ve heard and seen so many more ways people have been creatively using—and abusing—these abilities. The fact the game fosters so much creativity through these abilities is fantastic, and the fact they’re so often used in conjunction for puzzle solving, conventional or otherwise, is very satisfying. At least, until one puzzle comes along that makes me feel like a complete dumbass. But that’s usually followed up by another puzzle I completely break that makes me feel like a genius. This game continuously bounced back and forth along that spectrum.

I do have a couple of complaints about these abilities. The first of these is that, compounded with other new and existing abilities and actions, there are so many features and actions you perform that you must learn the button combinations for. Maybe it’s a combination of the facts that I played Breath of the Wild on the WiiU or that I’m getting old, but I felt like it nearly took me twenty hours to finally master the controls. All that time leading up to it, I felt like I was becoming inordinately frustrated with accessing Link’s abilities, especially in tense combat or tightly timed scenarios. My other complaints are far more minor: I felt like the range of Ultrahand was woefully short on the vertical axis compared to the horizontal axes, and I often felt like Ascend’s targeting was very touchy and had its range deliberately altered in certain places to keep it from working in certain shrines and the like. That last complaint is a bit iffy and might just be a matter of biased perspective on my part though.

Combat and conventional travel (i.e. climbing, running, etc.) is effectively the same as Breath of the Wild’s, though you’ll certainly be doing a lot more flying and skydiving thanks to the aforementioned Sheikah towers, which is quite convenient. The other main differences in travel came through the use of vehicles (which were fun, but I still tended to prefer exploring on foot or on horseback when possible to avoid missing features and secrets) and a few special low-gravity areas in the sky—places where I, even having finished the game, still cannot estimate proper jump distance if my life depended on it.

Comparatively, the main differences in combat come from how you fuse weapons and how you use them in combat. As well, weapons now have classes that come with certain special bonuses or features (improved flurry rushes, quicker spin attacks, extra damage at low durability, etc.). While I never made much use of these weapon class features, I’m sure those much more resourceful and into the combat side of the game will be much better at manipulating these concepts to great effect. It’s an addition of depth that didn’t benefit me, but it’s good that something was added in that sense.

Just as I did in Breath of the Wild, I found early-game combat difficult with how enemies could easily one-shot me. While I know enemies scale depending on how many you kill, there appeared (at least to my reckoning) to be areas where higher-scaled enemies appeared. This was most apparent to me when was when I was dealing with Red and Blue Bokoblins on Hyrule Field, only to find hordes of Black Bokoblins waiting for me on the Great Plateau. I found myself having to rush the Great Fairy quests so I could upgrade my armour sooner rather than later. Nothing is more frustrating to me than having to fight enemies perfectly, or else suffer one attack that puts me down for good. Sure, I could stick to the game’s encouraged path with easier enemies, but this game is designed to be an open world to encourage exploring. I love doing just that, but I felt like I was being punished for doing so.

Of course, I could’ve avoided that by building a mecha or an orbital death laser with the new Zonai tech, but I didn’t get around to that in my playthrough. It’s something I look forward to experimenting with in the future.

Regarding the foes you face, one of my biggest complaints about Breath of the Wild was a lack of enemy diversity. Thankfully, that’s been improved upon in Tears of the Kingdom with the addition of monsters like Like Likes, Gibdos, and Gleeoks. I still think it’s a bit of a thin roster compared to many other Zelda games, but I appreciate that we get to see new takes on classic Zelda enemies. Like Likes fixing themselves on walls waiting for prey to come nearby, and being so damn animated about it when they do, was a great touch—even they are a bit gross. Gibdos’ new format as walking corpses meshed with a vaguely insectoid nature was highly unnerving, especially when they start skittering on the ground—or goddesses forbid, gain wings. (As a side note, I found out about the existence of Winged Gibdos before meeting any Gibdos by upgrading my armour at a Great Fairy when I saw “Gibdo Wings” as a required item. Suffice it to say, not only was foreshadowing of one of my most feared enemies being in the game enough to unsettle me, but the fact they were implied to have wings also had me wondering what actual hell was awaiting me later in the game.) Gleeoks were always intense fights in this game, especially in the last phase whenever they decided to ascend high into the sky and do their massive area-of-effect attacks. Fights like those will be among the most memorable parts of Tears of the Kingdom for me.

Fuck Horriblins, though. They’re weird, annoying, I hate the noises they make, and they fucked me up with rocks when I was doing an early-game exploration of Hyrule Castle’s lower ruins. That said, I’m totally going to use them against my Zelda D&D group when I DM. Also, the Gloom Hands jumpscared me the first time I saw them. And my stomach dropped when I defeated them for the first time, only to find out they turned into Phantom Ganon.

Temples made a return in this game, but not quite in the way I expected. The sections leading up to them, especially the ones in the Gerudo and Hebra regions, were fantastic. And those same two temples, the Lightning and Wind Temples respectively, were stellar dungeons. The Fire Temple boasted some brain-breaking puzzles for me, but I managed to figure them out after some pondering. Conversely, the Water Temple was fairly simple, and perhaps the weakest of the set for me.

Aesthetically, however, all the temples were unique and well-defined, making them all memorable. It should be noted that you also travel into each one with a companion, each of which is essential for you to traverse and complete the dungeon in some way. Ever since the introduction of companion dungeons in Wind Waker, I’ve always found have always them to be a great twist on the dungeon formula, and I’m glad they were prominent in this game. However, one part of the formula present in these dungeons that I didn’t care for was carried over from the Divine Beasts of Breath of the Wild: objective points. Having to find and access all these different terminals made sense in the Divine Beasts, given their mechanical nature.

Some of these temples managed to integrate this concept better than others. The Wind Temple was essentially a ship with a massive door on its deck that you needed to align gears to open. Activating all the objective points made sense there. Since it was the first dungeon I completed, I didn’t pay this much mind. But as soon as I saw the gongs and the gate in the Fire Temple, I knew this was going to be a trend, and I found myself groaning because this meant the gameplay was going to become predictable in dungeons.

One of the things I love about Zelda dungeons, historically, is that each one had its own niche or feature that made it unique from the others. The Forest Temple in Ocarina of Time had the poe sisters stealing the fire from torches you needed to reach the boss. The Temple of Time in Twilight Princess had you controlling a statue to navigate a route you already traversed, completely recontextualizing an otherwise linear dungeon. Eagle’s Tower in Link’s Awakening had you crush an entire floor with another floor by knocking out its supports. Dungeons with unique features and progression give great variety within the games and even the dungeons themselves.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t help but feel like each dungeon in Tears of the Kingdom began with the same “hit x objectives” concept and was built from there. Certainly, the puzzles you solved, the bosses you fought, and the aesthetics of all the dungeons are unique between each, but the experience of unfurling the logic of a dungeon is one of the biggest appeals to me in Zelda games. If all it boils down to is activating X number of switches and then heading to the boss, then I feel that takes away a lot from the dungeon-delving experience. I think part of it—and this is something of a recurring theme that I’ll also touch on in the story-section of this reflection—is due to the fact this is an open-world game that allows you to tackle the dungeons in any order. Thus, some level of uniformity in terms of both execution and difficulty is expected. This means the open-world model takes away from the potential the dungeons have to offer.

Even with all of that, some dungeons did scratch itches that I found lacking in the last game. The biggest example for me is the Lightning Temple, my clear favourite of all four major dungeons. It had that amazing Indiana Jones/The Mummy vibe associated with a desert dungeon that I absolutely loved. While the objective-based gameplay was on full display here, I liked how there was a sort of “prologue” to the dungeon through a first encounter with the boss before we even set foot inside, followed up by traversing a dark, trap-filled basement, before finally ascending to a tall central chamber where our exploration went from linear to open. It was a very well-narrated dungeon in that sense, especially with it concluding with a rematch with the dungeon’s boss who we couldn’t finish off at the beginning.

Beyond the game’s main dungeons, the game re-used the concept of shrines to fill in the gap left by the game’s fewer number of dungeons compared to other games in the series, much like Breath of the Wild did. While I didn’t mind shrines in either this game or Breath of the Wild, this felt to me like another re-used concept from Breath of the Wild that had me wondering if the developers could’ve taken a different direction to challenge players when providing them opportunities to upgrade their health/stamina. Could we have gotten additional full dungeons, even if they were optional ones not in line with the game’s plot, or could the caves introduced into this game world have been expanded into more complex, developed dungeons themselves with similar puzzles and rewards? Could the Depths have been filled with their own dungeons (aside from the Spirit Temple that was essentially just a boss fight room)? I feel like there were possibilities that could’ve been explored but weren’t since they decided to default back to shrines. While I didn’t necessarily tire of shrines, I feel like I could’ve easily, were it not for the great decision to make a lot more shrines of the “blessing” variety simply for completing a challenge to either reveal or reach it. I appreciated the unique challenges the world put before you for shrines that were the reward rather than the challenge. This was especially satisfying in how the many crystal shrine quests rewarded you by having the crystal turn into the shrine—a brilliant touch, honestly.

In terms of the game’s technical performance, I did witness a few framerate slowdowns and witnessed some distant moving objects moving at slow framerates. However, these issues were generally few and far between, confirming for me my suspicions for critiques I made on other open-world games like Legends Arceus and Pokemon Scarlet & Violet: that the Switch can render such vast games beautifully and with decent framerates if the devs are given ample time to properly polish and optimize their games. Further, I never encountered a single glitch, contrasting the few I did see in the two aforementioned games.

Overall, Tears of the Kingdom’s gameplay soared high overhead of Breath of the Wild’s. It’s not perfect, but it’s a great accomplishment overall. It took me some time to get used to the abilities (and the controls), but once it went smoothly and I got some upgrades to my armour, I felt I could very expertly navigate and fight my way through Hyrule. That late-game feeling where you are armed and armoured to the teeth and ready to go mess up Ganondorf and his toughest minions is definitely one I enjoyed in Tears of the Kingdom. Not to mention the fact you can accrue companions to fight alongside you in regular gameplay. It wasn’t until this game that I realized I wanted a Zelda party RPG.

But for all the innovations that came with this game, is letting us pet the dogs at the stables so difficult?

--

The Kingdom’s Tearful Music

Tears of the Kingdom follows faithfully in the footsteps of its predecessor when it comes to its musical style. Considering it’s a sequel with many of the same themes and expands on the already existing world, it makes sense the music follows suit too. This means that, until you get yourself into some intense situations and story-driven sections, you’ll be soothed with familiar tunes as you explore this still very untamed iteration of Hyrule. However, when the stakes are high, the music drives that tension up even further, making for some catchy compositions and enhancing those memorable moments in the game.

I will say, at the onset, that I was a bit disappointed that the general world themes are exactly as they were in Hyrule. Just as I critiqued the lack of Hyrule’s reclamation by its people, the world’s ambient music hasn’t advanced much, if at all. Your foot and horseback travel music in regions of comfortable climates is that same, pause-filled, broken-up sets of piano notes that, while evocative of the setting, don’t drive a lot of excitement. Similarly, the music pieces for areas of extreme heat and cold use the same music as Breath of the Wild, which I’ve always found to be a bit understated and repetitive.

That isn’t to say that having musical connections back to Breath of the Wild isn’t always a bad thing, music-wise. In fact, some of the best compositions in Tears of the Kingdom are best served with little doses of musical nostalgia. In the game, for each major settlement threatened by some variation of Ganondorf’s corruption, there’s a subdued, off-putting, downtrodden variation of its theme. The frozen Rito Village is tinged by echoing, icy sounds. Zora’s Domain’s pristine, elegant piano song fades in and out discordantly between the ambient sounds of muck. Goron City’s percussive tune is downplayed with worried notes left as unresolved as their plight. Gerudo Town’s catchy, desert tunes are lost to sombre tones between the sandy winds like the ghost town it’s become. Once you resolve these region’s dilemmas, you’ll find yourself returning to the familiar, reassuring musical suites of these settings that you know well from Breath of the Wild. I could critique it for not having these old compositions be iterated upon further in this game to differentiate it from their Breath of the Wild counterparts, but I think the goal was a restoration of the status quo that you managed to attain in Breath of the Wild. If that was the developers’ goal, they suitably accomplished it.

Returning from Breath of the Wild is its evolving, dynamic soundtrack as you progress through its dungeons. While I might’ve complained earlier about the objective-based gameplay of the dungeons, the music serves the heighten feelings of accomplishment as you progress from point to point. The dungeons’ music, as far as I can tell, have wholly original themes at the start, but soon bring in tones and musical phrases that will have you recognizing themes affiliated with the people of the region, your dungeon companion treading its dangers alongside you, and even the divine beasts of Breath of the Wild. These nostalgia hits, twined with new musical ideas, are one of the most potent parts of Tears of the Kingdom’s musical arsenal.

And, as Zelda games are no stranger to doing, the game’s music sets the mood of the scenes extraordinarily well. A haunting, droning sting as you descend into Depths through a chasm, truly prepares you for the terrifying experience of making your way through a dark, hostile domain. But if you want to talk about the cyclical connection of mood and setting in this game, one needs look no further than the game’s prologue to feel the dread the music intones as you descend into the lair of the imprisoned Ganondorf. Compare that to the end of the game when you find yourself returning to that same place while a haunting reprise of that song fills the air, confirming that you’ve found that dreadful place once again. And that same tone only evolves further and more intensely as you proceed beyond that chamber to find Ganondorf awaiting you.

But most unnerving and haunting are those strange, musical notes and phrases that almost feel like they’re vocalizations being played backwards (though I can’t confirm this as a fact, it just might be some sort of synthesized sound made to sound unnerving in that way), most of which are affiliated with the depths beneath the castle and with minions particularly connected to Ganondorf (namely the Gloom Hands, Phantom Ganon, and some small references in some of the major boss themes). I’m still wondering if it’s referring more to Ganondorf, to the Zonai because of the secret stone that Ganondorf stole, or to Rauru since that music first began playing when Rauru sealed Ganondorf with that fateful strike of his arm.

While not all the music in the game embodies the musical evolution I spoke of earlier, the overall soundtrack of this game is stellar and memorable. I love the connections it forges with Breath of the Wild through its music, though it certainly makes me wish the same parallel held in the setting regarding references to Sheikah tech, divine beasts, and other staples from the last game. Even so, Tears of the Kingdom’s haunting soundtrack will be one I’ll be revisiting often, perhaps more so than the game itself.

By the way, the Wind Temple has the best theme, hands down. And the music playing while you climb up the ascending sky islands toward it serves as the perfect intro. But for mood, nothing hits like the Descending into Gloom’s Lair track just before you fight an army Ganondorf sends at you before finally getting a crack at the man himself.

--

A Tear-Wrenching Story

Don’t let this section’s title fool you: I mean this in the best way possible. Tears of the Kingdom’s story will not just tug at your heartstrings but strum them like an acoustic guitar.

While I certainly hoped and dreamed this game would let us play with Link and Zelda as a team (or even just as Zelda, if only for a bit), I knew not to expect anything so wonderful. Even so, I didn’t expect how strongly I would resonate with Zelda’s epic. In a way, I think hers was the more prominent plot in the story over the one you played with Link, despite them being entwined quite gracefully at the beginning and the end.

We began the story with Link and Zelda exploring the depths beneath Hyrule Castle, only to stumble upon an awakening Ganondorf who already seemed to know them. Only moments later, he unleashed his power, destroying the Master Sword, grievously wounding Link’s arm, and sending Zelda plummeting into the darkness along with him. Link makes a desperate bid to grab her with his corrupted arm, but can’t quite make it in time before she vanishes with the new stone she’s attained from the arm that was previously holding Ganondorf at bay. Said arm is the only reason Link doesn’t fall to his own death, leaving us to wake up an unspecified amount of time later with that new arm replacing our old, corrupted one. Meanwhile, on the world below, the Upheaval has taken place, leaving Hyrule changed yet again and opening routes to the Depths and the sky islands.

On these first sky islands, we’re guided by Rauru, a Zonai and the apparent first King of Hyrule, on our tutorial sky islands after a fantastic opening cut of the title. My immediate response to this was to comment on the parallels between this scenario and the Great Plateau tutorial in Breath of the Wild. We’re even guided by a king of old through it all. This initially led me to worry if the game would simply be retreading the steps of Breath of the Wild and wouldn’t break any new ground. In some ways, my fears were validated by how we were directed to four regions of the map to address problems, just as we had to address the matters of the divine beasts in Breath of the Wild. To further those concerns, we also found out about the geoglyphs and had to collect memories for those, just as we had to visit certain locations for memories in Breath of the Wild. While I was confident the gameplay was evolving at this early point in the game, I was worried the formula of storytelling was going to be delivering a rehash of what we’d seen in the prequel to Tears of the Kingdom.

While the method of story delivery turned out to be similar, I was glad to find out the story itself was anything but.

What we got was a heartbreaking vision into the distant past of the fledgling kingdom of Hyrule in its infancy and the origin of the Ganondorf threat through Zelda’s memories. After being flung back into the past, Zelda found herself in the care of Rauru and Sonia, the first King and Queen of Hyrule respectively. While a stranger in time, Princess Zelda found, what I believe, to be a new father and mother figure in them, as they were both kind and nurturing while taking Zelda into their care. They did everything they could to help her find a way home, but that effort fell by the wayside as Ganondorf treacherously slew Sonia and stole her secret stone, a Zonai relic capable of amplifying a person’s existing power. From there, Ganondorf became a menacing, world-ending threat. It was only by Rauru’s sacrifice after the collaboration of six sages that Ganondorf was sealed away. I couldn’t help but feel for Zelda in both these losses she suffered, as it felt much like her losing yet another set of parental figures.

But of course, even that sacrifice wouldn’t be enough, as Zelda knew well that Ganondorf would awaken, having seen it before she was cast back into the past. She gleaned her purpose once she received the broken Master Sword Link sent her from the future near the beginning of the game, and realized that she had to capitalize on its potential to absorb her holy power through the millennia. And for that, she had to make a sacrifice that likely broke the heart of every Zelda fan far and wide: she had to swallow her secret stone, cast away her very sense of self, and become an immortal dragon.

This is where we connect back to the story in the present. Now, here’s the part where things get tricky because of the open-world nature of the game. The pacing of the storytelling, and the order in which you learn parts of the story, are determined by the player. Make no mistake, this story is intricately and beautifully told. But if you find the glyphs in the wrong order as I did, it betrays some of the plot earlier than it should and lessens the impact somewhat. I still had my heart crushed, thankfully—weird to say, but yes, I am thankful about it—by the scene where Zelda made her sacrifice, but I found out about it far sooner than I should’ve, in my opinion, because I was collecting glyphs faster than I needed to and out of chronological order. Moreover, I had only completed three of the four regional phenomena by the time I finished the glyph-based memories (only the Gerudo left to go). It feels like, based on dialogue from Mineru (the Spirit Sage and the fifth you find), that the revelation of the Master Sword, and its reclamation, should’ve come after you helped her. I certainly think that learning about Zelda’s sacrifice at that moment would’ve had the best impact from a storytelling perspective. Don’t get me wrong, climbing, step by step, up Zelda’s long, draconic back to find the Master Sword completely revitalized atop her head was a stunning moment. But I feel like it could’ve happened at a better time in my playthrough for the best potential catharsis.

But that’s the pitfall that comes with open-world games trying to tell a compelling story. And, to return to my earlier critique about this game’s recycled story delivery method, this is why the plot is divided between what we do in the present and what Zelda does in the past. This is why the game has us search around for memories and why these regional phenomena are delivered to us in the same way as before Breath of the Wild’s divine beast quests. Don’t get me wrong, they adapt this method of telling Zelda’s story very well. Creating a compelling story with a time loop without making it convoluted or confusing is a difficult task at best and a foolhardy one at worst. But they executed it beautifully. Unfortunately, the developers have to rely on the player to see it in a particular way for the best impact.

This also impacts the story and gameplay of Link’s journey in the present too. We’re encouraged to go to Hebra first, Eldin second, Zora’s Domain third, and the Gerudo Desert last. This doesn’t necessarily affect any major storytelling issues, but the enemy scaling issues I mentioned earlier in this reflection end up coming into play, potentially hindering player experience if they choose to go to another of the regions first, and especially if they wanted to do the Gerudo first. What’s more, the biggest flaw in storytelling in this regional-phenomena, open-world approach is that each cutscene after a dungeon with your companion essentially retold the same story over and over, making it feel much less impactful after the first sage you empowered. If the game were more linear, each sage could add a new detail that slowly unveils the true nature of that battle with Ganondorf, or potentially other moments in the past with Zelda.

Further, while I think splitting the journeys of Zelda and Link works well for this game’s story since it was explicitly built around the concept of time travel, the split between perspectives of Zelda and Link in the past and future respectively does create a feeling of non-involvement for the player—or it did for me at least. This is only a minor issue for me in Tears of the Kingdom because of how the story is framed, but I felt this in Breath of the Wild too, since it felt like all the major, exciting events took place in the past, while I was cleaning up after it in the future. I do wonder if I would have these reservations in Tears of the Kingdom if we didn’t already have to do that in Breath of the Wild. It would feel like a fresher, novel experience that the story was curated around in this newer game. While the story does feel curated around it now, I’m still dealing with the lingering sense of repetition due to Tears of the Kingdom’s story delivery matching that of Breath of the Wild.

But these are minor complaints in an otherwise fantastically told story. It just leaves me wondering how much more involved in the story I would be if it were a more linearly-oriented game. How much harder would Zelda’s sacrifice hit me if I didn’t see a particular memory first that tipped me off on what was happening? I’ll never truly know. All I know is that, while Breath of the Wild’s open-world gameplay is wonderful, it does have an impact on how these stories are told. After two of these games, I feel like I may want to go back to a more traditional method of experiencing a Zelda story: one where Link is more directly involved with events with Zelda and where the story unfolds at a set pace with events in order.

There are a few gaps in the story I wished were filled in too. The time gap between Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom remains unclear, as does the time gap between when the Upheaval starts on Ganondorf’s release and when we awaken with our new arm and begin the game properly. I would also love to know more about the ancient sages who help us awaken their counterparts in our time. They each wear a helmet resembling one of the divine beasts—again, why this connection to the previous game without any evidence of the divine beasts or guardians in the sequel’s world—and not much is told about them beyond their duty. Considering the King is named Rauru, I wonder if their names would line up with the names of other sages to match the divine beasts’ names: Medli for Vah Medoh, Darunia for Vah Rudania, Ruto for Vah Ruta, and Nabooru for Vah Naboris. I also wonder if this decision to keep them shrouded in mystery was to keep the focus on the modern sages since I feel like the new champions were overshadowed by their predecessors in Breath of the Wild (tell me how many of you think of Revali or Teba first, for example). Or maybe there will be DLC to expand on these sages in the future. There are plenty of other small questions I wished were answered, but that’s me being detailed-oriented and fussy, so I can’t complain too much about it.

But even with all my reservations and concerns, I still have to say, this story was one of the most compelling Zelda stories to date. And, to be perfectly honest, its ending dethroned my longstanding favourite from The Wind Waker. I thought that nothing would be able to upstage Link driving the Master Sword into Ganondorf’s head and sealing him beneath an ocean while the King of Red Lions decides to die with his kingdom once and for all, leaving Link and Zelda to make their own kingdom free of the past.

But…

The cyclical ending of Tears of the Kingdom cannot be ignored. Zelda being flung to the past, enduring the ages to bring us the revitalized Master Sword. Ganondorf eating his own stone in a desperate bid to defeat Link, whereas Zelda ate hers in devotion to Link and their cause to defeat Ganondorf ages before. The battle of dragons in the skies above Hyrule after our duel with him in the deepest reaches of the earth. Crawling up the back of Ganondorf’s demonic dragon form to strike him down in contrast to the tender nature with which Link strode up Zelda’s draconic back to find the Master Sword on her head. And then finally, once he’s defeated, Link skydiving to catch the now undraconified Zelda falling to earth—all while the game’s main theme plays, transitioning to a triumphant reprise of Zelda’s lullaby—before catching and saving her after we failed to at the beginning of the game. And at last, seeing Zelda’s sweet smile, reminiscent of the one she gave at the end of Breath of the Wild, as she tells us she’s home. The cycle is complete. The ouroboros of the title logo is fulfilled. I even got my wish, in a small sense, for Link and Zelda to work as a team during this game, thanks to that final fight.

I haven’t yelled at a video game in such excitement in a long time as I did when I was desperately diving toward Zelda to catch her. It was an iconic moment in gaming for me that I won’t forget for a long, long time.

--

A Reflection on Tears

So, given the good, the bad, and the confusing, what did I think of Tears of the Kingdom overall?

Well, its good facets certainly outweigh any critiques I can make about it. I explained at the beginning of this reflection that I may have some feelings towards Nintendo now that may lead me to be more critical of their products, even though I try to divorce those feelings from the work of art that is this game. It’s not something that I can do easily or perfectly. I wonder if I’d be able to overlook the game’s issues otherwise, or if these criticisms are a result of the person I am now compared to how I once looked at games like A Link to the Past back when I first played them as a starry-eyed child.

Regardless, no matter what I can say about it, there’s no denying that so much love and hard work went into Tears of the Kingdom. It was built on the foundation that Breath of the Wild lay first, but it undoubtedly surpassed and expanded on it in ways that cannot be quantified. I had my frustrations with it, sure, but there was so much more that sucked me into it, made me smile, made me gasp, made me hold my breath, made me shout, and made me laugh.

This world you see, the way you travel through it, the way you hear it through its sounds and music, and the story it tells, are nothing short of astonishing. Not perfect but astonishing all the same.

I look forward to continuing my journey in Tears of the Kingdom, discovering those last 12 Bubbulfrogs—hell no to the Koroks though—and their elusive caves, finding the last few bits of armour I’m missing, and wishing I could put a roof on my house near Tarrey Town.

And yes, this game did make me shed a tear or two. It would’ve been a travesty if Tears of the Kingdom didn’t live up to its name.

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Worth noting that we're almost two weeks into 2024, and there are still two undetermined films on this year's Disney slate...

One of them is just simply "Untitled Disney", and it's set for release September 8, 2024...

The other is the annual Thanksgiving Walt Disney Animation Studios offering.

According to some screenshot of a supposed Disney movie/series slate that was floating around a month ago, Disney took both of these movies off the calendar... But I concluded, for multiple reasons, that that screenshot was fake. As it did not resemble the kind of PDF document that Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures usually puts out when there's a change in the release schedule. The formatting was all different, and it included Disney+ shows, which these things never do.

So, I rule that the 9/6/2024 release - whatever it may be - and the 11/27/2024 WDAS movie are still on the boards. At the moment... Of course, that's always subject to change!

Disney would've kicked this year off with the Pixar space adventure ELIO in March, but that got pushed all the way back to the summer of 2025... The year instead begins with theatrical releases of the three Pixar films that went straight to Disney+ on their initial release... So the year actually begins, in terms of a NEW theatrically-released movie, with a 20th Century Studios release: Horror reboot THE FIRST OMEN. April 5th.

And earlier today, they moved their new PLANET OF THE APES movie up two weeks, to avoid duking it out with FURIOSA and GARFIELD. Plus they can get all the large-format screens to themselves for a lil' bit.

Anyways, we're in 2024 now... And we know nothing about these two movies. I'm guessing 9/6/2024 is going to be another 20th Century Studios movie, or a Searchlight movie. Sometimes "Untitled Disney" is a placeholder for that kind of movie, and September's usually the time to release one of those kinds of lower budget, more adult-oriented movies.

But we know what's been happening with WDAS' latest pictures at the box office, and who knows what morale is like over there. They too are developing shows for Disney+, like Pixar was, until Iger recently mandated cuts to Pixar after Disney+ continued to lose money for the larger company... I'd imagine WDAS might be in a similar predicament? Maybe not? But it's unusual that we don't know for sure - as in, not through leaks or word thru the trenches - what the 2024 WDAS movie is. Even STRANGE WORLD, we knew about it a year away from release... They're kinda cutting it close with this one?

Unless WDAS takes 2024 off completely, for whatever reason. I figured the very possible animation strike would affect this movie anyways. But even without a strike, their recent woes might lead to a back-to-the-drawing-board moment, as often is the case when a studio has a string of money-losers. It often leads to a week or so of everyone wondering, "What should we be doing? What kinds of movies should we be making??" And then they try that, and they see how that goes...

Anyways, should all go swimmingly, I wouldn't mind seeing the new WDAS get delayed. Especially if it's still having its kinks ironed out. Also, kind of a wild opinion, but WDAS doesn't always have to do the Thanksgiving thing, ya know? STRANGE WORLD and WISH weren't saved by that slot, neither was something like TREASURE PLANET many moons ago. WDAS did do a March release with ZOOTOPIA in 2016, and almost did that again in 2018 (at one point GIGANTIC, at another point RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET) before abandoning it... Like, a WDAS movie doesn't always have to be the summer or the holiday season. Many other animated movies have proven that, too.

Heck, WDAS movies used to show up at the randomest times of the year. Before the world of blockbuster filmmaking, during a time when the movie theater industry was a whoooole lot different.

Did you know that SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS, which had its world premiere on December 21, 1937, went into general release... In February of 1938? February. Yes, cold-ass February... And still managed to become, at the time of its release, the highest-grossing film of all time? (A record swiftly usurped by GONE WITH THE WIND a little over a year later.)

PINOCCHIO, CINDERELLA, and PETER PAN were February releases, too. DUMBO and THE JUNGLE BOOK came out near Halloween in their respective release years. BAMBI was a late August release. SLEEPING BEAUTY and 101 DALMATIANS came out in late January of their release years.

Summer slots became more of a regular thing for Disney starting with THE RESCUERS in 1977, which was a June release. THE FOX AND THE HOUND originally was eying Christmas 1980, but because of the Don Bluth-led animator exodus, ended up being a July 1981 release. THE BLACK CAULDRON, similarly, was out in July 1985. THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE? July 1986.

But then once the Renaissance fired up, it was initially all about Thanksgiving. OLIVER & COMPANY, LITTLE MERMAID, RESCUERS DOWN UNDER, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, and ALADDIN all did the holiday thing...

When THE LION KING broke all records for an animated movie in summer 1994 - the June date given to it after production problems delayed it from its original Thanksgiving 1993 slot, then Disney was all about the summer again. Barring WINNIE THE POOH (2011), the last time WDAS had a summer movie was... 2002... LILO & STITCH. From BOLT-onwards, it was almost always towards the end of the year with their movies. Again, ZOOTOPIA an exception, RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON as well because of COVID-19 (it would've been Thanksgiving 2020 if nothing had happened).

Maybe it doesn't have to be Thanksgiving/Christmas all the time?

Suppose we see the new WDAS movie in, say, March 2025? And the next, maybe at another time of the year?

[armedjoy]

a long and (later on) personal post about my engagement and future on this site beneath the cut

to start, some observations about my time here:

disco elysium holds the record for the first fandom im truly engaging with. i check the tags, read the 'spinoff' fiction, its fun. one could say our ideological milieus here are themselves a fandom, but in terms of something thats strictly media, this is it. going on 11 years here and thats what broke the streak, its that fucking good.

i regret deleting my sideblog 'information-nexus' back in '15. it was an organized and well-tagged news, theory, "how-to", and resource blog, but it was taking way too much of my time. i was attempting to make a whole ass virtual library on tumblr, which is far too ambitious for one person, especially considering that it would never pay bills. i shouldve opened it up to some friends to co-mod it and dialed back my involvement. oh well

i regret less the deletion of 'film-space' in '14. posts were just the movie poster with a brief summary of the plot and then a quick review. i came up with my own system that reworked the 4 star ratings into how id recommend based on genre preferences. film reviews in print seem to belabor the point and online reviews seem to lean too heavily on arbitrarily defined scoring. the point should be to either encourage or dissuade readers from seeing it, not remind them you're the wittiest person in the room or that you've atomized the medium into an exploded diagram, and i held to that. it forced me to watch movies more critically wrt to both the art form and the politics it portrayed. but i took an extended break from the site and lost momentum. it just seemed... pointless

ive been pretty bad with managing every inbox/ chat ive ever had - except this one, the personal blog. i tell myself "i'll get around to answering that" and thats been a lie most of the time. the vast majority of my time here is spent reading things that cross my dash, so getting a question on a completely different subject seems to exceed my bandwidth. i genuinely enjoy most of my interactions here but im simply not in the correct mindset most days. that said, most of the mail 'left-reminders' has gotten just feels like im being asked to do an undergrads homework.

i havent posted my face in, what, 8 years? which i might change. i mean im already fucked - ive posted some wild shit before [REDACTED] was a meme, and my face is already linked to this blog & backed up somewhere at fort meade. whats another hole in an already sunk ship, yeah?

funnily enough, i originally joined to post my photography & short stories. look how that turned out lmao

why am i posting this? ive been seriously evaluating my continued presence here. for some time ive had a desire to leave, which up to this point has been greatly outweighed by the reasons to stay. there are other platforms that are bigger, faster, algorithmically supercharged to provide every niche interest you allow it to know... but im still not as invested as i am here. tumblr's appeal is equal parts utilitarian and sentimental - no other platform has been this educational, informing, and entertaining. this place really is the internets bleeding edge for both humor and anarchist/ communist discourse. and for more personal reasons, i have greatly valued sharing this little corner of the internet with you all. i have enjoyed sharing each of your interests and discussions, witnessing your personal developments. know that this random guy on the internet is & always has been rooting for you.

ive had some serious rough patches over the last decade, and ive used this site as a grounding rod as much as a resource and social outlet. but my friend group is vast now, im living healthier, and im making positive changes. for the first in a very long time, i am truly feeling better, finally moving beyond 'managing' into 'growing.' and more than anything, i need to grow creatively.

simply put, writing fiction is the calling of my heart. and if im to commit to it, i cannot divide my attention. beyond being my sole committed creative outlet, it helps me manage daily life. writing feels like gardening: in the structure it builds to do it right, the determination it requires to continue when i fail, and the joy it inspires when i create. when an idea settles in and i can piece it together while going about my day, only sitting down to write when i know most of it. the emotion i experience after unwinding something that has rooted itself around my mind is tremendous and complicated - it feels like an exorcism, of sorts. the feverishness that seizes me to get it all down before it slips away, the relief when i know i can finally move on, the pride of creation, and the dreadful anticipation of being read - all of it is a bittersweet cup that i will gladly return to.

i need to make space for that, with whatever little amount of bandwidth i have to work with. i refuse to wake up one day knowing that i have postponed the only thing thats ever meant a damn to me, only to realize ive run out of time. i will not squander whats left.

at some point, i know i need to put this behind me. this, and several other self-imposed obligations, must greatly diminish or disappear entirely. it might be in a few weeks or a year, but it has to happen. i might keep this one up, sporadically popping in for occasional exchanges, and pass off the sideblogs to someone else. i've already scrubbed the archive. or maybe i'll just delete entirely; perhaps virtual presences are best if they resembled a sand mandala, something designed to be swept away to make space for something - or someone - new.

i had to write this down, get this all out, if only for myself. i cannot begin to estimate the amount of time ive spent here, so it had to be said for my own reconciliation of that time... and to keep myself to it.

when im ready to leave, i'll let you all know.

[vicrunk]

Is Blogging Still Relevant in the Age of TikToks and Instagram?

In the ever-evolving landscape of digital media and communication, the question of blogging’s relevance looms prominently.

Living in today’s era where our media consumption habits are dominated by the instant gratification of TikToks and the visual allure of Instagram, blogging, which once reigned supreme as the platform for personal expression and information sharing, appears to have lost some of its ✨sheen✨.

But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s dive deeper into these three platforms and explore their developments and growths, and where they stand in the invisible ranks of the Internet today.

Let’s turn back the time and celebrate the births of blogging, Instagram and Tiktok!

Every day, I wake up and reach for my phone almost immediately. While scrolling through the Instagram reels and TikToks sent to me by the people I know, I sometimes pause and just wonder aloud, ‘How did these apps even come about?’.

Well, silly questions like this never bothered me before – everyone’s had their existential crises. But the lingering question of ‘How did the apps that we use today come into existence?’ kept me up some nights, so I knew I had to get to the bottom of this.

As we all know, blogs are the oldest of the three. Justin Hall is the founder of the first blog called ‘Links.net’ all the way back in 1994, though he referred to it as a “personal homepage” instead (Rioja 2020).

The term ‘weblog’ was later introduced in 1997, followed by the shortened version – ‘blog’ – in 1999, the term we are more familiar with today (Rioja 2020). In the early 2000s, blogging became a famous online activity as more blogging platforms and websites came to life, increasing Internet surfers’ accessibility to the blogging industry (Rioja 2020). By 2010, blogging had permeated the general public and became mainstream (Rioja 2020).

As the years pass and technology advances, the blogging experience we know of today was conceived.

Instagram – the ‘middle child’ of the three – was conceived in 2010.

However, did you know that Instagram’s first life began way before then, and was originally called ‘Burbn’ instead as a nod to the founder’s love for bourbons (Langrio-Chafkin 2012)?

Long story short, just like Instagram today, Burbn was also a photo-sharing app that allowed users to share locations (Garber 2014).

However, it was found that most of Burbn’s users left the location check-in feature untouched but went wild with sharing and posting pictures (Garber 2014). This led the founders to shift their focus on Burbn’s photo-sharing abilities and scrapped almost everything else. After months of research and experimentation, Burbn was reborn as Instagram in 2010 (Garber 2014).

Lastly, introducing TikTok, the youngest of these three platforms. Despite its greeness, TikTok has arguably one of our generation’s largest and most active user bases.

In 2016, Chinese company ByteDance introduced a Chinese app called Douyin and its counterpart app called TikTok, which was launched internationally (Anderson 2020). When ByteDance merged Musical.ly (a lip-synching video-creation app) with TikTok in 2018, many more people downloaded TikTok, and the numbers only increased after Vine was shut down (Anderson 2020).

Today, TikTok is viewed more as a creative platform than a conventional social media platform, where users can break away from traditional visual styles, narratives, and online customs of the past to create and share short-form videos as they desire.

The rise of Instagram and TikTok over the recent years has introduced new forms of content consumption and creation that shifted the digital landscape.

Understandably, most Internet users nowadays prefer the two apps over blogging for several reasons, such as the ability to share visual and short-form content, a more mobile-friendly experience, and algorithm-driven feeds which curate the posts and videos according to the user’s preferences.

So… Does this mean that blogging is dead?

Simply put, no.

While it may seem like TikTok and Instagram are dominating the media world nowadays, each platform, in fact, still has its own user base due to its distinct features. Although blogging may not seem as prevalent as it used to be, people still enjoy consuming and creating blogs, especially if they prefer reading longer and more informational written posts.

Safe to say, blogging is definitely still relevant in today’s age of TikToks and Instagram. As long as the passion for reading and writing persists, blogging may never see the face of extinction 💪

---

References

Anderson, KE 2020, ‘Getting acquainted with social networks and apps: it is time to talk about TikTok’, Library Hi Tech News, vol. 37, no. 4, pp.7-12, <https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-01-2020-0001>.

Garber, M 2014, Instagram was first called 'Burbn', The Atlantic, viewed 2 October 2023, <https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/07/instagram-used-to-be-called-brbn/373815/>.

Langrio-Chafkin, C 2012, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, founders of Instagram, Inc., viewed 2 October 2023, <https://www.inc.com/30under30/2011/profile-kevin-systrom-mike-krieger-founders-instagram.html>.

Rioja, A 2020, The evolution and history of blogging: where it began and where is it now,  Alejandro Rioja: SEO, Online Marketing and Ecommerce, viewed 2 October 2023, <https://alejandrorioja.com/history-of-blogging/>.

[nickgerlich]

The Chips Are Down

It’s pretty cool when you have created so much buzz for your product that it takes on a life of its own. But then again, that buzz can kick you in the back side when someone loses his life because of it. More on that later.

Say hello to the #OneChipChallenge, the viral dare developed by Amplify Snack Brands for their line of Paqui chips. Created in 2016, the goal is to eat just one of their hottest chips, and this year it is made with Carolina Reaper and Naga Viper peppers. It (the chip) comes in its own special package, and fetches $10-20 online. Score a few points for novelty right there.

Even though social media and the internet are hardly new, it is still kind of like the wild, wild west out there. Anyone can create a hashtag. There is no cost. While intellectual property of a hashtag may be debatable—unless trademarked, of course—there’s nothing to stop anyone from doing this, whether you are promoting your brand, or a rogue user trying to harm someone. The Paqui people were just being cute and clever.

As you might expect, TikTokkers are all over this one. Paqui encourages those foolish enough to try eating this chip to see how long they can go without reaching for water or a dairy product. ¿Quién es más macho? We’re about to find out. Post it and become an internet hero.

Sadly, 14-year-old Harris Wolobah of Worcester Massachusetts was recently found unresponsive, after having eaten one of the diabolical chips. I’m pretty sure this wasn’t what the Paqui brand management team had in mind.

And therein lies the risk in daring people to do something, because as we all know, there are those who will take you up on it. Amplify Brands no doubt saw this as a harmless ploy to sell chips, to get social media attention, and, more importantly, shelf space in stores. Now, I’m betting their lawyers are busy trying to prepare for what will be a most certain lawsuit. That kid’s parents aren’t very happy.

Of course, the packaging does have warnings. In very clear verbiage, this product is to be kept out of reach of children, and is intended for adult consumption. Furthermore, “do not eat if you are sensitive to spicy foods, allergic to peppers, nightshades, or capsaicin, or are pregnant or have any medical conditions.” Never touch the pepper and then “touch your eyes or other sensitive areas.”

Oh, and lastly, “Seek medical assistance should you experience difficulty breathing, fainting, or extended nausea.” Poor Harris must have missed the back side of the package, and whether the posted advisories will hold up in court will be determined.

As for Paqui, they met all of the usual sales and eyeballs objectives. What they didn’t bargain for was all the attention across every kind of media, not just social, but also print, TV, and websites. You never want your name uttered in the same breath as someone’s death. Every ounce of free PR just went swirling down the drain.

I’m sure their food chemists have fun concocting this annual release, trying to find devilishly hotter varietals of peppers. While the Scoville Rating of the blend has not been calculated, it should be noted that Carolina Reaper peppers clock in at 1.7 million Scoville units, and the Naga Viper pepper scores 1.4 million units. In comparison, a common jalapeño packs only 2500 to 8000 units.

And you thought you were the most macho.

I love me some hot and spicy food, especially Thai curries. I nearly always pick green curry, and tell the server to turn it up. I have my own grading scale for heat as well, and the traits are cumulative. At Level 1 my nose starts running. Level 2 adds sweating. Level 3 adds eyes watering, and Level 4 gets me started coughing. I have only reached Level 4 once, at an Asian fusion restaurant in Missoula Montana. Oh man, was it good. Never once, though, did I think I was going to die, although if I did, I would have had a smile on my face.

But as for Paqui and their #OneChipChallenge, all I can say is, “This was a great marketing gimmick. Until it wasn’t.”

Dr “I’ll Pass On This” Gerlich

Audio Blog

[friednerdwonderland]

Three Greatest Tweets Of All Time About Dating

According the statistic the number of happily married couples that found each other using Internet dating sites during last 10 years increased many times. נערות ליווי בראשון לציון We met just before my birthday in September and were married by the end of December. I know you have done a really excellent job of this in your personal life: carving out a human life within a public life, and how scary that can be when you do fall in love and you meet someone, especially if you’ve met someone who has a very grounded, normal way of living. I accept a view of the early Web as something like a mythology, adopting a lens like that of Mosco in The Digital Sublime, in which he writes, “Myths are not true or false, but living or dead” (p. The idea is to find partners who have true potential, making eharmony’s service truly geared for success. Sure, you can meet women like this in the wild, at bars or clubs or high-end hotels, or you can take the risk of trying to meet them on regular old dating apps like Tinder, but the following websites and apps have ingeniously filtered out the women who don't want their relationship to be transactional, leaving you only with a pool of women who are looking for the same kind of mutually beneficial relationship you are.

The aim of the Easter Dating Method is to maintain, for each Easter Sunday, the same season of the year and the same relationship to the preceding astronomical full moon that occurred at the time of his resurrection in 30 A.D. 2008, R. Charles Moyer, James R. McGuigan, William J. Kretlow, Contemporary Financial Management, page 630, Seasonal datings are special credit terms that are sometimes offered to retailers when sales are highly concentrated in one or more periods during the year. Dating the composition of the texts relies primarily on internal evidence, including direct references to historical events-textual criticism and philological and linguistic evidence provide more subjective indications. Finally, I present an overview of the IndieWeb, including key technical standards and structures, its community, and its relationship to the Web more broadly. Mr. Cohen said open-mindedness is key. While individual contributors’ motivations vary significantly, commitments to values such as individual autonomy, self-empowerment, and openness are common.

Thus, as I investigate the construction and maintenance of an emerging Web infrastructure, one of my main motivations is to identify influences among individuals’ design activities, communities in which those activities are coordinated, and larger infrastructures into which emerging Web systems are embedded. As I study IndieWeb’s development, I am particularly concerned with how such values are employed in design activities and articulated in resulting technical structures. In this dissertation, I study a community of Web developers attempting to build tools to support a decentralized social Web. A comprehensive profile takes about 30 minutes to complete, although signing up via a social media account may speed up the process. The vision I am describing integrates social features that have become common in social media platforms with an approach to hosting content that resembles the Web of the 1990s and early 2000s. In this period of the Web, personal websites relied largely on commercial services for hosting, but there were a variety of choices, which mitigated the possibility of a small number of companies to dominate globally to the extent that is possible today. Or, someone may choose you specifically if they have a personal vendetta against you or want to cause you embarrassment.

This includes an ongoing balance between supporting individuals’ agency over personal design decisions and a need to maintain commensurability for the sake of interoperability. In many cases, early decisions about this balance have contributed to barriers for certain types of participants. Additionally, I employ a longitudinal lens, which allows me to describe how decisions relate to one another across time. Peter Unwin has been a dear friend and colleague from day one of grad school. Decentralization was an explicit goal in the initial design of the Web; Berners-Lee recalls a driving motivation for the Web’s architecture: “The system had to have one other fundamental property: It had to be completely decentralized. We have shared many conversations that led me to new questions and approaches, were always enjoyable, and ultimately made me a stronger researcher. Dawn Walker’s insights about decentralization have been a strong influence on my thinking. To address influence among human ties, I view IndieWeb as a community of practice oriented around a shared endeavour of building websites and related infrastructures to support a common goal. From this perspective, society and technology are co-constitutive; that is, structures of human relationships simultaneously influence and are influenced by the development, maintenance, and use of technology.

[dritalion]

Intego mac premium bundle

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You also don't need to be a computer expert to start using VirusBarrier X9. Intego VirusBarrier X9 actively protects your Mac against malware and phishing attempts with real-time scans and automatic updates. The worst part about malware like Silver Sparrow and XcodeSpy is that you won't even know if your Mac is infected without software like VirusBarrier X9. An infected Mac can cause all of your data, from personal photos and documents to passwords and browser data, to be compromised. These are just two examples of how Intego VirusBarrier X9 protects your Mac from creepy and invasive malware that targets macOS. Read also : Convenient: CardPointers maximizes your credit card rewards with iPhone, iPad and Mac apps Peace of mind IPhone and iPad apps can only be developed on a Mac using Xcode, and XcodeSpy exploits this requirement by being distributed to Mac users through trojanized Xcode projects which are light in file size and easy to share and download. Intego VirusBarrier X9 also eliminates XcodeSpy, malware that affects the Apple Xcode development environment.

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The full impact of Silver Sparrow is not yet known, nor its origin, but infected machines check in every hour with a mysterious remote server - seriously invasive. Silver Sparrow is a mysterious malware discovered in the wild that has found its way onto at least 40000 Macs, including Intel and M1 Macs. Silver Sparrow Protectionįor macOS users, this means that you can rely on Intego VirusBarrier X9 to detect the recently discovered Silver Sparrow malware that was found this year. This includes Intego's all-new VirusBarrier X9 software to give you peace of mind when new malware hits the headlines. Intego's software suite includes macOS Big Sur compatible apps for internet security, digital waste removal, and backing up your most important data. Fortunately, Intego Mac Security has over two decades of experience protecting Apple users, and 9to5Mac drives can save 50% on Intego's Mac Premium Bundle X9. While you might hear that Macs aren't vulnerable to Windows viruses, the popularity of the Mac means that malicious parties are targeting macOS more than ever.

[longits]

Desktop goose for ipad

#Desktop goose for ipad portable

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Here are the best iPad stands worth buying. Since iPadOS lets you use your iPad with either an external mouse or trackpad and keyboard, these iPad stands are perfect to use in your home office, too. Our recommended stands are used by bakers, chefs, writers, illustrators, and many other professions. Consider the size and material the stand is made of, too, so that it's easy to move around from place to place.

#Desktop goose for ipad portable

Some folks need a portable stand that's small enough to take anywhere, while others need something sturdy and more durable to use in a commercial setting.

#Desktop goose for ipad download

Open the quit file in the download folder. In the description, Lawhead says she created Girb to help a friend dealing with depression, and it's immediately apparent how Girb can help bring a smile to all our faces. He may honk in protest, but Terminal is an effective way to kill the goose. Then type the following command and press Enter to quit Desktop Goose on your Mac: killall 'Desktop Goose'. However, some stands are incapable of holding certain tablets, depending on how big or small they are.īesides screen size, you'll want to assess where you want to use the stand. Open Terminal from the Utilities folder in your Applications. Fortunately, most stands are adjustable, so they can accommodate small tablets like the iPad mini, as well as big-screened ones like the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. In case you dont know where it came from, Desktop Goose is a silly little app created by an independent developer named Samperson. When shopping for an iPad stand, it's important to keep in mind what size screen it has. Here's what you need to think about when shopping for one of your own. What do you think? Plan on downloading this Untitled Goose Game program? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.We've been comparing hundreds of iPad stands over the past three years to find the sturdiest, most attractive-looking, and convenient options for your tablet. Just make sure you keep holding until the red progress bar fills up or he’ll hang around

When you finally get tired of his antics, hold ESC to banish him. So you may have heard of the Desktop Goose on Twitter, its a fun little desktop takeover app that lets a goose run wild on your desktop.

Double-click on the GooseDesktop.exe file to run.

#Desktop goose for ipad windows

Basta executar Desktop Goose para libertar o ganso. What is a Shimeji Shimejis are little characters (desktop buddies or mascots) who play around in your windows of Google Chrome (web browser) or Chrome OS. Mas pense duas vezes antes de baixar, já que o ganso não para de te distrair a partir do momento que você rodar o programa. We scanned the expanded folder with Windows Defender afterwards to be safe Desktop Goose é um programa muito interessante que coloca um ganso maldoso em seu PC. It also acts as a small distraction from the everyday grind of work, giving a little variance to the monotony. While not a full-blown game in itself, Desktop Goose acts as entertainment for the bored internet seeker. Ignore the Windows warning, all itch.io games get this. Mothership, Nexus Colony, Black Swan, Mallard Manor and Goosechapel Customize your goose with hats, shirts, pets. A cute and fun program, Desktop Goose is for anyone who wants a desktop companion, albeit one who’s a little mischievous.That’s just the start too, pretty quickly he’ll be dragging all kinds of shitposts onto your desktop, making it more cluttered than your actual, physical desktop. It creates a goose on your screen that runs around, blocks you from typing by walking on. Your mouse cursor is his favorite chew toy and he’ll chase it to all the corners of your desktop, and even steal it away. MobileGoose is an iOS tweak based on Desktop Goose by Sam Chiet. Desktop Meadow is almost the antithesis of that game and is all about zen, peace, and tranquility. Untitled Goose Game is a 2019 puzzle stealth video game developed by House House and published by Panic Inc. This was an utterly absurd project that was created over the past couple of days. Once the goose program is running, he’s able to run around and cause mayhem. The little jerk goose littered your desktop with windows and obnoxious art. I created Desktop Goose, a virtual friend. 122 Results Tablet Stand Mount Holder Clip with Grip Flexible Long Arm Gooseneck for Samsung New Gooseneck Tablet Holder Stand Flexible Arm Clip Mount for. Literally, the goose runs amok on your desktop or inside the game you’re playing, and he’s kind of an asshole… Download this program to let the goose loose and have a honking great time See, someone called Samperson went and made an homage to Untitled Goose Game that lets the goose loose. This cute little goose spreads muds over your screen, drags memes. Hey, if you’re bored today and feel like creating a bit of mayhem on your computer’s desktop, boy have we got the program for you. Based on the Untitled Goose Game, the app adds a virtual goose on your computer or MacBook.