#sigil ii

[lynnbecks-mainblog]

Lynn Beck's "Ultimate Run": a theoretical concept for when you have all* the Doom games and nothing better to do.

*not literally all of them, also feel free to skip any you don't have.

So basically this is an idea I just had (kinda, like I think I remember wanting to do this before). The idea is simple: play through the entire Doom franchise in release order, but in a way that includes both individual releases and any rereleases, ports etc. that feature unique content.

Here's the list (credit to doomwiki.org, which I used as a reference for when each game came out):

Doom episodes 1-3 (skip Thy Flesh Consumed for now, it'll come up later)

Doom II

Doom episodes 1-4 (The Ultimate Doom)

PS1 Doom (has unique levels; you can play this with a PS1 emulator, though if you don't want to a .wad that you can play in your sourceport of choice, and someone's probably also uploaded it onto Doom+Doom II's weird mod browser if that's your preferred way to play Doom)

Master Levels for Doom II (you can optionally replay Doom 2 before this)

TNT: Evilution and The Plutonia Experiment (Final Doom)

Doom 64 (main campaign only)

Doom 3 (specifically the original version, not BFG Edition. It's still available on Steam if you don't want to track down an actual CD-Rom copy, and the screen-size issues can be easily fixed (plus while you're doing that you can also turn on player shadows I guess), also maybe try it with the original "gun or torch" gameplay because it's actually not that bad, and if you really can't stand it then get the Duct Tape mod)

Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil (again, the original version, since apparently the BFG Edition version cuts out a lot of content; also feel free to replay Doom 1 and 2 here, with the Xbox levels because they came with this version of Doom 3)

Doom RPG (and, if you want to do a movie night and/or hate yourself, the 2005 Doom movie, which is the one with The Rock, not to be confused with Doom Annihilation)

Doom episodes 1-4 again, followed by No Rest For The Living (Xbox 360 Doom; NRFTL is included with Doom 1+2)

Doom II RPG

Doom 3 BFG Edition (and also its version of Resurrection of Evil, as well as the new Lost Mission expansion)

Doom (2016)

Doom VFR (this one's also optional, since you need a VR headset and not everyone has one of those)

Sigil (I'm also going to put Doom Annihilation, the other Doom movie, here; it also came out in 2019, and if you watched the 2005 movie you should also watch this one)

Doom 64 again, followed by Lost Levels (technically it would make more sense to put this after Eternal, since they released the same day, but whatever)

Doom Eternal

Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods, Part 1

Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods, Part 2

Sigil II

Doom 1, 2, Master Levels, TNT: Evilution, The Plutonia Experiment, No Rest for the Living, Sigil, Sigil II and Legacy of Rust (Doom + Doom II)

Doom: The Dark Ages (still not out at time of writing, and also not everyone will be able to run it probably)

Doom Resurrection and Mighty Doom aren't included on this list due to being mobile games that are no longer playable even if you own a device which has them installed.

[doomsthetics]

e6m6: vengeance unleashed

from sigil ii (2023)

official website

[takaratomy]

[jazio]

I think SIGIL II actually works in vr with the version of GzDOOM I'm running; the wad is out so I know what I must do...

[bangpuddingmuffin]

SIGIL II

Fun wad. Some exciting enemy encounters, and it always kept me on my toes without being too overwhelming with enemies.

Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMOeTsMoezKbo4qFl-Uox10_BiN36AGQJ

[annunakitty]

The Abyss Does SIGIL II

Going live with a stream! Today I'm joined by my long time buds Gifty, Bumblequinn, Osiris Kalev, Rustyslacker, and Fatal. We're playing John Romero's SIGIL II!

[thefreecheese]

Joe Dix's Favorite Games of 2023

2023 was the year where it seemed a lot of the titles we were waiting to release all found their way into our hands. I think it’s the first year in which I began thinking of PS5 and Xbox Series X as the current generation and no longer feeling caught between two generations and still calling this one the next. I really enjoyed a lot of the games that released this year but still feel like I’m…

[soup-with-a-blog]

i'll admit i wasn't exactly feeling my first sigil II playthrough. i had fun but i came out thinking resource management isn't really my thing when it comes to doom. but after 100%ing map 3 and playing the secret map (which i also 100%ed) i realized it's super fun when you know what you're doing

romero maps have always been really fun to route for 100% completion (especially in doom 1) and i feel if anything the sigils are the extreme of that. they're super hostile on your first playthrough, and they actively discourage you from going for all the kills unless you have a plan. but once you know the map you become the hammer rather than the nail. and i love that feeling. the guy's absolutely still got it

[zeether]

I started playing SIGIL II and it's enjoyable but I got stuck on map 3 and I'm just like ROMERO WHAT HAVE YOU CREATED WHY AM I TELEPORTING EVERYWHERE

[a-s-levynn]

(additional pictures on the creators IG) -

[jilldoesart]

[lynnbecks-mainblog]

New Civvie video!

[asoiafreadthru]

A Game of Thrones, Eddard II

“I dishonored myself and I dishonored Catelyn, in the sight of gods and men.”

“Gods have mercy, you scarcely knew Catelyn.”

“I had taken her to wife. She was carrying my child.”

“You are too hard on yourself, Ned. You always were. Damn it, no woman wants Baelor the Blessed in her bed.”

He slapped a hand on his knee. “Well, I’ll not press you if you feel so strong about it, though I swear, at times you’re so prickly you ought to take the hedgehog as your sigil.”

[horizon-verizon]

Hi, I’m curious on your thoughts about the promo pic of the Green Queen and the Black Dragon chess pieces from Entertainment Weekly?

Do you think it’s representative of who the dance was between? I’ve seen varying opinions, some of them happy with the Green Queen chess piece and some believing it should’ve either been a Green Dragon or Green King chess piece.

Always love hearing your thoughts/analysis! 😊

For context:

It's already a King chess piece, since it has the cross:

Queen chess pieces look like this:

And knight pieces look like this, almost always the horse or "steed", the instrument or being used for warfare:

The most important thing to me is that these pieces signify and show the personalities and claims and supports of Aegon vs Rhaenyra, and not just the teams or those supporting them. Because that is what all this is supposed to be about--Rhaenyra vs Aegon.

Of course, I could never expect atp for the show to really make Rhaenyra as she was from the books and we already saw that her banner would not be as her books's. this is a different Rhaenyra form the one we know from GRRM's own description, characterization, etc. the one who stayed behind in Dragonstone during rook's Rest bc of her recovering from miscarriage AND how it's just better for monarchs to not be directly in battles. She is not the ult-femme woman who loved jewels, rich clothing, to flaunt her heir status. Is not the fiery and proud woman of canon. I know all that. But I simply hate it, bc it's also a subtle choice to display that sort of femininity as "bad" and non-conducive of leadership...which reflects bad on Daenerys bc Dany is pretty femme but also a great commander and leader, which flouts the medieval notion that women cannot be good leaders in of themselves as they aren't entrusted with armies.

It certainly makes a certain kind of sense to have a dragon as the Knight piece since both sides use dragons for the war it doesn't seem to make sense for just the black team to have a dragon represent their entire team and/or Rhaenyra. We could make the case that a dragon Knight piece is attributed to the blacks bc it's supposed to represent Rhaenyra's rightfulness and emphasize how much of a Targ ruler she is meant to be bc you give her the dragon vs Aegon's piece being dragonless. How the green chess piece shows how Aegon is more banking on his Hightower background/Andal male primogenture-ness--thus the green color of the piece--to gain him the throne more than him relying on his Targ heritage since Viserys--previous monarch--didn't choose him or support his claim. I like the idea of putting more dragon iconography on the team black piece.

But since the dragon is replacing and mimicing the usually horse-Knight piece and dragons/horses are symbolic of aristocratic soldiers more than ruling royals (bc they are the cavalry) and the queen piece was left totally out of this promo, it gives Daemon more than Rhaenyra to me. Rhaenyra, of course could be just on dragonback flaming people like Dany did back in GoT, but they didn't bother to even put a sort of crown on the black dragon piece similar to the ordinary queen piece who usually has some raised spikes about the head to refer to those of a royal crown. Again, where is the "queenliness"? I resent the black piece giving more "Knight" than "Queen" while the green piece is like Hightower-backed Aegon/king and is thus doing more to express what team green is than the Knight piece is doing for team black.

Knights--though unpredictable, able to hop over pieces in their way, and harder to track than Queen pieces and thus seeming to be more "powerful" and fun--are there to protect the King as all pieces are, including the Queen. There are 2 Knights to spare, versus only one Queen. This very comparison and competiveness to see who's "stronger" also doesn't capture/opposes what should be going on between show!Rhaenyra and Daemon and what was likely going on b/t them, which was Daemon totally and long having been seeing Rhaenyra as his liege lady, his political superior, etc. to bring their house forward. It's a false narrative of women-peacemakers-butfailing-and-men-war-mongers-meant-to-be-softened-by-women-so-war-is-an-natural-and-inevitable-phenonmenon-and-women-aren't-inherently-strong-enough-to-be-good-rulers. (I saw that trailer, I know they are making Rhaenyra....after 6 long damn years, be unsure of Daemon's loyalty DESPITE her having said she needed him against the greens back in episode 7. I'm saying the writing of this show and its logic is ridiculous.)

For the black piece, instead of leaning into direct militarism, they should have leaned on the Queenliness for Rhaenrya as much as they did the character of "kingliness" for Aegon and play with AND AGAINST those gendered binary depictions of "power" that chess already deals with--the King piece can only move in all directions one square at a time, whereas the Queen does how many squares "she" can once "freed" from her orig spot. She's the more "ferocious", the more direct of the two. The more active. LEAN INTO THAT!! MAKE RHAENYRA'S FEROCITY EMBLEMATIC OF THE SORT OF "POWER" OF A REAL QUEEN CHESS PIECE'S.

First suggestion? Make a sort of dragon/queen hybrid? Because she is a dragonrider and then even more so as the heir, bk!Rhaenyra AND show!Rhaenyra trouble the Andal patriarchal gender binary even with her being ult femme in presentation in the orig canon. Or have the Queen piece of the promo either replace the dragon or have a gold dragon decorated into the usually far more elaborate Queen headpiece portion of the chesspiece. Then it would give more "Rhaenyra" and that the black team are fighting for her. Not for Daemon's interests. Or have a dragon's wings as the crown? Or weave the showViserys/Jaehaerys crown as the black Queen chesspiece, or something.

Especially with the gold ornament for the King piece tying in nicely to signify Sunfyre, who Aegon should be using as part of his side's sigil (no canonically, Aegon doesn't have a green field on his sigil, bc black is still a Targ color and he's trying to signal himself as a Targ king):

So, in a word, I hope it is not going to be the mess I describe.

[jazio]

quick discussion on my 2023 Twitch Recap, then ACTUALLY FINISHING Sigil II, as well as playing more DOOM II; I found the solution to e6m7 in S2 finally ;w;

[alicent-boleyn]

Uncle Dearest

WORD COUNT: 902 words

SUMMARY: Berenice's last conversation with her uncle Viserys, 172 AC.

Her uncle Viserys was a man of strikingly little personal religion. Of course, he kept with the Faith publicly, Westeros would not tolerate a king who didn't, but save the occasional visit on holidays and state occasions, Berenice has never seen her uncle cross the threshold of the Great Sept since Baelor died. This is all to say that when he knelt down in front of the Stranger's altar next to her the day after Visenya died, Berenice was surprised.

She doesn't know how to feel about her uncle. Visenya despised him, in that way you only despise someone you care for dearly. She ranted and raved about him when they fought, spitting venomous curses one moment and crying tender tears the next. He has betrayed me, she would say, though she could not (or would not) tell her daughter exactly how. In addition to this, Berenice couldn't forgive the marriage of Naerys and Aegon. That is the one thing she knew for certain about her feelings. Despite all of that, he was charming - and handsome, too. When you looked at Viserys, it was so easy to forget all your grievances and simply talk with him.

Berenice gave him a slight nod and a whispered greeting of, “Your Highness.”

“Please, niece, no need for formality with me.” Glancing up, he added, “Especially not before the great collector of souls we must all face one day.” He said this with a certain amount of dry humor, like he was saying something absurd to entertain a lady at dinner.

“I shall endeavor to remember that, Uncle.” She bit out the last word.

Viserys grabbed one of the provided tapers and lit it, placing it at the statue’s sandaled foot. He shifted a bit, placing his elbows on the arm rest just a hair's breadth away from hers. “Your mother's passing is a real loss to the royal family.” Berenice just barely restrained herself. You don't care about my mother. You didn't care while she was alive and you don't care now that she's gone. You fucking hypocrite.

“Thank you for your condolences, though perhaps they would be more welcome if any care was given to her while she yet lived.”

His face did not seem bothered by her words, though there was a faint tightening of his body language that betrayed him. “She was a difficult woman to love-”

“And you are a difficult man to hate, but she found the strength to do that anyway.” Mayhaps my mother was better than you that way.

Viserys shook his head, all of a sudden looking every one of his forty-nine years. After several heartbeats, he said, “Did you know I offered to marry you? To get you out of Baelor's prison?” Berenice kept her eyes trained on the candle flame in front of her. She had not known this, though that was not surprising; she was sure her mother hadn't told her many things.

“You had just turned six and ten, or maybe you were about to, I can't quite remember. Either way, I went to your mother and asked for your hand. Do you know what she did?” It was Berenice's turn to shake her head. “She spat at me, literally. Hocked a big gob of phlegm like a foot soldier, landed it right on my shoe. ‘That is what I think of you as a master for my daughter.’”

Berenice could hear her mother's voice in those words; she could hear it so clearly it brought tears to her eyes. She refused to let those tears fall in front of Viserys. “You're lucky then, uncle. She could have pulled a knife on you, like she did with my father.”

He laughed a hollow, ugly laugh at that. “It seems to me I was lucky, too, to avoid your unchecked mouth, niece. Such a quality does not suit a king's wife.”

“Good thing I am simply your niece, then.”

“Look at me, girl.” She refused. “Look. At. Me.” He flexed his hand, though it looked more like a spasm, like he wanted to grab her by the jaw and- and what? He wouldn't kiss her or hit her right in front of the gods, so what would he do with that hand? Viserys settled for tapping his fingers. Berenice turned her head to look him in the eye. “I'd like to renew the offer.”

She heard a crude, cackling laugh crack through the silence of the Sept, and it was several moments before she realized it was she who was making the noise. It just bubbled up from inside her like blood from a gushing wound. “Are you mad?” she choked out. “Ahhhg, what fucking dreamwine have you been drinking to make you think that I would ever - ever - take you as a husband!”

Her uncle had a far-off look to him, heavy and bitter. “You are too much like your mother, you know that? You are both cruel fucking cunts with more pride than sense.” She could barely hear him over her own laughter. What a fucking hypocrite. Viserys stood up suddenly, or as suddenly as an old man could. As he walked off, he called to a Kingsguard, “I'm afraid my niece is mad with grief. Please make sure she makes it back to her chambers, Ser Staedmon.”

Left alone with the Stranger, Berenice continued to laugh, and laugh, and cry.