#so this may be like...terrible from a technical standpoint

[hypodermicfroggy]

Light Pollution

I don't recognize the stars anymore.

Terrestrial life is one of changes It rises, it falls, it expands, it shrinks And while the stars are not immutable Their span is on a much longer scale

These lights above me are not the ones So constant and familiar That my two and four-legged ancestors both Could navigate their way back home by them

These lights are not the twinkling diamonds Born from the exhale of a warm sigh That captured the minds and hearts Of scientists and artisans for centuries

Their sparkle is cold, lifeless metal And impersonal binary. Yet these are not the capsules of my grandparents Crafted with hope and fear and passion

In a time when that vast black above Was not prime real estate to be simply colonized But a terrifying unknown to be respected As well as a new frontier to explore

These are cheap trinkets, baubles Manufactured en masse then left to rot A passing whim of a creator Who thinks himself a god of men But who has already grown bored Of his own toys like a child

They form a dirty choker around a blue wife's neck She has always been faithful to him Even while their heirs slowly poison her While he looks longingly at the mistress Dressed in her tempting shade of blood Waiting down a long and dangerous cosmic hallway

A new star attempts to rise and join its siblings Forced upwards by man's sheer will It rumbles, it roars, it streaks across the sky Searing red as something goes wrong

The chemical smell of fuel instead of wormwood.

Two hundred, five hundred A thousand years ago This would have been regarded as an omen A sign of the coming end of days.

But the true prophets have been blinded Their clear skies clouded by these false stars Placed by a false prophet, a man playing god A father of lies and broken promises of innovation

And so no one listens and heeds the warnings Until his stars come falling down A hundred thousand heralds burning bright Like the stars they pretended to be Revelations that are realized One minute too late

…I don't recognize the stars anymore.

[dual-fantasy]

td S2 spoilers!

I think that too many people are equating "I didn't like this" to "badly written" and vice versa for the second season. priyaleb was badly written and you could dislike them because of this, but it's not wrong to like them! they suffered from the writers but in general they're not terrible and I thought they were cute.

I didn't like Damien or Nichelles elimination, but they weren't written badly. they were both used to show how manipulative and ruthless Julia is. while there's some obvious issues in both of their elims being used for Julia, they technically make sense from a writing standpoint even if I don't like it. were they good? not in my opinion. but only focusing on the writing and not the other aspects? they're unfortunately not that bad (compared to others)

my opinion may change once I've slept more than 4 hours tho so this is probably nothing :/

[crusherthedoctor]

Why don't you like Scrapnik Island? And how can you like Daniel Barnes if you don't like his work?

There's just not much there that appeals to me personally. The setup of old robots coming back after so long, just to be a semi-rehash of Gamma, does not interest me. (Doesn't help that Belle already soured me on the Badniks-turning-good concept.) And while this is not SI's own fault, that it makes a big point about how cruel Eggman is only makes his constant being treated like a joke in the main comic where he's actually physically present more bitter. Not to mention the fridge logic of lamenting the tragedy that befalls old Eggman creations... in a comic where Eggman constantly reuses old stuff, and rarely makes anything new.

And as unfair as it might be to say... it's still part of IDW at the end of the day. I'm still not giving them my money.

However, I can acknowledge that unlike virtually everything else in the IDW Sonic library, this was actually competently made. The art was good, the pacing was alright, the characters were portrayed well (Sonic actually feels like his game self for once), and while I may not care for the inherent concept of Mecha Sonic being Gamma 2.0, I can say it was executed decently from a technical standpoint. Compare that to the main comic, where what's there doesn't do much for me and is executed terribly due to off-kilter characterization, dumb choices for the sake of the plot, etc.

As for Barnes himself, I respect the guy because he's shown to be humble and is evidently not drinking the Kool Aid like everyone else involved with the comic. This is ultimately why, although I may be indifferent to Scrapnik Island, I'm willing to recognize his technical competence as a writer, meaning I'd be willing to see him get a chance at writing a game. Because he's already proven to understand what he's writing and who he's writing, and if he gets the opportunity to write a story that does catch my personal intrigue, then even better.

[allofthefeelings]

Hey! I saw your awesome meta about the Nat deleted scenes. One thing I've been thinking about lately is that line from the CW junior novel where Nat talks about getting dumped in the middle of siberia with her Red Room classmates. One impression that I think a lot of fans get of the mcu Red Room because of this and also a tweet from the Agent Carter set is that only one girl ends up surviving her Red Room "class". (Yelena most likely wouldn't count bc she's younger than Nat and part of a different class) But in BW we clearly see an entire team of widows that were trained together. Any thoughts?

So I have spent WAY too long thinking about this, and based on what we know from various interview snippets from the past two years I think there’s a way to fanwank it all together. If I’m remembering things correctly. Which, to be fair, I may not be.

This gets long. (CW for brainwashing, indoctrination, and abuse- the usual Red Room and Bucky mixture.)

Didn’t they start the movie discussion with talk about the Red Room being re-created to make the current Widows? That could mean new policies, and honestly, “training 32 girls but only keeping one of them” seems like a much less efficient policy than “train all the girls and use them til they die of their own accord.”

(I mean, the metaphor of only one girl surviving is great, and the girls having to kill each other to survive is a perfect way to use brutality to train away their emotions and attachments, but from an Effective Evil Organization standpoint, it’s an unforced expenditure of resources.)

This would allow both the technically-canon we have to stand (because I’m pretty sure both the novelizations and Agent Carter can be seen as TECHNICALLY not the MCU if they’re directly contradicted; only the movies are 100% canon, and as we know even that can be flexible) and create an army of Widows for Nat and Yelena to fight.

There’s also the possibility that killing the girls off IS a slow lifelong thing, like all the Red Room alums are being useful as long as they can but only the one in each class who survives the longest gets the title of Widow. And I know Black Widow is for the deadly spider but that would also play well into the idea of a widow being the one who outlived her companion(s). So then the scenes like in Agent Carter where preteen girls fought to the death wouldn’t be unheard of but also wouldn’t be the norm; the girls would know it COULD happen at any moment but it would be rare.

I can fanwank that a lot better than I can fully square Agent Carter with what we’ve seen from the trailers of Nat and Yelena. I mean, it makes sense that if they need to go undercover as a family they would take children they already had in the murder factory, but it didn’t seem like Dottie and her cohort were going on missions; they were just training and being indoctrinated 24/7. I think there’s so much that could be so interesting if Nat was subjected to similar- did she have to watch Beauty and the Beast the way Dottie watched Snow White? (someone write that Bruce/Nat right now)- but we can’t ignore that she and Yelena had three years OFF from indoctrination. Working with Melina and Alexei would obviously be considered an honor, but would it set them behind in their murderstudies? “Is it better to be taken out of the Red Room and returned or just left there permanently” is more than just a “is it better to know freedom and lose it or never have it”; did Nat and Yelena always have to play catch-up? How does that impact who they are today?

And how much does Bucky-was-taken-by-Hydra apply now? Like, he still has the red star on his arm and Alexei’s costume is damn similar; can we assume Department X was somewhat involved in Bucky’s training as well as the Red Room’s? Because that would mean that in the decade or so after Dottie’s class was indoctrinated they developed actual brainwashing abilities, and would that have been used on the Widows, or was that considered more expensive and less efficient than the indoctrination, especially if the girls didn’t know any different? Bucky had memories of another world that needed to be wiped away, but we saw Dottie didn’t.

Did Yelena and Natasha getting exposed to three years as normal kids change whether the Red Room thought they needed brainwashing versus indoctrination versus both?

And what is the organizational structure of the Red Room by the time Nat and Yelena are there? In Age of Ultron we had Madame B but here we have Dreykov; do we know if Madame B is even in this? Given how many of the visions in Age of Ultron were symbolic rather than literal memories, are we sure that Madame B was ever real, or was she a construct meant to represent all of the authority figures of the Red Room in Natasha’s psyche? If the heads of the Red Room are men- and we know that Dreykov is a Red Room authority figure and that Melina has been through the Red Room several times herself- why was that symbol a woman? (I mean, yes, I know, it’s Joss, but how do we square this in-universe?)

To be clear all of these are terrible options, every last one of them, but I am so excited at all the different flavors of terrible we will get to explore.

[edelgarfield]

@rakkikuroba don't get me wrong i love the tragedy durge + gortash too, but YEAH the fact that everyone dissects gortash + durge and totally sleeps on orin is extremely telling. in fairness I think part of that fault lies with the game itself--the narration whenever you deal with Orin is EXTREMELY angry & violent, which makes sense narratively, but like, nothing ever really balances it out? like you have to go out of your way to learn her lore, and even if you do none of the tragedy becomes apparent until you think about it. Plus she's like, definitely more "inconvenient" than gortash in that gortash will help you while orin actively taunts you & throws a giant wrench in your party comp. so like, i think just from a gameplay standpoint people are primed to dislike Orin more, like Gortash is just as bad but unless you cross him first he never does anything bad to the player (which tbh is in itself fascinating & says a lot abt their personalities)

but it's so frustrating to see her reduced to a joke abt being a poor leader or a child throwing a tantrum like. like no, she's not a good leader & yes, technically her usurping Durge's position is what led to the Absolute plot failing. but her other option was to die. she & durge have known from the moment they met than one day, one of them would kill the other, it's the inevitable fate of all bhaalspawn to kill each other until only one remains. And Durge, as the favorite, purest bhaalspawn would be the presumed winner. like can you imagine? it's unclear how old orin is, but can you imagine being raised like a lamb to the slaughter? knowing that your closest family, the only person who bhaal DOESN'T demand you kill, is going to bring you to ruin? being completely dismissed by durge's butler, the chosen of bane & myrkul, because your only purpose is to be consumed for durge's power? if orin let the Absolute plot play out unimpeded and durge gained all that power, what exactly do you think is going to happen to her? do you think durge is going to let her live while they go off and dominate the world? like yes, taking Durge out was strategically a bad move, and Orin is not a good leader, but she very clearly had a clock ticking down over her head so she did what she had to to survive for just a little longer, to make Bhaal & Sarevok proud, to prove she's more than just a pawn to be consumed.

just like so many of the companions & durge themselves, she didn't choose her bloodline, she didn't choose to be subservient to bhaal. and unlike durge, who was stated to have been raised outside the cult, orin was born in it. she literally doesn't know anything else. whatever choice she may have had has long been stripped away by years of abuse and brainwashing. she's a terrible person, yes, but she never had the choice to be anything else. all your companions have faced similar fates, slavery, indoctrination, propaganda, etc, and when they break away, they're finally given the chance to change, to carve their own path. Orin never gets away. She lives and dies beneath Bhaal's thumb, and if you tell her the truth, that Sarevok never loved her, you see exactly what happens if her loyalty to Bhaal wavers--he seizes control and brings her back under his heel.

it's heartbreaking and there's so much angst potential between them & durge. i.e. a lot of people see the prayer for forgiveness letter abt Gortash as Durge pleading to Bhaal not to hurt Gortash--i see the letter Durge writes abt Orin the same way. Durge tells her to stop focusing on who she kills and just kill as many people as possible. There's no way to know for certain, but my hc is that Durge fears if Orin is seen as unworthy in Bhaal's eyes, if people start to question why Durge keeps her around, then Bhaal will force their hands and call for them to duel. Orin is Durge's only family, Bhaal forced them to kill everyone else, and Orin is undoubtedly the person Durge has known the longest since coming to the temple, besides maybe Sceleritas.

Can you imagine how lonely it must be to ruin everything you touch? Like yes, Durge delights in killing, but to be fated to kill EVERYONE? To have nothing and no one to keep for yourself? Even if they despised each other, I have to imagine they felt some kinship with Orin just based on the fact that they've killed anyone else they may have been close to. Bhaal lets them have nothing else, look at the Prayer for Forgiveness, Durge is begging Bhaal for forgiveness for having a friend. Orin is the only exception bc of their shared blood, and even then, there's a time limit. I can't help but imagine Sceleritas making a remark about Orin's usefulness, or Bhaal being dissatisfied with her work, and Durge out of a mix of desperation and anger tells her to fall back in line, pleading for just a little more time with the only person who's been by their side through the years.

even if they fucking hated each other, Durge & Orin's relationship is so fucking tragic. Orin gives Durge a chance at freedom that she'll never see. Accidentally, yes, but it took a literal miracle for Durge to escape Bhaal's will, so it's doubtful either of them could have escaped had they wanted to. No matter what you do, no matter how much you defy Bhaal, you have to carry out his will in this instance. You have to kill Orin. If Durge deserves a chance at redemption, Orin deserves one just as much. Durge gets to be free, and be loved, and experience all the things they never could with Bhaal, but they can't grant the same chance to the one who made it possible. Of all the people you can save in the game, all the impossible things you can do to set your companions free, you can't save the person who saved you.

listen. listen. I feel So Much for Orin and I hate how ppl in fandom will write sonnets abt the tragedy of durgetash and their doomed narrative but then turn around and treat Orin like she's completely unhinged without a scrap of compassion.

she's literally the Dark Urge that never got a chance at a redemption arc, she's everything Durge used to be, except no one ever came to show her another way. she's been raised with the understanding that her fate is to kill everyone around her. Durge, the person she arguably has the most connection to, is someone she will one day be forced to consume. when you tell her that Sarevok ordered her death, she completely freaks out and Bhaal himself intervenes and forces her to transform while she screams in pain.

she's your underling, your sister, a murderer just like you, she's the only one who could ever understand what it's like, you're destined to kill each other but until that day comes she's the only person Bhaal allows you to keep, you were supposed to kill her, but she manages to drive a knife into the back of your skull, she steals everything from you including your past and in doing so gives you a second chance, she ruined you, she saved you, she's your destruction and salvation all in one, and no matter what you do she will die in chains

[www-artforoddballs]

Headcannon for Levi-

Autism Update!

The man meets a human with Autism and is like

"...huh"

So he asks Lucifer to get him tested, and Lucifer is like "Okay sure"

And the results come back that he is, indeed, autistic.

This former angel, this demon, who by human standards is an ancient being of yore...

He gets diagnosed with Autism. High-functioning Autism, but he's autistic regardless.

And it all makes sense.

Boy suddenly feels way less alone in the world because he knows there are other people out there who hyperfocus on things they love just like him, who can't socialize or easily relate to other people just like him.

I also feel like after having this revelation, his brothers would ease up a bit on the teasing.

Brothers react (quickest acceptance to slowest)

MAMMON:

-Surprisingly (other than Luci and Satan, because...c'mon, Satan loves knowledge and Luci is a Responsible Big Brother *tm*) Mammon is the first to learn more about autism. He may not be the smartest of the brothers, but (in my opinion) is probably the one that's most in touch with his feelings and his empathy, despite still having that selfish streak.

-He wants to know more about Autism so he can understand Levi better and help make his brother more comfortable during their interactions.

-He'd also start stealing things from Levi less, because he now knows that there's another level to that memorabilia from anime and games for Levi than just stuff he likes.

-Will 100% buy Levi a stim toy when he gets some extra cash but shhHHHHH it's not from the tsundere crow man

-Probably comes around to fully understanding everything the quickest, despite both Luci and Satan reading up on it n stuff.

LUCIFER:

-This one is tricky, because he understands what autism is from a logical standpoint, but he still has a bit of trouble really understanding how it effects Levi

-Will also get a stim toy for his brother, probably like an infinity cube or something

-Still not really getting it until Levi has a meltdown

-Lucifer has dealt with Levi's meltdowns before, but moreso in a "my brother who is the avatar of envy is just throwing a fit" way instead of a "my brother who is having a meltdown as a cry for help needs me" way

-Instantly goes to Levi with probably either a handheld game or one of his stim toys

-Uses nonverbal ways for his brother to communicate with him so he'll know how to help him through this

-Will 100% get his brother noise canceling headphones and also take rigorous notes on what is ok with Levi and what isn't when it comes to stimulus

BEEL:

-Autism??? What's that???

-Poor boy is a bit dense at times but we still love him

-Supportive but not really sure of what to do or what to say or how to react

-If Levi had a meltdown around him though you'd best be certain that he'll be the first to scoop his brother up and REMOVE HIM FROM WHATEVER SITUATION IS CAUSING HIM HARM

-Gradually starts to understand more and more about the condition

-After all, his brother is still his brother. This label doesn't change anything, Levi has always been autistic, this label just helps people better understand him

-Will be the first to deck someone if they make fun of Levi for his autism. Doesn't even care if he gets in trouble later, you don't make fun of anyone, especially his family, for something they can't control.

-8/10, overall good bro

SATAN:

-OK I know I put Beel higher than him and this is why

-Satan read up on what Autism is, yes.

-But the man is still TECHNICALLY the youngest. He is the only member of the family who was never an Angel, as he was born from Lucifer's wrath toward everything when Lilith "died", which was when Lucifer ceased to be an angel completely. Everyone else was an angel at some point, so even though Belphie is the "youngest" because he has the weakest power, Satan is far younger than everyone else when it comes to actual age. Okay? Okay.

-ANYWAYS IGNORE MY RANT

-As the youngest (and I am technically correct here on him being the youngest ok bye-) and because he was literally born from nothing but wrath and hatred, the man is still learning on all the other emotions. And this is a canonical fact, anyways.

-So like his brother-father, Luci, Satan understands what Autism is, but he also doesn't understand what it is at the same time.

-He read up on it, that's good enough for him.

-He still cares about Levi, and just like everyone else (even though I only listed it for Beel) he knows that this label doesn't change who Levi is at all

-Gradually he starts getting a better grasp on everything. Will 100% be next in line to deck someone if they make fun of Levi for being autistic.

-They both like TSL so it would be an activity where he could really relate to his big brother and learn more about how his brain works so he would be better equipped to help him and how to best be there for him and relate to him in the future.

BELPHIE:

-Belphie is kind of a jerk toward everyone except Beel. But it is clear that he loves his family in his own weird way (even Lucifer, but he'll kill you if you even think of revealing this fact to Luci).

-Doesn't really get it, but the man isn't as self-absorbed as Asmo, which is one main reason I think he'd come around to it quicker than the lustful demon.

-Does want to understand it, but is also asleep like 70% of the time, so when anybody tries explaining it to him he ends up falling asleep.

-Eventually will probably get an audio book about the subject so if he falls asleep he can just resume from wherever he remembers it leaving off.

-Understands how Beel acts and reacts to situations where Levi is having a meltdown or is getting overwhelmed by noises or amounts of people and attention, so this does for sure help him better understand and accept the condition. Because Levi is still Levi, ultimately.

-Will probably let Levi rant to him about his favorite things. It would make Levi happy and seeing his brother happy would make him happy, even if he ends up falling asleep during Levi infodumping onto him.

ASMO:

-Man is self-absorbed.

-Not that he doesn't wanna get it, but he was barely paying attention when the results were shared with everybody because he was looking at a makeup tutorial on DevilGram.

-Like a month later he's pulled aside because he did something to really upset Levi, like bugging him repeatedly to take pictures for the gram with him and forcing him to livestream, and he's like

-"Yeah but I always do that?...he had a meltdown? What's a meltdown?"

-Will actually look up what a meltdown is after this

-Probably feels terrible but still doesn't really get it.

-"Why should I have to change myself for him?"

-Because you shouldn't be consciously making anyone uncomfortable, autistic or not, ASMO.

-Probably takes the two of them getting into a big fight and Levi to actually start crying for him to snap to his senses

-Will actually take time to do research and try to understand it better

-Still doesn't really fully get it, but he's doing his best to do this for his big bro

-6/10

[year2000electronics]

HLVRAI takes place in a video game- but how does it work?

(a headcanon masterpost)

in the world of hlvrai, half life vr is in fact an actual new game from valve (released in 2020 because of coomer’s line that one time)

HOWEVER, it’s an experimental beta tester copy given to the player

more likely, however, considering the player’s insistence to roleplay and general confusion of features, the player isn’t an actual game tester themselves- they probably got a copy off the internet or from an outside source

in this universe, valve is probably still as big as it used to be in its hayday- taking all holly’s gags about extra features like a hunger meter and a staff ghost gives off the impression that valve grew as a company and wanted more stuff to advertise for what’s admittedly a clunky game for 2020 standards

the player is aware this is a game- however, they wanted to roleplay as gordon and act accordingly (most likely thanks to the influence of machinimas like freeman’s mind)

they’re known to get a bit “too into it” though- they not only act as if this is real, but the player eventually ends up caring deeply for the npcs, which is why the player is GENUINELY MAD about the betrayal etc etc

some of the anxious confusion also comes from the fact that this is just not how the games supposed to be

(benrey ended up actually sending a shock through the right vr controller to simulate the betrayal- so the players right arm did hurt for a bit)

should add that the player here isn’t wayne. with the fiction rtvsolutions has brought to the table, the “player” and wayne being one and the same is impossible from a storytelling standpoint, as wayne knows it’s just him and his friends in gmod

the player, to contrast, is played only by wayne as “gordon”, but gordon also expresses the fact he knows he’s in a game.

so it’s a player who would have HLVRAI as a real game, basically.

part of why the AI becomes so self-aware and breaking the laws of the game is because this is still a beta tester copy- this specific copy would likely designed with the early stages of “self-aware AI” in mind, meaning most testers would probably stick to basic yes or no answers or greetings

it’s because also the ai encounters two personalities it wasn’t expecting: gordon’s and benrey’s

benrey himself was never supposed to be the way he was

despite barney being one of the iconic half-life characters, the real barney calhoun is canonically only seen by gordon near the beginning of the game

benrey is somewhat of a “cancer cell” in the game- he was originally a mistake, a glitch- but being around the other NPCs not only caused them to become more “off the rails”, but made benrey more powerful in terms of the game

the longer the game went on, the more benrey ruined it-

unintentionally, he corrupts the NPCs of the game just by being near the plot trigger (that’s gordon)

every mistake and bad line of code the game does is thanks to benrey existing and fucking the source up

intentionally, he’s become so powerful/made the game’s code so weak that he’s able to just rip it open and assign himself as the final boss

since half life 1 has close ties to the source engine, benrey is able to break the game’s rules and borrow gmod assets (ie the wowozela, and changing his model to be a skeleton)

he also switched gordon’s model to an armless one to “add some excitement”

his final boss form is when he discovered packs on gmod and had a field day

he is able to look at files in the player’s computer, which is how he knows all the stuff he does

however his power isn’t enough to escape the game completely until the acab stream (which puts a whole different spin on the HLVRAI game)

although benrey is a glitch, he was still originally an NPC. his NPC quality is somewhat like cleverbot or ai dungeon- his stories are wild, nonsensical, and may come out of nowhere if gordon says even one thing a bit oddly. like cleverbot, benrey’s AI also has trouble registering when stories are his- although on a fundamental level, benrey is aware gordon is asking him about “when were we friends”, he can’t comprehend enough to say an answer that isn’t “whuh?”

(his repetition of “can i see your passport?” and “you’re not supposed to be in here” may also be his default lines- being a glitch, he would either not have any or be able to ditch the usual guards’ “what the hell are these things?”

tommy is arguably the least NPC-like, but that’s because he is the most important NPC.

he’s the g-man.

in a technical sense, i mean. the g-man was upgraded code-wise to be able to be a “self-aware ai” of his own, but somehow (most likely thanks to benrey being there), the class “g-man” was duplicated- and that’s tommy.

tommy has all the same abilities as the g-man, but since he registers himself as his own being, he’s not really aware of them

all his “seeing faster” from soda is actually the g-man’s timestop

this is why the g-man sees him as his “progeny”- he sees duplicate code but it’s a different person entirely

tommy never fully realizes he’s in a game until the acab stream- it’s not really distressing to him, considering he’s found the news right after gordon’s rescued him from a finished game

he didn’t pick up on the cues that it was a video game because he is an “important NPC”- story events and maps work smoother around him

this is also why he’s the least talkative of the group- unlike tutorial NPCs, it was never tommy’s job to help gordon around the maps

tommy found sunkist after benrey left him laying around from messing around in gmod, and he used the in game science equipment to effectively make him immortal lore-wise

bubby was supposed to be another tutorial NPC, like coomer, but the game messed up and he was assigned both “tutorial NPC” and “hostile NPC” (eg. what happens to a guard whenever anyone bumps into them). that’s why he’s so grumpy. his nature of overconfident attack, only to run back screaming, is a direct result of his two AIs conflicting

dr. coomer is pretty much spelled out from holly’s great performance- a tutorial npc who is also busted

as for why he got busted? too much unpredictable things happening around him. it mostly blossoms from the resonance cascade itself

coomer’s code indicates that RESONANCE CASCADE means ONLY GORDON SHOULD BE HERE

but that’s just not what happens, so he just gets a bit... busted

darnold appearing so late is a result of the bugged game being played for so long that it starts accepting the crazy lore the glitched AI has been feeding it

effectively, the NPCs have the power to change the game because gordon keeps going along with what theyre saying and treating it like fact

which leads to a feedback loop of “yes, and” that causes the game’s cybernetics department to bust and darnold to throw out the complete non sequitur of a mixology department

thanks to this it’s really hard to say why darnold is what he is

however, he still has NPC traits- like the devil gun spiel and how log says he was supposed to break down as soon as they stepped through the door- that’s his dialogue trigger

effectively, he’s a tutorial NPC for a broken area of the game, making him a “self aware AI” just as much as everyone else is

forzen speaks as casually as benrey does, but that’s because they’re “best friends”

forzen used to be a regular soldier NPC who had a pretty run-of-the-mill “mean soldier” AI, but benrey got bored after disappearing time and time again, and decided to make a friend

after copious use of the wowozela and making forzen his “plus one” for looking around the computer, forzen decided being a soldier was lame and he just wanted to graduate

he’s basically “benrey junior-“ a cell infected by the cancer cell that benrey is

the g-man somehow remained pretty spot-on throughout this whole debacle, but once again benrey ruins things

g-man has the level of awareness that tommy does, but since he already has the programmed personality of “the G-man”, he goes about his lore-breaking ways exactly as the g-man would

which is somehow going to chuck e cheese.

basically, benrey is responsible for most of the AI being fucked up- tommy being a dupe plot NPC, bubby being two NPC codes combined, coomer being flat broken, darnold being a sequentially generated NPC, forzen being benrey’s little sith apprentice, and g-man being a father

to end this off: the player has a son named joshua but it’s a little robot gifted to him by a friend who rigged it to have a terrible tts voice that talks about cowboys a lot

[rockergiirl]

jackson guitars are a company from back in the 80s, they made guitars for Randy Rhodes who was the guitarist for Ozzy Osbourn during his solo career among other things

jackson were THE heavy metal guitar brand in the 80s and are still around today (after being bought by fender)

they have an iconic headstock that is absolutely TERRIBLE from a technical design standpoint

good headstock design is you want the strings to be straight from when they leave the nut (the thing at the end of the fingerboard the strings go through before the tuner) as having the strings bend after the nut can cause tuning instability, requiring you to tune the guitar more as the strings will get out of tune more quickly from being played than with a headstock in which the strings are straight

as you may notice the strings on the jackson headstock are mostly straight except for the thinner strings, which tbh isn't that bad for jackson since, being a guitar aimed at metal players, most people aren't going to be touching the thinner strings unless they're doing a solo

most other guitar brands have headstocks that will prioritize keeping the strings straight going through the nut

however jackson aren't even the worst when it comes to headstock design in this regard, Gibson have been using this design since day one

which is also plagued with issues other than tuning instability

and probably the absolute worst headstock of all for tuning stability, Dean guitars

this problem is so bad and companys like gibson refuse to fix their headstock designs for brand recognition that an entire company called string butler have built their entire business selling an accessory to fix gibson's terrible terrible headstock design

jackson guitars are so weird to me, their simple colour schemes and the fucked up headstock always make them seem to me like really low-end

[muthaz-rapapa]

HealPre Final Review: Not terrible but not entirely laudable either...

*sigh* Where do I start?

Well, one thing I’m pretty sure of is that COVID definitely affected production somehow. By that, I don’t just mean the show needing to go on hiatus, resulting in a shorter run compared to previous seasons. I’m also talking about any possible changes that might’ve been made to the original narrative, if there was one.

Much like how Suite’s story had to be altered in the wake of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami disaster, I believe Heal underwent a similar treatment in response to the pandemic becoming more widespread as 2020 went on.

Especially since it dealt with health and nature, HealPre is probably the season that has come the closest in relevancy to real life events.

Frankly, that can be quite scary because this virus was and is still a fucking nightmare on a massive global scale. From that view, I can understand why the writers/producers would be concerned of the anime hitting too near home. At least for their main demographic’s (children) sake, maybe they were compelled to shift to something lighter and less edgier so that the kids could find some comfort and enjoyment in the midst of the world’s current crisis.

So I can’t fault Toei for that, if that’s really the case. Going through a pandemic is terrifying, infuriating and exhausting and UGH. We could use something that can help ease our worries or momentarily distract us even a little bit. 

Though would it have killed them to dedicate one episode to the importance of wearing a mask or washing hands? (-_- ;;)

HOWEVER! Seeing as I am not a fragile child, I’ve still got several (oho~) criticisms to air out before I put this season behind me. This review isn’t particularly scathing but...there is a lot of discontent so you’ve been forewarned.

But first, let’s tediously review what structure means in Precure.

We all know that there are certain things that will forever (?) remain fixed in the series formula.

The plot is always going to be “magical girls fight evil doers threatening to ruin the world”.

There are plot points to indicate story progression but in reality, are put there to correspond with toy releases which are usually marked by these five: introductions, first power up, midseason Cure, second power up, and build-up to the climax + finale.

There is usually a specific message (a theme) to be told with every season and motifs (narrative tools) to aid in getting that across. For HealPre, the theme is “living is fighting” and its motifs are “health” and “nature”.

I left out “animals” b/c 1) it didn’t hold as much significance as the other two did, 2) animals are part of nature anyway and 3) let’s be real, it’s just a synonym for “mascots” which we already get every year. :P

Right. I’m probably forgetting something but for the most part, these are immovable pillars of Precure.

Story, on the other hand, has more variables you can work with.

Story is how you tell the plot, how you convey the message.

Precure, as a tv series, is unarguably carried by its main stars, the Cures. So it only makes sense that a huge percentage of a season’s success owes itself to how much of an impact its characters had on the audience as well as how effective their individual story arcs were as sub-plots tying back to the bigger picture (the message/theme).

Ideally, these arcs would shine the brightest in the filler episodes, where the plot  (“good guys vs. bad guys”) is less of a focus so there is more space for personal development and growth.

Also, not all character arcs have to be directly related to the plot but they ought to be written well in order to support the overarching message (the theme).

Now, has HealPre done that? Has each girl’s story demonstrated a good example of what “living is fighting” means?

...nnnnnnyyeeee... look, even I can’t give a straightforward answer on that because while technically they did, by virtue of Nodoka’s observance in ep 44 recounting it as such, there’s also actually not enough to make it feel substantial from a viewer’s standpoint.

At least, that’s what I thought while watching HealPre.

With the exception of Nodoka’s, there was a lot of saying but not much doing to convincingly back the other girls’ arcs up. The fillers themselves were very weak, loosely composed in relation to the motifs and, if I may be so blunt, downright boring that if Nodoka didn’t phrase those episodes as things that counted towards the theme, I probably would put up more of a fight on disagreeing. so shoot me, I’m soft for her :P

And I know that sounds confusing right now but I will elaborate as I continue.

Before that though, to be utterly fair, some seasons keep their respective themes shrouded in vagueness until they’re given a more concrete form in words around the finale. So it’s not like we can do much except make educated guesses on what they really are. Most of the time, we’re just measuring everything against our perception of a standard in the fog. Or maybe that’s just me?

Nevertheless, you can just tell, y’know? By simply watching and observing the whole show, you can tell if the characterization, the development, and the outcome (essentially the content given) really live up to what the season claims is endgame.

So let’s go through that first then. The characters, starting with our lead Cure...

Nodoka being the only Cure in her team to have an arc deserving of the praise “exceptional” should come as a surprise to no one.

She was the most solid in terms of direction on how her story was going to proceed. Out of all the girls, her journey had the greatest connection to the subject “health”, repeatedly delved into it every time the spotlight was on her and fulfilled everything it seemed to promise from her debut in episode 1.

Her struggles on the road to recovery from a long-term illness and the strength she’s drawn from that traumatizing experience as well as her time as Precure did more than establish her as the strongest character in HealPre.

She has also rose to become one of the most memorable Pink Cures in the entire franchise (personally, I rank her in the top 5).

And it’s not hard to see why she’s earned such high regard in a lot of fans’ hearts.

The writers clearly worked a lot on her character composition to the point where she can pretty much embody the theme of “living is fighting” all on her own.

She came into HealPre fresh out of the hospital and full of earnest desire to make the most of her newfound freedom but she also wasn’t without knowledge on what hardship is. From there, she only got stronger, even when she was stumbling and trying to figure things out along the way. She grew more fortified in her beliefs on what it means to be truly live a healthy life.

She bravely defied the ones who attempted to take advantage of her and twist her cause against her. And she learned that taking care of herself is equally as important as wanting others to be safe from harm.

It was never about winning or coming out on top. It was about protecting a fundamental yet precious truth. That one thing any decent human being should never have to concede: the right to live well.

Honestly, Nodoka is absolutely inspiring all around, as a fictional character, a heroine and a normal everyday person.

Everything about her arc went satisfyingly right like it was meant to and the best thing is, we don’t need to question it because we saw how it all happened with our very own eyes.

I sincerely wished I could say the same for the others but sadly, they were just too flawed.

And Pegitan can throw flippers with me all day if he wants but as undeniable as the above statements are about Chiyu, her arc failed to leap over the increasingly mounting disappointment I had with every episode that’s been assigned solely to her.

Two of which weren’t even about Chiyu. One centered on Pegitan’s admiration for his partner and the other focused on her brother, Touji. Which, while nice to give to supporting/secondary characters, is a fat waste of valuable screentime and not what I’m here for.

It also didn’t help that the conflict of her arc (the indecision over choosing between two dreams) started really late in the game and was resolved so quickly within two episodes. There was no time for me to get invested into it, there was no powerful sense of conviction like how Go!Pri or Hugtto handled theirs and really, it just felt like Chiyu was only following what the script dictated for her rather than genuinely awakening to her own competitive passion towards track and field.

It was almost like it didn’t matter. Almost as if the writers procrastinated in thinking up something worthwhile to further her development...but then settled on grabbing an old idea off the shelf without refining it to suit Chiyu when they ran out of time.

This happened similarly with Minami in Go!Pri and Elena in StarPre, both of whom left me angry at how their arcs were executed. Yet theirs don’t compare to how pissed off I am about Chiyu’s. Because while Minami’s took a while to arrive, it wasn’t done poorly and linked back to Go!Pri’s theme well enough. And while Elena’s was over crammed last minute, at least it was unique to her character and had lots of potential ways to play out if they actually started it earlier on in StarPre.

Chiyu’s arc is like a discount version of the former with hardly any of the intriguing qualities of the latter. Sure, she had two early episodes that laid out the two most important aspects of her life (her family inn and her dedication to her sport) but after that, they weren’t brought up again until we were only weeks away from the ending. Y’know, just to fill up episode slots and meet the minimal requirement of saying they did give Chiyu some issue to resolve. 

It was not engaging at all.

Furthermore, the fact that her arc had very little to no relation with either “health” or “nature” hurt my appreciation of her character somewhat. I just...don’t think her kind of story really matches with the central topics of HealPre?

...but maybe I’m being bitter about this all wrong and that’s screwing up my rational thinking on this matter.

Because Chiyu’s arc is valid under the logic of the overall theme, I would never say it isn’t. And again, character arcs don’t have to be close to the plot nor is it necessary to employ the “suffering builds character” method to make them interesting.

Chiyu always does her best every day. That’s sufficient argument on why her story does fit within the frame of HealPre’s premise.

Guess I’ll just have to wrangle my resistance into acceptance somehow.

...still, her arc could’ve been done so much better than what we were given. Chiyu at least deserved that much.

Next, Hinata.

Since the beginning, I knew she was gonna be runner-up to Nodoka for having the (for lack of better term atm) “best” arc because it was heavily implied that she has ADHD and therefore, immediately checked off the “health” trait. She was even more obvious about it than Nozomi was.

Difficulty paying attention, hyperactivity, impulsiveness. Hinata didn’t just display all those signs, she also showed how hard it was for her to deal with the downsides to them on a regular basis.

She kept apologizing and put herself down excessively for inconveniencing her friends even though they never blamed her for her condition. Got them annoyed a few times, yes, but didn’t stop them from staying friends with her and definitely didn’t make them hate her either.

Everybody was understanding of Hinata...except Hinata because she always took her failures to heart and considered quitting several times to avoid the crushing dejection of making mistakes over and over again.

She got better, though, and no one could have summed it up more heartwarmingly than Nyatoran with the encouraging words he gave her at the conclusion of her arc. 

But it still feels like there’s a huge chunk of development missing between the start and finish. Or rather, it seemed like all of it occurred offscreen and we were only informed later that it did in fact, happen.

To recap, iirc, Hinata had around 5 episodes that focused on her (ep 9, 13, 23, 35 and 40). Ep 18 doesn’t count because that was a Nyatoran-centric filler more than anything.

Ep 9 and 13 did their jobs of introducing and highlighting the details of Hinata’s troubles while also suggesting she will eventually learn to overcome her insecurities. The ones after, though? They pushed those issues to the backseat.

In Ep 23, she had to share the (uneven) spotlight with Asumi. Hinata’s improvements were briefly mentioned but the majority of the ep went to teaching Asumi what “cute” meant and how to get along with puppies. I mean, I get that Asumi recently joined the group and bonding with her was mandatory by tradition. But since each Cure only gets a limited number of eps to herself, it would’ve been more beneficial for Hinata if she didn’t have to split screentime with someone else’s growth schedule.

Ep 35 is slightly better but not by a whole lot. Sure, Natasha was able to reconcile with Elizabeth which was very sweet and heck, it was the goal for that episode. But again, nothing was really done or addressed about Hinata’s main conflict. She tossed it back with the rest of her homework to deal with later. ahaha, a TroPre hint

Then ep 40 came to formally close the curtains on her story and apparently, Hinata screwed up lots of times since...whenever but she picked herself up every time after and kept on trying. Awesome. So WHY didn’t we get to see that? 

I’m not asking for the impossible here. I’m not asking for Hinata to be cured or anything miraculous like that. There is treatment available for ADHD but it is not curable.

Also, forcing Hinata to find a way to get better at studying, the thing she struggles with the most, is not the solution either because that would only make her more stressed and anxious over her own disorder.

What I want is to see how she moved from wailing “I can’t do it! I don’t wanna! I’m so scared of failing so why bother?!” to determinedly declaring “So what if I failed 1 or 100 times? So what if I fail another 1000 times? What matters is that I don’t let that stop me!”

That confidence is not something that can be built up overnight. It’s gradual and it takes numerous tries to reach from where Hinata was to where Hinata is now.

Telling me she grew emotionally stronger can only allow me to believe so much. I need to actually witness the changes as well.

If it weren’t for that, Hinata’s arc would have been a lot more impressive. Shame.

Finally............... Asumi.

Asumi, Asumi, Asumi, Asumi, Asumi, Asumi, Asumi... *sighs & drums fingers*

...she has no arc, ok? Seriously, what story is there to speak of, much less write a hefty analysis on?

A spirit born for the sake of Latte who just went along with the Precure ride because Latte didn’t want to abandon her duty. She made friends with those who aren’t Latte, extended her knowledge and understanding and gained valuable human experience during her stay on Earth. But ultimately, she will always define her entire existence around a puppy. 

Nothing is more important than this puppy.

...... to be honest, Asumi not having a storyline isn’t what bothers me. It’s her lack of depth that does.

Hell, even the giant burger she ate had more depth than she did!

Oh, Asumi does have a personality alright. She’s consistently and unfailingly polite, utterly devoted to her raison d’être and in crucial moments, gives pearls of wisdom when the girls are in a pinch. She’s good.

But if that’s all she is, then she’s also painfully dull.

She has nothing to contribute to the discussion of health or nature, despite being created through an element of the Earth so you’d think she’d have an opinion of her own. At least worry about the planet that gave life to her as much as she frets over Latte all the time. But nope.

She shares the exact same face as Teatine’s past Precure partner so you’d think we’d explore that connection to see if it would influence or affect her in any way. But nope.

90% of the time, her role was just being Latte’s constant, fawning satellite.

Not only did that irritate the hell out of me but it just reinforced my stance that this type of character is one of the worst you can ever insert into any narrative.

Because if someone keeps reiterating how much they’re obsessed with this one thing and seldom talks about anything else without bringing their obsession into it... then what’s so special about them on their own?

You’ve practically surrendered the different qualities you could have had for worship of something else. That’s not a fair trade-in.

Asumi’s character is so packed with Latte-related stuff that there’s not much space left for anything that can be considered uniquely Asumi.

I mean, maybe it’s because I can never see myself or any normal person comfortable with living like that.

Living for the sake of being together with the one you love? Okay. But living with your whole universe revolving around that one thing? Making most if not all decisions based on this one thing?

No. That’s absolutely crazy, alright? Nobody with a healthy amount of awareness and self-worth would live like that.

And you can counter that Asumi’s just born like that. That she can’t help her origins because Teatine’s wish to protect her daughter is essentially what brought Asumi into existence so of course, her biggest concern would be Latte. At least, she wasn’t forced into it, right? As long as Asumi chose of her own will to follow Latte, it should be fine, right?

You can even use the fact that Asumi isn’t human. That she’s a spirit and we shouldn’t apply our human standards too strictly to her.

Yea, but those are feeble defenses in the face of her being a good main character, a good main heroine. 

There are many ways to make a decent MC. The way Asumi was written proves she certainly does not possess traits that can classify her as true protagonist material. A protagonist has to be more than one amplified feature, which Asumi is not.

For the record, I don’t hate Asumi (she’s not interesting enough to generate a feeling that intense). I'm just severely let down because even if I don’t end up loving the midseason Cure for whatever reason, I can usually count on them to bring something intriguing to the table to dissect and analyze. At least I should find something to care about them.

Didn’t happen with her. :(

Oh god, I’ve been working on this post for days now and I’ve got a headache and with the baton pass happening in less than a few hours as I type this, I just really need to get it done and over with so please forgive me for speeding up through the rest, I’ll try to keep it as coherent as possible. NYARGH! (@_@ ;;)

Mascots.

Would you be surprised to hear that I’m not surprised that they were actually written very well?

Like I said early on, I suspected the return of fairy partnerships were going to improve the mascots’ significance in the story and, well, I was right. 

This time, they didn’t just fill in the usual expectations of relaying exposition, serving as the Cures’ transformation devices and looking cute for the merchandise. The Healing Animals had to make progress on their own training to become doctors as well.

And they did through their relationships with their human partners.

It was a refreshing take on the mascot aspect of the series because the friendships felt really symbiotic. When the trainees arrived on Earth, they relied on the girls to help them perform their jobs as well as provide them with shelter, food, the occasional peptalk about their trainee status, etc.

Then as the story continued and they got to know each other better, the mascots were able to return the favor by giving support when the Cures needed it. Rabirin when Nodoka was frightened and confused about how to deal with Daruizen, Pegitan when Chiyu was having trouble choosing between two dreams and Nyatoran who made sure to always lift Hinata’s spirits up when she got upset at herself.

In short, they achieved their objectives of learning what it means to be good doctors by being there for their friends! How wonderful! :D

My memory for Latte is hazy, unfortunately, since she’s coddled by everyone all the time (can’t blame them, she’s friggin’ adorable! <3) but I’ll never forget how she stood firm on the battlefield to see things through, to fight for the Earth like she promised her mother. She started out so babie but showed us all there was enormous bravery behind her cute face and ugh, we should all be very proud of her! <3

The only major issues I had about the mascots were these:

1) Too many irrelevant fillers went to them. They only needed a maximum of two for their entire mascot group.

2) Latte kept getting sick even after she acquired a Precure partner of her own. I was hoping it wouldn’t hurt her as much as it did before Asumi arrived or that she would build up a stronger immunity but noooo, they insisted on torturing the poor pupper! T_T

Villains + Finale Battle

Not a lot needs to be said for the first part. We’ve had mediocre antagonists before. HealPre’s just happened to be extra annoying as they were despicable. 

Which is worse because jerks you can just leave in the trash but assholes won’t stop harassing you unless you pummel them into their graves, set fire to their corpses and leave no trace of them behind! >:(

Y’all know who I’m talking about. Opinions on him continue to vary depending on who you talk to and if they’re avid fans of his face or not but whatever. The son of a bitch served his purpose and is dead now. That’s all that matters to me.

Anyway, the King was flat like his two lesser generals. He was neither intimidating nor distinguished enough in the brand of evil to really make us think of him as a serious threat and because of that, it ended up making the boss fight look like any run of the mill boss fight.

I know, they tried so hard with all that shiny animation but it just didn’t have that glorious sense of vindication that previous seasons (or ep 42) gave and I blame it all on this Rumiko Takahashi reject.

Also, this strategy was pretty useless?

They built it up like Earth was gonna sacrifice herself and die or something (she wouldn’t and even if she came close, deus ex machina would’ve kicked in to prevent that and COVID-induced caution too I guess). 

But there were no signs of pain (well, that’s a relief) after absorbing Shindoi-ne and they really pissed King Byogen off more than they did any damage with the absorbed byo-gen power.

...so yea, this tactic was just to kill some time and budget, nothing more. Meh.

By the way, did Asumi eject Shindoi-ne’s pathogen out of her body yet or did they just leave it in there to bounce around until it eventually dissolves on its own?

Because that’s eww. I mean, it’s obviously not gonna hurt Asumi they can both relate on hyperfocusing their affection for someone so maybe the compatibility helps :P but still, ewwwww.

Fillers + Underused Motifs

In hindsight, perhaps HealPre didn’t exactly promise the content we I wanted about “health” and “nature” if their objective was to teach that any manner of “fighting” can count towards “living”.

......but fuck you Toei, you’re still cowards! >:/

Fillers will be fillers but it’s always better to try and make some of them as meaningful as possible. And they wasted the opportunity to inform an impressionable audience (during a very crucial period of our time, I must add) on a lot of things related to the HealPre’s motifs. Especially about the environment which for some ridiculous reason, they chose not to touch on for the main stretch of the overall story.

Proper hygiene, good diet plan and sleeping habits, regular exercise (already done by the girls a few times but could use another example), meditation, counseling/therapy (especially for mental health!), etc.

Real life pollution, climate change/global warming (IMPORTANT!!), deforestation, preservation vs conservation, endangered species, recycling, volunteering to clean up your community, etc.

These just came off the top of my head but yes, there’s more and no, I’m not saying that the writers need to cover all of them in extreme detail or replace the slice-of-life episodes.

But they should be able to mesh both serious and light-hearted together in harmony somehow. Like those fillers where the mascots saw people cleaning up littering at the park or that interaction with that arborist who taught them about wild animals and trees when the group went to visit a lake.

For health, maybe let the girls visit patients with chronic illness in the hospital or have them converse with a medical professional on some matter. Particularly if it’s got something to do with mental illness because stigma in Japan on those who are afflicted with such conditions is still prevalent and has caused a number of sad and shocking tragedies that could have otherwise been avoided if people didn’t have such outdated, judgmental mindsets.

That last part might be too dark for a children’s anime but there’s a lot more out there that is doable.

Do that without reducing it into a footnote, Toei. It is so necessary for your target audience to be aware of these issues at the age they are now. You have an almost 20-year old franchise to serve as a very effective platform. Make better use of it if you truly care about the message you’re conveying through your show!

Also, what the fuck.

The last episode was a mess. Why are you only mentioning this now when the season is already over?

This should’ve been brought up months ago!

All the things we could’ve seen the Cures done to protect the Earth without magic.

The excuse of “I didn’t know humans were so horrible!” is a shit one because everybody knows humans are deplorable trash when it comes to abusing the Earth. All the more reason why you have to persistently drill it into people’s heads that they should not be like those who don’t care or choose not to care.

One crack episode isn’t going to cut that.

God, I so want to unsee this ep just so I don’t have to end HealPre on a more sour note than it already was. *big aggrieved sigh*

Lastly (and this really is the end of my long ranting, I promise), the missing undisclosed lore.

There are few Precure seasons without a past lore of its own in the recent years. Is it a wonder, though?

Lore is mysterious and fascinating. If it involves a past Precure, even more so.

Sometimes fans might just hang onto a show because they’re curious about what happened before the main story. We’d never get the full tale of those adventures but at least, it’s fun to imagine the “prequel”.

Also, past Precure are just badass. Fact.

Strangely enough, we didn’t get that for Heal. All we know is that she was called “Fuu” and was very close to Teatine. 

Hmm. Probably one of those changes caused by COVID interference cuz I can’t imagine the writers choosing not to tell her past in the original draft.

With all that finally off my chest, I’m ready to part ways with you girls until the next All Stars (Nodoka, I’m gonna miss you so much! T_T)

HealPre wasn’t the worst and it was nowhere near the best that it had the potential to be. But it’s passable. At least for those who loved it even with its flaws, I’m genuinely glad it was good for you.

For those who are thinking about picking it up (although why you would read this spoilery post before watching, I have no idea), if you’re looking for a standard magical girl anime to enjoy casually, then this is a safe pick. If you really want to invest your attention and heart into it, though? Then perhaps it would be in your interest to ask someone who saw it already to help you filter out the episodes that are worth watching. You don’t need to worry about the rest, they’re inconsequential. :P

Ok then! Thanks for reading as always, brave souls who have reached this point. 

Stay healthy and safe out there and I’ll see you at the beach next week! Tropic underwater paradise here we coooooommmmmeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!! xDDD

[twdmusicboxmystery]

6 Extra Episodes in S10. This May Be What We’ve Been Waiting For!

Yeah, you might say I have a “few” thoughts on the extra 6 episodes, lol. I think this is fantastic. I really think this is what we’ve been looking for for 5 years.

Of course, that said, I must caveat this with the fact that this is just speculation and no one knows for certain. But man, is this exciting!

When I heard for myself Angela announce the 6 new episodes for S10, the question I kept coming back to is…why? Why would they do that? Even putting Beth aside, never in 10 seasons have they ever extended a season at all, and 6 is a lost of episodes. (I can’t help but run through every episode 6 of every season and how many Beth clues we’ve found in all of them.)

But more to the point, why make them part of season 10? Why not finish them and make them s11 so they can show how awesome TWD is and that it hardly missed a beat. You know, on to season 11!!!!! But they’re smashing them into s10. Why? That’s a REALLY big deal.

So let’s state some things we know MUST be true about these six episodes:

1. Obviously, they’re special. For some reason.

2. They MUST have been previously filmed. They haven’t filmed anything since November and with CoVid, no way they could have. And yes, you could argue that they were filming secretly, away from cameras, as we often say that about Beth. But even so, they wouldn’t have had enough time before CoVid hit to film six full episodes. So these must have been filmed sometime before that. And then there’s those missing scenes we’ve PROVEN were filmed and never aired. Just seems like too much of a coincidence that this wouldn’t be that.

3. It must be something related to what happens in the finale. Maybe that seems obvious, but the reason I say that is because, in terms of Gimple’s we’re-working-on-seeing-what-happened-to-characters-early-in-the-apocalypse thing, I think there’s a few possibilities for what he could be talking about there. One of them, obviously, is Beth. But they’ve also long-hinted at an Abraham/Eugene early apocalypse spin off. So, it’s POSSIBLE he could be talking about that or some other storyline they have in mind for a future spin off. Now, I have more reasons for why I don’t think that’s the case, which I’ll get to in a minute, but this is what I mean about these 6 episodes needing to be tied to the finale. Putting in an Abraham—or anyone else’s flashback story line, for that matter—would make no sense here. It would be really jarring for the viewers because there’s been no hint of anything like in the show.

And of course a non TD-er would probably argue that there’s been no hint of Beth either, but we all know better, don’t we? There’s the Connie stuff (that convo between Daryl and Carol was the first on-screen mention of Daryl’s love life since…what? S3? When Carol asked him jokingly if he wanted to screw around? I mean, of course the fans were talking about it with Beth, but none of the on-screen characters were. And of course there’s the symbolism, dog stuff, Emily’s music being in it, and all other social media hints and attention she’s gotten. It just makes sense that if the last 5 minutes Nicotero keeps hinting at is her, then it would naturally follow that we’d then see her backstory.

And, I gotta say, the six episodes is perfect. This is exactly what we’ve been waiting for. We’ve all gone so back and forth about how they’d do this. We knew her backstory would take more than a single bottle episode. Or even two. And having a full 6 or 8 episodes for it deviates too much for too long from the main story and the other characters. So we always figured it might be a spin off or “special event” or something. This works perfectly for that mold, and may explain why they’re just “extending” S10.

But I’ll say more on that in a minute. Let me get back to Gimple’s comment.

Three things really stuck out to me about what he said, all of which make me think his comment was about Beth, rather than some other spinoff.

1) He made a point to say it was something that happened early in the apocalypse, not pre-apocalypse. And while that would work for an Abe/Eugene spinoff as well, it just jumped out at me that he wanted to be very clear about that.

2) He said what they’re working on that he’s referring to isn’t an entire series. That specifically suggests that a) it’s probably these 6 episodes he’s referring to, because rather than making them their own series (like TWB) they’re just mashing them into the main series. And b) what I said above about any other character spinoff: it would make way more sense and be way less jarring to have it be its own spin-off event because it just wouldn’t fit into the main series.

3) He suggested it’s what they’re actively working on right NOW. So, let me be the devil’s advocate here. That could possibly mean two things. Right now they can either do remote stuff to work on what they’ve already filmed or they can plan for stuff they’ll be filming when they get the okay to do so.

Let’s say I’m wrong and what Gimple said refers to some other spin off. Well, you could actually argue it either way. Maybe (again, we’ll use the Abe/Eugene thing as a placeholder, though it could feasibly be anything) they already filmed another spin off, secretly, and it’s just that no one knows about it. They could, technically, have done that at any time since MC left in S6, right? So Gimple could be working on that. Or, if they haven’t done any other filming, he could just be planning for the next thing beyond S11, right?

But that just doesn’t seem particularly realistic to me. Given that they’re trying to get stuff out for the fans, and the way CoVid has thrown a wrench in everything, I think all other projects would be backburned and they’d just be pushing as hard as possible to get the rest of S10 and S11 out to us. That’s what they have to be working on now to fill the gap of CoVid and make sure the fans don’t riot. That’s pretty much what Angela said and Gimple, Nicotero and others all agreed.

So of course, it’s not proof or anything, but it just seems obvious to me that what Gimple meant is what’s in these 6 episodes and nothing except it being about Beth makes sense. Nothing else would fit into the story at all right now.

Okay, I’m going to give a few thoughts about the suspicious pushing back of the finale and then I’ll stop.

In many ways, them pushing back the finale makes MORE sense to me in light of these new episodes than it did before. You both know I’ve always thought it was hokey because, after getting the filming done, everything else, by definition is done by computer and therefore can be done remotely.

So here’s what I think happened. Remember that even after CoVid hit, they still got several episodes aired, and didn’t tell us until—I don’t remember exactly when; episode 14 maybe?—that they wouldn’t be airing the finale because it wasn’t finished. I still think that was a lie. I think it wasn’t so much that they didn’t get the finale finished, but that they looked at what was happening (CoVid) and understood that everything would be shut down for an extended period of time and there would be a gap. That they wouldn’t get S11 filmed until the new year. But overall, S11 isn’t even really the point. Like I said, hearing about these 6 episodes has brought me some clarity.

So this may explain both why they held back the finale and why they’re mashing these episodes into S10, rather than making them their own thing. Now, maybe they were always going to do that. I obviously couldn’t speak to it either way. But I think the time frame is the thing here. Understand, I’m operating under the assumption that these 6 episodes will be Beth’s backstory, the missing 17 days, the white church, all of it. So, assuming that’s true…

If they always knew they were going to air these episodes soon after 10x16, they probably want them aired very close to (soon after) the reveal of Beth being alive. Think of it this way. When her being alive is revealed, there will a collective, fandom gasp. And then tptb will hype everyone watching the next episodes so we can find out how and why this is the case. But if they’d aired the finale back in February, it would have been 9 months before got those answers, and they would have lost the hype of the initial shock. Not to mention, while obviously the break would have built up plenty of hype for Daryl and Beth, it also would have allowed the haters to rail for months and months about how unrealistic this is, which might have infected others in the fandom in a negative way. I think Gimple and Kang are smart. They know their fandom very well, and are doing everything they can to guard against that sort of thing.

So, I think it’s possible that they were going to present these six episodes in a different way originally, like a spin off or special event (maybe, maybe not; I could see it either way) but they decided to make it an extended part of season 10, specifically because we won’t have s11 for a while and they want to push people through these episodes as quickly as possible after the finale.

I also think it’s terribly interesting from a psychological standpoint that they plan to start airing these things in October. Exactly when we SHOULD have gotten S11. Like I said, the writers are just smart that way. All we’ll actually be missing time-wise this year is the finale. And yes, other things like Fear and TWB were suppose to air in the interim. But in terms of the main series, which blows all the others out of the water viewership-wise, we’ll be sticking to the same schedule of getting more TWD in October, exactly when we should. I’m sure that’s purposeful. And by the time they air everything they’ve already filmed (S10, Fear, TWB), they’ll probably be ready to start airing S11 by then. Hopefully.

Okay, sorry. I said I’d stop, but two more minor things I want to mention. When Nicotero mentioned the last 5 minutes thing again, he said it would take everyone in a “whole new direction.” That gave me a lot of hope. Yes, I know hyperbole and exaggeration are still a thing, but I think we get it less from Nicotero than from Gimple, and I just don’t feel like he’d call it a “whole new direction” if he was just referring to Father Gabriel’s death or something. So once again, I think that “whole new direction” will be something completely unlooked for that will push us into those 6 episodes. That gave me some hope.

And finally, on the topic of FG’s death, I really think that could be a thing. Did you notice Angela’s giggle? I think it was right at the end when they were asking her what to expect from the finale and she just did a rundown of how all the characters were doing important things in important places (Negan has some exciting scenes, Carol has a redemption arc, Daryl’s leadership is important, etc.). And when she mentioned FG, she did this weird smile/giggle thing. She didn’t do that mentioning any of the other characters. It was like she got nervous and was trying to cover something. Just a little too shifty-eyed and giggly for me. So I kinda think we might be right about him dying in the finale.

But of course that remains to be seen. Thoughts?

[fisitronisms]

Good Eye, Sniper || On Perceptor

“When Perceptor and physics make eye contact, physics blinks first.” Getaway, Filling in the Blanks

He talks too much until he doesn’t talk enough, he’s almost too bright and for that, was almost once extinguished.

How does one go from a walking trivia machine to an ice cold gunner?

Let’s talk about Perceptor, The Least Warlike Autobot.

Originally, Perceptor was a security mech under Sentinel as well as a brilliant scientist- not exactly Oohrah Soldier Material, to be sure! 

But his bright and chatty ways changed drastically after being pulled into a Pretender Project, the rebuild of one Kup. Within a short span of time, he went from being a leader in science and technology to nothing much more than a babysitter- the cigarette pack that kept Kup’s processor in line, and something of an IT service for the Wreckers.

He was tolerated, maybe even liked! Until, of course, that fateful mission on Turmoil’s battleship; Where, mid sentence, his chest was blasted through and he hit the ground, surely about to die.

And this is where the change from a chatterbox to a stone cold Sniproscope begins.

Part 1: The Technicalities of “Dying”

After this incident, Perceptor upgraded himself, going from merely a scientist to an ice cold sniper capable of taking out a combiner with a single shot to it’s torso (x). He becomes cold, distant, emotionally detached almost- And if you think about it, it stands to reason this would be the route he takes when faced with his innate personality.

Perceptor is passionate. Specifically about his work- a running gag through several continuities, including the G1 cartoon, is that he can lecture and speak and ramble about something he is truly interested in with almost no stopping- unless someone tells him to shut up.

Turmoil, the Decepticon who shot Perceptor through the spark, falls into that “tells him to shut up” category. In Spotlight: Drift, we see the moment Perceptor meets death- The moment Turmoil shoots him through the heavy doors he is trying to keep locked while the Wreckers try to slice through the wall for an extraction mission.

This moment, specifically. See what he says upon seeing the smoking hole in Perceptor’s body? “Shoot your mouth off, give your position away. Amateurs.”

And then, in the very next panel, a shot to Perceptor’s eye while he, apparently, screams in pain and probably terror. Now, judging by the angle of the shot, its not a clean one- what was no doubt intended as a quick end instead was most likely just added suffering, his spark beginning to slow and fail and fade and half his vision fritzed or worse- gone completely.

And then everyone left.

Now here is Perceptor, nearly dead and on the way out- his sight halved and fuzzy and his spark nearly obliterated. And at the end, he’s alone. The Wreckers moved on, attempting to finish the mission while battling Turmoil’s forces only to be separated briefly.

And then, he’s not alone, and he’s falling, and then he’s on the Trion in a CR chamber nearly in pieces.

Imagine how that affected him, when he came out of the CR chamber- a culmination of years upon years, no doubt, of being just a bit too wordy. It’s even reflected in MTMTE years later, when Rodimus (bored or agitated by Perceptor’s scientific terms, it’s hard to tell) cuts him off to tell him to use layman’s terms.

That aside, for Perceptor- he was nearly killed and then immediately mocked for his chatterbox tendencies. Speaking nearly got him killed, explaining was nearly the end of the line for him.

And when he comes out of the CR chamber, he changes- and not just physically.

He had already been a bit standoffish, no doubt at feeling a bit unwelcome among more active soldiers while being mostly a scientist, but now its cemented that not only is his BODY not up to par for war- but he himself is not either.

And we see, when he rebuilds himself, that his “explanations” are a single sentence, maybe less. Drift gets a “Much obliged” when Perceptor blankly quips that it was due to Drift that he is alive.

Nothing like the miniature lectures or chatter of before.

We see it when Monstructor is taken out by a single perfect shot to the joined-area of his torso, “Just doing my job.”

Operating on single sentences or less; the difference is astounding. But, considering everything that led up to it, not shocking.

The only deviation to this behavior (pre-Lost Light) is on Garrus 9, the prison planet Perceptor was requested to go to along with Kup, Springer, and several others.

The deviation of behavior, specifically, is the explanation of Aequitas’s function.

And this explanation is still rather short, and only at the behest of Verity. There’s no jargon, no tangents, to explanations within explanations or invitations for further discussion- its short, straight, and to the point. It’s blunt, clinical, and worded with a kind of finality that begs a conversation to move on away from the punctuation that threatens to fridge it.

But Perceptor’s initial near-death experience is not the ONLY factor in what his personality, what HE himself became- just the first step.

Part II: The Valley of the Shadow of Death

Near death experiences change you, it’s just a fact. There’s always a part of someone that gets left behind when healing from one, a little bit of their innocence or softness that is given up.

Perceptor is no different.

Perceptor always has been, and always will be, a scientist. He looks at things from a “logical” standpoint, he believes what his eyes show him. 

And what his eyes showed him was being left behind, in more ways than one.

The first time being, of course, on Turmoil’s ship- no doubt it was assumed he wasn’t going to survive, not with an injury like that, not in a place like that- But he did. He made it back, because Drift pulled him out.

Looking over Perceptor’s Wrecker history, that would be the last time that someone did that it seems.

The first incident we’re going to look at is one that happens not long after Perceptor’s rebuild- Actually, immediately after taking down Monstructor.

One of the first direct reactions to Perceptor’s rebuild, not counting Kup’s discomfort and dismissal of Perceptor’s suggestion he rebuild into a soldier (not even specifically a SNIPER, just a soldier, just to have more survivability in wartime). 

Blaster is hinted at being good friends with Perceptor; Primarily in Spotlight: Blaster, where Perceptor not only repairs Blaster after an assasination attempt gone awry, but helps him discover the assassin’s identity- Beachcomber, being mind-controlled by Bombshell.

Perceptor was injured when the trap had been set, and it looks to be a shot to the chest- Ironically, the same injury he repaired on Blaster, shown here:

Which was almost mirrored when Perceptor was shot by Turmoil.

And yet, Blaster’s reaction to Perceptor repairing and, in many ways IMPROVING, himself was to accuse him of “defiling himself”. To tell him his job was “a scientist”, considering Blaster’s job was once a radio host, that seems a mite hypocritical.

The second rejection to look at comes, also, from All Hail Megatron and the battle against the Swarm.

And here’s Ratchet, with an awful thing to say about someone you had a close working relationship with before they. You know. Nearly died and had to rebuild themselves from the ground up with frankly minimal support.

Acting like becoming capable of defending yourself and surviving a war somehow diminishes one’s intellectual capability.

And because Ratchet does nothing by half, he follows it up with something even WORSE. So, that is two people Perceptor considered friends who clearly... may not value the relationship as much as Perceptor might.

An important distinction, however, is while Blaster announced his opinion for the entire unit to hear- Ratchet’s comments were made in a more private setting, directly to Kup.

So, there’s that, at least.

But, these are just comments- rude, yes, but Perceptor has no doubt heard worse?

A fair point, to be sure! The problem comes in the form of Garrus 9. As many things do.

Gun-fondling battle-stat.

A special kind of derision, that- something that could be a reminder of what people really think of Perceptor. It makes one have to wonder- what would hearing another annoyed title being laid on him do? And by THE enemy, no less?

A reminder that his worth is entirely conditional. He is not necessary so much as convenient- He was convenient for Prowl, he was convenient for Kup, convenient for the Wreckers...

After long enough being optional, one stops trying to be irreplacable.

Part III: Old Gravemarkers

So, looking at the previous points, it’s safe to say that Perceptor isn’t in the greatest headspace at any given time.  From the shot that killed an Insecticon scout and prompted Cliffjumper to ask “When did Perceptor become scary?” to his infamously showing activation of tactical explosives; its very safe to say that not all is well with our favorite science-sniper (as Verity once called him, in Last Stand of the Wreckers).

Down to the flat, cold way he voted in favor of killing Impactor, around to the almost clinical way he addressed crewmates in the beginning of MTMTE.

But, the most painful part is, he starts getting better. He begins to interact with others, mostly Brainstorm, and slowly seems to start shedding the frigidness he developed after his near death and his rebuild and after all the backs that got turned to him.

But then, Overlord comes back.

And it’s gently suggested that Overlord went looking for him, as illustrated below: 

Could this be a reference to earlier in the issue, where Perceptor is seen carrying Tripodeca back after a terrible run in with the phase sixer?

Or is it something deeper than that- Overlord remembering Perceptor as the sniper that shot off his hand, that dared to go against him? Remembering Perceptor as one of the Autobots who set him up for absolute failure?

It’s entirely possible, and even plausible, that Perceptor internalized this incident (like many other things, no doubt) and it was one of the reasons Getaway felt he would be suitable to be involved in the mutiny. Perhaps this was a driving factor in seeing Perceptor spend a majority of time with Brainstorm.

Perhaps the behavior shown by Perceptor in MTMTE is the result of him simply forgetting how to interact with people- after so long in sniper perches and wondering if you’ll be dead in thirty seconds some things fall by the wayside, maybe socialization is one of them.

At the end, though, the things Perceptor later becomes known for: Being cold, distant, blunt and to the point even when using jargon, being almost uncompromising; after thinking about what he’s lived through, well....

It makes a little more sense, doesn’t it?

[dollsonmain]

Me while doing a faceup:  Omg this is terrible shit garbage the worst what am I doing why do I do this to myself this is torture it looks so bad my hand shake so much omg....

Faceup:  I’m ok.

Like usual, it’s not “good” from a technical standpoint because I may have going on 20 years of practice but have NO talent, my hands do shake terribly, and I’m clumsy in general, but once I get past the OMG WHY stage and get to refining things and stuff starts to smooth out a little more and stuff, then I can relax and crank out an acceptable faceup.

Not like, take commissions acceptable, but good enough.

[alazyamateurgamedev]

Inaugural Post

I’m going to ramble a bit about some basics of game design on a far too philosophical level, but I think it is something to consider if you are considering game design.   I end up feeling like this is something developers end up ignoring when they develop their games. For this particular rant, I’m going to focus mostly on video games, since by and large, they don’t have to involve other people, which makes the overall experience much different.  So as I refer to gaming below, think mostly of video games, but I also think it still applies to all kinds of game design.

First of all, games are, by my definition at least, a form of art.  This is at the core of a lot of my musings about gaming, and it supplies the main challenge in making something good.  Sure, they have an extremely technical requirement in terms of making it, but it is still basically a form of art.  I’m sure a lot of people who don’t get gaming would say “Oh its not art!”, but really the goal with a game is to achieve some sort of emotional response (IE Fun, joy, fear, etc) or possibly intellectual response (IE “Let me stop and think about this), and that is all I think any artist who is trying to achieve. In this particular case, I am defining an artist as anyone who creates some sort of creative work, and can include art, literature, music, movies, architecture, etc.  Medium is not important in this context.

Now, I am also going to focus on the idea that a game designer wants to try to a) Share their game with anyone interested and b) make money.  Now, there are many reasons to make art, and some of them don’t involve public exposure, for example, painting or drawing as a form of therapy.  If that is the case, this discussion isn’t targeted at you.  In completing your project, you have hopefully achieved what you wanted.  So if you are designing and building a game for some personal reason with no real intention of exposing it to the public, then this does not apply to you.  However, I presume most people who publish a video game are trying to achieve something else like making money, accolades of people, or just sharing something they think is fun.  The first two may seem self-serving, but I don’t think it is wrong.  You should get credit for the work you put into something.

Because it is a form of art, that makes creating something “Good” much, much more difficult.  In engineering, you can pretty often easily define “good”.    Your basic goal with a non-artistic product (say a refrigerator) is to make something that does what is expected (It keeps the inside cold at a fixed temperature), and mainly to do it for a profit.   So, you can define your general goals pretty easily, and then test against them to know “Hey I did a good job” or “It does a bad job”. Things like “Does the temperature stay constant while it is running?” “Does it stay on?” and “Do the doors fall off if I open them too much?” are all things you can define and test against.  This is a bit of an over-simplification, as the appearance of your fridge is quite important and subjective and also because it isn’t always easy to define what parameters are acceptable, or how to define the parameters, or how to test for them, but hopefully that doesn’t happen to you as an engineer, or if it does, that is why you are paid the big bucks.  

Now, this long-winded explanation leads to why gaming is hard to design.  At the core of almost any game is the idea that it should be “fun”. But it is extremely hard to define “Fun”.  What is fun? As a baby, sucking on your toes could be considered fun, but most of you probably do not consider it fun now.  Some people think hiking or running is fun, but I do not.  So fun is different to different people, and different to the same person at different times.  This means you have an impossible to define goal post when trying to design a game, at least from an engineering standpoint.  I bring this up, because this is probably why you see major AAA game publishers publish substandard products, and sometimes why you see Kickstarter funded games take 3 extra years to develop (more on Kickstarter in future rants). For a software company, the company’s goal is to make money, and so to make a profit, they will need to sell enough copies of the game to cover the cost to develop it.  Part of that cost basically boils down to time, since it costs money to pay employees, and the more time you take to develop a game, the more it costs the company, and the more copies they need to sell.  

This is just an educated guess (I’m lazy, so I’m not going to do any research on this, but I’m sure it exists), but I expect many of the “Terrible flops” were actually the company defining some sort of timeline for the game’s development that ended up not working out. They either skimped on Quality Assurance (QA, also known as testing) and the game didn’t work right, or they skimped on development, and so the gameplay just wasn’t good.  Sometimes, it is just a flawed design, and you figure that out too late, and you’ve already sunk a ton of money and time into the project and need to decide what to do about it.  Do you go forward with a crappy design or do you go ahead and release a substandard product in hopes that you can make some of your money back?  Most larger companies will choose the latter, because they need to stay in business.  A handful do not, and they are interesting cases:  Blizzard before they merged with Activision and Valve.  Both were notorious for not releasing games quickly, and I think you can see the polish in the Diablo and Warcraft (But not World of Warcraft) series, as well as the Half-Life series.  I made the possible mistake of playing Half-Life Alyx before any other VR game, and its beautifully defined controls have spoiled me as compared to other similar VR titles.  However, I’m pretty sure they worked on that for ages before releasing it as perfect as they could.  However, they have loads and loads of cash and can wait.  Looking at Cyberpunk 2077, to me that looked like they ran out of testing time, and thus why it was such a buggy launch, despite the delays, and they were forced to launch.  Finally, I expect the entire lack of tangible Diablo 4 news is because they think they are missing some major component to make it what they want it to be.

My overall point on all of this is that it can take time to develop something fun, especially something that can be as complex as a game.  And on top of that, a game has technical challenges that other forms of art do not.  Not only do you have to create a fun system, but you have to make it work, and do it in a visually and acoustically engaging way.  So not only do you have to make the Art, sounds, story, gameplay, but you also have to make sure it all works right.  There are some ‘shortcuts’ you can take, like using established game engines (Like the Unreal Engine or Unity) so you don’t have to invent from the ground up, but that both adds cost and a possibly restrictive framework to work in.  

Now, you are probably asking why am I rambling about all of this?  This goes back to what I was originally rambling about, which is why are you making a game.  You are probably aiming for your game to be well received, and either make some money off it, or at the very least, get good reviews and encouragement.  So my point is if you wish to be successful, please make sure your game is, at the core, fun.  If, after you make it, you look back on it and think “I would never play this.” Or “I’d be bored with this after two minutes”, you probably didn’t do a good job. Most of this blog will probably revolve around this idea of what is (and isn’t) fun, so I hope you’ll keep reading it. If you take anything away from it, I think you should aim to make a game that is fun to the audience you want it to be fun for, but just remember that the more restrictive your audience, the less successful game you probably will have, and really to make sure your game is, in fact, fun.  

[noelclover]

Off the Cuff 26/09/20

A topic about the nature of art and art as a product. I forgot to post this and it’s been over a month lol

This topic has been on my mind for quite a while and, like with most topics I finally pen down, I go about it in circles for months, at times dragging in anyone who would spare half a ear and a smidge of attention to the topic as I rant like a broken record, trying to figure out how best to start on the topic. And I figured that the best way to go about it was to simply ask the age old question that has many rolling their eyes, that everyone seems to think they have an answer to:

What is art?

The nature of art is a really difficult one to pin down. Some believe that art has to transcend humanity, display the best and worst of us, elevate us in some spiritual fashion. Some believe that as long as it’s beautiful or has a point to make, it’s art. Others still believe that if it’s called art, then it must be art. I agree with the first two to some degree, despite them occasionally butting heads, but I can never agree with the last bit.

(( Points at the banana being taped to the wall work of “art” ))

And it is because I understand their arguments and points, due to having studied art history despite my lecturer thinking that I was just goofing around, that I find myself, with the advent of two... pieces of media put out this year, in a perplexing position that can only be described as

“I get it. But why.”

The first of which is “The Last of Us 2″ and the second being the recent “Cuties” by Netflix.

((Please note I have not partaken in either product. This isn’t a criticism or endorsement of either of them, but rather a point at the decisions of the people who made them.))

Now, before I elaborate further on either of them, I’d like to talk about Dadaism.  (( Note that this is partially by memory and some quick fact checking. Additionally, I’m absolutely terrible at categorizing things through timeline and if something can fit multiple boxes, I end up jumbling them up. So please take the following explanation as more of a guideline and general gist than some academician toiling about the technical details of a topic )) Dadaism is an interesting field of art that was essentially “anti-art”, or grew out of a movement that believed in being anti-art and challenging the notions of what art is and from it sprung the surrealism and conceptual art movements. The term dada is said to be as a child saying “dada”, to highlight and evoke the absurdity and childishness of the movement. You can see examples of dada works with a quick look through Google, from which you’ll find a signed urinal being called a “fountain” and considered “art”, and you might find “Artist’s Shit”, a “work” consisting of 90 steel cans allegedly containing 30g of the artist’s feces.

Now, most of you may go “Noel, that’s absurd. How is that art?”, which is a fine and expected. I will now fully admit that dadaism simply strengthened my belief that art isn’t art just because some artist decided to slap a label on it. But here’s the thing: Ironically, dadaism became art. By being a criticism of contemporary art and arguing the nature of art, it ultimately became thoughtful in it’s absurdity and the meaningless, the worthless pieces of “art” created with it in mind became meaningful despite the lack of tangibility to whatever art is defined as in the minds of the masses.

Now that I’ve highlighted how “art” can be defined as something having a meaning or a point no matter how absurd, and have hopefully explained my view and ability to see how these things are art, I’d like to bring the topic back to “The Last of Us 2″ and “Cuties”. I understand TLoU2′s controversial decision, despite the fact that I brought up the question of “why”. I understand that they wanted to push the anger, the hatred before showing you that Abby is human, just like the characters you loved. Your hatred and anger towards her is justified and you fall into a cycle of hate and anger, either denying any attempt to know her better or begrudgingly because the lens of which you view her is stained by her actions. If the director’s idea is to force the player into a position where they absolutely hate Abby, then the decision to go with the storyline instead of rearranging the timeline so that players could get to know Abby first is the right thing to do.

I understand the idea of Mignonnes or Cuties, as it’s known worldwide. Our world is becoming more sexualized, the effect this has on children is worrying. The way we would look at a woman in a more appreciative lens is applied in the movie on prepubescent girls who try to be grown up (( hopefully )) creates a sense of disgust, to disturb the viewer. I know why the film is done in a more gratuitous manner, it is to elicit a response from the viewer, for us to criticize and think of the consequences of the pushing the boundaries we’re pushing. ((I am not endorsing the film. I haven’t watched it, and most likely will never watch it. I get the idea behind the decisions taken, that’s all.))

I get it. And note, I am not, in any way, stating that it is wrong for the creators to make the product the way they made if looking at it from the lens of “art”, if we consider art being a blunt tool that has you thinking.

Yet despite my understanding of this, the question in my mind doesn’t change:

But why?

You see, like the art pieces, the game and film are pushing boundaries and that’s fair. But unlike the art pieces in galleries, it’s marketed to the masses, most of whom probably won’t like the product even if they understand the idea behind it. From a marketing standpoint, and one of public relations, such works are generally bad. They’re meant to be “art” works, media that satisfies a small niche, delivers a message or has you thinking. They’re not works for the average person who wants to sit down and watch a movie or play a game at the end of the day. They’re not for the majority of the audience, as proven by the general publics dislike towards post-modern art, dadaism and the two products in question.

If you make something like that and embrace the fact that it will probably land you in hot water or not sell well, it’s all good. But it seems to me, based on the impressions I’ve had from memories of whatever it is I read, that the directors, that these creators expected the general public to embrace their works. It makes no sense and screams of naivete, if not outright stupidity.

It screams of a bloated sense of self import, as though one is beyond reproach and the audience, the masses are expected to open up their wallets and give these people their money. It reminds me of the PR disasters of Blizzard really. To sum it up, I suppose the point of this post is to simply highlight what I think we can all consider common sense: If you’re selling a product, make it appealing to the consumer. ((I’d like to add that in the case of Mignonnes/Cuties, the question of whether or not such depictions need to be made should be asked. I won’t get into that because it’s probably been talked to death, hell and back.))

[reformedmercymain]

Thoughts On The “New” Titans

I love you all so I include a readmore *and* TWO tl;dr’s

     Please refrain from judging the players themselves. They got an offer of pay and position that are both incredibly hard to attain, given how there are only approx 200 players in the league. It’s an extremely hard offer to turn down. They’re securing good money and exposure to other tier one teams even if they’re getting it from a fucked up org. They’re only doing what makes the most sense as people with aspirations of a successful professional career. The players themselves have no responsibility in RunAway being mistreated and dismantled.      Even if the “original Titans/RunAway” wasn’t one of your favorite teams, I believe it’s safe to say the majority of us held a lot of respect for the journey RunAway took to get to mainstage OWL, and can appreciate how smooth their gameplay was that allowed them to dominate all of season 2. The Titans org made one of the biggest mistakes in OWL history. There’s never been anything quite like RunAway’s story in the league, and we may never get something so beautiful again, so everyone hurt by what happened is completely justified in feeling how they do about the organization.

     I want to stress that people need to show your vocal support for the players themselves, and make it clear you hate the org, not the roster, when you discuss the issues. And especially be kind for their upcoming games, we’re halfway into an extremely chaotic season and (like I predicted before lol) they grabbed a significant amount of random players. Half of them have never played together at all, meaning the transition from contenders to mainstage is faster than you can read this post. Finding the synergy in a team takes a *lot* of time, and with the internal pressure they’ll be facing will be even more difficult than what most teams experience. So let’s, as fans, not add to that pressure by showing them nothing but disdain and disgust, and support them as an individual roster instead.       This paragraph isn’t as important to read so you can sorta skip it but I want to offer a potential explanation for what may be/have been going down that isn’t surface level.They new Titans have an extremely small roster, I assume due mainly to time - and greed. The same greed that I assume led to RunAway being dismantled. Finding good players that they can offer smaller contracts too “makes sense” from the corporate standpoint -  given the current events with covid-19 damaging (aka halting the income of) a significant number of “legitimate” sports teams. The Titans org is technically owned by Luminosity, who in turn are owned by an NHL team named the Vancouver Canucks. The lack of income from their main team, their true moneymaker (as opposed to esports, which is considered an investment, and therefore not a focus of theirs), is most likely making many owners of these esports organizations nervous, and are in turn probably pushing to save more money than they normally would.  I’m assuming that’s part of why the housing accommodations after being moved back and forth ended up so terrible. Shuffling the team around made it easier to make the living situations worse for these players as opposed to most teams being secure in already having had their accommodations made prior to covid-19 hitting on a global scale. 

     The new Titans have the minimum number of players that can be signed. Half of the roster are from different teams. In my eyes this is far more important than keeping the same coaches that they brought the other half of the team with. Those coaches only worked with those three players. The three players from Second Wind already know how to work with each other in a professional context (not OWL level, yet obviously.) The other half are basically ladder RNG from various teams. The players are the ones who have to perform immediately, designated to be the ones put under fire very publicly by every fan of OWL, particularly of every fan of the former Titans/RunAway, with no time at all given to learn to work together. Don’t get me wrong, coaches are important but when it comes to an instant jump they can’t have an impact to truly matter, as they’ve never worked with the other three. The coaches have just as much on their plate for work as the players do, if not more, yet them being from the same team as half of the team doesn’t really seem like a massive advantage to me, just a more convenient one. Usually you would pick up one or two players at a time that you can scrim until you believe them to be ready, but they’re forced to throw them all in at once.      Out of these players, we have 3 players from Second Wind, as well as 3 coaches from Second Wind. Their players: 1. ShRedlock (tank player) 2. Dalton (dps) 3. Roolf (supp) Their coaches: 1. Flubby 2. Pew 3. Wheats

     Having one player from each role that have worked together IS a good thing for the team, however the other half of the players have never worked together. three players who work together is better than none at all, but having half the roster having never interacted with each other prior to this is the equivalent of shooting themselves in the feet and telling them to run. It’ll be incredibly stressful and difficult in all ways for this new roster.       The Second Wind coaches joining is a good sign but the fact of the matter, is that they didn’t take all of Second Wind and you can’t coach people to have good synergy (let alone to the degree needed to match tier 1 OWL gameplay) in the span of one day. The player’s who’ve never worked together: 1. CarCar (supp): technically once played for second wind - but that was in 2018 and in my mind is therefore irrelevant and all remain in just as bad of a position. As not having been on Second Wind at all. He also hasn’t been on a team since ATL Academy which he left in late March.  2. KSAA (off tank): played for a team called Raspberry Racers.   3. Tsuna (dps): played for Disaster. Pretty fitting name imo for what’s about to go down.      I haven’t looked into how good either of the latter players English is. I can only hope for the best - that they may be fluent. In the past, various organizations have failed to provide proper translation for the players, leading to extreme internal issues.      For KSAA, his liquipedia shows that he has both the flag of Saudi Arabia and the flag of the USA. I personally hope that means he’s lived in the US and is potentially fluent. Tsuna is from France, again, I can only hope he’s fluent in English.      TL;DR: The players don’t deserve this level of stress. Being thrown together haphazardly right before their professional matches begin must be horrifying when you know how hated “Titans” are hated right now. There will be a lot of people who decide to shit on the players instead of the organization. Be one of the people who know it’s not the players fault and behave as such, please. Before you talk about (how terrible) the Titans are, be sure to make it clear you’re referring to the poor actions of the organization, and not blaming the players for “taking the place of RunAway” or a lack of synergy and struggles to come together, if there is a language barrier this may be even more difficult than it looks on a surface level, try not to be part of making it worse. 

     Ultra TL;DR: Don’t shit on the players, shit on the ORG. Don’t be one of the many who will blame the players for something they had no control over. 

[fmdjoosungarchive]

location: mainly daisung’s apartment

date: ~april-sept 2020

word count: 1967

tldr; verification for sung’s song badbye. full everything. the beginning reads so pretentious and dramatic i’m so sorry. sung has a dream about his first best friend (peep the call back to the first loves series) and it sets him on a spiral of self-negativity, thinking he’s bad for everyone he loves and they’re all gonna want to leave him some day. copious mentions of daisuke, who is featuring on the song, mention of yujin, and unnamed references to sung’s friends

“but you could! you could just leave me!” the sound must have been deafening, but all sound muffled. sung barely heard himself. “you can just- just decide you don’t want me anymore! and i- i can’t-” his knees felt weak, sudden as it was, and he collapsed forward, breathing in the heat of daisuke’s body against his own. that warmth was infuriating, but right below that, taking up the majority of space within sung, in every last crevasse, was a deeper pit, hollow and eternally empty. the voice that came out of sung’s mouth was broken apart, near unrecognizable as his own, “please... please don’t leave me.”

-

static, with his finger pressed down on the rubber tipped button of the remote. the television was older, blocky, thick rimmed. the one from his home in gwangju. he registered, then, that he was in the sitting room of said apartment. but, unlike the home from back then, filled with ambient noise of his mother milling about, starting their dinner hours far ahead of time as she preferred to every day, his father flipping through papers or rattling off to his itty bitty brother about sports, said brother nodding enthusiastically despite only understanding every fifth word, this room was silent, save for the static.

zzt.

blue glow combined from the greyed out screen, must have been covering his face. he could feel blue, as a tangible object, a taste in his mouth, an ink on his eyes, a scent perforating his brain.

sung changed the channel, and there he was. in the same white shirt and grey pants he was in the last time he ever saw him. his first best friend.

he didn’t look happy. he was mouthing something, but sung couldn’t hear it over the static. volume button pressed, again, again, five, ten, thirteen times. the static became deafening, tempting sung to cover his ears again, but -he heard it. quiet as ever, sung needed to lean forward to make sure he was hearing correctly. a shout, in english. you know why, over and over.

his fingers fumbled for the buttons again as his heart sped up, to change the channel yet again, but there the boy was, never having left. the sound only got louder, and louder still the more times sung attempted to change the channel. what whispered shout he’d heard before was shouted in his ears now, like the words circled him, pushed closer inward with the force of static, trapping him in.

tears fell from his eyes in buckets, as if within a few minutes he might have been stranded in his own tears like alice. his hands did cover his ears then, trying to dull the sound, but it had no effect. he screamed back, “i’m sorry! i loved you! i’m sorry! please!” a litany of sorry’s continued, until his voice grew hoarse, and all that came out was static.

-

sung woke with a start. every bit of lining in his mouth was dry, along with a chalk filled throat and tongue. his cheeks opposed that feeling, accessorizing with streaks of salted water dripping all the way down to his chin, starting from his tear ducts.

instinct took over as sung’s hand flopped down next to him with power, only to smack upon empty bedsheets beside him. suddenly, his heart matched that of his dream self.

-

he couldn’t taste the blue, though the computer’s light lit up his face anyway. one leg was pulled up onto the chair, arm wrapped around it. no matter how hard he’d been trying, everything he ended up coming up with that day sounded doom and gloom. if he was thinking more clearly, more rationally, sung might have told himself to open up to that feeling, to let himself feel it enough it can dissipate with time. right then, his eyes half focused on the funnel shape of light coming off of his phone that had been left open for so long it was running on low battery.

a bad habit, that red bar was. sung wasn’t bad about charging his phone usually, but the red bar represented something else. it was the indicator of the tens of text threads that had been pushed up to the top of his messages.

you like me, right?

i’m sorry if i’ve ever hurt you.

you’ll be my friend forever? please?

i know you don’t want to talk to me...

don’t lie to me, please

it’s okay if you don’t like me

don’t leave me

one after the next, insecurities on blast. a nasty habit. sung kept to himself, when he was feeling at his lowest, for reasons like that. no one needed to shoulder his irrational mind that was bordering on manipulation. it manipulated himself, and when he let it, others.

that funnel of light had invaded every part of the studio, even into the screws lodged in the desk. there was no getting away from this, no distraction. his feelings demanded they be felt, right then, in anything he did. if someone had passed by quickly, they could feel the heady emotions pulsing out of the door. even if they didn’t pass by, they could hear it, in the wafting, wailing sounds of something akin to an empty cathedral’s organ.

a sludge-ing smack of the apartment door closing, and sung’s heart skipped a beat, momentarily paralyzed. daisuke. more than any other, his boyfriend had dealt with the brunt of his unwell text messages. between each new conversation pushed up to the top of his messages, was another message to daisuke. even then, the coned phone light crowned the king.

his writing programs laid open, nearing on sleep, unsaved, second tier to sung standing up. the chair he’d been sitting on bounced with the force of his lift, and if it were possible, the floor might have bounced with each step as he made his way to the entrance.

what might have usually been a warm, gentled welcome to the love of his life, was replaced with a trembling jaw and tightened muscles. “who have you been with all day?”

sung wasn’t the type of person to yell when he was upset. frankly, he didn’t even yell much when he was excited. but the cries coming from his mouth sounded eerily like a tinny white noise, a million cicadas seeking mates, a buzzing static of a tv.

-

only after his tears had drenched daisuke’s shirt, and his hands had created what seemed like permanent wrinkles, and large, warm hands, much different than his own, had sent cozy heat onto every inch of his body, could sung calm down.

-

another day on, his worries felt distant. at first, he required the unyielding grip of daisuke’s arms around him as he woke up, keeping him tethered to the promises he’d been given the day before. however, as the days passed, it became easier to trust in that once again, and settle his insecurities into their own box.

long after his welcomes had become once again filled with kisses and the touch of skin, was when sung finally felt ready to try to tackle those emotions, and the song he’d accidentally started.

healing was never easy, though. listening back to what he had written, and did end up remembering to save the next morning, brought back all of the terrible feelings he’d been having while writing it. no matter how far he had come to distance himself in daily life from the feelings, they still existed within him, ready to be brought to the surface at any given point.

now wasn’t that time. sung had decided as much. he’d made sure to get a decent night of sleep, and to have spent as much time with those he cared for as possible in the days leading up to this attempt. sung could handle this.

he took it from a more professional standpoint, rather than purely emotional as he had before. while what he’d written was beautiful, it was disjointed together, mixed improperly, and not in a way that was purposeful. although, he realized that it could be purposeful to have the sound a little disjointed, especially if he wrote some kind of lyric basis to the song. after having written dystopia for our songs, sung felt a little more comfortable with the idea, if not excited for such a thing.

if this song worked as an interlude of sorts, it didn’t need to be anything fancy. so, sung worked. he took all of his experiences from that terrible day, and fit them together in a song that was just a little off.

within that same day, sung finished what he’d started before, wrote lyrics, a melody for said lyrics, and mixed it together in a first draft sort of style. it was a feeling of burnout over having sat working on the same thing for so long, over burnout of the song itself, that had him packing up his day there. and with fresh eyes later on, fresh ears that could listen to the song more objectively, to think, this really could work on the album.

he’d been writing for his album long enough that he’d mixed dozens of songs with the same soundscape, a uniformity across the majority of everything he’d written for the album, so the cohesiveness necessary wasn’t a difficult task. probably, the hardest part, was the idea he’d had towards the end of producing.

static.

this song was meant to be an unabridged look into his mind that day, right? and, if there was one thing that had encapsulated every part of that day, it was that terrible sound. as an interlude, it was even more compelling. however, that meant he’d be required to capture the sound. sung considered, for a moment, asking a friend to do it for him, but... he knew this was his own battle to win.

in the end, it wasn’t as terrible as he thought it would be, even if his sweat glands and heart valves may have disagreed.

the final piece, ended up being a singer. sung didn’t think the demo recording he’d done was bad per say, considering there wasn’t a whole lot of technical skill needed for what he’d written, but it certainly wasn’t what he’d wanted.

naturally, sung turned to those close to him. while that was common for him in pretty much any scenario, his demo songs filled to the brim with demos sung by yujin, this was more of a need. he wasn’t sure who he could trust to share this with, especially before it had ever been presented to the company. for all intents and purposes, this piece was sung baring the parts of his soul that not even the people closest to him got to see often. the best -and safest- choice, was the man who had seen him that exact day, had experienced how he felt, and continued to love him anyway.

he’d gone over and over again in his head how he might approach the situation, trying to think of his words more carefully so he wouldn’t trip over them when it came to actually talking to daisuke. and he did so anyway. but, thankfully, call it the power of being in love or something, daisuke readily agreed.

even in the recording booth, sung knew that his fears had still led him to the right decision. daisuke’s voice on the track was as hauntingly beautiful as he could never attempt to pull off. by the end of that day, sung, creativity and love overflowing, had mixed the song, finishing up the last touches, to officially add to his folder for the next album review.