#< also grain of salt it i have not seen all routes including even all opportunistic routes

[bottomschlatt]

stp voice of the opportunist is the kinda guy to request someone perform a mormon ‘baptism for the dead’ for him in his will just on the slightest off chance they’re actually right. this makes him a bit of a slimy weasely shithead and also it makes me want him so fucking badly

[i-want-my-iwtv]

I hope the rumours of Louis being a brothel owner aren't true, but if they are I can sort of see why they're going for this route? I mean, with a black Louis they can't have him being a slaver anymore, so maybe they're trying to find something that is also morally reprehensible for him to be.

TL;DR: My kneejerk reaction was to be saddened, and I don’t like that this is starting up, and will continue to fuel, fandom drama. Ultimately, if we want peace, we’ll embrace the fact that the existence of this adaptation doesn’t take away from the existence of the books, and it also doesn't mean we have to acknowledge it.

It makes me wonder whether AMC wants us to make a storm about this. We’ll see...

After all, what makes this adaptation any more important than the graphic novels of the ’90s, the graphic novel Claudia’s Story, movie!IWTV, or movie!QOTD? In fact, many fans here on tumblr consider VC to be a trilogy only!!! and don’t accept the majority of the PUBLISHED CANON so what makes anyone think we have any obligation to swallow this AMC adaptation as some kind of gospel?

I see movie!QOTD as a buffet of ideas carried in an official fanfiction work, and I don’t accept as my headcanon the various things it changed about the books that I didn’t particularly like, such as merging Magnus and Marius (which, IMO, effectively made both characters more morally reprehensible). I accepted the things I did enjoy, like casting a Black/POC actress to play Akasha. I see this AMC adaptation as a buffet of ideas, some can be taken, and some not, it’s just another official fanfiction work.

[Anon, I need to catch other ppl up on the information, too.]

Deadline.com informs us that in the AMC adaptation for Interview with the Vampire, Jacob Anderson has been cast as Louis. I'm not familiar with him, but it looks like he’s a successful actor, from Game of Thrones and other things, he’s also joining Series 13 of Doctor Who. I’ll have to check him out from an acting standpoint!

Aside from his talent as an actor, this is by far the most controversial thing that's happened in VC fandom recently. I've been thinking about this for a few months now, talking about it privately online and offline, still gathering my thoughts. So this post is not engraved in stone, it’s initial thoughts on this.

I’m glad to see ppl talking about it and I’m sure we’ll have more public discussions. I’m trying to discuss it very carefully, but also, this is an entertainment blog, my opinions are mine alone, and I’m not looking for dogpiling on anyone, I have no obligation to respond publicly or privately to anything. Plenty of other ppl have differing opinions on this. So take all of the following with more than a grain of salt, I’m not being salty, I’m providing the links to the little info we’ve seen pulicly, I’m giving my initial thoughts, and I’m also trying to add a little levity because ultimately, again, this is an entertainment blog, and I try to add a little humor to help with such serious topics, humor can help ppl talk about controversial things.

-----

The casting of a POC/Black actor (I’m sorry I don't know the preferred terminology, let me know if you know what Anderson prefers) confirms at least one part of theilluminerdi articles that stated that Louis’ race will be different from the books. I didn’t post about these before bc I wasn’t sure how reliable theilluminerdi’s sources are (and I'm still not sure), but this was one major aspect that theilluminerdi announced before Deadline did, so now seems to be the right time to share those articles. For now, you can go check them out yourselves rather than have my reposting of the information, trigger warning: mentions of sex workers and race in the changes to the canon story of Interview with the Vampire.

>>>theilluminerdi articles from May 21, 2021 and July 15, 2021:

www.theilluminerdi.com/2021/05/21/interview-with-the-vampire-amc

www.theilluminerdi.com/2021/07/15/interview-with-the-vampire-amc-2

^Meme of Dr. Ian Malcom from Jurassic Park reads: “Your writers were so preoccupied with whether they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should.”

I’m using that meme with a little levity here, clearly an AMC adaptation of vampires in which the producers/writers have chosen to change the race of a main character (arguably the original protagonist of the series) isn’t in the same VICINITY as the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park that broke out of containment and killed visitors to the park, but John Hammond’s intention for the creation of that park was very good, as I assume this race change was intended. Time will tell.

“But with this place, I wanted to show them something that wasn't an illusion. Something that was real, something that they could see and touch. An aim not devoid of merit.”

“Creation is an act of sheer will.” 

- John Hammond, Jurassic Park

Race is a more complicated subject than ever, so for AMC to make this bold change, I hope they have POC and Black writers on staff and are handling this very carefully. Even then, no racial group, including POC and Black people, are a hivemind, disagreements are bound to happen in the writing room, whether in good faith or bad. People have different intentions and motives, compromises will probably be made with the story in many ways, we all know how it goes with collaborations; the end product is a shared vision among multiple creators. This could be a potentially controversial adaptation, I don’t know whether they’re aiming for that or not, but with the elements it has so far, it seems to be headed that way.

Here's a comment by "Angellus" on the 5/21 article. It's undeniable that there's going to be the accusation of racism thrown at anyone who has any negative view of this change, regardless of their reasons. I find it unfair and narrow-minded that any negative response is automatically assumed to be coming from a racist point of view. To say that changing Louis' race is unequivocally an improvement fails to take into account how that change has a Domino effect on all of the other parts of the story. Not the least of which is that, if he is still a slaver/slave holder/plantation owner/(insert your preferred term) that adds a whole new racist element to his owning Black/POC people, even though, apparently there were Black/POC plantation owners. 

Not the least of which: How will this change impact his relationship with Lestat? Particularly when Lestat has the added issue of being described in those articles as having “mind control abilities” and “insistent that he gets what he wants and when facing rejection,” a terrible combination in terms of consent, even in a relationship of the same race, let alone invoking Caucasian/white dominance over Black/POC people, AND Lestat being the catalyst to Louis’ questioning his sexuality:

Lestat is insistent that he gets what he wants and when facing rejection, petulance can quickly turn to ruthless rage which causes frenzied acts of horrifically brutal violence. Lestat also has mind control abilities. Lestat initially infuriates Louis, but this soon turns to fascination which leads Louis to question his religion and sexuality. 

^Screencap reads: "I love how racist everyone is in the damn comments, this doesn’t pervert the story you’re all racist and it’s disgusting. I’m looking forward to it, I hope you keep crying your salty racist tears asswipes."

It makes me question whether Angellus truly believes what they wrote, if this is an ideology, or a troll. I would suggest their use of the term “pervert” is correct though, pervert means: “alter (something) from its original course, meaning, or state to a distortion or corruption of what was first intended.” That’s what this race change does, factually. Although, in this context, “distortion or corruption” carries a negative connotation. It would take a lot to show how this change does not meet the definition or “to pervert,” though.

I hope the rumours of Louis being a brothel owner aren't true

I agree 1,000%, I was hoping that these were just rumors. But, aside from the race change, if this were the only change, I find Louis being a brothel owner to be equivalently morally reprehensible to being a slaver/slave holder/plantation owner/(insert your preferred term). Ideally, they’d change his career to something that doesn’t involve benefiting from the bodies/labor of others in any morally reprehensible manner.

I mean, with a black Louis they can't have him being a slaver anymore, so maybe they're trying to find something that is also morally reprehensible for him to be.

He might still be a slaver. Who knows. Being morally reprehensible as a mortal man didn’t seem to me to be crucial to the story, but they still could have chosen something better. It seems to me like they want a brothel so they can have eye candy for an audience who want to see sex workers, maybe full frontal nudity. 

-----

What also gets my attention is that Anne and Christopher Rice have not yet posted publicly about it, which leads me to believe that this change wasn’t their choice. They take every chance to brag when they’re proud of something, every chance to crowdsource about casting ideas or which VC books Anne’s fans liked best, etc., and in this case, as of Aug. 31, 2021, (and to be fair, maybe I missed it), I haven’t seen either of them post about this on the official VC FB, Anne Rice’s FB, Annerice.com, Christopher Rice’s FB, or christopherricebooks.com. If it had been their choice, I think they would have gladly trumpeted their credit by now, but maybe they’re waiting to do it in a specific venue. Time will tell.

[despazito]

Complete list of all problems known so far in Pokemon Sword and Shield with data and/or proof for each problem

[I am copying this post from the pokemon subreddit from u/Terotu]

Seeing as there's a lot of people that don't quite know the extent of the issues and that there's no real compilation of the problems, I feel like everyone needs a list with info and sources of each and every current problem with the games, it's a long list but I've tried to put it all together, it's not just dexit people. I will post everything that is 100% confirmed and known so far, there's potentially other problems, but this is made as a somewhat "quick" digest with info that has been 100% proven, for anyone out of the loop that wants to know exactly what's happening with these games.

1. The number of usable Pokemon has been cut, only less than half are now usable, known as Dexit, it means that you won't be able to use these pokemon in the new games, you won't be able to transfer them in, and you won't be able to do anything with them sans sticking them in home for the foreseeable future (Home will probably be a paid only subscription based service just like its predecessor), for all intents and purposes, these Pokemon are basically removed from the main games franchise and they will take probably years to come back, if ever. An image with the cut/not cut pokemon can be found here, pokemon in green are confirmed to be in, pokemon in purple have galar forms, pokemon in yellow are in the data, but there's nothing for them, they could be leftover data like the items and other things, could be giveaway/event only, could only come from other games, etc, there's no way to know what's the plans for them at the moment, if any, pokemon in red are cut. The excuse GF used for this culling was that it let's them work on delivering better animations and a more carefully crafted game, since they don't have to put more time and effort into redoing the models. This is complete BS as the game polish is worse than ever, and the models seem to just be somewhat edited XY models.

2. Just like the Pokemon cut, about 144 moves were removed, 99 moves excluding the let's go and other outlier moves, this includes extremely important and used mainstay moves like Hidden Power, return/frustration and Pursuit, on top of extremely old moves that have been there since gen 1, some of these moves were important for the viability of several Pokemon, which may cause them to be way less effective if not way worse when it comes to battles, on top of this, it also removed some SIGNATURE MOVES of certain Pokemon. The full list for deleted mainstay pokemon moves can be found here Attempts at transferring Pokemon with these moves will apparently get this message: "This move can’t be used. It’s recommended that this move is forgotten. Once forgotten, this move can’t be remembered."

3. Short game, the first streamer beat the champion at around the 14 hour mark, while he did this by skipping a fair amount of trainer battles, other streamers are clocking in about 16-20 hours, seems like the average will be about 18 hours to beat the game. Here's one of the many streamers, he's right before champion and clocking in at 14:34.

4. The graphics are extremely mediocre, it constantly looks worse and less polished than LGPE, the textures are often inexcusable. Examples of the bad graphics seen here 1 2 3 4 5 6 A comparison with LGPE can be seen here and here Here's a game recently released for switch, another picture found here, the difference is unreal.

5. There's constant graphical issues, not just low quality graphics, pop in is present at all points of the game due to bad coding, trainer models will also disappear mid battle when an attack with a high number of particles is used, this also happened in SM, however, SM moved the camera away to avoid people seeing it, they didn't even try this time. This means it's either a carry over from SM and they just copy pasted most of the code, or they somehow have to remove the trainers to avoid a switch from somehow getting fps drops. The pop-ins can be evidenced here and here. Trainers dissapearing mid battle can be evidenced here

6. Animations, one of the main reasons why GF cut pokemon, at least in the interviews, are as shoddy as ever. There's extremely lazy animation all over the game, from normal attacks to key moments in the game, such as the encounter with the box legendaries. Most of the animations are also completely copy pasted from older games, one example seen here with Hau(the entire character of hop is basically a copy paste of hau.) Most of the animations for the camp are also copy pasted from xy amie, evidenced here. Pokemon battle animations are just as bad as before, if not worse, pictured here is a pokemon headbutting with its feet. Another example found here, THE MAIN BOX ART POKEMON CINEMATIC, THIS IS THE GAME CLIMAX, another example on the other version found here In fact, it could be considered way worse if compared to the last gen, example of upscaled USUM cutscenes. (Notice the graphical change isn't that big, the only difference here is increasing the resolution)

7. Cutscenes and restrictions, like previous Pokemon games the cutscene and story forcing and restrictions are insane this time around, seems to be even more intrusive and in your face than before at times, while keeping the same level of cutscene intrusion than past gen. The video for this point was taken down, but if you wish to see this you should be able to find it by searching the gameplay clips/streams online

8. The difficulty, just like the cut scene problem, this carries over from earlier games and it's even worse.There were constant heals, to the point where in the first routes you're not able to go beyond 3 trainer fights without getting a full heal. The first streamer avoided fights and didn't train at all, it still was one shotting gym leader dynamaxed ace pokemon.This can be seen here.

9. Post-Game is almost non-existant, as usual since masuda-Ohmori started directing, there's no frontier, there's also no frontier like facility. The post game consists of battle tower and a very short sequence of missions where you beat some dynamax pokemon for your rival to catch the other legendary. Not only this, but the battle tower is also an inferior version of past towers, it doesn't have super single nor super double battles, it has no triple battles and there's no "tower bosses", it's just random trainer npcs after another.

10. Problems with game design and behavior, beyond difficulty and progression, there's other problems in the overall game design. Examples of this is not being able to catch Pokemon in the wild areas until you got a badge allowing you to do so, which usually covers your current level. Meaning if you find a level 31 shiny or a level 31 pokemon you really want, you won't be able to catch it until you go and beat the next gym. For shiny hunters, this one is gonna be really important, you cannot see if your Pokemon is gonna be shiny or not in the overworld, this means that on top of the badge limit, you also got this potential problem. Evidenced here.

11. Removed past features with virtually no new additions, seems like this is a mainstay in Pokemon, removing older features so they become one of a time gimmicks, but unlike earlier titles this new game doesn't adds anything new except dynamaxing, which is limited to gyms only. This particular gen removes Mega Evolutions and Z moves, mega evolutions in particular were a huge deal and seeing them suddenly removed means that there's little reason to get involved with any new addition, no matter how mainstay or how much GF forces it when it will very soon be gone. A list of these removed features can be found here.

12. No scaling whatsoever, models are the same sizes of XY (giving more plausibility to them not really redoing the models).Any argument against this is thrown out of the window when dynamaxing exists, since the models seem to be edited XY models then the problem remains. Here's the non scaled model in sword and shield. Here's an scaled model, released in a game that came out 15 years ago for a the Nintendo Gamecube, something way less powerful than the switch.

13. No GTS, retera thread on the discovery found here, the only strings that refer to the GTS are leftovers from Let's Go code, as seen here and here. This is most likely due to Home(this means that you will have to pay for switch online+home for services older games already included) Thanks to /u/c_will for pointing this one out and gathering the info.

14. A 20 dollar price increase for less content than earlier 3DS games, with subpar graphics and removal of features, an overall shoddy release for a higher price point.

15. Performance, game is locked to 30 fps, and while that's not a big issue by itself, this is coupled with slowdown at certain moments such as dynamaxing, it can drop fps to the floor and turn the game into a slideshow for a while. Evidenced here. Still gathering more info on this one, as it's a relatively new occurrence that hasn't happened to all users, take this one with a grain of salt

16. The overall lack of quality, polish and effort put into the game, this is all the minor/somewhat minor but still very telling problems with the game. This is apparent in many ways all throughout the game, things like the wrong backgrounds or just voids for pokemon battles. Two example of the wrong backgrounds seen here and [here] (https://clips.twitch.tv/FriendlyCleanOstrichArsonNoSexy) One example of the void background seen here (these happen on indoor fights and some non indoor but scripted battles)Examples of backgrounds on indoor and everywhere else in both LGPE and colosseum, seen here and here. Then there's complete lack of music in the game story most important moments, seen here. Starters are also shiny locked. The entire world freezes when using certain objects, as seen here. To this, you add up the emptiness of the wild area and the badly implemented weather changes that don't make much sense, both seen here No animation for flying, no elite 4, no victory road, etc, this is added to all the other problems that show the lack of effort put into them.

This franchise deserves better.

You deserve better.

These games are not only a huge step down from earlier titles, but it goes beyond what used to be already barely  tolerable standards to way below standards, keep in mind this is the biggest, most profitable franchise on earth.

This is the first time a pokemon main game is released on console, people were excited for game freak to finally do whatever they wanted and it's been done with the most minimal of  efforts, all the money you've spent on Pokemon didn't went on making this a better game, it went straight into the pockets of the people in charge, those that made sure this was made with the most minimum effort and those that cut  corners.

Companies that made games decades ago on hardware less powerful than the switch shouldn't be doing a better job than game freak, and companies doing work in the switch have completely obliterated game freak when it comes to developing a video game.

Keep in mind that your purchase of these games causes this:

Continue the yearly release cycle that makes the games rushed and forces the devs to insane crunch time, creating the low morale problem

Tells them that you're ok with these problems, and they will keep lowering the bar and cutting corners on development

Your money will continue going into the pockets of those responsible for these problems

I implore you to be a smart consumer, I've played Pokemon since I red, ever since I was a child, I can no longer support this franchise, I probably won't buy a Pokemon product ever again if this is gonna be how they're gonna treat the games and its fans.

[faustonastring]

Hi so I've recently come across your blog thingy, and its really cool!! Um my ask or request is, can you do one where mc has PTSD? Or social anxiety?

Thanks for requesting! I’m just going to be writing social anxiety for this one, but if any one wants me to write for ptsd I’ll get too it eventually! Also I’m not an expert, and mental illness including social anxiety effects everyone differently so please take this with many grains of salt. (Also tagging @nnuggett so they can see it.)

Main six with an mc that has social anxiety

Asra

It should be noted that asra doesn’t like crowds. It’s stated multiple times throughout the game and Julian flat out says it in heart hunters, so whilst this is a direct sign of social anxiety, he has some sort of understanding of how you feel, and he wants you to feel better. ASAP.

Asra isn’t the most social person, he isn’t one to open up to people he just met and it takes him a hot minute to fully trust people, and while I’m a huge advocate for asra having no boundaries, I’m a very strong believer that he knows what yours are, and respects them without question.

He tries his best too take you on trips with him during off seasons, so they’re won’t be too many people, and tries his best to do most the talking, and he will make up excuses to pull you away from that situation. He also does this when your working at the shop as well.

If your ever having a bad day or an anxiety attack, he will immediately pull you over to somewhere quite and hold you tight, whispering that it will be okay, and how much he loves you, and if your at the shop, he reluctantly pulls away from you to make some tea, then the cuddles continue

Nadia

Though Nadia may look very calm and put together, it’s canon that she doesn’t like press conferences, or big parties, it’s also canon that she’s silently panicking on the inside in like every route. Fake it till you make it baby. With that being said, like asra, she may not have social anxiety but she understands where your coming from.

She’s been seen by the residence of vesuvia as cold hearted, and mysterious, just because she simply does not like the attention. Unlike lucio. So of course she isn’t going to push you to participate in any of those events either, she just wants you to feel comfortable.

There are going to be times the two of you have to make public appearances together. She tries her best to go to them without you for your sake, but you sadly can’t avoid all of them. So the entire time is spent with her arm around your shoulders or waist, or her hand squeezing yours, anything she needs too do to keep you grounded.

If your limits ever get pushed and your starting to have an attack or can’t be in the situation any longer, she wraps up whatever she was doing real quick, no matter how noble the noble person was, and take you to her sanctuary to help you reground your self. She also teaches you some breathing exercises that will help.

Julian

He is the exact opposite to say the least, not in the sense that he’s attention seeking, and loves being in the center of attention, no matter what. (*coughs lucio-sorry uh, had something stuck in my throat) he just doesn’t really mind it, but he is the king of respecting boundaries let me tell ya-

He will ask you if your up to go to the raven that day, hours in advance and won’t pressure you or try to convince you to go if your not up for it. That’s your decision and he respects that. That goes for all your dates that involve interacting with people, he just wants to make sure your comfortable, and if anything feels gross, tell him and he’ll fix it.

Don’t go to the raven just to make him happy, hes already happy. he’s usually good at catching you, trying to do that, but on the days he doesn’t he feels god awful for making you uncomfortable, and will do anything, and he means anything to make you feel better.

What do you need a bath? He’s running the water? A hug? Baby don’t fret, his arms are made for hugging. Some cuddles? Get ready to be in a pile of limbs and sweat for the next hour because he refuses to get up. And this goes for when he does and doesn’t think he’s the problem, this for where ever and when ever your upset or having an attack.

Portia

Baby girl has a lot of self confidence issues. A lot of self confidence issues. Don’t let her bubbly exterior fool you, she’s got inner struggles to ya’know. And having low self esteem can be a side effect from having social anxiety, so if that applies to you, well then the two of you see each other.

She respects your boundaries and the fact that people, and interacting with people makes you feel yucky, so she’ll try her absolute hardest to keep one of her many many acquaintances out of your hair, all while keeping you up with the latest drama, while the two of you drink some tea and munch on home made bread.

Sadly you can’t always avoid Portia’s acquaintances, they’re every where. So there may be times when some one will run up to Portia to start gossiping, and then somehow manage to drag you into the conversation as well. Lucky for you, you and Portia made up a code to help when things like this happen. Just squeeze her hand three times and you’ll be outta there.

As soon as you get home and/or the two of you are alone, she’ll hug you and apologize, then she’ll tell you to go lay down and relax while she makes some tea, and heat up some bread in the oven. Don’t worry, she doesn’t care about getting crumbs in the bed she can fix that later, right now she only cares about you. And if your still shaken up she feeds you the bread.

Muriel

Out of every one In the main six, I think it’s safe to say that ontop of his ptsd, he most likely had social anxiety, and has had it since he was a child. So he knows exactly how you feel, and it hurts his heart so much to see you go through what he went through for the past *mumble* years. And his heart breaks even more if your social anxiety is as bad as his, or even worst.

King. Of respecting boundaries. I know I said that for Julian but Muriel? Muriel? Is there even competition? If you say going to a place or doing a certain activity makes you feel uncomfortable, the do not fear honey, he will never bring it up again, never ever ever. All he asks is that you respect his boundaries in return

He’s a very strong believer that if he has to start opening up and talking to people then you should too. Don’t be scared, it will be okay, he’s gonna be there with you, holding you hand the entire time. You can figure out this whole ‘social interaction’ thing together. One baby step at a time. And don’t worry, the both of you have plenty of time.

There will be times when boundaries get pushed, or things go too far, or a conversation take an unexpected turn, but the second that happens, he’s holding you, carrying you to his hut, and the second the two of you get there, he lets you cry for aslong as you need. He won’t let go of you, but he’ll try to do little things to ground you, like rubbing little circles on your hand or back.

Lucio

There are going to be a lot of uh...oopsies in your relationship, not because lucio doesn’t care, more because lucio cares so much that he doesn’t want to screw anything up but at the same time he also cares about attention, good or bad, and he can’t help it if he ‘accidentally’ makes him self the center of it.

He needs to work on understanding that not every one has the same interest as him, and while there are a lot of people who do, sometimes he needs a friendly reminder that the world doesn’t revolve around him. And that you hate being in the spotlight. So you never will be. Point. Blank. Period luv.

But that’s not going to stop him from talking about you to literally everyone he meets. And he isn’t just talking Nono he’s bragging about how much he loves you and how great and perfect you are, and how whoever the hell he is talking to will never have some one as perfect as you, unaware of the fact that, that alone can make your anxiety go crazy.

And ohhhh baby is he quick to apologize. He didn’t know, really. Truly. From the bottom of his heart he did t and he is so sorry. He actually starts to tear up, because he doesn’t fully understand what he did wrong, but he made you upset. He just thought that being that you weren’t there for him to ‘show off’ he could tell everyone who great he thinks you are, but from the bottom of his heart. He is sorry.

Thanks for reading! Again I’m no expert so take this with a grain of salt. And if you liked what you read you can locate my masterlist here!

Next request: main six reacting to Mc proposing to them

Request R open!

[moved-attre]

Here is my review of Cyberpunk 2077! It is a bullet point list of what I liked, and did not like about the game. I mean no offense in my writing, and am, of course, willing to be educated if I am wrong about anything! But please do not send me anonymous hate. I know many fans and haters of this game can be very, uh... So take it all with a grain of salt, and form your own opinions.

This is very long and likely boring so if you manage to make it to the end, I will be very impressed! Also, I may ramble or repeat myself, sorry. There’s more bad points than good, since the game is very glitchy and I couldn’t not mention the glitches I have experienced.

Obviously, this contains major spoilers! 👁👄👁

I’ll start off by saying, this is a game where you will likely not get what you expected. If you expected Cyberpunk 2077 to be a game filled with features that were never before seen, to revolutionise the gaming industry as we know it and become the most iconic video game ever made... You will not get that. If you expected it to be the worst, most irredeemable video game ever created that you’ll hate... You will not get that, either. If you expected a game that is a fairly standard RPG with some impressive graphics when played on a high spec PC, albeit with some bad glitches and a wonky story with lots of potential, then you’ve got it!

Pros:

The majority of the voice acting, such as in V, Johnny and Viktor, was very good and emotional. Viktor in particular made me tear up! And the way V manages to sound almost like Johnny with the subtle accent change was amazing!

The character’s such as Takemura, Jackie, the LIs, Johnny, Viktor, Misty (I could go on) and even many random NPCs were interesting! I wanted to know them and loved their relevant missions. The best ones were unromanceable, of course, but that’s what imagination is for.

THE ALDECALDOS! I love them! A found family, and I wish there was more to do with them other than Panam’s missions and a few side missions. I love found family, and I’m disappointed V couldn’t form their own, so I’ll take what I can get and love the Aldecaldos, even if V can’t join them until the very end. Panam had the best missions of all the LI’s, even if the last one felt very abrupt. (At least, on her friendship route.)

Night City felt alive. There was always plenty going on, it felt like a real city, and it could be beautiful.

Jackie and Corpo V’s friendship was lovely. I loved their “To this!” inside joke, and I loved how Jackie roasted V but would jump to their defence in a second. It didn’t feel forced at all.

There’s lots of environmental storytelling. The atmosphere of a city choking to death under it’s own pollution/corruption was very apparent in the areas not lived in by the rich. Lots of homeless characters, violence, drugs, absolute poverty, trash (The dump! I felt sick just looking at it, and I couldn’t even smell it! Poor V, though.) and general apathy from a lot of the residents really sold the concept.

Johnny and V’s dynamic was the best part of the story! I hated him at first, but slowly came to enjoy his commentary and advice. His interactions with V were very funny at times, and thoughtful at other times. He was an interesting perspective for the player to consider, while still being an asshole you could dislike for much of the story. He has some really emotional scenes and I played a V that viewed him as a friend, so it was really nice hearing him call V the closest person he’d ever had. They became so devoted to each other! CDPR did good with this element, but I can’t help wishing for more. The dynamic had so much more to give, and a romance/happy ending could have worked.

And to add on, the mission where Johnny takes over V’s body to go on a bender was great! I loved all the moments to play as Johnny in V’s body. All the symbolism between them was so good. Every mission matters, and you can replay to look closer at details! He also comments on other side missions with no personal relevance to him, which was neat.

All the enemies had unique names. A minor detail, but it made me feel some guilt over killing them. 🤣 I think all character’s had unique names, which is such a nice detail.

The soundtrack was incredible, I loved every original piece and radio song. I have several saved on Spotify, which is big praise coming from me! I very rarely listen to video game soundtracks.

V can adopt a cat! 🐈‍⬛ It was adorable, and Johnny’s interaction with it made me tear up!

The size of the map was good, not too big or too small. I got about 100 hours of play in by exploring, which is pretty good to me! I got lost a few times, but always found something interesting to do in the meanwhile. I loved the Badlands especially. 

Some of the side missions, particularly the more mysterious ones involving investigating deaths and the cyberpsychos, were very enjoyable! I’m a big slut for mystery, and there were some interesting cases to figure out. I wish we could’ve done missions like that with River, though, especially once he becomes a PI.

I was complaining about the lack of aliens in CP2077, but I suppose we did get a couple space themed missions which was pretty fun. I still want to go experience going into orbit, though. 👽 Or the moon!

Separating voice and body in the CC was a good idea, even if it was handled a little strangely. I’ll talk about this more in the ‘Cons’ section below!

Act 2 was my favorite part of the game, but it blended weirdly with Act 3 and that put me off. I am nostalgic for Act 1, but not eager to replay it because it felt so slow... I’m not sure on this point! I liked Act 2 because the story picked up and I was excited for more, but the more I got wasn’t as I expected. So, yes, Act 2 was good.

The scenery is very beautiful, and sometimes the outside lighting is absolutely perfect. The Arasaka parade mission was lovely to look at. I always stop the car and watch the sunrise/sunset, and I like going out to the Badlands to look at the stars!

An addition to that, is the lighting in some main quest missions. Very noir! It made for some beautiful screenshots. (Of which I sadly can’t share because my game doesn’t record well on medium settings. 😳)

The motorcycles are fun to drive! Mainly because I can zoom in between cars and Jackie’s motorcycle has a lot of sentimental value, as well as other vehicles like Johnny’s Porsche and Jake’s car. You can open the trunk to dump bodies in, which was a cool detail., and each one drives differently!

There could be amazing attention to detail, such as making Jackie look like his mother. I expected his mother to be a randomly generated NPC, but she was completely unique. It’s the minor things like that which stood out to me the most.

The scanner was a fun tool and very useful! I liked being able to find alternative ways to do a mission, it felt more realistic than the standard “massacre everybody, pick up an item and get out” fetch quests normally seen in RPGs. I could sneak in a tunnel or a side door! Perhaps irritating and unnecessary to some, but I liked it. I love utilising every possible option.

The interface color changes if you have Johnny controlling V’s body. Another small but good detail! The game is good with the minor details.

The sex scenes were not... awful. I expected much, much worse! I expected fully animated first person porn. Instead, I thought they were fairly realistic and intended to be romantic. Still very awkward, though, and unnecessary.

When they didn’t glitch, the animations were very good. Not as impressive as I hoped, probably because of glitches, but in line with other AAA games like Horizon Zero Dawn, I suppose? I noticed Judy’s animations in particular as being good, and Johnny had lots of unique ones too!

The clothing options are very fun, I like the holographic items and “Bitch” clothes, hehe. Also including Hijabs! 🧕 Great idea, and more games should do that.

The diversity of the NPCs was welcome. I enjoyed seeing Native American, Asian, Black and Latinx NPCs who weren’t there just to suffer! They would occupy important roles in the story, such as Fixers or friends/romance options for V, so they were pretty much unavoidable! It felt very natural, and they helped Night City feel more realistic.

Adding to that, the different cultures included were interesting too! I liked the Haitian characters in Pacifica.

The photo mode is pretty good. Not as good as I expected, the camera angle presets were useful but the filters weren’t very good. I liked that the photo mode could be used in cutscenes, though! It was standard, and I hope more bits will be added in for it.

A lot of the glitches are hilarious, but I recognise not all will share that opinion so I’m just adding this down here. The T-Posing NPCs are a highlight for me. Call that the Skyrim effect.

Cons:

No NB gender options/No pronoun options. Would they/them have been so difficult to implement?

No body or height sliders. There’s so many fat character’s in the game! Why can I not make my V fat? Or muscular?

Gender restrictive hairstyles and clothes. Come on, guys, it’s 2020/2077! Aren’t we beyond gender restrictive appearance options?

No tattoo parlours, no plastic surgeons and no hairstylists for V to change their appearance. I don’t understand why a CC was included at all, since we spent the majority of the game in first person. It reminded me of Far Cry.

The main story started off strong, albeit slow, picked up in Act 2, then felt very rushed in Act 3. The point of no return was very abrupt! 

The celebrity cameos felt very gimmicky. The one exception to this is Keanu Reeves, who did a very good job as Johnny. Genuinely brought tears to my eyes at times... but Grimes was just embarrassing! Why was she there! A talented VA could have done Lizzy Wizzy much better, giving her actual emotions instead of just monotone “boredom”.

I don’t know what the point of owning apartments is. You can only sleep in V’s bed, what is the point of looking in the mirror? V has no use for their terminal in their apartment, they never get any messages after the first time they meet Johnny. It was so unnecessary, especially when there’s several across the map. I can access the stash of weapons and clothes from my car! Why would I ever need to go home? Judy gives me her apartment and I’m like, girl, I’m never visiting unless you have a mission to give me.

Also, there are no penalties for not showering or sleeping. I wanted character’s to comment on that! Call me stinky or tell me I look exhausted!

V doing side missions makes no sense, and no explanation is given for why we can do them. Why would V, who is dying and has precious few days left to live, be driving for hours on end to deliver packages and shoot random criminals? When they could be figuring out how to survive the biochip! Who the hell would care about a some extra money or buying every available car for sale, when they’re dying of something that could be preventable?

Some side missions were either very poorly done or obviously majorly glitched, since it felt like they skipped important parts and I was often very confused at the end of them! For example, the Corpo V side mission was so short! I expected to be able to hunt down Abernathy and get revenge for V and Jenkins, but instead, I shoot some random assistant I don’t even remember? And that’s it? Done in 2 minutes! If that! What is the point of that? I didn’t even have fun! Also, what happened to Garry? I wanted to save him but V just never follows up on it.

And, I wish we got closure with T-Bug. The fact that V never bothers to find her body and give her a proper burial was just poor form. 

The endings were not... good. There are technically 6 different endings, all wrapped up into 3 parts. In my opinion, the best ending is the one where V kills themselves and has a very “Arthur Morgan watching his last sunset” vibe. It made me cry. Another good ending is having Johnny take over V’s body forever, as you can really see how much Johnny has changed as a person thanks to V’s influence. But they still felt very... eh and the story just never got that boost it needed, ending before it could take off. In the “best” ending, the Nomand ending with Panam, V ”survives” but has only another few months to live. So they die off screen. Satisfying? Uh, no. Not at all. There’s no possible ending where V has any hope of survival, but I much preferred being there with V until the very end. I disagree with the people calling Johnny’s ending the “bad” ending, because it really isn’t! I ignore all of this of course, and my V is living happily ever after.

I kind of hate that CP2077 has this illusion of options when some are clearly intended to be chosen more than others. Judy and Panam have the best endings in term of romance. Why bother with River and Kerry? Kerry is more of a fling than an actual romance, and is met very late in the game at a point where you can ignore him completely and just end the game, and River’s romance is so glitched that many people can’t even do it fully, and in every ending he dumps you, so it feels like none of it mattered to him despite him being the most “domestic” of the possible LI’s...

Takemura’s ending! He died in my playthrough, because the game didn’t tell me I could save him. That really annoyed me. Also, I recognise that V is in no place to lecture him, and there is some wisdom to his quote: “You speak against corporations yet offer no valid alternative.” But, Goro, bro... anything is better than fascist mega corporations keeping most of the city in absolute poverty, while waging devastating wars against other mega corporations? I wish we could have opened his eyes a little. There’s a good, even ground between Takemura believing Corps to be doing the best for humanity and Johnny being willing to kill 12k people for a revolution. This game went a little “capitalism is bad, but the alternative is worse!” at times, in my opinion. I wish more could have been done against the corporations, instead they just kind of... exist... in the background. And I know, “Realism! “ because we live with massive corporations like Amazon in our lives and can do fuck all about them but we’re not V. V is an absolute unit who survives death multiple times... I wish there had been two paths, like do Johnny’s path and work against the system or do Takemura’s path and work with the system? Sort of like The Witcher 2?

You know how in Saints Row, The Boss has homies they can call on for help? I wanted V to have homies to help them out in fights. It felt pointless building trust with the Fixers only to not have them help out at all with fights against the NCPD/Militech/Arasaka in their territories. 

The stealth mechanics are not good. They are funny! But not very good. Often, It’s better to just attack and save yourself the trouble of sneaking only to get caught by a guard who can see through the back of his head.

The fact that you cannot get arrested and have someone bust you out of jail. Maybe RDR2 set my expectations too high, but I thought this would have been included.

I’ve read about the cut content, and I’m really disappointed they weren’t included in the game. Wall running would have been amazing! And the police hiring mercs to hunt V down? I would have loved to see it! 😔

Driving cars is terrible. Just awful. Sometimes, you crash. Other times you’re flung up into the air and break through the sky into the void, spinning for all eternity.

River’s glitched romance deserves a special mention. The relationship just drops off suddenly and you cannot interact with him properly again. It does not affect the main story at all, so you wonder, what was the point? The text messages also glitch and V will sent messages that you can’t control, leading to disappointing dialogue, like with Joss.

The romances in general were just not all that impressive. I was expecting something great, considering there was only 4 and thought they’d really affect the main story, but I’d only recommend Panam and Judy. I would have played the game just as well without romances, and they felt very unnecessary but I wanted to do one to get the most possible story content. I think we should all leave romances in RPG’s as the exception, not the norm. Some studio’s can do them well, other’s cannot. CDPR cannot, in my opinion...

Obviously the many glitches and bugs, several of which are game breaking. I usually have to reload a save at least once an hour, because an NPC won’t talk to me or I can’t move the mouse to select different dialogue options! Or my gun won’t equip, so I die.

The AI in general is very bad. Sometimes cars will stop in the middle of junctions for no reason, causing you to crash or mount the sidewalk to get past, meaning you’ll likely run someone down and get a police warrant. NPCs just walk from one end of the road and back again, over and over on a loop. It’s very creepy!

The lighting, mostly inside buildings. Everything is pitch black! Why does V not own a flashlight? The amount of enemies I’ve barrelled into and alerted because I couldn’t see is too much.

The lack of dialogue choice, it was less interactive than what I’d been told to expect. There was only two or three options, with one only ever rarely being unique to one of V’s three possible background choices and most will yield the same results with a few exceptions, like avoiding combat.

V’s personality is already decided by the game, and is not really customisable. Do not expect full control over your V’s personality, as they are very much a canon character and exist outside of your (limited) choices. I didn’t expect Baldur's Gate 3 levels of customisation, but I did expect something more like Dragon Age 2’s dialogue wheel? Nice, Sarcasm and Angry? You know?

Obviously, the seizure inducing scenes were very dangerous. I get a headache whenever I have to do a braindance, and I wish it was skippable!

Accessibility as a whole is very much an afterthought in this game, I think. The subtitles are in “speaking English”, so instead of: Hey, how are you? It’s: Heyyy, how’re ya? It is often difficult to understand, and sometimes I just couldn’t work out what was being said.

It’s nitpicky but I wanted to do a pacifist route and I realised you can’t, you need to kill certain character’s... 

The main “villains” such as Yorinobu and Adam Smasher were very forgettable, and V had no personal stake in taking them out. I honestly forgot all about them. Takemura was talking about revenge and I’m like, who? Who are you talking about? Why are we kidnapping Hanako Arasaka, again? Johnny, why would I bother killing Adam Smasher? If they’d personally murdered Jackie, then yeah, I’d understand! But all V needs is to remove the chip and I don’t know... I just didn’t feel anything.

So, to summarise: I think CDPR were out of their depth. The long, very long, troubled development process was an indication of this before the game was even released, and the story I’ve experienced in the game is proof enough. I don’t think they knew what they wanted from this game, and as a result, we have a game that is honestly very confusing and frustrating with a story that always got close to gripping, but never quite makes it. All in all, I found this game to be pretty average. When the bugs are ironed out, I will think better of it. But as it stands, if I had to score it, I would give it a 6.5/10 or maybe 7/10. Good concept, somewhat misguided execution. The best part of the game was the Johnny/V dynamic, but I wasn’t satisfied with how it ended. They needed more time together! Anyway, it will be interesting to see what happens next. 

[gayregis]

you might've already answered this but i adore all your takes on the show SO what did you think abt twn having the timeline all out of order? i didn't mind (even tho i read the books after) but i know it bothered a lot of people. thanks !

honestly, this is something that bothers me the most. it is on-par with the sincerely bad mischaracterizations of all of the characters and removal of the significant messages and themes of the short stories.

i feel that it’s insanely confusing for the majority of people when watching to have timeskips that are many many years apart without as much as a text card to say (20 years later). it’s good that you didn’t mind, but yeah i have heard from basically everyone, even people who loved the show, who say that the timeskips were the one thing that super confused them.

now, i watched the show having had read the books and legitimately dissecting any little thing as i watched. i went at this show with fucking tweezers and a scapel. i don’t get to say that i was confused by the timeskips, because during every single shot and scene, i was literally taking notes in a text document as to where the narrative was going and which scene was which from the books, where they were on the continent, what short story they were doing... although i was confused when things diverged so wholly from canon during the brokilon arc, i don’t get to say i was confused by the timeskip between the events of the lesser evil and the massacre of cintra, because i knew these stories already. 

but as a viewer, i was confused as to why they felt that was necessary. there was no reason to add in timeskips. there was no great parallel being made. they didn’t connect the two stories at all besides renfri making a side comment about how she was jealous of calanthe, then-princess. there was no thematic parallel. it felt like a gimmick to keep people from being bored with the first story (which it was, because there was a lack of interesting dialogue and i got very bored with it).

and it gets worse when i try to think of what it would have been like if i had NO prior knowledge of the witcher, or even just knowledge from the witcher 3. i... would have had no idea where cintra geographically is. i wouldn’t know who vesemir is when geralt mentions him. i wouldn’t have the faintest fucking clue as to why the story is switching between this man and this girl, and i’d be trying to establish their connection with no luck. because there’s literally nothing by this point which tells you that ciri is his daughter.

i think it’s a fucking stupid gimmick that lauren hissrich did because she wanted to gain more viewers by being “progressive” and including female characters yennefer and ciri earlier in the story even when it makes everything all the more confusing to have them there. i think it was a really stupid move that isn’t justifiable in any way because it’s sincerely disorienting to the viewer and makes everything make no sense. in the books, the stories are laid out in a certain order with a certain framing story for a reason. ciri appears as a character when she does for a reason. 

geralt finding ciri in brokilon was... such an incredibly significant moment and the fact that they didn’t introduce ciri in this way was really heartbreaking and sore to me. when geralt realizes that ciri is not just some random girl, but his daughter, that she is his child and she is not his destiny but something more... as ciri says to yennefer in blood of elves, you should have seen the look on his face. i wanted to see the look on new fans’ faces, on even my own face because it’s worth it to see a story retold. it was meant to be a surprise... she is the surprise child, as geralt says, she’s the biggest surprise he’s ever met. and the fact that geralt has to part with her, that he HAS to because otherwise he would bring danger to her, is incredibly painful. that was ciri’s introduction for a reason. the saga begins to follow her from that point on, that distinguishable point in brokilon. after this, the next story is something more, which revolves around many significant people in geralt’s life, but is focused on his desire to become ciri’s father for real. this point is very important because it’s a turning point for the series. it stops being about geralt, and begins to be about ciri.

similarly, yennefer is introduced as she is for a reason. in the last wish, she is not meant to be immediately likable. she antagonizes geralt and is actually kind of the antagonist of the story for a good part of it. the netflix series introduces her with her sad backstory, making the first emotion you feel towards her be pity and outrage at her treatment. yennefer in the book series was slowly developed, yennefer in the book series is carmelized onions. at first she is like raw onions, when you chop a raw onion your eyes might water, and raw onion is very strong and overwhelming taste that a majority of people find unpleasant (think of biting into a whole onion). but over time, when you put these chopped onions into the pan with olive oil and salt, they begin to get softer, sweeter. even when they’re not entirely browned yet, they’re palatable and delicious. yennefer in the bounds of reason shows sincere depth as she defies her trope and is sincerely emotionally hurt by geralt for leaving her without a word. she gets even more developed in a shard of ice, and her relationship with geralt is developed even when she is not present in a little sacrifice, and by the end of the sword of destiny, it makes sense as to why they are together as a couple. then in blood of elves as she becomes a mother to ciri and in time of contempt, baptism of fire, tower of the swallow, and lady of the lake, she is such an incredibly selfless and caring mother and you learn her backstory that she develops this incredible depth that you would never have thought she had the potential for in the last wish. 

the timeskips are really detrimental to not only yennefer and ciri’s characters, but also geralt and dandelion’s. geralt is introduced in the specific order of stories for a reason. in the witcher, we learn what a witcher is. we learn what he was created to do, but also how he as an individual is incredibly different from many of the rest of his guild and how he has this inner depth and humanity that he has to keep hidden. i’ll admit that a grain of truth is skippable, but i appreciate how it also shows that geralt will go out of his way to help others even when there is no contract and no reward involved. in the lesser evil, we learn why he has committed himself to neutrality and how society views him as a witcher. this is very significant for how he interacts with others, especially ciri, as he does not want to pass this legacy down to her. in a question of price, we see him choosing the route of pacifism yet again and also are introduced to the concept of destiny linking him with ciri. then in the voice of reason 5 / the edge of the world, we learn more about his humanity as his relationship with dandelion is explored and we get to see geralt in a closer, more intimiate friendship light, not on the job or embroiled in a conflict. we also see him acting pacifist again and learn of his opinions on otherness, the otherness that he himself is classified as. in the last wish, we learn how human he really is, we see his real devotion to dandelion and then his choice to assist yennefer and his vulnerability with yennefer. of course it’s not meant to end there because it has yet to take down the trope of a happy ending that it ended with, but you can see geralt’s linear character progression in just this first collection of short stories. you understand him as a character and what his motivations and relationships to others are.

tl;dr: the timeskips in twn do more damage than everyone thinks; they’re not just annoying and super confusing for new fans, but they are a major enabler of poor character development and bastardization of the books they were meant to be an “adaptation” of 

[calliecat93]

Top 5 Things I Liked About RWBY Volume 7

(Top Dislikes)

Gosh, we are so close to Volume 8 now, and it’s driving me crazy! But we’re not there yet. So let’s continue to remember what Volume 7 delivered upon us. Last time I did the Dislikes post, so now it’s time for the Top 5 Likes post! Which this was so, SO much easier to come up with than the Dislikes list! Like I said there, this volume is so well-written and jam-packed full-on content. It was a rollercoaster of a ride where even though I didn’t want to get back on for a while, that thrill was everlasting. Whether V8 will give the same result will be determined soon, but for now let’s go over the Top 5 Likes of RWBY Volume 7. As always, just my opinion, so take with a grain of salt~

Okay, let’s go!

#5. Oscar Development

By far one of the biggest criticisms against Volume 6 was how it handled Oscar. There was a LOT of good setup concerning his identity crisis as he struggled with keeping control, maintaining his own identity, and the potential burden of just being another of Oz’s wasted lives. While he DID reach a new confidence by the end which was nice, it... was more or less offscreen. To many, myself included, Oscar felt wasted and I specifically criticized how the execution made it feel like depite what Ruby said and what the narrative is trying to say, it DOES feel like Oscar’s viewed as just Oz’s vessel and that’s all his importance amounted to. I was hoping that Volume 7 was going to rectify this like they did with Ruby in Volume 6. Did they do so?

Absolutely yes.

While they still have a bad habit of setting up Oscar in trouble but it turning out to be a fake-out (his disappearance due to Neo), the volume did a LOT to improve his position. With Oz gone, Oscar has to be diplomatic on his own. He’s in a position where he can get close to Ironwood in a way that the others can’t and see him actually vulnerable. Unlike the others, who keep just pointing out to Ironwood how his actions are problematic to varying degrees, Oscar can see what’s really causing it: fear. Which is something that Oscar can relate to. After all, he was terrified when his quest began, but he always faced it and went forward everything to do what was right. Even when it meant leaving home, even when it meant facing unjust anger from others, he did so.

Oscar tries to reason with Ironwood. He tries to have him realize that it’s okay to be afraid. That it’s okay  to be honest with those around him. That it’s okay to be vulnerable. Ironwood isn’t the only one either. In the beginning, he’s worried about Ruby’s lie because of how much it reminds him of what Oz did to them. You could argue that he’s developed into the conscious of the group, but he knows how to reason with these matters in a peaceful way. He’s becoming more of a diplomat similar to Ozpin, which even Ironwood points out in Chapter 9.

Then there’s the finale. Sadly, despite all of his pleas and how much he reached out to him, Ironwood ultimately rejected him and Oz. He rejected the route of trust and embraced fear, sealing the deal by shooting Oscar. But while he couldn’t help Ironwood, he did help someone else: Ozpin. His words convinced the former headmaster to at last return and face his own fears, saving them both. It also allowed Oscar to gain more of Oz’s power and memories. The boy has gone form a scared teenager entering a world he doesn’t truly understand, to becoming a courageous young man filled with compassion and hope for those around him. And this time, we got to actually see that growth unfold. He’s still got a long path ahead of him, but this greatly amended Oscar’s character and I am grateful for it.

#4. Penny Polendina

SHE CAME BACK! YAY!!! I MISSED HER SO MUCH!!!

Every since hr death in V3, I fully expected Penny to come back at some point. And indeed, she did! And with her memory intact, thank goodness! While I do wish we got some more exploration in how she felt about dying and such, her role int his volume was so well done I can forgive it. She has more screentime in this volume than Volumes 1-3 combined, and I love it! A cute new design, her struggling between duty and her own wants, trying to understand feelings and finding them to be a beautiful thing, there is SO MUCH going on with her here.

Penny is part of Ironwood’s inner circle, having been assigned as he Protector of Mantle. She takes her job seriously and does her best to protect the citizens. She’s elated to see Ruby and the others again and tries to assist them as much as she can. But as the volume goes, we see how much she struggles between her dedication to Mantle and Ironwood’s orders. It’s especially clear fter she is framed for the massacre during the elections. The poor girl is mortified, everyone viewing her as just another of Ironwood’s robots. Even Ironwood feels this way with his insensitive comment bout her being ‘under his control’ during the Council Meeting. The poor girl just needs a hug.

But this helps set Penny apart from Atlas. Unlike the others, who are following orders, Penny is trying to follow her heart. She tries to encourage Winter to do the same when she snapped at Jaques, even saying that all she did was speak form the heart and has no reason to feel ashamed of it. After Ironwood declares martial law, she is clearly upset and outright says that it’s wrong. She even asks Winter if this bothers her, and isn’t very convinced by her argument about the general taking on the burden. Penny chooses to embrace her feelings, not reject them as Winter, the Ace-Ops, and Ironwood have done.

It ends with Penny comforting Fria as her Maiden powers go out of control. How does she do this? She simply goes up to her and gently asks her if she’s okay. She shows the old woman more compassion and care than she’s probably had in quite a while. As a result, Fria ultimately transfers the Winter Maiden powers ot her. It proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that despite being a robot, Penny is a real girl. Hell, she is by far the most human of the Atlesian characters in this volume. She ultimately feels disheartened by Fria’s death, but still goes with Ruby and the others because that’s the right thing.

Penny’s character arc was a delight. There were so many expectations with her return, and I am so happy with the result! Penny feels so much more three-dimensional now. She still has the sweetness that made us love her before, but she also grew as a character. She embraced her feelings, she made choices for herself after having to abide by Ironwood’s rules for so long, she even managed to get some payback on Cinder for her death. Her good-heart and kindness was rewarded at the end. I do worry for her, especially since Salem’s Whale Grimm is absolutely a Montstro reference, but I’m still so happy with her in this volume~

3. The Atlas/Mantle Conflict

I am... not good at talking about this kind of thing, so I apologize if this seems rambly or all over the place. The big conflict pf the volume was the division between Atlas and Mantle. We knew going in how Atlas was seen as a bastion of civilization, but also full of snobs and an army leader who doesn’t exactly have his priorities straight. We knew that Mantle was the former capital and it was easy to assume that it probably wasn’t in the best state... and HO BOY were we right.

While Atlas looks futuristic and pristine, Mantle is run-down and out-of-date. The former capital and it’s people have not been treated well and worse, Atlas controls everything including their heating system. Ironwood has forced the city to be without essential provisions for Amity, and has therefore left them vulnerable to the Grimm. It’s easy to see why Mantle would resent Ironwood and Atlas as a whole, and why it was easy for Watts and Tyrian to widen the divide. It’s like the Chorus conflict in the Chorus Trilogy in RvB, only we’re there to see the division outright instead of coming in many years later. Our heroes are trying to mend the divide, but it’s so much easier said than done when neither side will budge.

There’s a lot of contrast with the two sides. Ironwood is a seemingly cold man with an authoritarian streak. Robyn is more laid-back, if a little cocky but her heart is very much set on helping Mantle. Both can be very brash and place trust above all else. But they both run their respective groups very differently. Robyn views the Happy Huntresses as her friends, while Ironwood trained the Ace-Ops to be his loyal attack dogs. Robyn is willing to give her trust until it gets broken, while Ironwood is wrapped by his own paranoia. We see how these two groups function. They have similarities, but are also very different especially when it comes to how their leaders treat their respective groups.

There is a HUGE class issue between Atlas and Mantle. It’s not helped by Ironwood’s plans causing further suffering, and of course in the end he chooses to leave it open to Salem in favor of saving Atlas. The fandom has fought back and forth for months over if this was right or not, which only proves the point of the division. You can see where each side is coming from, and we care for the people on each side. The conflict was presented throughout the volume with the heroes trying to help, but they sadly fail. The moment Tyrian’s slaughter happens in Chapter 6, you can break the tension with a butter knife and it doesn’t let up. We’ll probably only see more of it with Volume 8 now that Mantle has no protection. But as far as this volume goes, it was presented very well and very strongly.

#2. The Fall of James Ironwood

Love him or hate him, Ironwood is by far one of the strongest written characters in the show. Ever since his intro in Volume 2, we have been building up to this moment. The man has a LO of flaws. He’s arrogant, brash, favors military might over being discreet, and has a bad tendency to not learn form his missteps. These flaws contributed to the Fall of Beacon. But we also saw a man who was honest, righteous, respected Ozpin, and for all had flaws seemed to have good intentions. He was always willing to put himself on the front lines and took none of Jaques’ elitist shit. Sure he caused the Dust Embargo and closed Atlas down, but he also defended Weiss in Volume 4 and was clearly upset about the Fall fo Beacon. We saw a flawed, but still good man and if he could just embrace his flaws and open his heart, he could have been the great hero that he appeared to be.

Sadly thought, that wasn’t meant to be.

Ironwood is shown to be dishelved and plagued by paranoia, but he HAS created a plan to re-establish communications and expose Salem. But his police state with Mantle has the heroes concerned, so they lie to him about Oz and the lamp. The man continues to make questionable decisions, like I already said about his treatment of Mantle. But he still seems devoted tot he cause and like despite these calls, his intentions are still good and it will pay off even with the bad press. Heck, after Robyn tells him to trust her in Chapter 9 and with a push form Oscar, he seemed to FINALLY be doing the right thing. he revealed the truth about Salem to everyone, he worked alongside Mantle, and he faced Watts in the same place where his greatest failure had occurred. It seemed like all the begging and pleading had worked.

Sadly though, it all fell apart once Ironwood saw the glass chess piece.

Ironwood’s greatest enemy isn’t Salem. It’s not Robyn. It’s not he council. No, it’s himself. He has closed up his emotions and his hear to everyone around him. He has buried himself in his paranoia and his pursuit in defeating Salem. With every mistake, Ironwood failed to learn and move forward. He just became more and more consumed by his own fear. He wanted to be a strong leader. To be like Oz. But like Oz, he ended up losing himself and unlike Oz, he couldn’t acknowledge where he went wrong. In many ways you can sympathize with him because of the bleak situation and him trying to do what he can with what he has. But sadly, none of that can justify the path that he ended up taking.

Ironwood is angry at Team RWBYs lies. This and Salem’s approach pretty much causes him to snap. He’s going to let Fria die so that Winter had the Maiden powers. He's going to abandon Mantle to their demise in a futile plan to raise Atlas into orbit. When RWBY opposes this, he orders them to be arrested. He even coldly confirms that he’s leaving Mantle to die. However one feels about this choice, as a cruel but necessary choice to save what can be saved, or a needless sacrifice made by a fascist dictator, one can at least make an argument about either point that makes it hard to say who was right. Him snapping at Oscar and knowingly shooting the kid to his demise? No. That one cannot be justified at all, especially since he was as cold as steel when he did it.

This moment has been built-up since we met him all those years ago. We wanted Ironwood to do the right thing. We all hoped that he would. But he didn’t, and it isn’t shocking at all. We saw enough to like Ironwood, but to also be very much aware of his faults that he just never seemed able to conquer. His fall form grace is tragic, yet done in such a satisfying way as well. I felt for him, but there was no justifying his actions. I kept hoping that he’d pull through, but once Chapter 11 hit, I knew we were at the point of no return. The James Ironwood we once knew is no more, consumed by his fear. What will happen to him next? Will he manage to realize his wrongs? Or will he continue to fall until there’s nothing left to salvage? It’s hard to say. But for now, the tin man has lost his heart,. A very sad, but very well done, character arc for sure.

1. The Theme of Trust and Fear

When I first heart this volume’s opening, Trust Love, I liked it... but the more the volume went, the more the optimistic song felt out of place for the dark volume. Considering this IS an anime, that’s probably intentional. But the more I examined the lyrics, especially after the full version came out, the more I truly realized how it fits with this volume. The song speaks of one trying to live in their dream world, but they need to face reality and trust those around them. They need to stop waiting for a miracle, they need to take control of their life now and move forward. hey need to... well, trust in love. Then you have the finale song, Fear, which  outright asks ‘who will you be when you are faced with fear? Will you see the person you hope to see? Or will you see a stranger?” Will you feel proud? Or will you feel betrayed?

This is the theme of the volume. The theme of trust and the right thing against fear. Ironwood claims to trust the heroes, yet he can’t trust anyone else and his own fear is slowly consuming him. The heroes are mistrustful of Ironwood, but they trust each other and want to help mend the divide between Ironwood and Mantle. But at every turn, fear gets ii n he way. Tyrian’s slaughter makes Mantle afraid and enraged. Ironwood’s fear keeps him from opening up and it leads to his downfall as I already described. The Ace-Ops don’t fight together as a team, which leads to Team RWBY who DO trust each other to defeat them. Clover is blinded by his loyalty to Ironwood to recognize that he’s doing the wrong thing, and it leads to his death. Not to mention the mistrust between him, Qrow, and Robyn lead tot he crash to begin with.

As Oz says in his monologue, fear is the greatest thing that everyone shares. We see everyone afraid. Ironwood is afraid. Ruby is afraid. Ozpin is afraid. Even Cinder is afraid. It’s all for different reasons. Ironwood is afraid of Salem. Ruby is afraid of the uncertainty ahead. Ren is afraid of failing Nora and the others. Cinder is afraid of failing to achieve her foals. Qrow is afraid of bonding with others, especially considering what happened to Clover. Ozpin...d o I even need to elaborate on him? The title to Chapter 13 is ‘The Enemy of Trust’. What is that enemy? Fear. Recently, I’ve been feeling that same fear of trust. Fear of being hurt. Fear of being betrayed. Fear of the unknown. It’s a VERY powerful force, and a tempting one at that.

The message of the volume ultimately si that it’s okay to be afraid. It’s perfectly human to feel that way. You don’t need to get over it. It doesn’t matter if you’re afraid, it’s what you do in the face of it that matters. Will you face it? Will you do what’s right? Will you find it in yourself to trust and love again? Or will you succumb to it? Will you end up repeating your mistakes because of your fear? Will you make the wrong choice? What will that say about the person you are? One way or another, we all will find out the answer to that question. We may not know the answers for a long time, but you ultimately need to try and do what’s right. You can’t let the fear control you. You need to decide who you will be when ti comes, and if in the end you will be happy with who you are left with.

Ironwood chose to repeat his mistakes, and is now a heartless tin soldier. Ozpin ultimately chose to return and face it and while only time will determine how that goes, it’s a step in the right direction. People like Ruby and Oscar still tried to do what thy knew was right. Weiss was afraid of her father, but faced him to gain her freedom. Blake feared Adam and the White Fang and chose to run, but eventually decided to fight back and ultimately won. Yang was afraid after losing her arm and of being abandoned, and while she struggled she ultimately faced it, proving herself stronger than her cowardly mother. Even after Ruby broke down when it became clear that Salem killed her mother, she still faced the wicked witch, told her off to her face, and pulled herself together enough to warn everyone about Ironwood and stand her ground. And there’s so any other examples that I could list. 

I think considering the times right now, this message is incredibly important. It’s been a major part of the series since the start, but Volume 7 especially made it prominent. We need to trust in love. We need to be courageous enough to do the right thing. We need to be able to express our fear and doubts with others to become better. In a world where everything 9si uncertain and everyone is on edge, I think that the themes here are more relevant than ever, and was handled very well. Especially with that monologue in Chapter 13. As such, this is my favorite part of RWBY Volume 7 without a doubt.

Well, that’s it folks! It was nice to revisit Volume 7 again after so long~ But as we close the book, we’re about to open another for Volume Eight. What’s gonna happen? I don’t know. Am I scared? Oh big time. But I’ve come this far, I’m not backing out until the very end. So I hope that you all enjoy Volume 8, and as always I look forward to reviewing it all~ See you all on premiere day~!

[fandoms-are-my-friends-1321]

Knives Against the Current Ch. 1

This is my first fanfic, so please be kind, but I always accept positive criticism. This will eventually be a Nick x Gatsby story, and I will include a warning before each chapter because some of the subjects might be triggering for some people. I do not own any of these characters, or the gif.

Warnings: mentions of past violence, drinking, cheating, some stalking at the very end, The Great Gatsby spoilers

Most of us are familiar with the story The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. We either read the book during high school, or chose to read it because it is considered to be a classic. The story follows Nick Carraway’s summer in New York. While he tries to deal with all of the drama that surrounds his cousin Daisy, and her cheating husband Tom, he meets Jay Gatsby. Gatsby is known for his lavish parties, but he also has a hidden love for Daisy. Eventually, all of the scandal catches up with these characters, and it leads to Gatsby’s demise. This tale is used to show the world that there is always someone watching, and that you can’t relive the past.

With every tale that is created, there are always multiple routes that the story could have taken. We know these as alternate universes. Some can lead to happy endings, while others take a more horrific twist. This story will shed light on the more sinister path that The Great Gatsby could have taken.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gatsby had been accused of many things, like being a German spy and killing a man. One of these statements was true, but it was far worse than anyone could have imagined.

There was a killer that had been terrorizing the United States. The murders were quick and random, but one thing was always the same. Placed on the corpse of each victim was a single daisy. No one knew who this person was, and they never stayed in one place for very long. This person, who would become known as The Daisy Killer, is currently residing in a large mansion in West Egg, New York.

Despite these brutal killings, there is one man who was still focusing on making a living in a time of crisis. His name was Nick Carraway. After a confusing mixup in his hometown, Nick decided to move to New York City to pursue a career selling bonds. He wanted to be a writer, but anything he tried to write seemed boring and flat.

As Nick arrived at his small house in West Egg, he felt like he was being watched. He looked up towards his neighbor’s home, and his gaze met a figure standing in the second story window. Nick couldn’t make out any defining features, and in a flash the figure disappeared behind a dark blue curtain.

Later on that afternoon, Nick was invited over to his cousin Daisy’s home in East Egg for dinner. Upon his arrival, Nick was greeted by Daisy’s husband, Tom. Tom was a very muscular man, and viewed himself as the alpha male. Nick had known Tom since they were in college, and he still acted the same way as he did then. Nick climbed the pearl colored steps of the Buchanan’s fancy home. When he reached the top, Tom wrapped his arm around Nick’s small frame.

“Isn’t it amazing,” Tom said as he gestured at the lush, green lawn.

“Yeah, it’s great,” Nick stated as Tom continued to assert his dominance. With that, the two men walked inside. Tom escorted Nick into the side parlor, where his cousin was waiting for him.

As he entered the room, he could see Daisy lying on the couch. It was evident that she had been drinking. There was also another woman that Nick had never seen before. She had short, black hair, and her chin was tipped up towards the ceiling.

“I’m paralyzed with happiness,” Daisy uttered as she draped her body on the back of the couch. A single blonde strand of hair had fallen into her face. She told Nick that the woman on the other end of the couch was Jordan Baker. Jordan gave a slight nod of acknowledgement to Nick.

“I’ve been to Chicago recently,” Nick said as he walked further into the small room.

“Do they miss me in Chicago,” Daisy replied in an excited voice.

“They never got over the fact that you left.”

Jordan got up from her seat on the couch and walked over to the window. “You live in West Egg, right,” Jordan asked as she looked over her shoulder at Nick.

“Yes, but I don’t know a single person there,” Nick responded. Jordan gave him a small smile, “Well, surely you must know Gatsby.”

That was the first time that Nick heard the name of his mysterious neighbor, and he was intrigued instantly. Daisy was interested too, but the announcement that dinner was ready interrupted their conversation. Nick was once again wedged under Tom’s arm as he was led outside.

The dinner conversation was filled with whispers of rumors about the butler and the book, “The Rise of the Colored Empires.” Tom insisted that the novel was scientific, but Nick took his words with a grain of salt. The butler that they had just been talking about emerged from inside the house, and whispered something to Tom. Tom rose quickly from his seat and headed inside.

“I’ll be back shortly,” Tom assured as he closed the double doors. He could be seen inside talking to someone on the phone. Daisy tossed her napkin on the table, and she too went inside. Nick and Jordan looked at each other. Nick decided that it would be rude to sit in silence, so he decided to start a conversation.

“This weather is lovely isn’t-,”

Jordan held a delicate hand up. “Sh! I want to hear what they’re saying.”

“Is something wrong?”

“Don’t you know? I thought everyone knew. Tom’s got some woman in New York.”

“A woman?”

Before Nick could fully comprehend what was going on, Daisy and Tom were back at the table. About five minutes later though, the phone was ringing again. Tom vanished inside, and Daisy got up and walked into the backyard. Nick followed her brisk pace as she rounded the corner of the house. Daisy placed her head into her hands.

“We don’t know each other very well, Nick,” Daisy said as she lifted her head back up. “You weren’t at my wedding.”

“I wasn’t back from the war.”

“That’s true, but I’ve had a terrible time. It’s made me quite cynical about things. Do you want to know what I said when my daughter was born?”

Nick nodded his head as a signal for Daisy to continue.

“Tom was God knows where, and I asked the nurse if it was a boy or a girl. She told me that it was a girl. I said, ‘I’m glad it’s a girl. I hope that she will be a fool-that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world. A beautiful fool.”

Nick could feel a heavy sting in his heart. He hated to see Daisy like this, even if he barely knew her. The two walked back into the house after that. Jordan was reading a magazine on the long, white couch.

“Well, it’s time for this good girl to go to bed,” Jordan said as she threw the magazine down with a light thud. “Goodnight, Mr. Carraway.”

Nick replied with a short goodnight. Daisy couldn’t help but smile. “You’ll be seeing more of her. Maybe I could arrange a wedding,” Daisy said as her smile grew even more.

Nick rubbed the back of his neck. “Maybe, but I should be getting home.” He started for the door, but Daisy grabbed his arm.

“Wait! We heard you were engaged to a girl out West,” Daisy claimed as her eyes met with Nick’s.

“I’m sorry, but it’s not true. There was a very big mix up. Besides, I’m to poor,” Nick replied as he opened the door and walked out to his car.

As he drove home, he couldn’t tell if he was touched or disgusted by Daisy and Tom’s interest in his affairs. He whipped into the drive at his small West Egg estate. Nick stepped out of his car, and as he closed the door, he caught sight of his neighbor once again. Even in the pitch black darkness that surrounded the area, Nick knew that it was Gatsby.

He wanted to call out to him, but he stopped himself. Nick saw Gatsby standing at the edge of his dock. Gatsby’s arm was stretched out over the tar colored water. Upon further observation, Nick could see that he was reaching for a green light. He also noticed a slight flicker of moonlight that reflected off of a silver object in Gatsby’s other hand.

Nick unlocked his door, and turned back to see if Gatsby was still at the end of the dock . However, he had vanished. Nick was alone, or so he thought as he stepped into his abode.

What Nick didn’t notice was the tall figure that had watched him enter his home. The mystery person smiled, and they let out a light chuckle.

“I’ll be seeing you very soon, old sport.”

[thatyanderecritic]

Mystic Messenger

Title: Mystic Messenger

Media: Game. Maker: Cheritz

Yandere(s): Jumin Han, Yoosung Kim, Ray (Real name: Saeran Choi)

Yandere Scale (In order as shown above): 1/5, 3/5, 4/5

Criticism written by: Kai

Editor: Julie

The Review:

Hey there everyone! Kai here and I’m coming back with another yandere review. This time around, I’ll be reviewing the incredibly popular otome game, Mystic Messenger. It’s one of my favorite otome games out there and I’m highly opinionated about this game. Cheritz is known to include at least one yandere in their games; Mystic Messenger being no exception to that rule. For Mystic Messenger, they have a whopping three yanderes and I thankfully played all their routes on my free time for fun. Now let’s check out their yanderes, hm?

(I’m just going to assume that everyone knows the story but if you don’t, you can read the summary here)

Jumin Han:

I’ll be upfront for everyone here: Jumin is my least favorite route out of all the guys in the game. I found it to be boring, too overhyped by the fans, and Jumin’s personality to be rather lame. That being said, take some of my opinions with a grain of salt.

Now then, is Jumin a yandere? Eeeeeeh, I guess?

I describe Jumin as “baby’s first yandere”. He’s very lowkey about it and anything to suggest he is a yandere is so vague that it just went over my head. I found myself having to scrutinize everything he does and say with a goddamn microscope. Spoiler alert: if your readers have to try really hard to look for evidence that he’s a yandere, then he’s not a very good yandere. Instead, I found the other characters having to tell me that Jumin, is in fact, a yandere. Every single chatroom that have the other characters talk about Jumin in his route all go: “Oh!!! You better watch out!!! Jumin is super possessive and obsessive about you MC!!!” or “Oh man!!! Jumin gives me the creep vibes!!! There’s something unsettling about him!!!”  

I mean… I guess? Spoiler alert 2: If you have to have your side characters tell the MC that the male lead is a yandere (instead of just showing it), then he isn’t a good yandere. Like jesus Cheritz, what happened to you? You used to be pretty good in including yanderes in your games… Jumin is just… pathetic. It’s felt like they put up a bunch of neon signs around Jumin then forget to write him as a yandere. The only “yandere part” about Jumin was how he locked up the MC in his penthouse. But to be fair, the MC’s life was in danger and she willingly stays there. In fact, the whole “Locked up” part seemed rather half assed. Besides that, there wasn’t anything else about Jumin that makes him a yandere… well, besides the other characters telling me he is. Can you believe that Cheritz had the gall to compare Jumin to Jisoo from Dandelion (their other otome game)? That’s like comparing apples and oranges… just because they’re both fruits doesn’t make them the same thing.

Jumin’s route is so not worth to play if you’re hoping to “woo a yandere”. It’s honestly a waste of time and you’re better off googling Jumin’s bad end 2 CG if you want that yandere aesthetic. If you want to see some better yanderes, just check out the other two… Let’s talk about Yoosung.

Yoosung Kim:

It might come as a surprise by Yoosung was a far better and stronger yandere than Jumin. While the game was focusing so hard on portraying Jumin as a yandere, they never realize that they struck gold with Yoosung. Funny enough, I think the reason why Jumin was such a bad yandere was because cheritz concentrated on him so much that they fucked up and since they didn’t focus on Yoosung, that’s why he came out as a better yandere. But the only problem with Yoosung is that…

… He isn’t a yandere for you.

Yes, that’s right. Yoosung is a yandere but he is not a yandere for you. He is obsessed with his older cousin, Rika. Throughout his route, he won’t shut up about her. It’s “Rika this” and “Rika that”. Yoosung really tested my patients on how long I’ll stick to his route. Eventually though, Yoosung starts to the MC as his replacement for Rika. He sees Rika in the MC and start comparing the two… even thinking that they’re the same person. At some points, Yoosung really wants to turn MC into Rika. Yoosung likes you… but not THE you but the Rika version. Of course, for his good end he learns to differentiate between you two and learn how to love the MC as she is but it doesn’t change the fact that Yoosung was a yandere at certain points.

In the end, Yoosung is a yandere for his cousin. The only thing about him is A) he tries to end up with someone else by turning her into his cousin and B) he ends up loving someone else (the MC). Regardless on how you look at it, Yoosung broke our loyalty rule. I say go ahead and play his route if you want a yandere story and don’t mind being a cuck for 75% of his route. Yoosung got some pretty good yandere moments and bad endings.

Ray:

Oh my god. Ray was the best yandere I’ve seen throughout Cheritz’s games. He was damn near close to being the perfect yandere (well… my taste. But also he clicked off the ideal yandere check marks). Right off the bat, we see his clinginess to the MC, his mental instability, fear of losing the MC, and his jealousy to the other characters. He was such a sweetheart and to top it off he risked his life in saving the MC. Ray was *muah* the perfect recipe for an ideal yandere (my type). But unfortunately… Cheritz just had to ruin it.

Towards the middle Ray had a personality switch. Fearing that he wasn’t strong enough to protect the MC, Ray sort of… “killed” himself and created his alternative personality: edgy Saeran. I was absolutely heartbroken with Ray leaving for good and leaving behind that asshole. Immediately the new personality treated the MC sadistically. He starved her, spoke down to her, and was all round a piece of shit. BRING BACK MY BABY BOI CHERITZ, YOU FUCKING MONSTERS. COWARDS.

This was my last straw. I deleted Mystic Messengers right at that point and never opened it since. Ray was such a good yandere and they had to ruin it. Ray’s route is only good up to the point till his personality switch. After that it went down hill and he doesn’t even have any yandere bad endings. Fuck that.

Final thoughts:

Yoosung is the only route to play for completion if you want a yandere story. Ray was ideal but Cheritz ruined it and don’t even bother with Jumin’s route.

I have a love/hate relationship with Mystic Messenger. It was an interesting story and the concept was good in theory, but in the end the Cons out way the Pros. For one: the game is almost unplayable if you have a social life. The chatroom, phone calls, texts, and emails were a neat concept for interactive storytelling. But the issue lays in the fact you have to wait for these things to pop up. I don’t know about y’all but I have family, friends, a job, and school. Ain’t nobody got time to wait for that 2 PM phone call or that 1 AM chatroom. That’s fucking ridiculous. And don’t you tell me I can miss a couple of chatroom or phone calls. For one, it’s not like I’m missing one chatroom but multiple. I can have a pretty busy day and never have a chance to pick up my phone. Some of those chatrooms are pretty important if you want to get a good ending. There’s also the fact that I’m a completionist… I want to see ALL the content in the game. Not pick and choose what I have time for. And don’t bring up that it’s free or the hourglasses. I rather pay the game for the full price than do a microtransactions… and grinding for hourglasses is a bitch and you know it. I recalled I calculated how much it cause to complete all routes (The main cast. Not including V or Ray or the phone calls) by paying for all the missing chatroom or paying for the day… it was over $300 folks. $300 in microtransaction. Cheritz is fucking crazy. Thank god I fucking hacked this game.

There’s way more complaints about this game (like the emails. I’m tired of having three different walkthroughs up just to get through this god damn game) but I’m just talking about the main function for those interested in playing after read this review. Gameplay is really fucked and unfriendly for those with personal lives. Be ready to waste 7 days of your life to finish this game. All I’m say, Cheritz (even though I know they’re not reading), you guys should have two modes for Mystic Messenger: one where it’s like a standard otome game where the chatroom come one right after the other and you don’t get a penalty for missing chatrooms (the game actually pauses on where you stopped) for a flat rate price of what the entire game is worth… and then the free option where you play the game in the usual default state. That’s all I’m asking and it makes logical sense.

Anyways. That’s my gripe about the game and the yanderes. Play at your own discretion.

Overall Score: 7/10

(Side note: Honestly, I love the Mystic Messenger fandom but at the same time I wonder if we played the same game sometimes. The worst part is how some people won’t criticize Cheritz and their game. Like damn… some of y’all are more forgiving than Jesus Christ himself.)

[candymayvary]

what are your thoughts on castiel? theres been a lot of discussions lately on various blogs and i know you like him but what made you like him

I mean, I’m probably a little biased in this conversation? I’ve seen some stuff on Sakurina’s blog but I didn’t know it’s been hugely discussed. Granted, every so often this kind of springs up. 

But uh... I think when it comes down to it, I can forgive some of Castiel’s writing, because I know that when it was first made, Chino was evidently heavily influenced by otome games of similar themes, where there generally used to be a typical roster to fill out. The nice one, the bad boy, the quiet one, etc etc. I mean, I’ve played a lot of otome games in my time, and I seriously just take them with a grain of salt even today, because it’s formulaic. One of the most popular otome love interests of all time was Toma from Amnesia, and he locked the main character in a cage for most of his route. But he was popular in a way, because of the hint towards ‘hidden depths’ and stuff, unboxing the issues and, y’know, showing a softer side towards the MC. That’s generally why the ‘worst’ love interest in otome games can often be the most popular. 

I guess it also comes down to different ideals? Again, I’ve been playing otome games for literal years. Like before MCL. Western approaches to these games generally fall under calling them, um, sexist. Wish fulfilment and degrading. Whatever other kind of negativity you can heap on them, which ultimately makes people feel like shit who enjoy them. Like, they are blanketed for the most part in negativity. I mean, on the one hand, sure, why not. I guess (not really). On the other... it’s a whole other ballpark. Just like how other games just don’t seem to appeal to certain people, so do otome games. It’s personal preference. It’s why so many otome games haven’t been localised, because of how volatile the western market is towards the games, where they honestly can be well received and popular, but the actual market is too small for profit. So they withhold them (like the fan discs for Hakuouki, so they just reproduce the same game for different consoles with very minor differences. Like the PSVita version includes a couple of new routes, but its still essentially the same game). 

To round this back to Castiel, I can forgive his early appearances because I have played other games with characters very similar, but Castiel is honestly... not that bad compared to others? So like... his comments don’t affect me, or even like slightly deter me. I think also because I like his development, both romantic and friendship wise. Castiel was really affected by the abandonment of his parents, his girlfriend, y’know. They all chose their careers over him. Sure, the way he directs his anger isn’t the best, but like... I get it? I think also I never had low l’o’m with him, so I did miss the most extremely negative comments of his. I’ve seen some but like. I never went actively looking for them? 

But yeah, like. He opens up, and actually becomes social with people other than Lysander and Iris. Slow healing is a long process. I can respect that. You can also see the changes in his writing, that he actually gets a bit older and wiser. I think one thing I also really like is that he pulls Nathaniel aside, and helps him. Especially since we know how volatile their relationship is (on both sides), Castiel sets it aside to help. Sure, it could’ve been made at the pressure of Candy, when she rounds on him after he tries to make fun of the situation, or it could just be a conscious choice on his behalf depending other choices made. But I really do like that he was the one to step forward. 

Anyway... point is, I can recognise the influence of the writing, I’ve played these games long enough to shrug off just about anything, especially in Japanese games themselves (blvns, anyone? I mean...). Castiel doesn’t affect me. I like his character, because I like his growth. Initially, younger me liked both him and Nathaniel really well, but I stuck with him when I replayed everything up to ep12 like 10 times. I’m not going to defend his comments, of course, and I understand why it they put people off. But he’s honestly pretty gentle compared to characters out there, so I don’t... care. People can dislike him, go ahead. People can like him. Whatever. Everyone is different, and has different reasons for not liking certain characters, or liking others. 

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Analysis of the S9 SDCC Trailer

Okay, I have a lot to say about the S9 trailer. I’m going to talk about a bunch of different aspects of the trailer including actual plot points, dialogue, symbolism, and locations. So, everybody grab a beverage and get comfortable. (Don’t worry. There will be LOTS of pictures. 😉)

First of all, let me say what I said with every other trailer: these trailers tend to be very very misleading. Back in S4, the trailer made it seem like there was a serial killer at the prison. David and Karen will both killed, but I was by Carol and for very specific reason. It's not like she was killing people left and right and all over the place. We also saw some creepy things done by Lizzie, but she didn't even actually kill a person at the prison (just animals) and we didn't really find out what was up with her until 4B. Most of the dialogue they used to make it seem like there was someone murdering people at the prison actually refers to the virus. So, very misleading.

In the S5 trailer, it got even worse. Spliced together dialogue made it seem like Gareth planned to help TF get Eugene to Washington for the cure. Garreth didn't say anything even remotely like that in the show. I won’t go over all the trailers, but if you go back and watch them after having watched the corresponding season, you can see how they’re deceptive. My point is that we need take everything in the trailer and what it suggests with a grain of salt. It really may be exactly the opposite of what it's trying to make us think.

Locations:

I will start by talking about locations because right off the bat, the very first scene we see, is something of a deception. We first see a trap door open and stairs leading down. 

We’re meant to think that Rick goes down the ladder to visit Negan. Because of that, I first saw the trailer I thought it was weird that they weren’t keeping Negan in Morgan’s cell. We thought they would do that, especially because they do it in the comic books. But there's a regular ole’ door next to the cell Morgan built. Rick wouldn't have to come down through the trapdoor and ceiling.

But… if you look at these pics,

you can see from the brick behind both Negan and Rick, the meeting is in fact in Morgan's cell. So, that first shot of the stairs leading down is not part of the scene were Rick goes to speak with Negan. If you look closely at the materials, the bricks in the scene are much smaller and red. See what I mean by deception? I don’t know what’s up with this trap door, but it’s something else entirely that’s been spliced together for the trailer.

We see several interesting locations in the trailer. We do see shots of places we already know, like Alexandria, the Hilltop, the Kingdom, and the Sanctuary. But there's a few others that are jumping out at me as interesting.

Tent City:

A lot of the action in the trailer seems to be taking place in his Tent City. (I’ll just call it that for now because I don't know what they're going to call in the show.) There seem to be a lot of tents set up together, and this is where we see the sign that points to different places.

Notice neither Hilltop nor the Kingdom is on the sign. People have been wondering why there's a Toledo. We're thinking it might be a comic book not to Toledo, Ohio, though we’re not really sure. It seems to me they may have set up extra places or communities to accommodate more people. One of them has simply been named Toledo. We also see HQ at the top. HQ usually stands for HeadQuarters, so I wonder what this means.

But what really jumped out at me after watching the trailer about 50 times is that a lot of the action takes place there. It's in his tent city that the fight seems to ensue.  It’s where Daryl beats the crap out of some dude,

where they seem to have a lot of different operations set up, and where a lot of our characters are hanging out. 

In this part where Rick and Daryl talk and Daryl asks if they’re on the same side, you can see in the shot of Daryl, that they’re standing inside one of the tents. So not sure what this place is, but it's obviously going to play big role.

Red Brick Buildings:

This next location, we see a lot less in the trailer, but I'm very, very curious about it. There’s the opening shot, which includes red brick. Then there are two more shots later on. This one:

And this one:

Oh, and later in the trailer, this one too:

Pretty sure these are all the same place. Seems like something’s going to happen at this local at night. The building in the top picture says Hollowbray(?) Outreach Recovery. So this is a place where people recover from things. Hmm. It looks a lot to like the school that Richonne visited in 7x12, as well as the school from S5. I'm not saying I think it's either one, though it could be. Or it could be a new location. Either way, I'm sure there will be symbolism galore!

It also looks a lot like the retirement home the Gov visited in 4x06, which I’ll talk more about later in the week. There were a won of Beth foreshadows there. I feel like this might be something coming to a head, especially with that “Final Warning” pic.

Oh, but there’s more. This walker heading for the recovery center steps on signs with arrows on them. The first shows two arrows, pointed in opposite directions. 

We’ve seen lots of arrow symbolism in the show, such as in 6x04 and 6x06.. Then there’s a “No U-Turn” sign. That really jumped out at me. 

This is literally a pictorial representation of “You can’t go back.”

The Broken Bridge:

The bridge! I'm so excited for this bridge. It's broken in the middle. Man, I could read volumes of symbolism into that. (Just off the top of my head: Daryl is broken and has been since S5. Maybe this season is where he’ll finally get fixed? Is Daryl the bridge. He has been involved with the majority of the ones we’ve seen on the show...But I digress.)

I probably won't do a post about symbolism of this broken bridge until we see how it's employed in the show, but I’m pumped! In terms of the plot, it seems to me like this is going to be the project at the beginning of the season. Just like we had Operation Lead the Walkers Away at beginning of S6, I feel like this bridge is the project they’ll be working on as the season begins. Why?

Not only do we see them find it, but stuff goes down on this bridge. There's the scene here:

Rick seems to be sitting in the center of it, and everyone is running toward him. I don't know what's happening the scene, but it looks super-intense. Daryl and everyone else is looking out past Rick at something they’re running toward.

Later in the trailer, we see that a fight breaks out here. If you look at this picture, you can see they’re rebuilding the bridge; placing a new, wooden bridge over the break. 

They must need the bridge as a route for supplies or something. If they didn't need it, they wouldn't bother. But Daryl fights here, you can see Aaron fighting next to him, and even Henry takes this guy down on one side of the bridge. So, some important stuff taking place.

Dialogue:

I wanted to write down the dialogue because sometimes it's hard to focus on. Another disclaimer: just as with previous trailers, this dialogue may be spliced together. Even though it sounds like it's all happening in the same conversation, it might not be. Keep that in mind.

Most of this dialogue is heard as voiceovers while they show other scenes. You only see small clips of the characters actually saying these words. At the beginning, we have a conversation between Rick and Negan. It keeps going for a good part of the trailer:

Rick: it's been a while since we had one of these talks. It wasn’t long ago, we were fighting just to stay alive. But it's not like that anymore. We’re building. We’re growing. We're still ready to deal with this world on its own terms. No matter what happens, it's human nature to come together.

Negan: That's a pretty picture you're painting there, Rick. When do I get to see it?

Rick: Don’t you ever get tired of acting like you're still in charge?

Negan: Do you?

(We then hear Rick talking to Maggie. I’ll cover that in just a minute. Right after that, we hear one more line from Negan. Then the last part isn’t until almost the end of the trailer.)

Negan: You think you got this on lock. (It's after that that we start seeing a lot of the trouble in the group.)

(Near end of trailer.)

Negan: When it finally goes to shit, and it will, make sure you come back and tell me all about that date.

So a couple of interesting things about this. We don't actually seen Negan outside the cell in the trailer. That doesn't mean that we won't see him outside it during S9, as the trailer generally comprises only the first few episodes. But I think it may be safe to say that Negan won't get out of his cell before Rick's departure.

I'm also interested to see whether or not Rick comes back and talks to Negan again after this conversation, but before Rick "dies." I'm really looking too far ahead with this, but this strikes me as dialogue foreshadowing. So, if things fall apart, and then Rick comes back and tells Negan about them before he “dies,” then it's no big deal. A dialogue foreshadow that’s fulfilled a few episodes later.

But, if Rick doesn't come back and tell Negan about it, we’ll have a foreshadow that at some point, they're going to have another conversation. All I'm saying is that it's a foreshadow that may show that Rick isn’t really dead. At some point, he'll have to speak with Negan again.

Next conversation: Maggie and Rick.

Maggie: You said before, when we fought the Saviors, you were going to follow me. But you didn't, because I wasn't someone to follow. That changes now.

Right after that we see Maggie and Daryl walking along the road. This is kind of interesting. I think one of two things is going on here. I had to sit back and ask myself, why does Maggie think she wasn't someone to follow after AOW? The only reason I can think of is because she was being very vindictive about Negan. In a way, this suggests that she's let go of her hate for Negan and transcended it to become a better person and leader.

Do I think that's what's going on? I'm not sure. It's a possibility, but probably not. The way they set up her and Daryl in opposition to Rick last season would be wasted if she just changed her mind. So, it could be that this deception on Maggie’s part. Maybe she's trying to convince Rick that she's over hating Negan, but she's really not. It will be interesting to see where this goes.

This next stuff I’m giving you just so you can read it on your own. I don't have stuff to say about all of it.

Michonne: We need to think about starting to make some rules. An agreement between all the communities. Like, "this is how we treat each other, and this is what happens when we don't."

Daryl: That small group we had back in the beginning? We could do anything. That was right. This don't feel right, man.

 Kind of interesting that he's referencing the group back at the beginning. I don't know what it is that doesn't feel right to him, but I highly doubt it's just a matter of expanding communities. I think Daryl would be all about that, as long as none of them are a threat. So, we don't know what he's talking about here, and I'm excited to find out, but I think there's probably more to what he saying and what we’re seeing the trailer.

Rick: It's on us to figure out how to make it work.

Michonne: We don't know if they're ever going to forgive each other. Rick. If they can even move on.

Here, I think we may have some deception going on. As Michonne is saying this, we see a lot of the infighting between the groups. I'm not saying that there won't be fighting between the groups (I’ll discuss that more in a minute), but she very well could be talking about Maggie and Negan here. This is one of those times where I think they the trailer may be a little deceptive as to what she's actually referring to.

Carol: I just wanted to pull that trigger. And it before it began.

This seems to be about the infighting in the group. The fact that Carol didn't pull the trigger shows how much she's grown. Back in S6, she was extremely trigger-happy.

Rick: It's about all of us, together. Keep doing that and they'll see that were on the same side.

Again, more about the infighting.

Daryl: Are we on the same side, Rick?

Rick: Well, you tell me.

Okay, so let's talk about this infighting. I'm only seeing actual fights at two places. There's one in the tent city, in which Daryl hits that dude. And then we see Rosita leading one of two sides, and they come together and all start fighting. That seems to take place in the tent city as well. 

No way to tell exactly what's going on, but again, I'm just wondering if this is a little deceptive. This could be one event, one time, and not something that's ongoing. But it could be something ongoing as well. We just don't know. The other fight, I already mentioned on the bridge.

Now, as I said, I do think that there is some fighting going on. But it just may not be as big as the trailer wants us to believe. This picture is kind of interesting. They going to the Sanctuary and see this sign. It's interesting that it says, “We’re still Negan." (Emphasis mine).

It seems to me there's going to be a faction of saviors who is causing trouble. They don't want to follow Rick and Daryl, or else just don't want to cooperate with the other communities. So that could be where the fighting is coming from.

However, near the end of the trailer, we get these new characters. I'm wondering how they're going to fit in and if they cause the trouble.

By the way, this group screams Beth!

There’s this guy:

Notice how he's a music teacher. Then there's this gal. 

She's blonde (she may be the mysterious blonde that spoilers have been reporting), but her tattoo is really interesting. I don't think it’s actually a bird, but it looks like a wingspan. Then there's this woman who is deaf.

The person translating for her says, “she says she was a journalist, but she's just being modest." I'm wondering how you could be modest bu saying your journalist.

It also reminds me of Al in Fear. One of the main characters in Fear this season is a journalist. I wonder if there's a connection there.

Then there’s the translator herself. 

Check this out, guys. Her earring is a cross. It’s nearly identical to the one Beth wore around her wrist in Coda. 

I know I’ll get people wondering how on earth I noticed that. Go watch the trailer again. The light shimmers off the earring, highlighting it for an instant. That usually doesn’t happen by accident on camera. It CAN, but I think they went out of their way to make sure the viewer saw the earring in this scene.

And then the necklace. I can’t get a clearer picture because it gets blurry when you zoom in super-close, but that looks like a bird to me. Maybe a phoenix. Maybe an eagle. But I’m definitely see wings. See what I mean about this group screaming Beth?

Symbolism and Other Plot Points

There's tons of symbolism in the trailer, and I probably even missed a lot of it.

After going into the capitol, I believe this is Michonne walking on the glass floor. It's hard to tell from a still picture, but you can see walkers moving below it. 

Just kind of interesting given the Breaking Glass Theory. We don't actually see any broken glass in the trailer, but I'm wondering what will happen in the show. I mean, come on! This is TWD. Someone is bound to fall through that glass.

We also see the windmill that they wanted to build, and it says Commonwealth on it. Obviously that's a foreshadow for the Commonwealth. It also shows that they use the books Georgie gave them to help build these things. 

They put us like a scarecrow-walker on an X. I'm sure @wdway going crazy about that X. Here's the X theory. Remember that that's very significant. I'm not sure why, but they’re tying a walker to an X in a little cornfield, as though his functioning as a scarecrow.

There’s another cabin that Maggie is at. It looks a whole lot like the other cabins we’ve seen (moonshine shack, Ty’s cabin in 5x09, the Gov’s in 4b, Carol’s in S7, etc). So I’m interested to see what will happen there. It’s definitely teeming with walkers, 

and I think this picture of Cindi is from the same scene:

We see more of Jadis/Ann and the helicopter, which tptb already said we’d learn more about this season. We still have the three circles on the side. We saw them in some of the food Jadis/Ann had last season, and they often represent the Holy Trinity in Christian symbolism. 

Also notice the A on the side. So the A theme is alive and well in this helicopter. That gives us tons of hope that the chopper might relate to Beth in some way.

Then there’s this pic near Father Gabriel. I’m not sure who it is. My first thought is that it looks a LOT like Heath. So maybe whoever drew it has seen Heath around? Remember, they told us we wouldn’t learn his fate in S8 (true) but said we would after that. I’m not sure if they ever specifically confirmed that we’d learn about him in S9, but it would be cool if we did. Besides, the return of another missing character with so many parallels to Beth would be awesome. ;D

It also kinda looks like the blond woman in FG’s photo with the glasses in S5. You know, the one he saw as a walker in the food bank. So it’s always possible this is more of a FG-centric arc. But even if that’s the case, it’s specifically referencing something from S5. Just saying.

Another thing that really struck me about the setup for the beginning of S9 is how much it is like S4. The communities are growing, there's more people, they’re growing food, 

they’re expanding and building new things. 

This is very, very similar to what we saw at the beginning of season four. Even the fact that they’re riding horses is interesting. 

Remember in the beginning of S4, Michonne rode in on a horse. And that, too, made it into the trailer. Now we see both her and Rick riding horses in this trailer. Hmm.

Carzekiel lives! In the shot, we see them cuddling by the fire.

I know a certain ship is making a lot of Carol putting her head on Daryl’s shoulder, but once again, that's not romantic. It's obvious that she and Ezekiel are together. Because Daryl and Carol are so close, good friends, even bordering on a mother/son relationship, they will continue to do things like that. And it will never be romantic.

Jerry’s getting a love interest! Yea! That makes me so happy! ;D

Not sure what’s up with these birds, but I’m fairly sure it’s Rick, Michonne, and Judith staring up at them. Michonne is holding Judith on her hip.

Not sure what happens at the capitol but we have one pic of them working together to bring the wagon down the stairs. 

Then suddenly Daryl shoots a walker that’s in front of them. 

I’m thinking it may fall from the ceiling/roof, or something. (4x01/Big Spot, anyone?)

And then there’s Rick and Daryl on the motorcycle. Some have suggested this (Daryl being in front) foreshadows Daryl taking over as leader. I also noticed in this aerial shot, that another vehicle moves into the top of the shot at the last second. It honestly looks too small to be another car, so probably another motorcycle. They must be going to meet someone.

And then there’s this:

People are saying it looks like Rick’s boots and he’s staggering along and bleeding. I think I concur (who else could it be?), which means it’s probably involved in Rick’s “death” in some way.

But there are two reasons this is suspicious to me. 

1) Despite Andy confirming his departure, why would they put such a big moment in the trailer? 

2) If this is all we see of Rick’s departure, that’s really not going to satisfy me. Seeing him bleed (while scary) is not the same thing as seeing him die. So I’m still side-eyeing this.

There are also a lot of walker hordes featured in the trailer. I’m sure they have to do with Rick’s “death.”

Then there's Eugene and Rosita and the whispers. Definitely a creepy scene, we see at the end of them hiding from whispers. If you listen closely, you can hear someone whisper, "where are they?"

I was originally going to include my thoughts about the coda (that last scene with Rosita and Eugene), but this post is already hella long and I have a lot of thoughts about the coda and how it relates to Beth. So I’m going to make that a separate post. It’ll be posted either tomorrow or Wednesday.

Thanks so much for reading! Anything see anything I missed or interpret anything differently? Who’s excited for S9?!?!

[2traveldads-blog]

With so many ways to do a road trip you can take almost any approach. We just did it with two kids so we are ready to share exactly how to get the most from the Oregon Coast. Doing an Oregon Coast road trip is really fun and very easy. There are zero chances to get lost and 1000 opportunities to fall in love with the nature and nautical sights along the way.

Have you done the Oregon Coast with kids? Want to see what we did to keep them entertained as well as give us parents things to look forward to with each stop? Here’s how you do an Oregon Coast road trip with kids that’s good for the whole family no matter the season.

Packing for an Oregon Coast road trip

The Oregon Coast is gorgeous… even in the foggy rain which you might experience any time of year. When you’re packing for an Oregon Coast road trip be sure to plan for hot sun as well as chilling wet.  As a rule when we’re touring around Western Washington or Oregon we always pack equally for rain or sun, erroring on the side of the time of year. This includes activities we bring with us. Here’s what our Oregon Coast road trip packing list looks like (clothing is per person):

Jacket

Warm hat

Sweatshirt

T-shirts and tanks (3:1 ratio)

Swim shorts and hiking shorts

PANTS

Sandals AND shoes

Kites

Beach gear (including boogie board in summer)

Cribbage, dominoes and Yahtzee

Camera gear

Portable vacuum (the Oregon Coast is sandy and you’ll thank us later)

You know your own travel style and crew, but having done the Oregon Coast road trip thing seven times now, I can confidently say that this list is what will keep you happy and sane all along the coast.

Complete Oregon Coast Road Trip Itinerary

Like with any itinerary, take this one with a grain of salt and update it for your own family. We like to visit beaches, breweries and lighthouses, so this Oregon Coast road trip itinerary has a healthy mixture of nature and culture. And like any jaunt through small town America, you’ll be tempted to stop in places we don’t mention and to find your own foodie spots. Go for it! Road tripping is all about fun and new experiences and the Oregon Coast is no exception!

The rugged coastline of an Oregon Coast road trip is the perfect American vacation plan. From Portland and hiking in the city to the relaxed southern coast, driving the Oregon Coast is an ideal travel plan. 2traveldads.com

Portland, Oregon to start the road trip

In the last few years Portland, Oregon has really grown in popularity. Is it the food or the beer or the wine or the hipsters?  I don’t know, but we love it for lots of reasons. Portland is an ideal place to start your Oregon Coast road trip. Before you head out to the beaches, spend a day or two exploring the city and enjoying Portland’s food scene. FYI, there’s more to Portland than Voodoo Doughnuts.

If you’re all about the city, Portland’s downtown has a nice shopping core and lots of great dining (loved Bamboo Sushi), but the neighborhoods is where it’s at! Check out northeast Portland for more great food, neighborhoods you can stroll through and even book a spa day at the local Finnish spa (without kids though).

Family friendly Portland activities include the Oregon Zoo and Portland Children’s Museum (right next to each other), exploring the Pearl District and markets in Old Town, and hiking in MacLeahey Park.  

Hiking idea:  The Witch’s Castle hike is really fun and beautiful and it’s just outside of downtown.  Easy 1.5 miles round trip and full of moss, streams and the ruins of what looks like a forgotten fortress.  Trail-head is in Macleay Park from the UPPER trail area.

Note: you don’t see us recommend a lot of zoos because many are not up to date and have exhibits that don’t give the animals much space. The Oregon Zoo has made many improvements over the years, including a lot of construction right now, and boasts some of the best habitats we’ve seen in any zoo.  Also, the Oregon Zoo is a part of several conservation programs, including the California Condor breeding program and the Pond Turtle release program, both of which are a huge part of re-establishing species back into their native territory.

There’s more to Portland, but these ideas will get your Oregon Coast road trip off to a great start!

Bonus plan:  for some extra time and beauty in the Portland area, do the Columbia Gorge Waterfall Area. This mini-road trip takes you along historic Route 30 and and is full of waterfalls, including Multnomah Falls, and lots of great hikes.

Exploring Oregon’s North Coast

We’re diving into where we hit the coast on our most recent trip, but you can also alter our route and head to the very northern tip of the Oregon Coast to visit Astoria, Lewis and Clark National Historic Park and Seaside, Oregon. There are some great spots to stop for getting your Goonies fix and enjoying the sleepy side of the coast.

Cannon Beach, Oregon: views and brews

We always think of Cannon Beach as the place where One Eyed Willy’s boat set sail at the end of the Goonies, so naturally that’s where we started.  Ecola State Park is just north of downtown Cannon Beach. It’s a must-visit.  

In addition to the beautiful view of the sea stacks off Cannon Beach and beyond (epic sea mist for photos), there are some awesome hikes and beautiful beaches. While the weather erosion on the point at Ecola State Park has damaged many of the trails to the end, there are still hiking opportunities out of the Indian Beach area. And Indian Beach is actually our first beach stop on our Oregon Coast road trip.

Beach stop:  Indian Beach at Ecola State Park in Cannon Beach is at the end of a two mile winding road through the coastal forest. You can hike the trails to other beaches or just head down the boardwalk trail to the beach. It’s full of driftwood, shells and a few streams, so it’s beautiful and perfect Oregon Coast. The sand is gorgeous and the cove makes for a great kid-friendly beach.

Note:  if you see what looks like thousands of plastic pieces on the beaches of Oregon and Washington, know that they are actually dead jellyfish, not trash. They will sometimes swarm and get washed ashore, drying up and dying. It’s gross and cool at the same time.

Views not to miss:  from the main viewpoint area at Ecola State Park watch the sunset facing south to see the shadows the sea stacks cast. Also from the same area, veer to the north a few hundred yards and sneak a view of the Tillamook Head Lighthouse 1.2 miles off shore (sorry, you can’t visit it)

Public Coast Brewing in Cannon Beach

Every town in Oregon has a brewery, I swear, and some have ten.  Our pick for great micro brews in Cannon Beach is Public Coast Brewing. It’s just outside of the main touristy area of Cannon Beach, but not too far. Walk the block and a half to enjoy their IPAs and burgers.

FYI, dining in Cannon Beach is more expensive than you expect because it’s the closest beach town to Portland, but most places will make sure the value matches the cost. At Public Coast Brewing we had $13 hamburgers that came with nothing but the burger on its own was worth every penny.

Recommendation:  the Sitka Burger and an Imperial IPA. Delicious combo and a perfect example of Oregon Coast brew houses.

Cape Meares Lighthouse

Heading out from Cannon Beach on our Oregon Coast road trip, our next stop is the Cape Meares Lighthouse.  If you’re looking at lighthouse stats and features comparing them all around the USA, you’ll not think twice about visiting Cape Meares Lighthouse.  Here’s why you need to make the stop: you can get right up close to the beautiful, intricate first order Fresnel lens. It’s awesome, especially with kids that like to see how things work.

Also to check out: the tiny town of Garibaldi has some great little seafood shops and places for nautical knickknacks.

Local activity:  whale watching out of Garibaldi is ideal in the spring and fall when the grey whales are going past. If you’re lucky, you might get to see minke whales, transient orcas or even the random blue whale (with crazy good luck!).

Tillamook and all the cheese

Find me somebody that grew up on the West Coast and you can bet they’ve been to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Tillamook Cheese and ice cream and butter and everything else are staples in West Coast homes. They are delicious and pretty darn wholesome.  And you can visit the factory for bottomless samples! #cheesedork

Our favorite thing to try and buy (every time) are the cheddar cheese curds.  When we went to Wisconsin the cheese curds were always fried and served with dipping sauces. On the Oregon Coast (and up in Washington too) we like our curds fresh, squeaky and cold. Delicious.  On our most recent trip we got to try a new cheese, the first new cheese offering from Tillamook in many years: Cape Meares Cheddar. It was like a tangy Gruyere and for a cheese lover, it was to die for.

Note: as of Spring 2018 the new visitors center at the Tillamook Cheese Factory was still not open. It’s slated to open Fall of 2018, but you know, construction timelines…

Pacific City: the gem of the Oregon Coast road trip

Once upon a time in my teens I thought it would be cool to take a little detour on my own crazy Oregon Coast road trip and drive on the beach when I got to Pacific City. It was perfect! Designated areas for driving, very flat beach area, gorgeous view to enjoy… and then the tide came in and I sank and had to wait, full of anxiety, as the winch truck drove from an hour away to rescue me… as the waves lapped at my Blazer’s tires. Everything turned out okay, but I ended up staying in Pacific City.

Fast forward twenty years and Pacific City, Oregon is the perfect Oregon Coast destination with kids! We like to break up our road trips with downtime and having a home base, so Pacific City served for that on our most recent Oregon Coast road trip. We rented a VRBO right downtown and enjoyed beach time, tide pools, kite flying, and sunsets.

Cape Kiwanda and picturesque Oregon Coast views

Pacific City is located just to the south of Cape Kiwanda, a breathtaking cape jutting out into the Pacific Ocean. It is a protected area, but you can climb its dunes, hike its trails and explore the tide pools all around the base.  The best time to sit and appreciate this perfect site is at sunrise. With the sun coming up behind you, Cape Kiwanda glows orange unlike any other piece of coast we’ve seen. It’s beautiful and romantic (if you’re into that).

  Brews at the Beach in Pacific City

Of course we enjoyed the local brewery in Pacific City! Our VRBO was less than a block from the Pelican Brewery so we took full advantage of it for our weekend of relaxation. With more than 15 beers under their label, Pelican Brewing Co has some great standards and seasonal options at all times.  The Umbrella IPA was our favorite.

Tip:  if you stop at a brewery you love, get a growler of your favorite beer on tap to enjoy at your place or the beach (confirm open container laws before drinking in public).  You can reuse your growler as you continue on your Oregon Coast road trip! NEVER DRINK AND DRIVE.

Yaquina Head Lighthouse

As you leave Pacific City you start to head down into the more rugged parts of the Oregon Coast.  The Yaquina Head Lighthouse is a state protected area inclusive of hiking trails, cliffs, tide pools, an interpretive center and, of course, the tallest lighthouse in Oregon. A stop into the visitors center is required to get the lowdown on Oregon’s lighthouse history as well as to learn about the wildlife of the area, including the migrating whales.

Tip:  you MUST stop into the visitors center if you want to get onto one of the lighthouse tours. The Yaquina Head Lighthouse is only open to the public via tour. They do have a height restriction of 42” to participate (small kids can’t go up). This is common with tall lighthouses (check out our visit to the St Augustine Lighthouse).

Even without going up into the lighthouse, stopping at Yaquina Head is really cool. Watching for whales, visiting the tide pools and observing the harbor seal colony below all make it a great stop with kids. Make sure you bring your binoculars to spy whales both up close and on the horizon.

Newport, Oregon

Newport, Oregon is a pretty large town and has a cute bayfront area to explore. It’s another great option for a homebase on your Oregon Coast road trip (but we’ll share a different one) as it’s close to beaches, shopping, lots of dining, the Oregon Coast Aquarium, the Undersea Gardens, a few tourist traps (Hello, Ripley’s…), and it’s own lighthouse.

If you’re into festivals, Seafood Fest takes place in February each year and is the place to experience Oregon Coastal Cuisine, Oregon wine, and more.  Newport also tends to have a bit better weather than some of its northern neighbors, so plan on hitting the beach and festivals with your classiest Oregon summer fashion (aka socks and sandals) and sunblock.

Yaquina Bay Lighthouse

It’s easy to miss the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse if you’re just driving right through Newport on your Oregon Coast road trip, but stopping is actually a great use of time. Built in 1871, the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse is cute, wheelchair accessible (around the grounds) and not far off your course.  It is open to the public most days, but you’ll want to confirm online or locally before making it a part of your primary road trip plan.

Cape Perpetua, Thor’s Well and Devil’s Churn

Rock formations and crashing waves are a big part of what an Oregon Coast road trip is all about. Driving south on Highway 101 from Newport you’ll notice that the road starts to swerve and wind.  That’s because the coastline went from jagged mixed with sandy beaches, to rocky and untamed. If you’re easily distracted have somebody else drive so you can enjoy the views.

THE stop you have to make in this stretch of the drive is at Cape Perpetua. Part of Oregon State Parks, you have a few ways to enjoy the area. If you head up the hill you have several hiking options to get breathtaking views up and down the coast. Pulling into the Devil’s Churn area, you can see some intense coastal water features including the churn, more tide pools, Thor’s Well (a hike around two points) and even a spout/blowhole.

Tip:  to see the spout you don’t have to do the big hike to Thor’s Well, but can simply head down the trail to the tide pool area and watch across the cove. A big wave will make a burst of water across the way just like a whale spout.

Haceta Head and the best view on the Oregon Coast

We’re suckers for beautiful views. I mean, who isn’t? Just past Cape Perpetua there are several pull out areas to admire the picturesque Haceta Head Lighthouse and beach below. Really, it’s the most beautiful view on the whole Oregon Coast.  Be sure to stop and enjoy the crashing waves and sea lions below.

Haceta Head Lighthouse

There are two ways to enjoy a stop at the Haceta Head Lighthouse: 1.) relax in the beautiful cove area and have a beach/tide pool day OR 2.) do the ~0.5 mile hike up the hill to the actual Haceta Head Lighthouse and check it out up close. You can even stay in the keepers quarters at the lighthouse.

Tip: if you do want to stay in the keepers quarters, be sure to make the inquiry and reserve it the second you know you’re interested. Such cool and unusual accommodations book far in advance.

Florence, Oregon: a perfect Central Oregon Coast home base

Upon first approach or even driving through, Florence doesn’t seem like the dream Oregon Coast road trip stop or homebase. Rethink that right now! The town of Florence is set directly between the most jagged and beautiful parts of the Oregon Coast, it’s directly adjacent to the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area and it has an adorable Old Town area that has lots of cute shops and some great dining options.

We stayed at the Old Town Inn just off Highway 101 and it was great for our family of four. It was clean and quiet and located right next to the Old Town area and riverfront. Really, staying someplace small and unique made for a different travel experience and it felt good to support a small business.

Tip: the Oregon Coast, including Florence, doesn’t have many well known or top rated hotel brands. That said, “Inns” and seaside motels are actually quite nice sometimes and most are family run. READ REVIEWS of lodging before booking, but feel confident going off-brand for your road trip.

Easy road trip stop: going between Florence and the southern destinations, make a stop in Reedsport and check out the Umpqua River Lighthouse. It’s your stereotypical lighthouse, set nicely at the mouth of the Umpqua River and looks both charming and extra historic when it’s the afternoon golden hour (perfect for photo ops).

Activities near Florence, Oregon

We really had a great time all around Florence, Oregon. We took advantage of the town’s close proximity to beaches for fun relaxation in the sun paired with beachcombing. We also had a great time kayaking the freshwater lakes and hiking the dunes at Honeyman State Park… and then the dune buggies! There are several tour operators around Florence to take guests out on the epic sand dunes (we had a great time with Sand Dunes Frontier).

And if dune buggies aren’t your thing, there is also the option to ride horses through the dunes and to the beach. Due to weather and our littlest’s age, we just stuck around C&M Stables for a fun cow poke ride but there was another crew totally excited to head out for a full ride, no matter the weather.

One last spot that’s pretty cool and worth checking out if you’re interested is Sea Lion Caves. The largest sea cave in North America, it’s the go-to spot to observe hundreds of sea lions and beautiful sea birds. There is an admission fee per person, so families will have to fork out around $50 or so (depending on group size) and it really is pretty neat, but if you are doing your Oregon Coast road trip on a budget, you can observe sea lions lots of other places along the coast.

Coos Bay for epic coastlines and Lighthouse views

If you’re driving Highway 101 down the Oregon Coast you’ll have to go through Coos Bay. Upon first look, it might seem like a quiet logging town without much going on, but it’s actually a bustling place. Between some of the cool art deco buildings and the coastal themed street art, Coos Bay is a great stop for lunch or dinner as you continue on your road trip.

Coos Bay is also the gateway to some of the most aggressive waves and breathtaking strips of coast. To get to Sunset Bay and Shore Acres State Park, follow the signs to the Cape Arago Highway and head to the beach… or the cliffs. Sunset Bay is a great cove/beach area for picnicking and playing in the water. There’s a stream the kids can play in too, and even some tide pools at low tide.

Shore Acres State Park is perhaps the most fascinating place on the coast. The erosion of the coastline over time has formed some interesting features, not to mention that the luxury estate that was once there can still be seen falling into the sea. Also, you can visit the botanic gardens within the park, which do some really cool light displays during the holidays (or so we’re told).

Tip: due to its remote location, the State Park entrance fee machines in the area only take cash, so be prepared with some fives or ones, cuz that’s cheaper than a citation.

How to see the Cape Arago Lighthouse

The Cape Arago Lighthouse is out in the middle of the water, about three hundred yards off the shore. You cannot access it unless you’re doing something coast guard-ish, but you can see it and dream about being an old-timey lighthouse keeper (because that’s one of my three wishes in the event I meet a genie). So, how do you see the Cape Arago Lighthouse?

At Sunset Bay, skirt along the base of the cliffs at low tide until you get to the mouth of the bay and can see the lighthouse (slippery tide pool warning)

Pull over when driving between Sunset Beach and Shore Acres and walk down the clearly marked trail to the viewpoint

It really is a beautiful lighthouse and is my favorite to spy on the Oregon Coast road trip route, so take a few minutes to enjoy it.

Chillin’ out in Bandon, Oregon

Not Brandon; Bandon. Bandon, Oregon is another town that makes for a good homebase while you’re doing an Oregon Coast road trip. There are many small inns and even a couple resorts (with world class golf, if that’s your thing) that serve for an overnight or two.

Located on a small bay, Bandon has a cute little old town area similar to Florence. Restaurants, galleries and maritime shops dot the area so it’s perfect for an afternoon or evening stroll.  There are also plenty of beaches on either side of the town, so if the plan is just to relax for a few days, this is the spot.

Tip:  there are several options for whale watching out of Bandon, Oregon along the marina if you’d like to plan or go for an impromptu jaunt (depending on the season). Whale season tends to be April through September.

Coquille River Lighthouse

A highlight for us in Bandon was the Coquille River Lighthouse. This lighthouse is particularly interesting because it’s located ON the Coquille River instead of on a head or rock.  No longer in operation, but still open for tours, the Coquille River Lighthouse is colorful and unique, surrounded by dunes and beaches. It is located within Bullards Beach State Park, so there are plenty of day use sites for picnicking or beach access.

Tip: plan a visit to Coquille River Lighthouse in the late morning so you can grab a picnic table or good beach spot for lunch.

Also, if your Oregon Coast road trip is going to be a camping trip, Bullards Beach State Park has a fair number of campsites.  This is a great way to be close to Bandon without staying directly in the town.

Gold Beach for relaxing to the max

Gold Beach, Oregon is almost to the California border, but not quite. It’s a quiet town, very similar to Rockaway Beach, OR or Ocean Shores, WA, so its population and popularity changes with the good weather. While there isn’t a ton to do in Gold Beach specifically (except relax and fly kites), there are some cool sites to make for fun day trips.

Cape Blanco Lighthouse is just to the north of Gold Beach. It’s a pretty tall lighthouse and there are fun beach activities nearby if you’d like to make a day of it.  Also a short drive (about 1.5 hours) from Gold Beach is Oregon Caves National Monument. It’s a really cool cave system to go through with an awesome National Park lodge, the Oregon Caves Chateau, where you can have a nice lunch or dinner in the hills.

Tip: if you want to continue your Oregon Coast road trip all the way into California, check out our itinerary for a full NorCal coast trip covering everything from the southern Oregon coast to San Francisco.

Are you totally ready to plan and enjoy your full Oregon Coast road trip?!? We could do this route any time of year and have a blast, but late spring or September are the best times to go. If you have any questions or recommendations, don’t hesitate to ask or tell us.  Leave a comment below or email us!

Want to pin this for planning your own Oregon Coast road trip? Go for it!!!

The Complete Oregon Coast Road Trip Itinerary, from tip to tip With so many ways to do a road trip you can take almost any approach. We just did it with two kids so we are ready to share exactly how to get the most from the Oregon Coast.

[wymanthewalrus]

I think I'm going to go on a bit of an educated and probably pretentious-sounding rant about popular perceptions of both current and historical events in, for lack of a better term, the Middle East. It's gonna be LONG. 

FOREWARNING: I'm not a published expert on the subject and this isn't intensively cited or peer-reviewed. I may get facts wrong. TAKE EVERYTHING I SAY HERE WITH A GRAIN OF SALT.

So this post has been brewing for a while, but was specifically set off by something I saw on Reddit today. Someone, in a discussion about ISIS and the Syrian Civil War, said, and I quote: "We need a new Crusade." It's a sentiment I've seen a lot in the past few months in various forms all around the internet and the news, and it reflects, in my opinion, the complete and total ignorance of both history and politics of the people making those statements.

Now I'm going to start with the modern and geopolitical problems with that statement first because they're the simplest to explain and observe.

PROBLEM THE FIRST: Do we need a "new Crusade" to bring down ISIS? Not at all. The Iraqis and Kurds are currently in the process of winning the conflict. By quite a lot. The question is not IF ISIS will collapse, but WHEN. The big problem is that the conflict with ISIS is part of a much larger and more complicated quagmire of violence in Iraq and Syria. There are dozens of factions fighting amongst themselves for a dozen different reasons, which is complex enough, but the greater Syrian Civil War conflict has extended further into a sort of proxy war between local powers. Every neighboring country, and some that aren't even close, has a stake.

There are several important players and power blocs to consider. The first is Turkey. With the 8th largest military on Earth, and still riding a wave of popularity following the recent failed coup, Turkey's government has several goals. The first is to prevent Turkish Kurds from seceding in the even that the inevitable defeat of ISIS gives rise to an independent Kurdistan. Second, Turkey wants to keep the wider conflict from crossing over its borders.

Saudi Arabia and its Gulf State allies, being primarily Sunni Muslim, are treating the war as a way to gain a leg up over the primarily Shia Muslim Iran in regional influence, so different militias supported by both factions are thrown into the mix.

Add in the Syrian Government and its brutal human rights abuses and recent Russian Interference on the regime's side, targeting non-ISIS rebels more often than ISIS troops and a resultant spike in tensions with the US and Turkey. In the middle of it all are the Kurds and Iraqis, operating with US and Iranian support in Northern Iraq and Syria. These guys are the ones who are currently doing most of the winning against ISIS, as far as I am currently aware.

The entire situation is a tangled mess of alliances, ambitions, angry rebels, and zero foresight. Anyone who has studied history can point to another specific war that highlights just how bad an unnecessary escalation would be: The First World War. It all started as a regional conflict between independence-seeking rebels and Austria-Hungary, but escalated when other European powers started treating it as a way to advance their own interests. A tangle of alliances and treaties fired off and BAM, Europe was in chaos. 

An escalation of the greater Syrian Civil War conflict, could easily result in something similar. Besides ALL of that, the most often-cited reason for an invasion is ISIS, the ones who are currently losing to the Kurds and Iraqis. So an escalation would not only be potentially devastating, it would also be completely pointless.

Which brings me back to the idea of the Crusades.

The implication of a "new Crusade" would be a religiously-justified war against a specific religious group, in this case Christian armies attacking Muslims. Now aside from the fact that this would be, according to a 2010 study, declaring war on 1.6 billion people and would almost certainly result in nothing but a further downward spiral in stability in the Middle East and a continuing cycle of violence, poverty, migration, and xenophobia, there is a much deeper issue with this Reddit post.

The Crusades are commonly portrayed in Western, European-descended cultures as a cut-and-dry series of wars waged by Christian Europe with the intent to return the holy land to Christian hands.

This explanation skims the surface of the reality of the Crusades and adds a cultural bias for good measure. It has parts that could be construed as accurate from a certain standpoint, but obscures massive amounts of complexity for the sake of a specific narrative.

To understand the Crusades, we have to understand the time period. The First Crusade was called by Pope Urban II in 1095. The world at the time, and the way religion was treated, was vastly different from the modern world. The previous four hundred years had seen the rise of a series of vast, immensely powerful Arabic Islamic Empires - the Caliphates. Following directly in the wake of the founding of Islam and the death of the Prophet Muhammad, the first of these empires quickly expanded from a small realm around Mecca and Medina all the way into North Africa and Central Asia.

I would argue that these conquests were not religiously motivated, but rather the same natural drive for expansion that every large Empire in history has required to remain intact, but that's an argument for another time. 

Of immediate relevance to this rant is the  interactions between the Islamic Empires and Europe. At the time of their first appearance, Christian Europe was in the midst of what we know of as the Dark Ages. Literacy rates and urban populations were at rock bottom and most people relied on farming to survive. There really weren't any powerful countries in Western Europe, but in Greece and Turkey the Byzantine Empire - the last vestige of Rome - reigned supreme as the sole bastion of civilization in a dark, dark Europe. 

The Caliphate entered the scene while the Byzantines were locked in conflict with their rivals, the Sassanid Empire of Persia. In a relatively short amount of time, the Sassanids had been destroyed and the Byzantines had lost control of Egypt and North Africa to what became known as the Rashidun Caliphate. Byzantium was still  powerful, though, and resisted multiple invasions over the next several centuries.

In essence, the Byzantine Empire became a sort of barrier preventing the Caliphates from pushing into Eastern Europe. Eventually, however, Spain came under Arabic control as well, and the initial wave of conquest was stopped by a Frankish army at the Battle of Tours in 732.

For the next three centuries, the rising Christian Kingdoms of Europe remained sheltered from conquest by the natural barriers of the Pyrenees Mountains and the Byzantine Empire. During this time, the Islamic Caliphates were HIGHLY tolerant of other religions and cultures, creating special ordinances and codes that protected non-Muslims' rights and encouraged their participation in local government. The Europeans were too busy slaughtering pagans and heathens to take note, but Christian and Jewish pilgrims were free to travel to their holy sites.

Fast forward to 1071. A nomadic people from Central Asia, the Seljuqs, have taken control of Persia and Iraq and crushed the Byzantine army at the Battle of Manzikert. The Byzantines barely retain control of the coast of modern-day Turkey, with everything in the interior and East falling into Seljuq hands. The Seljuqs, although Islamic like their Caliphate neighbors, have less-pleasant policies towards other religions, and cut off the main overland pilgrimage route to the Holy Land.

The Byzantines appealed to the Pope for aid. I could go into the whole Catholic/Orthodox nature of this in detail, but it's not really worth the space. Suffice to say that Catholic and Orthodox Christians didn’t see eye to eye, and getting them to cooperate was nigh-impossible. What IS important is that the Byzantines were requesting help with the reasoning that is Byzantium fell, Europe would as well.

The problem for the Pope, thanks to the Catholic/Orthodox issue that I'm skimming over, was that "Help the Byzantines" wasn't a good reason to call for a holy war. Because his only influence over Europe was through the lens of religion, he needed a good enough religious reason to rally the European Kingdoms and get them fired up to invade. Fortunately for the Pope, the Seljuqs had cut off the pilgrimage routes and he could ask the European Kings and Nobles to invade for the purpose of "returning the Holy Land to Christian hands."

That right there is the important part. The Crusades did NOT start for religious purposes, they simply used them as a convenient excuse and rallying cry. Amusingly, although the Crusaders DID invade through Seljuq-controlled lands, the First Crusade also targeted lands and cities that weren't even under Seljuq control. Jerusalem, for instance, was controlled by the Fatimid Caliphate. 

While I'm on the subject of Jerusalem, I should mention that the super-Christian Crusaders, upon taking the city, slaughtered pretty much every non-Christian they could find. Although massacres were relatively commonplace in medieval warfare, the Massacre of Jerusalem is often said to have exceeded even the standards of the time. 

Eyewitnesses reported that the Crusaders waded through blood as high as their ankles or even knees in some places. The Jewish synagogue was burned with the Jews who took refuge there still trapped inside. On the Temple Mount, one crusader stated that over 10,000 innocents, including women and children, were butchered. Some Muslims were spared as captives and made to drag the corpses out of the city into massive, house-sized piles.

Ultimately, the Crusades were useless. They accomplished nothing and served only to spill the blood of thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people. The Fourth Crusade even ended up as an invasion of the Byzantine Empire, sealing the coffin of the declining Empire's fate with a betrayal by supposed allies. So, in conclusion, the crusades were ineffective wars fought in the name of a religion by highly-religious warriors for a completely non-religious purpose that the failed at more miserably than just about anyone has ever failed in history while at the same time committing stomach-churning atrocities.

Do we "Need a new Crusade?"

No.

No, we absolutely don't.

[blandiloquent-bliss]

My Acne Battles

*Disclaimer that I am not a doctor this is simply from my own experiences; in other words take this advice as a grain of salt, do you're own research too prior to applying anything to your skincare routine* *I HIGHLY recommend seeing a Dermatologist if you are worried about your skin.* The one thing that most young teenagers can all agree with is that acne is the most sabotaging and out-right annoying part of coming of age. Particularly when it follows you into adulthood...my goodness one of the most frustrating aspects of life. But to be frank we can only allow it to come so far before it makes our self-confidence crumble. Before resorting to medications such as Benzol Peroxide (like the medication Accutane), Roaccuttane, and other topic retinoid medications, try these few things as perhaps you may be missing these out of your skin care routine. Of course if you're well knowing of the severity of your acne, go for gold and see a dermatologist. These kinds of medications are great for treating severe acne. But here are some simple but effective tips that I have adapted into my lifestyle. 1. Washing my face with water multiple times a day. - Up to or at least 3 times daily, keep in mind morning, coming home from being out and about (pollutions and dirt in the ambient air), after working out, and before bed. - You don't really need heaps and heaps of products in your routine which are unecessary, simplifying your routine will help you find the route to the problem of your acne (rather than continuing to add more products into your routine.) --> this is what I found anyway in my own personal experience. You don't need extremely expensive products to maintain good skin. 2. Apply SUNSCREEN daily!!! Vitamin D is fabulous for your skin and acne repair. - Now don't fret darling sunscreen is what will keep your skin plump and maintaining its restoring abilities until the end of time. This is important as we need to protect our skin from the harsh sun rays as well as maintaining your youthful complection. -Go out and sunbathe (safely of course no longer than 15 minutes stagnent particularly in summertime, also keep in mind the time of day. Best to do so in the morning as the suns prime time is different everywhere. Just research for your location and be weary to not be out long in the sun during this time. Even just to completely avoid this time as a whole.) -You can purchase sunscreens that have less or more oil depending on your skin type so keep this into consideration before purchasing a sunscreen for you. - It's a fantastic habit to apply sunscreen all over your body every day as your skin is too an important and vital organ to your holistic health. 3. Go for a dip in the ocean. -Yes! The saltwater cleanses your skin and naturally exfoliates it too. -If you don't live near the ocean you could make up your own salt and warm water ratio with cotton balls and apply to the affected area. Keep in mind to not put too much salt in the water. This will result in just simply drying your skin out which is not what we want. 4. A product that I enjoy quite a lot (maybe too much) is the Alya Pink Clay mask. -This mask has done wonders for my skin. It is a daily face mask and it is always important to try a test area (maybe on your hand and not face) before using the product just in case of any unwanted reactions. But the Rose Rogusa Flower Oil infused mask (along with many other magnificent VEGAN ingredients) not only smells amazing but is amazing. :') - Mind you the mask is a detoxifier and brightener which means it needs to bring all the bumps and imperfections beneath the surface (Dermis layer) to the surface of your skin (Epidermis layer). So yes you will see yourself breaking out before getting better but my goodness it is so worth it! -It also can heal acne scars quite well (for me personally) although I have seen some who had had quite severe scarring and come out with an almost completely healed outcome. Again do your research. -Did I mention its cruelty free and vegan... well here's another mention. What more could you need in a mask. 5. Pimple Cream. -To treat the pimple or acne areas that has arrisen to the surface I would specifically apply pimple cream to those specific areas and by morning it should have settled significantly. 6. Serums. - For me personally the clay mask dried out my skin a bit so I would compliment this with an oil serum so that it would maintain a balance in my skins durability. I would usually apply the oil at night before bed so my skin had the opportunity to absorb the oil in my sleep. 7. WATER AND A GOOD DIET. -none of this will work as effectively if you donn't drink your average of 2.1L/day of water (for adults). -Eating a good diet can do more wonders than you'd think for your skin. -keep lemon-water in mind too, it can detoxify your body and leave your skin with a glow. 8. DON'T POP IT. -But if you're going to just know that you have vital capillaries of venous structures under your skins surface (in the Hypodermis, which is all connected through capillary veins running in the Dermis and Epidermis layers). --> Popping a pimple incorectly can result in further superficial infection. BUT! You can actually cause a lot more harm. - On top of this you're increasing chance of scar-tissue, rupturing capillaries, and the folliicle walls in your skin. -Popping superficial pimples with cotton pads on each side to squeeze rather than your hands as it is quite harsh and can cause scarring. But again don't do it unless you deem necessary and do it safely. 9. Moisturize. - Besides sunscreen if you're not really leaving the house using moisturiser is crucial even if you think you have too much oil, and that you're going to put too much oily product on your skin. Trust me when I say your skin can still be dry even when it seems like it is too oily. - Picking a moisturiser to suite YOUR skin is important. Do your research again on your skin type and choosing what's right for you. 10. Ginger. - Ginger has many anti-inflammatory properites and can help reduct inflamations and tone your skin too. - Blend your own ginger and rinse juice from the ginger bits and bobs through a tea-towel and apply the juice to the affected areas daily. Again although this is a natural root apply the juice to your hand first before placing on your skin. 11. For burn scars, try PawPaw Cream. - really for all scars I have found that using PawPaw cream has healed healing processes immenseley. I haven't tried using it on my face as it is a bit viscous to apply to the face but on scars on my knee's from stacksand falls I've had I've found that it helps the process of healing quite sufficiently. 12. Stress can cause acne! - Yes indeed it can. Easier said than done but try to relieve stress. I'm a worry head myself and I find that when my adrenaline and cortisol levels are on a high my hormones go all over the place causing acne. -What to do about it. --> Buy lavender oil/solution and infuse some into a tissue and keep this in your pocket during the day. I brought this into my HSC exams and it relieved my stress enough to get me through it. -If you think your stress in greatly affecting your acne, or that anxiety is taking over your life I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you see a General Practice in moving foward to getting help with this. -Also when I'm all flustered running around like a loose cannon persay, I like to stop and recognise 5-10 things that are either: a ) happening around me (actions/verbs). b ) Smells I can recognise. c ) Things I can feel. d ) What do I taste? --> During my personal panic attacks I can have a metallic taste in my mouth, maybe you find something similar in your own. Acknowledge it. And remind yourself of your anxiety. Breathe. 1,2,3. This is just one moment of the day. One moment in time. You are not alone. Now there are so many others but let me repeat again. ** I am not a doctor.** I high recommend seeing a Dermatologist or seeing your General Practice to get a referral to a Dermatologist to check your skin, but I would of loved to have someone tell me these things before I personally went out thinking I needed to purchase all these unecessary and expensive prodcts; when doing the most simple tasks for your skin-care can achieve wonders. If you enjoyed this and thought it was educational reblog or like and I can continue educating my knowledge and wisdom in all aspects of things including more acne teachings I have to share. Thank you. And rememmber that your skin does not and will definitlety not ever define who you are. If someone notices and exclaims your skin to you, just know they must have a deeper saddness of some insecurities of their own. RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH! No skin type is the same! Find what works for you. This is what worked for me. My inbox is open for any questions in regards to this, thank you again and goodluck on your journey! :)

[floraexplorer]

Everything I Learnt Backpacking Bolivia in Three Months – A Traveller’s Guide 

I spent an unforgettable three months backpacking Bolivia.

Bolivia is one of the cheapest countries in South America for backpackers – particularly compared to its neighbours in Chile and Argentina. Many visitors travel Bolivia for the Salt Flat deserts, the witches markets in the breathlessly high city of La Paz, and the mysterious Lake Titicaca – the world’s highest navigable lake.

But there’s so much more to see in Bolivia.

I chose to spend three months backpacking Bolivia, and my Bolivia itinerary was scattered and circuitous. I volunteered in La Paz, fell in love in Sucre, drank local wine in Tarija and stepped inside dinosaur footprints in Parque Torotoro. I danced under the full moon beside Illimani mountain and lived in a tiny village without running water. I hugged llamas beside the highest lake in the world and slept within walls made of salt.

When I think back to the three months I spent backpacking Bolivia, it’s just as easy to remember tiny moments and details. Crisp blue skies. Brightly patterned textiles. Sunburnt cheeks. I remember chewing coca leaves to alleviate the light-headed sensation I felt in high altitude. I remember queuing for breakfast at Sucre’s Mercado Central each morning, squashing onto a plastic stool to eat papa rellena with a chipped spoon.

Whether I was travelling in cities, villages, canyons, deserts or worryingly rickety buses, I found Bolivia to be one of the most fascinating, frustrating, hilarious, eye-opening countries I’ve ever travelled through.

To put it simply, Bolivia is an incredible place.

Things to know about backpacking Bolivia

What’s the weather in Bolivia like?

Because much of Bolivia is at a high elevation, it’s hot in the fierce daytime sun and cold at night. That means plenty of suncream and plenty of layers! It’s also advised to carry a waterproof because the weather can turn pretty quickly.

What’s the best time of year to visit Bolivia?

Most recommend the dry winter season of May-October for travelling in Bolivia, as opposed to the rainy summer season of September-March.

I didn’t know this beforehand, so I was travelling in Bolivia between September and December; the tail end of the cooler months, transitioning into spring. That said, the altitude affects everything: September in La Paz (altitude of 3,640m) was warm in the bright sun but chilly in the shade. My next month in Sucre felt like constant springtime, despite being October, and the tail end of the year ranged from freezing (Potosi, at 4,067m) to balmy (Tarija at 1,866m).

Some destinations, like the Salar de Uyuni, can change drastically depending on the time of year. If you visit in March/April you’re most likely to catch the ‘mirror effect’, when high rainfall allows the Salt Flats to reflect the sky. However, that same rain also makes it harder to visit Fish Island. Most people visit the Salar de Uyuni between May and October – lots of sun, and not much rain.

What food can I eat in Bolivia?

For a country highly focused on grains and potatoes, I still really enjoyed the food in Bolivia – although if you’re vegetarian then it might require some research. That’s because, as in most of South America, meat is a staple part of most plates of Bolivian food, and asking for a meal without meat will often confuse people.

Here are some of my favourite typical Bolivian foods:

Salteñas – little hard pastry shells filled with meat, vegetables and gravy, which you can buy at the side of the road. The gravy inside has a tendency to spill everywhere, so the trick is to bite off the top then drink the gravy before eating the rest.

Papas rellenas – a ball of fried mashed potato with egg, meat or vegetables in the centre, topped with spicy onion and tomato sauce. Because it needs to be eaten from a bowl, papas rellenas is usually bought and eaten at a market, where you’ll squash onto a plastic stool amongst the other customers and hand back your bowl when you’ve finished.

Tucumanas – these deep-fried pastries are the larger version of a salteña. Make sure to ladle on the various sauces available at a street food stand – or enjoy them with a delicious side salad at Condor Cafe in Sucre!

Buñelos – this fried cheese snack is oily as anything but seriously delicious.

Pique macho – if you’re feeling the after-effects of the night before, you should opt for this hangover-worthy plateful of French-fry style chips and bitesize slices of steak, along with onions, hard-boiled eggs, mustard, mayo and ketchup.

You should also get used to eating an almuerzo each day: a set meal of two courses eaten at lunchtime, which usually includes a bowl of soup and a segundo of meat, vegetables and rice, along with a postre (dessert) and a glass of juice. The almuerzo is usually the cheapest thing on the menu as the working Bolivan day revolves around it: restaurants are packed between 12-3pm and it’s the best place to mix with plenty of local Bolivians.

Finally, markets are a way of life in Bolivia. If you spend more than a few days in any location I’d suggest frequenting your closest food market to do your food shopping and barter for some fresh produce. It’s a great way to practice your Spanish too!

Read more: eating traditional Bolivian food in Sucre

What’s the political climate in Bolivia like?

Generally speaking, most Bolivians are hospitable and friendly (although many aren’t the smile-on-first-meeting type). However, Bolivia itself is a very politicised country so protests, marches and blockades are pretty common. They’re usually peaceful – I spent a morning in La Paz chatting to nurses and medical staff who were out on the streets to protest for higher pay – but sometimes it can become more violent, involving tear gas from police and objects thrown by protestors.

Is Bolivia safe for backpackers travelling alone?

Bolivia is quite a poor country but isn’t particularly unsafe. You just have to keep your wits about you, trust your gut instincts, and take care of your valuables.

– Ask questions before paying for things. As tourism increases in Bolivia, there are more untrustworthy tour companies and guides – so ask plenty of questions before handing your money over.

– Watch out for scams. There are also a number of common scams in Bolivia including the ‘false police’ scam, which involves a policeman asking for your ID and then demanding payment of a fine. If you’re ever stopped by the police in Bolivia, demand to see a warrant and contact your Embassy.

– Don’t take drugs. As one of the world’s largest cocaine producing countries, Bolivia’s drug problem is ever-present. Travellers are often attracted to a legendary underground cocaine bar in La Paz called Route 36 (found by asking a taxi driver to drive you to its ever-changing location); however, backpackers in South America should be aware that being caught with cocaine in Bolivia could carry a sentence of up to ten years in San Pedro prison. This La Paz destination was made famous thanks to a memoir called Marching Powder which was written by a British inmate in 2011, and the book has prompted hundreds of tourists to queue up outside the prison and attempt to tour it.

Conversely, the laws surrounding hallucinogenic substances like ayahuasca and the San Pedro cactus are more blurred. Both substances can be seen for sale at the Witches Market in La Paz – but from personal experience, I’d recommend against buying them yourself, and only partaking in ceremonies with trusted shamans.

Read more: my all-night dancing experience with the San Pedro cactus

Do I need travel insurance for Bolivia?

Yes, absolutely! You should have comprehensive travel insurance when backpacking South America – or anywhere, for that matter. I usually use World Nomads as it’s designed for adventurous travellers.

Can I drink the water in Bolivia?

It’s definitely not a good idea to drink the tap water in Bolivia – stick to bottled, unless you’ve brought a filtration system you trust.

Do I need to speak Spanish in Bolivia?

Although it’s certainly possible to travel through Bolivia without any Spanish, there are significantly less English-speaking locals here than in other South American countries.

Luckily, Bolivia is also one of the best South American countries to learn Spanish, thanks to their clear and neutral accent, and it’s also one of the cheapest. Plenty of language schools offer individual or group classes: I spent a month taking daily one-on-one classes at Pico Verde in La Paz and improved from beginner to semi-fluent.

If you don’t have time for lessons, I’d still highly recommend using a phone app like DuoLinguo to practice on while you’re travelling in Bolivia, and at the very least try to have the basic greetings, numbers and simple conversational phrases written down somewhere.

I spent 18 months learning Spanish in South America –– read my ‘Spanish Challenge’ series here!

Travelling around Bolivia

What kind of transport can I take in Bolivia?

Travelling around Bolivia is almost exclusively via public bus. This can be both a blessing and a curse: the journeys are long but extremely cheap; the roads are stunningly scenic but full of potholes; the passengers and accompanying stories can be really fascinating, but often you’re worried that the drivers are drunk.

Apart from buses, there’s the option of private taxi hire, renting and driving your own car, or even taking the few train routes through the country. It’s also possible to fly between major cities to avoid the lengthly road distances – the bigger cities like La Paz, Sucre, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz are all connected by daily flights.

However, all of my Bolivian travels were by bus.

Bus routes and ticket prices in Bolivia:

La Paz to Sucre: 100 Bs for 10-12 hours, semi cama seat. This is usually an overnight journey, leaving 7pm and arriving 7am.

Sucre to Potosi: 15 Bs for 3 hours, normal seat, departing every hour.

Sucre to Tarija: 12 hours, costs 80 Bs, departs at 8pm and arrives 7am.

Potosi to Tarija: 80 Bs for 10 hours, semi cama seat, departing in the morning and evening.

Tarija to Tupiza: 80 Bs for 7 hours, semi cama seat. This overnight route is an infamously rough ride, so pack some anti-sickness pills.

Tupiza to Villazon (Argentinian border): 20 Bs for 2 hours, normal seat.

Uyuni to Potosi: 30 Bs for 5 hours, normal seat.

Potosi to Cochabamba: 60 Bs for 7 hours, semi cama seat.

Cochabamba to Torotoro National Park: 25 Bs for 5 hours, normal seat. This winding route has two daily departures at 6am and midday.

Cochabamba to Sucre: this 12 hour journey is on an unpaved road so you won’t sleep much.

Cochabamba to La Paz: 70 Bs for 9 hours, semi cama seat. There are six departures daily.

La Paz to Lake Titicaca: 40 Bs for a 3-4 hour journey on a normal seat.

La Paz to Uyuni: 12-15 hours, only overnight departures.

Read more: A guide to dealing with bus travel in Bolivia

Tips for bus travel in Bolivia:

– Buy your bus tickets at bus stations. Trying to decipher the online booking systems is nearly impossible and besides, you might get turned away with a blank stare unless you do it in person. Also this is the prime time to haggle and question the various company operators.

– Bring layers. There are always people selling garishly patterned blankets at bus stations, and for good reason: often the air con will be cranked up to freezing temperatures, so it’s worth having plenty of clothes to keep you warm. I often took my sleeping bag on board and used that.

– Aim for daytime journeys. On a long travel day, it’s worth having the scenery to stare out at (unless, like me, you have a strong fear of heights when driving the winding mountain roads!). There’s also enough cautionary tales about drunk and overtired drivers to warrant a daytime journey – not to mention stories of nighttime muggings and bus hijackings.

– Prepare for protests and road blockades. On our way into Cochabamba, our bus stopped 25km away from the city because the highway was filled with multiple blockades and protestors. We had no choice but to shoulder our bags and start walking – and all the other Bolivian passengers didn’t seem phased by this turn of events at all. As a result, I’d recommend bringing luggage you can carry relatively easily to Bolivia!

Where should I stay in Bolivia?

Bolivia has probably the cheapest accommodation in all of South America. There are plenty of cheap hostels in Bolivia to suit all kinds of backpackers, including various branches of the Wild Rover and Loki hostels (infamous party hostels in South America) and just as many budget hotels in the touristy areas.

It’s also possible to rent out apartments in Bolivia on Airbnb – sign up here and get £25 off your first booking!

Check Prices of Bolivia Hostels Here!

Hostels in Bolivia

Location Hostel Why stay here? La Paz Loki La Paz A definite party hostel, Loki still boasts good security and friendly staff. Their rooftop Skybar is pretty special too Sucre The Celtic Cross This chilled out Irish-run hostel is also a language school and has weekly BBQs for all guests Potosi Eucalyptus Hostel Great views of the city from the roof, a cosy reading area and warm showers (much appreciated in this chilly city!) Tarija Kultur Berlin Tarija Guesthouse This quiet, family-run place is close to the main plaza with a delicious breakfast Tupiza La Torre Hostel A combination hostel/hotel with fantastic tours on offer – for both the Salt Flats and southwest Bolivia in general Cochabamba Cabana Las Lilas This lovely place has a huge garden and a relaxed vibe – and Alex is the most helpful hostel owner you’ll ever meet! Torotoro Hostal Wilma A simple, clean hostel with a campsite attached. They also make boxed lunches! Lake Titicaca La Cupula Gorgeous views of Lake Titicaca from the individually designed rooms. There’s an amazing restaurant on site, a lovely sloped garden and hot tub too

How do I get in and out of Bolivia?

Because Bolivia is a landlocked country, you can either fly into one of the three international airports (located in La Paz, Cochabamba, and Santa Cruz) or you can cross overland at one of Bolivia’s borders – of which there are many.

– Flights: I flew into El Alto airport in La Paz, where I was given a 90 day visa on arrival. This was the most expensive flight I paid for in South America, but after hearing various stories I learned it was also the most foolproof way to get my visa.

– Border crossings: Bolivia shares borders with Brazil to the north and east, Paraguay to the southeast, Argentina to the south, and Chile to the southwest and Peru to the northwest. I attempted to cross into Argentina at Villazon to renew my Bolivian visa but it didn’t quite work (read more about exactly why here). Luckily, my eventual departure from Bolivia was more successful – I crossed into Peru via Lake Titicaca (although I almost lost my passport to the lake waters because an overly cocky Peruvian border guard thought it’d be funny to dangle it…)

In total, there are thirteen places to cross in and out of Bolivia. These are the most popular border crossings:

To/from Brazil and Paraguay: Santa Cruz is the best city to catch buses to these borders – either to Corumba in Brazil, or to Asuncion in Paraguay along the Trans-Chaco Highway.

To/from Argentina: catch a local bus from Tupiza in Bolivia towards the border crossing at Villazon – it takes about an hour. Once you’ve queued and entered Argentina, catch a bus from La Quiacha towards Salta, which takes approx 8 hours (though the route also passes through Humahuaca and San Salvador de JuyJuy).

To/from Chile: lots of the Salt Flats tours will end by dropping you at the Chilean border, as well as arranging your onward bus journey towards San Pedro de Atacama – much easier than heading back to Uyuni first. Once you cross the border, it takes just over an hour to reach Calama and a further two hours to San Pedro de Atacama.

To/from Peru: a bus runs from La Paz to Puno in Peru (4.5 hours), which also stops at Copacabana, Lake Titicaca, on the way. This border crossing actually takes place in a little hut beside the lake – probably one of the most picturesque crossings I’ve ever had!

What visa do I need for Bolivia?

As a UK citizen with a British passport, I was given a 90 day Bolivian visa on arrival at the airport (their usual offering is 30 days but I specified at the time that I wanted the maximum 90 days). However, it’s not as simple for other nationalities. There are 3 groups of countries:

Group 1 – countries whose citizens do not require a visa (i.e. Australia, Britain, Canada, most of Europe)

Group 2 – countries whose citizens must obtain a visa prior to entry for free/upon arrival for a fee (i.e. USA, Iran, China and Taiwan)

Group 3 – countries whose citizens must obtain a visa in advance with special authorisation (i.e. Israel, Pakistan and Indonesia)

However, it’s probably easiest to check Wikipedia for your country’s visa policy for Bolivia, and your country’s embassy pages too.

Where to go in Bolivia?

Explore La Paz, the world’s highest city

There’s something magic about the air in La Paz. Perhaps it’s the altitude (3,640m, which makes it the highest administrative capital in the world); or perhaps it’s the way the pink sunset melts into the mountains each evening.

It’s a city of drama and intrigue, where street parades seem to be a daily occurrence, there’s a constant background noise of honking car horns and eager street vendors, and every new street corner offers up an untold story.

I spent two weeks living in La Paz, studying Spanish in the mornings and volunteering in the afternoons. At first I found the city somewhat obtrusive and the people to be standoffish, but the more I explored the quicker I learned to love it.

What to do in La Paz, Bolivia

Learn the history of coca leaves at the Coca Museum. The coca leaf is everywhere in Bolivia – and not because of cocaine production. Chewing on the leaves alleviates altitude sickness, reduces hunger pangs and keeps people alert, so you’ll often see Bolivian men with a bulge of leaves in their cheek. It’s also a sacred plant used in plenty of Bolivian ceremonies, and the Coca Museum documents the leaf’s role in Bolivian culture.

Rappel down the side of a five-star hotel at Urban Rush. This fifty metre descent takes you from the 17th floor right down to the pavement, either by rappelling or abseiling. It costs 150 Bolivianos ($22USD) and you even get to choose your own superhero outfit!

Ride the ‘Mi Teleferico’ cable car across the city. Like many experiences in La Paz, the ‘Mi Teleferico’ is the world’s highest cable car ride – but it’s also a pretty spectacular one. Stretching from La Paz to El Alto, the cable car has cut commuting time from an hour to just ten minutes, costs just 3 Bolivianos one-way (while a one-way bus ticket is 5 Bolivianos), and offers incredible views of the city and surrounding mountains.

Explore El Alto market. Every Thursday and Sunday, there’s a huge open-air market in the neighbouring city of El Alto. While tourists are discouraged from visiting alone due to pick-pockets, it’s a fascinating place – check out the yatiri fortune tellers in the blue huts beside the bus station!

Read more: Traditions and superstitions at Bolivia’s El Alto market

Watch a cholita wrestling match. There’s a bizarre entertainment on offer in El Alto: watching traditionally dressed cholita women wrestle each other in front of an audience. It’s got all the pantomime qualities of WWE but with bowler hats and frilly skirts – what’s not to love?

Visit the witches market on Calle de las Brujas. This tiny cluster of street stalls is where the superstitious side of Bolivia comes to the fore. You’ll see old women selling stone talismans, love spells and llama foetuses

Climb Huayna Potosi. It takes two to three days to summit the most popular mountain climb in Bolivia – but you’ll need to prepare for using crampons on an ice wall, breathing with oxygen tanks and spending at least one full day training. Once you reach the top at 6,088m, you’ll be rewarded with insane views and a spectacular sunrise. Tours cost between $150-300.

Cycle down ‘The Most Dangerous Road in the World’. The narrow track which winds through the steep Bolivian mountains is known by locals as Yunga Road – but tourists know it better as Death Road. It’s now closed to public traffic, so it’s just the daily mountain bike tours which skitter downhill past sheer hundred-feet drops and around hairpin turns. My fear of heights prevented me from cycling Death Road, but I’ve heard from many sources that Gravity is the most reputable company to go with.

Climb the Chacaltaya glacier. If you ever wanted evidence of global warming in Bolivia, just look to Chacaltaya. It used to be the world’s highest ski run, but so much ice has melted in the last few decades that the glacier has effectively disappeared (see that tiny derelict hut in the photo? It used to be the ski lodge). It’s still possible to summit Chacaltaya mountain: an organised day trip can drive you up to 5,200m, allowing you to climb the last 200m and reach the peak. The air is thin enough up here to notice the effects, but not bad enough to require oxygen.

Book Your La Paz Hostel Here

Read more: the impromptu street parades of La Paz, Bolivia

Settle into the slow life in Sucre

Sucre was the only place in Bolivia where I properly settled down. I was volunteering with Biblioworks each day and had rented an apartment, so I had the luxury of being able to cook in my own kitchen – which also meant buying fresh ingredients at Mercado Central and ‘befriending’ (in my eyes, at least) various ladies at their respective stalls.

It’s hard not to fall in love with Sucre: the city has a slow, ambling pace of life, the weather is gorgeous and it’s filled with plenty of travellers and expats who’ve found it somewhat impossible to leave.

What to do in Sucre, Bolivia

Soak up the lovely weather. Constant blue skies and spring-like temperatures all year round make Sucre the perfect place to chill out – and there’s plenty of cafes and coffee shops to do that in!

Explore Sucre’s General Cemetery. I’d heard stories about this cemetery, but was still totally surprised to discover it felt more like a tranquil park than anything else. Being here for Dia de los Muertes meant seeing how Bolivians celebrate the memory of their loved ones each year by decorating the graves and spending all day there. It’s a beautifully happy way to deal with death, and really eye-opening.

Read more: the most beautiful cemetery in Bolivia

Learn about Bolivia’s cultural background at Museo Nacional de Etnografia y Folklore. There are plenty of museums in Sucre, but this is one of my favourites: filled with costumes and masks from religious ceremonies and festivals.

See ancient dinosaur footprints at Sucre Dinosaur Park. El Parque Cretacico is 40 minutes outside Sucre and features a near-vertical limestone wall which is covered with over 5,000 ancient dinosaur tracks. Millions of years ago this used to be the ocean floor and it’s the largest collection of dinosaur prints in the world! There’s also a small garden with dino sculptures and a museum of dinosaur skeletons.

People-watch in Plaza 25 de Mayo. I spent a lot of time in this plaza because there was always something to see – from protesters, troupes of musicians and children dressed in indigenous clothing to the costumed zebras helping people cross the road!

Plaza 25 de Mayo, Sucre

Where to eat in Sucre

Condor Trekkers Cafe: a firm favourite amongst Sucre backpackers, Condors is part non-profit tour company and part cafe. The latter serves amazing food – the daily set lunch is always tasty, and the tucumana with side salad is particularly excellent.

Churrasqueria Bisonte: this no-frills steak place near the bus station is set in an internal courtyard with plastic tables, but it served the most fantastic steak I’ve ever eaten.

Abis Patio: the barbecue burgers are lovely, and chatting to the incredibly friendly restaurant owner is even better!

Mirador Cafe on Recoleta Plaza: a short walk uphill from the centre of the city is Recoleta Plaza, a lookout point where you can lie back in deckchairs and share a pitcher of fresh lemonade. It’s a great spot to while away the afternoon.

Mercado de Pescados: this local market in a car park serves freshwater fish on the grill at lunchtime. It’s a neighbourly affair – you squish onto a row of tables and eat fish, corn and potato with your hands – and it’s seriously delicious.

Look For Your Sucre Hostel Here

Read more: Eating all the Bolivian food during a month in Sucre

Drink the world’s highest wine in Tarija

Tarija is Bolivia’s wine country. Thanks to the altitude, they produce the highest wine in the world here, and though Tarija tourism isn’t particularly developed yet, the town still feels like a holiday destination – it boasts Mediterranean weather and a tranquil, laid-back attitude to life. Gone are the frenzied traffic jams and political protests of La Paz: Tarija is where locals smile at you when they pass and ladies with palm tree brushes sweep streets free of garbage.

What to do in Tarija, Bolivia

Visit the local vineyards. Bolivian wine producers like Campos de Solano and Casa Real have their wineries in Tarija, and you can either join an official wine tour or plan your own ad-hoc visit with public transport. We opted for the latter but it would’ve been much easier to be part of an organised group tour! Typical prices are between 100-170 Bolivianos.

Wander the parks in Tarija. This is a very laid back city, and once you’ve enjoyed a few bottles of wine it’s even more pleasant to chill out in Plaza de Armas Luis de Fuentes y Vargas, or wander along the Guadalquivir riverbanks.

Look at fossils in the Museo Paleontologico y Arqueologico. Just off Tarija’s main plaza, this little museum has a fantastic collection of dinosaur bones and collected fossils from across Bolivia. Although things seem dusty and cramped, it’s an interesting place to spend an hour or so.

Eat lunch at Casa Vieja. This beautiful restaurant is set in the vineyards of Valle de la Concepcion, a short taxi ride away from Tarija. Casa Veija is famed for their huge plates of roasted pork, fresh from a turning spit in the courtyard – a plateful costs 60 Bolivianos, and a jug of local wine doesn’t cost much more.

Find Your Tarija Hostel Here

Read more: Going wine tasting in Tarija

Learn Bolivia’s hidden histories in Potosi

Potosi is a city of faded grandeur, harking back to its original status as the capital of Bolivia. The city also lies at the foot of Cerro Rico mountain, which was first discovered to contain silver ore in 1545 and is still a working silver mine in the present day.

Sadly, that seemingly inexhaustible supply of silver has led to untold deaths of miners and slaves over the last five hundred years – an estimate six million lives have been lost here. It’s also rumoured that a devil spirit named ‘El Tio’ lives inside Cerro Rico, so to ensure that he doesn’t cause havoc he’s placated every day with offerings of cigarettes and alcohol left at the numerous ‘El Tio’ statues inside the mine.

What to do in Potosi, Bolivia

Take your time with the altitude. Potosi has an elevation of over 4,000 metres and is one of the highest cities in the world. It’s also built on a steep hill, so I often found myself getting breathless if I walked too quickly.

Prepare for the cold climate. The altitude means a drastic drop in temperatures up here – be sure to bring lots of warm layers and ask for extra blankets at your hostel!

Tour the working silver mine in Cerro Rico mountain. There are daily tours inside the Cerro Rico silver mine, where visitors are kitted out with overalls, a hard hat and a torch in preparation. Before heading inside, they also make a stop at a local market to buy dynamite and coca leaves to gift the miners with (or to make an offering to one of the many El Tio statues inside the mine).

NB: Although I considered doing this tour, I ultimately decided against it: part claustrophobia, part discomfort about being a tourist in a place where miners have a life expectancy of 35 years old. That said, the experience is an important part of the Bolivia backpacking trail as it highlights a terrible element of work conditions, tourism and societal influence in Bolivia. Just make sure you’re joining a Cerro Rico mine tour for the right reasons.

Visit Bolivia’s National Mint. The Casa Nacional de la Moneda was the first mint in South America, and converted Potosi’s mined silver into coins before shipping it all over the world. Now it’s a fascinating museum which documents the city’s history through exhibitions and original machinery. There are plenty of tours – we tacked ourselves onto an English-speaking tour which was worth the sneaky behaviour!

Go swimming in the hot springs at Ojo del Inca. Apparently it’s no longer safe to swim in, but this geothermal pool is nonetheless a beautifully natural spot to visit, and it’s only a half hour bus ride from Potosi.

Drink hot chocolate at La Plata. This lovely restaurant is right on the main plaza, and it’s the perfect place to sit in one of the window seats and spend an afternoon people-watching.

Walk around the colonial buildings. Potosi’s colonial past is still in plain sight. When the sun begins to set, there’s a beautiful orange light which touches dozens of old buildings: it’s the perfect time to wander past perfectly preserved examples of Spanish architecture.

Book Your Potosi Hostel Here

Explore cowboy country in Tupiza

Tupiza feels like Bolivia’s version of the American Wild West. Surrounded by craggy red hills and close to the border with Argentina, I half-expected to see cowboys trotting past on their horses, tipping their wide-brimmed hats to us.

This little town gets most of its backpacker traffic from those who choose to start their Salt Flats tour here instead of from Uyuni. By travelling on this route (going south to north instead of the more popular north-south route), you still visit all the same sites but can avoid the crowds of tourists as you reach them at different times of day. You’ll also save seeing the salt flats for the final day of your trip.

What to do in Tupiza, Bolivia

Explore the Bolivian desert. This dusty strip of southern Bolivia is where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid apparently met their dramatic end, and it’s worth heading out into the badlands – otherwise known as the Cordillera de Chicas. There are plenty of options, but the most popular is via jeep tour, on horseback, or a good old-fashioned hike.

Walk up to Cerro de la Cruz. For a birds-eye view of Tupiza, spend a couple of hours on this hike which takes you just outside the city, up a hill via a rough staircase, and onto a plateau covered with graffiti and sporting a Jesus statue to rival its counterpart in Rio de Janeiro. If you make this climb just before sunset, you’ll see the afternoon rays hitting the red mountains. It’s something special.

Cross the Bolivian border into Argentina. I had to extend my Bolivia visa while we were in Tupiza, so I headed for the Argentinian border. Although the experience didn’t go according to plan, this is a potentially good place to cross into Argentina and continue your downward route through South America.

Read more: That time I went to Argentina for absolutely no reason

Book Your Tupiza Hostel Here

Drive through the Salar de Uyuni Salt Flats

The Uyuni Salt Flats sit at 3,600m above sea level and are one of Bolivia’s most famous attractions for good reason – they’re completely surreal.

The prehistoric lake bed of Salar de Uyuni covers a distance of 12,000 square km. When the original lake dried up under the fierce sun, it left behind puddles of water and a huge amount of shining salt deposits due to the water’s high salinity. Today, the Uyuni Salt Flats contain over half of the world’s lithium reserves (currently being extracted) and it’s the largest salt flat in the world.

But the Salt Flats are actually part of the sprawling Eduardo Avaroa National Reserve, which means there’s so much more to see: islands studded with cactus, bizarre rock formations, fluorescent coloured lakes, and the famed groups of pink flamingos.

What to see in the Salt Flats, Bolivia

Choosing the length of your Uyuni Salt Flats tour can be a tricky decision – particularly when it involves being stuck in a cramped jeep for potentially four days straight. Many people visit the Salt Flats in one day, but I’m so glad I chose a four day trip because I was actually more impressed by the stunning scenery than the Salt Flats themselves!

Laguna Verde. The green colour of the lake is caused by arsenic and other minerals in the water, and the shade varies depending on how the lake’s sediment is disturbed by the wind.

Laguna Colorada. Its a shallow salt lake coloured red by the algae in its waters. Laguna Colorada is also home to lots of flamingos who stand in the water and munch on the abundance of plankton.

Pink flamingos. They love feasting on the algae growing in the lakewater – and they make for pretty fantastic photos! The Salar de Uyuni is actually a major breeding ground for four different species of flamingo, some of which never leave the lakes they live in.

Llamas and vicuñas. Although it sometimes feels like this is a barren landscape, there are plenty of herds of llama and vicuña rambling about the National Reserve. Not so much on the Salt Flats though, which are virtually devoid of any vegetation or wildlife.

Hot springs. They’re a little underwhelming, but it’s nonetheless quite possible to stop for a dip in the thermal waters and warm up – most tour guides will suggest it.

Arbol de Piedra. This is a famous sandstone formation which has been eroded by relentless winds into the shape of a tree. Very Dali-esque.

Isla del Pescado. This rocky outcrop covered in cactus, officially known as Incahuasi, is your final stop before the actual salt flats – most jeeps will pull up here to serve breakfast or lunch. You can hike to the top of this cactus island in about 20 mins, but be prepared to pay an entry fee of 30 Bolivianos.

The Uyuni Salt Flats. To capture the best perspective-skewed shots, set your camera focus to infinity and get snapping! It’s worth taking some props for your photos (we used a water bottle, a Lonely Planet guidebook, a half-eaten cookie and a Dora the Explorer doll I found in a market in Potosi) – there are some excellent shots to be had using toy dinosaurs, cooking pots and even each other! Hopefully you’ve become friendly enough with your driver that he’ll want to help you take photos. Unfortunately ours was pretty grumpy and just slept in the drivers seat for two hours while we pranced about.

How to prepare for the Salt Flats

– Take snacks and alcohol. Meals are included on the trip, cooked each day by the porters, but when you’re spending all day in a car it’s worth having some sweets and crisps to snack on. If you fancy a beer in the evenings you’ll have to bring them with you as most

– Combat the hot, dry weather. Drink lots of water, use sunscreen and lip balm as the combination of wind, strong sun and all that salt everywhere can really dehydrate your body and your skin.

– Pack lots of layers. It may be seriously sunny during the day but the temperatures drop significantly at night. For the first days of the tour, you’re sleeping in simple accommodation without heating: plenty of blankets are provided but you should still bring enough warm clothing to feel snug. There’s also strong winds at some points on the trip so it’s good to have a jacket easily accessible while you’re in the jeep.

On the final night, you’ll stay in a salt hotel which, yes, is entirely made of salt – even down to the walls, tables and beds!

Read more about my journey through Salar de Uyuni here

Chill out in Cochabamba

I still can’t think of the word ‘Cochabamba’ without hearing the cries of ticket sellers in every bus station in Bolivia. “Cocha-cocha-cocha-cocha-bamba! CochaBAMBAAAA!” It’s an ear-worm of the most wonderful variety.

Our arrival into Cochabamba was pretty unique: when our overnight bus was still more than twenty kilometres away from the city, it stopped on the highway thanks to hundreds of protestors flooding the streets. We started to hike along the highway until I luckily managed to phone the manager of our hostel in Cochabamba – who drove as far through the city as he could in his car and then used a succession of motorcycle taxis to reach us and transport us back to his hostel! It was literally the best hostel service I’ve ever had.

Image via Jan Beck

What to do in Cochabamba, Bolivia

Tour the Convento de Santa Teresa. Check out the views from the roof of this beautiful old convent building.

Visit Palacio Portales. This over-the-top yellow house was built in 1927 by tin baron Simon Patino. It’s a great example of what Bolivia used to be like in its golden age.

Ride the teleferico to El Cristo de la Concordia. Apparently this Christ the Redeemer statue is even bigger than the one in Rio (by 44cm, at least) – but the view of Cochabamba from here is pretty great.

Climb Cerro Tunari mountain. A day trip into the Cordillera Tunari allows you to climb up to 5000m above sea level. Be sure to go with a guide as parts of the climb are pretty technical.

Stay at Cabana Las Lilas hostel. Even if Alex, the incredible manager at Las Lilas, hadn’t saved us from the protests, I’d still be singing this hostel’s praises. There’s a big common area with a fireplace, pool table and book exchange corner, and a huge garden and swimming pool out back. Many of the guests here had extended their stay and we found it hard not to do the same.

Take a weekend trip to Parque Torotoro. Use Cochabamba as a base to visit the nearby dinosaur park – the bus ride takes six hours from the corner of Avenidas Republica and Barrietos to Torotoro Village (and it’s a bus decorated with dinosaurs!).

Book a Bed at Cabana Las Lilas Hostel Here!

Image via Eduardo Ruas

Follow the dinosaurs in Torotoro National Park

Torotoro Park is like the land that time forgot. Torotoro is most famed for the prehistoric dinosaur tracks which have been preserved in the rock for hundreds of millions of years – but the geology of this part of Bolivia is equally fascinating.

There are canyons, caves, waterfalls and mountains, all perfect for hikers, climbers and general all-round adventurers. I was somewhat forced into going caving, and although I didn’t exactly relish the prospect of crawling for ages with a vast expanse of rock above my head, once I’d done it I was pretty proud of myself!

Canyon de Torotoro, Bolivia

What to do in Toro Toro National Park, Bolivia

Pay the entrance fee. To enter Parque Toro Toro, all visitors have to register at the Toro Toro Tourism office in the town’s main square and buy an entrance ticket (nationals: Bs. 20, foreigners: Bs. 30).

Catch a jeep into Torotoro Park. Hiring a guide is mandatory: we hired one along with six other backpackers we’d collected from outside the tourist office. He drove us all around the park in his jeep, which was a bumpily enjoyable way to experience Torotoro!

Follow the dinosaur tracks. The closest tracks are near the village on the other side of the river, behind a locked fence. There are plenty of other tracks around the park, and your guide can explain what dinosaur species made each set.

Ciudad de Itas. A set of bizarrely shaped caverns with equally odd acoustics, where you can also go scrambling up boulders.

Cañon de Toro Toro. This huge gash in the rocks plummets more than 250 metres, and is equally stunning seen from the top and from deep down inside.

Umajalanta Cave. In Quechua, it translates as ‘water lost in the darkness of the deepest earth’ – and it’s a pretty apt name, because Caverna de Uma Jalanta is one of the longest (4600m) and deepest (164m) caves in Bolivia. It goes about 118m under sea level, and tourist groups usually spend two hours journeying through the cave’s rock faces, narrow tunnels, stalagmites, stalactites, blind fish, and underground waterfalls. For the more claustrophobic visitors (like me), there’s an approximately eight-metre-long section of narrow, squeezable space.

NB: There’s no cash machines in Torotoro Village, so make sure you have enough cash for food, accommodation and activities before you arrive.

Find Your Torotoro Hostel Here

Read more: Facing my Fear of Heights & Small Spaces at Torotoro National Park

Relax in Copacabana, Lake Titicaca

At 3,812m above sea level, it’s hard to exert that much energy in Copacabana – which is perfectly acceptable in this chilled town by the water.

Lake Titicaca itself is sacred: the Incas believed it was the birthplace of the Sun, and duly built a number of temples to celebrate their gods.

Most people come here and head straight towards Isla del Sol, but Copacabana is worth exploring too. Take a day or two and relax!

What to do at Lake Titicaca, Bolivia

Hike up to the top of Cerro Calvario. This is a sacred pilgrimage for many Bolivians, which explains the candles and markers which line the edge of this lookout point. There are also a number of crosses, part of the Stations of the Cross: to follow the route properly, start in town at the Cathedral of the Virgin of Copacabana, and climb the long flight of steps up the hill until you see Copacabana laid out in front of you.

Go on lots of walks. The area has plenty of other places to wander. We initially struck out for the little village of Yampupata but didn’t make it because of the combined heat, sun, and lack of water.

Don’t forget the suncream. Lake Titicaca has very little shady spots so keep drinking water and slathering on the sunscreen!

Hire a bike. Riding along the water front is a lovely way to spend a few hours.

Chill at the water’s edge. Plenty of restaurants and cafes dotted along the front. Sit out here with beers and watch the sun go down. It’s got a weirdly beach-esque vibe despite being a lake!

Eat fondue at La Cupula’s restaurant. This hostel/hotel has an on-site restaurant which serves the most delicious food – including a cheese fondue with actual Gruyere cheese (not exactly easy to find in South America!) and a chocolate fondue for dessert.

Stay at La Cupula Hostel. If you’re looking for somewhere to treat yourself, La Cupula is the perfect place. The hostel’s individual cabins are all designed differently, and situated at the end of a winding pathway on a rising slope of manicured garden above the lake – ours was fully circular with a wood burner and skylight to see the stars through.

Book Your Copacabana Hostel Here

Read more: The cheese and chocolate co-operatives of Salinas de Guaranda, Ecuador

Hike across the mythical Isla del Sol

This peaceful island, just a short boat ride from the shores of Lake Titicaca, is around 70 square kilometres and is covered with more than eighty archeological ruins built by the Incas in the 15th century.

There are three different central communities living on Isla del Sol (about 800 indigenous families in total), who all have differing opinions about how island tourism operates. Since 2017, the north of the island has been closed to visitors, so make sure you check accessibility before heading out.

You can easily catch a boat from Copacabana to Isla del Sol – boats run twice a day at 8:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m, returning at 3:30 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. Getting to Yumani takes about 1.5 hours, and the ticket costs 25 Bolivianos one-way or 40 Bolivianos for a return.

NB: Verify the boat times when you buy your ticket as schedules do change! 

What to do on Isla del Sol, Bolivia

Climb the Inca stairs. 

Enjoy being in a car-free zone. There are no vehicles on Isla del Sol, so all exploring has to be done on foot via the network of trails which criss-cross the island. Although the island slopes significantly in places, lots of the trails are relatively flat. Bear in mind that the altitude can make it tough going for some people.

Hike across the island. Start walking from Yumani, the biggest and most developed settlement, and head towards Cha’lla on the central east coast. Cha’llapampa, on the northern side of the island, is where the gold museum and most of the ruins are located. Crossing the entirety of Isla del Sol takes approximately three hours, so you can walk the entire island in a day.

Eat a lunch of fresh trout from the lake. Ever since the fish was introduced into the lake in the 1930s, fried trout has become a very popular local speciality dish, and all the local restaurants serve it.

Stay the night in simple accommodation. Although it’s possible to see Isla del Sol on a day trip, it’ll mean rushing around the island to catch the last boat which isn’t too relaxing. Most of the restaurants and hotels are in Yumani, and it’s probably best to book a bed before your arrival. I stayed at Hostal del Sol and it was basic but more than enough for a night’s stay.

Watch the most incredible Bolivian sunset. Isla del Sol is famous for its spectacular sunrises and sunsets, the latter of which lights up the peaks of the Cordillera Real mountain . What more could you want?

Book Your Isla del Sol Hostel Here

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[theconservativebrief]

It has not been a great year for television so far.

There have been plenty of treats, to be sure, and even some real treasures. But compared to the way 2017 seemed to haul out new classics with astonishing regularity (to the degree that I couldn’t rank them when it came time to make a list), 2018 has featured a lot of shows where my recommendation comes with a caveat, or where I love it but plenty of my critical comrades despise it, or something like that.

This is fine, in many ways. TV criticism was defined too long by the idea that there were a simple handful of good shows, and critics could mostly agree on them. It’s exciting to get away from that era in some way, to argue about if Westworld is magnificent or malarkey, to discuss whether The Handmaid’s Tale is incisive or exploitative.

But it also means lists like these require far more grains of salt than they might have in the past. So here, presented alphabetically, are 24 TV shows from the first half of 2018 that I gave four stars or more and that have stuck around in my memory in the time since they aired. I hope you like them! But maybe you won’t! And since the TV year typically features more good shows in its first half than its second (due to the Emmys falling in September), my year-end list will likely feature almost all of these shows.

(A few caveats: I typically use the summer to catch up on stuff I missed, so some shows that aren’t here almost certainly will be come December. And I’ve tried to limit this to shows that aired six or more episodes in 2018 so far, cutting out some other favorites. I’ve made a list of things that missed due to one or the other of these caveats at the bottom of this article.)

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One of the best final seasons I’ve ever seen, the last 10 episodes of The Americans circled back to what the spy drama had always been about — whether this unlikely marriage between two KGB spies pretending to be ordinary Americans could survive all of the things threatening to rip it apart. The series finale is a pitch-perfect cap to six years of bleak but beautiful television.

How to watch it: The Americans is available for digital purchase, or on FX’s streaming platforms. It will eventually be on Amazon Prime.

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The second installment of American Crime Story after 2016’s The People vs. O. J. Simpson was less immediately arresting. But its depiction of ’90s America is just as impressive, tracing the circuitous route of serial killer Andrew Cunanan backward from his most famous victim through a gay scene struggling not to be forced back in the closet. Darren Criss’s work as Cunanan is masterful.

How to watch it: American Crime Story is available for digital purchase, or on FX’s streaming platforms. It will eventually be on Netflix.

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Donald Glover’s laconically loopy trip through the titular city grew bolder and more confident in its second season, as the characters endlessly debated ideas of what it means to be “fake” versus “real.” The season’s standout was the darkly funny horror tale “Teddy Perkins,” about the legacies of child abuse, but every episode stands as a pitch-perfect, beautifully honed gem.

How to watch it: Atlanta is available for digital purchase, or on FX’s streaming platforms. It will eventually be on Hulu.

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So far, 2018 has been a year of uneasy comedies, of stories that are ostensibly funny but hide something dark and sad at their core. No “comedy” embraced this idea more than Barry, about a hitman who would be an actor, played by Bill Hader. The show is terrifically funny, especially in its depiction of the fringes of show business, but what sticks with you is Barry’s inability to change.

How to watch it: Barry is available for digital purchase, or on HBO’s streaming platforms.

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A riotous trip through the deleterious effects of income inequality, Billions had its best, most cutting season this year, as the show blew up its own premise (by burying the investigation that had always been at its center), then spent the rest of its season vamping for time by digging into the ways those with money and power seem utterly oblivious to those without those qualities in the 2010s.

How to watch it: Billions is available for digital purchase, or on Showtime’s streaming platforms.

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You like fish? This has so many fish!

How to watch it: Blue Planet II is available for digital purchase, or on BBC America’s streaming platforms. It will eventually be available on Netflix.

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A deeply funny dark comedy about the cost of working for a terrible company, Corporate is one of the most visually audacious shows of the year, turning the workplace comedy into an excuse to indulge in gray, chilly frames, in the style of David Fincher. Somehow, that only makes the jokes, about the dehumanization inherent in trying to hold down a corporate job, even funnier.

How to watch it: Corporate is available for digital purchase, or on Comedy Central’s streaming platforms.

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For whatever reason, 2018 has been full of terrific spy dramas, but this one seemed to get a bit lost in the shuffle. Starring Oscar winner J.K. Simmons, it tells the story of a world that split in two late in the Cold War, with the second universe, initially a copy of our own, slowly becoming more and more different. Forget just having one great J.K. Simmons performance. Counterpart had two.

How to watch it: Counterpart is available for digital purchase, or on Starz’s streaming platforms.

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This satirical comedy, set on the campus of a predominantly white college, but focusing primarily on the school’s black students, hit another level in its second season. The show crystallizes Trump-era racism — just a new face on a very old American horror — through its storytelling and especially its visuals. The eighth episode, structured as one long conversation, is a marvel.

How to watch it: Dear White People is available on Netflix.

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I include the “season one” here in hopes that it’s unnecessary. Netflix has made noise about following up this dark British comedy with a second season, but doing so would be self-defeating, as this first season tells its story so perfectly that to tack on more would feel wrong. So watch this gem of a miniseries about a teenage sociopath and the girl he can’t bring himself to kill before it gets all screwed up.

How to watch it: The End of the F***ing World is available on Netflix.

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The space-faring political drama tightened the screws and ratcheted up the tension in its third installment, which collapses a full novel and a half from the book series it’s based on into a single season of television. Complete with memorable guest arcs from David Strathairn and Elizabeth Mitchell, the series finally dug into the true nature of the mysterious alien presence in our solar system.

How to watch it: The Expanse is available for digital purchase, or on Syfy’s streaming platforms. It will eventually be available on Amazon Prime.

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The comedy about women wrestlers and the basic cable TV show that broadcast them to the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area has a bit more sprawl than it knew what to do with in its second season. But the show is so open-hearted and generous to its characters that it doesn’t matter. Its stories of women navigating men’s spaces and womanhood as a kind of performance make for riveting television.

How to watch it: GLOW is available on Netflix.

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Already brutal and bruising, The Handmaid’s Tale became even more so in its second season. It removed some of the cold comforts of the first season to examine how living in a totalitarian society inevitably means that you become complicit in at least some of its horrors, even as those horrors are being visited upon you. Elisabeth Moss and Yvonne Strahovski are fantastic as they navigate a society set up to oppress them.

How to watch it: The Handmaid’s Tale is available on Hulu.

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This stand-up set is a must-see, as Australian comedian Gadsby sets up a long series of punchlines that then resolve into a complete deconstruction of jokes and who gets to tell them in a society filled with fatal power imbalances. It’s funny, yes, but also filled with a scorching fury that finally resolves in a sense that to do better, we have to tear apart every assumption we have.

How to watch it: Hannah Gadsby: Nanette is available on Netflix.

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I’ve always enjoyed this rural noir about two best friends who solve strange mysteries in and around the American South. But the third season, which features the two of them taking on the Klan, felt like the show turning a corner into its examination of how much America is defined by its gruesome past and how little any of us are willing to pay attention to that. Naturally, Sundance canceled it after the season aired.

How to watch it: Hap and Leonard is available for digital purchase, or on Sundance’s streaming platforms. It will eventually be available on Netflix.

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The CW’s daffy and inventive telenovela has always been some of my favorite TV comfort food. But in its fourth season, it somehow became something even more, leaning into storylines that underlined the show’s themes of family, perseverance, and love. It’s rare for a TV show to do a “character might have cancer” arc that doesn’t feel like a cheat, but Jane more than pulled it off.

How to watch it: Jane the Virgin is available for digital purchase, or on Netflix. Some episodes are available on the CW’s website.

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Here’s another terrific spy drama, this one focused on a bored spy (Sandra Oh) who finds herself intrigued — and then maybe even more — by her new quarry, a mysterious assassin (Jodie Comer). Killing Eve takes tropes you’ve seen a million times and makes them feel new again, and it’s the first TV show in ages to remind me of my beloved, dearly departed Hannibal.

How to watch it: Killing Eve is available for digital purchase, or on BBC America’s streaming platforms.

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The Looming Tower is dry and occasionally impenetrable. But I ended up loving the way this miniseries about the build-up to 9/11 slowly but surely built its case for how US intelligence agencies failed to spot what was right in front of them, leading to one of the biggest tragedies to ever occur on American soil. It’s not an argument for more intelligence work; it’s an argument for smarter intelligence work that remains relevant to this day.

How to watch it: The Looming Tower is available on Hulu.

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The middle stretch of this season reeled off classic episodes, like the show was in a groove it was never going to leave. What’s more, those episodes are all so recognizable as episodes — from a magic-inflected hour of short stories to a musical — that it became hard not to get caught up in the inventiveness. And the series’s emotional core about sad 20-something magicians trying to bring back the thing that makes them sad (magic) remains rock solid.

How to watch it: The Magicians is available for digital purchase, or on Syfy’s streaming platforms. It will eventually be available on Netflix.

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The second season of the remake of the 1970s sitcom of the same name is perhaps the most joyful show of the year, as the Alvarez family at its center struggles through life in these United States with heart and hope. You’ll see few TV performances as terrific this year as the work of Justina Machado and Rita Moreno, as a mother and daughter who are never defined by their conflicts.

How to watch it: One Day at a Time is available on Netflix.

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Ryan Murphy’s final series for FX (before leaving for Netflix) is this delightful, warm ’80s period piece about drag ball culture of the era and the idea of found families among people all across the LGBT spectrum. In particular, the show tells stories about trans women like few TV shows ever have, allowing them to have full lives and desires beyond their transition narratives.

How to watch it: Pose is available for digital purchase, or on FX’s streaming platforms.

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My favorite workplace comedy had maybe its best season with its third run, which both deepens the show’s interest in social issues (including age discrimination, something few TV shows would even think to touch) and also serves as a master class in how to spin romantic and sexual tension across an entire season of a TV series. When all of its stories came together in the finale, it felt almost magical.

How to watch it: Superstore is available for digital purchase, on NBC’s site, or on Hulu.

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More than 100 men sail into the Arctic in the mid-1800s, sure they’ll win glory for the British crown by discovering the Northwest Passage. None of them return, and this miniseries (the first in a new anthology series under the banner of The Terror), based on a Dan Simmons novel, imagines what might have happened to them, utilizing both historical research and a mighty monster to tell its tale. It’s grim and unrelenting but also starkly beautiful.

How to watch it: The Terror is available for digital purchase, or on AMC’s streaming platforms.

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Two sisters return to their Los Angeles neighborhood in the wake of their mother’s death, then vow to keep the bar she ran open to preserve their neighborhood in the face of gentrification. This lively half-hour drama examines ideas of identity, sexuality, and class consciousness, but never in a way that feels didactic. Instead, it offers heart, humor, and a touch of magical realism.

How to watch it: Vida is available for digital purchase, or on Starz’s streaming platforms.

The Good Fight CBS All Access

12 Monkeys and Channel Zero are other Syfy treats I’ve highly recommended in the past, but I’ve been able to catch up with neither so far. The CW’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend technically aired six episodes in 2018 (exactly six), but I really want to see where it’s going with its current story arc. CBS All Access’s The Good Fight is one I just haven’t caught up with yet, to the consternation of my friends. NBC’s The Good Place will surely be on my year-end list but only aired five episodes in 2018 so far. I loved HBO’s The Tale, a searing story about the aftermath of sexual abuse, but it already made our “best movies of 2018 so far” list. And someday I will finish Netflix’s Wild Wild Country, but I liked what I saw.

Original Source -> The 24 best TV shows of 2018 so far

via The Conservative Brief