#also just to get people immersed into the story. its wild

[havockingboo]

Was listen to the EC AU YT playlist again specifically ‘It Was Futile-vivivivivi’ and ‘.flow OST-Neon World’ & ‘The Sewers’

[that-wildwolf]

every time i see fanart of the last of us (original) on my dash these days I let out a squee of joy! that's the Original™ ellie! the Original™ joel! omg! ohohoho! a rare sighting in the wild these days! and i think to myself that im so lucky to have seen this! and i literally only saw it bc one of my mutuals reblogged it 💀

[queenshelby]

Daughter Dearest (Part Six)

Pairing: Cillian Murphy (47) x Step! Daughter (21)

Warning: Infidelity, Smut, Dysfunctional Family

Tag List will be updated soon! Please comment and engage!

As the day progressed, some more wild weather had settled in, but that did not prevent Cillian from going out and picking up a delivery for you, namely some photographs you had developed externally from your recent travels.

Usually, you liked to do these things yourself, in a studio of your own, at least when utilising analog films, but this was not an option right now.  Cillian arrived home earlier than expected, his face still damp from the rain. The wind had picked up outside and the shutters beat against the brickwork of the house as he entered.

"Y/N," he called out, but you didn't answer. You had headphones on and was buried in one of your books.

He set the package down on the kitchen table and walked over to you, gently touching your shoulder. You looked up at him in surprise.

"I got your pictures," he said, pointing towards the table.

Your eyes lit up as you realized what he was referring to.

You pulled off your headphones and placed them next to you.

"Thank you so much for picking them up. You didn't have to," you exclaimed, beaming up at him, genuinely grateful.

"No problem," he replied with a soft smile. 

You jumped up from the couch, making your way over to the kitchen table. You noticed that the package was slightly damp from the rain.

Carefully, you unwrapped the package, revealing an envelope full of developed photographs while Cillian stood behind you expectadly.

"Would you like to see them?" you  asked, glancing back at him.

Cillian's gaze shifted between you and the envelope in your hands. He was curious, but he also didn't want to overstep any boundaries.

"Sure," he said finally, nodding his head. "I mean, unless they are too personal for you to share," he added quickly, remembering that you might not want him to see them.

You smiled at him, understanding what he meant. "I would love for you to see them," you told him, seeing how they weren't just random snaps. These photographs were part of your art and everything you photographed, especially during your last trip to Kenya, had a meaning.  They showed a snapshot of life there, its beauty, its harshness, and everything in between.

You opened the envelope, carefully taking out each photograph, placing them on the counter. The room was silent, the sound of the shutters beating against the brickwork still echoing. It made the whole scenario more magical, making you feel as if you were back in Africa, immersed in all its vastness and incredible beauty.

You picked up the first photograph, a black and white image of a woman carrying a baby on her back. Her face was etched with lines that showed the passing of time, but her eyes held a spark of life and strength.

Cillian leaned over your shoulder to get a better look.

"She's beautiful," he murmured, taking in the woman's stoic expression and the way she was cradling her child with such tenderness.

You smiled, glad that he could appreciate the photo's beauty.

"Yes, I took that picture when I visited a Maasai village," you said, feeling a sense of pride bubbling up inside you.

"Their way of life is so different from ours, but there's so much beauty in their simplicity."

Cillian nodded in agreement, completely captivated by the raw emotion conveyed in the photograph. He pointed to the next picture, which showed a group of children playing in a dirt field with a makeshift soccer ball. "These kids look so happy," he observed, admiration in his voice.

"They were! I spent an entire afternoon with them," you replied, feeling a fondness for those kids coming back.

"They don't have much, but they truly know how to enjoy the simple pleasures. It's quite inspiring."

Your voice trailed off as you went through more pictures, showing mostly people and their raw emotions. Each face told a story, and this was obvious to Cillian who watched you, mesmerized by your passion for photography. It was clear to him that this wasn't just a hobby for you, but a calling. He couldn't help but be impressed by your ability to capture moments, feelings, and the spirit of the places and people you've encountered.

You turned around to look at Cillian, noticing how he seemed lost in thought. " What's on your mind?" you asked him gently, your hand reaching out to touch his arm.

Cillian started and looked at you, his gaze softening as he saw the concern etched on your face. "Nothing, I am just...,"  he stammered, unable to put his feelings into words just yet.

"Just what?" you pressed, sensing that something was bothering him.

He licked his lips nervously, indecision etched on his face. "I think that you have a true gift Y/N. These photographs are  incredible," Cillian finally managed to say, his voice tinged with admiration.

You smiled, warmth spreading through you at the compliment, grateful for his acceptance and encouragement.

As the day went on, you, Cillian and you spent some more time together after, due to the bad weather, he had postponed his plan to catch up with his mate Dermont.  You noticed the easy way Cillian interacted with you and the way he listened intently as you spoke about your photography, understanding and appreciating the way it moved you. He even shared some of his stories from his early filming days, for a bit of nostalgia. 

Yet, despite this familiarity, there still lingered a sense of unspoken tension between the two of you. A pull that neither of you could explain or understand. It was an awkward dance of avoidance and stolen glances every so often.

The day after though, the weather cleared and Cillian went to see his best friend, meeting up with him for pint of Guiness downtown while you stayed at home.

You were still under house arrest and were only permitted to leave the property for an hour each day, during which you had to remain within a five-kilometer radius of where you lived. This was to permit you to exercise and attend to important matters, like shopping for essentials. 

These restrictions were frustrating, and the monitor had caused a rash to appear on your ankle, but you tried to stay positive. At least you weren't in jail.

While Cillian was out, you took the opportunity to call Nadine, asking her to come over but, unfortunately for you, she declined. She had an interview for a new job that day and really couldn't miss it.

As you spoke to Nadine, who appeared somewhat reserved over the phone and when you asked her about what was wrong, she revealed to you that she had heard rumors concerning your arrest. 

"I ran into Kevin at the hostel bar last night and I think it may have been Lucy who got the drugs into your bag,"  Nadine explained.

You frowned, feeling a surge of anger well up inside you. "But why would she do something like that?" you asked, incredulously.

Nadine sighed. "Well, apparently she was pretty pissed about you and Kevin having hooked up," Nadine explained, not condoning your mutual's friend's actions but clearly trying to explain the circumstances.

You scowled, frustration building up inside you at Lucy's pettiness. "But I haven't hooked up with Kevin at all," you hissed, your voice barely controlled. "In fact, most guys repulse me and that most certainly includes him,"  you added with a shiver of disgust.

Nadine remained silent for a minute, as if contemplating her next words carefully. "I know you didn't, but Lucy is pretty impulsive," she finally said, sympathetic. "Not that it makes it right though,"  she quickly added.

"But what am I supposed to do now?" you asked, frustrated. "I almost went to fucking jail because of her," you went on to say. 

Nadine sighed heavily. "Look, Y/N, I don't know, but I should really go now. I have that interview in half an hour,"  Nadine said, her voice gentle and concerned.

"I know, I am sorry," you said, feeling a pang of regret. "I shouldn't be ranting," you went on to say. 

"No, don't be silly. I'm always here for you, that's what friends are for," Nadine replied warmly. "But promise me that you won't do anything stupid," she added , feeling a sense of responsibility towards you.

You sighed heavily. "I won't," you answered, although this was far from the truth seeing how, as soon as Nadine hung up, you checked out Lucy's social media to see where she was at.

According to Instagram, she was still in town and you knew that you had to confront her. You wanted to get your name cleared and you wanted to tell her exactly what you thought of her. You were angry and you wanted her to know that you weren't someone to be messed with.

Thus, you quickly threw on a jacket, grabbed your sister's car keys, and headed out the door. The cold wind hit your face as you stepped outside, but you barely noticed. You were too focused on the task at hand.

As you drove towards the hostel, which was about nine kilometers away, your heart raced with anger. You couldn't believe that she had done something like this to you. You had never done anything to her, yet she had still decided to frame you.

The audacity of it all infuriated you, but you pushed past your rage and focused on the task at hand.

The hostel was crowded with young travelers, but you spotted her easily. She was sitting in the courtyard, sipping on an iced coffee and chatting with a tall blonde girl.

You approached her, feeling a surge of anger building up inside you. "Lucy," you said, your voice cool and controlled.

She looked at you, surprise flashing across her face. "Y/N?

What are you doing here?" she said, looking around nervously.

You ignored her question and cut to the chase. "Why did you plant drugs in my bag?" you demanded, anger tingeing your voice.

Lucy's eyes widened, and she looked at you in shock. "What? No, I didn't," she stammered, trying to deny it.

You raised an eyebrow, skepticism etched on your face. "Don't lie to me, Lucy. I know it was you," you told her sternly , your voice firm and unyielding.

She fidgeted, looking guilty as charged. "Fine. I did it. But I didn't mean for it to go this far," she whispered, finally admitting her wrongdoing.

"What do you mean you didn't mean for it to go this far?" You asked incredulously, not understanding why she would do something like this in the first place.

"I was drunk, and I heard about you hooking up with Kevin earlier that night.  It made me jealous, and in the heat of the moment, wanted you to get in trouble," Lucy confessed, tears streaming down her face.

You stared at her, shocked and angry. "You must be joking! How could you do something so stupid? I could have ended up in jail just because of your drunken fit of jealousy!" you shouted, your voice incredulous.

"I am so sorry Y/N. I even went to see you the morning after, just before you left, but you had already gone. I wanted to warn you and make it all right. I promise," Lucy said, sniffling and rubbing her eyes just as, suddenly, you watched as a police car pulled up into the hostel parking lot, and it was then when you looked down at your ankle, seeing a red light flashing on it.

"Oh fuck," you hissed, realisation dawning on you and, before you had time to act, Lucy got up and ran off while the officers were approaching you.

You stood there, frozen on the spot, with your heart pounding in your chest. You couldn't believe what was happening.

"Miss Y/N Y/LN?" one of the officers  called out, approaching you cautiously.

You swallowed hard, trying to steady your shaking hands as the figure in uniform stepped closer.

"You are in breach of your  house arrest, Miss," the officer stated calmly, but with an underlying tone of authority.

You nodded dumbly, looking down at the monitor on your ankle. The red light blinked menacingly, betraying your location to the people who held your freedom in their hands.

"I'm sorry, I can explain," you stammered, attempting to reason with the officers in front of you. "I know who did what I got in trouble for and I came here to confront her," you said, quickly reaching for the device on your ankle, scratching your skin beneath.

"Well, ma'am, we will have to take you down to the station and you can call your next of kin and your solicitor when we get there,"  the second officer said, his tone stern but not unkind.

He and the first officer took hold of your arms, guiding you gently but firmly towards the patrol car parked outside the hostel.

As they led you away, you couldn't help but feel a wave of embarrassment sweep over you. What had you gotten yourself into? It was like a bad dream from which you couldn't wake up and, if they actually called your mother while she was on vacation, you knew you would never hear the end of it.

Tags:

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[batcastlesociety]

poorly constructed netflixvania rant under the cut,,, and yes i will be using capital letters for once! don't question it.

small warning because my rant is all over the place and by no means professional. i'm still relatively new to castlevania and may or may not get a few things wrong,,, sorry, if i do! 🙇🏻‍♂️ i plan on adding more to this later to make it seem less like alphabet soup, if you will.

Obviously, I'm aware that I'm a tad late to the whole "netflixvania ranting" thing, but honestly, I really don't care if I'm late or if this gains traction somehow or not. I just want to put this out there and get this OUT.

Now, I'd say that I'm awfully new to the Castlevania community itself. I'm a minor, so it's not like I grew up playing the games when they came out. 💀 Hell, I actually found out about Castlevania through watching its Netflix adaptation. But honestly, when I got Smash Bros Ultimate and found out about Richter and Simon, then doing further research and finding out about the games themselves, I'd say I abandoned the show immediately after that. Like, immediately. The games just interested me MUCH more!

Netflixvania is just... boring. It feels uncanny. Not canon, of course, just.. uncanny. Weird. Honestly, I feel horrible considering the large amount of people that actually LIKE Netflixvania compared to the games and say it's better, or even not have heard of the games in the first place! It's so stupid, when you compare the games and show.

Honestly, comparing the show to the games is... wild. I've seen people say that "oh, yeah netflixvania SUCKS, buuuut the first season is still badass!!!" Like... no, buddy... no... Netflixvania refuses to adapt Castlevania from the very start. The get-go, if you will. The very first season of this wretched show starts off completely off the rails. Not even the first season is above "sub-par".

The games have an immersive, charming, compelling storyline with a bunch of really well-constructed lore, at least in my opinion. I absolutely LOVE the whole plot of a massive feud going on between mortals who have to start a bloodline to fight this immortal Big Bad, and their reactions, their bad reputation with the Transylvanian townspeople despite the fact that the Belmont clan is pretty much the only thing keeping the former alive, and much more.

Anyway, back to this godawful adaptation.

First off, the goddamn showrunner of Netflixvania, Warren Ellis, literally CUT OUT A CHARACTER from the VERY VIDEO GAME THAT HE WAS ADAPTING INTO A SHOW, just because he thought that the character's name "sounded stupid", and that having a "pirate" character apparently wouldn't make sense, because ooh romania is a landlocked country!!! YOU IMBECILE. GRANT DANASTY IS NOT EVEN A PIRATE.💀💀💀 That was a mistranslation, for crying out loud! Isn't Grant a thief??? Not a pirate??? Also, who gives a shit if he even was a pirate?! This is the same adaptation that turned Trevor 'FUCKING' Belmont into a stumbling drunkard and Alucard into a horse-faced sex object. Everyone else is out-of-character enough by themselves! Who CARES if there's one single """pirate""" character??? This is the same show that has mages and Devil Forgemasters and, oh, let's not forget; FUCKING VAMPIRES??? This is a fantasy setting!! Why would you deny a canon character his chance in the spotlight for the sake of historical accuracy in a fictional world like this??

Besides, as aforementioned, Grant wasn't even a pirate in the first place! Ergo, it wouldn't matter if the story took place in a landlocked country or not!

Anyway, next point. Still about the characters, though. Mostly how they talk. Almost very single word these characters say is emphasized with a few "fuck"s and/or "shit"s, "bloody hell"s, etc., ESPECIALLY with Trevor. It's as if they're using curse words to sound more witty or mature, which is literally one of the first (and frankly, most obvious) of Red Flags for Horrendous Adult Media. In my opinion, at least. I just don't understand the reason why. I don't recall any of the Castlevania games having a single curse word in them (correct me if I'm wrong on that bit), but the games were still marketed for more mature audiences, too! You don't need profane language and a few splashes of vomit to make a compelling story for adults. Really, truly.

Back on that bit, it feels as if the writers REALLY wanted to make Trevor really witty. A bit of a whimsical jokester. Which, by the by, also if I recall correctly, isn't what his personality is really like at all. At least, not for the most part. In Curse of Darkness, Trevor was definitely a bit witty and cunning, but he also had a pretty damn big ego. He was confident, blunt and hotheaded. He's an arrogant bastard. CoD Trevor is intimidating as well. However, he's also honorable and likeable. Just a neat little guy.

Netflixvania Trevor, on the other end, is... odd. He's aloof, cynical, still having a bit of arrogance, but I don't know. It didn't feel like Trevor. I don't know how to explain it. Maybe I'll come up with something better someday else.

Well, now that I'm mostly rambling about Trevor now, I think I should talk about his actual outward design as well. Truly, none of the members of the Netflixvania cast have retained any of their ingame designs, at least for the most part. Except for Alucard, of course, but I'll mention that a bit more later. I'll only talk about the main trio (RIP Grant Danasty, you were never nasty and will be here in spirit...) and their designs right now.

Starting off with Treffy himself. His design is... a bit odd. Now, I feel as if it's his eye that irks me the most. Let me just pull up some visual aids for this one:

THIS is Netflixvania Trevor. I apologize in advance for the low-quality PNG I've just slapped here.

Anyway, look at his eye. It has a scar on it. Keep that in mind.

THIS is Trevor's actual, ingame design for the game that was supposed to be adapted correctly, and there's no sign of any eye injury here.

And in Trevor's CoD design, he ALSO has a scar... but this isn't all that similar to his DC design, either.

Personally, I feel as if Netflixvania Trevor looks more like Judgement Trevor, than anything...

You can see the scar on his eye (IGNORING the outfit...), but even then, JuD Trevor still has an eyepatch. Netflixvania Treffy does NOT have an eyepatch. These are just differences in design, mind you, i know absolutely nothing about Judgement itself.

Anyway, Treffy (i'll just be calling him that from now on) looks like a weird mix between JuD Trevor, because of the hair and body structure, and CoD Trevor, due to the visible scar, I guess.

...Which is even worse, because it just goes to show how much the creators of Netflixvania really deviated from the source material. Maybe I'm just fucking blind over here, but really I see no similarities between Treffy and actual DC Trevor. Except, maybe, like, the boots, but really?

Now, on to the rest of the party: (except for my boy Grant, who got fucking excluded...)

Sypha actually looks like this in DC:

She looks pretty different! Luckily, not the most different compared to what happened to my rotten soldier, my good time boy Trevor, but still quite different. Firstly, Sypha's face is covered, and her robes are quite big on her, and this was actually intentional!

For the record, if you haven't played DC, the whole reason why Sypha looks more boyish is because she was hiding her gender for the whole game in order to travel safely. Her true gender is only revealed at the end of the game. (Truly an iconic Samus Metroid moment you conjured up there, Konami.)

Anyway, this is Sypha's Netflix version.

Again, sorry for the weird pixel outline on the image. I didn't even edit these.

Anyway, luckily, this one isn't all that different, except the obvious fact that Sypha isn't hiding her gender in this one. Although, I still do definitely believe she was done dirty. I mean, look at that hair! Christ. I'm not sure why they didn't make Sypha hide her gender until the end like in the original game, but then again, a pretty concerning amount of canon events from DC and Castlevania as a whole I guess didn't make the cut, so I doubt it'd be wise to set the bar any higher than the floor.

Next up, oh no. Alucart. I'll be referring to his horse-faced counterpart as this, because although his design is still game-accurate... It was for the wrong game.

This is his Netflix design:

See, it's okay. It's a biiiit inaccurate to his SoTN version... (for SoTN swag, see here) but! This isn't a SoTN adaptation!!! THIS, chaps, chapesses, and chapsticks is supposed to be for Dracula's Curse! and this is Alucard's DC design:

See? Now, this is just completely different! In this version, Alucard definitely gives off traditional, pop culture vampire vibes, definitely taking after his father in this one. But Alucart... Poor Alucart... he's just an odd mix of SoTN and.. not SoTN. It's literally just his SoTN self, but in a more revealing outfit with random ass belts. It's as if they simply went on a quick Google adventure and looked no further for Alucart's to-be design. But seriously, why exactly are they showing his bare chest here? Why is he muscular? Huh?????

... These redesigns are... something else, that's for sure! Of course, I know that with every adaptation, there's bound to be some changes, but with Netflixvania, there are a LOT of changes, and absolutely none of them are necessary.

For one, characters like Godbrand and Lenore were never in the games! The writers just slapped in some random OCs and scrapped an actual, canon character for petty reasons. They also nerfed Hector because of a behind-the-scenes argument between writers. They let their own pettiness ruin a show. Hell, Warren Ellis himself didn't even know anything about Castlevania. He just took everything from secondhand sources! It's not professional or sane.

I honestly didn't even watch the full show myself. I probably should, so maybe I can edit this rant a bit. Anyway, I only watched S1 and a bit of S2. Honestly, I have no idea why they didn't just stop the show when Dracula got pounded into the ground for the umpteenth time. There wasn't any real need to continue the show for even more seasons. Just... I don't know. It's really weird??? The show just seems... boring. Like, seriously. What's even the point, at that point? Our favorite three stooges Johnny Test'ed Drac into oblivion, just as they needed to do, so why continue? It just seems as if they're milking it.

...Yeah i don't know how to continue this. In summary, play the games instead. Watch let's-plays, if you can. As I mentioned earlier, this rant may not be too professional or well-written, and I apologize if I mixed anything up. I plan on adding more to this later, but right now, my hands are getting numb q(╥﹏╥)p

[destinygoldenstar]

It’s honestly very crazy that a garbage Hollywood trailer makes so many people apologize to Minecraft Story Mode.

My experience with MCSM was that I was gifted the show by my dad as a teenager the same year the news came that Telltale went bankrupt. (It was the summer, so a couple of months before that)

I got a lot more into it than I was expecting. It had its problems, sure, but I was incredibly immersed with its story and atmosphere. Later on it became one of my obsessions once I finished the two games. It was the first fandom on the internet I ever became a part of. It was also the first time I ever outright became a shipper over a ship that wasn’t canon. (Jetra is my OTP to this day)

But in terms of real life, I never really felt confident talking to people about it. That’s because this was around the same time the hate train for MCSM started to arise. Then it became “Pure Fact” quote on quote that the games were these terrible things.

Now in my opinion and from my experience this started when some popular Let’s Players bashed the games. And even then I can’t blame them for simply having an opinion. But it’s because of their influence that their audiences take their opinions as gospel. (That should not be how that works)

From there every time I brought it up I would get cyberbullied for liking the games. And this was true for a lot of people who did like the games as well. We were all getting cyberbullied into joining the popular crowd and that we were wrong.

“Everyone else is saying it’s bad, therefore it must be true”

And then every time MCSM popped up in my feeds, my heart would sink and I would feel sick. Weird part was, while I did become far more critical of the games as a result of the trend… I NEVER found it in myself to outright hate it.

Like I said, the games have problems. They are by no means perfect games, and some of my critiques of it still hold up. (Not all of them though, ones I do wish I could take back) it was talking about THESE games that even spawned my hobby of writing essays of stuff I like.

So… that’s a sad origin story for how AnalyzGolden came to be. Now you know.

I’ve since drifted away from MCSM, simply because I was older and getting into new stuff. I talk about other stuff on this blog, like The Amazing Digital Circus, Ninjago, Total Drama, and quite recently Disventure Camp. And more. I also try to advertise my own stories to failing results cause no one cares.

So to see, after all these years, people like me finally being VALIDATED for our soured opinion on something… it just warms my heart so much.

I became more critical because of the trend of “MCSM sucks”. And now that that’s growing to not be the case, and I became more exposed to some crazy and wild fandom takes on other media that boggle my mind, that I’ve stepped more away from being negative and made choices to be in my corner and simply “Enjoy Something. Because I enjoy it.”

Oh I’m still a critical cynical bitch. And I do talk about my own critiques and problems if I personally have a problem with it and how the writing or whatever was handled. But I guess I’m more willing to hear the story itself out and what it’s trying to do before I jump to conclusions.

I cringe at my old emotionally impulsive self. And I hate having regression episodes of reverting back to my awful teenager self. But I can say that through experiences, I have to thank that for the person I am now, even if it sucked.

So… thank you MCSM. And thank you Hollywood for making a trailer/movie so awful that it made people such as myself finally feel heard and validated.

(Oh and btw, you guys don’t need to follow the trend of loving MCSM either. This doesn’t need to turn into the complete opposite thing. The lesson here is that you are allowed to like and dislike MCSM, and anything really, and trends should not sour your take on it. You can still not like the games if that’s your honest opinion.)

[f3r4lfr0gg3r]

Horropedia Headcanons/Canon Facts (?)

Headcanons

- He definitely has a Walkman (the original sony one) and plays horror movie tracks on it whenever it's possible 

- Has many dedicated binders/cabinets for different subgenres of horror films and books. hidden ofc because laplace hates fun. 

- Has an old, cheesy joke book purely because of its horror movie themed section

- Probably sells his ripped cds. or just has them for himself. yknow..

- His ripped cds are movie osts and movies themselves

- With his extensive collection of movies, Horro like a stand-in red box or something and often lends them out to people

- Probably enjoys tart-ish/spicy/sour tasting things (based on first cn)

- Likes Bloody Marys specifically for what they symbolize/the aesthetic more than the taste

- Collects limited edition halloween-themed snack wrappers/boxes… scrapbooks them or smth (they're clean)

- Collects charms and trinkets similarly

- That behavior bleeds into his way of dress,, despite the pretty basic business/formal way of his time. Hence the monster slippers..

- Has some funky spider web ties, zombie socks, things of that like...

- Very opinionated on cthulhu, lovecraftian, and other eldritch horrors.. cosmic horror as a whole

- In the past he's taken his own shot at monster design, both cheesy and genuinely scary! Film-writing, too.. though nothing more than novellas (The writing pretty good :-D very self indulgent, too)

- The living embodiment of “make your own content” but for psychological, supernatural, avant garde, sometimes true-crime horror stories. the usual.

- Writes silly stuff about various laplace staff living in a horror environment themselves. laplace as a decrepit old mansion, full of bats and bugs and sticklers that love borrrrredom.

- Boredoms the scariest thing of all. /lh

- Very good at overdescribing sensual things in his writing.

- Psychological topics and the unknown are objectively the greatest tools for scary media creation, and as a result his favorites, but he's got a soft spot for avant garde and/or camp stuff.

- He enjoys bad silly horror too. shits and gigs yk.

- DEFINITELY ENJOYS SHITTY MASCOT HORROR… likes to break down exactly why they suck actually ☝️

- In the same vein, looove love loves reading old web creepypasta. good and bad. finds them so amusing. people come up with wild stuff. 

- Also likes knowing what the average person is afraid of, and how it comes up in their writing

- Probably not the biggest fan of bad args. interactive horror media intended to be immersive but isn't !! is a bit annoying … fear without immersion isn't good fear. (?)

- Can definitely get the same amusement from them as other crappy horror stuff, but they’re significantly less fun. (?)

- As much as he gets enjoyment from the worst stuff, it's his pure love and appreciation for the genre that drives it !!

- Enjoys beethoven.. :-) and other euro-classical musicians. Along with that, Horro has a love for synthwave/darkwave

- He collects collector's/special edition vhs tapes from his fave films

- Seems like the type of person to really like riddles/problem-solving puzzles (especially when they appear to be simple, yet go against expectations)

- Very knowledgeable on how to sneak in and out of places with the many times he'd done so to skip boring lectures 

- Horro is an avid reader when he's not watching movies (it's always necessary to have some sort of media to lose yourself in at all times!!11!)

- Has a few of his grandfather's novels stashed away in his room

- Bought his cool monster slippers a long while ago and has to sew them back up from time to time or maybe made the slippers himself 

- Either way, Horro has some knowledge of sewing

- Not a cooking genius but is honestly good at making basic dishes (mostly just breakfast foods like omelets or pancakes- Horropedia also seems like he'd make a stellar grilled cheese 👌)

- May or may not be a fan of black coffee, with the taste preference hc for bitter things

- Can be very selective about physical touch, but is more lenient when it comes from those he's closer too

- There's a possibility that he's left handed, and only wears a glove on his right hand as it's more convenient and won't get in the way of anything requiring his dominant hand

- Part of the reason behind most people being hesitant to watch movies with Horropedia is because he talks a lot throughout them; reciting dialogue from memory, pointing out tropes, etc. This is just amplified with other people being there as he points out small details and gives a lot of fun facts- excited that other people are indulging in his interest. (me too Horro…me too)

- Horropedia has a habit of talking with his hands, especially when he gets excited or passionate about something :3

- I refuse to believe that An An Lee and Horropedia don't go ghost hunting together… it's canon for me!

- He's the best at telling immersive spooky stories, much to Sonetto's dismay

- After speaking of having a movie night with Vertin in a certain wilderness conversation, I like to believe he and a few others have a movie night every other week.

- Blonney and Horro himself would be the ones choosing movies a majority of the time, with the occasional contribution from An An Lee

- Horropedia’s friend in Laplace is X, which could explain how tf he's able to throw a sugar cube up in the air, and have it land into his coffee cup from a completely different direction. His knowledge of the butterfly effect and predicting the reaction to an action in order to use it for his benefit is very ‘X’ coded

- Very enthusiastic about Halloween! He always decorates, always makes a subtle costume from a niche movie to go to work in, and always ends the night with lots of candy + a long lists of films to watch before he either succumbs to sleep or night turns to dawn

- Tries so hard to befriend characters like Poltergeist, Click, Tuesday, and Semmelweis due to their proximity to the horror genre just by…existing making them very appealing to him

-

Canon Facts About Horropedia  

- Likes “Bloody Marys” with popcorn for the average horror-movie-marathon snack

- “Chainsaws, puppets, and waterphones, instead of balloons, cakes, and birthday songs–that's the kind of birthday party Horropedia looks forward to the most”

- His name is based on the protagonist Joshua from 2007 film Joshua, or “The Devil's Child”

- Joshua is a “sociopathic” child prodigy who is “self-decidedly conservstively dressed” and “thinks and acts like an adult” (from Wikipedia article on Joshua)

- Beethoven's Piano Sonata no. 12 (Funeral March movement) was used majorly in the film 'Joshua'

- Green is his biggest color theme visually in representation of his individuality from the foundation- (shown prevalent in his i2 garment, with hints of it in his regular design)

- Green is associated with life/growth, energy, balance, renewal, and success(?) also associated with envy, judgment, sickness, and materialism

- He has really bad posture to the point that Vertin points it out in one of his voice lines

- While he does pick apart certain tropes and gimmicks of horror that are cliche or "outdated”, Horropedia understands the usage of them being a part of the genre

- Really loves caffeine, as shown through his ‘morning’ voiceline + it being hinted that he used to sneak soda into the School of Discipline as it was hard to get (the event ‘One Flew Over the Old House')

- Only wears a glove on his right hand!

- His udimo is a little terrier

Voicelines/Character Tidbits

- Birthday Letters:

"On the eve of his birthday, Horropedia always anticipates something unusual, like a chilling knock on the door or a radio broadcast with an unchanging date."

"The mail carrier must have thought it was a New Year's prank rather than a birthday present! Upon receiving the thick stack of horror movie posters, Horropedia slammed the door in feigned anger."

“Chainsaws, puppets, and waterphones, instead of balloons, cakes, and birthday songs–that's the kind of birthday party Horropedia looks forward to the most”

- Wilderness Conversations:

“Fear loses its effect when given a tangible form. Ever heard that one before?”

“When the source of our fear breaks away from that unknowable abyss deep in our consciousness… Its intensity is greatly diminished. That’s also why psychological horror movies will live on forever"

"Our origin; clean, beautiful white squares. They're just begging to be embellished with a touch of defiance. Maybe some blood and guts or a zombie-esque dance routine. So let's have a movie night in here, sipping Bloody Marys and munching popcorn in honor of the bad kids!"

- Attack Descriptions:

"It's a little cliché, but always so effective."

"This is all perfectly logical, although difficult to understand."

☆ Besides the R1999 wiki, I got some of my ideas from @vasito-de-leche and @4str0nuts ! They have really good Horropedia analysis posts and if you haven't already, you should definitely check them out ^^

☆ Also shout out to my friend @bondofscythe, they wrote a great amount of the canon facts/hcs on this list and this post wouldn't be possible w/o them 😭

Made by @f3r4lfr0gg3r - 2024

[novlr]

do you have any advice for writing a story set in the future? like a story ab immortal characters that has a 100 year time jump where you can see the differences from say present day NYC to NYC in 2123 but its not outlandish or unrealistic

How to Write a Story Set in the Future

The future is a blank canvas, a place where anything is possible. This can be both a blessing and a curse for writers. On the one hand, it gives you endless possibilities to explore. On the other hand, it can be difficult to know where to start. Here are our quick tips:

Start with a strong idea

Decide what kind of future you want to write about and what role you want technology to play. Do you want to write about a dystopian future where technology has taken over? A utopian future where humans have solved all their problems using technology? Or has technology completely failed, and the future in your book looks more like our past?

Once you have a strong idea, you can start to flesh out your world and characters. Knowing how you want your future to look is the first step in knowing how to get there.

Do your research

The more you know about the present, the more believable your future story will be. Read books and articles about current trends, and think about how those trends might develop. You can also use your imagination to come up with new technologies and ideas, but they should be grounded in realistic development and fit within your story world.

There are some amazing non-fiction books to help you get the science right in your fiction, but you can also draw inspiration from the way that fiction authors tackle the subject. You can find a list of recommended non-fiction books to get you started in this post.

Be specific in your worldbuilding

When you’re describing your future world, don’t be afraid to get specific. What does the technology look like? How does it work? What are the social and political implications of this technology?

You don’t necessarily have to include all the minute detail in the content of your story, but knowing it for yourself, so it informs the way you write and what you can assume your characters know, will help you build out a stronger world.

The more specific you are in the world you build, the more immersive your story will be. But, focusing too much on the minute detail of your story will affect the pacing, so make sure you share only what is relevant.

Consider the time period

How far in the future is your story set? This will affect the technology, culture, and social norms of your world.

A world 50 years in the future will look very different from a world 2000 years in the future. Compare our current reality with the late 20th century vs the beginning of the 1st century, and you’ll see how big a part this can play in the way your story develops.

The rate of technological development in your setting is also important to consider. Will technology develop at the same pace as it currently does? Or will it stagnate or decline? If so, think of the reasons why this might be and how it fits into your plot.

Be creative

Don’t be afraid to come up with new ideas and concepts. The future is unknown, so let your imagination run wild.

But, with that said, there needs to be some logic to your ideas. If your future contains bio-engineered lettuce that gives people superpowers, there needs to be a reason for that. A cool thing for the sake of a cool thing will often break a reader’s immersion.

You want readers to be able to follow your ideas and believe in them. So making sure they fit and work within the context of your story is just as important as being imaginative.

[the---hermit]

some of my favourite books of 2023

I decided to put together a list of some of my favourite books of 2023. I'll write a couple of lines for each one, and leave the link to my full review as usual in case you want to read a bit more of my thoughts. The list is in no particular order, and I did not include any rereads I did during the year.

Gideon The Ninth by Tamsyn Muir and the locked tomb series

I finally read this series and absolutely fell in love with it. Gtn was surely my favourite out of the three. I had an amazing reading experience. I didn't know what to expect and I was pleasently surprised by the very funny narration. It got into my favourites right away, and I cannot wait to reread it this year. (it's too complicated for me to describe the chaos that this series is so all you get is my general feels)

My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness by Kabi Nagata

This is a manga about the author's personal experience dealing with her sexuality and depression. It was an incredible read, I was not expecting to get as emotional as I did. It was a stunning book that felt incredibly honest, and I am so glad I read it because it had a huge emotional impact on me.

The Priory Of The Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

I think this is the book with which I had the best reading experience this year. I remember being intimidated firstly by the size of this brick of a book and then at the very beginning by the world I knew nothing about, but I got into the story so quickly. I remeber struggling putting the book down both in the evening and in the mornings, to the point where I had to run to my bus stop to commute to uni, because I spent too much time reading this novel. I adored it, it made me fall in love again with epic fantasy. I also think this could be a great starting point to the genre for people who don't read much fantasy.

A Psalm For The Wild Built by Becky Chambers

This book went straight to be pile of my annual rereads. It was such a comforting read I feel at peace just thinking about it. This is the core of falling love with life again by focusing on the small things, and I am so grateful for this book. I have yet to pick up the sequel but even on its own this is a book you need to read.

Il Satiro Scientifico: Riprodursi Male curated by Barbascura X

This is a collection of short non fiction about reproduction exposed in a lighter tone with the goal of making science more approachable for a larger audience. It was amazing. It made me feel so motivated to pick up more non fiction that is not academia-related. I learned so much, it was a great note to end the year on.

honorable mentions:

The Sandman vol.11 - Endless Nights by Neil Gaiman in particular the short story about Dream. I have been thinking about that story non stop since I read it. It made me feel so emtional over a detail, I loved it. It's one of my favourite Neil Gaiman's ideas.

Nimona by ND Stevenson - I am one of those people who found out about this graphic novel after the movie came out and I loved it. I am still to this day making jokes related to this with my brother, it was one of my favourite graphic novels of the year.

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang - I decided to include this book mostly because I had a great reading experience with it. I was at the seaside, and I had the chance to fully immerse myself into this novel and overall had an amzing time with it.

Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White - I have been thinking about this book so much ever since I read it. From now on if someone asks me a ya rec this is the book they will get. It was an amzing mix of dystopia and horror, and the themes of religious trauma and queer rage were used amazingly. It actually left me wanting to read more about queer rage.

De Profundis by Oscar Wilde - yet another book I keep thinking about. And the more I think about this book the more I fall in love with it, it might even be my favourite Wilde I have read to this point. It was not a light read, it was very emotional but I am so glad I finally picked it up.

[pretentious-art-love]

Game Reviews #1 - Morrowind

I have the theory that is is likely the best game Bethesda ever did and everything that came afterwards its just a repeat of what they achieved here. The side content ranges from fetch quests to some okay and interesting stuff, but what tops it all is the main quest, there is a sense of discovery not only exploring wise, but in a narrative sense as well.

The story is also tied to the sense of progression and leveling up, you start as a prisoner who is sent to work as a spy by the emperor, and there is a mystery you have to unveil, since you are a spy, you have to make a cover identity on your own, and the game tells you to do side content on your own and level up to get better at what you do, and better yet, it is all part of your mission, your cover identity, there is no weird sense of immersion breaking urgency like in Cyberpunk where you are dying and it just feels off when you want to explore, or like in Breath of the Wild where they say Ganon is about to break free and you are collecting dragonflies for a girl and her sister, Morrowind gives you the perfect mood to explore and do your own story and it only gives you the information you need at the final of the quest when things are about to go wild.

Morrowind also features a more natural and realistic depiction of the chosen one narrative, since this time you have to convince people and go through several tests instead of being told you are the one and being believed as such by others as a matter of fact, you have to win it, you have to convince them with actions, mere words don't do, people are very apathetic about the prophecy because naturally they don't believe it and just want to see results from you, people in Morrowind are all about to see to believe, and weirdly enough, even when it reduces the power fantasy factor, it makes the story feel a lot more real.

The lore is amazing and everything you hear about the Disappearance of the Dwarves is just neat, it is the kind of cryptic shit that scrambles my brain, the mystery about the real truth of the death of Nerevar, that weird wizard dude that clones his wives, the cult and the use of the Kagrenac tools by the tribunal and Dagoth Ur, it's just so good, it's all so good.

Also, no quest markers whatsoever. I first felt it was frustrating not knowing where to go, but Morrowind taught me about how rewarding the sense of exploration can be, and the sense of freedom that comes with it, no compass telling you where to go, its all about your own story, you get clues and get to discover things, beautiful things, scary things, unbelievable things.

The gameplay is fantastic too, there are just so many things you can use to achieve your goal, sure, the RNG combat is weird at first, the stamina use when walking is weird too, but the more you level up the more satisfying it becomes to hit more frequently, you can either specialize in long blades, or you can use stealth, the magic system is vast and full of possibilities. I was sad first when I used all my Icarian flight scrolls and I couldn't find any on the game, but then I learned you can do a spell to increase your jump and reduce your weight and boom, I was able to make a bootleg icarian flight spell myself, jumping from mountain to mountain. It is all about those little tricks and things you can do, the abilities, the possibilities that just add to the repeatability, the ability to levitate between cities, using the voice of the emperor to charm others, it is just all so good, so good.

Some of the lore was taken along with for the next games, but, I feel this is the only game for me worth exploring. I do like the nordic inspired landscapes, but I haven't felt the drive to explore them when its approach feels so soulless, and while Oblivion and Skyrim are the definition of what I would call generic fantasy, Morrowind's world is creepy and alien, it is scary and wonderful. The steampunk inspired Dwarf ruins, the construction in Sadrith Mora and the closer islands, the open maze that can be Vivec city, the houses made of stone and the manor district of Aldrun, the skeleton warrior filled castle of Firemoth, the altars in the Sixth House bases, the master index forts, that bonelord between the lava I found in a cave raiding one of my trials, it is all so good, so good!

While Daggerfall aimed at a sense of freedom and size with the procedurally generated world, Morrowind uses the manual approach and gives you locations that are all lovely handcrafted one by one without cramming up so many things in a small space, still giving you a big land to wander around and sight-see, Morrowind is the joy of being lost and discovering a place for the first time, to discover something beautiful or incredible after hours of walking, to find a lost fella and help them along the way for then discover the witch that cursed him was actually in the right, Morrowind is about dying, about fight your way in, Morrowind is about having an adventure, and it is one of my favorite games right now.

Plus Dagoth Ur is a pretty hot monster husbando. His aura is unmatchable.

10/10

[pentition]

Spoilers before for MTaP and MTaS!

I think a big reason why I'm so fond of my builder and Pen is because a lot of things that thought would narratively work with them was enhanced by Pathea's choice to make him a Duvos spy. A lot of choices for Sunny's backstory and how she regards him were decided on before Fall From Grace and that whole arc of Sandrock's story. Which made knowing how she'd react to the whole thing a treat when Pen turned out not to be some crummy dude (with positives and negatives) but also an enemy to that various allied nations.

So be me, writing a backstory for Sunshine that had Duvos connections interwoven and being a big reason why she ends up in Sandrock... only to have the romance interest be dropped as a Duvos spy. It was fun and poetic af.

And that's also why when there was a lack of redemption explored that it made the whole thing worse. Not just as a 'hey, I'm a fan of this game and character!' but because the whole aspect of pouring in 250 game hours (by the time I got around to that arc - excluding all the fun thoughts outside of gaming too for the sake of this) thinking on my builder and her narrative. Thinking, wow, it's cool that Pen fits perfectly. Then hit that point of the main story and went, 'oh, fuck yeah, this is awesome'. Then realized as it went on and on that, much like in Portia with Aadit, it wasn't getting resolved. And the potential promise of a future game, sure, excites me to see him again. But it's not going to be Pen and Sunny. Unless they specifically say 'the Sandrock builder is the main character again!' which I find hard to believe.

I'm old. I've been writing and roleplaying since I was 11. I know I'm not alone in making a player character or OC you immerse into because you be vibing them. I love the roleplay aspect and just seeing the development of a character or multiple characters. It's my favorite thing about roleplaying, about writing stories or helping clients work on their stories and characters. So a lot of love gets poured in and to see Pen's character just full stop still makes me sigh.

Do I love committing to the bit of 'he's baaaad'? Yeah. But I can also be upset by it, too. Especially with how nuanced he is upon further examination. If he was a one note character I would have been like, "Ah, well, saw it coming' but that wasn't the case even with the English version (not even gonna get started on the Chinese version's nuances, we know and love them).

Back during the early part of EA Sandrock, I knew Sunny witnessed some awful relic experimentation in her backstory. While I had no confirmation that Duvos experimented, it didn't seem wild to me that a sector of its military could. Come to find out Pen is likely a child soldier that was experimented on had me all !(•̀ᴗ•́)و ̑̑ RIGHTEOUS!

The potential ways of keeping him on that would fit Pathea's way of dealing with people who make shit decisions are numerous, which contributes to why it's a let down. I would have absolutely been thrilled if there was DLC expanding upon the Duvos situation. Because even if you/your builder doesn't like Pen, he obviously had some manner of respect or appreciation that could have been utilized by Avery. :')

I'm laying here in a puddle of feelings today, if you can't tell. I was writing up a fun little bullet point list of my builder's history pre-Sandrock and post-game and have officially melted. So if you got this far, hi, I hope you're doing well. <3

[phantomrose96]

Hello sorry to barge in with the word vomit/ramble, just wanted to let you know that god. Oh my god. You dont know how many things you’ve uncovered in me.

I started reading like, yesterday afternoon due to an animation for this fic, dreading over the word-count. I thought I could just read a little to catch a grasp of the fic, then put it to the side when my interest dies, and then 12 hours of reading happened and now I’m sitting awake at 1 AM wondering what the fuck happened to my emotions.

Cause?? I just?? Adored it so much?? The writing is such an experience to read, you just nail every single detail that just immerses me into the current scene or event. The amount of details picked and imbedded are just enough to fully paint a picture while also not overwhelming me with information. It was a Joy to read, and shone whenever a revaluation and/or breakdown happens to a character (no plural, we know all know which one). The tension parts always shakes me over with anxiety (like the teru v ritsu 2, one of my favorites), the tiny and wholesome moments are so well described too?? You know what’s happening and you know your heart it not coming out unscathed but nope, you sit there and take the pain as now the characters are allowed a sense of comfort and you realize how much they needed it after watching their lives turn into a slow motion titanic scene.

AND THE CHARACTERS, the characterization is immaculate I swear. Its so different from what I’m used to in the best ways plus more. I love how mob is just a confused kid trying his best and reigen is just Some Guy who managed to completely tear down (or breach-) the emotional walls of every Kageyama kid in sight and just?? Let them know he’s there for them?? Let them be kids?? His interactions with Ritsu is so tragic cause Reigen will just not let go of the fact that Ritsu is fucking thirteen and does not need this much stress condensed in him (god bless burger scene, also a favorite). And Ritsu. He is so insane it makes me want to blow up a house (positive connotation). The dude is just a walking car wreck that is slowly parking at the edge of a cliff. Just the way he snaps in the most unhinged and self destructive ways makes me want to set him down in a pile of blankets, because child you are not leaving until you book a therapist appointment. Teru makes him 10x worst its comical, they just hate each other, barfs at eachothers presence but also they’d entrust their lives to the other’s no problem, what are worst enemies with slight fond attachments are for (Ritsu realizing he was manipulating Teru all along, naturally? A well aimed strike that rattled my core, incredible). Ritsu’s journey throughout the fic has been a sight to witness, from him being a emotionally stunted mess to an emotionally stunted, but now slightly considerate, mess. Character development.

This story has been an absolute delight to finish, and my thoughts will still run wild for about a week. I cannot thank you enough for writing this and sharing this to the world of ao3.

(ABoT)

fbjhfbj eating this review eating this eating this

I'm!!!! Okay to approach this in pieces.

>breakdown happens to a character (no plural, we all know which one)

we all know which one....

I'm just saying this could still be about literally ANY character named Ritsu in this story.

Also yes!!! Another Ritsu vs Teru v2 enjoyer!! I was so goddamn excited getting to that part of the story. The role inversion between Ritsu and Teru. The weight of Ritsu making this a spirit possession battle against Teru of all people, and that being why Ritsu is able to hold his own against Teru who is so much stronger than him.

And absolutely ABoT is all about the small wholesome moments, cuz each and every one of those are wrestled in tatters out of the jaw of tragedy and misery which, to me, makes them extra special. The absolute fighting tooth and nail for happiness and betterment.

>reigen is just Some Guy who managed to completely tear down (or breach-) the emotional walls of every Kageyama kid in sight and just?? Let them know he’s there for them?? Let them be kids??

yep yep yep the double-meaning of "Breach" in the title. Breach trust. Breach the barrier. The role of lies and the role of trust in that very core element of Mob's barrier.

And I really adored writing all the Ritsu and Reigen interactions because they are. just. the worst for each other. But also Reigen is who Ritsu needs. And that hard fight to save Ritsu happens in the form of screaming matches that destroy a McDonalds and the massive decimation of innocent Build-A-Bears. The burger scene is. SO near and dear to my heart.

>And Ritsu. He is so insane it makes me want to blow up a house (positive connotation).

Ritsu "Aren't you tired of being nice? Don't you wanna just go apeshit?" Kageyama. I love writing him as a foil against the Reigen and Mob plotline. Because both Reigen and Mob have been hurt, and their reponses are much more focused on how to heal themselves. Ritsu's been hurt (and Teru, too) and their responses are to lash out and hurt everything back. ABoT runs the whole spectrum of catharthis for just "You've been badly wronged. Wouldn't you just like to [heal] [have someone who cares] [seek revenge and destroy the world which destroyed you]?"

>(Ritsu realizing he was manipulating Teru all along, naturally? A well aimed strike that rattled my core, incredible)

I deeply loved writing the Teru and Ritsu plotline just every step of the way. And the hardest part was writing all the build up knowing the role-reversal was coming without tipping my hand--the part where Ritsu would surpass Teru in awfulness, where it would become Teru desperately clinging to morals and trying his hardest to stop Ritsu. And this all starts with the pivot in ch31 as Ritsu realizes he IS in a position to take advantage of Teru... because Teru sees him as a friend.

fkjfdnkjfddf thank you for this review! I'm eating it I'm eating it. You're talking about so many of the things that make me feral for this story and why I wrote it in the first place. It's the trauma it's the healing it's the character development it's the character regression it's the beating your bestie to death on a soccer field it's the taking a traumatized kid to get ramen it's the mindless destruction of a Build-A-Bear Workshop it's the manipulation it's the trying to do better it's the idea that self-sacrifice doesn't actually save the people around you who need you it's the different ways tragedy affects people it's the lighting a corpse on fire then slashing your own throat it's the adopting a kitten named Socks it's the corruption it's the possession it's the cursed Jade Statue that just follows you everywhere for no reason

[senuassaga]

Journey Through Stunning Landscapes: Senua’s Saga Hellblade II

Senua's been through it all, but in Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2, she starts off getting nabbed by slavers on a ship. She seizes a chance to break free at sea, not just for herself but also to empower her people and inspire Xbox gamers to buy Xbox games for this gripping narrative. Her mission evolves into taking down the slavers for good, so no more families suffer the heartbreak of losing loved ones forever. But her journey turns out way wilder than she expected, with some serious enemies thrown her way. If you've played Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, Hellblade 2 will feel like déjà vu. It's a pretty straightforward path through stunning landscapes, with a bit of room for exploration and finding collectibles if you're into that. Otherwise, it’s all about solving puzzles and getting into combat to spice things up.

Cinematic Flair vs. Gameplay Clarity: Evaluating Combat in Hellblade II

As you progress, they start blending together into more complex challenges that aren’t super hard but definitely fun to figure out. Now, when you buy PS5 games, the combat’s where opinions might split. It’s more personal than in Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, with you taking on one foe at a time. The mechanics are pretty similar—dodge, parry, heavy and light attacks, and that mirror move to slow things down—but it’s all more intense and lively. Kinda like in The Last of Us Part 2, where you feel the impact of every hit and block. But here’s the thing: the combat can feel a bit repetitive since your moves don’t really evolve as you go on. The enemies switch up enough to keep things somewhat fresh, but the cinematic style, with those black bars on the screen, sometimes messes with your view, making it tricky to dodge certain attacks, like fire blasts. Overall, the combat’s not bad by any means—it just could’ve been more exciting, especially compared to the first game.

Visually Stunning Realism and Immersive Sound: Hellblade II's Triumphs and Minor Combat Quibbles

In the end, what really counts with Hellblade 2 is its story, and man, it’s totally gripping. The characters are deep, super interesting, and they're written really well. The situations they get into are wild and crazy intense. Plus, like we said before, the graphics and sound are next level, totally mind-blowing. You can see real emotions on the characters’ faces, and you smoothly move from one insane environment to the next without any loading breaks. Sometimes it feels like you’re the director of a movie, calling the shots at your own pace. By the time you finish Senua’s latest adventure, which clocks in around eight hours for most players, you’ll be blown away multiple times. It’s not super replayable, but some folks might come back to hunt for missed collectibles. One cool thing is, after you finish the game and go back to replay chapters, you can choose different narrators who give their own take on what went down. Ninja Theory really knocked it out of the park with Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2. The combat might not be the best, but the storytelling and how it’s presented is unmatched. No other game looks or sounds this good—it’s seriously a feast for the senses. And the way it captures psychosis is unreal. Senua’s struggles are haunting, making you question reality at every turn. So yeah, while Hellblade 2 isn’t flawless, it’s a major step up from the first game and a must-play for anyone into dark, story-driven adventures. Hellblade 2: Senua’s Saga really steps it up from the first game, making it a must for fans of dark, cinematic adventures. The visuals are insane, with characters and environments looking straight-up realistic, and the sound design is top-notch as well. The only downside? Combat gets old fast – but overall, that’s a minor gripe compared to everything else it nails.

[arkus-rhapsode]

Rambling about my anxieties about a potential FE4 Remake

So recently an interview with the developers of FE Engage had come out and it shed some interesting facts about the development like how it was meant for the 30th anniversary, it was being made at the same time as 3H and that the game was delayed for greater polish.

Now that might not seem at all extraordinary after all, if you were like me, the OG leaker for Engage basically said that all. But here’s the thing, not only is this behind the scenes look legitimizing more of the leaker’s insights, but that means there is an even higher potential of their claim that an FE4 remake is more believable. 

Now its no secret that FE Genealogy of the Holy War is one of the most anticipated Fire Emblems to receive a remake treatment like Echoes and why wouldn’t it be? After all, its still the most popular FE in Japan and is considered to be Kaga’s magnum opus and the best of the Famicom era FE. It was also never brought over to the West legally so this’ll be FE fans chances to see it in its full glory. Hell, Im excited as all hell to see FE4 remade on modern consoles, but then I sorta stopped and began to think about it for a bit. Namely, could an FE4 remake ever live up to the hype?

Now look, any old FE getting remade should happen. Especially those never officially translated. It gives others in the fandom the chance to experience the game with modern convince and not be scared off by emulation. But just for a moment I thought what a remade FE4 would even look like. 

Now Im sure anyone who played Echoes knows it is possibly one of the best produced FE’s ever. Its in game art was amazing, the sprites actually resembled people more than Awakening or Fates, fully voice acted, it was amazing. It was amazing by the standards of a 3DS. Its no secret FE has gone through a transitional period from the 3DS to the Switch. The flat 2D sprites are now 3D models and convos that took place on map painting backgrounds with character art laid onto of it, is now 3D models speaking in an open space. I think what every FE fan genuinely wants is for Fire Emblem to look the best it can on the console its on. Now Engage clearly has shown FE can look better than it ever has on switch, but it still leaves a lot to be desired. This is a console that’s 1st and 2nd parties can achieve visuals like breath of the wild, Kirby Lost World, and Xenoblade. So I don’t think its impossible to make pretty games on a switch. But FE and Insys really haven’t gone all the way to where is feels quite like its a next gen FE visually. And not to put all the blame on InSys, but I understand that even fans are split. Some will never be happy if we don’t get back to the old pixel art style and found it more visually appealing while others want to put the capabilities of FE on a home console. Any creative director is not gonna manage to appeal to both these sides and that’s honestly going to suck. 

Now, this isn’t just about graphics but lets also talk about mechanics. Its no doubt that FE4 has some legendary map design, as well as the precursor to the support system we have now. But it was a clearly unbalanced FE, cavalry has always been OP but this is the game where literally cavalry is the best. The map design is also pretty different. I know GBA era fans probably are used to the concept of an FE plot unfolding on a battlefield as opposed to more chapter long encounter then story cutscene as more modern FE, but if people forget, the maps in FE4 were huge with multiple narrative events occurring in a single map. So how do translate that? Do you get rid of the huge maps and make FE4 more like modern FE and break into smaller maps with cutscene driven stories? Engage has shown a willingness to use more cinematics than ever before, would that help moments like Sigurd’s father dying or the feeling of Quan arriving only to be ambushed? Personally, I don’t think so as moments like that make FE4 so remembered. The immersive moments of in real time plot elements playing out. Once again we arrive at some where I can’t really see how you’d do this without disappointing one end of the spectrum.

And then we have the support system. I feel pretty confident in saying that an FE4 remake will use the modernized FE support system. But as we’ve seen in Echoes, just because it may use the same system, doesn’t mean it’ll be like Awakening, Fates, or 3H level deep. Echoes support system was incredibly limited despite coming off of the more robust Fates. And As I’m sure you all recall, scaling back social sim elements are never really met with positivity like FE Engage walking back things from 3H. Im sure they’ll still let you pick who you end up with Seliph, after all he isn’t locked into an ending like Sigurd or Alm, but I am unsure if we’ll get the modernized support system we are so accused to getting retrofitted into an older game. 

Oh my god are they even going to do turn wheel?

Okay okay moving away from the gameplay portion, the last thing that worries the fact any remake of FE4 has to live up to a near monolithic reputation. FE4 is an FE that never made it the states and the only way to experience it forever was through emulation and a fan translation. This lack of availability that seemed to only be accessed by die hard FE fans willing to play the Famicom era games while also being told to other western fans that this is Japan’s favorite FE coupled with things that more modern fans would recognize like FE4 serving as the inspiration for a lot of 3H has essentially mythologized FE4 as “The Greatest Fire Emblem Game”. Now this is my personal opinion but FE4 isn’t my favorite FE, nor is it one I consider the best written, but it is certainly an operatic entry that goes beyond what FE had ever done up to the point with moments that deserve to be apart of FE history. And do you see what I’m getting at here? Any remake of FE4 has sky high expectations to clear. It was a meme forever that FF7 Remake was taking forever, but we all know that if it was nothing less than beyond perfect, then FF7R would never live up to the hype. FE4 is very likely going to be in that situation and Im not 100% sure InSys can deliver if that’s the case. 

Now look, maybe this is all just pointless lizard brain fear. I would love nothing more than to see and FE4 that flawlessly captured the spirt of the original while looking great, playing great, and living up to the bar of social simulation. I think that’s all any fan genuinely wants out of any FE game. But it just fills me with dread knowing the near herculean task the FE development team may be tasked with, and that even more fans who have never experienced FE4 are going to now have to see how “The Best FE” holds up to modern standards. 

The potential of this remake ever happening is still not set in hard stone as of the writing. So there really is no point worrying about something before it even has a chance to materialize. But I do believe that any FE4 remake will now be facing a lot of up hill battles and while I’m not using that to protect poor game design (If the game plays or looks like ass I will call it out) I do hope that people think about what an FE4 remake really does mean. 

[therecordconnection]

Ranting and Raving: "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang

Recently, I started reading The Come Up: An Oral History of the Rise of Hip-Hop, a really great book by Jonathan Abrams that came out back in October last year. It’s a thorough work, taking its time to really cover the genre, from all its major landmarks (New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, the Midwest, etc.) and most of its major players are interviewed and represented in it. I really recommend it if you’re someone who doesn’t know a lot of the deep lore surrounding hip-hop’s history (like me) and you’re looking to learn more.

2023 marked the year of hip-hop’s fiftieth anniversary and it’s done a lot of well-earned celebrating throughout. There were tons of retrospectives done, the Grammys held a live concert to honor the occasion, and many Spotify playlists were made to help a new generation of hip-hop lovers go back and become immersed in the full history. It’s a good thing that the fiftieth anniversary had so much dedicated to it and people could enjoy looking back, because this year has been very strange for the genre in terms of mainstream Billboard chart success.

From August 2022 to August 2023, no rap song topped the Hot 100 chart, which hasn’t happened for twenty-three years. Rappers were still very much successful and there were still albums that hit the top of the album charts (Lil Uzi Vert’s Pink Tape, Travis Scott’s Utopia, Drake’s For All the Dogs topped it twice) but there was no single song that topped the Hot 100. That dry spell finally ended when Doja Cat managed to break the slump with “Paint the Town Red,” which became a number one hit back in September. In a year where Morgan Wallen and Taylor Swift reigned supreme with no end in sight (especially if you’re Taylor Swift), it was almost a good thing that hip-hop was able to focus on looking back and enjoying how far it's come and celebrate all that the genre has achieved in such a short time.

Anyway, as I was reading the first chapters of The Come Up, which focus on hip-hop’s birth in the Bronx and how it grew out of New York and out of the block parties DJ Kool Herc was throwing in 1973, I was captivated. As I kept going though, there was one thing I kept wondering about.

When do the Sugarhill Gang enter into the story?

When I was young, I had always been under the impression that the Sugarhill Gang were among the first rap pioneers, more or less believing they were the first MCs to spit into the mic and bring hip-hop into the world. They... kinda did, but also not really. They were responsible for playing a major part in the genre becoming the cultural juggernaut we recognize it as today, but as for pioneers? Your mileage will vary on that and I hope that’ll become clear soon as we start discussing them. 

Now, I want it to be known that being a white guy from Bumfuck Nowhere, Pennsylvania, my hip-hop history knowledge has always had giant gaps in it that I’ve only been starting to fill up in recent years. I imagine for many others like myself, they’re only just now really learning the history of hip-hop’s birth in the Bronx and what the first MCs unleashed. If you’re not much of a reader, Netflix’s Hip-Hop Evolution is a really great series that covers a ton of that early history. Charlie Ahern’s 1982 film Wild Style also serves as a historical time capsule of that history as it was being written. The Sugarhill Gang get discussed in Hip-Hop Evolution’s second episode, but they’re nowhere to be found in Wild Style.

So, as I was learning about hip-hop and rap’s origins in New York, eventually the Sugarhill Gang did make an appearance. What I ended up learning gave me an entirely new fascination with a song that up until recently I had just found enjoyable and didn’t think too much of. “Rapper’s Delight” is such a fascinating song. Let me count the ways. Why don’t we start with who the Sugarhill Gang are?

The story of the Sugarhill Gang begins with a woman named Sylvia Robinson, often dubbed the “Mother of Hip-Hop.” A shrewd businesswoman, she was the head of All Platinum Records, a label that started in and ran through the seventies (Sugarhill Records, where “Rapper’s Delight” was released, was a subsidiary of All Platinum and formed in order to focus on the emerging rap scene). Robinson was also a musician herself, being one half of the guitar duo Mickey and Sylvia, scoring a hit in 1956 with “Love is Strange” (a song you definitely know if you’ve seen Dirty Dancing). Sylvia herself also had a hit in 1973 with the song “Pillow Talk.” Robinson has lived a life that goes beyond the scope of our subject today, so we’ll stick with knowing her as a businesswoman. If you want to learn more about Robinson’s story, this Billboard piece on her from 2019 is a good place to start.

In 1979, All Platinum was facing bankruptcy and was in desperate need of a smash hit in order to save it. Robinson had agreed to attend a party at Harlem World, a popular disco club in the late seventies and early eighties at 116th & Lenox Ave, in Harlem. Abrams tells the story of how Robinson first discovered the music that could save her label in The Come Up:

“Robinson witnessed Lovebug Starski work the turntables and the crowd into a frenzy with his call-and-responses. Robinson wanted to capture the music and release it commercially. When Lovebug Starski declined the arrangement, Robinson went on a hunt for other artists.”

Robinson’s search for talent, led by her son Joey Robinson, Jr., took them to a pizza parlor in New Jersey. It still exists today. It’s Crispy Crust Pizza in Englewood, NJ (the surviving members of the Gang are interviewed there in Netflix’s Hip-Hop Evolution). The story goes like this: 

The Sugarhill Gang are made up of three guys: Michael Wright (“Wonder Mike”), Henry Jackson (*Big Bank Hank”), and Guy O’ Brien (“Master Gee”). Robinson only came to hear Big Bank spit, but Wonder Mike and Master Gee also auditioned for her. Unable to make a decision on which one to go with, she ultimately decided to say “fuck it!” and made them a trio. 

It’s the best decision she could’ve made.

They auditioned on a Friday night and by Monday they were in the studio cutting the track. The three guys just kept passing the mic to one another and eventually the full song wound up being fifteen minutes long. 

We’ll get into the rhymes a bit later, but now that we’re familiar with the gang, we should cover what “Rapper’s Delight” ended up being the first of. Hip-hop may have already existed in the Bronx and New York scene for about six years before the gang came along and scored a bonafide hit, but the song does have legitimate cred. It’s the first rap song that made it onto the Billboard Hot 100 and the first rap song to break into the Top 40. It paved the way for Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five to get onto Billboard with 1982’s “The Message” (peaked at #62) and led to eventual chart dominators like Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys, which would start sprouting up a few years after the Gang made their mark. The Sugarhill Gang are also some of the first rappers to film an official music video (which is linked above at the top) and be seen performing on pre-MTV television (there are so many videos out there of them performing this on TV shows. It’s nuts). 

Listening to it, it’s not hard to understand why this song still gets written into the history books. First, this shit holds the fuck up. Second, it’s probably the easiest example to use if the aliens ever visit and Captain Cleevmorp asks, “W h a t i s t h i s t h i n g y o u c a l l . . . ‘r a p m u s i c’?” It’s ripping off a disco song that was barely three months old at the time (“Good Times” was released June 4th, 1979, “Rapper’s Delight” appeared September 16th, 1979) but at its core, it’s a rap song and nobody could mistake it for anything else. Did I mention this is ripping off a disco song that was barely three months old at the time? I feel like that’s an important part of the story.

Do you like “Good Times” by Chic? If you do, then hoo boy, do I have the song for you! I don’t think I’m blowing any minds here when I say that musically, “Rapper’s Delight” is quite literally just three guys rapping over an instrumental version of “Good Times” by Chic. I feel the need to stress that it is NOT a sample of “Good Times,” though you would be forgiven for thinking it is. “Rapper’s Delight” came out during a time when the technology for rap sampling and looping didn’t exist yet, so the production team behind “Rapper’s Delight” had to bring in session guys to recreate the song from scratch. They did such a good job recreating it, Nile Rodgers (guitarist) and Bernard Edwards (bassist) from Chic threatened to sue them. They eventually settled out of court, getting co-writing credits on the song and, according to the Library of Congress, “a substantial undisclosed amount of money made off of album sales and performances.” 

Chic won, but Curtis Brown, better known as New York rapper Grandmaster Caz, didn’t. Now might be a good time to start talking about the lyrics to the song.

For brevity’s sake, we will not be going over all fifteen minutes of this thing (I’ve never made it through the entire song. It just goes on-and-and-on-and-on-on-and-on). Rather, we’re going to focus on most single/video versions of the song and just cover the most important parts. 

Wonder Mike is the first one up. Equipped with a friendly voice and a smooth delivery, he spits some of the most important opening lines in rap history.

I said a hip hop, the hippie, the hippie The hip hip hop and you don't stop the rockin' To the bang-bang, boogie, say up jump the boogie To the rhythm of the boogie, the beat

According to Mike in Hip Hop Evolution, these are the lines he used when auditioning with Sylvia Robinson. Those four lines alone tell you everything you need to know about rap flow and delivery. It’s obviously very primitive compared to what MCs are doing now (and even what MCs were doing when this song got big) but to an unsuspecting audience outside of New York that had no idea what the hell rap was at all, those lines are an immediate attention grabber. I’ve always adored the line that comes after those initial four: “Now, what you hear is not a test I'm rappin' to the beat.” It’s a great way to present something strange and new to an audience without alienating them or scaring them away. People in 1979 had long known about disco and would’ve recognized the music immediately, but the rapping part was a new ballgame and Mike’s delivery in the opening verse lays down the framework for the rest of the song. At its core, “Rapper’s Delight” is a laid back and fun party anthem and he immediately sets that tone with his opening verse. He’s a good straight man compared to the goofy braggadocio that starts immediately once he passes it to Big Bank Hank. 

If “Rapper’s Delight” is beloved, it’s because Big Bank comes in and just kills it from the moment he steps up to the mic. The man just sells it and then some. He’s got great flow, a fun loving attitude, tons of style, and a goofy but confident swagger completely on lock. Depending on the version you’re listening to, he’s going for almost two minutes straight with barely any breaks. For one of the first rap songs ever put to vinyl, it’s an impressive feat. He’s got a lot of really great rhymes too.

It’s just a shame he didn’t write a lot of them...

Remember when I said Chic won their lawsuit threat but Grandmaster Caz didn’t end up being so lucky? That’s because a good chunk of the rhymes Big Bank is using are actually Caz’s and it wasn’t a secret to the New York rappers hearing it at the time. 

One dead giveaway is in this line: “The women fight for my delight / But I'm the grandmaster with the three MCs.” Three MCs, huh? But there’s only three of you. There would have to be four of you in order for that line to work. It worked when Caz said that as part of the group Cold Crush Brothers, because there were four of them. Another Caz line is near the beginning of Big Bank’s first verse: “Check it out, I'm the C-A-S-A-N, the O-V-A / And the rest is F-L-Y.” “Casanova” was a nickname of Caz’s. Caz reveals more stolen rhymes and where Big Bank got them from when interviewed for The Come Up:

“Sometimes I’ve been misquoted, and then sometimes I’ve made the mistake of saying I wrote all of Big Bank Hank’s lines for ‘Rapper’s Delight.’ What I meant is his verses. I meant his rhymes. But the little bridges, the hook, that’s DJ Hollywood. That, ‘Imp the Dimp, the ladies’ pimp. The women fight for my . . ., that’s Rahiem from Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. Those two things, I didn’t write, but the full rhymes he says, ‘I’m the C-A-S-AN, the O-V-A from the time I was only six years old’ and then the Superman and Lois Lane, I wrote all of that.” 

Whether Big Bank got to see a book of Caz’s rhymes and learn them from reading that is up for debate. Caz claims in both The Come Up and Hip-Hop Evolution that Hank didn’t have to study. He knew them all just from knowing Caz and being around him. If you want to hear Caz get bitter about it (which he has every right to be) he addressed this issue of plagiarism in 2000 with the song “MC Delight” (“the cat who bit this rhyme was my manager, pure treason I'll tell you why...”). 

It does take the wind out of the sails a bit when you learn Big Bank cribbed from other rappers for “Rapper’s Delight,” because he’s a very fun and energetic performer with a great voice and great flow, but once you learn the rhymes were stolen from guys who would never get any of the glory of “the first rap hit,” you start to feel bad and look at Big Bank as nothing more than a thief. It blows. New York DJ Grandmixer DXT voices the backlash and problematic nature of getting caught ripping somebody else off in Hip-Hop Evolution:

"Hank was saying a rhyme that we was hearing at the parties already, and he's saying somebody else's rhyme. And for us, that's a catastrophic no-no. There were people who would get beat up for saying somebody's rhyme. And here's a record where this guy bites and actually records it. Like, that was just the worst thing ever."

It goes without saying that the biggest problem with Hank ripping off rap’s founding fathers in the Bronx is that the Sugarhill Gang gets credit for being the first rap stars when one of them is pretty shamelessly ripping off lines from every rapper he heard in New York. There’s no evidence that everything in Hank’s verses are ripped off from somewhere, but there’s evidence of plagiarism all the same. Luckily, Master Gee and Wonder Mike’s parts are both authentic as well as fully written by them. Which is good because once Gee takes over from Big Bank, he takes a little time to get going, but eventually starts feeling himself and really starts delivering some Grade-A stuff. Most of his lines are either about bragging about his status as a ladies man, observations about the listener dancing to the music, and how he’s the youngest member of the three, but can still keep up with the best of them. I do like that his first brag is how he goes by the “unforgettable name” of Master Gee. Personally, I actually think all three of their names are pretty dumb and lame as far as rap names go, but they’re among some of the first rappers so it’s not like they had any way to avoid that.

Master Gee’s most impressive moment is this verse right here, written out in full:

I got a little face and a pair of brown eyes All I'm here to do, ladies, is hypnotize Singin' on-and-and-on-and-on-on-and-on The beat don't stop until the break of dawn Singin' on-and-and-on-and-on-on-and-on Like a hot buttered pop-da-pop-da-pop, dibbie dibbie Pop-da-pop-pop, you don't dare stop Come alive, y'all, gimme whatcha got

It’s stuff that’s downright corny by today’s standards, but Gee’s ability to spit all that without getting tongue-tied is more than I can say for myself. He’s got really great control; all three of them do. Mike, Big Bank, and Gee each deliver their parts like a never-ending party and when you listen to the full version of the song (that fifteen minute monster!) it has the feel of a party where you and your friends are just shooting the shit and passing around a blunt or something to each other. The three of them all seem like friends that are collectively goofballs just having a good time, which is one reason why I think the song has enjoyed the long life it’s had.

I also think the reason this song has lived so long is because white people LOVE this song. Of course they do! It’s a pretty sanitized version of the kind of music that was being made in New York at the time. There’s no message to it, no commentary about social issues, or even using old records in a creative way like the DJs of the day had been doing. Everything about this song was specifically engineered to be commercially viable, right down to completely ripping off a song that had already been a hit less than four months beforehand.

A mainstream audience (read: white) was absolutely slammed with pretty much nothing but disco for most of 1977, all of 1978, and most of 1979 before a bunch of people finally snapped and held a massive bonfire in Chicago about it. “Good Times” was something they already knew and something disco lovers still enjoyed, so you could ease them into this strange new thing called “rappin’ to the beat” and they would understand it without being confused. To most, it was probably just a different style of disco song at the time. It wouldn’t be until the mid-eighties when people would start to begin to understand a better definition for what rap is.

Obviously, the song has a wide appeal and white people really enjoying it isn’t the only reason, but that definitely plays a major factor. You’re looking at the song that inadvertently launched a thousand novelty rap songs in the eighties, all featuring white guys who should’ve never been allowed to be anywhere near a rap song. Rodney Dangerfield with “Rappin’ Rodney,” the Beach Boys with the Fat Boys on “Wipeout,” Joe Piscopo doing “Honeymooners Rap” with Eddie Murphy, and, lest we forget "The Super Bowl Shuffle" by The Chicago Bears Shufflin' Crew. What I’m trying to get at is this: The Sugarhill Gang made it so that if they, three dorks from New Jersey working in a pizza parlor, can rap, you probably can figure it out too. Adding to the “White People Have Propped This Song Up as a Monument” theory is how many things have referenced this song over the years. Here’s a Homer Simpson toy that raps the song and dances to it. The grandmother from The Wedding Singer famously does it (also adding to the “elderly women rapping” trope). Jimmy Fallon once had somebody cut and splice NBC anchors Brian Williams and Lester Holt rapping the song. Kid Rock’s breakout 1999 hit “Bawitdaba” references the song in its chorus (“Bawitdaba, da bang, da dang diggy diggy / Diggy, said the boogie, said up jump the boogie”). And there’s of course the famous 2002 Las Ketchup song “Asereje,” though you probably know it better as “The Ketchup Song,” which is about someone who goes to the club and asks the DJ to play "Rapper's Delight" and sings along in gibberish because he doesn't know the English lyrics. The point is that this song has been propped up by a lot of people who should NOT be considered rappers (yes, that includes Kid Rock).

I think the first time I ever started to have suspicions that the song wasn’t universally adored was when I watched In Living Color for the first time. There’s a sketch in the first season where Keenan Ivory Wayans plays Jesse Jackson and goes for the joke that everyone used to make about him: That he speaks in rhymes, almost like he’s a real life version of Gruntilda the witch from Banjo-Kazooie. Anyway, there’s a sketch where Jackson is giving his final State of the Union address (in the world of this sketch, he beat George H. W. Bush in ‘92 and has been president for eight years) and gives his address in the most basic AA BB CC rhyme scheme that wouldn’t look out of place in a children’s book. After a few of them, Wayans-as-Jackson breaks and quickly says: “Hip hop, you don't stop the rockin' / To the bang-bang, boogie, the beat,” which I took to be an insult that the rhymes in that song were just as basic as anything Jackson had ever said. The idea that “Rapper’s Delight” was wack was something I think I had already known in the back of my head but didn’t want to say because I thought that would just make me sound like a guy who hates fun. But, upon reading and hearing testimonies from the founding fathers of rap in New York, I realized that the big sin of “Rapper’s Delight” wasn’t that it was wack...

Its biggest sin was that it was made by a bunch of posers.

Sylvia Robinson didn’t know anything about the hip-hop and rap scene developing in New York, but she knew it was something that could be monetized if it was done and presented in the right way. Wonder Mike and Master Gee weren’t real rappers with any credibility, they were just guys working in a pizza parlor in New Jersey who were given the opportunity of a lifetime. Big Bank was the only one who could lay claim to having connections in the Bronx. He grew up there, worked the doors at famous Bronx nightclub The Sparkle, and also served as a manager for Grandmaster Caz (whom he would later rip off). “Rapper’s Delight” wasn’t made by starving artists who were pivotal to creating a new scene, it was made by a bunch of posers who had everything to gain from it. New York rappers interviewed in The Come Up knew this and were justifiably pissed about the song. The only testimony that was kind to them came from Kool Moe Dee, who understood the backlash as well as the song being embraced by white America.

“I understood why there was a lot of MCs at the time that didn’t like it, because I just think the social construct of oppression puts us against each other in many ways. In my opinion, many African Americans have a hard time giving other African Americans credit for achieving because so much of white America accepted that record and they started to define it from their perspective. And we’re saying we’ve already been here; it’s not new. So a backlash was on Sugar Hill that wasn’t deserved because they didn’t ask for it. ... So it was never not really hip-hop. We just had gotten more lyrically sophisticated at that time and the record was a great record. And looking back, if it wasn’t for Sugar Hill, we might not have an industry as prominent as we have because of the success of ‘Rapper’s Delight.’”

Kool Moe is right. It wasn’t their fault that “Rapper’s Delight” took off the way it did. Robinson was cashing in on what she saw as “the new thing” and wanted in. The song taking off the way it did happened the way a lot of hits happen: it was the right song with the right artists at the right place at the right time. “Rapper’s Delight” has stuck around the way it has because it captures a beautiful moment where music history is at a crossroads. The golden age of disco is going to be gone when the ball drops on January 1st, 1980, but rap music is only just getting started and by the end of the eighties it will begin its big mainstream explosion and keep going from there. 

“Rapper’s Delight” captures rap in its beautiful infancy. What it lacks in authenticity, it makes up for by being representative of what was going on at the time. It’s a time capsule. No matter which version of this song you choose, it sounds like a never ending party that everyone is invited to and a party where everyone is your friend. It’s fun, it’s infectious, and the three hosts are entertaining as hell as they pass the mic back and forth and keep the party going. Mike, Hank, and Gee created a fun rap song for beginners: it’s a very easy song to understand sonically and it’s an easy song to learn how to rap along to. The rhymes aren’t super complicated and the most you’d have to learn and work out is how to get the flow right and how to not trip over the words. If you can master Wonder Mike’s opening lines (if a Homer Simpson toy can do it, so can you!) the rest comes easy. Learning Big Bank and Master Gee’s parts aren’t complicated either and it becomes fun to recite along with them once you start getting it down. The beat of “Good Times” is very easy to keep up with and follow so that helps it as an excellent beginner song. Despite the criticisms against it, “Rapper’s Delight” still stands as a fantastic party song and it’s not hard to see why people still enjoy getting down to it even now. If you play it at the right party, you’ll hear a whole room recite the lyrics and just have fun with it. Hip-hop and Rap started life as block parties DJ Kool Herc was throwing in ‘73 and the Sugarhill Gang continued that tradition by capturing that party on vinyl. The rap world has changed in many ways since the Gang started rappin’ to the beat, but it keeps its status as a legendary rap song because it’s the party rap song that all party rap songs aspire to. Forget authenticity and leave your notions about “what rap really is about” at the door and just let loose. With the Sugarhill Gang, the party goes on-and-and-on-and-on-and-on

And the beat don't stop until the break of dawn.

[highfunctioningflailgirl]

My favorite books (and audiobooks) 2022

ID: “Lancelot” by Giles Christian

An epic retelling of the story of Lancelot - the most tragic figure of the King Arthur saga. The first half of the book focuses on his youth and upbringing as a warrior on a remote island where he meets Guinevere when they’re still both kids. In the second half, we get to see him as a fully grown knight, his friendship with Arthur and his fatal love for Guinevere.

It’s a beautiful, patient, sometimes gritty and sometimes poetic novel that culminates in a heroic and tragic showdown. Its only flaw is a rushed last quarter, as if the author needed to squeeze too much story into the last 200 pages. Maybe this should’ve been a two-parter instead?

ID: “Die Diplomatin” by Lucy Fricke

A wry, cynical novel on the privileges, grey areas and limits of diplomacy. We follow a German consul from her peaceful post in Uruguay to a much less serene post in Istanbul where politics are in a fragile, incendiary state. And managing a crisis turns out to be the most disillusioning affair our protagonist has ever faced.

A very contemporary, very apropos little novel that’s written with a glimmering scalpel.

ID: “The Darkness Outside Us” by Eliot Schrefer

I almost dnf’ed this one after eye rolling my way through the first hour of teenager-y gays-in-space. But then my jaw began to drop as this YA sci-fi took a very dark turn.

Two young astronauts from enemy countries, stuck on a spaceship together, band together against insurmountable odds, and if you read this you won’t see coming what’s gonna hit you. The most surprising, wrecking read I’ve raced through in a long time. And the audiobook narrator is really, really good.

ID: “A Psalm for the Wild-Built” by Becky Chambers

A tea-monk and a robot become BFFs on an ecotopian moon. That’s it. That’s the plot. An uplifting, touching and heartwarming read that both brought me to tears and gave me so much comfort.

“What do humans need?” That is the big question this quietly philosophical little Solarpunk story revolves around. And there are no simple answers.

Becky Chambers single-handedly invented “cozy sci-fi”, and I am so grateful she did! Part two, “A Prayer for the Crown-Shy”, is just as good, btw.

ID: “Anna” by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

Full immersion into Russian history, culture and geography in the early 1800s is what you’ll get from this underestimated historical romance novel.

We follow English governess Anna from Paris to Russia where she’s in the employment of the very attractive (and very married) Count Kirov.

Surprisingly, their love story isn’t what’s so beautiful about this book - it’s Russia herself, her landscape, culture and many different people. Anna spends time in glittering St. Petersburg, in majestic Moscow, but also in the wild Caucasian mountains. We meet Tartars, Kosaks and Mongols; counts, peasants, horsemen and warriors. We learn about Russian folklore and superstition, about traditions and rituals.

It was an eerie experience to read this book while Putin invaded the Ukraine, but what happened IRL also made “Anna” an even more valuable read. Parts of the story take place in what’s now the Ukraine, in Kiew. Back then, it was the other way around from what we’re seeing today: Napoleon invaded Russia, and Moscow became a victim of fire and flame. “Anna” taught me quite a bit of history I’d never learned in school.

In the end, “Anna” is a beautiful, sweeping saga from which I emerged reluctantly and wistfully, wanting more.

(Fair warning: the edition I read was obviously a reprint and riddled with printing errors to a degree that sometimes made it hard to read. Such negligence puts a really good novel to shame which it really doesn’t deserve. So please check which copy/edition you’re getting if you want to read this!)

Special shout-out to @hobbeshalftail3469 who recommended this book to @vgriffindor who then gave it to me as a gift!)

Your turn, bookish people! What were your favorites of 2022?!

[mitchelldailygames]

2023 Book Round-Up

This is going to be a quick list of some of my favorite books that I read this year. These aren’t books that necessarily came out in 2023 and they’re not in any particular order.

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone OK, this one is in a particular order. It’s my favorite. I read this book twice this year, the first time based on the recommendation of that tweet a lot of people saw. I found it beautiful, and as someone who wants to eventually publish novels, very inspiring. The application of the epistolary style to its sci-fi concept (it is actually set in a time war) made for a compelling and unique feel to the book. The prose were absolutely gorgeous. The way the characters were human and the way they were inhuman was perfect. All of it got me thinking about how my own writing could reach further than I'd considered before.

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir I also read and really enjoyed Nona the Ninth this year, but Harrow was my favorite. The mystery of it all, the intense necromancer action, and the angst all adds up to the perfect Locked Tomb book. And the payoff at the end is so good.

On the Beach by Nevil Shute I read this after watching Jacob Geller’s Art in the Pre-Apocalypse video, and this is the write up that will end up feeling the least like a recommendation. This book messed me up. I read it while fall was tumbling towards winter in the often dreary Pacific Northwest (of the US). This book made me feel like the world was ending. I became immersed in the state of living life while the end drifted closer to the point I kind of started to believe it in real life. I certainly found it compelling in its restrained doom.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers This one is also in a particular order because I read it right after On the Beach and it plucked me right out of my funk. Where the previous book left me feeling like precious few moments were slipping away from me, A Psalm for the Wild-Built said it was OK to just be. This is a beautiful solar punk novella as is its sequel, A Prayer for the Crown-Shy. It presents a possibility for a better world while giving a glimpse into the pathways we can take as individuals to move towards something better (while acknowledging that big changes need to take place on a macro level).

The Difference Engine by Bruce Sterling and William Gibson I tried reading this a long time ago because I was a fan of Gibson’s cyberpunk books and couldn’t get into it. I didn’t have that problem this year. Its steampunk London after the century-early arrival at the computer was very compelling. It fell prey to some tropes I’m not a huge fan of, namely that people in crisis will quickly resort to chaos and violence, but overall it was a story and setting that kept me reading all the way through this time.

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer What a book! I’m currently reading Authority, and I love this brand of weird sci-fi/horror. I watched the movie forever ago, but really enjoyed (and am enjoying) the story that's told in the books. The unraveling of the group and of the biologist was a great read, and it was fun to see cosmic horror in the modern age done really well. The mystery of it all was really the hook of the book, and the things it leaves unanswered was really fitting for the story.

Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King I finished the Dark Tower series this year, but this was my favorite. The doombot bad guys, the way it expanded on the lore, and the gunslinger action were all really cool. The characters were all operating at their peaks in this book, while dealing with some deep, dark secrets, and it felt like it held the best of all the things the series has to offer.

Tell Me I’m Worthless by Alison Rumfitt What a harrowing, powerful, complicated haunted house story this is. I will say this book is not for the faint of heart (and comes with trigger warnings at the beginning of the book), but I was left at the end of the story with the distinct feeling I had read something that would stick with me for a long, long time. It gets into the complicated ways identities interact and the way fascism breeds in societies and individual hearts. There are long sections that slip into disturbing rambles that become less coherent as they go on, which is perfect within the tone of the book. The things that haunt the characters throughout the story add and help give traction to all of these other pieces.