#and i don't mean troy baker

[bitemedotmp3]

🌀 !

50. — punctual

Uzi's got an internal clock. Humans should be so lucky. Or maybe they should be more considerate. They were trading favors, so the least this guy could do is show up on time.

She pulls out her phone again, 8:52. The show's at 9 PM, and if she ends up missing it because someone can't be bothered to-

"Hey, sorry I'm late," says Yuri, emerging from the other end of the alley. "Place is kind of a maze."

"Thought you came down here a lot," says Uzi, pocketing her phone. "You need a map next time?"

"Hah, maybe. Or a guide, I don't know why we couldn't meet up somewhere a bit easier to find."

There's a few reasons, like the fact that she doesn't really like spending time with humans, or the fact that she hadn't thought about it, but they're not super important. "Maybe I just need to lower my expectations next time. And look, I love small-talk, but did you bring them?"

"You and Rita would get along great. Or at least be too busy at each others' throats to bother me," says Yuri, reaching into his own pockets. He pulls out two small slips of glossy paper, waving them between his fingers. "Two tickets to tonight's show at Brass Tacks. And me, your chaperone."

"Ew, don't say it like that!" she hisses. "But a deal's a deal. Here."

Uzi pulls a smartphone from her hoodie pocket, handing it to Yuri. "Complete admin access. Do whatever the heck you want with it. And here, a manual in case you have any questions," she says, adding a few sheets of folded-up paper.

"You think with a name like 'jailbreaking,' it'd look a little fancier," says Yuri, tucking it all away safely.

"It's all software-side stuff. Now c'mon, show starts soon, and I don't wanna miss it." Uzi waves him to follow as she leaves the alleyway and emerges into one of Fibonacci's lower levels. They're not too far from the surface; the rumble of people living above is still audible here, but you won't find a dive like Brass Tacks in the upper levels. The bar is a few blocks away from their meeting place, just far enough that Uzi starts sweating when her internal clock ticks past 9 PM, but not so far that she needs to berate Yuri for making her miss the show. Yet.

When the place finally comes into sight, the two stop, and Uzi looks up. "Okay, phase two. You ready, Yuri?"

"Born ready, not that this is a particularly tough one. Gotta admit, I might just be here to see if this backfires."

"Shut up, bite me. Alright, gotta get into character..." mutters Uzi, trying to get into the right headspace. "You know what to do, right?"

"I didn't forget," he hums. Taking the lead, the pair cross the street to the bar's front door, and Yuri holds his tickets out to the bouncer. "Hey, I'm here for the Scrapyard Gods show? That's tonight, right?"

"Barely made it," says the burly man, taking the tickets. "Doors close at 9:15."

"Nothing wrong with being fashionably late. Anyways, wasn't sure if she needed one too, but I figure she's taking up space, so..." he says, gesturing to Uzi. To her credit, she holds her tongue, simply standing stock-still, a neutral expression on her face.

The bouncer grunts, uninterested. "ID?" He squints at Yuri, then shrugs. "Good enough. But I need to see that thing's, too."

"Oh, sorry, guess I wasn't clear enough. She's one of those helper models. Isn't that right, Uzi?"

Here it comes. Uzi's time to shine. She stares straight ahead, trying to modulate her voice to be as flat as possible, and tries to give an amazing performance.

"Affirmative."

Nailed it.

"Yeah?" says the bouncer, cocking a brow. "Whaddya need help with?"

"That's pretty personal."

"Fair. If it's one of those helper models, though, why's it got clothes? And I don't remember them makin' them that short..."

"You rather she just be walking around naked?"

The bouncer seems to weigh his options against his pay, and shakes his head. "Whatever. Just get in there."

"Thought you'd never ask. Come on, Uzi," says Yuri, gently guiding her by the shoulder.

"Beep boop, or whatever," says Uzi. Once she's sure they're out of the bouncer's sight, she flips the bird in his direction, sticking out her tongue.

"Can you believe that?" she mutters. "Why does he have clothes? Why does anyone? Frickin' humiliating..."

"This whole thing was your idea, kid," says Yuri. "C'mon, show's already started, don't wanna miss it."

As soon as they step into the actual bar, the sound of heavy metal blasts across them. Uzi can see Yuri wincing, but her eyes light up, because this frickin' rules. The band is rocking, the crowd is pumping, and-

Everyone is so much taller than her. Not again.

"Can't... Can't frickin' see anything..." she grumbles.

"You say something?" says Yuri, voice raised.

"Can't frickin' see! I'm too short!"

"Yeah? Here, I'll toss this in for free." Uzi feels Yuri's hands around her waist, but when he lifts, she only goes a few inches off the ground. "Holy- You're heavy as hell!"

She rolls her eyes. "I'm made of metal, dude. Don't strain yourself."

"Nah, I got this, I got this. Just wasn't expecting it. Oh, wait. Here." Shrugging, Yuri grabs a chair from a nearby table and slides it over. "That should be enough, right?"

Uzi hops up, and... "Yeah, it'll do," she shrugs. It's not perfect, but better than nothing. And now that she's at the venue and can actually see it, it's time to enjoy the show.

"Didn't have concerts like this back on Copper 9!" she shouts to Yuri, sticking up the horns with each of her hands.

"Yeah? Not enough robot rock?"

"Not enough space! But you should see my human skull collection! It's frickin' sick!"

"Your... You know what? Not my business."

She can't tell if he's enjoying himself, but he promised he'd stick around until the end so she doesn't get kicked out. Reliable, if nothing else. More humans should try to be like that.

[cyberneticnightmares]

GIRL WHAT DO YOU MEAN SKEET AND MATTHEW WHERE IN THE SAME BUILDING AS ME FOR AN ENTIRE FUCKING WEEKEND AND I'M ONLY JUST FINDING OUT

[recluseraven]

whew, if people are going nuts seeing how feral Joel supposedly went when trying to find Ellie? imagine the reaction when they see the finale😅

[guywrestlingaddiction]

Everything Great About a Match: Troy Baker v Shane McCall (bgeast.com)

Everything Great About a Match: +9

Troy Baker v Shane McCall (bgeast.com)

SPOILER ALERT: I highly recommend viewing this match in its entirety before reading this post.

So let's begin:  +1: For Troy... very few wrestlers have reached Troy's shredded abs level of perfection.  Now for all those  pretty guys out there who are squeamish or can't get into wrestling.  Troy has no such problem - the guy handles his face/jobber role like a man.

There are no words needed to explain the perfection that is Troy's body. 

Troy baiting his heel to get him to wrestle. 

+1: For Shane at the height of his heel prowess.  No wrestler was more experienced, more intimidating, more domineering, than Shane at the height of his heel perfection.  The guy has paid his dues as a jobber and is finally coming into his own at this point.  +A for Shane if the A stands for Asserting his will on a jobber.  

+1: The chemistry between a forcible heel and a tough as nails jobber selling this match to perfection.  What do you get when you combine a rugged, top notch heel with a pliable, take anything you can throw his way jobber - you get this masterpiece, that's what.  It's not so much a 'fight' as a testosterone fueled dance with each man knowing their roles to perfection.  

+1: Along those lines, these two pros truly know how to turn a muscled brawl into a narrative between men.  All those hard bodies are one thing but to take all that and add in the competition, the twists and turns, the adrenaline - all work to make this match legendary.  

Troy's thighs are strong enough to take down anyone ... but sometimes it's skill not strength that is king.

Troy is not going to just take it. 

+1: For this seamless Ab stretch to an over-the-knee backbreaker.  Shane absolutely is the man for pulling this off and his ability to unleash this on poor Troy is a triumph.  

Shane: What do you say? Huh?

Troy: [Groan]

Shane: Give it up! Give it up man! Troy: I ... I... 

+1: Shane knows how to humiliate his jobber.  Short of begging, Troy is made to show how useless those show muscles are against the shear tenacity of Shane.  

Something about making that cocky muscle hunk climb up your burly body to prove you're the man!

Or teaching him a lesson and making him arch his back in pain.

+1: For that Heel-turn.  Troy was simply never destined to win.  While Troy may be gifted by genetics one hundred times over, gay wrestling has a way of making things right in the world by turning those ripped golden muscles a bright shade of red, I think the exact color is punishment red to be exact.  

In a shock to the system, the unconquerable has been conquered. 

First the celebration ... More celebration with those sweaty shiny abs...

Then to add glistening muscly insult to jobber victory - Troy pours water on himself. 

Just one step too far.  You've poked the bear and will regret this Troy!

Yup celebration hangover. 

+1: For that Ending.  To further lay claim of the jobber, Shane pours more cold water on the jobber and makes the man submit over and over again until he's satisfied.  Soaking wet muscles glisten with water and Shane shows him off for all to see.  I mean what good is a victory if not to put that shiny, bronze, strong body on display like your own personal trophy.  Hell, making a Trophy jobber out of Troy is worth a bonus point there [+1].  

Soak your muscle boy until he's good and shiny

Then unleash all hell on his best assets.

A win isn't really a victory unless your opponent is so destroyed he regrets ever agreeing to the match. 

------- Everything Great About this Match: +9

So there you have it. It's really not an exaggeration when they say they don't make em like this anymore.  Where else can you see two wrestling titans in their respective levels of, overpower you heel-ness, and give you everything I got jobber-ness.  The biggest mistake of all time was when Troy seductively poured water on himself.  The man might as well shine a searchlight on that sculpted ripped body of his and announce he was ready for some heel punishment.  In the end, it's no surprise that Troy was destroyed, put on humiliating display, and claimed as Shane's personal trophy to add to his collection.  

[misterspectacular]

Joker in Arkham Shadow

I'm so glad Joker is a part of Arkham Shadow! Not a big part and we never actually see him, which is sad, but HE'S IN IT! It's actually necessary that we don't see him, or that he doesn't see US, considering we are Batman without the mask and he knows we are Batman based on voice alone. He knows his Bat so well!

The voice actor hasn't been listed yet, but it's Troy Baker, who also voiced Joker in Arkham Origins! (Troy Baker voices Harvey Dent/Two-Face in this game, as well). (Side note, Batman in this game is voiced by Roger Craig Smith who also voiced Batman in Origins.) (Side side note, this is a sequel to Origins.)

Heres the dialogue:

Matches Malone (Batman): *knocks*

Joker: Two bits! Well, look who's finally awake!

Malone: The hell you talking about? you some kind of Joker?

Joker: Hardly knew her! Hehehee... Aah, nothing like an old friend to make the joint feel less solitary.

Malone: Old friend? You got the wrong guy. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'd remember meeting a freak like you.

Joker: Tut tut, Batsy-Boo! The East End voice might fool the rest of these dimwits, but me? Tsk tsk. Oh, you and I have something special.

Batman: What do you want?

Joker: Right now? A gallon of gas, a book of matches, and a ham sandwich. But I'll settle for a little chit chat. Ever since the last riot down here, it's gotten so dreadfully boring!

Batman: (multiple choice question, this one was selected) How long have you been in solitary?

Joker: Ooh, look who's fishing for leads! Don't tell me I'm a suspect in whatever foul deeds you're investigating.

Batman: You are always a suspect.

Joker: Hehehe, I bet you say that to all three girls. Hehe, unfortunately for you, Sherlock, I've been locked in here ever since you stopped me from exploding the Warden. (Reference to Origins finale) Funny... I didn't think they'd throw me in the hole for FAILING to kill someone. Huh!

Batman: You have no idea what's going on in Gotham?

Joker: I mean, honestly, you finally put the hurt on Gotham's criminal underworld and suddenly there's a brand new rodent stealing your spotlight! Meanwhile, I'm boxed up like --

Batman: Bats are NOT rodents.

Joker: Euggh. Bet you're fun at parties.

CO Robbins (guard?): Shut up in there, will ya?!

Joker: Everyone's a critic! Fine, fine, fine. Aah, I need to get my beauty sleep anyway. Seems like I'm always a little pale ever since SOMEONE dropped me into a vat of acid! Hmm? Hahaha!

Batman: Enough talk for now.

(I love this bit. In ORIGINS, it's shown that Joker actually RECREATED his own memories so that Batman would be included in them. The vat of acid and Batman throwing him in was a made up memory. It's also shown in Origins that Joker PAINTS his face -- he's not pale because he was "dropped in acid". Joker prefers the fantasy and at this point might believe it's reality.)

---

(Next day)

Joker: Knock knock!

Batman: Joker.

Joker: No no no! You're supposed to say, "who's there?" Do you really not know how this goes? Let's try again. knock knock!

Batman: (multiple choice, this one was selected) Who's there?

Joker: What? It's me, the Joker. Oo, they must've hit your head pretty hard before they threw you in here.

Batman: *grunt*

Joker: Oh, don't be like that! Not my fault you walked into it. Now, where were we?

Batman: (multiple choice) Where's the Rat King?

Joker: Beats me! You'd think someone who wanted chaos and destruction throughout Gotham would've jumped at the chance to get ME involved.

Batman: And he hasn't?

Joker: Bats. Really? Do you think I'd be chatting this much with you if I had any other options? It's always work work work! You never ask how my plans for killing sprees are going!

Batman: During the last riot, you left bombs all over the prison. You know where the Rat King is hiding.

Joker: You know, persistence is one of your best qualities, but I'm being honest with ya. I wouldn't know the Rat King's secret lair from a hole in the ground!

CO Robbins: How many times I gotta tell ya?! this ain't a damn social club!

Joker: Oh, cram it up your TYGER hole, Robbins! I don't come to YOUR job and commit unspeakable offenses against helpless victims, do I?! Oh wait, I do. Well, hate to say it, Matches, but he's got a point. We'll chat later.

---

Joker: Psst! Hey buddy, you awake? I haven't heard the screws bustling around in a while. You know what that means?

Batman: That it's time to get out of here.

Joker: That's right! Slumber party! Truth or dare! You go first, but don't ask where any bodies are buried!

Batman: (multiple choice, this one was selected) What do you know about Dr. Quinzel?

Joker: Let's see, Dr. Quin -- Ooh, the blondie? Is she still working here? Well, if you ask me, she could really use a career change. I don't suppose you know anyone who's hiring? Ooo! Maybe she could be your little sidekick! Hahahaha!

Batman: I work alone.

Joker: Oh, come on! The adventures of Batsy and Doctor Ditz! It'll play great woth the teens.

Batman: No.

Joker: Teh. Fine, fine. If you're too uptight to give the girl a chance, well, one man's trash is another man's treasure.

Batman: If you know something about the Rat King, tell me. You could be his next target.

Joker: Oh, heaven forfend! I certainly hope no one breaks me out of solitary to try and recruit me for the Day of Wrath! And they say you're not funny. Thanks for the laughs, Bato! I mean, "Matches". WINK! Now what's next? Spin the bottle? Kind of difficult with a concrete wall between us. Now don't go putting my hand in a bowl of water while I sleep! Hehehehe

Batman: This isn't funny, Joker. People are going to-- (Batman is interrupted by a visitor and so ends the Batjokes interactions)

---

and that's that.

later Batman explores Joker's cell. It says "hahaha" on one wall, and on the wall they were speaking through it says "we're sleeping" and "Kill the bat!"

oh and here's a screen shot of the wall from Batman's side, I had to crop the video because I got a notification during recording haha

[psychopurplebunny]

DS2 speculation/Higgs III

I watched the state of play trailer for DS2 recently and been poking around DS Tumblr (let's blame Higgs perhaps) and I have some thoughts. The trailer itself is fantastic and the story is going to be amazing. The most intriguing part of the whole trailer is when Higgs says to Sam "You still don't know do you?" (I mean in all fairness Higgs, Sam is kept in the dark about a lot of things but anyways), the way he says it, it comes across as he knows something Sam doesn't (there could also be the off chance Higgs doesn't actually know anything about Lou and is just being an a-hole and trying to get under Sam's skin cause he's ya know, Higgs). Let's go with the scenario that Higgs has some sort of knowledge. From the way Higgs reacts after touching Lou's pod, he senses something and it has to do with Lou and the Beach, there's also the fact that Higgs himself came back from the Beach somehow (it'll probably be elaborated how he managed that when DS2 actually comes out). Speaking of the Beach and Higgs, he had been left on the Beach (presumably Amelie's Beach specifically) after his final fight with Sam in DS1, but after Amelie cut her Beach off from everyone else's, it meant that Higgs was booted to his own Beach and was stuck there. At the end of DS1, Sam manages to save Lou and she has Amelie's necklace with her, it's fair to assume that Amelie found Lou on the Beach then sent her back with the necklace as a final "good-bye" to Sam. But what if the one who found her wasn't Amelie but Higgs? Bear with me, this is incredibly speculative, but it would make some sense that it would be easier to reach Higgs's Beach since Amelie cut off her's. But that begs the question "why would Higgs do that?" After all Higgs is a pizza-loving, terrorist a-hole who likes to mess with Sam, why would he have anything to do with Lou? Before Higgs was the lunatic wanting to usher in the End of Days, he was a porter like Sam, even worked with Fragile's mom, Coffin, at one point. Meaning at one point, underneath all the madness was a version of Higgs with a much kinder heart, perhaps even had a soft spot for BBs. Chances are he might've gotten attached to a BB, probably the one Coffin managed to save, a baby girl who wasn't around long. That nameless BB for all anyone knows, was his Lou. When Lou washed up on his Beach, he could've been selfish, kept her for himself but he chose to give her back, even giving Lou the necklace he stole from Amelie, the reasoning behind it especially giving the necklace is up for debate. Another noteworthy fact comes from the first trailer for DS2, which features the song BB's Theme, sung by Higgs's voice actor Troy Baker. It could be speculated that Higgs sang this same exact song to Lou when he found her up until the moment he sent her back to be with Sam. How Higgs even knew this song is anyone's guess, though him singing to Lou on the Beach (if he is the one who found her) may relate to something he might've done for the BB saved by Coffin, he probably sang to her as well (tying in with Higgs once having a kinder heart), he might not have sung BB's Theme, but lullabies, sang them until she passed away, so that in what little time this particular BB had on Earth, she was loved and passed away knowing that. He did it again with Lou because, well it worked once before, if something works, why not do it again?

[meta-squash]

Squash's Reading List Year In Review 2024

(I've also posted this on WordPress here, where it might be more readable: https://jesuisgourde.wordpress.com/.../30/readinglist2024/)

Last year I read 92 books. I didn't plan on trying to surpass that number but I did, quite easily. This year I read 116 books. I didn't start off with any specific reading goal, but early on I decided to make it my goal to read more books by not-cis-men (women, trans/nonbinary people, etc) than by cis men. I hit that goal with 72 books. I did want to reread a number of books; I reread 7 books, but not all were the ones I listed in my last yearly reading review. I read 89 fiction books and 27 nonfiction. Of the nonfiction, the genres were mainly biography/autobiography, essay, science, and history. I read 45 books from small press publishers. I read 39 books by and/or about queer people. I don't have a super nice photo spread this year because I read a lot of books at work; I was going to screenshot my goodreads grid but unfortunately they have (frustratingly) changed the format from grid to list in the past week.

Here's a photo of the books I read that I do own, which isn't a whole lot, since I read most of the books at work this year:

I'll do superlatives at the end, here is the list of what I read this year, in chronological order. (Apologies for the random line breaks in the middle of the list, tumblr doesn't like it when you have 50+ lines without breaks)

-The Sorrows Of Young Werther by Johann von Goethe -The Changeling by Joy Williams -Child of God by Cormac McCarthy -Pierrot Mon Ami by Raymond Queneau -The Ghost Network by Kate Disabato -The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan -Richard III by William Shakespeare (reread) -The Recognitions by William Gaddis -A Kestrel For A Knave by Barry Hines -Grief Is The Thing With Feathers by Max Porter -Bluets by Maggie Nelson -The Wild Party by Joseph Moncure March -The Hospital by Ahmed Bouanani -I Love Dick by Chris Kraus -Minor Detail by Adiana Shibli -Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson -Rent Boy by Gary Indiana -One Or Several Deserts by Carter St Hogan -Samedi the Deafness by Jesse Ball -Norma Jean Baker of Troy by Anne Carson -Die My Love by Ariana Harwicz -Missing Person by Patrick Modiano -Petite Fleur by Iosi Havilio -Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi -The Address Book by Sophie Calle -In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado -Plastic Jesus by Poppy Z Brite -New Animal by Ella Baxter -The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds by Paul Zindel (play) -Green Girl by Kate Zambrino -Death In Spring by Merce Rodoreda -Harold's End by JT LeRoy (reread) -Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto -Stranger To The Moon by Evelio Rosero -H of H Playbook by Anne Carson -When The Sick Rule The World by Dodie Bellamy -Wittgenstein's Mistress by David Markson -Agua Viva by Clarice Lispector -Not One Day by Anne Garreta -Mauve Desert by Nicole Brossard -Binary Star by Sarah Gerard -Slug and other stories by Megan Milks -Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block (reread) -The Deer by Dashiel Carrera -Mean by Myriam Gurba -Humiliation by Wayne Koestenbaum -The Toaster Project: Or A Heroic Attempt to Build a Simple Electric Appliance from Scratch by Thomas Thwaites -Kind Mirrors, Ugly Ghosts by Claire Donato -Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield

-Notes on Thoughts and Vision & The Wise Sappho by H.D. -Harrow by Joy Williams -A Feast Of Snakes by Harry Crews -Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York by Lucy Sante -Milkshake by Travis Dahlke -Little Fish by Casey Plett -Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor -Sex Goblin by Lauren Cook -Biography of X by Catherine Lacey -Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller -Hir by Taylor Mac (play) -Daddy Boy by Emerson Whitney -Notes On Camp by Susan Sontag -Transformer: A Story of Glitter, Glam Rock, and Loving Lou Reed by Simon Doonan -Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo -Acid Snow by Larry Mitchell (reread) -33 1/3 Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures by Chris Ott -The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides -red doc> by Anne Carson -Darryl by Jackie Ess -A Visit From The Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan -The Postman Always Rings Twice by James Cain -Body by Harry Crews -St Sebastian's Abyss by Mark Haber -The Quick & The Dead by Joy Williams (reread) -Don't Think Twice: Adventure and Healing at 100 Miles Per Hour by Barbara Schoichet -Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer -Timbuktu by Paul Auster -Nevada by Imogen Binnie -The End We Start From by Megan Hunte -Organ Meats by K-Ming Chang -Like Flies From Afar by K. Ferraro -Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe -Bestiary by K-Ming Chang -Playboy by Constance Debre -Red Dragon by Thomas Harris -Parting Gifts for Losing Contestants by Jessica Mooney -The Outline of My Lover by Douglas A Martin -Monstrilio by Gerardo Samano Cordova -Essex County by Jeff Lemire (reread) -Tacky: Love Letters to the Worst Culture We Have To Offer by Rax King -The Death of Francis Bacon by Max Porter -Lover Man by Alston Anderson -Cecilia by K-Ming Chang -The Employees by Olga Ravn -It Lasts Forever And Then It's Over by Anne De Marcken -Mercy Killing by Alandra Hileman (play) -Tentacle by Rita Indiana

-Nox by Anne Carson -What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami -McGlue by Ottessa Moshfegh (reread) -Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin -John by Annie Baker (play) -Widow Basquiat by Jennifer Clement -All Down Darkness Wide by Sean Hewitt -The Blue Books by Nicole Brossard -The Book Of Difficult Fruit: Arguments for the Tart, Tender and Unruly by Kate Lebo -Blood Of The Dawn by Claudia Salazar Jimenez -The Balloonists by Eula Biss -Ravage: An Astonishment Of Fire by MacGillivray/Kirsten Norrie -Gods Of Want: Stories by K-Ming Chang -Fem by Magda Carneci -Miss Major Speaks: Conversations with a Black Trans Revolutionary by Miss Major Griffin-Gracy and Toshio Merino -Mr Parker by Michael McKeever (play) -Fucking A by Suzan-Lori Parks (play) -Dictee by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha -Otherspace, a Martian Ty/opography by Brad Freeman and Johanna Drucker

I DNF'ed a few books, but all were put down with the intention of finishing them at some point. Mostly they were books I needed to read when I was less busy/in a different headspace. I DNF'ed: Soldiers Don't Go Mad: A true story of friendship, poetry and mental illness during the first world war by Charles Glass, a reread of Her by HD, and The Apple In The Dark by Clarice Lispector. The Lispector and HD are both modernist novels that need 100% attention, and the Glass book is a nonfiction book (very good so far) that I put down in favor of something that at the time was more interesting.

I gave out a lot of 5 stars this year. The books I rated as 5 stars were: The Changeling by Joy Williams, The Recognitions by William Gaddis, Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield, 33 1/3 Unknown Pleasures by Chris Ott, Transformer by Simon Doonan, Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo, Body by Harry Crews, Organ Meats by K-Ming Chang, Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe, and Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin.

~Superlatives~

Like last year, I'm going to do runners-up because I read so many books.

Favorite book: The Recognitions by William Gaddis. I have to pick this one as my favorite for the year, because reading it was a journey, and because it was a book that was exactly everything I love in a book: fascinating, very human characters, weird formatting, great dialogue, metaphors galore, and most importantly, hundreds of cultural, artistic, historical, biblical and literary references. I started this book on January 4 and I finished it February 22. It was so unbelievably dense, probably the densest novel I've ever read, and I absolutely loved it. So much is going on in this novel that it's hard for me to summarize. In the very shortest version of a summary, it is a novel about counterfeits (specifically paintings, but counterfeits in all and any forms) and Catholicism in 1930s/40s New York. The main character is a young man named Wyatt Gwyon, a talented artist who instead of painting for himself, becomes a skilled counterfeiter-- not because he wants to make money, but because he's obsessed with the perfection of making exact interpretations of other people's art. He also struggles with religion and belief due to his strange religious upbringing. Many, many other characters are also focal points throughout the novel. The book is unique in that it doesn't use quotation marks when characters speak and rarely uses "he said"/"she said" or any similar phrase. But Gaddis is incredibly talented at writing dialogue so that each character's voice comes through, and it's obvious (except when he doesn't want it to be) who is speaking. Gaddis is also wonderfully scathing, and much of the novel is incredibly witty and intelligent observations about the Modernist art world and artistic spaces in general. The characters are all fascinating, there is a lot of mirroring and metaphors. I say this book is about counterfeits in every form, because it constantly highlights different ways in which each character is faking something, or lying, or pretending to be/know/do/think something they are not. This book was incredible, I annotated every single page and had so much fun reading it, even though or perhaps because it was so unbelievably dense.

Just for a bit of reference, here are a few of the more annotated pages in my copy of The Recognitions:

Runner up: Body by Harry Crews (more on this one further down)

Least favorite book: Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi. I was so disappointed by this book. The blurb on the back made it sound like it was going to be really beautiful and interesting and unique. It wasn't. It was all tell and no show. It follows Ada, a person who is born with one foot in the spirit world. A traumatic experience at university causes her to develop split personalities as the spirits from the other side step forward to protect her from trauma. Unfortunately, the spirits who now control her body have darker, more dangerous desires. Sadly, there was almost no plot, just description after description of Ada's unhealthy relationships and erratic behavior. But because the narrative is so distanced from said relationships and from Ada, the high stakes of this behavior is not felt, not really. Interesting characters can easily save 'all tell and no show type' books, but none of the characters get delved into with any depth, even Ada. The show rather than tell narrative also seriously undermines the poetic prose that crops up almost at random. This book felt flat. No plot, little stakes felt, no interesting characters, tell rather than showing everything, and it's not compelling at all.

Runner up: Playboy by Constance Debre. The back of this book describes it as a memoir detailing the writer's "decision, at age forty-three, to abandon her marriage, her legal career, and her bourgeois Parisian life to become a lesbian and a writer." Which sounds amazing! But it isn't! It's unbelievably pretentious and quite boring. It's mostly just complaining hidden by a facade of faux-philosophical meandering and directionless autobiographical vignettes. The author is a lawyer and she spends most of the time complaining about poor people and about women. It's so hilariously misogynistic. It's just various vignettes of her relationships with various women (who she dislikes and disparages for being femme or having bad bodies or for having lowbrow/uncultured interests etc etc) and then her going and visiting her ex-husband and teenage son, and then complaining that she has nothing. There's little to no emotion in the book, she is not charming, and her pseudo-philosophical musings are boring.

Most surprising/unexpected book: Body by Harry Crews. This book crept up on me in terms of a favorite. Crews' writing is not for everyone, but it's absolutely for me. The book follows bodybuilder Shereel Dupont and her trainer, Russell, who are at the world bodybuilding competition. Shereel has left home to compete over the past year and is now one of the most likely to win. Unfortunately, her family, who are "corpulent rednecks" with odd habits, show up to cheer her on, causing disruption and chaos throughout the hotel at which the competition is held and turmoil for Shereel herself. This book blew me away completely. Every time I thought it had reached a plateau of weirdness and chaos and insanity, it ratcheted that all up even higher, culminating in the most perfectly fucked up ending.

Runner up: Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin. A mother trapped in the liminal space between life and death is made by an unfamiliar changeling child to retell the events of the recent past, desperately trying to pinpoint the moment she can reverse the environmental poisoning of herself and her daughter. I picked this book up because it sounded interesting, and then it ended up being an amazingly written short horror novel. It had a lot of interesting thoughts on motherhood and the horror of being a parent - not in a negative way, but the horror of wanting to protect and keep your child safe and the inability to do so.

Most fun book: Like Flies From Afar by K Ferrari. I fully judged a book by its cover with this one, and it did not disappoint. Small-time criminal/oligarch Mr Machi thinks he's hot shit, until he pops a tire on the way to an appointment and discovers an unidentifiable corpse in his trunk. As he scrambles to deal with the body, his paranoia grows as he tries to calculate who out of all his enemies and employees might be responsible, and who is trying to frame him, and who the body might be, and his life slowly transforms into a nightmare. Everyone in this book is loathsome, but in a way that is so fun to hate. The whole novel is a romp of panic and paranoia, people who think they're so cool and hard exposing how uncool they are, and a mystery that's so fun because watching the protagonist panic is a kind of schadenfreude.

Runner up: Transformer by Simon Doonan. This is a book for people who love Lou Reed, by a man who loves Lou Reed. It's just a wonderfully written biography that focuses mainly on the album Transformer, but also gives Lou Reed's history and is interspersed with stories about Doonan's own thoughts and experiences with Reed. The whole book is really passionate and vivid, and fun to read even if you don't have the album immediately to hand.

Best queer book: Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield. Leah, a marine biologist, has returned from a deep-sea voyage that went wrong. Her wife Miri begins to realize that something is wrong, and Leah came back changed. The narrative switches between Miri's point of view as she tries to reach Leah and struggles help her despite not knowing what's happening to her wife, and Leah's point of view as she remembers and recounts what happened to her during her submarine voyage. I started this book at work and brought it home. In the middle of reading it, I stopped to finish some task (I think it might have been to make dinner), and ended up having to cut the task short because I needed so badly to keep reading. The most compelling part of the book is the very different ways the two characters' love for each other shines through, even in the darkest moments of the novel.

Runner up: Darryl by Jackie Ess. The titular narrator of this novel discovers that he genuinely enjoys a cuckolding lifestyle, watching men have sex with his wife. But then he realizes that part of the reason he likes it so much, is that maybe he wants to be the wife. His explorations with sex and gender and relationships (and basketball) begin to unravel his marriage and his friendships and his own mind. Then he learns more about one of the men his wife has been sleeping with, and things get dangerous. I loved this book because despite it being written by a trans woman, the story doesn't at all go where you'd expect regarding gender or sexuality. It's satirical, it's witty, it's got some cool things to say about kink and about gender, and it's totally original.

Saddest book: Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo. This is a classic I'd been meaning to read for a long time. The narrator is an American WWI soldier named Joe who was hit by an artillery shell and has woken in the hospital having had his arms and legs amputated, as well as most of his facial features mutilated beyond use/recognition. Trapped in his body, he drifts through memories and musings on life and war and philosophy as he tries to keep track of the days and to figure out some way to communicate with the hospital staff. It's no wonder this book is a classic. The writing is incredible, the imagery vivid and the plot totally gripping, even as it switches between the peaceful past and the horrible present. The end is completely gut-wrenching.

Runner up: Minor Detail by Adania Shibli. This novel explores what in history is a minor detail, and what impact that little moment might have on someone in the future. The first part of the novel opens in Palestine in 1949, in a military camp, where a group of Israeli soldiers (led by a captain suffering from a bite-induced hallucinogenic fever) kidnap, rape, and murder an unnamed Palestinian woman and bury her body in the desert. Fifty-odd years later, a Palestinian writer learns about this "small" moment in history, which occurred 25 years to the day before her birth, and becomes obsessed with learning more. She obtains an illegal pass to the Zone in which the woman died, determined to go there and find more information. I don't want to summarize much more because I don't want to give away any of the hard-hitting plot points. But Minor Detail was published in 2020, and it explores the cycles of violence and the ways in which oppression has not changed for the Palestinian people. It's a book that I wish I had read twice because (as the title suggests) there were a lot of small details that repeated themselves or were less noticeable at first but slowly grew or became important later in the story, and I'm sure I would have noticed more.

Weirdest book: The Changeling by Joy Williams. I love Joy Williams! I love everything she writes! Her themes are always so interesting and her writing style is so unique. The main character, a young woman named Pearl, escapes her terrible marriage by joining a rich older man and in doing so ends up living with him on an island that is populated by children he has taken under his wing. Pearl wants little to do with them and spends most of her days getting drunk by the pool -- the children are eerily smart and her son has joined their games and lessons, and they all want her attention. But her son is less and less her son as time goes on, and the children are not always the children, and the adults in the house are all bizarre and half-mad. I wish I could give a better summary, but Joy Williams books are always difficult to summarize, because so much of the stories are less about the plot and more about the characters just feeling things at the reader, and the plot is often built on or around odd occurrences and philosophical musings. This book blew me away with its imagery and its metaphors. I want to reread it, because it was just so amazing. My absolutely favorite thing about Joy Williams (and this is true for all of her books) is the way she writes these incredibly profound and philosophical phrases like they're nothing at all, like they're so easy, just breezes on by them even though she's just punched you in the chest. It's amazing.

Runner up: Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin.

Most gripping book: Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe. This book is an absolute masterclass in pacing. It tells just a few fragments out of the whole history of the Irish Troubles, but the fragments that are focused on are woven together with brilliant timing, humanizing and vivid portrayals, fantastic analysis and contextualization, and altogether excellent writing. Every time I put this book down I wanted to keep reading, to know what was going to happen next. The book has 3 focal points: Gerry Adams, (alleged) leader of the IRA; Dolors Price, a member of the IRA; and the family of Jean McConville, a woman kidnapped by the IRA. At first, all three storylines are disparate, but Keefe slowly weaves them together, pulling all the threads of context and action and years in prison or government or delinquent schools together slowly but steadily. The book reads like a thriller, and I adored it completely. (Yes, I do know about the miniseries. I haven't finished watching it yet!)

Runner up: Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield.

Book that taught me the most: Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe

Runner up: The Toaster Project: Or A Heroic Attempt to Build a Simple Electric Appliance from Scratch by Thomas Thwaites. This could also go under weirdest book, easily. As a graduate art school project, Thwaites decided to attempt to build the simplest (and cheapest) appliance he could think of - a toaster - fully from scratch. Quite literally, starting with mining the elements to make the right kinds of metal and figuring out how to make the right kind of plastic. Half of the book is Thwaites' attempts to build various elements of a toaster - and how they go wrong, or right, and why it's so hard. The other half discusses all the processes that go in to making all these elements in a more manufactured setting, their impact on the environment and the economy, and the difference between cheap mass-produced products that break down vs more expensive products that last longer. The writing was fun and included photos and diagrams and interviews with various industry professionals Thwaites contacted to learn more.

Most interesting/thought provoking book: The Recognitions by William Gaddis

Runner up: Organ Meats by K-Ming Chang. I've now read everything this author has published and this is by far her best book. Her narrative style is so unique and so poetic, and the themes she always comes back to are so interesting, and they culminate in this amazing novel. This magical realist novel centers around two best friends, Anita and Rainie, who are both first generation Taiwanese-American. The story opens when they are adolescents, and Anita has recently learned that they come from generations of dog-headed women and women-headed dogs. They vow to become dogs together, tying a string around each other's throats as collars and playing at dogs in the empty lot near their apartment complex. But Anita's dreamlike imagination and obsessively loyal personality starts to clash with Rainie's more reserved nature, and when it becomes too much, Rainie's family moves away. Rainie grows up, while unbeknownst to her, Anita has sunk into a dreamworld and her body has begun to rot. She narrates her family's past and her mother's bloodline because she cannot narrate her own present. When she returns to the town she grew up in, Rainie discovers Anita's condition, and knows that she is the only one who can save her. This novel is beautiful, incredibly poetic, and experiments with formatting and narration in really unique ways. Its exploration of friendship and queerness and obsession and tradition and folklore is absolutely fascinating. I often write in my books and underline sentences or paragraphs that I really love. I didn't write in this one, because I would have ended up underlining the entire novel.

Longest/shortest book: My longest book was The Recognitions by William Gaddis at 952 pages, and my shortest was Notes On Camp by Susan Sontag at 57 pages.

General thoughts on all the other books that didn't get superlatives:

-Child of God by Cormac McCarthy. This is the first McCarthy book I've ever read (I know, I know) and I really enjoyed it. You just watch a horrible guy walk around in the rural countryside of a small town, doing increasingly fucked up things and committing various awful crimes. Which is exactly up my alley in terms of literature. The main character, Ballard, is someone who is so weird and pathetic that he becomes turned inside out into evilness. You feel sorry for him but you also hate him and he's also fascinating because he's so fucking weird. It's a great book.

-The Ghost Network by Catie Disabato. This book was so much fun to read while living in Chicago. It's a rock n roll mystery novel that riffs on Situationism and the L tracks and maps. A rock star disappears, and the main character who is a fan of her's is determined to find out what happened to her. What she uncovers is a series of clues based on defunct lines and stations of the Chicago transit system, and the Situationist concept of detournment, which lead her towards finding out what actually happened to the rock star. This book was so much fun, and so much of it was based on real life defunct train lines and the actual Situationists, both of which I found really interesting. The ending was also just so good! Somehow I managed to have read everything I needed to in order to get every single reference in the book, which was really surprising to me, because they all came from different places.

-New Animal by Ella Baxter. This book baffled me. It is about a woman who works as a makeup-artist at her family's morgue. When her mother dies unexpectedly, she skips the funeral and goes to stay at her estranged father's house. While there, trying to figure out how to vent her grief, she decides to try out the local kink scene. Her first experience is with a dom who is a manipulative, horrible asshole. She has a bad time, but wants to try again, so she goes to a place that hosts scenes. She acts like she knows what she's doing when she doesn't, no one gives her any instruction, so she fucks up massively, and everyone has a bad time. It's the worst portrayal of the kink scene I think I've ever encountered. The author said she did a lot of research but it just seems like a lot of terrible assumptions and misinterpretations. I thought it was going to be a book that positively portrayed kink and people who like the kink scene, but it's very much not. It didn't even feel like the author was doing this so the character would learn that she can't run from her grief. It seemed more like the author had one bad experience due to poor communication or shitty individuals, and then decided that's what the whole scene was like.

-Harold's End by JT LeRoy. I read this book in high school (or perhaps just after graduating) and totally fell in love with it, and then never saw another copy until recently. It was so good to reread it, to re-experience the gorgeous watercolor portraits that come with it. The novel follows a young street kid/hustler who lives with other street kids; all his friends have pets but he doesn't. A john takes a liking to him and buys him a snail as a pet, who he names Harold. The book follows him as he lives on the streets and as his relationship with the john develops. The book is classic JT LeRoy, and the end is LeRoy's usual style of characters experiencing a life lesson and growth but not necessarily in a happy way. It definitely holds up!

-Wittgenstein's Mistress by David Markson. This was such a fun and weird book and I really enjoyed it. Markson's idea for the novel was "what if someone actually lived the way that Wittgenstein's Tractatus suggests?". What we get is a woman who believes she is the last person on earth (it is never confirmed whether this is true or not). She muses on life, culture, art, philosophy, and her past, and discusses her trips across the world despite its emptiness. But her story changes constantly; she's always referencing things she said before and editing herself. It's a weird, fun, fascinating novel with a lovably weird main character.

-A Feast Of Snakes by Harry Crews. Yet another fucked up book that I loved. It follows Joe Lon Mackey, a former high school football star that now lives a dead-end life in his hometown in Georgia. Each year the town hosts the Rattlesnake Roundup, where people come from many states away to try and catch as many rattlesnakes as they can in order to win a competition. Joe Lon is in charge of the event now that his father is too old and ill. He's uncomfortably self-aware of his own personal failings and his inadequacy and his abusive relationship with his wife; he'd rather not think about any of it and is incapable of figuring out how to change things. But his old girlfriend is returning for the event, and his father's attempts to control the goings-on from afar mean he's unable to stop thinking about where his life has ended up and where it's going. All this drives him slowly crazy with desperation until the insane ending. Crews is incredibly talented at writing characters that are likeable despite being so flawed and fairly awful people. This book is no exception.

-Milkshake by Travis Dahlke. What a weird novel! In a near-future dystopian heatwave, an 11 year old girl escapes the environmental catastrophe by traveling back in time to her past life as a fertilizer salesman whose marriage is slowly collapsing. I really enjoyed it, because it was just so odd. Now that I'm thinking about it, I feel as though it would have been really interesting to read just before or just after reading Tentacle; both books focus specifically on time travel and on environmental disaster.

-Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor. At the opening of the box, a Witch has been murdered in a small village in Mexico called La Matosa. The rest of the chapters are narrated by different characters, who all have some small or large hand in the death of the Witch, who was a woman who the whole town visited in secret for medicine, fortune-tellings, and advice. The narrating characters include a schoolgirl, a drug dealer, a prostitute, a hapless husband who wants to make something of himself, and a teenager in love with his young girlfriend. With each narration we learn more about the Witch, and her mother who was a Witch before her. Slowly, we get inklings of the nature of the murder, and the revelation at the end is brutal. Melchor's writing is incredibly vivid, and the characters are all caught in the cycle of poverty, driven by superstition and fear and hardship. None of the characters are likeable, but they're all so human.

-Biography Of X by Catherine Lacey. In a dystopic alternate-universe US, where the Southern Territory split from the North after WWII and established a fascist theocracy, a woman named CM grieves her recently deceased wife X, who was a famous artist. Despite X's wishes, CM decides to delve into her wife's past, researching her history before they met and before she was known as X. She uses her credentials and privileges as a journalist to cross into the Southern Territory and learn about X's family and the communities from which she came, her activism and her hidden lives, and begins to realize that maybe learning all this about the woman she loved won't benefit her in the long run and that maybe their relationship wasn't as rosy as she thought. This novel combined fiction and real life in really fascinating ways, and includes both real and fake sources in its footnotes.

-The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides. A famous and successful painter murders her husband and then refuses to speak. A psychologist who is also a fan of her work is determined to get her to speak again. Obsessed with uncovering the truth, he ends up taking risks that threaten himself and his patient. A fun mystery that went down easy. It didn't attempt to be too realistic from the start, so suspension of disbelief wasn't hard. I do think the book could have done without the entire last part. Leaving it on the realization of what had happened and allowing the reader to sit with that realization (especially with how creatively the twist is presented) would have had more impact I think than the slower and less engaging denouement of the last 3 chapters, which were far weaker than the rest of the book.

-Acid Snow by Larry Mitchell. I reread this book for the first time since about 2009 and really enjoyed it. It's a very sad novel about a man living in NYC during the height of the AIDS epidemic. Most of his friends and lovers have died and he's scared and sad about his own life and cynical about love, but he's attracted to the man who owns the shop below his apartment. It's a dark book, sad and scared and jaded. I think the main character's anxiety and grief that slowly escalates into paranoia is an amazingly surreal way to portray all the emotions that consumed the queer community at that time. I also loved the sort of lack of closure at the end - because many people didn't get that.

-Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer. I don't generally go for science fiction novels, but I read this one because so many people said they had liked it. I really enjoyed it. The unnamed narrator, a biologist, is part of an all-female expedition into a harsh, unknown territory that has appeared adjacent to the US. The suspense and strangeness of the novel had excellent pacing. The descriptions were also so vivid and clear, which made the story's weirdness so compelling. I loved watching the main character struggle to remain objective the whole time while knowing that she's failing. Her growing fascination and terror is so fun to read as each feeling tries to overtake the other. I also think it was great as a standalone and I feel no interest in reading the other books in the same universe.

-Nevada by Imogen Binnie. I'm a bad queer person, I hated this book. In it, the narrator, a trans woman, is frustrated with her life and has just broken up with her girlfriend, so she steals her ex's car and drives away, ending up in a small town where she spends the night with a department store employee. I just really don't like books that are meandering tell and no show without characters or a plot that are interesting. This entire book felt like someone recounting their weekend over breakfast, complete with casual informal language and overuse of the word "like". Which would be fine if any of the characters were compelling, or if the plot was really interesting and went somewhere, but it didn't. A good portion of it is just musings on New York City, but without the creativity or vividness that other portrayals of NYC have to offer. After I read it, I learned this book was kind of the catalyst for a specific style of trans writing. Which also explains why I hated Detransition, Baby when I read it a couple years ago, as it's a sort of literary descendant of this. I'm happy to read books that are tell rather than show....so long as something interesting happens or at least one of the characters is unique and compelling. This book sadly has neither.

-Essex County by Jeff Lemire. I read this for an English class in university, so this was a reread and I really enjoyed reading it a second time! All the stories in this collection are so beautiful and compelling, all the characters are so real. And the art style is fantastic. The stories revolve around characters living in the titular Essex County in Canada, across a number of generations. It weaves together their relationships and their lives, much of which revolves around hockey. There were some storylines I remembered quite well and others I didn't remember at all, so it was really nice to revisit this one.

-Ravage: An Astonishment of Fire by MacGillivray. Man, this book had so much potential. This novel is a fake biography of a fake poet who disappeared from a Scottish island in the 1960s after falling into delusions that he has become a demon. The fascinating thing about this book (at first), is that it's completely convinced that it is an actual nonfiction book. It gives no hints that it's fake, and the first 50 pages are convincingly written with an academic, nonfiction voice as the novel is utterly convinced of its own delusion of factualness. The novel claims to be an analysis of found papers: first, the poetry and written tracts of Tristjan Norge, a Norwegian poet, then the analysis of his works by MacGillivray, and finally, the diary of his companion Luce Montcrieff. Unfortunately, it is fairly repetitive in a way that bogs the reader down quite a bit. Even so, I think I would have enjoyed much, much more if the ending did not abruptly switch genres to a supernatural/fantasy novel in a way that was startling and had no previous indications of earlier in the book. Up to the last 20 pages I thought it was interesting, even when it was dense, but the end felt like the author didn't know how to end the novel and just used the deus ex machina of supernatural occurrences.

My goal for 2025 is to read majority nonfiction. I don't know if I'm going to actually meet that goal, but I'll try. I don't have any goals for how many books I want to read, especially because I tend to read nonfiction quite a bit slower than fiction, so I don't have a good idea of what my reading amount goal should actually be. This year I also forgot entirely about my attempt to read all of Jean Genet's (translated) works, so I will hopefully actually meet that goal in 2025, since I only have one or two books left to read. But my first three books of the year are going to be Soldiers Don't Go Mad by Charles Glass, which I started this year but didn't finish, The Declared Enemy: Texts and Interviews by Jean Genet, and Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks by Patrick Radden Keefe.

[trashpanda5629]

More humanized stuff one particular ship I like is bumblebee and steeljaw from Transformers Robots in disguise 2015.(Anyone else find Troy Bakers voice hot? No? Just me? Lol) Clearly I prefer to draw Bee as a female but I mean smol once a scout to leader woman with a group of rascals and dorks sounds so funny to me. (I did use another artists steeljaw as reference to make in my style, unfortunately I don't know the original artist to credit them 😔)

[higgssupremacy]

Troy Baker says on Middle East Film & Comic Con In Abu Dhabi:

“Higgs is very much like a Babushka [doll]. There are masks within masks, within masks.”

“I don't even know where [Kojima] pulled his inspiration from. It plays into the narrative, and you understand why he looks the way that he does.”

“He's entrusting Norman [Reedus] and Lea [Seydoux] and myself to bring our best, to do this job.”

Two things here catch my attention:

He talks about masks, meaning of course the Matryoshka toy, which is set of wooden dolls of decreasing size placed one inside another. The meaning of the the matryoshka is to display the hidden, to present surprises where it would seem there are no more layers. We see at least two Higgs masks in the trailer (red fake Amelia and a white one The Crow-like makeup), but how many more is he hiding inside?

and 2. Norman and Lea and myself (fan of Sam/Higgs/Fragile dynamics inside me screams with hope) - so maybe this will be their story, their conflict unresolved in the first part?

[therogerclarkfanclub]

how come voice/mo-cap actors don't become household names? i mean, rdr2 sold very well and the actors did amazing and contributed to the story being as compelling as it was with their performances. you'd think they'd all get their flowers and be asked to partake in more big roles? i know fame isn't everything and every actor has different goals and i'm sure the rdr2 cast are doing well for themselves. but you know, i just wonder...

I find this as puzzling as anyone else, and I share anon's opinion too. Given how talented Roger is, and how well received RDR2 is, you would think everyone would be knocking on Roger's door to offer him more jobs, right? Well, sadly that's not the case.

And it is also not as simple as having the talent. I once listened to a panel with Nolan North. Nolan is s very popular guy and has done countless roles. And in the panel he mentioned that, as popular as him and Troy Baker are, sometimes they don't *quite* have what producers are looking for, so producers will opt for other actors.

Roger mentioned in some interview some time ago, and I don't recall the exact words, but he mentioned that producers don't see acting in games on the same level as acting on TV or movies, when you know, it *IS* the same thing. I am going to hazard a guess that some producers are not aware of the amount of work and talent that goes on some games, and they probably think games are still like in the 90's, with bad acting like the og Resident Evil, but idk that's my opinion.

[concerningwolves]

do you have any like, folkore book recommendations? it could be of any folklore! although, i mainly know about Greek & Norse. or maybe perhaps, books about witchcraft & demonology?

Anon I am kissing you on the forehead. thank you for this ask

If you like Norse myths, Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman is a really good starting point – I adore how Gaiman weaves a narrative through the tales so that they feel cohesive. (I think this can be a slightly problematic practise, but imho it's also very effective if you want to just read and enjoy some myths). I read it in one day and then had Many Thoughts for the rest of the week.

Northern Lights: Legends, Sagas and Folk-tales edited by Kevin Crossley-Holland is a collection of Norse and Germanic stories. I've been meaning to reread this one because I don't think I was in the right headspace to really enjoy it the first time, so I can't give much of a review other than I feel it gives a really nice entry-point to anyone who wants to branch out beyond the more popular Norse myths. (Plus, it's up on the Internet Archive)

For a more scholarly deep-dive into Norse myths, I wholeheartedly recommend Gods and Myths of Northern Europe by H. R. Ellis Davidson. It's a deeply fascinating book which looks at the cultural history around Norse myths, then walks through how much we actually know about each Norse god and goddess. (I am still haunted by the fact Davidson says that Heimdall has been described as a "woodpecker god" and then doesn't elaborate)

Moving into Greek myths, I'm a big fan of the Mythos series by Stephen Fry. It's three books, one covering the cosmology of the Greek mythic world; one focusing on the myths around heroes and demigods; and the last telling the story of the Siege of Troy. Like with Gaiman's Norse Mythology, Fry brings a sense of narrative cohesion to the myths, but he's not just telling a story – he talks about the sources and different variations of the myths, which I find so fascinating. I've listened to the audiobooks three times now.

The folklore I'm most into is British Isles folklore. The Fairies in Tradition and Literature by Katharine Briggs is a fast favourite. Despite the title, she also looks at a wide variety of fairy-adjacent folkloric beings. I had so so much fun reading it.

(And on the subject of English folklore, two recent-ish favourites are The Folklore of Sussex by Jacqueline Simpson and the Folklore of Hertfordshire by Doris Jones-Baker; they're part of a collection of regional folklore books which I'm determined to read in its entirety. I really appreciated the way Simpson wrote about witchcraft and the kind of people most often accused of being witches).

I cannot talk about folktale books without recommending English Fairytales and More English Fairytales by Joseph Jacobs. I've only read More English Fairytales, but I've read it... so much. I killed my first copy with love and had to get another one. I picked up English Fairytales in a secondhand shop last week and I'm excited to start reading it. I think both are available online for free, too.

I'll have to go look at my cabin bookshelves tomorrow because I'm sure I'm forgetting some other favourites; I just wanted to answer this now before it got swallowed by my drafts forever

If anyone else has any recs of books on folklore, I would greatly appreciate them :3 (and I'm sure anon will too)

[insideparcferme]

i am about to play indiana jones and the great circle. but let me tell you. it was WORK getting to this point. first of all, my xbox wasn't even plugged in and i couldn't find my power cable. i have three consoles and yet. no cable (or rather. i knew i had ONE but that one's connected to my ps5 and i don't want to disconnect my beloved). i knew my nephew borrowed my original xbox cable a WHILE ago when he came over with his xbox but forgot the cable. so i was like. hmm. is it still downstairs? i go downstairs and see a power cable. connected to my brother's ps4 and i'm 99.9% certain that's MY power cable but i can't just take it until i know. so i call up my brother and ask him if it's his power cable and he doesn't know either (he doesn't use his ps4, he lent it to our nephew to use when he visits) so now i'm stumped. and i'm thinking 'fuck it, i'll just take the power cable from my ps5' 'cause i can't be bothered at this point. BUT. then i think. hmm, maybe my brother's power cable is still in his old room and the one downstairs really is mine. so i go look and lo and behold, there is a power cable. sitting on my brother's old tv console. which mean. the one downstairs IS mine. so i take back my original cable and plug in my xbox. but then. because i haven't started my xbox in over a YEAR. i get hit with a massive update. so i patiently wait whilst my xbox gets it's shit together. only then. i have to log in. on an account i barely use. that i can't remember the password to. BUT. i figure it out after a while. alas. now i actually have to download an 87gb game. and i don't have the storage for it. so now i have to delete some games AND wait for the game to download.

but. now. finally. 84 years later. it is done.

i can finally play this game.

ah mate i feel your pain, well done for persevering! i hope you love the game and that makes it worth all the aggro. i'm having a blast with it, the controls can be a bit janky but otherwise it's running well and providing a lot of fun. 😁 troy baker sounds more like young harrison ford than harrison ford, i s2g.

[the-a-j-universe]

I don't know if you have a way to play Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, but I highly recommend the game if you do. It very much feels like you are playing a movie, the cinimatics are perfectly framed, and Troy Baker does a flawless Harrison Ford impression. The puzzles are also incredibly satisfying, the story is amazing, and the environmental design is brilliant. Oh, also the main villain nazi is flawlessly done. I simply cannot praise this game enough.

Its also going to get called woke because

1. There is an Arab lesbian lady archeologist.

2. Indy is trying to make sure artifacts end up in local museums.

3. nazis are the villians, and are portrayed in the correct type of evil that nazis are

4. Probably something to do with Gina, shes got darker skin and is a war report with the accompanying personality so theres alot to dig into for those idiots lol.

Okay, so it is good, then. That's good, I was wondering about that. I'm really excited about it. I don't hate Crystal Skull or Dial, they aren't exactly good, but they're watchable to me, but the premise has so much potential. It's nice to see it explored.

I mean hell, I don't even think the original three explore it as much as they could have.

[expertmodegaming]

Marvel Rivals

Hello True Believers, do you like SuperHeroes? Do you like Marvel SuperHeroes? Do you like Hero Shooters? Do you hate OverWatch 2 (which no one could blame you)? Well I have a game for you, Marvel Rivals!

(Now hear me out) It’s a free-to-play (Super) Hero Shooter that pits players against a plethora of heroes and villains from different corners of the Marvel Multiverse. 

Ever since the epic fumble that was OverWatch 2, studios have been tirelessly trying to come in with the steel chair only to screw themselves over (looking at you Gundam Evolution), but judging from the positive reception post launch we might actually found the one who will usurp the corrupted king.

The game sets itself apart in a few ways, first being the third person perspective which seems like a given, because what good is a game filled with some of pop culture’s most iconic characters if you can’t see them? Especially since the designs are so unique.

And these are some unique styles, for better and for ill; some that immediately stick out are Storm’s black and silver armor like outfit, it’s sleek and stylish and some of the other skins hold on to this same energy, same goes for the likes of The Punisher and Luna Snow. But characters like Magneto, Scarlet Witch, and Captain America look like they got the leftovers in the costume shop. 

The meta is solid in game, with a 3 tier system not dissimilar to classic Overwatch; The classes are called Vanguard, Duelist & Strategist. 

Vanguard are this game’s version of Tanks, they’re the frontline heroes who can take a lot of damage and protect their teammates.

Characters like Hulk, Groot and Doctor Stranger can be found in this class.

Next is the Strategist class, these are the Healer/Support characters, but don't be confused because they aren’t damsels in distress like a certain Swedish Angel. 

Characters like everyone’s favorite troll god, Loki are more than capable of fending for themselves, Jeff the Landshark is also in this class, and he can get stuffed. Seriously if you play as him, we probably can’t be friends! 

And lastly the Duelist class, the melee and offense based heroes; My personal faves. I tend to go for my favorite glass cannon, Shell head himself The Invincible Iron Man; also with Hanzo stand-in Hawkeye.

Voice Acting royalty is abound, Yuri Lowenthal, Steve Blum, Troy Baker and many others bring this cast to life, and are a feast for the ears. 

Stages are hit or miss for me, but certain make traversal less of a choir, primarily flyers of course. Seriously NetEase, you didn’t have to copy this aspect!

Monetization is standard fare, 3 different currencies for emotes, tags and skins; if that’s your thing. And how could I forget the obligatory season pass, I mean they gotta keep the lights on.

Marvel Rivals as of this writing is off to a strong start, I just hope they maintain this meta, and don’t trip over their shoelaces.

I give Marvel Rivals, Xbox Series X/S, PC and PS5 a 3.5 out of 5.

[guywrestlingaddiction]

Everything Great About a Match: Troy Baker v Rick Egan (bgeast.com)

Everything Great About a Match: +4

Troy Baker v Rick Egan (bgeast.com)

SPOILER ALERT: I highly recommend viewing this match in its entirety before reading this post.

So let's begin:  +1: For Troy and that flawless body of course. The man's got those golden muscles that put all of us to shame.  No wonder Rick's intimidated by all that, the poor guy's got nothing on the one and only Troy Baker. 

Troy: You afraid to take your shirt off?!

Our guys start off shirtless in pants before stripping away to the main event! 

That look on Rick's face ...  All he needs to do is flash those biceps, give his opponent a look, and he's already won.  

+1: I love this version of the confident and assertive Troy. It's a thing of beauty to watch our Troy blossom into a fully composed, wrestler who can take anything Rick throws at him.  

I love Troy gagging his opponent to shut him up before fixing his hair.  I love the dominance here.  This isn't the Troy Baker of previous matches. 

Fix your hair, put some 200+ pound opponent out; you know the usual.

It's not all smooth sailing but Troy has enough in that sexy body of his to overcome this setback.

+1: For this move whatever it's called, a standing surfboard-leglock combo?  Whatever it is, that Troy Baker physique truly makes this hold a work of art.  I mean you can see every defining muscle on the man, damn! 

+1: For Troy finally getting the victory he deserves.  I mean check out this long, exhaustive rear choke with Rick barely fighting back.  Troy locks in the hold and wraps around Rick like a python and the guy can't (or more likely won't) get out of it.  I don't fault the guy.  Anytime spent with this dominant, alpha Troy is worth it in my opinion.  

Troy masters his opponent, turning Rick into a jobber. 

At one point Rick begins moaning and making unintelligible noises.  It's nighty night time. Stick a pin in Egan, the man is done. 

------- Everything Great About this Match: +4

So there you have it.  This is another side of the famous Troy Baker that we've all been craving.  The wrestling is not what we are here for fellas.  This match was setup to show us all the dominant version of Troy we all knew he could be.  After countless matches where our man has fallen at the feet of heels, this is his time to shine.

[gon-and-killuas-mother]

i watched Batman vs TMNT recently with some friends and i think this is my favorite animated Batman movie??

the entire premise isn't the strongest but that's true about most superhero plots, we're not here for logic and realism we're here to have a good fucking time and this movie DELIVERED

rather than wasting time coming up with a unique storyline, the movie instead pitched the turtles and Bats against each other's villains, and then each other, before teaming up.

i think the movie had two focuses

1) humor, mostly given to the Turtles (thanks Mikey i would die for you) (also "GOTHAM IS BONKERS, YO!" is a line i think should be engraved somewhere)

2) Rule of Cool, mostly by way of Batman. and it helped immensely that they cast Troy Baker as Batman, bc not only is his voice divine but he has a solid fucking Kevin Conroy impression, to the point that my friends were shocked it wasn't Kevin. he also voices Bruce in the Telltale Batman series and is definitely my favorite Batman voice actor second only to Kevin himself.

the Batman vs Shredder fight was insane. the animation was beautiful, the choreography was intense, and we ended up rewinding it a few times bc it was that good. the Batman vs Turtles fight was also fun to watch.

there are a few things that were meh, but all very minor. like what Jokers fursona would be. no it's not a goddamn snake, idiots. i tolerate it bc the rest of the movie is gold, and also they might've been nodding to the extensive usage of Joker toxin. but tbh i think he'd be a hare. or a monkey. a snake is too cool for him okay??

also Robin is?? acceptable. i think they tried to fuse Damian with a little bit of Tim, which i didn't mind, but they had to nerf him a little much for my taste.

also Barbara is Batgirl, meaning they wonked the timeline a bit. no biggie.

all that said, fucking NOTHING could have prepared me for the Batman Manbat transformation. it was beautiful, terrifying, and a couple kinds of hot. i'm sorry Bruce i know being forced into a feral monster with uncontrollable rage is probably traumatic for you, especially considering you probably maybe killed both Harvey Dent and Mr. Freeze. but don't WORRY you were very attractive while doing so.

12/10 go watch this movie, i was skeptical at first and so were my friends but we all found ourselves unable to even look away we were so enraptured with it