#and it would be an interesting angle for a game to seriously examine these kinds of mechanics as a part of the ludonarrative ☝️🤓

[hubbaslubba]

sorry im still hung up on the ‘we dont steal objects of cultural value’. taash, you might not but I DO! no.1 thing im doing as the first elf to be invited into the kal-sharok outpost is looking for shit to steal and plunder because these games, like many others, have been incentivising looting since the beginning!!

im not moralising about looting as a mechanic i just think its genuinely a hilarious and unserious thing to casually condemn if you want me opening a bunch of treasure chests every two minutes

[fefairys]

"The way Vriska introduces herself to John says everything about her, and about their relationship, and really, her relationship with everyone. She forcefully interrupts a moment that is deeply important and emotional to him, thereby probably denying that opportunity from ever happening again, just so she can insert herself into his life and force him to pay attention to her. Now here she is again, being kind of rude (e.g. calling him stupid), but more than that, being vaguely obsequious overall, which is something about her I was harping on in the last book. Vriska cozies up to certain kinds of people, namely those she wants something from or feels will elevate her status by association. John's the perfect mark for the manipulative, ass-kissing games she plays. Since we're in the Vriska Zone now and forever, I'll just keep talking about her. It bears more examination of how her manipulation strategy seems to deftly blend ass-kissing and aggression. Successfully manipulative, sociopathically charismatic people tend to have this balance down to a science. The strategy seems to involve controlling the interplay between flattery, appealing to common interests, charming or flirtatious rhetoric, and little jabs, negs, or outright insults to keep the target off-balance. The target gets sort of hooked by the fascinating spectacle, intrigued, and strangely disarmed. Too much flattery results in suspicion, too much negativity is a turn-off (or taken to an extreme like Karkat, results in not being taken seriously at all). The barbs mixed in with the flattery are effective because they lead the target to think, "If this person really wants something from me, why would they insult me?" Of course, this is how pick-up artists operate, which isn't far off from Vriska's mindset when pursuing her goals—which, although more broad than romantic goals, are still mixed in with them, with the end result being part of the overall power play. Over the course of her tactics focused on John to make herself more relevant, when actual romantic designs start seeping into the fabric of her manipulation campaign, that's when it all starts to get...A Little Bit Weird.

We've already seen a lot of Vriska's tactics on display in Hivebent, with mixed results. By now she's had a lot of practice, and she's bringing all her skills to bear on the perfect rube for her schemes, this nerdy, gullible Egbert kid. The romantic angle that surfaces from this effort, as I just implied, is vaguely troubling. How else to describe it... ? Icky, maybe? Something is off about it, and we feel that more than John does, obviously because we know a lot more about her than he does. For Vriska, are the romantic desires real? Is she such a mess inside that she wouldn't be able to tell whether the feelings are genuine or not? It's more likely that it's all about the ego boost, the power trip involved with grooming this hapless fool into the thing she wants him to be, and hoodwinking him into feeling something for her. But for him, it's probably more sincere. His first awkward experience with romance, albeit one contrived by a manipulator. Too bad he has no idea that none of this even has anything to do with him. It's still just about Vriska's gamesmanship with Terezi, who is another person exhibiting many of the aforementioned qualities of a manipulator. Terezi just uses hers to target a different boy. Both are highly successful with their boywork, but they take very different approaches." -Andrew Hussie

[dixkens]

MI6 Cafe Creators Tag Game

So late getting to this, but thanks to @silverbrume for tagging me in!

We’d love for people to keep getting to know each other after this year’s 007 Fest, so we’re starting this tag game!

Rules: Answer the questions, then tag 3 new people to complete this. Also tag the person who tagged you and @mi6-cafe so we can reblog your response.

Note that when we say ‘fanwork’ in the questions below, that could mean a fanfic, gif, fanart, headcanon, cosplay, crocheted work—any kind of fancreation counts!

What work of yours challenged you when you were creating it?

Everything I’ve written?

But seriously. There’s Nothing to Fear https://archiveofourown.org/works/27674746 from my Bondverse x Leverage crossover series The Incredibly True Adventures of 2 Hackers in Love where Q, seriously wounded in Afghanistan after a plane crash, has to cope with recovering from a life-changing injury.

Deciding that Q’s backstory was wounded veteran always felt right. On the other hand, writing the immediate aftermath of his injury felt like a challenge and a risk and one I wasn’t sure I was up to executing. Particularly since it was important to me to keep the story respectful of the realities of the situation I was fictionalizing.

What is a fanwork you’ve seen which gave you a new headcanon about a character?

There was a fic with a line about how much more dangerous Q is than an agent. I latched onto the idea that Q is dangerous and, more importantly, aware of it quite hard. The fic was good in several ways but also had plot points that irritated me (to the point that if you ask me about it, I WILL rant at you) so I’m not going to track it down to link.

Is there a fanwork that you really want to make, but you haven’t started yet?

Two that I can think of.

The first’s working title is Yusef’s Tale. A backstory for the man Vesper loved and was betrayed by.

The second is a femslash crossover with the movie Red where M (Mansfield) and Victoria Winslow (the assassin played by Helen Mirrin) were/are lovers.

What fanwork of yours surprised you, and how?

High Water Mark https://archiveofourown.org/works/36281518 - I wrote a magical AU. I made up a mythos. I made Q a god. I made M his priestess. I wrote M/Q.  The whole thing was very different from what I would have said that I ‘usually write’.

What doesn’t surprise me is it will probably have a sequel. This keeps happening to me.

What themes/styles/subjects are common across many of your fanworks? Alternatively, what themes/styles/subjects are you most interested in creating?

High-trust committed relationships, stories where the conflict is Individual vs System, complex examinations of consent, agency, and autonomy. I also tend to sprinkle in references to other fandoms and geeky jokes in a variety of subjects.

I find myself writing similar things from different angles, making something that seems innocuous at first glance threatening later, or taking the same situation and interpreting it multiple ways. For example, in my branching series Curriculum Vitae https://archiveofourown.org/series/2276666 Q ends up wrapped in a blanket several times but because of circumstances his responses vary from nearly having a panic attack to falling asleep.

What other fandoms do you create for, if any?

I’ve posted in Leverage, Good Omens, Discworld, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Norse Mythology and likely will again.

I also have WIPs for the Wayward Children series and Thor: Ragnarok. I aspire to someday write fanfic for my favorite spy movie of all time Hopscotch.

Is there an artist that you like to listen to while you create? Or one whose work always inspires you?

I don’t generally listen to anything while I’m writing though I do sometimes find songs that fit a fic’s theme. I’ve been slowly building a playlist to go with 2 Hackers for example.

Share a fanwork that you’ve found yourself thinking about weeks after reading/seeing it.

This is not a Bond fanwork but it is one I think about from time to time even now, years after I first saw it. This Firefly video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZr9wsZz_bk (I hesitate to call it a fanvid) is an excellent example of a creative work that takes a critical look at the source material’s flaws.

Finally, share where you post your works!

Mostly at https://archiveofourown.org/users/hypatia

Occasionally on https://dixkens.tumblr.com/

Tagging: I’m so late to this party I don’t know who hasn’t already been tagged. If you haven’t and read this, comment, and I’ll tag you!

Edited: Tagging @verdigrissoup

[realllllfangirllllll]

Beyond Lovers || Chp. 31

{More Than Friends Sequel}

Chairman!Jaehyun AU x CEO!Reader AU

Summary: You find yourself falling deeper and deeper in love with the former CEO after overcoming your fear of love. Although there were rough patches, both of you are now stronger than ever. However, you realize that maintaining a relationship and a company at the same time can be very difficult, especially if someone is out to destroy the both of you.

(Context: This scene takes place in the time frame of the last three chapters of MTF)

Masterlist

{Previous / Next }

4 months ago...

“Come meet me in Paris. I’ll send you the address.”

Jaehyun’s mind spun like lab rats on a hamster wheel as he contemplated the idea of meeting face to face with Xiaojun. He had set his mind on getting y/n back and he couldn’t act scared now. He needed her in his life and this was his only chance.

~~~

The bright sun was hanging low in the clear sky as Jaehyun let out a yawn. Although jet-lagged and stressed, the thought of being on the same grounds as y/n made him feel a bit better. After all, it seemed like he hasn’t seen her for years. He chuckled to himself upon the realization of how much y/n’s presence affected him.

He stepped into the luxurious hotel lobby and made his way to the glass elevators before he quickly pressed the button to floor six. When the room door opened, he found himself sitting on the lonely chair placed across from the lush couch with his heart beating nervously. Never had he been more nervous for a meeting, in fact, he usually wasn’t the type of person to get nervous at all. He guessed that y/n and Xiaojun were definitely of blood relation as they were the only two people to ever make him feel even slightly nervous.

His hands were clasped politely in front of his lap as he tried his best to sit as straight as possible. On the other hand, Xiaojun sat comfortably yet arrogantly on the couch with his legs crossed. His stern, sharp gaze examined Jaehyun from his neatly gelled hair, his casual yet sleek navy dress shirt, to his expensive leather shoes. Jaehyun didn’t move an inch and allowed Xiaojun to take in whatever he wanted to see. He dressed casually but neat with the intent of giving off a good, first in-person impression. He didn’t want Xiaojun to think of him as an egotistic rich boy but a hardworking and polite man that is sincere to y/n.

Xiaojun suddenly let out a chilling laugh that did nothing to clear the tension in the room. “You don’t have to act so stiff, treat me comfortably.” 

Jaehyun nervously chuckled as Xiaojun broke out an eerie smile and offered, “You must be exhausted from that flight. Want something to drink?”

Jaehyun looked at him and saw that his eyes held a stonecold stare that shouted ‘refuse if you dare.’ He quickly responded with a yes and Xiaojun’s eerie smile returned. As if he prepared for this scenario, his hands grabbed the bottle of liquor on the marble coffee table and filled the two empty glasses by its side. He set the bottle aside and asked as he quirked his eyebrow, “You do drink whiskey, do you?”

Jaehyun responded with a quick, “yes sir,” and Xiaojun chuckled, “No need to be so formal with me. You are about the same age as me after all.”

Jaehyun almost choked on his drink at his words and stuttered, “Y-yes if that’s what you want.” Hesitantly, he continued, “By the way...How do you know my age?”

Xiaojun chugged his drink and rather loudly before he bluntly told him that he had searched him up online, read articles about him, and even had some intel from someone on the inside. Jaehyun’s eyes widened at his last statement. He wasn’t new to this sort of investigation as he had done so himself around people he found suspicious, especially with Jaemin. But he was surprised, yet amused, that Xiaojun was that kind of person as well. 

He cleared his glass of whiskey and set it down on the table. “You seem to be a very reliable person.”

Xiaojun gave him a questioning stare as he waited for him to elaborate on his words. Jaehyun chuckled, suddenly feeling more comfortable around the man in front of him and slightly loosened his stiff body. “It’s only right to keep an eye out on suspicious people. I would.”

At his elaboration, Xiaojun’s expression seemed to change into one with slightly more approval. His cold stare shifted to a warmer gaze as he uncrossed his legs and leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. His eyes first looked down at his interlocked fingers and then seriously up at Jaehyun. “What is your endgame with my baby sister?”

Jaehyun sat up straighter again and responded with slight confusion in his tone, “Endgame? I don’t have one. My love for your sister isn’t a game.”

Xiaojun smirked and asked, “Then what is it?”

Jaehyun never broke eye contact with the man in front of him and said sincerely, “To me, loving y/n is like living in a warm home. I only want to make her feel happy and comfortable like how she makes me feel. I want her to feel what being loved means.”

He hoped that wasn’t too blunt and stopped himself before he could say anything more, but Xiaojun chuckled. This time, he didn’t have an eerie smile but a genuine one. He poured the both of them more whiskey and said in a gentler yet firm tone, “You’re the first, you know.”

“The first what?” Jaehyun said a little softer, scared that that statement might hold a negative connotation.

Xiaojun peered down at his glass of whiskey, slightly moving the cup in a circular motion before setting it down without taking a sip. “Guess I don’t need this whiskey anymore.”

He looked up and saw Jaehyun’s puzzled look. “You are much more innocent than I thought,” he laughed. He sat straighter, breaking from his previous position and told Jaehyun nonchalantly, “You are actually the first to tell me something worth my time. You see...most guys that previously held y/n’s interest will walk into my door and say some bullshit. I’ve heard countless fuckers say they date my sister because she will make a great couple with them, she will light up their day, or some equivalent shit.” His eyes hardened and stared straight into Jaehyun’s. “I don’t want to hear that. Ever.” Jaehyun unconsciously gulped and Xiaojun chuckled, “But you on the other hand. You are different. While others think about themselves, you think about y/n.”

Jaehyun felt relieved but not a second later, Xiaojun gave him the same cold stare again. “But y/n means the world to me. She’s my only family and the only person I will sell my soul to protect. You got that?” Jaehyun quickly nodded in response and Xiaojun’s tone softened again. “I don’t know how far you are in this relationship, but you must know that y/n didn’t have parents growing up as they abandoned us quite harshly.” He glanced at Jaehyun’s expression and figured he knew what he was referring to. “So you do know. Well then your relationship must have been going on for quite a while…”

“Not really,” Jaehyun replied a bit hesitant. 

Xiaojun quirked his eyebrow, “How long then?”

“Technically...only a few months,” Jaehyun rubbed the back of his neck, unsure of whether he should give him all the details of their complicated relationship, “But we’ve kind of been circling around the first month…”

“Circling around?” Jaehyun gulped, afraid this would give him some negative points on his approval but Xiaojun stared intently at him and suddenly burst out laughing. He knew that his younger sister was never the one to wait for initiation. She wasn’t careful with things she didn’t care for. All her previous relationships started fairly quickly. But when y/n really liked something, she would wait, go through a ton of inner debation, and finally come up with a decision. Xiaojun knew that because she does the same with photography. She never rushes the process and would take her time finding the right angle, the right natural lighting, and the right model. She would often tell Xiaojun, “Precious moments are to be dealt with carefully because they are especially fragile.” 

Now that Jaehyun confessed the upbringing of their relationship, albeit vague, he realized just how much y/n valued this man that sat nervously in front of him. He muttered to himself both out of amusement and astonishment, “Wow y/n...So he’s the one huh?”

He stopped laughing and stared seriously at Jaehyun again, “Listen up lover boy. The reason I told you to come here was to either show you that you are not worthy of my precious sister or to beat you to a pulp if you didn’t listen like some arrogant douches I’ve encountered in her past relationships.” Unknowingly, Jaehyun chuckled at his last statement and Xiaojun’s ears perked, “Did you just laugh?”

Jaehyun’s eyes widened upon the realization of what he just did and immediately corrected himself, “No no, I didn’t mean it in that way.” He scratched the back of his neck again and continued, “I actually just,” he paused and let out a light chuckle, “I just relate to that as well.”

Xiaojun was caught off guard as he blinked in disbelief at the man’s reaction, “You what?”

A sense of respect coated Jaehyun’s tone as he clarified, “Some people call it reckless, some people call it crazy. But in the line of business I work in, those hypocritical people only fear those with the power of the fist and intimidation.” He let out a bitter chuckle and told Xiaojun, “With y/n around, especially, I just feel the need to make sure she doesn’t get hurt by ignorant people.”

Xiaojun smirked, “You’re not half as bad as I thought Jaehyun.” He smiled and continued, “Anyways, y/n may be my baby sister but ever since we were little all she has done was make sure I was happy. She took care of me more than I did with her. She supported and helped me with my Youtube career and tagged along without any complaints. And because of that, she never really had a stable place to call her home. I’m glad she was able to open up to you. She usually never tells someone about her parents until at least a year into the relationship. It shows she really is comfortable around you. And judging from the way you react to my words and actions, it seems I don’t need to play the role of a protector for her anymore. You seem to suit the role.”

Before Jaehyun could respond Xiaojun immediately cut him off, “But one more thing. As a Youtuber, I know the public forum can be harsh and the spotlight will never be easy. For that, I know the situation at the Starship Charity Ball was not entirely your fault,” His cold stare came back as he stared seriously at Jaehyun, “But don’t you ever dare forget this. When you walk out this door and go to y/n, you will do everything in your power to help and protect her. It might not be entirely your fault, but it was because of you that y/n is now in the spotlight.”

Jaehyun replied in agreement almost immediately and Xiaojun continued, “Take the consequences and make the best of it.” He narrowed his eyes and made sure Jaehyun understood his commands. “But don’t you ever let y/n get hurt by it.” He continued and emphasized his last point in a much deeper and darker tone, “You hurt my only family and I will show you no mercy. However hurt y/n becomes, I will give that back to you threefold, understood?”

“Of course! I will always be by her to protect her. No matter who or what gets in the way,” Jaehyun replied quickly and genuinely. 

Xiaojun shut his eyes for a moment and nodded, content with his response and overall behavior. 

“Effiel Tower,” he opened his eyes again and looked at Jaehyun with a soft and somewhat hopeful gaze, “She should be somewhere around the Effiel Tower right now.”

Jaehyun immediately popped up from his seat, ready to meet his love again. Before he twisted the doorknob of the hotel room, he turned around and told Xiaojun with the utmost respect, “I will treat her like my own family, I promise.”

Xiaojun chuckled and leaned against the soft pillows on the couch, “You better lover boy, my fists are ready to fight any time of the day.”

———

• Dropping a post early since I’ll be off to celebrate my bday!! •

[bagadew]

The Great Ace Attorney Playthrough: The Adventure of the Runaway Room (Part 1b)

Last time: We (and by we I mean Ryunosuke and Susato) arrived in England, and were almost immediately sent to play lawyer by Daemon Gant’s ancestor, who is definitely going to either die or kill someone later. Despite our client being only the richest of able bodied white men, we quickly found ourselves on the ropes thanks to the worlds least impartial jury. Fortunately we now get to put the buggers on the spot and demand they give us their reasons for convicting my client (and boy had they better be good).

Ryunosuke, the more we learn about that man the more of a cad he becomes. I say we should be very thankful we aren’t doing that.

Let me get this straight, instead of smashing their half baked ideas to smithereens and laughing as I go, I have to use the worlds weakest bricks to build my argument.

Susato, one of them knows one of the witnesses.

Oh, so that’s what we’re doing.

Ok, Ryunosuke, lets get shit stirring!

Well firstly, either the drunk juror’s wrong or Beppo’s overcharging people, so jot that down.

Ooh, we’re pacing!

(Also, I’d like to thank Juror No.4 for backing me up, ma’am you are the only member of this group bothering to make even the slightest bit of effort. For this I thank you.)

Of course! Thank you for putting two and two together like that for me!

(Wait a second, I’ve just realized that we’ve got the KBS slung on our hip! That’s amazing!)

And this lady’s and gentleman, is why we don’t let people who know those involved stand on the Jury.

GET HIS ASS JUROR NO.4!

(You are my favourite juror, you can tell the others if you’d like.)

Excellent work Ryunosuke!

Have you not even been listening?

(Susato is explaining the last ten minutes to him because she has more patience than I ever will.)

>:D

And Juror No.2’s crossed over to our side as well!

>:D

And she’s doing it for much better reasons than Juror No.5!

Juror No.2 you’re winning me back!

Just two more jurors to convince now, so let’s go on to the discrepancy about how the victim was stabbed, and maybe point out that the body was left in the seat it was stabbed it.

Old Lady vs Jack the Ripper, here we go!

(Ten guineas on the granny!)

Haha! His knife got stuck in the table!

(I put it again that this man should have that knife taken away from him.)

Yes judge, and if we’d been allowed to go through the whole trial before the jurors jumped the gun, you’d have known that already.

Yay! We’ve won Granny Thickle back!

WHAT DO YOU THINK THE JURY IS SUPPOSED TO DO YOU NINCOMPOOP?!?

And he’s being really racist now.

Fortunately he’s also rubbing the rest of the jury up the wrong way!

Well I consider this to have been a success Ryunosuke.

Well given that the body was found on the seat and there was no blood on the floor... I’m going to say no.

He wants evidence.

Ok then.

As a wise man with a cool sword once said: I will shove it down your throat and make you choke on it.

(Yeah, we should really have seen Kazuma’s moral dubiousness coming...)

Anyways, let’s show him the crime scene photo then.

WRONG???

Of course! The autopsy report shows he was only stabbed once!!!

Meaning that there was only one incident where the witness was stabbed!

VICTORY VICTORY VICTORY!!!

YEAH!!!

Yes, kill each other!

My Lord, Juror No.3 has started licking his knife and threatening the witnesses now...

I’m a little bummed we didn’t get to convince Juror No.4 seeing as she’s the one putting in the hours up there, but never mind. We’re back on track baby!

HE CRUSHED IT!

Oh my god Ryunosuke, we’ve got a prosecution shut up button!

HE THREW OF HIS DRACULA CLOAK!

Oh please, we all know perjury doesn’t exist in this here!

Oho, so apparently Beppo’s been overcharging his customers. Given the conditions he’s been working in I can’t exactly blame him though.

Unfortunately that does kind of rule out the possibility of an extra passenger though, so I’m not sure it helped us much.

Damn right I do!

‘Absolutely’ Ryunosuke and I share one mind.

Now let’s see if we can clear up that whole ‘I saw the victim stabbed on the floor’ bs.

You know, I’m rapidly warming to Mr Furst. Unlike the other witnesses and the god damn jury, he’s not telling lies, or overinflated by his own self importance. He’s actually taking it seriously and doing his best to be as clear and close to factual as he can.

I mean he could well be the killer for all I know, but right now I’m just enjoying him as a nice gentle guy who’s trying his best. It’s refreshing.

Barok’s trying to point out that we still have one witness who saw the stabbing, to which I say: Yeah, a witness with a reason to lie!

Still, Beppo’s the one I should probably be focusing on here, as he’s saying he saw the victim stabbed in places he couldn’t have been.

Well that was easy.

Mr Fairplay on the other hand is going absolutely ham on his cane.

What’s the matter Mr Fairplay?

Got something to say?

Again Mr Fairplay, being a banker in an Ace Attorney Game is not the commending statement you think it is.

Anyways new statement time!

And what’s this I see? Both his hands were covered in blood? That looks like a new contradiction to me!

You know he’s weirdly insistent about this, and I can’t work out why?

Like, regardless of whether or not he committed the murder, he’s clearly hoping that Mr McGilded’s going to be taken out of the picture as a result.

But if he wants that to happen then this is such a weird thing to lie about. It doesn’t add in any way to Mr McGilded’s ‘guilt’, in fact thanks to his gloves it kind of does the opposite.

But if he’s not lying then he has to be mistaken and I don’t understand what that would mean either.

Wow, Juror No.6 is ready to throw down!

(Juror No.3’s going off as well, but I don’t think that’s anything to write home about.)

NOT IN THE WAY HE REPEATEDLY SAID IT WAS!

I’m no longer so sure. After all, if he was it would be far more in his interest to keep quiet about it or say he was mistaken as soon as we bought the gloves out.

What I’m beginning to wonder though, is if there was a mysterious fifth passenger after all, and their hands were the ones Mr Fairplay saw covered in blood.

Come to think of it, he did say that he didn’t see the victim or killers faces, so that’s a good chance, and one that actually gives some hint as to what our suspect looks like: i.e. small.

Debt time.

IT’S A HUGE DEBT!!!

Good to get proper conformation on that theory then.

ORDAAR!

(If you don’t know about the House of Commons cry of Order you should look it up on YouTube. It’s basically the one good thing to have come out of that place.)

So he did lie about seeing the moment the victim was stabbed then. I guess that leave more room for the idea that the fifth passenger did it.

Actually, come to think of it did Mr McGilded ever tell us where he went to sit in the carriage? Could he have been on the open side, the one Mr Fairplay and Mr Furst couldn’t see from where they were?

Huh, he’s still doubling down.

Again I really don’t think he’s lying here, but I do think he’s mistaken about who’s hands he could see.

Also given how much this statement relies on him being a witness I should probably rule him out of my enquires.

I’m rapidly going back over my notes to see if I ever accused him, but let’s be honest here I did. The False Accusations counter is up to a nice healthy 5/5.

Of course Mr Furst, you’re an angle and we’re all thrilled you’re here.

Ok, well now any doubts I had that Mr Fairplay was telling the truth have been put to rest, thank you Mr Furst. You, me and Susato should form our own breakaway courtroom, Juror No.4 can come if she likes.

Anyway time for more testimony.

Certainly looks that way doesn’t it My Lord?

Now Barok want’s to examine the Omnibus again.

You know what, sure Barok, knock yourself out.

Barok, keep up. It literally a huge contradiction sitting right there.

YES IT MATTERS!!!

Well thanks to Mr Furst, the one good witness, we know that the real killer wasn’t wearing any gloves. Again Mr Furst I thank you.

Wait a second, there was a space under the seat opposite the victim wasn’t there. I know it was full of stuff but was there any room for someone to fit themselves?

Barok’s telling me that there was no trace of blood on Mr McGilded’s actual hands. I’m glad you’ve finally caught up Barok but stop talking now so I can examine the omnibus again.

Yes! A space!

And whoever it was who could fit inside there definitely fits the category of small!

And right on cue it’s time to bring their blind spot to light.

Now, I need to work out if they want to know about the space under the seats or if they just want the seats themselves, because from where Mr Furst and Mr Fairplay were sitting they couldn’t see either.

Fuck it, I’ll just put my cursor half way between the two and hopefully it’ll except whichever one it wants.

Haha, yes... exactly what I was going to say...

MY EVIDENCE IS THE FUCKING BLOODIED GLOVES!!!

Anyways, given that the killer was by all accounts sitting next to the victim with no gloves and bloodied hands, the only person who could have been in the concealed seat was Mr McGilded. Again, did anyone actually bother to check which seat he sat in?

Well done Judge. Still as sharp as ever I see.

Wow, that one hit the light!

Barok, that’s alcohol. If you start a fire in here I’m not going to put you out.

Oh he’s being racist again.

Racist stuff Ryunosuke.

Ok, well let me brake this down into words that a stuck up prick like you would understand. The witnesses never saw the attackers face, but they did see his hands and all agree that they were covered in blood. My clients hands were not covered in blood, and therefor he doesn’t fit the one thing we know about the killer. However we know he was on the omnibus, and the only place he could have been is in the seat that can’t be seen.

... you guys, I think this man might be the OG “protégé” prosecutor. Hugh O’Connor and Sebastian Debeste were simply trending in this mans footsteps.

I’m not really sure how much clearer you want me to be My Lord!

(Also ORDAAAAR!)

Van Zieks is still crawling blindly towards the light, and I suggest we just move on without him.

I know (or at least I hope) he’s just deliberately putting up barriers as the prosecution, but the way he’s doing it really looks like he’s packing his intelligence onto a bus and sending it out to destinations unknown.

(Credit to Ryunosuke for spelling it out for him though.)

Thank you Mr Furst, I knew you’d have my back.

THEN LET’S BRING HIM INTO COURT!!!

(ORDAAARR!!!)

Yeah on what grounds?

I mean this is literally the solution to all our problems.

Yeah, well he probably lied (though I can’t work out why).

Excellent point Ryunosuke!

Now Van Zieks is pointing out that if Mr McGilded lied in his statement there would have been a deliberate reason for doing so. To be honest, as the prosecution, this seems like all the more reason to bring him in.

Anyway we’re demanding his testimony.

WHY THE HELL ARE WE ASKING THEM?!?

Well luckily for us the jury seems to finally be getting its arse in gear and has agreed (fairly unanimously) to let the god damn defendant make a statement in his own murder trial.

Nothing to say here. This just feels like a meme.

HAHA!!! THERE WAS SOMEONE!!!

EAT MY SHIT BAROK!!!

Wait an urchin?

Ace Attorney, I’ve already had a ‘don’t feel good’ case regarding who I’m accusing, don’t make me do that again.

STOP MAKING ME ACCUSE POOR AND FRIGHTENED CHILDREN!

Yeah, they probably would have done, and unlike you I don’t think she’d have been able to pull the ‘I donated a park to this city you know’ trick to win hearts and minds.

I wonder if she was there as a passenger or as a stowaway? Because I’d say that gap under the seat could fit a child pretty easily.

Now Barok’s saying we have no reason to believe Mr McGilded. And he’s right except for, you know, all the evidence...

Wait what.

A smoke bomb just went off!

I really don’t like the face Mr McGilded pulled just then, and he definitely gave a signal for it to be dropped.

...Ah fuck, he’s guilty isn’t he.

And he’s using some kid to cover it up.

Well shit...

[ineffably-good]

Flufftober #12: Underwear (Good Omens)

Holy moly, this was an interesting one to write. :) 

“Aziraphale, what would it take to get you into some knickers from this century?” Crowley asked one morning as the angel was fussing about with his morning dressing rituals.

“There’s nothing wrong with my choice of knickers,” the angel said, sounding mildly affronted. “It’s not like I’m wearing a one piece or a union suit.”

Crowley rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and walked over to stand behind the angel in the full length mirror where he was examining himself as he buttoned the cuff on his oxford shirt, his white boxer shorts and sock garters proudly arrayed beneath it. “No, that’s true, and what you wear is fine. But– white boxers day in and day out…” Crowley wrapped his arms around him and laid his chin on Aziraphale’s shoulder. “I would love to see you in something a little more, well, modern once in a while! Just for fun.”

Aziraphale lapped up the affection like a sponge but still looked doubtful. “Well, I suppose I could try something new. But honestly I wouldn’t even know where to begin!”

Crowley grinned in a way that was only very slightly hungry-looking. “Leave it to me, angel. I’ll find you some options to try.”

Aziraphale continued to look doubtful but said nothing to discourage him.

++

The next morning, Crowley slid a small black bag into Aziraphale’s hand as he was working his way out from under the covers.

“What’s this?” Aziraphale said. 

“Knickers,” Crowley said. “Don’t worry, I’ve started conservatively.”

Aziraphale looked amused and opened the small paper bag to pull out a simple, dark blue pair of boxers in a luxurious silk.

“Oh, these look nice!” he said, running an appreciative hand over the fabric. He pulled them on and stood in front of the mirror in his undershirt and shorts, examining himself from various angles.

“What do you think?” he asked, turning around to find the demon staring at him with big, wide eyes.

“I think you need to come back over here,” Crowley said, simply, and to his delight, the angel complied.

++

Crowley, pleased with the success of his first gift, decided to slowly ratchet up the stakes and see how far he could get the angel to go before he’d refuse. The next logical step was boxer briefs, and when that went over relatively easily, he moved on to more of a traditional brief, although in a solid black. Aziraphale crinkled his nose at that one but wore them for a day nonetheless, which allowed Crowley to then move on to more of a bikini model, which Aziraphale dutifully put on, modeled, and then discarded in disgust.

Which led to the final gambit – a very small pair of g-string pants that just barely covered the essential bits, in leopard print.

“Oh Crowley, for heaven’s sake,” Aziraphale protested when he saw it on his pillow. “I’m not wearing THAT.”

Crowley pouted. “Why not, angel? It’s just me…”

Aziraphale huffed. “Because it’s ridiculous. I don’t wear things that small, and I certainly don’t wear leopard print, and I most particularly don’t wear – what is it called, even? An f-stop?”

“A g-string,” Crowley said long-sufferingly, and then gave him his best puppy dog eyes. ��Just try them on, angel? Just to show me?”

Aziraphale sighed. “Ok, fine. But you are going to owe me a big one for this!”

He swooped up the offending item and disappeared into the bathroom. Where he stayed for a very, very long time. Crowley tried to be patient, until he noticed how fidgety he was getting. Must be time to intervene, he thought.

“You ok in there?” Crowley called out.

“I am NOT coming out in these,” Aziraphale said. “I look ridiculous!”

Crowley laughed softly and wandered over to try the door. He was somewhat surprised to find that it was not locked. He pushed it open slowly, giving Aziraphale plenty of time to object, and walked in to find his angel wrapped in a fluffy bathrobe and looking mortified.

“Seriously, my dear, what COULD you be thinking?” Aziraphale complained, his cheeks bright red. “These are completely indecent.”

Crowley sat down on the edge of their enormous bathtub and tried to keep his face neutral. “How about I be the judge of that?” he suggested. “C’mon, you have to show me.”

Aziraphale shook a finger at the demon rather hysterically. “If you laugh at me, I will – I will never – I –”

Crowley shook his head firmly. “I guarantee you, whatever is under there, my last instinct is going to be to laugh.”

Aziraphale took a deep breath and closed his eyes, dropping the bathrobe to the floor.

Crowley was surprised to find that you could actually hear the sound of your own brain short circuiting. It made a kind of buzzing sound, like the power outage that crossed London earlier in the summer, or like a doorbell suddenly sputtering out of commission, and was followed by nothing but the sensation of blood pounding in his ears. He felt, rather than saw, his pupils blow wide as he took in the delectable sight that stood in front of him – his soft, creamy, surprisingly muscular angel, standing there in all his glory, arrayed like nothing so much as a total snack.

Holy hell, he thought. You look delectable.

“You’re laughing!” Aziraphale said, eyes still closed. “Are you laughing? Say something!”

Crowley lunged for him, suddenly overcome with the need to wrap Aziraphale up in his arms and convince him both verbally and physically that he found nothing ridiculous about the situation.

He resolved to spend at least the next hour reassuring the angel of this.

++

 “I’m not wearing these,” Aziraphale said, a good hour later. “Perhaps for you, once in a while, but they’d drive me insane beneath my clothes. They’re all pokey in the wrong places. And good heavens, is that polyester? I would never!”

Crowley smiled lazily. “That’s fine. Tuck them away somewhere in case I ever want to see them again.”

Aziraphale leaned over and laid a kiss on Crowley’s nose. “Can we stop with the increasingly ridiculous knickers, now? I think I’ve been quite adventurous enough.”

“Of course, angel,” Crowley said. “You’ve been more than game.”

“I did rather like the silk ones, though,” the angel admitted. “Feel free to get me a nice assortment of those in my stocking this Christmas!”

Crowley made a note of it.

[bizomot1-blog]

Gambling club Reinvestment and Expansion

The Proper Care and Feeding of the Golden Goose

Under the new worldview of declining monetary conditions over a wide range of buyer spending, gambling clubs face a one of a kind test in tending to how the two of them keep up gainfulness while additionally staying serious. These variables are additionally confused inside the business gaming area with expanding charge rates, and inside the Indian gaming division without anyone else forced commitments to innate general assets, or potentially per capita conveyances, notwithstanding a developing pattern in state forced expenses.

Deciding the amount to "render unto Caesar," while holding the essential assets to keep up piece of the overall industry, develop showcase entrance and improve productivity, is an overwhelming errand that must be all around arranged and executed.

It is inside this specific situation and the writer's point of view that incorporates time and grade hands-on involvement with the improvement and the board of these kinds of ventures, that this article relates manners by which to design and organize a gambling club reinvestment technique.

Cooked Goose

In spite of the fact that it would appear to be aphoristic not to cook the goose that lays the brilliant eggs, it is astounding how little idea is oft times given to its on-going legitimate consideration and taking care of. With the appearance of another club, designers/ancestral chambers, speculators and lenders are legitimately on edge to receive the benefits and there is an inclination not to assign an adequate measure of the benefits towards resource upkeep and upgrade. Along these lines making one wonder of exactly the amount of the benefits ought to be apportioned to reinvestment, and towards what objectives.

In light of the fact that each undertaking has its own specific situation, there are no rigid standards. Generally, a large number of the significant business gambling club administrators don't disperse net benefits as profits to their investors, yet rather reinvest them in enhancements to their current settings while additionally looking for new areas. A portion of these projects are likewise subsidized through extra obligation instruments and additionally value stock contributions. The brought down duty rates on corporate profits will probably move the accentuation of these financing strategies, while as yet keeping up the center business reasonability of on-going reinvestment.

Benefit Allocation

As a gathering, and preceding the current monetary conditions, the freely held organizations had a net benefit proportion (profit before personal assessments and devaluation) that midpoints 25% of salary after derivation of the gross income charges and intrigue installments. All things considered, right around 66% of the rest of the benefits are used for reinvestment and resource substitution.

Club activities in low gross gaming charge rate locales are all the more promptly ready to reinvest in their properties, accordingly further upgrading incomes that will in the long run advantage the duty base. New Jersey is a genuine model, as it commands certain reinvestment allotments, as an income energizer. Different states, for example,Mega888 FataBet Illinois and Indiana with higher powerful rates, risk lessening reinvestment that may in the long run dissolve the capacity of the gambling clubs to develop showcase request infiltrations, particularly as neighboring states become increasingly serious. Also, powerful administration can produce higher accessible benefit for reinvestment, coming from both proficient tasks and good acquiring and value contributions.

How a gambling club endeavor chooses to apportion its club benefits is a basic component in deciding its long haul suitability, and ought to be a necessary part of the underlying improvement system. While transient advance amortization/obligation prepayment projects may from the start appear to be alluring in order to immediately turn out from under the commitment, they can likewise pointedly lessen the capacity to reinvest/develop an auspicious premise. This is likewise valid for any benefit conveyance, regardless of whether to financial specialists or on account of Indian gaming ventures, circulations to a clan's general reserve for foundation/per capita installments.

Also, numerous loan specialists tragically require extreme obligation administration holds and spot limitations on reinvestment or further influence which can truly confine a given task's capacity to keep up its seriousness or potentially meet accessible chances.

While we are not upholding that all benefits be furrowed go into the activity, we are empowering the thought of a portion program that considers the "genuine" expenses of keeping up the advantage and amplifying its effect.

Building up Priorities

There are three fundamental regions of capital distribution that ought to be considered, as appeared underneath and arranged by need.

1. Support and Replacement

2. Cost Savings

3. Income Enhancement/Growth

The initial two needs are sufficiently simple to acknowledge, in that they have an immediate effect on keeping up showcase situating and improving benefit, though, the third is to some degree problematical in that it has a greater amount of an aberrant influence that requires a comprehension of the market elements and more noteworthy speculation chance. All angles that are herewith additionally examined.

Support and Replacement

Support and Replacement arrangements ought to be a customary capacity of the club's yearly spending plan, which speaks to a fixed save dependent on the anticipated substitution expenses of furniture, installation, gear, building, frameworks and finishing. Time and again anyway we see yearly lists of things to get that bear no relationship to the genuine wear and tear of these things. It is in this manner critical to really plan the substitution cycle, assigning finances that don't really need to really be acquired in the time of gathering. During a beginning up period it may not appear to be important to spend any cash on substitution of fresh out of the plastic new resources, anyway by collecting adds up to be saved for their inevitable reusing will abstain from rushing for the assets when they are generally required.

One territory of extraordinary thought is gambling machines, whose substitution cycle has been shortening recently, as more up to date games and innovations are creating at an a lot higher rate, and as the opposition directs.

Cost Savings

Interest in cost reserve funds programs and frameworks are, by their very nature and on the off chance that enough inquired about a less unsafe utilization of benefit portion financing, at that point practically some other speculation. These things can frequently appear as new vitality sparing frameworks, work sparing items, increasingly effective buying intermediation, and intrigue decreases.

These things have their admonitions, one of which is to completely break down their touted investment funds against your own specific application, as intermittently the item guarantees are misrepresented. Rent purchase outs and long haul obligation prepayments can now and then be worthwhile, particularly when the commitments were gone into during the improvement arrange when value assets may have been constrained. In these cases it is critical to see this present technique's net impact on the primary concern, in examination with elective employments of the monies for income upgrading/development ventures.

One ongoing pattern is the developing notoriety of money less space frameworks, which not just give work reserve funds to fills, tallies and hand-pays, yet in addition fill in as a guide to supporters who don't care to haul around those unwieldy coin containers, while likewise promising different game use.

Income Enhancing and Growth

Utilizing is the key impetus of any income improving/development related venture. It incorporates the accompanying:

o Patronage Base

o Available Funds

o Lands

o Marketing Clout

o Management Experience

The chief is to use the utilization of the accessible resource towards accomplishing higher incomes and productivity. Common models incorporate expanding normal support base spending and broadening the compelling exchanging span, by offering extra items/administrations, for example, retail locations, amusement choices, recreational/relaxation conveniences, medium-term lodging, more eatery decisions, and obviously, extended gaming.

Ace Planning

Expectation of potential development and extension ought to be completely incorporated into the undertaking's underlying expert arranging so as it guarantee firm reconciliation of the potential components in a staged in program, while additionally considering minimal measure of operational interference. Sadly, it's not constantly conceivable to envision showcase changes, so development choices must be deliberately considered.

The Big Picture

Before setting out on an extension and additionally upgrade program we emphatically prescribe first venturing back and surveying the property's present situating comparative with the market and serious condition. As we have seen in various gaming wards around the nation, regularly gambling club adventures that have been working "fat and glad" for a couple of years, wind up in a zero-development period. In some cases this is because of rivalry coming from either/both new neighborhood or territorial settings that have the effect of diminishing support from fringe region markets. Also, the present client base may get exhausted with their experience and are looking for greener fields. The chronicled development of the Las Vegas strip is demonstration of the accomplishment of ceaselessly "rehashing" oneself.

Our way to deal with these market considers is at first centered around deciding how much the present office is entering the potential market and in relationship to any serious pieces of the pie. Regularly, this speaks to an examination of the ebb and flow support base as far as data gathered from the player following information base, and mailing records, combined with day-part, every day, week by week, month to month and occasional income patterns.

This information is then interfaced with an appraisal of the general market potential to demonstrate the degree to which certain market sections are using the office and the necessities it is satisfying. All the more critically in any case, is that this kind of investigation will show those market fragments that are not using the office all the more completely, and why.

[animebw]

Binge-Watching: Baccano, Episodes 1-3

And so we begin! In which the story of the story is just as important as the story itself, a million puzzle pieces tickle the imagination, and I fall in love with yet another fictional couple. Readers, this is gonna be a good one.

How We Tell the Story

As my long-time readers are probably aware, I’m a huge fan of storytelling about storytelling. I’m a sucker for fiction that breaks down and examines the mechanics of fiction itself, exploring why we tell stories in the way that we do and finding new and interesting ways to tell those stories. Gintama got to be my favorite anime of all time in large part because of how perfectly it understood its own meta and place in the broader popular culture, and Re:Zero earned my love for much the same reason. Bottom line, if you hand me a story that has something to say about storytelling itself, then you can consider me a pretty happy customer. And while it’s still a little too early to see if Baccano will have a similarly grand declaration at the end of its run, there’s no denying that its presentation has hooked me just the same. The entire opening scene is essentially an excuse for the writers to come right out and talk to us about the nature of the story they’re telling, and all the different considerations that went into telling it. Where should this story begin? What characters should we focus on the most ( ”He’s main character-ish.” “Ish?”) How does the meaning change depending on what order events are depicted in? It’s like watching my last two brain cells argue at 4 AM as I’m struggling over how to the next chapter. And it jumps into the story proper with one last winking nod from the narrator: ”There are as many stories as there are people to tell them.” It’s an indication that we’re about to leap into a twisting, turning narrative that’s going to rely on every last player to tell their side of the story to make sense of it. The question is, whose story will carry the most weight when all is said and done? I don’t know, but thanks to the confidence with which the question’s asked, I’m definitely excited to find out.

Pieces and Postcards

And with that basis laid, Baccano officially jumps into the main thrust of its narrative, piecing together a topsy-turvey gangland drama featuring a veritable rogue’s gallery of interlocking players and pieces. I imagine this is the kind of story with great re-watch value, as you get to see how all the pieces fit together once the bigger picture comes into show. But even my first time through, I can definitely say I’m having a blast watching the puzzle come together. With so many moving parts, it would be easy to get confused and lose your sense of direction in the mess, but Baccano’s got such a great sense of storytelling logic that you keep your balance every step of the way. It’s constantly checking to make sure you can re-orient yourself, coming back to big moments and taking a different track to show how the collision of two different game pieces affected both of their trajectories. Characters from all different groups interact and collide and weave a web of connections that we get to see from multiple angles, making for a constantly invigorating experience as each new springlock clicks into place and unlocks an entirely new area map to explore. And every time we return to the same event and take it in a different direction, it only increases the ease with which you can follow these interconnecting stories. It also helps that the fantastic OP (seriously, it is a bop) is constantly reminding you of all the important characters on the playing field, what their base personalities are, and what general connections they have to each other through choice editing and smart cinematography. The fact that I didn’t once find myself questioning the order of events for too long in a story this complex is a testament to how fucking good Baccano is at guiding your focus.

As for the story itself, there are already a lot of interesting pieces at play. I’ll admit, I wasn’t expecting the introduction of supernatural elements, but the way the immortality serum is naturally woven into our understanding of the world is really kind of brilliant. I love the way it feels like a time-reversing agent that rewinds the body to its pre-death state, making for some enjoyably gristly imagery and off-kilter wow moments. So far, we know Luck, Ladd, Isaac and that one kid are immortal, as well as the original inventor, but it’s not clear who else has the juice running through them, or where they all got it from. Ennis is connected to the inventor somehow, but her importance is yet to become clear. Meanwhile, there’s some sort of cult or mafia aiming to launch an attack to rescue the unknown Master Huey, some kids with mysterious face tattoos who are wanted for some reason, and everything revolves around a yet-undramatized blowout massacre about the great steam engine the Flying Pussyfoot, where all out disparate characters finally collide in the same location. Everything in this story is revolving around this event, and the way it builds tension by jumping between moments both leading up to and falling out from the attack without ever showing it in its entirety is brilliantly chilling. This is easily one of the best mystery shows I’ve seen in a while, perhaps the most engaging series of uncertainty and misdirection since freaking Higurashi all the way back at the start of this blog. And I look forward to seeing how all these disparate pieces finally explode in blood and fire.

Lunatics in Love

Thankfully, the wait to see how these pieces all fit together is never going to be boring, because Baccano’s other strength besides its fantastic Rashamon storytelling is one of the coolest senses of style ever. Every single frame and character interaction is dripping with style and panache, from the thick New Yakh accents drawled out by a stellar dub team to the slick-ass action complete with gruesome, punchy violence to stellar cinematography and framing that captures the intensity and swagger of every last scene. It’s the kind of cool-cat gangland saxophone party that makes you want to strut down Main Street in your best 1920s suit and call things :wicked pissah”, and the mere fact that I’m able to throw out this kind of lingo without immediately cringing out of existence is a testament to how flawlessly Baccano nails that feeling. It’s been a long time since I’ve experienced a story that was this good at this particular kind of attitude, and let me tell you, it is a gas. And it’s ably assisted by its eclectic cast of instantly memorable characters who all make incredibly striking impressions right off the bat. Even with how expansive and intertangled the cast is, they’re all well-written and memorable enough to stand out on their own, which contributes mightily to the aforementioned ball-juggling act this show’s got going on. Ladd’s murder boner makes for a deeply disturbing brute, while Luck’s quiet sense of justice has me intrigued to uncover what’s driving him. Jacuzzi’s an enjoyably pathetic loser, Dallas’s disappearance has me wondering who offed his arrogant ass and why, and Firo’s just straight-up badass. Get you a guy who’ll take down an alleyway full of goons without letting his hat ever touch the ground. God, I’m such a sucker for that particular trope.

But as good as these characters all are, the show is completely and utterly stolen by Isaac and Miria every time they’re on screen. Sweet. Buttery. CHRISTMAS. These two lunkheads are like living Loony Tunes, bursting through the show’s world with enough caffeinated dumbass energy and cartoonish sound effects to put Bugs Bunny to shame. And they’re amazing. I love every single second they’re on screen, every snappy gesture, that time they just casually bounce back and forth on a sideways hammock while hashing out important details. That one moment where Miria points out a flaw in Isaac’s reasoning and he just stands there with that same idiotic grin on his face for a good five seconds before instantly rolling with the punches? Good god, that lay me out on the floor like nobody’s business. And above all else, I love how utterly and sincerely enthusiastic they are. I love how much passion they have for life, how confident they are in the dumbass schemes they pull off and the stupid conclusions they reach ( ”So that means when you eat beef, you’re actually eating meat and vegetables!” ”Even though we’ve found nothing, that’s so inspIRING!”) I love how much they dote on each other like the star-struck psychotic lovebirds they are. I love how welcoming they are to anyone who they come across, instantly striking up boisterous conversations with total strangers that quickly descend into the most charming stupidity ever put to screen. I’m so goddamn in love with their love it’s ridiculous, and that’s not even counting the rush of hearing J. Michael Tatum’s beautiful buttery dulcet tones coming out of Isaac to complete the picture. Bottom line, this show is already fantastic, and these two lunatics are the perfect cherry on top of a delicious sundae. Consider me excited as fuck to see what else Baccano has in store.

Odds and Ends

-”The vice president doesn’t say anything about the possibility of him being the main character.” Oh man, I think I’m gonna love this.

-”Then how do you suppose Dallas fingered you?” Don’t make the joke don’t make the joke don’t make the

-So do these goons just wait outside the window fully armed to get announcements from the chief? Lol.

-Goddamn, that sunset train shot was beautiful and chilling. I think that was Luck’s voice... who is he trying to find?

-And they even have great fashion sense. Help

-Big-ass egg rolls for the win!

-”The RAIL CHASER!” FUCK

-”But my story isn’t quite as complicated as yours.” If you say so, Fuhrer King Bradley.

-I’m a sucker for the “Every inconspicuous person pulls out a gun at once” trope.

-”And then spend the rest of your life killing you slowly!” God dammit why are all the couples in this show insane

-”No excuse for carelessness!” *wheeze* GOD THEY’RE GREAT

-See, Nice, this is why you need to be specific with your gangland instructions.

-”Nonsense, there’s always room for desert!” Have I mentioned I love Miria?

-”How about Miria Moneybags?” “Yes, brilliant!” Is it possible to, like, marry a marriage? Just wondering.

And with that, we’re on our way! I can tell this is gonna be a fun-ass ride, and I look forward to sharing it with you all. See you next time!

[whimsicalworldofme]

Homecoming

Ben is brought safely to Paxis and has difficulty accepting that this is his new reality. Especially when coming face to face with his only son for the first time.

Word Count: 2954

Content Warnings: None

Ben tensed up the moment the Falcon landed. Ava saw the tension in his jaw, the rigidity of his posture as he stood behind Chewie and Poe in the pilots’ seats getting his first look at his new home, the expansive base on Paxis spreading out in front of them around the landing strip. No one else was on the landing strip but they could see some people milling about on their every day business.

               Before this trip, Ava and Poe had put out a message around base advising everyone that they were going to retrieve Han and Leia’s son. That meant little to most of them. Among the members of the Resistance, not many of the ones who remained on Paxis knew that Ben was Kylo Ren. Everyone knew that Luke was the only child of General Organa’s only son, but everyone knew better by now than to ask where the General’s son actually was. Some of them had assumed he was dead. They just knew that he was a sore spot, so they didn’t talk about him. Poe, ever the master of spinning a story to help the ones he loved, had told everyone that Ben had infiltrated the First Order to help the Resistance bring them down from the inside and that all he wanted now was a quiet, peaceful life. Everyone had been cautioned to simply treat Ben with kindness and not ask him about his time with the First Order or too many questions about his childhood. Ava hadn’t told him about the preparations that had been made in advance of his arrival but didn’t think it was necessary. All she wanted now was to put him at ease. She laid her hand over his and gave it a squeeze.

               “Hey,” she smiled. “It’s going to be ok. I promise.”

               He tried to force a smile, but it didn’t quite work. The corners of his mouth very briefly turned upwards before all hints of happiness flickered away and he was nothing but tense again, shuffling stiffly with her to the hatch.

               “Ready to head home?” Poe asked, meeting them at the hatch while they waited for the gangway to lower to the ground. “We grabbed some clothes that should fit you, so you’ll be a little more comfortable once you’re home,” he scratched the back of his neck as he glanced momentarily at Ben’s exposed ankles. Ava knew her husband felt embarrassed and broken-hearted for his friend, furious that he hadn’t even been afforded the common decency of clothes that fit properly. “We hadn’t thought it would be an issue, otherwise we would have brought a change with us.”

               “It’s fine,” Ben stated his eyes downcast, voice low and guttural.

               “Come on, buddy.”

               Poe clapped his shoulder and pulled him along with him down the ramp with Ava following behind, feeling like this was a good start, like they were kids again; back before she and Ben had gone off to study with Master Luke, back when he and Poe were basically brothers and the three of them were inseparable.

               “Maybe once you’re settled we can go down to the main hangar together. I’ve been modifying some cargo shuttles and I think you’ll find what I’m doing interesting. And I’d love to get your input see what ideas you might have to make them even better.”

               “General,” Connix jogged up to them, eyeing the tall, uncomfortable stranger with suspicion but she held her tongue, “we need you for a meeting in command.”

               Even though the fighting was over, the Resistance was still an active organization. They didn’t run military missions anymore, but they were now responsible for the well-being of all the rebels who had chosen to stay on Paxis. And since Poe was the highest-ranking officer, they naturally looked to him for leadership. The eighty some people who had decided to colonize the uninhabited planet permanently were family to him and he took that responsibility seriously.

               “Is it absolutely essential and urgent?” HE asked, raising a brow. “I’d really hoped I would have the day with my family.”

               “It is, I’m sorry,” Connix flashed Ava a sympathetic look before turning her attention back to Poe, her hands clasped behind her back.

               Looking to Ava, Poe wordlessly begged for forgiveness, a pained expression knotting his brow and dimming the light in his eyes. Stepping closer to him, she gave him a gentle kiss.

               “It’s ok,” she assured him. “They need you. We’ll be all right.”

               “I love you,” Poe gave her another smiling kiss before heading off with Connix, who had pulled a datapad from behind her back and begun going over whatever information was being covered in their impromptu meeting.

               “Does she know who I was?” Ben asked as Ava linked arms with him and began to guide him away from the landing pad. “She looked at me like she did.”

               “She might have seen you on Crait,” Ava speculated. “But there aren’t many people left here who knew us when we were kids, who know what happened when we were seventeen.” She didn’t want to say what it was that had happened. He didn’t need reminding of their shared, painful past. “The few of us on the base who do know all of your history have agreed that you deserve a chance to start over.”

               They walked in silence for a few minutes. Despite the limited remaining population on base, it was still a lively place. Three kids streaked past them playing a game of tag, giggling and shrieking in delight, completely unaware of anything else. When they passed the main hangar, they could hear the echoes of voices, whirs of power tools, beeping droids, and clanking metal. Ava tipped her head to one side, a little concerned about Ben’s extended silence. When she studied his face, she saw him keeping his gaze ahead. Even if she couldn’t have read the expressions in his doe eyes and the set of his lips, she felt the waves of his emotions crashing over her through the Force; the doubt, the fear, the loneliness.

               “Hey,” Ava stopped walking and tugged him around to face her. He complied to her physical queues, even though he didn’t have to. Halting, he stood in front of her, only glancing down momentarily, sorrow weighing on him so clearly. “Listen to me,” she cupped his face in both hands, “Kylo Ren is dead. He died on that prison moon. He’s gone. And every power that twisted you into that monster and conspired to weaponize you to their purpose are dead. You are Ben Solo. You get a new start here. You can have the life you wanted here, with us. You have family here that loves you still.” She stroked his cheek with her thumb. “Let go, Ben. You’re allowed to start forgiving yourself, all right?”

               He didn’t say anything, just turned his gaze upward and searched the horizon with teary eyes, slightly chewing on the inside of his cheek in an attempt to prevent himself from having a complete breakdown there in public where anyone could see. He shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other. Going up on her tiptoes, Ava kissed him softly on he cheek, which was easier since he stooped down slightly when he realized what she was doing.

               “Come on,” she took him by the arm again, keeping him close to her side. “Let’s get you home.”

               “Home is off base?” Ben asked in confusion as they left the cluster of buildings, the only real civilization on the planet. They plodded onto the now well-trod path between the base and the Dameron homestead.

               “Obviously we used to live on base,” she said. “That’s our house,” she pointed at the large stone home crowning the hill in the distance. “Nearly everyone chipped in and helped to build it.”

               “It’s huge,” he gawked. His feelings were clear to her. He felt envious that this was the comfortable life that Poe had been able to provide her. There was grief there too, at the loss of that potential chance with her, the chance of that happy family life together. “Don’t you think it’s a bit too much?” There was a hint of anger, but Ava let it slide. Those were natural emotions and he was doing well in not letting it overtake him.

               “We have three kids, three droids, me, Poe, and a constant stream of people stopping by,” she chuckled. “It’s just enough, to be honest. But it’s good we have it because now you have a space of your own with us,” she smiled brightly.

               Ben was still a tumult of conflicting emotions, guilt, love, anger, joy, when they stepped into the house.

               “Ah Mistress Ava,” Threepio came shuffling suddenly around the corner from the study, making both her and Ben jump slightly. “And bless my circuits, Master Ben!” The droid threw his hands in the air, elbows bent at a right angle. “I never thought I’d see the day. Oh, if only your mother were here-”

               “Threepio,” Ava cut him off, not wanting him to continue and upset Ben any further. “Are the girls napping?”

               “Yes,” the droid nodded with the whole top half of his body. “Mistress Shara and Mistress Leia went to sleep fifteen minutes ago, and Master Luke advised me to inform you that he is meeting up with Master Jacen and will return later.”

               “Oh,” Ava frowned. “I’d asked him to stay here,” she was disappointed that her son had chosen this moment to display his teenage rebellion and disobey her. She had wanted him there to meet his father, but she supposed he might be nervous or even afraid.

               “I don’t want him to see me like this,” Ben mumbled, tugging at the collar of the ill-fitting prison uniform and she felt her heart break again.

               “Threepio let me know when the girls wake up, all right?” She took Ben’s hand and led him further into the house, to the great room and into the guest suite and shut the door behind them to keep the droid out. He didn’t pick up on social queues at all, but he knew that closed doors meant he’d need to wait.

               “This is my room?”

               “It’s all yours,” she smiled.

               Ben wandered around, examining the furniture which Poe and Ava had gathered up from what had been left behind when people had left Paxis for their home planets. He took in all the little details, running his hand along the top of the dresser, feeling the sheets between his fingers. She’d seen his room on the Finalizer. His bed had not looked comfortable at all. This mattress wasn’t as plush as some, but it was comfortable, and the sheets were soft and warm. He went to the windows along the back wall that looked out onto the backyard with the creek and the forest behind.

               “We’ll get you some better furniture when we can,” she insisted.

               “This is fine,” he insisted, glancing back at her for a moment.

               “Well at least a better mattress,” she added as she went to the dresser and pulled out some clothes they’d found for him that should fit. She laid them on the end of the bed. “Why don’t you take a hot shower and then change?” She suggested. “You have your own bathroom through that door,” she pointed. “I’ll make you something to eat. Have you eaten at all today?”

               “No,” he shook his head, not looking at her, his tone flat. He had shifted to the desk they’d put in there, completely fixated, though not on the desk itself but what was on it. It hadn’t been easy to get at the last minute, but Ava had found a calligraphy pen, an inkwell, and a few nicely bound notebooks in the fledgling trading post on base. She watched him run his lithe fingers over the cover of the notebook on the top of the stack, making her smile. “Thank you,” he turned to her again. He didn’t smile but he wasn’t looking so teary eyed anymore either.

               “You’re welcome,” she beamed at him. “When you’re dressed, come out to the kitchen, it’s just across the living room from here.”

               “Ok,” Ben nodded.

               By the time he emerged from his room, Ava had made a big pot of noodles that she knew he’d liked when they were kids. It was something Luke had a taste for too, so she made them regularly at home anyway, which she explained when he asked. He asked a few questions about life on Paxis as he ate, and Ava answered what she could. Ava was washing the dishes when the front door opened and clanged shut.

               “Oh, are you making noodles?” Luke hurried into the kitchen, his eagerness for food turning to fear of his mother when he saw the fire in her eyes. His face fell and then he saw his father, sitting at the counter and his breath caught in his throat, eyes going wide.

               “Luke, I asked you to stay here to help look after your sisters,” Ava put a hand on her hip.

               “I’m sorry, Mom,” his voice cracked slightly.

               “Come here,” she softened, waving him over as she came around to the other side of the counter and put a hand on Ben’s shoulder, encouraging him gently to turn around. He’d locked up as soon as he heard the boy’s voice and hadn’t been able to bring himself to look at him. “Ben,” she was gentle about it as he shifted off the stool he’d been sitting on and turned around to get his first look at his son in person. “This is Luke.”

               “You’re so tall,” Ben mused, struggling to find anything to say. “I don’t know if I was that tall at fourteen.”

               “Mom says you were,” Luke offered after a moment’s hesitation. “You’re going to live with us?”

               “Only for a little while,” Ben answered quickly, and Ava could tell he was afraid that his son didn’t want him there which is why he’d been so quick to insist he wouldn’t be there long.

               “I hope you’ll stay,” Luke stated. He couldn’t take his eyes off his father, the man he’d been compared to his entire life, whose shadow he’d fought so hard to break free from, but who he’d also learned somehow to forgive.

               “You do?” Ben faltered and cleared his throat against emotions welling up in him when his son nodded. “Well…I can, if you want me to.”

               “I do,” Luke smiled kindly and pushing past the discomfort, the oddity of the situation, and his own conflicting emotions, he stepped closer and gave his father a hug. Ben locked up again, looking to Ava for help. She just gave him an encouraging nod. He hugged Luke back and took in a deep, ragged breath.

               “I’m sorry I wasn’t here,” he murmured. “I’m sorry I missed everything.”

               “Just be here now, Dad,” Luke tried out the term for the first time and smiled. “You want to see the speeder I built?” He asked, taking a step back and wiping at his eyes. Ben did the same with a chuckle, shocked and overwhelmed. “Mom says you’re into ships and flying.”

               ‘Yeah,” Ben nodded. “I’d love to see it, Luke.”

               “All right, come on,” Luke stopped to give his mother a kiss on the cheek before waving his father on to follow him to their little family hangar.

               Ava felt like her heart might burst of happiness. She’d spent fourteen years trying to prepare Luke to meet his father someday, to forgive him, and welcome him home, to see the man and not just the monster. Seeing the end result made her feel like everything she’d tried to teach her son about patience, kindness, love and forgiveness had paid off and sunk in. Her lessons and Poe’s example of unending, uninhibited love and acceptance had combined to create one amazing kid.

               An amazing kid who can help his father on his path back to the light, Ava sighed contently. There was a lot of progress to make with Ben. But this was a start. Everything has to start somewhere.

               The door opened and shut again and soon Poe was in the kitchen, eyes scanning for the other inhabitants of the house.

               “Hey, where’s Ben?” He asked, paused sniffing the scent of food in the kitchen. “Did you make noodles?”

               “Yes,” Ava laughed and went to him, wrapping her arms around his waist, feeling his sturdy hands on her hips, his soft lips capturing her own. “Luke is showing Ben his speeder.”

               “Their meeting went all right?” Poe asked, and she nodded. “Good.”

               “I need to tell you something,” she paused. “And you have to promise not to get mad.”

               “Ok,” Poe raised a brow, the word coming out in a stream of confusion and wary concern. He held her a little tighter as though afraid she was about to tell him something horrible.

               “I’m pregnant,” she grinned slyly.

               “WHAT?” Poe nearly shouted, his face radiating pure joy. He picked her up, kissing her, and then began dancing around the room with her. “Wait,” he halted abruptly, making Ava laugh. She knew it had just now clicked. “You knew before we went to save Ben.”

               “Yes,” she had the decency to look a little bit ashamed that she’d kept it secret from him. “I actually only found out two days ago. You would’ve tried to stop me. But I knew what I was doing.”

               “You are very lucky that I love you,” Poe smirked.

               “I know,” she laughed again as he went in for a deep, eager kiss.

Last Chapter                    Master List                    Next Chapter

[sally-mun]

As someone who hasn't, wouldn't, and won't be experiencing Major/Minor (or whatever it was called) could you perhaps analyze more specifically some of the things you felt were missteps more in depth, so others who decide they might want to make a visual novel or even just a story, might be able to avoid the same issues? I realize this might not be your area of interest, but I'm always interested in these kinds of analyses.

Man, where do I even begin.

I suppose I should start by saying that this game could have been fine; I don’t necessarily hate this game for the story, even if I think it’s uninspired. I play lots of point-and-click games and usually enjoy them (even the stupid ones) so long as they have merit in one area or another. But that’s the core of the problems with Major/Minor: It has NO merit to work with. Its construction shows absolutely no understanding of this genre of game design. Or of writing. Or of entertainment in general. Or of simply respecting one’s audience.

First and foremost, let’s discuss visual novels.

The critical difference between a novel and a visual novel is interactivity; a novel is a set and done deal that takes its readers along for the ride, whereas a visual novel invites the readers to be part of the ride itself. The direction of the story is influenced by the player, and this allows them to personally take ownership of later events. It’s the sort of game that tries to put you in the role of the protagonist in the most direct form possible. Like other first-person games your view as a player is exactly that of the character you’re playing, but in a VN’s case it’s like reading a comic book in a choose-your-own-adventure format.

Major/Minor not only fails on both the visual and novel elements, but it also fails when combined as a visual novel.

1) Visual

For the most part, visual novels don’t have a lot of action. They primarily consist of conversations with NPCs and usually take place in static locations. For this reason, both the characters and the environments need to have a lot of personality. Players need to feel like they’re actually having conversations with the characters and that they’ve entered a unique location that sees real use. This is the red, meaty center of how VNs engage and gratify their players.

Designing characters in a visual novel is about more than giving each one a different face; it’s about giving each character enough of a range of actions and emotions to sell the idea that the character is actually interacting with you, and in a way that’s truly unique from every other character. In real life, people do all sorts of crap when speaking: Our expressions change, we gesture with our hands, our posture varies, and sometimes we even have small ticks associated with certain topics or emotions. Between these visual cues and the actual discussions themselves, players ought to know the NPCs well enough to be able to describe them like real-life friends by the end of the game.

This brings us to Major/Minor’s first serious offense: Every character has one face. Typically in a VN, each character has a minimum of half a dozen expressions, poses, and gestures/ticks to match the different emotions they’ll need to exhibit over the course of their conversation topics. The characters in Major/Minor can only make a single expression and pose throughout the entire game, which immediately leads to some seriously disjointed discussions. It’s hard for me to take a character seriously when they say they’re angry with me when the art staring through the computer screen is bright, cheerful, and apparently mid-laugh. Sorry, NPC #672, I really don’t care that you’re allegedly on the brink of tears, because your singular piece of character art is so smarmy and mischievous that I forgot you were trying to tell me something tragic.

What makes this even more annoying is that most of the characters DO have a secondary piece of art, but it’s only ever used ONE time as an introduction to a new character before the game chucks it in the bin and we never see it again. Each character COULD have had at least two expressions if the dev had planned his commissions carefully enough, buuut instead he chose to get two shots that are barely distinguishable from one another so there could be a ~=*FLOURISH*=~ when we see someone for the first time. Granted, two per character still isn’t anywhere near enough, but it’s a hell of a lot better than just one! It makes me wonder why he bothered to spend the money on a second image for each character at all, since half of these commissions only get about 10 seconds of screen time. What a waste.

And hey, speaking of wasted opportunities, let’s talk more about the environments! Lots of visual novels don’t spend much energy on their backgrounds, and although that’s usually fine (albeit not my first preference), Major/Minor seriously needed to think more about its settings. For the moment I’ll ignore the laziness of the fact that the backgrounds are generic photos with a blur filter over them; what’s more important is that this game loves to tell us all kinds of random crap about the rooms we’re in, especially during the scenes that take place in Japan. This game would’ve benefited dearly from simply having more detailed backgrounds and just letting us observe the goings on of the room on our own. Y’know, because that makes it more... visual.

Honestly, if it were me, I would’ve taken it all a step further and gone full-blown Ace Attorney on the environments. In AA games, investigating the scene is very important because you have to look for clues. I’m not saying Major/Minor needed to let you hunt for items, but I do think that it could’ve cut a ton of random information from the text by simply letting us inspect the backgrounds. That way the players that want to know what a kotatsu is can find out on their own time and players that already know or don’t care can move on.

Something else that would’ve brought the game a much-needed boost of interest is cut scenes. As noted earlier, visual novels don’t tend to have a lot of action, so when something physical DOES happen, it makes an impact. One way to maximize that flash of excitement is with a cut scene – or at least, the visual novel equivalent of one. A “cut scene” in a VN isn’t typically a full motion video like most video games boast; it still makes use of a static image, but it’s an image whose quality far surpasses that of the rest of the art in the game. Maybe it’s abnormally large and the camera slowly pans across for dramatic effect, or maybe it’s a scene drawn from an interesting angle that isn’t the player’s POV. Some games take this even farther and really do animate their cut scenes a bit (usually on par with a nice animated gif). Lots of VN cut scenes make use of sound effects or action-specific music cues to keep the player emotionally involved with the scene, as it’s a moment that’s out of the player’s control.

Major/Minor, on the other hand, does none of this. Much like the drought of facial expressions, the game simply pelts you with paragraph after paragraph to tell you about the events taking place around you, rather than simply letting you see for yourself and be, y’know, involved. Even a handful of cut scenes that had some real effort put into them would’ve really given this game some pep. Not only would it have kept me engaged as a player, but it would’ve weeded out even more unnecessary narration.

Oh, and speaking of weeding shit out of the text…

2) Novel

The writing in this game badly, badly needed to be edited. Like, so badly it makes me physically hurt from how poorly this text is constructed. I’m not talking about the simple things like misspellings and failed capitalizations, I mean BIG mistakes, like sentence fragments and improper conjugations and completely misusing some words all together. It’s also excruciatingly repetitive. Never in my life have I ever seen prose that recaps itself so frequently – sometimes literally within minutes of the event that it’s reminding you of. It even recaps itself within the same block of text a few times.

It’s pretty obvious the dev never allowed a seasoned editor to proof the text, but it’s so unbelievably bad that I’m not even sure the dev himself ever gave it a second glance. It reeks of being a first draft that was never once revisited; actually, it strongly reminds me of the sort of stories I myself wrote when I was about 13. At that time I wanted so badly to write big, dramatic stories! Stories that had deep themes and lots of intrigue! With a complicated plot and several subplots!! And lots of characters that would all totally be different and completely matter!!!! But the problem was I was so wrapped up in wanting to make my stories big, impressive epics that I stretched myself way too thin and everything came out incredibly shallow. It’s honestly kind of eerie to think back on the things I wrote as a kid while I play this game. The similarities are so striking that I can’t tell if this is something the dev wrote at that age and just never decided to polish, or if he did write it as an adult but has the writing skill-level of a teenager.

But honestly, I’d overlook all the technical flaws and melodrama this guy could throw at me if he would just show and not tell. “Show, don’t tell” is one of the oldest rules in the book when it comes to storytelling, and for good reason: Telling instead of showing is not only fucking boring, but it treats the reader like an idiot. If a writer knows what they’re doing, they shouldn’t have to tell, because they’d just demonstrate those things instead.

For example, let’s examine another huge flaw with the writing: Incredibly shallow characterizations. Early in the game the player meets a character named Rook. Rook is very rude. I know this because the game tells me. All. The. Time. I legit don’t remember how many times the game has mentioned that Rook is rude at this point. The dev seems completely oblivious to the notion that you don’t have to tell the player these things. You can just… write Rook as being rude. Trust me, my dude, I can figure out if a character is an asshole or not. Not only can Rook’s rudeness be demonstrated by how he treats me as a player, but it can be further reinforced by other characters reacting to him in a put-off manner. If you’re so concerned that I won’t pick up on the fact that Rook is a rude person just based on how he behaves, then you’re doing it wrong, end of discussion.

But then, as I said, the characterizations are shallow in general. Everyone tends to have their one basic trope and the story rests on the idea that you know what the character is. None of the scenes go out of their way to really dig into who someone is – which is kind of amazing, honestly, since the prose is so obsessed with making sure you know the most inane and unrelated shit half the time – and even after I’ve known a character for several chapters they still feel like a cardboard cut-out to me.

To be honest, I’m kind of impressed by the sheer volume of ways that Major/Minor fails at showing instead of telling. It tells you what characters are like instead of just letting you interact with them, it tells you about the places you visit instead of just letting you view them, it tells you every single time the characters have a mood shift or expression change because it couldn’t be bothered to give them each more than one face, and it hamfists unnecessary information into the script where it’s unneeded and interrupts the scene – and THEN, it makes SURE you notice that it’s telling instead of showing by repeating those things over and over and over again!

All of this is further exacerbated, by the way, because the dev has no idea how to tell a story in the first place. Even with all the above flaws, I miiight have still been able to enjoy this game if it was just a compelling narrative in any sense of the word at all. I will happily deal with poor construction and telling-not-showing if the story still has some intrigue. Even a flawed story can have a mind-blowing plot and keep you reading just to find out what happens next, right? I thought so too, until I realized that Major/Minor goes SO far out of its way to spoil its own plot that it frequently makes you sit through scenes that you, the protagonist, are not even present for. Yes, in a game that’s built upon being a first-person experience, the story will slam on the brakes and take you OUT of the protagonist’s shoes to make you sit by as an observer to events that probably would’ve been an great reveal later on had the dev just kept his mouth shut.

3) Visual Novel

So the visuals suck and the writing sucks, but hey, lots of games get by without investing much in those areas. Could Major/Minor pull it together and at least give the player an interesting mechanic? Hahahaha no, of course it didn’t. As far as the gameplay is concerned, Major/Minor is so bad that in many ways I hesitate to even call it a game.

The cornerstone of visual novels is making choices. They can range from serious decisions that determine the overall outcome of the game or small cosmetic details, but either way, the core of this gaming style is putting the player in the driver’s seat as often as possible. When playing Major/Minor, however, the player is strapped into a straight jacket, blindfolded, and tossed into the trunk of the damn car. This game is so reluctant to surrender control of the narrative that it’s not uncommon at all to go through entire sections of the game having made no choices whatsoever. It fails so spectacularly as a visual novel that I’d be willing to bet that the dev had never played one before. He is astonishingly disinterested in what makes a visual novel enjoyable to the player.

There’s a principle in game design called Illusion of Control. The goal of this idea is to allow the player to feel like they’re in charge of the game while actually keeping them within strict boundaries. It applies to a lot of games, but it’s especially important in visual novels. Players need to be able to dictate how the story progresses, even if some of those choices make no real impact on outcomes. For example, players can enter conversation trees with NPCs that seemingly offer a lot of control – perhaps the player chooses the discussion topics, or can decide if they want to be shy or snarky in their replies – and yet at the end of the scene there could realistically be no change to the story’s progress. The greater point is that the player feels like they handled the conversation the way they wanted to. This allows them to still feel like they’ve gotten somewhere and that they accomplished something.

Major/Minor appears to scoff at the very idea of this, like the game’s worried you’ll cramp its style if it gives you too much power.The player is allotted no input whatsoever on how the PC treats the other characters, what subjects to discuss, where they’d like to go, how to react to the actions of other characters… It’s truly mind-blowing just how consistently the game misses opportunities to allow the player even the illusion of control. For example, there’s a scene where the player character (PC) is awakened in the middle of the night by a pounding on the door, and no options are offered on how the player would like to handle this. A better game might allow the player to choose if they want to pretend to keep sleeping, or call out to whomever is knocking, or try escaping out a window, or crack the door open to see what the person wants. Even if it’s an absolute necessity to the plot that this person enters the room, it’s still better to let the player choose, because there are a plethora of ways to redirect each of those options back around toward the character getting in.

Unfortunately, Major/Minor is just too damn lazy to be bothered with gameplay, and the PC just lets the stranger in with no input from the player. Soon after, the stranger attacks the PC, which would again be a prime opportunity for lots of reactionary options: The player could duck! Or the player could punch their assailant! Or maybe they could kick instead! Maybe they’d try to run away or call for help! Buuut no, Major/Minor really doesn’t care what you want YOUR CHARACTER to do, and it’s already decided that you’re going to put up no fight at all and immediately pass out. It’s by far one of the most unsatisfying things I’ve ever experienced in a video game.

The disconnect between the player and the protagonist is so extreme that I honestly don’t feel it’s a fair assessment to refer to the protagonist as the “player character.” It’s not uncommon for visual novel protagonists to speak in the first person, but in most games it feels like the PC is speaking on your behalf because they’re acting according to your will. The protagonist of Major/Minor decides so many things for themself that it stopped feeling like “my” character a very, very long time ago. This character isn’t me and never was; it’s the main character of a book that I didn’t ask to read, who very occasionally pauses to ask my opinion on something.

HEY HOWDY HEY SPEAKING OF PAUSING… If you boot this “game” up for a session, you’d better hope you have plenty of time on your hands to get through it, because you’re at the dev’s mercy for when you can save your progress. Being able to save anytime you want is a staple of visual novels because 1) people read at wildly different paces, and 2) for many people, excessive reading makes them tired. Not only that, but sometimes life just plain gets in the way and you have to pick up and go on short notice. Major/Minor ignores all of these factors and leaves the player relegated to appointed checkpoints throughout the game.

Now, I’m not necessarily saying that checkpoints are inherently bad, but they do need to be used very, very wisely. Any game (VN or otherwise) that doesn’t allow the player to save anytime they want needs to be sure checkpoints are reasonably close from any given location, and furthermore that they’re spaced at regular intervals. As I’m sure you’ve guessed by now, however, the dev flushed that idea down the toilet along with what was left of his common sense and parents’ love. Sometimes Major/Minor stacks save points practically back-to-back within the span of a few minutes, and in other cases I’ve literally played for over and hour before the game finally rewarded me with the option to save.

There’s no discernible pattern or technique that I can detect for when save points are bestowed on the player; you’re not even guaranteed an opportunity to save when the game switches chapters! I would say that I can’t fathom why the dev thought this would be a good idea, but let’s not kid ourselves here, it’s clear that the dev never thought this through in the first place. If he had, he might’ve noticed that players being uncertain about whether or not they’ll be able to save their progress discourages them from playing at all.

Also, before I fully move on from the game design, I just wanted to make a brief side note about the music. To be honest, I turned the music off a VERY long time ago, so I don’t even remember what it sounds like; however, I’ve read that all of the music in the game is from the free assets you get in RPG Maker. I’ve further read that the free assets (both audio and visual) were the entire reason the dev decided to use RPG Maker for this game in the first place, in spite of the fact that there are other programs out there specifically geared toward making visual novels. This is worth mentioning because it further highlights just how lazy this entire game is. It’s not a sin to use free program assets – that IS what they’re there for, after all – but when you ONLY use the free assets and then advertise your game on Steam for being sooo creative and original, AND have the gall to charge $20 for it?? Yeah, that’s a gigantic slap in the face.

Speaking of Steam, you’d think a game like this would’ve been weeded out by the gaming community for being the garbage that it is, right? After all, there’s a ranking right at the top of the page showing the proportion of good and bad reviews it’s gotten, and right now it says the feedback is “very positive.” I will say that I do take community feedback into consideration when I’m thinking about a game that I haven’t otherwise heard of before, and my misstep with this game has definitely taught me a valuable lesson. When I saw that the game is ranked “very positive” and I scrolled down to see several glowing reviews, I felt that was sufficient enough research to know if the game was worth my time and money.

However, upon trying out the game and realizing just how badly I’d been deceived, I did a little more digging. As it turns out, the dev is known for flagging negative reviews as “abusive” and getting them deleted, allowing him to effectively filter out the bad press so long as he can make some kind of a case to Steam. This debacle has taught me that it’s not enough to scroll to the bottom of a Steam page for user reviews, as those tend to be the most recent; what you do instead is click the “Read all [x] reviews” link, as those reviews are sorted by popularity. THIS is where you’ll find the reviews that the community has deemed the most helpful and informative, and in this case, it’s like night and day. ALL of the highest-ranked reviews of Major/Minor are negative, and the numbers are staggering. Literally HUNDREDS of people have ranked these terrible reviews as helpful, and most of them are in the 80-90% range on agreement. You have to load more reviews four times to find even one single positive post, and once you do start getting into the positives, the upvotes are significantly fewer.

SO, in conclusion...

I want to say that’s about all I have to give on this subject, but the sad truth is it’s not. I could probably critique this game line-by-line, moment-by-moment, if I really wanted to. Fortunately for my sanity, I really don’t want to. … Not right now, anyway. I’m sure I’ll lose it at some point and decide to go through and count all the missed opportunities in the game or something, but I won’t be doing that right now, thankfully.

So in the vein of others learning from the mistakes of this game: If you were thinking about buying Major/Minor, don’t. If you bought it a while ago during a sale and were thinking about starting to play it, don’t. If you’re interested in making a visual novel and wanted to learn from this game’s mistakes… Well granted there’s a lot to learn about what not to do, but still, don’t give this lazy, deceptive dev any more money. Learn from this guy’s shortcomings based on the feedback of players. Hell, read or watch a Let’s Play if you really want to experience it first-hand. Just please don’t buy and play this game. As a favor to ME, please don’t buy and play this game.

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[healthinputs]

How To Make A Boring Relationship Fun Again

Why does passion pass? How to add to the romantic connection of sharpness and brightness? Can I bring back the feeling of novelty after twenty years of family life? Is there a way to improve the quality of intimate relationships? Answers to these questions you will find in the books "Reproduction in captivity", "The paradox of passion" and "As the woman wants." We publish some tips from them. 1. Look At Relationship from Different Angle As a rule, the fervent feelings that we experience at the beginning of a relationship, sooner or later begin to fade, and after a few years pass completely. Why is this happening? The fact is that in the first months of our acquaintance we do not yet know our partner well enough, we are fascinated by a separate, independent person, who has his secrets and riddles, and we try to enter his special world. Then the distance becomes less and less. In place of the newness, excitement, expectation and fragility that fueled our passion, stability comes. Relationships no longer develop, it seems to us that we know absolutely everything about the other person. And this is the beginning of a family household tragedy that lasts dozens of years. Reliability, trust and closeness is not bad, but without some uncertainty it becomes boring for us. That is why you need to change something in your own perception and look at the relationship in a different way. Let the experiments, the game and flirting enter into a life together. Do not force the partner to set templates once and for all: he is still full of secrets and changes a little every day. Try to see in him an attractive stranger. Never dissolve into another person, so as not to lose yourself. Everyone has the right to their own hobbies, secrets, freedom and personal space. And only this way you can remain interesting to each other. 2.Try To Keep Space for Yourself After Kids Often people complain that with the advent of the child, romance and passion leave the relationship, because the young parents begin to spend all their free time on the baby, not on each other. But it's not about the birth of a new member of the family, but the fact that most modern couples cultivate children. Perhaps you will be surprised, but you do not need to spend all your energy & time just to satisfy every whim of a child. Our ancestors would never have dreamed of running around children like us! Try every week to find at least a few hours, which you can devote only to your partner - and no one else. Make an appointment in a restaurant or a theater, take a walk in the park. At these moments, do not think of any family problems: just enjoy each other. 3. Try To Understand Desires of Partner Sex and love are completely different things, and do not confuse them. In love, emotional closeness, support, tenderness is important to us, and in the field of erotic, many people are waiting for something quite different: aggression, domination (or submission), satisfaction of selfish desires. By the way, there is nothing wrong here, even on the contrary: in sex it is necessary to be selfish, give oneself to the process and not think about responsibility at this moment. However, people do not always understand that their expectations can differ from the expectations of the partner. For example, for someone, an erotic connection is another manifestation of a trembling love, and someone in bed needs very different emotions. To all this did not lead to a disagreement in the intimate life, it is necessary to understand each other's desires. To do this, you can perform a simple exercise. Each partner will need a piece of paper, divided into two columns. In the first, it is necessary to write down all associations with the word "love", and in the second - with the word "sex". This helps to separate love from bed, to understand one's own erotic desires and compare them with the expectations of the beloved. 4. Learn To Manage Stress If you are overwhelmed with typical modern problems, then almost everything will be more important than intimacy: for your brain, any stress is a lion running towards you. And what kind of intimacy is there, if the lion is getting closer? Stress is directly related to the struggle for survival. Sex brings a lot of benefits, but it does not directly contribute directly to personal survival. Therefore, most of us in the state of stress trigger all brakes at once. To reduce the impact of stress on the ability to get sexual pleasure and intemacy, make sex more enjoyable, easy, playful, and learn to manage stress. The main thing in effective stress management is to complete the cycle of stress: to leave the state of inhibition, to escape from the predator or kill the enemy and rejoice. Let's think what kind of behavior the body will perceive as salvation from the lion. If a lion is running at you, what will you do? Try to escape, of course. Therefore, if stress is caused by work (or sexual life), what needs to be done? Run ... or walk, or dance, at least close in the bedroom, or work out on the simulator. Physical activity is the most effective means for completing a cycle of reaction to stress. It helps to bring the central nervous system into a state of equilibrium. Scientists believe that there are other ways to feel better. Among them, a dream; any form of meditation, including the practice of mindfulness, yoga, body scanning. And sometimes it is harmless to cry and cry. You can also take a break and go out and enjoy. 5. Form Attachment Based on Confidence Without delving into the details, you can characterize two styles of affection: based on confidence or on uncertainty. Attachment based on uncertainty is associated with one of two strategies: avoidance and anxiety. If attachment is formed in conjunction with anxiety, then you learn to cope with the risk that the attachment can leave you, clinging to it or for it tightly. People who have formed affection in conjunction with avoidance, compensate for the risk that the object of attachment will leave them, trying not to seriously adhere to anyone. Now try to guess which type gets more satisfaction from sex: those who form affection based on confidence, or those who have affection combined with anxiety or avoidance? Of course: those who have affection based on confidence are much more satisfied with sexual life (and relationships in general). 6. Become Self-Sufficient In most couples, sooner or later one person begins to love more, and the other - less and less. The good news is that if you want you can change this situation and achieve harmony. "Weak" (the one who loves the stronger) is convinced that his unshakable love and adoration will bring together a couple, although more and more evidence shows the opposite. Fear of breaking determines the behavior of a person, fetters him, makes him act unnaturally. Immediately it becomes obvious how desperately the "weak" needs its partner, and this prevents the restoration of relations. Probably the most pernicious in the fear of parting is that a person clings to a loved one with a death grip, not allowing himself to engage in anything outside the framework of this union. The best chance of the dependent party to strengthen relations is to try to redirect their emotional energy to something else. This does not mean that you should stop loving your partner or portray the inaccessibility. You just have to try and put your own life in order. Reduce the pressure on your loved one and think about how to become stronger yourself. Work on restoring your individuality outside of relationships. Arrange suppers, go to the movies with friends, do shopping, travel, read interesting books, attend lectures. And for starters, just ask yourself these questions: What activities gave me pleasure before meeting with my chosen one? What are my personal goals beyond this relationship? What is my social life beyond this relationship? What strengths do I have? 7. Don't Be Ovely Dependent The most common panic reaction to the crisis in relations is exaggeratedly dependent and obsequious behavior. However, you have a wonderful way out: learn to notice your reflex reactions of the "weak" and resist them. To develop this useful ability, make a list of your most frightening and often manifested reflexes of dependent behavior, for example: I always agree with the partner; I never show him my indignation and anger; I call him and stop at his office every time I feel jealousy or insecurity; I try to always be more helpful and kind to him; I always do what he wants, even if I myself do not want it. Prepare to track unwanted reflexes of the "weak", and then discourage yourself from the actions they prompt. Over time, you will become so accustomed to follow your reactions that you will easily suppress them. While you learn to control excessive reactions and reflex behavior, your thoughts will become clear, and the impulses to act as "weak" will come to naught. 8. Love Your Body The tendency to not love and criticize one's own body is so characteristic of Western culture that most do not even understand how harmful it is and how widespread it is at the same time. In 2012, the results of 57 different studies that were conducted for twenty years were summed up and it turned out that there are strong links between the attitude to one's own body and various manifestations of sexual behavior: the attitude to one's body is determined by the excitement and desire, and orgasm, and frequency of sex, and self-assessment as a sexual partner. A person will not be completely satisfied with his sex life, if he does not feel full and unconditional satisfaction with his body. To have sex more often and better, you need to learn how to love your body. Examine you- or remove at least part of the clothes - and consider your body in the mirror. Write down everything you see and what you like. Of course, first of all your brain will be filled with self-criticism and disgust, which accumulated there for many years. Do not forget that the day you were born, your body was enthralled all around, you were loved unconditionally and unconditionally. Today it can be repeated. Let all self-criticism go, stop blaming yourself, notice only what you like. Do this exercise again and again - at least every day, if possible. Learn to ignore attacks of self-criticism and negative judging thoughts, focus on thoughts expressing sympathy for yourself. And gradually it will become easier for you to appreciate and love your body, how it deserves to be treated with respect and love. 9. Stop Self-Criticism We constantly criticize ourselves: "I'm so stupid / fat / abnormal", "I'm a loser," "I'm not capable of anything." But self-criticism is closely related to depression; but does depression contribute to harmony in relationships and improve the sexual side of your life? No, it does not. We need to learn how to be sympathetic and understanding in every situation: when we are successful, and when something does not work out for us. To do this, it is necessary to drown out the voice of the internal critic and stop evaluating yourself. Do the following exercise, which helps to increase the level of empathy for yourself: 1. Write a description of the situation in which you criticize and punish yourself. You can use any example, from sexual or romantic relationships (or lack thereof) to events at work. Be sure to write down all the tough critical thoughts that spin in your head and give you no peace. 2. At the top of the sheet, write down the name of your close friend (friend) and imagine that he (she) shares with you the problem that you just described. Imagine that he asks you for help, and write down what you say to him. Try to show maximum sympathy and support, to remain calm. 3. Now read all the tips. Of course, they are not for a friend, but for you. The short conclusion from this exercise is this: never tell yourself what your best friend would not say. 10. Develop a Story Here are a couple of ideas that, according to research, will help "promote the plot" in a relationship that has already passed into the phase of "lived happily ever after." Strategy 1: Anything that accelerates your heartbeat. Try to do what accelerates the heart rate. Go for a ride on the attractions, go on long trekking trips to wild places, watch scary movies, go to huge concerts or political meetings, spend hours arguing about science. Do whatever looks exciting to you, everything that literally makes your heart beat faster. You experience a general excitement, the brain notices this excitement, notices the person next to you and thinks: "Aha, it seems, this person is really interesting!" Strategy 2: meaningful obstacles. To strengthen your communication and deepen your contact, look for new sensations and the opportunity to overcome sensible obstacles together. Play out the sexual fantasy that you wanted to try for a long time, but did not find the courage in you. Turn on the light - not to arrange a performance, but to open your eyes and look at each other in the face. Make the contact. Risk and immerse yourself in trust. Set yourself an important goal, for which you will have to work hard for both of you as a couple. Read the full article

[janvba2film-blog]

Post R: Collated Quotes

Never Sleep Again:

“Speaks to these adolescent fears of not having control“ + “you can only trust other kids of your own age“ - These delve into the messages and values of the film, thus relating to themes Craven may repeat in films.

“Universal theme of the bad dream, the nightmare, and the boogeyman“ - Robert Englund. Once again exploring thematic motifs of the film. This is important when approaching the topic of auteur as the theory suggests a director will repeat behaviours and themes across their work to enforce that they are an individual when it comes to filmmaking.

“I wanted to do a strong, female lead who didn’t trip over“ - Wes Craven: this is important as it is one of the classic horror tropes, and there is a line in Scream which directly relates to this. “The survivor girl, one of the classic leading ingredients in contemporary horror“ - Englund: this supports the point but the phrasing brings into question.

“A lot of monsters of the past were misunderstood - they were quite innocent - Freddy was not innocent” - This quote is significant because it brings Wes’ contribution to horror into perspective.

Apparently they had to “soft-pedal” a lot of the sexuality (such as the paedophilic aspect) in the film to get it passed the MPAA and audiences, showing me that sexuality is definitely a strong theme in Wes’ work.

[In regards to NoES 3: Dream Warriors]

“Using a sexuality trap” (in reference to Joey’s trap). This may establish a section on theme.

“If an original character is in the sequel usually they don’t last until the end because they either aged, or the studio would feel like “Now we have to have new characters”” – Craven. He believes this to be a feature of his direction, as an auteur (not self-professed).

“The fact that they made Freddy more and more jokey took him farther and farther away from that child-molester thing that kind of sticks to you in a way you don’t like” – Craven; Wes was not in control and so the character changed

[In regards to New Nightmare]

“Wes has a very narrow mind in the sense that “this is what will scare people” and a very broad mind to “extract”” – Mark Irwin (cinematographer). Commentary of Craven’s style.

“Nancy and Freddy’s relationship has always had a sexual component” – Langenkampf in reference to ‘Lust’ on the wall. Possible link to the topic of theme, in particular sexuality.

“I think it was the pre-cursor to, like, ‘Scream’. ‘New Nightmare’ was made for the people who made the film; kind of adults. ‘Scream’ was made for the audience who watches the film, and those were the central characters.”. An argument against Craven not being an auteur in regards to ‘Scream’, as Craven already had experience in this sort of field.

The Film Genre Book

“whilst drawing inspiration from influential films such as Ingmar Bergman’s ‘The Virgin Spring’“ - This is not the first time Craven’s name has been attached to this director. He is obviously inspired by him, so I must explore how much influence has been taken in regards to auteur theory.

“His films…establish editor/writer/director Craven as an auteur…whose works tested both the censors and audience sensibilities and expectations of the horror genre.” - It is often mentioned that Craven reshapes horror and pushes its limits, perhaps it is not completely techniques that provide him with the titles and more to do with his attitude towards horror.

The book notes how previous horror monsters were a victim of circumstance, or had some sympathetic angle to them, but Freddy does not - “he is ugly inside and out”- yet he is a cultural icon. This not only links to Wes’ innovation but also the public’s contribution to Freddy and the series. “No longer was there a clear delineation between good and bad [after the 70s]. If we could no longer trust our leaders then why not cheer for Freddy?”

‘The Final Girl’: the one girl in the film who fights, resist and survives the killer-monster. The final girl…dominates the action, and is thus masculinised. [In] the slasher film like…Nightmare on Elm Street [1984]…the final girl becomes her own saviour. - Christine Gledhill, The Cinema Book 2nd Edition, Ed. Pam Cook & Mieke Bernink, Bfi Publishing, 1999. This is interesting because it raises the question of if Wes took inspiration or inspired it with his debut film.

Scream: The Inside Story

“We took every single horror rule and broke it.” – Wes Craven

“I think what makes the ‘Scream’ films original is the fact that they look at themselves and they look at the horror genre itself, and I think that was a very new concept” – Neve Campbell (Sydney Prescott)

“It was very, very acutely of aware of the genre and kind of slightly announcing to the audience, kind of: ‘We know what you’re thinking and you better hide under your seats because we’re gonna do something different’.” – Wes Craven

“Scream was so brilliant and so smart and funny, but it took the deaths and the scares very, very seriously” - Eli Roth, a new-gen horror director; “It was finally a movie where the characters had seen other movies”. Possible insight into fusion genre (Horror+comedy) or Craven taking horror itself in a new direction.

“One of the most successful elements of the movie was the mystery element, and ‘Scream’ taps into that, and it taps into that beautifully.” - Patrick Lussier. This is important in the exploration of genre as this delves into genre fusion.

Wes craven wasn’t interested for a while. He didn’t want to do “another slasher movie”. This just goes to show the power of ‘Scream’s misdirection and genre-bending. Although it was only because Drew Barrymore came on-board.

“Wes Craven has influenced horror in the 70s, with ‘Last House On the Left’, in the 80s, with ‘Nightmare on Elm Street. You cannot overstate how incredibly influential Wes Craven has been to the horror genre and has continually made horror movies for different generations that feel so contemporary.” - Eli Roth. Such praise from a contemporary horror director indicates the influence Craven has had in the genre. However, Wes did not write Scream, so can he truly be given credit?

Subversive Horror Cinema

As is mentioned in ‘The American Nightmare’, Wes’ disgust for the image of children in Vietnam running after being exposed to Napalm inspired the forced stripping and raping of Mari. Another example of Vietnam inspiring Craven was the 1968 image of the execution of Vietcong soldier Nguyem Van Lem - “That methodical execution style was translated right to the shooting of Mari at the lake”. This is important to me because it makes me wonder if Wes is concerned less with auteurship and more about testing his audiences.

“The Last House on the Left arose partly from the desire, on Craven’s part, to capture the same kind of raw reality as the documentary footage coming out of Vietnam that Craven suspected was being censored” + “It was a time when all the rules were out the window, when everybody was trying to break the hold of censorship“ - Craven relayed to David A Szulkin. This is reflected in the graphic nature of the scenes and truly speaks about what Craven intended his film to do.

“Although the Vietnam footage was censored, Craven felt that it was candid about violence in a way that Hollywood cinema was not. Craven […] objected on moral grounds to the sanitization of violence by Hollywood, and saw it as part of the ideological apparatus that enabled the State to condition Soldiers for warfare. “The more you can know about violence, the more you can walk away from it and not be attracted to it.” Craven stated in 1999.“ This whole passage speaks about the underlying messages and values in the film.

“Part of the film’s power is to create empathy between the audience and the villains, which makes it impossible for us to view them - despite their sadism - as inhuman. Conversely, the film shows the process by which normally empathetic people, such as the Collingwoods, can demonize others in order to justify acts of vengeance. The film examines the way in which a nation casts its enemies as “other” in order to vindicate warfare; and at the same time, in creating empathy between the audience and the villains […], Last House on the Left reflects what Adam Lowenstein describes as the tendency of 1970s counterculture to identify with the demonized other”

The Horror Film

According to Paul Wells, ‘Scream’ is undoubtedly a postmodern horror film, however, to him he feels strongly that by becoming self-referential po-mo horrors “abdicate [their] political responsibility to reflect upon, critique, or challenge its surrounding (and non-generic) culture”. If this it true it contrasts very much with Wes’ earlier style. “Becoming preoccupied with genre conventions rather than external anxieties“. This contrasts with what Wes said - “we need to stop externalizing our anxieties and take a look within ourselves“

Wells goes on to complain that through the safety of franchising (or ‘MacDonaldisation’ as George Ritzer (1998) puts it) horror films lose there socio-cultural vitality and relevance. This is relevant as two of my films spawned sequels, and this is one of the valid comments of this approach.

He also mentions that ‘Scream’ is “sub-Frankensteinian” as its trivialisation of death through conventional arcs cause it to lose its meaning; it is now just a game for the initiated, thus causing it to lose all significance and appeal to the social anxieties of a wider audience. An example of this is Randy’s speech, or the fact that ‘Halloween’ plays during the final murder-spree.

Wes Craven’s Influence in Making the Horror Genre Subversive

“The horror genre, Stephen King once wrote, is innately reactionary, preying on fears of the evil outsider entering communities and lives uninvited. At first, that seems like exactly what Craven is doing here. Krug, with his charisma and hippie-ish affectations, is an obvious stand in for Charles Manson, who’d been convicted only a year before (although weirdly enough, the film is an acknowledged loose remake of Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring). “Mothers, keep your girls at home,” to quote Nick Cave, appears to be Craven’s message.” - This contains a useful quote by Stephen King, a horror master in the eyes of many, which may be useful when writing about the genre and comparing it to Craven’s style. Not only that but there is a mention of Charles Manson, once again proving that he likes to take inspiration from real-life events. And finally, it makes mention of one of Wes’ key inspirations - Ingmar Bergman’s work - even mentioning that it is a “loose remake”.

“This sounds like it could be part of the same reactionary fantasy—the conservative traditional family unit meting out justice to that which violated it—but the way Craven shoots it, it’s not remotely triumphant.Instead, it’s the same sickness that their victims represent infecting them.” - This is very much related to Wes’ social commentary on the Vietnam war, in which there was no clear delineation between good and bad and there was all-out savagery on both sides. The article also argues that Craven speaking out against “right-wing vengeance that had taken hold in Death Wish-era America— [which] was almost completely lost in the shuffle” was later explored in the Nightmare series through the fact that the ‘wholesome’ neighbourhood burning a paedophilic child murderer alive was somehow okay. This also relates to Subversive Horror Cinema.

Origins of an auteur - Wes Craven

“Wes Craven’s The Last House on the Left was released at a time film directors really began to push the boundaries to what you can show on screen. Much like what Wes Craven did in The Last House on the Left, Sam Peckinpah pushed the censors to braking point with a realistic depiction of sexual and violent content in his sadistic and controversial 1971 film Straw Dogs (which could so easily be mistaken as a Wes Craven film).” - Was this a style start by or adopted by Craven? Was he a product of the times?

“The Last House on the Left was Craven’s debut film, it’s a notorious and quite shocking film but one that’s not actually that good. The film’s biggest flaw is the woeful misjudgement of the tone as the film’s jumps from the torture and humiliation of the girls in the woods to a pair of bumbling cops falling off a truck that’s full of clucking chickens. The film was very low budget (about $78,000) and it shows with its crap sound and visual quality, but there are moments that would be deeply horrifying if Craven didn’t misjudge the tone of the film as much as he did.” - Wes came to become an iconic director for the genre of horror, showing that he had indeed learned from his mistakes, and as he went on he found the balance between comedy and horror showing that this is a recurring technique of his (important for genre), but this brings into question his auteur status when looking at his later films; the filmmaking must be of a higher tier than what is standard, which I fear for in regards to Wes.

“Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984 ($1.8million budget) which, like many films of that era (such as Friday the 13th and Halloween), dealt with sexual promiscuity in teenagers.” - Was Wes’ choice of subject a product of the times or did he already have something in mind beforehand?

“One underlying theme between all three movies is how middle class American suburbia deal with savagery.” - This is an important aspect to analyse in the case of whether or not he is an auteur. {…} “Once again, Scream is set in middle class America and once again deals with violence and once again focuses on a female character under attack by her male attacker”

The Cinema Book

“There have been important variations in the nature and volume of teenpics since the early 1960s. I the late 1960s and early 1970s, ‘youth movies’ rew much more on an imagine of counter-cultural rebellion than on an image of irresponsible juvenile delinquency. And as ‘the boundaries between counter (film) culture and mainstream (film) culture all but evaporated, (Doherty, 1986, p. 233), films like The Graduate (1967), Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and Easy Rider (1969) and Five Easy Pieces(1970) mounted serious critiques of the parent culture. Following a crisis wrought by overproduction in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and in the wake of a counter-culture in general decline, the industry resumed production of teenpicks in regular numbers in the late 1970s and 1980s. Some like Halloween (1978), Night of the Comet (1984) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), were low-budget horror, sci-fi and slasher films.” - Obviously I will Paraphrase this, but the basic idea is a question of whether or not Wes’ decisions for his film were of his own or a product of the time. This idea of Wes being inspired by the times is very obviously a key argument I can make in my essay as this idea is present in this source especially. I did not dedicate an entire post to this because I could only find one useful quote in the book.

So the Theory Goes - Autuer: Wes Craven

“Craven almost always worked within horror, with the only real exception being the musical drama Music of the Heart. However, his use of horror is always combined with a range of subgenres which can include thriller, fantasy, mystery or even some elements of comedy.” - This article seems to suggest that he is more of a genre director from my understanding, despite the title.

“One of the more prominent themes within Craven’s work is that of the psychological idea of the villain. His films tend to subvert the idea of the villain/hero leading the viewer to believe they are completely aware of a situation before abruptly leading us in a different direction. One of the clearest examples of this can be seen in his directorial debut The Last House on the Left where our initial antagonists are Krug et al. However, by the end of the film, we see Mari Collingwood’s parents take on this role.” - Many of the sources I have agree with this point.

“Wes Craven’s general style of filmmaking is visually similar to a number of horror film-makers. The conventional use of camera angles, editing to create scares and using lighting to enhance a scene are all evident within his work. However, […] his understanding of the genre and the conventions have allowed him to use them to his advantage. This is most notable in his film series Scream where he dictates to the audience the conventions of the genre which had become familiar to audiences and then used this as a way to drive the narrative, attempting to break each of these clichés. For example Scream’s Sidney loses her virginity despite the fact a friend has already noted that the No. 1 rule of horror-movie survival: “Sex equals death.” Yet this generic convention never comes to pass.” - It is important to note that the sex scene is inter-cut into the rules being explained. This whole paragraph is relevant to the argument of whether Wes is a genre director or an auteur.

The article describes Wes’ filmmaking techniques as generic, stating that it is in fact his use of unique storytelling and character development which offer him the place of auteur. “ With narratives that involve witty villains, the indication of convention, an ability to use sub-genres to great effect and his females are not the dim-witted, hysterical token characters so often seen within horror. Although Craven has directed films written by others, such as Red Eye, the films he chose to direct share similar themes to those he has written and therefore help to indicate his narrative preferences.”. First of all, this quote addresses the important aspects of his narrative style and directorial style (such as the use of subgenres), but, more importantly, it makes mention of the great counterargument for most auteur directors: that they did not write the story. Instead the article shows to us that Wes chose the like of Scream and Red Eye because it suits his directorial style. However, for the case of Scream it has been stated that he only finally came on to the project because of the inclusion of Drew Barrymore.

The article ends by using the term “auteur of the genre”, which is helpful because it offers a blend of both auteurship and genre director. I must do further research into this concept.

Film Genre Reader III

“No critic, obviously, can be free from a structure of values, nor can he or she afford to withdraw from the struggles and tensions of living to some position of “aesthetic” contemplation.” - This tells me that, despite being an individual filmmaker in their own right, people are still confined to some aspects of the process, such as genre.

“One of the greatest obstacles to any fruitful theory of genre has been the tendency to treat the genres as discrete. An ideological approach might suggest why they can’t be, however hard they may appear to try: at best, they represent different strategies for dealing with the same ideological tensions.” - This is relevant because it suggests that, while working within a genre, an auteur cannot help but follow the steps of it. This is important because Wes works primarily in horror, questioning whether or not he can reach the level of auteur.

“It is probable that a genre is “pure” (i.e., safe) only in its simplest, archetypal, most aesthetically deprived and intellectually contemptible form” - This tells me that piece of film may be more than just its genre if it strays far enough from its roots, while still confining itself to its roots. This is important because it saves Wes from being just a genre director.

“The strong contrast presented by the two films [It’s a Wonderful Life and Shadow of a Doubt] testifies to the decisive effect of the intervention of a clearly defined artistic personalty in an ideological-generic structure.” - This helps me because it argues that a director has the ability to take a film beyond its genre by adding in their personality. Could this reign true for a script (Scream) as well?

Trespassing Bergman

“I think more than almost anybody else he was very religious and it felt like a religion that felt similar to the one I had come out of so: very strict and kind of, um, and very channeled lives and, you know, not doing anything that would displease God and having your children in line.” - Wes felt a connection in the way that he used religion in his films. However, Wes defied religion while Ingram embraced it. 

Wes Craven: the mainstream horror maestro inspired by Ingmar Bergman

“he was electrified by the work of directors like Ingmar Bergman: it was this that inspired him to go into film-making and he had the idea of remaking Bergman’s 1960 film Virgin Spring as The Last House on the Left in 1972″ - It brings into question whether or not Wes can claim his influential horror movie as his.

“Wes Craven could be said to have invented, or at least popularised the modern rape-revenge genre and ironically did so in the same era when the name “Bergman” became a widely understood talk-show punchline for jokes about Hollywood trash vs highbrow Europeans.” - Once again, Craven is linked to influence from Bergman.

The ‘Nightmare On Elm Street’ Series Is Deeper Than You Know

“ The viewer is even present for a scene representative of Nancy’s first period. As Nancy lays in the bathtub asleep, Freddy’s clawed glove breaks through the surface of the water between her open legs. This isn’t just one of the most intense scenes in horror history. It’s clear foreshadowing of all the trouble that’s about to happen between your legs.”

New American Teenagers

“Nancy and Glen, who never consummate their relationship despite plenty of opportunity, can be understood better as brother and sister than as boyfriend and girlfriend, which, of course, would not preclude sexual desire”. This is important because I am aiming to support Robin Wood’s concept that a director’s personal touch to a film elevates it beyond a genre film. I plan on linking this to the themes of sexuality in the other films and arguing that this tendency to put violence and sexuality in his films is a rebellion against his repressed religious childhood upbringing. 

[placetobenation]

Making the Case for Al Snow

Al Snow came into WWF and was saddled two failed gimmicks. As Avatar, he came to the ring with a mask, put it on, and took it off after the match. As Leif Cassidy, he was an out of touch New Rocker teaming with Marty Jannetty. Snow briefly left WWF as part of a lend-lease program with ECW, where he was able to retool himself and find the gimmick that dominated the rest of his career, for better and for worse. A lot of the Attitude Era was a blur for me. With the accelerated pace of booking and the addition of Smackdown, so much was happening all at once. Snow’s work can be lost in the blur, with only a few of the most notorious angles standing out. Remembered mostly as a comedy/hardcore act, not too many people have gone back to examine his work. I have watched a number of matches and angles. What I have found is one of the hidden talents of the Attitude Era and secretly good TV workers. Today, I would like to share with you my perspective on Al Snow’s run in WWF. Using the NJPW rating system, I hope to make the case on why I believe Al Snow deserves to be on your Top 100 WWE Wrestlers of All Time list.

Nuance

Al Snow’s run with the company went from 1995 until 2003, with exclusion of the previously mentioned ECW run and the inclusion of a brief WWECW run in 2006. During much of that time, he was planted firmly in the midcard. Upon his return to the company from ECW until he became the head trainer on Tough Enough, Al Snow often had an angle running on TV. The comedy aspect of his act probably kept him from being a gatekeeper to the main event. During one of the hottest periods in company history, in the middle of a war with WCW, the company believed enough in this act to place him on TV quite frequently. During his eight-year stint with the WWF, he was put in a good position on TV for much of that time.  Granted, he got a slow start as Avatar and Leif Cassidy.  But from doing the JOB on the PPV to being head trainer of Tough Enough, Snow had some good roles in his tenure with WWE.

When searching for footage, invariably one will come around shoot interviews. Al Snow seems to fancy himself a heel, stating that he had played heel most of his wrestling career prior to being with WWF and ECW. In WWF, he was mostly a face and had little success as a heel. There was a period in ‘99/2000 when they tried to turn him heel, following a split with Mick Foley. The idea was turning Al into a sadistic crazy man instead of the friendly crazy man he had been to that point. That run featured some good work against The Hardy Boys and Too Cool. This is quickly transitioned though into teaming with Steve Blackman as Head Cheese. You could see him working hard to get this change in direction over but it just wasn’t connecting with the audience. They gave him some creepy theme music that I forgot upon hearing. One reason this may have not taken off is that he still had Head with him. No matter how hard JR tried to sell us that Al Snow was a sick man, fans wanted to chant “We Want Head”. Of course, when discussing flexibility and heel characters in regards to Al Snow, I have to mention The New Rockers. People didn’t want to boo The Rockers, new or otherwise. Fans, by and large, liked Marty Jannetty. Marty and Leif’s heel work consisted of stomping their feet and pumping their fists in the lowest energy way imaginable. My observation is that The New Rockers weren’t feeling it and neither were the crowd. Their work isn’t as bad as you may have heard. But like much of 1995 WWF, it didn’t connect at all with the crowd. Certainly, the booking didn’t help either. Who cares about a team that can’t win a match when one partner walks about on the other, such as this Smoking Gunns match from Superstars on 10/27/96.

You may think that this lack of flexibility would hurt his case. And you are kind of right. In addition to only getting over as a babyface, his spot on the card was laid in cement. There were attempts to elevate him. The aforementioned heel turn was an example. I recall reading in one of Mick Foley’s books that the company believed Tough Enough would elevate Al into the mainstream consciousness. That really didn’t happen. The impression I got from the feud with The Big Boss Man which lead to the Kennel from Hell Match was another attempt to elevate his position on the card. I guess they thought that a guy who talks to a dog would be more endearing than a guy who talks to a head. This isn’t a case where they didn’t try to elevate a guy. There was effort made. But the fans seemed to have a clear impression of who and what was Al Snow.

Which brings us to the intangibles. He had a connection with the audience. He was exactly over. The Head gimmick was over. Not super-hot. Not cold. Just over. While the audience got on board with what he was doing, there was only so far you could go with that gimmick. When they tried to move away from it, the fans weren’t terribly interested. For example, in the infamous Kennel from Hell Match, which I recently watched, the only thing in the actual match that fans reacted to was when Al pulled out Head and walloped Boss Man with it.

Another thing I think Al Snow brought to the table that is difficult to measure is how much he could do in the ring in a short period of time. Having watched a lot of TV Matches from this period of time, he manages to fit a lot of work into a short period of time, usually three to five minutes. There is a Raw match against Val Venis from late ’99 that is a good example of a match that felt like they did more work than the time would allow. I have also come to appreciate how much good work was being done on the C-Shows at this time. On Heat, he had decent matches with Edge, Christian, and Essa Rios which I will link to but there are plenty more examples. Look, I like Greg Valentine taking a half hour just to get warmed up as much as the next guy, and Valentine will get a high spot on my list than Al Snow. But since the Attitude Era, no one is getting half hour matches on Raw, least of all mid card comedy acts. Al being able to get the best match possible in the time allowed for a TV match was a real asset to the company.

Jump Up Factor

For a guy who was mostly a comedy act, it is perhaps ironic that the most memorable moment he had in company history was unintentional comedy. That would be the angle in which The Big Boss Man fed Pepper the Dog to Al Snow leading to the Kennel from Hell match at Unforgiven 1999. This match overshadowed the far superior Hardcore Title Match between these two at Summer Slam ’99, which I thought was a lot of fun but had a crap finish. The Kennel match has become the stuff of legend and taken a life of its own. But if you bother to watch it, you are not going to see dogs doing the nasty around ringside. The match is a pedestrian plunder fest in front of a dead crowd with three moments that got a reaction. One was the return of Head which received a collective “Thank God” from the audience. Second was Boss Man handcuffing Al to the ropes. I think a few people expected Snow to get beaten ’89 jobber style but it didn’t happen. Third was Al’s escape from the cage which was quite athletic. It was also one of the few WWF Hardcore title matches featuring Al Snow in which blood was drawn. I’m not going to tell you it was a good match. It wasn’t. But the echo chamber opinion that it was the worst match ever is really overblown. Obviously, what the dogs were doing outside the ring took the crowd completely out of the match. But what took place in the ring was not that bad. The angle itself was also a piece of brilliant unintentional comedy. And why? It’s pretty sadistic that Boss Man would kidnap a dog and feed it to the owner. But Boss Man’s dialogue and delivery is just too damn funny. On paper, it looks like a horrific storyline. In practice, no one took this seriously. Or at least very few people did.  I know I am supposed to be making the case but I must be honest. This is Al Snow’s most memorable moment with the company.

There were other big storylines Al Snow was involved with. In late ’99, Al Snow hatched a plot to get in between The Rock ‘N Sock Connection. Snow throws The Rock’s autographed copy of Have A Nice Day in the trash where Mankind finds it. Mankind learns to forgive and forget which forces an angry confession and heel turn from Al Snow. Al Snow teams with Chris Jericho against The Rock ‘N Sock Connection. The blow off between Snow and Mankind is an average Falls Count Anywhere Match on the 12/14/99 Smackdown. Snow gets a win over The Rock in a Brahma Bull Rope Match on the 12/20/99 Raw. The next night on Smackdown, The Rock gets his win back in a Steel Cage. These matches are all out there on line but not in great quality. This storyline also found its way onto one of the videos games storyline mode. At this point in the company, it was a pretty big deal that they use Al Snow in this position.

This heel turn for Al Snow lead to him chasing some bonus money put up by The McMahon/Helmsley regime against The Hardy Boys. The 1/3/2000 Raw featured a Steel Cage Match between Jeff Hardy and Al Snow that was quite good. The follow up was Al employing the help of The Dudley Boys in a Six Man Tag against Edge, Christian, and Jeff Hardy, also a pretty decent match.  They really tried to sell that Al Snow had become a sadistic, crazy man but it didn’t last long. By the end of the month, he was teaming with Steve Blackman with the team name of Head Cheese. I feel like they could have gotten more mileage out of heel Al Snow, but I am here to talk about what is, rather than what could have been.

A personal favorite that I came across was Al Snow’s European Title reign setting up for William Regal’s introduction to the WWF. This time, he wasn’t coming in as A Real Man’s Man. Now Regal was appointed Good Will Ambassador to the WWF by Mr. McMahon. He was here to teach all of us Americans proper manners. So, he would do guest commentary for European Title Matches. The European Champion at the time was Al Snow. Snow would proudly misrepresent various countries in Europe in the most stereotypical way possible. Regal’s commentary was priceless. Snow had some decent TV matches during this run too.  This leads to William Regal challenging Snow and capturing the European Championship. I love the way this was built. It was a good way to reintroduce the audience to William Regal. They took a title that didn’t mean much, put it on a comedy act, and used it to launch a new-ish character. Al Snow’s dumb American idea of what Europe is like vs William Regal’s worldly knowledge. This kind of well planned, week to week storytelling, with a tangible goal in mind is really something you haven’t seen in WWE in a while

Promo and Character Work

How one rates this category depends entirely on how you felt about The Head gimmick. Avatar left the audience confused and wasn’t around long enough to move the needle on anyone’s opinion of his promo or character work. Perhaps if he had worked with different masks and changed his wrestling style based on the mask he was where, that would have been cool.  I doubt Vince has played Majora’s Mask though.  Leif Cassidy doesn’t really factor into any of this either, unless you were impressed with how well he played a dork.  I can only speak for myself here but I felt no need to boo the New Rockers for being out of touch dorks, as I myself was an out of touch dork.

I rather liked The Head gimmick and Crazy Al in general. He never rose to the level of Tom Hanks in Castaway but I think that was the general idea with how Al interacted with Head. The crowd seemed to be behind the gimmick. Early into the run, he started a stable of guys who generally lose called The JOB Squad. Much like Head, feelings on The JOB Squad vary. At this point in the 90’s; smart, insider language was infecting the product. Snow, almost from the beginning, would throw around smart terms that better than half the audience didn’t get. This sort of thing played better in front of an ECW audience than a WWF audience. Snow wore the t-shirt long after the faction had run its coarse. They tried to tweak the Head gimmick by giving Al Snow a dog but it just didn’t work the same. Theoretically, Pepper should have worked better than Head. People talk to their dogs all the time. It should have been more relatable but not so much. At the time, Snow was primarily in the Hardcore division. Head was a useful prop. He could use it to smack an opponent and win a match. No one wanted to see Snow wallop someone with Pepper. I think it is remarkable that he could get over by interacting with and playing off of an inanimate object.

If Head isn’t your thing, there was other work he did during his run with the company that I think was quite good. The feud with Foley leading up to 2000 was some of Snow’s best promo work. Some of the anger about the jokes written in Mick Foley’s book came off as real, and for all I know he was channeling some real anger. Between Snow’s team with Foley, the heel turn, and the series of matches vs The Rock ‘N Sock Connection, Head faded into the background. He still brought Head to the ring but it didn’t play a role in the feud or promos. The team with Steve Blackman was another case were his character work had nothing to do with Head. In a way, during the Head Cheese run, Blackman took place of Head as someone Al would bounce silly ideas off. Blackman would then call him an idiot. There were a lot of fun, short segments with Snow and Blackman during the run, based mostly around Snow pitching ideas to Blackman on how they could get over with the crowd. Blackman played a good straight man to Al’s crazy character, they made a good pair, playing off each other. They were a pretty underrated team in the ring as well. Unfortunately, their comedy act wasn’t going to rise above a certain level in the stacked tag division of 2000. They get lost in the shuffle of some legendary tag teams of that year like The Hardy’s, The Dudley’s, and Edge and Christian. Head Cheese is worth reexamining if for no other reason than to see what kind of character work Al Snow could do that didn’t center around Head.

I also liked the role Al Snow played as friendly mentor and trainer to the Tough Enough contestants when they would appear on WWE television. It didn’t lead to great success for anyone but Al did his part as helpful veteran who wanted to see Maven success or teach Chris Harvard some manners. He was a counterbalance to Bob Holly, the cranky veteran who likes to hurt people. This was the beginning of the end for Al Snow in WWE, eventually becoming a color commentator and sparsely used through 2003. Snow’s role as likable trainer on Tough Enough which bled into his role on Raw and Smackdown is still worth mentioning.

Workrate

I feel like Al Snow is underrated as a worker. As a single and a tag worker, Al Snow could really go in the ring. He is large associated with the Hardcore division. From the footage I have watched, that is some of the weakest examples of his work. He was able to get creative with his Hardcore work, adding comedy spots like the Bowling Ball Below the Belt bit. He had a good walk around brawl with D’Lo Brown for the Hardcore Title in ’99.  They did some creative things that I felt stood out. I already pointing out some of the work he did with Big Bossman aside from the Kennel match. Hardcore Matches in the company weren’t really built around giving guys a chance to show their best work. Most of them came off as tame compared to a lot of the stuff happening with other companies at the time.

What I think a lot of people don’t notice is the not Hardcore Matches he had during his time with the company. In particular, how much he could do with limited television time. There is a 2/5/01 Raw Match with Chris Benoit which only goes about four minutes but seems a lot long. They trade stiff looking blows in and out of the ring, work in some arm psychology, and still have time for Al to get in a couple of moonsaults for a near fall. The European Title run which I already showcased also points to this positive trait for Al Snow. One of the best matches he had that I have seen was against Triple H on Smackdown of 10/21/99. The match is only about five minutes but Snow gets momentum on his side and the crowd really gets behind him, hoping he pulls off an upset.

I also have to mention his work as a tag team wrestler. The New Rockers didn’t catch on with the audience but in the ring, they were not that bad of a team. Early in their run, there were certainly some hiccups in terms of coordination. They get it figured out quickly. While they are not as good for a team as The Rockers, they did get their tag offensive working well in tandem. They worked the house shows with Doug Furnas and Phil LaFon which I imagine were good. It’s too bad they didn’t make tv. Snow’s team with Mankind was short lived but fine.  Even though they were tag champions, they didn’t have enough time together to really gel as a team. I have already stated my appreciation for Al Snow and Steve Blackman. Head Cheese was a team that, much like Snow, could put together an entertaining, three to five minute match on television. Their role was usually putting over more established tag teams. Still, they had good chemistry as a team and did a good job making other teams look good. You can find footage of them facing most of the teams of this era on line. I can’t help but think that they could have been a top team if they had been put together a few years before or a few years after this.  The ’97 tag division was virtually nonexistent and the ’02 tag division wasn’t a whole lot better.

Conclusion

Most of the main points have already been made in this article. If I can say anything in conclusion it is that I have found Al Snow to be unrated. If you look just beneath the surface, I think you will find a very polished worked that put on some fast paced, well worked matches in the Attitude Era. Workrate certainly suffered during this period of time but if you look on the undercard and C-Shows, there were some guys putting on pretty good matches. Al Snow probably will come in between 80 or 90 on my list. To me, he stood out as a veteran, solid worker who anchored the midcard during a time when workrate wasn’t a high priority.

– Michael DeDamos

[austingolflessons-blog]

Are Golf Instructions Worth the Price Tag in Austin, Texas 78701?

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Are Golf Instructions Worth the Price Tag in Austin, Texas 78701?

Basic Golf Instruction

Ask on your own the question, People use up golf for various factors. Checking out the sporting activity with untrained eye, “Are Golf Instructions Well worth The Cost?” It really does not feel like it’s all that hard. The objective of the game is to get the little round right into the hole with as few efforts as feasible. This appears like a relatively very easy objective as well as something most individuals could accomplish on their own.However, if you go out on the golf links unassisted you will find on your own investing more time looking for your sphere in the rough or fishing it out of water hazards compared to you will in fact playing a good game of golf. There’s no should be distressed, it occurs to virtually everybody unless obviously you began your occupation as a three year old phenom.One of the most challenging aspects of grabbing the video game of golf is discovering to own the ball. It should be straightforward sufficient. The suggestion is to wrap your hands around the club, maintain your body straight, draw back and swing. Regrettably, those first couple of concepts do not also begin to cover the basic golf swing.Any half good golf trainer will certainly tell you that the supreme goal is to keep your head flawlessly still during the whole swing. If you are aiming to hit the ball as well hard, your end outcome will certainly be somewhere off in the high yard searching for a little white round that you currently intend to bash into pieces. By now you are asking on your own”Are Golf Lessons Well worth The Price?” Relax your body and also your muscle mass before even attempting to turn. Aiming to hit the sphere too hard with stressful muscles normally have bad outcomes. Any type of golf instructor will certainly tell you that concentrated power will make the ball sail farther as well as straighter. That emphasis comes from a relaxed body and a head that does not bobble about.By being able to maintain your head in a fixed setting, you can keep a solid concentrate on the round as well as bring your power straight to the facility of the sphere with a flat club. Your stationary head will certainly also instantly send the signal to your hands to turn appropriately and at the ideal time. This timing is essential to your follow via as well as permitting the round to preserve a straighter trajectory.Maintaining your equilibrium is essential to developing a lengthy and also straight drive. Golf trainers report investing a considerable percent of lesson time concentrating on keeping the head directly and also stabilizing the body. Balancing the body in a game of golf is more than simply not tipping over. It has to do with equally distributing the body weight in all instructions. Many individuals have the ability to maintain an excellent portion of left and also ideal balance, however often the front and back balance requires to be instructed by a qualified golf instructor.When playing golf, the head angles downward to permit the golf enthusiast to see the round and also maintain focus. This position motivates bad pose as well as the body weight to border also much forward.

For 1 on 1 lessons to further advance your golf game near 78701, shoot us an email on the contact page.

A qualified golf teacher can aid a golfer in locating an excellent as well as strong placement that is much more balanced to enable a much better swing. This is an unnatural position for many people and frequently there is an excellent advantage in taking some lessons from a certified golf instructor to assist remedy the issue. Are you still asking on your own”Are Golf Instructions Worth The Price?”It is often advised to view oneself in front of the mirror to help correct unbalanced golf swings. This trick can aid create a far better swing, but bear in mind while you are viewing yourself you are not seeing where the sphere ought to be. This is where a certified golf instructor can truly profit both the novice and practiced golfer. Often somebody else’s eyes can pick up on what we ourselves cannot.If you are self coaching instead of taking the suggestions of a certified golf trainer, reviewed as usually as you could around techniques of improving your golf swing. There are countless useful posts, ideas and also information on the best-pro-golf-guide website. Remember that while the information provided online site is great and includes high referrals, it is likewise useful to recognize that every body is one-of-a-kind and also it may take a little test and mistake to truly obtain things relocating the appropriate instructions. Typically the posts presented can boost instruction provided by a qualified golf teacher. The objective is achieve the ideal cause as little time as feasible, as well as it can be useful to combine both resources.The Advantages of Exclusive Golf Lessons, “Are Golf Instructions Worth The Cost?”Personal golf lessons can be quite expensive. Among the initial things to examine if you are thinking about taking private golf lessons is your inspiration for doing so. Are you seeking to utilize golf for business relationships or are you simply curious about the game? Those who are seeming able to embark on with customers or in charge could gain

a fair bit extremely rapidly by getting the help of a certified golf instructor for private lessons.If you are truly not thinking about developing your game and also simply wish to hold your personal with your customers on the golf course, a certified golf teacher could aid customize your golf education in order to help boost your weaknesses without training you for eventual specialist competitions. Frequently company individuals will certainly pay top buck for a certified golf trainer to create considerable outcomes in a short amount of time. If you view it as a business investment, the cash you are paying the qualified golf instructor seems far more reasonable.If, however you are interested in the video game of golf and you enjoy the sport, a certified golf instructor can give you exact, cutting side assistance in boosting the quality of your game. You can urge on improving your fundamentals and also relocate with the process more gradually as well as gain an exceptional quantity of information from a qualified golf teacher.

Again, personal golf lessons could be rather pricey, so it’s a good suggestion making certain that not just are you encouraged sufficient to make good usage of the direction offered, however that you will have the necessary time to commit to practice.Whatever your factor is for choosing exclusive golf lessons, you will certainly need to devote enough time to exercise. Practice is the essential to any type of sporting activity, and in spite of its straightforward look, golf is not any type of various. When choosing an instructor you must ask them just how much method time they like to see from their pupils. Any instructor who does not focus practice time is not thinking about your general success as well as is a lot more thinking about keeping you their

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student( as well as their revenue )for as lengthy as feasible. This is not the structure for a healthy qualified golf instructor and student relationship.The Advantages of Group Golf Direction,” Are Golf Lessons Well worth The Cost?”Group golf guideline is readily available and could be a lot less costly. Team golf instruction might or may not fit your present requirements, but also for lots of people it is a premium choice as it fits nicely right into their golfing budget. Keep in mind that you not only have to pay any kind of qualified golf trainer, however you greater than likely will have to pay club costs and tee charges. These added charges are not only for lesson time, however, for the ever required technique time too.

Often the total cost of every little thing entailed is rather high as well as opting for a team lesson

is much more practical. If you are stressed as well as concerned”Are Golf Lessons Worth The Rate? “This may be the alternative and also a grate means to find out the game.Group golf instruction also enables for a peaceful gathering of novice golfers who are simply trying to boost on their skill. Usually the pressure that comes with a round of golf with the one in charge is alleviated during team golf instruction. Team golf instruction generally allows for you to pick which instructions you would certainly like your golf guideline to head. There are groups supplied for owning, placing, risks, and standard skills. While you can clarify to an exclusive certified exclusive golf teacher that you feel you have to concentrate on a particular area, groups are often tailored to specific, targeted skills.If you are interested in team golf instruction but intend to boost your learning experience, you can add the insightful tips given on best-pro-golf-guide to your golfing repertoire. Integrating the post info with the competent group golf instructor’s advice and the pointers of those in the team lesson with you may extremely well be an ample combination of sources for you to seriously enhance your golf video game without breaking the bank.Selecting a Qualified Private Golf Instructor,”Are Golf Instructions Well worth The Rate?”If you have actually made a decision to engage a professional personal golf trainer to refine your golf abilities, do not rush right into a commitment. It’s much better to shop for

a premium quality instructor rather than simply rush right into lessons with the initial person ready to provide them. Ask a whole lot of concerns prior to starting. If you understand that somebody else is taking private golf lessons, as them just how they feel about the high quality of the direction they are obtaining. Is the golf teacher punctual? Do they constantly give the complete scheduled lesson or do they shave a couple of minutes off below and there? Just what are their cancellation policies? If the trainer cancels are you qualified to a totally free makeup lesson? Exactly how usually do they cancel?It is perfectly acceptable to request references from a possible private golf teacher. Many will have a recommendation sheet easily offered for you as it is a relatively common practice. It is additionally appropriate to speak with the teacher before dedicating to the lessons.Keep in mind that even if someone has excelled in their sporting activity does not indicate that they excel at showing it. There are a lot of high ranking golf enthusiasts that make superb trainers, but there are some that absolutely can only play the game. Don’t obtain stars in your eyes and be a little bit hesitant if their credential sheet has a frustrating variety of golfing achievements however no teaching credentials or success. Somebody that provides with a solid mix of both teaching and golf success could quite possibly produce a far better trainer. Golf instruction, or any type of sporting activity instruction, is really about the capability to interact the skills as opposed to perform them.Choose carefully and commonly you will certainly discover the experience of discovering how to play golf quite pleasurable. For more ideas as well as recommendations regarding whatever golf near Austin, Texas 78701, shoot us an email on the contact page..

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Eric Bentz

The Oxymoron of Black Pop Culture.

 Question to write about: Who controls black pop culture?

             Honestly, I found this question quite rhetorical. No matter what angle I tried to use in dialing in on the controllers of black pop culture, I could not seem to find an answer. No single sportsperson, actor, or any other celebrity seemed to have absolute or indefinite rule of the general term of black pop culture. This is when I decided to ask myself what proved to be a very crucial question in my thinking: Is black pop culture a real thing? What I am really pondering about by this question, is the notion that there is a difference between pop culture and black culture. I by no means am attempting to offend or oppress anyone or anything represented by the black culture. Black culture is rich in many ways. From the food to the music and dancing and athletics; there is much to be offered. I am saying the overall population of the country takes select bits and pieces of African American culture as they see fit, and began to practice these things without any recognition to the black community. It is as if a part of black culture no longer was black culture, but now belonged to the general pop culture of the country. While crossing over multiple platforms of social culture, I will decipher how once black culture becomes “Pop,” it is no longer controlled by the African Americans who once created these themes to life. Let us first look at one of the most famous creations of African Americans: Rap music.

           Rooted deep in blues and rich in history, Rap has become one of the largest outlets of Black understanding. In 2014 Macklemore and Ryan Lewis took home four Grammys within the category of Rap music. While three of those four awards can be argued as valid, the last stands out as an anomaly. This was the award for the best rap album, who’s contenders included Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Jay-Z, and Kanye West. The five artists up for the award narrowed down to just two leading contenders, Macklemore’s The Heist and Lamar’s Good Kid M.A.A.D. City. Eventually, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis took home the gold. But this wasn’t quite how anyone imagined things to go down. Kendrick Lamar’s countless real horror stories that he speaks of can send chills down the spine of the most privileged man. Everything from drive-bys to drug deals and murders are effectively twined into his lyrics with each passing song, giving an even stronger impact as the record spins. But let’s take a look as to why such a critically acclaimed record fell to what some say was an unworthy act. White people make up a majority of the population in the United States and, therefore, have strength in numbers. Rap itself was originally found in African American homes almost exclusively until the uprising of hip-hop as a genre in the late 80s and early 90s. With more rap artists getting more air play and TV play, hip-hop was being turned into a part of “pop” culture. Similarly to the creation of Elvis Presley, hip-hop needed a white person to sell the genre to every person possible. This was the thinking of an older generation clashed with the tenacity of youthful revolt. This is precisely where hip-hop skews into two directions: One is the historical lyrical analysis and events surrounding black youths, and the other path is that of placement in society. What I mean by this placement in society is exactly what happened when Macklemore took home best rap album. It isn’t just in my opinion that Lamar’s album was far more authentic rap, Macklemore even shared a picture of a text to Kendrick saying “You got robbed. I wanted you to win. You should have.” Even the winning artist, in the midst of what should be his happiest night on earth, knew deep down what had happened. Macklemore’s somewhat silly swag of Thrift Shop was played far more in any white household than any of Kendrick’s hardened or raw records. And as we discussed earlier, the white people represent the majority, therefor offering some explanation to the surprising results of said Grammys. Aside from this very specific example, there are other countless questions that can rise from this. Would there be Eminem without Dr. Dre? Would there be a Justin Bieber without Usher? Both of those examples can be argued either way but it is easy to see that the mentorship passed down did add to the success of Eminem and Bieber. Now, stretching a little out of the realm of simple rap music, it is crucial that we examine a slight derivative; dancing.

           Dancing has always been a communal way of relieving stress, regardless of the community that people came from. In response to the Dick Clarke show, Soul Train was born. For over 30 years, Don Cornelius ruled all that was hip and cool. Every single Saturday morning, black kids everywhere were tuning into see the latest dance craze, as well as the many guest performers such as Stevie Wonder and other black musicians alike. Eventually, as the show gained popularity, white folks around the country were tuning in as well. This was probably the first moment where masses of white people were trying to emulate a part of black culture in a positive light. Soul Train was the ultimate anti-minstrel show because it shed light on the rhythmic and beautiful side of African Americans that original minstrel shows had covered up. For years during and after Soul Train, the white population was hooked on black dancing. From twisting and shouting to dabbing and twerking is the reality that we find ourselves in. Migos brought upon us the sensation sweeping the nation known as “dabbing,” and this was a bombshell to hit pop culture in the United States. Not long after Migos first demonstrated the “dab” in one of his videos, people everywhere were dabbing. Not just everywhere this was going on, but nearly everyone was partaking. This is a perfect example of pop culture taking a part of black culture, leaving little credit to the originator. Logan Paul, a white internet celebrity, “dabbed” on every single event of the 2016 Olympic games in Rio. Even a recent senator’s son was seen dabbing on live TV as his father was sworn in. In addition to the phenomenon of dabbing, twerking became a popular dance craze as well. It’s honestly kind of hard to describe twerking to someone who is unaware the dance. Aside from the physical movement itself, the term twerking was not a household name until Miley Cyrus attempted to twerk on stage. The media ate this up and spread the news, prompting many older folks to question, “well what is twerking?” Effectively, Miley Cyrus introduced twerking to an unaware white audience. The audience was unaware dancing in this form was a trend, despite having countless famous acts such as Beyonce or Rhianna having done them before. Twerking was now a household term not because of the originators, but because a famous white celebrity utilized it on live television. Now it’s hard to go to a party or concert and not witness people twerking either seriously/sexually or merely as a joke. This was because the masses, the numbers, the white people found an interest in part of black culture and to a certain degree engulfed it whole.