#anyways have a great day/night paradoxers | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

blackswaneuroparedux · 1 year ago

Text

‘Pimpernel of the Hellenes’, ‘Major Paddy’, ‘Enchanted maniac’: Will the real Paddy Leigh Fermor please stand up?

Paradox reconciles all contradictions. - Patrick Leigh Fermor

So one evening I was baby sitting my nephews and nieces here in our family chalet in Verbier, high up in the Swiss Alps. It was my turn to baby sit as the rest of my family enjoyed the fantastic classical music concerts and events showcased at the two week long Verbier 30th Festival. The little scamps had gone to bed and my father and I watched an old British war movie on DVD, ‘Ill Met By Moonlight’ (1957). It was filmed by the legendary team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger based on the 1950 book ‘Ill Met by Moonlight: The Abduction of General Kreipe’ by W. Stanley Moss.

I’ve seen the film a couple of times before, but until now never really paid attention to where the title came from. My father said it was from Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream’ And so it was. In the play, Oberon, the king of the fairies and the Queen are having a fairly bitter drawn-out fight over custody of a changeling Indian child, and this is how the pissed off king greets the queen when they run into each other, “Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania”. Oberon is basically saying "Oh Lord, it's you..." and Titania's response is basically a flippant middle finger. One of the best modern reasons to read Shakespeare: to throw playful erudite shade at others.

Anyway, the historical background of the film is the German invasion of Crete in May 1941. After an intense ten-day battle, Allied troops were driven back across the island, and many were evacuated from beaches along the southern coast. Some Cretans and British officers took to the mountains to organise resistance against the occupying forces. The German occupation that followed was especially brutal. Dreadful reprisals followed every act of resistance. The German commander, General Müller, insisted on taking 50 Cretan lives for every German soldier killed; he became known as ‘The Butcher of Crete’.

As a Classicist side note, there had been a close association between Britain and Crete since the early 20th century, when archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans had uncovered the sensational remains of a Minoan palace at Knossos. The headquarters of the British archaeological school in Crete was a large villa alongside the site, known as Villa Ariadne. Several archaeologists, who knew the island and its people well, went underground after the German occupation to aid the Cretan resistance. Continuing in this tradition, scholar and travel-writer Patrick Leigh Fermor, who had got to know Greece in the 1930s, joined the Special Operations Executive (SOE).

During the German occupation, Major Paddy Leigh Fermor travelled to Crete three times to help organise local resistance against the hated German occupation. On the third occasion, in February 1944, he was parachuted in with a specific mission to kidnap German commander General Müller, to boost morale on Crete along with his erstwhile SOE comrade Capt. W. Stanley Moss MC (aka Billy Moss) of the Coldstream Guards. However, just after they parachute in, General Müller was replaced by General Heinrich Kreipe, who transferred from the Russian Front. Thinking that capturing one general was as good as another, Fermor merrily go ahead with the daring kidnap operation.

It’s at this point that the narrative of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s ‘Ill Met by Moonlight’ (1957) picks up. Dirk Bogarde plays Paddy Leigh Fermor, David Oxley plays Moss, and Marius Goring plays the taciturn German paratroop general. Blink and you’ll miss the late great Christopher Lee making a cameo appearance as a German officer in the dentist’s room scene.

The film naturally takes some liberty with the facts but it’s a cracking yarn of high adventure and drama. Xan Fielding, a close friend of Leigh Fermor from the SOE in Cairo, was taken on as technical adviser. The fact the film was shot in in the Alpes-Maritimes in France and Italy, and on the Côte d'Azur in France, far away from the craggy valleys and mountains of Crete itself. The director Michael Powell spent some time walking in Crete to get to know the island, but decided that, with the confused and volatile state of Greek politics, it was not suitable to film there.

Looking back years after he had directed it Powell didn’t think much of his own film. By contrast, Paddy Leigh Fermor, who was on set throughout the film shoot, was very happy with Bogarde’s portrayal of him with Byronic glamour. Watching the movie again ‘Ill Met by Moonlight’ remains a classic and stands out from many British war films of the 1950s because of its realism. The British SOE men and the Cretan guerrillas look absolutely right for their parts. It is dramatic and full of suspense while filled with much boyish humour.

I was disappointed with one notable omission in the film that did happen in real life. According to Patrick Leigh Fermor, at dawn one day during the journey across the mountains, General Kreipe was looking at the mist rising from Mount Ida and began to recite, in Latin, the opening lines of Horace’s ninth ode:

Vides ut alta stet nive candidum Soracte nec iam sustineant onus silvae laborantes geluque flumina constiterint acuto?

Behold yon Mountains hoary height, Made higher with new Mounts of Snow; Again behold the Winters weight Oppress the lab’ring Woods below: And Streams, with Icy fetters bound, Benum’d and crampt to solid Ground

(John Dryden 1685)

Leigh Fermor picked up on the General, and recited the remaining stanzas of the Ode. ‘Ach so, Herr Major,’ said Kreipe when Leigh Fermor had finished. Both men were amazed to realise they shared a classical education and a love of ancient Latin poetry.

Leigh Fermor later wrote that it was as though the war had ceased to exist for a moment, as ‘We had both drunk from the same fountains before.’ It brought captor and captive together with a strange bond. The scene was not reproduced in the film, as Powell and Pressburger probably thought it would make the men sound too academic for a popular cinema audience.

Leigh Fermor and Kreipe met again in the early 1970s, on a Greek television show, and got on famously together. The General said Leigh Fermor had treated him chivalrously as a captive. They remained friends until Kreipe’s death.

After sharing a late night drink with my father after the film, I began to muse on the figure of Paddy Leigh Fermor, a family friend and someone I met along with his wife, Joan, as a little girl. My grandparents, and especially my grandmother, knew Paddy briefly from their days during and after the Second World War.

My father shared a few stories about him when he and my mother visited his beautiful home in Greece, where even at his advanced age he remained the most generous of hosts and the most outrageous flirt.

One of my memories was getting into his battered old Peugeot in the drive way and trying to drive it when my feet could barely touch the pedals. It wouldn’t have mattered in any case as the brakes didn’t work as he cheerfully said later as we careened around a dirt road to go around the mountains for a drive.

Many years later in April 2022, I tried to visit the home of the late Patrick and Joan Leigh Fermor - a sort of pristine shrine to their memory that one can also stay in any of the rooms as a vacation rental - in the coastal fishing village of Kadarmyli in the Peloponnese, as part of a hiking and mountaineering sojourn around Greece with ex-Army friends. We couldn’t stay there as it was already rented out to other guests, and so we stayed higher up the mountain in a villa, but we swam in front of the Fermor’s home which was on the water’s edge.

You could never put your finger on Paddy Leigh Fermor. He hid behind his gift for telling yarns, and pulling Ancient Greek verses out of the thin air, as well as boisterously singing local Greek songs with a drink in his hand.

Even after his death in 2011, the question keeps nagging as to who was Paddy Leigh Fermor?

The Dirk Bogarde film too seems to ask, who exactly is the ‘real’ Patrick Leigh Fermor - or the real anyone? Taking its title from a Shakespearian play concerned with dreams and disguises, magic and power, ‘Ill Met By Moonlight’ is all about questions of identity.

Under the film credits, we see Dirk Bogarde in uniform; then, unexpectedly, we see him in the flamboyant outfit of a Cretan hill-bandit. A title informs us that Major Leigh Fermor was also known by the Greek code-name “Philidem.” In other words, there are two of him (at least), and on one level the adventure the film is about to unfold reflects a conflict in his personality. It’s a conflict shared, unknowingly, by his Nazi opposite number, the fierce, arrogant General Kreipe (an unlikely “proud Titania,” but it’s true that he “with a monster is in love” – the monster of Nazism). Kreipe’s human side is so rigorously repressed by the demands of war and “glory” that he is genuinely unaware of it; ironically, this humanness, which constitutes the true manhood of this Teuton warrior, is revealed by a boy (equivalent to Shakespeare’s Indian Prince?) - who, in turn, is the most grown up person in the movie.

If “Philidem” appears under the credits, caped and open-shirted, a romantic dream-figure out of an operetta or a storybook, he is first seen in the film proper as a coarser, more down-to-earth version of the same thing – an ordinary Cretan peasant in a shabby suit, waiting for a bus. When he makes contact with the Resistance, his personality fragments further.

To some, he is the mystical Philidem, Pimpernel of the Hellenes and righter of wrongs. To others he is “Major Paddy,” the happy-go-lucky Englishman of popular movie myth conducting war as if it were a branch of amateur theatricals, a gentleman adventurer relying on breeding to get him through and making fun of the whole business. To Bill Moss (David Oxley), the newly arrived junior officer sent to assist him, he is the cool, fast-thinking professional soldier. And to himself? In his quietly passionate defence of Cretan life and culture, he seems someone else again: a scholar and aesthete outraged by the barbarism and folly of war, and by the moronic arrogance shown by his captive toward the Cretan people.

Whatever his persona, Leigh Fermor is a chameleon who never seems to change very radically in himself. Perhaps because he has this quality of seeming all things to all men – and being those things - he remains unfazed by the monolithic might of the German military machine. Fluent in Greek, he can also speak German like a German and is easily able to assume another disguise, that of a faceless Nazi officer. Although he and Moss make fun of themselves - “If only I had a monocle!” muses Moss when Leigh Fermor tells him he “looks like an Englishman dressed like a German, leaning against the Ritz bar” - they are able to effect the kidnapping with an ease that seems appropriately Puckish. General Kreipe is ignominiously thrust onto the floor of his own limousine, gagged, and sat upon by a couple of the peasants he so despises. Kreipe’s rage is compounded by his firm conviction that he has been snatched by “amateurs” - a belief Leigh Fermor and Moss slyly make no objection to, knowing how it will gnaw at his already shaky Master Race self-confidence.

Patrick Leigh Fermor, aka Major Paddy, aka Philidem, in the film’s closing moments, is far from being self-assured intellectual or dashing amateur adventurer or legendary outlaw of the hills. He’s just a tired man who wants to go home and rest up. “How do you feel?” asks Moss. “Flat” is the reply. “You look flat!” says Moss. “I know how I’d like to look …” murmurs Leigh-Fermor wistfully. Moss knows what he’s going to say, and joins in the litany: “Like an Englishman dressed like an Englishman – and leaning against the Ritz bar!” It’s easy to imagine them ordering drinks at that renowned watering-hole with all the suavity required by this little fantasy.

Still, the film’s last images of Crete receding in the distance, until all we can see is the sea, suggests that maybe Major Paddy’s heart is really back in those hills in the “fair and fertile” land that has become as much a Powellian landscape of the mind for us as the studio-built Himalayan convent of ‘Black Narcissus’ or the monochrome Heaven of ‘A Matter of Life and Death’. And, as the film POV closing shots departs both Crete and this film, I began to think that being “dressed like an Englishman and leaning against the Ritz bar” would, for Patrick Leigh Fermor constitute yet another disguise. After all, he said he was of Irish aristocratic stock.

Traveller and writer Paddy Leigh Fermor is best known for two events. He’s known for leading the commando group in occupied Crete to kidnap General Kreipe. But he is also known for the boy who, at a mere 18 years old, set off with little money and a lot of nerve in 1933 to walk from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople.

Patrick Leigh Fermor was, in the words of one of his obituaries, a cross between Indiana Jones, James Bond and Graham Greene. Self-reliance and derring-do were lessons learnt from the cradle. When Fermor’s geologist father was posted to India, he and his wife left the infant with family in Northamptonshire and did not return until his fourth birthday. In retrospect, he took great delight in being sent to a school for difficult children and getting himself expelled from the King’s School, Canterbury, when he was caught holding hands with a greengrocer’s daughter eight years his senior. His school report infamously judged him ‘a dangerous mix of sophistication and recklessness’.

Sharing a flat in Shepherd’s Market, one of Mayfair’s seedier corners, Leigh Fermor schooled himself in literature, history, Latin and Greek.

He honed his character with the company of extraordinary people and the words of great writers - he had a prodigious memory for prose as well as poetry. He befriended literary lions such as Sacheverell Sitwell, Evelyn Waugh and Nancy Mitford. His travels began aged ‘eighteen-and-three-quarters’ when he rejected Sandhurst Royal Military College in order to walk the length of Europe from Hook of Holland to Constantinople. He took with him Horace’s Odes and the Oxford Book of Verse though Leigh Fermor could recite Shakespeare soliloquies, Marlowe speeches, Keats’s Odes and as he modestly put it ‘the usual pieces of Tennyson, Browning and Coleridge’ from memory.

Leigh Fermor was then a self-made man in the most literal sense.

Setting off from England in 1933, Fermor resolved to traverse Europe living like a hermit; sleeping in bars and begging for food. But his manly charms and boyish good looks found him being passed like a favourite godson from Schloss to palace by European nobility and he developed a lifelong penchant for aristocratic company. I his own words, ‘In Hungary, I borrowed a horse, then plunged into Transylvania; from Romania on into Bulgaria’. Having reached Constantinople in January 1935, Fermor continued to explore Greece where he fought on the royalist side in Macedonia quelling a republican revolution. In Athens Leigh Fermor met Balasha Cantacuzene, a Romanian countess with whom he fell in love. They were living together in a Moldovan castle when World War Two was declared.

Fluent in Greek, Leigh Fermor was posted as a liaison officer in Albania. Recruited as a Special Operations Executive (SOE), he was shipped from Cairo to German-occupied Crete where he lived disguised as a shepherd in the mountains for two years. On his third expedition to Crete in 1944, Leigh Fermor was parachuted alone onto the island and made connections in the Cretan resistance movement. While waiting for his compatriot Captain Bill Stanley Moss to land by water from Cairo, Leigh Fermor hatched a plot to kidnap German Commander General Heinrich Krieple. He liaised comfortably with Cretan partisans and bandits to pull off one of the war’s greatest coups de théâtre.

Disguised as German soldiers, Leigh Fermor and Moss stopped Krieple’s car at an improvised check point en route back to Nazi HQ in Knossos. Abandoning the General’s car after a two-hour drive, Leigh Fermor left a note indicating that the kidnappers were British so that there wouldn’t be reprisals against Cretan nationals. When the abduction of the unpopular commander was discovered, a German officer in Heraklion allegedly said ‘well, gentlemen, I think this calls for champagne’. It turns out that General Kreipe was despised by his own soldiers because, amongst other things, he objected to the stopping of his own vehicle for checking in compliance with his commands concerning approved travel orders. It’s why for instance the German troops, both in the film and in real life, dare not stop the General’s car as it drove through the check points at Heraklion.

Krieple was evacuated and taken to Cairo and Leigh Fermor entered the annals of World War Two’s most devil-may-care heroes. With characteristic panache, when he was demobbed Leigh Fermor moved into an attic room at the Ritz paying half a guinea a night. But his first travel book, ‘The Traveller’s Tree’, was not about the European odyssey or the Cretan escapades and centred on Leigh Fermor’s adventures in the Carribbean. Published in 1950, ‘The Traveller’s Tree’ was an inspiration for Ian Fleming’s second James Bond novel ‘Live and Let Die’ (1954).

As a host and house guest, Paddy Leigh Fermor was much sought-after. At one of his parties in Cairo, he counted nine crowned heads. He was a confirmed two-gin-and-tonics before lunch man and smoked eighty to 100 cigarettes a day. His party pieces included singing ‘It’s a Long Way to Tipperary’ in Hindustani and reciting ‘The Walrus and the Carpenter’ backwards. In Cyprus while staying with Laurence Durrell, Leigh Fermor apparently stunned crowds in Bella Pais into silence by singing folk songs in perfect Cretan dialect. As Durrell wrote in ‘Bitter Lemons’ (1957), ‘it is as if they want to embrace Paddy wherever he goes’.

He struck up a partiuclar friendship with the famous Mitford sisters, especially Deborah Mitford, later ‘Debo’, the Duchess of Devonshire. It was at the Devonshires’ Irish estate Lismore Castle that ‘Darling Debo’ and ‘Darling Pad’ met and began to correspond. A characteristic letter from the Duchess in 1962 reads ‘The dear old President (JFK) phoned the other day. First question was ‘Who’ve you got with you, Paddy?” He’s got you on the brain’ to which Fermor replies of a broken wrist ‘Balinese dancing’s out, for a start; so, should I ever succeed to a throne, is holding an orb. The other drawbacks will surface with time’.

After the war he travelled widely but was always drawn back to Greece. He built a house on the Mani peninsula - which had been, significantly, the only part of Magna Graecia to resist Ottoman colonisation since the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Before his death in 2011 at the age of 96, he wrote some of the most acclaimed travel books of the 20th century.

His books contain some of the finest prose writing of the past century and disprove Wilde's maxim that "it is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating".

Charm, self-taught knowledge and enthusiasm made up for the lack of a university degree or a private income. His teenage walk across Europe and subsequent romantic sojourn in Baleni, Romania, with Princess Balasha Cantacuzene are proof enough of that. But the difficulty of capturing such an unconventional and glamorous life is made harder by the certainty that Fermor was an unreliable narrator.

He was also an infuriatingly slow writer. Driven by a life-long passion for words yet hampered by anxiety about his abilities, Leigh Fermor published eight books over 41 years.

‘The Traveller's Tree’ describes his postwar journey through the Caribbean; ‘Mani‘ and ‘Roumeli’ (1958 and 1966) draw on his experiences in Greece, where he would live for much of the latter part of his life. But it is the books that came out of his trans-Europe walk that reveal both the brilliance and the flaws. ‘A Time of Gifts’ was published in 1977, 44 years after he set out on the journey. ‘Between the Woods and the Water’ appeared nine years later. Both describe a world of privilege and poverty, communism and the rising tide of Nazism, and end with the unequivocal words, "To be continued". Yet the third volume hung like an albatross around the author's neck. As the years passed, Fermor found it impossible to shape the last part of his story in the way he wanted.

Leigh Fermor was that rarest of men: a man determined to live on his own terms, if not his own means, and who mostly - and mostly magnificently - succeeded. Always popping off on a journey when he should have been writing about the last one, always ready to party, he was forever chasing beautiful, fascinating or powerful women, even when with his wife, Joan Raynor. She was the great facilitator who funded his passion for travel and writing, as well as women, from her trust fund. His love affairs were discreet but legendary.

Leigh Fermor was happiest among the rogues. Over a lifetime on the road, he sought them, and in turn they responded to his charm, nose for adventure, and his famous wit. He was a keenly-anticipated dinner guest - once outshining Richard Burton at a London society soirée, who he cut-off midway through a recital of ‘Hamlet’. As Richard Burton stormed out, the pleading society hostess said, “But Paddy’s a war hero!” to which Burton grouchily replied, “I don’t give a damn who he is!”

His partnership with and then marriage to Joan Raynor was an open relationship, at least on Leigh Fermor’s side. Paddy saw in Joan his kindred spirit. Like him, she spent much of her youth travelling to where she pleased; largely in France, where the photographer and literary critic Cyril Connolly became besotted by her. Joan was the daughter of Sir Bolton and Lady Eyres Monsell of Dumbleton Hall, Worcestershire. She was not only stunningly pretty but also 'a beautiful ideal, with the perfect bathing dress, the most lovely face, the most elaborate evening dress', as the Eton educated Connolly described her. Joan also stood out from the upper-class beauties of her day in that she supplemented her mean rich father's allowance by earning her living as a decent photographer.

In 1946, she met Leigh Fermor in Athens, while he was deputy director of the British Institute. Joan met him at a time when he was then in a relationship with a French woman called Denise, who was pregnant with his child, which she aborted. The pair would travel to the Caribbean together under the invitation of Greek photographer Costas, falling madly in love.

She was the only woman that - after decades of sexual scandals - matched his own erratic behaviour. Stories of how they dined fully-clothed in the Mediterranean, dragging a table into the sea, as well as their myriad cats and olive groves, paint a restless couple, who, when not out articulating the peoples of their adopted homeland, kept themselves very busy.

The attraction between Paddy and Joan was instant. So many love affairs that Paddy indulged in seemed about as brief as the flame from a burning envelope and you expected this one with Joan to be too. But somehow, miraculously, it lasts.

The two were apart a great deal, but in their case, absence did make the heart grow fonder. While Paddy was staying in a monastery in Normandy, supposed to be thinking monk-like thoughts that he would eventually put into his masterpiece A Time To Keep Silence, he was also writing sexy letters to Joan: 'At this distance you seem about as nearly perfect a human being as can be, my darling little wretch, so it's about time I was brought to my senses.' And: 'Don't run away with anyone or I'll come and cut your bloody throat.'

She tantalised him with descriptions of Cyril Connolly making passes at her; but she, like Denise, sounded a rather desperate note when she wrote: 'I got the curse so late this month I began to hope I was having a baby and that you would have to make it a legitimate little Fermor. All hopes ruined this morning.'

Fiercely independent - a trait that must have enamoured Paddy - they were best imagined as two pillars of a Greek temple, beside one-another but capable of holding up the roof of the world that they had built for themselves through the lens of ancient history and Hellenic culture. Indeed, it was said that they had a special ‘pact of liberty’. It is this unconquerable aura that led poet laureate John Betjeman to declare his love for her (he called her ‘Dotty’ and remarked that her eyes were as large as tennis balls). For Cyril Connolly, the photographer she shadowed, and with whom she had a scandalised affair during her first marriage, she was a “lovely boy-girl” and Laurence Durrell named her the ‘Corn Goddess’ because of her slender figure and short hair. But of all of these worthy candidates, it was the warrior-poet Patrick Leigh Fermor who finally won her heart.

To Joan, who described herself as a ‘lifelong loner’ in her diaries, her companionship with the uncomplicated Paddy was a relief. They had no children, nor did they want any - or so Paddy claimed. But those who knew Joan suspected she did want children but it never came to pass; and so she became a devoted aunt or dotted on other friends’ children. For both of them their dozens of cats gave them the next best thing to paternal satisfaction. Still, her morbid fascination with photographing cemeteries painted a much darker side.

Joan Raynor’s inheritance subsidised his peripatetic life at least until the enormous success of ‘A Time of Gifts’ in the late 1970s, which in turn created a new market for his previous volumes about Greece, ‘Mani’ and ‘Roumeli’.

With Joan’s tacit consent, Paddy enjoyed amorous flings, discrete sexual affairs with high society women and sampled the low delights of the brothel. This activity rarely made it into his private letters, but the exceptions could be piquant. Writing in 1958 from Cameroon, where he was on the set of a John Huston movie, he told a (male) friend: “ Errol Flynn and I . . . sally forth into dark lanes of the town together on guilty excursions that remind me rather of old Greek days with you.” In a 1961 letter to the film director John Huston’s wife, Ricki, with whom Leigh Fermor had been having sex with (and would die in a car crash in 1969). “I say,” the passage begins, “what gloomy tidings about the CRABS! Could it be me?” Riffing on pubic lice and their crafty ways, he conjectures that, during a recent romp with an “old pal” in Paris, a force “must have landed” on him “and then lain up, seeing me merely as a stepping stone or a springboard to better things” - to Mrs. Huston, that is. As comic apologies for venereal infection go, the passage is surely a classic.

Like most high flying lives, it was far from blameless. Wounded women were littered in his wake. Some British visitors to Athens were less than impressed by this Englishman who posed as “more Greek than the Greeks”.

Some Greeks shared their disdain. Revisionist historians criticised his role in wartime Crete, and warned their fellow Hellenes that for all his fluency and charm, Leigh Fermor was no latter day Byron. His unoccupied car was blown up outside his Mani house, probably by members of the Greek Communist Party which he had vocally opposed. The accidental fatal shooting of a partisan in Crete led to a long blood feud which made it difficult for Leigh Fermor to re-enter the island until the 1970s, and possibly explains why he chose to settle in the Peloponnese rather than among the hills and harbours of his dreams.

His own books had already eclipsed those incidents, not only among readers of English but also in Greece, where in 2007 the government of his adopted land made him a Commander of the Order of the Phoenix for services to literature.

Travel writers such as the great Jan Morris have described Leigh Fermor as the master of their trade and its greatest exponent in the 20th century.

When ‘A Time of Gifts’ was published in 1977, Frederick Raphael wrote: “One feels he could not cross Oxford Street in less than two volumes; but then what volumes they would be!”

They are not for everyone. Leigh Fermor wrote that written English is a language whose Latinates need pegging down with simple Anglo-Saxonisms, and some feel that he personally could have made more and better use of the mallet. His exuberance is either captivating or florid. It is certainly unique among English prose styles.

Artemis Cooper, his patient and careful biographer wrote that “Paddy had found a way of writing that could deploy a lifetime’s reading and experience, while never losing sight of his ebullient, well-meaning and occasionally clumsy 18-year-old self … this was a wonderful way of disarming his readers, who would then be willing to follow him into the wildest fantasies and digressions”.

Those fantasies and digressions took decades to express. ‘A Time of Gifts’ had arguably been 40 years in the making when it was published in 1977. Its sequel, ‘Between the Woods and the Water’, did not appear until 1986. The third and final volume has been awaited ever since. Following Leigh Fermor’s death, a foot-high manuscript was apparently found on his desk.

Once he knuckled down to it, Leigh Fermor loved playing around with words. He was one of our greatest stylists and he was devoted to producing un-improvable books. But writing did not come easily to him, at least partly because it was something of a distraction from the main event, which was living an un-improvable life of unrepentant gaiety and fun.

For forty odd years, a legion of friends and admirers would beat a path to Paddy and Joan’s door. Artists, poets, royalty and writers came, all taking inspiration from their erudite hosts. A visit was an act of communion, a sharing of ideas and stories.

Leigh Fermor influenced a generation of British travel writers, including Bruce Chatwin, Colin Thubron, Philip Marsden, Nicholas Crane, Rory Stewart, and William Dalrymple. Indeed when Bruce Chatwin died, it was Paddy who scattered Chatwin’s ashes near a church in the mountains in Kardamyli.

When I was there in April 2022, I went to that same church to pay my respects.

But some of Paddy’s life energy was sucked out of him when Joan died in Kardamyli in June 2003, aged 91. It was related that Joan said to her friend Olivia Stewart, who was visiting: 'I really would like to die but who'd look after Paddy?' Olivia said that she would. A few minutes later, Joan fell, hit her head - and died instantly of a brain haemorrhage. Joan had often quoted Rilke: 'The good marriage is one in which each appoints the other as guardian of his solitude.' Now Paddy Leigh Fermor was all alone.

Leigh Fermor was knighted in 2004, the day of his birthday which he delighted in like a giggling schoolboy. But he missed Joan terribly.

For the last few months of his life Leigh Fermor suffered from a cancerous tumour, and in early June 2011 he underwent a tracheotomy in Greece. As death was close, according to local Greek friends, he expressed a wish to visit England to bid goodbye to his friends, and then return to die in Kardamyli, though it is also stated that he actually wished to die in England and be buried next to his wife, Joan, in Dumbleton, Gloucestershire. He stayed on at Kardamyli until the 9th June 2011, when he left Greece for the last time. He died in England the following day, 10th June 2011, aged 96. It was reported that he had dined in full black tie on the evening of his death. Paddy had style even unto the end.

A Guard of Honour was formed by the Intelligence Corps and a bugler from his former regiment, the Irish Guards, delivered the ‘Last Post’ at Paddy’s funeral. As had been his wish, he was buried beside Joan. On his gravestone in Dumbleton cemetery is an inscription in Greek, a quote from Constantine Cavafy: “In addition, he was that best of all things, Hellenic.”

Although Joan had passed away at the age of ninety-one, after suffering a fall in the Mani. Her body was repatriated to Dumbleton, the place of her birth - ironic that her dream was to be as far as she could possibly go from the rolling humdrum Worcestershire hills. But perhaps she intended to return all along. When Paddy was buried beside her it seemed that the ‘pact of liberty’ that these two lonely souls had forged themselves could be tested in the great elsewhere. Joan was more than his muse (as many of her obituaries were at pains to declare) but his greatest adventure.

To come around full circle from the movie ‘Ill Met By Moonlight’ (1957) that I saw that night in Verbier, my father told me that rather poignantly, General Kreipe, the German commander Leigh Fermor had captured - once an enemy, and later a friend - left behind notes and photographs from across his life. On one of those notes, it was discovered, the following was scribbled from a brief visit to Greece: “Somewhere, amidst all the disarray, was the story of Joan and Paddy, and” it concluded, “…of their lives together.”

His life with Joan and all that she meant to him was one part of the mosaic of who Paddy Leigh Fermor was. But it’s incomplete.

Paddy didn’t like the idea of a biography, and neither did Joan when she was alive. But friends had persuaded them that unless Paddy appointed someone to write his life, he might find himself the subject of a book whether he liked it or not. In Artemis Cooper they couldn’t have chosen a better writer to chronicle Paddy’s life as a man of action and letters. Cooper, was the daughter of another accomplished diplomat and historian, John Julius Norwich, and grand-daughter of Duff and Diana Cooper. As the wife of the historian Antony Beevor, she became a trusted friend of the Leigh Fermors. Cooper was too good of a historian to let her friendship lead her astray from being a faithful but serious biographer. Knowing this, she was told she could go ahead, but she had to promise not to publish anything until after they were both dead.

Paddy did not like being interviewed, and would keep her questions at bay with a torrent of dazzling conversation. He was the master at deflecting discussions away from himself.

He was also very unwilling to let Cooper see many of his papers, though the refusal always couched in excuses. ‘Oh dear, the Diary…’ It was the only surviving one from his great walk across Europe, and I was aching to read it. ‘Well it’s in constant use, you see, as I plug away at Vol III,’ he would say. Or, ‘My mother’s letters? Ah yes, why not. But it’s too awful, I simply cannot remember where they’ve got to…’ It was quite obvious that he and Joan, while being unfailingly generous, welcoming and hospitable, were determined to reveal as little as possible of their private lives.

While they were more than happy to talk about books, travels, friends, Crete, Greece, the war, anything - they would not tell her any more than they would have told the average journalist. But she persisted and got closer than most. He showed particularly gallantry in not talking about his romantic entanglements. But she soon twigged that anytime he described a woman as ‘an old pal’ it was a sure bet that he had an affair with her.

Intriguingly, Paddy liked to claim he was descended from Counts of the Holy Roman Empire, who came to Austria from Sligo. Paddy could recite ‘The Dead at Clomacnoise’ (in translation) and perhaps did so during a handful of flying visits to Ireland in the 1950s and 1960s, partying hard at Luggala House or Lismore Castle, or making friends with Patrick Kavanagh and Sean O’Faolain in Dublin pubs. He once provoked a massive brawl at the Kildare Hunt Ball, and was rescued from a true pounding by Ricki Huston, a beautiful Italian-American dancer, John Huston’s fourth wife and Paddy’s lover not long afterwards.

And yet, a note of caution about Paddy’s Irish roots is sounded by his biographer, Artemis Cooper, who also co-edited ‘The Broken Road’, the final, posthumously published instalment of the trilogy. “I’m not a great believer in his Irish roots,” she said of Leigh Fermor in an interview, “His mother, who was a compulsive fantasist, liked to think that her family was related to the Viscount Taaffes, of Ballymote. Her father was apparently born in County Cork. But she was never what you might call a reliable witness. She was an extraordinary person, though. Imaginative, impulsive, impossible - just the way the Irish are supposed to be, come to think of it. She was also one of those sad women, who grew up at the turn of the last century, who never found an outlet for their talents and energies, nor the right man, come to that. All she had was Paddy, and she didn’t get much of him.”

And I think that’s the point, no one really got much of Paddy Leigh Fermor even as he only gave a crumb of himself to others but still most felt grateful that it was enough to fill one’s belly and still feel overfed by him.

Paddy never tried to get to the bottom of his Irish ancestry, afraid, no doubt, of disturbing the bloom that had grown on history and his past, a recurring trait. “His memory was extraordinary,” Artemis Cooper noted, “but it lay dangerously close to his imagination and it was a very porous border.”

Within the Greek imagination many Greeks saw in Paddy Leigh Fermor as the second coming of Lord Byron. It’s not a bad comparison.

Lord Byron claimed that swimming the Hellespont was his greatest achievement. 174 years or so later, another English writer, Patrick Leigh Fermor - also, like Byron, revered by many Greeks for his part in a war of liberation - repeated the feat. Leigh Fermor, however, was 69 when he did it and continued to do it into his 80s. Byron was a mere 22 years old lad. The Hellespont swim, with its mix of literature, adventure, travel, bravery, eccentricity and romance, is an apt metaphor for Leigh Fermor’s life. Paddy Leigh Fermor was the Byron of his time. Both men had an idealised vision of Greece, were scholars and men of action, could endure harsh conditions, fought for Greek freedom, were recklessly courageous, liked to dress up and displayed a panache that impressed their Greek comrades. Like a good magician it was also a way to misdirect and conceal one’s true self.

What or who was the true Paddy Leigh Fermor?

Like Byron, Leigh Fermor appeared as a charismatic and assured figure. He was a sightseer, consuming travel, culture, and history for pleasure. He was an aristocrat moving in the social circles of his time. He was a gifted amateur scholar, speculating on literary and historical sources. Leigh Fermor, Byron’s own identity, is subject to textual distortion; it emerges from a piece of occasional prose in his books and is shaped by the claims of correspondence on a peculiarly fluid consciousness.

There is no hard and fast distinction to be drawn here between real and imagined, only a continuity of relative fictions that lie between memory and imagination as his biographer asserted. If there is a will to assert identity here, to disentangle fact and fiction, to give things as they really are and nail down the real Leigh Fermor then it is somewhere between the two. This is where we will find Paddy.

For many his death marked the passing of an extraordinary man: soldier, writer, adventurer, a charmer, a gallant romantic. As a writer he discovered a knack for drawing people out and for stringing history, language, and observation into narrative, and his timing was perfect. Paddy often indulged in florid displays of classical erudition. His learned digressions and serpentine style, his mannered mandarin gestures, even baroque prose, which Lawrence Durrell called truffled and dense with plumage, were influenced by the work of Charles Doughty and T.E. Lawrence. But one can’t compare him. I agree with the acclaimed writer Colin Thurbon who said, “There is, in the end, nobody like him. A famous raconteur and polymath. Generous, life-loving and good-hearted to a fault. Enormously good company, but touched by well-camouflaged insecurities. I would rank him very highly. ‘The finest travel writer of his generation’ is a fair assessment.”

As a child I didn’t really know who Paddy Leigh Fermor was other than this very cheerful and charismatic old man was kind, attentive, and took a boyish delight in everything you were doing. Only later on in adulthood was it clear to that Paddy was not only among the outstanding writers of his time but one of its most remarkable characters, a perfect hybrid of the man of action and the man of letters. Equally comfortable with princes and peasants, in caves or châteaux, he had amassed an enviable rich experience of places and people. “Quite the most enchanting maniac I’ve ever met,” pronounced Lawrence Durrell, and nearly everyone who’d crossed paths with him had, it seemed, come away similarly dazzled.

I am equally dazzled - more smitten in retrospect - for alas they don’t make men like Paddy any more. But every time I dip back into his books I think I discover a little bit more of who Paddy Leigh Fermor was because I find him some where between my memory and my imagination.

134 notes · View notes

louisissucha-teez · 6 months ago

Text

how have we not yet discussed how johnlock guilty as sin? is?

okay so i'm not even gonna get into how The Reichenbach Fall coded 'downtown lights' by the blue nile is (atleast not right now, i have a lot to say already). so, reichenbach fall happens and john's boredom's bone deep, this cage (life, his marriage, whatever you wanna take it as) which was once just fine (because he had sherlock and they had quite a happening life) is decidedly not fine anymore. he feels guilty for feeling this way, he doubts his own grief for how strongly it takes a hold of him, how trivial everything else (read: literally his whole LIFE) feels in comparison to this loss. he doesn't even know what to say, how to act, except to ask am i allowed to cry?

he's remembering the great adventures they had together. the days when "the game is afoot" signalled words ready to be written, fickle mysteries waiting to entrap them but being lacerated by the greatest mind he ever knew, the man he can never leave behind even when he himself was left behind (for somewhere deep down, quite contritely, he blames sherlock for being the first to leave).

but these are all things of past now. all he can do is dream of cracking locks, throwing (their) lives to the wolves or the ocean rocks (because really, what have they not done in pursuit of a criminal?)

then, The Empty Hearse. john is trying to outrun the voices in his head, the memories haunting him. he goes out on a date with mary, put the hauntings to a pause and all that, only to crash into him tonight and no, this cannot be happening and mary is looking at him and calling out to him and he should answer, she is getting worried, he should tell her it's fine but is it? is it really fine?

he should be dead.

he's a paradox

he fell to his death.

i'm seeing visions,

john wants to punch him. or hug him. he loves him. he hates him. he wishes this happened like, oh, two years ago. he wishes this never happened. he wishes the dead would've stayed dead, buried in the cemetery he visited heaven knows how many times. he wishes he were the dead instead.

john punches him.

am i bad? or mad? or wise?

i will leave the nsfw part of the chorus to your imagination (i have a lot of it. way too much of it. someone write a fanfic please.)

but sherlock is, after all, much like an add¡ction. the withdrawal was misery and one slip and falling back into the hedge maze and they're on the underground, and they are about to probably be blown up and the last thing he would see is those clear, calculating, alive, eyes staring right back at him and oh, what a way to die

they could've died. they didn't, because of course sherlock wouldn't let him die, but they could've because not every fall can be a feint and sherlock fell from grace in john's heart and he just can't bear to open it up to him again. but of course, he can't escape his own heart, can do nothing but keep his longings locked in lowercase inside a vault. he feels these feelings but doesn't act on them, never acts on them (for someone (sherlock, probably) told him there's no such thing as bad thoughts, only your actions talk). so he keeps these fatal fantasies buried inside (let out only in the dead of night). again, nothing i want to say here that taylor didn't already say.

and how can i not talk about the bridge. what if he gave up on sherlock, on them? and what if he didn't? they're gonna crucify (him) anyway but does it really matter, when he chose him, when he'll always choose him, when sherlock has haunted him for years but he'd still choose him, religiously, when what they have is all that is holy, and without it all he knows is agony?

he's here, sherlock is finally here, an answer to john's million, billion, whimpering prayers, but he's still left longing for their trysts. is he allowed to cry?

(bonus point for why does it feel like a vow we'll both uphold somehow basically being the definition of johnlock from literally day 1)

#guilty as johnlock #johnlock #john watson #sherlock holmes #bbcsherlock #taylor swift #ttpd #guilty as sin?#gas?#i am sherlocked #john and sherlock #sherlock and john #sherlock and watson #taylorswift #the tortured poets department #taylornation #Spotify

15 notes · View notes

thelocalscepticx · 2 years ago

Text

the atlas paradox after thoughts

{SPOILERS}

- callum is so broken and i think hes such an interesting character to analyze. like the thoughts of 'if you could feel everyones emotions all the time, you would have to shut off your own or you would fucking shatter'

-tristan needs to get his shit together ngl

- NICO AND GIDEON FINALLY

- hc libby is a lesbian and belen deserved better

- libby is imo the most cruel and manipulative person of the six. it was true in the first book its true now

- tho we love a corruption arc

- ngl kinda hope ezra lives. like did he do shitty things? yes. should you kidnap ur ex to 'save the world'? probably not. did i disagree with some of his philosophy and reasonings.... next question. also the fact that i think that that interaction would be really fucking fascinating. (i just want to have him and atlas yell at eachother more so i can critique their relationship more)

- parisa is and always will be the queen of my heart. i want more callum and parisa moments im the next book because i think theyre so similar and seeing their banter cracks me up

- if libby and tristan end up together i will literally cry and throw up and shit my pants in rage they are AWFUL together.

- belen deserved better pt 2

- i think reina didnt do much this book (other than possibly draft a damn pantheon) so im hoping we see her research come to fruition in the next book

- suddenly i love dalton? like him and parisa burning it to the ground? mania? madness? im living for it

-callum x tristan supremacy. they remind me of those broken plates that you mend with gold and they become more beautiful

- does anyone remember all the shit callum said about the 6 in the first book?

"Libby Rhodes was an anxious impending meltdown whose decisions were based entirely on what she had allowed the world to shape her into. She was more powerful than all of them except for Nico, and of course she was. Because that was her curse: regardless of how much power she possessed, she lacked the dauntlessness to misuse it. She was too small-minded, too un-hungry for that. Too trapped within the cage of her own fears, her desires to be liked. The day she woke up and realized she could make her own world would be a dangerous one, but it was so unlikely it hardly kelt Callum up at night." (301)

"'Parisa is dangerous. She is angry," he clarified. "She is furious, vindictive, spiteful, naturally misanthropic. If she had Libby's power, or Nico's, she would have destroyed what remains of society by now...[she's here] to find a way to do it...Destroy things. The world possibly. Or control it. Whatever option suits her when she find it"'(305)

"Libby was a hero. Parisa was a villain. They would both be disappointed in the end." (300)

the way that all of this is being brought up again in TAP is beautiful

- callum is on his way to some sort of redemption/selfless arc i can TASTE IT and i crave it.

- everyone is hot. all the time. it hurts me

- blake is great at gaslighting me into making me think i understand any of the mathematic scientific bs they talk about at any given time

- theyre all so broken and in need of therapy

- i want callum to verbally destroy adrian caine

- i want all of them to succeed in their funky lil goals and become gods (except libby)

- speaking of libby- i think shed be a great villain

anyways. this series? owns my mf ass

219 notes · View notes

kraro-school-life · 1 year ago

Text

✦ 15. 1. 24 ✦ 📓 ✦ Monday ✦

✧⋆｡✎

It´s so late rn, but I achieved my goal of studying for 5h today! (I even did 6) Paradoxically, I am still feeling underprepared. Like what is even is all of this shit?? (I wrote 4 double pages of notes wth) Anyway... I knew chugging another coffee at 9pm wasn´t a good idea but oh well (*regretting 😭*). I just want the exam to be over hdsjnfwdeuniewmf

🌱🌿🪴 - 6h 3min on Forest ♫₊˚.🎧 ▷▷ Run For Roses - Nmixx

Have a great day/night !! ~ ♦️

#studyblr #studying #study aesthetic #student life #study blog #study motivation #study inspo #study inspiration #study buddy #karoriginal #karodiaries #forest app

12 notes · View notes

meowww-ffxiv · 6 months ago

Text

Finished Dawntrail main story! :}

Blorbo thoughts below.

It was thematically appropriate that Mordred, who was a funeral priest and had by this point in his life performed many a send-off, to both his most beloved Hydaelyn AND to his enemies, who spent that life after so much death during the Seventh Calamity helping others find comfort and dignity in their and their loved ones' passing, to be here in Living Memory.

He asked Cahciua to verify first. Theodore's Echo, when empowered by Mordred, could detect the melody of souls and not just the aether they were cocooned in. So with her blessing, they performed such a search -- and I'm sure they found it was just as she said. That all of Living Memory was a hollow echo.

And then Mordred agreed to her request.

Theodore accompanied Erenville for much of the time there, because they were close friends and because Theodore had also lost his mother. They didn't speak much during, since Erenville seemed someone who would rather weather his own pains in private, but he took great comfort in the fact that someone refused to leave him to his own devices. Someone unjudgmental and patient, and quiet.

They didn't speak after, not just yet, but one day soon they would.

Liios in his own WoL-verse did, though.

In a quiet moment afterwards, Liios caught up with Erenville in the dimming lights of a seaside street, and asked, "How are you?"

Erenville wanted to walk away. But the warmth and calm with which that question was asked made some already-fragile thing inside his chest crack. So he blurted, "I don't have a name for it. This-- This--"

"Mm," Liios agreed, like he knew exactly what it was Erenville meant, and so spared him the need to explain it.

They walked together, aimlessly, through those darkened streets. Until Erenville eventually said, "Ptolemy told me that you lost your mother too, decades ago."

"Yes. It was a good death. She was calm. We knew it was coming," Liios replied. He, too, sounded calm. The smooth surface of a scar healed over. "Her parting tore me apart in a way that unmade and remade me."

He left space in the silence that followed, for Erenville to speak. When he didn't, Liios continued, "Once the first wave of died away, it revisited me in fragments. Mum's favorite coffee mug on the kitchen counter. Her name cited in research papers that I read. Letters addressed to her from old students and colleagues that took weeks to arrive, so by the time they got to us, it was already months after the funeral.

"Seeing the casket lowered into the ground wasn't as hard as knowing that she will never drink out of that mug again. Nor will she be there to answer questions I have about those papers and her opinions on their findings. Nor will she ever sit by the window of our house, smelling of jasmine and incense, answering those letters. It overwhelmed me, the void that Mum left behind."

Erenville's steps faltered. Liios slowed too, adjusting his pace effortlessly so they were still together, shoulder-to-shoulder. His eyes were on the sea and its gentle ripples, diligently averted from the tears pouring down Erenville's face.

"I told the housekeeper to stay out of our home for six months," Liios said. "I couldn't bear it -- to touch anything in that house felt like it would erase the last traces of her in the world. In this corner of the world that we once shared. Ptolemy was still unwell then, so he stayed at the hospital most nights, though I think he did so intentionally because it was me that he couldn't bear and not the house, nor her loss.

"Days went by. The dust gathered. Everything was untouched, just the way it was when she left for the last time, inert and lifeless. She departed anyway. I scrambled to hold onto her presence, to the point of destroying every opportunity I'd spent decades to earn for myself.

"But then we went to Eorzea, and I found her again. Paradoxically, she wasn't in that mausoleum I'd made of our home. She was a forceful and assertive woman, you see. She traveled to the least recommended places to render medical aid to those who might not have any hope of such help even existing. And Eorzea, Coerthas, being the dangerous frontier that it was... When I hiked into the mountains with my students and made our aetherological engineering 'projects' into helping install self-functioning lamps so the locals wouldn't slip in the dark, or some such... There she was. Rhaya Suvalli, the Miqo'te scholar who sprung my brother out of the grave my clan had already placed him into, just waiting for him to stop breathing. Rhaya Suvalli, up to her elbows in grease or blood, helping people. Because it was what she'd set her heart on. Because she had decided this was the right thing to do."

The sea-winds were cold at night. Erenville blamed them for the way he was shivering and not because of the feeling of seams rapidly coming apart under his skin.

But Liios turned and shrugged off the short cloak he'd been wearing, and tossed it around Erenville's shoulders. He continued, like he didn't see the tears still, "I turn ninety-two this year. Believe me when I say that what I just told you is a universal experience. So long as you continue to live, you'll find those you have outlived in the things they loved and cared about. And Cahciua was obviously a remarkable woman, so I'm more than certain you will find her with ease. Never mind the fact that you're one of the finest gleaners we've had in a generation."

...Being honest, Erenville had always had a mild aversion to Liios. Some of it was exactly because Liios reminded him of the most exhausting bits of his mother. Someone who seemed nice and cheerful, but was in fact very pushy and always deciding things on their own. The other part was just Liios himself, who was talkative and high-energy in a way that made Erenville want to exit the room. The audacity of the Warrior of Light to be shocked that Erenville wasn't yet thirty, when Liios himself felt overly young for his age. Which, cringe.

But in that moment, Liios's lopsided smile and the paltry attempt at a compliment left a warmth in Erenville's chest that, just like the grief he hadn't yet untangled, could not be extinguished.

He still snorted and shook his head, sullenly wrapping the cloak up to his nose to hide his face. But when Liios laughed, the tears slowed.

Erenville had no clear recollection of how he got from the streets back to the palace and into his bedroom, only that he didn't feel crushingly alone during any of it which meant Liios escorted him. And he would claim no recollection of why there was a green-and-brown cloak among his possessions now, either.

Erenville considered passing it back through Ptolemy, but his friend giving him an amused look and asking, "Are you returning a gift?" had him rescind the thought.

But faces had to be saved. So Erenville told Ptolemy, "You should be proud. He managed almost an entire conversation about himself without mentioning you more than once."

To which Ptolemy only laughed, a little sadly. "I made him promise to try and live for himself, after he returned from Ultima Thule," he said. "I see Svalin is as serious about his promises as he'd always been."

It gave Erenville the nebulous feeling that maybe the invincible Warrior of Light might be among the least okay people in Eitherys. But they could unpack that later. Cahciua would most definitely have pestered Liios, anyway. Erenville might try his hand at it.

Coming back to Meowdred for a moment. Every time he saw the aftermath of an Umbral Calamity, Meowdred wanted to descend to the Underworld and beat Emet-Selch to death a second time.

It was pointless. He knew that. Ascians didn't give a fuck. Emet-Selch most of all. Everything for the glory of their past, etc. He couldn't make them hurt the way they hurt these worlds they destroyed, because they were only inflicting that very same pain they suffered on those around them. But Mordred wanted satisfaction so badly. He wanted Emet-Selch to be affected by the raw fury and hatred and agony Mordred himself feel, reprised over and over, in hearing these stories.

But Emet-Selch, once again, would never be sorry. Nor was Azem sorry all those millennia ago, for having walked out on Emet-Selch and his own people.

They all must shoulder their harvests, of joy or of blood.

Somewhere in this was the uncomfortable realization on Mordred's end that he wanted Emet-Selch to care about him; about how he felt. While knowing the fucker didn't. And he knew too where this desire came from; they were very alike, and Mordred sought in Emet-Selch a kinship. An acknowledgement all their own, between them, and not an echo of Hades and Medeus of the Azem seat.

Nasty. Awful. Hate it. But it existed.

Liios had licked the new macguffin bestowed upon him by Sphene and the plot at least once by now. He had also stared at the helix shape for a long, long time, and wondered if it had anything to do with the spiral silhouettes so favored by the Ancients of Amaurot.

While in Elpis the first time, Liios had managed to gather some information about Azem. Apparently he was also a technological whiz just like him, with a love for inventing ridiculous devices to solve people's problems. Liios had no idea if that Azem -- whose name was apparently Helios, the comedy that fate was -- knew about the Sundering beforehand, but if he did, wasn't it just like him to leave behind a means by which to bridge worlds?

Ah, well. That was food for thought. For right now, Liios was spending his time trying to puzzle out how to use electrope like the Living Memory's civilization did.

#dawntrail spoilers #liios suvali #meowdred surana

3 notes · View notes

southeastasiadiary · 1 year ago

Text

Day Twenty-One, Part One: A Day of Wats and Wandering

The description for today on my itinerary reads, “Free time to wander around and free visits. Overnight in Luang Prabang.” Now, as a lifelong overthinker, my natural response to a statement like this is, “Wander around? Where? And how will I know when I’ve wandered enough? How many free visits does one make?” It’s the typical Paradox of Choice. Having too many options, I tend to freeze. For example, the first time I ever went to the DeKalb Farmers Market outside Atlanta, I emerged empty-handed because, seriously, how do you know which of the 396 varieties of green beans to buy? And, after last night’s story, I’m loath to buy beans at the market now anyway.

So, today’s dilemma was: Should I stay in Luang Prabang or go to the Pak Ou Caves? Should I take the bullet train to Vientiane or, as Pindar suggests, “Seek nearer home.”

In the end, inertia made the choice for me, as inertia is wont to do. I slept in late, having gotten up early for the alms ceremony the day before and then having gone back into town for the Garavek Story Telling Show. That meant that it was too late to go to the Pak Ou Caves or Vientiane, each of which would’ve required an early start. So, after a late-ish breakfast, I read the guidebook, chose a few destinations, and took the hotel shuttle to the center of Luang Prabang, and began my own personal Great Wat Tour.

The town of Luang Prabang is about the size of Statesboro, Georgia, where I spent eleven happy years in the 1990s. Actually, the comparison to Statesboro is not at all a bad one. If you simply replace every church of any denomination in Statesboro with a wat (i.e., a temple, a monastery, or a combination of the two) here, you’d end up with much the same thing. I’ll spare you photos of every single wat I took pictures of today (suffice it to say, there were lots), and just give you the Reader's Digest version. Even having just been there, they do start to look a bit “samey” in snapshots. And, if you haven’t been there in person, I doubt it’s easy all to tell one from another. But here are a select few.

I’ll start with the Wat Mahathat (“The Temple of the Large Stupa”) mostly because, while I was there, one of the novices dashed out and rang this large bell to signal that it was time for chanting to begin.

The bell also serves as something of a town clock. You can always tell what time of day it is in Luang Prabang by whichever bell is being sounded in whichever monastery. Even more impressive than the bell is a massive drum that’s hung nearby and played on certain festive occasions.

The large stupa that gives the wat its name can be seen in upper left of this picture. I photographed it almost accidentally since my attention was really drawn to the beautiful, but far less significant golden stupa to the right.

The temple building is quite ornate and, y my eye, very Laotian in style.

A long row of spirit houses lines the rear of the property.

Some of the senior monks are given residences that almost look like tourist cabins.

The steps leaving the wat were littered with frangipani blossoms, a flower that has become a national symbol for Laos.

Since the Laotian word for frangipani is champa, and I’d just come from two countries where the Champa Kingdom was very important, this term can be confusing. In fact, however, the Laotian word champa has absolutely nothing to do with the Champa Kingdom. It’s just a linguistic coincidence.

Recalling that an early name for this territory was Lan Xang, “The Million Elephants Kingdom,” another common symbol is that of the elephant, which also appears nearly everywhere.

By the way, elephant trunks are a little like horseshoes in Southeast Asia. In depictions, they should always be raised, otherwise the luck “runs out.”

Even though I’d been to Wat Mai (“The New Monastery”) the other day, I knew I hadn’t seen everything that was there. So, in my free wandering today, I returned to Wat Mai and saw a building that served as a classroom for instruction in the tenets of Buddhism.

#travel #Wat Mahathat #Luang Prabang #Laos #Wat Mai

2 notes · View notes

grigori77 · 2 years ago

Text

Movies of 2023 - My Pre-Summer Rundown (Part 2)

The Top Ten:

10. SICK – Ultimately the year’s biggest horror cinema SURPRISE (so far, anyway) was also one of the year’s VERY FIRST standouts period, a brilliant little streaming sleeper from Peacock which snuck in under the radar but EFFORTLESSLY captured my attention AND the darker parts of my imagination. Best of all, though, it was SO COOL to see legendary revisionist horror screenwriter Kevin Williamson return to the “big screen” again after spending so long plying his trade on TV – I was VERY MUCH the target audience for Scream when it came out, I just ATE UP his delicious post-modern deconstruction of the slasher genre and its subsequent follow-ups (although Robert Rodriguez’ The Faculty, his fantastic take on alien invasion movie tropes, remains my very favourite of his offerings to date), even if it did lead to a fresh sub-genre which, paradoxically, became increasingly tired and toothless as the years progressed. In the end, I think it’s probably A GOOD THING he took a step back – he just needed a chance to rethink things and find a fresh angle to come at the genre … and BY THE GODS has he ever found one with THIS. Interestingly, for Williamson at least, the Pandemic couldn’t have come along at a better time, giving him fertile ground indeed in which to grow a particularly potent darkly comic slasher horror thriller which EASILY lives up to his masterworks. Taking place in the early days of the original outbreak, when the first Lockdown was just starting, infection alerts and self-isolation were becoming a major thing and everybody was PANICKING over how much they really DIDN’T yet know about what was REALLY going on, the setting was already ripe for some pretty intense, chaotic storytelling … so adding a brutal serial killer with a penchant for killing off the idiots who flagrantly flaunted the COVID safety restrictions and purposefully went out of their way to pretend things were the same as normal was a damn slick move. The main bulk of the narrative revolves around three college kids in some nondescript part of the US – Parker (Blockers and The Society’s Gideon Adlon), a well-off party girl who’s looking to make some major changes in her life, and her best friend Miri (up-and coming R&B artist Beth Million), who go to Parker’s family’s expansive country home to quarantine in comfort, and Parker’s newly-EX boyfriend DJ (Man of Steel and Teen Wolf’s Dylan Sprayberry), who turns up ostensibly to try and patch things up between them but may simply have come for a lucky hook-up – who are targeted by the killer who subsequently hunts them during a night of fraught tension, smartly staged stalk-and-slash set-pieces and a hefty dose of Williamson’s characteristic jet black-but-enjoyably geeky sense of humour, which is this time pitched to a particularly sharp edge of biting finger-on-the-pulse satire given the rich socio-political real-life material he’s able to mine here. The small but extremely potent cast are all BRILLIANT, although the film really is DOMINATED by Adlon, who once again shows that she’s destined for GREAT THINGS INDEED in the future with a brilliant turn that runs an impressive gamut from irresponsibly entitled to vitally determined survivor once circumstances have fully driven her to take proper responsibility for all her childish behaviour, making for a compellingly sympathetic young heroine we find easy to start rooting for. It probably helps the man behind the camera is John Hyams (All Square, Alone), son of legendary genre-hopping director Peter Hyams, who shows he’s definitely inherited his dad’s impressive skill by crafting a lean, tight and precise slice of horror cinema which takes full advantage of a tight budget and (mostly) a single location, which means the end result is a brilliant little comedy horror gem that I’d heartily recommend folk hunt down on streaming, or at the very least keep in mind for Halloween …

9. COCAINE BEAR – gods, if EVER there was a true story that seemed TAILOR MADE for cinema, it’s the bizarre tale of Cokey the Bear, AKA Pablo Eskobear, an American black bear that died after ingesting 34 keys of cocaine that were dumped out of a smuggler’s cargo plane over the Tennessee wilderness in 1985. That being said, it’s not a huge surprise it’s taken Hollywood SO LONG to actually get it made, perhaps it’s just TOO CRAZY a concept for it to have been made before now. Ultimately, the film takes A LOT of liberties with the truth to instead craft an entertaining story, but in the end that’s definitely the smart move, simply using the concept as a springboard to craft a gloriously batshit horror comedy with a JET BLACK sense of humour populated by an offbeat collection of quirky characters. Keri Russell stars as Sari, a nurse and single mother who has to brave the woods in order to find her young daughter Dee Dee (The Florida Project’s Brooklyn Prince), who’s playing hooky in the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest with her best friend Henry (Sweet Tooth’s Christian Convery) right when Cokey goes on a drug-fuelled homicidal rampage; meanwhile, recently bereaved widower Eddie (Solo’s Alden Ehrenreich) and his best friend Daveed (Straight Outta Compton’s O’Shea Jackson Jr.) are two drug cartel enforcers reluctantly scouring the area in search of their lost product at the behest of Eddie’s overbearing St Louis drug kingpin father Syd White (the late, great Ray Liotta, to whom the film is dedicated); and then there’s hapless but dogged Knoxville detective Bob (the venerable Isaiah Whitlock Jr.), who knows he can bust White if he can just get his hands on the evidence. All three parties converge in the park while the bear wreaks merry havoc in Elizabeth Banks’ third film as a director (after Pitch Perfect 2 and the CRIMINALLY mistreated and overlooked Charlie’s Angels reboot), which looks like it might FINALLY get people to start taking her serious BEHIND the camera as well as IN FRONT of it – this is a proper laugh-riot of a film which is also delightfully non-PC, and it’s liberally peppered with impressively blood-soaked effects to thrill the gore-hounds as well as an impressively well-realised digital animal character in the eponymous drug-addled beastie. The cast are brilliant too, Russell and Ehrenreich both particularly impressing in their respective nominal lead roles while the two kids are EXCEPTIONAL (particularly Convery, getting to overact as one of the most hyperactive-yet-not-irritating kids I’ve ever seen on screen), and it’s both enriching and a little bit heartbreaking to watch Liotta once again acting his socks off in one of his very last film roles; that being said, several of the scenes are thoroughly STOLEN by the irrepressible Margo Martindale, who’s clearly having the time of her life in one of her most gloriously OTT roles as foul-mouthed, much put-upon park Ranger Liz. Ultimately this is a horror comedy where the balance is definitely tipped very much in favour of the laughs over the scares, but that’s fine, because with a concept this batshit bonkers we were always gonna find it too funny to ever be remotely scary, so the end result is one of THE FUNNIEST MOVIES I’ve run across in the cinema so far this year, gleefully revelling in its own inherent irreverence. It’s just about the most fun you could ever expect it to be, which is what you’d want from a movie about a cocaine bear, really …

8. ANT-MAN & THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA – coming off the back of 2022’s decidedly hit-and-miss big screen slate for Disney and Marvel’s current flagship property, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, THIS year’s first MCU release had A LOT of eyes on it. Gods know, I definitely has TWO OF ‘EM … and it probably wasn’t the best title to be laying all this weight on, either – the Ant-Man movies in particular have always been a bit of a marmite property within the larger universe, with as many detractors as fans, which definitely didn’t help things here. If this turned out to be third time unlucky for Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang and the rest, it could spell much larger disaster for the MCU overall, or at the very least signify that the cracks are definitely growing beyond the studios’ capacity to patch ‘em up on the run. So I’ll admit, I went into this one with a whole lot of trepidation … was it unwarranted? Well, being completely honest … not ENTIRELY. Tried-and-tested comedy director Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man films have always been a pretty mad collection anyway, as much a full-blown comedy sub-franchise as the Guardians of the Galaxy movies or Thor under Taika Waititi, but even so they still managed to keep ONE FOOT on the ground even while the rest was playing EXTENSIVELY in the Quantum Realm, but this one may just have finally jumped the shark. Granted, part of this film’s particular OTT outlandishness and unabashed WACKINESS is down to narrative necessity – giving too much away plot-wise unfortunately runs the risk of dropping some MASSIVE spoilers, but it’s at least safe to say that the vast majority of the story takes place ENTIRELY in the Quantum Realm this time, and it’s a place which is A WHOLE LOT DIFFERENT from anything we might have imagined from our very brief visits in Ant-Man & the Wasp and Avengers Endgame. For a start, it’s A WHOLE LOT BIGGER than we thought it was, and MUCH more heavily populated by some truly WEIRD SHIT … the film also has some major heavy-lifting to do with regards to setting up the Big Bad for Phase 5 and 6 both – Kang the Conqueror (The Last Black Man In San Francisco and Creed III’s Jonathan Majors), a Multiverse-based Thanos level threat we first encountered (sort of) in 2021’s runaway hit first season of Loki. Thankfully, this at least is one of the areas in which the movie definitely SUCCEEDED – Majors IMMEDIATELY makes his presence keenly felt as one of the franchise’s most interesting and effective supervillains, a near God Tier Bad Guy who’s clearly gonna give the whole Avengers roster a run for their money when they finally come face to face with him (in whatever form this ultimately takes). The plot, such as it is, is pure scrambled bananas, a heavyweight mindfuck it’s best to just DISENGAGE and go with to get proper enjoyment out of – this is definitely a cinematic GUILTY PLEASURE, and trying to take it even remotely seriously immediately draws the eye to a thousand gaping plot-holes and glaring narrative stumbles. At least the patented stunning, primary coloured visuals, winning sense of humour and cavalcade of delightfully wacky set-pieces (the clone-spawning “probability explosion” sequence is a particularly overblown, super-trippy highlight with an unexpected tear-jerk factor built in) are all fully functional and behaving correctly, and the thoroughly endearing cast all deliver admirably without a single off-note hint of miscasting – Rudd and Evangeline Lilly (returning as Hope van Dyne AKA the titular Wasp) are both pitch perfect as always, while it’s nice to see Michael Douglas and PARTICULARLY Michelle Pfeiffer getting to do a whole lot more this time round as Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne, and the glaring Michael Pena-shaped hole is ALMOST filled by a few other quality comedic turns from the likes of deadpan laugh-MASTER Bill Murray and David Dastmalchian (here returning in a VERY interesting vut also very DIFFERENT role to what we’ve seen from him here before), as well as a surprise returning face (ahem) from the franchise’s past. Meanwhile, alongside Majors there are some other similarly noteworthy series newcomers who make BIG IMPRESSIONS, from Z Nation and The Mandalorian’s Katy O’Brien (who’s been an growing favourite of mine for a little while now), who’s a completely EPIC badass I wanna see A LOT more of in the future as hard-nosed Quantum freedom fighter Jentorra, to Kathryn Newton (Supernatural, Freaky), making the role of Scott’s now (pretty much) full-grown daughter Cassie ENTIRELY her own, and she’s clearly got a MAJOR future ahead of her in the MCU herself now she’s started carving out her own super-powered secret identity. The movie may be another flawed, somewhat unwieldy and occasionally downright CLUNKY beast, but the franchise is definitely still managing to stand up, and compared to the likes of Thor: Love & Thunder and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever it definitely holds up a good deal better in its own right. Most of all, though, it’s A WHOLE LOT of pure, unadulterated FUN, which is ultimately exactly what you want from a big primary-coloured superhero blockbuster. With the arrival of the new (and, apparently, FINAL) Guardians of the Galaxy movie now imminent, it still remains to be seen if the MCU can be clawed back from the brink it’s still teetering perilously on the edge of, but this, despite all that’s still wrong with it, is at least a VERY SMALL step back in the right direction again …

7. THE PALE BLUE EYE – largely sneaking in under the radar on Netflix to start the New Year off, the latest offering from highly acclaimed indie writer-director Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart, Black Mass, Antlers) is, much as we’d likely expect from such a consistently varied, genre-hopping filmmaker, a strange, unique and deeply intriguing beast of a film. Adapted from Louis Bayard’s well-received speculative fiction novel about a young Edgar Allan Poe aiding the investigation of a bafflingly macabre murder in the US Military Academy at West Point in the early 1830s. Christian Bale returns with typical stoic, intense and magnificently brooding megawatt presence for his THIRD leading man tour of duty for Cooper (after Out of the Furnace and Hostiles) as Augustus Landor, a former West Point graduate-turned misanthropic former detective brought in to lead the investigation into the brutal hanging and evisceration (with additional heart-removal) of a young cadet that’s baffling the faculty and local police, which is soon compounded when additional bodies start piling up. He’s aided in his endeavours by another cadet, the young Poe himself (played to PERFECTION by Harry Potter’s own Harry Melling, continuing his meteoric and deeply impressive rise to prominence with another TOUR-DE-FORCE performance here), while the clues lead to a variety of deeply troubling twists and revelations as well as an intriguing collection of suitably odd and often highly charismatic characters played by the sterling likes of Lucy Boynton, Toby Jones, Simon McBurney and a fascinatingly unusual turn from Robert Duvall, although the real standout here is a truly MAGNIFICENT career-best performance from Gillian Anderson. Cooper piles on the story’s doom-laden gothic atmosphere to great effect throughout while cranking up the slow-burn and deeply uncomfortable suspenseful tension throughout, while the plot is nothing short of MACHIAVELLIAN in its levels of ingenious labyrinthine intelligence, dropping an ultimate denouement that you really have to be paying SERIOUS ATTENTION to see coming, and the production design, costumes, period detailing and, most of all, the thoroughly MOODY bleak-midwinter cinematography make for a freezing cold but thoroughly rewarding feast for the eyes for the more discerning film-fanatic. Altogether Cooper’s delivered another winner, and I hope he continues to make films this good well into the future.

6. SHAZAM: FURY OF THE GODS – it’s interesting that, at least on here, the DC Cinematic Universe (AKA the DCEU) is currently WINNING OUT over the MCU, especially given the recent MAJOR upheavals that are now rocking the franchise as a whole (and look set to continue well into the remainder of this year and beyond). Not least because, technically, once The Flash hits cinemas and the Universe essentially gets hit with a Hard Reset under the guidance of new DC Studios CEO James Gunn, none of this even MATTERS any more going forward … certainly this fact has NOT been lost on cinemagoers, who were already starting to pull back when Black Adam came out late last year and subsequently seemed content to STAY AWAY IN DROVES for this one, likely waiting to give it a go in the privacy and safety of their own homes once it hit streaming. In a way this sounded a pre-emptive death knell for the DCEU which I’m genuinely sceptical about it recovering from … which is a shame, because 2019’s Shazam! was one of the franchise’s BEST FEATURES, a gleefully anarchic post-modern deconstruction of the overblown superhero antics the franchise largely glorified before while never taking itself particularly seriously but simply playing it with just the right amount of knowing wink-and-nod. Even more of a shame, then, that this has proven to be SUCH a performance TURKEY, because it’s JUST AS GOOD as the first one, taking all of the lessons that were learned from the first movie to heart and delivering more of everything that really WORKED once more, even while trying something new and fresh at the same time to expand on this little corner of the Universe with impressive aplomb and consummate skill. Returning director Drew Sandberg (Lights Out, Annabelle: Creation) once again delivers in HIGH STYLE and customary spooky flair as he and returning screenwriter Henry Gayden (Earth To Echo, There’s Someone In Your House), along with Fast & Furious franchise lynchpin scribe Chris Morgan, expand on the adventures of coming-of-age young hero Billy Batson (Andi Mack’s Asher Angel) and his (still unnamed) superpowered alter ego (Zachary Levi), alongside his now similarly gifted teenaged foster siblings, as the Daughters of Atlas – Hespera (Helen Mirren), Kalypso (Lucy Liu) and Anthea (Rachel Zegler), a trio of immensely powerful but (somewhat) morally dubious classical Greek goddesses – come to claim their powers for their own in order to rejuvenate the Tree of Life and punish Mankind for its wickedness. The usual existential high stakes, then. Angel and Levi are, once again, ON FIRE here, the former star of Chuck in particular once again proving what an undisputable comedic MASTER he is while they both deliver MAGNIFICENTLY in the dramatic moments too, while their returning co-stars and sterling veteran support are once again just as great as before, It’s Jack Dylan Grazer particularly getting to really SHINE this time round in a particularly WEIGHTY role that nonetheless once again manages to utilise his own impressive comedic talents to full effect too, while it’s also GREAT to see This Is Us’ Faith Herman get a much more expanded role this time round as the irrepressible Darla; Djimon Hounsou, meanwhile, also gets a lot more to do as he returns as the enjoyably crabby and pompous Wizard Shazam, who’s none too happy with Billy for breaking the staff last time round and setting this all off in the first place. The Daughters, meanwhile, are FANTASTIC antagonists, Liu and Mirren clearly enjoying the opportunity to be flamboyant, majestic and over-the-top in proper Shakespearean style, while Zegler invests “Anne” with a good deal more moral fibre and complexity as the most sympathetic (and ultimately conflicted) of the trio. Sandberg and co again deliver IN SPADES on the action, atmospherics, gorgeously exotic design and sheer creativity which made the first movie such an unexpected treat, while also delivering more of that winning, sometimes downright SCREWBALL BONKERS humour to keep it entertaining and let you know that, just like its predecessor, this film knows FULL WELL how ridiculous it is and is fully prepared to just OWN IT. The end result is, once again, one of the best of the current slate of DCEU films, and it just makes it even sadder to think that they’re likely not gonna continue with this once the franchise reboots. Gods know it don’t bode too well for The Flash, Blue Beetle or Aquaman & the Lost Kingdom, which is a shame cuz they also look pretty promising …

5. EVIL DEAD RISE – sometimes you just can’t keep a good franchise down, and that’s ALWAYS been the case with the Evil Dead movies. That being said, each movie has always happily been its own thing too, so even when Sam Raimi was making his original trilogy they were all movies you could easily pick up and watch as a standalone without needing to see the others too (although it was well worth doing it). Better, though, is the fact that every offering so far has been consistently GREAT, even 2013’s sort-of reboot from Don’t Breathe and The Girl In the Spider’s Web writer-director Fede Alvarez, which did a genuinely spectacular job of bringing the franchise kicking and screaming into the new Millennium while also delivering something which was unapologetically old school in the very best way. Thankfully this is definitely the way that the latest writer-director, relative newcomer Lee Cronin (The Hole In the Ground), has decided to do things, although he’s also taking this newly-rebooted story in a fresh new direction with a MAJOR setting change as the Deadites are, for the first time (at least on the BIG screen) unleashed in the big inner city. It’s a bold move, but certainly has the instant charm of doing something we’ve never seen before, bringing the claustrophobic madness of the originals into a very different but equally close-quarters environment as we’re now seeing the demonically possessed monsters terrorising their victims in tiny apartment rooms, cramped corridors and malfunctioning elevators which make for a whole host of new opportunities to change up the scares, the action and the delivery of the thoroughly skewed plot. Best of all, this is BY FAR the most female-centric film in the franchise to date, making for a much more interesting and far less testosterone-heavy atmosphere this time around as the women get to take the lead far more than they did in the previous movies. The gods know that’s VERY MUCH my shit right there … Vikings’ Alyssa Sutherland is a veritable FORCE OF (UN)NATURE as Ellie, the downtrodden single mother trying to keep her three kids and her whole life from going off the rails until she’s taken over by the Evil when her calamitously foolish young wannabe DJ son Danny (Storm Boy and The End’s Morgan Davies) finds and reads from the Book of the Dead, while Picnic At Hanging Rock’s Lily Sullivan is endearingly vulnerable and fallible but ultimately steely as her Ellie’s estranged kid sister Beth, who comes home in a bad spot just in time to get thrown into the middle of the ensuing chaos; Gabrielle Echols (Reminiscence) and Nell Fisher (Northspur), meanwhile, are both similarly exceptional and thoroughly memorable as Ellie’s teen and pre-teen daughters Bridget and Kassie. The majority of the action plays out in the impressively squalid confines of the newly-condemned apartment building, turning uncomfortably familiar surroundings into downright TERRIFYING nightmarish hellscapes as the horrors unfold within, Cronin pulling out every trick in the book to deliver a knuckle-whitening scare-fest that skilfully works its way under your skin and grips your heart tight enough to make it explode with sheer anxiety, and, like every one of its predecessors, he has managed to pull it all off with the absolute BARE MINIMUM of digital assistance, this film representing another resounding triumph for spectacularly NASTY physical effects. This is DEFINITELY the scariest thing I’ve seen so far in what’s ALREADY proven to be a genuinely GREAT YEAR for horror cinema, but more than that it’s ENTIRELY lived up to its legacy, earning its place in one of the greatest horror franchises of ALL TIME with pride. I look forward to seeing what Cronin does next, and I can’t wait to see what the series is gonna throw at us next, either …

4. PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH – my current top animated feature for 2023 is an interesting one because, while I am a MASSIVE fan of Dreamworks Animation Studios’ output in general and the Shrek films in particular, I have to admit that the FIRST standalone spinoff featuring Antonio Banderas’ awesome fairy-tale character left me somewhat underwhelmed … yes, I know, it’s a travesty, STONE ME!!! I know I deserve it … but really, even with Salma Hayek on board it just didn’t reach the same levels of sheer unadulterated COOL that the Shrek movies did for me. So I approached the EXTREMELY belated follow-up with a definite sense of trepidation, despite the intriguing new animation style makeover that’s clearly HEAVILY inspired by the recent success of the first Spider-Verse movie and the massive anticipation for its incoming sequel. It looks GORGEOUS, but as we’ve learned to our cost over the years with this kind of filmmaking, looks DO NOT always automatically mean it’s gonna be a belter. Thank the gods, then, that I was proven wrong THIS TIME … yup, for his sophomore spinoff movie, Puss FINALLY got a vehicle he could truly be PROUD OF. It’s got a BRILLIANT premise about it which PERFECTLY fits with the amount of time that’s passed since the first one, and definitely means that the older fans among us (like myself) can definitely find A LOT to resonate with in terms of the themes here – Puss discovers that he’s only got ONE of his nine lives left and it sends him into a DEEP existential crisis as he realises that he’s pretty much WASTED much of the time he had, and technically that means he’s only got ONE CHANCE left to truly be alive. So he abandons his riotous adventurer lifestyle and “retires” as a lapcat for one SERIOUSLY weird cat-lady, Mama Luna (High Fidelity’s Da’Vine Joy Randolph) … only for his past to catch up to him in the form of a quartet of bounty hunters, Goldilocks (Florence Pugh) and the Three Bears (Ray Winstone, Olivia Colman and beloved up-and-coming British comic Samson Kayo). This prompts Puss to escape onto the road for one final adventure reuniting with his long-lost love Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek), who’s none too happy to have him back in her life after he abandoned her at the Altar, as well as a deeply odd new companion, Perrito (What We Do In the Shadows’ Harvey Guillen), a diminutive therapy dog who was masquerading as one of Luna’s cats, as they set out in search of the Wishing Star, a fallen star that can grant whoever finds it their heart’s desire, which means Puss could get his other Eight Lives back. Except that they’ve still got the bounty hunters on their trail, along with (now decidedly) Big Jack Horner (John Mulaney), a magic-item collecting entrepreneur who has a score to settle with Puss which definitely coincides with his fervent desire to claim the Star for himself, and a mysterious Wolf (the irresistibly silky tones of Narcos’ Wagner Moura) who may actually be Death Himself, who has his own, much darker reasons for finding Puss. Y’know how they say you judge a hero by the strength of the villains he faces? Well with antagonists of THIS calibre, Puss just might have finally met his match … and even better, EVEYTHING ELSE about this movie is as strong as its villains – it’s one of the most well-written, well-directed and deeply, affectingly resonant movies that Dreamworks have EVER DONE, EASILY on a par with the rest of the Shrek canon and even matching up impressively well with the true Gold Standards like Kung Fu Panda and the How To Train Your Dragon movies, everyone involved in this project clearly giving it their all in a total labour of pure, unadulterated LOVE that pays VAST dividends on the screen. The cast, of course, are among the greatest key ingredients in this, and as we’ve come to expect from these movies they’re all pulling their weight MAGNIFICENTLY – Guillen and Mulaney in particularly deliver SPECTACULARLY in their respective roles, while Pugh and her cohorts are at once hilariously good fun but also elevate their characters FAR ABOVE their one-note bad guy potential thanks in no small part to some VERY intelligent, well-rounded and deeply complex character development from the writers, but in the end the main weight of the film OF COURSE rests on the shoulders of Banderas and Hayek, and once again they’ve both proven they are MUCH MORE than capable of bearing it with grace, professionalism and a glorious evergreen twinkle in their eyes. As for the animation and design, this is a BEAUTIFUL piece of work, definitely one of the year’s most visually arresting films as well as, quite simply, one of the most gorgeous films that Dreamworks have ever put together, the studio effortlessly adapting to the sexy new style that made Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Netflix’ Arcane such glorious feasts for the eyes, and the animation team deserve JUST AS MUCH praise as director Joel Crawford, a storyboard veteran who previous proved his helming pedigree in fine style with 2020’s wonderfully oddball The Croods: A New Age. Ultimately, given the storyline, themes and the way the film ties things off so neatly, I suspect this really will be the last we see of Puss In Boots on the big screen, but if that really is the case then I gotta admit it’s ONE HELL of a swansong …

3. RENFIELD – my current horror movie of the year sits very comfortably in the genre’s sub-category that I’ve always loved best, a horror comedy of particularly rare quality and gleeful abandon that made it one of the best and most entertaining viewing experiences I’ve had so far this year. Yeah, like the best horror comedies it has enough genuine darkness that it CAN be genuinely scary when it wants to be, but by the sheer (literal) batshit craziness of its premise this is a BONKERS FILM, and so it wisely embraces its sheer lampoonery to full effect by delivering one of the most deliciously dark black comedies I’ve seen in a good while. Not that it’s overly surprising – director Chris McKay cut his teeth helming The Lego Batman Movie before branching out into live action with Amazon’s criminally underrated time travelling alien invasion blockbuster The Tomorrow War, both of which were excellent vehicles for him to master the gloriously anarchic style that he finally unleashes fully formed for this brilliant alternative sequel to the classic Universal Dracula movie with Bela Lugosi. That being said, the big box office draw here was always going to be Nicolas Cage, who replaces Lugosi as the infamous Count, clearly kicking into his typical “manic” setting here to chew the scenery with ruthless abandon and, as a result, frequently steal the show right out from under Nicholas Hoult as his titular ghoul manservant, the long-suffering Robert Montague Renfield, who just wants the opportunity to finally find a real, simple life for himself and thinks he can pull it off in modern day New Orleans, only for his Master to himself become inspired by Renfield’s newfound ambition and set his sights on world domination with the help of the Lobos, a brutal local crime family. Thankfully Hoult DOES ultimately manage to hold his own in his scenes with Cage, like always proving ADEPTLY talented enough to deliver another winningly endearing performance while playing perhaps the single most pathetic specimen of his career to date … meanwhile the thoroughly adorable Awkwafina once again proves that she’s well on the way to becoming the PREMIER kooky goofball female comedic lead in Hollywood as Rebecca Quincy, the one truly honest cop in one of the most corrupt police forces in all of America, who winds up falling for Renfield’s hangdog charm and puppy-dog eyes as he inadvertently becomes the key to her quest to bring down the Lobos after they murdered her legendary detective father. Shohreh Aghdashloo brings a much needed touch of class to proceedings as Bellafrancesca Lobo, the family’s seductively sly matriarch, while Space Force and Sonic the Hedgehog’s Ben Schwarz is a frequent non-PC laugh riot all on his own as her entitled constant disappointment of a son Teddy, and Ghosts’ Brandon Scott Jones is lovably flaky as the leader of Renfield’s endearingly pathetic support group for people trapped in toxic co-dependent relationships. This genuinely is a DEEPLY FUNNY FILM, perfectly geared up for a maximum hit count with the one-liners, in-jokes and situations, but then there’s no surprise here since writer Ryan Ridley (adapting a pitch from The Walking Dead’s original creator Robert Kirkman) is a seasoned veteran of TV comedy, particularly well known as an alumnus of the similarly edgy and madcap Rick & Morty, and this carries a lot of the same twisted, anarchic charm as that rightly beloved series, just in a much more big budge live action form on the big screen. It’s also SPECTACULARLY bloodthirsty when it wants to be, the welcome reliance on what are clearly LARGELY physical effects meaning that this movie is another gore-hound’s wet dream, even if the film does mostly play the horror elements for laughs throughout, and it’s an impressively inventive and chaotic beast in THAT regard too, delivering some of the most gloriously OTT splatter-fuelled action sequences I’ve seen in a good while whenever Renfield eats a bug and gets an ultraviolent power boost. Altogether this is definitely some of the most fun I’ve had at the cinema so far this year, and I’ll admit I wouldn’t mind a bit more of this …

2. JOHN WICK CHAPTER 4 – and so, it has come to this … honestly, who’d have thunk it, back in 2014 when the first movie came out and (rightly) became a surprise sleeper hit that went a long way to revitalising Keanu Reeves’ career for a SECOND TIME as he found THE GREATEST ROLE HE’S EVER HAD, that almost a decade later it would’ve blown up into something THIS BIG?!!! I mean sure, back then it definitely was The Little Movie That Could, but still … well, after two increasingly BIG sequels which each maintained a surprisingly impressive level of quality throughout, the fourth and final John Wick chapter is finally here, and GODS is it good. I mean it’s FUCKING BRILLIANT. It just might be THE BEST ONE YET. Certainly it’s proving to be the most well received, landing BY FAR the best rating on Rotten Tomatoes and it genuinely seems like almost nobody has ANYTHING bad to say about this movie, even the CRITICS largely seem to LIKE this one. And it deserves every lick of love it’s been getting, this is definitely both the pinnacle of the series AND a perfect swansong for the greatest assassin in cinema history. I don’t wanna give too much away about the plot, even those who HAVE seen what’s come before don’t deserve to be spoiled since, even if these movies have never exactly been SHAKESPEARE in their construction they do still frequently leave you guessing in the best ways as to how they’ll turn out, and this one definitely is no exception. I’ll just say that, after all the killing John’s done to get to this point, his one-man-war with the international criminal network’s High Table has finally reached his zenith when Winston (the great Ian McShane), the Manager of the newly-demolished Manhattan Continental Hotel, gives him the means to finally find a way to get out and find peace while he’s still alive – namely by challenging the Marquis Vincent de Gramont (It’s Bill Skarsgard), a high-ranking Table member who’s taken it upon himself to rid the criminal underworld of the “cancer” that John and his constant disrespect have wrought, to single combat in a ritualistic duel in order to take his place at The Table should he win. The subsequent battle that ensues as John sets about facilitating this duel and the fallout that follows as he fights his way to that final, fateful meeting fuels the film in HIGH STYLE, so that even though this movie’s almost THREE HOURS LONG it never feels overlong or outstays its welcome. Once again the cast are all ON FIRE, Reeves once again proving that he is just about THE BEST LOOKING and most interesting action star working in Hollywood today when he’s mowing down endless bad guys with a stoic expression and the odd deadpan response, the role once again VERY MUCH playing to his strengths, while McShane and Laurence Fishburne (returning once again as the dethroned Bowery King) are both on fine form throughout, while it’s both a pleasure and privilege but also a genuine heartbreaking SHAME to watch the late Lance Reddick deliver one of his very last performances as Charon, the noble and quietly charismatic Concierge of the Manhattan Continental (at least he also shot one more turn as the character for the upcoming Ana de Armas-starring spinoff feature Ballerina, so it’s not QUITE the end); meanwhile the newcomers all serve admirably as well, with Skarsgard particularly impressing as one of the franchise’s best villains to date, slimy, entitled and exquisitely arrogant, the kind of Big Bad you just LOVE to hate, Wynnona Earp’s Shamier Anderson is a delightful revelation as Mr Nobody, a precocious up-and-coming hitman talent who certainly has a whole lot of potential for a possible future spinoff franchise of his own within this larger universe, Donnie Yen excels as usual as Cain, a former friend of John’s that the Marquis brings out of forced retirement in order to take the unkillable Baba Yaga out (clearly the filmmakers saw his blind badass take in Rogue One and they were like yeah, let’s have a whole lot more of THAT), Hiroyuki Sanada once more delivers effortless class and cool gravitas as Koji, the honourable and principled Manager of the Osaka Continental, and Scott Adkins is viciously impressive but also thoroughly surprising in an almost unrecognisable prosthetic getup as Killa Harkan, the brutish Head of the High Table in Berlin. In the end, though, we’re once again here primarily to MARVEL at all the action exploits on display while wallowing in some of the richest and most well-crafted world-building there’s EVER BEEN on the big screen – this is a thoroughly fascinating universe, realised with exquisite precision with so many cool little winks and nods and in-jokes to make the geeks among us grin and chuckle with sheer joy over the immense bounty on display, while veteran stuntman-turned-director Chad Stahelski once again wrangles some of the VERY BEST cinematic action EVER COMMITTED TO FILM in a series of truly astonishing and thoroughly punishing set-pieces bravely executed with nary a visual effect in sight. There are almost TOO MANY cool action beats in this movie to count, although the final BIG sequence, in which John fights his way up the spectacular but infamously punishing Stairs of Montmartre in Paris against an endless onslaught of thugs all determined to not let him reach the top, which includes one of the BIGGEST belly laughs I have EVER HAD at the cinema in my life, as much just over the joke’s sheer, ingenious AUDACITY, has to be the film’s undeniable highlight (closely followed by a genuinely INSANE run/gun/drive chase/shootout/fight sequence through the sheer chaos of the traffic around the Arc de Triomphe – every single one of these sequences is thrilling, they’re adrenaline fuelled and each is crafted with such precision but also such brilliant varied inventiveness that it NEVER leads to vicarious battle fatigue. Best of all, though, as with the previous film’s there’s a surprising amount of soul and heart and heft to the film too, which ultimately leads to a climax which is both immensely satisfying but also pretty devastating in its emotional power. Altogether then, this is EASILY my action movie of the year, I really can’t see that changing, as well as a fitting climax to an action cinema franchise which has come to SET THE BENCHMARK for the entire genre, and, honestly, just a damn fine movie in its own right.

1. DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOUR AMONG THIEVES – so what, then, could POSSIBLY have beaten John Wick Chapter 4 to the top spot? If you’d asked me that at the year’s start I DEFINITELY wouldn’t have thought it could be THIS … I mean SURE, I love D&D as much as the next geek, but even so this felt like SUCH a shameless cinematic cash-grab from Wizards of the Coast and Disney (producing through Paramount) that I felt there was NO WAY it could REALLY be an actual GOOD FILM. At best I was expecting to be mildly entertained by a serviceable guilty pleasure, something that’s good for a Saturday night-in with a pizza and a six pack, not a genuine MASTERPIECE of cinematic adaptation. And yet, it turns out that’s EXACTLY what we got here – this is a film which is ONE HUNDRED PERCENT clearly made with the utmost love and respect for the source material because the only possible interpretation for the way they wrote this was by taking Player’s and Dungeon Master’s handbooks, a Monster Manual, some character sheets and a few dice bags and just turning the mini-campaign that ensued into a two-hour screenplay. It’s clear that they are heavily steeped in love and knowledge of the game itself, or were at least CONSTANTLY advised by experts who are, because this movie is AT EVERY STEP a pretty much PERFECT representation of the Forgotten Realms setting, the bestiary and even the game mechanics themselves IN ACTION, and it EVEN colours the way that the plot is laid out, how the characters interact and how some of the action sequences go. (Seriously – a perfectly executed knockout on a knife-wielding hostage taker with a hurled potato? That’s the Barbarian’s player landing a Natural 20 Critical Hit on their Attack Roll. It love it.) Sure, the results are likely to INFURIATE some people who think a little too highly about how FORMALLY WRITTEN their cinema is, but for most folk this actually makes for a refreshingly honest and pretty unique piece of cinematic storytelling that actually works DAMN NEAR PERFECTLY from start to finish. It also helps that the writer-director duo in charge here are a pair of stalwart comedy movie veterans, namely Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daly of Horrible Bosses, Vacation and Spider-Man: Homecoming fame, whose previous directorial collab Game Night actually likely provided a useful throughline for them to get into tackling this one. The main cast of dysfunctional heroes that we follow through the story are even put together like a typical motely crew of player characters – Chris Pine once again proves that he’s at his best when he’s doing broad comedy, thoroughly delightful as self-centred, opportunistic roguish Bard Edgin Darvis, who, along with his platonic partner, tough-but-fair and sweetly naïve Barbarian warrior Holga Kilgore (played to absolute PERFECTION by Michelle Rodriguez in what’s UNDOUBTEDLY the best role she’s ever had, and definitely my FAVOURITE character here), enlists the help of bumbling, neuroses-riddled half-elf Sorcerer Simon Aumar (Detective Pikachu’s Justice Smith, twitchy, unsure of himself and UTTERLY adorable) and shape-shifting Tiefling Druid Doric (It’s Sophia Lillis, forthright, dependable and immediately done with all of Edgin’s shit) to help them knock over the accumulated fortune of their one-time colleague, Rogue-turned-nobleman Forge Fitzwilliam (Hugh Grant once again expertly bringing home the scheming sleaze persona he’s perfected in more recent years now he’s finally said goodbye to his earlier days as an upper class heartthrob) and foil the dastardly machinations of the monstrous undead Red Wizard Sofina (a genuinely chilling and unsettling turn from Shadow & Bone’s Daisy Head); meanwhile there’s a top-notch supporting cast of “DM-controlled NPCs” that help the story roll and breathe as effortlessly as the main stars, from Bridgerton’s Rege-Jean Page as deliciously dry Paladin Xenk Yendar, the obviously-overpowered PC from another campaign that the DM brings in to help the party out when things go COMPLETELY WRONG for them, and Chloe Coleman (Gunpowder Milkshake) as Edgin’s estranged young daughter Kira, to Bradley Cooper in a truly INSPIRED and genuinely hilarious cameo as Holga’s decidedly diminutive ex-husband Marlamin. Every single one of these is a well-rounded, living-and-breathing vital person in their own right, and the writers have crafted them and their misadventures with proper precision throughout, while the world has been realised with genuine skill and clear loving attention to detail, as well as, yet again, a welcome reliance on real sets and locations and good old fashioned physical make-up and animatronics over pure digital effects wherever possible. There are some pretty spectacular action sequences on offer here (the Underdark sequence with a decidedly overweight dragon is a particular highlight, although my personal favourite has to be the scene in which Doric has to pull off an unexpected escape by Wildshaping between different animal forms, all unfolding in a spectacular unbroken “single” take), but in the end this film is, first and foremost, a COMEDY, and while there’s plenty of heart and pathos on offer, as well as more than a little genuine DARKNESS here and there, ultimately everything is VERY MUCH played for humour, and the end result is definitely the funniest film I’ve encountered this year (so far, anyway). It’s also just about the most effortlessly ENDEARING film I’ve come across in a very long time, and I have to admit I am SO GLAD that it managed to defy my low expectations SO MUCH, I feel VERY HAPPILY HUMBLED that I was proved SO WRONG this time round. I’m genuinely hopeful that we get LOADS MORE of this going forward, I can’t wait for a whole long campaign’s worth of movies to grow out of these humble beginnings. Best get those D20s rolling again, guys!

#2023 in movies #sick #sick movie #sick 2023 #cocaine bear #ant man and the wasp quantumania #the pale blue eye #shazam fury of the gods #evil dead rise #puss in boots the last wish #renfield #renfield movie #john wick chapter 4 #dungeons and dragons honor among thieves

2 notes · View notes

theoriginaleppieblack-blog · 8 hours ago

Text

Happy 81st Birthday to Jimmy Page! Here is a humble winter offering to our fandom's Holly King. A portrait of times past with Alexander Logan and Tristam Lindsay of Paradox. This Winter's Tale is an extremely loose retelling of a lost story from Pamela Rose's Paradox material, Christmas in Wales. I'll lead you to the fandom history of Paradox at Fanlore here and Ao3 here but long story short this is an adaptation of a story written in the early-1980s that I saw on the Old Web in the 1990s and I only partly remember. In fact, it may be a memory of a memory. I may have heard a summary or a discussion of a story that was already lost. The central motif though, of Alex going off to have a Ringo-In-A-Hard-Day's-Night sulk in his old Welsh borderlands Homes And Haunts and Tris rescuing him is true to the original. The original had more explicit sex and less handmade sweaters, I think, but I needed a central element and I had just finished these. It makes a nice tribute to Jimmy's mom and his gorgeous argyle vest. Also thank you to Fluffernutter, Symon, McCoy, Molly, Gallagher, Murphy, Kieran, Shamrock, Bianca, Finnegan, Flopsy, Callahan and Squeaker for providing the Rabit Angora yarn that these sweaters are made of. Anyway, here's Tris and Alex in

CHRISTMAS IN WALES, 1970

Here we see the two at an intimate party for Tristam's winter birthday. Someone--one of their bandmate's wives--can't help but ask about the matching sweaters. "A gift from a fan, meant to reflect your stage colors?" Jane Cameron guesses. (Author Note: Jane Cameron--expy of Maureen Jones and Sheila Neil--expy of Pat Bonham--have identical personalities in the original Paradox Material. Which like, alright, at least they didn't get too personal in adapting the wives but the only difference between them here is that Janey is nice and Sheila is shrewish. That and not great adaptations of USAmerican ideas of British working class accents. I've mixed a little of the ladies of British Folk like Sandy Denny and Sue Waterson into my version of Janey and a little competence, empathy and tenacity into my version of Sheila while not prying too much into people's lives. I don't want to be a creep. I just want to retell these legends of the peak of civilization in my own voice. Around this metaphorical electronic campfire. On this long winter night. I always imagined I'd do this. After the collapse. With less internet and dolls and more actual campfire and perhaps and acoustic guitar. But well, We all know now that we will be required to work during the apocalypse sooooo FOMO.)

"My Mother made them, actually." Tris replied, proudly. "They were for Christmas." (Author's Note: Tris's mother is a fragile, fey little thing in the original Paradox Material which is quite unlike my vague understanding of Mrs. Patricia Page, first of her name. I see no reason to change this for one thing Mrs. Lindsay's psychic ramblings are the first indication that Paradox live in a Magickal Realism universe, in this case the type where Magick works about twice as often and twice as strongly as the the strongest currently reported effects and some of the metaphorical stuff and astral stuff involved in occultism or mysticism or Theurgy happen IRL but not so much or so often that it breaks the world as we know it. Oh, and another good effect of Mrs. Lindsay's psychic rambling is that Alex is EXACTLY who she expected Tris to bring home to Mummy. Mrs. Lindsay says Gay Rights!)

ANYWAY -- Back to the story, Epppie!

Whenever they wear the sweaters together Alex, can't help but think about what a hero Tris was the day he received his first handmade made gift from Tris's Ma! Tris should feel like a hero on his birthday, after all. So, Alex let's his friends in, just a little, on the secrets of his and Tris's Christmas, the previous year, in Wales.

At the end of their autumn tour, Tris and Alex parted ways for the first time since -- well, nearly since they'd met. Alex had gone back home to the Black Country with Duffy Neal, Paradox's drummer (and Alex's childhood best friend). (Author's Note: There's a little stress here, Tris is all in with Alex, but Alex still has an extended kin network that he needs to nurture. And this is after a tour in which Alex spent as much time managing Duffy's emotions as he has working on his art, magick and sex--his Great Work with Tris.)

But fitting in back home proves awkward for Alex Logan. The support network of the Alex/Duffy/Sheila triad, with Duffy's supportive Aunt and Sheila's old-fashioned but tolerant parents is overwhelmed by relatives who previously would not have given them the time of day. Now everybody wants to see the what the Paradox money has done and see the improvements on the farm. Duffy and Alex both get gender-shamed about wanting to spend time with Billy Neal, Duffy's son (and Alex's godson). Duffy hides in showing off his motors and, of course, drinking. But Alex, really get's into it with someone -- Duffy's grandmother maybe. And Alex storms off. Possibly in his new sportscar or maybe it was in Guinevere, his old VW Beetle (Author's note: In my doll universe Guinevere has been upgraded to a VW Bus as portrayed by a 1970 Barbie Camper)

Alex drives around, visits his maternal Grandfather's grave, his old school, and even parks outside his estranged parent's house for a while, imagines going in, imagines a different life. He ends up going to a vacation cottage that he used to go to with his parents when he was a kid. The landlord lives in the gatehouse of the estate that the cottages are on and he just knocks on the door and rents it in cash. (Author's Note: The estate is this place that's like an Elizabethan farmhouse that became a 19th century super fancy hunting lodge that the family turned into a place where they could stash a son who had a bad war and his loyal batsman/valet/romantic friend. They were the one's renting the vacation cottages and, before that, letting Alex's maternal grandfather's folk set up on his land. This place becomes everything to Paradox -- it's their Bron Yr Aur, it's their Headley Grange, it's their once hoped for permanent home base studio. It becomes Alex's permanent home officially and Tri's in actuality.)

Alex is resolved to spend Christmas alone in the tiny cabin. He's kind of wallowing in it, tbh. His poor dog, Elessar, along for the ride. Alex Logan, 20-year-old millionaire rethinking his life choices.

Oh and it get's very cold. Maybe it snows. Yeah. I think they play in the snow later. Like there's a parody of a scene of a scene in A Child's Christmas in Wales. Later, after Tris shows up.

Anyway, poor Alex, he does get cold, and a bit hungry. Stil a bit stubborn. He's even taken off the scrying mirror necklace that Tris gave him. (Author's Note: There are two different stories about how he got that necklace. One is that Tris spontaneously gifted it to him just days after they met, almost at random, from an auction lot he was receiving at the time. A ploy to impress the beautiful young singer but a portentous gift for a first date/job interview. The other is that it was gifted to Alex on a milestone birthday, after careful consideration and with the solemnity of a marriage proposal.)

After some tribulations of his own Tris does show up. He just couldn't sit still for his family Christmas party, it was not at all a surprise when Duffy called to tell him Alex was missing. Tris verifies with his housekeeper back in London that Alex isn't back there before rousing their manager, Mick Royce to help him retrace Alex's steps. Secretly he uses his highly trained intuition as a guide. He uses Duffy's clues and what he know of Alex's path and even talks to Alex's younger sister for the first time, before he ends up at a certain vacation cabin over the border in Wales. He arrives with a hamper the size of a coffee table, repacked by his Mum and a present too. Mick grumbles about his ruined Christmas before he leaves Tris there. They'll get back in Alex's ride.

The present is a matching sweater for Alex. After the disaster at the Neal family gathering and the reminders of his own parent's rejection of him, Alex is overwhelmed that Tris's mother made him a gift like this.

Good food was also a great help.

And they passed a very pleasant Christmas in Wales, vowing to return in the Spring when the weather was better. And that's when their love affair with their future home began.

#led zeppelin #jimbert #dollblr #tris/alex #creatable world #doll band #jimmy page #robert plant #I been reading Umberto Eco

1 note · View note

imspardagus · 10 months ago

Text

A racist Jew? (a tale of paradox)

Gillian and I were enjoying a very pleasant pre-prandial drink at the Craigellachie Lodge (a delightful private hotel run brilliantly by Scott and Jodie and their wonderful team. Go there) when it happened.

At first it was just an overheard altercation. It had been raining. Not the cold, sticky rain of the south of England that makes you want to take a shower to clean yourself but the soft, gentle rain of the Highlands. We heard the front door slam and then a loud and peremptory Bronx voice moving away into the depths of the house, “I’ll need towels in my room”. Followed by the gentle responding voice of Sam, the Lodge’s hard-working maid of all works, “I’ve put fresh towels in your room.” Then, right back at her, that hard Bronx again, “I’ve used them. I need more.”

No please or thank you, note, but then experience tells me that you can’t expect manners or respect from the average US citizen. Brought up to believe that they are anybody’s superior, they don’t do politeness, presumably equating it with an unpardonable subservience. Just look how they behaved at that tea party.

A while later the Bronx voice arrived with its owner in the bar to bray to the same Sam, “I’ve been to Macallan’s today to examine my cask. I’m told Glenallachie’s good. Which one do I wanna drink?” Then he sat down about ten feet away from us and, without invitation, started telling us about his life.

Now, in contrast to what I have said two paragraphs up, most of my encounters with Americans abroad (that is, outside the US) have been good. Republican thugs are usually too locked in to their narrow, ignorant sense of their inexhaustable self-worth to travel the world. They don’t tend to have passports, thinking no good can exist outside of God’s Own Country, and those that do, and use them, tend to stay in air-conditioned concrete and glass facsimiles of their home grown lack of imagination and not in bijou hotels older than their regrettable take on civilisation. The ones you tend to encounter in the backwaters tend to be gentle Democrats. So, and I think I speak for Gillian as well as for myself, when it came to welcoming this intruder into our conversation, despite what we had overheard, which could have been down to human pique at the weather, we were initially prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Within five minutes we had learned that this man had only arrived here yesterday, having given up the company of his friends, who had been engaging in manly pursuits in Germany, compelled as he suddenly was to visit “Scat-land” (to, as he rehearsed for us, visit his cask at Macallan’s, this clearly being a point of great significance to him that perfect strangers should know about him) but that he would be leaving tomorrow because he wanted to see Edin-berg before travelling back the next day to his family in Los Angeles because he was an Orthodox Jew and family was where he must be every week from Friday night through Sunday without fail. He had told us in passing that, as he raced through the airport to catch his plane to Scat-land, he had dived into the Chanel store and demanded that they provide him this instant with the latest Chanel handbag because his wife loves Chanel handbags and had to have the latest. He had six minutes to board so they’d better produce the one bag and sell it to him. He segued into asking us whether he would be able to view the Cassle (Edinburgh Castle) from his suite in the Bal Morall (which he pronounced as if it were two words that rhymed with the OK Corral). It took a moment to realise that he was referring to the prestigious and frighteningly expensive Balmoral Hotel. Though these mis-steps in pronunciation were in themselves forgivable they issued from his mouth so arrogantly that it sounded like cultural imperialism, so forgive me the somewhat snide tone to my recollection. Anyway, while he briefly paused for breath, we were able to inform him that that was the hotel in which J K Rowling holed up to finish the last of the Harry Potter books, at which informational nugget he contrived to look both puzzled and pleased.

But he was just warming to his thesis. Next he told us that he came from a wealthy New York Jewish family but he had walked away from them to start up his own sports equipment business which was very successful (of course); and that “nobody” could live in New York any more. Then, before we could ask him to elaborate, came the big reveal. He couldn’t bear to fly on the US internal air flights any more “because they are all full of Blacks and Hispanics.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Gillian flinch as I too took on board, much too slowly, what I had just heard and how casually it had been expressed, with a confidence that anticipated understanding and acceptance. There was no apology in it; no trace of hesitancy or uncertainty. Certainly, no hint of irony. Then, in case we hadn’t fully taken in what he had said, he doubled down without prompting. “Yeah, European airlines are so much better than the US ones which are all full of Blacks and Hispanics.” No mere slip of the tongue, then.

Now, I should say that I am an atheist and, though of a skin colour known as “white”, I am a committed believer in the proposition that no racial group in this world has any claim to superiority over any other. That cuts both ways, of course. It means that I must, and do, accept that none of us is inherently inferior, regardless of our racial background or the level of pigmentation we have been allotted. These aspects of my awareness, the atheism and the belief in fundamental equality, compel me to reject any pretensions of supremacy by the representative of any nation or religion. There are NO chosen people and there are NO chosen religions. There are just people.

But it also means that I must accept that there are examples of goodness, and badness, in all of us. I really should not expect any individual, regardless of his race, religion or culture, to be immune to bigotry.

Having said that, however, Judaism has been at the heart of intellectual, psychological and emotional intelligence and human progress for centuries so I still I found myself fazed by the unexpectedness of an articulate Orthodox Jew and self-confessed family man comfortably giving voice to an indefensible racist attitude. How could a member of the most oppressed and persecuted tribe in all history be so unaware of the imperative that came with it to stand with other oppressed and persecuted groups? How could he have become so depraved in his thinking as to believe, let alone express to total strangers, that two other down-trodden and unjustly maligned clusters of people merited such a sneering put-down?

His subsequent pronouncements gave the clue. He was a Republican and a Trump supporter. Which changed the question only marginally. How could a thinking, morally driven, successful, family orientated man associate himself with a loser and amoral crook?

The answer, sadly, probably lies with a rather desperate need to belong; the same need that draws inadequate individuals into gangs of bullies the world over. Better to be the predator than the predated upon, better to be the oppressor than the oppressed. Better to deny the powerful strictures of your faith and the lessons of its history than to side with those whose egregious treatment, like that of your ancestors, cries out for fairness, decency and mercy.

It is a paradox but a very common one. In this country, the UK, we see one-nation Tories, people brought up with the patriarchal belief that it is their responsibility to serve the nation’s interests to the best of their ability even to their own detriment, kow-towing shamefully to shysters, robbers and rogues simply in order to maintain their positions of privilege over the common herd. We see working class men and women manipulated into vociferously espousing the whipped-up hatred against those worse off than themselves, a hatred that has been sold to them by scurrilous, exploitative spivs, rather than question the depredations to which they have been subjected by those same charlatans. We see it start in the school playground and drill its roots into our children’s psyches so as to become second nature and make them easy prey for the debauched. We see it confirmed in our working relationships where faux-loyalty to the boss so as to keep our jobs and “get on” enables the perpetuation of abuse of our colleagues. We see it hammered home in our newspapers telling us that those who take a stand against injustice and tyranny are the “enemies of the people”. That to be perceived as “other” is to make yourself a legitimate target.

We need to excise it. We cannot go on with this poison in our hearts. But we are all susceptible, even those whose ancestry and experience should have taught them to know better.

#Racism #faith #inhumanity #bullying

0 notes

darkangelwrath · 1 year ago

Text

So I wrote down every game I played in 2023

Ya it started as a stupid idea to make a joke tier list of every game but instead I just decided to write down what I did alongside some feelings on the game. Ya formatting for this is screwed but what can you do with something started on a whim that turned into a 15,325 word long document.

Anyway may everyone play some good games next year.

Played A Previous Year.

★Warframe [Off stream]

Still a Good game Archon hunts are nice keep feeling like I’ve missed some shards tho.

⋆Citrine's Last Wish

Finally, a good defense mission. Also, nice to see the mercy timer mechanic is back and hope they keep it for the never lucky crowd.

⋆Duviri Paradox

Ya the quest is interesting as a starting point to the game. As for its gameplay loop like it has neat rewards and leveling the intrinsics aren’t that bad. Worst that I can say is that it’s an ‘open world’ so that means a grind. Admittedly that might be me at 3829.9 hours on steam talking and not being in a mood to just grind. Also, the Incarnon weapons tend to be fun and strong. Even if farming them is a bit of a pain.

⋆ Abyss of Dagath

A neat little mission and a neat little dojo room. Alongside with companions being reworked and becoming a useful thing in most situations. Also got rid of some of the voodoo math. Always a good clarity change. Really the Big W content pass.

⋆ Update 35 Whispers in the Walls

Once again, the Tenno save the day with the power of murder, theft, intimidation, blackmail, and love and friendship. Also, that secret its neat to have another John Prodman style content. As for the event nice and simple worst that I can say is the boss feels kind of bulky. But its an end game boss and is not as bad as Archons were at launch. New tile-set is neat, and the new syndicate carries a gut punching story. Bird 3 is best boy.

★Genshin Impact [Off stream]

So, the year they added the TCG roughly and we arrived too Fontain. I enjoy it still, but it is a gacha game so wouldn’t recommend the game despite it being pretty solid game..

⋆3.4 Released

New zone, and it was nice seeing Jet again. Also, poor jet. Neat that the prediction of the Sky nail being addressed was wrong. Also, funny to see a random NPC able to be challenged to a TCG duel in a quest even if it was optional. Otherwise, area was different then rest of the desert and the future expansion area has been noticed to the north. The question was if it was one area or two.

⋆The Exquisite Night Chimes event completed.

Well, that story for this year’s lantern rite. was nice will look forward to the lore videos for it. As for the gameplay.

+Radiant Sparks:

an interesting parkour version. Not sure if I like it or not.

+Paper Theater:

what a nice little side scroller.

+Vigilance at Sea:

All right I get its nice little mini game. Basically, Mario cart battle mode with the boats. At least there is a non-co-op version.

+Behind the Scenes:

Just a combat challenge nice and easy. Addedly I had Nahida out while it was raining so :V

⋆Second Blooming completed.

Nice to see Lisa again. Don’t really feel anything about the event meat itself but like I don’t care for spiral abyss and having to do it 3 waves feels whatever to me. I want to like the shared characters between teams but like I hate it messes up my team order.

⋆Warrior's Spirit

Okay nice little event. Glad it is just complete the encounter and not do it in a certain time limit. Shame they made you unlock the hardest difficulty. As for the story nice little fluff to show off the new skin.

⋆Almighty Arataki Extraordinary and Exhilarating Extreme Beetle Brawl

Another Himbo Oni event. Always a treat in how stupid things will get. After all, seeing the Himbo argue with some chunni kid is great. Has the annoying feature of having to beat the easier stage before the hardest stage. Also waited like normal till the whole event was unlocked. Then did the stages in opposite order. Over all felt like the controls/gameplay was just fine not sure what was the tell for the perfect timing.

⋆3.5 Released

New character, new story quest, new hangout. Just fine. Archon quest was interesting as normal just has the good problem of wanting to know what comes next. admittedly I didn’t pull Dehya cause of her gameplay and she is on the standard banner. Shame since I liked her character.

⋆Windblume's Breath

Story was sweet and good. Certainly, was a one that didn’t have me checking out. Thank God all the mini games started in one place. Still did the wait till it’s all unlocked before starting it all.

+Floral Pursuits:

Okay this was a fun mini game. Sure, just call it just packman and such but like it was fun and simple. It really didn’t need more like the worst stage was the rotate the stair case one cause every other one was just better.

+Ballads of Breeze:

At least this time the let you pick your poison of instrument. not like there is much of a difference. Like it’s a rhythm game it has been done before in game. OH GOD WHY IS IT SO FAST ON PRO. Also thank God you don’t need to unlock the higher levels.

+Breezy Snapshots:

This one is always nice and simple. Can’t hate it even if it feels like I’ve been here before. Probably going to be that way till we can pose NPCs for the photos.

⋆Vibro-Crystal Verification

Ya combat event. Like I can never find enthusiasm for these events I just throw them onto the middle difficulty and do them. Also, I did not pay attention to the dialog beyond seeing that its follow up to the previous events.

⋆ Fungus Mechanicus

I like this event was feeling meh towards a normal Mechanicus event but this was a good mix up. I am not sure I did the final quest but oh well only would have missed out on some mora and adventure exp.

⋆ 3.6 Released

Well new area, Nahida gets traumatized again, a new hangout and a shorter Aranara world quest with the Pari. It was good content. New weekly boss seems fine to me, at least for only doing it once so far outside the quest. Will probably hate it latter with the 3 phases but oh well. For the new area gimmicks flying with Sorush is annoying only cause of that load screen when going back to your character. New Hilichurls are fine if a bit bulky but as an alt to Mitachurls it is nice, Consecrated crocodile is fun it has the death roll like any good crocodile enemy has, and Consecrated cat can go screw itself with its aggro range and grass beams. Will look forward to the lore videos for the stuff I unga bunga past like the fact Jeht has a merc company of her own and hunting down Masseira. Ya fun update and thanks for genshin-impact-map letting me clear everything in three days after the update.

⋆ Brewing Developments

Ya this was a nice and easy combat event. Nice to see that NPC again. The Combat gimmick this time was just there. Of course, I just use the middle difficulty cause with how strong my teams are I can get double the score needed. With out stressing and getting frustrated by inflated NPC health.

⋆Fulminating Sandstorm

Well nice little story event. Felt kind of short to be honest but not exactly bad. Story was fine. Otherwise, was kind of just a is their event.

⋆A Parade of Providence

Hat Guy was MVP, Dori is the continued winner of Sumeru character who deserves to be suplex, but ya the story was nice and contained Kaveh is a good boy. Nothing seemed to be huge lore implications but who knows that nihilistic nonsense will come to roost in Natlan when we know more than “The rules of war are woven in the womb: the victors shall burn bright, while the losers must turn to ash. When the God of War shares this secret with the Traveler, it is because she has her reasons.” And it has hot springs. Also, I hope we get a new nickname for hat guy every event now like that is much better than if they made you pick his name from a list instead of a text box.

+Gathering of Stars:

Nice little puzzle. Is simple and doesn’t overstay its welcome. Took me till halfway done to wrap my head around it. Kind of hate the light up but it’s a mini-game if this was the main content for a game wouldn’t want it there but here its fine.

+Project Connectivity:

Nice little mini-game with a neat use of teapot mechanics. Not exactly deep, but it is fun. Also is a test of your jumping which isn’t that frequent of a thing in this game.

+Antiquity Hunt:

I don’t hate this one it’s just very barebones and I have done it before in earlier events. Nice context for it tho.

+In Truth Steps:

Ya this is neat and everything I just don’t really care for these types of puzzles. Like its fine and all but like I aint getting out of bed for it. As for the puzzles first was made sense to me, second took me a few tries, third was between the two.

+Concordat Reactions:

I am still at the point of all combat events I sleep. Except when they have a cryo slime then I must pay a bit more attention because I can’t Ganyu everything. Shame I must put it on Hard difficulty then just chill in medium. Also so glad there is only three rounds.

+Mimetic Replications:

I don’t know what I expected but this is so inoffensive that I don’t really care that it is a disguise rhythm game. Also, neat how all three are different, but like what the hell was the fish one. I missed 1 out of 25 after doing the “get up walk around then continue and all of a sudden get better” trick, but still what the hell was the fish one.

⋆The Recollector's Path

Well nice to see Sorush again. As for gameplay nice to see what they can do with Sorush for the ‘combat’ portions, the races are to be expected, and the match the location is what it is. As for the story it feels like an extension of the world quest. That is fine. Good on worm boy escaping after 10,000 years a statue.

⋆ 3.7 Released

The Genius Invokation TCG update. Also, Yoimiya story quest 2, Kaveh hangout, and new Dendro character Kiara. It really is kind of funny how some people I saw got so salty about it. Like to me the TCG is so in offensive I don’t mind doing the 4 weekly challengers. Like the worst that I can say is just look up a deck and use that. A negative I could say about it is “wow they really just doubled the cards available didn’t they.”. As for the second Yoimiya story quest ya that’s a bit sad like I am a sap but the whole time I was “writers please don’t kill the child.” I will cry.

⋆Duel! The Summoners' Summit!

The Genius Invokation TCG Event. Not sure why everyone was salty about it if we got an event with Sorush we would get an event for the TCG. Like you don’t even need to play it for the story. Which in itself might be a bit of an anti-climax but that might be just a developer overcorrection to the much earlier Unreconciled Stars being very important lore wise, so they want to avoid another situation like that. Instead, we get tragic backstory lore for the TCG. However, can we just go with the idea that if the patch launch dates are the cannon timeline for the in-game events. So, that Version 3.2(November 2, 2022) is when Nahida was let out of baby jail and cured Eleazar and Version 3.3(December 7, 2022) was when TCG was added to the game (And became popular worldwide), and 3.7(May 24, 2023) is when this event happened. So did Gulab really die from Eleazar right before it was cured. Like God damn no wonder Garvipidam is such a mood. Like damn. Also, on point for giving out the “Friendship Eternal” card at the end of the story. Not sure how that will work in the future but till then the wiki text “event-exclusive Event Card” is a fun trivia. Also is it wired how many events that are in Mondstadt have a free weapon?

+A Tour Of Wonders:

Okay parkour section. Then a combat section. This was very short all things considered. Like it wasn’t bad it just felt like it should have stuck with parkour or combat.

+Zero Hour Invokation:

Huh people were complaining about the TCG event when this is the only time it appears and be mandatory? Also, nice how it made you a deck for those who don’t play it or are new and don’t have a large card collection

+Evermotion Mechanical Painting: Invoker:

Always a fun little mini game. Glad its back and with a twist. Didn’t really have difficulty because I got its rules down with its last appearance. The duck duck goose it did however was fun.

+Heart of the Dice:

Once again going for the middle difficulty is nice and cozy with a max out team. Neat theming for one of these combat with a twist events. Otherwise, it just seems like nice and straight forward rules.

⋆Divine Ingenuity: Collector's Chapter

Okay definitely an amazing event. To think I only scratched the surface for it too. Like I did use the custom domains to finish off the elemental mastery achievements I haven’t done yet but otherwise I appreciate the depth of it, and it is a shame that it isn’t here to stay. Hope they make its’ return an anniversary thing.

⋆ Feast of the Departed Warriors

Okay this is a simple combat event. One of the add challenge modifiers to reach the score. Worst I can say about it is the last one is 8,000 score not 6,000 like each one before. Which is why I didn’t go for that score on the final one.

⋆ Fayz Trials: Hypothesis

Ya, I like this event a bit more than the previous one even if it felt kind of long but needs 7 so each element can have one assigned to it for rewards. Always neat to see a returning event NPC and it to come back with a nice little gimmick. It’s not hard but seeing all the team comps without concern of needing to build it without any pain in the ass gimmick is just nice to go through.

⋆ 3.8 Released

THE MEME IS DEAD EULA BANNER IS HERE. Also, the foreshadowing for Fontaine patch with that world quest. Not sure if it really was anything important that wasn’t said elsewhere. Like the fact the research institute blew up. Admittedly I watch Ashikai so I got the recap that I smooth brain forgot. Anyway, looking forward to brat archon.

⋆ Veluriyam Mirage

Okay the NPCs weren’t all dead. I was thinking that with how good the devs are with keeping up with elemental vision mechanic. Like the whole time I was “okay why are they all hydro resonating” Like I thought Eula’s cousin was dead till I got a chance to check with elemental vision then I thought he dodged a bullet. Otherwise, nice little cozy story that probably has some deep lore foreshadowing that I missed connecting the dots for. As for gameplay always love new areas to explore. Glad the made a treasure compass for this area and glad it’s not just golden apple archipelago again. Like it might be because of the terrain of the archipelago or the fact I’ve been there twice but I like this area a bit more.

+Spino Buster:

You know it’s weird to think how long it’s been since there has been a shoot the target mini-game, or at least feel like it. Oh well as the joke I saw about it “finally they balanced Ganyu for these target minigames.” Otherwise, ya I like it. Funny enough it’s still easy but I guess that’s the perks of being a PC player.

+Sojourns of the Barking Fox:

What a nice little minigame. I am honestly surprised they used the Sorush gameplay again so soon, but it was last seen in an event in 3.6 so :V.

+Dance of the Flashing Thought:

Nice little combat event. Can’t really say much about it with how easy it was. I mean it didn’t even have difficulty levels. Like that’s fine just the open world and domain combat is harder even excluding outliers.

+Bing-Bang Finchball:

Nice little minigame. Always a nice relaxing thing to deal with a game based off the famous Olympic sport curling.

⋆ Adventurer's Trials: Advanced

Nice little even no story no fuss. All that I can complain about is it really shows how the game evolved over time like Amber’s skill vs Yaoyao’s Skill and how the control are. Like at least Alhaitham vs Keqing has functional differences in how they are used. Like its some rough edges stuff but not enough to bother me for its stay.

⋆ Perilous Expedition

… I feel like I already wrote this section, but I am writing this now on the 8/30 when this ended on 8/7. Like it was just a combat event and not that big of a deal admittedly I just skipped the hardest difficulty because it was something silly like clear 15 level 90s in under a minute. However, the event wanting you to use different characters is a fun concept. Kind of wish they used that idea in some other event where you set all the sections first and then pick which team goes first as a relay race kind of deal, or maybe an endurance battle.

⋆ 4.0 Released

Fontaine is here.

Day one impressions

So, dragons are a social construct. Got all but 5 of the telepoters. Diving seems fine other than the boss fights I've ran into. New world bosses seem fine. Also wow 2 world quest lines. the hydro rings are the good version of the old elcetro gates in wata. new reaction seems ignoble from initial impression will come down to the units that can use them. Also, mechs unsurprisingly can’t swim.

The following days

So, I did everything I could find using the Interactive map before doing the archon quest. LOL. Also thank God for the map update to have layers.

+ Area

Beautiful as always. New underwater mechanics are good. I wouldn’t say they were great since I kind of wish the attacks were tied to the type of weapon a character had. Since getting it from a random fish feels kind of hit or miss sometimes. Nice that every foe drops the same items that was a miss for something that could have been extremely annoying. Admittedly didn’t feel like it really got to show off the new puzzles but that might be down to it being the first of the Fontaine areas since we get updates in that style since 2.0. Above the sea the aquabus is a lovely little thing and I will use it to get to a new area if I can for future updates. The skyships are fine but kind of make me wonder why they didn’t use them instead of the aquabus for travel around the region other then it’s the water region, so aqueducts are needed. Not sure I care about the new Arkhe system. Like as it exists now it is kind of just there. However, I don’t care about spiral abyss where it will probably matter so I probably won’t about it either. Otherwise, the new enemies are fine they are neat but nothing outside the expectation, or I killed them to fast to notice something. Kind of doubt that since I was using a hydro traveler, Nilou, Nahida and Kokomi for half of it with the other half being toss Ganyu at it.

+ Archon quest

Act 1 – wow we really did see someone melt. Like that seems like a save it for the 3rd act or something as a “remember this? Ya its real.” Sort of surprise. Childe is as he normally is, and Fatui continued to be actual decent people to puppy kicking bad guys in their range. The court drama was fine more interesting than the normal investigating gameplay. Was certainly a Mix up compared to normal Archon quest Acts with how much of it was taken up by the trial. As for the twist end neat call back to something that happened like an hour ago. Also, funny how Judge was like “Ya he sus but he aint it” at the end. Brat Archon is great, and I hope she gets bullied in the future. Also, ya went straight into we turn people into drugs with the traveler going not my problem mixed with you aint special.

Act 2 – Navia is best girl. She went straight to suggesting do a crime. Little does she know I’ve already pilfered everything in the region not nailed down. Well, that went from 0 to 10 real fast. Also, good way to cover why we keep fighting meks. Was really liking the Navia story quest then got hit right in the face with another trial section. There is going to be one for every act isn’t it like I get it that’s what Fontaine is but like I hope for mercy and the dev’s are restrained with it in the future. Also, wow does Childe continue with the L’s can’t just be the tough guy of questionable morels who might take our side at the end of everything without taking L’s all the time. Ya dude got what he deserved. Was expecting his lover to call him trash and that be the end of it but victims got their comeuppance. Also, ya, that judgment thing works off mob rules. Like I fully expect some needs of the many demands one dude to die for everyone else kind of situation to happen. Also, hilarious to think about how Furina about the same age as Nahida. Neuvillette is totally dragon dad to her too. We really lay into Paimon this patch I am kind of getting worried she is going to die soon in the story because of it.

+ World quest Line: Narzissenkreuz Adventure

Well, that is a quest. Sure, it can be summed up as it was just a dream but by God was there some feelings of something sketch as hell happened and you just walked into the aftermath. Also, ya I pulled out Endora since I am that old of a player. Really kind of checks out with the Veluriyam Mirage story too.

+ World quest Line: Ancient Colors

I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE. TRIED TO TRICK ME. INSTEASD OF JUST ONE LONG WORLD QUEST YOU MADE TWO THAT BECOME ONE. Anyway, all the Melusine are good girls in need of head pats. All together this really is a lot subtler about you just walking into the aftermath of a messed-up situation. Like up until the end its “okay some idiot is trying to pilfer the dragon’s corpse for some reason” only to swerve right into the Narzissenkreuz storyline with the dead dragon being a good father by staying dead.

+Other World Quests

A sad/meta with the young girl kind of hate it with the chest thing. They really are going hard on what is art them this region along with puzzle designed?

Henri Poor guy just wanted to do honest work, but he was the salt of the earth and was only taken advantage of by the fatui. Fortunately, the men in black took him in this will in no way come up latter.

Wow we really just met a mob families don there with the White Glove and just let him murder a guy Like he was a jerk but damn. Also probably going to tie into the above two questlines purely because we find the secret meeting room in a book in the zone it unlocks so put me down for White Glove covering it up or being in a secret society looking for it.

… ya I’m going to call it now every Fontaine character is descended form Oceanid’s aren’t they as the explanation for all the weird shit going on.

⋆ Mega Meka Melee

Well, that was a short and sweet story. Also, funny that Childe story quest call back at the end. Really see the Childe ‘redemption’ arc theories being true. Let it happen I want to say “If Evil? Why Himbo?”.

+Dance Dance Resolution:

Okay a nice little combo game that really feels like a phone game. Not hard since I only missed one on the first one for the entire set but eh its’ was nice and simple.

+Torrent Turbulent Charge:

I was thinking this type of underwater gameplay was going to show up for an event and here it is. The fact that this is like triple the underwater courses that are in open world challenges is funny. Like they aren’t hard, and I am glad for it since perspective feels like a shadow over this type of gameplay.

+Efficiency Testing Simulation Arena:

The designated go to area and kill [x] number of enemies. At least it kept to being mostly the new enemies. Still not sold on the Arkhe. Mostly cause its only on three units and I didn’t go for Lyney and use traveler outside Archon quests that often. That and the hit reg for Lynette’s Arkhe reaction feels bad.

⋆ Verdict Blades

Combat event is ago. Never care for the unlockable hardest difficulty but this event was kind of easy for the normal stages but ya hardest mode is hardest. Still not sure about Arkhe system still even if I got Freminet but I have noticed that the foes with have multiple levels that need to be hit to enter the stun state. I thought up to this point it was just inconsistent but no its just as bad cause I will kill the foe by the time the ability comes off cooldown.

⋆ Study of light and Shadow: A Fontaine of Enchantment.

A nice little photography event.

⋆ 4.1 Released

⋆ New Archon Quest

New area, new archon quest, new character quests. Ya, I pulled for him. Checked out his ability description in the character archive tested in the trial and then pulled for Neuvillette. Single dad raising his theater daughter is better than the Knave not even a contest don’t “why evil if hot tho?” me. Hope she dies like Signoria I remember Lyudochka even if I need to look up her name which is better than 90% of unvoiced NPCs in this game. Since her stealing a ninja identity and the ninja having to put up with it is too funny. Like I’m willing to give a pass on the triplets and Childe for the ‘if you don’t follow orders you would wind up with you dead at best, you and your family at worst’ situation but the Knave is a 100% cause of that situation. Also, glad they fixed the quest conflict with a giant UI thank God.

As for the area didn’t pillage it before the archon quest this time, just grabbed every statue of the seven and waypoint I could find, but it seems like a nice area so far. I would what looks like 1 giant world quest in it but then while wondering about I triggered the spot light and got put into prison before getting sent there in the Archon quest which is how I found out about them fixing the quest conflicts. Which I am pretty sure is going to be another massive world quest if the prison food shop is any indication. As for the prison it’s a neat area that is not fire safe with all those elevator only access areas, but it seems like an area mostly for the Archon quest and that is.

Small notes about combat specifically the Arkhe system they have really like giving us the Pneuma version since every character that has been introduced so far has been it. Like the wiki has all the teased characters having Ousia but they decided to front load Pneuma. Otherwise Neuvillette feels like it works with hit registration on it and area it covers vs the abilities cooldown instead of previous characters. As for a (new?) mechanic Life bond. It exists. Like I’ve not noticed it so far and it all together feels like off brand Corrosion. Like it will kill low investment characters like my Neuvillette but it won’t matter till abyss floor 12.

Now then the archon quest. Neuvillette. You sly dog giving a cake to frame us for a crime. Like I thought it was just poisoned by the Knave or something, but no. The end of the quest revealed the knave was much worse than that. Getting the triplets here as side actors were nice with how Freminet got more than one line and something to do. Worcester sauce was a dick for reasonable reasons but that whole confrontation segment between him and Lyney had me want to bring up Lyney sad backstory. This became even more relative with his character quest. Since I immediately got the feeling, he was actively fucking with him and it getting turned around on him would of ended that real quick. Just to hurry up if Worcester and Sigewinne were going to be the masterminds behind the evil conspiracy or just being followers of Egeria still left over from her death as to why they were so independent since we still got that “Assassins from our homeland” hanging thread and we got like one or two more acts left in this arc, or that might just be relegated to the Narzissenkreuz story line. Honestly the weirdest thing about it is how cavalier most of the prisoners are compared to normal NPCs. Like the worst was Worcester, admittedly we got thrown into jail for eating a cake and everyone was “ya that checks out” and for Paimon flying when we got to Fontain so most of the prisoners being in for tax fraud, jay walking, and tomfoolery would not surprise me. As for the investigation mechanic glad the mixed it up again for this quest not sure the currency mattered, or it was just an illusion, but it was a nice little thing for context. Sigewinne I am digging being a lowkey sociopath big sister nurse. I am a bit annoyed that it’s going to probably another hydro healer because that alongside over worked office lady is the Devs two types. To be serious nice to bring all that world quest context about the Melusine into the main story. Was admittedly worried for a bit that she had a lolicon stalker but that didn’t happen still wish she was more like the regular Melusines in design. As for the ending poor Furina we probably gave her a PTSD attack with our actions when we met her with this context like I was wondering if it was just a player only flashback but nope the knave straight up admitted to it after bulling a child right in front of us because she was salty about her inability to find the Gnoses. Oh, and Neuvillette is the dragon Sovereign like everyone in the lore community expect no go play the character quest. Also, God damn it Childe you just had to F----- the wale didn’t you.

⋆ Radiant Harvest

Poor guy just tried to make a bit of cash on the side but got stuck with people being idiots releasing wild animals that don’t belong in the environment. Otherwise, it was a nice chill event to get all the objectives.

⋆ Dodoco's Bomb-Tastic Adventure

Wow two events about environmental disasters in one patch. Also, kind of funny that we got the important task of distract play with Klee, so she doesn’t blow something up. Lisa also once again dodges work.

⋆ Waterborne Poetry

Well, that was a nice event. Any new player would be confused from the references to the last lantern rite but what else is new. Was a nice gathering of older characters that haven’t been seen in a while so who cares. Other than its obvious foreshadowing to the future archon quests with oceanids tying in probably. Picture part was neat if only because it wasn’t a one and done thing. The shooting minigame was neat and continues the tradition of the devs realizing Ganyu was a mistake for this type of games. The combat section was kind of neat, but I don’t think I 100% under stood it beyond kill everything else to bomb the tough guy.

⋆ The Peaks and Troughs of Life

Nice and simple combat event for the end of the patch. Anyway, it dragged on a bit in my opinion with the three waves per round but that’s partly on me for waiting till they are all unlocked to be done. As for this gimmick nice little charge gadget to get the buffs. I admittedly didn’t use them the first 3 rounds but that was on me thinking the point limit for the buffs was going to be tied to the score. Not that I was going for the final tier of rewards because I don’t hate myself to min max to that level.

⋆ 4.2 Released

⋆ New Archon Quest

Wait was that actually 45 days real time? So Evil mommy daddy is slightly less evil like she ain’t going to back stab us latter. Navia almost died and was saved by the dead bros. Lamo mona lore out of God damn nowhere like straight up did I walk into mona character quest chapter 2. Like I was familiar enough with the deep lore/been around long enough to know where it was going but still out of nowhere, would have thought it would be foreshadowed by steambird comments but nope heard and saw nothing of the sort. Also feel bad about trapping Furina like that to only fulfill the prophecy in a way that it was too late. With Childe being a god damn lunatic buying everyone some time. Then we got inner Furina poor girl needs a therapy vacation. Ya so that line was the secret fountain line. So Focalor is a bit of a dick for everything but lamo Chad Focalor Fucks over the heavenly principles by herself while the Virgin Tasarista faffs about for 500 years having to steal all other archons shit to try the same. Also, that boss fight straight up felt like it glitched defeated the shadow man and insta ended it. Completely funny at how Neuvillette was like “Alright I need to kill something, and the whale has voluntold” Skirt is hilarious with how she showed up chucked Childe like a bag and then explained stuff without explaining anything. That ending cutscene really understates the death toll but like divine or dragon intervention, I guess? Like it checks out with gameplay of can’t drown in Fontaines water being extended to story for non-vision people temporarily. Also, Charlotte was a nice way to checking up on everything, and God damn I thought the gnoses was destroyed Neuvillette better have tricked them with it being useless now, and he did because its cursed, all of them are cursed. Well shit good thing we seen the brother already or else the gnoses being the missing twin theories would of ran rampant at least for the most part. Well at least we got Natlan lore finally that is more than “lol hot springs”.

⋆ New Area, new character quest, and world quests

+ Mechanics and Region :

Alright Erinnyes Forest is a nice little area if feeling like a bit small expansion since we had an entire side already for it since 4.0, while the Morte Region is a nice big ocean area with a tone of ruins. As for the new mechanics. Bacterial mats are an odd thing that get cheesed by Furina water walking. The Xenochromatic Ball Octopus is more interesting that it is on land but otherwise is just an interaction tool that doesn’t use the gadget slot which is more good than bad I think. The Harmonious Reed Pipe and Dew Bubbles can go to hell if only because the Dew Bubbles are push and not pull. Floating Crystal Flowers and Floating Crystal Platforms are a new coat of paint on an old mechanic. Potential Energy Orbs are fun golf/bowling time. Dangerous Autocannons are neat as always but mechanically weird to use like didn’t the Veluriyam Mirage have a better controlling cannon or am I just misremembering that? Operable Mechanisms are a bit odd in needing the Xenochromatic Ball Octopus but fine otherwise, and the Energy Flow is a twist on flow puzzles which is just fine with me. Oh, the paintings popped up again and are still kind of suspect. Especially with the gold fish being the key to unlocking a world quest.

+ The Wild Fair of Erinnyes:

Okay I was expecting this to tie into the Narzissenkreuz story line but instead we got a Melusine who is probably a Bathysmal Vishap. Like the fact like 4 Bathysmal Vishap are just chilling in the Erinnyes Forest right under the statue of seven for the forest region. That is especially funny with the game scaling like you could see the from the walk way to Opera Epiclese. None the less Pahsiv is still a good girl. Also, finally a use for Tidalga that I’ve been picking up like a kleptomaniac. Still expect this to come up again latter maybe with Neuvillette or Kokomi in the future.

+ Narzissenkreuz part Search in the Algae Sea:

You know its funny I met the guy on the island before sinking it. Otherwise, ya the final chapter for this story quest most likely. Having done most of the little dungeons beforehand is always going to be a bit funny to do with the discussion of “oh ya the sealed evil in a can have it right hear got it yester under a random rock” happening in cutscenes. All in all, the deep lore enjoyers were definitely on the money with the who’s who in their theories so nice to see that tied up together while we cause destruction to an old landmark site. Again. They gave out a neat sword too that caused an Arkhe explosion too even can be refined too rank 5 using see shells from places. Unlike the Kagotsurube Isshin. It’s just why is this effect only on a god damn sword and not a one-piece artifact set like come on. That is my main complaint with the Arkhe system.

+ Questioning Melusine and Answering Machine:

Well, that was a hoot. Certainly, foreshadowing with that harbinger reference at the end. Also, just some guy casually makes a sentient robot and it’s just another thing on the pile of random shit the Traveler has experienced. Also Neuvillette must never know or else we will be in danger for making a Melusine sad.

+ An Expected Plan:

Well, that was a nice little follow up to the Institute quest. Can’t wait till the next part cause let’s face it that ending was setting up a part 3. Also, traveler continues to meet and work with constantly escalating sketchy people. Got to warm us up for Snezhnaya right?

+ Impromptu Poem of the Crimson Dawn:

Ya that guy was just shady. Like call it protagonist centered morality and such but like feels dumping the Treasure hoarders into the local cops is a viable solution to the whole event. Then just rando robin hood wannabe is just here. Like Fontaine didn’t even go the way of corrupt cop/police yet why is this a thing. Its only a because we are in Fontaine issue too.

+ Free Verse:

Well, that was a thing. Kind of weird with the traveler talking but okay. Did not get suckered punched by growing up story but was wonder what I ate when everything started talking.

+ Wish-Fulfilling Treasure Hunt:

Well, that was a nice little quest. Hope there is some follow up on it latter. Otherwise wonder how many players saw him on the island before we sunk it and realized it was our fault.

+ Happy Birthday:

Well, if that isn’t a gut punch and a tone of “Hey recall this ya we are going to explain everything in context you should know even if you don’t good luck recalling everything” Like straight up wish I had a detection book mechanic to tell the who’s who. At least the lore videos are going to be fun about it.

+ Furina Character Quest:

Well, aint that a nice little quest. Wish the traveler wasn’t kind of a dick dragging Furina into the plot like come on let the girl relax after dealing with everything for 500 years. Also, that last minute take the stage was so contrived/trope. Couldn’t have let Furina be content as a director/consultant? nope straight back to the acting spot light. Like splitting the difference and making it so Dulphy illness took her voice, so Furina had to sing the part for her while Dulphy acted the role would have been better in my eyes. Would have been neat too with the vision showing up paralleling the fake one.

⋆ Misty Dungeon: Realm of Water

Combat Event lets go. Okay this is at least kind of neat with it using a limited character pool. Otherwise, simple event at least when doing the three weakening rounds so I don’t know or care how tough they are without. That and I am pretty sure that you can’t complete the secondary objective without the side fights.

⋆ Thelxie's Fantastic Adventures

What the hell is wrong with this region and sad stories like the previous regions did similar things, but God damn does this one keeps on with these gut punch stories. Like I did feel like the kids dead at the start, but yep straight up kid was actually dead. Not sure I like how the House of hearth doctors got mentioned considering pass lore like was kind of worried for a moment that Freminet was going to gaslight the women considering the what the House of hearth gets up to. As for the ending. Ya elemental energies are memoires aint got to explain shit.

+ Motherboard Trouble shooting.

I wonder about the name “Motherboard” being in universes, but like I just got to recall robots were a launch enemy. Alongside all the ones roaming the country side of Fontaine. As for the gameplay the nice take on the good old pipe minigame. I like it didn’t have any big problems with it only trouble was the last couple if only cause having to think in spaces and not time when it came to having two penguins on one track with the switches.

+ Record of the search for glory

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO, THEY MADE ME KILL THE ROUND FRIEND FOR THE CROWN! Otherwise, ya simple underwater find the thing. That is glowing and sees though walls. Like at least swimming combat aint bad. Might just be me understanding all the mechanics they used in it from open world traversal.

+ Purgation Counterstrike

Okay that was a neat little combat gimmick basically a second burst that is shared between all characters if I understood it right. The trial characters are always neat other than the one time I grabbed the trial instead of my own. Admittedly I mostly used it as a “use this comp” indicator for the encounter.

⋆ Lil' Fungi's Fun-Tastic Fiesta

FUNGI FRIENDS ARE BACK. Also, always neat when a returning NPCs comes back in a different costume. As for gameplay it was simple and not sure if they could do more with it. My main problem is that it’s such a shake up from normal gameplay that it tosses my muscle memory for the game out the window and it’s not like it sticks around long enough to be built up. Otherwise, a good event.

⋆ 4.3 Released

⋆Navia Story quest

Alexa play “angel with a shotgun”. Navia continues to be unable to catch a break. Like easily probably the worst year she has had in her life. Other wise a straight forward story quest with no deep lore reveals just some terrorism. However, Navia’s gameplay is much more interesting if this is where they are going with the Geo element.

⋆Roses and Muskets

That was nice for old players to see Xavier back. Also, really did the 3 layers of meta in this quest the movie based on the book based off real life. Like really? Adamantly, I feel like the older Inazuma character were just there with how little they got to do. Like I get it was showing of Furina enjoying her retirement and preview for Chevreuse and Chiori but oh well limited time limited scope is the way it goes. As for the story fairly enjoyable with the highlight being THAT GOD DAMN BULLET BLOCK CHEVREUSE MLG NO SCOPE PRO.

+Thousand-Pace Interdiction Arcminute Sharpshooting Zone

Well, that’s a way to do a shooting minigame. Feels a bit off in mouse sensitivity for what is normally done but what can you do.

+Trick Shots, Tricky Lights

Well, that is an easy combat section. Kind of forget the special gimmick but it does have the same pseudo burst as the previous event and it’s still a good system.

+Xtreme Drive

A co-op event been a long time since that happened. Also, nice that they knew to disable the alternative movement actions after they learned that lesion in the hide and seek event. Wish the points were paid out per game played and not a score system because I had to play another round despite only needing 25 points for the final reward.

+Into the Frame

Okay neat little minigame. Not hard and you will puzzle out the solution from just messing it up. Definitely dependent on reading the prompt and figuring out which picture is the correct one.

★Fate/Grand Order [Off stream]

I am at the point this is a solved game so am sticking around for the story. Which going to be honest I hop over to atlas academy to read the story there just cause of the format feels better then how it is in game. It is a gacha game so wouldn’t recommend.

⋆Lostbelt 5-5: Heian-kyo completed.

Solid story chapter read it on atlasacademy.io. cause format. Otherwise definitely a way to wrap up limbos story arc if he wasn’t going to be tied into the main story. Kintoki is still a good boy. Not sure why the mech was needed to show up but Babbage is probably there to foreshadow it. Also surprised Nursery Rhyme didn’t get a costume since we got 2 from it anyway. Main Story is still good.

⋆Revival: Saber Wars 2 Event completed.

Skipped the story because I played it the first time. Was neat that the quest selection would show what counted for the event missions that is a very nice quality of life.

⋆Farewell to Kamakura - Little Big Tengu Event completed.

Ya, this was a nice relaxing story was nice. Hate the extra spawns Craft Essence wish they could make more than 3 enemies on the field oh wait that’s added next Lost Belt. OH well.

⋆Holy Grail Front Caesar: Et tu Brute?

I like these grail front events. The main problem I feel that they have is balance. Like they really need to change the limit for deployment. It really feels like the only CE that is worth using is Herc’s Bond CE. Like hell even if they only permitted Bond CEs at 0 cost that would be kind of interesting.

⋆Valentine's 2023

Well, that was an event. Neat how back up units came in mid attack change. Caren was the living sus that she is. Also, kind of nice how exhausted the pro-tag is with everything. Admittedly that is coming from a day one player.

⋆Chaldea Boys Collection 2023 Event - Holy Grail Phantom Thief Amakusa Shirou and the Slapstick Museum

Ya, I skipped all the text and read it on atlasacademy.io after the event ended... No shame just no interest in reading the visual novel format to much text to little displayed. Otherwise, same old same event set up. Story was fun when I got around to reading it defiantly an odd ensemble but one that worked out. Not sure the better sweet ending with the museum curator was needed but eh its fine especially with Moriarty being salty. To be honest the real W was the costume we got along the way.

⋆Akihabara Explosion

Ya a nice little tower event. Also skipped all the text and read it on atlasacademy.io. Did my normal strategy of use my lowest rarity first and only use 3 servants per node it really is the only time I use most of the roster that can’t be used to 3 turn with caster atoria or skati. That or the big single target damage. Also, good luck getting rid of your AP with it lol. Only difficulty was me remembering to swap to the damage CEs. Story was fun but like every oversimplification of the story idiot genius makes a problem for everyone quote for that “Or do you also doubt it's possible for humans to give birth when someone tells you about their mother?”. Also, summonable Aphrodite when?

⋆Bedazzled! Grail Concert! Crane Returns an Idol's Favor

Once again, I skipped the quest text to read it latter on atlasacademy.io. As for the farm kind of neat to have the point ladder make the event CE scale off of, still not sure that it needed three-point ladders. 90+ quests continue to be interesting in how I solve them by just NP with three different servants. Otherwise, costume tickets are neat was in a position to use all but two of them, and the fact that most of the Idols got a skill upgrade alongside the event. Would have been nice to realize that during the event to help with farming but oh well. LAMO NEVER WENT BACK AND READ THE STORY.

⋆Holy Grail Front: My Super Camelot 2023

More Grail Front. Its fine like I don’t hate it like others seem to I just feel like the balance is off, and it really would be fine if it only had 3 or so missions instead of the 7 we got. Just feels a bit annoying. That and they should just make it all units get two actions per turn and be done with this variable move point nonsense. Still the only time I’ve failed a front I think and all I can say is wonder why it took so long with how the dev’s have to stack the deck so hard. That and the end was just piling on that agitation.

⋆Revival: FGO Summer 2022 Summer Camp

Event rerun okay. Was fun reading it the first time but otherwise, ya. It’s just your run of the mill mission-based event with three currencies. Story was fine I hate the villains is the worst I can recall of it. Probably the least interesting of the summer events in terms of story if it wasn’t for pasine.

⋆Lostbelt 6: Avalon le Fae

⋆Part 1

Oh, ya some main story always good. Yes, I did read it on atlasacademy.io it was faster and more comfortable for me. Still had it running on auto text using Samsung Flow to get better scenes, music, and animations. So as the story goes, ya Fae are dicks, and this is the only lostbelt that I don’t feel bad about offing. Like its unfortunate but this is just a functional trash heap of a location-timeline. As for spoilers I am mostly blind other than one off no context comments that I half recall. Glad Mash got some independent character development and Chad Nasu was willing to skirt NTR with how hard wifu ‘culture’ get. F for the gob bros dying like absolute lads. Nasu really wanted to make fun of all those Doujin stories when he wrote this arc didn’t, he. Also, kind of rude to separate us from Mash right at the end there. As for Fujimaru half or Castoria half to be more accurate. Oberon is in the Mephistopheles camp of sus even if helping with no ulterior motives. All around that half showed the shit heap that is the lost belt by being true and faithful to traditional Fae myth. Also did they really doge the implications of it being rape camps with that artificial insemination line in the Dracae section like I thought that it was going to be just implied and not addressed with Humans being like cattle, but they decided to not leave that hanging. Also, Beryl is a hate sink that deserve all the bad things that will happen to him. Nice to have a simple villain for once. All together things are progressing in ways we still don’t know exactly what the deal beyond the first answer, but it is part 1 so leave that for the complete section.

As for gameplay didn’t notice anything but like I got the quick and arts loops on speed dial I am leveling up all my servants’ skills to 6 for the hell of it since I got them to max level outside grails. As for my pulls got Morgana without using up my bangk alongside a np2 Baobhan Sith. Morgana is fine (read that she is best in immortal comps) while Baobhan Sith came in clutch in the only time I was going to fail a quest during the story and her kit is simply “their will be a use for you at some point.” Shame I ran out of nails to max her skills. Final boss for part 1 was just fine, it was a stall fest for me using the support rider DaVinci and mash with a castorio for back up. The most annoying thing was having to use a support mash when my own is bulked up to hell and back with being the only servant I have given the golden Fous, paw prints, and card appends. Like if she had appended skills, I would have made them 10/10/10 as soon as the animations finished cause I am eggplant club for life give her head pats and max her stats.

⋆Part 2

So that was an eventful end. Count Pepe continues to be best bad guy, Beryl is trash person, babbitt sit is oddly a good girl despite being evil, and Morgan really should have let this lostbelt/lostworld burn cause Fey are trash. Barghest is a good girl who will have bad things happen to her, and Mélusine is getting conned by everyone she knows. As for the story the pilgrimage seemed to be oddly fast and slow for how many bells we have rung in this part and how quickly it happened with their still being a third part but that’s where everything will come to roost. Cnoc na Riabh and Cu was interesting if a bit heavy on the reference to other same faces. Oberon continues to be suspect, while Muramasa continues to be helpful if annoying in how he is an alter-ego in gameplay and not a saber where every time it would be more useful especially since I am sitting on a maxed-out copy of him. The history of the lostbelt tab is interesting but that feels like more thoughts than I will dedicate to it, but it is nice for those who like it. The twist with Morgan being Altria predecessor feels like it could have been foreshadowed a bit more but the as the answer to the puzzle that was been shown does make sense it’s just feels like you figure it out the sentence before they tell you. Morgan also does put out the power at the end and only lost cause fairies are terrible. Gareth being a mirror clan lined up with the visions of the future power she showed with no explanation before that. All in all, despite everything I am waiting for this lostbelt burn in part 3. Sorry Fujimaru you are too much of a good person, so trauma conga-line(a traumga-line) is your fate. Still, it’s really nice how they give the protagonist some more dialogue instead of letting it fall to the wayside. Also, nice they didn’t try and separate mash and Fujimaru again. It’s also kind of funny how by now the default idea should be “beat the shit out of [x]” first resort to a lot of problem in this game because that’s what everything turns into. I really wonder if most of my passive enjoyment of this is because everything was known due to the prophecy it was only a question of how it will pan out.

As for gameplay the actual intended to be beaten final fight. ya, that was hard actually used some Layline stones for it. Woodwose was also that hard too. At least because I couldn’t just double castor Altria it, which is what I did to every other combat encounter. Like that unwinnable fight at the end was winnable with that team comp and I would have if I could. The only interesting thing I could say was the one where you only needed to kill 3 enemies and they piled on the curse and poison on their killer and I just one turned the entire wave. Overall, I am not sure how much I like these support servant frequency on one hand its certainly the consequences of putting all the cannon story servants into the support menu and only being able to take one but I really wish they went the extra mile to put them in your own summons so you can pick them if you want to take them or use your own. Like right now it feels like an annoying half way point between a forced comp and using your own servants. That mostly is just coming from having to fill in the team for so many encounters that just gets solved by making the same 3-turn loop setup with Altria + tammo + AOE arts NP servant, but like Day one NA problems, I guess.

⋆Part 3

What an end. Like didn’t even have much time to think about before everything went to hell. Like that wasn’t a surprise with ominous glowing eyes Cernunnos at the end of part 2 but like take the L so hard we must pull a time Houdini to not lose and have Koyanskaya bail us out too. Like damn. The only time we’ve lost as hard must be for both the incarnation of mankind in arc 1 and bleached earth in arc 2. Otherwise, Fey are terrible and deserved everything that happened to them. Like Barghest being the best of them despite being an unwilling cannibal really shows how low the bar is. Mélusine would count but lol dragon and mercy kill her abusive mom, Mike can be argued to be MVP for the duty of not fucking up, and random fairy girl(Hope?) came in clutch by being the selfish bitch she died as. Habetrot is a good girl and friend of brides and does not count. Despite not getting any ascension art not even to take off her hat. This was the end of Castoria story and what an end. From seeing from her point of view of past story events, Muramasa sacrifice, Percival’s end and Cernunnos defeat. All great. The fact Oberon betrayal is so simple is kind of underwhelming but at the same time fitting. Like even if this is like the fifth time a villain’s entire plot can be summarized as “Bothered by this massive complex issue? Use this one quick trick to fix it! Genocide.” Like if it wasn’t for this entire Lostbelt story being about vapid idiots messing everything up that being tacked onto the end it probably wouldn’t fit. Plus, it kind of feels like Oberon is also kind of aware of how dumb it is with all the talk of stories and actors. Adamantly this might be purely the always lies make all his dialog retroactively and proactively be pure subtext with no just plain text reading consequently. Like the only honest thing he said was calling Fujimaru a lunatic for trying to deck him. Also, Sion at the end just listing future events is funny. Oh ya, they brought Beryl back for a scene so we could see his back story. At least Pepe was a bro from the grave. Still Oberon’s defeat flashback/dream sequence was better if only cause of how salty he was about the whole thing. Also it is kind of funny how Oberon just disappears at a point and no one comments on it.

As for gameplay the boss fights went from reasonable (Mélusine), hard but reasonable ( Cernunnos), and what the fresh hell ( Barghest). Like everyone was saying Cernunnos is the hardest fight but like I only need 1 Laystone for it unlike the 3 for Barghest fight. Like they both do it in different ways but they both do the screw with the player in an unfair way. Like God damn were the devs liberal with buff removals for these bosses. This is very much an “oh shit we power crept to hard” response but like this feels so much an issue of not being able to buff and nerf servants cause gacha game. Oh well at least I got Koyanskaya L and Oberon so buster loops are now my future. Not that I used them much in part 3 because I’ve become poor in mats again. At least I can deal with the dickish 1-3-1 waves that exists to stop NP arts looping just like every new quick servant gets NP hit taxed for the same reason. In my opinion this state is purely because they decided every skill goes off a turn set up for buff durations with the rare skill going off uses and not a single skill going of waves as its duration. Like if they did that it would really mix it up the servant roster where some are good for 1 wave 99 reserves and others the current set up. That however is probably another consequence of the gacha system.

⋆Revival: The Return of Nero Fest - Summer 2023

I farmed so many boxes. As always fuck challenge quests. Only did the ones that paid out a lore. Like I’ve said it before but while one challenge quest in an event is fine this is just nonsense of who in the office can come up with some ridiculous restrictions on the gameplay.

⋆Chaldea Summer Adventure! A Boy Pursuing Dreams and a Girl Who Dreams

Columbus is a little shit that is all. All in all, what a nice little event. Didn’t really matter in the end but definitely some meta foreshadow in how the narrative will go in the future. At least more so for new players since that’s how these events go in only needing to beat the prologue to take part in them. I am a sap, so I teared up at the end. Also, this treasure chest mechanic for events is a neat shake up but not sure if it’s better than lotto events.

⋆Csejte Halloween Trilogy: Ultra Deluxe Highlights!

Ya no. I was there Gandalf I ant reading this again don’t care if they reframed it skipped every god damn quest gladly.

⋆Halloween 2023 - Halloween Rising! The Queen of Dust and the Disciple of Darkness

So once again Liz returned. So anyway, the gameplay changes of having 6 enemies out at one time continues to be amazing. Otherwise, nice they took the chance to give out the servant coins for the old welfare servants in this event. I still haven’t gotten around to reading through all the text but Liz getting shade is apricated.

⋆Revival: GUDAGUDA 2022 - Super Ancient Shinsengumi History GUDAGUDA Yamataikoku 2022 - Lite

So those raids died fast. Anyway, was here for the first one. So, it was a simple event for me. Kind of love and hate the daily reward mission they had if. Probably because my tolerance for that kind of stuff has been getting lower as I get older.

⋆GUDAGUDA 2023 - Showa Kishin Project: Ryouma's Narrow Escape! The Mystery of the Disappearing Nobbu Head

I am just guda guda out. I just don’t care about the guda guda story lines. It’s just apathy for me. As for gameplay it’s your run of the mill mission even except they have ~special missions~ its fine. Really glad they added that do this node to complete this mission feature wasn’t added a while back but still good to not need to look up a walkthrough.

⋆Anti-Primate Biosphere, Tunguska Sanctuary

NA #1! NA #1! NA #1! NA #1! Ya lamo that bug is the perfect capstone for a raid event and their arbitrary nonsense. Straight up hate raids in a low simmer kind of deal with how they are time gated by the dev’s and get blender-ed by players. Like the raids come out 12 at night for my time zone they are dead before I wake up even if I had a good sleep schedule. Then the final raid popped up and I deal too much damage and too little cause it’s that god damn backup dancers set up for drops. Like raids are the most interesting concept for content but turn out so bad to me. Also, that last story battle can go to hell even if it is appropriate level of in universe power. It just fights against the gameplay mechanics to be good.

As for story I would say fun as a concept even if it leans too much into nature good human’s bad misanthrope angle. As for the “please fuck” being the answer to the event it feels fine. As for wasted presence I get where people are coming from and sort of agree with Ibuki just being scenery dressing and Nikitich just feeling like there need to be more foreshadowing for that ending bit, but the whole storyline seems to have the theme of anti-climaxes as its core tenet. I would say it was worse, but Koyanskaya has always been in the affable evil category in terms of antagonist. Like she is basically Pepe who decided to stay an antagonist the entire time instead of just vibing.

★Girls Frontline [Off stream]

I still skip all the text in the game. Might look up a story archive eventually but whatever. Still sticking with it cause it’s interesting to see what the Developers come up with. Still a gacha game so wouldn’t recommend even if tis a solid game.

⋆Fixed Point Event

SKIPED THE STORY. But from audience apathy I am seeing is not a bad thing. HATE how they added another difficulty level would have liked it if I didn’t already farm every doll by the time I finished, but oh well. Maps continue to be a level of nonsense that I appreciate but still hate if only because it is on a phone game and even if the game is optimized well enough it still needs more. The minigame is neat certainly feels like they were experimenting with Neuralcloud and Girls Frontline 2 in development not sure how well that lines up with the development timeline thou. As for ranking god do I love the nonsense they come up for ranking maps. Still wish they functioned more like the Theater system so time is the only investment you need other than raising your dolls. Also, not sure the ranking system need the sum total of 3 maps with branching choices for what map is available.

⋆Love Bakery

Well, this is a nice and quick event. Neat to see coalition leaders in the shenanigans. Even if I still skip all the text. Also, weird that there wasn’t an achievement to give Persicaria her special coffee. Otherwise, nice and simple to get too the farm map no complaints here. Other than when do I get to capture chocolate doggos.

⋆The Glistening Bloom

Ya, I just want to foreword that I am still skipping the story even if this is a collab. I also haven’t gotten around to watching Zombie Land Saga it’s on the to watch list alongside the other 339 because I am a “Ya I watch anima. That’s putting it on your plan to watch list and never get around to it right?”. So, in terms of gameplay, I hate the event while I am glad it’s not the damn revolver selection this point thing and too many minigames for me to like it. The ending conditionals seem kind of verbose as a consequence of it. As for the dolls neat gimmick but probably a meme team. As for that little bit of the story I saw mentioned sad it’s just a dream and not Koutarou Tatsumi just clowning on William for his motivation being a massive siscon who wants to resurrect his dead sister. Like what I got from the story by osmosis is the community feels a bit of darkness induced apathy by not being able to get a win against William since we know he survives to be in Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery and this event could have been a way to have given us a W by having William out “But I Don't Want To Cure Cancer. I Want To Turn People Into Dinosaurs.” By Koutarou Tatsumi.

⋆Eclipses & Saros

Well, this was an event. Nice and short and I skipped the story. It was neat in the Hard mode gave you custom echelons while the normal mode gave you a set one. Like it kind of feels inverse of what was the harder difficulty. Yes I am still skipping the story.

⋆ The Waves Wrangler

Rerun time. Whatever it’s a nice event and we get closer to Girls Frontline 2 coming out with NA getting caught up with the main server. I am basically in raise for the sake of raising like I have all but 2 dolls and have like half the roster at level 100 and the other at level 90 and most Neural Upgrade at 2 or higher so like I am set. Which is why I did not even mention the theater that happened before this like I missed day 2 and still wound up at top 12% for that.

⋆ Longitudinal Strain

This event has a better UI then the that damn rotary menu. As for story I still skipped it. Like sure this was a side story but by God was there a lot of story nodes. As for enemies seemed kind of neat as for strategy a certain point has come where “random bullshit go” can sum up what I need to do. Mostly because I really feel like the game is straining with its limitations for being on a phone. Like if this was built for the PC with the ability to save scum try and roll back events instead of having to restart the entire stage it would improve the game. That and just probably a better UI I would hope.

⋆ Lycan Sanctuary

Okay neat little summer event. Like the gimmick stage of playing pachinko even if the others were forgettable. I skipped the story but them doing some social deduction game voting is neat. Didn’t pay attention to the translator controversy I saw about how they were weighting a win that they already translated.

⋆Gray Zone

At first, I thought I wasn’t making a tone of progress with how many points it wanted. Then I saw how long it last for. Otherwise, it’s simply a neat mode. Even if it feels like it’s kind of long and tedious. Also, finally a good nonevent node for farming armored foes.

⋆Slow Shock

Okay this level of puzzle maps can go to hell. As before I skip the story but just the number of puzzles is just annoying. Like please let me use my own dolls I have every doll that existed before this chapter event I want to use them. Otherwise seemed a reasonable balance in terms of challenge. Also, neat how the NA server is caught up with the Main CA server. As for the new gimmicks the BPM meter feels like it’s just there, the trees are reasonable in there annoyance, and most importantly we have crab enemies.

★Monster Hunter: Rise Sunbreak [On stream]

⋆Title Update 3

Chaotic Gore, Risen Kushala Dora, and Risen Teostra. What a neat little combination of monsters. Still not sure what is up with Teostra.

⋆Title Update 4

velkhana and Risen valstrax are nice. Like the worst part I could say is Anomaly farming is kind of annoying to me just from the shear bulk of it.

★League of Legends [Off stream]

The mistake after I decided to reinstall it after watching a bunch of Exil videos. Warmed up with a few vs AI matches before trying ARAM. Got called racist despite not saying a damn thing in a match I lost. Then called my revisit there.

… still I miss Twisted Treeline ☹

★Destiny 2 [Off stream]

Ya played the free stuff for Light fall and the seasons. Gameplay is still good just I don’t care to get into it or toss money towards it.

Okay I picked back up during the crafting despite not being able to take advantage of it and did a Garden of Salvation and Crota’s End raid. Still haven’t done Vault of Glass or Kings Fall but like its 100% you need friends to do it since while LFG is there, I just hate it. Especially since at the moment my internet is on the fritz where its fine and wont hitch for videos but games it will, and I will get kicked form the activity sometimes I will reconnect but will be dead. Along side it wasn’t in the game at the time, and still haven’t gone back and tried it yet.

Overall, like to hate to be that guy, Destiny 2 is a good game but not enough worth my money or time investment with how much of both it wants you to spend on it.

And then they killed all the interest I had in it with that round of layoffs. Still grabbed the collection when Epic game store gave it out for free.

★Factorio [Off stream]

So, ya got that itch to play it again. Still have never beaten a vanilla game and I still don’t have the drive too. This year tried the mods Space Exploration, Nullius, and SeaBlock. Also, been watching DoshDoshington and appreciating the madness of those videos. Even his non Factorio videos.

Also, it’s hilarious how the expansion everyone was worried what horror the devs were going to let upon the land and it turns out they grabbed the Space Exploration dev to help them make their version of it. From the teases they have shown so far the only thing I’m not sure about is the ‘quality system’. Otherwise, Space Exploration for the common man and not its 300 hour madness induce enlightenment sounds pretty good.

★Girls Frontline Project Neuralcloud [Off stream]

Not sure if I like this more than the first Girls Frontline but it’s still interesting. Still, it is a gacha game so wouldn’t recommend even if it’s a solid game. Also, yes, I am skipping all the dialogue after chapter 1 part.2 when I found out it was optional for progress.

⋆Thundering Livestream Event

Actually, I read this story was short and sweet. Nothing outstanding but the first event is what it is. Also pulled Kuro.

⋆Divine Heresy story Event

Boy was this the first annoying road block but that’s story events. At least it had an easy mode to do. Managed to reach the point during it to do the hard mode to completion. Not that it really did anything haven’t upgraded a doll to 70 yet.

⋆Magrasea’s Lang Syne Event

Ya skipped the story. Otherwise only the challenges for the final mission were the stumbling block. Otherwise, same as Thundering Livestream Event except without reading the story.

⋆Exception Protocol

I think I hate it. Like I kind of hate how its either min max the rarity for the only benefit or get every doll to 50 and skill level 5. Like I want to out level the content especially since its bi-weekly.

Got fixed up and it lets you use your own dolls now, and made the points a daily thing.

⋆Quenching Operation

TLDR LAMO. So, ya skipped all the text kind of hat the cant auto my way through the story, oh well the hard farming quest is interesting. It’s just the skill data one but still neat.

⋆Heartfelt House of Coca

Oh, I love this. This is an interesting event. Feel a bit egg on my face for getting all that minigame point faring done on the first day with how often the daily was get points in the minigame. Not sure how much I care about the use dolls only from one company. Like at least the event missions are free. Still kind of hate challenge modes.

⋆Inverted Mordent Resonance

Well, this is a neat event. Not sure if I care for it but it is neat, but the event has its own personal upgrade tree is a neat idea. Having come from Girls Frontline I was wondering how much they could do with their mission set up but things like this are neat. Admittedly I still expect at some point they move back into a grid style map even if it’s for a single event. Once again skipped the story.

⋆Fool’s Duality

Okay neat event wish what was in the shop was actually the big head mode as a free skin but whatever. Also, hard difficulty can go to hell whenever it was a tank character otherwise what an oscillating difficulty.

⋆Chromatic Spiral

Ya if I wasn’t skipping the story, I would care more about these types of events but oh well. It’s a simple low intensity farm time event.

⋆ Eager Fist, Dawning Fray

They Really like this type of event don’t they. Like it is Just works and is fine and it’s great to give every new character an event. It’s just Like I kind of wish there was some more variance. Might just be an appearance thing compared to F/GO having a new map every event even if they default to the same 3 currencies for most events compared to this one story page + farm mission for a single currency.

⋆ Aberrance’s Chain

Well, this was a nice chunky update. Always love a temp ‘tech tree’ for an event alongside its currency being farmed outside node specific missions. As for the missions was able to do all the challenge nodes too since I am finally at that point for how strong my teams are.

⋆ Divergent Shadows

Love it. Not only have I finally reached the strength pinnacle to not worry about difficulty too much, but that Matrix Challenge was fun. The point ladder is simple and straight forward. Yes, I am still skipping the story.

⋆ Snowy Encounters Opening Promotion, Free To Play!

Love it. Nice Simple Minigame compilation from all the previous events not too hard to do.

⋆ Gastronomic Journey

Another classic character story event where I skipped the story. Ain much to say. Especially since the story is hidden in the character’s profile/Bio.

⋆ Wishing Starbridge Workshop

Nice to see the coca event set up back. It is simple but it is a nice diversion from the normal event rigmarole.

⋆ Midnight Machinations

Another classic character story event. Except this time, I pulled the character and got to say I feel like I will actually use her. Will also take this point to note a bunch of inscriptions have come in and getting fragments really feels like the true progression bottleneck in this game.

⋆ Critical Cascade

Oh, an event all about these sorts of stages awesome. Is how I started off with it but it kind of dragged on with a completely new set of functions and the daily missions requiring additional completions and I did all the stages day 1. Otherwise, it was a good event with a nice new unit.

⋆Ruintop Song

Oh, another one of these character events. Tempted to start skip mentioning them cause it’s all the same cause I skip the story.

⋆ Inverted Mordent Resonance RERUN

Second verse same as the first. Also, they really decided to do a rerun. Weird.

⋆ Joyful Reunion

Story event has the neat little Matrix nodes and has a point ladder for its rewards.

⋆ Twilight Requiem

Story event has the neat little Matrix nodes and has a point ladder for its rewards. I like this formula more than the grind currency events, but like I am still skipping the text so like I am just vibing with the gameplay.

⋆ Strange Blue

A big Matrix node event. I kind of hate it even if it’s very simple stages being done one after the other. Maybe because I like this game for the auto in auto-battler and Matrix stages are the opposite of auto making me dislike it. Alongside all the large impact changes of function sets being entirely a different set when I don’t even understand the min max choice for the normal sets. Mostly because I haven’t bother to read them in the tier-list/min-max guides I’ve read.

⋆Divining The Heart

Once again, it’s the new format for a character event. As for the doll introduced looking at the guides, I feel no need to pull her it’s probably simpler to use then I am thinking but by god that just looks overcomplicated.

⋆Perilous Advancement

Well, if that isn’t interesting intro to the next story chapter. I would probably care more if I was reading it, but auto battler go burr. Over all this has an issue I’ve been feeling that there really is a thin line between can trivialize the content or get hit by a wall. Like I do love them experimenting with different deploy layouts but what the hell are the red enemy variants smoking. Like just activating the challenge mode instantly makes my teams be blown up and without I am the one that instantly blows up the enemies. As a side the defend the core is neat in both the objective and the arena being larger. Matrix stages are nice simple one room floors even if they keep doing the rule of three, but sticking to the chess mechanics is neat.

⋆Symphonic Reprise

Again, character event. The character is neat in being unable to attack. I did not succeed in pulling her tho. Also just realized that Turning summonses dinergates I want to pull her now.

⋆Starchasers’ Concerto

Eh it’s a nice little event. Like Matrix mode is kind of draining on me with the inability to just let auto battle go burr, and the functions feel kind of boring in most cases. Like a few of the new functions seem kind of neat its just the function economy is probably the iffiest part of the game and Matrix mode just kind of pushes it to the limit. Also, kind of wired how this is the summon and doge event.

Played For The First Time This Year.

★Duylst II [Off stream]

I feel a bit of shame with how little I played especially since I went and played legacy mode for most of it. Haven’t kept up with it after the first week of release.

★Yoku’s Island Adventure [On stream]

Pinball Metroidvania is nice but makes me think my hatred of Pinball is equal to my love of it. Neat hearing from the speed runner “JKxWinG“ during my playthrough. Is the kind of game I would only play once to completion and any other time as an any% run.

★SteamWorld Build Demo [Off stream]

Okay don’t play a lot of these types of game but old west robots are a fun contrast. Don’t think it’s too hard but just the demo vs then end of the game. Plus, it’s not trying to be something like frost punk. Still orb is suspect.

★WanderSong [On stream]

Ya game is good. Honestly, I hate rhythm games and feel like I would have gotten a little bit more out of it if I was musically inclined but otherwise was a good game. It’s mostly a story-based game so like what could I say beyond I liked it. Like the only annoying thing about it was the fact I had to farm some achievements for it but that’s a me problem of being an achievement whore whenever they don’t go past my tolerance for them.

★Satisfactory [Off stream]

I like Factorio more. Satisfactory is still in development, but I just hate the map traversal. like as much as it would get compared to “Minecraft”, “Infinifactory”, or “FortressCraft Evolved!” I really wish it was in a block world. Purely for terrain deformation. Like as it is now Factorio has more ability to modify the terrain with cliff explosives and land fill, or water fill with mods. That and while this might be just where I spawned and settled why is everything so god damn tall like everything could be halved in height and it would still would have felt tall to me, also am I supposed to make big giant sprawling factory or like just an make one offs of everything. Like the belts have no through put compared to Factorio just thinking about it the difference is per second vs per minute in the tool tip. Like it feels so needlessly large. I might just be dumb to be honest.

★Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons [On stream]

Ya this is a nice short game. I was adamantly spoiled by the ending but not on the details. That or I forgot the details. Ya that control scheme is certainly a stroke of genius in story telling but like, I so kind of hate it. Like it such a reasonable idea for a control two characters each to a control stick but it’s so mind binding task because of how odd it is. Compared to only keeping track of one character like most games. However, that ending definitely was so effective because of the controls. That doesn’t mean I would want a longer game with this type of controls. It just was short enough to ‘earn’ its ending but not long enough to over stay its welcome. Even if maybe one more chapter would have been better so it wouldn’t feel so short. As for longer games Mario & Luigi has the better controls for a two character with dedicated button per character controls. Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons also now getting a remake so that’s neat.

★Pikuniku [On stream]

A nice little game. Haven’t touched the co-op but ya I just went with the flow but is nice and short game. Going after all the achievements however seems to be a bit more difficult. I adamantly kind of hate not having functional hands but that is probably why the game was short as it was to not over stay it welcome.

★Aven Colony [Off stream]

Ya this is a colony management game. They are neat and everything but not sure if I can bring too much enthusiasm for them, but they are still enjoyable. Mostly cause I unga bunga in games no thoughts only forward. Yes, I am aware how much that will backfire on me. Ya no, on second play this game is dumb have 12 greenhouses producing food and then all of a sudden, I have no food, and everyone starts drooping dead. like screw me, I guess. I don’t get it.

★Rise of Industry [Off stream]

Okay Transport Tycoon style game. At least that’s my touch stone for it. Its fine I just don’t really care about these types of games I suppose. Not sure about the research but that’s probably cause it forefather before it are a multiplayer game so having a way to mix things up is probably why it’s there. Which for the type of game it is feels a bit weird for me, but I suppose the single player versions of this type of game would require more random events to be fun for me.

★Terraforming Mars [Off stream]

It’s one of those Deck building games. They are fun. With friends. I still skipped the tutorial and got 11 victory points my first game. That was dead last despite being 4 more than the next amount I don’t know what type of logic that has victory points not be the win goal but okay.

★ DAEMON X MACHINA [On stream]

Ya, I don’t care for this game between the grind for loot to just the damage output mix with the controls. The comparison to all the mech floating there like Dragon Ball Z characters was on point and with my main point of reference for mechs being Code Geass makes me feel off playing this since its bones are so close to being what I would want out of a Code Geass game, and yes, I am saying that in the context of season 1. The fact Code Geass also started to do that in season 2 is going to be ignored. Like all in all this game feels like it has good bones I just hate the Muscles and Tendons on it. So, ya this is just the game equivalent of a pet-peeve.

★ Subnautica [Off stream]

Ya this really is we are not a horror game you just got thalassophobia bro. Anyway, finally got around to playing for myself instead of just watching lets plays of it mostly cause I’ve was watching RageGamingVideos series for it. Like I had it on the Epic game store when the released it for free. Ya it’s a good game I knew the story beats but even just playing it is the real fun of the game. Definitely the gold mark for the survival games for me.

★ Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles DEMO[Off stream]

Okay this is a neat twist on the deck builder sub-genre. Like ya Slay the Spire popularized this type of rouge likes deck builders but it being with dice is neat. Like I do not have the mind to optimize this type of game or card games in general, but it is fun dice go click clack. As for the corruption purify thing instead of health kind of sounded pointless but they did something with it so kind of neat. As for the two in the demo the basic owl character seems more practical, but the shark bsoy seems like a high roller. Only did one run with each so can’t say too much on it. Will pick it up eventually.

★Tevi DEMO[Off stream]

Well, this is a nice little Metroidvania. Also, neat how the artist put the bunny suit into the main characters design without it being blatant fanservice. The only odd thing about it is why does the DEMO have achievements for it. Definitely planning to play it eventually.

#vtuber #gaming #new year

0 notes