#damn this is so much easier than taking a bunch of screenshots to post to twitter | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

cishetamine · 2 years ago

Text

gremlins (1984) letterboxd review (crossposted)

This is a terrible movie. Why?

Well, someone in it says “mangy curr” unironically, which admittedly is kind of camp. But check out the rest of the dialogue:

re: ppl being depressed on christmas: “While everyone else is opening up their presents, some people are opening up their wrists”

the part where the science teacher is explaining pupation to the kid like “it might look dormant, but inside it’s going through changes” and the kid is like “Like my mother,” as in MENOPAUSE

basically whoever they hired as the script doctor for this deserves a Razzy.

astonishing that this movie contains a white woman who wants to do unspeakable things to this kid’s dog !!! like holy shit i believe the rumors now .. no like actually did they realize what they were writing………

although it’s maybe bad that she doesn’t respect The Spirit Of Christmas(jewish-coded ?) & lives alone weigh a bunch of cats(lesbian-coded; possibly acephobic ?)

I want to know what age demographic this is targeted at. Which i guess i could find out by looking up the film rating—ah, PG-13, but like, ppl apparently criticized it at the time for being too graphic for the kids at whom its sense of humor appears aimed. so i guess it makes sense that i was also confused!

Also wait this is making me wonder. Did kids used to just go to the movie theaters by themselves when they were younger than 13?? Bc i thought the purpose of 'PG-13' was "u gotta be older than 13 to see it without an adult".

But what kids were even seeing movies without adults before they could drive in most of the US in the 1980s?? idk i wasn't alive then but i assume most ppl had to drive to the movies——ok maybe SOME ppl lived in walkable cities……i guess the stranger things kids could've biked, but then again they aren't real, so.

anyway, right, gremlins. The sequence where the Designated Hottie describes how her dad died is hilarious bc it's trying to be sad but the way he dies is——ok no u have to like pull up a clip on youtube bc it's definitely not worth seeing this whole movie over. Like i would bet $5 that it's on the tvtropes page for Narm.

Note btw that the great thing about making bets about whether something is on tvtropes is that i literally can't lose bc if it's not there already then i could jus make an account & add it there. Although in a way, me making a tvtropes account would be a much larger loss for my sense of self-respect

Also i'm still mad that i got tricked into watching a christmas movie bc normally i would not be into that!! except i didn't know it was a christmas movie!!! damnit!!

Found myself thinking, like, "You know, in a cronenberg film, the gremlins would escape & eventually spread to blanket the whole country & then the world! Like in scanners or the brood or videodrome—or, indeed, in plenty of other horror movies—especially those that anticipate a sequel! Like that one version of little shop of horrors before they changed the ending, or uh, presumably various zombie movies, i think. How does invasion of the body snatchers end again? Or uhh, the original The Blob?"

& i think that kinda describes my relationship to cronenberg as a director, i think?? like, i don't his movies are necessarily Super Great or My Favorites or whatnot—but they definitely have affected me enough that i keep thinking about him & about them & about his particular authorial sensibility, even if i disagree with decisions he's made!

which i think basically encapsulates my relationship w/ any Art that's influenced me significantly. Like there's not much stuff that i'm like "WOW i LOVE this this is PERFECT IN EVERY WAY"—it's more about "omg even where this book/painting/musical/opera may be flawed, can we please talk abt whether you think those are actual flaws or not, & u think they actually add to the story. Please please pretty please"

Also—the colors/lighting in this made me yearn sooooo hard for the days when EVERYTHING was shot on film. fuuuuuck. Like, this has a bunch of dark scenes that are lit almost more like a b&w chiaroscuro noir film rather than a color movie—so u get these spots of rly rich orange & teal & purple & blue & it WORKS?!?!?

which feels kind of insane to me honestly. like, Family Movies don't have beautiful lighting deign anymore (although cartoons have taken up some of the slack here—e.g., that Hilda show had a rly excellent color scheme in its backgrounds!)

anyway i'm just getting all weepily nostalgic for analog film, don't mind me!! getting half-strangled by a stray reel All those indoor shots where they're not afraid to let some light from outdoors filter in through the windows——i am dragged off the stage That soft focus on subjects, as opposed to that hypershallow depth of field that's gotten oh-so-popular these da——muffled sounds of struggle

[small gremlin pops back up onstage speaking in my voice] Also almost forgot to say: Good puppets! Very expressive, as others have mentioned! We need to bring back puppets tbh. Also ventriloquism(not that cringe racist guy from the bush admin tho.) I'm talking REAL ventri—

[roof caves in right on top of GREMLIN PUPPET, which miraculously manages to sidestep all the falling debris, but then one more tiny circular chunk falls out of the ceiling & GREMLIN immediately gets melted by the sudden sunlight like a cute vampire]

#letterboxd #movie thots #gremlins #damn this is so much easier than taking a bunch of screenshots to post to twitter

4 notes · View notes

babyboy-bangtan · 5 years ago

Photo

By Chance Chapters 9-10

A misunderstanding gone viral puts you on BTS’s radar, which leads to a series of events that finally culminate with you meeting them for the first time.

✚ Pairing: Sub!BTS/Female Reader ✚ Word Count: 2.8K ✚ Rating: M ✚ Warnings: None. ✚ A/N: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of my imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Read on AO3 / Chapters 1-4 / Chapters 5-8

Chapter 9: The Guests

"Do you already know which artist is performing that day?" Your friend asks over the phone while you eat your toast with one hand and hold a script with the other. Reading it doesn't need your full attention, and based on what this movie seems to be about it doesn't look like it deserves it anyway.

"No, not yet." You reply absentmindedly, taking another bite of your toast while seriously contemplating just giving up on this script halfway through reading it. You doubt it's redeemable at this point. "It's in like a month anyway. They said they would tell me first before announcing it, though."

"This is so exciting!" She almost squeals, and you close the script before throwing it in the trash. You lost count of how many times it was written that the male protagonist couldn't keep his eyes from your cleavage. "I can't believe you're hosting again. I've been waiting for this to happen for years!" You can't help but laugh at her dramatics.

"It feels as surreal as the first time, honestly." You eat the last bite of your toast and pour yourself another glass of orange juice. You did enough freaking out to last a lifetime when you hosted the show for the first time a couple years ago, so this time you're excited but definitely not on the verge of a nervous breakdown like last time.

"Who do you think will be performing?" She asks, and you realize that you hadn't thought about that at all. "Oh my god what if it's BEYONCÉ?" She damn near screams that last part, and your brain immediately screams NO at that. You're still embarrassed at what happened last year, and you don't know when you'll be able to face her again without feeling mortified.

"Who knows?" You quickly reply. "Maybe it'll be like Ed Sheeran or something."

"Maybe." She responds, way less excited than when she thought Beyoncé was a possibility. "Anyways, tell me when you know, okay? My break is almost done so I gotta go."

"Will do. Bye, love you!"

"Love you too, bye!" You hang up and stretch your arms over your head, already feeling stressed.

What if it was Beyoncé? It would be the third time you see her and even though she was incredibly lovely when you apologized and explained what happened the first time you met, that did nothing to erase the embarrassment you still feel today. You don't really think she would perform in a regular episode with you as the guest either, but now you can't help but feel anxious about it.

They said they were going to tell you who the artist was in the next few days, so for now all you can do is wait and try to not overthink too much.

Easier said than done.

Three hours ago, taking a nap because it was raining and the temperature had dropped just enough for it to be perfect for sleeping had seemed like a great idea. It's not the first time you do it, the day called for it, and since you didn't have to work today it was okay to relax and rest for a bit considering that in a couple days you'll start shooting again.

Completely harmless.

Except it wasn't.

You wake up thanks to some very loud thunder, and you snuggle deeper into your covers to continue sleeping. Another thunder disrupts you again, so you decide to look at the time and see if it's even worth it to try and sleep some more. But instead of being greeted with the time once you turn your phone on, you're greeted with 50 missed calls and texts from over 30 conversations.

"What the fuck?" You mumble to yourself, rubbing your eyes to try and see a little better.

Around 30 of the missed calls are from friends, and the rest are from your publicist and agent. You scroll down the conversations until you reach the message you got first, and the name makes you think you might understand what happened.

SNL Producer.

2 hours ago.

Hello [Y/N]! I'm just writing you to let you know before we post it on social media, that the musical guest on your episode will be BTS. See you soon!

Well, now you have no doubt that's definitely it.

You read through the messages as fast as you can and manage to reply to several before you're interrupted by your publicist calling.

"Hi, sorry. I was taking a nap." You quickly say.

"Don't worry, I just wanted to let you know that the internet exploded two hours ago."

"Because of BTS?" You ask, pulling the covers off of you and sitting on the edge of your bed. "That's not news, it happens every other week."

"Well, yes, true—" She agrees. "—but we don't care about those times, we care about this now because it involves you." She pauses for a second. "Check what I just sent you." You remove your phone from your ear and put her on speaker before opening the message notification.

It's the screenshot of an Entertainment Weekly tweet.

Exclusive: @BTS_twt and [Y/N] will finally meet and we couldn't be more excited

4,5K replies, 190K retweets, 380K likes.

"How the fuck did that get so many likes?" You blurt out, eyes wide. Your hear your publicist laugh heartily.

"It's more now, actually. The screenshot is from 10 minutes ago. And it's because BTS retweeted it."

"Oh, right." You say, shaking your head at yourself. You should've known. "That makes sense."

"It would be even better if you had a twitter account yourself so you could retweet and even send them someth—"

"My mental health." You interrupt her, rolling your eyes as you fall back again on the bed. You've lost count of how many times she's tried to have you make new accounts already. "Remember how I had to start taking antidepressants because of social media?"

"Right, yeah. The mental health thing." She sighs. "You could always have someone manage them instead of yourself, you know."

"Yeah, and then I'd be constantly checking what's been posted and what people have replied to every post." You hate talking to her about this, because even though she's great at her job and mostly understanding, she still complains about what a loss it is that you're not on Instagram and Twitter.

"Fine. I'll drop it." She pauses for a second. "Anyway, the reason why I called is to know how much do you know about these guys."

"I know a bunch of their songs. I've been listening to that song they did with Nicki, Idol— it's so catchy and the video is so random but so great." You conveniently leave out the detail that the reason you like the video so much is because they look beautiful in those suits while simultaneously looking like the cutest human beings on Earth with their other colorful outfits— especially in those sweaters with cartoon characters and the ripped jeans. "I actually watched a bunch of their music videos back when the whole behind the scenes stuff happened." Moments from their Blood, Sweat and Tears music video pop into your mind, but you immediately redirect your thoughts elsewhere. That video makes you feel way too many things that you should not be feeling while talking to your publicist. "They're so talented." You quickly add, sincerely. "I was thinking about watching some interviews soon to see what they're like. I haven't really watched any of that."

"Good! I was going to tell you to do that. These guys are like a publicity machine. If they approve of you, their fans will like you."

"Weeell..." You say, grimacing a little. You're not so sure about that. "Either that happens or they see me as a threat to them and decide I'm not good enough to be near them, and get a hashtag calling me a demon trending first worldwide."

"Well, based on the replies to that tweet I think many of them are excited. The international fans at least, I don't know about their Korean fanbase."

"And also, do not call them a publicity machine. They're actual people, you know." You sigh. "And that's not the reason why I will try to know more about them. It would be disrespectful to meet them without knowing anything about them. And please, stop seeing artists as only publicity opportunities. I told you I hate that!"

"That's literally my job, love. And whatever your good person reasoning is, I don't care. Just do that." She pauses. "And now I have to leave you, because unlike you I actually have to work today. See ya." She hangs up before you can say anything, and you take a deep breath.

She can be a goddamn handful, but even when she acts without emotions she always does things the way you want them and is very accommodating. She's good at her job.

You finally get out of bed and walk to the kitchen, where you left your laptop. But before you can do anything, you have an incoming FaceTime call from your best friend. She must've just read your reply to her 50 angry texts because you didn't tell her who the guest artist was going to be on your Saturday Night Live episode before the rest of the world found out.

"Heeeeeeey." You say innocently once her face appears on screen.

"Why didn't you tell me?! I had to find out on Twitter!"

"Okay, to be fair, you found out before I did. I was dead asleep when the producer texted me." You leave the phone standing against a glass of water and open your laptop. "So I had no chance to tell you before they announced it."

"Ugh, fine." She groans, rolling her eyes. "Anyways, are you excited?"

"I haven't had a chance to feel anything. I woke up to a thousand texts and calls and then my publicist called me." You open Youtube and start typing BTS to see what suggestions pop up first.

"Oh right, cause you went viral again. People on Twitter lost their shit over it."

"Yeah but they always do when BTS does something so it's not like it's new." You reply, a bit distracted.

BTS on crack?

"Okay, yeah. That's true." She agrees. "What are you doing?"

"Homework." You reply, scrolling through the endless results you got after clicking BTS on crack.

"Alright then, keep your secrets." She jokes, shaking her head. "I have to go anyway, I'm going out tonight." You blow a kiss in her direction.

"Have fun!"

"I always do! Bye!" She hangs up as you open a video titled "bts being crackheads for 5 mins straight".

You only need to watch a couple minutes to realize what type of videos these are. You have seen a couple of yourself that are edited similarly, but they were titled "[Y/N] being chaotic in interviews" and another one about you being extra— and you'd thought they were very funny.

A recommended video catches your eye, because it has hundreds of thousands of views.

RUNBTS 1-23 Best Moments

You have no idea what it is, but judging by the amount of views and the tiny amount of dislikes, it must be something good.

Time to start watching.

Chapter 10: The Surprise

"Do you think he will be angry at us for keeping it as a secret?" Hoseok asks, ear pointed at the bathroom door. He's doing his best to listen if the shower is still running, which means that Jungkook is not coming out just yet.

"No, he'll be too excited to be angry." Namjoon replies, waving his hand dismissively. "Jimin, don't blurt it out as soon as he comes here." He warns him, and Jimin looks completely shocked, not to mention offended. He searches for the support of the other guys with his eyes, but he finds that they're all looking at him the same way Namjoon is.

"What? Me?" He asks, pointing at himself. "Why me?"

"You're a terrible liar when you're excited about something." Taehyung says, and Jimin just stares at him with an angry pout.

"I'm not." He says, crossing his arms.

"You are." Namjoon, Yoongi, Hoseok and Jin say at the same time. Jimin refuses to dignify that with an answer, so he just stays silent with his angry pout still in place.

"The shower stopped." Hoseok says suddenly, craning his neck to listen better— and everyone goes silent. Not too long after, they hear it opening and Jungkook comes out drying his hair already dressed for bed.

"What's going on?" He asks, stopping suddenly when he sees them all standing there in the most suspicious way possible.

"Nothing!" Jimin suddenly says, way more excited than they had told him he was allowed to look.

"Jungkook, when did you say [Y/N] was going to be on SNL?" Hoseok asks, trying to not give himself away with the tone of his voice.

"April 13, why?" He continues to dry his hair, looking at the boys with narrowed eyes. He doesn't know what they're trying to do, but based on that question it seems like it has something to do with you. Maybe they want to watch the episode with him, since they're going to be in America by the time it airs anyway.

"So, we didn't tell you this before it was truly confirmed because we wanted it to be a surprise..." Namjoon starts, and Jungkook stops his movements.

They can't be telling him what he thinks they're telling him, right?

There's no way.

"But we'll be performing on SNL on April 13." He finishes. The towel drops from Jungkook's hands, and he just stares at them with no clear expression in his face.

"I thought he'd be more excited." Taehyung whispers in a confused tone to Namjoon, who lifts up a finger in response, signaling for him to wait.

"Give him a sec—"

"WHAT?!"

After a lot of happy screaming, a half an hour long videocall to his parents and a big glass of warm milk to calm him down, Jungkook is finally sitting down on the couch with the rest of the boys so they can explain how things went down.

"Jimin-Hyung, I can't believe you didn't tell me." Jungkook says, shaking his head with a surprised smile.

"We wanted to keep it from him, too." Yoongi says. "But he listened to us talking about it and we had to let him in."

"It was really hard to keep it a secret!" Jimin complains. "Because I was so excited. But I did so well, didn't I?" The rest don't really pay attention to him, except for Namjoon, who nods and gives him a thumbs up. Jimin isn't pleased with so little praise, but he takes it anyway. It's better than nothing.

"Ah, I'm so nervous." Jungkook says, unable to stop himself from grinning even though his face already hurts from smiling so much. He brings his knees up to his chest so he can hide his face in them, suddenly blushing. Even after he explicitly heard you talking about them, you still feel so far away from them that it almost doesn't feel real that they're going to meet you in a month.

"She already said she wanted to meet us—" Jin adds casually, and Namjoon has to hold back a sigh of relief because he's finally talking about you without getting nervous two seconds later. "—so you've got nothing to worry about."

He's come a long way since his confession a few months ago— even if Namjoon and Yoongi are still the only ones who know about his secret— and that lifts a huge weight from Namjoon's shoulders. It means that it's less likely he'll become instantly flustered the moment they see you for the first time, because if Jin gets nervous because of you in front of the cameras, everyone will notice and then talk about it— and Namjoon is sure that is the last thing Jin wants.

It doesn't take them long to realize it's futile to try and talk about the logistics of their performance with Jungkook right now, because he's barely paying attention to them. His grin has remained steady and unmoving from the moment they told him they would perform on the same day you're hosting, and they know it's going to continue that way for the next few days.

He'll be able to focus again once the initial shock passes and he finally realizes that yes, this is actually happening.

They are going to finally meet you.

Long after everyone has gone to bed, Jungkook lies still awake in bed, fully aware that he's not sleeping any time soon. He's still feeling giddy with happiness; he can't believe that they're going to actually meet you, and in a place where they will actually get to spend time with you, at that. He will get to talk to you, to actually be close to you and maybe, if he's lucky and brave enough, he might even get to hug you.

He'd fantasized about maybe seeing you in an awards show one day, but this is so much better than anything he could've imagined.

April 13 can't come soon enough.

Thank you so much for reading! Comments, asks, whatever you like is more than welcomed!

#sub!bts #sub!idol #bts x reader #kim namjoon x reader #kim seokjin x reader #min yoongi x reader #jung hoseok x reader #park jimin x reader #kim taehyung x reader #jeon jungkook x reader #my work

168 notes · View notes

yuvon-writes-letters · 4 years ago

Note

Hey guys,

Yu, Rai and both Jakes.

Actually..If I talk about my feelings I'm pretty well. Don't tell Jake I said that, but I couldn't be happier about our situation. I mean, we can talk again. Without me being kidnapped and finding a weird Tumblr profile of him. (Which we think was a set up by one of the entities of my world since he obviously doesn't have one. Jake thinks it was goldies doing, I on the other hand don't believe that. Don't ask me why, but it feels like goldie wouldn't do that. And it didn't help me either but only made problems. I was distracted because I was writing the profile (you read it, right Yu? I don't know about the others) and angry. Like, really angry.)

Putting that aside, Jake called me, like he promised :) And it was the longest phone call I had for some time. Most of the time I talked and he didn't get distracted once, just listened to me and everything that happened. And then he started cursing, which is kind of understandable. He apologised for being into stasis. And for this other version from before the 'time setting back' thing. Because I don't find a name I'll call it TSB from now on.

The only problem I have now is going to work, I guess I'll take me some vacation...But at least I'm not as scared of the raven-ass anymore. I mean, I still am, but in the moment I know his steps. And I am not alone.

Jake, I intentionally write the next part in red, please don't read it. That's for Yu.

I know you think that Jake sees you as a threat. If it still is like you wrote in the letter. Jake knows that, too and he doesn't like it. You know him better than I do, of course, but without saying too much...I think it's quite the opposite. Talk to him about that. Even though it's probably not the best circumstances I think he enjoys being with you :)

The next part, purple (damn, I need more coloured pens), is for you Jake.

You already told me that you don't like that Yu thinks you see her as a threat. I only have to say one thing, if it still is like that, talk to her about it. Earlier than later.

The new thoughts about the blood ritual are really interesting. But please don't put yourself in this danger (or not, but I think it's understandable what I mean?) if it isn't necessary. But I also agree with Rai, I thought the same thing for a while. That you desired having someone, Jake, with you. It sounds plausible.

What more was there...Wait, let me reread the letters.

Oh yeah, Rai! One, till now my crow crew seems to still be in stasis (Jake realised that now, too) and two..Please try to take care of your health, yeah? I'm worried for you.

Lis🐾🔥

Ps. Damn...I'm writing this exactly when I wanted to leave the house (I mean, I sadly cannot hide my face forever).

Two new things...I got a message. I mean, it was a threat (because I am the obviously the bad girl that kidnapped Hannah), but I don't care. Maybe that means the stasis is slowly dissolving!

But number 2...I didn't get the vacation. My boss called me almost immediatly. "Under no circumstances [a word is blacked out] Liska. We have July and Alice, Tim and Jenny all want to take free time, too. You are one of our best workers and we can't afford you leaving now. You have no children so you have to wait. Also Max told me that you don't have any problems in family."

So long story short: He wants me to be there tomorrow. Argh, if he would pay me like he's talking that would awesome. And I'll kill Max when I see him next time. (My cousin that thought it was fun to try and steal my work so we both got the rank of 'one of the best workers'. The only problem: Max' title is official. -.- Overall, I'm so much more annoyed than some time earlier. Maybe I should ask Jake for help

Lis,

Okay, the Crow Crew drama is fading a bit, so I'll answer this now. Sorry if I seem disjointed at all, I'm probably going to be going back and forth from conversations to this letter a lot. I can't afford to have them all think I'm compromised, I need to focus on getting out of here and I don't want to deal with their pressure on top of everything else.

Yeah, I don't think the Tumblr profile was Goldie either. Goldie seems to try to be very much a "hands off" sort of entity, like my own. The Tumblr profile thing seems a little out of character for at least my Jake. At least, publicly answering your submission certainly was, though he may have panicked since you sent it in on anon and answered publicly without really thinking about it. I guess I could see him having a Tumblr profile for purposes of following people on social media and watching what they post, though. And then deciding he likes the media and posting a little bit of impersonal things that can't lead back to him. Probably my Jake will say something about that when I hand this letter over to him, stay tuned.

Yeah, I at least read some of the things you sent that profile, and I showed what I had to my Jake too. I'm not sure if I read all of it, since it was a bunch of printed-out screenshots in an envelope, but I read the ask where you told him you hated him (fair at that point but ouch that's got to have hurt) up to when you said you'd found Hannah. After that you sent me your letter telling me time had turned back and the Tumblr screenshots ended.

I'm glad you and Jake managed to talk things out. I was sort of worried about how he'd react, but it sounds like he took it pretty well, considering. I'm... not exactly sure he should be apologizing for the stasis, though. Or the TSB!Jake. Maybe especially not the TSB!Jake. Jakes seem to be oddly different from timeline to timeline, just based on what I've seen of them. TSB has been one of the most different so far.

Oh. One thing I should mention that you might not have seen from the profile: The MWAF used your phone to mock the TSB account, and mentioned that TSB wasn't the only person who could hack, and the MWAF blocked TSB from finding your location. Might want to warn your Jake about that.

A vacation sounds like a good idea :/ It's really hard to go back to normal life right after tragedies or trauma. It feels like the world keeps moving on and you're still stuck in place, and you just want to scream at them that they need to slow down, can't they see that the world is

Good. I'm glad you don't feel alone. It's easier to deal with this stuff when you're with someone else, even if it's not physically.

(Jake, my Jake I mean, if you're reading over my parts of these letters skip to the ||| now please.) I'm not saying he doesn't also enjoy my company. I can tell he does. That doesn't make me not a threat. Like how early on I suspected Thomas, but still thought he was a nice guy and enjoyed talking to him. (Obviously I don't suspect him any more XD ) Still, if you think I should talk with him about it, I'll try to find a tactful way to bring it up.

Yes, because obviously tact is my greatest strength. Sigh.

Like I said to Rai, the underlying desire thing is definitely possible. That'd either mean I'm more obvious about how I feel for Jake than I think I am (very possible, I'm not great at hiding how I feel in person) or the entity has some level of telepathy/mind reading. The reason is that chessboard. Since Jake likes chess, it's clear at least to me the entity expected him to come here at some point. I THINK, if the underlying desire thing is true, I can manipulate myself into wanting specific things by doing things like writing it over and over and repeating it out loud when doing the ritual, but I'm not sure.

|||

It's probably good that your Crow Crew is in stasis, like how it's objectively probably good my outside life is going on without me. Less drama, less pressure.

Huh. The harassment is definitely a promising sign. Maybe you should try contacting Darkness again, same way as I suggested near the beginning? That feels so long ago, but it really can't have been much more than a week, can it?

You... didn't get the vacation. Fucking hell. Is there ANY way you can convince your boss? You really should have time off. Maybe your Jake can help you come up with ideas.

Or at least maybe he can come up with a way to have your boss give you a bonus for your trouble -_-

Oh shit Cleo's interrogating me I'm gonna hand this to Jake now

(The handwriting changes to Jake's.) Hello, Lis.

I agree with Yuvon: "TSB" acts markedly different from myself. There would be no benefit from me promising to be there to find you in the moment, and indeed I would have been falling for a very transparent trap. Even in my possible state of panic, I cannot see myself being there physically, much less revealing myself physically to authorities in the process, unless I was playing the role of bait in a counter-trap. While it is plausible that this was TSB's plan, TSB gave no indication that Yuvon or I could tell that this was the case. Of course, I would have done my best to be there physically in the aftermath of the kidnapping, but not in the moment.

I also agree that the Tumblr profile seems to be out of character for both myself and for "Goldie", though I hesitate to judge TSB's actions by what I myself would do. I seem to vary in surprising ways across universes and even from timeline to timeline, based solely on your current Jake's reactions thus far. I do actually own a Tumblr profile for the exclusive purpose of following social medias I wish to track, but I used a random username generator website for the username and not my own name, and I certainly never posted anything.

The news about the MWAF being able to hack is new to me; I must have missed that the first time I read through the screenshots. That is quite troubling. I suppose I will need to be more careful in future.

I am sincerely sorry your request for a vacation was rejected. I do not know how much you intend to separate your personal life and the Duskwood case, but if your stasis is truly wavering, you may be able to reveal some measure of the danger you are in to convince him to let you flee the area for a small while. Especially since you mentioned in your Tumblr post that you saw a raven note in your wor

Oh.

You need to leave that place. Now. Do not inform your employer of the danger you are in, reveal nothing to him or to anyone, take unpaid time off if you need to. Get your cousin and anyone else you care overly much about out of there too. Invalidate any information you can your employer or coworkers knows about you. Do not tell the truth to anyone, even your cousin. Make up any excuses you need to, ask your Jake for help with ideas if you need to. You may also wish to check that the coworkers your boss listed who are going on vacation are ACTUALLY going on vacation.

This is a priority, Liska. You need to tell your Jake all of this too, especially the part with the note in your workplace. You need to get out of there.

Good luck.

—Jake & Yuvon

(The letter tucks itself into the paper clip with the others.)

#duskwood letter game #yuvon writes letters #duskwood #duskwood game #duskwood everbyte #duskwood jake #lis

2 notes · View notes

toaarcan · 5 years ago

Text

Scourge the Hedgehog: The Bad Fanfic Apotheosis

Y’all are gonna hate me for this one.

This is something of a followup to my previous post, Fiona Fox: Depth vs. Prominence, and inspired directly by the discussion I had with a friend in the comments section of the DA upload of it.

Part 1: Fanfic vs. Canon- Genesis of the Recolour Elements of the Archie Sonic the Hedgehog comic have long been compared to a bad fanfiction, particularly the parts of the story written by Ken Penders, though other writers like Bollers, Chacon, and Flynn have drawn that label too. I'm one of the people that's done it, and that's largely because I hold fanfic and official material to very different standards. There are certain things you can do in fanfic that you can't do in official material, especially with franchises like Sonic, and especially with more niche parts of said franchise, like a comic series. Of course, there are also certain things you can do in both, but you probably shouldn't. And Scourge is one of them. What exactly the process behind Scourge's creation was is something that's been debated. For a lot of people, he's considered to be a parody of the then-rampant "Sonic Recolour" fad, wherein fans would take screenshots of Sonic X, and other official artwork, and then edit it in Microsoft Paint, or another similar program, to create their own characters and stories. Now, this was long decried by other fans, myself included, as incredibly lacking in creativity and originality. It also had an "Ew, cringe" reaction, due to the often-shoddy editing, text-to-speech voices, and usually some top-tier mid-2000s Nu Metal for the music. These days, it's much easier to look back and say "These were mostly made by kids who were just having fun, and it's completely harmless", and it becomes apparent that a lot of the people that were making fun of them and criticising them were grown men, at which point you kinda realise that this "internet fad" was basically just bullying a bunch of children for not being up to the creative standards of some adults. Everybody was looking for the next Chris-Chan, but Chris-Chan is a near-unique entity, as only one other person alive has ever managed to combine that sheer void of talent with a monumentally repulsive personality, and that person is Ken Penders. But Sonichu is the least interesting thing about Chris, and Chris became the laughingstock that he is because of his inability to avoid posting his entire life on the Internet, which was something of a rarity in those halcyon days before the rise of modern social media. Sonichu was a gateway to the actually interesting content also on his channels, whereas these recolour-creators didn't have anything like that, just endless Windows Movie Maker slideshows. And, like, Chris was in his 20s when he became the Internet's punching bag for the first time, and while he's a horrible person, so were the people that dedicated their time and effort to trolling him- His story is fascinating, but it has no heroes. And into this collective cocktail of grown men shitting on preteens, so Ian Flynn introduced Scourge the Hedgehog. Is Scourge a parody of Sonic recolours? I sincerely hope not. The reason for that is twofold, and I'll discuss how his portrayal generally doesn't seem to be mocking those tropes further down the page, but the second issue with the idea that he is a parody is best explained by Sir Terry.

Parody can never punch down, and as a then-24 year old man writing official canon for a franchise, mocking a bunch of 10 year olds on the Internet for making bad stories would definitely be punching down. And, as I said, nothing about the way Scourge is written is in any way poking fun at the tropes of these fancharacters and stories. It's pretty much all played completely straight. So not only do I hope Ian wasn't trying to mock these fancharacters, but there's also little reason to believe that he actually was. He's not a parody, he is a send-up. And on the one hand, it's kinda nice to throw a bone to those kids. But on the other hand... is Scourge really the character you want to represent your part of the fandom in official material? A cruel, violent, abusive, vicious monster that spends his time palling around with a girlfriend that the writer reforged to be the most unlikable character in the entire comic? Yeah, can't say that's what I'd want if I were one of those people, but he seems to be popular enough, so maybe I'm in the minority there. But now we get to the meat of the problem. You see, the way Scourge is written is one of those things that you can do in fanfic, but you shouldn't do in canon. Part 2: What is a Mary-Sue? The term "Mary-Sue" gets thrown around a lot these days. It's gradually lost all meaning, and has slowly become a term for "Female character that I don't like," mainly used by whiny, easily-offended Broflake Youtubers, who get all pissy that Star Wars films aren't specifically catering to them, to the point that you only have to make a girl be good at something in a movie and these pissbabies lose their shit. I liked Episode VII and VIII more than I, II, or VI, get fucked. But what, then, is a Mary-Sue? And why is it relevant to Scourge? The answer to that first question is a lot more complicated than it might seem. Not just because there are now several different varieties of the trope, but also because the trope itself evolved as it began to be applied to non-fanworks, and additionally because the name itself is somewhat non-indicative. A male Mary-Sue can exist, though these are normally referred to as "Marty-Stue" or "Gary-Stue", or more cynically "The Protagonist". Check out the average Batman comic these days and you'll see what I mean. Originally, the term applied only to a self-insert character in a fanfic, that was an overly-idealised version of the author, dramatically overpowered, hugely popular, normally dating whichever member of the cast the author wanted to bone, or sometimes multiple partners at the same time, along with a few other traits. It's actually pre-Internet term, originating in a Star Trek fanzine when "Mary-Sue" was created as a parody of other fans' similar characters. Over time, the trope evolved to the point that, while the "author avatar" feature is still a pretty big indicator, it's not really necessary. So while there are probably plenty of people out there who want to be Batman, not every character that is a Mary-Sue is someone for the author to project themselves onto, and not every author avatar is a Mary-Sue. Generally, the important features of a Mary-Sue are now: 1) Receives a great deal of favouritism from the author 2) More powerful than the rest of the cast, often to the point of absurdity 3) Faces zero consequences for their actions. 4) Liked by characters that have no reason to do so 5) In a relationship with a character that has no reason to date them, previous relationships be damned. 6) Most importantly, the story will bend over backwards to give them easy wins, even in situations where they logically should struggle. You're probably starting to get where I'm going with this, and if you're not... Part 3: Creator's Pet Scourge is a Creator's Pet. He gets shown a fair bit of favouritism from Ian Flynn, primarily the guise of how much focus he gets. Scourge is the most prolific villain in Ian's run, aside from Eggman himself. While other, better villains like Mogul and Naugus were being imprisoned repeatedly until one retired and the other became a dog, and a huge chunk of the comic's remaining antagonists were being subsumed into the Eggman Empire, Scourge was only moving up, not only being the villain of Ian's first two issues on the book, but continuing to make sporadic appearances for the next twenty issues, before appearing as the new leader of the Destructix under Finitevus in the Enerjak Reborn arc, followed swiftly by a stint as the Big Bad in Bold New Moebius. Does he actually deserve this level of importance? You be the judge, but personally, I don't think so. Even within those stories, Scourge gets special treatment, the biggest and most obvious being Metal Scourge. Now, personally, I think Metal Scourge was a better character than Scourge himself, but the fact that, of all people, Scourge got a Metal counterpart before anyone else, including Knuckles, who had such a counterpart in the games for over a decade by that point. Especially since, well... Metal and Mettle is a fun story, but it doesn't really do anything for Bold New Moebius as a whole, does it? It's basically pure filler, only really serving to add another dead Metal Sonic to Ian's list and stall the plot out for a bit longer. And, of course, the most clear indicator of Scourge's favouritism is that he was he first Archie character to receive his own Sonic Universe arc, and the only one to do so without needing two or three SEGA characters also making up the rest of the lead cast. "Lockdown" isn't a particularly good story, but its existence speaks to not just the insane popularity that such an unworthy character received, but also Archie's willingness to indulge that. Sonic Universe was largely intended to tell stories revolving around the members of the SEGA cast that, for whatever reason, weren't able to regularly appear in the main book. This... frequently got broken, with Sonic, Tails, Sally, Bunnie, Antoine, and Amy all taking centre-stage in the book before obvious candidates like the Chaotix got a look in, some of them twice over, but Scourge was the only time they were willing to try a story based entirely around one of their characters, and they gave it to the already extremely prominent Scourge. It's pretty clear that Ian loved using this character, and did so as much as possible. YMMV on whether that's good or not. Part 4: Scourge OP plz nerf Let's be real, he's overpowered as fuck. Now, overpowered characters aren't necessarily bad, but it's significantly harder to write an OP character than an on-average one, and Scourge didn't work out so well. From the moment he turns green, he's basically unstoppable. The one time he actually seems to remotely struggle is actually in 161, where he looks ever-so-slightly winded after curbstomping Sonic and Shadow at the same time. From then on, while he does start to slowly even out with Sonic, he also continues to utterly demolish basically everyone else, especially his easy conquest of Moebius. It's been suggested that conquering Moebius should be easy, because the big threats are all good, kind people there, but that somewhat ignores that there are anti-versions of the heroes kicking about too. All the (Mostly) benevolent rulers of the Primeverse should be tyrannical despots there, and there are excessively powerful entities like the Anti-versions of Merlin and the Guardians, not to mention whatever horrors Anti-Gerald would've unleashed on the world, and that's without the Suppression Squad themselves. While the comic has generally treated Sonic as being able to stomp the entire rest of the FF, well, who says it has to be a fight? Why the fuck doesn't Patch just poison him? I mean, the obvious answer is "Because then Bold New Moebius won't have a main villain", and sometimes contractual villain immortality has to be a thing, but a good writer should be able to avoid putting the characters in that position. Following on from that, Scourge gets to fight basically the entire FF and Suppression Squad at the same time, (Sonic and Amy are absent and Fiona is on his side), and he's winning until Sonic shows up. Then directly after that is the hedgehog brawl, and despite Sonic managing to get everyone against Scourge, he easily manages to escape and break out his Super form. Even after spending his time in the No-Zone completely powerless, Scourge manages to break out the moment he gets his powers back, despite the prison being full of characters who should be equally or more powerful than him, and the police force that caught them all, basically unchallenged. Scourge never faces an actual challenge in the comic. He never struggles, and the one time he actually loses? Ian makes up some new lore on the spot, which is contradictory to SEGA lore from the same year, and then uses that to have Sonic trick Scourge into depowering himself. Not only does Scourge never struggle with anything, but he also never actually loses a fight. Part 5: When will you learn, that your actions have consequences?! Probably never, because Scourge's actions never have consequences. Throughout his entire run, Scourge gets to go wherever he wants, do what he wants, with or to whomever he wants, and he never has to deal with the fallout of the decisions he makes. Absorbs the energy of a matter world into his antimatter body? He's better than fine, it only made him stronger. Turns up in Knothole with his secret girlfriend's hated arch rival by his side? Never mentioned again. Blows Fiona's connection to him, costing Finitevus' operation a potential spy in Knothole, where Knuckles is? Not even considered a factor. Ditches Finitevus to go and make Moebius into an egopolis? Finitevus isn't bothered, and supports Fiona's efforts to rescue him later down the line after than plan backfired on him. Blinds Patch in one eye out of jealousy/spite? The guy that poisoned Armand and Max, took a torch to Antoine's personal life, took advantage of Sally's frayed mental state, emotionally damaged Bunnie, and tried to assassinate Elias to get what he wanted lets him get away with it. Openly announces that he's going to destroy both worlds? Conveniently does it when he's alone with Sonic so nobody can tell Fiona what she's letting herself in for. He eventually does get sent to jail, but he breaks out with ease the next time he turns up. Because, y'know, that's just what we want to see. Villains never having to deal with karma. Part 6: What does anyone see in him? Scourge doesn't quite get the "everyone loves him" treatment, but he still gets a whole lot more respect than he's ever earned. Both Sonic and Zobotnik are portrayed arbitrarily deciding that maybe there's a shred of good in this monster, and this is the part where I stress that he's abusive again. Maybe if I repeat that enough it'll sink in. Despite knowing full-well the sort of person Scourge is, Sonic's response to Scourge's crappy cribbing of the "One Bad Day" speech is to try and turn it around and claim that Scourge only needs a tiny bit of decency to be a good person, and this is outright untrue, and given what we see of Scourge later, I'm frankly disgusted that Ian tried to pull this with a character he'll pretty much unambiguously portray as an abuser. Zobotnik's case is even more baffling. We're introduced to the guy in the Lockdown arc, and it's implied that he's effectively a tyrannical warden, ruling over the No-Zone with an iron fist, taking an almost sadistic delight in punishing the inmates. But yet, for whatever reason, he decides that it's a good idea to try and rehabilitate Scourge, for no adequately established reason. Even on the other side of the morality line, we have Finitevus, who apparently respects Scourge enough to not just make him leader of the Destructix during the Enerjak Reborn arc, despite him very clearly not being a leader, and not being liked by any of his comrades except Fiona, but then when he promptly ditches the whole plan toward the end, Finitevus apparently decides that he not only wants to get him back, but is willing to go to great lengths and risk losing the only team of mercenaries dumb enough to work for a guy who is quite open about his intentions to "purify the world with Chaos fire" in order to do it. And speaking of, the most egregious case of this comes again in Lockdown, where the Destructix all end up siding with Scourge. Across the second half of the arc, Scourge learns his new team's backstories, and despite them clearly showing traits and beliefs that should make them respect him less, this somehow works in his favour, and he manages to wrest leadership of the team from Fiona. Especially galling is that it appears that Fiona loses their respect early on because of her faith in Scourge, who to them, looks pathetic, but then they end up supporting him anyway, despite doing nothing to earn it. But wait, one's missing... Looks like it's that time again. Part 7: Oh right, he's an abuser. It's time to talk about Fiona. Fiona's heel turn is really, really effective at selling you on the idea that Fiona is a vile, cruel, and selfish person. It's a dramatic, "big bang" moment that, in basically a single panel, got an entire fandom to hate a character. Now for some it was more of a "Love to hate" thing, but there are plenty of people out there who just really hate Fiona for this single moment. And when you're introducing a new major villain, maybe that's what you want to accomplish. What it doesn't do, however, is sell you on her motives for taking that course of action. Fiona, for the rest of her existence, mainly antagonises Sally, whom she has no worthwhile connection to on either side of her turn, other than being the evil Sally to Scourge's Evil Sonic, and stands around or clings to Scourge's arm, looking smug about her abusive relationship. And yes, it is abusive, verbal abuse is still abuse, and the implications that he's physically abusive are present too. I know this is something that Scourge's fans don't really want to accept, but it's true, and we're going to get into that later. For now, what matters is that this character's run as a villain mainly consists of: Fiona: "Hey Sugar-Queen, look at how much my boyfriend yells at me and insults me, and probably beats me when he's angry. I make smart decisions and you suck." We never come to understand why this character, who is so motivated by her belief that everyone will eventually double-cross her that she has decided to start lashing out at people before they can turn on her, is willing to put her faith 100% in someone so repeatedly deceptive that he first approached her by pretending to be someone else. Like, in terms of bad first impressions, that's up there with arriving at a job interview in full clown regalia. The comic makes no effort to show why these characters like each other. Scourge allegedly likes her because she chooses to turn evil and join him, rather than being born evil, but this clashes with not only the fact that Fiona is a genuinely good person before this, who makes a solid effort to stay loyal to her friends first, and is lured into villainy by him, but also the fact that she blames everyone but herself for her current situation, but especially with the fact that all of the foreshadowing for Fiona turning evil consists of people not trusting her because she has a shady history. Scourge claims to appreciate that Fiona is a good person that chooses to be evil, but the narrative has a clear message of "If you started evil, it doesn't matter if you try to become good, you will always revert to type." Which isn't exactly a good message, Ian. In return, all we get from Fiona's side is that Scourge "has no expectations of her and just wants to have fun", which clashes entirely with how we see them interact in subsequent arcs, where Fiona frequently looks disturbed or apprehensive, or just bored, while Scourge yells at her and threatens her for not meeting his standards. Seriously, why do people ship this? But okay, okay. Scourge is a good liar, and Fiona's established paranoia and history do make her vulnerable to manipulators like him, so maybe she falls for his lies and gets taken for a ride. That could happen, sure. Doesn't really explain why she becomes a horrendous person all of a sudden, but whatever. Maybe he convinced her to do it as a sort of hazing, and a means of ensuring she couldn't go back. That fits with his abusive nature (You might also notice that this the explanation I used in Revival). But why does she stay? And why does she refuse every out she's given? Why, after everything that pulled her to his side has turned out to be bullshit, does she remain devoted to him? Now, you can argue that due to the abuse and the manipulation she's suffered, she believes she has to stay with him, and that's a fair shout, but her appearance in Journey to the East is kind of a stumbling block for that theory, because we're shown a Fiona who is fully capable of functioning without him, and even after making efforts to establish herself... the next time we see her she's gone back for him. And now... well, it's time to talk about that "A" word I've been bringing up a lot in this section. Scourge is abusive. I've frequently referenced that he verbally abuses Fiona every time she displeases him across the book, but the most telling scene is this one from Issue 190.

"You do not want to be sent back with me." Translation: "If I get sent back, and you're sent back too, I'm going to beat the shit out of you." Fiona (With her invisible left arm) isn't excluded from this threat. Fiona isn't surprised by this threat either. Nor does she not take the threat seriously. She looks like she's expecting to be struck. He beats her. And please, nobody say that "he's just angry", that's apologism. Now, I dunno if this was in the script, or if Fiona's face was something Yardley did on his own, but given that this arc ends with Super Scourge announcing his intention to destroy both Mobius and Moebius, simply because he can, regardless of the collateral, I'm willing to bet that this relationship wasn't a happy, stable one. But, unfortunately, this element was never made clear enough. Now, your mileage may vary on whether you think Sonic the Hedgehog comics are the appropriate place to discuss abusive relationships or not, but we've got one now, and Ian dropped the ball. This wasn't a Joker/Harley, where the pairing was clearly abusive but also sold DC/Warner millions of dollars worth of merch, this wasn't a RWBY, where Adam took three years to show up and had already won a huge number of fans from his admittedly cool design and powers, so people already liked him before they even knew what his personality was like. Ian had full control over this, no merch to worry about, and Scourge's prolific appearances gave him plenty of opportunity to make it clear that this was an ugly, repulsive thing that Fiona needed to get out of ASAP. And he didn't. Because panels like this, and all the yelling, clearly weren't enough for the fandom. No, you point this detail out to them and they'll make excuses, try to pretend it didn't happen, or just get offended, or worst of all, outright say they don't care and still ship it. We have fanartists who became real official artists creating stories where this garbage-fire pairing is used for sad feels, not because Fiona got stuck in a relationship with a controlling, violent monster, but because oh no they really loved each other and now Fiona's dead isn't it tragic don't you feel sorry for Scourge? No. No I don't. I feel sorry for the thousands of teenagers who support an abusive relationship because Ian was too cowardly to make it clear that the relationship in question was just that. Now, do I think that Ian is an intentional abuse apologist? No. Do I think he wimped out of taking the necessary steps to make it clear that this was bad because he didn't want people to dislike his shitty pet villain? Oh yeah, I do. Scourge's reputation was more important to Flynn than appropriately and sensitively portraying a destructive, damaging relationship between a woman and her monstrous partner. Well, I say "Woman", let's not forget that Fiona was meant to be sixteen, and realistically if you take her timeline into account she's more likely to be about fourteen. Real fucking classy. Part 8: Effort? What effort? So, now we get to our final criteria. And frankly, it's the easiest one to cover. From the moment, Scourge turns green, his life becomes a cakewalk. Everything he ever wants is handed to him with zero actual struggle on his part. Wants to be stronger than Sonic? He is. Zero side-effects to using a Chaos energy form from a mirror universe, or having a Super transformation interrupted, he just seemingly gets to be half-Super forever. Wants another leg-up on Sonic? Here's Fiona, sans personality. Sonic says he's just a lame ripoff of himself? He conquered a planet in a week, look at how cool he is. Also his team all roll over and make him their leader even though they hate him and they could easily kill him. He gets to walk through the entire FF/Squad teamup, and the Hedgehog teamup, and then when he gets to the No-Zone, Zobotnik, who has kept far smarter and more dangerous characters locked up for decades arbitrarily decides to reform him and gets completely suckered by him. The Destructix fully throw in with him, despite him never actually earning their respect. He never loses a fight where he wasn't depowered first. You know what the irony of this is? Ian has a character whom he is contractually obligated to never have lose for longer than an issue or two. And honestly, he wasn't awful at disguising that. Sonic gets a few wins that feel too easy, but for the most part, the issues with this rule mainly manifest in Sonic's limp responses to the tragedies happening around him, and a sprinkling of minor failures and pyrrhic victories ensure that the rule looks more like shoddy writing in a few places unless you're explicitly told about it. And even then, he still manages to make it look like Sonic struggles to attain those victories, that he has to actually put his back into it every time. He is challenged. Scourge isn't allowed to be challenged. That's the irony. Ian has a protagonist who he is not allowed to have lose, and Sonic still manages to be avoid looking like a boring invincible hero, while Scourge just never faces anything that can actually pose a threat to him. Powerful opponents crumple before him. Characters' personalities and development shift to suit his needs. The plot warps to benefit him. Because heaven forbid Scourge actually have to work for his wins. Who needs stakes when you can have the writer on your side! Part 9: In summation... I think you should've all twigged where this is going by now, so let's wrap up. 1) Does Scourge receive a great deal of favouritism from the author? Yes. 2) Is Scourge more powerful than the rest of the cast, often to the point of absurdity? Yes. 3) Does Scourge face zero consequences for his actions? Yes. 4) Is Scourge liked or respected by characters that have no reason to do so? Yes. 5) Is Scourge in a relationship with a character that has no reason to date him? Yes. 6) Most importantly, does the story will bend over backwards to give Scourge easy wins, even in situations where he logically should struggle? Yes. According to these criteria, Scourge the Hedgehog is almost a textbook example of a Mary-Sue. Which is probably why something as disgusting as him got away with so much. I guess, then, that his role in Revival, and a lot of the stuff before that, is the unfortunate reality of a Mary-Sue who suddenly has to deal with the fact that they're no longer getting that special treatment from the writer. That now their actions have consequences, that now the universe doesn't shape itself to their desires.

#Sonic the Hedgehog #Archie Sonic #Ian Flynn #Scourge the Hedgehog #Fiona Fox #Evil Sonic #Critical #CW: Abuse #TW: Abuse

20 notes · View notes

emoshinso · 6 years ago

Text

What Makes Purple Boy so Weird?: Notes on the storytelling strategies employed in Shinsou’s introduction arc

*By ‘weird,’ I mean intriguing/interesting, but in a break-the-mold kinda way.

This really has no objective other than I wanted to break down what makes Shinsou’s intro arc so impactful. Specifically, the buildup before his quirk reveal.

As heroic and well-intentioned as our boy is, the creators do a very good job creating an air of ominous suspense before revealing his true character and quirk in his match against Deku. Up till then, it’s like they wanted us to think Shinsou was a bad guy...

Part commentary, part analysis

Just kinda… finding an excuse to rewatch the Sports Festival arc while focusing on Shinsou’s perspective.

this post goes from his first appearance in episode 15 to the beginning of episode 20

in the future, I plan on dedicating an entire post just to his fight against Deku - but in the meantime, this one centers on the buildup before his quirk reveal

So, if you’re interested, read on! If not, I understand. This is gonna be one heckin nerdy ramble. oh gosh im so excited

First Appearance: Episode 15: Roaring Sports Festival

Confrontation with Bakugo

First, some background on what’s going on right before our boy shows up: The day after Aizawa introduces the sports festival, a bunch of kids from the general studies department show up at the hero class’s threshold, right? There’s no explanation as to why. They’re all kinda just... there (psst it’s for the drama. Large crowds create intrigue.)

Dekusquad mutters collectively, wondering if the general studies kids are scouting the competition… The general studies kids don’t really answer or react. They just keep gawking awkwardly. (psst once again: it’s purely for the drama)

Enter: Bakugo. Trying to leave for the day, but those damn gen studies kids are in his way.

“Move it, extras.”

This prompts a reaction. From one student, at least.

“So this is Class 1-A? I heard you guys were impressive, but you just sound like an ass.”

First time we see Shinsou: pushing his way unapologetically through the other general studies kids. First impression: he already kinda looks like a jerk. Him being at the back of the crowd also makes me think Shinsou didn’t exactly jump at the chance to size up 1-A after school like his classmates, but eventually gave in and followed them over a bit later. Then after that “extras” comment out of Blasty Boy, he decided to retaliate. A jerk with a bit of a proud streak.

”Scouting the competition? Maybe some of my peers are, but I came to let you know that if you don’t bring your very best, I’ll steal your spot right out from under you. Consider this a declaration of war.”

What a drama queen.

That’s all he says. That pretty much concludes his first notable appearance as a character

His appearance essentially serves two purposes: 1) to (fleetingly) introduce him as a character 2) to establish how resentful the general studies department is towards 1-A

It’s important to note that he didn’t get any of those usual name + quirk tag thingies that occasionally pop up whenever a new character is introduced (or as a reminder for recurring characters)

AND he never introduces himself (he just straight up declares war and falls silent, the little shit xD)

Point being, forget his quirk, we don’t even learn his name right away. For all intents and purposes, he’s just that random purple asshole who declared war for no good reason

And as soon as Shinsou delivers his little war monologue, Tetsutetsu shows up, shouting loud and a n g e r y. His and Bakugo’s little shouting match quickly overshadows Shinsou’s cold declaration, making it even easier for both the other characters and the audience to forget about Shinsou pretty quick. Despite that very conspicuous purple hair, the chronic insomnia, and the WHITE PUPILS.

I know I kinda forgot about him - the first time watching, at least.

Sports Festival Opening Ceremony

The next time we see Shinsou, he’s walking into the arena with the other 1-C kids, who are all looking pretty dejected about being forced to participate in a competition rigged to make them look inferior:

“We’re just here to make [the hero kids] look better...”

“Yeah, I can’t wait for this to be over...”

It’s a key reminder that Shinsou is one of these kids, and by all logic should be thinking the same thing. But his expression is hard to read:

Is he bored? Tired? Ready for it all to be over like those other kids? Or is he steeling himself to make good on his declaration of war?

We don’t really get a chance to find out. Not until MUCH later...

Todoroki’s Ice Trick

The next shot we see of Shinsou is my absolute FAVORITE. After getting through the tunnel to the obstacle course, Todoroki uses ice attack. It’s super effective, but somehow there’s still plenty of students who dodged it including our boy Shinsou

A LOT is going on. We see shots of all the different students who evaded Todoroki: Yaoyorozu, Bakugo, Aoyama (lol), Ashido... the montage ends with Uraraka, who makes a comment about waiting for the right time to show off her quirk, and hence alludes to someone else who’s trying to be sneaky:

“So they are good at using their powers, huh?”

What I love most about this scene is first time watching I LITERALLY DID NOT QUESTION the fact that he was being carried by three other students

I chalked it up to him being a charismatic figure in his class who somehow convinced his fellow students to carry him as part of some elaborate grand strategy

And hey... I wasn’t wrong?

Also interesting to note how none of the three non-brainwashed students around him seem too concerned he’s hitching a free ride on their classmates... they’re all too busy dealing with Todoroki’s ice

Point being, between Todoroki’s flashy ice attack and the other students’ equally flashy evasive maneuvers, it was pretty easy for us as an audience to overlook that one purple-haired kid who decided to play cavalry battle a little early. The inclusion of the extra kids stumbling around him in the frame also helps him blend into the background. All this seems very intentional on both the animators’/Horikoshi’s part AND as part of Shinsou’s grand strategy.

Episode 15 ends with us still wondering what this guy’s deal is...

Episode 16: In Their Own Quirky Ways

We don’t see Shinsou at all this episode, which both builds up the suspense and leaves me with a lot of questions:

Q: How did he get past the robots? (Theory 1: By using other kids’ quirks and directing them like his own personal quirk army 2: (more likely) waited till a path was clear and ran through)

Q: How did he get past the chasm? (Theory 1: Again, by hitching a ride with a kid with the ideal quirk 2: Human rope?)

Q: How’d he get past the MINES?! (Theory: By brainwashing other students to walk ahead of him and clear a path)

Regardless of how he got through the course, the ONLY glimpse of Shinsou we get is when Midnight goes over the rankings in the race. Shinsou came in 27th, by the way, not that you’d even notice because the camera cuts off almost before you even see him in the rankings. (I couldn’t even pause it that fast) I have no idea if that was intentional or not, but man does it fit the mood:

This is also the first time we see his name.

But it’s so fast literally no one could’ve actually read and retained it without the help of a quirk. I know I didn’t. BUT I remember from the first time watching, this one tiny glimpse of the random purple asshole with the derpy ass smile ranking so high was enough to make me start wondering just what this guy’s deal was...

It was enough to get me curious. But I wasn’t invested quite yet.

Also, in retrospect, my absolute favorite thing about this screenshot is all the other contestants look angry/disappointed by their ranking EXCEPT FOR SHINSOU. Nope, he just looks like a smug little asshole happy to be the ONLY rep from Class 1-C.

And that further adds to the suspense...

Episode 17: Strategy, Strategy, Strategy

Once again, we only get glimpses of Shinsou this episode. But they’re crucial:

1: Him smirking as the rules for the cavalry battle are explained. Makes us wonder, as an audience: why does he look so confident when everyone else is gritting their teeth over this? What advantage does he have?

(Notes brought to you by 20/20 hindsight: He was probably so confident because he literally had his pick of teammates. As soon as he asked anyone about teaming up and they answered, boom, they were on the team. I would guess he intentionally picked teammates that wouldn’t stand out (no offense Aoyama,) so he could hang around and not call attention to himself during the cavalry battle, both from other teams and from the commentators.)

AND WAIT. LOOK HERE:

2: Once all the teams have coalesced, they’re all just kinda standing around haphazardly, or facing each other slightly to talk strategy... BUT NOT SHINSOU’S. They’re all facing the same direction he is. Yep, you guessed it... they’re already brainwashed.

At the ready with his team. This also marks the second time we see his name. But it’s not announced, it only appears in tiny letters/kanji in the scoring bracket. Also note that his teammates are definitely all brainwashed now, but we wouldn’t be able to tell unless we were looking for it. Aoyama really doesn’t look too different lol

Before the episode ends, we get our first glance at the scoreboard. The game’s already been underway for a bit by now, and Shinsou’s team is at 0 points. Which means Shinsou most likely let Monoma take his bandana to avoid being targeted later in the game, and therein, avoid attention.

End of episode 17. Still no name (unless you were super attentive), and no quirk.

Episode 18: Cavalry Battle Finale

Between the Todoroki vs. Midoriya and the Monoma vs. Bakugo showdowns, there’s so much drama happening it’s no surprise Present Mic didn’t pay much attention to Team Shinsou...

...and that really left me wondering... What were they up to this whole time?

Quick glance at the scoreboard tells us he’s still at zero, and he stays that way for most of the episode again:

BUT. WAIT FOR IT.

HERE’S THE SCOREBOARD RIGHT AFTER PRESENT MIC ANNOUNCED THERE WERE ONLY 11 SECONDS LEFT:

TETSUTETSU STILL HAS HIS POINTS.

Which means...

TEAM SHINSOU MANAGED TO SWIPE THE POINTS IN LESS THAN 11 SECONDS.

Just look how smug he is about it too:

“In third place is Team Tetsute- wait, what?! It’s Team Shinsou! When did they come back from the dead?!”

Point being, Present Mic is so surprised by Shinsou’s comeback he almost says the wrong name. Thanks to all the drama radiating off of Monoma and the Traffic Light Trifecta and Shinsou’s strategy of staying out of the fray until the last possible second, he pulled off a victory without anyone even knowing who the heck he is or what he can do.

This also marks the first time his name is stated clearly enough to catch.

Also note his confused (and frightened) teammates behind him. How ominous...

Little by little, we’re getting hints at who he actually is as a character, which up to this point, still looks a lot like ‘first class jerk’

that smug grin gahhh

Episode 19: The Boy Born with Everything

Okay, here’s where things get s u p e r dramatic.

First half of the episode is dedicated to Todoroki and Deku’s little confrontation, so gives us more time to forget about our purple son...

Second half jumps into discussing the next round: sixteen contestants remaining, waiting to be divided into one-on-one matches. Things are progressing smoothly until....

OJIRO WITHDRAWS.

Everyone’s shocked, why the heck would this kid pass up on the chance of a lifetime? Ojiro explains it’s a matter of pride for him: “It just wouldn’t be right. I barely remember anything from the cavalry battle until the very end of it. I… think it was that guy’s quirk.”

“Wait, who was Ojiro with again?”

Again, no one seems to remember. But once Ojiro points him out, the camera pans over to Shinsou, who looks away. As if he’s worried about getting exposed. Interestingly enough, however, Ojiro doesn’t immediately reveal what Shinsou’s quirk is (which also might have to do with his personal honor code), instead just presses to withdraw:

“Everyone gave their all in Round 2, but I was just someone’s puppet. I don’t want to advance if I don’t even know how I got here.”

‘Someone’s puppet’? That’s ominous as hell... but once again, it doesn’t fully reveal what Shinsou did. Ojiro could’ve been speaking metaphorically for all we know at this point. But it sure makes us start wondering what the heck’s up with this purple guy, and just what his true motives are...

Later on, once the full bracket’s announced, Izuku looks at the lineup. He’s initially more concerned about the prospect of facing down Todoroki, but then he remembers he’s got a whole match ahead of that: “First I’ve got to worry about this Shinsou guy (whoever the hell he is...)” As someone who l o v e s to collect and analyse data on heroes and quirks, it probably bothers Izuku to no end that he knows absolutely nothing about his upcoming opponent.

“Izuku Midoriya, that is you, isn’t it?”

To top it off, SHINSOU SNEAKS UP ON HIM. I mean, in all fairness, it probably isn’t even that hard to sneak up on Izuku, given how lost in his head he gets. But again, it helps build that aura of suspense: Shinsou’s the type of character to sneak up on people. He’s also the type to stay out sight, use clever strategy instead of shine in the limelight like a typical hero in the BNHA world would. In all fairness, he’s acting a lot like a villain would.

Izuku: “You’re the guy from before, from general studies?”

Shinsou: “A pleasure. So, are you excited?”

Once again. Doesn’t even properly introduce himself. What is with this guy and introductions? And before Izuku gets a chance to respond, Ojiro intervenes, covering Izuku’s mouth with his tail and leaving Shinsou to smirk and walk away.

Izuku: “Ojiro, what’s the deal?”

Ojiro: “You can’t say a word to him.”

These are the first real clues we get as to what Shinsou’s quirk actually is and how it works. but we still. don’t. get. full. disclosure.

The scene cuts to the side games / preparations of the remaining contestants for the final round:

I really appreciate the sheer amount of dread on Izuku’s face.

This is a meme. We all have Shinsou to thank for this meme. At this point, we can’t even hear what they’re discussing, we just know it’s making a nervous boi e x t r a nervous...

A few scenes later, and we finally get what we’ve all been waiting for:

“Whoa, he looks kinda scared in that picture, doesn’t he? It’s Izuku Midoriya from the hero course!!”

VS.

“Hitoshi Shinsou from general studies, who really hasn’t done anything to stand out yet…”

Once again, Present Mic reminds us just how much of a dark horse Shinsou is. Discounting a few strategic bits and pieces, two whole rounds have passed already, and we still know next to nothing about him. It’s interesting to note how Present Mic explains the rules of the match too:

“The rules are simple: immobilize your opponent or force him out of the ring!! You can also win by making the other person cry uncle. Anything goes… so don’t be afraid to put your morals aside and play dirty!”

Which Shinsou does.

He starts playing before the match even begins, already trying to get Izuku to talk:

“So you can just give up, huh?”

Izuku doesn’t respond, so Shinsou continues:

“In a way, this is a test of how strong your spirit is. If you know what you want your future to hold for you, you can’t worry about what other people think.”

Present Mic: “READY?!”

“That monkey was going on about his pride earlier...”

Present Mic: “BEGIN!”

“...but I just think he’s an idiot for throwing away his chance like that.”

Shinsou started playing even before the match began, and he started off by saying a whole lot of incendiary things:

Why would you care what other people thought of you? (In a world where pro heroes depend on popular appeal for their livelihood, that’s not something a typical aspiring hero would say...)

“That monkey... is an idiot” (insulting a former teammate... not very hero-like)

Who cares about pride? (People who say that often hint they’re willing to get their hands dirty if the ends justify the means... again, not very hero-like)

In retrospect, of course we know Shinsou’s primary motivation for saying all those things was to elicit a response from Izuku, but at the time... it just made him look like a jerk. Maybe even a jerk with a potential villainous streak...

Regardless, it does get a rise out of Izuku, and that’s when it finally happens.

We openly see Shinsou use his quirk for the first time.

Izuku freezes.

Everyone’s shocked. But even then not everyone understands what’s going on yet... even Present Mic seems confused, even possibly chalking it up to stage fright:

“Huh?! What’s the dealio? This is the first match, it should start out with a bang! The fight has just begun and Izuku Midoriya is… completely frozen?!”

AND THAT’S WHERE EPISODE 19 ENDS.

WE STILL DON’T KNOW SHINSOU’S QUIRK.

Yes, we’ve seen it in action, we can infer, but it still takes a whole episode to put a clear label on it...

Episode 20: Victory or Defeat

Way to build up the suspense with a corny episode title am I right

Present Mic introduces us back into the fray: “Izuku Midoriya is completely frozen?! He’s not moving a muscle! And what’s with that look on his face? Could this be a quirk at work? Hitoshi Shinsou seems to have Izuku Midoriya completely stunned!”

Let’s take a quick inventory on just how sh00k everyone is:

Concerned frens. I was too the first time I watched this. I think we all were. Our baby Izuku’s been frozen by the weird purple jerk who we don’t really have any sympathy for yet.

Even the pro heroes are stunned. They don’t seem to have any idea what’s going on either, which suggests maybe they haven’t seen a quirk like Shinsou’s before...

BUT what really gets me are these guys. I’m pretty certain they’re all general studies kids. Shinsou’s classmates. Meaning they KNOW Shinsou. And assumedly they know his quirk too, since that’s like the second question that comes up whenever you meet someone in this universe, right after “What’s your name?” YET THEY’RE JUST AS SHOCKED AS EVERYONE ELSE. Which makes me wonder... what if Shinsou never told his UA classmates what his quirk was?

Regardless, it builds up the suspense even more.

And at long last, as the crowd still sits stunned, Aizawa steps in to finally answer all our unspoken questions:

“Since we’re on to the individual matches, I had some information compiled about our final competitors. Shinsou failed the practical exam to get into the hero course. Since he also applied for general studies, he probably figured that would happen. His quirk is incredibly strong, but that entrance test consisted of fighting faux villains. It gave a huge advantage to those who had physical superpowers they could show off. Despite his abilities, Shinsou never stood a chance at passing.”

He never stood a chance beCAUSE...

*cue ambient unsettling music*

Izuku turns around and starts walking out of bounds.

EVERYONE FLIPS THE HELL OUT.

All Might, watching from the sidelines: “What is this power?”

And finally, thanks to Aizawa’s data, Present Mic tells us:

‘When an opponent answers his question, it flips a switch in their minds, forcing them to do whatever he says. Not every question does it though. He only brainwashes when he wants to.”

There it is.

After five episodes of ominous, behind-the-scenes buildup, we finally have it. I don’t know about everyone else, but I was blown away. Looking back, it made total sense, and I had no idea how I didn’t figure it out beforehand, (maybe someone did, lol, I am kind of a dumbass). But, main point here: Shinsou’s intro had a lot of great suspense built into it, culminating in his match with Izuku, which reveals not only his quirk but also his true character (which I’ll talk about in a future post - specifically how Shinsou’s backstory reveal completely flips our perception of him). Along the way, we had plenty of opportunities to forget about Shinsou, discount him - at least in favor of our already well-established favorites - and most importantly, type cast him as villainous. But all that turns on its head the moment we learn what he can do - and as I’ll talk about later on, when we find out his true intentions.

What a brilliant intro.

And he knows it too. Just look how smug he is.

#shinsou hitoshi #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha meta #long post #bnha anime #hitoshi shinsou #shinso hitoshi #hitoshi shinso #my hero academia #mha #mine #text post #bnha plot analysis #bnha analysis

178 notes · View notes

rb-d2 · 7 years ago

Video

tumblr

Don’t get spooked.

Where’s the heck is the demo, kiddo?

Hey guys! I apologize for the silence, I've just been working really hard on polishing the game and I'm here to clear some things up regarding the upcoming demo.

Initially the demo along with the KS campaign was meant to come out by the end of September. However, now it's obvious that hasn't happened yet. I've decided after an initial review of me playing (what i thought was the final) demo, there were still a lot of things missing/incomplete/unpolished.

I realize I can't half ass this preview compared to the other alphas I've been releasing because this is the demo that will show what we're capable of. so I'm going to delay the launch of the KS campaign along with the demo.

It definitely frustrates me as much as you guys that are patiently waiting for the demo. But I'll be working hard for a while trying to get this thing to what I believe is at an acceptable quality for the next and possibly final alpha.

I hope you understand. Thank you.

(i didn’t realize it has been almost 2 months since my last post god damn i'm so sorry for being so silent)

In any case, I have been working on the game all this time. So lets post something more progress related. I have a lot to share but I will split this into multiple posts so I don’t make a giant wall of text (it’s big enough as it is).

I’ve revisited the aircraft nozzles. They should look a lot better now.

Turns out modelling them individually and animating it is much easier than adding details through textures. Now I don’t have to worry about UV space for the nozzles and they look ten times better than usual. while occupying around 50% the amount of UV space they took originally. However it does come at a cost with tri-count, but then again all the things I model are relatively low poly to current industry standards.

Questions and Answers

Absolutely, This is one of the few things that we plan on differentiating from Ace Combat. Wave mode along with some mutators if time permits. At the moment I can’t discuss too much about them because it’s still really bare bones on my end. But once I have the KS demo out of the way I’ll be able to focus on that aspect of the game and then I can share details with you guys. Would definitely love your input on what could be interesting for a wave mode. We have our internal list at the moment in terms of features but would love to hear what you think.

I teased this a couple of months ago. However, as for the moment wingman command system is on a backburner. I felt like it didn’t offer much to the gameplay while being needlessly complicated.

This is one of the aspect I want to touch on when I do have A2G Focus aircraft in the game eventually. But yes naturally jeeps will have less armor than a heavily armored tank so they will definitely take less shots to kill.

I’m thinking of integrating unlocks across all 3 game-modes of the game. Obviously the Campaign will have all the meat with actual flyable aircraft and weapons. But Scenarios and wave-based mode will have certain special paint jobs maybe some special aircraft if I have enough aircraft to warrant putting it away from the main Campaign unlocks.

Thank you! Yes, hopefully soon. I have my own deadline with the Kickstarter and I’ll be working myself to death until this “date” I have set.

We’ll see.

Sure thing, I’ll provide a press kit which includes a bunch of high resolution screenshots of the game.

Thank you!

PC only for now.

Hopefully :)

No detailed public list yet because it’s still changing a lot.

Do I want to make this game moddable?

Yes

Do I have the ability to make this game moddable?

Probably not. I’m still fairly new to Unreal Engine 4 and to dive into how it works completely to add modding support I’d have to spend days/weeks/months/years/decades learning it how it works so it is currently not my focus right now.

Absolutely, This is one thing that we’re currently trying to differentiate from other Arcadey Flight games such as Ace Combat.

I want to provide much more gameplay options for the players and introduce a lot more enemy variety that forces the player to fight differently. You will see some of these in the next demo. Please look forward to it.

Unfortunately you’ll have to wait until there’s a Linux/Mac renderer for TrueSKY. (and if i can get my hands on those Operating Systems, which I do not have right now)

There will be quite a bit of voice acting. I will definitely appreciate community assistance when that time arrives. However, I’m still quite a bit away from that stage.

It’s a valid thing to have variable ammunition count for each mission. But I feel like it will introduce inconsistencies regarding the aircraft “true” ammo count. So I’d like to keep it static right now so players can actually remember what the true ammo count of each aircraft is.

Absolutely, IIRC it was able to do that in old demo.I might be wrong though, If you could show me some examples that would be appreciated.

We’ll see.

Soon™

Yeah, TrackIR support is something I’m planning to add.

Dating sim? I’m absolutely awful at writing stuff like that so its unlikely that it will have that kind of feature.

However it will have other gameplay related features that will distinguish it from Ace Combat.

now (sorry)

;)

I would love to have something like this to increase replayability for players. I’ll talk about it more after the KS campaign.

#Project Wingman #hack #indiedev #UE4 #Unreal Engine 4 #agdg #video games #Aviation #Aircraft #GameDev #Ace Combat

89 notes · View notes

academla · 7 years ago

Text

On call-out culture and judging people

Hey guys! I should be doing schoolwork, but I was talking to a friend and felt so compelled to write about this.

As background: this guy and I have talked on and off, and somewhat recently started talking again. One of his friends famously strongly dislikes me, which I did not have confirmed until a week or so ago, but which I suspected. He told me that the more he gets to know me, the more he regrets how willingly he trusted her opinion.

This is not a problem exclusive to real life. In fact, I think it’s more rampant on the internet. Everybody has their own morals and their own ways of going about life; this is mine.

My general life philosophy is this: I do not pass negative judgment on a person unless I have had a one-on-one negative interaction with them. I only base my opinion of people off of how they directly treat me. I don’t do it based off of observation or what others have said.

There is a sense of “loyalty” amongst friends which is often construed as a “because this person hurt me, you, my friend(s), should dislike them” mentality. After much thought and experience, I don’t adhere to that.

If a friend has a bad relationship with someone, I’m not going to date the guy after they break up. However, neither am I going to shun him, or talk shit about him, or hate him. Unless he has directly wronged me, I don’t think it’s fair to disparage him.

The thing is, people dislike other people quickly and easily. Rational ignorance plays a role; that is to say, it’s much easier to believe what you hear about someone than to go to the effort to talk to someone you wouldn’t otherwise talk to, just to see if they’re as bad as all that. An analogy would be people who might choose “healthy” food based on a singular aspect, like sugar content, rather than doing research into individual food options and gathering a holistic view of what is actually best for their particular health needs.

A lot of people really like me, and a lot of people really don’t. Of those who don’t, the majority dislike me based on rumors/hearsay, secondhand experience (i.e. a friend who had a bad interaction with me), or observation (i.e. seeing me interact in class or post online as opposed to talking to me one-on-one). This is true of many people. Honestly, if you think about all the people you would say you dislike, how many of them do you dislike because of something they did to you?

I can only think of a few people I can truly say I dislike. There are people who rub me the wrong way. There are people I don’t explicitly like. But those sentiments are based on observation, based on how I’ve seen them behave in a group, based on the posts they’ve made to the entire internet. Those sentiments are not based on times they actually did something to hurt me, and as such those sentiments never tip over into dislike, resentment, or hatred of them. I don’t say unfounded bad things about them that would deter others from developing their own positive opinions of them.

Now, this one girl I mentioned talks shit about me, hates me... except she and I have talked maybe once, ever. In fact, I’ve always gone out of my way to try and be courteous and friendly with her. I have nothing against her.

She hates me because of how she saw me act during a tense English class debate. Because of the way she saw me interacting with friends. Because of how dramatic I sound, and how much I overshare, when I talk in class.

She does not hate me because I said something mean or rude to her. She does not hate me because I talked shit about her (because I didn’t). She does not even hate me because I have wronged anyone she cares about (because I haven’t). She hates me purely on observation, purely on one dimension of my personality. Based off of that, she thinks she reserves the right to announce her own poorly-informed analysis of my personality to other people. And those people, because this is how life works, believe her.

That is what happens online.

When you post publicly, no matter how many followers you have, it’s an individual performance. It’s you up on a stage and speaking to the faceless crowd. It’s you standing at the front of the class and giving a presentation. It isn’t you. It isn’t the way you interact on a personal level. It isn’t how caring you might be one-on-one. It isn’t eye contact or personal remarks or direct compliments or insults.

Yet people on social media feel as though it is this intimate connection. As though the blogger who puts things out there, as I am now, is speaking to them. And, accordingly, they judge the poster’s character based on the only side they see.

If this girl was willing to lay aside her judgments based on her indirect experiences with me, she might give me a chance. She might talk to me. She might like me. Or she might dislike me, because of something I said or did to her. That would be acceptable; that would be respectful. What is not respectful, what is not fair, is all of the people in real life and on the internet, who immediately talk shit about others based on biased and limited knowledge. (P.S. She’s a so-called feminist, but told everyone I’m always trying to get male attention because I flirted with some guy once in front of her.)

This is the problem with call-out culture. People believe everything they read online. They’re more likely to believe negative accusations than they are positive comments. They want to believe that they are being “protected” and “warned” against these so-called horrible people.

Some of these people deserve it. Some of them are as nasty one-on-one as they are to the crowds and to others. There have been some people whom I gave the benefit of the doubt, went out of my way to talk to, and decided that yup, everything that was said about them was correct, and I did not like that person. But that was an informed and personal decision based purely on how I experienced them.

Call-out culture is dangerous, bullying, and marginalizing. No matter how much I may want justice, I may want to “expose” someone... I don’t. Because it is innately immoral, in my opinion, to slander somebody to the point where all of my friends dislike them only because I do. I am absolutely empathetic with my friends and if they have a shitty experience with someone, I’m there for them, and in the context of comforting them I might reinforce negative statements about that person, through a lens of validating my friend’s feelings. But I don’t go running anywhere else sullying the person’s name, even if the criticisms might be accurate.

Of course, there are plenty of people that my friends and I dislike. However, that united dislike comes from individual experiences with that person. They aren’t just others blindly jumping on the bandwagon.

I’m not trying to defend myself or tell anybody that hated me to think twice and actually talk to me. I will say that in my experience, I have had multiple people who later became good friends tell me, “Wow, I can’t believe I listened when ___ told me you were ___.” I think this would happen more often if people were not so caught up hating on one another senselessly and instead either 1. didn’t bother to investigate, AND accordingly didn’t pass judgment on the person; or 2. did bother to investigate, and have the opportunity therefore to develop their own opinion of the person.

But of all the people who hate me, who have called me names, who have blocked me online or shunned me in real life... 90% of them, I have never even talked to. I’m definitely not alone there. That, to me, is unfair. And that is why I am careful not to do the same to others.

I implore you, now, to think of the people you have talked shit about. That you have blocked because you believed what another person said about them. That you have rolled your eyes at and ostracized because of something they said publicly or in a group setting. I mean the people who you’ve spread stories about because someone you care about and trust told you bad things about them.

Neither am I telling you all to find out the other side of the story. Sometimes - most of the time - I’m too damn lazy to do that, because usually the person in question isn’t someone I would hang out with one way or another. The difference is that because I don’t choose to engage with them one-on-one, I don’t believe all the bad things I might hear.

And if I don’t like someone because I have a shitty experience with them, I don’t call them out. I don’t expect others to hate and bully them on my behalf. If people ask what happened, I’ll share my side of the story, but with absolutely no expectation or desire for the listener to start hating on the offending party based purely on what I have said. I encourage you to always take things with a grain of salt, to at least remember in the back of your mind that while you may dislike this person immensely for what they’ve done to a friend of yours, you have no reason to be blatantly unkind to them.

It’s true, of course, that people can say and do telling things online. My point is that this is not always the case, and that there is more to a person than one thing they said on one day in one moment to an invisible audience, probably without thinking. I won’t even go into the issue of people having intense knee-jerk reactions to posts they have no context for, but that factors into this as well. Particularly on the internet, it’s incredibly easy to skew things, to pick out screenshots, to build a compelling case without the full proof. Which leaves the other side responsible either for fighting fire with fire by showing the parts of conversation that weren’t publicized or the context that wasn’t provided, or keeping quiet and ending up being slandered on the internet and blocked by a bunch of strangers.

As a last disclaimer, I’m discussing this as it relates to smaller scale dramas. More serious issues related to abuse, for example, are different; I’m not suggesting that if somebody has murdered the family member of a friend you ought to nicely give the murderer the benefit of the doubt. But in our day-to-day internet and real life lives, I invite you all to think before you judge.

In summation, these are my thoughts on call-out culture and judging people. I live my life based on direct experience. I have been the target of gossip and I have been hated by people I have never even talked to in my life. It doesn’t feel good.

The next time that a friend talks shit about someone you may not even know, you don’t need to jump up and declare that you will not judge. What you can do instead is to validate the friend’s feelings, and either give the person in question the benefit of the doubt and chat with them a bit to form your own opinion, or go about your damn life without perpetuating drama that wasn’t yours to begin with.

#academlets #academla blogs #call out culture #cyberbullying #studyblr #posting this is like setting something on fire and then running away before it all explodes #hopefully not too many people lash out at me for this lol

42 notes · View notes

ciathyzareposts · 5 years ago

Text

Back-Tracking: Colossal Cave Adventure II & Mystery Mansion

Today I’m looking at two text adventures that I played through but didn’t comprehensively beat. (Not that I really beat either of them, because I relied on a walk-through for both.) This back-tracking project is probably getting a little self-indulgent at this point. Do I really need to be blogging about my attempts to go back through a game trying to get all the points? Is that something that people want to read about? Probably not, but it’s my blog. And if I’m stupid enough to spend my time going back to a game just to get a winning screenshot that I’m more satisfied with, then you can damn well bet that I’m going to post about it. If it’s any consolation, this post should be a short one.

COLOSSAL CAVE ADVENTURE II (1978)

I originally played Colossal Cave Adventure II back in 2016. I recall it as something of a harrowing experience (well, video game harrowing, which is a completely different thing than real life harrowing). It took me quite a bit of planning to put together a winning run, and even once my plan was in place the game’s random elements would thwart my efforts. I eventually got through it, but for reasons that I’m still unsure about I only ended up with 436 points out of the full 440. At the time, I was relaxed enough to let that go and move on to the next game. I don’t know what happened to that sweet, innocent young man, because ever since I started getting more serious about the blog those 4 points have been gnawing at me. I had to go back and at least try to get them.

Going back to this game in such close proximity to playing Don Woods’ 430 point version was interesting. Both games took completely different approaches to expanding on the original. Woods’ approach was to fill things in at the edges, keeping the map exactly the same but adding some small new areas that were difficult to find, and an extra challenge in the form of a time limit. Jack Pike and Peter Luckett took a different tack, adding on loads of new areas and just making the game much bigger overall. New mazes, new puzzles, lots of new treasures. Both of them are difficult in different ways.

I was expecting this revisit to Colossal Cave Adventure II to seriously vex me, but thankfully my old notes were very thorough. I hadn’t quite mapped things out step by step (as I tried to do with Adventure 430), but I did have a guide telling me what order to get the treasures in, and reminding me to take regular drinks (because this game added an irritating thirst mechanic). I was able to follow my instructions, and the random elements were kind to me, so it only took me a couple of tries to get the four points that had eluded me.

Catharsis!

I’m going to ignore that bit about achieving the next higher rating, and call this game done forever.

MYSTERY MANSION

I only played this game last year, so it was still fairly fresh in my memory. I did finish it, but I was well down on the 999 points required for a total win. This game doesn’t just require the gathering of treasure, but to get the full amount of points you need to visit pretty much every location, defeat a vampire and a werewolf, solve a murder mystery, and type score whenever you hear a funny noise. Beating this one is a pretty involved process.

I probably didn’t give this game enough credit the first time around for its replayability. With most adventure games, once you’ve solved all of the puzzles and beaten a game there’s not really much point in going back to it (until years down the track, maybe, when you’ve forgotten everything). Mystery Mansion includes a bunch of random elements that make replaying the game, and especially playing for points, a challenge. They’re not the bad kind of random, either, like Colossal Cave Adventure‘s murderous dwarves, but more of a shuffling of elements. Most notably, the murder to be solved has a different culprit, location, and murder weapon in every game. (Although, now that I think of it this game does have a bad random element in the form of the Mole Maze, and its ever-shifting pathways. Thankfully you can save just before it and keep trying until you get it right.)

I discovered a few new things that made it easier to solve the murder and collect all of the necessary elements:

The warrior who roams around outside carries a parrot. If you’re carrying the parrot, he’ll tell you the location of any object in the game.

Similarly, the glass orb in the games room can be used to locate any person, which is handy for finding the murderer and the werewolf.

There’s also the scroll in the library, which crumbles to dust when you try to open it. The gardener once told me that it could be opened with a magic word, but I never did figure out what to do here. Reading a walkthrough informed me that I needed to use the passwords from the garden, which are written on the bottom of two bridges. There are two passwords, but you actually need to say four words: in addition to saying the words forwards you also need to flip them. This doesn’t just mean saying them in reverse, you also need to turn them upside down: a password like HOMIW becomes MIWOH, as you flip the Ms and Ws. It’s pretty tricky to get right, but when you do the scroll opens and tells you everything you need to know about solving the murder.

I mentioned the werewolf above, and I never did find and kill it in my initial play-through. I only ever met it once, when I fell through a hole to the basement and got killed by it in the dark. This time I discovered that one of the characters who roams the house will turn into a werewolf after the sun sets, and if you encounter the werewolf it rips you to shreds. There’s a gun that you can find, and a silver bullet, so the solution to killing the wolf is fairly obvious. The gun has six regular bullets loaded, though, so you need to find something to shoot to empty it before you can use the silver bullet. I found that unloading a bunch of bullets into the elf was pretty satisfying.

Beating this game involved plotting out a path where I visited every location in the game, solved the mystery, killed the vampire, killed the werewolf, called a taxi, and amassed as much treasure as possible at the end of the game. All the while, I had to pay attention and remember to type SCORE whenever I heard a wolf howl or a woman scream, or I’d lose 2 points each time I forgot. Thankfully the DOS port has some PC speaker sound effects that made remembering quite a bit easier. I had those turned off when I first played, because they’re very annoying, but they’re also useful.

Putting all of this together took me a long, long time. I think I played this game for about 12 hours straight trying to get this right, and I kept falling short of my goal. I would score around 950 to 960 points, and I just couldn’t figure out what I was missing. As it turned out, there was one location I hadn’t gone to: the bottom of a well in the garden. The garden has three wells, and two of them are impossible to get out of once you climb down. Going to the bottom of the other one is worth 20 points though, which was a big help in getting me to my goal.

I also figured out that if I left some treasures at the main gate, I could pick them up right at the end, while I’m waiting for the taxi, to score some extra points. Normally you have to keep the lantern and the compass in your possession, but at the end you don’t need to move around anymore, so there’s no need. The only worry with this is that an NPC like the hunter, the woodsman or the warrior will pick them up, but I solved that by murdering all three.

With all of that put together, I was finally able to make a perfect run at this game and score the maximum points.

Goodbye Mystery Mansion. Goodbye forever.

I got the above screen at something like 8 am, after pulling an all-nighter. That win was a massive relief, let me tell you.

NEXT: I’ve been playing Rogue, and haven’t had any success so far (surprise, surprise). I figure I’ll be at that one for a while. As far as games I want to return to, there are still a few. I just got done with the original TRS-80 version of Temple of Apshai, which I’ll have a post on shortly. I want to revisit Richard Garriot’s DND1 and play it a bit more in the version that more accurately represents its teletype origins. There was one monster icon on the start screen of Swords & Sorcery that I never encountered, so I’d like to keep plugging away at that to see if I can get to it. I’d like to keep playing MUD1 and earn enough points to become a wizard. There’s even a perverse part of me that wants to tackle the nigh-impossible task of mapping the entirety of Oubliette, which is definitely balanced for multiplayer and not something I could realistically achieve. All of those, should keep me busy for a while, I’d say. I’ll try not to make it to the detriment of progressing on my regular chronology.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/back-tracking-colossal-cave-adventure-ii-mystery-mansion/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

0 notes

latestnews2018-blog · 7 years ago

Text

macOS Mojave 10.14 first look

New Post has been published on https://latestnews2018.com/macos-mojave-10-14-first-look/

macOS Mojave 10.14 first look

Seems like iOS gets all the love these days. And it’s easy enough to see why. The smartphone has long been the dominant device in many users’ lives, while the desktop/laptop category has been on the decline. But macOS still has some life left in it yet.

A year after introducing the more incremental High Sierra (it’s right there in the name), Apple has returned with a macOS update that’s jam-packed with new features. Unlike other recent updates, a number of the big additions here are targeted at creative professionals, as Apple refocuses its efforts on the user base that has long been a core part of its target market. In the case of features like Dark Mode and Gallery View, there’s a lot to like on that front, as well.

For the first time iOS apps have been directly ported to macOS in an effort to kickstart cross-platform development, while Stacks should go a ways toward helping users stay a bit more organized — and sane. Now that the operating system is in public beta, here’s a rundown of the biggest and best new features Mojave has to offer.

Dark mode

The biggest addition to Mojave is also one of the more interesting from a populist standpoint. Apple made it clear during its WWDC presentation earlier this month that Dark Mode is a hat tip to creative professions. It’s a category the company once owned outright, but one Microsoft has been aggressively gunning for in recent years with its Surface line.

Apple’s been knocked for a handful of decisions viewed as taking its eye off the ball for the small but loyal contingent that has formed its core user base. The company’s been making amends for this over the past year and change, with the addition of the iMac Pro and the promised return of the Mac Pro. Dark Mode is clearly a nod toward those who spend long stretches staring at bright screens in dark rooms.

Of course, it’s not just for creative pros. Dark Mode is a potential boon to all of us desk jockeys looking for some respite from eye strain. It’s also just aesthetically pleasing, and a nice visual break from a Mac desktop design that really hasn’t changed much in the past several generations.

Apple’s done a good job here maintaining consistency across its own apps. Along with darkened menus and frames, Mail, Contacts and Calendar invert to white text on a dark background. The default Mojave desktop image of a winding sand dune has also been transformed accordingly.

Better still, there’s a dynamic version of the wallpaper that will darken, based on the time of day, as the sun sets and stars come out in the desert sky. A nice touch. However, only the default wallpaper is capable of doing that at the moment. If you want the effect, I hope you don’t mind staring at sand.

The biggest issue with Dark Mode (in this admittedly still early public beta stage) is compatibility. Apple says that the mode is designed for easy adoption by third-party developers, assuming their apps are built for the macOS Mojave SDK, but there’s no guarantee the apps you use regularly will have that compatibility at launch. That means there’s a decent chance your dark desktop scheme will be regularly interrupted by a blast of white light.

This is also the case for Apple’s own apps like Safari (though iWork and other not preloaded Apple apps don’t yet have the functionality), which have implemented aspects of Dark Mode, but in which you’re going to be spending a lot of time looking at bright pages regardless. For most of us who spend time in and out of various apps, Dark Mode’s actual functionality is pretty limited, but you’ll no doubt be compelled give it a go anyway. At the very least, it’s a nice departure from the default macOS color scheme you’ve been ensconced in for so long.

Stacks

Dark Mode may be the feature that got the biggest crowd reaction at WWDC, but Stacks is the best. No question here, really, and this is coming from someone who’s gotten fairly consistent about tidying up his desktop. This thing is worthy of a clickbait-style “One Weird Trick to Organize Your Life” headline.

This is a surprisingly cathartic act. Hover over the wallpaper of your out of control desktop, two-finger tap the touchpad and select “Use Stacks” from the drop-down. Poof, they all shoot into their pre-ordained piles on the right. The default mode categorizes files by product type, which is probably the most straightforward method of the bunch (you also can switch to category or tag). If a file is the only one of its kind on the desktop, it will maintain its name below the thumbnail; otherwise, the file kind will show off below. Unclassified files will show up in a less helpful “other” Stack.

When new files are added to the desktop, they automatically appear in their associated pile, so long as you stay in Stacks mode. When the mode is enabled, files are essentially stuck to these spots like a grid. You can drag and drop them into apps, but can’t move them around the desktop.

Once everything is sorted, clicking on the top of the stack will spread it out so you can once again view everything all once. Click the top of the pile again, and poof, everything goes back into the pile. You also can hover over the top with the cursor and swipe the trackpad left or right with two fingers to scrub through the list. I find the method a bit less useful, but some will no doubt prefer it.

If you decide the whole cleanliness thing isn’t for you, two-finger tap the wallpaper again. Click “Use Stacks” and poof, everything gets sent back to its original entropic position on the desktop. Good on Apple for letting users revert back to the madness.

Apple’s added a LOT of different features — from Launchpad to Tags — designed to help users get better organized. For my part, I’ve largely tried and failed to incorporate them into my daily usage. Stacks, on the other hand, is a genuinely useful addition and a strong contender for the most useful feature Apple has brought to macOS in recent memory.

Desktop

Gallery View is an interesting addition for similar reasons as Dark Mode. The feature is a spiritual successor to the familiar Cover Flow. It’s less dynamic, relying on a bottom scroll bar, rather than large images up top. It puts meta data front and center much more than before. This is especially apparent when dealing with images, giving you an almost light-room level of detail on photos.

The information includes, but is not limited to: dimensions, resolution, color space, color profile, device make, device model, aperture value, exposure time, focal length, ISO speed, flash, F number, metering mode and white balance. It’s lot for most users. In fact, it’s probably overkill for a majority of us, but it’s clearly another indication that Apple’s working to maintain its hold on the creative professional category by building that intense level of detail directly into the Finder.

Tucked down in the bottom-right corner of Finder windows are Quick Actions. There are a handful of handy features for editing images and PDF docs, including Rotate Left (as found in the iOS Photos app), markup (as found in Adobe Acrobat), Add Password and Create PDF, which turns files into PDFs, as advertised.

It’s an interesting system-level embrace of Adobe’s file format, and also makes the need for Preview somewhat redundant, as it’s baked directly into Finder. The options are dependent on file type — so, if you have, say, an audio or video file, you can trim it directly in the Finder window. For most tasks, you’ll probably want to open an editing app, but I would love to see more personalized actions down here. For my own needs, something like file cropping and resizing would be great to have built directly into the Finder window, saving me a trip to Photoshop or some online editing tool. I realize my needs aren’t the same as everyone’s — but all the more reason to offer some manner of customization down there, akin to what Apple offers with the MacBook Touch Bar.

Screenshots

File previews are getting a lot of love here, throughout. I’m not sure how often normal people use screenshots, but I take them all the damn time, so any addition here is welcome. Beyond general usefulness, I suspect a lot of people simply don’t take screenshots because the key command is fairly convoluting. Shift-Command-5 isn’t exactly easier to remember than other, similar combinations, but it does bring up a hand control window overlay.

From there, you can choose to capture a full screen, a window, a selection you outline yourself, record a video of the entire screen (which I used for the above Stacks GIF) or record a video of a selection. It certainly saves from having to memorize all of the different commands. The new screenshots also make it possible to set a timer of five or 10 seconds before snapping a photo.

Apple’s taking a play from iOS, offering up a small window in the right-hand corner of the screen once the screenshot has been snapped. You can click directly into that, or just wait for it to disappear. From there, you can markup the file, drag and drop it it into a document or have it automatically sent to the desktop, documents, Mail, Messages, Preview or a Clipboard, so they don’t all wind up in the same spot.

Continuity Camera

Not sure how often this feature will actually prove handy for most users, but it’s a cool feature, nonetheless. Continuity Camera essentially uses an iPhone as a surrogate camera for the desktop. It’s a clever bit of cross device synergy.

Say you’re in Page. Go to Edit > Insert from Your iPhone and choose Photo. Take a shot, approve it on the device, and it will automatically insert itself in the doc. It works like a charm. The scan feature also works surprisingly well here. I took a shot of a crumpled receipt and it looked pretty pristine, regardless. As someone who recently went through a lengthy visa process, I wish I’d had access to this thing a few weeks back.

FaceTime

This one definitely wowed the crowd. FaceTime’s macOS/iOS-only is the main thing that’s hampered my own use of the service, but there are some really nice additions here that are making me rethink the decision. The ability to add up to 32 users is far and away the most fascinating, and Apple’s done a good job managing that kind of unruly number.

Similar to services like Google Meet, the system automatically detects who’s speaking and places them front and center in the app. Also like Meet, you can manually prioritize the users on whom you’d like to focus.

Other users will shrink down and eventually populate the carousel at the bottom. You can get the list of participants by clicking the Info button. And invitations for more users can be extended while the chat is in progress.

iOS apps

Apple made a point of addressing longtime rumors of a convergence between the company’s desktop and mobile operating systems, flashing a giant “No” onstage. That said, the two OSes are getting even more shared DNA. The biggest news on this front is the porting of three iOS apps to the Mac. This is clearly the first step toward a larger convergence of some kind, but more to the point, it’s a way to start getting app developers to port their iOS apps to the desktop.

Sure, macOS had a huge head start, but iOS has been getting all of the developer love in recent years. Making it easier to create apps cross-system means devs don’t have to decide. It also means that the app that come to macOS through this method will be more likely to do so through the Mac App Store — a distribution method Apple clearly prefers over more traditional downloads, for myriad reasons.

To start, Apple has brought over News, Stocks, Voice Memos and Home. In my time with Mojave thus far, News is the one I now use pretty regularly. I was a bit hesitant to move to a more walled approach to news delivery, but I do appreciate having a centralize hub of the trusted news sources I visit regularly, coupled with alerts that populate the Notification Center at right.

It’s probably not going to replace my use of TweetDeck for work-related news, as, among other things, it just seems to update more slowly. But it’s a nice tool to have churning in the background, along with a check-in once or twice a day, to make sure I haven’t missed a moment of the horror show that is news in 2018. Fun!

Voice Memos probably has the most limited scope of the bunch. I’ve switched over from various third-party tools I use to record meetings from time to time, and it’s nice having that sharing across devices. Students will likely find it handy for lectures as well, but beyond that, it’s probably not going to get a ton of play for most users.

Home is the most interesting addition of the bunch. Certainly it makes sense, as Apple makes a bigger push to remain competitive against the likes of Amazon and Google in the smart home. The Mac isn’t designed to be a hub in this case — that’s still the job of Apple TV and HomePod, so far as the company is concerned. But the desktop OS does make for a nice control panel, and it’s handy to be able to check in on your place remotely from the comfort of your MacBook.

Given that they are, in fact, ports, not much has changed from a design standpoint. That means it’s essentially the same layout as the one you’ll get on your iPad, with a grid of tidy little boxes representing your various connected home devices. It’s pretty hard to shake the compulsion to reach out and touch the things. Apple, of course, has taken a hard-line against incorporating touch into its laptops and desktops, so reaching out won’t get you very far in this particular case.

Odds and ends

The Mac App Store gets an overhaul here, including search filtering and new content categories. Apple’s also added the kind of editorial curation it’s had on iOS and other apps.

More privacy permissions is always a good thing. In addition to the standard access to Contacts, Calendar Photos and Reminders, Apple’s added notifications for apps accessing the camera, mic and sensitive data. That means more pop-ups to click through, but more importantly, some extra peace of mind.

The system now does “password auditing,” to make sure you don’t reuse the same passwords over and over again.

Siri gets a couple of additions on the desktop here, including the ability to add passwords with voice.

0 notes

palmspringsbeats · 7 years ago

Photo

2017.

That was pretty sweet, right?

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuk.

Well, at least we all made it.

And we’re all right here.

Quick strategy for ‘18:

There was a recent interview with Bjork, while she was promoting her new album, Utopia, where she was asked how she dealt with the insanity of the world. She said she creates a small bubble around herself, and focuses on filling it with everything she loves. (Not, like, a literal bubble, btw….I should clarify because it is Bjork.) Nah...but she just focuses on herself and her immediate surroundings, and creates her own world of the things that matter to her... love family music...and does her best to not let the outside awfulness in. Create your own little bubble world. I really liked that. That’s all you can really do these days. What’s important to you? What do you love doing? Cool, create a small bubble and concentrate like a motherfucker on just those things. Tune everything else out. Easier said than done, especially when the outside bullshit is directly affecting your life, but still seems like a pretty good goal for operating in the world today. Work to create your best bubble. Keep filling it with what you love. Turn off the bullshit. And pretty soon...this is your life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n0Ps1KWVU0

I’ve been filling my bubble with a lot of music this year.

And it’s time to step on in this bub ya’ll.

Because it is time to present to you…

WhatWhat’s best music of the year.

Also, RESIST.

Personal Music Highlights of 2017

1. Movement Detroit (see you again soon).

Highest of lights was Function wiping clean 90 minutes of my memory at the RA stage under Hart Plaza (went up to him afterwards, looked him directly in the eyes and told him he was number 1. He gave me a head nod. I was content.) Check out his album, ‘Recompiled,’ which was released this year. Respect the master.

Runner Up: Walking into a club at 3am with Eddie while Moodymann dropped the Beastie Boy’s Paul Revere. An entire club of Detroit techno heads went bananas and everyone in the club sang every word. That is what it means to be a good DJ. First time I saw him and it was everything I needed. Played everything from D’angelo, to MK to Ro James...to The Beastie Boys). Talking shit into the mic all night. Doing it all using iPod earbuds. Thank you for being exactly you, Moodymann. (P.S. There was a thing this year where super cool internet DJ chat room people took issue with Moodymann playing Kings of Leon, Sex On Fire, at a festival. You realize you’re criticizing Moodymann right? You’re criticizing MOODYMANN. Immediately fuck yourself. You’re what’s wrong with everything. You are banished from my bubble. Also, for the record, ‘Sex On Fire’ fucking rules. Drink more cheap beer and figure out your life.

Movement Detroit weekend playlist:

https://open.spotify.com/user/bobbysouers/playlist/54ve0L6kDdCI1dZIrbbL0l

2. Radiohead in Portland

Ended with Creep, can die now.

Set list/playlist: https://open.spotify.com/user/bobbysouers/playlist/3VLMcyumHN6FYCQqGvFd3X

3. Solange in Portland

Made me realize Solange is actually cooler than Beyonce.

And Beyonce is...Beyonce.

Thus,

Solange is really, really fucking cool.

4. Solar in an Oregon orchard

Me full zenith.

Shout out and thank you, OV.

5. Queens in MSG

Thank you Ian.

Thank you for existing, Queens.

6. My wife singing Post Malone’s Rockstar acapella in our house without knowing the lyrics.

Shout out to legal Portland things!

Also, biggest surprise of the year: I really like Post Malone. As an artist and as a person.

And then...

7. Black Thought.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prmQgSpV3fA

Life lesson: You can’t do this without grinding for 30 years.

Best Music Videos of 2017:

2 Chainz ‘Trap Check’ was a lock for this. A LOCK.

Then came ‘The Gate’ (see intro paragraph).

Didn’t realize the drug DMTMDMA existed, so at least 2017 gave us that!

Anyway, #BjorkBubbleGoals fo real fo real.

(I’m going to get a tattoo on my face and become a Soundcloud rapper and my first song will be me mumbling “Bjork Bubble Goals, Bjork Bubble Goals, Bjork Bubble Goals” a thousand times over a pretty awesome beat. Gonna be siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick.

Runner up:

2 Chainz: Trap Check

2 Chainz is a superhero.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqoHYAdbQrE

Best Albums Of 2017:

1) Fever Ray: Plunge

The Queen Mother returned when we needed her most.

I could write a whole bunch about this but I advise you to instead just read all the interviews she did for this album.

She is revealing and honest.

She is my favorite artist.

And the album’s theme of sexual freedom also made me ok with a sexual fantasy I’ve been having.

It involves Fever Ray and Mike Pence, locked in dark room for 24 hours, with only jars of Trader Joe’s Coconut oil.

GET FREE MIKE!

WE KNOW YOU NEED IT AND IT’S OK.

Also, can we please unite the two most powerful natural forces on the planet and get a Bjork / Fever Ray SUPER SLIMEY collab album before 2020?

Help me put that energy out there and let’s create an actual vortex.

P.S. this album also contains the clear winner for 2017 lyric of the year:

“Your lips, warm and fuzzy, I want to run my fingers up your pussy.”

-Fever Ray, “To The Moon And Back”

Force of nature.

2) Honey Dijon: The Best Of Both Worlds

The music genre I was most obsessed with this year was Chicago House. I felt the need to go as deep as I could into the origins and classics...where so much of the music I love today started. Damn. What a time and sound. Deep in the exploration, something was dropped on the very top of the pile. Honey Dijon’s, “The Best Of Both Worlds.” Honey Dijon is a super real DJ vet from Chicago and just created a beautiful album that is just House music to the bone. So quality, sounds so warm and good. Only she could make this. If you’ve never listened to Chicago House (what are you doing with your life, btw?), this is a great starting point. Note to self: I need to see Honey Dijon DJ in the next 3 months.

3) Ellen Allien: Nost

Ellen Allien has never played it safe and has always pushed it, hard. If you really like electronic music you should listen to her earlier albums, namely, Berlinette, Thrills and Orchestra Of Bubbles (collab with Apparat). A pure techno head, who just BRINGS it on this album. A review described it as spending hours in Berghain and that’s a decent description. DARK AND HARD. If you can’t lose your mind in a club for 3 days, you can use this album to pretend you are, while doing things like walking through airports, riding bikes fast, and sitting at your workplace desk. There’s a track on this album named “Mind Journey,” and ALSO a track named “Jack My Ass.” What more do you want people!?

4) All The Good Rap Albums:

2 Chainz: Pretty Girls Like Trap Music; Future: FUTURE; A$AP Ferg: Still Striving; Quality Control: Control The Streets Volume 1; 21 Savage & Offset: Without Warning; A$AP Mob: Cozy Tapes Vol 2: Too Cozy

Don’t be a Joe Budden old head. If you say new rap is wack, you ain’t listening...at all. Everyone of these albums has at least 3 absolute bangers. God I love this shit so much. Metro Boomin is producer of the year, again and again. Beats are so fucking hard. Also, for the record, Migos are incredible. The goal of rap is sounding the coolest. And they sound pretty fucking cool. (ALSO, they provided the ad lib of the century: https://youtu.be/yBXO_hiNWUc “Ostrich, Ostrich, Ostrich, yee.”) My 17 Rap Songs of 2017:

5) LCD: American Dream

There was a generational sea change across the board this year. When Arcade Fire missteps then doesn’t sell out live shows? And they were/are the best band going? What? How fickle are we now (me included)? Things are too fast. We’re getting old. When this album was coming out it made me nervous. I really needed it to be good. Proof of life. They delivered. No crew can bring it like this. They stand alone. And you know what? Getting old is fucking badass. What’s more hardcore? Just keep making stuff and pushing HARD and no one can f with you. There’s really no other way.

6) War On Drugs: A Deeper Understanding

Me. Music for Sunday afternoons. Music for time with great friends and family. For when you’re driving alone in the dark. I love you guys. KP and I saw them live a few months ago. Holy shit. Just 9 really talented and experienced dudes onstage JAM ROCKING. Portland was standing and cheering, I was violently air drumming. Love forever.

7) Four Tet: New Energy

Proves this guy is pushing it forward and on another plateau. He could have just made some quality beats and it would have been satisfying. Instead he made ambient spiritual desert in winter night music. Happy we get to listen to this guy create things.

8) Lil B: Black Ken

When Lil B tweets, he signs every tweet: “-Lil B.”

He also takes a screenshot of every tweet and posts it to Instagram, often times again captioning the post, “-Lil B.”

Earlier this month, he tweeted this:

"WHAT UNIVERSITY WHATS TO LET LIL B COME LEARN AT YOUR INSTITUTION? IM VERY INTERESTED IN SCIENCE AND BIO AND ALSO NUERO SCIENCE I WANT TO OFFER MORE TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AND GLOBALLY AS WELL AS ANIMALS WHAT UNIVERSITY WILL ACCEPT ME? I DID NOT FINISH HIGH SCHOOL!!!"

Very quickly, schools like Pennsylvania State University, the University of Oregon, Butler University, the University of South Carolina, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Texas at Arlington and Brandeis University tweeted at him, providing offers and links to applications.

His response:

“SO FAR PENN STATE, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA, LSU HAVE ALL SHOWN INTEREST IN EDUCATING LIL B !!!!! IM SO HONORED!! SERIOUSLY FOR THEM SHOWING THAT THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM DOES NOT DISCRIMINATE !! LETS GO! I WANNA LEARN!!! - Lil B”

He then tweeted exclusively about guys and girls getting “Mudd Butt” for at least 48 hours straight.

Lil B has more personality than all humans.

Thank you, Based God.

(Anyway, this album is so good and fun and was the most hip hop thing that happened this year...until Black Thought opened his mouth.)

9) Nick Hoppner: Work

Mature master aspirations.

10) Thundercat: Drunk

I listened to this on a sunny day this year with a chocolate or two, and just remember laughing a lot. I want to hug this guy and invite him to a party where everyone is wearing sweatpants. So talented, makes the world more fun.

11) Karen Gwyer: Rembo

Discovered this recently. How is this exactly what I’m looking for?

12) DJ Python: Dulce Compania

Read a review that described this album as “ambient reggaeton.” And somehow, with DJ Python, that’s a great thing. I put this album on as I walked into work and it helped me.

13) Kendrick Lamar: Damn

Wait, this album came out this year?

Also, I’ve failed you because I haven’t listened to this album backwards yet, as Kendrick revealed, but, fuck it, I’m on vacation so I’m going to do that RIGHT NOW.

Best Tracks Of 2017:

Here are 70 of my favorites.

Special call outs below.

1. Track of the year - Cardi B: Bodak Yellow

In the year where women rose up and refused to accept male bullshit, this, fittingly, was the soundtrack. What gets me everytime is that she’s just rapping her ASS off. Also learned that saying “BLOODy shoes” is consistently really fun. ALSO, when she was on Fallon recently she was basically Rosie Perez on Jeopardy in the movie ‘White Men Can’t Jump,’ and that just warmed my entire body. (and....the beat is the beat). Final score: Undeniable.

2. Runner up - LCD Soundsystem: How Do You Sleep?

Hardest diss record of the year! This song sounds like ten thousand angry miles. Or, exactly like 2017! Runner up for lyric of the year: “You warned me about the cocaine, then dove straight in.” He makes you feel all of it. I want to hear this played live.

3. Four Tet: Two Thousand Seventeen

From my Sunday morning album. A mental womb.

4. Hercules & Love Affair: Are You Still Certain? (feat. Mashrou’ Leila)

Shout out to Peter who played this during a b2b sesh in my basement which was the first time I heard it. A week later I played it as the closing track of a DJ set in a wonderful outdoor space, during the day, in the Sun (Zekefest!). Those are the moments.

5. Thundercat: Them Changes

I started more DJ sets this year playing this song. There is never a bad time to play this song.

6. Honey Dijon: Thunda (feat. John Medelson)

Soul.

7. Ellen Allien: Innocence

My favorite track off of Nost. Play it as loud as you can in a pitch black room.

8. Fever Ray: Mustn’t Hurry

Hard to chose one, but this one split a good divide between the sound of the first album and second album. Oh yeah-eee-yeah-eee-aah. Fever Ray is actual magic.

9. The War On Drugs: Holding On

I am, because of you.

10. 2 Chainz: Trap Check

Start your workouts properly.

11. Sufjan Stevens: Visions Of Giedeon

See the movie, “Call Me By Your Name.”Be crushed by this song forever.

12. Lil B: Berkeley

Play this song loud on a Summer Saturday with your shirt off. God damn it this shit is so hip hop. Just on his straight positive. “We in downtown Berkley, I’m not rich, but I’m workin’.” Thank you, Based God.

13. Kamasi Washington: Truth

Pretty fucking important.

14. Nicola Cruz: Tzantza

My wife and I went to Hawaii on vacation this year, first time I’d been. We went to this place. Very dope spot. They were playing this on a good sound system and it stopped me in my tracks. It will always make me think of a Hawaiian vacation. And my love of low bpm dance music.

15. Travis Scott: Butterfly Effect

This song actually is 4am in Hidden Hills. Everyone on incredible drugs. Perfect weather. Slight cool breeze at 3am to remind you how high you are. Then Travis Scott pulls up to Kanye’s house in a space ship, and the party continues.

16. ASAP Ferg: Plain Jane

Flipping Three Six’s lyrics from “Slob on my knob, like corn on the cob,” into “Ride with the mob, Alhamdulillah” is the reason Ferg is the Hood Pope.

17. LCD Soundsystem: American Dream

Closing time.

Random Afterword:

Recently learned that, before Motorhead, Lemmy was in a band called Hawkwind. Did some searching on Hawkwind. Christmas indeed. One of their albums is called ‘Warrior On The Edge Of Time,’ and their live album is called ‘Louder Than The Universe.’ On these, the last days of 2017, I recommend drinking some cold beers, cranking Hawkwind up to one million, removing your shirt, and begining preparations for 2018. Go harder than a young Lemmy, young people. 2017, peace. 2018, lessgo!

Bjork Bubble Goals,

-WhatWhat

#Best Of 2017 #WhatWhat #Hawkwind

0 notes