#for example staple gun

[suddenlysugar]

just like how in spanish you add -azo to the end of a word to make it big and powerful, in english you add “gun”

[rookiesbookies]

“so what if I sucked his dick. his knuckles were split and bloody from defending my safety and my honor what else was I supposed to do”

With my boys (141+Konig+Keegan)

Price

Price is not a man to bring violence into his domestic life. He just refuses to. He has the gun under the couch and the hand gun in his bedside table, and that’s all the violence at home he needs.

HOWEVER.

The night you both had gone on a nice date and decided to end the night at a pub he was just having a good time. He didn’t want to be bothered. He was having a nice time.

When he watched the guy come up behind the two of you slurring, he was already set on edge. When the man grabbed your ass? There was zero hesitation.

Punch landed square between the poor guys eyes, John took a long sip of his drink and left a $100 on the table to cover any problems and the two drinks you both had, before taking you by the hand and leaving.

The man had a thick skull and Price honestly just ignored the fact that he had clearly probably broken a bone in his hand because the head you were giving him made it all so worth it.

Soap

Surprisingly, it was not a random person he punched.

He and Gaz had gotten into a petty argument. It shouldn’t have started, really.

Apparently Gaz made some snarky comment about Soap’s girl. It was before Gaz and his girlfriend had started dating so he didn’t have a woman to put him in his place over the shitty comment.

Johnny, however, was happy to oblige.

It took both Ghost and Price to pull him off Gaz, who was luck Soap only got a few good hits in. Soap was sent home like a kid from school and John stapled a note to his shirt explaining what had happened.

What Captain John Price didn’t expect, however, was for you to reward this behavior.

Little kitten licks and fluttering kisses up and down his length, tell him how proud you were he defended you before giving him the sloppiest of his life.

He brain melted, Soap had half the mind to punch Gaz for it again next time he saw him just to see if she would reward him again.

Ghost

Oh, he had considered strangling your ex more than once. But he caught him at your doorstep when he had just gotten back from a mission.

He wasn’t Simon yet. He was still Ghost.

So when the fucker was banging on your door, he was happy he had insisted on getting you a better front door lock. He could see you running to your bedroom, probably to get the handgun he kept under the dresser.

He almost wanted to call you and tell you not to bother.

He tore the man away from the door and just went ham. It wasn’t until you returned and looked out the window to see what had happened that Simon held up the man bloody and bruised and passed out.

Simon shoved the dude in whatever car he came in before driving to the middle of nowhere and leaving an only mildly threatening note, before having you pick him up.

When you went from kissing the splits and blood from his knuckles ot undoing his belt, he was so grateful his old square body had a bench seat.

The death grip on the steering wheel was the only thing keeping him sane. Almost pulling over to cum in your mouth but he had pulled into yalls shared driveway before he even realized. He had probably been doing felony speeds.

He took off his mask for the first time since he got home and planted soft kisses on your face. He mumbled something about not needing to reward Ghost for his usual behaviors between pecks.

Konig

Being the big bad colonel’s sweet little wife had its perks. Walking around the base with no problems, getting to spend all day chilling in his lap, never having to be far from him.

The worst time of year was when Konig had to deal with new recruits, who were already older gentlemen but clearly weren’t raised right and who didn’t understand how things worked in his base.

So when one of the recruits was pushing you around, getting too close and touchy, Konig didn’t hesitate.

One big swing, but that wasn’t enough. Konig was going to make an example of him.

Drug him out to the front of the base and gathered all of the recruits and made a scene. He made an example.

Dude got pummeled by Konig.

You honestly didn’t need to give him head, the satisfaction of putting that man in the med bay was enough. But when the idea left your sweet lips he would never refuse.

His bloody knuckles lovingly rubbing your face and massaging your hair as you struggle to fit it in your mouth, giving him big doe eyes? Its his favorite.

Keegan

Also punched a teammate. You had been brought on base for a celebration, everyone was in all their formal uniforms and outfits.

He had stayed sober, unlike most of his teammates.

Most of them didn’t have any women of their own.

Keegan just found out why.

It was a random Sargent from a different group, clearly hadn’t let you get a word out and just kept talking. Too drunk to realize that if you were here you were probably a spouse.

Keegan just gave him a nice smack to the gut, which ended up making the guy projectile vomit in the middle of the festivity room.

Someone definitely over-served by this dude.

But the way you kissed away the littlest bits of blood from Keegan’s had since his dry knuckle had caught on one of the guys pins and tore open. Made his heart melt.

I guess it melted into his dick because he knew EXACTLY what was happening when you pulled him away and down an empty and dark hall.

Oh he loved the way your lips kissed around him, living lipstick in their wake, before leaving a nice colored ring of it around his shaft.

Oh he’d wear it too proudly. Makes jokes about never washing his dick again.

Gaz

You and Gaz were in a booth on a double date with Soap and his girl. Simple date, just chilling. Soap was making jokes about how Kyle totally had a glow up now that he’s met his girl and about how Kyle probably understands why Johnny punched him for the comment a couple months back. (See Soap’s for an explanation)

However, that story just reminded Gaz, and gave him a good idea.

He mumbled something about still needing to get back at Soap for it. Also mumbling about how his nose still isn't right and his jaw still pops

One swift punch, Kyle was back how he was sitting before like it never even happened.

However the head he got in the family bathroom for that punch being hot while Soap and his girl thought Kyle had an emergency bathroom trip while his girl was changing her pad was crazy.

He almost broke the changing table off the wall with how he was gripping it.

Truly life changing.

Almost hit Soap again when they got back to the table.

Masterlist is pinned on my account as always and requests are open.

[artbyblastweave]

So, the thing about Ward's worldbuilding is, it's bad on purpose. This is something I didn't catch until a relisten of the earlier parts, but the disconnect between the actual literal apocalypse that occurred two years prior and the shockingly advanced levels of infrastructure and technology is very deliberate. The entire thing is slapdash and farcical. You have people out the door of a shitty concrete hovel lining up for bad coffee. You have cars built out of random scavenged parts, "dumpsters" that Victoria can't manhandle because they're made of clumsily-welded-together scrap metal. Victoria can't reliably navigate at night because power to the city below is intermittent (and her mother Carol happens to live in one of the parts that does have consistent power; that's unexamined, make of it what you will.) The mall cluster shitshow goes down in a "mall" that, IIRC, is called out later as having been basically a dead end economically, a doomed grasp at a sense of normalcy. The patrol block uses recycled PRT gear, Dot's interlude involves the machine army jumping a bunch of bog-standard apocalypse scavengers. What you're looking at isn't a new society built up shockingly quickly; you're looking at the previously-well-supplied-and-externally-supported outpost of the recently destroyed society, and after two years they're finally chewing through the last of the head start they got. The societal equivalent of Wile. E. Coyote hanging in the air above the cliff, or of the seemingly-untouched duelist seconds away from sliding in half. Unfortunately, due to choices made about the timeframe and focus of the story, the Coyote sprouts wings. The duelist whips out a staple gun. Or to come at this from another angle- in The Walking Dead, a comic I really like, I can sort of organize the arc of the apocalypse into three-ish big chunks. For the first eight or nine months in universe, about 48 issues, things are obviously bad, right, quite a few people have died, but there's a sense among Rick and company that they might be able to ride it out, that things are on the upswing. They've got crops going, they have new births, maybe help from the government proper isn't coming the way they thought it might towards the start, but things are looking up! Then, of course, the Great Fuckening of Volume Eight occurs, and you enter the middle phase of the comic, where they're down to like a third of their group, they're food-insecure, they're constantly on the move, they're under attack from rapists and cannibals who've descended into habitual atrocity because they're totally without hope. Children are having mental breaks and killing children, the first friendly guy Rick met in the whole comic is now an insane hermit feeding dead bodies to his undead son, on and on and on and on and on. Bad times, but a comparatively short middle in the grand scheme of things. Then they find Alexandria, and the back half of the comic is spent basically on an upward trajectory with some zig-zags, there are still periodic existential threats but they're clearly past the nadir.

Ward feels like it starts midway through that first part, the you-don't-know-how-much-worse-this-can-get part, with the emphasis on the social tensions, the encroaching winter, but then it just...doesn't get much worse. I mean they have a rough three months, but then they sort of speedrun right to the hopeful future ending as soon as the titans are dealt with. There were parts that I suspect were supposed to be the dark-night-of-the-soul I'm alluding to but they didn't land as such. I feel as though the superhero genre stuff kind of subordinated the apocalypse stuff, made it less visible by virtue of whose POV we were following, and sometimes I feel that as a remedy to this, Ward should have taken place over the course of years, and it should have Just Kept Getting Worse. For example Breakthrough should have had to kill and eat Rain to survive the winter

[dallasgallant]

Time period post: Christmas part 2 , celebration

This’ll be part 2 of my little Christmas time period series! This post will be more focused on what people did, received and watched/listened to. Very generalized as holidays vary from family to family, person to person even today.

Crafts-

As mentioned in the previous post, there were a lot of crafty decorations at Christmas. Paper chains, paper snowflakes. A lot of ‘do it yourself’ fun upcycle (not called so then) ideas from womens and home magazines. As well as displaying whatever a child made at school, there were also sold kits or guides like what’s commonly referred to as “melted popcorn plastic”

Toys and gifts -

Was specifically requested to include popular toys in this post, the 1960s had a lot of the same style of toys that were popular in the 40s and 50s too, timeless toys. Tinker toys, Barbie (and her friends, which were new and not wiped out yet), Lincoln logs and other building toys. Guns and army men and cowboys for boys and kitchens and stuffed toys for girls… the usual, it was very gendered but at the same time there were always toys in the neutral (play-doh for example)

Train sets! American staple for ages and stuck with a good many from Boyhood to manhood, there’s the sort of trope of a guy having a full on room dedicated in his basement. (My grandpa didn’t have a set up track but collected a LOT- Lionel is king) if not trains other model kits like cars or planes, for the older demographic. You go from push toys to scale model as one ages.

The primary difference is the 60s saw a BOOM in “electronic” toys, real battery eaters or ones that needed to be plugged in. The first lite brite for instance,

Now the characters in the outsiders are teens and beyond toys, so I do want to emphasize what they’d know more from their own childhoods in the late 40s-50s would be the more “classic” and basic toys. Another interesting fact is that radio shows and tv shows has their branding and merchandise since basically the inception of the concept.

There would be special catalogs at Christmas time thick, if not thicker than a phone book filled with deals and all the items these stores had to offer. Toys to lingerie all in one great big book. It’s just as major a part of the holiday season as any, though these big books have fizzled out alongside department stores themselves and catalogs even in the holiday season now are pretty small (I still remember circling what I wanted in the early 2000s but it was a nothing size compared to what they were)

If you ever come across old catalogs or magazines I greatly recommend looking through them as they can tell you so much about time period (for any you’re looking for) from what people bought, what price, how they were advertised to, what demographic, how they dressed, spoke, what was happening etc.

Traditions and games-

Holidays have always had a bit of commercialism to them but the 1960s was really the edge of it when it came to Christmas, in fact several iconic specials even mention it being commodified. For many, it’s the last time Christmas felt truly special and magical… and I do think the season changes as we age there is some truth to that- in decoration and how the holiday was treated. Not just two days but a season, a spirit - feeling in the air.

Thanksgiving ends, December first hits and the Christmas bomb explodes. Family comes, traditions are had and cherished. Shopping, cooking, eating, card sending, photo taking etc. or you go somewhere else- usually to other families homes typically a larger gathering. It’s about that togetherness more than the gifts (though greatly appreciated lol) a chance to relax in an increasingly busy, modernizing world.

Hard candy! Bowls of it placed strategically about the house, Christmas was the time for grazing sweets and other finger foods constantly. Some families would have a appetizer/horderves Christmas Eve— constantly eating and picking and present opening and tv watching, family enjoying. Then your large meal Christmas Day, like thanksgiving usually earlier in the day. Turkey was still common but ham is a runner up (personally, ham is Christmas and Easter.)

Citrus as gifts and treats and candies were also common, apparently it traces back to the civil war when they were more uncommon. Also it’s a seasonal thing, and post ww2 a lot of fruits we now consider normal we’re still new and exciting to receive (so like getting a apple at Halloween it was actually a good thing! Depending on the kid anyway lol)

Homemade cookies, pies, gingerbread and other deserts as well. Now there were more cake mixes or premade things to be bought from bakery’s but when you could it was still a preference to make and gift homemade.

Eggnog. Spiked or otherwise, alongside a myriad of punches ranging from the great sherbet and sprite(or 7Up) to booze that would make your aunt stay another week there’s so much.

Movies, specials and music-

First mentioned this here, going over the family and limited channel aspect. Some movies we consider holiday staples, like It’s a wonderful life had some complicated copyright and weren’t played on tv yet- though might get a re-release. The 1960s also saw many of the classics we now watch release, though the Santa Claus Rankin Bass specials weren’t until 1970 and 1974.

- how the grinch stole Christmas 1966

- Rudolph the red nose reindeer 1965

- frosty the snowman 1969

- the little drummer boy 1968

-a Charlie Brown Christmas 1965

There were also new takes on classic Christmas tunes, the Ronettes sleigh ride particularly took off.

60s releases but also generally good songs-

Little Saint Nick - Beach boys 1964

Christmas (baby please come home)- Darlene love 1962

Someday at Christmas - Stevie wonder 1967 (he also sang ‘Stay gold’ for the movie)

Santa baby

Baby it’s cold outside

Here comes Santa Claus, I saw mommy kissing Santa , holly jolly Christmas , rocking around the Christmas tree, marshmallow world

Need a little Christmas

Burl Ives, bing crosby, Johnny , Perry como, nat king cole- notable classics singers

Ones gang would particularly like-

Run Rudolph run - chuck berry

Mary Christmas baby - Otis Redding 1967

Blue Christmas - Elvis (all Elvis christmas songs)

[whumptober]

Hi! Can you please explain more about the prompt "Unconventional Weapon" from Day 7?

So an unconventional weapon is something that wasn't created as or is typically used as a weapon. Something that you have to use in a pinch because there's nothing else and you're desperate.

Examples of this could be strangling someone with the sleeve of a jacket, hitting someone with a crutch, throwing a shoe at someone's head, stapling someone, stabbing someone with a pencil, etc.

There are so many more examples than this! Basically anything that isn't your typical knife, gun, sword, etc etc

[greatwyrmgold]

Maybe this is a hot take, but I think it's a red flag when a non-D&D TRPG has six attributes which clearly correspond to Str/Dex/Con/Int/Wis/Cha.

Sure, maybe the game designers thought long and hard about their options and came to the conclusion that not only was an attribute-based system the best choice for their game, but also that the D&D array was the best setup for their gameplay needs.

But it seems more likely that they're too D&D-pilled to think outside that box, and more likely still that they just copied the big fish in this little lake.

I'm willing to give a pass to D&D; it's also copying earlier editions of D&D, but over the decades it has built its systems around the six attributes, so that it more or less works. If (for instance) you shuffled around how it handles mental attributes, you'd also need to figure out how to group spellcasting classes in the new attribute system, and also need to find some way to reconstruct the character archetypes implied by having high Int/Wis/Cha scores but average to low scores in the other abilities. For example, c'harming dumbass bards are kind of a D&D staple at this point.

But for other games? There are a lot of changes you could make. For instance, settings where combat is mostly gun-based might benefit from combining Strength and Constitution into Physique or something (letting players save points when playing the relatively niche big-tough-buy archetype), and also separating manual dexterity and agility into separate attributes (since Dexterity is a bit of a god-stat even in games where many attacks are Strength-based). And if you're not bound by D&D's classic spellcaster categories, you can divide up mental abilities however you want, e.g. "thinking on your feet" versus "careful planning".

Or—here's a thought—you don't have to center attributes at all! Lots of TRPGs do, but lots don't! You don't need to follow D&D's lead!

[nobibiname]

Elain’s Soft Power🌸/ ✨different strength✨ and the Cauldron bond

I’ve said this elsewhere but wanted to have a complete post to drive this point home, HOFAS spoilers, you’ve been warned.

Back in CC1&2 we learned that thanks to the Asteri, there’s a lot of obsession about “breeding”, esp among the Fae, on Midgard. And then we learned why: to create the strongest food source for them.

Now in HOFAS, enter Bryce in Prythian, we find out these same Asteri corrupted the cauldron .

So at this point honestly, yeah I was surprised that the majority of the fandom didn’t call out the mating bonds in prythian, and start looking at them more critically. What is the meaning of a mating bond from a corrupted cauldron? What will be the ultimate point of them?

Remember when in ACOMAF Feyre asks Rhys “why not make them mates?” One of the things he says is “… probably to produce the strongest offspring” (paraphrasing)

Strongest for what? the point of the Cauldron mating bonds is breeding, the strongest food for the Asteri. That’s it.

The mating bond is not what the Fae believe it to be. It may have been sacred at some point, but now it’s just the outcome of a magical calculation resulting in highest calories for intergalactic parasites.

I think for this reason it was really important (thematically at least) for Feysand and Nessian to fall in love first. They just “happen” to also have a mating bond. If their relationships mainly hinge on the bond, the romance is diluted. And we have plenty of examples of failed relationships of mates, (Rhys’ parents, Tamlin’s parents). I also want to acknowledge that the Mother’s power is also still there to some extent (we see that when Nesta gives up her powers and gets to keep a bit from a “gentle hand”) , and could have guided those bonds, but it doesn’t change the fact that the main point of the cauldron now is still food for the Asteri.

Lastly this also shows courage in rejecting a Cauldron bond, it’s actually an act of defiance. Asserting your will over your own fate, a “fuck you” to the Asteri and their corrupted manipulation of a sacred object and institution of Fae culture.

And I wonder is this the “different strength” that Elain will exhibit? Rejecting her cauldron bond. I think we’ll find out exactly why she hasn’t yet, and I actually think whatever the reason, that takes strength too. She’s stuck between a lot of willful minds and stubborn powers. Sticking to her guns is probably not easy. But also is this a strength that maybe Feyre and Nesta don’t have? I’m definitely speculating here, but maybe resisting the cauldron’s will like this could be something beyond them?

Elain is heavily foreshadowed to be a Gardner of magic of sorts; cultivating and growing with her magic, rather than fighting. So maybe rather than yielding to the cauldron’s will for her, she might assert her will on the corrupted cauldron and heal it? The ivy around the gates of her mind growing so strong around the iron to be able to crush the iron itself….

It would be in line with both how she’s foreshadowed, and how Feyre sees her. She will still be the gentle dreamer, but strong in her soft power.

I might never have been the biggest fan of the mating bond, (though I acknowledge it’s a staple of the genre) but given what we now canonically know about the history of Prythian, I urge the fandom to view “who you want to be mates” through a different lens. Bc that word truly no longer means what we thought it meant.

[howtofightwrite]

I'm curious if you have any thoughts on weaponry in an armada, specifically in settings where there are no guns. Would it make sense for an armada to exist without guns and the like, or what weapons would they specialize in instead? (I guess this kind of leads into the question of "What weapons are best when fighting on a ship if there are no guns in the world?" if that would make it simpler.)

I hope this doesn't come as a major surprise, but naval combat is older than gunpowder, so this is more of a historical question than you seem to expect.

In fact, piracy is a practice that dates back to, at least, The Bronze Age, with pirates preying on Greek shipping in the Mediterranean.

While it's not an exact answer to your question, the main answer is probably a lost technology known as Greek Fire. This was a combustible fluid that could be sprayed onto enemy vessels, burning them to the waterline.

Even before the invention of Greek fire, setting your foes ships ablaze was already a popular tactic in naval warfare. Beyond that boarding parties, and ramming using a reinforced bow were also staples in the Greek world.

If you want a specific example to look at, the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC might be a good choice. It's certainly a classic example.

I'm less familiar with the state of naval combat in the first millennium, though again, that is simply historical research. (Worth noting that, in spite of the Hellenic world making extensive use of setting enemy ships on fire, Greek fire proper was a Byzantine technology, and wouldn't be developed until the 7thcentury AD.)

If you're looking at a fantasy setting, then that will probably lapse into a worldbuilding question, and an examination of the technologies available to your characters. But, yeah, in the real world, people were killing each other on the water long before we had guns and cannons.

-Starke

This blog is supported through Patreon. Patrons get access to new posts three days early, and direct access to us through Discord. If you’re already a Patron, thank you. If you’d like to support us, please consider becoming a Patron.

[sassylittlecanary]

Superman (1978) and the Female Gaze

In honor of Superman’s 85th birthday, I got to see the 1978 movie in theaters (!!!) and I realized how much it appeals to the female gaze, which I would NOT have expected for a male-led superhero movie from the 70s.

To elaborate:

I’ve always cringed a little at Lois’ cheesy voiceover during the flying sequence, but I realized it’s actually a whole scene from Lois’ perspective. It gets in her head and explores her thoughts and feelings. It doesn’t portray her as “Superman’s girlfriend” from his perspective, focused on his viewpoint. The entire scene is Superman from Lois’ perspective.

Even the cinematography (especially in that scene but also throughout the movie) caters to the female gaze. There’s so much focus on their hands — Lois and Superman holding hands, Superman gently cradling her face, etc. There’s a focus on eye contact, on body language. Superman’s muscles aren’t emphasized — instead the camera lingers on his eyes and his smile. Through the visuals, both leads are very humanized instead of gratuitously sexualized like many superhero movies ever since.

Also, Christopher Reeve’s Superman emerges as such an unexpected example of positive masculinity. In the late 70s, Family Feud’s host was kissing every female contestant on his show, consent be damned. ERA and the feminist movement were losing ground to the New Right. The macho male hero was already a staple thanks to characters like James Bond and advertising campaigns like the Marlboro Man. Men Were Manly.

In contrast, while Superman is held up as a quintessential “manly male protagonist” admired by many, he very pointedly does not fall into the action hero male power fantasy stereotype of “I’m a tough macho man who affirms my masculinity by harassing and sleeping with lots of women and who expresses emotions by hitting things and yelling at people. Wow look at me punch things and shoot guns! I’m so strong!” Instead, he’s always gentle. He smiles brightly, he laughs, he cracks jokes, he waves as he flies off. He’s a huge guy, but he’s not intimidating unless he wants to be because he’s just so kind and down-to-earth. He’s much more in line with a stereotypically feminine fantasy of a “kind, respectful, warm guy who makes me laugh” rather than the male power fantasy more common in this genre.

There’s also the way female characters are treated. Lois is Superman’s love interest, but she’s also more than that. She’s her own character with her own voice. She’s a tough, snarky, take-charge, no-nonsense, competent career woman who goes after what she wants fiercely. She grouches and rants with her signature attitude, and Clark just stands there smiling at her because he thinks she’s amazing exactly as she is. It’s the fantasy of an independent woman with traditionally “unfeminine” traits who’s loved and celebrated for being herself. Clark doesn’t want to tame her — he adores her and supports her.

In addition, Miss Teschmacher is stereotyped as the villain’s “sexy but a bit dumb” girlfriend/sidekick, yet she’s still allowed some depth. Superman’s treatment of her stood out to me because this woman has helped Luthor endanger innocent people and nearly kill Superman himself, yet he’s still kind and respectful toward her. Because he always treats women like that, no matter who they are or what they’ve done to him. She wistfully says “Why can’t I ever get it on with a good guy?” instead of a toxic one, and he touches her face tenderly and gives her a reassuring smile. He has compassion for her, as well as hope that her life will improve.

There’s also the climax. There really isn’t much violence (it’s all natural disaster stuff). The whole “hero does something dramatic to save his love interest” is a time-honored action movie cliche, but this feels different somehow. It feels more like the climax of a romance movie than an action movie in some ways. Maybe it is, again, the focus on tenderness. On the way Superman cradles Lois’ dead body so gently and then cries. On the way he allows himself to feel, to express his emotions, instead of heading out to punch something as an outlet for his grief. Lois isn’t a love interest to be won — she’s a person to be cherished, which is 100% consistent with the female gaze.

Just, 👏 THE FEMALE GAZE AND POSITIVE MASCULINITY Y’ALL 👏

[therealvinelle]

What are your thoughts on the titanic movie?

Oh I wanted to watch it, tried once as a child, didn't make it through, then again with @theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin, at which point I also didn't make it through.

I'm here for the ship, literally only the ship. Rose and Jack would not get off the screen and let me look at ship, and so even though I made it to the part where they impact the iceberg, I realized I couldn't sit through Jack and Rose running around the decks, no matter how true to life the models were. Watch party ended, and some time later we tried Raise the Titanic with Alec Guinness instead (a deeply silly movie where a dangerous weapon was on board the Titanic when it sank, and the Americans must find it before the Soviets do).

James Cameron's movies have a very consistent problem where he is in love with a concept, or an idea or a new bit of technology, so he makes a movie to show it off and has to put a story in there somewhere so we're watching something happened. This worked incredibly well in the two first Terminator movies, it gave us a deeply funny Aliens movie, but it did not work out for Titanic as his worst tendencies all came out to play.

I like him, as a director, I just don't like the majority of his movies, if that makes sense.

His characters are plainly good or bad with one note motivations and no nuance, and they are all consistently and painfully American, to the point where they feel like caricatures. Jake Sullivan, who is such a staple army vet that he has no personality whatsoever other than being a protagonist with the assigned traits that would make him sympathetic to as wide an audience as possible, is a terrific example of this, as are the gun-toting military crew heading to the colony in Aliens, but so too are the characters of the Titanic, only in a different way. Rose's mother and peers are what I can only describe as Victoria's parents in Corpse Bride without the satire - they are not real people, but old world aristocrats seen through the eyes of filmmakers who fundamentally don't understand class. Rose becoming infatuated with a working class boy is a very simple and straightforward matter where there is no actual reason for them not to be together, it's just that Jack gets made fun of for not knowing the right forks to use. It's just shallow.

I have more complaints, but much of the movie is luckily forgotten so I'll stick to the big one: I wish Cameron had either made this a purely fictional story that was inspired by the Titanic but without actual victims, or else gone out of his way to be respectful of the fact. Going of the wikipedia page for how historical characters were treated, Bruce Ismay being depicted as boorish and attributed decisions he never made in life so he can be at least partly blamed for the sinking. The man's life and mental health was ruined after the real sinking as the act of surviving made him a media target, Cameron could have chosen to leave his memory be and I side-eye his decision not to. The movie has First Officer Murdoch shooting passengers and then himself, I struggle to see what this added to the movie besides upsetting his surviving family.

Perhaps I'm overly strict, but even fictionalized retellings have historical import because they play a much larger role in how people remember the past than history books or documentaries do because more people see them. The film industry has immense power over how we view the past, and in turn over how history is remembered. This comes with a responsibility, and a plea for consciousness of the fact. Set your stories to whichever periods and cultures you may like: but do so knowing that no matter how much media and recorded history already exists on your chosen subject, there will be people walking away from your product whose view is now affected by your depiction.

In other words, Raise the Titanic is somehow more respectul in my eyes because while it was a very silly movie, it insulted no one's memory. And I'll be sticking to documentaries and animations when it comes to RMS Titanic-related media.

[kob131]

So question.

Is Pokemon DLC 'Pay To Win' competitively?

This is an accusation I've heard lobbied quite a bit and to be honest it's kind of confusing. For those who don't know- A 'pay to win' feature that allows you to pay real world money in order to get an advantage over players who do not. Think paying from a great DPS gun in an online competitive shooter or boosting XP for an online game with RPG elements.

The argument around Pokemon DLC being 'Pay To Win' revolves around two main pillars- DLC exclusive Pokemon and returning Pokemon. The 'DLC Exclusives' revolve around the Pokemon Urshifu, Calrex Rider and Ogerpon. All three of these Pokemon have seen/are seeing widespread usage in competitive and are exclusive to their own DLCs. Thus by not having access to these Pokemon- you are at a disadvantage and thus you must buy the DLC. Which sounds like Pay To Win...

Until you remember that each DLC's launch comes with an update that allows for all Pokemon, including DLC exclusives, to be compatible with games that do not have it. Thus you can simply trade for it.

'But no one is going to trade away their 30 Pay To Win bear!'

Well, thing is. Pokemon trading works a lot like bartering- you offer something worthwhile in exchange for something you want. For example, you could trade a Shiny or Legendary or even a starter in exchange for the Pokemon. And it's not like you only get the DLC once- You get it for all profiles on your Switch. So if you were to offer a highly valued Pokemon then someone will work to get it, especially since the likes of Urshifu aren't hard to get. (Can get one before the second Gym). Same with Ogerpon. The only one that doesn't count to is Calrex, which is rather shitty but Ogerpon and Urshifu are the main 'culprits' and they're also the easiest to get and trade with.

'But that's just using an exploit and it's not intended!'

... How is the DLC being downloaded on all profiles an exploit? It's not a glitch or oversight- it's basic consumer friendliness. They had to have known this was a thing.

Another argument is that returning Pokemon inevitably shake up the metagame, introducing new staples, and thus the people who bought the DLC have an advantage. Again this fails to me because you can simply trade for the Pokemon. It isn't completely locked off from you.

Of course people will argue that I'm just defending shitty business practices that modern Game Freak are employing and that they wouldn't have done this in the past. To that I answer-

How do you catch a Heatran in Pokemon Black/White?

It's a simple question- Heatran is a famously evergreen competitive Pokemon. One would consider having access to Heatran as a necessary tool for competitive players. If not Heatran than what about Laitos, the number 1 most used Pokemon in competitive BW according to Pikalytics? If not that then what about Garchomp, not even a Legendary by this point? How do you catch these Pokemon in the most widely beloved Pokemon games?

Simple answer- You don't. You CANNOT catch these Pokemon in Black and White. You either have to buy the sequel games (which is effectively full game priced DLC here) or you buy Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platnium and/or Ruby/Sapphore/Emerald to get them. As well as a second DS to transfer them.

And this is a major problem I have with these arguments. They never take into account how transfers inherently give older players an advantage over new players and how this basically makes older, full priced games necessary to compete. That really, the DLC are in fact the more consumer friendly alternative because you get access to more Pokemon than a sequel or third version would give you; you can easily obtain multiples of Pokemon and unlike some cases- you don't need a duplicate console.

Or in other words- the Pokemon fanbase doesn't seem to realize they're actively calling for Game Freak to fuck them harder.

[warwickroyals]

What’s your favorite tiara from each tiara duel?

I don't vote in the polls (I don't know why because my favourites never win anyway) but here they are:

TIARA DUEL #1: It depends because some of these tiaras are different and the Infinity Knot isn't even the same tiara. I like the Georgiyevna the most because it has the most interesting backstory. In its current form, it would win for me. Aesthetically, I see why Katherine's tiara won and I would vote for it against the first version of the Georgiyevna.

TIARA DUEL #2: The garland hands down. I'm obsessed with tiaras worn in the 1920s bandeau style. Going against the grain, as they say on r/AITA, and saying that the Farnsworth is my least favourite here. Not because it's ugly, but it's a bitch to wear. It's not curved and is hard to work with most hairstyles. But that's just a me problem.

TIARA DUEL #3: Emerald Cartier tiara was ROBBED, but y'all not ready for that conversation. I also like how James II called Katherine insane when he gifted it to her . . . what a great man. Pearl fringe tiara, yeah, whatever, it does have the best lore, but I don't like fringe tiaras, so, what now?

TIARA DUEL #4: This one is hard because I can see it going any which way. The Iryillian Emeralds are my favourite though because I worked so hard on her and she literally turned out perfect. Perfect "big gun" tiara. No notes. The lattice tiara is a close second, such funny lore for a "staple" tiara (aka a tiara that's worn so often it becomes strongly associated with its wearer.) Also, speaking of lore, WTF I know I just said that I don't like fringe tiaras BUT the Glencairn fringe has a really good backstory.

TIARA DUEL #5: Wow, first time for everything, but my favourite tiara actually won this time? I don't get the lover's knot slander irl? It's like people don't consider Kate Middleton wears that tiara religiously because it looks really, really good? People were begging for her to wear the Strathmore Rose and when she did, it looked like ass . . . so . . . example #40430 of royal watchers having bad taste?

It's funny that the aquamarine kokoshnik struggled so much, because it's my second favourite. Sucks that all we have of it is some awful photo sitting in Phillip's inbox for an email he's probably long forgotten the password.

TIARA DUEL #6: The hardest tiara duel to date, but when it does get posted, just know that the right side has a slight edge above the left side, in my opinion.

[tr0v3]

The Decline of Lethal Company

Previously, I explained Lethal Company's rise to success as a result of good game design, player experiences (with reference to Indie VS. AAA comparisons) and exceptional appeal to emotional and social experiences as an indie game - you can read the full article here!

Now, I'd like to challenge the game's standing - in the year since its launch, how much has Lethal Company maintained its success?

When Zeekers (the developer of Lethal Company) released the game on Oct 23rd 2023, it was up to 'Version 35' - at the time of writing the game has last updated to Version 66. A lot of features have been added to Lethal Company over time, but few updates have affected interest or mitigated the consistent decline in Lethal Company's popularity. Internet search timeline statistics can be a useful way to generally indicate popularity (or at least curiosity and awareness) about a topic, and by comparing these to the release dates of Lethal Company updates, we can see that updates either did not affect or actually worsened Lethal Company's decline.

According to Google Trends, Lethal Company managed to stay in the limelight of heightened popularity for about 11 weeks:

Google searches for Lethal Company peaked from the end of November to the start of December 2023, declining only by 25% as the year ended and maintaining high search rates until a sharper decline starting on January 14th.

Similiarly, YouTube searches indicate a similiar 11-week period of popularity, with searches peaking twice in December, also beginning a sharper decline below 75% only January 14th:

The differences can be explained because of the differences in functionality and culture of Google Search and YouTube - YouTube searches may have dipped in mid December because of faster moving algorithmic trends on that platform, or the growth of established Lethal Company fans who consume Lethal Company videos from Lethal Company subscriptions, therefore eliminating the need to search for it again.

Regardless, Steam Charts also demonstrate that Lethal Company has begun a long decline since January. Measuring weekly players rather than searches provides an even more accurate insight into engagement with the game, and - although 20k+ players a week at its lowest is nothing to scoff at - the game's players and searches have been consistently dropping throughout 2024. The only exception to this is peaks in all three charts around mid-late August, likely in response to 'Version 60 - The Stuffy Update'.

So why the attention for V60? Reviews for the game have remained Overwhelmingly Positive since launch, and other updates have added fantastically memorable and impactful features - to prove this point, here are a few examples:

• Version 45, a.k.a. 'The Frosty Update', added two game-changing enemies. The Masked is an eerie and confusing threat for all players which has become a staple of the base game, inspiring numerous mods that emphasize the 'hidden threat' mechanic, such as Skinwalkers. The Nutcracker, if killed, rewards players with a gun that can one-shot-kill numerous enemies, enabling players to take greater risks in the late game. Both are also brilliant at generating the emotional impact I explained in Part 1 due to their unique and scary appearances and sound designs.

• Version 50, a.k.a. 'The Hopping Update', introduced 3 entire moons and 3 new 'entities' among other changes - not every change was imense, but there's no denying how exciting Artifice is to play, and how nightmarish the Old Birds are.

• Additionally, none of the game's best features have ever been lost. In fact, the only time a feature was actually removed completly was the Kidnapper Fox, although Zeekers has hinted at the Kidnapper Fox returning in future.

This video by Exxo fantastically explains why this happened, but also challenges the decision and the opinion of the fanbase at the time:

Even smaller updates such as Version 55 added The Company Cruiser, a hilariously iconic and fun feature, even if its actual usefulness is questionable...So what makes Version 60 so special?

I believe that The Stuffy Update had one crucial feature absent from every other update however, one that doesn't even relate specifically to the emotional appeal of the game - a new interior.

When any game ages, it must pivot from focusing on eye-catching gimmicks that aid its virality, and instead focus on genuinely balanced game design - now that Lethal Company was garnering a fanbase of regular players instead of everyone being new to the experience, the novelty of its emotional appeal had worn off, so if it didn't 'hold up' as a replayable, dynamic, but fair game, it wouldn't keep those players.

Since release there have been at least eight moons and over a dozen entities to keep every in-game day varied - but only two interiors, one of which was common only on expensive moons. As the location of the player's main objective (collecting scrap), these interiors became the most repetitive component of the game - but a third interior that is common on multiple free moons brought much-needed variety to this important aspect of the game. Proportionally, it marked a 50% increase in the number of existing interiors, so it makes a massive difference.

Since Version 60, there have only been a couple of smaller updates such as The Bag Patch and the Anniversary Special because Zeekers has decided to focus on another project and give Lethal Company a rest in the meantime.

Interestingly, the Google Trends/Steam Charts above also show that the decline may be plateuing now - so now that we are caught up to the present, what is the state of the game going forward? Updates haven't made Lethal Company worse...but could they make it better?

Perhaps we need to inspect the game design more closely. Lethal Company, for all its merit, is in actuality a very janky and downright unfair game at times. Unwinnable scenarios as a result of RNG aren't uncommon, such as being chased by Giants with Eyeless Dogs nearby, or being teleported into a landmine or a turret. Even a supposedly helpful addition such as the Company Cruiser is obnoxiously difficult to drive without getting stuck or blowing up. This is something that could have gone unnoticed when the game was new and everyone was focused on its novelties and gimmicks. Now, with greater player knowledge of the game's functionality, these flaws are more exposed, and more frustrating for players genuinely trying to enjoy the game to its fullest.

Version 60 alone added something that was clearly missing from the game. It filled a gap in engagement, whereas other updates - although fun - added fairly random and unexpected features that no one was really asking for. If Zeekers continues in this fashion, the game won't get any worse - but a fourth interior, or a another variation of a core feature could raise the game's popularity again...

Of course, there is a risk of making too much change to the basic feeling of the game, something that Minecraft has been notorious for since Caves & Cliffs, but there are always people who complain about change, so maybe its worth the risk?

Or perhaps the 'decline' of Lethal Company is just a decline in the perception of Lethal Company - only the most interested will have the patience to have followed the game, no matter how good the changes were. Maybe most Internet users have simply 'moved on', and the remaining players aren't as strongly impacted by the novelty of the game's proximity chat, hence the shift of focus onto game balancing...

The game is still in Early Access. There is an incomplete story, judging by the cutscenes in each update, and likely many more features and fixes to come. As Zeekers said:

Don't worry, I am not done with Lethal Company.

and neither am I!

Thank you for reading =D

[thesunsethour]

welcome back to part 3 of eve procrastinating her final exams by ranking her favourite songs by her favourite artists. today it is The Beatles' turn

(as always i must stress this is my opinion only. but i am also very nosey, so please tell me *your* opinions too)

(i'm ignoring songs in different languages, naked versions, and also any cover songs, so focusing exclusively on anything penned by lennon-mccartney or harrison or starr)

(this took me a week and a half. for context my killers' list took two days and hozier took four hours)

without further ado:

189. Wild Honey Pie (spoiler alert: i'm not a white album fanatic)

188.       Dig It (vibey but odd little song)

187.       Maggie Mae (didn't know for years this was a liverpool folk song)

186.       Only A Northern Song (not weird enough to justify itself)

185.       Revolution 9 (it achieves john's goal. still hate it though)

184.       All Together Now (worse precursor to the frog chorus)

183.       It’s All Too Much (i would like to apologise to yellow submarine)

182.       Flying (criminal that this is so far down actually. i only have myself to blame)

181.       I’ll Get You (bit samey)

180.       Savoy Truffle (i wrote down 'harrison's own muzak')

179.       Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey (wtf john)

178.       Thank You Girl  (harmonica has been utilised better)

177.       Every Little Thing (pretty okay)

176.       You Like Me Too Much (george still in songwriting training)

175.       I Want To Tell You (the beginning of george's 'i don't know' refrain in his songs. keep an ear out)

174.       The Inner Light (SO very george)

173.       Her Majesty (i'm irish so this had to be this low)

172.       You Can’t Do That (great john vocals here tbh)

171.       Honey Pie (you can so clearly hear the music hall inspiration. very paul)

170.       When I Get Home (bit samey but catchy enough)

169.       There’s a Place (better harmonica)

168.       I Need You (lovely harmonies)

167.       Not a Second Time (i always forget this song exists sorry to john lennon)

166.       It’s Only Love (i always think this ones on rubber soul)

165.       I’ll Cry Instead (conversely this is very beatles for sale coded i think!)

164.       Little Child (i am a sucker for the harmonica it has to be said)

163.       You Know My Name (Look Up The Number) (really campy ad-libs. a fan)

162.       I’m a Loser (john's voice is so deep in this one??)

161.       I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party (little foot tapper of a song)

160.       Piggies (george had been reading orwell! good for him)

159.       Don’t Pass Me By (ringo! hello!)

158.       I’ll Be Back (solid enough)

157.       Doctor Robert (one of the earliest examples of 'we will sing a song about a little random man')

156.       If I Needed Someone (solid george effort)

155.       Why Don’t We Do It In The Road (apparently about two monkeys fucking. okay paul)

154.       Baby’s in Black  (clever little lyrics)

153.       It Won’t Be Long (adore the coming home line)

152.       All I’ve Got to Do (sweet enough little thing)

151.       Hold Me Tight (classic paul asking for love. a staple of the genre)

150.       What Goes On (hiiiii Ringo!)

149.       Yer Blues (my notes say 'proto-morrissey-esque, but worse)

148.       Good Night (reminds me of a musical song. also originally thought this was a paul song)

147.       She’s a Woman (really dynamic paul vocals)

146.       What You’re Doing (solid paul job)

145.       No Reply (i cannot think of this song without hearing the bloopers of YOUR FACE)

144.       Happiness Is A Warm Gun (i may get killed for having this so low. reminder that this is only my opinion)

143.       Don’t Bother Me (i *think* this is the first album song that george ever wrote!)

142.       P.S. I Love You (he loves his epistolary songs does Paul)

141.       I’m Just Happy to Dance With You (another solid foot tapper)

140.       Any Time At All (love the piano in this)

139.       I’m So Tired (same)

138.       Birthday (i hate the beginning of this song with a visceral passion. rest is grand)

137.       The Night Before (very '50s)

136.       Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) (the only bad thing about this song is that it means the album is over)

135.       Another Girl (bitchy little paul song)

134.       Tell Me What You See (song gets better as it goes on i think)

133.       The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill (hello yoko)

132.       Long, Long, Long (reminds me of my sweet lord)

131.       Ask Me Why (real jazzy like)

130.       Rocky Raccoon (i'm not mad on this song but the middle is so catchy it reels me in)

129.       Old Brown Shoe (ringo reference check!)

128.       Revolution 1 (not as good as revolution the single)

127.       Cry Baby Cry (love paul's little jaunty section)

126.       Yes It Is (sexy)

125.       Dig A Pony ("everything has got to be just like you want it toohoohoohoohoohooo"

124.       The Word (reminds me of grease)

123.       Hey Bulldog (some bits of music here remind me of 'Across the Universe')

122.       I’m Looking Through You (GREAT guitar)

121.       Sexy Sadie (can't remember which journalist said that AM's 4 out of 5 has this vibe and YEAH)

120.       I Me Mine (i will always adore the "flowing more freely than wine" lyric. thank you george"

119.       Things We Said Today (paul's so good in this one)

118.       Tell Me Why (catchy bop)

117.       Run For Your Life ("that's the end" SO good)

116.       Good Day Sunshine (nicely jaunty)

115.       Rain (love the instrumentation in this one)

114.       I Will (quintessential mccartney this)

113.       Love You To (making this list and hearing george's improvement as a songwriter was amazing actually)

112.       Octopus’s Garden (bless ringo)

111.       I Feel Fine (SO catchy)

110.       With A Little Help From My Friends (ringo's very best)

109.       Martha My Dear (i'm scared of dogs but i'll let this one go)

108.       Drive My Car (the beeps beeps always annoyed me as a kid)

107.       For You Blue (it is what it says - sweet and lovely)

106.       Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (love the laughter in it)

105.       Good Morning Good Morning (the guitar here is simply too cool for this song. elevates it greatly)

104.       You’re Going To Lose That Girl (beach boys vibes?)

103.       She Said She Said (john and george buddies and pals)

102.       Wait (john and paul's voices go SO well together do you ever get emotional)

101.       Think For Yourself (ANOTHER great foot tapper)

100.       I’m Down (well *somebody* thinks they're elvis)

99.         Misery (just. great structurally)

98.         I Should Have Known Better ("this could only happen to me" oh, john)

97.         Can’t Buy Me Love (one of the more Lennonesque mccartney songs)

96.         One After 909 (how did paul not know what this was about for over a decade)

95.         I’ve Just Seen a Face (absolutely gorgeous guitar)

94.         This Boy (thaaaasss boyyyy)

93.         You Won’t See Me (fab little chorus)

92.         Maxwell’s Silver Hammer (BANG BANG MAXWELL'S SILVER HAMMER CAME DOWN UPON HER HEAD 🔨 🔨🔨)

91.         Dear Prudence ("the clouds will be a daisy chain" is a line i've always adored)

90.         Yellow Submarine (i remember being 6 and our teacher playing this for us on her guitar)

89.         Mean Mr Mustard (love when john does a bit of narrative songwriting)

88.         Revolution (superior revolution version)

87.         Now and Then (cried on the tram on the way to college listening to this when it came out. as you were)

86.         Polythene Pam (love when their accent peaks through)

85.         Baby, You’re A Rich Man (a true lennon-mccartney collab with john not finishing something and paul adding his two cents, or rather, ten or twenty cents)

84.         Hello, Goodbye (i love the end of this song so so much)

83.         Mother Nature’s Son (soft and sweet, poignant but not sappy, one of the most underrated beatles songs of all time)

82.         Free As A Bird (cried listening to this too)

81.         Glass Onion (intertextual metanarrative: the song)

80.         Taxman (baby's first political song <3)

79.         I Wanna Be Your Man (hiiiiii again ringo)

78.         From Me To You (harmonica time again baby!)

77.         Being For The Benefit of Mr Kite! (i think of this as a spooky halloween waltz)

76.         Within You Without You (quintessential george)

75.         I’m Only Sleeping (underrated on revolver methinks)

74.         Your Mother Should Know (these songs WERE a hit before my mother was born)

73.         All My Loving (pure vintage mccartney)

72.         Do You want to Know a Secret (baby george and his fab vocals)

71.         Here Comes The Sun (okay nobody kill me. stop looking at me like that. its been winter for seventeen months george i can't fucking see the sun)

70.         Julia (so beautiful)

69.         Love Me Do (how were they pop song professionals already?)

68.         I Saw Her Standing There (paul loves a good scream in the middle of a song)

67.         A Hard Day’s Night (most iconic beginning of any song ever)

66.         Magical Mystery Tour (he loves a bus does paul)

65.         And Your Bird Can Sing (john's vocals are GREAT here)

64.         Sun King (the superior sun song on abbey road)

63.         Please Please Me (just. iconic)

62.         Eight Days a Week (for how good it is i can't believe paul didn't play it live till like 2013 or smth)

61.         Real Love (i never knew this was a beatles song when i was a kid!)

60.         The End ("the love you take is equal to the love you make"... yeah...)

59.         Back in the USSR ("my-my-my-my-" very billy joel actually)

58.         Ticket to Ride (mouth-watering guitar)

57.         For No One (the wario of 'And Your Bird Can Sing' no i won't explain further)

56.         All You Need Is Love (the she loves you yeah yeah yeahs at the end...)

55.         Blue Jay Way (so wonderfully eerie to me)

54.         She Loves You (love the long and powerful held note on the last "glad")

53.         I Want To Hold Your Hand (they were children my god)

52.         Across the Universe (some of my favourite vocals)

51.         Carry That Weight (paul going through it, writing bangers)

50.         Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (desmond and molly jones are close friends of mine at this stage)

49.         Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds (overrated a bit imo but still simply iconic)

48.         Penny Lane (sorry paul, john won the MMT round w strawberry fields but its okay this song still is a bop)

47.         Tomorrow Never Knows (fucking well done on this one lads. love it)

46.         Getting Better ("a little better all the time" v "it can't get no worse" is just. peak lennon mccartney)

45.         Got To Get You Into My Life (INSTANT banger)

44.         Michelle (i am a sucker for french as long as its not spoken by french people <3)

43.         Lovely Rita (i always loved this one because paul says "book" like how my nanny says it)

42.         Helter Skelter (loud, fast, and brilliant)

41.         Get Back (billy preston the man that you were)

40.         She Came In Through The Bathroom Window (best of the abbey road medley)

39.         I’ve Got a Feeling (i LOVE paul's deep voice)

38.         When I’m Sixty Four (i love paul's granny music. sue me)

37.         Come Together (john was so good at writing these nonsense songs)

36.         The Fool on The Hill (adore the "ohHhHhHhHhHhh")

35.         Fixing a Hole ("when i'm wrong, i'm right" is so very paul)

34.         Girl (BRILLIANT middle)

33.         Help! (vulnerable without overdoing it. just fantastic)

32.         Day Tripper (unashamedly sexy)

31.         And I Love Her (i love basically everything about this song. ranking got so hard from here)

30.         You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away (john was ON IT for Help!)

29.         Nowhere Man (my brother thinks this will be the name of john's biopic)

28.         Lady Madonna (my favourite genre of paul songs are songs where he voyeuristically imagines someone's life. they always slap)

27.         Paperback Writer (i also write at shitty newspapers and want to be a paperback writer. this song feels too targeted)

26.         In My Life (so pretty. SO pretty)

25.         The Ballad of John and Yoko (imagine the vibes in the recording studio. john. yoko. paul. and yet they made this banger)

24.         Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) (my first ever favourite beatles song. has since been demoted but i still adore it)

23.         I am the Walrus (john at his weirdest best)

22.         She’s Leaving Home (i love when they write narratively)

21.         If I Fell (angelic harmonies)

20.         Don’t Let Me Down (fifth beatle billy preston supremacy)

19.         Because ("love is all, love is you"

18.         I Want You (She’s So Heavy) (vocals, instruments, lyrics, vibes, all incredible)

17.         Two Of Us (and if i said this was the best album opener?)

16.         Here, There, and Everywhere (paul says this is his favourite beatles song and you know what? he's so right for that)

15.         Oh! Darling (wario of the long and winding road. no i will not elaborate either)

14.         You Never Give Me Your Money ("OUT OF COLLEGE MONEY SPENT SEE NO FUTURE PAY NOT RENT" that is... me right this actual moment)

13.         Something (george said is anyone else gonna write one of the best love songs of all time? no okay i guess i will. and he did.)

12.         Golden Slumbers (cried to this as well. must stress i am not one to cry)

11.         Eleanor Rigby (the pinnacle of the MVS - McCartney Voyeuristic Storytelling)

10.         A Day in The Life (orchestra used to scare me when i was younger)

9.           While My Guitar Gently Weeps (george's best beatles song hands down)

8.           I’ll Follow the Sun (THE MOST UNDERRATED BEATLES SONG and i will die on this hill

7.           Yesterday (my father's favourite beatles song)

6.           The Long and Winding Road (my go to song to sing in the shower for some reason?)

5.           We Can Work It Out (pure lennon-mccartney baby!)

4.           Let It Be (the first and only song i ever learnt on ukulele and i was so proud of it)

3.           Strawberry Fields Forever (do i even have to say anything?)

2.           Blackbird (everything about this song is so beautifully perfect. paul mccartney is the best songwriter of all time okay. i've spent days upon days at this list and it's now making me emotional)

1.           Hey Jude (there's a reason it tops so many best songs of all time lists. a perfect 10. no notes. iconic. the first beatles song i played on repeat. would die slash kill to experience this live)

[jesslovesboats]

Hi Jess, I have a Karluk question for you! What exactly was wrong with the expedition's supply of pemmican? Wikipedia says Stefansson said it was a lack of fat, but Niven's book describes the disease as coming from too much fat and protein. Are there any clear answers as to what actually made it faulty?

Hi! This is a great question, and I wanted to do a little research before I responded to make sure I got the details right.

First, what exactly is pemmican? It's one of the staple foods of polar exploration, a nutritionally balanced combination of dried meat, fat, and sometimes a small amount of carbohydrates. It's easy to transport, calorie dense, can be formulated to feed men or dogs, and doesn't spoil easily, making it ideal for long voyages. Indigenous peoples were making and using pemmican for centuries before the Europeans "discovered" it.

With this in mind, I looked at the two competing claims you mentioned. First, I found the citation in the Wikipedia article, and since I have Stef's (ridiculous) book The Friendly Arctic, I double checked it. The quote is accurate, but there's some missing context. In this passage, he was actually talking about pemmican that was specifically formulated for dogs! There was dog pemmican and man pemmican (and confusingly enough, the Karluk also had 2 different kinds of man pemmican-- more on that later). In the passage below you can see that Stef is complaining about the dog pemmican being deficient in fat, and how he claims it affected dog performance.

(In general, though, it's important to note that Stef had a... tenuous relationship with the truth. I would fact check anything he said as a matter of principle.)

To examine Niven's claim, I called in the big guns, by which I mean I consulted with an actual expert with their Ph.D. in all things polar and a special interest in Stef's shenanigans! They are on tumblr, but I'm not sure if they're OK being tagged, so I will just thank them anonymously for their help 🥰 Anyway, between the two of us, we were unable to find any studies specifically examining the relationship between pemmican (faulty or otherwise) and nephritis, a kidney disease diagnosed by the doctor who examined the Karluk survivors. To the best of our knowledge, no testing was ever done on the bodies of the deceased, but since the symptoms of the survivors lined up with the symptoms of nephritis, there's no compelling reason to doubt this diagnosis.

So how do we know the pemmican caused the nephritis? Officially, we don't! However, we have a LOT of evidence indicating that it did. Niven does a great job documenting all of this in The Ice Master. We know that people have been surviving on pemmican in the Arctic for centuries without developing nephritis. We know that in order to be a nutritionally balanced survival food, pemmican needs to have a specific ratio of protein to fat. We know that Stef did not personally oversee the production of his pemmican, as some previous expedition leaders had done (which is especially hilarious considering that later in his career he would conduct some disastrous experiments involving feeding pemmican to United States troops, so clearly he had an interest in the stuff). We know he did not submit it to purity testing to ensure that it was safe and nutritionally balanced because he was in too much of a hurry. We know that the men strongly preferred the Hudson's Bay brand of pemmican over the Underwood brand because the Underwood brand made them ill, and they reached a point where they couldn't choke down any more of it, even though they were starving. We know that high fat and/or protein diets without carbohydrates can be very bad for your kidneys, especially if you have other preexisting medical conditions (like, for example, a weakened immune system due to exposure and starvation and stress).

I am not a doctor and I do not play one on the Internet, but if I had to guess, I would say there was a problem with the Underwood pemmican, most likely that the fat to protein ratio was off or it was somehow contaminated. This is also the conclusion that Niven reached, and her research for this book was impeccable, so I have no reason to doubt her! We will, of course, never know with complete certainty what caused the nephritis, but the men clearly thought it was the pemmican, and I believe them.

I'm sure this is WAY more than you ever wanted to know about pemmican, but if you want to know more, I can hook you up with some more sources! If you're interested in polar foods in general, check out Hoosh by Jason C. Anthony, which focuses specifically on Antarctica, but there's definitely some overlap with the Arctic! And I hope this helps!

[pixelgrotto]

Top-down Planes Galore

Over the last few years, thanks to my wife's English side of the family, I've visited a fair share of interesting British museums. One of these is the Shuttleworth Collection, a neat place that features an array of planes from the early half of the 20th century. If you're ever in Bedfordshire and have a hankering to see biplanes from the 1920s, I really can't recommend a visit enough. I wouldn't call myself an aviation geek, but there's something about seeing a World War II aircraft in person that stirred my imagination, and one of the souvenirs I bought from my visit was a cool pair of socks that had pixelated biplanes on them.

I specifically bought the socks because they reminded me of Capcom's 1942, the first entry in the 19XX series of shoot 'em ups, AKA shmups. Honestly, I hadn't played much of 1942 at the time, but I've always known enough about shmups to think of the game when I see pixelated biplanes. It probably stands out in my head as an interesting example of a Japanese company making a product where the whole goal is to blow up the Japanese. Yep, 1942 puts the player in the role of a Lockheed P-38 Lightning pilot maneuvering his aircraft through the skies of the Pacific Theater, on a mission to reach Tokyo and blast the heck out of everything. Apparently the game was made with Western audiences in mind, so I suppose we have capitalism to thank for a game that is both historically accurate and not historically accurate at all. (Yes, Japan lost the war, but I don't think any of the Lockheeds in the Battle of Midway had spray guns capable of shooting a billion bullets at once.)

I recently dove into 1942 and almost all of the other games in the 19XX series, mostly because I was inspired by my British nephew, who's recently been going on about planes for hours on end. You can play almost all of them via the Capcom Arcade Stadium compilations on Steam, which repackage classic arcade games and make them easily playable without the hassle of needing to fiddle with MAME emulation. (The decision to make each game DLC that you have to buy is probably questionable, but putting that aside, these packages are pretty okay.)

Anyway, I soon discovered that the original 1942 is the epitome of a 1980s arcade quarter gobbler, with a staggering 32 levels of monotony and some of the most annoyingly tinny background music known to man. It's fun to do loops around Japanese bombers for the first ten minutes, and I've always loved the power-up that gives you two flanking planes that help soak up extra damage, which would go on to be a series staple. Beyond that, 1942 grates at the soul and has not aged well.

1943: The Battle of Midway, and its slightly remixed semi-sequel 1943 Kai, are much better. Here, we bear witness to screen-filling tsunami attacks that can instantly wreck all enemies, a more forgiving difficulty level, and varied stages that don't consist of simply flying over the ocean and rice paddies. Everything's faster and a good deal more fun, and instead of solely taking down planes, now you've got boss battles against Imperial Japanese naval fleets, ending in a fight against the battleship Yamato. And thankfully, the tinny music is gone and replaced by battle-ready tracks that are nicely catchy.

This formula is refined even further in the later games, all of which loosen up on the feeling of "one American plane versus Japan" for a progressively zanier feel. 1941: Counter Attack ditches the Pacific Theater for firefights over European skies, and despite taking place in the earlier years of WWII, your pilot goes up against enemy crafts that are so extreme in size and flavor that they border on science fiction. You'll fire away at German rockets that look like they're designed to fly to the moon and tanks that take up a quarter of the screen. The end boss is a Horten Ho 229, the German prototype bomber that never went into mass production, yet is a formidable foe in this game that is sleek and almost alien-like in its movements.

19XX: The War Against Destiny takes that science fiction appeal to the maximum and says, "To hell with a historical shmup, let's go to the future with two X's, baby!" In an amusing move that would later be replicated by the Call of Duty series two decades later (when they jumped from WWII to the arena of Modern Warfare - and later Advanced Warfare), 19XX sees you taking on the Outer Limits, a terrorist organization that somehow has a futuristic army with hundreds of expendable fighter pilots. For the first time, you can choose between three different planes: the old school Lockheed P-38 Lightning (the well-balanced one), the de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito (the heavy firepower one), and the Kyushu J7W Shinden (the speedy one). All of these planes are worthy options against enemies that scale in a ludicrous fashion, and one of the bosses in the later levels is basically a mech. It's great. And because the game runs on Capcom's CPS-2 arcade board, which also powered the Street Fighter Alpha/Zero series, the action is fast and clean to a degree that's very reminiscent of the company's fighting game output.

1944: The Loop Master is the last 19XX game I played, because it's the last one available in the Capcom Arcade Stadium. It takes the action back to WWII, but the gusto and fury of all the futuristic stuff exhibited in 19XX: The War Against Destiny is present and accounted for. Hello, my biplane can shoot lasers? Sure, why not! Technically, this one was developed by Eighting and not by Capcom, and all I know about Eighting is that they made the Bloody Roar games and Battle Garegga, another shmup with a cool soundtrack that samples the techno track "Jupiter Jazz," by Underground Resistance. They did a good job, and while 1943 and 19XX: The War Against Destiny stick out in my memory more than The Loop Master, I can safely say that this one features a little dude who parachutes out of your plane when you die. About time I finally saw my pilot!

Honestly, I'm not a great shmup player. I played all of these casually on my Steam Deck, and I never would've made a dent in them in the arcades. But there's something about the 19XX series that's appealing to me, at the very least on an aesthetic level. It's probably the highly detailed 2D pixelated artistry that goes into the top-down depiction of these warplanes, which are given the same slavish fanboyism that you see in Japanese mecha franchises. I think back to the several times I've visited Japan and been to antiwar exhibits like the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. Minus a few groups of nationalist nutjobs, Japan's by far and large a deeply antiwar country - but there do exist otaku who nerd out over WWII-era tech, usually not in a "the Imperial Japanese Army was right" sort of way, but in a way that basically says, "the Yamato was one of the biggest battleships ever constructed at 70,000+ tons, I shall now proceed to write an essay about why that was cool." And you know, I can appreciate that attention to technical detail, just like how I can respect the planes on exhibit in the Shuttleworth Collection. So give the 19XX games a whirl if you like planes or simply dig fine artistry - and go visit the Shuttleworth and buy those socks while you're at it.