#i know it the fps structure but its so funny

[hangingoffence]

game artyom: single-handedly can take out whole reds and reich battalions and has visited the surface more than once and survived to tell the tale. master at stealth and in weapon handling

book artyom: escaped hanza bc got covered in human feces

[iteratorsex]

Oh, the idea that, dialogue that five pebbles is having with gourmand, is not what he said in rl, but, is more like what slugcats are thinking fp was telling gourmand, is like really fun!

Just the idea that all slugs all together think fp is mean,but they like still treat him with respect, is somehow really funny to me :D

Like, if we consider that all gourmand story, is just legeng that slugs telling eachother, fp behaviour is reasonable, like gods in most human myths are usually mean to mortals, but still help them.

Also, when we meet fp,( as a survivor or monk) he still dont really welcoming us, he still pretty mean, if i can say so ( he will kill you, if you return to him, dont forget) and if we consider thet gourman story is very exaggerating, ( like crafting fucking live!!!), idea that fp, is too become more mean, and so different from how we know he is behaving usually, is very likely!

Sorry for babbling, i just read you thought, and start overthinking...this idea can eat me alive fr, i can even start thinking about how slugcats see themselves in rain world, just by consider what abilities gourmand have....

I guess, but I still think that through that lense its still unreasonable since FP wouldn't give a shit if Gourmand was fat. I just hate how in Downpour he like... never does his fucking job with Artificer or Gourmand (trying to guide them towards ascension)

And going by the tall tale lense of gourmand's campaign, I could totally see it going the other way too, Five Pebbles acknowledging Gourmand as successful, and as such suggesting that they lead the Slugcats away from Pebbles (I rewrote FP Gorm dialogue where this is the case) Also, most Slugcats have never interacted with Five Pebbles. They'd find him scary possibly, but a lot of them likely wouldn't even process that's a GUY. To them that's just a really big structure that if you climb you can get enlightenment from.

Five pebbles is never mean to you in Survivor or Monk, I'm really frustrated having to constantly tell people this, but he's just being AUTHORITATIVE and FORMAL with you. He cuts to the chase, telling you the deal and how to fix it, and then sends you off. You re-entering his chamber is interrupting his work and he doesn't have the patience to put up with it. He warns you THREE times to get out, and if you don't listen that's your fault.

I'm so fucking sick of Pebbles being portrayed as this Slugcat-hater asshole when he was never that. Yes he's kind of rude to Monk, but he's annoyed with these rats that keep ending up in his conflux and he has the right to complain about it. Even still, he gives you Free Enlightenment and the same directions. This idea that he's like this always comes from people not fully understanding they're NOT the fucking Main Character and nobody in this world owes you shit, especially not Pebbles

Also the crafting living creatures/food is more a gameplay issue to some degree for me, since the food quest is trivialized by having the wiki page crafting table open, and makes the whole "exploring around" bit not really mean much

[riverdale-retread]

Riverdale S5 E14 (The Rabies Episode) - 5 Things I loved/ 3 Things to Consider.

Things I loved

1) What good are you? What do you even do? - I’m a writer! I tell stories!

I love the interesting and frankly, very funny thoughts that Riverdale the show keeps putting out about writing, the ethics of fiction, and how it feels to be a fiction creator through the character of Jughead.   The writers of Riverdale are describing us the viewers to be these overwhelming, demanding RATS (and as ‘customers’ of their product we are ‘King’)  that have trapped them in a tunnel (of the writer’s room? RAS, maybe you need to update their furniture?)  hollering at them to entertain us while they desperately try to tell us a story so we don’t kill them.  I hope this doesn’t court controversy but I was much more appeased by this depiction of me than the BBC Sherlock thing that portrayed its own fans as crazy pathetic loons.  Riverdale writers think we’re insane too, but they find us scary and they want to please us. Very gratifying. (I’m a happy customer.)

2)  Related:  I LOVED that Jughead is not a snob about genre.  Getting published and read by a lot of people is the point! I love that about him. So he did maybe learn something in his one year at college.

3) I loved the variation on ‘darkness’ and ‘dark hole’ that they worked out for each of Betty, Jughead and Archie.  It’s literal and metaphor (they can’t see where they’re going, they can’t easily escape, the air is close and poisoned, there’s danger in the dark hole and so on).  The literary dorkiness of the episode structure was fabulous. 

For Jughead it’s a mirror image replica of what happened to him before - Jughead falls into an abandoned subway tunnel via a sudden sinkhole that opens up underneath him during a period of life that’s supposed to be triumphant, exactly like how as he’d finally finished with high school and was about to embark on college like his dad always wanted, Betty took the security of his relationship with her away from him and he descended to a state of absolute homelessness in the bunker.  

For Archie, the boy who tried to be all the things everyone around him wanted him to be, becoming a miner comes about because someone else (Cheryl) wanted to defeat Hiram Lodge (which Archie is always up for) and all the other boys in his ‘gang’  are looking for economic opportunities and a group project (which Archie is also always up for).   

For Betty, the hubristic violent girl who denies how much she enjoys violence and always just goes wading into danger, the scale of the consequences she faces for her reckless brand of courage has gotten much more serious, because she’s an adult.  From having a serial killer (Hal, her father) very interested in her and then being in a game set up by a different serial killer (Penelope, her aunt by marriage), Betty’s ‘hole’ moment is to be the sole prey of a serial killer who will not grant her freedom of movement, and isn’t trying to make some sort of moral point or work out a piece of their own psychology.  TBK purely wants Betty to suffer and die  - there’s nothing for her to figure out with her intellect.

4)  I loved that the show firmly concludes that there is no talking and feeling your way through to somewhere better with a misogynist.  It’s not that misogynist women killers don’t know that women are people, that women have pasts and a right to live and all of that. They know. They like trampling on the thing that is precious and beautiful, and it’s fun for them to hurt women. This is very dark, but on really bad days I can fall into this thinking, and I felt seen.   Same goes for Alice giving into despair and advising Betty to just kill the bastard. I know how that feels too.

5)  This is another weird thing to love, but I love that Archie’s fundamental decency and kindness is not enough to overcome the weight of his war trauma.  And yet he’s capable when it comes to an emergency.  The tendency that Archie has to run towards the screaming is similar to what Kevin used to be like, and I admire this about him.  I very much appreciated that Eric and Uncle Fucking Frank and all the guys who down in the mine want Archie to get professional help for his problems.  

3 Things to Think About

a. Jughead never graduated from college.  So he set himself up for the social isolation and failure in New York City.  To have no job to go to, to have no cluster of acquaintances you can carry over from being students in the same institution for two to four years, or being a part of a religion, in a major city, is kind of dooming yourself to failure in this regard.  I’ve thought Jughead no longer wanted to go to college but had gone purely for FP (with whom he no longer speaks much) which is why he finds it so unrewarding.

b. Cheryl is an ‘author’ in the same way Jughead is, but she seems to see the darkest possible side of the people she ‘portrays’ and ‘frames’ which is in direct opposition to Jughead, who ‘writes’ people the way he wishes they could be, as their best selves.  Then he falls in love with his creation and believes in it so hard that he hallucinates his own subconscious and intuition in their image (Betty).

c. I’m very interested in the Jess-Jughead relationship.  When he goes to visit her after their breakup (when she still has his manuscript I think??) her apartment is well appointed and tidy.  So it’s Jughead that’s the slob, and Jessica was just vengefully matching him debris for debris.

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #537

Top Ten Games Shown at Not-E3 2022

I wasn’t going to do this. I had another Top Ten planned out. I felt that the disparate nature of “E3 Season” this year – the lack of One Big Show to tie it together, the fact that many big publishers have decided not to show anything at this time, etc – meant there was no need to do a big list of revelations. There was little in the way of spectacle, no real hardware news, no outrageous dance numbers or massive live cock-ups on stage. No one told you how you can share games on PS4, or told us we were breathtaking. It was just games.

But then two things happened. One, I’ve been really busy so haven’t written – or really even researched – any of the other ideas I had for this week’s list. And, two, there were actually a lot of games shown. Some brand new that I’ve not heard of before; others that we just saw more of and that looked really good or intriguing. And I started absent-mindedly listing them. And wouldn’t you know it? Soon I had a Top Ten.

So that’s what we’ve got this week. No bells or whistles, nothing fancy. These are just my ten favourite games shown in the last week or two, during these various summer gaming showcases. No Nintendo, no Sony, no EA, no UbiSoft. Will I do another list like this after they all show their wares? Almost certainly not. Which is a shame, because I bet Nintendo in particular would have some good stuff. Maybe even a title for their new Zelda! Maybe – maybe! – it’ll be in the Nintendo show where we finally get to see that GoldenEye remake/re-release. Maybe!

And that’s it, this week. Just a list of games that I like the look of. Please do enjoy.

Starfield: fun fact: I’ve never played one of Bethesda’s big RPGs. Not Morrowind or Skyrim or Fallout. I always wanted to; they looked right up my street. I just never had the time – those things are pretty epic, yeah? Anyway, Starfield is hitting at a good time, and I’m very interested. And I think it looks great! I love the “NASA punk” aesthetic, and I just really want to play it. Pity it’s not coming out till next year, but all the same, this feels like my Next Big Game.

Ara: History Untold: another fun fact: I really love the Civilization games. So a new spin on the formula excites me. And even though concrete details are thin on the ground, this one seems to offer up the prospect of mixing and matching histories and eras – or at least I think it does. Anyway, it’s gonna be free for me to play thanks to the wonders of Game Pass, and I can’t wait.

Pentiment: now this one looks wild. Like a medieval parchment come to life, it’s some kind of adventure game or something, but really it’s the aesthetics that set it apart. I like adventure games, I like games will a cool and unique look. This fits all the bills.

Agent 64: Spies Never Die: where is GoldenEye?! I want my GoldenEye! In the meantime, we’ve got this, a spiritual remake. Very cool! They’ve done a great job modelling the aesthetic of the classic N64 game, so hopefully they’ve done as good a job with the gameplay and mission structure. And hopefully it’s got all kinds of funny cheats and stuff too.

Lightyear Frontier: I like Stardew Valley. And this game is basically a bit like Stardew Valley, except you more or less play a Transformer. Did you hear that? It’s Stardew Valley with Transformers.

High on Life: I’m not the world’s biggest Rick and Morty fan, but I have to say it’s much better than its fanbase. So hopefully the writing here will be up to snuff, because the concept of an FPS with a bevvy of humorous talking alien weapons is very intriguing.

As Dusk Falls: like I said, I like adventure games with cool aesthetics, and the painterly graphics on show here look really good. Like a Netflix drama or gritty graphic novel, hopefully it tell a compelling story and also just, y’know, play really well.

The Plucky Squire: now this one looks cool, and by that I mean looks cool. A really fantastic art design sees a kids’ picture book come to life, and then vibrantly explode across a 3D world. I’m not the world’s biggest fan of 2D platform games, really – I find them gorgeous and compelling but fiddly and difficult to play, despite more or less growing up on them – so I hope the gameplay is just as good as the graphics.

Laysara: Summit Kingdom: I do love a good strategy game. This one looks great, a sort of Settlers in the skies, a medieval Sim City up a mountain. The vertiginous locale seems to offer quirks and twists to the gameplay, and just generally it’s really pretty.

Forza Motorsport: I prefer my racing games to be more arcadey and fun; I’ve always preferred the Horizon games over mainstream Forza. But I still quite enjoy driving round tracks, even if I couldn’t be arsed with how the cars actually work. What excites me with this version is just how bloody good it looks; seriously, have you seen the graphics? It’s stunning.

There we go, ten cool games I’d like to play. Sadly no room for the full release of Ooblets, or the visually intriguing Scorn, or stuff like the kaiju dating sim Kaichu, or the fact that there’s a Moomin game coming out! Moomins, people! MOOMINS.

[thesteadydietofeverything]

Top 10 Games of 2019

This was an extremely good year for games. I don’t know if I played as many that will stick with me as I did last year, but the ones on the bottom half of this list in particular constitute some of my favorite games of the decade, and probably all-time. If I’ve got a gaming-related resolution for next year, it’s to put my playtime into supporting even smaller indie devs. My absolute favorite experiences in games this year came from seemingly out of nowhere games from teams I’ve previously never heard of before. That said, there are some big games coming up in spring I doubt I’ll be able to keep myself away from. Some quick notes/shoutouts before I get started:

-The game I put maybe the most time into this year was Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. I finally made the plunge into neverending FF MMO content, and I’m as happy as I am overwhelmed. This was a big year for the game, between the release of the Shadowbringers expansion and the Nier: Automata raid, and it very well may have made it onto my list if I had managed to actually get to any of it. At the time of this writing, though, I’ve only just finished 2015’s Heavensward, so I’ve got...a long way to go. 

-One quick shoutout to the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy that came out on Switch this year, a remaster of some DS classics I never played. An absolutely delightful visual novel series that I fell in love with throughout this year.

-I originally included a couple games currently in early access that I’ve enjoyed immensely. I removed them not because of arbitrary rules about what technically “came out” this year, but just to make room for some other games I liked, out of the assumption that I’ll still love these games in their 1.0 formats when they’re released next year to include them on my 2020 list. So shoutout to Hades, probably the best rogue-like/lite/whatever I’ve ever played, and Spin Rhythm XD, which reignited my love for rhythm games.

-Disco Elysium isn’t on this list, because I’ve played about an hour of it and haven’t yet been hooked by it. But I’ve heard enough about it to be convinced that it is 1000% a game for me and something I need to get to immediately. They shouted out Marx and Engels at the Game Awards! They look so cool! I want to be their friend! And hopefully, a few weeks from now, I’ll desperately want to redact this list to squeeze this game somewhere in here.

Alright, he’s the actual list:

10. Amid Evil

The 90’s FPS renaissance continues! As opposed to last year’s Dusk, a game I adored, this one takes its cues less from Quake and more from Heretic/Hexen, placing a greater emphasis on melee combat and magic-fuelled projectiles than more traditional weapons. Also, rather than that game’s intentionally ugly aesthetic, this one opts for graphics that at times feel lush, detailed, and pretty, while still probably mostly fitting the description of lo-fi. In fact, they just added RTX to the game, something I’m extremely curious to check out. This game continued to fuel my excitement about the possibilities of embracing out-of-style gameplay mechanics to discover new and fresh possibilities from a genre I’ve never been able to stop yearning for more of.

9. Ape Out

If this were a “coolest games” list, Ape Out would win it, easily. It’s a simple game whose mechanics don’t particularly evolve throughout the course of its handful of hours, but it leaves a hell of an impression with its minimalist cut-out graphics, stylish title cards, and percussive soundtrack. Smashing guards into each other and walls and causing them to shoot each other in a mad-dash for the exit is a fun as hell take on Hotline Miami-esque top down hyper violence, even if it’s a thin enough concept that it starts to feel a bit old before the end of the game.

8. Fire Emblem: Three Houses

I had a lot of problems with this game, probably most stemming from just how damn long it is - I still haven’t finished my first, and likely only, playthrough. This length seems to have motivated the developers to make battles more simple and easy, and to be fair, I would get frustrated if I were getting stuck on individual battles if I couldn’t stop thinking about how much longer I have to go, but as it is, I’ve just found them to be mostly boring. This is particularly problematic for a game that seems to require you to play through it at least...three times to really get the full picture? I couldn’t help but admire everything this game got right, though, and that mostly comes down to building a massive cast of extremely well realized and likable characters whose complex relationships with each other and with the structures they pledge loyalty to fuels harrowing drama once the plot really sets into motion. There’s a reason no other game inspired such a deluge of memes and fan fiction and art into my Twitter feed this year. It’s an impressive feat to convince every player they’ve unquestionably picked the right house and defend their problem children till the bitter end. After the success of this game, I’d love to see what this team can do next with a narrower focus and a bigger budget.

7. Resident Evil 2

It’s been a long time since I played the original Resident Evil 2, but I still consider it to be one of my favorite games of all time. I was highly skeptical of this remake at first, holding my stubborn ground that changing the fixed camera to a RE4-style behind the back perspective would turn this game more into an action game and less of a survival horror game where feeling a lack of control is part of the experience. I was pleasantly surprised to find how much they were able to modernize this game while maintaining its original feel and atmosphere. The fumbly, drifting aim-down sights effectively sell the feeling of being a rookie scared out of your wits. Being chased by Mr. X is wildly anxiety-inducing. But even more surprisingly, perhaps the greatest upgrade this game received was its map, which does you the generous service of actually marking down automatically where puzzles and items are, which rooms you’ve yet to enter, which ones you’ve searched entirely, and which ones still have more to discover. Arguably, this disrupts the feeling of being lost in a labyrinthine space that the original inspired, but in practice, it’s a remarkably satisfying and addicting video game system to engage with.

6. Judgment

No big surprise here - Ryu ga Gotoku put out another Yakuza-style game set in Kamurocho, and once again, it’s sitting somewhere on my top 10. This time, they finally put Kazuma Kiryu’s story to bed and focused on a new protagonist, down on his luck lawyer-turned-detective Takayuki Yagami. The new direction doesn’t always pay off - the added mechanics of following and chasing suspects gets a bit tedious. The game makes up for it, though, by absolutely nailing a fun, engrossing J-Drama of a plot entirely divorced from the Yakuza lore. The narrative takes several head-spinning turns through its several dozen hours, and they all feel earned, with a fresh sense of focus. The side stories in this one do even more to make you feel connected to the community of Kamurocho by befriending people from across the neighborhood. I’d love to see this team take even bigger swings in the future - and from what I’ve seen from Yakuza 7, that seems exactly like what they’re doing - but even if this game shares maybe a bit too much DNA with its predecessors, it’s hard to complain when the writing and acting are this enjoyable.

5. Control

Control feels like the kind of game that almost never gets made anymore. It’s a AAA game that isn’t connected to any larger franchises and doesn’t demand your attention for longer than a dozen hours. It doesn’t shoehorn needless RPG or MMO mechanics into its third-person action game formula to hold your attention. It introduces a wildly clever idea, tells a concise story with it, and then its over. And there’s something so refreshing about all of that. The setting of The Oldest House has a lot to do with it. I think it stands toe-to-toe with Rapture or Black Mesa as an instantly iconic game world. Its aesthetic blend of paranormal horror and banal government bureaucracy gripped my inner X-Files fan instantly, and kept him satisfied not only with its central characters and mystery but with a generous bounty of redacted documents full of worldbuilding both spine-tingling and hilarious. More will undoubtedly come from this game, in the form of DLC and possibly even more, with the way it ties itself into other Remedy universes, and as much as I expect I will love it, the refreshing experience this base game offered me likely can’t be beat.

4. Anodyne 2

I awaited Sean Han Tani and Marina Kittaka’s new game more anxiously than almost any game that came out this year, despite never having played the first one, exclusively on my love for last year’s singular All Our Asias and the promise that this game would greatly expand on that one’s Saturn/PS1-esque early 3D graphics and personal, heartfelt storytelling. Not only was I not disappointed, I was regularly pleasantly surprised by the depth of narrative and themes the game navigates. This game takes the ‘legendary hero’ tropes of a Zelda game and flips them to tell a story about the importance of community and taking care of loved ones over duty to governments or organizations. The dungeons that similarly reflect a Link to the Past-era Zelda game reduce the maps to bite-sized, funny, clever designs that ask you to internalize unique mechanics that result in affecting conclusions. Plus, it’s gorgeously idiosyncratic in its blend of 3D and 2D environments and its pretty but off-kilter score. It’s hard to believe something this full and well realized came from two people. 

3. Eliza

Eliza is a work of dystopian fiction so closely resembling the state of the world in 2019 it’s hard to even want to call it sci-fi. As a proxy for the Eliza app, you speak the words of an AI therapist that offers meager, generic suggestions as a catch-all for desperate people facing any number of the nightmares of our time. The first session you get is a man reckoning with the state the world is in - we’ve only got a few more years left to save ourselves from impending climate crisis, destructive development is rendering cities unlivable for anyone but the super-rich, and the people who hold all the power are just making it all worse. The only thing you offer to him is to use a meditation app and take some medication. It doesn’t take long for you to realize that this whole structure is much less about helping struggling people and more about mining personal data.

There’s much more to this story than the grim state of mental health under late capitalism, though. It’s revealed that Evelyn, the character you play as, has a much closer history with Eliza than initially evident. Throughout the game, she’ll reacquaint herself with old coworkers, including her two former bosses who have recently split and run different companies over their differing frightening visions for the future. The game offers a biting critique of the kind of tech company optimism that brings rich, eccentric men to believe they can solve the world’s problems within the hyper-capitalist structure they’ve thrived under, and how quickly this mindset gives way to techno-fascism. There’s also Evelyn’s former team member, Nora, who has quit the tech world in favor of being a DJ “activist,” and her current lead Rae, a compassionate person who genuinely believes in the power of Eliza to better people’s lives. The writing does an excellent job of justifying everyone’s points of view and highlighting the limits of their ideology without simplifying their sense of morality.

Why this game works so well isn’t just its willingness to stare in the face of uncomfortably relevant subject matter, but its ultimately empathetic message. It offers no simple solutions to the world’s problems, but also avoids falling into utter despair. Instead, it places measured but inspiring faith in the power of making small, meaningful impacts on the people around you, and simply trying to put some good into your world. It’s a game both terrifying and comforting in its frank conclusions.

2. Death Stranding

For a game as willfully dumb as this one often is - that, for example, insists on giving all of its characters with self-explanatory names long monologues about how they got that name - Death Stranding was one of the most thought provoking games I’ve played in a while. Outside of its indulgent, awkwardly paced narrative, the game offers plenty of reflection on the impact the internet has had on our lives. As Sam Porter Bridges, you’re hiking across a post-apocalyptic America, reconnecting isolated cities by delivering supplies, building infrastructure, and, probably most importantly, connecting them to the Chiral Network, an internet of sorts constructed of supernatural material of nebulous origin. Through this structure, the game offers surprisingly insightful commentary about the necessity for communication, cooperation, and genuine love and care within a community.

The lonely world you’re tasked to explore, and the way you’re given blips of encouragement within the solitude through the structures and “likes” you give and receive through the game’s asynchronous multiplayer system, offers some striking parallels for those of us particularly “online” people who feel simultaneous desperation for human contact and aversion to social pressures. I’ve heard the themes of this game described as “incoherent” due to the way it seems to view the internet both as a powerful tool to connect people and a means by which people become isolated and alienated, but are both of these statements not completely true to reality? The game simplifies some of its conclusions - Kojima seems particularly ignorant of America’s deep structural inequities and abuses that lead to a culture of isolation and alienation. And yet, the questions it asks are provocative enough that they compelled me to keep thinking about them far longer than the answers it offers.

Beyond the surprisingly rich thematic content, this game is mostly just a joy to play. Death Stranding builds kinetic drama out of the typically rote parts of games. Moving from point A to point B has become an increasingly tedious chore in the majority of AAA open world games, but this is a game built almost entirely out of moving from point A to point B, and it makes it thrilling. The simple act of walking down a hill while trying to balance a heavy load on your back and avoiding rocks and other obstacles fulfills the promise of the term ‘walking simulator’ in a far more interesting way than most games given that descriptor. The game consistently doles out new ways to navigate terrain, which peaked for me about two thirds of the way through the game when, after spending hours setting up a network of zip lines, a delivery offered me the opportunity to utilize the entire thing in a wildly satisfying journey from one end of the map to another. It was the gaming moment of the year.

1. Outer Wilds

The first time the sun exploded in my Outer Wilds playthrough, I was probably about to die anyway. I had fallen through a black hole, and had yet to figure out how to recover from that, so I was drifting listlessly through space with diminishing oxygen as the synths started to pick up and I watched the sun fall in on itself and then expand throughout the solar system as my vision went went. The moment gave me chills, not because I wasn’t already doomed anyway, but because I couldn’t help but think about my neighbors that I had left behind to explore space. I hadn’t known that mere minutes after I left the atmosphere the solar system would be obliterated, but I was at least able to watch as it happened. They probably had no idea what happened. Suddenly their lives and their planet and everything they had known were just...gone. And then I woke up, with the campfire burning in front of me, and everyone looking just as I had left it. And I became obsessed with figuring out how to stop that from happening again. 

What surprised me is that every time the sun exploded, it never failed to produce those chills I felt the first time. This game is masterful in its art, sound, and music design that manages to produce feelings so intense from an aesthetic so quaint. Tracking down fellow explorers by following the sound of their harmonica or acoustic guitar. Exploring space in a rickety vessel held together by wood and tape. Translating logs of conversations of an ancient alien race and finding the subject matter of discussion to be about small interpersonal drama as often as it is revelatory secrets of the universe. All of the potentially twee aspects of the game are balanced out by an innate sense of danger and terror that comes from exploring space and strange worlds alone. At times, the game dips into pure horror, making other aspects of the presentation all the more charming by comparison. And then there’s the clockwork machinations of the 22-minute loop you explore within, rewarding exploration and experimentation with reveals that make you feel like a genius for figuring out the puzzle at the same time that you’re stunned by the divulgence of a new piece of information.

The last few hours of the game contained a couple puzzles so obfuscated that I had to consult a guide, which admittedly lessened the impact of those reveals, but it all led to one of the most equally devastating and satisfying endings I’ve experienced in a video game recently. I really can’t say enough good things about this game. It’s not only my favorite game this year, but easily one of my favorite games of the decade, and really, of all-time, when it comes down to it.

[floggingink]

bitch I bet you thought I’d forgotten about Riverdale, “Chapter Thirty-Seven: Fortune and Men’s Eyes”

I absolutely agree with Archie’s wild careening off the side of the road of justice to plead guilty to a crime he “may as well have” committed. I couldn’t believe Archie was so preposterously on the money about himself: “I didn’t kill anyone, but I could have.” GOOD, ARCHIE. I love Juvie Archie. better than Fascist Archie!!!!

I didn’t google “prison powder” to see if that shit’s soap or for lice or what but y’all’ll fill me in on that won’t you

“Leopold and Loeb” is just the level of allusory on-brand naming hubris I demand

“Captain Golightly” doesn’t seem to be a reference to anything other than a brutal dichotomy between whimsy and a dictatorial prison state

you know they hit us up with that Pop’s lighting not even at Pop’s! I never met a window I didn’t want to have bathe me in God’s light!

Sixth period is Intro to Film: the cross stitch quote on the warden’s wall, which I assume dude’s wife made for him because he and she adhere to traditional gender roles, is of course from Sonnet 29, referenced in the title to a play and 70’s movie very much about sexual slavery in prison (Archie has not seen it)

Day One at Juvie Coif: very good, uplifted, touchable but held fast

they really did the line-up of the Hot Dads of Riverdale right there: Tom seems to be eating pancakes and bacon, and FP is wearing a scarf like a headband but like a necklace

Fred’s flannel is an interesting mix of colors like, for a flannel, and Veronica appears to be wearing subtle yellow eyeshadow to go with her waitress dress

when were we going to hear about the three perjuring thugs? who corroborated Archie’s false confession???? cold

“Shadow County” is the third county in “Riverdale State”

The Blossom spawn: Dr. Patel seems to be the Cooper family GP with specialities in both obstetrics and neurology; Betty is still wearing her hospital bracelet

I never noticed the teensy blackboard under Alice’s kitchen cabinets; the Coopers are truly peak bourgeois chic

Polly’s itty bitty lace headband is good and the Farm has done wonders for her and Alice’s accessory game

Betty’s body language at “Uh...because I saw you and mom throw the twins on a fucking fire” is very funny (Betty has not told a joke yet)

Dilton Doiley is a canonically great dancer: RIP!!!!!!

I want to get out of the way that for some reason Jughead looks really good throughout this episode. I can’t explain why, maybe it’s because he’s finally wearing plaid again, but he looks good. if you thought he looked good in the first place, he’s back

is Betty wearing her Carrie: the Musical outfit?

last week I misheard Dilton and thought he said “Cardinal King,” and I was like, What? and then it got even better

Places Bughead are Fucking: the Blue & Gold office

Archie > Dawson: God bless Archie but he does try to be personable with Mad Dog right away, unleashing one of his legendary “bros.” how old were you when you realized you couldn’t do a pull-up? I’ve never done a pull-up in my goddamn life and certainly not to a vinyl of a piano sonata

Mad Dog (I just wrote “God,” because I guess he’s that beautiful) has approximately 100 cigarettes, which he certainly does not smoke, so he is hoarding them for some grand purpose?

when Mad Dog turned around I swear I saw muscles I didn’t know the human body possessed. I’m talking fresh-out-of-the-science-tube Steve Rogers

Fwoopy hair is the best hair: Mad Dog’s impeccably maintained fade

The 2001 Josie and the Pussycats movie was a masterpiece: Josie has the right attitude about LBJ and Vietnam, except I think JFK got us into Vietnam, but then the Gulf of Tonkin was LBJ. I don’t want to google the Vietnam War. look, McNamara is a war criminal

Cheryl’s sheaths: I wish I had the energy to coordinate my bras with the rest of my aesthetic like Josie, in a leopard print, and Cheryl, in red lace. I will say I have recently discovered unlined bras and they have changed me for the better

do you think Archie + varsity football + theater extracurriculars = Cheryl + student body president + 4.0 GPA + theater extracurriculars?

Serpent with the General-style opthalmic frames and low-rise Chucks intrigues me

Joaquin does Archie so bad!!!!!!! even after he got the fucking tattoo, damn!

Sexy, aesthetic Southside: Joaquin’s eyes are so crystal clear that I don’t think they have a color of their own. he’s wearing the optional grey shirt, so they look grey; if he wore the optional navy shirt (I can’t yet tell a difference in status) they would look blue

oh god, what is that Ghoulie doing at the fucking fence? is he slicing his fingertips for fun? what the fuck, the Ghoulies are so fucking bizarre

Archie calls Joaquin “bro” which means he is fucking serious

we all need to take a moment to ourselves to truly absorb the skull of Dr. Curdle’s son, who is also a corrupt coroner (his name tag says “Dr. Curdle Jr”). of the three most alien skulls so far, this is the most take-abacking (I HAVE seen every episode and my calculations are sound)

he’s really gonna let Dilton (RIP!!!!!) have his arm hang down off the table like that, in this, his final repose? cold

the almost ironic intonation of “signs….of stress….” as he pulls the sheet down is amazingly 50’s horror movie

“Runic, I’d say.”

mmmmmmmmmm Fresh-Aid! I listened to the Jonestown tape in an episode of Last Podcast and was well disturbed!!!!!

you tell me why Jughead is using the camera he used in the pilot instead of like, his phone camera: because Jughead?

because Jughead

Places Bughead are Fucking: coroner’s Office

I want one of these L & L shirts. I would prefer the navy version with the little sleeves

excuse me but one of these Ghoulies has an absolute 2008 sidebang

I’m writing a scene where it’s gay.: “DON’T TOUCH HIS FACE”

Veronica’s flower sweater

BEN BUTTON

Betty’s 70’s-collared Piet Mondrian shirt is super cute, although a white-backed women’s shirt with that thin Forever 21 fabric always fucks you if you have to wear a bra

the actress who plays Evelyn Evernever is named Zoé de Grand Maison and honestly I don’t know who has the better name

DOES KEVIN STILL WANT TO LOSE HIS VIRGINITY BY HALLOWEEN

if homecoming is in September or October, the schedule should be roughly 1) Archie gets out of juvie, followed by 2) Kevin loses his virginity with Moose

Gay.: Kevin’s kiss is VERY good and quite bold! for a hallway, and Moose’s twangy hair is nice

at my high school, everyone just said “rot-see” for ROTC, so surely these hip kids wouldn’t go around saying R-R-O-T-C like that, UNREALISTIC, RIVERDALE

the extremely tall gothy Vixen is even taller than the extremely tall Ghoulie and I would like to take her to homecoming

Summer + Blair = Veronica: “You’re acting like trash, and I don’t want to get a citation.”

what the hell does student body president even do? to the extent I can even recall our student body president, whose name I believe was Lauren, I think she read the afternoon announcements

Ben WAS the kid Kevin ordered that hot dog from during the James Dean closing night! (I’m not double-checking)

Ben WAS the kid Miss Grundy was ~grooming~ when she got merked!

Ben’s mom is such a boring white mom lady that she’s wearing a denim button-down with but a single flower appliqué

YOU KNOW I LOVED THAT BLAIR WITCH TWIG BABY

Officer Henderson WAS the cop who found the “HL” briefcase at the dead Serpent’s hotel room!

I looked into what starting a chapter of the Innocence Project entails for a “couple of minutes.” I assume Veronica is going to go with option one: nonprofit organization, “independently incorporated” with “its own governing board” and fundraising, as I would doubt Riverdale has a local law school or much of a public defender’s office, you know what I’m saying?

What damn high school in America: Veronica is wearing some high-waisted black slacks and quite the polka dot top, which may in fact simply be a bustier. I imagine Principal Weatherbee has battled so many times over the years with Cheryl, who is constantly toeing the line of what a 16-year-old can legally wear, that he has since given up entirely

Jughead crawling over the back of the couch and dangling the totem baby is such a throwback to Jughead crawling over the back of the diner booth and eating the whipped cream cherry that now they are simply teasing me with the grandeur of times gone by, like an Andy Williams Christmas song thrown up on 101.9 KINK

Ethel has on some sort of wicked pin but it’s not in focus!

Betty’s top is very cute, structured

everyone has their own “Yeah, I guess” face at “Dilton Doiley [RIP!!!!!!!] has a secret bunker in the woods?”

Jughead cooly threatens Ethel with quote-unquote telling the police; this of course calls back to Jughead threatening Dilton (RIP!!!!!) in the third episode with Sheriff Keller, but let me ask you this: if Betty & Jughead DID take Ethel to the sheriff, would Sheriff Minetta give a flying fuck? doesn’t he answer directly to Hiram on all things Jughead at this point? could Betty and Jughead POSSIBLY still imagine the cops will heed anything they bring them?

Sheriff Minetta: Jughead Jones now seems to be under the impression that a band of Riverdale High juniors are in an underground RPG cult that has led to a double-suicide

Hiram: Thank God

something about Jughead’s teensy Yes’m head nod is just enough like a chivalrous bow that I have thus taken the time to note how cute it is

Day Two Juvie Coif: visibly succumbing to stress, but with dignity; starting to feather

I don’t know anything about sneakers but I like Mad Dog’s hightops

the cinematography in Archie’s cell is great. I especially like the panning around Archie when he’s not even moving, just listening to Mad Dog talking about, “The moment you set foot in here,” etc.

Mädchen Amick, MÄDCHEN AMICK: FP AND ALICE BOOOOOIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!! missing is the implied scene where Alice called FP to “get over here” so they can “talk to our kids” “together”

50 Shades of Betty: Betty tries hard to communicate with only her left eyebrow, fails

am I imagining a callback to Alice assuming Jughead was the one who railroaded Betty into looking at Jason Blossom? Alice’s stance on Jughead is too exhausting to track

Alice is certainly wearing a sheer floral peasant blouse she would NOT have worn the previous two seasons, SUSPICIOUS

Places Bughead are Not Fucking: Betty’s room

Gay?!: Archie’s incredulous delight at Reggie having helped picked out his RHS-themed sneakers; the Bulldogs are all about that #threestripelife

Veronica was rich: “FRESH KICKS”

Moose is apparently a “straight beast,” if you will

one of these Serpents is holding two playing cards, just chilling and holding two playing cards. I hope his prison name is like SNAKE EYES or THE JOKER

that Ghoulie dude is so striking and elongated, I swear to God he looks like John Travolta in Grease. that undercut, the well-oiled curls on top? can he be Josie’s fall fling?

God bless jingle-jangle: can you DROP OUT of fourth grade? doesn’t the state come for you, what the fuck?

I unironically love Archie’s plan. I fucking love it

“YOU’VE NEVER KNOWN THE EPIC HIGHS AND LOWS”—ARCHIE—YOU’RE A FUCKING SAVANT

I’m looking for other good haircuts in the background. one dude has a solid Wakanda-era Bucky Barnes and there’re slicked up curls aplenty. this juvie is like a candy box

you know this bitch loves a rack focus, especially onto prison wardens

Please protect Betty: “It’s chamomile, Betty. Calm down.”

FREAKISHLY good micromoment of Alice just like wiping away an eyelash or something

aloud, with witnesses, I said “This is like when they first held hands, am I right?” and then Betty said the “kind of reminds me of when we first started dating,” just to prove to you I HAVE seen every episode

Betty calmly checking in with Jughead re: Satan’s Reindeer

he’s most certainly Ethel on stilts (I’m very bad at predicting), but I love the Gargoyle King. he’s just the right mix of she-puts-you-in-the-corner and herky-jerky T-Rex, plus she put paint on him or whatever, in case somebody put a flashlight beam on him? Ethel fucking Muggs or whoever

love the sexy noir diner lighting and I will die loving it

Jughead eats: a toothpick

Day Three Juvie Coif: back at it, flush with victory; firm and wavy

Cheryl’s a chaos angel from hell: I do wish Cheryl were not so permanently a good guy. I wish she wanted to be Student Body President, all of a sudden, so badly that she was trying to keep Archie in juvie so he could never reclaim his throne, like if she were Scar

Kevin’s magenta polo has a subtle wave print

I hope the RROTC is somehow rotting from the inside, like the Adventure Scouts or Aquaholics

The female gaze: Archie’s cranking out push-ups and Mad Dog is doing tricep dips to warm up, for the game and “other business,” respectively. sometimes I like to do tricep dips too, usually for forty-five seconds while I’m waiting for the microwave to reheat my Kraft Thick N’ Creamy

Archie’s “What the hell are you to him?” is maybe his most astute query into something not being right that doesn’t include his remarkable quickness on the uptake of Jughead at the end of season one (I HAVE seen every episode)

These students are legally children: what the fuck did Mad Dog do that he’s been sentenced to like 25 years in prison? he’s a minor for God’s sake. get on this, Veronica

Places Bughead are Fucking: the fucking woods

catch me hightailing it the fuck out of there when Betty and Jughead do anything that even remotely resembles opening a circular hatch to ANYTHING out in a fucking forest clearing and peering down inside. BYE BITCHES YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN!!!!!

someone in the writer’s room at even only one point said the phrase “like in True Detective” while unspooling this yarn

Fifth period is AP English: I have to take Jughead’s word for it that there’re any bunkers in any Philip K. Dick novel

I am STILL salty that the Swords & Serpents thing IS NOT THE SAME THING as THIS RPG and that it was wholly abandoned. I can’t believe we’re not doing Jughead being sucked into the RPG cult and Betty have to haul him out SIMULTANEOUSLY with her mother being sucked into the postpartum cult and having to haul HER out

“He’s also featured prominently on this copper coin.”

y’all can just buy cyanide like that, in that glass growler? it has a “reliable prescription” sticker on it, WTF?

“Drink from the correct cup and ascend to the kingdom” is definitely ripped from one of the tracks on that Avenged Sevenfold album I bought at Borders freshman year

Jughead doubts it: “OR SOMETHING EVEN MORE INSIDIOUS”

I fucking knew that Adventure Scout was gonna be under that fucking cot but it still scared the crap out of me because The Haunting of Hill House exhausted my reserves

I’m going to come out and say that I’ve never cared for Charmed and I’m not watching the reboot. however I am exceedingly ready for Sabrina

“Princess Etheline”

guys, I found the “Jailhouse Rock” dance charming, especially the implication that the boys started the game up again in the middle to like, show off for the girls. am I getting soft in my old age?

Josie’s VERY bright blue eyeshadow

Cheryl’s hair: Cheryl had to have been influenced by the trend started pre-2012 in So You Think You Can Dance wherein dancers with very long hair just leave it down

Hiram…..Archie’s in jail. what else do you want? like, he’s IN JUVIE

am I out of my fucking mind or is Hiram wearing a pin that is PSYCHOTICALLY close to being the Hydra hydra?

Archie overtaking the first few guards with those slow-mo crosses until they finally beat him down by their sheer numbers was basically a scene from Spartacus: War of the Damned

Betty’s bug print is cute while being, subconsciously, slightly unsettling; this is true for Betty as a whole

Ethel’s mustard yellow cotton cardigan has some sort of flower print on its back? COOL

I would like to extend a hearty “fuck off with that for fucking me” to whoever blocked out seizing-Ethel whipping her arm up like that with her jacked hand JUST LIKE IN HEREDITARY. FUCK OFF!, and I mean it

“Damn good coffee”: Evelyn has just the sort of niche superpower I wish I could have: to fuck with other people’s social interactions from a casual remove

Jughead is remarkably polite with 911, much calmer than with the desk nurse after Fangs got shot (I HAVE seen every episode)

(Hereditary was much better than Hill House)

Best costume bit: Monica Posh is hot

Every triangle has three corners, every triangle has three sides: Kevin wants that dick SO BADLY that he has JOINED THE ARMY (or whatever)

how did Pop’s lighting manage to glide all the way over to L&L?

Day Four Juvie Coif: slept on but still truckin’

Archie can only be fucking imagining what is about to happen to him (Archie has definitely seen Fight Club, and Jughead had to explain how it was satire)

Certified pedigree: LEGENDARY SQUAD OF PARENTS!!!!!! Hermione’s getting the band back together à la It

Penelope Blossom has gone full Victorian goth in that floor-length lace Chicago black widow number

“At the mere mention of ‘blue lips,’” Jughead wrote, “a shiver frissoned around the room.”

you can tell Alice is in a hippie cult because not only is she wearing crystals but she has stopped wearing eye makeup (I could never be in this sort of cult because if I don’t smear kohl all over them I look like I have tiny eyes; I am sensitive about this)

I’ve seen Brick like thirty times: the reveal of Ben in the window, bathed in the blue glow of Pop’s diner, was like, ~chills~

“You’ll fly too” is of course also It, which, FUCK OFF

NEXT WEEK: I could be very fucking wrong about this but FP has a tattoo on his left pec that may very well be of a jellybean

[fpbaps-blog]

Be A Questioner – Peel Back The Onion Of Society

Be A Questioner – Peel Back The Onion Of Society ​A questioner can be defined as someone who questions all expectations and they will meet those expectations if they can justify, to themselves, that it makes sense to do. I was listening to a podcast where the author, Gretchen Rubin, of the book “The Four Tendencies” coined this phrase and I couldn’t help but notice that it described me. She talks about this tendency when assessing people’s personality to allow an individual to change their own habits faster and more effectively. I look to dive into this a little deeper and evaluate how being a questioner can help any person unveil the inconvenient truth’s around them. George Carlin, one of the best comedians/modern day philosophers, has talked about frequently that we must question everything. It’s something that is for the most part, looked down on. You see it in all aspects of life from politics, religion, all the way through to parenting, and fitness. No one likes to get questioned because it either challenges their authority or at the very least it challenges their intellect. In schools they like to say there isn’t such a thing as a bad question but in reality, kids still don’t ask questions because fear of alienation from there peers or fear of frustrating the teacher. In politics you see it all the time where politicians are questioned about topics that are influenced by them rather then answer questions that are relevant to the sustainability of the society. I digress but the point is that because people fear to ask questions, several dysfunctional patterns have developed in society that prevent the progress of the very things I blog about like sustainability, performance, health, medical, efficiency and the mind. The funny thing about questions is if you ask the right ones, it’s only a matter of time before the lies are unraveled. If someone is telling the truth, it’s only natural that eventually your questioning will lead to truth. Deceit has a way of deceptively hiding under many layers but just like an onion, the way to its core is by peeling those layers back. Ill describe a couple of those dysfunctional patterns in our society to help you become more aware of deception and pick away at those layers people so conveniently rap their lies around. ​When someone or a group becomes too dogmatic then you have a clear indicator that something is up. You might say that the group Functional Patterns (FP) could be considered dogmatic to a degree. I would say it doesn’t because dogmatic is defined as laying down principles that are incontrovertibly true. The principles at FP are linked to facts that connect to our origins and human biology that can be proven with our very eyes and scientific facts. Similar to quantum field theory, discovered by Albert Einstein and connected to our environment and diets by Jack Kruse, is backed with concrete facts. The concepts I blog about known as the inconvenient truths, once peeled all the way down, get to concrete truths not lies and deceptions like you see today. People and the environment change over time so it’s only natural that you grow with that evolution to allow for an effective practice of any kind. Dogmatic behavior rarely changes and if it does, it’s usually just to serve a monetary need to continue its practice of passing along its dogmatic knowledge. Typically you’ll see with groups or people that are very dogmatic is that they will always ask for money and look to keep you as a long time annuity for their cause. I’m not saying you shouldn’t get paid for your services because we all need it to survive in society. There is a price for all services but are the services you’re purchasing sustainable? When you peel the onion back of these dogmatic groups or people, you’ll find they’re looking to indoctrinate you with their beliefs to serve a monetary gain and doesn’t serve to benefit you at all. If these groups or people don’t promote sustainability and efficiency then you have another clear indicator of deception. Add that with dogmatic behavior and monetary gain and you have a compelling argument for a fraudulent group, business or person. ​People become emotionally invested in the investment of time they have to their practice. This is the next behavior you find when you keep peeling back the onion. Any time you see a leakage of emotions specifically the violent ones like anger, frustration, then beware. Society builds this habit of being invested in the time we spend on what we do. It’s like the theory of the American dream; work hard, pay your dues, stay in line and eventually you’ll be successful. Anyone with half a brain or some real world experience knows that the American dream is an illusion and the world doesn’t work in this systematic fashion. This is most prevalent behavior from people who have spent their whole lives working towards degrees, doctorates, certifications you name it. Then the second someone challenges these people, they flash this piece of paper in front of your eyes declaring that, “You don’t know shit, sit down and just let me do my job” I’m paraphrasing but that’s typically how that conversation goes. I’m not saying these people aren’t intellectual, smart or educated in what they do. The problem is that these degrees close the minds of these individuals leaving them unable to grow and see different perspectives. I have known many people who go through these doctorate programs where they cram as much information as possible and rarely retain any of the information. How is that an efficient way to learn? These degrees tend to develop dogmatic behavior in practice and people become overly invested with the time they put in making them unlikely to evolve or change. Another thing you’ll see is that these people will toss all these research and peer reviewed studies at you to support their way. Doesn’t this tactic seem familiar? Tobacco, drug and food industry do the very same thing because they know an overload of information confuses the individual. “Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts” – Sherlock Holmes This information overload is simply an attempt to twist facts to support theories that financial benefit the people in these practices. I’m not saying all people with doctorates and degrees behave this way, I’m just giving an example that illustrates how most people or groups in these situations behave. Some might say I have an investment of time towards what I do and that I would be emotional if I was challenged too. I have of course invested a great deal of time in what I do but when you peel that onion you won’t see deception or financial gain at the end. All you will find is one man, collectively with other like minded individuals, working to uncover the inconvenient truth’s that have been in our blind spots this whole time. But by all means question away I look forward to answering any questions you may have. Now, one great example everyone can understand to illustrate the fraudulent behavior in society. The medical field is a great example deceptive behavior with prescription drugs and diabetic patients. Diabetics get their daily prescription of pills and insulin every month paying these drug companies for their services but over the last decade, diabetes rises. Jack Kruse has shown with the implementation of his leptin prescription (process, not a drug) that you can eliminate or at the very least minimize the devastating affects of diabetes. The cost for this service is a certain amount at the beginning, which leads to a life style change and an education of your own body. Then you’re on your way to grow and explore your new body. No financial annuity for Jack and a sustainable human that has expanded there life without the side effects of drugs and their past disease. However, the indoctrination of the medical field constantly puts out conflicting evidence about how diabetes is developed and makes it clear that without these drugs you won’t live very long. Is that really the case or are they more worried about losing them as an annuity for life? It’s hard to believe they care about curing diabetes when it has increased in America to 24 million cases, which is 8 percent of the population. 90-95 percent of cases are type 2 and cases have increased 90 percent over the last ten years. In a society that is developing innovative technology every year in the medical field it’s hard to believe it’s possible for cases of diabetes to be increasing at this alarming rate. Regardless, people still invest money in these foundations for research for a cure that already exists. Of course that would mean that investment of time would be for nothing after all these years but once again, the indoctrinations of these social structure restricts us from progression. The investment of time shouldn’t matter and you shouldn’t leave the answer to a serious illness to people who only look to make money off of you and increase there bottom lines. A questioner is someone who acts intentionally not habitually (Naudi Aguilar) and looks for reason rather then faith for there actions. Society looks to silent questioners with these deceptive manipulations employed across every industry to keep the status quo. My objective is to open your eyes to the habitual behavior that you have been manipulated to do through these indoctrinations from all these industries. The tools are in your hands to peel the onion back and reveal the deceptive nature of society. Start to understand that being wrong doesn’t mean failure but rather progression and success. I have been wrong numerous times and I understand that it readjusts the course I’m on which is towards truth. Einstein spent 10 years working to just prove his theories to the scientific community because they were so invested and dogmatic. I’ve noticed people are uncomfortable around me because people who know me know I’m always scanning for little details, body language and other things during conversation. The truth is there is enough garbage in the world that I don’t need to subject myself to it anymore then I have too. I think though people aren’t uncomfortable with me but really it’s with them. There vulnerable self is something they have been hiding or don’t accept which makes them uncomfortable. It all comes back to peeling back those layers to find the true meaning of whatever you’re looking into. Ask the right questions and you’ll eventually find your way to the truth. References http://gretchenrubin.com/happiness_project/2015/01/ta-da-the-launch-of-my-quiz-on-the-four-tendencies-learn-about-yourself/ http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/11/18/new-diabetes-rate-up-90-percent-in-last-decade.aspx

[guywithtime2kill]

Breakdown/Analysis of 'Son of Rap Bear' Hello again! Apologies for not getting this out yesterday, but as I said I've been a little busy.Now, before getting into it I wanna say that I really like this episode. A lot of people hated it, and I can understand why - the rapping is painful... if you choose to take it seriously. I'll get into it further down, but it's actually part of why I really enjoy this one. But it's also a really strong episode for Flame Princess.So let's not waste anymore time, yeah?Son of Rap BearThe Clam Rap party was a nice introduction to the episode; classic low-key fun in Ooo. This marked the return of Crab Princess and her huge crab (is it even alive?) transport. And some nice "environmental storytelling" with the guests. Aside from a group of Candy People we got Breakfast Princess and one of her little sisters. It's nice that Finn invited Phoebe and Neptr because he knew they like rapping - and that FP brought Cinnamon Bun.Also, Elder Plops is actually a DJ in his downtime! I thought that was just a joke in Elements, but it turns out that that's legit.Also Chocoberry is with Mr Cupcake. I like how the show just made them a thing in the background.Lots of fun details here - like how Neptr is rapping even though Elder Plops isn't playing anything. So he's just droning on and continues to do so as Finn talks. Also, Phoebe just throws her plate of clams into the fire since, well, she doesn't eat."Utensils weren't provided, so I had to use my hands. I'm gonna be unhappy, if it happens agains." Once again, Finn belts out the dopest lyrics.Phoebe's first rap is pretty relevant to her character. Remember, her main conflict in this episode is that she feels like an uninteresting person, because her life has been very "contained", in more ways than one. So when she says, "I'm like a library book, so check me out, read my front and back covers so you know what I'm about," she's happily proclaiming she can be read like a book, and only her beginning and end, her recent history, is interesting.The rest of it is basically what FP realizes later - she's rapping about rapping. She has notably better skill than Finn, but, well, it isn't anything jaw-dropping.I gotta say, I really like how Phoebe picked up freestyle rapping. It's a fun and creative outlet for her, which I think is a very healthy avenue for her to pursue and distance herself from the stigma everybody has for her. Given that this is her first Clam Rap, it's clear she and the rest of Fire Kingdom still isn't wholly integrated with the rest of Ooo's societal structure. Getting out there and showing off her character like she does at the end of the episode was a significant step towards achieving this, I think."Rap Fastade" and neither Phoebe nor Finn hearing about it, makes it clear this was all part of Toronto's plan to steal the Fire Kingdom out from under her. And isn't it just fitting that she, once again, has to contend with people who aim to manipulate her naivety?I read through the part of the contract we see, and it seems like Toronto not only tricked Phoebe but also Son of Rap Bear. It mentions that their properties will be handed over to a set of "clients" - so I'm wondering if Toronto plans on owning the Party Bears' big monster guy, and if we'll see the results of this episode later. Probably not, but it's fun to notice these things and think about them.Neptr waves to Toronto when he says, "See you in a week." Little guy just misses the subtext of everything.Speaking of the monster, I like the detail that he has moss growing over him now. He must not have moved for a good while.There's also a ton of mushrooms in Rap Bear's place. What, does the monster have an infection or something?"He rapped my legs off." Only in Adventure Time.Remember how in 'Abstract', we see that Dirt Beer Guy now owns the Candy Tavern? On the roof, he put grass and trees on top. There's a sleeping deer there and I'm not sure if its real or fake or alive or dead. Let's not think about it."Rap Bear, Son of Rap Bear's father, said his son, Son of Rap Bear, would be at tonight's open mic." What a great jab at children's shows who do stupid hand-holdy exposition.I don't know the world of rapping/freestyle rapping, but they've got guest stars playing SORB and the gingerbread man: Dumbfoundead and Open Mike Eagle. They gave good performances in this episode! Especially Dumbfoundead.So, in case you haven't noticed for yourself, the rapping in this show really isn't good - at all. But the characters within act like it is, and /u/leusid pointed out to me that it's as if rapping is a reemerging artform in Ooo, it's different, so everyone who is average to us is great by their standards.SORB is savage as hell. "You haven't been in a battle since the age of two. I got shampoo more worldly than you."My favorite joke in this episode is how shit just explodes when they make killer raps. And that's a big part of why I enjoy this one - it's just fun! The rapping is painful sure, but if you don't take it seriously and just take it as is it's really enjoyable.Phoebe's naivety about the real world shows in how she thinks life experience can just be crammed in a week's time. Even Finn, who took ages to get where he is now, didn't achieve growth overnight. And that's the hidden theme of this episode: identity. That's a big theme of Adventure Time overall, but this episode if Phoebe's story.I like the detail in this episode of how Phoebe's burning works, and its consistency with her poisoning in The Red Throne. Remember how she cooled down and lost the majority of her powers? Well, she torches the little card a couple seconds after holding it (as opposed to how she destroyed Finn's poem by being near it in Burning Low), doesn't burn the papers, and only begins to singe Finn's shirt after settling her hands on his shirt. And he doesn't seem to mind as he grabs her by the wrists.I do wonder why Elements didn't reset her powers. Perhaps it shows that this was always a mental/emotional thing, and Phoebe is definitely more in-control and mellowed out than she was in her early days. Yet another subtle hint as to how Phoebe's identity and growth is the theme of this episode.Phoebe with sunglasses and riding Jake 2, encapsulates what I love about this episode. All these ridiculous things we see her doing, it puts Phoebe in a position we've never seen of her before - it's just so silly I can't help but smile. Really shows the kind of person she is and what she's willing to do for something she cares about. One of the first observation Finn makes about her is that she's passionate, and that has not waned over the years - only her expression of it.And in the background of that shot, a sad mailbox with socks that says "out of order." Whatever you say, Adventure Time.The sequence in which Phoebe is doing all these different things, to try and round herself as a person, is my favorite part of the episode outside of the third act. She gets a "real job" at Sassy's, and I love the "cuz I'm not very classy" bit - because she isn't, a princess wouldn't do a such a job but she isn't like other princesses.Climbing the rock (cool thing, it was a huge, dead insectoid) was a cool bit. That kind of imagery typically relates to one overcoming a huge obstacle and achieving their dreams. Now, on the surface you could argue that becoming Fire King was this obstacle, except it isn't. Phoebe's entire deal, her whole story ever since being introduced, was discovering who she is and her place in the world. Every episode has fed into this in one way or another, and here we have that identity essentially being attacked not only by SORB, but herself as well: she feels uninteresting, she feels like she hasn't lived a fulfilling life, and spiritually that means she doesn't feel like a complete person. However, her rap at the end is a realization of sorts, which I will get into further below.Really liked the other bit, where she had to "mind the clock," because she doesn't have time, only a week - in essence, she feels like she doesn't have time to patiently and carefully develop her very self."All around known, I'm the girl on a throne." Wow, that's actually a great line for the wrong reason - because that's all Phoebe is known for.Other interesting things include playing the saxophone for a day (very poorly, as a sax player myself I heard how bad that sounded).Standing in a bathtub was great. On a surface level, she's in the middle of the very thing that would hurt her, and to Phoebe that's interesting and probably hardcore. Except she's wearing boots. On a deeper level, bathtubs have always been a symbol of cleansing! Like she's ridding herself of her negativity and outer flaws. How she's in there with Finn speaks of their closeness. And he's with her every step of the way throughout this episode! It's nice to see how quickly their friendship mended together.When she's backrubbing Wyatt, they're in the Candy Tavern and there's graham crackers boarding up the wall from when SORB blew it open.So Bubblegum runs a math club! And for the only two people in Ooo who would care to: Turtle Princess and Kim Kil Wan. Funny how it says, "Don't stress about maths (until you know what I know)". For one, I doubt Phoebe became as good at maths as PB - emphasizing how haphazardly she tried to cram life experience in her. And on the other, it's a subtle jab of Bubblegum basically telling everyone not to worry about things until they are as smart as she is.That "mad grub" Phoebe made was appalling. Again, emphasizing how she really doesn't have much life experience, nor the time to carefully gain any.That billboard for Son of Rap Bear is awesome, and it's got a bit of meaning to it. But first, "When I close my eyes it's hard not to imagine that he's some sort of animal," - Ice King, Musicologist. Very deep, Simon.So, later in the episode, Flame Princess criticizes SORB for stealing his father's name and glory, and on this billboard we see he's already doing the same to Phoebe: he's called the "fire spitter," and his motif is flames. He's clearly trying to extinguish her already-meager fame at rapping and throwing himself to the forefront. It's funny how he's doing all this, when Phoebe just took up rapping as a fun hobby."Uh, yeah, my experience: solid like a pebble in aquarium - dropping knowledge like Bubblegum if she was a librarian." They do cool things with the outfits in this episode, and this line shown while Phoebe dresses in a bear hoodie is one of them. It circles back to the previous scene where SORB is trying to dethrone her identity while she tries to do the same. All while she says this line, where, no, she doesn't have a lot of experience or world knowledge. Both of these factors paint Phoebe in an artificial light, and we know that's not her. She isn't trying to take Son of Rap Bear's identity, nor is she this knowledgeable individual. And above all, Phoebe isn't fake - she isn't a liar. This rap really shows the power of this show's writing - how it crams so much meaning into just a minute of screentime.As soon as it's over, Phoebe says she feels like a hack as she removes the hoodie, and she hates that feeling. It's sweet of Finn, though, to tell her it's "really good."BMO hits the nail on the head: "Maybe there's an interesting thing about you that you just don't realize." I'll come back to this.Yeah, the can on Neptr's head. Did you know Finn made that because he intended for that to be his head originally? And who the hell does BMO think he is, trying to tell Neptr that what he believes in isn't real? He really is a child haha.Phoebe misses the point of BMO's wisdom, where she thinks the interesting thing about herself may lie in her relationship with her family - particularly, her father. I don't need to explain in depth why she went about that the wrong way: she's an interesting, complex person on her own, and it's because of her experiences borne from those of her father's treatment that made her who she is now. For better or worse. But of course, Phoebe doesn't get that immediately. It's a little sad that she really feels like a boring, unremarkable person.Flame King was utilized subtly and perfectly in this episode. The first shot we see of him and his kingdom encapsulates this and the theme of the episode, all without uttering a word about it. We see his Chipmunk Kingdom really has become one, and he's taken up painting as a fun hobby, even though he isn't good at it. It's exactly like what happened to Phoebe, right down to the little pastry companion he has, riding by on a skateboarding chicken.See, because just like Phoebe, it isn't Flame King's relationship with his daughter that makes him an interesting person. He's grown and developed on his own into a rounded individual, and he's happy with his existence. But Phoebe is a child who is uncertain about her place in the world and who she is as a person - a problem most everyone faces at this stage of their lives.There's a picture on Flame King's wall of Jake wearing a backpack. I guess he tried remembering the "baron of the Grass Lands to Prince Finn," and thought they were the same person.Phoebe came to her father in hopes of putting the past behind them. Because surely, with their history, doing so would definitely make for an interesting ballad, right? I believe that was her mentality here! But unfortunately, her father is still her father, and he still only thinks for himself as far as they're concerned. He isn't cruelly selfish, but he thinks she came to apologize for putting him in "lantern jail".Additionally, Flame King is still selfish because he clearly acknowledges that what he did to his daughter was terrible, but from his behavior (immediately going to put on tunes) and his dialogue, ("Be thankful for what you have now!") it's obvious he doesn't feel quite comfortable confronting this. He even says at the end of the scene, "Eugh. Drama." As though he doesn't like that stuff - it seems like he's missing the point and calling his daughter dramatic, but judging from his actions here he is well aware of what's going on. That's what AT does a lot with its writing - there's what you get on the surface level, but look past that and you'll see the character behind a lot of the, well, characters.Thing is, like with Finn, it's all on him. I've noticed Phoebe is as quick to anger as she is to forgive. Like Finn could have come back and been her friend at any time, but he needed to feel comfortable about it first, and grow. Perhaps her father will do the same, but likely not. But it's all on him to bury the hatchet.So, literally only the Party Bears and Fire People cared enough to show up to this. Just shows how little of a damn people gave about this.Phoebe's outfit in the climax has some nice meaning to it, just like the one from earlier that I mentioned. It's all white, giving off a pure sort of vibe that, by extension, feels honest and open. It also reminds me of her dress from Earth and Water - one of her most pivotal episodes in which Flame Princess, for the first time in her life, takes control of her own destiny and the first step towards becoming an individual.SORB coming in through a giant snapback is great.Toronto haha: "Aaaaand GO (sonofrapbear)"I love how they've written SORB's lyrics to attack Flame Princess at her most personal. He calls her a danger, and asks if any guys ever actually dated her or just used her for what she was. That was Don John, and that was what Finn did by accident. Flame Princess doesn't like being used, as we all know, and one of her goals as king was to be different from her predecessors - and that extends to Bubblegum in The Cooler.It's even more fitting that with Elements, Phoebe at her purest is a giant, rampaging monster that loves fighting. Maybe that's who she is, that's what she knows, and that's why she turned to healthier, less violent and offputting hobbies like rapping.I love how she blushes in embarrassment when SORB implies that she dates Cinnamon Bun as opposed to big macho men. Finn is more akin to the former too, and from Cinnamon Bun's reaction I'm wondering if we're supposed to get the vibe that they are in a relationship. I don't think so personally, they just seem like close friends, but it could just be something we haven't seen onscreen yet. To me, that just is another interesting facet of Phoebe's person: she prefers nice, sensitive guys like the two boys of her life.Which is why she completely chokes on her turn. Phoebe just isn't a mean person. Her rapping was never about criticizing people and making them feel like trash.Flame King's appearance made me realize this episode was also a parody of those singing competition-type movies. How the underdogs should totally lose, but then they see their loved ones in the audience and that somehow gives them inspiration to beat the pros. Except AT is more real than that, and Phoebe beat SORB at his own game, in her own badass way.There's a neat visual detail of how Phoebe blows off her rappers' hat when she explodes at her father - the final part of her desire to give the illusion of a "pro rapper" by wearing a snapback (which was also merchandise from The Music Hole when she rapped with Neptr). Once she sheds that, Phoebe isn't wearing a disguise anymore; she becomes real, to everyone, but more importantly, to herself.When she says, "I don't need you or anyone!" you hear another explosion in the background: she disses her father just by being honest. Phoebe doesn't need to rely on anyone, not like she did before she became king. She's the real ruler - not her selfish, cowardly father.She turns around and criticizes Son of Rap Bear for being a fake. He was just a kid trying to steamroll everyone who stood against him so he could feel fulfilled and special. But in truth, as Phoebe explains, that just proves how much of a sad little kid he is. SORB is really well-characterized for someone whose every line is just a rap - we get everything we need from the environment and other characters.As I said before, identity is the theme of this episode, and Phoebe's entire storyarc. Son of Rap Bear doesn't have one - he doesn't even have a real name, it's emphasized throughout by himself just being known as the son of a famous star."So sorry, you can't take what isn't owned by me... So take him away." That was badass, and then "I get it! She owned him!" was just hilarious.In the end, Phoebe tells it like it is. Like everyone who ever stood against her, being a liar and a swindler isn't the road to a happy life. Oh, it could achieve satisfaction, but unlike these people Phoebe loves her life and who she is, what she's accomplished. And she doesn't see her kingdom as something she owns, like her selfish father did: Flame Princess is the Fire Kingdom, and the Fire Kingdom is Flame Princess.Who she is has been shaped by her upbringing, and this mentality echoes in her attitude towards being a ruler (shaped by Finn's gentle guidance in her early days of being free) and what she went through before that, and after.And this is the heart of 'Son of Rap Bear'. Phoebe's rap emphasizes that she doesn't need to have a varied, "interesting" life to be an interesting person. What's interesting about her, and us as individuals, is the experiences we have and how they make us us is what really matters.I've always liked Flame Princess's story. In fact, I love it - she's a fantastic character, and a lot of people miss that because they criticize her for what she felt in this episode: she isn't interesting.But as someone who once, a long time ago, felt much like her - boring for not having a wild, crazy life, only realize later that who I am and why is what matters than superficialities, her character arc really jived with me, and it made me love this episode as much as every Flame Princess episode that came before it.Please join me tomorrow for 'Bonnibel Bubblegum.'

[carrolblakemore-blog]

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