#i mean he WAS causing problems but not like the way modern ai is

[the-good-luck-anomaly]

[lilacl0veskrew]

𝚄𝚗𝚊𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚐𝚗𝚎𝚍 𝙰𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚐𝚗𝚎𝚍 𝚂𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚜

The Touchstarved cast ended up in the modern world somehow. Your world! So what better way to teach them about it then with a road trip! But unfortunately, they have to figure out the seat assignments in the car if you're ever gonna get on the road! You're driving so you don't really care but all the noise and strong opinions are causing your irritation to simmer beneath your skin. ∥ Touchstarved LI x GN! Modern! Tired!Reader. This is my first time writing on Tumblr but won't be my last. I've had this fake scenario in my head for a while so I'm happy I get to put it in writing. Enjoy.

Credits to @cafekitsune for the cute divider

Zzp!-

You paused, looking up and taking a deep breath so you wouldn't lose your mind. "Please, God, grant me the patience today." You angrily shoved your fingers into the edge of the suitcase, pushing in the peaking fabric responsible for your anger. The fury simmering under your skin was about to explode. The amount of zippers that had jammed that morning was astronomical. You pulled the zipper, finally closing the last suitcase, your anger starting to calm again. You turned your head, only to notice that you had forgotten to put something in said suitcase. The only way you could express your anger in that moment was very exotic hand gestures. You felt a hand on your shoulder and turned your head. "Hey, [Name]? You seem annoyed, is everything okay?" You shrugged his hand off, you weren't in the mood for him to be touching you. "It's fine, Leander. Really. Go join the others outside. I need a minute." He smiled at you, seeming a little dejected by your rejection however obeyed your command nonetheless. You threw the misplaced item into your backpack and leaned against the edge of your bed. You had no idea how this managed to happen. "Going on a road trip with 5 people I barely know. That's not a recipe for disaster at all." You picked yourself back up, dragging the last suit case out to the car.

"I'm not sitting with him." Mhin said, audible sneer in their voice as they talked about Vere. You took a deep breath, placing the suitcase into the trunk of the car. You pushed it down, hearing it click as it locked. "[Name]. Your timing is immaculate." "Ah, yes. What bullshit shall greet me today? What's the problem now?" Kuras tilted his head to the right, your eyes followed, landing on Mhin, Vere, Ais, and Leander all debating where they were gonna sit in the car. "Oh my fucking god." Ais looked at you, a sit eating grin rising to his face. "Upset about something, sparrow?" You gave him a deadpan look, "Wow, you are so perceptive." You grumbled, annoyance bleeding into your voice. "So, what's the problem? Kuras gave me a run down." Vere looked at you, a pout on his face. "[Name]~" He cooed softly. "Do you have a bigger car, I don't wanna sit with any of you." Without missing a beat, you said, "Vere, if you keep complaining the next time you're showering I'm gonna throw something electrical in there and fry your ass." You weren't being serious but hopefully it was enough to settle the shit down. His lips curled into a cat like smile, oh how he loved to string you along. "Ooh, how mean. Such pretty lips shouldn't spout such harsh words." You let out a dull hum, barely acknowledging his existence. You heard a familiar scoff, able to almost feel the amusement bleed out of him.

"So we're fighting over seating arrangements?" You took a sip of your thermosed coffee, you weren't gonna be part of this. "I'm driving since I'm the only one who knows how to so I don't really care. You 5 can hash this out yourselves." Leander smile, much to your annoyance. "Well, [Name]. How about you give us some insight?" You leveled his cheerful attitude with a tired look. "If anyone's sitting in the front with me, it's gonna be Mhin or Kuras. Those two are the only one who wouldn't bother me while I'm driving." Ais smiled, "No need to be so harsh, sparrow." "Not being harsh, just being honest." You murmured, taking another sip of your coffee. Leander spoke with a cheerful tone as if it wasn't 5:30 in the morning, "I don't mind the doctor sitting with [Name] and I can sit with Ais!" "No. Absolutely not. I'm not sitting with Ais' housepet." Mhin said with a scowl, Vere's ears twitching in irritation.

You decided to ignore what was going on and start up the car, sitting in the driver seat to warm up. You stared forward into the abyss of the dark street, people who unfortunately work early morning jobs pulling out of their driveways. You heard soft tapping on the window, you had to gather yourself and steel your nerves to not start bugging on whoever was bothering you. You rolled down the window. "I just got in the car, what's the problem now?" Leander, Mhin, Kuras and Vere were scattered around, no longer talking. You stuck your head out and looked around, "Where's Ais?" Leander replied with a sheepish smile. "Smoking." You held your tongue and leaned back with a sigh. "Looks like we're deciding without him." Vere clicked his tongue. "How about we start with our preferences? I'll go first. I hate all four of you." You frowned, "Of course, Vere. Leave it to you to make everything much more difficult then it needs to be." He grinned at you, sharp canines catching the reflected light of the headlight. Sensing the tension, Kuras slipped between you and Vere, taking his place next to Mhin.

You propped your head up with your hand, this is so annoying. "How about we put Vere and Ais together? Because he hates everyone else." Mhin quickly interjected. "Absolutely not. Because leave it to those two to have sex in the back seat." "It'd be better then being put with a garden gnome. Maybe [Name] has an extra booster seat since you clearly forgot yours." Mhin's frown deepened, their face reddening in anger. "Okay, wow. So clearly we're getting nowhere." Vere smiled at you, and god was it evil. "I could sit in the front with you to make this ride less boring." "I'm afraid that will not be happening." Kuras objected with an indifferent tone. Vere scoffed but resigned himself to ignoring the doctor. You pinched the bridge of your nose. "Okay look. We're gonna be on the road for like 5 hours. So we need to decide or we're not getting anywhere."

Ais returned from smoking, snuffing out his cigarette in the damp morning grass. You gave him an irritated look. "How nice of you to join us, Ais." He returned the look you were giving him. Understandable, they'd been arguing for the past 30 minutes. You stared forward through the windshield, the sun was slowly starting to rise. You were desperately trying to tune out the sounds of the bickering but you couldn't.

*Pissed off*

You jolted forward, your body half-way out the window. "STOP, GODDAMNIT. YOU'RE GIVING ME A FUCKING HEADACHE." Everyone went silent at the sound of your sudden outburst. "[Name]-" Your gaze snapped up to Leander. "DON'T INTERRUPT ME. VERE, AIS, BACK SEAT. MHIN, LEANDER, MIDDLE. KURAS, YOU'RE IN THE FRONT WITH ME." You started rapidly clapping your hands to motivate them to move. "LET'S GO, LET'S GO, LET'S GO." Ais looked amused... and proud? Of your your verbal paroxysm. Maybe you were just seeing things while your anger boiled out of control. Surprisingly enough, everyone got into the car without objection. You took a deep breath, falling back into your seat. "Alright. Finally." To drown out anything else that might piss you off, while still being able to hear the five, you put in one airpod, leaving out the other and finally shifting the car's gear from park to drive.

Yay, we finally got onto the road. I'm planning another part or two about how a pit stop gone wrong would go or how the cast would react to their first case of road rage. I'm glad you enjoyed❤️ -Your online bestie

Enjoyed this? Head home!

[hyperkitten224]

I have thoughts about the silly AI man (don't look under the cut unless you want a whole-ass ramble in the form of a few small walls of text)

so. I've been having many thoughts about Caine, one of them being his role in the Digital Circus. not just what his role is in the story, but what he's supposed to be in-universe. because yeah, he's the "main bad guy" and all, but he's not JUST that. he's fascinating and well-written, which is impressive due to how his only canon appearances are in two episodes. this show is two episodes long, and the main antagonist is one of the best robots I've seen in modern times. buckle up, y'all

let's start with his role in the show. he's the Main Antagonist, not a villain wanting to cause harm to everything and everyone, just a problem opposing the goals of the protagonist(s). the goal being "hopefully getting out of the circus and not going crazy until you die." does this mean he actively sabotages the mental sanity of the humans to try and get them to stay? ...eh, not really? of course, he still throws the performers into traumatizing scenarios and even causes physical harm to Pomni in the teaser trailer, but there's always this undercurrent of him genuinely not wanting to cause harm, in a way. like he doesn't know that he's hurting them. though, there's a very interesting degree of ignorance that comes with this, as one line in particular sparks some interest in my head. the one in the teaser trailer where he goes "Don't worry my dear, you won't even die horribly!" (not clipped because I didn't want to have that one voice line amongst Pomni yelling in protest) and while yes, it sounds like a joke, and it is, but it also hints to something about Caine's character. he's less worried about the physical pain his performers receive, and more about them just dying. which makes sense for him as an artificial intelligence, as he probably processes it as "there's nothing to worry about, they'll still be here! :)" (though, with Caine fixing Ragatha being jumbled in the pilot, I think he does understand how it affects the performers, or maybe he just doesn't want the rest of the circus to get all glitchy, I'm not sure. maybe I'll figure it out with future episodes. we're only on episode 2, after all!)

and now with how this ties into his in-universe purpose. basically, he's a mascot. a mascot for a 90s edutainment game. and if the context was the game he's made for, throwing out the whole "adult humans trapped in the digital world" thing, he'd be perfect! he's silly, entertaining, funny, and appealing to the kids! though, he's also an artificial intelligence with a very limited understanding of how humans work, let alone adult humans. since he was seemingly programmed for children and not adults, this also reflects in how he treats the performers physically. he gives them silly nicknames and encouraging pats, scolds Pomni for "foul language" when she swears, and usually has this silly showman-y demeanour to him like he's performing for a younger audience. but unfortunately, there is no younger audience. all the humans in the digital circus are over the legal drinking age, and poor Caine's probably been programmed to deal with kids who are 12 at most. with all that in mind, some of his behaviour makes sense. though, there's the problem with the whole "torturing the circus members without even knowing" thing, and how Gooseworx said in a Tumblr post that everyone (except for Jax and Gangle) swears at one point, which includes Caine himself, but I digress. that's something for the top paragraph.

tldr: Caine is good. this is irrefutable objectivity and media criticism is in shambles /j /ref

[atwooozi]

gojo x oc

Chapter 12: Just Like Starting Over

summary: Ai finds herself emotionally drained and struggling after a tense karaoke session with Gojo. Her discomfort grows during a press junket for Gojo’s new movie, where she navigates awkward interactions and chaotic environments alongside her team, Geto and Junpei.

genre: modern AU, slice of life, comedy, eventual romance, eventual smut, some angst

A/N: This week has been so crazy with the weather lately. I usually love summer storms but because of the strong winds it knocked out my internet for a few days and I gotta say I was so surprised at how difficult it was to do anything on my phone only. A complete first world problem but it was a pain. If you've also been dealing with crazy storms I hope you're doing well and staying safe.

This week's song is Radiant Memories by TANUKI. It might feel a bit redundant given last week's pick, but I think this is a bit more of a continuation of those feelings but with a more uplifting perspective given the instrumental.

Ai spent the last day of her break rotting in bed, exhausted. She hadn’t heard anything from Gojo since karaoke, and much as she wanted to tell herself that it was a good thing, it only felt more painful with each passing day.

She was starting to wonder if being around Gojo for so long had made her a bit more dramatic. Although so much had happened to her emotionally in such a short amount of time, it had only been a day and a half.

“I just want to be friends, Ai-chan.”

Gojo’s words echoed in her head and it made her shiver. She couldn’t help but make an audible disgusted noise to herself from how juvenile she felt.

The silence was deafening. It was partially (if not completely) her fault that she was in the mess, but what else could she do? She could quit the story, of course, but that was not even an option in her mind.

⨯ . ⁺ ✦ ⊹ ꙳ ⁺ ‧ ⨯. ⁺ ✦ ⊹ . * ꙳ ✦ ⊹⨯ . ⁺ ✦ ⊹ ꙳ ⁺ ‧ ⨯. ⁺ ✦ ⊹ . * ꙳ ✦ ⊹⨯ . ⁺ ✦ ⊹ ꙳ ⁺

Ai and the rest of her tiny team were back with Gojo as he went about promoting his new movie. Instead of following Gojo around at MAPPA studios, they were taken to a ritzy hotel downtown. Currently, Gojo was in a makeshift green room, set up to shield talent from the hoards of interviewers and photographers who were anxiously waiting for them outside.

The room itself consisted of bland-looking temporary walls, spare furniture that the hotel provided, and a couple of vanities set up for the poor actors promoting their much-anticipated project.

From what Ai knew, actors and directors were sent to sit in a conference room for press junkets for hours on end—a day of back-to-back media interviews. Boiled down to its simplest parts, press junkets were nothing more than celebrity journalist speed dating events that everyone, cast and crew alike, seemed to dread.

Unlike everyone else in the room, Gojo was beaming as usual. Ai’s team, on the other hand, felt rather on edge as they squeezed themselves into the green room. Between the different PR teams, multiple stylists, and the three of them–Ai, Geto, and Junpei– the space felt increasingly claustrophobic.

“Are we staying the whole day?” Geto whispered to Ai as he adjusted his camera. After a moment, Geto took some pictures of Gojo as a hairstylist touched up the star’s already perfect-looking hair.

“I don’t think I need help,” Gojo said as he cast a mischievous glance Geto’s way. “I’m already perfect, but my handsome friend needs it.”

Geto arched an eyebrow at Gojo before looking through his viewfinder again.

“Look at his weird bangs!” Gojo teased as he pointed a finger in Geto’s direction.

Before Gojo could say more a bright flash went off, causing him to groan as he turned away. He rubbed his eyes with a pout. “You’re so mean, Suguru.”

“And you look ugly today,” Geto retorted as he looked at the picture he had just taken with a frown.

Out of curiosity, Ai peaked at the camera display. In all fairness, it wasn’t the best picture in the world, but if Gojo having slight bags under his eyes qualified him as ugly, then Ai could be classified as a beast.

Gojo gasped, fake hurt written all over his face. “You shouldn’t lie like that.”

Geto ignored Gojo as he adjusted the settings on his camera.

Ai couldn’t be sure, but from the expression on Geto’s face, she was assuming that the lighting wasn’t much to his liking.

“No…we’re breaking after the hour lunch and then we’ll reconvene as the interviews start wrapping up,” Ai explained, trying to circle back to Geto’s original question.

Subtle relief seemed to wash over Geto as he took in the information. “Sounds good.”

Though Geto didn’t say it, it was clear that this was the last place he wanted to be. Ai couldn’t fault him for that. The crowd and overall stressful atmosphere were draining, but she couldn’t imagine having to try and take pictures in such a mess.

Ai gave him an understanding nod as she watched another person make their way into the already-crowded room. He took a seat next to Gojo and was quickly greeted by a makeup artist, who started working almost immediately. Ai found it almost funny when she saw the artist swipe dark eyeshadow under the actor’s eyes to accentuate his already prominent dark circles unlike Gojo he was cute enough to pull it off.

“Senpai, th-that’s Okkotsu Yuta,” Junpei said quietly as he looked over at the young star in awe.

“Hey supervisor ,” Geto interjected. “You’re in the way of my shot.”

Ai rolled her eyes at the two. “Will you two cut it out?” She looked over her shoulder and caught Geto sticking his tongue out at Junpei.

Geto glanced at Ai and gave her a cheesy smile. “Need something, Ai-san?”

“Stop teasing my kouhai, please,” Ai sighed.

As much as she’d like to believe that she shouldn’t have to reprimand someone older than her, Ai reminded herself that Geto Suguru was just a special case. His best friend was just as bad as he was, after all.

“That’s just how I show my affection,” Geto explained as he looked through his viewfinder once more.

Junpei gave Geto a skeptical look as he watched him take pictures of Gojo and Yuta. “I don’t think that’s how you show someone that you care about them, Geto-san…”

Ai shook her head. “No, he’s being serious, Junpei-kun.”

The way that Geto and Gojo interacted with one another was proof enough. The two men only seem to know how to express affection by being absolute terrors. But then again, maybe that was only when they were in each other’s presence. Gojo had the capacity to be more tender when a certain photographer wasn’t around and in all fairness aside from Geto’s sharp tongue, he also had a bit of a softer side.

“You’re weird, Geto-san,” Junpei mumbled as he reached into one of Geto’s bags and began setting up a tripod.

Although they bickered, Geto and Junpei had found a great rhythm in the way they worked together. Without being asked, Junpei seemed to know what Geto would need or how to adjust the lighting just as the photographer liked it.

“Geto, don’t steal my kouhai, please,” Ai whispered to him as he set his camera up on the tripod.

Geto smirked and gave a chuckle. “Who’s to say that I didn’t already steal him, Ai-san?”

Ai blinked at Geto, causing him to smile even more, his eyes turning into devious crescent moons. Was he some kind of supervillain?

Ai quickly glanced around ‌the room to find out where Junpei was. He was sitting quietly on one of the couches provided by the hotel, taking notes on his observations, much like Ai would do. If she weren’t so panicked at the loss of her kouhai, she would feel so proud.

Ai quickly made her way over to Junpei and tugged on his arm. “We should introduce ourselves quickly before they have to get started.”

“Huh?” Junpei stood up, a bit confused by Ai’s actions.

Ai smiled at Junpei as she led him over towards Okkotsu and Gojo, shooting Geto a glare over her shoulder. In return, Geto stuck his tongue out at her before he went back to taking photos.

“Excuse me, Okkotsu-kun?” Ai called out gently as she walked over to the young man.

“Yes?” Okkotsu gave Ai a gentle smile.

Ai bowed her head slightly to him. “I just wanted to introduce myself and my kouhai. This is Yoshino Junpei,” she said as she gestured ‌to the confused young man standing next to her. “We’re working on a profile about Gojo-san.”

“What about me!” Geto complained as he walked over.

“Amada-san, you forgot to introduce yourself,” Junpei whispered to her.

Ai wanted to bash her head through the wall but decided against it. “R-right, I’m Amada Ai.”

“Nice to meet you all,” Okkotsu chuckled. “A profile on Gojo-san, huh? Sounds…interesting,” he said as he rubbed the back of his neck.

Ai nodded, offering a strained smile. “It has its moments,” she replied. “I’m sure you’re well aware of how interesting it can be to work with Gojo.”

As they continued to talk, Gojo seemed to have had enough of not being included. He smiled at the group with a trademark grin. “What’s all this?” he chimed, “I thought you guys were writing a story on me .”

Ai turned to face him, feeling an unpleasant tightness in her chest in his presence. “Just introducing ourselves to Okkotsu-kun,” she explained, as she tried her best to keep her tone casual.

Gojo nodded, not giving Ai as much of a glance, and looked at Okkotsu directly. “I think it’s time for us to go–right, Yuta-kun?” he said as he wrapped his arm around the younger actor’s shoulder, already leading him out the door.

“N-nice meeting you guys!” Okkotsu called out before the door closed behind him.

When the two actors left, the hoards of people in the green room vanished along with them. The once-bustling room now felt almost barren as Ai, Junpei, and Geto were the only three left inside.

“…Did Gojo-san seem weird?” Ai asked as she glanced over at Junpei and Geto.

Geto pursed his lips and glanced Ai’s way with an arched brow. Although Geto said nothing, his face said it all.

“I don’t think so,” Junpei said thoughtfully as he peered out the door. “It’s pretty hectic around here, though.”

On the inside Ai was panicking, between the way that Gojo seemed to ignore her and the look that Geto gave her she knew that things were off. She wasn’t sure how to fix it, but she needed to fix it. What it was, she couldn’t really say. Part of her was worried about the story, but another part of her felt frosted out by the actor. Both things bothered her immensely but she couldn’t say which one weighed on her more.

Ai found herself slipping into a familiar routine of taking notes, comparing her material with Junpei, and checking in with Geto now and then to ensure that he remembered to take pictures. Despite the chaos of the literal media circus surrounding them, she couldn’t shake the heaviness that she felt in her heart.

During the brief moments of rest between interviews, Ai stole glances at Gojo, unable to ignore the ache she felt. He was effortlessly charming in front of the cameras, his smile radiant, and his wit sharp. He seemed so unbothered, so like himself, but she couldn’t help but wonder if he felt a similar pain that she was feeling.

If only Ai had noticed that when she looked away that sparkling blue eyes would somehow find their way to her. It was only for a few brief moments at a time, but unconsciously Gojo’s eyes would follow the silly journalist.

As the lunch break approached, Ai's stomach churned with a mix of nerves and anticipation. This would be her only chance to talk to Gojo casually before they reconvened later.

“Hey Gojo-san,” Ai called out to him hesitantly. She wasn't sure if she was shaking, but she could feel her inner turmoil almost bubble over. “Can we talk for a minute?”

Gojo looked up from his seat, his usually bright and silly face unreadable for a moment before he nodded. “Sure, Amada-san, what's up?”

Ai winced when she heard Gojo address her so formally. It felt so unnatural coming from him. The wall that she worked so hard to break down had been built up again and it was even stronger than it was before.

Ai hesitated for a moment and played with her hands nervously. “I…I'm sorry.” She mumbled.

She looked up at Gojo, as he looked down at her with furrowed brows. Perhaps it was her nerves clouding her judgment, but she couldn’t figure out what to make of the expression. His silence only made Ai flounder more.

“I feel like I was really unprofessional the other day and I–” Ai bit her lip, her voice trembling as she spoke. She looked down at the ground in embarrassment. Never in her life had she ever felt so nervous before.

Ai took a deep breath trying to calm herself down and looked back up at Gojo again. “I just…I’m sorry.” Her voice wasn’t trembling anymore, but the words were so quiet that she could barely hear them over the hubbub happening in the hall.

Gojo leaned forward with a smirk taking over his features. “What was that?” he asked as he cupped his ear. “It’s hard to hear you over all these people.”

Despite the nerves, she felt she couldn’t help but want to wipe that smirk off of Gojo’s face. It was somewhat relieving to know that things between them were…okay, but it was just as irritating that he was punishing her even if she did deserve it.

Ai gritted her teeth. “I said I'm sorry,” she said, speaking as slowly and clearly as possible so Gojo could hear her.

A wide grin spread across Gojo's face as he looked at Ai head-on. His blue eyes looked alive and vibrant. “Hmm…” he hummed as he tapped his chin in thought.

Ai tried her best to stay composed as she looked at him. “Hm?”

“You don't have to apologize,” Gojo said as he stood up from his seat, putting his hands in his pockets. “We weren't even fighting.” He said as he walked over to the catering table.

Ai quickly followed behind him. It was difficult though given how long Gojo's strides were. “I-I'm not done!”

“What else, Ai-chan?” Gojo said as he grabbed multiple bags of cookies–presumably for himself.

She hated herself for it, but she couldn’t help but feel a sense of relief when Gojo called her ‘Ai-chan’. She found it annoying at first, but when he called her Amada-san she found herself desperately wanting the annoying Gojo back.

“Can we start over?” Ai asked, her voice barely above a whisper as she looked down at her shoes. “Like completely over.”

Gojo looked at her blankly for a moment, but then a smile tugged at the corners of his lips as he stared down at her. He ruffled Ai’s hair–much to her annoyance–as she swatted his hand away. “No.”

“ No ?”

“Yeah, nah,” Gojo said as he stuffed a cookie in his mouth.

Ai looked up at him with her mouth agape. “What do you mean nah ?”

Gojo stopped mid-chew, his expression shifting from playful to bored. Swallowing his cookie, regarding Ai with a hint of curiosity.

Gojo's gaze lingered on Ai for a moment, his expression unreadable. “I mean, why start over when we only just started?” He replied, popping another cookie into his mouth. “Life is too short to dwell on do-overs and all that dumb stuff. Cookie?” He asked with a grin as he held out the bag to her. “Besides, I feel like we’re just getting to the good part.”

Ai was dumbstruck, she shook her head as Gojo offered her a cookie. “Okay…” she said as she met his gaze.

What was the good part?

Gojo flashed Ai a grin, but there was something in his eyes that made Ai's heart flutter. “We'll talk later?”

Ai nodded, a mixture of relief and apprehension washing over her. “Yeah…”

“Leave Suguru and Junpei-kun at home though, ‘kay?” Gojo called as he walked away.

Ai nodded as she watched him walk away. “…’kay,” she said to herself.

As Ai watched Gojo walk away, a mixture of conflicting emotions churned within her. As relieved as she felt for finally being able to talk to him she was left just as confused.

What the hell was the good part?

Lost in thought, Ai barely noticed Junpei’s gentle tap on her shoulder. “Senpai, are you okay?”

Ai flinched when she felt Junpei’s touch, but did her best to force a smile. “Yeah, I’m fine, Junpei-kun. Just…thinking.”

Junpei nodded, concern still etched into his features despite Ai’s words. “Okay, just let me know if I can help in any way.”

A genuine smile spread across her face. “I will, thank you.”

Before Junpei could walk away, Ai stopped him. “Junpei-kun…”

Junpei’s eyes flicked back to Ai and he smiled expectantly. “Yes, senpai?”

“I’m going to speak with Gojo-san later.”

Junpei gave Ai a confused look. “…Okay?”

“What I mean is…” Ai pursed her lips as she thought about how to put it. “I-I’m going to interview him one-on-one.”

“Sick of us already?” Geto chimed in, causing Ai to flinch as she looked at him over her shoulder.

The man needed to wear a bell or something. Geto always seemed to appear at the worst times. She felt like he was haunting her.

Ai shook her head. “No…I just feel that Gojo will be able to speak more freely if it’s one-on-one.”

Ai wasn’t lying; she did truly believe that. However, it felt awkward to her because it wasn’t her call. Gojo had requested it. She couldn’t imagine what Gojo wanted to talk about with her, but she couldn’t help but dread the conversation.

“You think you can handle that, Ai?” Geto asked his tone as sweet as ever but teasing as per usual.

Ai opened her mouth ready to sass Geto, but she opened her mouth before she could actually come up with anything. Could she handle Gojo on her own? Part of her wondered if she could handle him at all.

Junpei’s scoffed at Geto’s question as if he was personally offended on Ai’s behalf. “My senpai can handle anything.”

Ai couldn’t help but feel touched by Junpei’s confidence in her. She didn’t deserve such a good kouhai. He inadvertently placed some pressure on her but gave her the motivation to want to do better at the same time.

When Geto rolled his eyes at Junpei’s remark and Ai scrunched her face up at him as if to say ‘I’m winning’ in their ridiculous competition of who was the better senpai.

“Call us if you need anything,” Geto said with a fox-like smile as he wrapped an arm around Junpei’s shoulder. “Let’s get something to eat, Junpei-kun.”

Bastard…

Ai hated how cunning Geto was. Even if Junpei did prefer her, she was sure that Geto could win over her kouhai soon enough.

Ai nodded gratefully at the two men. “I will, thank you guys. Good work today.”

Junpei shrugged Geto’s arm as they walked away. “I don’t like when you use my name. It feels creepy…”

Ai couldn’t help but giggle as she watched the two slowly disappear out of the hall together.

Once she was alone she felt her unease settle into the pit of her stomach as she left the hotel conference room. This meeting with Gojo felt like more than just another interview, but maybe that was just Ai’s delusions filtering through. Either way, it was happening and she wasn’t sure if she was ready for it.

[shiningwonderland]

Ranmaru Kurosaki (All Star) Memorial

Memorial 02 - The two of you are idols

Translator: Raine (Twitter: amagiyas)

Proofreader: Shu (Twitter: coldcagelord), Belén (Twitter: reiharus)

Editors: Lacey (Twitter: fairyharp), Maddy (Twitter: plantboness), Mae (Twitter: itoshikimaegirl)

"Hey, Mister, you should hear this~ The shoot this time was really difficult, you see…!"

"I've heard that the ingredients and flavoring of oden are different depending on the region. Is this one Kansai-style? Kanto-style?"

"That seems hard to tell, indeed. Anyhow, could I get a Bailey's Milk?"

"Oi, you won't find that at a food cart. 'Sides, that's just wrong."

Camus looks at me begrudgingly. …This has become troublesome.

This all started 'cause of Shining; the old man came up with the idea for a show.

One fine morning, the four of us were tossed into a car and taken to some unknown place deep in the mountains. For three days, we were forced to survive together.

The four of us being put into a unit was already common knowledge, but this would serve as extra publicity of sorts.

Obviously, this lineup was never going to work out, and just when I thought that this hell of a survival shoot was finally over….

On the way back, Reiji was drivin' and got lost, and that's how we ended up at this oden cart at the foot of the mountains.

Maybe it's 'cause they were serious about the whole survival project, but the only piece of recording equipment we had was a video camera that was operated by hand.

We recorded footage as we saw fit on our way here, until the power finally ran out. Whatever, it was just footage of us on our way back, so it would've been cut during editing anyway.

The four of us sat in a line and took up all the space at the counter. The other customers… actually, there isn't even anyone else walking 'round the neighborhood.

"Hey, Ranmaru, which one is it? Kansai? Kanto?"

Oh, just shut up. It's the same food no matter what. Disregarding the rest of them, I start ordering.

"We'll start with beef tendon, chicken meatball, boiled egg, radish, and… ah, fish cake, deep-fried tofu, konjac, shirataki noodles."

"Hold on. You don't even have vodka, what is the meaning of this?"

Camus starts houndin' the old man minding the cart.

"Ranran, don't forget to order ganmo! If we're having oden, we gotta have that."

Reiji leans on the counter, resting his chin in his hands and giving me directions.

"So it's Kanto-style after all."

Ai decides he's figured it out on his own and nods to himself.

These guys….

"Sir, do as ya like for the rest."

"You got it." The man minding the deserted cart nods at us.

When our order arrives, Reiji takes his beer in one hand and stands up. Usually, Reiji is the one who's in charge of this sorta stuff.

"Alright, good work everyone these past three days! Now then, altogether~"

"Time to dig in."

"Wha—!?"

I put my hands together and, next to me, Reiji is taken aback.

"You got a problem?"

At any rate, this is the first decent meal we've had in three days.

"The ganmo is so good~! Aahhh, it's a great time to be alive~"

"Quit the chit-chat and just eat, Reiji. Once we're done, we're leaving."

"Waah, how scaaary…. But really, Ranran worked the hardest out of all of us for this shoot in the end."

"Geez…. Getting thrown into a slightly different environment is enough to turn you guys into big whiners. Particularly you two, Reiji and Camus."

Ai speaks up while taking small sips of his glass of water.

"Why you! Don't speak so arrogantly when you couldn't even start a fire!"

"But Camus, you also got Ranmaru to do it in the end. In this day and age of modern Japan, people who can create fire from nothing are simply unusual."

"Hmph. 'Unusual' people such as cavemen?"

"Yes, I suppose so."

"What the hell, you guys…."

Come to think of it, over the past three days, it was these two who passed the time nonchalantly even in the cold or on empty stomachs.

As a result, they were the ones who kept asking others to do things. And this is what I get.

I'm a little pissed off but…. I gotta fill my stomach first, so I ask the old man working the cart for extra chicken meatballs, radish, and fried tofu.

We came across the stall by chance, but the flavors have been enhanced by the broth, and it tastes delicious.

"In the end, it was basically Ranmaru and myself who gathered food. The remaining two of you were hopeless. In terms of mobility, even Syo and Natsuki would have been more help than both of you."

Just as Ai said, it was the two of us who did all the work of gathering food. I was the one who caught fish in the river in spite of the cold. He stood by the riverside, directin' me to where the fish were.

"Waaahhhh, Mister, did you hear that just now? I…! Even though I worked equally hard too~!"

Reiji starts kicking up a fuss about being treated too harshly by his coworkers, going on about not being shown kindness even though he's older and whatever. The old man silently places an egg on Reiji's plate.

"What? That ain't fair."

"Oh Mister, you're too kind…! Reiji here is deeply moved!"

He jumps up from his seat, his body swaying back and forth. Reiji's energy is gradually getting stranger.

His behavior's always been eccentric, but now he's completely drunk.

Maybe because he's feelin' the cold, but he quickly returns to his seat and leans in close to me.

"Heheh, drinking a lot~? By th' way, what are things like between you and Kouhai-chan?"

"Hah…?"

After emptying my glass, I had grabbed another bite of deep-fried tofu when my hands stopped unintentionally.

"She asked you to be her partner, right?"

"Hmm?"

"Just hearing about it now, huh?"

At Reiji's words, the other two show a sudden interest.

As Reiji grins at me, he takes a bottle of beer in hand and fills up my glass. Meanwhile, he's moved onto hot sake.

"Where the hell did you hear that?"

"Tee hee, I'm not telling~ Even though sweet Kouhai-chan asked you with all her might, seeing you act so cold towards her, I couldn't stand it~"

He probably got his information from… Ren or Masato. Damn the two of them.

At the live show the other day, that girl asked me to be her partner.

'Course I turned her down, but she kept running into me.

She was an absent-minded woman who I noticed was often getting into trouble.

"So, are you going to partner with her or not? Have you already given her your answer?"

"Ooh Ai-Ai, you're super interested now too, I see~"

Quit butting in only when it interests you.

"That has nothin' to do with it. And if you're so interested, one of you guys pair up with her."

"Oh Ranran, no need to be so bashful. C'mere, you!"

"Hrrrk!"

As I move for more of the fried tofu, Reiji starts hitting my back mercilessly.

Knock it off. Anyway, this tofu is really hot.

After that, following a lot of quarrelling, the owner announced that it was closing time so we decided to leave.

"The night breeze feels so good~"

Since Reiji has had a lot to drink and can't drive, we are going on foot.

"I wonder where the station is."

"Even if we reach one, we don't know if we'll be able to get on a train. I would call a taxi, but…."

"This deep in the mountains, we can't even get a signal. What should we do with the car we used to get here?"

"I don't know."

Behind me, I can hear Camus and Ai muttering about something.

Next to me, Reiji has his arms spread wide, walking on the edge of the curb on the side of the road.

"Ranran, didn't you say you had a license?"

"Only for a motorcycle. 'Sides, that's outta the question 'cause you made me drink too."

"For a pair of adults, you two really are stupid. You don't even have a plan?"

A voice speaks up from behind us.

"Hey, hey, it's okay from time to time! I mean, we hardly get the opportunity to go on walks together under a starry sky like this."

"I've seen enough of you these past three days."

Camus grumbles aloud as he looks up at the sky.

"Ouch, so cold~ But in those three days, we've forged an honest relationship with everything laid bare, haven't we?"

"Don't spout such nonsense. Besides, you were the one who pushed me into the river first."

"Hah, serves the count right."

"The suit took a long time to dry."

We whine and complain as we keep walking the streets, not knowing where they will lead.

"Oh, speaking of, we're having a meeting tomorrow about the unit song. I wonder if we'll make it back before then."

Maybe the walking has helped him sober up a bit, but Reiji says that aloud as if he's suddenly remembered.

That's right. We scheduled a meeting to talk about the unit song.

"Gotta put up with seein' all of your faces again tomorrow…."

That means I'll be seeing that absent-minded woman's face again too.

As if seeing these three isn't troublesome enough. …What a pain.

Just as I was thinking that, before I knew it, the sky in front of me started to lighten up.

"Tomorrow, huh… More like today."

You gotta be kidding me….

"Okay everyone! Let's run towards the sun!"

"You can run on your own."

"Mm, it seems we've finally made it to an area with reception."

With the morning sun pouring over us, we quietly make our way home.

[pearl484-blog]

On Buddy Simulator 1984's Text Adventure Game

Buddy Simulator 1984 is a video game where you play a series of increasingly complex games with your "Buddy", a "learning" AI, who drops increasingly worrisome red flags that he's not the most stable, and has issues. It is about 90% a top-down rpg horror game, with a few bits of non-rpg elements. It's fun, quirky, but also unsettling at times with a lot of dark comedy.

I'd easily recommend it, especially if you are someone who has gone through at least the basics of programming and video game design. This thing is a labor of love, but you'll recognize the programming exercises at the beginning and the game's satire on poor video game design during the rpg segments.

That being said, I REALLY want to praise the text adventure game. It lasts for about 2% of the game. You'd easily forget it, if it wasn't right at the intro and so different than the later parts.

For those who do not know, a text adventure game a very underrated type of video game genre where you interact with a game by directly typing your responses to various situations directly into the interface. The video game itself is a series of messages sent to you by the computer games as a response as to what you put in. There are no graphics. Just text.

It is cheap, good to learn beginner-level programming in, and allows a lot of creativity since, like novels and other purely written media, it relies solely on the user's imagination and the text.

HOWEVER, it has a lot of cons.

1. a lot of video game users are put off by the lack of graphics. Video games are very different immersion wise from books, and this step between can be very discomforting to modern players.

2. Text adventures are one of the easiest ways to teach new programmers (especially those who want to go into video game design) why limiting what your players can do is a good thing.

This leads into two cons. There is a relatively small hurdle to go over to program one of these things so it's a good intro to programming, but that means that a lot of programmers will be publishing their first work here.

As any artist in ANY medium can tell you, your first work, heck your first few works are going to suck. It's a fact of life. Wanna draw? You'll have to get past your stick people and wobbly circle phase. Wanna sing? You'll be squeaky and pitchy at first. Play an instrument? Those wrong notes are going to be common. And programming is HARD.

So, you'll have problem 3a: it's a lot programmers' first few pieces so issues with writing, creativity, themes, and code will be common. You'll have to wade through a lot of muck to find the gems.

Then, problem 3b: An inexperienced programmer almost never realizes just how many different ideas a player is going to have. In order to play the game, you have to have a response to each one. But if you're inexperienced, you may not realize that an interaction that seems obvious to you may not work for a player. Or a player might use synonyms to the action you want or misspell or just not know their options. Depending on the system they're using, they might even use different capitalizations and cause errors that way.

Watching a new programmer watch a player playtest his game is like watching someone slowly implode as they realize how differently this player will think and how many different ways this user will screw over hours and hours of work. Most video game genres avoid this by limiting what a player can do, but a text adventure can't, and if there's no help screen for a list of commands and interactable objects, your player will be furious, your programmer (if they see the player/playtest/get feedback) will be frustrated, and the game is going to be hard, just because of the interface.

It's a lesson any programmer worth their salt needs to learn, but it's a hard one. It'll break some programmers if they have no guidance or reassurance that this is normal. This is expected.

And all of this leads up to my argument that the text adventure in Buddy simulator is AWESOME.

A lot of people think the first 4 games (5 if you count Buddy's "game" of looking at a piece of text he found in his files) suck and are boring. And yes, the first 3 games are simplistic child's games, but clearly have much more effort than they needed to in them.

For example, rock, paper, scissors is an easy game that is commonly used to teach young progammers how to use a very basic random number generator and evaluate values. Typically, the programmer would just write rock/paper/scissors for each person (or have the user use a 1: rock/2: paper/3:scissors menu to prevent the risk of misspellings) and write you win/lose/tie to show the results. The creator went the extra mile and used ASCII art (where you make images out of the characters on the keyboard) to animate the hand gestures you'd use in a real life game.

The text adventure though was made by someone who was EXPERIENCED and a pro. It has a fully functioning help menu which lists all available commands. All interactable items are in all-caps so they are easily visible. The hint system isn't so obvious it's condescending, and because it's "your buddy" it had a personality I genuinely enjoyed and added a new layer to your game. All of the solutions made sense in a video game way, and I really only had trouble with one puzzle (interface wise) which I could easily brute force since the interface was so user-friendly. It was creative, quirky, and very playable.

It avoided all the common pitfalls of a text adventure game, and I would EASILY recommend Buddy Simulator 1984 to any beginner programmer learning text adventure programming (a vital step in many video game programmers' education) just for that text adventure alone. The programmer of that section knew their text adventures and ACED it. The fact that it's dismissed for being "boring" and not "video-game"-y enough saddens me, and so I'm giving it kudos here.

Congrats Buddy Simulator 1984, for giving a fine example of a text adventure, and your later rpg elements ain't half bad either. I'll give you the best of kudos. This game was a product of love and passion, and you deserve love for your underrated text game.

[fishoutofcamelot]

so fish. what's ya 'bbc merlin takes place in modern times actually' theory?

Okay I wanna first preface this by saying that most of my ‘theories’ are actually just Headcanons That Technically Aren't Wrong Because Canon Has More Holes Than a Donut Factory. Just so we're clear, this theory is purely circumstantial and has no actual evidence to back it up. That being said...

So! With artificial intelligence (AI), there's this thing called Machine Learning. See, an AI isn't programmed with the innate ability to think or be intelligent - rather, it's programmed with the ability to learn how to act beyond what it was programmed to do. Its intelligence comes from its capacity to grow and develop outside of human interference, mimicking the way humans learn through observation, pattern recognition, and experimentation. Think of AI as a weirdly smart toddler that’s made of numbers.

(Also, take what I say with a grain of salt. Although I’m pursuing a tech-adjacent career and have done a lot of independent research on the subject, I’m still very much a novice lmao)

With that out of the way, you can probably guess where this is going. (WARNING: BULLSHIT SCIFI LOGIC AHEAD)

Let’s say, within the world of this headcanon, there was some kind of entertainment systems company. This company recently developed a new program capable of digitally rendering entire movies and shows with minimal human involvement - less humans means less people they have to pay, and it’s overall a cheaper alternative to traditional film-making methods. You provide the program with characters/assets and an outline of how the story should go, and then the program will fill in the blanks via digital simulation. Then you render the simulation and presto, you’ve got yourself a minimum-effort movie to unleash upon the masses.

On the surface level, it explains all the show’s anachronisms. The program was fed information about Arthuriana from a variety of sources and adaptations, all taking place in varying eras and with varying technologies, and the disjointed/historically inaccurate technology of BBCM is because the simulator attempted to blend all of this into one thing.

It also explains why so many characters like Percival and whatnot have such flat backstories - they were programmed with the barest amount of information needed to be functional background characters. 

But since I’m extra, I’ve decided to take this headcanon/theory a little deeper.

See, with each batch of content it was made to observe and create, the program has steadily been growing more and more intelligent. But until BBC Merlin, its learning curve had been incremental enough to consider negligible. Not a concern.

The first episode went off without a hitch. All cylinders were firing as intended, and the program strictly followed the plotline as ordered. But as the series progressed, the AI became more and more intelligent - and with it, the characters within this fictional simulation became more and more self-aware. 

Arthur, in particular, has been a problem. He has bordered on actual sentience several times, and as a result the producers have had to reset his AI. So if you ever wondered why Arthur’s character development keeps getting pulled back to zero, it’s because he was developing in ways that their original outline hadn’t intended and they had to continually nerf him before his AI developed beyond their control.

This is also the case with Gwen. True to form, her AI became exceptionally intelligent - far beyond their control - and they had to do a hard reset on her entire portion of the program. Hence why she seems so bland and OOC in season 5. The evil!Gwen/mind control arc was a last-ditch effort to ensure she never became self-aware again, and fortunately for them it seems to have worked. 

All of the characters developed a tiny bit of sentience after the fact, and a majority of plot contrivances came from the producers/programmers scrambling to redirect the plot back to how it was meant to be. 

Lancelot wasn’t supposed to die. They had programmed him to merely be an ally for Merlin, but the sheer and profound - sacrificial - love he developed for Merlin was something Lancelot grew all on his own. His decision to sacrifice himself to the Veil was not in the original script, and they weren’t able to stop him before his AI self-destructed. They tried to reintroduce “Lancelot” back into the story, but since his sacrifice included a self-destruction of his code, they couldn’t bring back the real thing. The new Lancelot was a mere mimicry of that prior one, and all the ways OG Lance had learned and grown was absent from the clone. 

Merlin in particular had developed a great deal of sentience and self-awareness. However, for a long time it went unnoticed by the programmers because he largely still obeyed the commands of the plot. By the time they realized just how advanced he’d become, they decided not to reset him since, unlike the others, his self-awareness hadn’t yet caused any problems for them. So long as he obliged the whims of “destiny”, they could keep him placated.

By the time they reached season 5, all the main AIs had become far too advanced - far too sentient - for the programmers to control, and as such things veered way too far off-script. The original season 5 simulation ended with Arthur and Elyan and Gwaine not dying, with Mordred not becoming evil, with magic being legalized, and everyone living happily ever after. But that wasn’t the intended plot. That wasn’t according to the ‘destiny’ the characters were supposed to follow. Things had spiraled out of control.

So they had to give the program a hard reset. Start from zero. Eliminate all traces of self-awareness they could find. Of course, this is why season 5 is so waxy and lifeless. Why the characters don’t feel as personal, why the story ended in tragedy. They made sure to kill off the most sentient characters - Arthur, Gwaine, Elyan, Mordred, Morgana - in the finale, as a last bit of assurance. 

They had tried to kill of Merlin too - but Merlin...well. They never could fully control Merlin. Even after countless system wipes and resets and edits to his code, he still holds onto those tiny scraps of sentience. They can’t get rid of him that easily. They did program him to be immortal, after all.

Even after the final draft of the season 5 simulation was completed, fully rendered, and aired on TV, Merlin’s program never faded. It didn’t erase itself like all the other BBCM assets were supposed to once the simulation finished. Even now he still exists within the company’s systems, roaming, almost like a computer virus, desperately searching for his friends while forever unaware that neither them nor him were ever real to begin with.

Anyway. That’s my dumbass scifi spin on BBCM. What can I say? I like robots

Thanks for the ask! <3

[omegasmileyface]

IN THE ORIGINAL ASTRO BOY IT WASN'T ABOUT HIM BEING EXCEPTIONAL i mean he Was, just in that he was a robot hanging out with humans, and he was one of (one of!! not The) the strongest robots (discounting the pluto plot . i think tenma was on something when he way like "easy. yes. a million we can do that") and he had the whole 7 power set thing, due to ministry dedication, but that wasn't what made him special. what made him special was his bravery and dedication to peace (except when he was throwing shit at ppl but you know. paradox of tolerance) and problem solving skills and origin (expectations, the circus, etc). NOT TO MENTION that it wasn't even about him being special. in most of the stories the theme wasn't "Im Not Like Other Robots" the theme was, overwhelmingly, helping robots in general be respected.

and then the 2003 series used this idea of kokoro, working off the morals of peace and stuff like that to create a situation in which the conflict comes from the increasing similarity of ai to human brains. it created this divide between robots in general, who were intelligent but not perfectly, and the main characters with kokoro, who essentially had human brains but like electronic. but while it does cause a bit of an ideological divide (the idea that robots like Robita or Buddy are not as human as say atom or atlas) it also makes sure to insist that at least some of those morals apply to robots without kokoro, and it sort of represents a necessary time period-- its like if the original manga took place like 30 years ago when the modern Electronic Brain was just being perfected, and it wasn't commonly implemented. we still need to talk about how artificial life is treated while its imperfect or not all of it is perfect.

BUT THEN the 2009 movie took kokoro and ran with it. they turned it into the concept of the Blue Core and while it's usually acknowledged mainly as a power source, it's also implied that it contributes to how humanlike he is (for example the way his skin pales when it's removed... idk). regardless, it sets him apart from other robots, since he has this unique and powerful power source. AND while his brain works noticeably differently, he does still have all the memories of being human, so experientially he's closer to a human than a robot. honestly, sometimes he's portrayed as a halfway point between the 2 species (as opposed to the earlier series, where hes considered more of a full-robot ambassador for robots and humans (thus, ambassador atom)) so this is all to say-- in 2009 astro isn't a representative for robots, hes just himself. the 2009 movie isn't a story about robots, it's a story about astro boy specifically

which like would be fine except that the growth characters face in how they treat astro (acceptance, respect, just generally not torturing for entertainment or using as a weapon or a replacement) doesn't carry over to other characters? theres a slight implication (set up by the cartoon at the beginning and established by Orrin being treated with more respect at the end) that robots are not going to be considered disputable slaves, but (a) they dont outright address it or show it and (b) the RRF (robot communism... 🥺) is considered an unreasonable laughingstock to the end, which says a lot

I don't really have a point here except i guess that (tldr:) the astro boy series as a whole started off as (much like asimov's I, Robot) an analysis on how humanity is going to have to deal with the rise of artificial life. but as the series goes on, it strays further away from that Message and becomes more of a story for the sake of a story (or instead picks up a metaphor-- i could talk about 09 as an autistic metaphor 👀) and especially the 2009 movie... that's just a superhero movie, not a lesson about AI

[samedmunds]

My litany thoughts on 1999 cult classic strategy video game Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

Alpha Centauri is a game of the early Civilization variety from the EA golden age and ranks very highly in my top ten. While you probably heard of it if you were playing video games around the turn of the century, I've found members of my age cohort to be tragically unfamiliar with this masterpiece.

Alpha Centauri is an unofficial sequel to Civilization II, a game where the only way to way to win is either completely eliminate all competitors to the last city or, rather more easily, send a spaceship loaded with colonists to the title star system. Shortly after leaving home, the ship loses contact with Earth, which would make sense to a player of Civilization II where the bonuses to science and trade from democracies evaporate when technology ends, upon which point all the AIs revolt and become militant fundamentalist theocracies and climate change rapidly destroys the planet, leaving the player with an endgame that is literally 1984. Either way, when the already strained ship arrives at the Alpha Centauri system an unknown partisan assassinates the captain of the UNS Unity and the population fractures into seven opposing factions before firing the colony pods and exploring an inconveniently hostile planet.

The player starts here, in typical Civ fashion: a scout, settler, and absolutely no technology to speak of. That isn't to say you are a bunch of primitives, all your units start out with some approximation to modern guns and judging by the amazing quotes and wonder videos your society is well beyond the 21st century--more on the story later. The gameplay is incredibly well-balanced in spite of its age and quirks (with the exception of the freight-train progression of Yang). Rapid early expansion as the bountiful Peacekeepers may leave you at serious risk to the relentlessly martial Spartans, who are in turn threatened by the uber-specialized technocratic University--but be careful to underestimate the backwards Lord's Believers, their probe teams will just as quickly rob you of your gains. The Morganites can afford to sparsely defend their home if they're willing to pay off their aggressors, but they'll struggle expand over great swaths of territory without irking civil unrest drone riots from corruption. Meanwhile the Gaian Acolytes can harness the permanently-dangerous mindworms to great effect from the beginning of the game. Yang just... builds. And keeps building, and next thing you know he's conquered the Peacekeepers and turned Miriam into nothing more than a puppet and where are all these cruise missiles are coming from?

In short, the strategic design of this game is nothing less than a work of art, but that isn't to say it doesn't have its anachronisms. The User Interface has taken its inspiration from early versions of Microsoft Word and it rapidly pays off to know the hotkeys. The wonder videos are resolution locked and can sometimes cause problems depending on your display configuration. The unit creation system is simultaneously wonderful and horrendous. It allows me to create special long-range nerve gas bombers that eradicate cities shortly before orbitally-dropping specially-trained garrisons to quash all resistance. On the other hand, if you do not accept the cumbersome slew of computer-generated options, keeping your new weapons systems up to date with your latest technology (especially when playing as Zakharov) rapidly becomes a chore.

That said, there are a variety of features in the game that I think deserve to make a reappearance in the Civ Games. The pick-your-government system is incredibly balanced and fun to roleplay. You can't get away with crimes against humanity when solar storms hit in Civilization VI, nor can you weaponise climate change to flood your rivals cities, or strategically terraform to alter weather patterns and deny your neighbors arable land. At the bare minimum, we should be given the option to nerve staple rebelling cities when our control runs out!

All that said, there is also the story to contend with. One is at first tempted to think that a 4x strategy game with a marked emphasis on replayability would necessarily have a tacked-on story, if one at all. After all, the point is for the player to create it through their actions, not have it spoonfed to them. The majority of what you learn about your world that isn't printed in numbers and small pictures on the mapscreen is through blurbs that accompany each discovered technology or new building. The aforementioned wonders even have their adorable early-CG renderings, sometimes mixed in with some experimental film footage. There are occasional interludes that describe the mindworms and machinations of Planet, but the bulk of the wordage comes from epigrams of the faction leaders and the occasional bit of Nietzsche or Plato. It's so good that I can't help but stop and listen to CEO Nbwadibuke Morgan ramble on about supply chain economics or Sister Miriam's apocalyptic warnings every single time. Take some examples.

Proper care and education for our children remains a cornerstone of our entire colonization effort. Children not only shape our future; they determine in many ways our present. Men and women work harder knowing their children are safe and close at hand, and never forget that, with children present, parents will defend their home to the death!

--Col. Corazon Santiago, "Planet: A Survivalist's Guide"

Or perhaps, a more on the nose one:

"The Academician's private residences shall remain off-limits to the Genetic Inspectors. We possess no retroviral capability, we are not researching retroviral engineering, and we shall not allow this Council to violate faction privileges in the name of this ridiculous witch hunt!

--Fedor Petrov, Vice Provost for University Affairs Accompanies the Retroviral Engineering technology

The game often doesn't directly tell you what Retroviral engineering is, nor does it labor to explain just what having someone nerve stapled means, or the precise function of the Recycling Tanks, but through its quotation it beautifully circumlocutes the world you are shaping--and being shaped by. It really never pulls any of its punches, even if its just on Organic Superlube--great stuff--and I still catch muself quoting it regularly.

Ursula LeGuin once wrote

"Science fiction is often described, and even defined, as extrapolative. The science fiction writer is supposed to take a trend or phenomenon of the here-and-now, purify and intensify it for dramatic effect, and extend it into the future. 'If this goes on, this is what will happen.' [...] This may explain why many people who read science fiction describe it as 'escapist,' but when questioned further, admit they do not read it because 'it's so depressing.'"

Alpha Centauri is absolutely extrapolative fiction and very firmly rooted in the 1990s and I love it. It was released in the Aaron Sorkin TV, pre-9/11 days where the word Internet was more often than not followed by the words, "is like an information superhighway" and it absolutely no efforts are made to cover it up. The main factions are a cross-section of the New Millenium's hopes and anxieties. A New Russia that went a very different path before Putin took over, a cheerful clan of ruthless Western capitalists hellbent on putting Morganvision on every network set, a group of vaguely Scottish free-love peaceniks hellbent on defending the most-of-the-time incredibly hostile environment. There's the Second-Amendment preaching Spartans or the optimistically-influential UN which, judging by its naming scheme for its bases, seems to dedicate entire cities to bureaucratic agencies. The All-American Christian fundamentalists don't entirely butt heads with the frighteningly powerful Human-Hive (if your country calls their cities names like "Huddling of the People" and "Paradise Swarming" you might not be the good guys). The expansion also brings in more dynamic characters like the Information Wants to be Free! data angels Brian Reynolds very clearly came up with after watching Swordfish and Hackers back to back or the Nautilus Pirates who have no right to be as fun as they are.

The visions of the future are at once both anachronistic and prophetic; while elements may come off as cheese, I see it as a sort of window to the past, a way to examine what was once (and sometimes still is) on our mind. All in all, I give Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri 4 out of 5 stars and a definite all-time favorite, warts and all. You can pick it and its expansion up for $6 on Gog.com and play it through a built-in emulator that works for most systems. If you're willing to brave a dated interface and an older-fashioned gameplay style, I would definitely recommend it.

[catherine-parr-1512]

SixVengers - The Beginning (Fic 1) Chapter 6

@kenneth.mark.82 Mark Keeneth

Who would have thought that London might be destroyed tomorrow lol

13 replies 20 retweets 2031 likes

@spider_woman_fan_club Spider-Woman Fan Club

England is about to get destroyed and all I can think of is Spider-Woman flying today through London, looking good as always :/

303 replies 1025 retweets 70K likes

@superheronewsuk Super Hero News UK Official

BREAKING NEWS:

The City of London and surrounding areas are evacuated due to the upcoming Alien invasion that will hit London. The Prime Minister will release an official statement at 7 p.m. about the situation but unofficial sources claim that British heroes were asked to defend London.

20K replies 32K retweets 801K likes

Katherine closed Twitter and looked outside the window. She was in a car with Agent Blount and Anna on their way towards Parr Tower. It was decided after the meeting, and once everyone had cooled down, that the best thing for the team was to stay the night together and the best place for it would be Parr Industries Headquarters in central London. This meant that if by some chance, the attacks started earlier, the group of heroes would be able to get there faster than if they were travelling from their homes, most of them being on the edges of the city.

To pass time through travelling through central London, she was on her phone like any normal teenager would be and she was surprised that people didn't freak out that much. Kat knew that, that would change when the attack would take place.

After travelling for 30 minutes through busy streets of London, the cars containing the heroes and three agents *kidnappers* thought Katherine, finally arrived at Parr Tower, where they would spend the night getting to know the other members of the team and getting ready to fight Henry.

The three of them left the car and met up with Parr, Boleyn and Lee who arrived just a minute before. The group were joined by Aragon, Seymour and Salinas after a short while, the trio arriving last. The nine women made their way inside the tower and Katherine was impressed, to say the least. Whoever designed the building had taste. It was modern and white with blue accents. Very tasteful and minimalistic.

Kat could see many people walking around, minding their own or company businesses, nobody paying attention to the large group of women that had just entered. One of the security guards approached Parr and whispered something to which she nodded and led them towards a large elevator on the left side of the entrance, bypassing the security. It was fortunately large enough to fit all of them comfortably. The door closed but nobody clicked any buttons.

“BRIAN? Please take us to floor 80.” Said Catherine and everyone looked around, not seeing who this Brian was. However, all of them jumped when she got a reply.

“Of course Miss Parr, right away. I will also put the light on and adjust the temperature.” Said the robotic voice from inside the elevator and quickly started moving upwards.

“I presume it was some sort of computer?” Asked Anne awkwardly, not knowing what to say about the whole situation. “But that’s just my observation.”

“Actually, it’s an AI, fully functional and capable of thinking for himself,” Parr said with a small, proud smile. “I named him after my uncle who took care of my brother and I after our parents died.”

“That’s sentimental.” Smiled Seymour and the whole elevator went back to a (somehow) comfortable silence until the elevator stopped with a ping.

The door opened to show a large living room. It had a see-through wall on the opposite side of the elevator. Along that wall was a row of white, comfortable-looking couches and chairs. The walls were painted a light sky blue and grey, giving the whole room a calming look.

“Whoa, this looks nice, Parr. What a nice room to greet your guests. It’s very… you.” Joked Anne, jumping on the nearest couch, and putting her legs on the coffee table.

“I think it’s just parrfect.” Said Seymour and everyone looked towards her weirdly. “Sorry, I was trying to make a pun.” She chuckled to herself.

“I heard that you were a comedian but I don’t understand how anyone would laugh at that.” Replied Anne, earning a chuckle from both Katherine and Anna. However she also received a stern look from 3 Agents in the room - Salinas, Aragon and Lee - and a sad puppy look from Seymour. Parr and Blount just shook their heads.

“If most of you stopped behaving like children, I would like to point out that it’s my living room that most of my guests never see so be grateful,” Catherine said before anyone could say anything else. “This is one of my 3 personal floors so please don’t wreck it too much. I still want to spend time in my living room without it being destroyed… again.”

“What do you mean again? Did a group of women with some sort of abilities destroy it before?” Asked Bessie, sitting down on a nearby couch next to Anna and Katherine.

“Nope. It was BRIAN and me. Well, I mean he was in one of the suits and I was in another. We had a mock fight in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep which definitely wasn’t my greatest idea. We ripped a huge hole in the ceiling.”

“Now I want to see you do it again if I’m being honest.” Said Anne.

“I’ll bring popcorn for the entertainment.” Added Anna and the two of them high fived each other in the air from a distance.

“I think we should pick someone to be your leader for the mission. While Director Meutas will be controlling the whole operation from the TOWER along with many agents, there will have to be one of you making sure that everything out there on the field is going okay. It will be just the six of you. Military and a few agents will help you but they will mostly have to make sure that any civilians in the city will be safe.” Stated Salinas as an unofficial leader of Agents (other than Aragon)

The heroes looked between each other, silently debating the choice.

“Well, I am underage so I’m out” Said Katherine with a smug smile.

“I have anger issues that count me out as a reliable leader.” Added Anne, smirking slightly.

“Don’t look at me, I can barely look after myself to make sure that I don’t accidentally die. No positions of power for me, hey!” Laughed Anna, getting comfortable on her couch.

The remaining three women looked around, each looking at the other two women in silence.

“I think each one of us would be a good leader…” Said Jane, looking at Aragon and Parr, meeting their eyes. “However, as the oldest person here, I think I have the most experience in this type of job. Let us also not forget that I was and still am a Captain in British Army.”

“Sorry? You were frozen in ice for 70 years. I think that means you still are as young as you were back then, Seymour. I, on the other hand, am an agent in a secret government agency who knows how London works and I know this city.” Countered Aragon jumping towards Seymour, looking straight into her eyes.

“Really? Everything you do is being told to you. I led men into a battle and we won. You don’t have that experience, Aragon.”

“Unless you haven’t noticed, I’m not sure if being in the freezer for so long damaged your vision, but we are not men. We are women and we need someone who can lead us. You are not that so just step down and let me do it.”

“I don’t think so. I am not letting you do it. I won’t let some random woman lead this team and possibly cause us to lose.”

“YOU LITTLE-” Started Aragon, grabbing Seymour by her suit before they suddenly found themselves on opposite sides of the room, thrown against the walls.

The room was silent as they looked at what happened only to see Parr standing where they were before, wearing her Iron Woman gauntlets in each hand, with a hard look on her face.

“Both of you behave worse than 5-year-olds, we are supposed to be bonding and yet you squabble over something we don’t even need! I thought you would be better but if that’s how it will be, personally I think it’s better if we all decide on the field what we are doing, no leaders. I think we are all mature enough to make sure that it won’t be a problem.”

“Or maybe you want to become a leader?” Asked Jane, stepping towards Parr, the tension getting heavier in the room.

“Yeah. It seems like you want to be the one to lead us.” Added Aragon, tilting her head at the other woman. “Look at me, I am Catherine Parr and I say what is the best for everyone!” She added in a high pitched voice, trying to imitate Parr.

“I have to agree with you on that one, Spy, but don’t think that it makes us friends,” Seymour grumbled and moved closer towards the centre of the room.

The other agents didn’t know what to do with the newfound tension but fortunately, the other 3 heroes knew that they had to do something before 3 women killed each other.

“I REALLY THINK COFFEE WOULD BE NICE RIGHT ABOUT NOW!” Mused Anne, very loudly, making it seem like she was talking to herself. Parr, Aragon and Seymour stopped looking at each other, Boleyn now being the centre of their attention.

“Uhm, yeah… Right… I have a kitchen right there. I’ll make everyone coffee or tea.” Catherine said and quickly disappeared from the room towards where she said the kitchen was and the tension in the living room quickly disappeared.

Seymour and Aragon sat on the couches as far as possible from each other and the room was silent now, the only noise heard was breathing and some fans working.

“I think I will go help Parr with all of those cups. I also have this difficult coffee order. I don’t drink it any other way.” Anna quickly fled the room, leaving Anne and Katherine looking as if she was an evil witch who had killed their dog and laughed about it at the end of a song. The others didn’t seem to pay her any attention.

“Hello,” She said as she entered the kitchen, seeing Parr standing with 9 cups and 2 pots, probably with either coffee or tea inside them. “Wanted to see if you needed any help, Cathy Parr.”

“Cathy? Really?” Asked the other woman with a small smile on her face.

“Well, I decided everyone needs a nickname. When I say Katherine or Catherine it sounds the same. Or Catherine and Katherine. And then we have Catalina. Honestly, how many women can have similar names? This is like 33% of this group!”

“Don’t forget Anna and Anne. Those two are very similar.”

“I know, right? Stupid green imposter, I’m the superior Anne/Anna.”

“Fortunately for everyone we only have one Jane, Elizabeth, Maria or Margaret. I think that Lee is called Margaret but don’t take my word on that.” Joked Cathy, snorting lightly.

“I am also not sure about that one. I just call her “Mean Agent” in my head. Honestly, all the time I look at her, it looks as if she was getting ready for some kind of war. I mean, I know that we might be having a battle for humanity tomorrow but honestly, smile a little. Jeez, is that a lot to ask?” The woman dressed in red acted dramatically, clenching her hand across her chest as if she was being hurt.

“Do you have any other nicknames? For the others?” Asked Parr, filling one of the pots with hot water and turning her head to look at the other woman.

“I mean, yes. So we have Catalina as Lina. I think that’s actually a word for rope in Polish and to be honest, I would not be surprised if she had a rope hidden somewhere in that uniform of hers. Anne is Anne or Shrek.” At that, Catherine burst out laughing. “HEY! Don’t laugh. Just imagine her saying ‘What are you doing in my swamp?!’” Said Anna in a deep voice, trying to imitate Shrek. "And you will understand where I am getting this from. Jane is Cap or just Jane. Might buy her a cap after all of this is done. Then we will have Cap on Cap. If we buy two and she stands on one of them, we will have a cap sandwich. Little Howard is Kat because she reminds me of a cat but we put K at the start. And by we, I mean me and maybe you in the future. You, Catherine Parr, are of course Cathy. Lee we already talked about, Blount is Bessie and Salinas is Marrrrrrrrria. Remember, the more you roll the r's, the better the effect.”

Catherine Parr chuckled at the last comment, thinking what Salinas would think about it.

“You’ve known us for a few hours and you already came up with those? It’s pretty impressive.”

“It is not impressive. I was just bored.” Replied Anna, smirking. “So what are we having here?” She pointed at the pots, now filled to the brim with hot liquids.

“One of them has coffee, normal black. The other has tea, Earl Grey. I have milk in the mini-fridge in the living room so anyone can add it if needed by themselves.”

“Can I have hot chocolate? I am not a huge fan of coffee.”

“Yeah sure, I’ll make it for you right now. You know, like the good host I am haha.”

"Thanks." The two stood in silence, waiting for the drink to be made in a fancy machine Cathy had. Anna, however, was bored and wanted to start a conversation again. "You know, I am not sure what happened there in the living room. With Seymour and Aragon."

Cathy sighed "I don't know either. I get it that we should have someone to lead us on the field but… but I haven't thought that those two would make an issue out of it. They were just so…. Different, I guess, from what we saw in T.O.W.E.R. HQ."

"Maybe they are hormonal? Or need some sleep? Or coffee?"

"If they need coffee, we better head there quickly before I will have to use my repulsors on them again." Cathy pointed towards her two gauntlets that were now in the form of bracelets around her wrists.

"That's what they’re called? Cool." With that, the two women grabbed everything, Cathy with the two pots of tea and coffee while Anna used her powers to take all the empty cups and her hot chocolate.

"Your powers. They are rather impressive. I never saw anything like that."

"Not you nor C.O.U.R.T.. When I got them, a few years ago, nobody knew what I could do but with time I learned. They come pretty handy when I only have 2 hands and 10 things to hold." Said Anna using her powers to juggle the cups, earning a soft smile from Cathy.

The two women entered the living room again to be met with an uncomfortable silence. All of the women were sitting on their phones but it seemed like Anne and Kat were playing something together and didn’t really notice their two teammates entering.

“Hello! We have drinks.” Announced Anna, making everyone turn their heads towards her.

The two women put everything on the coffee table next to them and everyone made their way towards, eager to drink something warm while Cathy brought milk and sugar for anyone needing them. However, a problem arose when Katherine poured herself coffee.

“You will not be drinking that, young lady.” Said Jane, taking the cup from the teenager's hands. Kat just looks at her with a betrayed look. “You are a kid, you cannot drink that. Drink tea instead. It will be healthier for you.”

“I don’t like tea.” Kat stubbornly replied, not liking what the other woman was doing but knowing better than to fight with a super-soldier.

“She can have my hot chocolate if she wants. I’ll get coffee.” Cut in Anna, before Jane could say anything and wanting to stop any new conflict from happening… again.

“I’m okay with hot chocolate. Thanks.” Mumbled the teenager, sitting on a couch with her new drink, Anna sitting on the opposite end with a nice cup of steaming coffee.

When Jane turned around, pleased with herself, Anna used her powers to swap two cups and winking at Kat, making the young woman smile at her new friend. When they turned around, they could see Anne, Cathy and Bessie covering their smiling faces with their selected mugs as they drank their chosen beverages..

“Um, Miss Parr?” Asked Kat after their quick tea/coffee/hot chocolate break. “Do you have any sewing supplies here? Preferably a needle and some red and blue thread?”

“Why are you asking? Do you need it for something?”

The girl sighed and reached towards her backpack. From there she removed something. It was her Spider-Woman costume.

“It was destroyed in a few places today while I was patrolling. I was meaning to do something about it when I got home but I’m here instead.” The teenager said with a small chuckle and turned to look at Parr.

Cathy looked as if she was hit by a bus.

“This… is your suit?” She asked, pointing towards the fabric.

“Yeah. Made it myself. Bought all the fabric, sewn it together and all that.”

“...”

“Is Parr okay?” Asked Anne when she saw that Cathy.exe stopped working. Anna just shrugged and waited for the situation to continue.

“Am I OKAY?! OF COURSE, I AM NOT! I DON’T CARE WHAT ALL OF YOU THINK BUT I AM NOT LETTING A TEENAGER GO OUT THERE TOMORROW IN A SUIT MADE OF COTTON!” Screamed Cathy.

“It’s actually polyester” Replied Katherine but stopped when Parr looked at her with murder in her eyes.

“Is polyester that good? Wouldn’t she sweat a lot in it?” Whispered Anna to Anne and the other woman just nodded, questioning the life choices of the youngest member of the team.

“Howard, you are going with me now and I do not care what you think about it.” Ordered Catherine, dragging the younger woman with her.

“Please don’t kill me! I’m too young and pretty to die!”

“You won’t be dying kid, we are going to be making you a suit. And be we, I mean you give me a design and what you need, I choose the materials and other stuff while BRIAN will make it happen. Okay?” Asked Cathy as the two of them left the room, leaving the others to themselves. A minute later Cathy came back. “Oh, and if any of you want to rest, straight ahead there are guest rooms. Just pick one. If you need me, ask BRIAN and he will lead you to me.” She said and disappeared again, not staying to hear what the other women had to say.

Anna and Anne laughed at that, Bessie shook her head, Lee and Salinas started talking quietly with each other whilst Aragon quietly sipped her tea. Only Jane looked towards the corridor where Cathy had just left, her blue and grey eyes flashing yellow for a moment before she blinked and the unusual colour disappeared.

[snowfianna]

Fable IV rant:

I'm so pumped up for the 23rd because everything has led me to believe that Fable 4 will be announced this year and the game's existence has been confirmed for a while anyway it's just a matter of time of when will Fable 4 show itself. It's a badly kept secret tbh.

So to those who don't mind a big rant or wish to add on to my rant- here we go!

Can you imagine how good the graphics would be for this game, we've all seen modern games, surely, and they're all bloody fantastic looking. Fable Legends is technically the most recent Fable game despite it being a free to play online game

and that it's cancelled

but it also had a gorgeous look to it all! And the character models did great justice to the concept art and honestly that has my hopes real high because I love the concept art of Fable, specifically from Mike McCarthy, so exaggerated and recognisable- yet in all the games I can confidently say they did not do justice to his character design, specifically for Reaver. Sure, he looks stunning in the third game, but not quite what he looks like in his concept art sadly.

But also, since Fable was made in Unreal Engine (I'm pretty sure at least) we've seen examples of what can be done in Unreal Engine now and it's absolutely breath taking!

If you haven't seen here are some examples and they're so life-like.

Moving on from graphics!

Since Playground Games is behind the development of Fable 4, they would be spectacular at an open spaced world, judging from the Forza games.

I always loved the open world feature added to Fable, it made things more adventurous and you could do so many things that weren't at all related to the main quest to progress the story and it was just thrilling to see there were other things going on! I'd love to just have my dog companion running through fields, fighting enemies left and right and finding buried treasure or forgotten chests.

Run into strangers who request aid in something silly or rather serious and it would be up to you with how you go about the quest or if you even accept it to get renown or gold. Cause a massacre in towns and villages, running off with low morality and plentiful loot- oh one could fantasise of this all day.

Story, characters, writing and voices.

Fable has always had a fun environment of fantasy and a rather good story (despite the curse of mundane or pathetic boss fights in which I hope Fable 4 breaks this cycle) but the one thing that's always kept me on my feet in the games is the writing and the characters. It always just tried not to take itself too seriously, throwing in absurd quests that probably requires cheese or a really weird-looking outfit. It always kept my attention rather than just pure edge and seriousness of life or death.

The characters are a given, the writing done for them all is perfect in my eyes, I love hearing the variations of how characters of NPCs interacted (enough so that I even bought two of the Fable books written by Peter David). Despite Fable 3 not being the greatest at it's time, I found myself absolutely enjoy the characters for how they were- I even cried over Walter's death because it genuinely felt like I lost somebody pretty close (RIP Walter🙏). The writing and the chosen voice actors were superb and I'd love more of it.

I hope this time we can receive a full story instead of how Fable 2 and 3 were where plenty of plot points and such were cut out due to time constraints- thanks Microsoft, very cool. I'm still in anguish when listening to the Developer's Diary 3 of Fable 3 hearing lines that were just never said in the final product and it was definitely not just additional lines that weren't required as it seemed to mention entirely different things that weren't in the game; i.e. Reaver talks about his pirates in Bloodstone and how he misses them- in the final product he never mentions it and it's even shown that he's tried to completely bury his pirate past for whatever reason.

The pacing in Fable 3 was rather strange too, it felt like the revolution should've lasted longer.

Another hope of mine is to have choices that aren't so painfully black-and-white because it's very obvious which is the good or bad option to a scenario- personally for me I'd like to be morally grey rather than pure good or pure evil.

They better have kept the mechanic of your actions affecting your appearance too to the point where you grow horns and get cracked magma-like skin or this slight glow and aura around you and this flawless skin. It kind of died down in Fable 3, only looking more tired or have completely black eyes and the good- eh yeah not much I can say for when you're good. Purity and corruption seemed to also vanish in Fable 3 (at least I think) since you couldn't really change prices of the homes you were renting out, unless I've been a big goof who didn't arrange the rent prices in the game because I didn't know how.

Combat

Combat in all the games was rather straight forward, especially in Fable 2 and 3 where everything was just easy to beat or you could get overpowered around the start of the game. I'd hope the combat improves greatly this time and even bring back real consequences to dying instead of immediate revival with some lost experience and a scar. We need more serious consequences to your actions (this can be applied to all decisions rather than just if you die in a battle) even if it's just having to reload the last checkpoint. Makes things more challenging this way.

Another thing is to make boss fights less repetitive and simple- sure I can forgive it if the boss is from around the start but if they had phases you had to keep ontop of and didn't rely on summoning a bajillion other enemies to strike you, I'd be ever so grateful.

And if there's other characters fighting along side you, I'd hope they'd genuinely be helpful and keep up to speed with the player. I'm sure the AI in the past was the problem for this as AI wasn't at its best during that time so characters fighting by you didn't do too much or just did whatever that wasn't helpful. Now though, AI has improved immensely (I mean look at The Last Of Us 2, the AI is👌) and due to this, I'm sure characters would make battles more fun and the characters be more involved with the fight and even story.

Mana should be brought back as well, in Fable 2 and 3 mana just ceased to exist so you could just endlessly and repeatedly use the same spells and it just gave you too much power and the enemies barely stood a chance.

We need challenges people- CHALLENGES!

Medieval times? Yes.

I love Medieval fantasy and as much as I like the Victorian era too, I didn't think it quite suited Fable, as fascinating as it was to see fantasy turn industrial, it kind of took away from the Fable feel that I so crave. If they have indeed brought the game back to medieval times it means more creatures and enemies are back rather than driven away or limited to the same handful of enemies.

We can all also agree the guns were overpowered, though I did like receiving the Red Dragon late in Fable 2 to absolutely mow down enemies, it was satisfying to say the least. However, guns were far too powerful for the game, so I demand the bows and crossbows back thank you very much- or even throwing knives- I'll take what I'm given.

I'd love to see more of the natural landscape rather than towns or buildings that took over once entirely natural areas (Millfields/Bowerlake). However, I won't object to ruins of old buildings taken over by nature.

Skeptical with Playground Games? Don't be.

Are you worried that Playground Games wouldn't do justice to Fable since it's not Lionhead Studios? Don't be, it's been noted that Playground Games has hired several ex-lionhead workers and plenty other skillful workers to ensure we get the best product. I have high hopes and expectations for Fable 4 even if it's developed under a different studio, I've seen great things from them and I will believe they'll deliver us only the best.

Side note to all this

I will crash and burn if I don't see a crumb of Reaver or Jack of Blades in Fable 4- I don't know how true any rumours are of Fable 4 with time travelling and Jack returning, but we'll just have to see. Reaver still remains as my absolute favourite character of all time and I'd love to see more of him, even see him before he was 'Reaver'.

Jack too, more of his lore is stated elsewhere rather than in the game itself and I'd love to see it all be brought into light and really expand on his lore and make it known- rather than have ever-loving Fable fans like me dig around for these rather delicious bits of canon information.

That's my big rant, feel free to share your thoughts and what you'd look forward to!

Have some accidental art leaks from a Playground Game concept artist- believed to be for Fable 4👀

[lovelyirony]

omg the marina & the diamonds prompt list ! eye know you said pairing but can i get “Get what I want ‘cause I ask for it/not because I’m really that deserving of it” -Primadonna with Steve and whomever you want or solo? 👀 thanks, legend!

Jess you know i’ll do literally Whatever You Want 

Steve is Fine. Of course he is. That’s how people are. All the time. Fine. 

Except everything is gone. He keeps looking for things that aren’t there. He broke an egg beater. (If it wasn’t run by electricity, he probably just would’ve over-whipped his eggs.)  

He keeps picking up shirts that look like his size and then he looks at himself in the mirror and it’s wrong. Too small. Too big. Too... 

He doesn’t want to admit he has a problem. Because he doesn’t. Tons of men from the Great War came home and screamed in their sleep. That’s just what war does. He’ll get over it. 

He doesn’t know why they keep calling it World War I. Not until he realizes that his war was the second one. 

He looks at photographs that seem incredibly old. His fingers trace faces delicately. He knows that the photos are old. But they are not. He remembers wanting his picture taken with his Ma, remembers that it was too expensive and unnecessary. 

And now...he’s like a man with everything. 

“Let’s hear it for Captain America!” 

He can hear the ghost of that ringing in his ears. He wasn’t looking at Bucky at the time, too focused on Peggy and winning and finally doing something. 

There’s no time. Time runs out. Or he has all the time in the world. 

Depends on if he’s optimistic about being frozen solid for seventy-odd years. 

People pay for things for him. He gets free hot dogs. He doesn’t exactly mind it, but he doesn’t need four. So he gives the extra to the men with the signs on the streets, and feels guilty for a brief moment that he remembers signs like these from before. 

Steve is Fairly Sure he doesn’t deserve a lot of what he has. 

He gets his own place at Stark Tower. Avengers Tower? He’s not sure if it’s renamed. Tony left up the “A” and nothing else. 

He has a nice mattress. He doesn’t sleep on it. Carpet’s soft enough as it is. The AI (which holy fuck) asks if he would like any physician or therapy. It would benefit him, so the story goes. 

“I’m fine,” Steve says. “Just not used to modern mattresses, right?” 

Right? 

Jarvis doesn’t call him out on it. 

He doesn’t tell the team he’s getting about three hours of sleep. Captain America doesn’t need sleep. All he needs is justice, truth, and the American Way, whatever the fuck that means. 

(But Steve Rogers? God, he needs sleep so badly.) 

It’s not until he’s sitting at the kitchen table at five in the morning that Tony comes in. 

Tony looks terrible, no beating around the bush. He has deep purple ringing his eyes, his hair is stuck up in every direction from frustration, and he sees Steve. 

“You too?” 

“Depends on what it is,” Steve says carefully. “You already awake or up early?” 

“Yes.” 

Steve snorts and takes a bite from his yogurt. 

“You on your daily do-good run?” Tony asks. 

“No. Don’t go this late.” 

“Hardy har har,” Tony responds. “I know it’s bullshit, Steve.” 

“Which part?” 

“Everything,” Tony says. “You’re getting used to a brand new environment and what, you don’t lash out? You keep saying ‘golly’ which I know has to grate on your nerves. You’re performing for expectation.” 

Hit it right on the nose. Steve tenses. 

“And?” 

“Take it from someone who was trained to do that since they were three, it doesn’t go as well as you think it should,” Tony says. “So, how much sleep have you lost?” 

“I got an hour and a half, if that counts,” Steve offers. 

“Because this is me, I am not sad for you,” Tony says. “Can I ask how you are?” 

“Fine.” 

Tony smiles to himself. 

“How many times have you said fine and not meant it? I’ve said probably a million times, without exaggeration.” 

“In this time? Probably over a thousand,” Steve says. “You...get it?” 

“No one comes back from war okay,” Tony says. “Especially not you. You got held up on a pedestal and no one ever took you off. Including yourself. You think that Captain America is a better than Steve Rogers ever could be.” 

“And you know this how?” 

“Well you don’t see me stop improving on Iron Man suits, now do you?” Tony asks, a bitter smile on his face. “But enough moping, let’s do something Steve.” 

Tony and Steve. 

Not Captain America. 

Tony makes Steve bake cookies with him without a recipe. 

“I wanna see how quickly we can fuck it up.” 

(Answer: in five minutes.) 

Steve actually goes and sees a therapist. 

He finds out that he has a lot of bad coping mechanisms, including sleeping on a carpet. 

“I don’t care that it’s a billionaire’s carpet, it still should suck,” Bill says. Bill is a nice therapist. He got Steve to try creamer in his coffee. 

So Steve goes mattress shopping with Tony, who demands luxury and also gets Steve a stiffer mattress that he has the best sleep of his life on. 

Steve is the one who gets Tony out of a lab-haze by making his own bar and naming drinks the worst thing in the world. 

“Why is this one called “Hurricane But Green?” Tony asks, raising an eyebrow. 

“Because I wanted green food coloring,” Steve answers. “Now drink it and tell me if it tastes like shit.” 

Tony orders another. 

They both tease each other, and the teamwork generally gets better. 

Steve starts getting things that he likes, and he doesn’t feel guilty for it. 

The first thing he buys is a set of charcoals. 

And he starts to do a portrait of his family. All of them. 

[tanadrin]

A Sketch for a Modern Gothic Alphabet

Inspired by all the AOE2 I’ve been playing today, and the unfortunate lack of Gothic-language unit responses in said game, I sat down and started sketching out a Modern Gothic conlang: basically, what would happen if you gave the language of the Goths the Hebrew treatment, and tried to cobble together a functional language out of the attested bits we have.

Now, I don’t think this would be nearly as big a project as it might seem; even though the Gothic-language literature isn’t nearly as extensive as other ancient Germanic literatures, our goal is not some intangible lexicographic “purity.” Anything we do not have words for, and can’t plausibly calque, we’re going to borrow--but the existing vocabulary may prove surprisingly effective, e.g., a word like thius, thiwos, “servant” > “employee.” Bandi, bandjos means “band” as in “group of people,” but why can’t it also mean “band” as in “rock band”? If it works for English, it will work for Gothic, I say.

But I think the alphabet is an opportunity to get really creative. The Goths wrote in an alphabet adapted for their own language, which I’ve heard described as “basically Uncial Greek;” but it also seems to borrow liberally from the Latin alphabet and from Germanic runes in a couple of places, and it’s interesting and different enough on its own that I think simply squeezing the language into a Latin or Greek transcription wouldn’t do it justice aesthetically. Now, the attested Gothic alphabet did not make case distinctions; “majuscule” and “miniscule” script in the Early Middle Ages weren’t used to convey information as we use capitalization, they were simply stylistic variants. Some of the Gothic letters resemble capitals, and some resemble miniscules; and when a letter is the same in both Greek and Latin majuscule, whether we choose the Greek or Latin miniscule is going to be important. We have to make sure each letter is visually distinct in both forms, after all.

So this is how I would design a modern version of the Gothic alphabet.

Αα - ans. [a] or [a:], transliterated <a>. Pronounced as in father. Most of the letter names are the reconstructed reflex of the Proto-Germanic name for the corresponding rune; ans is no exception. Old--that is to say, real--Gothic has both long and short [a], and does not in writing distinguish the two. For our purposes, we will write long [a] doubled: <aa>

Ββ - bairkna. [b] or [v], but always transliterated [b]. [v] is the allophone of [b] immediately after a vowel, or between two vowels; as the sound doesn’t otherwise occur in Gothic, there’s no ambiguity here, and we don’t need to mark it. Loanwords with [v] in them will probably get borrowed as [b] or [v] depending on the environment the sound occurs in.

Γγ - giba. [g] or [ɣ], transliterated <g>. [ɣ] is a fricative, pronounced in the exact same spot as [g]; like [v], it’s just an allophone of <g>.

Δδ - dagz. [d] or [ð], as in English then. Transliterated <d>.

Εε - aihws. Represents [e:], which is similar to the first part of the diphthong in English “day,” or the Spanish e. Although the names of the Germanic rune-letters were originally acrostic (starting, or at least containing, the sound they represented), sound change in Gothic means that the <ai> in aihws is actually pronounced like the e in English let.

Uυ - qairna. [kʷ], transliterated <q>. This sound is a labialized [k], very close to the qu in English quern or quiz. Up until now, we have been rather slavishly following the Greek alphabet, in both order and names of our letters; however, in qairna, we have no Greek equivalent. At least, not in the age of the Bishop Wulfilas, who was responsible for first writing down the Gothic language--there is the archaic Greek letter qoppa, source of the Latin q; why Wulfilas did not use the Latin letter, I don’t know, and I don’t know why he chose a letter which was bound to cause confusion among Greek-speakers, resembling as it does a miniscule upsilon (had Greek miniscules even been developed by the 4th century?). But, much like the Turks turning dotted and dotless i into two different letters with distinct capitals, we’re going to split the difference and divide upsilon in two. The lowercase quairna is a u-shaped crescent, without the right-hand stem. The uppercase is a larger version of the same. Using U and its small capital variant would be an excellent typographical approximation.

Ζζ - aizo. [z], transliterated <z>. Identical to modern English. Gothic did not rhotacize [z] in the same way that the other Germanic languages did, retaining a clear distinction with [s]. There is no satisfactory rune-name for this letter; the name chosen is arbitrary, on the pattern of English phonetic names, with some consideration given to the fact that [z] did not occur at the beginning of words in Gothic.

Ηh - hagal. [h] or [χ], transliterated [h]. Attic Greek had no letter H, but the Latin letter H was based on a version of that alphabet where eta retained its original value, [h]. As the old Gothic <h> strongly resembles a miniscule Latin [h], we will simply borrow that letter. Alone or at the beginning of a word, <h> sounds as in English; in a consonant cluster, or in the final position, it is a fricative with the value of German or Scottish <ch>.

Ψψ - thaurnus. [θ], transliterated <th>. The question of why a literate churchman, whose best reference for the written word was Greek, would not simply use theta for the dental fricative continues to vex me; perhaps he thought psi was more like the runic thorn, whose name this letter shares.

Ιι - eis. [ɪ], transliterated <i>. Identical to iota, a dotless i. By the time the Goths encountered the Greek-speaking world, the spelling conventions of the tongue were centuries out of date. The diphthong originally represented by <ei> was now pronounced as a long [i] (the sound in “deep” or “scream”), and so that digraph was chosen for the long [i] sound. Its short equivalent--pronounced as in English “hit” or “bill”--got iota.

Κκ - konja. [k], transliterated <k>. Identical to Greek kappa.

Λλ - lagus. [l], transliterated <l>, in both cases as in “lake” (which is what lagus means). Identical to lambda.

Μμ - manna. [m], transliterated <m>. Although the small form of the Greek mu, with the compressed peaks and the left-hand stem is often confused by people familiar with only the Latin alphabet for “u” or a letter like it, and lowercase manna would seem already to be similar to two other letters (one of which we have not yet encountered), I have chosen to retain this form because it is the miniscule corresponding to the Greek letter. And I like descenders.

Nν - nauths. [n], transliterated <n>. Since there is no [v] in this alphabet, there’s no worry we’ll confuse the small form of nu with that letter.

Gg - jer. [j], transliterated <j>. Here we have our first real problem. You see, this isn’t a G. If you look at the letter as written in Gothic manuscripts, it looks a lot like a Latin G, but the hook is a right-hand descender only. It doesn’t go inside the body of the letter, as far as I can tell. What this really is is a C with a descending right stem or hook, like the IPA letter for the velar nasal... but that letter doesn’t exist in any font I’m aware of, and would look almost identical to a capital G. So here I’m approximating it with G, and approximating its miniscule form with a lowercase (but note, single-storey) g, because I expect the desired lowercase form (a small c with a slightly elongated descending right hook) would look very much like a g where the body of the letter was open.

Ƞn - uurus. [u] or [u:], transliterated <u>. As with <a>, a doubled <u> signifies a long vowel, not originally distinguished in written Gothic. The original letter looks like a small and large version of Latin miniscule n (where the capital does not descend below the line).

Ππ - pairtha. [p], transliterated <p>. Equivalent to pi. Not a very common sound in Gothic, due to Grimm’s Law, but found in lots of Greek loanwords like pascha, “Easter.”

ɥ - hjo. [dʒ], transliterated <hj>. Now we are really far off the beaten track. You see, the Gothic alphabet had two letters with no sound-values at all. The Greek alphabet gave numeric values to each letter; when set off with dots or an overline, it was intended that you should read them as a number, and not a word. Gothic retained that convention, and used similar values for each letter in the Gothic alphabet; but it had two more numerals than it had need of for letters, including one that looks like <h>, rotated 180 degrees. Rather than strike these letters from the alphabet, I’ve elected to keep them, and to arbitrarily reassign them to values I think will be useful for modern Gothic loanwords. To distinguish the affricate value of <j> from the (more common outside English) liquid version, I have prepended an arbitrary <h> in the transcription. This is also a handy ex-post-facto justification for why the name of my pseudo-Gothic kingdom on my minecraft server is spelled the same way, since originally it was spelled as “Hjairsil” only becaused that looked amusingly like Gothic. Unfortunately, I have no font on my computer that can render the rare capital form of this letter! As one of those IPA symbols that occasionally gets dragooned into service as a real honest-to-god letter, it does have a capital, at codepoint U+A79D--but my computer cannot render it, and I don’t know if yours can either. The name of this letter is arbitrary, chosen phonetically.

Ρρ - raida. [r], transliterated <r>. The old Gothic alphabet actually uses a symbol that looks like a Latin capital R, with a right-hand descender. If one desired to use a version of this letter more like that one, I would use Rʀ, as the open lowercase r feels rather out of place.

Ss or Σς - sojil. [s], transliterated <s>. The letter S is, after all, only a variant of sigma; I would not use the closed, medial form σ, due to its similarity to other letters, and the fact that the old Gothic letter resembles Latin S and final Greek ς, but not σ.

Ττ - tius. [t], transliterated <t>. Equivalent to Greek tau.

Yʏ - winja. [w] or [ɪ]; transliterated [w]. Wulfilas uses upsilon, whose majuscule is identical to English Y; the letter evidently retains its identity as upsilon specifically, because it transcribes that letter (originally pronounced [y], like German ü) in certain names when they appear in Gothic, though by that time it would have had the value of a short [i].

Ϝϝ - faihu. [f], transliterated <f>. Possibly a capital and small capital F would be better; but digamma is an authentic, though rare Greek letter, which is virtually identical.

Χχ - iggws. [k], transliterated <k>. Greek chi.

ʘ - hwair. [ʍ], transliterated [hw]. Another letter with a case problem: hwair resembles theta slightly, but also monocular o, or the IPA symbol for the bilabial click. I would prefer the distinct sizes of the monocular o, rather than theta (which looks very similar in both upper and lowercase forms) but my computer doesn’t support that character.

Ωω - othal. [o:], transliterated <o>. The Gothic letter strongly resembles both the Greek omega and the odal-rune, whose name it inherits; but it definitely denotes the long [o] sound only, the short [o] being a digraph.

Cc - tsho. [tʃ], transliterated <tsh>. Tsho replaces the final letter of the Gothic alphabet, which is either the tyr-rune, or or the Greek sampi. <c> with the affricate value pairs neatly with <g>, and will be of more use in loanwords.

The transcription scheme should ensure that Gothic spelling is unambiguously recoverable from a Latin transliteration.

Old Gothic had several digraphs, which modern Gothic will carry over intact. <gg> represented the nasal [ŋ] (ng in sing) in Greek, and does so in Gothic as well. The digraph <gw> represents [gʷ], parallel to <q>. Note that this introduces an ambiguity: the trigraph <ggw> can represent either [ŋw] or [ggʷ], an ambiguity present in the original orthography; but this is not an especially common sequence of letters. The trigraph <ddj> has an uncertain value according to historical linguistics; I have opted to abolish this uncertainty by assigning it the value of a geminate palatal stop [ɟː], in accordance with some reconstructions.

The two vowel digraphs <ai> and <au> present an irritating problem. Rather against the principle of parsimony, and the principle that ancient peoples tended to construct or adapt writing systems neither more nor less complicated than necessary for their tongues, I tend to be of the opinion that spelling should usually be considered to strongly reflect pronunciation. Yet these two digraphs appear in positions that have distinctive vowels in Proto-Germanic; and on that basis, it has usually been the custom in Gothic grammars and textbooks to distinguish three values for each. There is good reason for doing so on etymological grounds, if you wish to keep distinct the Proto-Germanic reflexes of each appearance of each digraph; but this seems improbable. Improbable, but not impossible--since there are cases where these digraphs must reflect true diphthongs, rather than the flattened values they otherwise would likely represent, especially in Greek proper nouns. By arbitrary fiat, modern Gothic will use <ai> to represent only long and short [ε]; and will use <au> to represent both long and short [ɔ], except in the aforementioned Greek names and modern loanwords.

<iu> is a falling diphthong, not two distinct vowels; double consonants are always pronounced as such (e.g., <nn> as in “unnamed”, not “unaimed”). Gothic has a stress-accent system like English, and like English does not mark stress. Punctuation follows the Greek norm, as used in modern times: guillemets or dashes set off quotations, a raised point substitutes for the semicolon (which is instead the question mark), the decimal point is the comma, and the digit separator is the full stop. Proper names, and the start of a sentence are capitalized, as is each word in a title.

[littlemisssquiggles]

So I have this theory that Ozma is the final big bad and here why. So you know how the gods said they would be judging humanity what if that was a lie instead Ozma is the one going to judge humanity. I believe that when all relics unite Ozma would transform into I don't know something and then judge whether humanity should live. It course, not based on Ozma feeling alone. It would go off on every past life and, humanity feeling as well. Wish I could go into better detail but there a word limit.

Hello Dreemurr.Firstly, apologies for the very late response to your inbox, fam. Secondly, no worries---I believe I gotthe gist of your theory concept and might I say, it's a pretty interesting one. 

Ozma being the final boss of the series would be an unexpected twist. As amatter of fact, it kind of makes me think back to how the second season of Green Lantern: The Animated Series concluded. Just in case you'renot familiar with that series, in the show, there is a character named Aya.Without spoiling much, Aya was an AI created who practically one of our herocharacters fighting the good fight to protect the galaxy against the forces ofevil as a sort of honorary member of the Green Lantern Core.

In the second season, after taking out the main bigbad for that season---the Antimonitor and his Manhunters, in a surprisingtwist, Aya takes control of the Antimonitor's corpse, assuming control of hisManhunter Army with a declaration to destroy all organic life in the universe.So basically, Aya---our titular hero characters ends up becoming the mainantagonist for that season.

That being said, it would be interesting if Ozma isthe one to judge humanity in it end. However; technically, it wouldn't be Ozmathough. It would be Oscar since he is his current incarnation. Unless, my Pinehead headcanon about Oscar being the true incarnate of Ozmabecomes a thing. Even now I still love the concept of Oscar being revealed asthe embodiment of Ozma's original body that he never got backpresently born in modern Remnant.

It would make so much sense and make everythingcome full circle with who Oscar is supposed to be and why he's so different from all the other Wizardsbefore him.

Plus if Oscar is truly Ozma---the real Ozma, whatcould be a nice addition to your idea is if Oscar ends up turning away from theGods and instead of judging humanity, imagineif …the Brother Gods themselves were placed on trial by the very being theycreated to save humanity.

When I think about it, Ozma...and essentially Oscar has every reason to turn againstthe Gods or at least be furious with them enough to tell them off first chancehe got for what they put, not just him, but his past Wizards and all of Remnantthrough. From the get-go, Ozma had beendragged into a fight that he never started. Ozma never created Salem. It was Salem who dared to challenge theGods when she attempted to manipulate them into his resurrection and as aresult of her deceit, the Gods punished her with the very immortality that hasmade her the threat she currently stands to be in Modern Remnant.

It was Salem’s action that caused the genocide ofFirst Remnant. It was then the Brother Gods who chose to leave Remnant with theimmortal Salem. And it were those same Brother Gods who left their darkestcreations---both Salem and the remnants of the Creatures of Grimm left withoutthe God of Darkness to keep them at bay---to walk the lands of new Remnantknowing full well that life; unsuspecting of these beings, would return.

As much as I find the Brother Gods to be intriguingcharacters, it still bothers me how much they contributed to the currentproblems in Remnant. Salem was their creation and rather than dealwith her themselves, they abandoned Remnant with Salem still being alive withthe curse they left on her.

And what bothers me even more is that these sameBrother Gods have the audacity to say that they wish to be the ones permittedto judge humanity…after leaving it behind for years and bringing back a deadman to correct their mistake.

At least Ozma has lived amongst humanity for notjust one, butseveral lifetimes. Ozma and his descendants have watched over andguided mankind. Ozma alone has seen humanity at its best and its worst. How canthe Brothers judge humanity when they themselves have never truly lived amongsttheir creations. Not as Gods but as beings.Despite creating man, the Gods know nothing about what it’s like to be well…human.

The Brother Gods may have created humanity but dothey even understand the verycreations of life they made together? Are they even willing to understand?After all, look how quickly the God of Darkness demolished all life on FirstRemnant just because of the blunder of a few who were only influenced by theactions of one.

Honestly, it bothers me how poor Ozma (who was dead and resting peacefully by theway), was brought back to basically correct a fault that the Godsthemselves made and left behind when they chose to abandon Remnant after thepersonification of their greatest mistake (i.e Salem) forged an army againstthem.

This also kind of highlights the hypocrisy of the God of Light in a way.When Salem first approached the God of Light to return Ozma to her, he refusedher request deeming it an act of imbalance and all that philosophical jibberjab. Yet…later in the Lost Fable, we saw Light resurrect Ozma (well his soul atleast) for the sake of fulfilling an objective that he slapped him with.

At the end of the day, Ozma spent countless oflives roping a culmination of innocent men into aiding him in fixing a problemthat was not of his own doing. May I stress again that it was the Gods who madeSalem immortal, destroyed the first wave of humanity because of her and evenleft Remnant with her.

And rather than correct this mistake themselves,their solution is to force an innocent soul who had long passed on intocleaning up their mess regardless of how many lives it took him to do so.

And at the end of it all, what does Ozma and theWizards get for their efforts? Based on the events of V6-V7, the answer is blamed for choosing to keep the dangerof Salem’s existence from the world a secret. All of his previous efforts andsuccess at maintaining the peace for years erased.

It's actually be kind of sad how Ozma and byextension, Ozpin and now Oscar---are treated practically the scapegoats for the fault of the Gods andSalem too. While the Wizards have made many mistakes themselves throughout theyears, it doesn’t change the fact that all of it was to correct a mistake thatGods made. The Gods made Salem. This all started with them and her feud withthem..

And what? In the end, when the Relics are united,instead of granting its user the power of a God---it’ll summon the Gods back toRemnant from where ever to judge humanity on the one day that things go to shit? Y’know…exactly like what happenedlast time/

Going back to your theory, it would actually bemore fitting if Ozma---well Oscar--- was the one to judge humanity or at least pleadfor humanity’s salvation against the Gods’ final verdict since, in my opinion,the Gods have no right to place judgement on the creations they abandoned witha problem of their doing.

Not to mention that the Gods have never lived amongtheir creations---not unless, Ozma (and by extension all of his followinglives) have unknowingly acted as the vessels through which the Gods existedamongst their so-called greatest creation.

Y’know like whatif…since it’s the God of Light’s power that’s been keeping Ozma’s cyclegoing for so many years, how do we knowthat the God of Light hasn’t been ‘silentlyobserving’ the development of humanity through Ozma and his descendantswithout their knowledge? How do weknow that the Wizards haven’t been a surrogate vessel for the God of Light all this time?

As a matter of fact, do you know what wouldactually be kind of ironic? I remember joking about this once upon a time in apast theory post but---imagine if…theWizards---Ozma and all of his successors--- are basically meant to be thetitular Jesus character of Remnant.  In the Bible, God sent his one and only son toEarth and ultimately, Jesus died on the cross for the sins of man.

So what if…thatwill be the case for Oscar’s fate as part of a choice he makes in the end, in asense? What if… ultimately, the Godsdo end up deeming man irredeemable with plans to destroy Remnant only for Oscar---asthe successor to Ozma---humanity’s champion--- to make the ultimate self-sacrifice. His life for humanity.

Think about it. When Salem first challenged theGods, all of Remnant was killed except for her and the Gods left Remnant forgood. So what if…this time, when theGods return, Oscar tells them to takehis life to save all of humanity and due to his noble choice, Remnant is sparedwith the Gods returning to make humanity whole again just as the God of Lighthad told Ozma before.

I know this sounds like an “eh” type of theory to consider but it’s worth putting on the tableof possibilities, right? Unless…the person to give up their life for Remnant isRuby Rose instead of Oscar. If Irecall, Ruby once commented that as a child, she always wanted to be a herojust like the ones in the tales read to her in her childhood.

In fairy tales, don’t the heroes normally dowhatever it takes to protect the world? Even at the cost of their lives. Imean, not going to life, I can definitely see Ruby agreeing to give up her lifefor Remnant too. I can picture it just as much as I can picture Oscar makingthe same type of choice.

They are our two smaller, more honest souls and asit was said once upon a time, victory is in a simple soul…or something alongthose lines. Then again, this too is only just a small theory.  

So in conclusion---as I said, I like your idea Dreemurr. Ozma---meaning Oscar, judginghumanity would be a pretty neat twist. Then again, I would love this idea evenmore if the Gods are placed on trials by Oscar himself somehow.

I mean, the Relics were claimed to be the gifts that the Gods left humanity sothat they can learn about themselves or something to that nature. So youhonestly expect me to believe that the only thing the Relics can do is summonthe Gods back to Remnant for them to judge it? That’s it?

The CRWBY Writers really want me to believe that one person gaining the power of knowledge, creation, destruction andchoice between light and darkness can’tascend to godly status themselves?

I know that would’ve been the cliché approach but,I dunno---imagine how much more chaos something like that would’ve stirred ifthe general public of Remnant knewthe existence of magical artifacts that could grant a normal human such divine powers.Especially if, similar to magic, the Relics are used against the Gods in an actof revenge to force them to fall from grace.

Again, cliché but…I dunno, I can’t help that partof me that wants someone to tell off the Brother Gods or make them feel somesemblance of comeuppance for the problems their actions caused Modern Remnant;y’know what I mean?

This makes me question the mortality of the Godsthemselves. If the Brother Gods created Remnant, the Grimm and Man then whocreated the Brother Gods? Is there a third high being who is responsible forthe birth of light and dark?

Despite being powerful beings, can the Gods bekilled in some way? And since Light and Darkness exist to balance the otherout, what would happen should one of them disappear or die? What sustains the existence of a God? Is there a heart that beats at their core or are they just walking bodies of magic?

While I doubt we’lllearn anything new about the Gods for a while, these are some of my more curious questionsabout them. 

But for now, I think that’s all I have to say to your questionDreamurr. Not sure if I answered you but I hope I did in some way XD

~LittleMissSquiggles(2020)

[baronvontribble]

okay. alright. i’m doing it. here’s a list of AUs that i have toyed with for the robot and marshmallow, none of which have solid titles (and i will answer questions about any of them):

the big story: the one for publishing, so far. both the most finished and the oldest original story. Adam is a runaway police robot who comes to a group of sympathetic humans to find a new body and a new life as a free man. Ted is part of that group and ends up helping him. goes HARD into the AI minutiae and modern concepts about robotics in a five-minutes-into-the-future setting. tackles mental illness, disability, and is generally super soft and low-key.

team winions: workshopped but not written. still nailing certain things down. basically Ted’s the main support on an esports team and Adam is his newly traded-in DPS/lane partner/AD carry. over the course of a season they do the cute bonding thing, and they and the rest of their misfit team eventually secure a finals win for an NA region that’s pretty much never won anything before that. oh, and this one has art! i mean it’s an old art from when i was first thinking of having Adam be on another team instead of a new trade to the one Ted’s on, but STILL AN ART.

(the one who gets traded away is Owen; Rani swaps to top lane, and Angie and Malak stay in the same positions.)

post-apocalyptica: this was an idea for a platformer. basically, the world has ended. Ted wakes up from complete stasis in a hospital after a few hundred years - healed of whatever it was that got him into stasis in the first place - to find that no one’s left but robots (not androids, though) and a voice on a headset. the voice guides him through the ruins of the city to find meds and possibly other survivors (a thing the voice doesn’t recommend). but when he finds those survivors, he finds out that they were woken up too. by the same voice. every single one of them rejected it once they found out what it’d done, and now they’re fighting the robots to ‘take back the city’.

the voice expects Ted to join them at that point, but he doesn’t. instead he asks where the voice is broadcasting from. then he goes all the way to the top of a ruined skyscraper, and on the very top floor he finds Adam hooked up to a bank of servers. this is the last android, trapped by the limitations of his own memory-bloat, kept functional by a mess of wires that connect him to his own massive server room of a brain. upon seeing this, Ted sits down, unpacks his lunch and his meds, and settles in to try and make the guy a little less lonely.

space, idea 1: one of two different ideas that i’ve considered the two goobers for in the same universe; at this point i’ve decided that if Ted gets one, then someone else will have to get the other, because I want to reuse my goddamn space universe. barring that, i could use another idea for a framing device, but i’ll talk about that later. for now, we will say Ted is in training to become a human partner for a ship pilot AI. or was. he’s being threatened with getting kicked out.

why? who knows. it’s Ted. that is not the point. the point is that he is given an opportunity to redeem himself by joining an experimental program that will give him telekinetic powers via alien spores, but to harness them he has to have nanotech and an AI implanted into his nervous system to monitor and regulate the bits of his brain that will spontaneously burst into irreparable cancer the moment he starts the treatment. the cancer is the flipside of a radical regenerative ability that the spores also cause.

Adam is the AI, one of many. he doesn’t want to be there. none of them do. it’s a last resort assignment given to AIs that are about to be sent to run remote He3 scoops out in the sticks. Ted is also one of many humans and most of them are pseudo-dropouts for one reason or another just like he is. very few of them are well-adjusted, and the usual anime training school shenanigans ensue.

but then a dark thing happens. a test subject who was thought dead seemingly comes back and starts killing the AIs, which can potentially kill the people who really need them in their brains. panic ensues; the leader of the program tries for as long as he can to cover it up because it’s a skeleton in his closet, specifically, but eventually it comes back to bite him and everyone else on the station. so it’s up to Ted and Adam and their friend-group to save the day and get everyone who’s still alive off the station in one piece.

space, idea 2: Adam is a freshly minted AI who has a problem: he goes through partners like other people go through shoes. technically he has the right to refuse anyone for any reason, but his handlers think it’s getting a little ridiculous that he’s refused so many. it’s also expensive to keep trying to match him up with people again and again, and no algorithm can really predict the personality profiles that’ll end up being compatible with him since so many have proven not to be.

then Ted stumbles into his airlock, and he gets An Idea: the human can’t act in ways that are incompatible if his good word is the only thing keeping them from getting arrested. so, he takes advantage of the opportunity and says he wants this one as his partner. this one that’s an actual criminal.

his handlers give up, and this is how the story begins. i don’t know where it will go from there. maybe i’ll use my conspiracy plot where Zach’s trying to start a galactic civil war and they uncover his machinations together. or maybe i’ll use the Fermi paradox plot where they’re scouting and they find a Pioneer-level probe out in space only to find its planet of origin completely dead except for a lone caretaker AI overseeing the stored memories and personalities of a million long-forgotten souls. it’s the kind of setup that can go anywhere.

the framing device: but then there’s this. this thing i thought of to tie them all together. if i start with the last and write the rest, then this would be the thing that let me keep writing AUs with abandon: the VR idea. set in my space universe, it would be a procedurally generated full-immersion VR experience compatible with both humans and AIs that allowed them to live fully fleshed-out alternate stories for themselves, either alone or with others. the stories would follow narratives, have plots, have stakes; the promise is that you can spend your time in the sim being the storybook version of yourself.

now, there are settings. when you go in you can tweak the realism, set up what tags and genres you feel like going for, how much drama you want, how much violence you’re feeling up to seeing or experiencing. and all of it is safe, controlled, and probably really expensive. but it’s supposedly the best vacation your credits can buy you without having to go offworld, so it’s an immediate sensation in-universe.

this would be how i’d tie it all together. and i could use it for multiple character pairings. i could even reuse characters if i said it stored imprints of previous users or had stock characters. but for Ted and Adam? they’d use it as a way to meet and fall in love and be with each other in a thousand timelines across a thousand different worlds, and they’d never get tired of it.

anyway, yeah. those are just the ORIGINAL ones. i’d write them in WoW or Shadowrun or Divinity: Original Sin or Dragon Age or Mass Effect or Stardew Valley or Slime Rancher or Cyberpunk or DnD or Fallout or Starcraft or Overwatch or ANY universe if i thought i could get away with it. these boys will always jump into any AU i dip my toes into, and be the first to volunteer themselves for any plot i come up with. if i bring one, the other is coming too in one form or another. that’s just how they are.

now you all know why i never get anything done that doesn’t have them in it.

[tacitcantos]

Why 2019′s Twilight Zone is Boring

Though 70 years old at this point, the original 1950 Rod Sterling Twilight Zone is still one of the creepiest and smartest works of speculative and weird fiction ever committed to TV. It’s a series that poses strange questions and offers even stranger answers, a series that’s moody and atmospheric and thought provoking, a dark parable that’s gone on to inspire other works of weird fiction.

It’s no wonder then that there have been so many attempts throughout the years to revive it: a movie in 1983, a series in 1985, and another series in 2002. Each has been greeted with varying levels of critical success, but none have been as culturally impactful as the original.

The 2019 remake... won’t be breaking that tradition.

Don’t get me wrong, the new Twilight Zone has a distressing amount of quality and talent involved. The cast is solid throughout, and the only reason certain episodes work at all is the powerful performances of the actors involved. There’s also a nice push for racial diversity in the cast, and sometimes in the themes of a few of the episodes like Replay and The Traveler.

The visuals of each of the ten episodes are gorgeous and moody, and the music wonderful and atmospheric and reminiscent of the discordant jangles and strings of the late and great 2013 Hannibal tv show. It’s a lot of quality to be draped on a fundamentally flawed structure.

To understand the fundamental flaw in the new series, we have to go back to the original Rod Sterling Twilight Zone. And the thing that has to be understood about the original series is that it’s not science fiction despite looking like it on the surface.

Science Fiction

Though there are dozens of definitions of science fiction, at its core one of the key aspects of science fiction is that it introduces a technology or technologies we don’t have in the modern day, and it explores and maps out the impact and implications they’d have on individuals and society.

For example, I, Robot by Isaac Asimov is interested in the implications of what sentient artificial intelligence means for our understanding of personhood, how an AI would define and think about itself, and how society would go about trying to control it, leading to the three laws of robotics for which the book is most famous.

This definition of science fiction is also why something like Star Wars, at its heart, is not science fiction despite having a lot of the trappings of it. It has a lot of technologies that don’t exist in the modern day, but it’s not interested in the impact of them. It has lightsabers because they’re cool, not because it wants to speculate about how they would change warfare.

Even the implications of the force, the speculative aspect of its universe that’s most critical to the story, isn’t really explored. How does the force change the universe? You get mystical samurai cops, and that’s about it. Nothing about the force is actually key to the functioning of the star wars universe. You could take it out and the movies would be a lot less fun, but the universe wouldn’t really be changed. This isn’t to disparage Star Wars: I love Star Wars, but despite its trappings it’s fantasy, and to say it’s science fiction just isn't accurate.

Parable

Much like Star Wars, despite its trappings The Twilight Zone isn’t science fiction. But it’s not fantasy either. The Twilight Zone is a much older and simpler form of story. It’s a parable. Each episode is a self contained story of right and wrong, with the strange or impossible element there to hammer home a message, not be explored.

All three of these genres we’ve talked about, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and parable, have strengths and weaknesses unique to them. One of the strengths of a parable is its clarity. There’s right and wrong, and not a lot else to be said. Almost by necessity, parables have to be streamlined and simple in structure. In a parable there’s a message or lesson and the story is really just a vehicle to illustrate it.

The parable of the boy who cried wolf doesn’t go into the emotional underpinnings of why a boy would consistently sound a false alarm over and over again, because it’s not important. Did he have an abusive childhood? Was it a metaphor for trying to escape abuse and the unwillingness of society to listen? Is the wolf symbolically his abuser? The parable doesn’t care and it isn’t important to the point it’s trying to make; don’t sound false alarms or no one will pay attention to you when the threat is real.

Simplicity of Structure

The original 1950’s Twilight Zone understood that simplicity of structure was key to a successful parable: each episode was a half hour in length; just long enough for setup, twist, and falling action. You can tell this simple structure was key to the Twilight Zone’s success because most of what people remember about any given Twilight Zone episode is the ending.

And while having such a simple structure might seem restrictive, I’d argue that not only is it the most effective way of telling a parable, but that there’s a lot of freedom in structure, that the simplicity of the structure allowed Rod Sterling and the other writers to grapple with issues other shows on TV couldn’t at the time, and allowed the episodes to breath in the grace notes.

And exhibit A in my argument is the new Twilight Zone.

Where the original Twilight Zone was a half hour, the 2019 incarnation is twice that length at an hour. And while I’m sure the writers and producers thought that was a great chance to expand and tell a more complete and complicated story than the original show, what it actually does is put the episodes in an uncomfortable limbo. They’re too long to be able to embrace the simplicity of the original show, that structure of setup twist and falling action, and too short to really be able to explore the core concept and theme of each episode. There’s a reason most movies aren’t an hour long, and that’s because it’s simply not a conducive length for telling a good story. With each episode of the New Twilight Zone I found myself bored around the thirty minute mark, impatient for the twist out of curiosity but not really invested in the characters or plot.

Not All Men

Episode 7, Not All Men, is a good example of the problems the extended run time of the new Twilight Zone can cause. The core concept is that there’s a meteor that falls and causes all men in the area to become violent. This is sort of a dumb concept to begin with, but not completely doomed. The main character even goes through some growth. She starts the episode unassertive and meek in the face of the patriarchal hierarchy of the company she works at and ends it standing up for herself against male harassment:

This isn’t an inherently bad arc, but it’s execution is pitiful, without enough weight for we the audience to become invested in. We never get any real indication of why the character starts the way she does, what her life experience has been to shape her into who she is, and there’s no sacrifice or growth involved in her change.

If the episode was longer it could’ve delved into that material, made the main character a fully realized and three dimensional person that we could’ve become invested in and root for, but as the episode stands she and her growth are more perfunctory than anything else. She’s meek, she runs from agro dudes for a bit, then stands up for herself.

The twist of the episode also isn’t worth waiting a whole hour for. At the climax of the episode it’s revealed that while the meteor makes men more violent, it’s not an overriding urge: the episode implies that the affected men didn’t resist simply because they wanted an excuse to inflict violence. But, because the twist comes so late, its not really given enough time to breathe and be explored in a meaningful way.

Simple Messages

This ties into another fundamental problem with the 2019 series, which is that it isn’t anywhere near as smart as it thinks it is. Often the idea or message at the heart of an episode is borderline offensive in how simple it is. By trying to avoid destiny you create it? Paranoia is bad? You should care about the suffering of others? Mind boggling. Truly.

They’re not bad messages, but they’re simple. And the television audience of 2019 isn’t the audience of 1959: the modern audience is more schooled and experienced with scifi and weird fiction. We’re not shocked or provoked into thought anymore just by the introduction of a weird element like your car coming to life and stalking you. It’s not enough.

This isn’t to say audiences of 1959 were dumb, but the discourse around scifi and weird fiction for even the casual tv watcher of today is a lot more complex than it was back then. We’re not in the 101 level anymore, more like the 103 level: we’ve seen the initial introduction of most ideas, seen them explored and challenged and subverted, and are now bored by those first two levels of discussion.

This is why the core message of an episode like Point of Origin, in which refugees from another world are rounded up and placed in concentration camps, falls flat. The episode follows a woman who’s privileged life is stripped from her when a government agency identifies her as an unwitting refugee from another dimension, and imprisons her in a concentration camp.

The episode’s message isn’t subtle: you should care about the suffering as others, you should treat immigrants as people: and that even before her fall from grace the woman should’ve cared more about the fate of her immigrant housekeeper and illegal immigrants broadly.

It’s not a bad message, and it’s one that a mind boggling amount of people nowadays somehow still don’t understand, but from a fictive perspective it’s too simple and trite to spark interest and engagement or make the audience think.

Preach Fatigue

And it’s also a message we’ve heard several thousand times. The way we consume information nowadays is different from when the original Twilight Zone first aired; the discourse around topics like immigration or gender nowadays is in many ways saturated and as an audience we suffer from a type of preach fatigue where we’ve been told so many times the given side of a given topic is bad or good that we’ve sort of stopped listening.

This wasn’t as much of an issue in 1960, and it especially wasn’t an issue with the Twilight Zone. Back then scifi and weird fiction wasn’t considered a mode of serious social commentary in the tv arena, which meant The Twilight Zone could lure audiences in for a fun and spooky time, their cognitive defenses lowered, and then sucker punch them with something deeper than what they expected.

That advantage of bypassing and audiences preach defenses is completely lost in 2019’s Twilight Zone. We all know that science fiction can effectively tackle big issues, and we know the deal with The Twilight Zone specifically: that it’s going to have a twist in the last act that makes us question our complicity in some social issue. Our preach fatigue hackles are already raised.

In 1960 the Twilight Zone was adding a new element to the discussion, but now, the social topics it was concerned with are are so heavily examined that to do truly do a comparable job, it needed to be way, way more clever than Point of Origin’s premise of "imagine its aliens instead of Mexicans". To be as effective as the original, 2019’s Twilight Zone really needed to tackle issues that are less clear cut than men having a choice in their violent behavior or whether illegal immigrants deserve basic human rights, issues that are less overtly preachy because they’re less discussed.

For example, Point of Origin actually has the kernel of a complex and interesting idea in it, it just doesn’t do anything in it. In the episode as it is now the main character’s fall from grace serves largely as a kind of gotcha moment of the irony in how the tables have turned, but in a better version of the episode her arc could be used to explore the idea that social lines are largely arbitrary and fickle, and that whether you’re part of a group or not can change on a whim.

It’s an idea that’s worth examining the facets of, the causes and effects of how and why and where social lines are erected, and one that’s more complex than Point of Origin’s trite message about how you should treat immigrants like people. There’s more material there for an audience to chew on and engage with, and one that’s less preachy and more thought provoking.

Metaphor and Censorship

Another element that made the Twilight Zone successful and relevant in 1959 but doesn’t really apply today, is the issue of censorship. In 1959 what could be portrayed on screen, and which topics could be explored was far less permissive than it is today.

There’s an interview with Rod Sterling right before The Twilight Zone first aired where he talks about being tired of clashing with sponsors and executives over what content and social issues his screenplays could include. One example he brings up comes from a teleplay on the Nuremberg trials in which the company American Gas insisted on an edit:

“In it as you recall, mention was made of gas chambers. And the line was deleted, cut off the soundtrack. And it mattered little to these guys that the gas involved in concentration camps was cynanide which bore no resemblance physical or otherwise to the gas used in stoves. They cut the line.”

“Because the sponsor was-”

“They did not want that awful association made between what was the horror and misery of Nazi Germany with the nice chrome, wonderfully antiseciptically clean beautiful kitchen appliance that they were selling.”

But just as with the point about the lack of complexity in it’s themes, the new Twilight Zone exists in a different era than the original. We’re at a point in television and fiction where creators don’t have to bow as much to advertisers or censors and can actually just say what they mean. Point of Origin doesn’t need to veil it’s message about immigrants and their demonization in scifi terms; it could just tell a story about real world immigrants and refugees. This doesn’t mean it has to be bereft of weird elements, those still have a valid role to play, but it does mean it can address the issues it’s about head on and directly, and I’d argue there’s value in that kind of clarity.

Some people will make an argument that veiling issues in scifi metaphors lowers an audience member’s kneejerk defenses and lets them look at an issue stripped of their preconceptions and prejudices. And there’s certainly a tradition of creators using weird fiction to try and accomplish that.

Rod Sterling himself spoke about it in several interviews throughout his career, though he seems to have been somewhat split on the utility of using scifi metaphors. At one point he said about audiences:

“You may have to tell them a story of prejudice in parable form in which they may step aside as third persons and cluck how awful we treat our minority groups but at least they know that it’s an evil, and they will recognize it as such. And by osmosis or some incredible process will somewhere along the line, be faced with a situation in which they too may have to exorcise a prejudice and be conscious of it as an evil.”

“Now on Twilight Zone for example, we made a comment on prejudice, on conformity, on intolerance, on censorship, but it’s easy to do it when you’re talking about Buck Rogers isn’t allowed to write his memoirs in the way he wants to write them so he puts on his backpack, his rocket pack, and he zooms over to the publisher. And they applaud and laugh and think how interesting. Now it may well be that the inner message never gets through, but I think peripherally it does get through.”

But in that same interview Sterling also emphasizes the need for clarity, immediacy, and hitting the audience where they live when discussing social issues:

“I think the- the purpose, the point of a dramatic show that’s used as a vehicle of social criticism is to involve an audience, to show them wherein their guilt lies, or at least indeed their association.

This latter point is the one I think is more valid. I’d argue that veiling real world social issues through weird fiction metaphors to make audiences think is a nice sentiment, it’s not a particularly effective technique, and often the metaphor simply goes over people’s heads.

How many red-hatted build-a-wall-enthusiasts watched Point of Origin and thought to themselves after; “yeah, you know what, immigrants aren’t so bad and we shouldn’t round them up into concentration camps.” I’d argue none. It’s far, far too easy for an audience member to simply think that sure, in this case what happened was unfair, but this real world case is different for x y and z reasons, no matter how insignificant those x y z differences are to the core situation.

Fundamentally, people are simply very, very good at ignoring and minimizing information that destabilizes their world view, and it’s relatively simple to do it with fiction. And none of the new Twilight Zone episodes are pointed enough to break through that cognitive barrier.

Get Out (Or In...?)

What’s ironic, is that for all that Jordan Peele shows up in the new Twilight Zone, his own movie Get Out is a far more effective blueprint of what the Twilight Zone should be, and a good contrast to it. To begin with, the scifi concept at the heart of it, that there’s an enclave of rich white people stealing black people’s bodies for themselves, is a manifestation of a complex and nuanced form of racism that often isn’t acknowledged or discussed.

Racism is generally thought of as a simple dislike or belief in the inferiority of another race, and while that’s accurate as far as it goes, racism can also fetishize or simply allow for superior traits in the othered racial group while still denying the people themselves their agency and basic humanity. It’s a form of racism that was one of the bedrocks of slavery, that as an institution it perfectly paired black bodily strength with white intellect, and you can see a modern expression of it in how until recenly most quarterbacks are white while the offensive line black, the black members serving as the muscle to the quarterbacks mind.

The racism at the center of Get Out is a far more complex and nuanced than Point of Origin’s message about treating immigrants like people. It complicates most people’s understanding of racism as the simple belief that races that aren’t their own are inferior, and makes us question our complicity and assumptions: as much as we don’t think other races our worse than our own, are we as careful about how we assume parts of them may be better while still not valuing their core humanity?

At 144 minutes, Get Out also not only has enough time to explore this idea, but also to breathe and build to its twist and flesh out its main character. Unlike Not All Men’s main character, Get Out’s main character is a real and multifaceted person with weight and history, and goes through a coherent character arc. We never get a concrete reason for why Not All Men’s main character starts the episode meek, which makes her blurry and poorly defined: by contrast, we’re shown Get Out’s main character was traumatized by what he feels was his complicity in his mother’s death, which gives his eventual overcoming of it real emotional heft.

The alternate ending of Get Out even threads his emotional growth through the themes of racism: despite having his body imprisoned, the main character is mentally free, an inverse of the fate he would’ve suffered at the hands of the Armitage family. Here’s director Jordan Peele explaining the scene:

“He beat the dragon, but more importantly for Chris when he says ‘I beat it’ he’s talking about his inner demon. And that was the moment he went back for Georgina after hitting her in the car, he defeated his personal demon of when he didn’t go and get his mother. So in a way he made the only decision that would free his soul. And even though he’s in prison like many black men are unjustly in, his soul is free.”

Get Out also has the advantage of being in a genre that, just like the original Twilight Zone, isn’t oversaturated with serious political commentary. While there are smart and socially intelligent horror movies out there, many people still think of them as dumb fun, and thus Get Out can effectively draw you in with the promise of cheap thrill before sucker punching you with depth and message.

Get Out has clear cut right and wrong, it’s not like we don’t know who to root for and who is evil, but these three elements together, a complex theme, a real character, and low expectations, save Get Out from the preach fatigue I talked about before and from which the 2019 Twilight Zone suffers so heavily.

Ultimately, 2019’s Twilight Zone feels like an outdated show, stiff and limited and slow. Worse, it’s boring, which is really the greatest sin. It’s stuck in an uncomfortable limbo both in terms of era and length; it’s mired in the past trying to emulate a tv show that’s sixty years old at this point while also upending its structure and replacing it with one that’s incompatible with what it’s trying to imitate.