#i'm also older so my type has grown and expanded

[8x23]

all that being said i will confess i didn't well and truly fall in love with dean, or more specifically jensen, physically until last year 🤐 that doesn't mean i thought he was ugly or anything but he'd never been my type despite everyone thinking he was the last cookie on earth

...well now i do too, so that's character development i guess, though truthfully i think compared to what most people think, i prefer him with the longer hair and the beard the most

[m--rtyr]

I know the post was mostly focusing on Gilf Garroth but I also just love the idea of an older Aph, one I'm her 40's or 50's because it makes the plot make sense and can be used to explain so much.

1. If an older woman lord adopts a bunch of children no one would bat an eye, as she is ensuring an heir. Also makes Alinas birth entirely more surprising as the likelihood of pregnancy can dimish as one hits their 40's.

2. Makes her entire identity of being a lord a whole lot more plausible. Simply put, if a random woman in her 20's became the lord of my village I would be deeply confused and mistrustful but if a woman in her 40's came in and took over I wouldn't think twice.

3. MILF JOKES

4. Realistically, all of the cast would be older than their early 20s, given the amount of experience each person has, and it can expand the timeline to actually make sense.

5. She is literally the Matron! There is no reason she should be a 20-year old but absolutely should be a middle aged woman who has a loving aura.

I am all for it, and even more for it if Garroth is also older because it could make Garte searching for his son be a lot more desperate. Garte is on his death bed and he knows that while Zane is amazing at politics, he cannot be trusted to lead a country. Garte is a senile old man searching for power fueled by his son who is giving very much evil brother to the dead king vibes. Giving Hamlet.

Seriously, I would love more information or ideas about it if you have them

Literally rambling about the implications of an older cast on the disc. lol. Crazy in my corner about this.

We were conversing on the concept of like if Garroth and Nicole were older. Because they would preferably both be older… considering the marriage thing.

And it could either go: they both ran away in recent years, the marriage was one done because neither agreed to marriage pacts on their own and the families had to intervene and decided this was for the best.

Or,: they’ve been gone this whole time, the marriage was decided when they were young, and they’ve both been away from their respective cities for so long that Garroth not really understanding much about Zane or his motivations makes sense, since it’s been probably a few decades since they last saw eachother. They’ve both grown into people separate from their pasts, but they can never be truly free of it. The reason they can hide so well so many years later is simply because people have just stopped looking. Until recently.

Like this whole idea of Garte being old and one sneeze from an embalming and yet without any viable heirs is a big deal. Because Zane is his only choice anymore. He’s too old to create new heirs. And it can’t be Zane. Even Garte can see that. Garte, who in his final years wants to conquer the region because it’s the last grapple he has of power before his bloodline inevitably dies out, can see in Zane something that not even he would risk giving that power. Zane cannot be his legacy. His legacy needs to be the other one.

And I’m just repeating what you’re saying but RAHH

As for older Aph. Oh my god. I love her.

I keep thinking of the Maiden/Mother/Crone thing in relation to her for some reason? Idk. I might do something with that. But either way, I’m kissing her on the mouth. You’re telling me some hot 40 year old woman comes to your village yapping on about ‘swag’ and being honestly probably clinically insane and you’re not going to ask for her hand in marriage? Bro.

I think some characters do benefit from the idea of being younger in relation to the rest of the cast. Like Dante. Just because he is meant to be very much the over-eager, super-skilled, but lacking experience type of character. Like he has the motivation and the ability, but he just doesn’t know enough. He’s gotta get knocked around by the other characters a bit before he gets his footing. He’s a blabber mouth who has technical ability but against someone like Garroth will always fail because he hasn’t really learned what real fights are like.

But again that’s just in relation to the cast. And he does end up older later on and it suits him later on. When he has that experience and has grown. And he’s wonderful.

I have more ideas I just keep thinking of older Zane in his little catholic priest fit and I can’t concentrate. I’ll say more stuff later if you have any ideas or want to know my thoughts on aging other characters particularly older or younger (in relation to the rest of the cast)

[broodsys]

garden updateee (long post lmao)

peach tree first:

have harvested upwards of 50 peaches from it. have invited the neighbors to freely take peaches (don't think they have tho). have given peaches to my brother. so many are getting partly eaten by critters (i don't mind this)

probably have an additional 30-40 in the worm bin (partly eaten ones, gloopy ones, ones that were seriously damaged early on, etc)

ended up with two gallon bags full - and i mean full - of frozen peach slices and a good bit of peach sauce (well, i call it that, but it's really just cooked down/pureed peaches and a bit of sugar. it's good!)

could i have been more productive with it? yeah! however! wasn't expecting this at all! i cannot stress enough how much of a surprise this has been

after all the peaches have been harvested im gonna trim this poor tree down so hard. bc at present it isn't just bowing a bit under the weight, the main trunk goes up and up... and then starts coming sharply back down. roughly like so:

except with a lot more branches and all but yeah not actually drawing this lmao.

gonna try to espalier it a bit. there are lower branches that i'm going to be keeping and hopefully i can get some wire or something to give it some support, bc clearly during growing and harvest seasons it's gonna need that support. but i'm taking the height off... again, lmao. i've already done this!!!! it is growing so much

however, i think i know why. about midway through last year, we moved the worm bin over near it. and the worm bin has holes drilled in the bottom. so all those nutrients have been sinking into the soil and i think the peach tree was just like oh? nutrience? for me??? and went apeshit lmao

other garden news:

although i've mostly been talking about the peach tree, many things are going above and beyond. the rose bush out front is covered with rose hips that are probably about as wide as a half dollar? and it's grown to about halfway up the second floor. ridiculous. some of the canes are easily as wide as a quarter

we also have a grape. idk what type bc like the smartest person imaginable, i lost the tag. also i don't think it's ever gonna fruit but that is okay bc it is a sprawling beast and beautiful and it is sending vines up that are on the first floor roof

a lot of plants i have mostly to control temperatures indoors. so the rose bush covers the front of the house and some of the dark roof shingles, while the mystery tree and grape cover another part of the house. i was letting the peach tree get a bit taller to become a shade tree since it wasn't seeming to bear (but still not ridiculously tall!) but uh. A Mistake 😂

currently in the process of getting one of the many many manyyyy marionberry canes to root so that i can plant some in the backyard. it's very well established along the side yard and we get a ton of fruit from it, so why not just keep it going?

and we have a nectarine tree out back that's in its.... hmm. second or third year, but i think second. it's older than that, but in terms of being in our garden. so it's not bearing yet, no real surprise, and it's having some of the same issues the peach tree originally had, but the peach tree is no longer afflicted so i suspect the nectarine will end up okay as well

gonna be repositioning the metal gazebo frame (canvas top long since destroyed) into the center of the yard so that we can safely hang a new tarp from it and provide some central shade. looking forward to that, altho it'll be a lot of work. been using the water i saved up all during the rainy season and so far i still have a lot, which is nice - been doing a lot of water-wise planting and letting things get their own water and all. i've managed to keep the bucket pond going even tho the plastic is starting to crack and i'm dreading the eventual day the whole thing goes... sm life in there

but it's cracking bc the winters are getting so cold that the water freezes several inches down and expands, so it's like... rly tricky to deal with? debating about getting a solar powered water bubbler for it. just smth to keep the water moving a little bit and hopefully prevent it from freezing sm

i have mulched a tremendous amount this year, as i usually do. countless cardboard boxes - only plain ones, or ones with dyed parts removed, and always removing all the tape. forever trying to reuse stuff. there are still problem areas in the back and front yards, but some can't really be dealt with - like we have a lot of stray cats in the area and they sure do like to use yards as litter boxes 🙃like they're just gonna be here, it's a thing, but it does mean taking that into consideration wrt what/how we grow things

i keep getting frustrated and sad with how many things are dying out there but like. yeah. it's gonna happen. a) transplant shock is a thing, no matter how careful i try to be, b) it's hard to tell how heavily i should water things tbph, c) our soil is different all over the place, and the soil out front is very poor - which some things prefer! but definitely not all, and d) climate change. even hardy natives aren't necessarily hardy anymore, and over time native ranges seem to be shifting, so it's difficult

but i'm trying to not focus sm on what's dying and more on what's thriving, bc a bunch of stuff is :')

[halliescomut]

And we're back for more of me begging you to watch Our Dining Table

So...I'm just gonna brain dump into this post some of the things I liked about this episode/the show. It's definitely going to have spoilers, BUT YOU SHOULD ALREADY BE WATCHING!!!

Before we get to spoilers though, I just HAVE to share these Behind the Scenes gifs, of the the Minoru and Yutaka actors being so precious with the actor who plays Tane.

First, Papa is just wonderful this episode (Tane & Minoru's dad, I don't know that he's been named in the show, and I'm too lazy to look at mydramalist to find out. I'm just gonna call him Papa). He's been great the whole show, of course, but this episode where we get a little more history of Minoru, I really have enjoyed his interactions with him. In previous episodes where he very clearly can see that Minoru has special feelings for Yutaka, he's been a great and silent wingman, giving them space and alone time. In this ep, with the 'fallout' from the confession, we see him still giving space to Minoru, but not just letting him off the hook, which I think is important. He's recognizing that Minoru is a grown man, he's able to do as he pleases, but also making a point to be available for Minoru. I also think, based on the expansion of Minoru's history, that he's recognized that Minoru needs space to work through things, and he's trying to enable that. And that could be because he found himself grieving in a similar way, or because he recognized it when watching Minoru deal with his grief while also having to be there physically, mentally, and emotionally for Tane. Overall their relationship, while not frequently conversational, is clearly strong and likely only strengthened by the grief they've had to work through from different perspectives.

On a related note, Minoru's boss at the ramen shop is excellent. He's given solid advice this whole time, and appears to very much be an all around decent guy.

One aspect of the show I really like, is how they've been working the pasts of Minoru and Yutaka into the present. How they use flashbacks, and how those expand on what we're seeing present day. The flashbacks to Minoru and Tane's mom are instrumental in how we perceive Minoru and how we read his behavior, especially with Tane. And clearly, the flashbacks to Yutaka past and how his interactions with his adoptive family, as well as the loss of his biological parents so young, have had a very strong effect on who he is now. But seeing the sort of missed connection moment of Minoru, Yutaka, and Tane soon after Minoru and Tane's mother died was honestly an inspired piece of storytelling to me. A lot of us are watching this show as older people (I'm in my 30's). Maybe we have children, maybe we don't but we're for the most part adults, and the interactions from all of the adults with Tane, do a lot to tell us about the type of people they are. That's something that's honestly kind of true in general. It's as the saying goes- "You can tell a lot about a person by how they treat someone who can offer them nothing."

And watching this scene with the tantrum and Minoru's reaction, Tane of course is my first concern, because he's a child. I recognize that in that moment Minoru is acting the way he is because he's still pretty deep in his grief, but he's also the adult in that situation, and his handling of it isn't perfect. But, no parent is perfect, which makes the situation even more relatable. But also, the point or lesson that I get from the scene, is that Minoru sees Yutaka approach Tane and treat him with such kindness and care, and it is the boost/reminder that he needs to be doing the same. This stranger who knows nothing about Tane or their situation, took the time to be kind, and as Tane's brother, someone who knows him and loves him dearly, he should be striving to do the same. And part of me wonders if that moment, beyond being the first encounter with Yutaka, may have also been the turning point for Minoru becoming the type of parental figure he is for Tane in the present. We see clearly in the show that Minoru very purposefully treats Tane much the same way we see Minoru's mother treating him in the flashbacks. There's some difference, but the baseline of how they interact is remarkably similar. And it just seems to me that this barely two minute interaction is part of the catalyst.

Now, one thing I'm interested in, and this may be clearer in the manga, is if Minoru is out in any form prior to the start of the show essentially. Because we see the girl who's interested in him, but he has no interest in her, and I'd imagine if he was publicly out, she wouldn't have that delusion. But Papa doesn't seem to question Minoru's interest in Yutaka, but is it because he's just suspected, or because Minoru has come out to him? I don't know. And knowledge of the answer wouldn't likely change much in my perception of Minoru, I'm just curious.

My last point...does anyone else get the vibe that Yutaka is Aro? His reaction this week to the confession was very much "people don't feel this way about me??" And this of course can be directly attributed to his trauma from his adoptive parents, and the loss of his biological parents, he doesn't see himself as loveable, so the whole idea put his brain in error mode. But beyond that, I just get the idea that the confession itself makes Yutaka look at his own feelings, and he's almost surprised at the effect that Minoru has on him. As someone with direct experience...lack of data when trying to work out your sexuality (meaning never really having feelings like you see in movies or described in books for ANYONE) makes it remarkably difficult to determine overall. So it just seems very realistic to me that Yutaka being aromantic, wouldn't have ever really encountered a situation like this, and so he really has no idea how to handle it. It's this new knowledge that he may have romantic feelings for Minoru AND the fact that these feelings are for a man. It just feels intentionally like much more than the trope of 'I'm not gay, but I'm gay for you' that we see in a lot of East Asian BL. (I am aware that trope exists for a reason, mainly to help get around censorship issues.) In terms of the story overall, I don't know that it particularly matters whether Yutaka is Ace, but more representation is always good, because people deserve characters to relate to, but also I feel like it gives a little bit of additional depth to Yutaka's character. Like, he does recognize that Minoru is very handsome upon their first meeting, but I truly don't feel that he started to fall for him until like episode 3, when he got to know him more.

Also, vaguely off topic, but I love that the kiss is revealed to be a kiss on the cheek. Like, I know we can sometimes complain about using clever camara angles so actors don't actually have to kiss, but the reveal that it was a kiss on the cheek makes it so much sweeter to me.

[nerd-soul]

I hope I can articulate this correctly. I'm autistic sorry. Related, and not meant to derail, but to expand, I feel like a big part of it is also that the community(especially online but also in the more recent irl generations who've grown up online) has let "ally" get watered down into just empty words. Every time I see that acronym debate about who the "A" is for and how it never has been nor never will be for allies or whether or not they "need a flag" (which was super bad in the mid 2010s I remember, it has been less discussed now but I still see the "A" discourse to this day, so I guess that damage was done) I'm reminded that so many people have completely forgotten what an ally actually is because we let literally any random Joe call themselves an ally.

An ally isn't your friend that swears up and down they support you and are doing the work but then makes it about them when they misgender you and refuses to introspect about that at all.

An ally isn't someone who swears they'll beat up bigots for you but then insist you go to other queer people about literally any issue you have ever. Regardless of if it has anything to do with queerness.

An ally isn't your friend who's just whatever about everything but would never actually stand up for you.

And an ally definitely isn't a woman who claims they're a huge mega gay ally and then treats gay men like they only exist to be their accessory, trans women like dolls, trans men like little boys, while ignoring qieer cis women and other types of queerness completely.

An ally isn't someone who writes queer fanfic/bookd and wouldn't say much about queer folks in real life or say shit like "straight people need to be represented too."

I feel like plenty of queer people online believe that allies exist but they're just "decent normal people who call themselves allies" who "need to stay away from our community and aren't a part of it in any way shape or form and if they try to be they're evil infiltrators who will try to force us to say they're queer" or some instances of those things seperately and treating them as anything other than that is like, giving people a cookie for being normal? Which is a very bizzare way to think about a group of people who have lived among us and fought alongside us for decades.

Which isn't to say that they are perfect, they're not. No one is. But it's to say that acknowledging allies exist with us is not actually the same thing as falling all over some random guy who said something nice about the gays one time.

Allies are the people who have fought with us and have been a part of our family and made an active effort to do better by us and for us. Whether they decided to because they have queer loved ones or they just figured it out on their own or they're closeted themselves and are people protected in some way by the A while they figured their shit out. (And even that wasn't enough to protect them from bigots a lot of the times and they still stuck with us) It's not just some random opt in term you can assign yourself because you saw a queer person and didn't call them a slur, but at some point online communities just started accepting that that's what it was? (I can't speak for any online communities before 2006ish. So I can't give an accurate timeline as to when Ally started to get watered down but it at least seemed to start to peak online when I was a teenager durring the ace discourse which I can imagine the two were connected somehow.)

I remember being in high school in the american midwest (2009-2015ish), and hearing queer kids my age and somewhat older say that Pansexuals and even aspecs were "just allies who wanted to he part of the community desperately and/or pathetically." (I even heard this sentiment in real life) as if allies were not already part of our community? Allies may or may not be queer (as i said many closeted people have been allies) but that doesn't mean they're entirely separate from us and should never mingle with us ever, or they're actually pushing some agenda as nonqueers pretending to be queer or whatever.

I've always felt like there's so much at play here with the ally debate and their alienation and whenever someone tries to speak on it they get treated like it's some kind of weird attempt to bring violent queermisia filled bigots into the community with queer people and hero worship them for "doing the bare minimum". Which is ironic because we can very often already bring bigots into the community and hero worship them for whatever reason I can assure you remembering what allies are and that they mingle with us is not going to be the end of us nor will it be hero worshiping someone for being a decent human being because acknowledging allies exist is just acknowledging the allies exist...? They don't get some kind of fancy special treatment they just exist with us in a lot of our circles? And no one is saying you can't have some queer spaces without allies.

Yes allies can and do mean a lot to queer people but like... that doesn't automatically mean they're being singled out and celebrated for doing the right thing it just means they're part of our community? Sure some people do see it like that but... it's really not that treacherous? Denouncing allies Is like having a family that's really close to yours for generations who lives next door and you grew up with the kids and they sat at your table and brought their share to potlucks and you saw each other at holidays and then you were suddenly cutting them off because you aren't biologically related. Even if they married into your family down the line. They no longer count. They're out the door.

But when you see allies as just like Joe who didn't call me a slur and calls himself an ally, its a lot easier to dismiss them as not being connected to us and I really think that happened at least partially.

i feel like the entire online queer community collectively forgot, or rather pretends that queer allies don't exist. like. we literally have a term and even a flag for queer allies. they exist. assuming every single perisex cishet person hates queer people isn't the way to go. allies are a very real and important part of our community. allies challenge the status quo by saying, i'm not queer, but i support what you're doing. they exist. they're out there- and yes, many of them are cishet men.

please don't forget this, or pretend that they don't exist: allies are an extremely important part of our history, community, and safety.

[dilutedrink]

HELLO HERE IS THE FIRST DRAFT OF AN ESSAY ON THE EVOLUTION OF THE DESIGN OF MUSIC PUBLICATIONS

I'm planning on adding a lot more information and detail, alongside bringing in more analysis, reference imagery and theory. I referenced Walter Benjamin and would like to go into his theories and their relevance to my topic in much greater detail. I'd also like to focus more on cultural movements, technology changes in sections other than the beginning, and key figures in design for music. Including primary sources is a big goal for improving this work in the future, and i'd like to talk to creatives involved in the field. Throughout the piece I'd like to have a stronger voice to my own opinion running throughout and really place the history of the industry in the frame of the current climate, contextualising it for the reader, and having a more critical take on the systems that have led to the downfall of one of our formerly great cultural objects. weee genuinely love this topic so much i love print media and design and writing and music.

Introduction

The 21st century presents a complex time for music magazines. Once-dominant publications grapple with declining sales and a rapidly evolving media landscape. One can’t help but wonder if there is still a space for music magazines at all, let alone in print. Amidst this decline, however, there appears to be a resurgence of physical media, fueled by a growing distrust in technology. Is there an opportunity for independent publishers to revive the industry with a focus on aesthetics, quality design, and reader-focused business models? Looking at magazine design through a music specific lens gives a unique view on its history, allowing us to gain a deeper understanding of how it has been shaped through social movements and technological advancements. By examining this progression, we gain nuanced analysis of the music magazine, from its inception to the present day.

The Beginning

The first true music-specific publication is widely considered to be Melody Maker, established in 1926 by Lawrence Wright. Recognising the potential of the magazine publishing market, which had grown largely due to an increase in advertising revenue, and the potential to promote his own songwriting, Wright would go on to found one of the major players in the music magazine market for many decades. However, Melody Maker would soon find a challenger in New Musical Express (NME).

In 1952, facing financial difficulties, the paper known as Musical Express was looking for a buyer. Maurice Kinn, a promoter who had advertised in the paper, saw an opportunity and purchased it, starting a new venture into publishing. The paper relaunched as New Musical Express, a direct challenger to Melody Maker, even poaching staff of the older magazine. Despite initially being seen as a paper that wouldn't last longer than a few months, NME went on to dominate the market for music weeklies, becoming one of the most prominent music magazines in the UK throughout history. NME broke from the existing format by understanding there was a gap in the market for a music paper with richer visual content and a more interactive experience, expanding the paper, utilising an image based cover, and moving reader letters to the front of the issue.

These early magazines looked not dissimilar to newspapers of the time, printed on broadsheet to tabloid size paper. Design was highly influenced by the technology used, that being a relief process of printing, generally hot metal type machines such as the linotype. These machines required a worker to input one line of type at a time, creating a mould in the process, into which the machine would pour liquid metal. This machine greatly sped up typesetting and printing, an incredible improvement from older hot metal machines or using moveable type presses for large bodies of text. Linotype machines were limited to one typeface at a time, the process of switching requiring taking out the entire set of characters and replacing them with another. This led to magazines keeping their body text in the same typeface, which helped define each magazine's look, and despite the wide variety of typefaces available today most magazines continue that tradition, tending to stick to a limited number of fonts throughout. Headlines were still created with moveable type, which allowed for a little more variation in type size and style. These headlines would be locked into a frame alongside the lines of body text, advertisements, photos and all other components of a magazine. This block of components would then be inked and printed, finally forming one page of the publication. Images were included via the relief halftone process, which involved exposing images through a type of screen that would break the image up into dots. Via various mechanical and chemical processes this exposed image could be used to create a metal plate where the dots were raised and able to be inked alongside the text of a magazine. Whilst cheap and quick to make compared to alternative methods of reproducing photos, relief halftones were limited to a certain quality, halftone images not hugely advancing until offset printers became the standard technology.

The quality of visuals of music papers in particular would become increasingly essential with time however, a way of differentiating and standing out from the competition, or offering an exclusive experience. The importance of imagery is perhaps most evident in cover designs throughout the years, going back to NME’s relaunch in 1952. Disc embraced a reliance on cover star photography, while Record Mirror set itself apart from other music weeklies by being one of the first to feature a full colour front page.

The effectiveness of quality visuals is also clear in the near obsoletion of letterpress processes in magazine printing by the 1970s, the market overtaken by offset lithography. This is a planographic process, where a rubber roller picks up ink from a flat surface, then transfers it to the paper. Offset lithography allowed for higher quality photographs as it could replicate halftone images that had finer dots of a much greater count than relief halftones could manage. It also encouraged more experimentation with colour as the rubber material used to print onto the page could create an incredibly even solid colour. This method of printing also didn’t warp the paper like the impression of a letterpress block did, the resulting lack of alignment issues meaning four colour processes could be perfected.

These advances in technology enabled the creation of graphics that could fully reflect music alongside the fashion and cultural movements surrounding it, their decreasing price point leading to a surge in underground publications and fanzines.

The Underground Press

Underground publications that covered music really took off in the 1960s, with many started by contributors to sci-fi zines, which were a more established genre. Crawdaddy, which was launched by Paul Williams as a fanzine in 1966 contained critical writing on rock music. Williams had previously contributed to sci-fi zines such as Within. The zine transformed into one of the more notable rock magazines in America, predating both Rolling Stone and Creem, and often sharing writers with them too, notably Lester Bangs, the defining voice of Creem magazine for many years. Creem itself was an independent magazine, influenced by zine style layouts, “The layout was of the slap-it-down/ move-it-out school” as Kenneth Fitzgerald puts it. The magazine closed down in the 1980s, and while a couple editions were produced in the 1990s with a more sophisticated design initiated by Marvin Jarrett, the attempt didn’t regain the former success of Creem’s earlier days and was once more discontinued, Jarrett moving on to found Ray Gun. Today Creem lives on as a small independent operation, led by JJ Kramer, son of Barry Kramer, the magazine’s original publisher.

Back in the UK, International Times was launched as a counter cultural magazine in the same year as crawdaddy, 1966. The launch of the paper was celebrated by an event at the roundhouse in London, headlined by Pink Floyd. The magazine covered politics and underground music that went unacknowledged by the mainstream music press. After IT had laid the groundwork countless more would follow, 70s punk fanzines taking clear inspiration.

Oz in particular is of note when talking about the underground press, its prolific use of colour, psychedelic visuals and an obscenity trial setting it apart from the rest. Frequent intervention by the authorities such as the trial faced by those that ran Oz magazine, among other issues with the format led to the underground press losing coherence and impact over time. Nevertheless these independent publications had massively changed the industry, inspiring greater coverage of media and culture in the mainstream press and pushing design in music magazines forward.

Popular music

Following the lead of underground publications, larger magazines began to adopt more creative layouts and a more informal tone, but as they relied entirely on advertiser funding and ran an overall more expensive operation, could not afford to be nearly as controversial as certain underground papers. The artistic essence of independent magazines was lost somewhat in the process, in line with Walter Benjamin’s theories of mass production altering perception of media. New independent magazines were still being created that pushed boundaries though, the 90s saw the launch of Ray Gun, a chaotic and challengingly designed magazine that covered alternative rock. The magazine was founded by Marvin Jarret and designed by David Carson, whose distressed type and layout design gave Ray Gun a unique appeal. Still, larger papers offered space for professional writers and developed opinions. With writing critically about pop and rock music no longer a foreign concept, this style of content flourished in the majors for a good number of years. However, a change began brewing with the arrival of the internet.

Rise of the Internet

With the growing prevalence of the internet many music magazines started to diversify their content, opening themselves up to a wider range of advertisers and attempting to draw in more readers with a more mass appeal. As advertisers withdrew from magazines in favour of cheaper, targeted marketing offered by the internet, the money in publishing dwindled, leading to many publications closing down, even the legendary Melody Maker, who rather ironically was merged with longstanding rival NME. The majority of publications launched websites and started to discontinue print editions, however a few magazines on the other end of the spectrum pursued the luxury appeal of well designed, high quality magazines. Accepting new formats and ways of communicating content was essential for magazines to persist at the turn of the century, and this greatly impacted the visuals. Clean, simple and navigable designs generally dominate music magazine website design, based on the most effective way to get the content to the reader efficiently. Magazines also use social media accounts to promote articles, usually with photography of artists or events. Creativity in major publications has been somewhat lost with the adoption of the internet, the types and variety of visuals becoming reduced. Despite this there are a number of smaller and newer magazines doing things differently today, and this is possibly the most interesting area of the industry in the present day.

Physical Media Revival

As we move further into a tech saturated world a growing number of people have a desire for media in a more tangible format. This has led to the success of independent publications in print such as So Young, a magazine and record label with a focus on emerging talent. The layout design of So Young Magazine is relatively simple yet incredibly appealing in its nostalgic look and use of colour. The magazine is usually composed of interviews with artists, paired with an illustration. So Young uses a wide variety of illustrators, resulting in a huge diversity of visual content. Full colour pages with reversed out text are a frequent occurrence, and photography used tends to have a grainy film quality, adding to the nostalgia appeal. One off pieces and interviews with visual artists make occasional appearances too. Outside of the print magazine So Young also sells merchandise, organises events, and runs a label. These other activities highlight a key change within the magazine industry with the adoption of the internet, the fact that with so much content being available online, magazines could no longer rely on exclusive photography or interviews to get sales, and instead have to market themselves as unique brands, able to be applied to multiple ventures. Dork magazine launched their own radio, featuring a variety of shows and interviews with artists. Smaller magazines of a higher quality can also rely on reader purchases more than advertisers, providing a cleaner, more enjoyable experience.

Whilst the internet resulted in a lot of websites being launched to replace discontinuing print issues, it has also provided the opportunity for the opposite process, smaller magazines gathering a supportive audience first, then launching a print edition funded by readers, such as electric sound, a magazine that started as an interactive ipad app. Brands in other areas of music are getting involved in print too, a number of labels having started their own publications. State51, a record label and music company launched greedmag, a magazine with incredibly unique design, that provides sold out editions available in full on their website.It would seem that print is not dead, it just needed to slow down, the breakneck pace of music weeklies no longer a sustainable option. Even NME, which had ceased its print edition in 2018, is back in print as of 2023, as a sleek bi-monthly magazine. Perhaps scaling back is a better approach for music magazines, allowing them to become closer to the fans and artists together.

Conclusion

The cultural movements led by music have greatly impacted magazine design, leading to the creation of underground zines which pushed design in a more expressive direction, or the rise of celebrities and an increasing interest in their lives leading to greater photography coverage throughout magazines. The importance of advertising to music magazines is not to be underestimated either. By initially bringing more money into magazines, Advertisers increased the amount of competition as more people wanted in on the money to be made in publishing, and that competition drove visual innovation and a higher level of music criticism as ways to stand out. The changes in writing style would also influence the design of the pages, Lester Bangs rough and ready takes complementing the scrappy design of Creem magazine perfectly. Technology has also evidently had a great impact on the music press and its design in the past century, and continues to change it as the market pivots to something more indie and reader funded. This change in my eyes is the best turning point in the industry, and something I hope continues. I think the diversification of magazines into brands and multimedia platforms will create more spaces for people working in the industry to grow, the magazine itself no longer being the main product but its surrounding community, ideas and direction.

[strangerthings4theories]

Hello dearies <3 can't remember if you talked about this in some of your older posts (can't seem to find anything on your blog), but I was curious, if any of you read Runaway Max, what do you think about the *spoiler* dead cat on fire episode :o a long time ago someone (can't remember who, sorry) in the fandom said Billy might have had an episode of dissociation :o

I do talk about it briefly in this post discussing the similarities between Billy and the Demogorgon. This is a great topic though, so I'm happy to expand on what I said. It'd be useful to switch back and forth between Doylist (= focusing on the writer's logic/intentions) and Watsonian (= explaining it in-universe) interpretations here. Since my previous post addresses the topic from a more Doylist perspective, I'll tackle that first.

The Doylist answer:

I believe the Duffers had a discussion with the author of Runaway Max where they said, "Yeah, we want Billy to 'echo' the Demogorgon. What can you do with that?" Together, they came up with the idea of giving Billy a parallel scene to Dart eating Dustin's cat. After all, as I've mentioned multiple times recently, Dart is basically Billy's Demogorgon twin.

The dead-cat-on-fire scene was calculated to achieve the same thematic effect as Dart eating Mews. It's not truly horrific because the cat's already dead. Still, it's the moment Max realizes Billy is dangerous.

Intriguingly, the scene also calls back to El in S1 being asked to hurt a cat in the lab. She refuses, and Dr. Brenner has her dragged to the closet, where - in her panic - she kills the guards holding her.

So, as you can see, the theme of hurting cats links Billy with El and the Demogorgon. You could write an entire essay on what it tells us about them 😁 And that's no accident. The Duffers had to plan this out AND collaborate with the author to keep their theme consistent.

(See also: the book describing Billy's Camaro as an underwater creature, shark-like, etc, when the Demogorgon was inspired by the shark in Jaws. The Duffers had to tell the author to do this.)

Now for the Watsonian answer:

Yes, I could see Billy having a dissociative episode there. People tend to dissociate when they feel deeply threatened. If we study the scene closely, we can make the case that Billy does indeed feel that way.

When the scene begins, Billy's upset by his friend Sid besting him on a history paper. Or at least, that's what the dialogue suggests. Billy's not the type to care about grades, so the real reason has to be much deeper than that. My theory is Billy, the "king" of his friend group, has started to feel threatened by Sid. Previously his most trusted "advisor," Sid has grown disenchanted with his behavior and stopped listening to him. The history paper represents Sid's breakaway moment where, in Billy's eyes, he's making a bid for the throne. When you depend on the kingship to feel safe, like Billy does, losing it isn't just uncomfortable. It feels like a threat to your survival.

So, yeah. It's a great setup for a blackout episode.

Whether Billy blacks out or not, his end goal is the same: send a message to Sid. Let him know that threats to Billy's power will not be tolerated. And he succeeds because, iirc, we don't see Sid again. Only Wayne, the crazed hype-man, is present when Billy breaks Nate's arm. (Another scene where Billy probably dissociates)

Thanks for the great question! 😁✨

[lazzledazzler]

Lazzle's Rune Factory 5 Review

Alright so here are my thoughts and experiences with RF5! This is a big boy so buckle in earthmates...

Obviously this review will contain spoilers, read at your own risk.

Initial thoughts upon playing...

Great opening! I enjoyed the jazz music~ I did feel like it leaned a bit more towards the male player though. It definitely feels like a rune factory game. It's familiar, and controls are easy to get accustomed to for the most part. The mold is there and rf5 doesn't stray too far from its predecessors which is comforting for veterans. That being said, I'm not going to pull any punches and will critique this game harshly. Keep in mind as updates for the game are released not all things discussed in this review will be as relevant overtime!

Let's hear some thoughts on...

The story/plot. The plot is enjoyable overall. I'm not crazy about the whole Seed organization thing but it was a neat idea. They address the Sechs Territory and it is confirmed that the game takes place some decades after RF4. But by the end of it, I didn't feel like I really accomplished anything because it felt like I barely did anything really. Also they left a lot of stuff unanswered. I'm not even sure I understood the message they were sending, if they were trying to send a message at all. The main story is too short, and it doesn't involve enough of the townsfolk. You're basically doing everything yourself in secret the whole time and the townsfolk barely know what's actually going on. Out of the love interests, Lucas plays the largest part in the story, followed by Priscilla and Scarlett. The story feels targeted at male audiences--at least that's how I felt. You, the player, have a larger role in the game, much like in RF3 and I was glad to see this. As of right now there are only two arcs. Praying for DLC 3rd arc...!

Protagonists. The latest protagonists to join the crew of Earthmates are...decent. Their designs are nothing special unfortunately, though I appreciate Alice's more than Ares's. Appearance-wise they lack personality and creativity. Personality wise I am pleasantly surprised with how sociable they are. They're not exactly quick witted and sassy like Lest/Frey were in rf4, or as endearing as Micah in rf3, but they have a certain realness to them that makes their reactions to things believable. I'm certain Xseed will see to making them a bit more sarcastic in their localizing efforts, so let's all look forward to that. Overall though, while I appreciate their mannerisms, they don't really measure up to all the previous amnesiacs we've grown to love over the decades.

Characters. Overall I enjoy all the characters introduced in Rune Factory 5! I feel like there is someone for everyone in this game on some level. The voice acting was pretty good for every character. The designs are very much Rune factory. Like OG runefa, compared to rf4 ( 4 kind of strayed from their usual style) which I like. Characters still have their own signature quirks that you find endearing. Although I would have liked to see more variety? Like we've had mermaids, univir, half monsters, vampires, etc in previous titles but rf5 only gives us the usual (half) elf, dwarf, and then a succubus (physically she doesn't have unique features aside from the ears and heart eyes), and some were-people. I was hoping for something more unique to really give that classic runefa vibe.

Dungeons/Battles. I'm pretty split on this one. On the one hand, the dungeons have more depth due to the 3D aspects. They've included more contraptions that are very fun to see even if they aren't executed that well. So I'm grateful for that. On the other hand, the dungeons are insanely short imo. It doesn't take long at all to get to the boss. The puzzles are also pretty subpar and few compared to RF4. Fighting monsters is similar to the other games. You can lock on now but I only use it when I'm trying to use my Seed Circle. The lock on feature is actually counter-intuitive and makes it harder to dodge. Weapon mechanics have shifted a bit. There’s a feature that makes you invincible to damage if you time the R button dash correctly. Axes and Hammers are significantly slower than in older games? Like. I thought I was in slow motion it was so slow. Lances are also harder to use as well? I'm questioning my sanity here. I don't know if it's a bug or intentional either.

Farming. Not much has changed from previous games mechanics wise. They added new types of special crops which is neat. The camera view changes to overhead when you go near your fields though, and it can make you dizzy/uncomfortable. It actually makes it a bit difficult to see at times so I wish there was a way to adjust the angle. If you are tilling corn or dried weeds to improve the soil, you need to place them separately if you don't want to use the entire stack. Otherwise, it will till the entire stack on the land if you place them all down at once. The flower shop is unlocked late in the story. Weird thing to do considering you need flowers to make medicine. Not to mention the fact that you wont have access to the fertilizer that increases defense against typhoons? During typhoon season? Thinking emoji...

The town. I have to say Rigbarth's design is poor compared to Sharance, Selphia, etc. It's too big and it takes too long to get around. Everything is too spaced out and there aren't enough warp points to make it easier on players. I don't want to walk an entire mile up a hill to talk to one person and then walk all the way down to the beach to speak to another. It doesn’t really feel like a ‘town’.

OST/BGM. Music was good, though nothing really stood out to me where I'd go "damn this slaps" or something. I think they might've had some old soundtracks from rf2 or something because it felt really nostalgic at times.

We need an exterminator. (Bugs Bugs Bugs)

Marvelous, I don't know how to tell you this buuut...your customers are NOT your testers. When you release a game, you need to make sure it's not littered with glitches because customers don't enjoy dealing with them and will drop the game!

Here are some of the types of glitches I encountered:

Crashing. Game would randomly crash or freeze and close at any moment. Sooooo frustrating! Sometimes you get lucky with the autosave feature, but the autosave only activates every morning at 6am in your room and then when you warp to a dungeon level/floor. So when you're in the middle of your daily tasks in town and it crashes, you have to start all over. Marveloussss no one enjoys losing their progress in a game I promise you that much.

Lag. The dialogue bar is seriously slow, especially after loading your file. Crafting/Cooking screen lags. When you press the Y button to skip through dialogue it lags like hell. Pretty much after every time you load the game will lag, the audio will lag if you're in a battle, everything is just. so. slow.

Repeating dialogue. So if you close your game entirely (or if it crashes) naturally you'll reload your file to continue where you left off. There's a bug that will cause all NPCs to repeat the last dialogue that occurred from whatever plot related thing you did last. So for example, if the last thing you did in the story was unlock Ludmilla, everyone in town will naturally have some dialogue about her. But even after seeing all this dialogue and even saving, if the game is closed and reloaded you'll have to read all that dialogue again from townsfolk. It got really annoying after a while.

Monster taming. One time I tamed a monster but once I named it and hit 'ok' the monster never showed up in my barns? Just. gone. Okaaaay then...? Additionally, I expanded one of my monster barns but all of the monsters I tamed wouldn't appear in the added room. You get 4 monsters for each room but the monsters I tamed would show up in the original room. Meaning I had like 7 monsters in one room! I tried to bring them into the newly added room but they would just warp back to the other room. Sad.

Pond Glitch. I fished in the pond located in Sasayaki Forest and left the fish I caught but didn't want laying around the water's edge. If you leave fish around the pond's edge and go to sleep, the next morning you will be teleported to the pond and trigger the fairy dialogue as if you had thrown all of the fish into the pond??? So the dialogue of her telling you she wants 'X item, not this!' will trigger over and over for all of the fish you left at the water's edge. RIP.

Party member Bug. I had Martin in my party and I made him leave. Then when I went into my monster barns to get a monster pal to join me instead it showed me Martin's portrait???? Also I've encountered a bug where I can no longer ask anyone to join my party for some unknown reason. The R &L button prompt was just gone when I reloaded.

Errors. When cooking or crafting, the dialogue box shows up sometimes...

Typos. Random average typo here and there. Not a real biggie but there is one instance where the heroine will use the japanese male pronoun "boku" instead of "watashi" which really convinced me that this game was completely intended for men lol.

Let's talk about Pros

The good stuff. The stuff that makes you all warm and fuzzy inside.

Plot Advancing. Now I'm gonna put this as a pro because I'm certain the average player will enjoy this even though I do not. There are now markers on the map to show you where to go to advance the plot. This is all well and dandy, but it also made the story less appealing for me because you don't need to go around town and speak to residents for clues or assistance to advance anything in the story.

3D Graphics The 3D models are all amazing. The interior designs of the houses/buildings are also incredibly detailed and realistic.

Collecting items. Now there's a feature that will allow you to collect items into your inventory just by walking over them. This is pretty neat and welcome for the most part. Once the item is sparkling, you can walk over it and it'll go into your rucksack automatically. This also makes lumbering and mining go much faster. Yay!

The miraculous L pocket. Now you can customize the categories that appear in your L pocket by going to the rucksack tab in the menu. This is a super neat feature that makes things easier on players who want to manage their items in a format that suits them.

Weapon/Tool Toggling. You can now toggle between your equipped weapon and tool by pressing the left or right buttons on the trackpad.

Collecting lumber/material stone. Oh lord this is probably the most welcome improvement moving forward from the previous game. You can now put all of the lumber and material stone from your inventory into its storage at once. This also applies to fodder for tamed monsters. Well done Hakama.

Autosave. This feature is a welcome addition to the series. The game will save your data every morning and every time you enter a dungeon. Autosave has really saved my ass a few times when I made a huge error in judgement so I'm incredibly grateful for this feature. And it doesn't save over your actual save file--there's a separate autosave file at the very top. So if you messed up something but already saved on your main file, you can still salvage your mistake by reloading the autosave! I just wish it activated a bit more often sometimes.

Warping. Now we can warp to each level in a dungeon as well as certain places on the map in town. It's pretty convenient for the most part.

Increased party members. Now you can have up to 3 members in your party! Hooray! Party members act more intelligently than in older games. Scarlett can use the Seed circle to assist you in fights. I think she also tosses healing potions at you occasionally. So far, no one has tossed a dish at me if I haven't eaten like Kiel and Clorica did in rf4. But I have been hit by a failed dish (from reinhardt?) and a healing potion (from scarlett). Scarlett, Priscilla, and Reinhardt are the most helpful when dungeon crawling in my experience. Some of them however, (looking at you Doug) don't shut the hell up with their one line of dialogue they have and repeat it constantly.

Seed Circle. This neat feature allows you to capture monsters. By charging it and releasing you can capture monsters for the bounty system or add them to your party temporarily. If you throw it without charging it, you can stun monsters in place momentarily or grab things from far away. When stunning monsters, it can also give you the monster's drop item occasionally. Unfortunately it uses a lot of RP so it can be difficult at times.

Combo attacks. This is a neat feature that I appreciate and use often for boss fights. They do some serious damage so it's good to save them for the bosses. The actual cutscenes aren't that impressive, and feel kind of subpar when you get down to it but I think it's a start in the right direction.

Farm Dragons. I'm listing this as a pro although I really just see it as a new feature. Farm dragons have fields on their backs that you can place monster barns on and farm on. Giving them certain crystals will give your fields boosts in certain criteria, like length of growth, soil quality, you get it. I personally don't use the crystals because I couldn't give a shit lmao I have men and women to woo here. But if you're into this kinda thing then it's a pro.

Storage. When opening your storage box, fridge, etc. you can actually hit the R & L buttons to switch between ALL of your other storages. Looooove thissss. Great addition. So much faster to put items away in their respective places.

Crafting/Forging. Now we can also use the R & L buttons to alternate between the different weapon types/accessory/gear types instead of having to exit the menu and going back in each time you want to make something different.

Cooking. More recipes have been added. Yay!

Days are longer now. More time to get shit doneeeee ayyyy

Fishing. They've added many more fish to the game! Now the player will shout something when you get a bite, making it easier for you to hit B at the right moment. Nice. Also if you fail or press B too early, the fish doesn't vanish most of the time. Also nice. There is now a feature to fish with another person's assistance. Once a day you can investigate the sign near the fishing station and someone might offer to lend you a hand. Press the B button at the right moments on the slider and you can get a rare fish that can't be caught normally.

Monsters. New types of monsters! Love the designs. Even the monsters that are the same but just have different skins are really neat. They look great in the 3D format too. You can even ride with up to two people on certain monsters! Some bosses had awesome designs while others...were bad.

New Types of Furniture. The carpenter store has a wide arrange of furniture you can buy for your home. It also has wallpapers and stuff which is really neat. Though unfortunately you can't even sit on some of the furniture so that's a shame.

Events. Now there is a system where events are triggered by approaching an icon on the map. This is probably an improvement to RF4's randomized system, though personally I found it annoying because it meant that I had to see the events before I could just enter a building normally. Sometimes I just wanted to get shit done and not have to read through walls of text for someone's love event when I just want to buy something.

Voiced Lines. The protagonist seems to have more voiced lines, as do other characters. Good!

Let's talk about Cons

Not including glitches. Oh boy. So many cons. Where do I start?

Dialogue. Probably the most notable con in the entire game. The dialogue is drastically minimal in comparison to previous games, especially rf4. There is probably a quarter of the amount of dialogue compared to rf4's insane amount of content if not less. Townsfolk repeat themselves. Often. Too often. Am I playing Harvest Moon? Originally I thought it was because the dialogue is randomized, but I think it's actually because more dialogue is unlocked as you raise townspeople's FP. Despite this, there's no linear build up where you start off as acquaintances and eventually become very close like in rf4 because of how sporadic the LP/FP is. Townsfolk don't even talk to each other. One of the greatest perks about runefa is the conversations townsfolk can have with one another. Residents randomly gathering in small groups to talk about anything. Previously you could add someone to your party and sometimes a dialogue will occur if you speak to the right person at the right time with that person in your party. This is nonexistent now. The only time they do this in rf5 is during the festivals. But, it will only trigger if you have unlocked all the characters in each marriageable lineup and they can't be in your party. The residents will talk about one another but that's pretty much it outside of town events. They got rid of all the minor dialogue that occurs too. Trying to sleep in someone's bed while they're right there? They wont comment. Inspecting objects in stores while the shopkeeper is present? Wont say anything. Take a character with you to a dungeon/boss fight? Their lips are sealed. Where's my sense of community? :(

FP/LP This ties into the dialogue issue. The rate at which LP/FP increases is sporadic as hell. You can go from 1FP/LP to 4FP/LP just by giving a gift sometimes. I wouldn't even speak to people and their affinity increased by like triple for no reason. Then it increases by like 2% for the longest time. Argh!!!

Graphics. I don't consider myself very picky when it comes to graphics. I don't really mind that the foliage and scenery are at the level of a ps2 game at best. I tried playing on my television initially, but the lag and camera operability was too much so I fully switched (haha puns) to handheld. One thing that sucked is that I literally cannot tell the difference between medicinal herbs, antidote grasses, and green grasses without the captions because the graphics are so indistinguishable. So when you're trying to pick up multiples of those items by holding the A button, you're just randomly walking over anything green in the hopes that you'll get the right ones...

Lack of Sound Effects. Something I noticed is they got rid of the sound effects that will play when you complete a puzzle or add someone to your party. When you try to brush a monster there's no sound for the '♪' they make when you successfully brush them. So it was hard for me to tell if I had actually brushed them or not. I was a bit saddened by the lack of cute sounds.

Too much free range. From the very beginning of the game, you're allowed to go pretty much wherever you want when leaving town. It was too easy to stumble into high enemy level territory without knowing, so when I was like level 5 so I got KO'd immediately.

Artwork. The portraits seem to be lower in quality somehow. Runefa has always had shitty portrait art imo but this time it's even worse. Many character's eyes looked fucked up. Though the 3D models are insanely good for mostly every character except Terry. Terry's 3D model looks Terryfying and I prefer his portrait.

Festivals. They've added some new festivals. Some I enjoy. Some not so much. They changed the format of the eating contest. It's horrible. Good luck with that one.

L pocket + R button? They got rid of the feature that lets you skip to the other end of your items when opening the L pocket by pressing R button. I really liked that feature because it made it faster to reach my items so I was bummed that they got rid of it.

Gotta go fast. Now when you speak to someone, it doesn't 'stop time' as you might say it did in previous games. So people are still moving about as you speak to someone, making it harder to catch up to people! Annoying!!!

Catch and release? Not in my farming simulator! Say goodbye to being able to toss a fish you caught back into the water. In fact, say goodbye to tossing anything you don't want anymore into the water. Now you just have an army of fish flopping on the ground around you. And with the auto pick up feature, they're probably going to end up in your inventory anyways once you try to move. There are still certain ponds with fairies that you can toss stuff into, but you'll have to deal with the fairy harping at you for giving her something she doesn't want.

Shop Hours. Oh god. The shop owners don't even open their stores at the correct hours? It says open at 9am. If you speak to them they won't open their store until like 9:07??? But Priscilla and Lucy will show up to work their part-time jobs at around 8:30am and you can buy stuff through them before 9am. So the actual shop owners (for the bread shop and general store) are pointless usually. Additionally, if the store is empty (but open) you can no longer add a shopkeeper into your party and then enter their store with them to buy things from them. Why. Just why. When you want to buy something that only a specific person sells (Only Hina sells fish, only Heinz sells misc items) you have to wait for them to finally decide to work in their own store. Wonderful.

Monster Item drops. Maybe I'm crazy but the monster drops are seriously a lot harder to get than in previous games. Especially boss drops. It's almost impossible to get the rare drops now. I don't even want to try anymore. And as far as I know, the only place to buy monster items is through Heinz, but his items are actually misc. items, not specifically monster drops. So you'll be lucky to check his store (whenever tf he decides to actually work) for any monster items you might want instead of farming for the drops. Sighs.

Difficulty. This game is too easy. There is little to no challenge whatsoever. I had to increase the difficulty setting to hard mode and it was still too easy. I beat it at level 139, never once did I need to grind or level. In fact, your character levels up way too quickly for the pace of the story. I had zero trouble with any of the bosses and even the final boss was a breeze. Quite sad. Though because I am not new to the franchise, it's likely that newcomers would have some trouble in the later parts of the story.

Fishing cons. Idk how you fck up fishing but they sure did. You have to stand further back now because the pole is so long that you'll miss the fish you're aiming for. In fact, it's seriously hard to aim period. You'll end up recasting more often than not. Fish come in the various sizes but they don't seem to have the darker or faded characteristics that can indicate whether it's a rare fish or not. The graphics make it hard to tell. The pros that i've already mentioned are welcomed but it doesn't negate the fact that I do not enjoy fishing like I did in previous games.

Mining/Lumbering Cons. You can no longer strike three times consecutively when mining/lumbering. This sucks lol. Even when you upgrade your axe or hammer, powering up the tool does nothing for getting wood and material stone--it only expands the area of your strike. So it takes longer to get wood/stone from stumps and rocks now since you have to strike the full 9 times but it's not too bad. It's also harder to aim now as well so that's also unfortunate.

Seasonal Fields? Kiss them goodbye! That's right, there are no seasonal fields in rf5 because devs are insane! You instead have the farm dragons that seem to look seasonal based on the fact that they are designed after elements like earth, water, and fire. But no, these dragons are simply extra fields for you to use. Here's a spoiler: you're not going to use those fields. You're just not. They're kinda useless unless you're obsessed with farming. Now you have to grow your crops out of season like the sad farmer that you are.

Farming cons. Seeds no longer tell you how long it takes to grow the crop. Why. As of June 29th, they fixed this with an update. But I still had to play the whole game without it so fuck you marvelous. The joystick is really sensitive? So when you're trying to use a fertilizer or something on your field you're likely to place it on the wrong 4x4 tile, wasting your fertilizer. So it’s best to hold down the R button when farming. Also the crops look uglie as hell.

Sleeping and warping cutscenes. Just like in rf4 there's a cutscene when you go to sleep that can be skipped easily by pressing A. In rf5, there's a cutscene to sleep and a cutscene when waking up. It takes a bit more than a second to skip these scenes so it gets annoying after a while. Warping is this new feature that replaces our beloved escape spell. Overall I appreciate the feature but I hate it for two reasons. One: there's an annoying ass cutscene for it each time you use it that could be much shorter. And Two: townsfolk now use warp even when inside the town. In previous games, someone exiting your party in town would just manually run to wherever they need to be. So you could easily chase after them if you need to talk to them or give them something. Now, party members use warp regardless of where you are at the time. So say you have someone at 7 hearts and you want to try confessing to them. You would have them join your party, save your game, and then have them leave your party and immediately speak to them and confess before they can run off. If it doesn't work you reload until it does. In RF5 this wouldn't work anymore because they will warp. Now you would have to save, run around town trying to find this person and hope they accept the confession. Otherwise you'll have to play hide and seek again because reloading your file will randomize the resident's locations (if they are not working in a shop)!!!! I often just waited until a festival day because then they will be at the plaza for most of the day and it has a warp point there.

Crafting/Forging/Cooking. They've removed the feature where you can press Y on the ingredients in the menu to add more of that particular item. I miss this feature :'(

Lacks incentive. There is no trophy room from my knowledge. The final dungeon that is meant to be like the sharance maze/rune prana isn't that hard to beat for skilled players and is only 20 floors. After you beat the main story and this dungeon there's not much else to do really.

Request Board. Unlike in rf4, you need to make sure you have accepted requests before you complete them or else it will not count. Previously, you could complete all sorts of tasks and Eliza would still recognize your work even if you accept their request after the fact. ie, shipping goods, harvesting crops, etc. So make sure you don't harvest your special crops before accepting the request it's for!

Return of the "Loli" Dragons... Yeah you read that right. We got more dragons in children's(???) bodies with skimpy clothes. I don't know anymore????¿¿¿

Can't marry the Milfs or Dilfs. Tragic.

Still no homo. Grow up Marvelous.

Reverse Proposal? Reverse Uno card-- Laid low by the patriarchy. You now have to buy the double bed and craft an engagement ring to propose to your man if you're playing as Alice. Marvelous this isn't what we meant when we said we wanted equal rightsssssss This can be seen as a pro if you're a softhearted babey who doesn't like rejecting bachelors' proposals because you feel bad :'( But this is a con for me because I don't want to spend money and materials on a double bed dammit!!!

Misc. Still can't stack dishes or fish. There's no green elemental fairy???All the other elemental ones are there except the green one? why??? Still can't tame the giant Wooly. Some bosses that have insanely awesome designs cannot be tamed and makes me wanna eat glass.

Let's talk about Love~

Relationships. We want them. And half of us only play these games for them. I've only played as the female heroine so far but I'll be updating this review as soon as I finish with the bachelorettes as the male hero.

Confessions

As usual, we must raise the love points of our beloved to 7 hearts before we can attempt to date them. However unlike in rf4, if you fail at a confession once, you will need to raise the LP up an entire level before you can try again with any chance of success. It's imperative you save before attempting a confession now.

Love Events

Each love interest has two love events that must be seen before you can date them. They're reminiscent of older game's style but I felt they could have been a biiiit more interactive or so? Or involved the town a bit more for some of them.

Dating

Once you get your honey to be your bf/gf, you get to choose the nicknames as usual. Then you can go on dates. The first three (non-festival) dates are actually events. You need to see all three events to get married.

Marriage Event

The final event you need to clear before you can marry your sweetie. In my honest opinion, so far for the boys, these events were rather disappointing. They lacked the drama and angst that sort of 'test' the love between the two when compared to rf4. Also this is a huge con for me personally and a minor spoiler but there are no special cutscenes at the end of the marriage event like in rf4. Instead, the cutscene takes place during your actual wedding. I was saddened by this because it took away the depth from the marriage events and the actual character? As it is just a cut and paste type of thing instead of an original cutscene for each person. They lack individualism this way. Also it kinda felt like a way for devs to avoid gay relationships and cut corners :^/....sus.

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes...

Children!!!!!! This is actually one of the coolest additions in the game. Just like in rf3, you can have up to 3 children again! Your first child will resemble you, and you will have the option to choose its gender as well as its personality. There are 6 different children, (3 boys and 3 girls), all with different hairstyles, mannerisms, and seiyuus. Your answers will determine which child you get. A year after your first child is born, you will get the option to have a second child. You'll end up with twins, both resembling your partner. You won't get to choose the genders (it will be a boy and girl) but you will get to choose the personalities once more. The children all have canon names too and each kid is incredibly cute. And of course, you're still able to take your kid with you in your party~ ...Though you can only take one kid with you at a time.

So is RF5 good?

Yeah it's a fun game! My theory is that Marvelous forced the devs to release the game earlier than they were ready for, and that's why it's so lacking. But that doesn't mean it's not worth playing! I'd rate it 3.5/5 stars hehe. Not nearly as good as RF4 (full stop 5/5), or RF3 (4/5) but enjoyable nonetheless. I wouldn't recommend it as a first game to play from the series for newcomers though, I feel it's best for vets who can overlook all the cons thanks to loyalty and nostalgia. By the time it’s released in the West, the bugs should all be dealt with too.

So! Definitely buy this game! We want the series to continue and we want RF6 to be better than this--and hopefully Marvelous will make sure of that next time. If you're not a picky person I think you'll enjoy rf5 a lot. If you're like me and have high standards then, well, still pick it up and let it run its course. Then dust off rf4sp and cleanse your gaming palette >;^)

[grokebaby]

OC ASKS ATTACK!!

1.- Imagine all of our ocs had to fight eachother. Who'd win and why?

2.- Favourite and least-favourite oc? Why?

3.- Oldest oc? Newest oc? Could you explain a bit of their story?

Yo nice attack bro

1. (I assume you meant to type "Your" and not "our" bc unfortunately I don't know your ocs sorrey) Ooojjj my god. Disastrous multiverse crossover. Even imagining all the characters of one story in a big tournament would be.. Well badass tbh but messy lol. For me personally it'd be a whole entire discussion in itself to just list who would win in a fight against who (new ask game anyone?)

If I had to list like the one character I know would survive everything, regardless of if they technically "lose" or "win" any battle, I'd probably say that's Della/Dave the Illusionist. Bc she's a resilient little fuck who won't die despite everything (being a paradox does that to you)

2. GOSH I'm bad at picking just one of anything but that's a juicy question. I do have some favorites I'd say but who I'm most interested in at any time fluctuates. I like to keep it fresh. I'd call my least favorites those who I have very little interest in 😅 but it's not always even that personal. I think I automatically have some fondness for older characters who've stuck around through the years. Will expand on this under a read more bc it'll be rambly

3. I've answered this oldest question before a few ways. Newest tho? Uhhhhh. Torpor? I whipped her up on a whim some few nights ago. Concept and design at once, although the design is still pretty wip. I do also have the case of having 'new' ocs but they've been in progress (like having a design but lacking everything else or stuff like that) for some time, so I have yet to really introduce them

Here's a peek of Torpor for you btw. She's one of Unjust's family along with Hysteria. I'm working on an introductory post for her so I won't get into it in detail rn, but basically big living meat cocoon and embodiment of how executive dysfunction feels

Expansion on Q#2 below

Out of all my antagonists so far Ngah has to be among my favorites tbh. She stems from my own experiences and getting to grapple with her kinda helps formulate some things. Also I'm just glad to have a lady villain who isn't motivated by love or romance. Familial love maybe, but you get my point. She isn't oppressive and small-minded bc of her love for her children (although that affects her motivations), but bc she has oppressive and small-minded views on the world. Also, I like that she's arrogant and a fucking powerhouse. She deserves to get nerfed though lol. I'm also fond of Lamera and the relationship between him and his mother.

Grandefel has always been a fave. I haven't given her enough spotlight admittedly but I just like her alot regardless.

Unfortunately I'd have to put ZZZ in my least favorites, which is concerning bc I should give them more development and appreciation in the story. Unfortunately I can't make myself extremely invested in their story and character. It just doesn't hit me all that much, but I wish it did. ZZZ deserves so much better

Outside of lack of interest I'm not sure if I'm entirely comfortable discussing my least favorites bc I'd say those are related to actual irl bad memories and I don't wanna get into that w my current mental health.

Outside of the damn angels tho:

Ebony! I'm a big fan of hers! I love!!! Ebony!!!

Jetter/Peaches gets an honourable mention, she's still with me after all these years and has shared pain with me. And grown and developed into something better on top of it. Diane also gets an honourable mention, props to her for being the only reasonable and tolerable person in her family lmao

Kern. I like her. I just like her and think about her and Hael fairly frequently. Nothing too special I just like

Unjust funny and awful :)

Syöjätär. Nobody knows this one and I won't elaborate

Alby will always be so fun to draw but I'm not sentimental over him. Call him a mascot maybe.

Twig, I think they should get to beat people up <3 although I'm a little halfway on Twig, on one hand meh but on the other hand, such a compelling character. It's complicated

Theo, who's a pretty miserable wet rag guy but I grapple with my compulsions through him. He has those too, although they're different it's still at the core of the issue

Dave/Della the Illusionist probably, I can't get anywhere w/o mentioning er

[navitech]

My take on Windows 8

Now that I've gotten used to it, I like it.

For most of us, change occurs far too frequently.

When Microsoft or Apple releases a significant operating system update, some users are resistant to the transition. Why should I feel compelled to learn something fresh and unusual? I'd grown accustomed to doing things that way, and now I must learn to do things differently!

Bug fixes and added functionality are the two main reasons for upgrades. Fixing flaws can make the OS more secure and smoother to use. Hardware advancements like as touchscreens, faster and larger memory, and Cloud integration are all part of providing functionality.

On a Dell laptop from the Vista days, I first installed a pre-release (beta) version of Windows 8. I had some idea what to expect because I had done my homework.

Where's My Start Button

Everyone was enthralled by the fact that the Start button was vanished! There was a new screen called the Start Screen, which was made up of tiles or rectangles that constantly refreshed. The original desktop display was also still present. So, what do I do now?

Relax. It's still Windows, though. If you choose, smart programmers can make the new User Interface look exactly like the old User Interface. I prefer to study and work with new materials. It is, without a doubt, a superior option for me. Listen to Jim and Chris discuss Windows 8 and the Start screen in our most recent Gabbing with the Geeks episode.

Find Your Corner

I've discovered that the screen's borders and corners conceal all of the answers and features. The new Start icon can be found by moving your mouse cursor to the lowest left corner of the screen. The Live Tiles Start Screen appears when you click it. This is where you begin! You can put the tiles in a logical arrangement if you want. Tiles can be made for nearly any purpose. They're the application shortcuts you've created. Once you get used to it, it's far superior to the previous start menu and desktop icons. To search for an application, simply start typing at the Start screen. You may get to the Start scree by clicking here.

On the right side of the screen, there is a special "Charms" option. Moving your mouse pointer to the bottom right corner and then up is one technique to get to it. The charms are available at all times. Search is the first charm. It's a potent tool that changes depending on the situation. You have the ability to look for anything, anyplace. Settings is the bottom charm. This is where you can turn the computer off or restart it.

Microsoft released two operating systems that used the same name. The first, Windows 8 RT, would be less expensive and run on tablets, similar to Android or iPad. It could run Microsoft applications, but not my older Windows ones. For many users, this may be sufficient.

Windows 8 Pro is designed to work on "real" machines. Desktops and laptops. And Microsoft was releasing a tablet that will run all of my old programs as well as a slew of new touch-screen apps. The Surface Pro is the device in question. It comes in two different configurations. One has a 64-gigabyte solid-state drive, while the other has a 128-gigabyte SSD. Micro SD cards or USB hard drives can be used to expand memory, although it is designed to work with Sky Drive in the cloud.

In my mobile office, I truly like how I've set up my workspace.

The 10.6" HD touch screen hides the entire computing equipment. My primary monitor is a 22" video monitor, and my secondary monitor is a smaller screen. A conventional keyboard, mouse, and local printer are connected through a USB hub, and I can add more peripherals and drives as needed. When I need to travel with my computer, I simply unplug the monitor and hub, snap in the keyboard/cover, and I'm ready to go. It's now my primary computer.

My Internet connection is normally provided by the FoxFi hotspot app on my Droid RAZR smartphone. The Surface Pro power supply includes a USB charging port.

There's still a lot to learn. We've developed a new Forum section dedicated solely to Windows 8. Anyone can read the Forums, but you must be a member of Geeks On Tour to ask a question.

On Windows 8, we might do some films. On June 30-July 5, we will be holding a Windows 8 lecture at the Escapade in Gillette, Wyoming. Meanwhile, we discovered The Missing Windows 8 Instructional Video on YouTube. It's about 25 minutes long and covers everything you need to know. edutech.