#like i have so many complaints about this event and how horribly it treats developers and their hard work

[reunioninn]

very fun and cool of geoff to allow a fake game based on ai and crypto to be featured at an awards show that celebrates real human creativity and dedication. absolutely not he most vile thing someone could possibly do.

[dilfdoctordoom]

On Tom Taylor, the Current Nightwing Run & Ableism

I did mention I was gonna do a post about it, so here we are. There are some things I want to make clear before we begin: the issue exploded on Twitter on the very first day of disabled Pride month; disabled people have been discussing the ableism in Taylor’s Nightwing run since it began; nobody has blamed Taylor for what happened to Barbara in 2011. We are, however, blaming him for the way she is written in his series during 2021. 

I am also going to be discussing the ableism in the fandom in this post. The reactions I have seen, from here to Twitter to TikTok, are showing not only a great misunderstanding of the situation, but a purposeful misunderstanding. The very real reasons disabled people are angry right now have been twisted to make us seem ridiculous and overly sensitive and I cannot help but feel that is very intentional.

Another quick addition: disabled people are not a monolith. Barbara Gordon spent over 20 years as a paralyzed wheelchair user. Stating (and I would like to note, never truly showing) that she is a part time cane user now is still erasing her disability. These things are not interchangeable.

So, with that out of the way, let’s begin.

Tom Taylor’s run is ableist. That is a fact of this situation. He made the active choice to include a version of Barbara Gordon that is ableist caricature. Story wise, the role that Barbara plays could have easily been filled by anyone else. There is no real season, within the narrative and outside of it, for Taylor to include this version of Barbara Gordon, who has received a decade of criticism from disabled people. It’s very well known that this iteration is problematic, to put it kindly, and Taylor is aware of that. 

He made the active decision to include her, anyway, showing, at the very least, that he is passively, if not actively, ableist. Passive ableism is still ableism and disabled people are allowed to take issue with that.

That alone is reason enough for disabled people to be angry. But that’s not why things exploded on Twitter.

On July 1st, the very first day of disabled pride month, the new design for Barbara was dropped. After months of teasing Barbara’s return to a wheelchair using Oracle (see: Last Days of The DC Universe, Batgirl (2016), etc), they debuted... a new Batgirl costume that the artist has openly said draws inspiration from the Burnside suit.

There’s a lot of issues to unpack here, so let’s start small: the issue with consciously calling back to Burnside. The Burnside era of Batgirl stories was... beyond awful. The villain of the series’ first arc, was an AI based on Barbara’s brain patterns when she was disabled. It was evil because of all the rage and pain Barbara felt. The actual Barbara, on the other hand, was good -- because she was able bodied. Because her PTSD had been tossed aside. It was a horrifically ableist era that drove the idea that Barbara’s life was terrible when she was disabled; that it was some horrible, twisted secret.

Comics have kept that narrative going. Barbara is seen hiding books on chronic pain; she reacts aggressively to the mere idea that she could be in a wheelchair again, acting like it would be weakness. Whereas Barbara had once been Oracle not because of, but in spite of, her disability, who was fantastic representation for the disabled community, she now acts like it is the most shameful thing in her life.

To call back to Burnside is to call back to that ableism and make no critique of it. If anything, it’s to embrace the ideas of that era.

There is also the design itself to consider. Many people have pointed out the inclusion of a back brace, as if that saves it from ableism -- it does not. Any person who has ever worn a back brace can take one look at this design and know that they did not consult a disabled person. Hell, by how impractical that thing is, I doubt they even Googled a picture of a back brace.

It’s a superficial acknowledgement that Barbara is supposed to be disabled. Something that was apparently thrown in to appease the numerous complaints of Barbara being able bodied; something that no one working on it put any effort into.

When it comes to aids, this is not a new thing for Barbara in Infinite Frontier. She’s said to be using a cane occasionally, that we got a better look at in Batman: Urban Legends, and as any cane user can tell you... that is not a cane that could feasibly be used. It’s another pathetic attempt to acknowledge that Barbara is supposed to be disabled, without actually doing anything of importance.

[IMAGE ID:  A segmented cane with a tri-pointed handle with a wrist strap. There is a stripe across the sections to connection them, labelled “solar battery charger buttons”. The text reads: “telescoping antenna doubles as cane or weapon if needed”. END ID]

Dropping this design (which we have now established to be problematic) on the very first day of disabled pride month is a sickening move. The very first day, and DC has doubled down on their disability erasure, thrown in superficial things like a back brace to act like it’s fine.

Tom Taylor is definitely involved in this, whether you like it not. No, he is not in anyway responsible for the events of the New 52 and what they did to Barbara Gordon, but that does not absolve him of blame for what is currently being done to her in his run.

When the design dropped, it started trending due to disabled fans reactions. To be clear: we were directly calling out the ableism in this design. This was Tom Taylor’s response:

[IMAGE ID: A tweet from TomTaylorMade that says: “Hey, @Bruna_Redono_F I think our new Batgirl suit is getting some attention.” He then adds a winky face emoji and tags @jesswchen and @drinkpinkkink. Attached are a screenshot showing that Batgirl is trending in the United States and a picture of the design itself. END ID]

This is him, bragging about how the disabled community reacted. Perhaps before this tweet, you could’ve made an argument that he was not ableist, but after he flaunted the fact that disabled people were rightly furious over this, like it was something to be proud of? No. If you are defending him, you are a part of the problem.

Taylor has included ableist writing in his Nightwing run, beyond the inherent ableism that comes with the current iteration of Barbara Gordon (whose inclusion, yet again, is his decision).

[IMAGE ID: A panel from Nightwing #79. Barbara and Dick are standing in his apartment. Barbara is saying: “I have some pretty new technology holding my spine together. I’m happy to do most things -- eat pizza in the park, take down low-level thugs -- but leaping from rooftops seems... unwise.” END ID]

What Barbara says in the panel above has bothered a lot of disabled people. The implication that she couldn’t “eat pizza in the park’ and “take down low-level thugs” without a spinal implant that conveniently erases her disability is... fucked up, to put it mildly. Those are both things that Barbara has done in a wheelchair. The first one is something wheelchair users can do and the implication that it’s not is beyond offensive.

But, let’s leave Barbara behind for a moment. I have previously mentioned that disabled people have been discussing the ableism present in this run long before July -- and that ableism is not only centred on Barbara. Dick is also a player in all this.

Dick Grayson was shot in the head. I don’t believe I need to retread the story, but just in case: Dick was shot in the head by KGBeast, developed amnesia from the event, and went by Ric Grayson for a long enough period in comics. If you have been active within the DC fandom for the past year or so, you know all about this controversial storyline and its fallout.

The Ric Grayson arc concluded itself the issue before Taylor became the writer for the series and ever since his tenure has begun, Taylor has completely ignored the reality of Dick being a disabled man. We understand this is comics, that things do not function the way they do in our world, but still -- it is clear that this gunshot wound to the head has affected Dick massively. We had an entire arc dedicated to how he struggled to find himself in the aftermath.

Taylor is choosing to write Dick as an able-bodied man, despite his canonical injuries and how they would impact his life.

This man is choosing to give empty gestures towards Barbara being a disabled woman (as discussed above, the completely dysfunctional back brace, etc) whilst writing her as able-bodied as possible. He writes both Dick and Barbara as able bodied as humanly possible. That is ableist. He is ableist. This is the same man that said he made a dog disabled ‘in honour of Barbara’. I do not think I need to elaborate on why that is bad.

The least he could’ve done, was get a sensitivity reader. We know that Taylor is not beyond getting people from marginalized communities to consult on his work (see: Suicide Squad), so why, when writing two characters that should be disabled, one that the disabled community have been criticising for a decade, does he not reach out to a single disabled person? A mere Google search could’ve improved the situation massively. In both the new design and the current writing, it is beyond clear that this is not just an able-bodied person writing it -- it’s an ableist person.

He could have listened to the numerous disabled fans that spoke out. Instead, he chose not only to refuse to do that, but to describe justifiable anger as ‘raging’. He treated us like we were crazy for daring to speak out about blatant ableism being parading around of us in our pride month.

Tom Taylor has failed to do the bare minimum and in doing so, he is, at very, very least, guilty of complicity. Again: passive ableism is still ableism.

The argument at hand is not just about Barbara Gordon and the continuing ableism that shines out from her current writing. The argument is about the treatment of disabled characters in his run. It has also become about the way he treats physically disabled people.

We also can’t have this conversation without acknowledging the fandom’s role in it all. I waited a day to write this up, to allow all the reactions to flood in... and I am sickened.

We have everything across the board. Able-bodied people that have actually listened to disabled people, who have supported us (which is deeply appreciated). Able-bodied people who may have had good intentions, but a skewed sense of the situation and perpetuating some of the more insidious lies being spread around (IE. that this is only about the new costume).

There are, obviously, the ableist reactions, though, that we will be discussing here. People deeming the current issues as ‘crazy’, calling disabled people ‘overly sensitive’ and ‘delusional’. Many people have completely glossed over the examples given for why Taylor, specifically, is ableist, and instead have resorted to telling disabled people that we are wrong and should be mad at DC instead.

It’s important to note that Tom Taylor is an adult man. He doesn’t need a fandom to attack disabled people for daring to call him out. He is not the victim in this situation; he has, for quite a few disabled people, been the aggressor.

I have seen claims that Infinite Frontier is a ‘slow burn’, implying that disabled people need to patient... as if we have not waited a decade for less ableist writing. There is a complete refusal from able-bodied fans to actually listen to what disabled people are saying. They would much rather rush to the defence of the (honestly rather mediocre) current Nightwing run. 

Disabled fans know that comic book spaces are ableist. We know that both DC and Marvel and many of their writers are ableist. We are still allowed to be pissed as hell about it and acting like the current reaction being had right now is disabled people being ‘overdramatic’ is yet another example of how the able-bodied side of the fandom both refuses to listen to and undermine disabled people when we call out ableism.

We know it when we see it. We always do and we always will and we will always be able to recognize it far faster than an able-bodied person. If this many disabled fans are coming out and talking about an issue, calling it ableism, then it’s time for you shut up and listen.

Stop being a part of the problem and start supporting disabled fans for once.

[terramythos]

TerraMythos 2021 Reading Challenge - Book 15 of 26

Title: Tehanu (Earthsea Cycle #4) (1990)

Author: Ursula K. Le Guin

Genre/Tags: Fantasy, Fiction, Third-Person, Female Protagonist 

Rating: 8/10

Date Began: 6/24/2021

Date Finished: 6/30/2021

Decades after The Tombs of Atuan, Tenar decided to settle down and live an ordinary life on the shepherding Isle of Gont. Now a farmer’s widow, she adopts a disfigured and horrifically abused child, who she names Therru. When a giant dragon deposits a grief-stricken Ged at her doorstep, Tenar finds herself in a strange situation as she cares for her old friend and her adopted daughter. But threats from Therru’s past and a malevolent force on the island soon threaten Tenar’s small family. 

Despair speaks evenly, in a quiet voice.

Content warnings and spoilers below the cut.

Content warnings for the book: Violence and death. Mentioned murder. Severe child abuse. Descriptions of traumatic injury and disfigurement. Mentions of r*pe, including of children. Trauma, sexism, and ableism are explored in depth. 

Tehanu is a much different book than the trilogy that precedes it. Perhaps this is unsurprising, considering the 17-year gap between this book and The Farthest Shore. I’d describe the Earthsea series as “grounded fantasy”. While all of them take place in a magical world, the thesis of each book is universal; the fantasy always comes second. Tehanu takes this idea to an extreme. The story is about everyday life as a common woman in the Earthsea world, with fantasy barely factoring in. The pacing is intentionally slow and introspective, which is something I normally don’t like, but Le Guin is a consistent exception. 

Key characters from the previous books make an appearance. Obviously Tenar is the biggest return, absent since The Tombs of Atuan. The Tenar in this book is older and much more mature, having decided to live a simple life in spite of her adventures and accomplishments. Ged returns, but he’s a shell of his former self, as he mourns the loss of his magic and the man he used to be. Even King Lebannen (formerly Arren, the main character of The Farthest Shore) makes a brief appearance, and is quite a palate cleanser after the horrible men throughout the rest of the book.  

Probably my favorite aspect of the novel is the fact that these characters stand well on their own without magic to prop them up. Tenar explored the terrifying freedom she won in The Tombs of Atuan; got married, settled down, had kids — but still finds herself at a loss on what to do with her life after her husband dies. Ged is in a similar boat; he’s gone from an almost mythic character to an ordinary man, and like Tenar finds himself at a crossroads in life. Other characters embody this idea of transformation and uncertainty; Therru’s escaped her abusers and now has a loving mother, but what does the future hold for someone with her appearance? Stuff like that. 

The idea of metamorphosis and new beginnings is well-trodden. But what makes Tehanu interesting is Le Guin primarily examines this with the middle-aged characters. Tenar and Ged are legendary figures in the world of Earthsea, but life has taken them to an uncertain future. The thrust of the novel lies in finding a purpose and becoming someone new. I also like that Tenar/Ged is endgame; I got Vibes from The Tombs of Atuan, but neither character was in a position where it would work. Seeing them form a romantic relationship much later in life is touching and cute. But it’s not the reason that either of them grow as people; finding one’s purpose is something one has to do on their own. Their relationship only develops once both parties have done so.   

My main complaint about A Wizard of Earthsea, the first book, is the sexism inherent in the setting, which is never examined below the surface level. Perhaps Le Guin’s outlook changed, or perhaps the publishing environment did, because often Tehanu reads like a response to this criticism. The central theme of the book is misogyny, the patriarchy, and its debilitating effects on women. Le Guin examines everything from micro-aggressions (“common wisdom” that happens to paint women as inferior) to domestic issues (“women’s work” and how much that actually is) to outright sexual assault (both in threats and actual acts; it is heavily implied this is part of the abuse Therru endured). She even goes into how powerful women are only considered as such because a man gave them that power. 

While I appreciate the fact she addresses these issues in such a frank, blatant way, at times reading Tehanu felt like reading a basic feminism primer. These subjects are all things I’m familiar with, and I feel like anyone who’s studied key feminist ideas would be aware of them also. Maybe 1990 was different? Le Guin doesn’t add any insights to the bleak reality of patriarchy and sexism, which is a little disappointing compared to previous books. That being said, this book is aimed at young adults despite its dark subject matter. Tehanu could be the first exposure to these ideas that many children receive; looking at it that way, it makes sense that the analysis comes off as basic. 

I also found the book’s examination of gender to be very cishet-normative. That’s definitely not surprising, considering the book was published in 1990, but to a 2021 reader this hasn’t aged super well. There’s a lot of discussion about the relationships and differences between men and women--whether there are any or not, how magic differs between them, the ability to bear children, and so on. There’s a weird sexual component to this, like how wizards (who are exclusively men) have to remain celibate in order to… keep being wizards? But women who are witches don’t have to do that, and that’s an advantage women have? (There’s mentions of male witches too, iirc, but it’s not expanded upon— do they have to remain celibate? Who knows.). I found this whole bit pretty odd and unnecessary, although I realize a lot of my perspective on the matter comes from a modern view of sex and gender (and, y’know, being trans). Not all the gender takes in the book are bad, but they are limited. 

I found Le Guin’s exploration of trauma and ableism through Therru to be more interesting. There’s a lot of examination about how society treats Therru, a survivor of unspeakable abuse. Her trauma is visible due to severe burns along part of her body, leaving her with a missing eye and disfigured hand. Tenar spends much of the novel wondering what future Therru has; no matter how capable she is and how much she acts like any other little girl, strangers gawk at her, or assume she “deserved” what happened to her. Therru becomes happier and more independent over the course of the novel, but relapses into a traumatized state when she encounters one of her abusers. As a survivor, it’s heartbreaking and distressingly realistic. As much as I like Tenar, I almost wish the novel was from Therru’s perspective (other than the brief jump at the end), but I realize it would spoil the ending.  

I’m torn on the ending because, while I thought it was cool and had some interesting revelations, it’s a jarring tonal shift. As I mentioned, Tehanu is a slow novel with a heavy focus on everyday life, and the trials and tribulations both Tenar and Therru experience. There’s even a climactic event a few chapters before the end; the only thing left is a persistent loose thread from earlier in the novel. That subplot explodes to the forefront a bare chapter and a half before the end of the book, and a lot of action-y fantasy stuff happens. It doesn’t come out of nowhere; it’s set up throughout the novel, but it is sudden. 

That being said, I do like that the subplot with dragons vs humans is hinted at as early as The Tombs of Atuan. When Tenar tells the legend about the origin of dragons early in the story, my mind immediately went to that one room from the Labyrinth with the sad winged humanoids painted on its walls. I’m curious if there are hints elsewhere in the series. I also figured out Therru’s true name and how she relates to that subplot based on context clues. While it’s not a shocking twist, it is a satisfying one. Though parts of it gave me a “magical destiny” vibe which is counter to much of the series so far; I do wonder how the last two books will address this. (Also… did Le Guin imply Kalessin is Segoy? AKA God? What did she mean by this. So Ged literally like… hitched a ride from God, who promptly yeeted out of the story until the end? That’s kind of funny. Maybe I misinterpreted something.) 

I probably sound critical of this book, but I did genuinely enjoy it. It just didn’t speak to me the way the previous two did. The next book is a short story collection before the conclusion to the series, so we’ll see where it goes! Tehanu set some stuff up that I expect will be expanded upon in these volumes.

[solacefruit]

Hello, I re-read your fic "one of a king, no category" again recently and first of all I absolutely love it and I always tear up no less then 3 times every time I read it. I was curious, if you remember, how you decided on the 9 cats you chose for the 9 lives ceremony, and also were there any other characters you considered using but who didn't end up making the cut?

Hello there! Thank you so much for writing in with such a sweet compliment, it really warms my heart to know that story has hit such a lovely chord with so many people. I think out of all the stories I’ve written for Warriors so far, one of a kind, no category is the one I’m proudest of and the one I’d like to be remembered for the most. 

And thank you for this question, it’s a very good one! I have a feeling it’ll get very long, though, so I’ll put it under the cut. 

I didn’t have to think much at all to know which cats I wanted to write about for this story, because I’ve been thinking about these nine in various ways since I first read the series. In many ways, one of a kind, no category is a love letter to characters I felt were treated cruelly and unfairly in canon and I wanted to give them a brief moment to be something other than what they were--whether that was to complicate or reinterpret the narrative they’re given in canon, or to highlight the qualities they have that often get overlooked or underappreciated by the writers (and sometimes other fans). 

So there’s cats like Silverstream and Rosetail, who are barely there and then killed off as a plot point--to cause drama for Greystripe or show the brutality of clan life, respectively. Then there’s cats like Lizardstripe, Nightcloud, and Foxheart who are basically written as shallow, “bitchy” antagonists--and as a result are often seen that way by the fandom--or cats like Ferncloud, who are seen as “boring” or “useless” because of their time in the nursery and often resented for that by fans. 

And I don’t necessarily blame fans for these readings of the characters, because the canon is so badly written. I think there’s always a tendency for male characters to be given leniency and complicatedness that is often withheld for female characters, but in Warriors, that cultural reading issue is compounded by the fact the writers themselves don’t ever really do female characters justice. Canon Ferncloud is largely there to pop out kittens and then died in battle “as a result of fan complaints” because Erin Hunter’s misguided understanding of the criticism they were receiving--i.e., interpreting “all she does is have kittens” to mean “we want her to fight [and die]” instead of “please give her character depth--no, not death, no, Erin, don’t--”

I wanted to take these characters and humanise (for lack of a better word) their canonical representations in a way that makes you actually care about who they are/were and the life they lived. Silverstream’s death is a tragedy. Rosetail’s life is a triumph. I wanted these experiences to be embodied in a story in a way that could give readers feelings and change how people thought of these (canonically very badly written) characters, not because I think Erin Hunter is a secret genius and deserves it (they don’t, I hate them), but because the characters themselves deserve more recognition and care than they often receive. 

Anyway, I’m sorry, I’ve gone way off track! To actually answer your questions: 

1. Leopardstar: one of the few female leaders--whose story is then basically about what a bigot she is and how she betrayed her whole clan (more or less) for a man because she was secretly in love with Tigerstar. I hate that they made a female leader (one of very few!) just to be like “eh she’s a lackey to an evil man she’s in love with who doesn’t care about her.” 

2. Rosetail: as mentioned before, she is barely in canon at all (in the main series; she returns in Bluestar’s Prophecy as kind of Bluefur’s best friend?). She’s actually the first clan cat to die after Firepaw joins Thunderclan, but it mostly gets swept aside and people are sad for like a minute and then the shock value wears off and she’s forgotten. 

3. Nightcloud: she’s kind of the contentious female character of the main series, because she’s either too clingy or too mean or a bad mother etc., and I’ve seen many people sympathise with Crowfeather over her--even though her side of things genuinely sucks. I wanted to give her space to be a kind of unlikeable person who still deserved better than she got. I think she deserves the same compassion people are willing to the extend to the man who mistreats her. 

4. Brightheart: one of the most famous disabled characters of canon--but she never really gets a decent resolution. Her ending is “happy” but I feel that she’s not really given closure for much of what happened to her, and in many ways the story around her is still very ableist. I feel like there’s a lot of extremely challenging internal growth that she would have had to do that never gets noticed in canon, so I wanted to give her a moment of sharing a fraction of the strength and wisdom she would have taught herself. 

5. Silverstream: as mentioned before, she’s so young and it feels to me like she exists--and dies--for the purposes of man-pain and I hate that. She gets so little personality in canon and then dies in childbirth, and I wanted to first give her a self that is so wonderful and real that it genuinely is devastating that she dies. It’s not a shrug, or a “poor Greystripe”: it’s a heartbreak to see someone so vivacious and excellent and hopeful get their life cut short. I want her story to be centred on who she is, not who she fell in love with and how he feels. 

6. Foxheart: she’s basically a mean, snotty villain in Yellowfang’s Secret (as is Lizardstripe) and an enemy of Yellowfang in a way that to me reeks of internalised misogyny from Erin Hunter, if I’m real with you. I wanted to give another interpretation of the events--especially considering how unbelievable it is that Yellowfang “got away” with that whole secret kit thing. It doesn’t make sense, unless you consider that other cats are in on it. Literally all Foxheart had to say to ruin Yellowfang’s life was “that kitten’s not mine”--and she never said that. I think that gets overlooked a lot and I wanted to explore that detail. And I thought it fitting to reinterpret a character whose name is literally an insult in canon (”fox-heart”) as having so much integrity that she would rather go down in history as a villain than be a snitch and a traitor to a clan-mate.

7. Lizardstripe: similar to above, she’s written as a horrible, bitter lady who resents her own mate and kits and is bullied into fostering Brokenkit and is miserable about that. It’s literally said “[h]er bitterness and resentment towards Brokenstar is what led him down his path of hatred” which is classic “blame a woman for a man’s behaviour” and a very rich statement from Erin Hunter who in the same breath is like “some cats (i.e., Brokentail) are just born evil as a punishment from Starclan on their birth mothers for breaking their vows.” It is so vile how Erin Hunter’s writing revolves as much as possible around blaming and punishing women for everything, including and especially men’s development and behaviour. 

8. Ferncloud: sort of mentioned before, but Ferncloud over the years has gotten a lot of fan disapproval for being passive and frequently pregnant. I think a lot of those criticisms--when levelled at Erin Hunter’s lazy writing--are fair and just but sometimes I feel that, in pursuit of more “strong” female characters in media, some fans forget to appreciate the many ways femininity and female characters can be subversive and/or still good, even when they’re not traditional hero’s narratives. In the real world, domestic labour (i.e., women’s work) is significantly undervalued, and I feel that Ferncloud can be read as an amazing example of someone who works to the bone every day and is largely ignored and underappreciated because the work she does is expected and taken for granted. 

9. Greypool: I love her--or at least my version of her. She doesn’t get a lot of attention in canon, other than a mention of being the foster mother to Bluestar’s kits and the fact she loses her memory as she ages and is murdered by Tigerclaw. It felt fitting for her to be the final life, both as a great and renowned storyteller in her own right and a cat considered to be very wise and kind with her words and thoughts, since ultimately one of a kind, no category is about the way stories can be told to shape the world--i.e., Erin Hunter’s often sexist canon versus the compassionate and intelligent retellings this fandom creates. 

As for cats that weren’t included, I’m happy with the nine I chose and I love them, but there are a lot of other cats who’ve been poorly treated by canon that would deserve a better story too. Snowfur of Thunderclan leaps to mind, as does Feathertail, and Palebird of Windclan, and honestly even Bluestar and Mapleshade. I think to a certain extent it’s hard to really engage with any of these characters’ narratives without also acknowledging the impact of sexist tropes on that narrative--i.e., how much of canon is “the character” (an intentional construct) and how much of their characterisation/story is kind of a side-effect of uncritical sexism perpetuated in the writing of said character? And I don’t really know the answer, because that’s not really a line that can be drawn. But I like to think one of a kind, no category and similar stories help reimagine other versions of these characters as fuller, more real people and that thought makes me happy. 

[hiddenwiki13]

Fall In Love With HIDDEN WIKI

Reviewing the 1970s, "darknet" was truly not an awful term: it just inferred networks that were detached from the standard of ARPANET for security purposes. Notwithstanding, as ARPANET changed into the web and a brief timeframe later ate up basically the wide extent of various PC networks out there, the word came to perceive areas that were connected with the web yet not really of it, hard to track down on the off chance that you didn't have a guide.

 The alleged weak web, a catch-all verbalization covering the pieces of the web not reported through web crawlers, is the stuff of shocking legend. Notwithstanding, as with most legends, the fact of the matter is a touch more ordinary. This shouldn't deduce that that astonishing stuff isn't accessible on dull sites, in any case, some of them murmured staggering stories you might've heard don't make up a large portion of the exchanges there.

 We watched out for some security experts who offered to offer us somewhat a guided visit through the web's lower zones. Ideally, it will demystify things each.

 New weak locales spring up dependably...

 A 2015 white paper from danger data firm Recorded Future analyzes the linkages between the Web you know and the darknet. The ways regularly start on complaints like Pastebin, from the outset proposed as a direct spot to move long code tests or other substance yet now regularly where partners with the dark Tor network are saved a few days or hours for contributed individuals.

While looking for dull locales isn't only likely as essential as utilizing Google—the reality of the situation is to be truly subtle, considering everything—there are approaches to manage discover what's there. The screen gets under was given by Radware security analyst Daniel Smith, and he says it's the eventual outcome of "altered substance that go out there and find new URLs, new onions, dependably, and from there on show them. It's like Geocities, yet 2018"— an energy that is helped along by pages with names like "My Deepweb Site," which you can see on the screen get.

 ...besides, many are totally authentic

Matt Wilson, the central data security counsel at BTB Security, says that "there is a sensible/weak side to the weak web that would presumably shock an extensive number of people. You can trade some

cooking plans—with video!— send an email, or read a book. Individuals utilize the dull web for these smart things for a plan of reasons: an impression of the area, insight or following of web tendencies, or just to accomplish something in a substitute manner."

 [ Prepare to change into a Certified Information Security Systems Professional with this broad web course from PluralSight. Before long contribute a 10-day free starter! ]

 It legitimizes auditing that what thrives with the darknet is material that has been kept somewhere else on the web. For instance, in 2015, in the wake of the Chinese government stopping any tomfoolery with VPN relationship through the claimed "stunning firewall," Chinese-language conversations ended bouncing up on the darknet — all around flooding with individuals who essentially expected to exchange with one another in agreeableness.

 Radware's Smith brings up that there is an assortment of media sources on the weak web, going from the news website from the hacking group Anonymous to the New York Times, which appeared in the screen get here, all considering individuals in nations that adjust the open web.

 A few spaces are by hi from a certain point of view

 Plainly, not all things are so faultless, or you wouldn't endeavor to look at this article. Considering everything, "you can't simply be starting up your Tor program and mentioning 10,000 Visa records, or passwords to your neighbor's webcam," says Mukul Kumar, CISO and VP of Cyber Practice at Cavirin. "A gigantic piece of the checked 'delicate' information is simply open to those that have been affirmed or welcome to express friendly events."

 How should you get a hello to such dull locales? "They should see history of terrible conduct," says Radware's Smith. "From an overall perspective, it takes after a mafia trust test. They need you to show that you're not a prepared proficient and you're not law execution. In like manner, an enormous heap of those tests will be something that a specialist or law need genuinely can't do."

 There is shocking stuff, and crackdowns mean it's harder to trust

 In reality, as a year earlier, different weak web business networks for drugs and hacking associations included corporate-level client care and client audits, making exploring less staggering yet rather safer for learners. Nonetheless, since law essential has started to stop messing around with such protests, the experience is more stunning and more hazardous.

 "The entire considered this darknet business center, where you have a partner outline, where individuals can survey calms that they're purchasing from transporters and get up on a get-together and say, 'in all actuality, this is real' or 'No, this genuinely harmed me'— that has been diminished since faint business living spaces have been taken withdrawn," says Radware's Smith. "You're seeing unapproachable vendors open up their own shops, which are all things considered, hard to vet yourself truly. There won't be any audits, there's not a lot of escrow associations. Also, in this way, by these takedowns, they've really fired up a business opportunity for extra misleads to hop up."

 Surveys can not be right, things sold under contortions—and a ton is on the line

There are still protests where medications are evaluated, says Radware's Smith, regardless, review that they ought to be taken with a gigantic grain of salt. A specialist may get a high from something they purchased on the web, at any rate not like what the medication was that given it.

  One explanation such errors are made? Different weak web drug makers will in addition buy pill presses and tones, which retail two or three hundred dollars and can make risky clone drugs. "One of the later alerts that I could imply would be Red Devil Xanax," he said. "These were sold as some super Xanax bars when truly, they were simply horrible medications expected to hurt you." Everything You Wanted to Know About hidden wiki and Were Too Embarrassed to Ask

 The weak web gives discount things to striking nearby retailers...

 Smith says that some standard remedy cartels utilize the dull web networks for dissipating—"it disposes of the subject matter expert and awards the cartels to send from their own stockrooms and spread it on the off chance that they need to"— yet inconspicuous administrators can also give the individual touch at the neighborhood level following to purchasing drug produced combinations discount from China or somewhere else from areas like the one in the screen get here. "You know how there are loads of neighborhood IPA microbreweries?" he says. "We in addition have a ton of nearby little investigation workplaces. Around there, there's obviously, notwithstanding, one child that is gotten canny and recognizes how to arrange drugs on the darknet, and make very few solutions to offer to his neighborhood affiliation."

 ...who utilize the gig economy

 Smith depicts how the darknet meets with the unregulated and passed on the universe of the gig economy to help reasonable hold. "What about we expect I need to have something bought from the darknet transported off me," he says. "I'm not going reveal my authentic territory, isn't that so? I would have something like that passed on to an AirBnB—a territory that can be discarded, a burner. The case appears to be the day they lease it, by then they put the thing in a Uber and send it to another space. It winds up being astoundingly hard for law need to follow, particularly in the occasion that you're going across different domains."

Not all things are open to being purchased on the dull web

 We've contributed an enormous heap of energy looking at drugs here purposefully. Smith calls narcotics "the genuine foundation" of the weak web; "cybercrime—selling attempts and inadequacies, web application assaults—that is the electronic foundation. Basically, I'd say a ton of the darknet is in reality medications and children analyzing little encroachment on get-togethers."

 A piece of the truly terrifying sounding stuff you get some answers concerning being open to being purchased as frequently as potential breezes up being by and large gossipy treats. Take weapons, for example: as Smith puts it, "it would be less hard for a criminal to buy a firearm, truly, versus the web. Going to the darknet is adding an additional development that isn't huge for the association. Precisely when you're administering confirmed hoodlums, they will recognize somebody that is selling a weapon."

 Unequivocal specialties are in

 Notwithstanding, there are some sure darknet specialty includes out there, regardless of whether they don't have the very impression that tranquilizers do. One that Smith made me notice was the universe of skimmers, gadgets that fit into the openings of genuine credit and ATM card perusers and get your money-related harmony information.

 In addition, giving another outline of how the darknet weds certified articles open to be purchased with information available to be purchased, similar complaints likewise give information manual sheets to different standard ATM models. Among the jewels accessible in these sheets are the default passwords for a couple, praised web-related models; we will not give everything away here, in any case for a couple, it's a similar digit emphasized on different events.

Visit Our Website: https://hidden.wiki

Twitter

Instagram

Pinterest

[krisroley]

February 9th, 2021

One Small Moment

Today I want to talk to some specific friends who I won't name, but I'm fairly sure that this will apply to way more of just them.

First things first, I'm not going to insult your intelligence by giving you a bunch of platitudes. In my experience, they're nothing but empty calories. Filler and no substance, they're designed to make the person giving them feel better, not the person who needs help. In some cases, people who need help end up feeling worse. I'm one of those people, so I absolutely understand the feeling. So, no bullshit from me. Cool? Moving on.

Let me describe my lack of bona fides right upfront. I'm a guy with a high school education and one year of college because I let my dick do the thinking up to the point that I ended up homeless and friendless. I tried to follow in my Dad's footsteps and join the military and washed right out after six months because I have a mouth bigger than my brain. I come from a family that describing as dysfunctional is exceedingly generous. My dad had anger issues, my mother was a narcissist manipulator, as is my brother. He's got a criminal record and is probably on his way back to prison for at least 12 years as I write this. I'm the voice of reason in my family, and as I have said repeatedly, this should scare the fuck out of you. I got married at 24, and I had three kids by the age of 30. I've been dirt poor most of that time. At this stage of my life, I believe that I am an undiagnosed case of autism from the 1970s because my kids--all of them--are on the spectrum. I didn't have a bad childhood if you looked at it from one angle, but I had a horrible one if you looked at it from the inside out. I inherited my Dad's anger issues and my mother's narcissism. I was a horrible husband for years until my wife walked out on me in 2005. It made me face myself in a way I had not seen before, and I couldn't take it. I had a nervous breakdown. My wife thought I was worth saving, and I am forever grateful for it. I promised I would work on my issues, and I have. Three times in my life, I thought I was at the end of my rope. Not from a thought of suicide ideation, just that there was nowhere else to turn. No one else to ask for help. No one else I could lean on. Just Roley.

That moment right there is the point. The entire lesson. One small moment when your brain says, "Well, you're really fucked now, aren't you?" There is only one answer to that question, and that answer is yes because if you answer no, you ain't there yet. Trust me on this. You have to answer yes. This is the moment where you're accountable to no one but you, and you cannot lie to yourself. You can TRY. It ain't gonna work. Not for long.

Let's not bullshit ourselves. There is a lot of work in repairing a life that you fucked up on your own. You climb up out of a hole for years before you ever see daylight. I was a shut-in for two years because I thought it better that the world forgets about me. I tried to make a living from home in 2006-2007, but this world we live in hadn't come to pass yet, and I was living a fantasy. It made me feel worse that I couldn't provide for my family, but I could barely function as a human at that point. So I decided to do the only work I was capable of: Working on myself. I read every self-help book and mental health book I could lay my hands on. I dug deep into myself to try to figure out why I was the person I was, how I became that way, and the answer was straightforward. First, I thought I was absolutely normal. My behavior, though abhorrent, was how I was raised. My parents treated each other and us kids horribly, but it wasn't physically abusive save for a couple of times I'll keep to myself. I grew up in the same environment I perpetuated. I was continuing a cycle. Secondly, to accept that fact and to change meant work I wasn't ready to take on. But human psychology is a lot like a car in that regard; you can do the work now, or you can do it later, but it's going to cost you a lot more. In my case, it almost cost me everything. It was the third of those three times that I faced myself in the mirror and heard that voice, and this was the time I said yes.

For two-thirds of my life, my story is a story of failure, of self-hatred, of being a bad example. But from the age of 35 to 50, it's a story of repair and redemption. I'll put my humble path to today up against anyone's and dare them to do the work I've done to heal myself and come out who I am today. I'm still married to the same woman for over 25 years now. I've got three amazing kids who I adore. Up until May of this year, I had what I consider to be a dream job until COVID ate it, but I'm still with the same company, and I'm going to bust whatever amount of ass it takes to get my job back or demonstrate the skills I learned there to someone else who's willing to take me. I have a sense of self-worth and purpose that I've never had before, and I'm not taking being a call center tech support agent for the rest of my life. It is a means to an end, and it is not my life's work. I know what that is. It's helping you in the best way I know how: By being not the example of how to fix it, but from showing you by my example, it CAN BE FIXED that you can go from being a person full of anger and self-loathing and cruel behavior to being a person of kindness and compassion and love for people. That you can go from being a person who has no prospects to a person who can go to a job every day that fulfills them personally and professionally. That you can go from being a person who hasn't got their shit together at all to a person that can get morning to night without falling apart at the seams. This is my road, and my lane, but it's big enough for you, and I want you on this road with me. Some of you are gifted and talented beyond description, but the world doesn't know it yet because you have these problems. I know. I get it. I also see who you are, and the world deserves to see you as well. I had no one else to turn to at that last moment, so I did what I had to do. Myself. I'm asking you to take a walk with me because I don't want you to have to do it on your own. I may not know your way home, but I can get you as far as Anchorhead. You can get transport there to Mos Eisley or wherever you're going.

I had to get one joke in there somehow.

Did Joe Know About This?

On the heels of the news of Joe Budden maybe-kinda-sorta-moving his show to Patreon (which is weird since it looks like it’s being hosted on Libsyn now), Spotify has announced plans for multiple business models for podcasts, possibly to include ad-supported subscriptions and a la carte options. These may be discussed at a live stream event later in February.

Asked if Spotify thought customers would be willing to pay for podcasts, Ek on the earnings call responded that he believed there were several new models that could be explored.

“I think we’re in the early days of seeing the long-term evolvement of how we can monetize audio on the internet. I’ve said this before, but I don’t believe that it’s a one-size-fits-all,” he said. “I believe, in fact, that we will have all business models, and that’s the future for all media companies — that you will have ad-supported subscriptions and à la carte sort of in the same space, of all media companies in the future.”

“And you should definitely expect Spotify to follow that strategy and that pattern,” Ek added, more definitively.

The answer seemed to indicate that Spotify is considering some of the ideas in that recent survey — of getting consumers to pay for some podcasts, instead of accessing them all for free or having them bundled into their music subscription.

I wonder if Budden was aware of this and balked. Would there be a revenue split between Spotify and the creators, and what’s the ratio? Now that I think of it, isn’t that what they’ve been crying about re: Apple?

For more than a year, Spotify has been making noise about Apple’s unchecked power over the App Store, and in March 2019, it filed a complaint against Apple with the European Commission. Spotify claims Apple’s practice of taking 30 percent of an app’s revenue is unjustified, and says the company operates as a monopoly on iOS.

Suddenly, I find this Budden/Spotify deal more intriguing.

Wait, You Can Make Money Doing That?

Julie Miller from Vanity Fair writes about Hollywood coming over to the Pod Side for ‘fun and profit’:

…entertainment types began orbiting the audio space about two years ago in earnest, as the number of Americans listening to podcasts every month headed toward the 100 million it is today. It was also around 2018 that agencies like CAA began incorporating audio deals into their development packages. One insider estimates that many celebrities could get a six-figure guarantee per year, with the biggest actors receiving between $1 million and $3 million to launch an unscripted podcast. Scripted projects offer less up-front money but can be adapted into TV shows, films, books, and so on.

For the record, I am Steve Jobs, “Podcasts are Amateur Hour" Years Old. For years, podcasting was seen as less-than, so when I see stories like this, the little imp of the perverse in the back of my head tosses a bone at every true media elitist who, strangely, has a podcast now..

How About Not Doing That?

Chris Curran over at PES has a question about your thin mouth:

When I’m doing my fine-tuned editing on a podcast episode I use TwistedWave or Sound Forge because they allow me to VERY QUICKLY zoom in, highlight very small things like single mouthclicks, and delete them. 

When I try to make the same kind of edit in a DAW (Reaper and others) it takes forever. 

What say you?

For the most part, my workflow tends to remove mouth clicks, or at the very least minimize them. If they still show up through my noise gate, I highlight and remove them. I can’t say this happens often because I like to make sure I keep some water near me while I’m recording. The single biggest thing you can do to prevent mouth clicks is to keep hydrated. Remember, you can’t fix it in Post if it never happens in the first place.

Shot Of The Day

[the-name-isnt-important]

No Heroes in Anarchy, No Church in the Wild

This is a bit of a venting session in regards to what has happened the last couple of days in America, and with my own development as a human, so bear with me. This is cathartic for me after endless doomscrolling. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the endless bad news, don’t read on. Take care of yourself.

I forgot the rally was going to happen on January 6th. I knew there would be Trump supporters there expressing their displeasure, but it totally slipped my mind. It wasn't until I went to the gym and saw on most of the TV's that the protestors were marching up the steps. From that point on, for about 5 hours, I was glued to the news, waiting for what would happen next.

Hours before, Trump holds a rally to remind his followers there was a stolen election. “Everyone knows it,” he reminds them, and the emotions are running wild. What else can you possibly do with these emotions, so bottled up inside ready to burst while your leader tells you they are justified? For some of his followers, for thousands of them, you storm the Capitol.

Five people dead, two explosive devices found, multiple shattered windows, stolen government property, breaking in to government officials’ offices. American, Confederate, Gadsden, America First and Jesus 2020 flags flew high by the “patriots” that held them. Oath Keepers, Camp Auschwitz, Nationalist Social Club, and MAGA Civil Way 2021 pieces of clothing were found by some members in attendance, likely showing everyone just who should be in control. The crowd was riling each other up, members in attendance probably feeling proud to be part of a moment in history. Biden responds via press conference first, giving a well-groomed speech on the horrific events that are taking place and calls for the President to address the mob. To send them home. Trump responds in an Instagram video (which was deleted a couple hours later) telling the mob that he understood how they felt, and how special they were, but they needed to go home. Once the dust settles, the 6:00 curfew sends away most of the protestors, even though there were some still present who kept telling the police to go fuck themselves. The night caps off with a tweet by Trump which says: “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!” 

All-in-all, a disgusting display of humanity.

Since then, I have had conversations with some people, because diplomatic conversations on serious topics like this are some of my favorite things to have, and I believe will help bridge the divide between the conflicts mixed supporters have. Of course I expressed my anger on my story as the events unfolded, so people already knew my thoughts and I was a little hot going into them. Maybe a slight emotional mishap on my part, but it was genuine nonetheless. Some people were receptive. We agreed that what was going on was horrible, and regardless of where you stood politically it should not have happened. I’m grateful to have people like that around. There were others who responded in opposition to what I had to say. They made claims that because the protests were being compared to the BLM protests of the summer that it had all the sudden become a race issue, and they chose to focus on that instead of the violence. There were also some who used God as their standing ground, that God and capitalism had to survive because this country was heading in the wrong direction and if it gets any more socialist then we are screwed. And, of course, there were those who defended their party. True Republicans would never do something like that. While I am grateful to have those conversations as well, they went nowhere. 

I won’t sit here and express my political concerns to you. I don’t identify with any party. Right now, I lean more left, but balance and perspective demand that I keep an open mind to the ideas of the other side. I also do not believe in titles. As Stephen Fry once said, I would rather be a collection of verbs than nouns. But for clarity sake, I would say I am closest to a humanist. Humanity, and the potential for people, has always been something I hold dear. The freedoms and individuality we have is made even more beautiful when find the commonalities to create a society meant for progress. We benefit when we grow, no matter how slow the growth is. 

No one will ever call me some kind of anarchist leader, despite my many complaints about society. You won’t see me at the head of a mob ready to charge viciously for what I believe in. Hell, I probably won’t even be in the back of the mob. I am no hero. There are no heroes in the modern world. My place is here: using the written word to tell my story and get people to think. And here’s where you may need to think: you may be wrong about the opinion you hold so dear, even the hill you so desperately wish to die on. Your rigidity to a certain value may be the exact thing to cause you to do something violent. To harm people and cause destruction while you look at others doing something similar and think, “how could they be so evil?” You are not so dissimilar to your enemies. You have more in common than you know, including your stubbornness against perspective. 

Back last February, I had the chance to sit down with a man in Montana who referred to himself as a White Nationalist (the bizarre thing was the conversation started out with basketball) for about three hours. At this point, I had just lost my faith and had so many existential crises that the world seemed like nothing but a big ball of blue in an endless space of black, yet I stood my ground on the basis of love and humanity. We talked about faith, love, race, psychology, and philosophy. Here’s the crazy part: during that conversation, he made points that I agreed with! And I made points that he agreed with! Can you imagine? A civil discussion between two different people where we found common ground! What a concept! 

To this day, it was the best stranger interaction I’ve ever had. And I once had a homeless man try to fight me over my shoes in a library!

Obviously this post comes with my own opinions on the event, which you can take as truth if you want. But I implore you to dissect it and find out for yourself if it is true. The same goes for what’s going on right now! Take it apart, find the bias in each headline, think about your true motives, and be free. 

Sincerely, your residential “humanist”,

-D

[dogbearinggifts]

Do you have any theories or headcanons on how each siblings' relationship with Ben was like when he was still alive, based on flashbacks or the reactions they had when Ben manifested? Or maybe when he's mentioned? Thank you

I have a couple, yeah. However, of all the siblings we meet, Ben gets the least screen time and the least development (which—it has been confirmed—will change in Season 2) so a lot of these are just extrapolation and speculation.

Luther: In the comics, we get a quote from Vanya’s autobiography stating that Ben “was so eager to please Father, he was easily drawn into his and Luther’s little games—and those two simply let him die.” I tend to think this quote is less accurate recollection of what happened and more Vanya’s resentment coloring the events as she remembers them, but from this it seems Reginald roped Luther into helping with Ben’s training.

However, I don’t think Luther was as uncaring toward Ben as the quote makes him out to be; we know that Ben was not fond of his powers in the slightest. A comics quote from Reginald establishes that Ben would cry in his sleep, and from what we see in the bank flashback, it’s clear he’s not looking forward to letting the monster out. Luther would have seen this reluctance, and while I’m not sure he would have fully comprehended why Ben felt this way (enhanced strength and endurance aren’t the sort of powers that hunger for blood and make you cry in your sleep) I think he tried to sympathize with Ben as much as Reginald would allow. Maybe he gave Ben a friendly pat on the back after a training session, told him he’d done a good job. Maybe he saw there was only one creme-filled donut left during one of their Griddy’s runs and made sure Ben got it despite wanting it for himself. Maybe he’d save out books from the library he knew Ben would like and leave them at his door, or listen to Ben talk about his favorites even if he wasn’t interested. I think Luther was a lot less aloof prior to his Moon mission (four years of total isolation will wreak havoc on your ability to relate to people) and while he wouldn't have gone against Reginald and tried to argue that Ben be exempted from training—which is what Ben probably needed—I think he did try to ease the pain as much as he could. It wasn’t enough, and it didn’t prevent Ben’s death, but we know from the comics that Luther blames himself for it—and if his reaction in the bowling alley is anything to go on, I think the show backs up this characterization. 

Diego: I wouldn’t be surprised if Diego was jealous of Ben’s powers. This is the kid who was told from a very young age that he would never measure up to Luther, and who spent his adulthood trying to outshine his brother as a superhero. His powers in the show are maybe a little flashier than Luther’s, but Reginald still likely saw them as a disappointment and told Diego as much. So I can see him looking at Ben—who can produce a whole monster out of his torso—and wishing he had a power like that. The comics tell us that Reginald was fascinated by what Ben could do, and so it would make sense if Diego saw this morbid curiosity as little more than extra attention lavished on a brother who didn’t even appreciate what he had.

At the same time, though, I don’t think Diego took out too much of his frustration or resentment on Ben. That same quote calls Ben “the kindest of my siblings,” and so while I believe he was envious of Ben for having seemingly cooler powers, I also think Diego might have felt guilty if he lashed out at Ben too often. I think it happened, but I think that if he pushed too far and genuinely upset Ben, he might’ve wound up feeling like he’d just kicked a puppy. If this were the case, Diego could have become more verbally abusive toward his remaining siblings following Ben’s death, both out of grief and misplaced anger, as well as a sort of bitterness that the best of them (in his view) was gone and there was no point in holding back any longer.

Allison: From her reaction in the bowling alley, I think it’s safe to say she cared about Ben deeply and that his death was still painful for her all those years later. But I also think that of all the Hargreeves, Allison would have least understood Ben’s aversion to his own powers. She tells Luther that she used her power to get everything she wanted. Whether or not “everything” includes Patrick’s love remains to be seen, but it’s clear she grew up seeing her power as an advantage that she used whenever it suited her. So if Ben ever confided in her that he hated his power—or even that he wished he was ordinary like Vanya—there’s a pretty good chance Allison would have looked at him like he’d just spoken Czech. How could he hate his power? It let him take out four bad guys at once. It earned him more of Dad’s attention. It was interesting. How could he hate something like that?

If his powers played a role in his death, this likely would have caused her to see his complaints in a new and darker light, and possibly might have made her wonder if she could have done anything to prevent it. Maybe a rumor would have made Reginald ease up on him; maybe it wouldn’t have. But I think she’d wonder, and those questions would probably haunt her.

Klaus: I’ve seen some fans theorize that personality clashes prevented him and Ben from becoming all that close before the latter’s death, but I don’t think they’re that different. Klaus—high, drunk and grieving—gets behind the wheel of an ice cream truck that he takes careening past two highly trained assassins while “Ride of the Valkyries” plays over the speakers and all Ben has to say is “Wheeee!” Ben has a wild, fun-loving side, and I doubt it only surfaced after his death.

More to the point, however, I think the two of them bonded over a mutual hatred of their own powers. Maybe they didn’t discuss it much. Maybe they didn’t have the words to really examine what they both felt, maybe they didn’t like thinking about the things their powers made them do and see. But I think there was always that understanding between them, and I think that’s why we see them together before a mission in Vanya’s hallucination. And I think that at this point in their lives, Klaus was still hiding the depths of his growing addiction, leaving Ben unaware of just how quickly he was spiraling downward. There’s a very good chance he knew, but not that he knew how bad things really were.

If he and Klaus were close prior to his death, then that might explain some of how he treats Klaus in the present. Not only is he able to see just how bad his addiction has become, but this is his friend. The only one in that household who even came close to understanding what Ben was going through, the one who commiserated with him and probably offered whatever limited support he could, and he’s destroying himself. After his death, it seems Ben spent even more time with Klaus than he did before, and so he would’ve had a front-row seat to all the ugliness of a full-blown substance addiction. When he nags Klaus to take better care of himself, he’s probably acting at least partly out of guilt, knowing he missed too many red flags while he was still alive and capable of action.

Five: Like Allison, I don’t think he quite understood Ben’s aversion to using his powers. He could use his powers without fear, and they enabled him to have a lot of fun at the baddies’ expense. More than that, though, Five wanted to push the limits of his power. He wanted to prove himself. I think he wanted more of Reginald’s attention than he got, and he might have resented Ben on some level for taking the spotlight off him. The fact Ben didn’t want that spotlight in the first place might have mitigated that resentment somewhat, or it might have made it all worse. After Five got stuck, though, I think he might have started to feel some sort of kinship toward Ben. His disastrous attempt at time travel probably left him afraid to use his powers for quite some time, and he probably thought back to Ben’s fear of his own powers. Five might not have understood completely, and he might have recognized that he’d never understand completely, but I do think his jump to the apocalypse cleared the way for a more sympathetic attitude toward Ben’s hatred of his powers. 

However, I think there’s also evidence that Five felt fondness toward Ben—perhaps even protectiveness. When he lands in the apocalypse, he calls out for Ben and then Vanya, both of whom are ranked lower than him and behave more like his younger siblings than his older ones. In the present, Five masks his emotions far more than he shows them, so it’s somewhat difficult to tell if the notion of Ben being there with them in the bowling alley affects him as deeply as it does his other siblings, but it’s clear he’s at least curious. I think he’s long since given up on the idea that he’ll get to see Ben again, and he’s not about to latch onto this hope if it turns out to be false, but he’s open to it.

Vanya: The quote I referenced for Luther paints Ben as one of her favorite siblings, to be sure, and the sheer level of resentment that quote conveys shows his death hit her hard. She saw his kindness and loved him for it, and it seems he treated her kindly as well. However, the fact he hated his powers and she longed to have any power at all probably drove a wedge between them. He probably would have killed to be ordinary, and she would have killed to have his powers.

Ben and Vanya don’t have a lot of interaction, but I think we see a bit of that resentment when she hallucinates him and Klaus suiting up for a mission. He gives her a flat look and tells her, matter-of-factly, that “To go on a mission, you have to have a power.” Vanya sees this as intentional cruelty, but I think Vanya’s desire to go on missions probably struck Ben as insulting and more than a little tone-deaf. How could she want to go on missions? Missions are horrible. He has to put himself in danger and let the monster free, walk away covered in blood and with fresh fuel for his nightmares. Vanya gets to stay at home and play her violin, and here she is acting like going on a mission is some sort of reward. Maybe he’s tried to explain it and maybe he hasn’t, but whatever the case, I think Ben is watching her beg to come along, thinking, She doesn’t know how good she has it. And, ironically, Vanya’s thoughts in that scene probably run along those same lines. Each has what the other doesn’t, and that grass-is-greener mentality probably formed one of the biggest cracks in their relationship. 

[snkpolls]

SnK Season 3, Part 1 Poll Results (Manga Reader Version)

The poll closed with 240 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Please note that this is the results of the manga reader poll. Anime only watchers are suggested not to read if you do not wish to be spoiled about certain events! Anime only viewers, click here to view your poll results!

RATE THE FIRST COUR 231 Responses

Overall, respondents had a positive experience with the anime’s retelling of the Uprising arc with a 4 being the most popular ranking. It seems most believe there was room for improvement, but that it was overall enjoyable!

Good shit man, good shit. Next arc is gonna wring my heart dry of every last feel in existence, but so far I am satisfied.

This season was poor. I hoped for better. The scenes I loved it the manga were removed. Lots of character development was gone. But my biggest pain is anime version of Kenny. I will be honest - I am disappointed.

I liked it but the manga version will always hold a special place in my heart

I thought it was amazing, despite all the new things and things taken out. I still love the series way too much to really criticize choices they or Isayama make. I know I'm still gonna watch it and love it.

FAVORITE ANIMATED COUR SO FAR? 235 Responses

Nearly half of voters favor the Clash of the Titans arc’s adaptation the most so far, but the Uprising arc came at a surprisingly strong second overall! 

Well done, WIT Studio! Although some of my favorite chapters became my least favorite and vice versa (sadly), this was over all the best arc in my opinion.

It was a good story, but they cut out way too many scenes I loved making it not the best adaptation when it comes to comparing it with the manga. Season 3 is still my favorite season though.

FAVORITE EPISODE(S) FROM THIS COUR? 231 Responses

“Friends” was the most well-liked episode of the first half of the season, but overall the last four episodes performed the strongest. This is likely due to their more faithful adaptation of the manga material than than the earlier episodes. On that note, “Pain” did pretty well in regards to the earlier episodes. 

First two episodes were meh (way too fast for my liking), then it got slightly better, but the last 4 episodes were amazing

that ending scene in ep 12, what the hell, that scared me so much but it was so well done! also that last scene before the ending song is great for hype lol, Erwin's (japanese) voice actor is a god, my god what a man, SUSUMEEE

RATE THE SOUNDTRACK 236 Responses

It is probably safe to assume that the majority of respondents agree with the sentiment, “OST when!?” The soundtrack was great this season according to voters. Hopefully Sawano treats us soon! 

It was so good and I really want the soundtrack to come out, I have 6 months to mentally prepare myself for the return to Shiganshina arc and I still won’t be ready

RATE THE ANIMATION 235 Responses

Overall, reactions to the animation were positive. Although there were some scenes that had room for improvement, ultimately we can’t deny that the hard work done on the action sequences really paid off. Here’s hoping for even more glorious animation in the second half of the season! 

HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT THE FOLLOWING KEY CHARACTERS BY THE END OF THE COUR?

We’ll let the results speak for themselves on this one. Levi, Historia, Erwin, Hange and Kenny drew the most positive feelings. Rod evoked the most negative feelings.

ARE YOU PLANNING TO WATCH THE NEXT COUR? 237 Responses

We’re happy to see that most of you guys will be around for more! 

I feel like this section and onwards are not going to make for very entertaining episodes and are better in manga format, particularly if it's going to keep forcing major changes

HAVE YOU BEEN WATCHING THE DUB? 237 Responses

The majority of respondents have not watched the dub and have no desire to do so. 16% will get around to it eventually and 14% are keeping on up on it. 

IF SO, WHAT ARE YOUR OPINIONS OF THE DUB THIS SEASON? 211 Responses

Aside from the 75% who haven’t been watching it, those who have are having an overall positive experience with it this season, regardless if the original Japanese is the preference or not!

This season has been an improvement both in voice acting and script, I've been pretty satisfied with it.

I'm not sure why people think animes need dubs tbh. They never sound good. Kenny's voice actor really butchered the cowboy voice.

I've only seen a few scenes but when Levi shouted ''Nifa!'' it sounded really weird in the dub xD

The very idea of watching dubbed anime is heresy

DO YOU THINK LINKED HORIZON WILL BE INVOLVED IN THE NEXT COUR? 233 Responses

The majority are feeling pretty confident that Linked Horizon will be back again for part 2 with an exciting new opening for us! 16% are sure they will stick around, but we may not see them retake their role as the artist of the opening. A small sliver of respondents think that they will be absent. 

OVERALL, DID YOU THINK THE ADAPTATION OF THE UPRISING ARC WAS DONE WELL? 237 Responses

Just over half of respondents believed that the Uprising arc was adapted well overall. 28% felt it was a good story, but not a good adaptation - still enjoyable, but not close enough to the source material. Smaller percentages either preferred the anime’s retelling or, on the opposite end, believe that the adaptation wasn’t good in any way. 

Í think a few parts would've been better if they had stuck to the source, but overall it was a good adaptation

It was horrible to be very honest, ehhhhh they ruined it

There were a few cuts and changes that didn't make sense or took away from the story but it wasn't too bad. I love Attack On Titan too much to be ungreatful lol.

At some points it was a better adaptation, with changes I liked, and at some points the attempts to fix some issues created some others. I'd say I find it about even with the manga, the pros and cons balance out.

I enjoyed it, and I loved the action animation in the first few episodes, but I'd still have preferred a more faithful adaptation.

First half was rushed, i like the manga version of it better, but the second half that went more like the manga was excellent

It could've been a teensy bit better, but glad they hit all the marks that were important (except for the hesitation of the 104th squad killing people)

It was a good story, but they cut out way too many scenes I loved making it not the best adaptation when it comes to comparing it with the manga. Season 3 is still my favorite season though.

Although the story was entertaining and was produced well, it missed a lot of key factors present in the manga that really brings it down. At the end you have a feeling of hollowness as opposed to satisfaction

OPINIONS OF THE ARC BEFORE THE ANIME? 238 Responses

Prior to the anime adaptation, the majority of respondents were fond of this arc of the story. A few were indifferent or didn’t enjoy it, however. 

I thought this arc was boring when I read it in the manga and it honestly wasn’t any better when it was animated.

AND AFTER? 237 Responses

Opinions stayed about the same after the anime retelling, with just a small bump up in the “liked it” area.  

I actually like the Uprising arc. So when the anime came up I expected it to be better. So for me this is a good adaptation. Plus I think half of the budget was spent on making Levi 100 time hotter... My only regret is that they didn't show Levi shirtless.

Uprising arc is my favorite in the manga. So many changes have driven me mad but in the end, I have rather enjoyed this cour. The chara design and the animation are insane. Feel robbed in many ways though, but never mind.

I felt like a lot of details that made the arc good in the manga was lost in the anime

HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT THE FOLLOWING MAJOR CHANGES?

While most stances were overall neutral on many of the changes, the most disliked change was taking away Levi forcing Historia to take the crown, thus unraveling subsequent events which eventually lead to the beloved punch/smile scene. The most well received change was including a proper Kenny vs. Levi fight scene in the cave. 

I did disapprove of some removals and additions, because I felt that the way the manga structured it made the plot flow easily. For the anime, it felt a tad rushed with the fast stream of information given to the viewers.

Like many manga readers, my biggest and only really significant complaint was the removal of Levi's choking-and-speech moment. It was entirely crucial to both his and Historia's characterisation and future development.

I only liked two of the changes. Everything they did that stuck to the manga was really well done.

The fandom is happy because of the 2nd fight between them in the cave. That was the worst fight IMO: Kenny didn't learn anything from the first battle between them and decided to go against Levi again; he was babbling some nonsense, offended his nephew and as result - he almost got killed. So in other words - Kenny was shown as immature, dumb simpleton who despised his nephew and was pathetic fighter.

while different, i still think it was a good adaptation and none of the changes really bothered me too much.

An additional scene that I'm still upset they didn't include - the conversation between Nile and Erwin before Erwin's arrest, where they discuss their childhood together.

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE FIRST COUR?

A shame a bunch of the political parts were ''rushed'', but it was to be expected. Otherwise a good adaptation!

Decent adaptation that skimmed over the boring stuff. Too bad some scenes were hacked away.

"Okay, this is epic." - Ben Shapiro

I don't care that Isayama approved the changes and that the majority of people seemed to have enjoyed this arc more in anime form with the changes. I'm not an idiot, I know how adaptations work and that they're a different medium and that it wouldn't be a 100% panel by panel adaptation nor was I expecting it to be. Neither of the previous seasons were. But they removed and changed SO MUCH of what made the arc great and my favorite personally that I'll never get over that.

After a few fast paced episodes that were slightly Concerning™️ things slowed down and made a lot of sense. I’m glad that isayama got a chance to see uprising play out in the way he would have liked. And as far as changes, some were great, some were not awesome, but we always have the manga. Overall it was amazing and what will I do with my Sundays for the next six months rip

It was pretty calm, right before the storm of the next cour

First sighting of god tier character Floch

I feel like a fair bit of changes were made just to give the main/loved characters far more screentime, and some other changes to be simply dumb and entirely unnecessary

I wish they had just stayed true to the manga. It seems like they wanted to remove some of Levi's darker parts which makes him a less interesting character.

While it could have been better (less CGI!), it was phenomenal overall, and I believe guarantees that the Shiganshina arc is in good hands!

Rod's Titan was so gross. YUCK!

EEEEEEKKKKKK

10/10 there was a brief flashback of Mina Carolina in the Cave.

I'm still salty about some cuts but overall I liked it. Who will say no to Anime SNK?

For Yams story and characters are the most important, for the anime team - it's fun for watchers. That's a bit sad but okay.

Historias new coronation outfit was better than in the manga

I see the anime as an extra, so nothing that happens in the anime will change how I see certain characters or the arc itself. So I really had a problem answering your poll. In my eyes, it a gimmick, a nice animated extra but nothing more.

Despite not being a 1:1 adaptation of the manga, the anime still manages to do a fantastic job of adapting Uprising as well as altering it. The story and characters were still executed very well, and this arc overall had a MUCH better reception than its original counterpart which, in my opinion, says something.

WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES? 221 Responses

SHOULD THE POLLS CONTINUE/OVERALL POLL FEEDBACK? 226 Responses

We’re happy to see you guys are enjoying the polls! We appreciate all of you! <3

Thanks again to everyone who participated! We’ll see you again in April! 

[4colorrebellion]

4cr Plays - Death Road to Canada (Switch)

The zombie apocalypse has consumed America. Civilization has collapsed. However, hope is not lost. Rumor is that the zombies can’t handle the cold environs of Canada, so you’ve hit the road to the north. It won’t be an easy journey, but the promise of a snowy Eden is enough to take the risk.

As they say, however, life is about the journey - not the destination. Death Road to Canada is a roguelike RPG from Madgarden and RocketCat Games, where death is permanent and each roadtrip is unique. I sat down with the Switch port over the past couple of weeks - read on for my impressions.

For those new to the genre, the hallmark of the roguelike is the idea of permanent death. One mistake, and you’re done - no resuming from a save, you have to start over from scratch. They can be quite frustrating, but few games encourage planning and strategy - or offer satisfaction when you succeed - quite as well as a good roguelike. 

Death Road to Canada is also an RPG - a rarer mix with the roguelike. The RPG side first comes in during character creation. You can create up to 99 custom characters from scratch, or just have one generated for you if you’re feeling uncreative. As part of crafting your character, you start by customizing your appearance - choosing your gender and adjusting body shape, height, hair style, hair color, and other cosmetic features. There is a lot of variety to choose from, and I’ve spent quite a bit of time creating myself and a few friends in the game.

Once you get your appearance nailed down, then it’s time for the important part - stat modifiers. Your character has three basic stats - morale, vitality, and dexterity. Morale is related to how motivated a character feels. if a party member’s morale is too low, they might leave or trigger a catastrophic event. Vitality determines the number of blows you can take. Finally, dexterity determines how fast you are. You also have three combat stats - strength, fitness, and shooting. Strength determines melee damage, what you can pick up, and what you can throw. Fitness controls how often you can attack. Shooting can affect your accuracy with ranged weapons. 

In addition, you have two support stats, medical and mechanical. Medical affects the number of supplies you use to treat wounds and how often you can treat wounds. Mechanical determines whether you can repair the car when it breaks down and how long repairs take. Finally, you have a set of personality stats - wits, attitude, composure, and loyalty - that control how characters interact with their environment and other characters. These primarily come into play during story events.

When you create a character, you get to pick one “perk” and one “trait”, both of which impact your stats. Perks are fairly simple adjustments to stats and starting equipment. For example, an “athlete” starts with a bonus point in fitness and strength and a random sports-related weapon like a tennis racket. The “surgeon” starts with a scalpel and bonuses to medical and shooting. 

Traits, related to your personality, are a little more complicated. Each carries advantages and disadvantages, and can have interesting effects on your journey. If you take the “civilized” trait, you get bonuses to your medical and mechanical skills. You also have very high personality stats. The trade-off is a permanent morale penalty - the collapse of civilization has left you depressed. On the other hand, a character with the “oblivious” trait will never get depressed. The down side is that they are unlikely to notice a problem until it is too late. 

Over time, you’ll get the chance to form a party of survivors that you gather along the way. Each survivor has their own stats, perks, and traits, and interesting interactions can emerge from the combinations that form. When you die, you will take over one of the other party members. You can also freely switch between which survivor you control at any time.

As you travel, Death Road to Canada presents you with a series of randomly-generated events. Each day, your car consumes more of your precious fuel and your party eats more of the dwindling food supply. Your party’s morale depends on their hunger and rest. Your job is to optimize the condition of these supplies well enough to make it to Canada. The game presents you with events and decisions that you must manage as part of this constant optimization process. For instance, you may arrive at a potential campsite only to discover a horrible smell. You could try to ignore it and get some rest or move on without sleep. Is it better to try to sleep or just press on? It’s not necessarily an easy call to make.  

Often, you will find a town to stop at for supplies. When you do, you typically get a choice between multiple locations - each with their own opportunities and dangers. For instance, you could choose to go to a hardware shop, where there are a lot of potential weapons and a few snacks. Unfortunately, a lot of zombies may be waiting for you there. Instead, you could choose to go to a pharmacy. The pharmacy may lack weapons and food, but could have medical supplies and fewer zombies. 

At times, you’ll run across trading posts where you can exchange food, weapons, and fuel for other supplies that you need. Often, the exchange rate won’t be great, but it can mean the difference between life and death. Trading posts are also a great way to find rare weapons. 

If you’re unlucky - and you will be unlucky fairly often - you’ll get trapped in a building besieged by zombies. During a siege, your job is to last a certain length of time while a constant flood of zombies push their way into a building. In both the sieges and normal exploration, trying to take on too many zombies directly is the fastest way to die. Rather than “fighting” zombies, it may be more accurate to describe combat as “strategic retreat” from the zombies. You need to kill a few, but a lot of the time, you’re better off trying to draw the crowd in a certain direction so you can dash past them. 

Death is permanent, and happens often. You will not get to Canada on your first run - probably not on your 10th. A lot of your success depends on rolls of the dice, but like any good roguelike, you can develop the skill to handle any outcome. When you die, you also get points towards unlocking special characters, perks, and traits.

Death Road to Canada is a really satisfying game, and I generally haven’t felt that the dice rolls are particularly unfair or stacked against you. The core gameplay is quite fun, and I love the variety of events and decisions that you face. It does a great job of capturing the feeling and mechanics of zombie fiction in a game, and provides this nice, encapsulated survival experience. 

The game also looks quite cool. It uses a pixel-based style, but doesn’t just ape old games. The art has a lot of style to it, where the squat little sprites show off a lot of emotion and personality. The Switch port looks great in portable mode, and is a good portable experience. My main complaint about the port is that I experienced a lot of slowdown, but the developer has submitted a patch that should be out soon. 

If you’re a fan of zombie movies or that style of experience - where you are trying to overcome crushing odds and making difficult decisions on a constant basis - I definitely recommend Death Road to Canada. It is well-suited to the Switch - a great portable experience - and provides a really satisfying roguelike experience with some clever RPG mechanics.

A review copy of the game was provided by the publisher, Ukiyo Publishing.

Official Website

Nintendo eShop

[operationrainfall]

Title TINY METAL: Full Metal Rumble Developer Area 35 Publisher Area 34 Release Date July 11th, 2019 Genre Strategy Platform PC, Nintendo Switch Age Rating T for Teen – Fantasy Violence, Language Official Website

I should start this by mentioning how utterly excited I was by the prospect of the first TINY METAL. When I first saw it at PAX, and realized this was a true spiritual successor to a series I had long loved, Advance Wars, I was stoked. Even though I didn’t review the first game, I did play through it, and while not perfect, I felt it was a great start. So the sequel held a good amount of interest for me. Would this be a step up from the original, cementing itself as the successor to Advance Wars? The quick answer is no, but the long answer is it’s complicated. So join me as I address what TINY METAL: Full Metal Rumble did right, and what it did wrong.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Full Metal Rumble seemingly takes place not long after the events of the first TINY METAL. I hedge with “seemingly” since I honestly barely remember the plot from the first game, other than something about lost technology and an evil mind-controlling clown. Events start with Nathan hunting the remnants of the Dinoldan army, which are apparently AI controlled puppets, despite looking mostly human. The sci fi nerd in me wished they had some distinctive robot trait if they were a drone army, but alas the only thing that identifies them as different are their glowing eyes, which made me think more mutant than robot. Putting that tangent aside, the story is rarely the most important part of a strategy game like this, but I prefer if there’s a solid effort made. Sure, Advance Wars wasn’t known for a brilliant plot, but it did have very eclectic characters with distinct personalities. The same goes for WarGroove, which had some really colorful personalities and a solid, albeit formulaic, plot. Sadly, none of those traits are in TINY METAL: Full Metal Rumble. There’s some subplot about Wolfram hunting for her supposedly dead brother Ragnar, some nonsense about nanomachines and mutterings about a greater intelligence at work, but if so, it was never revealed in the game. So if you were hoping for some grand plot for this sequel, put that hope aside. It’s not utterly horrible, there’s some cool ideas, they just never coalesce in a meaningful way.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Sadly, the same can be said for the writing in this TINY METAL sequel. They make an effort at relevant banter and dialogue, but at best it came across like a poorly written anime. Cause and effect are completely divorced and random things happen that only the characters understand. No character gets any significant development, and some barely show up, like Tsukumo. There were at least two separate instances where I thought I knew exactly what was happening, and then the plot pulls a complete 360, or worse, seems to totally disregard important developments. A good example is one seemingly heinous betrayal that turns out to be a nothing burger. I know I said most people don’t play this genre for the story, and while that’s largely true, I can’t help but expecting a better written adventure than this. But now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, let’s move onto the meat of the game, which is how TINY METAL: Full Metal Rumble actually plays.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The best thing the original TINY METAL had going for it was how it emulated the mechanics from Advance Wars. This one does a good job, and actually adds some new stuff to the mix. There are new units, such as the Archelon, which is essentially an APC with a machine gun, or the Viper, a mobile anti-artillery that can move and attack in the same turn. Some of my favorite new units were from the Mecha class, which were all essentially humanoid robots of mass destruction. Think a walking tank, and you have the right idea. They’re great since they can traverse environmental hazards Metals cannot, such as mountains, even though they aren’t quite as powerful. Besides the new units, there are also some new mechanics. One good example are the Commander units. Not to be mistaken with Hero units, which are slightly upgraded versions of normal units you can deploy, Commander units take a page directly from WarGroove. These are massively powerful units with one downside – if they die, you lose the mission and have to start over. Had I not seen it done first in another game, I probably would have been more impressed, but that doesn’t mean these units aren’t useful. One cool distinction is that Commander units can be various types, depending on where you are in the story. An example is how Wolfram pilots a Blitz Mecha in one mission and a Gallant Mecha in others. They are easily the best units in the entire game, and I felt they lent a bit of extra spice to the mix. Commanders even have special abilities you can use after you’ve filled up your meter by dealing or taking enough damage, such as increasing the move distance or attack power for your units for a turn. Unfortunately, I still can’t shake the similarity to recent games in the genre.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

One improvement to the combat is now whenever you build a new unit, you can easily see what they’re most and least effective against. That dispels one of my biggest complaints from the first game, that it’s not super clear which units work best to counter certain threats. They even have a little window that appears when you are selecting a unit to clarify what they can attack. My primary complaint is the game never tells you this, and I literally found out when I was more than two thirds done with the game. That said, there are many other tutorials in the first few missions, and while informative, they tend to drag on a bit long, especially for fans returning to the series. But if you ever get too lost, there’s a handy Metalpedia that gives a brief rundown for what various units do. I just wish I could select a unit on the map and bring up that same description. You can’t even pause the game to see the map, which was a big letdown. I know there’s Fog of War everywhere in TINY METAL, but I should be able to see units once I’ve dispersed them.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Another change is that you actually have to keep track of your ammo and fuel reserves for all mechanical units. I thought I wouldn’t like this feature, but I actually really grew to appreciate it. It made my moves more important, and added a new layer of strategy. The AI for enemy units in Full Metal Rumble also seems a bit better. It uses Focus Fire MUCH more often, surrounding you to deal more damage, but it also does stupid shit like having Infantry attack Gunships, which almost always results in Infantry being massacred. I also noticed that my AI opponents rarely used their own abilities and seemed to shy away from attacking my Commander units. For reference, I did play the game on Normal, so maybe it’s not as incompetent on harder difficulties. Just don’t make the mistake of taking it entirely for granted, cause the Dinoldan army is more than capable of kicking your ass if you’re not treating it like a real threat.

More Metal on Page 2 ->

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Most missions in the game can be beaten one of two ways – either kill every enemy unit or take their HQ. I usually preferred to go for their HQ, since on many missions your opponent has factories and airports that can continually build new units. However, there are some missions where they mix things up. Some missions you have to survive for a set number of days, inflict X amount of damage to enemy finances, or kill a powerful VIP unit. Sometimes you won’t have any way to produce more units, and have to kill all your foes on the map. There are also some missions that have optional objectives, but they aren’t required to win. They just offer an alternate path to victory. Overall, the combat in the game is the highlight, but it’s not without its problems. One is that despite the variety I just mentioned and the combat being well-balanced, the flow of the game feels incredibly repetitive. I also wish selecting a unit for attack would give a preview of how much damage I might take, instead of just how much I will dish out and critical chance percentage. That said, I do like how the pause screen displays your Commander’s abilities and proficiency. It’s helpful knowing Wolfram’s infantry is more powerful, or that all of Tsukumo’s units deal more damage, but cost more money to build.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

  On the aesthetic design portion of the game, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. The music is very muted and unremarkable, but the art is top notch for the design. All the Commanders look great, and a new one in particular I was rather fond of, Nora, has crazy orange hair, hates talking with people and pilots the new Mecha units with ease. There’s some really cool cinematics that occur at various points throughout the story, and they look great, though for the life of me I don’t understand why they have no sound. Unfortunately, the level design is pretty lackluster, with the same colors and layout from mission to mission, with minor variations like desert and snow stages. Hell, there’s not even weather effects, which would have gone a long way to impressing me. There’s also some weird graphical glitches like overlap and layers not displaying all at once. Oh, and though the music isn’t great, the sound effects highlight the battles nicely. The boom and ratatat of cannon fire and machine guns are music to my ears, even if the random snippets units say whenever they’re selected gets old.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I hate to return to the writing of the game, but I feel it’s necessary. The writing is, sadly, incredibly vanilla, and unfortunately it has plenty of grammar mistakes. The way the text displays at times is also odd. Sometimes it doesn’t fit well or even goes outside the text boxes. Worse is that I don’t care about most of the characters or the plot. It all just felt really formulaic and uninspired, at least to me. And even after playing the game for 27 hours to beat Full Metal Rumble, I honestly have no real idea about the motivation for the enemy forces at all. I kept expecting some sinister force to reveal itself as the mastermind, much like in the first game, but it never happens. In it’s place, we’re left with faceless, emotionless AI puppets, and that’s truly disappointing.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Now let’s move onto the part of reviews I hate, which is talking about glitches and quirks. There are several I encountered in my time with TINY METAL: Full Metal Rumble. It’s possible they’re isolated to the Switch version I played, but on the off chance they aren’t, I figured I should mention them as a PSA. One of the less problematic ones occurred with the new autopilot feature. As you progress from mission to mission, you move a plane around the world map. You can select autopilot to automatically move to the next stage, and that’s great. What’s less great is once I tried it and instead chose not to enter the next level, and suddenly my plane started flying around in circles. Another quirk is that after you supply a unit with more fuel and ammo, if you hover your cursor over it, the unit shows as still empty. But if you move the cursor and come back, it instead shows as refilled. One time I attacked a unit, and instead of going to the regular battle animation, that unit just exploded on the map. Another time in Skirmish, I was moving around and got ambushed by a hidden enemy. Instead of just stopping my progress, like it should have, my unit was dealt damage without any accompanying combat animation. A more prevalent problem is the blurring visual effect that happens quite often, including whenever you instigate a battle. But easily the worst glitch I encountered is the following: on multiple occasions, easily more than a dozen, I selected an attack target and initiated my attack, and instead my unit ended their turn. In a game where every move is key to victory, that’s a giant problem. And believe it or not, those weren’t all the weird incidents I encountered, just the more noteworthy ones. I know TINY METAL: Full Metal Rumble has been updated a couple times since release, but these are all issues that need to be patched ASAP.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

In the end, It just didn’t feel like Area 35 tried anything that dramatic in this sequel, just more of the same with some minor upgrades, and taking ideas from games that did it better. TINY METAL was born in the shadow of Advance Wars, and sadly, Full Metal Rumble never steps out of that shadow. I know that sounds harsh, and much as it pains me to say, I don’t know how else the next game can improve without criticism. Because I honestly still like TINY METAL, I just expect much more from it. That said, for $14.99, you get a lot of game for your money. I spent almost 30 hours just on Story mode alone, and there’s a lot more to do, such as Skirmish, Multiplayer and many, many goodies you can unlock with in-game currency. There’s also labs you can find in Story mode to unlock optional side missions. And if you are a perfectionist, each mission has optional conditions you can achieve to get more points. If you’re a fan of strategy games, TINY METAL: Full Metal Rumble might still be worth a look. But if you’re a stickler and want a better adventure, there are far better options available right now.

[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”3″]

Review Copy Provided by Publisher

REVIEW: TINY METAL: Full Metal Rumble Title TINY METAL: Full Metal Rumble

[eeveela]

29.3.18

i arrived at work today thinking it would just be a regular work day, probably chill because it was the ‘friday’ before the long weekend.

instead i found one of the first emails of the day i would read would trigger my ptsd. 

so there’s a bit of background to this, and i think it’s appropriate to do this in a few parts, so i’m going to attempt to address this in the easiest order (saving the most dreadful recounts for last)

*work*

so one of my responsibilities at work is providing technical advice to the public, which can be done either at front of house, or over the phones. every month, one of the seniors sends out ‘roster requests’ to the ones that are supposed to go on the roster, asking what days they would be available, and what sort of shifts they prefer. in most cases these requests are met, but the senior does partake in preferential treatment which i have witnessed during my 2 years at my current office.

admittedly, there is a tiny part of me that is bothered by the preferential treatment - like sure, everyone wants to be treated special. but i’m definitely used to not  being treated like that. it’s really easy to brush off that way. but in a professional environment, that sort of behaviour from a senior in the organisation seems incredibly inappropriate in my opinion? but yet she’s always been allowed to do her thing, and it’s what she’s always done (so of course it’s fine! no need to change anything!)

a n y w a y. i noticed that she had put me on front of house, i.e. face to face interaction with customers. this is triggering for a number of reasons. one of which did happen a couple of months ago when i was doing said front of house duty, which resulted in the worst customer service interactions i have experienced to date. and note that i had been doing the job where giving technical advice was a regular thing for me for 1.5+ years, and various customer service roles before this job (hospo, and retail). i had never had so many interactions one after another that were so inappropriate in a work setting.

for context -a customer hitting on me and talking to me for a solid hour -customers questioning ethnicity -customers questioning qualifications 

the former is the most triggering to me. of course i will never disclose why to the people i work with (and i shouldn’t have to) but i’ll explain a bit more below. but either way, by the end of the day i had cried in a team leader’s office, raised a verbal complaint about this, and (because the shift was on friday), first thing monday morning i raised a verbal complaint to the senior in charge of the roster, and sent a lengthy email to her not long after.

needless to say, these were obviously ignored or idk she decided to invalidate my experiences by putting me on counter this month.

what grinds my gears even more is that one of her favourites, got their preferred shift without even having to ask. apparently front of house duty triggers /him/ too, but hey, more valid than mine. (not to invalidate his experiences at all, because i have no idea what he has been through, or why he personally prefers phones. but the fact that his ‘request’ was granted and mine have been purposely ignored have invalided me as a result)

*history*

i think this is the most difficult thing to write about. it was easier at the time because it all felt surreal and talking about it in therapy and writing about it to friends felt like fiction. i mean at the time, i was desperate not to drown in my own spiral and kill myself just as i was finally on the track of getting out of my pit - i had finally felt free for the first time in so long and was not willing to let that feeling slip away. as a result that’s what made it slightly easier to talk about; it just slipped out of me because i didn’t know how to handle it myself.

two parts to this though, and they relate to the same person. we had been friends since the second year of high school (2009), and after i left (2012), we talked almost everyday for 2-3 years (2013-2016). he confessed to me in early 2016 that he had feelings for me (reason he confessed was because i was starting to date someone). and i decided to give it a shot because i had faith in what sort of person he would be as a partner, and also had the faith in the strength of our friendship should such a relationship fall apart. our relationship did have a few issues and it became rocky at the end. he ended it after 6 months of being together. and to be honest i got over it pretty quickly because it had felt like we were more suited to being friends than being in a romantic relationship. but i think he had developed feelings for me a lot earlier than i had for him (i.e. 1-2 years earlier), so they were probably fairly strong.

we had broken up in july. there was a friend’s house party in september. mostly his group of friends in high school that i was friendly with and hung out with on occasion. they had also invited people they had all been friends with in intermediate, including this one guy who i had heard of quite frequently but never met, but they had always praised/worshipped him on some level which led me to believe what a nice guy he was.

on the contrary, this guy took advantage of my drunken/temporary paralysed state (smoked weed for the first time) and assaulted me. even after my verbal attempts to get him to stop and that no meant no. he did stop eventually but it never should have started.

that week was horrible. i was convinced i had to tell my ex about what sort of friend he had, as i was desperate to remain friends with him and wanted that integrity in our friendship. he took it the wrong way, victim blamed me and cut me out of his life.

it took me a lot of therapy to get through that. i had to put my life on hold (including my honours dissertation) in order to get into the best mental head space as i could to be able to even focus on anything that wasn’t triggering. it compromised my job interviews and grades - i had to get extensions on EVERYTHING. my friendships were put on hold too.

i’m not sure if i’ll ever get over it completely. i am so wary of males and very selective about the trust i put in others. it is broken so easily these days too.

---

a recent interaction at the ed sheeran concert i went to also triggered my ptsd from this life event - a friend’s cousin who i was also friends with got super drunk and got very touchy. i’m not sure if it was part of his ‘culture’ but it’s not a good one to have and in any case i did not reciprocate and he got the message, but he should’ve kept his hands to himself. i did not want to compromise my friendship with my friends either, so i haven’t said anything yet. i still might though.

also a stranger thought it would be alright for them to comment on how much they liked my thigh tattoo whilst proceeding to stroke it. regardless of how friendly you might seem, please don’t touch anyone without their consent.

[acn59685-blog]

acn france avis - An Overview

Success With AcnWith a history in pharmaceutical sales, James Adlam felt as if he was living in a ruthless globe. While working relentlessly in the sales setting, a close friend asked James to join him in taking a look at the ACN Business Possibility.

When Does Acn Report Earnings

ACN was the automobile that helped Zia accomplish his personal goal of economic security as he is now in a position to provide for his family. Zia has swiftly climbed up the ranks to accomplish the peak of success at ACN and also connects this success to adhering to ACN's system as well as designating time to self-educate. Without any idea of the network marketing market or just what it involved, a girl welcomed Nassim to a Service Chance meeting in France. He later attended a training occasion in Paris which sealed his desire to end up being an Independent Rep and embark on a brand-new phase in his professional life. As the owners of four successful organisations, Michael and Jennifer Crowder were comfortable. Perhaps too comfortable. Michael's failure was available in 2009 when the economy took a horrible turn, and all of a sudden, this effective entrepreneur watched whatever he had actually functioned so hard for evaporate practically prior to his eyes.

Acn Ways to Obtain Factors

Nassim Kebbi worked tirelessly considering that the age of 17 in a variety of various markets but mostly as an a/c specialist which he provided for nearly ten years. He really felt, however, that the hours were very long as well as the job was unfulfilling with little possibility for specialist or personal growth. Starting with ACN's launch in the UK, Art quickly began building his organisation, focusing on developing strong, relying on connections. Inside eight months, he attained Regional Vice Head of state status however had not been quiting there as well as rapidly got to the position of Senior Vice Head of state.

Acn For acn reviews complaints australia Dummies

He started searching for a brand-new chance and a chance to begin again. "I was trying to find a home, a strong firm that had actually stood the examination of time and also where I might build a real long-lasting recurring earnings." When introduced to ACN, Michael was impressed at the business's company version as well as exactly how you can change your life by offering everyday essential services. Hard work remains in Marc Isaac's blood. "My dad removaled our family members from the Philippines in 1995 to make sure that we can have a far better life and strive to attain the American Dream," Marc describes. "Our parents have always done whatever it requires to help my sibling as well as I; so giving back to my parents is a substantial concern."

Acn Collaboration With Bt

With ACN, you are in control of the earnings you make, positioning you to earn as little or as long as you such as. ACN's settlement plan is absolutely unmatched in the sector, combining instant benefit potential to fuel your expanding organisation with long-term, wealth-building earnings to alter your life. In 1993, four entrepreneurs, dissatisfied with their sector, had a vision. That vision was of a company based on integrity, one dedicated to dealing with people the means they would certainly wish to be treated themselves. Those business owners were Carbon monoxide-- Owners Greg Provenzano, Robert Stevanoviski, acn home based business reviews Tony Cupisz and Mike Cupisz, as well as today, that company is ACN. In between Leanne Gabriel's routine as a Discrimination Lawyer as well as her husband Michael's schedule as an International Consultant, the pair felt they had extinction. Leanne was seeking an opportunity that would provide her the liberty she longed for.

That Established Acn

ACN came to be the platform for Ahmed to not just develop his own company, but likewise acquire a way of life he had formerly only fantasized about. He attended his initial ACN International Educating event in October, 2013 and also ever since his life has been entirely changed. Looking back on his life prior to ACN, Sunny Kim sees a directionless young man without the confidence to identify the skills and gifts inside of himself. "I will go down a harsh path," he jokes. Worse yet, his moms and dads had actually just recently shed every little thing.

What Does Acn Do

Talking at the 2014 ACN International Training occasion in Barcelona, Muddssar discusses to the audience that all ACN IBOs can achieving success: "Each person existing today at this Worldwide Training event could be effective. I am not unique, yet I have a bulletproof way of thinking that has actually owned me to be effective as well as has guaranteed my Elderly Vice President position at ACN."

Where Is Acn Head office

Shane and also Dana Douglas recognize specifically where to look when they need ideas-- their ACN service partners. As Senior Vice Presidents that signed up with the firm in 2004, they have built a successful and also dynamic team of leaders. "It's exciting to deal with others that have a dream and are willing to work for it," Shane states. "One of the great advantages of working with a lot of people at the very same time is you'll locate they all have comparable frame of minds which produces an amazing think tank of suggestions to be effective. The energy that is produced is unbelievable." It wasn't up until ACN that Mathieu was lastly able to place the years of foster care behind him as well as start believing he should have extra. "It doesn't matter where you're from or just what has actually taken place in your life. You could still complete excellent things." Determined to see some earnings in order to make it through, Mark stumbled upon ACN. "The initial Company Opportunity Meeting I attended, I saw many individuals of various citizenships, ages as well as academic histories. What ecstatic me was to see that everyone had an equivalent right for success in ACN." "This organisation is a true international organisation due to the fact that individuals anywhere all invest loan on telecommunications as well as power-- no matter exactly what region you reside in or just what language you speak-- these are solutions every person makes use of," Brian says. Today, like their parents before them, Patrick and Michael have attained success through the direct marketing sector. The best component concerning ACN inning accordance with Patrick? "Taking someone and also aiding them discover the victor in themselves. This firm is monumental to human capacity and exactly what is feasible. When your life adjustments, you change the world." Luca was born premature with clinical difficulties requiring him to continue to be in the NICU. As a result of ACN and also the work ethic Mike presented in the years prior, both he and also Kylie had the ability to be by his side the whole time, servicing their ACN business in between the fractures of life. For over One Decade, the Davises have actually funded 8 youngsters and their households in the nations of Ecuador, Guatemala, Colombia, Philippines and Dominican Republic. "We have actually had the ability to cover their daily expenditures for food, garments, schooling, real estate, clinical and more," Debbie says. With the years, the whole Davis family has anticipated receiving letters and images from the families. "What seems relatively small to us is everything to them," Debbie claims. "Claiming that we really feel thankful for the chance to give back is a huge exaggeration." Mark's philosophy for success was simple: "Consider a candle light. When you make use of one candle light to light even more candles, this candle light never loses its fire. There is only extra light, happiness and also delight spread around. As well as the same for us in ACN-- we should share our fire with others. Via this, I recognized my mission in life!"

ACN

"To have points in life that you never ever had prior to you must do things that you have actually never done prior to. Allow my tale be an instance for those that maintain making reasons: it not regarding making time to earn things happen, it is about making the hours count. Once you leave your comfort zone and also never quit, you can reach the top." https://aitais.com/kylerdtty452/crucial-acn-methods-that-work/

When Patrick learnt more about ACN he shared the opportunity with Michael, and also the siblings realized they could interact to help others and create an opportunity for typical individuals just like them to make additional money. Michael stated, "When I opened my mind, I really began seeing points in different ways. I became coachable and also picked up from the people who currently achieved success." As a producer, entertainer and business owner in Moscow, Russia, Mark Olshenitsky had his eyes on success. In an instant-- at the peak of his job-- he chose to give up his comfy lifestyle and leave his residence country wishing for a far better means of life for his family members. After relocating to Canada, Mark discovered himself working lots of tasks trying to make ends meet-- as well as the functioning hours were endless. He quickly observed a failure in his life. Mark went from everything to absolutely nothing. Nekoda discovered multi level marketing while he was functioning three works as well as going to school part-time. Monica was a lately separated mother of two, stabilizing law college, a teaching fellowship, and also a part-time job.

That Is Acn Direct

When Cody Mackie began in ACN, he understood he had located something unique. Before becoming an Independent Local business owner, Cody had plans to join the business globe as a monetary coordinator, however that all changed once he saw the ACN opportunity. Spencer's guidance is this: "New Independent Business Owners should take this service as severe as a heart attack. It's simple yet the work should be done. Trust the leadership and also be coachable. If you desire what successful individuals have, just do exactly what successful people do." Art Napolitano played in a rock band until he was 30 years old and also typically wondered how he would certainly ever have the ability to pay for a house and also a household. He wanted to enjoy while also gaining added revenue. Mlm seemed to be the perfect specific niche for him, and also he soon discovered success in internet marketing and abandoned his desire for rock fame.

Are Acn Providers Excellent

After being welcomed to learn more concerning ACN, also this savvy business person could not deny that ACN "simply made good sense". Actually, Michael had actually seen numerous other individuals in standard company job 40 plus hrs a week yet never ever experience flexibility. To Michael, ACN was the escape. "We participated in an ACN convention, there were a great deal of individuals from France and England and also other places but only one person from Spain with one little flag and also we thought that this is a great opportunity for us!"

What Is Acn Direct

Prior to coming to be an ACN Independent Local business owner, Spencer was playing baseball at the College of Utah. After being convinced to attend an ACN Regional Event in Los Angeles by an associate, he located just what he believed to be an incredible chance that he could not pass up. "My plate was greater than full," Spencer stated. "However I felt I would certainly be really absurd to let this opportunity pass me by."

Acn Where To Discover

They realized at an early stage that ACN could assist them fulfill their lasting goals of philanthropy around the world. They have added to numerous calamity relief funds, the Wounded Warrior Job, Ronald McDonald Houses as well as various other charities. "ACN has actually enabled us to assist with things that have actually touched our hearts without needing to wonder if we could pay for to assist," Debbie claims. "It's an invaluable feeling to know that a person's life has actually been made a bit much easier as a result of your ability to give."

Which Countries Is Acn In

Max devoted himself to ACN and also struck the possibility head-on, reaching ACN's top position of Senior Vice Head of state in his 20s. "Individuals in some cases do not understand that much less is a lot more. It's not regarding being ideal, however being passionate concerning your future and aiding others prosper."

What Is Acn Independent Entrepreneur

Zia Rehman, originally from Pakistan, transferred to The United Kingdom to discover a far better life for himself and his family members. With a sensational wish to be an effective business person, it was not until he came across ACN, that he had the ability to ultimately understand his desire. Zia has swiftly climbed the rankings to accomplish the peak of success at ACN. "I discovered my best friend in ACN! Your buddy is not somebody who tries to drag you down when you wish to succeed. Your friend is the person who assists you achieve your desires. If you want to be economically complimentary, your friend is the one who encourages you. The ACN leaders contributed big time to my success as well as I will certainly nourish this relationship by striving and also inspiring as well as encouraging my group."