#long rambly review

[yukipri]

Some thoughts on Cara

So some of you may have heard about Cara, the new platform that a lot of artists are trying out. It's been around for a while, but there's been a recent huge surge of new users, myself among them. Thought I'd type up a lil thing on my initial thoughts.

First, what is Cara?

From their About Cara page:

Cara is a social media and portfolio platform for artists. With the widespread use of generative AI, we decided to build a place that filters out generative AI images so that people who want to find authentic creatives and artwork can do so easily. Many platforms currently accept AI art when it’s not ethical, while others have promised “no AI forever” policies without consideration for the scenario where adoption of such technologies may happen at the workplace in the coming years. The future of creative industries requires nuanced understanding and support to help artists and companies connect and work together. We want to bridge the gap and build a platform that we would enjoy using as creatives ourselves. Our stance on AI: ・We do not agree with generative AI tools in their current unethical form, and we won’t host AI-generated portfolios unless the rampant ethical and data privacy issues around datasets are resolved via regulation. ・In the event that legislation is passed to clearly protect artists, we believe that AI-generated content should always be clearly labeled, because the public should always be able to search for human-made art and media easily.

Should note that Cara is independently funded, and is made by a core group of artists and engineers and is even collaborating with the Glaze project. It's very much a platform by artists, for artists!

Should also mention that in being a platform for artists, it's more a gallery first, with social media functionalities on the side. The info below will hopefully explain how that works.

Next, my actual initial thoughts using it, and things that set it apart from other platforms I've used:

1) When you post, you can choose to check the portfolio option, or to NOT check it. This is fantastic because it means I can have just my art organized in my gallery, but I can still post random stuff like photos of my cats and it won't clutter things. You can also just ramble/text post and it won't affect the gallery view!

2) You can adjust your crop preview for your images. Such a simple thing, yet so darn nice.

3) When you check that "Add to portfolio," you get a bunch of additional optional fields: Title, Field/Medium, Project Type, Category Tags, and Software Used. It's nice that you can put all this info into organized fields that don't take up text space.

4) Speaking of text, 5000 character limit is niiiiice. If you want to talk, you can.

5) Two separate feeds, a "For You" algorithmic one, and "Following." The "Following" actually appears to be full chronological timeline of just folks you follow (like Tumblr). Amazing.

6) Now usually, "For You" being set to home/default kinda pisses me off because generally I like curating my own experience, but not here, for this handy reason: if you tap the gear symbol, you can ADJUST your algorithm feed!

So you can choose what you see still!!! AMAZING. And, again, you still have your Following timeline too.

7) To repeat the stuff at the top of this post, its creation and intent as a place by artists, for artists. Hopefully you can also see from the points above that it's been designed with artists in mind.

8) No GenAI images!!!! There's a pop up that says it's not allowed, and apparently there's some sort of detector thing too. Not sure how reliable the latter is, but so far, it's just been a breath of fresh air, being able to scroll and see human art art and art!

To be clear, Cara's not perfect and is currently pretty laggy, and you can get errors while posting (so far, I've had more success on desktop than the mobile app), but that's understandable, given the small team. They'll need time to scale. For me though, it's a fair tradeoff for a platform that actually cares about artists.

Currently it also doesn't allow NSFW, not sure if that'll change given app store rules.

As mentioned above, they're independently funded, which means the team is currently paying for Cara itself. They have a kofi set up for folks who want to chip in, but it's optional. Here's the link to the tweet from one of the founders:

And a reminder that no matter that the platform itself isn't selling our data to GenAI, it can still be scraped by third parties. Protect your work with Glaze and Nightshade!

Anyway, I'm still figuring stuff out and have only been on Cara a few days, but I feel hopeful, and I think they're off to a good start.

I hope this post has been informative!

Lastly, here's my own Cara if you want to come say hi! Not sure at all if I'll be active on there, but if you're an artist like me who is keeping an eye out for hopefully nice communities, check it out!

[turquoisemagpie]

Appreciate the little things.

Not to ignorantly deny all of the big bad things in the world, but to survive them.

[kirby-the-gorb]

[edwinisms]

love seeing that the tag is trending. as if it means anything

[invisiblegarters]

(Absolutely not) Micro BL and GL Reviews

I spent the last couple of weeks being ill in bed with very little energy. Not great, but also it meant that my limited ability to get up and move around much gave me endless time to catch up on a bunch of shows that I'd let fall by the wayside (or never even started in the first place), and now I have thoughts to share!

Joy? Joy! Welcome to yet another set of my talks about shows that is supposed to be small but never actually is.

Completed

Wandee Goodday: This wound up being way sweeter than I expected from the promo material, but I'm not complaining. I genuinely love shows where most of the people are just trying to get alone while being decent, and that was certainly the vibe here. I was happy with the sex positivity and the introduction of Kao being ace, although I will admit that I felt like it was a little too "let me educate you" about that bit at certain points. That said, it's a topic that maybe needs that kind of thing in this context? I also really really loved that Dr. Dee and Yak got it together and spent a bunch of episodes just being adorable and dealing with struggles that had nothing to do with their relationship. It's so refreshing to see adults being in an adult relationship and actually acting like it. There were several times when the show could have just manufactured drama for drama's sake and chose not to and I really respect and love that. It was also fun to see Title appear in a role that wasn't to cause problems. And Char and Yei were fucking adorable my god. 8/10

We Are: Way better than I expected, if I'm honest. It got a little draggy for me at the end, but Pond and Phuwin always give solid chemistry and I finally got to see what everyone likes so much about Winny and Satang paired together. I never watched MSP and I never will because it's just a little too young for me, but Toey and Q were fucking cute so I get it now, guys. I especially adored Toey - Satang plays endearing brat very well. I also really liked Tan and Fang - their teasing dynamic worked for me. Also Boom is so pretty my goodness. I do think that it was trying to juggle too many couples but as I already said it dragged a little for me at the end so I think they could have done it with better pacing. It seems to me that New has a thing for dramas driven by internal conflicts, and that was We Are all over. The plot advanced as the characters did, which I can understand might be frustrating but I find that if I'm in the right mood I eat it right up. Especially ones like this, with mostly sweet people just living their lives and trying to do right by themselves and each other. Cute, earnest, a really good friend group. It probably won't be something that I revisit much or that sticks in my mind for a long time, but I had a good time. Giving it a 7/10, mostly for the pacing stuff I already mentioned. It kinda lost me towards the end.

My Marvelous Dream is You: idolfactory's second GL and I think I wanted to like it more than I wound up liking it. The chemistry was good and I love the cast (even if I think my girl Silvy was way underutilized), but the plot was a little...not great. I'm still not entirely sure what it was going for, or why the shared dreams were important. I really liked Ae (Kim's mom). And Wan was my favorite. Girl was messy and brash but my kind of messy and brash if I'm honest, and I cheered aloud when she went off on Mawin's family. They were awful. Awful, too, was Mawin in the end. I get being hurt but I always get a little (a lot) irritated when people mess with someone's livelihood out of pettiness, so him fucking with Kim's business because she broke up with him (and yes, in a really shitty way but also lbr here he knew she wasn't into him in some ways he did that to himself) was never gonna do anything but piss me off. It does amuse me that Heng has now played 2 dudes in idolfactory GLs who very nearly marry one of our heroines when she really really doesn't want him and he's very aware, though. I find myself wondering if he's gonna go for the third in The Loyal Pin (I hope he does). 7/10

Love Sea: I loved this one. I knew I would. The premise had me from moment one, lol. And frankly, Fort and Peat deliver on chemistry so it was kind of a no brainer for me. I knew that Trongrak was gonna wind up being really messy the second love came into the picture, and I was absolutely right. I love how he was perfectly fine with Mahasamut holding him and defending him against his shitty dad and following him around and getting all jealous when he implies he's going out to fuck other people (and whether or not he'd have done it is up for debate - I think he would have forced himself to try and failed miserably because that's my favorite lol) and take care of his niece like family, etc...but the second the word "love" actually makes its way out of the dude's mouth he can't handle it. My only quibbles were Prin - why was she so awful for no reason, MAME? The dad - he was not an effective villain to me. I wish that he'd been a little more menacing but I guess it works that he just let Tongrak think that he'd done a lot of things that he hadn't, and I do like that he was basically squeezing money out of both Tongrak and his mom just by showing up on occasion and assuming that they wouldn't talk to each other (which they weren't, both trying too hard to protect their family from his sliminess). I also like that it was finding that out that made both of them snap out of it. And last but not least - what the FUCK, MAME. How dare you give me that lesbian side couple and make it SO COMPELLING and actually get me invested than then not actually offer a resolution because oops, we're on episode 10 now and it's time for the love issue between Tongrak and Mahasamut to rear its head? How very very DARE you. Genuinely this made me the angriest and dropped my personal enjoyment a lot. I haven't seen the special yet so maybe that gets addressed (it SHOULD I was INVESTED), but while I would probably have given it a 9 (I really liked it a lot okay) I am dropping it to a 8/10 for that. Tempted to drop it to a 7 because I am petty.

This Love Doesn't Have Long Beans: Another one I really liked! The chemistry between Sailub and Pon is absolutely scorching and while I have noticed that actors are getting a lot better about it in general, I always take notice when they are so entirely comfortable with not just the steamier scenes but the emotionally intimate ones as well. I love when I am watching a show and I can believe that the characters want each other and like each other, and not like a part of them isn't flinching at the very idea of it (unless that's the character, but just go with me when I say that there's just a very specific vibe you get when one (or both) of the actors isn't comfortable and I think it actually happens more with the sweet, couply stuff than it does the steamy stuff. But I digress). Chemistry like that can help me forgive quite a bit.

I liked how obnoxious Wan was in the beginning - I did not expect that and it was annoying but also kind of delightful. He grew on me despite my initial annoyance. Oab was a little different - he annoyed me right out of the gate by not calling Kao Suay and telling her about her dad. I get the respect thing, I do, but also what if he died and she was abroad, none the wiser? How would everyone have felt then? Keeping it from her was NUTS, and I don't even care that Kluer called her and told her for nefarious reasons. Someone had to. Oab's wishy washiness with her when she came back annoyed me too - a personal failing of mine has always been that I don't have time for that kind of waffling. I just wanted him to make a choice and stick with it (and was doubly annoyed as it became clearer and clearer what his choice was and he still couldn't just say it). Thank goodness he had Nubnueng there to gently prod him into finally doing the thing.

I wish Kluer's turn to villainy had been more evil, but I guess that wouldn't have made sense for this show, since no one really was, not even Enemy No. 1 Methas. Speaking of which, I wanted to like him and JJ more than I did in the end. I did like them, but I guess I just wanted more development there than I got in the end. They were cute though JJ was hands down my favorite character. I understood Methas so much. I also really enjoyed his relationship with Wan.

One thing that I thought was utterly hilarious was Oab's pettiness. As a petty person myself I can't help but find opening a new restaurant to steal all of your ex's customers because he wouldn't just apologize for, you know, deceiving you for most of your relationship and initially planning to sell your restaurant to the one man in the world you emphatically never wanted to own it absolutely hilarious. No notes Oab you keep rocking on. 8/10

Currently Watching

The Loyal Pin: Everything in this show is so damn pretty it's hard for me to think about much else. Especially Freen, and it seems like all the show wants to do is remind us of her beauty at every moment. Which, well. I am not complaining the woman makes my breath catch.

But this week I finally started paying a bit of attention to something more than oooh pretty, and I am genuinely wondering if this show isn't going to be all pretty dresses and gorgeous women falling in love and carving mangoes and if maybe there aren't some extremely serious things swimming in the waters.

Watching Anin wield her power this week hit me way way harder than all the ways that she'd been doing it before, and in a way that made me think a lot harder about how she'd done it before as well. I think it's because usually she sticks to manipulation to get what she wants - she's charming, she smiles, she talks people around - but last ep she dropped all pretense a couple of times, and we watched it cut more than once. Anin is a woman who knows exactly what she wants and she has the means to get it, she is spoiled and she will do whatever it takes. Other people have talked about it better, but I will say I am absolutely fascinated, and am genuinely curious to see if this is going to be addressed or if it's just the way it is. I also want to see if there's something that will butt up against Anin's frankly terrifying amount of power. Something she can't either manipulate or brute force her way through (although in the end I bet she manages to do one or the other anyway).

Also, kisses. Teach Pin more things Anin! She's a good student.

The Trainee: This show was not really on my radar at all, and I'm genuinely not sure why I decided to pick it up. Maybe because I was finishing up another GMMTV show and it was next in the youtube queue?

Whatever the reason, I'm so glad I did because I fucking LOVE this show. it's my favorite thing airing right now and that I never would have expected or believed.

It really is so good though. I think for me it's that it feels realistic - maybe in a way that can be uncomfortable for some but I love it. No one here is perfect, it's not just the mentors constantly schooling the kids because even though they are older, they are still growing too, and still have things to learn. Especially when it comes to Jane, who is my favorite character in the show I think and is hands down the best Off character I have personally seen. I am so iffy with Off normally that my adoration for Jane is confusing me, but he's so good. He's an adult and he handles most of his problems like an adult (which frankly I think is sometimes missing from these shows), but still has moments where he fumbles because he's still human. And I like that when he does fumble, he apologizes. I'm also really in to the whole deal that happens in the workplace where people think he's a certain way and judge him for it, but he's really just...dedicated. Strict, yes, but not entirely uncompromising. I dunno he's just a great character.

I also really like how this feels like an ensemble show with the romance not at the forefront. I don't always want that but this is so well done that I'm happy for it. I like that we have gotten to showcase each intern, their struggles and their achievements and just...growing up and learning to handle that scary point in life where you're really starting to enter the adult sphere, with all it's responsibilities, but still not ones that are entirely on your shoulders. If you do things the more traditional way, that is - I know a lot of us were in that world well before college. Still, it does resonate with me.

I am also enjoying the insight we're getting into the background of production. Such as how much work and effort goes into even the smallest change in filming even something that seems as simple and straightforward as an ad. Imagine how hard it would be to reshoot scenes from something like a TV show, especially considering the stuff like location, OT, cast and crew...I had already guessed a lot of it, but it's always nice to be proven correct. I like being right, what can I say? And the Ryan's awkwardly trying to draw people out without directly asking them how they are After Work Corner is very charming. I like that it gives insight into the business but also Ryan, who I do sometimes feel is the weakest of the interns. Which is insane because he's played by Gun Atthaphan, but there you go. I did like that he was brave enough to ask Jane about his feelings last ep, and I'm looking forward to seeing him more in his element (or at least what he's used to) next ep.

I really hope this show continues to impress.

1000 Stars - This is a rewatch for me as I roped a friend into watching for the first time. I warm up to this one more each time I watch it. The first time I was annoyed with Phupha's everything but I feel like I get him more and more as I go on. I also love a show that has heart (heh, this show has heart ror sure (and this is why we can't take me anywhere)) and this has a ton of it. It also amuses me whenever Phupha and Tian start doing their intense staring thing and there are other people around. I bet they're all just like "welp there they go again we've lost them, best go about our business" and leave them to it.

I also always forget Khaotung is in this one. Every time I watch I'm like "oh yeah" when he shows up. It's so funny to me.

Looking Forward To:

Peaceful Property (28 Aug) - Is it BL? Is it bromance? Who knows. Do I care? I...don't think so. Whatever the romance situation it looks like a ton of fun, and I am excited to see Tay back in glasses and to see this cast, especially doing comedy.

Kidnap (06 Sep) - This one also looks like fun. I love Ohm, Leng looks like he's doing a good job matching him, they seem to have good chemistry from the trailer. And pettily I'd watch this anyway because some of the shenanigans of certain fans have made me that annoyed. Good for me that it looks like something I'll like regardless, I guess.

Pluto (???) - GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME. It has been 84 years I am DYING here. If it doesn't get released this year I might actually cry, but I am hoping that it will.

There are others I am looking forward to (honorable mentions if you will): My Golden Blood, The Heart Killers, ReVamp (still a stupid title), Friendshit Forever, Hide & Sis, Us - but all of these are either not filming yet or so early into their schedule that I'm not letting myself get too excited for them. And for The Heart Killers especially I don't want this to be an Only Friends situation where I got really hyped and then was inevitably kind of disappointed (at first - I shook it off and came back around eventually lol). I just wanna go in there and have a good time - I'm excited to see that entire cast do a romcom, I think it'll be fun, and that's about all I want to expect out of it. I'll get excited when we get an air date.

Also thinking of picking up 4Minutes since it's on Gaga now, apparently. And maybe trying to find My Stand In since it's over and I can inhale those deliciously toxic fumes all in one (or two) sitting(s). And maybe, just maybe, poke around for BL and GLs outside Thailand, lol. I feel like it's been all Thailand all year for me when I used to watch JBLs and KBLs too.

Any recs?

[crispycreambacon]

🎉 I FINISHED FRAGGLE ROCK SEASON 1 EVERYONE LET'S GO LET'S GO 🎉

What a fantastic season all around!! I'm so happy that I got recommended this show by my lovely friend Gem 'cause it was such a delight and a perfect treat to give myself after graduating high school :D

Where do I even begin with this show? Let's get the obvious out of the way: everything regarding the art direction and the puppetry was stunning from the character designs to the colour direction to the sets they built. They built such an immersive, creative world and blended vibrant and naturalistic colours so well.

Shout out to the voice actors! Every very single one of them gave it their all and brought their own character to life. Not to mention how they double as their puppeteers. I really do believe that puppeteers are magicians since they made the puppets so expressive with their acting even though they don't really change their faces.

Howevet, the heart of it all is the story, especially the character writing. The Fraggle Five—love the nickname btw—are all so charming with their unique personalities that compliment each other so well, so no matter who's the star of the episode or who's paired with who, you're in for a ride of well-thought out character development and fun banter. Each of them bring something new to the table like Gobo's levelheadedness, Mokey's gentleness, Red's boldness, Boober's neuroticism and Wembley's... wembling :P (I'm jesting, but I can't resist that ehe)

I adore how the power of friendship is such a dominant theme as presented by how much they care for each other. I love even more that sometimes, they suck! They can be quite mean to each other at times, and while they don't mean to be malicious, they still hurt each other, and they have to remedy that. It's very realistic to how friend groups actually work, and it enhances the sweetness of the times where they do support each other. Moreover, it's a really good lesson for kids to learn. In general, Fraggle Rock has great ideas and delivers them very well, so not only kids but also older audiences will greatly benefit from watching this show and taking in its themes.

Overall, I cannot wait to see what the rest of this show has to offer, and I'm so happy to have hopped on the ride. My only problem with it is that I got a fCKUING CRUSH ON UNCLE TRAVELING MATT WHAT THE F. FRAGGLE-

[sparkly-caroline]

Okay, so basically, I've been revisiting the older FNF mods (from around 2020-2021), for nostalgia's sake. So I started rewatching the FNF HD mod. I knew it was 90% a reskin mod, so I did not have my expectations TOO high.

But for the most part, I don't dislike it as much as other people do, the artstyle's neat and it was one of the first few mods that tried to give FNF a story. Even if it's not as cool as it used to be back then, it was fine for its time.

But I do have ONE pet peeve with it. The part I remember disliking the most, even back in 2021:

Pico. Yeah, I'm gonna be real, I did not like Pico in FNF HD. They just made him into the biggest dickhead imaginable in that mod.

I know Pico from FNF or even the Pico's School series isn't exactly a saint, I know that, but bruh, in FNF HD the guy was just insuferable.

So it's true that GF's dad hired Pico to kill BF, that part is accurate.

But in vanilla FNF, Pico CHOSE to spare BF due to their past relationship. In HD, nah he's cool killing BF, he's just "playing with his food" before he does.

My dude, you have the gun, you want to kill BF, he's right there infront of you, why are you wasting your time doing this?? (Even if GF can just shoo him away with her demon powers anyway)

Oh wait, he just does that anyway. He said "imma spare you if I jam to the beat". Nah, that was all one big lie.

Screw you too.

And then there's the memey screenshot that's been flodding Twitter recently:

No notes, 10 outta 10 /j

And then Pico loses again and GF sends him to the Shadow Realm. GGs, my boi, GGs.

That's about the only big peeve I have with the mod right now, the rest of it is fine... mostly. I mean, the dialogue is mostly some really sus stuff, a ton of innuendos, and then the Mommy Mearest week. That entire week was, uh... a little TOO much for me.

(rip the monetization of the let's play youtubers who uploaded videos when Week 4 HD came out lol).

And I like the new remixes of the songs for the most part. And as far as 2021 mods go, it didn't age THAT badly. I've been an FNF fan (ugh cringe) since Week 5 came out, I've seen WAY worse mods than HD.

But yeah... fuck Pico HD, don't like that guy. They did my fav character dirty... and that is the post. Follow for more ramblings/opinions of random stuff I find online, and hope y'all were as freaked out by this portrait as I was when I first saw it, peace-

[djevelbl]

i am both WAY too sober and WAY too drunk to hear kwite talk about the "post like the omegaverse is real" tiktok trend LMAOOO why did none of y'all told me this was real--

[spinaroos-47]

Honestly, I think that Moonstone Island having very little fan content is mostly because of the biggest weak point of the game: The social aspect and the story are very surface level

That's not to say that the characters aren't lovable, they are, they really are, but theres not a lot to work with. Yes, you can find out more about them through dates, but kinda sucks that its exclusive to that kind of interaction + in my case it feels bad, as Ive been dating Paolo and i feel bad doing that while dating them.

Sure, the dates could be read as platonic but theres a lot of implications of them having romantic undertones in a lot of them.

Point is, theres not a lot of stuff, especially if you dont go on 4 dates in all 4 places with everyone to know everything (which also would mean youd need to break up with them to be able to date someone else and get their home dates, but THEN the character you broke up with just will not talk to you again, which i really don't want to do). Honestly, the only other ways to really know stuff is obviously talking to them (which, yes is good but their dialogue isnt infinite and i keep stumbling on repeats. I dont mind some repetition but in general they dont have a lot lot to say) or by the letters you get.

Theres a big lack in change of the status quo, too. I dont need them to have a full 180 on routine and such, but nothing really changes. Theres no cutscenes, no character development, no change besides everyone getting a spirit, which they aren't really mentioned again after you give them their spirit.

I really didn't want to bring up stardew in comparison but i do think that stardew does the social aspect really nicely. The characters have cutscenes, stuff changes, you can get stuff in the mail randomly, they dont feel static. So its something i really wish was in Moonstone Island, especially with how smaller the cast is, and the theme of it being a small small town, a village even, which in theory would make it easier to give some attention to everyone.

And for the story, its not as much of a glaring issue and im fine with the main story of spending a year away and such is left vague, that one is fine. But i wish there was more about why the spirits are being hostile, why the dungeons are like this now, why and how the rift happened, how did Waldo lose his sense of self, etc.

I know that theres stuff there, but its kinda delivered as if we already knew about it, so its not too in depth or waiting much to explain, and kinda easy to miss, i genuinely missed bits of lore due to half paying attention due to the issue of repeating dialogue happening a lot.

So, yeah, a really good game but its lacking a lot on the social aspect.

[redlettermediathings]

[12u3ie]

38 hours??????

38 fucking hours?????????

[fumifooms]

Thinking about Mithrun angst unfailingly gets me like

[loathsome-sickness]

people are so unwilling to ascribe even a hint of artistic meaning to gore and sex even when they enjoyed the media it was in it is so wild, literally even reviews that are positive to books with those themes heavily present they'll still say shit like 'lazy gore shock fest' as if the shock of how we respond to gore in itself is somehow devoid of all meaning or value to explore

desperately shaking media reviewers by the shoulders begging them to do the self-same critical thinking they keep saying you 'have to use' when engaging with this kind of media rather than only relying on their gut instinct of disgust to immediately dismiss any artistic value in the work they are 'analysing' please for the love of god i didn't come to your book review wanting to be reminded how nothing that i create will ever 'be of value' just because it involves topics most people can't stomach

[parab0mb]

So, now that I finished the game (again) and the DLC chapters, I'm going to ramble about Crosscode C:

This game is really bizarre in the sense that, to be completely 100% honest, there isn't any particular part of the game that I think is all that mind-blowing. But all the individual elements (heh) of the game come together so well that the resulting product ends up being so much stronger and memorable than the sum of its parts.

Like, most indie games have one or several notable flaws or shortcomings (and understandably so) but this game is such an airtight experience that I can't help thinking about it and just being like "the how HECK is this game so GOOD?!"

...I am of course just getting started, I've got a wall of text of things I liked and thought her just "meh" under the 'keep reading' if you're interested (you've been warned (also spoilers obviously)):

The combat is definitely one of the strongest elements of the game and probably one of my personal favorites; its brutally difficult and sometimes feels like bullshit (and maybe there is one or two instances where it actually is just bullshit) but once you get the hang of it is really is flashy and satisfying and makes you feel badass to pull off. Plus its got the whole easy to learn, hard to master thing going on (like most of it is just charging SP and pressing the space bar, but knowing what moves to use and when def play into things).

I dunno how much of a hot take this is, but I really liked the puzzles in this game! I won't deny that they can sometimes drag on and interrupt the pacing of a temple, but personally I didn't mind. And just like the combat they're so well constructed that, while you'll spend minutes staring blankly reminded that you're a simple-minded creature and that the human mind wasn't made for this and you should be foraging for mushrooms in the woods and risking death over your next meal, they rarely feel impossible to solve without having to resort to a playthrough and are really satisfying to finally figure out (not to brag but there was exactly one puzzle in the game where I had to look up the solution and another where I did solve it on my own but then looked it up cause I thought I cheesed it by mistake). At first I wasn't a huge fan of how fast/precise you have to be for some puzzles on top of just finding out the solution in the first place, but after a while you kinda get used to it (and there is an option to slow things down which is really nice of the devs to include).

The story is... pretty alright. Yeah. I honestly don't have much to say about it. Bit of a slow pace, does the job, and has it's share of twists and emotional moments, but the narrative itself doesn't really do anything mind-blowing either so... you know. I definitely think it's the characters themselves that are memorable and prop up an otherwise average story. I mean every single one of them is just the hugest goober and even characters who initially seem forgettable or one-dimensional end up subverting your expectations and being super endearing/compelling/layered. Oh yeah, and Lea is a character that can only say like 10 words and SHE DESERVES THE WORLD I WOULD KILL FOR H-

Also, since the DLC is brand new to me I do wanna say that the ending was the tiniest bit underwhelming. Like you break into Vermillion Wasteland, fight a (surprisingly easy) boss, and that's... just it. Like 20 minutes top. I dunno, it feels like... something was missing. Still thoroughly enjoyed the entire thing and it is nice for the cast to get their happy ending (not quite as emotionally impactful as the base game's end imo, but still great and I'm glad they gave us more time with these dorks).

The platforming and navigating the overworld is tedious, which sucks a bit since that makes up a good chunk of the game. Idk man, having to scale different elevations of platforms is made frustrating by the fixed camera and the fact that the different "levels" of platforms aren't distinct from each other at all, so its easy to get duped by the perspective and jump to something you can't actually reach (yes you can use projectiles to check but it still isn't fun). Even without everything blending into each other visually, trying to find which obscure paths from four rooms ago will bring you to a chest just isn't all that enjoyable (some of the later maps like Sapphire Ridge were okay though, if only cause they started to have actually interesting puzzles to do). Basically they're just... there, between the actually fun stuff.

The trading system and farming for resources is confusing and kind of a chore. That's all I got.

Guess I'll touch on the art/music since I don't have too much to say about them. To be perfectly honest I'm not actually super crazy about the artstyle (blasphemy!), but I won't deny that the sprite-work and overall aesthetic are still super-well done, even if they aren't my personal taste (tl;dr I'm neutral on it). The soundtrack isn't something I'd put on my phone and listen to in the car, but like the art it's still well-made and perfectly suits the mood of/drives the emotional impact of the game, and there are still a handful of standout bangers (Lea's theme will live rent-free in my brain of course).

One last thing I'll say (that I mentioned before) is that as fun as this game is, it feels like a commitment to get through at times. Even when I first played it and had more free time, sometimes this game just felt "imposing" to pick back up after a break. Idk its hard to describe, but at least for me it was hard to play any other games alongside this (especially with my limited free time) which kinda sucked a bit.

To wrap things up, if I had to give the game an arbitrary number rating, I have to give Crosscode a 0/10 because its an indie game that doesn't have a fishing game (smh honestly how could they make such an obvious mistake 😔).

[ahdkshax]

A Brief Rant about House of Leaves

House of Leaves is a book written by Mark Z. Danielewski written by Zampanó and edited by Johnny Truant. This is the story of a story of a house where the space inside doesn't match what it should be outside. It's most well known for the "Navidson Hallway," a hallway from a closet that spans 5 and a half minutes long, despite the exterior of the house never changing. This brief oddity of the house sparks the beginning of The Navidson Record, a (home? hollywood?) film chronicling these spacial anomalies and all that comes with them.

But you probably already know that.

...

I just finished House of Leaves and I have a lot to say. As in an extraordinary amount to say. And I want to get it out before I lose my mind.

This rant will spoil major aspects of House of Leaves. I recommend reading the book before viewing this post, especially if that brief synopsis intrigued you. But, if you know what the book is all about or it's not for you for various reasons, you're always welcome to read this too. I won't mind.

Here are content warnings for topics this post will review:

Unreality and Unfiction

Brief mention of suicide

Violence/Death

I lied. This won't be brief.

- A Crash Course in Chekhov's Gun Factory

One of the first things I noticed in House of Leaves was the usage of setups and payoffs, not simply in the simple "this feature is here in the beginning and so will be paid off in the end (which does happen)" but more of the kind of horrible realization.

Take, for instance, the earliest Explorations. There's the one part where Navidson wanders into the hallway and finally discovers the Atrium, a space so large it can't photograph. In this exploration, Navidson nearly gets lost in the house, ever changing and turning him around endlessly as it groans on and on. This section was terrifying to me, not just because of how skilled Danielewski's writing was at this point, but because of a few pages earlier.

See, in House of Leaves, you know there are the Johnny Interludes as I will call them: times where the editor interrupts the story to talk about something with himself, treating his footnotes as more of a diary in these instances. And, just before this interlude, the book decided to talk about echoes--specifically the science of echoes, the science where you need over 50 square feet in a room to hear an echo back.

Take my fear when, after this Interlude, we are shown that Navidson is lured back home not by light or wire, but by echoes in a house that is far too small for such a thing, and these are echoes of his terrified daughter, written hauntingly to have the beginning of the word cut off to clue the reader into what was said, yet keep that weight of an echo on us in this instant.

These happen everywhere in House of Leaves, to the point that I would get nervous looking at an Interlude wall because I was scared the payoff would hit too hard. Then, more payoffs happened, of the children's drawing of their house being a black square that was referenced in a footnote about children in traumatic times drawing their houses. I know this is a staple of storytelling in general, but just the way it was done, the distraction and payoff with the intent of letting the reader sit with the gun on the mantle and think about the thousand of ways for it to go off, only for it to blow and a second, smaller gun coming out. Maybe I just don't read enough, but this was an amazing use of setup and follow-through.[1]

The final segment to this echo setup, of course, is found on page 73, where Navidson has escaped the hallway and records himself talking about last night, where he is interrupted by his daughter. As a quote from the book:

""Come play with me Daddy." Navidson lifts his daughter onto his lap. "Okay, what do you want to play?" "I don't know," she shrugs. "Always." "What's always?" But before she can answer, he starts tickling her around the neck and Daisy dissolves into bursts of delight.

"Despite the tremendous amount of material generated by Exploration A, no one has ever commented on the game Daisy wants to play with her father, perhaps because everyone assumes it is either a request "to play always" or just a childish neologism. Then again, "always" slightly mispronounces "hallways." It also echoes it."

(House of leaves, page 73)

[2]

- Scientific Horror

There's going through and telling about how echoes shouldn't exist within the walls of the house--but there's showing the scientific reasoning behind why.

This is something that shares common ground with middle school me's favorite book, Jurassic Park: Scientific Horror, explaining why what I'm reading is terrifying. My first encounter with it was with the echoes mentioned in the previous section, where the readers were given a definitive number of the minimum size of the hallway, but this is not my favorite way it had been used.

In Exploration #4, the rescue mission, Navidson and his brother Tom were working together to bring the character Reston up from a flight of stairs previously thought to have been bottomless. When Tom lowered the rope from the top that he used to pull Reston up, the world around the three of them suddenly changed and we see, in real time, the house change its shape, turning a 20 foot deep hole into something much, much deeper.

Navidson stands at the bottom of the hole waiting for the cue that Reston made it up safely: a quarter dropped to the bottom of the stairs. He waits for an hour before finally hearing the coin hit the ground.

The only problem?

Shortly after Reston vanished from Navidson's sight, Tom had pulled him to safety and dropped the coin.

An hour later it hit the ground.

Normally, this would be freaky in and of itself, but it's made a thousand times more nerve wracking when you look down to the footnote and see in those small letters that this coin had been falling for 27,273 miles. 2,371 miles longer than the Earth is wide.

This also means Navidson is trapped.

- The Importance of Layout

I felt it's important that the most famous part of House of Leaves gets its own segment in this rant. For justice, I am linking it here so I am able to show examples of the various text layouts and what they mean in the book.

But, as a TL;DR for people who do not want to click on the link for one reason or another, I will write this:

The various textual layouts not only give an extremely good insight into how the characters feel and see their surroundings at various points of the book. Not only is this a fascinating way to show instead of tell and a brilliant way to control pacing, but it also mirrors a footnote in the book about how the hallway in the house reacts to people, leading to the interpretation that the book itself is the house in the story.[3]

- Keys of Black and Grey

One thing I noticed while reading was the prevalence of black and grey in the book, not only on the distinguished cover, but in the book entirely. Every facet of the house that is, for lack of better term, physically incorrect, turns an ashy color. Maybe that's the reason behind Ash Tree Lane.

But beyond that, black and grey are often seen in the book. Black as the parts Zampanó wanted removed from the book. Black as the stakes Johnny removes from Zampanó and he is cursed with a desire to finish the Navidson Record. Black as the ink that Johnny spills over the scientific section regarding the wall samples where he has finally crossed that threshold from losing his mind because of the book to it being completely and utterly lost. Black as Holloway's body is absorbed into the house, black as Tom is dragged deep into the house then plummeting to his death.

To find out everything related to black, I'd have to reread the book again, which I will do (just not right now as this took me a month to read) but there is a theme. Maybe its the show absence. Maybe its to show madness. Or maybe it's just black.

- A Love Story

House of Leaves is an ergodic horror novel. That was the intent with writing it.

But, as I finished the story and I wiped the tears from my face, I realized something else.

House of Leaves isn't just a horror novel. It's a love story.

If you've gone this far down the post without reading the book, unless you cannot read it in any way, I suggest you leave now. This spoils the very ending of the book.

At the beginning of the book, it's said that Will Navidson and Karen Green move their family into the small home on Ash Tree Lane to become closer as a family.

Through the book, through the trials and tortures the family endures, they break apart. Despite the dozens of times Navidson holds Karen and carries her around through them knowing each other, they break apart.

Karen becomes extremely claustrophobic.

Navidson goes crazy.

Navidson returns to the House one more time after writing a suicide letter to his wife and telling her just how much he loves her. He mourns the loss of his brother who saved his children in Exploration #4, where he was consumed by the house. He mourns the young child he took a photo of instead of helping. He mourns what his life was and he wants to at least try and make things right before he leaves for his final journey.

Karen goes after him. She returns to a calm house, like they left it, no hallway to be seen and in the walls she hears Navidson speak, and she stays, despite acting as if she hadn't a care in the world, she stays for the sound of his voice when no one else can hear it.

His clothes appear in the children's room along with some tapes.

Karen watches them.

Navidson reads House of Leaves.

And the back wall reveals an all too familiar void to which Karen lights a lantern and she enters in.

The void closes.

And the two are outside.

And Karen is holding Navidson in her arms, just like he does to her.

The purpose of the house was always to bring the family together. It just took a while for it to finally happen.[4]

[moongazeonastarfillednight]

The Terror: When, How, Where... (PART 2)

See Part 1 here (ep 1 thru 5) See Part 3 here (Ep 10)

For Context I am trying to make a timeline with locations from The Terror. You will find here:

1. Probable location and coordinates

2. Probable date

3. Travel distance and speed

4. Death count

List of Locations identified so far:

Location 1 - David Young's grave (71.22, -96.60) - Sept 5 1846

Location 2 - Ships Position September 1846 (70.25, -98.00) - Sept 12 1846

Location 3 - Ships Position June 1847 (70.15, -98.30) - May 24 to Jun 11 1847

Location 4 & 5 - The Cairn and the Ice Camp (69.66, -98.27) - May 28 1847

Location 6- The Ships in January 1848 (70.055, -98.59) - January 10th- 17th 1848 

Location 7- The Ships in April 1848 (69.88, -98.57) - April 22nd 1848 

Location 8 - Fairholmes' Last Resting Place (69.72, -98.35) - April 23rd 1848 

Location 9 - Terror Camp (69.644, -98.24) - April 24th-26th  1848 

Location 10 - Netsilik Massacre (69.62, -98.05) - April 25th 1848 

Location 11- Hodgson is found - Mutineers: (69.56, -98.06) - April 27th 1848 

Location 12 - Hodgson is found – Crozier (69.54, -98.14) - April 27th 1848 

Location 13 - Fitzjames Collapses (68.94, -98.79) - June 10th 1848 

Location 14 - Gibson's death (68.860, -98.73)  - June 27th 1848 

Location 15 - Fitzjames' Death (68.78, -98.21) - July 28th 1848 

Location 16 - The NorWest Passage (68.7, -98.06) - July 28th 1848

Location 17 - Hospital Camp (68.68, -97.74) - August 3rd 

Location 18 – Bridgens' death (68.70, -97.95) - August 10th 

Loocation 19 - It's Rat Meal Time (68.73, -97.99) - August 3rd 

Location 20 - Crozier Ambushed (68.67, -97.84) - Augsut 10th 

Known and historical locations are in blue

Proposed locations by Franklin Researchers in orange

Proposed locations by yours truly in pink

Historical locations but for which the show took liberties... in red

Analysis below the line

1927 Admiralty Map

Use this link ^ to see the Famous 1927 Admiralty Map

Matching the Show

Episode 6- A Mercy

This is it, folks! The LAST of the bottle episodes. Next one is going to make me go absolutely insane...

Location 6- The Ships in January 1848 (70.055, -98.4)

Date: January 10th 1848

Nighttime - 13h 01 min

Daylight - None

Twilight - 9h 59 min

Sunset: N/A- Sunrise: N/A

So! This episode is the beginning of trying to understand when and what the fuck is going on. :')

Timestamp declares it is January 1848

Following timestamp announces this is 2 weeks after Episode 5, which we put between December 14 and December 20 in Part 1 (will need to edit.. :') ). First proposed date: Between December 28 and January 3

Fitzjames tells us it's 1 week from Sunrise (17th Jan for that latitude) which brings our Second proposed date: January 10

Lady Jane's Christmas Pudding (Hear, Hear) was offered to the men the week before. So, either it was not served on December 25th or the Third proposed date is: January 1st.

Considering that 1. and 3. are undeniable, I must conclude that my assessment of the timeline for episode 5 in Part 1 was Incorrect It would, therefore, put the death of Blanky's leg closer to December 27th

I must also conclude that January 10th is our date for the beginning of the episode and that the pudding was served on Jan 6th for Epiphany rather than Christmas. (This seemed so important to me for some reason...)

Now! For Location!

In part 1, I used the proposed location from the 1927 admiralty map for the position of the ships in Sept 1846 and their position in May/Jun 1847 to calculate the travel speed of the ships drifting with the Pack. Which was about... 0.04 miles per day.

Considering that there is 232 days between May 24 1847 and Jan 10 1848, the ships would have drifted approx 9.3 miles SW from their summer position (Location 3 - 70.15, -98.30). and, now, I wanted to make an additional extrapolation from the known position in April 22nd but... well, you'll see that was more difficult than expected when we move on to episode 7 so... instead, we'll use that 9.3 Miles SW from May 24 1847, so, about near (70.055, -98.4).

To be noted that I tried to pinpoint Location 6 for my own litle fun because it is not that relevant. They're in the pack, that's it. Their position in April is much more interesting. Also to note, you'll see when I get to Location 7 that my proposition puts Location 6 closer to Location 3, which is counterintuitive considering that it would mean that the pack drifted much faster between Jan and April (3 months) than between June and Jan (6 months). I propose to revise Location 6 for a future edit of this fun rabbit hole. The 0.04miles a day for the pack drift may have been accelerated during the summer months (June to September), even without a full thaw. For future consideration...

Thankfully, we remain in the vicinity of Location 6 for the next event so we don't have to go through all of THAT again... :')

Date: January 16th to January 17th 1848

Nighttime - 12h 34 min

Daylight - 34 min

Twilight - 9h 52 min

Sunset: 12:01 pm- Sunrise: 11:27 am

Jacko dies of lead poisoning

Carnivale goes up in flame and we're all sad.

For the Death Count, now...

Lt. Irving gives us a count of 116 men onboard the ships

This sounds inexact... At the end of December, by my count, we had 121 men still "alive" on the expedition (22 Officers and 99 men). 8 of those are on a vacation in the Fairholme party (Not counted as dead yet). This would mean we have 113 men on Terror and Erebus.

DEATH COUNT: 7 (Total: 13)

19 Officers and 95 Men remaining

To be Noted: The 3 dead officers I counted are the doctors and since no other officers names are mentioned, I assumed that was it... We will adjust when we get to VPN.

Episode 6- Horrible from Supper

There we go, folks! This is where I began to go absolutely INSANE trying to figure out all of this... Thank God this one is easy for the dates... and wow, I'm sure there is actually a paper for all that stuff somewhere out there but... I was either too lazy to find it and this is what I will die doing instead OR it's VERY obscure and I might as well do it myself...

ONWARD TO

Location 7- The Ships in April 1848 (69.88, -98.57)

Date: April 22nd 1848

Nighttime - None

Daylight - 17h 25 min

Twilight - 6h 35 min

Sunrise: 3:52 am Sunset: 9:16 pm

Departure from Ships

And now I'm going to go absolutely rabid about the location...

I have a problem and it might have to do with my lack of understanding of how coordinates work, which renders this whole post frustrating... The thing is... the thing is. The position given by Fitzjames on his amendment of the VPN is... I don't understand it... he says they landed at 69°37'42.0"N 98°41'00.0"W (69.63, -98.68) but then proceed in saying that they left the ships 5 Leagues NNW of the Cairn (Location 4 - 69.66, -98.27).

(See the summary map for episode 6)

Oh, Jimmy FitzJimmy... That... that's not a NNW-SSE line... :') It's also not 15 miles... Did they have different Latitudes in 1845? I would need to research...

So, anyway, I will, instead try to figure out what would be the location based on the 5 league (I expect this was an approximated distance) and here is my proposition for a rough Location 7 (69.88, -98.57 or 69°52'N, 98°34'W)

For comparison purposes, the position from the VPN will be identified in yellow in the summary map.

Next Location: That would Location 8! Poor Lt Fairholmes party.

Location 8 - Fairholmes' Last Resting Place (69.72, -98.35)

Date: April 23th 1848

Nighttime - None

Daylight - 17h 30 min

Twilight - 6h 30 min

Sunrise: 3:48 am Sunset: 9:18 pm

For the date: They have not yet reached Terror Camp and it looked to be either very early in the morning or late at night. I will suppose late at night, which would make the landing at Terror Camp to be made the next day. If Fitzjames and Crozier went to deposit the VPN the same day they arrived at TC, then this would make it April 24th.

For the Location: They mention that Fairholmes made 18 miles from the position the ships were at in June 1847 (Location 3 - 70.15, -98.30) and they had to find themselves in the path of Crozier and Co, close to the coast. Now, 18 miles... they certainly did not make the calculation on top of their head. From Part 1, we know that Gore had to travel 33.5 miles to get from the Ships in Location 3 to the Cairn in Location 4. 18 miles would have been a little bit over half-way there. In next image, I traced the path from Location 3 to Location 4 and Location 7 to Location 4 and you'll see why this is confusing:

Half-way from Location 3 to Location 4 would have been nowhere near to where Crozier and Co could have found Fairholmes. Maybe it wasn't as much as a straight line as I made it to be here or maybe Mr. Fitzjames is still confused about distances and Lat. Long position... Maybe I've been wrong this WHOLE TIME and they're counting in Nautical Miles and I'm about to throw my whole being out of the window.

Anyway, in order to preserve my Sanity, I will mark Location 8 at a very subjective position based on the flow of the episode rather than the information they gave... Now you understand why I became feral about this. Location 8 (69.72, -98.35) and that would be 30 miles from where the Ships were in June 1847...

Location 9 - Terror Camp (69.644, -98.24)

Date: April 24th 1848

Nighttime - None

Daylight - 17h 40 min

Twilight - 6h 20 min

Sunrise: 3:42 am Sunset: 9:23 pm

Date is given by the VPN - They arrive the day before going to Victory Point. Morfin dies.

For the Location, I would like to go back to our dear friend the 1927 Admiralty Map which identify where McClintock found the grave of Lt. J. Irving, a Camp and Many Relics. It is just slightly South East of Victory Point. Now, in the show, when Crozier and Fitzjames held hand, the first thing they saw was the Camp, vs when Gore climbed the ridge, he saw the Cairn.

Either the show moved the camp a little bit closer to the shore or they "landed" at a southerner position than Gore did. Either way, I feel that for a couple miles between the two points, we can go with the historical marker. Also, for my sanity. I will therefore arbitrarily put Location 9 at 69.644, -98.24, about 2 miles from the Cairn and I feel that this is a good location for it.

Last Location for Horrible from Supper (dear Lord)

Location 10 - Netsilik Massacre (69.62, -98.05)

Date: April 25th 1848

Nighttime - None

Daylight - 17h 50 min

Twilight - 6h 10 min

Sunrise: 3:37 am Sunset: 9:28 pm

Date: Same as the VPN (from Episode 8)

Location: Irving was assigned to go East by Lt. Little. Therefore, we'll sorta assume that it was a due East.

Now, when they split from Hodgson, Irving mentions that they are an hour before they are due before they are to return to Terror. Assuming that they would be on a hunting trip of 6 hours (this seems long but probably necessary considering they are starting to grow desperate for fresh supplies), this would make their split at the 2h mark and Irving went South. Assuming they may have walked another 15 minutes (they were due to turn back to where they split in 30 min), then we're up to 2h 15min away from camp.

They did not seem to be walking in any kind of fast pace, that they might have stopped on the way and that they are on an uneven ground and tired from hauling their sledge to TC, I will assume a steady pace of 2.5 miles per hour. This would put them a generous 5.6 miles away from TC. (To be checked with Hickey story next episode) and therefore, Location 9 is (69.62, -98.05)

And with this, we are DONE for episode 7!

DISTANCES AND TRAVEL:

Loc 7 to Loc 8

Travel time - 2 complete days (arrival eod)

Travel Distance: 10.6 NM / 12 miles / 20 km

Average Travel Speed - 6 miles a day

Travel Condition - Hauling Sledges and following a track - Pack is now littered with Seracs. This must have been gruesome - Comparable speed to Gore's Party.

Loc 8 to Loc 9

Travel time - 1 day

Travel Distance: 5.1 NM / 6 miles / 9.5 km

Average Travel Speed - 6 miles a day

Travel Condition - Hauling Sledges and following a track - High Ridge - Half distance on shale

Loc 9 to Loc 10

Travel Time - 2hours 15min

Travel Distance: 5.6 miles

Average Travel Speed - 2.5mph

Travel Condition: On foot, no heavy load, hunting - Not a straight line.

DEATH COUNT: 1 (Morfin) + 8 (Fairholmes) + 2 (Irving/Farr) (Total: 26)

14 Officers and 89 Men remaining

7 Men remaining on Ships

14 Officers and 82 men in Terror Camp

Episode 8 - Terror Camp Clear

Buckle up Buttercups, the horrors are coming...

So, first, let's do with the date. The next few movements are all the same date:

Date: April 25th 1848

Nighttime - None

Daylight - 17h 50 min

Twilight - 6h 10 min

Sunrise: 3:37 am Sunset: 9:28 pm

What I want to figure out is the hour by hour of that day ahah

Location 4 -The Cairn (69.66, -98.27)

Crozier and Fitzjames deposit the famous VPN.

Now, I could go on an on about how confusing the VPN was for me but I'll leave it at that... I would like to make the exercise of counting the dead men tho :)

Officers - 9

Franklin, Gore, Dr. Stanley, Dr. McDonald, Dr. Peddie, Fairholme, Hornby, 1 unnamed (Fairholme party or Carnivale)

Men - 15

Braine, Hartnell, Darlington, Morfin, Orren, Young, Torrington, Strong, Evans, Heather, Bryant, + 4 (Fairholme party or Carnivale)

So, as a note, that would not work because we have 7 deaths from the Carnival (4 named) and 8 from Fairholme (1 named) and I have only 5 unnamed left to make the VPN 24. *sigh*

MOVING ON

Location 9 - Terror Camp (69.644, -98.24)

And then back to

Location 10 - Netsilik Massacre (69.62, -98.05)

And THEN Back to

Location 9 - Terror Camp (69.644, -98.24)

So let's see how much walking Crozier has made today from the beginning of the episodes: 11 miles!

1.3 miles from Cairn to TC

4.9 miles from TC to Location 10 (Bird's reach)

Now we know that the average man walks 3mph

Crozier would have spent maybe 45 minutes to walk back from the cairn with Fitzjames (making brotherhood and stuff)

And then he would have to pace himself for Blanky to follow to Location 10, so, perhaps 2mph. - 2h 30 min to make it to Location 10.

In total, Crozier would have walked at least 6h that day and 12.5 miles

If the hunting parties were sent out from 6 am, that would mean that Irving and Farr would have been murdered around 8h30. He needed time to do his business, maybe 10 minutes (what are the Netsilik doing in the meantime?) By the time that Hickey runs back and forth to get Hodgson, who had gone in another direction, we can assume another 30 min, it is now 9:10 am when the Netsilik are massacred. To go back to camp, I assume they would have walked at fast pace, dragging Irving and Farr on their sledge, they could have made it back in 1h 30min. It is now 10h40.

It looks like Fitzjames and Crozier went back as Hodgson was entering the camp again, or just about. so they would have left the Cairn at 10 am and they would have left the Camp for the Cairn maybe around 8 am.

SO!

Let's say there's a bit of shouting, going around, getting Irving on Goodsir's table... they leave to go BACK to Location 10 around 11 am and they reach it around 2:30 pm, make their 10 min investigation and then make their way back starting at 2:40 pm.

They are back just in time for supper around 5:20 pm.

Yep, they could have done all of that in one day. Which is EXACTLY what I wanted to check. What a trek...

Anyway, I think Hickey was scheduled to be hanged around 8pm. Good time to die.

DEATH COUNT: 32 + Pocock + 9 (unknown) (Total: 68)

61 Total remaining

7 Men remaining on Ships

40 with Crozier

11 Mutineers and 3 Reluctant (Hodgson, Goodsir, Diggle) (counted on the screen... and Golding who is going back and forth)

And now, before we go on to Episode 9, let's do an Interlude for how we're going to proceed moving forward:

How We Move Forward

Ok, here is what this section about:

So far, I've been using clues from the show and known historical facts to know where the Cold Boys were, how they got there and who was still around.

Now we enter absolute speculation.

on the subject of LOCATION

Yes, we have a fine map (thank you 1927 Admiralty Map) that let us know where all of the Franklin Artefacts had been found over the course of 75 years but y'all will soon understand when I say that this is where the show accuracy ends.

For one, the most recognizable spot for me is McClintock's Boat Place. And Welp! Maybe one could argue that it is where Hickey attempted his little fake ritual in Episode 10. To which I will answer: ah... probably not? But that is the ONLY scene that could make sense for McC's BP...

Then we have the two famous graves: Le VesconteOrHarry Goodsir and the Peglar Skeleton/Bridgens and we have to ask ourselves, how accurate did the showrunner /author wanted to be about the specific placement of these deaths... After all, a wasteland of shale is a wasteland of shale.

In anyway, I will go over each of the Locations from the 1927 map to try and match a potential scene.

On the subject of TIME:

Now, we no longer have the luxury of dates so we will need to rely on everything else to let us know of the passage of time.

Sunrise/Sunsets - Which will help us identify the overall months

Grooming - These men get beardy.

Health - Declination and recoveries

Travel speed - If locations are known, we can match the date if we suppose a travel speed.

On the subject of SURVIVORS:

I will not keep up with the count. We know they all died and the show did not actually keep track of them. There seem to be as many that left Terror Camp as there are when Peglar collapses. I was mostly interested in doing for episode 8 because I wanted to keep tab on how many left with Hickey, etc but it was just hell to manage for this part.

On the subject of GROUPS:

Now we have 2 groups, the Mutineers and the Frankliners (Crozier and Co). I assumed that Hickey was mostly following the Frankliners at a distance of 4-6 miles behind.

Now, we enter Hell.

Episode 9- The C, The C, The Open C

The episode opens on a known Location and date (thank God), Location

Location 9 - Terror Camp (69.644, -98.24)

Date: April 26th 1848

Nighttime - None

Daylight - 18h 01 min

Twilight - 5h 59 min

Sunrise: 3:32 am Sunset: 9:33 pm

They burn their dead.

I assumed this would be the next day because they're still gathering their deads. - Kinda brutal to ask them to walk the day after the attack.

40 Frankliners

14 Mutineers

Location 11/12 - Hodgson is Found

Mutineers Location (11): (69.56, -98.06)

Frankliners Location (12): (69.54, -98.14)

Date: April 27th 1848

Nighttime - None

Daylight - 18h 01 min

Twilight - 5h 59 min

Sunrise: 3:32 am Sunset: 9:33 pm

This one is the first difficulty because we need to match a time, an intention and a speed.

First, I would like to propose that this is either the 26th again or the 27th and I will argue for the 27th.

We find Hodgson as he is so famished that he eats his own boot. We can suspect that he would, indeed, be very hungry after having ran through the night from the Tuunbaq. But he would have had supper the night before AND having been on three quarter rations since January. I, of course, have never been hungry enough to resort to eating my shoes but I imagine that if I was in Hodgson situation, I would keep the edible boots for as long as I can. Would he be hungry enough to start eating leather on the morrow of the attack, or more likely 2 days later?

Also, the frost bite on his cheeks suggest he's been outside for at least night.

Hickey and Co have been pulling their sledge, probably for the first couple of hours after Tuunbaq's attack. The difficulty here is to determine how long they would have gone without stopping and how far they would have walked. We've established previously that a sledge party would make, at good pace, 5 miles per day, assuming 4-6 hours of pulling with relays of the men, therefore, we could convene that 1.3 mph could be an acceptable speed for them who are fleeing from Tuunbaq with at least 1 reluctant puller (Goodsir) and 1 confused (Diggle)

We've also established that men on foot without sledges can go from twice to three times that speed. And I suspect that when Fitzjames declared 23 unknown, they actually scouted around the camp to find those men. If scouts were sent in the morning while they were gathering the dead, then they could have made a 2-3 miles search radius. If I was Hickey, I would have pushed for at least 3 hours that night to avoid detection (if we say that Hickey was scheduled to be hanged around 8pm, then they stopped at 11pm). So! in the night of the 25th, they are, at least 3 miles out of the camp.

Now that they are out of camp, they need to do 2 things: 1) Rest. They would not have been able to pick up the pace right back first thing in the morning. 2) Put more distance between themselves and the Frankliners. I suspect that they would have made only 4hours of pulling on the 26th, bringing us just about a whooping 7.8 miles out of Terror Camp.

Finally, it is impossible to detect what time of the day it is when they find Hodgson but looking at the tired look of the crew, maybe an hour in? That would be another 1 miles. So let's average that they found Hodgson after running 9 miles out of Terror Camp

Now that we have a radius, let's talk about direction...

I think it is fair to say that Hickey would have followed the same route as Crozier, seeing that he specifically asked Gibson to take a map. But Crozier was going to follow the coast in case they saw leads. Would Hickey do the same?

3 more things to consider:

1. They left in the fog, without much visual clues to orient themselves. 2. They took the map but Hickey was hoping to get Hodgson on board for his navigational skills (or maybe that was BS, who knows).

3. Mid Episode 9, Tozer reports that the Frankliners are 6 miles AHEAD of them, even though Hickey left first. We'll revisit that later...

Now, on the subject of the third point, it is very possible that Hickey would have rested more often... I just think it's funnier to suggest that he spent the night going in the wrong direction and then just circled back to follow the Frankliners... They realised it when they sent Golding back to Crozier for spying.

So here's the 25th to 27th route I propose for Mr. Hickey:

Mr. Hodgson would have had wandered approx 5 miles SE of Terror Camp. (69.56, -98.06)

As for Crozier, well, I suggest they took this route starting on the 26th, making 5 miles per day and this is where they would be when Hodgson was found (69.54, -98.14), putting them 3 miles away from each group:

Now!

The next scene is where it starts getting hazy and we need to get imaginative in how we account for time past.

In the next scene, we se ethe frankliners are struggling to pull their sledges. Blanky is limping badly and, then, Mr. Fitzjames collapses, complaining about the Heat.

Location 13 - Fitzjames Collapses (68.94, -98.79)

Date: June 10th 1848

Nighttime - None

Daylight - 24h

Twilight - None

Sunrise: N/A Sunset: N/A

About the DATE:

Time indicator to consider:

The health of the crewman JFJ is sharing his boat with:

When we left Terror Camp, the sick tent was empty, except for Pocock. While the men where most likely not at the top of the health when they departed, no one was on the verge of dying. Looking at the crewman, he is not only sick, he is emaciated. A quick google search tells us that sickness can make one lose up to 5 pounds a week. Perhaps in, their condition, one could thinkthat the rate could be a bit higher, say... 6 lb? From the crew for which we have the information, we deduce that they were, on average, 5' 6'' so we can use that as a reference to suppose the weight of that sailor. If we assume a BMI borderline to underweight when leaving Terror Camp, we would have weight, maybe... 120 pounds?

Now, severely underweight would put him at 95 pounds, which would be a drop of 20 pounds. Assuming 6 lb, that would be a guesstimate of 3 weeks and a half for him to deteriorate... let's give them a chance and say a month and a half since Terror Camp.

I think that's reasonable... JFJ didn't look great after the Tuunbaq attack but that shirtless scene proved that he was still quite fit.

About the Travel Speed:

See after Location 19

About the Location:

See after Location 19

Location 14 - Gibson's death (68.860, -98.73)

Date: June 27th 1848

Nighttime - None

Daylight - 24h

Twilight - None

Sunrise: N/A Sunset: N/A

About the DATE:

Time indicator: Facial hair. Courtesy of not having much shaving available, the Mutineers are looking quite rugged. Let's discuss the hairiest: Mr. Goodsir and Lt. Hodgson.

Hodgson starts his time with the Mutineers with a 2 day shadows between his muttonchops. Same for Mr. Goodsir.

See Below the Before/After

And now, huh... wow... that changes a man... I'd say this is looks to be about.. errr... medium beard? According to menhairstylestoday.com, this would take 1 to 2 months to grow at a rate of half an inch a month. Yeah, I can believe these are 2 month old beards. So, there!

Location? Speed travel? Well, I'll stop you right there.. I don't know yet.

Location 15 - Fitzjames' Death (68.78, -98.21)

Date: July 28th 1848

Nighttime - None

Daylight - 20h 50 min

Twilight - 3h 10 min

Sunrise: 2:11 am Sunset: 11:01 am

Time Indicator: More Hair. For this one, I will trust the hair because I somehow think the Frankliners would have kept themselves more groomed than the Mutineers.

Taking the angle into account, this is, what... 1.5inch? 2 inch?

Hair can grow at about 0.5 in a month. So, 3 months since Terror Camp.

Time Indicator: Crews' health: It is very evident that they're all getting thinner, sicker but Fitzjames and (most surprisingly) his boat mate are still alive! Considering the risk of infection and the progression of scurvy... it can't have been more than a couple of weeks since Fitzjame's collapse but, not, like, the next day? Can a doctor please stand up for this?

Time Indicator: The amount of food left.

No. I will NOT go there. There's enough math being done wtf...

Location 16 - The NorWest Passage (68.7, -98.06)

Date: July 28th 1848

Nighttime - None

Daylight - 20h 46 min

Twilight - 3h 14 min

Sunrise: 2:13 am Sunset: 10:58 am

Finally, finally! We have it! A Date, AND a location! :D Thank you Mr. Blanky!

So, this is the day after JFJ's death, June 28th.

On Blanky's map, we can read known locations: McGillivray Bay, Pt. W. Smith... Congratulations Mr. Blanky :') You are a true hero.

Supposing he can see McGillivray Bay from where he sits, he would find the Passage at Location 16 (68.7, -98.06)

And wow... does that make me feel like finding my own NW Passage, being able to reconnect all those lost locations from before :')

Back to location 15! Blanky would probably not have walked all that much, given he was in pain and only wanted to draw Tuunbaq to him and toward the Ice. I'd be generous and give him a good 5 miles before he had to sat down. From what Lt. Little reported before they had to stop for Fitzjames, the ice was to the west so we'll assume Mr Blanky walked south west while the party proceeded south east. This would put Location 15 at (68.78, -98.21)

Location 17 - Hospital Camp (68.68, -97.74)

Date: August 3rd

Nighttime - None

Daylight - 19h 33 min

Twilight - 4h 27 min

Sunrise: 2:48 am Sunset: 10:21 pm

Peglar collapses

See Location 17 reasoning for date of the camp

As for Position, well, we're just going to be a little off out of

Location 17 - Bridgens (68.70, -97.95)

Date: August 10th

Nighttime - None

Daylight - 18h21

Twilight - 5h 39 min

Sunrise: 3:23 am Sunset: 9:45 pm

Basically, we all agree that Bridgens is the Peglar Skeleton. Thank god I know where that is! Now, it is interesting that there was a paper published in 2022 about the real location of the Peglar Skeleton (assuming McClintock took his lat and long wrong) but since we are dealing with a 2018 show, we'll go with McClintock's account.(68.70, -97.95)

Sweet, now, about the TIMING

Considering where Location 15 put us, we were quite near the point of collapse for Peglar. I think we could give them a two more days of pulling before it's poor Henry Peglar's turn. No other reason than having previously established that there is a MUCH slower pace now (News is courtesy of Lt. Little) and they left Fitzjames' grave roughly 10 miles from Bridgens' last sighting . I propose the timeline to be thus: Peglar collapse on August 3rd and dies on August 10th. He didn't look like he had wasted away very long. Bridgens immediately leave the party, travel a couple of miles and lay down to die. Has he is seen going in the direction Golding came from (the Mutineer's camp, North), I assume that the Hospital camp is now further south than where the Peglar Skeleton was found.

Loocation 18 - It's Rat Meal Time (68.73, -97.99)

Date: August 3rd

Nighttime - None

Daylight - 19h 33 min

Twilight - 4h 27 min

Sunrise: 2:48 am Sunset: 10:21 pm

About the TIMING:

I suspect Hickey made Goodsir cut Billy the same day they pitched their tent, just to assure his dominance while so close to the Frankliners (6 miles out).

Cripse.... that would have been a 1 month old dead body to eat...

This gives us a location: (68.73, -97.99)

Now, the problem I am having is this... Night falls when Hodgson come to tell his little church story... There will be no dark sky until Mid to late August... so I am mostly going to believe that was only twilight.

Location 19 - Crozier Ambushed (68.67, -97.84)

Date: August 10th

Nighttime - None

Daylight - 18h21

Twilight - 5h 39 min

Sunrise: 3:23 am Sunset: 9:45 pm

About the TIMING:

Bridgens lays down to die the day Crozier is taken. I don't think he moved from there.

About the Location: Close to Hospital camp, by the shore.

NOW HERE'S A THING TO MAKE YOU CONFUSED:

Sophia Cracroft found snow in London in August 1848?

Blanky was still waiting for the Tuunbaq after they pitched tents for Hospital camp?

I think these two scenes are just out of order and for dramatic effect: Basically pitching the fate of Crozier failing to save anyone.

SO! Now that we know where 99 days of walking (April 27th (Location 12) to August 3rd (Location 16 - Hospital camp)), we can average the pace of the walk.

First, let's establish some distances:

About 100 miles, then! I would like to propose the following pace, to take account for the time passed and how tired the men would become. So this would be a decreasing pace and accounting for camping time due to weather (there should still be monstrous hail and blizzard until June), etc.

15 miles first miles at 3mph = 5 days

2 day of rest - 3 days of bad weather

20 miles at 2mph = 10 days

2 day of rest + 2 days of bad weather

25 miles at 1.5 mph = 20 days

3 days of rest + 3 days of bad weather

40 miles at 1mph = 40 days

3 days of bad weather + 6 days of rest

This would put Location 13 - Fitzjames Collapses 60 miles out of Location 12 (45 days travel time) around (68.94, -98.79), right next to Terror Bay :')

I'm also very happy that this would actually match the position of a camp and 2 graves from Halls and Schwatka's expedition! Sometimes I feel like I'm a genius but right now, I swear I'm just holding on for dear life...

and, if we assume that Hickey kept the pace with the Frankliners, this would put

Location 14 - Gibson's death 70 miles out of Location 11 (60 days travel time) around (68.860, -98.73)

Here's the summary Map for Ep 9:

Conclusion: Episode 9 was a mess and this is 12 hours of work...

Part 3 will be for Episode 10.