#louie who is a time loop

[atomicpizza64]

Yet another 50 villains for Lorch!

I’ll try and stick the major spoilers for Urasawa’s Pluto, Persona 5 and Watchmen under the cut. It might not work, and there is still spoilers for various other media, so beware!

Debatable for some but I don’t care. I will try and explain some reasons why they aren’t totally bad, and I’ll keep adding to it as I’m not sure it’s 50 yet

Mr Nobody (Doom Patrol): Your honour, he’s just a goofy guy! Hasn’t actually done too bad (at least in the comics), he’s just following Dadaist principles

Rhorchac (Watchmen): messed up childhood lead to screwed morality but he still has moments of mercy, attempts to fight evildoers

Gideon Gleeful: kinda just a kid raised in a cult who let attention go drastically to his head

Roxie Richter: (Scott Pilgrim, mostly Takes Off): enraged by Ramona abandoning her, takes it too far but got over it after a heart to heart

Darth Vader: Took his grief extremely far, destroys a greater evil at the cost of his life

Harry Lime (the third man): it’s mostly just charisma. Pretty nice to Holly… but may have killed a bunch of kids.

Dr Frankenfurter (RHPS): YOUR HONOUR HE IS JUST A GOOFY GUY

Plankton: completely ineffectual.

Father (C:KND): repeats the chain of harm caused by his own dad

Gladion (Pokémon): joins team Skull to rebel against his abusive mother

Guzma (Pokémon): forms team skull to vent dissatisfaction with the trial system and support loners, implied to have gifted kid burnout and an abusive parent (at his parent’s house on Melemele island, there is a bunch of golf clubs that are described as “broken and bent” 😬)

Asgore: Tries to kill Frisk but only to save his beloved kingdom and its innocent inhabitants

Oersted (live a live): desperately trying to repent. I’m not too familiar with his game tho

Badeline (Celeste): a manifestation of anxiety

The time Empress (Cris Tales): sort of sacrifice a few to save all motivations

Spamton: ineffectual, ostracised and betrayed by a partner

Eldegard: idk if I can summarise it here

Bowser: flips from game to game, sorta falls under goofy guy

Alice Hiiragashi (P5S): bullied relentlessly in high school, tries to be bigger than she actually is

The Enchantress (Shovel Knight) possessed version of your partner

Kokushibo (Demon Slayer): always felt massively inferior to his brother

Akaza (Demon Slayer): lost his adoptive family

Shadow the Hedgehog: lost his best friend

The narrator (Stanley Parable): ends up stuck in a horrific time loop, has moments of kindness

Pikmin Louie: sorta just acting based on bad social skills

Catra: scarred child stuck in a war manipulated by parental figures

The collector (owl house): scarred child in a war manipulated by a parental figure

King Andrias (Amphibia): desperately tries to atone, manipulated by his dad and the core

Pink (The Wall): suffered bullying at school, absent dad, smothering parent and a cheating spouse

Spinel (SU): abandoned by her only friend for hundreds of years

Vace (I was a teen exocolonist): young kid with no real anger outlet

Norman Bates (Psycho): unable to get any help he desperately needs due to the time period

Mr Burns (the Simpsons): often completely ineffectual, moments of kindness

Jack Torrance (the shining, mostly the book): manipulated, attempts to make right but fails

Frank Butterman (Hot Fuzz): only doing what he does out of a misguided desire to make the town he loves absolutely perfect

Winslow Leach (Phantom of the Paradise): taken advantage of and had his life’s work stolen

Zuko: scarred child in a war manipulated by a parent

Jessie and James: two kids from different kinda messed up backgrounds that want to rebel; also very ineffectual

Hans Beckert (M): unable to get the help he needs due to time period

Tetsuo (Akira): teenager who needs an anger outlet; the main reason he was chosen for the experiments was by chance, so Kaneda is aware of his status as a foil; has no control over his powers

Nox (Wakfu): will do anything to archive the goal of reunification with his family

Toga (MHA): ostracised and turned to villainy due to the gory nature of her powers, doomed yuri

Ice King (Adventure Time): ineffectual; lost his mind and has no idea what happened

Sy (1 hour photo): desperately lonely, implied to have been driven to join the perfect family due to childhood trauma

Croix (Little Witch Academia): slipped into darkness due to jealousy, sorta repents

Alma Madrigal (Encanto): went through the war and the death of her husband, just doesn’t really know how damaging she can be

Seymour Krelborne (LSOH): a meek guy who found himself in a position of control and desperately tries to hang onto it

The Kid (Blood Meridian): genuinely tries to be a better person at the end

All of the gang (IASIP): almost everyone had a terrible childhood and show prominent moments of kindness

Uncle Deadly (The Muppets): haunts the theatre, but was straight up murdered by his own critics

Hal 9000 (2001): doesn’t have much control of his actions, as it is the result of a coding paradox

the iron man (Black Sabbath): mistreated by society before a “then let me be evil” realisation

Q (ST:TNG): silly guy, somewhat of a trickster mentor, in the way he gives lessons for the crew, even if 18 people died that one time

get rekt

PLUS: Takuto Maruki: he just really doesn’t want what happened to his partner to happen to anyone else, even if the world stagnates

Goro Akechi: young kid manipulated by an abusive parent

Ozymandias (Watchmen): does potentially halt the end of the world, but at the cost of numerous lives

Goji (Pluto): witnesses the death of his family firsthand

Sahad/Pluto: scared kid manipulated by a parental figure, abeit after a war this time

[lplantxll]

I posted about it on my twt a few times but I want to talk about it a bit more because there are reasons why I chose certain bands for Gordon or Barney and all that also I want to show you my headcanons.

Personally, Gordon, to me, looks like someone who would've enjoyed almost any kind of music, but the closest to heart would be 70s-90s hits, Modern Talking, Depeche mode, Wham!, Tears for fears, Pink Floyd ect. I like to think that he is more of a good old-fashioned boy in the sense of music. He would be born somewhere in the late 60s or early 70s, so he would have grown up with that music circulating around him.

Barney seems more modern to me. He is younger and was born somewhere in the late 70s. Feel like he would listen to Eurodance. Would be similar to Gordon, but more energetic? Don't know how to phrase it, but definitely Smash mouth, Wham!, Falco and adding to the list Elvis Presley. (They would share a lot of bands, so it's pointless to say them all.)

Also, for laughs, a couple of my headcanons. I feel like Gordon would be a fan of "old" tech(Barney too but on a smaller scale and talks about it less), and that would be one of the reasons they became best friends. They would share new found cds and maybe fix some stuff.

Also, I feel like Barney would be somehow good at dancing, simple, not complicated pieces, but definitely better than Gordon. Who, on the other hand, would be good at singing( came up with the idea after listening to Brother Louie mix '98 on loop for hours ). [In my head ] Gordon is capable of speaking, but after being in so much stress, letting out any kind of sound feels scary because if too loud=danger (if we don't count the possible injuries he might have on his neck, lungs ect that might have made it difficult to speak).

I hope you enjoyed me talking I'm so sorry

[princess-of-the-corner]

Because this Got Too Long for an Ask

Dungeon Meshi x Bendy and the Ink Machine:

They sadly can’t eat most of the monsters here. Aside from most of the monsters TECHNICALLY being transformed humans, the few who aren’t are made out of ink. Finding an actually edible monster in the Loop would be very exhausting, with many cases of indigestion.

Dungeon Meshi x Kingdom Hearts:

Laios and Senshi are mad you can’t eat Heartless. Marcille points out that the Nobodies are TECHNICALLY made of human flesh. The Unversed burn away on death. They have to settle for eating Nightmares (which sometimes turn into candy when killed), because what are the odds THOSE will turn out to be transformed humans?

Dungeon Meshi x Pokémon Mystery Dungeon:

They eat the Bittercold and Dark Matter (plus the weird shadow monsters it spawns for a single boss fight). The rest of their enemies are too sapient to eat.

Dungeon Meshi x Avatar:

The weirdest thing they eat is Vatuu.

Dungeon Meshi x Pikmin:

Louie either hits it off with them or tries to steal their food. Possibly both.

Dungeon Meshi x Bugsnax:

… Play Bugsnax.

Dungeon Meshi x Slay the Princess:

*narrator voice* NO NO NO! You are not going to EAT the Princess. You are going to SLAY her to SAVE THE WORLD. How did you lot even get in here? GET OUT!

Dungeon Meshi x RWBY:

As the Grimm fade away upon death, they have to be eaten alive. The meal is neither delicious nor nutritious. It looks like eating monsters can’t solve everything after all.

Dungeon Meshi x The Divine Comedy:

So what does eating Satan do to Hell’s hierarchy?

-

Ahahahahahaha

I fuckin LOST IT at them eating Vatuu but tbh they’d have a great time in the atla universe so many new creatures to eat.

[candycryptids]

Good morning (or good evening in your case I guess)! 🤭

Because you asked me about the theme songs: If you had to choose one for each of your OCs what would it be?

Goooood Morning! Or evening for you by now I think 🤔🥰 This’ll be easier for some than others B’3 (links will all be to YouTube videos hopefully!) thank you for the question this was a real thinker x3

So Levraut actually has a song we recently heard and went HOLY SHIT ITS LEV’S THEMESONG! Which would be [Creator, by Lena Raine] it has the mysterious suspense of the music box at the start, and then shifts into the cadence of something I associate with the Sea, which is something that sounds like Accordion ahaha (and then it further intensified with electric guitar, which isn’t usually in his soundscape, but it’s So Good)

[cut because… length again LOL]

For Tuesday I’d have to say my first choice is [Hello World, by Louie Zong] as far as songs that make me immediately associate with Tuesday lololol. The other song I have is [Waltz No. 2, Robot, by Hikaru Shirosu] it has, to me, the cadence of going shopping in a small market, but you’re still very ‘young’ in a sense, and small obstacles can feel like big obstacles 🫢 it’s also Piano, which is one of the instruments associated with Keathan! Who has a very heavy influence on Tuesday’s soundscape :3

For Chuusday…. Picking just one is rly hard… hm… it’s not on EITHER of her playlists I think, but [Home Beyond The Horizon by I think Masoyashi Soken and Daiki Ishikawa] Which is a song played on a crunchy, tinny radio. She’s not patriotic, but it was too large a part of her life for it to not have had some major impacts on her, lol. For a less/more serious song (???) I’d say [Hardware Store by Weird Al Yankovic]. It’s got. The vibe. LMAO.

Tangy is also hard to pin down, but I think [Fell In Love With A Girl, by White Stripes] does a pretty good job of suiting both the vibe and at least a Lil Bit the lyrics [because the first three lines remind me of Minfilia and Tangy :/ not that I ship them explicit romantic 100% of the time, but it coulda been. It coulda.]

🎤Fell in love with a girl

I fell in love once and almost completely

She's in love with the world🎵

Otherwise my other offering is When You Look At Her and it’s just playing [Cat Cafe by Tsundere Twintails] in her whole expression.

There’s not a particular song I can think of for Mochiie yet- I’ve been fighting that gorilla for a month or so now and I’m not much closer to victory yet, lmfao. However I do offer the song from [this post] because it reminds me Thavnair, so the real answer is I have a lot of music in Urdu I need to listen to and figure out his vibe LOL. I found the song in particular after scouring the notes though! Which is ->[Mehndi Laga Ke Rhakna, sung by Lata Mangeshkar and Udit Narayan] (I also need to figure out the influence the Azim Steppe had on him 🫢)

Ishi’li is… tricky. Cos I’m also still working on their playlist BDJDNFJDJFSK and the one song I’ve heard recently that made me think of him so so hard isn’t in the soundscape I’d set for them :T but. It’s rly Ishi.

[Like or Like Like by Miniature Tigers]

🎤I watched you get undressed

I must have turned bright red

'Cause I couldn't stand to face you

'Cause I liked what I saw

And maybe we should just be friends

Tell me how you feel about me

Do you like or like, like me?

Tell me what you really feel

Do you like me? Just say you do🎵

Swydghem actually has songs because I listened to a playlist on basically endless loop while writing so even though it’s Baldurs Gate [Down By The River composed by Borislav Slavov] always makes me think of her LOL… Solkmyna gets slightly more associated with [How The Tide Rushes In by Anne Dudley] Jojoha doesn’t have a particular soundscape yet because it overlaps with Levraut regularly😅 (at least in terms of; the Dreadnaughts, which is one of the bands I listen to for him lmao.)

Colette is my monster hunter/Ffxiv cross oc and while I haven’t really given her a whole lotta thought I think [I Want It All by Arctic Monkeys] could definitely fit her vibe, lol. She’s someone else on my to-do for music thoughts, just a little further down the line from Ishi and Mochi uvu;

Bonus!!! If you were wondering [Love Like You from Steven Universe] makes me think of Tuesday/Haurchefant. :’)

I hope you enjoy the music 🫶 lord knows there’s a bunch of it SHFJRJFEKCKSKXKA hopefully the color/bolding isn’t obnoxious, it makes it easier for my eyes to not glaze over if there’s variation lmao

[loveabledirtbag]

1.07 - The Review

the day has come. this episode. ufffffffff. this episode. it’s all been leading here. i always knew that it would end this way.

before we even begin, i just gotta say….this episode is so much. it’s so odd how much i love it, because i think it was one of the first times i’d ever felt seen in the service industry. something just happens when you work in the service industry long enough where every single thing that COULD go wrong, DOES go wrong. and for some reason there’s never a FUCKING MARKER THAT FUCKING WORKS.

i’m probably gonna say a lot that pisses people off, and i’m gonna do my best to make sure everyone is pissed off evenly. because i got some hot takes in my watch of this, but i hope you all find it nuanced and detailed enough that maybe there’s stuff in here for everyone to take something away from it. maybe the true traumatic working experience was the friends we made along the way…

LETS DIVE IN

that intro to the episode though! i remember watching for the first time and just being so thrown off guard. why are we getting this semi-old-school tv intro? we get opening credits, we’re seeing everyone coming into work. it’s just so GOOD! because we the audience are just as lost as the characters are. we’re sorta thrown for a loop, with an opening that honestly feels sort of familiar, just like them coming to work feels familiar. day in and day out, they do this. just like every other day. we’ve seen a million shows that show us an opening like this. but then tossing in little bits of chicago history, landmarks, and tidbits. breathing in and breathing out….chicago. all of it to signify that no one (not us, the audience. not the characters) are ready for what’s about to happen. no one knows when they’re going to experience the worst day of their life. if just happens.

uff. ebraheim’s reading of the review is so painfully good. because you can tell his enthusiasm for the review! but his less than perfect reading, on a topic that he doesn’t understand is actually creating tension, adds tension on top of tension! uff. so good.

also, what a pretentious review! my god! the dichotomy of the long haired bearded man who got syd’s dish last episode, and the privileged snobbery of a holier-than-thou reviewer makes his words even more pretentious. “oh, chicago’s changing so much, wahhh. how can we evolve and not change the core of who we are”. which, is a topic i really value, and a subject i think about a lot for my own city. but the way it comes off in this review makes me wanna go, “oh fuck off, you middle aged fuck!”

plus the fact that a lot is happening and ebra is just reading, and is told multiple times to stop, but he keeps going because he thinks he’s lifting spirits. ugh. heartbreaking.

uff. ebra won’t stop reading. tina is late. marcus is NOT doing cakes but is lost in donuts (AGAIN). they’re rolling out the new to-go systems today. a reviewer is praising syd’s dish that isn’t actually on the menu and was given to him instead of being tossed. it’s just a perfect cluster fuck of a day. and it hasn’t even began.

i’ve seen some back and forth on how weird it is that when tina introduces her son louie to the restaurant, after he got suspended, was to ask carmy to teach him how to work at a restaurant. which i don’t think is weird at all! i know a few people who’s parents worked in restaurants, or who knew of parents who worked in restaurants, and their kids basically worked lower down positions as a chore. most weren’t paid. is that illegal? yes. BUT, louie is suspended, his mom works all day, we never hear of a dad. he can’t be left home all day, and being left home all day without supervision probably wouldn’t be good for any kid, but definitely not a kid who just got suspended. there’s a tone in tina’s voice of….recognition that louie probably is going to need to learn restaurant skills because he’s most likely not going to go far in school. so it’s not the worst thing in the world. am i opposed to child labor? yes. do i think it’s the worst thing in the world that while louie is suspended he learns to work in a kitchen? no. do i think he deserves to be paid? yes. do i think he is going to be paid? really couldn’t tell ya. but i also think this is just true to a world of people in kitchens, and a real issue that parents and guardians have to deal with in regards to their kids. right or wrong isn’t really the thing to discuss here, but the authenticity of this moment in the lives of a lot of working class individuals.

i will say that carmy throwing training louie in on sydney is a little dickish. i understand there’s a lot going on, and carmy feels the weight of the lot that is going on. but syd also has a lot going on, and carmy just kind of tosses it at her. i think there’s a lot of moments people complain about carmy throwing stuff on syd’s plate. and i agree with some of it and don’t agree with others. but it could have been just a bit easier on everyone if carmy gave it to someone who had less going on than syd. give louie to sweeps and have louie do the odds and ends that need doing. you know?

UFF, that the moment we see the unhappiness on syd’s face as carmy passes louie off on her, ebra starts reading the review again. painful. just painful.

i love that tina has so quickly come to regard syd as a teacher. that she confides in syd about louie and believes in her so much that she is confident that syd can help louie the same way syd helped tina.

love the little moment of richie and carmy being on the same side on the review. just both of them going: who the fuck is this hack who thinks it’s endearing to call us shabby, as if we’re this quaint little hayseed restaurant. the little engine that could. fuck him! i love those small moments when carmy and richie are so clearly family and grew up together and even as they have the most intense fights together slip right into agreement. because the love is never in question. fight, don’t fight. eh, it’s family.

ufffff, but the fact that richie is just that little extra bit annoying to syd. all the bad things adding together, before the real horse-shit has even happened. it’s just all painful. but like, asking her if she’s blowing someone at the newspaper is a step above anything we’ve seen him say to syd. and syd is just fucking over it, because she’s got enough shit going on. and then his repeatedly calling her boss, subtly rubbing it in, poking at the idea that she’s trying to take over. FUCK. it hurts so good

especially watching it again and knowing it’s coming. because so far if you’re watching for the first time you don’t know what’s coming. you might have picked up the one take, you might notice that while the episode hasn’t been break-neck intensity like some of the first episodes, there’s just this….growing sense of unease. you can almost feel that something is coming, but you don’t know what it is yet.

i love as carmy is getting the count for the day: “richie, go fuck yourself”, “69 all day chef!” just these small moments of humor, even if the humor is people annoying each other and also adds to the tension.

oooof, and then marcus doesn’t have the count for cakes. i just…i want to be supportive of marcus. but this is the….third? fourth time? JUST IN THE SHOW that we’ve seen someone go “dude, come on. you can do donuts, but you HAVE to do your actual job.” like, he almost shut the shop down because he blew a fuse because he fucked up. like, that wasn’t a wake up call? i love his dream, and i want him to chase his dream, but being an adult, especially an adult who’s working a job to support his mom, at a restaurant that is trying to claw its way back from the brink of financial ruin….you can’t fuck around! or you find out.

i love the moment where sydney chooses NOT to get into it with richie. because she’s teaching louie the register. which is, arguably, the easiest thing to learn. the nuance and finesse of it is, without question, something not everyone can do. we see that as the show progresses, and we’ve seen it already. richie has a way with people that is his gift. but the actual act of being on register is extremely easy. and it’s obvious why syd would bring him to the register, but richie comes up and shoo’s them away acting like his job is too much for louie. and syd just bounces to the next thing, and chooses not to get into with him. it’s not worth starting a thing by telling richie his job is not that hard. AND she does the right thing of asking sweeps to take louie, keep working, while she goes over the new to-go system with richie. because she has a lot to do, and can’t be stuck watching a kid.

and then the fact that as richie pushes syd’s buttons about getting her dish in the paper, suddenly she snaps. richie is getting in her face about bringing in “the wrong kind of business”? as if the shop can afford to choose who’s money they take and who’s they don’t? as richie sells coke out of the back alley, and carmy is selling vintage denim just to make ends meet? and so, syd goes in for the jugular and pushes back. with a lot of bite.

i love that at some part as richie, syd, and carmy are talking, as tensions are beginning to rise as everyone is just getting mad at everyone, and BEFORE the shit hits the fan, Spiders (Kidsmoke) by Wilco starts playing. a live version that is so loud, and noisy, and ragged that it just adds to this unbelievable tension and anxiety before you even know why you should be anxious in the first place.

THE SHIT HITS: endless to-go orders. and here’s where i gotta get into this, because i think this is the precipice of a lot of dialogue and conversations and i want to weigh in. before i go ANY FURTHER i gotta just say that i LOVE carmy, and syd, and marcus a lot. i love them. and so when i criticize any of them, it’s not a black and white thing. i’m not trying to take sides and shit on one character completely (like so many people seem to do).

carmy owns the beef. he’s working to try and get the shop out of a hole and build it up to a place where it’s financially stable. he’s also working and trying to introduce his system to the social environment, replacing michael’s system. there has been a lot of chaos, a lot of pushback and a lot of work. he has hired sydney to be his number two. sydney has been the one pushing for to-go’s for EPISODES. and while it’s not like sydney doesn’t have a lot going on, to-go’s has been her fight for a while. even in a previous episode carmy said “we just got it to kind of a chill place, there’s more to do but this is nice and i want to keep it here for a bit” in response to syd pushing to-go’s. so it’s not unreasonable of him to have said to her at some point, “if you wanna do to-go’s, can you be in charge of it?”. i’ve seen so many people shitting on carmy for being a bad boss for not checking on syd’s work, and to me it’s like…he trusts her enough that if she says she’s going to do something, he trusts it’ll be done. how many of us like it when our boss hovers over our shoulder watching everything we do? none of us! i think it makes perfect sense that carmy gave to-go’s to sydney, who’s been asking for them for weeks, if not months, and if he gave her the freedom and the trust to do it herself, since she has continually proven herself as trustworthy, AND as someone who has continually asked for leadership roles. could he have checked in, or double checked that she did everything right, and made sure she didn’t accidentally leave to-go’s on overnight? of course, and i will fault him for that. but we’ve also seen that he’s incredibly busy, and he trusts syd, so that small mistake is not nearly as bad as the people calling carmy a horrible boss want to make him out to be.

plus, it’s weird that the people who seem to shit on carmy as a horrible boss for this moment seem to also think syd is perfect? like it’s carmy’s fault that syd didn’t double check if she turned off the to-go’s overnight? idk, there’s a logical fallacy in how so many people talk about this moment.

but the point of all of this is for me to say, neither of them are horrible! sydney made an innocent mistake! like, a mistake that FUCKED the restaurant, but an easy one to make. maybe she fully forgot to click the off button, maybe she clicked the screen and it didn’t register her finger and she didn’t notice and assumed it hit off? who knows. new technology is weird. it’s hard. and it doesn’t make sydney a shitty person for messing up, nor does it make carmy a shitty person for not catching the mistake himself.

and yes, the fact that as carmy is focusing on the mess of having HUNDREDS of orders (more than they have of any menu item in the shop), that he also stops and says: “i told you that dish wasn’t fuckin’ ready” shows that some of his anger is at syd for having a successful dish. so, yes, it’s misplaced anger, and he needs to work on that. and when syd asks “what does that have to do with this?” and he yells at her to stop talking so he can figure it out, it’s because he knows he was just caught being a baby, and being angry at the wrong thing and not wanting to be confronted with it. he has trouble processing his emotions, and dealing with them, and it comes out in anger and he needs to work on that!

because i think there’s a mix of things happening with carmy and that dish, and syd. i think he struggles not to see her as competition, even as her boss. he says in the next episode that even as the sou at his restaurant, when anyone new would come in he would have the desire and urge to “smoke that motherfucker” because they were the competition, even though he was their boss. and now he’s the owner, and syd is his sou, and even though she can’t get higher without his say so, he still feels that threat of “what if she’s a better cook? what if she deserves this more than i do?”. we see him work on a lemon chicken dish, as she works on a braised short ribs and risotto. his dish makes it to menu, hers doesn’t. but the critic breezes past all the work carmy has done on making the sandwiches better, and updating the menu by saying “some small improvements” only to get it out of the way so he can talk about syd’s dish. the dish carmy said wasn’t ready yet.

and i believe it wasn’t ready, i think i’ve talked about this in a previous post. it wasn’t ready. BUT i don’t think carmy knew what it needed. he comes off as an unhelpful asshole to syd because he doesn’t want to admit that he doesn’t know what her dish needs. there’s too much pride on him being the best chef ever for him to work WITH sydney to make her dish perfect. and now it’s all biting him in the ass. he’s mad syd made the better dish, he’s mad he can’t figure out why it’s not perfect, he’s mad all the work he’s doing for the beef is not being recognized but syd’s imperfect dish is, but he’s also mad at the very real frustrations being presented with the to-go orders flying out at him endlessly, and i know, I KNOW (because of the next episode after this one) that he’s mad at himself for feeling all of this and not being able to process and handle it better. and all of that anger and frustration comes pouring out of him in a very unhealthy way.

i also think it’s lost a bit at how carmy takes a moment to think. it’s a hectic moment, and his mind is still on syd and everything else, but he takes a second and he on-the-fly creates a system to try and get everything done and help everyone accomplish the day and get through it. people are going into the walk in and pulling food, stations are being created and properly sectioned off, sweeps is organizing tickets, fak is helping, richie is helping, and carmy gives everyone a job to do. i think it’s mirrored (and mirrored in a healthy way) next season in the finale, but i want to point out that carmy is trying to get everything down and under control, he’s just doing it while screaming and letting his fury fly free on everyone around him.

OOOOOF, and syd asking marcus how he’s doing on cakes, as everyone, EVERYONE, is flying and scurrying and trying to figure out how to get on top of this cluster fuck. and marcus, in a distracted, uncaring voice says “uh, getting there”. because he’s still on donuts. i’m sorry. that’s just so fucking unbelievably not okay.

i’ve seen some people really trying to defend marcus. some even agree with him. it’s pointless to try, we’re fucked, why can’t i just keep working on donuts? BUT LIKE FOR FUCKS SAKE. as someone who used to work at mcdonald’s with no autonomy, who was hired to be some sort of drug addicts half-baked plan to have really good bread when buying bread was cheaper and easier, so your job is nearly useless and pointless. being given the freedom to focus on desserts, and spearheading a dessert on your own, AND THEN being given even more autonomy to research, and experiment, and play around to try and figure out how to make a donut, and all your bosses ask is that you do the job they’re paying you to do. you make cakes. your idea was to put cakes on the menu, we did that, so do it. do whatever else you want, but just make sure you’re doing your job. AND NOT ONLY THAT but at least four or five times in the last few weeks someone has had to say, “hey! do your job please!”, to the point where you even blew a fuse and almost shut your work down for good because you weren’t doing your job. AND NOW there’s a potentially shop ending crisis (AGAIN) and your response is “eh. it’s fucked. i’m gonna do me”. NO! i’m sorry. he doesn’t deserve carmy’s abuse, but he deserves syd’s anger and more. like, i love marcus, but that’s just not acceptable.

ok, and, here’s a place where i want to be really nuanced and try and explain something: sydney’s bouncing around trying to do a lot at once. clearly she’s stressed. BUT, carmy is also running around and trying to do a lot at once, and he’s the boss. he’s creating a system, on the fly, and when he comes to syd and sweeps organizing the tickets he tells her multiple times “step off the expo” because he’s going to do it. and she keeps arguing with him. not maliciously, but because she’s trying to explain HER system to him, but he’s already running HIS system and he doesn’t need to hear her system, he needs her to get in line and start working so they can get through the rush. every second counts and he doesn’t need to waste what precious time that they don’t even have to give to hear her reasoning for something that they’re not gonna do. i don’t want to blow past carmy’s abusive and bombastic anger, because it can’t be, nor should it be, ignored or blown past. but it’s easy to talk about it. carmy is in the wrong with HOW he reacts to the challenges of this day. he’s wrong in every single action, but i don’t think he’s wrong in the decisions he’s making to tackle it. sydney wants to break it down and try to systematically get through things, and carmy knows: we already have more to-go orders than we have food in our walk in. there is no way to systematically break it down. we just have to GO, fire everything, cook everything and see what shit we’re left with when we run out.

syd’s not in the wrong for trying to create a system to break things down and organize the chaos, but carmy is also not wrong for knowing the chaos is too big on this one and they just need to push and see where they land. and as the boss, i will say syd is in the wrong for just…not listening to him. yes, she’s trying to help, and she’s trying manage, but carmy asked her multiple times to do something and she kept not doing it. and yes, carmy is very in the wrong for how he treats EVERYONE. i’m not excusing that. it’s just wrong. but in a rush, especially one as fucked as this one is, you just gotta listen to who’s in charge and do what you can do until the rush is over. does that mean allowing yourself to be debased if your boss is being verbally abusive? FUCK NO. but in a crisis at work in the service industry, if your boss says to do something, you just gotta do it, and if it goes to shit you get the satisfaction of knowing it’s their fault. you were just following their orders. i hope this makes sense. i don’t think they should have just put up with carmy’s abuse, BUT syd’s attempt at trying to have a nuanced and reasonable discussion over how to best tackle the problem was not the time and place. in a crisis, the boss is the boss, and you just gotta go with what they say, and if possible talk about it later. but in the moment it’s do or die.

i also think there’s an interesting parallel between syd’s mistake here, and carmy’s mistake in the very first episode. both of them were trying to help the shop make more money. syd with the to-go’s, and carmy with the ballbreaker tournament. both of them are successful and bring a lot of people in. both of them realize that in the restaurant world, you can’t have explosive growth without proper preparation. because they’re not set up for it. richie tells carmy they’re not set up to deal with the influx of nerds playing games, so carm should make the spaghetti. in this episode, carm tells syd they weren’t ready for to-go’s, and it’s not helped by the good review in the newspaper that morning. more business might seem like a universal good thing, but in the restaurant biz, if too many people come than you overwork your staff, you might run out of food, wait times begin to go up as they’re working harder to accommodate for everything. and then every additional customer gets more and more upset as they have a bad time at this place. you risk losing every new customer, because they came in, and you weren’t ready for them, and they had a terrible time. and you risk losing old reliable customers because they came in and the place was crowded, and you were overwhelmed by the new influx, and they get so frustrated that they decide to never come in again. more than one restaurant has closed because they suddenly experienced an explosion they weren’t ready for, and it overwhelmed them, and then they crashed and burned.

BUT BACK TO THE SHOW: syd didn’t say corner. i’m not sure if saying it would have helped, but richie said corner, syd didn’t. but richie is also an asshole, and choosing to take that moment to push syd’s buttons more as the cakes that SO DESPERATELY need to be cut and prepped fall to the ground. fuck off richie.

tina’s moment to try and check in on syd is so sweet. mama bear gotta come in and mama bear. and that syd takes her anger out on her, and insults the beef (where tina has worked and the place tina loves) and questions what tina or louie is ever going to get out of “a shithole” like the beef is rough to watch. because it’s so clear how much tina has come to respect syd and her teaching her chef things, and for syd to just kind of spit on that, and take her anger she’s feeling at herself (for making the mistake with the to-go’s), and at carmy (for clearly being mad about the risotto and for yelling at her), and at richie (for….well, being richie. fuck richie) and to put it on tina who is only trying to make sure that syd is okay, is hard.

GET ME A FUCKING SHARPIE THAT FUCKING WORKS! FUCK! - the most relatable line i’ve ever heard to depict a shift that has turned into an absolute shit show. why can’t shop sharpies work the moment you desperately need them to?

i do love (and maybe love is the wrong word) the blink and you’ll miss it moment of tina telling carmy that they’re out of giardiniera, and him saying they’ll prep it fresh and (like always) he (without thinking) puts it on syd’s plate. which shows his trust of her. BUT also shows his willingness to brush off anything he doesn’t want to deal with on her. AND THEN, because everything is moving so fast, he calls richie into the kitchen to ask for a sharpie, and as his brain is still processing and flying through he asks him to prep the giardiniera. it’s a beautiful, and realistic, moment of television. because we’ve seen so many moments of “something i don’t want to deal with, ‘syd, you got this’”, and so carmy does that. but he doesn’t even realize he’s said it. and the problem is still on his brain, as he sees richie and asks him to fix this problem, because everyone else (including sydney) is probably dealing with the million other issues that are happening in the kitchen at that moment.

and i appreciate that as richie goes to the back to prep the giardiniera, and sydney questions what he’s doing he says “what does it look like? i’m helping you”, he honestly didn’t go back to fight. he recognizes that syd is doing something, and because he’s also been told to do something he’s hopping into “okay. so sydney’s already doing this, so then i’ll just help her.” which is, honestly, the right attitude. but sydney has already been so bashed around and is already feeling so much that she takes richie’s presence as a threat.

there’s something about the way syd lays into richie that…so supremely gets under my skin. i honestly can’t even fully explain it. she does such a good job in this moment acting out this onslaught of insults. the intense intake of breath, the bitter laughter, the just stabbing (intentional wordplay) of her words into him. ufff. i like….hate syd here, even as i think richie probably deserves it.

and i love that he takes everything she says, chooses not to engage until she insults his daughter. WHICH IS FAIR, syd went WAY TOO FUCKING FAR with that one. because we know he feels like a loser. his ex wife has him as richie bad news, his daughter wonders if that’s his real name, he brags about drunken nights and mornings at bars to dates and doesn’t realize why that doesn’t impress them, and then lies to his coworkers about it, blaming her. he knows that he’s a loser. but he knows that his daughter is the one good thing he ever did, and he doesn’t want his daughter to think of him as a loser.

and again, carmy comes in as they’re fighting, even as syd is brandishing a chefs night, literally TOUCHING it to richie’s stomach, as she says “maybe i will fucking stab you”, and he screams at them to shut up and get to work. which, once again, is the right call, just enacted terribly. because yes, they need to stop and just get the work done, but his screaming at them isn’t going to help calm them down. but also, like….when people are brandishing knives at other employees, maybe you got bigger fish to fry, carm.

uuuuuuuuuuufffffda. the fact that after all this time. ALL THIS TIME. as everyone is having the worst day in the kitchen they’ve ever had. arguably, the worst day in the kitchen anyone COULD HAVE, that marcus goes up to carmy with a DONUT and is smiling, like, “look! i did it!” FUCK OFF.

and no, carmy freaking out, grabbing marcus’ face, grabbing his donut and throwing it on the floor is not okay. that is abuse. it just is. arguably, actionable abuse. marcus was…partially right for leaving after carmy did that to him. that was absolutely, unequivocally, not okay for carmy to do. but….marcus…..the fuck dude. this is like the fifth or sixth time someone has had to do say to you “the fuck? do your fucking job.” in this episode alone this would have been like a “third warning” in a day. marcus deserves to be fired, or sent home for the day, or written up, or some form of punished for this. because in a 20 minute, in real time, no cuts scene, this is literally the third time marcus has chosen not to do his job, not to get back to work, but not even to help anyone else out around the kitchen as they all are struggling and hustling and just trying to make it work. like, it’s not only disrespectful to the restaurant that it trying desperately not to close, it’s not only disrespectful to carmy who has literally given you every opportunity to chase after your dreams and been way more than understanding when your dreams have gotten in the way of your duties in the kitchen, but it’s so fucking disrespectful to every single person in that kitchen who is struggling and fighting tooth and nail to get things in order and make it work so that they still have jobs next week. like, marcus, your mom is sick (spoilers), tina has a son, richie has a daughter, you all need to pay rent, buy food. you’re threatening seven people’s livelihoods because you want to make a “perfect donut”? no, i’m sorry, get the fuck out of the kitchen and come back when you’re ready to be an adult who can multitask and prioritize doing his job, and doing the fun stuff only after everything else is done. (again, carmy’s reaction is fully wrong and i do not support it, though! toxic, angry, abusive. not okay).

but because of carmy’s abuse, marcus chooses to leave during the middle of the shift, and again, kind of leaves everyone in the lurch to try and figure the shit out and pick up the pieces. and….im not fully sure how i feel. i believe in removing yourself from abusive situations. and carmy is being abusive. and i also don’t believe in staying in an abusive situation for the sake of other people, because you have to take care of yourself first. but….carmy is not normally abusive like this. i know a lot of people like to say that he is, but so far in the series, he has only ever raised his voice to speak over others, and has almost never (if ever) been confrontationally abusive to anyone. other than maybe richie, and that’s giving as good as he’s getting, to someone who is in his family. i’m not trying to excuse abuse to a family member, but it’s much more of a feel of “richie is my cousin, i can speak differently than i would to the others who are my employees”. his meanness to richie is more of a informal familiarity, more than it’s abusive. this is really the first time we’ve seen carmy choosing to be loud, angry, AND attack others directly with his words. he has been confrontational, he has been loud, he has been angry, but he’s never been all of them, as he’s attacked those around him. so, all of that to say….the fact that carmy is like this for the first time is shocking, and it adds more believability for why marcus (and eventually syd) leave. it’s shocking. but i also can’t help but think of everyone else that marcus is fucking over by leaving the very first time carmy does something wrong to him. you know? and maybe i’m wrong! maybe i’m not reading past experiences and conversations and interactions correctly! if i am, let me know! but, every time i see marcus throw his tray of donuts on the table and take off his apron and walk out, i can’t help but think “really? you fucked up so many times, you were told to do your jobs so many times, and now you’re choosing to pack up and go home??? you’re fucking people over and forcing syd to do your job for you, while she does a million other things, and you think you get to go home as the morally superior one? fuck off”.

and again, i love marcus. i think he’s got so much heart and is arguably the heartfelt anchor of this shows. but he’s human and the writers do a great job of writing him as a human, and he does a great job acting as a fully fledged human. but as a human, he has made a lot of mistakes the last few episodes.

AND THEN SYD STABS RICHIE IN THE ASS!!!! quasi-on purpose, quasi-accidental. i mean. watch in slow-mo as richie backs up into syd’s knife. its so quick, and syd was looking over at carmy shouting, and richie was backing up. like…it WAS an accident. buttttttttt…..was it?

the fact that richie immediately upon getting stabbed walks it off, and is like “ebra, come on. i got stabbed.” and ebra also immediately follows richie to sew up his ass. what friendship. and what history does it spell out for richie and ebra, both? like richie is just like “ope. stabbed. okay, i’ll deal with this now.” and ebra is like “you’re stabbed? okay, let me get my stuff.”

“not right now, i got stabbed” “you probably fucking deserved it” “mm….m-maybe, maybe.” is such a good back and forth between carmy and richie.

i also think it’s interesting that as carmy walks out to the front of the shop to check on louie and sweeps, while richie is at the front of the bar for ebra to check out his ass wound, carmy asks louie and sweeps how their job is going, and they respond that they’re working on it, and carmy says “thank you, chef. keep going please.” very calm. very collected. i wonder if this was voice over, and just sort of overlooked, or if it was a conscious decision of carmy being calm and responsive in a moment during the chaos? because since shit has hit the fan he’s been shouting and calling people names, but louie and sweeps respond to him with just “we’re doing what you asked” and his response is a very appropriate “ok. thank you.”

i love that as ebra tells richie his story of samalia and the “factions”, as he describes the helicopters coming in, we hear helicopters in the background, mixing with the music. and then richie goes “is this shit black hawk down!?” such a genius moment of humor during such a tense episode. and for that exchange to end with “fuckin’ piven” “piven”.

i fully believe the two seconds carmy spends in the walk in cooler he’s taking two seconds to just breathe.

tina opens the doors, even as they’re out of food, for the very first customer of the day. and he says “do you guys have risotto?” and tina just barks “no!”. ugh. so painful. so good.

once again, syd leaving right as the doors are opening is….i have mixed feelings. she just stabbed a guy, i get it (well….i don’t get it, i’ve never stabbed a guy). but she’s clearly in a bit of shock, and should prioritize her mental health over the shop. but….AGAIN, there are so many people who have no other options in their life, who need the beef to survive, and to abandon them all in the middle of a crisis just sucks. and i think it’s saying something that it’s syd and marcus. they have been sort of focal points and main characters in the show, yes. so them leaving is the most dramatic to the tension and narrative. BUT they’re also young. syd has an impressive resume and can find another job. arguably, marcus has a better resume now than he did when he got the job. they’ll be okay. but as it’s been stated so many times….where is richie gonna go? where is tina gonna go? sweeps has a history of drugs that is probably going to make it difficult to get another job (maybe. idk. he could have been kicked out of the mlb for weed or something, but still). the beef is full of people who have no where else to go, and the people who can afford to get out to at the worst possible moment, at the expense of the people who can’t afford to leave.

i was talking to my sister about this, she’s a psychologist. because i want syd and marcus to be emotionally, and psychologically healthy, and part of that is by removing yourself from toxic situations. but i can’t help but see the class dynamics of two people who have way more opportunities and privilege leaving the shop at the expense of the people around them. and i don’t know fully where to land.

but syd basically leaving and putting all of the blame on carmy is still….not fully right in my eyes? carmy is being abusive, carmy has created an atmosphere in the kitchen that was so overwhelming and bombastic that syd got distracted and accidentally stabbed richie. but for her to say “well, it’s all carmy’s fault” isn’t right. yes, when she calls him a piece of shit, she’s saying it for his actions today; for his actions with not having the humility to admit he doesn’t know what’s missing from her dish, and a lot. but almost every episode they’ve had a back and forth and a chance to talk and he’s continually apologized for his wrong moves, and she really hasn’t. so, to be right in the middle of a shitshow, and to say “this is all on you, this isn’t my fault”…like….ehhhhh, you asked to have more responsibility, you pushed for to gos and then you didn’t set it up properly. easy/honest mistake, but you still made it. that’s on you. you also picked fights (even with assholes who deserved them) and tried to argue with your boss about something in the middle of a rush. like, all understandable, none of it evil. but to turn all of that over to carmy and go, “100% of this is your fault.” like…no it’s not? syd definitely has a right to leave to try and process the traumatic event of stabbing someone, she has a right to leave to escape the toxic environment carmy has created, even if i have mixed feelings on making everyone’s lives harder by leaving. but i don’t think she can say it’s all his fault. it’s not ALL his fault, even if A LOT, if not MOST, of it is his fault.

i also wonder if syd calling him a piece of shit has anything to do with their “i don’t want to be shitty” “then don’t” conversation in season two? (but we’ll talk about that when we get there)

carmy realizing the weight of his actions, as the shit continues to crash and burn around him, only to crouch down and eat the smushed donut off the floor, and then have a sick, twisted, grim smile as he realizes that the donut is actually really fucking amazing, is such beautiful poetry. it hurts.

and also, people really are disgusted by carmy doing that, and like, yeah, it IS disgusting. but that shit happens every day at your favorite restaurant. shit fall. people pick it up and eat it. it’s not great, but it’s so true.

carmy smacking the ticket printer off the shelf and (hopefully) breaking it is the only outburst of anger i am in full support of. the ticket printer deserves to die.

aaaaaaaand that’s the episode. wilco plays their final note, a crowd erupts in cheers and we’re all left just…emotionally wrecked. i have probably watched this episode (along with the whole season) a dozen times, and im still conflicted on how i feel about the whole thing. because obviously carmy is in the wrong. it’s barely worth discussing how carmy is in the wrong. anyone trying to defend carmy is also in the wrong. but i don’t think he deserves 100% of the blame. a bad thing happened that wasn’t his fault, and he took his frustrations out on everybody around him, instead dealing with them in a healthy and non-toxic way. but everyone in this episode was at their worst, and that’s THE POINT OF THIS EPISODE. EVERYONE. tina’s mama bear-ing only caused frustration, marcus was lost in donuts and made things harder, syd made a i little mistake with huge consequences and then also attacked everyone around her (except much less intensely than carmy), richie is on fine form with being his annoying self, ebra reading the newspaper after being told to stop, and carmy’s abusive, explosive anger. they’re all at fault. not just carmy. carmy is just the loudest, most bombastic, and the main character, so we notice it more.

but that’s the episode! next is episode eight! season finale! in what is arguably one of the most subtle, nuanced, often overlooked and not talked about episodes….with one of the biggest, over the top endings ever that everyone LOVES talking about. but, we’ll talk about it when we get there!

season one: episode one | episode two | episode three | episode four | episode five | episode six | episode eight

season two: episode one | episode two | episode three | episode four | episode five | episode six | episode seven | episode eight | episode nine | episode ten

[ghostlymongoose]

Favorite Jellystone Ships

Straight:

Lippy The Lion x Hardy Har Har

El Kabong x Bobby Louie (just seems so very natural. And definitely only boosted further by the works of @acapellax and @femalesonicexe2 )

Cindy Bear x Me/My OC

Brain x Fancy Fancy

Super Snooper x Blabber Mouse (once again thx to @femalesonicexe2)

Gay:

El Kabong x Me(or my OC)

Yakky Doodle x Augie Doggie

Jabberjaw x Loopy de Loop

Mr. Jinks x Huckleberry Hound

Mr. Jinks x Doggie Daddy (Thanks to @artpro86 and their lovely art 🧡🧡)

Squiddly Diddly x Bobbie Louie (@pattehrose is to blame on why I fell in love with this one 💜 🤎)

Snagglepuss x Mildew Wolf

Boo Boo Bear x Benny

Other:

Winsome Witch x Her Broomstick (c'mon they're supposed to get married)

Yippee x Yappy x Yahooey (Polyamorous Threesome in a non-open, committed relationship)

Least Favorite Ships:

Mildew x Shazzan (Mildew, bro, stop wasting your time on someone who's clearly not interested. You deserve a man who will truly love you)

Hadji x Johnny (I'm all for male x male ships but this one is just downright lazy, with characters that are mostly used as background jokes or punching bags)

[louisloulouie]

This is so complicated, so I’m just going to write my feelings out and idk how this is gonna go. This will be a very selfish post to just talk about my feelings.

If you see me post about liam pre-2016 just know I’m grieving the man I thought he was and who’s music helped me so much in life because it is impossible to separate 1D from myself.

Personally I am not grieving Liam as the person he was exposed to be. I know now that he’s dead we shouldn’t attack him but I have been 100% against him in the past month. I supported him 100% since 2012, then he started getting into some weird things, then he dated Maya, and then everything about the type of person he was came out and those all culminated to me being completely against him. I am not mourning him right now if I’m completely honest.

But, that man was a part of a band that has been integral to me for almost half my life. 1D was my world. I was a liam girl before I was a louie, I have not and probably will never love something as much as I did 1D. He and 1D were so important to me. So I am grieving the person he was, I’m grieving my childhood, I’m grieving the band that saved my life when I was at my lowest I’ve ever been.

I feel so so so so fucking bad for his family, for his parents most of all oh my fucking god I can’t believe they have to bury a child. I feel bad for his sisters, I feel bad for his son. I’ve been out of the loop when it comes to Liam’s personal life so idk how involved he was with Bear, but now that kid is gonna grow up without his father and that’s so painful.

I personally don’t think Liam could have been redeemed after everything that came to light. Maybe this isn’t something I should be saying when he’s just died. But I don’t think an abuser could have bettered himself much. Maybe I’m ignorant or closed minded but I’m open to hearing the opposite perspective on something like this. I think it’s tragic that he died before his victims could get justice. I grieve for his victims and the things Maya had to go through at just 19 years old and what she will have to go through now as the person who exposed him the most, I know the Liam fans are going to attack her ruthlessly.

So I’m not mourning him as the person we know he was now. But I am mourning who we thought he was in the 1D years. I’m mourning the friendships he had with the other boys and the happiness they brought each other and the millions of fans who sought comfort from them. I’m grieving for the girl who was 14 years old that found 1D at just the right time so that I could keep living with a new source of happiness keeping my alive. But I am not grieving the Liam we have all found out about the past couple years.

[liugeaux]

The Best Games of 2004 | 20 Years Gone

A long time ago, in the late 00s, I REALLY wanted to be a Video Games Journalist. I was writing and podcasting for local tech website Techpedition and we even worked our way to E3 2009. I was able to parley my mask of legitimacy into getting a couple dozen free games from publishers, but was never able to break into the "business".

It's fine, I've still paid super close attention to the industry and have a handful of podcasts that I follow. One thing that I missed out on was creating the end-of-year best-of lists that have become so popular with pundits of video games. Partially because I didn't have a big enough outlet for it to matter, but more so because I didn't have the resources to play all the relevant games within their release years to render a judgment.

I typically get around to playing all the games I'm interested in, but it usually takes me about 2-5 years. It's partially a time thing but mostly a budget thing. So, what this is, is the beginning of my trip through the last 20 years of video games. I'll be creating a top 10 list for the last 15 years and going forward, I'll post a new list every year of the top 10 from 5 years ago. That is assuming I keep up with it, lol.

These will be written as if they were published the year of the list, so there will be no references to future games or better sequels, etc. Let's get started. Travel with me back to the year 2004 which, news flash, is now 20 years ago.

#10 - Metroid: Zero Mission

Not only is Zero Mission a solid remake of the classic original Metroid, but it succeeds at both making it feel modern and ultimately super-playable, which isn't something you can say about the old NES game.

#9 - Prince of Persia: The Warrior Within

Much more agro than its predecessor, The Warrior Within builds on the foundation of the standout Sands of Time and smooths out a lot of the jagged edges, specifically in the combat department. Your mileage will likely be tied to how much you like Godsmack-itude, but POP2 is a great sequel.

#8 - Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Paper Mario was a weird novelty and shadow follow-up to Super Mario RPG, but despite its clear creative direction, it was missing the character needed to fully succeed in the RPG space. The Thousand-Year Door has character in spades, and it will charm your staples off.

#7 - Sly 2: Band of Thieves

Making Sly Cooper into an open-world heist game took what was a decent platformer to the next level. Where the first game was a solid third place behind Ratchet and Clank and Jak and Daxter, Sly 2 makes the argument that it's a top-tier Sony series. Each mission matters and each of its characters is special.

#6 - Pikmin 2

Better than its predecessor in every way, Pikmin 2 shows the first game's primary game loop wasn't a fluke. The addition of Louie, as a second playable character who's played simultaneously with Olimar, adds a heightened level of stress, making each recovery mission a manic exercise in task prioritization.

#5 - Halo 2

Is Halo 2 as impactful as Halo: Combat Evolved? Not really. The story isn't stellar, and the surprise Arbitor missions are little more than a pallet swap, but dropping the proven Halo action onto the Xbox Live service is game and industry-changing. I'm not a multiplayer guy, but I enjoyed the single player and I recognize how important Halo 2's success is to gaming as a whole.

#4 - Mario vs Donkey Kong

Donkey Kong '94, on the Game Boy, is secretly one of the best games of 1994. Mario vs. Donkey is Nintendo fleshing out that idea and making an addictive puzzle platformer. It starts out simple and sweet and ends hard and satisfying. Had this been the direction the Donkey Kong franchise went rather than Rare's DK Country series, SNES games may have had a very different trajectory.

#3 - Spider-Man 2

Licensed games always suck. Movie tie-in games always suck. Spider-Man 2 is an anomaly on top of an anomaly and it's 100% powered by the Swinging mechanic Treyarch built for the web-crawler. It feels SO good to swing around NYC that it's hard to believe Spider-Man as a character wasn't created specifically for video games.

#2 - Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal

R&C3 is undoubtedly a great game, I'd even say damn near perfect, but its placement this high on the list may seem a bit weird. That's where my opinion comes in. I'm a huge 3D platformer fan, it's probably my favorite genre. With that factored in with the depth and polish of this shiny new Ratchet game, #2 on the list doesn't seem so outlandish.

#1 - Half-Life 2

There's always talk of "importance" when it comes to works of art. Abbey Road is important, Michelangelo's David is important, and even A Clockwork Orange is important. Video Games, a medium that's still technically in its infancy, has only a handful of important titles. I'd say Half-Life 2 fits the bill. It's use of physics as a gaming mechanic is as technically impressive as it is clever. It's an FPS but it's not "just an FPS" and the mood and tone established throughout are as compelling as that of Blade Runner. Half-Life 2 is a stunner that will be studied for years.

Notable Omissions:

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - I've never liked GTA games. I respect their scope and ambition, but when it comes to playing them as games, GTA titles just stink.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - I've never gotten into the Metal Gear games and the more people yell at me to play them, the less I want to.

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap - This one technically came out in North America in 2005. So, with me being from the US, It will hit next year's list.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords - I might end up playing this one eventually, but as of 2024 I have not.

What are your favorite video games from 2004?

See you next time. Cheers!

[crossovernonshipstournament]

Propaganda

Team Baddie Besties:

Basically I was like "yknow who Lancer reminds me of. Bowser Jr" and then realized that Bowser would TOTALLY emotionally adopt Lancer after learning Spade King is a sucky dad. Anyway Lance and Jr love going around causing problems together, Jr gets to try out Lance's bike and Lance gets a ride in the Koopa Clown car. They (and sometimes Susie) like to prank Mario and friends a lot and I just think they would be such good friends = It was your average day in Hometown, Mushroom Kingdom. Bowser Junior, who wanted to practice wreaking havoc, showed up to ruin just that. He crashed into Hometown riding his clown car, causing trouble through town as he went. Bored, he broke into the school while class was in session, and there he noticed something strange about the storage closet at the end of the hall. ~ "Huh… is this a warp zone? I bet it goes somewhere super cool…" Unable to resist temptation, Junior opened the door and stepped inside, only to fall right through the floor- and that was how Junior found Castle Town. = Lancer, meanwhile, was languishing in his boredom. Sure, the jack of spades had ways of entertaining himself, but he wanted to do them with Susie, who was still in school. "How long is this going to TAKE?!" he would shout, every time his splat noises compilation ended and Susie still wasn't there yet. ~ "HEY!" = Lancer sat up and looked down to see a kid who looked like a turtle. Or was that a turtle who looked like a kid? Whatever it was, it was pointing at him. ~ "What is this place?!" Junior demanded, glaring as threateningly as he could at the other kid (which wasn't very threatening at all, even though he didn't realize that). "Castle Town! Are you a Lightner?!" Lancer was thrilled. Something was happening! He didn't have to be bored anymore! ~ Junior had no idea what a Lightner was, but to him it sounded like an insult. "No, I'm a prince! The first son of the GREAT and EVIL King Bowser!!! So don't mess with me, unless you want me and my papa to gang up on you!" ! "You're an evil prince with an eviler dad? I'M an evil prince with an eviler dad!!!" ~ >:0 "No way! Do you wanna go be evil together?!" "Heck yeah!!!" = That was how it started. The pair of prankster princes exchanged names and high fives, running off into Castle Town to carry out their improvised evil plots. Ralsei would be in for a surprise.

Team Green Boys:

In the DTLS au, they are best friends: Louie, with his desire to lay around watching TV instead of going on adventures, proved a perfect match for Oscar, who has a lot of feelings about being made a budding wizard against his will. Also, Louie sympathizes with Oscar about how embarrassing Ozpin and Ozma are as parents, and Oscar gives Louie someone who expects nothing out of him. Until they end up looping their way back into their own adventure by trying to find the truth about Roman Torchwick, that is. When you're a Duck or the current twinned soul of an immortal wizard going through a lengthy divorce, you don't get to decide not to adventure. Adventure happens to you whether you like it or not.

[webbiigaiil]

Continued from HERE ( @deweydewdrop )

With everything going on in Dewey’s life recently, it was no surprise that he had no clue that Webby was dealing with her own problems in the meantime. Perhaps dumping his love life tea on her now wasn’t the best timing, but he felt it was important to keep her in the loop! Webby had seemed to be in a good mood anyway, which made it feel like now was a good time to tell her, but Dewey watched as Webby’s expression sort of faltered. He didn’t blame her — he didn’t have the best track record with secrets lately, but luckily this was one that Webby didn’t have to get caught in the middle in. This was just Dewey telling his sibling about his crush, simple as that (even if the crush situation wasn’t so simple).

Although the two had been ready to head to the kitchen for junk food, Webby stopped in place as she waited for Dewey to explain. He gave her a nervous smile. “Well.. I’ve kinda been talking to someone .. Like, the coolest, most beautiful girl ever,” he was quick to admit, his nervous smile growing to a genuine one as he began talking about Tiffany. “But it’s not serious, I’ve just got a fat crush on her,” he quickly added with a sigh. It felt good to get that out in the open, even if it didn’t uncomplicate anything for him. “… But she’s got a boyfriend,” he continued, “and her boyfriend is friends with Louie, so ..” he shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t worry, I’m gonna tell Louie, but I thought maybe seeing your reaction first might help me prepare for his..” His nervous smile returned, trying to read Webby’s expression. “Thoughts?”

-

It probably wasn’t a good thing that Webby felt the need to brace herself for whatever Dewey wanted to tell her instead of already being excited over it. But there just wasn’t a good track in him starting off by telling her how neither of his brothers knew about this yet. Even when he also said that he will tell them, it was the fact of how long will it be before he does that has her the most worried because if the blonde had to be honest, holding onto another important secret wasn’t something she thought she could do right now. That said, Webby wasn’t about to ask Dewey not to tell her what it was because if it was important to him to tell her, then at the same time she would want to hear what it was. Even if the secrecy of it all might end up driving her crazy in the end.

“Huh?!” At his admission of how he was talking to someone, Webby only stared at him in confusion, not getting why this had to be a secret in the first place when this wasn’t the first time Dewey’s met someone, he was interested in. But it wasn’t until he elaborated on how he had a big fat crush on a girl who had a boyfriend and how the two were friends with Louie, was when she realized why Dewey considered this as a secret. “Uh…” Unsure on what to say, Webby only stared back at him as she let his words sink in. “Congrats?” She then said, as how does one say anything in response to that. So, the girl already had a boyfriend, but Dewey really liked her? “Are you planning on fighting for her or something since she’s dating someone else right now? Or are you going to wait and see if the two break uuuppp? I’m sorry, I’m not sure what you want me to say about this.” 

[flareonfoxy]

This is going to be totally out of left field but I think the big reason Fire emblem Engage failed was due to Maddening difficulty having fixed growths till you beat it once. The big reason is that part of the fire emblem experience is training your units and seeing how good they turn out from random chance and then adapting in order to compensate that or play into that.

An example of this is that I was playing Maddening in 3 houses ( The game that came before Engage) and I had runs where a unit would just snowball from multiple good level ups and become just a monster. This happend with my Dimitri who had so much speed he couldn't be doubled by basically anything in the game, even the death knight in his first appearance. Random growths can make units who otherwise aren't good, good because they can get lucky.

Another example is I had a Mozu in my conquest playthrough who just decided to become a monster and had like 15 strength and 17 speed by like level 15, like it was insane.

These examples just show the positives of random growths, the negatives though are obviously sometimes characters might not proc certain stats on level up for a few levels, which can be detrimental, back to Dimitri where another playthrough I had he only had like 8 speed at level 9. Which he has a 40 or 45 growth and starts at level 1 with I think 7 speed, meaning he should of had about 2 or 3 speed more than he did causing him to get doubled by enemies he shouldn't been doubled by, this is a big negative because you can have playthroughs where the characters you want to use may be just bad, which sucks but I think it's what makes the games fun.

Obviously it's easier when fixed growths are a thing because the creators can make levels to curate to what the player should have at that point, the problem with that though is when the player wants to play a character the creators expected them to drop. Example being in Engage when you get Alchrest the game expects you to automatically drop Etie who was your archer before this, and that's just something I never do because I like Eties character and design more than Alchrest, like I like Alchrest and he has a better personal but I like Etie more and this pertains to multiple characters who you're just expected to drop when you get a new character. Here's a short list.

1) Framme/Jean/Pangero

2)Clanne/Celine/Citrinne/Ivy/Hortensia/Old guy?

3)Alfred/Amber/Bunet/other guy(can't remember name)

4)Chloe/maybe Rosatto?

5)Louie/Jade

6)Boucheron/Anna/Pannete

7)Etie/Alchrest/Fagato

8)Alear

9)Yunaka/Zalekov/maybe Merrin?

10)Lapis/Kagetsu/Goldmary

That's ten different basically groups that once a new character shows up in that group you're expected to jump ship and use that unit because that's how Madding on fixed growths was designed.

Obviously there are exceptions where some units are just worse that the ones before them, like Chloe could be made the case that she should be in her own group just purely because she never falls off and Rosado and her use different weapons but they are both physical flyers which is why I looped them together. Bunet is just not good so don't ever use him.

This is the big problem with engage is that they expect you to use certain units at certain points meaning the system that is meant to make maddening a "fair challenge" just doesn't do that, and that's what annoys me about engage is the first time through maddening fixed growths, I haven't beaten maddening yet because of this problem. Because I want to use certain units and the game doesn't like that.

This is why I think many hard-core fire emblem fans just don't like Engage.

[kovajean]

thots on omegaverse? 👀 also: when and how did you get into CK/KK? whose your favourite character? ships?

I used to be really big into Omegaverse when I was younger and then I kind of just lost interest. Funnily enough the most recent omegaverse fic I’ve read (as well as the only one I’ve read in years) was a LaKreese one. Which I have reread quite a bit.

How did I get into Karate Kid? So…Funny story…I watched KK1 when I was maybe 10? I liked it a normal amount at the time, but the only character I cared about was Johnny, somehow.

Then for my 12th (13th?) birthday I made my whole family sit down and watch KK1 with me. The second rewatch made me like Daniel along with Johnny instead of just Johnny. But I still cared more about Johnny.

Then skip to my Senior year’s spring break. I saw stuff about Cobra Kai in my feed and was like “Yo, this show’s about Johnny! That’s definitely for me!” But my mother, who has seen it, told me that it references all three movies. And I’m like shit, there are sequels? Anyways so I’m like well I have to watch the sequels in order to watch Cobra Kai. So I sit down and force my mom to watch the sequels with me because she hadn’t seen them either.

KK2 is fine. Admittedly I skipped a bit of it because I thought it was boring lol. Err…even though at this era I didn’t like Kreese (yet), the most notable thing about KK2 for me was that Kreese looked hot in the only scene he was in and I think about it a lot. The practically cropped jacket is nice. I don’t want to talk about it anymore

KK3 is weird. Who is this guy and why does he look like the main guy from Kickin’ It with a ponytail. (Which I decided before seeing Silver’s face. My mistake. He looks absolutely nothing like him in the long run.) This movie is OK, this movie is OK, Yo…Daniel is kind of (literally me). This is the moment I realized how much I related to Daniel. Then he became my favorite. By this point I didn’t care about Johnny anymore. It kind of dissipated.

As embarrassing as it is, I didn’t actually like KK3 until a very specific scene. And this scene is also what spurred my Silverusso interest. It’s the scene where he’s stretching Daniel’s leg on the floor. Sometimes I wonder how it ever passed censorship 🤷

After that I rewatched KK3 on loop for like a week and then I listened to Silver’s theme on loop and made my ex-boyfriend watch the movie with me and yada yada yada here I am.

Favorite characters? Easy. Daniel, Silver, Kreese, Chozen, Mike, Kumiko, Jessica. Daniel’s my ride or die forever.

CK favorite characters include all of the above along with Miguel, Tory, Hawk, Devon, Kenny, Kyler, Louie, Vanessa, Anoush, and Sensei Kim. Big Sensei Kim fan.

Favorite ships is easy because I ship Daniel with everyone. Like, everyone. If you ask me about Daniel/A character that exists in canon I’ll probably tell you that I ship it. Other than Daniel ships I’m a big fan of Sam/Tory, Hawk/Demetri, Hawk/Robby, and a low-key fan of Kreese/Silver. Carmen/Amanda and Anoush/Amanda also make me happy for some reason.

[tiny-wren]

hm... yknow a while ago a friend of mine made a papa louie emoji ask game. i can send the link (probably through replies bc i dunno how comfortable you are with dms) but i just wanted to lyk in case you were curious.

it feels a lil weird saying this to someone whos been in this fandom as a whole much longer than i have but ive been around for a while on tumblr. its a little weird to think about

Yeah, that sounds fun!! I'm cool with DMs, so whichever you want is cool w me.

LMAO DW--I may have been around for a while but I wasn't rlly *active* for all that time and I'm especially out of the loop with the tumblr community sfjksdjdskfe

[darkmasterofcupcakes]

I mean, Louie, you could just...not eat as much at every dinner? You’re clearly not enjoying the food as much, so you could just eat less each time. Just saying, your problem is a lot more avoidable than Dewey’s complaint about how you guys are just getting the same toys each and every day.

But this does make it clear that not only are the boys’ memories not resetting, but apparently neither are their bodies, if Louie is apparently gaining weight from all the Christmas dinners. So...does that mean the three of them are the only ones who’ve been aging since the time loops began, since they’re the only ones who seem to be effected by time?

[chrisryanspeaks]

Jonah Yano Unveils Soulful New Single “Someone Asked Me How I’ve Been” from Upcoming Album

Montreal artist and songwriter Jonah Yano's latest single, "Someone Asked Me How I’ve Been," offers a glimpse into the intricate sonic landscape of his forthcoming album, *Jonah Yano and The Heavy Loop*. This track distills the expansive, improvisational spirit of his 30-minute opus "The Heavy Loop" into a focused, intimate composition. Opening with Yano’s delicate guitar work, the song gradually expands as his band joins in, creating a lush, evolving soundscape that mirrors the emotional depth of the lyrics. At the heart of "Someone Asked Me How I’ve Been" lies a poignant exploration of duality—the confusion of embodying two identities at once. This theme is drawn from Yano's experiences during his first tour in Japan, where he confronted the complexities of being a mixed Japanese person in his ancestral homeland. The song captures the loneliness and aimlessness he felt at a time when he had envisioned living out a dream of sharing his music in the place he’s from, only to find himself wrestling with the dissonance between expectation and reality. The track also stands as a testament to the collaborative spirit Yano cultivated while creating this album. He has crafted an environment that encourages improvisation and the melding of collective visions, transforming his live ensemble into a cohesive band. While Yano remains the central figure, he draws on the unique strengths and inspirations of his bandmates—Christopher Edmonson, Benjamin Maclean, Leighton Harrell, Felix Fox-Pappas, and Raiden Louis—to create an album that evolves with the musicians’ shared contributions. Jonah Yano is a soulful, genre-defying artist who consistently reshapes the musical terrain beneath his feet. His approach is deeply influenced by his experiences as part of the Japanese-Canadian diaspora and his fascination with memory, family history, and the intricacies of human relationships. The result is a body of work that resists easy categorization, offering listeners a rich, complex soundscape that captures life’s most meaningful and ambiguous moments. Backed by a talented band—composed of Raiden Louie on drums, Chris Edmondson on saxophone, clarinet, and synthesizer, Benja on guitar, Leighton Harrell on bass, and Felix Fox-Pappas on piano and Rhodes—Yano continues to push the boundaries of his sound, building on the collaborative success of their 2023 single "concentrate" with Clairo. Read the full article

[audiofuzz]

Jonah Yano Unveils Soulful New Single “Someone Asked Me How I’ve Been” from Upcoming Album

Montreal artist and songwriter Jonah Yano's latest single, "Someone Asked Me How I’ve Been," offers a glimpse into the intricate sonic landscape of his forthcoming album, *Jonah Yano and The Heavy Loop*. This track distills the expansive, improvisational spirit of his 30-minute opus "The Heavy Loop" into a focused, intimate composition. Opening with Yano’s delicate guitar work, the song gradually expands as his band joins in, creating a lush, evolving soundscape that mirrors the emotional depth of the lyrics. At the heart of "Someone Asked Me How I’ve Been" lies a poignant exploration of duality—the confusion of embodying two identities at once. This theme is drawn from Yano's experiences during his first tour in Japan, where he confronted the complexities of being a mixed Japanese person in his ancestral homeland. The song captures the loneliness and aimlessness he felt at a time when he had envisioned living out a dream of sharing his music in the place he’s from, only to find himself wrestling with the dissonance between expectation and reality. The track also stands as a testament to the collaborative spirit Yano cultivated while creating this album. He has crafted an environment that encourages improvisation and the melding of collective visions, transforming his live ensemble into a cohesive band. While Yano remains the central figure, he draws on the unique strengths and inspirations of his bandmates—Christopher Edmonson, Benjamin Maclean, Leighton Harrell, Felix Fox-Pappas, and Raiden Louis—to create an album that evolves with the musicians’ shared contributions. Jonah Yano is a soulful, genre-defying artist who consistently reshapes the musical terrain beneath his feet. His approach is deeply influenced by his experiences as part of the Japanese-Canadian diaspora and his fascination with memory, family history, and the intricacies of human relationships. The result is a body of work that resists easy categorization, offering listeners a rich, complex soundscape that captures life’s most meaningful and ambiguous moments. Backed by a talented band—composed of Raiden Louie on drums, Chris Edmondson on saxophone, clarinet, and synthesizer, Benja on guitar, Leighton Harrell on bass, and Felix Fox-Pappas on piano and Rhodes—Yano continues to push the boundaries of his sound, building on the collaborative success of their 2023 single "concentrate" with Clairo. Read the full article