#so far my major notes have been that the suspense is well-executed and the plot is intriguing but please work on worldbuilding

[passionpluto]

funny that ppl think neo putting the plot on pause is weird

i mean, i get that it's unprecedented for neo, but negotiating with agents irl is just "the first 30 pages have been submitted for general edits," followed by "the first 30 pages have been submitted for character edits," followed by "the first 50 pages have been submitted for worldbuilding edits" and so on

to be clear: that last one is not new content that advances the plot, but rather the first 30 pages with an extra 20 pages of worldbuilding interspersed due to an immense lack of it in the initial draft

patching writing is just as time-consuming as patching a game and that worldbuilding patch took me about 2 months i.e. about what tvw will likely take

imo, seeing this type of time being taken to listen to feedback about the plot is a good sign if anything

[grigori77]

2020 in Movies - My Top 30 Fave Movies (Part 1)

30.  BODY CAM – in the face of the ongoing pandemic, viral outbreak cinema has become worryingly prescient of late, but as COVID led to civil unrest in some quarters there were a couple of 2020 films that REALLY seemed to put their finger on the pulse of another particularly shitty zeitgeist.  Admittedly this first one highlights a problem that’s been around for a while now, but it came along at just the right time to gain particularly strong resonance, filtering its message into the most reliable form of allegorical social commentary – horror.  The vengeful ghost trope has become pretty familiar since the Millennium, but by marrying it with the corrupt cop thriller veteran horror screenwriter Nicholas McCarthy (The Pact) has given it a nice fresh spin, and the end result is a real winner.  Mary J. Blige plays troubled LAPD cop Renee Lomito-Smith, back on the beat after an extended hiatus following a particularly harrowing incident, just as fellow officers from her own precinct begin to die violent deaths under mysterious circumstances, and the only clues are weird, haunting camera footage that only Renee and her new partner, rookie Danny Holledge (Paper Towns and Death Note’s Nat Wolff), manage to see before it inexplicable wipes itself.  Something supernatural is stalking the City of Angels at night, and it’s got a serious grudge against local cops as the increasingly disturbing investigation slowly brings an act of horrific police brutality to light, until Renee no longer knows who in her department she can trust.  This is one of the most insidious scare-fests I enjoyed this past year, sophomore director Malik Vitthal (Imperial Dreams) weaving an effective atmosphere of pregnant dread and wire-taut suspense while delivering some impressively hair-raising shocks (the stunning minimart sequence is the film’s undeniable highlight), while the ghostly threat is cleverly thought-out and skilfully brought to “life”.  Blige delivers another top-drawer performance, giving Renee a winning combination of wounded fragility and steely resolve that makes for a particularly compelling hero, while Wolff invests Danny with skittish uncertainty and vulnerability in one of his strongest performances to date, and Dexter star David Zayas brings interesting moral complexity to the role of their put-upon superior, Sergeant Kesper.  In these times of heightened social awareness, when the police’s star has become particularly tarnished as unnecessary force, racial profiling and cover-ups have become major hot-button topics, the power and relevance of this particular slice of horror cinema cannot be denied.

29.  BLOOD QUANTUM – 2020 certainly was a great year for horror (even if most of the high profile stuff did get shunted into 2021), and this compellingly fresh take on the zombie outbreak genre was a strong standout with a killer hook.  Canadian writer-director Jeff Barnaby (Rhymes for Young Ghouls) has always clung close to his Native American roots, and he brings strong social relevance to the intriguing early 80s Canadian setting as a really nasty zombie virus wreaks havoc in the Red Crow Indian Reservation and its neighbouring town.  It soon becomes clear, however, that members of the local tribe are immune to the infection, a revelation with far-reaching consequences as the outbreak rages unchecked and society begins to crumble.  Barnaby pulls off some impressive world-building and creates a compellingly grungy post-apocalyptic vibe as the story progresses, while the zombies themselves are a visceral, scuzzy bunch, and there’s plenty of cracking set-pieces and suitably full-blooded kills to keep the gore-hounds happy, while the horror has real intelligence behind it, the script posing interesting questions and delivering some uncomfortable answers.  The characters, meanwhile, are a well-drawn, complex bunch, no black-and-white saviours among them, any one of them capable of some pretty inhuman horrors when the chips are down, and the cast, an interesting mix of seasoned talent and unknowns, all excel in their roles – Michael Greyeyes (Fear the Walking Dead) and Forrest Goodluck (The Revenant) are the closest things the film has to real heroes, the former a fallible everyman as Traylor, the small-town sheriff who’s just trying to do right by his family, the latter unsure of himself as his son, put-upon teenage father-to-be Joseph; Olivia Scriven, meanwhile is tough but vulnerable as his pregnant white girlfriend Charlie, Stonehorse Lone Goeman is a grizzled badass as tough-as-nails tribal elder Gisigu, and Kiowa Gordon (probably best known for playing a werewolf in the Twilight movies) really goes to the dark side as Joseph’s delinquent half-brother Lysol, while there’s another memorably subtle turn from Dead Man’s Gary Farmer as unpredictable loner Moon.  This was definitely one of the year’s darkest films – largely playing the horror straight, it tightens the screws as the situation grows steadily worse, and almost makes a virtue of wallowing in its hopeless tone – but there’s a fatalistic charm to all the bleakness, even in the downbeat yet tentatively hopeful climax, while it’s hard to deny the ruthless efficiency of the violence on display.  This definitely isn’t a horror movie for everyone, but those with a strong stomach and relatively hard heart will find much to enjoy here.  Jeff Barnaby is definitely gonna be one to watch in the future …

28.  THE MIDNIGHT SKY – Netflix’ big release for the festive season is a surprisingly understated and leisurely affair, a science fiction drama of big ideas which nonetheless doesn’t feel the need to shout about it.  The latest feature in the decidedly eclectic directorial career of actor George Clooney, this adaptation of Good Morning, Midnight, the debut novel of up-and-coming author Lily Brooks-Dalton, favours characterisation and emotion over big thrills and flashy sequences, but it’s certainly not lacking in spectacle, delivering a pleasingly ergonomically-designed view of the near future of space exploration that shares some DNA with The Martian but makes things far more sleek and user-friendly in the process.  Aether, a NASA mission to explore K-23, a newly-discovered, potentially habitable moon of Jupiter, is on its return journey, but is experiencing baffling total communications blackouts from Earth.  This is because a catastrophic global event has rendered life on the planet’s surface all but impossible, killing most of the population and driving the few survivors underground.  K-23’s discoverer, professor Augustine Lofthouse (Clooney), is now alone at a small research post in the extreme cold of the Arctic, one of the only zones left that have not yet been fully effected by the cataclysm, refusing to leave his post after having discovered he’s dying from a serious illness, but before he goes he’s determined to contact the crew of Aether so he can warn them of the conditions down on Earth.  Despite the ticking clock of the plot, Clooney has reigned the pace right in, allowing the story to unspool slowly as we’re introduced to the players who calmly unpack their troubles and work over the various individual crises with calm professionalism – that said, there are a few notable moments of sudden, fretful urgency, and these are executed with a palpable sense of chaotic tension that create interesting and exciting punctuation to the film’s usually stately momentum, reminding us that things could go suddenly, catastrophically wrong for these people at any moment.  Clooney delivers a gloriously understated performance that perfectly grounds the film, while there are equally strong, frequently DAMN POWERFUL turns from a uniformly excellent cast, notably Felicity Jones and David Oyelowo as pregnant astronaut Dr. “Sully” Sullivan and her partner, mission Commander Adewole, and a surprisingly subtle, nuanced performance from newcomer Caoilinn Springall as Iris, a young girl mistakenly left behind at the outpost during the hasty evacuation, with whom Lofthouse develops a deeply affecting bond.  The film has been criticised for its slowness, but I think in this age of BIGGER, LOUDER, MORE this is a refreshingly low-key escape from all the noise, and there’s a beautiful trade-off in the script’s palpable intelligence, strong character work and world-building (then again, the adaptation was by Mark L. Smith, who co-wrote The Revenant), while this is a visually stunning film, Clooney and cinematographer Martin Ruhe (Control, The Keeping Room) weaving an evocative visual tapestry that rewards the soul as much as the eye.  Unapologetically smart, engrossingly played and overflowing with raw, emotional power, this is science fiction cinema at its most cerebral, and another top mark for a somewhat overlooked filmmaking talent which deserves to be considered alongside career highs such as Good Night & Good Luck and The Ides of March.

27.  PALM SPRINGS – the summer’s comedy highlight kind of snuck in under the radar, becoming something of an on-demand secret weapon with all the cinemas closed, and it definitely deserves its swiftly growing cult status.  You certainly can’t believe it’s the feature debut of director Max Barbakow, who shows the kind of sharp-witted, steady-handed control of his craft that’s usually the province of far more experienced talents … then again, much of the credit must surely go to seasoned TV comedy writer Andy Siara (Lodge 49), for whom this has been a real labour of love he’s been tending since his film student days.  Certainly all that care, nurture and attention to detail is up there on the screen, the exceptional script singing its irresistible siren song from the start and providing fertile ground for its promising new director to spread his own creative wings.  The premise may be instantly familiar – playing like a latter-day Saturday Night Live take on Groundhog Day (Siara admits it was a major influence), it follows the misadventures of Sarah (How I Met Your Mother’s Cristin Miliota), the black sheep maid of honour at her sweet little sister Tala’s (Riverdale’s Camila Mendes) wedding to seemingly perfect hunk Abe (the Arrowverse’s Superman, Tyler Hoechlin), as she finds herself repeating the same high-stress day over and over again after becoming trapped in a mysterious cosmic time-loop along with slacker misanthrope Nyles (Brooklyn Nine Nine megastar Andy Samberg), who’s been stuck in this same situation for MUCH longer – but in Barbakow and Siara’s hands it feels fresh and intriguing, and goes in some surprising new directions before the well-worn central premise can outstay its welcome. It certainly doesn’t hurt that the cast are all excellent – Miliota is certainly the pounding emotional heart of the film, effortlessly lovable as she flounders against her lot, then learns to accept the unique possibilities it presents, before finally resolving to find a way out, while Samberg has rarely been THIS GOOD, truly endearing in his sardonic apathy as it becomes clear he’s been here for CENTURIES, and they make an enjoyably fiery couple with snipey chemistry to burn; meanwhile there’s top-notch support from Mendes and Hoechlin, The OC’s Peter Gallagher as Sarah and Tala’s straight-laced father, the ever-reliable Dale Dickey, a thoroughly adorable turn from Jena Freidman and, most notably, a full-blooded scene-stealing performance from the mighty J.K. Simmonds as Roy, Nyles’ nemesis, who he inadvertently trapped in the loop before Sarah and is, understandably, none too happy about it. This really is an absolute laugh-riot, today’s more post-modern sense of humour allowing the central pair (and their occasional enemy) to indulge in far more extreme consequence-free craziness than Bill Murray ever got away with back in the day, but like all the best comedies there’s also a strong emotional foundation under the humour, leading us to really care about these people and what happens to them, while the story throws moments of true heartfelt power at us, particularly in the deeply cathartic climax.  Ultimately this was one of the year’s biggest surprises, a solid gold gem that I can’t recommend enough.

26.  THE LAST DAYS OF AMERICAN CRIME – Body Cam’s fellow heavyweight Zeitgeist fondler is a deeply satirical chunk of speculative dystopian sci-fi clearly intended as a cinematic indictment of Trump’s broken America, but it became far more potent and prescient in these … ahem … troubled times.  Adapted by screenwriter Karl Gadjusek (Oblivion, Stranger Things, The King’s Man) from the graphic novel by Rick Remender and Greg Tocchini for underrated schlock-action cinema director Olivier Megaton (Transporter 3, Colombiana, the last two Taken films), this Netflix original feature seemed like a fun way to kill a cinema-deprived Saturday night in the middle of the First Lockdown, but ultimately proved to have a lot more substance than expected.  It’s powered by an intriguing premise – in a nearly lawless 2024, the US government is one week away from implementing a nationwide synaptic blocker signal called the API (American Peace Initiative) which will prevent the public from being able to commit any kind of crime – and focuses on a strikingly colourful bunch of outlaw antiheroes with an audacious agenda – prodigious Detroit bank robber Bricke (Édgar Ramiréz) is enlisted by Kevin Cash (Funny Games and Hannibal’s Michael Carmen Pitt), a wayward scion of local crime family the Dumois, and his hacker fiancée Shelby Dupree (Material Girl’s Anna Brewster) to pull off what’s destined to be the last great crime in American history, a daring raid on the first night of the signal to steal over a billion dollars from the Motor City’s “money factory” and then escape across the border into Canada.  From this deceptively simple premise a sprawling action epic was born, carried along by a razor sharp, twisty script and Megaton’s typically hyperbolic, showy auteur directing style and significant skill at crafting thrillingly explosive set-pieces, while the cast consistently deliver quality performances.  Ever since Domino, Ramiréz has long been one of those actors I really love to watch, a gruff, quietly intense alpha male whose subtle understatement hides deep reserves of emotional intensity, while Dupree takes a character who could have been a thinly-drawn femme fetale and invests her with strong personal drive and steely resolve, and there’s strong support from Neil Blomkampf regulars Sharlto Copley and Brandon Auret as, respectively, emasculated beat cop Sawyer and brutal Mob enforcer Lonnie French, as well as a nearly unrecognisable Patrick Bergin as local kingpin (and Kevin’s father) Rossi Dumois; the film is roundly stolen, however, by Pitt, a phenomenal actor I’ve always thought we just don’t see enough of, here portraying a spectacularly sleazy, unpredictable force of nature who clearly has his own dark agenda, but whom we ultimately can’t help rooting for even as he stabs us in the back.  This is a cracking film, a dark and dangerous thriller of rare style and compulsive verve that I happily consider to be Megaton’s best film to date BY FAR – needless to say it was a major hit for Netflix when it dropped, clearly resonating with its audience given what’s STILL going on in the real world, and while it may have been roundly panned in reviews I think, like some of the platform’s other glossier Original hits (Bright springs to mind), it’s destined for a major critical reappraisal and inevitable cult status before too long …

25.  BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC – one of the year’s biggest surprise hits for me was also one I was really nervous about – the original Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and its just-as-good sequel Bogus Journey have been personal favourites for years, pretty much part of my geeky developmental DNA during my youth, two gleefully dorky indulgences that have, against the odds, aged like fine wine for me over the years.  I love Bill and Ted SO MUCH, so like many of the fans I’ve always wanted a third film, but I knew full well how easy it would have been for it to turn out to be a turd (second sequels can be tricky things, and we’ve seen SO MANY fail over the years).  God bless Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves for never giving up on the possibilities, then, and for the original screenwriters, Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon, for writing something that does true justice and pays proper respect to what came before while fully realising how much times have changed in the TWENTY-NINE YEARS that have passed since Wyld Stallyns last graced our screens.  Certainly times have moved on for our irrepressible pair – in spite of their convictions, driven by news from the distant future that their music would unite the world and usher in a new era of peace and prosperity, Bill and Ted have spectacularly failed to achieve what was expected of them, and they’ve grown despondent even though they’re still happily married to the Princesses and now the fathers of two wonderful girls, Billie and Thea (Atypical’s Brigette Lundy-Paine and Ready Or Not’s Samara weaving).  Then an emissary from the future arrives to inform them that if they don’t write the song that unites the world TODAY, the whole of reality will cease to exist.  No pressure, then … it may have been almost three decades, but our boys are BACK in a riotous comedy adventure that delivers on all the promises the franchise ever made before.  Winter and particularly Reeves may have both gone onto other things since, but they step back into their roles with such ease it’s like Bill and Ted have never been away, perfectly realising not only their characters today but also various future incarnations as they resolve to go forward in time to take the song from themselves AFTER they’ve already written it (a most triumphant and fool-proof plan, surely); Lundy-Paine and Weaving, meanwhile, are both absolutely FANTASTIC throughout, creating a pair of wonderfully oddball, eccentric and thoroughly adorable characters who would be PERFECT to carry the franchise forward in the future, while it’s an absolute joy to see William Sadler return as Bogus Journey’s fantastically neurotic incarnation of Death himself, and there are quality supporting turns from Flight of the Conchords’ Kristen Schaal, Anthony Carrigan, Holland Taylor and of course Hal Landon Jr., once again returning as Ted’s grouchy cop father Captain Logan.  The plot is thoroughly bonkers and of course makes no logical sense, but then they’re never meant to in these movies – the whole point is just to have fun and GO WITH IT, and it’s unbelievably easy when the comedy hit rate is THIS HIGH – turns out third time really is the charm for Matheson and Solomon, who genuinely managed a hat trick with the whole trilogy, while there was no better choice of director to usher this into existence than Dean Parisot, the man who brought us Galaxy Quest.  This is the perfect climax to a trilogy we’ve been waiting YEARS to see finally completed, but it’s also shown a perfect way to forge ahead in new and interesting ways with the next generation – altogether, then, this is another most excellent adventure …

24.  TRUE HISTORY OF THE KELLY GANG – Justin Kurzel has been on my directors-to-watch list for a while now, each of his offerings impressing me more than the last (his home-grown Aussie debut, Snowtown, was a low key wallow in Outback nastiness, while his follow up, Macbeth, quickly became one of my favourite Shakespeare flicks, and I seem to be one of the frustrated few who actually genuinely loved his adaptation of Assassin’s Creed, considering it to be one the very best video game movies out there), and his latest is no exception – returning to his native Australia, he’s brought his trademark punky grit and fever-dream edginess to bear in his quest to bring his country’s most famous outlaw to the big screen in a biopic truly worthy of his name. Two actors bring infamous 19th Century bushranger Ned Kelly to life here, and they’re both exceptional – the first half of the film sees newcomer Orlando Schwerdt explode onto the screen as the child Ned, all righteous indignation and fiery stubbornness as he rails against the positions his family’s poverty continually put him in, then George MacKay (Sunshine On Leith, Captain Fantastic) delivers the best performance of his career in the second half, a barely restrained beast as Ned grown, his mercurial turn bringing the man’s inherent unpredictability to the fore.  The Babadook’s Essie Davis, meanwhile, frequently steals the film from both of them as Ellen, the fearsome matriarch of the Kelly clan, and Nicholas Hoult is similarly impressive as Constable Fitzpatrick, Ned’s slimily duplicitous friend/nemesis, while there are quality supporting turns from Charlie Hunnam and Russell Crowe as two of the most important men of Ned’s formative years. In Kurzel’s hands, this account of Australia’s greatest true-life crime saga becomes one of the ultimate marmite movies – its glacial pace, grubby intensity and frequent brutality will turn some viewers off, but fans of more “alternative” cinema will find much to enjoy here.  There’s a blasted beauty to its imagery (this is BY FAR the bleakest the Outback’s ever looked on film), while the screenplay from relative unknown Shaun Grant (adapting Peter Carey’s bestselling novel) is STRONG, delivering rich character development and sublime dialogue, and Kurzel delivers some brilliantly offbeat and inventive action beats in the latter half that are well worth the wait.  Evocative, intense and undeniable, this has just the kind of irreverent punk aesthetic that I’m sure the real life Ned Kelly would have approved of …

23.  MUST MERCY – more true-life cinema, this time presenting an altogether classier account of two idealists’ struggle to overturn horrific racial injustices in Alabama. Writer-director Destin Daniel Cretton (Short Term 12, The Glass Castle) brings heart, passion and honest nobility to the story of fresh-faced young lawyer Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) and his personal crusade to free Walter “Johnny D” McMillan (Jamie Foxx), an African-American man wrongfully sentenced to death for the murder of a white woman.  His only ally is altruistic young paralegal Eva Ansley (Cretton’s regular screen muse Brie Larson), while the opposition arrayed against them is MAMMOTH – not only do they face the cruelly racist might of the Alabama legal system circa 1989, but a corrupt local police force determined to circumvent his efforts at every turn and a thoroughly disinterested prosecutor, Tommy Chapman (Rafe Spall), who’s far too concerned with his own personal political ambitions to be any help.  The cast are uniformly excellent, Jordan and Foxx particularly impressing with career best performances that sear themselves deep into the memory, while there’s a truly harrowing supporting turn from Rob Morgan as Johnny D’s fellow Death Row inmate Herbert, whose own execution date is fast approaching.  This is courtroom drama at its most gripping, Cretton keeping the inherent tension cranked up tight while tugging hard on our heartstrings for maximum effect, and the result is a timely, racially-charged throat-lumper of considerable power and emotional heft that guarantees there won’t be a single dry eye in the house by the time the credits roll.  Further proof, then, that Destin Daniel Cretton is one of those rare talents of his generation – next up is his tour of duty in the MCU with Shang-Chi & the Legend of the Ten Rings, and while this seems like a strange leftfield turn given his previous track record, I nevertheless have the utmost confidence in him after seeing this …

22.  UNDERWATER – at first glance, this probably seems like a strange choice for the year’s Top 30 – a much-maligned, commercially underperforming glorified B-movie creature-feature headlined by the former star of the Twilight franchise, there’s no way that could POSSIBLY be any good, surely? Well hold your horses, folks, because not only is this very much worth your time and a comprehensive suspension of your low expectations, but I can’t even consider this a guilty pleasure – as far as I’m concerned this is a GENUINELY GREAT FILM, without reservation. The man behind the camera is William Eubank, a director whose career I’ve been following with great interest since his feature debut Love (a decidedly odd but strangely beautiful little space movie) and its more high profile but still unapologetically INDIE follow-up The Signal, and this is the one where he finally delivers wholeheartedly on all that wonderful sci-fi potential.  The plot is deceptively simple – an industrial conglomerate has established an instillation drilling right down to the very bottom of the Marianas Trench, the deepest point in our Earth’s oceans, only for an unknown disaster to leave six survivors from the operation’s permanent crew stranded miles below the surface with very few escape options left – but Eubank and writers Brian Duffield (Spontaneous, Love & Monsters, Jane Got a Gun, Insurgent) and Adam Cozad (The Legend of Tarzan) wring all the possible suspense and fraught, claustrophobic terror out of the premise to deliver a piano wire-tense horror thriller that grips from its sudden start to a wonderfully cathartic climax.  The small but potent cast are all on top form, Vincent Cassel, Jessica Henwick (Netflix’ Iron Fist) and John Gallagher Jr. (Hush, 10 Cloverfield Lane) particularly impressing, and even the decidedly hit-and-miss T.J. Miller delivers a surprisingly likeable turn here, but it’s that Twilight alumnus who REALLY sticks in your memory here – Kristen Stewart’s been doing a pretty good job lately distancing herself from the role that, unfortunately, both made her name and turned her into an object of (very unfair) derision for many years, but in my opinion THIS is the performance that REALLY separates her from Bella effing-Swan.  Mechanical engineer Norah Price is tough, ingenious and fiercely determined, but with the right amount of vulnerability that we really root for her, and Stewart acts her little heart out in a turn sure to win over her strongest detractors.  The creature effects are impressive too, the ultimate threat proving some of the nastiest, most repulsively icky creations I’ve seen committed to film, and the inspired design work and strong visual effects easily belie the film’s B-movie leanings.  Those made uneasy by deep, dark open water or tight, enclosed spaces should take heed that this can be a tough watch, but anyone who likes being scared should find plenty to enjoy here.  Altogether a MUCH better film than its mediocre Rotten Tomatoes rating makes it out to be …

21.  PENINSULA – back in 2016, Korean director Yeon Sang-ho and writer Park Joo-suk took the tired old zombie outbreak trope and created something surprisingly fresh with their darkly satirical action horror Train to Busan.  The film was, deservedly, a massive international smash hit and a major shot in the arm for the sub-genre on the big screen, so a sequel was inevitable, but when the time came for them to follow it up they did the smart thing and went in a very different direction.  Jettisoning much of the humour to create something much darker and more intense, they also ramped the action quotient right up to eleven, creating a nightmarish post-apocalyptic version of Korea which has been quarantined from the rest of the world for the last four years, where the few uninfected survivors eke out a dangerous day-to-day existence amidst the burgeoning undead hordes, and the value of human life has plummeted dramatically.  Into this hell-on-earth must venture a small band of Korean refugees, sent by a Hong Kong crime boss to retrieve a multi-million dollar payday in stolen loot that got left behind in the evacuation, led by former ROK Marine Corps Captain Jung-seok (Secret Reunion’s Gang Don-won), a man with a tragic past he has to make up for.  Needless to say, nothing goes according to plan … Train to Busan was an unexpected masterpiece of the genre, but I was even more bowled over by this, particularly since I got to see this on the big screen on Halloween night itself, just before the UK cinemas closed down again for the Second Lockdown. This certainly is a film that NEEDS to be seen first on the big screen – the fully-realised hellscape of undead-overrun Seoul is spectacularly immersive, the perfect cinematic playground for the film’s most impressive set-pieces, two astounding, protracted high-speed chases with searchlight-and-flair-lit all-terrain vehicles racing through the dark streets pursued by tidal waves of feral zombies. Sure, the plot is predictable and the tone gets a little overblown and maudlin at times, while some of the characters are drawn in decidedly broad strokes, but the breathless pace rarely lets up throughout, and there are moments of genuine fiendish genius on offer here, particularly in a truly disturbing centrepiece sequence in which desperate human captives are set against slavering undead in a makeshift amphitheatre for sport, as well as a particularly ingenious use for radio-controlled cars.  And the cast are brilliant, with Don-won providing a suitably robust but also pleasingly fallible, wounded hero, while Hope’s Lee Re and newcomer Lee Ye-won are irrepressibly feisty and thoroughly adorable as the young girls who rescue him from certain death among the ruins.  Altogether, this is horror cinema writ large, played more for thrills than scares but knuckle-whitening and brutally effective nonetheless, and in a year where outbreak horror became all too real for us anyway it was nice to be able to enjoy something a little more escapist anyway – given the strength of its competition in 2020, this top-notch sequel to a true genre gem did very well indeed to place this high.  I’ll admit, I wouldn’t say no to thirds …

[tarhalindur]

Higurashi Gou final thoughts pt. 1

(Spoilers go under a cut:)

Taking this by arc:

Onidamashi-hen: The best executed first cour arc by a significant margin.  Probably not coincidentally, it stays the closest to the structure of the OG arc and thus keeps more of OG’s tension ratchet than the other Gou arcs.  I have two main issues, and I’m pretty sure both of them can be firmly pinned on the anime staff rather than Ryukishi07 himself.  First, it pulls its punch on the stealth sequel aspect.  I’m not entirely sure that going for a stealth sequel was the correct decision (it’s a cost/benefit tradeoff), but if you do you’re going for the wham of the sequel reveal, and the anime undercut this by putting the Rika/Hanyuu scene at the start of episode 2 rather than the end of the arc.  Second, it overdoes the final Rena fight, making it so over-the-top that it’s difficult to take seriously.  Neither of these issues exist in the manga (which has a believable amount of stabbing and has the Hanyuu scene at the end of the arc where it should be), and in the former case we also have a Ryukishi07 interview indicating that this was a change requested by the anime staff, so this goes on them.  (Interestingly, by way of contrast I think this approach might actually work well for the Mieruko-chan adaptation that Passione has coming out later this year.)

Watadamashi-hen: The core issue here (above and beyond fridge logic after Satokowaski-hen) is the finale, which landed like a wet fart.  It both escalates from zero to 100 *way* too fast and has the worst case of “tell don’t show” in the neo-question arcs - we learn about every single dead body in the arc from Ooishi’s end-of-arc narration.  That’s relatively defensible for three of those bodies, which we only learn about secondhand even in OG Watanagashi-hen (though IIRC in OG two of those bodies have foreshadowing from rumors earlier in the arc, and unless I’m forgetting something that’s absent here), but all five?  Yes, keeping Keiichi locked away from the final showdown removes fridge logic issues, but you have prominent security cameras - you can at least have him see the aftermath of the showdown on the screens (and freak out because of it).  Adding insult to injury, the Keiichi vs. door scenes are also so over-the-top as to damage willing suspension of disbelief.  The 0-to-100 issue is harder to fix, because the one thing Watadamashi did right was put the Rika-loses-it scene as an end-of-episode cliffhanger, and “Keiichi et. al. are about to enter the Saiguden” probably wanted an end-of-episode cliffhanger as well for discussion purposes (it might have been able to get away with using the commercial break).  The simplest fix is the same one @tsuisou-no-despair​ floated: cannibalize an episode off of another first cour arc.

Tataridamashi-hen: Amusingly, I think Gou has retained OG’s tradition of having the Tatari- question arc being the weakest question arc.  As I see it there are two interlocking core issues here which boil down to the same issue.  Tataridamashi-hen goes for a very unconventional method of building tension: it doesn’t, instead relying on the viewer’s realization that something bad has to be coming to do so for it (the old “that can’t be right, we’ve still got twenty minutes left in the episode” reaction I more commonly associate with things like police procedurals).  The problem is that this runs into the Endless Eight lesson: even flawless metatext should not be used at the expense of enjoyability of the actual text.  And while the arc got some leverage out of “when exactly is this going to diverge?”, there’s a point much like Endless Eight itself when you realize where it’s going to diverge (i.e, not until the end) and that until then you’re sitting through the same events you remember from OG.  It works about as well as it did for Haruhi.  (Unless you’re a new viewer, but in that case staying too close to Minagoroshi-hen has other issues.)  Worse, unlike Minagoroshi-hen itself (which did something similar to build tension but a) non-source readers hadn’t seen it before so it wasn’t foregone the same way and b) you had several more episodes after the subarc for the main event) the arc ends almost immediately after this.  (The simplest fix here might have been cutting down on the arc time by speedrunning Minagoroshi events, reducing the amount of time you’d have to wait.  You could even have a couple of obstacles collapse faster than expected; this late in the first cour it would serve as foreshadowing for Satokowashi-hen, and would also deal with unfortunate implications concerning the village’s prejudice considering that the staff knew Satoko was going to be the culprit.  Trimming an episode would also neatly solve the issue of where to get an additional episode for Watadamashi-hen from!)  The good news is that the final confrontation is the best of the first cour arcs (it’s somewhat more realistic than the other two, actually not that far behind some of the more memetastic OG moments except for Teppei’s eyes, and not showing Ooishi’s rampage is forgivable given that they knew they would be actually showing it in Nekodamashi-hen), but that’s damning with faint praise.

Nekodamashi-hen: The best Gou arc.  The episode 15 jump cut is the stuff of legends and the best scene in the show by a sizable margin (the one thing the director does well is black humor, it seems), while the rest of the arc isn’t as good, it’s far shorter on demerits than the rest of the show.  The one really, really obvious demerit is that they really didn’t need to spend half an episode on the intestines-ripping scene (if Ryukishi07′s comments are to be believed, once again we’re pinning this on Passione), but effects on my stomach aside there are worse issues to have.

Satokowashi-hen: And here we have the other side of the coin; this is the worst Gou arc, and it’s the one spot where I’m pretty sure Ryukishi07 himself gets some of the blame.  There’s a few issues here.  First, the single most obvious dangling plot thread from Matsuribayashi-hen (Satoshi’s fate) is effectively dropped despite being directly relevant to the other dangling thread that was picked up (how Rika treats Satoko and vice versa); this includes missing an opportunity to show Satoko’s character arc through different responses to learning about Satoshi’s condition.  Secondly and compounding, Shion is also dropped along with the Satoshi thread; AIUI this is kind of understandable given final Satoko/Shion interaction in the Matsuribayashi-hen VN (which IIRC never made it into the anime), but dropping her without explanation still leaves something that looks awfully like a plot hole since a single conversation with Shion is potentially enough to stop the events of this arc from ever happening.  (”Character X had information that would have stopped the tragedy but never had an opportunity to tell anyone” is a classic tragedy trope, but you should really have a *reason* for that character never having the opportunity as opposed to just having them vanish without explanation.)  Finally, there’s just the general issue that while the ending points for both Rika and Satoko are reasonable the path they take to get there just doesn’t quite add up.  I can kind of get there via a combination of “blame the director” (the loops montage could and should have easily shown Satoko’s deteriorating mental condition as she watched - using interlaced cuts to her face with changes in facial expression is a classic method) and mind caulk (Rika was exaggerating for effect when she described her desire to go to St. Lucia’s as a long-time thing and it only really kicked in after Matsuribayashi-hen, Satoko originally only planned to suicide in Matsuribayashi-2 and only took Rika out with her as a crime of passion after feeling betrayed, hence the next few loops lacking her murdering Rika) but being mind-caulkable is not the same as actual good execution.

I mean, I’ve banged on this drum before, but... the basic concept works.  Really well.  Satoko’s abandonment issues and Rika’s treatment of Satoko are two of the major dangling plot threads from OG Higurashi (*eyes both Minagoroshi-hen and anime-only Yakusamashi-hen*).  It makes perfectly good sense that the latter comes back to bite Rika, especially in a sequel literally titled “karma”.  I already suspected Satoko was on the autism spectrum based on OG, her being ADHD in addition to or instead of that makes perfectly good sense given those conditions often overlap.  Rika’s desire to escape the well morphing into a desire to escape Hinamizawa entirely?  Sure, just present it as that.  Satoko steadily losing her support network as her friends are torn away from her by changing life circumstances, then going to a boarding school that she hates, that strips the rest of her support structure for her and starts to take even her one remaining friend (her childhood friend, no less - and one that Satoko is at this point attracted to romantically in true osananajimi fashion) away from her, and then starting to snap with some prodding from a certain witch?  That’s a compelling story idea!  But as present it just doesn’t quite work, and that’s on the execution.

(Side note: I wonder if some of what went wrong with Gou was just the kind of production issues endemic to modern anime, amplified by the pandemic.  I remember at least one comment/blog post somewhere in the wake of WEP’s issues noting some of the effects that production issues can have on an anime, and one of the things they noted was excessive slavishness to the source material as a time-saving measure; that sounds awfully similar to some of Ryukishi07′s comments about how he didn’t expect Passione to take his script quite so literally, and to my admittedly untrained eye it sure looked like there were a bunch more other animation studios than usual mentioned in Gou’s credits...)

Final score: depends on your exact rating system, but given the range I’m looking at I can’t see how I can give it any score other than 3.4/5 for obvious reasons.  (Pending Sotsu, anyways.  It’s possible that Sotsu will resolve some of these issues - in particular, Ryukishi07 always has struck me as the kind of author who would get a kick into baiting us into falling for the same twist twice; it’s not impossible that the apparent lack of unreliable narrators so far is a double bluff, and that could affect the “question arc” scores in particular.  More on this in a forthcoming solution space post.)

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball GT Retrospective (1/7)

[Note: This was originally written on January 10, 2013.   My leg was broken, and I decided to kill some time watching GT all the way through.]

My leg is still broken.   On the bright side, this gives me time to catch up on crappy anime.   My Tenchi in Tokyo DVD arrived in the mail a while back, and I had already resolved to use my convalescance to watch every episode of Dragon Ball GT.   So now I can have what I like to call a Marathon of Crap.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LyNFxnv78w

I've written about the problems with DBGT before, but now that I've sat through the first fourteen episodes, I feel better informed about them.  I think the experience of GT for any fan basically goes like this: STAGE ONE: You finish watching Dragon Ball Z, and you're hopeful that GT will just be 64 more episodes of awesome, even if everyone else who saw it thinks it sucks.   STAGE TWO: You start watching it, and quickly recognize why everyone hates it.   Nevertheless, you remain hopeful that you'll find some hidden quality that redeems the series in some way.   STAGE THREE: You get to the part where Goku is thwarted by a metal grate in a sewer, even though he's spent the entire series performing superhuman feats of strength.   You wearily accept that this show refuses to adhere to even the simplest level of continuity.   STAGE FOUR: Cool!   Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta!  They can't possibly screw this u--ohhhhh shit they just did. STAGE FIVE: You refuse to recognize GT as anything remotely resembling canon.   STAGE SIX: You buy the DVD box set anyway, because you're a completist and it was on sale.   STAGE SEVEN: You watch the series again, now properly aware that it was never going to be a worthy continuation of DBZ, but it's probably got some decent camp value.   And that's where I am today.  When they rolled out GT for American audiences, Funimation didn't even bother releasing the first twenty or so episodes, because even they knew how lame they were as a followup to DBZ.  Instead, they edited together a single episode which recapped them, then later released the uncut editions as "The Lost Episodes".   So these are the worst of the worst.  Later on, the series evolves into a watered down parody of what Dragon Ball Z had been, and I think that's what most American fans are complaining about when they talk about the show.    But these early episodes are the real crap.   The original premise was that a secret set of "Black Star" Dragon Balls is discovered and accidentally used to de-age Goku into a child.  At first, the goal seems to be getting Goku back to normal, except the Black Star Dragon Balls have an added side effect of blowing up the world one year after they're used to make a wish.   Worse, they scatter all over the universe with each use, so the only hope is a space mission to find them and return to Earth within one year.   

Frankly, this is the stupidest thing ever.   The Dragon Balls are artifacts created by Namekian craftsmen, and they were introduced to Earth when a Namekian skilled in the art came to this planet.   Why would he construct Dragon Balls that blow up the Earth, where he is?  Why would he fashion them so that they scatter into space, when he is essentially stuck on his adopted world with no practical means of searching for them?   One could argue that this was a faulty job, an essay in the craft, abandoned when the Red Star Dragon Balls turned out to be much safer and more convenient to use.   But no one ever says this.  Also, no one ever explains why they can't use one of the other sets of Dragon Balls to retrieve the more volatile Black Star set.   Anyway, the space expedition goes haywire when Goku's granddaughter Pan sneaks aboard and carelessly launches the ship before it's ready.   This leaves only herself, Goku, and Trunks on board to carry out the mission.  For the first leg of the series, these are the main cast of the show.  I'm not sure how they picked that lineup, except that they were clearly trying to echo the dynamic of Goku, Krillin, and Bulma back in the old Dragon Ball series.  The idea was to go back to the adventure concept of the original series, as opposed to the heavy action focus of Dragon Ball Z.   This doesn't work, mainly because the characters are simply too powerful to function as adventure heroes doing Indiana Jones style stories.  Back in the old days Goku and Krillin were superhuman fighters, but they were still inexperienced, and there was room in the world for stronger enemies to menace them.  By DBGT, Goku has repeatedly proven himself to be the most powerful mortal being in his universe, and most of the other characters are right behind him on the Top Twenty.  GT keeps doing episodes where the trio land on a planet, explore the situation a little, then stage a lopsided confrontation with the bad guy.  There's no suspense to it because Goku can blow up the whole planet if he wants to, and the bad guy is usually some tin-dictator who doesn't realize what he's up against.   To compensate, the writers keep employing what fans call "GT logic".   For instance, this one episode had a bad guy called Lord Luud, who's a giant robot shaped like a kewpie doll or something.    Goku and Trunks fight it, but the robot is pretty durable.   Despite the difficulty, they never bother turning into Super Sayians, even though they can both totally do that at any time and it would even the odds.   Luud then steps on the heroes, and then they finally transform, mostly for the big dramatic moment where they have their Superman comeback and toss Luud on his ass.    Then they change back and start beating up on Luud as if he suddenly got easy.   Luud's handler gets desperate, so he adds Pan's to Luud's power supply, giving him a boost.   Pan's weaker than Goku or Trunks, but for some reason Pan+Luud  is way, way stronger than Goku and Trunks put together.   Well, whatever, but the situation is now looking pretty grim, and Goku and Trunks still keep fighting in their base forms.   They never explain this either.   It really doesn't make sense, because the Super Saiyan transformations were one of the most popular elements of the franchise.  I think they wanted to hearken back to the days before the Super Saiyan concept was introduced, but they never bothered to rationalize it.   So they compromised and made the transformations really really brief and infrequent for no reason.    Pan never transforms, although it's not clear if she just doesn't know how, or she just refuses to for the same mysterious reason as everyone else.  I could sort of buy that Goku's younger body is too weak to handle the transformation, or that Trunks is out of practice, but they still do it, just not very much.  It'd be like a whole episode of He-Man where Prince Adam fights Skeletor and has a really hard time, but he only uses his sword when he needs to lift heavy boulders.   The bad guys suck ass.   The first real villain is Lord Don Key.   Get it?   Do you? Because it's a pun.   He's a plutocratic fop, so he hires thugs that know how to use hand energy.  Goku beats them all in like two minutes, but for some reason his team farts around for like four episodes gathering information.  That's really what's wrong with the show.   It wasn't a mortal sin to go for a sillier tone or back off the fighting, but the pacing ruins whatever they were going for.  A lot of these GT plots resemble early episodes of Dragon Ball, except they get stretched out to two or three episodes of GT.   Gags that might have been cute in two minutes get stretched out to six or seven.  The next major bad guy is Master Dolltaki, who turns Pan into a doll while he tries to get Lord Luud operational.  Dolltaki's gimmick is that he's a total perv with toy dolls, and he spends something like three episodes talking or thinking about what a cute doll Pan is and how he can't wait to dress her up in all sorts of adorable little doll clothes.  Remember that scene from Spaceballs where Rick Moranis plays with action figures in his quarters?  It was what?  Two minutes of the movie?   If Toei had made Spaceballs, they would have dragged that out to half an hour, and added a heapin' helpin' of pedophilia just in case it was too subtle.   Admittedly, there wasn't a whole lot of places left to go as far as Dragon Ball villains.  Majin Buu was an indestructible shape-shifter, and how do you top that?  The first credible GT villain was Dr. Myuu, who was basically an outer space version of DBZ's Dr. Gero.   Baby had some potential, but his main advantage was his power to possess Goku's friends.   So he wasn't really a challening bad guy so much as he was a plot device to force the good guys to fight each other.   After that, they just decided to bring back all the old villains by having them stage a mass escape from hell.    Cute, but not very innovative.  The series ends by having the Dragon Balls themselves become the final boss of the franchise.   That was a smart idea, but it was pretty poorly executed.  Ultimately, Goku beats the Evil Dragon using the same move he used to beat Majin Buu at the end of DBZ, so it really forces you to ask if this trip was really necessary.   But by then, I think everyone in Japan had recognized the obvious: Dragon Ball could only be stretched so far.  The franchise still has life in it, but the specials and videogames and other merchandise generally sidestep GT.   I think everyone at Toei understands now that GT was a failed experiment at best.  Of course, the recent Bardock special feels a lot like the same sort of watered down crap that GT was, but at least they were applying the formula to good ol' DBZ lore, instead of going in directions no one wanted to see.

[cipzi-shop]

Daddy 2020 Mask The One Where I Was In Lockdown T Shirt

It will come out for another year they talked about a Daddy 2020 Mask The One Where I Was In Lockdown T Shirt lotand for those you estimate the LiveWire late last probably is one of the pioneer the pilot dealers so I will be getting the LiveWire for sure next year so if you’re interested in the electric vehicles that me out because I will have a lot of content with the LiveWire when it comes out but it will be out for the year person hears a some more trikes death to you got traction control is trike replacement braking system drag towards the control noted they went away from the air suspension guys they went away from their suspension on the like now know I glad to have you got an adjustable hand adjusted between preload now yes the audio also limits of the 114 guys the regular ultra classic they have a 107 still the blue say is gorgeous guys I shot the CVO’s at the beginning of this video so you want to seeand you can realign this videoand I publish it now by Mr Max on beer for sure I said is a good bid I like John I saw a lot of a last request guysand on to stop every sinand at 50 minutes yeah those are new socks that five I guide the reader to haul the suspense I try glideand add traction controland now the trikes got a big improvement this year were seeing Mario is Mario I night I severally know you got any magenta Chinese got major overall this year thanks guys every sellout thank you very much any last request some Mike legacy yeah I could figure out a is a 48 so I was out of the 48 as is the electric are on the Blue Max as they call it Blue Max nothing different on the Fortier guys you will you will come as a question of the details of the 48 know the 40 I’m sure use a custom paint color so that can you look differently at 48 the 42 usually painted on the minor regular 40 right now they added the case on a 48 the Blue Max different that the custom color that electricity lines on it my favorite like so farand I’m a fan so far the ethics field is newand fresh I think the mass by five to buy a brand new bike this year it was a CDL I like the new CVO road by Xeroxand I seriously but still it’s hard to say guys that I still love my street by special 35 guys in my history by special again yeah the diner is gone sorry I no more Dina guys for United guys out there the new soft those are better for as much as people don’t like to except that then you thought the frame is better than the old Dina’s so suck it upand gastric Bob or low rider Arafat Bob because they are better bikes I got close friend employees are giving her Dina’s right now to get a new soft out because they’re coming to the reality that the new framing is not the frame is better fly guys on the signoff in the uppermost in our if you want to see some new stuff you can realign this videoand check out some of the silicon thought you got The 2020 roadster which is’s performance focused sportsterand I think that indicator of performance is going to be the frontand despite got a outside our frontand from chalets need to build this breaks what those two things do get a lot of confidence under braking getting a lot of suspension performance in your rang a little bit more aggressively the way to achieve is with a little bit stiffer front suspensionand easily get really hard on the brakes not have a lot of break guide to help you control the movement of the bikeand is still this breaks they can really prevent any kind of break fate so when you Canyon Road stopping at high speeds overand over again experience that letter starting to get softerand softer we just saw there that we had Abdul lines going towards the front brakes what those dude is that it is indicated this bike is equipped ABS which is optional on this model the guy a low set of handlebars relatively low barley standards which was in a slightly forward leaning writing position does make you feel it’s for your overall security analog tachometer with the digital speedometer I think I really also indicates the performance focused nature of this bike making tachometer front center in day lets you know exactly where you are me the engine gradsand as you shiftand downshift more accurately little more confidence this is the 3. 5 million words according to Caro we’re taught Lord Acton’s axiom all power corruptsand absolute power corrupts absolutely I believe that when I started these books but I don’t believe it’s always true anymore what I believe is always true about power is that power always reveals when you have enough power to do what you always wanted to do NEC with the guy always wanted to do so that an email that quickly mean the thing we spent the last eight seasons assessing overand are now months late getting to our spicy hot takes a big thingand say the stories don’t need to have a point or weren’t intended to have a point that this was intended to have a point since it ended with Dragon burning the symbol for such a character driven show really the main issue down to that the charactersand we will start with the fact that by the end of the show the Indy outlined a lot of plot points without giving much thought as to how characters might be motivated to reach those plot points to a huge chunk of season eight is spent on dialogue rationalizing plot points that don’t really make sense the student be half as many as a beautiful green snow should do nothing today lifted the moment the case fell the battle was over to a friend that just burned 54 in the county know they don’t make sense of they have to spend a lot of time rationalizing them is on memory keep all the stories in order for the plot to progress as outlined everyone especially characters in earlier seasons were defined by the cunningand intelligent decayand a total dummy woman is my season eight this was you might say foreshadowed in season seven by little fingers downfall which only works of every character involved in the subplot took a bunch of stupid pills that you little finger doesn’t like that Ari is back so he tries to pit the two sisters against each otherand play some surviving for some reason despite knowing what an untrustworthy ass hat he is that I now switcheroo stand accused of metadata stand accused of treason how do you want charges Bayless hello everyone knocks down many an intelligence unit watches this worthless subplot bleed out on the floor because the character of little finger is redundant nowand we don’t know what to do with him so goodbye to it takes Ariand sunset entire season to realize they’re being played over nothing basically but here in season seven everyone cut a case in addendum’s which only worsens in season eight forgot about beerand sleep in the idea that the sisters were on the little fingerand were just playing along the whole time is good head cannon in theory by well here’s a quote from Isaac instead writing plays brand actually seen that clearly got cut a short scene with salsa where she knocks on brands doorand says I need your help or something along those lines so basically as far as I know the story was that it suddenly occurred to something that she had a huge CCTV department at her discretionand it might be a good idea to check with him first before she gets her own sister so he just ranand ran tells her everything she’s known she’s like oh no sounds you have been done duty after the should show that was season five sums onto stand there happy that at least one of the women got to be in charge without having to be put down Michael Geller that if we made for a moment be honest with ourselves her entire character has been one massive train wreck ever since season fiveand little fingers like hey Mary the son of the guy who murdered your entire familyand she’s like all okay this is the fast track to Raytown escapeand in season seven she completes her evolutionand the lady finger stripped of all Pecos because to be in the female empowerment shedding your humanity until you are a stone cold badass but you know the kind you only does some hideously inhumane executions to be clear I am not on the sponsor he trained I just think they popped a squad over her character just like they did everyone else my season eight everyone’s gushing over how smart something is she’s evolved into her final form unlike in earlier seasons where her intelligence would come out for these moments of her being more quick thinking that people expected and it would be bad the amount of ore by her playingand her enemies arrogance so you’ll be outside the gates the bank doesn’t discuss plans for super goes through grace to write to close reading about God’s they see my brother will you pretend she now gets these girl badass moments that built not on the lesson she learned includes landing is set on high sciences earlier defining attributes was her compassion that she cared about people despite the pain she was in the books she never loses essence of compassion but get smarter about figuring out who is worthy of itand who is playing her for their own advantage here in the show that warmth is totally extinguished compassionand appeals to goodness her friends not as a strength but as immature weakness that she needs to outgrow sheep little guy was she dreams you never learn new empowerment sunset doesn’t act like someone who would take pity on a drunk night in Joffrey’s wrath or someone who would have any ounce of empathy for someone like the house like she didn’t seem to something the Crips doesn’t bother trying to call me other womenand children what she did during the siege of King’s Landing in season two new empowerment song to spend the whole battle trash talking to NARA’s between final Dragon Queen who unlike salsa is out there risking her life out the tool will be dead season it keeps telling us what something is she thought that she smart that she shrewd but nothing in her actions support that earlier something would know to keep her mouth shut about someone she was suspicious of me while new empowerment sunset won’t shut up about how much she doesn’t like to NARA’s Y during some of the entire Kings landing storyline keeps herself alive by feigning loyalty to Joffreyand Circe with you paying for the cost have mercy on us all to me even if she did plan on undermining to NARA’s I guess the Indy kind of forgot that one of salsa’s most important lessons is when to feign respect to Delhi what dragons eat anyway whatever they want something evolution mirrors the Starks as a whole the compassionand ability to define the Starks is one of their biggest asset in the end they’re no better than the Lancers’s trust you will don’t know you know she’s not one of us change their house motto from winter is coming to you got mine because that’s female empowerment of the show runners I’m glad I got raped actually Mr the hound it made me a cool girl badass finger stayed in the so something is a northern separatist now for some reason even though now is not the time they remember what happened lost dragons both yet nothing nothing happened when a on the Conger invaded the North Bend the knee immediatelyand join the seven kingdoms without a fightand nobody died the countryside was not burning aided the time was called the King who knelt for a reason I guess someone kinda forgot they remember what happened lost dragons both sworn I read the lowest king in the north was tarring stock human needs my ancestor egg until Gary there are cases to be made for an independent North doing well in the past this whole situation in winter felt we have written for season eight data actually makes pretty good case for United seven kingdoms will you sure dead howling to feed the great the good thing we got to reach a part of the seven kingdoms which also happens to support the nurses claim it wasn’t even that they had it on lot before the NARA showed up with all these mouths to feed this time he wouldn’t have enough food special enough the armies of the North back to defend with how are we going to feed our own people was a problem at the beginning of the season is set upand promptly ignored what dragons eat anyway you know what salsa it doesn’t matter don’t worry your empowered little head about itand join us dragonsand supplies from other regions now that it’s winterand you all have a common enemy you seem determined to dislike like they did yesterdayand will get to the nearest but what they did the sauces depressing sauces only purpose the season is to have an unfounded suspicion of the nearest which only proves to be found in when the nurse does something completely nonsensical otherwise the nurse has essentially given all of her resources to defend winter felt east on the promise of the guy in chargeand salsa still like now I don’t like the cut of her gym Y by the end of the stupid dumb battle of winter felt the nurses prove yourself worthy of being a queen about as well as one can expect in this universe is forging alliances doing battle keeping her promises to her followersand to her allie The stink eye over to NARA’s makes no sense she never even lived to the target area is hurting her family the operative word Matt King burned her grandfatherand uncle to death but she sure did Circe you know their common enemy whose family wiped her own out sauces mistrust of the nurse only makes sense if you’re writing from the end forward telling us she is smartand her intelligence is really just writer clairvoyance giving salsa suspicions without giving her any reason to have them other than the writers know how the show will landand they want something to look smart Dragon Queen does not have to do them or maybe I do know sauces jealous because the nurse is pretty surely they would never come I anyway within the fan favorite recall that my seasoning held late season five is nothing to doand no reason to be here that people like him so here he is planning a different ending for bronze plate when I had some character development seven during the Lutra attack Ron loses his goal in a very symbolic moment even leaves it to risk his life in a big way to save Jamie with no mercenary reason for doing so is this a sign of character development is Braun changing his ways knowand guess who gets the worst subplot of all time you do you do you boys are of goldplated so Circe asked Bron to go murder her brothers as you do she do the trees Bron fast travels to winter felland holds the Met arrow pointand tells them he thinks their side will win because dragons so he blackmails Jamieand Terryand into giving him our God will hike better than okay so for those of you playing the home game high garden is the capital of the reach of the now extinct house Tyrelland the breadbasket of the seven kingdoms the most populous yes there are probably still many Tyrell’s next in line to claim the reach to say nothing of the other great houses in the reach with a much better claim to theand install certain no name is Lord of high garden because of black male under a queen that was only clean for five minutesand yeah that’s going to go over well with all these other lesser houses in the reach high God but okay we do not see Bron again into the finale where not only is now the master of coin money before the rules but hearing is apparently made good on that whole promise made it gunpoint thing so Braun will go to Fargo paramount reach of most of you should have written offand that good night liked Ariana Harris but okay here he is still cooland in a season has turned pretty much all the charactersand the stupid dumb dumb Zakaria situation for shit because the plot needs them to be open there is one character who tactical nosedive probably hurts the most one character was arguably done dirtier than the nearest season it’s Lord Ferris the best there is the master of whispers becomes the master of loud treasonous conversations great creek like Ron Taveras is a fan favorite but the show runners clearly had no idea what to do it after season for because his character starts wildly deviating from his passion but like to stuff you should select to pick up your shit out of I guess in his case they’d figure right around this laterand they did so by making the smartest guy in the realm of total dumb dumb there is in the books wants to instill a guy on the throne who may or may notand probably is not be the lost son of Ray Gardner egg on target areaand the next in line to the throne if we have a target area restoration fans call him saying on the show we don’t have they gone but there is need something to do so at the beginning of season five interiorand cross the narrow sea with the express intent to support the nurse now even though there is totally try to have her assassinated in season 1 last night it asked how to I do would have to be done apparently she’s willing to move past that is when the training of the Eno in a world where executions are routine this seems like kind of a reasonable threat he has tried to have her assassinated beforeand here we are one season later again with poisoning dragons but then in season eight he will she make a sad face at dinner meeting you’re not really getting to me runners I guess she does ignore his shitty advice which has no consistently been shitty ever since they got to West Roseand is in this case as it turns out wrong from a tactical perspective they do in the battle easilyand with minimal casualtiesand know they did next need to restand no food was never an issueand resources were never an issue so why bother having this conversation but there is finds out that John Snow is the actual egg on target areaand was he has the better claim to the throne does what he wantsand you know what is the season for some trees in the well I will dedicate myself to seeing you behind because I want to dragons in the best rationality can come up with Rivera’s wanting to support John over to NARA’s is the philosophy that the best person to rule is the person who specifically doesn’t want to rule if you consider the best to be someone who doesn’t want Robert was neither not local recently have no interest in being well meaning as John keeps failing upward so that tracks mentioned nominally being for the good of the realmand then immediately reversing your state the moment you see a young guy whose neighborhood County love him be like wow yeah that some leadership material right there is a map which makes them more appealing to the rules of Western the problem is only makes sense if you are the audienceand you seen John Snow’s temperament for the last eight seasons there is on the other hand has not there is no reason to like or trust John Snow other than he likedand trusted Ned gas who wasn’t actually his father anyway there’s only just met John Snowand in universe has no reason to think that he’s a better more tempered choice than to NARA’s unless he knows what the audience we the audience know about John Snow but from the outside looking in the narratives all over the place John Snow’s only been in charge of the North for like a weekand it’s kind of been a shit show came back sure what for the first three episodes of season she’s a war hero dragons that sacrifice half for troopsand one of those dragons to save humanity the only thing she doesn’t upset for that mildly questionable is the patient about wanting to takings landing except she’s not wrong about anything mentally have left exhausted the fight better if you have time to restand recuperate well clearly they don’t I promised you I would look you in the yardand speak directly if I ever thought you were making a mistake well maybe your advice shouldn’t have been so uniformly badand maybe he was mad that she went against his advice but that particular advice again ended up being wrong King landing was stupid easy to take because battles are easy now because we need to wrap this shit up the city last time it was attacked by note better than anyone it will for tomorrow’s based on what those dragons have the fortitude of hummingbirds up until now it seemed pretty evenly matched you know whatever Solaris who has sacrificed all the rally much power to the nearest immediately switches sides the second he discovers that there’s a poutyand decisive male alternative with great hair but the nearest has at this point done nothing to make Barris logically want to switch sides one time she went against her advisers advised before this was to save John Snow you know that guy that there is wants to betray to NARA’s forand so he starts telling everyone who John Snow is doing so makes more or less the exact same mistake that led start date in season one only way stupider this is way more recklessand way less motivated than what Ned did in season one John abdicated that other thing you can do I don’t want to never tell John Snow knew a guy who did abdicate until your mama screw this of John Snow Jones there’s a scene in the second episode of game of thrones season one in which John Snow asks Ned Stark met his motherand then responds with this stream burden motion to’s this is eventually going to come to something emotionally charged an important so are you even start with this long section from the moment in many ways John Snow is emblematic of everything wrong with the way the series handled its resolution a big emotional profound set up with the flaccid confusingand meaningless pay off from a plot perspective most of the major letdowns from all of the moment to set up are pretty much tied in the John Snow the Whitewater plot of which John was the key point of view character are plus L equals J the mystery of John’s parentage which kind of indirectly kicked off the plot of the whole show John Snow being brought back from the dead by the Lord of lightand of course John’s love for to NARA’s culminating with her murder done in an uncharacteristically dishonorable way after Johnson is resurrected they keep making this big deal about how he must’ve been brought back for a reason to you wants realize why I don’t know what indeed was the point well considering the call you did during the long night I’m guessing the Lord brought you back so you can blue ball to NARA making her go crazyand ultimately instill brand the broken on the throne good job Lord of late like her plot was this existential threatand been built up for eight seasons predicated on a historical long night that lasted an actual generationand nearly wiped out humanity last generation casos is making was John’s principal antagonistand his main motivation for the run of the show but not only was the big bus easily stepped away by a character that had nothing to do with the Whitewater plot the long night was about as long as a viewing of Titanic with a couple of bathroom breaks downand instead of merely living out humanity it wiped out about one half of one Army seamstress the author argues actually Western Markand we learned that after that’s done it doesn’t enter that the world of men was to preoccupied with political squabbles to worry about an endless fortified zombies because all you need to do in the existential threat is the one special knife of no importance is a recurring problem which ties in with what we were talking about the last episode subverting expectations despite the fact that it doesn’t work for the story are used training as a faceless man builds not at all to this could have been anyone with a strong tenure jump yeah the fact that the 19 focuses is wrap on Brandon John Snow means that Brandon John Snow should have been involved here is a Mina Jones now needed to do this but he needed some resolution other than spending the battle screaming at his new archenemy on the Dragon tended I also saw one idea that Shearman Cheney killed 19 you know bring that old Kingsley are thankful for that would’ve been cooland give Jamie a reason for existing but enough of it made sense John’s main motivation is farting out of existence without any of his involvementand after it’s overand the only thing that has materially changed apart from the bloodletting of a couple of supporting characters is that the nurse finds out about John being a target areaand which not only has nothing to do with the why walkers really think they have in this world it probably would have happened eventually anyway but with regard to John learning the truth about who he is never really reacts to it the King go talk to supervisionand protection of the realm of revelation is momentous especially someone like John Snow whose entire identity was wrapped around his pastor Ness starts Boston installed bus the dog Boston is about the ship. And I saw the importance of being awake and after I had my child I thank God every day for knowing what I know about these fucking every single one of them told their victims what we did is a secret don’t tell mommy or daddy that’s not a roll that’s how they roll but the story I wanted to you about my daughter was when she was an infant she was probably about a month or two old and you know they were people in the family that didn’t that had a problem with me for some reason they would always call DCF and send DCF to my house all the fucking time never came to visit the child will call DCF down these yet that child is sick and needs to be examined when this motherfucker has never been to the house to visit the fucking child once right now is ridiculous in itself so one day I get a call DCF and S Department of child children and families are important so I called these yet is cold it is rainy that they right and the DCM woman says we got an anonymous tip that your daughter was sick and we need to date we need to take a downtown for an examination

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ChoicesHero, an informal review

So, let’s talk about Hero. In my last post I hadn’t finished the chapter cause I had gotten bored, but I will be writing this review as I play and finish it so you’ll get my thoughts right as I have them.

Let’s begin. Warning, long post is long.

The beginning, the part I have the most problems with. For all stories, no even the first chapter, but the very first couple of scenes are supposed to hook you into the story. Hero does not accomplish this. After making our characters, players are thrown into the future. Cool, but... not really. Or at least, it could’ve been, but wasn’t. We are placed in this destroyed fictional city. I get that making up your own city gives you creative freedom, that’s fine and I encourage it, but in this case, the beginning fails to make me care. If that had used a real city, in this case, I would have had real world relevance and a connection. Is it the Gotham to my Batman? Did the major call me up on my little red phone and I flew a couple hundred miles to save the city? Who knows, the story doesn’t tell you. Then you meet the villain of the series... I think. The villain is never actually shown, you see and you don’t know exactly what he... she... it has done. I mean... they know you... somehow, but you don’t know whether they destroyed the city themselves to try and find you or if they’re an alien who crashed landed or was a regular human who exploded when they got superpowers. You are lead to assume the first, but again... nothing is clear. 

There is a really generic ‘stop right there villain’ or something along those lines, but... again... the villain's face is never shown. I guess that was done intentionally to keep the big bad a secret to make his reveal shocking, but considering you don’t know who they are or what they’ve done or even how relevant they are to you it backfires. Then they deliver the most cliche line ever and I...like... just fuck off. “You don’t understand who you are. You keep running from yourself. You haven’t even begun to comprehend the power within you.” Then just like that, the beginning of Hero ends. You have no idea what the stakes are, what evil is waiting for you, or are convinced to make a connection. It only raised more questions, but not in the way where I want them answered like a good suspenseful story should (*cough* ES *cough*)… it is more like leaving exam questions blank or answering a question like “What is your birthday?” with “I have a birthday.”

Anyways, after that we flashback to the present… because that’s original… surprise (not really) you’re an ordinary human with no super powers. Really cliche, but I don’t hold that against them. It’s not a bad cliche, per say, like the constant female romantic rivals in RoE+TFM. I just... assumed Hero would’ve been about our MC already being a superhero who recruits other heroes to beat the big bad, but that’s not a negative against Hero or PB just a thought. Let’s get back on topic. Our MC is late to work! They have an ordinary job with an ordinary (low?) pay. Basically, this is a ‘regular guy/girl becomes special’ type of story cause... not like there aren’t hundreds of stories like that in the world. But, again, cliches aren’t bad, per say, if you write them right. So we get dressed for work and, honestly, I like the simple blue outfit, guys. Why are you dragging it? So we go off to work and are late getting on the train. Oh, so this is that type of story. You’ll see what I mean in a moment. We meet Poppy and she’s cute, but she reminds me a lot of Payton from HSS. They talk for a short time about how the big company MC works for is going to introduce their big new invention and it is so obvious that this is what’s going to give superpowers. Then, instead of introducing Poppy some more to allow players to actually become attached to her, they introduce Greyson Prescott... and he’s the Chris/Mark of the series. The main white LI of the series, the one you're supposed to fall in love with despite there being other (*cough* better *cough*) options. Now, they introduce Greyson, except he's not even introduced, he’s just talked about by Poppy who’s trying to set us up with him... despite him being our boss. That’s gross PB, stop shipping us with our boss/professor. This isn’t even good writing. You don’t just... stick readers right in the middle of character’s lives and have them play catch up. You need to show why these people are interested in one another or why they’re best friends, not just tell you by reminding players of history that they don’t know about. After we’re done talking with Poppy, we actually get introduced to Grayson and he’s... nice. That’s it. Our first impression of the guy that’s forced on us is that... he’s nice. That’s boring, PB. Nice is not a personality trait. He’s also really plain looking. Default white guy model #23. Also, we have high school history so our MC already knows him well, but we the players don’t because… sure, the first chapter of a new book series why bother introduce a character and form a relationship when you can lay down some pre-established history players have to piece together and just accept that the two are really good friends. Not like you haven’t done that before…. oh wait, yes you did. Mark Collins. This is the problem I had with Mark. Just... an entire life’s worth of history we're just supposed to accept and only really told through premium choices. That’s lazy. I mean, it is okay to intro some characters your MC already knows, but stories are character driven. If you take out introducing characters and the point of getting to know them you remove half the interest of even becoming attached to the main cast.

So, Grayson’s intro is cut short when Marasshole comes in to give us shit. It is so obvious she’s the designated rude character that gives the MC a hard time. Like... even more than that invention is going to give us superpowers. And when I say she’s rude, I mean she’s really rude. Borderline “Why haven’t I reported you, you shouldn’t be talking to employees that way” rude. And she’s rude because... she’s old? She hates millennials for some reason cause... she’s old. Throughout our interactions with her, she keeps painting the picture that our MC is a terrible employee/have no future/incompetent. Not only is this a weak way to get players to care about the main character, it also plays into what I was talking about before with Greyson. What type of history does our MC have with Marasshole? Why is she talking to us like this? No idea, he reasoning is RoE!Mallory levels of confusing. So, yeah, instead of getting on with introducing the main cast or the plot or getting superpowers we spend an admittingly short yet boring scene helping Marasshole replace a shellfish catering dish cause... one of the guests is allergic to seafood. I don’t understand why we’re doing this. I thought we were Greyson’s assistant, not even just that, but I’m the executive assistant. Doesn’t that mean I’m at the tippity top of assistants? Shouldn’t Marasshole be taking orders from me? I having trouble processing this scene because this lady just comes in giving us a hard time, but the story never establishes who she is or establish her rank in comparison to me before playing out this dumb scene.

So, finally, that scene ends and go off to the lab to meet Dax. He’s not there, but the invention is hidden under a tarp. We get the option to peek or wait for Dax and fuck yeah I’m going to peek, this book has been boring so far and I’m ready for superpowers. There’s shaking when you near it, but before you can see what the thing is, Dax appears and stops you because... of course, he did. They could’ve pulled a Spiderman origin and had us get zapped where we slowly become a superhero, but no. Dax... is cool, but he reminds me of Nishan from HSS and Whitlock. Mostly Nishan. Dax notes that the shaking is abnormal but as we walk away the shaking goes away, but instead of checking it out Dax says it is ready for the presentation. He even said all systems go like... fuck man, no need to run tests. Not like this thing could explode or anything. Random ass occurrence, no need to worry. Then... randomly, MC mentions Poppy is going to the gala and Dax gets all flustered because PoppyxDax is the secondary couple and they have a preestablished relationship. Like a ‘will they, won’t they’ type of thing. More history us the players have to catch up on cool. Next, we meet Santiago Lupo, chief of security, who… tells us about a string of robberies. Probably going to be our first big gig as a hero. Can’t wait to actually do something. Santiago seems cool tho, I like him. Okay, NOW we get to meet and formally be introduced to Grayson as a character. Better late than never, but...he’s a generic nice guy. Very reasonable, very approachable, very boring. 

Now we’re preparing for the Gala and Poppy just said swankiest… strike one. She pushes me to wear something nice so I don’t have to be single. Strike two. Oh boy, yeah, yeah  Grayson is defiantly the front runner LI. Is he the only LI choice? If yes, that’s boring. If not, if this is going to be a #LH thing, you really shouldn’t have opened with Greyson. Poppy mentions all the hard times in college they shared because... why intro characters and let us get attached when you can establish history the player just have to accept. So, now we decide what to wear at the event. Either an appropriate dress to the fancy gala or wear the work clothes you wore earlier today despite the fact that everyone will be dressing up. Really, PB? You couldn’t have just designed a basic dress? Am I going to get shade for.... oh, yup, yeah. The answer is yes. 

We make it to the gala. “What is this, gang up on MC day?” Apparently. Poppy and Dax have a preestablished relationship that will probably cost diamonds to actually ship them together, but like AbbiexTyler will probably end up together by book 2 and I have no control over it so like Tyler and Abbie I don’t care. So then we meet Meiko Katsaros. Her name is green so I guess she’s important, but after a little scene in which she’s mad with her son, Kenji, she goes away... without us even talking to her. Was that suppose to be significant? Jump to meeting Silas Prescott, Greyson’s daddy, and he’s… not white? Or at least really tan. There is a significant difference in skin tone between daddy and his baby boy. Is Greyson suppose to be mixed or adopted? Also... Silas has great hair and such a better name. Honestly, they should’ve just swapped features. Give Greyson the name Silas, darker skin tone, and the hair. Anyways, Silas gives his son “the look” and yeah he’s definitely evil or shady. He calls his son a loser and Greyson walks off, clearly upset. See... this would’ve bee a good chance to get to know Greyson. But no. This is a premium option. Instead of exploring the character so we give a damn, you make it premium. Sorry, I’m not paying for cut content. What is this? #LH?

Okay, big announcement time. We finally get to see what this damn invention is that will apparently change the world. Finally going to get superpowers in some freak accident. Maybe Silas will get some two and it’ll be some sort of reverse mirror thing. Why you, not me. I get the good superpowers while Silas is deformed. For some reason the word ‘watch’ is green. What... did PB know I was going to get bored and was reminding me to pay attention? The invention is some sort of clean energy generator using some exotic mystery crystal, oh so this is a magical destiny sort of thing. Before he can demonstrate it some military-esque mercenary guys dressed in black break through the ceiling and FINALLY something exciting happens, BUT THEN THE CHAPTER ENDS!!! Things actually get exciting, but PB’s like ‘nah, this is where we’ll end the first chapter”. We don’t even get superpowers.

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

The Vindication of Venom Part 5: A Monstrous Mystery

Part 4

Part 6

In the last few parts I laid out how fans’ expectations for Venom were at odds with his original concept as a stalker villain.

 Keeping the idea of Venom as a stalker in mind I’m going to dive into addressing other criticisms levelled at the character’s origins.

 To begin with I’ll tackle allegations that ASM #300 and the reveal of Brock’s identity was a poor resolution to the mystery of Spidey’s stalker.

 Back at the start of this essay series I noted (among other things) two particular criticisms levelled at Venom’s origin:

 ·         Brock was a previously unknown character who is unconnected to Peter Parker’s life in or out of his costume.

·         The reveal of Brock as Venom is a bad resolution to the mystery story seeded in issues leading to ASM #300

 In Parts 3-4 I also discussed about the dissonance between the creative intentions of David Michelinie vs. the fan expectations for Venom.

 It is my belief that understanding those expectations compared to the original intentions is the key to understanding the reveal of Venom’s identity.

 To be direct I think the fans following ASM (and possibly Web) believed that they were reading a mystery story when in fact David Michelinie had never intended to make Venom’s identity a legitimate mystery, and arguably never wrote a mystery story surrounding his identity on the first place. At the same time I think the decision to make Venom an unknown character was a very deliberate decision.

 All of which can be understood when observed through the lens of Venom as a stalker and a closer look at the issues leading up to ASM #300. 

  To begin with we have to recognize that David Michelinie is a writer who has stated he typically plans his stories well in advance. There is numerous evidence for this, but two particular examples come to mind.

 Back when he’d hoped to stay on ASM and write Amazing Spider-Man #400 he’d intended for the issue to be the death of Eddie Brock, bookending the fact that the character truly debuted in ASM #300. He intended this even though his last issue of the series was ASM #388 published roughly one year before ASM #400 would’ve dropped.

 In Amazing Spider-Man #344 published in 1991 we first meet Cletus Kasady, and in the very next issue we see a tiny piece of Venom’s symbiote start to drip onto his hand. 

This was all set up for Amazing Spider-Man #361 (published in 1992) where Spidey faces off against Carnage, though the character had appeared in a subplot beginning in ASM #359. Either way Michelinie had planned for Carnage at least a year in advance and properly laid the groundwork for the character during that time.

In examining Venom’s debut Michelinie similarly had a lot of time to plan ahead, well over a year in fact.

 ASM #298 came out in 1988 whilst Web of Spider-Man #18 hit the stands in 1986, Michelinie obviously having planned out Venom in advance of the latter issue. Michelinie then had four more consecutive issues of Web, one of which (as we’ve seen) further seeded Venom, keeping his identity obscured. Michelinie then wrote five ASM issues and an annual before the publication of ASM #298, all of which could’ve been used to at least hint at Eddie Brock, even if he was just a background character.

 I do not know what was happening behind the scenes at that point but it’d seem unlikely that there was just no time to set Venom up before he debuted. Furthermore no statements by Michelinie or any other reliable source I know of has ever indicated a character Michelinie had in mind for Venom’s identity other than Brock or his early nameless  female counterpart.  

 Together these facts heavily indicate that rather than merely executing a mystery story incompetently (as has usually been the criticism) Michelinie never intended for Venom’s identity to have ever been the subject of a true mystery story and for Venom to have genuinely been a never before seen character.

 This is backed up when you consider that in most mystery stories suspects, clues and potential answers are given to the readers ahead of time to increase suspense and tease the possible resolution. Michelinie even did this with the infamous storyline surrounding Peter Parker’s returned parents even though its originator, then spider editor Danny Fingeroth, never pinned down the endgame of that storyline.

 And yet between Web #18 and ASM #300 at no point was there ever even a tease or a hint as to who precisely Venom might be. We simply had a mysterious stalker in two Web issues, then over a year later another tease of someone who had the symbiote and then two more issues later we got the full Monty.

 Structurally that isn’t really a mystery storyline but it does superficially look  like one to many readers. After all if someone unseen is attacking and stalking Spider-Man then naturally readers will wonder who it is and expect it to be someone they know or will come to know. No doubt this was the subject of letters Michelinie and editorial received and yet the storyline unfolded with no clues and complete unknown unveiled as the culprit.

 Furthermore when Venom’s identity is finally revealed in ASM #300 it is done without much fanfare and is for the readers exclusively. Typically you would expect the readers to learn the mystery man’s identity alongside the titular character, but here we not only see who he is sans Spider-Man’s presence but the reveal is not presented as a moment of true shock or impact, which again is mystery writing 101.

After this initial reveal we even follow this unknown and unnamed individual as he continues to stalk Spider-Man and plot against him. 

Whilst these scenes might shed more light onto the type of person the symbiote’s new host is, they are just outright illogical as mystery story writing and further devalue the impact of the character’s identity, especially since we don’t even know his name at these points in the issue.

In fact when we do learn his name the story presents itself as the true blue introduction to the character, going on to give a potted biography of Brock.    

Presenting the character this way and divulging this information really doesn’t make sense so many pages after we first see the character. Unless as I’ve said, we were never really reading a mystery story to begin with and Brock was deliberately intended to be a stranger from the start.

Now you might ask why on Earth would Michelinie want something so unsatisfying as part of his on-going storyline? Wouldn’t it be much more dramatic for Venom to have indeed been revealed as someone from Peter’s life, or at least someone the readers were familiar with? For example over the years a suggested substitute for Venom’s identity has been Peter’s photographic rival at the Daily Bugle Lance Bannon (who possibly inspired Spider-Man 3’s version of Brock).

Well to begin with we should put ASM #300 in context. It was released less than a year after the highly controversial resolution to the Hobgoblin mystery in ASM #289. The issue wrapped up four years worth of mystery and intrigue surrounding the highly popular new villain the Hobgoblin, ultimately revealing him to be Bugle reporter (and sometimes rival to Peter) Ned Leeds.

The resolution was divisive for fans, some feeling the resolution was too predictable, others feeling it made sense but was unsatisfying since there was no showdown between the Goblin and Spidey. The mystery had begun under Roger Stern’s iconic run on Amazing Spider-Man and had continued for around four years, through more than one staff changeover in the Spider-Man office. In fact the resolution of the mystery was the subject of much contention and internal disagreements between certain individuals working in the Spider-Man books during that time.

In such a context it is not unreasonable that Michelinie and then editor Jim Salicrup felt that it’d be a mistake to emphasise yet another mystery villain plotline so soon (or at least for any significant length of time), mostly because it would’ve been far too repetitive or risked backlash from the readers.

However more poignantly Venom being an unknown individual makes a lot of sense in light of his original intentions as a stalker.

 Realistically whenever Spider-Man uncovers someone’s true identity it is unlikely that he would know who they are given just how many people live in New York city, let alone its frequent visits by aliens, mystical entities or other such beings. This is something even acknowledged in the original Stan Lee/Steve Ditko run of Spider-Man on more than one occasion.

 But for Venom as I’ve detailed Michelinie’s intent was to play him more as a super villain celebrity stalker, much like Mary Jane’s numerous stalkers from later in his run (e.g. Jonathan Caesar).

 Such celebrities seldom know who their stalkers are and usually their stalkers are just random people off the street with an obsession and/or major beef with their intended victims, the latter often over an imagined slight or otherwise not warranting their behaviour. For Spider-Man in particular this would be particularly true given the countless people he’s interacted with other the years, the various instances of collateral damage he’s been a part of and the sheer number of enemies he has acquired from his years as a crime fighter.

 In being a stranger to the readers, Brock emphasises the constant presence of danger in Spider-Man’s life and his need for a secret identity. He showed the readers that Spider-Man doesn’t endure potential risk just from criminals and super villains, but also from other unknown seemingly ordinary people just off the street with tangential (even illogical) axes to grind against him. In fact the anonymity and unfamiliarity of Venom could be said to render him a more disturbing stalker figure in Spider-Man’s life.

 He isn’t an old enemy with an axe to grind. He isn’t even a friend of family member of someone Spider-Man has defeated out for revenge. He is just some guy Spider-Man has never met who’s life went to Hell because of Spider-Man inadvertent actions, or rather that’s how he sees it. The inadvertent aspect of the story is further enforced through tying venom’s origin into an established event the readers would be familiar with, highlighting unintended consequences of Spidey’s actions that he, and by extension the readers, wouldn’t normally think about.

 This core concept was present in Michelinie’s original female rendition of the character as well. Both that and the eventual origin we got were playing upon the idea of unintended consequences of innocuous actions on Spider-Man’s part, where someone gets hurt through no fault of Spidey’s but due to their own issues makes him the object of their hatred.

 Now there is a problem with this line of argument that I have to admit to. In ASM #300 itself (as you can see above) Peter does in fact recognize Brock. This does unfortunately damage the idea of him being a true unknown to Peter and the readers.

 More than anything in ASM #300, this I think is the biggest legitimate case of weak or misguided writing on Michelinie’s part. I maintain that he absolutely wanted Brock to be an unknown character from the start and have that be part of the central point of the character.

 For years I was at a loss as to why this scene played out the way it did...until I actually asked David Michelinie himself. Bear in mind that I chose my words carefully so as to be polite and thus increase my chances of a response:

ME: Mr Michelinie early on in Amazing Spider-Man #300 we first see Venom’s true face but don’t get his name or motives.

We then see his actions during the issue which lead to a pivotal scene in which he reveals his face to Spider-Man. Spidey then reacts in shock since he recognizes the face and readers learn Venom’s real name is Eddie Brock, followed by his origin.

To me personally the scene seems intended as a shocking reveal, sort of like when the Green Goblin was finally revealed to be Norman Osborn back in Stan Lee and John Romita’s run.

However the readers had never heard of Brock before ASM #300 so the ‘shock’ and reveal in the scene to me seems a little odd.

With this in mind I would like to please ask why you opted to play the scene in this way, specifically why you opted to have Spider-Man know who Brock was despite the readers being unaware of who he was.

It’s just something I’ve always been curious about.

DAVID MICHELINIE: Actually...that was never intended to be a shocking reveal–to the READERS. But then, I wasn’t writing the readers, I was writing Peter Parker. He was surprised because he was aware of Eddie Brock as a fellow journalist, as indicated by Spider-Man’s thought balloon (“Looks familiar! Like–”) followed by Brock’s dialogue (“Ah, you’ve seen my picture in the Daily Globe!”). At which point both Peter AND the readers know Brock’s/Venom’s identity, learning at the same time. Eddie then goes on to explain–to everyone–how he and the alien symbiote became one. It’s just the way the story was structured.

This somewhat resolves and one of the major criticisms of ASM #300.

That big shocking reveal moment which doesn’t make sense because Brock isn’t known to the readers is not in fact supposed to be a big shocking moment, but a dramatic set up for an introduction.

And Spider-Man’s reaction is present because having worked out Brock’s backstory Michelinie evidently felt it’d be unrealistic for Spider-Man to not recognize him as a fellow journalist. This does make quite a bit of sense given Brock’s alleged reputation as a high profile journalist for a major metropolitan newspaper and peter himself moving in journalistic circles thanks to his work at the Bugle. In fact (even putting aside Brock’s fame from the Sin Eater articles) given how Brock’s newspaper the Daily Globe was the Daily Bugle’s main rival and that in-universe it hadn’t been too many years since Peter himself worked at the Daily Globe it probably would have been unrealistic for Peter to not  recognize him.

However whilst realistic and absolutely making sense from the perspective of Spider-Man the scene is an example (perhaps the prime example) of how Venom’s character was not communicated as well as he could have been. 

The scene, especially when taken in isolation, absolutely plays as the culmination of the ‘mystery’, the big reveal moment, but it was never meant to be that. Maybe it’s the particular dialogue used, the pacing employed, even the angles and layouts of the art, but it all comes across in a manner which would make sense in a different type of story than what is intended. Had it been tweaked it would have sold the central idea in such a way that readers would’ve realized that this is a moment of shock intended for Spider-Man, not for them.

However given the scene was intended as an introduction to a new character and the obvious stalker coding of the character I think at the end of the day Michelinie should’ve put his faith in a certain suspension of disbelief on the part of the readers and simply had Spider-Man not  know Brock’s identity, all of which would have better communicated the stalker idea of the character, the notion of unintended consequences and the fact that Spidey has enemies who’re complete strangers to him. 

What’s ironic is that based upon what we know had Venom been the original female version of the character it is unlikely that the scene would have played out the way it did. It is also ironic that the scene has generated so much controversy and haunted the character ever since due to Michelinie being too   realistic.

  Nevertheless it should be noted that whilst Peter does recognize Brock, his recognition only stretches as far as knowing his name and face. This therefore doesn’t entirely invalidate the idea of Brock being an unknown stranger who is nevertheless a dangerous enemy to Spidey. 

  Next up we’re going to talk about the notorious retcons present in Brock’s origin in relation to the iconic Death of Jean DeWolff storyline…and question if they are as contradictory as many readers think.

  P.S. An often tangential complaint of Brock being an unknown character is that he was unworthy to know Spider-Man’s identity, especially when a major and well-established enemy like Doctor Octopus didn’t. 

But really it is actually all too appropriate for Brock to know his identity whilst being a stranger to Peter and the readers. As I’ve discussed above, it just re-emphasises the importance of Peter’s secret identity and how he has even unknown enemies posing a risk to his life. It showcases the dangers of one of his enemies knowing who he is just as Norman Osborn knowing in the Silver Age did, but it comes at it from a different angle.

Part 4

Part 6

[homestuckhomestuckhomestuck]

hussie formspring trivia 1/?

The stylized battle sprites for Rose and Jack's STRIFE are incredibly awesome! Did one of the art team members create them, or is this a variation on your usual style?

I drew an initial template, and the art folks were invited to continue in that style, adding new animation frames, characters, etc. All very loosely, without a lot of parameters beyond that. Eyes5 did the Jack, myluckyseven did a Rose frame. There should be more to come. This was originally going to be a Flash project, but I cancelled it. Everything happening now, and over the next bunch of pages, would have taken place in a pretty energetic, and much more sophisticated than usual strife animation. Kind of like "strife version 2", for the second disc. I planned this idea months ago, not really thinking much of the effort and time it would eventually require to complete. This is what I usually do, blithely make such ambitious plans, pay the price later, but fight through it with a major grind and honor the original vision. This was a little different though. Not only was this meant to be a much more elaborate type of animation by my own stakes-raising declaration, with more frames-intensive visuals like a typical 2D fighter, but on top of that, the rate of output had been slowing, and the story flow was already kind of logjamming. So I had to make a decision. I could either apply what I now estimate would have been two or three solid weeks of serious effort to make this one pretty cool animation, and watch several 100K people sink into a state of despair over the prolonged suspension in content only to have the story advance not particularly far through a totally radical battle scene, or I could scrap the whole plan and figure something else out. The latter is what you're seeing. Sometimes these adjustments have to be made. I've revised plans before, and had some cool ideas I've scrapped. I was going to include another round in the Dave vs. Bro battle where they used their Sylladexes to wage a hashrap battle (which is why I went to the trouble of making Dave collect all that dangerous shit in his kitchen before climbing to the roof). But I axed that because the battle was already taking too much time to produce and bottlenecking plot advancement. That idea was pretty easily phased out. This is different now, because revising these plans meant I had to change the way a large chunk of the story would be delivered, because a lot of story components were all tangled up in my plans for that animation. So I had to do a lot of rethinking, and much of the solution is what you're seeing now, which is having the scratched disc interfere with the flow of the story, and Scratch taking over narration duties at an accelerated pace while he fixes the disc in time for the end of act. This is in part my way of committing not to doing anymore flash stuff until the EOA, which itself is going to be a very laborious thing and will take a long time to finish. This is all fine. I don't mind turning my plans upside down sometimes, since it can lead to creative opportunities for handling this stuff. The disc errors, Scratch hijacking the site design while narrating, all this strikes me as in keeping with the spirit of the story and the flexible format. Keeping the story moving is important, but it's not the sole consideration. MSPA for me is about working with loads of fun ideas, both for the story itself and the way it's told. Very often that consideration is at odds with pacing. I do what I can to balance both. The biggest challenge in this respect by far has been Flash. I'm quite ambivalent on its role in Homestuck. On one hand, it completely changes the way the story is read and perceived, for the better I think. It brings a lot of the most important parts of the story to life, makes for significant dramatic impact when needed, and goes a long way in making this difficult to classify as a medium. One the other hand, it magnifies the production complexity exponentially, and I'm not just talking about the effort the animations require. It affects everything about my approach to the story. Including the whole decision making process, and not in a particularly good way, at least not from my perspective. The biggest way it affects the process is how it stretches the story out. If I'd gone through with the axed strife animation, that would be an obvious example, pausing the story a couple weeks to make some people fight. But the delaying effects can be more subtle than that. I'll have in mind a certain event in the story which I think should be handled through Flash. I'll know it's coming up, but I might not be ready to launch into that kind of work for whatever reason. Maybe it's too soon on the heels of the last one or whatever. So I'll work on more static panels, because there is never a shortage of plot threads to address or details to develop or funny conversations to write or new fun ideas to put out there. And that's fine really, since I feel like it's all good stuff, but it definitely makes for the long road. I'm quite sure Homestuck would be finished by now if I'd never used flash at all. There are other weird ways it factors in, like certain expectations it creates. Once it gets in the readers' heads that it's a recurring device for the story, they start to look out for it and expect it in certain situations, compare static content with flash, consider how awesome some static panels would have been if done in flash or how awesome situation X will be if animated with song Y. The potential for disappointment looms constantly with increased expectations. None of this is particularly bad, but if you're the guy responsible for putting together this story, you tend to be keenly aware of it, and it factors into the big puzzle of managing it all. And a big part of that puzzle has been answering the question "to flash or not to flash?" I've said before, the deeper into this I get, the less I feel like a writer or artist, and more I'm like a producer, managing story decisions weighed carefully against cost of execution. And cost can mean a lot of things. Effort needed, organizational complexity (usually most present in interactive pages), time delay or obstruction to story advancement, stuff like that. This kind of thing doesn't factor in if you're writing something more conventional, like a book. You write in exactly what serves the story, as you envision it. It may sound crazy that's not what I'm doing, but it really can't be anymore, not with these high octane animations in the mix as part of the expected delivery. I have to think like a producer to make that work. To understand what that means, here's an anecdote about Indiana Jones, which might not be quite true but whatever, it's just something I'm vaguely remembering. When Spielberg was going over the script with somebody, it called for a pit full of lions, and he said "whoa! too expensive! let's go with snakes." So you got Indy afraid of snakes instead of lions, because it turns out you can buy crazy loads of snakes for bargain bux. It would be really reasonable for him to be afraid of lions though. They are huge and hungry and fucking terrifying. Have you SEEN a lion??? Lions would be my quirky phobia if I was a rugged dude with a whip and longing for treasure. Lions. (roar) Why did it have to be... (roar) Lions. :(

What would the hypothetical flash have covered?

It would have spanned the events from a little after here: http://www.mspaintadventures.com/scratch.php?s=6&p=005677 To right around here: http://www.mspaintadventures.com/scratch.php?s=6&p=005740 What took place over those pages is almost a direct transcription of what would have happened in the flash. The events were conveyed visually and verbally to suit the Scratch narration, instead of shown through high-intensity animated visuals alone. The Scratch segment was not introduced as a substitute for the animation. An "abridged" stretch like this was going to come anyway as a device for setting a few things up before starting on the EOA animation. Axing the Rose v. Jack / Vriska v. Jack animation (aka Heroes of Light: Strife) just meant moving Scratch the segment up sooner, to use as a vehicle for delivering the full flash concept without having to scrap it as a story direction, which would have been a pretty significant architectural upheaval. Now that it's out there, we can examine the pros and cons of delivering it that way as opposed to flash. (But note, no matter what, there was no chance of that flash getting made whatsoever. This is really not about "what could have been") Pros of flash: - Would have been WAY MORE RADICAL (frankly I don't care much about this. the rad quotient of preceding flash material is already pretty high, and there's plenty more combustible shit to come) - The idea as a whole would have been delivered in minutes, rather than weeks, giving people the full sense of the story development all at once, and limiting the drag on the serial readers' experience, and corresponding vocalization of those frustrations (would have been BY FAR the biggest advantage of flash) Cons: - Concept as a whole may have been a bit challenging to parse with visuals alone. The two parallel battles are easy enough to understand, but I can easily imagine confusion over the alternate timeline concept as conveyed only visually. People have been confused by less. Much, much less. - Difficulty factor. Even with art contributors. There's a limit to not only what I can do personally, but what a largely unstructured volunteer effort can accomplish as well. - Hiatus-induced suicide pact among readership. Pros of narration: - Get to experiment with a little parallel storytelling, via the top banner. (pretty big plus, IMO!) - Having it narrated removes ambiguity about a fairly cerebral chain of events, while allowing the chance to indirectly develop Scratch's involvement in the story a bit. - I get to take my time with it and pretend to function like a normal human being for a little while. Cons: - Slow rolling the segment page by page has serial readers agonizing every step of the way over every conceivable issue, on points of execution, unwelcome "story developments", and so on. Once again, Homestuck is RUINED FOREVER! Until it isn't, of course. - If you're not into Scratch as a character or don't like his tone or the whole omniscient smartass thing, then you probably aren't digging the arc much. Not much to say about this. It's just a "you like it or you don't" kind of thing. - Altering the flow of the story always carries the risk of agitating some readers. Not only because mixing shit up = automatic complaints (which is definitely true), but because by accelerating the pace to make broader narrative strokes, you are inviting the usual objections fixated on showing vs. telling. But I think there are some legitimate gears of storytelling which involve showing by way of telling outright, as long as the reader has the patience to see it through to its conclusion (problematic serially, as usual). It's a gear in which bigger story chunks that normally are given strong magnification (like a death) are told more compactly and in succession. These bigger chunks, when stacked up, "show", or more appropriately "reveal" an even bigger idea which is at the true heart of that narrative stretch. It's not the event which the reader momentarily feels "should" expand to fill the stage, like a death. The death that with hindsight functions as a building block of a more complete idea which more effectively serves the story as a whole, completing unfinished arcs, building on the themes and such. You can look at story pacing like rolling a Katamari ball, with respect to the granularity of what has focus. At the beginning of HS, I'm rolling it around and picking up nickels and buttons. That's when John messing around with cakes and such has focus as actual plot points. The ball keeps rolling until points like that are too marginal to zoom in on, and he's exploring a mysterious oily land killing monsters and stuff while we gloss over a lot of detail that in an earlier mode would have received intense scrutiny. We are picking up things like traffic cones and bicycles with our katamari ball, while still sculpting a shape that as a whole resembles a story. Hivebent was rolled with even bigger denominations, maybe cars and trucks, gobbling up even bigger chunks like buildings by the end of the arc, as Aradia was offhandedly mentioning how they killed the king and created a universe. With hindsight we see why, understanding the overall purpose that arc had for the story, and how that particular pacing supported that purpose. Unlike Katamari though, the ball does get smaller sometimes, to go back to accommodating certain levels of detail like conversations and game mechanics, but it never dials all the way back. Doc has rolled with some of the biggest chunks yet, like buildings or mountains, casually dropping the deaths of characters as atomic features of his narration. He clearly rolls the ball smaller at times too, when he wants. But this construction too has purpose, which needs some patience to watch it take shape and then hindsight to fully appreciate. And like I've suggested before, these can be pretty disastrous conditions for the serial intake of a story. But honestly, there is no other way to do it. To strive to satisfy serial readers all the time is to do nothing but make something terrible in the long run. It means you can't do much to set up anything sophisticated with deferred payoff, as you perpetually submit what will immediately gratify. I can't tell people that reading serially is the "wrong" way to read it, because this is not true. But there's no escaping the fact that having pages leaked out so slowly radically warps your perception of what is happening, sometimes for the better (community discussion, noticing details etc), but often aggravates (arc fatigue, rushing to judgment...) Try to imagine watching your favorite movie, for the first time ever, but only a minute at a time, every day. Sound frustrating? How often do you think you might get irritated with the director for his pacing decisions? Or his "plot twists", which are really just the products of scenes cut short before fully paying off? How often do you think you might want to insist he move it along? What about reading your favorite book, but only receiving about a paragraph or two every day? And what if the author/director was tuned into the responses to this daily output? Is there anything he could do to outrun the impatience of the reader for plot points he's carefully set up to be evaluated in the minute-space of archival read-through, which the reader labors over in the month-space of serial digestion? Can he do anything to deflect or mitigate their rush to judgment of incomplete arcs? Should he? Probably not. The pages spanning the two links above provide a pretty good example of how serial intake messes with perception, and of why authors tend to like to finish books before showing them to you. Now that it's all there, let's look at the reasonable serial reactions to some key moments, and compare to the reality in hindsight. - Terezi flips coin, Vriska flies away. Serial reaction: augh, anticlimax!!! All that build up, the stair climbing and show downing and coin flipping... where's the battle? Where's........ SOMETHING? Reality: This was only the beginning of a deferred resolution to the ongoing Terezi/Vriska rivalry. The resolution was actually the full sweep of this series of events in totality, resulting in Terezi looking into the doomed timeline to find the rationale and the courage to kill Vriska, which she finally did. All that buildup was not for that one-page deflation, but this full sequence. Reservation of judgment was required, something that is much easier to practice when there are more pages to click on. ..... I could go on but I just realized I'm tired of typing. But really, the list goes on and on like this throughout the whole story. Things which come off as odd or vaguely unsatisfying or even JUST SO TERRIBLE in the short term, but make sense and work better overall in the big picture. You could complete this exercise yourself if you felt like it. Look at an event, remember how you felt on reading it live, and now how you view it in retrospect. Or, for extra credit, imagine you could wipe your memory of the past several months of content, and pretend I just posted it all today. What would your reaction be? How does it read? Do the issues which seemed to loom so large in the moment, like the omnipresent "get on with it" factor, even cross your mind for a second during such an archival dump? And for extra extra credit, imagine wiping your memory of all of Homestuck, and I just dropped it all in your lap right now while you were idling musing what sort of thing I might work on after Problem Sleuth. What do you think? Of it in totality, and of recent events? What is there that wears thin, on its own terms of pacing, rather than that dictated by two years of attrition on one's ability to remain completely engaged and cognizant of all relevant threads? There is a lot to think about when you make a story. Not just in how to make it, but in how it is absorbed. One story is really two completely different stories. The one that is read all at once, and the one that is read over your shoulder while you make it.

[hextual]

Podcast Recs

The following recs/summaries may contain light-to-moderate spoilers, though I try to keep things vague and rot13 the more specific stuff! Here is an abbreviated spoiler-free rec list, for the sensitive among you.

Night Vale Presents

The three non-WTNV shows have all finished their first seasons (and Alice Isn't Dead just started its second). They're relatively short and contain complete story arcs. 

WTNV: The ur-podcast, the light horror fiction narrative that kicked off the trend. Y'all know it or you don't. If you've somehow never heard it and don't want to start from the pilot, I recommend trying Episode 13; it's a stand-alone episode in a slightly different format than the rest, but it gives a good sense of WTNV's general aesthetic. Also it's just really really good.

Alice Isn't Dead: A surrealist horror roadtrip about a trucker searching for her wife Alice, who isn't dead. She's got nothing to lose and a lot of dangerous road to cover.

Orbiting Human Circus: Bizarre and magical and a little bit heartbreaking, like all good circuses should be. Julian is the janitor of a heavily fictionalized Eiffel Tower, and he desperately wants to be part of the Orbiting Human Circus show that he cleans up after every night.

Within the Wires: Dystopian sci-fi 1980s AU, told through a series of 'relaxation' cassettes. More grounded in reality than the others, though that's not saying much. The medium is also foregrounded much more in the narrative.

Hiatus

Wolf 359: SUPER dark, though you wouldn't know it from the first dozen episodes. However, the inflicting-trauma to coping-with-trauma ratio is low enough that I listened to the whole thing and will almost definitely listen to Season 4 when it's released starting this June. Also, no queerness whatsoever (making it unique on this list).  

Eos 10: Spaceship sitcom. Less artistically ambitious than most of the others on this list, which is not necessarily a point against it. 

Airing

The Strange Case of Starship Iris: Newer sci-fi podcast that I absolutely love; it ticks all my very specific boxes (including medium-as-message) and is also just really well constructed and executed. I adore every single one of the main characters. There are only 4 episodes but I'm so hyped about it. 

The Bright Sessions: Audio files from a therapist to teens and young adults with superpowers. Everything I ever wanted X-Men to be: light on the fight scenes/explosions, heavy on exploring what it means to have superhuman powers and how that might affect your life/relationships.

The Penumbra Podcast: Cyberpunk noir pastiche that sometimes gets a little too broad for me but is generally good fun of the Thrilling Tales! variety.

Ars Paradoxica: Time travel in one of its more complex interpretations. Paradox is a major plot element. Kind of sci-fi historical fiction?

Now for the more detailed writeups, including overviews of queerness and genre. As I said before, potential spoilers are rot13′d...but Here There Be Dragons etc.

Night Vale Presents

All of these are incredibly solid shows with an otherworldly feel to them that I love, despite being otherwise quite different.

All main characters are queer; WTNV has queer side characters (including nonbinary characters), but afaik the only other explicitly queer characters in AID/ORC/WTW are love interests of the MCs. That's pretty understandable, though, given that the casts of the three non-WTNV shows are exponentially smaller, and they've aired significantly fewer episodes.

I want to mention something in a totally value-neutral way: none of the shows feature homophobia or directly discuss queerness (lowkey exception for one episode of WTNV). I actually enjoy that, personally; it's usually very restful to spend time in worlds where queerness is normalized and unremarkable. Occasionally, however, I do want a slightly more direct approach, so I wanted to make a note in case you're in that kind of mood. 

Welcome to Night Vale The first and only podcast I listened to for about a year. Honestly, do I even need to say anything about WTNV?  I do want to mention that I think it's gotten a little bogged down in continuity over the last year. AFAIK it wasn't conceived as a long-running narrative arc, and a lot of its early charm came from the total lack of context. After Year 2, I feel like it did start spending a little too much time explaining things and filling out backstory for elements that, frankly, didn't need them. YMMV ofc, and I still listen to/enjoy every new episode, but I'm not madly in love with Year 3 the way I was with Year 1-2. Queerness: Queer af! The main character gets a full same-sex romance arc; V'q pnyy vg 'unccl-raqvat' ohg vg'f fgvyy batbvat nf n ybivat naq urnygul eryngvbafuvc, juvpu vf rira orggre. Multiple side characters are queer, including a few nonbinary characters who use they/them pronouns.  Genre: tucking into a short stack at 2am in a diner in the American Southwest, slowly realizing that the woman behind the counter called you by name even though you've never been here before, and also you can't quite remember how you got here in the first place. Alice Isn't Dead Beautiful, creepy, and acted by the brilliant Jasika Nicole. I'd place this more firmly in the horror genre than the others, so if you're sensitive to that kind of thing, take note; there's some suspense and a little bit of violence. That said, I am usually MASSIVELY sensitive and can't even watch trailers for horror movies (I have made my peace with never ever seeing Get Out), and I was perfectly fine with it. Queerness: The main character is a woman married to Alice, who isn't dead. It's like the opposite of the Bury Your Gays trope. Genre: driving along a nameless interstate late at night, the world around you narrowed to the section of road thrown into sharp relief by your headlights, and the occasional glint of animal eyes. The Orbiting Human Circus of the Air ORC is the most fanciful of the Night Vale family. The other shows seem like they take place in realities just a shade off from ours, but ORC completely throws any pretense of realism out the window. There's no real sense of a world outside the Circus, and why should there be? The Orbiting Human Circus of the Air has an infinitude of fantastical delights: singing saws, a bird that can mimic (almost) a full orchestra, tap-dancing mice. There's no trick or sleight of hand involved, not even a dusty tome of magic spells. ORC simply presents a world in which these wonders exist in hidden corners. The story is sometimes melancholy, and there are regular hints of a deep sadness underneath the surface, but the main character is defined by his determination and...well, 'optimism' would be too strong a word, but he has an unyielding sense of hope. He doesn't actually think things will turn out well for him (and he's so often right about that), but he clings to the hope that this time, maybe it might. Queerness: Gur znva punenpgre nyyhqrf gb na rk-oblsevraq bapr. This is one of the lighter touches of queerness in the Night Vale family. Genre: peering through a dusty velvet curtain just offstage, while brightly-costumed creatures dance to a tune you haven't heard since you were a child. Within the Wires While all Night Vale Presents shows have some kind of narrative conceit framing the audio medium (community radio station, trucker radio transmissions, broadcast wish fulfillment), those tend to be vehicles for the story and stylistic flourishes, rather than core elements of the story itself. WtW is presented as audio cassettes on full-body relaxation, and the cassettes themselves become key actors. This is not a story that could be told in any other medium, which personally I freaking love. This is also a more sci-fi show than the others, despite being set in AU 1980s, and more blatantly dystopic. The world-building's a little more evident, which is neither a good thing nor a bad thing; I think it's a side effect of being more sci-fi than fantasy. Everything feels like it has an explanation, even if the explanation is not provided, and it all fits together smoothly. Also: the narrator has a mild kiwi accent, which I find incredibly soothing. Queerness: Yep. Gur znva punenpgre unf n pbzcyvpngrq ohg qrpvqrqyl abg cyngbavp (s/s) eryngvbafuvc jvgu gur jbzna gur gncrf ner vagraqrq sbe.  Genre: lying quietly in a sensory isolation tank until you inexplicably start crying for the first time in years.

On hiatus

Wolf 359 So, there are a couple voice actors in Wolf 359 that don't do a whole lot for me, performance-wise. I don't want to get more specific because YMMV and I'm also just a really picky audio consumer, but there you have it. Mostly it's not an issue, though. This is also one of the darker shows I listen to, although it starts out with more of a zany sitcom vibe. There's a fair amount of murder, murder attempts, and general people-being-horrible-in-ways-they-believe-to-be-justified. It's not something I think I could sit through again, but it is a captivating story told well. There's a lot of focus on the emotional arcs and characters dealing with trauma, which I am All About in sci-fi. 

Queerness: zero. Zip. Zilch. It doesn't feature any romance arcs at all, though, so...I found it tolerable. Honestly, if it hadn't come so highly recommended, I probably would not have given it a shot. Genre: placing your hand on a rusty, unmarked door that wasn't in the ship schematics, and knowing you must step through—you must step through. Eos 10 After my first pass at this write-up, I realized that I was being really negative—far more negative than this show deserves. So I want to be clear: I listened to and enjoyed every extant episode of Eos 10, and I'm looking forward to Season 3, whenever it's released. It's a pleasantly entertaining space sitcom and I've gotten attached to the characters; the writing's solid and the voice acting is generally pretty great. It's just not quite tailored to my specific tastes. Ok, back to what I originally wrote: This podcast feels a lot more mainstream/conventional in its tropes than the others. Unlike most of the podcasts I listen to, the medium is invisible to the characters: it's not pitched as a radio show or a voice recorder or a series of motivational tapes. To me, this adds another layer of remove between the audience and the story. It's fine, it's just very straightforward in its presentation, with no medium-specific conceit or anything. It’s not really outsider art in any sense, and could legitimately be a TV show if it had the budget. That's a pretty good description of the show as a whole, honestly. It makes no pretense at being high-concept, it just does what it does. Queerness: This one...is not very queer. One of the side characters is gay but it doesn't really come up a lot. There's also a gay minor character that gets mentioned but never appears, and it's kind of a running gag that the gay character has a thing for the main character, who insists he's straight. It's a gross trope and I kind of winced at it, but it's usually framed by other characters as "are you sure you're not interested, because [gay character] is way out of your league and you're really not going to do better," which mitigates it somewhat for me? Also, gurer ner uvagf gung gur znva punenpgre zvtug npghnyyl or vagrerfgrq va gur tnl punenpgre, but only time will tell whether it's queerbaiting or not. Look, it's not an ideal situation. If it’s a dealbreaker, I totally understand, especially since there's no clear answer to the "is this queerbaiting" question and due to some unfortunate creator health issues, we might not get one for a while. Genre: ducking out of the way as a harried-looking man in a lab coat and stethoscope pelts down the hallway, yelling "GET ME FIVE UNITS OF ALIEN SEX POLLEN, STAT!"

Airing

The Strange Case of Starship Iris

I love this show a disproportionate amount, given that only four episodes have aired. This is a newer podcast, and one I stumbled on completely by accident! I wasn't expecting much, but it was sci-fi and the main character's last name was Liu, so I decided to give it a shot. And then it turned out to be not only awesome but also totally queer! I think I actually said "HAH! YES!" out loud when the queerness was canonized within the first few minutes. (This is why I live alone.) Plus, this is a small thing from a throwaway line, but...the main character weighs roughly the same amount as I do. Do you know how often that happens with Asian characters? Never, is how often. For possibly the first time in my life, I feel like I can legitimately headcanon a main character who looks exactly like me. I'm definitely going to do some incredibly self-indulgent fanart at some point. Unprecedented overidentifying with the main character aside: honestly, it's like this podcast was tailor-made for me. MAJOR SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 1 (and kind of 2): Vafrpher ovbybtvfg wbvaf ent-gnt perj bs fzhttyref jvgu n sbhaq-snzvyl ivor naq nyvra phygheny pynfurf, nyy senzrq va n fvavfgre zrgnaneengvir gung hfrf gur zrqvhz nf n cybg qrivpr, CYHF cbgragvny ebznapr orgjrra na Rnfg Nfvna jbzna naq n Fbhgu Nfvna jbzna? Um, sign me the fuck up.  The only downside is that this has definitely raised my expectations for new podcasts by an unreasonable amount. Every new podcast I've tried since Starship Iris has been vaguely disappointing. My podcast standards are way too high now, and it's all Starship Iris's fault.

Queerness: YES. The main character is a queer woman, there's a nonbinary alien species and the alien crew member uses they/them pronouns, and there's a trans guy. Also, this is wild speculation, but V guvax/oryvrir/ubcr gung bar bs gur bgure srznyr perj zrzoref vf orvat frg hc nf n ebznagvp vagrerfg sbe gur znva punenpgre. There's some explicit discussion of gender identity in a non-traumatic way which tbh is like water in the freaking desert.

Genre: ??? it's too new and I love it too much to assign it a genre. 

The Bright Sessions

As I said in the spoiler-free summary: this is everything I wanted X-Men to be. Hell, it's everything I ever want superhero stories to be, and it's why I've been drawn to superhero stories since I was a teenager. The Bright Sessions deals with the complex consequences of, e.g., having empathy powers as a teenager while learning how to manage your own emotions and maturity. The main character is Dr. Bright, a therapist specializing in people with superpowers, which naturally provides the perfect angle for those people to get really navel-gazey about their lives. There is an actual overarching plot with a shadowy government agency, of course, but that's definitely not what I'm here for and luckily that’s clearly just a vehicle for the feelings.

Queerness: One of the main characters has a m/m romance arc; another main character is asexual; a side character (who may soon be considered a main character?) is bisexual. Because the conceit is therapy sessions, Dr. Bright does inquire delicately about how her patients may or may not be coping with emerging/existing queer identities, but none of them find it traumatic.

Genre: telekinetically fiddling with a desk puzzle limned in afternoon sun, as the doctor asks: "And how does that make you feel?"

The Penumbra Podcast

I'd had the Penumbra Podcast on my radar/subscriptions list for a while, but I'd never quite finished the first episode...until the remastered/rewritten first story was released. The difference is astronomical. The creators talk about audio quality etc. in their reasoning for recreating the first story, but for me, the main distinction is the skill in storytelling and the confidence to create noir without relying on questionable tropes to signal "hard-boiled!!!" I sometimes think the writing and characterizations are a little broad, but that may be down to genre. Penumbra doesn't really go for 'subtle' or 'realistic.' An important format note: there's a main character with episodic adventures, but in between the two-part adventures, there are one-shots in various genres. I actually skipped most of the one-shots because I'm not great with horror or kid stories.

Queerness: The main character of the main story is queer (jvgu na qryvtugshyyl rzbgvbanyyl pbafgvcngrq z/z ebznapr nep gung'f abg va n terng cynpr evtug abj), as are numerous side characters. It's a noir pastiche, though, so the main character is pretty self-sabotaging in all areas of his life; a 'happy ending' doesn't seem incredibly likely. One of the stand-alone stories is a queer Western, which I found delightful. It's also one of the few stand-alone stories that has a bonus follow-up episode.

Genre: taking a long, slow drag on a cigarette as the rain blurs the neon lights and filth of the alien city below.

Ars Paradoxica

Ars Paradoxica shares a producer with The Bright Sessions, which is why I tried it! Like all decent time travel stories, Ars Paradoxica is meticulously planned with a lot of moving parts. The worldbuilding is intense and requires actually paying attention, which can be challenging for me since I typically listen to podcasts while multitasking.  Frankly, it moves a little slow for me...which is odd to say about a show that regularly has timeskips of months or years and literally involves time travel. I guess I feel that way because there's a lot of attention paid to the action and plot, but less to the emotional character arcs. And obviously my narrative preferences run a certain way, so I'm only really paying attention to the character stuff. Which, to be fair, certainly exists and is carried through well—it's just not in my preferred proportions. Plus, the cast is quite sprawling compared to most other podcasts, and the tone is almost Crapsack World but not quite. 

Queerness: The main character is explicitly asexual and briefly explains it, and there are a handful of queer side characters. It's semi-historical, and there's some discussion of managing visibility etc. 

Genre: staring into the dusty gears of a massive clock running backwards as the minute hand slowly approaches a blinking red light.

[thisdaynews]

RIVERS AGAINS! Fresh Controversy Erupts As Wike Exposes Amaechi’s Major Weaknesses And How He Disappointed Buhari And APC

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/rivers-agains-fresh-controversy-erupts-as-wike-exposes-amaechis-major-weaknesses-and-how-he-disappointed-buhari-and-apc/

RIVERS AGAINS! Fresh Controversy Erupts As Wike Exposes Amaechi’s Major Weaknesses And How He Disappointed Buhari And APC

The politics of Rivers State has again come to the limelight as the two major figures have started a new phase of controversy.

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, had extended the olive branch to his predecessor in office and Transportation Minister, Rotimi Amaechi and his party to join him in moving the state forward.   After that development, it was believed that it could mean the end of the face off and controversies between the two leaders in the state.

However, it appears to be far from over as new developments show.   This came as Governor Wike and Amaechi have started another issue again over allegations made against the Governor.

  Wike had declared that people of the state overwhelmingly voted for him during the 2019 governorship election because of his outstanding performance and project delivery, Daily Post reports.   In a response to an allegation made by the Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi during his appearance on Channels Television Sunrise Daily on Tuesday, Governor Wike said that the former Rivers State Governor failed in his quest to truncate his second term because Rivers people were happy with his work.

He said he wouldn’t have responded to the falsehood being peddled by the Minister of Transportation, but he owes the public the duty to set the record straight. He said: “It is unfortunate. I extended the Olive Branch and I meant every word of it. It was on that basis that the State Attorney General filed a nolle prosequi to withdraw the charge against Flag Amachree.

“If I did not do well in my first term, PDP wouldn’t have given me the party’s flag to fly. In 2015, the same man vowed that over his dead body would I emerge victorious. I have done well for my people. It is for the people of Rivers State to decide. It is not the in the place of Amaechi to decide.

“We have over 6million people and over 3million registered voters. Therefore, Amaechi cannot say I cannot go for a second term. He has only one vote. In the past, he said an Ikwerre man cannot succeed another Ikwerre man. Today, he is saying his grouse is that I cannot go for a second term. At every step, he has one story or the other”.

Governor Wike said contrary to the story that Amaechi peddled whilst he was on Channels Television, kidnapping raged during his tenure. He said it was so bad that the State Chairman of Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission under Amaechi was kidnapped.

The Governor noted that despite the National High-Rate of insecurity, Rivers State is relatively peaceful, with very high ratings.   “Our internally Generated Revenue has improved due to the peace and security of the state”.

Governor Wike said that the political misfortune that befell the APC during the last general elections in Rivers State was principally due to the impunity of Amaechi .

He said: “It is because of this impunity that his party was not on the ballot. Because of this impunity he has denied so many people their political future “. He said that the plots by Amaechi to manipulate the Tribunal will fail like other previous plots. The Governor noted that Amaechi’s boast that he appointed the members of the tribunal and they would work for him remains one of his empty boasts.

Governor Wike said that Amaechi’s plot to use the police to illegally certify fake results as he did for Rivers East Senatorial District during the rerun elections tribunal would fail. “The game he played in Rivers East of using the police to certify fake results will not work. During the rerun Police certified fake results. That game will not work again. We have gone beyond that. We are waiting for the police to certify fake results for Amaechi “.

He stated that there was no way that the defeated AAC Governorship Candidate, Engr Awara would have been coasting to victory when he neither campaigned or printed posters. He said: “Awara ran for the PDP councillorship in 2018 and lost. For this election, he did not Campaign and never printed posters.

“Look at that kind of impunity. He brought a man that the people of Rivers State never knew three days to the election. The AAC had no House of Assembly Candidates, they had no House of Representatives candidates and no Senate candidates for the elections. There is no way that such a party would have been coasting to victory “.   He added that the AAC Governorship Candidate could not have been coasting to victory and still approach the Federal High Court for the cancellation of the Governorship Election Results.

On the allegation that the INEC Chairman , Professor Mahmood Yakubu influenced the suspension of the Collation process because he worked under him at the Federal Ministry of Education, the Rivers State Governor said that the position of Amaechi was baseless.

He said that at the Ministry of Education, he superintended basic Education, while the INEC Chairman served as TETFUND Executive Secretary under the Minister of Education. He said that the INEC Chairman was appointed by the APC Federal Government and since his appointment, there has been no links

Governor Wike said despite the evil machinations of the Minister of Transportation, he was unable to deliver 25 percent of votes for President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 and 2019 “In 2015, as a sitting Governor, he failed to deliver 25 percent of votes for President Buhari. He claimed that Jonathan helped us. In 2019, with all the security agencies, he still couldn’t deliver 25 percent for President Buhari. He sang war songs, but couldn’t deliver 25 percent of votes for the President “, he said.

On the incident at Obio/Akpor LGA Secretariat, Governor Wike said that the GOC of the 6 Division of the Nigerian Army, Major General Jamil Sarhem sent soldiers to invade the Collation Centre and cart away results . “I went there to stop the Army from carting away results from my Local Government Area “, he said.

Governor Wike said that the illegal activities of the Nigerian Army all through the Governorship Election were well documented by the media and the International community.   He said that the videos of the Army invading the Rivers State Governorship Election Collation Centre has since gone viral. He said that even the Rivers State Commander of F-SARs has since written him a congratulatory letter on his well deserved victory.

He said that his administration continues to fund all security agencies in the state, including providing needed logistics. He said that the Israelis that Amaechi introduced were only used to siphon State resources .   He wondered why Amaechi finds Pleasure in de-marketing Rivers State, when the State made him Speaker, Governor and Minister of the Federal Republic.

Governor Wike said after four years as a Minister, Amaechi cannot boast of attracting a single project to Rivers State. He noted that as Minister of State for Education, he attracted several projects to the state. He denied attempting to bribe the GOC, saying that he has never met him at any point. He said by Amaechi’s logic, it means that the Minister bribed the GOC 6 Division to subvert the Electoral Process.   The election issues are still generating more controversies especially as the House of Representatives is conducting an investigation into the causes of the violence recorded during the contest.

While Governor Wike will be inaugurated for second term on May 29, 2019, it is not clear what Amaechi-backed Biokpomabo Awara of the African Action Congress, AAC, and his camp are planning to do about the outcome of the election won by Wike of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

[aurimeanswind]

Your Emotions in Gaming—Sunday Chats (9-3-17)

Hey! Welcome back to a fun Sunday Chats where I get so ask the audience a question! It was really fun to do this again, and even though this one is a bit more of a lengthy-response time for tweets, I think the turnout was still amazing.

There are a couple of things I want to get out of the way before I get into this first-sunday-of-the-month tradition.

FIRST

Irrational Passions Podcast is switching it’s recording date back to Friday. Yes, it’s a big deal, we have been recording on Saturdays for a little over two years now, but we are going back to our original day of the week that was FRIDAY. It’ll be effective starting at the end of this month! Yay!

SECOND

Irrational Passions is launching a new, seasonal, YouTube Podcast! It doesn’t have a name yet, but the first episode should be recording a week (ish) from today! It’ll be all about Destiny 2! It’ll be our equivalent to Fireteam Chats, and will incorporate a bunch of awesome podcasters from different podcast networks! I am super excited to have a type of show like this, which is more focused on Destiny, for Destiny fans, by a bunch of would-be industry Destiny fans. 

It’ll be a bi-weekly show with a rotating cast with a few permanent seats, and be only on YouTube (for now). Currently it will definitely be on YouTube.com/IrrationalPassions, with maybe incorporating other YouTube channels into it as well.

Stay tuned for more details!

Okay, with all that housekeeping done, let’s get into the big editorial of the month.

Games Give You Feelings. Full Stop.

My question today, which I asked my lovely twitter followers and the readers of Sunday Chats, was this:

I like to refer to myself as the “total emotional sap”, which is just the slightly more nice way of saying I’m a bit of a crybaby/emotional wreck when it comes to media, especially video games. I get highly invested in my games, and my stories especially. I’m always perplexed, what with the seemingly constant criticism of video games’ storytelling devices, that people seem to never stop hating on gaming stories. 

The recent argument about gaming stories and why they’re more irrelevant than we might think still boggles my mind, and it’s a subject I come back to all the time.

Today I asked you all about the game stories that affected you the most. The ones that touched you in a way that evoked some kind of emotional reaction out of you, whether that be good or bad. 

Much like last month, I am gonna post everyone’s answers here, and discuss what folks have sent in. If you’d like to be a part of Sunday Chats like this, just look for my tweets on Sunday Afternoons (Eastern Daylight Time) with the hashtag “#SundayChats” in it. Responding to that tweet with an appropriate answer will pretty much guarantee you a spot on the roster, so with that said...

Let’s get started.

I think Uncharted is a big one, especially Uncharted 4. There is a series of scenes between Nate and Elena that occur very late in the game that just solidify so many things foreshadowed in the very opening of the game. The scenes toward the beginning of Nate and Elena at home, playing Crash Bandicoot, hanging out, sharing dinner, and kind of spacing on each other all have such a natural and organic feel because of 1, the talent of the actors, but 2, the amount of lore and chemistry built up between the two of them.

The scenes where Nate and Elena have that tension of something they really need to overcome together are like, horrifically painful in a way that is hard to describe. It’s such a satisfying end to character growth for Nate, someone we’ve seen struggle with understanding his own faults in the past.

Uncharted 4 holds itself in such high regard to me specifically because of that last third that features a heavy emphasis on Nate and Elena.

I mean, hey, Duke Nukem Forever probably game some people emotions. Like, I don’t think the story had some sweeping impact on the industry as a whole, but there is maybe  sense of... Catharsis, when that game finally came out, came to fruition, and ended up being just a bad game. I feel like above most games that have gone through a miserable development hell in the past few years, Duke Nukem Forever was the game that set the precedent that none of these games could ever be good.

I think Final Fantasy XV and Owl Boy are just recent examples that that isn’t always true.

I think frustration is totally a valid emotion to feel from a game. Only I think in this context it’s different. I think being frustrated at a game and being frustrated by a game are two different feelings.

I think of something like Far Cry Blood Dragon’s tutorial screens, which incessantly pop up to make the bit-joke that “tutorial screens are annoying” is a sense where the game is trying to frustrate you on purpose, and that is evoked through humor.

Being mad at Skyrim’s controls and the opening section of it is less some kind of culmination of a story beat, but really a reflection of your relationship with the game. Which is completely valid, I know that game is absolutely not your cup of tea.

Firewatch is really special. I think there are a lot of great feelings that Firewatch brings out of the player that really encompass the emotional journey it illustrates through dialogue. From the story that kind of makes up the suspense part of everything, to the actual relationship with Delilah herself, there are feelings of love, affection, fear, and sorrow that come from it.

The gut punch of the story hits twice too, and it’s something I still think about in games. For as flawed as some of the delivery in Firewatch is, I think it does an excellent job of making a setting, and making you feel in that same setting. God what a banger and worth a play Firewatch still is.

Infamous is definitely a tricky one. It is a very much younger brother game, and I think it does hit some notes there. I think the reason I never bought in too much is because Delsin and his brother just never seemed like they had strong chemistry? Buying into that brothers concept though is a huge part of the battle though. Look at something like Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, which is all about buying the connection between the two brothers. It’s used and then executed on effectively, and when you can connect with that, you can get those feelings out. Second Son just didn’t quite get there with me.

Gone Home and another game on this list are definitely in my top five as far as really connecting and affecting me emotionally.

Growing up with a gay sibling and slowly piecing together where they were and empathizing with why they wouldn’t want to tell me sets Gone Home up to just hit some relatable notes for me that few games ever get the opportunity to make. 

While I love a good love story, Gone Home delivers it in such a video game-y way without feeling forced or disingenuous. It nails what it wants to be, and by doing something first so well, it actually makes it incredibly difficult to follow itself up, something I think is clear with Tacoma, and all the other “walking sim” likes that have followed.

Night in the Woods is absolutely on my list to see through before the end of the year. From everything I’ve heard about its subject matter to the way it’s written like the embodiment of some kind of modern, online dialogue, I am absolutely in. Much like Oxenfree was for me last year, this seems like the kind of teen-y thing that could easily slip through the cracks and get lost in the crowd, but I really want to take the time to play it.

I mean, I know you love dropping those declarative statements, but consider me not so bold, Kevin. 

Metal Gear Solid 3 is legendary. I think when I replayed the series a few years ago, and really got to re-experiences the Boss’ death, and for the first time, really understand what she was going through and how that might destroy Big Boss from the inside out, the impact of that ending and its implications still sit with me today.

The Boss’ ideology being based on seeing the entire world from space and seeing it truly as something whole, and one, and deserving of peace, is such a powerful image. It’s the kind of philosophy that makes you feel small, and understand that that’s okay if we all just work together. That imagery being literally the catalyst for the entire events of the Metal Gear Solid franchise is beautiful, and is at it’s core why I think Kojima loved making those games. His image and love for the franchise is as unified as seeing us all together, truly.

The Last of Us is a game that will straight fuck you up. There are maybe four or five just absolutely integral scenes in that game, and all of them are the one on one scenes between Joel and Ellie. The big ones. There are multiple moments in that one story where Joel and Ellie, as a relationship, leaves you breathless.

I think of all the problems with video game storytelling, subtlety is the biggest one. Being subtle in a game is difficult because while things do heavily come down to actors and performances, there is an aspect of technology and uncanny valley to deal with too.

Luckily, Naughty Dog has consistently prove you don’t need to worry about that with them. The final moments in The Last of Us between Joel and Ellie will leave you in bed awake for years to come.

I am totally with you. Mass Effect 3, much like this most recent season of Game of Thrones, is about the payoffs. The trilogy very much sets up the tensions between these major conflicts and events. The Geth and the Quarians, and their war for the home planet. The Genophage and the Salarians delivering it, and how that has created a rift int he galaxy ever since. Those are plot points and arcs that exist, feel like they existed, changed, evolved, and then ending in wonderfully dramatic fashion.

And the Citadel DLC is another absolutely fantastic call out. It was so powerful for my cohost and biggest Mass Effect Fan Brian Nabeshin Jackson that he forced both myself and our other cohost Tony Horvath to buy and play it, and it was absolutely worth it. There is an “earned-ness” to the ME3 Citadel DLC, for it’s just incredible “one last ride” feel to it. It really is the “we’re all about to die so let’s just cut back and be together” story. And it works, because of the notes Mass Effect leaned so heavily into ending on.

Mass Effect is definitely the kind of trilogy that leaves you with an impact, if not only because of taking your character through three games.

Logan Wilkinson reviewed this for our site this year and it’s another with Night in the Woods that I am desperate to see through sometime before the end of the year. It’s an excellent idea and it’s portrayed in a super interesting way.

Rime is one that seemed to go really hard under the radar. This is the first big indicative thing I”ve heard in its favor. I know it reviewed well, but it’s just something that I feel there isn’t a lot of awareness of.

Judging from the vibes you describe here and the ones given off by the trailer, I’m not surprised Steven.

We touched on it above a the top, but yes. The growth is the big aspect of Uncharted that makes the fourth feel like the end of an era. Of a saga. Of course the Lost Legacy is out now (still need to play it) and there is room for more smaller games like that in that universe, but Uncharted 4 is the end of a big story.

The small sections where you get to guide the conversations ever so slightly really do pay off because you feel like you got to make the choice to talk about just one thing, and you can just pick what you want to know the most. It’s something uncanny in the series before, and odd for this kind of “action blockbuster” game. It just works though, setting a tone like this is the last story Drake gets to tell, and you get to make it the kind of story you want it to be.

Journey is the other big game for me personally. Few games have just wrecked me from the inside out. While I’ve only played the game twice ever in my life, I still distinctly remember the tears the game gave me both times in its final moments of just pure bliss and freedom. It’s an incredible story told through visuals and cooperation about the journey of life and death, and it’s visual metaphors are just outstanding.

Few games have made me emotional in the way Journey has, and it absolutely helps to have Austin Wintory’s score on its side. Journey is a full sensory experience, and one I’d even confidently call the Fantasia of video games.

Thank you everyone again so much for participating. These are all incredible and interesting and, even more fascinating, modern examples, that all stand out as real cool ways games can have an affect on you.

The Checklist

Just one this week. And it’s for my boy Roger Pokorny. 

IGN Stories https://t.co/kYGdR5dQCx

Roger is making video essays for IGN in a totally new initiative for them, and he is incredible. He delivers fantastic writing and editing together in a sublime series called The Rogformer show on his YouTube channel, and it’s genuinely incredible to see a big outlet like IGN take him under their wing and allow him to bring that format to their site.

Words don’t do justice how proud of Roger I am. This is a long time coming, and no doubt the first success in a string of them, but it’s absolutely worth reiterating how impressed I am with Roger and his growth. He’s a great friend, and a hard worker, and you should absolutely watch his content. It’s worth it.

THat’s my whole bit. I would have written in some more margins, but I am just simply exhausted. It’s off to sleep land for me, but I hope this alternative version of Sunday Chats is still doing you all well. I know the first iteration got a great response, so here’s hoping for round two!

Anyway, that’s all I got.

Cheers.

Goodnight

keep it real.