#squares research

[dreamy-baku]

Squares Research: Unused Data

With the help of @puyo-puyo-for-real-justice, I’ve gotten some unused dialogue and concept art for Squares. So now it’s time for the research post about all of it, I’ll start with the concept art.

Concept Art

So, Squares has 2 files of concept art on Puyo Nexus, that I’ll assume is all the concept art he and Marle both have.

His first Concept Art and second one look pretty similar. It seems originally that he was to have long hair by default and it not change. And then the second one has him with shorter hair. (It seems propeller hair was always part of his design here)

His third concept art here, seems to have the concept that his hair would grow longer and the cowlick change shape when he activates his powers. Bearing high resemblance to his “Cosmic Rectangle” spell art.

But, he seems to have even older concept art with Marle.

This is likely much older judging my how different his design is here. In this art, he has long hair, no cowlick, some fluffy tuft of furr(?) around his head, floating cubes around him, and his clothes are vastly different. Although heeled shoes seem to still have been part of his design all the way back here.

And it seems like judging by the other art in this image for this design of Squares, his powers apparently hurt him? Due to his face here he looks pained, which technically was kept in the final version of him. (He gains agonizing pain due to going to explode)

Dialogue

Next, we have the unused dialogue to discuss. Which is honestly super interesting, because it gives a whole new perspective of Marle & Squares character, it’s a shame they weren’t kept in the final game.

Tee

You can open up to us. Everyone here is willing to listen. You don't have to carry this burden alone.

Squares

confusion You all stand in the face of destruction. Yet… You're not afraid. You're not angry. I don't understand… Why…?

Marle

Listen, Squares. They're not afraid because that's just who they are. Please… Let's stop this.

Squares

…Never.

Marle

frustration intensifies You're so obtuse, Squares!

Squares

What?

Marle

I said you're obtuse! Stubborn! Hard-headed! Inflexible!

Ringo

Hey, Marle…?

Tee

She finally lost it…

Marle

Everyone here is trying their hardest for YOU! So why do you have to act like this!? I admit, it was my fault all of this started in the first place. But you're taking it WAY too far! And besides, I know what you're up to. You never planned to actually harm anyone here. You were never serious about any of this! Tch… You know what must be done. But you refuse to accept it! And for that… I have to teach you a lesson!

With these bits of unused dialogue, we have a whole new perspective of the story. Here, unlike in the final game, Marle admits to being in the fault, and states that Squares hadn’t truly intended on doing anything he had claimed he would.

But, now, it’s time for a more in-depth analysis of this conversation, and Squares characterization!

For starters, this unused bit of dialogue actually makes Squares seem much younger than what he seems, seeing as he wondered how the heroes weren’t scared, and how his plan wasn’t true. He basically, according to this, lied to the heroes about erasing them. Most likely because he wanted them to listen to him, and, to fix the worlds how they where,

But, unlike in the final game, Marle admits that it was her fault. Meaning despite what he had done, the reason was because Marle didn’t teach him enough, she didn’t let him learn. She could have stopped it by telling him more about her obsession with the Puyo and Tetris worlds after their merge.

But, how do these unused dialogue lines compare and contrast with the final story? Well, I think they are all still true. There are multiple signs in the game that Squares likely didn’t actually plan to hurt them, read here for my explanation. And, it’s still Marle’s fault in the finished game, she just never admits that it is.

But, Tee in the unused dialogue mentions that Squares is burdened with something, likely his feelings and duty. Would that mean that Squares has issues that needs sorted out? Like, why would he just keep how he feels bottled up, sure he was saying he was gonna erase them, but why keep his burdens hidden? Maybe he didn’t or doesn’t want to trouble them - especially Marle?

I find the unused dialogue very interesting, especially how we see Marle take responsibility for what happened. I think in the final game she just let’s people assume it was Squares fault, but in the unused dialogue - she takes responsibility, she created Squares so he is her responsibility to care for. I wish these where kept in, they completely could’ve changed how Marle & Squares are. Especially since they say that Squares basically was just bluffing, cause he wasn’t gonna do anything to them.

But, these basically confirm my theory that Squares was innocent with the events as they aren’t exactly his fault, and that he didn’t intend to hurt anyone. So, I’m happy about that.

Hmm… how would have Puyo Puyo Tetris 2’s ending have gone if the heroes didn’t rescue Squares from his powers making him explode? What if there was a bad ending where the heroes fail and they and Marle watch helplessly as Squares explodes? How would Marle react? How would the music sound? Would have Squares cried right before his demise? So many questions, so little answers…

[spicymancer]

Monster Researcher Eclair reference sheet

[qrowscant]

i wanted a machine guts sweater/shirt so here are some color tests

[chuck-the-goon]

Just spending a bit of time with some more biblically accurate Daniel Molloy.

[deepest-artisan]

💫18+💫

Can we just talk about lilith for a minute ? I have been searching all over the web for information on lilith placements but that's hardly anything ? Wtf ?

I have lilith in the 7th house in aries

Which means that I have troubles with marriage which is true, ive been proposed to 2x in my life and I ran away from both of those offers. I felt trapped. It also means that im quite a selfish lover sometimes. This also means that I tend to attract dangerous people in my love life. Which is true I've had multiple stalkers (not bragging). Or very controlling possessive partners. I tend to attract partners with heavy lilith aspects.

I have lilith square MH which means: clash between personal and societal expectations.

I have lilith op. Asc. Which means: I have to choose between happiness vs. Fam. (I chose happiness), I have a really high sex drive then a really sex drive -celibate. I am due to trauma. It also means that I tend to attract partners who perverted or have addictions which is true. This weirdly means that I have a breast complex, I used to want top surgery bc I am nonbinary but I don't anymore. This means that I have problems with my mother. I do and she tried to kill me so yeah that's bad.

I have a sun square lilith which means: conflicting desires, power struggles, unconventional energy, and inner conflict. But other than that I can't find much else.

If anybody can give me anymore information pls comment down below !

[plumbus-central]

i love imagining scenarios where morty and summer meet rick and minnie when they were their age, whether through time travel, parallel universe, age regression, or some other sci fi nonsense.

god bless him mortys trying hard to relate to his teenage grandmother from the late 70s

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The long bezzle

Going to Defcon this weekend? I’m giving a keynote, “An Audacious Plan to Halt the Internet’s Enshittification and Throw it Into Reverse,” on Saturday at 12:30pm, followed by a book signing at the No Starch Press booth at 2:30pm!

https://info.defcon.org/event/?id=50826

When it comes to the modern world of enshittified, terrible businesses, no addition to your vocabulary is more essential than "bezzle," JK Galbraith's term for "the magic interval when a confidence trickster knows he has the money he has appropriated but the victim does not yet understand that he has lost it"

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/09/accounting-gimmicks/#unter

The bezzle is contained by two forces.

First, Stein's Law: "Anything that can't go on forever will eventually stop."

Second, Keynes's: "Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent."

On the one hand, extremely badly run businesses that strip all the value out of the firm, making things progressively worse for its suppliers, workers and customers will eventually fail (Stein's Law).

On the other hand, as the private equity sector has repeatedly demonstrated, there are all kinds of accounting tricks, subsidies and frauds that can animate a decaying, zombie firm long after its best-before date (Keynes's irrational markets):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/02/plunderers/#farben

One company that has done an admirable job of balancing on a knife edge between Stein and Keynes is Verizon, a monopoly telecoms firm that has proven that a business can remain large, its products relied upon by millions, its stock actively traded and its market cap buoyant, despite manifest, repeated incompetence and waste on an unimaginable scale.

This week, Verizon shut down Bluejeans, an also-ran videoconferencing service the company bought for $400 million in 2020 as a panic-buy to keep up with Zoom. As they lit that $400 mil on fire, Verizon praised its own vision, calling Bluejeans "an award-winning product that connects our customers around the world, but we have made this decision due to the changing market landscape":

https://9to5google.com/2023/08/08/verizon-bluejeans-shutting-down/

Writing for Techdirt, Karl Bode runs down a partial list of all the unbelievably terrible business decisions Verizon has made without losing investor confidence or going under, in a kind of tribute to Keynes's maxim:

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/08/10/verizon-fails-again-shutters-attempted-zoom-alternative-bluejeans-after-paying-400-million-for-it/

Remember Go90, the "dud" streaming service launched in 2015 and shuttered in 2018? You probably don't, and neither (apparently) do Verizon's shareholders, who lost $1.2 billion on this folly:

https://www.techdirt.com/2018/07/02/verizons-sad-attempt-to-woo-millennials-falls-flat-face/

Then there was Verizon's bid to rescue Redbox with a new joint-venture streaming service, Redbox Instant, launched 2012, killed in 2014, $450,000,000 later:

https://variety.com/2014/digital/news/verizon-redbox-to-pull-plug-on-video-streaming-service-1201321484/

Then there was Sugarstring, a tech "news" website where journalists were prohibited from saying nice things about Net Neutrality or surveillance – born 2014, died 2014:

https://www.theverge.com/2014/12/2/7324063/verizon-kills-off-sugarstring

An app store, started in 2010, killed in 2012:

https://www.theverge.com/2012/11/5/3605618/verizon-apps-store-closing-january-2013

Vcast, 2005-2012, yet another failed streaming service (pray that someday you find someone who loves you as much as Verizon's C-suite loves doomed streaming services):

https://venturebeat.com/media/verizon-vcast-shutting-down/

And the granddaddy of them all, Oath, Verizon's 2017, $4.8 billion acquisition of Yahoo/AOL, whose name refers to the fact that the company's mismanagement provoked involuntary, protracted swearing from all who witnessed the $4.6 billion write-down the company took a year later:

https://www.techdirt.com/2018/12/12/if-youre-surprised-verizons-aol-yahoo-face-plant-you-dont-know-verizon/

Verizon isn't just bad at being a phone company that does non-phone-company things – it's incredibly bad at being a phone company, too. As Bode points out, Verizon's only real competency is in capturing its regulators at the FCC:

https://www.techdirt.com/2017/05/02/new-verizon-video-blatantly-lies-about-whats-happening-to-net-neutrality/

And sucking up massive public subsidies from rubes in the state houses of New York:

https://www.techdirt.com/2017/03/14/new-york-city-sues-verizon-fiber-optic-bait-switch/

New Jersey:

https://www.techdirt.com/2014/04/25/verizon-knows-youre-sucker-takes-taxpayer-subsidies-broadband-doesnt-deliver-lobbies-to-drop-requirements/

and Pennsylvania:

https://www.techdirt.com/2017/06/15/verizon-gets-wrist-slap-years-neglecting-broadband-networks-new-jersey-pennsylvania/

Despite all this, and vast unfunded liabilities – like remediating the population-destroying lead in their cables – they remain solvent:

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/verizon-sued-by-investors-over-lead-cables-environmental-statements-2023-08-02/

Verizon has remained irrational longer than any short seller could remain solvent.

Short-sellers – who bet against companies and get paid when their stock prices go down – get a bad rap: billionaire shorts were the villains of the Gamestop squeeze, accused of running negative PR campaigns against beloved businesses to drive them under and pay their bets off:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/30/meme-stocks/#stockstonks

But shorts can do the lord's work. Writing for Bloomberg, Kathy Burton tells the story of Nate Anderson, whose Hindenburg Research has cost some of the world's wealthiest people over $99 billion by publishing investigative reports on their balance-sheet shell-games just this year:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-08-06/how-much-did-hindenburg-make-from-shorting-adani-dorsey-icahn

Anderson started off trying to earn a living as a SEC whistleblower, identifying financial shenanigans and collecting the bounties on offer, but that didn't pan out. So he turned his forensic research skills to preparing mediagenic, viral reports on the scams underpinning the financial boasts of giant companies…after taking a short position in them.

This year, Anderson's targets have included Carl Icahn, whose company lost $17b in market cap after Anderson accused it of overvaluing its assets. He went after the world's fourth-richest man, Gautam Adani, accusing him of "accounting fraud and stock manipulation," wiping out 34% of his net worth. He took on Jack Dorsey, whose payment processor Square renamed itself Block and went all in on the cryptocurrency bezzle, lopping 16% off its share price.

Burton points out that Anderson's upside for these massive bloodletting was comparatively modest. A perfectly timed exit from the $17b Icahn report would have netted $56m. What's more, Anderson faces legal threats and worse – one short seller was attacked by a man wearing brass-knuckles, an attack attributed to her short activism.

Shorts are lauded as one of capitalism's self-correcting mechanisms, and Hindenberg certainly has taken some big, successful swings at some of the great bezzles of our time. But as Verizon shows, shorts alone can't discipline a market where profits and investor confidence are totally decoupled from competence or providing a decent product or service.

I’m kickstarting the audiobook for “The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation,” a Big Tech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and bring back the old, good internet. It’s a DRM-free book, which means Audible won’t carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/10/smartest-guys-in-the-room/#can-you-hear-me-now

[kingofthering]

Some more games since summer is not over yet. Would love to see your choices.

[crossbackpoke-check]

it’s all the rest of what i want with you

connor dewar/brandon duhaime :: 8k

Summary:

“Brandon,” Connor says with a sigh. “There’s no baby in there.”

“Not yet,” Brandon says. Connor feels his stomach twist, almost like what he would imagine a baby kicking to feel like.

in these trying times of dewvorce, may i offer you 8k of pwp inspired by @stillfertile’s wonderful art which i had. several breakdowns about 🫶 anyway please enjoy!!!

[dreamy-baku]

On-Going Research Help

I’d like to know if there’s any unused stuff within the games files or elsewhere for Squares? I’d like to compile a research post based on unused data for him, I bet there has to be something.

If anyone has something, please let me know somehow! I’d compile all the unused data I can into a big research post! (I’ll give credit to you guys don’t worry!)

[quaranmine]

i'm so happy firewatch au is set in the 80s, i say through gritted teeth. it adds to the plot and ambiance of the story so much. it has never caused me any problems ever, i say

it's okay i just needed to get more ✨creative✨

[madamescarlette]

me every time a song began and Rachel Zegler started singing:

[clarenecessities]

took a stab at designing adora’s tattoo from @n7punk‘s OtW series (& forevermore) despite first ones’ language being the worst script in the world bc unfortunately it does make for a pretty dope tattoo

except like. alright. full disclosure. i remembered the words wrong and i wrote ‘to the end’ instead of ‘until the end’ and i tried fixing it like three different ways but none of them look as good. so. please accept this almost-fic-canon-compliant fanart with a grain of salt

[moonspirit]

MAPPA when will you confirm that post-timeskip Armin has an 8-pack? Hm?

Because there is enough real estate here for that.

[winterrose42]

"I can fix him" "i can make him worse"

I can put him in therapy and make him learn communication skills

[dropespeon]

the gravity falls portal loosely resembles the squared circle. this is how i can make gravity falls alchemy au real,