#then proceed to underuse her on the second

[lilisouless]

Sab: Mal has to figure out who he is without Alina, he can’t be defined by his relationship with her

Also Sab: now let’s change some defining traits for Nina in order for her to have no goals, beliefs or important relationships outside Matthias

[littleeyesofpallas]

I think in my hurry to get through the one core rant without getting distracted, I didn't actually outline the Hero's Journey's whole proposed psych model in the first place. I don't want to get too into each of the 17 steps, but the idea of the process it reflects is this:

A boy on the cusp of adulthood must leave the comfort of parental protection/provision, whether he wants to or not. He must seek out the "magic" of an older mentor who has seen and mastered the unknown, and through that mentor they learn an entry level skill that will allow them to navigate the world of adults; but this is not "mastery" and it is not "understanding" it is only the bare bones functionality of mimicry. Understanding comes later. This happens, often, while still in the comfort of the "home" realm, where the dangers of the unknown aren't in play yet. Then they leave for real and confront the shock of an unfamiliar world, of autonomy, and responsibility; for the first time in their life, if something goes wrong, no one is there to help them.

Campbell himself posits this next step can go a few different ways. His standard format suggests the Belly of the Whale, the descent into the darkness of not knowing happens at the threshold itself, comes first. That upon confronting the unfamiliar new reality of adulthood the immediate reaction is to be overwhelmed, and only after addressing that immense pressure and aimlessness does the boy get to proceed out into the world at large with the understanding that out here, he can actually die.

But the alternative to this is that the boy goes from the crossing of the threshold directly into the Road of Trials, putting at his his magic aide's skills to use, and learning new ones, until that momentum of that growth and learning plateaus, and then THAT is the moment in which the hero is consumed unto the Belly of the Whale, not when he first confronts a reality that is beyond him, but when he first realizes that it's beyond him; when the arrogance and ignorance of youth gives way to humility. Here he has been facing danger and challenge but only now does he confront the inevitability of death; he cannot keep conquering the unknown forever.

I prefer the Belly-second format, because unlike the Belly-first form's processing of the idea that he can die, this is the fact that he will die; and then what legacy does he leave behind? And this directly motivates his shifting attention toward...

The Goddess Reconciliation is my problematic fav of this whole thing... Campbell and Jung believed deeply in this old fashioned notion of Anima and Animus, that there was some nearly mystical bioessentiallist quality of explicitly segregated Male and Female psyche, and a lot of that doesn't scan great these days. BUT! Of note is that their fixation on this duality came largely out of the idea that the two, being innately separate and at odds, needed to be balanced for a healthy mind to exist. In the psychospiritual spiritual approach to myth this means the Goddess is in fact a man's inner feminine aspect that need to be appeased and made peace with. And that's actually pretty cool, weird inner-cosmological premise to that aside.

But in regards to the myth as guidance, this is also the step in the journey that I just call Respect Women. Because that's what's being taught. This is the moment that the young boy/young man, until recently high on his own power and accomplishments, and his ongoing conquest of the unknown is confronted by a woman of great power. She resides in a realm above him, and for the first time in his quest he cannot conquer his way through this. He MUST speak with, negotiate, and empathize with this woman and her needs in order to win her favor and approval, and sometimes very literally hand in marriage.

This power she holds over him is often pretty literally the ability to have children, tying back into the newfound need to secure legacy that I mentioned in Belly of the Whale. But it can also be inheritance of fortune, positions of power and rulership, etc... in the realms of mythological and fairytale narratives. But it also reflects the internal idea of the joining of Anima and Animus, in that this marriage in one way or another, material or not, must bring him peace of mind.

Then there's the Woman as Temptress phase, which is woefully underused. Granted it can come across as a bit sexist and cliche in many narratives, and it's easy to see how that doesn't feel "essential" to most Hero Journeys, but I think this is incredibly important. Again, I prefer the Belly-second model in which the hero's conquests naturally lead to arrogance (he's on a winning streak, and he is still just a kid doing all this for the first time; he's never known defeat, so how does he even know when to slow his roll?) and this is a repeat of that; he's learned to please one woman, why not use his tried and true method of learning new skills and putting them to use to please more women? And so his loyalty to his Goddess must be tested in order to teach him moving forward.

This is the trope about Prince Charming being a playboy because his only trait is seducing women, not being good to them --see: Utena's Touga, or Into The Wood's Prince brothers. This is where a man learns not to be a fuckboi.

And then the confrontation with The Father. The legendary big Vader moment. But it's not always a violent confrontation, and it's not always innately negative; at times it can even be a somber affair. A boy must learn to stop idolizing his father, and make peace with the truth that his father is just a man, full of flaws like any other. And by reconciling his father as infallible patriarch and the hero's own process of growth, a boy must learn that to succeed in life he must be more than his father is/was. And this tends to become a violent or literal physical conflict when the father in question is both still alive, and the very literal authority that must be overcome in the name of progress. The patriarch has established a system of order that he sees as preserving the safety and security of the world of the known, and he will protect that system even as it begins to fall apart. And as a man, not longer a boy, but a peer to his father the hero has to show the father that he is no longer the unquestioned arbiter and effectively take his place.

In this the boy becomes man, hero attains some kind of enlightenment, sees some deep truth to the world and now knows with some clarity what is best for the world. An arrogant assertion to be sure, but internal to the journey at hand it makes enough sense... Because with this understanding the Hero also discovers or distills the mysteries of this wild realm of the unknown into The Ultimate Boon: a tool or a symbol of the skills learned, that can be replicated or utilized even without the hero's personal level of understanding. And this thing must be delivered back to the mundane so that the next generation of children can use it to expand their realm of the known further into what had before been unknown; each subsequent generation of hero expanding the collective knowledge and understanding of the community as a whole.

And Hero must also often learn selflessness. This kind of comes into play more often when there isn't the innate establishment of a desire to foster a legacy that will out last him. In this case the Hero needs to be talked into going home, because the alternative is that he continues to dwell in this state of perfection. But if he lives out his life like this, he will die as just a singular man rather than the Hero of a people. This in turn motivate the Rescue in which someone has to break into his little bubble of personal accomplishment to bring him back. Yet again his ego must be tested, and he must be humbled.

And then he goes back home, he's a Master of Two Worlds, the known and unknown alike, and he delivers The Boon to the common people so their lives can be made better by it. He earns the Freedom to Live and melds back into a mundane civilian life, as a productive member of his society, as a father, and eventually as a new hero's Magical Aide and old wizened mentor.

Shit.. I let this get away from me and shifted my whole rhetoric halfway in... >:/ My point wasn't to outline the mythic structure but the psychological one. So let me try to just summarize briefly now:

A boy needs to leave the comfort of home. He has to learn many new skills, starting with being taught by a teacher. He has to learn his limitations, finality and fatality. To secure a legacy he seeks a wife; to get a wife he must respect women; to keep a wife he must not be a fukboi. He must be a better father than his was. He must learn to want to give back to his community, and then return with knowledge and/or resources to better said community. He assumes a mundane life, he has kids who will grow up as he did; he'll be their father to overcome, and their mentor to learn from in time.

↑This is the Hero's Journey that Campbell became so fixated on, and that George Lucas maybe kind of oversold and muddled with film savvy, but that the original Star Wars still managed to embody and launch into the public consciousness. This is the Hero's Journey I wish more people would talk about and engage with, rather than the color-by-numbers nonsense that it's been reduced to.

[msbeccieboo]

Arrow 7x20 Brain Dump

I liked this week’s offering!! We got our little ninja Roy back!! Like last week, however, it felt out of place in the season, where was this goodness when we were still mucking about with the Dragon nonsense mid-season?? For me it was lacking in Oliver, and sorely missing Olicity scenes, given our finite time 😭, but was still a good episode overall! I liked how the team transpired to be working as a true unit, for once (only after some persuading from Oliver)! In fact, it was so hard to break up the episode this week, as it was such a team-focused story.

Episode Summary

We had some serious Agatha Christie vibes going on, the story told in a classic whodunnit style. The bulk of the plot was told through flashback *cue sepia* and was interspersed with Dinah interrogating the team one by one in real time.  The fact that the officer was killed using lead piping also tickled me a lot 😂.

The show opens with Dinah and Sergeant Bingsley arriving at a crime scene with the bodies of 2 subway guards. It then cuts to them questioning the first of ‘the suspects’, who turns out to be none other than…Oliver Queen!  Dun dun duuuuunn!!! Oliver denies killing the officers, saying that Team Arrow actually stopped a terrorist attack by Emiko and the Ninth Circle. After questioning Oliver, we realise that besides Team Arrow, there was also someone else there at the scene…ROY HARPER!!!

By flashback, we realise that the team discovered that the Ninth Circle intended on using the bioweapon we saw last week to ‘destroy the city’ or something like that (I can’t say I was 100% on the ball with the backstory this week guys 😂😂). In order to deal with this threat, they call in our favourite parkouring ninja street fighter ROY!!!!!

Source: arsenalroy

Continued below the cut

Dinah and Bingsley (ugh, I hate him) interview all of the team, including Roy, during the course of the episode as we see the story unfold. It appears as if Dinah had no involvement in the operation and is looking to put one of the team away for the murders, but in a somewhat predictable ‘twist’, it is revealed that she was there as the Black Canary for the whole thing, and so is still a suspect herself!

Source: lucyyh 💗

Back in the sepia times, we see the team, including Felicity and now also Dinah, move in to stop the threat, eventually all separating off, as we hear the guards’ defensive shots, and see all of them reacting in turn (I really liked this part…so dramatic!). We then see my sweet baby Roy, battering the guards with the lead piping in a violent rage. Oliver manages to drag him away, horrified and covered in blood, but it is too late, the guards are dead, and everyone looks to Oliver to decide what to do next.

Back at the lair, Oliver realises that Roy has pit-rage, asking him “how did you die” (that murdered me😭). Nyssa had administered the lotus elixir to cure him, but they think his previous exposure to Mirakuru somehow stopped the rage from killing him, but let the rage remain to an extent. This somewhat explained why he doesn’t go into a coma whilst marooned on Lian Yu for 20 years, with noone to kill. Oliver tells Roy, and the others, that Roy is part of the Team and they will cover for him, and thus all the interrogations etc. are explained.

At the end of the Episode, Oliver finally confronts Emiko at the Ninth Circle’s base. Emiko drops the figurative and literal bombshell on Oliver that she knowingly sent Robert off to his death, then proceeds to blow up the building they are in, leaving Oliver trapped under cement blocks and rebar ALL THE REBAR!!  THE TOMMY FEELS GUYS I CAN’T EVEN 😭😭😭

Source: olicitygifs

To be continued 😱😱😱…. 

Olicity

What even is an Olicity? We got next to nothing this week, no glorious episode 20 sexy times, no conversation, no Olicity-only scenes, no kiss, no hug😡. We got a couple of cute touchy moments but that was it. Bitter, you ask? Fuck yes, I am! Hopefully we can make up for this with some hurt/comfort next week, but anyway, let’s look at some pretty!

Source: lucyyh 💗

Source: feilcityqueen

Felicity

Felicity Megan Smoak was a dream in this episode. Start to finish. Fabulous! Would I have liked to have seen more of her? Hell to the yes, she was for sure underused in this episode, but what we did get was perfection!!! Her adorable reunion with Roy, barging past Oliver to attack hug him 😂😂

Source: feilcityqueen

Her whole babble about her emotions was hilarious; “Nerves of Steel. You know me. I’m cool.” How no one else guessed she’s pregnant I will never know, but Roy did kinda raise his eyebrows, so my head canon says he guessed, until they tell me otherwise!

Source: felicitysmoakgifs

Felicity dragging Dinah during her own interrogation was beautiful! From her pointed nonchalance at the entire situation, all whilst eating a sandwich and asking for cake (god I love her so much), to her constant corrections, to “Oh, you mean when Diaz kidnapped Roy to try to turn him against Oliver? You might have forgotten about that since you weren’t exactly on speaking terms with Oliver and I at the time” YAAAASSSS burn herrrrr!!!!!

Source: seeing-red-arrow

I loved that we saw her in the field again, side-by-side with her original and new team mates. I’m so pleased that even though we didn’t get a heap of Felicity, they really used her as much as the style of the episode permitted.

Bonus one-liners:

“That’s a no on the evil sister redeeming herself then”

“Roy is incredible at parkour” 

😂😂😂

Oliver

We really needed more Oliver in this episode. The storyline should be ramping up and focusing in on Oliver (and the core characters) at this point in the season, and Oliver was in the episode for no more than anyone else, really.

Source: olicitygifs

His highlights for me, beyond a doubt, were his interactions with Roy. I missed this relationship so much!! In many ways, Roy was Oliver (and Felicity’s) first child. He brought Roy into this life, he helped to guide him, to nurture his existing abilities and passed on skills that he had learned. He saved Roy from himself and The Glades, and in return Roy saved Oliver right back, giving him back a part of his humanity that Oliver had long thought lost back in the dark days of seasons 1 and 2, and literally saving him from a life sentence in S3. These men became family not through Thea, but through their bond within Team Arrow.

Oliver didn’t hesitate for a second to declare “we have to protect him”, when they found Roy killing the guards. He knew right away about the pit, defending him against Rene and Dinah when they didn’t want to cover for him at first (shocker), telling them they didn’t understand what he’d been through, that “Roy is and always will be as much a part of this team as the rest of us” and reiterating that “if someone on this team goes down, this entire team goes down.” When he speaks to Roy about what happened, Roy doesn’t initially want to ask for Oliver’s help, but Oliver simply tells him “you never have to ask me, ever”. Ugh I LOVE THEM SO MUCH!!!!

Source: smoakmonster

Something also finally seemed to click for Oliver this week, that he could not help Emiko, that she needs taking into custody. I loved his words to Rene “at a certain point, people need to take responsibility for their actions”, YES MY LOVE!!! I can’t wait to see how he reacts to Emiko next week and in the finale, now that he realises how far gone she is, and that she effectively set him on this path 12 years ago, killing their father, and sentencing Oliver to his time on the island etc.

Source: olivergifs

Dig

Dig was criminally underused in this episode. He had barely any interactions with Roy, despite their history, his interrogation was super brief, and we barely saw him in the field. DO BETTER WRITERS! We’re running out of OTA time!!

Source: feilcityqueen

Roy

ARSENAL IS BACK BITCHES!!! I love Roy Harper. Always have, always will. Sooo glad to see him in the current timeline! He looked so happy to be back with his family too! I’m glad that they explained Thea’s absence (they called for Roy specifically) and talked about how she was doing. Oliver was honest with Roy straight-up about Emiko, and explained how he didn’t want to tell Thea about her until she was caught, as he didn’t want to hurt her by Robert’s actions again, especially now she’s free of her life in Star City.

I love, and actually screamed when Felicity acknowledged Roy’s parkour! They specifically used his bouncy-bouncy ninja skills to break into the vault. However, I will still never get enough of Roy’s unnecessary parkour haha, and we got to see a little of that during his fights, and it still made me smile!!

Roy’s reaction to his pit-rage was heart-breaking. This was worse than when he found out about killing the police officer on Mirakuru. I can see these killings (and I’m hoping maybe even Emiko, also) being what sends him to self-exile on Lian Yu, where we found him 20 years later in the flash forwards.

Dinah/Rene/Emiko (a.k.a. the annoyances)

Dinah remains fucking annoying! Even turning out to be in on the act in the end, it was so easy to buy into her trying to send down anyone and everyone on the team for this crime because she is just generally a shitty disloyal person!

Likewise with Rene. It was easy as the viewer to believe that he had ratted out Oliver again, because he’s done it before, and I have no doubt he would do it again. Neither he nor Dinah wanted to help Roy at first. That they needed reminding by Oliver about how protecting one of the team protects all of them, just reiterates how they are not true team players and why most of the fandom still doesn’t class them as real members of Team Arrow.

Regarding Emiko and Rene…Rene basically just stalked Emiko for half the season, they are not ‘close’, ugh, stop! Emiko gets bonus points for shooting Rene when he confronts her! I actually didn’t mind how they used Emiko this week, she appeared only when necessary, and moved the story on. I still can’t take her seriously as the big bad of the season, but it is what it is. Emiko will stop at nothing to take down the Queens (which at this point is quite frankly just stupid), and her latest dastardly deed is to bury Oliver under a building (from behind a protective wall, because she knows that’s the only way she would escape Oliver) to ‘kill him’ and then to destroy his reputation on the outside by outing the video footage of him covering up for Roy.

With no flash forwards this week, I just can’t help think of all the extra time we had, and that extra time was spent on Dinah and Rene *violently rolls eyes*, when we could have had more OTA & Roy (my favourite combination)! Anyway, next week looks awesome!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to the gif-makers! I love you more than Roy loves excessive back flips 😉

💗💗💗

[bullets-and-masks]

Thoughts on Borderlands 2: The Beggining - Introducing Handsome Jack

Alright, so, this will escape a little from the characters analysis I usually do, but I want to talk about The Writing in Borderlands 2 and how it weaves game mechanics and story together.  More specifically, I want to talk about how we’re first introduced to Jack after the intro, and how we discover there are side quests dropped by enemies - and how this tells us that secrets hidden in the game world can teach us more about the characters.  And then how the game pulls the rug from under the player just when you’re starting to enjoy Jack, because it all has to be clear - he’s the enemy and he’s despicable. (and then how it was criminally underused! jk idk about that but I might)

Alright! Let’s start with the dialogue and story.  When we first begin BL2, there’s the intro. We learn about each character, hear a bomb song and then get bombed ourselves. Jack shows up a decoy, but doesn’t say much; most of his character is still eerie and fun, conveyed through the train billboards and the animatronic himself.  A lot happens and when we’re finally leaving Liar’s Berg to get to Sanctuary alongside Claptrap, Jack comes up on the ECHO.  It’s the Butt Stallion dialogues.  The first actual words from our enemy are: “Hey! How -- ah, these pretzels suck… So, how’s your day been, buddy? We haven’t really talked much since I left you for dead. (...)” And so we think; man this guy is fun! Sure he’s the villain, the one we’ll have to defeat and disregards our life, but he’s the villain. Still fun. Pretty cool.  Now, here’s the thing. If you’re anything like me, you killed the pyscho that runs towards us when we go down Liar’s slope after the gate. This psycho dropped an ECHO. You picked it up.  It’s the Handsome Jack here! mission. In this mission, we go back to Liar’s Berg and find some lost ECHOs about what happen to Helena Pierce, a Crimson Raider lieutenant that was trying to get people from the conquered New Haven to Sanctuary.  But, also, if you’re anything like me, the bandits were shooting, you’re playing a game, you don’t back of from such a small area before cleaning it, so no one is shooting your back. Cleaning all the bandits in the first small area triggers Jack’s second dialogue, that goes as follows:  “I’m rackin’ my brain trying to think of a name for that diamond pony I bought. I was gonna call it ‘piss-for-brains’ in honor of you, but that just feels immature. Maybe… ‘Butt Stallion’? Nah, that’s even worse. Tell ya what, I’ll give it some more thought.” Butt Stallion, the diamong pony. It’s a childish, dumb joke. It’s literaly just heheh butt. But, we’re surprised. This enemy is filthy rich. He can throw money around in crap and name it after crap just to be petty. He doesn’t value what he has or anything else; all that matters is his own amusement.  And it’s pretty funny. Alright, he’s an ass, so?  But then, you look up right and the side mission is still there. Find the ECHOs.  Here is where the game mechanics comes up. The ECHOs don’t just come up. Hammerlock doesn’t ask us to find them before we find the first one. We kill an enemy and they drop the first ECHO and the call for the side mission. So we learn:  1. Side missions can be dropped by enemies - the mechanic  2. Exploring the world further will review more secrets - the story  1.5. The mission is also about general way points and looking for itens, so an extra mechanic that you learn. Just something neat.  In picking up the ECHOs, we find out Jack not only killed Helena Pierce and all the survivors she had with her, but that he also took time to humiliate her at the expense of her appearence and her fate. "Oh yeah? How about this - lady? - I don't even know what to call you: you tell me why you look like you headbutted a belt sander, and I'll let all of you go right now." He even used the lifes of people she was trying to protect to bargain that she humiliated herself. He’s not really interested, and from Pierce’s tone it’s clear that she knows he’s not - Jack just wants to hear about her suffering before causing more of it. We learn that Jack kills Pierce, and all the people she was trying to move.We also hear Jack calling the survivors savages:  “(...) Wilhelm? Kill these savages." Which is the first indicator that Jack doesn’t actually distinguish between bandits and non-fighter people, and just kills those that are not followers. We turn in the mission.  Then we proceed to meet Claptrap where we left him, and eventually Jack’s next call comes up.  “I should probably clarify -- the diamond horse I’ve been telling you about? It’s not a sculpture, or anything. It’s a living horse that actually happens to be made of -- actually, I’ll just go get her, Butt Stallion! Say hello.” Butt Stallion actually makes a sound, confirming it’s a live horse.  And that’s funny but also scary as well. A live diamong pony; how? Why?  All because Jack can. We knows this is a man with infinite power, a lot of time on his hands and a complete lack of empathy. He’s cold, calculating, inconsequential and childish as well.  It’s not so funny anymore. 

In Conclusion/TL;DR: 

The way the beggining of BL2 weaves together character dialogue and an extra game mechanic builds up in real time the nuances of the game villain, shaping Jack from a funny man with personal interests and loose morals to someone that’s outright easier to call evil. It’s a great enemy introduction because it tells us about the most important facets of Jack, while also letting us know that he’s also a part of the Borderlands brand humor, and that that doesn’t make him less bad. The fact that the mechanic itself is about paying attention to details and going after more information is also the way of the game to tell us not to take anything at face value and strive to learn more before taking conclusions. It’s important that these are not just voiceovers or a mission given outright, and actually a special mechanic of finding and searching, because the player automatically dives deeper into what’s happening if it’s part of the story they’re playing/living in, and feels less like a commentary for the game.  The Rant:  MAN!! Underused!! Searching for extra ECHOs and knowing enemies can drop them is really cool. Borderlands has a lot of story and lore and this all could’ve been used more aside from Taggart’s mission and the Fridge’s goliath. I know there are side missions given by characters to search for ECHOs and ECHOs spread around some areas like the Dust or Sanctuary, but I still think they could’ve been better woven in the gameplay and feel more like discovering the secrets. Yet another thing to think about! 

[capntholaf]

The Sexy Brutale

Steam’s goofing out on me, so I’m saving my review of The Sexy Brutale here for now.

NOTE: This is a sale game, for sure. For reasons I'll go into below, I really can't justify the full £15 price tag, but it is absolutely worth playing and supporting otherwise.

The Sexy Brutale is a cunning murder mystery wrapped in cabaret drapings, set in an elegant casino mansion that positively oozes with style and decedance. You play a silent priest, Lafcadio Boone, who sees his friends and fellow guests murdered in macabre and beautiful fashion, and must then make use of Majora's Mask style time looping to prevent these grizzly crimes.

Myself, and many others I'm sure, were drawn to The Sexy Brutale by its aesthetic. Like any house of vice and splendor should be, The Sexy Brutale boasts a gorgeous art style filled with warped paintings, haunting statues, and a colourful menagerie of fun characters. The graphical fidelity is pretty tame, which isn't an issue since the excellent art style carries the visual factor excellently on its own. The music is similarily fantastic, with some great jazzy swing tunes throughout the mansion, and some tracks even boast alluring and weirdly haunting vocals to boot. It's a shame then that the rest of the game's sound design is so lacking. Environmental sounds don't really have the satisfying effect the rest of the game's atmosphere deserves, and footsteps (as well as a few other noises) are obnxiously loud. Cranking the music volume up to full helps alleviate this, but it doesn't change the fact that so many of these wonderfully orchestrated death traps are punctuated with what seem to be bog standard stock sound effects from shoddy radio dramas.

This, unfortunately isn't the only area where the game falls flat. I went in expecting devious puzzles and machinations to match the game's glorious set dressing, but was sorely dissapointed by what I ended up with. To put it bluntly, the game is painfully easy. Each of the guests is killed in a shocking and gruesome manner, ways that leave you expecting a Rube Goldberg machine level of complexity behind what leads to the deed itself. Instead, it seems the staff of The Sexy Brutale couldn't manage anything beyond moving an object to a different room, or flicking a switch; seriously, I solved a lot of these puzzles by complete accident. You shadow guests until the moment of their demise, then restart the day and throw an obvious spanner in the works, and its never a satisfying solution. The first puzzle after the tutorial is a prime example. [spoiler] You follow a woman until she dies, picking up the password for the room she's skilled in as you go. To save her you... turn on CCTV camera in the room so that her husband will see, and run off to save her. It never gets more complex than that/ [/spoiler] Puzzles lack any twist or change in mechanics to dupe you, or make you think twice about what you're doing. You do unlock more 'Mask Powers' by saving the guests, but they feel criminally underused and many aren't particularily inventive ([spoiler] one litterally allows you to save the game, whilst another just gives you lore info on the rooms [/spoiler]).The gameplay as a whole is just underwhelming.

It isn't just the puzzles either, getting around the mansion itself is nothing more than a chore. The layout is confusing, and filled with seemingly random contrivances that stop you from easily navigating the place; on several occasions I had to spend a frustrating amount of time backtracking and following long, linear paths to get back to an area, constantly being met with roadblocks. You're left feeling frustrated and bored, rather than the feeling of accomplishment you'd get by finding shortcuts with the mask powers you unlock along the way. Add to this the fact that the game has a tendancy to glitch out and freeze for a few seconds whenever you enter a door (which is A LOT) and the whole experience is soured. The game has so many opportunities to give the player better ways to navigate, but all these tricks are missed. I wouldn't be surprised if this was to pad out the playtime, which was only around 6 hours for me. Short playtimes aren't a bad thing, but the content has to make up for it, which it simply doesn't here. There are a bunch of collectables to find which do unlock a few more secrects and background lore, but for me, the gameplay wasn't attractive enough to merit searching for them instead of just googling the info. Don't expect a fun treasure hunt to enhance the gameplay either; these collectables are mostly just found in the environment, which basically equates to examining everything you can as you go.

It's tragic that the gamplay is such a letdown, because as I've said, the presentation is terrific; what makes it worse is that the story buried beneath it all is equally wonderful. The Sexy Brutale keeps you hooked through the turgid gameplay with its mystery and allure. Who's behind this devious plot? Who is the mysterious blood-soaked woman who urges you to proceed? What is the source of the supernatural and magical elements at play in this glamorous casino mansion? Unlike the puzzles, all of these questions have satisfying conclusions, and the final stages of the game's plot are genuinely thrilling, and even emotional. Sadly this doesn'y permeate through the rest of the game. Though wonderfully designed, the guests and staff of The Sexy Brutale are rather flat and unmemorable, with most of their actual character seeming to be locked in a game's lore 'brochure'. You do get some fun conversations between the guests, but it's too little too late. By the time you've moved on to the next guest in need of saving, the previous ones are already forgotton. You can still hear their scheduled deaths from anywhere in the mansion as you progress, but you'd be hard-pressed to actually care, which is a frightful shame and another of the game's missed opportunities. Again, this is doubly tragic because of how well the game wraps up, and it pains me to think how much more emotional it could have been if the guests were given more time to flourish. As great as the final act is, it also comes a bit out of nowhere. The game was over before I knew it, and it feels like there should have been more hints seeded throughout the game to really let the player explore the mystery for themselves. It's still a great story with some good thematics, but that story seems to be absent for most of the game.

To summarise, The Sexy Brutal is a game that desperately needed another good few months, if not a year of extra development. The game constantly teases you each time you restart the clock, 'Saturday', but Sunday never comes. It makes me wonder if the game was cut short in production? A few more days to explore would have allowed players to become much more attached to and familiar with the characters and mansion, allowed for more difficult puzzles to present themselves as the game progressed, and would have given ample opportunity for some more clues to the final act to be hidden around the mansion. Instead, this feels like the proof of concept for a larger, more satisfying work. And if that game is ever released, you can sign me right up, and thats why I still feel happy to recommend the game, but only at a sale price. It's a game full of charm, flair, and intruige, all dolled up with sultry penache, but one that leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to substance. Quite fittingly for its decadent setting, it's very much the gaming equivilent to a one night stand. You'll enjoy youself and might even revisit it one day, but it's not one you'll be falling for; that said, I'll be spending a while pondering what might have been. If only...

P.S. If you finish the game, I can't recommend Steam user Skirlasvoud's breakdown and analysis of the plot enough, fantastic stuff. Don't read until you've finished though, because there are of course HEAVY spoilers, and the plot itself is certainly worth experiencing. https://steamcommunity.com/app/552590/discussions/0/135514402720983757/

[furederiko]

A School of Stars!!! Time to go back to class... or in Kyuranger's case, HALF of its members actually attends one! NOTE: This recap-view could have been released much sooner. In fact, I had planned to publish it several days earlier, since the show didn't air last Sunday. But as always, my health got in the way that I simply couldn't finish this piece until... just now. My body and bad weathers are definitely at odds with each other... T_T

- "Uchu Sentai Kyuranger: High School Wars" is a spin-off from the recently released "Episode of Stinger" V-Cinema bluray. This web-series is made available on TOEI Tokusatsu Fan Club app on September 9th, 2017, and will be concluded by a special 5th episode to be released on DVD. Technically, both "High School Wars" and "Episode of Stinger" CAN be regarded as unofficial 49th and 50th episode (though the latter alone has the duration of more). - If we put all currently available "High School Wars" episodes into one, it serves as a full 22.42 minutes feature, which is the average length of a weekly broadcast. Episode 1 (including opening, excluding credits and preview) is 5.12 minutes, Episode 2 is 05.40, Episode 3 is 6.20, and Episode 4 is 5.30 minutes. - Each episodes for "High School Wars" is called 'Period'. In chronological order, they can be generally translated as "Morning Assembly" (Chourei) , "Art Class" (Bijutsu), "Science Class" (Rika), "Physical Education" (Taiiku), and "Suplementary Exam" (Suishi). - For the record, this recap-view does not cover the last one, because as far as I know, it's not released yet (nor has an official release date). It might however, plays out in parallel to the "Episode of Stinger" storyline. FYI, the plot of its first 4 episodes bleeds directly to that V-Cinema story. A direct prologue, if you will. Anyway, I'll be recap-viewing these 4 available episodes separately below (in the style of my take on "Kamen Rider Build"). Read on...

01 - "Commander's Mischief"

- Rebellions sans Tsurugi, receive an undercover mission by Commander Xiao. Their destination is Planet 3B (TV-Nihon, to which this review is based, fansubbed it as such, eventhough other outlets called it as 'Sleeby' or 'Sleevy') of the Norma System. Jark Matter has installed their largest education facility, obviously using one to brainwash people to be their minions. Our Away Team is sent to inflitrate and defeat its Malistrate. - The name of this planet is clearly a shoutout to actor Tetsuya Takeda's popular drama series "3-nen B-gumi Kinpachi-sensei". Raptor even mimics the gesture of Takeda's character when she utters its name. This is a well-known and popularly used gag in Japanese entertainment. Pretty much most if not all parody shows have included nods to this long-running show. - Best part of this episode, is when an unusually giddy Xiao practically spills the bean about one important thing: that the Kyulette system is rigged. As it turns out, he's been hiding the Kyu Globes of several members to ensure the outcome for the rest! And Raptor says, that it's NOT the first time. LOL. Even better, he claims that it's due to "conditions to production", a statement that sounds 'odd' to the others, but works so darn well as a brilliant joke to us audience. I've said before, how Xiao is parroting like a TOEI executive or producer. This is yet another very meta-joke that reinforces that notion! Also, do you notice that the first selected Away Team consists of all suit-characters and not the human ones? There's this unconfirmed fact that it's considerably cheaper to use voice + suit actors instead of the young talents. Hence... productional conditions. LOL. - As much as I would love to see the entire cast wearing school uniforms (Raptor has prepared for ALL of them, Garu's in particular looks Yankee-cool), Kyulette actually ends up choosing all the human cast. Human-looking one of course, if we factor the case of Stinger. All dressed up to portray different kind of student stereotypes, the Away Team heads to Planet 3B. While at the same time, Xiao needs to do some explaining to Champ, Garu, and Balance. - By the way, Raptor's comment that it would be nice to wear uniform, could be a neat callback to when her voice actress dressed up as a maid in one of Go-kaiger's episode. Notice that she's wearing Spada's chef-hat while saying this? So sweet. And Balance's concern about Naga and brainwashing is certainly a jab to his Dark-Naga arc. Lucky's outfit and the high school angle in general, in a way serves as a homage to "Denji Sentai Megaranger" as well. Don't forget, it was the first season/series that aired on 07.30 JST, while Kyuranger is the last to air on the schedule.

Comment: This was undeniably my favorite episode of these web-series. Not just because every members are onboard, but the jokes were simply spot-on, and I just love all those the minor details included here. Especially that brilliant nod to "Kinpachi-sensei" that I didn't catch on my first viewing.

02 - "How Great Thou Art"

- Our Away Team arrives on the facility, and the web-series' face-slapping running gag starts here. Each time the school bell rings, the boys instantly get brainwashed. Lucky becomes lazy, Stinger is all smiley and giggly, Naga is twitching, Spada mopes like a fish, and Kotarou looks... high. Yikes! That's disturbing to see. Hammy is luckily wearing a headset (appropriately in green), most likely listening to Hoshi Minato's song. Thus she gets the privilege to... ugh, slap the others back to their senses. - Their first 'enemy' is Student Council President Indaver, voiced by... *drumrolls* Yousuke Itou, who is none other than Deka Green Sen-chan himself! This is his second participation in Kyuranger, following that minor guest appearance in the "Space Squad" crossover episode. The Indaver points out Naga's silver hair and Hammy as violation to the all-boys school. He challenges the team for a three-rounds duel. - Subject is... ART. Lucky wins the first, eventhough his painting doesn't resemble like the model. Spada loses the second, but he most definitely wins the joke of the day by drawing a delectable fruit parfait as his rendition of a basket of fruits. His chef jokes, smooth catchy foreign phrases, and dandy mannerism never ceases to amaze me. "Originality is vital in cooking!", he says. LOL. Naga is up to do the last task, and it has the most challenging model: the idol Hoshi Minato! Turning this episode into a small "Magiranger vs Dekaranger" flick. - Of course, the final duel's result plays for laughs, as Minato chooses Naga's more gorgeous shoujo-manga rendition as the result, compared to Council President's more realistic one. Angry about this, Council President tries to attack Naga, but Minato hands him the #59 Pictor Kyu Globe to... paint the Indaver's defeat. Ouch! Minato then leaves the room by repeatedly saying "THANK YOU"... or "SAN-KYU" in Japanese. Get it? 3-9? :D - Minato's appearance is nice and all, considering he's underused in the TV series. Unfortunately, it also serves as the most problematic aspect of this web-series. Particularly, in 'WHEN' this series take place. As I said on the extra note for episode 35, Hoshi still has the creepy puppet on his shoulder here. The general assumption is that he's still under the influence of Don Armage. Am I right? But why does he hand out a Kyu Globe then? It does NOT make sense. This action implies that Minato's already a supporter for the Kyuranger, because he's been rallying against Jark Matter since episode 36. Then again, it contradicts the fact that he can even walk freely into this school! Why would Jark Matter let him in if he's supporting the Rebellion, right? - The easiest way to address this, is by ignoring two things: First, the puppet's significance. Hoshi clearly has ditched it ever since he was freed from control, so let's just assume he put it back in as... I don't know, random accessory? Second, Hammy's odd reaction, as if she hasn't met Hoshi before inspite of the aftermath of Pavo's Got Talent. Let's just assume she's fangirling or something. These two measures will allow this spin-off to take place AFTER episode 35, so it makes more sense. Probably not BEFORE episode 36 though... because well, let's just say, the ending of "Episode of Stinger" will contradict this even further. Does that sound confusing? Oh well, let's just proceed to the next period for now...

Comment: In general, it's a fun episode with both Spada and Naga being the episode's MVP. Not to mention, that brief yaoi slur between Magi Yellow and Ophiucus Silver would make their respective fans glee in fangasmic joy. Unfortunately, as I've pointed out above, it's also a major flaw in design. Placing this web-series in the continuity have become... conflicting, all thanks to this one episode. Such a big shame, because the show has been VERY good at keeping things in check prior to this.

03 - "The 88 Quiz"

- Spada and Kotarou discover that they are all trapped inside the classroom. The only way to get out, is by defeating the next 'enemy' that comes walking in. Oh, yes... there's that face-slapping bit again. Yeesh, this gag gets tired REALLY FAST. - Next subject that our Away Team needs to overcome... is Science. In charge of this subject, is the female Vice Principal Indaver, who apparently is the mother of the Student Council President. This one isn't voiced by a Super Sentai alumn, but by Sakura Miyajima from Project R. who... is also a Super Sentai Super-Fan. Duh? - And the new task involves... massive information dump! This is the infamous episode that basically confirms ALL entries of the 88 Kyu Globes. Yes, the listing has been kept wrapped as a tight mystery ever since the show started, yet this one decides to blatantly ignore that restriction and unveils all of them in one strike. Thus, we get a detail Constellation Systems shoutout from #01 Leo until #88 Puppis (Argo Navis and the special ones are not included). LOL. By the way, did you know that the naming is deliberately done in Japanese and not Latin, to avoid similarity to "Saint Seiya"? Tom Constantine of The Tokusatsu Network recently shared this enlightening fact. - What strikes me as peculiar here... is that Tsurugi hasn't been around or even mentioned thus far. Even during this Constellation quiz, Phoenix isn't referenced to him, eventhough Hammy clearly points out the Argo components. It gives off another conflicting impression, that this web-series takes place before Tsurugi's debut in episode 21. I might be reading too much on this, but what if... the web-series was filmed before Tsurugi's actor join the team? On the other hand, Naga's emotion clearly indicates that it at least takes place after episode 31. See? Contradictory indeed! - Anyway, Kotarou gets to be the focus of this episode, because the final 4 missing Constellations relies heavily on his educational background. As in, only those who goes to school SHOULD know them. Hmmmm... really? I'd argue that's not entirely accurate (you'll see why... on the next part), but... let's just play along. - Vice Principal is defeated, hence the big baddie shows up to confront our team. Not only Principal Indaver is the wife of Vice Principal and naturally father of Student Council, and the Malistrate of Planet 3B, but he's also voiced by Yousuke Itou. "There are logistical reasons for why our faces are the same", he says, practically screaming "budgetary limitations" to our ears. His spotlight is saved for the next episode, as a seventh Kyuranger member joins in... simply because his inclusion will be necessary. How so? Read on...

Comment: Biggest highlight from this episode, is undeniably the complete listing to EVERY Kyu Globes. Whether the ones that have been used, or haven't in any form of the series (TV, V-Cinemas, Summer Movie, and/or random sweepstakes). Sadly, it came bringing another continuity issue, though not as massive as the previous one. It's enough to bother me to the bones though...

04 - "Useless Kyu Globes"

- We have arrived in the final part... considering the 5th episode is called 'Suplementary'. And things get... physical this time around. A Super Sentai episode needs to contain a fully-suited action sequence, as well as giant mecha battle. This is where we get both for "High School Wars". Well, one half of it, to be precise. - That 7th Kyuranger I mentioned above? Who else but Champ. But why is his inclusion (and not any other members) necessary? Because... he's the lead supporting character in "Episode of Stinger", being its lead protagonist's partner and all. For your information, this episode directly cuts to the V-Cinema, so Champ's presence is urgently required. So nope, he's not just there because Chamaeleon Green's slap-fest no longer in effect to cure the pesky brainwashing gag. - By the way, Champ arrives wearing a delinquent-style costume. Similar to the one worn by Gentarou of "Kamen Rider Fourze", or Jousuke in "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable". If only we can see the others in their cosplays too. - Those 4 supposedly school-related Constellations? The Kyurangers actually utilize their Kyu Globes in the battle against a kendo-based Principal Indaver, so it's time to talk about... why I have issues with them. I can give #49 Circinus and #46 Norma a pass, because compass (the mathematical tool, NOT one used for navigation... that's assigned to Pyxis) and ruler are used at school, eventhough Norma is specifically a Carpenter's Level. But #79 Sextans and #80 Octans? Both Sextant and Octant are navigational tools generally used for NAVAL exploration. How on Earth would Kotarou knew or even used them both at school?! He must have gone to a VERY advanced school if that's the case. Because even a guys as old as me have NEVER seen neither one directly with my own pair of eyes. - Apart from Norma, these Kyu Globes are practically... useless. The Away Team can't even use most of them. Norma somehow works because Leo Red is miraculously able to use it as a finishing move. I'd argue that being in the Norma System is the sole reason, hence it gets a spontaneous power up. But let's not be bothered by such useless details... - Our final special cameo appears, this time in person. Kouta!!! I mean... Kouhei Yamamoto a.k.a. Hurricane Yellow himself appears as the school's Chairman. Like most if not all cast members of "Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger" (and also "Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger", hence Sen-chan's participation), Yamamoto is well-known for his loyalty to Super Sentai franchise. He's one of the reason why we even had that "Hurricaneger 10 Years After" V-Cinema. So seeing him here doesn't feel remotely like a surprise. - This episode still has one final scene before it ends. Principal Indaver escapes the 'Ruler Attack', and jumps aboard his Consumarz to attack the Away Team. Kyuren-Oh is summoned, and... "TO BE CONTINUED". Wait, for real? Yep. The conclusion to this mecha battle *spoiler alert*, will be available as the opening scene for "Episode of Stinger". We even get an extended preview (featuring that amazing new song by Stinger's actor) for the V-Cinema as a quick reminder...

Comment: This final episode ended VERY annoyingly. That's the general complaints resonating throughout Kyuranger's fanbase. Along with one more thing: useless Kyu Globes. How could I counter that, when those arguments were mostly accurate? Strangely, this was an OKAY episode for me, and not as problematic as the 2nd and 3rd. That's why I'm giving it a mediocre score...

Overall: Overall, "High School Wars" has been a light, mostly clausthrophobic and/or secluded academic-themed gag, that gave the human actors the chance to cosplay as students. Of course, being a highly comedic distraction was not all that bad. Unfortunately, it also served the weakest link among Kyuranger's canon. That slapping-face gag was rather violent, especially when a minor such as Kotarou had to endure the same treatment. That's downright child abuse, right? And then there's that overlaying continuity problem, that made the writing felt... weak and sloppy in general. I'm not sure who wrote this, but if it's the same writer who worked on "Episode of Stinger"... then it sort of make sense (Kento Shimoyama's portofolio includes... "Shuriken Sentai Ninninger"! No wonder...). Sadly, as you would find out soon, this issue also affected that V-Cinema. It will make anyone to question whether both features actually connects to the TV series or not at all. An alternate universe take? As of writing, I'm STILL waiting anxiously for the official answer to this. There's a speculation that we'll be getting some actual closure and proper timeline explanation in that exclusive 5th episode. Tell you the truth though, I'm NOT so sure about that... Next: "Episode of Stinger"... what else? *grins* PS: Assuming I can get it done without any external (unexpected situations) nor internal (my health is still not in full prime) interferences, expect recap-view for Stinger's V-Cinema to arrive tomorrow. Or the day after. Also, this recap-view will not include the Overall Score for "High School Wars". That will be posted alongside review for Episode 5... IF and only IF I can see one, of course.

Episode 01 Score: 8 out of 10 Episode 02 Score: 6 out of 10 Episode 03 Score: 6,5 out of 10 Episode 04 Score: 7 out of 10

Visit THIS LINK to view a continuously updated listing of the Kyutama / Kyu Globes. Last Updated: October 31st, 2017 - Version 3.04. (WARNING: It might contain spoilers for future episodes)

Trailer used above is officially available through MaiDigiTV Youtube Channel. "Uchu Sentai Kyuranger" is produced by TOEI, and airs every Sunday on TV-Asahi. Credits and copyrights belong to their respective owners.

[mtg-weekly-recap]

MTG Weekly Tumblr Recap - Volume 1, Issue 1

Wanted to doodle something silly!  Saheeli prob love cats <3 

Original art by @isharton | Please support them at their Patreon!

Welcome to the very first issue of the MTG Weekly Tumblr Recap of the new year! For those unfamiliar with what we do, the MTG Weekly Tumblr Recap is a gathering of some of the most notable posts and trends from within the MTG Tumblr community for a given week. For this issue, we will be covering the week of January 8, 2017 through January 14, 2017. If you are interested in joining our writing team, please PM any of our writers and we will add you to our Discord group chat.

1. Banned & Restricted Update Discussion

Original image posted by @sarkhan-volkswagen

Wizards of the Coast announced bannings this past week, and I can’t say I’m surprised. Emrakul, the Promised End, Smuggler’s Copter, and Reflector Mage were banned in Standard, while Modern bans were simply Gitaxian Probe and Golgari Grave-Troll. There have been mixed feelings about these bans: many people were annoyed and upset that their favourite cards were banned, while others were quite relieved.

Emrakul, the Promised End, the final titan to be released, and the first to be banned. According to WotC, Emrakul was “created to be scarily powerful,” and “delivered on that promise too well.” @ugin guessed that “if an Emrakul hit the field, I would guess that approximately 90% of the time that person would win.” Scarily powerful indeed, and this was made even more scary with cards like Aetherworks Marvel. As a counterpoint, @life-is-short-for-us said that it isn’t unbeatable, but didn’t suggest how to actually beat it. Instead, he simply said that for Standard, it isn’t about “banning cards that are too good, but banning cards that are so good they are damn near impossible to beat and your only hope is playing the mirror match and they are like 70% of the field.”

This brings us to our second card banned, Smuggler’s Copter. While I don’t play much Standard, this one annoyed the hell out of me, and now that it’s banned, I’m kinda relieved. For this one, Wizards says that it was in too many of the top decks and was restricting creativity. I agree, as does @queen-marchesa: “The one that is least surprising is the Copter. It really was too omnipresent in Standard to allow for exploration or creativity.” I have always thought that the Looter Scooter was too powerful for a turn-two artifact, which helped turn the format stale.

Our final Standard banning was Reflector Mage. There’s not much to say about this one, really, and I think it was one of the odder bannings. Wizards says that, “Our data showed the White-Blue Flash deck was too powerful against the field,and Reflector Mage has been on players' lists of most-disliked cards, since the days of Collected Company.” I suppose when you take down decks with Emrakul and Copter, W/U Flash would be the one to dominate. Tumblr users agreed, with one stating, “The card ended up being very effective in this format.” Others thought it was a surprising ban, but seeing that it’s stuck around for so long, “makes sense.”

As for the Modern bans, let’s start with Gitaxian Probe. This one is one of the least surprising to me, as it takes some skill out of the game. According to @jurou-tenshi, “Git probe has had it coming for a long time. It enabled too many degenerate strategies.” @avatar-of-woah states, “Probe’s actually a real issue in infect because it takes play skill out of the equation. Instead of trying to read your opponent and what they could have that would beat you, you just pay two life,” and proceed from there. According to @urzas-raven-armour, “With the probe ban, storm is even less playable now.” I would assume that this ban also hits Delver decks, but I don’t know enough about them.

The final ban released this week was Golgari Grave-Troll, and from what I have found, people are glad to see it go. One user said that “Dredge is a silly silly deck that has proven to be too powerful for Modern,” and with the Delve mechanic brought back in Khans of Tarkir, I agree. Golgari Grave-Troll is a creature with Dredge 6, and it enters the battlefield with counters equal to the number of creatures in the graveyard. You can also pay one generic mana and remove a counter to regenerate it. Now, that seems extremely powerful to me, especially in the late game, where you’ll most likely have a lot of creatures in your graveyard, but it is definitely the Dredge 6 that puts it over the top, enabling way too many graveyard shenanigans.

--- Connor S, @solemnly-mystifying

2. This Past Week’s Magic Story Review

Kari Zev - playing around with a doodle. | Original art by @sketchydoodles​

In this past week’s new Kaladesh Story “The Skies Over Ghirapur,” by Ari Levitch, we were introduced to the feisty teenage pirate captain, Kari Zev. In this story Kari Zev and Jace Beleren team up to assist the renegades, first by going on a heist to obtain aether, then to help the renegades take on the Skysovereign after they lost control of the Aether Hub in the story “Burn.”

The Tumblr community met this story with overwhelmingly positive reviews. The community adored the tenacity of Kari Zev and her sidekick, the monkey Ragavan. Tumblr user @zomburai claimed that the story was a delight. Others, like @abzanascendancy, were most excited about sky pirates. They also applauded Kari Zev for being 15, yet also being able to “pilot, command and crew her own ship.” Community members were even more excited about pirates then they were already, and some probably hope that a pirate-themed block will come along in the not-too-distant future.

With only three stories left in the Aether Revolt storyline, the MTGcommunity is anxiously waiting to see what happens next, with the Gatewatch’s final confrontation with Tezzeret and the Consulate, and what else that is in store for the plane of Kaladesh.

--- Chelsea W, @chelsea-beleren-vess

3. General Magic Story Discussion and Speculation

Deploy the Gatewatch | Original art by Wesley Burt

This week has been rife with Magic Story metadiscourse, from speculation for the future, to reflection on the past. Fans discussed Nissa’s shift toward tolerance in Magic Origins, and whether or not this made her a “Mary Sue”, prompting @commandtower-solring-go’s analysis of the term and its relationship to Magic [x]. On the other side, @chelsea-beleren-vess compiled potential points of civil war foreshadowing [x]

Prior to her Origins revision, Nissa, like most elves, believed that elves reigned superior over other races, and moreover her band of elves above even other elves. When her backstory was updated, these biases were no longer present. Lots of fans were upset by this. They missed their little racist, which is a little distressing, honestly. It’s important we ask ourselves why it’s so important for her to be hateful. This led one user to ask @markrosewater why the Gatewatch was composed of “Mary Sues.” By and large, “Mary Sue” is a term used to degrade a character for being all-powerful or infallible. This term really doesn’t describe the Gatewatch. Take Gideon, who was too proud and got his Irregulars killed, then repeated the mistake on Zendikar. Look at Jace --- neglectful of his duty as the Guildpact, and by even his own admission, annoying and pretentious as all hell. Liliana is, well, Liliana. Chandra has consistently been short-sighted and rash; she has consistently endangered the lives of the people she cares about, including the Gatewatch (see “In This Very Arena” and “Burn”). Nissa has been altoether aloof and unable to relate to her teammates, and was made to suffer immensely over the course of the Battle for Zendikar storyline.

Wizards could be setting the stage for a civil war within the Gatewatch, ala Marvel. In this hypothetical confrontation, Gideon leads one side, while Jace rallies his allies. Who will side with whom is anyone’s guess, but I’m personally partial to Chandra, Nissa, Gideon, and Ajani squaring off against Jace and Lili, but this is clouded by my distaste for Lili and her relationship with Jace, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

--- Nick D, @nick-dowdle-jeskai-judicator​

4. Incoming WoTC President Chris Cocks’ Digital Tease

Glimpse the Future | Original art by Andrew Robinson

Last Thursday, the President of Wizards of the Coast, Chris Cocks, released a public statement regarding the future of WotC’s IP, concentrating on the following points:

Reimagining digital versions of Magic and other Wizards games.

Bringing their characters and worlds to other games and experiences.

Making people’s Wizards experiences more efficient, connected, and convenient.

What most Tumblrs seemed to latch onto was the idea of Magic: the Gathering or Dungeons and Dragons branded video games, and many people wanted to share their thoughts on the matter.

@simic-initiate said, “I’ve no doubt irritated many friends by consistently insisting that Magic has a criminally underused mythos and cast of characters. Wizards does SO much world building each plane that just, hardly gets used again if ever.” [x]

@planeswalkerwithtardis suggests, “Persona JRPG with MtG characters as the personas, color combinations replace arcana. It would also hedge Wizard’s bets by crossing their customer base for that product with the ever hungry Persona fan base.” [x]

@youknowwhatscrewyou went a different direction: “I would love an mtg fighting game, similar to smash bros or something, so that is not too competitive and allows for some fun, crazy stuff.” [x]

@mixingmetaphorsoup also thinks MMOs are a hiding to nothing: “What? Throwing spells at a Planeswalker in an MMO? Surely you mean MOBA. As I’ve said before, Magic fits perfectly into a MOBA shell.” [x]

What video game genre do you think would make a good Magic game?

--- Liam W, @coincidencetheories

BONUS! “LILIANA VESS - MAGIC THE GATHERING.” Original art by @lunardays22

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Thank you again for reading this week’s issue of the MTG Weekly Tumblr Recap. If you are interested in contributing to the Recap, either by keeping track of notable posts and trends throughout the MTG community on a given week, or writing a short blurb on a specific topic, please PM our main editor @the-burnished-hart or any of our staff writers.

[ironjohnred]

Mystery

h/t @trp gurus 

Most people are like an open book, constantly babbling about: hobbies, their job, who they hangout with, what they do on the weekends, information they gleaned from a YouTube video, thirty second long snapchat stories. They are always brimming with advice that no one asked for.

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After asking a few leading questions this individual will divulge enough of his life story that you can paint a picture of him as a boring, basic, common man. Once this individual is figured out and categorized by your brain there is nothing left to learn about him and your brain is bored by him. Your brain now imagines him spending his time on the weekend playing xbox and jerking off.  

Your brain likes to fill in the gaps where it has no information, it has fun doing this. Given little information (and thoughtfully dropped breadcrumbs) our brains will generally paint a much grander and greater picture of what actually happened. When we have the full story our brain suddenly gets bored and gives up trying to figure it out.

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When you first meet a girl your “mystery scale” is at an all time high. You know you’re a basic fucking dude but she doesn’t. You look her in the eye and say “hey”, she likes what she sees and immediately she begins imagining you doing cool things: Going to foreign locations ,making money ,living dangerously on edge, fucking other woman etc.

Then you proceed to slaughter her fantasy by telling her every little fucking detail of your life

“I work at X”

“I hangout with X”

“I Do X on the weekends”

“I Traveled to X last year to do X”

With every bit of information you divulge your mystery scale takes a blow. Her smile begins to waver as her brain is now painting a picture of you as the average guy you really are.

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With a flick of a switch she suddenly has you all figured out. Her brains image of you is now grounded in reality. An hour ago you were inscrutable but now she realizes she met someone just like you last week. She just moves on to the next guy she imagines has it cooking (he probably doesn’t, no guy can live up to a female created fantasy)

A fantasy can be killed in one conversation if you really know the Right Wrong things to say.

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Never let someone “figure you out”

Thought experiment: Think about how a Janitor spends his weekend vs. how James Bond spends his weekend

Imagine the things each of them are doing

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You probably imagine the janitor doing nothing fun, probably paying bills in his small home.

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You probably imagine bond racing some cool as fuck car, shooting guns in a suit, and taking the girl home.

Imagine the power you would have if you could instill in her a mental image the likes of James Bond. She would always believe you were up to something totally cool and the fuel for this image is simply the tidbits of information you throw her.

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So now that we understand the concept of mystery and attraction how can you leverage it to you’re advantage

1.Shut the fuck up and listen

Most blue pill guys are going to meet a woman and begin qualifying themselves to her. Just imagine for a minute that you flip the table and get her to begin qualifying herself to you.

You remain at peak mystery and now she is giving you valuable information that you can leverage later on in the evening.

How do you do this? Begin asking her leading questions.

“What do you do”

“What do you like”

“How do you spend your time”

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let her ramble on about herself while you kick back and observe the situation at hand

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Bonus points if you don’t even ask her questions and she just begins telling you want you want to know for free. More bonus points if she begins qualifying herself!

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She will begin divulging her mystery while you keep yours intact.

2.Indirect and vague

In General the questions you ask will be flipped back on you (This is how conversations work) so expect to answer your own question; if she is not self obsessed and can’t stop talking about herself that is.

The key to answering a question and not killing the mystery it is to remain indirect and vague with you’re answers.

Ex.

Her: “what are we going to do tonight”

RP You: “Show up at eight and find out”

BP You: “ we are going to be going to X, and then maybe to X, and then back to my apartment”

———————————————————

Her: “how often do you go here”

RP You: “occasionally”

BP You: “I come here every Friday and Saturday, Im friends with all the staff and they know me very well”

———————————————————

Her: “How do you know all these people”

RP You: “I get around”

BP You: “I did school announcements in high school and people we’re used to hearing my name over the intercom every day”

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tell her much less then necessary, leave her with unanswered questions so she can fill in the answers

3.Bread crumbs

Discretely drop details about your life that create more questions then answers.

Her: “you want to hangout tonight”

RP You: “can’t I’m in the city”

Her brain: Why is he in the city? What could he possibly be doing without me?? I wonder who he is with, he is probably with other hot girls.

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Ever see a guy with a Rolex or a status symbol he has like a Porsche or Ferrari?

We like these items because it starts our brain on a rationalization obstacle coarse to try to figure out: what he does, who he is, and what is he doing here.

Status symbols open up a box of unanswered questions that’s why girls flock to the guy with the Porsche (to figure him out) not the guy with Subaru.  

Drop tidbits of information that produce many questions and then withhold the answers, this is peak mystery!

4. Effortless

Don’t talk about how many hours you studied for the grade.

how many hours you “grind” in the gym to look this way.

Don’t talk about how much effort went into your PowerPoint presentation.

No one fucking cares how much effort you put in, they only care about the results.

You know that you worked hard, but to other people make it appear as if it was effortless. When it appears that everything is effortless to you, people will begin attributing you positive quality’s and an air of mystery and heightened skill.

Everyone will think “Why is he so good at that if he never practices, he must be a natural ”

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Her: “wow, how often do you go to the gym??:)”

RP You: “occasionally”

BP You: “every day I do 15 minutes of HIIT cardio, followed up by two hours of grueling 5x5 strong lifts. And I haven’t even gotten to my diet yet”

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Reminder, the girl doesn’t fucking care

5.Don’t Give unsolicited advice

If someone doesn’t ask you for help or an opinion, don’t give it.

Generally people don’t give a fuck what you think and they will only resent you for knowing more on the subject then themselves.

You’re plate start talking to you about climate change and how bad it is for the earth but can’t properly explain the greenhouse effect?

Laugh to yourself, but let her think she knows all the answers. It would do you no good teaching her about the fucking green house effect on a ride to the bar.

From personal experience I agree 100%. My problem has always been living up to the fantasy. I've dated way more women than anyone should in their lifetime and it's always the same. Most of the time I'm not really interested in the girl, but when I am I take them out, give them great conversation, they have the most fun they've ever had, but eventually they realize that the fantasy is not real. That I don't check every box. I've always likened it to Dorothy seeing the wizard behind the curtain. They don't want to know that I'm an atheist. They don't want to know that I have nuanced opinions about shit. They're almost never looking to be intellectually stimulated, they're just checking to see what boxes you tick.

I've always had the attitude like I know I'm better than 99.9% of guys so that's how I'll win out in the end. But that's all bullshit because we're not dealing in reality, we're dealing with people's perceptions. Ultimately it's just better to shut the fuck up.

Just STFU. Effortlessness, indirectness, vagueness comes naturally but its ironic that STFUing is the hardest part to 'master' which should be the easiest. Restraint only will put you in the top 20% if not more than that.

The artful non answer is an underused option outside of politics and PR people.

Done properly it cultivates mystery and allows for the hamster to run away with its own ideas. Female fantasy is often so over the top that actually competing with it is impossible, but why compete when a smart non answer lets her make the mental leap herself?

Being asked a question you don't care for? Non answer. By someone you don't care for? Non answer. The answer too mundane? Non answer.

The list goes on but almost any situation where it doesn't explicitly benefit you is a time to consider the application of the non answer.

Its not the most beginner friendly option as it requires social calibration to get tone and frequency right. Used properly though it has many many uses.

[rescueschmuck-blog]

Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King Switch Review

This review is based off of a review copy provided by FDG Entertainment, This does not impact my opinions on the game, However. 

Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King is a game published by FDG Entertainment and developed by Castle Pixel, Who have only made one other game called Rex Rocket which I’ve never heard of up until this point. So as their second game, Is Blossom Tales any good? Let’s take a look.

THE STORY

The game begins with two children named Chrys and Lily waking up their Grandpa, Tired of hearing the exact same stories over and over again, He tells them about the Kingdom of Blossom, A place where you have to name your children after plants or they get banished to the nether realm a little girl named Lily (Unrelated to the other Lily, I think) lives.

It's a big day for Lily, As she rushes towards the castle and is appointed as a Knight of the Rose and magically forms a sword and shield out of nowhere. As her first knightly duty, The King orders her to clear the rat infestation underneath the castle. After blowing up the Rat King into smithereens and stealing his stash of bombs, Lily did what any sane person would do and immediately blew up the nearest wall. Coincidentally, It lead to the laboratory of the King’s brother, Crotus who has an evil scheme to curse his brother into an eternal slumber, Amass an evil army of orcs and take over the Kingdom. Lily however wouldn’t have any of that and rushes towards the Throne Room, But alas, Is too late. Crotus had already sent the King to Dreamland, Lily tried as hard as she could but Crotus knocked her out and disappeared. When Lily came to, She was greeted by the Disciples of the Rose who inform her of the 3 flowers that when joined together, Can cure almost any curse. Without hesitation Lily rushes toward the  Golem’s Haven where the first flower is stored, Beginning her Blossoming Tale.

THE GRAPHICS 

The graphics are a huge love-letter to the 16-bit era of gaming, The environments are varied, The sprites for the characters are nice but look more Game Gear-esque than what you’d find on the Super Nintendo. The enemy and boss designs are cool, I especially love how the bosses of the Lava and Ice dungeons look, They’re cool.

The only design i don’t really like is Crotus himself, He just looks like a disgruntled lion, Not an all-powerful wizard.

All in all, The game looks good, I like it.

THE MUSIC

The soundtrack is good. Really good. A lot of the tracks are really catchy and nice to listen to. I especially love the Pirate Queen’s theme, Frostroot Dungeon and Crotus’ Castle. Some tracks, However sound a bit too much like some very specific Zelda songs, Specifically the Golem’s Haven theme and Scarol the Witch’s theme, They sound eerily similar to Zelda’s Lullaby and The Fortune Teller’s house from A Link to the Past respectively. The ALTTP similarities don’t end there, However. Nope, They sure don’t.

THE GAME

Yeah, The game is very, VERY similar to ALTTP, Even down to the main protagonist waking up from bed and immediately heading towards a castle, Only to go out on a journey across the kingdom to collect 3 objects to save someone in royalty and defeat a wizard.

Throughout the 4 dungeons and across the overworld, You’ll collect several tools that will hep you on your journey, From a Bow and Arrow and some bombs to a game-breaking medallion that summons bees, Nearly every tool you collect has some practical use both in and out of dungeons. Having a tough time with a large amount of enemies? Use the bee medallion and become the god of death and destruction, Demolishing even the toughest of foes and biggest of baddies.

There’s an energy meter, Much like ALBW, Which i love. It’s great because i usually hate grinding for bombs and arrows in Zelda games, So i’m glad they implemented it here. What i don’t like in this game, However, Is the grinding. A very large majority of side quests in this game require you to grind a specific enemy for 20 of it’s parts. You don’t HAVE to do these, But if you want to get 100% completion you need to do these. Sometime you don’t even have a choice to grind. As early as the FIRST DUNGEON i was bombarded by an incredibly large amount of enemies in multiple rooms, It got kinda overwhelming. Speaking of the dungeons, Whoever designed them must really love conveyor belts and bottomless pits, They are everywhere in every dungeon, Especially in Crotus’ Castle, DON’T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON CROTUS’ CASTLE. They went a little overboard with the conveyor belt and bottomless pit combo, I was stuck on two specific parts for nearly 15 minutes each, It got a little ridiculous.

 The puzzles are eh, There are only really 5 puzzles in the game but they’re made more and more difficult. It’s serviceable i guess, But i would’ve preferred a little bit more variety.

The bosses are great, I love nearly every one of them. All of them are unique and can be approached in multiple different ways, I like that. I had a really hard time with the mini-boss of the fire dungeon, But after looking around i got the earthquake medallion and still got my ass handed to me, But i tried and tried again and when i finally beat him, It was really satisfying. 

One mechanic that was criminally underused was being able to choose certain aspects of the game. Because the game is essentially a story, Things can be twisted and changed. For example: You're given a choice to have the leader of the thieves be a Pirate Queen or a Bandit Ninja, Whatever one you choose is the one you’ll fight. This is a really cool mechanic that is sadly only used twice in the entire game. If there’s ever a sequel (Please let there be a sequel) I want this mechanic to be more of a focus, It could add a lot more replay value and give people different experiences. A man can dream, Right?

Alright, Let’s talk about the ending. 

After you collect the final ingredient, Crotus immediately attacks the castle with his newfound army of Orcs. As soon as the Orcs reach the throne room and all hope seems lost, Lily gets teleported in and the ingredients fuse together, Lifting the curse on the king and destroying nearly all of Crotus’ army. Crotus retreats to the Wastelands and Lily gives chase, But only after the king powers up her sword. After fighting through hundreds of Orcs and falling into many pits, Lily finally reaches the heart of Crotus’ Castle. Lily unleashes the bees and Crotus (almost) instantly dies and proceeds to poof out of existence. Lily returns to the castle, Gets a fancy ring from the king and the game ends. Huh. I was expecting a little more.

Meanwhile, In the real world, Grandpa tells Lily and Chrys to go to bed and the game actually ends. But not before Chrys goes back into the room and the shield above their fireplace flashes. I guess that’s supposed to signify something, Maybe there are more blossoming tales yet to be told? One can hope.

THE VERDICT

What Blossom Tales lacks in originality, It makes up for in just being a damn good game, It’s one of the best Zelda-esque games out there and certainly the best one on the Switch. It has charming characters, A neat world, a great soundtrack and a ton of extra content to keep you coming back. While i may have my problems with it, They aren’t big enough to ruin the experience as a whole. I’m interested to see what Castle Pixel has in store for the future, A sequel that expands on the original and removes all the annoying stuff? Something like Zelda 2 that throws everything out the window to give an entirely new experience? An RPG? Ok, Ok, I’m getting a bit ahead of myself, I know.  Best of luck to everyone at both Castle Pixel and FDG Entertainment,  I’m really excited to see what all of you do in the future.