#which is a shame!! because i think its easily the best dr game (ignoring the ending. i do nottttt care for that ending)

[frootbyethefoot]

collateral damage on all sides

[ID: a digital drawing of chiaki nanami and nagito komaeda from super danganronpa 2. chiaki is looking down sadly as she holds a bottle. nagito is beside her, smiling, and guiding her hand to the bottle. his fatal injuries from chapter five are colored in bright pink. the bottle has a similar bright pink smoke streaming from it, while the background is completely black. END ID/]

[pink-n-spooky]

Teen girls aren’t allowed to enjoy anything

and here’s my long ass essay about it :)

In youth pop culture, as well as pop culture in general, it’s generally a given that music movies, books, clothing, and other things that gain popularity will eventually fall out of style. On face level, this isn’t always a bad thing, but rather more of a function of society: when something is new, many people are interested, and as time passes, that number dwindles. Backlash and criticism is also a normal function of society, which can be very beneficial when done in good faith and with constructive purpose.

However, it’s quite notable that an overwhelming amount of criticism falls on things that generally have a large fan-following of teenage girls. This can cause them to feel embarrassed by wat they’re interested, or feel that being made fun of is inevitable.

In reality, though, things gain traction for a reason, and things widely loved by teenage girls aren’t often given the same analysis and consideration other things in pop culture are given.

While there is certainly media that isn’t beneficial and could negatively affect young girls, the things they like often go ridiculed by society due to a lack of consideration and deep analysis, as well as the constant sexist want of society to bring down young girls.

Older people in general have been known to blow off things popular in youth culture, which can sometimes be attributed to just not knowing or caring about it. On the more intense side, some are infuriated by it—and not always without reason. But when it comes to things that are popularized by teen girls, a deep and proper analysis is often not given. Instead, they focus on the surface-level negatives.

The Hunger Games is a clear example of this. The series, which revolves around a teen girl forced into a game where she has to murder other kids, is widely condemned as being far too violent and a potential threat to the innocence of young girls.

On the first look, it’s clear that this widespread opinion doesn’t stem from nothing; the series is violent, and mainly young girls read it. However, if one goes even a bit beyond the surface level of the series instead of being initially outraged, it actually shows a complex society and story of revolution with themes of corrupt media and propaganda, separation of class by wealth, and way both sides of a political argument or war can be corrupt.

Take the 12 Districts in the series: the Capital is at the top with the most wealth and ability to abuse, and lowest number Districts are under the illusion that they’re the same. Author Suzanne Collins develops this complex idea in her story by showing that while people in the Districts have different levels of wealth and resources, in the end, they’re all still forced to put their children to death.

In the grand scheme of things, they’re all just as powerless against those at the top. It reflects the nuances of Capitalistic societies and class divisions in a thoughtful way. This can actually really benefit girls, especially since the protagonist is someone they can see themselves as.

A much more widespread example of the ridicule young girls endure for the things they like is fashion. Overall, fashion for girls has progressed in a way that over time has become more diverse and accepting. It’s not uncommon to see girls in long jeans and sweaters, but it it’s also not uncommon to see them in more revealing clothes like crop-tops.

The way girls dress is taken issue with by many adults and even school systems, shown by dress codes that often ban shirts—even if they only reveal a girl’s shoulders. These girls are often told they’re being too provocative or dressing for boys, which strips them of their individuality and is certainly not the case. Many girls dress this way because they want to.

Furthermore, the diverse and growing willingness to be experimental with what they wear shows something wildly different than the harmful predetermination: reclamation of their bodies. Throughout history, girls have been shamed this same way—often more intensely. So, by defying these criticisms, teen girls are showing they feel more free and more confident in what they look like and are perceived as, which is something everyone should want for them.

When things like this are torn down by others, it can affect the girls immense negative ways and cause them to lose confidence. When the benefits are ignored by society, this is often what happens. The positives of more experimental and unique media and styles that interest young girls are at best ignored and at worst ridiculed when not given proper analysis and understanding.

While some criticisms of youth girl pop culture can be attributed to ignorance and lack of poper analysis, it would be even more ignorant to ignore the root of these issues: sexism.

When comparing the things young boys take interest in with what girls of the same age do, one clearly causes more outrage than the other. This can be seen by the blind outrage thrown at things like youth romance novels.

When the young adult romance book Twilight came out, real criticisms of the story were often drowned out by people making fun of its fans, which was majorly young girls. They were ridiculed by people often much older for liking something perceived as stupid. This can discourage girls from allowing themselves to enjoy such things, which is harmful because books like these often give girls hope and bring just pure happiness to them, which is immensely important as they grow up.

Furthermore, young girls are often criticized for liking the same things boys do to a much further extent. Video games, which are often violent, are traditionally played by boys. While these games draw a lot of criticism for aspects of violence and shooting, it has nothing to do with the fact that the audience is boys.

Girls, however, are often personally disparaged from playing such games because they’re too “masculine” and just not made for them. This discourages young girls from finding out what they enjoy and forces them to limit what they take part in.

In the end, even with the hate they often undergo, young girls haven’t stopped boldly and unapologetically enjoying what they love, but it is through their perseverance that they’re able to do so.

Final note: If we’re being honest, we all have a bit of internalized sexism and judge without thinking about potential effects on others. Sexism won’t cease to exist easily, but if we only take the time to consider our motives—even subconscious ones—we can help stifle our biases and most importantly, create a healthy environment where girls can express themselves.

TL;DR

Society loves to put girls down and make fun of everything they like, which stems from sexism and lack of analysis. In reality, there’s often real, important purpose to the things they enjoy. I also definitely used The Hunger Games and Twilight as examples :)

p.s. i am also in love w katniss<3

[aahsokaatano]

King I would love that essay about Changing Channels

Fjdjshjdhdjd thanks for reading my tags Jesse you're the real VIP here.

Okay SO "Changing Channels" is the 8th episode of the 5th season of Supernatural. I give this information bc it's important in looking at the context of the episode - now I've complained a LOT about how SPN is terrible at giving us canonical timeframes within the episodes (y'all i was SHOCKED to discover the first season is supposed to cover a little over a year's worth of time, I thought it was like... 4 or 5 months) so I can't say for sure how long before and after the other episodes happen in-universe around "Changing Channels" BUT

The episode before is "The Curious Case of Dean Winchester" where Dean and Bobby bet years of their lives in a game of poker with a witch. The episode after is "The Real Ghostbusters" where Sam and Dean end up at a fan convention for the in-universe Supernatural novels.

Why am I pointing this out? Because it's important, please, no audience participation, this is like a Brian David Gilbert panel.

[under a cut bc this got...... STUPID long. Who knew I still had this many opinions about SPN in 2020?]

Okay first of all I wanna talk about the cinnamon topography of this episode - I love the way the first 5 seasons are shot because you really feel the americana gothic horror aesthetic they were going for (I have a whole ‘nother rant about the first 5 seasons vs the last 10 but thats for another time). Everything is a little washed out and grey-toned, the camera angles generally serve to make Sam and Dean appear even taller than they actually are (larger than life - again, another post for another time), and there’s honestly a LOT of shots from the ‘monster’s’ perspective, which is really neat! I’ve said it before (on another blog - YES i have a dedicated spn rant blog, don’t @ me hdjfhfjfh) but the episode that really got me hooked on spn back in the day was the second one, about the w*ndigo. Yes, it’s a racist, culturally appropriating shitstorm, but the way its SHOT is fantastic. I’m honestly not a horror fan, but that episode could have easily relied on jumpscares and they DIDN’T and it was scary as all fucking hell and just - fuck okay getting off topic. 

In “Changing Channels” we get that distinctive grey-washed tone in the beginning and the very end of the episode, but the middle? When they’re in TV Land? Everything is bright. Almost comically so, I mean - okay look at these two shots of Sam (apologies about the crappy phone pics, netflix won't let me screenshot)

This one is from the start of the episode, in the "real" police station

And this is from a little later in the "TV" hospital

Ignoring that my phone is washing him out a lot in both pics, you can still see the warmer tones in the hospital shot as compared to the cold greyness in the police station one

Okay, now look at this picture

Dean inside the Impala, and those warm tones are back. Why? Because even though Sam and Dean believe that they’re back in the “real” world, they aren’t - so instead of the grey-washed shots that we’re used to, its the bright and warm shots that we see in “TV Land”! So the viewers pick up, even if its just subconsciously, that the boys aren’t out of the woods yet - everything is still too bright to be the in-universe reality we’ve come to expect from SPN by season 5

Which is also why i love this shift so much

These shots are literally SECONDS apart. The first is in "TV Land" and the second is in the "real" world. I have some red strip lights behind my bed, which are reflecting off my laptop screen - notice how much brighter they seem in the second picture? That’s because literally all of the warm colors have been drained out of the shot. As soon as Gabriel snaps them all back into “reality,” things get so much colder.

Okay, so the second thing I want to talk about is some of the very pointed dialogue choices within the “shows” the Winchesters take part in. Not between Sam and Dan and Gabriel, but from the, for lack of a better term, NPCs within the shows.

In the hospital, Dr. Piccolo tells Sam that he is “the finest cerebrovascular neurosurgeon I have ever met - and I have met plenty! So that girl died on your table; it wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t anybody’s fault. Sometimes people just die.” Standard cheesy soap opera dialogue - but lemme just swap some words here and - 

“You are the finest hunter I have ever met - and I have met plenty! So that girl died on your hunt; it wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t anybody’s fault. Sometimes people just die.”

Or even - 

“You are the finest hunter I have ever met - and I have met plenty! So Jessica and Mary died above you; it wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t anybody’s fault [but Azazel’s]. Sometimes people just die.”

Keeping in mind that the NPCs are basically Gabriel’s mouthpieces, its easy to see why so many people ship Sabriel. I’d actually love to see a fic that explores them talking about this moment in particular later on and the kind of gentle forgiveness that Gabriel can give Sam... getting off topic again.

In an abrupt about-face, the herpes commercial (much meme’d within the fandom) is straight up Gabriel shaming Sam. Because if you replace “genital herpes” with “demon blood” it’s.... dark. And very intentional.

So that’s what I did! (I combined all spoken lines to make the message easier to read, rather than splitting them up across 3 speakers as in the episode)

“I’ve drank demon blood. I tried to be responsible... did I try. But now, after being forcibly detoxed, I fight my addiction every day to reduce the chances of passing back into that toxic mindset. Ask your loved ones about a demon blood intervention today. [...] I am doing all I can to slightly lessen the chance of drinking demon blood again. And that’s a good thing.”

Like... the subtext throughout this episode sure is. Something.

Okay this is getting ridiculously long so I wanna wrap up by talking about The Best Scene In The Whole Goddamn Show

I’m talking, of course, about Gabriel’s Confession

“Max,” you might be saying, “there are so many better scenes out there, even within the first five seasons!” and to that i say, again, no audience participation, please. Also, you’re WRONG and here’s why!

Gabriel’s confession hits every goddamn emotional chord that the fandom begged for on this show - fear, rage, grief, pain, guilt, and even, yes, absolution. 

Okay, here’s the scene again for those of you who don’t think about it at least once a week like me

Now this video is missing some of the conversation, but most of it is there, enough for you to see what I’m talking about. Gabriel up to this point has been, essentially, a nameless antagonist - this is the third episode he appeared in, and before this, we didn’t even know he was going by Loki. He was just referred to as ‘The Trickster’. But here, not only do we get a name (a real name at that), but we also get a glimpse of his backstory and a hell of a lot of character development in less than 5 minutes. I mean, Sam didn’t get this much character development throughout the entirety of season 1! There’s a good reason Gabriel has been a fan-favorite for a very long time, and I think a big part of it is this particular scene.

Because here, we get to see Gabriel being vulnerable. And we even see Dean show a little vulnerability, as he can empathize being the third party to explosive arguments between the two people who mean everything to him.

I mean... okay, it will never see the light of day, but I wrote a little bit of a Reverse ‘Verse fic (because I’m a sucker for Reverse ‘Verse) and this was the scene I started with. Not s1e1, not even the resurrection in s4e1, but this scene. Because this scene, more than any other, is critical to the way not only Gabriel’s (first) arc plays out, but also to how Sam and Dean conduct themselves for the rest of the season (and maybe a bit beyond, it’s been a hot minute since I watched s6 and later). Dean is angry but determined, he has a point to make, he is going to save Sammy and if he can’t do that, then he’s going to damn well die trying. But Sam... it’s after this episode that we start really seeing how bone-achingly tired Sam is. It’s after this conversation - where one of the other archangels, one of the few beings who can truly understand how powerful Michael and Lucifer are - says that there’s no other way around this that Sam seems to start inching towards giving in. Saying yes.

Sure, in the actual episode, he seems outraged by the idea, practically scoffs at it - “you want us to say yes to those sons of bitches?” - but it’s after this where Sam really seems run down.

I mean, look at the episodes before and after (HAH you thought I forgot about that first point I made at the very beginning of this post! I did, briefly, but I’ve circled back to it, thanks for being understanding). In “The Curious Case of Dean Winchester,” Sam behaves much as he did since the start of s4, which is to say, ‘annoying little know-it-all brother tossed into the middle of the apocalypse and just trying his best’ and it works well for the mad scramble for any scrap of information that’s happening in s4/early s5.

But in “The Real Ghostbusters” it’s different. This is another funny meta episode - except, while Sam and Dean are technically aware of the joke, they aren’t as amused by it as the audience is. And it’s not because of the ghosts. It’s because they’re just... done. Especially Sam. Dean has that nice little moment with the cosplayers at the end of the episode, but Sam... threatens to shoot Chuck. Sam ‘goes darkside’ more often than pretty much any other character in the show, but that moment is different. It’s a flat promise, not a threat. He’s not being an asshole, like he is after losing his soul. He’s just... done. And it’s obvious to see.

Gabriel’s confession is the turning point for Sam in s5, and it informs a lot of his behavior through the rest of s5, and possibly beyond! Like I said, I haven’t watched past s5 in a very long time, so I don’t feel confident enough to analyze that specific sort of character line, but I feel confident in saying that hearing one of the most powerful beings in the universe basically say “it doesn’t matter what you do - your destiny is unavoidable” and then he’s proven right (Sam says yes to Lucifer, and Dean eventually does say yes to Michael down the line!)... like, that’s really gotta fuck up your world view that was built on free will and throwing off the shackles of fate. Sam managed to avoid his ‘destiny’ in s2... but then it turns out that that wasn’t ever his destiny. Lucifer was his destiny.

Talk about an obscured view of the inner self.

[ny-watcher]

#BB20 - CBS CEO Les Moonves has Resigned - How will this Effect the Future of The Big Brother Show 😉👌 - Read On  #BBNews

So we got News that CBS CEO Les Moonves has resigned today September 9, 2018 in light of allegations that he sexually abused many women. With that being a Serious Issue and one I'm not going to comment on this post I will now Focus more on the possible consequences of what will or could happen to the Big Brother Show now that he has stepped down.

So the main question most of the Fans are asking is - Will the BB Show now be in Jeopardy? Well we all know one of the main reasons he kept bringing it back every Summer wasn't primarily because of the Ratings but because his Wife Julie Chen is the Host and enjoys the Big Brother Show. Now that he resigned it's likely that Julie will lose some of the Special Privileges she got from her Husband. So will the Big Brother show be canceled? Will it get Renewed? or is it time for the Show to take a Break and go on Hiatus? Well lets focus on that - I will now post my personal Opinion on the Matter.  

Ok first of all - I'm probably one of the Biggest Big Brother Fans you will ever meet. I watch Big Brother shows Year round, one after another from around the world and most times several overlapping each other at the same time. So I will make this very Clear --> I hate when BB Shows get Canceled or Go on Hiatus - It's usually a Bad Sign and the Kiss of Death for the Show. Most BB Shows that go on Hiatus usually don't return. However, in the Case of Big Brother USA I have my own Personal Opinion that many will not like but I'm going to say it anyway. Out of all the Big Brother Shows I watch - Big Brother USA is by far the show with the most outdated BB Format and needs a Major overhaul - Year after Year they try to spice it up with Twists but year after Year the Twists Fail and now its getting to the point where the twist are being used as a loophole to give  Favorite Housemates unfair advantages in the Game - Not Good.

So what needs to Happen? Well I think the time has come for BB USA to make some Drastic changes. With Les Moonves now out of the picture the New CEO should be willing to make some long overdue and needed changes. First thing I would like to see is a Complete Production Team overhaul - Why? Because the current Production Team is the Main reason the Show has been Stagnant for years. With a New Production Team we could get a New Refreshed and Updated Big Brother Show that's in Sync with the Current Times. For example many Big Brother Shows around the World allow singing and play Music in the House without a Problem - They also Stream their Parties Live on the Feeds and they don't cut the feeds when it comes to Competitions - All of these things is exactly what BB USA is currently doing wrong. In regard to Music the excuse about Royalties is Bullshit - All they have to do is Pay their Licensing Fees which isn't much - Google it - and/or come up with a Special agreement with Musicians to let their Music be played in the House like they do on many International BB Shows. For example: the Song Despacito by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee has been used in BB Spain - BB Brasil and even Big Brother UK to mention a few and in the UK BB they don't even understand the Spanish Lyrics. My point is if they really want to add Music to the Big Brother Show they can and it wouldn't cost them as much as they say and/or think - They just need to Strike the right Deals like many other Big Brother Shows who currently play Popular Music every season. Well anyway I Digress and move on.

So lets me talk about Possible Changes needed. One of the Reasons the Public Voting was Eliminated when the BB Format was changed in Season 2 was because the Production Team thought at the time that all of the Wild, Crazy, Good Players and Entertaining Housemates who were Great for Ratings were being Voted out by the Public too early. So to Prevent this and take control of the Game with the alleged Diary Room Manipulations, this Production Team decided to let the Housemates Nominate and Vote each other out by taking the power away from the Public. By doing this the Idea was if a Good Ratings Housemate were to ever be nominated they could atleast have a way to prevent that person from leaving the House by allegedly Manipulating the Housemates in the Diary Room so they could change their mind - Something they couldn't do with the Public. However as the years went on even this change has been backfiring more and more every year. These days it seems the DR Manipulators are losing their Mojo and/or the Housemates are just ignoring them and going with their Gut decision and Voting out who they want no matter what. We have seen Great Players Evicted even with this Nomination and Eviction Format. In other words - taking away the Public Vote and letting the Housemates Evict is now producing the Same Results. So the BB Format change in regard to Nominations and Eviction has now reach a Level that perhaps it's better to just give the Public back the Power to decide who should stay or go. The way it was really meant to be.

I can go on and on about what I would like to see done different on this show and maybe it's because I watch so many other BB Shows from around the World That I actually see things that Work and Don't work on those shows and Know what would work great in the USA Version. This fuels my Vision of what a Better Big Brother show BB USA would look like and be if only it added some Vital key elements into the Game. I really want the Current Production Team to one day wake up and realize things aren't as great with their Show as they think. Things could be a whole Lot better than they even realize.

So with that said and I Hate to say this - If Les Moonves Stepping down means The Big Brother Show will have to take a Break so be it. Maybe they should and maybe it would be beneficial for them to do so. Big Brother could come back with a New Production Team and a whole New Updated BB Format - One that allows Music and Live Feed Parties like Intl BB for Starters. The current Format has been Stagnant for years and has become the Laughing stock of the Big Brother World. I mean seriously the Stop Singing - Stop Talking about Production - Stop Quoting Movie Dialogues and reminding Housemates to put on their Mics on has got to Go. They need to eliminate and change the way they handle that. I can easily give the Current Production Team Valid ways to make that Happen but with their stubbornness they would probably not want to hear it. Sure the TV Only Watchers never get to see these things but it doesn't mean the Live Feed Watchers should have to deal with it either especially when they are the ones paying for it.  That's one of the reasons we need New People Running the Show - Especially those that enforce the rules.

However, if the New CEO decides to keep the Big Brother Show as is and keeps the Current Production Team, then atleast they should force the Production Team to evaluate what they have been doing wrong and compare themselves with other Big Brother Shows around the world that have been doing things right and transfer some of the Good Ideas they are using over to the BB USA Format. This way we could atleast get a New Improved Big Brother USA in the end.

So Whatever Happens to BBUSA if it's Canceled or goes on Hiatus it would be a Shame - Although it won't effect me as much as those who only watch one BB Show once a year - I still feel for you. However, if it gets Renewed and comes back for another season than obviously I will Still watch - If it remains the same - Maybe - If they make Major changes - Absolutely. Unlike many Die-Hard Fans who don't Want or Like Change - I say after Watching all the Big Brother Shows I have over the years - Sometimes Change is a Good thing and is Needed for Big Brother Shows to Improve - Stay up to Date and Keep the Fans coming back.

So lets Hope for the Best and cross our Fingers that getting a New CBS CEO doesn't effect the Big Brother Show in a Bad Way. If it does then Start to Learn New Languages cause there is alot of Good Big Brother Shows out there to watch - Just in case.  And who knows if CBS does decide to Cancel the Show - Endemol could easily offer the Contract to another Network 😉👌

[ciathyzareposts]

The Sierra Discovery Adventures

Among the most rewarding hidden gems in Sierra’s voluminous catalog must be the games of the Discovery Series, the company’s brief-lived educational line of the early 1990s. Doubtless because of that dreaded educational label, these games are little-remembered today even by many hardcore Sierra fans, and, unlike most of the better-known Sierra games, have never been reissued in digital-download editions.

In my book, that’s a real shame. For reasons I’ve described at exhaustive length by now in other articles, I’m not a big fan of Sierra’s usual careless approach to adventure-game design, but the games of the Discovery Series stand out for their lack of such staple Sierra traits as dead ends, illogical puzzles, and instant deaths, despite the fact that they were designed and implemented by the very same people who were responsible for the “adult” adventure games. These design teams were, it seems, motivated to show children the mercy they couldn’t be bothered to bestow upon their adult players. While it’s true that even the Discovery games weren’t, as we’ll see, entirely free of regrettable design choices, these forgotten stepchildren ironically hold up far better today than most of their more popular siblings. For that reason, they’re well worth highlighting as part of this ongoing history.

I’ve already written about the Discovery Series’s two Dr. Brain games, creative and often deceptively challenging puzzle collections that can be enjoyed by adults as easily as children. Today, then, I’d like to complete my coverage. Although some of the other Discovery games were aimed at younger children, and are thus outside the scope of our usual software interests, three others could almost have been sold as regular Sierra adventure games. So, I’ll use this article to look at this trio more closely — the first of which in particular is a true classic, in my opinion the best Sierra adventure of any stripe released during 1992.

Gano Haine and Jane Jensen

One of the ways in which Sierra stood out in a positive way from their peers was their willingness to employ women in the roles of writer and designer. At a time when almost no one else in the computer-games industry had any women in prominent creative roles, Sierra’s gender balance approached fifty-fifty at times.

Gano Haine, one of these female designers, was also a fine example of what we might call a second-generation adventure designer — someone who had seen the genre evolve from the perspective of a player in the 1980s, and was now ready to make her own mark on it in the 1990s. She took a roundabout route into the industry. A mother and junior-high teacher of fifteen years standing, hers was a prominent voice in the Gamers Forum on CompuServe in the latter 1980s. She wrote extensively there about the good and bad of each game she played. “I don’t think it’s something you do to yourself on purpose,” she said of her adventure-game addiction. “I soon realized that I needed to find a way to make it a profession or I’d starve.” Luckily, Sierra hired her, albeit initially only as an informal consultant. Soon, though, she moved to Oakhurst, California, to become a full-time Sierra game designer. That happened in 1991, just as the Discovery Series was being born.

Everyone among the designers, whether a wizened veteran or a fresh-faced recruit, was given an opportunity to pitch an idea for the new line. The stakes were high because those whose pitches were not accepted would quite probably wind up working in subservient roles on those projects which had been given the green light. Yet Haine was motivated by more than personal ambition when she offered up her idea. One teenage memory that had never left her came to the fore.

I worked a lot in children’s summer camps. There was a beach where we took the children every Wednesday, a beautiful beach, with rocks and glittering sand. I remember once we sat on the rocks and watched a whole school of porpoises jumping in the waves.

Anyway, the next season when we went there, the whole beach was covered with litter. As I walked down to the water with the kids, I looked down, and there was human sewage running across the sand and into the ocean. To see that beautiful place trashed was tremendously painful to me.

Thus was born EcoQuest: an adventure game meant to teach its young players about our precious, fragile natural heritage. After her idea was accepted, Haine was assigned Jane Jensen, a former Hewlett Packard programmer and frustrated novelist who had been hired at almost the same time as her, to work with her as co-designer. This meant that EcoQuest would not only have a female lead designer, but would become the first computer game in history that was the product of an all-female design team.

Thinking, as Sierra always encouraged their designers to do, in terms of an all-new game’s series potential, Haine and Jensen created a young protagonist named Adam. Adam’s father is an ecologist who spends his life traveling the globe dealing with various environment catastrophes, and his lonely son tags along, finding his friends among the animals living in the places they visit.

In light of the disturbing memory that had spawned the series, the first game had always been destined to take place in the ocean. Adam gets recruited by one of his anthropomorphic animal friends, a dolphin named Delphineus, to search for Cetus, the great sperm whale whom all of the other undersea creatures look to for guidance, but who’s now gone missing. (One guess which species of bipedal mammal is responsible…) The game was therefore given the subtitle of The Search for Cetus to join the EcoQuest series badge.

Sierra was by no means immune to the allure of the trendy, and certainly there was a whiff of just that to making this game at this time. The first international Earth Day had taken place on April 22, 1990, accompanied by a well-orchestrated media campaign that turned a spotlight — arguably a brighter spotlight than at any earlier moment in history — onto the many environmental catastrophes that were facing our planet even then. This new EcoQuest series was very much of a piece with Earth Day and the many other media initiatives it spawned. Still, the environmental message of EcoQuest isn’t just a gimmick; anthropomorphic sea creatures aside, it’s very much in scientific earnest. Haine and Jensen worked with the Marine Mammal Center of Sausalito, California, to get the science right, and Sierra even agreed to donate a portion of the profits to the same organization.

There’s a refreshing sweetness to the game that some might call naivete, an assumption that the most important single factor contributing to the pollution of our oceans is simple ignorance. For example, Adam meets a fishing boat at one point whose propeller lacks a protective cage to prevent it from injuring manatees and other ocean life. He devises a way of making such a cage and explains its importance to the fisherman, who’s horrified to learn the damage his naked propeller had been causing and more than happy to be given this solution. The only glaring exception to the rule of human ignorance rather than malice is the whaling ship that, it turns out, has harpooned poor Cetus.

The message of The Search for Cetus would thus seem to be that, while there are a few bad apples among us, most people want to keep our oceans as pristine as possible and want the enormous variety of species which live in them to be able to survive and thrive. Is this really so very naive? From my experience, at any rate, most people would react just the same as the fisherman in an isolated circumstance like his. It’s the political and financial interests that keep getting in the way, preventing large-scale change by inflaming passions that have little bearing on the practicalities at hand. Said interests are obviously outside the scope of this children’s adventure game, but the same game does serve as a reminder that many things in this world aren’t really so complicated in themselves; they’re complicated only because some among us insist on making them so, often for disingenuous purposes.

Yet The Search for Cetus is never as preachy as the paragraph I’ve just written. Jane Jensen would later go on to become one of the most famed adventure designers in history through her trilogy of supernatural mysteries starring the reluctant hero Gabriel Knight. The talent for characterization that would make those games so beloved is also present, at least in a nascent form, in The Search for Cetus. From an hysterical hermit crab to a French artiste of a blowfish, the personalities are all a lot of fun. “The characters’ voices and personalities are used to humanize their plight,” said Jensen, “giving a voice to the faceless victims of our carelessness.” Most critically, the characters all feel honestly cute or comic or both; The Search for Cetus never condescends to its audience. This is vitally important to the goal of getting the game’s environmental message across because children can smell adult condescension from a mile away, and it’s guaranteed to make them run screaming.

The techniques the game uses to educate in a natural-feeling interactive context are still worthy of study today. For example, a new verb is added to the standard Sierra control panel: “recycle.” This comes to function as a little hidden-object game-within-the-game, as you scan each screen for trash, getting a point for every piece that you recycle. Along the way, you’ll be astonished both by the sheer variety of junk that makes its way into our oceans and the damage it causes: plastic bags suffocate blowfish, organic waste causes algae to grow out of control, plastic six-pack rings entangle swordfish and dolphins, balloons get eaten by turtles, bleach poisons the water, tar and oil kill coral. In the non-linear middle section of the game, you solve a whole series of such problems for the ocean’s inhabitants, learning a great deal about them in the process. You even mark a major chemical spill for cleanup. The game refuses to throw up its hands at the scale of the damage humanity has done; it’s lesson is that, yes, the damage is immense, but we — and even you, working at the individual level — can do something about it. This may be the most important message of all to take away from The Search for Cetus.

The game isn’t hard by any means, but nor is it trivial. Jane Jensen:

Gano and I are both Sierra players, so when we started to design our first Sierra game, we designed a game that we would want to play. The puzzles in EcoQuest are traditional Sierra adventure-game puzzles, with an ecological and educational slant. You can’t die in the game, but other than that, it’s a real Sierra adventure. Because it is aimed at an older audience, the gameplay isn’t simplified like Mixed-Up Mother Goose or Fairy Tales. The puzzles are challenging, and lots of fun.

Thus the concessions to the children that were expected to become the primary audience take the form not of complete infantilization, but rather a lack of pointless deaths, a lack of of unwinnable states, and a number of optional puzzles which score points but aren’t required to finish the game. Many outside Sierra’s rather insular circle of designers, of course, would call all of these things — especially the first two — simply good design, full stop.

Released in early 1992, The Search for Cetus did well enough that Sierra funded a CD-ROM version with voice acting to supplement the original floppy-based version about a year later. And they funded a further adventure of young Adam as well, which was also released in early 1993. In Lost Secret of the Rainforest, he and his father head for the Amazon, where they confront the bureaucrats, poachers, and clear-cutters that threaten another vital ecosystem’s existence.

With this second game in the series, Sierra clearly opted for not fixing what isn’t broken: all of the educational approaches and program features we remember from the original, from the anthropomorphic animals to the recycling icon, make a return. There’s even a clever new minigame this time around, involving an “ecorder,” a handheld scanner that identifies plants and animals and other things you encounter and provides a bit of information about them. So, in addition to hunting for toxic trash, you’re encouraged to try to find everything in the ecorder’s database as you explore the jungle.

Unfortunately, though, it just doesn’t all come together as well as it did the first time around. Jane Jensen didn’t work on Lost Secret, leaving the entirety of the game in the hands of Gano Haine, who lacked her talent for engaging characters and dialog. She obviously strove mightily, but the results too often come across as labored, unfunny, and/or leaden. (Haine did mention in an interview that, responding to complaints from some quarters that the text in Search for Cetus was too advanced for some children, she made a conscious attempt to simplify the writing in the sequel; this may also have contributed to the effect I’m describing.)

The puzzle design as well is unbalanced, being fairly straightforward until a scene in the middle which seems to have been beamed in from another game entirely. This scene, in which Adam has been captured by a group of poachers and needs to escape, all but requires a walkthrough to complete for players of any age, combining read-the-author’s mind puzzles with the necessity for fiddly, pinpoint-precise clicking and timing. And then, after you clear that hurtle, the game settles back down into the old routine, running on to the end in its old straightforward manner, as if it nothing out of the way had ever happened. It’s deeply strange, and all by itself makes Lost Secret difficult to recommend with anything like the same enthusiasm as its predecessor. It’s not really a bad game on the whole — especially if you go into it forewarned about its one truly bad sequence — but it’s not a great one either.

The poacher named Slaughter has a pink-river dolphin carcass hanging over his door, book stands made from exotic horns, a jaguar-skin rug on his floor, and a footstool made from an elephant’s foot. Laying it on just a bit thick, perhaps?

And on that somewhat disappointing note, the EcoQuest series ended. The science behind the two games still holds up, and the messages they impart about environmental stewardship are more vital than ever. From the modern perspective, the infelicities in the games’ depiction of environmental issues mostly come in their lack of attention to another threat that has become all too clear in the years since they were made: the impact global warming is having on both our oceans and our rain forests. This lack doesn’t, however, invalidate anything that EcoQuest does say about ecological issues. The second game in particular definitely has its flaws, but together the two stand as noble efforts to use the magic of interactivity as a means of engagement with pressing real-world issues — the sort of thing that the games industry, fixated as it always has been on escapist entertainment, hasn’t attempted as much as it perhaps ought to. “Environmental issues are very emotional,” acknowledges Gano Haine, “and you inevitably contact people who have very deep disagreements about those issues.” Yet the EcoQuest series dares to present, in a commonsense but scientifically rigorous way, the impact some of our worst practices are having on our planet, and dares to ask whether we all couldn’t just set politics aside and try to do that little bit more to make the situation better.

In that spirit, I have to note that some of the most inspiring aspects of the EcoQuest story are only tangentially related to the actual games. A proud moment for everyone involved with the series came when Sierra received a letter from a group of kids in faraway Finland, who had played The Search for Cetus and been motivated to organize a cleanup effort at a polluted lake in their neighborhood. Meanwhile the research that went into making the games caused the entire company of Sierra Online to begin taking issues of sustainability more seriously. They started printing everything from game boxes to pay stubs on recycled paper; started reusing their shipping pallets; started using recycled disks; started sorting their trash and sending it to the recycler. They also started investigating the use of water-based instead of chemical-based coatings for their boxes, soybean ink for printing, and fully biodegradable materials for packing. No, they didn’t hesitate to pat themselves on the back for all this in their newsletter (which, for the record, was also printed on recycled paper after EcoQuest) — but, what the hell, they’d earned it.

The words they wrote in their newsletter apply more than ever today: “It’s not always easy, but it’s worth it. Saving the planet isn’t a passing fad. It’s critical, for our own future and for the future of our children.” One can only hope that the games brought some others around to the same point of view — and may even continue to do so today, for those few who discover them moldering away in some archive or other.

Pepper’s Adventures in Time, the third and final adventure game released as part of the Discovery Series, was a very different proposition from EcoQuest. Its original proposer wasn’t one of Sierra’s regular designers, but rather Bill Davis, the veteran television and film animator who had been brought in at the end of the 1980s to systematize the company’s production processes to suit a new era of greater audiovisual fidelity and exploding budgets. His proposal was for a series called Twisty History, which would teach children about the subject by asking them to protect history as we know it from the depredations wrought by the evil inventor of a time machine. Because Davis wasn’t himself a designer, the first game in the planned series became something of a community effort, a collaboration that included Gano Haine and Jane Jensen as well as Lorelei Shannon and Josh Mandel. (That is, for those tracking gender equality in real time, three female designers and one male.)

Lockjaw has been captured by a spoiled brat of a Royalist!

The star of the series, as sketched by Bill Davis and filled in by the design team, is a girl named Pepper Pumpernickel, a spunky little thing who doesn’t take kindly to the opposite sex telling her what she can and can’t do. Her costar is Lockjaw, her pet dog. Davis:

We’d recently lost a dog to leukemia, had gone through an extended period of mourning, and had decided it was time to adopt. So my wife and son headed for our favorite adoption agency, the local animal shelter. They came home with a German shepherd/terrier mix. The terrier turned out to be Staffordshire terrier. For those in the dark, as we were, Staffordshire terrier is synonymous with “pit bull.” Anyway, she turned out to be a lovable little mutt with a bit of an attitude. Thirty pounds of attitude, to be precise. Well, as I was sitting at the drawing board designing characters for Twisty, she shoved her attitude up my behind and into the game proposal.

Lockjaw threatens at times to steal the game from Pepper — as, one senses, he was intended to. The player even gets to control him rather than Pepper from time to time, using his own unique set of doggie verbs, like a nose icon for sniffing, a paw icon for digging, and a mouth icon for eating — or biting. It’s clear that the designers really, really want you to be charmed by their fierce but lovable pooch, but for the most part he is indeed as cute as they want him to be, getting himself and Pepper into all kinds of trouble, only to save the day when the plot calls for it.

Ben Franklin’s doctrine of sober industriousness has been corrupted into hippie indolence. It’s up to Pepper to right the course of history as we know it.

Otherwise, the theme of this first — and, as it would turn out, only — game in the series is fairly predictable for a work of children’s history written in this one’s time and place. Pepper travels back to “Colonial” times, that semi-mythical pre-Revolutionary War period familiar to every American grade-school student, when Ben Franklin was flying his kite around, Thomas Paine was writing about the rights of the citizen, and the evil British were placing absurd levies on the colonists’ tea supply. (Perish the thought!)

While its cozily traditional depiction of such a well-worn era of history doesn’t feel as urgent or relevant as the environmental issues presented by EcoQuest, the game itself is a lot of fun. The script follows the time-tested cartoon strategy of mixing broad slapstick humor aimed at children with subtler jokes for any adults who might be playing along: referencing Monty Python, poking fun at the tedious professors we’ve all had to endure. Josh Mandel had worked as a standup comedian before coming to Sierra, and his instinct for the punchline combined with Jane Jensen’s talent for memorable characterization can’t help but charm.

The puzzle design too is pretty solid, with just a couple of places that could have used a bit more guidance for the player and/or a bit more practical thinking-through on the part of the designers. (Someone really should have told the designers that fresh tomatoes and ketchup aren’t remotely the same thing when it comes to making fake blood…) And, once again, the games does a good job of blending the educational elements organically into the whole. This time around, you have a “truth” icon you can use to find out what is cartoon invention and what is historically accurate; the same icon provides more background on the latter. You use what you have (hopefully) learned in this way to try to pass a quiz that’s presented at the end of each chapter, thus turning the study of history into a sort of scavenger hunt that’s more entertaining than one might expect, even for us jaded adults.

What had been planned as the beginning of the Twisty History series was re-badged as the one-off Pepper’s Adventures in Time just before its release in the spring of 1993. This development coincided with the end of the Discovery Series as a whole, only two years after it had begun. Sierra had just acquired a Seattle software house known as Bright Star Technology, who were henceforward to constitute their official educational division. Bright Star appropriated the character of Dr. Brain, but the rest of the budding collection of series and characters that constituted the Discovery lineup were quietly retired, and the designers who had made them returned to games meant strictly to entertain. And so passed into history one of the most refreshing groups of games ever released by Sierra.

(Sources: the book Jane Jensen: Gabriel Knight, Adventure Games, and Hidden Objects by Anastasia Salter; Sierra’s newsletter InterAction of Spring 1992, Fall 1992, Winter 1992, and June 1993; Compute! of January 1993; Questbusters of March 1992; materials in the Sierra archive at the Strong Museum of Play. And my thanks go to Corey Cole, who took the time to answer some questions about this period of Sierra’s history from his perspective as a developer there.

Feel free to download EcoQuest: The Search for Cetus, EcoQuest: Lost Secret of the Rainforest, and Pepper’s Adventures in Time from this site, in a format that will make them as easy as possible to get running using your platform’s version of DOSBox.)

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/the-sierra-discovery-adventures/

[peacefulwriter88]

Space In Between - Part 4

A/N: I’m sooooooo excited for this next part y’all! I meant even post a part 5 immediately afterwards….things are moving and shaking!

Warnings: Just language for now....

Tag List @sleepretreat @lancetucker @xxhuffelpuff-girlxx  @that-theater-techie-from-kc

“I don’t believe you dragged me here.” you mumble, following Hector and Mara through the thick crowd of students as you made your way to your seats. It was Saturday afternoon and despite the chilly weather it was 75 degrees and beautiful. The stadium was filled with the contrast of Yale blue and Harvard crimson. Not only was this the biggest rivalry of the year, it was also homecoming and everyone on both sides were buzzing with with excitement.

Except you. You were grateful that the campus would be quiet and you could focus on studying before the evenings parties. That had been until Hector and some other friends from your major had showed up at your door step, forcing you and Mara to join them for tailgating and a day's worth of booze and fun. Even she had agreed that they needed to focus on work, specifically Beck’s ridiculous coursework, but one whisper from Hector, he’s handsome features loosing themselves in Maras wavy hair as he whispered convincingly in her ear, and she had easily submitted and forced you along.

Damn young love.

She had also convinced you to wear the halter style jersey you had both at a discounted rated at the school store a week back with your fitted jeans, your curves peeping from the short shirt.

“You’re beautiful and you should showcase it. Besides, a certain professor might be there,” she wiggles her eyebrows and you had thrown a pillow at her. You still wore it though and even put some effort into your makeup and spirit garb.

Perhaps you wanted to look a little cute in case he did show up.

Goddamn your young crush.

The parking lot had been packed and you all set up camp, drinking and playing cornhole while egging the other side on. It wasn’t long before you need to fill the stadium which was how you had ended up here, looking for your seats with a cold beer in your hand as you followed the large group. You find it easily and after kick off you find yourself wandering back to the work yuo still need to, applications you need to fill out for a part time job. Adulthood taking over your fun.

Mara notices that you’ve changed but doesn’t push, knowing it was a miracle to get you out. Instead she lets you sit and brood, sipping your beer and ignoring the way students are parading around you.

And then you spot him.

He’s sitting a few rows in front of you, with three guy friends, one another professor you recognize from the internship you’re applying to on campus. He’s laughing jovially, his brown hair a moussed mess as he sips beers and yells at the team during important plays. If you didn’t know it, you’d never guess he was a professor with his youthful charm, his chiseled jaw clear of any scruff. You take in the way his jeans hug his ass and his alma mater shirt is tight around his arms and you make an almost shameful load moan, taking another sip of your beer.

Blue was a great color on him.

Mara has noticed you’re suddenly silent, not even teasing the opposing team and her eyes go from you toward the direction of your distraction and she smiles, sitting down beside you. You tip the beer back, taking in his form one last time, lamenting the way he wets his puckered lips before speaking and she wraps a knowing arm around your shoulder.  The crowd is loud and everyone is distracted so she knows she can speak freely and say,

“Just tell me you don’t have a crush on him and I won’t push it.”

You groan as you bite your lip and shake your head,

“Ok, only because you’ve been my best friend since forever,” you hesitate before you admit “I know its wrong but I do have the biggest hard on for him.”

She laughs, shaking her head and squeezing your shoulders.

“I know! And normally I wouldn’t encourage this negative behavior, you know idolizing over someone like him,” you throw her a look which she successfully ignores it as she says, “But you too are cute together! I’ve seen the way you both are at the coffee shop or in class. Yes, I know you slip off to Jenny’s Bean to have weird science sessions with him. I genuinely think he’s attracted to you and it's beyond just you being hot. I think you’ve piqued his interest with that sexy fucking brain of yours.”

You place your hands over your face and shake your head.

“My brain normally scares boys away.” you mumble and she laughs getting closer to your ear.

“Yeah but you’re not trying to bag a boy - you want a man. A good man I’d argue. Let's go remind him what he’s missing.”

You look at her and she giggles as she stands up.

“Gonna grab beers before the quarter ends.” she yells at the group who only throw her a thumbs up, too immersed in the close game. she loops her arms between your own as you both shimmy from your row, making your way down the stairs, going toward you and you tense up.

“Just laugh and scream go bulldogs. Promise you he’ll check you out until you’re out of his sight.”

You roll your eyes and she nudges you and you sigh, laughing obnoxiously loud as you begin to shout out go bulldogs, causing the who area to follow your lead.

Including a certain Beck.

He’s laughing with his teammates, screaming out a cheer when his eyes lock on yours as you move slowly down the stairs. You laugh and smile at him, throwing him a wink before turning and whispering to Mara. Mara who’s pretending to not be listening as she turns to watch him until you’re at the bottom of the stairs and she giggles profusely as you both walk hastily to a beer stand.

“He never took his eyes off of you. Watched you and your tight little ass walk down the stairs the whole way. Bet you dinner he’s going to follow.”

You roll your eyes and snort, though you’re smiling and shake your head.

“You’re on. I don’t believe you.”

“I have great guy powers.” she admonishes and you look at her before saying, “Yeah, which is why you and hector still aren’t a thing.”

She gives an exaggerated gasp even though she’s blushing deeply before she punches you and you laugh, clutching your stomach in amusement.

“Whatever dude.” she says in annoyance though she’s giggling too and you almost miss his voice. Almost.

“What has you two so amused?”

You both stop laughing for a second, looking at each other before you laugh again and he watches in amused confusion. Finally you say,

“I was just responding to a bad cheer she made up.”

Mara instantly nods her head to lie and he smiles, shoving his hands in his pockets.

“What are you doing here, professor. Didn’t take you as football kind of guy.” you continue and he shakes his head.

“Isn’t that my line? You were the one who convinced me that you didn’t got to games. And call me Chris. We’re not in a classroom and technically I’m just filling in for your real professor.”

You ignore the way Mara elbows you as you all move up in line and you blink your eyebrows innocently before answering,

“I wasn’t going to come out. My really obnoxious roommate and group of friends told me I was lame if I stayed in to write an essay that a certain Dr. Beck is forcing on me so I relented and alas, here I am in blue and silver getting drunk off of cheap booze. Doesn’t answer my question, Chris - thought you weren’t a football guy.”

He laughs, stepping closer to you and huffs out.

“Well I’m glad Mara got you out. You deserve to have a good time - can’t take yourself too seriously. And I always go to the games but especially the ones where our rivals are involved.” he runs his hand through his hair and you catch a whiff of his cologne as you cross your arms.

“Guess you’re not as lame as I thought.”

This time he admonishes, gripping his heart exaggeratedly as he says,

“You thought I was lame?”

“You spend soo much of your time reading space articles. And testing theories in weird places on campus. And the city.”

You raise an eyebrow as he shakes his head.

“Hey, we have all this land to test on and it's just adding more foliage to the beauty of this town. And you were going to skip a game to write a paper - you are just as lame as me if not more so.”

“I am not lame!” you counter back, pushing him and he laughs as Mara rolls her eyes.

“Oh my gosh you both are lame. Really, you think talking about space all the time is fun. Geez…..” she mutters and you scoff at her as Chris laughs harder.

“Chris I wondered where you....went…. off…... too. Who are your friends?” another man, a guy from the group Chris was with, runs up beside your group. Chris smiles as he turns to him, the guy distracting him long enough for Mara to whisper, “Seriously tho, you both need to get a room. You’re both too ridiculous.”

“Shut it.” you bite back as Chris turns to you, throwing his right arm over your shoulders as he says,

“This is my friend Y/N. Y/N this is Rick.”

You’re frozen for a second. Did he just casually introduce you to his friend and pull you into his space like you were old friends? You know you drank a lot of beer but how had you gotten here, to this new friend zone? Could Mara actually be right? Wouldn’t be the first time sadly.

You recover quickly as you thrust out your hand, shaking Rick's hand and saying,

“Pleasure to meet you. You and Chris were on SpaceStationX together, right?”

“Hmmm, telling here all about me eh? Must be a dear friend.” Rick teases and Mara clears her throat, inserting her hand.

“I’m Mara. Her friend and apparently this dude’s chopped liver,” she points at Chris who blushes, shaking his head.

“Yea - this is Mara.” he says quickly and you laugh, your hand winding around his waist and he looks down at you, smiling. This was casual - two friends hanging out, getting beers at a sporting event. You can manage this. The line moves and inch and Rick says,

“So you’re obviously team Yale like this dude, feeling you’re cute little jersey.”

“Rick….” Chris mutters, shaking his head and Rick throws up his hands as Mara laughs.

“What? Can’t tell her that her and her friend have cute shirts? Im married I get boundaries.”

You laugh as you ask,

“Why thanks Rick. I know you have no loyalties so I’m assuming you’re a smart man and cheering for the bulldogs.”

He shrugs,

“I mean I could care less and I was going against this dude,” he nods toward Chris. “But you could convince me otherwise.”

You shake your head as Chris groans.

“Dude, get your shit together. You’re married.”

“Hey hey, I’m just helping you out with pick up lines. She’s obviously getting no game from you and it's obvious you’re into her.”

Thats does it. You and Mara burst out into laughter as Chris’ face goes into a deeper red, his blue eyes getting lighter with embarrassment. You can feel him trying to hide in himself and you give him a squeeze of encouragement. You could only hope Mara doesn’t decide to join in.

“Hey, hey tell me I’m not wrong. Mara, tell me your friend isn’t equally into this dude. I saw the way she was swaying her cute little butt going down the stairs knowing my dude was watching her. I’m just trying to make this happen while we’re still young and drunk.”

There’s a huge gap between you and the next person at this point as you feel your body heat up. Fuck. Of course it wouldn’t be Mara but he’s fucking honest friend exposing your business. Mara is laughing harder, nodding her head in agreement and its Chris this time who squeezes you, though he doesn’t make eye contact with you.

“Okay, okay. Fine. Lets just put it out there since we’re all being honest,” you challenge Rick who is smiling and nodding his head, looking over at Chris who is covering his face with his free hand. You all move up closer to the counter as you continue. “Fine, I have a thing for Chris. Because he’s cute and funny and intelligent. I mean look at this face.”

You’re trying to will the alcohol to stop the words from flowing out of you quickly and it's Mara who clasp her hands in reverence and says,

“Yea she’s right. Beck is fine ass fuck. More her type than mine tho.”

“Mara….” you mutter under your breath and she shrugs as Chris looks at you.

“Cmon we gotta salvage this somehow.” you tease, starting to pull away from him. He stops you. His arms tighten around you as he looks down at you.

“I’m too fucking drunk for this,” he mutters before saying, “You have to know how fucking beautiful you are. Every guy at this stadium has been checking you out. That doesn’t matter though, you’re just so brilliant. I don’t know…..why wouldn’t I be attracted to you? You’re pretty damn amazing Y/N.”

The last part is said in a whisper, his eyes softening at you and for a second you forget where you are and who you’re with.

“I KNEW IT!” Mara screams out as you make your way to the counter and Rick slaps Chris on his back.

“Way to  man up Beck. I’m gonna buy this round of drinks - inspired by this man’s balls for once in a long time.”

You both ignore him and you exhale before Chris clears his throat before saying to himself,

“No way a woman like you would really be interested in me though.” he pulls away and you shake your head, this time not letting him escape.

“Who says?” you counter back, catching him off guard. He watches you and you’re suddenly aware of the way his eyes flick to your lips, the way his hand is moving down your arm and you think this is it. He was going to kiss you and nothing else would matter this year.

Instead, the football stadium goes wild as a touchdown is made and you both pull away as Mara turns with two beers, handing them off to you. Then turning to give Chris two more.

Shit, you either need to get drunk more or sober the fuck up.

You take a long sip of the beer in your hands and Rick smiles, bobbing up and down as he says.

“Missing the damn game fooling with y’all. Let’s get back to it!”

Chris nods but you know something has changed. He walks in step with you, shielding you from the crowds of people as Mara and Rick talk enthusiastically as you make your way to your seats. Chris clears his throat, before saying,

“I haven’t...I don’t know how to navigate this but maybe….after the game...you and I could go and…..grab a drink or we could do it with friends or…..” he avoids your eyes as you look over at him and you give him a cheeky grin. Was this handsome god getting all tongue tied over you. What had you done for the universe to treat you so kindly. 

“Are you trying to ask me out?” you admonish and he sighs, chuckling slightly.

“I might be. Yes. That.”

“Chris I’d-” you’re unable to finish the sentence as someone yells out,

“Beck! Rick. The fuck y’all been?”

You look to find the tall, semi-balding man looking down at you with another guy his age. Someone with equal blue eyes and blonde hair.

Mark. Motherfucking Watney.

You bite back all of your enthusiasm because of course he’s here. They’re like best friends. And if that wasn’t enough, Chris was going to ask you out. He was asking you out. This was turning into the best damn day of your life. Whatney and a date with Beck. You turn to him but he’s watching the first guy intently.

“Who you got there, Chris?” he asks curiously and Chris clears his throat as Rick interjects.

“Ah this is just Mara and Chris’ crush. Y/N.”

Something flashes in Alex’s eyes and you know. You know he notices you because even though you look different in casual garb, even though you could play it off like you weren’t a student you were also in his class. Also interacted with him on a day to day basis because as someone who worked intently with NASA he wanted to know if you were truly worthy.

Fuck. You needed to get hammered.

“We were just kidding around. Rick and Mara and Chris and I…..he’s just drunk.” you're trying to play it off but you know its not working. Chris places his hand on the small of your back and says crisply,

“Rick is just fucked up Alex. See you around Y/N.”

Its curt and short and you nod, jogging up to Mara as you both move quickly. Willing yourself not to look back.

“Dude so much just happened in that moment I don’t even know how to help you recover.” she mutters and you nod.

“You don’t. We get hammered and deal with it on Monday.”

[mandibierly]

‘Battlestar Galactica,’ ‘Buffy,’ and Other Series Genre Show Producers Believe Deserved More Emmy Love

Edward James Olmos in ‘Battlestar Galactica’

Leading up to the 20th anniversary of the March 10, 1997 premiere of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Yahoo TV is celebrating “Why Genre Shows Matter” and the history of how these shows have tackled universal themes (i.e. how much high school sucks) and broader social issues.

Name one Emmy nomination you would have loved to see a genre show receive over the years. It’s a question we posed to more than 30 executive producers of current sci-fi/fantasy series who agreed to take part in our “Why Genre Shows Matter” survey over the last month, either via email or by phone.

Why was that particular query part of our survey? The response we received back from J. Michael Straczynski, co-creator of Netflix’s Sense8, explains it well:

Rather than look at one particular show or individual, I think it might be more instructive to look at this in terms of categories. In 62 years, the TV Academy has seen fit to grant SF and fantasy programs the Emmy for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series five times [‘Game of Thrones’ in 2015 and 2016, ‘The X-Files’ in 1996, and ‘The Twilight Zone’ in 1960 and 1961]. ‘The Bold Ones’? ‘The Waltons’? ‘Columbo’? Sure, not a problem. ‘Star Trek’? ‘Outer Limits’? ‘Lost’? ‘Buffy’? Not a chance. And it’s only won Outstanding Drama Series three times [‘Game of Thrones’ in 2015 and 2016 and ‘Lost’ in 2005].

Actors may get the nomination or the win, same for effects, or music… but to acknowledge writing means taking the stories seriously, and the TV Academy has never extended genre shows that respect. They see it as kiddie programming.

Which goes in a way to the topic at hand: “Why Genre Shows Matter.” Nobody ever asks “Why Mainstream Shows Matter,” so there’s always the presumption of societal irrelevance. Even in a courtroom one is innocent until proven guilty, but genre shows have to prove their value when other shows don’t have to bear that burden… which is even more astonishing considering that SF shows in particular are dealing with the technological, social, and political issues that are of greatest social interest right now. Mainstream shows won’t touch stem cell research, or cloning, or robotics, or artificial intelligence for fear of being labeled “genre”… but that’s the world we live in, folks, and if they ignore that world, then aren’t they in greater danger of irrelevance than shows that do address these questions? Why does yet one more cop show matter while a show about colonizing Mars does not? Shouldn’t that be the other way around?

Sleepy Hollow co-showrunner Albert Kim put it succinctly: “I can think of scores of genre episodes that should have won every writing award out there. From Buffy’s ‘The Body,’ to Star Trek: The Next Generation’s ‘Inner Light,’ to Battlestar Galactica’s ’33,’ to Doctor Who’s ‘Blink.’ I could go on and on,” he wrote. “Some of the best writing in television has been done on genre shows, but they’re almost always overlooked because of the traditional bias against anything having to do with sci-fi or fantasy.”

Here now, a look at seven other takeaways.

Mary McDonnell in ‘Battlestar Galactica’ (Photo by Carole Segal/NBC/Getty Images)

1. Battlestar Galactica should have been nominated for everything. Literally, 12 Monkeys showrunner Terry Matalos simply wrote, “Battlestar Galactica for all of them. Every single one.” The 2004-2009 series racked up a number of nominations (including two wins for Special Visual Effects and one win for Sound Editing), but it never cracked the best drama or acting categories. Only two episodes received writing noms (“Occupation/Precipice” and “Six of One”).

Among those who believe the series deserved better are the show’s former showrunners. “I think Edward James Olmos should have absolutely received an Emmy nomination for BSG,” Ronald D. Moore (Starz’s Outlander) wrote. “His performance as Adama was one of the best on TV through the years we were on the air and it was almost criminal that he was never recognized for his amazing work.”

David Eick (Freeform’s Beyond) agreed with Kim: “Battlestar Galactica and Ron Moore should have won the Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for its premiere episode, ’33.’ (Or at least been nominated… I mean c’mon. It’s f–king off the hook.)”

Related: ‘Battlestar Galactica’ EP David Eick Revisits 5 Episodes That Remain Relevant

Other nods that helped make Battlestar Galactica the most mentioned series:

Jeff Davis (MTV’s Teen Wolf): Battlestar Galactica should have received a nomination for Best Drama simply because it was incredibly good drama.

Ken Woodruff (Fox’s Gotham) The first season of Battlestar Galactica was so good. I remember thinking of it as The West Wing in space. While the series did pick up writing nominations in later seasons, that first season was by far my favorite.

Marco Ramirez (Netflix’s Daredevil): Mary McDonnell for Battlestar Galactica. She brought sophistication to her work, bringing a bit of West Wing flavor to what was essentially a show about space battles with robots.

Joss Whedon (who took our survey in honor of Buffy‘s 20th Anniversary): Battlestar, I still think, is the greatest show ever made. It’s The West Wing with rockets, and some of the most brilliantly subversive storytelling. The kind where that’s the feeling I had when I saw The Matrix: “I’m going to put down my pencil for a while until I learn more about writing and structure.” Battlestar would definitely be my pick.

2. Buffy was the second most mentioned series. Again, the show received a number of nominations over the years (including two wins, one for makeup and one for music composition for a series original dramatic score), but Whedon only earned one nod, for writing the silent episode “Hush” (which also nabbed a cinematography nod).

Related: ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ 20th Anniversary: Joss Whedon Looks Back — And Forward

As Bruce Miller (Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale) wrote, “I would say that the amazing serialized storytelling on Buffy never got the recognition it deserved…” Melissa Rosenberg (Netflix’s Jessica Jones) said she considers it “probably one of the Top 5 all-time best series in the history of television.”

James Marsters, Sarah Michelle Gellar in ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ (Credit: Photo by 20th Century Fox Television/REX/Shutterstock)

Of course the musical episode, “Once More, With Feeling,” which earned a nomination for music direction, was particularly awards-worthy. It got votes from David Greenwalt (NBC’s Grimm), who worked on Buffy before co-creating Angel with Whedon, and also Drew Goddard (NBC’s The Good Place), another man with ties to the Whedonverse. “I was [a writer] at Buffy the year Joss forgot to submit himself to the Emmys for directing ‘Once More, With Feeling,'” Goddard wrote. “It was a good reminder not to be too precious about award shows… but if we could go back and retroactively fill out the right paperwork for him, that’d be great.”

John Noble in ‘Fringe’ (Credit: Everett Collection)

3. Some wrongs will never be righted… Daredevil‘s Ramirez also mentioned John Noble for Fringe. “He brought grace and poise to what could’ve easily been reduced to a ‘kooky scientist’ stereotype. With the support of some smart writing, he broke my heart almost every episode,” he wrote.

Mads Mikkelson as Dr. Hannial Lecter in ‘Hannibal’ (Credit: Brooke Palmer/NBC/Getty Images)

And who could argue with Nick Antosca (Syfy’s Channel Zero)? “Mads Mikkelson should have been nominated for best actor for Hannibal, because nobody has ever given a more satanic performance,” he insisted.

Carrie Coon in ‘The Leftovers’ (Credit: HBO)

4. But some wrongs still can be… With one season left of The Leftovers, there’s still time for Carrie Coon to pick up her first nomination. “Carrie Coon has been robbed. I cannot believe that she has not been nominated,” The Vampire Diaries and The Originals EP Julie Plec told us. “I think her work in the whole show, but Season 1 specifically, is so magnificent. The fact that she didn’t get every award that was possible to give to an actress is a shame.”

Bae Doona in ‘Sense8’ (Credit: Netflix)

A second season of Sense8 could put Bae Doona in contention. Dana Gould, creator of IFC’s Stan Against Evil, thinks her performance in Season 1 was “utterly compelling, and I would have loved to have seen her nominated,” he wrote. “In a big, flashy, complicated story, she was small, still, and immensely powerful.”

‘Rick and Morty’ (Credit: Cartoon Network)

And hey, let’s lighten the mood a little: “Justin Roiland should get an Emmy for his voice work on Rick and Morty,” Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss wrote.

Ted Danson and Kristen Bell in ‘The Good Place’ (Credit: Vivian Zink/NBC)

5. It’s never too early to start this year’s Emmy advocacy. Season 1 of The Good Place will be eligible for the 2017 Emmys, and it has a big fan in Damon Lindelof (HBO’s The Leftovers), who creator Mike Schur famously invited to lunch to get his thoughts on the concept before he pitched it to NBC. “The Good Place blew my mind,” Lindelof wrote. “Mike Schur told me what he was gonna do before he did it and it STILL blew my mind. Best first season finale for any show I think I’ve ever seen. All that, and FUNNY too. This show should get Emmy nominations for everything there is.”

Emily Andras (Syfy’s Wynonna Earp) thinks the show’s star deserves a nom. “Kristen Bell did fantastic work making an inherently unlikable heroine utterly lovable on The Good Place — and she made it look effortless,” she wrote.

Jeffrey Wright in ‘Westworld’ (Credit: HBO)

Dan Harmon, co-creator of Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty is leading the charge for a certain actor on a freshman HBO series. “I think Jeffrey Wright as Bernard on Westworld definitely earned an award. If I explain why, I’ll spoil Season 1 for someone,” he wrote. “I think saying that just spoiled Season 1 for someone.”

Melanie Scrofono in ‘Wynonna Earp’ (Credit: Michelle Faye/Syfy)/Wynonna Earp Productions)

6. If you don’t think you’re worth it, why you should anyone else? You can’t blame Andras for backing her own leading lady. “I also think Wynonna Earp herself — Melanie Scrofano — is a once-in-a-generation talent, but I might be the tiniest bit biased,” she wrote.

Tom Ellis in ‘Lucifer’ (Credit: Jack Rowand/FOX)

Lucifer EP Joe Henderson believes his lead is best actor material. “Tom Ellis. He needs to be funny, dark, broken, confident, and childlike all at once,” he wrote. “He makes it look effortless, so it’s easy to underestimate… but he works damn hard to walk that fine line, and we reap the benefits.”

Elijah Wood and Samuel Barnett in ‘Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency’ (Credit: Bettina Strauss/BBC America)

Robert Cooper (BBC America’s Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency) kept it simple: he thinks Cristobal Tapia de Veer’s music for Season 1 deserves recognition. (Also, he asked “How could Kermit the Frog be ignored for so many years?”)

Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles in ‘Supernatural’ (Credit: Dean Buscher/The CW)

Supernatural EP Robert Singer gave a longer list. “This one will sound self-serving, but I believe both of our lead actors deserve much more credit than they are given. Also on our show our Director of Photography, Serge Ladouceur, has done exceptional work virtually unnoticed, and our production designer, Jerry Wanek, has probably built more sets than any other designer around, and makes our show, which is shot on not a large budget, look absolutely fabulous every week,” he wrote.

The cast of ‘Grimm’ (Credit: Allyson Riggs/NBC)

And as NBC’s Grimm approaches its series finale at the end of March, co-showrunner Jim Kouf issued a blanket statement: “Grimm for anything.”

Alf (Credit: Alien Productions/Everett Collection)

7. Finally, don’t take awards too seriously. Once Upon a Time creators Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis put their weight behind ALF. “Because never has there been a more expressive alien in the history of television. We feel his anti-cat stance prejudiced the Academy against him, but history will judge him kindly,” they wrote.

Simon MacCorkindale in ‘Manimal’ (Credit: Herb Ball/NBC)

Timeless EP Eric Kripke went a different direction: “Tough question, but I’d have to say Simon MacCorkindale in Manimal. Turning yourself into a hawk? Or a tiger? Or a wolf? That’s range.”

Perhaps, in the end, it’s best to think like Sera Gamble (Syfy’s The Magicians). “I am personally not really bothered by the fact that genre gets ignored, for the most part, by awards voters and nominators, or that genre is considered populist,” she said. “It makes genre fans actually self select what they like. If they come to our shows, it is because they liked it, not because a bunch of critics said they liked it or it was showered with awards.”

Still… “I can’t believe that Buffy was never nominated as a show,” she added. “That just blows my mind.”

Read more from Yahoo TV’s “Why Genre Shows Matter”: ‘Luke Cage’ Showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker on Embracing Exploitation Superheroes, Spells, and Sexual Abuse: A Conversation With Melissa Rosenberg and Sera Gamble, EPs of ‘Jessica Jones’ and ‘The Magicians’