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jigglypurin · 3 years

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Lego Racers

I distinctly remember the smell of the big box PC game's packaging as my parents pulled out of the Costco parking lot. Peppery, for some reason. I was about four or five. I couldn't help but crack the box open on the way home to read the manual and stare at the art, still bathed in that odd peppery smell. Rocket Racer, the game's final boss and posterboy, looked at me with his smug grin, and I knew I had to beat him. I was relatively new to playing video games and using the computer, but I knew enough to put the disc into the big tray, and wait for the autorun to hit Install.

LEGO Racers is a 1999 kart-style racing game released for Windows (and N64 and PS1, but I never touched those), and it is the game I most closely associate with my very young childhood. There were definitely others I played around the time, my first personal console being a Gameboy, but I'll get to those eventually. When I think of Lego Racers, I lovingly remember the feeling of being at the family Windows 98 computer in what we called the sunroom (basically an afterthought built-on room to our house that faced west and had gigantic windows), and having my very first truly heart-poundingly tense moments before triumph in a game.

I don't exactly remember how long it took me to finish. I spent most of my time in front of it coming up with little characters and making them the coolest little cars a five-year-old could imagine. Then, I'd take them into the test drive area and show off to the little pixel crowd in the stands.

The game's box art and intro cutscene proudly display the game's seven circuit bosses: Captain Redbeard, a stock pirate fella with a simple but sleek treasure chest-engine car - King Kahuka, a hindsight racist tribal islander stereotype with a throne shaped car - Basil the Batlord, a vampire with a rad dragon-headed red and black low-profile car - Johnny Thunder, an Indiana Jones parody with a rather non-descript but cool looking car with head and tail lights - Baron Von Barron, Johnny's archnemesis with a sleek retro Jeep - Moth (whose name I will not say in its entirety), a blue alien queen with a cool blue moon-rover, and finally, Rocket Racer himself, whose autograph is scrawled across the game's cover art; a man with his very own circuit named after himself, and a machine that screams *speed* with its arrow-shaped nose, cockpit style windshield, and rear rocket boosters. To my little 5 year old mind, these boss racers were on another level; truly skilled drivers I would need to give my all to defeat.

Gameplay-wise, it's a standard kart racing fare. Press gas at the right time during the countdown to boost, avoid obstacles, get power-ups and win. But getting to build and race your own car creations was half the fun as well. Legos being a special interest of mine as a kid made the game much more than the sum of its parts. I had a huge plastic tub filled with them. I still love building Lego cars to this day. It's unfortunate that the game is 2-players at most. Obviously important were the items: Red bricks were attacks like cannonballs and rockets, Yellow were hazards like oil-slicks and a mummy's curse that played with your controls, Blue were shields, and Green were speed boosters, with smaller White bricks that acted as level-ups for your items. I pretty quickly figured out that Green was the best. Why hit everyone or protect myself when I could just get so far ahead they couldn't touch me?

The game has 13 tracks, 12 of which you will see before you are halfway finished. Each grand prix has 4 tracks, so the latter half of the boss racers simply have mirrored versions of the former's. Each track is based on a distinct Lego set from tech themed space and arctic, pirate laden and tomb raiding adventure and island, and wizard and warrior style medieval and magic. As you start a grand prix, you get a short scene of the boss driver taunting you and showing off their car. Against the boss, there was little room for error if you wanted 1st overall. Like most kart racers, you got points based on your position at the end of each race. And no matter what, the boss racer will finish first if you do not. No lie, making it to the final track with gold in sight never failed to get my little heart racing. Especially since you stopped dead in your tracks upon any crash. Getting hit by an enemy's attack was one thing. Annoying, but you could recover. Crashing into a wall and having to back up? Agony. Many of the later tracks had just such obstacles jutting out at right angles to end any hope of victory.

After finishing a grand prix, the game shows you two cutscenes (unless you got 2nd or 3rd, then you get one, and it's not particularly flattering), first of your character triumphantly dancing upon a gigantic 1st place pedestal, showboating their gold trophy with fireworks and flash bulbs. After that rush of dopamine, because being five and winning enough points in the circuit to earn your way to 1st was already so much, the game gives you an extra mind-blowing moment of the circuit's boss racer, kicking the sand and 'aw shucks'-ing as they accept their defeat and present you with a brand new set of bricks to use for your cars and drivers (which initially, I remember scaring me as a kid? at least at first? They first appear in silhouette and I had no clue what was happening. I was an easily scared kid, you will learn more about that. It comes up a lot). I was stunned. Not only did the boss just tell me I'm a better racer - now I can *play as him*? And build *his car*? Transcendent.

Aurally, the sounds of this game are completely burned into my brain. The goofy, catchy theme that plays on the main menu, the bouncy garage theme, the squeaks and clicks of placing bricks, and the loud, distinct sounds of each powerup. Just watch a few moments of gameplay and you'll see (hear) what I mean. A few of the track themes as well I can still catch myself humming from time to time.

Some good specific memories:

-A moment where my sister, 6 years my senior, was watching me, rooting for me as I took on Johnny Thunder's grand prix. On the final track, the reversed Captain Redbeard stage, I managed to snag a last minute un-powered up green boost brick. My blood ran cold and my pulse jumped as I leaned back in the chair, and barely rocketed ahead to take the win. We both cheered.

-The day where I both finally defeated Moth, an extremely fast racer with exceedingly difficult tracks, and finally met Rocket Racer himself, face to low-poly face. His cutscene is, for lack of a better word, epic in the mind of a child. Veronica Voltage, another racer who heads the Time Attack mode, congratulates you on your series of wins against the previous boss drivers, and says there's someone you should meet. A midi-orchestra begins to play. A massive metal door raises slowly, and Rocket Racer walks out of the shadows to your drivers shock. He acknowledges your skill and challenges you to race on his own track before turning and walking toward a swirling portal, laughing as he says "I'll be waiting for you... at the finish line." Tiny me was awestruck. This game rocks. Rocket's track, funnily enough, is kind of a joke once you've got it down. It's chock-full of green bricks and white upgrade bricks, so you can get the way overpowered Space Warp boost that just teleports you further ahead on the track. While Rocket also knows how to use those bricks well, at this point, you probably know how to use them better.

-Cracking open my big CD case some years later, age 10 or 11, and installing it on my own laptop. Getting to play Lego Racers in the comfort of my own bed was a dream come true.

This first one is a little rambly and more about the game itself than my memories surrounding it. Honestly, that's because the game follows me to this day. I still own the disc. It's not installed (new lappy doesn’t have a disc drive lol), but I reminisce on it often. I've since emulated the N64 and PS1 versions, but neither hold a candle to the one I grew up with. It's a warm reminder of my days where Rocket Racer was the coolest motherfucker, getting a new Lego set would make my week, and little victories in games meant the world.

#LEGO #LEGO Racers #PC #Retro #Ages 4-6

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porchwood · 5 years

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ToastedTHG: Does Katniss (protectively) infantilize Prim?

[I may revisit this post later in light of CF and MJ, but it’s ridiculously long already and I really want to stick with THG for the moment.]

I don’t mean this as harshly as it sounds, simply that, to my way of thinking, Katniss depicts - and likely perceives - Prim, especially early on in THG, as a much younger child. I find with older siblings (my own sister and friends that have little sisters), the younger sibling sometimes gets “stuck” in their head at a certain age/stage, and it stands to reason that Prim would be locked in Katniss’s mind by the trauma of Mr. Everdeen’s death, Mrs. Everdeen’s neglect, and the girls’ near-death by starvation as seven-year-old “sweet tiny Prim, who cried when I cried before she even knew the reason.”

When I first started reading THG fic, it bothered me that Prim always came across as so much younger than she’s supposed to be (though I found myself doing the same with her character when I first started writing THG fic). She always seemed to be about eight years old, whether Katniss was twelve or eighteen. And then I went back to THG and really looked at how Katniss presents her:

She must have had bad dreams and climbed in with our mother.

My little sister, Prim, curled up on her side, cocooned in my mother’s body, their cheeks pressed together.

The community home would crush her like a bug.

Even at home, where I am less pleasant, I avoid discussing tricky topics. [...] Prim might begin to repeat my words and then where would we be?

I reach out to Prim and she climbs on my lap, her arms around my neck, head on my shoulder, just like she did when she was a toddler.

“She’s just twelve.” (not that age twelve isn’t still childhood, but this reads to me like “She’s just seven years old...”)

The woods terrified her...

...Prim, who’s scared of her own shadow...

In this way [Rue’s] exactly the opposite of Prim, for whom adventures are an ordeal.

I’m not suggesting that any of this is negative or untrue, and as I’ll explain in just a moment, as the story goes on, Katniss paints quite a different picture of her sister between the lines. But as I revisited each of these passages (not to mention the “little duck” references on reaping day), I couldn’t help feeling that Katniss is still seeing and describing a sweet, frail, starving seven-year-old. And it’s not hard to see why.

I protect Prim in every way I can, but I’m powerless against the reaping. The anguish I always feel when she’s in pain wells up in my chest and threatens to register on my face.

Katniss is an exemplary protective older sister - the only thing she wanted in all of this is to protect Prim :_( - and I would never find fault with her depicting Prim as a tiny frightened thing who needs shielding from the world at all times. But there’s a whole lot more to Prim that her sister eventually lets slip out (intentionally or otherwise):

Sweet tiny Prim...who brushed and plaited my mother’s hair before we left for school, who still polished my father’s shaving mirror each night because he’d hated the layer of coal dust that settles on everything in the Seam. (This is that same tiny vulnerable seven-year-old taking care of her adult mother and tending to her dead father’s memory - every single day, even while she’s starving to death! I can’t think of anything I did that consistently at age seven, let alone taking care of another person!)

On the table, under a wooden bowl to protect it from hungry rats and cats alike, sits a perfect little goat cheese wrapped in basil leaves. Prim’s gift to me on reaping day. (As @ghtlovesthg pointed out - this means Prim must have been up before Katniss!)

“I’ll be all right, Katniss,” says Prim, clasping my face in her hands. “But you have to take care, too. You’re so fast and brave. Maybe you can win.” (Prim reassuring Katniss at the Justice Building! I’d forgotten about that one!)

...When she sells her goat cheeses at the Hob... (Prim is a businesswoman, not just a sometime-trader! Discussed a smidge more in this post.)

Prim milking her goat before school. (Again, uniquely responsible in a child, because this is an every-single-day responsibility, not something you can skip if you sleep in or rush if you’re running late. At least, not if I understand milking correctly.)

What’s funny was, Prim, who’s scared of her own shadow, stayed and helped. (With that miner’s awful leg wound)

That’s another thing about my mother and Prim. Nakedness has no effect on them, gives them no cause for embarrassment. Ironically, at this point in the Games, my little sister would be of far more use to Peeta than I am. (I’m almost 40 and I’m still squeamish about male nudity! It’s part of why I love Katniss so much! And I love Katniss’s admission of sweet, tiny, vulnerable Prim being useful to a mortally wounded Peeta.)

Something that’s only faintly nodded to (and that in CF) is that Prim has been dealing firsthand with pregnancy/labor/delivery, probably alongside her mother - I’d hazard she’s something of an apothecary apprentice at this point - but certainly with Lady, her goat. Lady was a gift for Prim’s 10th birthday (just over two years before THG begins), which means she’s been tended by Prim through at least two pregnancies, as well as the mauled shoulder. I belabored this a bit in WtM, but this also means that Prim had a small side business in goat kids, either trading them back to the Goat Man for the stud service that keeps Lady in milk, selling male kids to Rooba for meat (which would probably break Prim’s tender heart a bit), and/or selling females for a tidy sum as future dairy goats.

What’s more, if Prim hasn’t gone through menarche herself by the start of THG, she’s surely intimately aware of it (between close living quarters, limited “sanitary supplies,” and her mother’s patients). This is something else I’ve touched on (and will belabor in the near future) in the Mooniverse, but I think menstruation was both a hopeful and a terrifying thing to the women of Twelve. (On the one hand, they would certainly experience irregular/absent periods, delayed menarche, etc due to malnutrition, so the appearance of a steady cycle would mean joy for those who dearly wanted to get pregnant, but there would also be something of Katniss’s “terror as old as life itself” at the prospect of those children who might result.) We never get a chance to see this, sadly, but I’ll bet Prim had a crush (on Peeta’s oldest brother, who was crazy about her in turn). Did she share Katniss’s fear about bringing children into the cruel world she lived in, or was she looking forward to being a mother one day?

To wrap this up, for a little perspective, let’s take a quick peek at another example of a twelve-year-old female character. Say, an intelligent one with an ugly yellow cat...

(yes, I know Crookshanks comes along a smidge later, but I’m not crazy about movie!Hermione and this gif was too perfect!)

At the beginning of THG, give or take a few months, Prim is the same age as Hermione in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Please tell me this gives someone else a wee start (and I don’t mean the gif of Captain Kirk)!

Now, I’m not trying to equate these characters by any means, though there are similarities between the two (and I’ve been wondering for days now: if Prim was Hermione, Rory Hawthorne would be Ron, for so many reasons, but who would be Harry??)...The Grangers are dentists, Mrs. Everdeen is a skilled apothecary; both girls have a heritage looked down upon by some of their peers (though it’s interesting that, at least from Katniss’s perspective, Prim is universally adored rather than scorned as a “Seam brat” - and she’s got to look the tiniest bit Seam in some way!). I would hazard that Prim knows the plant book cover-to-cover at this point - and heck, Katniss even describes Prim (and their mother) as “work[ing] magic” in their healing! :)

I freely admit that Hermione had loads of advantages Prim could only dream of (relative affluence in the Muggle world, 20th-21st century conveniences, access to superior education from the get-go, not to mention real magic), but one would expect - and I think, will find - a similar emotional maturity in Prim at that age, if not more weighted to Prim's side, since she's living in a brutal post-apocalyptic dystopia where she lost her father (in terrible circumstances) at a very young age and works alongside her mother to tend sick/wounded/dying coal miners - surely a harrowing experience for even a seasoned healer.

Anyway, I found it interesting to compare the two, however briefly, and consider just how competent Prim totally is may be behind the scenes. I mean, she should have a Time-Turner by CF, at the very least. :)

#toastedthg #primrose everdeen #meta #prim #prim everdeen #thg reread

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recentanimenews · 5 years

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Isekai, Ranked

If Anime is escapism, there is no better way to escape than plunging Into Another World, where our niche skills and routine possessions may shake the fabric of reality! From MMO-inspired, to hard fantasy, there are many types of shows on this list but no movies nor series we haven’t seen recently. Bring all disagreements to the comments below!

1. Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World Re:Zero takes Isekai’s love for fish-out-of-water stories on step further: through brutal, expectation breaking blind sides, it makes the viewer a fish out of water too! Dripping with fantastic animation, Re:Zero true strength is the balance of its highly detailed world without over explaining its magic system, time loop mechanic and political systems. It also earns bonus points for limiting the application of its protagonist’s powerful magic and technological advantages.

2. Sword Art Online (1st season) In the narrowest of second places, SAO pairs top shelf animation with an approachable cast and easy to appreciate central conflict. Its lovingly constructed MMO setting aside, Kirito’s mistakes and occasional darkness elevate him above his potentially generic good-at-everything character type and Asuka plays the strongest heroine/love interest on the list.

3. Now and Then, Here and There Imagine if Digimon told a bleak about story sex trafficking child soldiers trapped on a waterless world with a maniac king? NTHT’s intense swerve from adorable into darkness is on par with Re:Zero and, much like Natsuki Subaru, HTHT’s Shu must rely on ‘durability’ and ‘heart’ to make it through. While some of it’s later tragic moments are predictable, this f’ed-up little anime scores major points for telling a complete story and having that story grow Shu from simpleton into a conflicted young adult.

4. Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet While Red’s post-earth scifi origin may stretch the common definition of Isekai, being trapped in a primitive culture that treats him (and his AI-driven mech Chamber) like a hero of old does not. Beautifully, Gargantia flips the script and makes Red’s overwhelming power, and killing in general, at odds with the local people.

5. Yōjo Senki / The Saga of Tanya the Evil Give us World War I with magic, a gender swapped villain as our protagonist, and God as our antagonist, and you’ve given us something pretty damn original. Like Gargantia, this reborn in another world captures thinking differently about the world can be as powerful and terrifying as unworldly strength. Without question, Yojo Senki’s cast is the most uniquely imagined on this list.

6. No Game No Life Like Tanya, the Blank twins piss off god and are sent to another world as punishment. However, their punishment is much more stylish and… harem. Underneath NGNL’s acid-soaked panties, over the top protagonists and the psychedelic color pallet, lives a show featuring thoughtful puzzles and imaginative spins on classic gamble to win story telling. Sadly, its story ends unfinished…

7. KonoSuba One part jab at Isekai and one part love letter to the starting town of every fantasy MMO, KonoSuba is all parts ruthlessly funny! While this reborn in another world (with a goddess!) show is not be as smartly written as NGNL, and it becomes repetitive after a time, the constant frenetic action more than makes up for it.

8. Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash Quiet, thoughtful, and full of sadness, this hard fantasy Isekai doesn’t care if its heroes are reborn in another world or trapped in a dungeon crawl afterlife. Building family bonds and connecting with people who would not normally be friends is all that matters… and it’s lovingly animated to boot!

9. ReCreators As a reverse Isekai, ReCreators distinguishes itself by bringing the other world to us. The experience is fantastically animated and packed with clever dialog that somehow breaths sincerity into a profoundly silly plot. The cast is quite diverse, both in design and personality, which keeps the action fresh, yet somehow cohesive throughout. It’s only major flaw is, the final act, which is way to drawn out.

10. The Devil is a Part Timer No I’m not kidding! This reverse Isekai’s premise that the Devil is trapped in our world and must work at McDonnald’s to get by is charming. While DiaPT’s humor isn’t particularly specific to the devil, the jokes are punchy, and the overall plot develops at a respectable pace. As an added treat, the opening gothic fantasy fight scenes are surprisingly well animated.

11. Log Horizon (1st season) Most exposition heavy, trapped in an MMO themed Isekai featuring ‘top ranked’ players crumble after a few episodes. More often than not, these shows try too hard to sell the coolness of their game worlds, user interfaces, and central characters. Miraculously, Log Horizon gets better mid season with a simple question: if former NPCs have personalities, can grow and learn, and even die, are they more human than the former players that dismiss them as background texture? Still, it takes Log Horizon six episodes to get going and good lord is it gray looking…

12. Overlord (3 Seasons) This transported into an MMO Isekai mirrors its main character: it is competent but not sure what it should be doing at any given moment. Sometimes the protagonists are villains and sometimes they are heroes. More often than not, characters are given lavish screen time to develop, only to be slaughtered whimsically. The resulting narrative is full of call backs and revealed foreshadowing… yet hasn’t gone very far in 3 seasons and hasn’t asked any interesting questions along the way.

13. El Hazard – The Magnificent World (OAV/TV) Predestined paradox, trans-dimensional time jumping high school students (and their drunk gym teacher) are trapped in an Arabian Nights’like land besieged by sentient bugs, a secret tribe of assassins from another dimension, and a death star like eye of god orbiting nearby. If you watched anime in the 1990s it will all be familiar but it still manages to feel original yet cohesive production. The character abilities are wonderful, the tragedy is nice, and plenty is left up to your own imagination to fill in the blanks. A bland, fault free, protagonist and a boy-crazy harem vibe are the only reasons it isn’t higher on the list.

14. Gate: Jieitai Kano Chi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri This invading the other world Isekai flips the script to deliver political intrigue, clash of culture, and commentary on Japanese society. It loses points for being a overly harem, relying on super dumb/super evil antagonists, and a dull protagonist but it’s fun enough to watch.

15. Drifters Stylishly violent, strikingly ugly, historical character filled and utterly bonkers, this reborn in another world Isekai’s uniqueness will hold your attention. Even if you do not want it to.

16. Rise of the Shield Hero (2 Seasons) On paper, this transported to an MMO world Isekai’s “treat the hero like crap,” “watch him accept the role of a slave-buying villain” and ultimately “rise to become the true hero” concept is great. Revealing that the world he’s saving may be less redeemable than the world the invaders are trying to save is also great. Too bad its padded and many of the arbitrary delays and narrative dead ends feel like cop outs.

17. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime While it lacks the initial hardcore’ness of Shield Hero, this reborn in another world Isekai is pleasantly animated and full of heart. The idea that naming monsters grants them power is a pretty neat mechanic too. It just sort bounces from idea to idea without a sense of purpose of resolution. One minute it’s a story of unlikely friendship, then magic destiny, then town builder, then harem, and onto magic school and isn’t about anything in particular until a hastily thrown together plot ties it up at the end. It scores points for making its hero a slime… although the reborn aspect never feels played with or justified.

18. Angel Beats! If the gun fetish, kids fighting a loli-angel instead of attending school in the afterlife plot weren’t so dumb and drawn out, this rebirth story’s touching moments would push it much higher. There’s a really good tale of life cut short, reunion after death, and again after rebirth here and it gets major bonus points for finishing the story it had to tell. Totally squandered.

19. Death March / Kara Hajimaru Isekai Kyousoukyoku Like Shield Hero, this reborn in an MMO Isekai is actually quite good looking. However, its Gary-Stue protagonist, harem and absurd narrative padding make it far less interesting. OMG how many episodes are about making lunch?! That’s too bad because the concept of code-like “copy and paste” magic system is pretty neat.

20. Wiseman’s Grandson / Kenja no Mago Despite opening with a modern day man being killed, this reborn into a fantasy world Isekai is more Magic School than Isekai. The only thread that connects the protagonist’s lives is that he can look at magic with an eye for process instead of outcome. The result is harmless easy watching but harem elements, a slow pace and lack of getting anywhere narratively hold it back.

21. How Not to Summon a Demon Lord This summoned into an MMO Isekai starts off as charming, but ecchi-heavy, before abruptly turning dark at the end of the season. We’re talking ‘make a child watch as her best friend is slowly tortured to death’ and creepo ‘finger-bang a loli cat girl in order to give birth to the demon inside her’ level dark. While those elements elevate HNtSaDL above niche appeal of its harm and MMO content, they aren’t so interesting to earn my recommendation.

22. Problem Children are coming from Another World, Aren’t They? The non-ecchi poor man’s No Game no Life features a talking cat that only some characters can understand and dreadful music. TFW smooth jazz? There’s some cuteness to be had, and the solutions to gambling games can be clever, but the overall vibe is low energy. It loses drama points because its protagonist is as smart as a god and physically stronger.

23. Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks? This poor man’s Konosuba is occasionally funny, satire of RPG conventions and family relationships. Mama’s skill that interrupts whatever her son is doing, no matter what it is or where he is in the game world, is particularly charming. Unfortunately, there’s no avoiding the creepo factor of sexualizing that family relationship.

24. Restaurant from Another World My mom is secretly from another world and my restaurant’s front door connects back to that world each day is certainly unique, but it’s structured more like a food-porn show than Isekai. While the linkages of each patron become clear over time, few characters are not aware of those connections themselves. The result never feels like it gets anywhere.

25. In Another World With My Smartphone Stories without risk are still watchable when they immerse us an interesting world, or delve into niche details like food or how magic works, or sleeze us with harems and sex appeal. Smartphone fails all of these things. Worse, it does nothing with it’s one idea: protagonist Touya is reborn in a fantasy world with smartphone. Except, GOD GIVES HIM GOD TIER MAGIC FROM THE GET-GO! Ironically, Re:Zero and No Game No Life both use of a cell phones in more interesting ways, and Tanya’s God isn’t even comparable. Unoriginal, unfunny, not dramatic, not sexy, not worth watching.

26. Maou-sama, Retry! This transported to an MMO Isekai’s trash production values, and bizarre characters are hard to take seriously. The results are sometimes so terrible they are funny, such as incompetent background music transitions and detailed horses hiding at the edges of the frame. Sadly, a bland harem and complete lack of narrative objective kill the mood.

27. Isekai Izakaya Imagine a low energy, public access style show, with a tourism theme, that featuring a modern Japanese restaurant that serves fantasy world patrons…

28. Isekai Cheat Magician A loveless summoned to a fantasy world Isekai who’s protagonists are the most powerful and purely good characters could deserve a niche rating. Not this one. The narrative sort of ‘skips the boring stuff’ and, in doing so, skips character development. Hilariously, what the narrative does show is poorly animated, always underwhelming magic battle scenes or people standing around talking.

29. Endride Without dialog, this stumbled into a magic world Isekai’s vibrant color and crisp art would be watchable. The fact that the world is somehow inside of Earth’s core and the sparse use of mythology are unique, but its dumb-as-bricks whiny teen protagonists have the maturity of a small children. There are many unintentionally funny moments like scientists using gigantic laptops or the king’s magic weapon looking like a safety pin. Ultimately, the cast is so unlikeable that the show itself is unwatchable.

By: oigakkosan

#Anime #News #RABUJOI – An Anime Blog

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gibsonsflowofthoughts · 6 years

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A summer of joy watching Belgium’s Romelu Lukaku control the World Cup

Space becomes a cruel, taunting expanse when you can no longer control its boundaries. One can be haunted in multiple dimensions when they can’t comprehend how they lost their way. Distance becomes a mirage and leeway a mirror into death on one’s field of play. Jamal Crawford can famously hijack your safe confines with dancing crossovers. Jason Peters can impede your reality as he stuffs you backwards against your will. Power often cannot be regulated. It is gifted to those worthy of its weight. It is why athletes like Romelu Lukaku must be seen not merely as strikers, but as gods of the pitch. Athletes like him are rare, and they destroy any barriers of control.

The World Cup has provided frightening reminders of his destructiveness. Against Japan in the group stage, in the last minute, Lukaku enacted a beautiful counter-attack then dummied the ball in the box for Belgium to win — a dangerous attempt for any player in such a situation. In another moment, he confused a defender by sagging from his natural middle position to the left of the pitch only to smash a low cross back across the box to a teammate for a goal. Playing Tunisia, at one moment he humiliated the defense with a quick-sprint into the box. At another, Lukaku flashed, maybe, a dozen stutter-steps and juke moves within 20 yards of the box that nearly sat a defender. None of these displays took more than 15 seconds.

These talented flaunts are the product of a high work rate, massive intelligence, and a world-class talent contained within the 25-year old firecracker. Every time I witness such feats, I think of what Lukaku said at the beginning of the summer soccer tournament, laying bare the poverty his family suffered in Belgium, the loss of his grandfather, and the inheritance of his father’s dream of international glory. Lukaku wanted to work so his family could escape despair, even if that meant days alone on the road in youth club ball, proving to European families that he was as Belgian as anyone else.

“Let me tell you something — every game I ever played was a Final,” Lukaku wrote in The Player’s Tribune in June. “When I played in the park, it was a Final. When I played during break in kindergarten, it was a Final. I’m dead-ass serious. I used to try to tear the cover off the ball every time I shot it. Full power. We weren’t hitting R1, bro. No finesse shot. I didn’t have the new FIFA. I didn’t have a Playstation. I wasn’t playing around. I was trying to kill you.”

That intensity can’t help but be absorbed through the screen. The way he directs traffic while 40 yards away from goal, clearing space for Eden Hazard, Nacer Chadli and Kevin de Bruyne appears effortless. Lukaku makes an appetizer of the endless green under his eyes. His carving cuts in the box are like a butcher’s blade to brisket. Brazilian defenders like Miranda in Friday’s 2-1 winner against Brazil are helpless to the flicks and nutmegs at Lukaku’s disposal. Utilizing power in these moments does not guarantee completion. Every cut can’t lead to goals. His talent isn’t perfection, but his potential offers an illusion of the limitless. Yes, there are those games when he lifts his crown toward the heavens, asking in any of the several languages he speaks, why this strike couldn’t land, or this flick could not find its match.

Yet, watching Lukaku move feels like beholding Baldwin etch essays, or Basquiat stroke masterpieces. Science cannot capture how the Belgian twirls. We must gawk and cry with every sweep and strike. If man can not describe how Ed Oliver, a defensive tackle for the University of Houston, can move so gracefully at 300 pounds, or how Vince Wilfork or Tyron Smith can keep pace with skinnier tailbacks, or why LeBron James seems perfect on hardwood, Lukaku’s magic cannot be quantified, either.

Such attempts yield indolent solutions, especially the inhuman qualifiers onlookers have used in the past. BBC soccer pundit Mina Rzouki said in July 2017 that she’d rather have Italian striker Alvaro Morata than Lukaku on her club because she’s always preferred “an intelligent player on my team.” She said she would overpay for the Spaniard and “wouldn’t even think about it.” There’s also the countless instances of linking players of African descent, like Lukaku with his Congolese roots, in soccer commentary to quips about “pace and power.” Understandably, Lukaku has seen such efforts to diminish his might.

“When things were going well, I was reading newspapers articles and they were calling me Romelu Lukaku, the Belgian striker. When things weren’t going well, they were calling me Romelu Lukaku, the Belgian striker of Congolese descent,” Lukaku remembered in The Player’s Tribune.

“If you don’t like the way I play, that’s fine. But I was born here. I grew up in Antwerp, and Liège and Brussels. I dreamed of playing for Anderlecht. I dreamed of being Vincent Kompany. I’ll start a sentence in French and finish it in Dutch, and I’ll throw in some Spanish or Portuguese or Lingala, depending on what neighborhood we’re in. I’m Belgian. We’re all Belgian. That’s what makes this country cool, right? I don’t know why some people in my own country want to see me fail. I really don’t. When I went to Chelsea and I wasn’t playing, I heard them laughing at me. When I got loaned out to West Brom, I heard them laughing at me. But it’s cool. Those people weren’t with me when we were pouring water in our cereal. If you weren’t with me when I had nothing, then you can’t really understand me.”

Truthfully, “pace and power” are too simple as modifiers for a man that can make gazelle sprints in open fields appear jejune. Speed is too singular as an offering when it can be combined with grace, agility and intelligence. Is it a wonder he’s Belgium’s all-time international goal-scorer this young? The glory of the World Cup stage, soccer’s penultimate treaty, should dissuade any ill-fitting, racist notions about his meaning to this club and their zealots.

Dope article from sbnation.com

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Fruit Machines Pokie Tank Tops

Behar Merlaku wants to induce a casino to pay out the enormous jackpot. 26, Behar Merlaku, played with the machine that was winning in a casino at Bregenz, Austria. But if he moved to claim his prize, the Korean player was instead offered the money and meal by casino managers once they refused to cover.

Now the disgruntled year-old is to start a lawsuit in Austria next month to force the casino to honor the ‘win’, which Mr Merlaku’s lawyers says he is entitled to due to the what machine said.

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The civil activity, considered to be the biggest claim of its kind anywhere in the world, is being viewed by gaming operators everywhere. When Mr Merlaku produced his claim that the operators of the casino immediately blamed a glitch in the machine.

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It also cited Austrian law which said jackpots cannot normally be higher than two million euros. A press conference is due to be held elsewhere in Innsbruck, Austria, representing the case from Casinos Austria, which operates a casino from Glasgow. From ecstasy to agony: When Mr Merlaku produced his claim that the operators of this casino immediately blamed a glitch in the fruit machine.

Its UK subsidiary holds a UK gaming operators permit.

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It also works casinos in Cairns and Canberra, Australia, and elsewhere. The initial hearing in this case is scheduled for January 10 next year.

The gambler’s legal team will argue that since the machine told him he’d won that he is therefore justified in following a claim.

Mr Merlaku, a Kosovar-Albanian who transferred into Switzerland in the time of the Balkans wars, ” said in an Australian television interview that the best time of his life quickly turned to the worst.

There was music and the sum I’d won – almost 43 million euros – has been exhibited on a display. Mr Merlaku even used his mobile phone to film footage of the winning noise and screen.

However, this may be used against him since the movie shows he only had four of those five symbols in a line; in Austria there must be five matches.

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His lawyers will argue that since the machine told him he’d won and therefore is justified in following a claim. The views expressed in the contents above are the ones of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. Wednesday, Dec 20th 5-Day Forecast.

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