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#data was like 'hey you love character design. you should do adopts'
texeoghea · 3 years
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working on sooooome robot adopts ill be posting to twitter ::3c i wont post the finished ones, but here's one i ended up not going with
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eirenare · 4 years
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I’ve just read the new “The Rise of Kylo Ren” interview with Charles Soule (the writer) and Will Sliney (the artist) and thought I’d do a post about it because there’s some very interesting stuff
And also I may or may not be absolutely amused at some descriptions for the former leader of the Knights of Ren
[More under the “read more” because of spoilers of TROKR, and because of speculation/theorizing of TROS.]
“They call him Ren, but that wasn’t always his name.
“Born out of the flames,” as artist Will Sliney puts it, the leader of the Knights of Ren in the opening pages of the new comic Star Wars: The Rise of Kylo Ren #1, arrives battle-scarred and wearing a fearsome, featureless mask — a blank expression save for a smattering of claw-like gouges. Concealed within is a charismatic leader, the exact type of person who would be able to seduce young Ben Solo away from the path of the Jedi.”
They’re going to talk about “The Rise of Kylo Ren”—they spent the first paragraphs mostly talking about Ren
And... *arching eyebrows at the first phrases* So... “They call him Ren, but that wasn’t always his name”, and “born out of the blames”, and “fearsome, featureless mask”... Yeah, this totally does nothing to stop me from thinking Ren’s gonna be future/alternative Ben
Alexa, play “Dark Horse” *looking sideways at Dark Rey and Ren*
“I wanted him to read like a charming Darth Vader,” says writer Charles Soule. “A Vader who is charismatic and who is appealing. That’s why [Ren’s] skin is burned and he sort of looks the way that he does. He’s embracing the seductiveness and the damage that the dark side does. Darth Vader, as impressive and imposing and terrifying as he is, is remote and cold and distant because he has the suit surrounding him. Whereas Ren isn’t hiding behind it. He’s someone you could have a beer with, in theory.”
Oh, so are we going parallel territory with the Darth Vader, like previously with Ben and Anakin? Interesting... *munches popcorn* Also lol at having a beer with him
“Designed purposefully for the new comic series, with issue #1 out now, Ren feeds the evolution of Kylo Ren. “The entire seductiveness of the dark side poured into one character engineered for Ben Solo is Ren,” Soule says. “He’s sort of a charming evil rascal that can be really fun to write and I really like where he goes in the series. But if Kylo Ren is going to take over the Knights of Ren, which we know that’s what happens, there should be some transition.”
I didn’t think I’d see Mr. Hottie McHotHot aka Ren defined like a “sort of a charming evil rascal”, but yeah, that’s kriffing funny and awesome and I can’t wait to see what happens in January
But now... now comes the super juicy bits...
“The creative team engineered some surprises for this charming dark sider, a foil in many ways to Darth Vader hiding beneath his protective covering. “You expect the dude hiding his face under a mask like that to be all messed up, particularly with his body looking the way it does,” Soule says. But in issue #2 we’ll see what he’s truly concealing, a reveal that speaks to Ben on a whole other level.”
Why does this sound familiar? ... Ah, yes, because it’s kind of the way they described Ben‘s unmasking in TFA, the whole “you expect a monster but you got this young tortured prince”. Sounds like that a lot. Also, the fact that what he’s hiding under the mask seems it will be a huge reveal to Ben and that they’ve “engineered some surprises for this charming dark sider”? Not to mention that, again, we have a comparison with Darth Vader
Yep, this definitely does nothing to keep me from going on with my Ren/Ben theory
“I think the key to writing Ben Solo is to write him as a lost teenager who is deeply in touch with emotions that teenagers often feel,” Soule says. “He feels like no one understands him, no one sees him the way he actually is, he’s utterly alone and there’s no one else out there in the universe. So when he sees Ren, he’s like, ‘Wait a minute — maybe there is somebody like me in the universe. Maybe there is a path for a guy like me. Look at the choices he’s made. I could make those choices, too, and I could be cool.’”
Okay, so, who the kriff is cutting onions in the room? *Ben feels intensify*
Also there might or might not be a certain Disney song going on my head right now reading this lol
“The story also calls for the re-introduction of a younger, seemingly kinder Snoke, wearing a little cap, no less. When we meet him in the series, the future Supreme Leader of the First Order is essentially a gardener. “When we were in the design process, Snoke is someone that you know is going to defy expectations and it’s not going to be the Snoke that you know,” Sliney says. “And it’s important because we’re going to see a very, very different relationship that Snoke and Ben have. It establishes that this is not the Snoke that’s going to Force-choke Hux and slam him into the ground. He’s playing the long game…so it was important to portray Snoke differently.
And true to his festering nature, Snoke inhabits a place that on the surface seems serene and beautiful, but is rotten at its core, a script note that spurred Sliney to google “rotting fruit” for artistic inspiration.”
Snoke is a scary predator. Whatever he is, whatever it’s his relationship with Palpatine, that’s the thing—they’re both scary predators, and I can’t even begin to imagine all the shit fed to poor Ben’s head
Also, about that world... Another thought that came to me (besides Mortis stuff) is that maybe it could be the deserted/stormy place we see in the TROS trailers, like the planet finally rotten inside and outside, kind of as a reflection as to how appearences have fallen apart and all that’s left to show is the rotting
“Like Sheev Palpatine, the once humble senator of Naboo, “Snoke is someone who knows the playbook,” Soule says. “It’s a similar play in terms of, ‘I’m a nice guy who’s just trying to help you,’ which is kind of what Palpatine did. But Snoke’s path to power, Snoke’s seduction technique, Snoke’s message and teachings are, I think, pretty different from the way Palpatine did it…. His job is not so much to corrupt as it’s to represent an alternative to the legacy [Ben has] been presented.” In concert with Ren presenting an alternate path, Snoke’s suggestive philosophy is appealing to a young boy who feels lost. “Everyone’s telling you you’re X, but what if you’re Y? What feels correct to you? Are you Obi-Wan Kenobi or maybe you’re something else?” Soule says. “All you need to be is whoever you are and no one’s letting you do that…and maybe, shouldn’t you go someplace where you can be who you are?”
Now that’s a specially terrifying way of predating—you may be able to get away from all the people you love, detach from them so as to protect them and protect your heart, but you can’t run away from yourself and your thoughts and feelings, and that’s what Snoke targets with Ben
“To bring these characters alive on the page, Sliney pulled reference material from Celtic myths and poured over books featuring the art of Star Wars. “I don’t think I’ve ever studied as much as I have,” he says. “Everything Star Wars. I have all those art books, whether it’s the modern ones or the ones from the original movies or the prequels. I love the art…I think it’s important to pay respects to the amazing concept art that have made these movies along the way.”
Those artists, of course, famously took their inspiration from earlier works, so Sliney went back even further. “I’m going backwards as much as I can in terms of the feel of it,” he says. “It needed to feel epic and it needed to feel powerful. It’s bringing it back to that mythological kind of feeling. I have a big influence from a lot of old ancient Celtic stories that date back thousands and thousands of years. These stories of lone warriors who died on the hill…. Those ancient books, they carry that gravitas.”
That’s interesting. Maybe the big “dead” tree around the machinery comes from Celtic mythology? After taking a look at some info, I’d say this screams “tree of life” to me, which would pretty much fit like a glove with the Force and the balance because it represents harmony and all that. Also, if you want to know something funny, according to this webpage (Irish Around the World), “trees were a connection to the world of the spirits and the ancestors, living entities, and doorways into other worlds”, it says, among other things
And, to finish:
“Meanwhile, Soule pulled much of his writing inspiration from the Skywalker saga itself, save for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which was still in production at the time. Soule went back and studied the first time we see Kylo Ren on screen, wondering to himself about the implication that Ben Solo had met Lor San Tekka in their younger days. “There’s a lot of data hidden between the subtext and text,” Soule says. “It’s about doing the research on that level just to see what connections might be made, but it’s also the feel of it.”
After all, Ben Solo’s bloodline makes him Star Wars royalty. “This is a story about legacy,” he says. “It’s a story about family and expectations and the fact that Ben Solo is part of a vast network of galaxy-changing individuals from his mom and his dad, to his uncle, to his adopted uncle, Lando, to his namesake Ben Kenobi, to his grandfather, Darth Vader…Within one step of him are arguably some of the most important people in the galaxy. So his story is their story and you can’t tell Ben Solo’s story without knowing all the other ones backwards and forwards.”
Interesting, about the writing inspiration... I’m really curious to see how it’ll fit with TROS
Can’t wait to see TROS tomorrow, both because of the movie itself and to start thinking where TROKR may land because, hey... we’re still 3 issues away from the comic to end, 3 months
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calliecat93 · 3 years
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ST: TNG S5 Watchthrough Episodes 10-13
(Trigger Warning: The section covering the episode Violations will be discussing topics such as assault and r***. While I don’t talk in-depth about the subject, it is a part of the episode even if they use the Midn R*** trope and thus will be mentioned. If these topics make you uncomfotable or are triggering to you even int he slightist, then please skip that section of the watchthrough. Thank you.)
New Ground: Alexander and Worf’s adopted mother have returned. Sadly Worf’s adopted parents are just too old at this point to properly care for a young Klingon child, and thus Worf agrees to allow him to stay on the Enterprise. Unfortunately not only is Worf completely unsure how to go about parenting, but… well, children are not always perfect little angels. Alexander is… well, a difficult kid. Worf having no idea how to be a parent certainly doesn’t help either him or his son. He tries, but… well, he tries. It’s perfectly understandable at least to me, why Alexander is like he is. His mother, someone who likely didn’t force him to choose either his human or Klingon heritage, was horribly murdered. Then Alexander finds out who his father is… and he sends him to Earth to live with his parents, who were no doubt loving but just not capable of caring for Alexander. Then Alexander is sent back to the Enterprise and again has to adapt to a new way of life, and his father not only is incapable of caring for him and clearly wants to raise him as a Klingon but is busy with Security duties and is now gonna send him to a Klingon school. And likely Alexander got no proper help with coping with his mother’s death or the various life changes that happened in a relatively short amount of time. I’d probably be more concerned if he wasn’t acting at least a little bratty. I don’t doubt that Worf cares about his son and he is clearly trying. Sending Alexander to his parents and now a Klingon school is probably the best option since he knows that he’s not able to are for him, so he has him sent tot ose who can. But without those proper emotional needs handled, it would cause a variety of emotional problems for Alexander like abandonment, anger, and… well, him lying and getting into fights is pretty expected. I was expecting to not like this episode, but it was alright. Alexander acted how I would expect a kid to act due to those circumstances and he’s never demonized for it. Worf isn’t made outt o be a bad parent, but someone very much out of his element and just not suited for the job at the current time, but he does try and int he end allows Alexander to remain, willing to tr and be the father that Alexander needs. It’s those kind of nuanced stories regarding parenign I wish that we got more of instead of them automatically having to be abusive or incompetent. I guess we’ll see what happens next, but still good eisode. 3/5.
Hero Worship: We essentially have a mish-mash of S2’s Pen Pals (Data saving/befriending a young child) and S3’s The Bonding (said child dealing with enormous grief but hiding it). So a young boy named Timothy has lost everything, including his family, and has been brought onto the Enterprise. To deal with the grief and pain, he decides to emulate Data, who had been the one who’d rescued him. As Data ‘can’t feel things’ (I know, I know, just roll with it), he decides to shut out his emotions and act as though he can’t feel anything. It is kind of cute to see how much Timothy looks up to Data and him dressing similarly and trying to act the same way isn’t surprising to see from a young kid. Normally this kind of plot I’d deem too childish for something like Star Trek, you usually only see this in children’s shows or comedies, but given the circumstances, it makes more sense than it would otherwise. Now I've made it clear how I dislike the whole ‘Data is emotionless’ thing since it's been made pretty clear that despite not expressing it in the quote ‘normal’ way, he does. It’s one thing for Data to believe that he doesn’t, but it feels like the show can’t decide if he does or doens’t. But for the context of this episode, going with this angle does work. timothy, being a kid and having the misconception that Data can’t feel, decide to act the same way in response to coping with the trauma. But of course, Timothy isn’t an android. He can’t live as something that he isn’t. He’s suppressing his trauma. IDK if just letting him keep acting that way as he slowly begins to act more like a child was what most counselors would suggest, but hey it worked. I just feel so bad for the poor kid, he blamed himself for what was a horrible accident, and when the kid finally breaks down… no child should have to ever go through that. Apparently pairing Data with kid characters is just guaranteed to make something good cause his interactions with Timothy were just really sweet, especially when he talks about how he wished he could do things like being able to taste as humans can. As I said, we’ve crossed this ground already and it’s no better or worst than say how The Bonding handled the topic of grief, thought he certainly does it differently. Still, it’s a nice episode. 3/5.
Violations: So… as I mentioned in the Trigger Warning above (if you did not read it, please do so) this is an episode about r***. It’s the Mind R*** variety, but it’s pretty clear what they were intending, so… needless to say, I shall repeat what I said in the Trigger Warning; while I won’t be going too terribly in-depth, if you are uncomfortable with this topic, please skip this part of the watchthrough and go on ahead to The Masterpiece Society. Alright, so now let's discuss the episode. The Enterprise is hosting a group known as Ullians, who are strong telepaths. They are all creepy as heck. Troi gets mentally assaulted, and… well the images that she sees make it very clear what the intention is, and yes, even knowing that it wasn't real did nothing to make it any less uncomfortable. Troi is comatose and while the audience sees who did it, the Enterprise crew has to deduct who the culprit is among the Ullians. So… how did they handle the subject? Well, they sure as Hell handle it WAAAY better than TOS did. I love TOS but if you’ve seen the episode The Enemy Within, while I do like that episode the way that they handled what Evil Kirk did to Rand, the aftermath with them allowing her supposed attacker to get close/in her face (yeah the audience knows it’s Good Kirk but no one else did and even then they should have NEVER allowed that), and a horribly OOC/disgusting remark by Spock towards her at the end makes it utterly rage-inducing to look back at. In comparison, the subject is handled with more tact and they do nothing anywhere near that horrid. However, I want to compare the different visions between the victims. The ones who get attacked are Troi, who I already went over, Riker, and Crusher. While Troi’s goes exactly as you’d expect in an episode covering this topic, Riker’s and Crusher’s visions (crewmen dying and reliving her husband’s death respectively) are very much scary but not portrayed as an actual r*** scene. So… umm… writers WHY did it have to be portrayed as a r*** scene? If we didn’t need that for Riker or Crusher (aka the only other female character), why do that to Troi when there were plenty of other options? Just to hammer the intent in? Which they had to have her go through it three times?! No, we didn’t need that. Troi’s been sexualized a lot throughout the show or given just gross, inappropriate scenairos like the whole prgnancy thing in The Child and Dear God the woman does NOT deserve that. Again, nowhere near as bad as in TOS, but still. Though credit to them, Troi does regain counciousness and is able to fight back against the culrpit when he attacks her again the third time (the second time is a little more complicated) so at least they allowed her that much. It is certainly not the worst thong covering this subject material that I’ve ever seen, not even in this franchise. IDK if the warnings were necessary, but it never hurt to be too careful. The episode was fine, certainly creepy and one I can probably rewatch without getitng angry like with The Enemy Within. But I repeat, quit sexualizing Troi show. The woman deserves a Hell of a lot better. 3/5.
The Masterpiece Society: What is The Masterpiece Society, you may ask? They are a society of flawless, genetically engineered beings. They are engineered to serve specific functions and occupations, such as the scientist Hannah Bates being designed as… well, a scientist. They also terminate the flawed/disabled such as the blind… so needless to say Geordi’s not exactly fond of them. The Enterprise is there because, of course, the colony is about to be destroyed. So… it was okay. I didn’t find it good or bad. It’s kinda how I felt about Transfiguration in S3, I don’t really have any serious issues, I just don’t have a lot to say about it. The only thing I do want to talk about is the ending. So after the Enterprise has resolved the Issue of the Day, Bates fakes another incident to cause an evacuation. Why? Because after encountering The Enterprise, she wants to leave, but her leaving will cause issues due to her role. Nevertheless, she and those who want to leave are allowed… but Picard questions if this is best as it may cause societal collapse., the very thing that the Prime Directive is meant to prevent Ugh… what?! Okay yes, they’d clearly have some issues to work out, but they also saved the colony from getting destroyed. They were saving innocent lives. Certain death is MUCH worst than some societal reconstructing. Yes, problems and conflicts would arise, that shouldn’t be ignored… but the implication that saving their lives from a natural disaster was the worst? I don’t… why did they shove the Prime Directive in at the end like that? Their ‘interference was done only to save the society and those people should be allowed to make choices for themselves, their society shouldn’t dictate their life direction. The comparison is just ridiculous and I was very much on Bates’ side when she made her argument at the end. One scenario is recoverable, the other is not. Otherwise, it was fine. Again, not much else to say. 2.5/5.
So far S5 has been… fine. IDK, S4 was really good and maybe my expectations got raised too high due to it. I’m still enjoying it, but the quality has just been alright. It’s not bad, but doesn’t quite have that oomph from last season or even S3. But we still have half the season to go, so still plenty more to go through.
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readygamerone · 6 years
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Chapter 38 - Now I Am Become Death, Gunter of Worlds
Wade is at last faced with what appears to be the final puzzle required to get the coveted Easter Egg. However, he has no idea what to do. Alone in the virtual recreation of Halliday's office, he can't even voice chat with his friends on the outside. The link was seemingly severed by the OASIS automatically once Wade reached this stage of the challenge. Why it was possible to receive tips, tricks and movie lines to help him through the previous sections is a mystery.
Wade spends several minutes trying to turn on every TV, game console and computer in the room but none respond. Finally, he finds one that does power on: the same computer Matthew Broderick's character uses in WarGames. It is password-protected, however. Wade runs through several names, on the brave assumption that Halliday had used the same password convention as the character who designed the supercomputer in the film: naming it after "The person he’d loved most in the world." He tries inputting the names of Halliday himself (not a bad first guess, from what we know), Ogden Morrow and Morrow's deceased wife Kira, for whom Halliday harbored a one-sided obsession. Wade even tries typing in the names of a few of Halliday's childhood pets. None of it works.
It's not until Wade remembers that Halliday only felt comfortable talking to Kira while gaming that he tries inputting her D&D name: Leucosia. This turns out to be the correct password, as every other piece of electronics surrounding Wade immediately powers up after it's entered. I'm going to note here that "Leucosia" is also the name of one of the Sirens from Greek mythology. You know, the woman-bird hybrids who led men to their doom with their sweet voices and songs? The sexual pathology at work here couldn't possibly be more surface-level. Keep that connection in mind for a few paragraphs from now.
With the power on, all doubt as to the next step has been washed from Wade's mind. He scrambles over to the Atari 2600 and starts up the game Adventure. This isn't too much of a reach for people who know the history of the term Easter Egg in the world of video games, as the concept of a hidden feature was popularized by this particular title. By playing through the game in a particular way, the player can enter a room where the sole designer, Warren Robinett, had written his name on the floor. The funny thing is that this original "Egg" was included in Adventure as a way for Robinett to, in some way, get credit for his labor. At the time, Atari didn't allow its programmers to have their names on or in their games out of fear that competitors would lure away their staff. Coveniently, this also made it easier for the company to deny their employees any royalty payments they would've been owed. So it's extremely fitting that Wade finds, in the place of Robinett's name, only an Atari-rendered Easter Egg graphic. As is their way, a billionaire nullified the contribution of a worker yet again.
Immediately after finding the Easter Egg in the Atari game, Wade finds that his OASIS avatar is now holding the Egg as well. He places it in a jeweled chalice nearby and, unceremoniously, wins the Egg Hunt. It turns out that the villains weren't able to compete with Wade's extra life head start and had no further effect on the proceedings.
“You win,” I heard a voice say. I turned and saw that Anorak was standing right behind me. His obsidian black robes seemed to pull most of the sunlight out of the room. “Congratulations,” he said, stretching out his long-fingered hand.
I hesitated, wondering if this was another trick. Or perhaps one final test . . .
“The game is over,” Anorak said, as if he’d read my mind. “It’s time for you to receive your prize.”
Wade takes the hand of Halliday's automated avatar and suddenly, his avatar was dressed in black wizard's robes instead. Along with a seemingly neverending list of abilities and items, Wade gains Halliday's twelve digit fortune. Now a multibillionaire, Wade also has supreme control over everything and everyone in the OASIS. He was already the coolest and most beloved gunter around, now he's got the power to back it up.
Wade is also the only person that can enter the study within Castle Anorak, as it contains a button that can delete the entire OASIS and every bit of data on it forever. E-Halliday says things to Wade like "try to use your powers for good" and "I trust your judgment" but these are only automated lines he would've delivered to anyone who won his contest. Good character and judgment aren't requisite for being good at games and memorizing trivia. Half of the OASIS dying and losing everything they had in the battle a few chapters ago already had troubling economic implications. But the entire planet functions via the OASIS, meaning that pressing this button would crash not only the world's economies but its education systems, governments (remember that we were told that the US's electoral voting flows through this thing) and more.
Of course, Wade displays no interest in the button, which would take from him everything that he had just received. Halliday felt he had to justify its inclusion anyway, via what might be the most preposterous bit of dialogue in the entire book.
“Listen,” he said, adopting a confidential tone. “I need to tell you one last thing before I go. Something I didn’t figure out for myself until it was already too late.” He led me over to the window and motioned out at the landscape stretching out beyond it. “I created the OASIS because I never felt at home in the real world. I didn’t know how to connect with the people there. I was afraid, for all of my life. Right up until I knew it was ending. That was when I realized, as terrifying and painful as reality can be, it’s also the only place where you can find true happiness. Because reality is real. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” I said. “I think I do.”
“Good,” he said, giving me a wink. “Don’t make the same mistake I did. Don’t hide in here forever.”
Hey, you dumb asshole. Your stupid contest created an entire generation of people who do nothing but hide online forever, worshiping movies and video games made decades before they were born. Not to mention that everyone is too broke to want to live in the hellish dystopia that the real world has become. And they only became that way because you, as the richest person around, siphoned off all the profit your all-encompassing network built up with its endless microtransactions. But maybe he's right, everyone should log off and fight the wasteland marauders that wait outside all of the major cities instead.
This also comes across as disingenuous because Halliday only had two barely-functional relationships with other people before he died. One was with his childhood best friend, Ogden Morrow. The other was with Morrow's wife, to the extent that he was in love with her to the point of damaging his only other relationship. We never find out what Kira, a character who died before the start of Wade's story, felt about Halliday putting her up on this pedestal. No one seems interested in her perspective but I can't imagine she would be comfortable with all this, despite naming herself after a Greek man-killer. It's painfully obvious that Cline wanted to cap the story off with a moral about the beauty you can find in living offline but nothing about the rest of the narrative or world he's clumsily built backs it up. The "lesson" is completely flattened under the weight of so many contradictions.
Humbled by these empty platitudes, Wade takes a few minutes to collect himself and then calls up his buddies. They're pretty excited that they're friends with the most powerful person alive, especially after Wade uses his new authority to completely resurrect their deceased avatars. However, he only does this for Aech, Art3mis and Shoto (who delivers yet another "Arigato, Parzival-san" and deep bow in response). I guess the millions of other people whose digital bones are rotting outside the castle are out of luck. To further flex his new powers, Wade kills the remaining Sixer avatars, who were unable to reach the Egg before he did, with a wave of his hand. Art3mis hadn't logged back in to the OASIS to congratulate Wade though. Wade is told that she's waiting in the real world to meet him face to face for the first time. If anything can still outdo that Halliday lecture, it's going to be this unearned romance scene. But that'll have to wait for the last chapter.
Almost as an afterthought before he goes to meet up with his crush, Wade is told to pull up a breaking newsfeed. He sees that Nathan Sorrento, the dreaded leader of the Sixers, has been arrested by federal authorities for the multitude of crimes that the stolen IOI data implicated him in. It was very kind of the FBI to wait until right after the plot was resolved to step in, it would've really sapped the already small amount of dramatic tension if they hadn't. It's also lucky for them that Sorrento didn't win, as he would've brought about Armageddon if the feds had still tried to put the cuffs on. Although, depending on how the last chapter ends, it might've been for the best.
Pop Culture References 29 (3.2 per page)
Video Games Atari 2600 IIIII I Adventure IIIII IIIII Space Invaders I
Television Star Trek I
Movies WarGames IIIII I
Computers Apple I IMSAI 8080 I
Books The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy I
General Nerddom Dungeons and Dragons I
Brands Zenith I
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