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archie-sunshine · 5 months

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So, What Now?(Rehabili/Cohabi-tation)

Chapter 6: In Which Robots are Poorly Constructed for the Purposes of Doing Yoga

FIC TAGS: Eventual Whirl/Cyclonus/Tailgate, Cyclonus/Tailgate, polyamory, slowburn romance, mutual pining, slice of life, fluff, comedy, eventual smut(planned for later chapters), sappy mushy lovey stuff, polycue, May eventually have illustrations

The Lost Light has a brand new universe to explore! But everyone's still tired from the old one! In the interim between wacky hijinks, a solution is offered to those bored to death by peacetime- Why form a club about it or renovate your hab suite of course!

Whirl doesn't know how he feels about all the pep. And even worse, he doesn't know how to feel about Cyclonus and Tailgate wanting him to join in on their clean slate.

Other Chapters Here! Read on AO3 Here!

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Author's Notes: THIS! IS! MY! FAVOURITE! CHAPTER! YET! or at least- well of the ones posted so far. this whole chapter is DESPERATELY silly, read into it whichever ships you so desire

CHAPTER TAGS: robots doing yoga, suggestively looking at your friends (whirl's optics wander a bit), comedy, slapstick, tailgate is a little old man with little old man joints, continuing fluff and cutesiness !

A few more cycles had passed. Whirl had insisted he needed time to get his hab suite in order and cleared out to move, but really, he was mostly just nervous. It was a big step, surely it was an intrusion, even if the couple didn’t know yet how he might sour their home with his presence. He tiptoed around the edge of their circle, even as they dragged him closer to them.

Whirl was in his hab suite, quietly packing junk into crates, as he had been for a few hours now. It gave him something to do at least, rather than carving more graffiti into the walls.

He perked up briefly as a comm came through.

TG: New club this afternoon, meet in the shuttle hangar in 4 hours! -Tailgate

Whirl breathed out in amusement.

W: Sure, I’ll be there.

The hangar was abuzz with movement, a small group of bots gathered around. Whirl hesitated to join the crowd. There were Cyclonus and Tailgate, standing near the edge of the group, Rewind-assumedly there to record- then there was Rodimus, and Ratchet(surprisingly) and Velocity again(less surprising) and then, hulking over the rest of them was fragging Megatron. Whirl had assumed- clearly incorrectly- that of those in charge of the ship Megatron would have the least patience or time or care for this whole CBEI business.

Tailgate glanced around, finally noticing Whirl and waving him over. He trotted over to them, glancing over Cyclonus’s shoulder.

“-afety purposes, we’re going to be using some of these maintenance magnetizers, so that we’re able to do our cyber-yoga class under the stars on the hull of the ship!” Drift explained cheerfully. Ah, so that's why Ratchet was attending.

Whirl’s optic scrunched. He leaned a bit further into Cyclonus to mumble in his audial. “Whats a cyber-yoga?”

“It’s a mixture of stretching and meditation, I believe. Some sort of ancient technique to loosen the joints and pistons to promote greater nanite recovery and flexibility.” He explained under his breath.

“And- we’re doing it on the outside of the ship? Why?” Whirl probed.

“Have you seen how large some of the bots who signed up are? They’d collapse under the ship’s false gravity.” Cyclonus glanced very briefly at Megatron.

“Oh primus- is this one of those stupid anti-grav aerobic class things for oldies?” Whirl groaned. “Come on, I can see this for Tailgate’s ancient aft, but, us-?” Whirl jolted as Tailgate playfully punched him in the leg, giving him an exaggerated look of offense.

“It’s good for you!” Tailgate hissed.

Whirl leaned down patronizingly, his helm breaching Tailgate’s personal bubble. “Yea, it’s great for you though, old brittle bolts- Ow!” Whirl jumped when Cyclonus began to pinch at one of his blades.

“Now, let's all get outfitted with our magnetizers, and it’ll be a brief space walk to the top of the hull for some relaxing cyber-yoga!” Drift said cheerfully, beginning to hand out magnetizers to the crowd.

“-Now bring your left leg over the right and up towards your pelvis… and youre going to engage your restarluesus pistons… and just lower into the pose.” If Drift had one thing going for him, his flexibility was it.

Whirl was no slouch in the flexibility department either, though his… shall we say unique frame shape made it a challenge to mimic the pose Drift was doing.

He was standing on his servos, holding tightly onto the hand held magnetizers he’d instructed the group to connect to the hull, right leg raised to a perfect toe point, left with its heel strut jammed directly east of his modesty panel.

Whirl glanced around. Ratchet was unsurprisingly struggling a bit. His joints were having a hard time extending to the same poise as his Conjunx. Velocity seemed to be doing just fine, with her more agile frame mirroring Drift’s pose with only a slight wobble as she struggled to stay steady. Megatron was a different story. His faceplate was set in an intense glare, which would have been intimidating were he not swaying with the effort to keep his frame straight with his left pede flailing to find purchase somewhere near his knee. Rodimus was also doing well, though his form was suffering as he quivered in an attempt not to laugh at his co-captain's struggling.

“Rodimus-” Megatron hissed at him.

Rodimus snorted and wheezed, cheeks puffing with strain at the display. “Nothing- nothing you're doing great, Megs-”

Whirl turned his attention to Cyclonus and Tailgate. Cyclonus was doing decently as well, though his bulkier frame made flexibility a struggle for him. Whirl inspected his form, definitely not… letting his optic linger on Cyclonus’s aft… not even for a moment. He turned his attention away quickly.

Tailgate- Oh, Tailgate was really trying his best. He’d gotten into the position, it was the lowering part he was having trouble with. His digits were so tight around the handles of the magnetizers he was worried the things might break off. He pulled himself, straining, down into the sort of twisted up pushup that Drift had instructed, not struggling for lack of strength, but rather for the strain of his old pistons.

“Hhhnnnn…. I’m too spry- and youthful- of mind and spirit- for this-!” Tailgate gritted out quietly, making Whirl and Cyclonus chuckle.

“Very good! Ok, now release the pose.” Drift instructed.

A chorus of relieved groans went up across the crowd.

“Now we’re going to do something a little more challenging.”

A chorus of pained groans went up across the crowd.

“Now for this position you’re going to connect the magnetizers on your pedes to the hull…” Drift gracefully brought his legs down, pausing for the chorus of clunks and zaps that signaled his club was not going to go flying off into space. “And for this one, I challenge you to give your spinal strut as deep a stretch as you can!” He began to slowly curve his frame backwards, servos making contact with the hull in a back bend- and- oh primus.

“COME ON- YOU’RE JUST SHOWING OFF NOW!” Ratchet barked from the back of the crowd, his hands still groping around for the hull as Drift nestled his helm between his own ankles as he wrapped his digits around them.

Whirl awkwardly began to mirror the pose, catching a glimpse of Tailgate ineffectually dropping into a weak crab walk and Cyclonus gritting his dentas at the strain in his back. Whirl did his best to not make a dirty joke about Cyclonus’s face being so close to his modesty panel.

“Woah there, take me out for a drink first.” Whirl snickered. Okay so his best was rarely good enough, sue him.

“You’re- so immature…” Cyclonus grunted out, pushing his abdomen upwards to further stretch his back strut.

Tailgate’s giggle was interrupted by a sharp wince as something in his frame popped. “Oh- Ow- OW-!”

Tailgate flailed a servo around in the air. “P-Pause- Time out- time out!” Cyclonus and Whirl quickly abandoned their poses to crowd worriedly around him.

“DRIFT-!” Cyclonus shouted, motioning panickedly at his sparkmate.

Drift unpretzeled himself quickly, rushing over to his side. “Oh- what is it- AH!” Drift grimaced as he noted the shifted panels that had locked the minibot’s abdomen in place with his back arched. “Oh Primus- Great effort, Tailgate, really good job pushing yourself- um- this might feel weird.”

“Itsfinepleasehelp-” Tailgate whined, the reedy noise breaking into a shriek as Drift brought his elbow joint right down on the disjointed plating. It set back into place with another pop. Drift rubbed at the little dent he’d left with his thumb. He frowned at the paint transfer he’d left. Ratchet balked at his conjunx’s flagrant and untrained plating reset technique with absolute horror.

“Sorry… Just go a bit easier on yourself, okay Tailgate?” He apologized, awkwardly chuckling as Tailgate flattened himself despondently on the hull of the ship.

“Thaaaanks Driiiift….” Tailgate wheezed, giving him a thumbs up. Drift returned the gesture with one of his own.

“Okay-! Uhm, everyone alright to continue?” He posed to the group. A mild, affirmative murmur rippled through the bots gathered.

Tailgate popped back upright, wheeling his arms in wide circles for a second to regain balance.

“Try not to push yourself, TG.” Whirl teased, bumping his shoulder with his servo and snickering as his frame swayed in the antigravity. “There’s precious few of us that can nab you if you go spinning off into space.”

“And if Ratchet has to watch Drift perform impromptu chiropracty on me again he might blow a gasket.” Tailgate whispered, suppressing a giggle and bumping Whirls hip to wobble him in return.

Whirl snickered again, bumping Tailgate back a bit harder.

Tailgate returned in suit, just a bit too hard as Whirl bobbed almost all the way back on his aft before floating back up into place. The two of them giggled.

Whirl held his vents with strain as he fumbled around for the tip of his pede. He had made connection with the tips of his claws, but was still trying to nab it fully to bring it into the right position.

“And with your other servo, you’re going to want to bring it all the way down to the ground, I encourage you to try as best you can to flatten your palm against it, but if not, just the tips of your digits touching is fine!” Drift instructed, no strain in his voice as his pede made near contact with his massive finials.

Cyclonus had caught hold of his own pede, and had bowed his back out to a decent simulacrum of Drift’s position. Tailgate was having more trouble extending his back strut, but with his longer pede, and some gentle coaxing from Cyclonus’s free servo, he’d managed to get close to the right position.

Whirl was happy for them and their success. It would have been stellar, however, if their afts weren’t both in his face. His optic darted around awkwardly, attempting to not focus on Cyclonus’s blocky, powerful thighs, and Tailgate’s tight little hip tires. He could see tender bits of protoform between their joints, soft and vulnerable from the way their plating stretched apart.

No, bad Whirl, bad. He trained his optic safely on the ground next to his other claw as he finally grabbed hold of his ankle. Had Tailgate always had such a nice aft? Had Cyclonus? What the frag was he even thinking about, it wasn’t even remotely okay to be having thoughts like this, about a happily conjunxed couple of all things.

“Alright, and bring your pede down, and we’re going to lower into downward facing cyber-dog…” Drift explained, expelling a slow, relaxed vent.

Okay this was getting fully unfair. The couple planted their pedes and- well you get the picture.

Whirl glanced around, taking stock of literally anything else when he heard a well timed ‘zzzzZZTHONK!’ from his left, followed closely by an indignant ‘ARE YOU FRAGGING KIDDING ME-!!?’ from Rodimus.

He looked over, optic widening and laughter beginning to quickly bubble up as he found Megatron’s pede magnetized to Rodimus’s chassis.

“You should have kept a further distance, Rodimus-” Megatron observed, lightly wiggling his leg and dragging Rodimus around with him, who had begun to yank and tug at the larger bot’s leg.

“OH- OH! OH so its- It’s my fault that your stupid slagging magnetizers are- STOP FRAGGING MOVING!” He snarled, clawing at the magnetizer on Megatron’s pede.

“AH- Stop- You can just- RODIMUS!” Megatron boomed, again attempting to shake Rodimus’s servos off his pede. The smaller’s helm bobbed back and forth with the force of the shake, but Rodimus’s digits held firm in their attempt to rip the magnetizer off his plating.

The group had begun to laugh at their co captains’ predicament, albeit stifled and attempted to keep under wraps- save for Whirl, who was cackling to a truly hysteric degree.

“Rodders- Roddy- RODIMUS-” Drift tried, beginning to walk over to him. “You can just- Stop- Hey- STOP-!” He smacked at Rodimus’s hands.

“NO KEEP DOING IT, RODDERS, YOU’RE GONNA GET IT EVENTUALLY!” Whirl called.

“Keep shaking your leg, Captain, he’ll come off I promise!” Rewind added from his perch on a protruding bit of hull, very obviously zooming in on the captains’ situation.

“YOU WILL BE DELETING THIS FOOTAGE.” Megatron demanded, abandoning his attempt to kick Rodimus off in favour of bringing his pede up so he could reach the magnetizer himself. A loud CLUNK echoed between the pair as Rodimus’s helm bounced off of Megatron’s aft.

The group roared with laughter as Rodimus wailed in horrific embarrassment.

“Where’s the- grh- where’s the stupid-” Megatron grunted, pawing at the magnetizer blindly.

“Alright- ALRIGHT- Megatron, just put your leg out- I’ll-” Drift intervened, grabbing the side of Rodimus’s head and prying their two frames apart- or as apart as he could with Megatron’s pede attached to Rodimus’s chassis. He sighed, rolling his optics and beginning to carefully prod around for the magnetizer’s off switch.

“If I hear about anyone seeing that footage, you’re DEAD, Rewind!” Rodimus growled, pointing an accusatory digit at the minibot as he laughed and zoomed further in on the pede stuck to him.

“Where is the- primus, I knew this bigger model was old but this is complete- AH! Is this it?” Drift prodded a digit into a button on the side and Megatron’s pede came free… leaving the magnetizer attached directly to the middle of Rodimus’s chassis.

Whirl continued to giggle before it crumbled into a hacking chuff from his vents.

Rodimus gave Drift an icy look. Drift bit back a smile, forcing himself not to make eye contact with him. “A-Alright uhm, It looks like we’re going to be uh-” He took a steadying vent as Rodimus began to fumble for a demagnetizing button. “We’re gonna be cutting this meeting short! Thanks so much for coming and- um, I’ll keep all of you posted on when we meet next!” He said with a broad grin, clapping his servos together.

“And you promise you got all of it?” Whirl whispered, frame practically jittering with malicious glee.

“From the moment that the magnetizer made contact, all the way to Megatron having to be dragged back to the hangar like an indignant balloon.” Rewind confirmed with a nod. “I even caught a bit of Ratchet and Velocity attempting to scrape the magnetizer off once they figured out it was on the fritz.”

Whirl cackled evilly, hopping from pede to pede. “You’ve gotta comm me that- hell, you’ve gotta give me a hard copy of that so I can carry it to my grave.”

“I’ll see what I can do…” Rewind mused coyly.

“Do you think Rod’ was really serious about the consequences of spreading that around?” Tailgate asked.

“Oh, no chance, he’d probably make a speech about it though. Maybe put him in the brig for like a week, or on riveting duty.” Whirl counted the options for punishment in his processor, leaning his arm on Tailgate’s helm and tapping out the tally on his fore-helm.

“Or have you make a formal apology, in front of everyone, perhaps.” Cyclonus added. “Or if he was adamant enough he’d likely want to cover it up before it got that far.”

“He can’t silence me, I know my rights.” Rewind laughed. “I gotta get back to my hab though.” He sighed, stretching his arms up and folding his servos behind his helm. “All this recording is tiring me out, I need a long recharge. If you don’t hear from me tomorrow, know that it's because Rodimus placed a hit on me.”

The group laughed, trading goodbyes with Rewind before the remaining bots turned to their- now shared- hallway.

For a while they enjoyed the comfortable silence, Cyclonus hand in hand with Tailgate, Whirl keeping a safe meter wide distance between them.

“So, Whirl,” Cyclonus began. “Shall we begin moving your belongings to the unit soon?”

Whirl stiffened a bit. Scrap, he’d hoped he didn’t have to think about that again today. It wasn’t that he was dragging his pedes because he didn’t want to move in- he just… It was hard to think about taking a step that big. Giving up his privacy, for what? Because they’d taken pity on him? It was weak of him, it was foolish and soft.

He shook his helm. “Yeah- yeah, I’ll get to it soon, don’t worry.” he thought for a moment. “Where am I squeezing in anyway? You bots gotta reconfigure another suite for me?”

The two of them glanced at one another awkwardly.

“Well- It’s not um-” Tailgate started.

“You wouldn’t be-” Cyclonus stammered.

“There was already-” “A full suite was too much for a berthroom-”

“Way too much, felt kinda greedy-”

“It was going to be- erm-”

“It was going to be an office!” Tailgate finished, faceplate flushed as he tapped his index digits together. “But- y’know, we don’t mind not having an office… it can be your room-”

Whirl squinted at them, examining their avoidant body language… their faceplates flushed with energon.

Did they really make a room for him without even confirming if he’d move in?

“Alriiiiiight….. Cool…” Whirl murmured suspiciously.

No… No they wouldn’t have done that.

Primus’s spike, they really did it, the crazy bastards.

The fields radiating off the two were incredibly tense, like they were holding their vents waiting for Whirl to turn on his heel-struts and walk away never to be seen again.

The room- the ‘office’ the couple had put together had a desk, a few varying chairs, a few shelves, a filing cabinet, a wide window across the back wall, and- of course, as was standard in any office- a recharge slab. For sure, an office, you know, the place you recharge in. The area specifically designated for recharging. The office.

Whirl put his servos on his hips, swinging his helm around to face the couple. “Great office fellas. It’s a shame to move in and interrupt the immaculate office like nature of the room. You must be devastated to no longer have use of this office.”

“It would have made a great office, yes.” Cyclonus agreed. “It’s a shame to give it up.”

“Don’t worry, Whirl, we think the office was a worthy sacrifice.” Tailgate nodded solemnly.

Whirl snickered under his breath. “I’ll put it to good use… Thanks.”

He stepped inside, glancing around one more time and letting himself relax. “I think I’ll… turn in early. Give the ol’ office berth a spin.” He walked forwards, sitting on the edge of the slab. The couple got the hint, nodding and giving thumbs ups.

“Just let us know if you need anything!” Tailgate said, before stepping back and letting the door slide shut.

Whirl watched the door for a long klik, before slowly leaning his frame back flat on the berth. He expected that feeling to leave him again, returning him to the familiar numb chill that reached him in the nights he spent alone in his hab suite.

It never left, though it faded to equilibrium, leaving the mech relaxed and at peace. He let his vents slow, cycled his processor down as he prepared for recharge.

His optic was about to go offline when he received a ping.

R: Supply run tomorrow, you’re on the team with CY, TG, BS, FA, UM and me. See you at the shuttle.

Whirl’s processor shot back online as he sat up. Supply run. Something was HAPPENING. He was practically vibrating with excitement for a moment, before a stubborn, foreign thought wormed its way to the front of his processor.

But that might be dangerous

Of course it was dangerous, that was why he NEEDED to go… but… He shook his helm, going back to resting. What was he thinking, it was just a normal supply run, those two had faced down against tyrants and monsters and the fucking DJD for primus’ sake. They’d be fine.

… He’d make sure they were fine.

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homestuckreplay · 22 days

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Homestuck Is A Game, Who Is The Player?

Week 3 Retrospective

'Video games have long been associated with spectatorship as well as play, from their origins in quarter-fueled arcades, where high score displays implied the presence of admiring or competitive spectators, to their migration to home screens and consoles. Live streaming chat emulates these older models, but its interaction with economies of scale on streaming platforms brings a different kind of intimacy and intensity to the experience. Chat lets spectators feel like they are there with the streamer as well as a part of a crowd, even if they are alone in their room.' [Jeremy Antley - emphasis mine]

From Homestuck’s very first page, the comic has made something clear. We are not allowed to immerse ourselves in John Egbert’s world. There is a layer of separation between us, an interface mediating our access to his life and story, a voiceover narration from the person who’s really in control. Who is this person, and what form does their control over John take?

Homestuck is presented like a video game, yet unlike a video game, we don’t control the character’s movements with arrow keys or have the chance to type our own commands directly into the text box. Instead of being able to explore the game on our own terms, we are confined to a specific and predetermined route, even though others seem theoretically possible. Simply put, we are not the ones playing the game.

Essay continued under the cut - about 2.6k words

I think there are two really important questions to consider when analyzing the meta elements of Homestuck and treating it as a game. The first - what kind of game is it? The second - where exactly do we stand in relation to the player(s)?

The most obvious answer to question one is ‘Homestuck is a text based adventure game.’ This guide to text based adventures is a great overview, and we can map the example commands here onto commands we’ve seen in Homestuck. ‘Examine room’ (p.4) is a one-word action, ‘Captchalogue smoke pellets’ (p.9) is an action and direct object, and ‘Nail poster to wall’ (p.19) includes the indirect object. John hasn’t given any orders yet - he’s too nice a guy for that - but ‘Report progress to TG’ (p.39) is definitely communicating with another character. All of these, and most other command lines, feel like reasonable instructions that could be recognized by a game.

However, commands like ‘Fondly regard cremation’ (p.52) and ‘Play haunting piano refrain’ (p.77) honestly feel too characterful to be fully interpreted by a computer, and ‘Squawk like an imbecile and shit on your desk’ (p.16) is… well, I tried typing this into the command prompt for the classic text adventure Zork, and got the following response.

A text adventure is just not set up to interpret wacky, left field ideas, much less respond to them in an entertaining way. And we know there is a real person behind Homestuck doing exactly that.

If my party enters the wizard’s study in Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition, and I tell the Dungeon Master that I squawk like an imbecile and sit on the wizard’s desk, that statement will be understood. Sure, the DM will probably call me an idiot and put a nasty spike trap on the desk, but what I said will become part of the story in the way that a nonsense command in a text based video game never can. It’s interesting to think of Homestuck as a tabletop roleplaying game, where the narrator is the Game Master, the command prompt is a player, and John is a player character (presumably TT, TG and GG are the rest of his party and they’re just really late to the session).

Homestuck isn’t just text based, though - it has a strong visual element, including interfaces and overlays where the player can click and drag items between John’s inventory and his environment, or around his space. This suggests it could also be a point and click adventure game, a genre that grew out of text based games as graphics improved, and is defined by a strong inventory management component (check), puzzle solving quests (check - we’ve recently solved our first quest of acquiring the Sburb Beta) and dialog trees (????). The sprite based, isometric art style is really good for getting an overview of the space and seeing possible interactable objects, and Homestuck does feature extended dialog sequences - we don’t know if there are other possible inputs from John, but it's interesting to think that there might be.

These three genres - text based adventures, point and click adventures, and tabletop roleplaying games - all developed throughout the 1970s and 80s. It’s reasonable that Andrew Hussie (born 1979) could have grown up with some of these games. But to answer the second question, ‘where do we stand in relation to the player’, we might need to look at media forms still in their infancy - let’s plays, livestreams, and actual play.

[Michael Sawyer, 2004]

In the past few years, ‘Let’s Play [Game]’ has become a relatively popular thread format on the Something Awful forums, as well as personal websites. This began with posters taking screenshots of their playthroughs of a game and adding commentary in the text. The medium has now advanced to video and is typically hosted on YouTube, with commentary overlaid. Either format gives a creator the space to play through as much of the game as they choose, and then edit exactly what content they want to show to the audience, providing commentary after the fact.

Homestuck, with its per-page illustrations, could be seen as a long thread of forum posts by the player, each including screenshots as they move through the game. The inclusion of short Flash animations shows the edge into video, and makes me wonder if we’ll see longer or more complex videos, perhaps with voiceover narration, as Homestuck expands its focus. The self-referential and aggressive yet helpful commentary in Homestuck is similar in tone to Sawyer's playthrough above, and could easily be the work of a player who knows where the story will go, at least in the short term, and is dropping hints to the audience while purposefully concealing some things.

Livestreaming video games is a similar concept to Let's Plays, but performed in real time. Often hosted on Justin.tv, an open video broadcast website that’s been gaining prominence in the past couple of years, a livestream is an improvised and unedited way to watch someone game. Any commentary from the creator happens without knowledge of how the playthrough will turn out. Homestuck, by Hussie’s own admission, is being written similarly in real life - they don’t know more than the broad strokes of how the story will go, and it’s possible that neither the author nor the narrator knows the long term implications of an action such as John stealing his dad’s PDA.

Livestreams open the possibility for viewers to influence game events, if the streamer listens to their audience. We know this is true in Homestuck - readers are able to submit commands, and some are chosen for the story. The real time nature of Homestuck, waiting each day for the new update, is equivalent to waiting for a streamer to come online and start playing again so we can find out where their game goes next. This is compounded by us having no access to Homestuck outside of the streamer - we cannot buy and play this game for ourselves, it’s still in some kind of early or limited access, and the streamer controls all our knowledge.

The livestream is definitely most similar to how Homestuck is made by its author, but it's hard to say whether its narrator is commentating in real time, or after the fact. I can't find any definite clues in our pages so far - I think the narrator wants to seem smart and superior, but I can't say whether they have the knowledge to back it up.

[img source]

Our final media format is known as Actual Play. Almost a year ago, the creators of Penny Arcade (along with Dungeons & Dragons game designer Chris Perkins) began releasing Acquisitions Incorporated, a short-run, officially licensed podcast where the group plays through a D&D adventure to demonstrate gameplay interspersed with jokes. This isn’t the first time a TTRPG publisher has recorded sessions to help people learn the game, but this idea seems to be crossing over into the entertainment genre - and webcomics are part of that movement.

In the first episode, the group have a brief aside. The DM says that ‘some players prefer to refer to their characters in the third person… others prefer to get into the first,’ and one player says they’ve observed the same thing in World of Warcraft. What’s not explicitly said is that the Game Master typically refers to the player characters in second person, describing what happens to ‘you’ and what ��you’ see - much like streamers talking to their chat. The blocks of narrative text below pictures in Homestuck could easily be a Game Master balancing giving information to an unruly player, and providing entertainment for the audience. John’s lucky or unlucky moments with his sylladex could be the result of particularly good or bad dice rolls from his unseen player.

Actual play is a really great format for deep diving into a small cast of characters, and exploring their emotional state in ways that aren't intrinsic to a lot of video games. As we're already seeing the beginnings of John's emotional arc, we know this will be a focus, but we need two to four more characters with equally large roles in the story to really form a TTRPG party. Actual play also tends to include a lot of combat and its mechanics. We know Homestuck can handle crunchy mechanics due to the sylladex, but I'd expect to see the Strife concept become just as in depth and central to the story if Homestuck ends up fitting into this mold.

All three of these formats can have a mass audience, just like Homestuck does in reality - but Homestuck also feels like a very personal experience. Two people playing the same video game, even a highly linear game such as Portal or one that doesn’t involve much active interaction such as a visual novel, have slightly different gameplay based on the speed they move through the story and their missteps on the way to finding the solution to a puzzle.

Similarly, my experience of Homestuck is different from yours. I read the new update every day, while I know some people wait for a few days of updates to build up and then read a larger chunk. Maybe I clicked ‘Aggrieve’ and ‘Abjure’ three times each on p.90, alternating the options, while you clicked ‘Aggrieve’ five times in sequence and then ‘Abjure’ only twice. Maybe I didn’t realize p.110 had an interactive element at first, and skipped over it until somebody pointed it out to me (really telling on myself here). These elements of Homestuck that we have direct control over are currently only a small part of the story, but they do exist.

In this way, Homestuck feels a little bit like sitting in the living room as a kid watching your older brother play a game, begging him to let you take over for a minute, occasionally doing so until he gets frustrated with your inability to Strife and takes the controller back. The nostalgia of the simplistic graphics and the 70s and 80s games that are being evoked only adds to this cozy feeling. If Homestuck starts to add more interactive elements, such as branching paths, opportunities for us to take over the cursor, or a chance for us to use John’s sylladex ourselves and choose what he picks up, it might be worth thinking of Homestuck as different iterations of the same game, each of us watching our own, slightly different player, and even co-playing with them.

So, who IS this narrator? In my mind, I’m trying to draw a clear distinction between the author and the narrator. Hussie is the author in the real world, and the narrator, or player, or GM, exists within the work. Their role is best described on page 82:

‘The game presently eluding you is only the latest sleight of hand in the repertoire of an unseen riddler, one to engender a sense not of mirth, but of lack. His coarse schemes are those less of a prankster than a common pickpocket. His riddle is Absence itself.’

The narrator is this unseen riddler (or perhaps unseenRiddler?), providing a secondary layer of control over what happens and what we are able to see. They’re the person clicking and dragging objects around John’s room, and choosing what actions to take next. The narration is their perspective on the game - whether we see this as a GM describing a scene to their players, or a streamer reading aloud information that the game has given them and providing their own commentary.

So, we're watching the narrator play Homestuck, in whatever form it takes - but there's another layer to this. On page 22, an equivalence is made between the Sburb Beta, which John was supposed to receive on April 10 (and finally acquired on April 13 in-story, p.100), and the Homestuck Beta, which launched to us on April 10, but was quickly canceled and replaced with Homestuck proper on April 13. The Homestuck beta is linked within the comic, and might be canon within it - the narrator making an initial run at the game before restarting their save (perhaps on a different computer or console?) and trying again. Homestuck the game is currently about a kid who lives in the suburbs - and if the name and logo are anything to go by, Sburb could also be a suburbs-themed game. While we watch the riddler play Homestuck, the riddler will be watching John play the game Sburb. How deep does this go? Are there more layers inwards or outwards?

I’ve been puzzling this over for days, and I’m definitely left with more questions than I can answer. Here are the ones I'm focused on:

Is the unseen riddler playing the game as intended? Now that they’ve passed the tutorial, are they keeping the game on the rails and trying their best to follow a linear story, or are they pushing the boundaries, going for some kind of pacifist or resource-stripped run, trying to interfere with John’s intended story? Have they played the game before, and if so, how does this affect their gameplay?

If the unseen riddler is a character within the story, distinct from the external author, are we the true audience? Will there be an audience within the story, or perhaps other players? If so, how big will it be? What kind of reach does Homestuck the game have, and how many people are playing it or tuning in to watch?

How permeable are the boundaries? Is John simply pixels on a screen for the unseen riddler to play with, with no agency of his own outside of the riddler’s interpretation, like if we were playing The Sims? Or is it possible for the riddler to enter the game, or for John to leave it, and the two of them to communicate directly? Or a middle ground - something like ‘character bleed’ in TTRPGs, where a player embodies a character for so long that despite their not being real, they come to influence each other even outside of gameplay?

What the hell is the Midnight Crew? Is this a different game that exists separately to Homestuck? Will our riddler, or a different one, eventually play it? If we have three games - Homestuck, Midnight Crew, and Sburb - what exactly is the relationship between them, and how interrelated are they?

This is a lot of thoughts for what is, at time of writing, is 125 pages of comedy webcomic. But the story is just beginning, and we’ve been told it’s going to be a long day. Anything could be important, and with the frequent in-text nods to the meta elements - ‘examine third and fourth walls of room’ (p.61), ‘you decide it’s time for less meta, and more beta’ (p.113), the title appearing in the clouds on p.82 that John may or may not be able to see, the integration of the physical captchalogue card into the sylladex interface on p.98 - I don’t want to draw any firm boundaries, or make any assumptions about what is and what isn’t part of the story. Instead, I’ve cataloged the meta elements of Homestuck that might be worth paying attention to as we move through the comic, to develop a more concrete theory in time.

#running up against 'need to take classes in academic writing / get a professor to grade my homestuck papers'#also running up against the idea of 'can i cite things from later than 2009' it's helpful but does go against the spirit of the bit kinda #homestuck #analysis #im open to thoughts and feedback always

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shitty-davesprite-daily · 15 days

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davesprite, if someone offered you one million bucks on the condition that you give into your wacky crow instincts for a week, would you take the deal or not?

TG: dude if youd hit me up with that like a year ago i wouldve been all over that shit trust me TG: like a goddamn pack of ants swarming a sea of icecream some poor kid dropped in the middle of assfuck nowhere like damn sorry junior i know youre busy crying over spilled milk or whatever the fuck but i gotta get in on this action TG: a week of embarrassing bullshit to set me up for life? sign me the fuck up TG: but dude TG: idk if you noticed TG: but capitalism aint a thing anymore TG: that shit dropped harder than your mom when the meteors came slamming home and i was too busy fuckin around to save it TG: and we havent figured out a way to revive it yet TG: so what the hell am i gonna do with a million bucks? TG: fuck i cant even use boonbucks anymore whats the goddamn point TG: goddamn tragedy

#davesprite #homestuck #shitty davesprite daily #bdhs

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this-strange-obsession · 11 months

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Wowwow a title card!!

About this account:

This is a Jekyll and Hyde fan account. I’ll mostly shitpost about The Glass Scientists, but I also like the musical. I know a bit about the book, but I haven’t gotten around to reading it just yet. (Update: I have finally read it.)

Sometimes I’ll post about my fanwork, like little doodles or writing rants, so yay!

I don’t have a main, I just have random side accounts that I’m not as active on. There’s no point in trying to link you there.

My asks and dms are open to anyone 18+. I’m all ears even if you just want to chat!

About me:

I’ve gone by several different names irl throughout the years, and none of them have fit. I’m even thinking about changing the one I currently use, so for simplicity sake, I just won’t give a name.

The same is true for my pronouns. I won’t get into the clusterfuck that is my gender identity but holy shit. It’s really wacky.

All of this to say, you have the right to refer to me any way you want. Hell, it might even strike a chord in me and I can say the mystery was solved by Tumblr.

Am I active on another platform?:

Yes! Thanks to my TGS obsession, I’ve recently picked up writing again. I’ve never owned an AO3 account, but figured I should give it a shot. You can find me under BinaryWaltz. Though, I don’t write much anymore. Again.

My tags:

i post most things under:

#tgs

#the glass scientists

#jekyll and hyde

but everything else is:

#this strange rant

#tgs updates are my lifeblood

#possessed by writing

#human behind the screen

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littlestarxmilkyway · 8 months

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i finally read the famitsu interview for emerald beyond, thank you to a combo of google and deep l because i'm too lazy to sit down and do any real translating of my own (weeping).

i'm still disappointed that bonnie and formina are cops, but it was kinda funny to me that the interviewer even asked kawazu if he likes cops and he was like 'no, it's just easy setting material. real cops and (fictional/SaGa) cops are two different things'. not what i needed, but i'll take it for now. (i need them to not be cops, kawazu!) even looking back, i think i can accept irpo because at the end of the day, it's wacky as hell. having a robot, a monster and a mute "vampire" be among their rank just makes it all so absurd??

all the love for ikemen route in emerald beyond tho!

── I think that Siugunas will be popular among women.

Kawazu: In Siugunas's route, all the party members are also men. I had already decided from the beginning to make them all handsome.

his party did look good as hell from the little glimpse i saw in the trailer. i'm still losing it over the black guy with pink hair.

also love that the interviewer asked if kawazu made a magical girl because of his daughter lmao (does he even have a daughter??) i have a lot of thoughts on that one

i'm just rambling non-coherent train of thoughting spewing because i'm still so amped up from the direct and tgs. i probably won't even come back to this later to properly organize it

#i'm so hyped for emyo #i think it's embe or something #but emyo just sounds cute #ya know??

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tfw-no-tennis · 3 years

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mtmte liveblog issue 31

the drama continues....

so I got like halfway thru the issue and my liveblog got deleted bc I accidentally zoomed in really far and for some reason that deleted fucking everything :) thanks tungl!!!!

like ik I probably shouldn't type these up right in the tungle post but ugh. why would THAT delete all my shit. fuck this

anyways I didn’t write that much but I’ll try to rewrite it...

I love the mexican standoff cover, ratchet and megatron and chromedome look so hardcore and serious, meanwhile nautica is having the time of her life. respect

ooooughhhh flashback w/drift and pipes, ooof

is that chromedome and rewind??? hhhhhhhh they're on a date....

drift: don't ask where I got my blood money credit card pipes.

pipes is so cute I love him

and riptide!! I love him too

I love that transformers have a whole language that they speak by holding hands. fuckign superb you funky little robots

two trucks holding hands...

the lost light hhhhh ;_; best spaceship

its sooo cute that nautica thinks of brainstorm as like, the number 1 genius...her calling perceptor ‘brainstorm-level brilliant’ is adorable, I love those two sm

nautica ily sm

‘quanton technology’ vhbsjdfbsaf tailgate ily

in this art style, getaway has like, a mouth? looks super weird

nightbeat is so rude I love him

I fuckgin love the sci-fi bullshit w/the quantum stuff

I'm sorry but ‘dipstick’ is still such a funny name lmao. so is ‘huffer’ tbh

the fact that there’s something called a Smartplanet™ is hilarious. reminds me of the SmartBoards™ of my youth

and ofc the galactic council created them and added tuition fees. smh

cyclonus’s disgust at tuition fees is so relatable

tailgate pulling a gun on megatron...oooomg

the top of megatron’s head is weirdly round in this art style lmao

megatron: ...is that baby threatening me with a gun??

aaand then megs and riptide pull their guns out too

ok yeah so I guess cyclonus DID go on a murder spree prior to mtmte, but also at this point who HASNT done some war crimes, lbh

aaaand there’s ravage!

ravage and megs speaking hand 👀👀

cyclonus ik you’re worried abt tg and also terrible at communicating your feelings but please be nice :( :(

and there’s getaway, sliding in smoothly...get AWAY from tg tbh

‘I'm fighting the urge to diagnose you’ lmao ratchet

nightbeat is like oh hell yea a mystery is afoot

tailgate telling cyclonus he’s scared :( give your tiny roommate a hug cyclonus

and here we get to hear abt MTOs...such an interesting concept, I love it

hoist mentions he knew an MTO named scattergun...wasn’t that one of chromedomes husbands? oof

interesting point, that w/out the war, the MTOs likely wouldn't exist - so does megatron get credit for that, then? does that get subtracted from his kill count? lol

also I feel like it’s noticeable even here that nautica doesn't distrust/hate megatron as much as a lot of the others - which makes sense bc she wasn't ever involved in the war, and never had to deal w/any of the decepticons or megatron in any context except post-war

and for tailgate, who also missed the war, it makes sense that he’d distrust megatron, because all the people tg is closest to hate megatron, and tailgate is trying his best to be an Autobot™

‘prenatals’ jro what the hell is that

I started writing up my reproductive themes spiel but it got so long so I think I’ll make a post just for that lmao. channeling jro w/that one

poor riptide...it’s tough when you’re not made for academics

fascinating how at first the MTOs/CC bots did get at least a basic education which involved cultural information, but as the war went on the education dwindled until it was just the basic stuff needed to fight in a war

ratchet has an interesting point, with MTOs being more likely to have ‘mystical experiences’ bc they're essentially newborns thrown onto a battlefield trying to make sense of things

and we also get to hear about information creep, another important concept! lots of relevant exposition this issue

I love information creep as a concept so much, bc it makes sense that even mechanical beings with like, computers in their brains wouldn't be totally infallible - bc if they’re really alive, and have souls, then that means there HAS to be fallibility, bc otherwise they would just be completely fact-based and logical, and that would make them less ‘alive’

also, the fact that they live so long would definitely contribute, and it’s cool that there ARE some sort of consequences to living for literal millions of years

aw nautica :(

tailgate aw man :( cyclonus will be back don't worry

nightbeat is such a dick vhbhdjskhfbsjkf ‘someone tell tailgate to get a grip’ his bf just disappeared ok

and we get a brief reappearance of magnus and his humansona before he disappears too

nightbeat: enough of this bs! ratchet, break every hipaa law ever! go!

and then ratchet DOES bvhajdbfajskfbajhd I am once again asking for somebody to care about patient confidentiality in cybertronian medicine,

cant believe riptide got KO’d for 2 days straight and got left behind by the lost light as a result. Ls

nightbeat solved the mystery! woohoo! megatrons still gonna be rude abt it tho

OOOOH man and there’s the slaughterhouse lost light. oh boy oh god

I'm so not prepared for slaughterhouse oof. I'm glad we’re done with the court drama stuff bc that's so not my speed vbhdjkbfjksdf give me wacky sci-fi adventures or give me death!!

I'm honestly just so excited for the time travel arc lmao give it to meeeee

so yeah, til next time!

#lj rereads mtmte

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ramajmedia · 5 years

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5 Ways 30 Rock Has Aged Poorly (& 5 Ways It’s Timeless)

30 Rock is one of those shows that seems to have found more fans after going off the air. The wild and hilarious sitcom about the mayhem behind the scenes of a late-night sketch show never got huge ratings but is now a show fans rewatch over and over again.

RELATED: 5 Best & 5 Worst Episodes of 30 Rock, According to IMDb

While the show is fun to revisit, like any show, some aspects age better than others. And yet there are also those parts of the show that remain as funny as ever even after all these years. Here are some things in 30 Rock that have aged poorly and some that remain timeless.

10 Aged Badly: Later Seasons

30 Rock is one of those shows that was hilarious and entertaining for the majority of its run but dropped off in quality during the end. It's a common dilemma for long-running and beloved shows. They begin to run out of ideas and lose sight of what made it so great in the first place.

It feels a bit unfair to criticize the show too harshly as it gave us so many great episodes. But most fans would agree that the final seasons are a major letdown from the brilliant early seasons.

9 Timeless: Making Fun Of NBC

Though the show is too outrageous to be considered close to reality, a lot of it is inspired by the real-world. The initial concept of the show is inspired by Tina Fey's experiences as head writer for Saturday Night Live. The fictional TGS show is even on NBC, the same network as SNL and 30 Rock.

RELATED: 10 Jokes From 30 Rock That Have Already Aged Poorly

While setting the show within the business world of NBC might seem like self-promotion, 30 Rock has a great time poking fun at its own network. The NBC of 30 Rock is always depicted as a chaotic, low-rated disaster that produces some truly awful shows. It's a fun bit of meta-commentary that makes for some hilarious moments.

8 Aged Badly: Gay Characters

Though the show often poked fun at narrow-minded people who exclude others, 30 Rock itself was not always so open-minded. One of the most problematic aspects of the show was its depiction of gay characters.

While the show championed gay rights issues, most of the characters who were seen as gay were made to be a punchline. While the show was a comedy, it seemed to suggest that simply being gay was something to laugh at. While 30 Rock is hardly the only show guilty of such jokes, it does stick out badly on repeat viewings.

7 Timeless: The Mystery Of Kenneth

Kenneth the NBC page is one of the most entertaining characters on the show. A highly enthusiastic do-gooder, he was first introduced as a naïve young man from the country who is eager to please. But as the show went on, the character kept getting more bizarre and hilarious.

Despite looking younger than almost everyone else, the show continuously drops hints that Kenneth is actually very, very old. The frequent and vague mentions of his unusual upbringing and unspecified cult-like religion just add to the hilariously outlandish mystery of the character that is never solved.

6 Aged Badly: North Korea Storyline

Part of what made those later seasons of the show so disappointing was the ridiculous storylines that were introduced. The show has often embraced outrageous storytelling but these moments felt like too much.

RELATED: 30 Rock: 10 Episodes That Actually Tackled Deep Issues

One particular storyline involved Jack's wife Avery, a journalist, being taken prisoner in North Korea. It was ridiculous enough at the time but now it's hard to look at the storyline in a comedic way. With the humanitarian issues of North Korea, the fear of the country's leaders and the fact that actual journalists have been detained in North Korea, it just doesn't seem funny.

5 Timeless: Tracy's Movie Career

A lot of the insanity of the show is thanks to the character of Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan). The out-of-control and unpredictable comedy star is always starting fires that the other characters are forced to put out. While his life seems like a total mess, he has built a memorable career.

One of the best running gags on the show is Tracy talking about his many and presumably awful movies. There's his kung-fu film Who Dat Ninja?, a movie in which he plays an overweight grandmother called Honky Grandma be Trippin', and Fat Bitch in which he plays a talking dog.

4 Aged Badly: Political Divide

A large part of the conflict and banter from the show comes from the different perspectives of Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) and Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin). While Liz is a progressive Liberal, she is forced to work for a brash and arrogant Republican.

This dynamic made for some very funny moments in the early seasons as their viewpoints clashed in amusing ways. Sadly, the political divide in America has gotten worse since the show has been on the air. It's harder to make light of these differences when the country is so polarized by politics.

3 Timeless: Liz And Jack

Though they start off on poor terms, the relationship between Liz and Jack is one of the best aspects of the show. Fey and Baldwin have amazing chemistry, playing off each other so well. Their scenes together are often the funniest and most compelling in the show.

RELATED: 30 Rock: 10 Storylines That Were Never Resolved

It is a real joy to watch their bond strengthen over time and develop into one of the best duos on television. However, the show refreshingly avoided ever making these two a romantic item, keeping their relationship a great professional friendship.

2 Aged Badly: The Cerie Obsession

Cerie is one of the characters who had been on the show since its very beginning. She is a very attractive young assistant working in the office. While there are some funny jokes throughout the series about how much longer Cerie is than the others, she is mostly just there for the other male characters to stare at.

Apart from the lack of character development, Cerie being the object of obsession for all these men is very creepy, especially since the show keeps pointing out that she is much younger. There is even an episode in which Liz tells Cerie she needs to dress more appropriately instead of telling the men in the office to stop being creeps.

1 Timeless: The Side Characters

The central characters on 30 Rock are all hilarious and entertaining, but it is the wacky side characters that really make the show so special. Liz, Jack, and the others share this world with a bunch of strange and outlandish people that makes everything that much more interesting.

There is Dr. Leo Spaceman, an incompetent and oblivious doctor to most of the main characters. There is Colleen, Jack's overbearing and fiery mother. And, of course, there's Liz's on-again-off-again disaster of a boyfriend, Dennis Duffy.

NEXT: 10 Shows To Watch If You Like 30 Rock

source https://screenrant.com/30-rock-aged-poorly-or-timeless/

#screenrant

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sikereviewdotcom · 4 years

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magic school bus - flexes its muscles (s1e15) review

ok so i wasnt sure what id watch today i had to find something just to chill and review but honestly watching this show was a terrible idea i mean it

it was the most boring watch ive had and not because its bad but if youre over 8 honestly it is

w/e i watched it and im gonna review the hell out of this as i always do lets begin with why the 15th episode of the first season? very simple: the title, a natural basic choice "flexes its muscles" we all can see in our mind a flashback on a certain song concerning muscles and trucks as the title flashes on the screen oh yea mama i feel very at ease rn like timmy sitting in front of his tv a good old tuesday morning before school with that lil bowl of cereal except timmy is mute and makes up all they say on the shows so everything is his own he stole the rights from the voice actors and the plot along its cartoons (c) timmy now boys

so wats it about? ralphie being a loser as always, actually ive never watched any other episode but the tone he talks in gives him the loser etiquette after all he does throw a tantrum when his robot didnt work for the second time theyre all stupid, all of these characters are stupid and i have no idea how old they are anyhow yea ralph wanna have a robot to do his chores because everyone else is having fun while he has to do them because hes often late or w/e something like that now from now on we either side with the bitch girl

or the fat boy

thats probably how she qualifies him but yea you have to make a choice because there will be some serious competition: theyre betting because after ralphie runs to everyone shouting about making a robot she goes all "haha you cant do it, stupid" and quite a few other especially that one lil blue sweatered guy jesus hes bad yea like even the old guy from after that will be all "nah" at his bully-joke except he aint a bully, none of them are now why is she a bitch? because she said if he loses the bet he cannot play any sport game anymore and only do the chores wtf how does she even have that kind of authority? how old are they? no shes just a classmate, ralph dont be a pushover now well he isnt because he goes all "haha fuck you itll work im THE GREAT FUCKING RALPHIE AND MY 40 THIEVES-BOT" > “full of himself” is the exact word to describe him

so after that teachah goes all "hey sup lol ive totally not heard you but lets all go inside the bus we have a full day!! wow!! im totally not gonna drive yall to a shop in which you can build a robot as i distract the grandpa ive been flirting with for years but let hanging on for decades waiting for his soon-to-be death when obvs hes all over me and im all over him but its a kid show and im not sure the public is ready for our intense wacky elderly passionate tension, nope nothing pegi 16 not even close its pg 13 actually but you wouldnt be allowed to watch the show then because if youre over 13 youre probably not gonna watch anymore of this, babies cant handle our hot old romcom nah" so yea theyre in a workbodyshop smthg next

this episode really revolves around the body and its structure, in the most basic way you have no idea how basic it went its the basics of basicness like the bases of every bases i havent learned anything and even if i were 8 i still wouldnt not have learned anything its probably a 6 yo focused show idk guys i was really questionned either id give it a final shot but yea, still it sucked, but i understand for a 6yo they may pick up the fact that they have bones and muscles and wow thats how you move now ill say the cybernetic aspect of how they build a robot is pretty weak, no explanations as to how the robot suddenly moves because ok you got the joints, structure and everything all figured out but.. what about everything else? what does this robot run on? stupidness? is it? because it goes apeshit

totally unexcepted this is a very basic formula: kids want robot to do chores, kids make it (somehow), robot turns against kids the end: you cant make robots without them turning evil also its the 90s wtf are you on? robots? wow? no brah thats future bs were not doing that anyway meanwhile the teacher was lying and saying the school bus is broken btw just straight up made her grandpacrush work for nothing for a buncha hours but eh look at her

i wouldnt trust her with my child, this face was an artistic choice so it says it all ok? so wassup next? robot be beaten by ralphie ass (who won the bet btw if youre on team bitch im not entirely sorry for you but because picking a team was a bad choice i was team nerd with glasses all along, yknow the ginger one?)

he seemed smarter than the others but also ended up disappointing me, everyone did and yet my exceptations werent high, my standards are pretty high but damn i tried to make an effort for this one, not specially surprising, is it? i guess i really did grow up since i was 6, huh

the end is this btw:

everyone was thinking the same as i did:

"stop flexing, we have no right to flex this episode was so blank the robot got more character development than anyone else"

yep that happened

in conclusion? final rating? this is worth a big 3/10, not suitable for older than 7 y/o thats pretty much the limit really this close to not being entertaining if youre 7yo but chances are they exist, honestly it could be for older peeps but what do i know? i am making a global thing here, just painting the magic board so we can all (majority its a democracy) agree on something the animation is kinda fine slash good for a show in the 90s? ig? and you CAN pick a things up if youre very young or have never been to primary school which is both very unlikely yet also sad if so

in the end: i do not recommand it there is nothing to be seen move along

obama tg, out

#magic school bus #review #cartoon review #sike reviews #my reviews #cartoon

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entergamingxp · 4 years

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Having the Yakuza Saga on One Console is the Best Thing to Happen This Generation

February 21, 2020 4:15 PM EST

With the release of the Yakuza 5 remaster, the entire story of Kazamu Kiryu is finally available on one console generation. You should really play it.

I can weirdly remember the first time I heard about Yakuza. I was at Wal-Mart, waiting for my mom to finish grocery shopping. Our ongoing deal was that if I went to the store with her and carried her groceries, she would buy me a magazine. So, I was flicking through the latest issue of EGM trying to decide if I wanted to see more. Inside, I quickly skimmed the review for a Grand Theft Auto-like action-adventure set in the grimy Japanese underworld. Had this been 2005, I probably would’ve immediately gone and picked it up. However, it was 2006. I had an Xbox 360 now. I wasn’t about to drag out my PS2 to play a game my favorite gaming mag had ranked in the high 70’s.

And so began a decade of admiring the Yakuza series from afar. Every time I saw a new game in a magazine or on a site, I thought they looked right up my alley. Unfortunately, I never had access to a PS3. That meant I never had an opportunity to play one of Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s masterpieces. In January of 2017, that all changed.

Obviously, I didn’t choose to buy a PS4 over an Xbox One because of Yakuza. It had much more to do with Microsoft’s botched announcements around the reveal. Plus, I was just generally being more impressed with Sony’s first-party lineup in the first few years. However, I’ll admit seeing the Yakuza 0 trailer at TGS 2014 made me weak at the knees.

A series that I had long watched from afar, hoping to one day play, was getting a prequel story on PS4? It seemed like a perfect jumping-on point. And, with most of the series available on PS Now, it seemed like I might finally be able to play them all. Little did I know that about three years after Yakuza 0 finally released in the West, we’d have the entire series available on PS4. And, on top of that, Yakuza 1 and 2 are fully remade. And, of course, 3, 4, and 5 have been hit with excellent remasters.

It feels like a rarity to have an entire series this big readily available on one console. I mean, obviously, we’re going to get collections of hit series like Halo and Uncharted but Yakuza? That franchise is nowhere near those series in terms of lifetime sales. What’s even cooler is that it feels like Sega only put all of the games out on PS4 in the West because of how huge the fan reaction was.

Because of all that, you can now play through the entire mainline Yakuza series all on one console. No more dragging out a PS3 to play the first two games. No more relying on PS Now and your internet to work well enough to play 3, 4, and 5. You can experience the entirety of the beautiful, wacky, glorious life that Kazuma Kiryu has led for the past 15 years.

Here’s the best part: Yakuza is good. Like really, really good. Like Game of the Year good. The brawling gameplay is deep and engaging on higher difficulties. The way it mixes wacky comedic substories with an incredibly well-written and mature main narrative is better than anything else on the market.

Just look at the series Yakuza was inspired by. Grand Theft Auto does an excellent job of lampooning America. The satire might be a little tired by the time GTAV rolled around, but it’s hard to deny how good Rockstar has gotten at making that type of game. But when is the last time you really cared about a Grand Theft Auto character? And how many side characters are truly memorable in that series?

Yakuza puts so much heart into each and every aspect of the game. Side characters that only show up for a quest or two will stick with you long after they’ve walked out of Kiryu’s life. And don’t even get me started on the main characters. Ryu Ga Gotuku does character development better than almost anybody. Seeing Kiryu and his crew of misfits grow over seven games is one of my absolute favorite gaming memories.

So, yes, I’ve just spent 700-some words telling you how great Yakuza is and that you really should play at least one of the games. However, you can’t understate how awesome it is that Sega has even made this possible. Imagine another long-running, upper mid-tier game series being fully available on one console. Think of the scenes we’d be having in the streets if Atlus put all the Persona games on PS4. What about if the Saints Row series got a string of remasters to get all their games available on modern consoles? Or if we somehow got the entire Backyard Sports collection re-released on PC. Maybe I’d be the only person hyped by that last announcement.

These kinds of things just don’t happen that often. If you haven’t played a Yakuza game yet, Yakuza 0 regularly goes on sale for $10 or less. Of course, it’s more than worth the full price, but it’s hard to beat that. The first three games are also making their way to Xbox Game Pass this year. Bringing that entry point even lower. There simply hasn’t been a better time to get into one of the greatest and most overlooked video game series of all time.

February 21, 2020 4:15 PM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/02/having-the-yakuza-saga-on-one-console-is-the-best-thing-to-happen-this-generation/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=having-the-yakuza-saga-on-one-console-is-the-best-thing-to-happen-this-generation

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teafiend · 9 months

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Oh, this was an unexpectedly nostalgic - and fun - show. I did not expect to go in and get a refresher course in “Pop Buddhism for Idiots”, nor the campy and breezy story. Neither did I anticipate the hilarity of watching Won Mi Ho (aka Lee Da Hee) run around screaming as demons chased after her in all her perfectly made up and fashioned stunning self, not one hair out of place.

It was funny, “unserious” and wacky. Just the kind of show I needed after a few heartbreaking and sobering crime/law procedural dramas.

It was far from perfect and made me laugh even when not intended, but as long as it did, I could care less whether it was fully intentioned or not. Not being a major fan of CGI or long action scenes, the less said about those on my part, the better. Overall, however, I think those aspects are acceptable for a show of this caliber.

Oh, I certainly did not expect another hot priest. Though this one is a bit too young to drool over, he is nonetheless extremely good looking and cute.

Kim Nam Gil, well, what else is there to say. ❤️‍🔥

The world-building is a somewhat interesting mish-mash of Korean shamanism, Catholic aesthetics, and “pop Buddhism”. Relatively predictable story/plot, but still had spots of surprising twists (mostly with regards to the Baeks), and moments of poignancy which I deeply appreciated.

It has been quite a while since I watched any show with an explicit world-building based on “folk Buddhism”, and that has been one of the main nostalgic factor. As was the affecting visage of Won Mi Ho in that ethereal white dress. She truly looked like “a fairy who has descended onto earth” and reminded me a lot of Joey Wang in her heyday of the “A Chinese Ghost Story”. I did not know exactly how Van felt but I was bowled over.

I know of Lee Da Hee from “I Hear Your Voice”, and always have a soft spot for her after her memorable role in that favourite of favourites. She was extremely entertaining here, with fantastic performances in many spots. She has truly grown more luminous the last time I watched her onscreen.

I completely enjoyed Won Mi Ho as a character, and given my obsession with “The Guest” and Kang Gil Young, just could not help but compare the two - in terms of stylistic/aesthetics choices between the shows - but not in any negative way. As much as I have enjoyed the more realistic, raw and gritty stylistic choices in TG (for KGY), I found myself marveling over the near flawlessness of Won Mi Ho here.

It was so entertaining to gawk at her clothes, the cars, the perfectly made up face, stylised hair etc. Won Mi Ho was fabulous in her chaebol-heir glory. (And few could carry the fashion choices like Lee Da Hee did in the show. What a body and posture ⭐️😍🤩). Also amazing as the selfless Saviour! (One dressed to the nines in couture fashion and high heels, what’s not to love? ⭐️😍🤩)

And I like her character a lot too. Lovely, adorable and easy to love!

The “almost-romance” (though it was basically full-blown romance in my estimation) was also extremely nostalgic and wonderfully moving. I am a sucker for romances of the chaste and yearning type, and they delivered here. 🥹 Roughly knowing how the ending was from lurking on socmed, I was prepared for the ending and was not too disappointed. Still, my poor babies. 😭

A show not to be taken too seriously, nor to have too high expectations of, it was overall an entertaining ride, and truly, I could not ask for more. Love it!

*Recalling the scene during the final showdown between Van and Gungtan when they were having their final “talk”, of Van’s words (paraphrased), “The only way to escape the Law of Causality is to cease to exist” made me chuckle/laugh a few times after the fact. That is basically one of the major pillars of Buddhist teachings, and he announced it as if he discovered that principle. It might be weird, but I found that assertion out of Van’s mouth hilarious.

*Won Jeong’s retelling of the parable of Angulimala was a very nice touch in the show, because I have always found that story illuminating and bittersweet, and it was indeed an important story of redemption and atonement in Buddhist lore. “Good job, show/writers!”

Edited on Sept 23, 2023:

*Read a comment describing this show as a hot mess, and won’t say I disagree, but I have enjoyed the mess, so I suppose there’s that. Especially since it felt true to what is simply a ‘fun webtoon’. There is literally little emotional core or narrative gravity to this show (or much of the original webtoon, I am arrogantly assuming) except a mix-and-match of tropes/lores, which veered from attempting to be angsty/dark to the cheesy and campy. So, I can see where the mess is. That said, the narrative was consistent and coherent, and the performers made me laugh, so I will give it credit where it is due, little as it was.

#tving island #island #kdrama #lee da hee #kim nam gil #cha eunwoo #such an unserious little show #entertaining for what it is #it made me LOL 😆😂 and weep #so it is good enough in my book #all the gorgeous people #the clothes and how well she wore them 🤩😍👍🏽#very nice to have another FC saviour too #and one in heels and can throw down a man and shoot #Won Mi Ho slayed in all her clothes #and as someone with very little interest in fashion she was a marvel #Won Mi Ho fangirl #self indulgent rambling

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tfw-no-tennis · 3 years

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mtmte liveblog issue 15

death awaits!

oh god the cover. I aint ready

the cover of overlords open mouth w/rodimus floating inside or w/e,,,,the overlord mouth fixation continues i see

and of COURSE its by nick roche. of course

oh god the tension and dread in the first page, as we get overlords sinister promise to murder everyone, starting with rewind, and then seeing chromedome rush over to open the door, and knowing that 30 minutes have passed already...

that full page spread of everyone vs overlord is amazing

also I always thought that ambulon was trying to kick overlord but now that I look closer he’s actually jumping away from overlord, having just crashed one of those hover...thingys....into him...which is honestly cool as hell. also I'm never over the fact that ambulon kinda looks like he’s smiling here, just having a grand ole time as overlord tries his best to murder everyone

and chromedome just seeing this and saying ‘rewind?’ is fucking killing me thanks

PIPES NO DONT DO THIS. YOURE JUST RUBBING SALT IN THE WOUND. PLEASE don't talk about how much fun you're having on your wacky space adventure oh god, that’s just asking to be murdered,

GOD AND THERE HE GOES, DRIVING TO HIS DOOM. PIPES NO

AUGHHHHHHHHHH AND THERES OVERLORD WITH HIS GIANT FOOT. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

PIIIIIPES ;_;

his messed up goodbye thoughts are brutal...plus the final shot of him laying all busted up....god :(

that guy seriously had some awful luck this trip. rip lil guy

BUT he sounded the alarm!!! so good for him!! that's a pretty amazing final act right there

oh my god I forgot abt this scene where rewind is like ‘so brainstorm why is my husband saying your name in his sleep :))))’ and brainstorm is like ‘haha idk its certainly not because we’re working on a secret project together, so jot that down!’ lmao brainstorm....

also dw rewind brainstorm is not fucking ur husband, just look at his evidentially extensive collection of perceptor-style microscopes...my man is microscopesexual

I forgot abt the metabomb omfg

‘some of my favorite words are monosyllabic’ rodimus ily, himbo of my heart,

fort max :( rung :(

oughhghghg I forgot abt the scene of tailgate making cyclonus a new horn ;_; and then cyclonus materializes menacingly bc tg dared to volunteer their room for movie night hvbfshdjkfbaskj cyclonus anti-social icon

AUGHHHH GOD THE PANEL OF RATCHET TALKING ON THE COMMS AND OVERLORD IS JUST, RIGHT BEHIND HIM, WITH HIS BIG STUPID LIPS, OH MY GOD

what the fuck, is drift a flying car??? hello??? what the hell????

seriously he’s got like, rockets and shit, what the fuck

anyways, the entire exchange b/w ratchet and drift here kills me, for multiple reasons.... ‘my faith and my sword’ lmao love it. and then ratchet refusing to leave drift and calling him his friend ;_; aughhh

rodimus w/the squad like ‘lets go gays!!!’

also I guess cosmos WAS on the lost light lol, totally didn't remember that, I'm guessing he left at some point to go be in the other series lmao

I'm sorry but ‘amazing. you speak entirely in name’ is so fucking funny, but also like stfu overlord you're not allowed to be funny

MAGNUSSSSSSSS

now I'm confusing myself lmao, rodimus DID know abt overlord, didn't he??? wasn't that the whole thing???? I don't remember if he was involved w/the whole mnemosurgery plan but he at least knew that overlord was there...but we haven't been told that in-story yet so now I'm questioning that lmao

oh god I forgot that overlord almost kills magnus, jeeeeesus. good thing he’s a russian nesting doll otherwise he probably would've died fr

also damn that's gotta be scary for everyone else, bc magnus is The Big Guy, and a renown fighter...plus drift got all fucked up...yall are in for a bad time

tailgate gettin his panic on I see

swerve w/the meta narration lmao

cyclonus ily sm.......

rodimus charging at overlord....ohhh my boy not your best idea

cd and rewind both saying ‘I thought you were dead!’ HHHHHHHH I'm destroyed fuck it all

rodimus (inadvertently) saving the day by saying ‘til all are one’...iconic!!

FORT MAX IS HEREEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

drift just casually chillin w/no legs

chromedome going into extreme detail about all the mnemosurgery he’s been doing on overlord for WEEKS while rewind is Right There....my dude.

this issue has a LOT of completely white backgrounds but I cant even rlly blame milne bc this seems like more drawing work than usual

oh god cd don't say ‘we’ll finish this conversation later’ at a time like this, that’s never a good idea,

rewind no don't do it :( :( :(

that panel of cd’s arm getting cut off...AUGHHH

GODDDDDDD IM FUCKING CRYING. AUGHHHHHHHHHHH I.....

so incredibly fucked that cd does what’s best for rewind by blowing the pod up....hhhhh god

and then that last panel of cd laying on the ground....fucking destroy me!!!!!!!!

also I love that at the beginning of the issue we see whirl with the missile launcher thing, and that’s what cd uses at the end here....good bookends. jro is really great about putting stuff in the story that just seems like innocuous filler/fun character building but turns out to ALSO be plot relevant later

HOLY SHIT I forgot about the cast page with the big red X’s thru the dead people’s profiles....jesus christ

AUGH this issue was a rollercoaster, phew...and the emotionally devastating conclusion to this arc is still yet to come!

I will say that it’s super interesting looking back on this, in the sense that rewind & chromedome are introduced as the first ever gay tf couple, and a few issues after we get told this explicitly, rewind is killed. this doesn't really end up being an issue representation-wise bc literally everyone is gay and there are a bunch of other significant gay characters/relationships later on, AND rewind comes back later

but still! it’s interesting to think about how, at the time this came out, the phrase/concept ‘bury your gays’ wasn't really something that was talked about a lot (or like, it was, but not as often as nowadays, and not really under the term ‘bury your gays’ iirc), but at the time of publication this would have fallen under that trope (though rewind coming back later negates it imo). I think it would've been tough for this story to come out nowadays due to the backlash that would've occurred from rewind’s initial death (it also makes me wonder if there was any backlash when this DID come out)

to be clear, this isn't a writing criticism - in fact, the reason this is able to work at all is because of the crazy amount of representation mtmte has. it’s like, youre able to kill off gay characters without it being ‘bury your gays’ if literally all your characters are gay by default, and there are a bunch of significant gay relationships happening - technically speaking, any death in mtmte is bury your gays lmao

this is a completely disjointed rant but my point is like, if this issue came out in 2020 people would probably be pretty put off by rewind dying (understandably), but in the context of the series as a whole I don't consider this to be bad writing/bad representation/bury your gays

and like, WERE people really mad about this in 2013? I am curious now, bc I would definitely feel kinda betrayed if I didn't know all the stuff that happens later

but its pretty nice, because now I'm free to enjoy the writing and be emotionally devastated by rewinds death in a normal way, and not a ‘I'm angry at the writers for killing off one of the only gay characters’ kinda way

anyways I'm tired as hell so I'm going to bed, ill continue the emotional devastation later, phew

#lj rereads mtmte

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