#which expands its scope of use Not a lot. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

pearwaldorf · 5 months

Text

I hate that you can't see a tweet thread anymore if you're not logged into Twitter (as a gesture of disrespect I refuse to call it by its rebranded name). Here is a copypasta of a thread from Dan Olson, a Canadian documentary filmmaker, expanding upon camera quality, the guilt trips Somerton used to goose his Patreon subscriptions, and how the best tools will never make up for lack of dedication or patience. I have added clarifications in [[double brackets]] where I feel it is necessary.

START OF THREAD

Okay, so, back in April I snapped at James in reply to a tweet that was linking to this video (which James has since delisted but not deleted) and I want to talk about the full context of that but I don't want to make a video, put your beatdown memes away. [[The video has since been deleted. I can see the title of the video is "Maybe the end (not an April Fool's Day thing".]]

The first bit of context is that I initially got keyed into James to fact-check his claims about indie filmmaking in Canada. As a filmmaker the entire Telos venture was immediately obvious as a juvenile fantasy dreamed up by someone with no idea how to make a movie.

Just wild claims about their plans that weren't worth debunking because they bordered Not Even Wrong. But in watching one of these pitch videos I noticed that he had a $4000 current-gen camera in the background as a prop, and that seemed both pretentious and weird.

You don't use your best camera as a prop, you use your second best camera as a prop. So being an obsessive weirdo I needed to know, and I watched his BTS stuff until I spotted his main rig, a $6000 camera with about $1000 in accessories.

Now, these in isolation are unremarkable because his Patreon at the time was bringing in ~$8000 per month, his channel was a full on Business business, and so investing in some professional equipment of that level is maybe a bit indulgent but justifiable.

What was weird is that he doesn't shoot multi-cam, doesn't shoot outdoors, doesn't shoot on location, and in a studio the two cameras kinda really step on each others' toes. Basically if you already have one and don't need a B cam there's no reason to get the other.

Again, on its own, this says nothing, it's just indicative of poor financial decisions, maybe impulsive purchasing, Gear Acquisition Syndrome. Biblical sins, but not crimes.

Paired with the constantly inflating fantasy scope of the Telos films it was clearly an expression of a very, very common bad filmmaker habit of "if I just get the right gear then my movie will basically make itself" Buying stuff because it feels like progress.

At the end of February he tweets "I want to start shooting anamorphic" and then three weeks later in March he posts the worst, out of focus, under-exposed "I just got a new lens!" video I've ever seen, showing off his trash-covered bedroom.

Based on what's available for his cameras and the lead time, that's enough time to get a Laowa Nanomorph or Sirui Saturn from B&H but not enough time to get a Great Joy from the UK or a Vazen from China. And with the flaring blah blah blah, $1300 lens.

Again, [gear acquisition syndrome] is not a crime and these lenses are budget options. Bit of a pointless impulse purchase since he only used it for the Showgirls video. But this is what he was doing just a few weeks before that above video came out: effortlessly impulse purchasing lenses.

James has (had?) a habit of regularly, aggressively driving viewers to Patreon by claiming that videos were getting demonetized. While tacky, it is something a lot of queer YouTubers have dealt with, so there's precedent there. But people were noticing he did it a lot.

Mid-March he humble brags about needing to work so hard to make 6 videos in April because he has over-booked sponsorships.

Then March 29th James posts this whole incel screed on Twitter about how sex work should be "subsidized as a mental health service."

[two image descriptions.

1. "For the majority of people sex (and human contact) can be imperative to a healthy state of mind. A kind and talented sex worker can make someone feel wanted for the first time in their life. I know sex workers who have pulled people back from suicide just by being there for them." 2. "Not only should (sex work) be legal, but it should be subsidized as a mental health service."]

He spends several days getting absolutely *roasted* for this, just dragged across the pavement and read for filth, and doubles down in the replies the whole way.

So this is the context immediately surrounding James waking up on Friday, and posts the above video and the below tweet.

[image description: "We just got the lowest Patreon payout we've gotten in well over a year. Like, a "maybe we need to rethink things" kind of amount... NOT an April Fools Day thing btw. But I don't know if we'll be making videos much longer."]

Now, this unfolds in kinda two directions. The first is that I'm convinced he was just lying about this income shock in the first place.

There's a million theoretical edge cases about what maybe happened and if maybe he just misunderstood the data or saw a glitch and panicked, maybe one of those happened, I don't believe it, I think he just lied because he was salty about getting dragged and felt owed a win.

A big tell to me is that he doesn't blame Patreon. He says he doesn't know what happened, but let's be real, Patreon screws up all the time, they're the first people anyone blames if anything confusing happens, just as a reflex action, even if it's completely not their fault.

The only reason to not blame Patreon is if you already know that it's not their fault and that any investigation on their part might reveal embarrassing details.

Instead he indirectly blames his viewers for not watching enough, not sharing enough, and not turning on auto-renew.

So regardless of the unknowable truth, this segues into the second, far more offensive direction of the messaging itself. "I don't know if we'll be making videos much longer." "Maybe the end" He explicitly framed this as an immediate existential threat to his channel.

In the video he is vague about everything, leaves a ton of hazy room for plausible deniability on how long the channel can keep going, but the messaging is "I need more patrons right this minute or my YouTube channel is over."

He repeatedly evokes all the "fun stuff" they had planned that would never see the light of day if this didn't turn around right away.

And his audience received this message loud and clear. Tons of people making far, far, far less than him left very heartfelt messages about digging a little deeper to subscribe or up their pledge or unsubscribe from other channels to move their pledge to his.

1200 new patrons in one day.

Since I simply don't believe the income shock was real in the first place that would put his post-"Maybe the end" Patreon income at around $10,000 per month. US. Add YouTube income, he's spent the last seven months making around $18,000 per month.

I have seen creators scale back their capabilities to the bone purely to keep making videos for the love of just, like, making stuff even as their funding evaporated and they needed to go back to a desk job to cover their bills.

You'd have to be so outstandingly reckless with your finances as a channel that a one month spook leads immediately to "channel over, sorry about all the fun stuff we won't get to do with you, our patrons, specifically because you, our patrons, aren't giving us enough money"

And not a spook where you then spend a couple weeks crunching numbers. Oh no. A shock so violent where less than two hours later you're weeping on camera about the channel being over.

Three weeks later he brought a brand new Sony FX6v for $8000 CAD to add to his pile of cinema cameras despite the fact that he was, but scant moments earlier, in such a precarious position that a single bad month would kill his channel.

He stole your money, and for that I'm profoundly sad and angry. That's why I snapped at him in April. I'm sorry I couldn't give you the full context then, and I'm sorry if that anger upset you.

END OF THREAD

#james somerton #dan olson #hbomberguy #jesus christ tumblr #it won't let me format things the way i want #because this website is sometimes a piece of shit

6K notes · View notes

txttletale · 3 months

Note

Can you elaborate on what you think would be the minimal needed changes to fix what you see as an issue in Civ? Civ has done fairly large shifts in some mechanics before, and "civ like" is still an interesting game space that can scratch certain itches

yeah i mean as i said, the baked-in racism arises from a certain set of core assumptions that i think lock it into that position, which are that civ is a

1) symmetrical

2) 4X

game about

3) 'real world civilizations' (deeply loaded terms ofc but that's how civ envisions them)

4) trying to 'win the game'

5) with a global

6) and transhistorical

scope

so, in its role as a symmetrical (1) game with victory conditions (4), civ as a text has to take positions on what constitutes a 'successful civilization'. as a (2) 4X game this definition also has to include some variation on the profoundly loaded eponymous Xs, 'explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate'. furthermore, as a (1) symmetrical game with a global, transhistorical (5, 6) scope, it has to necessarily create a model of what 'a civilization' looks like and apply it to every 'civilization' it wants to include, at all points in their history.

this all kind of naturally leads into civ being a game in which the colonial european imperialist powers are the default 'civilizations' and all other cultures are basically just like them -- a game where technology progresses linearly and innovations are made in the order they were in european imperial history -- a game where all cultures fundamentally work in the same way and hold similar values, a game where all religions are based on christianity (i mean, just look at civ vi's system, where every religion has a 'prophet', 'apostles', 'missionaries' and 'inquisitors'), a game where not only do cultures have teleological overarching 'goals' but where these goals are shared and these goals are fundamentally based on imperialist visions of 'victory'.

to drill into some specific examples: you can't play a game of civilization without founding cities. you will constantly be founding cities. when you're playing as 'the mongols' or 'the cree' or 'scythia', this makes no sense! these were peoples who historically had rich culture, science, arts, and certainly a notable military history, but were (to varying degrees, at varying times in their history, i don't mean to create a new and similarly heterogenous absolutist category here) nomadic!

similarly, to advance in civilization you must invent 'the wheel'. 'the wheel' is necessary to many later innovations, while of course the andean peoples represented by the playable 'inca' never made significant use of the wheel because the lack of suitable pack animals and environmental factors meant that it did not, in fact, prove a suitable tool for transporting large quantities of heavy goods. for an even more glaring example, a lot of early military technology is locked behind 'horses', which is pretty absurd considering that several of the game's playable civilizations, in the real world, developed plenty of military technology despite living on a continent without any horses!

so having established what i mean by 'the issue', which is that the game's core assumptions lock it into imposing a eurocentric, imperialist vision of 'civilization' onto cultures where it doesn't make sense, here's a few different jenga blocks you could pull out to resolve it:

SID MEIER'S EUROPE

the pillar you knock out here is #5. keep the game engine and core assumptions just as founded on eurocentric imperialist societies as they are now, and just make it about european empires doing imperialism. now, i think we can immediately spot some problems in there -- how are we going to represent the rest of the world? after all, this kind of just creates a situation where, either as NPC factions or as outright exclusions, all other cultures in the world are deprived of any meaningful agency in "history". this one just kind of gives you a new problem and also from a gameplay standpoint results in a game that just Has Less Stuff On It. i think this is a bad one

SID MEIER'S ELYSIUM

now here's one you can get if you knock out pillar #3. keep the same assumptions and gameplay and transhistorical global narrative scale, but remove the 'real-world' aspects. you can get real silly with it and add fantasy stuff to it, or you can be a relatively grounded 'our-world-but-to-the-left' situation. now to some extent this already matches a lot of the features already in civ games: after all, unless you specifically load in a 'true start location earth' map, you're usually playing on a strange parallel world with semiplausible but wholly original continents! now, you also need to get some fucking Nerds and Geeks working at your company to build out your fictional world, or you'll just end having pointlessly pallette swapped a bunch of factions that are now just Schmance, Schmina, and the Schoman Schempire, and not really have avoided the issue. but if you do that, and invent a deep and rich fictional history to riff on, then you could create something really cool and incorporate alt-tech or fantasy or retrofuturistic elements or all sorts of cool shit.

the downside of this is that it makes your game less accessible and appealing to a lot of people. a big part of (at least the initial) appeal of civilization is pointing at the screen and saying 'hey i recognize that thing!'. it is instantly more accessible to someone who isn't super invested in strategy or fantasy dork shit to say to them 'you can be BRAZIL and nuke FRANCE while at war with CHINA and allied to BABYLON'.

more importantly than that, i think some parts of the historical theming (because let's be honest, it is ultimately theming, i don't think civ is interested in 'history' in any serious way) serve a pretty load-bearing role in the game's information economy. it's a pretty tall order to ask a player to remember the unique abilities of dozens of factions and unique wonders, and the historical background makes it a lot easier. e.g., it is a lot easier for a player looking at wonders to remember 'the pyramids need to be built on desert' or 'broadway will help me make more culture' than it would be for them to remember the requirements/effects of 'under-eusapia' or the 'wompty dompty dom center'. i think this is one of the number one things that, if subtracted, would meaningfully create something that is no longer 'sid meier's civilization'.

SID MEIER'S ALPHA CENTAURI

now if you cut out #3 and #5 and #6 on the other hand... sid meier's alpha centauri is not technically an entry in the civilization franchise, but i think most people correctly consider it one. it has similar 4X gameplay to the series, and its (very bad) spiritual successor beyond earth was an official entry. instead of 'civilizations', the playable factions are splinters from a colony ship that fell into civil war as soon as it landed, each one representing a distinct ideology. now, y'know, this doesn't mean it's free from Some Problems (the portrayal of the Human Hive in particular is some of the worst apects of 90s orientalism all piled together) but i think they're problems it's not at all locked into by its design!

SID MEIER'S THERMOPILAE

by cutting out #5 and #6 -- making a civ game about a particular time and place in history you could achieve something much more richly detailed in mecahnics while also being able to handwave a lot more homogeny into it. giving the same basic mechanics to, say, every greek city-state in the peloponnesian war is far less ideologically loaded than giving them to every 'historical civilization' someone who watched a few history channel documentaries once can think of. it also lets you get really into the weeds and introduce era-and-place-specific mechanics.

the scale needs to be smaller conceptually but it doesn't really have to be smaller in terms of gameplay -- just make maps and tech trees and building more granular, less large-scale and more local and parochial and specific. this also gives you the advantage of being able to do the opposite of the last two options and really lean hard into the historical theming.

if this sounds like a good idea to you, then good news -- old world does something pretty similar, and it's pretty good! worth checking out.

SID MEIER'S LOVE AND PEACE ON PLANET EARTH

what if we take an axe to #2 and #4? instead of putting all these civilizations into a zero-sum game of violent expansion, make it possible for several civilization to win, for victory goals to not inherently involve 'defeating' or 'beating' other factions. now, that doesn't mean that the game should be a confictless city-builder -- after all, if you've decided to be super niceys and just try and make your society a pleasant place to live, that doesn't mean that the guy next to you isn't going to be going down the militarist-expansionist path. hell, even if all you want to do is provide for your citizens, a finite map with finite resources is going to drive you into conflict of some kind with your neighbours in the long run.

to make this work you'd have to add a bunch of new metrics -- 'quality of life', for example, as a more granular and contextual version of the 'happiness' mechanics a few games have had, or 'equality', game metrics that you could pursue to try to build an egalitarian, economically and socially just society where everyone is provided for. after all, why shouldn't that be a goal to strive for just as much as going to mars or being elected super world president or whatever?

SID MEIER'S DIVERSE HISTORICAL CONTEXTS

ultimately, all cards on the table, if i was made god-empress of The Next Civ Game, this is the option i'd go for: jettison #1 as much as practically possible, introduce as much asymmetry into the game as you can. some civilizations keep the established settler-city model -- others are nomadic, building their units in movable 'camps' -- maybe the 'colonial' civilizations, your USA and Brazil and so on, can be like the alien factions from the alpha centauri DLC, only showing as NPCs at the appropriate point in the timeline when other civs are colonizing other continents, or putting you into an accelerated-forward version of the game if you choose to play as one.

you could combine this with a more interesting version of humankind's civ-choosing system, where you lock certain civilization choices behind specific gameplay events. this would let you do crazy shit with the balancing -- imagine an ostrogothic kindgom civ with crazy strong abilities and units that you could only choose to play as if your capital is overrun by barbarians, or a hungarian civ that requires you to have started as a nomadic civ and invaded somewhere, or a soviet union civ that requires you to lose a revolution, or a usamerican civ that requires you to split off all cities on a foreign continent from your original civ -- you could add so much variety and so many new and bizarre strategies into the game with this!

as for the universal aspects of tech and the narratives of linear progression contained within, there are lots of approaches that already solve this! stuff like stellaris' semi-random branching tech paths, or endless space 2's circular tech web, could allow civilizations to take tech paths that make sense for them, rather than imposing one single model of 'technological progress' on the wole world.

obviously there's limits to this, right -- civilization isn't going to be a detailed historical materialism simulator any time soon. but i think abandoning the idea that every faction has to play fundamentally the same and introducing some severe asymmetry as well as choices that you can make after starting the game would work wonders to wash out some of the racist and colonialist assumptions built into the game's foundation, while also (imo) creating a more fun and interesting game.

#ask

438 notes · View notes

littledigits · 5 months

Text

thoughts on the cut episodes and ppls reactions 'n stuff

Since it was confirmed that a few more episodes of Hilda were written but cut, I do think the reaction of people finding this out is really interesting and not just because its fairly common in the industry and isint a sign of anything bad necessarily. I mean heck, in a weird way being behind the scenes and then seeing how people interpret things, what they take as important, what they think is a thread…all of that is interesting. When your job is basically trying to get people to pick up what you're putting down storywise its kind of a neat topic, because everyone communicates in their own way.

BTW before I keep going this is not a post to say dont crit/vent/complain/whatever about whatever the heck you want in hilda or any media, you do you. I think peoples honest takes are fascinating (said in victoria van gale voice) and even just people speaking their mind shows that they are interested and they care so that matters. Also not one singular post triggered this, its just been on my mind as I surface level read things so no stressies.

When It comes to the cut episodes, I'm seeing some people assume that whatever was cut would have fixed some of the crits they may have had about the season..and who knows, maybe yes? But I'd say ultimately probably not. Not because they dont include things that people want to see, or may have some topics people want expanded on ..but because thats just impossible in the grand scheme of things.

I mean this applies to shows in general, not just hilda. Every person who watches a show has their own idea of what the show represents to them. For some of its more of the surface events or characters where as others connect it with a deeper emotion. A lot of people respond to different tones of the episodes, which there are many. Some people prefer the one off adventures that stand alone as their own stories and others want to see more of a stronger through line. Some may see a new character and expect a new arc and thread, while others wonder why we couldn't've used a previously introduced character. Some may read between the lines more and others may take what is presented as very straight forward and literal …and no one is WRONG, because our big wrinkly brain meats all have their own tastes and ways of imputing information.

Television animation is rife with factors that actually futz with the quality and ability of the team to make a beautiful, amazing product like EVERY DAY. The script process and what goes into production is just one. The team is made up of many creatives all with their own varied experiences and voices just like the audience. In order for people to have their own voices and say, you are going to end up with some things that hit better then others, especially if the team is allowed to grow and experiment and play a little. Hilda has always been a show where we've been able to have a lot of creative say, and i think that sincerity comes through ! but with the sincerity and that humanity, it also means that there are going to be things that arnt going to make sense in the grand scheme of things lol. Even the writers and creators and producers have differing opinions on what to explore and dive into, probably more so then fandoms haha. Having more episodes may scratch some itches but not all, HECK, those episodes being cut could have re-allocated resources to other areas that helped elevate your fav ep of the season ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ who knows! Schrodinger's episodes! (also ngl I was having cold sweats over the scope of some of them as cool as they were. The season may have been shorter but it was intense..it takes a long time to do stuff that looks that clean and crisp)

Imperfect art is very human! Do the best you can at the time with the factors you have. I was given so much trust and freedom on my episodes, and I was just happy to do something fun that allowed me and my team to grow and learn. I was fucking STOKED to get a one off story because it was way less pressure for me to take my next step directing cuz just doing the thing is a feat. Any sincerity you feel cant come through if that means we're afraid that we cant make mistakes, or do a story choice ppl wont vibe with. All you can do is do the best you can, see if people are picking up what you're putting down, and grow from it for next time.

Anyway, just a thought ramble. Its not to say do or dont do this or think this way blah blah. I just love that storytelling is messy and complex and everyones gonna take it a lil differently, especially if you have a team where you allow lots of voices to have input. It is all just a big experiment to see if people leave with a particular experience by putting your resources into the things you have that matter, and try you best to distract from burnt edges or patched up holes that happened throughout the process of making the dang thing lol.

#me as marge simpson holding up a potato of communication #I just think they're NEAT #it is cool to see who vibes with what episodes and why #lil rambley bits #I personally strive for a good 7/10 #maybe a 7.5 if im feeling spicy #everything else is luck

66 notes · View notes

lgbt-cishet-movie-tournament · 27 days

Text

Most LGBT cishet movie?

Movie Submissions!

Sometimes a cishet movie is a hit in this community even without any stories or characters reflecting us (or at least not explicitly or intentionally or... tastefully). Either because of its campiness and witty banter, its drama, its weirdness, amazing soundtrack and costumes or its diva-like personality taking center stage. Please don't take this poll seriously.

Examples of movies that follow the rules below:

The Wizard of Oz (1939), Clue (1985), The Exorcist (1973), The Servant (1963), The Sound of Music (1965), Heathers (1988), Little Shop of Horrors (1986), All About Eve (1950), Jawbreaker (1999), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), 9 to 5 (1980).

Rules for Submissions:

Please don't fight we're literally just ranking the straightest gay movies and transest cis people. The most conforming and queer paradox.

Because of the tendency of this site to call something "gay" just because 2 conventionally attractive men stand next to each other for 5 seconds, I'm not counting shipping possibilities that much. The level of drama, camp and the number drag parodies it has is way more important than possible romantic relationships or sexual tension in submitted films. Also there's ace and aro people voting. Keep them in mind!

It has to be cishet but somehow still queer. Can be the camp, general weirdness, gnc clothes, sassiness, the inclusion of a diva, accidental coding, or some other secret option. Honestly if you find a way to reason so hard it works, you could even try to submit The Godfather (... it is very quotable...)

Submit movies that aren't just American!

Submit movies that are cult classic masterpieces or movies that objectively suck!

I love Mamma Mia but it does have gay characters. This poll came about because I found that a lot of older movies had queer fans that were able to connect to others through these movies while creating their own spaces. This was despite the movie being "straight and gender conforming". I love that there's more rep now, but I'm aiming for this to poll contain more vintage movies for a reason. and I want to expand my watchlist. I'm aware that there are movies from the 70s, 1920s, and other older eras with explicitly gay themes and characters like Victim 1961 or Salome 1920 (and I encourage you to widen your scope of historically significant films) but this isn't that poll.

Old movies with very stealth trans or gay coding with its side characters and unintentional lgbt+ coding is allowed, but you know these things can be hit or miss. Besides, I put Heathers on here even though it's homophobic. Fun but homophobic. You can submit movies with homophobia or conformist themes to a degree.

You can submit propaganda videos, text, and images! If you know any drag parodies of the movies, send them my way!

If you don't want to submit directly, you can @ me

Posts with polls will be tagged as #mlcm poll. Movies posts with #user submitted or #user submission means it was submitted through the google forms and will enter the tournament

Given that not a lot of people watch older movies, the battling polls will be paired by decade until it gets whittled down to the finals where old and young will both compete.

Competition will start May 1 in honor of The Wicker Man 1973, which i wish counted as a poll entry, but I limited myself to one movie I'd slip into the tournament despite the fact that there's not a lot of lgbt fans of the movie. And this was my runner up because I really liked The Exorcist's Regan and Karras. Unless someone else submits him, Wicker Man's not gonna be there. Rest in Peace Christopher Lee and his ugly blonde wig.

#mlcm tournament #xanadu #the wicker man 1973 #horror #lsoh #dolly parton #lgbt #movies #polls #tournament poll #all about eve #whatever happened to baby jane?#q slur

51 notes · View notes

frankiesmileshow · 7 months

Text

Crystal Project Review

Ive been having a lot of fun with Crystal Project, a well made FF5-inspired RPG. The combat is very tightly designed and the exploration aspect is top notch. The art style put me off a bit at first, but I think it grew on me over time.

The game does a great job of slowly uncovering its breadth and letting you break its sequence through curious exploring. Lots of fun to search every part of its gigantic map for secrets. This is a game that loves hiding secrets within secrets within secrets. You might even occasionally stumble into a late game area, and exploring carefully could lead to finding items meant for the end of the game, giving your party a significant early game boost.

Exploring will often lead to surprise optional boss battles that are completely out of your league - but dying has few consequences in the game (you just lose a bit of money) and dying from bosses has no consequences at all, so you rarely feel truly punished for having explored too far, and its always worth it to have a peek at a boss battle.

Don't expect too much of a story. There is one, but it keeps a very light touch, this is mainly a game about exploring and fighting monsters. It does have characters and some personality, but dont expect something dense story wise.

It manages to avoid feeling like an open world game - it feels more like a linear game that just lets you break out of the confines of its intended path if you explore enough. It strikes a very good balance between having direction and having freedom. The world map just keeps expanding as you play, leading to many little shocks about the games' scope, a feeling you might be familiar with if you played Elden Ring.

The games combat uses a very well balanced, strategic system. Battles give you a lot of information to let you choose your actions carefully - you can see any enemies' next action in advance, and you even know who the enemy will attack next (notice the dotted lines in the screenshot above). Manipulating the enemies' current target is actually one of the fundamentals of the game- enemies choose their next target based on a "Threat" system which is entirely open to you as you fight, and many classes have abilities to help you manipulate this. Some class abilities also depend on the current threat state of a character - for instance, the rogues' many powerful skills only work if they are considered an enemy's bottom threat, and will otherwise always miss, which requires careful actions on your part.

The class system will be familiar if you played Final Fantasy 5 - you obtain new classes by exploring the world and finding large crystals, each unlocking a new one. The classes set a characters' stat growth on level-up, equippable items, main abilities and all have a unique "Innate passive" which are usually quite powerful (for instance, the base Cleric class receives a significant boost to all healing spells).

You can also add the abilities of a secondary class to your characters' moveset- like adding a clerics' healing spells to your Samurai. There is a lot of fun to be had mixing one class's abilities with anothers' passive boost - for instance, one class has an ability which makes the first action this character makes in a battle always target All enemies or All allies, allowing you to either massively boost your whole party or nuke the enemy party with a powerful spell usually meant for a single foe.

There are also passive abilities you can unlock from any class and assign regardless of a characters' current class, limited by a point cost system. These can range from a boost to max HP, to adding a poison effect to any weapon attacks, to allowing your character to equip a shield regardless of their class.

You can get very creative with the games' class system, there are countless ways to mix and match character abilities and classes to figure out some powerful strategy. The endgame has several challenges that might require you to make custom party setups just for them, turning the combat system into something resembling a kind of puzzle - though one with many possible solutions.

Boss battles have a way of feeling like a desperate struggle of improvising as your strategy falls apart - then winning by the skin of your teeth. This happens a lot. At least half of the boss battles for me ended with most of my party dead, and being one or two turns away from a full wipe-out.

I think the only real misstep is the games' analogue to chocobo breeding, introduced at the very end of the game. It feels tedious, I gave up on it after an hour of wasting my money on food for the creatures and not getting anywhere. Luckily it seems to be completely optional.

All in all I recommend it to anyone who likes FF5 and who likes RPGs that have a focus on exploring. Visually it might look a bit basic, but underneath that is an extremely robust game.

#game development #rpg #indie rpg #crystal project #final fantasy #final fantasy v #game review #video games

85 notes · View notes

striving-artist · 1 year

Note

Your genuine delight over Goncharov made me really happy ☺️ If you have more thoughts on how/why this happened on a meta level, I’d love to hear them! 💕

Look. Look at me. Look at my face. This is the compounding and expanding creation you see in something like tiktok going ham over sea shanties (loved that, shanties are great) and the original one, that ended up with like, 9... mixes? add ons? idefk i don't use tiktok. But see. see. tiktok has fame and engagement baked into the mix. Its your face. you want followers for it. Your followers can gain you money or influence or whatever the hell. and this doesn't have that. in part because this is tumblr, we couldn't create a market friendly influencer if our lives depended on it

But this is ALSO a joint collaboration in the scope of something like fucking qanon. and yes, qanon is a full on fascist breeding ground so I hate to use it but thats how desperate i am to find a reference point. Bc it started as a single drop on a website that one person encourage and then it spiralled into full offshoots. BUT its also totally not the same bc it was made wiht an agenda and purpose and the intent to convert and persuade people

And sure, maybe some of the first posts were people going 'haha this'll be funny' and yeah, looking at the note counts, some people are drowning in the reactions for the elements they made, but this isn't done with an agenda. It's all Yes, And, never a disagreement except in the sense of people bickering over which of their meta analyses of a non existent movie is more accurate.

Maybe something like Cicada? or or. the way they dropped the joker image??? Or the album that dropped early by leaving random fucking USB drives in bathrooms at concerts???? But cicada was secretive and antagonistic to each other in a lot of ways. And Joker was built by a marketing team. and the USB drives weren't as effective as they wanted?

Geocaching?? but there's an element of accumlating clout and bragging rights there that excludes it from comparison.

But its such a pure creation that I keep reaching back to the kinds of myths that that we told before we left africa. the stories that pervade humanity so far back in time that we can't find the origin. They were made and told and retold solely because we are humans and we want to share this thing we made so others can see it and enjoy it and share it again.

LOOK. This. it's. Look at my face. This is a work of spontaneous public art. This is a thing that the greatest artists of the last hundred years would saw off their testicles to achieve. They would with a smile on their face. People literally HAVE spent millions and millions of dollars trying to force this stuff. they have tried to carve this out of people. This kind of genuine engagment. People hire teams to work for years to make a tiny fragment of this happen and they cant bc it always feel false???

And! This! Just! Happened! Spontaneously! That first rush was in like. 30 hours?? idk, I need to build a timeline. But even if it happened over 72, this is. this is. idefk its so amazing send help I'm back to rambling

#goncharov

489 notes · View notes

springbloggy · 4 months

Text

Ice-e Chuck E. Cheese theory

Of course, my first theory of the new year is my most unhinged. Strap in, folks; this one is a doozy.

Many people tend to make the mistake that ICE-E's is a parody of the popular indie game series Five Nights at Freddy's. In all fairness, FNAF has possibly expanded the scope of cultural relevance beyond its inspiration. So tying ICE-E to the FNAF series isn't too out there or negative.

However, it is not a parody of FNAF; ICE-E's is a parody of Chuck E. Cheese's. Now most people do acknowledge this, but only leave it at that. However, after some time, I started to realize the ties to the real-life franchise could possibly go so much deeper than that. Under the cut is the most wild ride of real-world ties, in-universe clues, and other thoughts of ICE-E's, its bizarre characters, and how it could all tie together in the plot.

As a refresher for both, starting with ICE-E's. ICE-E's is a popular pizza chain brand within the Deltarune universe. It is described as being a hellscape for its workers. Bizarrely, the pizza chef in the restaurant is a buff version of its mascot, named "the warrior.".

The mascot is also depicted in a pain chart, which is showcased in Undertale's Word Search.

With specific FUN Values, a snowman character labeled "nightmare" will appear in this word search.

In chapter 1, Noelle reminisces on a memory where Kris told her that ICE-E "eats kids." There's also a story from the Spamton Sweepstakes on how Noelle saw the ICE-E pizza box wink at her, causing her sister to burn the box and Kris to help bury the remains at the cemetery.

So what does any of this creepypasta stuff have to do with a real-life children's pizza chain?

Well, first, let's describe what Chuck E. Cheese's is for those unaware of it. Chuck E. Cheese's is a franchise dedicated to selling pizza, having an arcade space for kids, and entertainment. For years, entertainment came in the form of an animatronic band. Over the years, however, this animatronic band went down to just one animatronic in certain restaurants, and now, in recent times, it has been replaced outright by a dance party with a performer in a Chuck E. mascot.

Even before FNAF, the animatronics were known as being slightly disturbing, mostly due to using cheaper materials than the ones that can be found at theme parks and a lack of maintenance. If properly maintained or given higher-quality animatronic parts, the animatronics are actually rather charming, but that's the exception and not the norm.

Naturally, children tend to spread rumors about the restaurant, which is why FNAF became so initially popular, as FNAF reflected a common bonded experience many children had (at least in America) since 1977.

OK, so you might be thinking, surely the tie to the brand and its rumors is it for ICE-E's, right? Oh boy. I wish that was it.

See, you ever wonder why it's called Chuck E. Cheese's? Well, a huge part of the reason why is because of "saying cheese." If you've taken a photo, you may be aware of the tactic of saying cheese to get a person to smile. This is because the word itself makes the mouth form in a smile-like state. Thus, saying Chuck E. Cheese would also make the mouth smile, which would tie it into happy memories of visiting the place. However, since most connotations of the chain are negative, saying Chuck E. Cheese causes a forced smile in a place that doesn't bring happiness to that person.

A forced smile, even when you are in pain.

But there's another connotation with Chuck E. that interested me.

The Purple Guy.

This guy first appears outside of ICE-E's, and Pizzapants makes an odd remark about how he may not even work there. Later on, he can be found in a suit with a briefcase in the town hall.

Lots of people believe he's a reference to FNAF's purple guy, a character often used to represent the killer of the children that would go on to possess the game's murderous animatronics. However, I have my own connections that I think make more sense within Deltarune. To differentiate from FNAF, I will just call this character ICE-P (the p being short for purple) in the below theory.

Meet Mr. Munch.

Mr. Munch is an animatronic character featured in the Chuck E. Cheese band. He is a purple, fuzzy monster with a yellow belly.

I believe that ICE-P is the in-universe equivalent of the Mr. Munch animatronic. Like Mr. Munch, ICE-P is a purple monster with a different-colored belly. ICE-P's "skin" seems to be made of fabric, with an orange patch right on his leg, which would match up with him being a former animatronic at this restaurant.

So how did he get here, and why doesn't anyone recognize him from the restaurant if he is a former animatronic? Well, like real-life Chuck E. Cheeses, I believe all the ICE-E animatronics were tossed away due to cost and potentially scaring children. I think the ICE-E animatronic purge could have happened long before Chuck E. started doing it, maybe even during the formative years of the ICE-E brand, which could explain why Kris' Hometown ICE-E's doesn't have any room for an animatronic stage. It was constructed after the decision to eliminate them was already in place.

During this toss of animatronics, ICE-P managed to somehow escape total destruction, which is against the rules of Chuck E. Cheese's code, and this game shows the creepypasta rumor hypothetical of the consequences of breaking said rule.

ICE-P would gain life in the dark world, becoming yet another discarded item, bitter against the lightners. There, he would be given a special item: a shadow crystal.

If this theory is correct, ICE-P would fit right in with the superbosses, not only is he a discarded object, but being an animatronic would fit within the reoccurring motif of lack of control. Animatronics are programmed to repeat the same movements, songs, and pieces of dialogue for years. Maybe that's why every time Kris encounters ICE-P he repeats the same phrase, "Ice me up!" A cheesy catchphrase given to a forgotten mascot.

Anyway, unlike the other Darkners that were given shadow crystals, ICE-P managed to find a way back into the light world with a physical form. Maybe through the fact that he is an animatronic figure rather than an abstract idea or a toy. This leads to ICE-E's becoming a light world anomaly due to the interference of a darkner in, near, or associated with a place where he shouldn't be.

There, in the light world, ICE-P begins to get ready, putting his shadow crystal in a suitcase in order to present it to the Mayor, allowing the first step in a total dark world takeover.

So far, you may be thinking, "Well, this is well and good, Springy, but why Mr. Munch and not the character of Chuck E. Cheese himself? Wouldn't this theory work just as well with him? Yes, it would; however, I think making the distinctness of ICE-P being inspired by Mr. Munch makes his hypothetical backstory much more impactful.

Think about it, Mr. Munch is a side character who, if not entered in a Chuck E. Cheese location, most people wouldn't know about. He isn't prominently featured in advertising and wasn't included at all in Chuck E. Cheese's most iconic ad campaign.

youtube

Not to mention that the chances of even encountering Mr. Munch in a restaurant has become way lower, not only with the creation of "Studio C.", a version of the restaurants with only one animatronic, but also with the modern dance parties. Even if children entered a restaurant with Mr. Munch, they were mostly going to forget him or mistake him for a pre-existing mascot (Grimace anyone?)

So put yourself in this hypothetical version of ICE-P's shoes. Not only is he a haphazardly thrown away animatronic, forced to be programmed to "sing" pre-recorded songs for who knows how long, but he also had to play second fiddle to a much more popular and well remembered main character: ICE-E. The fact his face looks nearly identical to ICE-E's probably doesn't help matters, and could be an indicator he was built incredibly cheaply. All this can accumulate to the bitterness needed for ICE-P, which ultimately motivates his revenge scheme.

Heck, maybe Toby calling ICE-P "purple guy" really is meant to draw in the FNAF comparisons. After all, in the FNAF series, what is Purple Guy's favorite costume to lure children with? The answer is Springbonnie: a forgotten side character from the in-universe Freddy's past.

Heck, ICE-P being a side character could also fit in with what we have seen about Kris' home life, where Asriel has all the trophies and recognition but Kris doesn't.

Of course, there's an alternative theory I'd like to propose if this is still too far out there.

Mascot Theory

ICE-P could easily be designed after the most infamously hated mascot costume of all time.

Barney the Dinosaur. Not only does ICE-P have Barney's same color scheme, but he also has the same fabric "skin" and, uh, thickness.

For those unaware, Barney was a preschool show about a toy purple dinosaur that comes to life via the imagination of the children around him.

This fits really nice and snugly already with the imagination theme of the dark worlds and could provide an answer to how ICE-P managed to find himself in the light world. Through the power of children imagining/believing that ICE-E was a real cryptid.

The real world perception of Barney also fits the themes of the dark worlds as well. Despite its popularity, the majority of people hated Barney. Parents hated the show because it talked down to kids, and kids hated the show because they felt Barney was babyish. Many kids from the eras when Barney aired had their own violent parody of the show's theme song, "I love you".

Here's the version I remember being spread around at my school:

I hate you, you hate me Let's go kill Barney With an AK-47 and a couple of bombs Won't you help me kill them all?

Now what does Barney have to do with Chuck E. Cheese's? Well, if you've ever seen a parody of Chuck E.'s on TV, what is the mascot doing?

Usually there's either an employee who is apathetic about the job or the performer is being pummeled by children. Of course, this probably isn't too likely in real life, but the trope is widespread enough to be in the public consciousness.

So ICE-P could have been an old mascot costume thrown away after taking many beatings from children who disliked him and replaced by a more on-model version of ICE-E or a redesign of the character meant to make it cooler for kids.

But there's another factor that makes the mascot theory extra convincing. ICE-E as shown in the pain chart, has a static smile on his face that can't be removed even when he is in great amount of pain. While this could also work under animatronic theory, it is more fitting to have the old, worn-out mascot suit's defining feature and one of the motives be that he can't change his expression.

So under this theory, ICE-P will have a couple of things going for the superboss lack of control motif. First, he can't control his own expression. Second, by virtue of being a costumed character, he couldn't control his own movements. And third, if ICE-P truly comes to life through the imaginations of terrified children, it's possible he still can't control his own actions even after he stopped being a suit.

Which could mean...

ICE-E Eats Kids

Remember when I mentioned the story of how Kris told Noelle that ICE-E eats kids?

Well, what if Kris really did see ICE-E (aka ICE-P) eat a kid? Just not in the way you'd think.

There's no real elegant way to phrase my line of thought, so here's a recreation of what may have happened below.

The Catchphrase

When Kris types in what appears on the word search, Susie remarks this.

This is strange and scary for a children's mascot, even for ICE-E standards, it is a bit odd.

Well, if animatronic or mascot ICE-P theories are correct, that's because giasfclfubrehber isn't ICE-E's true catchphrase, his true catchphrase is the much more cheesy "Ice me up!"

So what is happening here? Well, what Susie describes seems to be a seizure or some other spasm caused by ICE-E trying to say some sort of forbidden word...

...maybe even the forbidden name...

…of the person who made him this way.

ICE-E and Snowgrave

Let's go back to this snowman.

Now, given the text "nightmare", the massive influence of ICE-E's in Deltarune, and the fact he's a snowman, I think this has more to do with Snowgrave than the snowy setting of Snowdin where the word search can be found.

But how does ICE-E's fit in Snowgrave? Well, I have a theory about that as well.

In 2020, there was a viral rumor spreading around that Chuck E. Cheese's recycled pizza off of customers' tables to use at future parties. The truth was a lot more mundane. Chuck E. Cheese's pre-cuts slices, puts them in the freezer, and then cooks them later.

This is important because it establishes a common technique found at restaurants: using a freezer, which could mean that one of the areas in ICE-E's is also a freezer.

Assuming an ICE-E's dark world, part of the joke in neutral routes is that ICE-E's has an absurdly large freezer space, a bit too much for what is needed and impossible to actually fit in the small area. Kinda like Dr. Who's Tardis (or at least that's how I understand it, judging by countless tvtropes WMGs).

But in Snowgrave, this area becomes much more sinister, as the large freezer space becomes the perfect place to make Noelle's Snowgrave spell much more powerful and potent due to the cold.

Plus, it could tie into a popular saying: "A cold day in Hell". ICE-E's is described as a hellscape to work in, and the freezer is cold. So luring Noelle to the freezer, in a place that's already hellish, would be a literal cold day in Hell. Maybe, like Spamton in the Snowgrave route, ICE-E's freezer is another location that Noelle isn't supposed to visit in the normal route.

This would also make ICE-P one of the most important superbosses in the game since his location would be tied to Noelle's increasing power. Heck, I might even make the case that he could easily be the final superboss, due to his reocurring appearance in all the chapters so far.

Sinister Foreshadowing in Pizza Dough?

This is the most stretchy part of this theory, but given everything else about this theory, putting this connection is fine enough.

In ICE-E's there's a lump of pizza dough on the counter with sauce just pouring out of it.

To me, this dough kinda resembles a slumped over body with blood pouring out of it. I know it's dark, but I am pretty sure this has been an observation someone else has made at least once.

Perhaps, this dough is actually foreshadowing to a future character's death or crippling injury. If I had to guess, it would probably take place in the dark world and might even be assigned to a major character.

If I had to guess who...well, there's only one character that has shown to be canonically dead in the Undertale universe so far, and that's Rudy.

Of course, dough could represent anyone in the game that can bleed, which extends to Darkner characters. So there's really no way to know for sure.

How ICE-E fits in the escapism trend

So far, every chapter has tied into themes of escapism. Chapter 1 is escapism with toys; Chapter 2 is escapism with technology; and Chapter 3 is shaping up to be escapism with television.

If ICE-E's really is a parallel to Chuck E. Cheese's there are a variety of things it could represent. I personally believe the most fitting is escapism with children's media, a trend with ever-increasing popularity. Returning to old childhood memories with an adult lens. However, the poor "hellish" working conditions and kids getting nightmares from the character rather than joy could showcase the darker side of children's media and how it affects its viewers and workers.

Alternatively, ICE-E could be focused on escapism via food—cooking food, eating food, whatever. An unhealthy habit if done excessively. ICE-E/P "Eating kids" would be the symbolic representation of unhealthy eating.

There's also the arcade and slides aspect of Chuck E. Cheese's, which could represent either escapism through video games or escapism through cheap thrills. This is the weakest tie, but it wouldn't be too surprising to see either.

TLDR; ICE-E's is based on old Chuck E. Cheese rumors. The "purple guy" is either a bitter, thrown away side character animatronic or a bitter old mascot costume that somehow managed to exit the dark world. Purple Guy is a superboss trying to get the mayor's attention in order to let the dark world take over. Giasfclfubrehber isn't ICE-E's cathphrase, but rather him trying and failing to say a forbidden name. ICE-E's freezer is an important place where Noelle's Snowgrave spell will become more powerful. The pizza dough pouring out sauce on the counter might foreshadow a future character death or injury.

#deltarune #deltarune theory #deltarune secret boss #deltarune secret boss theory #utdr theory #undertale theory #undertale meta #undertale #ice-e #ice e #springy thoughts #Youtube #long post

31 notes · View notes

pkmnprofloblolly · 1 year

Note

is there a known point at which humans and pokemon diverged?

yes! i've been meaning to talk about something similar to this, so we'll be needing to expand the scope of this ask by, like, a lot. so, first we do kind of need to answer what a pokemon actually is, what it means when we say an organism is a pokemon. and to do that: i'm going to tell you about dinosaurs and trees. stick with me, here, i'm having fun. here's a little phylogeny lesson.

we'll be using dinosaurs as our example to talk about evolutionary relationships: dinosauria is a clade, also called a monophyletic group. that means that it is defined as one common ancestor and all its descendants. genera, families, and so on are usually clades (there are some exceptions, usually resulting from outdated definitions already being important and widely accepted before new data mixes up how we thought the family tree looked. for example, fish isn't a monophyletic group, because they exclude the tetrapods. if fish were a clade, we'd all be fish. as we should be).

here's a very, very simplified family tree of the archosaurs, the group that includes crocodiles, dinosaurs, and pterosaurs. think of this whole thing as a tree branch that splits and diverges as new species and groups arise.

a monophyletic group, or clade, is like if you snip a branch from the tree and include the entire branch. so, if you snip this tree at the dinosauria branch, it'll have the ornithischia and saurischia (including sauropoda, theropoda, and aves) twigs on it, so all ornithischians and saurischians are dinosaurs. (in case you didn't know, birds are dinosaurs, and that's why!) basically, if it evolved from a dinosaur, it will also be a dinosaur.

(the next two terms are not actually relevant to our discussion, but if i'm defining monophyly, i need to tell you about the other two -phyly's, so bear with me. now, a lot of times when people say "dinosaurs", they don't mean to include birds- this is called a paraphyletic group. this means it excludes a part of the branch- so, if you snipped the tree at dinosauria, and then discarded the aves twig, you would have a paraphyletic group including ornithischia, sauropoda, and theropoda minus the aves.

the third common type of grouping is polyphyletic, which is when multiple branches of a tree are grouped together. so, if you snipped the tree at, say, crocodilia, pterosauria, and sauropoda and made those separate branches a group without anything else, that would be a polyphyletic grouping.)

now, let's look at trees. the word 'tree' doesn't describe an evolutionary grouping like the previous words do, 'tree' is just a descriptor that refers to how something looks, or what physical features it has- trees have woody stems, are perennial, and have branches with leaves, for example. there are species from all around the plant kingdom that are trees, that are entirely unrelated from one another! for example, an oak tree is much more closely related to a rose bush than it is to a pine tree. so "tree" is a morphological descriptor, not an evolutionary one.

now, what are pokemon? let's look at some of the traits every single pokemon shares. all pokemon have one or two out of the 18 types. they can all learn moves and have abilities, and can be caught in pokeballs. there is no one monophyletic group that includes all pokemon and excludes all non-pokemon. hell, there are things outside of the kingdom of life that are pokemon, look at trubbish. that's just a bag of trash that came to life. that's not related to literally anything. god i love trubbish

that is to say, pokemon is a morphological descriptor, just like trees, and not like dinosaurs. it is a group of things with particular characteristics with no regard to how they're related evolutionarily.

so, now we loop back to your original question: when did humans diverge from pokemon? in fact, humans evolved from organisms that were pokemon. almost every vertebrate is a pokemon, with the majority of the exceptions being tiny, so humans not being pokemon is pretty weird given we are Big Vertebrates, we're as far as we know the Only Big Vertebrate that isn't a pokemon.

our lineage lost its.. pokemon-ness right around half a million years ago. apologies if i get some specifics wrong here, human evolution isn't my forte- but the first non-pokemon human was Homo heidelbergensis. H. heidelbergensis gave rise to Homo neanderthalensis (commonly known as neanderthals) and Homo sapiens- that's us! every other member of the genus Homo, and the great apes more broadly, are pokemon. of the non-pokemon Homo lineage, Homo sapiens (us) is the only remaining species (though many people do have a fair bit of neanderthal heritage in there).

well, why did our little human lineage stop being pokemon? it's generally a pretty big advantage to be able to breathe fire, or shoot ice lasers, or use telekinesis or whatever, so there's a strong selective pressure against losing pokemon-ness, despite its high energy cost. well, as far as i know, the best theory we have for that has to do with our relationship with pokemon, and the fact that we're so good at becoming friends with them. seriously! ancient humans befriended and worked with the pokemon around them, so much so that they essentially lost the need to be pokemon themselves.

because most pokemon require much more energy than the average non-pokemon to function, due to the aforementioned fire breathing and ice lasers and such, if there's no strong selective pressure for a species to keep being a pokemon, that trait will generally be selected against. summed up: the reason you and i aren't pokemon is because we're friends with pokemon. :)

oh, and- our closest non-pokemon relatives are basically everything else in the genus Homo. that's the ralts line, sawk, throh, and yes, of course: mr. mime. so next time you're out training, be sure to say hi to your closest pokemon cousins.

whew! that was a longwinded answer for something that technically could've been, like, a paragraph, but thank you for reading my tangents if you did.

#pkmn #pkmn irl #pkmn rp #WHEW. about time i wrote all that out

330 notes · View notes

skydigiblogs · 1 month

Text

honestly thought i would have a lot more to say about adventure 02 but like

i just finished episode 50 and the jist of my thoughts really are "yeah this is better than i remembered it being"

overall, an extremely ambitious follow up to digimon adventure, balancing a lot of plot points and an attempt at having a more cohesive storyline than "bad guy of the arc but suddenly it's apocalymon." in 02, most of the bad guys lead from one to another, in a way that seems much more intentionally thought-out than everything up until the dark master's arc in 01. even the one-off antagonists (dark ocean and demon's crew) played into the larger narrative, and weren't necessarily treated as one-offs so much as chances to expand the scope of the lore and use it to the narrative's benefit.

(although i do think it's a bit sad we never saw follow up on demon going "oh, you all are going to regret sending me to dagomon's ocean SOOOOO much")

also a lot of lore. so much lore. 01 introduced the fact that homeostasis has a bunch of agents that look like gennai, but a2 kept suggesting they're all copies (put a pin in that for my tri rewatch, much as i am loathe to rewatch that one). there wasn't any elaboration, but it is an interesting idea, and unfortunately i understand why it was kind of hastily noted and dismissed (the world tour arc had a lot to get to).

also the dimensional makeup of the digimon franchise got a lot more fascinating in 02. in 01 gennai mentioned that the gate could lead to all kinds of different places, but 02 actually takes that a step further in the lore, showing us the dark ocean and the dimension of dreams (even mentioning that the latter is pulled from by the digital world).

but it does maintain some of the problems i had with the original adventure in that i do wish more of the kids got to see their mega forms. :/

(i know tamers fixes that somewhat, then frontiers backpedals, but. you can't get me to rewatch frontiers lmao.)

furthermore, it does kind of suck that we're still left to wonder about ken's adventures in the digital world. we see ryo and millenniumon in his flashbacks to the adventures, but for audience members who missed out entirely on the wonderswan games, it makes it so we have to trust wormmon's word that ken was a kind person in the past. it's shown to an effective degree in the show, especially with his flashbacks to his childhood after the chimeramon arc.

it also makes narrative sense that they didn't feel the need to go over a story that's already happened, because that likely would have taken too long for 02, which already had so much going on. but maaaaaan. i do not want to play the wonderswan games, frfr (though i know there are fan translations out there for 'em).

i do love ken's arc though, as frustrating as him struggling with self-doubt is to watch. i'm glad the writers didn't make it seem too easy for him to forgive himself, because that's hard even if you weren't the vessel for like. All That Shit. i'm giving this boy a weighted blanket and hot tea.

tl;dr: compared to the oftentimes fever-dream like qualities of 01, 02 feels a lot more narratively focused in its story, and i think that really works to its favor. not a flawless season, but none of the digimon seasons are. a successful sequel to 01, much more so than i remembered from my last rewatch of the dub in 2020.

#sky talks #digimon #digimon adventure #digimon adventure 02 #“i don't have much to say about 02” //proceeds to write a mini essay//#don't mind me lmao #if this is rambly and unfocused it is because i am dealing with the triple threat of spoony issues today #watching digimon is how i get through my flare ups nskdjfnksjdnfds

12 notes · View notes

slaviclore · 28 days

Text

Chopin biographies from 2010+

keeping track of my chopinology resources, and I figured someone might find it useful -- this is not an exhaustive list of available literature, just stuff I've personally read, and I will be adding to it over time.

Chasing Chopin: A Musical Journey Across Three Centuries, Four Countries, and a Half-Dozen Revolutions (2020)

by Annik LaFarge

English language, audiobook available

Summary: This is a partial biography of Chopin from the perspective of his composition of the funeral march. This book is written in a super engaging, conversational style, and it comes with a fun multimedia web site with music and videos for context.

Major pro: What sets this book apart from the other biographies in the field is LaFarge's exceptional empathy for her subjects. This may not seem like a big deal, but it is for a field that has been at times unnecessarily cruel to some of the humans in the story. That's partly why this book is my top recommendation for anyone wanting to understand Chopin's contentious relationship with his famous life partner of 9-ish years, George Sand (a woman using a man's name).

Major con: Using the composition of Chopin's arguably most famous work as the blueprint of his life story works well organizationally, but it doesn't actually add much to our understanding of the funeral march itself, beyond its personal impact on the author or, perhaps more broadly, the modern music lover.

Best for: anyone just wanting to read something engaging about music and history. If you don't know anything about Chopin, the history of Poland, or the funeral march, this is perfect.

Chopin. Miłość i pasja (2020)

by Iwona Kienzler

Polish language, no translation available as far as I know, audiobook (in Polish) available

Summary: This is a full biography with emphasis on the various romances that have been linked to Chopin over the last 200 years or so, real or not, even the ones we're not talking about anymore.

Major pro: There has been so much flowery language dedicated to the many and varied romances that Chopin did -- or maybe did or definitely didn't but we still talked about it a lot -- engage in, this book is refreshing for its sober tone and healthy skepticism on the subject. The author tells us what we know, what we don't know, and gives a historical perspective of the shifting notions the field has entertained over time.

Major con: The biography is fairly standard and doesn't expand the field much.

Best for: the casual reader of history, or the serious reader of the history of shipping.

Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times (2018)

by Alan Walker

English language, audiobook available

Summary: This is a full biography meant to encompass not only the entire course of Chopin's life but also the relevant social, political and cultural environment, the fates of people important to the story, and the musical context.

Major pro: Walker's effort to recreate the rich historical and social background of Chopin's life is unique in the field for its scope and detail, i.e., he gives a lot of information where most biographers stick only to summaries of critical events. This fact, as well as Walker's efforts to introduce or emphasize unknown or marginalized resources and documents, make his book an important blueprint for anyone studying Chopin, or even the early 19th century overall.

Major con: Walker's interpretations of Chopin's correspondence are dated and dense, which is a problem because the correspondence is the most important primary source we have (the musical compositions cannot be directly analyzed for concrete meaning). Most of Walker's takes on the content of the letters can be traced to interpretations made by previous biographers (whether or not he cites these is a toss-up), so it's not like anyone has ever done better per se -- however, the field now has the resources to do this work more perceptively. Walker had the opportunity (and I believe the responsibility) to step up to do that, but because he didn't, his biography was outdated the day it came off the press.

Best for: the reader already somewhat familiar with Chopin's biography, who is interested in developing a more complete image of the story, but who is also able to make critical judgments on the historical analysis, or at least recognize where such were made by the author. Also good for historians.

Chopin's Piano: In Search of the Instrument that Transformed Music (2018)

by Paul Kildea

English language, audiobook available

Summary: This is a partial biography of Chopin from the perspective of his composition of the Preludes and one of the pianos on which he composed them. The history picks up long after his death with a partial biography of Wanda Landowska, the famous pianist who eventually came to own the piano, through WWII.

Major pro: This approach is unique in Chopin biography for addressing his impact on the difficult history of the 20th century, with Nazis stealing the piano and Landowska's efforts to get it back. This creates depth of perspective where Chopin biography usually ends shortly after his death. It's a different type of story than the field is used to.

Major con: Because the scope is so broad, this book gives less of Chopin's own story overall, and sometimes the thread feels disjointed.

Best for: casual readers looking for an interesting, well-written story, or a historian interested in WWII-time chopinology.

Chopin: Prince of the Romantics (2010)

by Adam Zamoyski

English language, no audiobook

Summary: This is an updated edition of Zamoyski's 1979 Chopin biography (which I did not read, so I can't compare). This is my personal recommendation for a casual reader looking for a full biography, Chopin birth to Chopin death, and a good read.

Major pro: engagingly written, hits all the important points, and contains ample citations to direct the reader to major resources in the field.

Major con: contains some mythology that historians wouldn't take seriously today.

Best for: the casual reader, no previous Chopin knowledge required.

#chopin #history #music #my chopin list #book recommendations #fryderyk chopin #frédéric chopin

18 notes · View notes

saiyomiya · 2 months

Text

Mamiya Review

Man, I don't know many people who know what Mamiya is, and that's a shame. Hell, the only way I know it is because I checked Andrew Hodgson's portfolio the other day and was captured by the art.

People should REALLY check this out. It's like if Nisioisin and Subahibi and the bunker dream scene in Disco Elysium and your lingering yearning for whoever just came up in your mind just now had a love child with the brain the size of thousands of universes or something. Like is that not the most incredible sentence you've ever read? I'm me and I wrote that sentence but it would've made me want to read it.

Pros

Beautiful art

Incredibly curated freeware OST that made me a fan of Ludo for life

Great translation with beautiful and succinct prose

Incredibly well-paced and doesn't waste your time at all

Cons

There is some thematic messaging in the game that leaves a bad taste in my mouth which is obviously subjective but hey this is my review

Will probably leave you hanging and wanting more answers when you're done, maybe even a bit dissatisfied (warning: I am dumb and maybe something flew over my head, a single read is definitely not enough for this one)

Rating: It's good, great even. The part I don't really like about it is subjective and some/most people might be fine with it or understand something about it I don't. I tolerate it because the rest of the game is interesting and everything else about it is very up my alley. If you're interested, make sure you buy the DLC DoomsDayDreams as well. It contains the last chapter of the story.

Spoiler subjective rambling to myself below the cut. Warning: I am dumb and might be too stupid for this game

Steam | VNDB (Part 1)

Why this game is kino

The settings are super interesting and the writing is beautiful. Honestly I would love to fine tooth reread it someday, maybe in Japanese. (Too bad Textractor can't since the engine uses Javascript).

The scope of the game is impressive and how verbose it is about all of those things is an incredible accomplishment. There is something universally accessible about Mamiya's message. You don't need to read a trove of philosophy books to understand what it wants to say. (Though obviously there are references.) You don't need to tolerate great horrors to get to the good parts. The pacing is good and it doesn't waste your time. It doesn't think you're stupid and believes in your ability to figure stuff out. There's a chance I'm jabbing at a kamige a lot of people revere that I also like for the most part but despise at the same time

MAMIYA (meme), Natsume, and the trichiliocosm are all very interesting and well handled themes. I've never really been able to word these feelings myself, so reading a story that builds something about concepts I've felt in my core was very freeing. It kind of makes you feel like an atom, if we could understand how a single atom feels. I think we all have thought about these things at least once. As humans, we all worry and think of the beyond every once in a while.

The effect this story has on you is genuinely beautiful. How can you feel so small and yet so important at the same time? Not only are you a body, you are your soul, you are your mind, and you have an existence before anyone knew what you are. Yet at the same time, we are all part of an infinitely expanding universe that is not only what we ourselves see, but what everyone else generates.

You feel so cherished and yet so insignificant at the same time.

I find MAMIYA so fascinating as well. To verbalize and personify the idea of yearning and admiring a ghost of a person is super interesting. Everyone has felt that for someone else, a longing to be with or to become a beloved. A lot of people grow out of that, but what happens when you don't? What happens when the scars that that yearning left are too deep? Being able to write a story about this concept, give it a mind of its own, and make it metatextually infect actual readers is brilliant.

It's kaleidoscopic in nature. It's a story that is so many things. It wants to be a literal read, it wants to be an abstract read, it wants to be meta, it wants to haunt you, like a ghost, like a veil, for the rest of your life. It's an incredibly unique and unforgettable experience. The only other game to make me feel similarly was Subahibi but I felt way less miserable while going through Mamiya.

That, on top of watching these characters face their weaknesses and ultimately conquer them with their own strength really tickles the Nisioisin fan in me. Like, all of this is incredible stuff. EX is incredible too, even though it hurts so bad. The bittersweet and vague and confusing endings for me leave me wanting more and someone smarter than me to explain what happened help

It leaves you with a love that is yours alone.

If you like the Pink House characters don't read this word vomit

(Vague Door 2 Fata Morgana spoiler mention)

Okay, time to get negative. I dislike almost all of the Pink House characters. I mean, that's definitely by design. All of them are groomers who succumbed to mental weakness and also nobody likes a groomer. It's pretty hard for me to view them just as characters because they did such horrible things to vulnerable children for their own self-satisfaction and weakness. Like brother I'm sorry but I can't just look at characters like this as just characters.

I fucking hate Osamu as a person. He's my least favorite character. To instill MAMIYA is to leave yearning, but damn, him leaving Ryou with his abusive mother and his biological daughter behind is just despicable. He is insufferable to everyone he talks to, he's ugly asf too, I'm gonna kill him, give me ten dollars. If you like him, more power to you, you're better than me, but my brain just can't run the calculations to tolerate him. Just a subjective thing.

Mayuri's relationship with their mother is relatable and I think their struggles with their inner child and self love are very interesting. However, what they do to Minato throughout DDD is despicable and unforgivable to me and it's very hard for me to look at them objectively. Like I totally get that's a me problem.

I mean, I get it though. There are people in my life who've done awful things to me, but I don't want them to die. Rather, I want them to live and be happy, but away from me. I don't wanna know how they're doing either. In this way, I really have nothing against the better ending Minato has with Mayuri, and I found their duel together interesting. It's well done, in my opinion.

Touma is the least offensive of all of them to me and I don't have much to complain about with him, at least from my understanding of his struggles and what he did overall.

Okay he did bad shit too but somehow it didn't leave as bad of a taste in my mouth than the other two. That too, is subjective.

Finally, Samejima is so boring to me. I never cared about Yukimasa from Fatamoru, so more of the same is more shit I don't care about. He's not very interesting to me on a personal level. I just never cared for characters with his narrative.

I guess for me, since ALL of Natsume's friends patch things up with the Pink House quartet it starts to feel very vaguely like, the way to handle your abuser is to understand why they abused you and then accept that it is a cycle and maybe get along with them and cheer them on. Saying that hilariously minimizes every arc but I mean, this was the vibe I got from all four of them just... more or less forgiving their abusers who put them through psychological and sometimes physical hell. It just didn't sit right with me. I think, for a game like this, having at least one character NOT be the "bigger" person and not be amicable, not forgive even after trying, would've made the message come across more clearly. Forgiveness and handling of abuse is messy and a bit of inconsistency among the cast would've garnered a bit more goodwill on my end.

Of course I might be missing the point or blind. I might be dumb as hell who knows. I would love to be enlightened otherwise. It just left a really bad taste in my mouth for a story I overall liked and became the hugest con about it for me.

Character rankings

Upper layer: Nidome > Mamiya > Natsume > Librarian > Senior

Nidome is cute even though he doesn't do much. I liked his design and I felt like this whenever he called Natsume a silly goose. Librarian and Senior are cool I just wish we saw more of them. The upper layer itself is really cool conceptually and I would love a story about it, but who knows if that's gonna happen.

Natsume and Mamiya are givens to like. I honestly can't tell if I like one or the other more.

Natsume's friends: Minato > Haruki > Ryou > Keito

Minato's narrative is relatable and I like them a lot, Haruki I liked more than expected, Ryou is fine, and I like Keito enough, but I feel like as I've gotten older I've had less patience for characters of his archetype. Or don't care about them. Like he's just there to me.

Pink House: Touma > Samejima >> Mayuri >>> Osamu

Touma is the least offensive of them to me (to the point that I would say that I like him), I don't like how Mayuri was handled and Osamu is just trash to me for reasons I spoke of earlier. I don't feel anything for or against Samejima. It's not his fault I don't care for his narrative archetype, but at least he's better than the other two behind him.

Natsume: Spectator/Idea/As a part of MAMIYA > Body

I'm just fucking around at this point

Conclusion

What can I say that I haven't said? It's good and I hope it gets more popularity someday. It certainly deserves it and I think it could be considered a kamige among VN enthusiasts if they gave it a try. People are just going to have to spread the word. I do think that most people would more positive than me even though I feel relatively positive about it, so go crazy and become the salespeople Kenkou Land deserves.

I still feel like I have so many questions and want so many answers for the main endings themselves. EX is both heartbreaking and yet so freeing at the same time, and the main ending is bittersweet and confusing.

It's as if I woke up to news to my dear friend Natsume Souichirou dying myself.

#review #mamiya vn

12 notes · View notes

mediaevalmusereads · 2 months

Text

Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology. By Adrienne Mayor. Princeton University Press, 2018.

Rating: 4/5 stars

Genre: classics, mythology

Series: N/A

Summary: The fascinating untold story of how the ancients imagined robots and other forms of artificial life—and even invented real automated machines The first robot to walk the earth was a bronze giant called Talos. This wondrous machine was created not by MIT Robotics Lab, but by Hephaestus, the Greek god of invention. More than 2,500 years ago, long before medieval automata, and centuries before technology made self-moving devices possible, Greek mythology was exploring ideas about creating artificial life—and grappling with still-unresolved ethical concerns about biotechne, “life through craft.” In this compelling, richly illustrated book, Adrienne Mayor tells the fascinating story of how ancient Greek, Roman, Indian, and Chinese myths envisioned artificial life, automata, self-moving devices, and human enhancements—and how these visions relate to and reflect the ancient invention of real animated machines.As early as Homer, Greeks were imagining robotic servants, animated statues, and even ancient versions of Artificial Intelligence, while in Indian legend, Buddha’s precious relics were defended by robot warriors copied from Greco-Roman designs for real automata. Mythic automata appear in tales about Jason and the Argonauts, Medea, Daedalus, Prometheus, and Pandora, and many of these machines are described as being built with the same materials and methods that human artisans used to make tools and statues. And, indeed, many sophisticated animated devices were actually built in antiquity, reaching a climax with the creation of a host of automata in the ancient city of learning, Alexandria, the original Silicon Valley.A groundbreaking account of the earliest expressions of the timeless impulse to create artificial life, Gods and Robots reveals how some of today’s most advanced innovations in robotics and AI were foreshadowed in ancient myth—and how science has always been driven by imagination. This is mythology for the age of AI.

***Full review below.***

CONTENT WARNINGS: descriptions of myths that include violence and bestiality, mention of slavery

I first heard of this book when Adrienne Mayor was a guest on the Mindscape podcast. I found her ideas and arguments to be interesting, so I figured her book would expand on the concepts she explored on the podcast.

Overall, I think this book is an accessible intro for readers interested in classical studies and the history of science. Mayor writes clearly and without a lot of specialized terminology, so even if you're new to classics, you won't find this book difficult. I think the chapter about Talos was the most convincing and the most well-done, bringing together textual analysis and art history in a way I found intellectually pleasing.

As a scholar, however, I think this book could have gone a bit further, especially with its analysis of myths and texts. Mayor summarizes most of the myths she discusses, which is all well and good for situating the reader in the texts. But what I really wanted was more specific evidence and close reading: were there any interesting language choices used to describe this automaton? Did the Greeks have a certain vocabulary for artificial beings? As it stands, it felt like Mayor's textual analysis relied on general ideas, and while fine as a starting point, I really think it could have been pushed.

I also think there's some room to apply critical frameworks such as posthumanism and transhumanism theory. Applying such theories would enhance the meanings Mayor is trying to get at, but in all fairness, this may he beyond the scope of the book. Mayor seems to be relaying a history of ideas rather than trying to get at their interpretation, so maybe her book will function well as a springboard for other scholars and students to do this work.

Lastly, I do think this book could have been framed a little better to help me as a reader see some of the through-lines. There were moments when I wasn't sure how each of Mayor's examples fit in with the overall theme of "robots" or "artificial life," so maybe a better framing device would be the theme of biotechne rather than the sci fi approach that the book currently uses. Similarly, some further delineation between what constitutes "technology" versus magic (and even just "art") would have been helpful for seeing how each individual chapter builds upon the previous.

TL;DR: Gods and Robots is a good overview of the history of artifical life and technology in the ancient Greek world. This book is perhaps most useful as a springboard for further analysis, and historians, art historians, and literary scholars will find plenty to build on.

13 notes · View notes

fitzrove · 1 year

Text

The Crown Prince Rudolf Tour of Vienna

Hey, you - yes, you! Travelling to Vienna? Too much of a hipster to want to devote your trip to Mozart or Sisi things? Or just looking to expand your horizons even while you're doing the more traditional tourist stuff? Look no further than here :D I'm going to take you through some of the Rudolf things you can do in Vienna. (And some Elisabeth das Musical things as well.)

General Tips

Stuff you may find very useful to have:

- A public transport day/week ticket for the entire time you're in Vienna. Vienna public transport is generally awesome because of the short intervals (3-10 minutes during weekdays for most lines), and you can get pretty much everywhere by bus, tram, the underground (U-Bahn) and S-train, all of which are included in the Wiener Linien ticket.

- An international student card if you're a student under 26. I have an ISIC card and in some countries it doesn't qualify you for all discounts, but in Vienna, it works everywhere. You can save a lot of money on museum and theatre tickets! There's also something you can get called the Vienna City Card which gets you discounts as well, but you would have to calculate whether it would be worth it to pay for the card (depends on how many places you intend to visit and if they're covered by the discount). I didn't get it because I was interested in a very narrow scope of things (= Rudolf).

- Change in Euros. You can pay by card basically everywhere, but for souvenirs that cost less than 10 euros, it just feels more convenient to use cash/coins (and from what I gather, a lot of people do use cash to pay in Austria compared to Finland :D)

- There are combo tickets like the Sisi Ticket (Schönbrunn + Hofburg Sisi Museum and Silberkammer + Möbelmuseum) if you want to do all of the museums that it covers. I didn't get any of those because again, Rudolf priorities, but if you do end up doing that combo, definitely get the combo ticket instead of separate ones!

Now onto the actual tour stops. We shall start from the city centre and work our way through the city from there.

1. Hofburg / Rudolf's Apartments

The whole Hofburg area is super cool and imposing, so I definitely recommend going there just to walk around - it's completely free. You can also take tram 1 towards Prater Hauptallee from the opera to the Schwedenplatz & back (which I did) to observe the palace from the Vienna Ring Road, which takes you past many gorgeous buildings, including those of the Hofburg (and the Wiener Eistraum, a famous skating rink that features in the Affaire Mayerling musical, complete with its trauma-inducing snowman). But don't only do the overview, it's really super cool to actually wander around the palace area!

The most interesting area of the palace is the Schweizerhof. When you enter the palace through the big entrance on Michaelerplatz (idk if it's the main entrance but it's probably the most tourist trappy one) and walk through the "tunnel" (my English architectural vocab is failing me) to the main courtyard (Innerer Burghof), the smaller Schweizerhof courtyard will be on your left. From there, you can enter the Hofburg Chapel / Hofmusikkapelle (which has very limited opening hours due to it being an important practice and performance site for the Vienna Boys' Choir; it's open to tourists Monday and Tuesday from 10 am to 2 pm & Friday 11 am to 1 pm) for free (once you have entered the courtyard, it will be on your right) and sit there listening to some nice choral music. It's very quiet and off the beaten path imo, so it's very nice.

But the main point of interest on the Schweizerhof is, of course, Rudolf's apartment, located on the left side of the courtyard on the second floor (I think). You can't go in because it now houses the offices of the State Monument Office (Bundesdenkmalamt), but you can peer up at the windows >:D

2. Augustinerkirche

The Augustinerkirche is a stone's throw away from the Hofburg (4 minute walk), so it's very easy to get to once you're already there. Just go out through the Schweizerhof exit (directly in front of you if you've just entered the small courtyard from the main Burghof; visible in the photo above) and exit to the Josefsplatz (the plaza in front of the Austrian National Library). Walk across the plaza, past the statue of Kaiser Joseph II, and enter the church from a door on the west side.

The Augustinerkirche is where Sisi and FJ got married, but less famously, it's also the site of Rudolf and Stéphanie's wedding. You can go in for free and guided tours are forbidden within the church, so it should be quite quiet and peaceful. Opening hours 8 am to 5:30 pm (Mon, Wed, Fri) / 8 am to 7:30 pm (Tues / Thurs) / 9 am to 7:30 pm (Sat / Sun), though be aware that the church is in active use by the parish so sometimes services may be taking place.

3. Kapuzinergruft

The Kapuzinergruft is a three-minute walk away from the Augustinerkirche. Just proceed down the Josefplatz until it turns into Augustinerstraße, go past the Theatermuseum, make a few turns (Google Maps will help you with this better than I can) and you're there. You can enter the crypt for 7 euros (student) / 8 euros (adult). The price of the ticket ensures that it's quite quiet, at least on winter weekdays - I basically had it to myself for ~20 minutes. Remember that it's a graveyard, so you should avoid making any kind of ruckus while there. You can see the graves of many famous Habsburg personalities, but what obviously interests us most is Rudolf. His grave in the Franz Joseph vault is pretty hard to miss accidentally.

Do consider bringing him something. It doesn't have to cost anything (and perhaps you shouldn't spend a lot of money given that mementos are regularly cleared away. I think pretty rocks work as well as anything), but it's a nice gesture.

4. Theatermuseum

The Theatermuseum is very close to the Capuchin Crypt, so you can easily proceed there directly if you want to. It doesn't have much to do with the historical Rudolf, but right now (Feb 2023) it has the original 1992 costume sketches for Elisabeth displayed in the Mozart to Falco exhibition. In the museum gift shop you can buy the 2004 blue Elisabeth Vienna cast album (Lukas Perman as Rudolf) for 13 euros (cheap!), as well as the 2005 Vienna Elisabeth DVD & the 2016 Vienna Mozart proshot DVD and official CD. They are quite expensive (~16 euros for the Mozart CD and 30 euros for each of the dvds iirc) and not really cheaper than what you could find while online shopping imo, so I didn't buy them.

5. Raimundtheater

We're making a pretty large jump across town :D The Raimundtheater, operated by the VBW, is the leading musical theatre venue in Vienna. In the theatre you can do the following Rudolf-related activities:

- Buy Elisabeth merch (a wide variety of things from VBW productions from the last 10 years; when I went they had the 2012 and 2019 CDs, iirc 2022 as well, and the 2012 libretto. Basically anything you can find in the online VBW gift shop will be here.)

- Buy the Rudolf: Affaire Mayerling CD and DVD (don't) (XD)

- See a show in the theater where Elisabeth 2012 happened

- As long as Rebecca is playing: Meet a Rudolf/Young Hungarian Nobleman (choose your pick from u/s Vienna 1992 and/or u/s Vienna 2012) at stagedoor 😎 You can also meet several Elisabeths and Franz Josephs and watch Mark Seibert run away from his fans at lightning speed.

You should definitely join the VBW Musicalclub to buy last-minute tickets for 22 euros (available 2 hours before the show starts), especially if you're alone. The membership is 17 euros a year but just one good last-minute ticket will make it worth it. I sat in seats worth 120 euros in the 5th and 6th rows (stalls) and paid only 22 euros each for them, plus the membership. You need a bit of luck but it's definitely worth it, especially on less busy weekdays. The visibility from category C and D seats, at least those on the balcony, isn't amazing - you miss some action even from seats where it isn't indicated that there's limited visibility.

6. The Crown Prince Apartments at Schönbrunn

The crown jewel of the experience, in my opinion. >:] Take the U4 from the centre and get off at Schönbrunn station. Once you enter the main courtyard of the castle (on which the war crime that was the Elisabeth Konzertante Aufführung was committed), head for the entrance seen on the left corner of the main facade. If you go straight ahead once you enter the building, you will find a small unassuming door. This is the entrance to the horribly kitschy Schönbrunn Virtual Reality experience. It's also the entrance to Rudolf's apartment.

Watching the 24-minute VR film is pretty okay. It looks cool, even though it's not a great film for people who already know the history. (We only see Rudolf for a few seconds on the carriage to Mayerling, and then darkness, a whisper of "mother, forgive me" and two gunshot sound effects. Gross. Lucheni has more screentime than Rudolf and he's depicted as a whistling cartoon villain living in a rat-infested apartment.) I did learn new things about the early history of Schönbrunn, which was nice. But the important thing is that after the film you get to walk around all the rooms (at least if it's not super busy) and look at Rudolf's apartment!!! Only the bedroom is off-limits. It's not known what each of the rooms' function was (except that the first room you enter was his living room), but it's really cool to look at the 18th century bird murals, which were ludicrously expensive to create and took 7 years to complete (by only one artist and then his student when he passed away). The apartments were Empress Maria Theresa's favourite part of the castle because they were hot in winter and cool in the summer.

The VR tour only costs 8.50 (student) / 9.50 (adult) as an add-on to a regular Schönbrunn ticket. Definitely do that! The regular tickets (Grand Tour and Imperial Tour, and some combos that are available in the summer) get you a nice tour of the first floor of the castle, with Sisi and FJ's apartments and the glorious Spiegelsaal. I would get the Grand Tour because it's 18 extra rooms for only a marginal increase in price. I'm too lazy to google the prices rn and they might change in the future, but it was something like 20ish euros.

After the tour you can buy merch at the gift shop. Sadly, the Rudolf merch is limited to two postcards - one a photograph of him as a young boy and another a hunting clothes portrait photo from 1888. I think the latter one is super cute so I bought it :D You can also buy a Sisi themed nail file 💀

That concludes my Rudolf Tour experience. XD There are additional things you could do that I don't have personal experience of, so I'm listing them briefly here.

Things you could also do but I didn't do (and why I didn't do them)

- The Sisi Museum / Imperial Apartments at Hofburg. I read online that the apartments aren't very different from those at Schönbrunn, and I don't have a great interest in Sisi, but you could do this if you want to. Like in Schönbrunn, FJ has pictures of all of his children in his apartment, which is cute.

- Imperial Treasury/Kaiserliche Schatzkammer in Hofburg. I didn't particularly care xD It's on the Schweizerhof so easy to pop into while going to see Rudolf's Hofburg apartment if you want. Not free.

- Silberkammer - another which is next to the Sisi museum afaik. Again, didn't care xD

- Paniglgasse 19. This is a now-random building that once contained the apartment Rudolf bought for Mizzi Kaspar, his favourite mistress. You can go stand outside it if you're in the Wieden area (underground stop Karlsplatz) anyway to see the famous Karlskirche or the VBW main office / Theater an der Wien. The latter is being renovated so there's nothing to see but I did it anyway. I didn't go to Mizzi's apartment because I found the area a bit weird to navigate and was tired at that point of my day :D

- The Museum of Natural History / Naturhistorisches Museum. The mineral collection contains some geological objects of interest from Rudolf's private collection, as does the ornithological collection. There's a pair of white-tailed eagles on display that were shot by him on Jan 22, 1889, only nine days before his death. I realised too late that I should go and missed it - maybe next time. Tickets 16e (adult) / 12e (student/reduced).

- The Hofmobiliendepot / Imperial Furniture Collection / Furniture Museum. I was going to go because they had some Rudolf stuff (... including the bed he died in, which I find a bit gauche to display), but I was too tired after Schönbrunn and skipped it. Located at Andreasgasse 7, served by the U3 underground line. Student ticket 10,50 / adult 11,50.

- The Kronprinzengarten in the Schönbrunn grounds. It's named so because it's located right outside Rudolf's apartments, so going there will give you a view of the outside of his place & his yard, basically. Definitely pop over if you can, it's very practical to do if you're in Schönbrunn anyway! The gardens were closed for the winter when I was in Vienna. You can get a Schönbrunn Classic Pass (from April 1 onwards) to do the castle Grand Tour and visit all of the Schönbrunn gardens.

Thanks for reading :D Hope you have fun and please bring Rudolf all the rocks

#tourism #elisabeth das musical #kinda #vienna #history #kronprinz rudolf #musicals #theatre

56 notes · View notes

grendelsmilf · 1 year

Note

do you have a good way fo describing why adventure time is so good? I tried explaining to my friends how this was genuinely one of the best shows and they weren’t dismissive but I don’t think of them really took it seriously and I just didn’t know how to explain that this show is amazingly written and truly fantastic

yeah i go thru this a lot. where ppl know better than to dismiss my taste bc i am known for being a man of discernment but they also think my claim that it's like "if the sopranos was better" is inherently silly. which it kind of is, like that's the point when i say it. to make people understand that it expands the limits of television and what the medium can be in the same way that the sopranos did. but unlike the sopranos, that expansion of potential has yet to be replicated by any other show, and i genuinely don't know that that kind of lightning in a bottle collaborative storytelling that is beloved both by commercial audiences as well as the people who Get it (scholars, you might call us). like adventure time would not be the show it is if it had not lasted ten seasons. if we had not gotten an episode in season ten entitled "bonnibel bubblegum" that completely redefines our previous understanding of the character who was already the greatest character on television (ever!) before we were given a new lens through which to understand every single one of her actions thus far. like it's actually very difficult to try to summarize what makes this show so incredible and unique, unlike anything ever else you have ever seen on tv, if you have only seen a handful of episodes, and even more so if you have only come to understand the show through its marketable aesthetics. people see it and think it's a show about a boy and his dog (even though it's more like a dog and his boy, if anything), and they don't realize the fucking layers this thing has! when i talk about this show being a spiral, you could also view that shape from a different angle, and see it instead as (to quote shrek) an onion, adding new layers on as the show continues. and that's a large part of what makes it so unique, that no other show has ever done so much. it's not enough to be a coming of age story about existentialist despair. it's not enough to be an interrogation of gender roles, the patriarchal structure of the nuclear family, and what gender can even mean in a posthuman society. it's not enough to be a deconstruction of fantasy worldbuilding while simultaneously worldbuilding with a grander scope than i have ever seen before or since. literally everything you could possibly imagine has been covered in this show, and with a symbolic importance, interconnectedness, and meaning that you will not see in media that only has time/room to cover one or two topics, that simply cannot weave together every single aspect of its story into a larger narrative that relates everything to everything else, from the smallest parts of existence to the cosmic forces controlling the universe. and also no other show has princess bubblegum. so like, QED.

#ask #anon #at ramblings #i could go on....#but i shant. for now

44 notes · View notes

mdhwrites · 8 months

Text

Amphibia Meeting the Human Realm is My Favorite Half Season of the Show So Far

And it's because it managed to push into new territory that expanded its themes harder through contrast and parallels, never forgot its stakes while keeping its identity, and yet still managed to give us a new vibrant cast of supporting characters so as to bring together an exceedingly satisfying half season. Not a perfect one but one that never quite felt as awkward as the low points of other seasons and is DRIPPING with good characterization, morals, ideas, etc.

One of the big things I think a lot of fans of the series miss by calling it filler, the same fans who I assume likely skipped S1 because they saw it as filler, is actually the importance of swinging back around to S1's concepts but with the Plantars. We get to see the changes to how things go because of how much Anne has changed, how much Anne has affected the Plantars but also how little Anne has changed. It makes it so that while we do keep getting told Anne is more responsible, we can see it more clearly than during any other part of the series.

But we can also see the seeds being set for why the ending will be what it will be (because there's no way I don't know how the series ends). Both Sprig's Birthday and You Give a Frog a Cookie show that while Anne is doing it for better people... She's still a people pleaser to her friends. She still has growth she needs to do. Growth that might require some amount of time away from those she's closest to to achieve because she needs time to invest in herself.

Not to say the half season is perfect. I can see a lot of reasons why some dislike Spider-Sprig even if I like the segment, Thai Feud has good character reasoning behind it even if I think it goes beyond just childish selfishness which is the saving grace for Anne during a lot of S1 and Hollywood Hop Pop is a good use of the fact that Anne lives in Los Angeles but it still doesn't change that it's awkward and clunky in the same ways that some Hop Pop focused episodes tend to be when he needs to act like an idiot. All three of these though have reasonable justifications, good lessons, are trying to put closure to things or say something about the characters... There's a point to all of them existing, regardless of if they're executed on the best. And even at its worst execution, each one probably still has at least one heartwarming moment and/or one real good joke, like Sprig breaking down about getting yelled at.

And that's one thing I do ADORE: Amphibia is still Amphibia. Despite True Colors, it did not abandon its own identity. It's still funny and over the top and kind of crazy and it's willing to let the human realm be its own sort of crazy to reflect that. I don't think people are right in saying it just forgot about True Colors though. Even while keeping this identity, you have them worrying about getting caught, Anne working herself to death, the weight of lies, etc. like that. It backs off a bit in the second half of the mid-season but only once it has gotten Anne and others to a healthier mindset and even then, no one except whoever is fucking up in a given episode is entirely forgetting what the final goal is. Hell, anyone who claims the show just forgets about True Colors isn't recognizing that this thirteen year old, multiple times, overloads herself by trying to trivialize all that happened. Anne's whole scope of conflict she's EVER been a part of increased a hundred times fold over the course of a single day so her not directly addressing it besides the one part she actually can do something about is GREAT. All the rest of the whispers are part of what's torturing her until finally she knows progress is being made by people like Doctor Jan and she starts breathing again once she tells herself she can trust others with the problem.

It's just... REALLY FUCKING GOOD. And that's without getting into the fact that despite most of the side characters like the IT Girls and Doctor Jan only actually getting like two minutes of screen time each before the last two episodes, they are wonderful additions to the cast and work great. Oum and Bee, Anne's parents, are the only real protagonist additions and the closest they get to a dedicated episode is when Anne goes to the movies. Otherwise, they're always supporting characters to the character drama or themes going on with Anne and the Plantars. And anyone who claims the Plantars are not main characters WILL BE BONKED. Sprig is literally the secondary main character people.

For new antagonists, we have Cloakbot who is a great way to introduce a new threat that goes well with the early focus of trying to adapt and hide on Earth like the Plantars are before then swapping to Mr. X who is SO full of personality and does well to prod the cast forward as they think they're ready to settle in for however long this takes. Cloakbot actually takes up way more time than Mr. X though as Mr. X only shows up like three times before the final episode and while he is the primary threat in each, he's not nearly as involved as Cloakbot was during their appearance. It serves well to build up Mr. X though before finally we see the FBI triumphant... Briefly. But triumphant nonetheless.

The last thing I'll touch on is Sasha and Marcy. Marcy... Marcy is the one part of the half season where I suspect rewatching makes it worse. Knowing this is effectively the final outing for Marcy and even Olivia and Yunan are treating her as just a brain and less as a character (I'm sorry but Marcy really doesn't have a found family) is ROUGH. Marcy has always been only kind of half a character with how she's written though and if I have one big complaint of Amphibia as a whole/so far, it's that Marcy so obviously is tailored for plot purposes more than she is to actually be a part of the show. The episode itself is enjoyable, the two newts have a GREAT dynamic and it sets up the terrifying might of Andrias and what is to come well but... It still is a real shame for the character.

Sasha on the other hand is great, as she commonly is. She genuinely has to ask if she is a conqueror or a protector. She has always seen herself as on the side of right after all. That she controls others for the sake of protecting them. It's part of why Reunion is so effective. Getting to see her at her lowest cause her to decide that and how it inspires Grime is great. Also seeing another big city slicker underestimating the townies and their capabilities is great, not only just a nice hurrah for anyone who loves Wartwood but a nice reminder of why Anne has so much adjusting to do because she underestimated all of this so much. It sets her up VERY well for what will make up the bulk of S3B, at least from my understanding.

So yeah, Amphibia keeps being fucking amazing and yet I STILL have hot takes that go against the opinions of the fandom. Go figure. XD

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

#Amphibia #Amphibia Critical #amphibia season 3

11 notes · View notes