#Foundation is so entertaining and full of so much lore

[dravencroft]

I finally finished Control with both DLCs! Here are some of my favourite screenshots~

#Daken.txt #Control #Control game #Control Remedy #Remedy Control #Jesse Faden #Alan Wake #screenshots #I loved this game and the DLCs so much!! #the main game is brilliant and so unique #Foundation is so entertaining and full of so much lore #AWE is extremely creepy but also so involving #also I want Jesse and Emily to get married

[poliwhirl42]

Hi! What is your opinion on every pokemon season (by region) or at least the ones you have watched?

Oh man, a great question! I'll try to condense my thoughts about each into a few sentences but you should probably prepare for a novel haha:

Kanto: Honestly, when I watch the Original Series, I actually prefer watching the Orange Islands and Johto over the first season (I'll get to why in the next section). I think the first season is incredibly nostalgic to watch and has some of the most iconic moments in the entire anime, and the rest of the Pokemon anime wouldn't exist without it as a foundation, so I have to give it credit. Aside from most of the gym battles being kinda stupid, I do wish they'd followed up on lore they introduced that could've been incredibly interesting to explore, like Ash's childhood/his father's whereabouts, Jessie's mom, the Mewtwo/Mew stuff and other Team Rocket history from the CD drama, etc. But I also realize that the writers were just getting their bearings with making an anime adaptation in the midst of a rapidly-growing cultural phenomenon based off a video game, so I recognize the challenges and uncertainties that came along with that. Also quickly adding I highly enjoyed Orange Islands and my Pokeshipping heart revisits certain episodes from time to time as well.

Johto: Those who know me well know I LOVE the Johto series. I'm actually in the middle of a rewatch of it. Definitely rewatching it in full nowadays though, has definitely made me recognize that this series was far from perfect, but looking past its writing flaws, it's just purely entertaining for me. The English voice actors really found their voices and added so much to their characters, especially with the dialogue and the creative liberties they took in creating the dub. I like how certain backstories like Jessie's were explored a bit more in Johto as well, and I definitely think the gym battles were taken a little more seriously than they were in the first season. There were also some GREAT Brock episodes which I highly appreciated, and I never tire of watching the Butch and Cassidy episodes (aka the fortune telling one and the Lugia Arc). Also, Gary and Ash's battle in the League is my second favorite League battle of all time behind Ash VS Paul. Johto is also not only my favorite region but is also home to my favorite Pokemon opening song/OST of all time, and I generally just loved the vibes with this series where not every episode or scene had to be jam-packed with action every single second. It was nice to have episodes of them helping out a Character-of-the-Day or visiting a city or just laying in the grass taking a nap after camping out or having lunch. When I think of a Pokemon journey, those in-between moments are for me just as special as the action-packed high stakes moments. I definitely recognize the downside of this, though, because I do recognize that the constant repetitive pattern of Johto's plotlines in many episodes was fatiguing for many fans who wanted to see something different, and as much as I enjoy watching it, I agree. Johto itself is so RICH with its history and traditional Japanese roots and culture and it really felt like the writers shied away from integrating Ash's journey with a lot of the Johto game lore. It would've been cool to have characters like Jimmy and Marina interact with Ash, perhaps have Silver be introduced, and I also think they really dropped the ball on having characters like Casey and Ritchie be rivals in the Silver Conference. This is getting long though lol so onto AG next!

Advanced Generation: AG to me is like the underrated gem of the pokeani series. I think sometimes it slips through the cracks because it's not as "nostalgic" as OS but not as "hyped up" as XY or DP are. I really like AG a lot even though I don't talk about it much, but I do admittedly feel like several episodes or arcs at least in Hoenn are kind of forgettable to me or lackluster- the two major ones that come to mind are the Hoenn League and the Aqua/Magma arc, both of which should've been FAR more exciting and entertaining. DESPITE THAT THOUGH, I thought the group of four- Ash, Brock, May and Max was incredibly entertaining and brought a whole new dynamic which was different from the OG trio's. I also loved May assuming the role of dual protagonist and absolutely loved the concept of contests! I love Contestshipping and adored every moment May's rivals appeared on screen with their quips and banter. Her growth in this series was fantastic and her battle with Drew at the end of Battle Frontier was chef's kiss. Ash himself, this is actually my favorite portrayal of Ash as he's such a little egotistical brat in Hoenn- other people don't like this as much but I still eat it up, like you just wanna punch him but he's so funny. The battles were also SO MUCH BETTER in AG; I loved little scenes where Ash was teaching his pokemon new moves and actively training alongside them; really showed he was getting more and more serious about being a Pokemon trainer.

Diamond and Pearl: Aside from Johto, DP is my favorite series and is actually the series that was currently airing when I first became fully invested in the Pokemon anime (I did not watch it much as a child), so it's very nostalgic for me. I love almost everything about it, between Dawn continuing the dual protagonist role, contests still being included, Ash's entire team, Paul being an amazing rival, the Sinnoh League being amazing and still my favorite League, rivals like Conway, Zoey, Kenny, Ursula, Nando, and Barry all being awesome in their own ways, so many fun arcs like the summer camp arc, Wallace Cup, Hearthome Tag Battle, Team Galactic's major involvement, Brock's development leading up to him becoming a Pokemon Doctor...I can't get enough of this series. The only thing I don't like is probably the giant amount of filler episodes they really didn't need at certain points and the gaps between Ash's gym battles; even though I love it to pieces like I do Johto, I agree that similarly both did not need to be drawn out as long as they did.

Best Wishes: Besto Wishes!!! So aside from me blabbering on about how much I love Burgundy, gosh I absolutely love BW. There are some things about it I will unfortunately never be able to forgive- like the confirmation of Ash being 10, the Rocket/Plasma arc being canceled, and basically the soft-reboot essentially making all of Ash's development pre-BW for naught. But gosh was this series so refreshing in other ways. Iris and Cilan, both amazing characters, offered a new dynamic with Ash that the previous characters didn't and I will die on this hill disagreeing with everyone who says that Misty and Brock are just like Iris and Cilan. I think Iris out of all the Pokegirls actually had the BEST portrayal of a backstory and I like the development she received. I also love that Ash rotated between pokemon that he caught, aside from his DP team I'm also very attached to his BW and loved all their starkly different personalities. BW was just so much FUN to watch. I go back so many times to rewatch the fun Battle Club arcs and I definitely think the rivals made the series so entertaining. I wish they had explored the connoisseur thing more and wish that Cilan had gotten way more episodes than he did. I wish his rivalry with Burgundy had been explored more as well, and honestly I think they could've done without the Decolore Islands arc. I really wish they had just stayed in Unova and had characters like Georgia and Burgundy return at least one final time since they weren't present for the Unova League. I could say a lot more of course but again don't wanna make this a novel so moving on...~

XY: XY is unfortunately the series I've seen the least of and it's known to be well...not one of my favorites lol. I have a lot of issues with the way Ash is portrayed which is why it's taken me so long to watch it. I have, ironically, seen all of XYZ though, and think the Team Flare arc is the absolute greatest villain arc in the entire series. But I'm still working through all the previous stuff! I was in college when XY aired, so I had unfortunately missed a lot of parts due to being so busy, but it also has its own layer of nostalgia for me, mainly because it was between BW-XY when I first came into the Pokeani fandom on Tumblr and was introduced to a variety of incredible friends, many of which I've now met in person and am still close with to this day. One day I hope to sit down and just power through all of it, because despite some of the issues I have, I know that it has so many good moments and is absolutely gorgeously animated. Also Sawyer is best boy he's my fave and his battle with Ash was one of the best things I've ever seen (my 3rd favorite battle ever).

Sun and Moon: Sun and Moon is simultaneously hilarious and depressing as hell, and I absolutely love it. I don't know if I can say too much because it's been a VERY long time since I've watched SM. It was the first series I watched consistently as it was airing but I also had a lot of stuff going on IRL so by the end I had dropped off just a little bit against my own will. Nonetheless I love so many things about it, between the humor, Ash's found family in Kukui/Burnet, Ash's team, the TRio's team and being so entertaining in this series, Team Skull/Guzma (I find Guzma very attractive lol), and of course Ash winning the Alola League which was amazing to experience and be part of that moment! I love the concept of family in this series and it's just so incredibly heartwarming, hilarious, AND heartwrenching all in one. I really need to do a rewatch of it though.

JN: I'm biting my tongue but I really do not like Journeys lol. I don't really wanna talk about it haha it makes me sad that everything I wanted to happen in the future didn't and it was just so poorly written. The only episodes I like honestly are Lillie/Gladion's return and Paul's return.

I KNOW A LOT OF THIS IS KINDA ALL OVER THE PLACE AND DISJOINTED BUT PLEASE ENJOY MY THOUGHTS and feel free to add yours as well!

#SORRY THIS IS SO LONG LOL #pokeani #my jumbled rant on each series

[magicaldogtoto]

I've mostly avoided any discourse surrounding Wonderful Precure, mainly because 1.) I don't want to get sucked into it (there's only so many hours in a day, and I work full time), and 2.) I for the most part genuinely find the show entertaining (as a dog person and fan of older shows like Scooby-Doo, I find Komugi and Iroha's dynamic a lot of fun).

But I knew when I watched Cure Nyammy's debut last weekend that there was going to be some discussion regarding her use of physical attacks on the Garugaru, and how Cure Wonderful and Cure Friendy's response to it essentially condemns the use of violence (in a Precure show, which is a franchise that in previous installments has relied heavily on action scenes).

Look, I'm not going to lie: I like action scenes in shows I watch, magical girl or otherwise. They can be very cathartic when done right, and shows like Precure, Super Sentai, Kamen Rider, and Ultraman tend to do them very right. Even as Wonderful Precure is airing, I'm also watching the original Futari Wa Precure and getting a kick out of it. (I also like lore and worldbuilding more, but that's for another time.) I found people reacting negatively to this part of WanPre's recent episode interesting, not only in the context of a magical girl show, but in the context of superhero fiction in general (which the warrior type of magical girl is a part of).

Twitter user @/MagicalGirlOTD made a small thread relating to this that got me thinking about the use of fighting as a solution to problems in works of fiction. Particularly, they commented that many magical girl shows that feature fighting run the risk of feeling the same all the time. Adding to this, they commented "This is the end result of the genre heavily favoring 'we can fight but we also need peace!' for the last 30 years."

It made me think of an old blog post by American comics writer J.M. DeMatteis (whose work I have complicated feelings about, though I admire his idealism and enthusiasm for his craft). In his 2018 blog post "Slugging It Out," DeMatteis spoke on the then-recent premiere of the CW's Black Lightning, and how (though he found it to be to a good start and was looking forward to how the plot panned out) it seemed to highlight what he called "the massive crack in the foundation of the entire superhero genre." As DeMatteis goes on to explain: 

"No matter how much these characters talk about high ideals, non-violence or the power of love, in the end it often comes down to two people in costumes dropping buildings on each other’s heads.  (And the more street level, the more realistic, your story is, the more difficult those scenes become:  A space battle against aliens plays out very differently than, say, Batman beating the hell out of a common criminal*.)"

People like to talk about magical girls and how idealistic they are in areas like love and friendship; there's nothing wrong with that. In fact it's one of the things I admire about the genre. But one can just as easily see the same people also talk about how much ass their favorite magical girl can kick. (In fact, there are more than a few characters I'm introduced to through people just saying "So-And-So can kick [Insert other character/magical girl from another show they find overrated]'s ass easily!")

I don't think there's a clean-cut solution to this--it's just human nature, in the end. DeMatteis himself has spoken about how he's often tried to address this problem in superhero stories, only to be rebuffed by editors because doing so would call into question the very nature of superhero fiction. He's still happily writing for Marvel and DC, though, so he doesn't seem too bothered by it (but personally I do like his non-superhero work, since he doesn't have to worry about those limitations).

I'm not a pacifist, by any means. I think there is a time for fighting. And I like reading and watching stories that feature cool battles in addition to cool characters and fun adventures. But there's always a small part of me that does think about these kinds of things. Maybe I'll always be thinking about it, until the end of my life.

There's already a lot of magical girl stories where the girls end up fighting monsters and bad guys. There's also a lot of shows where the magical girl doesn't really fight (I personally like Princess Tutu and the way Tutu goes through her conflicts). Maybe this concept of not wanting to harm the monsters is something one doesn't really expect in Precure. But I don't know, I don't think it's really bad to show children they have a non-violent option now and then. Just my two cents.

(*Yes I'm aware that what Batman does is the subject of its own discourse; I'm just quoting the guy. And he's written for Batman, to boot.)

#wonderful precure #wanpre #precure #iroha inukai #cure friendy #komugi inukai #cure wonderful #cure nyammy #mayu neko #mayu nekoyashiki #satoru toyama #magical girls #magical girl #jm dematteis #my posts #text

[kanasmusings]

[Translations] TsukiPro AGF 2021 - ZANSHIN Worldview

☆ 2021 TsukiPro Joint Air Stage - ZANSHIN - World ☆

A world not seen, a world unknown.

With the development of science and technology, humanity has been able to venture into new areas of research.

They have developed technology advanced enough to visualize what was usually invisible to the naked eye.

Something that was unseen… In other words, the mind.

# Zanshin

More lore under the cut, enjoy~!

A world not seen, a world unknown.

With the development of science and technology, humanity has been able to venture into new areas.

They have developed technology advanced enough to visualize what was usually invisible to the naked eye.

Something that was unseen… In other words, the mind.

Everyone is in possession of a heart, but it is only oneself who is capable of full control over it. It is a part of us that is the most difficult to understand, yet one that keeps us drawn and interested in others.

Joy, anger, sorrow, fun, love, suspicion, surprise, expectation, fear, misery Every single emotion can be a cause for action.

Visualizing these very emotions will enable mutual understanding, cause less conflict, give more love, and even make one overcome all kinds of fear. All of these are people’s ideals and hopes, ambitions and desires.

Though there was a lot of controversy, many scholars from all over the world gathered together to develop technology that would enable us to “see into the heart.”

Soon enough, it came into completion.

A system that enables us to visualize what is on one’s mind. Mind Embodiment System: MES

*******

At the time of its release, many protested about MES’s goals. They criticized and ridiculed MES, calling it “a forbidden sword that seeks to slash through what should remain hidden.”

However, the benefits of using MES were far greater than what was imagined, and soon enough, it widely became a part of life’s foundations.

Pursuit of achieving comfort, development of psychiatry.  Others use it to enhance entertainment, art, academia, and of course, military prowess.

Somewhere along the way, people began to take this new gift for granted… It was as if reading the mind had become natural.

Not once did they expect their own hearts to bare their fangs at them.

*******

All of the tragedy began with a certain country’s military research.  They believed that MES could be developed further to embody the mind.

If they could be materialized rather than just visualized, then it would be possible to influence it directly. It would be possible to guide, correct, and depending on the purpose, even destroy them.

Research was conducted in secret, and the military continued to develop a next generation weapon capable of subjugating or neutralizing a certain target.

This fearsome research, aptly named Neo-MES, was not made public until roughly 10 years since it began. 

The country that developed the Neo-MES was virtually destroyed after their own research went on a monstrous rampage.

A monster born from a person’s heart and mind… They called him [Regret].

☆ ZANSHIN - World 2 ☆

A monster born from a person’s heart and mind… They called him [Regret].

It was named after the “regrets” and “reluctance” born from people’s hearts. It attacks anyone as it pleases.

The world needed to be reclaimed.

So, there is only one thing to do.

---- Kill.

# Zanshin

A monster born from a person’s heart and mind… They called him [Regret]. It was named after the “regrets” and “reluctance” born from people’s hearts. It attacks anyone as it pleases.

Some tear people to pieces. As if to let its “hatred” out. Some swallow people whole.  As if it yearns for someone to help ease its “loneliness”. Some manipulate and control people. As if it was a tyrant out to satisfy his “pride”.

Form, shape, and power. It takes not one form, but the form of many. Yes, just as much emotion as humans can harbor.

Only one thing is for certain. It yearns for people. Those who are attacked by Regret are either killed or transformed into one.

A rational attack on a manifestation of their own mind was practically useless. They slowly lost hope.

Heavy artillery, bombs, bioweapons, neurotoxins, missiles, and even nuclear weapons couldn’t hurt Regret. All it did was bring disaster to the world they lived in.

Even if Regret was taken down, given enough time, it will be revived.

Regret soon began to take over the world. This monster that was unleashed slowly devoured everything… It cared not for its own country nor for the lands surrounding it.

*******

Five years have passed since Regret came into being. Nearly half of the world was under his control. 

Most of the people had given up on Mother Earth and started fleeing to the colonies floating in the sky.

… Will Regret soon conquer everything?

A ray of sunshine appears in a world once thought to be over. A remote nation managed to develop a weapon with special modifications that proved effective against Regret. 

It was technology made possible from the remnants of the military research that gave birth to the monster.  A kind of technology that allows the heart to be forged into steel.

A weapon of metal forged with traditional techniques.  Thus, they have created a weapon capable of challenging Regret in one final battle.

A weapon that uses its owner’s heart and mind as a blade…

The Katana came into being.

The world needed to be reclaimed.

So, there is only one thing to do.

---- Kill.

☆ ZANSHIN World - Additional Info ☆

SHIKI: Fly away!

SHU: To our youth!

TSUBASA: No, the hashtag is #calamari.

SHIKI: Anyway… (?) We’ve posted about Zanshin’s world, but let me summarize it for those who are busy.

1.) A parallel world in the not so distant future. 2.) Military use of a mind embodiment system and its imminent rampage. 3.) A monster that embodies the heart! It eats away at the world, so we kill it!

That is all.

# Zanshin

-->

SHU: The pamphlet will contain more of the technical terms and details. If you are like me who enjoys imagining and making theories after reading, then please check it out. (smiles)

SHIKI: For our comrades who do not want to read, then I still recommend getting it just for the cool illustrations and whatnot.

TSUBASA: Wow, that’s a little extreme.

# Zanshin

-->

SHIKI: The pamphlet’s back cover looks kinda like this.

TSUBASA: How wonderful!

SHU: That was the reaction you were hoping to see, isn’t it? Well, it is a world made up of black and white. 

SHIKI: Regret is like a white albino that can take on any form it wishes. Mind and heart affect each other, so in a sense, it is like black and white going against each other… More or less…

TSUBASA: Sounds interesting!

# Zanshin

-->

SHIKI: Look forward to the merch, too.

SHU: They will be available in the venue and for online orders. More details will be announced at a later time!

TSUBASA: We always enjoy making the booths, and I promise this year has a lot of cool ones! If you go to the event, please check our booths~! Zanshin! We’re looking forward to seeing you there!

#tsukipro #TsukiPro AGF 2021 #Zanshin #solids #quell #takamura shiki #okui tsubasa #izumi shu #tweet translations #my translations #tsukipro translations #oh my god this world...! #it sounds so heavy and so dark...! #i can't even begin to imagine what it will bring to SQS7...! #Like who is going to D-word???? #how are Shiki and Shu going to handle this whole thing?? #will vazzsta tsukista and ivesta get their own zanshin plays too??? #aAHHH #AGF season is always not good for the heart...!

[jay-the-angst-king]

Hero Info Pages Part 2

Something I’ve always found interesting are the hero info pages for Overwatch characters. There’s a lot of details in these clips that either set up a trend that follows the hero’s character, a trend about the overarching struggles in Overwatch, or seemingly have no foundation in the lore but most certainly can be entertaining to think about how it could fit in the lore. 

Part 1 can be found here.

Soldier is very straight forward, and we can see that in his Ultimate.

Tac Visor shows Soldier attacking Reaper first, then Widowmaker, then Hanzo. What I take from this is that Soldier prioritizes Talon above other criminals, and prioritizes Reaper above other members of Talon. I actually really like the composition of Reaper in front, Widow just outside of the circle, and Hanzo way off to the side, because this composition is half of why the clip is important.

For both the primary fire and the Helix Rockets, Reaper is the target. Soldier’s entire story and motivation is hunting Reaper down.

The clip for Soldier’s Biotic Field also confirms that he still has a sense of helping others and allies as he heals Tracer, Winston, and McCree. The location for all the clips is Dorado, which refers back to his cinematic, Hero, where he helped the little girl. Both of these things reinforces that Soldier is still a hero at heart even if he’s a “man on a mission” and that mission is Reyes.

Mercy’s hero info page is incomplete. That’s something to note. The clips are old clips and don’t change with updates to the game. Some abilities are not visually shown how they work. You just get a description and that’s it. For Mercy, there are no clips for her Ultimate Valkyrie, or her Resurrect ability.

With that in mind, there are still clips for her staff, blaster, and Guardian Angel which showcase other heroes.

Mercy uses Guardian Angel to fly up to Tracer, and she heals Tracer with her Caduceus Staff. When she uses left click, Tracer is attacking Reinhardt.

Now, I don’t particularly think that Angela has anything against Rein. I think this can be explained away as training or testing out new equipment because they are on Gibraltar.

However, I think that showing Roadhog rather than Reinhardt would have fit better for these clips considering that Mercy uses her Caduceus Blaster to shoot down Junkrat, a criminal.

Echo is the newest character in the game, and her hero info shows some interesting things.

Firstly, her Tri-Shot primary fire shows her attacking Tracer and Reaper. I can’t explain this as training since it’s in the same clip. Echo is not training with Reaper anytime soon.

So why is Echo attacking Tracer in this clip? Maybe it’s to show that Echo can lean one way or another depending on how she grows as a character. She is a constantly learning AI program. It can also be yet another metaphor for AI programs going rogue. Mina Liao, the scientist who made Echo, infused some of herself into Echo’s creation. Dr. Liao was also the one who created the omnics in the first place, and the omnics had gone rogue after years of mistreatment which started the Omnic Crisis.

Echo attacking both Tracer and Reaper could hint at more omnic uprising, or just another memory of the first Omnic Crisis and subsequent Omnic Uprising as seen in King’s Row.

Her Ultimate Duplicate is fascinating. From left to right, Echo is against Sigma, Doomfist, Tracer, Moira, and Roadhog.

Echo Duplicates Tracer, then shoots Roadhog for ult charge, and sticks Tracer to kill the other four. I’m not about to say that Echo dislikes Tracer. That’s just not what’s up here. Tracer is being used here because the community is very comfortable with Tracer, and Echo was new. They wanted to display this ult with someone they knew the community would understand.

That being said… What could this mean?

I think that we could read this clip as Echo accidentally killing or hurting a teammate. That would be awful and sad, but better than the second idea that Echo would sacrifice a teammate just to catch the criminals.

Her Sticky Bombs kill Sombra and Hanzo, and her Focusing Beam finishes Roadhog. This all takes place on Gibraltar, which I think helps accentuate that she’s new and learning. Route 66, where we first met her in the Reunion Cinematic, would have been a nice map to showcase her abilities, too, but they choose Gibraltar, probably to reinforce the fact that she is apart of the new Overwatch team thanks to the Recall.

Hey, Tracer, why are you shooting Zenyatta?

There’s two reasons I can place for Zenyatta being Tracer’s opponent when showcasing Tracer’s abilities. The first is the overarching theme of omnics versus humans, and that theme really permeates when shown repeatedly on King’s Row where we know Mondatta was assassinated and an Omnic Uprising occurred.

Her Ultimate only calls back to the Mondatta assassination as Tracer attaches a Pulse Bomb to Zenyatta, and it kills Widowmaker and Hanzo as well.

Widowmaker and Hanzo, you say? Widowmaker, the one who killed Mondatta, and Hanzo, another known sniper and assassin?

It seems to me that these clips are not meant to show Tracer’s allegiances, but more to continue the themes we see throughout Overwatch. These clips only hammer home the stories we already knew. A sniper killed Mondatta, a prominent speaker and activist, and King’s Row is home to omnic and human tensions.

Lucio has a whole info page about helping Overwatch, who will become his new friends. To start, Lucio uses Sound Barrier to gives shields to Tracer and Soldier.

There’s not much to say about that on its own, so let’s continue on.

Lucio uses both Crossfade and Amp It Up to heal and speed up Tracer, but he uses his Sonic Amplifier and Soundwave against Winston.

I think this is Lucio showing the Overwatch team his gear and how he can be helpful on missions with them. That would explain the full Overwatch hero cast in his clips. Lucio himself is a hero of his hometown, and we know with the upcoming Overwatch 2 that Lucio and the recalled team are buddies and working together. It makes sense that Lucio would take some time to show his new friends how his gear works.

Reinhardt is, thankfully, relatively quick to talk about.

His primary target in his clips? It’s Hanzo. Hanzo is a mercenary, an assassin, a criminal, but he’s not apart of Talon. The reason I say this is because Reinhardt is specifically attacking a criminal with no interest in Talon because Reinhardt was still working after leaving Overwatch. His work switched from fighting rogue AI and Talon to fighting regular criminals like Hanzo.

That’s doesn’t mean that he’s not going to attack Talon.

Reinhardt uses his Earth Shatter to stun Reaper, Hanzo, and Widowmaker, so he obviously will still attack Talon even if he’s no longer an Overwatch member.

Hardest thing to explain in these clips is the setting of King’s Row. Really, I think the only reason Reinhardt wasn’t placed on, say, Eichenwalde, was because Eichenwalde came out after the game’s release. So there just wasn’t a better map for Reinhardt at the time. Still, King’s Row isn’t a bad place considering that there was an omnic uprising there and Reinhardt was one of the heroes who went on that mission.

Ana... I love you, Ana, but what’s happening here? Ana’s clips are buck wild. I don’t know where to begin. I’ll add a Read More, since this is so long already.

I guess we start with Biotic Rifle. Firstly, she heals Reinhardt, and then she kills Soldier. When zoomed in, she heals Tracer, and only shoots Pharah twice, not enough to kill.

What a lot to unpack.

I think this shows that she’s good friends with Reinhardt, just as they have been for years. She is the only one of Reinhardt’s friends to apologize to him about faking her death after all. Attacking Soldier and killing him could be a sign that Ana and Soldier, though friends, do not share the same thoughts about something. My guess is that Ana thinks Soldier’s mission is too much for him, that she thinks he needs to stop before he gets himself killed. That does align with more recent releases where Ana is helping him but also checking him when Solder pushes too hard. Healing Tracer seems obvious since Ana is still a healer and Tracer is a well respected hero, but attacking Pharah is interesting. I think Ana attacking her daughter is actually a figurative way of saying that the two don’t get along. Ana doesn’t kill Pharah, just injures her, and I think this is there to show their strained relationship even though Ana still cherishes her daughter.

Much of everything after this is speculation. Like I said, Ana’s clips are wild.

Ana sleeps Zarya. Perhaps this is to show that Ana, an old soldier, is tired herself. I think targeting a younger soldier like Zarya implies that Ana thinks the fighting and wars are exhausting. Maybe this is Ana not so subtly telling the younger soldier that they need to take care of themselves, too, much like she gets on Soldier about him talking care of himself.

The Biotic Grenade is wild. She smashes the grenade at Lucio, Winston, and Roadhog to show the healing properties, but then uses it offensively against D.Va to show that Mercy can’t heal the mech. This entire clip has thrown me for a loop. I can’t particularly explain it.

Perhaps she heals Roadhog because Roadie was once a soldier in ALF, and she can not blame him or others like him who attacked omnics to defend themselves back in the day. Perhaps they might have met back then, which I think would have been interesting to explore. But then why hinder D.Va’s healing? Maybe she thinks D.Va, a 19 year old, shouldn’t be fighting on the front lines. Ana views her as a child, just like Soldier and Reaper do, and thinks that Hana shouldn’t have to fight wars for adults.

I think Mercy being the one healing D.Va is a reference to Mercy disliking how Ana uses Mercy’s research in a weapon like the Biotic Rifle. This puts them at odds with one another. On the other side, Lucio is likely there to show the amplified healing from the grenade, but maybe this also shows that Ana respects Lucio as a hero. Finally, Winston was an old friend.

Lastly, her Ultimate, Nano Boost. She Boosts Reinhardt, and Reinhardt kills McCree, Zenyatta, Tracer, and Soldier.

Ana deserves her own post at this point. Why are they attacking these four people? Ana just healed Tracer with her rifle not too long ago.  For this bizarre clip, I have no reasoning, so lets see what this COULD mean.

I could explain this as Overwatch tearing itself apart. In this case, four of the five people in this fight are Overwatch members, and that only leaves Zenyatta. Maybe killing Zenyatta here is the representation of harmony and diplomacy being broken.

Perhaps this is more about Ana and Rein than it is about the opponents. Maybe Ana’s faked death made Rein incredibly upset. Maybe this clip represents Rein never letting it go. Maybe Rein, for a while, blamed Overwatch (represented by Soldier and Tracer) and Blackwatch (represented by McCree) for her death. Again, Zen’s death would represent a lack of harmony.

Overall, these are my thoughts on this set of characters. There are still over half of the cast left, and I think the remaining Talon members are next.

#Soldier 76 #jack morrison #angela ziegler #echo overwatch #lucio correia dos santos #reinhardt wilhelm #ana amari #Overwatch #overwatch meta #meta analysis

[thegrapeandthefig]

The Werewolves of Arcadia

This is my contribution to @adri-le-chat 's Halloween "Haunting Pagan Lore" event. As you can see from the title, I've chosen a classic of horror and folklore tales for which many have forgotten the ancient origins. This will be long, so let's get into it.

The myth of King Lycaon While the earliest known example of man-to-wolf shifting dates back to the Epic of Gilgamesh (c. 2100 BC), the Greek case is considered the second oldest, and the one scholars consider as the root of werewolf belief in Europe, as the myth got carried over to the Romans. However, one should note that lycanthropy and human-to-animal transformation beliefs also arose independently in other cultures around the world.

In Greece, the first werewolf is King Lycaon of Arcadia. The story is said to go this way, though with several variants: King Lycaon ruled over the region of Arcadia, Pan's homeland. A wild, lush and mountainous region of Greece. Lycaon had several children, mainly Kallisto, Keteus and Nyktimos. After seducing Kallisto, Zeus is invited to a feast by Lycaon. The issue is, Lycaon serves him human flesh:

"After Zeus had seduced Kallisto, Lykaon, pretending not to know of the matter, entertained Zeus, as Hesiod says, and set before him on the table the babe which he had cut up.”

- Hesiod, Astronomica Fragment 3 (from Comm. Supplem. on Aratus)

"Two lesser known Athenian playwrights, Xenokles the Elder and Astydamas the Younger, produced plays entitled Lykaon. Presumably these told the story of the sacrifice of the child."

- Xenocles the Elder & Astydamas the Younger, Lycaon (lost plays) (c. 5th to 4th BC.)

The general idea is that Zeus is deeply offended by the act and turns King Lycaon into a wolf. However, there are many versions to the myth. Pausanias, in the 2nd century AD, explains it this way:

" Lykaon brought a human baby to the altar of Zeus Lykaios, and sacrificed it, pouring out its blood upon the altar, and according to the legend immediately after the sacrifice he was changed from a man to a wolf (lykos) . . . All through the ages, many events that have occurred in the past, and even some that occur to-day, have been generally discredited because of the lies built up on a foundation of fact. It is said, for instance, that ever since the time of Lykaon a man has changed into a wolf at the sacrifice to Zeus Lykaios, but that the change is not for life; if, when he is a wolf, he abstains from human flesh, after nine years he becomes a man again, but if he tastes human flesh he remains a beast for ever."

- Pausanias, Description of Greece 8. 2. 1 - 6

Ovid, when rewritting the myth in the 1st century AD, decided to turn the narrative to Lycaon doubting the divinity of Zeus when the god visited Arcadia. In order to test Zeus’s divinity, Lycaon attempts to feed him cooked human flesh and have him assassinated in the night. When Zeus realizes what Lycaon is doing, Lycaon tries to flee in fear. But as he runs into the fields of Arcadia, Lycaon is transformed into a wolf.

The cult of Zeus Lykaios

The transformation of King Lycaon is a punishment for human sacrifice and cannibalism, sometimes permanent or, as we saw above, for a certain amount of time under the condition of not eating human flesh.

The myth is said to have inspired the cult of Zeus Lykaios in Arcadia (or perhaps the opposite), for which, human sacrifices have been rumored to occur. The sanctuary of Zeus Lykaios was on one of the three crests of Mt. Lykaion, where the festival of the Lykaia was celebrated approximately once every four years. We owe the earliest reference to human sacrifices on this mountain to Plato:

"What then is the beginning of the transformation from protector to tyrant? Is it not clearly when the protector begins to do the same as the man in the story which is told concerning the sanctuary of Zeus Lykaios in Arcadia?’ ‘What story?’ he said. ‘How the man who has tasted of the piece of human entrails—one of these having been cut up along with the entrails of the other victims—it is necessary for this man to be turned into a wolf. Or haven’t you heard the story?’ ‘I have." -Plato, Republic 8, 565D–E

Pausanias, who visited the location in the 2nd century AD, also mentions the story:

“For they say that after Lycaon someone would always be turned from a man into a wolf at the sacrifice of Zeus Lykaios, but that he would not become a wolf for all his life. Rather, if while he was a wolf he refrained from human flesh, they say that afterwards in the tenth year he turned back from a wolf into a man. But if he had tasted human flesh he remained a beast forever.” 

-Pausanias, Description of Greece, 8.2.6

Later, he goes on to mention the sacrifices are still performed on the moutain, subtly implying that he thinks those are human sacrifices:

"they sacrifice in secret; I did not wish to inquire further into the details of the sacrifice: let it be as it has been from the beginning”

-Pausanias, Description of Greece, 8.38.7

Both Plato and Pausanias are skeptics on the existence of the transformation from man to wolf. Pausanias, especially, makes it very clear when giving account of the story of Damarchus:

"But concerning the boxer named Damarchus, who was by birth an Arcadian of Parrhasia, except for his victory at Olympia I do not believe the other things said by pretentious men, namely that he was changed from a man to a wolf at the sacrifice of Zeus Lykaios and that ten years later he again became a man. Nor did it seem to me that this was said about him by the Arcadians, for in this case it would also be said in the inscription at Olympia, which runs as follows: Damarchus son of Dinyttas set up this statue, a Parrhasian by birth from Arcadia.”

-Pausanias, Description of Greece, 6.8.2

Archeaological search has not confirmed human sacrifices to be taking place, despite the legends. The numerous bones found were mostly ones from small animals, with the occasional bigger cattle or pig. Thus there are strong doubts on the reality of infant sacrifices. If they did exist, the absence of remains would indicate either that the victims were so young their remains didn't survive time, or that the remains were removed for a separate burial. 

Other instances of werewolf tales

It is very clear now that the region of Arcadia is linked for the Ancients to the trope of man to wolf transformation, and probably taking root in both tale and cult. However, this while this is the most documented story, there are other mentions of wolf-shifting in ancient literature. 

Herodotus, for instance, tells us this when describing the Neuri: 

"It may be that these people are wizards; for the Scythians, and the Greeks settled in Scythia, say that once a year every one of the Neuri becomes a wolf for a few days and changes back again to his former shape. Those who tell this tale do not convince me; but they tell it nonetheless, and swear to its truth." - Herodotus, Histories, IV.105

Much later, in the late first century AD, Petronius includes a werewolf story in his Satyricon, which goes as follows: 

"I seized my opportunity, and persuaded a guest in our house to come with me as far as the fifth milestone. He was a soldier, and as brave as Hell. So we trotted off about cockcrow; the moon shone like high noon. We got among the tombstones: my man went aside to look at the epitaphs, I sat down with my heart full of song and began to count the graves. Then when I looked round at my friend, he stripped himself and put all his clothes by the roadside. My heart was in my mouth, but I stood like a dead man. He made a ring of water round his clothes and suddenly turned into a wolf. Please do not think I am joking; I would not lie about this for any fortune in the world. But as I was saying, after he had turned into a wolf, he began to howl, and ran off into the woods. At first I hardly knew where I was, then I went up to take his clothes; but they had all turned into stone. No one could be nearer dead with terror than I was. But I drew my sword and went slaying shadows all the way till I came to my love's house. I went in like a corpse, and nearly gave up the ghost, the sweat ran down my legs, my eyes were dull, I could hardly be revived. My dear Melissa was surprised at my being out so late, and said, 'If you had come earlier you might at least have helped us; a wolf got into the house and worried all our sheep, and let their blood like a butcher. But he did not make fools of us, even though he got off; for our slave made a hole in his neck with a spear.' When I heard this, I could not keep my eyes shut any longer, but at break of day I rushed back to my master Gaius's house like a defrauded publican, and when I came to the place where the clothes were turned into stone, I found nothing but a pool of blood. But when I reached home, my soldier was lying in bed like an ox, with a doctor looking after his neck. I realized that he was a werewolf, and I never could sit down to a meal with him afterwards, not if you had killed me first. Other people may think what they like about this; but may all your guardian angels [genius] punish me if I am lying.”

-Petronius, Satyricon, 62 (tr. Michael Heseltine)

Final words

Despite being present in literature, there seems to be a common disbelief amongst the Ancients when it comes to the veracity of werewolves, but it is also possible that the explicit disbelief shown by the authors cited there is meant to differiate them with the popular folk beliefs of their time. With this, I wish you all a Spooky Halloween. 

#hauntingpaganlore #halloween special #werewolves #ancient history #ancient greece

[thewatchau]

Cordoire Castle: Home of King Sean of Duilintinn

Most of the lore in the upcoming series will be edited compilations of dozens of posts from the last two years. While there are some minor new details sprinkled throughout, I’ve attempted to post significant new information in a “Watch AU Fun Fact” post so you don’t have to read all of these HUGE posts to find them.

Other Posts in this Series:

Major Cities of Duilintinn: Aghaboy • Mulladún • Monacoil • Fionport • Noefrach • Cordoire • Cordoire Castle 

In this Post:

Summary

History

Layout, including sections on the central keep, inner gate, outer wall, lower bailey, and outer yard. 

Trivia

Additional Art

Summary

Cordoire Castle (sometimes referred to as King Sean’s Castle) is a large complex located on the southern edge of the city of Cordoire, Duilintinn’s capital. It is both the home and seat of King Sean McLoughlin, the current leader of Duilintinn. 

History

Most scholars believe that the hill where the castle now sits was artificially constructed during the Feadhainn Era, most likely while building a fortress in the style of a Motte and Bailey castle. However, the hill is the only remaining evidence of previous development prior to Waldren’s construction of Cordoire. 

During the Feadhainn Era, the Mondaidh Plains were much more forested, with its residents building their homes from the readily available lumber. Most of these structures would have rotted away long ago, or else lay buried deep beneath Cordoire’s heavy stone foundations, hence why no other evidence has been found. A shell keep was then built atop of the hill, likely a prototype structure built prior to Feadhainn’s golden age and the construction of cities such as Mulladún and Monacoil. 

Records show that when the Waldren Trade Enterprise began occupying the Feadhainn Valley, the foundations of the Feadhainn Era shell keep still remained on the large hill where Cordoire now sits. Thanks to its strategic position at the top of the Beinnfaire Ridge, Waldren decided to construct a large fortress in this area, which would function as the launching point for all operations further west into the valley. 

When rebuilding the shell keep, Waldren used the existing foundations to preserve resources and save time. As a result, much of the keep’s shape still resembles classic Feadhainn architecture, although the materials and design sensibilities come from Waldren’s architectural style. From there, the keep was expanded into a full castle with a fully populated bailey and its own outer walls. 

From here, the history of Cordoire castle is identical to that of the city it overlooks. Several powerful groups fought over the power vacuum in the city until the future King Sean besieged the city and forced them out. Once Duilintinn was founded, Cordoire was named the kingdom’s capital and Cordoire Castle became both the home and seat of power for the new king, which it has remained to this day. 

Layout

Centered around the shell keep perched atop the artificially constructed hill on the southern edge of Cordoire, the castle’s rich history is visible in its Feadhainn and Occupation Era architectural sensibilities.  It consists of several sections: a Central Keep, an Inner Gate, a walled bailey, and an extensive yard used for both entertainment and defensive purposes. 

Central Keep:

The central keep of King Sean’s Castle was built on the foundations of an ancient Feadhainn Shell Keep, which in turn was probably built on the site of an old Motte and Bailey castle. 

For context, a Motte and Bailey Castle consists of a fence-encircled keep built on a large, artificially constructed hill (the Motte) and a lower courtyard (the Bailey). These keeps were usually made from wood, which decomposes quickly, leaving only the hill behind as evidence of its location. A Shell Keep is an evolution of the Motte and Bailey model, featuring a circular stone structure on a hill instead of a wooden, fenced building. The term “shell” comes from the lack of a roof over the structure. Rather, the keep would be arranged like a donut, with buildings located along the inner edge of the stone “shell” and an open-air courtyard in the center. 

Feadhainn architecture loves the concept of shell keeps, with cities such as Mulladún and Monacoil demonstrating how much they expanded upon the circular motif with feats of architecture so advanced, they may as well not be called shell keeps anymore. By contrast, the central keep of King Sean’s castle is a relatively simple and straightforward example of a shell keep, likely built prior to Feadhainn’s Golden Age. 

The buildings located within the central keep of King Sean’s castle are two stories high, built from both wood and stone with flat roofs that allow for a balcony-esque view over the top of the shell wall. 

The first floor of these buildings would be used for important political matters, with arguably the most important room being the throne room. From here,  King Sean holds court and gives daily proclamations if he decides to do so indoors. This would be where the paintings that were destroyed hung, before their destruction in late September 1614 (Ref: 1 2). During these indoor proclamations, important members of King Sean's court would have the privilege of observing the proceedings from within the throne room. People outside the government who are lucky enough to get a front-row seat for the proclamation stand in the inner courtyard, while the remaining crowd overflow will gather outside the keep, in the castle bailey. However, such indoor proclamations are rare. When he can, King Sean prefers to climb the stairs to the top of the keep and give his speech from the parapets, where everyone in both the inner and outer courtyard would be able to see him. 

The second floor of King Sean’s castle is reserved for the King and his household. No one is allowed in this part of the castle without the express permission of the king and is heavily protected with both magical and mundane defenses. In all of Duilintinn, this part of the castle is  one of the few places that The Watch has never had access too. If any of the Missing Lords were located in Cordoire, this is certainly where they’d be hidden. 

Inner Gate (and other defenses):

When facing the keep from within the bailey, an inner gate can be seen to its left. The gate is flanked by two asymmetrical towers; one larger that is part of the outer wall, and one smaller that juts into the bailey itself.  

At the base of the motte where the central keep stands is an additional wall and a small moat. The wall stands around fifteen feet high and wraps around the entire motte, including the half that protrudes beyond the castle’s outer walls. Similarly, the moat circles the entire motte, ducking under the outer walls of the castle through sturdy grates. Unlike the moat around the city proper, the castle moat is small enough to be filled by simply pumping water into and out of the trench using the city’s waterworks, making it more akin to a small river than a true stationary moat. As a result, the moat around the central keep of the castle is far more efficient and functional than its larger counterpart. Taken together, both the walls and moat around the motte ensure that the inner gate is the only way to enter the central keep.

Once one passes through the inner gate, visitors must pass through a stone complex with a large square tower looming overhead. This barracks houses the guards who protect the castle and would respond to any attempts to breach the motte or inner gate. Beyond this complex is a walled path that leads over the moat’s bridge and up several flights of stairs up the hill and to the central keep. 

Outer Wall:

The wall surrounds the entire castle, with the central keep at one corner, effectively cutting the motte in half. Only half of the wall surrounding the motte is located inside the bailey itself, with the rest jutting out beyond the larger walled area. 

In addition to the guard tower within the inner gate, eight large circular towers are spread at intervals along the wall surrounding the bailey. One of these towers is incorporated in the Inner Gate, while another is directly adjacent to the central keep. The gate into this walled area is also flanked by two smaller towers. Totalled together, this means the castle has a total of 12 towers: eight large circular towers, three smaller towers, and one large square tower. 

Like the central keep, significant magical and mundane defenses line the outer walls. Heavy wards and enchantments nullify almost every sort of magic that might allow someone to enter the castle unnoticed or cause harm to its occupants, although doing so without interfering with the magic used within the castle itself is an inexact science at best. Guards and Watchers patrol the outer wall, armed with every defensive tool at their disposal. 

Lower Bailey:

The lower bailey is the area within the outer wall that extends north from the base of the motte. This area makes up the majority of the castle complex and consists of a large courtyard and several buildings in the Occupation Era architectural style. 

The courtyard is a large semicircle pointed in the direction of the center keep. Covering nearly nine thousand square feet, this is where the large crowds gather for the king’s public proclamations. 

The buildings in this area fulfill most of the functions expected of a more modern castle that wouldn’t fit in the central keep. For example, one such building is a large great hall, used for events such as feasts and dances. Other buildings include guest and staff housing, stables, kitchens, and other such facilities. Some gardens and green spaces can also be found between these structures. 

There are several occasions in which the general public can enter the lower bailey of the castle. For example, people can view public proclamations from the courtyard on a first-come, first-serve basis. Additionally, the bailey is often opened for holiday celebrations, with festivities in both the courtyard and some of the other buildings. However, the doors aren’t simply open for anyone to wander in or out; all visitors to the bailey are checked in and out by guards at the gate and a strict capacity limit is usually observed. This somewhat mitigates the massive security risk these events bring to the castle; if an agent of The Enemy were to enter with the crowds, at least they’d be unable to do so anonymously, and guards would know if someone had never left after the celebrations were concluded. 

Outer Yard

Between the outer wall of Cordoire Castle and the walls of the city itself is a large, green space. 

Close to the castle itself, this space is very similar to the grounds of most castles, with gardens, groves, and various buildings for both recreational and upkeep purposes. This area spreads out approximately a quarter mile out from the castle itself.  

Beyond this area, the yard is mostly empty space with absolutely no buildings or dense plantlife. This area primarily serves a defensive purpose; anyone attempting to rush the castle would have to run a significant distance without any hiding spots, in clear sight of the guards on the castle walls. This additional precaution is especially important since Cordoire castle is located on the southern edge of the city, allowing attackers to target it without having to wade through the rest of the city proper. 

While defense is the primary purpose of this area, the space is not put to waste. Several walking and riding paths meander across the flat grasses and streams that fill this area, occasionally passing by fields of low-lying crops (such as root vegetables) that supplement the castle’s food supplies. It’s rather humble in comparison to the castle grounds of other lands, but what it lacks in aesthetics it makes up for in practicality. 

Trivia

Many features and details of Cordoire Castle are inspired by parts of the UK’s Windsor Castle, chosen because of similarities between its Round Tower and Cordoire Castle’s central keep. 

Additional Art

One of the earliest concept sketches of the castle. As you can see, the inner gate and courtyard are both missing. 

A three-dimensional depiction of the map above. Arguably one of the best depictions of the central keep itself, despite the inaccurate scaling and missing features. 

An annotated screenshot taken from Google Maps of Windsor Castle that simulates the scale and layout of Cordoire Castle. This exercise led to the addition of the inner gate. 

The following sketch was heavily based on the a Google Street-View image of the Norman Gate in a rough attempt to visualize what such a gate might look like in Cordoire Castle. 

This is the same to-scale sketch of Cordoire castle used at the top of this post. However, when I originally drew it, I accidentally laid it out as a mirror-image of the real thing. While the image at the top of the post is more accurate to reality, I wanted to include the original here so that you can read the notes along the side. As you can see, this was the point when the keep’s watchtower and the main courtyard were added to the layout. 

Last but not least, this was an attempt to visualize the new layout of the castle in three dimensions. While obviously imperfect in both scaling and detail, this is the only 3D sketch so far that shows the keep’s watchtower and bridge.

#Cordoire #The Lands of The Watch #King Sean McLoughlin #Feadhainn #Waldren #History of Duilintinn #Duilintinn's Culture

[2bstudioblog]

Konami’s wheels are turning... slowly

Lot’s of interesting news heading to our heads this Monday from what I heard from Yong Yea’s video about Konami wanting to outsource their IP’s to 3rd parties.

Obviously, Akira Yamaoka has kinda given away a strong hint that he’s working on a project with Bloober which in this case would be the long awaited SH remake or the direction they had with PT before it got cancelled. Akira Yamaoka also decided that (too late) he wanted to amend the article from his interview and release it later down the line. It’s very unusual that these news happen, but we all know Yamaoka is most famous for his music in Silent Hill.

Which brings me to a funny story about my own involvement of a Silent Hill game. I mentioned this on a podcast that I was part of 2 Konami-owned IP’s that went into another direction and killing off their franchises which have been like dead bodies in a morgue for the last 7 years.

I got the request to write industrial-metal music for a Silent Hill (of course at this time I only knew the IP and their most famous version of the game has been Silent Hill 2.) game. First I was of course very excited to be part of the series, but I jumped to early until I found out it was a Pachinko-machine (A japanese style pinball-game mixed with a touch-screen and a one-armed bandit and a slot-machine in one.), and my heart sank a little. I think I produced 4-5 cues for the machine, but I’m glad that nobody will be able to hear my “mediocre” masterpieces because all you would hear are metal-balls falling into a tray. But the thing about this machine, it had taken cut-scenes from Silent Hill 2, upscaled or even re-mastered/remade the graphics which would have looked great if it was its own game. But it was the same thing they’ve done with all their other IPs when those transfer over to this kind of entertainment. All what was left of it, Jim Sterling turned the game into a Meme and all I can hear is the -”HIT THE LEVER!” and the effects overpowering the music behind it. But I’m glad it didn’t go further then that. Technically here, Silent Hill(s) died with the arrival of the pachinko-slot machine and the series have tried to re-establish itself ever since.

Another game I was a part of was a Castlevania (Dracula in Japan) themed Pachinko-slot machine, with the revolutionary phrase “Erotic Violence” in it’s PR material and video-commercial. I mean, they took the music production part of this machine very seriously because I wasn’t aware of the “EV” part. I just thought it would be a machine praising the history of Castlevania. I was assigned to re-write and re-orchestrate a few songs from Neo-classical Metal music into more Progressive Metal style, and I was super-proud of this one because they had the sheet-music already available for me. All I had to do was re-arrange some parts for a string-quartet (1 cello, 2 violins and 1 viola) and I believe it was engineered and recorded by famed engineer Kenji Nakai who was under and working with famed engineer Mr Bruce Swedien (Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones).

From that moment me and Mr. Nakai stroke a friendship because he has a passion for Progressive Metal and he asked me if I could send more songs his way. From this we both have been incredibly busy on both of our ends, but I hope we can be able to work on something in the future. I have a feeling that might be soon.

So a long story short, Konami spent a lot of money for recording, they approved everything and we were done. But when it turned out to be a pachinko-machine and not a world-wide videogame release, I just had to facepalm myself, asking the question why they keep doing so many poor decisions. Why leaving all those fans out in the cold and really start making Castlevania mean something. This void of “lots of fancy things, but no substance” started right here...

Konami are turning their wheels a little bit too late and too slow until now. After they got rid of Hideo Kojima (Who I believe was thinking of the international-market rather than the domestic one), Konami had only one thing on their minds: Making money quick and domestically. No more wasted time on translations, straight for the gambling crowd. No need to write interesting stories. No need to introduce kids to this adult material. They wanted to earn it back as fast as possible. But we all see their decisions put them on the map as a “black-company”, who mistreat their staff, shaming them out in the office for overstaying their lunch-breaks. Moving staff from one business to another, from a programmer to a Konami-fitness Center-staff, or as a toilet-cleaner at a Konami-owned pachinko-slot gambling hall. The management of the company has been horrendous for the full-time employee. I’m glad I was not part of these later projects and only wrote stuff for them for Pro Evolution Soccer series from 2009-2012. (My work on 2010-2012 was unfortunately un-credited work. :(

Metal Gear Solid V - The Phantom Pain In My Ass

When the playable teaser called Metal Gear Solid - Ground Zeroes, came out on the PS3 and later on the PS4, it was an introduction for the new graphics engine designed by Hideo Kojima’s team, simply called The FOX-Engine. Basically this “game” was more of a demo rather than a full-product. But it looked great and with a fantastic score by Akihiro Honda, Ludvig Forssell and Harry Gregson-Williams, it had everything going for it to become something really awesome. It became a standard approach from Hideo Kojima now to produce “Playable Teasers” to show a great concept while offering a 3-4 hour short campaign, showing off the engine’s graphical capabilities.

Still, the story was under progress and I knew early on that Hideo Kojima really didn’t want to do it after he always felt that Metal Gear Solid 4 was final. But here is the curse of the die-hard fans, and I’m sorry to say it. No matter how many Iron Man movies Marvel crams out, at the 3rd movie, I started to feel “This does not feel like Iron Man anymore”. But that’s what the fans wanted and is a standard in the movie industry. Always produce a trilogy. Indiana Jones has always been the 3 movies from 1981-1989. The 4th one doesn’t really need to be called Indiana Jones at all. It was there I felt, just like with Metal Gear Solid V, they were beating a DEAD RACE HORSE.

I can’t deny the talents on display for Metal Gear Solid - Ground Zeroes. It laid down some really cool foundations for the gameplay, but I still believe the better game-series for stealth was beaten by the likes of Splinter Cell and most recently Thief. Stealth in MGS has always felt a little bit childish and I only really enjoyed MGS 1, MGS 2, tried to play MGS 3 (still have it one my Vita!) and will try to finish it. MGS 3 has felt like the TRUE Zeroes experience, with the inception of the story and lore behind the cloning of Big Boss. MGS 4 finally brought it all to a great finale and I felt, there is NOTHING more to tell. MGS 1, 2 and 4 is the Trilogy, MGS 3 serves as the Prequel and I see nothing wrong with that.

Mission - Erase Kojima’s Legacy

The making of MGS V - The Phantom Pain is kinda true to it’s title. Can you feel the nostalgia? Or are we just imagining the sensation of a Metal Gear Solid game past it’s prime? The missing link? The missing limb? And with the worlds biggest cop-out  of everything that had to do with story was completely missing.

Each mission is playing out every time the same, with an intro to a TV-show, giving away massive spoilers to who would appear in the mission, you do your thing (not so much of story, just a “go-here, do that approach, sneak back out, head to pick-up) rinse and repeat. I wonder how much of this was Kojima’s fault? I don’t think he was up to it. I’m sure he fought for more story but the big heads didn’t want to listen to what makes a MGS game a MGS game. The new management had now already played the hand to disown the man who put Konami on the map for games since the mid 80s.

The game is no longer marketed like before. The tagline “A Hideo Kojima Game” no longer exists and will never be part of Konami’s mission of erasing the person who gave them their fame and the recognition that a game carrying the name Konami was a brand of quality for any gamer out there. Me myself, personally only played PES because of the stellar animations, but its recently since 2012, I stopped playing the series. FIFA had already cheapened itself, PES likewise. Updating the graphics, but the same old animations have been recycled back to the PES3 days. Maybe there’s been an update in the collision engine, but otherwise everything stayed the same, with the huge amount of data collected from previous years of motion-capture, why do it all over when its all about the brand recognition? Saving money on processes wherever possible. Simple Math. And here it is. MGS V is not a MGS game.

We already knew it was going to be a massive budget behind the game of MGS V. But what can Konami do to save money on MGS V? They already have the Fox Engine running from Ground Zeroes. The assets for “Snake” (I’ll let you know why I put quotation-marks around it) and standard models will extend somewhat. Oh, yes, let’s save money on a character that doesn’t speak (Quiet), over-sexualize the character to start a fan-base of people who just dig character design, animated a sexy “shower” routine for the character for boys to go nuts over. What about voice? Let’s not really try to sync the voices to the mouths. Let’s have the guy from “24″ record his performances onto tape-logs. Kiefer Sutherland would have been a good “Snake”, but I understand now that you are not “SNAKE”. The game explains pretty soon at the end that you are just a Medic and all the tapes you’ve been listening to is the original Big Boss. You never where the character of Snake. Even though this all could have been handled better, Konami wanted to save money wherever possible. We also knew David Hayter was not asked or put forward to return as “The Voice of Snake”. But in this case I start to wonder myself, David Hayter might have dodged the biggest bullet in the most expensive, commercial and very controversial game of all time once Konami decided to kill everything that built up their reputation.

Even during production Kojima managed to start working on PT. The game Konami “silenced” after it was released on the PS-store. Guillermo Del Toro and his friendship with Hideo Kojima’s dream-game was put on ice. All because Kojima was about to get frozen out of the company that was according to Konami “Wasting too much bloody money”. I might get blacklisted for saying this, but once the new management started to mess with the other IPs for just domestic/gambling market, that’s where everything went sideways. Konami wasn’t treating their heritage with respect.

It took them 7 years to realize their mistake! And now, for those who wants to be part of 3rd party developers who would get a crack at a new Castlevania, a new Metal Gear Solid (remake I hope), Konami has realized that the only way they will survive (Yeah, Metal Gear Solid Survive killed them HARD) is to let other’s take over. Maybe my dream of scoring a Metal Gear Solid game would be somewhat more possible now rather than working in the confined space of limitations posed by the higher ups at Konami. Let 3rd party developers breathe life into the IPs because I know there are smarter ways to tell a story and I would gladly like to see the return of David Hayter in the seat, without having to deal with the blank-face approach that he was faced with every time he had to audition for Snake in MGS 2, 3 and 4! David Hayter is a fantastic writer, actor and voice-actor. He has the chops and I think we are all ready for either a re-make or a better follow up to MGS 2 and the time between that one and MGS 4.

#Metal Gear Solid V #the phantom pain #Konami #Hideo Kojima #Akira Yamaoka #Yong Yea #Castlevania #Pachinko #Silent Hill #PT #Ground Zeroes #harry gregson williams #ludvig forssell #3rd Party #Bloober team #remake #Metal Gear Solid Remake

[tarakaybee]

Oxventure: Lore Speculations

So I post a lot about @outsidexboxofficial ‘s D&D campaign because it’s really cute and entertaining and full of extremely memorable characters. I did this post recently where I attempt to create a timeline of the story so far based on the scant references to the passage of time made by Johnny, their DM, and I started with some headcanon/lore speculations, so I thought I’d add a few more here! Again, these aren’t theories in the sense that I believe I’m decoding hidden lore, Johnny and the gang prioritise telling the episodic stories rather than overcomplicating things with lore from the get-go so this is all just for fun.

Geth

- The gang in more than half of their adventures so far have been near the coastline. So I’m imagining that the area of Geth they’ve been in for a majority of time is reminiscent of the Sword Coast from the official releases, but as of Brawl of the Wild have been teleported to a landlocked area (at least until any stories beyond Spell Check contradict this).

- In addition, at least four of the ‘dungeons’ the gang have entered have been recently repurposed, M. Channail’s hideout was formerly a crypt, The Order of Keeping it Down’s stronghold was a unoccupied Square Keep, the home of the Duke of Redcastle was formerly an unoccupied castle that the town got its name from, and the Chuul’s Temple was formerly a C’thulhu-worshipping temple a few generations back. I’m imagining some sort of country-spanning war early in the lives of the Oxventurers, rendering Geth’s current citizens mostly descendents of said conquerers, a-la the Anglo-Saxons.

-This could maybe potentially be connected to Brunin the Unworthy from An Orc-Ward Encounter, Geth’s leadership may cycle through different species every few generations, hence why a battle between a Dwarf, a Elf army and a Tiefling army is commemorated in a crypt in a country with majority humans. (Incidentally, I am pondering how there could be a Tiefling army considering Prudence’s backstory infers that Tieflings are basically deviations upon human births, though I suppose Tieflings can sire more Tieflings)

NPCs

- I wasn’t sure what my headcanon was regarding Alfred Strangetide for a while, I wasn’t sure if I considered him a member of a small species like Dwarves and Gnomes, since the gang meet a few of those and don’t remark on their sizes at any point. Eventually though I settled on Halfling, as I believe the Tolkien Hobbits were very baby-faced, which I choose to believe is what the gang were fixating on.

- If Suzette were a player character I imagine she’d be a Ranger. 

Dob

- I imagine Dob’s none-Orc half is actually Wood-Elf. Dob seems to have an affinity for nature almost on-par with Merilwen, though not necessarily in gameplay applications.

- In regular D&D 5E rules, Thunderwave inflicts Thunder damage, I.E painful sounds rather than lightning damage, which is what the electrical damage they mention would logically be. As well as being Half-Wood Elf Dob could also have some Storm Sorcery blood in his lineage too!

Egbert

- With regards to Egbert’s atonement, I don’t imagine he has one major crime in his past, more that he grew up poor and had to steal or act in self defence on a few occasions and his Paladin order (Le Dragon D’or, ‘The Golden Dragon’) inflicted a lot of religious guilt on him. (Man this is a depressing one)

- I imagine the deity that Egbert patronises is some kind of offshoot religion of The Order of the Platinum Dragon (Aka Bahamut), hence why Egbert is not sure if his god actually exists (gameplay-wise, I believe Paladins divine power comes from faith in concepts, whereas Clerics magical powers are more directly from the gods, so a Paladin can merely be strongly in favour of the cause of justice itself and still become a Paladin)

Corazon

- Since Prudence is the only character to possess an actual book of spells, I choose to believe that she was the one giving Corazon the foundation for his Arcane Trickster level up (technically Arcane Tricksters learn Wizard spells and not Warlock spells but eh)

- I choose to imagine that prior to meeting the gang Corazon had worked with a nonhuman crew before on some other ship he served on. Growing up as a rich member of seemingly the most common species in the kingdom should’ve made him numb to a lot of biases but he seems very eager to defend Prundence from prejudice upon meeting her, much like Dob was.

__________________________________________________

Side Bit: Fun Rules They May Have Missed

1. In Spell Check, when Corazon becomes magically superpowered he creates a load of sandwiches from nothing using divine creation magic, but then later on complains about the ingredients. Create Food and Water is an actual spell in the current rules and it states that you create enough food for 15 humanoids but it tastes very bland, which is exactly how Andy described it! Similarly, Andy’s use of Mage Hand to creates a magical bludgeoning fist is also covered in the rules with Bigby’s Hand (Though as an Arcane Trickster Corazon wouldn’t be able to learn either spell)

2. As a Warlock of C’thulhu, under the regular 5E rules Prudence could have access to an ability called Awakened Mind, which as far as I can tell, is basically a permanent ability to telepathically communicate with anybody within 30 ft. 

3. Similarly, as a Warlock she presumably had access to a Eldritch Invocation called Gift of the Depths, which allows underwater breathing. This would presumably be how the inhabitants of C’thulhu’s underwater temple travelled there from the land!

4. As a Bard of Valor, Dob would have gained proficiency with Martial Weapons, so as a stretch you could say he’d be proficient with Ethilfrith’s Hammer (Which is technically a Sledgehammer but the rules are lenient with what you can apply proficiencies to). Then again Johnny mentions Dob’s strength modifier is 0 so Dob probably hits harder with his Rapier regardless.

5. At least three members of the gang are able to learn Disguise Self but have not done so despite how many of their plans revolve around attempting to deceive people. :P

#outside xbox #oxventure

[maxmakkaroni-blog]

Me and fandom

In almost all of my 23 years, I can’t remember not being a fan of something. As the youngest one in my family I grew up with 2 cousins and my sister, all at least 4 years older than me. Growing up in rural Bavaria, my cousins introduced me to fandom before I could even talk properly, as they plastered everything in their rooms and themselves with merchandise of soccer clubs they loved. So, it is funny enough that I never even started to care about a single soccer club, other than my 5-year-old me assuring them that I was in love with Bavaria Munich in order not to get a wedgie. However, when I was old enough, I was allowed to tend for their neglected video game consoles for a limited time whenever I was over, which is the first time I really understood what fandom actually meant. Both cousins had games for the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater franchise, games that focus on displaying semi-realistic skateboarding action with real-life brands, skaters and locations. The first time I was exposed to this type of media I became obsessed with it. I would call my mother over to read me the names of the skaters and levels, I started to recognize the brands in the game in real life, I wanted my cousins to tell me about this Tony Hawk guy. I even wished for an actual skateboard, a hobby that I still casually but passionately perform to this day even going to contests to see some of my heroes of the sport. This must have been in late 2000 however, so researching on the internet was not a real possibility, plus I was barely literate enough to write my own name. Luckily enough, some of my friends also started to get into video games via their older brothers etc., so there soon was a small community around video games, small in every sense of the word. It was mostly me and my friend Peter, who came from an even lower income family than myself and unlike me he was allowed to basically play video games all day, every day, so we used to sit in front of a television for hours, playing all sorts of video games and eating chunk food. For a long while skateboarding and video games of all sorts were my obsession. Franchises like the Tony Hawk’s games, Metal Gear Solid, Fallout, Need for Speed and many more were part of my daily life. As soon as the internet became more accessible and I was smart enough to wrap my head around it, I would watch videos about these games via pages like YouTube and spend a lot of time finding out more about my favorite skateboarders. While watching a compilation of the video game Skate 2, I found my new obsession, which was going to be music.

Though at this point the band that was playing in the video is merely a nostalgic guilty pleasure, Korn turned me into a full-blown music fan. No one in my family was ever even interested in music despite liking something that may have been on the radio, but this band had really touched me in a completely new way. I would get every album, watch every interview, learn about their instruments, analyze all their lyrics, buy their merch with my pocket money and generally annoy everyone out of their mind with this band. Oddly enough no one around me seemed to like the band all that much, but a lot of the community that came with it for me was on the internet anyway. As much as I don’t care for the band now, I’m still more than grateful to this band as they were the reason why I picked up the bass guitar and started making music, which is to this day still the biggest joy in my life. The pattern of passionately plunging into fan communities also established here. Even today, whenever I find bands, fictional universes, authors or anything else that tickles me in a certain way, I tend to immerse myself completely. For fictional universes I usually lose myself in endless reads on wiki pages about the happenings and characters of whatever I am into, trying to know absolutely everything about this universe, whether it is Harry Potter, Fallout or Elite. Being part of the fan communities is also a big part of enjoying the experience. For me, Reddit and YouTube are the places where I have the most interaction with other community members. Whether it is a discussion over lore on r/falloutlore or comments on a video about the latest patch of Elite Dangerous, I always seem to find time to stay in contact with people I will probably never meet, but have the same passion about fiction that I have. As far as fan fiction goes, by far the most contact I had, is with a more unusual approach to fan fiction, which is modding. Modding means modifying existing video games and adding new user generated content for others to enjoy. This can mean everything from improving graphics and mechanics of games, to using the game engine as a foundation for expanding the story, which is what I was always interested in. I consider this fan fiction in video games. Fans of a franchise take the existing narrative and either fill the holes or add more to it, all the while creating their own virtual places with new characters to interact with. For me, the games that I adored the most for this were the Fallout games, as they actively encouraged modding with every part of it. They are open world role playing games in a futuristic post-apocalyptic setting that still has a foot in 1950s America, that allow the players to go about the story at their own pace, making it easy for modders to easily add more and more without interrupting the pacing of the story. The mod community of these games are still as active as when they were brand new.

As far as my fandom in music is concerned, everything is a lot more personal and therefore much harder to describe. For me, the music that I listen to and the musicians I obsess over seem to always seems to reflect where I am in life. Not to say that I inevitably tend to lose interest in all the music I listen to at some point, there are certainly constants. Artists and bands like Mark Kozelek, Neil Young, Sufjan Stevens, Mr. Bungle and many more are always in my rotation of music that I love. Listening to music is also not the only way I enjoy it. Like already mentioned, I like to get to know the people behind the music, analyze the lyrics, learn the songs on my instruments, find out more about their gear, their creative process and pretty much everything around the music itself. Though it may not seem like it, I am a very different fan of music than I am a fan of all kinds of fiction. For one, the community aspect is way less pronounced, as music is a way more personal hobby unless it comes to my own music. Most of my friends don’t share my musical taste and it has pretty much always been like that, so I like to think of my music fandom as something that only exists between me and the music that I can relate too, which is more than fine by me.

It is safe to say that fandom is an enormous part of my life and I don’t think this will change much. Being a fan of something does not only mean enjoying something to a great extent, it also means being part of a community that shares your interests. Fan interaction takes mere entertainment and turns it into something far more personal, yet communal.  All the things I have been a fan of  left a major impression on me as a person, whether it is a video game series, a band or some fictional universe, and I certainly look forward to getting into new and interesting fandoms that further accompany me through my everyday life.

#fandom

[douxreviews]

Legends of Tomorrow - ‘Terms of Service’ Review

"The power is in the Palm(er) of your hands."

Is it rude to point out that the Emperor has no clothes, if you point out at the same time that the Emperor is super ripped and has been clearly doing a lot of cardio?

Because.... Damn, Emperor. You got it going on.

Which is, of course, my frivolous and subtextually homoerotic way of saying that there's an embarrassment of riches in this episode when it comes to things to like, but they all kind of rely on some serious glossing over of problem spots.

The problem in a nutshell can be boiled down to one thing. The basic opening foundation for this episode doesn't match at all with where things were left at the end of the previous one. I'm tempted to assume that I'd missed an entire episode worth of plot development, except that I know perfectly well that I didn't. It's almost as if the writers room broke a 17 episode series of stories and then just completely excised one of them when they found out they were only getting 16 to air.

For the love of God, CW, please start giving Legends a full boat of 22 episodes. It's getting embarrassing.

OK, so here's what I mean. A not insignificant portion of the plot development tonight entirely relies on the fairy godmother currently being under Gary's control. That's actually an inspired plot development, and his relationship both with Tabitha and with the next inheritor of the fairy godmother mantle were pure gold as far as both comedy and plot development goes.

The problem is, when exactly did Fairy Godmother bond herself to Gary? He calls to her at the end of the previous episode and she saves him from Mona as if their relationship was an established thing, but unless I missed something significant completely, that was not a thing they'd ever set up.

I'll be fair. I drink a lot of wine. If I missed something that explains this, please do let me know in the comments.

Additionally, at the end of 'Nip/Stuck,' Mona ate off Gary's evil nipple – not a sentence you get to type every day – and Gary was rushed out of the Time Bureau with unconscious Mona, Tabitha, and Neron in Ray's body. The implication strongly was that Gary's nipple was behind the mass hypnosis of the Bureau, and now that it had been destroyed the bureau was saved. Left behind to witness the bad guys escape was Nora, Ava, and Sara.

This week we open with the bad guys still in possession of the Bureau, only now it's due to Gary's influence over the fairy godmother rather than his fancy hypnotic nipple. Not only do we see no evidence of the bad guys leaving the bureau together, they aren't even all in a group anymore. Mona is imprisoned in the Bureau cells, which makes no sense if they were fleeing with her body ten minutes earlier. Neron and Tabitha aren't even there anymore as they're busy setting up 'PalmerX 2019,' a low key tech con with only one panel and one guest. Ava and Sara are back on the Waverider as if they'd never liberated the Bureau in the first place, and Nora is Die Harding her way to rescue Mona with no mention of how she got separated from them.

I'm sorry, show, but I have to ask. Did you smoke a gigantic bag of crack between these two episodes, or what?

It's all very frustrating, because I said earlier, where they take all of those plot threads is fantastic. Neron's plan to create fear using the monsters so that people will download an app in order to locate the monsters and in doing so sell their immortal souls through a lengthy terms of service agreement is both goat-shit crazy and completely brilliant. What's more, it would absolutely work. If you doubt it, just consider how much none of us noticed when the guests of PalmerX were shown agreeing to a terms of service agreement that they didn't read. Seriously, go back and look. The camera shots practically luxuriate on people swiping through the TOS as fast as they can, but nothing about that reads as unusual or sinister to us anymore and so we just blanked it out.

Similarly, Tabitha's plan to trick Nora into taking on her fairy godmother mantle was inspired, despite being lifted pretty completely from genie-lore, particularly Disney's Live Action Aladdin Soon in Theaters Near You. And God bless the show for keeping Jane Carr around as Tabitha. I absolutely expected that they'd find an excuse to recast Tabitha into the body of someone younger and sexier as soon as they possibly could, because that's the kind of gross thing that network execs tend to insist on. I love, love, love that they're keeping her around as Neron's love interest. And while we're talking about it, it's such a good choice for them to show that Neron and Tabitha do genuinely love each other. It would have been so easy to tumble into the cliché of a villain team eager to backstab one another.

But the best choice this episode made was in the nature of Gary Green himself. Wonderful reveal that Gary was perfectly aware the entire time that the fairy godmother was trying to get him to wish hurt on the Legends and so he was deliberately just focusing on wishing to hang out with them as a way of defying her. Even when 'Dark Gary' finally gets called forth, his glorious flow of vengeance never goes further than acne and tap dancing. Gary is a good man, fundamentally. And he's absolutely right, he does not deserve to be laughed at. I've been saying since the beginning of the season that the Legends need to face a consequence for the way they're played Gary as convenient bait that can be had for a little flattery. I think they finally learned that lesson here.

Which brings lastly to John Constantine, in a plotline I like to call, 'This should absolutely have been an entire episode all on its own.'

When they mentioned Hell's Triumvirate I briefly entertained the thought that they might be about to do the good parts of 'Dangerous Habits' that everybody always leaves out when they try to adapt it, but alas, no. It felt right that he chose Astra over Ray, as much as it broke my heart, and it felt equally right that Astra betrayed him. Can't wait to see what will happen there when Nora gets to Hell to rescue John. I do, however, which that they'd gone with the imagery from the comics and had Astra only have one arm.

Everybody remember where we parked:

There was actually shockingly little travel this week. The Waverider just hung around Washington D.C. in 2019, and a couple of our heroes went to Hell, which may or may not equate to the same time zone, it's hard to tell.

What is interesting is the reveal that Zari grew up a little outside of D.C. Did we know that already, or was that a reveal of convenience this week? Zari appeared to me to be in the 8-10 range, although I am a notoriously bad judge of age so she might be a bit older. That actually answers a couple of longstanding questions I was pondering last year about what baby Zari might be up to in our time period.

Zari mentions that it's only a few years away from when ARGUS takes over everything and creates an anti-Meta, anti-Muslim Dystopia. We're all kind of assuming they're just never going to deal with that, aren't we?

Quotes:

Sara: "Mick, Nate, do you think you can handle Tabitha?" Mick: "Granny’s dead."

Sara: "OK, can you guys stop being dragon baby crazy right now?"

Gary: "And now I have three nipples, because a spare never hurts." Having a third nipple was historically a sign of witchcraft. There is a zero percent chance the writers don't know that.

Calibraxis: "You’re dead, demon hunter!" Constantine: "I was gonna be a demon proctologist, but the pay wasn’t as good."

Calibraxis: "I’m a demon, not a pirate, John."

Zari: "It’s a demon app. I’m gonna read the fine print."

Charlie: "If I die, I’m gonna come back and haunt you." Zari: "I would love a ghost friend."

Nora: "Gary, you dick!"

Bits and Pieces:

-- This season has for some reason brought up a lot of embarrassing confessions from me. Adding to the list that already contains my love of semiotics and the assembly of flatpack furniture, this week I have to tell you how much I love logo design. Honestly. I bring this up because the PalmerX logo is a masterwork. The solid 3-D cube implied by the background framing device conveys an unspoken implication of solidity and dependability with the third implied square breaking the frame and shooting 'toward' the viewer implying a daring willingness to work outside conventional rules and by implication 'think outside the box.' The coloring, meanwhile, subtly underscores the 'Palmer' portion of the name, thus reinforcing the higher brand. Honestly, and with no ironic joking involved, the PalmerX logo is a f*cking masterpiece of work.

-- I actually have a startling number of opinions on the quality of logo design. Feel free to ask, but I warn you that the answers get lengthy.

-- I get that they were underscoring the connection between Tala Ashe and Zari's younger self, but that hairstyle just fundamentally did not work for her. That's actually kind of rare and notable for her. Just about every hairstyle they've ever given her has looked gorgeous.

-- Looks like Wixtable the dragon is hatching in time for the season finale.

-- I went back and forth on whether or not it was smart or stupid for Zari to have brought the egg with her on the mission. Ultimately, I think there was no guaranteed safe place for the egg, given how often messed up stuff happens on the Waverider when they aren't there.

-- I hope Nate is understanding about Zari leaving the egg behind.

-- So many questions about why Nate has a 'Kid Steel' costume hanging around. And why Gary picked it.

-- This week's fabulous dress watch. Jane Carr looked stunning in that evil black number she adopted once she'd ditched her godmother duties. Also, the designer of that asymmetrical sheath number that Nora wore to PalmerX is underpaid. Regardless of how much he or she is paid, they are underpaid. That dress was amazing. Please, please, Courtney Ford, tell me that you stole that dress and have it in your personal collection. Also, call me. We'll brunch.

-- They're really getting their money out of the Stein puppet. Bless.

-- Hell's triumvirate included Satan, not Lucifer. Which means a crossover with Lucifer is still possible. Fun fact, in the comics the triumvirate in Hell stepped in to rule when Lucifer left to go open up his nightclub in LA. Which means it all totally works together if they can get Tom Ellis to make a stop in the Waverider. And then possibly he and Matt Ryan could share a torrid embrace and... I'm sorry, what were we talking about again?

-- That's like the third episode in a row where they've mentioned Damien Darhk. Dare we hope to see him again next season?

If you squint at it and assume that we missed an episode of plot development, this would easily be a four. Sadly, we can't, and so I can't in good conscience give it more than three out of four fantastic logos.

Mikey Heinrich is, among other things, a freelance writer, volunteer firefighter, and roughly 78% water.

#Legends of Tomorrow #Sara Lance #Ray Palmer #John Constantine #DC Comics #Arrowverse #Legends of Tomorrow Reviews #Doux Reviews #TV Reviews

[authorellenmint]

A few spine tingling tales to get into the halloween and Dragon Age mood.

Hawke entertains three children who approach her doorstep with four stories to scare the pants off 'em. And who should she use for characters in her horror stories but those companions she knows so well?

Forgotten in the high hills of the Free Marches rested a monastery that seemed to have been carved from the very bones of the mountain itself. No one remembers when it was built, or by whom, some claiming that it once belonged to the elves. Magic seeped into every stone long before it was ever claimed by Andraste's faithful. The forest ensnaring the land was haunted beyond measure, the local farmers having tales as long as their beard about creatures who'd stalk the trees and drag grown men up into the branches to gobble them up whole.

Brother Sebastian paid no heed to the tales, he was proud of his little monastery that succored five men of the cloth away from the politics of sisters and mothers. Here they could revel in the chant of light, singing it to the shadow of the mountain. It was a shame really that none of the villagers made the long trek to the high peak of the monastery.

No one ever warned the monks, you do not open the door at night in the Shadowed Mountain. And you certainly don't do it during the full moon.

His knees bent against the altar, Brother Sebastian prayed as fervently as a soul could. He begged for Andraste's blessing, for the Maker's gaze, and for a much shinier belt buckle. Midway through the canticles of configuration, a great boom broke through the very foundation of the monastery. Brothers dashed out of their alcoves, heads covered in brown cloaks as they darted around to find the source of the sound.

"Brother Sebastian," they cried in one voice.

Sebastian smiled and rose to his feet. "It appears we have a visitor," he crowed to himself while turning towards another knock upon the great doors. Taller than a giant, carved from an ancient tree that stretched to the stars, there were whispers amongst the locals that those doors were designed to ward off evil in all its forms. But, they ceased to work when you opened them.

Wrapping a hand around the great brass ring, Sebastian began to tug upon it, when the monks as one grabbed onto his arm. "Brother Sebastian," they cried yet again, terrified of the night howling outside their door.

"We are servants of Andraste," Sebastian smiled, "and it is our duty to provide succor to those searching." Unhappy, the men released him, scuttling back towards the wall as the door opened.

Standing in the never ending downpour was a shadow cloaked in black. The rain suckered a cloak tight to the head and shoulders of what appeared to be a man with his arms folded across his chest. "Come in and be welcomed, my friend," Sebastian continued to crow, caring nothing for the trembling fear in his fellow monks.

As if floating over the stones, the stranger moved to step across the threshold of the chantry. He paused a moment, his head tipping skyward, and from beneath the impenetrable cowl a sliver of a smile broke. Framed against his tan lips was a white tooth as sharp as any dagger.

Whatever magic there was to keep unwanted outsiders at bay held no power against this man as he slipped inside and bowed his head. "Thank you," rumbled deep in the shadow's chest, his voice that of a landslide about to destroy an entire village.

"I am Brother Sebastian, this is my flock," he extended a hand towards the others who were all trying to vanish into the mists. "May I ask who you are?"

The cowled head twisted back and forth, surveying the occupants. Fingers emerged from deep in the cloak and gripped onto his hood. Slowly, as if revealing a terror beyond imagination, the man tugged down his hood and he stepped into the full flame of Andraste. Hair white as snow stood in massive peaks and valleys off his head, skin a shade of sandy brown from parts far beyond. While the ears may have given the monks pause, as steepled as any of the elves of lore who stole children for their blood and bones, what no doubt really caught them were the marks. White as his hair, they seemed to cover his entire body, tattoos of an unknowable meaning slicing against his chin and forehead. A few were even visible upon his naked hands, which he returned to the cloak.

"Fenris," he rumbled, giving out no more than need be said.

The others started, dashing away in fear that the stranger might begin ripping them to shreds, but Brother Sebastian would not be so moved. He had faith, and nothing could take that from him. "You must be hungry."

His lips lifted in a toothy grin, and the wolf twisted his head around at the five fat dumplings on display. "Famished," Fenris muttered.

"Come with me," Sebastian smiled, guiding their new stranger towards the dining hall. "I'm afraid it isn't much, but the gruel is warm and the mead is acceptable. Please, sit."

While the stranger sat bowlegged upon a bench, Sebastian went to fetch the evening meal. The other monks clustered on the other side, most keeping a watchful eye upon the unknown threat. The Brother tetched his tongue at such ill manners, but served them all and bowed his head.

Beside him, he heard the stranger scrape a spoon against the bowl. Coughing, he said aloud, "We always give thanks to the Maker for our bounty before eating."

Haunting eyes, as green as a soul, burned through Sebastian, but nothing could mar the monk's certainty. Dropping the spoon, Fenris clasped his hands together to join in the prayer. The other monks followed suit, but did not bow their heads. All were too focused on the wolf standing in the midst of their flock, watching as he did not speak any of the Bride's words. What unholy demon could not even mouth along to Andraste's chant of light?

"Very good," Sebastian smiled at the end, "let us eat. I am starving tonight."

The stranger offered no complaints for the meager meal, nor compliments. He funneled the weak gruel into his mouth without pause, as if the man had gone without food for days. Or was it simply the wrong kind of sustenance? When the meal was finished, Fenris remained sitting in place, his green eyes whipping from monk to monk as if he expected one of them to provide the entertainment.

One brother could no longer stand the scrutiny and staggered to his feet. "Forgive me, but I seem to have left my prayer book in my room."

"Very well," Sebastian gave his blessing, smiling proud at the man for intending to give into proper holy reading. He watched the lone monk dash out of the room, the man never looking back at the stranger seated in place.

A shame, for he missed the hungry eyes trailing his movements, the tongue lapping against the lips as he seemed to be sizing the portly monk up. Suddenly, the stranger turned to the Brother. "Privies?"

Sebastian smiled, "Allow me to show you, my good friend."

"Brother!" the monks sat forward, all well aware of the ravenous eyes that followed their fellow man out the door. But Sebastian would hear no ill word spoken of the man from out of the rain. He glowered at them for speaking out of turn, then offered a hand to the stranger.

Together, both Brother and Wolf vanished out the door.

The monks buried their heads together, whispering about their fear of the man. His eyes, they were so large. His ears, they were so long. His teeth, they were so sharp. Clearly no man of that cut could be formed in the Maker's love. Whatever brought him to their door on this full moon night could only be for malice.

A feral scream boiled all the blood in their veins as it tore through the monastery. Leaping to their feet, the monks dashed to follow the sound. It did not take them long to come across their lost brother, Sebastian sitting beside the broken body. His mutilated skin already ashen, the man's intestines spilled out of a massive gash in his stomach. They dangled like winter sausages, a wet slap bouncing against the man's bed frame as his body trembled in its final death throes.

Every brother fell to his knees in a panic, barely able to look at their fellow soldier in the Maker's army. "He's dead!" they screamed, prepared to rend their cassocks in terror and grief, when the culprit came dashing up from the far corridor.

"I heard a..." the man paused, a gigantic sword glinting by candle light in his arms. I mean, we're talking bigger than the biggest sword you've ever seen. So big you have no idea how he can carry it without falling over. Seems like one push and boom, but nope. Though he'd probably growl the whole way down and not give up the sword, come to think of it.

Where was I? Ah right, the intestines guy.

"He is dead," the wolf sighed, moving to slot his sword back in place.

"And you killed him," the brothers shouted, spinning on the stranger who came to murder them all.

His soul green eyes whipped around the group, a sneer rising against his lips and elongating the canine tooth. "Why?" He spoke in a wrath that would shake the Maker, "Why would I kill him?"

"Because..."

"Brothers," Sebastian cooed, rising to his feet, "you are being hysterical. You must calm yourself."

"But he's..."

"Dead, yes. I -- in fact -- have his blood all over me from finding his body. I can tell."

"And that man..." the monks all whipped their head to the armed stranger.

"Does not appear to have a mark on him. I dare say, nothing human or elven could cause this. It looks to be the work of a wild animal. Perhaps one is lurking in our monastery or it dashed out the window."

The monks all glared at the brother. A wild animal? What kind of animal could eviscerate a grown man with one swipe of its claws? A great wolf or bear would not easily hide within their monastery, its steps echoing and breath bouncing upon holy stones. But if it were to go in the guise of a man...

"Come," Sebastian clapped his hands, "I believe that this is no concern of our newest guest. In fact, I imagine what he requires most is rest?" He aimed the question at the wolf who nodded his head, the white hair dripping off his pointed ears.

"Then, I shall show you to a bed, and after we will prepare our fallen brother for the pyre," Sebastian smiled wide as if nothing bad was happening. As if it were normal to invite a werewolf into your home on a full moon, but the other brothers were wise. They knew what walked among them, and they were not about to be done in again.

Two of the remaining brothers followed Sebastian and the wolf, their eyes glinting by the powerful moonlight as their leader deposited him in a cell. Nodding his head in appreciation to the brothers, as if they were going to offer to tuck in the stranger, Sebastian left the creature alone in their care.

Even with their hearts pounding in fear, even with their lives dangling by a thread, both men stood impotently in the doorframe. Their hands were built for praying, not wielding a dagger. Their hearts picked by the Maker for love, not invoking death. Yet the creature wouldn't care. One by one it would pick them all off until...until only the hollow stones of the mountain would answer its howl.

His haunting eyes whipped from one brother to the next, a question burning inside that animal mind. Both men looked at the sword strapped to his back, well aware that they had no hope to rip it out of his hands before he attacked again. "Good evening," the first monk said, tipping his head.

The man looked about to speak, when the second slammed the door in the wolf's face. His clawed hand lashed for the latch, but they beat him too it, locking the creature in. The pawing of the door wouldn't stop, his fists banging like the undead cracking out of a coffin, but both brothers took a deep sigh of relief.

It would not hold forever, but it would hold long enough for night to pass, the storm to break, and their leader to insist the stranger leave. They would survive the night, regardless of what little Brother Sebastian did to aid them. Nodding and incapable of stopping the massive smiles of relief upon their cheeks, both men left the creature to bay and bash at its imprisonment. The first monk held the key safe in his pocket while they returned to their rooms.

There they found their third brother, who informed them that Brother Sebastian and the fourth were laying out the fifth. Tomorrow there would be a funeral, a sad occasion to be certain, though in truth no one really much cared for the man. He was sloppy in his calligraphy, terrible at finishing his chores, and left his toenails clippings wherever they fell. It was almost a relief to be rid of the sound of him clearing his throat nightly before vespers. With certainty shining hope in their hearts, the three men tucked into bed after prayers.

A scream, as wet and visceral as the innards of a bloated goat, erupted through the halls. As one, each brother leapt from bed and dashed into the hallway in a panic.

"I don't understand!"

"The creature is contained."

"Do you yet have the key?"

"Yes, here in my pocket."

The key was passed from hand to trembling hand like a holy relic of Andraste. Here was proof that they were safe from the creature, yet another of their brothers was screaming in agony.

"Could he have escaped?"

"I don't know how."

"We should check."

All three tonsures shook negative quickly, none willing to return to the door where they attempted to imprison a werewolf. He could be waiting there, prepared to gnash his teeth into the throats of those that dare try to impede him. But what other option was there? To flee into the night? To risk falling off the mountain, or freezing in the rain?

"Sebastian, Brother Sebastian. We must speak to him. Convince him to...to banish the creature. He can do it. He is the leader."

They may never be certain again, but all three heads nodded and together they walked towards the holy sanctuary. Here was where they gathered three times a day, their backs bowed, their knees bent to honor their most beloved Andraste. Here was where they worshiped with their very souls to the Maker's holy word. Here was where they found their idolized leader with his head thrust deep into the chest cavity of their brother.

Viscera dangled off Sebastian's white teeth, crimson rivers spilling off his lips while his eyes rolled back in ecstasy. Smacking his ravenous tongue, he bit down on a scrap of intestine and yanked it against his teeth. The monk's final meal splattered against the holy fire of Andraste, forever dousing the eternal flame while their leader -- the man they all swore to serve -- devoured the dead man.

"Brothers," Sebastian rolled the word around in his bloody mouth, but his eyes...his murderous eyes glinted with the same ferocity for the light as they always had. They were the most pure of blue, as safe and true as the Maker's love. "Why are you trembling?" he asked, their dead brother's liver weighing in his hands before he took a nibble.

"Wh...what are you?"

The horrific monster grinned, a tongue lapping up the blood against his palm. "I am your leader. I am the man you turn to for guidance. For succor. I am your fellow Brother."

"Y-y-you cannot be," the second stuttered, stumbling back against the door. This was the man their once leader turned to, his chin twisting like the clockwork whipping of a bird. "You killed him, took his place. Assumed his face! You know nothing of the Maker's love!"

Sebastian's hand lashed out, pinning to the brother's throat. "As Andraste called out in a great voice," he laughed, his nails piercing through the screaming man's flesh. Blood burbled to the surface, slicking down the holy robes until they turned as crimson as the Sisters. "'Maker of the World, forgive them! They have lived too long in shadow without Your Light to guide them!"

Bundling his fingers together, Sebastian yanked, tubes wrenching out of the man's throat and silencing his screams. With a smile, the horrific creature finished the verse, "Be with Your children now, O Maker."

Eyes of pure evil glinted upon the remaining two monks. They huddled together, trying to slip unheeded towards the door, but their once loved leader tipped his head back and forth at them. "Do you not know the next verse, Brothers? We spoke it often. You said it gave you comfort in times of great distress."

Gibbering under their breath, both men tried to run but their legs wilted below them. Bending to a knee as if they were about to receive repentance from their leader, they clacked their teeth in agony. They did not want to die. What did they do to deserve death?

 Please. Holy Maker. Show us mercy!

"Come now, men of the cloth," Sebastian clucked his tongue as he'd often do when he found the brothers lagging. The hand that eviscerated three grown men reached for them, "tell me what sins weigh upon your full hearts."

A blinding flash of silver struck through the air. Sebastian twisted, narrowly avoiding the swing of a massive sword. The creature dressed in a monk's flesh darted to and fro, moving faster than the eye could see. But one eye managed to keep up, the green unyielding orb of their visitor. Fenris snarled, lashing faster towards the creature while it danced bloody footprints upon the marble floor.

"I let you into my home," Sebastian cackled, "and this is how you repay me?"

Fenris grunted, his eyes narrowing as he plucked the sword back. "Die," slipped from his lips. Sebastian moved to the left, but it was a feint. The long hands ready to pierce that tan throat zoomed in to the right. As if sensing he would come, Fenris barely twisted an arm to drive the blade straight through the heart of their once beloved Brother. The massive edge of steel glittered by the lamplight, but no blood stained the blade.

Glancing down at his chest, Sebastian began to chuckle, "Foolish. You cannot kill that which is already dead."

The creature began to crawl its way along the blade, fingers reaching for the hand brandishing it. Fenris did not let go of his weapon. He did not cry in panic, nor run away. Smirking to show off that deadly canine, he tipped his shaggy white hair and smiled, "I know."

White light erupted off of the man, reaching out to envelope Sebastian. The creature screamed like a rabbit facing the killing knife, its lips shredding from such a powerful force while death ensnared it. Both monks had to turn away, unable to stare at a truly holy sight, but they could not escape the sound shaking their souls and robbing them each of a decade of life.

When the light vanished, and the screaming ceased, they both turned to find the tattoos upon the stranger lit up bluer than a vial of lyrium. They glowed more beautifully than the holy fire of Andraste, who must have sent him here in their time of need. Tumbled upon the ground at Fenris' feet was the holy brother's cassock, the only remaining piece of their once illustrious leader.

Stretching his arms wide, Fenris slotted his blade upon his back and slowly dimmed the glowing tattoos until only the white stripes remained. His eyes darted over the pair of men huddled together in fear. With a single huff, he turned on his heel and marched towards the door as if his job was finished. Yanking upon the handle, he lifted the cloak's hood to protect his head and moved to return to the storms outside.

In a voice as soft as a chantry mouse, the first brother called out, "Thank you."

Their savior paused, twisted his head to gaze back at the two people he saved that night, and he grunted, "First time I heard that. You're welcome." Without another word, he stepped into the dark night of shadows and magic, and was never seen again.

Confused and terrified, the monks gazed around at their fallen brethren shredded to pieces of meat, but one matter clung tight to the first's mind. "How did he escape his room?"

"Perhaps he picked the lock," the second insisted, already walling off the terrors that befell them. "Or broke the door."

The brother nodded his head, wanting to embrace the simple answer, but he had to know with a burning certainty. Walking down the corridor, he aimed for the hero's room. The second monk scampered behind, never again able to face the dark alone. Before them stood the door, unmarked and unbowed. No sword cut through it, no fist of the Maker Himself shattered it to pieces.

"It's," the second monk grimaced, "It's as I said. He picked the lock."

Trembling hands reaching forward, the brother gripped against the cold handle. It felt as if no one had touched it in an age. With a breath hitched in his throat, he tugged upon the door. It refused to budge.

"Sweet Maker!" the second brother cried. "M-mmaybe he stole the key off you. And used that. It doesn't matter. Who cares? Stop thinking about it."

The man turned on his shoe, clearly wishing to get as far from this horrible place as possible. Already the second monk was walling away what occurred, destined to never speak of this blood stained night, but the first could not let it be. His fingers dipped into his pocket and wrapped around the piece of iron he knew was safe inside. No hand touched it, no finger lifted the key from his pocket. It was almost as if the stranger who came to their aid was not of mortal make himself.

"You cannot kill that which is already dead."

They say that every full moon in the halls of that monastery one can hear the screams of the long dead monks. None ever last through the full night before terror sends them fleeing out the door, but if they did, they'd find that one room with the unblemished door always smelt of lyrium and graveyard dirt.

#dragon age #halloween #fenris #haunted #ghost story #monestary #gory #soundcloud #story

[demoiselledefortune]

Dragon Age Inquisition final play-through session!

So finished Trespasser

Overall that's a pretty amazing ending. I'm not sure if it's as interesting if you're not playing a Lavellan/romancing Solas; but it's densely packed with lores and things that'd make a replay (I mean I was spoiled enough to view Solas with hefty dose of suspicion from the start, and I did know he was an immortal of some kind from the beginning; and then got more spoilers as I progressed in the game -- but I expect there's still a whole lot of things to catch better now that I have full context). Trespasser is very well structured and paced overall, between the interludes in the gorgeous gardens of the Winter Palace (although I wish we had better to do in there that those silly and rather frustrating quests), and coursing through the Eluvian (which in itself is great, still allows a few fun sidequests; and lots of great lore drops). The political mess of a situation is a pretty logical follow up from the rest of Inquisition, and that the main choice in the end is deciding the future of the fate of the Inquisition in the political landscape is something I appreciate. I'd have liked if the end choices weren't quite as binary, but I guess that's simpler and ok, it's not like we have that many options. The Viddasala makes a decent minor villain; and of course the whole thing turns the whole Inquisition as an awesome set up to Solas as the kind top tier antagonist that I would put asides to my favourite video game villains. And hey, we even get a dragon fight! Except for once, we had an option of not killing her, which I took because I like getting an option not kill stuff (even though I of course slaughtered eagerly all 10 optional dragons the game provided before -- :3) which resulted in a pretty Hawk-esque fight by which I mean I ended up with all three of my companions down while I was running around trying to figure out how to manage to release the creature; which made for a very fun epic experience in a way that I seldom got from big boss fights in Inquisition apart from that. (I did solo fights due to companion death with Hawk on the first two dragon battles of DA2. Which ended up as good prep for the Arishok fight :3) The end game mechanic of your Mark running out of control, forcing you to release it at close interval was also a pretty great gameplay experience to make the last battles interesting and convey viscerally how dire this shit on your body is becoming...  and almost makes up for how shitty the focus mechanics were overall. That we don't get a third round of discussions with the Companions before the last time in the Eluvians was a bit disappointing though. I guess they kinda ran out of material to discussion. It's also a bit odd that they drop us off at the very end to be solo before meeting Solas without a last framing discussion. The way they did banter spots to trigger though was great. (and a huge improvement on the way banter worked in Inquisition). In term of roleplay my character was the most shaken by the reveal of the Evanuris as False Gods. I always saw her as someone with a huge mystical bend, although not necessarily something that affected her choices a whole lot (besides, say, the Well of Mythal) and someone who values genuineness a lot so that reveal turning out around false premises hit hard; and trying to rebuild a sense of identity and view of the world out of that is going to take her time. She's not even the sort of Dalish who is the most focused on the past (obviously it's important, because it's one of the baseline thing that the Dalish care about; but it's not her main focus compared to trying to work with people, building consensus and exchanging viewpoint. My Lavellan is a diplomat and a community organizer at heart.) The reveal from Solas in contrast was less shattering. She'd figure out that Solas had to be involved somehow with the Fen'Harel organization (from the Vallaslin bit, especially) but expecting him to actually be Fen'Harel was a bit too huge a leap to make on her own... yet something that fell into place when it came and the feeling of catharsis of finally knowing what the fuck was up with him stronger than the feeling of betrayal. In the end I think she had a sense that nothing he could turn out to be would surprise her. She was saddened, bitterly disappointed, horrified; but she never felt like the person she'd fallen in love with wasn't the person in front of her, and she's not giving up on him. She kept the Inquisition as the Divine's guard, of course she did. As I said after Solas left she was sure something bad was coming, and knowing more about exactly what that something bad was only cemented that. And of course, the Inquisition is what she has left, in term of something built up. She has too much emotionally invested in it to discard it when the foundation of her world believes are shaken this way. As far as the other characters go: - Vivienne wasn't the person my character ever got along the best with; and while the epilogue frames her as a big pain in the ass, I think Ireya actually approves of it... what she held the most against Vivienne was always that instead of building herself up as a leader by gathering support from like-minded mages, she'd tried to grasp it parasitically from others in power, and it seems she finally started to do otherwise. Perhaps it's not so bad either for the future of the mages for there to exist multiple competing models... (well it also could result in disaster but what can you do) - I don't have much to say about Blackwall, he was one of my least favourite character and probably mostly for shallow reasons (I never got over that he's such an unattractive character for a romanceable option). His story is interesting yet unsatisfying in term of story integration. My character does have a higher opinion of him than I do and she was happy to see him fulfilling his purpose in the Wardens under his true identity in a way that made him feel better. - Ireya never felt very close to Cullen, but she always respected and relied on him a lot; and is happy to see him continue to work in the Inquisition as well as continuing to work on helping out Templars. - In a way my character and Varric are very similar people (in term of being caretaker at heart) that nonetheless never properly connect (they work on a very different register and of course Varric's feeling of awe at the Herald even though he works at it is a barrier). Still a good friend. I do love seeing him becoming the Viscount of Kirkwall (and annoying poor Bran) which I'm sure will make him happier (he was so depressed during Inquisition). - She always kept a little bit wary and careful with Cole while still valuing him a whole lot, except towards the end, he ended up being the only source of input on Solas' outlook and she's going to miss that. She hopes he will be able to help, somehow. - Iron Bull always impressed me with his emotional intelligence and savviness. He was never someone to underestimate and also someone who brings a lot of things to a group which Ireya valued a lot. Keeping the Chargers alive is a very rewarding choice in term of what that means for Bull's outlook (as well as the Chargers themselves being around) even though I expect you'd only see the difference at the very ending. My character also ended up very invested in his relationship with Dorian, and delighted to see what it brings to the both of them. - It was a joy to realise that Sera has grown up a lot, and reacts with much more tact and sensitivity (in contrast to how she was right after the Temple of Mythal/Vallaslin removal in the main game) when my character felt very shaken about the Evanuris reveal; as well as touched to see they continued being very good friends with the offer of getting into the Friends of Jenny. Keep on being awesome, Sera! - My character started being a bit in awe of Lelianna (she was something of a Fifth Blight stories fangirl XD) but also distrusting her emotional turmoil. She feels very proud of having helped her find an emotional peace once more, and in that context her becoming the Divine is something she's glad of. - While she was sometimes infuriating, Cassandra was always someone whose honesty and willingness to criticise herself earned great respect from Ireya. She was also very fun to tease and someone to bond over being sappy sappy romantic. A very good friend, and I'm glad she's rebuilding the Seekers into something better. - Dorian wears his heart on his sleeve and was a great friend. His ending gives my character great hope for the future. - Josephine was probably Ireya's best friend in the Inquisition or at least the one she felt was the most of the same wavelength, and she's glad to see her fulfil her ambition for her family; but sad to see her go far away. I also really liked Josephine's outburst towards the end of Trespasser, I don't agree with all the points she makes in term of having doubts about the kind of organisation the Inquisition is becoming, yet having some kind of doubts about it is warranted and to have Josephine work her role as moral centre by being worried about it worked very well for me. Overall Inquisition is a bit... too spread out with a lot of things; but still a very entertaining experience as a game!

#dragon age inquisition #dai #dem plays da

[fandomshatewomen]

Wakanda has at least two precious natural resources: a trove of the rare Vibranium mineral that has helped vault the secretive African nation a century (or more) ahead of the rest of the world – and valiant, fire-hearted females.

While Chadwick Boseman breaks new ground in Black Panther as Marvel Studios’ first black leading man, the film also showcases an abundance of warrior women who each save the day in unique style.

Emphasis on style.

While Boseman’s T’Challa must both protect and rule his kingdom, he depends a lot on the powerful women in his life. The Walking Dead’s Danai Gurira plays Okoye, the general in charge of Wakanda’s defense and the head of the all-female Dora Milaje secret service, while Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong’o steals his heart as Nakia, a Wakandan “war dog” spy who’s like James Bond and a Bond girl rolled into one.

Meanwhile, T’Challa’s brilliant little sis Shuri, played by Letitia Wright, is a Vibranium gadget-master on par with Tony Stark, fashioning everything from Black Panther’s kinetic armor to remote control fighter jets.

Finally, there is Black Panther’s foundation, his home base, his home — his recently widowed mother, Ramonda, played by Angela Bassett, who despite her grief summons history and wisdom to her son’s throne. He’s going to need that, too.

Entertainment Weekly sat down with the Women of Wakanda just a day after they saw the film for the first time. They still seemed awestruck and praised director and co-writer Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station, Creed) for allowing their characters to stand tall alongside the iconic male hero. He was backed up behind the scenes by powerful women as well, with cinematography by Mudbound Oscar-nominee Rachel Morrison and dazzling African-inspired costumes by Ruth E. Carter.

“Watching the movie for the first time, I was seeing the different women occupy the same space and be their full selves, acting not with competition but with agency,” Nyong’o says. “Their personal motivations are what leads them forward. They are not eye candy. Although …” She leans forward to high five the other women. “We do look pretty damn fly, I must say!”

                                                                                              ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Wakanda is ahead of its time technologically, but it’s also ahead of its time in terms of equality. What is it about the culture of this fictional country that makes it such a place of resilient, brilliant women?                ANGELA BASSETT: It’s a nation that respects and reveres women. They think of us not just as Queen but Queen Mother. Mother is nurturer and the first teacher. That position is embraced. She’s not someone who is off to the side. Every mature woman is your auntie or your mother.                DANAI GURIRA: And in contemporary African cultures, it’s exactly that. It doesn’t matter if she’s a literal mother or not, an older woman is considered with respect. If you go into a store and you’re greeting someone or calling out to someone you call them “amai” in my country. [She was born in Iowa, but grew up in Zimbabwe.] That’s something Wakanda brought to the forefront that was beautiful.

Is part of it also the lore of Wakanda? That this is a fictional place that has never been conquered, so it never had to adopt the outside world’s views?                GURIRA: They were a nation uninterrupted. They got to go through their full evolution. Other countries on the continent were very interrupted and traumatized through colonization. Wakanda didn’t have that disruption. It was such an advanced nation, it actually allowed for evolution of gender roles. It recognized that you allow all your citizens to advance to their full potential.                LETITIA WRIGHT: Wakanda as a nation is so open to forward movement. It will, hopefully, inspire us in reality to go “Okay, cool, don’t limit the women to what they want to do.” [Gestures to Lupita] For example, Nakia is allowed to go out and be a spy and gather information for her nation, and she gets to choose whether she stays or goes. She’s not controlled by anyone. That’s powerful. She’s motivated by what’s in her soul and what she wants to do.

The same goes for your character, Shuri. She’s trusted with creating the tools that keep her brother safe as he keeps Wakanda safe.                WRIGHT: Her brother doesn’t look down on her like, “Ugh, you’re a kid, you can’t make a suit for me.” He’s like, “No, this is your domain! Kill it! Do a great job and make sure I’m protected. And I will respect that.” Life for women in Wakanda is beautiful. It’s inspirational. It’s something I’m gonna take from watching this film in my own life and for the future of my children as well, [laughs] when I have a family.                LUPITA NYONG’O: It was such a breath of fresh air seeing men and women living in their power with out one dwarfing the other. To me it was reflective of the fact that sexism is learned. To see a society where that’s not the focal point, where gender is not the fabric with which society is built and the delineations of sex are not oppressive, that’s really cool. And it’s possible.

That’s the value of a story like this, right? It’s a fantasy country and an imaginary world, but it’s nice to imagine things can be better. Why not?                GURIRA: Why not! It really does make you say, “Why Not”? To me, it’s about equality, and allowing each gender to come to the fullness of their potential without discriminatory hindrances. That is what this nation figured out.

Ramonda is queen of Wakanda, but now she is widowed. Her son is taking the throne. What would you say makes her powerful? What makes her a hero?                BASSETT: I think in her position she has a great deal of wisdom – and appreciation for generations coming after her. Her son is becoming king. She has the fine balance of mothering him, of being there for him and being proud of him and letting him go. She’s visionary in that she perhaps sees what he will become more clearly than he can. I think in another time and another place she was a warrior as well. She’s a support for these women around her and all that they are truly capable of being and doing. She loves unconditionally.

That is truly a mother’s power, isn’t it?

[Bassett gets called to leave early for work on Fox’s 9-1-1 series and departs the group.]

BASSETT: I love you. Kisses all around!

In the case of Shuri, you can tell her brother T’Challa really respects his little sister because he takes so much abuse and mockery from her.                [Laughter]                WRIGHT: She’s a relatable character to other young girls with that brother sister vibe. Not only does he respect Shuri, but all the women. He holds his own as a man and a king, but he respects everyone and what they’re doing.

Same question for each of you that I asked Angela. What is it about your character that makes her a superhero?                WRIGHT: I’ll go first. What makes Shuri a superhero is not the physical side. Superheroes are usually very strong or masculine. They’ve got some muscles. But… [Starts giggling] This is why mum needs to be here, because she keeps us balanced! But I think what makes Shuri a superhero is the way she thinks. Her mind is a weapon.

What surprised you about her as you found the character? What’s below the surface?                WRIGHT: When I read the comic books, she’s serious all the time. With the script they wanted her to be smart, but she is so much fun. She picks on her brother, and she makes jokes – even if it may not be a joke. [Laughs] She’s witty and sharp. Always got something fiery to say.                NYONG’O: What I love about Nakia is she’s worldly. She speaks many languages. And she’s a chameleon in a sense. She is at once extremely rebellious and wants to do her own thing, but wants to do well by her country. I love that tension in her. I love her relationship with T’Challa. It’s … complicated. [Laughs] That’s the Facebook status.

She makes him stronger. But she’s also sort of his Kryptonite, to steal a reference from another universe. Just the sight of her makes him freeze.                NYONG’O: Yeah, exactly!                WRIGHT: [Quoting Gurira in the movie] “Don’t freeze!”

It humanizes him. It takes the …                NYONG’O: … the edge off. He’s just a guy.

I love the distinction between Okoye and Nakia, who insists she’s not a member of the Dora Milaje.                GURIRA: She didn’t go through the process. The training!

The Dora are all about collective consciousness, moving in unison as one. Nakia is more of a rebel. More independent.                NYONG’O: [Nodding] A lone wolf.

That unifying power seems special to Okoye, like that’s one of her strengths.                GURIRA: I envision her as a very intense young girl, who was competitive, but in a good way. She’s part of the border tribe, and very connected to the idea of nation protection. She’s a protector. I imagine her as a very focused 12-year-old. [Laughs] There was this idea I had whenever Okoye or any of the army are in the streets, that little girls look up to them and want to wear that uniform one day. She was once that little girl. She has been a very one-track-minded person. She is a very strong traditionalist. She believes in holding the country together.

It’s a great time to be a female warrior. When shooting this, Wonder Woman hadn’t come out, and some people were wondering if women would turn out for a superhero movie. Do you feel a change in the way audiences want more and different kinds of female heroes?                GURIRA: I never doubted that. People decide things based on lack. You don’t provide and then you say people don’t want things. But they didn’t have options on the table, so how can you really make that assessment? I actually think it’s the opposite. It was then learned through Wonder Woman, which was no surprise to most women. We were all ready to flock out to that.

That’s what I wondered. Something changed, but was it the gatekeepers who decide which films get made, or the audience?                ALL OF THEM: Gatekeepers.                GURIRA: I’ll see some films and some storylines, and whatever, and I’m like really? Maybe because I’ve been doing The Walking Dead, and that’s a gender-neutral world. … I’m always wondering, what is this representation where women always need to be saved by men? What is that about? That’s gatekeepers deciding that that is what we need to see. And it’s time to change that. Please.

We’re living in a time of women rising up in real life, too. Black Panther is hitting right in the heart of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movement. Does it connect or draw energy from that with its many powerful women characters?                NYONG’O: I feel very strongly that change is not an event, it’s a process. What we see happening in this moment is pivotal. It’s not over. We cannot assess it yet. We have to keep going.

When I visited the set Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and executive producer Nate Moore both said I would be surprised by how topical and political it was. And I was surprised.                GURIRA: This is a movie so full of relevant arguments. We’re not short of those. One of the things we were concerned about was [Michael B. Jordan’s] Killmonger as a villain, because he has a very, very good argument. Very believable. It’s valid. The audience can’t sit there and only root for Black Panther. They have to come to terms with what all the villains are saying.                NYONG’O: [Pointing at Gurira] She’s spoiling everything.                GURIRA: He’s seen it though.                NYONG’O: But the world has not!

Don’t worry, I promise to take out the spoilers and leave it a little vague. I’ll protect the secrets for people.                GURIRA: See!                NYONG’O: Okay, he’s on your side.                GURIRA: He’s on our side!

I’m on the country’s side. Wakanda forever!                NYONG’O: [Laughs] This is his visa application.                WRIGHT: We’ll see if he can get citizenship.                GURIRA: You might, you might. I know some people.                WRIGHT: It takes a little more than that.

#black panther #black panther spoilers #lupita nyong'o #angela bassett #danai gurira #letitia wright

[kajaroj]

When we think of video game movies/adaptations, the thing that first come to mind is the horribly forgettable 1993 Super Mario Brothers movie. That movie laid the foundation of a string of multiple bad video game movies made by Hollywood, and one of which was 1994 Street Fighter starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. While there somewhat of a redeeming value with the movie (mostly for the wrong reasons), the 1994 Street Fighter movie represents the difficulty Hollywood has had in adapting a long-running fighting game franchise.

A year ago, I was full of excitement and hyperventilation when they announced that the live-action TV series based on the popular Street Fighter video game franchise—that had been in the works since 2014—was finally moving forward. What’s really exciting about the upcoming TV series is that it will be a sequel to an already existing live-action Street Fighter adaptation. Thankfully it’s neither the 1994 movie nor the Chun-Li movie.

https://deadline.com/2018/03/street-fighter-video-game-franchise-adapted-tv-series-entertainment-one-mark-gordon-1202352026/

To put things in perspective, this article will be a retrospective about the 2014 live-action web-series/movie Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist (to which the upcoming TV show sequel is based on), and why I consider this live-action foray to be one of the finest and most faithful screen adaptations of any video game to date and why this needs more mainstream exposure.

Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist is the brainchild of British actor and stuntman Joey Ansah. If you are not familiar with this man’s work, I suggest watching one movie he is most known for: The Bourne Ultimatum.

  The Bourne Ultimatum was the perfect stepping stone for Joey Ansah to showcase his talents that would eventually get him the opportunity to do a live-action Street Fighter adaptation, especially one that is done properly and faithfully. Out of all the Street Fighter aficionados that I’ve seen, Joey is arguably the only one that is genuinely passionate for the entire lore and universe, and it is very much evident in Assassin’s Fist on how much he carefully crafted dimension and humanity to well-known characters that are basically two-dimensional polygons in a fighting game.

Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist arose from a proof-of-concept short film that was released on YouTube in 2010, and it immediately got positive traction from fans and numerous media publications. The well-received short film, Street Fighter: Legacy, was done as a mere response to Hollywood’s failed attempts at adapting CAPCOM’s popular IP. Hearing from Joey’s interviews, like many Street Fighter fans he disliked the two Hollywood adaptations, and he really wants something to be done right.

Joey initially pitched a TV series to CAPCOM, but because of the certain difficulties of trying to get a TV show to be made, he re-approached his pitch into a short film which eventually became Legacy. Fast forward to 2012, the announcement of a new live-action Street Fighter feature-length series made me feel apprehensive at first. However, when I heard that it would be made by the same guys who did the Street Fighter: Legacy short film, it sparked a huge amount of hope, as I thought this might be the first live-action Street Fighter that will be done right. Two years later, the series Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist, was about to arrive. It was around 4-AM, and I was all prepared with early morning breakfast. Going in, I was feeling a bit anxious because, given the current status of video game adaptations in Hollywood which are still a work-in-progress, I still didn’t feel that a live-action Street Fighter series would merit any artistic or narrative value. However, after watching the series in its entirety, tears started pouring down and I felt so happy and relieved that it was very good. I thought it was the most intense, emotional and immersive experience I’ve ever had cinematically.

Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist was first released as a web series on YouTube, consisting of 12 episodes which are 10-12 minutes per episode, so if combined, it’s like a 2 & 1/2 hour movie. In terms of its production value, the series is very cinematic in quality, and so I feel it could have been released in movie theaters. Assassin’s Fist is truly a fan’s wet dream, having a huge amount of in-game references and Easter eggs for fans familiar with the games. But underneath its fan-service contains an incredible amount of deep narrative that strongly flushes out each of the characters. Of all the video game adaptations that I have seen, this is one that I would watch over and over. So, I asked myself: “Why did this work?” “What were the strengths?” Here are a few reasons as to why Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist worked so well as a fighting game adaptation:

This live-action adaptation is Street Fighter to the core.

The film/series stars the franchise’s poster boy, Ryu, played by Korean-American actor, Mike Moh. It also stars his American best friend/rival, Ken, played by British actor, Christian Howard. What I can truly say with this is… FINALLY!!! We have a live-action Street Fighter that is very true to the core essence of the games.

The main actors are well-cast, especially Ken Masters because he looks exactly like Ken in real life. Ryu was also spot-on that he reminded me one of the artworks from Street Fighter III: Third Strike. 

    The story takes place in Japan.

Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist’s setting takes place in the secluded mountain wilderness of Japan, which should have been the appropriate start for a live-action adaptation of the game. Street Fighter may be a global game franchise, but its roots will forever be ingrained with Japan. So, who lives in Japan? Who else?! The franchise’s poster boy, Ryu.

Ryu, perfectly embodied by Mike Moh.

The great thing about Assassin’s Fist is that it mostly tells the story of the Japanese characters. The story is set around the late 80s’ Japan where Ryu trains in the deadly style of martial arts known as “Ansatsuken” (Assassin’s Fist) under the tutelage of his master, Gouken. Though Ryu is not the only one learning the art of Ansatsuken, his American best friend Ken Masters is also learning the arts after his father brought him to Gouken when he was young to change his way of life after his mom’s death. During their final years as students, they learn the ways of the Hado, learning to do the 3 signature moves: Hadoken, Shoryuken & Tatsumaki Senpu-kyaku.

Assassin’s Fist is 2 storylines told in a non-linear way. The present-day storyline takes place in the late 80s’, while the past takes place around the late 50s’ as flashbacks. In the past storyline, we get to learn how Ryu and Ken’s master Gouken learned the ways of Ansatsuken under his master Goutetsu, and how the dark traditions and legacy of the art led to Gouken’s younger brother, Gouki, into becoming a powerful entity known as Akuma.

I don’t know about you guys, but I love Japanese storytelling, especially in cinema. What I love about Assassin’s Fist is that, despite this being a western adaptation, every aspect feels authentically Japanese. Of course, there were lots of English dialogue, but it balances it with Japanese dialogue that makes the film feel like an authentic Japanese movie. The landscape cinematography and film scope often reminded me of classic Akira Kurosawa films I’ve watched.

It’s not an adaptation of any Street Fighter game.

Among the major strengths of Assassin’s Fist is that the core essence of the games remains intact despite the film not being a direct adaptation of any existing Street Fighter game. The movie acts as a prequel to the events of the first game, while referencing a variety of narrative elements from the games. Aside from the 2 terrible Hollywood film attempts, Street Fighter has had several adaptations, mostly in the animation and comic field. Having read a number of Street Fighter-related comics and watched all of anime, Assassin’s Fist makes a number or references and nods to the various animations and comic book iterations.

The balance of drama and martial arts is perfectly-paced.

What made Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist work as a piece of film was the intricate balance between character drama and martial arts. The film runs at 2 1/2 hours, which was perfect for adding fight scenes at the right pace. The film had about 4 fight scenes and 2 training sequences, which is a total of 6 action scenes. The martial arts scenes were superbly-shot and tightly choreographed, and what really helped make this happen was the fact that the actors themselves are actual martial artists.

As a whole, Assassin’s Fist plays more as a “drama film with martial arts” as opposed to being a martial arts film. The drama worked very well because it was very non-linear, yet straightforward—as opposed to being convoluted and scattered. The character development perfectly humanizes each character’s motivations while still adding a bit of mystery to them. Moments of interaction between Ryu, Ken & Gouken were great to watch, especially the training sequences. My favorite dramatic moments, though, were from the flashback scenes between the young Gouken, Gouki & Goutetsu. The movie is mostly serious in tone, but I also enjoyed the comedic moments just to lighten the mood.

The huge amount of dramatic depth was mostly shown in scenes in the past, especially in scenes between Gouki and Goutetsu where they’re arguing about the traditions and philosophies of the Ansatsuken lineage. There is no clear protagonist and antagonist in the movie, but what really immerses me with each character is that fact that they’re dramatized as very multi-dimensional. They have moral grey areas, flaws, fears, struggles and insecurities that would make you root for any of the characters.

Reflecting on its release, Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist provides a solid proof that fighting games and video games in general can work as cinematic adaptations if done faithfully and properly. This movie is the perfect template for any filmmaker attempting to adapt any video game that properly balances in-game action and story. It’s just slightly disappointing that with everything that was accomplished here, mainstream press overlooked this piece of cinematic gem.

My only assumption as to why Assassin’s Fist not getting its much-deserved mainstream exposure is because it was a fan-made adaptation. But I feel like some of the press overlooked that this movie was made with CAPCOM’s involvement. I guess bigger attention to Assassin’s Fist will subsequently pick up when more updates with the upcoming TV series is released. Thankfully, many of the actors who appeared in this movie/web-series are now getting much bigger opportunities, particularly the Ryu actor, Mike Moh who recently got his Hollywood breakout portraying Bruce Lee in Quentin Tarantino’s latest film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

From Ryu to Bruce Lee.

So, I’m going to end this article by saying… Thank you, Joey Ansah, for giving us a true-to-heart live-action cinematic adaptation of Street Fighter, and a great yet overlooked video game movie which I truly hope will find its way into much bigger publicity than its initial release.

After over a year trying to sum up my overall thoughts on this particular topic, this is a retrospective on what I consider to be the most overlooked and underappreciated video game adaptation ever. Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist. When we think of video game movies/adaptations, the thing that first come to mind is the horribly forgettable 1993 Super Mario Brothers movie.

#Ansatsuken #Assassin&039;s Fist #Capcom #Christian Howard #Fighting game #Joey Ansah #Live action #Martial arts #Mike Moh #Street Fighter #Street Fighter movie #TV series #Video game adaptations #Video game movies #Video games #Webseries

[ramajmedia]

Control: Our 10 Biggest Unanswered Questions After The Game's Ending

As a suspenseful mystery, Control is filled with questions that remain unanswered long after the credits roll. The latest game from Remedy, developers of classics like Max Payne and Alan Wake, Control is a wildly entertaining action title with a focus on environmental storytelling and deep lore.

The Federal Bureau of Control is a mystery wrapped in an enigma locked inside of a puzzle box. Its secrets have secrets. Player-character Jesse Faden doesn't know exactly what's going on when she first becomes Director, and even afterwards, she's pulled along by the momentum of the story more than her own fine understanding of the events transpiring around her. Control's story is told both through in-game progression and environmental storytelling, like lore documents, audio recordings, video files, and greater context clues.

Related: Control: A Complete Weapons & Mods Guide To The Director's Pistol

Even after Control ends, there are still numerous questions that are still missing answers. Perhaps some are being saved for DLC, others for a full sequel. Maybe players will never get definitive answers to all of Control's many questions - but that's all part of the adventure.

The Federal Bureau of Control has been around for a while, but how long? Zachariah Trench mentions that it's been existence, in one form or another, for centuries, but just how long have government agents been collecting Altered Items and Objects of Power? The Oldest House was discovered in 1964, but had surely existed before then. What brought this Place of Power into our realm of existence? The upcoming DLC, The Foundation, looks like it may at least partially answer some of the questions about the origins of The Oldest House, and maybe even the Bureau.

Jesse's mysterious allies seem less than benevolent, but they oppose The Hiss, which makes them aligned with Jesse, at least for now. Their messages are filled with literal double meanings and thinly veiled threats. They're helping Jesse, but clearly to their own ends. Their origins are as mysterious as that of The Hiss, but they're implied to be the true bosses of the Bureau. Perhaps they have some long-term use for a government agency that collects and stores supernatural objects. The Hiss are the immediate threat, but it almost seems like a foregone conclusion that Jesse will inevitably find herself in conflict against The Board in prospective future games in the series.

Early on in Control, Jesse comes across Ahti the Janitor, a Finnish maintenance worker who doesn't seem too bothered by the invasion of Hiss overtaking The Oldest House. Ahti aids Jesse at key moments in the game, and seems pretty nice, if cryptic and uncomfortably unfazed by the Hiss incursion. He doesn't wear the HRA equipment that protects other Bureau personnel from The Hiss, but is nevertheless immune to their malignant corruption. There are a number of theories as to the truth behind Ahti. Perhaps he is a retired Director who took on another form to oversee the Bureau from a different perspective. Maybe he's a genuine Norse God, protecting the Bureau while keeping his godhood a secret from the world at large. Whatever the case, we're just glad he's on Jesse's side, for now.

Of all the supporting players, Helen Marshall is the one with the least screen-time, and the one who mysteriously disappears during the post-game epilogue. Random chatter suggested she might be in the Black Rock Quarry, but we checked (for a really long time), and found nothing. Our best guess is Remedy is saving her for a key role in one of the upcoming DLC expansions.

Throughout the game, the player comes across many reel-to-reel film recordings of Dr. Casper Darling explaining some of the key concepts of the Bureau. He's a key character throughout Control, but he never appears face-to-face with Jesse. In fact, as far as we can tell, he doesn't even have an in-game character model. He's only ever seen in live-action segments. Near the very end of Control, he communicates with Jesse via the Hotline, but it's unclear exactly what happened to him. It's implied he died in the room holding Hedron, but The Hiss couldn't access that room until near the very end of the game. Did he die before then? Was he somehow absorbed into Hedron?

Jesse finds herself at The Oldest House in time to become Director and fight The Hiss, but she also has a more personal motive for seeking out the Federal Bureau of Control. Her brother, Dylan, was taken by the Bureau after both siblings were involved in an Altered World Event that seemed to kill every adult in the town of Ordinary, Wisconsin. During his years of imprisonment, Dylan was subjected to unthinkable torture while being groomed as Candidate P6, a potential Director. Jesse was Candidate P7.

At the end of the game, Dylan, corrupted by The Hiss, is defeated by Jesse. During the epilogue, he is in a coma, and nobody knows if or when he will wake up. Between Bureau brainwashing and Hiss intervention, it's unknown how much, if any, of the original Dylan is in there, or if his waking up would be a good thing or a bad thing for the Bureau.

Jesse is referred to by The Board as "The Chosen One", in that she is able to wield the Director's Service Weapon, which thus makes her the Director. What makes her special? Is it because she carries Polaris inside her? Or was Polaris drawn to her because she was already special? Clues in the game hint that Jesse might be from another dimension; one of Dylan's dreams (heard in optional conversations with him in Central Executive) suggests she and Dylan might be one person who was split into two halves, but there isn't enough evidence to draw a definitive conclusion. One way or another, there's more to Jesse than meets the eye, and the relationship between her and her brother will no doubt be explored in prospective Control sequels.

Polaris and The Hiss both made their way to our reality through the Slide Projector. Polaris passed through during the Ordinary, Wisconsin, Altered World Event, while The Hiss were unleashed years later, when the Slide Projector was turned on in the depths of The Oldest House. Even though they were released years apart, it's reasonably to conclude The Hiss and Polaris share an origin, particularly since they seem to be directly opposed to one another. Using Polaris, Jesse can "cleanse" corrupted objects and take back control from The Hiss. But is she taking control for herself and the Bureau, or for Polaris?

Control is full of optional bosses, from Mold-1 to the Hiss-corrupted form of Dr. Tommasi, but none are as spectacular or unexpected as FORMER. This Lovecraftian boss is encountered after meeting Dylan and returning to the Refrigerator Altered Item. Though it reminds Jesse of The Board, she can't understand what FORMER is saying. What is FORMER? Is it nothing more than a giant parasite of the Astral Plane? Is it some kind of scout sent by The Board to control Altered Items from beyond our dimension? Why is it called FORMER? Could it be a rogue version of The Board who betrayed its purpose to pursue its own agenda? The whole boss fight is a non-sequitur, even within the outlandish reality of Control, so FORMER remains one of the game's most elusive question marks.

Alan Wake exists in the universe of Control. It's not just Easter eggs or winks and nods; Control is a full-fledged pseudo-sequel to the 2010 psychological thriller/third person shooter. So what happened to Alan Wake in this universe?

Next: How Control Actually Exists In Alan Wake's Universe

source https://screenrant.com/control-game-unanswered-questions/

#screenrant