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mishasminions · 3 years

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The Last Time I’ll Write a Long Post About Supernatural (15x18-15x20)

15 YEARS OF WATCHING THIS SHOW. 11 YEARS OF RUNNING A BLOG ABOUT IT. IT’S BEEN QUITE A RIDE.

[15x20 Speculation + evidence at the bottom]

First off, I just wanna come clean and say, after all these years, I still think they should’ve ended at Season 5.

If you’re going to come at me with “Then why’d you stick around to watch it if you didn’t like it?”, your question is immature, and the answer is simple: I just want to know what happens next (I also love the main characters and their actors too). You can watch a show and still think it’s shit.

Call me a clown, but despite all the disappointment and trust issues that this show has given me, I would still look forward to the day where it might just turn itself around and bring back the quality it once had, or realize the potential of each story it was trying to tell, or at the very least, do justice by my favorite ship.

Never happened.

They’ve had a few good episodes here and there. I can’t imagine the SPN Universe without The Man Who Would Be King, The French Mistake, and Scoobynatural. Seasons 6-10 were enjoyable at times. I blocked out most of 7 & 11-15.

If you’ve been following this blog since its heydays in 2010-2014, you’d know I’d try my best to defend Destiel and this show’s decisions regarding it no matter what.

Because you know what, as a CONCEPT, this show is good. If you take a look at all the worlds its storylines have birthed in fanfiction/fanworks, you’d see how much Supernatural has wasted its own story arcs. The writing got shittier as each season progressed, and they’ve obviously given up in production as well because the quality in the execution has noticeably gone down too, but if you take a step back and take a look at the bigger picture, you’ll see that this show still tries to make sense of itself.

[If you’re still following this post, please bear with me, I know this is long, but I just want you to understand how jaded and pessimistic I am with regards to this show, so maybe you can buy into whatever hopeful thing I’m about to say later on.]

SO LET’S TALK ABOUT DESTIEL

Never in my wildest dreams did I think that they would give us Castiel’s “I love you” speech. To the point where, if I weren’t so desperate for it, I would argue that it was completely out of character for him to word vomit the way he did (but I’m not gonna diss on that right now because I’ll take what I can get).

I’ve valued every meaningful and obscure exchange that Dean and Cas have had in the earlier seasons, and I was willing to accept their relationship as just that--undefined, without any clear boundaries as to what they really are. And I think that was beautiful on its own.

But now, they’ve chosen to define it.

After they’ve driven every possible wedge between Dean and Castiel in seasons 11-15, to try to explain away their feelings as something they offer to a collective.

Dean can’t mourn and pray for JUST Cas, he has to mourn and pray for EVERYBODY--even Crowley, even some chick he just met, because god forbid he cries about just the guy who has given up everything for him--that would be “too homo”.

They’ve even set Cas on a path to abrupt fatherhood just so he can care about something other than Dean. Make it seem as if Dean wasn’t his purpose through and through.

And after all these years of this stupid show trying to deny it, they choose to acknowledge it at the worst possible circumstance, at a time where they’ve been so far apart, that it seems so foreign for them to suddenly come together.

But here we are. And they’ve chosen to tell us.

Chosen to tell us that everything that Castiel has done leading up to his death, he has done it because he was IN LOVE WITH DEAN WINCHESTER.

Chosen to tell us that the ONE THING THAT WOULD MAKE CAS HAPPY IS DEAN WINCHESTER.

Chosen to tell us that BEING WITH DEAN WINCHESTER is something that CAS WANTS BUT KNOWS HE CAN’T HAVE.

And they’ve also chosen to tell us nothing about how Dean feels.

Sure, finding out your angel made a deal, the stipulations of said deal, his newfound happiness philosophy, his long-winded monologue of why he loves you and why you’re worthy of his love, and to top it all off he tells you that being in love with you is enough to make him happy while he subtly hints that he’s always wanted to be WITH you romantically, was a lot to process in the 5 minutes after you’ve just had an existential crisis.

It’s whatever, right? Let’s culminate 11 years worth of tension and feelings in 5 minutes. Let’s waste the entire episode with cringey expository dialogue, and irrelevant sequences. The whole season was a waste anyway.

You know what Supernatural? FUCK YOU FOR THAT. They deserved better. WE deserve better.

And I would love nothing more than to hurl every possible insult your way,

But for the last time, I’m going to HOPE that you’re finally going to try to make it better for the fans that stuck by you all these years.

No more baiting new viewers, no more placating casual viewers, no more excuses. 15 years. Bring it home for the people who have actually been around.

SO HERE’S HOW I THINK 15x20 IS GONNA GO

There’s two ways this series is gonna end. Horribly or Spectacularly.

First let’s all take into consideration what Andrew Dabb says about it:

So, let’s start with

ENDING HORRIBLY

In this scenario, Misha is telling the truth about his last day of filming being 15x18. His “camping trip” during the last few days of filming 15x20, was actually a camping trip. He doesn’t go to Vancouver to shoot.

Jensen wasn’t “being careful” during the zoom interviews that it was just him and Jared quarantining for the shoot, it really was just him and Jared (althought most of these were done pre 15x19) Supernatural isn’t smart enough to do misleading PR, and they’re once again oblivious to the potential of their own story.

Misha hasn’t posted a “Goodbye Castiel” tweet because he’s probably saving it for last episode or he forgot because it was overshadowed by the Destiel trend that night.

So what we get is:

Sam and Dean are on the road again, up against the monster of the week. Only their world no longer has actual Supernatural beings anymore, so the monsters they’re fighting are humans.

Humans end up killing the Winchesters (despite having gone up against literally every powerful being imaginable INCLUDING God himself). Dean and Sam end up in heaven and relive their greatest hits.

Meanwhile, Castiel rots in The Empty because he died after realizing that he was happy and gay. Jack doesn’t bother rescuing him—his surrogate dad, the guy who made this specific deal to spare him—even though it was so easy for him get Cas in and out of The Empty when he had a fraction of the power that he has now.

Dean never speaks of Castiel’s confession because despite all the hints of a profound bond in the earlier seasons, and the fact that Dean has never cared for anyone (who isn’t his actual brother) as immensely as he does Cas, Supernatural just can’t have its main macho character be “suddenly bisexual” because that would hurt the male ego or some shit.

His heaven would probably be living happily ever after with his family. “Family” meaning Mary and John Winchester--two of the shittiest parents ever (but they’re not going to include them in this episode like they were supposed to because of Covid) and Sam.

Sam also gets a dog. As usual.

I wouldn’t put it past Supernatural to do this. After everything they’ve pulled, this would be right up their alley. I actually expect this ending.

Anyway, onto the next possible ending

ENDING SPECTACULARLY

In this scenario, Supernatural tries to stick the landing, and Jensen’s whole “It didn’t sit well with me at first, but then I took a step back after talking to Kripke, and realized that I had to view it from an audience perspective, I am now really excited about it” (DC Con 2019) anecdote about his thoughts on the final episodes, were actually about Dean potentially ending up with Cas. (Which would totally make sense because Jensen at first didn’t see Dean as anything but hetero, but as of late, he has been throwing in Destiel jokes of his own, so he seems to have warmed up to the idea)

Backed with Misha’s tidbit (DLConline 2020) that he and Jensen had conversations about Destiel, and that they wouldn’t have gone through with it if Jensen wasn’t onboard with it, but Jensen didn’t push back at all. (Why would they need to check with Jensen if it was just Cas going all in?)

Robert Berens (writer of 15x18) also wrote the script at the beginning of Season 15, but made Misha privy to the concept a year prior (Season 14), so they went into this season knowing about Destiel going canon.

This one’s a reach, but this scenario also supposes that Misha was lying about his whereabouts during the filming of the final episode, and him saying that 15x18 was his last episode is part of the diversion to avoid taking away from the weight of Castiel’s death.

And that Supernatural is actually self-aware of its own material (similar to how they have wrapped things up in the past—lots of expository dialogue, poor execution, but fulfills the story arc)

Since Season 15 is basically a Meta Season (Chuck/God as a writer, pretentiously calling out how he created the worlds, its characters, and basically invalidating the past 14 seasons), and 15x19 is supposedly the finale for Season 15, written by two of the worst Supernatural writers, Brad Buckner and Eugenie Ross-Leming (Bob Singer’s wife), then we can assume that 15x19 is where the shitty writers kill themselves--as Chuck, of course.

So we get a badly written episode that produces a bad ending, or as Becky put it, “All action, and no Cas”

So we get the bad writers season ending at 15x19.

And 15x20 is where Sam and Dean write their own stories, and where the cast had a hand in pitching ideas for it.

Dabb has mentioned that 15x20 (Act Two) is a SERIES finale, where they try to resolve the characters’ journeys.

Because as everyone has acknowledged, Supernatural isn’t about the story, it’s about the characters.

So here’s what we can get out of it:

With no more Supernatural beings left to fight, Sam and Dean are in a stalemate. They’ve resigned themselves to fighting to the bitter end, but the “end” has passed, and they’re still standing.

So they try to figure out who they are now, and what they want out of the life they still have.

Sam still wants a normal apple pie life. Before Dean dragged him out of college to go hunting with him, he had a whole life planned out for him. Become a lawyer, settle down with a nice girl, and get a dog. He gave all that up because they had work to do, but now the work is finished, he can finally go back to wanting that for himself again.

Dean finally realizes his self-worth after Cas saves him again. His prayer to Cas in purgatory may have helped him come to terms with his anger, but the whole “you’ve done everything you did for love” speech finally put him in his place, and he learns not to hate himself anymore.

But of course, he cannot fully reconcile with himself if he doesn’t get Cas back, and tell him how he feels.

Because Dean actually wants something for himself this time. Something he knows he can finally have if he can just salvage it.

So maybe this time around, with the help of Jack (off-screen), Dean saves Cas. Grips him tight and raises him from perdition.

They bypass The Empty deal by turning Cas human, and he lives the rest of his days with Dean.

Dean and Cas know they deserve to be saved, and they know that they deserve to be happy.

(Wishful thinking, maybe they kiss a little)

Anyway...

I’m just saying, there’s NO WAY that they’d have Cas go through that whole rushed speech, if they weren’t going to do anything about it later on.

But again, after 10 years of disappointment, I wouldn’t put it past Supernatural to pat themselves on the back and say, “Okay, we sort of gave them what they wanted. We’re good now”

If that’s the case, Supernatural, I’m sorry I wasted my time on you.

Here’s to hoping 🤡

#THE LAST TIME I'LL CLOWN FOR THIS SHOW #SUPERNATURAL #DESTIEL #15x20 #15x19 #15x18 #UNTAGGED #INSIGHTFUL INSIGHTS

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deadcactuswalking · 4 years

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REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 24th November 2019

I know I say this every week but we finally did get a cooldown week and as I say whenever we don’t have many new tracks to review, this will actually be a short week, despite a pretty big debut. I don’t have much time to write this at all so I’m just going to flash past everything here, I apologise if I miss any detail.

Top 10

It’s Tones and I’s eighth week at the top with “Dance Monkey”, still stable at #1.

Similarly not moving at all is “Don’t Start Now” by Dua Lipa at number-two, which I actually have qualms about considering it could potentially not hit #1 and just stall at the runner-up spot.

The number-three spot goes to a debut from Billie Eilish, with “everything i wanted”, which peaked at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, and is Eilish’s fifth UK Top 40 hit and third top 10 entry. We’ll talk more about it later.

Sadly, that means “Ride It” by Regard featuring Jay Sean is down one spot to number-four. I’m surprised that song’s not already on its way out.

“Memories” by Maroon 5 makes its way up one spot to number-five.

Unfortunately, it takes Lewis Capaldi’s trite “Bruises” up with it, moving up four spaces to number-six.

“South of the Border” by Ed Sheeran featuring Camila Cabello and Cardi B seems to struggle down three spots to number-seven.

“Good as Hell” by Lizzo featuring Ariana Grande is up a spot to number-eight.

“Lose You to Love Me” by Selena Gomez, on the other hand, is down a spot to number-nine.

Notably, and quite to my dismay, off of its debut last week, we have “ROXANNE” by Arizona Zervas up 14 spots to #10, becoming his first entry in the top 10... why?!

Climbers

There are none. Okay, no, I’m being insincere, there are some but they’re pretty unremarkable to say the least. “Pump it Up” by DJ Endor is up seven spaces off of the debut last week to #29, and seemingly due to album hype, “Lights Up” by Harry Styles is also up seven spots, rebounding back into the top 20 at #16.

Fallers

I know, this is where I usually say that the fallers are more plentiful, but they actually weren’t, well, they were to an extent but it’s a pretty miniscule amount this time. At #36, “Follow God” by Kanye West continues to flop down nine spaces, “Paper Cuts” by Dave does the same off of the debut down a whopping 15 down to #30, whilst “HIGHEST IN THE ROOM” by Travis Scott and “Outnumbered” by Dermot Kennedy start off their downward spirals, down seven and nine spaces respectively to #24 and #23. “Buss Down” by Aitch featuring ZieZie may as well be doing the same down five to #21, and sadly, off of the top five debut from last week, “Must Be” by J Hus is now at #13, down eight spaces from the week prior.

Dropouts & Returning Entries

We almost always have dropouts, but it’s very uncommon for us to really have any returning entries since we only cover the top 40, however we do in fact have a returning entry this week with “Lover” by Taylor Swift returning to #38 thanks to the remix featuring Shawn Mendes. That’s all we have for returning entries – dropouts, on the other hand, we have a few of. First of all, “Be Honest” by Jorja Smith and Burna Boy experiences streaming cuts that lead it off of the charts from #25, while the others are just remnants of songs that kind of flopped. “The Last Time” by the Script is out from #32, “10,000 Hours” by Dan + Shay and Justin Bieber is out from #35, “Tell Me” by Krept & Konan featuring D-Block Europe and Ling Hussle is out from #37 and “Floss” by AJ Tracey featuring MoStack and Not3s is out from #39 as well. These aren’t very remarkable or good songs (Apart from “10,000 Hours”, which is good but not particularly notable or really anything worth discussing too in-depth), so not even the drop-outs here could be big stories. We could have a featured single even, this week is so boring, but alas, I have little time. Let’s get to the new arrivals.

#35 – “Watermelon Sugar” – Harry Styles

Produced by Tyler Johnson and Kid Harpoon – Peaked at #10 in Lithuania and #60 in the US

So, this is Harry Styles’ second single from the upcoming sophomore solo effort, Fine Line, where he seems to be continuing the classic rock formula he touched upon in his self-titled debut record, although from what we can gather, this album seems to be more focused on replicating the anthemic indie stomper than the slow, 70s soft rock ballad. I didn’t like the lead single, and it soon dropped down the charts pretty quickly before rebounding this week, so I’m curious and hopeful to see if this is any good. This is only Styles’ third UK Top 40 hit as a solo artist and that number would be a lot bigger if I counted the singles with One Direction... but is it any good? I mean, I wish it was. The riff here is pretty catchy and fun, and the production is appropriately lush, but the sheer amount of synth overdubs does cause a lot of clipping towards the end, and Harry Styles just sounds bored out of his mind here. I like the guitars here, especially in the second verse, but the transition to the chorus is abrupt and awkward, and the chorus is mind-numbing. It doesn’t work as an anthemic single because it acts as such as a lightweight, fluffy wasteful song, with a lacklustre performance from Styles, inorganic drum loops and a pathetic post-chorus where Styles reaches into his... vocodered falsetto? Yeah, whatever this is going for, it’s clearly failing for me. Sorry, but much like “Lights Up”, I don’t care for this at all.

#32 – “Jerry Sprunger” – Tory Lanez featuring T-Pain

Produced by Tory Lanez, Play Picasso and Papi Yerr – Peaked at #34 in Canada and #44 in the US

Tory Lanez is perhaps my least favourite rapper. He’s so infuriatingly boring and generic, more often than not he sounds nasal and gross whilst being completely inoffensive content-wise and sometimes just straight-up ripping off his influences like Kendrick Lamar, which Joyner Lucas pointed out and they had the whole diss track exchange that was supposed to prove Lanez as a “lyrical” rapper when really all it did was embarrass both parties, but I digress. Tory Lanez is aggravating and I hate near everything he’s put out, and he just happens to be oddly successful in the UK, but to an extent where I’m confused by it. He’s not a big artist in the UK – well, not really, he’s had only one top 10 album although hip-hop albums tend to suffer here anyway, and never a UK Top 40 hit on his own (He did get one with 6ix9ine last year, so this is his second and T-Pain’s 11th), despite appearing on Good Morning Britain to be interviewed about... nothing since he didn’t have an album coming out. Guess who finally got him that British breakout single? Freaking T-Pain. I have a lot of respect for the guy but even he knows he’s more than 50% a punchline the majority of the time, and plays to that by being a jokester. This is from Tory Lanez’s concept album (Yes, concept album) Chixtape 5. The loose concept is that he takes samples from mid-2000s R&B songs, makes beats from them, and puts the original R&B singers on them, which just sounds like a massive waste of sample clearance money to me, but again, I digress. I’ve heard one other song off of this album and it was as musically incompetent as a Goddamn washing machine so, is this one any better? Well, I like T-Pain’s verse, but I knew I would already, check out his album he released in January, 1UP, it’s actually pretty decent, especially “RIP to the Parking Lot”. This is actually his first UK Top 40 hit “5 O’Clock” featuring Wiz Khalifa and Lily Allen peaked at #6 in 2011. So, “I’m Sprung” was released in 2004 and it was T-Pain’s debut single, becoming his first top 10 in the US, and a Dizzee Rascal remix helped it get to #30 here in the UK too. I don’t really like that song in all honesty, it still sounds really primitive in comparison to his later compositions, and sometimes he just straight-up sounds offbeat.”Jerry Sprunger” might be worse, taking one loop from the little faux-acapella section of “I’m Sprung” and making a tone-deaf trap beat out of it. Tory Lanez, when he’s not mumbling, he’s making a gross and weedy Chris Brown impression, with no content whatsoever. The chorus just feels overwhelming and cluttered with so many layers of multi-tracked T-Pain. T-Pain is still incredibly charismatic, with carefree, easy flows that still sound impressive, and a random beatboxing break that’s hilarious. Oh, yeah, and for a straight minute, the sample is reversed and we just have some unnecessary Tory Lanez vocal riffing. Gross. This might have made me appreciate “I’m Sprung” more, actually.

#19 – “Before You Go” – Lewis Capaldi

Produced by TMS – Peaked at #1 in Scotland and Ireland

...First Tory Lanez, a man who makes music I despise but I never expected to show up, and now Lewis Capaldi, an enemy to both democracy and REVIEWING THE CHARTS, shows up to spite me with a late deluxe edition single... even though that’s what “Bruises” is. I mean, okay, maybe they’re pushing this one to the US – oh, wait, lol it didn’t chart anywhere outside of Europe... or New Zealand, but I doubt Capaldi is desperately looking for his big Kiwi crossover. Capaldi himself has been very vague about his fifth UK Top 40 hit... and so will I, in fact, I will just recount my thoughts on Capaldi and detail my history with the man. I first met Capaldi on the 13th of January this year, when “Grace” debuted at #33 on the UK Singles Chart, and I referred to him breezily as a “Scottish dude” – such a simpler time, and admittedly had very little to say about the song, but I did come to the conclusion that he sounded like a Scottish post-hardcore vocalist trying to re-write “Fight Song”, which is the type of analogy I used to make earlier in this show, whilst now I just cynically ramble. The song dropped out the next week, 20th January, replaced by “Someone You Loved” at #29, and I made my first truly scathing review of the man, branding him as a boring person who doesn’t understand how music works. I continued on my analogy from “Grace”, stating he sounded out of place, and half-asleep on the droning, piano melody that “Someone You Loved” presents. I noticed his resemblance with James Arthur in terms of how they both strain their vocals, although I mistakenly declared Capaldi was a better vocalist, which is plainly untrue to me now. I said he was lacking in compelling content (Surprise, surprise, he still is), and that the UK outside of Scotland does not care about Lewis Capaldi or his music, since we made his hits interchangeable. I asked Lewis Capaldi directly, and I don’t often plead to the artists, to leave me alone. On both occasions, however, they were not granted Worst of the Week or even Dishonourable Mention (Although I did include him in the 20th’s “toss-up”, asking the reader to pick their own poison). On the 27th of January, “Someone You Loved” rose to #13 and I simply, quite politely said, I could not see this appeal. The following weeks, I would track Capaldi’s rise to the top (To my chagrin, of course). On 3rd February, “Someone You Loved” hit the top 10 and I said just that, not commenting on the success of the single. Despite this, the next week on the 10th, “Grace” returned at #40 and I felt the need to attack it again, saying that it sucks and, in parenthesis, “Who cares?”. On 17th February, I made my first prediction for Capaldi’s career as “Someone You Loved” rose to #3, saying that you should expect the song to reach the top, making no further comment. Again, I continued to follow the rise of both songs until 3rd of March, when “Someone You Loved” reaches #1, although I referred to the song as “some lame [...] song I heard once”, despite being slightly thankful for Capaldi as he was giving me less work by contributing to how dry the charts were. I would not be thankful for Capaldi ever again. I did not expect the song to stay at #1, saying on 10th of March that it was “hanging on”. On the 17th, I incorrectly reported it was its second week at #1 while it was actually its third. On 24th March, I ventured onto a full-on rant, saying, and I quote, verbatim:

““Someone You Loved” by Lewis Capaldi is still at the top for its fourth or fifth week and really? US pop music has been getting weirder, darker and more interesting, whilst the UK is lagging behind with boring pop ballads staying at the top for no reason other than the intense label push and some kind of pseudo-emotional strength that the track seems to be emitting to people. That’s not how it’s supposed to work, it’s supposed to be the other way around. This song is just lazy and feels like a total waste of studio time.”

Jesus, cactus. Here, I was comparing it to other more interesting songs still, and didn’t seem outright hatred for the man yet. On the 7th April, I made public my wishes for the song to be overthrown on its sixth week because I thought the song was painful and didn’t bear well with me after overplay. Then my situation continued to worsen as the prospect of more Lewis Capaldi songs debuting and lasting just as long as “Someone You Loved” is scary but perhaps too real. On 12th of May, “Hold Me While You Wait” debuted and in my review I not only called Capaldi the devil, but also a talentless putrid hack and, and I quote, verbatim, “a frog sobbing over its grandfather that had just flatlined”.

This new track is surprisingly okay, actually. I don’t care to analyse it any further, though, I mean after all it’s Lewis Capaldi and “okay” for him is the worst song ever made for most artists.

#3 – “everything i wanted” – Billie Eilish

Produced by FINNEAS – Peaked at #1 in Latvia and Lithuania, and #8 in the US

No introduction needed for this song or Billie herself, let’s just talk about the song, and it’s no surprise that it is pretty good. It’s been a while since I’ve talked about a song from Eilish, but the melancholy piano chords paired with the almost dissonant whispery, reverb-heavy vocals create an eerie, almost paranoid atmosphere, one so good I think I forgive the bass clipping. The claps and percussion in general initially seem pretty unfitting but when the chorus hits, it gets pretty obvious that that’s on purpose, as the reverb drowns them in a form of distance, making sense for the song thematically. In the second verse, her saying “underwater” has some sort of vocoder effect that makes it sound like it’s being said underwater... and I like pointless touches like that. The panning airy synths in the chorus are gorgeous, and FINNEAS’ harmonies with Billie actually sound pretty great, although it’s odd to hear him so clearly on a Billie Eilish track. I like the song overall, but it does feel a tad underwhelming, or perhaps just too whelming, as it does go on for four minutes, which might be one too many, and I would have preferred more experimentation within the song, as its dry, minimalism does run... well, dry, by the end of the song. I respect the song’s lyrical matter though, as it works as a love letter to FINNEAS, her brother, and depicts a suicide attempt made by Eilish in a nightmare in which her fans turn their backs on her due to her attempt, which is actually really haunting to think about and the song reflects that – so, yeah, it’s pretty decent, and still miles ahead anything else from this week.

Conclusion

Worst of the Week is definitely going to Tory Lanez and, unfortunately, T-Pain for “Jerry Sprunger”, whilst Best of the Week should obviously be going to Billie Eilish for “everything i wanted”. Not a particularly good week, but hey, we’ll see what happens next week. “All I Want for Christmas is You” by Mariah Carey re-entered at #59 this week... it’s any minute now. Follow me on Twitter @cactusinthebank and see you next week – it might start getting a bit Christmassy in here.

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wupassman · 7 years

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Reviewing SweetStoryBro’s Review of the Shenmue story

https://twitter.com/sweetstorybro/status/831177322803892225

Some first ofs:

I am writing this directly adressing Sweetstorybro because it feels more natural and less impersonal to address him but that doesn’t mean it’s not intended for anybody else. I am one of the big backers (toy capsule set pledge) so I have a lot to say about this game I fought 14 years for to get that Kickstarter.

I am sorry if this may read a lil bit like a scatterbrained person wrote this. I basically take notes as I listen and since I managed to lose my write up for the first half of the podcast I had to rewrite that from memory too.

I really like the effort and research you put into this, while in places I can add something overall this is very sastisfying for a long time fan and definately a pretty goddamn complete rundown of what the story is about and how its executed. That being said generally if there’s agreement there is not a whole lot more to add so if I don’t outright disagree you can assume I agreed.

Let get to it then:

I think you did a really good job at explaining in which way Shenmue surpasses your average gaming experience, while its clearly a game it kinda goes past playing but experiencing. As you pointed out this game can be a very different experience for each player based on how hard they are looking to find connections and generally explore the world (and progress the story at just the right pace as to not miss a single cutscenes XD It’s not too easy to make a 100% run but if you do, things like Nozomi moving isn't as much out of the blue, yes she basically leaves as abrupt as he does but it's foreshadowed during the convos with her). Yu indeed built a very lifelike world with tons of lil details and NPCs that felt real. I really like how you brought up that book explaining what Yu was trying to do with this world. That was a thing I fan haven't heard of before. Indeed it is a very key aspect to differentiate between japanese and chinese, which of course becomes a much bigger deal in part II even, when Ryo is removed from his stomping grounds but in Hongkong. It's actually p interesting how a game about chinese culture was kinda a main idea from the beginning, as he was inspired to be making Shenmue (then Akira RPG/Project Berkley) many years prior, when he travelled China in order to research martial arts for Virtua Fighter.

As this is a perfect segway I’ll be skipping ahead a little bit here and talk about the fighting system.On of the main genres I always played were fighting games so I personally appreciated the super simplified VF fighting system (try VF3TB from the same time and youll know the difference) and being such a player I wouldnt even have thought of wanting to play this with analog stick. Golden rule of fighting games: dpad = accuracy, analog = wishy washy. That being said I am not at all opposed to change it up for Shenmue III and make it feel more like Sleeping Dogs. After all back in the day it was a different controller not quite as handy for 3D games (the lack of a 2nd stick means a lot). As long as the fighting is tight and responsive it works for me either way, iof there is a change that needs to happen it’s the camera. I am not really holding it against the game cuz it’s really old but the camera screw ups during fights could leave you clueless which way youre facing at times.

I wouldnt worry too much about the thing with the chapters. The games don’t equal chapters. It’s more like arcs/themes (as you later said when talking about the PostMortem). From basically the very start Shenmue was supposed to be split into 5 games and as of yet the plan/hope is that the final game will be Shenmue V. Shenmue I was only 1 chapter but Shenmue II was 3.

At the risk of completly blowing any kind of credibility I might have and just come off as a crazed fanboy: The pacing of Shenmue I had purpose. It very much corresponds with the mental state of Ryo. Feeling of grief and feeling lost. Shenmue I basically is about running into a brickwall and trying a different path until at the end he finally finds a way to get his passage to China. Until then his plans were shattered and ruined a couple of times and it weighs on him. And it should weigh on the player too. It’s part of how you manage to get this deep connection to the character because you as a player are forced to live out the day as is (or just go for the blocking out that your dad was killed and spend all day in the You Arcade). this is further emphasiszed that in Shenmue I theres rarely ever good weather and most of the soundtrack is depressing too. The days getting long is absolutely intentional. I can see how this might not be the most fun kind of gaming for a lot of people, but this is why different games exist. Shenmue’s job is not to appeal to players who can’t enjoy a game where shit doesn’t explode every 5 seconds. It is important to tell people who are interested so they know what theyre in for but its not actually a negative for the game itself because it actually perfectly fullfills what was required for this part of the story.

There is no way to talk about this without explaining how this correlates with the 4 themes Yu brought up and why Shenmue II is such a change of tone. It’s not just the fact that Hongkong is a bustling metropolis. It is very much the fact that due to the unseen part on the ferry and much more so because of all the masters and other freaks he meets in Hongkong that he opens up more. Again the change in tone of Shenmue II is also accompanied by visual and audio cues. THe soundtrack of Shenmue II is overall more upbeat, depressing themes do play in the more run down quarters but overall the game sounds cheerier. Likewise its not just that Hongkong of course is a much more colorful place than the suburban area he grew up in. It’s also basically always sunny in SHenmue II. Granted it makes a lot of sense due to the different seasons the game takes place in but of course with a highly artistic work like this, this is not a coincidence.

Let’s move right into the next part here. Yes Ryo behaves like a jerkass towards a lot of his peers. While there is a chance that the Voice Acting has some to do with it (No dissing Corey Marshall, the man is a hero!) it is still fully intended for him to be as cold and brooding as he is. You can tell by the face animation, which is p goddamn good for a game that old. Every Shenmue player made jokes about how Ryo’s happy face looks the same as his angry face. His moments where he is at least not totally miserable are rare and special. He is consumed with grief in Shenmue I. Shenmue II is about moving forward from that. HENCE DEPARTURE. not just locally but mentally. I really need to compare the interactions he had with the 2 most important females in his personal life.

The first one is obviously Nozomi: These conversations are awkward for more reasons than just them sucking at talking about their feelings (which btw isnt just them being teens but really very much them being japanese in this era too). Keep in mind both are aware of the feelings the other one has so they have a very close relationship. You’d think close enough for him to actually tell Nozomi what hes on and about to do in order to find the killer of his father. He doesn’t He’s very sparse with the information he shares which is entirely rooted in the fact that revenge is highly egoistical (heres a theme that gets such importance placed upon in Shenmue II). That doesn’t even mean hes an egoist, cuz he is not. He is just super preoccupied with his grief and aparently nobody really knows how to help him finding a better way to deal with it (given his age that makes sense too, no complaints there). As I mentioned earlier tho it depends on your play how many scenes with Nozomi you’re going to see (the Shenmue Passport cd is a good reference). Also since it wasn’t actually out of the blue that she would be going to Canada soon it is quite understandable she has a hard time telling him about her feelings too. This is not only a well known story beat but IRL youd think whether you wanna tell someone you love them when you know for a fact you’ll be moving overseas anytime soon. Especially when you consider the circumstance that if Ryo wasn’t on his revenge trip he’d assume his role as patriarch of the Hazuki Dojo.

Now lets fast forward to disc 4 of Shenmue II (THIS GEM!) and inspect the interactions Ryo has with Shenhua. These are amazing. They’re literally the best conversations Ryo has in all of the 2 games. Shenhua’s cheery and innocent, good natured personality makes it exceedingly hard for him to be the brooding jerkass anymore. A lot of that has to do with all the people he met who became his friends/mentors in Hongkong/Kowloon. He grew because of them. But Shenhua’s personality helped a great deal too. All of the sudden there are no distractions. Just the environment and her. What else would he do but chat with her? If you havent played Shenmue II I implore you to just youtube the conversations he has with Shenhua and compare with Nozomi yourself. It’s like night and day and p much the ultimate signifier for his growth throughout the progress of the game. Now this is venturing a into fan theory territory: the fan base is p much split down the middle of what kind of romantic role Nozomi is going to play in Ryo’s future. To me shes the child hood love interest that never became more due to him being preoccupied and her frankly not actually being available either. It would seem sensible to accept this as a chance missed as a part of moving on. I am positive he is going to end up with Shenhua as she resumes transforming him from this brooding dude preoccupied with revenge to a guy who truly internalises the lessons he learnt in Hongkong and adds a big helping of humanity to it.

Not to excuse his behavior towards Ine-san and Fukuhara-san (because you rightly identify them as cold) part of that is also rooted in japanese culture. With Iwao’s death Ryo became the patriarch of the family. Ine-san may scold him but in the end it is not her place to deny him. Likewise Fukuhara-san was Iwao’s student so that kind of transferred to Ryo now. The bigger point here is that he abandons his responsibilities for them. I don’t think it’ll have actual negative impact for him in story, but there is likely going to be a moment of awakening that it is high time he returns home and takes care of the martial arts school.

I am sorry this actually took a 2nd day to finish but I got busy watching Collisions 2017. I only listened to it once but in seghments. Since I am such a huge fan of the game I wanted to be fair and not overanalyze your review and find nitpicks where there arent any.

While the individual play style is entirely up to each player it is my recommendation for everyone playing this, it to give it time. Let it breathe. Just waste your time away doing fun stuff. You’re going to miss out on a lot if you’re playing it in the way youd play most linear games where you just resume with the next goal in the main quest like crossing of a check list. You are not supposed to leave this early. During my fast plays I still never finished before christmas. At best I managed a jan 15 arrival in Hongkong just to see if I manage to arrive on my own birthday lol. But in all seriousness the time limit for this game is so goddamn long because you arent really suppoed to rush through this too fast. Leaving by the middle of January or even by the end of it makes for an overall better experience IMO (lol I just heard the 10 hours thing and I damn near lost it haha. look as I said it’s ok to play it any way you see fit, but seriously 10 hours literally means just the main quest. no goofing off. You’re missing out on stuff and an overall more majestic experience is all I am saying) To me the harbor segment was super fun cuz it was cool figuring out how you get the most out of each day, incl at least some good toy collecting and maybe training (usually didnt need that anymore at this point). By no means I am trying to tell you to like an aspect you didn’t, but to me this very much comes down to how deep you immerse yourself in the world. If you let the time go by slowly (dont run basically😉) such things as working have a deeper impact on how you experience it - then 2h lunch break still feels like 15 minutes. It was literally the opposite for me in that the harbor is when I am p much forced to move the plot forward instead of just goofing off so much. I know people who share this kinda play style feel the same way that the harbor is - to us - where it really picks up.

Before my review of this is over I’d also like to personally recommend the japanese dub over the english dub. Yeah the english dub feels weird at times but this is also intentional. A good comparision to that would be the lines in the Spartacus TV show. Just like that one was speaking latin in english the Shenmue dub was speaking japanese in english if you get my meaning. The VAs talked about this on the SEGANerds podcast during the kickstarter. Of course due to having played it so much it works for me but it’s easy to tell the difference. At the same time I can not praise the english VAs enough for being incredible heroes who promoted the Kickstarter hard, it was amazing. I love all of you guys. Thank you for your passion. Will def play Shenmue III in both japanese and english to honor all of you!

I warned ya it’s prolly a lil bit all over the place. Anyway thanks for the review. give the man a follow: https://twitter.com/sweetstorybro

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