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Wordle 483 4/6

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I expect people in certain places to blame Wordle for their streak ending again, just like last time there was a word just like this. That's why I did a throwaway to cover all possible answers, leaving me with the one. I only self-impose hard mode when it's more fun that way, and this isn't one of those times.

Snake5555555555 posted...

Finding Nemo is still one of my favorite animated movies ever. Everything about it is endlessly creative, funny, & emotionally moving with not one wasted scene if you ask me.

That's peak Pixar for you. I do agree with that. It's still a great movie - anything Pixar is, and I'd definitely say I liked it. Maybe I should've put it as a 4.5 since my quibbles are so minor, and it's still creative, fun, and emotional all at once. The right blend of everything.

Today called for something easygoing that I'd preferably seen before and remembered decently enough. So, without further ado...

Finding Nemo (2003)
Directed by: Andrew Stanton
Written by: Andrew Stanton, Bob Peterson, David Reynolds
Starring: Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Alexander Gould, Willem Dafoe
Previous status: Saw ages ago

"Fish are friends, not food."

This held up decently well, but I do wanna start by saying I remember the long trek, "Just keep swimming," the climax, and numerous other little details, but I'd forgotten a lot of other little things. I remember it being feel-good fun, but unlike most people at the time I didn't particularly understand why people were calling it Pixar's "Magnum Opus." It's not. It's merely another great movie by them, one that isn't without its flaws. I'll get to those in a bit.

The movie opens with Marlin, a clownfish who isn't exactly funny, and his wife Coral looking over their many eggs, until a barracuda comes and eats them all. Worth noting: Coral tipped the barracuda off to the cache of eggs by diving for them, instead of trying to spare herself. Marlin gets away, as does one egg that hatches into Nemo, whom Marlin cares for as a single dad. Since Nemo has a birth defect that caused one of his fins to never grow, and he's an only child, Marlin is extremely overprotective of him. I think a big part of it is because that's Marlin's last connection to Coral, something he doesn't want to lose. Nemo, starting to develop some angst, chases after a "butt" (LOL, it's a boat!), gets himself captured by divers, and thus the plot starts off.

Marlin encounters Dory, a blue tang with short-term memory loss whom Ellen pulls off with aplomb, in a chance collision, and the two are taken aside by a shark named Bruce, who's... mostly vegetarian, for whatever reason. There, Marlin finds the mask the bad guy, a dentist, dropped, and after accidentally setting off the underwater minefield (geez, those mines look REAL), that tips Dory, who can read, off to P. SHERMAN 42 WALLABY WAY SYDNEY. This is told during an amusing chase sequence with an anglerfish.

Nemo wakes up in Dr. Sherman's fishtank, where he's accepted by the rest of the Tank Gang in this absolutely ridiculous ritual. It's hilarious how this is pulled off by fish, and it's animated pretty well - the animation here definitely holds up, even if there are some very unrealistic things that transpire. The leader is Gil, who also has a gimpy fin, but he's the sagiest of the bunch so they all trust him, and he longs to return to the ocean where he was born and recognizes Nemo's potential in an escape. The informant is a pelican named Nigel, who wants to help them all escape to the sea. All this is told well. After the help of a DUDE (a turtle named Crush, apparently voiced by the filmmaker himself), a whale, Marlin makes it to Sydney, but not before Crush's son starts a huge game of telephone about all of Marlin's epic escapades so everyone in Sydney Harbour is aware. This gets back to Nigel, who recognizes Marlin when his buddy tries to eat him. Nigel takes Marlin and Dory to Nemo.

All hell breaks loose in the dentist's office when his young niece Darla, who shakes fish bags until the fish is dead, is there, and Nemo... gets knocked down a drain that's right next to the chair? The wut? I've never seen something like this. There's the water sprayer, sure, but a drain? It doesn't make any sense to me. If it was on the counter by the wall, then that would make sense. But blah blah blah Nemo gets out and reunites with Marlin, then Nemo helps a huge school of fish escape a net since Dory got tangled up in there. He recognizes that Dory is now essentially his aunt, so that helps. Everyone lives happily ever after... except for Dr. Sherman, seeing as the Tank Gang managed to finally pull off one of Gil's escape plans, still stuck in the bags. LOL. At least they eventually manage to get out, probably because one of those seagulls going "MIKE MIKE MIKE" pecking at it, not recognizing that lets the fish get away.

Now, while I enjoyed this, and thought the animation was beautiful, I do want to note a few things. The first is a lack of a villain that you rather dislike. Dr. Sherman was there, sure, but he was more an obstacle than anything, wanting to what was best for his life since he's a human who doesn't seem to recognize the implications that fish have families, too. That's normal of humanity; I at least recognize this and thank any fish who has given their life to end up in the deep fryer and then my plate. This felt very episodic, yet interconnected, and it was done in a marvelous way with great payoff - it's just that I prefer something like Monsters Inc. to this when it comes to a climax. There were plenty of little things paying off here, like Nemo learning from Gil that fish swimming down weighs a net and Marlin's mollusk/sea cucumber joke (that ended up making no anemones with people), and that helped this stay amusing throughout. It's just enjoyable, feel-good fun, and that makes it more of a "mood movie" than something fully accessible. But hey, this is what tonight called for, so this is what tonight got.

Dory is epic comic relief, and Ellen SLAYED that part. The acting was consistently good throughout, making the characters believable, though I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the lack of a relatable female character (since most of them are used as comic relief). That's just a minor thing, honestly, since I can't see what, say, Coral surviving would've done to better the movie. It's still a good movie with a good statement about the environmental impacts of man on the oceans, and how keeping fish as pets isn't necessarily a good thing. (That said, Wikipedia says that ppl r dum and many bought clownfish as pets anyway, which is tragic. Other idiots blindly released their fish into the ocean and this caused invasive species to appear. My goodness, people. What is wrong with you? Did you NOT understand the message here?)

Overall, I enjoyed revisiting this, and will give it a 4.5/5. Additionally, @MetalmindStats , I have moved this nomination of yours to The Incredibles per your initial logic (it will move to Ratatouille, Wall-E, and Up thereafter).

Wordle 482 3/6

CATER
FLOUR
FLOOR

Dang, I thought I got me some dough in two! But everyone else guessed like that so I'm good with it.

MysteriousStan posted...

Sounds like you're knee deep in bad part of Zestiria. Not that I'd know since I never played it and I don't think I will!

Yeah, don't bother. Most of the game is incredibly dull. And then things finally start to speed up and... it's a mess. Let's go over what happened during the confrontation with Mayvin, shall we?

He takes us to a monolith that has at some point been placed in the center of the tower - the same room where, a thousand years earlier, his asshole ancestor copied the formula of Siegfried. The irony of the fact that the Mayvin clan would end here, at the pride and joy of their patriarch, is not lost on me. This monolith lets him do some storyteller mumbo-jumbo that warps me to the past, to show an innocent village being ransacked by Hyland after it was abandoned by Heldalf, the military commander in charge of the area.

The interesting part is, at the Empyrean"s Throne, when Shepherd Michael takes a baby from his sister Muse and sacrifices it to do some witchcraft that pushes the hellionized Maotelus (no explanation given as to what happened) into Heldalf, who then kills some Hyland valkyries and shakes of anything that comes at him. He became a hellion because he was made one by a dying Shepherd.

A dying Shepherd who so happened to be Sorry's father. And one who so happened to be Mikleo's uncle. Yeah, that's right, the two ruin nerds are cousins, and Mikleo was the sacrifice made to do whatever nonsense was done with Heldalf. Muse uses the last of her strength to bring what's left of Mikleo to safety... Gramps, who came along. Being her brother's squire, she of course could see seraphim. She was shocked to see that her brother had knocked up one of the other villagers, who... I don't know how the hell it happened, but she had given herself a C-section and delivered Sorry three months premature in order to let him have a chance at life. Something that makes no sense in reality, mind you. Gramps takes the two boys in with the intent for them to become Shepherd and Sub-lord 17 years later. And now, those two boys, her son and her nephew, are witnessing her death at the onset of this Age of Chaos. Chaos as in the utter disaster this story is becoming. I take it Sorry only survived because Gramps.

Afterward, Mayvin attacks us as a test. I'm equipped with mythril now, so that should help. He's not too difficult, save for the Mystic Arte he abuses after getting down to half health. Rose takes all four times he uses it, though, so I end up just spamming arrows at him. Water armatization is so dull. After I beat him, something something bonds of whatever blah blah blah this doesn't make any sense. Apparently, like Dezel gave himself up? I have to sever something and use my seraphs' lives to do it. Sorry hesitates because he doesn't want to kill Mayvin. Mayvin says to do it if he wants to prove he has conviction. Sorry concedes. He and Mikleo fuse and Sorry fires Siegfried and...

...Mayvin suddenly has a heart attack and dies. Apparently it was taboo for him to tell this tale and that cost him his immortality, which was probably hax made by Melchior wanting the Philosopher's Stone and trying to replicate it. Or something. Because he's probably a few hundred y/o at this point, it wasn't going to take long for something to kill him. He's shocked to have people at his side in his final moments, but he relishes it. He knew this was coming, but it had to. He didn't want the important parts lost to time.

The gang gives the old man a proper burial outside the tower and sets out for Elysia, where there's access to his origin village. Gramps had closed the entire thing off so nobody could go there. That's where I end for the night. Explanation of any of the nonsense parts - particularly the "bonds of fate" or whatever that was - would be appreciated!

Wordle 481 4/6 (167 + 50)

CRATE
SNEAK
PEDAL
EQUAL=

I checked - Scoredle says that was the only possible word left.

Underleveled posted...

DvG remained so until the Carl boot at the final 9 (fifth boot into the merge) finally shook things up.

I'm talking about production forcing people into three tribes. Tiva existed on DvG long before merge. I want a pure two-tribe season because there's a huge flaw in formulaic game structure in that people learn how to exploit it, which for a TV show isn't overly entertaining.

Ghost Island had an "us vs them" mindset too, but I wanna see that in the challenges. I miss the days of tribes hating each other, yet having to work across tribal lines later because it's what's best for their game. People are really starting to get too comfortable with the three-tribe format, just like they are with F3s. And that may be why this season is boring: It's following the same formula Survivor's been overusing since the move to Fiji, yet isn't doing anything new or remarkable with it since this cast is bland.

(edit added a few things)

Kinda figured it was Lindsay going for a few reasons. One, the vote should've been unanimous - voting en bloc is a way to bond the tribe together (but Geo cast an insurance vote). Two, there was that bonding scene with Karla and Geo in the premiere that hasn't had any payoff yet. And three, Lindsay is the type of player you WANT to vote out. If she's this paranoid on Day 9, how paranoid is she gonna be on day 19? She got herself cooked by showcasing how she's an unpredictable, unstable ally. Coco had a lot of interesting dynamics, but I'm still not feeling this season even though this was the best episode so far. I legit do not care for most of these people and this episode didn't do much to change that.

Lots of bad production decisions, as mentioned. Shouldn't allow someone to take a machete in a slim-pickings camp raid. And also shouldn't allow tribes to see each other's puzzles if you're gonna have three of them arranged like that. Additionally, I miss two-tribe seasons because of how that turns into an "us vs them" dynamic at a merge. We've only gotten one of those from Worlds Apart onward, and that's not exactly a very watchable season for... other reasons.

Sorry for the longer post but I wasn't able to watch live and didn't want to be spoiled.

Inviso posted...

Drew Christy is in shambles.

He tried to trade something they'd already won, as opposed to something they'd JUST won. If your tribe wins a reward challenge, you can trade the prize for anything previous (except an excursion). You can't freely go to Trader Jeff's to exchange your rewards. And this stops come merge where the rewards are absolute.

Oh, yeah, didn't I do a little more? Yeah, I think I did a little more:

• Another Gorgon in what was left of Reneed - apparently this is a revival of the town that... one of the Cardinal's sisters set out to restart with a "bunch of believers." The town didn't last and she became a Gorgon, just like her sisters. She's considerably weaker than the other one, so I beat her on the second try after coming close the first one. I then go to Loegres and find out the aforementioned history. Apparently their hometown is in Glaveid Basin - the war zone. Yikes. That's probably where they escaped to. A safe place. Or what's left of it. I'll have to kill them later.
• I find all the iris gems finally - the game essentially confirms this to me, so PHEW! I can go talk to Mayvin (pretty sure this is when I get to kill him from a few things I read by accident).

...I don't recall if I did anything else. Like most of this game, none of it was memorable, so whatever.

Seriously, this entire game is a blur of forgettableness. The characters don't have enough backstory to be memorable. The skits are pretty boring; the only times I've been laughing have been when Edna and Lailah fuck with Mikleo (and are now teaching Zaveid to join in). Those have gotten pretty one-dimensional at this point; it would be nice if there were other gags or nuances in this party, but there aren't. Like I can't even describe any of the relationships beyond a sentence for some of them. Like Sorry/Mikleo were raised together by Gramps in Elysia, often exploring ruins and pushing each other to do new things, in a way that was like brothers. That said, we haven't gotten many heart-to-hearts of the two of them, and this entire plotline has been dropped.

Really, it feels like this party lacks a cohesive soul. If we look at better Tales games, let's see... I'm gonna go out of order to make my point here, because one game stands out for a comparison point.

Abyss: Luke, Tear, Jade, and Guy are all incredible, well-rounded characters with considerable depth; Luke has very complex relationships with the other three, as well as Natalia. Natalia is annoying as fuck at times, but she's got an incredible story and her personal growth is huge - and that means she's in a tier just below those four. We won't get into the sixth. But this group, despite all their bickering and hypocrisy, actually liked each other despite masking it. This is one of the greatest JRPG parties of all time and that's inarguable, with Luke being among a pantheon of all-time great characters (and Tear being one of the best waifus ever)

Xillia: While not absolutely great, Xillia does have more development, as well as a few relationships worth noting, such as Jude/Milla, Jude/Leia, Alvin/Elize, Elize/Teepo, and... that might be it. Rowan is a good mentor-type character, and an actual "old man" that isn't a joke. The character dynamics here feel deeper than they do in a game like Zesty.

Berseria: Had six characters who were all VERY well-developed, each with dark backstories and fully fleshed-out personalities. There were several relationships within this group that were intriguing, and that was from them all interacting, as well as Magilou and Rokurou messing with literally everyone. This group actually feels like a bunch of people who banded together for a common cause and became friends in the process.

Graces: Graces is relatively plotless and, like this game, is severely lacking in the villains department (more on that soon). However, it compensates for that by having over half the party be trolls and to have this jovial camaraderie that carries the game as you play it, even if it is severely lacking in memorability. The characters by themselves are unremarkable, but when you put them together, anything can happen because they're so weird and wacky. You have clueless idealist Asbel, his little brother Hubert who is so serious all the time yet easy to troll, whackjob Pascal, Sophie and her ability to crack jokes, Prince Richard and his power-hungriness, love interest Cheria who's there for only that reason, and the subtle troll of Malik who's very good at getting away with it at the same time he's good at being a badass.

Graces is a good comparison for Zesty here, because both games are devoid of memorability, yet Graces is so fun as you play it because of the sheer amount of skits where the party are just having fun trolling each other. Here in Zestiria, you have none of that - there's a serious lack of a sense of humor outside of Edna and Lailah punking Mikleo time and time again (have I mentioned how deeply stupid it is to lock skits to save points and inns in Zesty? That means you miss a fuck ton of them!). The party is mostly characterless in the chemistry department, versus the electricity of Graces where the party is so fun in the moment, and that carries the day. There's nothing here.

I wouldn't quite say Zestiria so far is as insufferable as a certain unmentionable disaster, but it's certainly boring in all the wrong ways. And that's why I haven't played much. Didn't expect this to get this long, but it did. Oh well.

MysteriousStan posted...

Glad I'm not the only confused by Monic being a word.

FWIW, I was too, and apparently that got deleted during my attempt to format my post. Posting on this site is buggy as hell on my phone for whatever reason. I legit was throwing things at the wall to see what worked. It eventually hit me what it really was. Awful word.

Wordle 480 6/6

CARTE
SCOLD
POUCH
BINGO
MONIC?


Fuck this word indeed. I looked at it for ten minutes straight before losing my mind and trying a throwaway since I legit couldn't think of anything that didn't start with a C, as I eliminated with my first word. I think that was the only possibility left at that point.

Also... Jon, explain.

Wordle 479 3/6

CRATE
PILAF
VALID

Second word is a weird one but I legit thought it could be that and didn't want to be wrong. It did help me get this one in three.

As you saw, I noted a LOT of what you outlined here (for some reason I didn't mention how frequently he goes to expensive restaurants, whoops), though he actually talked at length about the music he listened to - I think he truly likes it even if he doesn't actually connect to it. I also didn't pick up on any satire, because this felt like a much more seriously-toned film.

I do like symbolism when I feel it's done right. Black Swan used Swan Lake to great effects as an allegory, and I loved it for that. Here... I didn't quite follow it all, and I took a lot of what I was seeing quite literally. The end result is quite weird. The reason this film is polarizing is because people either understand it or they don't, and for me I didn't process that many layers - maybe because I only saw it once. You've seen it several dozen times. You fully understand it, and I expected a spirited defense and got it. But I don't think I'm going to appreciate it on a second watch. I try to follow plotlines and analyze them. If the plotlines just hanging there IS the symbolism, I am left unfulfilled.

You are allowed another nomination btw

Edit to reply:
Snake5555555555 posted...

Fun fact about Dafoe's character - they had him film all his scenes in 3 different ways - one where he doesn't think Bateman committed the murders, one where he's unsure either way, and one where he thinks Bateman did it. And they used some parts of all three takes & shuffled them into every scene he's in, this way both Bateman & the audience is never really sure what Dafoe feels when he's questioning him. There's a video on YouTube that actually lays out when and what take is being used at any given moment, it's pretty neat.

Okay, now this is cool. Brilliant directing.

American Psycho (2000)
Directed by: Mary Harron
Written by: Bret Easton Ellis, Mary Harron, Guinevere Turner
Starring: Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe, Chloe Sevigny, Jared Leto, Reese Witherspoon
Previous status: Never seen

"It's impossible in this world we live in to empathize with others, but we can always empathize with ourselves."

This is one of those movies that I have to be in the right mood to see. I was just feeling it tonight for whatever reason. And... well... it's October, so it's the time to watch something like this.

Let's start at the beginning. The apartment is so white that it's obviously designed to show blood. Bateman - I presume "Bate" comes from "Bates" - narrates his skincare routine for no reason. It's boring, but it becomes quickly clear that this guy's not all there - an allegory for the whole film. He is rude to his secretary, Jean, about her choice of work clothes - though, like Donnie Darko, this is quickly established as 1988 (how uncanny, they take place the same year) thanks to Robert Palmer, so norms were different back then. Bateman then goes on some rant about women's rights and I'm not buying that he actually believes that given how he treats Jean.

He makes his first kill: A hobo in the alley, and to firmly establish what a fucking monstrous asshole he is, he also stomps the guy's dog to death. Like... what the fuck is wrong with him? The "Hip to Be Square" kill of Paul Allen (no relation to the actual Paul Allen - RIP) was shades of Reservoir Dogs using "Stuck in the Middle with You" for a torture scene. It was actually kind of hilarious. As was Courtney ODing on drugs... what the heck happened to her? She just disappeared in the second half of the movie. One of many things I... didn't quite like.

Okay, let's make it clear: I didn't like this movie much. Too many unresolved plotlines, too many odd questions (who was Elizabeth, anyway?), and Bateman's kills were just too perfect, save for "Christie" who almost got away after he had a second threesome with her. He killed Paul Allen, and it's never explained why a private investigator was the one asking questions, not the NYPD. He admitted he was into "murders and acquisitions" and nobody was profiling him. Nobody NOTICED him dragging a body bag and shoving it in the trunk. That's reason enough to call 911 and report the cab number. Perhaps it's just NYC's big city apathy. Or maybe it's because this wasn't real.

Seriously, he got angry over something as petty as lettering on business cards. He almost killed Jean for no reason, but she was spared because his high-maintenance fiancee (who Reese Witherspoon embodied perfectly) interrupted with a call. And then, boom, dropped. It doesn't become apparent that things are very wrong until the ATM asks for him to feed it the stray cat... and instead of killing the cat, he kills an old lady and a bunch of cops... and then it's dropped when he goes to Paul Allen's apartment to find it empty, and is told to leave because the realtor recognizes his psychopathy. "Set under construction - please come back later." it could've said. Also: He was wearing an N95 type of mask and nobody said anything, which is quite normal now.

At the end, when his lawyer mistakes him for someone else much as Paul Allen had done before, I ask: Is he even Patrick Bateman? What's real, what isn't? But... the movie didn't give me enough thinking ammo to care, the way both Black Swan and Donnie Darko had invigorated me. This was just "Was any of it real?" - either it was, or the ending was the dream. I think this is a movie you're supposed to watch a second time to fully get, but frankly I found a lot of what was happening when he wasn't murdering to be dull. Christian Bale sells the part brilliantly, showing off Bateman's love of music simultaneous with his complete apathy toward everyone around him, but I think Bret Easton Ellis was right: This is best told as a first-person novel, which is what it was intended to be.

Unfortunately, this is the first one I've watched that I'd say I didn't really enjoy. Perhaps it's because I'm not much of a horror fan. Perhaps it's because I can't relate to Bateman. Or perhaps it's because the movie didn't give me enough to chew on. Sorry @Snake5555555555 , but it's a 2/5 from me. This may change with reassessment (if I ever watch it again) but... maybe it's just not my thing. I guess my tastes are complex, but isn't everyone's? I may have to lay off the psychological thrillers for a while tbh...

Inviso posted...

Sarah, Domenick, Enzo, Angela, Ben, Leo, Tasha, and even David were not characters I needed to see back on my TV screen

Angela turned out to be amazing on The Challenge (and, if I did a ranking here, she'd be in my top 20, possibly top 10 - a shock to me given how I didn't like her much in BB20, which says a lot coming from me), so I'm glad they gave her another shot. I'm with darkx on Domenick and David, though with them it's ambivalence - give them a chance to show they have something more to give (neither of them really did tbh). I also didn't have much of an opinion on Leo due to skipping his seasons of TAR; I just knew he and Jamal were the "Afghanimals" and had a few dozen cats between them, that's it.

Karen is insufferable. Enzo just sucks. Ben had no business being back. Tasha sucks too. But, going in, Will and James were the LAST Amazing Racers I wanted to see, given how they pretty much broke the game and acted all arrogant about it. I only lasted an episode of that nonsense. I really do come and go with TAR....

Underleveled posted...

I don't really mind Ryan that much but I certainly didn't want to see a poor man's version of him, when Ryan himself is basically already a weaker, nerdier Adam, who is already a weaker, nerdier Spencer.

Yeah, Adam and Spencer are far better characters. And keep in mind I distinguish Spencer from Survivor and the current-day nutcase Reiman. Spencer 1.0 was Charlie Brown: Nothing he did went well due to absolutely horrible luck and having Lucy (Chaos Kass) snatch the ball from him landed him on his back, yet he kept fighting. Spencer 2.0 was still amusing at points, namely thinking Lucy was going to snatch the ball from him again, only this time she didn't. The storyline with him not being able to admit to his girlfriend that he loved her felt awkward, but I think it was meant to - because it's a very awkward thing to discuss.

Adam's storyline about his mother was epic - that ending still gives me chills ;_; And then, when he returned, we put a bow on that, and him trying to play the podium as an idol because of Survivor SA events was hilarious.

Ryan had nothing like that. His most amusing moment was talking about the idol being in his pink shorts while pandemonium unfolded in front of him. And that's about all I can remember.

Called it.

Voce from S41 is next.

Underleveled posted...

Ryan is NOT the castaway you want to emulate - hes got this misplaced cockiness about him and just kind of weasels his way in and out of alliances and blows challenges yet somehow surviving while better characters get picked off

This is why I liked Ryan's story to some effect. His over-inflated sense of self was actually kind of amusing, and even though I see him as a similar archetype to myself, I would put him as the weakest character of that final 7. (Ashley Nolan gets huge points for her Ponderosa video alone, one that amounted to perfect self-deprecating satire of those. This is one of few instances where Ponderosa impacts anything for me.)

Wordle 478 5/6

CRATE
SPIEL
EBONY
ENVOY


Can't help if I guess wrong. But I knew I had it after the third word.

Zach Wurt or 2nd boot Mariah, probably the former. Mariah is just forgettable in a stacked cast.

Wordle 477 5/6


SOUND
GODLY
MOODY
HOWDY

That was tough, pardners.

I really enjoyed Daniel, in large part because he didn't make merge. His self-imposed Charlie Brown tragic storyline was pretty hilarious (it was like 90% his fault), and I MUCH prefer him to almost anyone from S43 so far. It was players like him who made S42's start so electric. While he's not my favorite trainwreck ever, I still was very entertained by the unintentional comedy that was his storyline. He thought he was a genius, but he was really just a twit. I don't like camera whores usually, but Daniel made up for it by failing so hard. If he got twice as far, he'd have gotten annoying and would've been edited as less likable.

I'm just sidequesting an hour here, an hour there. So far:

• I went to the cave to look for the Armadylan thing Lailah wanted to see make perfect curls. He wasn't there, some OP pillbug that took me several attempts to kill was. This was a waste of my time. There's like no point to this sidequest. What did I gain out of it? Absolutely nothing. This doesn't even give me character development that's interesting!
• The armorer wants mythril and points me to Aroundight Forest or whatever it's called, up in Elysia. I find some mythril there. Now I can unlock the strongest gear in the game! I haven't yet, though I DID see Alisha items in the Lohgrin shop. This makes me think she'll be rejoining the party for a spell quite soon.
• In Loegres, a serial killer is on the loose. The people are scared and accuse Sergei of doing nothing. He's calmed down by a priest................. a priest who turns out to be the culprit! He's showing these people "the way to salvation" - in other words, he's so messed up in the head that he thinks he's helping the people he's murdering. I'm sure he'll think he's being saved at his execution. But that's why he's not a daemon. I don't have to fight him, but he does drop an iris gem after Sergei arrests him.
• I go to Westronbolt Gorge on a tip that a salesman is there, and apparently someone - a daemon - snatched his iris gem. I go and purify the giant goblin and get to keep the iris gem magically, without the guy even saying "Oh, you have a use for that, Shepherd? Feel free to take it as my thanks." Odd. Feels like I'm stealing.

Uhm........ am I missing anything I did? Still have to take down a berserk elephant, look for someone wanting to revive Reneed, and maybe do other things? IDK. I'm just trying to get all the iris gems so I can see everything the Earthen Historia wants to show me about Heldalf. At least the game allows me to ask Rose "HEY what kind of egregious sidequests am I supposed to do now?" It helps given how little has happened in this game. Like the Dezel/Symone confrontation contained like half of the game's events so far. With nothing happening, there's no prompts to remember things like... Armadylan.

Wordle 476 5/6

Cater
Flour
Minor
Visor
Vigor

Could have gone better. But I still got it in 5 and not 6, and none of my guesses were unreasonable.

Yeah, Mrs. Farmer was just awful - but in a way that you couldn't help but mock her. The actress portraying her did a good job in making her a truly awful, yet also true to life, character. We've all met somebody who's that cluelessly entitled. And I certainly wouldn't want my kid in her health class if she's gonna be like that (her gym class wouldn't be a big deal, unless this was supposed to be gym and she was making them watch irrelevant videos instead of letting them exercise, in which case she's not doing her job).

Those spoilers are certainly fascinating, and something I didn't quite think about because I prefer to simply experience the movie as it comes on a first viewing. Those additional layers are things I think about on subsequent watches - because that's what later watches are for. There's a lot of little tie-ins like that in this movie. The "human suit" - the skeleton costume - is something I missed because I didn't quite hear the comments. I couldn't tie them together the way I did Graham Greene and the thugs breaking in to Granny's house, or Donnie returning to the location he woke up in at the end of the movie to restore the timeline, or the wallet, or obvious stuff like the cellar door. There were parts that were hard for me to hear or understand and I had to replay a couple interactions several times, such as "Howmucharetheypayingyoutobehere?" I didn't get the full extent of the subsequent insult, either, just that it was an insult, which was enough for me.

The paradoxes of death are another fascinating layer - Donnie escaping death is weird, as if the whole movie was a dream of the next month of his life coming to him. But he took the jet engine back in time with him... and it all came crashing down. So many layers to this, and it's brilliant. I do think Donnie was the only one who actually died in the real timeline. Samantha might not have even been dancing because of the grief from the loss of her brother, but if she was, the plane was okay, so she and Rose were safe. Donnie wasn't alive so he couldn't shoot Frank in the face. And Gretchen wouldn't have even been there so she got to live too. The jet engine would later turn up on Unsolved Mysteries.

Overall, the payoff in his movie was huge, and it's something I'll want to revisit just to see everything I missed. May want to do that when I don't have earwax issues.

MysteriousStan posted...

Kinda surprised this one has caused more trouble than some other words.

I got it in 5 because I went with the most helpful guess first for word #3, then only had two possibilities after and picked the wrong one first. It was no trouble since it didn't take long. Some of the ones I've gotten in 4 were actually more trouble!

Wordle 475 5/6

React
Aloud
Sandy
Handy
Dandy

Can't always guess the 50/50 shots right.

Donnie Darko (2001)
Written and Directed by: Richard Kelly
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Drew Barrymore, Maggie Gyllenhaal
Previous status: Never seen

"Have you ever seen a portal?"

Well, since the last psychological thriller about a schizophrenic nut went so well, I thought I'd give this one a go, too. I mean, it's October. I should prioritize the movies with more horror vibes, and this one definitely cut it.

Thing is, I wasn't expecting something so low-budget, but hey, I'll judge it in that manner. It surprised me at first that a mega A-lister circa 2001 like Drew Barrymore would be in such a movie, but then I read she financed it, and thus she took on the role best suited for her: The English teacher who tells Gretchen to "sit next to the boy she finds the cutest." It was that - plus the jet engine and the Patrick Swayze infomercial-like documentary about fear - that made me start to doubt the events of this movie as reality. The jet engine made it clear that Donnie was just plane weird.

...sorry, I had to. My apologies. He IS weird, though, and the movie makes the most of it, telling some of the story through the psychotherapy sessions - things that they didn't have in the budget to show. Thankfully, these are dispersed throughout the movie, so there isn't one point that's so heavy on them that the story drags. I do wonder what these pills he was taking are - after all, this was October 1988, as was obvious even before the screen card due to Elizabeth's words: "I'm voting for Dukakis." With four words, you just established the very month of the setting, and also established that Elizabeth had just turned 18 y/o. Donnie was thus 16 y/o. But back to my point: I don't know what kind of mental health medications existed back then. I thought antidepressants weren't a big thing until the 90s. There's also how the Darkos' kitchen looked - it didn't look like any kitchen from that time period I've ever seen. More flowery wallpaper was necessary.

Gretchen was fascinating to me. She was drawn to Donnie's dark mystery - despite her stepdad being a total fucking psycho who had caused her and her mom to reinvent themselves. I don't see this as too dissimilar from Donnie; he too has serious mental health problems. But Gretchen showed that she was a keeper by asking a very dysregulated Donnie if he was okay, then told him to sit down. I need a woman like that. Someone who will recognize when hinges are coming loose and will screw them back in, no matter how long that takes. I thus liked Gretchen accordingly, and was devastated to see her killed off in the original timeline.

However, on the opposite end of the spectrum, we have the shitbag health teacher, Mrs. Farmer. Seriously, what a total Karen this woman is, and I hate her guts, especially how she's ableist trash who blames Donnie's mental illness on his parents. And she makes some connection between Graham Greene and Bonanza that makes no sense at all. Wrong Greene - we're talking about a writer, not an actor. The worst part, however, was how she showed up to ask Rose to accompany the young dancers (11 y/os shaking their butts? Uhhh..... no thanks) to Los Angeles for the tournament. Apparently defending a pedophile is a much more pressing need than her own daughter's dreams, and how dare Rose want to stay home to make sure her disturbed son doesn't do anything stupid. Rose isn't the one lacking commitment here, it's Mrs. Farmer.

The mystery of "Frank" was intriguing too - and then it turned out he's Elizabeth's boyfriend, and the rabbit costume was real. The wut? Did Donnie perhaps see that thing and that gave form to the voice in his head? It's also worth noting the juxtaposition between Sparkle Fever dancing to "Notorious" and Donnie torching the manor, especially given how his notoriety is increasing and that the jackass who lived there was a pedophile. The same guy who accused Donnie of being afflicted by fear, even though Donnie had the testicular fortitude to tell him he's a fraud to his face. Quite the contradiction. And if Mrs. Farmer likes him, that means he must suck too. I also lol'd at how Donnie found his wallet and weaponized it, much like he'd weaponized the flash card Mrs. Farmer gave him about the same concept by shoving it up her

As for the ending... the plane engine going back in time is weird, especially since we know Samantha survived. I'm surprised Donnie didn't "get up to use the bathroom" when he saw the date, but I think this meant he might not have wanted to live, especially not without the best thing that ever happened to him... who turned out to be alive at that time. I'm still trying to process all the plotlines here: Frank's prophecy must've been that Donnie dies by playing the Song of Time. The time reset must've meant the actual timeline had only Donnie die. There was a lot of full circle here (the plane, the location of the time skip, the thieves), even though this movie was a mess. I think the mess was deliberate, because Donnie was a mess himself. What a mind fuck that whole ending was. I loved it. And, since Tarantino influenced me here, I had thought something was out of order about the plot. The time travel was used as a plot device in a different way, but it was a good way. Really, only the last half hour was truly thrilling - everything before that was buildup.

While I wouldn't say this is as amazing as Black Swan, possibly because I watched that first (or its higher production value, or the hot women, or the using Swan Lake as an allegory more effectively than "The Destructors" is here, or that it's less of a slow burn), I definitely still enjoyed this one. There were a few things that were unclear, like why Drew Barrymore's character got fired just for doing her job, or how Donnie had the gun on him for so long, or the setting inconsistencies. But this is still a solid movie, one that I will revisit at some point. Not as soon as Black Swan, but soon enough. A 5/5 (though not a gold).

@Johnbobb I've moved your nomination back to Mulholland Drive. I'm also tagging you so you can read this!

Coco's edit could be a lot better - I think the love is either from pre-game or being completely apathetic toward everyone not named Noelle on the other two tribes. Probably the latter. I think Coco's not getting much content because they're the Luvu this season and are gonna win many more challenges to come. That may happen more frequently in the near future given the flint confiscation... at least until they do away with that and go back to 39 days, because this 26-day product is inferior.

Also, initial ratings for last night are hilarious. Survivor got a 0.8 with 5,145,000 estimated live viewers. The Real Love Boat didn't even retain half of that, with 0.26 and 2,408,000. Amazing Race got a 0.3 and 2,376,000. In other words: Love Boat had roughly the same amount of viewers as TAR, but TAR had a slightly higher percentage of advertising demographic viewers. CBS spent a lot of money advertising Love Boat, possibly at expense of their existing shows, and its end result was predictable. The 0.26 is even lower than Love Island usually got (except on Fridays... in the summer...), though the viewer total is half a million higher, likely because it's fall. The fact that Love Boat got less than half of Survivor's scores and was about even with TAR after all that advertising is funny to me.

Survivor viewers legit do NOT care about a show about fucking. I gotta wonder how many people didn't pay attention while it was on and were just waiting for TAR (or thought that's when TAR was on, given CBS's failures to advertise its many time slot changes). But, yeah, if this premiere is any indication, this Love Boat is gonna sink.

Wordle 474 3/6

Crate
Mouth
Sloth

Still easy.

It would be nice if they cast MORE crazy people who would, y'know, make each other crazier. I want to see people's hinges coming off. That's when the fun happens. I think the 26 day game is very bad for the show because we don't get to see people lose their minds like we used to.

Underleveled posted...

This is basically a non-elimination leg without calling it that.

I expected there to be a "You're still racing" leg-ender at some point, because that technically doesn't count as a Pit Stop.

Yup, I'm with you two. We've been getting all this backstory, and yet I don't give a damn about anyone but Karla and Noelle. While they have different backstories, they're all virtually the same on the island. There is nothing to differentiate where people's stories are going. There are bunch of people with interesting backstories. And yet all of them are being shown as gamebots.

I do second that this cast isn't very dynamic - too many redundancies and too much kumbayah. There's also how the confessionals have been soulless, save for Karla's "my wife's birthday is in February" and Noelle's "I haven't run out of leg jokes" today. It's the personalities that make Survivor pop. We're not seeing that, we're only seeing strategy strategy strategy and that's boring.

Where are my crazy people? Where are my villains? Those kinds of players create tension and drama and cause gamebots to deliver unintentional comedy in droves. Survivor SA knows this. Why doesn't Probst?

I mean, yeah, that's obvious, but what I'm curious about is how Noelle knew not to play her Steal-a-Vote. There's a big gaping narrative hole there. She talked up making an epic play to regain her footing in the game, and then... didn't, and Nneka still went home.

I wonder what we're missing here. Did Noelle flash something to Jesse to make him paranoid enough to get him and Cody to vote for Nneka? Maybe...?

I really hate how every vote in US Survivor has to be a "blindside" to the viewers. Even when it's clear that Nneka was not cut out for this game.

Yeah, I officially like Noelle. A lot. I'm looking forward to her having a leg up in the jokes department.

Eh, I don't mind Baka... really just Sami. He's really the only person in this cast I dislike, but I don't find myself particularly really liking anybody.

Karla, however, is starting to get on my radar as someone I like. She just KILLED this braceleting. And gave amusing commentary the entire way. FINALLY I'm seeing someone's personality and complexities. Which is what this season has been lacking.

I kinda figured this might happen after all the delays. And don't worry about it! Life happens. We'll get around to this one some day, so no worries :)

htaeD posted...

Arent we closer to each other timezone wise than the rest?

The Netherlands and Denmark are in the same time zone, yes?

Wordle 473 3/6

REACT
MURAL
MARSH

Wordle 472 3/6

Crate
Sound


I'm getting bored. These puzzles have been too easy as of late.

Since that one went so long (yes, I loved it), I gotta do this in a separate post: @Snake5555555555 @BetrayedTangy you both get another nomination! You guys have good taste since you both have gotten two golds in such a few movies.

Will explain something more here about THE LIST:

• Anything with a gold bar will 100% be watched again at some point
• Anything 5/5 without a gold bar will probably be watched again and retained in my collection
• Anything with a 3/5 or higher will be kept, as I at least partly enjoyed them
• I plan on ditching anything that fails to get a 3. And I see a few on here that very well might, mostly ones that my sister had back in the day. I didn't want a lot of her movies from the DVD box tbqh because I can only take so many romcoms. Thankfully she has more diversified taste now... but she watches on Netflix, not DVDs. (I only have access to Disney+ and Hulu)

Couldn't decide what to watch last night. At least today's one of them "fixed date movies" so I didn't have to choose!

Mean Girls (2004)
Directed by: Mark Waters
Written by: Tina Fey
Starring: Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Tim Meadows, Tina Fey
Previous status: Last saw 2019ish

"It's October 3rd."

Yes, Cady. It is. This is why one watches Mean Girls on October 3rd. But that's not a good enough quote for this.

"That's so fetch!"

That's iconic - something intended to become Millennial slang, which it indeed DID for a time. The love and care that went into this script is astonishing. Tina Fey really knew what she was doing. There are so many little details that she plants and they pay off later, such as "being hit by a school bus" comments early on, Damien's pink polo shirt, Mathletes rapping, the lunch in the bathroom stall, and many little things. There's also that this was set in the northern suburbs of Chicago - a blatant reference to John Hughes doing just the same. One little thing: There was a back building? What kind of Midwestern high school has more than one building?

The movie makes some good commentary on reality. Fickle people do whatever their idols - celebs or people they're jealous of - do since they're too insecure to make their own decisions. What _ does has to be cool, right? And that's wrong - maybe we should just be ourselves. This relates to the "solve the problem in front of you," and to not judge others and not ostracize each other. That school-wide therapy session was ridiculous - if only things worked like that in reality! Then again, there aren't school-wide melees in reality, since educators put the kibosh on that real quick. When I was in high school, four thugs started beating up a scrawny kid - a vice principal and two hall monitors were there in 15 seconds, long before it hit "all hell breaks loose" (the thugs were expelled). Principal Duvall wasn't very effective at quashing the drama, nor did he understand womanhood; it's also weird that it was just girls fighting and none of the guys tried to break it up or help their girlfriends. Regina would have realistically been expelled for throwing those notes everywhere - evidence for her being the prime suspect for the Burn Book, with the other three all blaming her like she blamed them. She said, she said.

I wrote a fuck ton of notes for this because I didn't wanna miss anything. I LOVE this movie. More than a page this time - but that's me doing it for a movie I already know, but I'm surprised at just how much I forgot. Let's go over most of these:

• "Ashton Kutcher? Is that a band?"
• Regina's little sister was a Plastic in the making in a hilarious way. Amy Poehler nailed Mrs. George being an enabler... and her dog sucking her tits was funny. Showing Regina's family really shows a lot about how her character became to be so narcissistic and cruel.
• I noted that Regina dressed up with the bunny ears for the costume party and Aaron told her "You remember it's a costume party, right?" - it feels like a reverse of Legally Blonde when Elle gets tricked into wearing a similar outfit to embarrass her. I do wonder if that was deliberate.
• The candy cane giving thing was WEIRD to me. Don't recall anything remotely like it in high school.
• I'd forgotten about Santa's Helpers at the talent show. Cady saved the day when she started singing to recover. And... I'd forgotten how damn good of a singer Lindsay Lohan was pre-meltdown. This was so good and noticeable that it got her a record deal after many failed attempts. Another thing she put in the toilet, sadly.
• Tina Fey's Mrs. Norbury is pretty awesome. She knew that Cady was tanking tests to talk to a boy, and it wasn't worth it. She knew Cady was responsible for the drug dealer comment, but couldn't be behind the entire book by virtue of being new. She's a logical person, so it makes sense that she's teaching calculus. I doubt there's another - my school had one Calc class, and I took pre-calc my senior year.
• Janis is also complex - petty, yet brutally honest. Her calling Cady out was great, since Cady had become Regina. Really, everyone hates the Plastics deep down, either out of jealousy or spite. Something the movie makes known. Damien.. .he was just kinda there, but I liked how he was using the girls' bathroom and, uh, was disgusted by the kiss with Janis since he's gay.
• I also note that Cady mentioned Madison, where I live - but I have no idea what Ladysmith Black Mambazo is. Looking it up, it's some South African vocal group, and this movie really spread their fame since their only renowned song before was a collaboration with Paul Simon in the 80s. I'll see them next time they're at Overture. Cady... well she just had a party. With spiked bunch. And mistakes. Whoops. (Aaron Samuels is pretty generic tbh)
• The "we all got along in middle school" girl was so obviously an impostor. Middle school is worse than high school since that's when battle lines get drawn.
• Gretchen was the only one to make no apology during the speeches. She naturally hit Karen with a thud, because nobody else cared to catch her. I'm sure Cady would've been caught for saying many of the same things Janis did.
• Regina and Cady having a confrontation in the middle of the street was stupid and the consequences were deserved. The bus driver probably hated Regina too. So she "died" - that was quite the fake-out that completely changed the mood. But hey, this is a comedy, it owned it and mocked itself. Loved it.
• Sending Cady to a public high school blew up in her parents' faces. She turned into someone she wasn't and they acted surprised. Gee, maybe that's because she has new influences, and the teenage angst makes her unable to know what to do with them. Like is normal. Not knowing what "grounding" is made her dad... comical.
• The math geeks seem to go to the dance at this school. That's usually for everyone except the geeks. I certainly didn't go to any, but I couldn't get a date and I hate crowded noisy places that aren't concerts for bands I like or anime cons where lots of people have anxiety.
• Lots of hilarious hook-ups at the end - Janis/Kevin in particular. Nice how everything got desensitized, and I wish that real high schools could create accepting environments like that. I think that was part of the intent despite this being a lot of laughs.

Also gotta commend the acting. Lindsay Lohan made Cady Heron a more definitive role for her than the twins in The Parent Trap, by handling both Cady's geeky side ("the limit does not exist") and Plastic side beautifully (damn shame Lohan threw her career away after this). The movie also gains a lot from us hearing Cady's thoughts, which more movies should do, honestly - it feels like a first-person perspective book where we relate to the protagonist far more since we get to hear their thoughts. There are things that are lost without that. But it's not just her. Rachel McAdams did a phenomenal job being a real ***** as Regina - casting against type worked flawlessly. Lacey Chabert was perfect as Gretchen Weiners and all her slips of the tongue - her loose lips sunk ships. Amanda Seyfried nailed Karen Smith being a total dumbass, looking like a deer in the headlights on the regular. "It's like I have ESPN or something" is so hilarious. Delivered flawlessly.

There's also the personal discourse here. Cady is by all means a people pleaser: She wants to be friends with everybody and be liked. She trusts too much and gets burned. I can relate a lot. I just want to be liked and understood. But, uh, I didn't spend my formative years in southern Africa.

Yeah, 5/5, will watch again October 3rd next year.

Obellisk posted...

The game will go on eventually.

Yes more delays, but only the best of games take a few extra days to prepare.

A delayed game is eventually good. A rushed game is forever bad.

Inviso posted...

I can't imagine disliking Jackson this much. He seemed like a nice guy, and it wasn't like he was still taking drugs...he had started kicking the drug several weeks in advance and thought he would be okay in time for the show. It just didn't work out, and he wasn't aware that there was a possibility of lingering effects, combined with the dehydration and starvation.

I don't dislike Jackson, just dislike that he took up a spot by hiding something of the utmost importance from production. That, mixed with him only being there one episode, are enough for him to be in my bottom 20.

Remember: I try to judge by entertainment value, and I rather enjoy having people to hate. Unless those people are soul-suckingly insufferable, like Karen Lacina, I tend to appreciate their presence because it makes me actually feel something - which is what S43 is presently lacking. It is quite rare that I despise anyone to the extent that I feel they detract from the final product. I can already tell that Nicole would be quite a bit higher for me solely because an epic villain comeuppance is amazing. But, since I'd still find her to be a bully, she wouldn't be THAT high.

A lot of my bottom 20 people would be boring wastes of space or people who suck while not being entertaining with their suckitude. Karen Lacina would be at the bottom because of how draining her presence was - and how she got rewarded for being insufferable.

Wordle 471 3/6

(CATER)
(SPLIT)
(STING)

Could have had this in two since I was actually considering that 2nd. Nothing too difficult.

Akbar sucks. He was depressingly annoying. A strange combination, I know.

Underleveled posted...

103. Was unconventionally eliminated AND officially placed last in their season (wow, we kinda actually had a lot of these...)

This has to be Jackson, because at least Paloma was entertainment. I don't know any others that would be in the conversation; putting Taylor/Isaiah this low after their tragic evacuation in TAR33 would be just mean, and I don't know any others. Jackson wasted a spot and there's no arguing around that one - by withholding critical information from production as to what drugs he was taking, there was no way he'd have ever made it past day 5, and I mean physically. I almost never agree with the "X wasted a spot!" people but this is one of those exceptions.

Corrik7 posted...

^ Well this is a great sign for reading comprehension in the upcoming game!

He was asking what time. "Monday evening" was stated but not which hour the game would start. This matters for someone in Central Europe who wants to determine whether it's worth staying up late for.

Played some more last night. This will also be my last update if nobody replies, since it's become quite imperative that nobody cares to read.

I nuked through a crucible that let Sorry take a seraph with him; I chose Lailah since she was in the best shape and it turned out to be a good call - only one enemy there was resistant to fire, so it was hugely helpful. I actually won on my first attempt, but it wasn't easy. I don't think I needed any items but I certainly used Rhapsody to heal frequently, since I was armatized the entire time to avoid a need for Life Bottles.

Horsa was devastated just the same as Reneed. The boss there - another Medusa, called Steeno or something - proved extremely difficult, though I got her attack patterns down. For whatever stupid reason, Panaceas don't work when you're Stoned, so that was just great. It took me many tries but I eventually managed to do it. It was thankfully obvious when she was about to use her glare to stone somebody, and I stopped worrying about what Rose was doing unless she was wasting seraphs like there was no tomorrow.

After that fight, Sorry hesitated to purify her for whatever dumb reason, leading to her teleporting away, and Rose grilled him hard for being a liability. It's nice that she actually told him to man up and not hesitate because it was like the Cardinal all over again. I have a bad feeling that she's gonna resurface later, but maybe she'll give us another iris gem. We got one that showed a Shakespearean tragedy, possibly of Heldalf but I'm not quite sure who it was who had a bunch of family members die there. It was weird.

We get to Lohgrin and it turns out the tower - or what's left of it - IS the town. It's a tent city that's using the ruined tower as walls to keep things out. Not quite what I expected. But Mayvin's right there at the entrance and Lailah immediately cuts to the chase, apparently breaking contract and asking him for his aid. Sorry, Rose, and Mikleo are befuddled, and so am I. Apparently he's the "Storyteller of Time" and he has greater resonance, so he could see our seraph friends the entire time. The game does not explain what all this means. He says something about collecting iris gems and missing pieces of a puzzle, which is... what this situation is. Could very well be that Mayvin has lived for centuries, much like the Big Bad of Berseria.

I check with Rose before speaking to Mayvin again and a bunch of sidequests popped up... in previous towns. The wut? Shouldn't sidequests be starting HERE? Why does the game want me to travel back to Loegres to buy another iris gem NOW, when there could've been something at, say, the Great Camelot Bridge for sale when I went by there? I get that this is Tales and they're genuinely bad with sidequests being way out of the way, but this is ridiculous. At least I can fast travel, but it's stupid that I have to pay for that (and it's not cheap, it's asking for 13,000 gald right now since it's based on percentage and I'm like... no). I take a look around town and the local sidequests involve some geometric cave and an Armadylan, whatever that is, plus a gigantic elephant daemon attacking people, thus causing prices to skyrocket. I also see the Toitolez and get another map off him, and I think that's the last one. It's a measly 600 gald when I have over 200,000... at least until I spend some at the armory. I do have to go through and sell some of that stuff, but I think I'd rather use it as tribute to the Lord of the Land in this area once I get one of those. I'm presuming that's related to the elephant.

I saved after this point but that's about it. I will play more when I play more, but I may not be updating anymore since there's really no point in writing this if nobody's reading it.

Wordle 470 3/6





Could have gotten it in two if I'd guessed the right one. It was either the correct answer or THINE. Ah well, three is still great. And the Queen stays Queen.

Hamilton is great, but I hate ranking something with so many tracks. It's too much of a chore and stops being enjoyable. There's a reason I don't nominate anything over an hour long - because I only get one or two listens to such albums.

I think a movie soundtrack is fine for the same reason. Sure, a lot of movie songs end up on the artist's next album, but so what? We can do that album too since it's just one song that repeats instead of several. Really, the only limitation should be no "Greatest Hits" type albums, since that can exclude that artist from being ranked again entirely.

Yeah, hope all is well, Plum, and glad you were okay enough to post that! (Sorry I missed that earlier)

I am fine with waiting for game start if necessary.

Corrik7 posted...

What you playing? Risk?

Kinda, lol.

The first statement would be Ukraine just throwing shade at Putin. The second paragraph was Putin not wanting Moscow to fall and taking the easy way out... and the Ukrainians having it easy since the Russian people hate Vlad. They might actually get help just so Vlad gets deposed.