Lurker > mrmallard

As an answer to the topic title: yes.

As an answer to the OP: there's room for nuance in different mediums, and any media should have the freedom to tell a story that flips its audience's expectations on its head, which in itself is a form of entertainment in the same way that a joke or a magic trick is.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

Patchwork posted...

This wasnt murder.

Shooting a man to death isn't murder?

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

good

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

Good, throw them in the fucking slammer. They assumed the worst of an unassuming black jogger and murdered him in cold blood. Put them to work tarring roofs and collecting litter along the side of the road. Fuck them.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

Trelve posted...

Ask again in 20 years when we can see how Covid-19 has changed the world and we can see how it compared to 9/11 and it's impact.

Coronavirus has killed nearly 100 times as many people as 9/11. That alone is worth commenting on.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

yeah, idk. I think the Xbox has the best backwards compatibility in the game, and Game Pass is a step above PS Now and Nintendo Switch Online. We don't even know the bulk of what the PS5 and Series X does yet, so it seems a bit premature to say that the Xbox Series X is getting shit on.

We'll see the bulk of the reaction closer to launch, like when the Xbone got totally shit on for its always-online Kinect shit. The bulk of what we know about the Xbox Series X and PS5 is still to come.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

Bumping this topic to say I'm pretty drunk - I'm not totally shit-faced, but I'm pretty buzzed and I'm probably going to drink more when I get home.

Should I watch Rocky 2 tonight, or give it a break until I'm sober?

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

Yeah, absolutely. Have you done the full gamut since you bought the car? It's better to make sure your car is in peak condition, and patch up any issues that present themselves, than risk any issues popping up while you're moving shit.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

I made my post before AssultTank edited in his source, so I'm gonna go over that itp.

I might have been wrong in my assessment that "there are more people in Australia, so there would naturally be more gun ownership", according to this quote:

"Far fewer people now have a gun in their home but some people have a lot more guns," Associate Prof Philip Alpers told the BBC.

Immediately preceding this quote, however, is this:

But gun ownership per capita has dropped by 23% during the same time, said Associate Prof Philip Alpers from the University of Sydney.

According to the article, people who already own gun licenses are buying them at a greater rate, which is worrying, but:

In the past 30 years, the number of households with at least one gun has declined by 75%.

Here are a few statements that the article makes about guns in Australia:

Of the millions of guns currently in circulation, "the great bulk" are legal, said Associate Prof Alpers.

Last year, the government estimated that about 260,000 were illegal or unlicensed firearms, including 10,000 semi-automatic handguns.

A national amnesty targeting the "grey market" - unregistered guns that were kept by households after 1996 - retrieved more than 57,000 firearms last year.

We do have illegal guns here in Australia, but A) we still have less shootings than most countries, and B) efforts to reduce the amount of "grey market" firearms in the country is drawing tens of thousands of weapons which were previously unaccounted for. Meaning that yes, our increased firearms legislation and crackdown on gun violence has affected the population to the point where illegal guns are being handed in in the tens of thousands. Y'know, instead of inspiring people to hole up in government buildings waving separatist flags and calling it tyranny.

The article then asks "Are shooting deaths on the decline?" - which is worth posting verbatim.

Yes, the number of gun-related homicides decreased by 57% between 1989-90 and 2013-14, according to the most recent official figures.

The number of people who died from gunshot wounds dropped by 63% in the same period.

Associate Prof Alpers said that the rate of gun-related crime had been "trending downwards since before 1996, but the rate of decline doubled after the law changes".

"There has been no significant spikes or resurgence in gun crime," he said.

Suicide accounts for the majority (70%) of gun deaths in Australia, Associate Prof Alpers said.

Also worth mentioning are the circumstances surrounding the shooting that this article covers:

The state government and police have emphasised that the investigation into Friday's tragedy remains in its early stages.

Much like the last shooting in 2014, which this article mentions, this shooting was perpetuated on private property with a legally registered firearm. Neighbours aren't close out in the country, and neither are hospitals. It is believed that the attack was premeditated by the shooter, and he killed his family as opposed to running out into the street taking potshots at randoms, taking out as many people as he could.

Crimes like these are more likely with more firearms in the country, and while the amount of firearms is now larger than the amount we had back in 1996, an overwhelming majority of gun owners are being safe and responsible with their firearms in Australia. It's awful whenever a family gets slain like this, but keep in mind, mass shootings since Port Arthur haven't killed as many people as Port Arthur itself did. One mass shooting killed 5 people, this shooting killed 7. Port Arthur killed 35. We're still ahead of the curve in regards to gun violence - as the article goes on to mention:

However, Premier Mark McGowan described Australia as "an example to the rest of the world" about the need for strict gun laws.

He added: "In this case, it appears, all of the firearms involved were licensed and there was the appropriate management of those firearms as best you can.

"It was a farming property. In some ways there's not much else that I can see from the outside that could have been done."

Also, it's funny how "Australia has more guns than they did before their gun ban" - that phrase is misguided at best and deceptive at worst, because A) we still don't have that many guns, and B) because Australia has grown by 8 million people since then, increasing the gun-to-person ratio.

Because of Australia's estimated 3-4 million weapons - which, yes, are being stockpiled by those with gun licenses - that still equals one gun to every 7 Australians.

https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/australia-population/

America has 330 million people in its population.

https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/us-population/

The only consistent estimate I can find online says that the amount of firearms in America exceeds 393 million. Meaning there's enough guns in America for every resident to have one, and still have millions left over.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/06/19/there-are-more-guns-than-people -in-the-united-states-according-to-a-new-study-of-global-firearm-ownership/

So it feels really fucking weird to see an American go "but there's more guns in Australia than before the ban!" Maybe so, but we still have less gun crime over here - with a majority of gun deaths being due to suicide than to murder - and the amount of guns we have is less than 1% than what America owns.

Please, lecture me about how gun ownership in my country is getting out of control 24 years despite our gun ban, when the total amount of guns we own isn't even a single percentage of what your country is estimated to have. You're right, our gun ban didn't work to curb gun violence in the long run, where our total amount of casualties from mass shootings equal roughly fifty deaths in the last 24 years. You're right, our efforts are all for naught because bad people still get their hands on guns.

I want to ask you something though. If Australia did nothing to curb the sale of excessive weaponry - pump action shotguns and assault-style weapons and the like - do you think Australia would have more guns than we do today? Do you think tightening the requirements needed for a gun license resulted in less ill-equiped people getting their hands on firearms? And in situations like the Lindt Cafe hostage situation (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Sydney_hostage_crisis) and the Bourke St terror attack (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_2017_Melbourne_car_attack), would more or less people have died without Australia's gun restrictions methods taken in the 90's?

Because for all that your point of "Australia has more guns today than pre-ban!" communicates, it misses the point entirely. It curbed gun ownership for at least a decade. It went into effect immediately to prevent more tragedies like Port Arthur, and it has arguably succeeded given that two mass shootings in the last 10 years had remarkably less casualties than the Port Arthur Massacre, even combined.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

AssultTank posted...

Australia has more guns now than they have ever had. Even before the "bans" they had fewer guns. <_<

We also had fewer people, it's been nearly 30 years my dude. Also, gun lobbyists have been trying to tap into Australian markets - one of our smaller political parties were busted talking with the NRA, saying that if they paid enough money, they would try and push legislation through the One Nation party to relax gun restrictions.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-26/secret-recordings-show-one-nation-staffers-seeking-nra-donations/10936052

Australians do have guns, and we have had shootings and hostage situations and all that jazz. The difference is that we've made it harder for just any Joe Schmoe to get his hands on a gun, and we've tried to spread the idea that a firearm is a tool worthy of respect, not a piece of property that you're entitled to. You use guns to hunt, to cull invasive species or to put something down. If you live in the country, it's not unreasonable that you should own a firearm. But there's no reason to own a gun if you live in the city, whether it's a handgun or a rifle or what have you.

We have more guns than we did 30 years ago, sure. But we haven't had some whackjob shooting up an elementary school, not have we had anyone firing indiscriminately into music festival crowds - despite Australia having a wealth of music festivals to choose from. By banning certain guns, making it an involved process to get a gun license and to buy guns, and cementing the reputation of firearms as tools that are to be respected and operated safely, we've avoided the boiling pot of gun discourse that America suffers from.

If we didn't take any action after Port Arthur, we might be a close facsimile to America in how we behave about guns. I'm glad that I don't live in that world.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

Muflaggin posted...

Imagine thinking that will stop shootings.

Worked in Australia.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

The funny thing about all this is that I actually didn't agree with all of Jenny's points. I do think she went on about "the theme" for a bit too long, I think this movie was trying to be more stylistic than necessarily following a strong thematic path. Bad stuff happens because the universe of Joker is miserable for the sake of being miserable, to back up this assertion that Joker's life is awful. I think that was intentional - Joker is a moody movie. I don't think a movie necessarily has to adhere to a theme if it's going for stylism.

Saying that, I think the movie goes overboard with these scenes. It's entertaining watching Joker climb into a fridge, but it's like three quarters into the movie and there have already been so many scenes of just bad, miserable shit happening that it starts to add up. I was starting to feel fatigued with the movie at the end when things started to pick up - there are too many bleak, moody scenes for the sake of reiterating that Gotham is a shithole, there's like an hour and a half of these purposefully miserable scenes - a lot of them back to back.

They add up, and it makes Joker a taxing watch - not because it's so sad and depressing, but because there's so many moody scenes that only serve to reiterate "Gotham is a shithole and Arthur Fleck is a victim of this", again and again, that after a while you just sort of get it and want the movie to move on.

Then you've got the ralphthemoviemaker review which is outwardly more negative - he makes a very solid case for Joker not just being a Scorcese pastiche, but liberally borrowing plot points from actual Scorcese movies and doing them worse. The King of Comedy sounds like an entertaining distillation of the talk show sideplot in this movie, in that the crazed fan and the talk show host get more of an actual relationship and not just a parasocial relationship that culminates in a real pie-in-the-sky ending where Arthur Fleck goes on his TV show. It's so on the nose that they got Robert De Niro, the fan character in The King of Comedy, to play the talk show host in Joker.

Saying that, I'd take a movie that tries to capture more of a mood and go for a more genuinely artistic angle like Joker than a clunker like Man of Steel or BvS any day. Aside from its overwhelming length and crushing, monotone series of scenes that string each other back to back and hammer the point home ten times harder than they maybe need to, Joker is a decent enough movie. It's a breath of fresh air that will hopefully lead to more low-key character-focused stories, and not shit like Superman 9/11ing an alien threat through like 15 skyscrapers.

I think it's fair to criticise Joker, but I didn't entirely agree with Jenny Nicholson's points. Saying that, it's even stupider to waste an entire day recording a stream party, plastering a critic's face and name all over your video, and then getting defensive when people write the whole unreasonably long video off as an unnecessary and buttmad sledge against someone for not mindlessly enjoying a movie that you loved. They wouldn't have used a picture of her in their thumbnail and mentioned her in the video title if they didn't want people to assume a connection, and no reasonable person is going to try and sift through this mess to determine what percentage of the video they spend talking about Jenny Nicholson. They drew attention to it, so that's the reputation their video gets.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

Aspects of the movie are uncomfortable to watch, like the earlier Adrian stuff. That scene where he's like goading her to come into his apartment, and then she's in there and she's uncomfortable, and she goes to leave and Rocky blocks the door shut... it's a pretty big "yikes" moment. And then he's like "I'mma kiss you, you can kiss me back if you want but I'mma kiss you" - it's rough watching. Fair for its day maybe, but definitely a bit much 44 years later.

Like, on the off chance that she wasn't interested in him - or interested, but not ready to take such a big step - that's a really worrying scene. Rocky doesn't want to take "no" for an answer, he's not a bad guy so he's not like out to hurt her, but him being that oblivious is just really uncomfortable to watch.

Saying that, the relationship between Adrian and Rocky is one of the best parts of the movie. I like Adrian's character arc, eventually standing up to Paulie like she does and moving in with Rocky. Paulie is just kind of an ugly character all around, he gets a moment of levity but all he seems to do is sponge off of Rocky and live on the good graces of his sister, who's too timid and cowed to stand up to him. In a way, they're all losers on skid row, but Paulie seems especially bad - taking belts of scotch at work, ruining Adrian's turkey, smashing up his house with a bat. It's really uncomfortable.

Rocky was a surprise. I've seen some of the later Rocky movies, and at a point he turns into a bit of a cartoon character. But in this movie, he's played in a very quirky and understated way. I was wondering why he liked that hat in Creed, because I'm used to the regular-ass Rocky Balboa cut - why's Rocky wearing that dumb-ass fedora? Well, here it is. He's living for the next fight, but he has a life outside of the ring. Like damn, he's a loan shark basically - he goes around extorting people for money. He knows people, he walks around at night. He's a part of a community.

He's got this rubber ball that he bounces around, whether it's to keep him sharp for his next fight or if it's just something he has around for the sake of having it around, I don't know. He's always punching in his spare time, like boxing's always on his mind, to the point where it feels like a compulsion or a tic. Rocky's a real oddball in this movie, from the way he talks to the way he moves. And he's treated like an oddball too, the announcers make cracks at his Italian heritage and sledge him because he's not so photogenic. He's actually believable as this offbeat down-and-outer who never had a good opportunity in his life.

And this movie's training montage - it's famous for a reason. It's considered cliche nowadays, played for laughs because we've all seen the serious attempts to ape off of it as well as all the corny joke versions. But this movie plays it so straight and so earnestly, it's legitimately good. The only thing holding this cliche down is that you have to believe that the character wants it, and you can't just fast track the entire training process into the montage. And what's more, it feels like Rocky starts a lot of sport movie cliches that a lot of lesser movies ape off of - they shine through so earnestly here where they've been driven into the mud by tons of shitty imitations.

It might be because I saw Walk the Line tonight with a friend of mine - which is also a movie with an uncomfortable romantic angle to it, except Rocky is arguably better about it - but I couldn't help but think of all the shitty "inspirational" biopics I've seen over the course of my life, or even just regular sport movies. I've seen movies that couldn't make a portrayal of a real sportsman as relatable as Rocky, or make me want to root for them. They're either cut down with cliches that are too on the nose for their own good, or they're turned into a bumbling jackass to make them "likeable". It's all so phony and fake. Rocky is a fictional character, and his journey by that definition is phony and fake, but it doesn't feel that way.

I actually want to root for Rocky because you spend so much time in his shoes, witnessing his life - his growth as a person and as an athlete actually means something, because you see into his life so intimately, not just by getting the cliff notes version of his life from birth to now. It's not about the sport, it's not about a bunch of hackneyed likeable character tropes that all these shitty fucking facsimiles of real people all seem to share - it's about Rocky as a character.

And he's an oddball, and he's rough around the edges - telling a local girl not to develop a bad reputation lest guys start calling her a whore, collecting money for a loan shark, breaking a padlock off a locker with a fire extinguisher because he can't open it. To this day, character movies are either self-deprecating comedic fluff, or they're filled with this laundry list of "likeable character traits" to try and win the audience over, even after the last 50 leading men played the exact same beats. Rocky's an oddball, and he takes a while to grow on you. Just watching him and getting to know him makes that moment where he clicks all the more satisfying.

Rocky was a good movie. I can't say that I liked most of the characters - I relate the most to Adrian, and I'm glad she was able to stand up for herself in the end and find happiness instead of wasting away in a house caring for her alcoholic brother. But the way Rocky's played in this movie was an unexpected treat. I think Rocky and Mick will have a better dynamic in 2, so I'm gonna hold off on that for a while. And Apollo Creed, while a bit hamfisted in places, was an interesting character to see in the background, doing his business and refusing to take the challenge seriously. He acts more like a businessman than an athlete in this movie, which was an interesting angle to take.

I only have two complaints outside of the Adrian stuff I started with, and one of them is a major nitpick. The first one is that the ending is kind of weak - I get that it's providing Rocky with a happy ending and showing that he doesn't need the title to be happy, but it's so hamfisted and saccharine after his and Adrian's relationship had been established q over the course of the movie. Of course they loved each other, they shared a bed - just going "I love you!" 10 seconds before the credits roll didn't make for a great ending. But that might just be because everyone's heard of the famous Rocky ending where he's yelling and caterwauling "Adrian!" in the ring, and it just lacked that initial effect on me.

The second issue - and the major nitpick - is that the trailer included in this DVD? It's fucking terrible. It spoils most of the best story beats of the movie, and it just looks and sounds terrible. Great movie, garbage trailer.

I've got all 6 movies on DVD, and I'm gonna be watching them all. Keep an eye out for future Rocky threads.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

It's sauerkraut, kransky/chorizo sausages, a fuckton of tinned tomatoes - they've got to be tinned - and a whole pork hock. The sauerkraut and tinned tomato add zest and bite, the sausages and pork hock provide a hearty smokiness to the soup, with chorizos adding a bit of spice to the mixture as well.

You'll be chowing down on a bowl of soup, and you'll get a chunk of meat that's fallen off the bone, bigger than a chicken tender. It's great. But the best part is that the soup is at its strongest point the day after you cook it. It's alright to eat the day of cooking, but reheating it the next day takes it to a whole new level. The zest is zestier, the smoke is smokier, the bite is bitier.

My nan called it Red Soup, because it's dyed deep red due to the tomatoes. She also has a Red Salad that's made up of cubed potatoes, baked beans, sauerkraut, pickles, beetroot and cubed onions. That one's red because of the beetroot.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
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Sotha_Sil posted...

This is a really shitty, shortsighted and ignorant take. DeVos is a fucking plague but this is not a sensible suggestion by any metric.

Yeah, just edited my original post.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
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The US school system is fucked anyway. This suggestion is still more sensible than having Betsy DeVos as the head of education.

That's not to say that this is good necessarily, just that America has already hit the bottom of the barrel. It would be extremely hard to sink further, even by getting the Gates Foundation involved.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
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HagenEx posted...

I don't get it. How is chicken the most versatile? Do you know how many cuts of beef there are? And how many different textures you can get from each cut?

You guys are either insane, or just don't think before you post on these boards. I'm leaning towards the latter.

Chicken can be combined with more things, and is arguably leaner than beef or pork. It's like a canvas where the toppings and sauces are the paint.

Yes, you can have a beef burger with anything on it, or even crumb a beef schnitzel. But with chicken's lighter texture and less intense flavour than beef or pork, it works with more toppings and different flavorings than beef does. It is basically a blander cut of meat with less fat, that you can eat with a wider selection of additives than most other meats. There's a reason that "it tastes like chicken" is used to describe any meat outside of the norm, like reptile meat - it's a nice baseline that everyone's familiar with.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
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Chicken meat is more versatile than beef or pork. It would be easier to eat chicken for the rest of my life.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

Gotta love that "why are you saying it's about Jenny Nicholson, it's barely even about her!" argument. Even the dipshits in the video tried to pull that one.

Y'know, despite the fact that the video is called "Responding to Jenny Nicholson", it has a derogatory picture of her in the thumbnail, and it's at a length that no sane human being is going to sit through or be able to reliably comb through for a truncated take on the video.

If they didn't want the reputation of making a 12 hour video about Jenny Nicholson, they shouldn't have recorded a 12 hour video and plastered it with Jenny Nicholson's name and face for clicks. Again, it's not a matter of "you didn't watch the video, so you're not giving the people involved a fair chance" - because no sane, rational person is going to watch a barely edited stream party of three douchebags for a combined total of 12 hours.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
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I sleep in a position where the sun usually shines in my eyes when I wake up. When I dream, there will be points where my dream self can't open his eyes due to sun glare, it'll be coming from nowhere but I'll have to stumble around without opening my eyes because the sunlight hurts. Then I wake up for real and get an eyeball full of sunbeams.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
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DevsBro posted...

Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam 2

Featuring Zebrahead from the Sonic the Hedgehog series

Oh fuck yeah, I don't mind a little bit of Zebrahead

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
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The sheer love for Super Mario RPG to this day has got to be built on the back of people who grew up playing it. It's probably not a bad game, but the art style is aging worse and worse with every passing year and there have been Mario RPGs released since which arguably hold up better. Granted, those titles are pretty old themselves now, and it's not likely that another good Mario RPG will be coming out any time soon - I'm just saying that Superstar Saga and Thousand Year Door have aged better, and they've continued the SMRPG legacy in a way that diehard fans refuse to accept.


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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
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For the King, Mass Effect 3 (if you buy a physical copy secondhand or get it on sale) or Diablo 3.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

Alex Jones ghillies up

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

LampChop posted...

Says the guy replying in long ass multi paragraphs.

The difference is that I'm making points relative to my argument. You're just ass-blastedly accusing another user of being ass-blasted themselves, leveling accusations of insecurity and bad faith at them when you're showing the same traits in a much more obvious way.

Like damn, they brushed you off casually and you started swearing at them, saying you're clearly living rent free in their heads and that they're clearly targeting you. You are clearly the more bothered party in this scenario.

I do get caught up in making posts with more time and effort put into them than I should be using, and this quote was a direct rebuttal to someone treating me like a moron. But there's more to it than me sweating and shaking behind a keyboard, trying to convince other posters that the other guy's ass-blasted and I'm not.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
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jeffhardyb0yz posted...

When is that even 1/100 okay?

Every rule has its exceptions. Some 18 year olds have old souls, and some 40 year olds are actually interested in having a long term relationship with someone whose personality gels with theirs - so basically, every now and again, you get a person who isn't trying to court an 18 year old because they're drooling at the mouth to fuck some barely legal poon.

Given that personalities don't clash, and that two people can build a mutually respectful relationship where they respect each other's individual lives and each other's growth into different people, an age gap relationship of these proportions might occasionally be appropriate. But there are two factors that get in the way of this.

First of all, not every 18 year old is going to be equipped to handle a relationship with an older person, and vice versa for 40 year olds. On top of that, not every 40 year old is going to approach younger dating prospects with good intentions. The chances of two serious people with complementary personalities and aspirations meeting is low, and the chances of two compatible people with this severe of an age gap meeting is even lower due to what they've experienced in their lives, just through sheer numbers. You might as well throw the chances out the window if you've got a 40 year old who's actively seeking to date 18 year olds, because that's indicating an interest in a type of person based on their age and it's pretty skuzzy.

Secondly, the chances of two complementary people meeting decreases as the age gap grows larger between them. An 18 year old, fresh out of high school, probably has something in common with 19-21 year olds - but even 21 is starting to stretch it in the dating realm. Then you've got people who are leaving college, who are out of college, who've been employed for 10 years, then 25 years etc. The more life experience that older party has, the less stuff they typically have in common with someone who's just graduated high school.

But stretch that 18 into a 22. That person has a few years under their belt, they've been working for a few years and they have some semblance of adult life. That person is more equipped to handle a serious relationship with an older person than an 18 year old is. Even if you age that prospective partner consistent to the younger party - up to 44 - it seems marginally more appropriate for a 22 year old to make that informed, adult decision. They're still separated by the same age gap, but the experience gap has shrunk a little bit.

Let me put it this way - if you've got a 40 year old asking if it's okay to date 18 year olds because they want to expand their dating pool, it probably isn't a good idea. That's an interest in a type - that's targeting inexperienced daters while you've got years of experience in the world. It looks sleazy and opportunistic, and it's unlikely that a meaningful relationship is going to come out of it. The more experienced and autonomous that a person becomes with age, the more likely it is that something good might stem from chatting them up.

If you have a 40 year old who's familiar with an 18 year old in a social setting, and there's a level of attraction that the 40 year old feels is mutual but isn't sure whether to act on or not, they at least have a basic level of forethought and care to be serious about dating a younger person. But this is the exception, not the rule, and even relationships that start like this can be imbalanced from the start. It's all relative, and it's all rule of thumb.

Speaking of rule of thumb - if you've got someone arguing that 40 year olds should be able to date 18 year olds without fear of social stigma, that's a person who probably shouldn't be dating 18 year olds. There's a social stigma for a reason, and that reason is grown ass predators looking to bury some flesh with the bare minimum age of people they can't be arrested for fucking. It's a complicated process, and before someone even thinks about taking part in a relationship like this, there has to be some serious thought put into it. Flippancy and dismissal of the finer details just mean the answer to your question is probably "no".

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
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LampChop posted...

You are clearly fucking bothered by the fact that I said you named yourself after failed consoles, which is why you're attacking my username now on here.

bruh, you're the only person here's who's bothered lmao

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

Rebel_Patriot posted...

youre out of your mind. So if theres an Al Jolson biopic whoever is cast as Jolson will be forever known as one few actors to don blackface?

I guess RDJ also built a suit of armor that flies and Liam Neeson saved a lot of people during the holocaust.

Robert Downey Jr. didn't become a world class engineer and mechanical mastermind in Iron Man either, I'm not a fucking goon. But he did darken his skin to portray a black character in Tropic Thunder. His character darkened his skin for the role, but to portray the character who had done so, Robert Downey Jr. did darken his skin.

His performance was still blackface - but it served a wider critique of Hollywood. Alpa Chino, a successful black performer, auditioned to get that role - but instead the studio employed a white character actor who dyed his skin darker to portray a black man, and Chino was given a smaller role on the squad. It's saying that Hollywood would rather recruit a man basically performing in blackface to fill a prominent black role over casting an actual black man.

I like Tropic Thunder - like I said in my response to you, I defended the movie earlier in the thread. RDJ's performance holds up because it provides commentary on the Hollywood system - much like Les Grossman paints a psychopathic picture of Hollywood producers, or Ben Stiller's character paints a picture of washed up action stars appearing in Oscar bait or family comedies in their twilight years, before appearing in tired, washed-up rehashes of their iconic action movie franchises.

But the fact remains that RDJ did perform in blackface. I don't think that's up for debate. The reason why the character - and the movie as a whole - was accepted with little incident, as well as why the movie holds up even today and why RDJ hasn't been "cancelled" for this role, is that his character illustrates a greater point and actively lampoons Hollywood's treatment of minority actors. They would rather accept a white man in blackface if he's a known quantity than risk casting a prominent black celebrity to play the role. It's a criticism of Hollywood taken to its most extreme level.

The point of his character was "with a degree or two of separation, can you really say that Hollywood wouldn't be so shameless as to attempt this seriously?" The movie holds up on a comedic level, and it holds up as a satire of the Hollywood system as a whole. Robert Downey Jr. did a good job, and Tropic Thunder is still a good movie. But by virtue of darkening the color of his skin, RDJ performed in blackface.

These are not mutually exclusive concepts.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

Rebel_Patriot posted...

RDJ wasnt in blackface, the character he played was a white guy using blackface. This wasnt a white guy pretending to be black it was a white guy pretending to be a white guy pretending to be black.

If the character you're playing is wearing blackface, then you are wearing blackface. If a white actor plays a white guy who has to don blackface to do something, then that actor has performed in blackface.

I actually supported the movie in an early post, for the record - I just think that your take here was particularly bad.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

Your brother is also alive.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

I bought it recently. If you like Mario Golf, you would like this game.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

99/100 times, it's not okay. You're a grown ass man fucking with someone who's only just started being considered an adult. There's an emotional and social gap between a 40-something year old and an 18 year old fresh out of high school

Would you take your 18 year old self seriously? I would assume that most of you wouldn't, since even at 18 you still behave like a dumbass kid and have a lot of growing to do. Even if you think your 18 year old self was on the right track, and you still exemplify the values that your younger self lived by, I think anyone would admit that their approach to life has changed significantly since they got older.

Like, as a grown adult, why do you want to date someone who's only just stopped being considered a child in the eyes of the law? It's creepy. If you're gonna date young, date someone in their mid-20's, who can at least say they've had real life experience as an adult and that they know what they want out of a partner. There's probably still a bit of an imbalance, especially if you're fucking drunk party girls instead of dating like career-oriented people making the most of the prime of their life, but it's exponentially less creepy than dating 18 year olds.

They still need more time in the oven, chief. Let them date other 18 year olds, or even other 20-something year olds, to soak up some of that life experience with people who are close to them in age and life experience themselves.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

I remember hearing that they were expecting a massive backlash to RDJ's role, but the thing that got the most consternation upon release was Simple Jack, the shitty Oscar bait movie that no-one liked where Ben Stiller's character played a mentally disabled man.

Tropic Thunder was a lampoon of Hollywood itself. RDJ's character is a character actor who dives so deep into his roles that he wears blackface to portray a black soldier who really existed, and by doing this he takes the role from an actual black man who's relegated to a minor role in the squad. They make no ifs or buts about it - his character is so vain and narcissistic that he dyes his skin a darker colour and begins speaking in ebonics to "sound black", exemplifying all these issues with blackface to satisfy his ego as a character actor. And this actively pushes a famous black performer out of the role, who joined the project to play RDJ's character's role, but who was relegated to a side role because of a "more bankable star" wearing blackface.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

Train to Busan 2 was directed by a different person, to my knowledge. There are new actors playing new roles, while old characters get the shaft. I didn't watch Train to Busan, but my friend did - it's to my knowledge that the main dude got bit at the end of that movie, which is why they're using a new guy.

So yeah, viewer beware TC. This movie has been in development hell for a couple years, and the director isn't the same dude who made the first one to my knowledge.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

I was in a group of people walking up the street. The initial task was going to be verifying a bunch of fake IDs or something, but this turned into someone breaking into an area that was like a bank to get everyone new phones and tablets and stuff.

The plan was for everyone else to hide outside while one person did the thieving, and when they sent the message by text, everyone would run off in different directions to confuse the cameras. The idea was to not let the security cameras see your face, and by acting as a large group and running away in so many different directions, we would act as a smokescreen for the actual thief.

I'm wearing this zip-up black fleece hoodie, it zips up right to my chin and hangs over my face when I need it to - it was a real jacket I own irl. So the text goes out, and everyone - a group of 6 or 7 people, including myself, make like a banana and split. I start running towards my town's local pool, turn left and find a suburban alleyway to run down. I have no idea where anyone else took off to.

That was about where the dream ended, but here's the kicker. As I was running away, I thought to myself "tfw all you need to run away from the Beatles is a black hoodie", and I thought about John Lennon getting shot. This was not a conscious decision - my dreaming mind made a dark joke about John Lennon getting shot.

The funny thing about this dream is that I'm a total pussy in regards to crime. I wouldn't risk jailtime or a fine for a stolen phone or tablet. But my dream went from "we're gonna go use these fake IDs to make sure they work" to "I'm gonna rob a tech store that looks like a bank, and you guys are gonna help cover my escape".

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

It's a game I come back to time after time. This game, along with Mass Effect 3 multiplayer and Diablo 3, has entertained me and a friend of mine for hours on end, playing through all the campaigns at least once each, and it's the perfect game to dust off 6 months later and have a few nostalgia games.

It's the gameplay and appeal of a turn-based RPG with the versatility of a rogue-like. No two maps are alike, and you can purchase new events and items with an in-game currency called Lore, which you get from playing the game.

No game is perfect, but For the King is the most fun I've had with a video game in years. I think I would chalk this up with Ridge Racer on PSP as one of my favorite games of all time.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

Holy fuck, the formatting on those dot points are... not great, to say the least. Even I went in to try and fix them.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

I'm gonna put up 3 categories: $30 and up, around $20, and around $10 and under. I want you to pick at least one game that you know from one of the categories, and make some sort of case for it. Even if it's just like an elevator pitch. The more expensive the game is, the more of a pitch I'm probably gonna need.

$30 and up:

• Wandersong
• Marble It Up!
• For the King (love this game, but the price is a bit steep)
• Marenian Tavern Story: Patty and the Hungry God (positive Atelier vibes, but high price point)
• Manticore: Galaxy on Fire

Around $20:

• Mainlining
• Labyrinth of the Witch
• Va-11 Hall-A
• 20XX (apparently very Mega Man X-like?)
• Rise: Race the Future
• Fast RMX
• Revenant Saga (Kemco RPG)
• Doom and Destiny
• Zen Bound 2 (I like puzzle games, but idk if I'd pay $20 for this one)
• Voez
• Gorogoa

Around $10 and under:

• Vaporum (usually $35, currently $13)
• Grab the Bottle
• One Eyed Kutkh
• Metagal
• The Unholy Society
• Nefarious (usually $22.50, currently $7.65)
• DragonFangZ (3D mystery dungeon style game, usually $30 but currently $15)
• Oh... Sir! The Hollywood Roast (I liked the first game, but what can this one really offer in comparison?)

Alternatively, recommend something else that's not on this list. If I like it, but I'm not too flash on the price point at the moment, I'll add it to my wish list.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

Still me, frankly.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

ZevLoveDOOM posted...

Bush is a genius compared to Trumpie...

And yet, you're still correct!

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

Ex-Kefiroth posted...

New topic: "'Omasitor Hain is WARNED' is DELETED"

Followed closely by "''Omasitor Hain is WARNED' is DELETED' is DELETED"

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

Only when I think about using a derogatory term referring to a part of the human body, which the word filter outright doesn't let you post.

It's a strong expletive, and I understand why it's one of the words that the word filter outright does not let you say, but it's one of those strong, emphasised words that's kind of engrained in my culture. It's the strongest word you can use to emphasise something painful, and it's a heavy condemnation of whatever you're talking about.

Sometimes when I'm discussing a topic that's as low as discourse on this site can go, the desire to slip in this expletive is so incredibly strong - just to add emphasis to the sheer distaste I have for the subject at hand. I get caught up in the process of replacing that word, including rewriting the last few lines to take it in another direction. That's the only time I feel like I'm walking on eggshells - if there's a statement that's worth being moderated for, I'll make it.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

Christ, finally.

TheLastHero posted...

Honestly I think its about time these topics became moddable

Why now? He was openly contemptuous in pretty much every topic he was in, making the worst possible takes for attention.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

Let's be real - this has been on the horizon ever since Nintendo published a waifu game where the waifu was the protagonist's de-aged grandmother.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

monkmith posted...

GWB shit the bed with katrina. trump has done it with multiple hurricanes and the current pandemic. he's got no leg to stand on when bitching about aid response.

What are you talking about? Puerto Rico is fine! All the death tolls were exaggerated by the Fake News Establishment once he got back to America, he didn't see that many dead people when he visited the nation out of goodwill!

What's that? There are still people who are homeless from that hurricane, as well as from earthquakes that have struck the territory since? Nonsense! They were always homeless, and they just want to blame Trump because they can't pull themselves up by the bootstraps! It's all Fake News, I tell you! Fake News!

Or, "how far can I stretch a joke about Trumpers by repeating their exact rhetoric in a slightly exaggerated fashion before it looks like I actually believe what I'm saying"

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

masticatingman posted...

Yes, former British empire possession with massive influx of settlers vs natives. And they look to America/Britain for cultural cues, not neighboring Asian countries.

Geographically we're south-east, down in Oceania with Polynesian cultures like New Zealand and Tonga. But culturally we're "westernised" because Britain committed genocide against the locals, took ownership of the land and subjected the indigenous people to human rights violations that didn't technically stop until the 1990's. Their varying cultures and customs were suppressed for a century, and if they didn't "assimilate properly", i.e. display western standards and completely ditch their indigenous customs, their children were taken to be raised by white families. To this day, a lot of indigenous citizens tend to have more caucasian features, because the Aboriginal people who weren't raised in white families were raped by white people in an attempt to eradicate their race and replace it with whiteness - y'know, like the Native Americans.

We have McDonalds, Subway and Domino's, just like you guys, so yeah we're pretty westernised.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

The issue with "maybe it was a counter protester making the protesters look bad" is that we've already seen the right wing rub their shoulders with neo-Nazis. Remember in 2017, where supposed "proud confederates" marched "in defence of their heritage", shoulder to shoulder with people waving swastika flags? To the point where flag-waving white supremacists and self-identified confederates marched into the night wielding tiki torches, chanting slogans like "blood and sand"? That rally defined the connection between the right wing and white supremacy, and while there haven't been any large-scale right-wing demonstrations since, there's still a wealth of connections to white supremacist groups - most recently, with members of neo-Nazi website The Base travelling from Canada to right-wing pro-gun rallies in Virginia this last year and being arrested.

You can argue that this is just a bad-faith actor trying to connect the dots again, but when you have things happening like gun-wielding protestors swamping a government building in a show of intimidation, people comparing coronavirus lockdown to slavery and white supremacists attending right-wing events in recent months, it seems more and more likely that these protests are attracting actual scum, who actually believe the horseshit they're peddling.

We saw it in 2017 - the right wing were more than happy to ram into protestors in cars and march alongside flag-waving neo-Nazis, shouting violent, xenophobic slogans tied directly to white supremacist groups. They're happy to align themselves with the Proud Boys, who start fights with leftist protestors and gang up on them when they feel like they can claim "they swung first" - trying to justify a crowd of 6 Proud Boys beating the shit out of 2 leftists. The right is growing more and more extreme, and there is precedent for the far right to buddy up with unabashed neo-Nazis. A right-wing protester holding up a sign quoting Nazi propaganda from Auschwitz isn't as outlandish as assuming it's a bad-faith leftist actor trying to smear the right even further than they're willing to embarrass themselves.

Because we've already seen the right slide further towards open racism and white supremacy as far back as three years ago. This isn't a new look for the right, and it's not even necessarily a return - just a peak that we haven't seen since Confederate flags waved beside Swastika flags in Charlottesville 3 years ago.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

Oh boy. Do you think there are any Dubya hold-outs who'll turn on Trump for going against the last Republican president? Or would he have to go so far as to badmouth Reagan to inspire any real Republican backlash?

Not that Trump would say a bad word against Reagan, since it was Reagan's presidency that made it easier for the rich to stay rich. But you've got to wonder just how far Donald Trump would have to stoop to prop himself up before the actual, working-class right wing actively swear off him.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2

I wouldn't fault people for being buttmad at the leaks, they sound pretty divisive and I can respect people not liking where the story goes.

With that being said, the way they're going about it is really whiny and annoying. It's some real Gamers Rise Up shit, and the way that they're building it up as "feminism is a blight on culture, our hobby is under attack by SJWs" is really stupid and pathetic.

There's plenty to criticize about this game, from its drawn out production to how its staff have been treated, and the leaked details are worth criticising if they're not your cup of tea. But they're pissing any goodwill they might have had away with the stupidest talking points possible.

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So you don't get to be a saint, martyrs never last this long
Now Playing: Skyrim, Final Fantasy X-2