I just discovered the feature on SplatNet 3 where you can see what team your friends have picked for Splatfest, and more interestingly, that you can indicate what you might want to pick, so that all your friends can see where you're leaning and you could coordinate a choice that way if you want. I just love how much "extra stuff" there is in SplatNet 3. There's rewards for exploring Alterna, for reconfiguring Palettes, for sponsoring the Wandercrust, and all these things have cute little text bits as well. There's an amazing amount of fun stats to look at -- how many boss Salmonids you've killed, your win rate in each mode on each map, number of wins per weapon, etc etc. There's QR code rewards (granted, not as many as I'd like!) You can flip through the catalog, you can see your past Side Order runs, you can look at the Splashtag of everyone in the games you've played in recently, and of course you can order gear from Annie.
And that's just SplatNet, the whole game is like that, with lockers, Tableturf, Salmon Run (and Big Run, and Eggstra Work), Splashtag badges and titles, wacky Challenges, plaza drawings, putting together outfits, photo mode, watching replays with so many angles to choose from, so much stuff. I feel like I'll never use it all up; I keep finding new things, like upgrading Tableturf cards to be holographic for no reason, or that Sheldon has a different practice area than the lobby, or the battle graphs...it just makes me happy, idk.

Important Notes:

• I do my best to include every sale, but at the same time I focus sale with a noticeable price drop, meaning sales start with at least 20% and up. I usually skip anything below that unless it's a worth while title.
  
• Click on the price to visit the store page for that game.
  
• The end date of the sale isn't mentioned, you can check the store page to see it.
  
• All of these sales are based on the US store front, so some sales may not be available depending on your country.
  

[~ PSN ~]

(On Mobile please Swipe left to see the prices and tags)

Game	Price/Link	Tags
Persona 4 Golden	$11.99 $19.99	Turn-based/Modern Japan setting/Highschool life simulatoMystery/Monster collectoSocial link system/Great soundtrack
The Persona Collection (P3P/Persona 4/Persona 5)	$49.49 $89.99	Turn-based/Modern Japan setting/Highschool life simulatoMystery/Monster collectoSocial link system/Great soundtrack
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth PS4 & PS5	$48.99 $69.99	Turn-based/Contemporary Hawaii setting/Yakuza life/Open World/Heavy on Drama and Comedy/Heavy on Mini-games/Class Changing Mechanics
Star Ocean The Second Story R	$39.99 $49.99	Action/Sci-fi mixed with Fantasy setting/Choose 1 of 2 main characters/Expansive crafting system/Affection mechanic for Party members/Choices matteRemake of the original PS1 title
Tales of Arise PS4 & PS5	$14.79 $59.99	Action/Fantasy setting/Anime style/Revolution Story/anime trope heavy/Social links mechanic between party members
Valkyria Chronicles 4 Complete Edition	$9.99 $49.99	Tactical Turn-based/World War Militar setting/Tactical mixed with real-time elements/Sketch or "Canvas" art style/Build your Army with character customization/Mission based story progression/Army management
DORAEMON STORY OF SEASONS	$14.99 $49.99	Farming Simulator/Mini-games/Social Links system
Rainbow Moon	$2.99 $14.99	Tactical Turn-based/Character customization/Fantasy setting/Dungeon Crawler
Terra Memoria	$14.99 $19.99	Turn-based/Fantasy setting/Pixel Graphics/Base Building/Resource gathering & Crafting
Neptunia: Sisters VS Sisters	$19.99 $49.99 [PS4 version]	Turn-based/Female Protagonist/Comedy/fan-service/Parody
Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling	$14.99 $24.99	Turn-based/Paper Mario-like/Comedy/Adventure
Monster Sanctuary	$4.99 $19.99	Turn-based/Fantasy setting/Monster CollectoMetroidvania/Pixel Graphics
Relayer	$11.99 $59.99	Tactical turn-based/Sci-fi setting/Space travel/Piloted Mecha/Female Protagonist/Anime art style
Death end reQuest	$7.99 $39.99	Turn-based/Female protagonist/Cyber World setting/Psychological HorroNudity
Death end re;Quest 2	$11.99 $49.99	Turn-based/Cyber world setting/Female Protagonist/Dark Fantasy/Gore/Fan-service
Shining Resonance Refrain	$5.99 $29.99	Action/Fantasy setting/Dragon transformation/Musical theme/Anime visual style/Social link mechanic
Mary Skelter Finale	$14.99 $49.99	Turn-based/First-Person View Dungeon CrawleDeep & Full party customization/Female Protagonist/Multiple Endings/HorroFan-service
Born of Bread	$14.99 $29.99	Turn-based/Fantasy setting/Paper Mario-like/Comedy/Timed hits combat
DRAGON BALL Z: KAKAROT	$14.99 $59.99	Action Fantasy/Semi-Open World (zones)/Anime story adaptation/Beautiful animations
South Park™: The Fractured but Whole™	$8.99 $29.99	Tactical Turn-based/Modern Day setting/Comedy/Mature/Dark HumoNudity/Fart Jokes

​

[~ Switch ~]

Game	Price/Link	Tags
Star Ocean The Second Story R	$39.99 $49.99	Action/Sci-fi mixed with Fantasy setting/Choose 1 of 2 main characters/Expansive crafting system/Affection mechanic for Party members/Choices matteRemake of the original PS1 title
Ikenfell	$5.99 $19.99	Tactical Turn-based/Fantasy setting/Pixel Graphics/Female Protagonist/LGBTQ+/Retro
Dodgeball Academia	$9.99 $24.99	Action/School Life Sim/Sports (Dodgeball)/2D Hand-drawn Cartoon Art style
Born of Bread	$14.99 $29.99	Turn-based/Fantasy setting/Paper Mario-like/Comedy/Timed hits combat
Battle Chef Brigade Deluxe	$6.99 $19.99	Action/Fantasy setting/Cooking battles/Female Protagonist/Side ScrolleBeat'em up/Hand-drawn
Fuga: Melodies of Steel	$23.99 $39.99	Tactical Turn-based/Steampunk setting/Anthropomorphic characters/Social Links System/Base upgrading
Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2	$23.99 $39.99	Tactical Turn-based/Steampunk setting/Anthropomorphic characters/Social Links System/Base upgrading
Front Mission 1st: Remake	$17.49 $34.99	Tactical turn-based/Sci-fi setting/War & Politics/Mecha/Customization
FRONT MISSION 2: Remake	$27.99 $34.99	Tactical turn-based/Sci-fi setting/War & Politics/Mecha/Customization
Dusk Diver	$8.74 $34.99	Action/Modern Taipei Ximending setting/Female Protagonist/Beat'em up/Anime visual style
Terra Memoria	$14.99 $19.99	Turn-based/Fantasy setting/Pixel Graphics/Base Building/Resource gathering & Crafting
Infinite Guitars	$11.99 $19.99	Turn-based/Sci-fi setting/Rock Music/Hand-drawn/Robots/Rhythm/Timed button presses
Regalia: Of Men and Monarchs - Royal Edition OST Combo	$7.49 $24.99	Tactical turn-based/Medieval Fantasy setting/Social link system/Politics/Comedy
Potato Flowers in Full Bloom	$13.31 $17.99	Turn-based/Medieval Fantasy setting/First-person Dungeon CrawleCustom Party creation/Class Mechanics
Rainbow Moon + Rainbow Skies Strategy RPG Bundle	$23.99 $29.99	Tactical Turn-based/Character customization/Fantasy setting/Dungeon Crawler

[~ Xbox ~]

Game	Price/Link	Tags
Blue Dragon	$6.59 $19.99	Turn-based/Fantasy setting/Class changing mechanics/great soundtrack
Lost Odyssey	$8.24 $24.99	Turn-based/Fantasy setting
Costume Quest 1	$4.49 $14.99	Turn-based/Fantasy setting/Female Protagonist/Choices Matter
Terra Memoria	$14.99 $19.99	Turn-based/Fantasy setting/Pixel Graphics/Base Building/Resource gathering & Crafting
Dodgeball Academia	$9.99 $24.99	Action/School Life Sim/Sports (Dodgeball)/2D Hand-drawn Cartoon Art style
Ikenfell	$5.99 $19.99	Tactical Turn-based/Fantasy setting/Pixel Graphics/Female Protagonist/LGBTQ+/Retro
Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition	$5.99 $14.99	Turn-based/Fantasy setting/Female Protagonist/Pixel Graphics
Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling	$12.49 $24.99	Turn-based/Paper Mario-like/Comedy/Adventure

~ Steam ~

If you want to check the games yourself:

~ Link to the JRPGs on Sale list ~

Steam Deck Icons (As explained by Steam itself):

🟦 Verified: Means that the game is fully compatible and works with built-in controls and display.
🟧 Playable: Means the game is Functional, but requires extra effort to interact with and configure .
"--" Unknown: Basically unconfirmed or still under-review.

Game	Price/Link	Tags	Steam Deck
Chrono Ark	$18.74 $24.99	Turn-based/Modern day setting/Roguelike DeckbuildeFemale Protagonist/Anime visuals/Card Battler	🟦 Playable
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night	$9.99 $39.99	Action/Medieval Gothic Fantasy setting/Female Protagonist/PlatformeSide ScrolleMetroidvania	🟦 Verified
In Stars And Time	$15.99 $19.99	Turn-based/Fantasy setting/Monochrome art style/LGBTQ+/Comedy/Time Travel/Hand-drawn Cartoon style	🟦 Verified
Ni no Kuni™ II: Revenant Kingdom PRINCE'S EDITION	$11.99 $79.98	Action/Fantasy setting/Isekai/Base BuildeArmy Battle/Character CollectoBeautiful art style	🟦 Verified
Born of Bread	$12.49 $24.99	Turn-based/Fantasy setting/Paper Mario-like/Comedy/Timed hits combat	🟧Playable
Terra Memoria	$14.99 $19.99	Turn-based/Fantasy setting/Pixel Graphics/Base Building/Resource gathering & Crafting	🟧Playable
Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2	$23.99 $39.99	Tactical Turn-based/Steampunk setting/Anthropomorphic characters/Social Links System/Base upgrading	🟦 Verified
Fae Tactics	$5.99 $19.99	Tactical Turn-based/Fantasy setting/Female Protagonist/Beautiful Pixel Graphics/Unique Battle system/Monster Collector	🟦 Verified
Dodgeball Academia	$9.99 $24.99	Action/School Life Sim/Sports (Dodgeball)/2D Hand-drawn Cartoon Art style	🟧Playable
Sword and Fairy 7	$14.99 29.99	Action/Chinese Martial Arts Fantasy (Xianxia)/Female Protagonist/Great visuals and Music/Rich Story and Lore/Chinese voice acting with English subtitles	🟧Playable
Ikenfell	$5.99 $19.99	Tactical Turn-based/Fantasy setting/Pixel Graphics/Female Protagonist/LGBTQ+/Retro	🟦 Verified
Astria Ascending	$8.74 $39.99	Turn-based/Medieval Fantasy setting/PlatformeFemale Protagonist/Class system	🟦Verified
Haven	$14.99 $24.99	Active time combat/Sci-fi setting/Heavy on Romance/LGBTQ/Local Co-op support/Exploration/Resource Gathering	🟦 Verified
Crimson Tactics: The Rise of The White Banner	$14.99 $29.99	Tactical Turn-based/Medieval Fantasy setting/Class system/War & Politics/Dragons/	--
Jack Move	$9.99 $19.99	Turn-based/Cyberpunk setting/Female Protagonist/Pixel Graphics/Hacking	🟦Verified
Earthlock	$4.49 $29.99	Turn-based/Fantasy setting	🟧Playable
Xuan-Yuan Sword: The Gate of Firmament	$4.49 $14.99	Real Time/Chinese Martial Arts Fantasy (Xianxia)/Rich Story and Lore/Monster collection/Chinese voice acting with English subtitles	🟧Playable
Xuan-Yuan Sword: The Gate of Firmament	$4.49 $14.99	Real Time/Chinese Martial Arts Fantasy (Xianxia)/Rich Story and Lore/Monster collection/Chinese voice acting with English subtitles	🟧Playable
Children of Zodiarcs	$5.39 $17.99	Tactical Turn-based/Fantasy setting/Female Protagonist/Card Based/Deck Building	🟦Verified

​

~ General Recommendations (All Consoles) For Anyone Who Can't Decide ~

First off, I won't recommend big or famous games like Final Fantasy or Persona, this is more for lesser know, hidden gems, or just games where it's hard to find someone talking about them.
​

[Valkyria Chronicles]

[Valkyria Chronicles 4]

This one is really hard to explain through words alone, but just in case, the VC series is a World War 2 military setting story, where you act as the lead of a squad and take mission to drive back the enemy. The story is drama heavy and the gameplay is tactical turn-based, but it's mixed with real-time third person shooter.
You can also make your own army by recruiting different types of solders, training them and upgrading their gear. From rifles to tanks, this is a game you have to experience to understand.

[Fuga: Melodies of Steel 1 & 2]

Great game, great art style, and really well made and balanced turn-based combat. That alone is enough to get the game. Then you add the time-management part of the game, where you spend time upgrading the different tank rooms, cooking, exploring ruins, spending time to bond with other characters, and so on. It's also great if you want a game that you can play for an hour or 2 and then put down for later. As the game is played through stages, and once you're done with a stage, you get an intermission to do what you want and come back to it later.
It's not a long game (compared to the usual JRPG), as you mentioned, it's about 20 hours. Story-wise I think it was a bit too short. Gameplay wise it was great fit, because it didn't outstay it's welcome, and it ends when you feel you have mastered the gameplay and want to face the final challenge.
The story is good, but isn't the focus. Gameplay is the main focus. In fact you'll feel that a lot of context isn't told in the story, but instead left for you to either read about in the in-game wiki or just figure out through obvious clues in the story.
There is a big mechanic that this meant to put a lot of pressure on your playthrough (don't worry about it being spoiled because it's literally explained in the first hour of the game). The thing is though, if you have experience in JRPGs or just play in a really well thought out and relaxed manner, then that mechanic might not be as big a deal as they make it seem to be. Yet it's still fun nonetheless.
Fuga 2 is even better. It fixes a lot of the minor issues the first game had, and what's really great, is it improved the "big pressure" mechanic I talked about, and now it actually is a big deal. Then add to that so much little new mechanics added that just makes for a much more fun and challenging game. The 2nd game also continues the same story.

[Ni no Kuni] Series

If you're looking for that great Isekai fantasy adventure feel, then these two games are where it's at. Fantastic visuals and great music, coupled with a great art style, a combo that is perfect for a chill and relaxed gaming experience. Especially when talking about the first game, with the help ofStudio Ghibli, they managed to make a truly whimsical world with that Studio Ghibli classic touch.

- Important Note: The games aren't connected story-wise, so you can start with any of them -

[Wrath of the White Witch]

For a the best fantasy adventure feel, while the combat is a hit or miss depending on your taste, don't let that stop you from actually diving into a true fairy tale world, this is the one with the better story in my opinion, so if you want more story than game, this is for you. Still it has a good share of gameplay, from raising and collecting Pokemon-like monsters, to learning and using different spells, not just in combat but for the overworld too.

[Ni no Kuni™ II: Revenant Kingdom]

This one focuses more on gameplay, with a Kingdom builder, Army battles, Heavy loot focus, and even character collector, this is the one to go with if you want more game than story. Still has the great music and he fantastical art style and setting. Add to that a lot of side activities like beating rare monsters, collecting cute creatures to help you in battle, and even going around the world to gather people to help you build your kingdom. You'll never be short on things to do.
Finally, both of them have beautifully draw world that is just a pleasure to walkthrough, made even better with the amazing orchestral soundtrack.

[Star Ocean The Second Story R]

The original PS1 game was already an amazing JRPG and a classic. But this remake takes it to go even further beyond SSJ3. It should be the standard on how to make a faithful remake on of a classic title.
I don't want to overhype it more than I already did. So to keep this short, this remake does so much:

• All major story events are now fully voice acted. This includes a lot of the private actions too.
  
• Fully redone and better translation of the game.
  
• New Character to recruit to the party.
  
• New Private Actions and 13 new Endings.
  
• New character portraits, not just for the main cast, but also for many other characters.
  
• A complete rework for the battle system to be up to modern standards.
  
• So many QoL features:
  
  • Auto-saving
  • Fast-forward cut-scenes or skip them.
  • Text log
  • All difficulties can be accessed from the start
  • Fast travel
  • 3 different voice dubbing options to choose from (New English, Original Japanese, New Japanese)
  • Your choice of different art styles
  • Choose between original OST and new rearranged OST.
  • No random battles anymore, as enemies can be seen and avoided

And believe me when I say I still haven't touched half of the amazing work that has gone into this remake.

[Sword and Fairy 7: Together Forever]

They did a great job with the presentation of the game. Great voice acting (Chinese), great graphics, amazing music, and an impressive attention to details of the world and it's lore, especially the engineering of the buildings and their decor. Then you have the really beautiful design of each piece of gear, and even just normal attire of each NPC and the disciples of each sect or soldiers of each of the different of each plane (gods, humans, demons).
Then we go to how great looking the monsters and local flora and fauna of each realm. You can feel the intense work that has gone into making and animating each of them. It really is a joy to watch them, as much as it is to watch each environment you see them in. There really isn't enough time to talk about how good the presentation is.
As for the story. First off, I am not an expert in Chinese novels mythology, but I am a big fan of Xianxia and Wuxia novels. So when I say that the story is...good but nothing great, I am saying this as more than just a JRPG fan, but also someone who is very into this type of world and Chinese martial arts fantasy setting. it's nothing that will stick in your mind, apart from the events that take place in some of the beautiful set pieces in the game, or the cut-scenes with beautiful action cheoragphy.
The gameplay is also about average. The side-quests are fun and are worth doing if nothing more than for learning more about the lore and the world. But the actual battles and action gameplay isn't as good as the best ones out there, but it's not bad. I have ran into some bugs, some small, some big, but that was when the game just came out, and it did receive a lot of patches since then. You can tell that they aimed to make a huge triple A production, but didn't have the time or manpower to test a game of this size. It's still fun to play and experience, but the level of gameplay is nowhere near the level of the presentation that the game gives the impression of having just from watching the gameplay or trailers.
If you enjoy walking through magical and fantastic looking JRPG worlds, or if you enjoy Xianxia/Wuxia fiction, then this is an easy choice. Hell even if you don't, it's still worth a go at this price.

[Blue Dragon] & [Lost Odyssey]

These two are classic titles that will probably won't be ported to or remade to modern consoles. That's why this might be the last way you'll ever get to experience 2 classic titles of the genre. Lost Odyssey has great story writing and unique character settings, and Blue Dragon has great exploration and a really fun character class customization system, and one hell of a boss theme.

[Monster Sanctuary]

This is a solid game, everything in is polished and balanced to make sure you are having fun collecting new monsters and customizing your team through evolution/skill trees/gear and making the best in-sync party you can. I only wish it was longer, it's not short by any means, but it's not long either. I would say depending on if you're trying to "catch them all" and explore everything and fight all bosses, this could easily be a 30+ hours game, but if you focus on the story, then it's about 20 to 30 hours. Now even longer with the 2 new free DLC expansion added.
Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining that it's short, but that I was having so much fun, that I wish it didn't end.

As always, please do add your own recommendations, and let me know if there is mistake or if something was missing, and have a nice day.

LONG POST WARNING
Hello everyone,
My partner (24F) and I (25M) returned home from our 3-week Japan trip last week and due to us using this sub a lot during our planning I thought it would be helpful for other current planners to upload a trip report.
Our main interests are Japanese traditions and history, street style/culture, and food so keep reading if these interests are mutual. Read to the bottom to see how much we spent plus some tips and disappointments.
Prelude
We were caught up in the madness at Dubai airport during our layover. Long story short; Airport (and the rest of Dubai) flooded and caused all the flights to be cancelled. What was meant to be a 5-hour layover turned into a torturous 36 hour wait. No staff to be seen, crowds of people arguing, fighting, and crying. We queued for 12 hours to get a new boarding pass for the next flight to Japan. We were meant to fly to Haneda but settled for Narita as we needed to get out of that place as soon as possible but still ended up missing our first day in Tokyo (should have had 5 days). We can’t complain too much as some of the people I spoke to on emirates were in the airport for up to 5 days before getting a flight back to their departure destination. Oh, and our baggage was missing with us only receiving our checked in bags on day 19. Cheers Emirates.
Day 1
Arrived in Shinjuku around midnight. We went straight to Don Quiojte to buy some replacement cosmetics and clothes. The combination of no good-quality sleep for 48 hours and the stimulating nature of the store was very intense! We then started to walk back towards the hostel and passed a Ichiran, so dropped in for some 2am ramen. Not the best ramen I’ve ever had but was still very good for the price.
Steps: 21,643 (includes some airport steps)
Day 2
Woke up and ate the free breakfast at the hostel (this turned out to be a really good money saver for the whole trip as we are not huge eaters in the morning anyway, but it was good to get something light in us before a long day walking). We then walked through the Shinjuku Gyoen Garden – saw some late blooming cheery blossoms and overall, it was a really beautiful botanical garden.
The next stop was Meji Shrine and a walk through Yoyogi park. The shrine was cool to see, especially as it was our first one in Japan. Saw a middle-aged man wearing denim hotpants so short that his balls were hanging out?!?!
Walked to Shibuya to see the scramble. This was cool but also felt it was a bit underwhelming at ground level but the view from Shibuya station walkway was wicked. Lunch was at a conveyor belt sushi place on the top floor of this department store right next to the scramble. This would be higher than average quality sushi in Europe, so it blew our minds that it was available on the top floor of a department store and for so cheap.
Shimokitazawa – We picked up some bargains at 2^nd street and I treated myself some Japanese jeans from a small Demin shop called Bears. The guy in the shop was super helpful and friendly and even tailored the trousers to exactly my size.
In the evening, we first had a poke around Golden Gai and then headed towards Shibuya and stopped in a cool bar where the owner was mixing vinyl while he mixed your drinks (think it was called Q Bar).
We had previously bought tickets to a gig at Circus for one of my fav rappers who I’d been wanting to see for a while. Also really enjoyed seeing the local Japanese warm up acts. Stayed until 5am and then go the train straight to the Tsukiji outer fish market. Was there way too early and had to wait roughly an hour for thing to open. Went to chill by a bench for a bit and by the time we went back to the market it was rammed! Went to bed around 8:30am.
Steps: 32,159
Day 3
We woke up at 2:30pm, got ready, and headed to the Bunkyo civic centre for the free observation deck. We heard it wasn’t meant to be the best Tokyo skyline view but for a free attraction we thought it was very good! Jimbocho book town was also very cool to see. We had a peak into a couple adult movie/magazine stores where I don’t think the owner appreciated our presence as western tourists.
In the evening, we first went for Ramen at Motenashi Kuraki in Asakusa Bashi. Honestly probably the best Ramen I’ve had to date. I ordered the Black Pepper Shio special, and it blew my mind. Even though the staff didn’t speak English they were very accommodating for my partner who doesn’t eat meat (pescetarian but will brave a meaty broth).
We then had a stroll around Akihabara and played some dance mat games in the arcades before heading back for an earlyish night.
Steps: 28,680
Day 4
I couldn’t sleep so got up around 3am and did some admin stuff to try and get our bags back to us ASAP. Chatted to people in the hostel for a few hours.
We arrived at Senso-ji for around 8am. Wasn’t too busy at this time and the temple was impressive. Went for a coffee down the road and had a chill for about an hour before heading into Asakusa. Got admission to the Drum museum which was wicked. Only 400 yen each and had the whole place to ourselves to smack some big fucking drums and make as much noise as we wanted.
We then started to head towards Ueno but made a slight detour to Kappabashi Dougu street to peruse the Japanese chef knives and other cookware. Grabbed lunch from a 7/11 and went and sat in Ueno park which was super busy. There was some food market event on which loads of food stalls had set up. There was also a stage with some J-pop performers and people dressed as ninjas dancing in the crowd. Weird to say the least. By mid-afternoon we were pretty tired so headed back to the hostel for a nap.
In the evening, we headed down to Harajuku and stopped by Big Love records. My partner is really into vinyl, so this was definitely a highlight for her. She picked up Wu Tang 36 chambers in case you were wondering. We then went for food at Afuri as my partner wanted to try the Vegan ramen to which she said it was ok but nothing special. My cold dipping noodle dish was very tasty, however. We then stumbled across this vinyl listening bar called Bar Music on the 5^th floor of this pokey building on the outskirts of Shibuya for a few drinks before bed. There was such a good vibe in there and the cocktails were super good for the price. If you’re looking for a romantic spot, then this is the place to go.
Steps: 31,818
Day 5
Today we headed to Kyoto on the shinkansen around midday after a slow morning chilling in and around the hostel and catching up on some sleep. Checked in to the hostel and had a walk around downtown Kyoto, stopping at 2^nd Street to buy some more clothes.
In the evening, we headed to Kodai-Ji to see the shrine lit up at night. We couldn’t believe how few people were there as it was stunning and truly magical place to be at night. It also has a bamboo grove (much better than Arashiyama, see below). The bar for Kyoto shrines/temples had been set very high.
Walked down Pontocho alley and stopped at a yakitori restaurant which was just ok. We knew it was going to be average when we looked around the restaurant and it was just western tourists dining.
Steps: 25,255
Day 6
First thing in the morning we rented bikes and cycled across the city to Arashiyama. Parked the bikes at the train station and walked up through Arashiyama. We were expecting it to be busy but there were so many people it was almost impossible to move. Had a look around the bamboo grove and was slightly underwhelmed after our visit to Kodai-Ji so we took the tram and then bus up to Kosan-Ji. This was very much worth the 45-minute journey as there was only one other group there and the temple nestled between the trees overlooking the river was breath-taking. On the whole, Arashiyama was way too packed during peak times to enjoy and with everything else Kyoto has to offer we wouldn’t say it was a must see.
We then picked up the bikes from the train station and cycled back across Kyoto taking the long route to explore and get lost. Once we dropped off the bikes, we went for another explore and this time went into WeGo for more clothes shopping. At this point we’d pretty much matched the amount of clothing that we had packed in our checked-in luggage that was still stuck in Dubai.
After a nap we walked towards the metro and stopped at a Katsu restaurant as we wanted to try something different, and it was pretty good. For the price of 1300 yen each we got so much food/sake and left stuffed.
Fushimi Inari in the evening. Like Kodai-Ji, we would recommend visiting Fushimi Inari at night. Firstly, to help avoid the crowds (we got there around 9pm and there was hardly anybody there) and secondly as seeing it lit up at night is a nice change. It was however slightly creepy at night, especially as it was lightly raining. My partner started to get a bit scared once we saw the signs to be careful of the wild boar and monkeys haha. We didn’t make it to the top of Mt Inari as the rain started to get heavy but still very much enjoyed walking through the hundreds of tori gates, stopping off at the shrines and soaking up the history.
Steps: 23,686
Day 7
Today was a late start as even after 8 hours sleep the 25k plus steps a day was starting to catch up with us.
We took the metro to Shimogamo Shrine in north Kyoto. It was very peaceful and quiet however temple fatigue had definitely set in at this point. We then walked through Kyoto to the beginning of Philosophers path. We had seen on this sub that people recommend skipping it unless its Sakura season however we disagree. The path along the river is so pretty and atmospheric, along with the fish gently swimming along in the river.
Kyoto Hand Crafts Centre – if you have the money then this is a great place to pick up souvenirs.
Pre-booked Sushi Iwa for a 15 course Omakase. The food was amazing, but it came to an eye watering 28k yen each. The difference for our western palettes between mid-range sushi and exceptional sushi is negligible. Nonetheless it was a good experience and I’m glad that we did it.
Steps: 23,751
Day 8
Today was an empty day in terms of things we wanted to do, so used it to walk the city and explore.
We checked out the Nishiki market and ate various fried foods on sticks which were all pretty tasty. We then walked northwards, stopping for coffee before reaching the imperial palace. By this point we were very much bored of temples and structures of similar architecture, but we actually ended up enjoying walking the palace grounds and seeing the buildings more than we thought and would recommend it to those who find themselves in north Kyoto.
A leisurely walk back down towards downtown Kyoto, stopping off at a wicked standing soba joint. Forgotten the name but their curry soba was delicious.
Chao Chao gyozas (only veggie gyoza place we could find) for our evening meal before a night cap at the bar across the road before bed.
Steps: 23,304
Day 9
Shinkansen to Hiroshima arriving around 11am.
Checked into hostel and then went straight to the A-dome, peace memorial and museum. We thought the museum was very moving and captured the horror of the events that unfolded very well. A must see for sure.
Okonomiyaki at Okonomimura and then some vintage clothes shopping in Hondori.
Went back out for food in the evening and ended up getting Okonomiyaki again. This time it we enjoyed it a lot more than we did at lunch (probably because we got it covered in cheese). There are a few streets by Hiroshima station with lots of bars and restaurants on top of each other, much like Golden Gai in Shinjuku, however they are not super touristy and has a more laid-back feel to them.
We then went to some bars in the city centre. The best one we stumbled across was called Tropical Bar Revolucion. It was on the 8^th floor and the smoking balcony overlooked the city. Plus, the beers in there tasted so good and I’m not sure why.
Steps: 23,299
Day 10
A hungover morning. Headed to the Hiroshima National Gardens. Going to some gardens is my go-to hangover activity as its low effort, relaxing, and feels productive. These gardens in particular were great and we really appreciated the signs explaining the history behind the space. Overall, we enjoyed this more than the national gardens in Shinjuku.
Public baths near Dobashi in the afternoon. If you’re feeling brave enough to get your kit off in front of 10s of strangers, then this is a good experience. Male and female baths are separate. Can’t go wrong for 400 yen.
Went for a drink at Bar Pretty and then realised the effect of golden week on trying to get a table walking into a restaurant. Walked around for about an hour with no success so settled for food from a department store food court. Sounds miserable but the food was pretty good for the price, and it was busy in there, so it still had an atmosphere.
Steps: 29,487
Day 11
Miyajima Day. Took the ferry to the island arriving at 10:30am. The Ryokan staff met us at the port and collected our bags to take back to the hotel.
Had a mooch around the port area before doing the hike up Mt Misen. The climb to the top on a hot day is not to be underestimated. Sweating buckets, but the route and the view from the top was amazing and one of the standout highlights of the whole trip.
After descending Mt Misen, we bought some beers, oysters and, ice cream and sat along the beach wall and chilled in the sun for a couple hours. The hotel staff then picked us up from the ferry terminal, we checked in and went straight to the Onsen for a couple hours before dinner. Dinner was a traditional kaiseki meal (with more courses than I can remember) served in the banquet hall with the other guests.
While the staff converted our retro ryokan room and set up the futons we had a few more beers before bed.
Steps: 20,803
Day 12
Today we had a chilled morning on the island, having a stroll and stopping for some coffees. We then took the ferry back to Hiroshima, stopping for Okonomiyaki one more time, before taking the shinkansen to Osaka.
Checked into our hostel near Namba and went out for a walk around 8pm. When looking for somewhere to eat we walked past a sign for a vegetarian Indian restaurant called Shama. After nearly two weeks of pure Japanese food we were craving some variety so decided to head in. Located on the basement floor of a particularly run down looking building the restaurant was not the most glamorous. Barely enough space for 10 people, it was hot in there. A constant stream of people was coming in and out of the restaurant and we were lucky enough to walk in when there were two spaces available. From sitting down at the table to receiving our food we waited just under an hour. This would be enough to put most people off but fuck me the food was good when it did finally arrive. We got a selection of 4 different curries, naan breads and samosa. We left stuffed. If you’re in the area this is definitely a place worth checking out.
Steps: 25,502
Day 13
Our first stop of the day was the Umeda Sky Building. Not suitable if you are scared of heights as the glass elevator made our stomachs drop slightly. The views were impressive but we thought the price was a bit steep at 1500 yen each.
We then spent the afternoon wondering about near Namba and Shinsujibashi dropping into shops and picking up some food.
For dinner we made a reservation for a Mexican restaurant near Dotonbori. Massive margheritas, nachos and enchiladas. The food was great, and it shows by how busy the place was still at 10pm. It had been open since the late 70’s with the décor to match and it had a great atmosphere.
Steps: 27,290
Day 14
Checked out Tsuruhashi and Korea Town. Loved the market – dimly lit maze of numerous food and clothing vendors. Stopped to have some Korean stew and pancakes and it was delicious. One of the best meals of the trip.
Shinsekai in the evening. What I can describe as the armpit of Osaka. We loved it. Dirty? Yes. Rowdy? Yes. Rough around the edges with a red light district to top it all off. We had Kushikatsu to finish the evening off. Fried stuff on a stick – of course it going to be tasty but it wasn’t exactly flavour town.
Steps: 23,777
Day 15
Took the train to Minoh and hiked up the trail to see the waterfall. Hike was easy in comparison to Mt Misen and the waterfall was very cool to see. Had a wonder around Minoh stopping for some lunch at a Ramen bar.
We went to the Team lab botanical gardens in the evening. It was very awe inspiring seeing all the installations lit up.
After sampling Japanese McDonalds (I had a burger where the buns were made out of rice) we went for some drinks at Zerro. We liked this bar a lot, the guys working there were very friendly and it had a good vibe.
We then sat and watched the skaters at triangle park with some beers from the konbini before going to see Dj Masda at Circus until around 4am. This area of Osaka was such a vibe and came back here a few times over our 6 days here. Overall, a very fun evening.
Steps: 26,130
Day 16
Woke up chronically hungover but powered on and went to see a baseball game. You’re allowed to bring food and drink into the stadium (as long as alcohol is in plastic/paper cups) so we grabbed some beers and snacks from family mart. We had no idea what was happening but the atmosphere was electric and we enjoyed getting pissed and cheering.
Had a nap and then went to Hafez for middle eastern food. The food was good but not amazing, nothing in comparison to my local middle eastern restaurant back home. Chilled around the Namba park/Big step area. Loved this area so much, we are big into street fashion and culture so this place really ticked some boxes. Lots of skaters and street wear stores concentrated around here. Got an early night watching Battle Royale back at the hostel.
Steps: 22,065
Day 17
Today we went to the Umeda area. Popped into some shopping centres and had Omurice for lunch. It was tasty but not something I will crave when back home. Good experience trying it though. We then walked through Yodoyobashi along the rivers and got gelato and sat in the rose garden. The sun was beating down and we enjoyed just chilling in the sun eating our ice cream.
Compufunk Records were holding a party in their store. Decent gaff with some very welcoming and kind people to party with until the early hours.
Steps: 21,267
Day 18
We reluctantly left Osaka for Hakone today. Very sad to go but onwards to the next adventure. Took the shinkansen to Odawara and then the Hakone Tozan Train to Gora. Checked into our Ryokan and relaxed in the Onsen for a few hours.
Went for a walk around Gora and had dinner at the Ryokan before watching Predator in bed.
Steps: 16,926
Day 19
Today we did the Hakone Loop, starting early in Gora.
Started with the Open-air museum and it was great. We loved the installation and ended up spending 3 hours slowly making our way round. Got some cool photos as well for the gram.
Ropeway to Lake Ashi. This was absolutely terrifying. You have to swap cable cars 3 times on the way over and the warnings of the service being suspended due to the wind was announced at each stop. I’m not going to ruin the surprise, but one section made me literally freeze in terror due to the winds outside so try to do it on a calm weather day.
We then took the pirate boat (bit underwhelming) across the Lake and stopped for some soba noodles and a wander around. Unfortunately it was way too cloudy to even get a chance at seeing Mt Fuji.
Train to Kamakura and checked into our super cute traditional hostel near the beach.
Dinner at an Izakaya from the hostel owners recommendation. Food great and beers slipped down a treat. First time I tried Yuzu Kosho as well – I’m now addicted to the stuff and literally cover all my food with it.
Steps: 19,512
Day 20
A slow start to the morning. Weather was pretty bad but we still managed to hit all the main sights in Kamakura. Big Buddha was a refreshing sight from the temples. Did some shopping up Komachi Dori. Highlight of the day was Hukokaji temple. It was so peaceful and zen in the rain with its very own matcha tea ceremony backdropped by bamboo forest. This turned out to be our second favourite temple/shrine we visited, just being beaten by Kodaji.
In the evening we went for Sushi at a conveyor belt place. Figured this would probably be my last Japanese sushi of the trip so devoured 7000 yen worth of sushi and beer. Went back to the hostel and invited some of the other guests to drink with us. The owner of the hostel had some bayberry homebrew, so we got stuck into that.
Steps: 20,494
Day 21
Enoshima Island is just a 25 min train from Kamakura. Started off the day by walking to the top of the island to get French toast and a beer with a lovely view across the bay. We then headed up the Sea candle to check out the observation deck, still the illusive Mt Fuji hides behind the clouds.
We then bought admission to the caves beneath the island which was pretty cool. I won’t ruin the surprise but there’s something waiting for you at the end of one of the caves.
Had an explore around the rockpools near the caves and took some cool photos. We then had a pizza with fish on which was pretty crazy. Walked around the island a little bit more and I picked up some more Japanese denim which wasn’t the cheapest but the quality of the trousers are great and will last me a lifetime.
Back to Tokyo in the evening.
Went for Izakaya around Asakusa and popped into a couple bars. One was called Not Suspicious and the whole bar was covered in handwritten notes by patrons. Very touristy but quite cool at the same time. Our favourite was a drawing of Mario saying It’s a Me Muthafucka.
Steps: 25,903
Day 22
First stop was Don Quiojte to pick up some Yuzu Kosho (if you know you know) and weird flavoured KitKats.
Kappabashi Dougu street to purchase a fine Japanese carbon stell Santoku. Honestly in love with this knife so much. The people at the store were very happy to hear exactly what I was looking for and even let me try before you buy on some daikon radish.
While in Asakusa I had to return to the place where I put the best thing in my mouth in Japan. Motenashi Kuroki. Switched it up this time and had their classic Shio ramen plus the duck rice as a side. Honestly this place is amazing, and you have to go there if you have time. They aren’t veggie/pescy friendly so my partner went for one last round of sushi round the corner. We met up at a massage chair parlour and spent 30 mins relaxing in the chairs.
We had a bright idea to watch the sunset one last time so headed over to the rooftop park on a department store in Shibuya. Sipping on an ice cold Kirin, the sun slowly dropped behind the distant mountains and we knew our trip had come to an end. How symbolic.
Flight at 11pm from Haneda.
Steps: 23,187
On reflection:
I honestly think this trip was almost perfect in terms of hitting our interests and travel style. There was a good balance of doing the typical first time visit to Japan sights and activities while still exploring and seeing what we came across in the moment.
It hard to pinpoint exact highlights of the trip as everywhere we visited had so much going for it in different ways. We loved the rugged and trendy vibe to Osaka, and I think this would be the city I would most want to live in for a considerable amount of time (If I had to choose). Miyajima was also stunning and a great overnight trip with the Ryokan experience. We also underestimated how much we would enjoy Kamakura with its laid-back surfer vibe and access to Enoshima Island.
One random memorable moment that has stuck with me was when we landed at Narita airport, we took the limo bus to Shinjuku. As the driver pulled away, all the staff at the station turned and bowed in unison. It felt so special to first observe a culture totally opposite to the one I grew up with and was at this point I knew I had embarked on the trip of a lifetime.
If I could go back and change something I would probably miss out Hakone and do an extra day in one of the major cities. This isn’t because we didn’t enjoy Hakone, but we feel like it’s a place that needs more time to soak in what’s going on around you (plus the weather was bad when we were there). This being said the Open-Air Museum was amazing and we enjoyed it more than the Teamlab botanical gardens so the trip up the mountains was worth it just for that.
So, how much did we spend per person (not inc flights)?
Accommodation - £765pp
Given that we spent a couple nights in Ryokans raising the average price slightly, we were pretty happy with the accommodation costs. We stayed in a mix of private room and shared dorm hostels and pretty much all of them were spot on. Travelling as a couple meant that anywhere with a private room split the price between 2. The only hostel we didn’t like was the one in Hiroshima, there wasn’t anything in particularly wrong with it, there was just a really bad vibe from the owner and other guests.
Transport - £344pp
This includes shinkansen to and from all the major cities as well as our suica top ups for metros and buses. Unless your itinerary is something like 3 days Tokyo, 2 days Osaka 2 days Kyoto then there really isn’t any point getting the JR pass now that the price has increased.
Activities – £280pp
It is hard to give an exact amount for activities and food as 1) I didn’t track what we spent our cash on and 2) my partner and I would take in turns paying for things like temple admission. That being said I’ve allocated 25% of the cash we spent to activities such as temple admission. Activities includes our baseball tickets plus club entries as well as temple and museum admissions etc.
Food – £962pp
As above, its hard to give an exact amount for food. On the whole we tried to eat cheap with possible, especially at the start of our trip. There were a few expensive meals peppered in plus we ate out twice a day towards the end of our trip as we realised we were under budget.
The total is a bit skewed as this includes all the alcohol we bought in bars as well as the konbini trips for beers and cigarettes. I estimate that booze accounts for around a third of the total per person. If you would like to do Japan on a budget, reducing the booze will make a big difference.
Shopping/Souvenirs/Gifts – £607 (just me)
We went hard with the shopping. We didn’t actually receive our checked in luggage until day 19 so we had to buy all new clothes and cosmetics. If this wasn’t the case, then I don’t think I would have spent so much (airline is comping us for the additional clothing bought anyway). I also bought a fairly expensive chef knife and Japanese denim pieces, plus lots of gifts for friends and family. Obviously, this number could theoretically 0 if you are on a serious budget and did no shopping but I really underestimated Japanese shopping, especially thrifting. Also, given our cheap choices when it came to accommodation we could afford to splurge. However just to note my partner spent less than half than I did on shopping.
Total: £2958 (582,628 yen at time of writing)
I kept within my budget of £3000. I definitely got a bit frivolous with the cash in the last few days or so, if being as careful as I was towards the start of the trip, I think the total would be closer to £2500.
Disappointments
Takoyaki. We thought it was going to be all about the octopus but were disappointed with our balls of sloppy goo surrounding tiny chewy pieces of octopus. We tried it twice and couldn’t get behind it. Sorry Takoyaki fans.
Arashiyama. Way too busy, especially around the main station and bamboo grove. If it’s the bamboo you are going to see, then Kodaji is a much better spot.
Dotonburi. Albeit we were there in golden week, and it was pretty busy. However, I get the feeling this area has fallen to the past its golden days title and has become a bit of a cash cow for places selling spiralised potatoes on a stick. The area around Namba park was a better option for us.
Tips
Konbini. Absolute life saver for snacks and drinks on the go. The food quality for a convenience store is higher than most other countries so we had no problem with grabbing a meal from one to help keep within our budget.
Don’t over pack – even though we didn’t get our checked in bags, I still packed light so had plenty of space to bring stuff back. Emirates give you your allowance by weight rather than number of baggage so we could check in additional bags on the way back.
Don’t be scared of hostels. If you don’t want to brave the shared dorms, then most hostels offer private rooms with just the shower and toilet shared. Obviously, it’s cheaper if there are two people sharing a room.
Don’t stress about cash. Most places take debit/credit card and if they don’t, you’re never more than 5 minutes from a konbini ATM.
For us, golden week didn’t seem that big of an issue. No problems booking shinkansen around GW. We spent most of GW in Osaka, as such it was going to be busy anyway so maybe we didn’t see much of a difference from normal numbers in the spring.

Someone in a thread here mentioned Zybourne Clock—that game pitch on the SomethingAwful Forums that was just a bunch of badly-drawn concept art and way-too-ambitious, unconnected plot beats—and it gave me a brain blast thinking about all the little forum start-ups I've seen in my time, posted by excited kids who love drawing their OCs and imagining cool fight scenes, but don't actually know anything about game design or roadmapping a project.
I'm a big fan of the animatostreamer Khonjin, and one of his big, lifelong projects is the realization of a story called "Supermental," first seen in a now-deleted forum thread (I forget the name of the site, was one of those small-batch Jcink forums) where the idea was first pitched as a game that would be enormous in scope, an epic story, and combine "eight genres of gameplay in one game, including rhythm, RPG, fighting game mechanics, platforming, and more." That the thread was so old when I discovered it and everyone in it had likely been kids when it had been made told me that this incarnation of the game would likely never exist in any form, and the sheer scope and size of the game projected with nothing to show for it but pages of character desisgns and a single GIF of a platforming segment made in Game Maker was one of those really incredible high water marks left by the boundless ambition of youth.
At the time, Khonjin's primary work of note, the animated web series Khonjin House had concluded with a severe escalation in stakes and a direct lead-in to a new animated web series called Supermental, along with an accompanying ARG, so everyone who was invested was scrambling for clues across his entire history on the internet. We were also trying to figure out what Supermental was going to be about. Not even the the original game dev thread had any answers as to what the plot actually was. The discovery that the projected main protagonist of that old game idea, Jack, was the prototype for Jack Pent, the main antagonist of Khonjin House, definitely seemed to indicate some kind of relevancy, though.
Khonjin House had been full of little, unexplained names and references that were definitely going to be important to Supermental, and the fan speculation leading up to the little bits of reveal we got in the series proper was some of my personal favorite fandom activity I've ever participated in. Finding out who Smack was—a character who was often mentioned by name in the series but never seen—and then finding out that he and Pent hate each others' guts and have been trying to kill each other, AND THEN finding out Supermental was going to be prequel and that they used to be best friends was an incredible wave to be on.
And then we got the announcement: the Supermental animated series on YouTube was just to get the fans hyped up for the Kickstarter for the Supermental game, revived after all these years!
Unfortunately, it was too good to be true. The Kickstarter had an intriguing animated trailer, but no gameplay. Not even a mention of what gameplay would be like. We did get an update later on, showing it would be a SRB2-like 3D platformer with 2D sprite characters, but by then, the momentum had been lost. I donated to the Kickstarter, as did several fans, but we never reached funding and the project was canned.
All that was left was the ARG, which was still ongoing and was supposed to reveal what Supermental was actually about once it was solved. Unfortunately, the last shot in the foot for the whole thing came when Khonjin lost patience with everyone for taking too long to solve the clues and just lore-dumped the whole thing.
The plot of the game ended up being a super personal extended metaphor for gender dysphoria and transitioning, inspired by the struggles of a close trans friend of Khonjin's who had died. It felt like a story he had really wanted to get out into the world at all costs, for many, many years by then, ultimately resigning to a bitter, 2 a.m. paragraphs-long lore dump in a Discord channel. The mystery was over. I still have no idea how that would have translated to a platformer game, but hey—Super Paper Mario did alright, so who knows.
I still think about that a lot. Supermental for me is the reigning king of that sort of incredibly ambitious creative project you undertake with your friends when you're young, firing off aimlessly in any direction, struggling to be born, picking up more meaning and consuming other ideas as you grow alongside it. It's been a minute since I checked in on the status of anything related to it, and since Khonjin—to my knowledge—has uploaded or said anything pertaining to it, but I would like to see it realized in some form one day.
So, what are some of your favorite stories of stillborn projects? This isn't about Scalebound or shit like that. I want stories of game projects you discovered in forums when you were in high school that had tons character art but no one on the team who knew how to program. Kickstarters you were interested in but knew had no chance in Hell of clearing even a fourth of their funding goal because they didn't have a single screenshot of in-engine visuals on the page. Even other well-known failure stories are welcome here; I'm interested in learning about more infamous failures like Zybourne Clock as well, things y'all might no about, but that escaped my radar. Doesn't have to be games either; movies, animations, 'zines, comics... anything.

Intro

It’s not much of a stretch to say that violence is the primary form of interaction in video games. With a handful of exceptions, most video games involve guys whacking other guys, with varying degrees of brutality. Even chill games fall into this - Stardew Valley has sections with combat in them! Considering the pervasiveness of violence in video games, there has been a ton of amateur and academic commentary on the topic. However, while this is a well-established school of thought, I haven’t seen people try to apply this to Fire Emblem specifically.
So, let’s do that now! In this post, I’ll be exploring how violence in Fire Emblem is implemented - what limitations are placed on violence, how it warps wider game and narrative design, and what it implicitly says and does not say. I hope this post doesn’t come off as too early-2010s “makes you think”-y, but I do think there are multiple interesting things worth talking about here!
Despite the length of this post, "a brief discussion" is an appropriate title, as we won't be able to go into depth on everything. After all, video games are holistic works, so the attitude towards violence is relevant to every aspect of their design. However, I have managed to wrangle some of these threads into the following structure: first a discussion on the fundamental mode of interaction in Fire Emblem, then how stories are constructed with regards to violence, and ending with the aesthetics of violence and how they relate to characters. Also, as FE is a huge series, be aware that I am gonna be making some broad statements which may not apply to each individual plot point of every game. I actually planned to write 3 case studies around Thracia 776, Fates, and Three Houses (which have the most interesting attitudes to violence in the series IMO) which point out these deviations, but this post is way too long and full of tangents already. If people are interested, I’ll make a followup to this post which goes into them in more detail. Also also, because of the nature of this post, I’ll actually give a useful TL;DR for once:
TL;DR: Nintendo games must be fun mechanically, and they can’t be too uncomfortable narratively. If you try to provide a counterpoint by saying “oh this Kirby final boss is super dark it eats 100 morbillion galaxies”, you do not deserve rights. IntSys has to keep to this as a 2nd party publisher, but they also have to deal with the fact that their games are at least nominally about ‘war’ (or at least they put their toes into that particular thematic pool). This conflict between making a fun video game for children/teens and the wider framing of the narrative leads to interesting narrative and aesthetic tensions. also fun is cringe, misery is based

“Do you like hurting other people?” (or The Fundamental Mode of Interaction)

OK LISTEN I KNOW I LITERALLY JUST SAID THAT I DIDN’T WANT TO COME ACROSS AS A EARLY 2010s “VIOLENCE IN VIDYA BAD :O????” PERSON BUT I SWEAR I’M GOING SOMEWHERE WITH THIS
The best place to start when talking about violence in video games is to think about the primary form of interaction in said game. In the case of Fire Emblem, this is in the in-chapter gameplay. Sure, in objective terms the player moves arbitrary objects across a 2D grid which perform subtraction on arbitrary objects controlled by the computer, but this is always framed as controlling a squad of soldiers to engage in (typically lethal) combat with enemies (who are normally also soldiers). When you’re not doing this in-chapter gameplay, you are preparing for the next chapter of combat. This involves surveying the area of combat, preparing weapon loadouts, etc, however more recent entries also include light life-sim-esque elements. To summarize, Fire Emblem’s interactivity involves ordering violence as well as the preparations to order said violence.
For players, this strategic thinking is extremely fun and is the primary draw of the series! You have all these tier lists of who’s better at killing, discussion of the maps where you do the killing, complaints about the length of gameplay sections where you don’t do killing, etc. This is by design, as while I don’t know the core brand tenets of Nintendo, I imagine the Reggie quote “If it isn’t fun, why bother?” is carved into a solid gold statue of Mario in the office lobby. This then is enforced on all associated studios, including IntSys and so Fire Emblem. While I would disagree with that Reggie quote (especially the bit where he says “If it’s not a battle, where’s the fun?” which is a wild statement to make about an entire medium), this approach to making games is ultimately fine, and so IntSys tailored the strategic gameplay to be satisfying to your dopamine receptors. You could analyse what the normalisation of violence even in ‘just for fun’ games says about wider gaming culture, but I won’t get into that here. In any case, let’s dig into a few specifics of FE’s interactivity.
One thing that’s interesting with regard to strategy games is the detached perspective of the player. You order units and observe the resulting violence, but it’s not tactile, you don’t directly swing the sword or shoot the bow or cast the spell like with action games. This adds a layer of separation between the player and what fundamentally happens, at least within the framing that the game provides. It’s not like Call of Duty, where your relationship to the violence is very visceral, where you view everything down the barrel of a gun. OK, I probably shouldn’t use a series that I have very little personal experience with (I only listen to the supplementary lore material, so let’s talk about Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. While you’re not directly in the driver’s seat, John Sekiro reacts to your every input with extreme responsiveness, so overcoming the game’s challenges i.e. stabbing people is incredibly visceral and satisfying. While this violence is fantastical in nature, there is sufficient blood and explicit sword-action to clearly say “oh yeah you are violently killing all of those bozos with a katana”. Coming back to FE, not only are you far more detached from the violence, it is presented in an extremely cartoony manner… but let’s not get ahead of ourselves here, we’ll get to the aesthetics later. Point is, Fire Emblem gives the viewpoint of a stoic commander, who Does What Needs To Be Done™, and not the viewpoint of an actual soldier who has to do the actual killing.
Now let’s view the player’s perspective on violence from a different angle. Fire Emblem intends for its combat to be relatively relaxed on the player side of things - the turn-based nature allows the player to calmly think through all of their moves, and you typically have perfect information on the enemies. The only exceptions to this are Fog of WaSame Turn Reinforcements, which are rare and typically unpopular amongst the fanbase. This leans into ‘combat as sport’, where (going back to the Reggie quote) you have a fun time picking apart a puzzle with the tools you have, and we all collectively enjoy this! This is a valid way of designing strategy games, and I like what IntSys has done. However, it’s not the only way of making these games - for example, in Total War you have to juggle all your battalions in real time whilst the enemy is bearing down on you, and the XCOM games always have Fog of War and limited information on the enemies, with you never knowing what kind of awful new monster is going to suddenly charge at you. Don’t get me wrong, neither of these follow ‘combat as war’, the principle that violence should properly mimic the stress, tension and unfairness of actual conflict. Hell, neither of them are particularly mature either - Total War is the strategy game equivalent of smashing action figures together, and XCOM emulates a pulp sci-fi alien invasion story. However, the additional pressures these games have make them hew slightly closer to actual conflict, putting you more in that mindset in a way that the clean fun Fire Emblem doesn’t really do. Again, I want to say FE’s approach to violence in in-map gameplay is fine, but when all three of these franchises have an explicit narrative framing of ‘warfare’, it does make Fire Emblem’s narrative a little more… stretched.
Finally, I want to briefly mention the maps. To steal from a brilliant Jacob Geller video, these are Worlds Designed For Violence. At least outside of the Kaga games, the maps you fight on are primarily designed around how the player interacts with them, i.e. fights on them. While I imagine the narrative designers and artists at IntSys are involved throughout the map design process, the gameplay flow probably takes precedence most of the time. Maps are not designed to resemble realistic places that you have to fight through, they are instead designed primarily to provide fun gameplay experiences before being dressed up by the artists to look realistic/fit the specific story beat. This is a more consistently entertaining approach to map design - heaven knows we have a lot of Kaga castle assault maps which are as fun as actually assaulting an entrenched position IRL - but this lack of friction could potentially take the bite out of the intended vibe, neuter any commentary on violence throughout the story.
You may have noticed that we’ve only talked about the “in-map” gameplay for now, when there’s an entire second half of these games, i.e. all the gameplay between the maps. Don’t worry, we’ll get to all of that, but this may fit better in:

Something something “ludonarrative” something something (or Narrative Implications)

(To clarify, here I’m going to talk about the wider plots and narrative structure as opposed to characterisation, as that fits more into the aesthetics of the series)
It’s not bold to say that the narratives of games have to warp around the core gameplay structure. Especially in AAA video game production, the narrative designers usually have to take a back seat to the systems and level designers, at least outside of the initial rough outline they provide in the original game pitch. In this case, the job of the writer is to form vaguely coherent connective tissue between individual levels, setpieces and expensive pre-rendered cutscenes. This must be a very difficult job, and is probably the reason why most video game stories are the way they are. I am not privy to IntSys internal meetings, but I imagine they abide by this paradigm, trying to give a reason for why you fight 20 battles which roughly align with plot beats that were decided years ago.
Put another way, the writers of Fire Emblem must contrive a reason why the characters fight a vast number of violent battles in a strategic manner. This has a pretty easy solution - war! We have found something it’s good for, as whenever the gameplay designers decide that an extra map is required, the writers can just insert “oh no there’s a blockade of enemy soldiers in the way, guess you gotta kill them all”. This is the case for almost all the games and is a fair enough narrative choice, as it’s frankly one of the few scenarios where you could reasonably contrive so many battles, but it’s worth examining this in a bit more detail.
Even in the framing of warfare, there are still a lot of skirmishes, which sometimes the narrative or tone fails to support - or at least, their presence means that violence isn’t taken that seriously. Let’s take an example from early in Awakening: Emmeryn sends the Shepherds to negotiate an alliance with Regna Ferox. On the way, they are ambushed by Risen on the Northroad (1), have to fight the border guards who think Chrom is a bandit I think??? (2), and then after arriving they need to take part in Regna Ferox’s ritual combat to secure their alliance (3). These beats aren’t necessarily bad, and I actually think Awakening uses these opportunities quite well: the Risen are established as a constant threat to the world (except not really in the main story but that’s a whole other thing), “Marth'' gets more development, we set up Regna Ferox as fighty people who like to fight, and while the middle encounter is very tenuous it does set up a funny joke in Cynthia’s paralogue. However, I want to communicate that if the map/encounter designers need X maps between plot points A and B - in this case, needing low-stakes trials in the tutorial period - then there’s gonna be a fair bit of narrative filler. That is to say, there must be multiple combat encounters that kinda just happen, which makes violence a lot more casual in the narrative. See also the myriad examples of “oh shit random bandits attack!”, used to have a lower stakes map, with bandits appearing and vanishing as needed. This works fine enough in the context of ‘combat as sport’, allowing your favourite scrunglo to build up a triple-digit body count, but this casual attitude circumvents potentially interesting ideas with regards violence. Taking the example further, banditry and its causes are never seriously explored, as bandits are just treated as a filler enemy (except in Based As Hell Thracia 776).
Another narrative consequence of needing so many fights is that… you need to fight. That is to say, any anti-war sentiment or appeal to diplomacy in the series is fundamentally undercut by a) strategic combat being a core appeal of the series and b) narrative beats needing to be structured around fighting enemies. It’s a struggle to have moments of diplomacy and reconciliation when you had a fight within 3 minutes of said moment, lest some people start screaming that things are getting boring. This also makes any appeals to pacifism kinda moot. Xander’s quote about “war bad” in Conquest is utter bullshit, as a huge part of the marketing around that route focuses on the coolness of the tactical combat and its challenge. Eirika and Ephraim can never be equal, because Ephraim’s “fighting is fucken awesome” is encouraged by the gameplay, and Eirika can NEVER save 11037 because we need a final boss and no-one else fits the bill.
Speaking of, in video games it’s best practice to have a big bad guy you fight at the end of the story, the toughest mechanical challenge coinciding with the narrative climax. In Fire Emblem, you have one grand final battle which decides the fate of the war and/or world, before cutting to a brief wrap-up and then credits. This is an attempt to make these games satisfying, which is fine, but this is at odds with an anti-war message (which FE often gestures towards) - that is, actual wars tend to be deeply unsatisfying in a narrative sense! Oftentimes, after a decisive battle, things just kinda keep going for a little while afterwards with casualties continuing to pile up until peace terms are agreed. In the few cases where there is a final battle, it’s more of a formality as the decisive moment occurred months ago. See World War 1 and… World War 2 for examples of each, not to mention a whole host of war-related books and films. The problem with doing this in a video game is that it would require having multiple one-sided fights past the most climatic fight, which would be unfun, and we return to that fucking Reggie quote again. While video games can effectively explore this anti-war narrative space - This War of Mine is a fantastic example - it just doesn’t gel with the fun games that IntSys wants to make. I bring this up in the context of FE because Fire Emblem has such an aesthetic focus on warfare compared to other video games, so it sticks out even further. Even in FE6/FE9 where the war is effectively over in the final few maps, the enemies still remain extremely challenging, because if they didn’t things would be boring.
A few minor things that didn’t fit in above before we wrap up this section. First of all, in making an action packed story, Fire Emblem neglects an important aspect of army life in warfare - the “hurrying up and waiting”. In the majority of cases, the breaks between fights is under 10 minutes, it’s just glossed over. Fire Emblem Three Houses is the exception to this, but there it’s more framed as school life. Some people may say “what’s the point in having large amounts of timewasting where nothing happens in my game about war” and to that I would say fuck you, I want to play Jarhead Emblem. Next, Fire Emblem involves fighting people AND monsters, but these targets are typically given equal narrative weight, outside of maybe a funny line of dialogue about someone being afraid of monsters. In 99% of cases, enemy soldiers you fight have no more humanity than literal monsters. The death of any of your beloved soldiers is a tragedy with big sad death quotes, the death of those poor fuckers is quite literally a statistic which is proudly used to rank how well your guys have done at the end of the game. Finally, the limited scope of the violence the series can show limits the potential impact of scenes. In some cases, this is good as the implication is enough, e.g. the ‘Monica’ scene in Sacred Stones is wonderfully grim and would be weakened by anything explicit. However, a number of other scenes are neutered by the limitations on violence. This fundamentally relates to the aesthetics of the series:

insert prozd tweet/skit here (or Aesthetics, Tone, and Characters)

I’ve been talking a lot about ‘the violence committed’, and this might have seemed a bit weird to you. It’s a true statement, but because the violence is mostly cartoony and abstracted - bad guys disappear into nothingness, there’s no blood, etc - it’s hard to think of it in that way. It’s basically impossible to place Fire Emblem in the same artistic sphere as, say, All Quiet on the Western Front. This aesthetic sense was partially tech-limited in the early NES and SNES games, which was grandfathered into the more graphically complex titles, but it’s also related to how the aesthetics unavoidably warp the tone of the work. IntSys needs their games to be relatively lighthearted and unconcerned with the consequences of its violence, as one of the core appeals of these games is the charming cast of characters. As you would expect, it would be a lot harder to appreciate your goofy blorbos and their lighthearted chats about nothing if you could see the brutal consequences of their triple digit body counts. If violence was more realistic, there would be a lot less “ooh I like training and/or this one hyperspecific food” or “I like peace, but I guess violence may be possibly needed sometimes” and there would have to be a lot more trauma and dourness. There are also age rating concerns, as you can’t exactly sell Come And See Emblem to pre-teens. And once more, to clarify: Fire Emblem as it exists now is fine! I like the lighthearted tone of this series, and I like the characters that reside within it. However, a few problems do arise from IntSys’s approach to violence, as occasionally they brush up against darker ideas but (due to similar reasons to the above) they can never commit to them, which neuters their potential impact. This is especially troublesome with regards to characterisation, as the little dudes are a core appeal, so if something is off that could cause problems. In a sense, at points we have severe aesthetic tension.
A fairly useful case study to see how this affects characterisation is with Mozu in Fire Emblem Fates. Mozu is a charming character, a genial country bumpkin with a bit of an edge at times, who has fond memories of her hometown. This lines up with the lighthearted tone of her recruitment paralogue, where (checks notes) her entire village gets massacred by inhuman monsters, with her mother literally being murdered right in front of her, and she joins up with Corrin’s party because there is literally nothing left of her old life. I understand that people who experience extreme trauma do still manage to live meaningful lives, and that IntSys wouldn’t want to have a character who is a barely functional traumatised mess for 90% of the campaign. However, this doesn’t explain the sheer dissonance between the relatively normal and well-adjusted Mozu who quietly remembers her lost loved ones, and the fact that her village got My Lai’d a handful of weeks ago in the game’s timeline. IMO this would work a lot better if there were a few survivors (instead of literally everyone else dying), with Mozu actively choosing to leave her old life to help others instead of being forced to leave by circumstance. This reduction in scope would mitigate the dissonance between the character and what actually happens to her. This is by far the most extreme example in the series, however I’m sure you can think of others. My issue here is not with having ‘normal’ characters, or with them suffering tragedies, my issue is the dissonance between the two when viewing the scope of said tragedies. This is just one way the series wants to get into darker territory, then swiftly backing off instead of delving into the consequences.
This aesthetic restriction also affects the potential impact of dramatic scenes in the main story, limiting what the focus of these scenes can actually be. This little bit will involve heavy spoilers for Genealogy of the Holy War and Spec Ops: The Line (I KNOW THESE GAMES ARE VERY DIFFERENT WITH VERY DIFFERENT INTENDED DEMOGRAPHICS IN VERY DIFFERENT CULTURAL CONTEXTS, SHUT UP). Both have a very important narrative moment around their midpoints, involving fire magic/white phosphorus respectively. In each game, the deaths that occur are utterly horrific when you think about them. In FE4 the focus is on the drama of the plot twist and effects on the characters, with the actual effects of the violence being left to implication. We don’t know if this was the original intent of Kaga and the team, or if this was enforced by various tech- and publisher-related restrictions, but in either case we do not see anything explicit. In any case, in Spec Ops: The Line, the horror and graphic nature of the violence is completely inescapable, and therefore forms the core of the turning point of the story. The specifics of the violence itself are crucial - the game does not work if you don’t see the consequences of the white phosphorus - and it leads beautifully to the complete descent of its endgame. You may be saying “of course you couldn’t show that violence in FE, it’s a kids game” which is true, and in any case the scene in Genealogy is very good, even without showing the violence. I imagine if we get a remake in the year 202X we wouldn’t see anything explicit anyway, partially due to the publisher but also because the scene doesn’t necessarily need it. The point I am trying to make is that the aesthetics form a limitation on what Fire Emblem can explore, narrative space that the series fundamentally cannot reach.
One more thing, and this isn’t really about the games themselves but the impressions leading into them, and how the aesthetics can affect that. Do you guys remember when the intro cutscene of Three Houses was released a few weeks before release? I do, and I also remember the collective shock of the community when seeing the early previews. It was so drastically different to everything that had come before, and consequently was really intriguing - you can see a lot of speculation in the above comments. To clarify, I don’t want to pretend that 3H is some kind of super mature ultra gritty war story, or that blood = good game, but that beginning cutscene gave one hell of a first impression. Even though the game isn’t that much darker than any other FE game, the sheer unexpectedness put people off-kilter in a kinda awesome way. Does the game actually deliver? YMMV, but I think this (and some of the later cutscenes, such as the mid-game Dimitri one) work quite well. Sometimes, a little injection of harsher violence can go a long way.

Conclusion

Frankly I don’t really have a conclusion, sorry. As you can see, there are so many disparate strands, I can’t possibly make one grand thesis statement. Maybe the inherent contradictions of having warfare in a family friendly video game weakens the potential end result? I guess, but I don’t want to imply that what we have now is bad, as it is pretty good tbh. So, uhh…
…
OK, if I had to say something, it’s more about the process of making this. Having to try and think about how violence intersects with a video game you like takes you in a number of different directions. Ultimately, this process was really fulfilling for me, and I would recommend that you do the same (for FE or anything else)! Trying to analyse something you enjoy from a perspective not usually applied is pretty neat. If you guys have any thoughts (on the points above or your own), I’d be very interested to hear them!
Also, if people are interested, I’ll try to make a few case studies. I would focus on Thracia 776, Fates, and Three Houses, as (when thinking on this topic) I found that these games were consistently the most intriguing, with the most interesting relationships to violence. This would probably take a while though, as I am gonna be very busy in June, and I probably won’t have time this month either.

As Reddit doesn't allow posts to exceed 40,000 characters, Eastwood's edition had to be split into two parts because his whole career cannot be ignored. The second part will be posted tomorrow.

Here's a new edition of "Directors at the Box Office", which seeks to explore the directors' trajectory at the box office and analyze their hits and bombs. I already talked about a few, and as I promised, it's Clint Eastwood's turn.
Eastwood was a troublemaker at school, and he had a bunch of odd jobs such as lifeguard, paper carrier, grocery clerk, forest firefighter, and golf caddy. In 1951, he was drafted into the United States Army during the Korean War and was discharged two years later. Through this, he got into contact with a Hollywood representative, who got him into acting classes and started his acting career. He got his start by starring in the hit show Rawhide, but he said he was exhausted by the experience. This caught the attention of some film producers and he decided to act in films directed by the then-unknown Sergio Leone. His career was on the rise, and then he got the chance to make his directorial debut.
From a box office perspective, how reliable was he to deliver a box office hit?
That's the point of this post. To analyze his career.

It should be noted that as he started his career in the 1970s, some of the domestic grosses here will be adjusted by inflation. The table with his highest grossing films, however, will be left in its unadjusted form, as the worldwide grosses are more difficult to adjust.

Play Misty for Me (1971)

"The scream you hear may be your own!"
His directorial debut. It stars Eastwood, Jessica Walter and Donna Mills, and follows a radio disc jockey being stalked by an obsessed female fan.
Before his colleague Irving Leonard died, he and Eastwood had discussed the idea of producing a film that was to give Eastwood the artistic control he desired, and his debut as a director. Eastwood said he was ready, "I stored away all the mistakes I made and saved up all the good things I learned, and now I know enough to control my own projects and get what I want out of actors."
The film was a huge success for Eastwood, and it also received positive reviews. So far, his directorial career was off to a great start.

• Budget: $950,000.
  
• Domestic gross: $10,600,000. ($81.7 million adjusted)
  
• Worldwide gross: $10,600,000.
  

High Plains Drifter (1973)

"They'd never forget the day he drifted into town."
His second film. The film stars Eastwood, Verna Bloom and Mariana Hill, and follows a mysterious stranger who metes out justice in a corrupt frontier mining town.
Eastwood reportedly liked the offbeat quality of the film's original nine-page proposal and approached Universal with the idea of directing it, which would make it his first directed Western. The screenplay was inspired by the real-life murder of Kitty Genovese in Queens in 1964, which eyewitnesses reportedly stood by and watched. Holes in the plot were filled in with black humor and allegory, influenced by Sergio Leone.
It was well received, and the film even surpassed Play Misty for Me at the box office. Eastwood was just going up.

• Budget: $5,500,000.
  
• Domestic gross: $15,700,000. ($110.4 million adjusted)
  
• Worldwide gross: $15,700,000.
  

Breezy (1973)

"Her name is Breezy."
His third film. It stars William Holden and Kay Lenz, and follows the relationship between a middle-aged real estate agent and a young hitchhiker.
This was his first directed film without starring on it. And his lack of presence certainly hurt the film; it received mixed reviews and flopped at the box office.

• Budget: $750,000.
  
• Domestic gross: $200,000. ($1.4 million adjusted)
  
• Worldwide gross: $217,753.
  

The Eiger Sanction (1975)

"His lifeline, held by the assassin he hunted."
His fourth film. Based on the novel by Trevanian, the film stars Eastwood, George Kennedy, Vonetta McGee, and Jack Cassidy. It follows Jonathan Hemlock, an art history professor, mountain climber, and former assassin once employed by a secret government agency, who is blackmailed into returning to his deadly profession for one last mission.
The film received mixed reactions for its writing, and it wasn't a box office success either.

• Budget: $9,000,000.
  
• Domestic gross: $14,200,000. ($82.4 million adjusted)
  
• Worldwide gross: $14,200,000.
  

The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)

"An army of one."
His fifth film. Based on the novel Gone to Texas by Forrest Carter, it stars Eastwood, Chief Dan George, Sondra Locke, Bill McKinney and John Vernon. The film tells the story of Josey Wales, a Missouri farmer whose family is murdered by Union militia during the Civil War. Driven to revenge, Wales joins a Confederate guerrilla band and makes a name for himself as a feared gunfighter. After the war, all the fighters in Wales' group except for him surrender to Union soldiers, but the Confederates end up being massacred. Wales becomes an outlaw and is pursued by bounty hunters and Union soldiers as he tries to make a new life for himself.
Eastwood was fascinated by the novel and he bought the film rights, hoping to star on the film. He got Philip Kaufman involved as screenwriter and possible director, but left after disagreeing with Eastwood in the material adapted to the screen. Kaufman insisted on filming with a meticulous attention to detail, which caused disagreements with Eastwood, not to mention the attraction the two shared towards Locke and apparent jealousy on Kaufman's part in regard to their emerging relationship. This caused Eastwood to take over as the director. Kaufman's firing angered the DGA, as he did most of the pre-production, and sanctioning a $60,000 fine. This resulted in the Director's Guild passing a new rule, known as "the Eastwood Rule", which prohibits an actor or producer from firing the director and then personally taking on the director's role.
The film received critical acclaim, and in subsequent years, is ranked among Eastwood's greatest films. It was also a huge success at the box office, doubling his previous highest grossing film. It was also one of the few Western films to receive critical and commercial success in the 1970s at a time when the Western was thought to be dying as a major genre in Hollywood.

• Budget: $3,700,000.
  
• Domestic gross: $31,800,000. ($174.5 million adjusted)
  
• Worldwide gross: $31,800,000.
  

The Gauntlet (1977)

"The man in the middle of..."
His sixth film. It stars Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Pat Hingle, William Prince, Bill McKinney, and Mara Corday. It follows a down-and-out cop who falls in love with a prostitute, to whom he is assigned to escort from Las Vegas to Phoenix for her to testify against the mob.
While it received mixed reviews, it became another box office success for Eastwood, becoming his now highest grossing film.

• Budget: $5,500,000.
  
• Domestic gross: $35,400,000. ($182.4 million adjusted)
  
• Worldwide gross: $35,400,000.
  

Bronco Billy (1980)

"The most outrageous of 'em all."
His seventh film. The film stars Eastwood and Sondra Locke, and focuses on the financially-struggling owner of a traditional Wild West show and his new assistant.
It became another critical and commercial success for Eastwood, who referred to the film as one of his most affable shoots of his career.

• Budget: $6,500,000.
  
• Domestic gross: $24,265,659. ($91.9 million adjusted)
  
• Worldwide gross: $24,265,659.
  

Firefox (1982)

"The most devastating killing machine ever built... his job... steal it!"
His eighth film. Based on the novel by Craig Thomas, it stars Eastwood, Freddie Jones and David Huffman. The Soviets have developed a revolutionary new jet fighter, called "Firefox". Naturally, the British are worried that the jet will be used as a first-strike weapon, as rumors say that the jet is undetectable on radar. They send ex-Vietnam War pilot Mitchell Gant on a covert mission into the Soviet Union to steal the Firefox.
The film received mixed reviews, but it earned almost $47 million, becoming Eastwood's highest grossing title as director.

• Budget: $21,000,000.
  
• Domestic gross: $46,708,276. ($151.1 million adjusted)
  
• Worldwide gross: $46,708,276.
  

Honkytonk Man (1982)

"The boy is on his way to becoming a man. The man is on his way to becoming a legend."
His ninth film. It's based on the novel by Clancy Carlile, and it stars Eastwood and his son Kyle. It follows Red Stovall, a country music singer and composer. With his nephew Whit by his side, he travels to Nashville to perform at the Grand Ole Opry in the backdrop of the Great Depression.
While the film received acclaim, it earned just $4.4 million, becoming his second worst performer.

• Budget: $2,000,000.
  
• Domestic gross: $4,484,991. ($14.5 million adjusted)
  
• Worldwide gross: $4,484,991.
  

Sudden Impact (1983)

"Dirty Harry is at it again."
His tenth film. The fourth installment in the Dirty Harry series, directed, it stars Eastwood and Sondra Locke. The film tells the story of a gang rape victim who decides to seek revenge on her rapists 10 years after the attack by killing them one by one. Inspector Harry Callahan, famous for his unconventional and often brutal crime-fighting tactics, is tasked with tracking down the serial killer.
The film received mixed reviews from critics, but it earned over $150 million worldwide, Eastwood's first film to pass that milestone. It's also very popular for including the iconic catchphrase, "Go ahead, make my day."

• Budget: $22,000,000.
  
• Domestic gross: $67,642,693. ($212.1 million adjusted)
  
• Worldwide gross: $150,642,693.
  

Tightrope (1984)

"A cop on the edge..."
His 11th film. It stars Eastwood, Geneviève Bujold, Dan Hedaya, Alison Eastwood and Jennifer Beck, and follows a detective determined to hunt down a sadomasochistic serial killer of prostitutes.
The film became another critical and commercial success for Eastwood.

• Budget: N/A.
  
• Domestic gross: $48,143,579. ($144.7 million adjusted)
  
• Worldwide gross: $48,143,579.
  

Pale Rider (1985)

"...And Hell followed with him."
His 12th film. It stars Eastwood, Michael Moriarty and Carrie Snodgress. A couple and their daughter, along with a few others, are driven out of Lahood, California, by goons working for a mining baron. However, a stranger enters their life to assist them in their fight.
There was no stopping Eastwood: another critical and commercial success.

• Budget: $6,900,000.
  
• Domestic gross: $41,410,568. ($120.2 million adjusted)
  
• Worldwide gross: $41,410,568.
  

Heartbreak Ridge (1986)

"The scars run deep."
His 13th film. It stars Eastwood, Marsha Mason, Everett McGill, and Mario Van Peebles. The story centers on a U.S. Marine nearing retirement who gets a platoon of undisciplined Marines into shape and leads them during the American invasion of Grenada in 1983.
The film was inspired by an account of American paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division using a pay telephone and a credit card to call in fire support during the invasion of Grenada, and fashioned a script of a Korean War veteran career Army non-commissioned officer passing on his values to a new generation of soldiers. Eastwood was interested in the script and asked his producer, Fritz Manes, to contact the US Army with a view of filming the movie at Fort Bragg. However, the Army read the script and refused to participate, due to Highway being portrayed as a hard drinker, divorced from his wife, and using unapproved motivational methods to his troops, an image the Army did not want.
It received mixed reviews, with some deeming the film as "imperialist propaganda". But it was still another box office success.

• Budget: $15,000,000.
  
• Domestic gross: $42,724,017. ($121.7 million adjusted)
  
• Worldwide gross: $121,700,000.
  

Bird (1988)

"There are no second acts in American lives."
His 14th film. The film stars Forest Whitaker and Diane Venora. It is constructed as a montage of scenes from saxophonist Charlie Parker's life, from his childhood in Kansas City, through his early death at the age of 34.
Eastwood, a lifelong fan of jazz, had been fascinated by Parker ever since seeing him perform live in Oakland in 1946. He approached Chan Parker, Bird's common-law wife on whose memoirs the script was based, for input, and she lent Eastwood and arranger Lennie Niehaus a collection of recordings from her private collection Before Eastwood was involved, Richard Pryor was originally cast as Parker.
Despitive positive reviews, it performed poorly, earning just $2.2 million in North America.

• Budget: $14,000,000.
  
• Domestic gross: $2,181,286. ($5.7 million adjusted)
  
• Worldwide gross: $2,181,286.
  

White Hunter Black Heart (1990)

"An adventure in obsession."
His 15th film. Based on the novel by Peter Viertel, it stars Eastwood, Jeff Fahey, George Dzundza, Alun Armstrong and Marisa Berenson. It follows a famous movie director, John Wilson, who goes to Africa to make his next movie. He is an obstinate, contrary director who'd rather hunt elephants than take care of his crew or movie. He has become obsessed with one particular elephant and cares for nothing else.
Despite positive reviews, it made just $2.3 million domestically, not even 10% of the budget.

• Budget: $24,000,000.
  
• Domestic gross: $2,319,124. ($5.5 million adjusted)
  
• Worldwide gross: $2,319,124.
  

The Rookie (1990)

His 16th film. The film stars Eastwood, Charlie Sheen, Raul Julia, Sônia Braga, Lara Flynn Boyle, and Tom Skerritt. It follows a veteran police officer teamed up with a younger detective, whose intent is to take down a German crime lord in downtown Los Angeles, following months of investigation into an exotic car theft ring.
It received negative reviews for its acting and story, and it became another flop for Eastwood. That's three bombs in a row. Ouch.

• Budget: $30,000,000.
  
• Domestic gross: $21,633,874. ($51.6 million adjusted)
  
• Worldwide gross: $21,633,874.
  

Unforgiven (1992)

"Some legends will never be forgotten. Some wrongs can never be forgiven."
His 17th film. It stars Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Richard Harris and Morgan Freeman. It follows William Munny, a widower with two young kids, who was once a very vicious gunfighter who gave up everything after marriage. Now, a man named Schofield Kid brings him an offer that he cannot refuse, forcing him to come out of retirement for one last job.
David Webb Peoples wrote the script all the way back to 1976, and it was optioned by Francis Ford Coppola, but he lacked the funds needed to helm it. By Eastwood's own recollection, he was given the script in the "early 80s" although he did not immediately pursue it, because, according to him, "I thought I should do some other things first". Eastwood has long asserted that the film would be his last traditional Western, concerned that any future projects would simply rehash previous plotlines or imitate someone else's work. He dedicated the film to his close friends and mentors Sergio Leone and Don Siegel. Hackman initially refused to participate as his daughters were upset that he was starring in too many violent films, but he became fascinated by the script that he agreed.
It opened with $15 million and it legged all the way to $100 million after playing for almost one year, closing with $159 million worldwide, his now highest grossing film. The film received Eastwood's best reviews of his career, with many considering the film as his magnum opus as director. It received 9 Oscar nominations, and won four: Best Picture and Best Director for Eastwood, Best Supporting Actor for Hackman, and Best Film Editing. So Eastwood, on top of being a reliable box office draw, was now a 2-time Oscar winner.

• Budget: $14,400,000.
  
• Domestic gross: $101,167,799. ($225.2 million adjusted)
  
• Worldwide gross: $159,167,799.
  

A Perfect World (1993)

His 18th film. Kevin Costner, Eastwood and Laura Dern, and follows an escaped convict who takes a young boy hostage and attempts to escape on the road with the child, while being pursued by a Texas Ranger.
The film received critical acclaim, and has appeared as one of Eastwood's best films. The film disappointed in North America, but it earned up to $100 million overseas (Eastwood's first film to gross that much) and ended with $135 million worldwide.

• Budget: $30,000,000.
  
• Domestic gross: $31,130,999. ($67.2 million adjusted)
  
• Worldwide gross: $135,130,999.
  

The Bridges of Madison County (1995)

"The human heart has a way of making itself large again even after it's been broken into a million pieces."
His 19th film. Based on the novel by Robert James Waller, it stars Eastwood and Meryl Streep. The film is set in 1965, following a war bride, Francesca Johnson, who lives with her husband and two children on their Iowa farm. That year she meets National Geographic photojournalist, Robert Kincaid, who comes to Madison County, Iowa to photograph its historic covered bridges. With Francesca's family away for a short trip, the couple have an intense, four-day love affair.
It received more critical acclaim, and made over $180 million worldwide, becoming his highest grossing film. For her performance, Streep was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress.

• Budget: $22,000,000.
  
• Domestic gross: $71,516,617. ($146.5 million adjusted)
  
• Worldwide gross: $182,016,617.
  

Absolute Power (1997)

His 20th film. Based on the novel by David Baldacci, it stars Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, Laura Linney, Judy Davis, Scott Glenn, Dennis Haysbert, and Richard Jenkins. It follows a master jewel thief who witnesses the killing of a woman by Secret Service agents.
It received mixed reviews, and disappointed at the box office.

• Budget: $50,000,000.
  
• Domestic gross: $50,068,310. ($97.4 million adjusted)
  
• Worldwide gross: $92,768,310.
  

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997)

"Welcome to Savannah, Georgia. A Ccty of hot nights and cold blooded murder."
His 21st film. Based on the book by John Berendt, it stars John Cusack and Kevin Spacey. It follows the story of antiques dealer Jim Williams, on trial for the killing of a male prostitute who was his lover. The multiple trials depicted in Berendt's book are combined into one trial for the film.
It received mediocre reviews, and flopped at the box office.

• Budget: $30,000,000.
  
• Domestic gross: $25,105,255. ($48.8 million adjusted)
  
• Worldwide gross: $25,105,255.
  

True Crime (1999)

His 22nd film. Based on the novel by Andrew Klavan, it stars Eastwood, Isaiah Washington, Denis Leary, LisaGay Hamilton and James Woods. It follows a journalist covering the execution of a death row inmate, only to discover that the convict may actually be innocent.
This was another project that received mediocre reviews and flopped at the box office.

• Budget: $55,000,000.
  
• Domestic gross: $16,649,768. ($31.2 million adjusted)
  
• Worldwide gross: $16,649,768.
  

Space Cowboys (2000)

"Boys will be boys."
His 23rd film. It stars Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, and James Garner as four aging former test pilots who are sent into space to repair an old Soviet satellite.
It received very positive reviews, and earned over $128 million worldwide.

• Budget: $60,000,000.
  
• Domestic gross: $90,464,773. ($164 million adjusted)
  
• Worldwide gross: $128,884,132.
  

Blood Work (2002)

"He's a heartbeat away from catching the killer."
His 24th film. Based on the novel by Michael Connelly, it stars Eastwood, Jeff Daniels, Wanda De Jesús, and Anjelica Huston. It follows a retired FBI agent who recently had a heart transplant but still takes up the job to nab a killer.
It was another film with mediocre reviews and flop status.

• Budget: $50,000,000.
  
• Domestic gross: $26,235,081. ($45.5 million adjusted)
  
• Worldwide gross: $31,794,718.
  

Mystic River (2003)

"We bury our sins, we wash them clean."
His 25th film. Based on the novel by Dennis Lehane, it stars Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden, and Laura Linney. It follows three childhood friends who are reunited 25 years later when one of them suffers a family tragedy.
Michael Keaton was originally cast in the role of Det. Sean Devine, and did several script readings with the cast, as well as his own research into the practices of the Massachusetts Police Department. However, creative differences between Keaton and Eastwood led to Keaton leaving the production. He was replaced by Kevin Bacon. This was the first film in which Eastwood would be credited as composer.
The film had a slow roll-out, but it was aided by strong word of mouth, closing with a wonderful $156 million worldwide. It also received acclaim, and was named as one of Eastwood's greatest films. Sean Penn received universal acclaim for his performance, with some naming it among the best acting of the century, particularly for one scene (if you watched it, you definitely know which scene). It received 6 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director for Eastwood. It won two: Best Actor for Penn and Best Supporting Actor for Robbins.

• Budget: $25,000,000.
  
• Domestic gross: $90,135,191. ($153 million adjusted)
  
• Worldwide gross: $156,595,191.
  

Come back tomorrow for Part 2

MOVIES (FROM HIGHEST GROSSING TO LEAST GROSSING)

No.	Movie	Year	Studio	Domestic Total	Overseas Total	Worldwide Total	Budget
x	The Bridges of Madison County	1995	Warner Bros.	$71,516,617	$110,500,000	$182,016,617	$22M
x	Unforgiven	1992	Warner Bros.	$101,167,799	$58,000,000	$159,167,799	$14.4M
x	Mystic River	2003	Warner Bros.	$90,135,191	$66,460,000	$156,595,191	$25M
x	Sudden Impact	1983	Warner Bros.	$67,642,693	$83,000,000	$150,642,693	$22M
x	A Perfect World	1993	Warner Bros.	$31,130,999	$104,000,000	$135,130,999	$30M
x	Space Cowboys	2000	Warner Bros.	$90,464,773	$38,419,359	$128,884,132	$60M
x	Heartbreak Ridge	1986	Warner Bros.	$42,724,017	$78,975,983	$121,700,000	$15M
x	Absolute Power	1997	Sony	$50,068,310	$42,700,000	$92,768,310	$50M
x	Tightrope	1984	Warner Bros.	$48,143,579	$0	$48,143,579	N/A
x	Firefox	1982	Warner Bros.	$46,708,276	$0	$46,708,276	$21M
x	Pale Rider	1985	Warner Bros.	$41,410,568	$0	$41,410,568	$6.9M
x	The Gauntlet	1977	Warner Bros.	$35,400,000	$0	$35,400,000	$5.5M
x	The Outlaw Josey Wales	1976	Warner Bros.	$31,800,000	$0	$31,800,000	$3.7M
x	Blood Work	2002	Warner Bros.	$26,235,081	$5,559,637	$31,794,718	$50M
x	Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil	1997	Warner Bros.	$25,105,255	$0	$25,105,255	$30M
x	Bronco Billy	1980	Warner Bros.	$24,265,659	$0	$24,265,659	$6.5M
x	The Rookie	1990	Warner Bros.	$21,633,874	$0	$21,633,874	$30M
x	True Crime	1999	Warner Bros.	$16,649,768	$0	$16,649,768	$55M
x	High Plains Drifter	1973	Universal	$15,700,000	$0	$15,700,000	$5.5M
x	The Eiger Sanction	1975	Universal	$14,200,000	$0	$14,200,000	$9M
x	Play Misty for Me	1971	Universal	$10,600,000	$0	$10,600,000	$950K
x	Honkytonk Man	1982	Warner Bros.	$4,484,991	$0	$4,484,991	$2M
x	White Hunter Black Heart	1990	Warner Bros.	$2,319,124	$0	$2,319,124	$24M
x	Bird	1988	Warner Bros.	$2,181,286	$0	$2,181,286	$14M
x	Breezy	1973	Universal	$200,000	$17,753	$217,753	$750K

The Verdict

Hope you liked this edition. You can find this and more in the wiki for this section.
The next director will be Robert Zemeckis. One of the biggest falls from grace.
I asked you to choose who else should be in the run and the comment with the most upvotes would be chosen. It had to be a controversial filmmaker. Well, we'll later talk about... Zack Snyder. Oh, BoxOffice chose fuego 🔥
This is the schedule for the following four:

Week	Director	Reasoning
May 20-26	Robert Zemeckis	Can we get old Zemeckis back?
May 27-June 2	Richard Donner	An influential figure of the 70s and 80s.
June 3-9	Ang Lee	What happened to Lee?
June 10-16	Zack Snyder	RIP Inbox.

Who should be next after Snyder? That's up to you.

I'm trying to speak for everyone who reads this (Which might not be that many people....), but I thought I would ask this while MerMay is still present.
Mermaids have always been a popular mythical creature, and one of the most iconic and well known ones. Though truth be told, it does seem like an interest that a lot of us always had, as long as we watched media involving them.
The big one of course is The Little Mermaid, but there's also Splash, Aquamarine, Peter Pan, heck, even SpongeBob would include them every now and then. Or if you like reading Webtoons like me, it could've been reignited with The Little Trashmaid, a very unique take on the legend with a sad, yet funny twist to them.
Like I said, I think I was always fascinated by them, but it didn't seem to become a MAJOR interest of mine once I really got into The Little Trashmaid, and the big "Mermaid Boom of 2023" with The Little Mermaid remake, and Ruby Gillman.
But what is it about them that makes them SO appealing? Not trying to say they shouldn't be loved, but it's one of those interests/obsessions that's hard to explain why. I mean, they're popular enough to have a whole month long drawing challenge dedicated to them.
For me, I think it ties into another interest I've always had....Underwater scenes. If you think about it, scenes where characters are underwater and/or swimming have been everywhere in Animation. Disney films, Don Bluth films, Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, various Nicktoons and Cartoon Network shows, and anime like Pokemon has had a lot of them.
Even video games would dive (No pun intended) into this with their sometimes infamous underwater levels. Whether it'd be Mario, Sonic Crash Bandicoot, Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, the list goes on. Something about the atmosphere and how people would have to swim to get around, or how funny their voices sound if talking underwater...just seemed very mesmerizing to me. As well a bit frightening with the fear of drowning being a sense of tension.
But then you have Mermaids. A humanoid species that THRIVES underwater. A place that's vastly different to land, yet their lives are also somewhat familiar to ours. At least when depicted in fiction. They seem to do a lot of the same things humans do, but underwater. Makes you wonder if they have their own culture or sense of special underwater technology.
That and....well, mermaids also have their beauty to them. The fact that the most they only wear are clam shell bras or some other form of modesty, or even wear nothing at all, showing a lot of skin, CAN be a subject of fanservice. But the same can go to women with mermen, who expose even more skin. There's also their fish tails, that strangely complements their human tops in terms of beauty. Depending on what colors they are or if they have patterns.
Lastly, and this is something that I picked up recently. Mermaids could also be seen as a metaphor for people on the Autism Spectrum. Think, Ariel, Madison from Splash, and Aquamarine share a lot of parallels to Autistic people. Being extremely knowledgeable about specific things (Like mermaid culture or human trinkets), they struggle to express their feelings, make wrong social cues, or acting socially awkward when they explore the land, and may even need extra help and support to navigate the world. Something I haven't thought about until two things.
One was going on TV Tropes a bit too often...and the other is the Mermaid Ocean story I've been thinking and developing. Based off my own experiences in job training.
Those are just my theories on why I like Mermaids. But are yours?
Let me know down bellow if you can.

Disclaimer: I have to shorten the words on this one because the chapter had gone on for to long and stole the word count limit. Every person in this section has my deepest and most sincere thanks for the art, memes, and love they have shown my series.
Thank you to: for proofreading, editing, and this art. Check his fic here!
u/Talentlessfurry for this art.
u/Roddcherry for adding Novel to the charismas party he drew.
u/everyveryever for this art.
u/Emotion-Senior for the meme.
u/Orphandestroyer99 for the comic and art.
u/abrachoo for the meme.
u/guaiwutongzhi for the art.
u/United_Patriots for the art.
u/migulehove for the art(s).
u/aMANTEIGAdo for the art.
u/SlimyRage for the art.
Thank you to each and every one of these amazing people!
CW: Accidental Substance Abuse
Memory Transcription Subject: Novel, Kolshian Scientist and Self-Proclaimed “Gamer God”
Date {standardized human time}: October 19th, 2136
The elevator ride took a lot longer than I would have liked, my excitement and anticipation making it difficult to stand still. Ada’s room was almost at the top floor of the building — along with those of the other members of my herd — making it take a bit longer to get to than most of the other Humans’ I’ve visited while here.
Seems they are keeping the various tribes in their own groups. The fourth floor has the Germans, French, Polish, and Austrians, with a few Danes and Swedes mixed in. I wonder if they did that to keep the different tribes from fighting with ones they don’t like? Doubtful really, everyone seems to get along well enough, disregarding a couple jabs here and there. Probably just makes geographical sense to put them together.
My pondering was broken with a soft ding of the old elevator doors opening. I stepped out of the elevator quickly and took in my surroundings. There were very few humans milling about the quiet halls as they went about their business. One human with comfy-looking pelts had noticed me step out of the elevator and had frozen where they stood. After a short, yet still uncomfortably awkward moment, I gave a wave with one of my upper appendages and walked down a different hall.
A few moments later, I pulled out my pad to look at the message Sindre sent me.
Room 441, hailey and i went to get some stuff for the sesh. ada will be there in a bit. see you soon, {censored}
From: Sindre(Human)
I quickly typed out my own message.
Thank you! I’ll meet you there!
From: Me
Stowing the pad, I made my way there. Along the way I encountered several more Humans, each of which having some sort of reaction to my presence. Mostly just freezing in place or casting glances at me as I walked by. Some of them recognized me, either from when we baked together, or when I was in the rec room when the news dropped and gave me a wave in return. There was one case though when a Terran exited their room, saw me, and let out a noise I can only describe as a squeal before diving back into their room.
That last one confused me to no end, as I had never seen that reaction from a human before. I considered knocking on the door before thinking better of it and continuing down the hall to my destination.
How curious… I'll have to ask Ada about that human and why they ran away from me... Heh, prey scaring predators. Not so long ago, such a concept would’ve been seen as the ultimate goal, any real-world examples derided as only that of a dreamer’s fallacy, and yet now… I don’t think I like the idea so much…
I made a mental note to apologize to them if we ever meet again and kept walking, this time with my form hunched and my pace a little faster than before so I could avoid bothering the Terrans as much. It seemed to work, and the humans seemed to look away a little faster than they had previously.
Arriving at Ada’s door, though, I composed myself as best I could, straightening my back and taking a deep breath to calm myself. I knocked on the door a few times, only for it to open a slight amount. Cocking my head in confusion, I listened to the slight groaning of the hinges before I gently pushed it the rest of the way, the door creaking loudly in resistance.
The room smelled of wax and freshly harvested Othll bark, like I had just walked into the home improvement aisle of a store. Walking further inside showed me the source of the smell, which was a set of candles sitting on top of a nightstand in the corner… next to a fire alarm with the battery taken out.
That’s a little concerning… that can’t be safe at least. I should tell her to put it back in when I see her… wherever she is.
Looking around the room some more showed it to be quite unkempt, with pelts and other junk laying strewn haphazardly across the floor. Personal knick-knacks and picture frames sat on shelves and tables around the room, making the places feel a lot more homely than the other rooms I’d been in. A large TV sat on the other side of the room across from the bed, which had been recently used, going by the blanket on the floor and the pillows tossed about. Against the wall next to the bed was a large couch that had clearly seen better paws, the top layer peeling heavily and scattering the little bits of plastic covering everywhere.
Sitting next to the TV appeared to be some sort of Terran gaming console, complete with bright colors plastered across its many faces and with several different wires coming out of it. Far more than there should be, since part of the case it was in had been smashed to fit more cabling into. Tools, used wires, and broken plastic laid scattered next to the patchwork job.
Seems they really did modify it. Makes sense, since I doubt it would normally work on our systems at all… we should really put that fire alarm back in…
Just as I started walking over to inspect it, my lower tentacle caught something soft on one of the suckers. Looking down showed it to be one of the chest pelts Ada had been wearing the paw I met her. Closer inspection showed the whole floor was covered in discarded pelts, including some I had never seen before!
I let out a sigh as I looked around at the mess… I hope she doesn't mind if I cleaned up a bit.
And that's exactly what I did as I waited for my host to return. It did not take long for me to find the garbage can and hamper she used for her used pelts. While I worked though the piles, I took note of the stranger clothes I saw. Most of them were the regular chest pelts that I’d seen every human wear, but others were completely unique or otherwise somehow unusual.
One such example was what I can only describe as some sort of winter gear? It had a very intricate design on the front made of lace and a very soft interior made of a kind of purple fabric. What made it even more strange was that I found several of these scattered around the room, meaning that she was wearing these pretty regularly too!
Hmmm… perhaps it is meant to keep their ears warm? That would explain the strap on the back, as it would be meant to go under their chin. That doesn’t explain why she would be using it though, and to have so many! It must get cold in here when the A/C kicks in, I guess. This place is really old after all.
Either way, they went into the hamper. I left the tools where they were, in case they belonged to different people, but everything else went straight into the trash. The whole process was pretty exhausting, but the room ended up looking much nicer than it had before!
Just as I finished bagging up the garbage can, the door gave a loud creak as Ada stepped in wearing some pretty comfortable-looking pelts similar to the ones she had been wearing a few paws ago, pink prey head slippers and all.
A few {seconds} pass as she starts pulling out clear totes full of what I assume to be her things before I break out of my confusion and flick her a tail wave.
“Hey Ada! Whe-”
“AAAAHHH!!!”
She screamed as she stumbled onto her back, causing me to drop the bag and jump in fright. We stared at each other for a moment before Ada spoke up.
“Nov’?! What the fuck are you doing in here?! You weren't… ya Allah, you scared the crap out of me!”
My arms and tentacles raised up in a pleading gesture after I realized what I did. “S-sorry! I-I thought you would see me! And Sindre said to meet you here? F-for the games?”
Ada took a few more moments to calm down on the floor, but eventually, she stood up and took a few breaths. “You’re fine, squiddie… Sindre didn’t mention how close you were so… oh well, doesn't matter I guess. Uh, what’s in the bag you got there? Also… where are all of my clothes?”
At her observation, I picked up the trash bag and held it up for her to see. “Well… your room was a bit of a mess, a-and you were gone, so I did a bit of… cleaning? Nothing major, just throwing away some trash and putting the pelts in the hamper.”
“Oh, well, thanks Nov. I was gonna get to that befor-” Suddenly she stops herself mid-sentence. Her eyes widen as she casts her forward-facing gaze over to the pelts’ bin.
For some reason, the human's usual light brown features darken considerably with a crimson bloom. Ada turned to look at me, and I gave my best happy expression I could muster to put her at ease. This time, the human's face twisted into an obvious forced snarl before she gave up, running a hand down her face.
“Novel, j-just a heads up for the future, it’s considered rude to go through someone's room and touch their… pelts without permission. They are, um, quite personal belongings, and we don’t let other people touch certain ones. Fuck, uh, don’t tell the other two about this either. It would be, eugh…” Ada’s snarl gets larger as she looks back to the hamper, the crimson still blooming across her face. My tail flicked curiously as I looked between her and the pelt basket.
How peculiar… Hailey seemed just fine with dumping all sorts of pelts on me when she was showing them off. Perhaps that's because she studies it, so in that case it’s seen as okay? Maybe it has more to deal with how I came in here without her supervision? Predators are known to be territorial in the wild, and the Humans seem to be that way as well with their many borders. Letting someone into your ‘territory’ must be a pretty personal thing in the first place. Which would mean that she must be upset that I just walked in here and started messing with things! Speh!
A tentacle reached out, or up I suppose, to Ada’s shoulder while my tail signaled my sincerest apologies. “I-I am so sorry, Ada. If I knew, I would have never touched anything! Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone! Do you want me to… put it back the way I found it?”
The human seemed to find my appeasement worthy as she let out a quiet laugh. “No, Nov’, you’re just fine. Thanks for cleaning up too, I guess; I was gonna do it myself, but oh well… not something we need to talk about.” She lets out another laugh as she walks over to the modified console and grabs a controller.
Yet, before she could get a word out, there was a sharp knock on the door, followed by it swinging open to reveal the last two members of our herd. Sindre came in first, carrying several different bags filled to the brim with snacks of all varieties. He gave a simple head nod and rushed over to the table by the TV to deposit his haul, dropping a few on the floor in his haste.
Hailey walked in right behind him with a plastic grocery bag over her shoulder filled with many different colored bottles of drink and a tray of small dark-brown squares covered in plastic wrap. Her free hand gave us both a wave while she walked to the table in a much calmer manner, at least when compared to her compatriot.
We both gave our own wave in return while I spoke up. “Hey guys! Welcome! What did you get from the kitchen?”
Hailey set her things down on the table. “Not much. Some dried fruit, chips, cookies, soda, juice, and even some fresh brownies someone made! I assumed they were for the taking since they had a few trays sitting out to cool down, but we didn’t really have time to ask since we kinda rushed up here. Oh, and the kitchen stinks to high hell for some reason. Might have to tell Emmanual about that.”
My head tilted curiously at the information as Ada and Sindre moved the couch over to where I was standing. Once it was in place, I took a seat at the opposite end from Hailey. “Well, I’m glad you got what you wanted! Do you mind if I take one of those, uh, brownies?”
She gave me a hand wave as I reached over and undid the plastic wrap around the treats. They were still quite warm from the kitchen! I took a small bite out of the corner to get a taste of it, only to then gobble up the whole thing in one bite.
This is amazing! It’s like strayu but… richer? With an almost cough medicine aftertaste mixed with that strange spice? Such a strange and yet fascinating combination!
“Such a weird taste… but definitely a good one! Are there any more downstairs?” I asked while covering my mouth as best I could for the sake of manners.
She took one herself and took a small bite. “Yep, at least a couple more trays from what we saw. Though I bet most of those will be gone once word gets around.”
My head nodded solemnly as I picked up another.
Might as well enjoy them while we can!
Ada walked over to me and flicked the space in between my eyes with her fingers. Her other hand passed me a human game controller before taking a seat right next to me. “Save some for us, ya green goblin! Pretty sure we’re meant to share those!”
The humans let out a soft chuckle while my face warmed in embarrassment. Luckily, they didn’t stay focused on it for long before she pointed to the controller. “So, do you need help with that? It’s not exactly built for you.”
Moving it around in my appendages was more than enough to prove that fact, but I tried to give her a dismissive tail wave while sitting down. “Don’t worry… I should be able to make this work…” I said while using all four of my limbs to hold the piece of plastic. It wasn’t exactly comfortable, but it’ll do the job for now.
“Not the first time I had to do this. There are a lot of different species on Aafa, and some of them have very strange, uh, manipulators… you just have to get used to it.”
There may not have been a lot, or really any other species in my home town, but that college certainly did. Me and Cloyta used to hang out with a few different herds whenever we had the time. That Tilfish remote was an interesting experience to use. Having to use smells to figure out a puzzle in a game like it was normal was really something else.
The TV and console suddenly turned on with a bright flash as Sindre held out a remote towards them both. He used his controller to navigate to a menu on the system to reveal a vast collection of Human games. I grabbed my pad out of my pack to translate some of the games as Sindre scrolled by.
Doom of Kevsar, Helldivers: Super Dating Simulator, Papa’s Pizzeria, Skyrim 2… all these seem fine, I guess. At least not super violent like I thought… A good sign!
Sindre spoke up first as he continued to look through the archive. “Anyway, we were talking the other day about which game to show you first, but we couldn’t agree on what would be the best showcase. So instead of one game voted in from all of us, we are each going to show you a game we think you’ll like best. Sounds good?”
My tail thumped against the back of the couch in acceptance. “Yup! That actually sounds really great! Get to see a wider spectrum of human ‘entertainment!’ Who’s going first?”
“Sindre is…” Hailey speaks up in between bites of her confection, “His system, his pick… still think it’s a dumb fucking game though.” He says as he stops his scrolling and arrives at a very brightly colored preview with several… Humans? Human-like creatures in what look like Dossur vehicles?
He presses a button to select the game as a grin grows on his face. “Hey, Mario Kart Galaxy 3 is a classic! You’re just mad because you’re bad at it.” Sindre turns his head to me while Hailey leans forward. “You’ll love it, I swear. Really shows off the real Humanity we have to hide from you guys.”
“That's for a good reason, you dolt. But it’s your choice…” Hailey said while wiping her hands on a napkin.
I hoped he was right as some cheerful music started playing.
{Memory Transcription Time Advancement: 19 Terran standard minutes…}
Sindre was right! This is fun!
The upbeat music continues to play as I make another turn around a corner, drifting a little to build up some momentum. The ‘Birdo’ creature in my ‘Kart’ does a little dance as I time it right and get a small speed boost, sending me further down the multi-colored track.
“Hmmhmmmhm, hmhmhmm~.” I tried my best to hum along to the music as I continued with the race.
I never would have thought that a racing game could be interesting. Cloyta and I played a few when we were much younger, but they seemed slow in comparison. Usually had a goal at the end as well, like delivering some fruits to a market, or maybe trading on spacefaring merchant vessels in the more complex ones.
It was super fun though! Competing against each other felt a little off, but I wrote it off as a Human cultural thing. A way of bonding, as with most things for them it seems. Other than that, I found the racing to be a lot of fun! There was so much going on, and yet it somehow managed to really keep you aware of everything going on at all times.
A projectile here, a fruit peel trap there, there was so much to think about that I almost forgot to pay attention to the humans! Which, if I weren’t here to study them, might have been a good thing. There were times the competitive nature of the game seemed to draw something else out of them, something I hadn’t expected.
It was… well…
“If I run into one more fucking banana, I will kick you down a flight of stairs and jump on your head from the top step!”
“How the hell did that hit ME!? Broken fucking hitboxes in this shitty ass game!”
“GET YOUR CRUSTY TOAD ASS OFF ME BEFORE I RIP YOU ASSHOLE TO ASSHOLE!!!”
…intense.
My enjoyment of the game seemed to be pretty one-sided unfortunately. Even by the already high standards of the Humans’ previous banter, this was truly something else. While I was still learning the game and slowly climbed up the leaderboard, the Humans all led the herd by taking the top 3 spots every time. They were so close together in some of the races that it was nearly impossible to tell who would win until the last moment, making their yelling even more vicious and bloodthirsty.
There were times I thought they were about to get physically violent with each other once it got to the final lap, but thankfully, it never came to that, aside from maybe some light pushing. Their… banter? Fighting? Uh… verbal abuse towards each other made learning the game a lot harder too since every time I tried to ask a question, my voice would get drowned out in all the yelling. They did show me the basic controls before we started, but it’s a little hard to ask for pointers when your coaches are threatening severe bodily harm against each other.
As I drifted around another sharp turn, my mind wandered back to what Sindre said when we’d first started:
‘Really shows off the real Humanity we have to hide from you guys.’
Was this supposed to be the ‘real Humanity’? I sure hope not… I think I’d prefer if they actually came to blows instead of continuing this barrage of foulness they are constantly spewing. They don’t even seem to be enjoying it! They have to be doing it for a reason… right?
I continued to think as I continued down the track and finished my second lap. The argument was starting to build up again as the stakes started to rise.
“Oh, yeah, of course you get a red shell in 2nd and I get fucking bananas in 3RD! Gotta love this piece of shit game!!” Hailey shouted, leaning forward like she was about to pounce on the TV.
“Not my fault you can’t aim for shit, dumbass! Just throw better!” Sindre quipped back.
“How about I throw you out a five story window?! I mean, I would if your fatass wouldn't snap the floorboards if I tried!” Ada finished it as he gave her an aggressive shove with his shoulder.
Yet, unlike how I expected, she didn’t push back. That's what makes this all so confusing! Each time they antagonize each other, the other person does it back, and they just stop! Their words sound like they mean it to hurt, and their actions reflect that… but they aren’t acting on it.
Hmm… the ‘real Humanity’, huh… Maybe I’m approaching this the wrong way? Something less about who the Humans are, so to speak, but more how they feel? They’ve been awfully emotional in every interaction I’ve ever had with them… Aggressive, too, admittedly. Maybe… maybe this is a way for them to vent some of that aggression safely? Around people they really trust with a game you can complain about, but demands too much attention to leave them to do more than yell at each other? Things have been rather… stressful, lately.
My tail thumped a few more times against the dilapidated couch, sending a few more puffs of stuffing into the air. The theory kind of lined up with what I knew, but I was here with the primary source for a reason, after all. I would just ask them, but…
“I am going to FUCKING DEEPFRY THAT FUCKING MUSHROOM {Ass Violin}!!!”
They were busy.
They seem pretty angry… but if it helps them deal with their stress, then I am just fine with it. I’m glad they are getting through it in their own… ‘special’ Human way.
In any case, it was still better than damming it all up until it overflowed and someone really got hurt. Safe in the knowledge that the Humans (probably) wouldn’t actually attack each other, I just resolved to focus on the game instead. The third and final lap was coming around, and things were starting to ramp up even further. The Humans’ false violence got even louder, and coupled with the occasional and really rather distracting limb shooting out and the rapidly intensifying music, my poor heart was not in the best condition as our racers closed in on the finish line.
But then, all of a sudden, something very strange happened. The Humans simultaneously began to curse louder than ever before, screaming and wailing as an odd blue indicator flashed along the top of the screen, indicating some kind of blue spiky ball rapidly approaching us from behind. All three of them illogically slammed on the brakes, clearly trying to dodge the oncoming projectile, but it was to no avail. The ball flew right past my ‘Kart’ and struck the center of the tightly crowded humans, unleashing an explosion of blue fire that stunned all three.
Allowing my Kart, driving at maximum speed in hopes of any shot at outrunning the projectile, to shoot right past them and cross the finish line first.
Wait… what?
A brief silence hung in the air at what just happened until my arms went up in the air
“Hey, look! I won! Hehehe! I didn’t know I would get so lucky on my first try! Is that sort of thing… common…?”
I stopped my celebration as all the Humans were giving me very intense looks with their stares. They lacked the familiar friendliness most Humans looked at me with, but instead seemed much… angrier.
Speh, right. They are still mad from before, and now I just beat them at their own race… O-okay, they don’t mean it, they are upset and need to let it out. Just have to get through it.
Seeing what was about to happen, I curled in on myself and braced myself for the barrage of verbal slurry coming my way. A moment passed as I waited for the insults to fly but… they never came? Opening an eye revealed the Human’s expressions had changed from fury to…
Amusement?
“You alright there Nov’? You’re shaking pretty bad… Was that too much?” Ada asked in a quiet voice while patting me on the back roughly. It took a moment for my brain to catch up before I could speak again.
“O-oh, uh, sorry, I thought you all were going to… yell at me? Like you did with each other?” My voice was a little shaky as I unfurled myself.
All of the Germans seemed to wince a little at that. “Yeah… fuck, sorry about that. Mario Kart is a pretty rage-inducing game. Shoulda thought about that beforehand.”
My tail attempted to signal calm while trapped behind me. “N-no, it’s fine… I did learn a lot actually. It was fun too, besides the yelling part. Um, can we move on though? I think I’ve got enough out of this one.”
Sindre exits the game with a nod while the others let out deep sighs. “Yeah, sorry Nov’. It’s one of the most popular party games Humanity ever made, so I figured it would be a good one to show you. Next is… Ada’s pick… we sure we should do this one?”
The woman turned her head to look at Sindre. “Positive. They have a vegan option in the settings, so it’s not going to get us arrested or anything. Plus, it's a cooperative party game! Feds seem to love that whole ‘herd’ thing, and Nov’ liked the last one so I’m sure it’ll be fine!”
She gave a dismissive hand wave before turning back to me. “It’ll be fine, really. I played this game as a kid all the time, no need to panic, right?” She seemed a little worried at the end of that sentence, so I tried to put on a brave face.
“S-sounds great! What’s it about?” I mentally chastised myself for my stutter and reached towards the table to grab another pastry. “Ahem. There’s nothing predatory in it, right?”
She grabs one herself and a glass of an orange fizzy drink. “Nope, none at all! Just some harmless cooking with your friends! You’ll love it!” Her enthusiasm helped me calm down as the game started booting up on screen.
Overcooked 5: Season of Seasoning.
Looks cheerful at least. Cooking is fun too… It’ll be fine, yeah.
I took a bite out of my brownie as the game's main menu music started to play.
{Memory Transcription Time Advancement: 23 Standard Terran Minutes…}
You know… I think I get it.
A soft relaxing track played in the background as the four little chefs on screen ran around doing various tasks needed to keep the kitchen functioning, like preparing vegetables, or washing dishes. A timer at the top of the screen was slowly counting down while a little ‘onion’ next to it with a Human face rambled on about something or other.
Orders start coming in quick, and all of us get to work in a flash… or at least, all of us SHOULD be.
“Can you three stop licking the dust clouds in the vents and actually do something to help me, PLEASE?!”
A trio of Human giggles was my only response as I leaned forward in concentration.
This game. This brahking game. They should use this for testing for intelligence like those quizzes we took back home, since clearly some people go brain dead trying to do literally anything that isn’t getting in my stars-damned way, or otherwise waste valuable time by huffing the gas coming off the stove!
Finishing up one order of seaweed wraps and lettuce salad, I tried to get back to the kitchen, but was immediately blocked by… a plate on the floor.
“WHO-!! Why is there a plate on the floor?! The counter is literally right there! It’s such a simple job to-” A ding rings out, showing several new orders that needed to be filled. The timer started flashing red as we reached the one ‘minute’ mark.
A deep, frustrated growl builds in my throat, causing my Humans to laugh for some reason, incensing me even further! We all get to work in completing the last orders, however. Things were going well as the Terrans seemed to (finally) get it together to actually make some good food. Sindre had just finished cooking the rice while Ada chopped the carrots. Me and Hailey were putting everything together on the other side and sending it through until—
“Is, oh my stars, did you guys really send over raw rice?! It’s not even partially cooked!! Are you all a bunch of mountain dwellers? Do you eat your dry grass with a side of brahking pebbles and pond scum?! Cook it again!” I threw the rice back, hitting Sindre in the back of the head with the pile of rice, causing his character to fall over with a cartoonish thunk sound effect.
The Germans laughed loudly at the scene, which made my face heat up in frustration. The timer was running short as we waited for the rice to actually be cooked this time.
“Nov’, I, haha, I’m sorry. I’ll get it done this time, have mercy! I thought the last one was done so I-”
My head turned just enough for my eye to be focused solely on the pale Human. “IT WAS BRAHKING RAW!! There's a bar at the top that tells you! Do you need eye surgery?? Can you even pass a driving test??”
More laughter.
“AND STOP LAUGHING AT ME!! IT’S NOT FUNNY!!”
A ding came from the pot to signify it was done. Ada immediately took it out and walked over to the counter to pass it.
“Perfect, now just- what are you doing?”
She wasn’t passing it over. Instead, she was charging up her throw way more than she needed to. I was just about to say something as the clock flashed brightly ‘till she threw the rice at full force.
Directly at my little chef. The rice beamed directly off the side of my character's head, sending me flying away from the plate and sprawled across the kitchen floor as the rice landed gently on the ground.
“ADA!!!!!”
The countdown is drowned out by the humans erupting into laughter as I desperately try and recover. Yet, just as I make it to my feet, the countdown reaches zero, and the mission ends. Defeat fills my chest while the onion man does a little dance to tally up our points.
49600… only two out of three stars…
It’s over…
I slumped against the back of the couch, fury and betrayal stirring in my chest while the predators laughed to each other for several moments. Their raucous, howling laughter eventually started dying down, at least enough for them to actually say something to me.
“Nov’, come on. It’s just a game. I’m, hehehe, I’m sorry okay? We were just having a little fun is all.” She ran her treacherous hands down my back in an effort to calm me, to little effect.
“Dumb game. Stupid… start the next mission…”
She chuckled a bit. “Maybe we should play a different game. You don’t seem real happy playing this one.”
That made my tail flick in light amusement though the frustration. “Now you sound like my Dad…” My anger at the game started to fade more and more, replaced with a growing sensation of guilt. ”I-I think that’s a good idea. Um, sorry about that.”
She removed her hand, but kept her eyes on me and the gooey trail now stringing from her hand. “Eugh… hey, you’re fine. If you can deal with us screaming at each other, then we can handle your little squeaks.”
The other two smiled and nodded in agreement while I looked at her in confusion, feeling a little offended. “My… squeaks? But, um, thank you... W-what's the next game? Hailey’s turn, right?”
On cue, she brushes her mane to the side and starts scrolling down. “Yes, actually! Unlike these two walnuts, I actually picked a relaxing game. A classic. An art piece~” Her hands did a slight flair, yet I remained unmoved.
“Hailey, that's what the other two said too. While those games were… fine, I wouldn’t call them ‘masterpieces.’ Are you sure about this one?” I asked while grabbing another brownie.
I keep eating these things, but I just feel more and more hungry… weird…
The Humans chucked as she selected her game. “Hey, have a little faith in me. I haven't met a Human alive that can say this game is bad. Just watch!”
A flash came from the TV as the game's title came into view.
Minecraft: Anniversary Edition.
“We’ll use one of the worlds we were playing on back on Earth so you can get an idea of what it’s really like. And, uh, make sure it's peaceful too, just in case.”
I took a bite of the treat and settled into my spot, preparing myself for whatever was to come.
{CONTINUED INTO THE COMMENTS}

Hi!
Doing a deferred rendering engine with all the bells and whistles - tiled/clustered forward is coming later.
I'm using a framebuffer abstraction similar to a render graph API - essentially allowing for framebuffer construction which are dependent on other framebuffer instances.
I've succesfully finished the G-buffer geometry pass and the deferred pass (with light culling compute in between). After the deferred pass lighting I would like to be able to draw the lights I submitted to my engine from client code - maybe as emissive meshes or like a renderer cube default (?).
Anyway - for this final light geometry pass I attach the output of the deferred pass (colour, and depth) as load operations. I had as a vision to implement the idea blitted lights of Deferred Shading LearnOpenGL,
As context, I use inverse Z-buffer with minDepth and maxDepth set to 1.0 and 0.0 respectively, also using GLM_FORCE_DEPTH_ZERO_ONE. I also perform viewport inversion a la Sascha Willems. I perform a Predepth pass which is then attached to the G-buffer pass to hinder overdraw, and allowing for light culling later on. This is the depth output I use as the attachment for the light pass.
The issue is that the lights render pass gets the depth buffer attached upside down. I've tried rendering the lights pass "non-inverted" (x=0,y=0,width=width,height=height), inverting that render pass's shaders' y-coordinates and others.
I can't seem to understand how to flip the depth attachment at this point, since I'm not sampling it as a texture, it is already loaded as an attachment.
A possible solution, I realised when writing this post, would maybe be to attach it as a fragment shader texture and sample instead, so that I can reject based on gl_FragDepth in the fragment shader? Maybe?
Thank you for your consideration!

Purtle's Internet Lineup for May 11th, 2024 2:48pm
Pics:

• if you're currently working on a video game, take a short break, pick a number in your code or data files, multiply it by 1000, and post the results [thread] https://twitter.com/TylerGlaiel/status/1788362032699555985
  
  • dog bounce https://twitter.com/rotub/status/1789047694339498335
• British people are SOOO dramatic when theres a bit of sun….why did i just see someone walking with a icepack on their head https://twitter.com/TylerJade_A/status/1788962254429249828
  
• EA exec want to put ads in the games you paid for. Ubisoft exec wants you to lease games instead of owning them. Microsoft exec thinks closing company that makes small award winning games will help them make small award winning games. Absolute evil clown industry. https://twitter.com/delaneykingrox/status/1789125146936332292
  

Clips:

• This is how CPU vs GPU works https://twitter.com/PicturesFoIdestatus/1788835387877543941
  
• The E3 2004 demo reel for PictoChat, showcasing a short conversation between a group of people deciding to draw Mario and Koopa. https://twitter.com/MarioBrothBlog/status/1789042651083190480
  
• Toad waiting at bowsers castle to tell that guy she in another castle: https://twitter.com/niggabootyshake/status/1789055768035291330
  
• Spider-Man: Far From Helping https://twitter.com/JoseJoestaastatus/1789058541078085956
  

Videos

• SM64's Unopenable door hsa finally been opened - pannenkoek2012 [11:49] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmqFoojMeD8

Articles/News/Other

• Twitter gaming makes up BS about nintendo not wanting to integrate with twitter anymore - The gaming community is one of the largest and most vibrant communities on our platform, and we are dedicated to enhancing and supporting gaming-related features. As part of Nintendo's planned discontinuation of sharing content to X from the Nintendo Switch, from June 11th, users will need to download Switch gameplay media directly to their smartphones and share it natively on our platform. We worked together with Nintendo throughout this process to ensure API access for this integration, but ultimately it was a product decision made by Nintendo. Our partnership with Nintendo remains strong, and we are working together to ensure a smooth transition for all users. We will continue collaborating with partners to bring new and exciting experiences to our global gaming community. https://twitter.com/xGaming/status/1788923055101612174
  
  • this tweet^ was community noted - This is in direct response to X changing their API. Specifically, X is charging companies upwards of $40,000 or more per month to access its API. Sony's PlayStation and Microsoft's Xbox already removed integration with X last year. https://twitter.com/xGaming/status/1788923055101612174
  • X (Twitter) has revised their statement. They are apparently trying to blame Nintendo: "We worked together with Nintendo throughout this process to ensure API access for this integration, but ultimately it was a product decision made by Nintendo." https://twitter.com/OatmealDome/status/1789007278680502596
• My friend Wiseguy's been working in secret for a year on a tool to make PC ports of N64 games without complete decompilations. The result doesn't include assets and only requires a ROM to play. He's managed to run games like Banjo-Kazooie, Rocket Robot and even Superman 64. [thread] https://twitter.com/dariosamo/status/1789049134709678500
  
  • N64 Recompiled uses RT64 as the renderer, providing many visual enhancements like high resolution effects, widescreen and 60+ FPS. Features like RT or Emulator support will come in future updates when they're ready. A public repository is now available. https://twitter.com/dariosamo/status/1789049137729515533
  • Recompilation: An Incredible New Way to Keep N64 Games Alive [11:13] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywWwUuWRgsM&feature=youtu.be
• Germany may introduce conscription for all 18-year-olds as it looks to boost its troop numbers in the face of Russian military aggression https://old.reddit.com/worldnews/comments/1cpg9bw/germany_may_introduce_conscription_for_all/
  
  • So, in the past ~2 months these things happened: 1. Baltic countries (and now Poland) started working on defensive line along Russian and Belarus borders 2. France started openly speaking about sending troops to Ukraine for "training" (that's how US started sending troops to Vietnam, and how Russia started sending troops to Korea) 3. And now Germany wants to conscript EVERY kid from high school, both men and women. Yeah... Do they have some super critical intel on Russian plans?
  • Let’s not forget that House Speaker Mike Johnson risked his career to send $61 billion in aid to Ukraine. He was one of the first House members to vote against Ukraine aid after the 2022 invasion. But, as Speaker, he pushed for the aid heavily. And he specifically said his change in opinion came from meeting with US Intelligence Community leaders and learning why Russia needed to lose in Ukraine.
• US woman charged with concealing bleach in husband’s coffee avoids jail https://old.reddit.com/news/comments/1cpfm1s/us_woman_charged_with_concealing_bleach_in/
  

TRADE OFFER
You receive: A beautifully designed PowerPoint presentation in .pptx format, or in your preferred format (Keynote, Google Slides, Prezi etc.)

• Comes with a FREE custom template made by me (or a template that you prefer). You can add new slides that you can edit yourself and it will have the same look / feel.
• Your presentation has beautiful royalty free pictures and custom charts, graphs, diagrams and illustrations.
• The slides and assets inside it are editable and follow your branding / company guidelines.

I receive: $15 / slide or whatever your budget is lmao
TL;DR
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Price: $15 / slide or whatever your budget is lmao
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Hi, I'm Ace. I'm a presentation designer and illustrator. I have 7 years of experience in presentation design and 9 years of experience in vector illustration. Check out my portfolio (https://aecel.github.io/presentation-design/) to look at some of my past works!
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Send these to me at [sniffysloth@gmail.com](mailto:sniffysloth@gmail.com) :

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I can make vector illustrations and logos. I can also vectorize any raster image. Basically, vector illustrations have flat color, solid edges, and can scale to any size. When you zoom in or scale them up, you will not find pixels, you will find clean and sharp edges. Some artists who use this style/format are Kurzgesagt and Olly Moss. This YSK post explains it well.

I think it was all the way back in like 2018 that I first heard of NVLD, and ever since then I've known that there was a quite high chance that I might have it.
Despite knowing this though I've been for all these years quite reluctant to embrace it, or even to educate myself more about the condition, which, now, after just having at last educated myself about it quite in depth like I'd never had til now, I'm just realizing what a huge mistake it was, putting off learning about such a significant part of myself for six whole years for no reason lol
The main reason why I hadn't done it til now I think is due to the two neurodevelopmental diagnoses I already have: autism & ADHD.
There isn't even the slighest doubt in my mind that these aren't misdiagnoses but two conditions I very much have, never having contemplated the possibility that NVLD might replace any of them, so when I first learned about NVLD & about the huge overlap between its traits & features & those of both autism & ADHD, I was left quite confused honestly, wondering how the hell was I supposed to tell whether I had it or to the contrary just related to so many of its traits & features due to their huge overlap with those of my two actual official diagnoses.
This might've been completely in my head on its entirety, but I also felt like, given the extent to which the NVLD community's being constantly put in the position of having to fight for its validity as a legitimate condition, insisting again & again on how it's its own thing separate from both autism & ADHD & on how kids that actually have NVLD are misdiagnosed on a vast scale with these two more "mainstream" conditions people so often confuse NVLD with, me coming here alleging to be a triply comorbid case of autism, ADHD & NVLD (or even more than these three tbh: developmental coordination disorder, better known as dyspraxia, is another developmental condition that just like NVLD I've known for many, many years there's also a quite high chance I might have but that I've been putting off as well for all this long truly looking into for no good reason), and therefore completely blurring the lines between NVLD & the other two conditions that the NVLD community is constantly trying so hard to draw as sharply as possible, might not have been received by it in the most positive manner.
But now that I've finally educated myself in depth about the condition (and btw I appreciate the fact that, unlike the other times I did a little bit of research about the condition years ago, when most of what I was able to find centred on the NVLD features & traits that are shared as well by autism & ADHD, which as I've said left me quite confused, wondering how was I supposed to tell whether I had it or not if its features & traits were the same as those of the two conditions I already had diagnosed, now however so much of the info on NVLD available online is in fact centred on its more distinctive features & traits it doesn't share with either of the other two), it's so unequivocally apparent to me that I do in fact have NVLD.
To begin with, being gifted, autistic & an ADHD'er, I've had my IQ professionally assessed by a diverse range of different school counselors, psychologists & psychiatrists many times through my life since I was a kid, and the discrepancy between my verbal IQ & my performance IQ has always been shockingly large, the former being much higher than the latter (and again, being gifted, it isn't like my performance IQ is that low either, it's just average, so my verbal IQ is really, really high; given though how verbal intelligence is more plainly noticeable than performance intelligence, I sound more gifted than I actually am, and therefore people seemingly often get from me the erroneous impression that I'm not just gifted but highly so when the reality is that I'm "just" moderately gifted XD).
But it isn't just the huge contrast between my verbal IQ & my performance IQ why it is now glaringly clear to me that I do have NVLD, I already knew since I first learned about NVLD in like 2018 that this was very characteristic of NVLD (hence why I knew for all this long that there was a quite high chance I might have it), it's mostly having properly researched the condition for the first time & then looking now at my life & seeing how well it all lines up that's made me see it.
Grouping my NVLD features & traits by these seven domains:

• Visuospatial awareness: couldn't be more clumsy than I am, always bumping into people, stumbling into anything I possibly could, finding myself on the verge of losing my balance & falling over, not calculating well the distance between me & what is around me (furniture can sometimes be the worst when it comes to this)... the only thing I don't fully relate to when it comes to this is that sometimes I do manage to orient myself remarkably well in new enviroments, but it's purely a visuospatial memory thing, not really a visuospatial awareness one.
• Visuospatial construction: couldn't have poorer fine motor skills, didn't learn to tie my shoelaces til I was like thirteen, always have had & still have awful handwriting (to make things worse I also have essential tremor lol), have always sucked at drawing, have never understood puzzles in any way whatsoever, handcrafting sounds like the worst nightmare imaginable to me, my room & most especially my desk are always tremendously messy both due to my executive dysfunction (can you even imagine how terribly bad my executive dysfunction must be having autism, ADHD & NVLD?) but also due to the fact that I don't know where should I assemble everything...
• Visuospatial memory: can't lie, I don't really struggle with this, in fact as I've said this my visuospatial memory is quite great even, at least enough so to allow me to sometimes have remarkably good orientation in new environments despite my awful visuospatial awareness.
• Visuospatial scanning/tracking: couldn't be more terribly awful than I am at this. Have you ever played Where's Wally? / Where's Waldo? Yeah, I wouldn't be able to find him in a million years lol it also says here where I'm looking all this up "locating things in presence of clutter", but tbh even in the abscense of clutter (let alone in its presence!) I can't seem to find anything lol I can spend ten minutes searching my phone to then find it laying in plain sight with nothing obstructing its view from me, and it also says here "maneuvering in places or situations where other people or things are moving around quickly and in different directions", obviously complete nightmare, would undoubtedly manage somehow to fall over to the ground & end up dying run over by the crowd.
• Spatial estimation: yeah, no, have no idea what length does anything have, every time I dare to guesstimate anything's length everyone is like "The fuck are you saying? He's like fifty metres away from here, not ten! Are you dumb?" (imagine if I lived somewhere with the imperial system which on top of that makes much less sense & is much more arbitrary than the metric one lol).
• Three-dimensional thinking: this includes on the one hand "imagining how things will look when rotated", which is also a no, can't imagine that at all, and on the other "route finding, following directions to a location", and regarding this, my visuospatial memory as I've said is quite great even to the point of allowing me to sometimes have remarkably good orientation in new environments despite my awful visuospatial awareness, but I don't think any of this counts given the fact that that's not really three-dimensional thinking (and had I to try to orient myself exclusively using three-dimensional thinking I'd surely end up hopelessly lost in seconds).
• Interpreting information presented pictorially: yeah, also completely rubbish at this, whether it be diagrams, figures, graphs or, most especially, analog clocks. Maps however would be an exception to this. I mean, if the map in question were a city plan then no, it wouldn't be an exception either, I do suck badly at trying to orient myself with them, but I'm a complete geography nerd so I've spent an ungodly number of hours (probably many more than you're imagining) through my life obsessively looking at all kinds of maps of all kinds of places, sometimes I open Google Maps & spend a whole hour or two aimlessly wandering through its world map looking at the most random places lol so yeah I do love maps (probably in spite of my profound deficits when it comes to "interpreting information presented pictorially").

So yeah, there's no denying it, I do have NVLD lol or developmental visual spatial disorder if you will.
There're two other types of NVLD features or traits though, at least a few steps further removed from the realm of what strictly is visual spatial in nature than the features & traits I've just covered I think, but which are still often listed time after time as very characteristic of NVLD, but tbh they don't really correspond to my reality...
These are struggling on the one hand with maths & on the other with reading & listening comprehension, seeing the broader picture, pattern recognition & grasping highly advanced & complex concepts.
When it comes to maths the reason why I don't really struggle with them I think is that, at the end of the day, I'm gifted. My visual spatial intelligence is extremely low, but my mathematical intelligence & other stuff also grouped in the category of performance IQ aren't that low at all, they're just average. I do struggle though with more than a handful of things within the field of maths, and these seem in fact to correspond with what other people with NVLD tend to struggle the most with as well when it comes to maths: fractions, decimal numbers, geometry, matrices... the more "visual spatial" side of maths I guess, but there's also a more "logical" side to maths centred around applying reasoning to a certain problem that's been laid out, and this latter more "logical" side of maths I've always been quite talented at & fond of tbh.
When it comes to reading & listening comprehension, seeing the broader picture, pattern recognition & grasping highly advanced & complex concepts, giftedness must also be I suppose part of the reason as well why I don't really struggle with any of this, but tbh I think it's even more of an autism thing: both autistic people & people with NVLD are characterized as being very detailed oriented, but whereas people with NVLD seemingly struggle really badly with seeing the broader picture (which I suppose is also what leads to difficulty grasping highly advanced & complex concepts & with reading & listening comprehension), this isn't the case with autistic people, who, rather than characterized as way too lost in the little details to see the broader picture, are often described as bottom-up thinkers (as opposed to allistic, that is, non-autistic, people, who seemingly are top-down thinkers in the overwhelming majority of cases). As bottom-up thinkers, the details are always what we first take in when we begin processing whatever we might or might not be tackling, but unlike with people with NVLD this isn't at all a "can't see the forest for the trees" situation, quite the contrary, we make sense of the forest by first understanding the trees individually, then how are they linked to the others, how do they interact & finally how does that network of trees function together as a broader system, hence understanding the forest. People with NVLD seemingly also struggle as well with pattern recognition, which ironically is known for for being one of the greatest autistic strengths, and which I also think is most likely precisely why despite being just as much detailed oriented as people with NVLD, autistic people seemingly struggle much less with seeing the broader picture: we first examine the details, then start recognizing the patterns that these details form, and from there keep moving upper & upper to increasingly wider patterns til it is from an ample enough scale to grasp the broader picture that the analysis is being made. So yeah, when it comes to this I definitely identify much more with my autistic than with my NVLD side lol

I think some people are increasing their latency due to confusion about the new Reflex low latency mode in RTSS (software that MSI Afterburner uses). It has to do with how the Reflex setting in a game automatically limits the framerate for you, but the Reflex mode in RTSS evidently doesn't.
For reasons explained by blurbusters in this article, the lowest latency way to play without screen tearing is to limit your framerate just below your monitor's max refresh rate (e.g., 58 fps on a 60 hz monitor or 117 fps on a 120 hz monitor), then turn on gsync and vsync in the Nvidia app (or control panel). This framerate limiting can have a major reduction in latency (see the graphs on page 5 in the above blurbusters article). This is relevant to Nvidia Reflex because it automatically does this framerate limiting for you when you turn that setting on in game (or turn on DLSS frame generation, which uses Reflex). For this reason, it's recommended to turn off other framerate limiters when turning on Reflex (or DLSS frame generation).
This brings me to the new Reflex mode in RTSS that was added in version 7.3.5. It evidently does not automatically limit your framerate just below your monitor's refresh rate. Unlike Reflex low latency mode in a game's settings, you need to set a hard fps limit to get it to do this. If you're not doing this because you think it should work like Reflex when enabled in a game's settings, you may be greatly increasing your latency.
I recently tested this in Returnal on my 120 hz monitor on a gpu (4090) that doesn't have a problem hitting 120+ fps in that game with frame generation and ray tracing off, and DLSS set to quality. Using the overlay that comes with the Nvidia app to measure latency, I tested 3 scenarios (all with gsync and vsync enabled in the Nvidia app, and with RTSS set to use Reflex rather than the previous asych setting):

• In-game Reflex setting on, RTSS framerate limiter off (set to 0): I got ~117 fps output, and Nvidia's overlay reported ~18-20 ms latency.
  
• In-game Reflex setting off, RTSS framerate limiter off (set to 0): I got 120 fps output, and Nvidia's overlay reported ~50 ms latency!
  
• In-game Reflex setting off, RTSS framerate limiter set to 177: I got 117 fps output, and Nvidia's overlay reported ~20 ms latency.
  

That's ~30 ms of added latency from not capping framerate, which I suspect that many people have been doing due to confusion since this new Reflex mode has been added. This new mode is cool. It is compatible with DLSS frame generation, which may be useful if you want to further limit your framerate to reduce power draw or to give you more CPU headroom (which I suspect could lessen certain CPU related stutter). However, it evidently won't automatically limit the framerate for you.
Plus, being on RTSS 7.3.5 or later does not automatically enable Reflex, which is currently not the default (async is). You have to go in the settings to enable it, which most people probably haven't done.

DISCLAIMER: I'd like to note that I do not consider myself an expert on many of the topics he talks about or even economics in general but a lot of what I'm about to say is pretty easily verifiable and basic, and I'll try to be clear that I'm expressing my opinion and not fact when I'm doing so. Given my lack of expertise, none of what I say here should be considered as the final authority on these topics, it's a reddit post for fucks sake, I encourage everyone to search up the relevant data and information on the topics they are interested in or claims they find dubious. It's really not that hard and all the links and data I'm gonna cite here took me less than five minutes to find for each piece of information. If you're not familiar with where to find this data it might take you longer but I promise that anyone with access to the internet can do the same thing I'm doing. Finally, for those looking for some opinionless, academic argument, that's not what this is, this is gonna sound like a rant because it is, I'm posting this for nothing more than my own satisfaction, take from it what you will.
Ok I'm writing this after I finished the whole thing and I said that I'd try to be clear that I'm expressing my opinion and not fact when I'm doing so and the basically entire second half of this is my opinion and I don't make that very clear so sorry about that.
Honestly I'd love to be wrong because I really do think that younger people are at a disadvantage compared to previous generations at the same age but the arguments he makes and the data he uses throughout his talk just sound like such bullshit to me.
https://www.ted.com/talks/scott\_galloway\_how\_the\_us\_is\_destroying\_young\_people\_s\_future?
https://www.profgalloway.com/war-on-the-young/
Scott Galloway recently did a Ted talk titled "How the US is destroying young people's future", as well as an accompanying blog post. He's made some fair points about how young people have been put at an inherent disadvantage and that they have it harder than previous generations. That's most likely true and I personally support that point of view, but the a lot data and numbers he makes this argument with seem to be cherry picked, misleading, or just straight up wrong. So let's break his talk down. u/JustTaxLandLol made a pretty good post about him comparing median wages to the S&P500 (https://www.reddit.com/badeconomics/comments/1cc3rs8/scott\_galloway\_compares\_median\_wage\_to\_sp500/) but I think that Galloway's mistakes are much more comprehensive than just that particular slide.
The first slide with data makes a claim about how pre-tax income, adjusted for inflation, has decreased across generations from grandparents to parents to kids, and that cost of public colleges and home prices have increased significantly across generations too. First of all, categorising generations by whether they have children or grandchildren is kinda nuts. That's a very wide, overlapping, range of ages. If he has actually fixed age ranges for each generation that don't overlap and just made these categorisations for the sake of understandability to a nonacademic audience, I still think that's the wrong choice but fine. However, his claim that real income has decreased across generations is weak at best. This working paper (https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/feds/files/2024007pap.pdf) from the Fed Reserve was published February 2024, and from the figures that start at page 35, shows that by almost every categorisation they could think of, GenZ earns more at the same age than every previous generation before them. There's some conflict here with Raj Chetty's work but I don't have the time or knowledge to reconcile the two perspectives but at best, the pre-tax income numbers Galloway presents are questionable at best. Furthermore, he doesn't provide anyone a chance at even checking the sources he gets this information from. Not once in his entire talk does he cite a single source. He couldn't even have some tiny text at the bottom of his tables or diagrams saying what organisation he got this data from. Ok so that crossed out bit is wrong, he does have sources they're just very very faint and you can see them if you squint hard enough at the bottom left corner of his graphs. But the source he gives for this slide is a joke. Here's the link https://www.profgalloway.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Table-01.png
His "source" is his own analysis. Ok so by his analysis, the average cost of public college is 56000*0.43 = 24080. I'm gonna use numbers from this US News page (https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/paying-for-college-infographic), which might not be the most reliable source in the world, but it's probably somewhere in the ballpark. So according to US News, average tuition for the 2023-2024 school year for out of state students going to a public school is 23,630 and 10,662 for in state students. If these numbers are anywhere near accurate, the only conclusion I can draw is that Galloway has cherry-picked his data by only including the cost for out of state students in his analysis. First of all, public schools in the US are there to provide affordable access to higher education FOR RESIDENTS OF ITS STATE. Using only out of state numbers is absolutely ridiculous. Secondly, even if he used only the in state numbers, 10662/56000 is approximately equal to 19%. So if I use his very very questionable pre-tax income numbers, cost of public college for in state students has still increased across his categorisation of generations. It's not like his point would have been invalidated if he had used the in-state numbers, a trend of tuition increasing as a percentage of real income across multiple generations is still very bad. This is my opinion but I guess that he just wanted to find a nice shocking number. I didn't catch this but in their post, u/JustTaxLandLol notes that later on Galloway says "real median income from labor is up 40% since 1974" so he's also contradicting himself in the same talk.
I couldn't be bothered to look into the house price to income column he has so I don't have any comments on that.
His next slide is a point about how the percentage of 30 year olds earning more than their parents did at 30 has been decreasing very significantly over time. This is from a paper in 2016 by Raj Chetty (link: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aal4617). I've seen some counterarguments about the methods used in the paper but there are counterarguments for basically every inequality paper in existence so I'd take them with a grain of salt. Those points are more complex than the scope of this post and I lack the expertise to be making them anyways so I believe this slide. I'll admit that Galloway makes a good argument for this slide.
Right after this slide he says "As a result, people over the age of 55 feel pretty good about America, but less than one in five people under the age of 34 feel very good about America. This creates an incendiary, righteous movement...". He supports this with data on the percentage of US adults who feel "extremely proud" to be American.
Before I talk about the data on this slide, I'd like to be a little anal about things and pick apart his wording and causal claims he makes. When Galloway says "as a result" he's making a causal claim about the relationship between a young person's earning ability and their national pride. Leaving aside the econometric issues of making random causal claims, this is a ridiculous marginalisation of all the other critically important issues in the US. It seems pretty clear to me that reduced national pride amongst younger individuals is a combination of a lack of social mobility (or however you want to word your version of the fading American dream), the continued existence of systematic racism and sexism, US response to ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, bodily autonomy (abortion), and many other issues. Not to say that the economic disadvantages of young people doesn't play a role in causing this lack of national pride but come on. He also says "this creates an incendiary righteous movement...". Ok if the "as a result" from the last sentence could be interpreted as the economic disadvantages of young people play some part in their dissatisfaction with the government, it should be obvious to anyone not living under a rock that many of the political conflicts and movements that have erupted in the US over the past few years have little, if anything, to do with earning ability. In the slide after the poll data he shows three photos, one of a MeToo protest, one of a BLM protest, and another of a pro-Palestine protest. I can only interpret this as him making the claim that the younger generations economic difficulties are causally linked to those movements, which is totally bananas.
Now lets talk about the data. He got this from the Gallup polls (link: https://news.gallup.com/poll/394202/record-low-extremely-proud-american.aspx, there's a link to download the pdf with the poll numbers at the end of this article). There are 5 options for the Gallup poll: "Extremely proud"; "Very proud"; "Moderately proud"; "Only a little proud"; or "Not at all proud". So Galloway is cherry-picking again. To be fair, it's true that even including the rest of the answers, a quick glance at the data suggests (very strongly) that young people are less proud than older people. There are also more young people who choose "Not at all proud" (11% for 18-34 and 1% for 55+). Though there is probably some argument to be made about whether "extreme" pride is a good thing. Furthermore, "pretty good" and "very good" do not reflect the extremity of choosing, well, the most extreme option.
As an introduction to his next slide he says that "a decent proxy for how much we value youth labor is minimum wage". I've never heard of this before and am very very skeptical but I'm willing to attribute this to my own ignorance so I'll leave that sentence alone. So on this slide there's a graph with two lines, one is minimum wage across time adjusted for inflation, the other is whats supposed to be minimum wage if adjusted for productivity (also adjusted to inflation I assume). Galloway got this data form the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) (https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/), which shows that this gap between productivity began around 1979. This was when Carter was president and right before the Reagan administration. Those who know about the economic history of this time probably won't be surprised since a lot of the policies of this time were rather inegalitarian and heavily favoured the wealthy. I agree that many of the policies of the time contributed heavily to the inequality America faces today and though I haven't read any studies about how this affects minimum wage workers, I believe that minimum wage workers or low income workers in general today have significantly lower purchasing power relative to a few decades ago.
What I have a problem with here is the idea that productivity and minimum wage should increase in tandem. According to the EPI, "Productivity measures how much total economywide income is generated (i.e., for workers, business owners, landlords, and everybody else together) in an average hour of work" and "pay is defined as the average compensation (wages and benefits) of production and nonsupervisory workers. The pay for this group is one appropriate benchmark for 'typical worker pay' because production and nonsupervisory workers have made up roughly 80% of the U.S. workforce over the entire period shown in the figure and because the data for production and nonsupervisory workers exclude extremely highly paid managerial workers like CEOs and other corporate executives". Before I try to break down my complaints with the measures used, my immediate reaction when I saw this was that it seems rather stupid to compare the relationship between average productivity and minimum wage in an industrial economy against the same relationship in a service oriented one. There are just more jobs now that let you make an impact on the economy far beyond what you are paid and it is so so difficult to quantify this change. Using a similar argument, I really have no clue how macro people make models or do estimates for things like productivity but I'm quite skeptical about the reliability of using such a measure of productivity because of the increased prevalence of second, third, or n-th order effects that would be present in a measure of something like total gdp but pretty much impossible to identify for any employer. For those who want to read more about this difference between productivity and compensation I think this is the most relevant paper from EPI (https://files.epi.org/2015/understanding-productivity-pay-divergence-final.pdf). There are some points I'm not satisfied with in this paper like them attributing the entirety of the difference between median hourly compensation to average consumer hourly compensation but that would take more time than I want to spend on this.
Now we're still on the same slide. Galloway says "we've kept it [minimum wage] purposely pretty low" twice in three sentences. Now he's suggesting that there's some collective out there that has the political power and desire to keep minimum wage low. By "we" I think he means to suggest that the old-timers have banded together to screw the young people over. Ok buddy. I'm stepping outside the bounds of what's considered strictly economics here a little but pinning the injustices of society on some ethereal enemy whose existence can never be disproven is the same as taking "advantage of the flaws in our species with medieval institutions, Paleolithic instincts, and godlike technology" (Galloway's words, same TED talk) to me. Maybe there really is some cabal of scheming geezers out there who have some twisted desire to keep the minimum wage low, but I'm more inclined to believe that a lot of these "injustices" are a result of our existing political and societal institutions being poor and inefficient aggregators of our desires as a society, rewarding selfishness instead of cooperation. This certainly makes the problem harder to solve than if there were just some evil 'others' we could get rid of and be done with. Having a target to direct our outrage at, believing that I am good and they are bad, is easier than facing the reality that everyone is born with the selfishness that creates the injustices we live with but that's not gonna make people more agreeable. As an economist, I study the theory of incentives to use the same human selfishness that creates all the problems Galloway talks about to create solutions that hopefully improve our quality of life. This is what I believe is the beauty of being human, all the good and bad that happens stem from the same desires, it is our job to create institutions and systems that allow us to channel our desires in a way that benefits everyone, but I digress. The point is, this enemy that Galloway creates is an effective tactic at convincing people of his argument, but I don't believe such a perspective benefits society at all. Mistakes should be corrected, that doesn't mean they're always the result of ill intentions.
His next slide compares the difference between percentage increase in median household income against percentage increase in median home price, as well as a comparison of the median monthly mortgage between 2019 and 2024. I have nothing to say about the graph, I agree that over time, home prices have increased to an unacceptable level. The Fed funds rate went from 2.4 percent in Feb 2019 to 5.33 percent in Feb 2024 (https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/fedfunds). To his credit, Galloway does attribute this increase in mortgage payments to "an acceleration in interest rates" but what's the alternative? Don't increase interest rates? Then if I was Galloway I'd make the same TED talk and talk about how the continued low interest rates contributed to rampant inflation that made all the poor people even poorer. It seems like he's decided to take whatever bad economic event that seems somewhat relevant and made it to be the result of some group's dogged determination to keep the younger generation down. Why is the increase from pre- to post-covid prices on anything surprising. I'd like to meet the genius who saw covid coming and intentionally created this increase in home prices.
He also says "the most expensive homes in the world, based on this metric, are number three, Vancouver. Why? Because 60 percent of the cost of building a home goes to permits...". I have no idea what point he's making here. Based on what metric, median home price? Monthly mortgage payments? Why do I care about Vancouver, a Canadian city, being number three? Then he talks about how "the incumbents that own assets have weaponized government". Either he's switched to talking about oligopolistic lobbyists in general without saying so or he's still talking about Canada. I dunno. Someone please explain. Then he says "this is the transfer I'm going to be speaking about". Also, everything he just said is talking about how there exists a group of people trying to PREVENT transfers of wealth to new entrants. And there was huge applause after that sentence. Nutsos, all of them.
Ok next slide. Galloway presents two pie charts, comparing the share of household wealth by age in 1989 to 2023. So he's talking directly about inequality in wealth now. Inequality in the US is really really bad, that's a fact. I'm a big fan of the work of Emmanuel Saez, Gabriel Zucman, and Thomas Piketty. These people have been at the forefront of research on inequality for many years now and though their work is not flawless, I'm convinced by the data they present and the methods by which they have aggregated the data and what they show is that inequality is worse than even what the pie charts Galloway presents suggest. However, this is not to say that Galloway makes a valid argument. Please note the grey bits in the pie chart. If Galloway has shown the numbers for everyone under 40 and above 70, the group that's excluded are those between 40 and 70. So those in the age range of 40-70 owned 100 - 19 - 12 = 69% of household wealth in 1989 and 100 - 30 - 7 = 63% in 2023. I could probably go and find how the age demographics of the population have changed over time and I think that with declining birth rates, the percentage change in age demographics would be pretty close to the percentage change in household wealth but I'm tired of beating every slide to death so I'll leave that to someone else if anyone's motivated enough to do that (if my hypothesis is wrong here just comment and I'll make that change). My first thought when I saw this though was again, this guy has paid no regard to structural change in society. Given the increased accessibility of buying stocks over the past three decades is it really that surprising that older people who have had more time and cash at the start of the digital age to invest in companies that are now massive mega-corporations have experienced a higher return on their capital. This is not to say that none of this change in the share of wealth held by those under 40 is due to some inherent unfairness in our society and I have neither the time nor knowledge to separate these effects out but to say that this was a "purposeful" effort to cut their wealth in half is complete and utter bullshit. Also, this guy makes another causal claim WITH NOTHING BUT A CHANGE IN SHARE OF HOUSEHOLD WEALTH. Congratulations everyone Scott Galloway has just made every econometrician in the world redundant, I always knew my professors were just trying to confuse me with funny symbols and Greek letters, someone get this guy a Nobel Prize.
Then while introducing his next slide Galloway says that his analyst's presence in the audience "brings the average age of the entire conference down in 11 days". So he's saying that TED knows exactly who's showing up to their event before it happens and that they have the exact birthdates of everyone in the audience too and that they've given this information to one of their speakers. A friend of mine has told me he's just making a joke and that I should let this point go because I'm being too anal about things but yeah I become anal about things when someone suggests sweeping institutional changes in a talk viewed by millions of people so thought I'd include it anyways just as another example of the bullshit this guy has been spewing.
When he moves on to the actual content in the slide the first point he makes is about lower acceptance rates in schools. So I don't have data on this because I couldn't be bothered to go find any so again, I'll change my statement if anyone has reliable data indicating otherwise but I think its pretty safe to say that way less people used to apply than before and combined with an increase in international student applications and enrollments the competition is just way higher than before. The most obvious explanation would be that higher education institutions have made the mistake of not increasing enrollments at a rate quick enough to meet demand. However, according to US News (https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/how-many-universities-are-in-the-us-and-why-that-number-is-changing) there were 3982 degree-granting postsecondary institutions in the US. and UCLA is ranked 15th in national universities. So why is it surprising now that university education is becoming more popular that higher ranked universities are harder to get into. So instead of expanding enrollment I think that a well thought out plan of affirmative action would be a much better option of giving "unremarkable kids and giving them a shot at being remarkable" (what this well thought out plan may be I don't know, I honestly didn't even search up any statistics about affirmative action this was just the first solution I thought of that didn't involve ignoring the crowning achievement of statistics). To his credit, Galloway does include a point about income-based affirmative action at the end of his talk, though he overwhelmingly emphasises increasing enrollment in schools. I don't have any data about that but I think that class sizes at public universities are large enough as it is.
The rest of the slide gives numbers on college debt of house price compared to first year income. College debt is ridiculously high and many people struggle because of it. I don't have the solution and neither does Galloway because he doesn't really mention it. I think that house price-to-first year income is a poor comparison because it doesn't take into account average rate of income increase and no normal person from any generation is looking to buy a house with first year income but there's probably a more appropriate metric out there that shows a similar change anyways so I'm ok with that.
Then he talks about him and his "colleagues" who "artificially constrain supply to create aspiration and scarcity". I would like to meet the professors who have control over enrollment rates because none of mine did. Then he says "to my colleagues in higher ed: we're public servants, not fucking Chanel bags". The marketing professor from NYU says he's a public servant...ok.
The slide after that compares Harvard's increase in endowment compared to their increase in enrollment and he calls them a "hedge fund offering classes". I see no issue with this point, he made a great argument, can't really criticise anything here.
Don't worry though he makes up for it by immediately making one of the most egregious statements in this whole talk. We're looking at his next slide, the one titled "Grand Bargain" now. He says that the government should take some of the money that's supposed to be used to forgive existing loans to about 500 of the top public universities to reduce tuition by 2% and year, expand enrollments by 6% a year, and increase vocational programs to 20% of the degrees granted. Then the slide after that, claims this will double freshman seats and cut costs in half in just 10 years. Ok so he thinks that most of the money "earmarked to bail out the one third of people that got to go to college on the backs of the two thirds that didn't" should go to future students instead because, I assume from the tone of his words, he doesn't think they need or deserve all that loan forgiveness. So why bring up the increase in college debt previously (the slide I talked about three paragraphs ago)? Anyways that's not the crazy thing. Let's see what happens if you reduce tuition by 2% a year for 10 years. So the calculation goes like this 0.98^{10} is approximately equal to 0.81. So with the number he puts up, tuition decreases by 19% in ten years. If everything before this slide could be attributed to cherry-picking, stupidity, or lack of good data, then fine he's just ignorant even though he shouldn't have been if he went up there to make that talk. But now this is just a FUCKING BAREFACED LIE. I cannot think of a greater insult to the audience's intelligence than the fact that this guy didn't think anyone would pull out a fucking calculator and do the calculation themselves. I won't blame the audience for not saying anything because I'm not sure I would have wanted to do that either but at least from youtube and reddit comments there are a decent number of people who didn't realise this. A similar calculation shows that expanding enrollment by 6% per year increases seats by about 80% total (1.06^{10}). Not sure how that translates in terms of freshman seats but at least this is closer than the tuition claim.
Then his next slide compares wages to the s&p500. This is the point of u/JustTaxLandLol's post and I think his post and the discussion in the comments covers most if not all of my thoughts so you can just read that. https://www.reddit.com/badeconomics/comments/1cc3rs8/scott_galloway_compares_median_wage_to_sp500/
Ok next slide, "The Transfer: Purposeful". Oh yay he's about to make another causal claim with nothing but a graph on the change in top marginal tax rates for corporations and individuals. And if we skip ahead to the next slide we'll realise that this claim is that the gradual decrease in top marginal tax rates for corporations and individuals results in lowered senior poverty and child poverty either remains constant or increases. Yes everybody the newest advancement in economic research has just been released. Lowering top tax rates decreases senior poverty and increases child poverty. And Scott Galloway made that argument in 24 seconds (transcript on TED website has time markers).
Man I really set out with the intention to keep the tone of this post as neutral as I could but I'm just writing out my internal dialogue with less swearing now. I apologise to those who would have preferred a more careful and less emotional knee-jerk response of an analysis but this is a reddit post, its not like there are standards.
Now he moves on to talking about social security. Galloway says "it would cost 11 billion dollars to expand the child tax credit. But that gets stripped out of the infrastructure bill". So zero explanation about why it would cost 11 billion dollars to expand the child tax credit, why not more or less, no comment about how many children it would affect, how much money it would mean for each child or family, just some number that you have to accept. Most of the time there's no why to the amount of funding that the government allocates to policies but at least there's some breakdown to how its going to be used, Galloway doesn't even have that. This is before we even consider the fact that child tax credit was expanded this year (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/child-tax-credit-2024-who-qualifies/). Maybe he's talking about some other issue that I'm not aware of but I don't think so. He says he got the social security spending data from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which is a think tank. I don't want to sort through their website to fact check so I'll accept it as the truth but as far as I know the actual social security administration releases their facts and figures for the year August of next year so I'm not sure why he didn't just use the 2022 numbers from a more reliable source.
His next few couple slides are about the increasing age of politicians. I think this is a great point but he probably should have used a better example of a younger politician than Justin Trudeau.
Then at around the 10 minute mark, using his slide titled "Generational Theft", Galloway claims that "we pumped the economy" during covid so that the Nasdaq would gain value, causing "intergenerational theft". I don't know if he thinks it was intentional or not but how is he going to completely ignore the fact that the stimulus checks were primarily for households that were struggling due to the greatest unemployment rate we have seen in our lifetime (https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/06/11/unemployment-rose-higher-in-three-months-of-covid-19-than-it-did-in-two-years-of-the-great-recession/). I'm really kind of tired of this so I'll let those at the CBR make my argument for me. "Within the first 10 days, households spent an average of 29 cents from every dollar received. The bulk of this spending was on food, rent, and bills" (https://www.chicagobooth.edu/review/how-effective-were-stimulus-checks-us). Damn so turns out struggling families did need these stimulus checks pretty urgently. Shocker. I also think that most people in finance would agree that tech stocks surged over covid because people needed fucking technology... People built PCs to play video games, used online shopping services because they couldn't go to malls, all that.
The next slide is supposed to support his point that the increase in stock prices doesn't allow young people to find "disruption". What. The only thing that matters to any investor is the percentage increase in value of the stock price after you've invested. It doesn't matter if 7 dollars is 1 share of apple or 0.04 of a share of apple. Its stock price going up by 100% means you get 14 dollars either way. I think this guy's arguments are getting dumber as the talk goes on, I actually had to go and find data to refute his points earlier on. Now arithmetic does the work for me, I should have hired a grade schooler to do my analysis.
His next point is about how algorithmic content selection is bad. Yeah its bad. Its bad for everyone, turns everyone into psychos. Though I think there's a very good argument to be made about how such content could affect developing brains. He makes a point about age-gating social media at the end of the talk. This is actually the only drastic measure he proposes that I agree with so I'll leave this alone too.
After a couple slides about Zuckerberg and TikTok (which I agree with, though I think Zuckerberg's damage probably leans more towards older people than young now), he gives a bunch of graphs showing upward trends in all sorts of terrible things happening to young people. Every single one is an issue of critical importance in the US, but importantly, no comparison to older people. For all we know, the trend on every graph could be the same or even worse for older generations. If I had written about this first then I'd go and find the data for it but at this point I just want to be done with this but can't stop without getting to the end so I'm just gonna slap this slide with lack of comparisons and move on.
His next slide shows the difference in 30 to 34 year olds who have at least one child, some of that is probably due to family planning but I still think its a great indicator of people not wanting to have children because its not affordable. Great point, I believe in it.
Next slide, oh god it's a happiness report. I think happiness reports are a fun conversational tidbit but I see no way for it to be reliable enough to be used as an argument in any semi-serious setting. That said, I have no idea how they do these measurements so maybe I'm wrong.
As if the happiness report wasn't bad enough, Galloway is gonna compare the biggest one-day market cap gain (in an unspecified time frame) to the budget of several policies implemented by the government. Oh man. This is too stupid, there's so many things to pick from it'd take too much effort to sort through them. Someone else please make the argument for me.
Then he says universal basic income should have been called negative income tax. Wow the frequency of good points is going up, though I think this is accompanied by an increase in the frequency of absolutely idiotic arguments.
Then he says we should eliminate capital gains tax deduction. The issue of taxing capital gains is a very serious one, but I don't think it actually matters that much how much we tax realised capital gains. Again, not an expert but here's my understanding. If you have a high net worth with a lot of it in stocks and you need cash, you don't have to sell them and get taxed on the realised gains. You go to the bank and say I want to borrow money, I'm going to put these stocks up as collateral so if I can't pay you back you can take these stocks which are somewhere around the value of the principal amount plus total interest over the course of this loan. Because the bank is now convinced they'll get the money back regardless of if you make the payments or not, they say ok here's the money you asked for at a nice low interest rate. Then you take the money, you keep your stocks, which will probably gain value at a rate that exceeds the interest rate by a pretty decent margin, and you can probably make your interest payments pretty easily because hey, you were rich to begin with. If you're really strapped for cash a couple years down the line, you can sell some of the stocks that are now worth more than they were before and cover your payments and not have to pay taxes on the rest that you don't have to sell. Free money. There's plenty more ways to avoid taxes if you're rich but you get my point by now. Now that's a lot of problems without a solution. Luckily we have some economists far more skilled than I am who work very hard to find solutions to these problems. Here's one example of a policy that may help (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/05/03/opinion/global-billionaires-tax.html). This is an opinion piece written by Gabriel Zucman (famous economist), for the New York Times. If you don't have an NYT subscription, sorry for giving a link you can't read but if you search Gabriel Zucman billionaire tax, you could probably get a decent idea of what this talks about. Here's Zucman tweeting his proposal for his suggestion (https://twitter.com/gabriel\_zucman/status/1763253132572729623). It probably requires a little more thinking than the NYT article but he did present this at the G20 so that might sound more exciting to you than some news article.
Then Galloway says "we need to remove 230 protection for all algorithmically-elevated content". Zero mention on what 230 protection is so here's an explanation (https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/230). Basically that was a fancy way of saying that companies should be held accountable of the content on their platform, even if it's posted by an unrelated third party. I'm not sure getting rid of it in its entirety is a great idea (though I have no arguments against that except Orwellian ones) but I certainly agree that most if not all social media platforms have abused this protection and it should be at the very least restricted. To what extent? Again, I have no clue.
Then he goes "break up Big Tech". That's the whole suggestion. This is a terrible idea but the fact that he doesn't elaborate more on how to do this, the ramifications of doing so, or really provide any explanation at all makes me automatically ignore this. Then he makes his point about age-gating social media, like I said before, I agree with it.
His next suggestions are universal pre-K, great idea, then "reinstate the expanded child-tax credit". Not sure what he's going on about here, child tax credit exists and like I said before, was just expanded. Then it's income-based affirmative action. I don't know what kind of affirmative action is best and that sounds like an interesting idea so I won't criticise it. I think the rest of his suggestions are pretty normative arguments so I'll leave those alone too.
Don't get me wrong, I wholeheartedly agree with the overall theme of his talk. I believe that young people in the US (and many places worldwide) are at a massive disadvantage when it comes to accumulating wealth, buying homes, inter-generational transfers, etc. But you cannot go up on a popular platform like this, make claims as sweeping as he has, and make suggestions as radical and drastic as he has, with garbage arguments and data like this. Saying the right things for the wrong reasons is arguably worse than just saying the wrong thing because it makes it easy for those who want the status quo to remain to make counterarguments. Given how divisive opinions have become over the past decade or so I guess I shouldn't be surprised at how many people are eating this up but it kinda scares me how easily people will eat up this shit as long as its for a cause that sounds like its going for some kind of radical change for the good of all and has some imaginary "them" as the common enemy to everyone.
So that's it, I've finally covered all his points. I'm free, thank fuck. I should really proofread this but this has been my past eight hours and my back is breaking from all this sitting, I'm just gonna post this and read it over tomorrow. Maybe do a tl;dr, fix some formatting.
EDIT: As u/myphriendmike and u/Mordoci have pointed out, my dummy corp example was just tax fraud, that's illegal and so it's a bad example, I've removed it. Zucman has some estimates on the "real" tax rate wealthy people (mostly billionaires) pay, maybe I'll include that at some point.
I also corrected my wording in some places.

• Meet the Kyanah -- the alien civilization I've been working on since 2016
• A Primer on Kyanah Physiology
• Aliens Deserve Alien Brains
• A Primer on Kyanah Pack Dynamics
• Advanced Kyanah Psychology: Inter-Pack Dynamics
• The Motives for Project Hope: Part I
• The Motives for Project Hope: Part II
• The Motives for Project Hope: Part III
• The Motives for Project Hope: Part IV
• The Motives for Project Hope: Part V
• Intro to Kyanah Politics
• An (abridged) Beastiary of the Kyanah Homeworld
• Plantlife of the Kyanah Homeworld
• An Analysis of Kyanah Military Forces: Part I -- Tech
• An Analysis of Kyanah Military Forces: Part II -- Organizational Structure
• An Analysis of Kyanah Military Forces: Part III -- Military Doctrine
• Alien Computers Are Alien
• Alien Computers Are Alien -- Part II: Kyanah-Human Cyberwarfare
• Alien Computers Are Alien -- Part III: A Guide to Kyanah Internets
• A Look Into the Kyanah Education System
• A Rare Look at Kyanah Living Spaces
• A Primer on Kyanah Economics
• Kyanah Food and Drink
• The Kyanah Have A Desert Planet -- Wait No It Has 12 Biomes: Part I
• The Kyanah Have A Desert Planet -- Wait No It Has 12 Biomes: Part II
• Kyanah City-State Dynamics: Part I -- Intercity Relations
• Kyanah City-State Dynamics: Part II -- City-State Demographics
• A Map of the Kyanah Homeworld: Part I
• Some Notes on Kyanah Timekeeping
• Profiles of Kyanah City States: Part I -- the Rktakian Kwardniet
• Profiles of Kyanah City States: Part II -- the Far South
• Profiles of Kyanah City States: Part III -- Everywhere Else

As was (maybe) previously stated, Kyanah don't have distinct languages with specific labels, yet this does not mean that they all share a common language. The vernacular tends to differ slightly from city-state to city-state; in the next city-state over, there might only be a few small spelling and pronunciation changes or some differences in handling obscure grammatical edge cases, but as one goes further and further away, the differences quickly accumulate. In most regions of the world, it's possible to understand the language up to a few hundred kilometers away from one's home city-state without dedicated study, but there's no hard-and-fast boundary where one language "ends" and another "begins". For this reason, linguistic aptitude is not a function of how many languages a particular Kyanah knows, but how large of an area they can make themselves understood in. Many of the specific vocabulary and grammatical structures used in Ikun are understood by educated Kyanah in other parts of the world, and tend to be used in settings where packs from many different regions of the world, with few or no linguistic features in common, must communicate, such as science or diplomacy. Due to Ikun's soft power and large-scale internet footprint, this is especially common in Net Zone 1; most but not all online content from this region is at least somewhat understandable to Kyanah from Ikun.
Notably, Kyanah have a syrinx rather than a larynx, meaning that their spoken languages are not pronounceable by humans and they also generally cannot pronounce human languages. Their typical vocalizations tend to sound like a mixture of rapid-fire grunts, hisses and chirps or screeches, which can vary considerably in pitch and cadence--not too dissimilar from how small theropods are believed to have sounded. Various low-pitched bellows and roars appear to be used in the same manner as shouting, being used to be heard across long distances, draw attention, or express anger. Naturally, this has presented considerable difficulties in translating proper nouns. With nothing else to go on, they have been forced to simply do a one-to-one replacement of the characters in their proper nouns with those in the Latin alphabet that most closely resemble them; humans have altered the conversion charts slightly in order to produce more consistently coherent and pronounceable results. Thus, for instance, the label "Kyanah" is simply a human construct and sounds absolutely nothing like what they call their species in their (as in, the soldiers from Ikun city-state) own spoken language. Actual communication between species was initially done through ad hoc gesticulation and amalgamations of human and Kyanah sign languages, which was gradually formalized in the first few years of the invasion, as well as occasionally communicating through writing or drawing when practical. By the end of the war, reliable inter-species machine translation and text-to-speech software would be developed, and in the subsequent years, this would advance to BCI devices that could generate speech in real-time, although not particularly reliable. Interestingly, even Kyanah who have a high base vocabulary of human words seem to struggle significantly with things like modifiers and word ordering, as their own languages tend to handle them in a radically different fashion.
For instance, over 95% of Kyanah writing systems organize words into binary trees rather than linear sentences, with children being semantically related to parents (e.g. subject and object, modifier and modified etc.). Linear scripts, while not unheard of, tend to be rare and associated with more primitive cultures, regardless of whether they're left to right, right to left, or top to bottom. It generally is not particularly important which words are the parent, left child, and right child; the writer chooses in order to optimize the aesthetics of their sentence-trees or place emphasis on a particular word. The nature of the semantic relationship between parents and children in the sentence-trees is denoted not by words comprised of characters, but by special markings called decorators, which in spoken language are expressed using subtle variations in tone, cadence, and volume, while in written language, they take the form of different types of lines between parent and child words. In most languages, decorators are also used for such things as prepositions, conjunctions, and tenses instead of using actual words for such things, resulting in all words referring to specific things or concepts, instead of having glue words that tie together other words or word groups like many human languages do. For instance, "You are eating", "You ate", "You will eat", "Are you eating?", and "Eat" (as an imperative command) all use the exact same words, with the difference lying in the decorators (or the tone/cadence/volume variations if spoken). It gets wilder, in Ikun, "Are the nyrud or the tyukrud in the field?" and "The nyrud and the tyukrud are out of the field." also use the exact same words. It's thus possible, in some cases, to meaningfully answer a question, especially a yes-no question, by simply repeating it back! (Albeit with variations in how the words are said, and with the caveat that simply "False" would be a much more succinct and natural response in this context.) For obvious reasons, decorators are dreaded by any humans attempting to learn Kyanah writing, and explain why Kyanah have an odd tendency to drop glue words and struggle with tenses when using human writing systems. In general, having a syrinx instead of a less complicated larynx allows them to make their vocalizations more compact by expressing a broader range of sounds, making the use of decorators instead of full words to save time a practical option.
Pronouns are another key difference; Kyanah have a whole set between singular and plural pronouns that they use to refer to packs, leaving human translators to awkwardly bounce between them when trying to translate these pronouns. Pack pronouns are a cultural universal for Kyanah; every single known language has them. It is customary to use pack pronouns when speaking to or about a member of another pack, even when only referring to that specific individual; using singular pronouns is usually a faux pas as it implies a higher-than-accurate degree of familiarity and intimacy, similar to a human walking up to a stranger and calling their spouse babe; or in the case of first-person singular, implies that the speaker is in some way deviating from their pack, if they have one. "I like nyrud steaks", when said to someone outside the speaker's pack, would for example strongly imply that the speaker's packmates in fact dislike nyrud steaks, and the speaker is the only one who likes them; saying it to another packmate however would have the connotation that humans would expect. The natural human tendency is to refer to packs using the plural pronouns, as they do in fact consist of multiple distinct individuals, but Kyanah would interpret this as referring to some vague, unspecified group, rather than their own pack. Additionally, as packs are atomic units in Kyanah society, occupying a single role and a single occupation, and being treated as one entity by their legal system, using plurals can create awkward statements in human languages and some meaning can be lost in translation.
Because the Kyanah use sentence-trees rather than linear sentences, languages aren't categorized into subject-verb-object, object-verb-subject, etc. but rather but the method in which the trees are traversed. Around 50% of the homeworld's population uses in-order traversal (left-child parent right-child), while 30%, including Ikun city-state, use pre-order traversal (parent left-child right-child) and the remaining 20% use post-order traversal (left-child right-child parent). To preserve the binary tree structure and prevent sentence-trees from exploding in size when dealing with many subjects/objects/etc. at once, lists of words with the same role in the sentence are placed into containers so as to occupy a single node. Kyanah sentence-trees can go on indefinitely as long as they are focusing on a singular subject; if the primary subject changes, a new sentence-tree must be started. Traditional Kyanah writing involves ornate sentence-trees shaped into aesthetically pleasing or meaningful shapes and sentence-trees are arranged on the page in a visually significant way; this sort of writing is roughly analogous to human calligraphy. Such niceties are typically ignored when typing on computers, in the name of efficiency and ease of programming. Instead, sentence-trees are automatically configured into rigid, standardized shapes and arranged on the page in such a way as to minimize wasted space, while still allowing for the creation of multiple threads. Naturally, traditional-minded Kyanah have been complaining about this since the invention of the computer, saying that it strips away subtle meaning and emotion from the text. However, the desire for efficiency has generally overruled such concerns in mainstream society.
Sentence-trees can be placed anywhere on the page, rather than following a particular order, though there is usually a clearly defined starting and ending point to a sequence; when the next tree in the sequence is not obvious from the position and orientation of the previous one, there is usually some arrow or other marker to point the path. Written works usually contain multiple sequences, each of which will take its own individual path around the page, and each of which is (at least primarily) written by a particular pack member. For this reason, written works are generally meant to be read by a pack collectively, with each member following one thread and later switching threads or explaining relevant aspects to each other if needed. Written works can be read by a single individual, but this requires the reader to frequently context switch between disparate threads that may only be loosely related to each other at times. Single threaded works do exist, but they are considered a separate form of art from mainstream, multi-threaded Kyanah literature. Multi-threaded literature is a direct descendent of story-threads, an ancient Kyanah art form and pastime that likely predates recorded history by a long shot, where members of a pack will take turns speaking sentences to collaboratively build a story. Good ones are sometimes written down and published, allowing other packs to enjoy them (sometimes even hundreds or thousands of years later), with each member of a pack choosing a thread and taking turns reading aloud their part of the story-thread and reenacting it. Interestingly, it is not just literature that is written this way; even textbooks, manuals, and research papers are all written in the same multi-threaded manner, and are likewise designed to be read by an entire pack.
There are plenty of distinct quirks between the different linguistic practices (using the term "language" may be a misnomer as linguistic practices tend to be continuous instead of being divided into discrete languages) in different parts of the world. Other than sentence-tree traversal, some of the most important differences center around the structure of words themselves. In most northern hemisphere scripts, characters represent sounds and have no intrinsic meaning on their own, while words are created by chaining these characters together based on the chronological order that they are pronounced. In southern hemisphere scripts, characters usually represent a few hundred basic objects and concepts and words are created by combining them, either in a linear chain or a graph-like structure, and the graphs tend to have their own unique algorithms for traversing them when reading or speaking, making such linguistic practices among the hardest to learn. For instance, in Kanenhah, "nuke" can be written (or spoken) by combining the characters for "made" (as in, made by Kyanah, not natural), "sun", and "egg" into a graph where the first two connect to the third, while in Koranah, the same word created by linearly chaining characters for "place" and "destroy" plus decorators to make the literal meaning "place destroyer" (which are written and pronounced somewhat differently from Kanenhah's characters for "place" and "destroy"). As an aside--the explanation for why there are so many broad and sweeping changes in language style and culture in general between the northern and southern hemispheres (a divide similar in many ways to the Western and Eastern worlds on Earth) is that impact ranges tend to cluster around the equator, which historically made travel between hemispheres much more difficult than travel within hemispheres. (I totally thought that through ahead of time, and didn't just make it up to retroactively justify the north-south divide.)

ANOTHER ONE IN THE BAG!
Saddle up, Glitches! We're headed to the Sweetlands, a land made of sweet treats, sticky situations, and dark unholy all-consuming abominations born from the shattered foundation of a thousand dead worlds. The last part will make sense later.
ENJOY!
The Palanquin rolls across the rocky planes of the Sweetlands as a gorgeous sunset lights the sky. Caine is currently giving our crew a bit of lore exposition as they make their way to the Kingdom of Sugar Canyon.
Caine: The Sweetlands owes its BLOOMING biodiversity to the Sterling Arbors and their life giving syrup. While the trees are dormant during the summer and winter months, the Capitol of Sugar Canyon has figured out how to grow their own orchards that give them a steady supply year round. This has made them a beacon of hope during the dry seasons, but also a major target for various bandit groups. As such, the Baroness has promised HANDSOME rewards for those willing to bring such miscreants to SWEET BUTTERY JUSTICE.
Meggy: Sounds like quite the sweet deal for such a sticky situation.
Caine: INDEED, my dear Meggy!
Luigi: I wonder how many candy stores they have.
Caine: Too many to even THINK of counting, Luigi!
Bubble pops out of his hat.
Bubble: Y'know, if I was a dentist, I'd pull out all of a kid's teeth so they can't have candy. That way I get to keep the candy AND the teeth!
There is a VERY awkward silence from the group.
Caine: Why are you like this?
The Palanquin soon arrives at the gate of the Sugar Canyon Capitol. The group disembarks, crowds of candied citizens cheering them on as they make their way towards the Town Hall.
Ragatha: Quite the welcome wagon, huh.
Kinger: Oh, if only Gangle and Zooble were here. I think they'd love this place.
Saiko: If I had known we'd draw a crowd, I would've brought Kaizo. We could've had a concert.
Tari: So, how's your first adventure?
Uzi: It's a bit much, to be honest. Usually people just scream at me to leave.
Luigi: The people here must not get visitors often, huh Mario?
Mario: Yeah! Mario is Number 1! Kiss the ring, babies!
Ragatha: So Loo, you excited?
Saturday: First, I told you not to call me that. Second.........sigh....... just promise me you'll behave yourselves until we depart. Alright?
Ragatha: Your wish is my command, heiress.
They soon arrive at the Town Hall, where a procession of Gingerbread Knights line the stairs. At the top is none other than Baroness Vanillia von Bonbon, the head of the Sugar Canyon High Council. She looks kinda like Saturday, but her colors are more pink and red and she has a cute spiral hat encircled by a crown.
Vanillia: LULU MY BABY!!!!!
She's also Saturday's mom. The Baroness excitedly makes her way down the stairs and takes her daughter's hands.
Vanillia: It's been so long, honey! I trust that Aybel fellow has been treating you well.
Saturday gives an uncharacteristically warm smile.
Saturday: Yes, Mother. All is going well.
Vanillia: And you've even made some new friends.
Kinger: Your presence honors us, M'lady.
She heads over to Meggy and picks her right up like a toddler.
Vanillia: And look at you! You look so sweet I could just EAT YOU RIGHT UP, hehe.
Meggy: Uh....... I'm flattered, Miss.
Tari: Look at that, Uzi! We're already friends with the Baroness.
Saturday is just standing silently as she internally dies of second hand embarrassment. Uzi cracks a smile and chuckles.
Uzi: Yeah, I feel your pain. My dad is EXACTLY like this when it comes to Open House.
Saturday: Um, Mother? They're actually here to help with the bandit problem.
Vanillia drops Meggy in sudden realization.
Vanillia: Oh that's right! Usually, the individual gangs aren't much of an issue, but that was before that no good Warlord Chewmaw started rounding up bandit gangs from across the Sweetlands under his banner. He even has some of those Darkfudge Cultists under his thumb. They have never been this organized, or this bold, before Chewmaw took over. There are even reports of bandits near the outer gates. We're afraid they may be plotting an attack against the capital itself.
Tari: Is there really no way to settle this peacefully?
Saturday: With the individual clans, perhaps. But that won't happen so long as Chewmaw is at the helm. He's had it out for Sugar Canyon since he was a gumdrop. That's why we need to find him, bring him to justice, and dismantle this Cabal of his before its too late.
Vanillia: The bandits make good use of modified syrup tankers and rocky road bikes, so you'll need a war rig of your own to keep up.
Right on cue, a massive ornate War Rig adorned with various candy paraphernalia rolls into view. It's hooked up to an armed trailer in the back and crushes a bystander beneath its treads. Don't worry, he's fine.
Jax: Ooooh, now we're cooking.
Pomni: It looks like something out of John Carter.
Mario: Mario calls shotgun!
Mario swiftly makes his way into the driver's seat and tests out the horn, which is just the airborne from Lethal Company. Y'know, the one that sounds like something OTHER than a horn. Yeah, Mario is suddenly not so eager to drive anymore, which is a good thing considering how he treats his own cart. Jax excitedly pushes Mario aside and revs up the engine.
Jax: ALL ABOARD, GOING ABOARD.
The rest of the crew makes their way aboard the rig. The engine roars to life and the rig chugs along towards the exit, running over several bystanders in the process. Don't worry, they're fine.
Vanillia: Safe travels! And don't forget to wear your seat belts!
Caine slowly floats over to her side and offers a puff of his pipe.
Vanillia: Oh, no thanks. I'm trying to quit.
Out in the Rocky Roads, there is a camp of gummy gators in bushman's wear taking a rest for the night. A red and yellow gator named Chad is carving some eggs while a purple and red gator named Max is tending to their syrup tanker.
Chad: You think we'll get a decent cut of the haul when we get back? I heard Chewmaw is getting rather greedy.
Standing on lookout is the head of this little pack, a yellow and green gator named Gummigoo. You know he's the leader because his hat has teeth on it.
Gummigoo: We won't know until we get to the hideout. I made sure to stow some bottles back at the farm for Mum.
Max: You still think she'll pull through? She was in quite the state last I checked.
Gummigoo: Mum may be a bit past her prime, but she's still a fighter. She taught us everything we know, didn't she?
He goes back on the lookout and sees a mysterious figure making their way towards their camp. He's clad in black robes adorned with the image of a gaping maw, with a carved jawbreaker mask held in place with strands of licorice. In his bandaged hands he holds a staff carved from Maplewood, with a green hard candy eye in its head. The figure makes his way into the camp and examines the tanker as Gummigoo brandishes his rifle.
Cultist: Greetings, friends.
His voice was raspy and weak.
Cultist: I see you have secured your bounty.
Gummigoo: State your business.
Cultist: Lord Chewmaw's scouts have reported a War Rig exiting the Capitol. Exceptionally armed, and manned by the heiress Loolilalu herself.
Max: Wow, it's been a while since we heard about her.
Chad: Wasn't she off to college or something like that?
Cultist: She's not alone, either. There were others spotted with her. Outsiders from the Mushroom Kingdom.
Gummigoo: Hm.......I've heard about that place. All sorts of jonky business going on over there.
Max: Yeah. I heard they let these fluffy things run amok once a year to keep them peaceful. Absolute anarchy would reign and the guard wouldn't even raise a finger.
Chad: There were also some outbreaks a few years back. People would go dead silent and stiffen up into crosses because they ate some kind of bad mushrooms, or get turned into lanky green Italians with hats.
Max: I've even heard tales of some blokes from there fighting off eldrich gods to cancel the apocalypse. That one seems a bit too far fetched, though.
Chad: Yeah, a bit silly innit?
Cultist: It is crucial that they do not interfere with the plan. If you see that War Rig, it is within all our best interests to eliminate it.
Gummigoo takes a moment to run through all this. He may not be familiar with anyone from the Mushroom Kingdom, but he's DEFINITELY had a history with Loolilalu.
Gummigoo: This is gonna be fun.
He pulls out Max from beneath the tanker. A toothy grin creeps across his snout as he adjusts his hat.
Gummigoo: C'mon boys, let's kick up some sugar.
The trio crawls their way into the tanker and drive off under the moonlight, leaving the cultist to sit by the campfire as the night goes on.

EDITED TO ADD: WRONG TITLE. ITS FOR COMBINED SCIENCE ONLY
Okay so here are the questions that I remember from my biology paper :) (could and could not be in order)
A company produces a drink with fructose instead of glucose. Fructose is sweeter than glucose.

• 2(?) marker - Give two reasons why the company would use fructose instead of glucose in their drink
• 3 marker - state the test that would be done for glucose in the drink

Test_________________________
Positive result_______________

• 2 marker - State the test that would be done for protein in the drink

Test_________________________
Positive result_______________

• 3 marker - plot the results from table two onto the graph. Only plot the results from 0.2 to 1.0. Draw a line of best fit. One result has already been plotted.
• 1 marker - Find the concentration of salt in solution Z in cm^3/ dom.
• 4 marker- smoking can impact the lungs (?) DIAGRAM HERE

Person B is a smoker while person A is a non-smoker. Explain why Person B breathes bettefaster during exercise than person A.

• 1 marker - something about where do plants new cells come from - answer is MERISTEM
• 5 marker - magnification question (im cooked) Diagram HERE calculate the magnification.
• 6 marker - proteins and fats from the drinks (the company thing AGAIN) are digested by our digestive system(?). Explain how they are digested (?)

In your answer, you should:

• mention what enzymes are used
• (something else that i forgor)
• 1 marker - what type of pathogen causes measles?
• 2 marker - Explain how to reduce the spread of measles. Do NOT mention vaccines in your answers.

1_________
2_________

• 3 marker - Explain the difference between a prokaryotic cell and a eukaryotic cell.

1_________
2_________
3_________

• 2 marker - A gardener is growing tomatos ??? greenhouse??? (anyways) the temperature is set to 15C. A heater can increase the temperature to 25C. Explain why a heater should not be used in the greenhouse. Do NOT refer to cost in your answers

1_______
2_______

• 3 marker - Explain how vaccines can help patients/ people build immunity against measles/ the measles pathogen.
• 3 marker - Percentage question. Something about a table with with results and you had to calculate the percentage increase of X.
• 6 marker - Angina causes chest pain and tiredness. (something about how it is related to Coronory Heart Disease). Explain how (???). In your answer, you should include: Symptoms + causes of angina, How to reduce its symptoms.

4 marker - Explain all four stages of mitosis on the diagram. Diagram HERE
1 marker - Which type of microscope was used to see the (cell???) explain why it was used.
1 marker - (multiple choice) which formula/reaction is photosynthesis?
2 marker - Measles is a virus that will make you ill. Explain how a pathogen / virus can make you ill.
I will continue updating while I remember the rest of the questions :). If there's any ones anyone can remember then please do tell me so i can add them. Also tell me if there is any mistakes in these questions.
These are only from memory, so wording will not be 100% correct :)