Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like if we got an 8-Bit Animaniacs game...

Every Cancelled Donkey Kong Game [YT Script]

INTRO 

Ever wanted to learn about every canceled Donkey Kong game? Find out in Every Canceled Donkey Kong Game, Game Facts Special!

There are at least 14! Canceled or Unreleased Donkey Kong games on consoles ranging from the NES, and CD-I to Gameboy and Gamecube!  We’ll be taking a look at leaked info and available content for each one!

Make sure to like the video as we start us off with

Donkey Kong no Ongaku Asobi 

A game that would have expanded Donkey Kong’s musical career!  Donkey Kong no Ongaku Asobi loosely translates to ‘Donkey Kong Playing His Music’ and was set to release on the Nintendo Famicom, and involves Donkey Kong playing on bass, and DK Jr playing the drums,  with additional guests Mario on Piano, and Pauline fronting the vocals!

The game would have had various game modes, including a music quiz, which tasked the player (as Mario) to identify notes from sheet music displayed on screen by jumping onto the correct note on a keyboard, which then synchronizes to DK’s bass playing. It’s also reported that a second player would have been able  to join in as Pauline to help out! This highlights the ‘educational’ aspect of the game, teaching  musically minded players how to read music notation efficiently!

A second mode, ‘Donkey Band’ would allow the player to take on the role of frontlady Pauline, utilising the Famicom controller’s microphone in a karaoke style game, encouraging the player to  sing along.  

The cancellation came about when Nintendo lost the rights to the songs they wanted to use for the  game. It’s a mystery whether the songs - which were written by Japanese pop singer Seiko  Matsuda - were actually ever licensed out at all, perhaps Nintendo assumed they would be able to  attain these rights by the time the game would release. Some screenshots of the game survive, so  its safe to assume the game was pretty much done!

Donkey Kong: Parking Attendant  

Stephen Radosh, known mostly as the man who made the hit TV show Catchphrase, started his  career in game-making with SEGA! In an interview he did with Game Informer, he described a  bizarre situation: SEGA managed to attain the rights to the Donkey Kong series sometime in the  80s.

According to Stephen, the game involved the playable Donkey Kong working as a car parking attendant. The gameplay involved DK helping cars into empty spaces, all the while dodging drivers recklessly pulling out of their spots. This game was put to a stop by Nintendo when SEGA of America’s physical assets were started to be sold off, hopefully not because of this game! 

Return of Donkey Kong 

The only real pieces of evidence which suggest the existence of this game are articles from Official Nintendo Player’s Guide, and Nintendo Fun Club, which highlighted DK’s Return as an upcoming release in its fifth edition. These publications spanned a whole year from 1987 to ’88.  

The game would have been a true sequel to the mainline DK titles, with the barrel rolling gameplay  coming back in full swing (pun wholeheartedly intended). The publications teased that DK might  actually be used as a player character, after the positive response towards the iconic main character.

Return of Donkey Kong sadly faded out of public memory, as it was never even mentioned again,  suggesting that it might have only had been planned at that stage, and canceled before work even  began on prototyping the game. 

Donkey Kong CD-i 

Prior to the Donkey Kong Country boom, in 1992-’93 a DK game was being developed for the  Phillips CD-i. Yes, THAT Phillip’s CD-i which held such classic titles such as the spin-off Zelda games ‘Wand of Gamelon’, and ‘Zelda’s Adventure’! 

Initially highlighted in the ‘Gaming Gossip’ section of Electronic Gaming Monthly (issue 31),  Donkey Kong was slated for a SNES 16bit remake, but it was later corrected in issue 43, over a  year later, that the remake was going to be a sequel, and released not for the SNES, but the  SNES-CD and Phillips CDi. 

Game developer Adrian Jackson-Jones made it publicly known that the game was in development  when he added his contributions to the project onto his LinkedIn resume. It states that he  designed, and implemented a proprietary game engine for a CDi Donkey Kong game during his  time at Riedel Software Productions. 

This was corroborated in an interview RSP’s co-founder, Michael J. Riedel. He said that no assets survive of the project due to the company's policy of trashing any canceled games. All that remains are the accounts of Jackon-Jones’ development, and his struggles with wrestling the memory limitations of  the CDi system. Perhaps the failure of the SNES-CD product was ultimately reason for the whole project being scrapped, but we don’t know for sure.

Donkey Kong IV 

This rumoured title was said to be a final release for the mainline DK games, however, it’s  speculated that this was a misconception. This false understanding led to the report in issue 13 of Mean Machines magazine, with a written account that it was test-marketed in selected arcades,  but nothing was released after this.  

Ultra Donkey Kong 

Originally Donkey Kong 64 was going to be an exclusive game for the Nintendo 64 Disk Drive. This was uncovered when Daniel Owsen, a translator for Nintendo games, answered a question in Nintendo Power magazine regarding a Donkey Kong Country game for the N64. Volume 104 saw Daniel said that Ultra Donkey Kong was mentioned in a few Japanese gaming magazines, but that it was likely to be a larger version of the original 64 game. IGN’s translation of the Japanese magazine Dengeki corroborates his account, saying that it would provide a 3D Donkey Kong game exclusively on the N64DD.  

Donkey Kong Plus 

It’s E3 2002. and a new Donkey Kong game is being teased for the GBA.. life is good. The tech demo that was demonstrated showed off the new ability to utilise the Gamecube link cable, which would allow players  to create classic DK levels and then play them on the GBA.

It was replaced with the Mario vs. Donkey Kong game, which still had level creator within the  source code, though this required some skill to find. The series didn’t see an officially released  level creator until the second iteration, so that development time didn’t go to waste in the end!  

Super Donkey 

Just when you thought you might have heard all the 2020 Nintendo gigaleak had to offer… in  swings Super Donkey!  

Included within this leak was the source code to Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island, and within  THAT were multiple prototypes which really didn’t match the final game whatsoever. Two of the  earliest dated builds were named Super_Donkey_1 and Super_Donkey_2. These builds contained 

Donkey sprite data, and some other graphics related to the DK series, such as character sprites that look similar to the squawks from Donkey Kong Country.

Super Donkey went on to become Yoshi’s Island, and this iteration of Donkey Kong never  came to be! Checkout our full episode on Super Donkey to learn about everything found in the prototypes!

Donkey Kong Country 4 

There were many rumours that survived regarding a brand new DK Country game. An anonymous, but credible source said that the idea of making Donkey Kong Country 4 for the Nintendo DS was  pitched by a team at Rare, after the experience by porting the Donkey Kong Country games to the GameBoy Advance. This sequel never made it into development though.

Diddy Kong Pilot 

Found by game leakers at Rareware Central, this ROM was uncovered in 2011. It showed a build  from a 2005 GameBoy Advance game which had Diddy Kong and Co. pit against each other in  aeroplane racing. If released, it would have been another entry into the Diddy Kong Racing series.  Prior to this, an ex-Rare employee showed off some unused gameplay from Diddy Kong Pilot. The  footage shows what the game looked like in development during 2001, and displays multiple  selection menus for characters, tracks, and game modes. It also has a short clip of the player  racing as Cranky Kong in a time trial across an icy level named Tundra Tumble.  

This game ended up being re-skinned, and continued development as the ‘Banjo Pilot’ game that released in 2005. Yet, the game hackers would end up finding tonnes of unused content from the original  Diddy Kong prototype, like unused music tracks, a plethora of unused sprites, and some unused maps. The reason behind this change is that Rare was purchased by Microsoft in 2002, and Nintendo pulling their license for Rare to use the Donkey Kong IP.  

Diddy Kong Racing Adventure 

Continuing on a familiar track, there was yet another Diddy Kong racing game that never graced  our consoles. Diddy Kong Racing Adventure was pitched by the Climax Group, who’s most recent efforts had them assist development on Housemarque’s 2021 release Returnal. But, back in 2004, Climax had developed a demo for a sequel to Diddy Kong Racing to pitch to Nintendo. 

Intended for the Gamecube, the demo could only run on the Xbox at the time, and featured the Wizpig’s teaming up with the Kremling’s to terrorise the Kong’s… try saying that 5 times fast!

It would have had an expanded adventure mode, with a focus on travelling between villages and hidden areas.  

This pitch was rejected by Nintendo, with the remake of the original coming out on the DS in 2007.  

Donkey Kong (GameCube) 

Another rumour had spread that Rare wasn’t only working on Diddy Kong Pilot before Microsoft’s  buyout, but also a successor to Donkey Kong Country, and DK64 on the GameCube. It would have  been a 3D game, with a similar style to DK64. Hardly anything is known about this game, other  than the Music team at Rare were set to work on the game.  

Donkey Kong Coconut Crackers 

And now we have the obligatory cancelled puzzle game! Coconut Crackers was going to be  developed for the Gameboy Advance and featured block fitting puzzle mechanics on a  checkerboard. This was another DK game affected by the Microsoft acquisition as it’s release was delayed from its intended date in December 2001.  

But all is not lost for Coconut Crackers, as it was re-developed into what is now known as ‘It’s Mr.  Pants’, which had its trademark registered in 2001, and releasing in 2004.  

Donkey Kong Racing 

Yet another Kong victim of Microsoft’s Rare acquisition is Donkey Kong Racing. It was 

going to be a sequel to the acclaimed Diddy Kong Racing for the Gamecube.The game was officially announced with a trailer at 2001’s E3. What little information remains is details of a  mechanic where the player would have to train their animal mount before they could race with them. It ended up being a classic case of ‘Vaporware’ which is a name given to games whose  development virtually vanished out of existence!  

Voice Actor Say Goodbye 

Thanks for watching! 

This has been a Game Facts Special  [27 References Available on Request] Content Link [if available]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A529-0Z28Eg&t=92s

The complex Nina Simone

“Born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina on February 21st, 1933, Nina’s prodigious talent as a musician was evident early on when she started playing piano by ear at the age of three. Her mother, a Methodist minister, and her father, a handyman and preacher himself, couldn’t ignore young Eunice’s God-given gift of music. Raised in the church on the straight and narrow, her parents taught her right from wrong, to carry herself with dignity, and to work hard. She played piano – but didn’t sing – in her mother’s church, displaying remarkable talent early in her life. Able to play virtually anything by ear, she was soon studying classical music with an Englishwoman named Muriel Mazzanovich, who had moved to the small southern town. It was from these humble roots that Eunice developed a lifelong love of Johann Sebastian Bach, Chopin, Brahms, Beethoven and Schubert.After graduating valedictorian of her high school class, the community raised money for a scholarship for Eunice to study at Julliard in New York City before applying to the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Her family had already moved to the City Of Brotherly Love, but Eunice’s hopes for a career as a pioneering African American classical pianist were dashed when the school denied her admission. To the end, she herself would claim that racism was the reason she did not attend. While her original dream was unfulfilled, Eunice ended up with an incredible worldwide career as Nina Simone – almost by default.

 One fateful day in 1954, looking to supplement her income, Eunice auditioned to sing at the Midtown Bar & Grill on Pacific Avenue in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Word spread about this new singer and pianist who was dipping into the songbooks of Gershwin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, and the like, transforming popular tunes of the day into a unique synthesis of jazz, blues, and classical music. Her rich, deep velvet vocal tones, combined with her mastery of the keyboard, soon attracted club goers up and down the East Coast. In order to hide the fact that she was singing in bars, Eunice’s mother would refer to the practice as “working in the fires of hell”, overnight Eunice Waymon became Nina Simone by taking the nickname “Nina” meaning “little one” in Spanish and “Simone” after the actress Simone Signoret.At the age of twenty-four, Nina came to the attention of the record industry. After submitting a demo of songs she had recorded during a performance in New Hope, Pennsylvania, she was signed by Syd Nathan, owner of the Ohio-based King Records (home to James Brown), to his Jazz imprint, Bethlehem Records. The boisterous Nathan had insisted on choosing songs for her debut set, but eventually relented and allowed Nina to delve in the repertoire she had been performing at clubs up and down the eastern seaboard. One of Nina’s stated musical influences was Billie Holiday and her inspired reading of “Porgy” (from “Porgy & Bess”) heralded the arrival of a new talent on the national scene. At the same mammoth 13 hour session in 1957, recorded in New York City, Nina also cut “My Baby Just Cares For Me,” previously recorded by Nate King Cole, Count Basie, and Woody Herman. The song was used by Chanel in a perfume commercial in Europe in the 1980’s and it became a massive hit for Nina, a British chart topper at #5, and thus a staple of her repertoire for the rest of her career.

Nina Simone’s stay with Bethlehem Records was short lived and in 1959, after moving to New York City, she was signed by Joyce Selznik, the eastern talent scout for Colpix Records, a division of Columbia Pictures. Months after the release of her debut LP for the label (1959‘s The Amazing Nina Simone), Nina was performing at her first major New York City venue, the mid-Manhattan-located Town Hall. Sensing that her live performances would capture the essential spontaneity of her artistry, Colpix opted to record her September 12, 1959 show. “You Can Have Him,” a glorious torch song previously cut by Peggy Lee and Ella Fitzgerald, was one of the highlights of the evening. The song opened with a dazzling keyboard arpeggio that would become her signature for decades. So momentous was the Town Hall performance that it inspired some of the same musicians, featuring the vocals of Nina’s only daughter, Lisa Simone Kelly, to do a tribute to a sold out audience over forty five years later.As Nina’s reputation as an engaging live performer grew, it wasn’t long before she was asked to perform at the prestigious Newport Jazz Festival. Accompanied on the June 30th, 1960 show by Al Schackman, a guitarist who would go on to become Nina’s longest-running musical colleague, bassist Chris White, and drummer Bobby Hamilton, the dynamic show was recorded by the Colpix. The subsequent release in 1961 of the old blues tune “Trouble In Mind” as a single gave Nina her third charted record.Her stay with Colpix resulted in some wonderful albums – nine in all – included Nina’s version of Bessie Smith’s blues classic “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out.” Issued as a single in 1960, it became Nina’s second charted Pop and R&B hit and one of two Colpix tracks to achieve such a feat during her five year stint with the label. Other stand out tracks from that era were the soulful song “Cotton Eyed Joe,” the torch tune “The Other Women,” and the Norwegian folk rendition of “Black Is The Color Of My True Love’s Hair” – all beautiful examples of Nina Simone at her storytelling best, painting a vivid picture with her skill as a lyrical interpreter. During this time with the label, Nina recorded one civil rights song, Oscar Brown Jr.’s “Brown Baby,” which was included on her fifth album for the label, At The Village Gate.“Critics started to talk about what sort of music I was playing,” writes Nina in her 1991 autobiography I Put A Spell On You, “and tried to find a neat slot to file it away in. It was difficult for them because I was playing popular songs in a classical style with a classical piano technique influenced by cocktail jazz. On top of that I included spirituals and children’s song in my performances, and those sorts of songs were automatically identified with the folk movement. So, saying what sort of music I played gave the critics problems because there was something from everything in there, but it also meant I was appreciated across the board – by jazz, folk, pop and blues fans as well as admirers of classical music.” Clearly Nina Simone was not an artist who could be easily classified.

Nina’s Colpix recordings cemented her appeal to a nightclub based U.S. audience. Once she moved to Phillips, a division of Dutch-owned Mercury Records, she was ready to expand her following globally. Her first LP for the label, 1964’s In Concert, signaled Nina’s undaunted stand for freedom and justice for all, stamping her irrevocably as a pioneer and inspirational leader in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. Her own original “Mississippi Goddam” was banned throughout the South but such a response made no difference in Nina’s unyielding commitment to liberty; subsequent groundbreaking recordings for Philips like “Four Women” (recorded September 1965) and “Strange Fruit” continued to keep Nina in the forefront of the few performers willing to use music as a vehicle for social commentary and change. Such risks were seldom taken by artists during that time of such dramatic civil upheaval.For years, Nina felt there was much about the way that she made her living that was less than appealing. One gets a sense of that in the following passage from I Put A Spell on You where she explains her initial reluctance to perform material that was tied to the Civil Rights Movement.“Nightclubs were dirty, making records was dirty, popular music was dirty and to mix all that with politics seemed senseless and demeaning. And until songs like ‘Mississippi Goddam’ just burst out of me, I had musical problems as well. How can you take the memory of a man like [Civil Rights activist] Medgar Evers and reduce all that he was to three and a half minutes and a simple tune? That was the musical side of it I shied away from; I didn’t like ‘protest music’ because a lot of it was so simple and unimaginative it stripped the dignity away from the people it was trying to celebrate. But the Alabama church bombing and the murder of Medgar Evers stopped that argument and with ‘Mississippi Goddam,’ I realized there was no turning back.”

Nina was deeply affected by these two events. In 1962, she had befriended noted playwright Lorraine Hansberry and spoke often with her about the Civil Rights Movement. While she was moved by her conversations with Hansberry, it took the killing of Medgar Evers and the four girls in Birmingham to act as catalysts for a transformation of Nina’s career.There were many sides to Nina Simone. Among her most amazing recordings were the original and so-soulful version “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” and “I Put A Spell On You” (which had reached to #23 in the U.S. charts), eerily moody, unrestrained, drama to the max; “Ne Me Quitte Pas” tender, poignant, filled with melancholy; and with gospel-like fervor, the hypnotic voodoo of “See-Line Woman.” In her own unrivaled way, Nina also loved to venture into the more earthy side of life. After she signed with RCA Records in 1967 (a deal her then husband/manager Andy Stroud had negotiated), her very first recordings for the label included the saucy “Do I Move You?” and the undeniably sexual “I Want A Little Sugar In My Bowl” which were from the concept album entitled Nina Sings The Blues. Backed by a stellar cast of New York CIty session musicians, the album was far and away Nina’s most down-home recording session. By this time, Nina had become central to a circle of African American playwrights, poets, and writers all centered in Harlem along with the previously mentioned Lorraine Hansberry, James Baldwin and Langston Hughes. The outcome from one of the relationships became a highlight of the LP with the song “Backlash Blues,” a song that’s lyrics originated from the last poem Langston Hughes submitted for publication prior to his death in May, 1967 and gave to Nina.Nina’s seven years with RCA produced some remarkable recordings, ranging from two songs featured in the Broadway musical “Hair” (combined into a medley, “Ain’t Got No – I Got Life,” a #2 British hit in 1968) to a Simone-ified version of George Harrison’s “Here Comes The Sun,” which remained in Nina’s repertoire all the way through to her final performance in 2002. Along the way at RCA, songs penned by Bob Dylan (“Just Like A Woman”), the brothers Gibb (“To Love Somebody”), and Tina Turner (“Funkier Than A Mosquito’s Tweeter”) took pride of place alongside Nina’s own anthem of empowerment, the classic “To Be Young, Gifted, & Black,” a song written in memory of Nina’s good friend Lorraine Hansberry. The title of the song coming from a play Hansberry had been working on just prior to her death.After Nina left RCA, she spent a good deal of the 1970’s and early 1980’s living in Liberia, Barbados, England, Belgium, France, Switzerland and The Netherlands. In 1978, for the first time since she left RCA, Nina was convinced by U.S. jazz veteran Creed Taylor to make an album for his CTI label. This would be her first new studio album in six years and she recorded it in Belgium with strings and background vocals cut in New York City. With the kind of “clean” sound that was a hallmark of CTI recordings, the Nina Simone album that emerged was simply brilliant. Nina herself would later claimed that she ”hated” the record but many fans strongly disagreed. With an eighteen piece string section conducted by David Mathews (known for his arrangements on James Brown’s records), the results were spectacular. The title track, Randy Newman’s evocative “Baltimore,” was an inspired Nina Simone choice. It had a beautifully constructed reggae-like beat and used some of the finest musicians producer Creed Taylor could find including Nina’s guitarist and music director, Al Schackman.

Aside from 1982’s Fodder On My Wings that Nina recorded for Carrere Records, two albums she made of the independent VPI label in Hollywood (Nina’s Back and Live And Kickin’) in 1985, and a 1987 Live At Vine Street set recorded for Verve, Nina Simone did not make another full length album until Elektra A&R executive Michael Alago persuaded her to record again. After much wining and dining, Nina finally signed on the dotted line. Elektra tapped producer Andre Fischer, noted conductor Jeremy Lubbock, and a trio of respected musicians to provide the suitable environment for this highly personal reading of “A Single Woman,” which became the centerpiece and title track for Nina Simone’s final full length album.With two marriages behind her in 1993 she settled in Carry-le-Rout, near Aix-en-Provence in Southern France. She would continue to tour through the 1990’s and became very much ‘the single woman’ she sang about on her last label recording. She rarely traveled without an entourage, but if you were fortunate enough to get to know the woman behind the music you could glimpse the solitary soul that understood the pain of being misunderstood. It was one of Nina’s many abilities to comprehend the bittersweet qualities of life and then parlay them into a song that made her such an enduring and fascinating person.

In her autobiography, Nina Simone writes that her function as an artist is “…to make people feel on a deep level. It’s difficult to describe because it’s not something you can analyze; to get near what it’s about you have to play it. And when you’ve caught it, when you’ve got the audience hooked, you always know because it’s like electricity hanging in the air.” It was that very electricity that made her such an important artist to so many and it will be that electricity that continues to turn on new people all over the world for years to come.Nina Simone died in her sleep at her home in Carry-le-Rout, Bouches-du-Rhone on April 21, 2003. Her funeral service was attended by Miriam Makeba, Patti Labelle, poet Sonia Sanchez, actor Ossie Davis and hundreds of others. Elton John sent a floral tribute with the message, “You were the greatest and I love you”.” (source)

Watch “What Happened Miss Simone?”

Types of INTP

As many of you may have noticed, INTPs come in different flavors. Some of my closest friends are INTPs, and I have noticed some differences between them that I have not spotted in other types (ENFPs seem more homogeneous to me, I know a bunch and they have basically the same values, outlooks on life and even similar (or the same) interests). In consequence, I have decided to classify my beloved INTP to see if we can understand this better (or even arrive to the conclusion that some of my friends are mistyped). After thinking for a while, I have decided to keep it simple and describe only two different types or INTPs. I know it’s not enough, but I don’t have all the information that I would need to make an accurate description of other subtypes of INTPs (I think there might be at least another one). Feel free to comment, add or correct anything you may find here. Let’s go.

INTP 1 - AKA Chill INTP :

Looks/vibes:

This INTP looks like the most carefree person alive. Seriously. They are often cute and definitely have their style. Why do they say that INTP have a horrible fashion sense, then? Well, it’s just that their style is not the conventional style. They can be obsessed with certain parts of their bodies (e.g. perfect nails) and completely neglect others. Or they can aspire to look in a certain way (kawaii, really kawaii) that could look inappropriate in someone their age. They don’t care. They dress as they want, ignoring other wishes and advice. And sometimes it works out. 

In general, they look rather sociable and happy. Try approaching them and you may be surprised. Sometimes, Chill looks even dreamy and you can tell they are fantasizing about having a dragon pet or whatever.

Habitat:

They dwell in their rooms and when they go out, they wish they were on their room. This type of INTP has watched more than 50 TV shows this last year, and probably reads a lot of fanfic. Their room is their sanctuary and is often filled with the interests of the owner, packed with action figures, tech, their clothes or maybe some painting that they did years ago and didn’t want to throw out.

Personality and interests:

Chill INTP is curious. He/She/That thing over there is an INTP after all. They remind me of  an ENFP (Ne here) because the way they talk about about their passions and dreams. To put it bluntly: they can’t talk about a single topic for more than five minutes before changing the subject to something different. They do this with a bubbly/excited look and act like everything is possible for them (but then they are “too lazy” for achieving said dreams) (this has literally been said by two of them so it’s not an insult). 

This Chill INTP loves series, fanfics, memes and the Internet as a concept. They have mastered every single shortcut of their computer and act like it’s part of their bodies.

Although Chill INTP looks approachable, they hate small talk and are very shy and private. Above all, they have trouble initiating conversations. If you befriend them, though, they will open up and flood you with an unending stream of ideas.

Academics: Chill is smarter than the average person, but also lazier than the average person. What’s worse, they know that they are smart and sometimes (only with their closest friends) can brag about it. While it’s true that they are bright and have no trouble understanding complex topics (actually the more abstract, the better), they lack motivation and often procrastinate. Sometimes, usually in hight school exams, they are able to successfully wing it and get good grades with almost zero effort. They will still whine a bit after getting an 8 in some subject that they didn’t even read, though. However, this “luck” (talent, actually, it’s raw intelligence plus a little bit of rhetorics and an innocent look) doesn’t last forever.

In the end, no matter how academically talented Chill may be, after missing a thousand classes and studying for maybe ten seconds, Chill fails. Hard. Usually for the first time in University. But it’s not that they can’t do it, it’s just that they don’t want to put in the effort right now. Maybe later.

Personal opinion:

This INTP is reaaaally fun to hang out with (I’m an INTJ, maybe we click because of that). They are witty, punny and can cheer you up with their innocence or random remarks. In addition, they get sarcasm (THANK YOU) and are not afraid of saying something regarded as “insensitive” if it’s true. This Chill INTP can be a bit stubborn, and will not change their behavior even if they admit it’s damaging them. 

Overall, they are nice and don’t ask for much attention.  

P.S: Chill INTP is NOT chill all the time. They can have breakdowns where all of their frustration gets out and they can cry in disappointment because the are not living up to their own standards. The agony disappears after a while, and they come back to their laptop and keep scrolling with a smile on their faces.

INTP 2 - AKA  NERDY INTP:

Looks/vibes:

Nerdy INTP does not care at all about how they look. It’s a practical question, not a fashion contest, and they are going to pick anything as long as it covers the parts of their body that can’t be publicly shown. The plainer, the better, this way they can combine anything in their wardrobes.

Also, this INTP does not look “chill” at all. It’s more like a quiet fragile serenity that could explode anytime. There is a difference there. Chill INTP is very comfortable anywhere, even in the midst of a crowd, they just do their own thing and ignore everyone. Nerdy INTP is watching over you, analyzing your patterns and thinking, always thinking. This INTP is full of anxiety and is shyer than chill INTP. And when they are looking at a wall they are either thinking hard about the wall itself (colour, texture, design) or totally lost inside some theory inside their mind. The thing is that you know that they are questioning things.

Habitat:

Their rooms, but with zero clutter. It’s not minimalism, it’s a prison cell with the occasional coffee machine. They have a laptop, books and a bed, but that’s all. This INTP lives in his head, not on Earth. That’s why they don’t mind going outside, but they do this to think elsewhere, not to be elsewhere. Their heads are a mystery, I would describe them if I could.

Personality and interests:

Nerdy is not merely curious, Nerdy is utterly obsessed with knowledge and the truth. This means that they can research a single topic for like 40 hours nonstop and speak about it too, getting deeper and deeper and finding internal contradictions between the different sources until you (random listener) can no longer know anything. But they really understand it, and it just comes easy for them. They can keep their concentration forever and ever until their body stops working and they get into a random nap. Then they jump to the topic again.

Nerdy likes talking about different subjects. Unlike Chill, once Nerdy chooses ONE topic, he will remain in that area until nothing more can be said (which is approximately never) or until the other person changes the topic. Nerdy also strongly prefers one to one conversations, while Chill can manage up to four/five people at the same time. 

In short, Nerdy seems much more focused and driven than Chill, but they are not natural achievers (#goalz #checklists) like an INTJ. Instead, they seek pure knowledge for the sake of it, to deepen their understanding of the world. They don’t need to change it, they just think that it’s interesting to dive into the most obscure and complex topics and master them. Their thirst is not for power but for wisdom.  

Nerdy is as Internet addicted as Chill but it’s easier to find them looking for papers than watching Netflix on their own. They have three or four series that they love but they are usually complex (picture high fantasy) and the things they read are not the cliché YA novels in which Chill tends to indulge more.

Academics:

If Nerdy has chosen a career that sparks his interests, he will do great in his knowledge field. At least, Nerdy will spend hours and hours reading about this topic and becoming an expert. They will understand EVERYTHING and create a sort of “mind map” in their minds (just a map, then) with concepts and their connections. Nerdy is a bit lazy too, but their curiosity and intellect alone if directed towards the adequate career can take them to the top (or at least they are not whining at the bottom as sometimes Chill does).

Even if both Chill and Nerdy feel incompetent, Chill actually puts 3/10 effort and ends up getting a 5. Nerdy studies a lot (maybe not the most important things, they will probably get lost in the interesting bits) and try to do their best. Even if their results are great, they will feel as if they had failed because they are too perfectionistic. 

To sum up, they work harder and get more results than Chill, but also set higher standards for themselves, which leads them to often overexert themselves and have higher levels of anxiety. This is why they do nOT look so chill.

Personal opinion:

For me, Nerdy feels like a caffeinated, stronger, sharper version of Chill. Maybe a little more hopeless and cynic, maybe more concerned with astrophysics than the newest One Piece episode. If Chill was fun, Nerdy is a hundred times funnier. However, Nerdy is also incapable of small talk (Chill knows how to, he just doesn’t want to do it and tries to avoid it) and has more trouble meeting new people. This INTP is only capable of speaking logically, and will destroy you incoherent arguments in seconds (yeah, every conversation feels like a debate). If you show any weakness, they will show no mercy.  This side of them can bore or get tiresome for the more dictatorial (Nerdy will call out your bullshit, authority means nothing), harmony loving (debates are just debates, no feelings involved) (however, if you think that disagreeing equals hating each other, you are so fucked here) or happy-go-lucky (”Don’t think and be happy”) types. 

If you are not ready to do some mental exercise, then leave alone Nerdy and go back to Instagram. If you go, try to chatter with Nerdy and then disregard all his ideas/hypothesis/arguments and it gets upset, you are a mere asshole. I actually love Nerdy INTP and think that his brain should be protected as World Heritage.

Things both (I think all INTP) subtypes have in common:

Curiosity about the most random things.

They hate small talk and initiating conversations.

They are so much fun for an INTJ.

They can be very insensitive when talking to other people (not a big bother for an NT)

All energy is redirected to their heads, their bodies are nOT fully operative.

They are always up for: COFFEEE, films or going to a new restaurant. 

People love them and they don’t want to admit it.

They feel different but never complain about it (and never flaunt it as a virtue).

They have meltdowns and they saw them coming.

They love the Internet.

Kinky. Very specific kinks and you can’t kinkshame them. It’s better to join them.

They look innocent, like sweet cinnamon rolls but they are not.

P.S:

Maybe these two types are not well described and some of you think that Chill is just more well, relaxed Nerdy. Or that Nerdy has more willpower than Chill. I don’t know. I honestly think that both have different manifestations of the INTP functions and they are true INTP regardless of their differences. I also think that both are fun, smart and can become great friends. 

P.S2:

@intp-the-thinker​ @intpmd this is for both of you, feel free to abort this unborn theory/hypothesis.

Homestuck is My Favorite Sprite Comic

Yes, you read that right.

Homestuck is my favorite sprite comic.

Those of you who remember the earlier days of the internet are probably looking at this post in disbelief right about now. Others of you might be scratching your heads, not knowing what I’m talking about.

But here’s my pitch: Homestuck is the culmination of an entire genre of internet art, and the tools that make it so powerful are the very tools that made that genre once so reviled.

Homestuck is the greatest and most successful sprite comic of all time.

And honestly, I’ve wanted to talk about that for ages, so let’s do it.

WHAT SPRITE COMICS WERE

Many of my readers are probably too young to remember the era of sprite comics. So: what were sprite comics?

Sprite comics were a genre of webcomics made entirely by taking pixel art from video games – especially character art, called “sprites,” but also backgrounds and other images—and placing them into panels to tell a story. They were near-ubiquitous on the internet in the early 2000s, emerging right as webcomics in general were seeking to establish themselves as an art form.

They were not, shall we say, known for their quality. The low bar to access meant that art skill was not an obstacle to starting one. The folks behind the huge swell of them tended to be young people, kids and early teenagers recreating the plots of their favorite video games with new OCs—not the most advanced writers or artists. They were the early 2000s’ quintessential example of ephemeral, childish art. Unfortunately, they look even worse today—blown-up pixels don’t hold up well when displayed on higher-resolution monitors.

Today, they’re mostly forgotten, remembered only as a weird, strange moment in the youth of the internet. Someone who evoked them today, such as a blogger who compared them to one of the most successful webcomics of all time, would be inviting good-natured teasing at the very least.

It would be unfair to dismiss them entirely, though. In this low-stakes environment, comics where the author could bring more skill—engaging writing, legitimately funny jokes, or especially, a real ability to work with pixel art—really stood out. (Unsurprisingly, these authors tended to skew a bit older.)

The obvious one to mention is Bob and George. Bob and George wasn’t the first sprite comic, but it was the most influential. Conceived initially as Mega Man-themed filler for a hand-drawn comic about superheroes, it quickly became a merging of the two concepts, with the original characters made into Mega Man-style sprites, full of running gags, humorous retellings of the Mega Man games, elaborate storylines about time travel, and robots eating ice cream. It was generally agreed, even among sprite comic haters, that Bob and George was a pretty good comic. Worth mentioning also are 8-Bit Theater, which turned the plot of the first Final Fantasy into a spectacular and hilarious farce, and of course Kid Radd, my second favorite sprite comic. (More on that later.)

But even if you weren’t looking for greatness—there was something just damn fun about them. The passion of sprite comic authors was clear, even if their ideas didn’t always cohere. To this day, I think the sprite comic scene has the same appeal pulp art does—it’s crude and rough, full of garbage to sift through, but every so often, something deeply sincere and bizarre shines through, and the culture of its authors is a fascinating object of study in itself.

Okay, full disclosure: I was one of the people who made a sprite comic. I’ve written about my experiences with that in more depth elsewhere, but yeah, I was on the inside of this scene, rather than a disinterested observer, and from the inside, maybe it’s a lot easier to see the appeal.

Still, let me make this claim: even with all their flaws, sprite comics were doing some incredibly interesting things, and Homestuck is heir to their legacy.

TAKE ME DOWN TO RECOLOR CITY

One of the problems people always had with sprite comics was the sprites themselves. They’re the most repetitive thing in the world. You just keep copying and pasting the same images over and over again, maybe with a few tweaks. That’s not really being an artist, is it? It’s so lazy. Re-drawing things from different angles keeps things dynamic, develops your skill, and makes your work better in general. Right?

I’m mostly in agreement. Certainly I think it’s fair to rag on the Control-Alt-Delete guy, along with other early bad webcomics, for copy-pasting their characters while dropping in new expressions and mass-producing tepid strips. And to be fair, digging through bad sprite comics often felt like an exercise in seeing the same slightly-edited recolors of Mega Man characters over and over again. You got really tired of that same body with its blobby feet and hands.

(It should be noted, though, that there were folks in the sprite comic scene who could pixel art the quills off a porcupine. I salute you, brave pixel art masters of 2006. I hope you all got into your chosen art school.)

All this said, I think the repetitive and simplistic nature of sprite comics was often their biggest strength.

THE POWER OF ABSTRACTION

In his classic work Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud makes an observation about cartooning that has stayed with me to this day.

McCloud notes that simple, abstract drawings, like faces that are only few lines and dots on a page, resonate with us more strongly than more detailed drawings. This is because our minds fill in what’s missing on the page. We ascribe human depth to simple gestures and expressions based on our own emotions and experiences – and this makes us feel closer to these characters as readers. Secretly, simple cartoons can be one of the most powerful forms of storytelling. If you want your readers to fall in love with your characters, draw them simply, and let them fill them in.

Video game sprites work very well in this regard. They have that same simplicity that cartoons do. In fact, I’d be willing to bet a huge part of the success of SNES-era RPGs was simple, almost childlike character sprites drawing people in. I think sprites did the same for sprite comics.

Here’s the weird thing: Bob and George worked. Despite four different characters being variations on the same friggin’ Mega Man sprite in different colors, they immediately began to seem like different people with distinct personalities. For me, George’s befuddled, helpless dismay immediately comes to mind whenever I picture his face, while with Mega Man himself it’s usually a wide-eyed, childlike glee. I would never confuse them. This, despite the fact that the only actual difference between their faces is that George is blonde. It’s pretty clear what happened. The personalities the author established for them through dialogue and storytelling shone through, and my brain did the rest.

Sprites, in short, were a canvas upon which the mind could project any story the author wanted to tell. Even the most minute differences in pixel art came to stand, in the best sprite comics, for wide divergences in personality and ideals, once the reader spent enough time with them to adapt to their style of representation.

Wait a minute, haven’t we seen this somewhere before? Character designs that focus on variations on a theme, with subtle differences that nonetheless render them instantly recognizable?

Oh, right.

Look at what greets us on the very first page of Homestuck. An absurdly simple cartoon boy, abstracted to a ridiculous degree—he doesn’t even have arms!—followed a whole bunch of characters that follow suit. Though many other representations of the characters emerge, these little figures never quite go away, do they? Why is that?

Simple: they’re very easy to manipulate. They’re modular—you can give John arms or not, depending on whether it’s useful. You can put him in a whole variety of poses and save them to a template. You can change out his facial expressions with copy and paste. You can give him a new haircut and call him Jake. It’s all very quick and easy.

Sprite comics proliferated because they were very easy to mass-produce. Andrew Hussie’s original conception of Homestuck was very similar: something he could put out very quickly and easily, where even the most elaborate ideas could rely on existing assets to be sped smoothly along. We all know the result: an incredible production machine, churning out unfathomable amounts of content from 2009-2012. I’d say it was a good call.

But it goes way deeper than that. The modular nature of sprites always suggested a kind of modularity to the sprite comic premise. George and Mega Man were different people, true, but also two variations on a theme. Was there something underlying them that they had in common? Perhaps their similarity says something like: We exist in a world which has a certain set of rules? One of my favorite conceits from Bob and George was that when characters visited the past, they were represented by NES-era Mega Man sprites, while in the present, they were SNES sprites, and in the future, the author used elaborate splicing to render them as 32-bit Mega Man 8 sprites or similar.

Suppose there was a skilled cartoonist thinking about his next big project, who wanted to tell a story centered around this kind of modularity, a narrative that was built out of iterative, swappable pieces by its very design. He might very well create a sprite comic named Homestuck.

Homestuck is a story about a game that creates a hyperflexible mythology for its players, where the villains, challenges, and setting change depending upon what players bring to the experience, yet which all share underlying goals and assumptions. What more perfect opportunity to create a modular story as well? Different groups of kids and trolls have motifs that get swapped around to produce new characters, whether that’s through ectobiology, the Scratch, or the eerie parallels between the kids and trolls’ sessions. And yet each character can be analyzed as an individual.

This is an incredible way to build a huge emotional investment from your readers. Not only does this kind of characterization invite analysis, the abstractions draw readers in to generate their own headcanons and interpretations. A deep commitment to pluralism is at the heart of Hussie’s character design. Then, too, it encourages readers to build their own new designs from these models. Kidswaps, bloodswaps, fantrolls—these have long been the heart of Homestuck’s fandom. And what are bloodswaps if not sprite recolors for a new generation? With the added bonus that now a change in color carries narrative weight, evoking new moods and identities for these characters in ways that early sprite comics could only dream of.

In Hussie’s hands, even the dreaded copy-and-paste takes on heroic depth of meaning. Even when Hussie moves away from sprites to his own loose art style, he continues to remix what we’ve previously see. Indeed, Hussie talks about how he would go out of his way to edit his own art into new images even when it would take more time than drawing something new. Why? Because he wanted to evoke that very feeling of having seen this before—the visual callback to go along with the many conceptual and verbal callbacks that echo throughout Homestuck. This is at the heart of what Doc Scratch (speaking for Hussie) called “circumstantial simultaneity:” we are invited to compare two moments or two characters, to see what they have in common, or how they contrast. Everything in Paradox Space is deeply linked with everything else. And Hussie establishes this in our minds using nothing less than the tool sprite comics were so deeply reviled for: the “lazy” repetition of an image.

(It’s fitting that some of the most jaw-droppingly gorgeous images in Homestuck—dream bubble scenery and the like—are the result of Hussie taking things he’s made before and combining them into fantastic dreamscapes.)

But it all started with the hyperflexible, adaptable character images Hussie created at the very beginning of Homestuck.

And if you need more proof that Homestuck is a sprite comic, I think we need look no further than what Hussie, and the rest of the Homestuck community call these images.

We call them sprites.

THE FIRST GENRE-BENDERS

Was Andrew Hussie influenced by sprite comics in the development of Homestuck? It’s hard to say, but as a webcomic artist in the first decade of the 2000s, he was surely aware of them. It’s likely that he quickly realized that his quick, adaptable images served the same purposes as a sprite in a video game or a sprite comic, and chose to call them that.

One purpose I haven’t mentioned up until now: sprites lend themselves very well to animations. In fact, in their original context of video games, that’s exactly what they’re for: frames of art that can be used to show a character running, jumping, posing, moving across a screen. It’s not surprising, then, that sprite comic makers quickly saw the utility in that.

Homestuck was, in fact, not the first webcomic to make Flash animations part of its story. There were experiments with various gifs and such in other comics, but I think sprite comics were among the most successful at becoming the multi-media creations that would come to be known as hypercomics..

Take a look at this animation from Bob and George. It represents a climactic final confrontation against a long-standing villain, using special effects to make everything dramatic, but ultimately, like many a Homestuck animation, leads to kind of a pyscheout. The drama and the humor of the moment are clear, though. This relies in large part on the music—which is taken directly from the game Chrono Trigger. This makes total sense. Interestingly, it also contains voice acting, which is something Homestuck never tried—probably because it would run contrary to its ideals of pluralism. What I find fascinating is that in sprite comics, animations like these served a very similar purpose to Homestuck’s big flashes: elevating a big moment into something larger-than-life. Another good example is this sequence from Crash and Bass. Seriously, it seems like every sprite comic maker wanted to try their hand at Flash animation.

(By the way, it’s a lot harder than it looks!! I envy Hussie his vectorized sprites. Pixel art is a PAIN to work with in the already buggy program that is Flash.)

The result: because of the sprites themselves, sprite comics were among the first works to play around with the border between comics and other media in the way that would come to be thought of as quintessentially Homestuck.

What it also meant was that another genre emerged in parallel with sprite comics: the sprite animation. Frequently these would retell the story of a particular game, offer a spectacular animated battle sequence, parody the source material, or all three. Great examples include this animation for Mega Man Zero, and this frankly preposterous crossover battle sequence. Chris Niosi’s TOME also found its earliest roots as an animation series of this kind. You also found plenty of sprite-based flash games, in which players could manipulate game characters in a way that was totally outside the context of the original works.

The website the vast majority of these games and animations were hosted on?

Newgrounds, best known to Homestuck fans as the website Hussie crashed in 2011 while trying to upload Cascade.

What’s less talked about is that Hussie was friends, or at least on conversational terms with, the owner of the site, hence the idea to host his huge animation there in the first place, and other flashes, like the first Alterniabound, were initially hosted there as well.

It’s hard to believe that Hussie wasn’t at least a little familiar with the Newgrounds scene. I suspect that he largely conceived of Homestuck as part of the world of “Flash animation—” which in 2009 meant the wide variety of things that were hosted on Newgrounds, including sprite animations.

The freedom and fluidity sprite comics had to change into games and animations and back into comics again was one of their most fascinating traits. Homestuck’s commitment to media-bending needs, at this point, no introduction. But what’s less known is that sprite comics were exploring that territory first—that Homestuck, in short, is the kind of thing they wanted to grow up to be.

PUT ME IN THE GAME

I would be a fool not to mention another big thing Homestuck and sprite comics have in common: a character who is literally the author in cartoon form, running around doing goofy things and messing with the story. This was an incredibly common cliché in sprite comics, no doubt because of Bob and George, who did it early on and never looked back. You might have noticed that the animation I linked above concerns a showdown between Bob and George’s author, David Anez—depicted, delightfully, as another Mega Man recolor—and a mysterious alternate author named Helmut—who is like Mega Man plus Sepiroth I think? It’s all very strange. I could ramble for hours about the relationship between Hussie and the alt-author villains of Homestuck and what it all means, but I’m not sure I can nail anything down with certainty for these two. Maybe Bob and George was never quite that metaphysical.

But yes, bringing the author into the story in some form was already a cliché by the time Homestuck started up. Indeed, I think that’s why Hussie’s character refers to it as “a bad idea” to break the fourth wall—he’s recognizing that people will have seen this before, and are already tired of this sort of shit. And then he goes and does it anyway and makes it somehow brilliant, because he’s Andrew Hussie.

Homestuck breathes life into the cliché by taking it in a metaphysical/metafictional direction. I don’t think that was really the motivation for most sprite comic authors, though. Let’s see if we can dig a little deeper.

I think the cliché kept happening because sprite comic authors were writing about a subject that very closely concerned themselves: video games. I’m only kind of joking. The thing about video games is that even though they’re made for everyone, playing through one yourself feels like an intensely personal experience. You develop an emotional relationship to a world, to its characters, that feels distinctly your own. Now, suddenly, thanks to the magic of sprites, you have an opportunity to tell stories about that world for others to read. Of course you’re going to want to put yourself in the story in some form.

When it wasn’t author characters in sprite comics, it was OCs. You know Dr. Wily? Well here’s my own original villain, Dr. Vindictus. You know Mega Man? Here’s my new character, Super Cool Man. He hangs out with Mega Man and they beat the bad guys together. Stuff like that. Most sprite comics retold the story of a game, or multiple games in a big crossover format, with original elements added in. There was quite a lot of “Link and Sonic and Mega Man are all friends with my OC and they hang out at his house.”

What’s interesting, though, is that because these sprite comics were very aware that they were about video games, this was where they sometimes got very meta. It started with humorous observation—hey, isn’t it funny that Link goes around breaking into people’s houses and smashing their pots? But sometimes, it grew into more serious commentary. Is Mega Man trapped in a never-ending cycle, doomed to fight the same fight against the same mad scientist until the end of time? Is it worth it, being a video game hero?

Enter Homestuck. What I’ve been dancing around this whole time is:

Homestuck is a sprite comic…because Homestuck is a video game.

Or more specifically, Homestuck’s a comic about a video game called SBURB, where the lines between the game and the comic about the game blur as characters wrestle with the narratives around them, both those encoded into the game and those encoded into our expectations.

Homestuck presents the fantasy of many a sprite comic maker: I get to go on heroic quests, I get to change the world and become a god. I get to be part of the video game. And then it asks the same question certain sprite comics were beginning to ask:

Is it worth it, to be that hero?

I want to tell you about my second favorite sprite comic, a comic called Kid Radd.

Kid Radd distinguished itself from other sprite comics of the time by being a completely original production. Its sprites looked like they could be from a variety of NES and SNES-era video games, but they were all done from scratch, and the games they purported to represent were all fictional. Kid Radd used animations with original music, and sometimes interactive, clickable games, to tell its story. It also used all sorts of neat programming tricks to make it load faster on the internet of the early 2000s, which was great—unfortunately, these same techniques made it break as web technology evolved, something Homestuck fans in 2019 can definitely relate to. The good news is, fans have maintained a dedicated and reformatted archive where the comics can still be seen and downloaded.

Kid Radd’s premise is that video game characters themselves are conscious and alive—more specifically, their sprites. Sprites developed consciousness as human beings projected personality and identity onto them, remaining aware of their status as video game constructs while also seeking to be something more. The story follows the titular Kid Radd, at first in the context of his own game, commenting on the choices the player controlling him. He must endure every death, every strange decision along the way to save his girlfriend Sheena. Then the story expands into a larger context as Radd, Sheena, and many other video game characters are released onto the internet as data. They try to find their own identities and build a society for themselves, but struggle with the tendency toward violence that games have programmed into them. The story culminates in an honestly moving moment where Radd confronts the all-powerful creators of their reality—human beings.

It’s a very good comic.

The first sprite comic authors wanted to fuse real life with video games. Later sprite comic authors decided to ask: what would that really mean? Would it be painful? Would you suffer? Would you find a way to make your life meaningful all the same? Despite the limitations of sprite comics, these ideas had incredible potential, and in works like Kid Radd, they flourished.

Homestuck is heir to that legacy.

It takes the questions Kid Radd was asking, and asks them in new ways. It tries to understand, on an even deeper level, how the rules of video games shape our own minds and give us ways to understand ourselves.

At its heart, Homestuck is a sprite comic, and it might just be the greatest of them all.

EPILOGUE

I’ve seen a lot of good discussion recently on how Homestuck preserves a certain era of the internet like a time capsule: its culture, its technology, its assumptions, its memes.

I think sprite comics, too, are part of the culture that created Homestuck. Do I think Hussie spent the early 2000s recoloring Mega Man sprites? No, probably not. But what I do know is that sprite comics were part of his world. The first webcomic cartoonists came of age alongside an odd companion, the weird, overly sincere, dorky little sibling that was sprite comics. Like them or hate them, you couldn’t escape them. They were there.

And maybe a certain cartoonist saw a kind of potential in them, in the same way he summoned Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff from the depths of bad gamer culture.

Or maybe he just knew, as some sprite comic authors did, that the time was right for their kind of story.

On a personal level—Homestuck came along right when I needed it.

Around 2009, the bubble that was sprite comics finally burst. People were getting tired of them, or growing out of them, and blown-up sprites no longer looked so good on modern monitors.

I was more than a little heartbroken. I’d enjoyed Bob and George, read my fill of Mega Man generica, and fallen utterly in love with Kid Radd. I’d been working on my own sprite comic for a long time out of a sense that there was huge potential in them that we were only scratching the surface of. I’d dreamed of maybe someday doing something as amazing as the best of them did. But I was watching that world disappear. I had to admit to myself that my work wasn’t going to continue to find an audience. That I could live with. But it was painful to think that the potential I sensed, the feats of storytelling I wanted to see in the world, would never be realized.

And then, in the fall of 2010, a friend linked me to a comic that broke all the rules, that mixed animation, games, music, images and chatlogs. A comic that crafted its own sprites, just as Kid Radd did, and remixed its images into an ever-expanding web of associations and meanings. A comic that took on the idea of living inside a video game with relish and turned it into a gorgeous meditation on escaping the ideas and systems that control us.

That this comic would exist, let alone that it would succeed. That it would become one of the most popular creations of all time, that it would surpass other webcomics and break out into anime conventions and the real world, that it would become such a cultural juggernaut, to the point where it’s impossible to imagine an internet without Homestuck—

I can’t even put into words how happy that makes me. It’s the reason I’m still writing essays about Homestuck nearly eight years after I found it.

And it’s why Homestuck will always be my favorite sprite comic.

-Ari

[Notes: The image of the kids came from the ever-useful MSPA Wiki—please support and aid in their efforts to provide a good source of info about Homestuck! They need more support these days than ever.

For more on Homestuck’s place as a continuation of the zeitgeist of early 2000s experimental webcomics, this article by Sam Keeper at Storming the Ivory Tower is excellent and insightful.

Thanks for reading, y’all.]

Salted Soymilk Star Doughnuts

Fandom: Star Twinkle PreCure

Ship: Hikaru/Yuni

Word Count: 2,257

Tags: Pining, Interspecies Relationships

Author’s Note: Enjoy my writing? consider supporting my original poetry zine, information here

 Singing to herself, or perhaps more accurately: humming to herself, Hikaru made herself known long before she even opened the door to the Rocket. Yuni had a set of sensitive ears and unlike many of Hikaru’s companions and peers, the girl was very distinctive in the racket that she either knowingly or unknowingly kicked up. Some people were unappreciative of this trait of Hikaru’s and it could be surprising to learn that Yuni was not one such person. She very much appreciated it because it gave her time to mentally prepare the patience which she would need to deal with such a blissfully bombastic person.

 “Hey Yuni,” Hikaru said, immediately upon slamming open the Rocket’s doors, “I brought doughnuts, for me and You-ni.” She giggled to herself as she kicked off her shoes.

 Yuni’s ears flicked. “Where’re the other girls today, meow?” she asked.

 “Lala’s studying with Sakurako. They’ve been getting along ever since, well, the cat got out of the bag.” Hikaru said as she sat down. “As for Elena and Madoka, they’ve got their final exams. Fingers crossed that goes twin-cool for them. I have no doubt that they’ll outshine all their classmates.”

 “I see, meow.” Yuni replied.

 “So. Just you and me today.” Hikaru said.

 Yuni relaxed to into her hand which was propped up on the table in the centre of the rocket ship. She sighed. “Why not spend some time at home then, meow? Feed your dog and family your doughnuts, meow?”

 “Because I was worried you were lonely, duh.” Hikaru said.

 Hikaru set down the doughnuts on the table. She had brought less than usual. Just enough for herself, the glutton, for Yuni, who ate less than everyone, and then some for Prunce and Fuwa. Hikaru glanced around. It seemed that she had noticed something was slightly amiss. It was just herself and Yuni.

 “Where’s Prunce and Fuwa?” she asked.

 “Fuwa’s having a nap, for once in her life, and as for Prunce, he’s taking the moment to relax as well, catch up on the latest intergalactic dramas, meow. Though, I’m sure once he smells doughnuts, he’ll come running, meow.” Yuni informed her.

 “I see. I hope so. A big crowd’s better than two.” Hikaru replied.

 Yuni was terse. She disagreed but she was happy to indulge Hikaru with noncommittal silence in this situation. After all, her opinion was beginning to change. Like a pendulum’s swing, Yuni had once loved big crowds as well, even if she was something of a wallflower, but since becoming a thief and the sole survivor of her species, she had come to loathe them. But, through meeting Hikaru and these girls, that opinion had begun to shift again. Just a little and rather painfully.

 Hikaru unwrapped the doughnuts. She had brought two boxes and she smiled to herself. Yuni’s nose twitched and her curiosity betrayed her. They didn’t look – or smell – like the usual doughnuts which Hikaru bought to share using her allowances. Not all of them, anyway. Some were the usual plain glaze and cinnamon, but that second box was not so common.

  “You noticed?” Hikaru asked, an impish smile on her face.

 “A new flavour, meow?” Yuni inquired, eyes sparkling.

 “A-yup. I bought it ‘cause I thought you’d like it.” Hikaru said.

 There was a curt waver in her voice which Yuni picked up on. She blinked. Hikaru, who adored to gobble all manner of doughnuts down, seemed vaguely uncertain of her choice. For just a moment, her usual manner deflated and Yuni had caught it no differently to catching an eyelash in her eye.

 “Are you worried you’ll dislike this new flavour?” Yuni asked.

 “A little bit.” Hikaru said before putting her hand on her the back of her hand and laughing boisterously at her own self-perceived silliness. “What if it has a bad texture or something? But I’m sure it’ll be delicious, it reminded me of you.”

 “It did, meow?” Yuni blinked curiously.

 She licked her jowls. Hikaru thought it was rather cute. Yuni, blushed, for she realised that Hikaru was staring at her mannerisms and it embarrassed her, so her tail twitched and kinked for a moment as her eyes wandered back to the doughnuts. They, of course, had the usual star shape to their centre per the style of the baker who makes them down in the town centre, but they were pasted quite thickly with white icing.

 Whilst they weren’t plain like plain doughnuts were, they weren’t decorated enough to give Yuni a hint. Smelling the air, they just smelt like regular vanilla iced doughnuts to her. It was almost petty or pouty but Yuni would have thought that she had more of a unique prescence on Hikaru’s minds, especially if her inability to resist cat puns around her were any metric to use. Yuni crossed her arms.

 “I’m sure they’re fine.” Yuni said.

 Hikaru laughed. “The icing is salted soymilk flavoured. And, well, I thought cats liked milk, so they reminded me of you.”

 “I see, meow.” Yuni said and she shrugged. “I’ll try one first for you, meow.”

 “Thanks, Yuni.” Hikaru smiled.

 Yuni reached across the table and she suddenly became aware of the fact that they she and Hikaru were sitting in their ‘usual’ spots. It felt odd since normally there was someone between them. Instead, there was three empty seats. Perhaps, she ought to move closer but Yuni was hesitant to. She didn’t know why but getting closer to Hikaru scared her.

 Yuni picked out the second doughnut from the front. She didn’t know why, the first doughnut was perfectly fine, she just did so anyway. With little hesitation or cautiousness, Yuni took an unceremonious chomp out of the doughnut. She sank her fangs in and she had to admit. It was one of the nicer doughnuts that she had ever had. The icing was definitely what was selling her on it. She quickly devoured the rest of it and licked her fingers clean.

 Hikaru smiled. “You liked it?” she asked.

 “It was okay, meow.” Yuni replied, snootier in her reply than she meant.

 “Well, don’t mind if I do.” Hikaru chirruped.

 She was then quick to devour the first doughnut which had slumped onto the third doughnut as Yuni had eaten the second one. Hikaru very happily bit through her doughnut and she found the saltiness a pleasant contrast against the sweet greasiness of the doughnut. As it was iced, not glazed, the grease didn’t weigh as heavy on her tongue but was still delightfully dulcet. Not to mention, that ever-present star motif in the middle of it made her happy as well.

 Watching Hikaru eat made Yuni happy as well. She gazed fondly towards Hikaru as she ate.

 “Yep, that was a super-duper yummy doughnut.” Hikaru gushed upon finishing eating it.

 Yuni continued to feel some lukewarm elation upon seeing Hikaru happy. But rather than reach for yet another doughnut, Hikaru got up. She toyed with her school uniform and then she sat down. This time in the next seat over. Yuni’s heart pounded unexpectedly as Hikaru was now sitting next to her. She had taken the initiative. And Yuni wasn’t sure why but then again, she wasn’t sure why Hikaru did a lot of things for her, but she found it sweet, nonetheless.

 “Ne, Yuni,” Hikaru said as she finally picked out another doughnut, salted soymilk, of course, “can I ask you something?”

 “What would mew like to ask?” Yuni asked.

 She kept herself guarded and she kept Hikaru as far away as she possibly could. Which was becoming increasingly difficult because the girl was so darn affable. Not to mention, Yuni had traversed entire universes looking for her star; it made no sense to turn back down when here she was.

 “Why don’t you ever just... chill? Not like emotionally, but, like, physically. In your...” Hikaru fumbled with her words.

 “In my ‘true’ form, you mean, meow?” Yuni asked.

 “A-yup.” nodded Hikaru.

 Yuni sighed but it turned into a hum. She slumped sideways slightly and drummed her fingers on the table. Hikaru seemed happy to wait for an answer whilst Yuni mulled over an answer for her. One which they would both find palatable.

 “Because accidents happen, I suppose, meow.” Yuni murmured. “I mean, we’ll always be skirting around secrets and you said it before, meow. The cat’s out of the bag, meow. But... this cat isn’t ready to be out of the supposed bag, meow.”

 “I see...” Hikaru murmured. “Well,” she said, brightening up, “when you’re ready to, I look forward to it.”

 Yuni laughed. “You are a strange one, Cure Star, meow.”

 “I get that a lot.” Hikaru blithely replied. Her eyes snapped open though. “Do you think you’ll ever transform into Cure Cosmo whilst being your true alien form?”

 Yuni hissed and quirked an eyebrow.

 “Did I say something wrong?” Hikaru asked.

 “No, I guess not; I was just being defensive, meow.” Yuni said and her hackles settled.

 “Are you sure?” Hikaru asked. “I think I did say something wrong. All I want is to be my authentic self and I become that person when I become Cure Star. I think it’s the same for the other girls so why not mew too? I mean, you are the star of all that remains of Rainbow, for now, so I can’t help but think that your Rainbownian self is you when you’re a hundred percent mew.”

 Hikaru... had a point.

 Yuni didn’t want to admit it but Hikaru was right, or at the very least onto something. And Yuni very much wished that she wasn’t. So, she asked a question back, spitting it out like venom.

 “Do you think there will come a day where you transform into Cure Star, you’ll become an alien, meow? A completely nonhuman entity, meow?”

 Hikaru hummed and tapped her chin with her index finger, tempted to nibble on her nails as she was sometimes in that sort of habit. “Well, no. But if I could, that’d be so twin-cool! Thinking about myself, in that unlimited form and style makes my heart pound super duper fast. If such a thing was possible, I would want to try as many forms as possible to see who I truly am and who from such persons I can assimilate into my true self. I think that’s called transhumanism.” She stuck her tongue out at Yuni.

 Yuni sighed. She supposed that was a Hikaru answer through and through. She was the girl who found it fantastic and fascinating that Rainbownians had the power to shape shift, naturally and with an aide, rather than cause for suspicion of them. It was remarkably optimistic but natural too.

 With a slight smile on her lips, curt but charmed, Yuni said: “For just a moment, I suppose, meow. But I can’t go wasting my Rainbow Perfume on such frivolous things, meow.”

 She surrendered to Hikaru’s endearingly persistent gaze which was positively starry. With a flick of her wrist, Yuni produced her Rainbow Perfume and with a squeeze and a squirt of it, she reverted to her supposedly authentic form.

  Her whole body exploded into thick and fluffy, beige fur. Whiskers protruded from her cheeks as her snout took hold of her button nose. Her hands turned to paws but Yuni didn’t mind. It always felt good to let the cat out of the bag once in a while, even if it meant that Hikaru had to stare and stare something awful. Doubly so as they were sitting next to each other.

 “May I touch you?” Hikaru asked. “You’re just too cute to compute, I wanna give you a pat or a scratch. Are you soft? I bet you’re soft. Oh, you’re just too twin-cool!”

 Yuni smiled a fond smile but on her face, it seemed more bemused than anything else. Hikaru didn’t seem to mind or maybe she just didn’t notice.

 “Fine, meow. Just this one, meow.” Yuni said.

 “Thank mew very, very much.” Hikaru gushed.

 Yuni squirmed slightly as Hikaru bumbled in closer. She lifted her hand to Yuni’s face and with just her finger, she started at the base of Yuni’s chin. A growl got stuck in her throat, but it thinned out as Hikaru scratched her. Her finger was very pokey and bendy but once yuni got into the rhythm of it, she began to purr. Her purr was rusty and tickled Hikaru’s ears, but it absolutely encouraged her, so she used more fingers.

 Hikaru got really into it. Soon, she had both hands clamped either side of Yuni’s face, smushing it up and running her fingers through Yuni’s fur. It was extraordinarily thick and fluffy; Hikaru utterly marvelled over it. She grinned from ear to ear as she listened to how Yuni purred at her touch.

 It felt nice. Nice enough for Yuni to tentatively closer her eyes and revel in how her voice box reverberated in her throat. It had been a long time since Yuni had let someone touch her so affectionately and let alone to the point where she purred. Her spine tingled and she indulged the moment, mulling over to herself, with a steady heartbeat and steadier breaths, how thankful she was that her star was not only a person but Hikaru.

 Yuni was fairly certain that she would never tell Hikaru her feelings, but they were there. They were real. They were important to Yuni and something like gratitude. A thankfulness for being her light in the dark abyss of the cosmos.  

Broo ok could you give me ANYTHING HONESTLY ANYTHING with a king scenario?? Like theres johanna and regina (or whatever names you want idc) and ronald (gdhdns UGLY NAME SORRY) and dominic? Like sexy stuff, fluffy stuff, sexy fluffy stuff I DONT CARE (also its understandable if you dont write genderbends i just love ur hcs and style of writing SO MUCH)

i love genderbends, don’t worry! one day i will write my joger epic wherein roger is regina, the kickass drummer who blows john richard deacon’s mind because this fandom is lacking in genderbends particularly with girl!roger

Anyways, hope you enjoy!!

i feel like??? it just goes without saying that in the king!au they’re a little more...cautious about having babies

Regina and Johanna aren’t just like, normal women, they are Musicians and their job is 24/7 and demanding

Johanna getting pregnant initially was a Big Deal and not just because of Ron’s uber catholic family but because the band had to wrap up a tour as fast as possible, start working on a new album, and schedule in some maternity leave because yknow BABY

(Johanna was SO SCARED to tell the girls?? like she was worried they’d kick her out and make her leave because it was so ill-timed)

(not that you can TIME an accidental pregnancy. and really, if we’re gonna blame anyone blame Melina because she’s the one who literally poured tequila down her’s and Ron’s throats)

(so when Johanna found out she told, in order, her doctor, Ron, her mother, Ron’s mother, the cab driver who picked her up from the station, the woman who gave her the chocolate chip scone at her favorite bakery, and then the girls)

(Regina was the first to recover from the shock. she practically flew into her arms and started babbling about how wonderful it all was, how exciting, a baby!! what would they name it?? definitely Regina, such a regal name, and of course she’ll be godmother--

While Melina tried to hide that she was crying before sending Miami off to go fetch a bottle of sparkling apple cider as they deserved a toast! 

Brianna was the only one who was hesitant in celebrating, after all, they’d have a lot to manage before it came, but yes, congrats, Johanna! such a blessing)

Yes, so babies

Very strict about the babies because while little Rebecca was the reason they all got together, another baby could easily be why they all fell apart

Regina never wants to give up touring and making music, which a baby could impede

Johanna of course wants more, but she also doesn’t want to stop while they’re still going

(it’s also so not her turn, okay she only just managed to fit back into her prebaby jeans)

Ron and Dominic? 

They definitely want more kids 

For sure

Like Dominic just wants more little girls with Regina’s eyes and Ron’s reddish hair or Johanna’s smile and his own nose

But they’d never enforce that on their girls 

So they all decide: no babies until they’re ready

(they last exactly one year)

On Dominic’s birthday, they all proceed to get absolutely blitzed on too much red wine and too much good food while on tour in the south of Spain

Regina is the one who suggests skinny dipping in the Mediterranean but its Ron who initiates the sex

what originally was just Regina and Johanna splashing each other turns into Ron carrying Johanna caveman style back into their rental house and laying her out on the floor and licking the salt from her skin while Regina throws her legs over her shoulders and goes to town

Dominic follows shortly behind, shouting that it’s his birthday and he will not be ignored like this and someone better touch his dick before he leaves them all on grounds of emotional cruelty

Needless to say, everyone :) has :) fun :)

A month later, Regina is aware that Something Is Not Right

Regina is very in tune with her body

She has to be, as it is the most important part of her job for everything to be in working order

Drumming is more than just wrists and arms, if she’s sick or her legs are hurting she won’t be able to play like she usually does

So when she begins to feel...different? 

She freaks out, goes to the doctor, and discovers that their passion filled night by the mediterranean blitzed their Planned Babies Only Decision 

Regina freaks and drives straight to Miami’s office because, well

there’s a huge giant possibility that this baby’s father is a married man (Ron)

Miami, who already dealt with the logistics of their relationship and potential baby the moment he found out they were together gives her a big hug

 (Regina is totally his favorite he would rather die than admit it but it’s true) 

And tells her that he’s already figured it all out and that she’ll be taken care of

Also, they were due for time in the studio anyways, so they can work on a new album until regina has the baby and then they’ll have the break before the tour

With the band all handled, Regina decides that all she has to do is tell the others 

She goes back to the doctor, gets her first scan, and then she comes home, puts the picture of the Bean in a frame, and hangs it on the wall

“There’s no way they won’t notice it,” Regina says, resting her hands on her hips and admiring her little miracle

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

It takes them three weeks

At first it was cute

Then it was annoying

By the third week she’s ready to take the baby herself and find another three people who are more observant

Desperate times call for desperate measures 

She asks Dom if the photos in the living room are crooked and he’s like, nope, they’re looking good, Reg!

She asks Johanna to help her dust, and sends her to take care of the pictures in the living room. She watches as Jo dusts for 15min, chattering away about the new album but not noticing a thing

She straight up asks Ron if he noticed the new frame in the living room and Ron was like, oh, no, but i’m sure it looks great!

She’s completely given up when Melina, Marc, Brianna, and Chris come to dinner

Dom and Brianna have commandeered the kitchen, working side by side to make a roast with lots of vegetarian options

(Dom keeps trying to hip check her away when she starts Touching The Meat because what does she know about a roast??? They are Delicate Cuts of Meat and You Cannot Disturb Them! No Brianna, it’s not too dry!!) 

Her and Jo are curled up next to each other the couch chatting with Marc and Ron about the upcoming album

While Melina and Chris stand around shooting the shit and drinking beers by their record player

It’s Chris who spots it first, just out of the corner of his eye

Regina was quite proud the way she set it up. It’s just the picture in the frame, but underneath she’s written

Condom Failed: Deacon-Taylor-Tetlaff-Beyrand Baby, Due Spring 1977

She had a bit of a giggle when she was writing it, but now, knowing that she’s involved with Three Idiots, she thinks it was more than just condom failure that led her here

So Chris sees it, and he immediately drops his beer bottle, reaching out to grab Melina’s arm tightly

“The fuck, Mullen,” Regina snaps, staring at the mess on her floor.

“Are you alright?” Johanna asks, standing up to check on him

Melina stares at him, then his arm, before looking at where he’s staring

She sees the picture, and lets out a scream of excitement, her hands covering her mouth 

“Holy fuck!” 

Brianna comes running out of the kitchen at the sound, Dom on her heels (after he checked to make sure the roast was okay)

Meanwhile, Chris is really trying not to blubber because he really just loves babies and well, CLEARLY this is why they invited them over!

(Dom just wanted an excuse to make a roast) (he’s very proud of his recipe) (So So So Proud)

“Oh my god, you guys, congratulations!” Chris cries, moving to pull Johanna into a hug

Because let’s face it, she was the last one pregnant, so it’s a safe bet!

He’s Wrong though

“Thank you...?” Johanna says, returning the hug and making a face at Brianna over his shoulder. 

Brianna shrugs

“I can’t believe it! This is so exciting, you must be so excited!” Melina shrieks, barely able to get the words out

Chris is still hugging Jo tight

He pulls back, staring at her in horror, then at the wine glass in her hand

The wine glass

That he filled

Twice

“Johanna!” he yelps, unaware that Regina is burrying her face in her hands while Johanna is Confused

“You can’t drink when you’re pregnant!” 

There is a long pause

Very long

Johanna stares him deadass in the eyes and takes a large sip

“I’m not,” she says, as dry as her Merlot

“Then who’s sonogram is on the wall?” Melina demands

“What sonogram?” Ron snorts turning to look at the wall. 

“God you’re so lucky you’re cute,” Regina drawls, still perched on the edge of the couch, sipping at her tonic-lime-mint-hold-the-vodka

Ron frowns

Johanna gasps

Dom freezes

“Regina,” Dom says, his voice fragile. “Regina, are you--?”

“Hi Papa.” she smirks before looking at the other three, “Daddy, Mummy. Took you long enough to notice.” 

Johanna, who has never once shrieked in her life, shrieks before pressing their mouths together, her thumbs brushing the apples of Regina’s cheeks, whispering, “I love you so much.” 

Ron jumps to his feet with a whoop, grabbing Regina so as to spin her around and around in circles before letting her go to yank Johanna into a kiss

“We’re having a baby!” he cheers

Dom rushes towards her, falling to his knees before Regina and buries his face into her stomach

There may be tears

“Hi, baby,” he whispers, “It’s your Papa.” 

Regina runs her fingers through his hair, smiling wetly at the other three

“I hope the baby gets my brains because otherwise they’re fucked,” she laughs. “That photo’s been up for three fucking weeks!” 

The three of them laugh and cry and kiss

Regina is passed around the rest of them, where they, too, press kisses to her cheeks and hands to the slight curve of her stomach

It’s not until the faint scent of smoke wafts to them do they remember why they were all together to begin with

“My roast!” Dom wails

(seven and a half months later, Regina cuddles her newborn daughter while the three stand around, all three ready to greet the newest member of their family)

("Im just saying she looks like a Tiger Lily,” Regina coos) 

(”Over my dead body,” Johanna says wetly. Picking her name has been the second biggest fight in their entire relationship. “She’s too perfect for that.”) 

(They name her Catherine)

(It isn’t until they bring her home to they realize their mistake) 

(”This is my daughter, Cat,” Regina smirks.) 

("Goddamnit,” Johanna hisses.) 

Better Call Saul Rewatch, Part 1/30: They Called Him Slippin’ Jimmy

Late last month, I decided to rewatch all of BCS and post about it, one episode at a time, every day during the 30 days leading up to the premiere. The elements of this plan that proved problematic were “post” and “one episode at a time”, but we’ve still got three weeks, so let’s do this. I’m not much of a critic; this is going to be mostly just a bundle of thoughts and observations. There will also be a key to references in the dialogue, notes on locations and the timeline, and probably a lot of gushing over beautiful frames, because there are many (see above! look at that! look at it!!!). The tag will be #bcs rewatch, for your following/blocking needs.

Uno (Season 1, Episode 1)

Written by Vince Gilligan & Peter Gould / Directed by Vince Gilligan

If the Cinnabon sequence constitutes fanservice, I don’t care, because it’s brilliant. 

BCS uses a lot of intense chiaroscuro, and it starts in the scene at Gene’s apartment. Details— the ice in the glass, the white label on the bottle of Scotch— are highlighted, the rest of the picture is subdued. There’s also a gorgeous softness to the black-and-white images. Overheard on the TV as Gene pours: a woman cheerily saying “Well, from time to time, people make mistakes, that’s okay!”

There’s a bit of Breaking Bad-style handheld camera here, which stands out because it’s mostly absent from the rest of the show. In Gene’s living room we have the first appearance of glass block windows, about which blogger Marc Valdez wrote an excellent piece (Streamline Moderne and Jimmy McGill).

“No charge is too big for me!” says Saul, on the tape that Gene is watching in hiding with his blinds closed. :(

(In this episode, Jimmy’s personae are introduced in reverse chronological order: first Gene, then Saul Goodman, then James M. McGill Esquire, then Slippin’ Jimmy.)

It’s May 13, 2002, and the courtroom scene— beautifully paced, by the way— is one of the most distinctly Vince Gilligan scenes that ever Vince Gilliganed. The stenographer loudly slurping on her Big Gulp, the attorney using her legal pad to draw a shirtless man on a unicorn, the prosecutor silently wheeling in the TV in response to Jimmy’s argument, and most of all, the horrifying punchline.

When we first encounter Jimmy— as opposed to Gene or Saul— he’s pacing in the men’s room, muttering about how people shouldn’t be punished for whatever stupid things they did when they were young. Hmm. The three defendants sit there, chastened and nervous in ill-fitting ties, as Jimmy does an excellent job of talking around what it is they actually did. No one got hurt! It wasn’t trespassing, the business was open day and night! “I don’t think they deserve to have their bright futures ruined by a momentary, minute, never-to-be-repeated lapse in judgment,” he tells the jury.

I’m jumping ahead here, but where do you think Jimmy would have ended up if the whole Chicago sunroof incident never happened? I mean, he wouldn’t have gone to Albuquerque, he wouldn’t have become a lawyer… do you think he was happy just running small-time cons and smoking weed at age c. 30?

Anyway, as soon as we see the boys in the mortuary, let alone hear the sawing, we know the case is unwinnable. Jimmy collects his meagre paycheck and stalks out to his car. The show teases us a bit by putting a white pearlescent Cadillac front and centre in the frame before panning across to a battered 1998 Suzuki Esteem (aside: that car is awfully beat up for being only four years old). I love the car, by the way. The colour and the mismatched door are perfect.

The Kettlemans, who could have stepped straight out of an episode of Fargo (as Julie Ann Emery in fact did!), introduce the theme of denial of reality. They’re the innocent victims of a misunderstanding, you see. Craig’s business practices are “beyond reproach”. The missing money is a “discrepancy”. While Craig is amenable to hiring Jimmy, Betsy won’t have it; needing a lawyer would imply guilt, after all. Bob Odenkirk plays Jimmy’s barely-hidden desperation very well. He looks literally and figuratively hungry as Craig prepares to sign.

I want to take a moment to comment on Dave Porter’s score, which helps set Better Call Saul apart from Breaking Bad. The two scores are similar enough to provide continuity, but where Breaking Bad’s music is full of mechanical sounds, drones, saws and reverberations, the music of Better Call Saul has a much warmer timbre, more traditional instrumentation and a more naturalistic sound. (The best side-by-side comparison I can think of is “Dead Freight” versus “Border Crossing”— similar themes, similar rhythm and tempo, completely different feels.) The use of flute and harp stands out in particular— you’d never hear those instruments used in the same way in an episode of Breaking Bad.

One of this episode’s most effective individual beats is Cal coming out of nowhere and hitting Jimmy’s windshield, which manages to be startling even when you know it’s coming. It’s the distraction factor: preoccupy the audience with new information (Jimmy’s card was declined) and then fling a skateboarder into the frame. Jimmy, his windshield broken (can we call that a Breaking Bad reference?), limps home.

The lighting in Jimmy’s office is just gorgeous. This show unreasonably romanticises broke lawyers living in salon backrooms. We learn that Jimmy has a host of “past due” bills— wireless, Visa, library, Diner’s Club, phone— and then get a brilliant hook in the form of a check for $26,000 (dated May 9, 2002, for those of us tracking this stuff) that he promptly rips up, scowling.

Everything about the offices of Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill is so composed, right down to the five-note elevator chime. Blue and wood panelling predominate. I’ll have more to say about colours later on.

The boardroom scene is a beautiful piece of exposition, establishing characters and relationships bit by bit without spelling anything out. Chuck is someone close to Jimmy, and Hamlin, a senior partner at HHM, is giving Chuck money. He’s paying it into Jimmy’s account because Chuck isn’t capable of going to the bank, for some reason. Chuck helped build the firm, but he doesn’t work there any more and Jimmy thinks he never will again. Hamlin, on the other hand, believes Chuck can overcome his situation, and Jimmy dodges the question when asked whether Chuck really wants to be cashed out. The words “brother” and “illness” aren’t even used.

“If Chuck can call this an extended sabbatical, so can we”, Hamlin says— it’s not just Betsy Kettleman who’s engaging in a degree of denial (though the whole situation with Hamlin and Chuck’s illness becomes much more shaded and more complicated later on).

Let’s take another look at this incredible frame:

Kim and Jimmy share a cigarette. Seven words are spoken. Thus, their relationship is sketched out. See above re: exposition. We also see Kim literally clearing up after Jimmy after he takes his frustration out on the trash can, illustrating how they respectively deal with unfairness; he lashes out, she sets things straight.

Again in darkness, Jimmy arrives at Chuck’s house, stashes his phone and keys in the mailbox, and grounds himself on a piece of metal. (The air in Albuquerque is so dry that it’s very easy to build up a static charge. I was constantly getting zapped by door handles.) Chuck, noticing Jimmy’s discontent, instinctively asks him if he’s “in trouble”, which must sting.

Good Lord the lighting is beautiful.

Chuck does have a point about what would happen if he were to cash out of HHM. Jimmy doesn’t seem to see past the initial payout. What they’re really arguing about, beyond money, is whether or not Chuck is ever going to recover from his unspecified illness. The way his voice breaks on “I’m going to get better!” is rough. 

“Your friend Kim— a promising career, over and done with.” Not to read too much into this phrasing, but it sounds almost like Chuck thinks that if Kim lost her job at HHM it would be the end of her entire career. As if the firm is only keeping her there out of charity.

“But Jimmy, wouldn’t you rather build your own identity?” Oh, Chuck, if you only knew.

The next scene plunges us into sunlight. Jimmy has tracked down the skateboarders and we get a foundational piece of his backstory: he used to make money running slip-and-fall scams on the icy sidewalks of his hometown, and now he wants the boys to take a hit from Betsy Kettleman so that he can parachute into her good graces. Jimmy, apparently, has been observing Betsy closely enough that he knows where her kids go to school, what time she leaves to pick them up, and what route she takes. I mean, okay.

The hit-and-run happens at 7th Street and Tijeras Avenue, very close to the school where Jimmy & crew film the flag in season 2, and a short distance west of the courthouse district and the Civic Plaza. This whole sequence is such a glorious comedy of errors, and it showcases perfectly Jimmy’s ability to think on his feet. I mean, it’s also true that if he’d aborted the plan when “Betsy Kettleman” had driven off, he never would have ended up hog-tied in the desert pleading for his life, but those are unknown unknowns, I suppose.

“You felonied my brother!" is possibly one of my favourite lines of the season.

Who among us saw Tuco coming? None. None of us. I gasped. It was very considerate of the show to release the next episode immediately.

Miscellaneous

While most of the addresses shown on screen in BCS are fictionalised, the address shown on Jimmy’s mail—160 Juan Tabo Boulevard NE— is the actual IRL location of the nail salon.

Items in Gene’s shoebox: the videotape, an old Band-Aid container, various photos including one of a man standing in front of a 1940s-style car, and a photo packet from a film lab in Portland, Maine

Broken windshields: 2

New Mexico Statutes violated: 3— § 30-28-2, conspiracy to commit felony fraud (Jimmy, Cal and Lars); § 66-7-202, failing to stop after an accident causing damage to a vehicle (Mrs. Salamanca); § 30-3-2, aggravated assault (Tuco)

Timeframe: May 13 to May 25, 2002 (see next post)

Music

“Address Unknown” by the Ink Spots (1939), during the Cinnabon sequence

“Milestones” by Shook (2014), as the twins attempt to scam Betsy

References

Network: a 1976 film about a news anchor who begins ranting about the state of the world during a broadcast. The character whom Jimmy quotes (”You have meddled with the primal forces of nature...!”) is a man who berates the protagonist for speaking out against his network’s corporate owners. Bryan Cranston starred in the 2017 stage adaptation.

Peter Minuit: a Dutch trader who purchased the island of Manhattan from the Lenape people for a sum equalling about $1,000 in today’s money

“Ergo, a falsis principiis proficisci”: “therefore, you proceed from false principles"

Trichinosis: a parasitic disease most often spread via undercooked pork

Starlight Express: an Andrew Lloyd Webber rock musical performed on rollerskates 

> NEXT EPISODE: MIJO

    Inti Creates has rekindled my love for retro throwbacks... again. I shouldn't have been surprised; the studio's been killing it since Mega Man Zero and has only been keeping it up through 9, 10, and the Azure Striker Gunvolt games, just before dropping it dramatically onto the ground with a wet crunch (Mighty No 9). Yet even after leading the years-long disappointment parade of crowdfunded spiritual successors, they've hit the ground running with Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon.

    For a crisp 10 bucks, I've gotten six hours of teeth-gritting joy and pain befitting of a classic Castlevania. Better, even! The difficulty curves satisfying hourglass shapes throughout levels, checkpoints bookending stretches of varied challenges and moments of respite, initially vast and methodical yet flying by on consecutive playthroughs with fluid play. Its bosses run laps around Cyclops or Frankenstein from Castlevania III, not least in spectacle; unlike III, Curse of the Moon's playable characters beg to be dynamically switched between mid-boss, each phase and attack pattern artfully counteracted by one of the four protagonists. The same holds true for levels, each crammed with screens custom-made for a particular sub-weapon or movement pattern.

   (this archer shoots infinite arrows with knockback, barring entry unless you use Alfred's fire shield...)

  (... you can switch to a character with better range and damage to finish the archer off and access the branching path below without taking a scratch)

    And even then, certain abilities (like Miriam's sliding kick and Gebel's bat form) perform similar functions (squeezing into crawl spaces). This, along with their differing health totals and sub-weapon costs, fleshes out initially simple decisions with wrinkles of depth. For example, many platforming sequences can be easily overcome with Gebel's bat form, but it'll quickly drain your magic points, leaving you fewer uses for powerful, long-range sub-weapons. There's a beautiful pain in being decimated by axemen and ghouls after feeling like I've cheated the system with Gebel, and later levels fill the air with foes to make this untenable as an easy out.

(Gebel's bat form can access any area Miriam can with her sliding kick or high jump, but his lower health bar makes him harder to keep alive)

    Despite these specificities in level design, every stage is completable with any character, meaning even when all but your most neglected are knocked out, there's always a chance you can pull through. The game is meant to be replayed with various combinations of characters—all 4, only Zangetsu, everyone except Zangetsu, and so on—and each combination fundamentally alters the flow and difficulty of stages.

     It's an exceptional feat of level design and a clever way to extend playtime, yet it's core to my looming disappointment with the game.

    I spent at least 6 hours with Bloodstained, with an in-game time of 2 hours for each playthrough. That's meaty for an NES-style game! The first 4 hours rattled me to my core with obsessive adoration. It was on my mind while cooking, cleaning, playing other games... Yet as I spent my last 2 hours unlocking everything for this review, despite being challenged fairly and feeling my technique sharpen to a razor's edge... I ached. Because a significant chunk of the game for completionists will involve playing as Zangetsu and only Zangetsu.

    Curse of the Moon has three modes of play (Normal, Nightmare, Ultimate), two difficulty settings (Casual, Veteran), and six endings largely determined by whether Zangetsu recruits, ignores, or kills the other three characters. On Normal and Ultimate, the game starts with only the demon hunter Zangetsu, and the first three stages allow you to recruit the rest of the cast. While playing the game for my own enjoyment, I recruited every character on Normal mode and immediately sprang into the newly-unlocked Nightmare mode which increases boss difficulty, features two unique stages, ditches Zangetsu, and lets you play as the other three right off the bat. I didn't mind this at all; the early stages have shortcuts that are only accessible in this mode, meaning there’s less repetition than you would first expect. And Zangetsu's moveset most resembles that of a Belmont but with the range of a shortsword, meaning he's the the least flashy and most difficult to play. In my initial run, I only used Zangetsu when my other characters were low on health. I didn't miss him on Nightmare.

    But to unlock Ultimate mode, you must beat Normal mode with Zangetsu and only Zangetsu. If you kill Miriam, Alfred, and Gebel instead of recruiting them, Zangetsu gains extra powers to make the playthrough more manageable: a double jump, a dash, and a versatile aerial slash with a wide arc. But even this leaves you with a drastically reduced health-pool and a fourth of the versatility. Despite this run having the same playtime as my first two, it felt significantly longer. Even when inputting precise sequences of jumps, ducks, and alternating sub-weapons and attacks to optimize damage, it felt like a lesser experience. And Ultimate mode's the same game with Nightmare's harder bosses, Zangetsu's new moves, and a charged slash, making it largely pointless except to more easily unlock endings that involve sparing and abandoning party members. One of these endings is unlocked through another Zangetsu-only run. After accidentally recruiting Alfred in my attempt to win this ending on Ultimate, I decided to call it quits. I just wasn't having nearly as much fun without all my demonically empowered friends!

  It's frustrating to love a game and have its playtime be extended with a shadow of its former self. Now, that shadow is very well-defined; Zangetsu-only runs feel like a classic, 1-character Castlevania without any of the bullshit. But because the refined character switching transcends its inspirations, offering variety, depth, and fluidity unfound in the old Castlevania trilogy, returning to just Zangetsu takes the wind out of my sails. Even with his extra kit, I miss the length of Miriam's whip, the unique aerial arc of Gebel's bats, and Alfred's devastating spells. And so does the game; signs and epilogues repeatedly lament what could have been when you go it alone. Maybe it's a profound piece of Gothic ludonarrative, but it's definitely less fun.

    If you came for the consumer review elements and feel lost, know that you should buy this game. If I only got one ending on Normal, I would feel my money was well spent. But after that and a welcome extra helping in Nightmare mode, the game offered me more content with less depth and higher difficulty, leaving me stuffed yet unsatisfied. Somehow, playing the game I loved using all four characters unlocks only one of the six endings. In short, I wish Curse of the Moon extended its playtime by demanding more skillful use of its primary feature instead of removing it.

The INFJ-Enneatype Mix

by emeraldsea (X) (X) 

A glimpse of what INFJs of each enneatype tend to look like, with a focus on positive traits of psychologically average to healthy individuals of each type: INFJ Type 1 Very strong on values, they are like a bulwark, and you can count on them. In mentoring and counseling others, they are extraordinarily gifted in achieving the perfect balance of holding others accountable in a gracious but firm way, while trying to help them work through their issues. One of their strongest ethics will be kindness - their ethical fortitude, combined with Fe, makes for someone who will be very loving and gracious. Their demeanor won't be overtly emotional but it will have an emotional undercurrent you may be able to sense, a "flair" about it - it's hard to put this into words. 1s in general are very self-critical and perfectionist by nature, and they will notice in the environment where others aren't living up to their ethics, and are likely to try to inspire, direct, or prompt them to do so. An INFJ 1 will do so, but with the magnanimity and sensitivity of Fe. they often crusade for a cause; or they may become courageous, inspiring, effective agents for social change. Their 1 core, combined with Fe, will look a lot like Fi, so they may seem to be INFPs; but they aren't. INFJ Type 2 One of the warmest, most friendly, almost extrovertish-seeming INFJs, they thrive on making connections with other people. This INFJ is likely to talk to you first, befriend you, be overtly compassionate and empathetic, and help you out in any way possible. You won't be able to miss their Fe ~ they will be encouraging you, being sweet to you, all the things you expect from Fe. For instance, if you are in the hospital, this INFJ is likely to anticipate what all your needs may be - come and bring your family food, drive your kids around to their errands, then visit you and try to cheer you up (thus appearing ISFJish in behavior at times). They may feel obligated to help anyone who needs them, and find it difficult to say no. They will want to spend time with you, lots of it - they show caring partly through quality time - and they want a reciprocally warm relationship. So they aren't going to seem distant, emotionally disconnected, or cold, nor will they come across as introverted as they really are. Because of Fe's drive towards harmony, an INFJ 2 is going to be more focused on the health/harmony of the relationship and, because of that, highly in tune with how they think others feel about them, more so than 2s already are...and therefore more troubled by lack of reciprocity or problems in the relationship. INFJ Type 3 The humanely-driven-for-success INFJ, for whom affirmation is bread and butter. I have rarely seen this combination on this forum, so this information is a synthesis of theoretical data. They would be driven both to be, and to appear to be, very good at whatever they do. Success and the esteem of others would translate to security for them, so whatever their role is, they would try to be the very best possible at that role. Therefore accolades would be welcome - since they would care what others thought of them - and they wouldn't be shy to have positive attention drawn to themselves. In interacting with them, you would find them extraordinarily charming and likeable and caring...while not overtly emotional (they would tend to suppress their emotions, although a 4 wing might change that). Within each setting, they would intuitively be able to determine what others were expecting of them, and what was deemed as success; and - unless those expectations or standards of success conflicted with their Fe values - would do their best to live up to that ideal, and be afraid to fail. Likely, they would feel an internal conflict between their independent thinking (Ni) and the thinking of society at large (what society considers "intellectual" or "acceptable patterns of thought"), and also struggle with society's definitions of success through stepping on others to get to the top since that violates their Fe. So they would be likely to be principled in that they would have a problem with achieving success at cost to others or in a way that would have to put others down in order to elevate themselves. INFJ Type 4 The artsy INFJ that typically has a penchant for eye contact, who can talk to you with their eyes, they are going to seem like they understand you, and you are likely to feel safe around them. They are going to have their soul wed to some form(s) of art (it could be painting, drawing, music, literature, dance, photography, acting, etc.), through which they express their wide range of emotions, because they are very emotional people. What 4s feel, they feel deeply, no matter what the emotion...and INFJs feel the feelings of those around them via Fe - so INFJ 4s are deeply empathetic. They are passionate, can fall into very dark moods, and can appear dramatic (although a 5 wing will temper somewhat how much of that shows) or, sometimes, focused on their own problems. When in the middle of a dark mood they may withdraw from everyone for periods of time, but an INFJ 4's Fe can drag them out of self-absorption if someone in emotional crisis needs their help. They're drawn to reach out to you during the darkest crisis points in your life and really be there for you - they know how to deal with the most severe of emotional states and are drawn towards the melancholy element of life. They will prize authenticity and being true to themselves, even if this means diverging from convention, so they often have a unique flair. Highly individualist, don't expect them to follow the crowd in how they present themselves. Creative by nature, they are typically not boring conversationalists....yet, at times, their topics may naturally veer towards and linger upon the poignant or tragic elements of life...or their own problems, for which they may expect your emotional support. INFJ Type 5 The INFJ who may wonder if they are actually INTP or INTJ, they will come across as thinkers and will have a lot of interesting insights. If you are fascinated by the theoretical, you will probably be able to talk with your INFJ 5 friend for hours about their thoughts about life ~ and will find that they have a voracious hunger for knowledge and a very analytical mind. They will be sensitive to your emotional states and care about them because of their Fe, while not coming across as emotional or invasive, and tending to be detached (although a 4 wing will temper that). 5s in general want to be independent, and don't deal well with clinginess or people who "invade" their space too far or violate their privacy, so they may not initiate contact or open up as often as some enneatypes. An INFJ 5's Fe will make them seem more extroverted than they really are. Fe concern about others will be expressed in ways native to the 5 interaction style, which is less self-revealing (unless in a place they feel safe) than that of some enneatypes. There is a subtlety and depth to them that is not always recognized by those who don't know them well. 5s with Fe can seem aloof even though they have very warm feelings inside, because of this...the better you get to know them, the more you realize how much rests below the surface. and even when they aren't with the people they care about, they think about their connections with them and feel closer to them. During solitude, they nourish their internal love towards others and sometimes become aware of feelings they weren't conscious of, before. if they become aware of feelings during your absence, they may spill them out suddenly when they are around you again...in a somewhat gushily affectionate way, at times. INFJ Type 6 The "unswervingly loyal friend" INFJ, this friend, once they trust and become devoted to you, can be counted on through thick and thin, no matter what. This is not to say that other types aren't loyal; loyalty definitely isn't limited to 6s; but 6s are notable for this. They are likely to be there for you, supporting you, and "fairweather" isn't in their vocabulary. An INFJ 6 is usually kind and likeable, empathetic, and very understanding in a down-to-earth, "make you feel comfortable" way. They may (depending on the direction their core fear takes) have a noticeable strength about them, a fortitude and courage that can persevere through difficulty or - despite profound fear - act heroically on behalf of those they care about. They very actively read others and try to sense where others stand in relation to one another and themself, and are very intuitive. 6s in general may doubt how others feel about them or whether others can be trusted. Cp6s in general feel a need to look strong or be proactively confrontational in order to protect themselves, but they are softer than they appear, and a cp6 INFJ is going to temper their tendencies with diplomacy, and use that ability to protect those they care about as well. INFJ Type 7 The "happy-go-lucky"-ish INFJ, since their 7 mimics Ne in certain respects, complete with the typical ENFP playfulness, there will sometimes be an ENFP-ish vibe. An INFJ with 7 influence in their tritype is likely to get asked "Are you happy all the time?" or "Are you ever not happy?" by those who do not know them well. While Fe can make any INFJ appear extroverted, it is especially pronounced in those with 7 in their type, because 7s tend to be outgoing, and find happiness in the company of others. INFJ 7s would most likely be typed by others as ENFJs or ENFPs, seeming energized by socializing while possessing the contrarily strong drive to get needed solitude. So one would expect an INFJ 7 to struggle with the introversion vs. extroversion dichotomy and find it difficult to land decisively on either side of the spectrum. Inhibitions may be lacking (but the restraining hand of Ni would hold the INFJ back often, by predicting potential negative consequences of giving in to impulse). Clinginess by others is quite disturbing to them, but their Fe is likely to make them feel an obligation to be kind anyway. Fascinated by a wide variety of things, they will attempt to stay a step ahead of what could make life miserable, or escape the inevitable struggles of life through indulgence in mood-elevating activities. This opens the door for entanglement in such activities, because of the addictive emotional high they provide. 7s with a 6 wing tend to joke around a lot, or enjoy making others laugh. 7s are drawn towards the positive side of life, so they try to cheer up others around them or repel negativity. An INFJ 7 would likely use humor to dispel a negative situation, or to restore harmony and positivity in conflict settings. INFJ Type 8 The passionate, straight-talking, natural-leader INFJ, they are intensity incarnate. There will be a palpable warmth about them (because of Fe), combined with strength - without their having to show off their strength, you will knowthey are a force to be reckoned with. INFJs in general are sensitive to and tend to be guided by their intuition, but an INFJ 8 will rely on their gut even more. They'll be able to suss you out quickly and know who you are and what you are capable of, and sense if you are being dishonest, more so than INFJs already do. Fe makes INFJs protective of those they care about, and a healthy 8 is driven to defend and protect anyone they care about - so the combination of the two is double-protectiveness. 8s in general are comfortable in the presence of conflict, while Fe favors harmony, so an INFJ 8 will have those two conflicting attitudes within, which will be evident in their behavior. 8s in general do not want to appear weak and have a need to protect themselves from those who might try to control them, and there are people in the world who deem certain tender displays of Fe as "weakness," so it's likely that an INFJ 8's Fe will look quite different on the outside from that of other enneatypes, although it will be experienced the same on the inside. They will really care about people, and they will feel things deeply, and a healthy 8 will use their dominance and position of power to benefit others. INFJ Type 9 The easygoing, empathetic INFJ with a calming presence, they are easy to talk to, easy to be around, diplomatic in how they interact with others. Their Fe is very evident, in a somewhat understated way. They will be there for you and listen empathetically and know how to comfort you. they want you to feel comfortable around them, and they strive for a harmonious environment, and know very well how to make both happen, often with remarkable skill and charm. They will dislike conflict more intensely than most enneatypes - if they have a 1 wing, they may be avoidant of it in general; and if they have an 8 wing, they may be reluctant to engage unless necessary or angry, but not afraid of it. 9s may intervene between those in conflict in order to re-establish peace. 9s in general seem passive and relaxed, although they have a strong, passionate will about whatever matters to them; you may not see their strong will unless you try to force them into something they don't want to do. Caveat 1: Take into account that an environment where anyone feels secure, or psychological growth, is going to bring out the traits of the enneatype in the direction of their "integration." Conversely, a stressed-out individual will appear like a not-so-healthy version of the enneatype in their direction of disintegration. While certain behaviors are typical of each type, behaviors themselves are not diagnostic of enneatype - motivations are - and various types can share the same behaviors while having very different motives for them. I am just pointing out what certain INFJ-enneatype combinations TEND to look like (there will be exceptions and the same type can look very different depending on their psychological state at any given point in time)...since some combinations tend to follow distinctive, recognizable patterns of behavior. Caveat 2: The descriptions I gave largely represent (psychologically) average to healthy versions of those enneatypes. While enneagram theory tends to focus on the negative traits, I was focusing more on the positive and the most obvious traits here. so these aren't intended to be complete delineations of the behavior of each type, just some traits that are easy to notice or recognize when interacting with these types.

eleven Origins of eleven Super Mario Characters' Names

The foundation on the Mario series! Would you like to come together or...or from every single other...?!

Mario Bros. is an action game released by Nintendo in 1983.

It is the first game that pre-owned "Mario" inside the distinction. Control Mario or Luigi in order to punch the foes originating out of pipes by below to transform them then and over beat them. In the two player mode, both players are able to decide to come together or even do the job alongside each other and enjoy the game within a myriad of ways.

The "Arcade Archives" sequence has faithfully reproduced a lot of standard Arcade masterpieces.

Players are able to alter various game settings such as game difficulties, plus also reproduce the ambiance of arcade screen options during that time. Players can also participate against one another coming from around the globe with their superior scores.

Please love the masterpiece that made a model for video clip games.

Can you make an a digital movie from a video recording game? That is the doubting that's answered by this specific digital movie. Mario Mario and Luigi Mario, two difficult performing plumbers discover themselves in another universe wherein evolved dinosaurs are now living in medium hi tech squalor. They end up the sole optimism to rescue the planet from invasion.

This is the story of 2 hard working Italian plumber brothers known as Mario Mario in addition to the Luigi Mario, who befriends a paleontologist known as Daisy. She uncovers a tremendous come across of mysterious brand new dinosaur bones. While examining the tunnels wherein dinosaur fossils lay, saboteurs employed by the Mario Bros. competitor businessman, Anthony Scapelli, to stop several underground water lines. Meanwhile, within a hidden planet identified as Dinohattan, King Koopa's land is close to exhausting much of its clean water and running through difficulties so he directs Spike as well as Iggy to kidnap Daisy! The Super Mario Bros. wind up the sole anticipation to rescue the environment at intrusion after that challenge a diabolical lizard king and so they have to fight gigantic reptilian goombas, outwit misfit criminals, and challenge sinister scheme by taking with the world!

Mario and Luigi, two wacky plumbers, take on a daring pursuit to avoid wasting a princess in Dinohattan -- a hidden world in which the occupants grown from dinosaurs! Luigi and Mario deal with lethal challenges from a diabolical lizard king and also should battle gigantic reptilian goombas, outwit misfit thugs, and also ruin a sinister system to take control of the world!

2 Brooklyn plumbers, Mario and Luigi, must take a trip to yet another dimension to rescue a princess from the evil dictator King Koopa and eliminate him from shooting over the world.

When I discovered that out I did 2 things. To begin with, I whipped out my copy (yes, I keep it which real/nerdy which I continue to have a well used NES connected in the room) of mine and made certain I will be able to beat the game at will. (I can. Childhood not wasted.)

Secondly, I started down a rabbit hole of looking at Mario websites as well as Wikis and Articles. In the operation, I stumbled upon the etymologies of the labels of a number of the main players in the Mario universe. Consequently, in honor of the video game that changed the globe, in this article they're, given in handy 11 item list form.

Mario.

When Mario debuted to the arcade game "Donkey Kong", he was just known as Jumpman. (Which even is the generic label regarding that Michael Jordan spread leg Nike logo. Two of the most celebrated icons actually both have generic versions of themselves known as Jumpman. But just one has today reached a point of being very powerful that he shaved himself a Hitler mustache before filming a commercial and the balls were had by no one to correct him.)

In 1980, as the Nintendo of America crew brought in Jumpman to lift him right into a franchise-leading star (Hayden Christensen style), an individual discovered that he looked like their Seattle office building's landlord... a person called Mario Segale.

Mario Segale didn't obtain a dime for being the namesake of one of the most well known video game persona perhaps, although he probably isn't too concerned; in 1998 he sold the asphalt company of his for more than $60 million. (Or 600,000 extra lives.)

Luigi.

Luigi has one of the weakest brand beginnings of most of the mario characters names in the Mario universe (once again showing why, for life that is real, he would have a greater inferiority complicated than Frank Stallone, Abel or that 3rd Manning brother).

"Luigi" is merely the result of people of Japanese males trying to consider an Italian name to enhance "Mario." Why was the Italian label they went with? When they all moved from Japan to Seattle, the pizza place nearest to the Nintendo headquarters referred to as Mario & Luigi's. (It has since gone from business.)

Koopa.

Koopa is a transliterated model of the Japanese rap for the adversary turtles, "Kuppa." Stick with me here -- kuppa is the Japanese phrase for a Korean plate called gukbap. Essentially it is a cup of soup with elmer rice. From what I definitely inform it's totally unrelated to turtles, particularly malicious ones.

In an interview, Mario's creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, stated he was deciding between three distinct names because of the high-speed of evil turtles, every one of that happened to be named after Korean foods. (The other 2 were yukhoe and bibimbap.) Which means one of two things: (1) Miyamoto adores Korean foods and needed to give it a tribute or (2) Miyamoto thinks Koreans are evil and should be jumped on.

Wario.

I kind of skipped the debut of Wario -- he debuted in 1992, right around when I was hitting the era just where I was too awesome for cartoon-y Nintendo games. (Me and the middle school buddies of mine happened to be into Genesis only. I was again on Nintendo within four years.)

Seems his title functions both in Japanese and english; I kinda assumed the English fashion but didn't know about the Japanese element. In English, he is an evil, bizarro marketplace mirror image of Mario. The "M" flips to turn into a "W" and also Wario is created. The name likewise operates in Japanese, where it's a combination of Mario as well as "warui," that indicates "bad."

That's a really excellent situation, since, as I covered extensively in the summary eleven Worst Japanese-To-English Translations In Nintendo History, only a few language significant difference finesses again and also forth quite efficiently.

Waluigi.

When I initially read "Waluigi" I assumed it was hilarious. While Wario was obviously an all natural counterbalance to Mario, Waluigi believed really comically shoehorned (just tacking the "wa" prefix before Luigi) -- including a huge inside joke that somehow cleared every single bureaucratic step and then cracked the mainstream.

Well... in accordance with the Nintendo folks, Waluigi isn't just a gloriously lazy choice or maybe an inside joke become substantial. They *say* it is based upon the Japanese word ijiwaru, which means "bad guy."

I do not understand. I sense that we would have to cater for them more than halfway to pay for that.

Toad.

Toad is built to look as a mushroom (or toadstool) thanks to the gigantic mushroom hat of his. It is a good thing the gaming systems debuted before the whole model realized how you can generate penis jokes.

Anyway, in Japan, he's considered Kinopio, which is certainly a blend of the term for mushroom ("kinoko") as well as the Japanese version of Pinocchio ("pinokio"). Those combine to be something along the collections of "A Real Mushroom Boy."

Goomba.

In Japanese, these guys are named kuribo, which translates to "chestnut people." That seems sensible because, ya know, if someone asked you "what do chestnut individuals appear to be like?" you would almost certainly arrive at food nearly like these heroes.

When they were shipped for the American model, the team tangled with the Italian initiative of theirs and known as them Goombas... primarily based off of the Italian "goombah," that colloquially means something like "my fellow Italian friend." It also type of evokes the photo of low level mafia criminals without very many competencies -- like people's younger brothers as well as cousins who they had to work with or perhaps mother would yell at them. Which also is true for the Mario Bros. goombas.

Birdo.

Birdo has nothing at all to do with this initial Japanese title. There, he's called Kyasarin, which regularly translates to "Catherine."

In the teaching manual for Super Mario Bros. two, where Birdo debuted, the character explanation of his reads: "Birdo considers he's a girl and would like for being called Birdetta."

What In my opinion all of this means? Nintendo shockingly decided to produce a character that battles with the gender identity of his and called him Catherine. In the event it was a bit of time to go to America, they got cold feet so they decided at the last second to phone him Birdo, though he's a dinosaur. (And do not offer me the "birds are descended from dinosaurs" pop paleontology line. Not buying that connection.) In that way, we'd just understand about the gender confusion of his in case we have a look at manual, and the Japanese have been pretty sure Americans had been sometimes too lazy or even illiterate to do it en masse.

Princess Toadstool/Peach.

When everyone got released on the Princess, she was recognized as Princess Toadstool. I suppose this made good sense -- Mario was set in the Mushroom Kingdom, so why would not its monarch be named Princess Toadstool. Them inbreeding blue bloods are usually naming their young children immediately after the country.

Nobody seems to be sure the reason they went the guidance, however. In Japan, she was regarded as Princess Peach from day one. The name didn't debut here until 1993, when Yoshi's Safari came out for Super Nintendo. (By the manner by which -- have you ever had Yoshi's Safari? In a bizarre twist it's a first-person shooter, the only one in the entire Mario times past. It's like something like a country music superstar making a weird rock album.)

Bowser.

In Japan, there is certainly no Bowser. He is simply known as the King Koopa (or maybe comparable variants, including Great Demon King Koopa). So exactly where did Bowser come from?

During the import procedure, there was a problem that the American masses would not recognize how the little turtles and big bad fellow could very well certainly be called Koopa. So a marketing group developed a large number of options for a name, they adored Bowser the very best, and slapped it on him.

In Japan, he's still rarely referred to as Bowser. Over here, the name of his has become so ubiquitous that he's actually supplanted Sha Na Na's Bowzer as America's a good number of prominent Bowser.

Donkey Kong.

This's a much more literal interpretation than you think. "Kong" is based off of King Kong. "Donkey" is a family friendly means of calling him an ass. That's right: His name is a valuable model of "Ass Ape."

Super Mario Bros. is a video recording game introduced for the family Computer and Nintendo Entertainment System found 1985. It shifted the gameplay away from the single-screen arcade predecessor of its, Mario Bros., and rather highlighted side scrolling platformer quantities. While not the first game of the Mario franchise, Super Mario Bros. is pretty legendary, and presented a variety of series staples, coming from power ups, to classic foes like Goombas, to the simple concept of rescuing Princess Toadstool out of King Koopa. Along with kicking above an entire series of Super Mario platformer video games, the untamed success of Super Mario Bros. popularized the genre as an entire, really helped revive the gaming sector as soon as the 1983 clip game crash, and also was largely the cause of the original success around the NES, with that it was bundled a launch name. Until eventually it had been eventually exceeded by Wii Sports, Super Mario Bros. was the very best marketing videos game of all of the time for almost three decades, with over forty thousand copies marketed globally.

How had been selected the Names for Super Mario

The origin of the Mario sequence! Would you like to come together or...or against each and every other...?!

Mario Bros. is an action game produced by Nintendo found 1983.

It's the original game which pre-owned "Mario" in the title. Control Mario or Luigi to be able to value the adversaries coming out of pipes from underneath to convert them over and then conquer them. Inside the two-player setting, each players can choose to work together or do the job against each other as well as enjoy the game within many ways.

The "Arcade Archives" sequence has faithfully reproduced numerous standard Arcade masterpieces.

Players can alter various game options like game difficulty, plus likewise reproduce the aura of arcade display settings during that time. Players can also compete against one another from all over the world because of their superior scores.

Please love the masterpiece which built a version for footage games.

Could you produce a film from a video game? That is the doubting that's answered by this movie. Mario Mario in addition to the Luigi Mario, two hard performing plumbers find out themselves inside a different universe where grown dinosaurs live in medium hi-tech squalor. They find themselves the sole anticipation to save the environment from your invasion.

This is the story of two hard-working Italian plumber brothers named Mario Mario as well as Luigi Mario, exactly who befriends a paleontologist named Daisy. An enormous get of mystical brand new dinosaur bones are uncovered by her. While examining the tunnels wherein dinosaur fossils lay, saboteurs selected with the Mario Bros. rival businessman, Anthony Scapelli, to break some underground piping. Meanwhile, within a secret planet identified as Dinohattan, King Koopa's farm land is close to exhausting much of its clean water and running through difficulties thus he transmits Spike along with Iggy to kidnap Daisy! The Super Mario Bros. find themselves the only real hope to save the earth from intrusion then challenge a diabolical lizard king and so they need to fight giant reptilian goombas, outwit misfit criminals, and also challenge sinister scheme by taking of the world!

Luigi and Mario, two wacky plumbers, tackle a daring pursuit in order to save a princess inside Dinohattan -- a hidden earth where the inhabitants developed from dinosaurs! Mario and Luigi deal with dangerous challenges from a diabolical lizard king and also must battle gigantic reptilian goombas, outwit misfit criminals, and ruin a sinister system to take control of the world!

2 Brooklyn plumbers, Luigi and Mario, should travel to yet another dimension to rescue a princess from the evil dictator King Koopa and stop him from shooting over the world.

When I found that out I did 2 things. For starters, I whipped out my copy (yes, I maintain it that real/nerdy which I still need an older NES hooked up in my room) and made confident I will be able to match the game at will. (I can. Childhood not wasted.)

Secondly, I started down a rabbit hole of looking through Mario websites as well as Articles and Wikis. In the process, I stumbled upon the etymologies of the labels of a few of the key players in the Mario universe. Therefore, in honor of the video game that changed the globe, in this article they're, given in useful 11-item list form.

Mario.

When Mario debuted in the arcade game "Donkey Kong", he was simply known as Jumpman. (Which additionally actually is the generic name associated with that Michael Jordan dispersed leg Nike logo. Two of the most celebrated icons ever before each have generic versions of themselves referred to as Jumpman. But simply at least one has nowadays gotten to a point of being extremely effective that he shaved himself a Hitler mustache prior to filming a business and the balls were had by nobody to correct him.)

In 1980, as the Nintendo of America crew shipped Jumpman to elevate him right into a franchise-leading star (Hayden Christensen style), an individual discovered that he looked just like their Seattle office building's landlord... a guy named Mario Segale.

Mario Segale didn't get yourself a cent for turning out to be the namesake of pretty much the most well known video game character perhaps, however, he most likely isn't absurdly concerned; in 1998 he sold the asphalt small business of his for over sixty dolars million. (Or 600,000 extra lives.)

Luigi.

Luigi has one of probably the weakest name roots of all of the mario princesses in the Mario universe (once again displaying precisely why, in actual life, he would have a greater inferiority complicated compared to Frank Stallone, Abel or that third Manning brother).

"Luigi" is merely the product of a team of Japanese guys attempting to consider an Italian brand to accentuate "Mario." Why was that the Italian brand they went with? When they all moved from Japan to Seattle, the pizza place nearby to the Nintendo headquarters known as Mario & Luigi's. (It has since gone out of business.)

Koopa.

Koopa is a transliterated model of the Japanese name for the enemy turtles, "Kuppa." Stick with me here -- kuppa is the Japanese phrase for a Korean recipe called gukbap. Essentially it is a cup of soup with cereal. From what I definitely tell it is completely unrelated to turtles, particularly malicious ones.

In an interview, Mario's creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, explained he was deciding between three brands which are distinct because of the race of evil turtles, each one of which have been named after Korean foods. (The alternative two were yukhoe and bibimbap.) And that means among 2 things: (1) Miyamoto adores Korean foods and was looking to offer a tribute or even (2) Miyamoto believes Koreans are evil and have to be jumped on.

Wario.

I sort of overlooked the debut of Wario -- he debuted in 1992, right around when I was hitting the age where I was too awesome for cartoon y Nintendo games. (Me and the middle school buddies of mine happened to be into Genesis only. I was again on Nintendo within four years.)

Appears the name of his works both in english and Japanese; I kinda assumed the English manner but didn't know about the Japanese feature. In English, he's an evil, bizarro community mirror image of Mario. The "M" turns to turn into a "W" and Wario is produced. The name also works in Japanese, when it's a combination of Mario and "warui," that indicates "bad."

That's a really great scenario, since, as I covered thoroughly in the summary 11 Worst Japanese-To-English Translations In Nintendo History, don't assume all language difference finesses back as well as forth as efficiently.

Waluigi.

When I initially seen "Waluigi" I thought it was hilarious. While Wario became an all natural counterbalance to Mario, Waluigi felt really comically shoehorned (just tacking the "wa" prefix before Luigi) -- like a giant inside joke that somehow cleared every bureaucratic step and then cracked the mainstream.

Well... in accordance with the Nintendo folks, Waluigi is not only a gloriously lazy choice or perhaps an inside joke gone huge. They *say* it is based upon the Japanese phrase ijiwaru, meaning "bad guy."

I don't understand. I sense that we would have to supply them more than halfway to get that.

Toad.

Toad is built to look like a mushroom (or toadstool) thanks to the gigantic mushroom hat of his. It is a good thing these gaming systems debuted before the entire generation understood the right way to generate penis jokes.

Anyway, in Japan, he's called Kinopio, which is certainly a mixture of the word for mushroom ("kinoko") as well as the Japanese version of Pinocchio ("pinokio"). Those blend to be something along the lines of "A Real Mushroom Boy."

Goomba.

In Japanese, these men are defined as kuribo, that results in "chestnut people." That is sensible because, ya know, if another person expected you "what do chestnut individuals appear to be like?" you'd probably arrive at something nearly similar to these heroes.

Once they had been brought in for the American version, the team tangled with their Italian initiative and known as them Goombas... based off of the Italian "goombah," that colloquially will mean anything as "my fellow Italian friend." Furthermore, it type of evokes the photo of low-level mafia criminals without very a lot of expertise -- like people's younger brothers and cousins who they had to employ or maybe mother would yell at them. That also is true for the Mario Bros. goombas.

Birdo.

Birdo has nothing to do with this original Japanese title. There, he's named Kyasarin, that typically results in "Catherine."

In the instruction manual for Super Mario Bros. 2, in which Birdo debuted, his character explanation reads: "Birdo thinks he is a woman and additionally wants being called Birdetta."

What I believe this all means? Nintendo shockingly chosen to develop a character who battles with the gender identity of his and then referred to as him Catherine. In the event it was time to show up to America, they got feet which are cold so they determined at the last minute to telephone call him Birdo, even though he's a dinosaur. (And do not offer me the "birds are descended from dinosaurs" pop-paleontology line. Not purchasing that connection.) In that way, we would only understand about the gender confusion of his in case we have a look at mechanical, and the Japanese had been fairly certain Americans had been sometimes too lazy or perhaps illiterate to accomplish that en masse.

Princess Toadstool/Peach.

When everyone got released on the Princess, she was recognized as Princess Toadstool. I assume this made good sense -- Mario was put in the Mushroom Kingdom, so why would not its monarch be named Princess Toadstool. Them inbreeding bluish bloods are usually naming the kids of theirs after the country.

No person appears to be sure precisely why they went the direction, however. In Japan, she was known as Princess Peach from day one. The title didn't debut here before 1993, when Yoshi's Safari arrived on the scene for Super Nintendo. (By the manner by which -- have you ever played Yoshi's Safari? In an off-the-wall twist it is a first-person shooter, the only woman in the whole Mario times past. It is like something like a country music superstar creating a weird rock album.)

Bowser.

In Japan, there is simply no Bowser. He is simply called the King Koopa (or similar variants, including Great Demon King Koopa). And so exactly where did Bowser come from?

During the import process, there was a problem that the American masses wouldn't understand how the small turtles and big bad gentleman could very well both be named Koopa. Thus a marketing staff developed a large number of selections for a title, they adored Bowser the best, and slapped it on him.

In Japan, he is still hardly ever known as Bowser. Over here, the name of his is now very ubiquitous that he's actually supplanted Sha Na Na's Bowzer as America's most well known Bowser.

Donkey Kong.

This is a much more literal interpretation than you think. "Kong" is based off King Kong. "Donkey" is a family-friendly means of calling him an ass. That's right: The name of his is an useful model of "Ass Ape."

.

INFP: Benjamin Sisko, “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”

INFP – the Healer, the Dreamer, the Clarifier

The revelation that Sisko is an INFP hit me one day like a ton of latinum bricks. I was trying to explain his moody attitude in the first episode compared to his later boldness. Cycling through a half-dozen or more different types and cognitive functions, I suddenly recognized the Fi-Si loop. I’ve been in one many a time, and now that I know we share the same type, I wish I had more of the positive aspects of Sisko’s personality in common with him. But Star Trek is about nothing so much as aspiration, so I hope all the shy INFPs out there can look to this commanding example of the INFP as a figure of power and passion.

Dominant Function: (Fi) Introverted Feeling, “The Deep Well”

Once Sisko believes in something, his intensity can be scary, even to the family and crew who know him well. Witness his fury for fighting the Dominion, hunting down Eddington, or saving Bajor.

When he first takes the DS9 assignment, this intensity is in danger of trickling away. Sisko is stuck deep in an Fi-Si loop in the wake of his wife Jennifer’s death at the hands of the Borg, and he’s become withdrawn, directionless, and moody. Meeting the wormhole aliens grants him the emotional catharsis he needs to properly grieve Jennifer’s loss, and he returns to his mission with renewed energy.

Over the years, the assignment takes on greater personal meaning for Ben—he is “of Bajor,” and he calls DS9 the place where he belongs.

For all his passion, Ben usually keeps a reserved, somewhat brooding composure. His bond with his son Jake appears through warmth, physical affection, and shared meals. He and his eventual new wife Kasidy strike sparks together instantly, but he has trouble voicing his feelings at certain awkward points in their relationship. For a long time, he won’t join the DS9 crew at Vic’s, until Kasidy drags out of him that he morally objects to joining a re-creation of a time and place where brown people like themselves weren’t allowed.

Even when healthy, Sisko’s Fi smolders—he rarely reacts in the moment unless called for. Given time, he erupts, embarking on a bold course of action, or delivering a stirring moral rant. All Star Trek captains excel at speechifying, but Sisko’s brand of righteous fury is particularly invigorating to behold. He dresses down recalcitrant officers, calls out stubborn Starfleet leadership, and takes devious villains to task.

Ben trusts his own judgment, in spite of entreaties or orders to the contrary. He leads a mission to rescue Odo and Garak from the massacre at the Omarion Nebula, despite Starfleet’s orders and the risks involved. He never believes that smooth-talking villains like Dukat, Winn, or Weyoun are up to anything other than no good. He shows faith in Kira and Odo from the beginning despite their prickliness and initial conflict. He takes it really hard, and really personally, when Eddington betrays him, because he didn’t see it coming while the man served right beside him.

Sisko’s Fi works through his decisions carefully, and in the morally gray environment of DS9, it has to work overtime. He constantly has to settle disputes and arguments in a politically tricky environment. He preaches about how it’s easy for Starfleet Command to overlook the plight of the Maquis because Earth is a Paradise. He believes bringing the Romulans into the war is the right thing to do, but in the aftermath, he needs to privately process the shady things he did to make it happen. He comes to a place where he’s okay with what he’s done, makes his peace with himself, and then deletes the log entry.

Auxiliary Function: (Ne) Extraverted Intuition, “The Hiking Trails”

Sisko explains to the Prophets in their first encounter that life is like baseball. With each new pitch, each new swing, a thousand potential outcomes arise which cannot be predicted. This, he preaches, is the joy of linear existence—while the Wormhole Aliens see all of time all at once, humans have to experience time moment by moment, never quite knowing what will happen next.

By explaining it out loud to the Prophets, Sisko realizes he has not been living this way. He’s been stuck in an Fi-Si loop since the death of his wife, unable to move forward. Sisko engages his auxiliary function and looks to the future—in his vision, he leaves his wife’s body and turns to his young son.

Ben is bright and accomplished, with expertise in engineering and military strategy—and baseball. He excelled and achieved at the Academy, and had a diverse career before taking the DS9 assignment. He’s possessed of an obsessive curiosity, and once he gets started on a project or pursuit, he can’t stop. Building the Bajoran lightship, exploring the ruins of B’Hala, beating the Vulcans at baseball, even tricking the Romulans into the war, are all paths he took from which he couldn’t retreat.

He even performs the part of the villain when chasing down Eddington, playing into the man’s martyrdom complex and going to shocking lengths to make him surrender.

Sisko is extremely patient with his angry, diverse, misfit crew as they learn to work together. He’s able to understand and appreciate the ideas and perspectives of other cultures, whether it’s the religion of the Bajorans or the greed of the Ferengi (though Quark has to school him a couple times). Although he’s uncomfortable with the implications at first, Sisko can hold on to the apparently contradictory concepts that the creators of the wormhole are both Wormhole Aliens (a scientific description) and the Prophets to the Bajoran people (a faith-based proposition). He eventually accepts that he is both a Starfleet officer with a job, and the Emissary of the Prophets with a calling.

This does not make either Starfleet Command or the Bajoran religious establishment entirely happy, but Sisko thrives in the paradox between these two ideas.

As Benny, his persona in his vision of the 1950s, Sisko is even more obviously an INFP. Benny writes short stories at a science fiction magazine, imagining a better future where anything is possible—like a black man commanding a space station. Later, when Benjamin returns to his life on DS9, he wonders if his whole existence here, and the life of everyone on board, might not be entirely in Benny’s head. And again, just like the dichotomy of the Aliens and the Prophets, Sisko is okay with this ambiguity.

Tertiary Function: (Si) Introverted Sensing, “The Study”

Sisko describes to the Prophets how each moment that a human experiences prepares them for the next—but no past experience prepared him for the day Jennifer died. He sees her “every time I close my eyes.” In the time-warp limbo of the Wormhole Aliens’ space, Sisko literally lives in that moment, continuously.

Sisko loops again, though not as severely, after the death of Jadzia, heading back home to Earth to peel potatoes at his father’s restaurant while he clears his head.

In fact, home is a familiar retreat for Ben. In his first few weeks at the Academy, he spent all his transporter credits beaming home for dinner every night. Years later, Sisko and Jake have lived on DS9 for over two years before he finally unpacks their stuff from Earth. Ben confesses to Jake that he’s finally begun “to think of this Cardassian monstrosity as home.”

Ben enjoys having the crew over to his quarters for dinner, which he cooks himself with real ingredients, carrying on the culinary legacy of the Sisko family. He also treasures the near-extinct Earth sport of baseball, keeping the tradition alive with his son Jake, and teaching the crew to play. At the end of the series, Ben decides that Bajor will be his home when he retires, and nabs a parcel of land to start building a house.

Jadzia tells him he’s a builder, the kind of man who needs to stay in a place and get the job done, rather than administrate from a distance (which is proven true the couple of times he’s given desk jobs). This healthy Si keeps Sisko grounded and focused while tackling the daily surprises that the job on DS9 brings.

Inferior Function: (Te) Extraverted Thinking, “The Workshop”

Sisko’s comfortable enough with his Te that he makes an effective and even intimidating commander. He rarely has trouble telling his crew what he wants or confronting them on their mistakes, though it’s typically low-key or one-on-one. When faced with orders or situations he dislikes or disapproves of, he’ll speak out or even yell out one of his epic moral rants, but often this is only after he’s kept his temper bottled up for a while.

Normally patient in his leadership style, Ben can become controlling and heavy-handed under extreme stress. He pushes the Federation President to declare martial law on Earth when he suspects Changeling infiltrators are afoot. Starfleet security officers march the streets, and ordinary citizens are ordered to give blood tests. It takes a lecture from his father to cool him off and set him back on the right track.

Ben gets aggressive as the coach of the DS9 baseball team, determined not to let the team of smug Vulcans beat them. He takes the competition too personally—the Vulcan team captain has been taunting Ben about human inferiority since their Academy days—and bullies the crew to be better. He embarrasses Rom and kicks him off the team, and then gets kicked out of the game himself for laying hands on the umpire (ISTJ Odo, sticking to the rules).

The team loses, but not before Sisko reinstates Rom, who scores a run. The Niners celebrate afterward, because scoring against Vulcans at all after only a few days of practice is a victory of its own. It is not logical, as the Vulcan points out, but Sisko has stopped caring what his rational adversary thinks of him. He revels in the happiness of the moment, because more than being a Starfleet Captain, more than being an Emissary, Ben Sisko is a human.

Origins for Super Mario Characters Name

Nintendo characters create their VR (arcade) debut with innovative Vive driven Mario Kart

Bandai Namco revealed a virtual reality version of Mario Kart, Mario Kart Arcade GP VR, which will make its debut inside a VR arcade the business enterprise is opening using Tokyo, Japan upcoming month.

The game appears to draw the VR debut of one of Nintendo's flagship franchises, however, it is crucial to note it's certified by Nintendo as well as invented by Namco - just like its non-VR predecessor, Mario Kart Arcade GP.Not too many particulars are still for sale in English regarding the game, nevertheless, it is enumerated about the arcade's site as walking on HTC Vive headsets as well as specially-designed racing seats.

Nintendo has so far been publicly reticent concerning the promise of VR - previous annum frontman Shigeru Miyamoto told investors that for VR in particular, we are ongoing our research, and looking into development and have a mind to the way the current core products of ours are supposed for being played for a relatively long time of time.

We are considering the choices of delivering an experience that provides worth when played for a short time, he continued. And the way to do away with the issues of long duration use.

When I discovered that out I did 2 things. For starters, I whipped out the message of mine (yes, I keep it that real/nerdy that I still have a well used NES hooked up in my room) and then made certain I can still beat the game at will. (I can. Childhood not wasted.)

Secondly, I initiated down a rabbit hole of reading Mario sites and Wikis and Articles. In the operation, I stumbled upon the etymologies of the brands of several of the main players in the Mario universe. Therefore, in honor of the video game which changed the planet, right here they are, given in handy 11 item list form.

Mario.

When Mario debuted to the arcade game "Donkey Kong", he was just called Jumpman. (Which even happens to be the generic name regarding that Michael Jordan dispersed leg Nike logo. Two of the most renowned icons ever before both have generic versions of themselves called Jumpman. But merely one of them has now reached the attempt of simply being so effective that he shaved himself a Hitler mustache prior to filming a business and no one had the balls to fix him.)

In 1980, as the Nintendo of America staff imported Jumpman to lift him into a franchise-leading star (Hayden Christensen style), somebody discovered that he looked like their Seattle office building's landlord... a guy named Mario Segale.

Mario Segale didn't obtain a dime for becoming the namesake of probably the most famous video game character perhaps, although he probably isn't absurdly concerned; in 1998 he sold the asphalt small business of his for around sixty dolars million. (Or 600,000 additional lives.)

Luigi.

Luigi actually has among the weakest name roots of all the mario brothers characters in the Mario universe (once again showing exactly why, in life that is real, he would have a bigger inferiority complex compared to Frank Stallone, Abel or even that last Manning brother).

"Luigi" is merely the result of people of Japanese men trying to imagine an Italian brand to enhance "Mario." Why was the Italian brand they went with? When they all moved from Japan to Seattle, the pizza area nearest to the Nintendo headquarters referred to as Mario & Luigi's. (It has since gone out of business.)

Koopa.

Koopa is a transliterated model of the Japanese rap for the adversary turtles, "Kuppa." Stick with me here -- kuppa is the Japanese word for a Korean plate called gukbap. Basically it is a cup of soup with elmer rice. From what I definitely explain to it's completely unrelated to turtles, especially malicious ones.

In an interview, Mario's creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, stated he was deciding between 3 labels which are distinct for the racing of evil turtles, each one of which happened to be called after Korean foods. (The alternative two were yukhoe and bibimbap.) Which means one of 2 things: (one) Miyamoto adores Korean food and was looking to offer a tribute or perhaps (two) Miyamoto thinks Koreans are evil and should be jumped on.

Wario.

I kind of missed the debut of Wario -- he debuted in 1992, right around when I was hitting the age where I was way too cool for cartoon y Nintendo games. (Me and the middle school buddies of mine have been into Genesis just. I was again on Nintendo within 4 years.)

Seems the title of his functions equally in Japanese and english; I kinda assumed the English way but did not know about the Japanese feature. In English, he is an evil, bizarro world mirror image of Mario. The "M" turns to be a "W" and Wario is created. The name also functions in Japanese, wherever it is a mix of Mario and "warui," which means "bad."

That's a really high quality scenario, since, as I covered extensively in the list eleven Worst Japanese-To-English Translations In Nintendo History, don't assume all language disparity finesses again and forth so smoothly.

Waluigi.

When I first read "Waluigi" I believed it was hilarious. While Wario was a natural counterbalance to Mario, Waluigi sensed extremely comically shoehorned (just tacking the "wa" prefix before Luigi) -- like a giant inside joke that somehow cleared every single bureaucratic step and cracked the mainstream.

Well... according to the Nintendo men and women, Waluigi isn't just a gloriously idle choice or an inside joke also been substantial. They *say* it's based upon the Japanese phrase ijiwaru, which means "bad guy."

I don't understand. I think that we'd have to supply them more than halfway to get that.

Toad.

Toad is built to look like a mushroom (or perhaps toadstool) because of his giant mushroom hat. It is a great thing the games debuted before the entire model understood the right way to make penis jokes.

Anyway, in Japan, he's called Kinopio, which happens to be a combination of the word for mushroom ("kinoko") and also the Japanese version of Pinocchio ("pinokio"). Those combine being something along the lines of "A Real Mushroom Boy."

Goomba.

In Japanese, the guys are termed as kuribo, that typically results in "chestnut people." That is sensible because, ya know, if someone expected you "what do chestnut people look like?" you would probably arrive at something just about similar to these figures.

When they were shipped for the American model, the team caught with their Italian initiative and also known as them Goombas... dependent off of the Italian "goombah," that colloquially signifies something as "my fellow Italian friend." Furthermore, it type of evokes the picture of low-level mafia thugs without too many skills -- such as people's younger brothers as well as cousins who they had to employ or mother would yell at them. Which also is true for the Mario Bros. goombas.

Birdo.

Birdo has nothing to do with this particular first Japanese title. Right now there, he's named Kyasarin, which regularly translates to "Catherine."

In the instruction manual for Super Mario Bros. two, where Birdo debuted, the persona explanation of his reads: "Birdo believes he is a woman and likes to become known as Birdetta."

What In my opinion this all means? Nintendo shockingly decided to generate a character that battles with his gender identity and then referred to as him Catherine. When it was time to go to America, they have feet that are cold so they decided at the very last minute to telephone call him Birdo, though he's a dinosaur. (And don't give me the "birds are descended from dinosaurs" pop paleontology series. Not purchasing that connection.) That way, we'd just understand about the gender misunderstandings of his in case we look at the manual, and the Japanese were convinced Americans had been sometimes way too lazy or illiterate to do so en masse.

Princess Toadstool/Peach.

When everyone got introduced on the Princess, she was known as Princess Toadstool. I guess this made sense -- Mario was set in the Mushroom Kingdom, so why wouldn't its monarch be called Princess Toadstool. Them inbreeding blue bloods will always be naming their young children immediately after the country.

No person appears to be sure precisely why they went that direction, nevertheless. In Japan, she was known as Princess Peach from day one. That term didn't debut here before 1993, when Yoshi's Safari arrived on the scene for Super Nintendo. (By the manner -- have you ever had Yoshi's Safari? In an unconventional twist it is a first-person shooter, the only girl in the whole Mario times past. It is like the equivalent of a country music superstar creating a weird rock album.)

Bowser.

In Japan, there's simply no Bowser. He's simply called the King Koopa (or related variants, including Great Demon King Koopa). And so exactly where did Bowser come from?

During the import approach, there was an issue that the American crowd wouldn't recognize how the little turtles and big bad man might certainly be known as Koopa. Thus a marketing group developed many options for a name, they liked Bowser the very best, and also slapped it on him.

In Japan, he's still hardly ever referred to as Bowser. Over here, the label of his is now so ubiquitous that he's actually supplanted Sha Na Na's Bowzer as America's many famous Bowser.

Donkey Kong.

This's a more literal interpretation than you think. "Kong" is based off King Kong. "Donkey" is a family-friendly means of calling him an ass. That's right: His title is an useful model of "Ass Ape."

Fantastic Mario Bros. is a video game launched for the household Computer and Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985. It shifted the gameplay away from the single screen arcade predecessor of its, Mario Bros., along with rather featured side scrolling platformer concentrations. While not the very first game of the Mario franchise, Super Mario Bros. is pretty famous, and presented a variety of sequence staples, from power-ups, to classic foes like Goombas, to the basic concept of rescuing Princess Toadstool coming from King Koopa. As well as kicking above a whole compilation of Super Mario platformer online games, the crazy results of Super Mario Bros. popularized the genre as a complete, helped revive the gaming industry as soon as the 1983 clip game crash, and was mostly the cause of the initial good results around the NES, with that it was actually bundled a launch title. Until it was finally exceeded by Wii Sports, Super Mario Bros. was the best marketing videos game of all of moment for nearly 3 decades, with over 40 thousand duplicates marketed internationally.