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linkspooky · 4 years

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Why do you like these morally broken characters so much?

Broken characters are more interesting because they have something to fix - by that I mean there’s an obvious reason why we might get invested in their story, and follow them, because we want to see them get better. Characters with more obvious flaws are usually better written, it’s as simple as that. Let’s go over two basic ideas of storytelling.

Character Arc - we choose to follow a certain character because there is something they’re wrong about, or something wrong about them, they have some conflcit that needs to be resolved by the end of the story, usually centering around a character flaw. Flaws are important because they give the character an impetus, a reason to change. Flaws are what get people invested in characters, because they want to see the character do better by the end.

Show don’t tell - there’s a lot of debate of what this storytelling rule means exactly, so I’m going to simplify it. A story is essentially trying to make an argument. A story is trying to persuade you of an idea. An argument is more persuasive when there is evidence behind it. For example you can tell the audience a character is empathic, but going great lengths to show that character practicing empathy will always be more effective storytelling. If I can point to something that happened in story and say this is the character doing the thing then that character has strong characterization.

Shigaraki is a better written character than Deku. He has a character arc, and everything about Shigaraki is shown instead of just told to us. Whereas the story continually tells us that Deku is special, that Deku is a good person, that Deku is empathic but his actions never really support what the story tells us. I’m going to go more into this under the cut.

1. Character Flaw

What is Deku’s character flaw? What is the thing he needs to work on in order to become a better hero. The problem is Deku never has a clear and consistently written character flaw. We as the audience are never told what exactly is holding him back, and what he needs to improve upon in order to become a hero.

Deku’s only real obstacle has been the fact that OFA is an unstable power. The only thing that’s held him back in sitautions is power incontinence, the fact that he has unstable control of his power and therefore will injure himself.

Deku loses the tournament because he can’t control OFA. Deku can’t rescue bakugo in time because he can’t control OFA. Deku fails to defeat Bakugo in his rival battle because he can’t control OFA.

Deku’s failures come from not being able to control his power, and Deku’s successes, when he defeated Chisaki, when he defeated muscle, always come from him using his power.

Except that’s boring. Why? Because it has absolutely nothing to do with Deku himself as a person. Nothing about Deku changes as a character throughout all of this. The only thing that changes is his workout regimen.

The only real thing that has changed about Deku is the number. Oh, he’s gotten the NUMBER to 45%. People cannot be summarized by numbers. People are usually a little more complex than that.

The problem with this is, Deku is given countless oppurtunites to reflect and change something about himself internally. There are conflicts that Deku constantly interacts with. We just never see Deku even think about these problems. There are conflcits in the story. There are problems in society. Deku just isn’t affected by them. Everyone time Deku is asked to think about these things he goes NO THOUGHTS HEAD EMPTY. And that’s just not very interesting. Characters are interesting because they struggle and change as they learn new things about the world, whereas Deku is just perpetually ignorant.

Deku’s characterization comes across as weak because the story just, tells us a lot of things about him, without providing good in text evidence. We are told Deku is empathic. Except he really isn’t?

It starts with Shinso. Deku hears Shinso say something that is something he could sympathize with. Deku was also told he couldn’t become a hero because he was born quirkless. Deku should sympathize with Shinso in this situation and recognize there is something wrong with quirk society.

Deku just doesn’t say anything and doesn’t respond. Even though he has an obvious chance to empathize, he doesn’t. We see another character actually empathize with Shinso later in the story.

Monoma’s speech acknowledges that it’s harder for them to become heroes, because they weren’t born with the HERO SOCIETY APPROVED TM quirks. Monoma’s speech is sympathetic because it acknowledges the difficulty that Shinso has struggled with all along. Deku isn’t ever allowed to see anything wrong with HERO SOCIETY, so he never really sympathizes with its victims. He never demonstrates any empathy where he has to understand somebody who’s circumstances might be different than his, he never has to understand somebody outside of his own feelings.

Even in story, we’re told that Shinso has some kind of special relationship with Midoriya but why? Midoriya never said anything to him. Midoriya never sympathized with him in any special way. The story even goes out of the way to show us that Midoriya just... didn’t say anything even though he understood what Shinso’s feelings were.

This is what I mean by show don’t tell. Shinso and Midoriya’s relationship is something we are told about being special, but I can’t point to anything in text to show that Midoriya did anything special to Shinso. In fact I can point to examples of Monoma being much more sympathetic and actually addressing what’s unfair about Shinso’s situation, and I can even point to characters like Denki being outright friendlier to him. We are told that Deku makes friends easily, and that he’s an empathic person, but we never see him reaching out that way in the story.

And we’re not even told what Deku’s character flaw is. Why does Deku lose in each arc? Ummm....??? Why does Deku fail??? Ummm. The only reason is because he can’t control his quirk.

2. A Flawed Character

I can just point to the text and show you these things about Shigaraki. The problem with Shigaraki in the first arc is he had no real plan, he had no real motive, and he didn’t care what happened to his allies.

No Plan.

No Motive.

No Allies.

These three things are obviously things that are missing from Shigaraki at the start of the story, and his arc is a quest to gain these things. If you notice, every single character explicitly points out how much Shigaraki sucks, like all the time.

Stain won’t work with Shigaraki because Shigaraki doesn’t have any ideals that can convince Shigaraki to work with him. The attempt for Shigaraki to recruit allies fails. This is a problem. Shigaraki fails twice, not only does he fail to get Stain on his side, but he also fails to make someone sympathize with his cause because he can’t reach out to others.

This is something that Shigaraki learns by the camp raid arc. That he needs to gather allies with sympathetic ideals, and he needs to be about some kind of cause otherwise people won’t listen to him.

Shigaraki’s first two fights are spectacular defeats that are very humbling for him, and the reason he fails has entirely to do with these flaws. It’s after this point he starts learning. The first thing is he learns to take advantage of Stain’s publicity to recruit people with similiar ideals to his cause. However, Shigaraki is still flawed going into the next arc. Camp Raid arc, Shigaraki uses the vanguard action squad essentially as disposable pawns. He manipulates them from a distance not taking any actiong himself.

Shigaraki is not a good enough leader at this point. Not only do the flaws in his plan catch up with him (his inability to get Bakugo to sympathize with him, his helplessness when All Might shows up, his overreliance on AFO to bail him out) but he once again suffers a consequence, loses something, and needs to imrpove by the next arc. The Chisaki arc revolves around the camraderie that Shigaraki was lacking in, in the camp raid arc.

It starts with a very specific and precise callout. You have no plan. You misuse the crimminals you have under your thumb, and let go of them too easily. Then, Shigaraki suffers another consequence. Because he is not a good enough leader at managing his people, Magne dies, and Shigaraki is put into a tight position. This all happens because of failings on Shigaraki’s part, the direct result of them, which challenges him to grow and improve.

Shigaraki is a twisted cycle path. However, unlike Deku I can point to the first moment in story where he began to open up with other people and share his feelings.

Why is Twice so loyal to Shigaraki? Because Shigaraki accepted him and his struggles in this movie. THIS IS EVIDENCE. If the author is making the argument that Shigaraki is an empathic character, he has moments where Shigaraki is SHOWN to be empathizing with others.

Shigaraki tells Twice he knows he’s asking him to do something difficult, and that he knows Twice is suffering, but that they’re in this together and he believes they can overcome it. Deku tells Shinso. Nothing. Literally nothing. Just doesn’t even open his mouth. In this case Shigaraki is written as the more empathic character, because Shigaraki actually empathizes with people.

Deku’s writing is so weak because it’s wishy washy. He has no central beliefs his character is written around. He has no strong emotions. And he especially has no flaw. Deku is so wishy washy he’s not even allowed to hold a simple opinion like child abuse might be bad. He’s so malleable that he just tells Todoroki that Enji should be forgiven now, because the writer is TELLING YOU instead of showing you that Enji has improved in his character arc.

Whereas, by the end of the Chisaki Arc we can see the difference in how Shigaraki has changed. He has opened up to the other people around him and now includes them as essential parts in his plan. He’s gone from “I’ll be the next one” to “We’ll be the next one.” He’s gone from hiding at the bar and plotting far away, to fighting on the front lines with his people and even using himself as a distraction so Dabi and Compress won’t be hurt.

The story is constantly trying to tell me what is so special about Deku, but I don’t see it. Because the story doesn’t have any evidence to back up its argument. Wheras, the story doesn’t need to tell me about Shigaraki. The story never tells us Shigaraki is a special boy. It never tells us he’s a good person. It in fact, tells us how much Shigaraki sucks, and needs to get better. In that way, when Shigaraki makes progression it’s clearer because the story is always clear about what he’s missing, what his flaws are, and what he needs to work on.

The Re-Destro arc once again, points out Shigaraki’s shortcomings. He has no real plan for what is coming next. He has no clear motive. He has no way of gathering resources. Because of that, the League has been failing.

Shigaraki reevaluates his origin story. He wants to destroy the oppressive society, the same way he destroyed his father’s house. Once he does that he’s able to tear down the structures of Deika city, and defeat Re-Destro because he realizes what he wants to accomplish.

Shigaraki listened to his allies that they had no resources, and then made his next priority to acquire those. Then, to skip ahead a little bit we have the latest fight Shigaraki is struggling in. Remember, Shigaraki was missing three things in the UA Raid. 1. No Plan, 2. No Motive, 3. No Allies

At the start of the manga, All Might said that Shigaraki couldn’t accomplish anything because he had hollow ideals. Endeavor repeats that accusation.

However, we know that’s not true now. We have seen Shigaraki gain all three things, an ideal to center himself around, allies, and a plan for what he wants to do and accomplish.

This scene, parallels this scene. Except we know now why Shigaraki does the things that he does, that Shigaraki has motivations, that Shigaraki has learned from his experiences.

Shigaraki’s speech has substance now, because we’ve seen the long journey for how he came to acquire these beliefs. Why does Deku want to be the number one hero? Why does Endeavor want to be the number one hero? Neither of those questions are things you can answer by pointing to events that happened in story.

Shigaraki is the result of everything that has happened to him so far, and all of his struggles have taught him a lesson. When he repeats essentially what he said to All Might at the beginning of the arc, this time we know his words have meaning. Shigaraki believes society doesn’t save people, because he’s lived it. He believes that heroes are violent, and contribute to the system of violence, because he was violently abused all his life. Shigaraki believes that society rejects the victims who needs it’s help the most, because Shigaraki has been collecting people like that in the league all of whom dropped out of society through no fault of their own. When Shigaraki makes his arguments, I can point to things that happened in the story that back up his arguments. There is evidence. I can’t do that for Deku, because everything about Deku we are told rather than shown even though he gets three times the amount of screentime.

Deku may be a better person, but who cares about that? Deku and Shigaraki aren’t real people. I don’t have to interact with them. Deku is not my roommate who I have to talk to on a daily basis. This is a work of fiction that is WRITTEN. Shigaraki is better written. That’s why - Shigaraki is a better character.

#Anonymous #izuku midoriya #shigaraki tomura #spooky speaks #metasks

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notbang · 4 years

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the pursuit of happiness

or, an examination of happiness and the chase as recurring motifs in the character development of Rebecca Bunch and Nathaniel Plimpton

rethaniel appreciation week day 2 → pursuit

I could write a small novel cataloguing the endless parallels between these two—I have, in fact, thought about attempting it many times—but honestly the list is so long and varied and sprouts off in so many different directions that I’ve yet to think of a logical way to go about it. Which is why for the time being, I’m choosing to focus instead—in some degree of detail—on this particular mirrored thread between them.

As our protagonist, Rebecca functions as a major catalyst for change in West Covina, and just as surely as she stumbles along in her journey we see the (for the most part) positive effects of her friendship on those around her. With perhaps the sole exception of White Josh, all of the characters end the show as happier and healthier iterations of themselves, with many of the major aspects of their growth traceable to their involvement with Rebecca in some way. Nathaniel is no exception to this rule; arguably, his development, more so than any other character’s, is directly tied to Rebecca’s influence on his life. The main difference here lies in the fact that he moves to town good a season and half after her—putting him that much further behind in his inevitable development.

One of the major, ongoing setbacks Rebecca faces over the course of the show is her tendency to conflate happiness, or personal fulfilment, with romantic love, and more specifically, for the first half of the series at least, conflating it with a single person. Nathaniel, by comparison, at the time of our introduction to him, has little interest in the concept at all, something Rebecca is quick to sympathise with in 2x09—‘You know Nathaniel, I used to be a lot like you. Ruthless. But then one day I was crying a lot, and I decided to flip things around. Decided to put happiness before success. And when I did that, the world rewarded me with true happiness.’ Nathaniel doesn’t verbally dismiss the sentiment, but the wealth of facial expressions he supplies in response suggest what he thinks of that: happiness is frivolous, and he doesn’t have space for it in his busy schedule.

Nathaniel, probably: Sounds fake but okay.

In the season two theme Rebecca declares that as a girl in love, she can’t be held responsible for her actions, and the sweeping duet Nothing Is Ever Anyone’s Fault follows a similar thread of eschewing culpability. While this certainly works to help dismiss a season’s worth of questionable behaviour from the two of them—including, but not limited to, infidelity and conspiracy to murder—I’m not convinced the touted concept behind the song—that Nathaniel has learned the wrong lesson from being in love with her, as explained in post-finale interviews at the time—flies in the face of our understanding of Nathaniel’s character thus far. As a rich, straight, white, cis male whose privilege the show has only made clumsy attempts at dismantling, a disregard of consequence seems a lot less like something he needed to be taught by anybody and a little more like something that was probably ingrained in him at birth.

If we want to talk about misguided takeaways within their relationship, though, their relationship to happiness is the perfect place to start. Nathaniel begins the show with no concept of the pursuit of happiness, so it makes sense that when he does adopt an interest in it, he takes a page right out of the book of the person that introduced him and pins it all in the one place. Unlike Rebecca, though, Nathaniel’s preoccupation seems to be less wilful delusion and more of a case of ignorance being bliss—being with her feels good, so why change anything or interrogate the situation any further? For all his earlier talk, he is quick to give up the thrill of the chase under the hedonistic guise of contentment. Unfortunately, what he lacks is the emotional intelligence to navigate the implications of Rebecca’s disorder, highlighted by his belief that the mere fact that he and Josh are two vastly different people is reason enough for him to be able to dismiss her obsessive behaviour as ‘cute’ and ‘flattering’. Rebecca’s recent breakdown and consequential suicide attempt can’t exist as warning signs in their (what he perceives as superior) relationship because he isn’t planning on leaving Rebecca at the altar; he isn’t privy to the realisation that it ‘wasn’t about Josh, and maybe it never was’.

Nathaniel: I don’t want to get in the way of your therapy thing, but isn’t the point of all this to be happy? We’re happy. That’s what matters.

It’s a shame because despite there being so much more going on with Rebecca than Nathaniel is capable of comprehending at this point in time, he actually, perhaps entirely by accident, manages to get a few things right—he checks in with her about her therapy when her appearing on his doorstep contradicts the information she’d given him earlier (even if he is, at this point, all too easy to convince), counters her suggestion that they play hooky at Raging Waters with the compromise of a more sensibly scheduled dinner they’ll both enjoy, and, when they do come in to conflict over her obsessive behaviours, takes some time for himself before having a serious conversation with her. Though it’s certainly naive of him to think it’s a problem as easily solved as getting Rebecca to promise she’ll never do anything like this again, it suggests the capacity exists (given, with great guidance) for him to approach Rebecca’s mental illness within their relationship in a thoughtful way.

(This of course completely ignores the inherent issues in their boss/employee relationship, which come to a questionable forefront when Rebecca makes the decision to return to work after having broken things off, but we’re starting to get a little off-track from the intended scope of this discussion.)

The idea of romantic love as a chase—if not already sold to us by Rebecca literally moving across the country in pursuit of Josh—is hammered home most effectively in episode 2x11, but Nathaniel actually brings it up in the episode prior; before Rebecca and Josh leave for New York, at the same time as setting up the whole ‘man of my dreams’ idea that also carries on into the next episode, a sweaty Nathaniel beseeches Rebecca to imitate a land-based predator so he can amp up his workout under the threat of chase. Within this alignment, Josh, who ends up proposing to Rebecca at the end of 2x10, becomes even more clearly representative of an end goal—love, marriage, and, as an expected by-product, ultimate happiness. Nathaniel, by contrast for the time being, is all about the chase that comes before. After his speech at the beginning of 2x11 boasting of his dogged approach when securing clients, his passionate buzz words begin to permeate Rebecca’s subconscious, with ‘pursuit’ in particular going so far as to in an echo in a similar way that ‘happy’ does in the pilot. Such is the effect of his words on her that she parrots them back to Josh when she tells him she’s moved up their wedding—‘Finally, it’s coming to an end. The pursuit is over and I just want to celebrate that’. The title of the episode title may pose the question Josh is the man of my dreams, right? but in the most literal sense, the star of her dreams becomes Nathaniel, along with his personal brand of terminology.

Where Nathaniel thinks life is all about playing the hunter, Rebecca insists she doesn’t care for the chase, which makes sense—she doesn’t want to be chasing Josh, and furthermore, admitting that she’s chasing him would only be contradictory to her belief that they belong together. She wants her happy ending. She wants to arrive at her final destination—her destiny—because thus far all her journeys (which have in actuality been more of a kind of stagnation) have been left her unfulfilled. However obsessing over an idealised future only postpones her happiness with her inability to focus on the present. Ironically, the point at which she makes an active choice to begin shifting that focus—in 3x07, when Dr Shin encourages her to live in the messy in-between—is right around the time Nathaniel starts buying into her idealisation himself.

In a similar way to Rebecca, regardless of his purported love of the pursuit, Nathaniel’s infatuation is seemingly tied to the concept of a destination—several times quite literally. In 3x04 he’s ready to whisk her away to Rome to evade any obstacles to their being together, and in 4x01 proposes a similar escape to Hawaii, causing him to lash out when Rebecca turns him down—‘I want us to just be happy and be together. That’s what I want. You just said you love me, right? So can you just do that for me? Can you just stop overthinking everything? …seems like every time we’re happy, you try to ruin it.’ He sees their shared happiness as a nirvana state he’s caught a glimpse of that Rebecca is now determined to deny him access to, to the point that he seeks to make their version of a love bubble a physical one, where no outside interference (or, more accurately, internal reflection from Rebecca) can keep them apart. Still degrees behind Rebecca in the parallel arcs of their development, he’s stuck in the mindset that them being happy and in love is the only thing that matters. His behaviour is far from flattering, but with a quick review of his history of being on the continual receiving end of her rejection, it’s not entirely difficult to see where he’s coming from.

(As an aside, Rebecca’s relationship with the destination versus the journey as it pertains to the mural on her wall is something I’ve already discussed in a previous meta.)

When she breaks up with him at the beginning of 3x09, Rebecca responds to Nathaniel’s protest of ‘but we’re happy!’ with the qualifier that she’s ‘happy, but it isn’t real’, which probably isn’t the most pleasant thing to be told, even before you factor in Nathaniel’s implied inexperience with serious relationships. While her behaviour prior to this definitely calls for some self reflection, it’s an interesting backflip from extreme infatuation to sudden dismissal, and while it does align with the black and white thinking associated with BPD, it’s easy to see why Nathaniel feels blindsided and, consequently, spurned. She begged him not to break up with her not only to then turn around do exactly that, but to also (presumably unintentionally) throw in the humiliating implication he cared more than she did.

Dr Akopian: Maybe now you can see that your father’s behaviour in the past has set a pattern for you, seeking the love of men who don’t fully love you back. Who you have to pursue. Men who are taken or emotionally unavailable. Like your father. Like Josh. Like Greg. Like other men, I’m sure.

Nathaniel is an outlier amongst the three main love interests in that, for all his grandstanding about humans being hunters by nature, he’s the one constantly falling over himself to win Rebecca’s affection rather than the other way around; it’s ironic that the love interest that asserts himself as being all about the chase is the one that ends up later having to assign himself the title of ‘king of declarations’ based on his ongoing habit of blurting out to Rebecca how he feels, never achieving the level of emotional standoffishness he hopes to exude. Nathaniel’s unavailability—and subsequent cementing as one of the types of men Dr Akopian calls Rebecca out on being predisposed to pursuing—comes only when he enters into a relationship with Mona, and Rebecca, who supposedly ‘never cared for the chase’, with interest reignited finds a skewed sense of security afforded by the romantic roadblock, something Nathaniel seems to understand on some unspoken level, as hinted at by his eagerness to maintain the fragile status quo of their morally questionable arrangement.

As a result of this subversion of power dynamics within Rebecca and Nathaniel’s relationship, in amongst the many other parallels between them that only serve to support this, it starts to become apparent that, narratively speaking, Nathaniel is to Rebecca as Rebecca is to Josh, something that is visually co-signed by the show during 4x03, when we see the same golden glow of romantic epiphany crest behind Rebecca in the church during her speech at Heather and Hector’s wedding that suffuses across Josh when Rebecca encounters him in the streets of New York.

Nathaniel’s takeaway from Rebecca’s speech is that because he loves her, he should do everything within his power to get her back, which of course leads to his (frankly embarrassing) attempts to manipulate her and win her over in 4x04. (Fittingly enough to this discussion, the opening line of the Slumbered quote he plagiarises is ‘you are the only thing that makes me happy’. The irony of his failed use of her teenage diary to win her over is that I honestly do believe the speech is an accurate summation of how he sees Rebecca, and had he only chosen to put it in his own words, that final scene between them might have played out a little differently.) The part he probably should have focused on, though, is the part Rebecca is currently pouring all her professional energy into (and not so coincidentally, it’s right there in the episode title)—love (and therefore happiness) being about finding your own path.

Rebecca: I don’t believe in destiny anymore. I just believe in taking responsibility for your own happiness.

This is not the first time Nathaniel makes the decision to actively pursue Rebecca while her attention lies firmly fixed elsewhere. In 3x03 and 3x04, he is forced to grapple with his feelings alone when a distracted Rebecca eventually goes where he cannot follow, putting an abrupt end to any potential for chase when she flees back to New York in 3x05. Consequently, Nathaniel embarks on a mini-arc of struggling to accept the idea that Rebecca may never come back—initially incomprehensible to him, owing to the fact that she bears importance to him, personally—to conceding that his (thus far relatively unexamined) need for her to be in his life is secondary to her own wellbeing, something that acts as a precursor to a major thread in Nathaniel’s (often one step forward, two clumsily-written steps back) character development in the back end of the series.

Nathaniel: I just hope wherever she is, she’s happy.

In 4x11, Nathaniel’s dream world amalgamation of Maya and Rebecca begs him to let her be happy, and as the former fades into the latter we get another callback to the pilot—an echo of 'happy, happy, happy…’ reminiscent of the empty shell of New York Rebecca latching onto Josh’s description of laid-back West Covina. Unlike its instance in the 1x01, however, this is a wake up call of an entirely different kind—it is not the blossoming of a brand new delusion but the sobering dissolution of one. And unlike the speech a radiant Rebecca gave at Heather’s wedding about finding the one you love and holding on tight, this particular iteration is here to impart the contradictory wisdom ‘if you really love me, you have to let me go’.

Nathaniel: I want you to be happy, I do.

This moment is arguably the true beginning of Nathaniel’s lesson that his happiness isn’t necessarily (or in this case, due to the current circumstances, can no longer be) inextricably linked to Rebecca—she has the opportunity to find happiness independently of him and that in itself is something that should make him happy, as someone that loves and cares for her. His assertion to dream Rebecca that he wants her to be happy manifests in his concession to Rebecca in the real world—‘I’m glad you’re happy. I really am. And it makes me happy too’—an exchange that echoes two similar moments between them back in season three, during which Rebecca expresses the same sentiment regarding his relationship with Mona, first following the cool down from their 3x10 conflict, and again in the aftermath of their ended affair in 3x13:

Rebecca: I’m happy that you found someone else. Mona seems lovely.

Rebecca: I’m happy for you… I want you to be happy.

The more interesting callback here though, of course, is to Rebecca’s conversation with Greg at the duck pond way back in 2x02. After finally tracking down an AWOL Greg with the intention of breaking the news of her involvement with Josh, Greg makes peace with the situation by way of reassuring them both that everything worked out fine as long as Rebecca is happy. ‘You and Josh—you should be happy together. You’re happy, right? And he treats you well?’ Rebecca responds to this in the affirmative, though her expression—and the context of the episode—belies her answer. In contrast, her exchange with Nathaniel goes a little differently:

Nathaniel: Because you’re happy, right? You’re happy with Greg. Rebecca: I mean, I don’t know. I’m not there yet. But I could possibly be, yeah.

The evolution of Rebecca’s response is of course evidence of her development as a character and her own understanding of her relationship to happiness, but what I find most noteworthy is not that she lies in 2x02, but that in 4x11 she chooses to tell an unusual truth. She could just have easily have said yes the second time around and it would have functioned as a clear enough juxtaposition of what she considers close enough to happiness; after all, at the time of 4x11 she and Greg believe they are approaching their relationship in a mature and thoughtful fashion, they are warm and affectionate towards one another and, unlike in 2x02, she is not having to compete for her partner’s attention. She would, by all accounts, be completely justified in giving what could be considered the normal response to being posed such a question—that yes, she is happy with Greg. So even though it’s encouraging to hear Rebecca verbalising her newfound knowledge that happiness is so much more than such a simple dichotomy of yes and no, it feels significant that Nathaniel, as a person currently knee-deep in untangling his own complicated relationship with happiness, is the one that gets to be privy to this particular brand of truth.

And while it can be argued that all the strides Nathaniel makes in 4x11 are undone over the course of the following episodes, setting aside the very real fact that human emotions are fickle, and we can’t always stick as completely to our guns as we’d like, his blessing here still comes with a telling caveat: ‘I’ve got to let you go… because you’re happy’. And who shows up on Nathaniel’s doorstep during 4x12 to poke holes in that perceived state of happiness between her and Greg? None other than Rebecca herself.

Rebecca: You just want me to be happy, which is what I want too, and god, Greg… Greg doesn’t know what happiness is.

Such is the shared significance of this concept of happiness between them that the second Rebecca alludes to their conversation in the foyer, Nathaniel’s previously good-natured, albeit slightly confused, response to her drunken presence in his apartment quickly and very clearly dissolves into alarm bells and he eventually sends her on her way. Though he could easily have wielded Rebecca’s visit as a weapon to create dissonance between her and Greg in 4x13, he merely probes for clues by way of a convoluted metaphor, resigning himself to the fact that the issue has been resolved, while Greg, in actuality, is at this point none the wiser. It’s only once Greg himself tells Nathaniel that it is over between him and Rebecca that Nathaniel returns to entertaining his feelings for her.

Though we the viewers are all too aware (and at this point, probably screaming at the TV!) that Rebecca’s happiness is not, contrary to recurring belief, a vacant role that she needs someone to fill; unlike us, the characters have not had the good fortune of being able to watch the show Crazy Ex Girlfriend on the CW network. Nathaniel is still a fledgling in terms of self enlightenment, and it makes total sense for him to be nudged towards into pursuing her again once the clearest obstacle to her affections—her relationship with Greg—is no longer an issue.

When she breaks the news of her decision to Nathaniel in the finale, Rebecca is quick to assure Nathaniel that ‘the times that [they’ve] spent together have been some of the best of [her] life’, which is an interestingly bold statement all on its own, but it feels somewhat satisfyingly like finally giving Nathaniel a real-life answer to the ‘we’ve had such happy moments, you and I, haven’t we?’ that he throws at his Maya-shaped projection of Rebecca in 4x11; affirmation that contrary to what she says in 3x08, something in there between them was real.

‘You only get one life,’ he tells her in return. ‘And you’ve got to live that the way you want.’

Neither of them uses the word ‘happy’ in this exchange, but as we fast forward in time, we get:

Nathaniel: Happy to be here.

Rebecca: For the first time in my life, I am truly happy.

Nathaniel (who in an amusing reflection in 2x09, reveals that he, in a roundabout way, moved to West Covina because of Rebecca—‘it’s kind of your fault that I’m here’) has finally made the actual change that Rebecca taunted him with on their first meeting. And unlike Rebecca, he’s had a chance to interrogate what happiness for himself, removed from another person, might look like before he does so. Rather than starting with a life-altering change, he gets to make incremental changes along the way—which very much are tied to his entanglement to Rebecca—in order to make a more meaningful and deliberate life change for himself later on.

“When you find someone that melts the iceberg that is your heart…” - 3x03

“Provoking me, and zinging me, and challenging my world view. And warming my heart.” - 3x04

“You make me feel like I can be a different kind of person.” - 3x08

“You’ve awakened my heart and unlocked my soul.” - 4x04

“You’ve changed my whole life. Who I am, who I can be.” - 4x11

Rebecca describes her moving to West Covina in Nathaniel’s first episode as ‘[deciding] to flip things around. [Deciding] to put happiness before success. And when I did that, the world rewarded me with true happiness.’ In the finale, she tells the audience how he, by comparison, ‘upended [his] life’—‘You changed everything. But unlike me, you did it for the right reasons. And I am in awe of you.’ Alongside the nice progression from her proclamation in 2x09 that she ‘came to West Covina to search for happiness’ to her more self-aware announcement at the open mic that ‘for the first time in my life, [she is] truly happy’, (which feels like a subversive callback to a certain infamous butter commercial) we also get a reiteration of the sentiment— ‘I came to this town to find love. And I did. I love every person in this room’—that conflates happiness with love in what is now a healthy and satisfying way. It’s the perfect twist that she’s rewarded with the thing she was searching for all along just as soon as she realises she was looking in all the wrong places, and that the place itself still gets to play such a large part in that. And she is able to see Nathaniel’s journey as all the more meaningful in light of her own missteps along the way.

While I have my reservations on the bow they tied Nathaniel’s arc in for the finale (because despite Rebecca’s realisation that there is no such thing as ‘ending up’, there is in the sense of the scope of this series) being a well thought out resolution as opposed to leaning on a previous gag without laying any actual groundwork, the truth is it’s unclear what the true nature of Nathaniel’s sabbatical is/was/will be—mere extended vacation, permanent new career path, or just the initial spark of inspiration in some extended self discovery. That being said, much like Rebecca evolving towards a point where she can appreciate the interconnectedness of love and happiness in a less troublesome way, it is neat that Nathaniel’s resolution follows on from his tendency to want to escape to far-off destinations in an attempt to control his desired status quo. Though his fleeing town is still inextricably linked to having his heart broken by Rebecca, Guatemala, for once, isn’t about transposing his current circumstance to another place in order to cling to something, but rather a carefully selected, specific site for welcomed change.

Independent of any potential that may or may not exist between them as the show closes out—romantic or otherwise—it’s undeniable that these two characters have left indelible marks on each other, and without their respective involvement in each other’s lives, their journeys—and resulting transformations—would not have been the same.

#crazy ex girlfriend #rebecca x nathaniel #rethanielaw #rethaniel #rebecca bunch #nathaniel plimpton #crazy ex meta #stop! meta time

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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15 Hardest SNES Games of All-Time

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In their move from the NES to the SNES, Nintendo and its development partners often relied on using 8-bit games as the basis for 16-bit innovations. While that approach helped move us towards the future of gaming, it also meant that many SNES games felt spiritually similar to NES titles.

That also means that many SNES games retained that arcade-like difficulty that would, in some ways, define over a decade of gaming. While the average SNES game didn’t feature nearly as many of the technical and design hurdles that contributed to some of the most difficult NES games ever made, the console is still the proud home of some of the most enjoyable challenges in video game history.

Whether you fondly remember them when you look back on this era or whether they’ve become the star of your worst gaming nightmares, these are the 15 hardest SNES games ever made:

15. The Lion King

Much like how Disney tucked Mufasa’s devastating death scene into a children’s movie, the SNES version of The Lion King lures you in with the promise of a whimsical adventure and then stabs you in the back as soon as you let your guard down.

The Lion King starts off easy enough (at least relative to other games of this era) and even impresses with its colorful visuals and surprisingly faithful soundtrack. However, most new levels introduce a vicious spike in difficulty that will undoubtedly leave you wondering why you suddenly suck. Then, about halfway through, you’re blindsided by an escape level that’s arguably as challenging as the speeder bike segment in Battletoads due to its use of both front and rear threats rendered in not quite ready 3D technology that makes controls frustratingly unresponsive.

While the latter half of the game steps off the gas just a bit, The Lion King’s challenge roadblocks ensure most young gamers never made it that far.

14. Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts

It’s amazing that Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts is at least as difficult as its predecessor considering that its controls are vastly improved and the action is significantly smoother overall.

However, it appears that Capcom felt that since Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts was much more “playable” than Ghosts ‘n Goblins on NES, that meant that they could make the game noticeably more difficult. This sequel features more on-screen enemies and more environmental hazards but the same iconic health system that essentially leaves you with a razor-thin margin for error that might as well be non-existent due to how difficult it is to progress after a single hit.

While this game’s hard mode may be the most difficult challenge on the SNES, I’ll “split the difference” slightly and rightfully refer to this title’s normal mode as one of the most punishing experiences in the history of Nintendo consoles.

13. Battletoads in Battlemaniacs

Truth be told, I debated whether or not to include Battletoads in Battlemaniacs given that the game is probably slightly easier than the NES original. At the very least, it repeats a lot of the original’s best tricks.

However, familiarity does little to diminish just how difficult this game truly is. Once again, the “highlight” of this game’s difficulty is the various vehicle sections that require you to avoid various obstacles while moving at high speeds. The infamous speeder bike section in this sequel is as hard as it ever was, but I have to give a special shout-out to that vertical scroller level that requires you to maneuver between wall spikes that force you into a “safe zone” that’s only about as wide as your character.

I’d consider this the best way to experience Battletoads due to its visual and control improvements, but the game is so difficult that it rides that line between being addictively challengingly and frustratingly cruel.

12. The Simpsons: Bart’s Nightmare

Yes, Bart’s Nightmare is a pretty bad game that suffers from some often awful controls, but it would likely still be remembered as one of the most frustrating SNES games ever made even if it was a bit more refined.

Essentially a collection of “minigame” levels, Bart’s Nightmare forces you to quickly master a series of entirely new scenarios with their own rules. That’s annoying, but what makes this game so noteworthy is that some of the individual levels in this game are as mechanically challenging as they are conceptually confusing. There’s no better example of those concepts than the game’s Indiana Jones tribute level: a bewildering collection of platforms and traps that would still be difficult to figure out even if things weren’t constantly trying to kill you.

This is one of the SNES’ best examples of a game that lures you in with its familiar name and then compensates for a relatively short amount of content by making everything as hard as possible.

11. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest

Growing up, I don’t really remember hearing many kids talk about how hard the Donkey Kong Country series is. It wasn’t until years later I really started to see more people give this franchise the respect it deserves as the home of some of the most infuriating platformers ever crafted.

Donkey Kong Country 2 is the arguable apex of this franchise’s difficulty curve. Once again, the “problem” here is the variety of the game’s stages. Even if you’re able to keep up with a series of (certainly creative) new challenges, you’ll eventually encounter a new stage that uses an old mechanic but makes things roughly twice as difficult as before. To make matters worse, the mechanics are spaced out in such a way that you basically need to re-learn them while now battling a much more difficult version of the concept.

The good news is that Donkey Kong Country 2 is actually a genuinely well-designed game that encourages you to keep trying even as it mercilessly forces you to doubt your abilities.

10. Earthworm Jim 2

While the original Earthworm Jim is difficult, not even that game can prepare you for how unforgiving Earthworm Jim 2 truly is.

If Earthworm Jim 2 only consisted of its side-scrolling stages, it would still be in the running as one of the harder SNES titles. However, we once again encounter a “Battletoads” scenario where the game’s special vehicle and race sections raise the overall difficulty to such a degree that I honestly can’t say I’ve ever spoken to anyone who managed to beat this game as a kid or adult without at least relying on emulator save scumming.

Oh, and the fact that some of this game’s most infuriating levels also see you, quite literally, let puppies down every time you fail is an exercise in pure cruelty.

9. Jurassic Park

During the 8 and 16-bit eras, it was relatively easy to buy into the idea that a game was simply impossible. While that distinction was sometimes afforded to action titles that demanded perfect reflexes and pattern recognition, you more often heard it used to describe titles of that era that left you wondering “Where am I going, and what am I supposed to do?”

Few games of that mold are more memorable than Jurassic Park. What starts off as a seemingly simple top-down action game quickly reveals itself to be a labyrinth of puzzles, awkward first-person segments, and enemies that can kill you before you have a chance of figuring out where you’re supposed to go next. It honestly reminds me a little of the notoriously difficult Fester’s Quest for NES. What’s worse is that there are no save points or passwords, which means that you’ve got to beat the whole thing in one lengthy sitting.

I’m actually a little impressed that this much creativity went into a relatively early licensed game, but Jurassic Park is a prime example of the kind of game that essentially demands a walkthrough as even figuring out which direction you’re supposed to walk in is often unintuitive.

Games

15 Hardest NES Games of All-Time

By Matthew Byrd

Games

25 Underrated SNES Games

By Chris Freiberg

8. ActRaiser 2

The original ActRaiser was also fairly difficult, but its blend of platforming, action, and town building is so impressive that you kind of forgive it for its difficulty spikes. For ActRaiser 2, developer Quintet seemingly convinced themselves that the reason people loved the original was because of its challenging side-scrolling levels rather than its variety. At least that’s my best explanation for why they abandoned the town building elements and instead focused on crafting the hardest side-scrolling levels imaginable.

Much to the dismay of many young gamers, they accomplished that mission in such a way that ensures the mere mention of ActRaiser 2 can unlock a treasure trove of repressed gaming memories. Some of this game’s challenges are amplified by its sluggish controls and animations, but much of the difficulty comes down to the level design. From floating platforms to the pit of deaths, ActRaiser 2 is like a hall of fame for every controller breaking concept of its era.

The shame of it is that ActRaiser 2 is really just a few tweaks away from being one of the underrated gems of its time. Instead, the game’s only notable legacy is the crushing weight of its difficulty and some great art direction.

7. The 7th Saga

The SNES is rightfully remembered as the home of some of the best RPGs ever made, but few of those RPGs are necessarily remembered among the console’s most difficult games. That being the case, you may go into a game like The 7th Saga feeling pretty confident.

If so, then consider this your fair warning that The 7th Saga is absolutely one of the hardest 16-bit games ever made. For some reason, this game’s developers decided to make the U.S. version of this game even more difficult than it already was. The result is a project with typical RPG challenges that are amplified by the fact that enemies can survive an absurd amount of damage that makes level grinding more important than ever. Sadly, the U.S. version of the game makes leveling even slower than before, which means that already challenging battles feel that much more laborious.

The 7th Saga is actually a very good game, but its already challenging puzzles, dungeons, and bosses are made legendary by virtue of one of the most questionable difficulty bumps in gaming history.

6. Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

I actually love the SNES trilogy of Star Wars games and recently wished that a developer would revisit their core concepts and update them for modern platforms. If that happens, though, then there’s going to be an interesting debate about whether those games should retain the difficulty that has come to define The Empire Strikes Backs.

The other two Super Star Wars games are difficult, but Empire Strikes Back is on another level. While some of the vehicle stages are annoying, they’re not necessarily the reason so many gamers never beat this sequel. That honor instead belongs to the absurd toughness of the average enemy combined with the need to navigate some tricky levels while battling them. How can so many creatures survive so many blows from a lightsaber? Why is absolutely everything in this galaxy (including wild creatures) so hellbent on killing our heroes?

Empire Strikes Back often avoids feeling cheap or especially cruel, but that’s cold comfort for a legion of fans who have still never beaten this game.

5. Contra III: The Alien Wars

I don’t have to tell most of you that Contra 3 is a hard game. It is, after all, a Contra game, which means that it was designed to be frustrating. Even still, there are reasons why Contra 3 stands out to this day as the hardest game that many of us played growing up.

Here again, we have a SNES game where the developers must have thought to themselves “Well, if we’re giving them better graphics and better controls, then we should probably make everything more difficult to compensate for the natural frustration we lost.” As such, Contra 3 ups the ante of the franchise by taking what was already a very difficult action experience and adding a variety of expertly placed environmental hazards that keep you constantly off-balance. It certainly doesn’t help that the bosses are some of the toughest in the series’ history and that the game’s top-down segments offer a uniquely challenging break from the standard side-scrolling action.

This is really just a great action game that so happens to also be maddingly (but appropriately) difficult

4. Hagane: The Final Conflict

Hagane: The Final Conflict wasn’t especially popular when it was released in 1994, but this is one of those games that was “resurrected” by the internet. Those who did play it spent years passionately encouraging everyone to revisit this truly overlooked gem.

Before you do play this game, though, you need to know that Hagane is almost comically difficult. While Hagane’s generous controls and incredible overall design mean that you’re not hindered by fundamentally unfair mechanics, the sheer amount of obstacles this game throws at you will leave you laughing at the game over screen as you try to process what just happened. Imagine Shinobi with even more enemies and environmental hazards. That’s the basic Hagane experience.

That said, Hagane’s incredible controls, lightning speed, and excellent level design make it worth every frustrating moment you encounter along the way.

3. U.N. Squadron

You can’t talk about the hardest SNES games without talking about the console’s collection of side-scrolling shooters. Which shooter is the hardest, though? Super R-Type? Axelay?

Actually, I think that honor belongs to U.N. Squadron. This often underappreciated game initially impresses with its surprising customization options, but it’s perhaps best remembered as a stunningly hard experience. Even though U.N. Squadron isn’t as “cheap” as similar SNES games and doesn’t suffer from as many slowdown problems, this title compensates for its lack of inherent issues in other ways. Actually, U.N. Squadron‘s enemies and levels are cleverly designed to quickly produce some of the tightest death zones you’ll find in any SNES game.

Even genre veterans will find themselves sweating during this game’s final levels. Don’t even get me started on how rough the higher difficulty settings are.

2. Zombies Ate My Neighbors

At a time when zombie games were still a novelty (which feels like a lifetime ago), Zombies Ate My Neighbors allowed players to test their mettle against an undead horde while enjoying creative and colorful visuals complemented by a fairly tight control scheme. On the surface, it doesn’t seem like it would be one of the hardest SNES titles. From moment to moment, I’m not sure it is.

However, Zombies Ate My Neighbors has truly earned that distinction amongst gamers who have actually tried to beat this game. Not only does Zombies Ate My Neighbors feature nearly 50 levels (each of which is more difficult than the last), but the game’s resource system means that even a minor mistake on a level can make every level that comes afterward even more challenging than it would otherwise be. The constant onslaught of resource-demanding bosses can also easily wear down the patience of even the most composed players.

Even amongst the speedrunning community (to which some of the most skilled gamers in the world belong) Zombies Ate My Neighbors is considered to be one of the most difficult games ever made from a completionist perspective. If you really think about it, you’ll probably realize you never actually made it that far into the game no matter how much you played it.

1. Castlevania: Dracula X

With Super Castlevania 4, Konami dialed things back a bit by granting the player more control over their character. The game was still difficult, but the fact that it allowed you to do things such as swing your whip in any direction made it much more accessible than anything that came before.

Castlevania: Dracula X, on the other hand, throws all of that out the window and replaces those expanded controls with more environmental hazards than ever before. Considered to be the “true” successor to Castlevania 3 due to its retro controls and design, Dracula X can also be considered the hardest game in a franchise synonymous with difficulty. There is almost no margin for error in this action title as nearly every jump and swing can end your run if they’re not executed perfectly.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

The cherry on top of this one is a final boss fight against Dracula that forces you to jump across tiny platforms as you try to beat what would already be a difficult boss even without the gimmick. It’s an appropriate nightmare of a gaming experience.

The post 15 Hardest SNES Games of All-Time appeared first on Den of Geek.

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grahamfinch1990 · 4 years

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How To Save A Marriage And Ruin Your Life Movie Top Ideas

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Save My Marriage John Dumelo

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#How To Save A Marriage And Ruin Your Life Movie Top Ideas #10 Tips To Save Your Relationship

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origami-goblin · 7 years

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Starfinder Theme Focus – Priests and Scholars

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As we continue our journey through the themes of Starfinder, let’s take a second to look back on what we’ve already covered. Things were unofficially kicked off in the startup article detailing each theme individually, in which we shined the spotlight on the Icon (something they’re well-versed with). We’ve discussed the daring Ace Pilot and their mastery over starships and land vehicles. Next came the bounty hunter, searching the vastness of space and overturning asteroids to unearth the location of their prey. After that we made a substantial payment to hire the Mercenary, who gladly offers their services to the party with the fattest purse. Which leaves us with our most recent acquaintance, the Outlaw, who would probably prefer that we mention them as little as possible so as not to give away their identity.

Before we get to today’s scheduled programming, I’d like to mention something about character creation that can be limiting to our creativity. It’s definitely a pitfall that I’ve succumbed to on more than one occasion, and Starfinder Themes can inadvertently recreate the situation. The problem with having specific themes or backgrounds in a tabletop game, is that by selecting one of the options we are essentially putting a label on our PC: Drake is a bounty hunter. Full stop. What tends to happen, is that we have a predisposed definition of ‘bounty hunter’ in our minds; it is a mold that we casually place our character into before we have rolled a single die. It can be limiting and stifling to our creativity, even if we don’t initially see it that way.

Try to get into the habit of generalizing the themes and backgrounds so that all of the stereotypical noise is stripped away, leaving you with a beautiful, hollow shell that you can shape as you see fit. Jumping back to the bounty hunter example: Start off with the bounty hunter definition as outlined in the CRB:

“You track people down for money. It is a dangerous profession, as most of your targets understandably don’t wish to be caught. You wouldn’t have it any other way. You might have a code of ethics, never taking jobs that, say, target children or members of your own race. You might hunt down only escaped criminals. or you might be completely amoral, taking any job that comes along—for the right price.”

Okay, that’s a good place to start but it’s wordy and fills in the gaps unnecessarily. Maybe a regular definition would suffice:

“A person who pursues a criminal or fugitive for whom a reward is offered.”

Better, but the normal definition is making some assumptions that we can generalize even further. Let’s try this:

“A FINDER, paid for FINDING.”

When it all gets boiled down, isn’t that essentially what a bounty hunter does? A bounty hunter doesn’t have to be exclusively searching for people; they can be tracking down objects as well, so long as they’re getting paid for successful completion of the job.

These posts on Starfinder themes have sought to generalize the definition of each theme to give us more creative space to mold and shape our PCs. Of course, your character might be the literal definition of a bounty hunter, and that’s perfectly fine too – fun is whatever YOU find most enjoyable!

Enough jabbering, it’s time to talk about the Priest and the Scholar! In the paraphrased words of Wolfmother, “So I’ll tell you all the story about the Scholar and the Priest of the night!”

Priest Character Concepts

“You are a member of an organized religion or similar association. Your belief, whether it has been a part of you since childhood or it came to you later in life, is an integral part of your character. You might travel the stars proselytizing your deity, or your church might have sent you out on a specific holy (or unholy) mission. No matter what obstacles life puts in your way, you always have the conviction of your beliefs to fall back on.”

Dedicated Pilgrim – Humbled by your beliefs and wanting to strengthen the connection you have with your deity, you have dedicated yourself to a journey of enlightenment. Guided by your immovable faith, you will follow the call of your deity to the end of the Pact Worlds and beyond, if you must. Through the discovery of new planets, people, and technologies, everything serves as a connection to your higher power. Are you specifically travelling to commune with a group of believers at a revered historical site? Is there a tangible beacon guiding you in your pilgrimage, such as a holy relic or powerful artifact? Depending on your deity, you may be driven by or attracted to a multitude of objects, lifestyles, people, etc.

Faithful Preacher – Completely enveloped by your faith, you can’t help but to share the holy words of your divine patron wherever you go. Backing up your speeches with passages from deific texts and reciting countless stories of Even though you are aware that everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, are you pushy about spreading your faith or do you focus more heavily on people who are more apt to be convinced? Do you have a specific audience that you are targeting, be it the elderly or are you shaping the young minds of tomorrow? What sort of demeanor does this character have? How do they handle conflict? Have they had an experience that made them question their faith, or is there a profound moment that filled them with their faith to begin with? Maybe you even have a conversion quota that you’d like to reach before you consider your purpose fulfilled.

Astute Theologian – The key to having a solid foundation in faith is to understand the texts and histories that were written to support and document all pertinent information on your deity. Whether you scribe events yourself or focus exclusively on the texts of theologians prior, you enjoy having concrete evidence available at your fingertips. Are you a bookish individual whose vision is damaged by years under dim lights, or are you a young theologian hoping to excel your tutelage under another? Do you collect stories of every deity, or do you limit your studies to a single divine? Are you accepting of other people’s beliefs? Do you have favorite quotes or passages that you constantly reference? Are there any particular ways that you communicate to those of a lesser intelligence? Or perhaps you’re not as intelligent as you initially seem!

Motivational Life Coach – Nothing pleases you more than using your gifts to help others solve their problems. In just five easy steps, anybody can change their life and turn their luck around! Centered around faith, you develop close relationships with others so that you can understand how they’ve gotten to where they are today. How do you encourage people to lower their guard and accept your proven-plan to enrich their lives? What does your enhancement plan entail? Does it have a cost? Have you done any seminars, published books, or organized any retreats to promote your program? Are you just in it for the money or is this a situation where you are the product of your own success? Buzz words and phrases likely leap from your lips – you’re developing a brand after all!

Secluded Hermit – You’ve always found that developing a deep connection with your deity involves peace, quiet, and a whole lot of R&R. You don’t feel a need to proclaim your faith from the rooftops because as far as you’re concerned, faith is entirely personal. By developing your beliefs in private, you can feel that you’re making progress in bettering your soul. How long have you been living alone and why did you choose that lifestyle for yourself? Was it even your choice? How will you assimilate into society and work closely with a party of adventurers? Have you been living a meager lifestyle? Do you have any important possessions that have centered your meditations? Any surviving family? Are you willing to share your faith with others?

Scholar Character Concepts

“You are an erudite intellectual, pitting your brain against problems and puzzles that others would find daunting. You might be an instructor of a specific topic at a large university or a dabbler in a number of fields of study. You could be exploring the galaxy in search of ancient artifacts or new scientific phenomena. Whatever your motivation, you are sure that the answers you seek are out there.”

Eccentric Entomologist – Not limited to just studying the Shirren, you are heavily interested in anything that creeps and crawls throughout the Pact World System. Where others might cringe and crawl, you revel in the opportunity to uncover new species and the possibility of attributing discoveries to your name. What sorts of insects are your forte? Do you specialize in a certain genus? Have you developed any quirks or tendencies that could be attributed to the subjects that you study? Perhaps your studies are strictly limited to understanding the Shirren and their Hive Mind connection and you want to replicate it in another application. Do you keep your samples on you, or do you have a lab where the majority are stored? Any ties to a museum or research facility? Are you an accredited scientist or more of a glorified hobbyist?

Forensic Scientist – Understanding the complex intricacies that go into crime scene investigation, you have an analytical mind rooted in years of study. It’s important that you are familiar with anatomy, physics, and psychology in order to piece together the clues of a murder and figure out the story. Are you currently a part of a law enforcement unit or are you a contractor for hire? Are you an expert in specific types of crimes? Do you often visit the crime scene, or do you focus more on the laboratory side of things? Is there any particular crime that stands out in your mind as most influential or disturbing? What got you into this field of study? How does technology play a role in your investigations? Do you have any enemies that you’ve helped put behind bars that have threatened to make things difficult to you whenever they get out of prison? How will your services be best used out in the real world of adventuring and space travel?

Acclaimed Archeologist – Every planet tells a story under its surface and your job is to discover that story and share it with the world(s). Whether it is the bones of long-forgotten monsters or remnants of an ancient civilization, proof of the past is out there, ripe for the digging. What sorts of equipment or magic do you use to unearth these hidden riches of the world? Are you looking for signs of life, buildings, treasure, or something else entirely? After you find something, what are your goals for your discovery – sharing it with others or stashing it away for yourself? Are you a part of a small team, large corporation, or just working independently? Is there some great mystery that you’re trying to solve? Who are your key contacts in the industry and how do you determine your dig sites? Maybe you also investigate and search for destroyed ships or vessels that we lost in the Drift, hoping to bring closure to friends and family (or to scavenge the wreckage).

Environmental Engineer – Out in the far reaches of space, the environment is hostile and deadly. Maybe you’ve assisted in developing life support systems or you have assisted in the creation of sustainable housing that can stand up to the harshest of elements. Or maybe you are have studied other planets in-depth and understand the ecology, planetary make-up, atmosphere, and other vital statistics about them. Taking it a step further, maybe you’re involved in the preservation of resources and ensuring that the next generation will not be lacking in basic environmental needs. You might be a geologist, pedologist, or meteorologist. Are you focused on environmental usage or preservation? Is there a specialty that others consult you on, like water, air, or weather? Do you design structures? What about terraforming or reshaping existing planets to suit the needs of the people? Are you paid well for your efforts? Did you attend any schooling or are you self-taught? There is a ton of flexibility in this one because the worlds in Starfinder are incredibly diverse and allow for immense creativity.

Legacy Historian – The Gap has left a literal gap in people’s minds – what happened during the period of time before the present-day? Your research is meant to answer that specific question. You might be focused on the militarization of the Pact Worlds, investigating wars and battles that took place during that time. Or maybe you’re more concerned with cultures and race anthologies, trying to understand the people that existed before and during the Gap. Better yet, you might be a renowned historian on Golarion (leaving the player able to exhibit their Pathfinder knowledge). Historians can also be responsible for chronicling events as they happen. Do you write everything down or are you a ‘living’ historian who has an impeccable memory for reciting facts and figures? What level of history interests you the most – individual and familial histories or the rise and fall of empires? Have you ever tweaked a fact to better fit a desired narrative or are you unbiased in your research? Is your work published anywhere? Do you have any powers of foresight were you can recognize past mistakes and see events unfolding as the consequence to those events? Why do you record – so others can remember or so you don’t forget?

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And with that, we’ve detailed out seven of the ten themes. But wait! Aren’t there only nine themes? Do I even know what I’m talking about at this point? You would be correct in saying that there are only nine DEFINED themes, but I’m saving the final post in this series for a juicy dive into being Themeless. Even though creating a character without a theme seems like writing a book and forgoing a title, themeless is the perfect solution to the problem of dreaming up a character who doesn’t seem to check off the boxes of a single theme, or one that checks off boxes of multiple themes and you simply can’t decide which one is most dominant.

#Starfinder #Paizo #RPG #Gaming #Tabletop #Themes #Character Building #Character #PCs

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bansheemilktales · 7 years

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Proof You Are A Dummy If You Think Jack Nicholson Is Overrated

People make too big of a deal about actors, don't they? They call some geniuses on a regular basis. Don't get me wrong, some are amazingly talented. But actors are told where to stand, what to say and what to do. They're people who are paid to pretend, okay? They're like hookers faking an orgasm. So maybe we could calm down on the genius talk. Some are good at it and some are not. It's that simple. And yet, as simple as this concept is, I have noticed most people don't understand it at all.

I've heard dumb people of my generation say that Jack Nicholson is overrated a million times. Here is why you are dumb if you say this: MATH exists.

With MATH, one can use the ancient art of counting the skills a person has at acting to determine whether or not an actor is good without having to rely on feelings which are an invalid way to form an opinion. I know we have a right to feel what we want, guys, but be reasonable. Feelings are for feeling, not for thinking. If you dropped acid this morning you might feel you are an orange. But you are not an orange. If you say, "I think ___ is a bad actor" you must back it up with evidence.

The reason I hear dummies of my generation (Generation X) give when they say Jack is overrated is that "All he does is use a nasal voice and twitch his eyebrows...he is always the same." And then they give nothing but examples from 1980 and on. Movies like Batman, Wolf, The Shining, As Good As It Gets.

Listen here, dumb folks. His career begins in 1958. That's when Eisenhower was President. If you only watch movies made when you were alive you are a fucking idiot. QUESTION: Why would Hollywood have waited until you were born to start making movies good? Answer: They didn't. They haven't even heard of you.

You see, even if you do not like a movie, that doesn't mean it is bad. It simply must succeed at the majority of it's goals to be good. Because you hated "that one part" does not mean the whole movie stinks. There have been good movies being made for over 100 years. Good meaning it succeeded at it's goal. Meaning a comedy that makes people laugh, a thriller that made people feel excited...etc.

Here is a list of the 5 things a great actor should be able to do:

1) Can they emote well? Do they convince you that they are feeling what their character is supposed to be feeling in the scene? Do they seem angry, happy etc.? Most actors who have been successful for more than a decade can do this at least competently whether we like them or not. People get tired of watching someone who cannot simply pretend they are feeling something. It is a useful skill and perhaps the most common among decent actors.

2) Chameleon Powers: Can they do accents, can they change their body language and physical tics, are they willing to change appearance drastically due to make-up, dieting, etc? This skill is a bit more rare. Good examples of this style of acting are Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Daniel Day Lewis, Robert Downey Jr, Al Pacino and Gary Oldman. In fact, Day Lewis and Oldman are probably the best chameleons currently working. De Niro, Nicholson & Pacino in the 70s and Brando in the 50s and 60s. (Yes, Nicholson has done it many times whether you saw the films or not).

3) Do they pick challenging scripts that will force them out of their comfort zone and into new territory as an actor? It is a good thing to do but sadly, dramatic actors and action stars are the worst at this meaning, once they are successful at a genre they tend to stick with it. Jason Statham does not appear to be interested in picking something out of his comfort zone. In the 70s, Stallone showed great range and was compared to Brando, James Dean & De Niro but then he mostly played guys who blew stuff up ever since. So with few exceptions like Copland and Oscar, picking challenging parts is not one of his best attributes. While many enjoy his action films, he desperately needs to do something challenging or his memory will always be as the guy who had a good relationship with the pyrotechnic crew. That gets boring.

4) Do they ever pick something that is a crowd pleaser? This one is tricky. We want them to pick challenging work, yes, but if they never pick a "fun" movie or a "popcorn" movie, actors come off as self important. For all the money actors make they owe their audience a good time now and then and, let's face it, a movie about babies dying in the congo doesn't cut it for most people. So I am referring to comedy, action, horror, sci fi...some kind of a tentpole picture. Do they ever even try at these things? Daniel Day Lewis for example, will not do a movie unless it has a disturbing death scene, and/or a scene where he yells needlessly. (We heard you say "Now" the first time, Lincoln) Is he good at these things? Hell yes. He is perhaps the best "intensity" actor working today. But since acting is not necessarily always about being intense, Day Lewis needs to lighten the fuck up sometimes. Makes sense, right? If you knew a great chef would you tell him to just make one type of meal all the time? Perhaps you criticize an action guy like Stallone for doing the same "type" of movie repeatedly. Day Lewis, like Stallone, is an great actor who needs a new trick. Look at Gary Oldman. Every bit the chameleon Day Lewis is but he will throw in a Batman or Harry Potter role to mix things up. Gary Oldman delivers to both his "artsy fartsy" fans and his "I wanna see something blow up" fans. Demand more from actors who have shown great skill. Don't let the Daniel Day Lewis types off the hook of responsibility to their audience if you are quick to ridicule the Stallones. Be consistent or you are one of the dummies I'm referring to in this article.

5) Comedy. Virtually every actor says it is the hardest genre to perform in and many people do not understand why. Allow me to show you why this is absolutely true. When watching a really good drama, one can have many reactions, right? You can cry, you can think, you can even become disturbed to a point you have to leave the room. For a comedy to be good, it is forced to try to get one reaction: Laughter. If it does not make you laugh, it has failed. Since the target they are aiming for is smaller, they are taking a more difficult shot. This is why so many comedies suck balls. Serious films are shooting at a bullseye the size of a battleship. Hence, whoever the greatest actor on Earth is, he or she MUST be able to handle comedy. Without some funny, you are at best, in the second tier of great actors.

So, all one has to do to form an opinion that matters is see how much of this criteria an actor fits. I won't tell you who the greatest actor on Earth is, but clearly they excel at all 5 things on this list. If it is 4, they are damn good, too. Just not the best.

Let's look at Jack Nicholson and see how he holds up: #1 is chameleon abilities and yes, if you have looked at his pictures as much as I have you will notice accents and characteristics changing (lesser so in the last 35 years which is why my generation fails to see this talent in him as they tend to only watch movies made after Star Wars. Seriously guys, it is a fact. He changes. Read up on it. He just became so famous after 1980 or so that audiences wanted to see a certain persona from him and won't accept another kind.). #2- He emotes well. Even his detractors agree about this. The man convinces you he feels what his character feels. #3- He has done every single genre. Seriously. So while I don't know what his comfort zone is, he definitely left it since he has done every type of movie under the sun. #4- Does he ever do one for the audience-a "crowd pleaser"? Yes, he has. Again, he has acted in every genre except perhaps silent. #5- Comedy? He has won Oscars for his performances in BOTH comedies and dramas. Think about that. Whoever you think is the best, did they win in different genres?

You don't have to like him if you don't want to. But he fits the bill. This is a great actor and you are just dumb to say otherwise.

Again, keeping emotion out of this, let's look at Daniel Day Lewis, who clearly holds up numbers 1 (chameleon) and 2 (emoting) quite well, perhaps better than anyone else alive. But if we are honest, he suffers in the other 3. This is the guy who everybody says is the greatest actor of his generation. Yet, he won't do anything outside of drama and he stays in his comfort zone of playing super intense dudes who make everyone else in the scene nervous. What's that? I forgot about that hilarious comedy he made? No, I didn't. Cuz he didn't make it.

But don't worry, Day Lewis fans. I will now go after someone else you probably love to hate. Let's look at Stallone. Yeah, Stallone may have proven he emotes well in films like Rocky, and he may have proven he has the ability to change up his mannerisms and voice in movies like First Blood and Copland, but, let's face it, he fails pretty miserably at #3 by making way too many action movies and he hasn't strayed from his comfort zone since 1997's Copland. What's that? 1997 is a real life date that happened? Wow, you're right. So while it has been too long, he has, in fact, strayed from his comfort zone. Maybe not enough but he has done it. What's that? He just made a comedy with De Niro and was lauded by many as being very funny? And did you just say that half of his lip and jaw and tongue are paralyzed from an accident at birth and this gives him the "snarl-like" smile and slurred speech that you so readily make fun of? So he has given ALL of his performances disabled and he never uses that to sell himself or ask you, the asshole public, to stop mocking his disability? Holy shit. You're right. Stallone is one of the greatest actors on Earth. Writing is a talent, as is acting, bodybuilding, doing stunts, painting and overcoming immense physical obstacles.

See what I mean? You thought Jack Nicholson sucked because you've seen 5 of his 100 movies and were disappointed. Now you know that he is awesome. You thought Stallone sucked and now, unless you are close-minded and screaming "No, No, No, No" you see that he is a disabled guy who manages to be way more talented than you, a person who judges actors by a "gut feeling". No? You disagree? You think feelings are more real than facts? So you really are an orange when you drop acid? Just a quick FYI: Another great thing about some actors is when they have other talents outside of acting that can inform their performances. Nicholson can write & direct. Stallone is a successful painter, directed 5 of his most successful films, a gifted writer (he wrote Rocky in 3 days and it won Best Picture), a talented body builder who was willing to throw that away and get fat for Copland, and you still are going to say DD Lewis is more talented than him? Is this because he is good at pretending? I agree. He is awesome at pretending. I also used the art of counting and it turns out pretending is only one talent. Sorry. MATH wins again.

Jack Nicholson: 5 out of 5 required skills in acting.

Stallone: 4.5 out of 5. I am taking half a point off because while he has gone out of his comfort zone it has been far too infrequent.

Daniel Day Lewis: 2 out of 5.

Dumb people of the world, stop saying people suck when you haven't given it much thought. You might be mocking someone with a disability you didn't even know about. Plus, it isn't your opinion that Day Lewis is the best since his skills end at pretending and being intense. It is your feeling that he is the best. And yeah, he feels like the best to me, too. We hear it being said so much on TV that we tend to believe it. Or some of you feel like agreeing with the masses so you won't get mocked. I have OCD. I obsess about my opinions and analyze them. Then I destroy people who say stupid shit. Seriously, every actor picks a stupid script sometimes. People used to say "Not Johnny Depp". You still saying that lately? It's been like 5 bad movies in a row. Day Lewis did a movie called "9". That movie is a fart of a movie. I am convinced the director was just a butt. Dustin Hoffman did Ishtar. De Niro made 3 movies about the "Fockers", each one more Focking stupid than the last. So, yes. Jack Nicholson and Stallone have made some stupid movies. But so did your favorite actor. And did your favorite actor WRITE his or her Best movie? No? Then shut the fuck up with your hand me down thoughts while the rest of us invent our own.

written by Michael Anthony (Tony) Santiago, painting by Michael Anthony (Tony) Santiago @BansheeMilk

#jack nicholson #daniel day lewis #sylvester stallone #funny article #writer

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disc-golf · 6 years

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The 4 Most Important Reasons to Take a Vacation This Year

Nobody needs to tell you to take a vacation.

Or do they?

If you’re one of the 23% of Americans workers who take all of their PTO, then hats off to you. You get it.

But I’m betting you’re in the 77% camp—the employees who either don’t take all of their allotted time off, or end up working when they should be relaxing.

Instead of berating you for an inability to balance self-care and an iron-clad work ethic, let me say this: Vacation is the key to your sanity.

No really, it is. Before you close your screen and shuffle off to meetings or pressing emails, consider these very clear benefits to taking time off.

Rest

“Every person needs to take one day away. A day in which one consciously separates the past from the future. Jobs, family, employers, and friends can exist one day without any one of us, and if our egos permit us to confess, they could exist eternally in our absence. Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for. Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us.” ―Maya Angelou

You could live your life like a gladiator, vowing never to give up or walk away. But we all know that the human body physically needs rest. As the illustrious Maya Angelou said above, “Everyone needs to take one day away.”

Let me be more specific.

Rest reduces stress—that pesky byproduct of work that inhibits our ability to function at peak efficiency. When stress is the norm, some gradation of our fight or flight response is always in play; our heart beat is elevated, our blood pressure rises, our minds concentrate narrowly on solutions to single stress triggers instead of leveraging high-level thinking for more effective problem-solving.

Clearly, we aren’t at our best. But when we allow ourselves to rest—that is, relaxing away from work and other life pressures—we give our bodies a chance to move from “fight or flight” to well-adjusted normality. And when our bodies are functioning at normal levels and our minds are freed up to think more broadly, we are also able to sleep better.

Sleep, as most of us know, is key to proper physical and mental function. Among some of the primary benefits are:

Reduction of inflammation and the possibility of heart disease

Boosted immune system

Memory improvement

Don’t take my word for it, though. The National Institutes of Health have studied this for decades, and their overwhelming opinion is simple: Rest reduces stress which improve the ability to sleep which, in turn, makes us much healthier, happier, and more productive humans.

Experiencing a new environment and new adventures

”Jobs fill your pockets, but adventures fill your soul.” —Jaime Lyn

The last time I traveled to Europe, I was overwhelmed with ideas for writing projects. Heck, I conceived of entire miniseries with a flamboyant Parisian protagonist, hellbent on solving cold crimes in the love capital of the world.

Whether or not my series came to life is almost irrelevant (I’m still debating whether or not my protagonist should have a mustache); many of my character and plot ideas came from simple observations on the streets of Paris.

Now I’m convinced that those ideas would never have occurred to me sitting in front of my computer at home or rifling through books about travel. I needed to experience the travel firsthand.

While routines are tops for daily productivity, they can get stale. If you’re not careful, they can zap your creativity and push you into a rut of automatic motion. And sure, some of those routine habits are good, but to move ahead in life, you need to think outside the box.

This is a huge benefit of vacation. Changing scenery and experiencing new activities and adventures is a major boost to creativity. Not only this, but the challenges you face in a new setting, surrounded by different people, force you to adapt and be flexible—both invaluable skills in the office and at home.

Perhaps the greatest advantage to a change in scenery, however, is new perspective. Whether you’re traipsing through a South American jungle, trying a new cocktail on the beach, or wandering through the streets of a major European city, your perspective changes—you see people in new settings; you appreciate customs and cultures that you’ve never known before; and you learn to communicate with people whose lives are vastly different than your own.

New experiences, in short, feed your soul in a way most of our daily routines just don’t.

Spending time with close friends or loved ones

“At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict, or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a friend, a child, a parent.” —Barbara Bush

There’s no shortage of evidence that time spent with family promotes a happy, healthy life—both for parents and children. Positive behavior is encouraged, emotional bonds are strengthened, self-esteem and self-worth are boosted, and memories are created that inform future behavior and emotional development.

But there’s something else to this time with loved ones that’s key for a workaholic. It’s easy in professional settings to feel the burden of expectation without support. Reconnecting with a spouse and children reinforces the support that is always present at home—as long as you let them in to support you. That support is emotional as much as it is mental; the ability to share work frustration in the right setting allows you to parse office challenges that you’d otherwise be left alone to handle. And trust me on this: Your family will thank you for making them a part of your WHOLE life, not just your home life.

On a much bigger scale, however, this connection can help you get to the root of mental blocks and emotional obstacles—the underlying elements that make any part of life difficult. A loving, caring relationship with friends and family give them the opportunity to hold up a mirror and show you yourself in a way that you couldn’t by dithering in self-doubt. While sometimes painful, this helps to overcome mental/emotional obstacles for improved health and happiness .

Lastly, time with family and friends is always a good way to remind you of your “why”—as Simon Sinek so famously puts it. These moments of connection are the opportunity to remember your underlying purpose and direction. Why are you working so hard in your career? Why did you choose it to begin with? Is it really the right fit for you? Have you even stopped to think about that? What are your priorities and goals?

Hard questioning and the revelations that follow are not always the most exciting or “fun” elements of a vacation, but they reset your compass in a way that the daily grind never would.

Enjoying quality alone time

“We need solitude, because when we’re alone, we’re free from obligations, we don’t need to put on a show, and we can hear our own thoughts.” ―Tamim Ansary

Some of us are extraverts. Some are introverts. I’m in that awkward, fence-riding place where time spent with others both gives and saps a certain measure of energy.

But the interesting thing about both extraverts and introverts is that we all need alone time. Some of that is about reminding yourself of your needs, your purpose, your “why.” Some of it is processing information and experiences that you simply haven’t given yourself time to process. It’s no secret, after all, that our world is overburdened with information and that our ability to process it is stunted by the perceived urgency of everything. Is it any wonder we’re so stressed out?

But being alone is also about fundamentally restructuring the pieces of our lives in an arrangement that makes sense for US. It’s about acknowledging the extent to which our priorities get out of whack—often because of others’ influence and exhortation—and starting the process of reorganizing goals, priorities, and values.

If it needs be said, vacations are about more than endless umbrella cocktails and sun-soaked days. They are critical to our wellbeing in the present, and give us the health and perspective to take big swings in life further down the road.

Make that case to your boss the next time he argues with you a few days of PTO.

Time to turn your “why” into a purpose-driven Morning Routine.

Sign up now to get our FREE Morning Routine guide—the #1 way to increase productivity, energy, and focus for profitable days. Used by thousands of fitness, business, and finance industry leaders to leapfrog the competition while making time for the people who really matter. Learn more here.

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