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shimmershae · 3 years

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Just a few random thoughts and observations about Daryl’s Origins episode.

Basically my stream of consciousness bullshit brought over from Twitter, lol. I almost didn’t watch the episode after seeing all the drama over there, but ultimately I decided to because frankly? I don’t trust certain fans’ perceptions of events. For reasons. It’s best, I feel, to always watch with your own eyes and form your own independent opinions because this fandom is teeming with people that delight in tormenting other fans by being very selective and oftentimes downright misrepresentative about what they pass along.

More under the cut because this is random and all over the place and basically excerpts of my live blogging while watching the special. Did I mention it’s random?

You know. It sure would be nice not going into one of these things so apprehensive. Maybe one day, hmm?

First things first. From the very beginning of this Origins episode, I’m reminded of two things: 1). Our introduction to Daryl, his colorful Dixonese, and his particular brand of humor certainly stands out as one of show's more memorable introductions. 2). TWD certainly regressed on the deer front. I mean. Daryl's deer>Richonne's deer.

I’m never going to get over "On Golden Pond." Never ever and look. I actually liked Dale but Daryl spitting those words at him still makes me laugh until I'm weak.

Daryl's still searching all these years later. Or is he? Really? Seems to me the man's found exactly what he's been looking for and he's been chasing it since he came back from those woods: a future with his soulmate. The one that happens to be his best friend. OFC, I’m talking about Carol. Who else?

How pretty and soft are baby Daryl and Carol? Too pretty and soft for this tired heart to withstand. Like I love all versions of them, but baby Daryl and Carol just hit different.

My immediate thought re: the Beth comment-- Misreads the situation? WTF? Whoever wrote this script just had to re-inject some eww into the narrative didn't they? All those damn dirty spoons. Ever think about how much it probably reeks in that office space?

Moving along, though. Here’s some real facts. Carol is so intrinsically woven into the fabric of Daryl's story, the only way she can be removed is if they are literally both destroyed and cease to exist. Something happens to Carol? The man is going to be a reanimated body without a heartbeat. Basically a Walker.

An aside, I know they're not making me rewatch a scene I haven't watched since the first time it aired. The way Negan's head bashing tendencies had me seeing red and wanting that barbed wire bat shoved up his ass every time I saw his face. My JDM love really took a serious hit for awhile. I'm never going to forgive the character that hateful act. I just can't.

Somehow I wasn't expecting this to be a teleprompter-fest. Like who wrote this script? Hmm. Sorry. Don't mind me. Lost in my thoughts per usual. You know. It still strikes me as hella insensitive that Rick had Daryl leading the Sanctuary community knowing what he suffered there. There's no way Daryl would have returned that kind of favor.

Yep. Leah still feels tacked on last minute. A means to an end. Sigh. They completely glossed her over here. Too bad they had that lapse in judgment with some other toxic waste. I cannot believe they touched that with a ten foot pole. It's just cringe-worthy and wrong.

"Daryl can't say no to Carol." They say those words and I’m like “Join the club, my dude. Join the club, lol.”

You know. All the Carol-related moments in this Daryl Dixon recap speak for themselves. She's his person, dammit.

Okay though. That reunion in the tall grass with the sun shining on them all golden and picturesque, after Alpha’s taken Daryl to show him her horde? That's some romance novel shit right there. "Look at me. Just look at me." I'm never going to recover from that moment or the discovery of Sophia. They break my heart so.

This recap is literally 2/3's Carol and the other 1/3 Rick and everybody else. I mean. It's so obvious. Utterly and completely misrepresented by some agenda-driven folks.

"We have a future." Oh. Just some pretty, meaningless words you say everyday to all your friends, lol. Just friends my whole entire ass.

"I'm never gonna hate you." Okay, AMC. Back up all the talk with some action that even the most willfully blind cannot deny, m'kay? Because they're not going to buy it until you're explicit about it. Just saying.

The amount of times "Carol" has left this man's mouth during this recap, lol, and some people keep wanting to ignore it.

Aww. Guess who they showed when Daryl mentioned family? How sweet. And when they mentioned purpose in connection with C0nnie, it was not any indication of romance, IMHO.

Let me explain.

By the time C0nnie is lost, Daryl’s floundering because he feels he hasn’t been able to help Carol despite giving it all and pushing back his previously established comfort zone(s). Enter these pair of sisters. And they put him in mind of the good parts of him and Merle. Probably they make him remember the Greene girls when things were good and hopeful before they went sideways. In some small way, he’s probably reminded of other family units like Rick and Carl and Lori and Carol and Sophia and later Henry. And all of those people have something in common. Well, besides being people Daryl has known and cared for. They’ve seen their family units fractured and/or destroyed by tragedies wrought by the world they live in. They made a point and emphasized that Daryl’s a searcher and also that family matters to him. In some way or form he’s been doing his best to help repair or reunite all these different family members since the beginning and ultimately he’s failed to succeed each time. So yeah. He’s been given a purpose in a time of uncertainty again with her because this time he’s determined to get it right. This time he wants to bring the two sisters back together the way he couldn’t do for the Greene girls. Like I did not, do not read anything romantic at all into that comment. Just my take on things. Obviously, everyone else’s mileage may vary. I’ll step off my soapbox now. Hopefully, maybe these words might comfort.

So relax, lovelies. It wasn't as bad as I feared. Sure, they could have left that one icky comment out but they didn't and honestly? I don't think it's a positive for that particular 'relationship' because it's something that's brought up to show just how messed up Daryl was. Because grown men that have their heads on straight don't usually have those type of misreads. They know they are inappropriate. Like I'm not putting Daryl into the pedo category because I don't feel like he belongs there. But I can see how him being so emotionally stunted and naive so far as interpersonal relationships and the nuances of friendship and non-toxic family could lend itself to him maybe reading more into those moments than were really there and not really knowing how to deal.

Whoever wrote that teleprompter script though? That particular asshole is probably grinning like a donkey with a mouth full of briars at all the unnecessary drama they stirred up yet again. Like newsflash, goober. There are better ways to foster interest in your show.

They should hire a team of fans to do the promotion. Fans that represent all factions of this fractured fandom so the promotion is well-rounded and not so heavily slanted toward any one of them but the diverse fandom as a whole.

Stop fanning the stupid ship wars and just celebrate the damn characters and the overall story. Nothing new or groundbreaking to see on this first Origins story but hey. Who doesn't mind a decent recap now and then? That said, don't sweat not having AMC+ or feel like you missed all that much because you didn't.

I do have to say. Them pretending B3th was the first girl to be nice to Daryl really had me going WTF.

I mean, there’s this little exchange from Carol, the first woman to be nice to Daryl, probably the first person from the group--

"You're every bit as good as them. Every bit."

AMC? TWD? Do you even watch your own show?

There you have it. My bullshit stream of consciousness, originally posted over on Twitter as I liveblogged the show. Hope you got something helpful or of entertainment value from this.

Goodnight, lovelies.

Until next time.

#The Walking Dead #The Walking Dead: Origins #Daryl Dixon #things that make me smile and cry #for reasons

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bettsfic · 6 years

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Whaaaa have u finished s5?????!!!! THOUGHTS???

i mean overall, critically speaking, it was probably one of the best single seasons of any teen tv show i’ve ever watched. like top 10, up there somewhere with buffy s2. the plot was tightly wrought, most things that happened made sense (which is something i’ve learned to let slide with this show), and every character had a reasonable motivation for doing what they were doing. granted, the bar was painfully low after s3 and 4, but i think if i picked up this show at s5 without seeing any of the prior seasons i still would have loved it.

THAT SAID, because i have seen the rest of the series, some of the OOC elements bothered me. i only saw a few glimpses of clarke’s history as the great wanheda (that quick knife to niylah’s throat? NICE). i didn’t like that all of her motivation had been reduced to motherhood when we’ve seen her in the past as a leader and lover and fighter and healer. BUT i also really loved the clexa moments, which didn’t feel cheap at all to me, and made clarke’s relationship with madi much more interesting after several cringey moments of “i’m willing to torture you to protect you.” similarly i didn’t like that abby’s character was reduced to her addiction and that guided everything she did. i like addiction narratives, but only when they’re not a plot device, which this very much was.

conversely, i think bellamy became more complex somehow, and his arc made sense -- he had six years in space to think on shit, and that changes a person. he continues to be probably the only truly trustworthy character on the show (i mean trustworthy to the audience) because his sense of loyalty is consistent and overrides all other traits, and his conflict (like captain america’s) always involves the compromise of his loyalty. in the case of this season, the people he’d spent six years with, or his sister, who is only a shadow of the person she once was. bellamy remains one of my favorite television characters of all time. (also note, i LOVED his fight scenes this season -- i can’t tell if it’s bob or the choreographers but all of them were really beautifully done, and it was a refreshing change of pace to not see him constantly beaten down every other minute. his face was only bloodied in one episode all season!!).

BELLARKE?? the bellarke moments were so good and so infuriating. as much as i appreciated them, i just kept thinking about what the show would be like if they’d gone canon at different points earlier on, and how that would make their relationship so complex. if they’d been together during praimfaya and bellamy spent six years thinking she was dead. if they had the same ride-or-die loyalty of monty and harper or the passion of murphy and emori, and how much more interesting that would make the show and the characters and -- well, i also firmly believe that any romance arc shouldn’t stretch over 5 seasons, so at this point it’s looking more like a gimmick to keep people watching, and i think if it were really confident in its quality, it wouldn’t need to use slow burn romantic tension to engage its audience. too much build-up ruins the breaking point, ya feel? five seasons is enough.

anyway. raven, sadly, never gets a character arc in order to let her either grow or shrink because, being the engineer, she’s always forced into a function of plot. in every season, her job is to move a machine from point A to B, and her obstacle is always physical torture. it’s a shame because i think lindsay’s performance is so good. i dug zeke’s character and their romance, though, so i hope to see more of that in s6.

and murphy. wow. for the first time we get an actual internal arc. even if it’s as blunt and heavy-handed as a brick, murphy had no clear-cut external goal, and everything about his growth this season was his internal acceptance of usefulness and heroism. as i type this i’m seeing a pattern, though, because emori, despite having a very interesting potential arc as grounder-turned-engineering-apprentice, was reduced to a function of murphy’s self-realization. i would have liked more development for both characters, because i think they were really close to something epiphanic that never got fully formed and had the potential to advance the moral cornerstones of the story.

ugh, echo. fuck echo. i think the only way she could be redeemed to me is if she showed bellamy the same loyalty she had once shown roan, and bellamy, rather than turning that loyalty romantic, would have dismissed it as being forced and toxic and destructive, so echo would be forced to actually consider herself as an individual rather than a member of a unit. but everything about their relationship was so sloppily done, and i found myself looking away whenever she was on screen. (which is not at all about the performance, which, again, was stellar.)

monty and harper provided a fraction of a wider perspective toward fixing what i think is the ultimate problem of the show, which is that the writing seems grossly unaware of its own moral assumptions. and maybe i’m projecting because i recently got that same feedback from an author i really admire (and he was right) but i may have internalized it so much i see it in other things now. monty and harper provided a much-needed “we don’t have to participate in this, and there are other solutions to be found” pacifist perspective which really helped round-out the season and provided a breath of fresh air to an otherwise exhaustingly dark plot.

diyoza? stellar. perfect. wonderful. 10/10. a competent, lawful neutral to act as a foil to octavia’s chaotic neutral leadership. i liked that she was pregnant, but i disliked that her motivation and mcreary’s weakness was reduced to their feelings about that pregnancy, so it felt like just a gimmick to manipulate the plot and tip the scales against mcreary.

kane is always fab, but i’m biased because i think henry ian cusick is the second best actor on the show. i wish he was more coherent as a character. as it stands he’s just kind of silly putty that gets formed into whatever he needs to be. i would be SO HERE for a kane/diyoza/abby triangle (which i would turn into an OT3 immediately). the daddy vibes this season were great.

one of the most understated characters has always been indra, played by the best actress on the show, adina porter. this season i really adored her relationship with gaia. i don’t think i’ve ever seen a mother/daughter relationship as formal and loving as theirs, and how it seamlessly encompassed their respective love/worship of octavia. they’re a good example of characters how further the plot but also get to be actual characters. idk why it’s so hard for this show to figure out the difference between plot devices and characters but it’s really hit or miss.

aaaaand then there’s octavia. i was pissed earlier in the season that jaha was killed off just for the sake of landing some leadership advice, because i really liked jaha’s character and (like many of the more competent characters who are put into the hands of incompetent writers [see: lexa]) thought he’d been poorly utilized the past 3 seasons. i don’t get why octavia was the leader at all?? like, kane, indra, abby, and jaha were all more qualified, and they were all in the bunker together. i think there was supposed to be some commentary on charisma and loyalty or something but it got lost in the heavy-handed “we do what it takes to survive” and “we pursue violence for peace” rhetoric that oversaturates the entire show because jroth can’t think of anything deeper or more meaningful to say about the complexity of being (and it’s what will probably get the show canceled in the next year or so -- no growth in moral reasoning = no new drama to be found). the only part that really sold me was octavia’s decision to shoot the people who refused to eat, even though i thought it was a dumb premise to begin with, because the flashback was well-placed and the performance was great, and it showed a genuine breaking point between octavia and blodreina.

if i had written the season, there were a lot of things i would have done differently (we get this ominous shot of the worms that doesn’t amount to anything, and a twist ending that felt cheap even if it was emotionally compelling), but in comparison to the prior seasons, i commended this season on not pulling its punches on the practical details like it’s always done (clarke eating windshield bugs to survive), threading in the consequences and details from all the prior seasons and the show’s own canon (abby using The Blight to motivate octavia into forcing everyone to eat), and overall slowing the fuck down (the entire season leads up to one [1] battle).

i don’t think the show will ever fully recover from lexa’s death, which decimated its fanbase and lost trust in the writing, but s5 put up a decent mulligan of s4 to wrangle the juvenile moral quandaries the show attempts to assert. if s6 can advance the philosophical implications of its own world, lose the “our people” bullshit jargon, and focus on the fucking characters which is the only reason anyone watches the damn show, then i think it could really be up there with the other cult faves like buffy and star trek and supernatural.

#the 100 spoilers #100 #meta #this got really long sorry!!#Anonymous

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skylorennn · 6 years

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The Emotional Weight of Star Wars, Anakin Skywalker, and Kylo Ren

It’s the year 2001. I was in 4th grade - sitting in the same exact seat that I’d soon find myself sitting in when my teacher explained what had happened on 9/11. Every month, our teacher passed out the TIME for Kids magazine, and I read it voraciously every time. Other kids would casually look at the pictures, but I’d read each article carefully - some even more than once.

In this particular issue, there was an article about Hayden Christensen - the new Anakin Skywalker. I’d seen all of the original Star Wars movies, and The Phantom Menace. I loved them, and I’d sometimes beg my dad to dig out or VHS set so I could watch them on weekends. I don’t remember what my exact thoughts were on Episode I, but I do remember thinking that I loved Padme because she was like Leia - even at that age, I wasn’t content with the way women were portrayed in media. For example, I had months and months of my childhood where I pretended that I was Xena: Warrior Princess, and lived inside of a box in my living room that I pretended was my “lair”, and ate jello because it looked like ambrosia.

Padme and Leia were different - they were so strong, and they didn’t care what anyone else thought. At a New Year’s Eve Party in 1999 (soon to be 2000), I remember playing “war” with a group of my friends who were boys, and their little sister. “You can be a nurse”, they said, and handed me a first aid kit while they ran around with toy guns, shooting one another. I remember picking up one of the guns off of the floor and shooting each of them directly in the forehead before throwing it to the side and walking away, as if to say “amateurs”.

Back to the TIME article. It was introducing Hayden as the adult Anakin Skywalker - we didn’t know much about him at all, but I immediately liked him because fourth grade me thought he was cute. Go me.

By the time Episode II came out, I went to see it with my dad, and I remember him remarking on how interesting the Anakin character was. I told him how he was Canadian, and some of the other facts I’d learned in the magazine. Looking back on it, wonders never cease that little me was also ahead of the Star Wars game - if only I would have known.

By the time Episode III came out, I was old enough to go by myself with my friends. I saw it three or four times, and used my allowance and birthday money to do so. And here’s where things changed for me. 1) That shirtless scene. Oh, yes, we’d had one in Episode II, but I wasn’t old enough to really think about it. By the time 2005 rolled around, I was starting out this whole angst phase where I did nothing but watch Episodes II and III repeatedly, and watch Store Wars on whatever video platform I could find it on at the time. (This was around the same time that the Numa Numa guy was doing all that for those of you that will get that reference.)

2) The FALL. Anakin’s fall. It was the first time I’d ever watched a character go through this before. Right before our eyes, he made decisions that he thought would lead to an outcome he wanted - a better outcome - and he failed. He turned. He became this iconic villain that had always existed, and was EVERYWHERE. And Hayden did it so well. People can scream and cry and laugh at Hayden’s performance all they want, but that boy WAS Anakin Skywalker. He was everything he was supposed to be - if they didn’t like it, then they didn’t like the character - because his portrayal was flaw.less.

3) Padme and Anakin I distinctly remember having some kind of family gathering where my aunt said “and obviously some things happened off screen if she’s having babies now” and I was SCANDALIZED. I was like “how dare you talk about my characters like that? Clearly it happened but they are MY characters, I know their souls, why are YOU talking about them?” I was so oddly territorial, even then. But I’d spent so much time contemplating all of their motives, emotions, and just who they were - that they felt so incredibly real to me.

Even though Anakin and Padme’s relationship eventually led to the creation of Darth Vader, I still wanted what they had in Episode II. The obsession, possession, the passion, the drive. The Star-Crossed lovers.

When I was fifteen, I got that. The height difference. The “I know where you are in the room without having to search for you”. The “I called you just now as you’re walking away from me just so I could watch you pick up the phone”. The strange, unnerving connection. Looking back on it, he even remotely LOOKED like Hayden. He moved like Hayden. He talked like Hayden - but I was the Anakin. I had so much going on in my life - so much baggage, so much angst in my teenage soul, I had never related to a character more than I related to him, and to this day I’m not 100% sure if that was a self-fulfilling prophecy or not. And just like Anakin and Padme, it all went up in flames in a day. Every single bit of it - laced with death and destruction, and that changed me. It split who I was to the core, and I walked into the abyss as everything turned to ash around me. I’m not kidding. That sounds dramatic, but I can’t say any more about what happened because it’s just too much to deal with and explain, but I eventually found solace in Star Wars.

I watched II and III so often I still have every line memorized. I watched every single movie Hayden had ever been involved with, because his acting style and persona were oddly comforting to me even after Star Wars was over. He was familiar.

Flash forward to 2014. Another Star Wars movie is coming out. There’s an image of a character dressed in black, in the snow, with a lightsaber that resembles some kind of crusade weapon. Everyone makes fun of it, makes memes where the cross vents are EVERYWHERE. What an absolutely ridiculous character? Whatever, I’ll see it. But nothing will ever measure up to what Anakin’s character meant to me when I was a teenager.

2015. There’s a trailer. Okay, Darth Emo? Again, who is this ridiculous person?

December 17, 2015: I somehow saw a leak of this ridiculous person stabbing Han Solo with a message that this was his son. Excuse me? Again - not what I expected from Star Wars.

December 19, 2015 4:45pm: I emerged from the theater wanting to cry. Just... 1000% flabbergasted because they’d given me something I never thought I’d find. A character that I’d relate to equally if not more so than I did to Anakin when I was 13 years old.

I was in such a strange place in my life when The Force Awakens came out. A second puberty, if you will. It was awful? Everything felt wrong? I didn’t know my place. I was wrought with anxiety. And here was this character who had this aesthetic that hearkened back to the days when I’d sit in the corner at school and draw on my vans, wear all black, and listen to Panic! at the Disco and AFI like it was my religion, while at the same time relating all-to-well to Anakin Skywalker. This character loved Anakin and was his grandson, and I felt like I’d been given the biggest gift and I had no idea that this seemingly-ridiculous creature from the trailer would have such an impact on my life.

To boot - this character was just plain badass? Everything about him was beautiful and tortured, and dark but laced with fear and possibly - good intentions buried deep beneath the mask? And his actor was beautiful as well. So incredibly stunning, and deep, and carried him so well he felt real.

The lightsaber though - that’s what got me. I felt so unstable at this point in my life - the lightsaber was such a metaphor. Jagged, unfinished, unstable. I too, felt that if I carried one, it would have these characteristics.

I felt belonging again. This character gave me peace by bringing me discord and letting me drown in it.

December 14, 2017, 10:45pm: Peace. i’d waited two years to see what would happen to Kylo Ren - Ben Solo, and once again I feel like our journeys are similar. Although I still have many demons to face, and many lessons to learn, I’m in a better place. A more stable place. Where I felt trauma I now feel at peace, even though I have days where I feel completely out of control.

His trajectory though, is clear. Rey, and redemption. I’m also amazed that it’s all so Byronic and/or Pride and Prejudice-y - what a gift? What an absolutely beautiful gift? How Hades and Persephone? After what I’d been through in those rough years where I felt like Anakin after he’d lost everything, I was amazed at how emotionally invested I was in Rey and Ben, because there’s clearly something there. Snoke, schmoke - that Force Bond is theirs. The idea that they’ll create balance is so freaking beautiful, and it made me want that for myself as well.

I don’t know what form it will take, but I know that in 2 years I feel like I will be so much more at peace with my own life, but also - this time there’s not as much wondering. I was so worried about what they’d do with this character, and the emotional weight he carries in the story and for so many people around the world - other than the concept of the fact that he’s just plain cool to most, or “Darth Millenial” to others.

Anakin and Kylo Ren (Ben Solo) have a strange amount of value to me, I’m aware, but I just wanted to share the power of storytelling, and how it can truly get you through the best of times, the worst of times, and everything in between.

#anakin skywalker #ben solo #kylo ren #star wars #hayden christensen #adam driver #mine #saved

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entergamingxp · 4 years

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DualShockers’ Favorite Games of 2019 — Rachael’s Top 10

December 31, 2019 4:00 PM EST

There were plenty of games of 2019 that I enjoyed immensely, but if I had to pick just 10, here were my favorites of the year.

As 2019 comes to a close, DualShockers and our staff are reflecting on this year’s batch of games and what were their personal highlights within the last year. Unlike the official Game of the Year 2019 awards for DualShockers, there are little-to-no-rules on our individual Top 10 posts. For instance, any game — not just 2019 releases — can be considered.

Here we are again at the end of another great gaming year. Even though we didn’t see as many huge titles like Red Dead Redemption 2, Marvel’s Spider-Man, or God of War as seen in 2018, my year has been packed full of some amazing titles regardless. Thankfully, I didn’t have to solely rely on AAA games to have a great gaming experience, as this year we saw many fantastic indies that included Untitled Goose Game, Outer Wilds, Lost Ember, My Friend Pedro, to name a few. This only goes to prove how far independent studios have come along, and how they have firmly made their mark within the gaming industry.

As a gamer, I’m very open to what I will play – which is probably a good thing in this business. As you’ll tell from my diverse list, I’m not afraid to jump into whatever piques my interest. That may be from the adorable and cutesy, to the dark and twisted underbelly of the video games universe. As much as I love experiencing all areas of gaming, there’s one factor that always calls me home, and that’s immersive storytelling. I don’t think there’s a feeling in the world like sitting back and getting completely lost within a world interwoven in an amazingly captivating narrative. Since the start of time, humans have used storytelling as a way to connect to others, to bring people closer together and how the world is right now, there couldn’t be a more apt time to continue this tradition in the games we play.

As we slide into 2020, I’m excited to uncover what’s in store for me – especially with my most anticipated game mere months away, The Last of Us Part II. But until then, allow me to share with you what has been my Top 10 games of 2019. Let me tell you, it wasn’t easy to narrow it down to just 10!

10. Sayonara Wild Hearts

Sayonara Wild Hearts is a beautifully crafted piece of kit. It oozes bags of appeal and a refreshing, upbeat soundtrack that accompanied the game’s style perfectly. Other than its eye-popping visuals, the underlying story of heartbreak made this short, heart-pumping title really stand out.

I played it all in one go from start to finish and since then, I’ve been recommending gamers to give this unique and worthwhile title a try. On a side note: Queen Latifah’s voice is the epitome of ASMR.

Check out DualShockers‘ review for Sayonara Wild Hearts.

9. Divinity: Original Sin II

Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to play this game when it first released back in 2017 but when I saw that it was releasing on the Nintendo Switch, I knew that I had to play it. Divinity: Original Sin II is acclaimed to be one of the best western-style RPGs ever made, with stellar writing, voice acting, and brilliantly crafted tactical combat, and I couldn’t agree more.

The Switch’s small screen in handheld mode is perfect to get up close and personal with the bucket loads of action and endless, compelling dialogue. Divinity: Original Sin II’s emotion-wrought fantasy world really does make it one of the finest RPG games of recent years.

Check out DualShockers‘ review forDivinity: Original Sin II on Nintendo Switch.

8. Mosaic

Over the past few years, I’ve seen a rise in talking about mental health in video games. I love that we are now more open and free to discuss these issues that affect so many of us, and that developers are willing to take this on and adapt it to their games.

Mosaic offers a painstakingly realistic look under the heavy covers of depression and burnout in the workplace. I applaud that Krillbite Studio made no apologizes as they dove head-on in tackling these difficult subjects in Mosaic. Its cruelly dark and, at times, hard to play because of how authentic the main character plays out his troubles. But this is, in my opinion, when you know you’ve made a great game; when the player feels what you’re portraying.

Check out DualShockers‘ review for Mosaic (by me!).

7. Planet Zoo

When it comes to management sims, I tend to get a little overwhelmed with how much you have to do. You almost have to divide yourself into a million pieces to just stay afloat, but thankfully Planet Zoo offered much more manageable gameplay that I thoroughly enjoyed.

With its plentiful tutorials and smart UI, I spent hours taking care of all the zoo’s creatures, and who doesn’t want to care for a baby lion cub? Frontier Developments also tackled important educational and conservation topics throughout, which gave me bags of insight into each species. If you’re looking for a management sim that won’t take hours just to know what you’re supposed to be doing or kill every brain cell due to an overload of tasks, Planet Zoo may be the one for you.

Check out DualShockers‘ review for Planet Zoo by me, again.

6. My Friend Pedro

My Friend Pedro made me feel like I was actually really good at games. It made me feel like Neo from The Matrix with its slow-motion gunplay and super crazy stunts that offered one hell of an adrenaline-filled ride.

From barrel riding to swinging off chains to achieve the ultimate stunt-shot, My Friend Pedro provided me hours of entertainment. I was a bad-ass ninja on a skateboard with a talking banana; what’s not to love?

Check out DualShockers’ review for My Friend Pedro.

5. Life is Strange 2

This tale of brotherly love between Sean and Daniel Diaz begins as they try and flee America to start a new life in Mexico, and it hooked me from the get-go. Sure, it was a little slow in the beginning but it soon picked up steam and turned into a goldmine of storytelling.

What I appreciated most about Life is Strange 2 is how deeply it resonated with me in how well it addressed a lot of the current political and social issues we see in America today. Dontnod Entertainment obviously went to great lengths to make the player feel and care about what happened to these brothers, and for that, they have my respect. I’m really looking forward to knowing more about their next game, Tell Me Why – my guess is that it will be another emotionally hard-hitting adventure, and I’m totally here for that.

Check out DualShockers‘ review for the first episode of Life is Strange 2.

4. Concrete Genie

What can I say about this wholesome and charming game? I feel like it would be better to take my heart out and let it tell you, because that’s where I’ve stored everything that has touched me from this beautiful title. Concrete Genie throws you into the shoes of Ash, a young sensitive boy you loves to paint. When his town gets consumed by a dark, negative force coupled with some bullies set to make his life harder, Ash goes on an adventure where he meets the most adorable genies and together, they right so many wrongs.

Just before playing this game, I was going through a rough patch in life, so jumping into this adorably endearing title made that period much more bearable – I honestly couldn’t stop smiling throughout my entire time playing it. If you’re looking for something that will lift your spirits throughout these winter months, consider Concrete Genie. I dare you not to fall in love with Luna.

3. Luigi’s Mansion 3

I sometimes tend to lean towards games that are pretty dark and sinister, but as you can start to tell from this list – I’m trying to change that. In freshening up my game playing habits more, I found myself wanting to give Luigi’s Mansion 3 on the Nintendo Switch a shot and boy, am I thankful that I gave this game a chance.

There’s so much to love in the third installment of the adventure series that lets Mario’s chicken-livered twin Luigi take control. The graphics in Luigi’s Mansion 3 are a kaleidoscope of beauty that pops straight from the beginning, and in my opinion, the best graphics currently on the Nintendo Switch. Coupled with impressive animation, fun levels, and acute attention to detail, this game was an absolute pleasure to play. I honestly have never had so much fun hoovering in all my life – just ask Chrissy Teigen.

Check out DualShockers‘ review for Luigi’s Mansion 3.

2. A Plague Tale: Innocence

In case you didn’t know this about me, I love games where I must fight to stay alive, so here I am again getting sucked into a world where I have to go head-to-head with forces that wants me dead – sounds charming doesn’t it? This time I’m running from rats in this deeply somber tale of the evil that scurries in the dark, and it’s not just the rats, FYI.

What I loved most about A Plague Tale is the narrative between the two siblings, Amicia and Hugo de Rune, who are thrown into a dangerous world where all they have are each other to rely on. Amicia, who constantly has to reassure her little brother Hugo, and Hugo constantly asking a barrage of questions is so life-like that you almost forget you’re playing a video game due to how well Asobo Studio cultivated the relationship between them both. A Plague Tale: Innocence will propel you into a broken and terrifying world, but also remind you that beneath the cruelty of its environment, a deeply set unconditional love story between a brother and sister waits to be uncovered.

Check out DualShockers‘ review for A Plague Tale: Innocence by yours truly.

1. Days Gone

From its very first reveal at Sony’s E3 2016 panel, Days Gone had me hook, line and sinker. As I’ve already stated, there’s something immediately appealing to me about apocalyptic survival games, (hello, The Last of Us). Whether it’s a metaphor from my own internal struggles, I’m not sure, but what I do know is that trying to stay alive in a world that wants to swallow you whole captivates me on a whole other level.

Days Gone has a meaningful and varied narrative with just the right amount of pain, hope, and unexpected surprises to keep you glued to your seat the entire ride. Bend Studio crafted something personal and unique to them where they invited players to enter this world with an open heart and a little patience, where only then would your gaming experience really pay off in this stellar title.

The story is rich and meaty with a wide array of diverse characters you meet on your journey around Oregon’s beautiful landscapes, with countless areas you can interact with and explore. I’ve even found myself mindlessly riding my drifter bike for hours from one end of the map to the other, merely to soak in the scenery – the lakes, mountains, and forests are breathtakingly beautiful that I’ve already filled up a lot of space on my PS4 with the games built-in photo mode. Hats off to Bend Studio on this epic adventure; I can’t wait to experience what’s next from the studio.

Check out DualShockers‘ review for Days Gone by – yep you’ve guessed it.

Before you leave, I’d like to share some Honorable Mentions that didn’t quite make my top 10:

Untitled Goose Game – What a cute little asshole.

Disco Elysium – I haven’t yet finished this game but so far, I’m finding it really enjoyable with a cracking narrative.

Hearthstone – I finally dove into this online digital collectible card game at the start of 2019 and in my opinion, it’s the best card game out there.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare multiplayer: this is where I go to release some pent up frustration. There’s nothing quite like finding unique ways to kill strangers online.

Death Stranding – I’m still peeing and pooping my way around this strange world. It may or may not fall into my Top 10 in 2020, but as of right now, it’s unsettling and addictive for reasons that are beyond my comprehension at present.

Check out the rest of the DualShockers staff Top 10 lists and our official Game of the Year Awards:

December 23: DualShockers Game of the Year Awards 2019 December 25: Lou Contaldi, Editor-in-Chief // Logan Moore, Managing Editor December 26: Tomas Franzese, News Editor // Ryan Meitzler, Features Editor December 27: Mike Long, Community Manager // Scott White, Staff Writer December 28: Chris Compendio, Contributor // Mario Rivera, Video Manager // Kris Cornelisse, Staff Writer December 29: Scott Meaney, Community Director // Allisa James, Senior Staff Writer // Ben Bayliss, Senior Staff Writer December 30: Cameron Hawkins, Staff Writer // David Gill, Senior Staff Writer // Portia Lightfoot, Contributor December 31: Iyane Agossah, Senior Staff Writer // Michael Ruiz, Senior Staff Writer // Rachael Fiddis, Contributor January 1: Ricky Frech, Senior Staff Writer // Tanner Pierce, Staff Writer

December 31, 2019 4:00 PM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2019/12/dualshockers-favorite-games-of-2019-rachaels-top-10/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=dualshockers-favorite-games-of-2019-rachaels-top-10

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Refusing Weinstein’s Hush Money, Rose McGowan Calls Out Hollywood

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Refusing Weinstein’s Hush Money, Rose McGowan Calls Out Hollywood

She said she told her lawyer to pull the offer within a day of The New York Times publishing an article that detailed decades of Mr. Weinstein’s alleged sexual harassment, aggression and misconduct toward women, as well as at least seven other settlements he had reached with accusers. After that, the dam burst, with The New Yorker, The Times and other news outlets reporting on dozens of other women’s experiences with Mr. Weinstein.

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Ms. McGowan in “Scream” in 1996. She has said that the producer Harvey Weinstein sexually assaulted her the next year. Credit Dimension Films, via Photofest

Mr. Weinstein, his accusers say, built his long history of abusing women on a risky gamble that worked for him over and over — the assumption that money or threats could buy women’s silence on a subject so intimate and painful that most would prefer not to go public anyway. While Ms. McGowan was the rare voice suggesting that the cover-up was not fail-safe, even she considered not naming him, having already, she believes, paid a career price for that long-ago episode and its aftermath.

A Weinstein spokeswoman, Sallie Hofmeister, said that “Mr. Weinstein unequivocally denies any allegations of nonconsensual sex.” Ms. McGowan’s lawyer, Paul Coggins, confirmed that Ms. McGowan received the offer.

By 2015, Ms. McGowan, who felt alienated by the industry, started using her sizable platform on Twitter to maximize her status as both insider and outsider — someone with enough Hollywood experience to speak with authority about sexism within it, and someone liberated enough from its compromises to unleash the fury in her that had been building for years. Only now does the scope of the news about Mr. Weinstein — and the public conversation about what’s wrong with Hollywood — seem to match the scale of her outrage, giving her the clout of a contrarian at last proven right.

On Friday, at the inaugural Women’s Convention in Detroit, she was a featured speaker — a new, combative face of feminism, endowed with Hollywood charisma yet anything but slick. “I have been silenced for 20 years,” she told the gathering. “I have been slut-shamed. I have been harassed. I have been maligned. And you know what? I’m just like you.”

A Crusade Gathers Strength

As other women told their stories in recent weeks, Ms. McGowan not only addressed what happened to her but also attacked those she considered complicit.

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Jill Messick, Ms. McGowan’s former manager, whom the actress said she told about the encounter. Credit Kevin Winter/Getty Images

When the actor Ben Affleck claimed he never knew of Mr. Weinstein’s history, she wrote in a tweet: “‘GODDAMNIT! I TOLD HIM TO STOP DOING THAT’ you said that to my face,” adding, “The press conf I was made to go to after assault. You lie.” (Mr. Affleck declined to comment.) She called out the larger apparatus of Hollywood, criticizing talent agencies — “you are guilty of human trafficking,” she wrote — and a film studio that she believed knew of Mr. Weinstein’s alleged misconduct.

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When Twitter suspended her account — the company said that it was because she had published a private phone number — users retaliated with a boycott that drew support from celebrities such as the actress Alyssa Milano and the writer Cheryl Strayed. The actor and filmmaker Jordan Peele tweeted, in response to Ms. McGowan’s blistering attacks, a moody still of her from “Grindhouse” in which she surveys burning wreckage her character has wrought. “Get ’em, Rose,” he wrote.

On Oct. 13, the day of the boycott, Ms. McGowan retreated from Los Angeles, where she had been working on her memoir, to a beach cottage in Hawaii, safely ensconced behind two gates, near a park locals call the City of Refuge. “I wanted to come to a place that had so much power to it, that it could hold a lot at bay — a lot of monster energy,” said Ms. McGowan, sitting at a picnic table near the ocean. “I came to a place that almost has a protective zone around it.” Her hair was short, but not shaven, as it had been in the past. Once featured on the covers of Maxim and Rolling Stone as a longhaired, barely dressed object of desire, Ms. McGowan seems to have settled on an aesthetic of chic simplicity.

If not a time of celebration, this moment could be perceived as a moment of vindication for Ms. McGowan. Yes, she said, she sometimes feels like laughing — “kind of like a witch’s cackle,” she clarified. But at other times she feels emotionally raw, just knowing that a click on her phone would bring her to conversations others were having about her assault allegation. The phone had come to feel too powerful: “It’s like a live wire that you’re holding in your mouth, and it goes directly to your brain,” she said.

The Meeting and the Aftermath

Her story of assault, although uniquely her own, shares some of the now familiar hallmarks of a Weinstein encounter. Ms. McGowan, then 23, was in Park City, Utah, in early 1997 to attend the Sundance Film Festival and the screening of a film in which she appeared, “Going All the Way.” She had also recently appeared as a smart-mouthed beauty who dies a gruesome death in the blockbuster film “Scream,” on which Mr. Weinstein was an executive producer.

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Ms. McGowan’s manager then, Jill Messick, told her to meet Mr. Weinstein at the restaurant in the Stein Eriksen Lodge for a 10 a.m. appointment. On her arrival, the maître d’ directed the actress upstairs to Mr. Weinstein’s suite, she said. Ms. McGowan remembers passing two male assistants on the way in. “They wouldn’t look me in the eye,” she recalled.

She sat at the far end of a couch as Mr. Weinstein sat in a club chair, and they had a brief business meeting. But on their way out, she said, he interrupted himself to point out that the hotel room had a hot tub. “And then what happened, happened,” said Ms. McGowan, who has described her experience, on Twitter, as rape. “Suffice it to say a door opened and my life changed.”

She declined to share the details of the encounter. “That’s my story to tell,” she said emphatically. But she said that she walked out of the hotel suite and directly into a press event. She remembers fighting back tears, and the conversation with Mr. Affleck. She said she told Ms. Messick, then of Addis-Wechsler & Associates, what had occurred. “She held me,” Ms. McGowan said. “She put her arms around me.”

But in the months to come, Ms. McGowan did not feel supported by her management team. She was referred to a lawyer specializing in sexual harassment and assault cases who, Ms. McGowan said, gave her the impression that filing a criminal charge was hopeless. “She was like, ‘You’re an actress, you’ve done a sex scene, you’re done,’” she recalled.

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Anne Woodward, now a manager herself, was a young assistant in Ms. Messick’s office at the time, and was in on many of Ms. Messick’s calls. “I remember that Rose was extremely upset and did not want to settle,” Ms. Woodward said. “She wanted to fight.” No one around her, as Ms. Woodward recalls, supported that instinct. “It was an emotionally shocking way to see a woman being treated,” Ms. Woodward said. “That’s what stuck with me.”

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Ms. McGowan with her parents near Florence, Italy, in 1974. Her father was the leader of a religious cult from which her grandmother extracted her before she reached middle school. Credit Asaph Silver Adullam

Nick Wechsler, then a principal at Addis-Wechsler & Associates, said that he and his partner, Keith Addis, met with Mr. Weinstein at Ms. Messick’s request and confronted him with Ms. McGowan’s claim. “I remember Harvey saying he was going to get psychiatric treatment or some kind of therapy for his sexual behavior,” Mr. Wechsler said.

Ms. McGowan initially asked for about $25,000, enough money to cover her therapy; by the time she signed the settlement, the amount had been raised to $100,000. Both Ms. Woodward and Ms. McGowan were shocked when, only a few months afterward, Ms. Messick accepted a job working as vice president for development at Miramax, then run by Mr. Weinstein. Ms. Messick did not respond to a request for comment.

At the time of the alleged assault, Ms. McGowan had finally been emerging from the trials of an insecure childhood, with loving but unconventional parents: Her father, said his sister, Rory McGowan, Rose’s aunt, “almost certainly had undiagnosed manic-depressive disorder.” He was the leader of a religious cult in Italy, from which Rose’s grandmother extracted her before she reached middle school. Both parents were hippie intellectuals, members of the counterculture who taught their children to prize independent thinking and buck the system.

Maddie Corman, an actress who befriended Ms. McGowan in the mid-90s, perceived a change in Ms. McGowan after the 1997 episode (she says she was aware of the settlement, but could not recall if she learned it directly from Ms. McGowan or from others). “Rose was never this sweet, simple soul — there was always something ferocious about her,” Ms. Corman said. “After that assault, a light dimmed. I remember her souring on the powers that be. And she became very protective of us. It was sometimes cryptic: Keep your guard up.”

Ms. McGowan’s friends watched as she made choices that surprised them, including beginning a relationship with Marilyn Manson, a controversial rock star and ordained Satanist who has called himself “the Mephistopheles of Los Angeles.” (“I ran away for three years and joined the circus,” Ms. McGowan said of that romantic involvement.) She showed up for the red carpet at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1998 in a dress made of tiny beads that left her nearly nude. “That was my first big public appearance after being assaulted,” she said. “And I thought — you want to see a body? I did it with a giant middle finger.”

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Ms. McGowan in the show “Charmed,” on which she worked until 2006. Credit The WB, via Photofest

Camilla Rantsen was also a young actress in Los Angeles who was close to Ms. McGowan, and was aware, only through friends, of what had transpired. “I think some of the people she started surrounding herself with weren’t as great as the people she had before,” said Ms. Rantsen, who is now a writer.

Plenty of young actresses with promising starts see their careers founder for one reason or another. But Ms. McGowan believes that after she finished up work on “Phantoms,” a 1998 film produced by Miramax, her career suffered because collaborations with Weinstein productions were for many years off the table. “And they were doing the kinds of movies that I would be doing,” she said.

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She continued to work, on “Charmed” until 2006, but also in independent films. Eventually, she appeared in both of the two films packaged as “Grindhouse,” directed by Robert Rodriguez, with whom she was romantically involved, and by Quentin Tarantino. It was distributed by Dimension, run by Bob Weinstein, Harvey’s brother. As the film critic David Edelstein put it in New York, Ms. McGowan played “the ultimate abused-and-fetishized action-movie femme.” The experience, Ms. McGowan said, left her shattered. “I was really lost at that point,” she said. “I was damaged.”

Shunning ‘Celebrity’

It is impossible to predict how Ms. McGowan’s career path in film would have proceeded had the episode with Mr. Weinstein never occurred. She is an unconventional figure, occasionally provocative and profane, but also sometimes old-fashioned and even formal in spirit. “I never considered myself a celebrity,” she said at one point. “I hate that word. It’s tawdry.”

Ms. McGowan became an increasingly outspoken voice for women mistreated by Hollywood. In 2015, she was dropped from her agency after mocking a casting call that encouraged women to wear push-up bras in auditions. (Her agent had been fired a few days earlier, but the agency did not fight to retain her, as agencies typically do of valued clients.)

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Ms. McGowan at the Women’s Convention. “I have been harassed,” she told the gathering. “I have been maligned. And you know what? I’m just like you.” Credit Erin Kirkland for The New York Times

In The Hollywood Reporter, she passionately defended Renée Zellweger last year from what she perceived as sexist comments in Variety about the actress’s plastic surgery. “How dare you bully a woman who has done nothing but try to entertain people like you?” she wrote, in a direct accusation of the piece’s writer, Owen Glieberman.

“It was startling and inspiring to see someone who was willing to put herself out there in support of other women actresses,” said the actress Molly Ringwald in an email to The Times. “Her tenacity is something that you would hope for in an union leader but of course never really get.”

And Ms. McGowan spoke, in veiled terms, to the Buzzfeed reporter Kate Aurthur in 2015 about her experience as an assault victim. “You are taking part of someone’s soul,” she said. “It’s happened to me.” Last year, during a Twitter campaign called #WhyWomenDontReport, she all but named Mr. Weinstein as the perpetrator of the violence against her that she had mentioned in the past.

During her recent visit to Hawaii, Ms. McGowan, over a day and a half in Kona, revealed a person much more playful than her fierce Twitter persona. She would interrupt a thought to smile and smell a flower that caught her eye; she could not resist a swing hanging from a large tree, and enjoyed twirling an umbrella the same blue as her sundress while walking on the beach. She seemed free, in some ways, from both a long-kept secret and a labor of love that had occupied her for the last year and a half — her book, “Brave,” which will be released by Harper One early next year.

To some degree, she had shielded herself from the news. But when she learned how many women had stepped forward to complain of assault or harassment by Mr. Weinstein, she said: “I knew we are legion. We are legion.” She had been corresponding lately with Asia Argento, an Italian actress who also accused Mr. Weinstein of sexual assault (and was subsequently shamed by the Italian press). “It feels,” Ms. McGowan wrote to Ms. Argento, reading from her text, “‘like toxic slime going out of a spiked birth canal.’ That’s what the whole experience feels like to me. It’s an intense process.”

Sometimes she feels fresh rage. “But I’ll tell you what I don’t feel anymore,” she said. “Despair.”

Correction: October 28, 2017

An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of a Buzzfeed reporter. She is Kate Aurthur, not Arthur.

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