Two kids decide to break quarantine area, successfully exfil a military base, and then promptly come into contact with infected.

The military's strategy (in case of outbreak) is to group all uninfected people into one room, instead of sheltering in place.

A random caretaker has unrestricted access to every location in a secure base.

Random caretaker decides to visit his thought-to-be dead wife. And make physycal contact with her. Promptly gets infected.

There's no physical checkpoints at any doors. Uninfected are strolling around initially.

The military cannot defend a barricade (with a long field of view) against unarmed attackers despite having machine guns.

Etc.

Doors, gates, and barricades do not work in this universe for keeping out infected.

I sat in a small room for months only leaving for food and walks around a small town with nothing else but that tiny room where things were in the walls and the future even showed up at some point too.

The favorite chant of the JHS (Jake Hater’s Society) is that what he has shown offensively so far at 22 is enough proof that he doesn’t have the ability to ever be a top 6 winger… that the odds are now very slim because supposedly only rarely does a player break into that category beyond that age… “Exceedingly rare” being one recent expression of those supposed odds by one of the JHS..

So I did a little digging to see just how valid a refrain that really is… first, I’d like to think we should be able to agree that Jake has always been a goalscorer first, not really a playmaker… I think it’s pretty obvious that was well established in his draft year when he had 45 goals and 26 assists. With that in mind I believe that the hope for such a player would be to become a top 6 goalscoring winger at the NHL level. That leads me to my sample… the past season’s top 62 goalscoring wingers… which coincidentally also happens to be those who scored more than 20 goals… another I think fairly typical indicator of a top 6 NHL goalscoring winger… BTW where was Jake in relation last year? He scored at an 18 goal pace… just 3 shy of the 21 that would have put him in the top 31 goalscoring RW in the league.

But back to the original question which was… of those top 62 goalscoring wingers… how many of them had their first 20 goal season at an age at or older than Jake is now… having turned 23 recently. The answer will surprise the JHS… 16 RW and 11 LW among the top 62 goalscoring wingers last season did not score 20 in a season until they were at least 23…

13 were 23

10 were 24

1 was 26

2 were 27

1 was 28

27 out of 62 = 44%... I don’t know about you but that’s not a number I would call “exceedingly rare”… There were also bunch of others who were 22 when they got their first 20 goal season… unfortunately I didn’t keep count but what I think all of this tells us is that just because a kid doesn’t fill the net in his first few seasons post draft does not mean that he never will. The list of wingers over 22 when they got their first 20 goal season follows.

I've been fidgeting for a couple of days, scratching papers for my current novel. As I am looking for some inspiration via watching Lotr, reading some of my favorite lines and browsing weeb stuffs online; an idea popped out of my mind. I don't know if this is original (probably not, but I can make it sound like original story wise) but I am willing to give it a shot as my side fantasy novel.

Protagonist is the last human, the last one on your race.

There had been an unwritten history where humans vanished in the face of the earth. The consensus is the 100-year war between the many races that inhibits the plate (continent) inevitably lead to the destruction of the weaker species. But one thing does not seem right, the war that lasted for a century was well-documented, thousands of scrolls and myriads of books were written about each faction, the colossal changes it bring forth and the destruction it wrecked, but the sudden vanishing of a once great race; null.

Protagonist is not liked by the masses but is pitied by some. Protagonist aims to uncover what happened to his ancestors.

Races are as follows:

Vampires - are the closest to resemble humans and is now the ruling race in terms of population. They can also breed with humans and are incredibly powerful both physically and mentally (magic). They get weaker in the sun, vampire-hybrids with humans does not have this weakness, thence they are incredibly valuable but are frowned upon by higher vampires.

Druids - guardians of the remaining forest, elf-like creatures who are incredibly powerful in terms of magic. There aren't many left and the remaining either coexisted with other races (which is unacceptable to their kind) or fled to the remaining footholds/forests. They held the pact to protect what was left of nature and are known as the most peaceful race.

Dwarfs - the engineers of the plate and is the biggest labor force present. They are quick-tempered but can easily coexist with other races. Stronger than ten men. They own the most advanced land in the plate and are protecting it from other factions.

Orcs - are warriors bred for battle. They are strong, agile and honourable. The great increase in their population sparked the great movement which was believed to start the 100 year war. Former ally of druids.

The Undead - are mysterious creatures that was created/summoned/made during the war. They were originally observed to have been created when a crack in the sky opened

Scott Ritter

Odyssey on the red river was rejected by ford but sizemores description sounds like season 2 and the characters are the same.

Hi.

Due to the Covid-19, situation, I have obviously been having to self-quarantine at home as likely the people here are. That has got me thinking about the kinds of video games I play to proccupy the time. A lot of them involve getting from a Point A to a point B, which makes my, for the most part, sedentary lifestyle a little bit more... Difficult.

So, what I am asking for is if y'all could please provide suggestions on mobile games that primarily revolve around sedentary "narratives"/"premises". Games that involve activities that can be done without "character movement". I'm trying to seek something that can emulate doing something engaging in a single, confined space that involves little to no movement from Point A to Point B.

Thank you.

Movies like Bruce Allmighty, 17 Again, Groundhogs Day, Bedtime Stories,and Big never justified the scenario they threw their characters into they just did it and that was fine and it was fun and gave us really created movies that just wouldn’t work if the movie had to spend time info dumping how this was all possible

I just feel like studios don’t make those kinds of weird and fun concept movies anymore because they seem scared to have a movie that doesn’t answer the “well how did it happen”

A couple that pop out to me are:

this ideology just isn't possible...

where are they...why can't you just...

why don't you...

...and I get it, and we have rehashed these argumentum ad nauseum a majillion times

Story Time:

Me and my son (20) have been having this argument, quite productively, for close to 5~6 years now... he knows my side as keenly as I know his side, one- because I tought him to be a critical thinker, and two- if you are going to maintain an ideology you bes' be able to back that shit up... like ten moves deep on a chess board...

So my son will ask me the self-same questions, and these are my replies:

So, why don't you just...? I just might, I could, I know where there are others like me that I could "join" (Nenets, Sámi, etc) ...but I would want you with me

I talk about our ancestors The Sámi and The Samoyed and our slightly more "advanced" ancestors The Føroyingar, and how they have maintained their culture for thousands of years to one degree or another...

We talk about how beer came before bread, how we sold ourselves out for bread, how we lost our leisure time, and how for over 70,000 years we lived to our full potential as a species...

I even roll in the ancient mythical religions, their heroes and archetypes...

There are answers to all of these questions, and I think a lot of times folks are working from a false set of premises that help maintain their own paradigm...

Considering how the first game came out while I was in high school, I have a lot of nostalgia for the first few games in the series. And I tend to go back to them whenever a new entry gets released.

Well, security breach made me realize, the series hasn’t been scary for years, and has abandoned its darker concepts in order to be as kid friendly as possible. It reminds me of how in FNAF 2 the animatronics got redesigned to be as kid friendly as possible in lore.

Now onto my point. The concept behind the first game is dark as FUCK. Eternal torment is one is the scariest horror concepts IMO, and imagining children being forced to be in animatronics for years is both sad and horrifying. This concept combined with some really good chuck-e-cheese uncanny valley and you’ve got a great horror recipe.

Now with security breach we have sentient robots with no haunting? Ok. Great. The aesthetics aren’t even scary, it’s just bright colors and awful “scares”. How the hell do you fuck up a jump scare so badly? Did they purposefully make it tame for the kids? And I’m not even going to touch on the lore now, because after the first 3 games that fell off a cliff as well.

I get it, they want to sell toys and plushies to kids now, but it makes me lament what the series used to be and could have been.

There are fan works which are showing what can be done with the existential horror the original story had. The fnaf vhs tapes did this really well, and also has a good, concise narrative and a good ending. There’s also FNAF+, which is a fan remake of the first game that looks a lot darker and looks like it’ll also touch on the concepts the franchise abandoned long ago.

I guess security breach woke me up to what the franchise is now, family friendly children’s horror that even Goosebumps is darker and scarier than

There, that’s the end of this grown ass man ranting about a stupid children’s franchise

Season 1 had a (nearly) consistent narrative structure: mystery through the pov of the main characters. This worked because the viewer could suspend disbelief and accept that we will learn things only through the eyes of certain characters. Season 2 has been less tightly structured. It has been sloppy and lazy. The writers have fallen back on Lost's technique of showing flashbacks and real time scenes of characters only for a one off dramatic purpose. Some may like this, but it kills suspension of disbelief. If we can see anything at anytime from any pov, the viewer ends up feeling strung along. A random scene of global authority members meeting in Europe...Ok, well why not show us more? Dude captured and put in a pod, cool, but what's next? Im not greedy, I enjoy long story arcs. However, this is what killed lost for me and why i feel colony may not last long.

Posting for a friend because he is away from his account at the moment.

u/shattered_lens:

"So I'm trying to write a film that revolves around the idea that Nature is Silence as People are to Noise. I have always been fascinated by using nature as an escape from reality, which is where the idea is coming from. I originally thought about having smaller clips build a scene within a minute or so (i.e. A shot of some people talking then cut to a shot of coffee steaming with the same loud and disorienting soundtrack). It would start in a crowded and loud location then slowly transition to a more quiet and serene one. I wanted to start in a Café or Night club then work my way to some parks then finally on a mountain or some other place where the only sounds you would hear are those from the wind and trees.

Ultimately, I want the audience to make the connection that people are the cause of most sound and that without people, things are much more peaceful and quiet.

What I'm looking for is some ideas/ advice on what more I can do to portray the idea that I want. I can do something more experimental and experiential, or I can try and twist this into a narrative following a character or something. The biggest problem being I'm not the greatest writer but I love cinematography."

Any help you have for him would be greatly appreciated.

Edit: Clarification, this is a premise for a short film, not a feature.

I mean really? All the Martians? Just like that say, fuq all that, goin trough ring gate c-ya. IDT they really fleshed out Martian motivations. Thoughts? BTW SPOILERS

https://www.jakehanrahan.com/popularfront

This isn't exactly Splinter Cell related, but this is a great source for learning about lesser known wars, conflicts, and geopolitics. It strives to be apolitical in its coverage, which is very refreshing. As I'm listening to some of these, I can't help but imagine perfect narrative topics and settings for Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon. It would be interesting using these topics because they are real and relevant, and have the potential to have a significant effect on the world. It could be a great way to have interesting topics while educating gamers as well. Obviously, some creative license would be required, but it's still a great opportunity to explore relevant topics.

One of the best potential Splinter Cell narrative settings is Episode 5 (Nagorno-Karabakh), which centers around a long time territorial dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan (kind of reminiscent of SC 1). It is a conflict that could potentially result in a world war if it continues to escalate. I won't reveal more and spoil the episode, but this has great potential for an interesting Splinter Cell premise. It also explores Central Asia, which is a grossly under explored region in video games and little understood by most Westerners.

Another potential narrative could be based on Episode 16, which discusses the recent ability of terrorist insurgent groups to manufacture their own suppressors, and potentially weapons, with precise reproducibility, and the threat this poses. This has "Splinter Cell narrative" written all over it. Imagine dismantling a terrorist organization turned arms manufacturer (kind of like The Shop and The Shadows from the first Splinter Cell novel, but not exactly).

Episode 29 sheds light on the political instability in Yemen (a country I've always found fascinating), and the nuances and complicated issues surrounding it. This wouldn't work well as a Splinter Cell premise, but possibly a Far Cry game that somewhat returns to the style of Far Cry 2, where a U.S journalist gets stuck in the country after a coup destabilizes the government in southern (fictionalized) "Yemen". There could be a power vacuum where the UN recognized government, the "Houthis", and "ISIS" splinter group all fight for power, and the player must manipulate the factions to find a way out of the country.

TL;DR Popular Front is a great independent resource for conflict journalism, and many of its topics have great potential for a Splinter Cell or any

At the beginning of the year, my goal was to watch 30 films from a different actor/actress every month. I ripped the idea off a friend who came up with a "30 Days of Costner" list, which I then preceded to steal his list and complete that task. I then did months for Marion Cotillard, Meryl Streep, Danny DeVito, and Nic Cage. It was at this point that I knew that doing this every month wasn't going to be sustainable, so instead I decided that I would simply continue on with the rest of Cage's filmography, daunting as it may be. Here's the results:

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) - Quite possibly the GOAT comic book movie. 5/5

Raising Arizona (1987) - Is it possible to adore Holly Hunter anymore than I already do? Likely not. But yeah, a great comedy that gets a bit crazy when it needs to, and with some terrific supporting performances. 5/5

Adaptation. (2002) - Probably my favorite Nic Cage performance? Also, Chris Cooper was creepy as hell in this and was just perfect. Like most Kauffman films, still not fully comprehending the movie even after a rewatch. 4.5/5

Pig (2021) - Come for the Nic Cage absurdity, stay for the gorgeous slow-burn examination of existentialism. 4.5/5

Wild at Heart (1990) - This movie went *insert heavy meal riffs* from zero to 100 pretty fast. Thought the scenes with the mom *insert heavy metal riffs* could've used some trimming and not be so f'n weird. *Insert heavy metal riffs* Obligatory stanning of Laura Dern. 4.5/5

National Treasure (2004) - "Snorkel. See, I can do it, too. Albuquerque" Is it dumb? Yes. Am I being biased because of nostalgia? Also yes. But is this still extremely entertaining and fun? Also, yes. I might need to go on a Sean Bean kick here soon, because I'll be damned if the man isn't one of the best at delivering lines, no matter how ridiculous they are. 4.5/5

Joe (2013) - The third act could've used some re-writing, but overall a really solid film and one of Cage's better performances.4/5

Lord of War (2005) - I've seen this plenty of times before, still pretty entertaining each time. 4/5

Rumble Fish (1983) - Oh man, so many things to enjoy about this movie. The stylization, the score, the casting. I also think this is my introduction younger Mickey Rourke, which is...something. 4/5

The Rock (1996) - What a cast. Third act was a little bit if a let down compared to the rest of the movie. 4/5

Leaving Las Vegas (1995) - Well that was grim. Cage was pretty great here, no qualms with him g

I have been pretty shocked and disappointed that AJLT has been so poorly received.

When I rewatched SATC in anticipation for AJLT, I realized that SATC really did not age well. But at the same time, I remembered Why I was so in love with the show. The characters were not one-dimensional and each one of them had a radically different approach to life. If you are a SATC fan, you probably related Very Strongly to at least one or more of the characters and the complexity of their personalities.

I keep seeing posts about "Miranda's character was destroyed" because she was always so confident. No, she wasn't. She was a woman who was trying Really Damn Hard to be confident - and that is what so many of us relate to. We all fake it til we make it. Miranda was so good at trying to move forward and shake herself off, but she had so many moments of self-doubt that we so strongly related to. And she embarrassed herself all the time when she tried to have that newfound confidence. Here are a few examples of what I mean:

1. Remember when she didn't want to seem pregnant at work? She was trying to hide it? She was worried about being a single mom or being judged or being thought less than? We related to that so much because she realized she just needed to act confident but she wasn't.
2. Remember when she was like on that "Oh wow, yeah, he's just not that into me" idea and she was using it as her new confidence mantra? And then she was on a date with a guy and trying to seem so confident and said, "I get it, you just aren't that into me, just be honest" and he was like, "I have diarrhea" and then she was all embarrassed and stopped doing that lol. So relatable.
3. Remember when she ate cake out of the trash can and then was like, I have truly hit a new low?
4. Remember when she would call Skipper and fuck him to make herself feel better?
5. Remember when she was all embarrassed and not confident to tell the guy not to lick her butt?
6. Remember when she was all embarrassed about telling the guy not to pee with the door open?

My point is - people are going Crazy here that Miranda is this super confident woman. No, she wasn't lol. She was like so many of us "confident" woman who are still fucking human, are often trying to fake it til we make it, and that is why we loved her character so much.

Similar things can be said about Carrie, Charlotte, Samantha. They all had varying degrees of confidence, but none of them were perfect. They all had flaws and were very huma

My story follows a young woman called Marcy and her siblings.

Marcy’s family lost their parents and their beloved youngest sibling a few years ago.

Marcy’s older sister had to drop out of school to get a job to take care of their two teenaged siblings. She covers her depression with alcohol.

Marcy’s older sister enlisted into the military to serve during a (war) and came back a changed person.

Marcy very recently lost her best friend and decided to finish up their bucket list. Marcy’s mental health is in shambles but she covers it up with humor and bravado.

Marcy’s younger sister seeks comfort in older abusive men and drugs. She’s descending into addiction and becomes a prey for predators.

Marcy’s younger brother starts illegal boxing as means of self-harm to relieve his guilt for the loss of his brother. He’s roped into running errands for drug dealers later.

Every group of chapters follows a goal in the bucket list to complete an arc related to the plot or the characters. The goals or Marcy’s journey to achieve them reflect something happening in her personal life or her siblings.

They slowly discover the death of their parents wasn’t natural and come to solve it. The lessons Marcy learns and people she meets during her journey help achieve that goal.

They all have bad communication skills and are afraid to address their grief individually or together and ultimately will have to address it to move on.

The atmosphere is grungy and bleak but it’s lit up with Marcy and her family’s sense of humor and dynamics.

The theme connects grief and refusal to face reality with communication, taking action and control of your life.   Is this premise overdone? Any tips to polish it?

I shared this essay a few months ago on the sub’s discord and wanted to go ahead and share here.

We’re more than five years out from XV’s release and couple of years out from the game’s story content jumping the shark with the final releases of content before the Final Silencing.

Where XV proper begins with “Everything was left for the ‘Future King’” or “The fate of the world is in the hands of the Future King” in every localization aside from English, DoTF decides fighting fate vs defining fate is the thematic goal.

My issue comes up when the metaphysics of XV’s world have to be rewritten to suit a story plot that simply wasn’t present before. For example, in order to manufacture a ‘tragedy’ and ‘redemption’ for Ardyn, his previously nonexistent Oracle, Aera, had to be stripped of the relevance every Oracle should have.

Ukehi and Keiji - Covenants and Revelations - the Oracle’s role in supporting the King, vouching for the King, is crucial in the plot of XV. These rituals are not about fulfilling a promise or decree from “on high”, rather they are about making a promise in the present.

I arrived at that conclusion after reading up on Shinto lore. This essay isn’t a deconstruction of DoTF or a run through inconsistencies in that narrative. Instead, it’s a set of observations of things that reflect what I think Director Tabata meant when he said XV’s world was based in Japanese lore back in 2015. An acknowledgement of the fertile ground that was present for world building before folks like Terada and Osanai just gave up- ostensibly in the name of fan-service(?)-but not really.

Also, I love Lunafreya and think Aera is pretty trash. Still, I can redeem Aera with my Ukehi construction.

Answer for the Oracle

• This would probably be over 3 hours long lol
• The first of a 4-film series. The sequels would introduce Brainiac, Konner Kent, Kandor, Supergirl and Bizzaro among others
• If you’re looking to re-watch Returns I’d recommend Superman Restored, a colour-corrected fanedit that adds deleted scenes but still manages to be shorter than the Theatrical cut.

SMALLVILLE

• Include the deleted Return to Krypton sequence , with a bigger action beat at the end- think a Star Wars asteroid chase
• Clark has brought Jor El's memory crystal with him- he asks it questions, but the crystal only warns him away. This dynamic sets up the theme of parenthood/absence, Krypton's ruins made more chilling by Jor El narrating about its former glory
• Cut to a flashback of Martha and Jonathan watching the meteor shower over Smallville that brought Clark to Earth. She wakes in the present to his ship crash-landing
• Versions of the deleted scenes on the farm- important for Clark's character. He debates going t Metropolis or staying to help the struggling community
• Smallville has changed: Like most folks, Martha’s date Ben Hubbard had to sell lots of his land, and his son works mining Kryptonite from that meteor shower years ago (Superman and Lois)
• The flashback to Clark’s awakening powers, altered to emphasise the Kents helping him cope- like Man of Steel's X-ray vision scene

LEX

• Accelerate Lex’s timeline: Right after Superman II, a billionaire admirer (a version of the Kitty character) offered to get him out of jail if Lex worked for her. Between her lawyers and Clark missing the appeal, Lex got out.
• Kitty funded Lex’s expedition to the Fortress of Solitude. They studied/adapted the tech and approached the US government with offer of a private contract
• Superman had abandoned them, and other alien threats like Zodd could attack at any time. The government agreed.
• Lex became the redeemed face of this new technological revolution, spinning his actions in Superman II as saving Earth from invaders Superman drew here
• This transitions Gene Hackman’s real estate tycoon into the comics’ billionaire tech genius- by the end of the film he kills Kitty and inherits her fortune
• So Clark returns

hey, hope you are all doing well!! just for some context, i’m a trans man, and i’m working on a novel right now and i just want to know if a plot point i have planned for it is considered transphobic, specifically towards trans women. i am very open to adjustments as i’m still in the planning stage, but the main thing is i don’t want to offend anyone.

so, plot summary. my story is a murder mystery, and the story opens about a month after one character’s death, and she is a trans girl. her death is not a hate crime and she is not killed because she is trans (that will be made apparent early on), and even if i did go down that route (which i am not going to), i would use it to spread awareness about hate crimes and why they’re terrible. she also has a boyfriend (who is still alive and will not die) who is also trans, so she’s not the only trans character in the book. there’s also supernatural aspects in the book, and we will get to know her more since she comes back as a spirit.

if any of you have any advice or input, that would be great! thanks!

edit: this book also takes place when in high school (and she dies as a high schooler), and the plot is investigating her death with her boyfriend and someone else (who is the narrator)

edit 2 (i be forgetting things): as a spirit, she possess the body of a cis girl in order to communicate (and there are plot reasons why it’s a cis girl, since in the book spirits can’t possess people randomly, it has to be willing)

Back when I was in high school I was someone that really walked the line of breaking the rules but not actually.

Our student handbook that we all had to sign said that we can’t bring any alcohol or tobacco to school, obviously. That’s fine, but nowhere does it say that I cannot bring any drinks that mimic alcohol, such as non-alcoholic beer. So yes, one day I brought a case of non-alcoholic beer and limes to school. I used my student card to cut the lime, popped a bottle of Heineken non-alcoholic beer, and flipped her over. Luckily this one was not a squirter. I did all of this during my teachers lesson and somehow he didn’t notice. Eventually though he walks by and notices the drink. His face went red, and I guess the fact that it was non-alcoholic meant nothing because I still ended up in the principles office.

When the principle got there she wasn’t mad, but wasn’t impressed either. The vice principle also saw it, and to be honest I think he found it funny based on his reaction, and the fact that me and him were always boys. The principle though was not my friend as they were newly appointed.

So there we were in the principles office, she was ready to suspend me because she said non-alcoholic beer actually has 0.05% alcohol (trace amounts, but alcohol nonetheless). When she told me this I told her to check again. She looked at the bottle and lo and behold, 0.00% alcohol. I felt like they were playing checkers and I was playing chess.

This was completely pre-meditated, and prior to me purchasing it I knew 100% that I needed to find 0.00% or else I wouldn’t have done it. Due to the content being absolute 0 they let me off with detention, and told me that they will be changing the student handbook to reflect any alcoholic beverage mimicking.

Things almost got messy though when the principle said that she thought she smelt weed on the bottle, and accused me of bringing a knife to school, because how else would I have cut the limes. Either way I had my bases covered and they couldn’t find anything to throw at me. I really walked the line and survived

...and we just need to work harder to bring them to our side. I've lived here for forty years, we aren't living in caves, we aren't developmentally disabled, we have access to the same information everyone else does.

It's not like no one's tried getting through to them in the past few decades, we've all tried. I've lost half my family because when I confronted them they went unambiguously mask-off, full bore shitheel.

I'm not saying all of them are unreachable, but at this point the majority of them know who they are and what they're about, and they're proud of it. Let's move on and get to the work of making their lives better against their will, because they aren't going to change during this lifetime.

I cant think of a single book (maybe seveneves, possibly Peter Hamilton but I never read his stuff) that presents a near future where human genetic engineering is common place and extremely beneficial.

It seems as if presenting the concept in a good light is taboo or something.

Personally, I am not a very hopeful person. I dont look at society, people, religion, art and politics and see a bright future. Really the only thing that gives me that deep, unnerving feeling of hope for the future is genetic engineering. The possibility that our descendants will be able to carve out a new emotional, cognitive and material existence for the species.

I guess I just want to find some fiction that shares that hope.

The CW, on paper, makes shows that should appeal to me. Lots of monsters, magic, and superheroes. But, for the last ten years, their content is unwatchable. Gradually I’ve come to realize that, regardless of the main plot, all CW shows are written the exact same. There’s aways an unnecessary love triangle that becomes problematic at the weirdest times, two key characters find it impossible to share critical pieces of information with each other despite talking about the very thing they have critical information about regularly, and the team ensemble rarely communicates effectively driving sub plots at every turn that don’t need to exist in the first place. Almost all the interpersonal relationships between characters are toxic.

This is lazy writing, but at the same time, the CW sure does put a lot of effort into it.

EDIT: The CW is a network channel in North America owned by Warner Bros and CBS. Shows like Supernatural, Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Gilmore Girls, Charmed, etc.

I...I finally managed to put my thoughts on the series finale on a coherent way.

I don't think Isayama retconned anything. Way too much foreshadowing for that. The infamous extra pages were always meant to be part of the series because the message of AOT is very blunt.

"Iif you have to commit genocide to save your race, that is still bad even if its genuinely the only way to save your people".

And well, as you can see...the idea doesn't work because its morally monstruous and logically absurd. Isayama doesn't even frame it as a utilitarian balance ("more lives"), but rather a deontological imperative. Because this is shown even in utterly tame Raid on Liberio, which is literally just a military strike.

Now, characters like Zeke who try to put a Final Solution on Eldians are also despicted negatively, because Isayama in general rejects the concepts of Final Solution as a deontological ("Principle-based") imperative. You should try to do the best under dark situations, its hard, but the struggle is a shown in a romanticized endeavor.

That is why the Scouts going in a suicide charge is shown as glorious, if tragic, while the Yaegerists being decided to end their own genocide is shown as dark.

Its...genuinely a strange worldview. It does ressonates with the Ultra Nationalism of the Yaegerists because it basically agrees with all their premises, but rejects it on the last step. And all the "issues" with unironical Yeaegerists IRL come from this issue.

Isayama's narrative is "They are right, but they're inmoral", which doesn't work because in a topic as complex and delicate as being on the receiving side of genocide, most people can't give the slightest fuck about the lives of the peoples trying to exterminate them.

The Alliance are a bunch of naive morons and THIS is meant to be...endearing, because they're the idealists that will try everything in their hand to follow their own ideals. That love for people that doesn't give up is also why Isayama idealizes Eren even if he despicts his followers as psychos.

Remember the Scouts before Erwin were genuinely too dumb to live, Isayama loves his underdogs.

TL,DR: Isayama likes stories about people that tries their best to be moral even if they fail (cool), but he decided to tackle a subject like genocide that simply doesn't work well with such idea.

The reason why "revenge genocide" is shunned (and heck, even "Regular" genocide is) is because its deemed as unnecesarily cruel. You can simply trade with you

Considering how the first game came out while I was in high school, I have a lot of nostalgia for the first few games in the series. And I tend to go back to them whenever a new entry gets released.

Well, security breach made me realize, the series hasn’t been scary for years, and has abandoned its darker concepts in order to be as kid friendly as possible. It reminds me of how in FNAF 2 the animatronics got redesigned to be as kid friendly as possible in lore.

Now onto my point. The concept behind the first game is dark as FUCK. Eternal torment is one is the scariest horror concepts IMO, and imagining children being forced to be in animatronics for years is both sad and horrifying. This concept combined with some really good chuck-e-cheese uncanny valley and you’ve got a great horror recipe.

Now with security breach we have sentient robots with no haunting? Ok. Great. The aesthetics aren’t even scary, it’s just bright colors and awful “scares”. How the hell do you fuck up a jump scare so badly? Did they purposefully make it tame for the kids? And I’m not even going to touch on the lore now, because after the first 3 games that fell off a cliff as well.

I get it, they want to sell toys and plushies to kids now, but it makes me lament what the series used to be and could have been.

There are fan works which are showing what can be done with the existential horror the original story had. The fnaf vhs tapes did this really well, and also has a good, concise narrative and a good ending. There’s also FNAF+, which is a fan remake of the first game that looks a lot darker and looks like it’ll also touch on the concepts the franchise abandoned long ago.

I guess security breach woke me up to what the franchise is now, family friendly children’s horror that even Goosebumps is darker and scarier than

There, that’s the end of this grown ass man ranting about a stupid children’s franchise