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Monday, January 29, 2024

LOTR/The Hobbit, Gollum inspired Silence of the Lambs, 1991, killer and dog Precious

The kid noticed this last night while watching Silence of the Lambs. It can’t be a coincidence. The killer’s dog was named Precious, and he addressed his victim as “it”. Multiple well-known phrases after talking to the dog, calling the dog Precious... then soon after "It rubs the lotion on its skin” and that whole scene. They are basically in a cave. He flips from being a nice badguy (seemingly), about to cry one second, to super ultra-aggressive "put the F*(KING LOTION IN THE BASKET!". The split personality very reminiscent of Gollum/Smeagol's character, especially as portrayed in the later 200x movies, but always present since the books were written way back when. 

Another example from Bill:

Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb: It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again. Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb: Yes, it will, Precious, won't it? It will get the hose!

Compare that to Gollum always saying "My precious" and referring to enemy hobbits and such as "it". For example from the 200x movies, 

"Curse the Baggins! It’s gone! What has it got in its pocketses?"

or

"Naughty little fly, Why does it cry, Caught in a web, Soon to be... eaten!"

and via Goodreads quotes from the original books:

"Not fair! not fair!" he hissed. "It isn't fair, my precious, is it, to ask us what it's got in it's nassty little pocketsess?”

"“Gollum’s eyes glinted. ‘He doesn’t know what we minds, does he, precious?”"

Such a weird reference, but it has to be related. 




BTW, holy cow, the nice boss in Monk the TV show is the evil Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs?!?! That blew me away after I recognized him on this recent rewatching of Silence'... it's just plain crazy it's the same guy. 

Pict by billyboyuk on Deviant art. 


Sunday, January 28, 2024

Anime, The Flying Phantom Ship, 1969.

The Anime, The Flying Phantom Ship, 1969.  Get past the funny people (and golem robot) shaped like wooden dolls and you have some high quality art, anti-evil rich corporation sentiment, and crazy monsters/robotics. LOVED THE giant sea creature art, the ghost ship art, etc. Definitely worth a watch. Don’t drink a bunch of soft drinks though whatever you do… don’t want your bones to melt!


 

Saturday, January 27, 2024

Red, orang, yllow, bell peppers are not green bell peppers

 https://nationalpost.com/life/food/only-time-will-bell-are-green-red-and-yellow-peppers-all-the-same

People shouldn’t be so lazy as to believe junk. They are diff varieties (varietals). Red has way more vitamins than green.  I can still find red, yellow, and orange ones for a dollar each sometimes, tho mostly 1 for 2 bucks is typical … but we can’t ever find 3 for a dollar green anymore. Consistently one for one dollar green is what we’ve been seeing for the last couple of years. It is January 2023 now… all that leftover COVID price hiking stuff. 

Orange ones taste the best!



Thursday, January 18, 2024

Star Wars, The Despecialized Editions or 4 k 7 7

https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWars/comments/skmi5h/what_are_the_best_versions_of_the_original_star/

 https://robots.net/how-to-guide/how-to-download-despecialized-edition/

Or look up the 4k77 version. 

Pretty sure this was my lunchbox in 1978, yep. 



Monday, January 15, 2024

Nausicaa, some of the Manga

 https://halcyonrealms.com/books/nausicaa-of-the-valley-of-wind-deluxe-edition-vol-2-manga-review/

It looks like in one panel, the top color one, she's hanging out with one of the ancient giant warrior things (the wonky teeth, super mouth laser beam dudes). So are they natural and neutral? But somehow controlled by the bad folks? 










And look, the giant warriors had armor made by people, eh? 

Nausciaa influenced by Rawlf comic, ancient Greek myths. Did it influence Jabba's Sail Barge in Return of the Jedi?

 

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (風の谷のナウシカ , Kaze no Tani no Naushika) 

https://ghibli.fandom.com/wiki/Nausica%C3%A4_of_the_Valley_of_the_Wind#Greek_Mythology


"It is based on Miyazaki's manga of the same name, first serialized on Animage magazine on February 4, 1982, and completed in March 1994. The story itself was inspired by the 1971 comic Rowlf by American cartoonist Richard Corben, while the name Nausicaä was derived from the Greek epic Odysseus. Miyazaki was also strongly inspired by French comic artist Jean Giraud's Arzach (1975), as seen in the documentary, Ghibli: The Miyazaki Temple. The movie has environmentalist undertones and was presented by the World Wide Fund for Nature when it was released in 1984." 


So could this plane have influenced Lucas for the Jabba Sailbarge? Well it reminds me of it. But which came first? They were very close to the same time... the Nausicaa Manga started in 1982, 'Jedi in 1983, and Nausciaa the movie in 1984 apparently (US release?). We know Lucas used a samurai helmet for Vader and the idea of The Force was from Kendo, so... who knows. 


And yeah, this Nausicaa movie influenced Final Fantasy. I had no doubt, the giant birds people ride on is what triggered recognition for me, this site just confirmed it:

https://alchetron.com/Nausica%C3%A4-of-the-Valley-of-the-Wind-(manga)

"Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi has cited the manga and film as an influence on his series."


The Ohm or Ohmu, directly influenced Starcraft's Reaver. 

Likely they were to be Zerg at first, b/c surely the whole Zerg race was partially derived from the "insects" in Nausicaa. The zerg Creep is likely just a copy of the "spores" and deadly forest that spreads via the Nausicaa insects. And the Zerg larva came from these I say:


This looks like mutalisks:




... and as I read on, it looks like Moebuis, the French comic dude that did a bunch of crazy stuff in the 1970s that influenced everybody from then on, is related to Arzach. Actually wait, Moebius is Jean Giraud. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arzach

Lotsa art from Moebius/Giraud here:

https://monsterbrains.blogspot.com/search?q=moebius

Oh and look, Moebius helped make Panzer Dragoon, via wikipedia:

Arzach was one of Panzer Dragoon's major artistic influences. Jean Giraud even contributed in the creative process of Team Andromeda's game with original artwork.



Tuesday, January 2, 2024

Demon's Souls Remake on PS5, a little personal review for nobody much but me

*** this site and youtube videos from same guy/ppl are great at tracing all the influences of Berserk into Souls games. So I'm putting this at the tip top of this post:

https://www.youtube.com/@dondonrv

https://www.knowll.com/e/121/complete-list-of-berserk-influences-on-souls-games

This one at timestamp 3:25 has a chart of Manga and TV and movies that influenced the Souls main guy Hidetaka Miyazaki. Nausicaa, Fist of the North Star, Appleseed, Gundam, .. Record of Lodoss War, etc.  

https://youtu.be/Gv1X5I_z_Sk?t=205

My Review... let's say it is a review, even though I'm all over the place

So... it's a great game all around. Looks great, cool options, tons of customization. Difficulty is probably just right... but since it is slow paced, I wouldn't want it super difficult is my gut feeling. Fast games like Cuphead are super fun difficulty on hardest settings, up until the final final boss on max difficulty then in my modern life I usually "leave it for another day".  

Back to Demon's Souls the remake on PS5. So let me get the negatives off my chest:

1. Panderverse. There, I've said it for real this time. Let's keep things cohesive. I'm all about other cool cultures and peoples and stuff, but it needs to fit. This game is like 95% medieval European armor and weapons... with some Japanese stuff mixed in (plus of course a bunch of monsters and a dark horror vibe). Feels correct if you stop there. These last few Hollywood and political years have been a strain on the entertainment industry... they are being lazy and not doing other cultures justice, while simultaneously screwing up the actual entertainment they are putting out by cut and pasting certain folks into something. OK, I hate politics, forget I mentioned it. 


2. Slow paced. Yeah, even Dark Souls felt awkwardly slow, and I never honestly "got it", but I went with it. Feels a little too... Street Fighter made by Japan vibe. Reward defense more than offense in most cases. I mean it works and all, but I still like twitchy fast stuff the best. The realism parts and hit boxes are pretty cool. 


3. Rolling... I just realized I finally didn't "notice" rolling when I was playing, since it's the 3rd game to do it like this. Back in the other games, it stuck out like a sore thumb b/c it was so unrealistic in a pretty darn realistic physics feel game... and maybe b/c of input queuing you often rolled a 2nd time and died b/c of it. But yeah, thinking about it, rolling looks silly, you can't say it doesn't.


4. The damnable input buffering thing. Oh my God, that is annoying still. You have to rework your brain to only press a button ONE time. It's stupid how far ahead I can queue up moves, it feels just like Windows XP with too many programs running and that delay on your inputs. For instance in the game, ... as a Temple Knight (paladin)... clicking the buttons to:

-holding block with shield

-switch to faith casting item with shield hand

-heal spell

-switch back to shield in left hand


you can queue up all that and sit around for many seconds (it feels like, maybe minutes... ok ok but it is slooow)... and all that crap executes while you are just waiting around for it. 

Do the same thing, but queue up a weapon switch in your right hand after the shield swap, and if I recall, it'll do everything, skip the shield to left hand, but still switch your right hand weapon. Janky? Yeah janky. I'd prefer a zero input lag, zero buffer system I think very much. All the Souls games I've played so far suffer from this, so it just is what it is. 


5. OK, the giant silly weapons need to go. I think I complained somewhere about this already. Sure Berserk has a bunch of cool visuals, but I'm afraid I can't "get" the giant silly weapon thing. It looks goofy and fake, and breaks the physics/reality for me. 


Good stuff:

1. I'm reading this other IGN review to prompt myself on things to think about. They sum this part up very well https://www.ign.com/articles/demons-souls-review-2, btw great review, y'all: 

"World 1 is tough because you frequently have to contend with an obnoxious dragon that spends its whole day roasting each of the bridges you need to cross in order to proceed; World 2’s enemies are resistant to most damage types outside of piercing; World 3 is a labyrinth that’s easy to get lost in and is guarded by tough mind flayers that can kill you in just one or two hits; World 4 has highly aggressive skeletons that are also resistant to most weapons outside of maces and hammers; and World 5 has a ton of enemies that are easy to kill, but have a nasty habit of swarming you with rapid hits and wild attack patterns. Not to mention the whole “lake of poison” thing."

Yeah, I agree with all of that. And whoops, didn't realize the skeletons are resistant to things outside of maces/hammers... well duh, that's very D&D of them, bones don't get cut they need to get broken. 

*The skeletons! Forgot to mention how they aren't really skeletons, it's almost like skeletal armor on top of ... a skinny mummy or something. You can even see that it is tied on top of their "real" arms and such like metal armor would be. 
INFLUENCE: I've seen this look before, very Japanese. What was it in... ??? Well, the Giger Pilot is always an original influence no doubt. And Jason and the Argonauts with the stop motion skeletons are always an influence on D&D skellies which influence all of this, of course. But what else has skeleton armor on the outside... some Japanese anime or something from a while back. Well probably the not-loved-by-me Attack On Titan, yuck... well, wikipedia says "It was serialized in Kodansha's monthly magazine Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine from September 2009 to April 2021,"

Giger's Pilot from stuff like Alien (1979?). 
... also see stuff about Naruto Susanoo skeleton influencing things ... around 1999 into the 2000s... via naruto.fandom.com "At its simplest level, users only manifest aspects of Susanoo's skeletal structure, such as a ribcage for basic defence[15] or an arm for interacting with the surroundings.[16] Once a full skeleton is made, musculature and, later, skin forms until finally a complete humanoid is shaped. In these early stages, typically only the upper half of Susanoo is materialised, with legs becoming common once it reaches its full humanoid form; however, not all Susanoo users can accomplish the latter feat.

And look at this: https://narutofanon.fandom.com/wiki/Skeletal_Armor:_Catacombs


... this is randomly relevant, but in 2014 they unearthed a 3900 year old bone armor in Siberia. Once again, global warming leading to finding ancient weird old frozen stuff:

https://siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/features/warriors-3900-year-old-suit-of-bone-armour-unearthed-in-omsk/

https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/archaeologists-unearth-4000-year-old-siberian-knight-armour-102090

Well get ready for a shock... but apparently it was again Berserk the Manga that influenced the bone armor / skeleton monster things:

https://www.knowll.com/e/123/complete-list-of-berserk-influences-on-dark-souls






2. I do like the relative shortness of this game. Elden Ring and other open world games have waaaay too much walking around for a long time doing nothing, not to mention the ease of getting lost. This game doesn't have that issue, thanks thanks. And maybe I'll finally do a NewGame+ since I'm not totally burnt out by the end. I hope. 

3. Bosses. Well I'm like 1/2 way through the bosses or something, but I had a ton of fun figuring out a couple of bosses. It does get old and does sort of ruin the fight having to look up videos in the interest of saving time to see what the movesets of the bosses are and what strategies work. But when you just figure it out on the fly, very fun feeling. I figured out the leech monster monger on the fly, that was nice. Sort of figured out the demonic Dragon God thing, while watching the kid fight it. Beat my head up against a wall figuring out the tower knight... b/c my God if you don't stay in the correct range, and stay behind him and get him in a loop he will bore you to death until you make a mistake (worst kind of death in Souls games... i got bored, so I jumped Ryu's fireball knowing he was going to dragon punch me but damn it I hate waiting in games that are supposed to entertain. I really hate waiting in line for anything, it's an issue.). The fire demon before the dragon god is very similar, you don't dare go too far away or he'll pounce and screw up your stupid button queuing thing to get you frustrated and kill you. No, I don't care what people say, the frustrating parts of boss fights aren't fun. Again, give me Cuphead hard with speediness, and I'll have more fun. I say this, I dunno, these Souls games are fun, maybe I just can't accept it's tied up with the slowness of them. 

4. Weapons. It is interesting that they designed it so you can dragon sword your non-NG+ playthrough, then eventually you'll want scaling weapons to get higher damage in NG+ and up. Seems very intential, I'm sure it was. And it's all over the place, nothing is plug and play between weapons. I guess Elden Ring is like that but not nearly so clear. And the kid likes to remind me that when you get good in Elden ring (and high level) you can use and do whatever, doesn't exactly matter. 

5. EDIT, CONTINUING a week or two later, after I'm basically at the end of the game:

...

So yeah, beat all the bosses but the final final boss (I think), not including Pure white world black world tendency stuff. Got overleveled on both accounts, so it's like too easy now. Or maybe "over-weapon-upgraded" is more accurate for the weapon-dependent character. Anyway, good game, kind of ready to be done and move on. Maybe NG+ maybe not. The kid also right at end end of the game, did all the PWWT stuff. 

Random comment: The billion arrows to kill a dragon... that doesn't move at all... is just weird. Why so many shots, is that fun? Why doesn't it move, it acts like a dumb computer? Forces you to upgrade a bow to max... or use magic with potions. Meh. Dragons look very birdlike in this game... not horrible but not the absolute best dragons. 

Other thoughts:

I wish they'd take out ALL the goofy stuff in all their games. Maybe it's a cultural thing, but I still am sore from the giant boss #2 Radagon(?) dude on the tiny little horse in Elden Ring. Elden Ring also had the bizarre long necked people... I mean it kind of worked, but they sure were weird and not really in a cool way. I don't think Demon Souls as anywhere near as much of that goofy stuff... other than the big goofy weapons. I guess rolling skeletons is always going to be goofy though. Overall, definitely like the serious aspects of the design, and it does a lot for the game. 

Demon's Souls, PS5, I like it

We're playing this now. Really good game. World 1, the skellie world (world number?), and the mindflayers of world 3 are the coolest looking so far. Had the flu or something all last week... was too cold to sleep, and tasting bitter in my mouth for 3 days now (today Jan. 2nd)... I swear my mind is working at 70% b/c I straight thought mindflayers were Lovecraftian the other day. Hello, D&D?! But somehow they are in this game and named such. 

Rabbit hole on proper way to hold a shield due to this game... because the heater shield looks like it is held upside down to me. Apparently there are a few ways they held shields medievally (that ain't a word). So maybe this French link here it'll explain what's up from history and practicality: 

https://www.degueulesetdargent.fr/2017/03/02/shield-straps-and-holding-of-the-shield-in-the-early-13th-century/




Sidenotes: Demon's Souls looks great on ps5... in particular I like the majority of the style since the first area focuses on realism (well except for the weird panderverse stuff, but I'll try to make up a backstory in my mind so I don't get pulled into the less immersive unbelievable side of things.)



Playing:

Knight, first character:

When I played Dark Souls, my first Souls game, I picked knight I think and liked it... went for a fighter-mage style, little bit of everything to see what was what. This game, Knight had best stats for fighting and Magic, so yeah let's pick that. First playthrough I accidentally switched to a female body with male head... was trying to use different Knight armor than the kid for variety. Oops, that's a chick armor thing. Had to start over after like 7 hours into the game, annoying. 

Temple Knight, 2nd character:

Shield + faith God item left hand 1st 2nd.

Two weapons right hand, switch em out as needed, at higher level at least. I even tried upgrading the MailBreaker for a bit so I could switch to non-halberd-stuck-on-wall Mail Breaker, but never panned out for long. Seems like it could work, maybe. 

So 2nd playthrough, I picked "Temple Knight"... basically a Paladin. I typically am not a big healer or paladin fan, but randomly was in the mood for heavy armor, hadn't played this style in Elden Ring, and it felt like I already tried out the Knight enough. So this has been fun... played the heck out of it, am like level 45 as of yesterday. Stupid (or typical for Souls games), I am still mostly wearing the starting armor, despite going through 7 different mismatched armor set ups. I do HATE, and I mean hate, the dang Halberd as a one hand + shield weapon. I guess on a later playthrough and you have it all memorized and you double hand the halberd it'll be fine since it pokes dbl handed. But single handed, wide goofy swing vs. walls, it gets stuck on every single thing ever... sooooo annoying. Crystal lizard to kill, oh wait you are using a Halberd, hahaha, you will never get more than a single hit off. And that's the little free hit loot animal thing, forget it when you are swarmed by actual enemies in all the many cramped places. 

Level 3 Halberd, one handing + shield. Yuck. Gets stuck. Slow. 

Level 1 or 2 Cresent scimitar (falchion?), super good on non-NG+ playthrough like they say, it "shreds stuff" since it does a bunch of magic dmg. Mana regen is super nice for saving on heal potions (plants) and just using the heal spell. 

Level 4 Dragon Long Sword. Yeah, it's the best for dmg and speed and convenience in this non-NG+ game. And the burning animation puts enemies in a "reeling" type thing where it seems it takes much longer for them to recover. It definitely helps when attacking the crystal lizards. BTW, why do the Japanese games love killing animals so much (Even Zelda Breath of the Wild, etc.)? It is interesting in the different attitude. Are we Americans going too soft... or is it more just b/c all I hear in the news is mass extinction due to humans, and I don't even much feel like shooting a deer after all that. 

Level 3 Crushing Great Axe. Slooowwww. But they say, better than Dozer Axe and same moveset? Oh, Dozer is this slow... maybe I'll not get the Dozer off the Battle Axe. Then the kid talked me into it... b/c ... logic.

Level ~3 Battle Axe. Ended up turning that into the Dozer Axe b/c the kid's logic is sound. The Battle Axe is almost identical to the longsword (less range slightly? gets stuck less? hits easier if they are off center/close? haven't tested)... and I already have the dragon long sword, which I'll probably use instead. So gotta try the DOzer. OK, sure. 

Dozer Axe. Yep, slow, but hilariously one-shotting enemies through their shields is pretty fun, just have to time it. The rolly skeletons, yeah, takes them out nicely. 

Composite short Bow was level 4 for a long time. Killed dragon, Maybe 60 arrows from it, after maybe 40 bolts from unupgraded Crossbow. The level4 comp. sh. bow did 20-22 dmg to dragon, the crossbow did 9-12 dmg. The later you attack, the higher the dmg. More forgiving than the spell on my other character, which had a really tight window of casting. 


Mage (Royalty) level 25 to 28, 3rd character:

3rd character/playthrough/not finished with 2nd Temple Knight though: I Read up, had to pick Royalty (yuck, the name) to get mana regen ring to start game. And yeah, this game vs. magic caster is certainly easier already, like ppl say. I got to level 25 or 30 in one day easy, blew through everything. Killed the world 1 dragon with just the first ranged spell (still takes forever) from the 2nd or 3rd tower roof on bridge... different roof than the bow + arrow kill I did with the temple knight. 1st blob boss still needs firebombs to get through reasonably easy, barely had enough. Finally killed the chick executioner and using her armor now (looks terrible, has potato sack head with only one-eye... another Berzerk anime reference right? Well, do get rid of the giant slabs of metal-not-a-sword way-too-big-and-heavy goofy stuff, it looks silly as hell in an otherwise serious game). 

Rapier unupgraded still. Is OK, hard-attack poke is nice, but low dmg. Gonna get that Crescent Falchion thing for mana regen and it rocks anyway. 

Approx stats:

14 vit

13 dex (?)

  9 str (?default) 

20 int

22 magic 

12 faith (? 13? i can have one heal spell, still need to find faith item to cast tho)

7 luck (default) 

 

Shield lefthand, rapier right hand, spell catalyst 2nd right hand. Not optimal for super players, but when you aren't familiar with what is around the damn corner, this is definitely the way to go. I will be needing to block everything for a long time... if I only had enough time to actually learn a game inside out in my modern adult working life. But anyway, it is fun.    

Spells. 

-Basic ranged blue one. Low mana requirement. One shots easy guys. 

-Fire toss. 

-Cloak (inviz = 1/4 of aggro range, but only 40 secs or something). 

-x something else, can't remember. 

-heal spell, but cant cast yet. Need handheld faith item thing. Oh, dude said he put a couple points in faith just for convenience at high level (125 level?!?!) so he can just have one "catalyst"/wand/stick/item thing that works for both Magic and Faith spells.  

 

Which brings me to convenience. Yeah, the item storage limit is fairly annoying. Doesn't let you try out many armor or weapon combos. I bought a ton of armor so I can mix and match, but barely can try stuff out b/c everything is too heavy. Fricking heals are heavy as can be. 


Picture comments... some on Influences:

Some Boss I have yet to see, inspired by The Guyver Japanese movie, eh? OK on second look, no, but it reminds me of something, what is it? A lot of the Souls games use this... sort of Giger Alien and sort of 1980s body horror Chronenberg non-organic+organic merged art style.

Dragon on Bridge, that guy can scream... note after certain activations, you can run past the first bridge without pausing to time it... but not the first time. Reminds me, I do love the PAUSE GAME using the PHOTO button assignment to the left side of the big fat trackpad(?) thing on PS5 controller. 

Shield upside down. But not. 

Where do I find these other two sets of armor, I like it. 

Who? 

And who? 

I do like this. Seem to recall this picture from way back.