i do think theres something sad about how largely only the literature that’s considered especially good or important is intentionally preserved. i want to read stuff that ancient people thought sucked enormous balls
Time to take this post entirely too seriously:
I often wonder if this is why you so commonly see the sentiment that we are in an era of uniquely bad literature, or at least that the fact that most books don’t have artistic aspirations and are not aiming to be anything other than mindless entertainment is new. In fact what’s new is the idea that everything is worth preserving (and also the internet making it easier to preserve it). The dumb artistically unambitious trash books of the past have survived only sporadically, because people thought of them as literally disposable.
When I was in college I had a professor who was an expert on detective fiction. He had a longstanding beef with the idea that “Murders in the Rue Morgue” was the first detective story. He thought that it seemed way too polished to be inventing a new genre, and also that the whole orangutan business had the vibe of someone subverting preexisting audience expectations and maybe engaging in a bit of stealth parody. With the help of some student volunteers, he went trawling through old magazines and newspapers and found hundreds of detective stories from the early 1800s that just hadn’t garnered enough individual attention to be remembered. This was because most of them sucked balls. He created an online archive of them, so you too can read these mostly terrible stories.
is it hubris to think I could have something new to say about Undertale that hasn’t been beaten to death yet?
…anyway, one of the things I really love about Undertale is that regardless of how you choose to play the game, you have to grapple with the full emotional spectrum that the game has to offer regardless of the choices you make
no matter the run, there’s at least one point where Undertale outright turns into a horror game. if you want to beat the game, even in a neutral run, you’ve got to deal with Photoshop Flowey. if you really want to SAVE everyone, you’ve got to grapple with some of the horrifying truths that underpin the world. you cannot avoid the True Lab if you want True Pacifist. if you want to experience the joy and the catharsis, you have to experience The Horrors
and on the flipside of that - even if you decide to play a No Mercy run, you get hints of the whimsy that’d be there if you played the game the recommended way. The enemy designs are still adorable and they still do their quirky little shcticks; Sans and Papyrus still start in on their quirky banter. and if you quit your No Mercy run before Hotland,or if you don’t grind for LV and thus just do a neutral run where you kill all the boss monsters, you get flashes of whimsy throughout. it’s just… uh… tempered by your bullshit, and you get a real downer ending.
no matter how you choose to play the game, you’re living in the same world. the beauty and warmth and joy will always be there. the horror and fear and pain will always be there. it’s what you choose to do about it that matters.
I don’t think I have the chops for D&D or other tabletop RPGs but I could make a good DM’s assistant. I don’t play the game but I sit and listen and then after the session the DM can ask me for ideas.
and I am in character as the king’s most trusted advisor the whole time
I could say things like “yes, my liege, most clever, my liege” and keep notes for the DM and maybe supply a few character voices. and serve everyone very sinister tea.
No. I’m not looking for any words. Dungeon Mentat suits me just fine.
I believe he rolled a 3,my lord… He does this to spite you…
I might just be extremely in my thirties now but I simply cannot take any sort of fandom discourse anymore. I barely could before but I am at maximum capacity. just… just watch the thing and enjoy it or whatever, be nice to each other, isn’t life hard enough
yep, it involved flying away from a gambler on route 8, then fighting a youngster on route 25, then walking west out of lavender town. congrats on being one of today’s lucky 10,000
It doesn’t have to be the gambler on route 8. It just has to be a trainer that is offscreen that will attempt to walk up to you when you walk towards them. For instance, there’s a picnicker near cerulean that you can do this with, too.
Also, it doesn’t necesasrily have to be the youngster on route 25, but it is the easiest with the youngester. It can be any pokemon with the special stat of 21. This also means that you can generate any other Pokemon you want, if you know what special stat generates the Pokemon and where to battle that Pokemon. Here’s a map of who you need to fight to generate what Pokemon.
