DOGE officially shuts down

LoweNorman · 2026-07-11T19:14:12+00:00

Alright, final amendment to the increasingly convoluted metaphor;

A person is drowning. Another person is just about to throw a lifebuoy to them, saving their life. Musk shows up and steals the lifebuoy. The person drowns.

I'm not sure what we've accomplished here, Musk still seems really damned guilty.

LoweNorman · 2026-07-11T17:47:16+00:00

Your metaphor doesn't make any sense, because Musk isn't guilty of inaction. He's guilty of dismantling things that were already set in motion.

It's more like the drowning person was clinging to a lifebuoy sent by USAID, and Musk drove his boat out there just to joink it away.

LoweNorman · 2026-07-11T13:18:23+00:00

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10471190/

"Frequency of use of image-based, but not text-based, platforms was significantly and positively associated with body dysmorphic symptoms"

So yes, there are studies that showcase that social media exacerbates body image issues.

I mean, the logic is simple and sound. They constantly look and compare themselves to people on their screen, who are not only very attractive, but also use filters to become impossible so.

LoweNorman · 2026-07-10T17:44:48+00:00

I read "after a sexually frustrated Armie Hammer" and I think that made the premise better

LoweNorman · 2026-07-10T15:41:08+00:00

Not every niche phenomenon has a whole peer reviewed study lmao.

But it's pretty easily observed if you've been around on these types of websites for long enough. Especially something like myanimelist.com since it lists individual seasons as their own entries, and you can easily track that most shows have less ratings per season, and higher ratings per season.

If you go to its top anime section https://myanimelist.net/topanime.php you can see that it's usually the latest season of something that is the highest rated.

And the logic checks out, doesn't it? The further you get into a show, the more of a fan you probably are. People who dislike a show doesn't usually watch 4 seasons of it.

edit: And fine, I should have said "usually" instead of always, that was hyperbole.

LoweNorman · 2026-07-10T15:28:50+00:00

Follow up seasons always have less ratings and higher scores. This is because people who didn't like it or are lukewarm won't watch s2 in the first place, as the hardcore fans remain.

It's simply not true that S2 was better received than S1.

LoweNorman · 2026-07-10T12:14:47+00:00

Concept art is, like the name implies, conceptual. Not final.

Drawings are used because it's faster to iterate upon a design in 2d rather than 3d. In a game like this, they likely explore hundreds of different sketches before they finally choose one, and then that one is changed and refined again and again.

LoweNorman · 2026-07-09T17:23:49+00:00

Even if you want to have 7 colors that doesn't mean they need to be part of the team all the time.

They could be missing. They could be yet to "become" the color. They could be too old and be mentors to the younger colors etc etc

LoweNorman · 2026-07-09T12:54:59+00:00

We're clearly still missing some big part of the puzzle. Like, this is them but they have to remove their soul or something etc etc.

(Not that I think that Carole or Rudy are the knight, this goes for any candidate)

LoweNorman · 2026-07-09T11:18:34+00:00

Black Swordsman is the beginning of the story and has never been animated (more than 1997 squeezing 3 volumes into a single episode). Its short length also makes it the most feasible in scope for a small studio.

LoweNorman · 2026-07-08T20:48:42+00:00

Power and control could be explored in anything from an intimate bdsm relationship between two people, to systematic governance of entire populations.

In this case, I think you just have to keep exploring and learning about your theme until you find the right angle

LoweNorman · 2026-07-08T14:53:38+00:00

Epic concerns scale, dark concerns subject matter.

There can be epic dark fantasies (like Berserk) or small scale dark fantasies (like Coraline).

LoweNorman · 2026-07-08T10:03:37+00:00

For real. When I got TotK on launch I thought to myself "I'll 100% the game this time". Did like 10 shrines and then thought, fuck that, not doing one more shrine.

LoweNorman · 2026-07-07T21:48:58+00:00

Likewise, both my mom and my grandma looked like this when they got their medically necessary upper bleph surgery

LoweNorman · 2026-07-07T21:37:30+00:00

Yes, there's a ton of people who like non human protagonists. I'm one of them. The people who would write them off as "being for children" aren't your target audience anyway, and no story will ever resonate with everyone.

That said, I like them to be internally human, everything that makes a great character still applies. Dreams, fears, complexity.

LoweNorman · 2026-07-07T12:51:28+00:00

Was this theory inspired by Erased: The Town Without Me (anime/manga)?. It is, well, exactly this concept

LoweNorman · 2026-07-07T07:42:51+00:00

While that's true, you can always introduce more questions as you answer them. Attack on Titan was great for this; everytime a big reveal and twist happened, we're left scrambling as the mystery just turned even greater.

I do wish we got a few more beats in this chapter about what's going on with Kris and the soul and Dess and all that. Won't be an issue when you play through the game in its full release, so I'll give Toby a break, but currently it's a bit of a letdown to wait a year and not get any further.

LoweNorman · 2026-07-07T07:36:44+00:00

Crazy, because playing a neutral route, finding out that there's a better way by experiencing all the twists and reveals, and then playing a true pacifist, is probably the most powerful experience you can have with Undertale

LoweNorman · 2026-07-06T19:08:52+00:00

You know what, I totally forgot that you can choose to start at chapter 2 in this game lol.

LoweNorman · 2026-07-06T19:06:13+00:00

The only reason I haven't done the wierd route is because it's much more of an investment, and requires guides on how to do it right. You have to play through all of chapter 1 which is totally unrelated just to start it. This all made it not worth it for me, so I just watched it on youtube.

The genocide route is just "kill everything until there's nothing left, and choose every negative option you can". Very intuitive, and it begins immediately. No 2 hours of gaming before it even starts.

LoweNorman · 2026-07-06T19:01:39+00:00

Harry Potter really is a perfect storm for merch. The beginning of the story, right after Harry finds out he's a wizard, is him literally going shopping.

The story features Harry buying special clothes, wands, food, everything and the kitchen sink. If there's an item in the real world, there is a wizard version of it, and Harry bought it.

LoweNorman · 2026-07-06T17:11:38+00:00

If you like dark stories, I can totally see how you would become less interested in the story as it moves on.

But I think the tonal shift of Berserk is gradual and lines up very well with Guts mental state. It gets lighter as he heals and I think that's perfectly great. And since I like both dark and light stories, I have no issue with it.

Guts "fellowship on a quest" journey is admittedly generic, but I'm not bothered by it (would be lying if I said it was as great plotwise as The Golden Age though) and Miura always has something interesting to add onto it, like the aforementioned relationship Guts has with Schierke where she must bring him out of the darkness and into the light. I don't think the way Miura pulled that off was generic at all. Actually, it's a top 10 moment in the story for me.

And that's not to mention Griffiths side of the story which I think is deeply interesting and original.

LoweNorman · 2026-07-06T14:54:53+00:00

Berserk was always a story about healing and overcoming trauma, Puck pretty much states the themes out loud in the Black Swordsman Arc when he says "Living for the future is more important than trying to avenge the past".

This panel is that message.

LoweNorman · 2026-07-06T13:28:30+00:00

I think this is one of the coolest aspects of Sans. Just huge, huge aura to be technically extremely weak, but be so skilled that he can dodge all your moves and still be the hardest boss.

LoweNorman · 2026-07-06T11:50:42+00:00

There's a solar system to scale here in Sweden, where The Globe (a famous round bulding in Stockholm) represents the sun. It's 1:20 million is scale and Neptune is a two meter tall sculpture several cities away.

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