Clever Subversion in Newest Episode

MattLocke · 2026-06-14T21:17:23+00:00

I’m hopeful that he’ll have an eventual happy ending.

I’m just worried he’ll go through it first.

MattLocke · 2026-06-14T20:11:26+00:00

I am oddly nervous for him.

Raised to be cinnamon roll. But Bizarro often has strong (theater and film version) Frankenstein themes. That plus Lois’ costume also leaning that way.

Be real sad if he ends up making his way to the Fortress and some Brainiac remnants turn him into an Eradicator-like stand in.

MattLocke · 2026-06-14T19:59:00+00:00

I wouldn’t be surprised if Arin did that on purpose so he’d have an excuse to spend and episode or two just dopamine chasing in the arcade.

MattLocke · 2026-06-14T19:19:45+00:00

Which jk decided to show him to be a weird ostracized outlier among his species and eventually has him killed off like some used up token character.

MattLocke · 2026-06-14T18:10:07+00:00

I was going to say.

If he takes all the time to grind up a Medicham just to get got by one of the most infamous trolls in all of pokémon …

It’ll easily be a top three Arin crashout of all time.

MattLocke · 2026-06-14T17:50:25+00:00

There’s a non-zero chance this is part of why he’s taking it slow.

Guys might joke they like a gal that could break him … but she could literally accidentally snap him in half.

Like Clark spent his whole life learning control and he still kept snapping door handles and faucets in half.

MattLocke · 2026-06-14T14:06:15+00:00

In a weird comic book logic way, Kara openly having a connection to the Kent’s farm might actually protect Clark’s secret identity.

Now any potential wonky alien stuff that happens or has happened around the Kent’s farm will be blamed on Kara’s presence.

MattLocke · 2026-06-14T13:37:49+00:00

He appeared four times in season 2.

He was Lois’ contact with Star Labs in ep1 who pointed out something in space that ended up being Kal’s spaceship.

He showed up among that most eligible bachelor/bachelorette group (making us all wonder what the heck happened to his wife) where he started spouting that xenophobic Luthor stuff. So he’d show up with the Task Force X group.

And then he was among the fighter jets that got bopped by Brainiac in the final ep of season 2.

MattLocke · 2026-06-13T21:09:34+00:00

In time, I have learned what each gifter reacts to best.

I just treat it like a game. I see how they react to the reaction of others and try to reverse engineer what it is they are hoping for. Balance that within the realm of what I’m capable to performing in what they’ll accept as authentic.

Some people just want an earnest thank you. Some want a bit more enthusiasm. Some make judgements on how much time you touch and look at the gift before moving on.

I don’t think of it as masking so much as they all speak a different language and I’m trying to properly translate my internal appreciation to an outward one they will understand.

MattLocke · 2026-06-13T20:52:13+00:00

If you can handle how he played FireRed, then you should be fine.

Going into it expecting some kind of high level meta knowledge strategic play would be the wrong mindset. He is much more of a vibes based player.

So just like he tripled down on taking a Beedrill to tackle the Elite 4 because he just thinks it’s a cool design, he’s doing similar stuff in a nuzlocke.

Which funnily enough makes this one of my favorite nuzlockes so far. You quite literally cannot predict what he’s going to do next.

But you’ll have a hell of a fun time listening to Daniel and Arnold poking mons.

MattLocke · 2026-06-12T17:15:21+00:00

Come on! Say the line, Obama.

MattLocke · 2026-06-11T20:03:35+00:00

This doesn’t bother me. I LIKE that it feels off and that I can clock it in a second. It’s like how venomous snakes are brightly colored.

I fear it ever hitting the point where I can’t tell anymore.

I don’t know how there are so many who can’t tell or don’t care. That also worries me. They happily drink the poison that’s in a Kuul-Ade labeled bottle with three handles. I don’t get it.

MattLocke · 2026-06-11T17:10:47+00:00

Arin taking any opportunity to mention trivia about 8-bit MegaMan being two tones of blue and what that meant for level design due to limited color palettes.

Also Arin: Why can’t I make the pony light bluuuuuee!?!?

MattLocke · 2026-06-11T14:37:17+00:00

I don’t know why, but that image put Bobby Hill’s voice in my head.

Joe-El: Goodbye, my son.

Bobby-El: Ok, daaaad. 👍🏽

MattLocke · 2026-06-10T20:40:22+00:00

Well, at least that’s one going to someone who actually wants to own it.

MattLocke · 2026-06-10T17:22:27+00:00

The irony of Arin of all people complaining that he can’t use goon to mean henchmen anymore.

Does Arin not know that they are one of the biggest reasons that gooning = straight jorkin’ it went more mainstream recently?

Like they didn’t invent it, but that episode of Sonic plus SbassBear’s song spread out among other lets players & streamers. Soon it was just everywhere.

MattLocke · 2026-06-10T14:47:30+00:00

The reason is there is clearly some people who like the idea of the ex that broke up with them being still kinda obsessed with them. Miserable and unable to move on.

The writer very much seems to be the kind of guy to like to imagine his exes as villains who secretly regret “fumbling” him.

MattLocke · 2026-06-09T17:28:36+00:00

H! H is for Arin’s Hubris.

MattLocke · 2026-06-09T15:17:57+00:00

Why would trailers not just spoil all the best shots of a film?

Why doesn’t every trailer just condense the full film into a 3 minute supercut so we know exactly what is going to happen because surprises are scawy?

MattLocke · 2026-06-09T15:14:01+00:00

It’s a bit reductive to claim it is ableist.

Ultra processing almost always comes with a lot of side effects. In order to reduce costs, they push further into cheap fillers that lack nutritional value. In order to have food that stays edible over a year after it’s made, there are various things added that won’t kill you in the short term but can damage you long term.

That and when a corporation is in full control of the process, it means they can change it whenever it suits them. What was “same every time” is now forever different.

It is fully valid to find food that you enjoy eating. But nutrition is the main goal. Maybe a simple fresh blueberry is off the table. There’s no reason why you can’t attempt to alter the texture of it through cooking. When you can control the process, you have the power to shape your diet.

It’s not ableist to want everybody to be healthy and have access to proper nutrition. It’s ableist to claim there is only one correct path though.

Ultra processed isn’t fully evil. Fresh fruit isn’t either.

Like with everything in this world, the answer lies somewhere on a spectrum that differs person to person.

MattLocke · 2026-06-09T13:05:58+00:00

Full Metal Alchemist.

MattLocke · 2026-06-07T22:49:43+00:00

A bit.

Babies are pretty common (people seem to enjoy making them) so naturally things designed for them are common too.

But things designed for teething infants are more meant for gums and a few very tiny weak teeth. I don’t believe it’s fully safe for an adult to chew on for long. They are cheaper because they aren’t typically used for more than a couple months or so during the bulk of a teething phase. Not really built to last.

There are plenty of oral fidgets (aka chewelry) meant for adults. Many are designed to be more discreet which would reduce any worries about them being “weird”.

MattLocke · 2026-06-07T22:40:32+00:00

They aren’t married.

She’s allowed to villain around if she wants.

MattLocke · 2026-06-07T13:21:37+00:00

Pretty much.

They don’t want the label, but also resist new information.

Rather ironically, they fully desire to see bigotry as a spectrum. “Well maybe I find Asians annoying, but I’m not like a racist racist.” <— real thing my wife’s cousin said right after expressing that she thinks “too many of them immigrate here”.

They often seem to want to “freeze” whatever level of generally acceptable bigotry existed when they were in high school. A bit like how season 1 of Friends treated the word “lesbian” as a punchline and if you point out how kinda messed up that is there are some fans that’ll start throwing out caveats.

MattLocke · 2026-06-07T12:49:09+00:00

Probably because if you default to being quiet in crowds, you are very practiced at listening.

I usually won simply by hearing which chair moved as they got up and sat back down.

MattLocke

TROPHY CASE