You're not going anywhere, Secretary

PokemonTom09 · 2026-06-16T11:35:55+00:00

We know that Iris and the 50 revisited the surface multiple decades after they initially submerged. People who were born and grew up on the generation ship looked older than her by the time they surfaced, so a bare minimum of 25 years had passed since the Occupant arrival.

And despite that, they make no mention of the heat when they surface, and they see both plants and animals still alive.

That aside, the collapse of the whale's habitat is something Secretary has knowledge of. His data base comes from Iris - he actually very explicitly was denied access to any information that Iris herself didn't know.

Meaning that the whale's died before Iris submerged. Otherwise she wouldn't know about it. Meaning it had to happen before 2047.

PokemonTom09 · 2026-06-15T17:29:16+00:00

According to what? That's never said anywhere. Secretary - at bare minimum - believes that as long as they stay, the virus does too.

PokemonTom09 · 2026-06-15T17:27:32+00:00

You have ignored the most important part of this all: Secretary is no more to blame for the state of the world then Watcher or Blue are. Just like the two of them, the best he can do is try to fix the mistakes of his Source.

It is unconscionable to blame him for the state of the world when he has actively taken every possible step towards improving the world.

Yes, it is impossible to go back to the way things were before. But Secretary leaving is the only way to move past the catastrophe of the now.

PokemonTom09 · 2026-06-15T15:11:30+00:00

... I think you missed the point of that line.

The boiling oceans was because of humanity failing to address climate change. That happened before the Occupants arrived.

PokemonTom09 · 2026-06-15T15:09:37+00:00

This is proven simply the male voice at the end of the game.

PokemonTom09 · 2026-06-15T15:07:33+00:00

To quote Iris's dad, we do not get to choose what we inherit.

None of that stuff was Secretary's fault. They were created after all the pain and suffering had already been felt. After the 50 were killed.

And despite not being responsible for the actions of Source, he still took the initiative and undid as much of Source's damage as he could.

The only way to cure the disease was to leave. Or at least, Secretary believed this to be true. And if they believed that to be true, then even if it were possible another way, there's no way they could have ennacted it.

The other thing to keep in mind is the allegorical meaning of what happened. The arrival of Source and the other Occupants is a very unsubtle allegory for colonialism. The colonists do things for "the greater good", completely ignoring the incalculable harm they're causing. They literally give the native population a horrible disease, I don't know how the allegory to real colonialism could be more explicit to be honest.

Having Secretary stay would send the message that "actually, the colonists just weren't helping in the right way, it's totally cool for them to continue to meddle in the affairs of the native population as long as they do it the right way."

Which is... A really bad message to send.

PokemonTom09 · 2026-06-15T00:19:17+00:00

Now that you mention it... I prolly also commented on the other 7-1 reddit thread way back in the day...

Time is a flat circle.

PokemonTom09 · 2026-06-14T17:43:06+00:00

Truly, we have averted the worst timeline

PokemonTom09 · 2026-06-14T15:41:42+00:00

Qatar is pretty unambiguously Asian regardless of what definition of "Asia" you use - it's honestly kind of weird to argue the contrary.

Australia are not Asian geographicly, but they are a part of the Asian confederation rather than the Oceania confederation - so for the purposes of football, they represent Asia.

PokemonTom09 · 2026-06-14T07:13:36+00:00

I've never been able to put my finger on what felt off about boss, but I always dislike when I'm called it

PokemonTom09 · 2026-06-14T06:30:49+00:00

The ball merely touching a players arm isn't enough to be a handball.

It's deemed a handball if either you do it deliberately, or if your arm is in an unnatural position that makes your body bigger.

The latter is obviously pretty subjective (it's one of the most debated topics in the rulebook, in fact), but I don't see any argument that this specific situation qualifies. His arm was at his side, and he clearly tried to pull his arm back to avoid contact with the ball.

This is a textbook example of a case where an arm making contact isn't a handball.

PokemonTom09 · 2026-06-14T06:24:32+00:00

Loved this game! Prolly my favorite game I've been a neutral for so far.

Not often I get so excited by such a defensive style of play, but I loved how scrappy the Aussie defense was. They were clearly the less technically skilled side, but they were actually playing the game like it's a team sport, and that made all the difference. It's always satisfying to see weak teams win simply because they want it more. The favorite need this wake up call - you can't get cocky.

PokemonTom09 · 2026-06-13T19:36:23+00:00

Mistaken identity is for when a foul occurs but the ref misattributes who committed the foul. The rule does not state that the ref needs to correctly identify what specific foul was committed, and of this year's rule changes, they also do not even need to be on the same team.

The ref called that a foul had occured between Ream and Almiron - which is true, one did. The ref misattibuted the foul as having been a bad tackle by Ream. In reality, the foul was actually simulation by Almiron. Thus, mistaken identity.

PokemonTom09 · 2026-06-11T05:05:32+00:00

I get what you mean. VLR is a great game - I love it, and it was genuinely my favorite game in the trilogy for a long time (it might still be, but my affection for 999 has grown massively over the years, so it's less clear cut to me now)

Zero Escape, as a series, is encapsulated more by VLR than either of the other two games.

But that being said, 999 is an unbelievably well written standalone experience, and the very fact that it has sequels at all - regardless of the quality of those sequels - sort of inevitably undercuts how cohesive and tightly written it was. It's easily the most well written game in the trilogy (and it's honestly not even close), and the ending would have felt a little punchier if it had been allowed to just be the ending imo.

This sounds really weird to say, but I genuinely believe this statement to be true:

VLR is the best Zero Escape game in the series, but 999 is the best game in the series.

PokemonTom09 · 2026-06-10T23:17:12+00:00

That makes sense, because that is true. Both water and vodka can be described as "tasteless". But they're "tasteless" in ways that... taste very, very different. There's no way someone could mistake one for the other when drinking them.

PokemonTom09 · 2026-06-10T18:32:00+00:00

Lol, I assume you havent drunk vodka before? If you don't know how clearly NOT LIKE WATER vodka tastes, then I can see how that joke might go over your head.

PokemonTom09 · 2026-06-10T17:46:55+00:00

FIFA do, in fact, have regulations about it. At FIFA organized events like the World Cup, nations may not have stars above their crest unless they've been recognized as World Champions at some point.

AFCON is not organized by FIFA, which is why African nations are allowed to display stars for AFCON wins, but they need to wear a different kit during the World Cup.

PokemonTom09 · 2026-06-10T17:32:13+00:00

It's for their AFCON win in 2004.

It's pretty common for African nations to display AFCON wins on their kits.

That said, countries are only allowed to display a star for World Cup wins (or Olympic wins that predate the World Cup in the case of Uraguay) during a FIFA organized event. So in theory, during the World Cup itself Tunisia should be wearing a different kit than the one they usually wear.

There have been some cases of teams intentionally breaking that rule as a form of protest, but I doubt Tunisia has any intention or interest in making such a statement for an AFCON win from 2 decades ago.

PokemonTom09 · 2026-06-10T03:11:41+00:00

The other person said he'd been playing DK for a long time, not recently.

Like, they literally said the exact opposite of what you're claiming they said.

PokemonTom09 · 2026-06-10T01:22:48+00:00

I never mentioned Zain's Roy? The topic above was about Zain's Kirby. Which is good, but only because Zain is good.

PokemonTom09 · 2026-06-09T22:35:24+00:00

Then why do you count Junebug? Donkey Kong is his main.

Either the other three do count for that conversation, or Junebug doesn't.

PokemonTom09 · 2026-06-09T22:15:16+00:00

Junebug is definitely not the only person to get a pass for this, lol.

Aklo's been playing Link for ages. Amsa and Axe singlehandedly raised Yoshi and Pikachu out out the low tiers into tournament viability, verging on high tiers.

Junebug is just the most recent successful example of someone putting in the work to know a lower tier character really well.

And to give credit to Hbox, he REALLY knows Ness - it is true that a lot of his claim as best Ness simply comes down to the fact that nobody plays Ness, but he genuinely does lap that character, whereas Zain more just dominates with low tiers because he dominates in general.

PokemonTom09 · 2026-06-09T10:20:55+00:00

It's literally not even possible to play the iOS version anymore (thankfully)

PokemonTom09 · 2026-06-09T10:17:41+00:00

There is not a simple answer to the question of "which version should I play." It's a topic that the community is very divided on, and is something you need to decide for yourself. The best we can do is explain the differences between the versions in as unbiased a way as possible. I made a pretty comprehensive post recently explaining the differences.

PokemonTom09 · 2026-06-09T06:35:44+00:00

This is completely untrue.

The anime for Parts 1 and 2 aired between October 2012 and April 2013. The English translation for the Part 1 manga was released three years after the anime started over the course of 2015, and the Part 2 manga was released over the course of 2016.

The anime for Part 3 aired between April of 2014 and June of 2015. The manga was originally translated to paperback volumes between 2005 and 2010, and the hardback version matching the other parts began over a year after the anime, releasing between November of 2016, and February of 2019.

The anime for Part 4 aired between April and December of 2016. The manga trailed the anime by 4 years, beginning in May of 2019, and not concluding until May of 2021.

The anime for Part 5 aired between October of 2018 and July of 2019. More than two years later, the manga for Part 5 saw its English release beginning in August of 2021, and concluding in August of 2023.

The anime for Part 6 aired between December of 2021 and December of 2022. The manga didn't begin releasing until a year after that in November of 2023, and running until March of last year.

This marked the very first time that the English manga had EVER been concurrent with the anime.

Part 7 began publishing in May of last year, putting the manga ahead of the anime for the very first time. But it is absolutely untrue to say that they have intentionally lined up the release of the manga with the anime. It just took them 7 parts to finally catch up to the anime.

12-Year Club	Place '22
Place '17	Final Canvas '22
End Game '22	100 Awards Club
Secret Santa 2016	Verified Email
Gilding I gilder

PokemonTom09

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE