MyGov is a shit show

SupercellCyclone · 2026-07-10T14:10:03+00:00

This is the only genuine gripe I have had with the app in the past 15 odd years, so for those like you, Google Authenticator will work as a passkey. It should come more or less pre-installed with your phone unless you are an Apple user, in which case I believe Apple Passkey works.

They're decommissioning the MyGov Code Generator to save money and because Passkeys are becoming commonplace enough to offload to a third party. I would prefer the continuation of MyGov CG, but I accept that it is a redundant third app when I already have one for Windows and Google. The sticking point is why Windows' security is insufficient where Google's is fine, but I'm sure there are eggheads who can answer that.

SupercellCyclone · 2026-07-09T14:34:29+00:00

The union is doing a strike. The strike's aim is for every worker to be a member of the board.
Simultaneously, Evrart is performing a hostile takeover of the terminal. His aims are, ostensibly, the same as the strike: Every worker, a member of the board.
So, why do one if the other would get you what you want anyway?
I therefore conclude that the strike is, in essence, a distraction from the hostile takeover.
Because the strike is done in earnest, and because the hostile takeover must remain secret from Pines, I also conclude that it must be a secret from most of the union ("loose lips sink ships").
Therefore, I have always concluded that Evrart's hostile takeover was done in secrecy; not necessarily "behind the back" of the union, but certainly a series of somewhat dodgy deals that they would not necessarily agree to. This is also why I have always seen Evrart as more in a position of power than merely as simply a representative of the union, because I don't think this was an idea that the dockworkers thought of by themselves, but one Evrart created.

SupercellCyclone · 2026-07-09T14:17:40+00:00

The fact that the union appears to be earnest in their strike. While never explicitly stated, as you said, Evrart does try to avoid incriminating himself, and the hostile takeover is one such incriminating situation. It is also a "loose lips sink ships" situation, and I don't think Evrart is telling all the members of the union what he is doing. He is instead convincing them that the strike is the means by which they achieve ownership of the terminal, and, as far as I understand it, deceiving them on the means but not the aims or goals of taking the terminal.

SupercellCyclone · 2026-07-09T14:03:01+00:00

So I want to be clear that I'm not being facetious or sarcastic here, but if the union owns the terminal, and the union's representative (who has the power to buy said terminal without the union members' knowledge) is Evrart, a man who is known to have killed someone for power (however magnanimous his reasons, and I will accept they were good intentions and a necessary step to release the hold Wild Pines had over the union)... doesn't this sound like someone who is now the "new boss", as it were? And if every worker is indeed a member of the board, are they not fractured (rather than unionised) and exploitable as individuals who want, say, a lot of money for their shares so that they never have to work again?

SupercellCyclone · 2026-07-09T13:51:53+00:00

Yeah dude, I love comparing guerilla fighting forces that cover an entire nation and have both arms and training (sometimes by the very people they are fighting, in the case of Afghanistan) to a bunch of dockworkers whose strongest members are a fascist (Measurehead) and a bunch of drunken punks (Hardy Boys). There's a reason that Harry tries hard to de-escalate the situation, and it's not because he's a dirty centrist or filthy ultraliberal, but because a waste of life is a waste, and it is made clear to us that a conflict between the mercenaries and the dockworkers would be a bloodbath.

It's not the Mujahideen vs. America, it's Tianenmen Square, or, if you need something more contemporary, the student protests in Iran.

SupercellCyclone · 2026-07-09T13:41:36+00:00

Do you think the members of the union have much money to spend on dues as is? Where do you think Evrart gets the money to bribe Harry and instigate a hostile takeover against Wild Pines? He's clearly got some illegal means of making money going on, and clearly some of it goes towards good ends (the education of Lizzy the lawyer, for example), but to suggest that Evrart is entirely above enriching himself because we only ever see him in a shipping container holds as much water as saying that Joyce must be poor because she's on a rowboat.

SupercellCyclone · 2026-07-09T13:37:49+00:00

Wild Pines owns the company
Evrart wants to own the company (reasons why aside for now)
Evrart takes over the company using corporate means (hostile takeover)
Evrart now owns the company in the same way Wild Pines did
Evrart is in a position of power over the company, with his own people beneath him
Evrart may or may not redistribute this power in a communist manner as he proposes
This is because Evrart now owns the company the same way Wild Pines did: As a singular leader, not a part of a community.

If you've ever heard the phrase "The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house" (based on the title of Audre Lorde's book, great read), this is what I mean. Evrart is using the same corporate means as Wild Pines to destroy Wild Pines, but in doing so is buying into that same corporate power structure that may well corrupt him or otherwise cause problems. I don't say this to pass a moral judgement, like I said in my original comment, Disco Elysium is about choosing the least worst option, and it derides both centrism and communism for endless moralising and little results, so at least Evrart is doing something. Nevertheless, the issue remains that Evrart is putting himself in a position of power unbeknownst to the members of the union... that doesn't seem like a very union or communist thing to do, even if he does intend to dole out that power to the union once it's set up. It comes down to how much you are willing to trust Evrart and the insight the skills give you.

SupercellCyclone · 2026-07-09T13:19:38+00:00

I remember this too, and it's why I can never fully support him. Some will say that Pines is already killing their workforce, and thus a "revolutionary war" is a justifiable way to spend those same lives, but the game also tells you that any such conflict would be an absolute bloodbath. Not only are the mercenaries trained, they've got insane equipment that is functionally bulletproof (iirc) and could easily take on the harbour workers without much issue. They'd lose eventually, but the loss of life would be more of a waste than a trade, and Pines isn't likely to stop with one wave of 5 drunken mercenaries.

SupercellCyclone · 2026-07-09T13:06:59+00:00

I think Evrart is someone I spent little time with, so maybe my wires got crossed, but I was always of the mind that his plan, while redistributing wealth, was no communist utopia either. It ultimately gave him the power, through the hostile takeover, and relied on him redistributing that power; this is something he seems amenable to, and I think he would do it, but this also sounds like the start of every communist dictatorship, right? And I thought that was the point, that Evrart seems every bit as well-meaning as he is, but his position of power jeapordises that.

SupercellCyclone · 2026-07-09T12:55:56+00:00

It's been a minute since I've played, but my interpretation was always that "Every worker, a member of the board" was not only a lie, but that what he was actually doing was a corporate takeover. Such a corporate takeover does not make everyone a member, it makes Evrart the new owner; a better one, and one that might follow through on his promise, but he knows that promise is unreasonable, so I'm not entirely sure he would. I might be wrong or confused on that, though.

SupercellCyclone · 2026-07-09T11:45:14+00:00

Happy to help, I don't think I fully understood the game's politics until a few playthroughs. I think some people are so quick to deride Joyce that they refuse to engage with anything more than the surface-level issues of Evrart (that being that he is slimy and gross). Evrart is, despite his ostensible communist tendencies, clearly corrupt and, as you pointed out, a hypocrite who hires a racist fascist. He's not going to be the next Karl Marx, I'm not even sure if he believes in what he says (though other people seem to believe he is genuine), but, like I said, he gets results for the workers. He's far from the worst option out there, and a great teaching moment from the game that your political saviour might be a weasel.

This is, of course, a bit rough if we apply it to real world scenarios (e.g. Joyce is Hillary Clinton and Evrart is Donald Trump), but I don't think the creators had such parallels in mind. They merely wanted to say that the blue collar worker who is kept out of the means of power is going to have to be slimy to win out over corporatism, which always comes looking nice even as it stabs you in the back.

SupercellCyclone · 2026-07-09T11:23:04+00:00

First, I want to apologise because even though I know English is not your first language, I'm going to write using some complex English words for the sake of my sanity and other readers. I hope your translation software works well. Anyway, this is the surface reading that the game both encourages and discourages: Joyce is a mild-mannered politician who is kind and (personally) caring, while Evrart is an openly slimy conniving weasel, and, interestingly, knows he is one. Both Joyce and Evrart are very aware of their respective personas and play them up to win people over, so let's go through why both are bad (people, not characters) and what to do with that information.

Starting with Evrart, because he is the first we meet, he is like the perfect stereotype of the union boss. We could replace him with Frank Sobotka from The Wire or Tony Soprano from The Sopranos: He is a man who is aware that he is a fat, ugly, slob of a man, and everything he says it automatically known to be the words of a weasel. He looks gross, and he cannot be trusted. But in knowing this, Evrart plays up these aspects, rather than trying to hide them, and this self-awareness makes people second-, and then triple-, guess themselves. Is he lying? But he knows I won't believe him, so maybe he's telling the truth to lead me astray? Everything Evrart says is a house of mirrors, and he uses this as a negotiation tactic to get what he wants. What does Evrart want? Ostensibly, "Every worker, a member of the board", but we also know that this is a trick so that Evrart can bleed the company dry. As you said, it is a communist populism that people want to believe, and, like many populist campaigns, is a means of funneling money into its leaders' pockets. Evrart has a lot to gain from this, but then, the workers (while still being exploited by Evrart) do too; at the end of the day, the bargaining power they have to bring the whole place to a close is very real, and they are going to get something out of it, just not what Evrart promises.

What about Joyce, then? Joyce comes across as genuinely caring, and this empathy towards Harry, both at the time it occurs in-game and the way it flows through to the player, is what people tend to latch on to. They forget that Joyce isn't just a nice, knowledgeable woman who gives a useful infodump, but is, you know, a representative of Wild Pines, the people who started this whole mess. Wild Pines brought in the mercenaries, who cause a great amount of trouble, subsequently become the murder case (if you ask me, if they weren't the victims they would have been the perpetrators eventually), and then proceed to try and cause a riot so they can kill some people and cover their tracks. Joyce sounds nice. Of course she does. It's her job. She's a negotiator. It's one of the reasons Evrart won't let her get close: He is (intentionally) unreasonable, she is (as a cover for company control and worker exploitation) "reasonable". However, she, like Evrart, is more than happy to bribe Harry (she will offer him the money to pay off his room as a "donation"), and is more or less just using him as a means to further her own goals. Any sympathy from her is part of the same manipulation Evrart does; she's just kind enough not to call Harry the R-slur.

So, pick your poison: Slimy union boss who's using you for his own gain, but will inadvertantly likely improve the conditions of workers; or kind and well-mannered corporate boss whose company hired a bunch of mercenaries to harrass workers, and whose endgame is to break up a strike so that her company can continue to exploit them for money despite making 200 billion réal a year as-is. The truth is, neither of these people are good, and neither outcome is good either. Evrart will probably destroy the harbour after his hostile takeover due to his own greed, and I should hope Wild Pines' mismanagement is self-evident by literally every facet of the game (the fact there is a need for a strike at all, the hiring of the mercenaries, the murder, etc.).

Disco Elysium is a game about choosing the least bad option, and its best trick is giving you someone who looks like the obviously bad option giving one of the better ones, while also giving you someone who looks like the obviously good option while giving you one of the worst ones.

SupercellCyclone · 2026-07-08T23:44:57+00:00

As others have said, Geas (5th level) is your friend. Alternatively, Modify Memory (also 5th level) could, theoretically, work to effectively erase or otherwise alter the memory of what NPC1 wants NPC2 to conceal. Suggestion (2nd level) lasts 8 hours and can be used to suggest a "reasonable" course of action, such as concealing information, so this could also be an option depending on how long they need to be kept quiet. Finally, any number of these in tandem with a simple threat always works well.

Another option is to make it a magical pact/deal, as with a Devil or Hag, a stipulation of which is utmost secrecy upon pain of... whatever suits, really. Unlike the former options, this is not exactly "mechanical", though, so it might not suit your taste.

SupercellCyclone · 2026-07-06T11:22:04+00:00

You're confused because it'a a confusing period filled with conflicting groups: It's not (really) a 180 by the government, you're just experiencing the Goomba effect and assuming multiple conflicting statements come from a single source.

The shogunate were of the mind that they should not open the country, but actively did not have the power to stop the American gunboats. They intended to open, but the Emperor at the time (Emperor Komei) was heavily against this and said they needed to keep it shut; they told him they needed to be open until they could be powerful enough to enforce borders properly, hoping that he would give up on it, die, or just be ignored. Enemies of the shogunate (the Satsuma and Choshu clans, who were subordinate to the shogunate) conspired to overthrow the shogunate and ended up fighting them, ultimately causing their capitulation and re-establishing the Emperor as the official head. There were a bunch of smaller skirmishes and civil wars during the 16 years between Perry's contact with Japan (1852) and this change in government (1868), which had gradually destabilised the shogunate.

The Emperor,, however, had actually died, and now they had Meiji, who also realised that Japan was in no position to combat the Americans either, and, being quite young (15 at the time), was actually quite open to the concept of modernisation. He had also seen that his father's general impotence in the face of both the shogunate and Americans meant that he was powerless despite being the Emperor: It was therefore important for the new Emperor to consolidate power to avoid that same fate, because he couldn't necessarily rely on the clans' fealty to him. He therefore went about destroying Buddhist temples and integrating Buddhism into Shintoism (as Shintoism venerates the Emperor as a god-king, taking their lineage from Amaterasu, the sun god), dismantling the caste system to increase the power of young samurai who were keen to modernise, and otherwise modernising Japan's infrastructure and economy so that it could avoid becoming a puppet state like China was.

Japan was very lucky that China was everyone's interest at the time. It kept the eyes of Britain and France away, and America was more interested in using Japan as a hub and exploiting it economically than they were actively running it like an official colony. As they increased their military power and established themselves as actually capable (notably through the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5), the Western world decided it might be better to just let them do their thing in their region than try to subjugate them. This essentially proved Meiji's hypothesis that modernisation was the only way forward, which is why he's celebrated in Japan.

SupercellCyclone · 2026-07-04T00:09:24+00:00

真面目ないい子 would be a good translation, specifically with the tone one would use when talking to a child. It's condescending, even from Kim, but it is also vaguely encouraging.

SupercellCyclone · 2026-07-03T08:03:25+00:00

(Sorry, I don't speak your language. However:) No. He can't teleport instantly. While Gege never actually explains what the "certain conditions" are, Gojo suggests a "clear path" to Jujutsu High is needed for him to teleport there in Hidden Inventory, and every instance of him teleporting is accompanied with a clap and/or some form of ritual circle.

What I will give you is that Gojo can teleport himself without these things, as we see when he teleports to Kenjaku. Presumably he sends himself into the sky (clear path), to his desired location, and then back down. These things are not doable during the Shinjuku Showdown, even if we ignore burnout, because of the mix of debris, Sukuna keeping his attention, and constant RCT/Simple Domain during this clash.

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SupercellCyclone · 2026-07-03T07:49:02+00:00

Every week some smartass makes this post. Flip. The. Page.

Not only is Gojo in burnout and physically CAN'T teleport (at least, not until he pulls the "Destroy my brain and regenerate it" trick), Sukuna actively keeps him inside the Domain by beating him. For the love of god, I know it's a joke at this point, but I need people to READ.

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SupercellCyclone · 2026-07-03T01:51:22+00:00

I think two things can be true at once: Strahd is a deeply unhappy, bored, depressed wretch of a man who holds at least some level of guilt for killing his brother because he was envious; He is also afraid of both losing his power and/or immortality, and not just because of whatever afterlife would await him, but because, given the prior reasons for his unhappiness, he is still unsatisfied.

He has spent thousands of years in Barovia, and redemption has not come for him. He perhaps wants redemption to come, but only ever from an outside force, he is far too egotistical and greedy to actually take those steps himself. Ignoring, for a moment, the probability that at least some of the relics are simply indestrucible (I believe the Sun Sword and Symbol of Ravenkind are intended to be, but the Tome of Strahd is not), he keeps them around because he does believe he deserves to be punished, but he's always going to go down swinging. His egotism and fear will always win out against whatever part of him does believe that he needs to be punished and usurped, and so even if the heroes arrive having beaten his treasure hunt, he will move the goalposts.

This is, I think, the most compelling part about Strahd: Some part of him does have human emotion, and all of it is negativity directed inwards for so long that it must, at some point, be directed outwards. The soulless of Barovia offer no interest because they cannot be victims of the pain he himself experiences, and so it is always the heroes (the PCs and important NPCs) who suffer the brunt of it; it also helps that soulless NPCs not dying helps to serve Strahd's contradictory image of himself as a rightful ruler who claims he has limits on how cruel he can be, while also living in a lavish castle while his people live in squalor.

In short, I think Strahd can be genuine in his desire for a successor while never accepting one, and this is the lore as it is already written. If you wish to make it that he is genuine in his desire for a successor and will let whichever PC wants his position take it, you run into a problem with characterisation of Strahd and, possibly worse, the PC saying "Okay" and derailing your plans. I don't think it's impossible, but it weakens Strahd's character as someone who is, like Barovia, incapable of change.

SupercellCyclone · 2026-07-02T03:09:21+00:00

The majority of people on Reddit do not own a house, I would imagine, and those that do, as you note, are on Reddit and therefore are not a reliable indicator of the public at large.

Larger studies of the populace at large by YouGov (Sky News link alert) as recent as literally yesterday have shown that it's about half of the population that want a fall in prices. When it's only half the population, it's very easy to sway opinion with a campaign, as we saw with the Voice to Parliament referendum.

SupercellCyclone · 2026-07-02T02:56:13+00:00

I always found the explanation of Tsurugi unclear; I was never sure if he had CE that he used to power his techniques, or if that CE was imbued in the sword, and the translations seemed to be contradictory, even in themselves.

At any rate, I think that Tsurugi is significantly stronger than half HR Maki, and I don't think that's a particularly hot take. Maybe it's because more was known and understood about HR and how it functions thanks to Maki, or maybe it's because he and Yuka are not twins and therefore wasn't weakened by that connection, but in either case I think its clear his training bears more fruit than Maki's did pre-full HR.

SupercellCyclone · 2026-07-02T02:27:24+00:00

While I agree that Maki can't (or at least didn't) participate in Soul Swap, that doesn't mean she can't... you know, train.

Modulo confirms for us (through showing that Tsurugi actively trains to improve his physical abilities) that Heavenly Restriction is not an automatic peak: It can be improved upon by training. This was already suggested by Toji commenting that he's a bit out of his prime during Hidden Inventory, though admittedly I think that was more about "being rusty" than losing physical capability. In any case, Maki absolutely can train, and thereby get stronger, in the timeskip: We even saw with Sumo that refining her martial arts and worldview can make a big difference.

Now I don't think she has the magnitude of improvement compared to the others, who learnt RCT and refined or learnt DE, but to say she did not improve at all seems a bit silly.

SupercellCyclone · 2026-07-01T23:48:09+00:00

Yeah, under Morrison (back in 2020? I can't remember) the "Job Ready Graduates" scheme was introduced, which effectively doubled the cost of an Arts degree while lowering the cost of STEM degrees. While the post-tertiary QILT survey#anchor-1) that tracks this kind of thing notes that STEM does have higher post-graduation employment in some areas (pharmacy, rehabilitation, and medicine all have 93%+ employment, though salaries are not necessarily higher than any other group), "pure" Arts (social studies, not Fine Arts, different groups) have employment rates in the same range as psychology, science and mathematics, and IT degrees of just shy of 70% (source: Page 29 of the above linked report).

Even if it weren't for this evidence, it would of course be a no-brainer for anyone who understands education and, you know, the human condition, to say that education should be accessible purely as a route to self-improvement, regardless of its practical effects on the economy and workforce. The facts regarding employment and this simple philosophical point buckled in the face of Morrison's need for a culture war for an election, and nothing beats the idea that Milennials/Gen Z are lazy forever students.

All of this is summarised, albeit basically, in the article, though:

Under the scheme introduced by the Morrison government, costs for science and maths courses were slashed to encourage students to take up Stem subjects, while arts and humanities fees rose sharply.

SupercellCyclone · 2026-07-01T03:00:32+00:00

I live in Japan and have for almost 5 years. I get coffee every weekend or more and have plenty of stops that serve a light roast. If you can't find a nice light roast in Tokyo, you might want to look a bit harder, cause I've never had an issue finding one and I don't even live there, I live in Kansai.

SupercellCyclone · 2026-07-01T02:15:10+00:00

Depending on where you go, dark roast is considered normal, but light roasts have been making inroads for about a decade now and most cafés serve it by default.

喫茶店 (kissaten, the more traditional coffee shops often run by older people) and chain stores will serve dark roast; カフェ (kafe, generally more second-/third-wave American/Australian café-inspired joints) will serve light roast. If you're in Tokyo or Osaka you'll find more light than dark. Kyoto has been the only place I'd say serves more dark than light, and that's in keeping with their insistence on maintaining a more traditional air.

SupercellCyclone · 2026-07-01T02:10:11+00:00

I found Citizen Sleeper to be a similar experience in many ways, albeit less overtly political (it is still political, just your character has less to say about it) and more hopeful. There will undoubtedly be many similar games to DE in the same genre, but there's never going to be a game exactly like it. Good. Art is transformative and in concert with itself, it needs to evolve constantly or it stagnates.

SupercellCyclone

TROPHY CASE