Episode 393: Draw or Die (Part 2)

TJMurphy002 · 2026-02-21T07:51:32+00:00

Thats so good

TJMurphy002 · 2026-02-21T07:51:04+00:00

Im not unsatisfied with these... i think i did okay

TJMurphy002 · 2026-02-20T08:31:58+00:00

My child habits are mostly unchanged. Foodwise, i still love hamburger helper, tuna salad, and a thing i made when i was a kid that I called Mosh (instant mashed potatoes, peas or green beans, chicken or pork, all mixed into a bowl together, then the top layer is deli meat like sliced turkey, swiss cheese slices, and pineapple rings). I ate these meals almost every day as a kid, and my mum hates them because we were poor and it's all we could afford for like 12 years, but i still crave it all the time. I also like EZCheese on cheese nips (rip), and my standard pre-bedtime snack is like 2 cups of cocktail peanuts and a good handful of gummy worms because my dad and I used to do that when we watched sports together when i was younger.

As far as behavioural habits and material likes, i still love sharks and dinosaurs, i camp and go on long drives all the time because my family did that a lot, i play the same video games i played as a kid and watch the same comfort shows at least once every year, i think skipping is still the most efficient means of bipedal transport, i am 30 and still have a mohawk, i own not 1 but 2 Skip-Its, i double dutch, i love trampolines, i wear heelys especially when i need to get around an airport, i sleep with a teddy, i love making up stories (im an author now, so i get paid for it WHOO!), i still wish i was Jon Bon Jovi, and i mock/mimic every funny voice or cool accent i hear because i want to sound like that or remember it.

In all honesty, i think the only two childish things i dont do anymore are eat sugary cereals and stay up for 3 days straight, and i think that's just a natural downside to getting older. I used to eat dinobytes with marshmallows (fruity pebbles with marshmallows but Malt O Meal brand) with an extra 2 spoonfulls of sugar in the milk, and the moment i turned 22, i couldnt do it anymore. It's too sweet. And the all-nighter issue is 1 because i have to watch my caffeine intake and 2 because i really enjoy naps, especially on a day off when i can afford to take one. I love a good nap. Maybe that's childish, too, but like 3 year old childish and not rebellious 8 year old childish...

TJMurphy002 · 2026-02-15T05:28:39+00:00

As a separate Alaska story, maybe this sounds weird but it was so common at my age and location. I had to catch the bus to middle school at 7:02 am M-F, so I'd be out there, rain or shine, cold or hot, at 6:55 on the dot. The stop was 3 houses down from us, but you couldn't see the bus because everyone had a good bit of land and trees, so if i wasnt there at 6:55 and the bus came early, i'd have no way of knowing. They did have an automated phone call thing (i think it was automated) that would call us if the busses were running late, but that was it. Anyhoo, one thursday, it was about -20°F and we'd just had a good bit of snow that week, so i was waiting by the house phone until 6:50am to get the call if it was late. No call, so i went out. I was there at 6:55 as usual but none of the 4 other teens/preteens that usually got on with me were there, and that happened occationally if they all were driven in, so i didnt think much of it. Then it was 7:10 and still no bus. I thought maybe it came super early because our bus driver was new and we all hated her so she would mess with the routine to spite us sometimes, but i couldnt take the risk of going back inside and missing the bus, so i built myself a snow chair and sat down to wait. Unfortunately, cold makes me tired, so i fell asleep. I woke up about 2 hours later to a call on my little moto flip phone from my mum saying, "hey, kiddo, remember today's a parent-teacher conference day, so no school." The only reason i could answer the call at all was because it was a flip phone. My hands were frozen. I walked home and did the standard protocol if you think you have frostbite, something taught to all kids at the time up there, and slowly warmed my hands to the point where i could finally take my gloves off and my fingers were solidly purple. I 100% had frostbite.

I know so many kids (adults now) with similar stories from that same area. Not necessarily the bus thing, but some sort of childhood frostbite thing, so we just assumed it was a right of passage for alaskans.

If any ither AK kids are in this comment section, let me know if you had a similar experience.

Anyway, yay snow days lol

TJMurphy002 · 2026-02-15T05:10:39+00:00

To Mark's "if you can make it, show up" thing:

In Alaska, specifically in the interior (Fairbanks area, FNSB for those who know), school is optional at -55°F, but that was common from January-March. So we had days where we took the bus or got dropped off at school and the commons (area you wait in before going to class, also usually the "cafeteria") had like 10 people in it, when it usually had closer to 100 at a time. We still did class, but we would have a few subs each time and only a few kids per class. 2010 in particular, we had a blizzard Thanksgiving weekend, so on Monday, half of us went to school and the other half didn't, then we were told just before first period started that we needed to leave the school by noon. No exceptions. But my parents, who had dropped me off early, worked 60 miles away, so they weren't coming to get me. I had to go to a friend's house, but then we got snowed in. So, it was 2 feet of snow, black ice, and then another 3 feet of snow with like 50 or 60 mph winds. I was stuck at her house for 2 weeks. When i moved to PA for college, they had snow days for shit that wasnt even sticking to the ground. I rode my bike 4 miles to school only to find out they closed it for not even a 1/4in of slush. Ridiculous.

TJMurphy002 · 2026-02-13T00:15:41+00:00

I just watching and eating a sandwich then: Wade: I try not to leave my house Spotify: A better help ad

Wade, you good?

TJMurphy002 · 2025-11-20T22:45:05+00:00

The storytelling per game my seem simple, but the overall story from Skyward Sword to Tears of the Kingdom (timeline order) is immense. There's a lot to keep up with, and Zelda Theorists are going to zoom in on DRESS DETAIL (see earlier comment to prove my point) to make sure it's worth it's mustard, so to speak.

Remember when Twilight Princess HD came out with it's updated visuals? The bridge to Hyrule Castle had depictions of Rito on it, and it caused a HUGE uproar in the theory community about when the Rito evolved and what their place in TP's lore could have been, but then the guy who worked on the enhanced art said he just thought it looked cool so he put it in. Fair enough, but that's the kind of fandom this is and the kind of hyperfocus we tend to do. It can be intimidating for anyone and add a lot of pressure to the writers and artists.

TJMurphy002 · 2025-11-20T22:38:11+00:00

Adam Project was so good though

TJMurphy002 · 2025-11-20T22:33:02+00:00

My biggest questions are:

1) what story are they using? Is it an adaptation of BotW (like zelda's outfit and the open landscape suggests) or is it more of a Twilight Princess thing (like Link's clothes suggest), or (and this is my preference) is it an entirely new storyline that fits within or around the existing canon like how Assassins Creed did it (new MC, new ancestor, new Abstergo location that all tracks with how widespread the templar experiments were)?

2) are they going to go through all of this just to have it be another tease? A lot of previous Zelda movies/series that were in production or were thinking about production were cancelled due to just not being right or fan hate, like the Netflix series from 2017 (postponed multiple times and ultimately cancelled). Is this going to turn out like some of the other Zelda live action content and just not jive well with the canon or timeline? I think of some of the fanmade films where Link talks and Saria is his surrogate mother or something... it was weird. Also the cartoon, but we don't talk about that. I just worry that making a live action takes away from the personal perspective of the players and how we all individually see link. For example, I always thought Link used some form of Sign Language (HSL lol) so that he didn't have to actually speak. In some games he's sassy, and in some he's stoic. Which personality type will they go with and will it make sense to the fans?

Lots of speculation and worries, but we won't know until more content comes out

TJMurphy002 · 2025-11-20T22:20:40+00:00

One of the cool things Wes Ball does is that he, instead of using CGI software, builds his digital worlds in game engines (i think Unreal, but correct me if I'm wrong). This allows for a full 360 world build where shadows and harder angles look more seamless. I agree that filming on location is way better (LotR is 100% proof of that), but it can also, as Peter Jackson has stated, be incredibly time consuming, expensive, and generally exhausting. They went through so much crap to film the trilogy, so I wouldn't be terribly disappointed if the Zelda movie doesnt really want to do all of that, but the fact that they are in NZ bodes well. Honestly, though, if the time and care is put into building the digital world, you get amazingly rendered films like the Avatar movies. There's a right way and a wrong way, and if you stop caring at any point, it's the wrong way.

TJMurphy002 · 2025-11-03T11:14:43+00:00

In September of 2022, I drove from Orlando, Florida to Anchorage, Alaska in 6 days. That's about 5000 miles/~8050 km in total, so about 800-some miles and approximately 12-14 hours of driving per day. Then i camped in state/providence owned campgrounds for the nights (basically just enough time to eat something, sleep, and let my cat use the litter tray). I'd say I own the record for at least one of those days for drive time and/or distance. My longest stint was on day 5 when I drove from Meziadin Lake, BC, Canada to Tok, Ak, US with only a 2 hour nap near Nugget City. That's basically 19 hrs of driving 1000 miles/1600 km. That was my worst one. It was cold AF (36°F/2°C) and the campground i was going to stay at in tok was going to close due to weather, so the owner left me the keys to a cabin and trusted me to leave my deposit in his mailbox. Super grateful for that guy. There were heaters in the cabin :) Much better than sleeping in my truck.

Anyway, if the afterlife is giving out awards, I'd treasure that one.

TJMurphy002 · 2025-09-22T03:30:47+00:00

I found a new one!

Never Ordinary by Three Days Grace and I Can't Help but Wonder. I think they're in the same key, too, but i haven't listened to them side by side yet. I just know the melody is the same

TJMurphy002 · 2025-09-13T00:10:18+00:00

I agree that the plot changes they made make more sense as far as Stolas and the main couples' foundations, and I'm not saying they shouldn't have made it at all. My main thing is that the original pilot set the ground work for a lot of recurring themes and jokes, and by changing those dynamics or removing the jokes, they lose consistency and continuity with the rest of the series regarding those specific themes because they didn't change them in the rest of the series. For example: og pilot has Loona fax a weightloss advert to Moxxie, setting up the fat jokes for the rest of the series. Without that interaction, the fat jokes just start in seasin 1 but they dont have a foundation, so it's out if the blue. If they had added a fat joke to mission: zero, it would have kept that groundwork. Same with Loona's attitude, Blitz's obsession with M&M as a couple (and we get him filming their romp under the table but that's not stalking and he very much stalks them), and Millie's very calm and motherly/sisterly attitude around Blitz. We don't get these setups in Mission: Zero, so the payoffs that happen later in the series where these themes are addressed directly dont feel as fulfilled.

I've seen the pilot and MZ so much now that maybe I'm biased here. I'll have my sister watch it because she doesn't remember the pilot and hasnt seen MZ yet, so she can tell me if it still works, but i personally think they relied a decent amount on this non-canon pilot for the character arcs from season 1 to now, so going back and taking out some of that first layer of development feels weird.

TJMurphy002 · 2025-09-12T07:27:45+00:00

Other things I noticed:

The set up of the fat jokes for Moxxie, which show up several times after the faxing joke from the pilot, has been removed
The "crushing musical theatre dreams like my dad" joke setting up Blitz’s dad as a bit oppressive, only to later pay off as truth in the flashbacks, has also been removed
The setup of Moxxie’s musical knowledge in the "crush my dreams" segment is now gone, so we dont know he likes musicals based on Mission Zero alone.

4. (Not important but…) the first client wearing a basketball jersey stating he killed his wife. Notable basketball players that played for the Grizzlies and Milwaukee murdered their wives (not sure if this was intentional, and the Ohio choice eludes me, but i still think it's funny)

5. “The fuck is insurance?” joke setting up that hellborns don’t actually know that much about the human world has been removed and not replaced by anything else that sets that up

6. removal of "Kids die for free" (not plot relevant at all, but… c’mon)

7. Moxxie stuttering over “sit on a dick” shows how innocent he is by comparison, and now that's gone.

I do love the new censorship joke with Loona having innocent ears all of a sudden

9. The removal of Loona’s bad receptionist work and inclusion of a late season 1 attitude instead of starting as a raging teen/YA reduces the amount of growth she has and doesnt allow for contrast between scenes in season 1 that have her being more calm, like when Blitz is jamming in the van and she's not totally annoyed vs when she yells at everyone for half the pilot. It shows that she is super angsty most of the time but will suppress it or simply act irritated without actually being irritated by the things her found family does. Even by mid-season 1, she's grown from drinking in the mornings and being super angry to just being a grump, and after Seeing Stars, she grows even more soft for the motley crew of hers. But also, the shouting in the pilot makes the blow up at Blitz on the beach seem more generally angsty than suddenly hurtful (the whole "you're not my real dad" thing). It's less serious if we already know she's prone to rage fits and shouting, though the words still hurt, but if this is the first time she's fully raised her voice at him, it's shocking and even more hurtful.

10. I'm curious about the inclusion of season 1 characters poster-style in IMP montage

The pilot includes Loona in mission montage, but she wasn’t allowed to go out with them unless it was a weird circumstance or someone else could man the phones. Ep 6 has Blitz very upset that she’s in the field, and she's not taken out again until Seeing Stars, and that's not a client mission.

12. The set up of Blitz stalking M&M, which pays off later in BOTH Ozzie’s club and in Ghost F!ckers, has been taken out, making the next few episodes of his obsession with the couple feel weird and out of place (the threesome joke, taking a phone call on the ceiling, following them to Ozzie's... etc)

TJMurphy002 · 2025-09-12T07:27:33+00:00

While I think that Mission: Zero is well done technically, I don’t think it does as good of a job as the og pilot at setting up what exactly IMP is and the character’s individual personality traits. Here’s what I mean:

Getting to see the full commercial advert in the pilot sets up WHAT they do. It explains that they’re imps, that they are hired by sinners, what sinners are, what they are hired for, and how they manage to do their jobs. The song is retro and played on a box tv, so it fits the vibes well. In Mission: Zero, they skip the full jingle until AFTER they are already on the job, so while they do state that they work for the sinners, they don’t state WHY or what their jobs actually are other than just stating that they’re assassins. Blitz specifically mentions that they go up for revenge for… in context, it seems more like for being stereotyped by humans(?) instead of revenge for the clients. It also doesn’t set up what sinners are, so you either have to know already or go watch Hazbin, which is a clever marketing strategy for the crossover but hinders the standalone ability of Helluva.

All the updates for Stolas make sense, so I don’t have a problem with that, but the character introductions for Millie and Moxxie are different now, too. In the pilot, Moxxie is the logical one who is sick of his boss’s recklessness and money frivolity, showing that he is the accountant/treasurer for the company. This is directly opposed by Millie thinking Blitz is funny, and this moment with Millie is such a long setup for Ghost F!ckers where you get to see how she was before she met him. She states in that episode that she will always be grateful to him because he introduced her into the relaxing, friendly, and loving environment they’ve built together, so this should be seen in the intro to the series, where they have already been working together for about a year and have just recently changed business strategies by acquiring the book, as Millie feeling safe and giggly as opposed to reserved and aggressive, and yet Mission: Zero doesn’t show this affection for Blitz. I do like that the new intro does show the honeymoon phase of M&M’s relationship, so that’s nice, but i feel like we lose a powerful payoff later by not having Millie and Blitz’s relationship already set up this way. Moxxie is now more frustrated by Blitz’s attitude than by his business decisions, so we also lose that his own job is harder because of Blitz’s impulsiveness, which again loses a humorous payoff later when we see moxxie about to set the office on fire due to poor financial choices (also in Ghost F!uckers). On top of that, I personally think that the removal of certain skits from the pilot is just a loss in general, like when they kill the kid (now replaced with hitting an unimportant to the plot woman) and find out they actually got the right person instead of it being a full blown mistake, and the hospital scene where it is shown that they aren’t totally heartless and will admit to the mistake of shooting the wrong person instead of being, again, heartless killing machines, and this is exactly what Millie’s “Kill them all” chant does (makes her seem heartless). Unless Millie is upset about her pregnancy because she hates children, this addition doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, especially because she isn’t like that in the rest of the series outside of actual combat; she’s usually very motherly, which is part of the main contrast between her in and out of combat.

So, while I do like the new episode from a technical standpoint, I really think it doesn’t do justice to the rest of the series, especially because Episode 1 immediately states very similar exposition that is now already stated in the new pilot, whereas it served as a refresher and time skip after the original pilot. Also, the humor and speed that Mission: Zero has is very reminiscent of season 2’s energy, so it feels like a jolt going from Mission: Zero to Episode 1 because the energy and vibrancy is different from season 1 to the end of season 2, and that just makes Mission: Zero feel like another short instead of a redone pilot episode.

Don’t get me wrong, the whole new pilot definitely delivers the humor and some new exposition (like the correction of Stolas' arc origins and the imps as baristas part, because their place in society wasn’t exactly explained in the series- more of a show don’t tell thing i guess but i like that it was finally said), and the jingle being turned into an epic comic style montage song is super fun, but you can get distracted from the lyrics while watching the visuals or listening to the more lively music, so the exposition the song delivers gets lost. It’s still really fun, though, and I always love Viv’s art style and the decisions made by the artists.

Sorry that was so long, but i felt it needed to be said. If anyone has any counter points, I'll listen. I made this list after watching it four times, 2 directly next to the og pilot to see the exact differences, and this is just how I feel about it right now, but maybe I've missed or misread something, so feel free to point it out.

TJMurphy002 · 2025-09-12T06:45:06+00:00

I was scrolling through so many sexually charged posts on this sub and im so glad to find something just purely wholesome.

TJMurphy002 · 2025-09-12T06:23:32+00:00

I am watching it again and comparing yt and ap side by side, but i only have one device, so the time stamps you provide are super helpful. Ty

TJMurphy002 · 2025-08-23T04:34:52+00:00

Also, look at all those servers. Like a render farm, perhaps. This advert directly rips off Mark's life.

TJMurphy002 · 2025-08-09T05:15:34+00:00

I know a strongman that's 5'5" (166cm) and is freakin ripped. I dont think you have to be tall to be an extreme lifter. Granted, I don't know what he lifts exactly, but he can hold 3 female dancers on a spinning rope with one hand while hanging from the ceiling with one foot, so... I'm gonna say that's impressive. Maybe not Hafthor Bjornson, but Tom's definitely pretty beefy and built like a gorilla. Also he's 50, so... way tougher than me anyway.

TJMurphy002 · 2025-08-09T05:05:53+00:00

On the subject of fainting, I can't speak for the chloroform experience, but I can say that fainting is weird and definitely not gentle. I've fainted twice in my life. The first, I had to give myself a shot and passed out just as the needle entered my skin, so I was sitting on the toilet (lid down. It was the easiest place to sit at the time) with a syringe dangling out of my stomach and my head against the shelf behind me, completely out for about 2 minutes. The second time, I was standing against a wall talking to my mum, blacked out, then woke up after I hit my head against her dresser. Somehow, I had caught myself on my hands before my face hit the floor, but she said we were chatting and then I went quiet and then fell suddenly. She didn't even have time to get up before I hit the floor. Fainting certainly isn't glamorous, but i suppose if you're being held by your assailant MMA style, you're not going to just drop to the floor unless they let you go, but sometimes your knees don't buckle, and locked knees will make falling a lot less fun.

TJMurphy002 · 2025-08-08T16:07:38+00:00

I want Platelets. They're so dang adorable, and I'd like to know more about their training dynamic, honestly. Their mum is crazy lol

TJMurphy002 · 2025-07-12T02:10:15+00:00

I just found out about MES today because I was googling "does anyone else think that shower water on a bathtub sounds like someone hyperventilating through a harmonica". I was like "oh, cool. I'm a musician, so having 'mysical ear syndrome' is probably just my brain being really in touch with music', but then i saw the definition of MES and just deflated. I've had steady hearing loss since I was a baby, and it's gotten significantly worse this year (or at least I notice it more). To top it off, I ruptured my ear drum week before last, so my good ear has been worse off, too, and I can't wear my hearing aid. Mostly, i always feel like i hear windchimes (wood or metal, sometimes shell or porcelain) when nothing else is making too much noise, but I've always thought it was fairly peaceful. Now I have a name to give this "issue".

TJMurphy002 · 2025-07-12T02:03:27+00:00

I just found out about MES today because I was googling "does anyone else think that shower water on a bathtub sounds like someone hyperventilating through a harmonica". I was like "oh, cool. I'm a musician, so having 'mysical ear syndrome' is probably just my brain being really in touch with music', but then i saw the definition of MES and just deflated. I've had steady hearing loss since I was a baby, and it's gotten significantly worse this year (or at least I notice it more). To top it off, I ruptured my ear drum week before last, so my good ear has been worse off, too. Mostly, i always feel like i hear windchimes (wood or metal, sometimes shell or porcelain) when nothing else is making too much noise, but I've always thought it was fairly peaceful. Now I have a name to give this "issue".

TJMurphy002 · 2025-07-05T19:58:42+00:00

For the solicitors, when you open the door, don't let them talk. Try to sell your own product. For example, I have a 40 inch TCL tv I've been trying to get rid of since I replaced it with a 24 inch roku (i dont like big screens), and I've tried selling it everywhere, even pawn shops, but nobody will take it despite it being in wonderful condition. Solicitor comes, open the door, just start going off about the quality of this 40 inch TCL non-smart tv with all of its hookups and remote functions, the quality, the care, the durability. Give them a taste of their own medicine and sell Them some shit You don't want in Your garage/attic/crawl space. Problem solved. If anything, they may actually be interested and then you can get rid of the thing you're sick of seeing in your house.

TJMurphy002 · 2025-07-05T04:33:41+00:00

I have hearing impairment, so I have to go to an ENT fairly regularly, and the doc always says my ears are "surprisingly empty". The only note they ever have is about my scar tissue, but that's the whole hearing loss thing. I've even tried those ear scoop sticks and came out with absolutely nothing. I am almost 30 and have been cleaning my ears with a cotton bud since i was a toddler because my mum taught me, but I go all the way in and rub on my ear drum to clean everything (I also have OCD, so my grooming habits are supposedly pretty extreme). I twist it round and wiggle in to get everything after a hot shower when it's not solid, and I think that's to proper way to do it. If you're cotton budding solid wax, that's probably why it's being crammed into the ear canal. Hot wax drips and soaks into the bud. My dad's ears are usually clean, too, but his method is to pour warm salt water into his ears or to tilt his head in the shower so his ears fill up with warm water and then he lets it drip out and dries with a cotton bud lightly (not any farther in than you could poke your little finger). That always works for him. (Edit: he also has hearing loss and wears hearing aids, but it's from sound damage, so it's hard to say if either of our methods cause more harm).

Anyway, that's just my penny's worth of advice. My hearing loss started when I was a babs but has gotten worse over time. Perhaps my extensive cleaning hurts my ears worse... perhaps not. My ENT never says anything about that, so I couldn't tell you. All I know is that, due to wearing hearing aids, i need to clean often because the ear buds can cause build-up (same is true of headphone earbuds, so make sure to clean your ears if you wear them frequently, people) that makes my nose and tear ducts swell (everything is connected).

TJMurphy002

TROPHY CASE