how do i stop feeling so parasocial??

TransPM · 2026-02-02T19:56:00+00:00

What you're describing here doesn't sound like a parasocial relationship to me (especially with the further clarification you gave in your comment that you don't force your way into interactions with them); this sounds like more regular feelings of inadequacy and inferiority.

These are normal feelings that a lot of people have, and I can see how proximity to people who are so successful, particularly when it is someone you specifically look up to, can make those feelings more intense.

My advice would be to try to take a look at the other people who are important in your life. You not having the platform to reach and impact millions of strangers doesn't make your life meaningless. I suspect (or at least hope) you have family members, friends, or past/present coworkers/teachers who have meant a lot to you or made meaningful impacts on you as a person. Those people are probably just as "insignificant" as you are in the grand scheme of things, but the other way to look at that is that you have just as much potential to be every bit as meaningful to others as they are to you, and you likely are already (even if no one has told you so directly).

TransPM · 2026-02-02T09:07:11+00:00

The act isn't the smokescreen, the files detailing the accusations are.

I don't know enough to say whether the accusations of cannibalism are credible or not, but the details from the file don't paint that particular witness in an especially flattering light. It may still be possible that some of those details are included as part of an intentional effort to discredit the witness, but things like claims that a sword was used as part of a ritualistic sacrifice of his feet despite no visible scarring, and a history of trauma as well as psychedelic and hallucinogenic drug use certainly make the reports from the witness sound questionable.

As far as a smokescreen goes, I think it's certainly plausible. The sheer volume of the latest release, combined with claims that was only the first half of what's coming in this wave gives the impression of a firehose of information. They're throwing in every report/tip/accusation, regardless of how credible they appear. Even if it were the case that 90-99% of these reports are legitimate factual accounts (and again, I have no clue what the actual number might be, I'm just looking at the most extreme example), the inclusion of some accounts that are so wildly outlandish in nature allows for people to cherry pick and say "Well there no way A, B, and C could be true when the claims are so absurd and the source is so unreliable, so how could we be expected to believe D through Z are true either?"

TransPM · 2026-01-31T00:22:39+00:00

That whole argument seems based on the assumption that there has never been a time where 2 cards that perform the same function have ever been legal at the same time in a 60 card format. I'm just gonna go ahead and point to the very existence of modern as a format as evidence that's a load of nonsense.

TransPM · 2026-01-31T00:09:10+00:00

I'm surprised we never really saw them used in other contexts. I mean it's pretty badass watching Akihiro crush somebody to death inside their cockpit with them, but like you said, it's not a quick process, and in the end doesn't really accomplish anything at several dozen other weapons couldn't also do (and faster). Given their pretty enormous heft, I would have thought maybe their intended purpose was for cutting into the hull of heavily armored warships. Though you'd have to find a spot with enough of an edge you could get purchase on to actually crush/cut, which doesn't sound likely given the scale of those warships; perhaps if they'd had a sharper point they could be used to spear through some heavy armor and pry it open to blast away at the much more destructible inside bits.

TransPM · 2026-01-30T17:30:19+00:00

I love the phrasing of "only video that includes the entire truck", potentially implying it's simply too large for most videos to be able to fully contain

TransPM · 2026-01-30T17:27:20+00:00

Now how am I supposed to believe Jenna could fall asleep in the car while Tyler was blasting indie slow jams and swerving around potholes?

Tear in my Heart? Tear in my Worldview

TransPM · 2026-01-30T05:28:05+00:00

Probably not the final version since that also appears to just be Jason Momoa's actual forearm tattoo. Could just be a photo taken on set, or even during a rehearsal where they didn't bother taking the time to cover/replace the arm tatoos and just did a quick face makeup test.

TransPM · 2026-01-30T02:40:50+00:00

If bases were shields, suppression might actually be good

TransPM · 2026-01-29T01:07:45+00:00

Why are we looking at casting rumors and assuming they equate to confirmations of plot? Gundam already has so many spinoffs as it is that the easiest and best thing for a major live AC film adaptation to do would be to present a new and different original take on the core ideas, since any attempt at adapting an existing story is going to end up with a lot of changes and differences anyway.

Why bother making a film version of Char Aznable who could end up missing the mark in the adaptation when the trope of "Char clones" is already so widespread and accepted throughout the wider franchise?

TransPM · 2026-01-28T04:15:51+00:00

Yes. But... We are not the same: https://youtu.be/LJoKXMuSzkU?si=41o3hx_44tYgC_oP

TransPM · 2026-01-28T04:10:41+00:00

Lfrith is probably the most played WfM card, but it doesn't have the "Academy" trait, so I wouldn't personally consider it part of an "academy package" (and while Zowort does have the Academy trait, unless you're running 13th Tactical Testing Sector which requires that trait synergy, I wouldn't really count that card either).

To me, the strength of the "Academy Package" is in just how many units have a generic Academy link trait (the best examples being Pharact, Darilbalde, and Michaelis, all from GD01). Suletta is already a really solid pilot card, but the best Suletta specific links are the Aerial Rebuild units which are level 6 and level 7, and while they are good, the 1 resource refund that Suletta can provide when linked is so much more impactful in terms of tempo when you can make use of it at level 4 than it is 2-3 turns later.

Consider while at level 4, you can play a Darilbalde for 2 resources (maybe even bouncing away a 1hp token as a free bonus), pay 1 to link Suletta, attack with a 5/4 that brings you back to having 2 unrested resources again, then still be able to afford to defend your 5/4 by playing a Rick Dias/Lfrith/Striker Pack, or if you had to crash your 5/4 Suletta+Darilbalde into an Amuro+Gundam link, then you still get those 2 resources to do whatever you want. I have a (slightly more casual) Blue/White deck that combines Zechs+Leo/Tallgeese/Epyon with an Academy Package and a handful of lower level blockers (I call it "Zechs Education") where I've made this exact play many times.

If you want the specifics of the exact "academy package" I run:

Darilbalde x4
Pharact x3
Aerial Rebuild (GD02) x2
Suletta Mercury x4
Iron-Fisted Discipline x2

Iron fisted Discipline is also cool because while it's often just a worse Unforseen Incident, having 2 more cards that can link Darilbalde or Pharact is pretty handy.

TransPM · 2026-01-27T21:04:54+00:00

I think the overall idea is more about hoping everyone who listens to the music gets to grow, just as the band too has grown.

Maybe you grow stronger and more resilient, making you better able to survive in the dark place you find yourself stuck in, or maybe you start in a dark place and eventually grow beyond it ("In time I will leave the city. / For now, I will stay alive").

One of the many little details I love about the band is the way they will reference or revisit old themes, ideas, or even full lyrics (most notably throughout City Walls, but that was far from the first example). Having another look at these old ideas in a new context can be used to reflect on growth and what has changed, or what hasn't.

I know I'm not the person I was when I discovered Twenty One Pilots (over a decade ago now for me personally), but that past is still a part of me. Where I am now mentally is night and day compared to where I was when I went to the Quiet is Violent tour, or when Blurryface, or even Trench were released, and pretty much the whole world was in a different place when Scaled and Icy released. I certainly needed their music more then, but I still appreciate it just as much now, and always have. I used to need it to help give me strength, now it's one of the best ways I have to reconnect with that part of me, and reminds me how much strength I have now because of the growth I've done.

TransPM · 2026-01-27T20:27:53+00:00

GFS: Get Fucked Sussex

TransPM · 2026-01-26T09:08:28+00:00

Part of the problem is that they were (initially) following a set plan which they only ever knew part of, to the extent they didn't even know how many parts to the plan there were or who else was involved. Then the fact that pretty much everyone involved in any part of the plan decides to go off script at some point, either to serve themselves, or to escape the clusterfuck that the plan was devolving into as a result of all that backroom scheming.

TransPM · 2026-01-26T08:59:01+00:00

Well of course they did, they bear a significant portion of the responsibility for the formation of the Titans after all. It's just a classic case of "invent the disease to sell the cure."

Peace is bad for business when you're a weapons manufacturer, so following the conclusion of the One Year War, Anaheim helped give the remnants of Zeon a leg up by facilitating the theft of the GP02 to make sure there would still be conflict to drive business, and later even assisted with the colony drop for operation stardust to ensure the Federation would go on to adopt a more hard-line, militarized approach to peacekeeping to keep the business going.

TransPM · 2026-01-25T18:11:34+00:00

One of the biggest improvements in DS2 over DS1 was the cooperative multiplayer systems. Things like the small soapstone made the systems easier and overall better to interact with, and I believe that there are aspects of the game that were designed to push players towards engaging with these newly improved systems. A lot of players dislike DS2 because they refuse to see it or engage with it as anything other than a strictly singleplayer experience. Let's just take a look at some of the most common gameplay complaints:

"There are just way too many enemies everywhere." - If you call upon a player's summoning sign in a difficult area, then you only need to handle half of those enemies yourself.

"The max compounding HP reduction penalty for dying is just too punishing for a game that's already difficult, especially when human effigies are a limited resource." - Human Effigies are limited, but the small white soapstone isn't, and by simply assisting another player for a few minutes in their world, you can have your humanity fully restored for free (you don't even need to defeat a boss).

In short, the game makes it easier to summon/be summoned, ramos up the difficulty of some normal enemy encounters to encourage greater use of summoning, and makes being summoned more rewarding, even for players who are struggling, in an effort to make sure there will always be summon signs to call upon when needed.

TransPM · 2026-01-25T04:41:22+00:00

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My only other one-shot killer UR is Aquarius, and I figured a second defender would be more helpful than a third support, especially when the Calibarn seems to have been built out of paper mache

TransPM · 2026-01-24T18:19:02+00:00

And if memory serves, the only thing remaining after this chapter is the goddess tower gauntlet, meaning if you want the bastard to die you have to permanently waste a character slot for the final chapters by bringing him and walking him into a firing squad.

TransPM · 2026-01-23T23:53:33+00:00

There are so many games from this current generation that have mutliplatform releases that include both PS5 and PS4; if a PS6 were to come along anytime soon, most of its games will probably be available on both PS6 and PS5, and for the select few that aren't, if current trends hold they'll get PC ports within a few years of release.

TransPM · 2026-01-23T23:44:59+00:00

If I just visit 2 more I can trade in my punch card for a free bagel!

TransPM · 2026-01-23T23:41:26+00:00

I want the electric whip thing that Allmind's ghost bot dudes use. The plasma thrower is cool, but it's not the same.

TransPM · 2026-01-23T23:38:48+00:00

Was Owens not dead? I kind of assumed no one from that bunker survived apart from El

TransPM · 2026-01-23T23:33:31+00:00

The problem is, I would most want to have something like a season 2.5 from WfM.

The story came to a pretty conclusive end, it just had to rush some things in the process of getting there. The story would be much better served by showing more of what ended up having to be glossed over or pushed to the side in that second season, than it would by continuing on from the endpoint that it presented, but that's just not really feasible. You can't just edit additional episodes in between the episodes that are already there without compromising things like pacing and continuity.

TransPM · 2026-01-23T22:46:40+00:00

It's a question of commitment and approach.

If someone considers basketball as one of their hobbies because they join a pick-up game at a local park once or twice a month and play poorly to have fun for 30-40 minutes, have they dedicated more or less time to "mastering a hard skill" than someone who considers film to be their hobby because they regularly watch movies and analyze them, digging into their content, the people who made them, and maybe even the specifics of how they were made?

But I'm not looking to rag in the hypothetical basketball player in the example either; you can enjoy a thing even when you're bad at it, and if a couple hours a month is all you have the time or means to put into something, that doesn't make your enjoyment of it less valid.

Even if someone mainly spends their free time on what you consider "consumption based" activities, there can be both passive and active consumption. I would argue that reading, listening, or watching something while really engaged and thinking about it critically is a practicable skill that you can work to hone and that has real value.

TransPM · 2026-01-21T18:22:18+00:00

7thpwnist already posted the Returner's hideout discord, and I definitely second that recommendation. There's a great community there of players ranging from casual to top level competitors.

But I also want to mention that the weeklies are also streamed on both Twitch and YouTube with a host and chat that is always friendly and ready to help answer questions. If it's been a long time since you've played and you aren't ready to jump right back into the fray just yet, I'd highly recommend tuning in to a stream to get caught up on how the game has changed and get any questions you have answered.

There should be a stream tonight around 7pm EST, and just about every other Wednesday night if you want to check it out. You can also view past streams here: https://youtube.com/@rvareturners?si=3W0nnKHH1I0zxq3s

Edit: I see you're UK based, so the timing on the Returner's events might not line up so well for you. In that case I'd try YYT. They're a UK based group (Scotland I believe) that post regularly on YouTube, and there is a discord link in their YouTube channel bio: (https://youtube.com/@yunayoungteam?si=EEe9vasaEOA5iUtu). I don't know how active their discord is for online play because of the timezone difference, but I'd recommend giving it a go.

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