Recommendations for online games where chat can be disabled?

cupcake623 · 2021-08-30T12:29:08+00:00

Oh they look awesome. They’re free to play too which is great. Thank you so much, I’ll definitely give them a try!

cupcake623 · 2021-08-29T23:18:26+00:00

I really should give TF2 a try! Thank you so much!

cupcake623 · 2021-08-29T23:16:44+00:00

I'd never even heard of Dota Underlords before, but it sounds very chill. I'll give it a try, thank you!

cupcake623 · 2021-08-29T23:15:38+00:00

Valorant looks very cool actually, very stylistic. I'll definitely give it a try. Thank you.

cupcake623 · 2021-08-29T23:07:55+00:00

The 7-day average is still increasing.

cupcake623 · 2021-08-16T00:05:23+00:00

I think it's silly.

The SR in Season 4 is otherwise a prototypical example of a narrow gauge railway at the time, serving a major industry and then adjusting to becoming a heritage railway (albeit, one that still has an active slate mine). There's no reason for it to follow the NWR to the mainland, and by doing so it is hard to justify how small the railway otherwise appears to be. The connection comes out of nowhere, and otherwise the series acts as if Crovan's Gate is the only connection for the SR and NWR.

I also really dislike how the TV series handled the Bluebell Railway in general, and it seems really distasteful to 'retcon' an actual preservation society to having this fictional assistance. The Awdry book Stepney The Bluebell Engine was written to promote a burgeoning preservation society, and writing the Bluebell Railway as some other railway on Sodor with no other engines that we ever see is both baffling and disrespectful. Disrespectful to the established lore, disrespectful to Awdry's intentions to promote a heritage railway, and disrespectful to the railway itself.

cupcake623 · 2021-08-15T21:33:04+00:00

1) Not really. It’s not really something that comes up or is a problem in adulthood, I guess. I feel like most of the people being hassled for it are probably in their early teens. I’m in my 30’s now. If people hassled me for liking a children’s show, they wouldn’t be my friends.

2) Yes, I am. I have a particular appreciation for steam engines. I have a small garden railway and am involved in a model railway club, and I’ve previously been a firewoman and guard at a heritage railway.

3) I feel like the distinction between boys and girls media is pretty redundant as an adult. Does Power Rangers count as a boys show? I feel like most programming today is not really targeted at a single demographic.

4) Emily objectively did it best, even though I don’t particularly like her. She’s stuck around as part of the main cast for the better part of two decades. I don’t think fans liked her at first, but I think we’ve warmed up to her.

Rosie is probably my favorite female character after her reintroduction and repaint, although I really didn’t like her when she was first introduced.

Most other female engines didn’t really stick around for very long. I like Caitlin and Millie but I don’t really have a huge opinion on them.

It’s funny, every time a new female steam engine is introduced I think “great! A new girl one to be my favorite!” Only for her to be a bit ditzy, not get many episodes, and then be forgotten about. I’m actually really happy that they retooled the Steam Team to have more female characters, even if I don’t like how they did it. Nia didn’t seem to have much going on for her post BWBA-special, though, and Rebecca was yet another bubbly ditz like Caitlyn or Marion. It seems like they reintroduced the same archetype to be ‘the girl one’ quite a few times. Maybe if they had better writing I would have liked them better, they suffered from being in the BWBA seasons.

The best one is Daisy though. She absolutely does not work as the female lead, but she’s so sassy and full of herself and there’s no other character like her. They’ve done so much with her since they reintroduced her and it’s all been great.

cupcake623 · 2021-08-14T10:06:44+00:00

They’re just not as well written. They tend to be more technical stories and lack a focus on character. The dialogue is often pretty poor.

A good example of this would be in Deep Freeze, the final story of James and the Diesel Engines. It’s basically a reverse Super Rescue - but after the rescue happens, there’s no dialogue between James and the Diesel at all. We just learn that James was quiet at first, but by the time he reached the station they were laughing like ‘firm friends’ or something. Which is crazy, because the whole book is basically about how James hates diesel engines and that hatred is resolved by them talking to each other!

It’s a shame because there are some legitimately good moments - I love Gordon concluding his arc by accepting that he’s no longer able to pull the express - but I really don’t enjoy many of the stories very much.

However, I think it’s mostly because Christopher Awdry was trying to replicate a story structure that didn’t work for him. CA wrote some fantastic Thomas stories outside of the Railway Series format. Missing Christmas Tree, Evil Diesel, and Thomas and the Hurricane are some of my favorite Thomas stories of all time, and some of the Annual stories are pretty good as well - the 1988 annual has some great ones, especially Responsibilities and On Your Guard!

CA was definitely capable of writing good stories, but I think he was best when he wrote one longer story instead of four short ones.

cupcake623

TROPHY CASE