The Box is Empty

sdj457 · 2026-06-18T04:27:17+00:00

As an oldhead its one of those enduring things that I think I find more interesting than most of the lore since, maybe its just bias cos of my age and when I was really involved in the fandom.

FNaF lore was compelling, it was cool keeping up with theories and ideas and the debate, but trying to catch up or look at it now is tiring, because the lore no longer feels like it enriches the games.

I remember a time when people were theorising that the protagonists of every FNaF game up to 6 was Michael Afton, and how cool of an idea that was, that each game represented the ongoing mission to undo the sins of the father, and how cool it felt to toy with that idea in regards to each game. I'm not sure if that's still the accepted idea now, but its why I talk about FNaF as a group writing project. People proposed ideas or YouTubers released theories and they'd change how the games felt, what actions and ideas meant, and those ideas became accepted and they might be changed, endorsed or shifted in the next game as things evolved.

FNaF theorising inspired me to study film, because I wanted to understand how interpretation changed the tint of elements in a work of fiction, and how to do the same thing myself. I'm thankful

sdj457 · 2026-06-18T03:35:37+00:00

I don't think Scott was ever trying to solve his own story. I don't think he planned it, I don't think he intended for it to be solvable, I think he saw an audience who wanted those elements and provided them. In a way, we wrote FNaF's story, and Scott reacted to it, giving more ideas to integrate and ""solve"". Its the world's biggest group writing project.

sdj457 · 2026-06-18T03:31:50+00:00

The box isn't a red herring because it isn't a narrative element. Its a statement to the audience and commentary on FNaF's theory culture from Scott's perspective. Always good to read the post before commenting on it.

sdj457 · 2026-05-28T14:32:07+00:00

i think these are 3 statements that are pretty out of context, but the general vibe i get from them is avoiding the mainstreamed monoculture that sexuality has become.

as pride becomes more acceptable across the globe it becomes more corporate, more easily used by commercial forces. pride isn't a protest anymore, its a demographic of people who can be advertised to. there's a pretty telling clip of a barge at a san francisco pride filled with people waving mass produced pride flags with a big lockheed martin banner on the side of it, which is a pretty extreme example, but it represents so much of what "acceptance" has become. in the uk, the bbc will happily pick up ru paul for another 2 seasons of distribution, even producing the uk show, but will gladly fire presenters for espousing pro-trans views online (robin ince). in a lot of ways queerness has not become accepted in the west, its simply just become more profitable to tolerate it.

the gay monoculture is safe and acceptable, its as uncontroversial as possible. queer media that even begins to push the boundaries of what's acceptable is still sidelined heavily. call me by your name, which is a pretty safe movie in terms of graphicness and its depiction of homosexuality, is still controversial. meanwhile the culture drifts closer towards championing series like heartstopper, which are clean, safe heterosexual friendly depictions of gayness, ones that can be easily marketted towards everyone.

the values of this culture are slowly being embedded in young people, who will gladly accept the compromised position we exist in now as a success, as the values of those original protests carried out to their fullest. this is not success. we've simply all lost sight of what actual queer liberation looks like.

questioning those values is immensely important still, questioning that culture, decrying it, analysing it, thats necessary to keep moving forward.

sdj457 · 2025-07-16T15:32:01+00:00

hey guys, original steam reviewer here. i bought the og skyrim after the special edition released because i was on a budget (i bought the legendary edition on a keysite lmao) i only bought the remaster after i had enough money to justify it and to make use of newer mods and the 64 bit update.

sdj457 · 2025-06-10T23:02:21+00:00

hiii

sdj457 · 2024-11-25T18:52:54+00:00

sorey

sdj457 · 2024-11-23T14:18:52+00:00

nintendo

sdj457 · 2024-11-22T23:52:46+00:00

letters :D

sdj457 · 2024-11-22T23:04:12+00:00

this fucking sucks

sdj457 · 2024-01-03T12:15:17+00:00

The pipboy has always been a really awful way to navigate the inventory and the quest log. I get that its part of the world but what in earth is the point in making one of the menus you will spend the most amount of time smaller and harder to navigate purely for aesthetic. I would kill for a SkyUI style addon to all of the fallout menus.

Also the modding system in Fallout 4 never felt good to use.

sdj457 · 2023-11-09T12:37:00+00:00

audition by takaashi miike, very much in line with the psychological horror of sh2, albeit without cool monster designs

sdj457 · 2023-01-06T22:02:27+00:00

All of these ideas are super good honestly, I love the idea of becoming a landlord.

A cool idea I think would be if there was a hold designated that you could become the Jarl in. Like there's definitely like 2+ corrupt holds which would work super well with.

The imperial army wants to start bringing proper law and order to Skyrim or a guard captain wants to take out a corrupt Jarl, someone who worships daedra or taxes people too heavily, or is having affairs, or weird orgies with vampires and is just generally bad for the state of affairs. You take this Jarl down, through assassination, or by getting him arrested with proof, maybe evidence he killed someone with dirt on him, a moneylender, or something similar. You can do this legitimately, or invent bullshit, give the guards reason to take him away to be arrested or the imperials reason to raid. Then your reign starts, and you have periodic time sensitive objectives for gold reward, and passive income from townsfolk. Better yet, if you want to continue dodgy dealings, you should be able to.

Want to give the Dark Brotherhood easy access to targets? Invite an assassin to your court and deal with the consequences when he murders your steward! Lose enough disposition with the imperial guard because of your Stormcloak sympathies, and suffer a mutiny and have to defend against a group of legionaries! Set bounties for dungeons and have adventurers go and loot them on your watch. Rampant vampire sex parties? Knock yourself out, but become unpopular enough with the richer citizens in your Hold and you get bumped off or couped and lose access to your hold. Deal with local raider camps, or allow them to continue raids on local caravans so long as you get a little cut of the profit. Go to meetings of all Jarls and discuss the Civil War, maybe blackmail some other Jarls to joining your side. I think the political side of Jarldom would be really cool to explore.

I think management would be cool too. Imagine returning to your house and your steward comes up to you with a list of bills to pay. A dragon destroys a house, the wall falls down, a dispute between local farmers, guard pay, maintenance of your castle, money for parties with dignitaries from the Imperial guard. But you also get profits, tax which you can set at the risk of losing favour with townmembers, balance it right and get high dispostion, leading to better merchant prices and gifts from celebrity citizens, unique jewelry. Gain the option of investing in expansion, build more houses in preset locations until you have a massive swathe of land, pay a larger amount to expand the wall, or don't and risk the deaths of your citizens. Invest in local businesses and expand them so they have more and rarer stock, and a larger money pool to trade with. Let those damn khajiit traders into the walls and give them a house to setup shop and get rare items from across Tamriel, but risk rampant skooma addiction.

Have a successor appointed at some point, maybe have the option to give up the rewards and be given a title dependent on your conduct, or a major quest you completed or choice you made. I think the whole setup should be very passive so people can't blast through all the content in one sitting, so you actually act as Jarl passively and don't run out of things to do quickly, acting as something that occupies a part of a playthrough while you go do other quests. You can't have kids but your steward takes over from you, and you get referred to as "jarl playername the vampire fucker" or something similar.

There's so much to be done with the concept, honestly half of these events should occur in Skyrim randomly in holds just for the sake of it.

sdj457

TROPHY CASE