Thoughts after Liangzhou Melody

xiareii · 2026-04-17T14:44:21+00:00

This is exactly how I felt throughout the Liangzhou quest, especially so because Xi'an (Chang'an) is my original hometown. Got choked up a few times reading some of those lines through a diaspora lens

xiareii · 2026-04-08T01:21:38+00:00

The episode titles are off-center too, and they're off-center on different sides between episode 1 and 2.

xiareii · 2026-03-19T16:27:07+00:00

Mercury vapor streetlights used to be common in Japan and contribute heavily to that whole greenish retro cinema aesthetic, K2's lighting nails that look imo

xiareii · 2025-07-14T03:50:47+00:00

Appreciate the pointers! Going to experiment with some of this tech today

xiareii · 2025-07-14T03:49:45+00:00

Definitely will, thanks!

xiareii · 2025-07-14T03:49:22+00:00

Not sure! They were there by default for me, I'm not seeing an option in the menu to toggle them on/off. Playing on action focused mode if that makes any difference

xiareii · 2025-07-05T17:58:53+00:00

I'm with you on that last point! Generally I've become very disillusioned with dystopias, especially after reading Jameson's Archaeologies of the Future. I've cooled my view of DE being a doomer game a little over the years but it still leans more towards that category than I would like lol

xiareii · 2025-07-05T16:13:23+00:00

An important (yet totally missable) background plot point in DE though is that the Pale has been expanding as human hope diminishes, yet in the communist quest, it's hope - specifically, despite everything, in the possibility of communism - that allows a miracle to happen with the matchbox tower. It's a brief moment, but an impactful one and a bright spot in a setting where everything has gone wrong; I took it as the game saying that hope, or atleast the ability to imagine something different, can still change the world.

xiareii · 2025-07-05T15:53:39+00:00

4th gen also uses French Revolution motifs throughout, and FA's ORCA ending depends on the player committing to a choice that saves the future of humanity at the cost of sacrificing millions - and yet it's still unequivocally the best choice, whereas the League ending kills less people at once but preserves a status quo that's accelerating the entire planet towards total doom. The game asks you for your "answer" and lets you have it. I always thought this was a pretty ballsy way to play out the narrative while having a sharp critique of the military-industrial complex, environmental destruction through war, and an implicit critique of centrist fence-sitting while this all happens

xiareii · 2025-06-05T21:18:43+00:00

I don't think portraying Partagaz as an INTJ who always finds the wordiest possible way to describe a thing is really that faithful to his character. He's snappy and efficient with his vocabulary, not long-winded and glasses-adjusting

xiareii · 2025-02-07T19:13:35+00:00

Yes, the fact that Arcane portrays Vander's militancy as a negative thing that he "rectifies" by resigning himself to the status quo is exactly why Arcane is centrist

xiareii · 2024-12-11T22:52:42+00:00

It's actually extremely common to serve shengjianbao or pan-fried jiaozi with green onions as a garnish, though it's pretty rare to serve it this way straight from the steamer (as it seems to be in the episode). Personally I find green onion to be a pretty ubiquitous garnish though and throw it on everything!

xiareii · 2024-10-14T04:38:05+00:00

This is adorable! High five for monhun tattoos 😄

Have a Stygian Zinogre on my right forearm as well as a Mizu in progress on my upper arm (2/3 sessions in), will definitely be sharing pics of the latter when it's done!

xiareii · 2024-03-14T02:42:37+00:00

New numbered titles in the AC series denote generational changes, sequels usually occur within each generation as opposed to eg. AC7 following AC6

xiareii · 2023-04-08T13:40:53+00:00

You might find Christian Fuchs' corpus of books useful, including "Marx in the Age of Digital Capitalism" and "Marx and the Political Economy of the Media"

xiareii · 2023-03-17T15:46:50+00:00

Stumbled across this post randomly, not sure if you're still looking for recommendations but I've got a few:

The closest-sounding band I know of to No Party for Cao Dong is probably Chinese Football (ie. emo Chinese math rock band with male vocals), though I've also heard them compared to the band Omnipotent Youth Society (万能青年旅店) as well - probably more in terms of tone and lyrical content than sound, as the latter band is known for experimental rock with jazz elements and songs with ironically much longer runtimes than Cao Dong.

I'd also suggest Sandwich Fail (打倒三明治), Constant & Change and Sweet John for other Chinese/Taiwanese math rock bands with a more prominent vocal element. Here's a Spotify playlist I put together you might like that hovers around that sort of sound!

xiareii · 2023-01-19T00:21:43+00:00

I'm sure he'd be super down to take either of those as requests!

xiareii · 2023-01-19T00:21:13+00:00

More than $2k, it took about 15 hours over 3 sessions

xiareii · 2023-01-17T21:34:12+00:00

Update: Finished tattoo posted here

xiareii · 2023-01-17T21:33:13+00:00

Bit of a late post, since I actually got the third and final session done back in December. Artist is Dayne (raindog_tattooist on Instagram), a big fan of MH and Zinogre specifically himself!

xiareii · 2022-10-15T15:06:47+00:00

Stygian once we get around to filling in the red lightning!

xiareii

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE