Casino Royale: Why It Worked (Retrospective on the Franchise)
One of the most critically acclaimed Bond films. It truly revived the franchise in a way that it had not been since the Connery days and while I strongly disagree with the comments about Craig being the best Bond since Connery, he debuted under the best circumstances. Casino Royale gets a lot of praise from the media for being “different” from other films while some fans deride it for the same reason, calling Daniel Craig’s Bond an emotionless thug. The latter group is somewhat correct, if referring to Quantum of Solace. The former group, is a bit overblown in their praise, forgetting that changing too many things could run the risk of losing what made something great in the first place, which happened in some areas with Craig’s subsequent films. In my opinion, however, Casino Royale is not a “deconstruction” of the Bond films that stripped back the gadgets, girls, and humor that defined the films, but a reconstruction that stayed true to the original novels and simply improved upon the many great things its predecessor did while getting rid of the fluff. Looking back, Connery started out perfectly in his first two films. He added his own charm and wit to the original character, making for a perfect lead actor while keeping the more dubious aspects of the character. Unfortunately, Goldfinger marked the beginning of Bond becoming a caricature, a perfectly dressed gentleman who saved the day as effortlessly as he displayed charisma. While some of the original Connery returned in Thunderball, his last two films doubled down on Goldfinger’s success and felt like a pale shadow of his former self. George Lazenby, despite only appearing in one film, managed to remain unobscured because he appeared in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, a crowning moment for the franchise that stripped back the gadgets, girls (kind of), and humor. Rather strange, considering Casino Royale was adored for doing the same thing, but gets a better reception from audiences (critics and fans have given Lazenby’s film its due for decades now). Roger Moore, despite the silliness of his films and the decreasing credibility the franchise had because of his age as the films progressed, deserves credit for allowing the films to develop differently rather than just copying the Connery films. Moore could never compete with Connery’s rugged macho persona and instead became more suave and gentlemanly, with even more emphasis on the humor. The franchise had been heading down a path where the films could not be taken seriously and Moore allowed them to embrace it. Say what you want about films like Moonraker, but that was the direction the producers wanted to take and much of how one perceives it is based on how silly or serious they want their Bond films to be, a testament to how Moore allowed the films to vary in tone. For Your Eyes Only, despite not being a particularly strong film in my opinion, stripped back the gadgets, girls, and humor (kind of). Casino Royale gets praise for being more realistic and grounded than Die Another Day, but For Your Eyes Only did the same after Moonraker, albeit to a lesser extent. Moore proved that he could still portray a more serious Bond and the result was one of his best outings. Unfortunately, the silliness still lingered and Bond faced competition from other heavy-hitters in the eighties. While I enjoy Octopussy and think A View To A Kill deserves to exist because of its awesome score and Christopher Walken, Moore should have left earlier. Timothy Dalton still remains underappreciated by critics and audiences (“Mainstream” media sites still rank his films in the twenties) despite having a cult following among fans. While I am not the most knowledgeable of the novels, I remember enough from the ones I read that Dalton fit the literary version almost perfectly and I still maintain that he is closer than even Craig or Connery to Fleming’s Bond. The Living Daylights and Licence To Kill are both extremely well-done films, that while suffering from a lackluster director far better at executing action than story and poor production values, managed to be the closest in spirit to Connery’s early films. It is rather unfair that Dalton is labelled the “proto-Craig” when he was closer to the novels, a bit too close. One area where Craig is superior to Dalton is the charisma. Dalton lacked the “it-factor” that his predecessors had and while he was not beholden to following what Connery started, the public perception about the larger-than-life Bond hurt his era. People began rejecting the caricature Bond had become with the Pierce Brosnan era, which had the worst scripts in my opinion. GoldenEye was a pop-culture hit and its legacy as the “only good Brosnan” film was aided by a video game that I would rather go back to than the film itself. It was a well-rounded out film, though I would argue that it is not one of the best since several others were less derivative and excelled in some areas more than it did. Brosnan’s era dropped in quality with films even more derivative than his debut, repeating GoldenEye’s mistake of ultimately wasting interesting plot-points in favor of falling back on the tried-and-true tropes. I still love Tomorrow Never Dies though. The end result was Die Another Day, which saw the producers in the same situation they found themselves in after Moonraker. They had to return to Bond’s roots, and for the first time in its history, truly delivered an almost flawless product that learned from everything the films had done. Some look back on the pre-Craig films and scoff at them, finding them too cheesy and not serious enough. However, quite a few Bond films were serious and faithful to the source material; they just happened not to do it as well as Casino Royale, with the exception of From Russia With Love, which is the closest in reception to it. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service suffered from a rather lackluster star, who despite the arguments from people such as myself who enjoyed his vulnerability compared to Connery and acting during the ending, hurt the reputation of a great film. For Your Eyes Only set the tone for the eighties films, but still had some of the Moore silliness. The Living Daylights and Licence To Kill also suffered from tonal issues, to a lower extent in my opinion. Dalton gave very committed performances, but the other members of the production were not quite as willing to commit to such a radical change and never went the extra mile like Casino Royale despite delivering two top tier Bond films. Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli finally realized that they had to give the character justice after they restricted Pierce Brosnan from reaching his full potential. The one-liners worked with Connery and Moore, but they did not with Dalton and Brosnan, showing a lack of confidence in their lead actors’ acting ability that they did not with Craig. Rebooting the franchise meant the producers could start a clean slate, take all the great things of the past twenty films, and put it in one film. I prefer Dalton overall, but Craig’s debut performance was the perfect combination of the literary and cinematic Bond. He retained the cold nature Dalton brought to the role while keeping some of the wit Connery brought into focus. Craig gets some praise for being more brutal with the bathroom opening frequently highlighted, but I think that it rather misses the point of the plot. Bond went from being a reckless, violent gunman to being a cold man who tries to hide it with charm and witty lines, closer in personality to the previous Bonds. It has even been brought up that Vesper influenced Bond’s dress style, going from wearing casual clothes to a three-piece suit in the ending. Bond holding the machine gun in such fancy clothes showed how far he had become since the prologue, no longer wearing his Oxford-styled suits with disdain. Even Craig’s hair, which is flat down throughout the film, is a bit sharper in the end, showing that Bond now puts more thought into the way he appears. Getting some input into the character also meant Craig had the freedom Dalton and Brosnan were unfortunately never afforded. Only Craig could have pulled off the torture scene. Connery and Moore were too untouchable; Lazenby and Brosnan were not the best when it came to dramatic scenes; Dalton lacked the humanity that made Craig more relatable, though their interpretations are two sides of the same coin. Casino Royale was inspired by the Bourne films and Batman Begins, but still feels very Bondian. The tropes Goldfinger introduced may be gone, but those from the novels and first two films remained. The film adds scenes set in the Bahamas, which reminds one of Dr. No and Thunderball. The Aston Martin DB5 returns, continuing the nostalgia for the Connery era which the producers had been milking since GoldenEye, and exacerbated in future Craig films. Bond’s characterization is also close to Connery’s first two films and Lazenby and Dalton’s films. The film does not feel like a complete departure from its predecessors, but more of a return to form. For me personally, I like the films like From Russia With Love and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, which retain the cinematic Bond thrills while adding more depth to the plot and characters. Craig’s debut set the bar high and I think his follow-ups learned the wrong lessons from it. After being praised for departing from Bond’s roots, the writers went further and made a film that does not feel Bondian at times. Criticize Licence To Kill for being an eighties action film all you want, but the story felt more like classic Bond than most of its predecessors. While Quantum of Solace had great action, cinematography, interesting plot points (holding the water of a country ransom does not seem so funny now?) and had some parallels between Dalton and Craig (Dalton snaps and rejects MI6 to become a rogue agent hellbent on revenge, Craig never actively seeks revenge and despite the brutal moments he finds himself in, keeps his composure), it badly-edited and suffered from an undercooked script. On the other hand, Skyfall is a beautifully shot film that like GoldenEye, has a meandering plot focused on meta-commentary discussing Bond’s relevance. I would still put Skyfall in my top 10, but it is not as original or groundbreaking as the critics would have you think. Finally, Spectre repeated the same mistake the Brosnan films did: fall back on good old nostalgia. This time, the writers tried to fuse a Connery era plot with Craig’s darker aspects, making for a charmless bore with some really misguided intentions (Brofeld, anyone?). I eagerly await No Time To Die like everyone else and hope that it manages to end off the era of one of the best Bonds with a bang.
Going through old issues of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and posting highlights in my own words. For anyone interested, I highly recommend signing up for the actual site at f4wonline and checking out the full archives. PREVIOUS YEARS ARCHIVE:1991 • 1992 • 1993 • 1994 • 1995 • 1996 • 1997 • 1998
Dave has officially declared the Monday night wars over. Obviously, both shows are still going on. But WWF is riding an incredible wave of success while WCW is free-falling in self-destruction and he doesn't see that changing anytime soon. Sunday Night Heat did a record 5.09 rating, followed the next night by Raw doing a monstrous 6.46. At one point, Raw was more than doubling Nitro's ratings during certain segments of the show. Add in all the mainstream publicity (Sable in Playboy, TV Guide doing another 4-part covers series but only WWF this time, etc.) and just weeks away from Wrestlemania which will undoubtedly be the biggest money event in WWF history and the biggest non-boxing event in the history of pay-per-view, and WWF is simply on fire right now.
On the flip side, there's WCW. For the last several weeks, Eric Bischoff has apparently been on vacation in France (Dave gets an AWESOME line here, saying it would be more appropriate if he was in Rome playing the fiddle). That left Kevin Nash and Hulk Hogan in charge of Nitro this week and Dave says it was possibly the worst TV show put on by a major promotion in history and that Nash and Hogan used the show as a way to get themselves over and went to absurd lengths to basically bury everyone else in the company. When asked about it, Bischoff has basically said he's giving full control to Nash and giving him the chance to sink or swim on his own. Most people feel that Bischoff has pretty much given up and mentally checked out of the company and is looking for a way to get off the Titanic before it sinks. Dave thinks Nitro had to have been designed to fail this week because it takes a lot of thought to actually present a show that terrible, it couldn't have been an accident. He talks about how WCW has had a long tradition of bad booking, dating back to the mid-80s Crockett days where everyone did heel/face turns until the fans didn't care about anyone, screwjob finishes, and the booker pushing himself as the top star (Dusty) and obviously, nothing has changed in the last 10 years. Locker room morale is at rock bottom. Scott Hall is pretty much planning to sit out right now and has talked about suing WCW because it was a WCW employee who ran over his ankle a few weeks ago, injuring him. Benoit, Malenko, guys like them have been forgotten. Bret Hart's burial is complete and he's a midcard nobody now (he worked a 10+ minute match against Van Hammer this week, in case you're wondering). Arn Anderson, one of the top 3 promo guys in the biz, is being phased out. Billy Kidman, arguably the brightest new star in WCW in the last year or so, is barely on TV anymore. Same with Juventud Guerrera, who is the single best wrestler in the U.S. at the moment. Chris Jericho has potential to be the next Shawn Michaels or Ric Flair and he's booked like a nobody and is almost certainly WWF-bound when his contract ends. But we still have nonstop Scott Steiner, Buff Bagwell, Nash, and Hogan. Goldberg is still being booked strong because even WCW isn't foolish enough to totally bury him, but he's not going to be pushed above Hogan (who is turning face) and Dave wouldn't be surprised if they do something stupid like turn Goldberg heel (still a year away from that awful idea). With Ric Flair now being booked as the top heel (at 50 years old) and Hogan as the top babyface, it does nothing to dispel the notion that WCW is the elderly, out of touch company, while WWF is the hot, cool product. People who recently re-signed contracts are wishing they could get out of them and Dave expects nearly anyone who has a chance to go to WWF when their contracts expire will probably make the jump. But aside from all the comparisons of 1999 WCW to 1988 Crockett, Dave says there's one big difference. In 1988, even though morale was bad and the product was suffering, the performers didn't quit. They still tried to put on good shows. But now, in 1999, everyone from the wrestlers, to the announcers, to the front office...all of them have already mentally quit. Almost everyone is just collecting a check and phoning it in at this point and it's never been more obvious. And for that reason, Dave says the game is already over. WWF has won the war.
Vader became the first wrestler in history to win both New Japan's IWGP title and AJPW's Triple Crown title after defeating Akira Taue to win the title recently vacated by Toshiaki Kawada after an injury. Dave says this puts Vader up there alongside Lou Thesz as one of the only wrestlers to hold more versions of major league championships than any other wrestler ever. Vader held the CWA title in Europe in the 80s, which was a bigger deal then than it is now. The UWA title in Mexico (back when they were the top promotion there). IWGP in Japan, 3 times, and the WCW title 3 times, among others. At one point in 1990, he was the CWA, UWA, and IWGP champ all at the same time, which probably makes him the only wrestler to ever hold 3 major world titles on 3 different continents at once.
At the latest UFC PPV, Tito Ortiz got into a confrontation with Ken Shamrock, who was cageside for the fight. After Ortiz won his fight against Shamrock's protege Guy Mezger, he flipped off the Lion's Den corner and then pulled out a t-shirt that said "GAY Mezger is my bitch." Upon seeing the shirt, Shamrock jumped up and climbed the cage and started yelling at Ortiz, saying that if he put the shirt on, he would rip his head off and chastising him for poor sportsmanship. Due to UFC being afraid of any negative publicity these days, the camera pulled away from most of it, but Ortiz had to be pulled away and Shamrock nearly climbed into the cage and had to be restrained. For what it's worth, Shamrock has talked about wanting to fight again, but of course, he's still under WWF contract. He's had discussions with Vince McMahon about allowing him to fight, perhaps sometime this year but no word if it's led anywhere. And Shamrock reportedly wants to fight for the UFC title, and doesn't necessarily have any interest in fighting Ortiz, although now there's obviously some intrigue if that fight were to ever happen. But right now, UFC doesn't have enough visibility on PPV to even be able to afford to bring in Shamrock. But there's talk that UFC is making headway with the PPV providers and they seem confident that they may be able to start getting unbanned soon.
The career of Lizmark, one of Mexican wrestling's all-time legends, may have come to a sudden end due to heart problems. He'd been dealing with chest pains recently and finally checked himself into a hospital only to find out it was bad news. Doctors then told him he absolutely could never wrestle again because he would be risking his life. Dave gives a brief recap of his career, talking about him as one of the innovators of out-of-the-ring dives that have become so popular in Lucha Libre ("tope suicida!") and how his son Lizmark Jr. currently wrestles in WCW. He's 49 and had already been talking of retiring anyway but was holding out hope that he would get to wrestle his final match with his son but the WCW/CMLL deal fell through and they're in different promotions so it looks like it won't happen. In fact, Dave says Lizmark's mask is one of the most famous in Mexican wrestling history and that legacy is the reason Lizmark Jr. has repeatedly refused to lose his mask in WCW, which is why they never push him. (Turns out this wasn't the end for Lizmark. He took about 6 months off and then resumed wrestling a slightly lighter schedule but still pretty regularly for the next several years. And in even better news, he did get to wrestle with his son a bunch of times during those years. He ended up retiring in 2013 and died in 2015).
There's a quiet power struggle taking place within AJPW between Mitsuharu Misawa and Motoko Baba, the widowed wife of Giant Baba. Apparently Motoko Baba wants to oversee everything Misawa does while he wants to be left alone to run the company as he sees fit. He also wants to modernize things a bit. If you're recall, Giant Baba wasn't exactly the most in-touch guy when it came to the modern day wrestling business. (This behind-the-scenes power struggle goes on for the next year or so and eventually, Misawa leaves and takes almost the entire AJPW roster and office staff with him to form Pro Wrestling Noah which damn near puts AJPW out of business overnight. But we'll get there...)
For the first time in AJPW history, Stan Hansen won't be part of the upcoming Champion Carnival tournament. Dave explains how in sumo wrestling, when a grand champion can no longer compete at the highest level, they are usually forced into retirement in order to spare them the indignity of losing to low level fighters. AJPW is basically doing the same thing here. Stan Hansen is without a doubt the biggest foreign star in the history of Japanese wrestling but he's 50 years old now and he simply can't hang with the newer generation of stars. And since it wouldn't make sense to push him as a top star anymore, they don't want him in the tournament losing to midcard guys and looking bad. So to preserve his legendary status, they are simply not putting him in the tournament at all.
Shinya Hashimoto was expected to return to the ring for next month's big NJPW Tokyo Dome show but he won't be ready. He had major reconstructive surgery on his nose after getting it shattered to pieces in the Jan. 4 match against Naoya Ogawa and won't be medically cleared in time for the show.
Riki Choshu has announced that he plans to come out of retirement. It's got a lot of people concerned about the financial condition of NJPW because, when he retired last year, Choshu vowed he would never come back unless the company was in such bad shape that they needed him to. Soooo...now he's coming back, so obviously people are questioning things. NJPW is denying that there are any money issues and in fact, most of the wrestlers who recently re-signed were given big raises. But house show business in the last year or so has declined so who really knows. No word on who or when Choshu will wrestle again (must have been some confusion here because Choshu stayed retired for another year-plus before finally coming out of retirement in mid-2000).
Kenzo Suzuki, a former collegiate rugby star, has started training at the NJPW dojo and will likely debut for the company later this year (he doesn't last long in NJPW. Spends a couple of years in WWE during the mid-00s, and then ends up back in AJPW for most of the last decade).
Nobuhiko Takada is still not giving up the dream of being a real MMA fighter and will face UFC fighter Mark Coleman at the next PRIDE show (this ends up being one of the more notorious "fixed" fights in MMA history, with Coleman clearly taking a dive for Takada).
Speaking of Mark Coleman, WCW offered him $50,000 to come in and work a match against Goldberg and to put him over. But Coleman's people advised him against it and then Kevin Nash also shot down the idea, saying what if Vince McMahon offered Coleman $100,000 to double-cross WCW and shoot on Goldberg live on PPV and embarrass the company? Dave says the obvious answer to that would be to tape the match in advance just in case. But either way, it's not happening now.
Legendary retired sumo wrestler Akebono has been denying rumors that he plans to get into pro wrestling now that his sumo career is over (took him a few years, but yeah he eventually becomes a pro wrestler).
Women's boxer Shannon Hall reportedly has an offer to sign with WWF. She's also a former American Gladiator (she does sign with WWF but never makes it out of developmental).
Dave finally saw the A&E Biography episode about Andre The Giant. He says it was a very well-produced fairy tale. Definitely entertaining, but about 80% inaccurate, at least about his wrestling career. There were some good interviews with his family members and friends about his childhood and personal life but as far as his wrestling career goes, most of it was revisionist bullshit.
Legendary women's wrestler Mae Young has been playing the role of Sean Stasiak's mother on Power Pro Wrestling in Memphis. She had a wrestling match with Stacy and, at 75 years old, that makes her the oldest person to have a match that Dave is aware of (Lou Thesz had one at 74 a few years back). She took a few bumps and then faked a heart attack before sneak attacking Stacy with a purse.
A 17-year-old kid named Andre Verdun made news in Ventura, CA for his backyard wrestling group where him and a bunch of other kids were having barbed wire matches and jumping off rooftops on each other through tables and whatnot. The principal at Verdun's school was furious at the newspaper that ran the story, saying all they did was give the kids more fame and notoriety by publishing it. Verdun was apparently signing autographs at school after it happened and now there's TV shows wanting to do interviews with them (I googled the guy and it looks like he did a bunch of garbage backyard death match shit for years. There's some videos on YouTube. He also played a big part in a 20/20 piece about backyard wrestling that also interviewed Mick Foley and others. Anyway, looks like this Verdun guy is all grown up and he's a lawyer now. I can't find the local news piece, but here's the 20/20 story from later in the year which features Foley).
ECW paychecks are finally starting to clear now that they got the big influx of cash, so morale is better but no one is betting on the future. Even Tommy Dreamer, thought to be the most loyal guy in the company, went on a radio show this week saying that he only has a handshake agreement with Paul Heyman, not a contract, and said that if a serious offer came along from either WWF or WCW, he would take it.
ECW also lost their TV deals in several major cities due to financial issues. Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, Buffalo, and Pittsburgh TV deals were all lost. They're working on getting Boston back. They voluntarily gave up the Chicago TV deal because they were paying $3,000 a week for TV there but they've never actually run a show there so they decided it wasn't worth the cost. Same for Atlanta, although they're looking for a new TV deal there. Pittsburgh dropped them due to bounced checks.
Tammy Sytch and Chris Candido still aren't being used by ECW. They have told Heyman that they are in counseling and doing an outpatient drug rehab program. Tammy's mother also went to court this week and got a restraining order against her daughter extended (she was arrested a few weeks ago for violating it).
ECW TV this week kept taking pathetic shots at WCW. Once might have been okay but it went on and on throughout the whole show and came off as whiny and desperate. They talked about WCW ripping off ECW's gimmick with the "Uncensored" PPV. Talked about the three-way match between Raven, Hardcore Hak, and Bigelow saying they are using ECW wrestlers for an ECW-style match. And they knocked the Hogan/Flair barbed wire cage match, saying that the match will suck because both guys are 50 year old millionaires who won't take risks and besides, the barbed wire is fake anyway and in ECW they use real barbed wire. Then they showed the famous Terry Funk/Sabu barbed wire match (not bothering to mention that Funk is older than both Flair and Hogan) and basically just spent the whole show knocking WCW.
As if this week's episode of Nitro wasn't bad enough, they also failed to sell out the show in a 12,000 seat arena. It's been a long time since Nitro failed to sell out an arena that size. A few days later, a Thunder taping only drew 4,000 fans to a 15,000-seat arena, which was disastrous (they'll be happy to draw 4,000 fans to any show a year from now). During Thunder, they aired 2 promo videos hyping next week's Nitro and both clips featured Sean Waltman, who has been gone from WCW for over a year now and is, of course, currently in WWF. The wheels are falling off this company.
Also on Thunder, the crowd was chanting "steroids!" at Scott Steiner and at one point, he legit lost his cool and ran into the crowd after a fan, which they had to edited out before broadcast.
In a magazine interview with Goldberg, he was asked his thoughts on WWF and said it was "shock TV" and said he would retire from wrestling tomorrow rather than ever go to work there. Sure thing, buddy.
WWF injury/illness Report: Mankind is dealing with knee issues and will need time off soon. Billy Gunn missed a few shows due to fluid in his lungs and a respiratory infection. Steven Regal is still in rehab with no plans to return soon.
Regarding rumors that Raw will be expanding to 3 hours, apparently it was discussed several months ago back when the ratings war with Nitro was still neck-and-neck. They didn't like that Nitro had a 1 hour head start and talked about adding a third hour to Raw. But now that Raw is dominating Nitro, they don't feel the need to do it anymore, so it won't be happening. Whew. Could you imagine?
Kurt Angle will be sent to Memphis to work for Power Pro Wrestling for a bit before they put him on WWF TV.
Luna Vachon was fired this week due to several separate incidents. She has had a lot of heat with Sable, Marc Mero, Jacqueline, and agent Jack Lanza. She also complained about not getting a push because she wasn't as pretty as Sable (which she also said on TV and it was more shoot than work) and she even challenged Marc Mero to a fight backstage at the St. Valentine's Day Massacre PPV. Basically, she's just been pissing off too many people and none of the other women were comfortable having her around because she's kinda wild, so they fired her. Funny enough, she was booked to face Sable at Wrestlemania and was even booked to win the title, but that's obviously off now and Sable will likely face Tori instead.
WWF is considering doing their own women's wrestling show patterned after the old GLOW promotion of the 80s. They're holding a casting call in Los Angeles next week to bring in more pretty women for it (this never got off the ground but they ended up signing a few of the casting call women to developmental deals).
CBS wants to do a Movie of the Week type deal with Steve Austin playing the same character he played on his recent Nash Bridges episode, since that did such a huge rating. And of course, if the movie does good, it would possibly lead to a full blown spin-off TV series. Austin's guest spot on the show opened a lot of eyes in Hollywood since it did such a big rating, more than even Hogan or Piper could have ever done on network TV.
Public Enemy has a good bit of heat in WWF already, with most people feeling like they don't belong and are out of their league. They had a match against the Acolytes on Sunday Night Heat where both guys (Bradshaw especially) were stiffing the hell out of them. It was reportedly meant to be a message to PE and was approved by the office (yeah this match is BRUTAL and pretty much ended PE's run in WWF).
Sable has been making the media rounds to promote her Playboy issue. She was on Howard Stern this week and will be filming a role for La Femme Nikita next month. She was also interviewed by the New York Daily News and had this to say in regards to WWF's product: "As a responsible parent, I choose not to let my child watch it (Raw). My child is very young. She has a bed time and she's in bed when our show comes on. To me, that's being a responsible parent. Ultimately, it's the parent's decision. If you do not wish your child to watch the WWF, change the channel. It's not our place to put on a show that's supposedly for your children. It's your place as a parent to monitor what your children watch. Are they saying it's not okay to see the characters we play beat up each other but it's okay to have your child watch a movie where a famous actor blows away 100 people with an M-16?" When asked if she felt her character is degrading to women, Sable responded, "I feel I'm being a strong, stand-up woman. People don't have to like what I do or agree with what I do because they don't have to live my life. I would much rather my daughter when she grows up, do what she wants to do because she wants to do it, not because of what someone else thinks." When asked about turning heel recently but still not getting booed, Sable pointed to her chest and said, "Why would they boo this?"
The idea with Jim Ross acting like a heel lately is because they want to transition him into being Steve Williams' manager and also because they're trying to transition Michael Cole into the new main announcer for Raw. However, Ross' promos had the opposite effect and got over huge and he got big cheers. So they've dropped the heel act but the plan is still for him to do the talking for Steve Williams and there's no plans for him to replace Michael Cole anytime soon.
Remember that hotel and casino that WWF bought in Las Vegas? Well, the plan is to tear it down and rebuild since the building isn't right for what they want (they want to be able to hold shows in it, but the structure isn't built for it). Anyway, whenever they do finally demolish it, there's been talk of turning it into a wrestling angle and having Austin press the button, with the storyline idea being that Austin just destroyed a multi-million dollar piece of property that Vince owns (didn't happen but that would have been awesome).
Someone writes in and chastises Dave for being so mean to WCW. The guy basically says, yeah WCW sucks right now but do you have to keep ridiculing them for it? Someone else writes in and shits all over Mick Foley, saying he's a glorified stuntman and doesn't belong in a wrestling ring and he hates this new era of jumping off cages and crashing through tables and all that stuff. He wishes someone with a lot of money would come along and promote wrestling the way it used to be in the good ol' days. He signs his name "Duane Mason" but I know a Jim Cornette letter when I see one!
MONDAY:WCW Uncensored fallout, a look at how many world titles Ric Flair has actually held, Shane Douglas and Flair take shots at each other in interviews, and more...
Have yourselves some plot! A couple different threads going at once here... Oh yeah, the next chapter of Casino is going to have to be next week. No way I'm going to have it done in time by Wednesday. Main story comes first.
“That’s all of ‘em!” Daniel declared over comms as they re-entered the estate grounds. “No more banks runnin’ this side of the tower.” Tank, Mike, Matchka and Rob were returning with Matchka driving the altered small transport. Tank was riding on the platform and the men were flanking it, keeping pace on their feet. “Welcome back!” Stacey sent back to them. They had come in from the east entrance, closest to the central block. Which was also the opposite side of the garage where Stacey was almost certainly at work. She would wait there for Mike. Cynthia met them outside meeting up with Rob for a hug. “Hey what’s wrong?” He asked as he wrapped her up in his arms. Daniel whistled at the pair as the rest of the group passed by, Rob flipped him a casual bird. Mike and Daniel just laughed. “Sign language?” he could hear Matchka ask. “Yup, sure is!” Daniel laughed, explaining nothing. Rob leaned down and wrapped Cynthia up in his arms. “Okay, now that they’re outta earshot, what’s wrong?” Cynthia sighed. “It’s not really wrong, I’m just having a hard time with the data stuff,” she complained. “But I can’t just not do it. I don’t want to weigh down the group.” She’d been having a hard time with the learning since she had started. Most of the rest of them didn’t really pressure her. Otto did lightly, but he was clearly only trying to provide her motivation and advice, he wasn’t cruel about any of it. Cynthia just couldn’t focus on the important bits. She had never done well at school. She was okay at ordering the drones around. That wasn’t too terrible. She was also getting better at the things that interested her, the artistic endeavors at modeling and animating. “Otto could probably help me install this annoying stuff if he wasn’t so busy,” she complained. “I just want to do fun stuff.” “Oh really,” Rob said with a deep voice. “Whoa!” Cynthia cried out in surprise as Rob swept her right off her feet. She then shrieked as Rob tossed her lightly into the air. She laughed as he carried her around the building. Cynthia punched him in the arm, “Don’t just do that you lump!” “Yes ma’am,” he said all too seriously, but he wasn’t putting her down just yet. “You can put me down,” Cynthia hissed at him. “They’re gonna see us!” “Nope, I’m doing something fun, you’re gonna have to live with it,” Rob responded. “And going by Stacey and Mike’s example, they’ve already heard us.” She went red as a lobster. She had rediscovered shame after leaving Hrossincru. The Kraltnin being around had ceased to bother her, but the idea of the other Humans knowing was a totally different story. “But at least the soundproofing is in, right?” he asked with a big grin. She punched him in the arm again. “Ow, that was the same spot!” Realizing she was trapped, she accepted her fate and settled into his chest as he walked over to the stones. “Just do what you can do,” he said suddenly. “You might be surprised at what you can manage when things get serious.” “You think so?” she asked quietly, looking up at his face. “I know so,” he looked into her eyes seriously if only for a moment. “You’ve got it where it counts, I’d put my life in your hands in a moment.” She could only look away. She didn’t know if she believed that.
18 days after arrival, estate garage
The weapon exploded in Daniels hands, scattering shrapnel all about and arcing power through his body. The simulation then halted, the weapon dissolving into strings of information and his avatar reforming without injury. “Hee hee hee,” Mike giggled, joining him in dataspace. “You physically jumped at least a foot into the air!” he explained while laughing. “Shit was scary!” Daniel defended himself with annoyance. “It blew up in my hands dammit!” “Yeah, sure, but it was still fuckin’ funny!” Mike said with a broad grin. He then waved his hand in front of him bringing up the weapon Daniel had just blown up. Daniel was the first in after breakfast, they’d tried a couple versions of the gun the previous night and he was anxious to get back to it. Mike had been a little longer to arrive. But he’d arrived just in time for the show. They had been poking at various different things and hadn’t seen a need to really alter the line of plasma weapons available to them. There were lots of different variants for drones and vehicles as well as the Gerlen clones. Although oddly, they hadn’t been able to find anything for the stealth or armored Gerlen, they just weren’t being grown in the west block. So they had decided to reproduce some stuff from sci fi shows they’d seen at home. Rail guns was the second thing Daniel decided to play with. He’d made a shotgun first with Mike’s help, but found out the next moment that he didn’t have proper ammunition. Mike had undertaken that task, setting about trying to make some bullets. It had taken him a full day to realize almost none of the makers would do it. Everything was good for building frames, electrical components and other powered components. But only one of them could produce reactive materials. Cynthia had given him an almighty glare when she realized he was making bullets in her ‘kitchen’. It still gave him the shivers when he thought about it. Not that the food maker would construct the whole bullet. He still made use of the structural and technical makers for shells, but the food maker could naturally use provided materials and structures if he wanted it to. So he was making shells. He had only make a couple basic shotgun shells so far, some buckshot, some slugs. But he had been spending a bunch of time in the simulator trying to reproduce stuff from memory. He’d seen more than a couple online videos of experimental things. He was determined to duplicate some of the better designs, although it was taking a bunch of experimenting to get the designs right. The anti-personnel shell had been relatively easy, making a split pointed slug with a plug in the center that would cause the points to spread out and fragment. He’d also duplicated a design was supposed to work quite well for armor-piercing with a thick heavy metal center and a surrounding light composite that would stabilize the projectile, but be shedded when the center pin struck armor. Now he was trying to duplicate a high performance heavy sabot slug that he had seen, but he’d only just started and it seemed to want to wander all over the place. All of this didn’t account for any fancy materials that were available either. He had ideas for other bullets or weapons later, but he’d determined to start with shotguns, something he was familiar with. He probably didn’t even need the experimental shells. Slugs and buckshot were well proven, but he had goals. “So how goes the explosions?” Mike asked. “They’re supposed to end up over there aren’t they?” he said, pointing at a simulated target some distance away. “I’m gettin’ better,” Daniel said, his voice tinged with annoyance. “I never done anythin’ like this. It might be better if I knew the science instead of just trying out parts that look right.” “Pfft, how hard could it be,” Mike said waving a hand at Daniel. He wasn’t being serious. “Oh, I dunno, it’d prolly’ help if I knew more than ‘electricity makes it go!’ when I started this.” Daniel said bitterly. “Hey SPIRE, yer’ a fancy computer, got any idears?” “... I am sorry Daniel, I am prohibited from weapons development,” SPIRE responded. “What, they sure didn’t like ya’ havin’ fun.” “Hey SPIRE,” Mike asked, “Putting what Daniel is doing aside, do you know how a mass driver works?” “A mass driver? I am not certain I know that term.” “Good, I mean, it’s a concept for launching spacecraft into space with rails and electricity. There was a long delay before SPIRE spoke. “...An electromagnetic launch system?” “Uhh, yeah, probably, think you could boil it down for us? For spaceship launches of course” “For spaceship launches. Of course. But… boil it...?” “Explain it to us in simple terms?” “Hmm… yes, I can do that.” It took a couple minutes to get past the portions of the explanation they didn't need, but once they were able to simplify it down to just electromagnetically moving a ‘package’… Well, the explanation was much simpler than the brothers had actually expected. Have a couple rails, have a projectile set in between the rails, pass a current through that projectile. There was a bit more to it of course, but the concept wasn’t the problem. It was really about having the components that were capable of doing the job. Daniel was cussing for the next couple hours while he put together his first working railgun. ‘You were trying too hard’ wasn’t the answer he wanted, but at least it was one he could work with.
Gerlen shadow officer
He watched the tube rise into the ceiling, the group lined up to receive the Grand Giant. Three more of the Giant variants looked successful and one seemed like it had failed, but would still be ‘usable’. The rest of the group had completely failed. Still, three and a half Giants and a commander. This was an impressive improvement in capability. The available Gerlen force had increased to seventeen scouts, twenty-two soldiers, eight assault, and four shadows. That was the sum of ‘successful’ clones. There was still a supply or ‘failures’ stumbling about. They had also managed to equip all of the soldier variants with either an assault weapon or a Deviation plate shield. The Giant commander thumped out of his pedestal. He was easily three times the size of the assault Gerlen. He was covered in smooth black armor with blue highlights and gold decorative traces. Unlike the rest of the Gerlen clones, Giants were far more machine than they were biological. The mass of metal walked up to the Shadow who had been in charge. “Grand Giant, assuming command,” He spoke down with a booming voice. “Shadow Commander, relinquishing command,” he responded, his voice like a whispering echo of the Giant. He lowered his head as he spoke. “Report the situation, the orders are unclear.” “Yes, But first, I must advise you to disable all dataspace connections, there is a viral agent corrupting decanted soldiers. One of the reasons for our lack of manpower.” “... Understood,” The Giant paused for a moment, likely passing the command along to his subordinates. They had exited their own tubes and were thumping their way to join the group. “Connection disabled, limited to short range comms, now report.” “Six standard days ago, I was decanted with the first batch of Shadows. I assumed command of a limited selection of Gerlen forces. As you can see, the cloning process is compromised. I am in fact surprised that you and three more Giants besides decanted successfully.” “Estimation of success rate?” “Base approximation of ten percent success. We have lost several successful decanted due to hidden dataspace corruption however.” “Hmm.” The Giant’s voice dripped with disappointment. “I assume we have a center of operation?” “Yes, the closest barrack has been converted with little trouble, although we have had to place several scouts on duty to prevent maintenance drones from removing emplacements.” “Lead the way, and continue the report,” The Giant ordered. The Shadow, now second in command bowed his head and turned. As he began walking he could hear the thumping behind him. “The drones do not cooperate then?” The Giant asked next. “No, they fail to recognize our presence,” The Shadow explained. “This may however be a mix of good and bad. The drone patrols constantly engage in battle with each other, their recognition systems damaged. But they ignore us, sparing us the burden of unnecessary combat. The result is that ship resources are being drained by the constant loss of Drones and Gerlen decanted. Scrap takes time to repurpose.” “Hmm, and the invaders?” “The invading crew is small, but is composed primarily of Humans of all things.” “Humans?” The Giant had to spend several moments accessing implanted memories. For a minute there was only the sound of marching soldiers and stomping metal giants. “Humans,” The commander finally said with disgust. “What is their composition and progress?” “We have witnessed the presence of five separate Humans, one Bellani, One Leralin and one Unique Kraltnin. Accessed ship records suggest it is an improved genetic variant of the Kraltnin ‘Alpha’. “A problem?” “Less so without servant Kraltnin, but at least as problematic as a Human. Beyond that we believe there are more individuals hidden within the West Block estate, which brings us to progress.” He paused as he pulled a small disk out of a slot that had opened up in the right side of his abdomen. He turned and offered it to the Giant commander. “The invading crew has set about disabling the dataspace network around them. Considering our problems with the hidden corruption, it seems they are aware the Manifestation of Fate is compromised.” The Giant took the disk and a panel extended out sideways from an identical section of his own abdomen. He slotted the disk in and his on ship map was updated with an accurate map of the Human held zones. “They have kept themselves contained,” the Giant said, noting how much dataspace the Humans had disabled as opposed to how much territory they held. “They have disabled the North Block construction bay?” “Worse, they have also taken two drone construction bays and redirected one of the West Block recycling processors to the West Estate. We would have to irreparably damage the center to eliminate that source,” The Shadow reported as they continued walking. “They have already shown themselves able to customize and build drones and weapons as well.” “Eugh,” the Giant grunted with disgust. “What is the condition of the Servitor, and more importantly, the Superior?” “The Servitor is… unintelligible. There have been moments where it almost seemed to communicate, but those are short and rare. I have seen no evidence of Superior presence.” The Second explained. “That is not possible. If there was no Superior, we could not have been born.” “I am only-” “We will report to the central Tower.” “I am not certain-” A giant gauntlet descended upon the Shadow’s head and gripped the Gerlen with painful force. The Giant picked up the Shadow by his head and brought the smaller clone around so that the Shadow could look into the blank visor of the Giant. “We will report to the central Tower.” He repeated, his tone lowering in dissaproval. “But the Avatar!” the Second gasped out in pain. “It might also be compro-mugh!” he ceased speaking as the Giant gave him an extra little squeeze. “It is our DUTY and HONOUR to serve our Superior. We WILL report to the Central Tower.” “Affirmative!” the Shadow gasped out. “Good.” The Giant tossed him sideways and the Shadow grunted in pain as he hit the wall with more force than should ever have been necessary. He slid to the floor in the next moment, coming to a gasping, coughing rest. “You!” The Giant demanded, pointing at the soldier officer. “Lead the way to our barracks.” “Yes Grand Giant.” The small officer scurried to the fore and began to lead the way. The Grand Giant stomped away and the rest followed. The Shadow officer picked himself up off the ground, but had to lean against the wall for a moment, still dizzy. He understood it on a logical level. The Giants were a greater creation than Shadows like him. They had more firepower, better sensors, stronger dataspace support and were an order of magnitude more physically powerful. The Shadow was only several days old, still he understood and knew by instinct and genetic inheritance the intricacies of serving the Superior. The three lesser Giants stomped past, not sparing him a glance. He had not been prepared for the humiliation of being tossed aside like a scrap of food by a ‘fellow’ clone. He finished pulling himself together as the last of the soldiers and scouts passed by. His shadow companions stopped before him. The Grand Giant had the obedience of the others, but the Shadows knew, their loyalty was only to the Superior. Doctrine was to obey the Giants, but there were exceptions… “We serve the Superior,” he said to them, his voice still raspy with pain. They nodded. “We will accompany the Giant as he makes his report.”
Later that day
“Oh yeah, I knew that,” Otto told Daniel. “Oh, you knew didja?” Daniel responded, his rocking side to side with annoyance with every word. “Maybe if ya’ weren’t so busy you coulda told me then.” “Well, I’m just a call away,” Otto told him with a straight face. “You could just drop me a line.” Otto was doing a final check on the schematic before they printed a version of it. So far original designs hadn’t shown any sign of corruption, but it didn’t take too much time to do that final check. Daniel had experienced enough simulated explosions to want to avoid feeling one hit his real body. Daniel sighed at Otto. “Yeah, I guess so. Yer’ jus’ so busy the last couple ‘a days.” “Yeah, I am,” Otto said with a frown, “but I don’t think I can afford to take it slower…” “Somethin’ botherin’ ya?” Daniel asked with a pointed look. “Yer’ startin’ to get bags under yer’ eyes again.” “You know what? Yeah,” Otto said straight. “This ship keeps using things it isn’t supposed to, right?” Daniel blinked. “Uh, I guess so.” “I’m afraid of what it might try to use next, since everything isn’t functioning right. For all I know the stepdown generator running this whole show could have a meltdown tomorrow.” Daniel stilled. “Shit.” Now that Otto had made his point, Daniel couldn’t see any way or reason to argue with it. “Yeah, shit,” Otto agreed. “It was never supposed to activate the Gerlen clone banks, or the drone fighters when we were landing, but it sure as hell it did both of those things. The SI had it's limits removed when that rogue Silianisca screwed up the ship. I can’t guess what it might do next in it’s drunken haze. “So what, we’re playing russian roulette here?” “Sort of, yeah. I doubt it will do something to kill itself, but I can’t really predict that. That’s why I’m pushing at every angle I can move to get things sorted. That’s why we’re going to start working our way into the central tower tomorrow.” Daniel nodded. “Okay, can’t blame ya fer’ bein’ worried.” He hesitated for a moment. “Don’t burn yer’self out tho’.” “Good plan,” Otto replied, dropping out of dataspace. “The gun seems to be fine, no corruption to speak of. I’m gonna go eat.” “Cya soon,” Daniel replied. “I’m gonna get this printin’.” Otto made to turn away, then looked back at Daniel. “Hey, a question though.” “Ya?” “You said… SPIRE explained it to you? “Ya.” “Hmm. SPIRE shouldn’t have been able to do that. It’s got really strong protections against weapons development.” “Oh, Mike told SPIRE it was fer’ launchin’ spaceships.” Otto’s head tilted slightly with his mouth hanging open. His mouth then closed and his eyes narrowed momentarily as he thought about it. “Still shouldn’t have worked…” “Somethin’ we should be worried about?” Daniel asked. Otto looked him in the eyes. “I’m doing my best to be able to answer that with ‘no’. If I believe the answer changes to ‘yes’, I’ll let you know.” The younger brother nodded at him. “Fair ‘nuff.”
Central tower, Grand Giant
Upon His birth, the very first emotion the Grand Giant felt was disappointment. The Giants were created for battle. Designed for carnage. Born for War. Instead, it had been decanted on this corrupted ship with its compromised Servitor and substandard subordinates for pest control. And the most capable of the group, the officer of the Shadow unit had turned out to be a coward. Less than ten enemies and he had not dared to so much as make a squeak. At this moment they were approaching the Grand Hall where the Superior would gaze upon their glorious servants from above. The Giant felt a twinge of anticipation for the meeting. This was supposed to be a glorious first meeting, instead he didn’t know what he was going to find. The small barracks had been adequate. The Shadow had made the wise decision to place themselves close to a database access to make up for the datascape disconnection. That was one point he had to concede. They had records of Gerlen spontaneously going berserk. They would never kill something such as he, but damage would be… difficult, to repair at this time. Indeed, the Shadow officer had been capable and thorough in his scouting and information gathering. While his decision to hide from the Humans had been cowardly, he had shown his competence in command elsewhere. That was the only reason he still lived. The Giant stopped before the entrance to the Grand Hall. The door cracked open, allowing a bright sliver of light to shine through. The two sides then retreated sideways into the wall, producing only a whisper of sound. It was a grand amphitheatre. An assembly hall for servants and followers to gather around the stepped sides so that the Superior could share their wisdom and glory with their loyal servants. It was an impressive structure within the base of the tower, allowing room for ten thousand individuals to stand and witness. Today, there were less than fifty. Once again, a disappointment. They marched down the ramp leading to the base level of the hall from the entrance. Arriving at the base level of the floor they stopped at a respectful distance from the center of the Hall. The Giant held himself with head high and arms wide. “We have arrived to witness your Glory my Superior Masters!” The Superior would know they were there. The Grand Giant had respectfully forwarded a request to meet their masters, and had received a reply. Still, he waited with hands outstretched for over a minute. The response should have been instant. “I see you, my faithful servants,” A voice boomed across the hall. With a purposefully theatrical ‘pshhhh’ of air and several ‘K-clunks!’ of giant latches being released a platform began to drop from the center of the ceiling. With that sound the subordinates of the Grand Giant all fell forward onto their knees in prostration, their arms forward and heads pressed to the floor. Aside from himself, the only one who remained standing was the Shadow officer, his second in command. Like himself the Shadow stood with his hands covering his eyes with his elbows wide. They were not permitted to look upon the Superior unless given permission. “Ah, my faithful servants. I am pleased to see you survive despite the dreadful damage done to my glorious vessel.” He felt his chest swell with excitement, he almost couldn’t bear to contain himself, but no permission was given to look. “I, Naka Warsk Alter, commend you! Now, hear my words!”
Shadow Officer
Unlike the Grand Giant, he had peeked. He had no intention to at first, but the voice of the Superior had been… wrong. Synthetic. The Grand Giant’s sensors were made for a grander scale. To watch and manipulate battlefields. His own sensors were meant for resolution and accuracy. Only he and his shadow subordinates would likely notice. Through the barest crack of his fingers his superior vision saw the truth. If one did not peer too closely, then they would see the great and glorious figure of the Elder of the Manifestation of Fate. To his fully activated vision, there was nothing on that platform but light. A holo projection of the Elder. Where was the Superior? True, the command code that had arrived in local comms was undeniably that of the Ship Elder. But it was absolutely strange that the Elder would not be there in person. The Grand Giant would most certainly get his ‘answers’, but the Shadow had more questions of his own, and he dared not ask.
That night, the estate
“Otto, you’re falling asleep,” Aurula murmured to him. “Hrn?” Otto grunted lightly, jerking away. His hand had stilled and rested on Aurula’s shoulder for longer than he had realized. “Ah, sorry,” “It is… okay,” she responded, “but perhaps it is time we retired for the night.” Aurula was sitting sideways on the ground in front of him, he has been working through the feathers on the back of her head and she’d been quietly warbling in pleasure in a range that was ‘just’ on the edge of his hearing. It had been somewhat melodic and he could just recall starting to hum. Then the sounds had drawn him away. Otto had zoned out completely, falling asleep in the middle of what he was doing. He looked around suddenly, but they were still alone. “Right. Yeah, I’ve been working too hard the past couple days, sorry,” He told her. “As I said, it is okay.” Aurula said as Otto drew his hand away. She leaned on one hand used it to push herself to her feet. She turned to face Otto and he blinked at the blue bird standing just a bit taller than him. She tentatively reached out but hesitated for a moment. Otto’s mouth opened slightly but he didn’t say anything, silenced when he saw the rise of her secondary crest, displaying a small but startlingly pretty crown of feathers. She finally reached forward and ran her taloned hand through his hair. She lingered there for a long moment, her thumb moving in a light caress. He felt goosebumps in response to the hard talon running across his scalp. Otto was too stunned to say anything. Suddenly she jerked her hand away. “You should get your rest,” Aurula said stiffly, then quickly walked away. Otto had no idea what had just happened. Even less what to do about it He sat for a few more minutes, his thoughts a tangled mess. But the night wasn’t done with him yet. As he stood and started heading to his room someone else started a conversation with Otto. “Otto, may I ask you a question?” SPIRE sent quietly. “Uh, yes? Go ahead SPIRE.” “I am wondering why you lied earlier today.” “... What?” Otto’s stomach twisted on itself. He was already confused, he didn’t need SPIRE to increase that burden. “When speaking to Daniel about myself. You lied to him,” SPIRE’s voice was tinged with curiosity. “Well I…” Otto didn’t get very far as a chill ran up his body. He paused as he digested the question further, letting his emotions coalesce into something he recognized. Suspicion. Otto had a long history of polite and casual deception. A natural result of the combination of his own personality and his upbringing. He had become very good at it, never encountering anyone actually capable or at least willing to call him on his subterfuges until after the fact. Even in the case of his slave implant being incapable of controlling him, Mike hadn’t punched Otto until the jig was up. SPIRE had spoken as if it was an obvious certainty, but Otto didn’t think he’d given any hints away. “SPIRE, what makes you think I lied?”
End Chapter
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Hello my fellow degens! update. I’m tracking daily progress in the comments below. Day 4 ended; $1245 ahead so far. Tomorrow morning, I set sail on the Oasis of the Seas to cruise the Caribbean for a week! I've got $5k set aside for gambling and a couple of obstacles to overcome. My wife and I were waffling over the amount to set aside for a gambling budget; I was originally planning $10k or $20k, but I was unable to solicit any commitments from Club Royale that they would raise table limits or accommodate my play requests since I wasn't an established player...so I don't want the risk of carrying around that kind of cash for no avail. All their tables are $5 - $1000, even the European roulette table. Obstacle #1: Newbie Having not cruised with Royal Caribbean before, I'm not yet a member of Club Royale and new to the Crown and Anchor society; nor is there any link between Club Royale and where I've been gambling for the last decade...so I have no perks, membership rewards, nothing. I'll be damned if I am going to pay for drinks in the casino despite not having a perk level to get free drinks, I'm hoping a friendly conversation with the casino manager and/or pit boss when I first go into the casino about why I chose that ship (I literally chose the Oasis of the Seas because it has a single-zero roulette table on it, unlike most non-RCCL ships, and 14 of the other 25 RCCL ships). Obstacle #2: Table Time! The Oasis of the Seas is one of the few cruise ships that have a single zero roulette table. They have one American table, and one European table. Previous cruisers I have inquired with noted that while they saw the table existed, it was never open. As a casino, you would of course prefer players sit at the American table with double the house advantage. I will never again play American roulette. I did spend some time in the last couple of months learning how to play craps - pass line / no pass line bets, odds maxing, triple mollys, even martingaling field bets...in case they WON'T open the single zero table. But I'm hoping if I am well dressed, and sit down at the table by myself, make a giant pile of $100 bills, and stare at the pit boss with lonely eyes, they might reconsider. Obstacle #3: Comps! Table games notorious have less comps than slots...on cruise ships, even more so. One guy I was talking to told me that his wife got a $400 comp voucher on this ship for playing through $100 in slots in an hour, while he got $100 in comps for playing through $1500 on the craps table in three days. I need to figure out how to not be screwed for comps. Free drinks, future cruise discounts, free cruises...I'm used to Casinos at Sea offering me free stuff as a "valued casino patron" with Norwegian; but being new to RCCL, I need this first cruise to establish me as a customer that they want to invite back for less than full priced cruises, to give me excuses to live in their onboard casino. Anyway - it'll be fun! Share any thoughts you might have on overcoming these obstacles.
[Tournament Report] (Standard and Draft) A Hitchhikers Guide to 10th at Australian Nationals
Disclaimer: there’s going to be a lot of storytelling and fluff in this match report. If you’re after something more serious, that's also here too! I’ve written other match reports on other forums with a similar style, which I’ve linked to here and here. I hope I didn't poop any reddit formatting. Enjoy my awful writing! Part 1 - The Prologue There it was. The patter of feet turned into an echoing applause of hooves quickly getting closer and closer. Before I knew it, I was knocked to the ground. My last sights a rearing, victorious green horse as it trampled me underfoot. Thursday. July 19. A cold sweat covered my body as I checked the clock. The bright light of my phone burned 05:55 into my corneas. My hands get to work feverishly to write up my midnight epiphany. I spend the evening later that day putting cardboard and clothes into my bag, not bringing the spare parts to build anything else. This was it. Grixis was my Alamo. Fast-forward the drive over the next day, where we all met at Strathfield for the ride over. Mostly an uneventful drive if you discount almost running out of petrol ten minutes outside of Canberra. We settled into our hotel and after some moderate play testing against Mono-Red Keld, I swapped over my basics by request to Unhinged, then cracked open my bottle of Fat Lamb dreading what was coming tomorrow. I couldn’t sleep much. Saturday had arrived. Shower. Brief daypack inventory. Breakfast at some fancy cafe across the road. An awkward round 0 of forgetting to bring dice, paper and a playmat, scrambling to write a decklist followed by an awkward anthem and we’re off. Here’s what we registered: 2 Swamp 1 Island 1 Mountain 4 Aether Hub 4 Canyon Slough 4 Fetid Pools 4 Dragonskull Summit 3 Drowned Catacombs 3 Sulfur Falls (26) 4 Glint-Sleeve Siphoner 3 Champion of Wits 3 Whirler Virtutoso 3 Nicol Bolas, the Ravager 3 The Scarab God 1 Torrential Gearhulk (17) 3 Magma Spray 3 Abrade 3 Essence Scatter 2 Harnessed Lightning 1 Supreme Will 4 Vraska’s Contempt 1 Liliana, Death’s Majesty (17) Sideboard: 3 Duress 2 Chandra’s Defeat 2 Arguel’s Bloodfast 2 Negate 1 Jace’s Defeat 1 Sweltering Suns’ 1 Glimmer of Genius 1 Yahenni’s Expertise 1 The Eldest Reborn 1 Torrential Gearhulk I decided on Sulfur Falls over Spirebluff as untapped lands during turns 4, 5 and 6 are just as important as 1, 2, and 3. 3 Essence Scatter was an inclusion I didn’t see in most decks before the tournament, but they were amazing. In future I’d probably play two, and a second Supreme Will as the deck is a little thirsty on card selection or the fourth Champion of Wits. Part 2 - This Is How Nationals Dies, With Thunderous Applause Round 1 - Simon Linabury on RB Aggro (Top 8) A Canberra local and an all around nice dude that I’ve seen around a lot. I won the dieroll but shuddered as I saw t1 Bomat on the other side. I had no real response for the curve out as I had kept a pretty crappy hand for the matchup (Siphoner x 2, if i recall correctly) and saw myself die quicky as the Bomat was followed by a creature two drop and it was lights out once Unlicensed hit on my Virtuoso. Not much to do. Sideboarding: +2 Chandra’s Defeat +2 Arguel’s Bloodfast +1 Sweltering Suns’ +1 Yahenni’s Expertise +1 Torrential Gearhulk -4 Glint-Sleeve Siphoner -3 Nicol Bolas, the Ravager Glint-Sleeve obviously lines up extremely poorly against Chainwhirler, while I’ve found that Nicol Bolas getting slapped by a Chandra wasn’t exactly the line of play I was after. Further to that, the amount of times in test games that I saw RB players discard a Scrounger dissuaded me entirely from Bolas in the deck post board. Game 2, I got an Arguel’s down and the draw managed to let me turn the corner with some threats. Game 3 involved another early Arguel’s, and a t4 Chandra from the opponent, but I manage to stick a Scarab God that weathers an Unlicensed and he scoops it up as Scarab start picking up permanents in the graveyard after successfully holding up Vraska’s Contempt to clear a threat. I wished him luck for the next round and slowly packed my stuff and went across the room to my team. Wins across the board (and a points bye, sack) mostly. Nice. 2-1 1-0 After the usual bad beats talk that happens between rounds, I flick through my phone’s browser for pairings, and head straight for the table. Round 2 - Jesse Stewart on RB Aggro (30th) One lost die roll later and suddenly we’re off with a seven. Bomat Courier again reminds me that the red decks draw way more cards than I do, and if I recall correctly, we trade cards back and forth, and I try to flip a Bolas on an empty board while on 5. He plays Hazoret for the maximum punish. Sideboarding: Same as Round 1 I keep a seven and we start taking tonnes of damage on board, followed by a Chandra. I try to stem the bleeding with two Whirler Virtuosos, but they don’t do enough as I extend the hand. 0-2 (2-3) 1-1 Bottle of water count hits one. I Taylor Swift it off and go to the next round. Round 3 - David Huang on Mono-Red Keld (Top 8) Phones in the modern era tend to deliver a ton of unwanted news, and this is no exception. Having a teamkill in round 3 of a 12 round tournament sucks, especially when you’re both down a match and looking to stay afloat. Since we spent a decent amount of time yesterday playing the matchup, I safely keep a removal dense hand and take over the game accordingly after he bricks on his draws from Flame of Keld. Sideboard: +2 Chandra’s Defeat +2 Arguel’s Bloodfast +1 Negate +1 Sweltering Suns +1 Yahenni’s Expertise -4 Glint-Sleeve Siphoner -3 Nicol Bolas, the Ravager I knew he was gonna have a lot of Chandras that clap Nicol Bolas post board, and overall while Nicol Bolas was decent to stabilize on T4, I found that spending my T4 deleting their T4 was a more efficient trade in tempo. Game 2 involves me getting buried under the red tide, with me flailing about with my Negate catching a Chandra - but outside of that it was mostly drowning. Sideboarding (Game 3): -1 Torrential Gearhulk +1 Negate I thought the second Negate would be excellent on the play in order to smother his card draw sources, and it worked out in a back and forth game where I dipped down to four to flip my Arguel’s, and Liliana came down to give me a stream of 2 life a turn to get me across the line. Negate caught a Flame of Keld at a critical juncture where it would have let him completely decimate my life total. I aptly bad mannered him, took a photo of the match slip and headed up to the judges table before applying more rub ins. 2-1 (4-4) 2-1 Everyone else at this point had caught up to 2-1, with David being the exception. Good shit. I grabbed a second bottle of water (now, down $6) and chilled out with the team before heading off to next round. Round 4 - James Chen on Mono-Red Keld Another round, another Sydney snipe which always sucks considering the aim is to see Sydney players do well, but time to bash. I win the die roll and get to work. Game 1 looks like it followed the formula: kill stuff early, play a Scarab God when you can, then take over the game from there. Sideboarding: See Games 2+3, Round 3 - second Negate included. Game 2 involves a Chandra, but for all intents and purposes my life total doesn’t dip below 10 after several turns, and I turn the corner quite quickly. In hindsight, I dunno why I was particularly concerned about the matchup, it feels a lot better than UB simply due to Whirler Virtuoso. I go off for my third bottle of water (for those keeping up at home, that’s $9 AUD down now on water) and first bathroom trip, and go spend the hour long lunch break talking about Standard rounds, and having David accidentally order food to our hotel room as opposed to the venue. Good shit. 2-0 (6-4) 3-1 Part 3 - You Underestimate My Power Link to Deck Picture We pick 1, pack 1’d the foil Pelakka Wurm, and put the blinders on and saw Green the whole rest of the draft. The Luminous Bonds were passed to me pack 1 quite late in the draft, so I had to believe White was open. I had to deathstare the person looking at their previous picks before the review period despite the two warnings from judges not to do that. It was definitely a train wreck, but I think we did pretty well considering the trainwreck we were getting passed into. Psychic Symbionte (why the weird spelling Wizards?) was an incredibly greedy splash and I never cast it, with it either getting stranded before I drew a blue source, or pitched to Macabre Waltz. It would have been fine if I nabbed the second Meandering River probably? We nabbed the Murder in pack 3 and never looked back. Round 5 - Dean Williams on RW Smorc I was pretty afraid of any RW deck going into Round 5 - my deck has some decent game with Plague Mare to sweep away some tokens, but overall I think the battle was to survive to cast a Wurm to stabilize. The games didn’t go as planned - he was playing a removal light, dude dense version of RW and outside of a Sigiled Sword of Valeron I felt pretty comfortable throughout the match. Game 1 I suited up a Vine Mare with Knightly Valor and went to town, he Cleansing Nova’d it away and I stared at the Rise from the Grave in hand which made a fresh Zombie Horse on our next turn. That was very much the beginning of the end. In the second game, Viashino Pyromancer drew first blood, but between its triggered ability and attacking twice it was the only thing that managed to draw blood as I took down my opponent's life total in chunks. Once again, Vine Mare appeared - but it was working for me, so it was nightmare fuel for someone else for a change. 2-0 (8-4) 4-1 Round 6 - Michael Milton on GW Smorc 4-1 is pretty far ahead of where I thought I’d be day 1. Realities came tumbling down as my opponent ends game 1 on 21, while we end up dead. Game 2, my back’s on the wall and he manages to push for 6 damage before Pelakka Wurm takes over the game - not much else to say. The third game is a back and forth affair where he takes me down to 3 early, and ends up with a Star-Crowned Stag and a Pegasus Courser with his life on 7. My board at this point (I believe) is a Giant Spider from the board, a Zombie token and a Skeleton Archer; land in hand. I start attacking with the Skeleton Archer because the only way I win here is if he screws up. He throws the Courser under the bus. This happens again the next turn as he plays a second Courser. After a bit of draw go I eventually hit the wurmyboi and stabilize. I asked him about it after the game, and he was playing around Titanic Growth (which is fair - but I disagree with the mindset that comes with that decision.) I had to get a little lucky to sneak past here. Deep sigh of relief as I move off to my mates who proceed to either show me dust or diamonds in terms of draft decks. 2-1 (10-5) 5-1 Round 7 - ??? on Temur (if you’re reading this buddy, sorry I forgot your name - it doesn’t show up on pwp!) By the looks of the scorepad, Game 1 was quite a tight race on both sides but he ended up scraping through with the UG uncommon flying over my board. Second game was a pretty slow affair where my first life total change was the wurmyboi, only to have it be Switcharoo’d for an Omenspeaker, followed by the UG uncommon making it a flying wurmyboi. Needless to say I packed it up real quick. 5-2 aint too bad for day 1! 0-2 (10-7) 5-2 The team had mixed results as we headed back - a 6-1, two 5-2s, two 4-3s and lets not ask about the last one, but needless to say we headed off into the Canberra night. Two hours later we finally ended up with food from Happy’s, it was decent Chinese but not exactly worth a two hour wait, but the Canadian Club we dragged back to the hotel was - and with free practice of GP Hockenheim starting up we managed to drink our way to bed in preparation for the next day. Part 4 - I have the high ground, I guess? Bright and sunny start to day 2. I’m a liar. It was -4 celcius when I woke up. It was bloody cold. I spent the first hour of my day goldfishing one of the two Tron decks we had ready to run head first into the PPTQ, asking myself regularly “why don’t I play this shit more often” and my favourite question to ask when goldfishing “how do I lose?”. Same swanky cafe for breakfast, baked eggs hit the spot on such a frigid day before we headed back out to the venue for the second draft. Link to draft deck 2: This one felt nuts. I picked a Lich’s Caress pick 1 pack 1 over a Lathiss (controversial, I know), then proceeded to take all the good black stuff and green stuff that came past. The Thorn Lieutenant came to me in pack 3 alongside the Prodigious Growth, just to show how wide open green was. The Druid of Horns package was a little loose, but the plan was to board it out whenever it was bad for 2 Ghastbark Twins and a Titanic Growth. Needless to say, I was hoping to run into every token based deck possible… Round 8 - Lyndon Maher on RW splash B This match went by quickly. Game 1 I swept away 4 2/2s worth of knights with a double Plague Mare turn and that quickly closed out the game. Second game, we kept in the Oakenform/Druid package and we quickly found ourselves on the back foot as we took a big swing for 12 early. That was the only damage we took the whole game was we quickly took over on the board after we weathered the storm. 2-0 (12-7) 6-2 A quick scope around with the team still playing the main event and everyone was still live. Good shit. Round 9 - Grant Boyanton on Mono Red I was getting pretty nervous at this point, but I also had some extremely high expectations for the deck so I got back into the zone. Now $18 AUD down on water, we went on to our next round. The first game involved went quickly into a creature bogfest, with our opponent pooping out tonnes of 1/1s and Plague Mare does the damage He smashed early with a hasted Inferno Hellion that knocked me down to 6, but I managed to stabilize and the Lich’s Caress puts us out of reach of burn spells (Guttersnipe DansGame) as we clean up the game. Oakenhorn stayed in for the next game as it did wonders in clogging the board game 1. Viashino Pyromancer once again draws first blood, but our opponent only knocks us to 10 while we take down his lifetotals in increments of 8. Plague Mare might end up being the waifu. 2-0 (14-7) 7-2 Round 10 - Ryan Cubit on BW Lifegain (15th) For some reason, they decided to put the lunch break between rounds 2 and 3 of the draft. That one might be my only tournament complaint as I wanted to ride my momentum into the last round of draft. I saw Ryan was in my pod and quite early I identified him as the real threat of the draft - I’d hoped someone else would snipe him down to the 1-1 bracket, but there he was (at the time, he was the Australian Pro Point leader, now he’s tied for first again). Well shit. Honestly, the first two games were a bit of a blur back and forth, so I can’t really write on them with much context as the third game took a whole lot of my memory. Game 3 was a back and forth grindfest, where I had almost ran out of cards in my library and I managed to sneak in the last points of damage necessary despite missing a Poison-Tip Archer trigger. He showed me the rest of his library and it was a plethora of 5 drop threats and removal and I had to be really lucky to get out of that match unscathed (he drew all 17 lands!). The sideboard plan finally kicked in alongside a Plummet and a Daggerback Basilisk. Everything had to come together just right and it did. No pressure kid. Just need to win one Standard round, what could possibly go wrong? 2-1 (16-8) 8-2 Round 11 - Ben Yulli on RB Aggro (Top 4) I wished him luck and quipped:
“Blue sleeves, Flooded Strand promo playmat, must be a ruse for a red deck right?”
A shaky 6 greeted me and before I knew it, a Bomat Courier had snuck in for the first points.
“Nailed it.”
I then proceeded to stall out, while he was playing Ahn-Crop Crasher which proceeded to ruin my life as I tried (with little effect) to block everything with Whirler Virtuoso. Needless to say, I couldn’t stop the bleeding fast enough. Sideboarding: +2 Chandra’s Defeat +2 Arguel’s Bloodfast +1 Glimmer of Genius +1 Sweltering Suns +1 Yahenni’s Expertise -4 Glint-Sleeve Siphoner -3 Nicol Bolas, the Ravager I had figured in the other games at this point that the second Gearhulk was good, but Ahn-Crop made me very averse to that kind of plan (look, in hindsight I imagine the second Gearhulk woulda done work, but I was just running through my logic here). I don’t mind Glimmer in this kind of matchup as it lets you do something on turns where the plan is to hold up Vraska’s Contempt. Alongside the equity you get during those Vraska’s Contempt turns, Glimmer adds some much needed card advantage after cutting the Siphoners. If he wasn’t playing Ahn-Crop, I’d say this plan was great. Ahh, game 2, how I wish I didn’t have to relive you. The first seven was landless, the second six was all lands, and the five did about as best as it could to keep me alive. It wasn’t enough. I signed the match slip and sighed myself out of there. At the moment I needed it most, the luck had run out. 0-2 (16-10) 8-3 I moved slowly towards the team to find out that the other two boys still live in the main event are still live or locked for top 8. Absolutely needed to hear that news to raise my spirits about the next round. It felt so unimportant to play the next round, but I was told there was a chance I could slip in as my breakers were insane. Only one way to find out. Round 12 - Keiren Macdonald on the Mirror (28th) Once again, I didn’t really record this game properly but I felt in control for most of both the games. In match 1, my life total never changed while I had every correct answer to hit all his threats on time while he was land screwed, and by the time he had recovered my advantage in cards took the wheel from there. All three Champion of Wits saw their way out of my graveyard, and usually that does the damage. Sideboarding: +2 Arguel's Bloodfast +1 Negate +1 Jace’s Defeat +1 The Eldest Reborn +1 Sploosh Hulk -3 Abrade -2 Harnessed Lightning -1 Supreme Will Game 2 felt a lot like game 1, I always had the answer cause I’m a sack and after a long slog through some Vraska’s Contempts I finally stuck a Scarab God. He extended the hand before I started activating it. 2-0 (18-10) 9-3 After walking over to hand in my match slip, I ran quickly over to the ‘feature match tables’ to see one of my team mates bashing another Sydney player to see who makes it into top 8. On the other table, David (my round 3 opponent, team mate and all around sack) had snuck his way into the top 8 despite the 1-2 start. It was extremely awkward having to root for my boi Benaya over another Sydney player, but once he won we all were ecstatic. Two people in my room in the top 8 was what they’d call a deece plus weekend despite my choke on top 8. I stood patiently for the top 8 announcement with very little hope to make it and that feeling was validated. Was locked out from the start of the round, oh well. The team settled in to watch their top 8 matches before heading out to the casino to celebrate with a really good 9 course meal from Natural Nine - definitely recommend for those who head out there, followed by losing my Flooded Strand promo during the credit-card game. Whoops. Just to add insult to injury, Lewis Hamilton just had to win GP Hockenheim to increase the salt count in the room. Epilogue - Is this really podracing? The weekend was a blast. I’m out of good words. The return to Nationals as a tournament was an excellent decision by Wizards as it wholeheartedly managed to unify regions of Australia under banners. I walked away very proud of Sydney’s performance. Grixis is great. I’m extremely glad I only saw horses either: In my draft decks and On the ride over. Avoid drafting white, that shit sucks and is overdrafted alongside red. Big thanks to my team for the overall support and for their own damn excellent performance. None of us could have done it on our own so thank you to you guys. Shoutout to you the reader for actually making it this far through 12 rounds of ramble. I stream occasionally on twitch.tv/syreal_ - check it out if you want to see me flail around haplessly on Affinity (or my original love, Modern Elves) some time.
All OG Xbox Games compatible/available on 360 but not yet released on Xbox One
It seems that just about every day someone posts asking about various games being made available through backwards compatibility. OG Xbox titles in particular are a hot topic, likely due to the relatively small number currently available. Rather than offer another opinion, I thought I'd make a post of all the possible games, and a little context about the current status of a small handful of them. This list consists of just under half of all games released on the original Xbox. If a game doesn't appear in this post then it's all but impossible for the game to be released on Xbox One due to their use of the 360 marketplace. The following games are currently available to download through the 360 marketplace, meaning that there are likely no licensing issues blocking their availability. This means they are, in all likelihood, much easier to bring to Xbox One than many others.
Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows
Burnout 3: Takedown
Raze's Hell
Zapper: One Wicked Cricket
Metal Arms: Glitch in the System
The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning
Crash Bandicoot: Wrath of Cortex
The last three are all now owned by Activision. Raze’s Hell was published by Majesco and Burnout 3 by EA, the only publishers of any of these games to already have an OG Xbox title available on Xbox One (BloodRayne 2 and Black respectively). All OG Xbox games currently available through backwards compatibility were also available as Xbox Originals on Xbox 360. This would likely be true of any future games too, as they are made available through the 360 marketplace and as such have to work on the 360 as well. Many of these games were available to download on 360 at one point but have since been removed. There are more than 400 games on this list, many of which likely have licensing issues that would impede any future release. 2006 FIFA World Cup™ 25 to Life™ 4x4 EVO 2 AirForce Delta Storm Aggressive Inline™ Alias™ Aliens versus Predator™ Extinction All-Star Baseball™ 2003 All-Star Baseball™ 2005 America's Army®: Rise of a Soldier™ AMF Bowling 2004 Amped®: Freestyle Snowboarding Amped 2 APEX™ Aquaman: Battle of Atlantis Arena Football™ Armed and Dangerous™ Army Men®: Sarge's War™ Atari® Anthology™ ATV: Quad Power Racing 2™ Auto Modellista Avatar: The Last Airbender Bad Boys 2 Baldur's Gate™: Dark Alliance™ Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II Barbie™ Horse Adventures™ Wild Horse Rescue™ The Bard's Tale™ Bass Pro Shops Trophy Hunter 2007 Batman Begins™ Batman™: Rise of Sin Tzu™ Battle Engine Aquila Battlestar Galactica™ Big Mutha Truckers Bionicle® Blade II Blinx® 2 : Masters of Time & Space Blitz: The League Blood Omen 2 BlowOut BMX XXX™ Brute Force™ Buffy the Vampire Slayer Buffy the Vampire Slayer™: Chaos Bleeds Burnout Burnout™ 2 Cabela's® Big Game Hunter™ 2005 Adventures Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts™ Cabela's® Dangerous Hunts™ 2 Cabela’s Outdoor Adventures™ 06 Cabela's Deer Hunt™ 2005 Season Cabela's Deer Hunt™ 2004 Season Call of Cthulhu®: Dark Corners of the Earth™ Call of Duty™: Finest Hour™ Call of Duty® 2: Big Red One Call of Duty 3 Cars Casino Catwoman™ Championship Manager 2006 Chicago Enforcer The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe Circus Maximus Close Combat: First to Fight Colin McRae Rally 4 Colin McRae Rally 2005™ Combat Elite: WWII Paratroopers™ Commandos 2: Men of Courage™ Conflict: Desert Storm Constantine™ Counter-Strike™ Crash Bandicoot 4 Crash Twinsanity™ Crime Life Gang Wars Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon™ Dai Senryaku VII: Modern Military Tactics™ Dark Angel Darkwatch™ Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2™ The Da Vinci Code™ Dead or Alive® 3 Dead or Alive Ultimate Demon Stone™ Deathrow Digimon® Rumble Arena® 2 Dinotopia DOOM 3® DOOM 3®: Resurrection of Evil™ Drake™ Dreamfall: The Longest Journey Drive to Survive Dungeons & Dragons®: Heroes™ Dynasty Warriors 4 EA SPORTS™ Fight Night Round 3 Egg Mania™: Eggstreme Madness ESPN College Hoops ESPN College Hoops 2K5 ESPN Major League Baseball ESPN MLS ExtraTime 2002 ESPN NFL 2K5 ESPN NHL 2K5 Euro 2004 Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick Evil Dead: Regeneration Ex-Chaser F1 2001 Family Guy Fairly Odd Parents: Breakin' da Rules Fantastic Four Far Cry: Instincts Fatal Frame™ Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly DIRECTOR'S CUT FIFA Soccer 06 FIFA Soccer 07 FIFA Soccer 2003 FIFA Soccer 2004 FIFA STREET FIFA Street 2 Fight Night 2004 Final Fight Streetwise™ FlatOut™ Ford Mustang Ford vs. Chevy Forza Motorsport™ Freaky Flyers Freedom Fighters™ Freestyle Street Soccer™ Frogger Beyond™ Full Spectrum Warrior™: Ten Hammers Futurama™ Future Tactics: The Uprising Genma Onimusha Goblin Commander™: Unleash the Horde Godzilla®: Destroy All Monsters Melee Godzilla: Save The Earth GoldenEye: Rogue Agent™ Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Gravity Games Bike: Street. Vert. Dirt. The Great Escape Greg Hastings Tournament Paintball Max'd Grooverider: Slot Car Thunder Guilty Gear Isuka Guilty Gear X2 #Reload The Guy Game Half-Life® 2 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets™ Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire™ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban™ Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone™ He-Man: Defender of Grayskull High Heat™ Major League Baseball® 2004 Hitman: Contracts™ Hot Wheels: Stunt Track Challenge House of the Dead 3 The Hulk™ I-Ninja IHRA Drag Racing Sportsman Edition IHRA Professional Drag Racing 2005™ The Incredible Hulk™: Ultimate Destruction Incredibles The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer Indiana Jones™ and the Emperor's Tomb™ Indigo Prophecy IndyCar® Series 2005 Intellivision Lives JSRF: Jet Set Radio Future Judge Dredd®: Dredd vs. Death™ Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis Justice League Heroes Kabuki™ Warriors Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer kill.switch King Arthur The King of Fighters™ 2002 & 2003 Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders™ Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude LEGO® Star Wars® LEGO® Star Wars™ II: The Original Trilogy Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events™ Links® 2004 LOONS—The Fight for Fame The Lord of the Rings™: The Return of the King™ The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age™ Magatama Magic: The Gathering™—Battleground Manhunt Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects Marvel vs. Capcom 2 Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX™ 2 Max Payne Max Payne® 2 Maximum Chase MechAssault® 2: Lone Wolf Medal of Honor European Assault™ Medal of Honor™ Frontline Medal of Honor™ Rising Sun Mega Man® Anniversary Collection MicroMachines Mike Tyson Heavyweight Boxing Minority Report MLB SlugFest 20-03 MLB SlugFest 20-04 MLB® SlugFest®: Loaded Monster Garage™ Mortal Kombat: Armageddon Mortal Kombat® Deception™ MotoGP MotoGP 2 MTV Music Generator™ 3 MTX: Mototrax™ Murakumo: Renegade Mech Pursuit MVP Baseball™ 2003 MVP Baseball 2004 MX vs. ATV Unleashed MX World Tour™: Featuring Jamie Little Myst III: Exile Namco Museum™ Namco Museum 50th Anniversary Arcade Collection NASCAR Thunder™ 2002 NASCAR Thunder 2003 NASCAR 2006: Total Team Control NBA® Ballers™ NBA Inside Drive 2002 NBA 2K3 NBA Live 2002 NBA LIVE 2004 NBA STREET V3 NCAA College Basketball 2K3 NCAA March Madness 06 NCAA® March Madness™ 2005 NCAA Football 06 Need For Speed™ Underground 2 NFL 2K2 NFL 2K3 NFL Blitz 2002 NFL Blitz 2003 NFL Blitz 2004 NFL Fever 2004 NHL® 2004 NHL 2005 NHL 2K3 NHL Hitz™ 2003 NHL Hitz Pro NightCaster NTRA Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee Open Season Outlaw Golf 2 Outlaw Golf: 9 More Holes of X-mas Outlaw Tennis Outlaw Volleyball Outlaw Volleyball: Red Hot OutRun™ 2 OutRun 2006: Coast to Coast Over the Hedge™ Pac-Man World™ 3 Pariah Phantom Crash™ Pinball Hall of Fame™ Pitfall®: The Lost Expedition™ Playboy The Mansion Predator Concrete Jungle™ Pro Evolution Soccer 5 Pro Race Driver™ Project Gotham Racing® Project Gotham Racing 2 Pump It Up™: Exceed The Punisher™ Pure Pinball Puyo Pop Fever Quantum Redshift® RalliSport Challenge Rainbow Six Lockdown Rapala Pro Fishing Rayman Arena Red Dead Revolver RedCard™ 2003 Reservoir Dogs Return to Castle Wolfenstein Richard Burns Rally RLH RoadKill Robin Hood Defender of the Crown® Robotech: Battlecry Rocky™ Rocky Legends Rogue Ops Rogue Trooper™ Rugby 2006 Rugby League 2 Samurai Jack Samurai Warriors™ Scarface Scooby Doo!™ Night of 100 Frights Scrapland SEGA GT™ 2002 SegaGT Online Serious Sam Shadow The Hedgehog™ Shadow Ops™: Red Mercury Shamu's Deep Sea Adventures Shark Tale Shattered Union ShellShock: Nam '67™ Shincho Mahjong Shrek® Super Party! The Simpsons™ Hit and Run™ The Simpsons™ Road Rage Sims™ 2 Silent Hill® 2: Restless Dreams Silent Hill 4: The Room Smashing Drive Sneakers™ Soccer Slam Sonic Heroes™ Sonic Mega Collection™ Plus Sonic Riders™ Soul Calibur 2 Spawn® Armageddon Speed Kings™ Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy™ Spider-Man™ Spider-Man® 2 Splat Magazine Renegade Paintball Splinter Cell: Double Agent SpongeBob SquarePants™: Battle for Bikini Bottom Sponge Bob Square Pants: Lights, Camera, Pants! The SpongeBob Square Pants Movie SpyHunter® 2 SpyHunter:® Nowhere to Run™ Spyro™ A Hero's Tail Stake™ Starsky & Hutch Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith™ State of Emergency Street Fighter® Anniversary Collection Street Racing Syndicate™ Stubbs the Zombie™ in Rebel without a Pulse™ The Suffering Super Bubble Pop Super Monkey Ball™ Deluxe SX Superstar™ Syberia II Taz Wanted Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles™ The Terminator™ Dawn of Fate Terminator® 3: Rise of the Machines Test Drive Test Drive®: Eve of Destruction Tetris Worlds™ The Thing™ Thief: Deadly Shadows™ Thousand Land Thrillville™ Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® 07 TMNT™ Mutant Melee™ Tom and Jerry: War of the Whiskers Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon™ 2 Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon™: Island Thunder™ Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon® 2 Summit Strike Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six® 3 Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six® 3 Black Arrow™ Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell® Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell® Chaos Theory™ Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell® Double Agent™ Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell® Pandora Tomorrow™ Tony Hawk's American Wasteland Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2x Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater™ 4 Tony Hawk's Underground Tony Hawk's Underground 2 Torino 2006™ Winter Olympics Tork™: Prehistoric Punk™ Toxic Grind Transworld Surf Trigger Man™ Trivial Pursuit® Unhinged ™ True Crime: Streets of LA Turok: Evolution™ Ty The Tasmanian Tiger™ Ty the Tasmanian Tiger™ 2: Bush Rescue Ty the Tasmanian Tiger™ 3: Night of the Quinkan Ultimate Spider-Man Ultra Bust-A-Move Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict Urban Freestyle Soccer The Urbz™: Sims In The City Van Helsing™ Vexx™ Vietcong™: Purple Haze Volvo: Drive for Life Wakeboarding Unleashed: Featuring Sean Murray WarPath Whacked! Winback 2: Project Poseidon Without Warning World Soccer Winning Eleven 8 International World Soccer Winning Eleven 9 World Series® Baseball 2K3 Worms 3D Worms 4 Mayhem Worms™ Forts: Under Siege Wrath Unleashed™ WWF™ Raw™ WWE™ Raw™ 2 X2 Wolverine's Revenge Xiaolin Showdown XIII Yourself!Fitness™ Yu-Gi-Oh!™ The Dawn of Destiny™ Zathura Halo, Halo 2 (also its map pack), Fable (also The Lost Chapters), Shenmue II and Phantom Dust have been removed, as they are already available in the form of remakes/rereleases. Crash Nitro Kart has been removed, as its content will be included in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled. There may be some games which have had rereleases but still appear on the list in which case, I simply missed it. Games from the first list and games already released as backwards compatible on Xbox One have been removed from the second list.
True Detective Season 2 and the Tibetan Book of the Dead: part 2/3
https://www.reddit.com/TrueDetective/comments/6wlztq/true_detective_season_2_and_the_eastern_book_of/ Episode 2: Night Finds You Episode 2 begins with a pseudo face-to-face between Frank and Jordon. During this particularly revealing exchange, Frank describes his fears that he died as a child, and that all of reality is trying to tell him so. From their exchange: What if I’m still in that basement in the dark? What if I died there? That’s what that reminds me of...something’s trying to tell me that it’s all papier-mache. Something’s telling me to wake up, like… like I’m not real. Like I’m only dreaming. Other relevant info from this exchange includes the importance of children to the couple, and some commentary on death. Jordon: "You don't take anything with you." Frank: "Just yourself, whatever that was." Following this is Woodrugh's enfoldment into the case, and then a brief meeting between Frank and Ray. During this meeting, Frank becomes angry when he realizes Ray considers him his best source of information for the case. Later we witness Woodrugh and his mother's interactions in her trailer: this scene is oddly sexual, with Woodrugh's mother demonstrating inappropriate body language and comments to her son. A herpes-sore visible above her lip. This sequence might be another nod toward the maiden/mother dichotomy that plays throughout the season. His mother's multiple suggestions of his staying in his old room is possibly indicative of a return to the womb. Afterward, Antigone and Ray visit a medical center ran by Dr. Pitlor. His nurses/aides all demonstrate a detached, Stepford wife-like demeanor. On his book shelf, Barack Obama's The Audacity of Hope is visible: this book is out of character for the doctor, but its title is indicative of the fruitlessness of hope in the third Bardo. Further, a painting of a raven in a Native American style is visible near the door, and a distinctly vaginal geode is on his desk. In the dialogue between Antigone and the doctor, we learn that he knew her father when they both worked with a hippy commune known as "The Good People." Antigone comments that 2 of the kids from the commune are in jail, and 2 have committed suicide. This era would have aligned with Antigone's abduction and murder in the cave. "I left all that behind," she tells the doctor. "It was a fucked up place." This line points toward Antigone's unique ability, between the 4 mains, to reject the past and remove herself from it. Following this is a discussion between Frank and the mayor, during which the latter describes his fears that his son is losing his mind. "I fear he is a destroyer," he says. This harkens to the archetypal relationship between son and father as described by Joseph Campbell, and is depicted in such stories such as Zeus and Cronus and, more recently, Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker (George Lucas cited Campbell as an inspiration for Star Wars). The mayor goes on to state that "children are a disappointment." Later in the season, we learn about the mayor's death and his son's taking of the office, representing dharmic lineage through rebirth, similar to Ray's relationship with his ex-cop dad observed later in the season. Further, I might also suggest the element of the son destroying the father is also present in Frank and Osip's relationship, with Osip serving as proxy father. In the next scene, Ray tells Antigone his theory on how the world works: "We get the world we deserve." This is the ultimate underlying concept of the third Bardo: an afterlife tailor-made to force us to relinquish who we were. Also notable in their exchange is Ray stating, "Bad habits: haven't lost one yet." This line helps to set up Ray's redemptive journey through the third Bardo. Next, a scene between Woodrugh and his girlfriend demonstrates his character's biggest flaw: he has little individual identity outside of the roles placed on him by other people, and is driven by a misguided commitment to living up to those standards. "Who the @$#@ am I supposed to be?" he demands of her. "I don't know who you are supposed to be!" is all she can tell him. As she attempts to break off their relationship, Woodrugh tells her, "...this isn't me doing this. This isn't me." Later in the episode, we observe Antigone on an escort-service website advertising "Naughty Cali Angels." Rather than demonstrating the expected disgust with the pornographic images, she appears engaged and fascinated. This a commentary on her own dharmic challenge, to attain a healthy sexuality and capacity for relationships. Recall the following quote from Jacob's Ladder (which, again, I'd contend was a major influence on season 2): "If you're afraid of dying, and you're holdin' on, you'll see devils tearin' your life away. But if you've made your peace, then the devils are really angels, freein' you from the world." The connection between this line and the "Naughty Cali Angels" might feel a bit weak, if not for the scene immediately following, where-in Woodrugh observes two gay men dressed only in briefs and angel-wings walking down the street. The intensity in his stare suggests tortured feelings, anger or frustration (recall an earlier scene, when he describes wanting to hit a guy at the bank for hitting on him). This was a clever touch, as we don't have any info on our initial watch at this point about Woodrugh's sexual preferences. It is only later in the season the Woodrugh is forced to meet his own nature face-to-face, which will ultimately culminate in his release from the third Bardo. Speaking of face-to-face, the following scene is another with Frank and Ray in the bar. During their discussion, Ray makes it plain that he is suicidal in light of his loss of visitation rights with his son. "I got no reason to keep at this," he tells Frank. Still, he takes Frank's info and visits Caspere's second house. Prior to his getting shot-gunned to the chest, a copy of a book of photographs by Japanese artist Nobuyoshi Araki is visible. I'd like to think its Love and Death, or Self,Life,Death or some other thematically relevant title, but it might just be Tokyo Lucky Hole. Episode 3: Maybe Tomorrow Rather than rehashing the beginning of episode 3, I'm just going to borrow some text from Ray's character description in part 1 of this analysis. Also, I'd suggest you review the description of the second Bardo in part 1 as well. At the beginning of episode three, Ray is sitting at a table across from his father [face-to-face example]. In the background, a Conway Twitty impersonator sings "The Rose," a song about releasing fear and being reborn. His father foretells Ray's death in the final episode, "running through trees," until they "shoot you into pieces." As he describes this soon-to-be event, the lyrics sang in the background are: It's a dream afraid of waking That never takes the chance/ It's the one who won't be taken Who can not seem to give/ And the soul afraid of dying That never learns to live. "Where is this?" Ray asks his father. "I don't know," his father responds. "You were here first." Ray then looks down, and sees his shotgun wounds. This, in accordance to the working theory, is Ray's encounter with the second Bardo. It is already constructing the events that will move him toward release, but he is not ready accept his death. This results into a transition into the third Bardo, with him appearing to wake up on the floor with no apparent wound or serious injury. This series of events appears to be little more than a David Lynch homage with serious compromises to narrative integrity, unless considered in light of the Bardo Thodal. Video of this scene below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt67YwRx1T8 Following this scene, we get a look at Ray, laying in his urine on the floor of Caspere's second house. The camera angle allows a skewed look at his face: his complexion is ashy, pale, and corpse-like. We are given every suggestion he is dead, right up until he opens his eyes and says, "Pissed myself." This line has nothing to do with the Bardo theory, but it makes me laugh so I am including it. We soon learn he was shot with riot shells containing rubber pellets. This is how he is still alive. Despite the fact that riot rounds are always billed as LESS LETHAL ammunition (those caps aren't mine: websites that sell these rounds frequently advertise them with that description in all-caps. Example: http://www.americanspecialtyammo.com/12-ga--less-lethal.html) Here's the deal: if you take one of these rounds in the chest from less than ten feet away without a vest (both of which apply to the first shot Ray takes) there is a very good chance you will die from impact trauma (including internal bleeding and heart-stoppage from force of shock). From point-blank range, which the second shot was from, you are all but guaranteed to die. At the least, the wound would be significant and totally unlike the bruising Ray demonstrates. So are we to believe Pizzolatto didn't know this? That he would include Ray's shotgunning just for the point of an episode's cliffhanger followed by a Lynch homage, and then just explain it away with something as weak as, "Oh, they were just riot rounds, and none of that stuff (including his father foretelling his "true" death) meant a thing? Alright folks: I'm going to be blunt. If you feel that way, watch it again, and consider how meticulous the violence and surrealism is. Remember that, regardless of your previous opinion of season 2, that it was written by the guy who gave us season 1. Really, really ask yourself if this is just something poorly written and underdeveloped, or if it had underlying (i.e., esoteric) significance that could radically change the course of the story without appearing to (as is the nature of the third Bardo experience). If you can't do that, than you may as well stop reading. I'm not going to be able to convince you. However, if you are still on the fence, keep going: lot's more evidence to come. Next up is Frank and Jordan at the fertility clinic, and Frank is unable to provide sperm. This highlights not just his momentary impotence, but his larger impotence in the world: he is a hungry ghost who can never reach his desired status (legitimate businessman, father, wealthy). The third Bardo is not a place of progression or accomplishment: it is a place of release and surrender. "There is no part of my life not fraught with liver-dying importance," he tells Jordan. At ~10:50, we get a face-to-face in the bar between Frank and Ray. Prior to Frank's arrival, Ray is giving a haunted look to the stage area in the bar, recognizing it as the scene of his second Bardo experience. Ray confronts Frank with his suspicion that he had been walked into an ambush, and that another ambush could be coming. Another notable touch is Ray switching to water: this is indicative of the beginning of his redemption journey, as he begins to attempt to master his vices. "Is Ray hurt? What happened?" the bartender asks Frank. "Somebody murdered him," Frank replies (another line that is either garbage or very meaningful...). During Antigone and Woodrugh's visit to the mayor's house, we meet his trophy-wife. Her Russian accent pegs her as a prostitute/mail-order bride, which foreshadows the involvement of Russian underworld influences in Vinci's city government and upper-class. Fun moment: when the mayor's son denies knowing Caspere ("Some old man who worked with my Pops."), a howling wind blows open the door, scattering his step-mother's fashion cutouts. "No, no, no! Who left the door open?" she screams. Caspere, the friendly ghost, that's who. Watch it, see if you agree. Man, now I gotta start looking for weird Caspere moments. Anyway, in the next sequence we have Ray at the doctor's office. This is notable because it's sort of describes how he had been living, and allows him to express his redemptive desire to "change some things." As he exits, the doctor says, "Can I ask you something, Mr. Velcoro? Do you want to live?" Ray can't even respond. He stands there, mouth open, staring at his chest x-ray, haunted by what he can't admit yet. Shortly thereafter we are given our first exposure to the blue diamonds. The most famous blue diamond in the world is the Hope diamond, and remember that "hope" is a bad word in the third Bardo. Incidentally, the Hope Diamond is notorious for being cursed. http://mentalfloss.com/article/19579/quick-10-10-victims-hope-diamond-curse This abandonment of hope is further developed in the following sequence with Ray in the police chief's office: in the background is a poster of the familiar "Hang in there" kitten, but with the caption reading "Eat shit & die" instead. Ray definitely eats some here, though he is not ready to die. In a later scene, we observe Ray and his father, an ex-cop and unpleasant man. As stated before, Ray carrying on with the family profession is indicative of dharmic lineage, which is further reinforced as Ray studies old family photos that span generations. By salvaging his father's badge from the trash while the old man decries the fallen state of police work, Ray makes another step toward his own redemption. Next, we have another scene with Frank and Osip: the previously mentioned painting of the snake in the crocodile's mouth is again prominent in the background (see episode 1 analysis). Following this is the revelation of Woodrugh's sexuality with his former military mate. "That stuff about the past...not denying it...letting it be a part of you..." his friend says, and describes Woodrugh's dharmic challenge. Still, Woodrugh does his best to hide that part of himself from himself, even to the point of pushing his friend down. However, in a scene occurring later in the episode (42:37), Woodrugh, while questioning prostitutes, observes a man dressed as an angel (recall the previous episode analysis) giving oral sex to another man. He makes the acquaintance of a male prostitute who provides him info. Later, Ray's ex-wife stops by to tell him the state police have been by, asking questions about him. He is on borrowed time; the third Bardo is already collapsing around him. During the episode's close, the song playing is "Intentional Injury" by Bonnie "Prince" Billy. It's first lyrics are: "In time you find your way to release..." We having fun yet? Episode 4: Down Will Come The title of the episode likely comes from the nursery rhyme "Rock-a-bye-baby," and indicates calamity for our four mains. Early in the episode we witness Frank angry because his avocado trees won't grow, a metaphor for he and Jordan's inability to conceive (which, in a larger sense, is a metaphor for the impossibility of anything to thrive in the third Bardo). Jordan attempts to discuss their options for having kids, suggesting "alternate" options, specifically adoption. Frank doesn't like this idea, saying he doesn't want to take on another parent's "grief," and that, "They all come in with their own...don't you and I and every other hapless monkey on the planet? At least with your kid its your sins." This continues the established theme of children as figurative rebirth, and the idea of dharmic lineage passed from parent to child. One of my favorite things about season 2 is the relationship between Frank and Jordan. She forgives him everything, and gently nudges him in the right direction. She is consistently portrayed as his equal in intelligence and ferocity. She is his true soulmate, his anima. This is a theme I will develop more in further analysis and edits to previous material, but this scene was warm enough for me to want to initiate discussion here. A less functional relationship is presented in the next sequence, with Woodrugh waking up hungover (with plenty of beer bottles in evidence) and uncertain of his location. He learns that, while blackout drunk, he ran into his military mate the night before and went home with him. "You let yourself go, man," his mate tells him. "Be what you want. It ain't bad." But, as we are probably getting used to at this point, Woodrugh is unable to let go of his perceived identity. In the following scenes, as he tries to get back to his motorcycle, and is visibly horrified by his previous night's activities. Woodrugh's motorcycle, it should be said, is an extension of his character, similar to a knight on his horse. He desires the simplicity and single-mindedness the life of a bike cop provides him: even when using it in a suicide attempt, it is a means of escape. When he arrives at the club, only to find his bike missing from its parking spot, he is nearly hysterical. As the reporters chase him with questions about atrocities committed by Black Mountain, the mercenary group he was a part of, a claustrophobic and nightmarish tone is created as Woodrugh is increasingly being brought face-to-face with who he is, and now without his bike to escape with. Later in the episode, when Ray has picked Woodrugh up and they are driving, Ray tells him that after his experience with Black Mountain, "...everything else should be a cakewalk." Woodrugh, becoming upset, tells him this is not the case (implicitly stating how much the events of the last 12 hours have shaken him). He goes on to say, "I did everything they said: army, PD...but it doesn't matter. You do what they say, it doesn't matter. Been listening to them for so #$%#ing long that I don't even know who the #@$@ I am." Ray: "You're a survivor. Everything else is just dust in your eyes. Blink it away man." Woodrugh: "I don't know..." This exchange hits a few of our themes: Woodrugh's reliance on other's for his sense of identity, the subsequent crumbling of that identity, as well as doubt regarding his "survivor" status...that final line seems to indicate his own doubts on that score. Flash forward to about 23 minutes in, and we see Woodrugh's reaction to the revaluation that his girlfriend is pregnant. His reaction is confused, then excited. My suspicion is this is only Paul doing his usual thing: taking on a dutiful role to avoid having to be himself. Next up is a visit to the Panticapaeum Institute with Ray and Antigone to visit her dad regarding info on Dr. Pitlor. During this visit, her father makes some interesting comments, telling Antigone she had an "old soul" from the start, and that Ray "must have had hundreds of lives." Ray responds with, "Well, I don't think I could handle another one." He also comments on Ray's aura, stating it is green and black. Google isn't giving me a good answer on this, but according to a quick survey of some websites, the consensus is that green is the color of the heart and lungs (the same area that Ray was shotgunned and fixated on during his visit to the doctor), while black is the color of grudges against self and others, as well as "past-life hurts." Perfectly possible Antigone's dad was spouting nonsense too. Here's the thing though: later in the episode, during another Ray and Frank face-to-face at the bar, Frank comments that Ray's talents are being wasted and that, "Black rage goes a long way." Seems an odd line. I'd contend that the black in Ray's aura are his rage and destructiveness, while the green in it is the nurturing side we see with his son, as well as with Antigone and Woodrugh. Another line from this face-to-face from Frank: "Sometimes your worst self is your best self." This line causes visible conflict on Ray's face as he struggles with the correct course of action. Should he join up with Frank and go deeper into his worse self, or maintain on the redemptive road as a cop. In the next scene, he seems to have made up his mind. We see him gift his father's badge to his son, telling him to look at it when he wants to remember him. "But it's grandfathers," his son says. "Yeah. My father, me, now you," Ray replies. Another reference to dharmic lineage. Following this is are scenes with Frank and Jordan in the casino. At the end of this is a bit of foreshadowing: Jordan suggests she and Frank walk away from this. Frank asks if they walk away, "...what do we walk with." Jordan does not reply verbally, but takes his hand in a gesture of solidarity. This, I think relates to Frank's ultimate end in the desert, as he makes his long walk, he envisions her beside him even as he leaves his body behind. The episode ends in the engineered ambush of our main 4, fulfilling the oft-repeated warning from the Eastern Book of the Dead: Beware the ambush of the Bardo... Episode 5: Other Lives Superficially, the title references the life changes that have occurred for our 4 mains in the months following the previous episode's ambush and its aftermath. In the first shot, a license plate is prominently displayed that reads 3THO479. I'm getting wacky here, but Pizzolatto is the type of guy who likes to hide stuff in the visual details as well as the dialogue. 3THO4 could read as "three though four," a reference to the 3 partners (the cops) and their hidden/occult/underworld partner (Frank). Also "479" is the area code for Northwest Arkansas, where Pizzolatto completed his Masters degree in creative writing, and where season 1 was originally set in the scripts. This is pure speculation for the fun of it. I've already had too much coffee this morning. For Frank's part, we find him in his new house. It is apparent that he has liquidated his previous residential asset for money; it also apparent he hates it. He cannot deny he is diminished (to answer a question he posed in episode...2 I think?). Ray has lost the glorious, God-given 'stache, and has taken Frank up on his offer (as intimated by his giving his son his father's badge in the previous episode). While speaking with his previous supervisor, Ray says, "Better to walk before they make you run." This line is foreshadowing for his death in forest in the final episode, where he is indeed forced to run by the very people he thought his resignation would remove him from. Another line of interest: "I appreciate a good rut." That's kind of the problem, Ray. Finally, his supervisor tells Ray that he can no longer live in his house (reserved for municipal employees), and tells him, "C'mon Ray: you don't want to live here anymore." Ray is still figuring this out. In a following scene, Ray is collecting rent money in an immigrant ghetto building. Disgusted by himself and his surroundings, all he can do is say, "Jesus Christ," indicating his rising to need to return to the redemptive path he had been on. Next up is Antigone at a sexual harassment education class. Note that all the males in the room are clustered together, while she sits apart from them. She refuses to acknowledge that she did anything wrong. Unlike Woodrugh (who's choices are often "wrong" because they do not align with his own character) Antigone choices are "wrong" because they go against what is expected of her (by her father, coworkers, superiors, etc). This is inline with her classical namesake: the Greek Antigone's most notable characteristic was a willingness to defy convention based on her own personal moral code. This dichotomy between Woodrugh and Antigone is further explored in the next scenes. While Antigone easily controls her class by being unapologetically sexual, Woodrugh is at the mercy of the actress who accused him of sexual misconduct. "I. Am. Innocent," he states coldly. This innocence extends not only to the accusations of the actress, but also those of her attorney regarding his activities with Black Mountain. Not that it matters: Woodrugh has been put on insurance fraud duty, about as far from the bike as he can get. Something random but notable: when Antigone was talking with the lady from episode 1 whose sister was missing, she looks at a party invite depicting two black mountains embossed in gold...I have always thought that Woodrugh's Black Mountain mercenary group was especially ominously named...possibly something there worth developing? A few scenes later, Antigone asks her partner for info regarding the missing sister's last phone call. He tells her it came from somewhere in the mountains north of LA. Also, she promises that, if he will help her out, she will do a "fearless and searching moral inventory." This is foreshadowing for her upcoming dose of MDMA at the party, and its subsequent revelations. In the following scene, Ray is making another recording for his son. He tells him that "Pain is inexhaustible; it is only people that get exhausted." The suggestion, of course, is that there is a limit to how far a man can carry forward in the face of endless and intensifying suffering; the is the point when the third Bardo breaks, when the constricting illusion becomes intolerable and must be escaped from, even at the cost of everything we are. Shortly thereafter, in the club with Frank and Jordan, he tells her that "The design does not work, when I am knee-deep in dirt; You don't bring a kid into a situation like this." Reference to him being buried, and the impossibility of birth (i.e., rebirth) at this stage. This is Frank's hubris though: he still believes he can ascend. He doesn't understand his rebirth can only happen via the "alternate" means Jordan suggested in the previous episode. "...me, I didn't ask for this world...I took it." Frank states his desire to be transparent about who they are and their intentions going forward as they continue to face crisis; Jordan responds by telling him that she can't be a mother. Again, as his soulmate and equal, Jordan cannot do what Frank cannot do: engage in the rebirth process in their current state. The previous scene contains brutal honesty between Frank and Jordan regarding who they are (paraphrased, "I'm barren and you are a pimp."). This sets up a exploration of the the polar dichotomy between Woodrugh and Frank in the following sequences, where we shift between Paul having dinner with his fiancé and her mother, and back to Frank and Jordan. As Jordan gives Frank unconditional love and support with spot-on criticism (leading him to a moment of catharsis and self-realization of what he values), we know Paul is only suffering, stealth-pounding drinks to get through dinner, and biting his tongue. Jordan tells Frank that she is going home, that he should join her: and while he can't do this to the extent that the Bardo demands, he will that night, anyway. Woodrugh is already "home," but his true character chafes there; his "home" is an ego construct that will not ultimately survive. Next up is a face-to-face in the bar with Antigone and Ray. It is made explicit the 3 cops are all miserable, that their attempted or forced new lives are choking them all. Ray states "...my powers of influence are so meager in the sublunar world of ours...," a smooth, likely subconscious comment on his own existence in the world of the third Bardo. Ray is not interested in being enfolded in Antigone's desire to continue their investigation into Caspere's murder. That is, until he is offered a chance to retain custody by the state liaison who also want to continue the investigation. During this conversation, Antigone suggests, "Its never too late to start over again." Very bardo-esque in attitude. This is also when Ray is told that the man he took retribution on for his wife's rape was the wrong man, and that the man recently arrested shares DNA markers with his son. Ray is visibly upset by this, of course. In the following scene, Frank attempts to extort the Catalyst executive. I hadn't noted that the waste company that poisoned the land that was bought was name "Archon." This is a word whose most common meaning is the ancient Greek word for "ruler." However, in ancient gnosticism, the archons were servants to the demigod that helped to keep souls of from reaching transcendence, instead remaining imprisoned in the demigod's world (that is, the world we are born into). This resonates well the the Bardo themes obviously, and its likely the Pizzolatto would have been exposed to them through Grant Morrison's work on The Invisibles (another comic with recognized influence on season 1.) http://comicsalliance.com/true-detective-comic-books-weird-fiction-secrets-influences-alan-moore-grant-morrison-invisibles-hbo/ Anyway, this meeting also provides the narrative impetus to enfold Frank into the investigation (due to shared interest in Caspere's hard drive). Perhaps this is what the license plate was referring to at the beginning of the episode? Next up is Ray's solo meeting with Dr. Pitlor. Prior to Ray's entrance, Pitlor can be seen reading Carlos Castaneda's A Separate Reality. He questions Ray's "perceptions of reality" prior to receiving a major beat down. Later, we see Ray and his ex, as she describes her rapist being arrest, and her own desires to put an end to the "fake story" of Ray's parenthood. This leads him to Frank's house, to confront him. Prior to his arrival, Frank and Jordan have come to an agreement on the possibility of adoption, of moving forward with the "alternative" path. Frank is willing to adopt a child, meaning he is willing to reach out to child like himself at that age, to heal the errors of his past. Frank notes the ceiling is free of water stains, further suggesting the movement away from a collapsing bardo, but on of rebirth into a different life. Maybe in a separate reality. Episode 6: Church in Ruins Episode 6 picks up where 5 left off: Ray's confrontation of Frank regarding him being set up to kill a man he believed was his wife's rapist. Ray states that he "sold his soul for nothing." Frank replies that Ray used the info to become what he had "always waited to become..." and, "if that that's the sort of thing that keeps you out of Heaven, I don't want to go." This highlights a key difference between Ray and Frank: the former fell from higher state, while Frank has been damned for much longer. Gradually, Ray begins to believe Frank's protests that he was not attempting to set him up. Their conversation turns to the Caspere investigation. Frank drops the following line: "This past? Shit you're worked up on? It can go away." This is also the part where Frank becomes firmly enfolded, and his abandonment of the "alternative" path he'd been considering. Later in the episode, when Ray confronts the man arrested for his wife's rape, we see the darkness of his aura. Through dark wardrobe and use of lighting, Ray appears to be little more than a silhouette as he describes what he will visit on the man if he gets out of jail. He is cruelty and death made flesh; he is terrifying. In a scene following this, Antigone's sister is giving her information about the party. She also gives her a painting, saying she was trying to paint "a woman drowning on dry land." In a following alternating series of scenes, we see Frank interacting with Stan (the employee murdered by Blake), and Ray in a observed visit with his son. The contrast between the two is apparent: Frank is warm and supportive, while Ray is unable to achieve a connection with his son (who appears nervous to be in his presence). "Things are going to be hard for awhile," Frank says, "but you'll come out. Because you got him in you. His fight. (dharmic lineage). Sometimes a thing happens," he continues, "that splits your life: there's a before and after.." This exchange highlights that Frank is a creature of pure will, for whom pain only serves to peel back the crude material of a man to reveal the "gold" within. Ray, for his part, is deeply hurt at his son's refusal to express love or interest in him: rather than coping with this pain in the manner that Frank does, attempts to kill himself in the following scenes via a liquor and cocaine bender. He is attempting self-destruction in this sequence, because his one hope for decency (i.e., his role as a father) is apparently doomed. He attempts to push for release from the third Bardo, but is unable to due to unresolved dharma (possibly echoing Woodrugh's suicide attempt at the end of the first episode). At the end of the night, we see that Ray has demolished the contents of his house, including the emotionally significant models he'd done with his son as a way to connect. While his attempt at suicide was not successful, he has cleared the emotional blocks needed for him to complete his redemptive journey and achieve eventual release from the third Bardo (as indicated by his call to his wife, where he surrenders to her wishes). This indicates a break from dharmic lineage for his son, freeing him from the cruelty inherent in being brought up by Ray (as it was for Ray and his father). This is a strong metaphor for rebirth in the sense of the Eastern Book of the Dead: releasing the past so something new can come to exist. "Say yes," he tells his ex-wife, "and I'll leave your lives forever." Later, Antigone is waiting to take the bus to the party outside of a place called the "Kali Club." This is a clever double entendre: a homophone for "Cali" (as in, California), but also a reference to Kali Ma (recall this death goddess's appearance in episode 1...see analysis for refresher). As stated in the previous episode (when Antigone was speaking to her sister on the beach), this party is going to occur in the area where Antigone was abducted, raped and murdered as a child. She is going home, to her place of death, to lay herself to rest. But with Kali Ma evoked, we are promised perversions prior to rebirth. Prior to her arrival at the party, we see Frank and company move on the Mexican cartel. Upon entering the apartment, the camera rests for a moment on the shrine to Sante Muerte, the female saint of death in Mexican folk religion (a common object of reverence in the Mexican criminal world). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Muerte This is the same crowned female skeleton character that we saw, life-size, in Caspere's apartment. Recall again, the close temporal association between Kali Ma and this figure in episode 1: in that episode and the current episode, these parallel religious figures are literally one scene-sequence apart, their relationship undeniable. A notable line occurs during Frank's exchange with the cartel regarding the girl he is looking to speak to about Caspere's hard drive: "But we need to meet...face-to-face... at some point." The presentation of this line isolates "face-to-face," giving it great intensity. A smooth reference to the "face-to-face" emphasis in the Bardo Thodal. Next, Antigone is shown receiving a dose of "pure Molly." Molly, of course, is a common term for MDMA. While widely known as club drug, MDMA began as a miracle drug in phycho-pharmacology, often described as worth a year of therapy in one dose. This provides Antigone the means to access the trauma she experienced as a child, and begin her rebirth process. During her time in the mansion, she has a flashback to the face of the man who abducted her. We later learn that this is man with long hair and beard we've seen in the photographs containing Pitlor, her father, and the mayor. Again, I'm leaning hard on the notion of Antigone's father being her abductor: partly because of the awkwardness of their dialogue (especially in an upcoming episode), partly because of her rebellion against his values, the role of incest in the classical Antigone narrative, but also because her father is never identified in the picture, though his long hair makes him most identifiable with the only guy in the picture with long hair. Interesting note: the man in her flashback lures her into the forest by telling her there is a unicorn there. In antiquity, the unicorn was often associated with virgin maidenhood. Anyway, get ready. It gets real in our final episodes. Continued in part 3 https://www.reddit.com/useHonest_Richard/comments/bc2tzc/true_detective_season_2_and_the_tibetan_book_of/
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