StarTopic Nintendo General Discussion |ST16 Jan 2023| Team Famuary Stays Winning

[C_Ali]

My Star Wars hottake

The original three were enjoyable watches and I understand why it blew up, but it should have stopped there

 

[Imitatio]

My Star Wars hottake

The original three were enjoyable watches and I understand why it blew up, but it should have stopped there

Blew up, you say???

Well, I guess~

 

[Sadist]

Blew up as in becoming a pop culture phenomenon

The prequels weren’t fun and from the new trilogy I only watched the Force Awakens… can’t force (ha) myself to watch the sequels

I did watch Rogue One, forgot about that. That was actually pretty nice

 

[Dardan Sandiego]

The sequel duology consisting of a fanedit of TFA and the original release of TLJ is pretty good, I can only recommend.

 

[merp]

My Star Wars hottake

The original three were enjoyable watches and I understand why it blew up, but it should have stopped there

It's not that big of a hot take; many say the same thing, at least around me, and I think they're all wrong, but to each their own, I guess.

As for me, the only problem is that I found the sequel trilogy to be too "samey," especially The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker.; hell, one of my best friends literally gloats that "it's The Empire Strikes Back but better" (she's a huge fan of The Last Jedi, keep in mind). I disagree with that assessment, but I certainly find that film too "samey," as I said before. Too redundant.

That said?

I'm enjoying the rest of "Disney Star Wars" quite a bit, much more than I did during the Lucas-era (I still love my man George Lucas, but what's done is done).

The problem with Star Wars is a problem that affects much of the industry: there's nothing really "new" under the sun unless you're making a totally new original IP or franchise.

And, right now, there aren't many franchises out there, especially as big as Star Wars.

Quite frankly: I don't want to just watch Star Wars for my "franchise fix;" I want new IPs and new experiments and new series to watch or read or whatever.

I guess now that Warhammer 40k is becoming popular, I may start delving into that like everyone else, it seems; they've certainly been trying to up the ante with all the new releases and content.

But idk.

 

[merp]

Blew up as in becoming a pop culture phenomenon

The prequels weren’t fun and from the new trilogy I only watched the Force Awakens… can’t force (ha) myself to watch the sequels

I did watch Rogue One, forgot about that. That was actually pretty nice

The Star Wars prequels were great! ...Well, in my honest opinion.

I'm glad that the Star Wars prequels are getting more recognition and praise. Same with George Lucas himself.

Even though the original trilogy got me into Star Wars, I loved 'em and still do!

Also, the duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan is my favorite, well, series of scenes in cinematic history (especially when it goes to together with the duel between Yoda and Palpatine):




Good video on why I liked it; only about 13 minutes long.

 

[merp]

Blew up, you say???

Well, I guess~

...Get it?

We now understand why it blew up thanks to Rogue One.

Ba-dum tss!

 

[jirou]

Frankly, I've never seen or read a "good" time-travel story.

Like, at all.

What about the Cell Saga in Dragon Ball

 

[merp]

What about the Cell Saga in Dragon Ball

Oh.

That's... actually my least favorite arc in Dragon Ball Z.



(Really though, I'm serious.)

 

[merp]

Okay, everyone should at least listen to this video (not watch it, but have it in a separate tab and at least listen to it):




The viewing order that Imon_Snow decided to do was from the prequels onward and it makes the ending to Return of the Jedi so very good (and her reactions to it all are a real delight)!

Seriously, don't knock on the prequels, imho; they're pretty good, but that's just me.

 

[mazi]

 

[Barely Able]

Groundhogs Day is the best time travel movie. Can’t convince me otherwise. Maybe this is cheating since it’s just repeating. Edge of tomorrow also is great because of this. .

 

[7threst]

Yoooo is it ok if I drop some Elden Ring questions here or....?

 

[Dardan Sandiego]

bomba

 

[SammyJ9]

I love time travel stories, stories that mess with sequence, stories told out-of-order, and so on. Basically the more weird fuckery that’s going on in the background and makes my brain hurt, the better. Not that they can’t be done badly, of course! But usually I find them some of the most enjoyable movies/games/etc

 

[SammyJ9]

Yoooo is it ok if I drop some Elden Ring questions here or....?

Totally! Hit me

 

[hologram]

Frankly, I've never seen or read a "good" time-travel story.

Like, at all.

Yeah I mean I think what you're saying is you don't like time travel stories lol

If we're going to get really nerdy about it, I think the main "problem" with a lot of time travel stories is an inconsistent ruleset. (I'm gonna spoiler tag this because it got long and nerdy lol)

Spoiler: Long and nerdy spiel about time travel in fiction

Broadly speaking, there are two types of time travel:

1. Single timeline
There is one timeline and one timeline only. If you go back in time and do X, that meant that X was always done by you at that point in time. You can't change the past, because anything you do in the past always happened that way. Under this ruleset, the bootstrap paradox is allowed. From a theoretical standpoint you can run into weird questions about free will, because what actually stops you from talking to your past self in an interaction you know did not happen? You also have issues like the grandfather paradox, although this is really more just a specific example of the previous issue. But from a narrative point of view, this is fine. Just don't include those situations lol

2. Branching timelines
If at some point X in time I travel backwards in time to Y, my timeline continues from X without me in it, and a parallel timeline starts at Y the moment I enter. There is still a kind of linearity to this, as in, from any given point in any given timeline you can theoretically trace back to the beginning of time. In the example above, I can trace back to point Y in the second timeline, then jump to point X in the first, then go backwards from there. In practice this might be really difficult to do if multiple people are using time travel (see: Primer. No seriously, see Primer, it's a great film). But this version of time travel means you no longer have the grandfather paradox, or any of the associated problems: if I go back in time and kill my grandfather, then fine, there will be no alternate version of me born in the future, but the timeline still makes perfect sense.

The problem with a lot of time travel stories is that they don't pick one, they try to do both, and the two forms are fundamentally inconsistent with one another. Quite often, they'll nominally be using branching timelines, but include some kind of predestination or bootstrap paradox as a twist. An example of this would be The Terminator. The premise suggests branching timelines (why else would the machines bother sending a Terminator back in time?), although admittedly this is not yet a plothole since the machines/humans could just, you know, be wrong about their theory of time travel. However, all subsequent sequels confirm that branching timelines are a thing. This means that Kyle Reese being John Connor's father makes no sense.

Now, to be clear, it's still a good twist, and a plothole existing doesn't mean the story sucks. But as is typical for plotholes more generally, they're more noticeable in weaker stories and can potentially contribute to making the story unsatisfying. Looper is a perfect example of this for me. I liked Looper a lot, but I found it hard to get past the fact that the rules of time travel were fundamentally inconsistent: they establish that there are branching timelines, since the main character kills his future self in one timeline but not in another, but then they also establish that doing something to your self affects your future self, even from a different timeline.

Honestly, I would love more time travel stories with consistent rulesets, and I don't think it's actually that hard to do, but I also accept that it can be a little limiting. I like Doctor Who's approach: try to be somewhat consistent in each episode, but absolutely do not bother to maintain consistency across the whole series lol

 

[Imitatio]

Hit me

Must. Resist. Posting. Unfunny. Giiiifff

 

[jirou]

Oh.

That's... actually my least favorite arc in Dragon Ball Z.



(Really though, I'm serious.)

sad

 

[Magic-Man]

I dunno it probably flopped

 

[chocolate_supra]

What about the Cell Saga in Dragon Ball

The only time travel story I've seen with the guts to go

Spoiler

"oh coming back and stopping this terrible event won't actually change the future I come from (and have to return to), but at least now one branch of the timeline will be able to avoid it and have a happy ending"

Trunks is the most selfless hero in DragonBall. He can't save his own world so he helps create a separate world that doesn't need saving, then leaves it to the people of that world to continue on.

 

[merp]

Yeah I mean I think what you're saying is you don't like time travel stories lol

If we're going to get really nerdy about it, I think the main "problem" with a lot of time travel stories is an inconsistent ruleset. (I'm gonna spoiler tag this because it got long and nerdy lol)

Spoiler: Long and nerdy spiel about time travel in fiction

Broadly speaking, there are two types of time travel:

1. Single timeline
There is one timeline and one timeline only. If you go back in time and do X, that meant that X was always done by you at that point in time. You can't change the past, because anything you do in the past always happened that way. Under this ruleset, the bootstrap paradox is allowed. From a theoretical standpoint you can run into weird questions about free will, because what actually stops you from talking to your past self in an interaction you know did not happen? You also have issues like the grandfather paradox, although this is really more just a specific example of the previous issue. But from a narrative point of view, this is fine. Just don't include those situations lol

2. Branching timelines
If at some point X in time I travel backwards in time to Y, my timeline continues from X without me in it, and a parallel timeline starts at Y the moment I enter. There is still a kind of linearity to this, as in, from any given point in any given timeline you can theoretically trace back to the beginning of time. In the example above, I can trace back to point Y in the second timeline, then jump to point X in the first, then go backwards from there. In practice this might be really difficult to do if multiple people are using time travel (see: Primer. No seriously, see Primer, it's a great film). But this version of time travel means you no longer have the grandfather paradox, or any of the associated problems: if I go back in time and kill my grandfather, then fine, there will be no alternate version of me born in the future, but the timeline still makes perfect sense.

The problem with a lot of time travel stories is that they don't pick one, they try to do both, and the two forms are fundamentally inconsistent with one another. Quite often, they'll nominally be using branching timelines, but include some kind of predestination or bootstrap paradox as a twist. An example of this would be The Terminator. The premise suggests branching timelines (why else would the machines bother sending a Terminator back in time?), although admittedly this is not yet a plothole since the machines/humans could just, you know, be wrong about their theory of time travel. However, all subsequent sequels confirm that branching timelines are a thing. This means that Kyle Reese being John Connor's father makes no sense.

Now, to be clear, it's still a good twist, and a plothole existing doesn't mean the story sucks. But as is typical for plotholes more generally, they're more noticeable in weaker stories and can potentially contribute to making the story unsatisfying. Looper is a perfect example of this for me. I liked Looper a lot, but I found it hard to get past the fact that the rules of time travel were fundamentally inconsistent: they establish that there are branching timelines, since the main character kills his future self in one timeline but not in another, but then they also establish that doing something to your self affects your future self, even from a different timeline.

Honestly, I would love more time travel stories with consistent rulesets, and I don't think it's actually that hard to do, but I also accept that it can be a little limiting. I like Doctor Who's approach: try to be somewhat consistent in each episode, but absolutely do not bother to maintain consistency across the whole series lol

Yeah, I may be over-thinking it.

Probably because time-travel doesn't and cannot exist IRL, but that's not the point of a story, I suppose.

I'll say this: I do like the time-travel fanfics in the A Song of Ice and Fire community and I think it's because time-travel (and by extension, alternate universes) genuinely goes well with the setting.

But a story or series that essentially begins with and deals with time-travel is something I don't care for; unless it's a side thing in some-and-such spin-off then it does nothing for me.

¯\(ツ)/¯

 

[merp]

sad

In fact, my favorite arc in Dragon Ball Z is the Buu Saga.

But everyone hates that arc or, at the very least, it's not their favorite at all.

 

[SammyJ9]

Yeah I mean I think what you're saying is you don't like time travel stories lol

If we're going to get really nerdy about it, I think the main "problem" with a lot of time travel stories is an inconsistent ruleset. (I'm gonna spoiler tag this because it got long and nerdy lol)

Spoiler: Long and nerdy spiel about time travel in fiction

Broadly speaking, there are two types of time travel:

1. Single timeline
There is one timeline and one timeline only. If you go back in time and do X, that meant that X was always done by you at that point in time. You can't change the past, because anything you do in the past always happened that way. Under this ruleset, the bootstrap paradox is allowed. From a theoretical standpoint you can run into weird questions about free will, because what actually stops you from talking to your past self in an interaction you know did not happen? You also have issues like the grandfather paradox, although this is really more just a specific example of the previous issue. But from a narrative point of view, this is fine. Just don't include those situations lol

2. Branching timelines
If at some point X in time I travel backwards in time to Y, my timeline continues from X without me in it, and a parallel timeline starts at Y the moment I enter. There is still a kind of linearity to this, as in, from any given point in any given timeline you can theoretically trace back to the beginning of time. In the example above, I can trace back to point Y in the second timeline, then jump to point X in the first, then go backwards from there. In practice this might be really difficult to do if multiple people are using time travel (see: Primer. No seriously, see Primer, it's a great film). But this version of time travel means you no longer have the grandfather paradox, or any of the associated problems: if I go back in time and kill my grandfather, then fine, there will be no alternate version of me born in the future, but the timeline still makes perfect sense.

The problem with a lot of time travel stories is that they don't pick one, they try to do both, and the two forms are fundamentally inconsistent with one another. Quite often, they'll nominally be using branching timelines, but include some kind of predestination or bootstrap paradox as a twist. An example of this would be The Terminator. The premise suggests branching timelines (why else would the machines bother sending a Terminator back in time?), although admittedly this is not yet a plothole since the machines/humans could just, you know, be wrong about their theory of time travel. However, all subsequent sequels confirm that branching timelines are a thing. This means that Kyle Reese being John Connor's father makes no sense.

Now, to be clear, it's still a good twist, and a plothole existing doesn't mean the story sucks. But as is typical for plotholes more generally, they're more noticeable in weaker stories and can potentially contribute to making the story unsatisfying. Looper is a perfect example of this for me. I liked Looper a lot, but I found it hard to get past the fact that the rules of time travel were fundamentally inconsistent: they establish that there are branching timelines, since the main character kills his future self in one timeline but not in another, but then they also establish that doing something to your self affects your future self, even from a different timeline.

Honestly, I would love more time travel stories with consistent rulesets, and I don't think it's actually that hard to do, but I also accept that it can be a little limiting. I like Doctor Who's approach: try to be somewhat consistent in each episode, but absolutely do not bother to maintain consistency across the whole series lol

Internal logic and consistency is definitely the most important thing. If a plot breaks its own rules that’s when it falls off for me.

 

[jirou]

In fact, my favorite arc in Dragon Ball Z is the Buu Saga.

But everyone hates that arc or, at the very least, it's not their favorite at all.

I love it too

The only time travel story I've seen with the guts to go

Spoiler

"oh coming back and stopping this terrible event won't actually change the future I come from (and have to return to), but at least now one branch of the timeline will be able to avoid it and have a happy ending"

Trunks is the most selfless hero in DragonBall. He can't save his own world so he helps create a separate world that doesn't need saving, then leaves it to the people of that world to continue on.

Yup and I love that it shows one of Toriyama's greatest strengths: Keeping it simple. No need to have long non-functioning pseudo-scientific explanations. It's simple, it's effective, it's well written, it's sick. Unlike the Future Trunks Saga in Dragon Ball Super...

 

[SammyJ9]

Another problem is that my absolute favorite instance of time travel ever is from an anime that simply knowing time travel is a thing that happens in it is a huge spoiler. So it’s really difficult to talk about or bring up except with people who have already seen it

 

[YoboD]

Frankly, I've never seen or read a "good" time-travel story.

Like, at all.

Sounds like you need to play Ghost Trick

 

[chocolate_supra]

Yup and I love that it shows one of Toriyama's greatest strengths: Keeping it simple. No need to have long non-functioning pseudo-scientific explanations. It's simple, it's effective, it's well written, it's sick. Unlike the Future Trunks Saga in Dragon Ball Super...

WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT DRAGON BALL SUPER BEGINS WITH THE UNIVERSE SURVIVAL SAGA THERE IS NO SECOND FUTURE TRUNKS SAGA I CAN'T HEAR YOU LA LA LA LA

 

[Suswave]

I'm just so glad that after years of hearing people trashing on him for VIII, Rian Johnson is finally getting his redemption arc with the Knives Out series.

I feel like a hipster, this dude finally becomes popular and I'm like "I've been telling yall he's great for a decade now"

I’m in a weird spot with Rian Johnson, even though he’s one of my favorite directors, so here are my chaotic little thoughts

Brothers Bloom was manic pixie dream girl bullshit but I loved the construction of it and it changed my life and was, for a long time, my favorite movie

like it made me LOVE what movies could be

the a story so woven and echoed into it’s plot, dialogue, set design, environmental storytelling… absolutely masterful filmmaking

for years every time I’d rewatch it, I’d discover some new angle of it I hadn’t picked up on before

but like… the fundamental thing is absolutely at least a little the 2000s flavor of weird about women

and I mean WAY LESS BAD than like every other thing like that at the time, nowhere near a fucking 500 Days of Summer level insult.

but, it also can’t be entirely ignored

then Looper came, and I’m rarely super sold on time travel plots, but… it suffered

the whole thing is sort of predicated on the notion that “only a mother’s love” can solve anything, so, there’s a lot of inherent yikes in that intentional or not — kinda doubled down on a different kind of, let’s say more fringe sexism?

and like some of the filmmaking was in fact beautiful, and the twist was effective if you bought into the plot

but the dialogue lost some edge, and the worldbuilding was like “wait… why” at several points, even though other setups paid off

plus I agree that JGL wasn’t great

so not really a fan

then The Last Jedi…

I don’t care for Star Wars — so if that bugs you please disregard!

but not liking Star Wars (and hating Disney more than Star Wars so Disney Star Wars is not my thing (and avoiding the movie for so long)) made The Last Jedi HILARIOUS

and SAD

because you can feel the whole thing ripping apart at the seams — Johnson wants to make it his thing and break the conventions, Disney wants him to make it a different way despite not planning nearly enough, and it goes WACKY

like it feels like he added more chaos in because they wouldn’t let him do some of the other things he wanted (lukemilk has big “stop telling me what to do” vibes) etc

the symbolic threads are all but absent because no one knows where it’s ending

and like breaking conventions is something Star Wars needed, esp after the one before

but oh my god, between everything and falling over as a middle film in an unplanned trilogy, it’s so fucking bad, and the dialogue’s bad, and the plot is nonsense, and it’s a mess

but I did kind of like what the ending was trying to do (not the very very last scene though)

the whole movie didn’t get to be either thing it could be

and John Boyega is absolutely right about lots of the shit that went on with it, and sidelining his role so hard sucked ass

so… yeah, it was bad, and what it tried to do could have been good, and at least someone tried it, but that was not a success. I don’t think it was the film anyone working on it wanted it to be in the end. and you can really feel it.

which is why I’m so glad Knives Out happened

because that’s EXACTLY the kind of thing Rian Johnson excels at

and maybe he fucking listened to John Boyega or something and decided he didn’t want to be remembered for making Star Wars more structurally racist

and wrote a movie where the white assholes get dunked in a way that I’d say very few white directors can or do

I’m not saying it’s perfect, like there’s still some shit that could use a bit of work in that regard

but it got to be FULL Rian Johnson artwork while actually having a much better overarching point than anything he’s done before

and Glass Onion did it again, even if it was a smidge less tight

so hell yeah! but also, it’s complicated! and also, oof! but also hell yeah!

 

[Suswave]

Why is Idris Elba so ridiculously hot

sheer force of will and god does it work

 

[Suswave]

someone has to stop me from rambling and it’s clear that person isn’t me

 

[merp]

Sounds like you need to play Ghost Trick

Is that a video game?

I already played Ocarina of Time and that was a good time-travel story, imho, but that was mainly due to the child/adult aspect.

 

[MSnap]

In fact, my favorite arc in Dragon Ball Z is the Buu Saga.

But everyone hates that arc or, at the very least, it's not their favorite at all.

Easily my favorite too

 

[VolcanicDynamo]

someone has to stop me from rambling and it’s clear that person isn’t me

That implies that we want you to stop tho. Which we do not.

 

[YoboD]

Is that a video game?

I already played Ocarina of Time and that was a good time-travel story, imho, but that was mainly due to the child/adult aspect.

Sure is! Unfortunately Capcom like to pretend it doesn’t exist so who knows when it’s ever coming to modern systems.

But it’s basically the only media with time travel I’ve experienced that doesn’t have any plot holes.

 

[EricTheGamerman]

Man, Sonic the Hedgehog 1 is not that good a game at all, even with the vastly superior Christian Whitehead Mobile version and a controller. Whoever designed Labyrinth Zone is like, just the worst.

 

[7threst]

Totally! Hit me

Allright, totally noob questions here!

• Those summons (I have two now: the wolves and tje jellyfish), are they effective against certain bosses or doesn't it matter?
• Is there like a fire skill that's not magic/miracle and thus doesn't require either staves or talismans? I did purchase Flame Sling which is an incantation but don't want to use a separate weapon for that
• Are there summons that aren't bind to online before bosses I can summon for help (love me some easy mode lol)
• What does this 'parry' icon mean:

- What does this creepy graveyard stone icon above parry mean:

- How many Stonesword keys do I need to break the imp statue at the start of the game?

Any further advice/tips welcome.

Thank you so much!

 

[HockeyBird]

The best arc in Dragon Ball Z is the Garlic Jr arc. Is it canon? Who cares?! No Goku so others get time to shine.

 

[Plum]

Another problem is that my absolute favorite instance of time travel ever is from an anime that simply knowing time travel is a thing that happens in it is a huge spoiler. So it’s really difficult to talk about or bring up except with people who have already seen it

Shit. I think I know what you’re talking about but I dont want to spoil it for you by mentioning what it’s called.

 

[Mekanos]

Man, Sonic the Hedgehog 1 is not that good a game at all, even with the vastly superior Christian Whitehead Mobile version and a controller. Whoever designed Labyrinth Zone is like, just the worst.

I feel like the level are half good and half ??? (Also, all the levels in the Genesis trilogy are designed by the same guy lol.)

It definitely suffers from 1st platformer installment syndrome, where I rarely want to return to it versus its sequels. I've only ever played the Genesis version though so I'll try the HD version at some point.

 

[chocolate_supra]

The best arc in Dragon Ball Z is the Garlic Jr arc. Is it canon? Who cares?! No Goku so others get time to shine.

If it weren't for my dislike of its animation style, this would be my opinion of DBS: Superhero.

 

[merp]

Sure is! Unfortunately Capcom like to pretend it doesn’t exist so who knows when it’s ever coming to modern systems.

But it’s basically the only media with time travel I’ve experienced that doesn’t have any plot holes.

Ah, I see.

Like I said: the problem (for me) isn't the plot holes, but that the time-travel aspect seems to be used in uninteresting ways (from the time-travel stories I've experienced).

In general, I prefer stories that "only happen" to have time-travel (like a side-thing, so to speak) than "time-travel stories" (where time-travel is kind of the point).

I'll look into the game you brought up though so thanks.

 

[merp]

If it weren't for my dislike of its animation style, this would be my opinion of DBS: Superhero.

I absolutely loved Dragon Ball Super, to be honest.

And Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero has "no Goku" (well, no Goku as a main character) which is partly why I loved that film.

 

[SammyJ9]

Allright, totally noob questions here!

• Those summons (I have two now: the wolves and tje jellyfish), are they effective against certain bosses or doesn't it matter?
• Is there like a fire skill that's not magic/miracle and thus doesn't require either staves or talismans? I did purchase Flame Sling which is an incantation but don't want to use a separate weapon for that
• Are there summons that aren't bind to online before bosses I can summon for help (love me some easy mode lol)
• What does this 'parry' icon mean:

- What does this creepy graveyard stone icon above parry mean:

- How many Stonesword keys do I need to break the imp statue at the start of the game?

Any further advice/tips welcome.

Thank you so much!

No problem, we all have noob questions at some point!

- The spirit ash summons you get like the jellyfish can be more or less effective against certain bosses, depending on what type of damage they do, but most of them are really more distractions until later in the game, so it’s good to pick one that gets the boss’s attention and bothers it the most. The wolves are great early on since they’re so aggressive.

- You can use fire pots to throw as fire damage, or fire arrows, but most fire damage will be either on a weapon by default or you can get ashes of war that give weapons fire properties (or a spell or miracle)

- There are NPC summons you can summon for a lot of boss fights, but some of them are linked to NPC quest lines. Look for the golden summon sign icons before boss doors

- The “parry” icon showing there is your currently equipped skill for your left hand, so I’m guessing you have a shield that will parry if you hit L2?

- The graveyard stone icon means that you can summon your ash spirits in that current area. If it’s not there, then you can’t summon them right then

- All stone sword locks only require one key, but there’s a lot of them so early on they can be very valuable

- In general: Mess around with a lot of weapons and things and have fun! And most especially, don’t hit your head up against a boss for too long. If you’re having trouble and getting frustrated, just go explore elsewhere for a while and come back. That’s one of Elden Ring’s biggest strengths.

 

[RealUncleNintendo]

Downloaded demo for village and it worked quite well. $50 for resident evil village cloud (not the worst price) realizing it’s another $30 on top of the $50 for download content to allow me to play third person mode… I think I’ll hold off ugh

 

[Cucufate]

Frankly, I've never seen or read a "good" time-travel story.

Like, at all.

Bold words for someone within Special Weapons Dalek range.

(but seriously, as a Doctor Who fan, this is the part where I'm supposed to say something along the lines of "Go watch Blink". I think it's the law or something like that)

 

[Brofield]

I think what's difficult about writing time travel well is that it often can become a crutch in science fiction that leads to nothing having significance. That being said, I still love it because I always love how different explanations on semi-furistic technology can achieve it. Hell, a friend of mine once pointed out that no time travel story he's seen/read about mentioned how you also have to account for Earth's relative position in the universe when you make that jump backward. Does the time travel device simply stay fixed on the planet's movement and rotational feed, or does it have to be accounted for lest all of a sudden you're just stuck in the vaccuum of space because the planet hasn't yet reached where you are?

Yeah I mean I think what you're saying is you don't like time travel stories lol

If we're going to get really nerdy about it, I think the main "problem" with a lot of time travel stories is an inconsistent ruleset. (I'm gonna spoiler tag this because it got long and nerdy lol)

Spoiler: Long and nerdy spiel about time travel in fiction

Broadly speaking, there are two types of time travel:

1. Single timeline
There is one timeline and one timeline only. If you go back in time and do X, that meant that X was always done by you at that point in time. You can't change the past, because anything you do in the past always happened that way. Under this ruleset, the bootstrap paradox is allowed. From a theoretical standpoint you can run into weird questions about free will, because what actually stops you from talking to your past self in an interaction you know did not happen? You also have issues like the grandfather paradox, although this is really more just a specific example of the previous issue. But from a narrative point of view, this is fine. Just don't include those situations lol

2. Branching timelines
If at some point X in time I travel backwards in time to Y, my timeline continues from X without me in it, and a parallel timeline starts at Y the moment I enter. There is still a kind of linearity to this, as in, from any given point in any given timeline you can theoretically trace back to the beginning of time. In the example above, I can trace back to point Y in the second timeline, then jump to point X in the first, then go backwards from there. In practice this might be really difficult to do if multiple people are using time travel (see: Primer. No seriously, see Primer, it's a great film). But this version of time travel means you no longer have the grandfather paradox, or any of the associated problems: if I go back in time and kill my grandfather, then fine, there will be no alternate version of me born in the future, but the timeline still makes perfect sense.

The problem with a lot of time travel stories is that they don't pick one, they try to do both, and the two forms are fundamentally inconsistent with one another. Quite often, they'll nominally be using branching timelines, but include some kind of predestination or bootstrap paradox as a twist. An example of this would be The Terminator. The premise suggests branching timelines (why else would the machines bother sending a Terminator back in time?), although admittedly this is not yet a plothole since the machines/humans could just, you know, be wrong about their theory of time travel. However, all subsequent sequels confirm that branching timelines are a thing. This means that Kyle Reese being John Connor's father makes no sense.

Now, to be clear, it's still a good twist, and a plothole existing doesn't mean the story sucks. But as is typical for plotholes more generally, they're more noticeable in weaker stories and can potentially contribute to making the story unsatisfying. Looper is a perfect example of this for me. I liked Looper a lot, but I found it hard to get past the fact that the rules of time travel were fundamentally inconsistent: they establish that there are branching timelines, since the main character kills his future self in one timeline but not in another, but then they also establish that doing something to your self affects your future self, even from a different timeline.

Honestly, I would love more time travel stories with consistent rulesets, and I don't think it's actually that hard to do, but I also accept that it can be a little limiting. I like Doctor Who's approach: try to be somewhat consistent in each episode, but absolutely do not bother to maintain consistency across the whole series lol

This was a really cool write up, and I'm curious to check out Primer even if I feel I'm not going to understand it Seems I can't stream it anywhere but it's $3 to rent so I might just do that

Another problem is that my absolute favorite instance of time travel ever is from an anime that simply knowing time travel is a thing that happens in it is a huge spoiler. So it’s really difficult to talk about or bring up except with people who have already seen it

Shit. I think I know what you’re talking about but I dont want to spoil it for you by mentioning what it’s called.

...well now I don't know what show this could be but now I'm hella intrigued! Is this gonna be like a Madoka Magicka type of anime?

 

[Plum]

...well now I don't know what show this could be but now I'm hella intrigued! Is this gonna be like a Madoka Magicka type of anime?

No actual spoilers - and it doesn't mention the name at all - but I just want to be as careful as possible:
If SammyJ9's talking about what I'm thinking about... no, not at all lol

Gonna leave it there unless you're perfectly fine with being spoiled on a potentially random anime/manga from the past decade-or-so.

 

[7threst]

No problem, we all have noob questions at some point!

- The spirit ash summons you get like the jellyfish can be more or less effective against certain bosses, depending on what type of damage they do, but most of them are really more distractions until later in the game, so it’s good to pick one that gets the boss’s attention and bothers it the most. The wolves are great early on since they’re so aggressive.

- You can use fire pots to throw as fire damage, or fire arrows, but most fire damage will be either on a weapon by default or you can get ashes of war that give weapons fire properties (or a spell or miracle)

- There are NPC summons you can summon for a lot of boss fights, but some of them are linked to NPC quest lines. Look for the golden summon sign icons before boss doors

- The “parry” icon showing there is your currently equipped skill for your left hand, so I’m guessing you have a shield that will parry if you hit L2?

- The graveyard stone icon means that you can summon your ash spirits in that current area. If it’s not there, then you can’t summon them right then

- All stone sword locks only require one key, but there’s a lot of them so early on they can be very valuable

- In general: Mess around with a lot of weapons and things and have fun! And most especially, don’t hit your head up against a boss for too long. If you’re having trouble and getting frustrated, just go explore elsewhere for a while and come back. That’s one of Elden Ring’s biggest strengths.

Yoooo thank you so much, this is really helpful! And yes, the shield I have now parries

 

[Brofield]

No actual spoilers - and it doesn't mention the name at all - but I just want to be as careful as possible:
If SammyJ9's talking about what I'm thinking about... no, not at all lol

Gonna leave it there unless you're perfectly fine with being spoiled on a potentially random anime/manga from the past decade-or-so.

I mean, I'm so far behind on anime and I'm only just getting around to starting season 2 of Attack on Titan and eventually getting through Initial D Stage 1. With luck I can write the name down in a list, forget about it's significance, and probably watch it in six months or so when I forget why I wrote it down and its worth watching haha