|
Post by Friendly Person :) on Sept 5, 2019 16:39:35 GMT -5
Ence (#3 team in the rankings) loses to Renegades (#16 in the rankings) in the quarter finals. Vitality (#2) loses to Avangar (#15).
Yeah Volvo, having your big major right after the player break sure is brilliant. GG.
|
|
|
Post by Youngster Joey on Sept 6, 2019 17:31:41 GMT -5
I have no idea what any of those things are. eSports??
|
|
|
Post by Friendly Person :) on Sept 6, 2019 23:38:55 GMT -5
Yeah. Current CS major.
I was thinking the other day, and one thing you have to give esports over traditional sports: nobody is going to b*tch about the refs. I don't pay any attention to normal sports, but I always hear people b*tching about how the refs are biased and giving games to certain teams...
None of that nonsense.
Also, spoilers, I broke and bought the Penguin Highway novel. And his other translated book. Hopefully this means more translations of this author, right? I did my part, right?
Right?
|
|
Derman
Oracle Knight
I still don't have a knife tag on my golden birth knife
Posts: 194
|
Post by Derman on Sept 8, 2019 11:59:06 GMT -5
In dota there's some b*tching in qualifiers occasionally when sometimes the admins make dumb decisions and don't follow the rules, which has lead to some teams not getting into tournaments even though they should've. And sometimes you get this "They are cheating because they were abusing a bug", which happened a lot when Dota was officially in beta. So yea, while there are no referees, people still can find reasons to complain. It's probably not as common as in other sports though.
|
|
|
Post by Friendly Person :) on Sept 8, 2019 23:54:49 GMT -5
How does an admin do that? In CS there isn't even an admin, unless I'm missing something? Astralis won the major, which was pretty much a given after they beat Liquid. Having abandoned their old organisation, who essentially cost them their era, Astralis is dead-set on getting back into form and proving themselves the best team ever. Never has a team had a resurgance after their era, but then, never has a team's era ended by their organisation forcing them to sit out all the major tournaments in favour for org-sponsered ones. Obviously this being the first tournament back from the player break, there's a lot that could happen: it's too early to tell if Astralis is back, but there's certainly potential. On the flip-side of things, you have Liquid, who came in after Astralis dropped off and established their own little era. However, post-player break they looked shaky as f*ck. Liquid's problem during the Astralis-era was never a lack of skill, but rather a lack of composure. Once they started slipping in the mind-game, it was pretty much over. Being at the top so long helped strengthen their confidence, but this loss might be a huge set-back. Should they recover AND start fixing the mistakes present in the tournament (post-player break almost always makes for sloppy play), we could have a genuine rivalry between two excellent teams: a nice change-up from two years of complete domination from either.
For better or worse, you have mixed results in the remaining teams. From what I understand Na'vi is finally getting the memo that having your entire team structured around the best player in the world is a sh*t idea. If the only way for you to win is to have s1mple carry your team to victory, I'm sorry, but I have no respect for your team. S1mple deserves a team that can back him up, and Na'vi's inability to ever win a grand final is proof that he doesn't have it. However there are whispers of some roster changes, so maybe there's hope. Ironically, you have Vitality, currently ranked #2 in the world, who seem to be making the exact same mistake. The debate on #1 best player is between Zywoo and S1mple, and so once again you have a team where if Zywoo is having an off game, you've already lost. Despite some success when Zywoo blasted onto the stage, it's seeming like most teams have got their number, and even in-spite of dropping one player, I don't see Vitality winning any championships until they can get a team that isn't dead weight for their super star. ENCE is RIP. Sorry, but despite a few impressive runs, they haven't shown themselves capable of actually winning tournaments. Swapping out their IGL for another fragger is only going to make things worse. Whether or not they can continue being a tier 2 team remains to be seen, but I doubt they'll remain in the top 5, and against Liquid and Astralis they have no chance. Here's the thing though: that's the 'bad' side of things. For everyone else, there's so much potential. NRG kicked some serious ass, and beyond that there are so many good players out in the open. I don't expect MiBR to ever be a top 5 team again, but dropping Coldzera was not only beneficial for shaking up a core that wasn't working, but it also puts one of the best players in the world on the market. Slot him in to some of these teams with dead weight and you've got the chance for something big. I guess my point with all of this is, there's a chance for the next few months to actually be pretty engaging. Depending on whether or not certain teams can get back into form (*cough* Liquid *cough*), there's a chance for CS to return to a scene that isn't dominated by a single team. Then again, if Astralis get back into peak performance, they might just prove themselves the undisputed champions of the game. Either way, I'm pleased that a game that has been going on for 20 years can continue to be so interesting.
-edit- I find it interesting/sad that I'm on my third read through of Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, and it's only now really dawning on me how much the main character really contributed to his marriage falling apart. I always got that they failed as a couple by trying to pretend the past didn't exist, and I got that she contributed to the downfall by never trusting him enough to fully open up, but this time through it's really apparent just how much he never really pursued the issue either. There's giving someone space, but then there's avoiding something that is clearly very important to your significant other. There's consideration, but consideration can quickly sour into passive contentment.
It's funny, because I recognised this immediately, in the first chapter. In fact, it occurred to me that the first chapter pretty much stands on its own as a short story. Knowing this to have been expanded from a previous short story, I pulled out my short story collection, and sure enough, the first chapter is indeed that story (with some slight modifications). It paints their broken relationship so perfectly that I feel like a complete idiot for not picking up on it before.
I am the Walrus.
|
|
|
Post by Youngster Joey on Sept 9, 2019 23:58:48 GMT -5
Goo goo g'joob?
(Wrong walrus, I presume, but I couldn't help but think of it.)
|
|
|
Post by Friendly Person :) on Sept 10, 2019 5:20:46 GMT -5
No: you're right. Did I not explain why I changed my steam profile to what it is?
|
|
|
Post by Youngster Joey on Sept 10, 2019 13:55:58 GMT -5
no, but I didn't even notice you had changed your Steam profile
|
|
|
Post by Friendly Person :) on Sept 10, 2019 16:26:45 GMT -5
I was/am going through a Styx phase. One of their most recent albums is a collection of cover songs, among which is ‘I Am the Walrus’. I don’t think there’s much point listening to a cover without having heard the original song, so I looked it up (I discovered later the cover is pretty much a straight recreation, and therefore not particularly worth the time). On the Youtube page for the Beatles song, there are several comments claiming that the absurd lyrics were an intentional slight against fans who attempt to read too much meaning into their songs. This suggestion sounded interesting, but while certain Beatles’ songs do have fascinating backgrounds (Norwegian Wood remains my favourite), this also sounded a bit too fishy. I did a quick Google search, and sure enough, this is not the case at all. The song appears to be a mesh of three different song ideas, with the title ‘I Am the Walrus’ being a reference to a poem in Through the Looking Glass (the sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland). Now, this is where things get interesting. Later down the line Lennon claims that he regrets using the Walrus in the song, as he did not realise that the Walrus was the villain, or that “Lewis Carroll was commenting on the capitalist system”. In fact, ‘The Walrus and the Carpenter’ is a poem with many interpretations. It seems that quite a lot of people enjoy putting various spins on it, including our good friend Lennon. However, if one should look at the conclusion of the poem within the story itself: I like the Walrus best," said Alice, "because you see he was a little sorry for the poor oysters." "He ate more than the Carpenter, though," said Tweedledee. "You see he held his handkerchief in front, so that the Carpenter couldn't count how many he took: contrariwise." "That was mean!" Alice said indignantly. "Then I like the Carpenter best—if he didn't eat so many as the Walrus." "But he ate as many as he could get," said Tweedledum. This was a puzzler. After a pause, Alice began, "Well! They were both very unpleasant characters— It becomes quickly apparent that the answer is right there. There is no ‘good’ or ‘bad’: they are both unpleasant. It says so right there! For all the theory crafting that people have participated in (over a children’s poem, I might underscore), the solution is literally spelled out at the conclusion. So I changed my picture to the Walrus from Through the Looking Glass as a tribute: to the commenters on Youtube who could not do a 2 second Google search to disprove their stupid theory; to John Lennon, who got it wrong once and then amended himself with another false interpretation; to the people who would over-complicate a children’s poem in search of deep political insight. In short, it’s a tribute to the people who could not find a tree in a forest, which I believe aptly sums up a good portion of modern society.
Yes, I have transcended to new levels of pretentiousness.
|
|
|
Post by Youngster Joey on Sept 11, 2019 23:11:44 GMT -5
I'm trying to think of a cover I thought was better than the original? All I can think of is the Broadway show Mamma Mia, which is totally comprised of ABBA songs. I dislike ABBA, but I love that soundtrack. (Is there a "first heard" effect at play? I listened to the soundtrack and saw the musical long before I actually listened to ABBA. This probably impacted my appraisal somewhat.)
I do like instrumental covers quite a lot, but not as a "better than", more as a "complement to."
Oh, actually, I lied. There's a band called Australian Pink Floyd, which is, er, an Australian band that covers Pink Floyd. I love Pink Floyd. I went to Australian Pink Floyd's concerts years ago, extremely skeptical about the entire thing. They were stunningly spot on. I suppose there's probably a difference between "imitating the sound" and "putting your own flair to it" for covers, though.
The worst cover I can remember was Green Day's "We Are the Champions." I like some of Green Day's work, but Billie Joe Armstrong is no Freddie Mercury, and Freddie Mercury made that song. (And Queen, for that matter. Does anyone give a sh*t about Queen without Freddie Mercury? I don't.)
NO.
I just remembered
it's worse than I remembered
(OK, I'll admit, bringing up a Yoko Ono cover is cheap.)
|
|
Derman
Oracle Knight
I still don't have a knife tag on my golden birth knife
Posts: 194
|
Post by Derman on Sept 12, 2019 13:22:48 GMT -5
It seems I'm getting billed twice for the electricity I've been using this summer... I have no clue what's going on, but I've already paid off two overlapping bills before realizing it.
|
|
|
Post by Friendly Person :) on Sept 12, 2019 17:14:33 GMT -5
I know there have been covers in the past that I've enjoyed more than the originals, but they are the exception. It's not unrelated to something I've been thinking about lately: with Jazz and Classical music, it’s widely known that different musicians will perform a piece different ways. It’s one thing to enjoy Hadyn’s cello concertos, but the longer you listen, the more you will come to prefer ‘Mischa Maisky’s performance of Hadyn’s cello concertos’ (they bring an energy to the piece that I don’t often feel from other performances!). Why is this true for Jazz and Classical, but not other works? I’m not a musician, and I doubt I’ll ever hold enough of a musical understanding to give any kind of answer. At the present, my best guess is to say that most songs these days feel very deliberate/specific, by which I mean they feel designed to convey a single emotion. Energy, rage, sad, happy, buoyant: there are several emotions being conveyed by songs, but it feels like each song today conveys only one thing. Thus, when you take a song designed to convey one emotion and try to fit it to convey something else, it doesn’t have the same effect. But that’s just a guess at best. Like I said: I don’t think in music. I finished my third reading of Wind-Up Bird. I have some comments, particularly related to the translation, but knowing that Derman is reading it, I won’t say anything. The first read through should be absolutely uncorrupted. Got an e-mail two days ago saying that tutor training will be the 25th. This would have been a week out from my surgery on the 18th, and therefore easily managed. Got an e-mail yesterday asking if the returning tutors could start early, on the 17th. Sometimes life just works. Sometimes it... doesn't. It seems I'm getting billed twice for the electricity I've been using this summer... I have no clue what's going on, but I've already paid off two overlapping bills before realizing it. lolwut?
|
|
|
Post by Friendly Person :) on Sept 13, 2019 2:49:13 GMT -5
I just finished YuriKuma, and while I could talk about Sarazanmai and Ikuhara as a whole, I don't really want to. Not yet, anyway. More importantly, I want to talk about something YuriKuma does which is a frequent problem in anime: BS plot convenience for the sake of a happy ending.
See, YuriKuma doesn't have a 'love triangle' so much as a love 'string'. As in:
B likes A C likes B D likes C
or, to use another visual: D wants C who wants B who wants A. (A>B>C>D)
Now as is frequently the case, D and C are friends. This means that D is swallowing their personal emotions to help C get with B. So once C and B finally unite, it would leave D in a pretty compromised position. She worked her butt off for these people, and they clearly have no room for her in their relationship. So what happens? D sacrifices herself heroically to save C, allowing C and B to end up together with no long-term issues.
How bloody convenient.
For an anime which ostensibly tackles issues not frequently seen in anime (lesbian relationships), it's disappointing to watch it girl thingy out. Or at least it would be if such conveniences didn't happen all the time. Boy, happily ever after would be so much more difficult if someone hadn't eaten a bullet for it! Thank god they willingly died to preserve our happiness! Because that's how real life works!~
Knock this sh*t off. Stop girl thingying out the second things get serious. Rather than ending with some vague BS message about 'friendship/love conquers all!', keep going until you get to something actually applicable in real life. There's an entire story to be told about the fallout of a love triangle. Seriously, you could start your show with the "main character" choosing someone, and then the show follows the guy/girl who didn't get chosen. He/she has to watch his/her friend and former love interest build a happy life while still trying to be a part of that group. That would be damned difficult! I wouldn't even blame someone who couldn't do it! (I actually really want this show now).
I'm just reminded of the situation in Norwegian Wood. Again, it's not a 'true' triangle: the MC just happens to be interested in two girls. The first is a childhood friend/crush who dated his best friend (who died), the other is a very liberal girl at his college. As he grows closer to the first girl, he becomes aware of her mental instability. When this starts turning volatile, he distances himself from her, whereupon he meets the second girl. He finds himself getting along well with her, but doesn't have that same violent attraction that he did with the first girl. Eventually he learns that Girl A's mental health has taken a turn for the worse, and so he starts visiting her in the sanatorium. This causes him to start losing touch with Girl B. Caught between obligation and his own personal happiness, he opts to take a chance with Girl B. Shortly after, he discovers that Girl A committed suicide. Feeling responsible for her suicide, he meets up with her roommate from the sanatorium (with whom he got along very well), whereupon he gets one of the most poignant and brutal bits of advice I've read in a book. In so many words, she tells him to man up, because as an adult he has responsibilities to other people (namely Girl B), and those responsibilities won't wait just because he feels responsible for something he had little to do with.
There was a triangle, and then there wasn’t. But rather than doing this to provide a saccharine and undeserved ‘happily ever after’, it’s used to convey several messages about life:
1) Terrible things will happen to people you love that are completely beyond your control: things which will tear you up inside.
2) Life, and the people in your life, do not stop when tragedies occur, nor do your obligations to either.
3) In-keeping with these, happiness is not something you are given: it is something you have to work for.
Anime has tackled a lot of issues. I’m sure you can come up with anything (so-long as you don’t get too specific) and find an anime attempting to tackle that subject. But the number which will go far enough to tackle said subjects with any kind of reality is depressingly low. Fiction is a mirror to reality. The more accurate the reflection, the more impactful the work. Conveniently erasing obstacles to produce the storybook ending undermines your legitimacy, thereby drawing into question everything else about the work. It’s not about whether or not you have a happy ending, it’s about making that happy ending feel earned. Even in pure escapism, the more our characters struggle to get what they want, the more satisfying it is to watch them finally succeed. Whether you want to make a commentary on society, or just write an engaging fantasy story, this kind of contrived plot convenience only serves to worsen the final product.
|
|
|
Post by Friendly Person :) on Sept 15, 2019 3:43:32 GMT -5
I finished the book for Penguin Highway, and my first thought after finishing it was that, although streamlined, the movie actually did a perfect job of capturing the charm of the story. Yet, the more I thought about the little tweaks, the more I realised that what was lost were the undercurrent of philosophical elements. Some of them are still there, but on the whole they feel fairly downplayed. See, much like The Eccentric Family (same author, go figure), you have a story which can be taken at face value as a charming, light-hearted tale. There’s nothing wrong with that. But if you pay a little more attention to the words these characters are saying, you start to see that there’s actually more being suggested. I’m going to spoil the story, so if I have elicited even the slightest interest, do not read ahead. I somewhat take issue with the book’s labeling as “sci-fi”, because although the Lady (that is her name) turns out to be an alien, she’s not a typical sci-fi alien. She doesn’t know she isn’t human, and even when she discovers this fact, she doesn’t know what she is. Her request to Aoyama to figure out what she is isn’t as simple as it first seems. After all, as the book suggests, Aoyama doesn’t fully understand what it is to be human, so how could he possibly understand an alien? And in a way that’s what is being driven at: how can we, who barely understand ourselves, possibly feel so strongly about other people?
The lady asks, ‘why do I exist?’, but Aoyama has no answer, because why do humans exist? The lady asks, ‘what am I?’, but Aoyama has no answer, because what are ‘humans’?
There’s also an undercurrent of death. If The Eccentric Family paints a family trying to move on in the shadow of a death, then Penguin Highway is about a child coming awake to the reality of death. In the end he’s able to hold out hope that he will meet with the Lady again someday, but he also feels the pain of losing someone forever. In all likelihood he’s too young to grasp that she’s truly gone, but you get the sense that he will someday learn, accept, and move forward with his life.
Aoyama, being both an analytical person and a fourth grader, is surprisingly perfect for this book. He’s smart: a lot smarter than kids his age, but he is still very much a kid. His best friend, Uchida, gets shafted in the movie. Rather than a scientist, Uchida is more of a philosopher. For all Aoyama’s objective approach to life, Uchida’s questions and musings about death are the questions Aoyama cannot answer. Not that Aoyama is bothered by this: if anything, he feels more determined than ever so want to understand these questions from a rational viewpoint. But from his comments at the end of the book, you get the sense that he’s recognising the limitations of rational thought. He wants to understand why he was so attracted to the Lady, and not simply in biological terms. Thus he takes his tentative first steps into the realm of emotion, which tends more towards philosophy (which ties in to the earlier questions of existence). All of this is either lost or heavily downplayed in the movie. Heck, it’s not even super apparent in the novel. And that’s why I think the movie still has merit. The text description of the town coming alive with penguins will never match watching it happen to the swell of music. In that sense, the movie actually manages to be more emotionally gripping than the book, while capturing enough of the themes to still feel like it has a message. Meanwhile the book, while still highly charming, has a bit more going on beneath the surface than it might first appear. Ultimately I’d say it’s the rare event in which both works justify their own existence.
|
|
Derman
Oracle Knight
I still don't have a knife tag on my golden birth knife
Posts: 194
|
Post by Derman on Sept 15, 2019 8:13:47 GMT -5
So in the end the double bill thing was mostly just miscommunication between me and my roommate (and some really bad wording in the bills themselves).
Clean endings/resolutions are what annoys me in a lot of anime. Killing someone to avoid resolving a conflict between characters is dumb, and it's literally taking the easy way out. And like you said, it's really not applicable to real life.
Just as dumb is to randomly kill off a character before they can tell something they really need to tell. FE:3H did this with one character, where he literally had 3-4 months to tell the protagonist something, and then right as he's trying to tell the thing, we get interrupted because we need to go somewhere, so he promises to finish the thought after. And of course the dude dies in the 'somewhere' before he can tell anything, and we've been teased some shocking revelations for half of the game for nothing. God I hate FE:3H sometimes.
Also, that "Imagine" is probably the worst thing I've seen on youtube. It's not bad enough to be entertaining, it's just bad.
|
|