I don't even know where to start with talking about October and November.
There was the shitstorm that happened in Israel by Hamas. There was the shitstorm that happened in Palestine by Israeli bombs hitting civilians unaffiliated with Hamas. This situation is 100% more nuanced. There is the shitstorm still happening in Ukraine. There was the shitstorm happening in the US House of Representatives that culminated in electing a hateful bigot and chauvinist (e.g. a white evangelical christian male who helped Donald J. Trump try to overturn the 2020 election and continues to believe that the election was stolen and has repeatedly espoused his hateful view of the LGBTQ+ community and denied the bodily autonomy of women to make their own choices regarding their own reproductive health). There have been strikes from writers, actors, autoworkers, healthcare workers, and teachers happening on a monthly if not weekly basis (I support workers above corporate/CEO profits).
But I also was able to see a bunch of my family and some friends during the last week of October as my parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, which just is a bonkers amount of time to be alive. Based on my family history of men living past a certain point, I'll be lucky to make it to 84. I was able to talk a bit with Dr. Potts at the party briefly while I wasn't stressing/panicking over the speech I was supposed to give along with my siblings, and while making sure that The Squire was trying to open the door to the chiropractic office in the courtyard of the hotel, trying to push open the visually enticing emergency exits, or blowing out any candle he could see. I surprisingly did not drink a lot at that party as I was trying to not have another migraine like the one I had the previous night (tightening headband with boulders in my eyeballs type of migraine). I also was able to meet up with Dellanos where we talked about various games we're playing, free games from Amazon Prime, and Castlevania: Nocturne.
Speaking of Castlevania: Nocturne, since we didn't talk about it last month, was an amazing follow-up to the first four seasons of Castlevania. Yes, liberties were taken with some of the characters and events, just like they were in the first four seasons, but overall, I am very happy. What I am a little worried about is that there is a semi-large contingent of vocal people/accounts on YouTube/Twitter/etc wanting the series to jump into Symphony of the Night and not see the events of Rondo of Blood. I mean, the first series took four seasons to tell what was essentially Castlevania III (with obvious expansion on characters from Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness) and I would be disappointed if only the first season of Castlevania: Nocturne was supposed to cover all of Rondo of Blood. I think I just want this new series to take its time as it seems to have been doing this first season and I just need to not read and/or pay attention to people demanding that season 2 be Symphony of the Night.
Show-wise, Conklederp and I finished the first season of Ahsoka, and while I probably could write an article or five about this, I'll just say that I enjoyed it overall, and hope that more scenes of a certain character only using the force (as their ally) are present in future Star Wars endeavors in the future because that fight scene was my favorite since The Last Jedi. We are also part way through the second season of Our Flag Means Death, and while feeling different from the first season, I do enjoy Taika Watiti's writing and acting and everything. And Bronson Pinchot in episode 5 as Ned Low was one of the highlights, at least of the first five episodes. I'll probably think of other shows we have watched since October sometime around the middle of the month.
Yes, I am still playing Tears of the Kingdom, although I think I might be done by the end of the month/year. I recently passed the 250-hour mark, I have completed four of the (maybe?) five dungeons, I have the Master Sword (and all that that entails as far as story/flashbacks go). I feel like, this might be my favorite Legend of Zelda game that I have played over the past 35 years? But that should not take away from how much I love any of the previous LoZ games. Best? I dunno. Favorite. Maybe?
Speaking of time spent in a video game, I just cleared the 44-hour mark in Final Fantasy XIII which means that Lightning & Co. are now on Gran Pulse and I am just running around doing quests for the Cei'th to complete their focus; or you know, like hunting marks for Montblanc in Final Fantasy XII, but in a smaller area. Dr. Potts was right though, that by this point in the game, for SE to only now introduce an open-world map, feels almost too late as I kind of just want to continue the story and not grind for more levels.
On the Switch, for Halloween, I also started Remothered: Tormented Fathers since it looked more cinematic and visually interesting than either Signalis or Milk Outside a Bag of Milk Outside a Bag of Milk. While I had some idea of what I thought I was getting into, by the third chapter, I really did not expect this level of frustration, but I will cover all of that in an upcoming First Impressions article.
I also finished "Swords of Eveningstar: The Knights of Myth Drannor" and started "Escape from Undermountain" but I think because I bought on-sale copies of those books as opposed to having checked them out from our library, I find that I am reading them at a significantly slower pace. "SoE" ended up being as slightly confusing as I was expecting a book by Ed Greenwood to be, but I ended up really liking the flow of the book and how a lot of the character interactions felt like sessions of D&D. "EfU" is more straightforward, but might run the risk of not having enough meat on its bones. There are a few passages that go into the actual construction of Undermountain and bits and pieces of Halaster and that is when I become invested.
Let's cut it off there for length so that I have time to do some editing and publishing before I start in on articles for the rest of the month.
~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
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