04/04/2024
Sorry for radio silence for a month for anyone who actually follows this site or for disappearing midway through an argument on Agora if anyone on there actualyl checks this site but I'm busy IRL visiting family for the holidays and preparing for essays and such - and I'd rather find recreation in passive stuff like books, tv, etc than active stuff like the website and arguing on forums. I'll probably come back when my essays are all done and handed in - so late May.
On the topic of books, I finally finished Les Misérables after getting it for my birthday in 2022. Good book, even if it's obvious that Hugo got away from the editors. Very "epic" for lack of an other word and you can really tell why it became the "bible" for 19th centuary France considering it's far-sweeping narative of the lives of pretty much every social sector - even if it is explicitly left-leaning. I know Hugo praises socialism in the book - but it's vauge enough for it to be unknown whether or not he means socialism socialism or if he's another in the long lines of social democrats who mistakenly call themselves socialists - which probably helped with mass appeal. Good book, but something I can't really talk about in any depth without just repeating stuff the book itself claims is the meaning because it's pretty explicit about the morals and political takes.
Also been playing Spider-Man 2, have some issues. Spoilers!!!:
Not a big fan of the writing so far, the game clearly suffers from being a video-game. Kraven and Venom both seem like casualities of the fact that in a videogame that has to have multiple missions, side-quests, etc you can't just have Spider-man fighting them throughout over and over so instead they have lackeys now.
Kraven's case might be worse in some ways but Venom's seems worse in others.
With Kraven, him sending out wave after waves of goons to do his dirty work really underplays the "alpha-male super-machismo hunter" gimmick he has going on, as much as they try to pull the "he's only sending goons out to deal with enemies not worth his time card". A villain like him - espcially someone who's so bad-ass he's been killing villains offf-screen apparently easily and who is "searching for a worthy opponent" needs to be a one-man show who shows up, kicks as much ass as a whole army and then disappears into the darkness. The actual army just makes him feel like Mister Negative or Kingpin or any of the other "boss" characters. But at least it keeps his basic "Looking for a good hunt/fight gimmick.
The same can't be said for Venom, who I'm more against having goons for how I feel it dilutes his main gimmick than for it making him feel less badass. The section where you play as him, kick ass easily and kill Kraven sells him as a powerful threat enough. But him having goons seems to (I've only got as far as him attacking MJ) have changed his persona and undercuts the main appeal of Venom. On the latter note first, it simply undercuts your "He's the evil version of Spider-man thing when there are tonnes of other weaker evil-Spider-men in the form of the other symbiotes. And for the former, I feel that Venom works best when the host and the symbiote are in-sync in someway - the symbiote wants to help it's owner achieve it's goals but in it's own fucked-up way. That's how it affects Peter in the game, but for some reason the moment it gets on Harry it has nothing to do with his goals and instead just wants to bring more symbiotes to the Earth. No matter how many times the Symbiote says the word "heal" or something to that affect to discribe this plan, it doesn't change the fact that Harry's goals don't naturally translate to that. He's an eco-activist if anything, he has no reason to go along with the whole "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" thing. Hell, because the characters in the game seem to be written as too "cuddly" for lack of a better term (Peter justs wants the best for everyone, so does Miles, MJ is kind of bland but nice, Harry just wants to save the planet, all of Miles' friends and family are nice as is everyone in his neighbourhood, Danika is fucking annoying with how saccharin she feels, even Norman Osborn has gone from asswhole capitalist in the last game to just wanting to save his son) that he seems to just suddenly "turn evil" over Norman (completely out of nowhere) pulls the old "I feel like you were my Son, Peter" in what I believe is their first scene together that's not a flashback (except unlike other Spidey media that has this dynamic, there's no sense that Norman prefers Peter to Harry to fuel any resentment, it's one scene and he mentions he feels like Peter was his son specifically because he spends so much time with his actual one) and his body starts to collapse from not having the symbiote stopping his illness. It really feels like Venom is just the symbiote and that Harry has no real motive so far - to be fair Venom has basically just shown up, so maybe they'll explain away the Symbiote takeover as some way to get "friends/ family who respect him" or something to tie it in with the whole "my friend tried to destroy the suit I need to live and my Dad had literally one line of dialogue where he felt affection for someone other than me thing", but Peter's lines about the Symbiote wanting to recreate it's home planet or whatever it was makes me feel they've only come up with a motive for it, and not Harry too.
Also, a lot of the dialogue is cringey.
Fun game, but bad plot.
See you around,
The dumbfuck