u/EliasBouchardFan1

Basically: Character A is introduced in chapter 1 as "The Strongest" -> the series goes on for 500 more chapters -> characters are introduced with progressively more outlandish abilities to maintain standard "fighting series" escalation -> Character A's title is not contested, meaning they are still somehow The Strongest (tm) despite not being capable of any of that crazy shit (because it wasn't introduced yet)

I'll use the Red Mist from PM's games as an example. She is explicitly labelled "The Strongest", a title that has never been challenged, and in terms of feats she is still certainly the most impressive character; but it gets funnier as the franchise progresses and characters become capable of more absurd stuff (Rend Space for example, or whatever bullshit Arayashiki does) and we just have to believe that Geb is still the strongest despite her moveset boiling down to "Swing Sword" and "Swing Sword Really Hard".

Got any more examples? I don't have an issue with this or anything, to clarify. I just think it's funny.

I don't know how relatable any of this will be to you lot, hopefully at least a little.

One of the recurring ideas or themes that circulate in my head is that of an obscure or secret (to everyone else) goal to my life, something that I feel the need to dedicate myself entirely to, even to the point of death.

I thought about this when I was reading Moby Dick a while back. The Captain is willing to sacrifice everything and everyone including himself to satisfy his 'monomania', and while this is obviously insane, I did find myself envying him a little. Some part of me wishes that I could have my own 'monomania'. I tried explaining this to a therapist once and she didn't get it at all lmao...

While I am thoroughly anti-religion, one of the things I can appreciate about the deeply religious sorts is the utter devotion to some "sacred" task, the abandonment of all normal and "earthly" things for the sake of this task; like those Buddhist monks who set themselves aflame or refrain from food and water to "mummify" themselves before death.

One might call it ridiculous, "why would you waste your life chasing some nonsense like that?" But, we're all wasting our lives, aren't we? We're all gonna end up dead and buried. I'd rather spend that life doing something I am absolutely sure of, than spend it aimlessly meandering in apathy and ennui.

In other words, will future (as in, hundreds of years from now) anthropologists discuss Fate/Stay Night in the same breath as Le Morte d'Arthur?

Not sure if this fits the sub, just think the topic is interesting.

I'm certainly not an expert on any myth or literary cycle but that's how these things work, right? There's no governing body that says whether or not you can belong to Arthurian Myth, if your work is sufficiently popular it'll be considered relevant, no? It's not like any of the medieval authors who wrote of King Arthur knew him personally, or any better than Nasu did.

I picked up Orlando Furioso recently and I found it interesting how, despite being written like 800 years after the guy died, the poem is almost inextricable from the mythical Roland. If he appears in a modern adaptation, it'll probably pull from Furioso. Which does make me wonder if, in another 500 years from now, Roland will appear alongside a pair of fancy gloves that he used to wipe out half of the Southern branch of the Middle, because that's just part of the myth now.

Though, if this does turn out to be the case, I pity the poor future scholars who will have to untangle the spaghetti that is Fate Grand Order.

...Well, I finished it two days ago but it needed some time to simmer.

I heard a lot of praise for this game before I played it, like a *lot*, some people talk about this game as if it cured all their ailements, got them off then brought them breakfast in bed. But now that I've finished it... I kinda get where they're coming from. All I knew about this game beforehand was basically "Awesome lesbian couple and the Evil and Intimidating Lord of Carcosa", and I did get those things, but quite a bit more as well. I'd put this game up there with Silent Hill 2 and 3 in terms of survival horror, it's genuinely crazy work for a two person team.

I thought it was kind of funny how blatantly the game rips from its inspirations though. Silent Hill is all over this game, the save screen, the bathroom mirror at the start, the photograph in the inventory, the overall plot (EUTHANIZE YOUR WIFE, NOW!!!), the butterfly room, the final boss playing out akin to Walter/the Conjurer from SH4, the industrial grates and viscera, the blob-headed knife-nurses, the whole story being centered around a powerful "psychic" girl (Alessa from SH1), etc etc etc.

I also noticed a good deal of Evangelion in it; the 'meat collective' is basically Instrumentality, the Replikas are prone to "Persona Degradation" like the Evas, which is something caused by being reminded of who they were as humans (Except unlike Evas, they don't go berserk, they just realize they can demand rights lol); Replikas are also powered by some esoteric divine force that their creators don't fully understand (Adam/AT Fields/whatever the hell else was going on in Eva).

There was a good bit of NieR in there too, with the Gestalt/Replika (or Replicant) thing, and the infinite cycle of wife-strangling (or in Automata's case, boyfriend-strangling). And the robots all have to be hot for some reason.

Getting into specifics:

1. The King in Yellow. I knew he would be involved before playing as I said earlier, and as I also predicted, he would never actually appear or even be proven to exist. Such is common in TKIY stories (ever seen True Detective?). Yet his shadow -or rather cloak- is all over this game. Everything that is not red is yellow. The book itself, which I'm pretty sure is supposed to be the play and not the Robert Chambers short story collection, is present. Carcosa, the Black Stars, time is a flat circle, etc. the whole gang is here.

Personally, I don't think the King actually existed. I think Ariane created him. In the Repairer of Reputations (which is the only Chambers story I've bothered to read) we are told that the play is banned basically everywhere it ends up; there, it's because the play allegedly drives people mad, which is not something that is ever confirmed (Hildred was probably already batshit, let's be real). But in Signalis, I believe it was also banned simply because it was artwork that did not promote the Nation. I think that's why Ariane was so obsessed with it. It was counter-cultural, rebellious. It had no supernatural power whatsoever though. She repeatedly paints Carcosa (which I believe is the island we are constantly shown) because it is described so evocatively in the play (judging by the small snippet we get. I'm taking some liberties here.) How could it not stick in her mind? And what other pieces of art would she even have been exposed to, living like that? Probably zilch.

Then Ariane blows a cosmic fuse in the cryopod and suddenly everything is drenched in yellow, suddenly the shadows lengthen in lost Carcosa.

2. Isa. Honestly I don't know what her deal is. I immediately assumed she was the Angela (or hopefully not Eddie) of this game but I never quite understood why she was there, I do appreciate her coming in clutch vs. the big ol' leg monster though. If she's an Itou and Elster is/was an Itou, wouldn't she recognize Elster on sight? Hell, was she even real? She dies in front of a memorial of her death. Kinda threw me off ngl.

3. Adler. When this guy showed up making that face and with a yellow nametag I was like "Wow, this guy could not be more obviously evil." And then he pulled that dirty elevator move and it was assured in my mind. But by the end... I found myself sympathizing with him? It was pitiful seeing him so mangled and broken at the end of the game. He was ultimately just doing his job when he got caught up in something utterly incompherensible, he did what I think everyone would do in that situation: wake up God Wife, and if that fails, start swinging a knife. Both failed (un)fortunately. Of course, his "job" is to oversee a hellish gulag so he's obviously an unkind fellow but then again, he was literally born to do that. It is his programming. What is he supposed to do?

I laughed when I read the guidelines on his model and it said not to put two of him in the same room though, I reckon it's because they'll try to mog each other endlessly.

4. The... meat. I found this odd when I was playing, I assumed the King would be the hidden God behind everything but, the King is not normally associated with meat as far as I know. He's a pretty sterile dude. I think this is representative of whatever God or entity is truly out there, or maybe deep beneath Sierpinski. I believe there is in fact a God at play, beyond Ariane, because I think it's like Silent Hill 1, where Alessa was "connecting" to the already supernatural land the town was built on in order to manifest her powers; sure, Alessa was powerful on her own but before her, there was Samael. Before Ariane, there was... something. Maybe the workers at Sierpinski dug too greedily and too deep, maybe great holes are digged where earth's pores ought to suffice. Maybe this thing is also the "Prometheus" that granted humanity Bioresonance. I can't come to any conclusions.

5. Alina. This has to be the biggest red (or yellow) herring of all time. We spent half the game chasing her and it turns out she had basically nothing to do with anything. Literally just some rando. If Ariane didn't mald so hard over this girl's photograph this game would be 5 hours shorter. It was kinda funny to me, I went from "Find wife!!" to "Who the fuck is this?" in the span of maybe 30 minutes on Rotfront.

6. The ending. I got Promise, and after looking up the others I'd say I got the most satisfiying one. Call me optimistic, but I like to think that it ended the cycle. That this Elster was the little Replika that could, that all others succumbed to injury, were slain by Falke or simply gave up. But not this one. Why was there an Elster in the same pose next to the cryopod that she picks up the armor from? Uh... that one got the Memory ending. Believe it.

Either way it's fucked. I don't know why I ever believe these things will end well. The shot of her dead on the ground at the end is so fucked up, all that nonsense just to end up like that. Genuinely got me and I'm pretty difficult to move emotionally.

Anyway, such is all that I have to say. If you read all this messy rambling I appreciate you.

This happened today. I was walking in a "nice" area when I came across four dogs, one was on top of another, while 2 were looking around and barking. I thought it looked a little suspicious but hey, this is a "nice" area, they're probably docile and used to people.

They were not. I gave a few meters of clearance between me and the dogs but the 2 of them started turning towards me and barking, and then they ran, and so did I. Not my proudest moment to be honest. Instead of running straight ahead in the direction of the sidewalk I ran into traffic and got hit by a motorcycle.

So I'm just like "wtf" and I think I damaged the guy's bike and he was mad, and people started gathering around, and one guy was telling me I should've just stood my ground and the dogs weren't going to do anything anyway. I just went home. Some scratches and burns but overall I'm fine. Guy on the bike was fine I think? He was standing and talking so it seemed that way.

I know I did a stupid thing and should've just turned around at the first sign of trouble, but oh well. At least it wasn't a bus. Just another day in Om el Donyia

I don't know why I'm having so much difficulty finding good information about this, feels like there's only a dozen people on Earth who had this and I'm one of them. Also TMI, sorry.

Throughout Feburary to November 2025 I was on these drugs:

Sertraline (~7 months)

Asenapine (3 or 4 months)

Clomipramine (1 month)

Bupropion (~6 months)

Brexpiprazole (3 or 4 months)

Fluvoxamine (2 or 3 months)

Fluoxetine and Olanzapine (a 2-in-1, sold as Symbyax in the west. 2 months.)

I was on at least 2 or 3 drugs at a time for most of this period, except the last 2 months wherein I only took Symbyax. Dates are all estimates because my memory is soup unfortunately. I went off all of them cold turkey, most by my "doctor"s orders and last by my own decision. I was basically getting ping-ponged between medications every monthly appointment because my condition didn't improve at all. I'm partially convinced my psychiatrist was a fraud to be honest. But this is all beside the point.

Basically nothing in my digestive system works 100% properly anymore. I distinctly remember complaining about constipation a few months into this "treatment" period, so I have to assume it was one of the earlier drugs that caused it (I'm betting on Clomipramine). But nowadays even though I haven't touched a psychiatric drug in several months my guts are a mess.

I've been varying degrees of constipated for about a year at this point except when it cycles to diarrehea, I'm bloated, I get weird acid reflux burps, I struggle to breathe likely because my diaphgram is compressed, I struggle to sleep well because of all the aforementioned stuff, exercise is difficult as well, you get the idea.

I went to a GP a couple months ago with all my prescriptions in hand, and he confirmed my suspicion that I had a "lazy bowel caused by medication". He prescribed me a bunch of laxatives and softeners and such, I took them for about 3 weeks and they helped... a little. But then I stopped all but one (Movicol aka Macrogol, it's supposedly safe for long-term use) and I don't feel like I'm making any progress at all. And yes I do all of the stuff you're supposed to do like eat fiber and drink a lot of water and exercise and such and such.

I know a majority of serotonin is produced in the gut, and I'm guessing that's the cause of my problems (deficiency?) but if that's the case, then what is diet and exercise supposed to accomplish? It's a hormonal problem. How am I supposed to fix that? And please don't say SSRIs, I'm not touching psychiatric medication ever again, I'm sure you can understand why.

All in all, I'm just looking for any useful information here. If you also struggle with this please let me know what you think caused it and what helped you.