u/Interface-

I saw Universe vs. Tennyson recently and found this part very interesting.

Celestialsapiens are omnipotent, but the catch is they have two separate minds in their heads that need to reach a consensus in order for their physical bodies to act. When Ben invokes the Tetramand trial by combat law, I forget what it's called lmao, he fights the Galactic Gladiator, a Celestialsapien, who is capable of acting with full autonomy because his minds are in harmony.

Later on in the fight, Ben overwhelms Galactic Gladiator with clones or illusions that all assault him at once. In doing so, Galactic Gladiator has to make a lot more choices in a given moment, and when his minds cannot agree on what to do, he fails to act and is quickly defeated by Ben. This establishes that even the most decisive Celestialsapien can be defeated, or at least confused and lose their ability to act, if they become overwhelmed and are attacked by an enemy in large enough numbers.

What do you guys think?

I can imagine the story going in such a way where Faye gets a sort of message out of the Everywhen and Freya's the one who picks it up. Knowing the importance of this, and how much Faye means to Kratos and how it would hurt him to know Faye is still active, Freya goes to settle a 'personal matter' (calling back to Valhalla) and heads off into the Realms to do something that will help Faye in the Everywhen.

We'd have access to Freya's swords, magic, her bow, and her Valkyrie Wings to maintain elevation in the air. Once Freya's part is done we switch back to Faye, her path clear to progress.

Wouldn't that be awesome?

"My son is not your key."

When Odin meets Kratos in Svartalfheim he says Atreus is the key to peace, and that is the first time Kratos actually speaks to him during the conversation - that is, of course, after telling Odin to speak in the first place.

Because Kratos is disturbed by the thought of Atreus ending up like Pandora. Pandora was a living key. She was used, and she died. Odin is inadvertently threatening to do the exact same thing to Atreus, and he definitely doesn't even realise it.

This scene in general is a fucking masterpiece and there’s so many subtle details. The spears behind Odin when he says he wants peace; Odin picking up a tool when Mimir shit-talks him because he wants to torture him again; his refusal to step back despite Kratos scaring the shit out of him; Kratos ignoring him again until Odin calls him a monster which earns him a glare. It's incredible. But Kratos' reaction to Atreus being called a key? I don't see people talk about that.

I don't play COD very often, just on my brother's PS5 a couple times a week. In playing online I progress his battle pass and I scratch the itch only COD can it seems.

Recently there's been a new event added to the game that has introduced a new gun, the Mammoth. An LMG. Haven't unlocked it yet but have VSed other players with it and have stolen one off a player I managed to kill. After having used it myself, and plenty of my deaths having been to it,, I checked the stats screen.

At risk of sounding like a scrub who complains about everything, I have to say - this thing is overtuned.

Without attachments adjusting the stat spread, it does 55 damage to all parts of the body within 32 metres, except the head which is 68 but it doesn't really matter because it doesn't make much of a difference. At 408 rounds per minute, 6.8 rounds per second, and only two hits needed to kill you, with no pre-fire delay, this gun will drop you extremely fast, in just shy of 0.3 seconds.

Now I'm going to preface this with saying, I do use high-damaging weapons. Normally I use the M10 Breacher shotgun, Warden .308 Marksman Rifle (w/ damage barrel), and the MXR 17 assault rifle, all in separate loadouts.

- The M10 Breacher is an instant kill at short range but you need to be accurate with it, otherwise you may die before you can rechamber. You can hold the trigger to increase the damage range and tighten the spread, and ADS to stack that even more to get kills at longer ranges, but you can't exactly cross-map someone with it. It's good for a run and gun playstyle using Gung Ho where you sprint around charging the trigger so you can instantly fire on release, probably one of the better Gung Ho guns. For a similar reason, my secondary in its loadout is the Siren, another charge-fire weapon.

- The Warden is an instant kill to the torso, head, and shoulders with the damage barrel at a long range, but too long a range and you still need to shoot twice. A sniper rifle does better than it at long ranges, and an assault rifle at short ranges, but I have Prestige Mastered this weapon and made it work at all ranges, I know how to move to bait shots and line up my reticle to shoot as I exit cover etc. In spite of my mastery of this weapon, I still do panic-fire in a close to medium ranged firefight, sometimes I win and sometimes I lose. 8 shots and an extremely lengthy reload, means a death sentence if I don't land a hit or if I don't kill the group that's coming at me before running out. My secondary slot is reserved for the ARC M1 launcher because I have made it my mission to wipe out every single UAV, CUAV, and HARP that spawns into the match.

- The MXR 17 is alright, three shots to kill normally, but with the headshot damage multiplier barrel, headshots will pass the breakpoint of 50 damage to two-shot on a headshot. This rewards you for precision aiming, and yes it is quick when you get your aim right, but that is a reward for playing well. My secondary is the M1911, another two-to-kill weapon, but I personally struggle with pistols and hardly use it, though I am going to try out Tactical Stance with the pistol as I believe my issue is the sights on pistols obscure the screen too much for me (don't ask me how that works, that's my brain).

Now, what's wrong with the Mammoth?

- Kills in two shots to any part of the body. You do not need to be precise with it. Point and shoot twice, you win,

- Fast fire rate to kill in less than half a second when, again, all you need to do is hit the body twice,

- 50 round magazine so you can keep on spraying,

- 32 metres before damage falloff,

- attachments can make all of these even worse

The only real downside is the slow ADS speed (452ms) which can be mitigated with attachments, whether you speed up your ADS speed or narrow down your hipfire accuracy so you don't have to. And of course LMGs make you slow but you can just swap your weapon.

None of the other LMGs cross the 50 damage breakpoint even with attachments and, honestly, it feels bad to die in just two shots. Like I'd actually prefer to die in three shots from one of the other LMGs, knowing that I could at least register where the damage is coming from and maybe, but of course not likely, get the chance to face my attacker before the death screen, or be lucky enough that they miss one and it gives me just enough time to shoot back with my Warden and barely escape that firefight alive. Against the Mammoth, I'm dead in two shots before I even register it. I'd actually rather get one-shot by any marksman rifle or sniper than two-shot by the Mammoth.

I know, it's an online focused game and powercreep is inevitable but this is kind of extreme in my opinion. Of course I'm not super well versed in the art of shooter game balance so I can't really suggest ways to change it aside from nerfing the damage which could end up making the gun useless.

At least MW4 is coming out sooner or later, and I know my brother is going to buy it, so I'll likely be moving onto that fresh start and we'll see how long it lasts before the devs powercreep it again.

In the inFAMOUS series, Conduits possess an enhanced healing factor in the form of passive regeneration and active healing from absorption. I'm hoping to get a calc as to how potent the factor relative to regular human healing.

inFamous Wiki Entry for 'Conduits' (Fandom)

Cutscenes

- in inFamous, Cole was comatose for nearly three weeks after the Ray Sphere went off and gave him his powers. From full-body burns and being injured to the point he limped his way out of ground zero and to the Neon District, to two weeks later in peak health. Presumably his injuries had gone away or at least partly healed sooner than that, as Cole is not depicted as having burns on his skin in the comic book style cinematics after this prologue, the first scene starting off from the moment Cole passed out in the Neon District. Gameplay after the prologue starts from Day 14 of the Quarantine, which happened four days after the Blast, meaning gameplay begins 18 days after the Blast. Relevant Video - inFAMOUS 1 Prologue

- in inFamous 2, Cole is on the back of a pickup truck with Lucy Kuo and Dr Sebastian Wolfe before they collide head-on with a semi truck. This sends their pickup truck flying off the road and crashing on the beach. Lucy Kuo survived whereas Sebastian Wolfe died. Cole landed a distance away and had to crawl into a water outlet pipe to hide. If you look at his leg during the cinematic it is bent below the knee, suggesting his leg was broken, and he was clutching his ribs suggesting possible broken ribs and other internal damages. The game skips forward by four hours after the cinematic ends and Cole was walking, but had to steady himself. When you start the next mission, Cole appears to be in peak condition, though whether that's from passive healing or absorption is not confirmed. Relevant Video - inFamous 2 'Wolfe Hunt' - Timestamp 16:57

- in inFamous: Second Son, Delsin Rowe gets his legs pierced by concrete daggers which, according to x-rays and statements by other characters, have literally fused with the bones of the rest of the Akomish tribe. This trauma is slowly killing the tribe, which is why Delsin is going after Augustine so he can copy her powers and take them out so the Akomish can survive. Delsin, being a Conduit, was rendered comatose for one week, after which he was fully healed and in peak condition. Relevant Video - inFamous: Second Son, first Karmic Choice. Timestamp from 5:45-end. 'One Week' statement comes later, not in this video.

- also in inFamous: Second Son, Delsin is attacked by looters on his way to Seattle. He takes two pistol rounds to the chest (it looks to be an M1911) and goes down, blacking out. A few seconds later (between five and ten perhaps), Delsin's injuries heal as he chuckles then gets back up. Relevant Video

Gameplay

- After taking damage from any source, following a period of time where you take no more damage (up to 15 seconds I believe), you will automatically begin to regenerate health. The games do not differentiate between damage types or sources.

- Absorbing your fuel gives rapid healing. You can out-heal most sources of continuous damage in this way, and go from low to full in the time it takes to drain the source to empty (roughly five seconds, faster in i2 with the drain speed upgrade).

- Bosses and Conduit enemies do not heal in gameplay in any of the inFamous games. This is a gameplay mechanic and is not reflective of lore.

Lore

- All Conduits have a natural fast healing factor. Conduits who have fuel based powers can absorb their fuel to heal rapidly and instantly.

- Conduit healing functions on a molecular level and also repairs clothes according to the cinematic where Delsin gets shot.

- The Beast / John White is capable of reconstructing himself atom-by-atom, as stated when he appears in inFamous 2. He is a particularly powerful Conduit, his consciousness existing on a subatomic level or potentially independent from his body as he put himself back together after getting hit by an actual thermonuclear missile. Relevant Video - John appears in inFamous 2

Comics

I have not read the comics in full, so I am unaware of healing factor based feats here.

Two weeks until the next chapter

"The Fireflies were wrong because you can't vaccinate against fungus so they were the bad guys and Joel was right to kill them."

Even if that were true, which it is not, why is the line drawn there?

Bearing in mind I'm primarily talking about the games here. I haven't watched the TV series, but from what I've gleaned from a bit of research it's basically the same thing, but with theories as to the proper explanation (mother infected while pregnant, I believe?). Onto the topic though;

Cordyceps can't infect real human beings. But we accept that because that's the rules of the setting.

Cordyceps does not turn insects into cannibals or otherwise make them eat other insects. But we accept that humans become cannibals in The Last Of Us because that's the rules of the setting.

Cordyceps doesn't actually control the brain in insects in real life. It hijacks the muscles and the poor things are along for the ride as it pilots their bodies and forces them to climb before self-destructing to rain down spores over a large area. But we accept that it grows in the brain in infected humans and they swarm in dark and wet places to die and spread spores because that's the rules of the setting.

Cordyceps doesn't mutate insects into more grotesque and disgusting forms that are stronger, faster, act different, blow their heads open and make them sense via echolocation or throw spore pockets that explode at a distance. But we accept that it does this to humans in-universe, because that's the rules of the setting.

Instead, the line is drawn at vaccinating against the Cordyceps using Ellie's infection. Because in real life, you cannot vaccinate against fungal infections.

But that argument is not valid. Because we don't know the rules of the setting in that regard.

Ellie is believed to be the first and most likely only person in the world who is immune to the Cordyceps - but she isn't immune to the Cordyceps, she is already infected with it. It just hasn't zombified her. We don't know whether it's a mutated strain of Cordyceps or if it's specific to her as a person down to the genetics (again, in the games, I'm not caught up on the TV series).

In order to even try to manufacture a vaccine out of Ellie's Cordyceps, they need to harvest it from her brain which would kill her in the process. What do they do next? Run tests, or slather the sample on a blade and stab someone with it then see what happens? Will it infect them and make them go zombie mode or will it render them immune to the actual zombifying strain of Cordyceps? It's not like all vaccines are vials and needles of a liquid that you inject into someone's arm. Did you know you can be exposed to cowpox and that builds up your immunity against smallpox, ergo VACCINATING you against smallpox? That would be the exact same thing as being exposed to Ellie's benign strain - if it worked and didn't zombify you. If it works, they are immune by virtue of already being infected by the benign strain, ergo VACCINATED against the malignant strain, am I not correct?

It's all 'if'. Not 'when'.

We don't know if it would work, thanks to Joel.

The Fireflies could have been right. The Fireflies could have been wrong. Joel could have been right. Joel could have been wrong. Yes, the Fireflies fucked up. They put Ellie on the table and under the knife without consent, goodbyes, or informing Joel about it beforehand. Yes, Joel fucked up. He killed a dozen soldiers and the three surgeons in that room to save a girl he treated as and thought of as his own daughter.

What matters is that Joel robbed the world of the possibility of a vaccine, whereas the Fireflies acted unethically, sent him outside without his gear which would likely result in his own death, put Ellie under to start the operation without consent or properly informing any party, and may or may not have killed Ellie in vain.

The vaccine may have worked. The vaccine may not have worked.

That is an intentionally unwritten rule of the setting.

To say that either side is wrong ruins the final conflict. It's meant to be ambiguous. You are meant to not know. And you cannot apply real life science to a fictional setting that already has its own rules just to say 'Fireflies bad Joel good'.

I went to r/PeterExplainsTheJoke first but the vast majority of users there resorted to attacking and downvoting me for not knowing instead of explaining the fucking joke, so that's the last time I ever go there because it's become a circlejerk of "you can't be this stupid" even if it's reasonable for someone to not know. Suffice it to say I've deleted that post.

I know why Robert / Granddad attacked the guy - he is aggressive and prone to violence.

I know why Robert is at the TSA - he is unhireable anywhere else.

I have watched the Boondocks, over ten years ago and never since, so if there's context in the show about the shampoo bottle then I'm not aware of it.

I have never been on a plane or in an airport.

I **don't** know what the issue is with the full-size shampoo bottle.