This Is The Least Tight Thing That's Ever Happened To Me.

[rionaleonhart]

My favourite moments in BioShock Infinite so far:

- I leapt aboard a zeppelin and sabotaged its engines, then couldn't find any skylines on which to make my escape. My big heroic taking-down-a-zeppelin moment ended with Booker just standing there on the crashing zeppelin, looking confused (or so I imagine), until it hit the ground and he passed out. 'Booker, that was amazing!' exclaimed Elizabeth, rather generously, having just brought me back from the brink of death because I'm incompetent.

- 'Look at this one,' Elizabeth said, crouching by a dead man. 'Do you think he wanted any part of this?' She folded his hands over his chest, very gently, and then pranced over the corpse in her high heels.

- The game gave me the option 'Search Box of Almonds'. I did so. It contained a pineapple.

- Elizabeth and Booker had the following emotional conversation when Booker killed someone:

'Sometimes you have to do what's necessary to survive.'
'There's survival, and then there's finding pleasure in the act.'
'Booker...'
'Look, you seem like a decent enough sort. That said, the less you know about me, the better.'
'Found some money! Catch!'


On a sudden, strange whim, I bought the first four seasons of Community on DVD, having seen up to about halfway through the second season a couple of years ago. I'm rewatching the first season at the moment, and I can categorically state that this purchase was a great decision. Community is fun and silly and oddly charming, and I have to employ all my willpower to keep myself from watching twenty episodes a day. I could do without Pierce (there are very few characters I actively dislike in an 'I think I'd actually prefer this work of fiction without you in it' way; Pierce Hawthorne is, unfortunately, one of them), but otherwise I like just about everything about it.

To my delight and slight embarrassment, I love Jeff/Annie just as much as I did two years ago. I have a terrible tendency to rewind and replay scenes in which they interact so I can overanalyse all their facial expressions. I probably shouldn't be this emotionally invested in a ridiculous sitcom.

(Incidentally, my weird levels of emotional investment mean I am bizarrely concerned about being spoiled for this particular ridiculous sitcom! I've seen up to 2.11, 'Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas'; please don't hint at anything that happens beyond that.)

Comments

[wolfy_writing]

Hi! I have seen absolutely no Community, so you have nothing to fear from me! (I know there is a guy named Abed, but given how far you've watched, you probably know that already.)

Bioshock sounds adorable and ridiculous! I like Booker just standing there cluelessly and Elizabeth being inappropriately bouncy.

[rionaleonhart]

I'm never certain of what tone BioShock Infinite is going for. Sometimes it seems to take itself very seriously; other times... well. It's certainly interesting!

[wolfy_writing]

It probably sounds cuter in my head, because I keep picturing you wandering through some video game landscape, having adventures with a cheerfully enthusiastic young woman who keeps saving you and telling you how great you are. (Except for the speech about enjoying killing people. That definitely doesn't feel like you.)

[magistrate]

[The game gave me the option 'Search Box of Almonds'. I did so. It contained a pineapple.]

Pineapple in a can of lightbulbs box of almonds. What could be weirder than that?

I've also seen zero Community, so nothing to fear from me! I think the most I know about it, other than photosets and reaction gifs on Tumblr, is the snippet of conversation at the end of the Spy Party HAWP, which I can't imagine is spoilery.

But I relate to your feelings about this Pierce Hawthorne fellow. Mostly because I'm still angry at Chuck for including two characters which make the show viscerally unpleasant to watch, even while I really love most of the rest of the show.

[rionaleonhart]

I'm not sure what I just watched, but this Anthony chap looks rather like a friend of mine. Who is a Community fan and plays a lot of videogames. It's unsettling. (Troy and Abed are pretty in love.)

Two characters? That's unfortunate. I can love Community happily enough when Pierce is only one-seventh of the central cast, but two Pierces would probably make things quite a bit trickier.

[magistrate]

You just watched an episode of Hey Ash Whatcha Playin'! It is a pretty excellent webseries which I find entirely too amusing.

And yeah, re: horrible awful characters. Like, Chuck has a genuinely adorable central sibling relationship, and is often really funny, and has some really cool evolving character dynamics, and... then it has these two Socially Awkward Creepster Computer Nerd Dude characters who exist to be excruciating stereotypes for subplots where sexual harassment = hilarity. ~_~ It's unnecessary and awful and I would be recommending the show widely if it weren't for the fact that I find it only barely tolerable, and I imagine that a viewer who had experience of, say, workplace harassment would find it entirely intolerable.

And these characters have nothing to do with most of the plots, they don't contribute credibly to character development, they're just someone's idea of humorous backup. And it's just, ARGH, WHY

[pete_thomas]

I'm dying at the "Search Box of Almonds" comment. X) Isn't it always that way in RPGs?

No Community spoilers from me either, so no worries on my end. :) Just don't become friends with my buddy Shaun, or he'll go look up the entire plot and share it with you, giving you all the reasons why he won't (or will) watch it. :P

[rionaleonhart]

There's also a surprising amount of money and ammo to be found in bins. Who's throwing these things away? (And, on one particularly perplexing occasion, I discovered two potatoes in a toilet. The game offered me the option of eating them. I declined.)

[pete_thomas]

Haha! This reminds me of Earthbound now:

"Ness dug around in the trash can. Well, let's see here... There is a Hamburger inside! Ness takes it."

*later, in battle*

"Ness eats the hamburger. Ness recovers 48 HP!"

[chamekke.livejournal.com]

\o/ Community is lovely and I'm glad you're rediscovering it. What are your favourite eps so far?

No spoilers, I promise, but just bear in mind when you get to Season 4 that it's the year Dan Harmon was 'away'... and it shows. Fortunately Season 5 is a return to form.

[rionaleonhart]

The episode that had the greatest impact on me on my first watch was 'Debate 109', because my taste in Community episodes is painfully obviously influenced by my 'shipping preferences. I rewatched it last night with my housemate. Having company meant I couldn't rewind and rewatch scenes, of course, so this morning I woke up at seven, went straight to the television and watched all the Jeff/Annie bits again multiple times. I'm deeply ashamed of myself.

Hmm, what episodes do I like for respectable reasons? I remember really enjoying the vaguely post-apocalyptic tone of 'Modern Warfare', the paintball episode, so I'm looking forward to reaching that.

I'm sorry to hear that the fourth season isn't great, but it's certainly good news that the show managed to recover!

[milliebee.livejournal.com]

I love it when games accidentally allow things to happen that really shouldn't. Much like my Dragon Age game, where after my Warden started dating Alistair, I realised it was still possible to sleep with Zevran. Then I was laughing too hard to go back to my previous save, forever leaving my Warden a cheating scumbag.

Ahhh, Community is wonderful! I haven't actually caught up yet; I really ought to. From what I understand, nobody liked Pierce Hawthorne. His actor, Chevy Chase, isn't much better in person, I understand. He got booted off the show in the latest season, to everyone's relief.

[rionaleonhart]

Ha! I've never played Dragon Age, but it's good of it to give you that option.

I look forward to finding out what the show is like without Pierce! Although I suppose I've got quite a bit to get through first.

[milliebee.livejournal.com]

It depends how far you get into romances whether you can still romance other characters. There is a point where, after my Warden declared her undying love for Alistair, Zevran went, 'Hoooo, okay I'm going to back away now, buh-bye.' It gives you a decent amount of time to get to know all the romanceable options before that happens though. :)

It's quite different by the time he leaves, in some ways, but not really any worse. The last episode I watched was just as funny and bizarre as any in the first series!

[newbie1990.livejournal.com]

Ah, I am determined to 'ship Jeff/Shirley ever since I saw the interest 'the inevitable jeff/shirley kiss'. And Annie/Britta. And Troy/Britta. And Abed/Annie. And so many things. I haven't watched it for a long time, and I never even finished the first season, though, so.

[rionaleonhart]

That's a pretty great interest! I'll be very surprised and, I'll admit, slightly disappointed if Jeff and Shirley don't kiss at some point. So long as Pierce isn't involved, I'm happy to 'ship just about anything within that study group, but Jeff/Annie is very much where my heart lives. He's a cynic; she's an idealist; he's twice her age; there's genuine fondness and awkward tense silences; I was doomed from the start.