Trabia Garden

A friend mentioned she'd seen a comment about Light Yagami on a video about Shakespeare.

Riona: I suddenly and desperately want to see Death Note as written by Shakespeare.
Mori: Be the change you want to see.

I apologise for the results. This soliloquy is set during this scene from the first chapter of the manga (read the manga pages from right to left).

I... don't think I'll write any more of this? I very much hope I'm not going to write any more of this.


LIGHT:
Two men lie dead because I wrote their names,
A monstrous act - but wait, were not those men
Of monstrous acts themselves both culpable?
And yet the second weighs upon my soul;
His acts were grave, yet, to be met with death -
Before my eyes, a swift and brutal sight -
The penalty I dealt the man was steep;
Too steep, perhaps, for me to justify.
But - no. Why should I lie awake in bed
With visions of these ghosts within my mind?
What right have they to torment me like this?
The world is better off without their kind.
I'll wield my pen and cleanse the world of sin:
My right, my duty. Come now, let's begin.

I dreamt last night of the 'Light wanks in front of the hidden cameras' scenario I speculated on in my last entry, and, moreover, that Light internally asked 'Are you watching, L?' in fierce triumph before getting started, and I cannot believe I now have to report that to you guys, thus making this my third entry in a row about Light Yagami masturbating.

That's it, I promise. None of the rest of the notes in this entry are about masturbation. Although, I'll be honest, a small segment might actually be worse.

I'm up to episode twenty-five in my Death Note rewatch!


( Spoilers up to episode twenty-five of Death Note. )


Riona: I love that we keep pausing this show to analyse it.
Tem: Very Light and L behaviour.

Originally, Death Note: The Musical was only supposed to be on in London for two nights, but the original Palladium run sold out so quickly that they added four more days at the Lyric Theatre. Could I resist?

No. No, obviously I couldn't. I went to see Death Note: The Musical with Tem at the Lyric matinée yesterday, and I had an absolute blast.

I found myself oddly nervous as I waited for the musical to begin, as if Light Yagami was going to walk on stage, look straight at me and expect me to hold a conversation. (This did not happen.)

Technically, this was Death Note: The Musical in Concert; it wasn't quite a full production. But it felt like a pretty full experience; it definitely wasn't just singing! The set design and costuming was cool; the shinigami costumes in particular were fantastic. The lighting was great. The choreography was fairly light for most numbers, but it was still very much present. To be honest, going too heavy on the choreography might have been dangerous; the cool multi-level set design allowed a single set to represent multiple locations, but it would have made it difficult for actors to move around too fast.

The dialogue was the aspect that made it clearest that this wasn't the full final musical; it clearly aimed to move from song to song as quickly as possible. But the show still told a complete story and, even if I can envision a version with more fleshed-out segments between songs, the dialogue we did get still clearly paid attention to character.

Below the cut, I talk in unnecessary detail about the musical, going through more or less song-by-song. Here's the official English album, in case you want to listen along.

I've put an asterisk next to my favourite songs. My favourite songs make up most of the soundtrack; there are a lot of great songs! I've specifically asterisked the songs I like the most on the basis of their sound, so, although I thought e.g. 'I'm Ready' was a great experience in performance, it doesn't have an asterisk. (I notice I've asterisked every single song Light has a part in, though, so it's possible my character bias also has an influence here.)


( Entirely too much talking about Death Note: The Musical in Concert. )


Even if there was some room for improvement, I loved every moment of the Death Note musical, and I'd absolutely come back if they ever brought a full-scale production to London!

Describing the experience to our other housemates afterwards, Tem commented, 'The moment Light came on stage and started singing, I looked over at Riona, and she was smiling so fondly. It was like we were watching a school play and her child had just come on.'

Taskmaster NZ is back!! I'm so pleased. I'd genuinely struggle to say whether I prefer the New Zealand version or the original UK one; Greg Davies is a much stronger Taskmaster, but Paul Williams might be my favourite assistant, and the NZ version frequently has such great tasks.

Paul Williams went through a lot in the first episode of series four, which bodes extremely well for the rest of the series. I'm sorry, Paul; I love you, but in the scary 'I really want to see this guy get fucked up' way I love my favourite fictional characters.

I wonder what it'd be like if Taskmaster UK and Taskmaster NZ swapped assistants for an episode. It'd be a relaxing holiday for Alex, although I think he'd miss the abuse. Paul, meanwhile, would have a terrifying experience; Greg would eat him alive.

I don't think I've mentioned the Australian version here before, but Taskmaster AU is also worth a watch! Only one season so far, but the tasks are great fun and it has a strong opening cast; Nina and Julia in particular are both fantastic contestants. Nina is an endearingly enthusiastic disaster, and Julia, clearly having a great time, is a wildcard who swings wildly between 'barely making an effort' and 'committing to an alarming extent'.

Tom Gleeson is the Taskmaster for the Australian version, and he's good at it. I prefer Greg, but Gleeson has enough presence, quick wit and delight in messing with the contestants to feel suited to the role.

Tom Cashman doesn't quite have the quality I'm looking for in a Taskmaster's assistant. I can envision him having a normal life when the cameras are turned off, which doesn't entirely seem right; Alex and Paul both feel weird all the way through. But Cashman is solid enough, and he occasionally can't hold back his laughter when a contestant is being particularly disastrous, which I find endearing.


On an entirely different note, Tem and I have started playing Master Detective Archives: Rain Code!

We're not far in - we've only just entered the first labyrinth - but so far it feels like a sort of blend of Danganronpa and AI: The Somnium Files, with all the tonal irreverance and horniness that that implies. We've cheerfully embraced this.

Game: More DP means a higher Detective Rank!
Tem: That's why Columbo always looks so scruffy.

Shinigami: We exchanged an intimate, secret pact, just between us.
Riona: Did we fuck the ghost?
Tem: It does feel like we fucked the ghost.
Shinigami: What? You've forgotten all about how we were so passionately bound together?
Tem: We fucked the ghost.

Oh, no, this game has quick-time events? I'm fine with these in Playstation games, but I don't know the Switch button layout off the top of my head! I never really thought about how important it is to be familiar with the controller for these things; 'X is down, triangle is up, square is left, circle is right' is second nature for me, but of course that won't be the case for everyone.

The first quick-time event glitched somehow, and the prompt was only on screen for maybe an eighth of a second. I thought the game was intentionally presenting an impossible QTE as a joke about how silly QTEs are.

We've got into the habit of announcing 'Master Detective!' at the screen whenever one of the Master Detectives states the obvious. This is not an infrequent occurrence.

Every character name in this game is absolutely ludicrous. 'Zilch Alexander' is a particular standout. Although it's not quite on the level of the Death Note: Another Note light novel, which featured characters named Beyond Birthday, Quarter Queen and Backyard Bottomslash. (And those are only the ones I remembered off the top of my head. Looking those names up to confirm I'd got them right, I found I'd somehow forgotten about Believe Bridesmaid and Blues-harp Babysplit.)

I've now experienced The Dark Pictures: House of Ashes!

The preceding game in the anthology, Little Hope, scared me so badly I could barely handle playing it. To take the pressure off for House of Ashes, Tem and I watched a Let's Play by theRadBrad instead. It's a shame I'll never know who would have survived if I'd played myself, but I'm not strong enough!

House of Ashes was a much less terrifying experience than Little Hope. That's probably largely because I wasn't playing it myself, but I also question whether House of Ashes is a horror story at all.


( Thoughts on House of Ashes. )


House of Ashes is undoubtedly a more polished effort than Man of Medan and Little Hope, the preceding games in the Dark Pictures anthology. The graphics are better, the facial animations are more natural, and I think the character writing is probably also stronger. Objectively speaking, House of Ashes is probably the best game of the three.

But I think Little Hope is probably my favourite, even if I hated every second of playing it. It had the strongest atmosphere by far, and I feel that it also had the most interesting concept, although I can understand why that's a controversial view.

As Tem points out, while they're often lumped together in discussion, the Little Hope resolution is stronger than the Man of Medan resolution because it tells us something about the characters. The story of Man of Medan could have played out with any group of people who happened to end up on that ship. The story of Little Hope is intensely personal; you couldn't replace the protagonist of that game with anyone else.

Regrettably, although the Curator continues to have the most magnificently sculpted behind I've ever seen in a videogame, he never really lets you get a good look at it in House of Ashes. This is another reason Little Hope is a better game.

Riona, outraged: The Curator was sitting for that entire scene.
Tem: You've let me down, Professor Butt.

I've finished watching Lost!


( Spoilers up to the end of Lost. )


And that was Lost! Took me nearly two decades to get around to it, but I'm so glad to have watched it at last. One of the weirdest, most intense televisual experiences I've ever had.

Thank you to everyone who's commented along the way! You've made the experience a lot more fun; it's good to have people to talk to about all the ludicrous bullshit in this show.

If anyone's curious, I said 'holy shit' a total of eleven times in my Lost reaction posts, 'holy fuck' five times and 'what the fuck' twenty.

I'm two episodes into season five of Person of Interest! The closer I get to the end of this show, the more nervous I become.

Let's get it out of the way: Reese ruthlessly, one-handedly murdering people while carrying the briefcase at the start of season five is pretty hot. It's also hot when he's being strangled and punched in the face on the dock. I'm sorry I'm so wildly into this fictional character and you've had to hear about it for a solid month.

'Did the Machine ask you out on a date?' Nathan asks Finch, and I appreciate his support of my ship.

'I'm useless there. This, I'm good at' slightly broke my heart for Reese. I promise you can do things other than shoot people, Reese! You can also be extremely attractive, and that's an important skill.

They're going to build a home for the Machine out of PS3s? Incredible. I'm sure this can be worked into a crossover premise for PS3 games somehow. Person of Interest/The Last of Us. Person of Interest/Final Fantasy XIII.

Riona: In my show, they needed a supercomputer to house the Machine, and - okay, I swear what I'm about to say is actually literally true, it's not a joke or an exaggeration and it's not sort of what they did, it's exactly what—
Rei: It's okay. You don't have to stall; just tell me.
Riona: They built the supercomputer out of three hundred PS3s.
Rei: Fuck off. You can't just make things up.

(Apparently, building computers out of PS3s is a real thing, and Rei wasn't any happier to learn that.)

Finch unthinkingly calling the Machine 'she' because of Root's influence is adorable.

'SNAFU': Michael Emerson playing Root is absolutely incredible. He's got her body language down so well!

Also enjoyed Root asking Finch to buy her supplies, kissing him on the cheek and slapping him on the arse. Finch is so entertainingly awkward, and Root is great at bringing that aspect of him out.

I constantly forget that Iris exists and am confused to be reminded.

'Directly responsible for deaths and disappearances of 62 persons' inexplicably had me smiling fondly at the screen. I love Reese. I love how much murder he's done. He's perfect.

('That's a lot of murders,' Tem commented, before pausing to contemplate for a moment. 'He should do seven more.')

'SNAFU' is doing some really interesting things with the Machine. I love that it concludes the protagonists are threats - you can't really blame it! - and it's interesting to see how it deals with threats that are directly trying to interact with it. I'm particularly interested by the way it responds to 'we're the good guys' claims by showing them footage that says otherwise. To challenge them, go 'I don't believe you'? To request an explanation? Or because it thinks they need to be convinced that they're bad people?

I like the way this episode challenges the idea that you can go 'okay, these people are good, these people are bad' and draw clear lines between them, too.

Also, everyone having a picnic is extremely goddamn cute.

'I've seen a lot of bits of Person of Interest out of context while you've been watching it,' Rei commented yesterday, 'and every time it's like a completely different show.'

I'm now up to episode 3.20 of Person of Interest, 'Death Benefit'!

Tem: Who's the character Amy Acker plays? Root? Shaw?
Riona: Who's Amy Acker?
Tem: Oh, she's in a season of Angel you haven't seen yet. She's the one who looks like she'd have a major role in a Joss Whedon show.
Riona: Oh! She's definitely Root.

Come to think of it, Root does feel a bit like a Buffy the Vampire Slayer character who's somehow ended up in the wrong show.

Reese, I know you're more a fan of other-preservation than of self-preservation, but charging an attacker out of an upper-floor window is still pretty extreme!

'Most Likely To...': I am loving how much Reese and Shaw hate being undercover at a school reunion. I enjoy the ludicrous quantity of weapons they both have in their suitcases, too. Kindred spirits. Don't tell them I said that; they'd hate it.

This is the second time the show's set up an 'only one bed' scenario and resolved it instantly with 'I'll sleep on the floor', which is frankly a waste of the scenario.

Reese and Shaw's dynamic is a lot of fun. I love how they tease each other; I love the way their relationship seems to sit at a strange, ill-defined point halfway between fondness and open hostility. They're often either on separate tasks or unable to talk much on account of being in a shootout; I'd like to see more of them working together!

'Death Benefit': 'I think the Machine wants us to kill McCourt.' I whispered 'what the fuck!' aloud. What the fuck! This is a wild, fascinating development and I love it, but I was not braced for it at all.

I also love Finch going 'it was never my intention for people to be killed because of the Machine' and Reese pointing out that the Machine marks terrorists, that he and Shaw personally used to kill those terrorists, and that that still very much counts as 'people being killed'. The Machine may ultimately save more lives than it takes, but the deaths of malicious actors are still deaths.

Occasionally I wonder whether I'm starting to drift away from this show, and then it pulls out a cracking episode and drags me straight back in. I sort of liked the simplicity of the early episodes (possibly because the small early cast meant Reese got loads of screentime, and I love Reese an unreasonable amount), but I'm still having a great time!

I know a few people following me are fellow fans of the original UK Taskmaster. If you need more Taskmaster in your life (and I certainly do), I cannot recommend the New Zealand version highly enough.

The Taskmaster NZ Taskmaster himself is no Greg Davies; the energy he brings to the show is more 'confused headteacher' than 'petty tyrant'. But my biggest concern about reproducing Taskmaster was that it would be impossible to fill the role of the Taskmaster's assistant. Alex Horne is so deeply, fascinatingly weird on Taskmaster, and so willing to do the most bizarre and humiliating things; surely nobody could replace him?

I'm pleased to report I was completely wrong. Paul Williams is absolutely perfect in Alex Horne's role; he sometimes feels more Alex than Alex does. The tasks are fantastic, too.

We've almost finished the second season of Taskmaster NZ, and I've loved every moment. Paul Williams had a fascinatingly weird dynamic with Angella Dravid in season one, and I was slightly worried that I'd miss it too much when Angella was no longer a contestant, but season two is also excellent. During the 'diss track' task, we had to pause so we could all lose it laughing for five minutes.

Riona: One significant difference between Alex Horne and NZ assistant Paul Williams is that Alex is a sexless being I struggle to ship with anyone, whereas I ship Paul with every single contestant.
Riona: It's not at all that Paul is sexy, but he has a very 'naïve young man on the verge of a sexual awakening' energy that makes me want everyone to kiss him.
RD: "teach the taskmaster's assistant how to kiss"
Riona: omg I have never wanted anything more
Riona: I'm thinking about this because I just watched the task 'take Paul on a first date, most romantic first date wins' and one of the contestants Lady-and-the-Tramp spaghetti-kissed him and it was magical.
RD: Okay that does sound good

I'm delighted that we gave the New Zealand version a chance! It's been a glorious bright spot in the stress of moving house. Malcolm in the Middle got us through packing, and Taskmaster NZ is now getting us through unpacking.

(Speaking of moving, Tem is now a member of our household! It's going to be so much easier to play weird games about murder together.)

I've finished AI: The Somnium Files: nirvanA Initiative! These notes were written as I played, which is why at points I seem confused by things that are explained later. (I mean, the explanations are also frequently confusing, but at least they're explanations.)


( Full spoilers for AI: The Somnium Files: nirvanA Initiative. )


I'm not clear on whether Ryuki and his eyeball are romantically involved. That's pretty weird, but I wish them the best.

Tem: Who among us has not wanted to fuck their own eyeball? (pause) ...The things I say sometimes.