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Yuan Shikai's politically self-destructive decision to declare himself Emperor was in part because his son faked newspaper editorials to make it seem popular. Lin Liguo exists, but you can make the case Yuan Keding was 1900s China's biggest case of failson-induced-doom.

submitted 8 hours ago • 0 comments

Finished Yuan Shikai: A Reappraisal by Patrick Fuliang Shan. Great book that tears down a lot of easy myths about the man. Sometimes seems too eager to skirt around the actual misdeeds, but still a must-read if you're interested in Late Qing/Early Republic of China.

submitted 8 hours ago • 0 comments

Tangentially related, but while I love Fullmetal Alchemist the manga, and think late-game plotting is altogether tighter, there's a lot of 2003 that stuck more. Like how much more passive the reasoning is for the government conspiracy compared to the manga's cultic vibe.

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

Been watching some Kiyoshi Kurosawa films like Charisma and Chime. Curse and Pulse are still my favourites, but Charisma's fascinating in its own right, especially how (IMO) it treats trying to outwit the "would you sacrifice one to save many?" moral choice.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Predator 1 is partly about (like Apocalypse Now, Rambo, Red Dawn) the American desire to become the Viet Cong, subconsciously perceived as the 'purer' Americans. US mercenaries get to return to hardy, low-tech, 'farmers-with-rifles' beating the modern hegemon with raw pre-societal guile & tenacity

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

"The Great Silence is a film about how only teamwork can make the dream work." Guy doing his damnedest to take away an uplifting message from that movie.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Thinking of that LOTR video game that has a trio of OCs (Man, Elf, and Dwarf) doing a Rosencrantz and Guildenstern-esque adventure adjacent to the Fellowship that ends on them fighting the Eye of Sauron atop Barad-dur.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Do feel that Cronenberg's take on Crash comes off as more romantic, even innocent, compared to Ballard's more hedonistic lens, fitting in with his later books on bourgeoisie masochistic bloodlust. Vaughan in the book is Ballard's Demian whilst the film leans more towards an abuser within the group.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Sure I'm not the first to say, but while the difference between John Ford & Sergio Leone as filmmakers is conservative VS radical, the two have different takes on modernity. Ford melancholically welcomes its inevitability while Leone has a Romantic ambivalence/resentment for it.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Have planned on getting this book sooner or later, but Sine's review's definitely done its job making me move it higher up the to-do list. Enjoyed his article on the debate on the Soviet Union's collapse too. www.cogitations.co/p/from-refor...

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Recently read an article by Oguma Eiji on the '68-69 university protests that went into how the New Left perceived this dynamic as a sign of societal-wide 'aggressor consciousness' with a thin pacifist guise. Mamoru Oshii, an activist back then, made it an underlying current in Patlabor 2.

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

Using the Library in Hundred Line can get you such insane lore even early in a first playthrough. What do you mean humanity lives under the rule of a Market Leninist junta?

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Finished my first route in Hundred Line, Last Defence Academy. Conspiracy Route is basically a series of Bad Endings you unlock by making a decision the story actively warns you not to make. But I was curious and Takumi got redpilled for it.

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

Wondering if I should have a dedicated thread for Hundred Line posting. Might be easier to keep track.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

Zeta Gundam fans to first-timers finishing Mobile Suit Gundam 0079.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

The Shield.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

True agony is having to listen to Takumi constantly glaze Sirei. What have they done to my MC?

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

The thing about Goldfinger is that he's the first actual Bond Villain in the series which gives it a certain 'prestige'. Before him, it's just SPECTRE doing Cold War pranks.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

Got to another big decision in Hundred Line. Everybody in the Special Defence Unit weeping because they had to give up another friend. Me weeping because I had to give up Jumonji Slash and Shigure no Mai.

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

No singer by now should play at being stunned that their political songs get co-opted or embraced by the targets. Natural risk of the job that a chunk of the audience vibes more than listens.

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Takumi and the rest of the Special Defence Unit watching as V'ehxness steals another Commander Absorption. #hundred_line

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Serial Experiment Lain's one of those things like Ghibli or Wes Anderson where it's easy to see how its aesthetic fed a perception of the work so vastly different from what it actually is.

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

So far in Hundred Line, something I've noticed how often Nozomi crashes out in the face of rejection. Her reaction to Kurara ending their friendship is to prepare to go and essentially commit suicide against the enemy.

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

So, from what I gather, How Green Was My Valley & Wagon Master are two huge gaps in my John Ford movie log.

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Saw a prompt for favourite John Ford & Clint Eastwood from each decade 30s - Young Mr Lincoln 40s - Fort Apache 50s - The Searchers 60s - The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance 70s - The Outlaw Josey Wales 80s - Bronco Billy 90s - Unforgiven 00s - Letters From Iwo Jima 10s - Richard Jewell 20s - Juror #2

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

How it's going so far: Darumi is dead, OPSEC got utterly compromised, and it looks like I won't be able to upgrade Special Attacks. So, yeah, hit some bumps on the road to a happy ending. #hundred_line

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

LA Noire's gameplay remains an issue for me, but the character of Cole Phelps is so great. Played by Ken's actor, but massive "what if Pete Campbell was in the army/police?" energy. Clearly loved that his authority could force people to give him the respect he felt his intelligence demanded.

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Think it was either Louis XIV or Louis XVI who said they'd rather not be king at all than be an English-style monarch.

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Gotten into the routes in Hundred Line. Basing my choices this run on picking the most honest and deontological option since that's usually how you get to the True End in these kind of games.

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

Have been pouring over Terry Pratchett for a personal project and his books are plenty didactic, but it's helped in no small part by a willingness to make the good guys have mutually valid disagreements with each other.

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

After Rear Window, a film where Jimmy Stewart plays an obsessive pervert (complementary), Hitchcock made a film about Jimmy Stewart plays an obsessive pervert (derogatory). Key difference is in how he reacts to his girlfriend not being portrait-perfect. Rear Window he lights up, Vertigo he goes mad

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

Finished Route 0 of Hundred Line, Last Defence Academy. The game so far really builds on V3's strengths both story and character-wise. Loved that the credits have redacted sections for the routes to come. Did see some reveals coming but definitely not the form they took.

submitted 8 days ago • 1 comment

Mastering the art of strategy in Hundred Line. Max out Impact Stab, spam Impact Stab, then either Last Yell or Special Attack.

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

Watched New York, New York! You can tell Marty was too into the cocaine for this one. The last 30 minutes are genuinely the best part of the film. Story as intended and story as presented finally click. Happy Endings is Scorsese's version of the ballet scene in The Red Shoes.

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

Finished Only You Can Save The World by Terry Pratchett. Wasn't all that familiar with his Johnny Maxwell books &, honestly, think this one was undercooked. Very cleared animated by a fear of war becoming gamified, but doesn't dig deep enough into it. Too much wandering.

submitted 11 days ago • 1 comment

This is the only movie I've ever seen that captures how mentally ill people become during breakups

submitted 11 days ago • 2 comments

Great bit is during the last half hour the film swings back to the fact that Sam Neill's day job is literally being a secret agent.

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments