"Capitalism (and consequently the American dream) might seem wonderful, but there’s a violence hidden just off screen." #movies medium.com/theuglymonst...

"But a bunch of accidents had to come together to make Star Trek happen at just the right time. Which gets me to wondering, if there had been no Star Trek, what would have taken its place?" #ScienceFiction medium.com/theuglymonst...

"...the game looks great. It’s stylized perfectly. The environment around you is cartoon-like and blocky yet made well with an abundance of unexpected mindfulness in the details." #Pokemon medium.com/theuglymonst...

"What surprised me the most about ‘Reality’ was the casual violence of the state. Fascism comes with a smile, convenience and niceness. Fascism is comfortable; it makes jokes, it laughs, and it cares about your pet." #Medium #movies #politics medium.com/theuglymonst...

How do you like your Jungle cooked… Oxtail or Brown Stew? 👀🔥 #dnb #drumnbass #dnbmusic #junglist #junglistmovement

"This movie is a pretty good summary of what Lupin the Third is about with all the classic features like a crazy heist, nifty gadgets to get the job done, action, and the occasional middle finger to physics." #anime medium.com/theuglymonst...

I love Nintendo. I love vintage Nintendo ads. I recognize that Nintendo was kinda weird about women until fairly recently.

"This film is a perfect divider in [Cameron] Crowe’s filmography between critical success and denigration, with all of his subsequent movies since failing to garner much interest from critics." #movies medium.com/theuglymonst...

"It cannot be overstated how Pixar dominated animation from Toy Story’s release up to The Good Dinosaur’s in 2015. There was a twenty-year period where the studio had nothing but (mostly) critical and box office success." #movies #GiftArticle medium.com/theuglymonst...

"...the movie is unafraid of being really on-the-nose about jokes and makes all kinds of references not exclusive to Mortal Kombat, right down to a few jokes about Lord of the Rings..." #MortalKombat #movies medium.com/theuglymonst...

"...I knew I would always get my money’s worth sinking at least 20 good hours into melodramatic Japanese crime soap operas with arcadey and satisfying 3D brawling." #gaming #GiftArticle medium.com/theuglymonst...

"Takt and Destiny’s journey is a buddy comedy, with plenty of playful banter and eventual yearning, that weaves together poignant conversations about art, grief, and personal acceptance." #music #anime medium.com/theuglymonst...

"...it is quite difficult to extricate capitalism from the American dream. The two are conjoined in a symbiotic relationship. When you talk about the American dream you are talking about capitalism." #movies #Medium medium.com/theuglymonst...

"What most stood out to me about ‘One Battle After Another’ was not its shallow (and dangerous) representations, but rather its nature as a work which is subsumed to capital." #movies #GiftArticle medium.com/theuglymonst...

If any mutuals are interested in testing a duet TTRPG inspired by Marathon and similar sci-fi stories about telling sci-fi stories back and forth, hit me up?

"Good media inspires you to go out, pursue something new, and make your mark on the world." #art #NoPaywall medium.com/theuglymonst...

"The exhibition, from this perspective, works — because it shows you the artist for what he genuinely is: an architect of scenes." #painting medium.com/theuglymonst...

If you aren't a Medium member, read my review of Mortal Kombat II at the link below. Thanks! medium.com/theuglymonst... #moviereview #gaming #nopaywall

"If the art is freakish, the layout is exciting, and the rules are simple, it’s probably artpunk." #gaming medium.com/theuglymonst...

"It’s not that they couldn’t hire a proper artist. They certainly have the ability to. It’s a choice. And it is in our interest to prove that human-made art will triumph over machine copycats." #art #AIslop medium.com/theuglymonst...

Everything is pointcrawl.

"The film’s willingness to allow lines to be corny and terrible — if they were in any other movie — adds a certain charm." #MortalKombat #movies #Medium medium.com/theuglymonst...

"If we must speak of photography, let us speak of the moment when Man Ray destroys it." #art medium.com/theuglymonst...

"Andy’s complete earnestness in her reactions, whether it is good news or devastating, totally enraptures you. She tries so hard all the time to prove her worth and do what’s right, even if it is to her own detriment." #movies #GiftArticle medium.com/theuglymonst...

"...this book may as well have been my entire personality a few years back. I knew what would happen in the film, but that preparation still wasn’t enough to protect me from the emotional beatdown to come." #Shakespeare #movies #GiftArticle medium.com/theuglymonst...

The Cortex Prime Game Handbook is live on DriveThruRPG for the first time! 256 pages of the most flexible RPG toolkit I could make—build any genre, any tone, any kind of story you want to tell. I'm so proud of this book. www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/5...

"...quite a few areas are just poorly lit. This is especially noticeable during the endgame areas, making it hard to navigate the environments." #IndieGames #GameDesign #NoPaywall medium.com/theuglymonst...

"Revenge stories are as old as time. And we love them." #music #Cyberpunk2077 #GiftArticle medium.com/theuglymonst...

"In the interests of maximum verisimilitude, we here at Hasbro have decided your D&D characters need to pay rent as well."

"...it’s not the first time we’ve seen a villain try to weaponize or manipulate the Punisher for their own purposes, but this one is way more intrusive in more ways than one." #comics #GiftArticle medium.com/theuglymonst...

"Wayans is contorting himself into a caricature at all times, while Rapaport looks like he’s playing a slightly fictionalised version of himself in one of the most effective casting choices of this century." #movies #retroreview medium.com/theuglymonst...

The Special Thanks credits for A Marvel Television Special - The Punisher: One Last Kill highlighting the comic creators that inspired and influenced this episode. ✨ #MarvelStudios #Marvel #MCU #DisneyPlus #MarvelComics

"There is a limit to how many times you can kill a protagonist and resurrect him with an editorial shrug. The superhero genre is the only cathedral where resurrection isn’t a miracle but an operating model." #ThePunisher #comics #trauma medium.com/theuglymonst...

"...every job has a cost. Some people just pay with different currencies, be they tears, hard sacrifices, dreams they had to relinquish, mental health, time, relationships, etc." #anime #capitalism medium.com/theuglymonst...

"Progress is weird. We like to imagine that it is good for humanity. We like to believe in progress as a constant good, a perpetual improvement from one state of good to another state of even better goodness... #Arcane #GiftArticle #philosophy #technology medium.com/theuglymonst...

This story is BONKERS. The audacity of this guy is BONKERS.

"I remember being skeptical about the idea of adapting an anime series like One Piece into a live action series. One Piece is a fantastical, campy pirate story best suited for manga and anime, I thought." #writing medium.com/theuglymonst...

"...a couple episodes of The Next Generation feel especially relevant in this new “age of AI” that all the tech bros are evangelizing about." #StarTrek #AIpsychosis medium.com/theuglymonst...

"Hayao Miyazaki first got involved with the Lupin franchise when he took over directing the Lupin the 3rd Part I television series along with Isao Takahata after the previous director was fired for making the series too dark." #anime medium.com/theuglymonst...

"Voyagers is a cooperative puzzle game built specifically to be played by two people sitting right next to each other, or alternatively online." #LEGO #gaming medium.com/theuglymonst...

"There was a ton to translate into a 2020s landscape and yet the movie stuck the landing. A lot can go wrong fast in these situations. It is amazingly easy to lose the essence of what made the first movie so culturally impactful." #movies #fashion medium.com/theuglymonst...

"Pokopia feels… free. There’s no rush whatsoever but somehow this lack of stakes is still compelling by providing an overarching purpose." #Pokemon #gaming medium.com/theuglymonst...

"This is really a two-hander buddy comedy, with spaceships and races to save humanity’s fate lingering in the background. In the wrong hands, its comedic scenes could have easily come across as cringy." #GiftArticle #ScienceFiction medium.com/theuglymonst...

As I watched the new series, I only cared about Piggy — the thoughtful, smart kid stranded on an island with other boys. That made me think about what we look for in art.

the torment nexus is bad on account of the science fiction story "don't create the torment nexus"

"Oh look, a tree monster coming to tell a kid bedtime stories while his mother is dying. Count me in!" #MothersDay #movies #NoPaywall medium.com/theuglymonst...

"The movie opens with Lupin and Jigen successfully pulling off a heist at a casino but as they are making their getaway, Lupin realizes that all their money is fake." #anime #movies medium.com/theuglymonst...

Paying my taxes as a freelancer this year has wiped me out, even with four jobs. If anyone needs some writing/editing/research/workout ideas quickly hit me up. I'll work five jobs.

TTRPG discourse has me imagining someone reviewing chess and saying “of course, it not for everyone - some people like their games to involve running around and perhaps kicking a football”

The dukes of puzzles... and chess - kinda.