Good thread.
Been catching up on a ton of stuff that's been relegated to my backlog.
Videogame wise, I started Dead Cells (finally). Just finished up playing Breath of Fire for the first time. Game is okay but it's legend is bigger than the reality. It's kind of a shit game with a few neat things in it.
TV wise, wife has been getting me into Person of Interest, which is better than it has any right to be. Procedurals are largely trash but this one is cleverly written with constant twists that keep me guessing. Speculation is an important part of any mystery and when it turns into Law and Order and you're just waiting for the Ice T dad joke, you've lost your way. Not so with Person of Interest, which is largely carried by its clever writing and the excellent performance by Michael Emerson as Finch. This dude, for being so low key in his technique, is magnetic. Caveizel is fine as Reese but without Emerson to play off of he would be vastly more dull.
We also finished up Vinland Saga (I'd seen it and have read 22 volumes of the manga, but this was her first time watching it) and as she's doing her internship with Friends of the Viking Ship, we're kind of in a Norse mythology and viking mood right now. We started watching Vikings season 5. It's amazing how much better this show is without Travis Fimmel ruining it, given that he was the main character for three seasons. Although I will say that the third season, when he went on his weird vision quest wandering, was when the show started getting good. Ubbe is starting to emerge as a character to really admire, but I still think Bjorn is the best character on the show; I love that he's like 'I don't want to be a part of this bullshit but I'll come back to avenge my dad and then I'm back to the sea'. I almost wish they'd spin Bjorn off into his own series. I haven't seen anything beyond the first episode of season 5 so I'm not sure where it's all going. Ivar is a fascinating character that really needs to die. He's becoming the Ramsay Snow of this series, which is a good thing; you need main characters to loathe on a show like this.
Keeping in line with this viking stuff, I've reinstalled God of War and Hellblade: Sennua's Sacrifice, the latter of which I'm told plays better with headphones. Will be revisiting both games. Will probably go back and play The Banner Saga too, since I never played 2 or 3 but own them nevertheless.
Readingwise, I finished The Two Towers on Audible and am finishing up Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology. I also did an Hourly History on Eleanor of Aquitaine, the famous/infamous queen of England who married Henry II and who was the mother of Richard I (Lionheart). What I like about Hourly HIstory is that it doesn't pursue conclusions or insist that a given theory is correct. It talks about the various theories but warns that they are just speculation and can't be substantiated. With an hour to get through the whole history, there's no time for agendas (I guess). I enjoyed it. When Norse Mythology is done, I'll probably move on to either Times of Contempt (The Witcher book 4), a book about Joan of Arc or a book about Henry I. Not sure, yet.
Printwise, I'm reading John Gwynne's The Faith and the Fallen fantasy series. I'm still in the first book, Malice and I'm enjoying it well enough. It's greatest strength is also it's most glaring weakness: the writing style is light on exposition but heavy on character interactions and events. This can be good for novellas and short stories, but when you're telling a multi-POV fantasy epic that you want to be complex and layered, with palpable political tension and existential threats, you need to take your time and make the world a character in the story. Gwynne doesn't do that, instead barreling forward with short chapters and a sense of 'rushed immediacy' to get to the good parts. As a result, not all the characters are as interesting as the others. Just when a character starts to do something interesting, the chapter ends and you have to start climbing up another set of steps, Arthur Fleck style, to find value in this character's struggle. And then this cycle repeats. Say what you want about Wheel of Time, and I have, but at least characters and situations attach themselves to Rand as he moves. You stick with one character and become familiar with everything else as he goes. Martin's formula is difficult to duplicate. People criticize his dining scenes but the slow burn almost always builds to something meaningful. Still, I'll stick with it. There is enough here to keep me intrigued.
I'm also cracking open some RPG rule books that I've acquired over the years but haven't had a chance to really read. Zweihander, The Dark Eye, Conan by Modiphius (EXCELLENT price point for this line), Lion and Dragon, Dark Albion, Five Torches Deep, Adventures in Middle Earth, Blue Rose, Robotech by Strange Machine Games, Paladins and Pendragon. I'm something of a rules mechanics fiend, so it's interesting to see how these different titles gamify their concepts.
Comicswise, I'm reading Ragnarok by Walt Simonson currently. It's about an undead Thor after Ragnarok. Pretty fascinating, and I can't think of anyone better than Simonson to do this kind of story. Also just read all of the Jason Aaron/Mahmud Asrar run on Conan the Barbarian and it was pretty stellar. Not perfect, but I waited until the entire arc was done to even start reading it. I imagine that if I was reading it monthly, I'd have been screaming with frustration about it. Also read the recent Savage Sword of Conan 12 issue 'mini series' and while the stories were fine, they felt like various pitches that weren't considered for longer runs. Roy Thomas and Alan Davis even teamed up for a 2 part story that was a huge thrill to an old time comics guy like me, and I wish Marvel would just sack up, bring back the black and white magazine format, give it to Thomas and Davis and let them go ham on uncensored Conan stories. I'm shocked that current year Marvel even published this series. As I understand it, Conan Properties is pretty hands on with the Hyborian Age stuff they're putting out, which explains why it feels 'right'. I could care less about Conan running around in the Marvel Universe but I admit that I've had a good time with Savage Avengers.
Manga wise, I'm reading Granblue Fantasy, which is as generic as a video game licensed story can get but it's got some great art. Continuing to read Hiromu Arakawa's adaptation of Heroic Legend of Arislan, which is a manga masterpiece in my opinion. I'm thinking about doing a third read through of Berserk, but only the deluxe editions, which I own all 4 of (currently published in the US) but have never cracked open. It would be my third time reading The Golden Age and I'm sort of tired of that arc; Conviction is so much better.
Anyway...yep. That's how I've been wasting my time. Oh, and frequent visits to the grocery and pet stores and occasional pharmacy. It's not that I don't get enough of what we need when I go. It's just that I keep forgetting about things that we need, like batteries. Go back out again. Timothy hay for the guinea pigs. Go back out again. Straws. Go back out again. Wet wipes for glasses. Go back out again. Boullion bases and salt. Go back out again. Hand soap refill bottles. Go back out again. That sort of thing. It's been fucking expensive.
