James Baker

@essentialdazzler.bsky.social

I really like The Visitor series. The rest are fine. None of this is particularly interesting or exciting. I am now 100% convinced that chronological order is the worst possible way to read these stories because all it does is highlight how ultimately pointless almost all of these spin-offs are.

Hellboy Universe: The Secret Histories Volume One

if a muslim immigrant wrote an article stating he wanted to rape british schoolchildren (as liddle did) the press now praising liddle would be outraged. not on behalf of any potential danger to children, though, they don't care about that. they'd be outraged at the writer not knowing his place

it is more desirable to them that rod liddle beat his pregnant partner than if he had not. they like him more for it, because it reinforces their hierarchies more. men over women, adults over children, etc. it is comforting for them to see their hierarchy play out true

the mainstream press praising rod liddle in death are not unaware he was a bigoted pedophile, they like him for it. the people in their in-group, at the top of their hierarchy, getting away with crimes signals that the world is in order. it is a moral good, to them. the bigger the crimes the better

Started a re-read of all of Hellboy/B.P.R.D. 2018/2019 I think was the first time I did it all Then it was digital and pretty strictly in publication order, this time its "everything printed in a paperback omnibus except Weird Tales" and I'm doing it in a sort of loose chronological order for fun.

Every post which begins "it's not about left vs right" goes on to say something which is easily categorisable as either left or right. "It's not about left vs right, it's rich vs poor" Mmm, yes, what could be more neutral than the concept of class war.

My least favourite thing is when someone makes a really obvious joke and then 30,000 posters dunk on it like it isn't a joke? Like c'mon it is really really easy to make fun of this guy you don't have to debase yourself like this

Bild

My current "thing to do in Marathon that isn't playing Marathon properly" is doing Rook runs until I hit 1,000,000 account value for the Profiteer achievement. I swear I'll start playing Marathon properly when I'm done (which is going muuuuuuch faster than expected. This weekend for sure!)

0.000% of Communism has been built. Evil child-murdering billionaires still rule the world with a shit-eating grin. All he has managed to do is make himself *sad*. He is starting to suspect Kras Mazov *fucked him over* personally with his socio-economic theory.

Extra £500 in my pay this week because apparently we've all been paid technically below minimum wage since some new legislation or something? That would explain my bank balance. It wasn't buying the entire hellboy omnibus library in paperback, it was being underpaid!!!!

Like 20 exfils deep into Vault Breakers and still spend most of every run wandering around lost while my two crew mates open all the vaults and I gain no understanding of Cryo Archives, but do in trade off discover new Depths of my inadequacy so not a total waste of time.

Crossed: Wish You Were Here is close to a Masterpiece but for the interminable Expostion section in the middle of the final act. Really, properly, truly nails the unlikeable protagonist thing. Shaky is not simply a coward, or selfish, he's a genuinely complex character.