update 7/14 -- tears of the kingdom review progress

hello everyone!! just wanted to pop in with some quick updates

1. the tears of the kingdom video is coming along! work has stalled over the last week or two thanks to a close friend having a relationship-destroying meltdown, but hopefully the door is shut on that whole incident and i can get this thing finished. i have something i want to share from the script, actually, but first

2. in the midst of the aforementioned incident, my gf and i have been watching the tv show Yellowjackets. after finishing episode 5 i wrote a long video script about some of the show's structural problems, which i ultimately decided to post in full on cohost instead. it may yet wind up being part of an actual video, i just decided it would be better to catch up on the whole show first since there's not that much of it and i *do not* want to deal with comments from people saying "well if you'd just watched the next episode..."

3. anyway, the thing i want to share from the Tears script! so one of the big points i'm going to harp on in this video is the game's story, which i find tremendously lacking on a number of levels. part of how i'm going to do that is through, essentially, fanfiction-as-criticism. it's been tough trying to articulate in pure critical terms what i think is missing from this game, for a lot of reasons that will be explored somewhat in the vid itself. once i put in terms of character, though, suddenly things started to click.

anyway, here's an excerpt from a monologue by King Rauru. the concept here is that he's awoken briefly from the eternal slumber he fell into after sealing Ganondorf in place. he can't move, so all he can do is stare at Ganondorf and wonder what his fucking deal was. as far as spoilers go, the spoiler here is "Ganondorf doesn't have a motivation." he goes to war and fucks up a bunch of people's lives and his only stated reason is, like, a generalized lust for power. so this is Rauru puzzling over that void of motivation, in a deeply melancholic and bitter tone. so yeah, i will leave you with this and hope to be back soon with more updates!

"What was it you so needed to steal which we would not have given freely? Never in my darkest conspiracies did I imagine that your lust for power was an island. How could you have rallied the Gerudo behind your cause were that the case? Was it mere tradition which possessed them to alight the warpath, automatic loyalty to the first man born to the Gerudo in a hundred years? Or did you make them promises as false as the one you made to me, when you swore allegiance to Hyrule? I wonder how your subjects recieved the news that a woman of the desert, once a warrior in your own guard, helped imprison the King of Thieves. I hope she was welcomed as a hero, and not a traitor."

"I don't understand you, Ganondorf. Who were you, when not at war? Did you take any lovers? Did you have a favored meal? Was there nothing in this spited land that filled you with wonder, no sight so beautiful it was etched forever into your memory? What of your friends, your neighbors, your parents, your peers... there must be more to you than this. How else does it make sense? I did everything right and it wasn't enough. All the knowledge I have acquired, the love I have shared, the work I've put into building a home for all who wanted it... everything that makes me strong is still effortlessly eclipsed by your hatred. Such power as that can't be so simple, can it? It's as if you are my own shadow. Flat. Empty. Unavoidable. You know no hunger, except for the absence of light. Does that make me responsible for you, in some twisted way? In forging a kingdom of such generous bounty, did I invite your apocalyptic ire? Should we have been more warlike, then, so that you would see us as equals instead?"

"Alas, even that seems wishful thinking. If power was truly all you sought in life, then surely we were destined to end each other here, in this sullen cavern. The sun and its opposite, locked in parasitic embrace..."

"No. I do myself too much credit. If I were truly strong as the sun, my radiance would have banished you ages ago. I am weaker than ever I thought, and that delusion was my downfall. You knew the truth of the Zonai the moment you laid eyes on me, didn't you? We may play at godhood, but even immortality is conditional. And true divinity does not bleed."