blah the Prussian

USA legit didn't invade Texas, though. Texas got independence and then joined voluntarily. Now, the US totally stole a lot of land from Mexico, but they didn't invade Texas.

She brought one of the best fictional monarchs out there to life. RIP.

I started out the year at my lowest point, because the Projectile Motion Investigation, which I had been procrastinating on, was like 2 weeks overdue at that point. I turned it in, got a shit grade, and moved on. I then went back to taking Aderal, and my grades improved. After that, I saw Deadpool, so that was fun, and we talked my friend out of killing himself, which was even better. Then, I saw Batman v Superman, and almost died from the concentrated awful. Then, I got second place in a debate tournament, winning the semi-final (arguing that tourism is a global menace) by claiming that tourists who go to Dubai fund ISIS, and are thus a global menace. It was fun, even though one of the five judges gave it to the other team, probably because they went to Dubai. Bastard. I also played The World Ends With You for the first time, now my favorite game ever. Anyway, I managed to do quite well in school overall, and that was when Summer happened. I had a great summer overall, going to Scandinavia with my family. In October, I went back to themStates from Prague to go to the wedding of my uncle, which was quite nice. When Trump won I wasn't exactly pleased, but at least I was able to make a Facebook post about the answer to our problems being Monarchy. So far I'm doing quite well in school, getting to my surprise a 7 in Math, the highest possible grade in the IB. So overall 2016 was good for me personally. My resolution is to not go on history rants quite so much.

1. The World Ends With You. One of the games where I can't find anything I don't like about it. I love the combat, I love the characters, I love the writing, I love the music, and I love the general feel of Shibuya being an actual city. Also gets props for one of the best twists ever, which hits the sweetspot between being unexpected and having tons of telegraphs if you know what to look for. 2. Tie between all Paradox games. I love Paradox Interactive for having easily the most plausible history simulators out there. These games, incidentally, are now Europa Universalis 4, Victoria 2, Hearts of Iron 4, and Crusader Kings 2. Every game is different, every nation plays differently. And, in each game, there are a LOT of nations. Definitely recommended. 3. Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. I love it for the same reasons everyone loves it. Moving on. 4. Xenoblade Chronicles. Great game for a lot of reasons, from the music to the open world to the combat to the fact that the bad guys are a Republican dictatorship while the good guys are a Monarchy. Also, Makhna Forest is fucking awesome because it has giant T-Rexes and giant jungle mammoths or whatever and the part of me that adores Kenneth Branaugh's Walking With series just fanboys over it. Seriously, though, the idea that the Deinos Sauros would eat God for breakfast is freaking badass. 5. Pokemon Sun and Moon. Yep, these are on here. I consider them to be the best Pokemon games, and, with the exception of a few quality of life complaints (it's tough being a Crabrawler trainer) I really don't have any issues. 6. Rome: Total War. Remains the best Total War game in my eyes. Although it does have some stupid historical innacuracies (Epirus falling easily to the Brutii, Ptolemaic Egypt being African) I can forgive it for its excellent strategy combat. 7. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations. Might not count, being a visual novel, but I just love it. It doesn't even, in my mind, have Third Case Syndrome. 8. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. This is mostly for nostalgia, but I will always have fond memories of taking over the galaxy as an evil Sith Lord and bending it to my will, after slaughtering both the good Rakata and the evil Rakata. Ah, memories. 9. Revolution 1979. This is a relatively unknown game about the Iranian Revolution, but I love it. It does an excellent job of teaching the player about history while being a great game at the same time. The player is a photographer whose job it is to photograph the most important images from the Revolution. A really good game, and an example of using interactivity to teach people history. 10. FE Fates: Conquest. Yes, the story might make the Star Wars prequels seem like, well, the original trilogy. Yes, Camilla exists. But you know what? The gameplay is so sublime that I don't really care.

Bah, they have their own evil corporation! The Aether Foundation is exploiting poor, innocent Team Skull!

No, Comrade Hylian, we must not blame individuals caught in the Pokemon system for their misdeeds. We must instead forgive, and recognize that, in actual fact, it is a sin of the system that people are driven to such lows in pursuit of power.

Well, good for him, I guess.

And if they don't they shouldn't be punished for it. What's your solution to the poor having too many kids?

"Pokemon Sun and Moon" are probably the most complex Pokemon games in terms of story, so much so that the story can actually be analyzed in a variety of ways. Today, I'm analyzing these games using the Marxist perspective, that being, the economics of the game and how the characters economic statuses effect their lives. Disclaimer: fuck Communism. Also, spoilers ahoy for the entire game. To begin with: the society of Pokemon is a metaphor for Capitalist society. Trainers collect more and more Pokemon, allowing themselves to grow stronger, beating other trainers, and establishing a hierarchy of Champion>Elite 4>Gym Leaders/Trial Captains>everyone else. This is the equivalent to the wealth based hierarchy of our own world. Since the entire economy appears to be based on Pokemon battling, we can safely say that the rest of the economy doesn't matter. So essentially, we have a hyper meritocratic society, where the best achieve more power and privilege in society. But Sun and Moon is significant because it asks this question: what happened to the Youngster with the Ratatta that your Litten took out with two Embers? Well, Team Skull happened to them. Team Skull is explicitly stated to be a team made up of people who failed the island challenge. In a society where people are constantly told to be the very best, like no one ever was, those who simply aren't the very best are left crushed with nowhere to go. As such, they turn to crime. Essentially, by placing emphasis on success and meritocracy, we destroy the worth of those who aren't good or competant, in their eyes and in our own. This leads to crime, which only leads to children being more likely to have their Rattata stolen by Team Skull, eventually driving them into the arms of Team Skull themselves. Pokemon Sun and Moon can be seen as a biting criticism of Capitalism and its overemphasis on success.

Here's the thing: abortions will be necessary so long as society isn't prepared to help mothers deal with having too many kids. You can be against abortion and for welfare, and that's fine. You can be for abortion and against welfare, and there's no contradiction there either. But if you're going to be against welfare, you need to give poor people a way to control their childbirth. Otherwise, you stick them in a constant downward spiral of poverty. That's why PP is important.

Oh, I thought the deadline was today. And yeah, I had procrastinated on the Gyarados scene for a while, and I wrote it at the last minute. Ah well.

Title: Walking with Pokemon

1. Tsareena (Hell yeah monarchy Pokemon! I'm having a blast trop kicking Poke-Jacobins with mine.) 2. Rockruff (I love dogs) 3. Tyrantrum (It took 6 generations, but Nintendo finally got around to giving Tyrannosaurus the fossil treatment, and it kicks ass.) 4. Blastoise. Panzer Pokemon, bitches! 5. Crobat. Really underrated, and really good in both the story and competitive. 6. Dragonite. Seriously needs more love. I envision it as a giant amphibian, personally. 7. Gengar. Looks awesome, plays awesome, is awesome. 8. Nidoking was crushing the scourge of Republicanism in the world of Pokemon before Tsareena's awesomeness was around, so deserves number 8. 9. Staraptor. It's based on my favorite wild animals, birds of prey; what's not to like?\ 10. Bisharp. It looks like it has a Pickelhaube.

Particularly a militant guerrilla group whose leader was the chief of the Serbian army, while here there is no link.

Let me tell you a story. In the 1970s, Iran, Afghanistan, and Jordan were among the most progressive countries in the region. Now, Jordan is the only one left. Why? Because the US and Soviets fucked up the region. Human rights came to Europe in 1789, existed for two years, and then the French turned around and started killing each other. Then, after one of the most horrific wars in human history, yay, democracy! Oh wait, no, not yay. Fascism and Communism. So, why don't the Arabs want human rights? Well, he fact that every time human rights have come to the Middle East they've done so after the Americans have bombed their homes might play a small role. Let the Middle East improve their human rights on their own, as e Jordanians are doing and as the Iranians and Afghans were doing before the Soviets (with Iran admittedly it's a long story).

Doubluous posticus. Deleticus, pleasicus.

'Answer for this' implies a sort of active punishment, though.

Define " answer for this".

Legend of the Galactic Heroes is magnificent. It's also Monarchist, so that helps. It's notable because the heroes are great strategists, not fighters. I can best describe Monster as "What if Batman and Atticus Finch had a baby, and he went on a mission to stop a serial killer whose life he saved?" It's a great thriller, with a great hero and villain, that incorporates a lot of Cold War history. Part of it is also set in Prague, so that's cool.

I have. It's a nature documentary set in the world of Pokemon. Does Pokemon count as fantasy?

6. What fossil Pokemon do you want next? 7. Do you have any interest in alternate history? 8. So if you don't like any President from the past, by virtue, probably, of racism, why do you like Boudicca? 9. What moment from history would you most like to witness? 10. Do you think " Not the essay Gotham deserves, but the one it needs" is a good title for an essay about the Dark Knight Trilogy?

So I'm assuming Pokemon counts as fantasy, because it has fire breathing dragons, giant killer carp, and bees with a functioning monarchy. Just making sure.

1. Favorite dinosaur? 2. Favorite superhero? 3. To what extent do you agree that the next Sharknado film should feature Megolodon? 4. Favorite monarch ever? 5. Favorite US President?

Freudian slip?

Well, it didn't have anything to do with Hitler, really, but whatever.