Le Gwentleman Suprême Part Deux

I swear spending days trying to learn Gwent had been so intense, it might have compromised my ability to exercise my creativity. One thing I notice so far is some kind of blogger's block where I just can't come up with a decently good opening statement. I know I sound like a politician, but trust me when I say the only thing political about yours truly is that my brain functions like Tokugawa Ieyasu minus the presence of Oai. And besides, it's already depressing enough to see my nation weirdly resembling a world where there is no God but only monsters, greater monsters, and Gaunter O'Dimm.

In other news, one of my friends actually shared an interesting Google via Facebook. I have to say it's unexpected though since I'm convinced I'm likely the only person in Singapore insane enough to post stuff like this, this, and that. This is further confirmed by my two friends. Dori Dori assumed the Ainu resembled more like the Taiwanese aborigine people when I asked her whether she saw any during her trip to Hokkaido but I didn't try explaining the details. Frontline Bro didn't know who was Toyotomi Hideyoshi, let alone Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu. In other words, my friends are never stupid, yet I was hanged by the educational system despite doing nothing wrong. I'm not physically stateless but definitely emotionally stateless. Maybe that's why I would never recommend Gwent to my friends. Maybe that's why I actually choose to play Gwent. Maybe that's why nobody would understand why I like scenes like this and that.

In this post, I'll be doing random ramblings on my experience playing the game so far. Trust me when I say you don't need your government telling you the virtue of failure once you've played enough Gwent.

Certain things were terribly wrong

In the previous post, I made certain big errors in judgement. Factors include...

1. My brain was most likely sleeping. Seriously, playing a trap during the turn before playing a Scout unit card? The mistake was so epic, it's not funny.

2. I was more about learning via messing around. After all, no one taught me to learn things like a normal human being. And no, I didn't Google search for deck builds because I happened to be a local Singaporean donkey instead of a local Singaporean talent in this game.

3. I actually assumed seasonal ranking was only about the snake.

As you can imagine, the previous Gwent post was a horrible mess. If Ryan knew about what I've been doing, he'd be laughing like a Lambert.

Sandboxing

Right now, I have two sandbox decks fashioned after Season of the Viper format. The first was Monsters and the other being Scoia-tael. The ride through Letho's funhouse was definitely rough for the latter since there was only one instance where I used my Monsters faction deck. Needless to say, that one match's worth of using Dr Frankensteiner's combination science (i.e. Overwhelming Hunger with the Deathwish, and Thrive mechanics) got me a win. The process was definitely much easier so long I didn't face a Nilfgaard player using Lockdown. That'd have done me in. Thankfully, no such thing happened. At the same time, it must be stated that the sandbox decks were actually modified versions of what I've used in the previous seasonal ranking. Granted I'm doing this for fun (that or I'll be testing either or both if there's a next Season of the Viper), but there are certain things to be learnt despite having no chances to try them out at the moment. As for my Nilfgaard deck, I'm using it for the current Season of Magic. Seriously, you'd be surprised at how useful Yennefer's Grab app can be without Tactical Decision. Unfortunately, this is a hijack and disrupt tactic instead of the more orthodox hijack and counter approach. Simply put, please don't try this out at home unless you're willing to limit Yennefer's GrabYen usage (Note: When I say GrabYen, I'm equating the cards with the Japanese currency. No Trump jokes and Grab brand parody please).

Firstly, let's talk about how/why I modded my Monsters faction deck. This actually got a lot to do with my seasonal Nilfgaard deck where Lockdown ends up working surprisingly well for me so far (the tactical stunts I could pull is nothing short of insane). In short, I was planning the deck based on the scenario where the opponent actually chose the Lockdown ability. After all, you're most likely screwed if you choose Overwhelming Hunger without having the chance to trigger the full number of charges.

The contingency plan is quite simple: Just play unit cards that devour allied units in play. Unfortunately, I don't have enough such cards. The only ones I can afford to include in the sandbox deck would be Celaeno Harpy, Desert Banshee, and Barghest. For now, however, I'd be waiting to see whether this works. After all, it's better to limit the self with a 25 card deck instead of going like 1-2 cards more. I've tried that and the difference it makes can affect your game via card draw probability (i.e. you can't afford to rely on the RNG when it comes to your hand). Worst come to worst, I'd just get myself stuck with a dummy Harpy Egg or two. Not a good way to play any match if you're to ask me.

The modded Scoia'tael deck is where the fun part comes, the reason why being that I was playing this faction for like 99% of the previous seasonal ranking matches. To learn to play my Scoia'tael, I needed to get my deployment game right. It's not that easy. In fact, my initial decision to use a hybrid deployment of token units and deck units soon turned into a nightmare. Granted I was able to win games, but the entire deployment momentum would always risk getting itself jammed. The reason why? There were moments where I got myself stuck in a tactical limbo between a token unit spawn and an actual unit card deployment. If I chose not to play either a Half-Elf Hunter or Dwarven Chariot, I'd risk getting myself lagging behind the opponent's deployment game. If I chose not to deploy a non-token unit, it means I have to decide between token spawn and playing special cards. It's a no man's land situation no matter how I looked at it. Once I started building up the deck post-Letho season, that's where things started becoming interesting.

We all should know by now that Skellige cards thrive on dealing damage. To use this faction properly, though, would require a balance between damage dealing in the long run and buffing. Classic examples of this would be Gutting Slash, the very unorthodox Svalblod Priest, and that one and only son of a Bran. Would there be other ways to play this faction? I'd say yes because I once came across a crow spawn player who clearly knew what he/she was doing (Spoiler: The person deservedly won the match). But it remains to be seen whether the so-called beast spec deck belongs to a sizeable minority because deck building in this game is all about knowing what you want and trying to get things actually working. I add the word actually because I doubt I'm the only person planning a deck only for things to go Titanic south.

So why did I mention the Skellige faction even though the only thing two factions have in common would be animals and trees? The reason is very simple: High power sniping. There are unit cards able to snipe an enemy target for either 2 points of damage or 1 unless you want to include a buffed-beforehand Wardancer for a 3 pointer. This isn't something I'm exactly most comfortable with though since I'd require Invigorate and either a Hawker Smuggler or Vrihedd Saboteur. The latter if I'm to do a pure elf deck, something which I'm still not good enough to pull off unless I have at least Isengrim in the deck. But because my Scoia-tael deck consists of one ethnic majority and like two to three ethnic minorities complete with the Harmony buff mechanic, there's no point going that far (no, they're not exactly pro-multiracial because everyone else is a dh'oine and that includes your non-partisan church pastor).

Cards like Milaen, Toruviel, and Yaevinn are good options for power sniping. In particular, Yaevinn does work decently well if you have Deadeye Ambush. Three tokens summoned in a single row and place this guy at the same row. That'd be 4 points of damage. Unlike Milaen whom you can afford to pull off a snipe early in the match, Yaevinn's sniping game would be more useful when you're at least 5 turns into the match. This would be where Vernossiel comes in. She is definitely my favourite card of the faction so far due to the high-end damage game if the match is set up properly like in the last 3 turns of the match. Of course, it's not that easy. To maximise her deploy damage trigger, you'd most likely need to use Ele'yas to friendly stab and spawn two Deadeye Archers so that you can do a 2+3=5 in one turn and play Vernossiel on the next turn. Either that or doing the triple Deadeye Ambush in the same turn you play Vernossiel (i.e. possibly the better option). Discounting other sources of Deadeye unit spawn, that'd give you 10 points of damage. Play Yaevinn on the following turn and that'd be at least 14 points of damage.

Note: This strategy will likely fail if you're playing Season of Magic due to the double-casting ouch more than capable of taking out 2 Deadeye Archers in a single go. 3 if it's something like Devil's Puffball or Lacerate. A better alternative would be either using Vernossiel's ranged deploy to spawn two more Deadeye Archers or just fire away for 6 points of damage in a single turn. You can still afford to deploy Yaevinn in the next turn for the damage, though. Be warned that double-casting remains a major hazard, so please deploy with caution.

As cursed as a Clan Brokvar

The story of Clan Brokvar was one of sorrow, guilt, and unexpected redemption come the very end. The reason why I enjoy plot and characters of the dark fantasy genre was that while fiction is never a substitute for reality, a great story can teach us a lot. I won't go that far to say something like this as the absolute truth, but in every great story lies a semblance of truth.

So why am I saying this? Well, Gwent goes by the auto-matchmaking system. What this means would be that the system won't take into account the quality of your deck. If you're lucky, it'd be around two to three evenly matches out of five. If you're unlucky like yours truly at times, make that either four mismatches out of five or a full fiver bummer. In this sense, you can see that technology has no humane factor. Yet, defeat does give you XP. Whenever I lost the match due to severe mismatch of deck quality (that formed like 80-90+% of my total losses), I did gain XP. Interestingly, the amount I gained would only be slightly lesser than how much I'd gain from a win. This may (or may not) imply that the system isn't dumb. The XP welfare treatment may be universal, but I doubt so because that'd discourage gamers from spending actual money. Unfortunately, an actual revenue system is the likeliest cause of any mismatch scenario. Can't blame CD Projekt Red for this since there's a reason why prominent F2P Marvel MMO titles like Marvel Heroes and Marvel: Avengers Alliance had to fold.

A likely situation would be the game having specific servers for the decks. When you create a deck, what you're creating is data. And since we're talking about data, that kind of thing has to go somewhere. Assuming the system is actually more humane than my country's educational system, what this means is that when the auto-matchmaking kicks in, deck data from both players would be registered and processed. I don't know... I may be wrong here. But considering the seemingly illogical XP gain mathematics, I won't bank against it.

Before you think this is a cool possibility, allow me to point out that getting either four mismatches out of five or a full fiver bummer is sheer torture. The reality is always about the loser having an inferior deck. At the same time, luck plays a very vital role during every round. You may know whether luck favour you, but you wouldn't be able to know whether the same goes for the other player. There were moments where I won games due to the luck factor (there were two particularly surreal episodes with one of them resulting in a draw despite me having an inferior deck), there were moments where I lost due to the same reason (albeit as I've said earlier, the vast amount of my losses was due to the opponent having a superior deck capable of playing gold cards consistently in any round). In every sense of the statement, Gwent isn't for those faint in the heart. You'll need to have the mental fortitude to be prepared for the worst (i.e. deck mismatch+BM) and second-worst (i.e. deck mismatch). In a certain sense, Gwent actually captured the brutal nature of the Witcher world without the need to kill or to be killed. But let's not forget the XP welfare. That is provided you're mentally resilient enough.

Then there's this question of whether a mismatch based on the player level is possible provided you happened to be less than a month or two into the game. I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case considering Gwent is more for those used to the system due to Witcher 3. If so, then best of luck in trying to be the next Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Note: Torturing yourself via consistent mismatching en-route to levelling up is possible. That happened to me just now. In the event of anguish, please know that Dr Sawano and his assistant Aimer are always around to help.

Add note: Because even a mismatched loss can fill up at least near one-quarter of your XP bar, any combination of victory and self-torture amounting to five matches or so in total should be enough for you to log off and cool down.

Deck rules: Live by it, swear by it, and die by it

Believe it or not, the greatest online influencer is never the likes of Nas Daily, Noah Yap, Xiaxue, or even Eden Ang. Assuming you're actually crazy enough to play Gwent without going through Witcher 3, that'd be your deck. How do I know this? By noticing certain consistencies whenever after I tweaked the deck(s). I don't know about you or a certain Mr Lee genetically unrelated to Mr Lee Hsien Yang praising my analytical ability, but it's not that hard for me to realise this while on the go.

This is very vital because there's such a thing called copy deck. The deck copy property isn't just there for you to do a U-turn in the event things don't turn out correct. It can also be an effective reference in case you're left wondering why certain cards serving you so well had gone weirdly MIA despite having a decently high draw chance in the past. If there's a reason why you shouldn't chop and change what works at least decently well for you, the relationship between your deck and card draw probability is definitely it.

Apart from whatever stated above, there's nothing for me to say.

Currently messed up right now...

Due to what I mentioned in the second last part, I doubt I can write anything coherent for the day. This has got plenty to do with the fact that unlike what Dr Tommy Koh said about the likes of Alfian Sa'at, I don't consider myself as a loving critic due to traumatic experiences effectively destroying my future and emotional health. Granted I don't hate my country, but I do regard my case to be similar to either one of Tokugawa Ieyasu and the Imagawa clan or Date Masamune and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Thankfully, I do have a taste for music. This resulted in the ability to be soothed by the correct songs and themes. So yeah, below are a few songs capable of doing so.

P.S: On a super weird note, there's a reason why I need to Google search on how to forfeit a match. For some funny reason, there were rare moments of an opponent doing a forfeit after I played my first turn. Seriously, I never recalled accumulating some kind of street cred.

Le Gwentleman Suprême

Important Note:

It has been a very long time since I blogged and plenty of things have gotten so rusty, I suspect I need a capable proof-reader to do the job free-of-charge.

It's true. The post title has got nothing to do with toxic masculinity or equally toxic feminism. Assuming otherwise is to believe in, to quote a certain Nebraskan senator from the state of Nebraska, total hogwash.

In other news, I really need to get myself started on the current edraft/drafit of A Requiem From Winter Past. In the first chapter, I forgot which song I was listening in order to stay focused although I wouldn't be surprised if it's this one.

For the second chapter, I still remember what I listened to.

It's really weird to see this scene off the back of Fate/Zero.

As for chapter 3, I still remember what I listened to.

The Supreme Gwentleman?

Now let me explain myself here on why the post title. This has got nothing to do with the tragic 2014 Isla Vista killings because as a pro-lifer, I don't believe in the justification of murder regardless of men, women, children, or unborn lives since that'd be like telling me Berserk is actually a moral tale of dark fantasy. Again to quote the very same Nebraskan senator from the state of Nebraska, it's total hogwash. Simply put, it's an expression of creativity not intended to mock your socio-political sensitivities. If you still think I'm a right conservative knave, I can only say Tokugawa Ieyasu was never guilty of partisan politics where Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi were concerned.

Recently, I started playing Gwent. Now, this was a case of breaking character since I'm never a fan of PvP. It's like cultivating the online habit of not disclosing your home and current cities to those outside your innermost Facebook circle only to undo the lockdown where all your Facebook friends know your current location. In storytelling, the breaking of character is a taboo. In real life, it's deliberate.

Now if you're such a person, rest assured that I'm the same as well. So why did I choose to break character? The reason was that... well, I got nothing better to do. There's a reason why my current Twitter user name is Great Bird Kamuy and it has got nothing to do with my weirdly Ainu facial features. Yes, Everquest 2 was fun. And it still is. Before Gwent, I started playing Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms. That's idly fun. More specifically, it plays like an alternate version of Football Manager where you deploy people in a specific formation. It's some really weird fun since it felt like getting paid for doing little or nothing.

As for Gwent, it's because I decided to get a cerebrally engaging alternative. I still remember my friend Ah-Kiat playing Sanguosha. Despite the hanyu pinyin, Sanguosha is quite kid-friendly. Hence, Ah-Kiat being the responsible Christian he has always been made the right choice. As for me, anything is possible because my brain functions like Batman rather than Superman. Thankfully, this means I'm no John Constantine. On the flip side, this means Ah-Kiat would never touch Gwent and it got nothing to do with grappling with different mechanics, rules, and the three times blah.

Unintentional consequences and the other side of the coin

Those who played Witcher 3 (e.g. another of my friend Salted Fish) would know the game is all about killing monsters, never mind the fact that people were always the bigger monsters in the most famous dark fantasy world outside Westeros. I don't know about you, but I like series not for Henry Cavill or the *bleep* *bleep*. Because my brain functions like Batman, this means my appreciation lies in the characters and storytelling.

[Note: Source of my information comes from the wiki site because I don't think like a normal person]

There's a beauty in dark fiction. Without the darkness, we'd just be either deluded idealists or disappointed idealists. Without the negativity, we'd never be able to truly appreciated the positive. Without the cynicism, we wouldn't understand both sides of the same coin. Maybe that's why Mr Lee (i.e. Lee is a very common surname in the same way Li Shimin and Li Dian were clearly unrelated) once said I was a capable analyst even though I happened to be a self-taught one bereft of paper qualifications.

When we talk about unintentional consequences, the bad would always come to mind. If you're a liberal, it means the conservative ideology. If you're a conservative, it means the liberal ideology. If you happened to be G.K Chesterton, that'd be both. If there's anything CD Projekt Red has taught us, it wouldn't be whether the GTA hot coffee machine resulted in some kind of consequences. Rather, I'm sure no one in the studio (i.e. not those American rock stars) actually intended Gwent to be another cash cow.

Progress so far

I'll just go straight to the point. One of the most important things about playing Gwent is this: If you want things to be done the Singaporean way, this game is NOT for you.

Why did I say that? It's not because Singaporeans are stupid. I happened to know someone who is smart enough to be given the chance to learn Dutch because she has to spend twelve months in England and two to three years in the Netherlands. If that's not called smart, I don't know what else is. Instead, Singapore has been known to subscribe to what I call a fast-food mentality. We always demand pace and efficiency as if this is a match made and ordained in heaven. Sadly, reality tells us a different story. Singaporeans may say it's effective but exceptional individuals like Thomas Edison, Liu Bang, and Tokugawa Ieyasu would tell you that's not the case. If Edison functioned like a stereotypical Singaporean, we wouldn't have the light bulb. If Liu Bang functioned like one, there wouldn't be a Han dynasty. As for Tokugawa Ieyasu, the stereotypical Singaporean would have called him the Moron of Mikawa for retreating. Ironically, the stereotypical Singaporean mindset would have doomed the nation had the founding fathers believed in such a thing.

The progress was rough, to say the least. And I suspect it's going to be so in the short run. I spent days messing around with the decks, crafting the cards, and burning the ores because I didn't want to use actual money to buy the faction card kegs. Intuitive approach says start from the Monsters faction, my brain reacted like a rebellious Ainu by insisting on Nilfgaard. Was that a mistake? There's a reason why plenty of players I played against (and lost 99.99999...%) were either using Monsters or Northern Realms. Eredin's fake Sildenafil potion made the Monsters more ferocious via mechanics like Thrive, Dominance, and Deathwish. As for the Northern Realms, the Order mechanic is all you need to feel like a Radovid V. I'm not saying that if you're a Monsters faction user, you're an idiot. Neither am I implying only a bald moron would use the Northern Realms. Fact is, your brain is definitely good enough if you're good enough to be a Gwentleman/lady. Even if you find the difficulty too damn high like your housing rent, it doesn't mean you're dumb.

To play Gwent, you must learn fast. In the classroom, you're taught the value of success. In Gwent, you're taught the value of failure. There's only this much your country's government could do in encouraging failure. I find that the best way to learn is to play against players in seasonal mode. Right now is the Season of the Viper inspired by none other than Letho the Lethal Weapon. The offensive aspect wasn't that lethal, though. One thing I learnt the hard way was that relying on damage and bleeding was never the best idea. The core half of the rules lies in the buffing. Get buffed by X and get X turns of vitality status. Sniping is merely disruption via taking out the smaller units (either that or concentrated fire) and that's possibly why only a crazy fellow would use Nilfgaard. Scoia'tael? Only a suicidal fellow would do that. But there's a problem. After being ridiculed and treated like an evolved animal in the schoolyard gangsta land, I became the nearest Singaporean to a Scoia'tael. If Mr Lee's words of affirmation were real, it means I should have an English name. Not something like Claude but Iorweth.

Okay, that joke is way overboard. Mr Lee wouldn't be amused.

Final parting... for now

I'm just going to list a few thoughts on how to convert yourself from a suicidal son of a Scoia'tael bow (i.e. they're too retro to use guns) into somewhat of a moron from Owari. In the Battle of Okehazama, Oda Nobunaga decided to pull off the most stunning reversal of his time. Being the Fool of Owari people mocked him as, the smart approach wouldn't be mobilising 3000 dudes against Imagawa Yoshimoto's 25000 men. Long story short, Yoshimoto wasn't prepared for a sudden assault of 3000 dudes since he got 25000 men at his disposal. The Imagawa clan lost and Yoshimoto got cut down in a fight.

DISCLAIMER!

Please read the text because there's no fine print here. Below portion is due to my personal observations. They're meant to make you think, not to make you believe. If I'm wrong, it means I'm wrong. If I'm right, it only means Mr Lee was possibly correct about me instead of absolutely. I don't claim to be a descendant of Tokugawa Ieyasu or the Singaporean equivalent of Guo Jia.

So what did I learn? The rules are like the terrain. In fact, they're the terrain. You don't burn them down, you use them against the opponent. The key lies in how many defeats it'd take for you to make sense out of the seemingly nonsense. The dumb part about the Scoia'tael faction lies in a flat two-turn buff. No matter how you look at it, it's a flat +2. This means the Scoia'tael could never go head to head against the Monsters faction and the Northern Realms where vitality can stack like an indestructible Jenga tower.

[Note to self: Overwhelming Hunger can become another Dr Frankenstein's monster if used with Deathwish and Thrive]

It is like bringing a knife to a gunfight. Thankfully, Gwent is all about learning via defeat. The best way to learn? Get yourself into a fight with another player of the same faction and observe what he/she can do. Each faction works in a specific way, so it's not that hard. Or at least that's the case for me. Depending on which faction you're using, the probability of learning would vary. If you're using Scoia'tael or Nilfgaard, you'd need to make the most out of every round. Stay sharp for what worked for the opponent and against you because you really need every bit of your analytical DNA.

Since spreading the boosts won't ever work for a Scoia'tael user (i.e. Monsters will overrun you, Northern Realms will outbuff you, those sons of a Viking from Skellige will out-artillery you, and Nilfgaard will just ninja you), there's only one option left bar losing a match by passing twice: Target no more than 2 units and pump every bit of +2 boosts possible. Don't use spells, they're too risky since they'd just clutter up your deck. Use traps and make sure you got one Scout in your deck for the buffing (i.e. +2 with 2 stacks of vitality without breaking a sweat so long you place the trap during the turn before playing the Scout). Invigorate is useful, but somehow strategically predictable (i.e. if I see a player having that ability, there's a very real chance he/she is going to use it in the first round unless it's a poor hand). The key lies in winning the first round. Do it and you have a chance. Lose and... well, either you fold in the second round or you can push it to the third. The latter option is doable, believe it or not. I've done that before but there's a catch: The opponent would still win anyway (Latest update: I managed pulled off a Great Escape once and it's all Geralt's fault).

Oh, and one more thing: You may want to consider Geralt in your deck. Expensive, yes. Dude's card cost is a whopping 10. I wouldn't be surprised if 80% or so of the Scoia'tael faction gameplay would most likely rely on taking risks and chances. If you're not prepared to do that, then you may want to go north.

Card draw is a case of probability in proportion to your total number of cards in the deck. It's tempting to use up every bit of your provisions, but that's a dangerous thing to do. The higher the number of your cards in the deck, the higher the chances of you getting a sub-optimal hand. I don't have to analyse things like Iorweth to tell you that. Gwent isn't the kind of game where more is better. Neither is this game about more expensive the better. Minimum card count in any deck is 25. While this means you can have as many cards in the deck as possible, I recommend a card count between 25 to 29. I made the mistake of using every bit of the deck provisions and that really messed up my hand. The cards I needed got stuck in the deck and Gwent isn't about drawing one card from your deck per round unless you have cards that enable you to do so. If you have a poor hand, you might as well fold it.

So how did I find that out, one may ask. Because there were moments where I drew a superior opposition and there's such a thing called common ground. Apart from higher chances of them playing a gold card, the number of cards in the deck listed happened to be less than 20 or so.

Maybe Mr Lee was right about me after all.

P.S: Stennis has to be one of the most dangerous guys in the game. No, you're not reading this wrong. It's not a typo, it's really Stennis.

Add P.S: In case the likes of Ah-Kiat and Salted Fish don't know who is Iorweth, they don't have to know. One person more dysfunctional than the rest is always worse than one such less.

Final P.S: Hawker Smuggler. Either you know what I'm referring to or you don't.

#StayHomeDoSomething

It's exactly what this post stated. So what am I going to do while staying home? While I've yet to be jailed for 14 days, it merely means my fingers are itching. Unfortunately, my blogging brain is currently wonky considering the fact that I've spent months playing Everquest 2 like a patient of either Dr Carl Jung Shin-Ri or Dr Claudia de' Freud. It takes a student of psychology and/or neurology to accept the fact that my brain works like a person living in the moment literally. Sounds like #yolo but much darker (?).

[Before Iretalia's widened gaze, a raging wolf presses forward against a cunning serpent. Edeaux's cloak of ashen smoke was unable to catch his prey off-guard, a thrown knife from behind foiled by Aeravor's ability to assassinate without fetters of distance. An attack evaded, its counterpart fared no better. Never flinching, the Serpent of Histalonia weaves a pattern of fluid steps back and forth. Unable to tear down a wall of dexterous movements, the ranger nevertheless continues his onslaught.

Akin to that fateful night under a full moon turned from blood to azure, there is an undeniable beauty hidden underneath the Relentless One's assault. It is nothing fanciful, only the desire to move forward lest death arrives the next moment.

"No." whispers the Yaguryeo as understanding dawns upon her like the sun rising before daybreak, "He is moving forward because there is no other way to live."]
~A Requiem From Winter Past: A Sea Of Blades And Deceit

Above is only an excerpt from the second arc of the story. So no, the Singaporean version of Berserk is still alive somewhere. Now if only I can start finishing the first arc. I swear A Requiem From Winter Past: The Wolf, The Lion, And A Maiden Fair isn't even halfway done.

Note: I'm going to change certain names for a reason (i.e. whimsical?). Iretalia happened to be one of them.

Add Note: Surely it could have been worse, right?

So what am I going to do?

Recently, Daily Nas got himself into trouble again. While I'm not interested in playing the Jewish judge, I decided to be as mad as a Greek or as insane as a German.

If you believe the whole "two sides of the same coin" logic sounds familiar, maybe it's because of this vid.

Yes, I know I'm being crazy here. Thankfully, this blog is meant to be the rage room for my creativity. This also means I'm going to be in trouble once a certain Mr Lee finds out what I've been writing online. That is unless there's a way to prove I'm an actual trauma case.

On the bright side, going through the list of symptoms of trauma due to bullying actually made me realised how much of a mentally resilient person I've become. I only suffered from fight or flight, a moment of my mind gone black with my senses still intact, one moment of the white screen version, unstable attention span, and an auto-trigger to dominate a conversation. These are just some of my problems, though. While it's indeed true that I'm quite unstable behaviour wise, my state of emotions has developed a high level of resilience. Yes, I'm emotionally dysfunctional. Quite obviously, I do have my emotionally unstable moments. But could it have been worse? Let's just say that instead of being a fellow incel of Elliot Rodger, I become more like a descendant of the most prominent guy in this video below.

Note that more like a descendant of Tokugawa Ieyasu=/=an actual descendant. Otherwise, the PAP government would have to endure a global PR nightmare even though I look more like a half-Ainu than the typical Japanese you get to see at Tiong Bahru.

#YOLO

Not so recently, an article was outed involving millennials insisting they're... well, death-proof. Years ago, I stumbled upon an interview featuring a Korean arguably more NSFW than the likes of Hyuna and Lee Hyo-Ri. In the interview, he famously spoke words which we should be paying attention to.

"It sounds funny to me just because we are going to die—there’s no ‘might’ about it."

As a result, the death-proof mentality inspired me to do a new post under the Lah Lah Land section. Now let's see how many videos YouTube will strike off due to copyright claims.

But before I do that, allow me to quote two... well, quotes.

“For what it’s worth: it’s never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again.”

“I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow; but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.”

-Agatha Christie

There's a very good reason why I never attribute the first quote to F. Scott Fitzgerald. Namely, this. Which comes to mind the question of intention if you're still sharing this quote. There can only be two possibilities: Either it's an accident or you're doing this to... well, get another person's attention. The second possibility should be seen as an impossibility since it's not as if we're watching a J-drama entitled Ieyasu And Oai.

This post is all about Aimer whose command of Engrish sounds more like English. The reason why I use the two quotes to start the ball rolling is due to a few scenes commonly associated with some of her more famous songs.

And now, the song list begins.

DISCLAIMER!!!!!

Please support the real deal if you like the songs. Unlike the powers-that-be responsible for the Virus Vanguard gone horribly coronaviral, I'm doing this free-of-charge. And besides, it's not as if I'm an actual descendant of Tokugawa Ieyasu whose Ainu mom claimed descent from Minamoto no Yoshitsune (i.e. I'm sure nothing good will come out from this).

P.S: Remember the wrong F. Scott Fitzgerald quote? I suddenly realised Goblin Slayer accidentally endorsed it.

The Longest Day In Chang'an (i.e. Twenty-Four Hours In Chang'an)

Don't we all like the current epidemic going global? It's quite obvious we don't. And it should be equally obvious that I'm also mocking certain people. Okay, it's not mocking. Rather, I have a problem with expressing myself due to being the only Jew in the local education system. The Jewish part is figurative, but the persecution was very real. Hence, the fact that no one understands me and that quite likely only a PhD student/graduate in psychology knows how to deal with me. This is not to say I need a descendant of Sigmund Freud named Klaudia Freud to help me out. Rather, it's not easy for others to believe the only Israeli Jewish thing about me lies in expressing myself.

????


!!!!

At this point, I need to state any accusations of me being a son of a golden cow should be discounted due to two factors:

1. Tokugawa Ieyasu never swore partisan allegiance to Oda Nobunaga.
2. Tokugawa Ieyasu never declared partisan loyalty to Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

So what does above portion has to do with a Chinese period drama associated with an ancient capital arguably more famous than Beijing? There are a few reasons.

1. Despite the increasingly cynical world we're living in where the line between cynicism and idealism is blurred (e.g. refer to the Roe v. Wade definition of abortion), the warmth of humanity does shine forth at times like a hearth burning in the wintriest night.

2. Even if your life is one of a wrongfully condemned criminal due to the sins of society, it merely means you have a choice. Being a victim of the society doesn't mean you should ignore victims of sexual crimes or the mentally unstable demonised by descendants of Charles Darwin.

3. In America, either your role model is Obama or Trump. In Singapore, your role model is Lee Kuan Yew. In Japan, it's quite likely either Abe Shinzo or Koizumi Junichiro. In China? Not Xi Jinping, Mao Zedong, or Deng Xiaoping. Rather, it's a person who never played by the American rulebook. He's also someone who would be demonised as "crazy, weird, and scary" because his nickname happened to be the Five Statues Of Yama (i.e. 五尊阎罗). His name?

No, not Calvin Cheng. I'm referring to 张小敬.

Note: Here's hoping my friend Claudia is currently okay in a particular part of the U.K famous for a bloke named Eddie Howe. Because she's as Singaporean Chinese as yours truly (never mind the weird fact that my eyes and jawline resemble either a Taiwanese aborigine or an Ainu), there's definitely a risk of being discriminated. No, she's my friend, not my girlfriend. The Klaudia Freud comment was clearly a joke only a PhD student in psychology can understand (?).

Add note: It looks like there can only be one progressive, his name is Bernie Sanders, and he's a literal Jew unlike yours truly. Seriously though, the Colonel Sanders march may end up exacerbating the power struggle between the moderate Democrats and their progressive counterparts. This is fast looking like Ma Chao and Han Sui. No, I'm not a genius in psychology because that'd mean my church would be in some kind of trouble just as bad as the current one.

More add note: Come to think of it, the only reason behind Jia Xu's second advice being a success was because Zhang Xiu refused to heed the first one (i.e. "...已破將軍，必輕軍速進，縱留諸將斷後，諸將雖勇，亦非將軍敵，故雖用敗兵而戰必勝也。").

Okay, too much crap is being spoken here...

P.S: Before I up the last one and go having my dinner at Burger King nearby, I'd like to point out that a particular favourite of mine was inspired by the historian Sima Qian where Jing Ke was nobler than Kermit Gosnell for a reason. So much for being an Asian.

赵客缦胡缨，吴钩霜雪明。
银鞍照白马，飒沓如流星。
十步杀一人，千里不留行。
事了拂衣去，深藏身与名。
闲过信陵饮，脱剑膝前横。
将炙啖朱亥，持觞劝侯嬴。
三杯吐然诺，五岳倒为轻。
眼花耳热后，意气素霓生。
救赵挥金锤，邯郸先震惊。
千秋二壮士，烜赫大梁城。
纵死侠骨香，不惭世上英。
谁能书阁下，白首太玄经。

P.S: This one is for Ryan Shawcross. I know you're a fan of the wuxia genre where real men proved themselves via merit of honour and integrity instead of might and mightier hormones. I still remember your Sunflower Manual comment in reply to Patrick when he mentioned YouTube and MJ forty degree below. And that was like more than 10 years ago. Why I namedropped you is because I want to test your wuxia knowledge concerning the late Emperor Louis I.

Do you know one of his lesser-known works involved a bastard and the flair of the correct Mr Li?

Be a real man

Just now, I came across an article triggering anger inside my heart quite literally. The source of my ire? This. So why was I angry? Because I've suffered much at the hands of hypocrisy. Doing nothing for victims of voyeurism is a sick reminder of a pretentious standard of morality. But using evil to justify evil?

Alas for irony, your name is monster.
Alas for the monster, its name human.
Never alas for the human so long dignity remains.
Never alas for dignity lest mortals become demons.

Spoiler: Unlike shows like The First Temptation of Christ and The Last Hangover, Hellsing doesn't feature the Son of God, let alone God Himself. In fact, the world of Hellsing is all about Christianity minus Christ. In a world of 404 God not found, this means Hellsing is a series reserved only for the intelligent.

Because it's been a long time since I've done something here, you can be very sure I've gotten rusty. So why the post title?

When you see a man, what do you perceive? There are only two possibilities, whether you like it or not.

Possibility 1

Possibility 2

There are a few reasons why Emiya Kiritsugu was a real man (I say was because he died before Fate/stay night).

1. He understood suffering because he suffered in the first place.

2. He understood the price of righteousness, yet he kept moving forward because justice cannot be denied.

3. A real man bears the burden of his own sins and no one exemplifies this truth better than the man himself.

Note: The presence of Eden Ang is never about whether I see him guilty or not. Rather, I'm making fun of toxic masculinity in Singapore.

Spoiler: Emiya Kiritsugu wasn't a saint. He was effectively a one-man terrorist organisation whose evil modus operandi was only surpassed by the evils of the world. In other words, Kiritsugu's life was meant to be screwed.

Lyrics

Pretty sure it's a coincidence that all seven Masters were guys. Either that or we need to ask the Notorious UBG.

Special MAD mentions

Lyrics



Lyrics

P.S: Feel like uploading some more Fate/Zero music vids, just that they're related to another real man.

Add P.S: To all my fellow Singaporeans who look even less of a Chinese than yours truly because you happened to be Malay, I must point out that Iskandar as a Malay name is as Persian as Darius I. Therefore, the next time someone insulted you because you're a Malay, you can remind him/her that he/she can never be a Persian or a Greek military genius.

Final P.S: It's quite scary to see Emiya Kiritsugu being every bit a tactical genius as Alexander the Great with the difference akin (?) to that between Tokugawa Ieyasu (i.e. Kiritsugu) and Oda Nobunaga (i.e. Alexander the Great).

A Requiem From Winter Past OST

Okay, the post title is a lie unless the likes of Miura Kentaro, Isayama Hajime, and Hirano Kouta decide to endorse me. Come to think of it, that's impossible even though I might have been blessed/cursed with Yayoi-Jomon facial features. Even though my pink card stated I'm a Chinese, I swear the shape of my eyes and jawline weirdly resemble an Ainu.

Note: I don't know whether Abe Hiroshi is related to the Ainu even though I'm 100% sure he's unrelated to another Abe whose given name is Shinzo. Seriously, do you think Japanese politics would allow a guy with a Jomon/Ainu look to be the PM? I doubt so. There are times where I actually wondered whether there's an external force at work concerning certain rulings and decisions involving the welfare of the Ainu people. Considering how stubborn the rest of Japan from Tohoku to Kyushu and Shikoku has been when it comes to history, it definitely got nothing to do with Minamoto no Yoshitsune.

Yes, I've dropped off from the blogging radar entirely...

The reason was never depression even though we should be more willing to talk about matters which others don't like talking about. Coupled with stuff like this and that, you can't blame the Japanese for making two AMV vids of the same song.

I'm currently too engrossed in playing Everquest 2. Thankfully, feeling a bit emotionally dry for quite some time means I finally get an opportunity to retaliate against that aberrant called procrastination. Because no one knows what I'm doing, zero motivation means it's not that easy trying to have a mental fortitude of steel.

Just quite a bit of writing before I start the OST list rolling. So why do I enjoy reading dark stuff? Now it must be stated that due to my emotional state and possible trauma resulting from my schoolyard environment seeing me as either a dirty foreigner or an equally dirty Jew, I no longer have a sense of emotional attachment to this nation. Thankfully, I got two families. One is my physical family, the other is my church. But because of my inability to express myself due to a traumatic past, there's no way I can be sure whether or not they know anything, let alone how much if the answer is a yes. I tried finding a way to know the truth of my condition. Sadly, the door was never opened in the first place.

I must point out my understanding of plot and characters comes from sites like this, this, and that. In fact, it's a miracle that I was able to get into dark fiction for a reason: I could have tried killing myself before I reached 21.

Hence, I don't regret gravitating towards the dark side of storytelling. But as a Christian, I need to set a ceiling. YouTube is the maximum limit I allow myself to touch. Yet, it must be stated that in my early 20s or a couple of years prior to the age of 20, I did read the GTO manga. If you don't know what is GTO, it's better not to know at all. I know I've upped the 2nd episode of the anime, but that one was very tame compared to most of the episodes. Not to mention the manga as well. I still like Driver's High, though.

One thing I must point out is that when I listen to songs, I pay attention to the tune. At the same time, my brain doesn't operate like a normal human being in this area. Hence, I don't expect people to understand me that easily. One thing I've learnt is this: If every person is born dysfunctional, it merely means there will be those more dysfunctional than the rest.

So is there anything good I can learn from dark fiction? Believe it or not, Walt Disney was never a teacher. The Brothers Grimm, while never correct all the time, were capable of being better teachers than those in the classroom and on the TV screen, let alone the movie screen. To say humanity and monstrosity are two sides of the same coin is never incorrect. However, we must also understand that while the world is full of tragedies, it's also filled with warmth. The former is telling us the truth, the latter gives us the strength to live in a world where the seemingly sane are capable of being more dangerous than the insane. At the same time, kind people do exist. Sadly, the same goes for scoundrels as well. Life is never a Shakespearean comedy, but there are moments where the Merchant of Venice prevailed over the odds due to the kindness of others around him. However, life is often a Shakespearean tragedy where it's either Macbeth or King Lear. Yet, we do have what it takes to decide between the choices made by Hamlet or that coming from Judah Ben-Hur. And that's why I mentioned two families instead of just one. I could have either become the Prince of Denmark or the King of Britain, but I ended up being a Jew.

So does that mean I'll quit the dark stuff? For now, my answer is no. The reason for this is also the reason why writing dark fantasy has become my second nature: I find the occasional reminder of what the real world is like truly therapeutic. At least it means people suffer because the world is all about sinners capable of trampling each other.

When it comes to writing A Requiem From Winter Past, I came to realise that being emotionally damaged beyond repair shouldn't be an excuse not to do something. This is why I decided to make certain decisions which other dark fiction writers might not do. If there's a need to portray what's wrong with humanity, I'll do so in my own way. If there's a need to portray a world where God doesn't exist, I'll do so in my own way. 

A Requiem From Winter Past

Chapter 1-The Wolf And His Answer

Chapter 2-The Lion And His Dream

Chapter 3: The Maiden Fair And Her Prince

Chapter 4: Today And Yesterday

Chapter 5: Monsters, Demons, And Gods

A Requiem From Winter Past OST

Disclaimer: The music belong to the respective composers and singers. I don't own them and I'm not responsible for the videos. The track titles are what I'd envision, NOT the real deal.

1. Prologue: The Wolf, The Lion, And A Maiden Fair

2. A Wolf's Blood

3. Edge Of Answerer

4. Enemy Of The World

5. Mocking Death Itself

6. The Lionhearts

7. A Maiden Amongst Ladies

8. A Lion Amongst Men

9. Serpent Of The Sea

10. A Place Where No Gods Exist

11. The Day All Things Died

12. Chaos Incarnate

13. The Queen Of Homm'Nua

14. Fleeting Fireworks

15. Epilogue: Winter Continues

16. Bonus Track I~An Elder Sister's Hope

17. Bonus Track II~A Mother's Lullaby

Happy b'day to me!!!!!

More specifically last Friday. It's quite surreal to see that my day of birth actually reflected the life I've always had. Halloween may be synonymous with Resorts World Sentosa and Marina Bay Sands, but Samhain truly heralds the end of harvest and the beginning of winter. Not every Singaporean can claim to be the nation's equivalent of winter and the "darker half" of the year. I happened to be one. This is also why while I'm willing to say local talents do exist in the creative sphere of Singapore, I just can't connect with anything done by Jack Neo or Anthony Chen. Yes, I've been mocking/bashing my own countrymen on the artistic creativity department, but that's because I can't connect with the mainstream stuff.

In other news, I just stumbled upon another moment of Japanese creativity done right. Despite the wrong message I might have sent out, not all anime and manga series are equal.

Can't understand Japanese? It's okay.

So how did I end up knowing about the story of a Japanese Absalom? This song below.

Lyrics

A new format?

Unless it's writing the only stuff which I can proudly say are decently good, the rest of what I've written is worse than the product of some Dr Frankensteiner. When I say the only stuff, I mean original gaming designs and everything to do with A Requiem From Winter Past from the lore to the main story. In other words, I need to do some actual change.

Firstly, I'll be doing most of the posts in the same format as The Drifting. While I don't know whether I have to regress to my half-Ainu sea otter persona, at least that's the plan.

Secondly, anything I've been using entire posts to write up on will now be broken up in pieces. I know this may sound confusing, but read on and you'll know.

Seriously, playing a 15-year-old game?

I've been spending too much time playing Everquest 2. Not so recently, findings reveal a disturbing trend called gaming addiction. The source of information? Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung Shin-Ri. This might have ignited a debate on whether gaming addiction is an actual problem or symptoms of a dysfunctional society.

So what am I going to say in this section? Well, I've actually removed Viaa Bellerouge from my character roster. I may behave like a full metal gamer, but I'm not crazy enough to spend money on something I can play for free. Yes, Daybreak does employ a paywall the size of Trump's ideal Great Wall Of America. But Everquest 2 has got much more free content than other F2P MMOs I've played. I may have the determination of wintry steel, but my logic is still intact. I got a daily job, thank you very much.

Okay, so back to gaming. I'm going to try my best keeping this short. The reason why I have to switch a Paladin for a half-elf Ranger was very simple: I was merely toying with the idea of creating another version of Arylos (i.e. my ranger main in Neverwinter). Cynical and with a selfish sense of righteousness. Yes, I know what my fellow Singaporeans are going to say: "How can you use selfish and righteousness in the same sentence?" Blame the Japanese.

Long story short, the farcical nature of education=morality in Singapore pushed me to do the unthinkable. After some time of using Aryden Ravenstorm, I realised one thing: I'm more of a ranged user than a stand-and-fight unless it's solo content. If I'm to use a tank in any group content, I'd most likely tank like Nick Kyrgios. To be honest, it took a combination of a cynical Norrath and dysfunctional Singapore to kick me out from the Tower of Ivory Denial.

Hopefully, I can come up with a more coherent post on my experience in using a Ranger so far. But let's just say it's more fun to use than a Fury. Must have been the need to play it tactically.

Tell it like a Norrathian

On a non-gaming related note, something happened before Halloween. Everquest 2 has the best storytelling out of all the MMOs I've played so far. Path of Exile might be on the par because I only spent very little time playing it (to be fair, the lore in PoE was very solid). There were three notable moments which I believe every good storyteller can learn from. After all, humility is power.

The first is Rinna, a vital NPC in a certain questline involving Qeynos and its deep state of corruption. Early in the quest, you realised a terrorist organisation known as the Bloodsabers were planning something big. Not satisfied with moving along the tunnels underground, they're out to corrupt Qeynos from their swamp so that they could establish their brand new kingdom. Either that or forcing Queen Antonia Bayle to be Princess Leia to Bertoxxulous' Jabba the Hutt (also known as Jabba the Jahat if you're a Malay). As the questline progressed, I suspected whether Rinna was a fellow terrorist. After all, she's wearing a veil. Turned out that...

1. Rinna belonged to the forces of good, not terrorism.

2. Islam doesn't exist in Norrath.

So why did I end up becoming more cynical than Batman? Props can go a long way in leading or misleading the audience. For Rinna, she only needed one prop. And that's her veil. By the way, this is Rinna.

The second is the Enchanted Lands zone. The name of the place is nothing short of tragic irony. Unlike Thorin Oakenshield's famous last words, the hobbits/halflings there were anything but happy. Recently, I've read some articles highlighting the epidemic of loneliness in America. While every nation has its own dysfunctional side, Enchanted Lands actually explored the way people coped with depression. To be honest, the halflings weren't that good in dealing with it. The most notable aspect of dealing with depression among the halflings wasn't about killing people but... well, getting drunk. Albeit I wouldn't be surprised if this was already touched upon in another piece of wondrous storytelling known as Ravenloft. Either that or Cryptic added the booze.

While the whole getting drunk plot device was significant once you entered the barroom in Rivervale (not the one in Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC btw), it was clearly hinted in one of the quests requiring you to kill some mischievous fairies. The reason why? An angry halfling clearly drunk was raging about his dead BFF. Sounds logical in the mad land of the Enchanted Lands? Wait till you complete the task.

Drunk NPC: Oh sorry, they didn't kill Fritz. He just got knocked out for some reason.

Player: What?

Drunk NPC: Here's something for you. Let's pretend the whole deal never happened in the first place.

Player: Okay. *grabs the loot and complete quest*

The typical Singaporean may not find this convo funny, but I do. After all, I'm more used to dark humour because Singapore can be a dark place to deal with depending on your situation. The humour lies in two factors:
1. A tragic past and dark present.
2. The absurdity of what you're doing all the while.

It's like being an accomplice and that halfling wasn't a Hannibal Barca.

The third part would be the Steamfont Mountains where it seemed the only way for you to get loot is to kill bosses (tip for level 40+ characters: Go to the minotaur zone and kill the two bosses there. Both are level 43 and only single upward arrow difficulty). The gnomes there were a surreal bunch. Unlike the halflings, they didn't have to wrestle with demons and inner demons. But there's something in their humour that felt inane. Not the kind we Singaporeans are used to in Mediacorp shows, but the more surreal type. Just don't ask me whether a clockwork non-living thing suffering from depression is funny.

The humour from the gnomes was founded upon a device called irrelevancy. In other words, the humour got nothing to do with the ongoing plot. Let me just use an analogy to highlight what I mean: Does animal cruelty have anything to do with helping those gnomes defending their... well, gnomeland? The answer is no unless you have to kill those minotaurs. Now that's technically animal cruelty. Hilariously enough, the issue of animal cruelty was brought up by one of the NPCs. Why? Because another NPC asked you to destroy some clockwork enemies gone beyond control. The funny part? One fellow was guilty of clockwork cruelty while the other was guilty of hypocrisy because she objected to clockwork cruelty at the expense of animal welfare. If that's not loopy, I don't know what else is. Moral of the story? Not everyone free from trauma is certified balmy. The gnomes proved that.

Also, who in the mechanical hell would call himself a Dangsprocket? Please don't ask me whether Peter Jackson is a gnome. I'm not some kind of fantasy geneticist.

Note: I can't go into specifics, but the dialogue involving the quests Fulgation Sightings and Clockwork Assessment Technology (i.e. C.A.T) has to be one of my funniest moment in playing this game.

Additional note: Bots are common in this zone. A quest dialogue joke actually arose over the gender of one of them.

More additional note: Humour involving the Sootfoot goblins proved to be even more inane.

Okay, enough about the gaming...

Is it true that the gaming industry in South Korea is worth more than the K-pop industry? That'd be like asking me whether TERA Online is worth more than Blackpink. To be honest, I don't know. What I do know is the not-so-recent trade war between the salty Koreans and the equally salty Japanese. Long story short, Toyotomi Hideyoshi set a bad example for the future kids of Japan. Tokugawa Ieyasu was smart enough not to anger the Koreans and it got nothing to do with whether Mikawa was the neighbour of Nagoya, but it's very likely due to Hideyoshi smart enough not to trust a master of psychology. One must understand that Japanese nationalism as we know it via historical events like World War 2 and the Second Sino-Japanese War was caused by a revolution more successful than the ones in France, Russia, and Tunisia. That one actually caused Sakamoto Ryoma to be assassinated like Honest Abe and JFK.

[Note: The history textbook approved by the MOE during the 90s was technically lying because it called the Second Sino-Japanese War the Sino-Japanese War.]

The Meiji era was the Japanese Dream. Unfortunately, it also resulted in oppression. It's not just the Koreans, Chinese, and Singapore. There were other victims like Malaysia and the Malays. To make things worse, Yamato supremacy was also whacking the indigenous people of Japan like no tomorrow. To the Yamato Kamui, Ryukyuan lives were made in China while Ainu lives were manufactured in Korea. That's how bad things were. So no, Japanese nationalism didn't start from the Showa era. Interestingly, this also made the Tokugawa era unrelated to what we're seeing right now. In fact, the Meiji era was justified by the ineptitude and corruption of the Tokugawa shogunate.

So will there be a light at the end of the tunnel or will it be something worse than false dawn in the form of an incoming train's headlights? This is not some kind of German joke, but the only continental trade war happening right now.

While there might be some reason for cautious optimism starting from Emperor Naruhito's big ceremonial day, you can't blame the realist for pointing out the incoming headlights. Yes, there's a bit of progress during ASEAN's big ceremonial day. But unless there's a mutual consensus of compromise, you can't blame the pessimist from saying everything is going to get screwed either way. When I say compromise, I'm not referring to the Korean Moon saying history has been lying to us. That'd be like telling me only 7 Jews died in the Holocaust. But if only 7 Jews died during wartime Germany, then how many Jews did Corrie ten Boom save? There's no way the Korean Moon would commit political seppuku. That'd be his Minister of Justice.

Likewise, Abe of the Rising Sun isn't going to say "Sorry, bro. You're right and I'm wrong". There's no way he's committing seppuku. Because that'd be his Minister of Justice.

My definition of compromise is this: A mutual agreement that the Supreme Court ruling is to be non-binding. Yes, I know it's a bitter pill to swallow for both sides of the wrangling. Even more so for the Koreans. But if you're to ask me, the verdict from the Supreme Court of Korea was that one spark setting off the powder keg. You can't reverse the moral nature of the ruling. Because that'd be wrong. Since it's wrong for Seoul to do a moral U-turn and circumstantially impossible for Tokyo to do a political Toyota AE86, perhaps the only way out would be discussing whether the ruling should be binding, non-binding, or somehow semi-binding.

Which now comes to...

Your Korean MAMA. Not your Korean mother because that'd sound like some kind of Hangeul profanity. When CJ E&M decided to make certain changes to this year's Mnet Asian Music Awards (also known as your Korean MAMA), it raised up a controversy boasting the might rivalling that of Susanoo. So should the decision to host the event in Japan make any sense? Morally, the answer is no. Practically... well, the answer is also no. Why? Let's look at it from the cancellation of the venues.

This year, there was supposed to be three venues: Hong Kong, Seoul, and Nagoya. Striking Hong Kong off the list made perfect sense. After all, the scenes resembled the next Planet of the Apes movie and it's not the Koreans' fault.

Then you have Seoul. Surely it'd be a case of 3-1=2 instead of 3-2=1. Even if it's 3-2=1, the special one would be Seoul, right?

Seriously, the decision to host it at Nagoya only (note the keyword) didn't make any sense to me from the business point of view. Considering the current butting of heads between President Moon and the Rising Sun, the question is whether the cultural exchange is more important than long-term interest. Assuming the trade war could be resolved before 4th December, you don't expect the Koreans to heal their wounds like an X-Canuck or the other one. It makes you wonder what made the powers-that-be reach the kind of decision which no one else in their position would do. Definitely not Tokugawa Ieyasu's decision not to anger the Koreans even though Nagoya and Mikawa are still good neighbours.

So to close this post...

I stumbled upon a MAD video (i.e. not Mutually Assured Destruction) and I decided to do two sets of two-panel. I don't know how to explain it, so might as well I demonstrate how it's done.

命に嫌われている。
君の神様になりたい。
とても素敵な六月でした

P.S: Despite detesting the Darwinistic nature of my country's education system, I realised that trying to compare my merit of integrity with whatever paper merit boasted by the likes of SG Nasi Lemak Goreng and SG Telebabi would be like an Anglo-Norman going up against an Anglo-Saxon. My apologies for the racist song btw.

"People have said this is the most famous common assault case in the history of the English legal system."
-Former United director and solicitor Maurice Watkins