I hope everyone had an excellent last two weeks since the previous Pop Culture Download (previously called “My Week Through Reading, Music, and More”). Work has been a little hectic so I took a week off of blogging… granted that’s basically been the entire summer. Hopefully once this work project is done I’ll be back in the swing of things. But in the meantime, here’s a breakdown of everything I’ve been enjoying from the pop culture realm in the last two weeks.
THE DARK PICTURES: MAN OF MEDAN
This is a new video game from the makers of Until Dawn, which I loved watching. I did not have a console to play the game myself so I watched it on YouTube. This time is available on PC, but I have not played more than the Free Demo thus far. But have been watching Let’s Plays on YouTube from PewDiePie, Jacksepticeye, and Markiplier. There are similarities between the two games though they are not on the same topic. Until Dawn followed high school students facing off against wendingos, while Man of Medan is about a group of divers that end up on a ghost ship after running into some pirates that take over their boat. Characters are hallucinating a lot of jumpscares, way more than Until Dawn had instead of anything supernatural actually happening. Plus there’s no plot twist. It’s short in single player mode, though changes in jumpscares depending on how you play which makes it re-playable and interesting. .Granted it all just boils down to different hallucinations. And instead of therapy sessions, you do have a story teller segment in between the chapters of the game that gives you clues. The dialogue is a bit more choppy along with the acting, so it looks rushed in comparison to Until Dawn.
Not to mention several major issues for a ship abandoned for seventy years, these are more nit-picky flaws of the game, but still I can’t help but notice them after watching three let’s plays of the game:
- How are some of the corpses not skeletons? Like they still have flesh and muscle, that should’ve decayed long ago. It only takes 8 to 12 years for a corpse to become a skeleton. This happens 70 years after they died and corpses decompose faster when exposed to air and water which these ones are. So, what the hell?
- How is there still power and working equipment? It would’ve ran out of oil or fuel ages ago.
- How are there rats? Did they have rats before and they just kept repopulating? Which I doubt, but it’s not like there would be food for them at this point. Anything that was left would be long gone and eaten by the time this group shows up.
- How is the bioweapon still viable? It should be at half-life by now. Unless the water caused it to stay fine longer. But I doubt it.
- How has the ship not sunk? It’s particularly underwater all ready, so in theory it should be rust under the ocean.
SONG DISCOVERIES
Here is the list of songs I’ve joined to my current music library that I’ve been regularly listening to the last few weeks:
THE ROYALS
Credit: E!
I finished watching the third season of The Royals and I’m about half way through the fourth but spoiled the ending for myself. Since I watched like every Jasper and Eleanor clip before I watched the show, I couldn’t help it I love them. Are they toxic for each other? Yes. Are they cute as hell together? Yes. I think they grew over time and got less toxic for each other as the show went on, even bringing out the good of each other. But let’s just say the twins are my favorite characters in the show, and I was rooting for them. Hate how it’s left on a major cliffhanger before being cancelled. Would have loved to see what would’ve happened in the fifth season of The Royals. Characters were possibly kidnapped and things weren’t wrapped up in a bow. I get shows being canceled, but would’ve loved to see story lines finished. Granted, they didn’t know it was going to be dropped until after the fourth season was filmed and aired. Oh well, it was great and I loved it! Still need to finish it, then I’m moving onto the latest season of The 100.
Steven Universe: The Movie
Credit: Cartoon Network
Watched Steven Universe: The Movie and I LOVED IT! Spinel is probably my favorite gem, I see reminds me of a rejected boss from Cuphead and Harlequinn from DC. Plus, she has a great introduction song that gets stuck in my head called Other Friends and line “You can’t just make everything better by singing some stupid song” which is basically how every other big fight from the show was handled. The movie just further brings to light how awful of a person/gem Pink Diamond/Rose Quartz was. Spinel’s backstory is so freaking sad which you learn about in Drift Away (a relatable song in my opinion). She got bored and annoyed of her friend and told her to wait, then started a war because she didn’t want to stand up to her family where thousands of gems died. All the while Spinel is just waiting alone in a garden for 6000 years. She thought she was playing the game wrong as Pink Diamond never came back. “Is this how it works? Am I doing it right?” All the while no one knew Pink Diamond just left her there. Then she hears that everyone has moved on, and didn’t care or knew about her. Reminds me so much of my friends from middle school and high school. So, of course she lost it. I would to. Maybe not in the destroy the planet kind of way, but still.
GOT ANY RECOMMENDATIONS THAT EVERYONE SHOULD CHECK OUT?
Love ya,
Mae Polzine
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