Stuff I think

Square Enix released a celebration video for the occasion:

And on my Twitter, I've been seeing a lot of amazing fanart relating to the Mana Series in celebration!

Starting with my most favorite fan artist, who made this amazing illustration featuring all of LOM's characters:

Do take a closer look, it's a real gem to pore over!

There's so much good art on my feed, ahhh, I'm in love.

This one I'm fond of because most fanart is usually on the Jumi arc, it's so nice to get love for the Dragon Arc:

I love, love, LOVE seeing Legend of Mana fanart, and it's an absolute joy to share them over here!

Doomsday

I am once again begging people to realize that AI checker doesn’t work. it’s never worked. it’s notoriously known to have flagged human-made works as AI and AI-generated works as human-made. and by feeding it people’s works, you are feeding more works to AI, because apparently the machine itself is AI.

I've never seen another series be so openly contemptuous of canon or continuity, like it was purpose-built to screw with fastidious nerds who are allergic to non-Watsonian reasoning.

Forget the timeline, just look at the geography! Is Kakariko village a Western European hamlet bordering a forest? An Edo-period thatch-roof village high in the mountains? A tin shack ghost town in a desert slot canyon? Is Lake Hylia to the south, southwest, or southeast of Hyrule Castle? How do entire provinces just materialize, disappear, and jump across the country between installments? How many continents does Hyrule span across? The obvious Doylist explanation is that Hyrule has vastly different geographies depending on what best serves the flow and pacing of the game. The Watsonian explanation is that there is no Watsonian explanation.

It is, as an intellectual property, disinterested in maintaining continuity to a degree that is nothing short of impressive in today's media landscape. What events from prior games are canon? The minimum necessary to contextualize the immediate plot of the game you're currently playing, so somewhere between none of them and all of them simultaneously. What Zelda game is [Insert Zelda Title] a sequel/prequel to? Throw a fucking dart.

Why does the building styles change from game to game? Those are the styles the Story Teller chose to describe, either to be familiar or exotic. Why does the geography change constantly? There IS no set geography in the legend, only vague relative positions, so the Story Teller fills in what's relevant when it's useful to do so. Why do the residents of Hyrule change from game to game? The Story Teller added or left out a group, or altered a group's culture, or expanded or reduced a group's role in the story. Why are the Goddesses directly invoked in some games, and never mentioned in others? Some Story Tellers still follow that religion, and some never knew the religion to begin with. What prior events are canon? (What events ARE prior to begin with, as opposed to a variation on the events being shown now?) The ones that are canon to this retelling of the legend.

It's not an oral history, it's a festival's entertainment. Every Story Teller gives their own embellishments and flair, focusing on and changing different things to get the best reactions from their audience. As did the Story Tellers that they learned from, and the ones that they learned from, and so on and so on. Changing every generation is a feature, not a flaw.

Adventure of Link is a direct sequel to the first Legend of Zelda. It's the same Link, and the first game's area is part of its overworld.

Link's Awakening is a direct sequel to A Link to the Past, and the Oracle games take place after them with the same Link. Ocarina of Time is a depiction of the events ALttP's lore, and Majora's Mask is obviously a direct sequel to OoT. Wind Waker and Twilight Princess also have several in-game indications that OoT happened in their past as well. Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks are both definite sequels to Wind Waker.

The Minish Cap and Four Swords games have their own thing going on, but are connected with each other to some degree.

Skyward Sword kind of only makes sense as a prequel to other games.

Hi this psa is brought to you by my boss nearly killing us via carbon monoxide poisoning.

Heaters like this are labelled for Indoor/Outdoor usage, however that indoor label is misleading af.

Indoors in this context means a drafty garage or car port, not your living room or bedroom. Unless the room you're in is well ventilated with fresh air, don't use this fucker indoors.

Ladies, Gentlemen, and Everyone Else, I give you Tommy Westphall.

"of Jugdral, right?"

IntSys: