OddJoblin (Vtuber)

one thing that major game companies simply don't do nowadays is add downright sadistic bullshit to their games for no reason other than to add to a player's suffering

Zuko’s like no, yeah, I totally get it, and just makes her one of his advisors. At first it’s just so she has a good excuse to stay but after the first meeting Toph storms out shouting about how EVERYONE was lying why would you even need to lie about what kind of tea you want??

Zuko: I mean they’re politicians…..but also who, and when, and in what way

They make a subtle Morse code system so Toph can warn him when someone is lying to him without tipping anyone off that she can sense lies.

Yes, the ideal answer when a cop asks to look around is, "Not without a warrant" because in the real world, the law requires it, and we're supposed to be afforded that protection.

The thing to remember about Columbo though is that he's not so much a cop as he is a detective-shaped object. He's a cop-mimic, like those spiders that evolved to look like ants so they can creep up on them, or a snake that resembles a more dangerous snake to deter predators. This elfin creature does not exist in the same world as our cops and laws and chain of custody. He doesn't exist to jam us up so the chief will get off his back about stats. This isn't The Wire.

Columbo doesn't want to poke around because he needs an excuse to justify the "probable cause" he'll later cite on his paperwork leading to the plain sight discovery of incriminating evidence. Columbo already knows you're guilty because you're the overbearing Pater Familias of a prestigious think tank where the military industrial complex makes up the scenarios they'll use to justify next year's budget increases. He doesn't need to make up evidence because his glass eye has already seen into your heart as he sits on his little toadstool, in a hole in the baseboard, where he and Mrs Columbo live like fairytale mice.

Columbo isn't a "cop." He's a puckish trickster who uses the elite's expectation of preferential treatment to get inside their defenses and fuck up their hive. The evidence he collects would never hold up in court because it doesn't have to. The case isn't building to an arrest warrant, criminal charges, arraignment, depositions, jury selection, trial, and conviction. It's building to the moment Columbo gets 'em. In this world, when he gets the murderer, it's over. They lose and that's justice.

We don't need a warrant from Columbo because he isn't after us. He doesn't need to abuse his authority to move the case forward because there's a fucking robot right there and the most technologically advanced item in the script can't help but provide the proof he needs to get the murderer.

"BEEP. Fuck Dr Cahill. BOOP."

Song as old as rhyme,