It has been quite some time since my last update, but life gets busy. A lot has been going on so here’s the update.

Scope go brrr

It seems my last update was in February, so things have changed rather significantly since then. The expectation back in late February was that I was on the verge of getting permission to unblind to full data for my signal regions soon. I even presented a bunch of unblinded control limits near the end of April. However, upon presenting mass asymmetric side bands the scope of this first project has expanded greatly.

The irony is that this analyis was sold to me as a quick one channel search to ready me for a more robust thesis project. The core channel of this analysis is a symmetric search, so I went and planned out a thesis project that inherently searches for a mass asymmetric combination of new Higgs-like particles. However, this first project has now expanded to included a mass asymmetric channel as well as a third channel for a final state with a misfired fourth photon; megapaper indeed. The deepest joke thus far is that the starter project covers a huge phase space and is quite the undertaking, while the thesis project covers a much narrower regime. We kind of got it backwards this time. I’m at least making up for it by the thesis project being a harder final state to reconstruct.

Funnily enough, much of my work after this expansion of scope was focused on kickstarting the thesis project. I’ve acquired a signal model and seem to have things working relatively well. We recently met with the required group for my thesis project final state and secured phase space. Prior generation of samples in the subgroup we’re working with is a little suspect though. Generally we should generate events with extra jets, and they don’t seem to have done this. For the uninitiated, the primary reason to add extra jets (localized clusters of quarks and gluons) is because the probability to get initial state radiation of things like gluons and quarks in an experiment like the LHC is massive. Oddly enough, the model does seem to fall apart at two extra jets; so might be some extra work to get going on that aspect. When the project gets a lot further along I’ll actually explain the more nitty gritty details. The best summary though is that is a search in the phase space of a massive higgs-like X particle decaying to a Standard Model Higgs boson and some new light higgs-like Y. These kinds of particles can be predicted in several different theories such as 2HDM+S (Two-Higgs Doublet + Singlet) and NMSSM (Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetry). Basically, any theory built to include two neutral spin-0 scalars is sensitive to this category of signatures.

While I wait for feedback on generating signal for my thesis project, I’ve gone back to working on the massive starter project, which we’re just calling a ‘many-photon search’ now. Most of my recent work has been in getting in a position to generate theory samples for the other two channels (asymmetric and misfire) and filter the data/background in a way to differentiate the symmetric 4-photon final state regime from the 3-photon + a misfire regime. In terms of sample generation I have models to work with, it’s just a matter of getting some preliminary cards working before mass production. As for filtering background, I’ve been running a new round of cut optimization using a ratio of photon momenta to sort out good 4-photon events from bad. Progress is being made on all fronts albeit slow. The production of Run 3 symmetric samples is still in progress, so can’t do anything with the newest data yet.

In other news, as of recently I am done taking physics classes! Particles was my last one, and it went well. I still will be taking a couple classes for professional development purposes but neither of those are degree requirements. Regardless, there is something a bit freeing from knowing that’s one less obligation taking up real estate in my head every week. The flipside of this is the realization that to learn new physics I must partake in discovering it rather than be taught it. I’d call that a textbook case of bittersweet. However, I do still have candidacy to contend with. I have been putting in the grind roughly daily for that, but I’m not too concerned. Judging by the past exams here, it’s nothing I can’t handle.

In perhaps more fun news, for those not in the know I finally got my advisor to send me to CERN (even if it’s only for a couple weeks at present). Here in the June I’ll be overseas for a couple weeks to partake in CMS Week, as well as take a real vacation for the first time in years (Lily’s coming out for that second week for the vacation part). A bit of business and a lot of fun, so expect an update sometime after I get back!

I was very locked in during the semester so there really isn’t much alternative life stuff to report in on, there’ll be a lot more of that after the vacation in Europe though. I have started picking up some baking though, so maybe I’ll start adding that to future blog posts.

Reviews and Such

Maybe, I can start expanding this section to include reviews of other media and things I’ve experienced of late. Lately, I’ve been undergoing a bit of a transition in terms of media consumption. I’ve been chipping away at games developed for consoles for quite some time now and the font of quality is approaching exhaustion for me. So I’ve been basically divying up attention for things in terms of games in one of two ways. The primary backlog has now shifted focus towards Computer games (starting with the Apple 2 dominated era), and particularly RPGs. The secondary backlog at this point is filled with sequels to games, second chances to ones I dropped, and stuff that fell under my radar for whatever reason. As a consequence of playing these really early proto-RPGs for the Apple 2, I’ve been reading more books lately to get a fix for the narrative I normally play games for (mostly Sanderson as of late). I haven’t been streaming as of late just because of being on the grindset of finishing my last physics class and wanting to get through the written exam for candidacy. May return to that once that is all set. Currently, I am playing the original Bard’s Tale and Wild Arms (PSX) in my down time. Anyways onto reviews.

Ultima I (A2)

To start my CRPG era proper, I went back to one of the first games worth paying attention to. This isn’t to discredit the era of text-based proto-RPGs like Eamon, but Ultima is basically the father of the CRPG as we know it. (Okay if we’re being technical maybe Akalabeth is, but that’s literal proto-Ultima so…).

Ultima essentially plays like Garriott’s first game Akalabeth but as a more complete experience. It has both a complete overworld to explore with towns and castles, as well as dungeons. Overworld and town exploration is in top-down form, which was iterated upon by the Japanese in Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Legend of Zelda, Ys, and many more. The dungeon exploration however is executed as a First-Person dungeon crawler, albeit technically all dungeons are just generated from the same pool of a handful of layouts. It is at this point I would like to pause and acknowledge the accomplishment this really was for the time.

Ultima I came out at a time when the concept of an open-world was mostly relegated to the imagination and your tabletop sessions. Prior to its release basically all proto-RPGs took place in fixed dungeons and were better described as war-game simulations than a role playing experience comparable to what we recognize in modern D&D. The ambition of Garriott to really break new ground as a youth really does make Ultima I a commendable achievement for its time. Moreover, there is one more mode of play beyond even this, which I’ll cover in time.

The overall concept of Ultima I, is described in its manual. In these days most any story elements were described in game manuals, the game itself was NOT expected to tell you much. However, if you go to a town and pay the bartender he will eventually tell you the plot of the game. Here, the goal is to defeat the time-travelling sorcerer Mondain who has unleashed evil monsters on the nondescript fantasy world the game takes place on. You play as “The Stranger” who sets out to defeat him. So this is a single player CRPG as opposed to the Multi-User Dungeon CRPGs (MUDs) which would soon become very prevalent.

Character creation in this game varies depending on if you play the OG Apple 2 version or the later rerelease/DOS version. The original had a ‘die roll’ based mechanic whereas the sequels and the later versions of Ultima I used ‘point buy-in’. In traditional tabletop fashion there are different races and classes which ostensibly give different bonuses. In this OG version though, the differences between classes are not that strong. Any class can use magic, and gear restrictions aren’t really a thing. In fact, it’s basically essential that you get specific gear regardless of your class if you want to actually beat the game.

The core of the game involves going to castles and doing the quests the lords at each one ask of you. These mostly are one of two categories: discover a location, kill a specific monster. Due to this, most of the game is exploring overworld and delving into dungeons to kill monsters. The game’s other gameplay systems are a bit odd though.

In order to continue playing the game, you must purchase food on the regular. This is somewhat of a staple of the series, that went on to end up in various other Ultima clones (like Falcom’s Panorama Toh). Food only sustains your character, it does not heal. In this title you can buy it in small bundles, but this is not always the case in this series. There are only two ways to heal, neither make much sense. You either pay King British for HP directly or heal directly proportional to the amount of gold you get when exploring a dungeon upon leaving.

The relationship between player stats and levels has seemingly no relation to what we observe in modern RPGs. I’m not entirely sure what leveling up does in this game other than possibly unlocking new gear and modes of transport to buy in town shops. It seems to me that these are unlocks are tied to either the number of steps taken or the level you are. Stats can only be raised by visiting specific locations repeatedly. In principle you can raise yourself to the maximum for each stat in this game if you slog through visiting the specific locations long enough. It is 100% not neccessary though.

Combat is executed as a real-time combat system. This means that on the overworld and in dungeons monsters can spawn in at any time. The only means to stopping this is to open the character menu, which serves as an effective pause. Execution of combat however, varies depending on if you’re in an overworld location/town or in a dungeon. In dungeons, you simply attack in the direction your character is facing. In the overworld/towns you must specify a direction, which does get a bit tedious. A early recommendation is to go for ranged weapons as soon as possible, such that you can start taking out enemies from afar as soon as possible. Monsters start dealing vastly more damage in the lower levels of dungeons.

Magic in this game is supposed to be dwindling according to the manual. Due to this, it can only be performed by buying single use scrolls for each spell. This is admittedly quite tedious and restrictive. Sure you can go out and grind out the money to buy a bunch of ‘Magic Missile’ spells but it’s just not the most effective means of damage for much of the game. The only spells I would actually say are worthwhile are the ‘Ladder Up/Down’ spells as they’re basically necessary for traversing dungeons. Pit Traps are common in the OG Apple 2 version, whereas in later versions they were taken out.

While peculiar at times, when the game sticks to its core gameplay loop it’s a solid experience. Vastly better than almost everything you could buy at the time. Things take a turn after you get all the gems needed to get to Mondain.

In order to get to Mondain you must find a time machine. However, the process of acquiring one is a real drag and breaks out of the gameplay loop in ways that are just poorly executed. Essentially, you must free a princess from a castle and become a ‘Space Ace’ to impress her. The only hint for any of this are the jesters who hop around saying “I HAVE THE KEY” (Fun Fact: Sometimes the damn Jesters will steal from you).

What I’ve been withholding this entire review is that while the game’s core is portrayed as a low fantasy setting, it actually also has science fiction elements. This is due to Garriott’s dream of being an astronaut, so he likes putting in space travel in these games. While sounding awesome and being incredibly amibitious, the execution of this aspect in particular….really sucks. You have to go out of your way to buy a shuttle, dock it in a station with pixel perfect parking while it is moving, and then go out and destroy a bunch of ships out in space. The issue with all of this is that none of how to do this or control the ship are clearly communicated, and the controls we do get suck.

If you power through this you then the time machine will spawn on the map after freeing a princess. Then you will be presented with the opportunity to finish the game. It’s certainly one of the games of all time. You can at least save at will in this game.

So in review: Ultima I is a highly amibtious game, that when it sticks to its core is great for the time. However, its lows almost drag it back down into the heap with the rest of the games released at the time. My impression is that it deserves a rating of 6/10.

Wizardry

Immediately after finishing Ultima, it was time to play the other foundational game of the genre. If Ultima is the Father of RPGs, Wizardry is the mother. The DNA of both games very quickly dispersed into the medium. While the overworld exploration was the defining characteristic inhereted from Ultima, overall character building and RPG mechanics were taken from Wizardry. Although one could argue that this is merely just inspiration from D&D direct. However, the evidence speaks for itself when both Sakaguchi and Horii have admitted to inspiration from both Ultima and Wizardry.

Wizardry is ultimately one of the first Multi-User Dungeon CRPGs with first person dungeon crawling being the core of the entire game. Unlike Ultima, this game takes place in a single dungeon/worldspace. However, it did get more scenarios (i.e. Wizardry 2,3) that continue the game into other dungeons/worldspaces. Another aspect that sets this game apart is that the player is EXPECTED to carry the same characters over from scenario to scenario whereas Ultima 1-3 require you to build new characters for each game. Wizardry also quite infamously is very aggressive with saving character deaths to disk.

Wizardry consists of two locales essentially: dungeon and hub. At the hub you can create all of your characters, kit them out, revive/heal, and anything else you need to do to prepare for the dungeon. The dungeon in the first scenario is a 10-floor jaunt, where your goal is to get to the final floor and kill a evil sorcerer named Werdna.

The core gameplay loop here is creating characters, and dungeon crawling. Much of your time is mapping the floors out and just trying to keep your characters alive. Ultimately only the first 4 floors are 100% necessary to beat the game. Once you get to the fourth floor you can ride out an elevator and fall down a chute down to the 10th floor. Problem is you can’t get back to the hub unless you have an at least 13th level caster in your party.

Character creation in this game is die based, with the typical choose your race and class mechanics. However, in this game classes ACTUALLY ARE meaningful and prestige classing is even a thing. Not too different to the class evolution we got in Final Fantasy 1. Leveling is also more sensible here, where your stats DO change upon levels. However, for whatever reason you can have stats GO DOWN upon levels in Wizardry. This is especially frustrating for those trying to focus on levelling class related stats. One remedy that many come to rely on the longer you play is copying your character disk, such that you don’t get bad levels or party wipes on the later floors. You can at least heal with magic like any sane RPG.

This game does implement an Armor Class system as in D&D but it is more akin to the THAC0 days, so lower AC is better. However, even with an AC of LO you WILL still get hit by things. On the flipside there is no attempt at any sort of spell resistance in this game so you are very much weak to magic. This makes the endgame very unbearable.

Fights are done in turn based combat. Your party is divided into front row and back rows. Your front row consists of the people who can engage in melee combat, so they are the only party members who can target with melee attacks and be targeted by melee attacks from monsters. For this reason it makes the most sense to put casters in back and combat classes up front. The outcomes of battle vary. Sometimes you will get very good experience, and until the latter floors good drops are VERY RARE. There is a very prevalent amount of cursed items in this game. Perhaps one of the biggest annoyances is that you cannot sell an unidentified item for its full value which makes getting money a drag. Creating a Bishop who just stays at camp is a good remedy to this.

The biggest drag on this whole game is the unbearable level curve. Early D&D and CRPGs were NOT high level experiences so players are not expected to go too far past Level 13 in these games. As such the amount of XP required to gain levels very quickly explodes around Level 10-11, with the XP from the average encounter almost never increasing. Even on the 10th floor the average combat XP does not exceed 10,000. With Level 14 requiring almost 300,000 XP, it does indeed become quite the drag. It is not unheard of for players to gain NO levels for the second scenario because of this.

All things considered, up until the late game I actually enjoyed this more than Ultima I. If you can bear with this game long enough you will eventually make it through, I did after much pain. I think this game is definitely worth a historical look, but playing Wizardry 2 and 3 are another thing entirely. At their core, they are the same exact game just a new dungeon with new enemies. Personally, I don’t think they’re worth the effort. In fact Wizardry up until the 5th game is still all wireframe dungeon crawling, while other games continue to evolve. Wizardry 4 is passingly interesting in that you play as the antagonist of this one, Werdna. Beyond that, I think I’ve satiated my interest in these until I play the later games. I’m giving this one a 6.5/10

Ultima II (A2)

Unlike Wizardry’s lack of change, Ultima II while appearing very similar to Ultima I is a vastly different game, for better and for worse.

To begin with, the game has now been vastly simplified. While it still contains the same overworld exploration and dungeon exploration as before, dungeon crawling is now an entirely optional gameplay system. In fact dungeons have been relegated to a backseat focus now. The core of this game is in overworld exploration and combat now. It is still very much the same level of scope as before, Garriott just shifted gears to focus on building a more realized world.

This game’s concept while being very similar and connected to the first, is different in the sense that it takes place mostly on Earth. Ultimately it’s still just another game of defeating a time travelling sorcerer, this time it’s Mondain’s apprentice Minax.

Character creation this time has transitioned to ‘point buy in’. The key difference between this and later versions is that in this version you can actually get locked with a fixed Strength stat, where in later version that Stat can be raised as well. Leveling is still as ambiguous as ever, but raising Stats has changed. Now you can only raise stats by going to a Hotel Clerk in San Antonio and paying him money for the CHANCE to raise a random stat; sometimes he will just say thank you and pocket your money. I don’t think there’s a single person who liked this mechanic other than Garriott.

Perhaps even more dumbfounding are the changes to healing and acquiring food. In this game there is only ONE WAY to heal, and that is by paying Lord British. So you need to reliably make gold FAST. This gets compounded with food now only being purchasable in bundles of 10. Early game you WILL get stuck in a loop of no net profit due to constant investment in healing and food.

A boon however, is that character classes are actually meaningfull in this game. There are gear restrictions dependent on your class, and casters are actually casters. If this game were actually good, maybe it would’ve had some replay value.

Where the first game was mostly quests of dungeon delving, this game is more about immersing yourself in the world and figuring out the clues required to beat Minax. Instead of having to acquire gems to power a time machine, there are space-time portals all over the map that open up to different times and/or spaces.

Unfortunately, this game devolves in the exact same way the endgame for Ultima I does. You have to get a rocket, fuel it up and go into space. In this one the docking and shooting down ships has been entirely removed. You’re just warping to specific coordinates now.

The one benefit I can give is that unlike the first game, the ending here has a more full dungeon to get through but it’s still quite a drag to get there.

My impression of Ultima II is that much like its predecessor it is a very ambitious game, but Garriott’s iteration still hasn’t quite hit that sweet spot yet. While I respect the attempt to deepen the world, the game itself is much more dissatisfying to play than Ultima I. So I’ll be giving it a 4/10.

Dragon Quest 7 (PSX)

Originally, I had put this game on hold back during the console backlog. My reasoning was that I knew it was a super long JRPG, and I had other things I wanted to play. I came back for this recently, but it’s just such a hard game to stick with.

If I were to describe this game is that it’s essentially a tale of rediscovering a lost world bit by bit. While there is a barely cohesive overarching narrative, this game primarily is told through vignettes. In terms of gameplay it is as traditional JRPG as it gets, but that is par for the course with Dragon Quest.

In terms of narrative and character writing, I was left completely dissatisfied by this game. The overarching narrative goes essentially nowhere until you finish Disc 1. Only after you have suffered through all the short stories on each island will you be rewarded with actual plot. The character writing of the playable cast is very barebones, with only marginal character development revealed by talking to your party members while adventuring. In terms of the short story writing and characters, I can admit that while at times there were somewhat interesting stories. On the average however, they were quite underwhelming.

On the surface, one would think this a more interesting game. Due to the opportunity of revealing a grander world and showing its evolution over time. However, rarely does anything interesting actually get done with this. In fact the game world itself is filled with tons of contrivances to excuse not changing town/room layouts.

In terms of gameplay, this game is filled with plenty of questionable decisions. It took upwards of 2 hours to get to any form of combat, and over 30 hours to change jobs. I can excuse the first of these somewhat but the second is inexcusable. Character growth is stunted because of this, and this forces you to engage in hours upon hours of additional grinding to get levels in all the jobs you want. In contrast to DQ5 and 6 this seems silly as those games did character growth quite well. I don’t even remember having to do much additional grinding in 6 at all.

In terms of optional content I think the expansion of the Style contest to include STR and INT categories is a good change, but the Casino was very underwhelming in this game.

I understand that the two remakes have changed different aspects of the gameplay, but I don’t think any amount of change will save the concept itself. This is just the most mediocre one for me as of yet.

DQ7 is not horrible, but it is rather boring. For much of the above, I’m giving this game a 4/10.

Thoughts on Bard’s Tale 1 Thus far…

This game follows in Wizardry’s footsteps, as a MUD. In many aspects, it learns from the lessons of Wizardry. However, in others it is worse. Much like Ultima 3, this game has an expanded assortment of classes to choose from. It also has multiclassing which is great for your casters.

Probably the biggest gripe I have is that the early game can be really hard, however Bard’s Tale has a solution at least. Unlike Wizardry, Bard’s Tale isn’t super aggressive with saving character deaths to disk. So you can just reset the game to avoid bad combat scenarios. On the flip side of this though is that until you have a Conjurer with access to Level 7 spells, you still have to trek your ass all the way back out to get to a Temple to Heal or the Guild to Save. You will have to hit the Temple too, lots of casters to make your characters…Old (yes, Old is a status effect).

It evens out as you level though. High Armor Class actually does prevent damage in this game and they’ve even implemented a hidden spell resistance stat. The level curve does expand out at high level in this, but nowhere near as bad as Wizardry (at least for most classes).

I’m enjoying chipping away so far. Likely going to be still quite some time before I beat it though.

Probably the weirdest fun fact I’ve learned about this game is that you can technically import characters from Ultima 3 and Wizardry (just not in the remake versions for what should be obvious reasons).

Thoughts on Wild Arms (PSX) Thus far…

Oddly enough, this is one of those games that fell under my radar for quite some time. My brain often phonenitcally confused Wild Arms with Wild Guns for years, so I thought I had already played this. However, I had not. The only thing Wild Arms and Wild Guns have in common really is the Western setting and types of characters.

This game is your traditional JRPG, just with a near apocalyptic Western setting with sci-fi elements. I’m enjoying it as it actually has a narrative and character writing in contrast to DQ7. I wouldn’t say it’s exceptional, but I enjoy the characters thus far. The OST is probably the high point thus far.

Speed Round of Cosmere Reviews Thus Far

Some of these I just grabbed from my GoodReads reviews.

Mistborn Era 1

• Mistborn - This was the first Sanderson book I read. I liked it quite a bit. Fantasy setting portrayed like a heist tale, 4/5.

• Well of Ascension - To put it frankly, I did not enjoy this book as much as the first Mistborn book. It isn’t bad per se, but the myriad criticisms many have offered have merit.

  The previous book illustrates that Sanderson’s strongest points as a writer (at the time) were great action scenes, character moments/interactions, and delivering on increasingly engrossing climaxes in succession. While the second book has its share of all of these, for much of the the book Sanderson spends most of his writing AVOIDING any of that. One could argue he was using this as a platform to better develop his weaker aspects as a writer, which is respectable.

  Somewhere between half and two thirds of this book are spent struggling to develop Vin and Elend to be positioned narratively for the real plot to happen in the later portion of the book. It’s jarring how much more enjoyable the last 200 pages are compared to the earlier parts of the book. While some would be quick to blame the introduction of a love triangle for this, the underlying cause is more the inorganic nature of the character development in this book. I would argue that the character development done in this book didn’t even need to be present, considering the book outright admits two years had passed since the events of the first book. Much of the developments in Vin and Elend could have (and should have) naturally happened rather than be forced along.

  Perhaps the most grating part of this book for me was that Elend’s status as an idealist was too much at odds with the world he is written into. There are some deep square peg and round hole analogies one could use for his role in this world until the later portions of the book. Which begs some questions on his more forced character development.

  If you can bear getting through the tedium and annoyances of the first half of this book it does deliver on some payoff from the first, with some solid setup for the last book of the trilogy. It was alright, 3/5.

• Hero of Ages - This was a real thinker’s book. Many of the musings and wonderings I had about this world were answered in this book. Predictions I made in book 1 were realized here, and it was extremely satisfying to read.

  The book may have occasional pacing hiccups, but otherwise does a splendid job of wrapping everything up and establishing what’s to come.

  The ending has the perfect amount of weight and gravitas it should, despite how hard it tugs at you. After reflecting on it though, I think Sanderson made the right call. I personally found this to be my favorite of the three, although the payoff in this book does elevate the other two in retrospect.

  Good reads indeed. 5/5

• Secret History - Retrospectively, I should have waited to read this. Reveals in this book about Kelsier help make sense of details in later books. Considering this was released in the midst of Stormlight and Wax & Wayne, I become increasingly convinced the correct reading order is publication order.

  Regardless, this is an interesting book because it sets up many concepts for the greater Cosmere. My biggest gripe with this is that it somewhat retroactively takes away from the accomplishments of Vin and Elend in Hero of Ages. It was still an entertaining read though, 4/5.

On average Misborn Era 1 gets like a 4/5 from me.

Mistborn Era 2 / Wax & Wayne

• The Alloy of Law - Out of what I’ve read from Sanderson thus far, on an individual basis I enjoyed this book the most. Some may criticize this for falling too easily into tropes and cliche, but Sanderson uses those to great advantage.

  Evolving the setting of Mistborn into a combination of Fantasy and Western makes for a lot of fun, it feels on the cusp of Steampunk. The main cast size is definitely smaller than a book like Final Empire, but each character is done so well here. There is definite benefit for those who have read the prior Mistborn trilogy though.

  It is a shorter read, but paced exceptionally well. Perhaps the largest improvement was in fight scenes. The combination of the Mistborn magical system with ‘Wild West’-style shootouts is such a magnificent combination, that Sanderson does superbly.

  There really isn’t much I can fault here. It’s an easy 5/5 from me.

• Shadows of Self - I wanted to like this book, but left with mixed impressions.

  The first Wax and Wayne book was very strong, but mostly self contained. This one clearly puts in the extra work for setting up for a greater arc. However, this brings back similar issues to Well of Ascenscion in its meandering pace. This is worsened by the plot going mostly nowhere in this book.

  While it does have good character moments, the ending feels strikingly rushed; it also vastly sours the opening character moment of the first book, in my opinion.

  I left this book with distaste, hopefully the next one swings me back around. It was better than Well of Ascension but not by nearly as much as I was hoping, 3/5

• The Bands of Mourning - This was definitely an improvement over Shadows of Self, but isn’t the peak of quality from what I’ve read from the Mistborn Era 1-2 books thus far. This book sits at this fun intersection of a Western feel and an Indiana Jones adventure. As has generally been the case, the fight scenes are the high point. The biggest criticism I can give is that Wax’s character arc feels a tad forced in this due to how the second book ended. At times it feels less so like he has natural character motivations and more so like he’s just serving the plot.This at times compounds on the other characters and makes the narrative flow in a weird way.

  However, I can say that this ending I quite enjoyed. While some of the twists were HIGHLY predictable, everyone got their time to shine. I’m also appreciating how the scale of the narrative is increasing beyond just Scadrial.

  My favorite aspect of this book has to be some of the ingenious character writing, specifically for Steris. She was introduced as the textbook example of a boring character and this book somehow pulls off making her not only interesting but have the best character progression in this book!

  The Wayne and MeLaan interactions were also iiiiinteresting.

  All in all solid book, looking forward to seeing how this gets wrapped up, 4/5.

• The Lost Metal - As one should expect of bookends this is a great book. Is this book and Era 2 as a whole as good as Era 1? I’m unsure. Mistborn Era 1 and 2 are both great tales with vastly different strengths. After reading this I would say that Era 2 is just about as good as Era 1, just in different aspects. Stakes may have been lower and pacing vastly different, but the action and character writing were masterclass. The stakes in this book in particular I wouldn’t say stakes were as high as Hero of Ages, but the character writing, resolution, and sendoffs were vastly better done. Both are great, just different flavors.

  I only really had a couple gripes with this book in particular. One is some additional characters being introduced that I really wish got more time, the other is pacing. 100% this is a personal nitpick of mine, but stories that take place over really short timespans almost always rub me weird pacing-wise. This book is no exception.

  Still quite enjoyable. Wayne was great, but Steris continues to be a personal favorite of mine, 5/5

Wax & Wayne also scores on average around a 4/5 for me.

Other

• Warbreaker - I haven’t even finished one and I can already tell you, it is my least favorite Cosmere novel to date. It opens strong enough, but then does nothing interesting for most of the book. It gets cheap laughs from sexual humor most of the book, but not much else. Genuinely surprising how bad the character writing is in this coming from the same author who wrote such good characters like Vin, Marasi, and Steris. I’ll give it a 2/5 if only because Vasher and Lightsong are interesting. Blushweaver alone almost made me give this a 1.

Super Mario Galaxy Movie

I also watched this recently. I know there’s a diverse amount of opinions to be had on this movie, I have conflicting opinions on this one.

I think the first movie and this one each have different strengths and weaknesses. The set pieces and artistry of this movie were top notch, but the actual narrative of it was weaker than the first movie. If anything I would argue that this movie mostly consists of action scenes and set pieces loosely connected by an overarching plot.

Speaking of the set pieces, some of the choices were no brainer adaptations direct from Super Mario Galaxy, while others were from Odyssey. This felt…odd. I guess the sense in that is to lure in kids who never played any of the earlier games?

That said I did appreciate the seamless interweaving of rendered game graphics with movie CGI near the end. It would nice to see pixel-based art become a socially acceptable form of storytelling even in televised media.

It was solid, but thus far the Sonic movies do a better job at actually being movies, 7.5/10.

I’d really like to see them try and do a movie utilizing either Paper Mario or Superstar Saga concepts.