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Books, Games, Wrestling Vol. 24 – The Samurai, The Lantern, and The Bastard

/ Joshua S. MacDougall / Leave a comment

The words don’t come easy sometimes, and other times they just flow out of you to the point where you can put the cork back in the bottle. The right words are even harder, and that is where the true work of writing rests. Even when the right words come easy, the writer’s brain can tell you a lie that they’re wrong, that it’s not conveying your thoughts and feelings in the way you imagine it in your mind. Sometimes this whole Books, Games, Wrestling project is that, like when a wrestler you love passes away, and you don’t know what exactly to say that’ll feel right. Sometimes you just gotta get to it, so let’s get to it.

Games – Big Walk and Onimusha

Big Walk

Since it came out, Big Walk has been a magical experience playing online with my friends. I honestly feel it has brought me closer to them, especially after playing Big Walk nearly every Thursday. It has been some of the hardest times I have laughed playing a video game, solving puzzles, chanting egg as we get the little red things that open up the towers, and uncovering the mysteries of the game. Big Walk is the definition of fun video game design, especially if you’re lucky enough to have a great group of friends like I do. It balances simplified character design

There are a lot of big games coming out between September and the end of the year, but I don’t know if any of them can compare to the experience of playing Big Walk with friends. I just enjoy hanging out in the game with them even if we aren’t making progress, just walking around, listening to the radio or the sounds of our weird bird/ant players walking. This game was on my radar the moment it was announced, and I knew it would be something special, but I didn’t think I’d have any idea how special it would be.

Based on the vibes I hear about the two endings, one for finishing it and one for 100%, it might make me very emotional when it’s all said and done (Edit: It did). If I were to put my analysis hat on, maybe it’s not just the game but the friends you choose to play it with. The game has a ton of personality, but part of that is the personality that you put into it. It’s the personality you can instill in your characters through simple gestures and the setting’s chill aesthetic that adds to what makes Big Walk special. Everything in it just feels good to do: pressing a button, kicking an item far away from you, picking up your friends, turning a light on and off, lifting your arms up and down while chanting egg when you unlock the red items you need to put in the towers.

Onimusha: Way of the Sword

Enter Onimusha: Way of the Sword, which has now dethroned Pokemon Pokopia for my number two spot on my Game of the Year list. The original Onimusha 1 and 2 were games I borrowed from a friend and thought, “Neat, Samurai Resident Evil,” and never gave it much thought beyond the fact that sucking up orbs was cool. This new Onimusha is still Samurai Resident Evil and sucking up orbs, but has thrown in what has made the RE Engine so good for Capcom games, along with the best flavors of Sekiro and other Soulslike games. When I tried the first demo when it came out, the game didn’t grab me like the earlier Capcom games this year, Resident Evil Requiem and Pragmata, did, but the high praise the game was getting from certain reviews, the nostalgia I had for the second PS2 game, and a ten percent discount for a Steam keycode on Fanatical made me pull the trigger on buying it. I’m glad I did, because it has shot up to number two on my game-of-the-year list.

The versatility of the combat is stellar; choosing between parrying, blocking, deflecting, and dodging against enemies as you get your attacks in is a joy. With bosses, learning which one is best suited to use against them and which ones are best suited to use against certain attacks of theirs is so much. One boss will attack relentlessly with a weakness to deflection that makes that the best course of action, while another has you choosing between parrying and dodging to get your two meters up to take that boss’s quick slices and kicks. The common enemies start out simple at first, but as you progress and unlock new abilities, so do they, with more complex moves to use against you where button mashing just won’t cut it. The protagonist, Miyamoto Musashi, is my favorite Capcom protagonist, probably since Leon Kennedy, with a sort of Goku- or Luffy-like attitude of not really being in it for the heroics but is always looking for a good challenge to his swordman’s skills and wanting to be the best; that’s what’s fun for Musashi about being an Onimusha throughout the plot. Whoever decided or mocapped or designed Musashi’s facial expressions in this game should win awards, as he comes off sly, confident, with a roguish quality that reminds me of a Han Solo type. The main hub area of Kyoto reminds me of Komuracho in the Yakuza/Like a Dragon games, with not so many mini-games to play but people to save, side missions to complete, and treasures to find while you travel to more linear locations when the plot demands it.

The feeling and flow of combat can be so important for games like this. The Leviathan Axe in God of War (2018) wouldn’t be the same if not for how great it felt swinging, throwing, and catching it was, and Onimusha is no different with the way swords clash and Musashi slides his enemies’ weapons down and away when parrying just right. When you unlock more abilities, it doesn’t feel like piling on system after system but new ways to turn your enemies’ strikes against them.

The final boss is the best boss of the year, hands down. I love shades of grey villains who think they’re doing what’s right, but sometimes I want a straight-up evil guy, and that is what Yoshitsune is. He’s just interested in drowning the world of Onimusha in blood, and you’re the only one standing in his way. Gameplay-wise, you have to use everything you have learned to beat him with a pattern that is the most difficult in the game but not unlearnable. I used Issen through Onimusha: Way of the Sword, but Yoshitsune really pushed me to learn to use it well, especially in Phase Two. The ending is satisfying but leaves it open for sequels, which I would love to get. An Onimusha 2 could really improve upon the sidequests and make the hub world a bit more interesting, plus I want more of Musashi as a character and more boss fights. Even though I’m finished with the game, I’ll boot it up just to replay the boss fights; they’re that fun.

Books – Green Lantern Comics

I’m not going to make a whole thing of it, but I was apprehensive about the Lanterns show on HBO Max, then decided to give it a shot. Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan may be one of the best superhero castings ever, and Aaron Pierre made John Stewart interesting to me in a way that the comics and other adaptations often failed to. The dynamic between Hal and John carried the show for me, where often I was craving more Green Lantern mythos and abilities in the show. I was willing to go where it was going, but ultimately the finale disappointed and the more I thought about it, pissed me off. It was a huge letdown, but it led me back to the Green Lantern comic books that got me through a traumatic experience I went through in 2005 and rediscovering my love for Green Lantern.

So I’ve been reading all my Green Lantern comics I managed to save from the house fire, from Green Lantern Rebirth to Blackest Night. I originally stopped reading after Geoff Johns’ final arc, finding Robert Venditti’s run on the series afterwards disappointing and generally just running out of money for comics. Now I want to go to my local comic book store and finish my collection of the Geoff John’s runs, as well as try for the first time Grant Morrison’s run on the book, which I know is very different but Liam Sharp’s artwork looks incredible. I lost all my Peter J. Tomasi run on Green Lantern Corps, so I’d love to read those again somehow. Al Ewing is a comic book writer I’ve come to really enjoy over the last couple of years, so I want to check out Absolute Green Lantern also since most of the Absolute run of DC Comics I’ve really enjoyed, especially Wonder Woman.

I don’t know what’s going on in the current run of Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps, but what I’ve seen of Jeremy Adam’s run doesn’t look terrible but doesn’t look too appealing either. I think I will wait before diving back in.

Wrestling – Remembering Ben Satterly aka The Bastard PAC.

It’s weird when a public figure you admire passes away, and you’re left sad about a person you don’t really know, especially with wrestlers that comes with this veneer of kayfabe separating you from that person even further. It has probably been the hardest a public figure’s passing has hit me since Robin Williams. Since the announcement of his passing on the 27th, I’ve been thinking a lot about the relationship fans have to wrestlers. I didn’t really know Ben Satterly; I only knew The Bastard PAC, a character he played, and yet there is this sadness I feel not seeing him on my screen on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and eventually future PPVs. I started writing this around the time I saw a tweet from Will Washington, someone who worked at AEW who went from knowing The Bastard PAC to knowing Ben Satterly. The Tribute to PAC episode of AEW Dynamite might be their best AEW Dynamite ever, with everyone putting their heart and soul into their matches in dedication to their friend, but it was also the hardest episode to watch, seeing the grief on the faces of all the roster. I want to watch it again, and yet I can’t; it’s too much. One day I will. I’ve had these same words Will Washington wrote on my mind since his passing, he’s not supposed to be gone.

There was a time I gave up wrestling, and what got me back was watching certain matches on YouTube that I think were recommended to me on Twitter or Reddit. I don’t remember which it was, but what was included that I sought out was Samoa Joe vs. Kenta Kobashi, any Young Bucks vs. The Briscoes match, the rise of Daniel Brian in WWE, CM Punk’s pipebomb, and The Bastard PAC in Dragongate.

When AEW was announced, and PAC showed up in full gear saying he was going to be the first AEW World Champion, I believed him, because I was not fully bought into Hangman Adam Page yet. When he beat Kenny Omega at All Out 2019, it was a shock victory that propelled PAC further up the ranks in my mind as being a future world champion. It was PAC, along with Jon Moxley, that started the Kenny Omega and Hangman Page tag team that would be the driving catalyst for Hangman’s character with the Elite, and it was Hangman’s feud with PAC in the early days of AEW Dynamite that not only gave us Cowboy Shit but made Hangman Page one of my favorite wrestlers in the company. For the longest time, if you asked me what the best matches ever were in AEW alongside Hangman/Kenny vs. Young Bucks, I would say the iron man match between Kenny Omega and the Bastard PAC that happened just the week before. If you were to ask me what match I’d show a person to get into AEW or to get into wrestling in general, it would always be The Bastard PAC vs. Orange Cassidy from Revolution 2020.

In 2020 during the height of the pandemic, I remember Tony Khan promising a huge surprise for Dynamite and fans online being disappointed when it turned out to just be the return of PAC. For me, though, I was thrilled to see PAC return after what felt like forever in lockdown without seeing him wrestle on my screen. I much prefer a 1v1 match on pay-per-view for the world title, as WWE had kinda soured my view on three-ways, but The Bastard PAC vs. Kenny Omega vs. Orange Cassidy was for a while the best three-way match I had seen in wrestling for many years. When Hangman finally won the world championship at Full Gear 2021, PAC was someone I fantasy booked having a feud with him as a return to their earlier feud in 2019 and possibly a potential winner against Page, but it was not to be. What was to be, when PAC became the All-Atlantic Champion, was returning to a feud with Orange Cassidy, in which I saw their match live at AEW Grand Slam 2022 at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Trios Best of Seven with The Elite, finally getting his Wembley moment, winning the trios titles with Claudio and Wheeler Yuta, doing a sneak hurricanrana on Will Ospreay to set up their match at All Out, one final match with Orange Cassidy at their old stomping grounds in Jacksonville, Florida. It was incredible to see PAC and Darby duke it out on a golf course.

Maybe it’s because of the relationship I have with watching AEW closely during the pandemic, but it feels wrong that, after seven years that he’s gone and now we just have to move on with our lives. It’s a strange feeling, being sad about a guy I watched on a screen being gone, knowing his friends and coworkers are suffering even more. I didn’t know Ben Satterly, and based on the testimonials of his friends, family, and coworkers, I’m the worst off for it, but I knew The Bastard PAC. This section was the hardest to write out of a confusion of feelings about what the right words were. I finished Onimusha the day his death was announced, an announcement that came out while I was in the middle of watching Lanterns on HBO Max with a friend that led me down getting my Green Lantern comics out. I ended up just trying to write the memories that stand out to me of what he did in AEW that I watched and was there for. It’ll never feel like the right words, because I don’t know what the right words are, but I have an 8×10 photo of PAC on my wall, an autographed trading card in a fireproof container, and lots of good memories watching his performances together, performances he always put his all in. The memories might grow dimmer over the years, but I’ll remember the Bastard PAC. That’s all from me for now, until next time.

Books, Games, Wrestling Vol. 23 – Mastery, Mysteries and Omega

/ Joshua S. MacDougall / 1 Comment

This one is a bit late, like three weeks late. I’ve been trying to collect my thoughts more in these pocket notebooks I carry with me before I transfer them to this site. I already have my September one written out on those notebooks, but I didn’t want to skip over what I felt were, well, important isn’t quite the right word, but significant observations about my hobbies in July and August. The subject of Retro devices, RetroAchievements, FromSoftware games, and the build to All In are subjects I could write extensively about and may do individual posts on here separate from this format. For now, here is the latest from me on books, games, and wrestling once again.

Games – RetroAchievements and FromSoftware

I’ve been playing the original Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door on my Retro Pocket 4 with RetroAchievements, a platform that provides achievements for classic games you legally own by purchasing them. This is one of my favorite video games ever (landing at #11 on my ongoing and ever-evolving Backlogged My 100 Greatest Games Ever list), and it has been so fun unlocking achievements for this game as I did with Super Mario 64 and Super Mario World previously. The game still looks and plays amazingly, to the point that I underestimated how much of a visual upgrade the remake is, so I couldn’t help but boot it up again on my Switch 2 just to compare them. As a wrestling fan, Chapter 3 is my favorite, and Vivian/Goombella are my favorite companions in that game. I eventually moved my save from the RP4 to my new Retroid Pocket Nova with an OLED screen, and it looks amazing.

The first time I beat Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition on PC was during a Steam Sale, so wanting to satiate my FromSoftware need further without going into New Game+, I bought Dark Souls II at a reasonable price. I hated it almost immediately. Nothing about Dark Souls II felt right to me, to the point I bounced off it fairly quickly. Over ten years later, after finishing Dark Souls Remastered this year on my PC and purchasing Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin because it worked on Steam Deck, I decided to give it another chance thanks in part to this Chris Person editorial on Aftermath, which I thought was excellent and pretty convincing.

Dark Souls II still rocks and the haters can suck it. aftermath.site/dark-souls-ii-…

— Aftermath (@aftermath.site) 2026-08-01T01:01:24.171660+00:00

https://aftermath.site/dark-souls-ii-is-good-actually

I can now say I’ve upgraded it from a game I didn’t like and bounced off of to one that’s pretty good but not my cup of tea. I still think it’s the worst of the FromSoftware Soulsborne games. The combat and the hit boxes feel off, the sound direction is not great, and some of the bosses are poorly designed visually and mechanically compared to their other games. Yet after playing through it, I think it’s still better than most action games. It still has a lot of bullshit, like adaptability as a necessary skill for dodge rolling being a near deal-breaker for the game, and they do not take the opportunity to balance it out with good shield mechanics. Most of the time I was playing Dark Souls II, I really wanted to quit playing it to play a different Souls game, and more than any other, it’s the one I’ve needed a guide for the most, not to find specific items but to just figure out where I was supposed to go next. It’s not that the game was overly frustrating; failing and learning is part of the fun of FromSoftware games, but it just doesn’t feel fun to do a lot of things in it. That being said, I do think a lot of the criticisms toward it are ill-conceived. The story is fascinating, Majula is an all-timer hub world, and Drangleic Castle is one of the sickest locations in this series of games. While I did technically beat it, I didn’t beat it in the way I would normally play one of these games. I rushed through it just to say I did it. I don’t really feel the want to go back, but Dark Souls II is definitely not a bad game, as most have said.

A feeling that could not be even more apparent when I immediately started playing Dark Souls 3 from the beginning afterwards. I do think so many hours of playing Elden Ring have made me better at these games because both Aldrich, Devourer of Gods, and Lothric & Lorian bosses I’ve struggled with in my last four or five playthroughs I fought with relative ease this time around. My latest playthrough may be the fastest I’ve ever gone through Dark Souls 3. I’m right at the end, about to fight the final boss and play the Ringed City DLC, when I had the intrusive thought of “Yeah, this game looks just as good as Elden Ring,” only to boot up Elden Ring to confirm my suspicions.

Yeah, I’m playing Elden Ring once again. Maybe playing too much, in fact, as not only was I wrong about Dark Souls 3 looking just as good, but I’ve got three playthroughs I’m switching between: my very first character when the game came out, a Dexterity build in NG+, a new playthrough on PC that is a Strength build with Greatswords, and after glowing reviews and some extra digital currency lying around, I picked up the Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition and am playing that all comfortable on the basement couch on my Switch 2. Playing through their previous games has given me a new appreciation for not only the scale and size of Elden Ring but also how they contained the magic of Souls gameplay into such a large, expansive world. Also, man, the game just looks so beautiful that you can really miss it when you’re fighting for your life and the runes you want to keep. There are still so many builds I’ve never done in Elden Ring before that’ll eventually lead this game to trouncing the original version of Skyrim as my most hours played on Steam.

Reading – Ana and Din Mysteries

My co-host Christina on No Page Unturned has been ringing the Robert Jackson Bennett bell for a couple of years now, but his books have never really drawn my interest. Then, when my other co-host Steph started reading The Tainted Cup just as Christina was reading the third book, A Trade of Blood, I decided fuck it and started reading the first book just as Steph was getting to the second one, A Drop of Corruption. I’ve been intrigued by the genre mixing of mystery and fantasy for a while, and was enthused with The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan and the characters of Sir Konrad Vonval and Helena solving mysteries before the books became about something else. The Ana and Din Mysteries are more of what I wanted in that. The world is fascinating to me; it’s walled in like the world of Empire of Exiles by Erin M. Evans, but with the threat of giant leviathans rather than changelings. Din as the Dr. Watson type but far more active with enhancements that give him perfect memory, plays off well with Ana, easily overstimulated due to the enhancements she was given that give her beyond-human deductive reasoning over the cases they solve throughout the empire.

I quickly devoured all three of these books, which is unusual for me. Often if I read too many books in a series back-to-back, I get restless partway through the second or third book and have to put them down. Now I’m highly anticipating the next Ana and Din mystery, which often start out with cases that seem like small incidents Ana can easily solve but quickly unravel into information that could have dire repercussions for the whole empire. Meanwhile, the worldbuilding around the empire as more information is unravelled points to a larger narrative arc and mystery that Ana and Din are slowly racing towards. Their dynamic does a lot for my enjoyment of the series starting out in that more familiar everyman dealing with an eccentric genius like Watson and Holmes, but Din’s character blossoms into more than just being the narrator telling Ana’s story. He gets exasperated with Ana’s proclivities, she gets annoyed at his disobedience with his free-time activities, and they both grow closer over the actions of the empire they live in. I could read one of these every year, and more fantasy authors should take the investigative approach for the plot.

Wrestling – ALL IN 2026

Let’s talk about builds. Kenny Omega vs. Will Ospreay was amazing, maybe one of the best AEW matches of all time, and because of that, no one is going to remember how weird and messy the build was, and it’s a damn shame that this is not the only instance of that happening. The character of Will Ospreay in 2026 has been weird all year since his return. I straight up have not liked his character, nor have I liked his story with the Death Riders, ranging from stupid to not making any sense to a waste of my time. When they dropped it after Redemption, I was enjoying the callout that Kenny Omega did to Ospreay’s behavior and was hoping for some kind of reckoning on that front, but Kenny was making too much sense and was risking getting cheered at Wembley, so they made him the Green Goblin once again with the belt. I hate that this mess is not going to be remembered and we’ll have to deal with the ebbs and flows of AEW sometimes having great builds and sometimes poor ones, with resulting PPV quality not being affected by the poor ones.

I hate that, but goddamnit, though, it was such an amazing match. Kenny Omega’s intro with You Say Run, and the Japanese voice of All Might from My Hero Academia brought tears to my eyes. I knew Ospreay was going to win, we all did, but I wish I could have gone into the match with more enthusiasm for him like I did in 2024 and 2025. What’s even more frustrating in just one promo leading up to All Out that Ospreay cut on Jon Moxley, he seemed back to that guy I cheered for in previous years. I’ll forever be frustrated with everything leading up to the All In main event from Kenny Omega’s loss to MJF, Ospreay riding with Moxley and the Death Riders, the title win not being at Redemption because [redacted], and the overcomplication of the Omega v. Ospreay build to get Ospreay cheered. That being said, I too am getting old and may also forget all about this in lieu of how great the match was.

Meanwhile, Mercedes Moné vs. Willow Nightingale killed it. This had a fantastic build that really made it clear these two are tied together in AEW history, but also that they don’t like each other for good reason. They certainly showed it in their match because these two women beat the shit out of each other. If it was anyone else besides Will Ospreay and Kenny Omega, I would have said this should have been the main event (like, for example, if it had been MJF in Omega’s place). These two are going to be eternal rivals in AEW. I will say, it does feel kind of bad that this has happened to Willow twice, one with the TBS title and now with the World Championship. Still, I am pretty confident Willow will get her time as the top babyface of AEW sooner rather than later.

The less said about Cope & Christian beating the Young Bucks, the better. Once again, old timers are going to find their way out of getting pinned, and if you’re aware of the Tag Team Championship match at All Out, they’re still not going to get pinned. So far in AEW, Cope has been pinned or submitted by three people in singles action: Jon Moxley, Christian Cage, and Dax Harwood. That’s it. I can’t wait for these two to retire now. That’s all from me, until next time.

Books, Games, Wrestling Vol. 22 – Live from NY

/ Joshua S. MacDougall / Leave a comment

Wrestling – Live posting AEW Redemption

The following paragraphs were written live while watching AEW Redemption

I’m writing this live. I think opening with the ladder match for a shot at the International Title is a good choice. Speedball Mike Bailey has to be winning this, right, considering he’s Canadian? That was a pretty fun ladder, but a standard AEW ladder match. That sounds so entitled, like it was just another good AEW ladder match, boo hoo, but it makes it harder to write about, to be honest.

The Young Bucks’ tag match is up next. I’ve made my opinions on this Ospreay/Moxley story very clear, but I know when it comes to wrestling, this is going to show out. I am curious who is going to win if the Bucks are going to face Cope and Christian at All In, and Ospreay is going to face Omega, perhaps Moxley should take the pin. Jon Moxley pinning anyone in this match if he doesn’t have a match yet at All In would just be weird. Perhaps this match will end with a returning Swerve involvement? I’m not sure. The match started off a little slow, but it’s really starting to pick up the speed of what I tend to expect from a Bucks match. The story of the match seems to center around Nick Jackson taking a lot of abuse, being out of it, and Will Ospreay being unsure how far he’s willing to go. Personally, I’ve said my opinion on tweeners and Opsreay leaning that way is no different. The ending of the match was exactly what I wanted. Moxley took the pin, and less waffling about whether Moxley is heel or not. The seeds of descent between Ospreay and Mox are what this has needed the whole time. Young Bucks save Jon Moxley’s stories once again.

I know Bandido and Kyle Fletcher is going to be incredible, but do we really need Bandido losing again? I like the way Bandido and Fletcher’s gear sort of feels counter to each other. This match is starting off a lot slower than I expected, but my friend is distracting with bad Bandido puns. I might need my own hydration break soon. Bandido’s dead lift suplex is a thing of beauty. I could see Bandido versus Kyle Fletcher being a future AEW World Championship match within the next two years. They seem to have good chemistry. I thought the power bomb to the outside was intense until Bandido did a frog splash on him from the top rope to the Kyle below. A lot of people predicted these two would steal the show, and so far, they’re not wrong. Owwww, Bandido just slammed Kyle’s face into the mat. This match has done a great job of convincing me that Bandido could really win this, and that is when wrestling is at its best to me. One of those matches where I go this is it for a pinfall and then someone kicks out. The crowd is with Bandido, and I know this won’t be their last match together. I just love saying Michinoku Driver. I knew Kyle would, but I still feel slightly deflated. Bandido has lost again. Fantastic match though. This should be Bandido’s last loss on an AEW PPV for a while.

Bang Bang Gang vs. The Dogs? Hydration break time. I don’t think Jay’s cowboy boots go well with his pants. I say that observation causes this match isn’t really doing anything for me, even with the chain. Someone mentioned two chains on commentary, and this is how I found out 2Chainz left Def Jam. Clark Connors and Juice Robinson have done more for me in this match than David Finlay and Jay White. It looked like Finlay dropped Jay White right on his neck at one point. I really am trying to feel something for this match but damn this might be really bad. Wait, nevermind, Wheeler, Yuta, and Daniel Garcia are here to get beaten up by the Gunns and let Marina hand Finlay the Shillelagh, wow. If this cements the Death Riders as more heels than tweeners, I’m happy with that, but what the fuck was this chain match? What was Jay White wearing? It felt like Clark and Juice cared more about this match than their partners.

Will Ospreay referencing a winning bonus, hell yeah, love it. See, this is another reason why what Mox is doing isn’t working for me. He gets on the mic and says this championship doesn’t matter, or this match doesn’t matter, then why should I, the viewer, watch anything Mox does?

Since Shida’s return, she has felt significantly slower and less graceful. I was pretty disappointed by the Queen Aminata match, so I have low expectations for this Maya World match. Maya World has improved with every match I’ve seen her in, and I hope she’ll get to bring something out of Shida and win the TBS title. Shida has had exceptionally bad-looking gear for a while now, but this most recent one is a much-needed improvement. To me, selling a hurt body part during a match would be one of the more difficult aspects of wrestling, so Maya selling her injured leg that Shida is targeting is working for me. This match has been better than my expectations, with Shida getting overconfident and trying to bully Maya, only for it to be her downfall. The right result in the end.

It’s Cope and Christian time which means it’s look at my phone or play video games time. I love The Bastard PAC, and like Claudio, but it’s not enough.

The Painmaker is so funny to me. I thought Ciampa vs. Jericho at Beach Break was actually good and Jericho’s best match since returning but this probably could have ended with Ciampa just getting the win and Jericho facing someone else in Canada. Jericho always needing to get his win back has always been a detriment to him trying to get people over. He’s already getting some points, though, for pocket sand. The plunder in this match has really heightened how much it rules. As my friend said in the group chat, as this was going on, I do love it when a wrestler does a move on a plushie. The sandpaper to the face had me cringing in phantom pain at the spot. Oh my god, Jericho has a tac in his head. This mirror spot Jericho is setting up as I type this is rad as hell. I can’t believe how much I’m enjoying a Chris Jericho match in 2026. ANOTHER MIRROR? A PAINMAKER MIRROR? MIST? A Judas Effect with Ciampa’s own weapon and Ciampa kicked out, WHAT? A drill to the head submission for the ending? Wow, what a match.

I got distracted and missed some of this Andrade v. Mark Davis match. It seems hard-hitting now that I’m focused on it again. I did really dig what I think is new music for Andrade with the how you know? worked into it. I was having trouble getting into this match at first, but Mark Davis and Andrade are just too good to ignore. Andrade’s spinning back fist cannot be matched. It rules. I hope Andrade takes the belt to other promotions like CMLL and NJPW, too, as it was originally envisioned.

I’m excited for Willow vs. Thekla. Thekla’s entrance jacket looked more like nacho cheese than fire to me. Thekla’s hair looks strange without the part, but I love her red and white gear. Willow’s pink and gold gear is magnificent, though. Canada is on Willow’s side, and who I expect to win. Whoops, spoke to soon, the Thekla fans in the crowd have since let their voices be known. Oh shit, she’s biting the injured ear on Willow, hell yeah. Thekla had a lot of doubters when she won the world championship, but I think she has done an excellent job with no Mercedes Mone and no Toni Storm to either heighten her run or take some of her spotlight. She has one hundred percent earned her spot, but I’m ready for Willow to take her place as the top women’s babyface (and possible top babyface in the company) with the World Championship. This match is hard-hitting, and I’m loving it so far. Willow is so great at getting the crowd behind her; she is so easy to root for. I would have preferred Willow win with her finisher, but that was an excellent reversal into the pin. I’m so looking forward to Willow vs. Mercedes III. Willow Nightingale has deserved this for quite sometime and I am glad they finally crowned her here.

Main event time. Kevin Knight, how dare you interrupt Kenny’s entrance! Kenny Omega silencing the crowd and yelling at Kevin has been fun for me. I love it when Kenny is a nice guy outside of the matches, but then turns on the Best Bout Machine button when he wrestles. It’s the kind of intensity and in-match storytelling that has always fired me up when watching him wrestle. Kenny has earned being cocky in the ring, even if he is the babyface. Kenny catching Kevin with a dropkick on the outside was awesome. I was hooting and hollering at the sunset flip from the top rope from Kenny, followed by the V-Trigger, what a move. I’m disappointed Kevin Knight got out of the top rope Snap Dragon Suplex. I really wanted to see it. The switcheroo with the two belts by Knight was nicely done. One Winged Angel for the win. That match was incredible. This is why I love Kenny Omega and, oftentimes, All Elite Wrestling.

…and then Jon Moxley and the Death Riders have to come out, of course. This sucks. Is this a Will Ospreay story or a Jon Moxley story? Is this a Kenny Omega v. Ospreay story or a Kenny Omega v. Moxley story? Enough. Ospreay is not a great storyteller, to be honest, but I’m glad he made some kind of choice there (but I still think Kenny should retain at All In.) Just as I type this, though, oh my god, Kenny, thank you so much. I laughed maniacally when Kenny Omega One-Winged-Angeled Ospreay, he deserved it.

Post-PPV Thoughts: Ospreay got what he deserved at the end of the main event. He may have hesitated to take out Kenny but he thought about doing and Kenny knew it. I don’t think that was a heel turn, but more teaching Ospreay a lesson for trusting the Death Riders and listening to Mox in the first place. As many others have said about the situation, and other wrestlers have said to his face, he’s thirty-three and shouldn’t be surprised the ruthless guys are ruthless. The booking has done no favors to persuade me to root for Ospreay to win at Wembley, and that is kind of a shame. If Ospreay shows up to Dynamite saying he can’t trust Kenny, well Will maybe it was you who broke that trust first.

Books – Decision Paralysis

I don’t really have an update as far as reading is concerned. I’m kind of having decision paralysis on what I want to read next, but I’m still read The Thrice-Bound Fool and Jade City. What I’m really reading is my email waiting for Lit Escalates to ship my The First Law New Edition Hardcovers that I contributed to Kickstarter for. Not that they’re late, they’re actively shipping them with 4000 orders already on their way, but when is it gonna be my turn? I’ve already seen they made the shipping label recently so fingers crossed my editions ship soon.

Games – Backloggd My Personal 100 and Bomberman 64

I believe it was either Dan Ryckert or Mike Minotti of Giant Bomb who discussed creating their own list of the one hundred greatest games of all time, so as an active Backlogged user I decided to do the same.

It’s an interesting task to do. At 41 years old, the top five are likely cemented with a little wiggle room, and that wiggle room grows as the list goes from 6-10, then 11-25. 26 – 100 is a lot more maleable. The difference between whether Batman: Arkham Asylum is above Spider-Man (2018) is sometimes down to how recently I’ve played it. It’s become a fun thought experiment for me about recency bias. For example, I haven’t played The Witcher 3 or Yakuza 0 since 2018, so they’ve fallen to around the fifties on my list. However, I wonder if I play them again, whether they’d stay in their positions. When I think about The Witcher 3, I worry that I won’t like it as much as I did when it first came out, because my taste in games has expanded. On the other hand, it might remind me of all the fond memories I had playing it originally, which may raise its ranking on the list.

This brings it around to what I’ve been playing on my Retroid Pocket 4, Bomberman 64, which I now have as ninety-seven on my list. I was surprised how much I still love the Adventure mode after all these years, finding all the different customization parts, unlocking gold cards, making bomb staircases to get to secret areas, and pumping up bombs to hit bosses on the head with. I kinda wish Bomberman had stayed on this track for future games or go back to it, because both the story and the gameplay in single player are so much fun to me. The only downside is I know what framerate is now, and this game chugs when you have too many bombs on screen, but I have a lot of fond memories of bringing my custom Bomberman to a friends hosue via the N64 control pack and playing multiplayer for hours. If whoever owns the rights to Bomberman released a remastered collection of the N64 Bomberman games, I’d cop that instantly. I still have the commercial for this song ingrained into my memory more than the actual Spider-Man theme it’s based on.

A month ago, this game wasn’t on my list at all, a beloved childhood game, so what else am I forgetting? There is a lot of the PSX, PS2, and PS3 staples that I completely missed being a former Nintendo fanboy and Xbox 360 owner. I do find myself having difficulty going to older games on my Retroid that are new to me, probably as an ADHD side effect, where I’ll lose focus and retreat to a game I know better. It feels like now is the time to play old games, though, because Autumn is loaded with new games that might end up on this list in the future. My biggest curiosity is whether the Ocarina of Time remake could possibly enter in the top ten or even rise above the original, which sits at number seven on my list. That’s all from me, until next time.

Books, Games, Wrestling Vol. 20 – Deltajuly in the Summer of Kenny Omega

/ Joshua S. MacDougall / Leave a comment

There have probably been four or five of these in my drafts since April, when I last updated, maybe more, nearly fully written, but a combination of things has taken my attention away from finishing editing. The Knicks in the NBA playoffs and winning the NBA Championship, the weather is finally getting warmer, and my carpal tunnel in my right hand is acting up. So in the different sections, I’ll give a brief summary of my April through June before I get to the main events of each section. I’m writing this one somewhere else rather than in front of my computer, which sometimes helps me focus through my ADHD. Let’s hop right into it before this becomes another draft I don’t publish. It’s been so long that I originally got the volume number wrong.

Books – In Between Several Books

Summary – Shadows of the Daemon Realm manga, from the author of Fullmetal Alchemist, Hiromu Arakawa, is excellent, though I’m only on Volume 5 so far. I got all my cohosts to read The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson; they enjoyed it, and we’re going to do an episode on it, to my delight. I have an ARC copy of The Thrice-Bound Fool by Christopher Buehlman I’m working through, and it’s nice to have Kinch as the main narrator again even though I loved Galva in The Daughters’ War

I’m usually reading two books at once, but besides The Thrice-Bound Fool, which I’m making through slowly, I’m actually in between books. For my birthday, I was gifted a copy of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time manga just in time for them to announce the remake, so I’m thinking of starting that. It’s always interesting to see how game stories are changed in manga versus how they stay the same, such as in the Persona 5 manga adaptation.

Also, since Alecto the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir’s publishing date is nowhere in sight, we’re starting our series on the Green Bone Saga for the podcast, so I’m excited to do a close reading of Jade City and the rest to really get into the nitty-gritty of that series, which is far different from A Chorus of Dragons and The Locked Tomb. It also allows me to read the special editions I bought last year that are so nice. I am expecting some big book mail this summer from Backerkit and Kickstarter so I’ll probably post about those as soon as I receive them. The whole *gestures to everything happening in the world* of it all has delayed a lot of that stuff but I’m hoping it comes soon.

Wrestling – A Kenny Omega Summer

Summary – Despite my misgivings of Darby Allin’s promos, person, and character work, he had an excellent title reign with some of the best AEW TV matches. I usually switch between Knicks in the playoffs and AEW TV the last couple of years, sometimes watching both of them at once, but this Will Ospreay and the Death Riders story and MJF’s third title reign has been so fucking boring to me that I skipped most of the Dynamites and Collisions before Forbidden Door to watch the NBA. The Swerve/Ospreay interactions were the most I’ve enjoyed Ospreay since his return. Despite all that, Double or Nothing was an all-timer and Forbidden Door was an excellent show, as most AEW PPVs not named World’s End are.

A JJ Williams photo

Kenny Omega, The Cleaner, The Belt Collector, The God of Pro Wrestling, and The Best Bout Machine is once again AEW Men’s World Champion and it feels so good. I woke up the next day bright and early for someone who works overnights and was productive the whole day. You can probably thank Kenny Omega for winning the Men’s World Champion for this post right now. Let me be perfectly clear, I do not like MJF and probably never will again, and will not waste time with the details of why. However, he was excellent in this AEW Dynamite main event, keeping a lot of what I normally find frustrating with his matches now to a minimum. The idea of having this match here rather than on AEW Redemption has opened up a lot of possibilities for a Kenny Omega defense there that I’m excited for. I saw Rich Latta of One Nation Radio and the Social Suplex Network post an idea I can really get behind.

I think the match from All In: Texas was great, but it didn’t quite reach the heights I thought the two of them could, so the idea of running it back with a Kenny Omega victory in Canada sounds good to me. My ideal defenses if Kenny is going to have a short reign before dropping it at Wembley Stadium to Ospreay would be Kevin Knight, Andrade, and Bandido. We’ll see what happens, as I often say about wrestling.

On top of the Kenny Omega win, we got the Willow Nightingale return from injury after she had to drop the TBS title and bounce from the Owen Hart Tournament which was disappointing. Now she’s won the Casino Gauntlet and is going to face Thekla at AEW Redemption. It’s time to give Willow that big top star babyface push. That’s right, I think not only should Willow Nightingale beat Thekla at AEW Redemption but she should then go on to beat Mercedes Mone at All In. I can see the pathways they might be heading towards, Willow having the same struggles she had as TBS Champion. She wins the big belt, loses to Mercedes, then gets her redemption later on, and if they go that way I won’t be mad or upset because I do think Mercedes is up there with Manami Toyota as one of the best women’s wrestlers of all time, but lets switch it up with Willow as the victor before we eventually put the Women’s World Title on Mercedes.

Games – Deltajune becomes Deltajuly

Summary – The Wind Waker and Tears of the Kingdom are still excellent. I think I like Tears of the Kingdom even more now than when I originally played it in 2023 because that year was so stacked with games that I felt I had to finish it before all the other games came out. The Wind Waker is still my second favorite Zelda of All Time and having never experienced the HD version on the Wii U I’d be willing to pay for it on Switch 2. Star Fox (2026) adds a lot of great character development to the main characters, not in the original game, plus Star Fox 64 has always been excellent, hope this leads to more Star Fox games in the future. I’m really excited for the Ocarina of Time remake and Persona 4 Revival, but I want to see more of the Ocarina of Time remake.

Deltarune‘s Chapter 5 has been released one year after Chapter 3 and 4 and it is equally excellent. It has some of the best gameplay in any chapter yet. Emotionally, it doesn’t quite hit as hard as Chapter 4, but to say it has none of those hard-hitting story beats would be lying. Some of the reveals are devastating, but Toby Fox really sold this as the Fun Gang’s (The $!$? Squad in my save) So we’ve finished watching a movie, show, wrestling, etc and I ended up streaming the end of Chapter 3 to them one night. It was compelling enough that my friend wanted to see it from the beginning. So that’s what I’ve been playing in July, allowing them to choose most of the choices that Kris will get, which has led to me seeing scenes and dialogue I’ve never seen before, as I tend to make the same choices over and over again. Hearing the excitement about the story from someone else has been so much fun. We are at the beginning of Chapter 4 now, my favorite chapter, and I’m looking forward to them seeing even more of the game. I’m ready for Chapter 6 to wreck me with heartbreak, and if I have to be devastated, so do they. Until next time.

Books, Games, Wrestling Vol. 19 – The One About An Ocarina of Time Remake

/ Joshua S. MacDougall / Leave a comment

To be honest, this one is going to be more about games than books or wrestling. More hits than misses, leaker Natthehate shared a lot of Nintendo’s 2026 plans with Video Games Chronicle, backing it up with confirmation from their own sources. One of those plans includes a remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and now that the info is spreading around, the people with sources seem to imply it is a robust remake far beyond what the 3DS version did.

Sources: Nintendo is planning a new Star Fox and a major Zelda remake this year, but no 3D Mario

Ocarina of Time isn’t even my favorite Zelda game (it’s my fourth), but it might be the most important Zelda game in my life. A Link to the Past introduced me to fantasy as a genre, and it was my first RPG, even if it was an Action RPG. Following that and getting a Nintendo 64 in 1996, Ocarina of Time was the first game that I ever followed the news about its release, both in magazines like Nintendo Power and on the internet in message boards on America Online. Back then, the idea of a game taking three years to come out was crazy, and each time Nintendo Power introduced a new delay to the game, it drove my childhood best friend and me crazy.

It was the first game I ever bought with my own saved-up money, not for my birthday, not for Christmas, or any other occasion. I don’t remember what kind of tree, it was either a Douglas Fir or a Norway Spruce, but we had it in our backyard near our pool, near my treehouse, so I’d often climb in it. The same year Ocarina of Time came out, the tree got very sick. It was already shading our pools, so my parents wanted to be rid of it anyway, but my dad didn’t want to hire someone to cut it down. When he did, he needed someone to help cut branches off it, and I needed the money for Zelda, so he generously offered me $10 for every hour I helped. I don’t think he expected me to make it very long, but I kept at it until I earned at least forty to fifty dollars. I got my dad to take me to Toy’R’Us and preorder the game, which involved grabbing a ticket off the wall where the title was and putting a payment of ten dollars down. If you pre-ordered the game, you’d get a special gold cartridge, but I had school the day it came out. Ocarina of Time was also the first time I can remember vocalizing being angry with my sister and my mother, who brought home a regular cartridge even though I had pre-ordered the game with my own money. I was the only one among my friends who didn’t have the gold cartridge. I can’t remember exactly what my mother said, but I remember she was exasperated with my disapointment as if I was lucky enough she had picked it up from the store for me because the store was swamped, and she didn’t think it was a big deal. I was lucky, but it was a big deal to me. I have more memories tied to Ocarina of Time, but I’ll save those for a later date. Here’s books and wrestling.

Books – Green and Deadly Things by Jenn Lyons

Green & Deadly Things by Jenn Lyons slipped through my fingers. For some reason, maybe it’s because most of the Advance Reader Copies of books I actually am super invested in all come out in May I had assumed this also came out in May, as Jenn Lyons is one of my favorite authors currently. Nope! This came out March 3rd, and I had barely read the first chapter. Now, I’m halfway through, and you can expect this book to be covered on No Page Unturned soon enough. When I started it, I was comparing Mathaiik to Kihrin from A Chorus of Dragons, but he’s really more of a Brother Qown-like. My one criticism of the books I’ll share here is that I wish it were a multi-POV book rather than just Math the whole time. Math’s inability to accept that not everything Idallik Knights have taught is true, still halfway through the book, is a little annoying, and Kaiataris’s point-of-view, who is from a thousand years ago and seeing a new world born from her own world, would have been a breath of fresh air. It’s still a great book so far, but that’s just my two cents.

Wrestling – AEW Bullet Points

Just some quick bullet points on my current thoughts going on in AEW

  • If Kenny Omega beats MJF at Dynasty to become AEW Men’s World Champion, and only if then will I buy tickets for Double or Nothing in New York.
  • I used to say if only MJF wrestled as much as he took up time talking in segments on AEW television, I would like him more, but I don’t even like his wrestling anymore. He does way too much goofy shit in every match of his when he used to, if rarely ever wrestling, actually try. I feel like I’m watching Triple H in his prime, and I hated the way Triple H wrestled, even when he was good. I feel like this entire championship run has been carried by AEW having the best roster on the planet as his opponents. Bandido, Brody King, Hangman Page, Kevin Knight, and Speedball Mike Bailey have all done tremendous jobs to make him look good. If he’s beating Kenny and someone like Darby Allin, who feels very stale right now, is going to be his Double or Nothing opponent, then let’s see how that goes because I’m not feeling confident.
  • This Jon Moxley v. Will Ospreay feud isn’t really working for me, mostly due to how aimless and pointless I feel the Mox and the Death Rider’s story has become, cemented by how dumb Moxley beating Takeshita was.
  • Jack Perry, being a white-meat babyface right now, is really working for me, and so is his current wrestling style.
  • Some of you are weird about Kenny Omega’s enthusiasm, projecting a lot of your own feelings on a dude you don’t actually know.
  • I thought I’d be more annoyed that Chris Jericho is back, but I actually don’t care all that much until he actually does something. I’d rather see Chris Jericho than Adam Copeland.
  • Speaking of him, if it wasn’t for Christian Cage, Cope would be entirely intolerable.

Games – What I would like to see in an Ocarina of Time remake.

When the news first broke on this remake, I wasn’t quite sure what I would change about the game, but I have had almost a week to stew on it, so I have some ideas. The big one is Hyrule Field. Often in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, you can see NPCs walking from one place to another, taking paths on foot or horseback to different places, making it feel more lived in despite the Calamity and Upheaval. That is something I’d like to see in Hyrule Field when you’re young Link. It would make a drastic change when you become Adult Link, and Hyrule Field is now not just Stalchilds attacking you at night, but soldiers and monsters aligned with Ganondorf attacking you, and even maybe hunting you down like guards loyal to Agahnim in A Link to the Past hunted you down in that overworld.

A lot of what else I’d add is just a little more details on a lot of information that is given in this game. After you finish the Forest Temple as Adult Link, the Deku Tree Sprout reveals Link’s mother escaping the chaos of the Hyrulean Civil War. She flees into the forest with Link as a baby and gives him to the Deku Tree to care for. Give me a face to that mother and more about the Hyrulean Civil War that Deku Tree Sprout mentions. Likewise, we see Ganondorf for the first time kneeling to the King of Hyrule as Zelda and Link spy on him through a window. Give me a face to that King of Hyrule and maybe even a name. The game is littered with things like that. I would like just a little more detail on. The Shadow Temple and the well in Kakariko Village are another example. The Shadow Temple served as a place for the Sheikah to torture enemies of the royal family of Hyrule for information, and one day Impa, one of the few remaining Sheikah, sealed the Shadow Temple boss, Bongo Bongo, beneath the well before it escaped in Ocarina of Time. Give me more details about what links the bottom of the well, which has its own undead and torture chambers with the Shadow Temple, and how Bongo Bongo relates to all this tortured history of Hyrule’s imprisoned enemies. Honestly, just give me more about the Sheikah in general. The bosses of the Spirit Temple, Kotake and Koume are said to be hundreds of years old and have been leading the Gerudo tribe in secret, and also served as the surrogate mothers to Gandondorf. Give me more details on that! That’s just the lore I can remember. Now, like I said, just give me a little more. Don’t go crazy with it. Oh, I just thought of a big one I’d like to see more details of: Ganondorf’s betrayal and attack. I missed it so many times as a kid, but when you head back to Hyrule Town after getting all the Sacred Stones, you get that wonderful scene of Zelda and Impa escaping, Zelda throwing the Ocarina of Time into the moat, and your first confrontation with Ganondorf. At this time, Ganondorf has presumably killed the King of Hyrule and the royal soldiers with his own force. The part I missed the first of many times I’ve played it is the soldier in the back alley of Hyrule Town who warns of Ganondorf’s treachery before succumbing to their injuries. I want more details on that, even if it means exploring Hyrule Castle again.

Speaking of lore, back when Ocarina of Time came out, the developers said this was to serve as the earliest point in the Zelda timeline at the time. Since then, Skyward Sword is now the earliest game in the timeline. Maybe give some nods to that, like Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom did with the Master Sword healing itself, making the same noises Fi did. Just like a hint of Hylian once living above the clouds or something. One thing I believe they are one hundred percent going to lean into is the Goddess Hylia having a more prominent mention in the story, especially in the telling of Hyrule’s creation as told by the Deku Tree to Link, which details how the three golden goddesses created the world. Right after he tells Link how the Triforce was creted Nintendo can just add in the line about how the Goddess Hylia was entrusted to protect the Triforce, which was evil, and Zelda’s family line is connected to that.

Skyward Sword, you know, the origin story of the Master Sword, has me thinking, let’s finally give the Master Sword something more. It doesn’t have to shoot a beam at full hearts like it did in A Link to the Past, but there should be something special about the Master Sword when you get it, beyond just doing more damage. Even if it’s a new quest to add some kind of ability to it, let me do something extra cool with the sword that is evil’s bane. On the subject of gameplay, let me use the boomerang as an adult. You get the boomerang, defeat the boss in Jabu-Jabu’s belly, then if you follow the story, you’ll end up at the Temple of Time and an adult fairly shortly, giving you barely any time with the boomerang. Sure, you get the hookshot shortly after that, but let me use the boomerang as an adult. Also, since we’re remaking the game, give a more important role to some items, specifically the fire and ice arrows. Make them important to the game rather than just extra items of some convenience against enemies and certain puzzles.

I wonder if they’ll give Link some kind of parry ability like in the two Switch Zelda games. What if young Link can do the reaction attack like Link in Breath of the Wild, but adult Link, facing stronger enemies, can shield parry like Link from Breath of the Wild? If we’re adding things, I’d like there to be Sheik fight after you do three temples as adult Link, just for fun. Sheik comes on all like “I’m here to test what you’ve learned if you’re really worthy of being the Hero of Time, and maybe hint at the reveal that happens later, both the Zelda one and the Triforce of Courage one. If they want to expand upon Zelda/Sheik’s character and role in this game, I wouldn’t mind that at all. I’ve loved what they’ve done with Zelda as a character in Skyward Sword, Breath of the Wild, and Tears of the Kingdom, so I welcome getting more Princess Zelda. I also wouldn’t mind Ganondorf getting different hair, maybe.

The biggest change I’d like to see to the game is a bigger impact to the areas Link brings hope back to as an adult when he rescues/reveals/revives the Sages in the different temples. Biggest of all, Zora’s Domain must finally melt and bring the Zoras back besides the king but do this in all the other regions also. I want to see these places in despair thanks to Ganondorf’s rule and then see the light, and hope brought back to the same places once Link is done with them. I want Mido to acknowledge that Adult Link is the Link that he knew and see the Kokiri change as a result of the birth of the Deku Tree Sprout. I want to see Daruna’s son Link take Daruna’s place as leader of the gorons and, like his father become a sworn brother to Link. Maybe introduce a new NPC in the Geurdo Tribe that becomes their leader, with Kotake, Koume, and Nabooru all gone. I’d like to see the carpenters that appear in the game slowly change Kakariko Village as the game progresses, even more so after you’ve completed the Shadow Temple, maybe even Gerudo’s Fortress too, as the carpenters eventually go that way.

I’m not sure what style the game should look like, but I’d know what the wrong choice was if I saw it. It shouldn’t look like any other Zelda game to be perfectly clear. I don’t think it necessarily needs a new style, but it should look beautiful with as many frames-per-second as the Switch 2 can do. The music has to be fully orchestrated as The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has some of the most iconic music of all time in a video game. In a way, though, this is like fantasy booking wrestling. If you do too much of it and it doesn’t happen, you can end up disappointing yourself when you didn’t need to. With Ocarina of Time widely available on NSO, 3DS, and other means, it seems like a good opportunity if you’re going to remake it to give a little bit more beyond what the Nintendo 64 was capable of. One last thing, though.

It was just for a demo of what was called Zelda 64 at the time, but it shows Link opening a weird blue chest and the full Triforce being revealed. On the message board, it was rumored this would finally come to fruition in a quest after the main quest of the game for the 64DD, an add-on to the Nintendo 64 that came out in Japan, failed, and never came to the United States. In this new quest, you’d go to the Sacred Realm and take on new challenges that eventually led to seeing the full Triforce together. This later turned out to be nonsense and the Master Quest, a remixed, harder version of the game you’d get if you preordered The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, is what was originally planned for the 64DD. Now, however, is your chance Nintendo. I don’t care about a quest after the main quest of anything else I just want to be able to unlock in some way Link, the Hero of Time, finally getting a chance to make a wish on the full Triforce.

Maybe this is how you fix the timeline of Zelda. This brings up a good question of whether Nintendo will change the ending. Adult Zelda sends Adult Link back in time to when he was a kid again. Then that young Link, after supposedly meeting with young Zelda, saving Hyrule in the original time by revealing Ganondorf’s plot, grows up to find the Triforce and wishes for the timeline he is no longer in to be saved. There I go, fantasy booking again. I’ll just have to wait and see.

Books, Games, Wrestling Vol. 18 – Bye, Winter

/ Joshua S. MacDougall / Leave a comment

This winter has been too damn cold with too much damn snow. It has also been difficult at times to get out of bed. I’m so ready for Spring, maybe I’ll even go to Double or Nothing in May.

Wrestling – AEW Revolution

Overall, I think last weekend’s AEW Revolution was entertaining, but some weird choices overall. I’m not even talking about the main event as the possibilities in Hangman’s story going forward are interesting to me. I imagine this will likely be the story for Hangman the rest of the year, considering it was basically a verbal/handshake agreement to not challenge for the men’s world championship again. There are going to be multiple temptations to break his promise, and we’ll see how he navigates that.

The Young Bucks losing in front of their family to FTR, whose title run has been carried by this match and the Brodido match, just to set up the return of Adam Copeland and Christian Cage doesn’t feel great. However, the possibility of FTR dropping the titles to Cope and Christian, then C&C choosing the Bucks to retire against instead of FTR once again, will be hilarious to me as an FTR hater. Plus, even as an FTR hater, I have to admit that the match was incredible (thanks to the Young Bucks).

It’s Jon Moxley beating Konosuke Takeshita for the Continental Championship that really makes no sense to me. What the fuck are we doing with either of these stories? So Don Callis Family and the Death Riders have a feud where the Death Riders are the tweener babyfaces, and the DCF are the heels, setting up the Takeshita v. Moxley match, where Moxley wants to make up for his loss in the C2 and the time limit draw. Takeshita wants to beat Moxley without ganging up on him before the match, a fair fight if you will. The path of this story is clear to see. Kazuchika Okada screwed over Takeshita at World’s End, but loses the C2. He remains International Champion, so obviously, after screwing Takeshita, Takeshita would win the Continental Championship, then face Okada to unify those belts again. Oh, what’s that? Takeshita lost and looks like a nerd now? Jon Moxley just won clean?

At the end, Mox and Takeshita shake hands, then Will Ospreay returns looking for revenge on Moxley from his attack at All Out. Moxley and Death Riders allignment since the C2 has been confusing. Moxley himself has been more of a babyface, while Claudio, PAC, and Danny have been more like tweeners then Marina and Yuta have been leaning more heelish. So now what, with this Ospreay feud, is going to happen? It is unclear in a kind of negative way, as while Hangman’s future seems unclear with many possibilities, the future of the Death Riders seems unclear in a what-the-fuck-are-we-doing-here? kind of way.

Everything else on the card went pretty much how I thought it would. I do think everyone should check out Bandido vs. Andrade El Idolo. Since returning to AEW, Andrade has been incredible and this match is no different. I’m excited for where this Swerve Strickland / Kenny Omega feud is going with them having their rematch on AEW Dynamite next week already. I suspect Kenny is going to win but who knows?

Book – Super Nintendo by Keza MacDonald

I heard about this book on the Aftermath Hours podcast the author was on. It made me realize how different video games are to my age versus nearly everyone younger than me. The NES came out just six months after I was born. I basically grew up with Nintendo, so some of the events detailed in this book I just experienced as a part of video game history. There is an extensive chapter on the struggling development of The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time, whose delays is my first experience with getting video game news and might have been my first online message board experience discussing the delays on America Online’s video game channel. Back then, a game getting delayed for three years was an astronomical delay, and Zelda 64, as it was called in the beginning, kept getting delayed over and over again. I learned about this through issues of Nintendo Power, which my grandma had gotten me a subscription to as a birthday gift. The book provides more details about the causes of those delays, including quotes from developers I had never seen before. That’s pretty much the balancing act of the book I’m experiencing as someone deep in the weeds of Nintendo knowledge; the book reiterates a lot of what I already know or have lived through, but also new insights. I’ll have more to say when I finish it.

Games – A Hodgepodge of Switch games.

I’m reaching a wall in Pokémon Pokopia where I’ve done all the regions and am near the end of the story of the game, but don’t want to quite finish it yet. There are still some habitats in the city area I’ve yet to devolop and the enviromental level there is still kind of low. I don’t want to rush to the end now that I’ve been in each biome so I’m taking my time.

Pokopia has made me go back to other Switch 1 & 2 games I’ve been meaning to play again. It’s the 40th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda, but I likely would have been playing Skyward Sword HD, Wind Waker, and Tears of the Kingdom regardless. I really hope by the end of Switch 2’s lifecycle that all the 3D Zeldas are on it.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is a weird one for me. It came out just days after Skyrim and felt like the beginning of Nintendo’s worst period to me, where their games were constantly hand-holding in games with menus and pop-up instructions that interrupted the flow of games on both the 3DS and the Wii. It was also the first Zelda game that I’ve ever DNF’d before. Wii Motion Plus just did not work well for me at all, whether it was my distance from the TV due to my poor eyesight or something else, playing Skyward Sword just felt like a chore. It was the last game I ever bought for the Wii, and I pretty much played exclusively on Xbox 360 after that until 2016-2017 when I bought my first gaming PC and the Nintendo Switch.

Jump to 2021, everyone was flabbergasted when they announced a Skyward Sword HD for the Switch, and no Wind Waker or Twilight Princess HD. I wanted to give the game another shot, and I remember July being pretty barebones. I’m going to be honest, I don’t remember my original thoughts on the game when I first played it, except for the fact that I liked it, I finished it, and then immediately accidentally saved over my completed game. I hadn’t touched it since then, not because of that, but simply because there have been a lot of great games from 2021 – present coming out. The pandemic might also have something to do with it.

Now, as I’m playing it, I’m thinking about its role in the connective tissue between Ocarina of Time and Breath of the Wild. Majora’s Mask, Wind Waker, and Twilight Princess are, in a sense, spiritual successors to Ocarina of Time, building on the foundation that the original 3D Zelda started, but Skyward Sword feels like balancing the line between trying something completely new and continuing what has always worked with 3D Zeldas. Also, this version of the game looks beautiful. I don’t remember the original looking this good. I think perhaps because I’m playing on a screen with a higher refresh rate, I can actually notice the consistent FPS the game has now.

Metroid Prime Remastered is also another game I’ve returned to. I didn’t finish it when it came out because I was so annoyed by the Chozo Ghosts constantly respawning when I leave and reenter a room. Now I’ve returned to it progressing to my first encounter with metroids in the game, getting the power bomb, grapple beam, and the plasma beam. I don’t know how mucb more of the game I have left. I believe there is maybe two more powerups I need to get and all of the Chozo artifacts that unlock the final boss.

Books, Games Wrestling Vol. 12 – Henceforth, I Claim Them As My Own!

/ Joshua S. MacDougall / Leave a comment

There is a strong possibility that I will skip writing one of these next week and be back with the next one with some of my favorite books, games, and wrestling matches of the year, but I have a lot of work to do in other parts of my life, so one week off will have to do. AEW’s Full Gear is tomorrow, and I wrote down my predictions for the show, which takes up the bulk of this week’s entry.

Books – Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders

I don’t know how I feel about the current book I’m reading. Is it possible for sections of a book to both bore you and fascinate you at the same time? I’m forty percent in, and the intensity of the situation is just starting to rise. Jamie and Serena make a decision that feels like it’s going to have a ripple effect on the rest of the book, but I’ve grown used to seeking out fantasy books with more snappy beginnings. The best parts of the book so far is the backstory of Jamie’s parents, Serena and May, how they met, how they decided to have Jamie, the rough patch of their relationship, and how they came to a resolution to mend it. The parts that bore me and fascinate me at the same time are the parts too familiar to my own former academic life when I was writing a thesis.

The book Jamie’s paper is on has passages that appear in this one, where you can see, upon reading, what Jamie is seeing as it relates to her thesis. The academic life of Jamie made me think of working on my own thesis both the good and the bad but the problem for me is that style of the fictional book Jamie is writing her paper on is the kind that I was bored to tears of in College so while it is interesting to see what Jamie sees my eyes also glaze over imagining sitting in the library trying doing a close reading of this and finding other sources. I can sense a growing tension between Jamie and her wife, Ro, as Jamie and Serena grow closer as it relates to witchcraft and magic, but I need the book to begin pushing that snowball down the hill instead of packing it tightly at the top, trying to make the perfect snowball to keep me hooked on Lessons in Magic and Disaster.

Addendum: Ten minutes after writing this, I’ve reached an inflection point in the story that really has me turning pages, but I wish we had gotten here a bit sooner. Sometimes that is just how books roll.

Games – Chrono Trigger on Steam / Steam Deck

In 2018, when Chrono Trigger was announced, it was coming to Steam. I had no computer to play it on when it came out. I just would have to wait, but it was something I’d have to look forward to. Upon release, it was like looking into the window of people opening a Christmas present we all wanted and finding out their parents had bought a knock-off version instead. Of all the versions they chose to port to Steam, the publisher’s choice to port the mobile version with some weird upscaled resolution was one of the worst options they could have chosen. By the time I got to play it, though, Square had done everything they were going to do to fix the Steam version of Chrono Trigger to make fans happy, but the damage was done, and the fixes shouldn’t have been needed on the first play. They had an easy golden opportunity to not fuck up, and they royally fucked up. It’s still not the best way to play Chrono Trigger today. The fact that there haven’t been any ports of it since then is strange as well, when it could have easily been put on the Nintendo Switch like many past Square games before.

Now, years later, I am playing this version of the game with the classic resolution on my Steam Deck. I know I don’t have to play it this way. There are many other ways to play Chrono Trigger, even on Steam Deck, but I decided to see this version of Chrono Trigger to the end. It’s still Chrono Trigger, one of my favorite games and one of the greatest games of all time. Now, this may just be my perception, but Square Enix’s reputation for getting it right is much improved since February of 2018, even if some people didn’t like everything about Final Fantasy Rebirth or Final Fantasy 16. If, after the positive reception of Octopath Traveller 1 and 2, Live A Live remake, and the remakes of Dragon Quest I-III is a green flag at Square to release an HD-2D remake of Chrono Trigger, I hope they’ve learned their lessons from Chrono Trigger for Steam and pull off the once again golden opportunity for Chrono Trigger HD-2D on multiple platforms.

Wrestling – Full Gear Predictions

Full Gear is coming up, and I’m feeling more excited for the card than WrestleDream, though the Venn diagram of my brain has a larger circle for books and video games right now, and wrestling, plus the looming holidays just over my shoulder. Still, here are my predictions for the main card of the show. On the subject of the Death Riders, I think Pac is going to get a surprise upset over Darby Allin that’ll play into another surprise upset, which is Kyle O’Reilly defeating Jon Moxley in a No Holds Barred match. A stipulation is often used to soften the blow for a loss of one top talent while elevating another, but that’s not the main point. The main point is that Pac will have done something Jon was unable to do recently, and Kyle will have Moxley tapping out once again, ultimately leading to an angle with the Death Riders turning on Jon Moxley. I am unsure if this heel Jon Moxley has completely run its course, but turning him babyface once again isn’t a terrible idea. Who will lead the Death Riders in his absence? I am not 100% sold on Claudio leading the group, but the betrayal definitely feels like it’s coming.

Speaking of both stipulations and Death Riders, I think the Sisters of Sin will get a surprise win in the four-way tag match against the Babes of Wrath, Time Love Bombs, and Megan Bayne/ Marina Shafir to determine their own stipulation in a match against Willlow and Harley that’ll lead to a Sisters of Sin vs. Timeless Love Bombs final. When Kyle Fletcher vs. Mark Briscoe was announced, I was so sure this was the moment Mark would get the win over Kyle and Kyle would enter the C2 to be part of the Takeshita vs. Okada drama, possibly leading to Takeshita vs. Fletcher semifinal. Since Kyle announced that beating Mark would beat the record for most TNT title defenses, I’m not so sure. I’m currently 55:45 on Mark winning, but if Kyle won, it would not surprise me, but it would seem strange to do all that work on the Conglomeration music and video package only to take out one of their core members a month or so later.

What I am sure of is that Mercedes is not winning the world title at Full Gear. She has touched that belt one too many times in the last couple of weeks to be winning it. I like the idea of not only Kris finally showing her growth after a year of uncertainty, after a weird face turn when she lost to Mercedes twice by beating Mercedes, but the women’s world championship being out of her reach from both Toni and the person who beat Toni. Hangman will have a great match against Samoa Joe in a steel cage match and ultimately defeat him. Will Samoa Joe learn his lesson from it? How violent will it get? Will Hangman delve into the darkness within from a year ago to avenge his family against Swerve Strickland? These are the questions I am asking myself leading up to this match. I imagine either MJF or Swerve will return at this match. I’m leaning more towards MJF, which I am not looking forward to. World’s End has been my last favorite AEW pay-per-view two years running, and MJF beating Hangman at it would really put the nail in the coffin for that show for me. I’m still not sure if that is the direction they’re going, but it is an anxiety I definitely have as someone who is not a fan of Maxwell.

You know what else gives me anxiety, and I am not a fan of, but I am more sure of? FTR beating Brodido for the AEW World Tag Team Championships. Two things can be true. I can say I am enjoying FTR as heels so much more than faces, but I also never wanted them to be tag team champions again. Their heel work with Stokely has been far more entertaining, but them at the top of the tag division fills me with dread after their last tag title run, which was one of the most boring tag title runs in AEW history, and don’t quote that match against Bullet Club Gold to me. I am one of the few who actively dislike that match, so them beating Brodido, who has given that tag belts life again after a terribly boring run on the Hurt Syndicate, is not something I’m looking forward to. Especially if it leads to a returning Christian and Copeland feud, which has those two winning the tag belts off FTR. It would be a nightmare for me personally to have them be tag team champions and MJF Men’s World Champion at the same time again.

The only thing I’d have to comfort me is whatever Elite drama is cooking in Kenny Omega and Jurassic Express versus the Young Bucks and Josh Alexander. After a humiliating summer and fall Don Callis has come calling to help Matt and Nick’s money troubles. All they have to do is join the Don Callis Family and beat their former friends Kenny Omega and Jack Perry with one million dollars on the line. Here’s the thing: the Bucks don’t seem thrilled about joining the DCF, nor do they find Don or Josh particularly entertaining, but with Okada trying to encourage them and Don Callis’s bolstering roster putting them in a situation where they might not have a choice, I am not so sure where this is going. Perhaps the Bucks choose to join but lose the match, but Kenny offers the money back to Don to get them out of the Don Callis Family contract. Maybe the Bucks decided Josh Alexcander and Don Callis have given them a bit too much of what the rest of the roster found annoying about the Bucks in their EVP phase, and just choose Kenny by superkicking their tag partner and walk away. I’m not sure where exactly this is going, but I am here for it.

Books, Games, Wrestling Vol. 11 – The Hands of the King

/ Joshua S. MacDougall / Leave a comment

I pretty much know what my game, book, and wrestling match of the year are as far as number ones, it’s everything else underneath I’m not sure of. I’m working on an article/review for GeeklyInc.com on what I think is my favorite book of the year. The part of the end of the year, even though I only do this for fun, that I have a tough time balancing is finishing the last releases I haven’t finished yet, finding time and space for writing, and getting ready for the Holidays. Hence why I mentioned wanting to make more use of the library in previous volumes.

Books and Video Games – The Lord of the Rings and Metaphor ReFantazio

You might not know this, but the date the Fellowship of the Ring leaves Rivendell on the quest to destroy the ring is December 25th. Therefore, I tend to associate at least the first book of The Lord of the Rings with the beginning of November to the end of December season. It has been a while since I’ve read through this book, probably since 2017-2018. It’s one of the few books I insist on reading a physical copy despite owning it digitally in multiple places. I’ve read it all the way through six times, so I wonder if this time away, I’ll observe something new from it. I will say, to anyone reading it for the first time I think you can skip the Concerning Hobbits prologue chapter until at least finishing The Fellowship of the Ring. As much as I love it, it does feel like it slows down the pace immediately.

Credit to https://www.tumblr.com/katschneider

On my mind is the connection between finishing Blood for the Undying Throne, rereading The Lord of the Rings, and replaying Metaphor ReFantazio in the form of a quote from Tolkien’s book itself, “The hands of the king are the hands of the healer.” In College, with my thesis advisor, we’d discuss the connection between William Shakespeare’s Macbeth and J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, and how the kings, such as Macbeth, The Witch-King of Angmar, and Aragorn, affect the land positively and negatively. This obviously has biblical roots, which I am no expert on, so I won’t delve into it, nor the real political implications that monarchies believing themselves to be divine have had on our history. This is more the exploitation of the idea of the king in terms of mythology and fantasy. Major Metaphor ReFantazio endgame spoilers ahead.

In Metaphor, the king dies, and a contest is held to determine who will be the next king. In the game, there is a connection between the king, magic, anxiety, and the “humans,” who are abominations in the game based on artwork by Hieronymus Bosch. The magic that Euchornia has turned into an industry, called magla, turns out, towards the end of the game is revealed to be the physical manifestation of anxiety. If a person succumbs to their own anxiety, magla can actually turn them into a human. Louis, the main antagonist, wants to do this to everyone, and whoever can survive, aka overcome their anxieties, will be part of the new world with him as king. The protagonist you play ends up being the other character vying for the throne to improve the inequality in Euchronia. It’s all a cycle; you and the main character are trying to break it as there are multiple tribes of humanoids, and they don’t all get along. The game surmises the prejudice the different tribes feel towards each other is rooted in anxiety, thus creating more magla, thus creating more opportunity for people to turn into humans.

The death of the previous king and the absence of a replacement will lead to increased anxiety and tension between the tribes, thereby increasing the likelihood that people will succumb to their anxiety and transform into a human. Therefore, the protagonist becoming king will heal the land by healing the people’s anxieties. If the main character makes the serious changes in society the party and he intends to throughout the game as they meet more people and make more connections, this will ease the anxiety of the people. The connection between you and the protagonist is through the royal magic the previous king had cast, which is revealed at the end of the game, connecting you to the protagonist to guide them. Therefore, it is you, the player, who is also the king with the hands of a healer who heals the land by easing the anxiety of its people, including the main character you play and his party. This and many other reasons are why Metaphor ReFantazio was my game of 2024.

Wrestling – Blood and Guts 2025

Straight off the bat, while Blood and Guts is my preferred War Games style match, it has never been my favorite match stipulation. The need to do it every year doesn’t help at all, either, though I know it tends to be a ticket mover. With two different Blood and Guts this year, a Men’s and Women’s, they were always going to be compared, and while the Men’s Blood and Guts was good, the Women’s blew it out of the water.

It comes down to urgency and hatred. The participants in the Women’s B&G showed they had an urgent desire to get their hands on each other with real hatred. The build to this Blood and Guts was odd, but it had the roots of several feuds, giving it heightened tension. Like a spider-web, there is a line of connection each team member had with the other team throughout the year, and continuing past Blood and Guts into the Women’s World Tag Team Championship Tournament. I think AEW did its due diligence towards the event with matches between the two sides, but it definitely needed some more time and promos. Can Jamie trust Toni Storm, given their history? Have Willow and Kris buried the hatchet with the help of Harley Cameron? How did they talk Mercedes into joining the team? Questions that should have been asked and answered but it did not affect the quality of the match.

It had proper violence between Kris and Mercedes. It shortly ended at Willow and Kris communicating before the heels ruined it. Harley Cameron got to display both her silliness with the Mercedes puppet and equal violence in the match. Marina Shafir, whose wrestling matches I have never been impressed with, absolutely showed out. The key to all this is the speed at which they did this. A lot of these Blood and Guts matches have moments where they stall the action to set up a spot, but this one didn’t feel like that at all to me. The ending I thought was the best heel ending to a Blood and Guts yet, with the heel team forcing a lot of the big guns out of the cage and the Triangle of Madness forcing Toni Storm to surrender to save Mina Shirakawa. This will surely come up again in the tag team tournament.

For the Men’s Blood and Guts, all I have to say is never sleep on Kyle O’Reilly again. I will say, though, I think I loved the Hangman Page vs. Powerhouse Hobbs Fall Count Anywhere match better than either of these two Blood and Guts matches, and am of the belief Hobbs should have been Hangman’s Full Gear opponent instead of Samoa Joe, but I think I’m in the minority on this.

https://www.tumblr.com/allelitewrestlings/800064297134948352?source=share Gif by allelitewrestlings.tumblr.com

Books, Games, Wrestling Vol. 10 – A Touching Reunion

/ Joshua S. MacDougall / Leave a comment

It’s November, and to be honest, I’m terrible at doing end-of-the-year writing, but this year I’m determined to do some posts on here and GeeklyInc.com in the “…of the Year” variety. There are only eight weeks left of the year, but I’m not against talking about the best or favorites of 2025 into the first weeks of 2026. Wrestling is the easiest to talk about because most of my matches of the year have already happened, but with the Continental Classic, one Ring of Honor PPV, and two AEW PPVs I don’t want to write off the potential of those shows. I don’t think anything will top my number one book, game, or wrestling match of the year, but it’s everything underneath that is up for grabs.

Wrestling – Random AEW Musings

I don’t have one particular topic in mind, but I do have some thoughts. Between All Out and now, AEW has been relatively good to very good. I’m enjoying myself even if I have some criticism of the booking here and there. For example, and keep in mind this is someone who relatively enjoys the C-show that is Tony Khan’s Ring of Honor TV, but there is no reason for Yuka Sakazaki to be wrestling on ROH and not be appearing in AEW, especially with her new presentation and music. As a big fan of hers, at first I was just happy to see her back from injury and wrestling regularly, but her team-ups with Alex Windsor have been good enough that I am left scratching my head as to why they’re not on AEW TV or having Yuka in singles matches on Dynamite or Collision. I am hoping they’re just spinning their wheels with them before having them on TV, since Women’s Tag Championships will need contenders.

I miss Will Ospreay and Swerve Strickland, but Bandido has been filling that void they have left for me. It’s between Hangman and him, for me personally, for wrestler of the year, but I must admit I have been watching far less of other companies this year than in previous years. It’s one of my goals for next year to watch more CMLL, Stardom, and TJPW. Perhaps some NJPW as well, but it has not been hitting for me much this year except for Goto’s tite reign and Konosuke Takeshita.

Games – From Xbox 360 to PlayStation 4

If you’ve read enough of these entries and came back with the thought “Josh might have undiagnosed ADHD,” I would probably agree with you because I went from a theme of Xbox 360 games to PlayStation 4 games as I was sucked into God of War (2018) full throttle to the point that I beat every Valkyrie and completed the game. That somehow transitioned to me diving deep into another of my personal PS4 mainstays, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, which I played to completion, but I find the having to choose different options in Chapter 9 to unlock different quests to complete every side quest in the game so tedious that I attempted it once, got annoyed, closed the game, and uninstalled. Completing both has left me excited to start God of War: Ragnarok and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth on my new, fancy PC, but I might play more Silksong first, as well as replay Metaphor ReFantazio on PC, which I previously played on PS5.

Lastly, I’ve been delving briefly here and there into some DS Pokémon games such as SoulSilver, Platinum, and Black, with the latter being the first time I’ve ever played that generation. I think the release of Z-A and every gaming podcast discussing it to different degrees led me to have Pokémon on my mind.

While I was editing this, and since I’ve been playing Platinum, I was reminded that Piplup might be top five favorite Pokémon ever, and the YouTube algorithm decided to remind me of this.

Books – In Between Books

I am at the moment in between books, having finished both Blood for the Undying Throne by Sung-il, Born of an Iron Storm by Anthony Ryan, and a rereading of The Incandescent by Emily Tesh. To be honest, I’m not exactly sure what I am going to read next, but I’ve definitely felt the pull of reading this autumn that I did not feel in the summer. It has been a while since I have reread The Lord of the Rings, which used to be an annual event before I started expanding my fantasy library, and there has been this illustrated edition that came out a few years ago that has been sitting on my shelf waiting to be read.

I also have some advanced reader copies for next year that maybe I should get the jump on, but I am unsure and would not be able to talk about them here, making this section very short and boring. We’ll see. The podcast will be reading Network Effect, the fifth Murderbot Diaries book, soon, which is the full-blown novel of the series rather than a novella. It is my favorite book in the series. Murderbot has to go off planet with Dr. Mensah’s teenage daughter, and hijinx ensue that force it to bond with a teenage girl on a deserted space station. It feels like a culmination of the first four novellas and the starting point of the rest of the series.

Books, Games, Wrestling Vol.5 – SAVE the World Championship

/ Joshua S. MacDougall / Leave a comment

My first late edition. Most of this was written enough to release it on Wednesday, but I was struggling to find the words to express my feelings about Undertale‘s 10th Anniversary without sharing too much or getting wordy, but still making it feel personal. I don’t think I nailed exactly how I feel, but I did the best I could.

Games – Undertale 10th Anniversary

This year is Undertale’s 10th Anniversary, Toby Fox has been celebrating it with Fangamer in their first of a couple of streams with some unique things inserted into the game that have the fandom going wild and putting every detail under a microscope. I haven’t had time to watch the whole stream, but I have taken in a lot of what Toby Fox has had to say about it. I usually write most of these on the weekend or at least have a lot written in my head before I login to my WordPress account, but I’ve been struggling to articulate what this game means to me without going insane with the word count here. 2018 was a rough year for my family and me after a house fire destroyed our home and nearly all our personal possessions, but my community of friends, both online and offline, had my back and were kind enough to raise money so I could get back some of what I lost, including a Nintendo Switch. The kindness of people and that Nintendo Switch, which I still own, got me through what was one of the lowest points of my life. The games that I bought and played that year mean a lot to me, and Undertale was one of those games.

The only information I knew about the game was not to kill the monsters if I wanted to see the full story, and I didn’t listen. I can still picture myself sitting on the floor because I didn’t own a chair, my back against my mattress, and the rented bed frame the homeowner’s insurance got for us in the rental home we were going to be in for a year while the house had to be rebuilt. I had killed Toriel because I didn’t realize I could spare the bosses, too, and I felt so awful about it when Flowey the Flower reminded me I could actually reset the game, so I did, and then didn’t play the game for another three months. I don’t remember which song, but it was hearing a song from near the endgame that got me back into it, and then it blew my mind when Flowey called me out for resetting the game after killing Toriel so much. I stayed up all night in bed, doing the entire pacifist run to ungodly hours. Something about the situation I was in, the friends and family that supported me, and that finale of the pacifist run that just opened the floodgates when I played it. I’ve never teared up at really sad moments in stories. It’s those moments of triumph, overcoming overwhelming odds, when hope returns, that really gets me emotional, like when Gandalf arrives with the Rohirrim at the Battle of Helm’s Deep. That moment at the end of the game still gets to me. Just hearing “Hopes and Dreams” to “SAVE the World” to “His Theme” brings me back to the moments lying in bed thinking of everything I’ve been through from November 2017 to November 2018. The game will always be very special to me for that. It is a game about our connections to other people, and connections were very important to me in that year. Happy 10th Anniversary, Undertale.

Wrestling – Post- AEW All Out ‘25

Here is the thing about AEW pay-per-views, I haven’t watched one without my friends since Revolution 2020 and since then there have been maybe four of them that have been bad vibes, AEW All Out 2020 due to Matt Hardy getting concussed and them continuing the match, Double or Nothing 2022 because CM Punk winning the world title felt like the worst call you could make, World’s End 2023 because it might have been the only AEW PPV I would call boring, and World’s End 2024 because Adam Copeland was the least exciting return to take on the Death Riders after a weird fourway main event that made everyone in it look dumb as hell. All Out 2025 started out weird with Christian and Copeland vs. FTR in what I would describe as a main event of WWE Raw in 2019. In other words, this match fucking sucked, and I am so ready for Copeland to retire. I’ll sacrifice Christian retiring to not get more of this bullshit. I don’t care if he’s retiring or their history, I don’t want to see references to John Cena, Defender, and Best Friend to Sex Trafficking Vince McMahon on an AEW show, get the fuck outta here. The entire layout of this match screamed WWE-produced, and I was not here for it. It was not a great start for the show, but luckily, it was the worst match on the show. Even the Hurt Syndicate, which I do not give a fuck about, nor do I want to see MVP wrestle, gave us something better by at least losing to Ricochet’s new faction, The Demand.

The show felt all uphill from there for me. The return of Eddie Kingston, Mark Briscoe getting a victory over MJF, and Riho having a great showing against Mercedes, showing some ego against the TBS Champion, that I greatly enjoyed so much that I’d love for them to run it back. The three-way match between Okada, Takeshita, and Mascara Dorada, if not for the main event, might have been my match of the night. I hope we get Takeshita vs. Dorada, Okada vs. Dorada, and of course, Takeshita vs. Okada sooner than later. Jon Moxley vs. Darby Allin’s Coffin Match was the kind of violence I desired after the high-octane match for the Unified Title, but I was pretty surprised to see Darby lose his first coffin match in AEW. I’ve been championing how great Kris Statlander is since she joined AEW in late 2019, and I was hooting and hollering when she did Chuck Taylor’s seatbelt pin to win the AEW Women’s World Championship against Toni Storm, Jamie Hayter, and Thekla. I recalled at that moment when Wheeler Yuta pinned Chuck Taylor with that same pin while Orange Cassidy was on commentary and Orange just saying, with sadness in his voice, “Chuck taught him that pin.” Speaking of Orange Cassidy, it was greatly hinted at that his return would be this Wednesday in a segment during the show, which added to the hype for me. Finally, the ladder match for the tag titles was insane, terrifying, and awesome. AEW could have pulled the trigger on giving Jetspeed the belts, or return them to the Young Bucks, but I was glad we’re continuing with Brodido, who were equally insane, terrifying, and awesome in this match.

Finally, the main event. I’ll never get tired of seeing Hangman Adam Page being the top babyface, the guy, the man, the world champ, and backing it up in one of my favorite matches of the year against TNT Champion Kyle Fletcher. I had no doubt going into it that Hangman was going to win, but the match gave me just that small amount of doubt that made this even more exciting. Kyle Fletcher is definitely going to be World Champion sooner than later, probably via beating Will Ospreay two years from now, but the chemistry between Fletcher and Hangman was top-notch. The poetry of Fletcher not getting the Tiger Driver ‘98 off, but Hangman Page being able to do Swerve’s Big Pressure was chef’s kiss. This is on my list of matches I am going to rewatch from this year, the first chance I get.

Books – Summer Reading Slump

It’s officially autumn here in the Northern Hemisphere, and I’m hoping my summer reading slump isn’t turning into a Fall one. Something about this year has been making it difficult to sit down and lose myself in reading like usual. I’m not reading any slower,r but carving out less time to read than I usually do. It honestly feels like a reflection of current events. I want to read more. I’m not enjoying reading any less. Hopefully, now that summer is over, I will get back into the reading swing.

I realized in the writing of this that I’m not taking my own advice. People who find out I read a lot of books often ask me how, and I often give the advice I first read in Stephen King’s book On Writing, you have to choose to. If you want to read a lot of books, you have to make the time in whatever part of the day you can, waiting in line, on the toilet, right before bed, right when you wake up, while eating breakfast, etc. Writing is this way, too. You can’t just wait for the perfect time or wait to be inspired you have to take the time by force and use it.