In my last post, I wrapped up ideas involving my renewed sense of purpose in regards to my writing, forging ahead without a focus in mind, but not senselessly or dispassionately so. Before we get to my next post involving destablizing a part of a small country with little more than a dog, some smarmy radio banter and a handful of eggs, I figure we could shoot the shit about other common matters of intense interest.
Picture Related?
Taking some inspiration from the booktube community, I figured I should slow down a bit and meander hither and thither involving my personal indulgences without a concerted sense of pressurized momentum behind the act. What is a game if not to be enjoyed?
A gartantuan pain in the ass is what
More so, I figure I would casually discuss some of the title(s?) I have been enjoying as of late, without some grand deconstructionism in mind. First up is a sloooooooooooow burn replay of Let’s Go Evee! I used that many O’s on purpose to stress a point, as I have been “molassessing” my way through the entirety of the game for the last several years, which is in no way, shape, or form a moment of boastful pride.
I now finally have an idea of how painfully slow the glacial movement of what a 10 year old obtaining 25 years worth of experience feels like, Aka the modern day paradox of hiring employers expectations
I didn’t have to do it that slow, mind you. I think the logic behind this slothful endeavor involved an estimation that this would be the nth raised to the power of absurdity number of times I had completed the Gen 1 Pokedex, which kept me realistically moored in rigtheously resigned cadence dictating the detoured dilly-dallying of this drawn out expedition. To put it another way, committing to this farce of redundancy once more with any kind of fervency should be a call for alarm, one of which should only net me a prize in the form of a bedazzled straight jacket, with a complimentary all expenses paid trip to a place that not even the Mr.Mimes dare dream about.
The kind of place that will have you saying time to nope the fuck out of nope town
The replay itself represents what I have now decided to dub as a “musuem tour” of sorts, as while I wanted to finish my Pokedex, I simultaneously wanted to enjoy the sights and sounds of the Kanto region once more, without all of the huff, guff, and fluff of actually trudging through the entire extravaganza once more. The musuem tour approach is more in reference to peering through a rich history on display chiseled in the stone of memory, instead of reliving it intimately oneself, not unlike marveling at a mosquito encased in amber, a moment frozen in time, yet so much of the past to marvel upon in such a dazzlingly small package
What could possibly go wrong?
So lolligagging with glee through the amber of memory I did….which, not to toot my own horn, (though the conductor says the wind section wouldn’t be the same without me), was a wise decision on my part. Too often, I will yearn for a small waft of nostalgia in a passing moment of fancied pleasantry, only to realize a short time later, all I really wanted was to enjoy the “essence” of the thing, not make the enjoyment of the thing…”a thing”, which a hard replay of the game would have entailed, if you catch my meaning.
Not that kind of thing…though equivocally troublesome in spirit
To wit: if I had restarted the entire affair, due to the one save file limit on Pokémon games, I would have lost all my progress, and would have had to formulate a team, fight my way over hill and dale, reigniting the flames of redundancy, in an effort best described as a fresh stagnation of recreating an already played out past tense bemusing an already exhaustedly familiar sense of burnt whimsy better left undercooked.
Sometimes, you just want to lick the batter, not eat the cake.
(Pictured: Absolutely nothing you salacious perverts)
I imagine the idea of my musuem tour replay is not too disimilar to the reason many gamers enjoy Let’s Plays so much: wanting the experience but not wanting to make the experience “a thing”, at least, not “a thing” they have to deal with personally, but an enjoyment of a second hand variety of someone else having to deal with “a thing” on their behalf.
Twitch users watching the screen as the avatar for Twitch Plays Pokémon gets stuck in the spinners at the Team Rocket Hideout for hours on end
In some queer way, wanting the essence of Pokémon itself by avoiding an actual playthrough and thusly avoiding making it “a thing” reminds me of a humorous anecdote the voice actor H. Jon Benjamin (Coach McGuirk) made in a behind the scenes for Home Movies, where he wanted to get away from work, and decided his new personal ideology of “kicking back” would be in full effect by not worrying about working so much. This self appointed task of committing to such a casual day to day became itself a Herculean one, where he put so much effort into kicking back, it became “a thing”, working to relax in essence, as he then was subsumed by the very idea of “kicking back” to the point of unintentionally self inflicted indentured servitude to the very idea of relaxation itself.
It was suppose to be fun, Brendan, me trying to become a Pokémon Master was suppose to be fun, you know? Not an existentially induced internship…it was suppose to be haha, Brendan, not me sobbing in a mass grave site of animals encased in a haunted tower.
I really will have to keep the musuem tour playthrough in mind for the future, as there are a number of games rhat the thought of replaying remains an attractive prospect, but most of which have so much content involving a proper playthrough, it would indeed be too much of “a thing” to take on in full.
I had way more to talk about just involving Pokémon , but fuck it, I don’t mind leaving on an ending with an air of …HUH…. about it. Sometimes, life is an uncompleted Pokedex, and we must find comfort sitting in the idea that we have time for anything, but not time for everything.
Active Time Event 