WHAT ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT RIGHT NOW?

why is handle a synonym for username/codename/nickname?

like a twitter "handle'?

oh cool

When I find a site where Dudesoft is taken, it's either a sad fluke, or I forgot I already signed up years prior.

author=Mirak
Ever wake up from a nightmare so eerily real and possible that was from a real life "could-be" setup that makes you think about how could your brain even conjure such a well fabricated scenario, so lifelike, with elements you're not even sure you could have thought of were you awake, that it made you think stupid shit like it being a prophetic kind of dream or something? Because holy shit my heart is trying to rip itself off from my body from how hard it's pounding.

I had a moment like that, but I hadn't fallen asleep yet.

I was just in the bathroom thinking about stuff (as I usually do), and got to thinking about how Ocarina of Time is to Oracle of Ages as Link To The Past is to Oracle of Seasons. What I mean by this is that in Oracle of Ages and Ocarina of Time, you've got an adversary who isn't just sitting around waiting for you to come and fight them; they've got their own lives to live and worlds to conquer (which makes for a more interesting story). On the other side you've got Oracle of Seasons and Link To The Past which contains stagnant adversaries that do something at the beginning of the game and only appear again near the end, leaving you to gather up your strength in order for the climactic fight.

And I think this is why I've always preferred Ocarina of Time over Link To The Past, because I'm in it for the story. Once I learned there can be storytime in Zelda, I've expected it ever since. Some people (namely Arin Hanson a.k.a Egoraptor) blame Ocarina of Time for making Zelda all about the "whooshy whoosh", but think about this: with the inclusion of the "whooshy whoosh", Ganon as a gameplay element becomes much more potent. When Ganondorf is introduced, he's some evil guy you see in a nightmare. Later you speak to the Great Deku Tree who tells you essentially what you've already personally experienced but puts a prophetic spin on it, enhancing your relationship with this evil guy.

Your dream later becomes a reality when Zelda is riding horseback out of Hyrule Castle Town with Impa and Ganondorf shortly behind. He blasts you away (giving him further evil points) before you use your Spiritual Stones to open the Door of Time, claim the Master Sword and fall asleep for seven years. In this time, Ganondorf is hard at work and uses your claiming of the Master Sword to access the Sacred Realm (it's revealed that the Master Sword and the pedestal it rested in acted as a lock to the Sacred Realm and that you actually helped the bad guy win) and turn Hyrule into the Dark World. Without the "whooshy whoosh", you would've just used a mirror and seen the Dark World that was always there.

Why were you collected the Spiritual Stones? To bring the races of Hyrule together, to become one people under the Triforce that can overcome the eventual return of Ganon. These Spiritual Stones were essentially a quest for diplomacy and represent just that, and Hyrule spiritually obtains the piece of the Triforce they lacked, the Triforce of Power, which rests in the hand of Ganondorf.

And how awesome is that? The fact that the bad guy is just a bad guy up until the very end when he raises his hand and you see a blessing of the Goddesses adorning it. Suddenly the struggle becomes very real and you have no option but to succeed, but luckily, you have the Triforce of Courage, which means that - despite all odds - you will push forward through fear and adversity and will never give up. This gives you power and ensures your mind will be pure should you be the one the Goddesses grant the wish of. The same thing applies to Zelda in that her primary driving force is Wisdom, and if granted both Courage and Power would allow her to wish only for the best of her people by her wisdom... but Ganondorf is driven by Power, and him obtaining the other two pieces of the Triforce would only grant him more power with nothing to balance out the evil in his heart.

Or you could have an antagonist who sits on their laurels and is defeated by the hero because he had a handful of crystals. I think I'd rather have the previously mentioned story, but maybe that's just me?

I'm also in awe of how deep and emotional Link's Awakening is. Spoiler alert: it's a dream, but the people you meet and friendships you make while on the island really make you second guess what it is you're fighting for as the big reveal starts setting in; and the fact that the game mysteriously starts off with introducing you to the Ballad of the Wind Fish with its haunting, sad tone really adds a lot to establishing the emotional aspect of the game. You start off questioning why a series that's always been about the adventure and fun would include something so heartbreaking, but it all comes to the front the more you see.

Then you have that moment near the end when you're walking through the Wind Fish's Egg alone and it's all big and empty and it turns you around with no progress to show for it... it's strange, it's infuriating, but it's all deliberate. It's made to leave the player feeling defeated and to give them time to reflect on all that they're leaving behind. You then confront the Nightmare after having the previous time to question what it is you're truly fighting for and if it wouldn't make you happier to just give up and eventually come face to face with the Wind Fish (which - looking back - really feels like meeting God) and it all seems to end.

You're off the island of Koholint, yet Link looks up and smiles as the Wind Fish soars overhead. Strange... it's almost like he faced the philosophical ramifications of his quest and came to peace with it.

Really makes you think, and that's what I love about a good story. Also the fact that Link's Awakening brought darkness and emotion to the Zelda series years before games like Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess makes me appreciate it even more.

author=pianotm
I usually remember my dreams, and at no point in my memory can I ever remember having a nightmare. If I have, it's one of the few dreams I don't remember, and I've never been woken up by them. The closest I've come was being startled awake by falling dreams, and I haven't had one of those since I was a kid.

I'm sorta the opposite. I almost always forget my dreams, unless they are nightmares, which I had a lot of when I was younger, then I remember them as sorta vague and surreal like "Well, I remember it being scary, but I don't think it's really?"
I know for a fact that I have had pleasant dreams but they were, uh, due to puberty. Nothing really specific.

I woke up from one nightmare flailing once, I remember THAT one clear as day.

LockeZ

Mirak
Ever wake up from a nightmare so eerily real and possible that was from a real life "could-be" setup that makes you think about how could your brain even conjure such a well fabricated scenario, so lifelike, with elements you're not even sure you could have thought of were you awake, that it made you think stupid shit like it being a prophetic kind of dream or something? Because holy shit my heart is trying to rip itself off from my body from how hard it's pounding.

Until I was 17 or 18, I had nightmares every single night, and always remembered them after I woke up. Often I would wake up in the middle of the night, then fall back asleep and have a new different nightmare, and about once a week that would happen two or three times in one night. The vast majority of them seemed completely realistic, they were rarely dream-like. In fact I'm not sure I've ever had a dream that didn't seem realistic when I was in it. So I might be an expert on nightmares, but at the same time I don't think having one is even remotely worth caring about.

I didn't have so many nightmares because my waking life was a living nightmare or anything. Just a shitty neurological side-effect of Tourette's syndrome, which thankfully also disappeared when I was 17-18.

eyyy i can relate, although the nightmares are Still Chronic(tm) at 26. sleeping is my least favorite thing.

Mirak (and anybody who has nightmare issues), if such things continue, I highly suggest looking into lucid dreaming. whether or not you believe in it is entirely unimportant. being aware of your dreaming and being able to snap out of them when you know things are going to get uncomfortable, however, is very helpful for me. and sometimes, you can shift the dream in a more positive direction.

for me, lucid dreaming is less "craft whatever i want" and more "use the building blocks the dream has given me to reconstruct the faux reality". i've been terrified of dream-wolves my whole life (no real issues watching Teen Wolf or Buffy or anything though, surprisingly), but they become far easier to deal with if i coax them toward a campfire instead of stalking me, for example.

i've never bothered to write down my dreams, but i know plenty of anecdotes saying that it helps with lucid dreaming or just dealing with them in general. (i have pretty much all of my dreams memorized anyway...)

...

i am currently wondering if the persona 5 devs watched penguindrum and were inspired by it.

Mementos/subway motifs and the focus on sexual harassment made me think of it. Penguindrum's my favorite anime, though.

edit: it probably doesn't sound good to say "my favorite anime is about sexual harassment". okay, let me rephrase that: my favorite anime is about domestic terrorism.

...shit

author=Craze
Mementos/subway motifs and the focus on sexual harassment made me think of it.

...oh yeah...

I've learned with plants like that is clamping the bulb at the base of the leaves and pull it out carefully. Of course till up the earth first.
As what to use for a clamp if you don't have one is really whatever seems safe and strong enough to grip

Yeah, really you could wear gloves and pull it from the bottom. I guess it depends how fragile it feels. It's not like it's rooted in the ground or anything