Is Brandon Biggs also one of the prophets?

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From Steve Cioccolanti & Discover Ministries on YouTube

A video from a few months prior to the assassination attempt against Trump had started trending because it shows a man, Brandon Biggs, predicting an attempted assassination against him.

And the similarities give pause for thought.

I can accept that it’s a miracle that Trump survived, because if the bullet that passed through his ear was just a centimeter closer to his head, this country could have easily broken into pandemonium.

Months prior, in a video discussing a total solar eclipse, Brandon Biggs was one of three hosts discussing Bible prophecy. In it, he discussed how he saw a vision of an assassination attempt against Trump. According to Biggs, a bullet narrowly missed his ear, but caused a sound wave that burst his eardrum, resulting in blood getting on his face. Afterwards, he got down and accepted Jesus with a passion. According to Biggs, Trump was a Christian before, but this incident ignited a special passion for Jesus.

The video is embedded below. Biggs’ prophecy begins at about 11 minutes in, if you want to get right to it.

There are many people out there who are accepting the prophecy as legitimate. But it’s not a bad idea to have some healthy skepticism. After having learned of this prophecy, I’ve decided to look into Brandon Biggs and his theology. For one thing, to see what other prophetic predictions he may have made, in the interest of determining how accurate he may have been with those. Also, to learn about his church, because I imagine that it’s getting an influx of interest.

The church Biggs pastors at is Discover Church. Rather than being a traditional church, Discover Church is an online ministry, which doesn’t consider itself a substitution for attending church in person. It nonetheless has multiple membership tiers with differing monthly fees.

Brandon Biggs does have his own YouTube channel, called Last Days. On this channel, he discusses prophecy, with a particular focus on the predictions that he makes.

According to critics, he has made multiple predictions that did not come to pass. For example, he predicted a sharp increase in the price of silver, which did not come to pass. He also predicted a market crash in the year 2013, which also did not come to pass. He also predicted a sharp increase in the value of the Iraqi Dinar; no prize for guessing that this also did not come to pass.

While I’ve heard these claims, I did not come across evidence that Biggs made them. One possibility is that he did not actually make them. Another more believable possibility is that Biggs recognized the optics in making bad prophetic financial predictions, and deleted them from his channel.

Nonetheless, the accuracy of Biggs’ prediction concerning Trump seems startling, even if it’s not precise. However, when examined critically, Biggs’ prediction becomes less impressive.

False prophets tend to do what I like to call, “throwing spaghetti at the wall”. When you throw spaghetti at a wall, the expectation is that most strands of pasta will fall to the floor, but a few strands might stick to the wall. When a toddler that throws spaghetti in such a manner brags about their own ability to make pasta stick to the wall, they’re hoping that you’ll ignore that most of the spaghetti is on the floor.

While a broken clock may be right twice a day, it helps to remember that it’s right for the wrong reason. The fact is, there are many, many people out there who make false prophecies and predictions. With so many people making so many guesses, some of them are bound to come close. And this becomes more likely considering that some of those guesses are guesses which, if they weren’t stated as prophecies, would be reasonable to make.

One prediction that would have been easy to make is an assassination attempt against Donald Trump. This is because political tensions in the United States is high, to the point that some Americans are actually killing each other over differences in political opinion. For example, just two days ago as of this posting, a 22-year-old Michigan man killed an 80-year-old with an ATV for putting up Trump signs, before ending his own life. That’s the point where things are. And, to make matters worse, the corporate media has been spending the better part of a decade propagandizing against Trump, making him out to be a fascist, a racist, a Russian asset, a threat to democracy, and much more.

While there are many criticisms that could be had about Russian society, at least the Russians were smart enough to know that the Pravda was lying to them. But propagandize the American public enough, and at least one lunatic is likely to act on the misinformation. There have been predictions of assassination attempts against Trump specifically going back at least as far as 2016. It’s amazing that one hasn’t been attempted until July of 2024.

Once some lunatic makes an attempt, of the many predictions that have been made, it’s the one that came the closest that would be most likely to stand out.

And Brandon Biggs’ prediction came close. But like the failed assassin, he would miss the mark.

Pay attention in the video above. Biggs stated that the bullet would narrowly miss Trump, but that the sound wave would cause an eardrum to break, resulting in bleeding. In reality, the bullet did hit Trump, but passed through his ear, leaving Trump otherwise uninjured. There are no reports of Trump’s eardrum being broken.

Biggs’ prediction was close, but close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

Another component of Biggs’ prophecy is that, in that time window, Trump would get down and strengthen his commitment to Jesus, finding a passion for Jesus stronger than he had before. In reality, it seems that Trump ducked down out of self-preservation. Moments after getting up, Trump lifted his fist in the air, and shouted “Fight, fight, fight!” It’s true that Trump credited God with his survival. However, in the past, Trump stated that he never asked God for forgiveness. This would be a necessary step to becoming a Christian.

A person cannot renew their commitment to something that they weren’t committed to already. But hey, how was Biggs supposed to be aware of Trump’s spiritual state?

In a more recent video, Biggs addressed the discrepancy between his prophecy’s prediction concerning the miss that would have broke the eardrum with what really happened. He stated that the vision that he had was true, but that he merely assumed that the blood came from a broken eardrum.

Naturally, we cannot falsify a vision that Biggs alone saw. All we can reasonably do is discredit his prophecy when the words that he used are at variance with reality. Of course, it’s also reasonable to ask why his prophecies primarily concern speculation on the value of commodities and currencies, when we have no indication that Biblical prophets concerned themselves with such things. And why these predictions of his are usually wrong.

Like many similar cults, Discover Church has a business model that I like to call the Profitable Prophet Plan. Their variant of the Profitable Prophet Plan has a feature that can be called, Shotgun Spirituality, because it takes a spray-and-pray approach to prophecy, where many predictions are made over the course of time, and they pray that one of their bullets hits a target, upon which point they can declare victory for the one bullet that hit, hoping you’ll ignore the many that missed.

While I disagree with the idea that such poor accuracy is worth a dime of anyone’s money, Shotgun Spirituality does succeed in wowing enough people to keep many such an enterprise afloat.

At this time, I suspect that Brandon Biggs’ prophecy was not so much a prophecy as it was a guess, one of many like it, notable only for its accuracy, if not its precision. It seems sensible to view it as such, especially in light of his dubious prophetic investment advice, which he has apparently attempted to sweep under the rug.

But what do you think? Do you think that Biggs’ predictions are actually worth getting a membership package to his online ministry over? Or would you value it as less than an Iraqi Dinar? Please leave a comment to let me know whether you believe Biggs’ prophecy was a hit, or whether he was as inaccurate as Thomas Matthew Crooks.

Mihiyo doesn’t care that you’re offended.

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It’s time for another dose of basic observation of reality. And today, it’s needed because a bunch of professionally-offended social media losers are throwing a fit over the creative decisions of a Chinese video game company.

Recently, the game company Mihoyo revealed a new Natlan setting for their Genshin Impact mobile game. It was recently revealed that the setting for the region has elements of inspiration from the African and South American continent, and even though the game is a few years old and has been played by millions of players, people are just now realizing that there aren’t any black characters in the game.

Even though the number of African tribesman who give a shit about skin tones in a game that they’ve never heard of is probably precisely zero, a bunch of Reddit and Twitter users have proceeded to flood Mihoyo with complaints, because that’s pretty much all they can do.

What they didn’t count on is that Mihoyo is based, and stated that Genshin Impact is just a video game, that any character can look the way that the game’s makers want them to look, and that, because it’s a work of fiction, nothing about Genshin Impact has any bearing on reality.

Basically, a Chinese game company told them what their parents should have told them back when their ages consisted of a single digit. They probably also quickly figured out what was going on by sorting complaints by IP address, and finding that hundreds at a time are coming from the exact same device. And, having been at this for years, they’re probably aware that, when you work in customer service, you’ll encounter a bunch of people with mental illnesses who hide behind sockpuppet accounts, and are so crazy that they think media contains hidden messages from the government/simulation intended specifically for them.

Ask me how I know.

One could easily point out that if there were black characters in the game, then the perpetually-offended will instead complain about cultural appropriation. One might even get the idea that one just can’t win with them. But you can win. When one of them starts getting offended on someone else’s behalf, just don’t engage with them. Let them bang their pots and pans together, where they’ll accomplish nothing.

And while you’re at it, savor the sad irony of the fact that, even though they are connected to the summation of human knowledge, if they had spent even half the effort that they put into being offended instead learning to do something useful, they might have self-taught themselves a skilled trade, and our generation may even have already cured cancer. Or at least learn how to make their own video games. Or even learn to draw in the anime style, so they can beat off to something which they drew, rather than relying on other people to draw it for them. Instead, they are actually dumber than they would be if they had never discovered the internet.

I don’t know what an African tribesman would think of Genshin Impact if they were to learn about it. It’s easy to imagine that such an experience would be their first brush with the technology needed to run the game. Their typical concerns would more likely involve whether a neighboring tribe would invade them while they slept, forcibly remove their genitals, then sell them into forced labor (something that a dumbass neighboring chieftain may attempt to do just because he had a bad dream). There’s also the question of whether they can get enough to eat, something that a person who is aware that mobile games exist probably never has to worry about. An African tribesman cannot possibly give a shit about the skin tones of imaginary characters in a mobile game that they’ve never heard of, and if they had somehow heard of it, they’d probably join the Chinese in wondering just what the hell is wrong with anyone who would give a care. To become offended on behalf of an African tribesman is supremely pointless.

Genshin Impact is just a game, and nothing about it has any bearing on the real world. In that respect, it’s like any video game ever. If you don’t have fun playing that game, your solution to that problem is to not play that game.

If Mihoyo is going to be based concerning this matter, I might just support them. And not just because I want to add Nilou to my roster.

Some voice actors came out against Mihoyo on this matter. This is pretty brave, considering that it’s easier than it’s ever been to replace them. Also, it’s probably true that they’re under contractual obligation to not lay a steaming, fiber-rich loaf all over their employer.

One of them went as far as to call Mihoyo’s actions “unforgivable”. I get that people use that phrase to be dramatic, but they should think about what that means. If someone calls anything that I do “unforgivable”, what they’re saying is that I cannot possibly be reconciled to them, I don’t see any reason to waste any energy trying to impress them.

I look forward to the contributions of the replacement VAs. And if Mihoyo goes the AI route, that would go to show how impressive that the technology has become.

People don’t seem to know how differently things could have gone.

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You should be thankful that you’re alive, too. Because if things had gone just slightly differently, you’d be fighting for survival instead of reading this.

I’m hearing a lot of stories about what people think happened with the failed assassination attempt against Donald Trump. As less speculative information comes to light, the Secret Service and local law enforcement looks worse and worse.

But as bad as things might be for some of the most infamous dodgers of accountability in all the world’s history, if any of the bullets had hit square with the failed shooter’s intended target, we’d be in an entirely different country, right now.

Let’s talk about it. And be warned, this will get graphic.

If you really wanted to see something sad, then picture the immediate aftermath of any of the missed bullets hitting their mark. The assembled crowd and the viewers on live television would have been treated to an exploded head.

At that point, the tens of millions of people who voted for Trump in the last election would have thrown their hands up, and said “I guess we don’t have a leader anymore, or a cause.”, then go back home, where they would then just consume product, and decide to study Marxism.

Except that wouldn’t have happened. Not even close. What would have happened instead is that America would have exploded into unbelievable violence.

If you want advice on how you could survive in such a scenario, I could say this: stay inside. Hopefully, the food you’d have on-hand would be enough to last you a while. Prop furniture against the door, and don’t open it unless you recognize the voice of your family. And pay attention for the sound of alarms.

I know that this might sound like I’m describing the worst-case scenario for dramatic effect. But I think most people have no idea how bad things could have been. The number of people who voted for Trump in the last election numbered around 75 million. Imagine if even half of them decided to go door-to-door in a huge game of find the leftist.

There would have been unimaginable carnage.

Emergency services would not have been able to respond to all calls. They might only be able to respond to a few, thanks to the few remaining with sufficient normalcy bias. But they too would have families and a sense of self-preservation, so the police, ambulances, and firefighters would be largely out.

Stores would have been raided, and with supply lines disrupted, you’d have been left with whatever you have on hand. Would it be enough to last you for weeks?

Just based on that, large cities would have become real-life Battle Royales.

At that point, you’d probably care less who the president is, as government probably would have little impact on your life unless you lived in the few areas where martial law could be successfully established.

Then there’s what would have happened on an international stage. With the United States being preoccupied with its own affairs, rogue states would proceed to do as they please. Ukraine would be taken by Russia immediately, and Israel and Taiwan would likely be invaded, too. The world would quickly fall apart as the U.S. would lose any capacity to intervene. That some rogue states might have deployed radiological weapons would have been a possibility.

The question of how long it would be before the United States would have returned to being any sort of organized society would have been difficult to determine, but it’s possible that maps would have needed redrawn, and skylines could have changed.

And thankfully, we don’t live in a world where this scenario came about. This is because three bullets all missed as Trump moved his head to the side at just the right moment.

A fraction of an inch and a fraction of a second was just how close we were to a different world, one that would have been brought about by a defective boy who managed to elude an incompetent security apparatus.

It gets me to thinking that it’s likely that Trump benefited from divine intervention. If that’s true, we all did. Most of us might not have even considered how bad things could have been. We might have even gone from fretting over frivolous things like whether our shoes match our shirts, to fighting for our lives.

And when it comes down to it, there’s no telling when that might happen, anyway. The fact is, we live in a dangerous would, and our society might be hinging on a tenuous factor.

Interestingly, it was only days beforehand that current president Joe Biden was passionately defending his decision to stay in the race. In an interview on live television, he even stated that he’d remain in the race unless God himself told him to withdraw.

I don’t know whether Trump narrowly surviving an assassination attempt would have been the sign that he was looking for. But what I can say is this: if you’re going to invoke the greatest name in Heaven over something you might do, you’d better be ready to do it.

When a Pokémon Bears a Stronger Resemblance Than Intended

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A few years ago, I pointed out that a Pokémon resembling Donald Trump has been added to the Pokémon franchise through the Sun and Moon versions.

According to GameFreak, the makers of the Pokémon games, the Pokémon, named Yungoos, was not intended to bear a resemblance to Donald Trump.

Donald Trump, as you’re likely well aware, was nearly assassinated just days ago, the gunman only having succeeded in removing a chunk of Trump’s right ear.

Yungoos has an evolved form, named Gumshoos, which bears a stronger resemblance to Trump. Notice something about its ear?

Yeah, it’s got a notch in its ear.

To be fair, both its ears are like this, and some small mammals do have bifurcated ears. So, I feel inclined to say that this is just a coincidence. After all, why would GameFreak be able to see the future?

But I expect some people to point to this as evidence of the simulation glitching out.

Trump survived an attempt on his life

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That came as a surprise. As you’ve probably already heard, an assassination attempt was made against presumptive Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump as he was speaking at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, which is about a dozen miles north of Pittsburgh.

The event was a shock. But when the dust settled, the presidential candidate escaped with an apparent minor injury. At least two people are confirmed dead, one of which was an innocent event attendee, and the other was the presumed gunman.

About Trump, I have never seen one man win so hard in such a short amount of time. It was only last month that Trump defeated current president Joe Biden in a debate so convincingly, that Biden’s own party, and the leftist information media, started expressing a strong desire that Biden withdraw from the race. To put that into perspective, the same establishment forces have conspired for the last three years to try to convince us that everything is fine, even though the buying power of our money has plummeted, and the cost of energy, food and rent have soared.

And, shortly before that, Donald Trump was convicted of 34 felonies in what was obviously a politically-motivated show-trial, and an attempt to deny the American electorate a preferred candidate and a voice.

Just yesterday, seconds after an assassination attempt, Trump saluted with his fist in the air, with a fresh, undressed bullet wound in his ear.

If the election were held tomorrow, Donald Trump would easily win over 500 electoral votes.

As for the attempted assassin, I could imagine what was going on in his mind after firing the first shot, and Trump only looked mildly annoyed, like he was swatting a fly. The gunman had to have realized with horror that his final moments would come with the greatest failure of his life.

The shooter has since been identified. He was the kind of guy you might have imagined: a noodle-armed wussie. The guy had a family and a cause, and his final actions brought shame and disgrace to them all. Not only that, the guy just handed victory to the man he attempted to kill. It’s hard to imagine failing so immensely.

A short while ago, I finally decided to buy a MAGA hat. I viewed it as a piece of political memorabilia. But now, I’m wearing it, even as I’m typing this.

As I see it, the attempt on Trump’s life was yet another in a long line of attempts to deny a return to the presidency for a candidate who deserves to win, and yet another attempt to deny the American people the candidate who we prefer, and yet another attempt, whether by a corrupt establishment or by a fringe actor, to defeat this constitutional republic while pretending to save democracy.

At this point, you’re probably wondering what you can do. For one thing, and this should be obvious: Don’t resort to violence. There’s way too much potential for it to backfire, as we’ve seen just yesterday.

Also, you probably don’t need anyone to tell to you to vote for Trump, because you’re probably already going to do it. As of this writing, Americans would turn up in droves to vote for Trump, and polling places might need extra staff to prepare for the influx of voters. Considering recent events, along with the failures of the current administration, the average American voter would vote for Trump, even at the risk of being fired upon, themselves.

The obvious aside, what I suggest is to pursue virtue. Invest in yourself by trying to be a better person. This can be done by working out and getting into shape, tracking caloric intake (there are apps that can help immensely with this), and studying to become better at your career. Avoid self-destructive behavior of any sort. If you drink alcohol, keep it in moderation. If you smoke, or otherwise abuse drugs or other substances, try to quit. If you build yourself up, the result will be a better you. A sound body and a sound mind contribute to each other, so be virtuous in both respects.

You’d certainly be better able to handle the challenges that are ahead.

I was wrong. Sigewinne is great.

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Disclaimer: Primogems are a precious in-game commodity. I advise you to pursue multiple opinions as to which characters to pull for!

It’s been a few days since I wrote up an article claiming that Sigewinne from Genshin Impact was shortchanged. In the time since, I realized that a key aspect of her kit, a healing charge attack that heals the entire party, was just what I wanted for my party.

Before you go and wish on her banner, know that she might not suit your team or your play style. There’s also the fact that I had her signature weapon to give to her, which I obtained while pulling for Furina’s weapon. My experience with Sigewinne may have been influenced by that, which is something to consider if, for some reason, my opinion is what influences you to pull for her.

But hey, I was wrong before, such as when I wrote an article calling Sigewinne shortchanged.

Sigewinne is a bow user. I wouldn’t primarily use her for her bow attack, but it’s something that’s proven useful for my team, which otherwise lacked a bow user. Those are great, because when you happen upon a wild critter, you can get some extra cooking ingredients out of it. I’ve gotten so used to not having a bow user in my party that I’ve easily forgotten that I could do that.

But you wouldn’t find yourself cooking as often, because her charged attack heals your entire party with each “bounce”, (except Sigewinne, who gets a big chunk of healing when the attack duration expires). And using it again only takes waiting out a cooldown.

You don’t even need any targets to use this move, so if there’s any time that your party needs healing, just have Sigewinne blow bubbles. And yes, this does make the game much, much easier. And it’s made bosses that I’ve struggled with nearly trivial. Sigewinne can take an account from getting by to thriving.

Sigewinne’s elemental burst is a bit controversial, as she has to remain on-field for its duration. But that’s acceptable, as it’s comparable to a mini-Neuvilette. The damage output is amazingly high, so as I see it, it’s worth the inconvenience.

Building Sigewinne is simple in theory: if you’re in a hurry, just select artifacts to get her HP as high as you can get it. Whether it’s offense or healing, the major aspects of Sigewinne’s kit scales off her HP. A bow that increases HP (such as her signature) would do great. In fact, her bow was easily tailor-crafted around her elemental charge, which was already her selling-point.

Sigewinne with her signature weapon, Silvershower Heartstrings. Don’t look at me, I didn’t name it.

Sigewinne is a great comfort healer on her own. In fact, she would seem to be the best in the game in that regard. Yes, contrary to what I said before, Sigewinne is better than Barbera as a comfort healer (putting aside Barbera’s auto-revive at C6, which is great). Barbera needs her burst to do full-party healing, which is inconvenient when exploring, and her charge only heals the active character, who might get wet as a result, which could result in unwanted elemental reactions. Like getting frozen.

So, Sigewinne is a great comfort healer. She might even be the best comfort healer in Genshin Impact, so far.

And, before I forget, she can actually automatically heal characters that fall below 50% HP while they are swimming in the depths of Fontaine. She only needs to be in the party to do this, and the only catch is that the ability has a cooldown. So if you were already good at fighting in the depths of Fontaine, you’d become almost unbeatable. This is great if you plan on spending plenty of time in Fontaine’s waters, which is likely if you plan on leveling Sigewinne.

Truth in advertising: Hoyoverse marketing depicts Sigewinne gathering the flower needed to up her level cap.

As far as teammates go, I haven’t attempted using Sigewinne in any post-game content, such as Spiral Abyss, but I think it’s safe to say that she’d be one of the many who would want Furina’s company. And the two go together amazingly well. Furina reduces the party’s HP, while increasing damage input as the party’s HP changes, and Sigewinne adds more damage output with Furina’s ability by also changing the party’s HP, by bringing it back up. After those two, you could pick just about any main DPS and any sub DPS, and have a killer team. Because you’d have hydro application covered by Furina and Sigewinne (mainly Furina), you could pick your other teammates for a desirable elemental reaction that involves hydro.

My current team’s sub DPS is Xiangling, with the main being a C4 Gaming. Triggering vaporize for high damage is simple, and this team is super fun to play! The main flow is to have Furina’s troupe gang up on the baddies, activating her burst, if available. Then, Sigewinne activates her charge, and optionally, you can fire off her burst. Xiangling activates her burst, if available, and you can plop down Gouba, if desired. If all the bad guys weren’t already demolished, then Gaming can come in and clean up. Switch to another character and reactivate their ability, if desired. Just mind your HP, as Furina’s ousia charge can zap your party’s HP. But hey, don’t forget that you have an adorable nudibranch on your side to make the boo-boos all better!

It seems like Sigewinne is getting some undeserved hate from people who aren’t even giving her a chance. While I got swept along with that for a while, my experience with her has been very positive. To not run along with the crowd has its rewards.

But Sigewinne might put a sticker on you while you’re not looking.

Hold on… Do they actually believe this?

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I know that we’re well beyond the point of taking old media seriously. But I would have imagined that The New Republic would have been one of the publications that would have preferred that we go back to the good old days. You know, the days in which people were less connected and less informed, and willing to take old media seriously with big stupid grins.

It would seem otherwise, unless they were really sincere with their new cover, which depicts the man you’re voting for this November with a toothbrush mustache:

Wow, depicting Trump as Hitler! What a stunning and brave move, especially in the current political climate!

I would have thought that “American fascism” would have involved propagandizing the American people, but it seems like the American Hitler has a Jewish daughter, three Jewish grandchildren, authored a peace treaty between the Jewish state and a handful of formerly antisemitic states, and was the only president in the last few decades to not start a new war.

Intellectual dead-ends have been accusing their political rivals of being fascists for so long that it’s just become background noise, like the old music you hear at grocery stores. And I have little doubt that they believe it, because I know that stupid people actually exist.

What I’m starting to wonder about is whether their intellectual betters who have been propagandizing them are actually intelligent, as disingenuous as they may be, or whether they actually believe what they are saying.

Communism survivors have relayed that the point of struggle sessions was to get them to declare their loyalty to the state, whether they were sincere or not, because the very act of making such a declaration had a psychological effect on the one making it, where they eventually believed what they were made to say.

In the same sense, did the propagandistic arm of the establishment finally succeed in convincing someone with their pure, untreated verbal sewage? That is, did they finally succeed in convincing themselves?

What’s especially worrying is that if people can be convinced that someone has been doing something grossly immoral, it becomes easier to convince them to commit acts of violence against them. In light of this, such blatant defamation and dehumanization is not a harmless crime. Left-wing violence has long been a problem, but with the propaganda arm of the left egging them on, I fear it’s only going to get worse.

If the U.S. is heading toward a civil war, media pundits will have played their part in bringing it about. But trust me when I say that nobody should want it. Because the cost would be way too high, even for the winner.

Considering this, irresponsible journalism should be subjected to the ridicule that it richly merits. And with its new cover, The New Republic has certainly earned it.

This is the most shortchanged character in mobile gaming history.

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I think we know what power creep is. But for the benefit of those who don’t, here’s my attempt to explain it: when a game with the potential for updates is introduced, an economy of power is established, and it’s often expressed to the player how characters compare to one another through attributes such as attack power, techniques with area of effect, efficiency of play with the given resources, and in many other ways. As the game is updated, new characters, equips, techniques, or what-have-you are introduced which tend to be more favorable when compared to what’s established. Thus, players tend more towards the new content, as it tends to be more attractive given the in-game resources available to the player.

Pokémon is one example of a game where power creep has happened. In the base games, the legendary bird Articuno was one of the strongest Pokémon, due to the damage output of its Ice-type moves. But in successive generations, more legendary Pokémon have been introduced with preferable abilities and moves, some of which play directly to the Pokémon’s strengths. The Pokémon Trading Card Game is even worse; players might remember a time when 100 was a lot of damage.

While power creep is often spoken of as though it were a bug in game design, from the viewpoint of the developers of mobile games, it’s a kind of feature. It’s a way that developers can introduce new content into their games that catch the attention of established players who may believe that they already have ideal setups, and give them more content to strive for that might be a more practical choice, compared to what’s previously available.

However, game developers must be cautious with power creep. It’s one thing to introduce a character with attributes that challenge the current meta, but if power creep is accomplished through raw stats, then previous premium content can be left in the dust, and there wouldn’t be much reason for players to concern themselves with it. But if a new premium character doesn’t have an advantage over other established characters, then there wouldn’t be much reason to care for the new character. Its a delicate game.

One mobile game that I can think of that’s been hit with power creep pretty hard is Pokémon Masters EX. My first truly OP premium character in that game was the sync pair of Leon and Charizard. I thought it was pretty cool that he had a really strong attack that can be used for free after using a setup move. That was a few years ago, and since then, we’ve been introduced to characters that pack such an absurd punch that even Leon has been overshadowed, despite him being the greatest trainer in the Pokémon lore!

To move closer to the topic of this article, let’s look at Genshin Impact. While power creep has occurred, it’s handled it relatively well. It’s true that some of the premium characters have been overshadowed, but none of the old ones have become an absolutely bad choice. For example, there are still players who main Klee, and get it to work.

Lately, there has been some impressively powerful characters that are relatively new. One would be Nahida, who combos well with other characters due to her Dendro element. Another would be Furina, which grants huge damage output as she decreases the party’s HP, but pairs well with full-party healers which further boost her damage output. Then there’s Neuvillette, a high-damage-dealing catalyst wielder. Arlecchino does a lot of damage, but with the drawback of not being able to be healed by teammates, but is still exceptional in the hands of skilled players. Clorinde is a fast-paced damage dealer.

These are all relatively new characters. Thus, it would be easy to make the case that Genshin Impact is being hit with power creep, even if in a slow, carefully-controlled way.

However, as it so happens, there is a character that one can point to to make the case that, while power creep may be a trend, it’s not a constant. And that character would be the newest one to hit Genshin Impact, Sigewinne.

It seems the train of thought with her is, “Make her cute, and hopefully, no one will notice that this poor girl is not worth their hard-earned primogems.” She’s a Hydro element full-party healer with some decent damage output, but there’s a problem: other characters can do what she does, but better. Among these is Barbera, whose charge attack steadily heals the active character, and whose burst attack significantly heals the entire party. And better yet, once she reaches C6, she automatically fully revives an active party member who faints, once every 15 minutes.

What’s more, Barbera is available to all players once they hit Adventure Rank 18 and complete a certain quest, something that players can do within a month of starting the game. And because Barbera is a 4 star character, getting her to C6 can be reasonably accomplished, even if it would take a while for most players.

Making things worse for Sigewinne is the fact that her debut banner is running alongside the first rerun for Furina, a character that should be preferred by just about anyone who hasn’t already obtained her from her own debut. Because Furina gains a lot of fanfare stacks from partywide healing, one can make the case that Sigewinne pairs well with Furina. But do you know who else can do that? A bunch of other healers, such as Jean. It says a lot about how Furina has impacted the game that a character that hasn’t stood out in a while is now quite viable.

The train of thought may have been to debut a character alongside another one she would hypothetically pair well with, but what ended up happening instead is that the rerun banner greatly overshadowed the debut! And this was a great disservice to the character of Sigewinne, who was obviously designed to be highly endearing. Sigewinne would have been considerable as a 4 star character, to be randomly pulled while pulling for a 5 star banner character. If that was the case, she could have made her debut within Furina’s rerun banner. But instead, here she is as a 5 star featured on her own banner, with a signature weapon on a different banner that’s competing for pulls with a weapon that players would rather pull.

I do like the character of Sigewinne. She has a beautiful and tragic story. Not as much as Aerith from FF7, but it’s comparable to that of Marona from Phantom Brave. It’s because of this that I would have preferred that she had a better kit, which would be viable in more than just a few hypothetical fringe cases. And even if the character was made to appeal to girls and women who play the game, don’t they deserve better?

But one thing that I can say about Sigewinne’s kit is that it does resist power creep. Well done.

Credit: Sentaun

But the joke’s going to be on us if it turns out that Sigewinne forms a game-breaking combo with a Natlan character.

The Emperor Has No Clothes.

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I sometimes find myself thinking that I have to explain old fairy tales, because it’s apparent that most of the people around us are yet to glean the subtle lessons behind them.

Such is the case when it comes to the story of The Emperor’s New Clothes. To sum it up: A conman went to the emperor and sold him a new set of clothes. He was able to convince the emperor that the clothes were something special, when in reality, they were nothing, and when the emperor wore them, he was completely bare.

The emperor was so enamored with his new clothes, that he decided to parade about while wearing them. At no point did any of the emperor’s servants or advisors correct him, and he set out down the streets wearing his new “clothes”. And, for that matter, none of the assembled crowds questioned what they were seeing, either. They agreed with assent that the emperor’s new clothes were magnificent.

But then, one guy spoke up. “Why is the emperor naked?”, he asked. Though one might think it was the most obvious thing in the world, only one guy either noticed or cared to acknowledge what was really going on.

While we might like to imagine that the guy was praised for his insight, the people around him “corrected” him, saying that the emperor wasn’t naked, he was wearing new clothes. They were either saying this because they were just that ignorant, or because they were just that dead-set against gainsaying the emperor.

And when the emperor heard what the man was saying, the emperor was angry, because if he was right, then this meant that the emperor, who was supposed to be the wisest and most insightful man in all the land, was duped by a con artist.

The specifics of the story will vary depending on who is telling it, possibly blunting the intended moral of the story to various degrees, and diminish it’s commentary on society and human psychology. But the main takeaway is usually either that there isn’t much benefit to being the one person who sees what’s wrong, and speaks up about it, or that if no one else in the room is pointing out what’s wrong, that makes it your duty.

If you’re wondering where I’m going with this, I’ll get right to it: The emperor is bare-ass nude. He has been for a long time, and the corporate establishment and much of the body politick refused to acknowledge it. His peepee is showing, and rather than squint to be sure, they instead turned and said, “Nuh-uh! Stupidhead!”

But then last week’s debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden had taken place. And Biden failed miserably. Not only did people finally start to notice that the emperor was naked, there was his willy, on full display.

Some people coped. There were those who pointed out that Biden had to have had a cold, because his voice was raspy. But I think we’ve all had the cold at some point, and we know that the cold doesn’t cause us to lose our train of thought in mid-sentence, nor does it cause us to ramble incoherently.

We got this routine for years, especially the few of us left who still trust the corporate press to be something besides the propaganda arm of the establishment uniparty, or its controlled opposition. “Biden is actually spry, I’ve seen it behind closed doors!” they’d tell us (and themselves), but it was hard to tell whether it was legitimate ignorance or cope. I know that the political left tends to be more algorithmically segregated, but imagine ignorance to the degree that a person sees someone like Joe Biden, and thinks “lucid”.

Imagine how terrifying and confusing that the world must be to someone who is that isolated from reality. None of us have to labor our minds to imagine a world where the costs of rent, food, and utilities have been skyrocketing, because that’s been our reality for the last few years. But there’s a difference between those who are so ignorant that they’ll circumvent the part of the brain that’s supposed to be inquisitive, and end up attributing price increases to “rich people being greedy”, and those who know that the cost of energy and taxes on property are going up, resulting in higher overhead costs of running businesses, necessitating increases in prices to the end of survival. The difference being, the latter have been actually paying attention.

A basic understanding of economics also helps. And I maintain that that’s the bare minimum to having a political opinion that’s worth anything.

But now, with last week’s debate between the presidential frontrunners, those who have succeeded in isolating themselves from the reality of the matter are now experiencing the kind of dread that’s comparable to the existential horror that comes with the contemplation of souls disappearing when people die. Joe Biden is not all there, and with only about four months until the presidential election, is replacing him as the nominee something that can be realistically accomplished?

Then there’s the way that Trump handled himself. While his typical poise was there, he was able to rein in his usual bombastic tone, and was surprisingly well-behaved. Whether you agree with him or not, he was able to manage a level of decorum while on stage.

Up until that point, Trump was the left’s Hitler, considering him completely incapable of saying anything that could be construed as reasonable, and whatever he might have said that might have been reasonable certainly wouldn’t have passed through the occluded lens of the left’s algorithmic isolation, and into their hermetically-sealed echo chambers.

But, if they tuned into the debate, then they would have actually heard him speak, and even if they weren’t convinced, anyone who was reasonable among them would have had to admit that there were compelling reasons for the convictions of his following. And when you realize the potential for this happening, the left’s insistence on not listening to the other side speak naturally suggests itself.

However, last week’s debate made his insight difficult to avoid. While that may have been revealing depending on who you are, last week’s debate showed us something even more revealing.

The emperor has no clothes.

Made In Abyss Theory: Srajo’s Germ Party

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Teamwork makes a dream work.

As a bit of a warning, this article contains spoilers for Made In Abyss, up to chapter 67. This would be especially true if this theory gets it right.

And, to be clear, I really hope it doesn’t. Because if it does, then Srajo is a despicable character, about as much so as Bondrewd the Novel.

To frame this theory, I’d first like to speculate as to the allusions made with the major characters in Made In Abyss. I’ll admit that these allusions may be an assumption on my part, but when held up against what we’ve been seeing out of the major characters, the White Whistles in particular, I think that this assumption holds up.

Personally, I think the major adversarial characters, particularly the White Whistles, are allusions to various types of bad parents. Here’s a few comparisons with adversarial characters that we’ve already seen:

  • Ozen the Immovable is an alcoholic mother who takes things too far. And, worse yet, she makes the boy in her care dress as a girl for her own amusement.
  • Bondrewd the Novel is the father who prioritizes his own career pursuits over his children, and treats them to insincere smiles. While this may sound mundane considering what he’s done, those who have been through it know why that could inspire a villain.
  • Lyza the Annihilator left home and never came back, leaving her own child behind. Nuff said.
  • Wazukyan may not have been a White Whistle, but he easily could have been. His actions may have been an allusion to the cultural practice of “mabiki” in feudal Japan. Consider yourself warned if you look it up, as it might ruin your day.

Okay then, where does Srajo the Obscure fit in all this? To explain that, I’ll first lay out what a “germ party” is. A germ party is the act of deliberately exposing one’s own children to another child who has a highly infectious pathogen, with the plan being that the parents time a vacation for the end of the incubation period, so their children become more manageable as the parents enjoy their vacation.

Having learned of that, you’re probably entertaining the thought of gathering every parent who has ever done this into a huge biomass, to be thrown into an enormous fire. But before you get carried away, you might remember the time that you and your siblings got chicken pox while on vacation. The parents that you may have condemned might have included your own.

As a possible hint, consider the fact that each member of Srajo’s faction, Hail Hex, is kitted with a respirator, except for Frapam, whose physiology is vastly different from the rest of the team.

Neyozel of Hail Hex, wearing his respirator

There’s also Srajo’s signature outfit, which is styled after the traditional European plague doctor outfit, with the conical nose.

Srajo the Obscure

Now, consider what happened when Srajo met Riko’s group: she had Riko’s friends play-fight with Nishagora. She had Riko’s friends bathe together with members of Hail Hex. They then enjoyed a meal together. Afterwards, the groups joined together for a joint expedition, with Srajo stating her intention of having her own group split up at some point.

Ample opportunity to spread a pathogen that Hail Hex had already developed an immunity to.

But with what motive? Quite simply, Srajo doesn’t want Hail Hex to share the glory that would come with a historic expedition into the seventh layer. Whatever prize awaits the cave raiders who make it to the bottom would split better among fewer cave raiders.

And for Riko’s party, it might already be too late.

If you’re wondering what this hypothetical pathogen might do, we may have gotten a glance with the twins, Menae and Sherumi. While Reg was bathing them, they warned him that he and his friends could end up like them! And that’s deeply unsettling, considering that the twins are quadruple amputees, using prosthetics for basic mobility. It might be that an attempt to induce immunity in the twins went wrong, and the result was so traumatic that they don’t even want to recall the experience. Being children, they’re bad at keeping secrets, and could’ve easily blown the lid on Srajo’s plan!

To make matters worse, chapter 67 ends on a cliffhanger, suggesting the possible loss of the physician of Riko’s group, Nanachi. If Nanachi is out of the picture, Nanachi might have been spared the horror of what the rest of the group might endure. But it would also mean that there’d be less potential to treat whatever illness might come upon Riko.

And, without Nanachi, Riko would be the main concern. Faputa is immortal, which might make her immune to any pathogen. And Reg is a living collection of relics, with no biological component that we know of for certain.

Ozen warned Riko to avoid any White Whistle she might come across, and if this theory turns out to be true, then Srajo would definitely have been a White Whistle to avoid!

While most people have a certain attachment to their fan theories, I’d prefer that this one not be true. But even so, I recognize that it does fit in with some of the other themes that author Akihito Tsukushi has already touched upon, and I’d still be excited to see what he does with it in the narrative.

To end this on a bit of a lighter note, let’s consider the fact that Riko is also a White Whistle, which carries the implication that she might not turn out to be a great person, either. Let’s look at some of her less heroic behaviors. She swiped relics that the orphanage sells to pay its bills. Because Reg is a collection of relics, she treated him like property, and ruthlessly violated him while he was unconscious. She filled a notebook up with observations that she made during said violations. She ran away at night, leaving her orphanage to assume that she went on a suicidal journey. She procured amaranthine deceptor larvae in the fourth layer, which she then deployed in a dart against Bondrewd, risking an environmental calamity in the fifth layer, and deploying a bioweapon at the tender age of 12.

I think it’s obvious that we should not be fooled by Riko’s cute appearance, as she could end up becoming a horrible person, a problem that wouldn’t be helped by the influences that she’s been surrounded with.

Hold on, that wasn’t much of a lighter note, at all.