Chapters 35 and 36: Draft 4: COMPLETE!

Yes, two chapters. I just went ahead and finished them both instead of stopping to write a blog for January. Now all I have left is the epilogue. And the vague spoiler-free poem about the chapters.

Get up, everyone! Look for your friends.

Where could they be? Is this how it ends?

There are holes in the walls and lights destroyed on the ceiling.

Many strings and chains in weird places; these sights have me reeling.

A stage, once empty, now sounding with cheers and celebration most hardy.

Take a bow players! It’s curtain call for the next Abandonment Party.

Don’t worry; it’s just a gag. I would never ‘make it all a stage play.’ Or a dream. Or have Mean turn out to be the janitor at a theme park like CERTAIN point-and-click games love to do.

Regarding the true ending, there’s one thing about the final paragraphs that I might still need to change. Kim’s comments tell me ‘this just seems anticlimactic.’

And no, it’s not a battle or any sort of action at all. It’s just characters in a setting, having conversations and doing normal things.

Kind of like how the first book ended, right? So I’m not sure what Kim’s problem is here. I’ll have to think on it a bit more.

AP2 Book Cover News: My ex-girlfriend’s daughter has sent me an update of the book cover! I’d show you here, but that would be spoilers. Safe to say, she has included EVERYTHING I’ve asked for. (Although she hasn’t quite added every detail yet.)

What’s funny is that she sent me a full color page that nearly looked complete. And I had gotten NOTHING before that. Hugo, who did the first cover, sent me numerous compositional pencil sketches to pick from before he started drawing anything. 😅

Not complaining, I just think it’s funny. She did send me earlier drafts over the phone when I asked. I’ll have to put it into a future blog after the book releases.

I showed my family and friends the incomplete 2nd cover, though. Everyone seemed to like it. Kim, my strict editor friend, said ‘looks cool so far.’ I was expecting her to complain. 😌

My brother, Corey, did complain though. Said the colors weren’t saturated enough. I think he’s been watching too much Inkmaster. He also said the clouds just looked like someone dragged a drawing tool around to make them. ‘Squiggles’ he said.

I could see what he meant, but I’m sure that the clouds will all be fixed in the final version. I mean, my first drafts of the books have flaws all over the place so I assume the same is true with illustrative art. And the picture she showed me didn’t even have the title on there yet! Why would she finalize the clouds if she’s just going to cover them up with letters that spell ‘ABANDONMENT PARTY BY BRAD SMITH’?

Okay, that’s all the news I can think of. Let’s get started on the Supernatural episodes I watched the past two months. Spoilers for everything up to Supernatural, S6:E17.

Supernatural: It’s been a while since the previous blog. I’ll go turn on Netflix and look at the episode lists.

Season four:

The Monster at the End of This Book: This is the one with the prophet! Now I remember. You see, it turns out that “Supernatural” is a series of graphic novels written by a prophet of God. Pretty funny. I like a story that can make fun of itself, and boy do they make fun of themselves.

The prophet actually apologized to the bros for that awful ‘bugs summoned at the Indian burial ground’ episode.

AND I actually get the title reference! It’s a book where Grover, the Sesame Street character, begs you not to finish because there’s a monster at the end.

I won’t spoil what happens. It must be experienced on your own.

Jump the Shark: The third Winchester bro shows up. He turns out to be a ghoul, though. The real half-brother died before the episode began.

Lucifer Rising: Sam drank the demon blood and killed Lillith! Oh, right, Sam has been drinking demon blood to fuel his exorcising powers. Forgot to tell ya. He’s addicted.

And it turns out that Dean started breaking the seals on the apocalypse when he tortured an innocent soul in Hell. But hey, he didn’t know! Now here Sam is, breaking the final seal by killing Lillith. The season ends with a pit opening and Lucifer, presumably, rising out.

We don’t see him, though. The episode just ends. What a crock. If I was watching these seasons as they came out I’d be ticked off!

But since it’s all on Netflix I’m fine.

Season Five:

Okay in this season the story is simple: the Apocalypse is here. Lucifer needs Sam’s body to fight Michael. Michael needs Dean’s body to fight Lucifer. Both supernatural beings need permission to do so. That’s it.

Fallen Idols: But they put this dilemma on hold for quite a while. The bros have time to hunt a pagan god that appears to different people as their most cherished idols. Then it kills them. What makes this episode great is that the ‘god’ transforms into Paris Hilton and she actually shows up to play herself.

“You people used to worship gods. Now you worship this normal human with a spray tan?”

They chop off her head.

The Curious Case of Dean Winchester: An ageless warlock has been playing poker, and he bets with years of the player’s life! After a whole season of angels and monsters, having a somewhat normal human as the antagonist is a welcome break.

I mean, I like angels. They’re neat. But they’re so powerful. Whenever they show up it’s like the human characters take a back seat to all the celestial shenanigans. It felt good to have a slower episode where Dean was played by a different, older, actor and Sam had to bluff a wily gambler.

Bobby was great in this one, too. He’s in a wheelchair, and tries to win back his ‘life’ from the warlock.

The Real Ghostbusters – The prophet that wrote the graphic novels is back, and the brothers are tricked into going to a Supernatural convention. I love how they poke fun at all the overdramatic dialog. At one point you overhear cosplayers that are dressed up as the bros.

Dean cosplayer – “Dad says I might have to kill you someday.”

Sam cosplayer – “Why?”

Dean cosplayer – “I don’t know.”

😆

Crowley shows up: In the next episode the brothers get back ‘the Colt’ from the demon Crowley. Remember? That magical gun? Forged on the night of Haley’s Comet? Can kill anything? I’m glad the show didn’t forget.

But wait! Crowley? I’ve seen this guy before! He’s on the graphic that shows up on Netflix whenever I go to watch the show. I’ll go take a picture.

See? He’s second on the right, next to Castiel. In my mind, I had incorrectly guessed that this actor was going to play God. Whoops.

And yes, you can see what else I’ve been watching there. I didn’t finish the latest season of Castlevania: Nocturne so I won’t talk about that yet. And DanDaDan is only there because I promised Kim that I’d watch the first episode.

And WOW, what a terrible show. Anime ain’t what it used to be. At least there was a giant explosion at the end of the first episode. 🤩

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse – Back to shows that make perfect sense. Yes, all four horsemen are in this season. I didn’t really care for Famine and War. But Pestilence was played by Matt Frewer! Yes, the Trashcan Man himself! From The Stand, my favorite TV miniseries!

He only appears in two episodes, though. What a crock. He’d better come back in a later season.

The horseman of Death was cool, too.

Dark Side of the Moon – The brothers get killed by shotgun-wielding bounty-hunters in this one. Then they go to Heaven, and meet some previous characters that died. I was glad to see that nerd hillbilly from the roadhouse again. Good stuff.

Hammer of the Gods – Now the show has transformed into the video game Hades. Odin shows up. And Kali, too! Even Mercury and Baron Samedi. Actually, none of these gods appear in Hades, so forget I compared it to that game. 😅

Wait, Baron Semedi? Isn’t he the voodoo guy? I have NEVER heard this show mention voodoo. They always say ‘hoodoo’ instead. It’s so bizarre. Why in the world would they go out of their way to keep voodoo from being mentioned and then bring in Samedi!?

There has to be a reason behind this. 🤨

Anyway, most of those gods are killed in this episode. Poor Semedi. His large hitbox got him killed in the video game Goldeneye, too. 😭

Bros before angels that are also bros – The season ends when Sam comes up with an amazing plan to accept Lucifer into his body. THEN he will open a gateway to a Hell prison with the four rings from the Horsemen of the Apocalypse! THENNNNNN he’ll regain control of his body for JUST long enough to jump into the portal, taking Lucifer with him!

And yes, it all happens! With the power of bros! And classic cars! Believe it!

Season six – I have not finished this season, but SOMEhow Sam comes back from Hell. But I thought something was off. Sam was emotionless and dull. “Maybe the actor is getting a bit fatigued?” I thought.

But no. Sam’s SOUL didn’t come back with him. DUN DUN DAAAH!

And the bros’ grandpa came back too. No idea how.

Also their cousin is the dude from Parker Louis Can’t Lose. Sam and the rest of these guys have been hunting as a family while Dean, oblivious, has been living with some girl from an earlier season.

But enough about that! It’s time for:

Weekend at Bobby’s – Bobby gets an entire episode to himself. Sit back and enjoy! Watch him answer phones, research lamias, and bury bodies with the dude from 21 Jump Street!

But the real story is how he gets his soul back from Crowley. Yeah, Crowley’s back too! Great episode.

Live Free or Twihard – Well, I wasn’t expecting this. Not only are vampires taking advantage of the Twilight craze to catch young women, but they successfully turn Dean into a vampire to be their next ‘pretty boy’ lure.

And Sam lets it all happen! You fiend!

Good thing there’s a cure for vampirism now. Glad their grandpa brought the ancient wisdom!

Clap Your Hands If You Believe – Robert Picardo as a leprechaun!? A+ episode.

Caged Heat – Uh, Crowley dies? But he’s in the Netflix graphic. Did I get the actors mixed up again? 🤔

Appointment In Samarra – The actor that plays Freddy Kruger shows up as an unlicensed doctor. And he kills Dean temporarily so that he can talk to Death.

Makes me want to play Borderlands again. That Zed cracks me up with the same joke every game.

Death agrees to return Sam’s soul, but only if Dean can put on Death’s ring and perform the duties of a substitute soul reaper.

It isn’t easy, but Dean finally unleashes his Bankai, defeats Captain Aizen, and returns Sam’s soul! 😆

The French Mistake – The next few episodes were okay, but this one is LEGENDARY.

See, this is what’s exciting about watching an entire series for the first time: You never know when you’re going to run into a truly great episode. I mean, the previous one was about mannequins that come alive, for crying out loud. I wasn’t prepared for THIS.

Get this: the bros are sent to a PARALLEL UNIVERSE where Supernatural is just a show and they replace the actors that play ‘Sam’ and ‘Dean.’

As the bros try to get back to their own reality, they attempt to blend in. This leads to endless gags about the opulent and absurd world of entertainment. I couldn’t believe that the actors on this show were willing to go along with an episode that pretty much roasts the entire cast. I love it.

And Castiel is played by a dude named Misha!? That’s the name of Rexxar’s bear from Warcraft! 😲

Brain Worm Episode – Uh, what? Some ear parasite kills like three recurring characters. Not only does their grandpa get fried, but the dude from 21 Jump Street bites it too?

What in the world? Are they just going to come back to life later? At least Bobby is safe. That fake-out at the end had me sweating. 😓

My Heart Will Go On – Okay, this is the last one I watched.

The story here is that one of the angels went back in time to prevent the Titanic from sinking. This causes the present day to change, and there are little things that are different. I’m embarrassed to admit that I missed most of the clues.

First, we see that the bros’ car license plate changed to the blue Kansas one that I’m familiar with. (I have family in Kansas.) I was just like ‘Huh, they finally updated it.’

Then we see that the car has two stripes along the top as the bros leave. I’m not good with cars so I just thought they were driving someone else’s car for some reason.

THEN we see Bobby with his wife. I’m like ‘That’s weird, but maybe he got married at some point and they’ll explain it later.’

But THEN I remember that his ‘wife’ is a character that died last season! ‘Hold on!’ I think. ‘Something weird is happening for sure!’

So then they force Castiel to sink the Titanic again.

Game reviews: I got some games for Christmas. Let’s go over the ones I beat.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom – A fun, top-down Zelda game. No spoilers.

Good things –

1. You get to play as Zelda. She can copy items and enemies and replicate them on command. This is more of a puzzle game than the Link-focused ones. (There is also a limited ‘sword-fighter’ form if you just want to smack foes around.)
2. Almost every race of NPC is in this game, from every style of Legend of Zelda. You’ve got the Gorons up in the mountains. Gerudo in the desert. I was shocked to see BOTH kinds of Zora—the sleek ones from the 3D games and the ones with the giant head fins from the earlier titles.
3. Lots of sidequests and goodies to find. They’ve got heart pieces, upgrades, bottles—all sorts of stuff. And the new stamp guy is hilarious.

Bad Things –

1. No bird dude NPCs. Instead you get a yeti. 😣
2. The list of ‘echoes’ you can use gets HUGE. All the options grow into a giant list you have to scroll through forever. And although there are sorting features, there’s no way to mark them as favorite. If you like an echo, you just have to use it over and over until it ends up in the ‘most used’ sort category. 🥱
3. After you beat the game you can still explore to find things you missed. But as far as I can tell, there’s no way to know where anything hidden is. The game doesn’t even give you clues about the general area. Everything you ALREADY found is marked on the map, though.

Dragon Quest 3: 2d HD – What a mouthful. It’s a remake of Dragon Warrior 3, which is what it was called in the United States the first time I bought the game.

What’s great about this remake isn’t just the graphics; there’s a new ‘vocation’ for your characters along with extra treasures to find.

Man, I even found my old instruction booklet. There were maps of the dungeons inside, and I would always mark the location of items. IN PEN.

With these old maps as a guide, I was able to see how the remake added more treasure chests to all the dead ends that the old game had.

There are also a bunch of friendly monsters to find. They power up the new ‘monster wrangler’ vocation, as well as fight for you in a monster arena.

This game is the definition of ‘remakes done right.’ Ha, what a cliche, but it’s true this time.

Ys X: Nordics – Adol is back. You’ve got ship combat that’s actually good, a sea full of adventure to explore, and a concise story. Nothing fancy: That’s all you need sometimes.

Metaphor: re fantazio could take notes. And yes, I’ve been playing that game for over 100 hours. The game just DOES NOT END. I mean, I got it for Christmas, same as the other games I listed! I beat THREE other games while I’ve been playing it!

RRRRGH. Oh well, maybe I’ll finish it next month. See you later! THE EPILOGUE approaches! 😀