Last year, MACK Books published Architecture from Below, which anthologized writings by the French Brazilian architect, theorist, and painter Sérgio Ferro. (Douglas Spencer reviewed it for AN.) Now, MACK follows with Design and the Building Site and Complementary Essays, the second in the trilogy of books dedicated to Ferro’s scholarship. The following excerpt of the author’s 2023 preface to the English edition, which preserves its British phrasing, captures Ferro’s realization about the working conditions of construction sites in Brasília. The sentiment is likely relatable even today for young architects as they discover how drawings become buildings. Design and the Building Site and Complementary Essays will be released on May 22. If I remember correctly, it was in 1958 or 1959, when Rodrigo and I were second- or third year architecture students at FAUUSP, that my father, the real estate developer Armando Simone Pereira, commissioned us to design two large office buildings and eleven shops in Brasilia, which was then under construction. Of course, we were not adequately prepared for such an undertaking. Fortunately, Oscar Niemeyer and his team, who were responsible for overseeing the construction of the capital, had drawn up a detailed document determining the essential characteristics of all the private sector buildings. We followed these prescriptions to the letter, which saved us from disaster. Nowadays, it is hard to imagine the degree to which the construction of Brasilia inspired enthusiasm and professional pride in the country’s architects. And in the national imagination, the city’s establishment in the supposedly unpopulated hinterland evoked a re-founding of Brazil. Up until that point, the occupation of our immense territory had been reduced to a collection of arborescent communication routes, generally converging upon some river, following it up to the Atlantic Ocean. Through its ports, agricultural or extractive commodities produced by enslaved peoples or their substitutes passed towards the metropolises; goods were exchanged in the metropolises for more elaborate products, which took the opposite route. Our national identity was summed up in a few symbols, such as the anthem or the flag, and this scattering of paths pointing overseas. Brasilia would radically change this situation, or so we believed. It would create a central hub where the internal communication routes could converge, linking together hithertoseparate junctions, stimulating trade and economic progress in the country’s interior. It was as if, for the first time, we were taking care of ourselves. At the nucleus of this centripetal movement, architecture would embody the renaissance. And at the naval of the nucleus, the symbolic mandala of this utopia: the cathedral. Rodrigo and I got caught up in the euphoria. And perhaps more so than our colleagues, because we were taking part in the adventure with ‘our’ designs. The reality was very different — but we did not know that yet. At that time, architects in Brazil were responsible for verifying that the construction was in line with the design. We had already monitored some of our first building sites. But the construction company in charge of them, Osmar Souza e Silva’s CENPLA, specialized in the building sites of modernist architects from the so-called Escola Paulista led by Vilanova Artigas (which we aspired to be a part of, like the pretentious students we were). Osmar was very attentive to his clients and his workers, who formed a supportive and helpful team. He was even more careful with us, because he knew how inexperienced we were. I believe that the CENPLA was particularly important in São Paulo modernism: with its congeniality, it facilitated experimentation, but for the same reason, it deceived novices like us about the reality of other building sites. Consequently, Rodrigo and I travelled to Brasilia several times to check that the constructions followed ‘our’ designs and to resolve any issues. From the very first trip, our little bubble burst. Our building sites, like all the others in the future capital, bore no relation to Osmar’s. They were more like a branch of hell. A huge, muddy wasteland, in which a few cranes, pile drivers, tractors, and excavators dotted the mound of scaffolding occupied by thousands of skinny, seemingly exhausted wretches, who were nevertheless driven on by the shouts of master builders and foremen, in turn pressured by the imminence of the fateful inauguration date. Surrounding or huddled underneath the marquees of buildings under construction, entire families, equally skeletal and ragged, were waiting for some accident or death to open up a vacancy. In contact only with the master builders, and under close surveillance so we would not speak to the workers, we were not allowed to see what comrades who had worked on these sites later told us in prison: suicide abounded; escape was known to be futile in the unpopulated surroundings with no viable roads; fatal accidents were often caused by weakness due to chronic diarrhoea, brought on by rotten food that came from far away; outright theft took place in the calculation of wages and expenses in the contractor’s grocery store; camps were surrounded by law enforcement. I repeat this anecdote yet again not to invoke the benevolence of potential readers, but rather to point out the conditions that, in my opinion, allowed two students (Flávio Império joined us a little later) still in their professional infancy to quickly adopt positions that were contrary to the usual stance of architects. As the project was more Oscar Niemeyer’s than it was our own, we did not have the same emotional attachment that is understandably engendered between real authors and their designs. We had not yet been imbued with the charm and aura of the métier. And the only building sites we had visited thus far, Osmar’s, were incomparable to those we discovered in Brasilia. In short, our youthfulness and unpreparedness up against an unbearable situation made us react almost immediately to the profession’s satisfied doxa. Unprepared and young perhaps, but already with Marx by our side. Rodrigo and I joined the student cell of the Brazilian Communist Party during our first year at university. In itself, this did not help us much: the Party’s Marxism, revised in the interests of the USSR, was pitiful. Even high-level leaders rarely went beyond the first chapter of Capital. But at the end of the 1950s, the effervescence of the years to come was already nascent:  […] this extraordinary revival […] the rediscovery of Marxism and the great dialectical texts and traditions in the 1960s: an excitement that identifies a forgotten or repressed moment of the past as the new and subversive, and learns the dialectical grammar of a Hegel or an Adorno, a Marx or a Lukács, like a foreign language that has resources unavailable in our own. And what is more: the Chinese and Cuban revolutions, the war in Vietnam, guerrilla warfare of all kinds, national liberation movements, and a rare libertarian disposition in contemporary history, totally averse to fanaticism and respect for ideological apparatuses of (any) state or institution. Going against the grain was almost the norm. We were of course no more than contemporaries of our time. We were soon able to position ourselves from chapters 13, 14, and 15 of Capital, but only because we could constantly cross-reference Marx with our observations from well-contrasted building sites and do our own experimenting. As soon as we identified construction as manufacture, for example, thanks to the willingness and even encouragement of two friends and clients, Boris Fausto and Bernardo Issler, I was able to test both types of manufacture — organic and heterogeneous — on similar-sized projects taking place simultaneously, in order to find out which would be most convenient for the situation in Brazil, particularly in São Paulo. Despite the scientific shortcomings of these tests, they sufficed for us to select organic manufacture. Arquitetura Nova had defined its line of practice, studies, and research. There were other sources that were central to our theory and practice. Flávio Império was one of the founders of the Teatro de Arena, undoubtedly the vanguard of popular, militant theatre in Brazil. He won practically every set design award. He brought us his marvelous findings in spatial condensation and malleability, and in the creative diversion of techniques and material—appropriate devices for an underdeveloped country. This is what helped us pave the way to reformulating the reigning design paradigms.  We had to do what Flávio had done in the theatre: thoroughly rethink how to be an architect. Upend the perspective. The way we were taught was to start from a desired result; then others would take care of getting there, no matter how. We, on the other hand, set out to go down to the building site and accompany those carrying out the labor itself, those who actually build, the formally subsumed workers in manufacture who are increasingly deprived of the knowledge and know-how presupposed by this kind of subsumption. We should have been fostering the reconstitution of this knowledge and know-how—not so as to fulfil this assumption, but in order to reinvigorate the other side of this assumption according to Marx: the historical rebellion of the manufacture worker, especially the construction worker. We had to rekindle the demand that fueled this rebellion: total self-determination, and not just that of the manual operation as such. Our aim was above all political and ethical. Aesthetics only mattered by way of what it included—ethics. Instead of estética, we wrote est ética [this is ethics]. We wanted to make building sites into nests for the return of revolutionary syndicalism, which we ourselves had yet to discover. Sérgio Ferro, born in Brazil in 1938, studied architecture at FAUUSP, São Paulo. In the 1960s, he joined the Brazilian communist party and started, along with Rodrigo Lefevre and Flávio Império, the collective known as Arquitetura Nova. After being arrested by the military dictatorship that took power in Brazil in 1964, he moved to France as an exile. As a painter and a professor at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Grenoble, where he founded the Dessin/Chantier laboratory, he engaged in extensive research which resulted in several publications, exhibitions, and awards in Brazil and in France, including the title of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 1992. Following his retirement from teaching, Ferro continues to research, write, and paint.

We made it, everybody. We’ve reached the end of HBO’s The Last of Us. Wait, sorry, I’m getting word in my earpiece that…we’re only halfway done with it because this show’s going for four seasons. At this point, I’m mostly feeling deflated. Last week’s episode was such a catastrophic bummer that it cemented for me that the show fundamentally misunderstands The Last of Us Part II, the game this season and those that are still yet to come are adapting. But you know how your mother would tell you not to play ball in the house because you might accidentally break the priceless vase on display in the living room? Well, if you’ve already broken the vase, you might as well keep playing ball, so we’ll probably be doing this song and dance into 2029. For now, we’re on the season two finale, which essentially wraps up Ellie’s side of this condensed revenge story and reveals the premise of season three. Most game fans probably assumed this was where the season would end and, if nothing else, it’s still a bold cliffhanger to leave off on.Suggested ReadingNintendo Switch 2 Price Is Set at $450 for Now, But Could Go Higher Share SubtitlesOffEnglishSuggested ReadingNintendo Switch 2 Price Is Set at $450 for Now, But Could Go Higher Share SubtitlesOffEnglishNintendo Switch 2 Price Is Set at $450 for Now, But Could Go HigherGuilty as chargedAfter last week’s flashback-heavy episode, we open on Jesse (Young Mazino) tending to wounds the Seraphites have inflicted on Dina (Isabela Merced), which means we get a real heinous scene of him doing some amateur surgeon’s work to remove the arrow she took to the knee. He douses it in alcohol and offers her a sip to dull the pain, but she staunchly refuses without explaining why. They made Jesse an asshole in this show, but he’s still a smart guy. The gears start turning in his head about why she might turn down a swig right now. Nevertheless, he takes that motherfucker out with no anesthetic, booze, or supportive bedside girlfriend to help Dina through it.Speaking of the absent girlfriend, Ellie (Bella Ramsey) finally returns to their theater base of operations. Now that she’s back, all her concern is on Dina, but Jesse is still wondering where the hell she’s been this whole time. Dina is resting backstage, and even though we only see these details for a few minutes, I once again want to shout out the set designers who recreated this little safe haven, which is covered in old show posters and graffiti from bands and artists that performed there before the cordyceps took over. I’m sure Joel would have loved to have seen it.Dina stirs awake and Ellie checks her wound. Jesse’s effort to wrap the injury leaves a lot to be desired, but it should heal in time. Ellie asks if the baby’s alright, and Dina says it’s okay.“How do you know?” Ellie asks.“I just do,” Dina replies.The one who is not okay in the room is Ellie, who is bleeding through the back of her shirt. Dina helps her undress and starts to clean the scratches on her back. As she does, she asks what happened while they were separated. Ellie says she found Nora (Tati Gabrielle), and she knew where Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) was, but only said two words: “Whale” and “Wheel.” Ellie says she doesn’t know what it meant. It could have been nonsense. She was infected, and it was already starting to affect her cognitive state.“I made her talk,” Ellie whispers. “I thought it would be harder to do, but it wasn’t. It was easy. I just kept hurting her.”Image: HBODina asks if Ellie killed her, but she says she just “left her,” meaning that somewhere in this timeline, Nora is wandering the depths of a Seattle hospital with broken legs and an infected mind. I thought the show couldn’t possibly concoct a worse fate for her than what happens in the game, but they found a way. It takes commitment to put down a character like showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann have done for Nora across both video games and television. Personally, I think when you already know that people are wary of the way you treat one of the few Black women in your franchise as if she doesn’t deserve the same dignity as everyone else, maybe you should do better by her when given a second chance, rather than worse. But that’s just me. I’m not the one being paid a bunch of money to butcher this story on HBO Max every Sunday at 9 p.m. Eastern. So what do I know?Maybe this is just part of the contrived sadism the show has attached to Ellie. She thinks violence is easy and it comes naturally to her, so I guess she would beat a woman nearly to death until the fungal infection made her lose her mind. Meanwhile the game version is so traumatized by what she’s done in this moment, she’s practically speechless by the time she reaches the theater. God, I knew this shit was going to happen. Mazin has repeatedly insisted that Ellie is an inherently violent individual, something he’s communicated both in interviews and by having Catherine O’Hara’s Gail, the therapist who tells you what the story is about, say that she’s always been a sadist, probably. Now, when we get to moments like the post-Nora debrief which used to convey that Ellie is Not Cut Out For This Shit, the framing instead becomes “Ellie likes violence and feels bad about how much she likes violence.”Before The Last of Us Part II came out, a lot of Naughty Dog’s promotion for the game was kind of vague and even deceptive in an effort to keep its biggest twists under wraps, and some of the messaging it used to talk about the game’s themes have irrevocably set a precedent for how the game’s story is talked about years later. When the game was first revealed in 2016, the studio said the story would be “about hate,” which paints a much more destructive and myopic picture of Ellie’s journey than the one driven by love and grief she actually experiences through the course of the game.One of the most annoying things about being a Last of Us fan is that its creators love to talk about the series in ways that erase its emotional complexity, making it sound more cynical and underhanded when the actual story it’s telling is anything but. I can’t count how many times I’ve heard people reductively parroting notions that The Last of Us Part II is just about “hate” and “guilting the player” for taking part in horrifying actions when they literally have no choice but to do so, rather than cracking the text open and dissecting that nuance. Mazin’s openly-expressed belief that Ellie is an intrinsically bloodthirsty person similarly bleeds into how a lot of the public perceives her as a character, seeing her as a violent ruffian rather than a grieving daughter who was only ever taught to express her pain by inflicting it on those who made her feel it in the first place. Discussing these games as a fan means having to fight against these notions, but they’re born from a game built on subtext, and thus willingly opens itself to those interpretations.Its willingness to dwell in ambiguity only makes it a more fascinating text to unpack, or it would, if we lived in a world where discussing video games wasn’t a volatile experience in which you constantly run the risk of being targeted for performative online dunks, or running up against rabid console tribalism. Now, the Last of Us show has decided to lean into the most boring interpretation of what this story is about without an ounce of subtlety, nuance, or even sympathy for Ellie’s plight. She is a sadist who does terrible things not simply because she’s grieving her father figure, but because this is just who she is. Mazin has deemed it so, and here we are, and this vision of her will no doubt weave itself into the fabric of how we talk about Ellie Williams, even in the game.This story only has any thematic weight if Ellie’s violent outbursts are rooted in pain, not pleasure. Yeah, what we’re seeing in the show is her acting from a mix of those things but, in the game at least, the most affecting moments of Ellie’s Seattle revenge tour happen when she has to confront how she is not built for acts of violent excess in the same way Joel was. She never has been. Back in Part I, she was sick to her stomach when she committed her first kill to save Joel, and the entire point of Part II was that we see her cut off parts of herself to do what she feels she must, only to find that she’s unable to recognize herself when it’s all over. In the show, she is instead mesmerized by carnage, only to decide she doesn’t like that she feels that way, actually. But all this self-reflection is fleeting, because she’s only killed one person on her list, and there’s a lot more work to do. How many Joels is Nora’s life worth to Ellie? One-fifth?While Ellie is wrestling with these feelings, Dina is about to see things with more clarity than ever. At first, she says that Nora may have deserved this fate worse than death, to which Ellie says “Maybe she didn’t,” before telling her girlfriend everything. She tearfully recounts Joel’s massacre of the Fireflies at the base in Salt Lake City, how the group was going to use her immunity to create a cure, and how Joel killed Abby’s father to save her. Dina puts it all together and asks Ellie if she knew who Abby’s group was. She says she didn’t, but she did know what Joel did. Dina sits with that for a moment, then flatly says the group needs to go home.So I guess this is how the show gets Dina, who’s been pretty revenge-hungry thus far, back onto the track she’s on in the games. Without spoiling scenes in the late game for the uninitiated, some major points of conflict at the end of Part II require her to be less on-board with Ellie’s vendetta, so the fact that she’s been egging her girlfriend on to track down Abby was an odd choice. I wasn’t sure how the show would handle it down the line, but it seems the way HBO’s show has course-corrected was by having her condemn Joel’s actions. Dina had her own relationship with the old man in the show, so I imagine that in a later season she’ll interrogate how she feels about him in light of this new information, but having her more or less get off the ride when she learns what Joel has done sets up a contrast between her and Ellie that I’m curious to see how the show handles.The shame of it, though, is that this is just one more thing that undermines one of the core foundations of the source material, and I have to get at least one more jab in on this topic before we end the season. In The Last of Us Part II, when you look at what is actually expressed in dialogue, you see that characters are often lacking important information about each other. This lack of communication is an important part of its storytelling, but the show is instead having characters tell everyone everything. In Part II, Joel and Ellie don’t know who Abby’s father was. It’s strongly implied that no one other than Joel, Ellie, and Tommy knew about what happened in Salt Lake City, not even Dina. The more the show bridges these gaps of communication, the more senseless this entire tit-for-tat feels. To be clear, it was senseless in the game, but it was in a tragic, “these people are so blinded by their emotions that they can’t fathom another path forward” sort of way. This time around, everyone knows exactly what’s happening and chooses to partake in violence anyway. We don’t have any mystery or lack of communication to fall back on as a we struggle to understand why the characters keep making these self-destructive decisions. Everyone is just knowingly the worst version of themselves this time around, and I guess Mazin thinks that’s the point, which is the kind of boring interpretation that makes the show such an inferior version of this story.Family mattersWe now begin our third day in Seattle. Ellie and Jesse are packing up to get going in the theater lobby. The plan is to find Tommy (Gabriel Luna) somewhere in the city and then head back to Jackson. However, Jesse is a lot less talkative this morning. Dina limps into the lobby, and after a brief scolding for being on her feet, she gives Ellie a bracelet for good luck.“I’m not sure it’s been working for you,” Ellie jokes.“I’m alive,” Dina replies.Jesse is clearly uncomfortable watching his ex (or are they technically still together now? I’m not sure) give Ellie a prized possession, and says he can go alone if Dina wants Ellie to stay. Ellie says they’ll be safer together. Jesse relents and says they should be back by sundown. The tension is radiating off him, but the pair leaves Dina in the safety of the theater.Image: HBOEllie and Jesse awkwardly walk through the remains of Seattle. She finally breaks the silence by asking how he found Ellie and Dina’s theater base. He recounts his two days of tracking, giving a shoutout to the horse Shimmer who’s still vibing in the record store the girls left her at, but he’s clearly pissed. Ellie assumes it’s because he and Tommy had to cross state lines to come find them, but no, there’s something else on his mind. Why do Ellie and Dina look at each other differently? Why did Dina turn down a free drink for the first time in her life? He’s putting it all together. Dina and Ellie are no longer just gals being pals, and his (now ex?) girlfriend is pregnant.“None of this has to change things between us,” Ellie says.“Everything changing doesn’t have to change things?” Jesse asks. “Well, how about this for something new: I’m gonna be a father, which means I can’t die. But because of you, we’re stuck in a warzone. So how about we skip the apologies and just go find Tommy so I can get us and my kid the fuck out of Seattle?”Wow, okay. Judgey, much? I mean, you’re right, Jesse. This is a no good, very bad situation, and Ellie has put your kid in danger and won’t even tell you she was torturing a woman last night. But god, I miss kindhearted Jesse. I miss Ellie’s golden retriever best friend who, when finding out Dina was pregnant, firmly but gently told Ellie it was time to get the fuck out of Seattle. Now that the show has created a messy cheating love triangle out of these three, I’m once again reflecting on how The Last of Us Part II could have very easily made this storyline a dramatic, angry one, and instead it was one of the brighter spots in a dark tale. Meanwhile, in the show, the whole thing feels like it’s regressed to a rote and predictable earlier draft of the story that’s much less refreshing and compelling than the one we already know. Justice for Jesse. This is character assassination of the goodest boy in all of Jackson. Well, actually, that’s Abby’s job. Sorry, sorry. That’s actually not for another 35 minutes.As the two move further into the city, they see more art praising the Seraphite prophet on the buildings, but she looks notably different than in images we’ve seen previously. This art depicts a Black woman, whereas others have typically portrayed the prophet as white. Ellie wonders aloud if there’s “more than one of her.” Jesse says it’s possible, but ushers her forward as rain starts pouring down. I’m curious what the show might be doing here, as this is a divergence from Part II. Could the Seraphites be a kind of polytheistic group in the show that follows multiple prophets? Could they believe the Prophet was reincarnated into a different woman at some point? All we can do is theorize, but we haven’t seen much of the Seraphites this season so we don’t have much to go on. Which is by design, and feels pretty in-line with Part II, which didn’t tell you much about the group during Ellie’s three days in Seattle. We’ll pick this thread back up next season, I’m sure.The pair takes shelter but before they can catch their breath, they hear the popping sound of gunfire nearby as a W.L.F. squad corners a lone Seraphite. Ellie and Jesse watch in horror as the wolves strip and drag him away. Just as Ellie nearly gets out from cover to intervene, Jesse pulls her back. Once the coast is clear, Ellie walks away in a huff. As Jesse follows, he points out that they were outnumbered and would have lost that fight.“He was a fucking kid!” Ellie shouts.“Ellie, these people [are] shooting each other, lynching each other, ripping each other’s guts out,” Jesse says. “Even the kids? I’m not dying out here. Not for any of them. This is not our war.”Who the fuck is this man? I touched on it in episode five, but what is with this show putting all of Ellie’s unlikable traits on other characters so she keeps getting to be the hero? Jesse turns from a selfless guardian into a selfish asshole who will watch a kid get tortured to save himself while Ellie is suddenly very concerned about a war that, in the game, she seemed largely indifferent to. It’s as if The Last of Us’ second season is so concerned with us liking Ellie and feeling like we can root for her that it’s lost sight of anything else.So Jesse gets to be the belligerent asshole and Dina gets to be the revenge-driven one in the relationship. Ellie? She’s just bee-bopping through spouting cool space facts, and so when she tortures Nora, it feels like tonal whiplash. I don’t recognize Jesse. Most of the time, I don’t recognize Ellie. But really, the more I watch this show, the more I hardly recognize anyone, and I don’t have any faith in the series to figure these characters and their relationships out, even if it’s going to go on for two more seasons.Will the circle be unbroken?We shift away from the Jackson crew to check in on Isaac (Jeffrey Wright), who we haven’t seen in a few episodes. Sergeant Park (Hettienne Park) updates the W.L.F. boss that the incoming storm will get worse as the day goes on, but even so, the group is still preparing some kind of operation. She also lets him know the rank and file is a little nervous about whatever’s going on, but Isaac’s only concerned about one person: Abby. From the sound of it, she and most of her crew have all disappeared over the past few days. We’ve seen what happened to Nora, Manny is still around, but Owen and Mel are gone without a trace. Again, Isaac isn’t concerned with them. He’s nervous that they’re going into whatever operation they’re planning without Abby. Park is clearly exhausted by this lane of thinking and asks why he cares so much about the girl.Image: HBOShe starts off asking why one “great” soldier is so important when they have an army, and then gets into a weird aside where she exasperatedly asks Isaac if he’s harboring feelings for the girl when he’s at least 30 years her senior. I don’t know if this line is supposed to be a joke, but it’s not funny, even though Isaac laughs at it. She acknowledges it’s an out-of-pocket question, but says he “wouldn’t be the first old man” to make decisions based on such inappropriate impulses. As much as it’s a stupid thing for Park to say, it’s also a stupid thing for the writers room to nonchalantly whip out in a humorous fashion given The Last of Us’ history of old men preying on young women with the character of David. Why write this non-joke into your script if you don’t want viewers to possibly view his fixation on Abby as potentially untoward? Isaac’s following speech focuses on the preservation of his militia, in a very similar way to how David’s preoccupation with Ellie in season one was born from the cannibal’s warped views on longevity, and if you’re not trying to make this direct connection, why even gesture at it? Yeah, I don’t imagine anyone considered the optics of this obviously flippant, throwaway line, but Christ, if you’re that desperate for a joke or moment to cut the tension, this was the best you could come up with? Amateur shit.Isaac sits Park down and tells her why he cares so much about one soldier. He says there’s a very strong chance that the W.L.F. leadership will be dead by tomorrow morning. If that happens, who can lead the militia in their stead? He wanted it to be Abby. It was “supposed” to be her.“Well she’s fucked off, Isaac,” Park says as she leaves. “So maybe it wasn’t.”We go back to the Jackson crew as Ellie and Jesse reach the rendezvous point in a bookstore, and Tommy isn’t here. The place is in bad shape like most places are in this city, but Ellie gravitates to the children’s books section. She picks up an old Sesame Street book, the Grover classic The Monster at the End of This Book, and picks it up for the bun in the oven as Jesse says she picked a good one. As the quiet creeps in on the two, Ellie tries to break the silence by clarifying what happened, but Jesse says they have enough problems for the moment, so he wants to bury the issue.He says he loves Dina, but not in the same way Ellie does. He remembers a group that passed through Jackson, and how there was a girl he fell hard for. She asked him to leave with her to Mexico, but he declined because he’d found purpose and community in Jackson, and he was taught to put others first. People look to him to become the “next Maria” and lead the town, and he couldn’t abandon them for a girl he’d known for two weeks, even if she made him feel things he’d never felt before.Ellie immediately sees through this story. It’s not about him pointing out how he’s felt love and knows that he and Dina aren’t the real deal; it’s about how she’s putting her own needs and wants ahead of everyone else’s.“Okay, got it,” Ellie says. “So you’re Saint Jesse of Wyoming, and everyone else is a fucking asshole.”“You can make fun of me all you want,” Jesse responds. “But let me ask you this, Ellie: If I go with that girl to Mexico, who saves your ass in Seattle?”Before she can reply, they hear W.L.F. radio chatter about a sniper taking out a squad and assume it’s gotta be Tommy. The two head out to higher ground to get a better look, and Ellie sees a Ferris wheel in the distance. She finally puts Nora’s final words together: Abby is in the aquarium at the edge of the city. Immediately, her focus shifts away from Tommy as she starts trying to figure out how to reach Abby’s apparent hiding spot. Jesse is confused and says that Tommy’s got the W.L.F. pinned down in the opposite direction. Ellie starts coming up with justifications for her plan. They don’t know if that’s actually Tommy. If it is him, he’s got the group pinned down. Either way, he would want her to go after Abby to avenge Joel. Ellie doesn’t understand why Jesse is so against this. He voted to go after Abby’s crew back in Jackson, right?Image: HBONo, actually. He didn’t. He believed this vendetta was selfish and “wasn’t in the best interest of the community.” That sets Ellie off.“Fuck the community!” she screams. “All you do is talk about the fucking community, you hypocrite. You think you’re good and I’m bad? You let a kid die today, Jesse. Because why? He wasn’t in your community? Let me tell you about my community. My community was beaten to death in front of me while I was forced to fucking watch. So don’t look at me like you’re better than me, or like you’d do anything differently if you were in my shoes, because you’re not, and you wouldn’t.”Jesse takes a beat, then tells Ellie he hopes she makes it to the aquarium as he leaves. While this scene does exemplify the show’s typicalal “no subtext allowed” approach to writing that I find so irksome, the storyline of Ellie feeling ostracized by the people of Jackson while constantly being told that she must make compromises for them even as they are incapable of extending the same to her is one of the few embellishments The Last of Us makes that resonates with me. It’s easy to write off Ellie’s revenge tour as a selfish crusade that puts everyone else in harm’s way, but when she’s also one of the few out queer people in a town that mostly coddles bigotry and she’s being constantly belittled and kept from doing things she wants to do like working on the patrol team, why would she feel any kinship to this community? Now, when she’s so close to her goal that she can almost taste it, Jesse wants her to consider the people of Jackson? Why should she do that? They’re hundreds of miles away, and the only people who came to save her and Dina were the ones who already cared about her. Ellie’s disillusionment with her neighbors is one of the few additions to the story that The Last of Us manages to pull off.Ellie reaches the harbor from which she can use a boat to reach the aquarium and finds several Wolves meeting up on vessels heading somewhere off the coast. Isaac is here leading the charge, but it’s unclear where they’re going or what they’re doing. Game fans have the advantage of knowing what’s going on, but the W.L.F. storyline feels underbaked in this season, which is one of the real issues with the show dividing the game’s storyline into multiple seasons. During this section of the game, you get a sense that there’s an untold story happening in the background, and you can learn more about it through notes you can find in the environment and ambient dialogue from enemies. The show doesn’t have those same storytelling tools, so I wouldn’t be surprised if newcomers felt a little disoriented every time we hopped over to Isaac.Once the W.L.F. forces make their way wherever they’re going, Ellie finds one of the spare boats and starts to make her way to the aquarium. The storm is hitting hard, though, and the tide is not on her side. A giant tidal wave knocks her out of the boat and into the sea. (Good thing you learned how to swim, queen.) As she washes up onto the shore, Ellie hears Seraphites whistling as a group of them descends upon her. She’s too weak to get onto her feet and run, so the cultists grab her and carry her to a noose hanging from a tree in the woods. She screams that she’s not a Wolf and that she’s not from here, but they don’t listen. As they wrap the noose around her neck and start to hoist her upward, a horn sounds off in the distance. The lead Scar says to leave her, their village is in danger, so I guess that’s what the W.L.F. operation is targeting? This concludes our latest little exposition detour, as Ellie gets right back into the boat to the aquarium.Image: HBOShe manages to reach the building and finds a broken window through which to enter. Inside, she finds several makeshift beds. Whatever Abby’s doing here, she’s not alone. As Ellie makes her way deeper into the aquarium, she finds a ton of medical supplies, including bloody bandages and surgical equipment. Was Abby injured? Is that why she’s been missing in action as the W.L.F. undergoes a huge, all-hands-on-deck mission? Who’s to say?Quick sidenote: When Ellie infiltrates the aquarium in the game, she’s attacked by a guard dog named Alice. The W.L.F. used trained canines in their war against the Seraphites, but that element has been notably absent from the show. Between this and sparing Shimmer from her explosive fate, The Last of Us has been toning down the animal murder.Ellie keeps walking through the desolate aquarium and eventually finds fresh footsteps. She follows them and soon finds their source: Abby’s friends Owen (Spencer Lord) and Mel (Ariela Barer). The two are arguing about something, though it’s not clear what. Owen wants to go somewhere behind enemy lines, even in the midst of the battle Isaac has just initiated. He says he doesn’t have a choice because “it’s Abby.” Mel says he does have a choice and so does she, and the Abby of it all is why she’s not going along with whatever the plan is. Owen says he’ll do it on his own, and if Mel’s still here when they get back, she can “keep going with [them].” Either way, Owen’s leaving. Mel let’s out a hearty “fuck you, Owen” before realizing that Ellie is there. Sure seems like there’s a whole other story that’s been going on while we’ve been hanging out with Ellie, huh? I wonder if we’ll ever get any further insight into whatever this is. Perhaps in a season entirely dedicated to the other side of what’s going on in Seattle? Maybe in a couple years it might premiere on HBO Max (or whatever it’s called by then)? That would be something!Ellie holds the two at gunpoint and tells them to put their hands up. When she asks where Abby is, Owen realizes who she is and points out that he was the one who kept her alive. Ellie isn’t swayed by this, so he says they don’t know where Abby went. But, of course, they were just talking about her, so Ellie knows that’s not true. She spots a map on the table and decides to pull out an old Joel Miller standard: She tells Mel to bring her the map and point to where Abby is, saying that next she’s going to ask Owen the same question, and the answers had better match. Owen looks at Mel and says that Ellie will kill them either way, so there’s no reason to comply. Ellie says she won’t because she’s “not like” them. When she crosses state lines to torture and kill someone who killed somebody important to her, it’s very different than when they do it, of course.Owen stops Mel from grabbing the map by saying he’ll do it. He slowly turns to the table, but instead of picking up the map, he grabs a handgun stowed under it. Ellie is quick with her trigger finger and shoots him right in the throat. The bullet goes straight through him, and hits Mel in the neck as well. She falls onto her back and, instead of cursing Ellie, she asks for her help. Not to save her life, but someone else’s. She opens her jacket to reveal her pregnant belly, and asks if Ellie has a knife to cut the baby out of her before she dies. Ellie is in shock and doesn’t know what to do. Mel tells her she just needs to make one incision. That isn’t enough direction, and Ellie panics. She doesn’t know how deep or which direction to cut. As Mel starts to become delirious, she repeats “love transfers” and then asks Ellie if the baby is out. But she hasn’t even made one cut. Mel finally drifts off, and Ellie realizes it’s too late. She sits there until, eventually, Tommy and Jesse find her. Tommy attempts to comfort her, but she’s in shock and doesn’t speak. Finally they leave and head back to the theater.Naughty Dog / Cinematic GamingWhy can’t this show stop giving the audience outs to not turn against its leads? The death of Mel, specifically, feels like the show bending over backward to teach Ellie a lesson without laying blame at her feet. Mel’s death here is an accident. She’s an innocent bystander who dies because Owen and Ellie made choices, and she was, quite literally, caught in the crossfire. In Part II, by contrast, Mel “shot first.” Well, she tried to stab Ellie, but that doesn’t have the same ring to it. Ellie reacts in self-defense and stabs her right back, but she did it fully knowing she was about to send Mel to an early grave. The gut punch Ellie feels upon learning that she’s pregnant is a moment of dramatic irony, because the game’s shifting perspectives had already revealed her pregnancy to the player way back in the opening hours. So when you’re slamming the square button to fight back, you know that Mel isn’t the only one about to reach her untimely end. Here, she doesn’t even get that moment of agency to fight to protect herself. She’s just collateral damage. It’s a small but important distinction. At this point in the show, Mel’s only real trait is a clear distaste for Abby’s violence, and now, when she finally shows up again, she’s just an unintended victim of Owen pulling a gun on Ellie. Sure, season three will fill in those gaps, but the end result will be the same. Mel died not because she was fighting back, but because she was an inch too far to the left.Then there’s the matter of her pregnancy. Again, in the game players already knew about this by the time Ellie reached the aquarium, while the show kept it secret until the end. It’s hard not to see this last-minute reveal as a knife being twisted for shock value, but that’s only half the problem. My friend Eric Van Allen (co-host of the Axe of the Blood God podcast) would often joke with his college friends about how Michael Caine’s characters in Christopher Nolan films so often show up just to tell you, the viewer, in very literal terms what the story is about. Throughout most of this season, Gail has been this character, the one burdened with the heavy task of diegetic literary analysis, but Mel’s delirious “love transfers” line may be even sillier than anything Gail spouts; homegirl is bleeding out and telling Ellie that pain is not the only thing we inherit from our parents? Just one week after Joel tearfully told Ellie that he hopes she does better when she has a kid than he or his abusive cop father did?Perhaps in a show that hadn’t already spent two seasons using literalism as a writing crutch, Mel speaking her final hopes for her unborn child might have landed for me. But I think I’m just too jaded towards it now for even what should have been a genuine expression to feel like anything other than a heavy-handed, patronizing declaration of what lessons I’m supposed to take away from the story. I don’t think characters overtly communicating their beliefs and feelings about a situation is an inherently poor way of writing dialogue. In fact, some of my favorite works have managed to execute this well thanks to strong acting and stories that lent themselves well to this style of writing. The Last of Us, a series that often relishes in grounded dialogue that forced you to read between the lines and unearth that meaning yourself, the Last of Us show’s inability to let nearly any emotion, belief, or theme go unspoken feels so contrived and tiresome that even someone expressing something thematically resonate feels like being told what to feel. Mel uses her last words to tell me the themes of the story. Just in case I forgot. Thank you, Last of Us show, I don’t know how I would have ever understood your thematic richness if you didn’t make your characters tell me about it, even in their death gasps.The group makes it back to the theater and Ellie is still in shock, so much so that she doesn’t even look at Dina as she enters the building. Some time passes, and Tommy and Jesse are mapping out their route home on the stage. The storm is still pretty rough, so they’ll stay overnight and hope the sun is out when they wake up. Ellie finally joins the group, and Tommy reassures her that Mel and Owen played their part in Joel’s death, and they made the choices that brought them to that fateful end. Ellie can only fixate on what she didn’t get to do.“But Abby gets to live,” she says.“Yeah,” Tommy responds. “Are you able to make your peace with that?”“I guess I’ll have to,” she says, defeated.She looks to Jesse, who won’t even look up at her. Tommy realizes they might have something to talk about and walks to the lobby to pack. After some awkward silence, Ellie thanks Jesse for coming back for her, even though he had no reason to after the way they clashed.“Maybe I didn’t want to,” he says. “Maybe Tommy made me.”“Did he?” Ellie asks.After a second of contemplation, Jesse drops the act and says, “No.”“Because you’re a good person,” Ellie responds.“Yeah,” Jesse agrees. “But also the thought did occur, that if I were out there somewhere, lost and in trouble, you’d set the world on fire to save me.”Ellie says she would, and the two finally see one another, even if just for a moment. Jesse acknowledges that Ellie’s vendetta isn’t entirely selfish, and that when it comes to defending the people she cares about, dead or alive, you won’t find someone more loyal in all of Jackson. It’s good that they finally had this moment of connection after all this drama. But damn, I miss Ellie and Jesse being bros, and I miss her giving him shit for being a sap in these final moments. But most of all, I miss that dopey good ol’ boy with a heart of gold saying his friends “can’t get out of their own damn way.”All that understanding is short-lived, as the two hear some ruckus in the lobby, grab their guns, and book it to the entrance. The second Jesse opens the door, bam. A gunshot rings out in the lobby, and he is on the floor. We don’t even see that it was Abby who fired it until after we get a gnarly shot of him with his face blown open. He’s gone. It was instant. The Last of Us Part II tends to draw out death. It’s either long and torturous like it was for Joel or Nora, or it’s short like Owen’s and Mel’s, but in any case, the game typically lingers on the fallout for a bit. Jesse’s death, by contrast, happens so fast that you can’t even process it before you have to deal with the situation at hand. The show follows suit, and it’s recreated practically shot for shot. But that’s hardly the most disorienting (complimentary) thing that happens in these final minutes.“Stand up,” Abby growls forcefully from the other side of the desk Ellie has taken cover behind.She repeats herself: “Stand. Up. Hands in the air or I shoot this one, too.”Ellie can see Tommy on the ground with a pistol aimed right at his head. He tells Ellie to just run, but she tosses her gun where Abby can see it and crawls out from cover. Abby recognizes her immediately. Ellie asks her to let Tommy go, to which Abby replies that he killed her friends. Ellie says no, she did.“I was looking for you,” Ellie says. “I didn’t mean to hurt them. I know why you killed Joel. He did what he did to save me, I’m the one that you want. Just let him go.”Naughty Dog / VGS - Video Game SophistryHm. Okay. We’re almost at the end. I gotta get another little quibble in before the curtains close. I mean, come on, we’ve been through seven episodes of me complaining together. You can’t take one last gripe? This line from Ellie is slightly altered to account for the fact that she knows more about Abby in the show than in the game, and it means we miss one of the most important subtle interactions in all of the story. As I mentioned earlier, Ellie doesn’t know anything about Abby’s father in Part II. She assumes that Abby killed Joel because he took away any chance of the Fireflies developing a cure, so she cites that in this high-stakes moment. The original line is almost identical to the one in the show, but instead, Ellie says “there’s no cure because of me” and suggests that killing her would be the extension of Abby’s presumed vendetta. Then, we get some incredible, subtle acting from Abby actor Laura Bailey, who hears what Ellie’s saying, has a brief moment of angry disbelief on her face, and then scoffs under her breath before picking right back up where she left off. In just a few seconds, you see Abby realize that, after everything, these fuckers have no idea how much pain she’s been through over the past five years. But they’re not worth the breath it would take to explain herself. They don’t deserve to know the man her father was and what he meant to her. All that matters right now is that Ellie pays for what she’s done.Abby still views herself as the righteous one here, as she points out that she let Ellie live when she did not have to do that. It turns out that Ellie wasn’t deserving of her mercy, that she squandered it by killing her friends. Part of me has wondered if all the exposition-heavy dialogue in this show, such as Dever’s villain monologue in episode two before she murdered the shit out of Joel, was written to give its actors more words to say in front of a camera. When you’ve got big names like Kaitlyn Dever, Catherine O’Hara, and Pedro Pascal in your cast, you don’t want them to not talk, right? But all these elongated exchanges have also robbed actors like Dever of those subtle moments. Hell, she led an entire film with next to no dialogue in 2023’s No One Will Save You, and was great in it, so she has the chops to pull off that kind of acting. Communicating something through body language and expression is just as powerful as a poetic piece of dialogue (or in this show’s case, the most literal, unpoetic dialogue a person can fathom), but this show rarely, if ever, understands that.Image: HBOAnyway, Abby says that Ellie wasted the chance she was given when the ex-Fireflies spared her, and points her gun right at Ellie. We hear a bullet fire and Ellie shouts before a hard cut to black. But wait. That’s the season finale? You expect us to wait for two years, probably, to find out what happened? Well, about that. You will probably have to wait even longer.We do have one more scene this season, however: a flashback. We see Abby lying down on a comfy couch with an unfinished book resting on her stomach. She’s in a deep sleep before Manny (Danny Ramirez) loudly enters the room and wakes her up. He says Isaac wants to see them, and she stirs awake. She gets up and walks out of this cozy living space and into a giant football stadium. The entire field has been repurposed for agriculture, manufacturing, and housing. Abby takes a second to look at the whole operation before heading to Isaac’s, but the camera lingers over the field as bold white text flashes on the screen: Seattle, Day One.Alright, TV newbies, welcome to the second divisive twist of The Last of Us Part II. In the game, the player goes through Ellie’s three days in Seattle, killing Abby’s friends and mostly ignoring the war between the W.L.F. and the Seraphites. Meanwhile, Abby has been kind of an enigma the whole time. Every time Ellie finds a new lead, Abby has already come and gone. When Abby finally shows up at the theater for another round of vengeance, it’s clear that a lot of the story happening in this game has happened off-screen. That’s because you’re about to see an entirely different perspective on the last three days, and you’re going to play as Abby when you do it.As you can imagine, this shit drove some players nuts at the time, and you’ll still find angry people online complaining about it to this day. For all my problems with this season, I have to commend the show for actually going for it. HBO has taken the coward’s route in adapting this story for so long, it’s almost surprising that it’s ending here and, from the sound of it, season three will be entirely about Abby and what she’s been doing these past three days. It’s very likely we won’t see Ellie again until next season’s finale after we’ve followed Dever’s character for several episodes. Despite some ham-fisted attempts by the show to build sympathy for Abby early on, it seems like swaths of TV newbies still demand blood. Will viewers complain for an entire season as Dever takes on the lead role? I’d like to think they won’t. I hope that new audiences are more open to her than the worst people you’ve ever met were when the game launched.Despite all the golf club swings I’ve taken at this show, I’m looking forward to examining it further as HBO rolls out the next two seasons. The Last of Us Part II is one of my favorite games of all time, but I genuinely fucking hated The Last of Us’ second season. I don’t expect my feelings to improve in season three. At this point, the rot of Mazin’s poor creative decisions runs too deep for the show to be salvaged and reach the highs of the games. But if nothing else, it’s been a rewarding ride. Thank you for joining me on this seven-week journey. I think I’m due for a replay of The Last of Us Part II to wash off this stink. This shit was ass, HBO. I’ll see you in the ring again next time.

You ever wonder who the first person to put peanut butter and chocolate together was? Part of me feels like whoever it was must be loaded; I mean, you’ve combined two already great flavors into something that Reese’s would more or less build a whole brand on. And then part of me thinks it plays out like the hypothetical guy who invented the Chicken McNugget in The Wire. A pat on the back from a big shot, and then it’s back to the basement to figure out a way to make the fries taste better. I don’t know the answer; I hope it's the former. But every now and then, you come across an idea, a combination of things, that’s so good that you wonder how nobody’s ever done it before. And every time my squad and I sprinted back to our time-traveling dropship, stopping only to deal with the Time Reapers that stood in our way, I wondered how the hell nobody had ever said “Hey, what if we combined Overcooked and Gears of War?” pre-Pizza Bandit.Pizza Bandit’s setup is pretty simple. You’re Malik, a former bounty hunter with dreams of being a chef who is pulled back into the bounty game when he’s scammed out of his pizza shop and his former crew needs his help to get out of a jam. Pizza Bandit’s writing is pretty silly, but that’s part of the charm. I can’t get mad when Albert, the android that upgrades your weapons, tells me he doesn’t know how to apologize for what happened to my pizza shop because he’s just an android, or when my pilot waxes nostalgic about how he misses the fog, or when someone utters the odd nonsensical line. It’s too silly, and the whole setup is just there to, well… set up Pizza Bandit’s wackiness.PlaySee, you’re not just any bounty-hunting crew. You’re a time-traveling bounty hunting crew, and that means you’ll be going all over space and time to get the job done. Don’t ask me how any of this works. All I know is that pizza heals and bullets kill, and that the Time Reapers — nasty little buggers that seem to be invading every timeline — don’t want this pizza shop owner to make any dough. And that’s not gonna fly. Pizza Bandit’s writing is pretty silly, but that’s part of the charm.“What makes Pizza Bandit unique is that you’re not just shooting stuff. You’re also, well, kinda playing Overcooked. After squading up, my first mission saw my crew (you can play with up to three friends) heading to the Restaurant from N owhere, a hidden outpost run by another bandit crew. Our job: fulfill the pizza orders for other bounty hunting teams, and send them off in time-traveling rocket pods. That meant putting together the right type of pizza, getting it to the oven, making sure we were getting their drink orders right, and adding some extra bullets for when things got spicy, cramming it all into a pod, and doing it on time while fighting off the Time Reapers, who really, really don’t like supporting small businesses.Pizza Bandit ScreenshotsAnd that’s where the other part of the Overcooked/Gears of War marriage comes into play. See, the Time Reapers mean business, and you’re not going to talk them out of some time reaping. That’s their whole bag. The only solution, fellow bandit, is incredible violence. I’ve played several builds of Pizza Bandit at this point, and let me tell you, your arsenal is up to the task. You start with your choice of assau lt rifle, minigun, and sniper rifle, but the fun really begins when you start unlocking your secondary weapons by completing jobs. They start simple: landmines, grenades, that sort of thing, but once you unlock the disco ball that attracts enemies and gets them dancing before it explodes? Whew, buddy. And the sentry turret? Perfection. You could slice and dice them Time Reapers with a katana, but have you ever considered using a pizza slicer as big as a man? It’ll change your life.And the Time Reapers will force you to use everything in your arsenal. You got your standard guys who will just run at you, but there are also Time Reapers that’ll crawl around on all fours, Terminator-looking ones that will leap at you, giant ones with hammers, guys who throw fireballs (these can really ruin your day), the works. You gotta prioritize.Pizza Bandit is at its best when you’re with a good team, calling out orders. A good match should be shouts of “We need a pepperoni pie!” and “I’m on the Coke!” and “I’m down!” interspersed with lots and lots of gunfire. Simple choices, like when to call down your own, once-a-mission rocket pod full of pizza and supplies, and more complex ones, like where to put it (you can block off a stairway, for instance), spice things up, too. And here’s the thing: so far, I’ve just talked about Restaurant from Nowhere, which is only the first level. Pizza Bandit isn’t a one-trick pony. One of my favorite levels has you taking over a sushi joint and making sure you have the right stuff on the delivery turntable for your customers. Sometimes that means running downstairs and grabbing a big ol’ tuna, taking that bad boy upstairs, and chopping him up before the Time Reapers whack you and you drop him. Other times that means frying an egg, or making a cucumber roll. You gotta stay ahead of the curve, because new customers are prioritized over old ones, and the Time Reapers aren’t gonna sit there and wait for you to plate your masterpiece.Sometimes, you’re not even cooking food at all. Another favorite level, Wizard’s Tomb, has you exploring a magically booby-trapped tomb in search of a sarcophagus. You’ll have to navigate the tomb’s traps, solve basic puzzles to reveal the way forward, and take out the arcane heart powering the whole enterprise before getting to the sarcophagus itself, which you’ll naturally transport with jetpacks before booking it back to your ship. It isn’t enough to get any given job done; you gotta get home, too. Just another day in the life of a pizza bandit.Pizza Bandit is always ludicrous, and its inspirations are obvious, but it’s never less than fun.“There are more, of course: in one, you’ll defend a cabin with Dr. Emmert Browne (Great Scott, Jofsoft, I see what you’re doing here, and I like it!) while he invents the time travel device that makes your whole business profitable. Winning it all means keeping him warm, satiating his hunger with rabbit or venison, and stopping all those nasty Time Reapers (and Wendigos?) who are trying to stop time travel from happening. You’d think that the Time Reapers would understand time paradoxes, but I guess not. Can’t reap time if there’s no time to reap, y’all. Or maybe you’ll break into an enormous safe with a laser drill, like you’re roleplaying the opening scene of Michael Mann’s Thief with a drill that’s constantly exploding. That seems safe, right? But hey, apparently there’s a magical cookbook in that vault whose recipes can alter reality, and we’re being paid to get it, exploding drill or not. A Pizza Bandit always gets the job done. And there’s always time to do your best Breaking Bad impersonation and help a couple of guys cook some “magic powder” and hide it inside some chicken. Oh, and you have to kill and cook the chickens. Only fresh, never frozen, baby. Pizza Bandit is always ludicrous, and its inspirations are obvious, but it’s never less than fun.Between missions, it’s back to Pizza Bandit (your restaurant), where you can acquire and upgrade your weapons, decorate Pizza Bandit itself, use the ingredients you find during missions to bake and share a pie for some stat boosts on your next run, or get some spiffy new duds for your bounty hunter. The milk carton backpack is a classic choice, if I do say so myself, but I’m still saving up for one of the cat ones. The things we do for fashion, am I right? Then it’s right back to it. A bandit’s work is never done.Sometimes, you don’t know you want something until you get it. I didn’t know I wanted Pizza Bandit until the first time I played it at PAX two years ago. It was one of those games that generated a lot of word of mouth, but it’s one of those concepts that doesn’t seem like it’ll work until you get a controller in your hands and everything makes sense. I don’t know why we’ve never gotten something like Pizza Bandit before, but once I played it, I knew I wanted more. Pizza heals, bullets kill, and Pizza Bandit rocks. If Jofsoft can stick the landing, we’re in for a tasty slice of New York pie.

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More We’re seeing AI evolve fast. It’s no longer just about building a single, super-smart model. The real power, and the exciting frontier, lies in getting multiple specialized AI agents to work together. Think of them as a team of expert colleagues, each with their own skills — one analyzes data, another interacts with customers, a third manages logistics, and so on. Getting this team to collaborate seamlessly, as envisioned by various industry discussions and enabled by modern platforms, is where the magic happens. But let’s be real: Coordinating a bunch of independent, sometimes quirky, AI agents is hard. It’s not just building cool individual agents; it’s the messy middle bit — the orchestration — that can make or break the system. When you have agents that are relying on each other, acting asynchronously and potentially failing independently, you’re not just building software; you’re conducting a complex orchestra. This is where solid architectural blueprints come in. We need patterns designed for reliability and scale right from the start. The knotty problem of agent collaboration Why is orchestrating multi-agent systems such a challenge? Well, for starters: They’re independent: Unlike functions being called in a program, agents often have their own internal loops, goals and states. They don’t just wait patiently for instructions. Communication gets complicated: It’s not just Agent A talking to Agent B. Agent A might broadcast info Agent C and D care about, while Agent B is waiting for a signal from E before telling F something. They need to have a shared brain (state): How do they all agree on the “truth” of what’s happening? If Agent A updates a record, how does Agent B know about it reliably and quickly? Stale or conflicting information is a killer. Failure is inevitable: An agent crashes. A message gets lost. An external service call times out. When one part of the system falls over, you don’t want the whole thing grinding to a halt or, worse, doing the wrong thing. Consistency can be difficult: How do you ensure that a complex, multi-step process involving several agents actually reaches a valid final state? This isn’t easy when operations are distributed and asynchronous. Simply put, the combinatorial complexity explodes as you add more agents and interactions. Without a solid plan, debugging becomes a nightmare, and the system feels fragile. Picking your orchestration playbook How you decide agents coordinate their work is perhaps the most fundamental architectural choice. Here are a few frameworks: The conductor (hierarchical): This is like a traditional symphony orchestra. You have a main orchestrator (the conductor) that dictates the flow, tells specific agents (musicians) when to perform their piece, and brings it all together. This allows for: Clear workflows, execution that is easy to trace, straightforward control; it is simpler for smaller or less dynamic systems. Watch out for: The conductor can become a bottleneck or a single point of failure. This scenario is less flexible if you need agents to react dynamically or work without constant oversight. The jazz ensemble (federated/decentralized): Here, agents coordinate more directly with each other based on shared signals or rules, much like musicians in a jazz band improvising based on cues from each other and a common theme. There might be shared resources or event streams, but no central boss micro-managing every note. This allows for: Resilience (if one musician stops, the others can often continue), scalability, adaptability to changing conditions, more emergent behaviors. What to consider: It can be harder to understand the overall flow, debugging is tricky (“Why did that agent do that then?”) and ensuring global consistency requires careful design. Many real-world multi-agent systems (MAS) end up being a hybrid — perhaps a high-level orchestrator sets the stage; then groups of agents within that structure coordinate decentrally. For agents to collaborate effectively, they often need a shared view of the world, or at least the parts relevant to their task. This could be the current status of a customer order, a shared knowledge base of product information or the collective progress towards a goal. Keeping this “collective brain” consistent and accessible across distributed agents is tough. Architectural patterns we lean on: The central library (centralized knowledge base): A single, authoritative place (like a database or a dedicated knowledge service) where all shared information lives. Agents check books out (read) and return them (write). Pro: Single source of truth, easier to enforce consistency. Con: Can get hammered with requests, potentially slowing things down or becoming a choke point. Must be seriously robust and scalable. Distributed notes (distributed cache): Agents keep local copies of frequently needed info for speed, backed by the central library. Pro: Faster reads. Con: How do you know if your copy is up-to-date? Cache invalidation and consistency become significant architectural puzzles. Shouting updates (message passing): Instead of agents constantly asking the library, the library (or other agents) shouts out “Hey, this piece of info changed!” via messages. Agents listen for updates they care about and update their own notes. Pro: Agents are decoupled, which is good for event-driven patterns. Con: Ensuring everyone gets the message and handles it correctly adds complexity. What if a message is lost? The right choice depends on how critical up-to-the-second consistency is, versus how much performance you need. Building for when stuff goes wrong (error handling and recovery) It’s not if an agent fails, it’s when. Your architecture needs to anticipate this. Think about: Watchdogs (supervision): This means having components whose job it is to simply watch other agents. If an agent goes quiet or starts acting weird, the watchdog can try restarting it or alerting the system. Try again, but be smart (retries and idempotency): If an agent’s action fails, it should often just try again. But, this only works if the action is idempotent. That means doing it five times has the exact same result as doing it once (like setting a value, not incrementing it). If actions aren’t idempotent, retries can cause chaos. Cleaning up messes (compensation): If Agent A did something successfully, but Agent B (a later step in the process) failed, you might need to “undo” Agent A’s work. Patterns like Sagas help coordinate these multi-step, compensable workflows. Knowing where you were (workflow state): Keeping a persistent log of the overall process helps. If the system goes down mid-workflow, it can pick up from the last known good step rather than starting over. Building firewalls (circuit breakers and bulkheads): These patterns prevent a failure in one agent or service from overloading or crashing others, containing the damage. Making sure the job gets done right (consistent task execution) Even with individual agent reliability, you need confidence that the entire collaborative task finishes correctly. Consider: Atomic-ish operations: While true ACID transactions are hard with distributed agents, you can design workflows to behave as close to atomically as possible using patterns like Sagas. The unchanging logbook (event sourcing): Record every significant action and state change as an event in an immutable log. This gives you a perfect history, makes state reconstruction easy, and is great for auditing and debugging. Agreeing on reality (consensus): For critical decisions, you might need agents to agree before proceeding. This can involve simple voting mechanisms or more complex distributed consensus algorithms if trust or coordination is particularly challenging. Checking the work (validation): Build steps into your workflow to validate the output or state after an agent completes its task. If something looks wrong, trigger a reconciliation or correction process. The best architecture needs the right foundation. The post office (message queues/brokers like Kafka or RabbitMQ): This is absolutely essential for decoupling agents. They send messages to the queue; agents interested in those messages pick them up. This enables asynchronous communication, handles traffic spikes and is key for resilient distributed systems. The shared filing cabinet (knowledge stores/databases): This is where your shared state lives. Choose the right type (relational, NoSQL, graph) based on your data structure and access patterns. This must be performant and highly available. The X-ray machine (observability platforms): Logs, metrics, tracing – you need these. Debugging distributed systems is notoriously hard. Being able to see exactly what every agent was doing, when and how they were interacting is non-negotiable. The directory (agent registry): How do agents find each other or discover the services they need? A central registry helps manage this complexity. The playground (containerization and orchestration like Kubernetes): This is how you actually deploy, manage and scale all those individual agent instances reliably. How do agents chat? (Communication protocol choices) The way agents talk impacts everything from performance to how tightly coupled they are. Your standard phone call (REST/HTTP): This is simple, works everywhere and good for basic request/response. But it can feel a bit chatty and can be less efficient for high volume or complex data structures. The structured conference call (gRPC): This uses efficient data formats, supports different call types including streaming and is type-safe. It is great for performance but requires defining service contracts. The bulletin board (message queues — protocols like AMQP, MQTT): Agents post messages to topics; other agents subscribe to topics they care about. This is asynchronous, highly scalable and completely decouples senders from receivers. Direct line (RPC — less common): Agents call functions directly on other agents. This is fast, but creates very tight coupling — agent need to know exactly who they’re calling and where they are. Choose the protocol that fits the interaction pattern. Is it a direct request? A broadcast event? A stream of data? Putting it all together Building reliable, scalable multi-agent systems isn’t about finding a magic bullet; it’s about making smart architectural choices based on your specific needs. Will you lean more hierarchical for control or federated for resilience? How will you manage that crucial shared state? What’s your plan for when (not if) an agent goes down? What infrastructure pieces are non-negotiable? It’s complex, yes, but by focusing on these architectural blueprints — orchestrating interactions, managing shared knowledge, planning for failure, ensuring consistency and building on a solid infrastructure foundation — you can tame the complexity and build the robust, intelligent systems that will drive the next wave of enterprise AI. Nikhil Gupta is the AI product management leader/staff product manager at Atlassian. Daily insights on business use cases with VB Daily If you want to impress your boss, VB Daily has you covered. 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Start SlideshowStart SlideshowDisney has enchanted us for decades with its resplendent animation and fantastical stories of princesses, wicked witches, and fire-breathing dragons, but music has always been its most indelible sprinkle of pixie dust. There are songs that move us, make us dance, and help us understand the characters that have already been so lovingly drawn. With over 350 songs in the Disney canon, it’s nearly impossible to narrow them down, but we’ve chosen the 23 in honor of the year 1923, when Walt Disney founded the company. These songs are the most magical and remind us why Disney has endured for over a century.Previous SlideNext Slide2 / 25List slides23. “Whistle While You Work” from Snow White and the Seven DwarfsList slides23. “Whistle While You Work” from Snow White and the Seven DwarfsWhistle While You Work - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Larry Morey and Frank Churchill’s merry tune about finding the joy in the most mundane of chores is quite simple, with only nine lines, yet incredibly catchy. Adriana Caselotti’s warbling, baby voice is fitting for this old-fashioned, operetta-style number and the entire sequence that features the big-eyed, adorable forest creatures helping her out. The squirrels sweep the dust with their tails, and the raccoons wash dirty clothes in a nearby watering hole to every sprightly beat. It’s difficult not to be beguiled by this little ditty, and you’ll find yourself humming it the next time you do your spring cleaning. Previous SlideNext Slide3 / 25List slides22. “The Family Madrigal” from EncantoList slides22. “The Family Madrigal” from EncantoStephanie Beatriz, Olga Merediz, Encanto - Cast - The Family Madrigal (From “Encanto”) Lin-Manuel Miranda’s fingerprints are all over modern Disney soundtracks. He is a master at crafting clever, fast-paced, and genre-blending earworms. The biggest ones to emerge from Encanto are “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” and “Surface Pressure,” where he blends classic Broadway stylings with punchier salsa and reggaeton genres. “The Family Madrigal” may not have reached the same level of pop culture infamy as the other songs in this film, but it’s a clever and economical way to introduce the Madrigal family and their powers. Stephanie Beatriz’s bubbly voice as Mirabel suits the song’s bouncy rhythm perfectly, while the Colombian folk instruments such as an accordion, caja vallenata, and guacharaca match the colorful energy of the magical town the Madrigals call home. Previous SlideNext Slide4 / 25List slides21.“Dig a Little Deeper” from Princess and the FrogList slides21.“Dig a Little Deeper” from Princess and the FrogDig a Little Deeper (From “The Princess and the Frog”/Sing-Along) Randy Newman’s toe-tapping blend of big-band swing and gospel choir refrains perfectly captures the vibrant soul of the New Orleans setting. The feisty Jennifer Lewis leads “Dig a Little Deeper” as Mama Odie, backed by the rousing Pinnacle Gospel Choir. The song’s brassy rhythms help Tiana let loose and Naveen to realize that he’s in love with her. The lessons Mama Odie imparts through the lyrics are wise and grounded: it doesn’t matter what you have or where you come from—that doesn’t define who you are. True fulfillment doesn’t come from material wealth, status, or outward appearances—it comes from understanding what you really want on the inside. The song crescendos with Anika Noni Rose’s powerful belt and the soulful shouts of Mama Odie’s bright flamingo chorus. Previous SlideNext Slide5 / 25List slides20. “I See the Light” from TangledList slides20. “I See the Light” from Tangled“I SEE THE LIGHT” | Tangled | Disney Animated HD The dreamy melody of “I See the Light” begins with a soft guitar. Glenn Slater and Alan Menken’s composition is fairly simple, allowing the glittering visuals to take center stage. The song takes place during the lighting ceremony that Rapunzel has yearned to visit after observing it from her tower for 18 years. Flynn and Rapunzel float on a gondola, surrounded by over 45,000 glowing lanterns floating in the air, dotting the sky and reflecting off the water that surrounds them. The characters sing the verses separately in their heads before their emotions burst, then they harmonize the chorus loudly, compelled by their realization that they’re in love. It’s a unique and touching way of framing a Disney love song. Previous SlideNext Slide6 / 25List slides19. “Friend Like Me” from AladdinList slides19. “Friend Like Me” from AladdinAladdin - Friend Like Me (HD 1080p) Howard Ashman’s playful lyrics and Alan Menken’s up-tempo, syncopated, vaudevillian song was the perfect musical playground for Robin Williams to fill with the zany impressions and quirky voices he was renowned for. A trumpet warbles in between one of the clever lyrics, sights and sounds so jam-packed with hilarity that you can barely stop to catch your breath. Robin Williams was so adept at improvisation that he had nearly an entire day’s worth of material. The animation is just as bonkers as his vocal performance, where Genie morphs into countless creatures—from a train whistle to a maître d’, a boxing trainer, a bunny, and a dragon. The Broadway-style showstopper culminates with a kick line under bright spotlights with monkeys, elephants, and dancing girls in crop tops and harem pants. “Friend Like Me” is a shining showcase for one of our finest comedic talents, the great Robin Williams. Previous SlideNext Slide7 / 25List slides18. “Baby Mine” from DumboList slides18. “Baby Mine” from DumboDisney’s “Dumbo” - Baby MineSongwriters Frank Churchill and Ned Washington are responsible for childhood traumas everywhere with “Baby Mine,” which takes place when Dumbo’s mother has been jailed as a “mad elephant” for fiercely protecting her son against his bullies. She reaches her trunk through the bars to cradle Dumbo to the soft, slumbering melody accompanied by haunting strings. Betty Noyes’ has that rich, rounded tone found in vintage singing, and it conveys Mrs. Jumbo’s maternal strength. The images of all the animals—zebras, tigers, monkeys, and even the underwater hippos—nestled in the love of their mothers, except for poor Dumbo, set against the song’s soothing orchestra, is absolutely heart wrenching. “Baby Mine” is the kind of song that inspires dreams of being comforted and cared for by a loving parental figure.Previous SlideNext Slide8 / 25List slides17. ”Once Upon a Dream” from Sleeping BeautyList slides17. ”Once Upon a Dream” from Sleeping BeautyOnce Upon A Dream | Sleeping Beauty Lyric Video | DISNEY SING-ALONGS Jack Lawrence and Sammy Fain craft a solo-turned-duet with a woozy, mysterious quality that perfectly complements the story of Sleeping Beauty. Mary Costa has such an elegant and operatic voice, with rich tones that make her sound far more mature than a 16-year-old girl. She’s soon joined by the strong, handsome voice of Prince Phillip, who appears unexpectedly in the forest. Their romance unfolds quickly, twirling together in the woods, surrounded by beautiful medieval-inspired, Gothic-Renaissance style visuals. The lilting orchestration and the grand choral ensemble add to the old-world mystique. The lyrics—of knowing someone before you truly know them, of seeing them in your dreams—add a tinge of mysterious excitement and mystical fate to their romance. Previous SlideNext Slide9 / 25List slides16. “Hellfire” from The Hunchback of Notre DameList slides16. “Hellfire” from The Hunchback of Notre DameHellfire - The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz crafted one of Disney’s darkest songs. It’s hard to imagine Disney taking this type of creative risk again. “Hellfire” is sung by a corrupt priest consumed by lust for the Romani woman Esmeralda. The deep-voiced Tony Jay plays the dishonorable Frollo, who paints himself as a virtuous man—even though he killed Quasimodo’s mother and nearly killed Quasimodo. A true Catholic would have helped them. Today, Disney would never dare to show that authority figures—especially religious ones—can often be wrong and hypocritical, if not outright evil. This is one of the most provocative villain songs, in which Frollo essentially confesses his horniness. He sings of being enraptured by Esmeralda’s smoldering eyes and raven hair—a desire that burns and threatens to turn him to sin. “Hellfire” also has a spooky quality in its use of Latin and the intense religious choir that looms over Frollo in judgment, cloaked in red with faces like empty black holes. It’s a haunting song of operatic grandeur, with notes that flare and fade like the flames dancing in front of him. Previous SlideNext Slide10 / 25List slides15. “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes” from CinderellaList slides15. “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes” from CinderellaA Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes (from Cinderella) Sung with silky warmth and a shimmering, ethereal vibrato by Ilene Woods as Cinderella, “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes” is soft and soothing, yet carries an undercurrent of quiet determination. She sings to her loyal companions—adorable flocks of birds and mice—who wear the tiny outfits she’s lovingly made for them. They join in during a break of the song that is more playful and buoyant while she prepares for another grueling day of chores, yet she stays positive by believing her dreams will come true. “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes” has become a marketing anthem for the studio—used in various ads to evoke nostalgia, magic, and the promise that dreams really do come true, with Disney theme parks as the place where that magic can happen. Previous SlideNext Slide11 / 25List slides14. Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride from Lilo & StitchList slides14. Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride from Lilo & StitchHawaiian Roller Coaster Ride (From “Lilo & Stitch”) The rich voice of Mark Kealiʻi Hoʻomalu and the cheerful Kamehameha Schools Children’s Chorus come together for a song that is as sweet and breezy as a summer’s day. “Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride” takes place during a touching moment of family bonding as Lilo, Nani, and David go surfing, gliding through the waves with ease. Stitch has been naughty, so he feels a little shy about enjoying the day with them, but he slowly begins to warm up to what it feels like to have a family. We see the adorable progression as the little thrill-seeker ends up riding the waves too. The song’s instrumentation—featuring ukulele, traditional Hawaiian fingerstyle guitar, and steel guitar—evokes the ocean waves and open skies, giving it that relaxed, beachy vibe. Both the animation and the song itself honors the film’s beautiful Hawaiian setting. Previous SlideNext Slide12 / 25List slides13. “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” from MulanList slides13. “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” from MulanMulan | I’ll Make a Man Out of You | Disney Junior UK “Let’s get down to business, to defeat the Huns” Donny Osmond sings in his perfectly crisp voice. The rousing number “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” by Matthew Wilder and David Zippel is the pump-up song for a training montage. It starts out comical as we see Mulan and her clumsy friends attempt to become the ideal Chinese soldier. The catchy chorus uses evocative nature metaphors for the type of strength and calm that Mulan needs to find, and the deep-voiced punctuation “Be a man!” at the end of each line adds to the hype. When Donny Osmond belts “Time is racing towards us, ‘till the Huns arrive,” you feel a thrilling rush of urgency and swell with courage. The final chorus plays against no instrumentation, the manly voices of the soldiers booming, allowing you to focus on Mulan and her friends now kicking ass. Previous SlideNext Slide13 / 25List slides12. “A Whole New World” from AladdinList slides12. “A Whole New World” from AladdinAladdin - A Whole New World (HD 1080p) Brad Kane’s voice carries an excited, breathy quality that draws you in as he whisks Jasmine away on a magic carpet ride. He sounds bright and earnest as he describes the shining, shimmering, and splendid world that Jasmine has never seen and he’s eager to show her. Lea Salonga, who is a Broadway legend in her own right, has an angelic innocence as Jasmine. Their voices come together in perfect harmony for this sweeping duet. “A Whole New World” is one of Disney’s most romantic love songs, with a melody that flutters and glides like the magic carpet itself. Written by Alan Menken and Tim Rice, the orchestration has lush strings that propel the adventurous animated sequence where they soar through the clouds, pass the Sphinx, and touch down near a group of horses. Previous SlideNext Slide14 / 25List slides11. “Strangers Like Me” from TarzanList slides11. “Strangers Like Me” from TarzanStrangers Like Me (1080p Full HD) - Tarzan (1999)Opening with a pulsing drum track, Strangers Like Me evokes the spinning wheels in Tarzan’s mind as he learns more about what lies beyond the jungle. The montage is gorgeously animated, featuring old-fashioned ink illustrations that Tarzan looks at through a magic lantern. He sees the city of London, a giant castle, the Sphinx, and even outer space for the first time. This flood of information drives the song’s urgent pace.The filmmakers craft the entire animated sequence as a response to the lyrics, as Tarzan watches Jane (“Every gesture, every move that she makes / Makes me feel like never before”) or shows off a pocket of the rainforest filled with parrots (“Come with me now to see my world / Where there’s beauty beyond your dreams”). Phil Collins’ bright voice captures Tarzan’s wonderment, especially in the soaring chorus, where Tarzan expresses his desire to learn more about strangers like him. You feel his hunger for the great, wide world in the song’s pounding, tribal drumbeats. Previous SlideNext Slide15 / 25List slides10. “I Won’t Say I’m in Love” from HerculesList slides10. “I Won’t Say I’m in Love” from HerculesHercules (1997) │ I Won’t Say (I’m In Love) [DPU HD 4K] The story of the ancient Greek hero Hercules has such a unique musical style, with lyricist David Zippel and composer Alan Menken blending doo-wop, Motown, and gospel soul. The muses serve as a literal Greek chorus, commenting on the action with their sassy perspective. In “I Won’t Say I’m in Love,” Megara’s velvet-voiced, sarcastic Susan Egan stands apart from other Disney heroines, who often sing fluttering arias about dreaming of a prince. Instead, Megara resists her feelings because she’s been burned too many times before, creating a comical juxtaposition with the Muses, who cheekily insist that she’s in love. They tease her with “Check the grin, you’re in love.” It’s a playful and flirtatious song that celebrates an unconventional Disney princess and musical choices. Previous SlideNext Slide16 / 25List slides9. “How Far I’ll Go” from MoanaList slides9. “How Far I’ll Go” from MoanaAuli’i Cravalho - How Far I’ll Go (from Moana/Official Video) Ever since their introduction in The Little Mermaid, Broadway-style “I Want” songs have become a hallmark of Disney princess films. They are passionate solos that reveal what each heroine desires most in the world. Whatever her heart longs for becomes the emotional engine driving the story forward. In “How Far I’ll Go,” composed by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Moana is torn between her dream of exploring what’s beyond her remote island and her duty to her family. She’s genuinely torn, even wondering if she’s wrong to yearn for what lies beyond the horizon. Auli’i Cravalho’s pure, heartfelt voice captures all the wistfulness and uncertainty of growing up. The melody swells and crashes gently like ocean tides, mirroring the push and pull of Moana’s inner conflict. Previous SlideNext Slide17 / 25List slides8. “Be Our Guest” from Beauty and the BeastList slides8. “Be Our Guest” from Beauty and the BeastBeauty and the Beast - Be Our Guest (HD) Music Video Broadway royalty Jerry Orbach helms this showstopper with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Howard Ashman. The suave candlestick Lumière uses the number to lure Belle out of her bedroom, and show that the enchanted castle is more friendly and exciting than spooky and depressing. “Be Our Guest” has clever, fast-paced lyrics sung in a classic “patter song” style which then explodes in a lively, French can-can finale. The living castle objects just want to serve and make someone happy again, offering Belle elaborate meals and dazzling entertainment. Everything is on the plate for Belle, from soup du jour, hot hors d’oeuvres, beef ragout, cheese soufflé, and of course, the grey stuff. What’s just as exciting about the number as its giddy music is the animation, with spoons swimming in punch bowls like a Busby Berkeley number, prismatic spotlights, sumptuous, brightly-colored cakes, a glowing chandelier, and dancing flatware. Previous SlideNext Slide18 / 25List slides7. “You’ll Be in My Heart” from TarzanList slides7. “You’ll Be in My Heart” from TarzanPhil Collins - You’ll Be in My Heart /Tarzan(ターザン)Phil Collins knocked it out of the park with the entire Tarzan soundtrack. Somehow his earthy voice, drum-infused instrumentals, and heartfelt lyrics were the perfect mix for this jungle story. Rather than a traditional Disney musical, Phil Collins acts as an omnipresent narrator, commenting on the action or voicing the character’s thoughts. “You’ll Be In My Heart” rightfully earned the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Originally written as a lullaby for his own daughter, the song starts off tender, with Phil Collins almost gently whispering against soft marimbas. Its lyrics of true love and devotion are moving, especially in the scene where Kala sings it to a baby Tarzan, who, despite being a different species, experiences a bond where love and care know no bounds. The song eventually crashes into driving drums, moving toward a bridge that sees the child fly free on their own: “When destiny calls you / You must be strong / I may not be with you / But you’ve got to hold on.” This song is touching for anyone who has ever loved someone and watched them grow, no matter what type of relationship. Previous SlideNext Slide19 / 25List slides6. “Under the Sea” from The Little MermaidList slides6. “Under the Sea” from The Little MermaidThe Little Mermaid - Under the Sea (from The Little Mermaid) (Official Video) Those solo calypso opening notes of “Under the Sea” immediately get you excited, and Samuel E. Wright delivers a rollicking underwater bash. His booming voice and vivacious energy are perfect for the overdramatic crustacean and his mission to convince Ariel that living under the sea “is the bubbles” with no troubles. “Under the Sea’ buoys the rainbow-colored montage of marine life that fills Ariel’s world—fish, dolphins, and coral reefs. The scene cleverly ties the instruments to various creatures and animation — harps echo the swirling school of fish, shells mimic steel pans, and a pair of octopuses intertwine their legs like bass lines. With its infectious Caribbean beat, Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s song is a true banger and impossible not to love, which is why it won the 1990 Oscar for Best Original Song. Previous SlideNext Slide20 / 25List slides5. “Colors of the Wind” from PocahontasList slides5. “Colors of the Wind” from PocahontasPocahontas - Colors of the Wind (Blu-ray 1080p HD) “You think the only people who are people / Are the people who look and think like you / But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger / You’ll learn things you never knew, you never knew.” In this increasingly polarized world, that message has never been more relevant. Pocahontas is not immediately smitten with John Smith; instead, she condemns his entire culture, which prioritizes gold and hatred over acceptance and the beauty of nature. Stephen Schwartz’s lyrics paint gorgeous pictures of the American wilderness, questioning why the white men who have invaded these lands cannot appreciate the world around them — from the grinning bobcats to the sweet berries to the trees that stretch toward the sky, if only we let them grow. Alan Menken’s surrounding score is rapturous, carried by Judy Kuhn’s passionate vocals. More than just the profound lyrics, it’s the visuals that make this musical number so unforgettable — particularly John Smith and Pocahontas dancing in a pastel-colored wind. It’s no surprise that “Colors of the Wind” won an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Previous SlideNext Slide21 / 25List slides4. “When You Wish Upon a Star” from PinnochioList slides4. “When You Wish Upon a Star” from PinnochioPocahontas - Colors of the Wind (Blu-ray 1080p HD)Written by Leigh Harline and Ned Washington, “When You Wish Upon a Star” has come to define Disney itself, typically playing over the castle logo that opens every movie. The ethereal ballad is sung by Cliff Edwards as Jiminy Cricket, whose resonant yet quirky voice feels like someone sharing a story by a crackling fire. “When you wish upon a star / Makes no difference who you are / Anything your heart desires / Will come to you,” he tenderly sings over the opening credits. The gentle melody wraps you in a warm embrace of possibility. People often make fun of Disney adults, but perhaps one reason we hold on to Disney films long after growing up is that they offer hope in an increasingly grim world. This aspirational song reminds us there is more to life than the ordinary—if we just dare to imagine.Previous SlideNext Slide22 / 25List slides3. “Beauty and the Beast” from Beauty and the BeastList slides3. “Beauty and the Beast” from Beauty and the BeastBeauty and the Beast Tale As Old As Time HD As Mrs. Potts, Angela Lansbury’s warm, cheery English voice adds a rosiness to this powerful love ballad, backed by an orchestra of sumptuous strings. The lyrics aren’t the pure romanticism of past Disney love stories; there is no love at first sight here. Instead, Mrs. Potts gently reflects on how true love can take time to blossom, and how relationships sometimes require change, admitting your faults and working hard to set aside your vices and worst qualities. It’s a surprisingly mature outlook for a Disney love song. The accompanying animation is one of the most exquisite sequences in Disney history: Belle’s golden dress glides delicately across the floor as she and the Beast dance in the grand ballroom, the camera swirling to reveal the sparkling chandelier and Michelangelo-esque ceiling of painted cherubs above them. That Howard Ashman wrote this song while dying from complications of AIDS makes it all the more poignant. Previous SlideNext Slide23 / 25List slides2. “Part of Your World” from The Little MermaidList slides2. “Part of Your World” from The Little MermaidJodi Benson - Part of Your World (From “The Little Mermaid”)Before The Little Mermaid kicked off the Disney Renaissance (a period of more sophisticated storytelling and box office success) princess songs were mostly focused on their prince charmings. They had very few aspirations outside of dreaming about their prince or wishing for their prince. But the introduction of the songwriting team Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, who had worked on the off-Broadway show Little Shop of Horrors, helped develop a Disney princess that had greater ambitions. Ariel wanted to see the human world, and she would express that within a Broadway-style solo called the “I Want” song, where the protagonist sings about, well, what they want. “Part of Your World” has a flowing melody and a sweet yearning in Jodi Benson’s voice (and given a more soulful power in the live-action version from Halle Bailey). We see her comical misunderstanding of what her treasures are, all whozits and whatzits galore. “Wouldn’t I love to explore that shore up above?” her voice soars while reaching out through the top of her grotto towards the sun. In that moment, with her big eyes and aching voice, you completely understand how much the human world means to her.Previous SlideNext Slide24 / 25List slides1. “Circle of Life” from The Lion KingList slides1. “Circle of Life” from The Lion KingCarmen Twillie, Lebo M. - Circle of Life (From “The Lion King”) No Disney song is quite as epic as Elton John’s “Circle of Life.” The image of the rising sun, paired with the opening lines sung passionately in Zulu by Lebo M., without any instrumentals, immediately hooks you into this sweeping story of the African savannah. The title, “Circle of Life,” is fitting for this tale of birth, death, and everything in between. The lyrics somehow encompass everything about our big, beautiful world — how finite life is, and the experiences, both good and bad, that give us balance. There’s despair and there’s hope. There’s faith and there’s love. The lyrics are poetic and make you think about the wonder and mystery of existence. The song reaches a powerful peak at the end when the chorus rises together. It’s impossible not to get full-body chills on that final soaring note, “It’s the circle, the circle of life,” punctuated by the thunderous drumbeat, where the sight of Rafiki lifting Simba on Pride Rock cuts to black. “Circle of Life” is a beautiful song with a grand vision, especially for a film geared towards children.

The current era of Doctor Who has tried to shy away from resurrecting some of the series’ biggest bads for the 15th Doctor to face off against—but that’s not to say it has been devoid of classic villains. As we barrel towards the finale of the show’s latest season, we’ve been given another in the form of the Rani, a brief but brilliant icon of ’80s Who. Who Is the Rani? An amoral Time Lord scientist, the Rani, portrayed by Kate O’Mara, appeared in just two classic Doctor Who storylines in the 1980s: “Mark of the Rani,” where she teamed up with the Master to face off against the Sixth Doctor, and “Time and the Rani,” Sylvester McCoy’s debut storyline as the Seventh Doctor, responsible for his prior incarnation’s regeneration as she takes over an alien world in an attempt to manipulate evolution across the cosmos. O’Mara would appear onscreen once more as the Rani during the 1993 special Dimensions in Time, both a celebration for the then-cancelled show’s 30th anniversary and a charity drive for Children in Need that saw Doctor Who cross over with the long-running British soap EastEnders, and the Rani trap multiple incarnations of the Doctor and several of their companions in a time loop in Walford, for inexplicable reasons. Little is known about the Rani beyond her on-screen appearances. She was given a similar background and status as a foil to the Doctor as the Master: a sinister mirror that felt kinship with the Doctor for their shared status as renegades of Time Lord society, as well as contemporaries who studied at the Pyrdonian Academy on Gallifrey together in their youths. But while the Doctor fled their people in rebellion, the Rani was exiled from Gallifrey for engaging in radical experimentation as part of her obsession with science and evolution. An obsession she was willing to do anything for, at any cost. Unlike many classic Who villains, the Rani has a limited life in spinoff media, even more so than her already limited TV outings. O’Mara portrayed the Rani once more in the questionably licensed 2000 audio drama The Rani Reaps the Whirlwind, set after the events of “Time and the Rani,” and was set to reprise the role for Big Finish before her death in 2014. Instead, the Rani returned in a new incarnation for two Sixth Doctor audio stories, played by Siobhan Redmond—and was seemingly never to be heard of again until this year’s season of Doctor Who revealed that Anita Dobson’s mysterious “Mrs. Flood” character is in fact the latest incarnation of the Rani… before she herself promptly regenerated into another new incarnation played by Archie Panjabi. Camp and the Rani The Rani has perhaps an oversized imprint on Doctor Who fandom despite her extremely limited number of appearances. This is largely down to O’Mara’s performance as the character. While the Rani herself is absolutely dastardly, and Doctor Who itself never treats her as anything less than serious (even if her schemes are inevitably foiled), O’Mara played her as big and brash, vamping about the place in glamorous outfits as she snarls and shouts and cackles, woe betide any fool who gets in her way. A lot of classic Doctor Who has taken on a camp appreciation in recent years, but if that appreciation could be distilled into the embodiment of a single character, the Rani is exactly that. It’s that camp status as an obscure, yet loved favorite that also has led the Rani to take on a different kind of life in modern Doctor Who before her appearance last weekend. After the series’ return in 2005 made clear just how quickly it was willing to bring back monsters and antagonists from the classic era of the show, the Rani became a catch-all speculatory guess whenever the series presented a mysterious woman to its audience. The running joke was known not just among fans, but the creative team as well, who would jokingly acknowledge that she was always the first guess for any potential returning identity. That is, until modern Who‘s second showrunner, Steven Moffat, tried to clamp down on it. “People always ask me, ‘Do you want to bring back the Rani?’ No one knows who the Rani is,” Moffat said to SFX magazine in 2012. “They all know who the Master is, they know Daleks, they probably know who Davros is, but they don’t know who the Rani is, so there’s no point in bringing her back. If there’s a line it’s probably somewhere there.” Perhaps that was where the Rani fit best: known enough to be loved, not known enough to actually make her way back to TV… until 2025, that is. What Bringing the Rani Back Means for Doctor Who Aside from the end of a very long joke, the Rani’s awaited return simultaneously means a lot and very little. On the one hand, showrunner Russell T Davies has made it clear that while the Rani is a known name, her character is minor enough that the show can essentially do whatever it wants with Panjabi and Dobson’s iteration of the Rani, so whatever schemes they get up to in the final two episodes of this season, they don’t necessarily have to align with the kinds of things we’ve seen the Rani doing in the past. But at the same time, the Rani is very interesting for another reason beyond being herself: she is the first Time Lord to return since Gallifrey’s second sundering in contemporary Doctor Who continuity. The Time Lords were seemingly wiped out prior to the show’s 2005 return in an almighty war with the Daleks, only to be saved from that fate during the events of Doctor Who‘s 50th anniversary and following series, which saw Gallifrey isolated but returned to existence once more. During the climax of the 2020 season of Doctor Who, it was revealed that the Master had razed the returned Gallifrey and harvested the bodies of the Time Lords as a new army of Cybermen called the CyberMasters, only for those to be seemingly wiped out for good during the events of “The Power of the Doctor.” With the Doctor once again the “last” of the Time Lords, just how the Rani escaped not one, but two cataclysms on Gallifrey remains to be seen—as does whether or not her return could mean that the series is on the verge of restoring Gallifrey for a third time. Time will tell, and so will Time Ladies! Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

oni-link tag reference no one gets Member Oct 25, 2017 17,372 UK And why is the answer obviously Ezio's Family View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSVHx23ByhM The only other piece that I think even comes close is Gusty Garden Galaxy View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6rZkej57cU But even then, it's surely Ezio's Family Are there any other contenders? What do you think, Era?  dom ▲ Legend ▲ Avenger Oct 25, 2017 12,382 Last edited: Today at 5:32 AM RockmanBN Visited by Knack - One Winged Slayer Member Oct 25, 2017 31,941 Cornfields Wii Shop Channel View: https://youtu.be/yyjUmv1gJEg View: https://youtu.be/2gmQYBZPV7g   blueredandgold Member Oct 25, 2017 8,668 This was my ring tone for a properly twelve months I think.  Jubilant Duck Member Oct 21, 2022 9,247 RockmanBN said: Wii Shop Channel Click to expand... Click to shrink... Was gonna be what I said. Truly iconic in a way no single game's song could be.  Exist 2 Inspire Powered by Friendship™ Member Apr 19, 2018 4,680 Germany I take Home in Florence over Ezio's Family personally. Man i love this game so much.  Musiol Member Oct 27, 2017 70 For me probably Maiden's Astrea theme from DS. View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPJUQg_U5HY   Blue_Toad507 Member May 25, 2021 3,807 If you owned a Wii, you knew this song.  Tsaki Member Feb 12, 2019 466 Ezio and Wii Shop like were already said. I'd put Uncharted's theme and probably some Call of Duty main menu soundtrack like Black Ops. - YouTube Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube. youtu.be - YouTube Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube. www.youtube.com   Adryuu Master of the Wind Member Oct 27, 2017 6,519 Uncharted Worlds View: https://youtu.be/7ZoFw9uXJwk?feature=shared And while I'm at it, also this one, why not: View: https://youtu.be/kgcq_ZtqbO0?feature=shared  MegaSackman Member Oct 27, 2017 20,706 Argentina Nate's Theme from Uncharted for sure. It started as generic for people, ended up being iconic. View: https://youtu.be/kgcq_ZtqbO0?si=5Co-INQ6d-6sx7Xn Edit: Beaten!  Kotetsu534 Member Dec 31, 2022 545 My first thought was the Uncharted 2 Main Theme, but Gusty Garden Galaxy probably outranks it actually. View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42tMX5UEAS8   ItsOKAY Member Jan 26, 2018 1,779 Frankfurt, Germany 100%  Adryuu Master of the Wind Member Oct 27, 2017 6,519 Tsaki said: Ezio and Wii Shop like were already said. I'd put Uncharted's theme and probably some Call of Duty main menu soundtrack like Black Ops. - YouTube Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube. youtu.be - YouTube Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube. www.youtube.com Click to expand... Click to shrink... MegaSackman said: Nate's Theme from Uncharted for sure. It started as generic for people, ended up being iconic. View: https://youtu.be/kgcq_ZtqbO0?si=5Co-INQ6d-6sx7Xn Edit: Beaten! Click to expand... Click to shrink... Kotetsu534 said: My first thought was the Uncharted 2 Main Theme, but Gusty Garden Galaxy probably outranks it actually. View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42tMX5UEAS8 Click to expand... Click to shrink... all right lol  Duncan Member Oct 25, 2017 15,482 HotsauceDragon Member Oct 25, 2017 3,645 ClivePwned Member Oct 27, 2017 4,214 Australia Gusty Garden, Wii Shop, Portal all mentioned, so: Adrenaline from Call of Duty Black Ops 2 View: https://youtu.be/hPR_hKpwXbI?si=Wq3mpSVzka2I5SST or Suicide Mission from Mass Effect 2 View: https://youtu.be/VTsD2FjmLsw?si=NiyXJ3sTV7vgJH-J  GTAce Member Oct 27, 2017 4,615 Bonn, Germany Motorstorm, baby!  OhhEldenRing Member Aug 14, 2024 2,868 It's the Wii Shop music and nothing comes close   Tsaki Member Feb 12, 2019 466 ClivePwned said: Gusty Garden, Wii Shop, Portal all mentioned, so: Adrenaline from Call of Duty Black Ops 2 View: https://youtu.be/hPR_hKpwXbI?si=Wq3mpSVzka2I5SST or Suicide Mission from Mass Effect 2 View: https://youtu.be/VTsD2FjmLsw?si=NiyXJ3sTV7vgJH-J Click to expand... Click to shrink... So good.  ReplacementPelican Member Oct 29, 2017 4,932 oni-link said: And why is the answer obviously Ezio's Family View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSVHx23ByhM Click to expand... Click to shrink... I'm tempted, I suppose, to think of any others. I'd say either the Uncharted theme or Far Horizons from Skyrim do, for me, just live on so strongly and vividly. But, really, I think you've got it in one with Ezio's Family because it feels like the defining track of a franchise that is still going very, very strongly and in almost every game, sometimes arranged a bit differently or interpreted differently but it feels like its become the theme song of the series, really. Its also just an incredible piece of music.  OP OP oni-link tag reference no one gets Member Oct 25, 2017 17,372 UK I made this thread after hearing Ezio's Family for the first time in a while and thinking "damm this slaps", but looking at all the answers so far, I clearly forgot just how many certified bangers there were this generation   BeansBeansBeans Member Jan 14, 2025 1,093 RockmanBN said: Wii Shop Channel Click to expand... Click to shrink... And we're done here.  Z'ard "This guy are sick" Member Mar 5, 2019 1,549 Ukraine Uncharted 2 theme is the first thing that came to my mind.   IMCaprica Member Aug 1, 2019 11,031 It's Wii Shop Channel theme for sure. Probably followed by Wii Sports theme. And then in an incredibly distant third, maybe "Dovahkiin" from Skyrim?   BGBW Member Oct 25, 2017 15,459 Well since the obvious candidates like the Wii themes and Still Alive have been posted I present that track that haunted all your dreams: View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOxqgLUPFHg WAH WAH!  Izanagi89 "This guy are sick" and Corrupted by Vengeance Member Oct 27, 2017 18,842 Gaur Plain defines that era for me, at least on Wii View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDJtsfR51To   Nintenleo XIV Member Nov 9, 2017 5,137 Italy tadaima Member Oct 30, 2017 3,137 Tokyo, Japan Everybody with a Wii was forced through the Mii create flow, so I guess the Mii theme. Which, although not going as hard as the Shop channel theme, is great. View: https://youtu.be/po-0n1BKW2w?si=NBQktoBzY4b06420   Last edited: Today at 6:16 AM Akai Member Oct 25, 2017 6,244 Like always with these threads. Too many great ones to name as the examples already shown. Here's is an other one: View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJq-F51QblI   Last edited: Today at 6:26 AM GMM Member Oct 27, 2017 5,799 Tons of great entries here, I will throw in a dark horse from Deus Ex: View: https://youtu.be/FUy87tpfNe4?si=0DT6_tEJpgNPZWZK   OP OP oni-link tag reference no one gets Member Oct 25, 2017 17,372 UK every time someone posts this I'm compelled to watch the whole thing from start to finish lol  Nakenorm "This guy are sick" The Fallen Oct 26, 2017 27,206 Yeah it's definitely Uncharted for me at least. Probably the Wii channel theme in general tho.   FarSight XR-20 Member Jan 4, 2018 9,511 Squid Icarus Member Jul 11, 2019 370 I think the biggest ones have already been mentioned (I think Ac2 is the winner). Here's a few more memorable highlights: View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99lHz11ElkA View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xHttYIwocY   Nintenleo XIV Member Nov 9, 2017 5,137 Italy I was obsessed with this trailer and its music  StarErik Member Oct 27, 2017 606 The Mii Channel theme is used in so many TikToks, YouTube videos and Instagram reels so that theme is probably the most recognizable and has the biggest reach. My personal favorite is Gusty Garden Galaxy, though.  Transistor The Walnut King Administrator Oct 25, 2017 41,658 Washington, D.C. I'd say this has become pretty iconic (The Last of Us theme) - YouTube Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube. youtu.be   Last edited: Today at 6:42 AM Sordid Plebeian Member Oct 26, 2017 19,866 Never Forget  SolidSnakex Member Oct 25, 2017 28,046 TLoU main theme - YouTube Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube. www.youtube.com   JamboGT Vehicle Handling Designer Verified Oct 25, 2017 1,531 Am probably going to be in the minority, but for me it was this, I watched this trailer so much and still unironically love this song. 5oul on D!splay from GT5 View: https://youtu.be/MXh25i7_3Is   Exist 2 Inspire Powered by Friendship™ Member Apr 19, 2018 4,680 Germany GMM said: Tons of great entries here, I will throw in a dark horse from Deus Ex: View: https://youtu.be/FUy87tpfNe4?si=0DT6_tEJpgNPZWZK Click to expand... Click to shrink... Probably my favorite video game track ever, so damn good.  Jawmuncher Crisis Dino Moderator Oct 25, 2017 44,841 Ibis Island If we're talking "truly iconic" as in world view, Halo 3's Menu and anything Wii Sports/Menu related would be at the top.   Bishop89 What Are Ya' Selling? Member Oct 25, 2017 42,778 Melbourne, Australia AstronaughtE Member Nov 26, 2017 13,171 The Barbarian Choir: View: https://youtu.be/AVy7YPNP_zI?si=lNiLhHE40iyby0VE Wet Hands: View: https://youtu.be/MSepOYJxB64?si=NIFMpP7z1VQbAMNd  Doopl Member Oct 25, 2017 287 Ballad of the Goddess (Zelda Skyward Sword) View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4ReyoNpyrM Build That Wall (Bastion) View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3SZee4YZX8  wrowa Member Oct 25, 2017 4,794 Wii Shop Channel is weirdly big on TikTok etc, so it's probably that.   Zyrox One Winged Slayer Corrupted by Vengeance Member Oct 25, 2017 5,182 The first thing that popped into my head reading the thread title was Super Smash Bros. Brawl's main theme (probably because the game really drills the theme into your head with multiple different arrangements) View: https://youtu.be/zeKE0NHUtUw Looking at the thread though there were lots of really memorsble tunes. Some good shouts in here.  Mafro Member Oct 25, 2017 9,118 It's absolutely the Wii Shopping Channel.   Stef Member Oct 28, 2017 7,732 Rome, Italy, Planet Earth This, and not even close. Still listening to it after all these years. (it is the Halo 3 soundtrack, but linking something from Youtube has become a nightmare...) View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0GdEIkGQOk 

Google's got a brand new AI video generator, and it's so sophisticated that we're starting to sweat around the collar a bit.Google DeepMind describes the new model, Veo 3, as capable of delivering "best in class quality, excelling in physics, realism and prompt adherence" — and as videos posted to social media indicate, that marketing doesn't fall too far short.The caliber of the video is indeed impressive. But the real quantum leap is that the system can produce audio that goes with the clip, ranging from sound effects to music to human speech and singing.The internet was quick to riff on all those capabilities, sometimes in the very same clip. They often got pretty meta. In one clip posted to the r/Singularity subreddit, lifelike AI "actors" discuss the range of actions new model can generate."We can talk!" one of the non-people exclaims."No more silence!" another enthuses.As users commented on the thread, commercials and other human creations could soon be "cooked" thanks to the rapidly-accellerating technology."Netflix will be the first to roll this out," another prophesied. "I should buy some stock. People will watch this shit like crazy."Over on Elon Musk's X, that mix of loathing and excitement was similarly palpable.In a lengthy thread, the AI-boosting account TechHalla showcased Veo 3 videos ranging from the fantastical (a giraffe riding a moped through Manhattan) to the mundane (a man teaching a classroom full of old people).The video generator's artificial physics were on full display in TechHalla's roundup, with one showing a paper boat floating in a puddle before falling into a street hole looking more like the real thing and less like an animated still life than Veo 3's predecessors.The thread's standout, to our minds, was one showing a girl typing on a custom keyboard in a simulacrum of autonomous sensory meridian response, which is better known as ASMR. On first blush, it seems nothing spectacular is going on — until one recalls that AI image and video generators often used to struggle to make lifelike hands and fingers. And the online personalities who create ASMR content professionally? They'll be quaking in their whisper-quiet boots after this one.Given its sophistication, it's no surprise that Google DeepMind's latest creation can also generate horrific content, too.Posted on Reddit, one clip shows a dirty-looking man in a dimly-lit bar begging whoever generated him to, well, not."Please don't finish writing that prompt," the man implores. "I don't want to be in your AI movie!"The video then switches to an apparent post-apocalyptic street scene where the man and a female companion are seen trudging through rubble. The woman runs up to the non-existent camera and begs the viewer to "write a prompt that will make us happy.""Do it for once!" she shouts — and for just a second, we almost believed her.Obviously, the "people" in that clip, like the others before it, are not real and were intentionally modeled via prompting to tug at our heartstrings — but these videos' ability to do so is pretty freaky.Share This Article

Morris, the Movie Star Alligator Who Appeared in ‘Happy Gilmore,’ Dies of Old Age Based on his growth rate and tooth loss, the 640-pound gator was estimated to be at least 80. He starred in movies and TV shows between 1975 and 2006 After starring in numerous movies and television shows, Morris retired in 2006 and lived out his final days at the Colorado Gator Farm. RJ Sangosti / MediaNews Group / The Denver Post via Getty Images Morris, the alligator who starred in Happy Gilmore and numerous other movies and TV shows, has died. In an announcement from the Colorado Gator Farm, where the beloved 640-pound reptile had lived for the last two decades, caretakers say the cause of death was “old age.” “He started acting strange about a week ago. Wasn’t lunging at us and wasn’t taking food,” says Jay Young, the farm’s owner and operator, while tearfully petting Morris’ head in a video posted on Facebook. Morris was nearly 11 feet long at the time of his death, according to another post the Colorado Gator Farm shared on Facebook. Based on his growth rate and tooth loss, Young estimates the gator was at least 80 years old. “While we knew this was inevitable, we are very saddened by his passing,” the Colorado Gator Farm writes. Morris was rescued from a Los Angeles backyard, where he was being kept as an illegal pet. He began his prolific career in 1975 and kept working until his retirement in 2006. His TV and film credits include Interview With the Vampire, Dr. Dolittle 2, Blues Brothers 2000, “Coach,” “Night Court” and “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” reports Thomas Peipert of the Associated Press. But he’s perhaps best known for Happy Gilmore, the 1996 comedy starring Adam Sandler as a down-on-his-luck hockey player who discovers his powerful golf swing. After Gilmore hits a shot in a tournament, Morris grabs his golf ball with his mouth. Gilmore confronts the alligator. “Give me my ball! Give it here!” he shouts, while waving his golf club in the alligator’s face. Morris responds by snapping his jaws a few times. After Gilmore tries unsuccessfully to grab the ball from the alligator’s gaping mouth, he sees the creature is missing one eye. Gilmore realizes it’s the same gator that bit off the hand of his mentor, Derick “Chubbs” Peterson (Carl Weathers). When Morris sprints into a nearby pond, Gilmore follows. After a brief tussle, Gilmore retrieves his ball from the gator’s mouth and holds it above his head as the crowd cheers. Later, he presents the alligator’s head to Chubbs, who is so shocked he falls backward through an open window to his death. On May 14, Sandler posted a tribute to Morris on Instagram.“You could be hard on directors, make-up artists, costumers—really anyone with arms or legs—but I know you did it for the ultimate good of the film,” the actor wrote in a caption accompanying a still from the movie. “The day you wouldn’t come out of your trailer unless we sent in 40 heads of lettuce taught me a powerful lesson: Never compromise your art.” He added: “I will miss the sound of your tail sliding through the tall grass, your cold, bumpy skin, but, most of all, I will miss your infectious laugh.” Sandler is working on a sequel to the film, called Happy Gilmore 2, which will be released on Netflix in July. Morris does not appear in the new film, since he died in the first movie. But his memory will live on. “We have decided to get Morris taxidermied so that he can continue to scare children for years to come,” the Colorado Gator Farm writes on Facebook. “It’s what he would have wanted.” The farm is located in Mosca, a small town roughly 200 miles southwest of Denver. Situated in the San Luis Valley, the farm is home to roughly 300 alligators, as well as snakes, lizards, crocodiles and tortoises, per CBS News Colorado’s Logan Smith. Young’s parents, Erwin and Lynne, started the operation as a tilapia farm in the late 1970s. They brought in baby alligators to clean up the dead fish, but as the reptiles grew, visitors began showing up to see them. Today, the farm serves as a refuge for unwanted, illegal and abused reptiles. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.