Was gonna say that ^ It's like the last few years of Apple loosening restrictions on iOS devices and the App Store. Most of these have just been about getting ahead of a change they'd be forced to make by regulators. Better to rip the band aid off on your own terms and keep control of the process.

Appreciate the heads up. I have tickets for Friday night. Hoping I don't see any spoilers before then (I have YT recommendations disabled, don't do OG or TikTok reels, and have like 30 different keyword mutes active on Twitter lol)

6) Eowyn (Lord of the Rings). Quietly the most courageous character in these films, and the center of its most impactful exchanges. She knows from jump the scale of the danger she faces and she never wavers in fighting for those she cares about. So glad she finds love in the end, she deserved it 😭

5) Senua (Hellblade). Quite literally lost myself in her story. To this day, I hear the music from the final fight and I get emotional. Hellblade as a game may have been simple mechanically, but first time VO Melina Juergens is brilliant here. (Let's just pretend the sequel never happened lol)

(Didn't intend to make this list all women, but I'm committed now lol) 4) Sarah Connor. The ultimate matriarch. A woman so incredible you'd travel back in time for her. And Linda Hamilton is perfect at depicting the growth of her character, within but also between T1 and T2 (and Dark Fate!)

3) Saga Anderson. You know how hard it is to make me like a cop? ...it's very hard lol Went into Alan Wake 2 just wanting more Alan. Left *deeply* invested in Saga's story, her family, her abilities, and the mystery behind them all. The wait for AW3 is gonna be brutal 😭

Oh yea, that scene was a lot. The way these games waver between making you sympathetic towards violence and making you completely disgusted by it is truly something else.

2) Ellie (The Last of Us). With every fiber of my being I wanted her to stay. And it broke my fucking heart when she left. But I understood. Cause you can't just make that pain disappear. How do you make peace when you can't find any yourself? One of the best written characters in gaming, period.

Amen, brother 🙏

1) Ellen Ripley. The hidden protagonist who became the blueprint for sci-fi heroines. Lover of cats. Only person who knows quarantine protocol. Will fuck a bitch up if you mess with her adoptive daughter. Strong believer in nuking your problems from orbit, just to be sure.