Rynling R&D

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Hello from Munich! I came here to eat bread and buy books and look at art, and that’s what I’ve been doing. Life is good. I feel like I didn’t get to see enough of the Black Forest when I drove through Germany last summer, so later this weekend I’m going to rent a car and disappear into the woods.

Here’s a paragraph-by-paragraph breakdown:

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I generally don’t write negative criticism for four reasons. First, every piece of art is a miracle. Second, each of us only has so many days on this earth. Third, I prefer not to platform bullshit. And fourth, the sort of author who feels confident about putting overt sexism, racism, etc. into their work is also the sort of person who won’t hesitate to launch a vendetta against a reviewer who calls it out.

Also, something that reviewers really like to do is open in a style that I call “2010s recipe blog,” which involves writing two or three paragraphs about a summer you spent with your grandparents or a book you read in college (or whatever) before you mention the work that you’re supposed to be reviewing. There’s a place for this in a certain type of literary magazine, but I generally find it annoying and pretentious as an opener. It’s important for a writer to bring a unique perspective to their review, but it’s also important to respect your readers and not bury the lede.

Forest of Fallen Knights (on Itch.io here) is a free-to-play Game Boy narrative adventure game that takes about 30-40 minutes to finish. Though the game is visually modeled after Link’s Awakening, its setting and story are a homage to Dark Souls.

You play as a nameless adventurer who’s found himself alone and unarmed at the bottom of a cave. After the ghost of a knight gives him a sword, the adventurer emerges into a dense forest dotted with ruined houses that were once inhabited by the knights who survived a devastating war. Though no longer alive, neither can the knights die. Your job, as the still-living adventurer, is to help them make peace with their regrets.

Admittedly, it’s unclear what purpose your good deeds will serve in the long run, given that the knights are eternally unable to pass on. Perhaps the adventurer should take care that their curse doesn’t pass to him as well...

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The theme of this month has been “I need to turn my brain off.” With that in mind, this is what’s been making me happy lately:

- We Used to Live Here (on Amazon here) is a contemporary gothic suspense novel that began as a viral post on the No Sleep reddit board. At first the story seems like it’s going to be “stranger danger” social horror, but it gradually transforms into something far weirder. I will admit that the writing is somewhat uneven (and I suspect that a ghostwriter might have been involved), but I flew through this book. As far as I’m concerned, this is creepypasta done right.

- If You’re Seeing This, It’s Meant for You (on Amazon here) is a contemporary gothic mystery novel set in a TikTok hype house in Los Angeles. The main narrator, a 39yo woman hired to be the manager of the influencer kids, is a walking trashfire. She’s sympathetic enough not to be completely cringe, but it’s still fun to watch her make bad decisions. The author is admittedly no Shirley Jackson, but the Haunting of Hill House influences are very nicely observed.

- Maji Inu (on Amazon here) is a silly comedy manga about three dogs. They’re obsessed with eating and also very stupid. I’ve been following the artist (here) on Instagram since back when they were making Pokémon fancomics, and it’s very cool that they were able to publish an actual book with a major press. And it’s a good book!!

- The Super Mario Galaxy Movie wasn’t bad honestly. I can’t emphasize strongly enough that it’s written for a target audience of 6yo children, but the visual spectacle is impressive. The trailer, which functions as something of a stand-alone comedy short about Bowser, is (here) on YouTube, and that’s probably all that most people need to watch of this movie. I had a good time, though.

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I finished up the spring semester this week. So now I’m going to be more productive, right? Wrong!! Now I’m probably going to need a few weeks to recover. But that’s okay. Life is long. There’s no rush. 🍹

I've been playing Tears of the Kingdom a bit at a time every night and really enjoying myself. I think that's probably the best way to play this game - a bit at a time. There's a lot to do, and I imagine that it would be stressful to try to do it all at once. Definitely I was stressed out by the game when it first came out, but I have a feeling that I was attempting to take in too much all at once. Maybe it makes sense to say that Tears of the Kingdom is like Animal Crossing, but with Ganondorf.

Speaking of which, I dug out my old amiibo, and I was highly amused to be reminded that the Ganondorf amiibo drops massive chunks of beef. Bless.

This made me super nostalgic for the Rehydrated Ganondorf meme, and I was thinking of commissioning (this artist) to draw Ganondorf for me. Do you think he'd have fun with Ganondorf? Because I kind of think he'd have fun with Ganondorf. Right? Fingers crossed that he accepts the commission!

ETA: He accepted the commission!! Yesssss

Anyway my trick is that writing fanfic helped me remember how much I enjoy playing these games.

Like check out (this) design draft of Zelda from The Archives of Hyrule by the amazingly stylish Conito. How can I not love this character?

The Wind Waker is a marvelous game. A miraculous work of art. A blessing directly from heaven. A beautiful shining treasure on this earth.

I haven’t gotten to the relaxing part (the sailing) yet, but that’s okay. I always forget what an incredible charm offensive the opening hour of the game is, and I’m always delighted.

I love how, when Link is leaving Outset Island, the music crescendos into a heroic swell as he waves goodbye to everyone on the island from the stern of a pirate ship – but just when the song is about to reach its climax and transition into the classic Legend of Zelda theme, it crashes to a halt when Tetra is like, “Are you fucking done?” I love her so much, and also. That’s thematic foreshadowing babeyyyy.

I also somehow managed to forget how cool the first encounter with Ganondorf is. I love the way his face distorts into the most bitter and unhinged smile, and the way he ever-so-slightly twists his chin to signal the Helmaroc King (his giant pet murder bird) to release Link back into the ocean. Ganondorf covets that wind, and I covet... his magnificent bone structure...

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You get why I suspect that this answer was created by Gen-AI, right?

It’s not so much the writing itself, but rather the tone and context. The student’s answer is completely wrong, but it’s written with complete confidence. His answer is something that could conceivably be possible... but again, it’s totally unsupported, not to mention totally irrelevant. So where does the student’s confidence come from? And also, given that he’s apparently unable to read the specified paragraph, where does that smoothness of writing come from? Why does he feel the need to write a perfectly balanced three-sentence paragraph when a simple four-word answer would suffice?

I am so fucking ready for this semester to be over, you have no idea.

Bloodborne Video Game Getting R-Rated Animated Movie Adaptation From Sony
https://variety.com/2026/film/news/bloodborne-video-game-r-rated-animated-movie-adaptation-sony-cinemacon-1236720936/

PlayStation’s Bloodborne is being developed into an R-rated animated feature for Sony Pictures that the studio says will embrace the carnage that made the game so popular. Sanford Panitch, president of Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group, promised during the studio’s CinemaCon presentation that the long-rumored film will be “very true” to the gory spirit of Bloodborne, which follows a traveler who journeys into a gothic city full of nightmarish creatures.

Not gonna lie, they had me at "animated."