HERE’S THE INTRO I’M RECOVERING FROM THE FLU HAVE FUN READING WHAT YOUR FAVOURITE PODCASTERS HAVE BEEN UP TO
Like, why can’t Wuthering Heights be brat??
I am OBSESSED with anything Charli xcx does, and after listening to the OST she’s pumping out for the new Wuthering Heights adaptation (and omg if you have not heard House LISTEN RIGHT NOW), I’ve gone from not being that bothered to kinda now on board with seeing it. I very much sat in the same camp as others who had seen the horny trailer and felt complete and utter disappointment with its casting – DEV PATEL SHOULD HAVE BEEN HEATHCLIFF – but like, maybe it’s my flu brain or devotion to Charli, but like, maybe I kinda get the vibe a bit more now? Like, Emerald Fennell, girl I see the vision. Like, why can’t Wuthering Heights be a little more cunty, be a little more brat? We’ve already had countless super faithful adaptations so like….pop off? If there’s anyone who can make smocks sexy, it’s Margot Robbie tbh. Like labubu Saltburn yass queen the shit out of Wuthering Heights. I’m kinda joking…but also not….? Like, even its release date – Feb 14th, 2026 – is like so cunty? Like those who are at least a teeny bit familiar with the story will know that to release it on VALENTINES DAY is wild??? Anyway, I guess I’ll go see it and report back.
Rachel
Turns out Rujinu retold by rollercoasters is surprisingly emotional
There are days when I genuinely wish I’d never heard of the internet, but there are also still those days when I’m glad that I get to witness the passion projects of strangers whose existence I’d likely forever have remained unaware of without it.
The other day, I stumbled upon a YouTube channel called Tube Cody. I still don’t know an awful lot about this person, but I can tell you that they like at least two things: early 2000s simulation games (especially The Sims and RollerCoaster Tycoon) and female-led modern fantasy musical films. Not hard to suss out how they ended up in my recommended feed!
It’s no exaggeration to say that one of my favourite things in the world is when someone can take two quite unrelated interests of theirs and bring them together in an imaginative way. Tube Cody has nailed that particular brief with their machinima music videos reimagining the showstopping hits of Wicked and K-Pop Demon Hunters, but with every singing role played by synchronised rollercoasters – and if literally any of the ideas I’ve thrown out so far has lit up the reward centre of your brain like a Christmas tree, I urge you to go check those videos out right now. They’re really something, full as they are of clever visual puns, and all I can think is it must’ve taken ages to make something like this just to showcase an unusual overlap of two seemingly disparate sources of enjoyment. Naturally, I love it.
It doesn’t really require a thoughtful review, this, but for what it’s worth in my opinion the Wicked coaster is more technically stunning, while the K-Pop Demon Hunters coaster cuts closer to the emotional heart of the song, putting them at a dead heat in my estimations (and, since you can watch both in a tight 12 minutes, why wouldn’t you?). And if, at the end of What It Sounds Like, you find yourself unexpectedly moved by the wordless final interaction between two rollercoasters representing Rumi and Jinu before they literally go their separate ways… well, of course I don’t mind admitting that you’re not alone in that.
Rebecca
Why was Luigi’s Mansion a thing? Who signed off on this??
Nintendo recently added Luigi’s Mansion to its steadily growing Switch 2 catalogue of GameCube games, providing the perfect opportunity for me to revisit it for the first time in 22 years. I’ve always been very fond of Luigi’s oddball adventure, one that sees him exploring a huge spooky mansion, hoovering up ghosts as he attempts to save Mario from the clutches of the evil King Boo. I’ve been keen to replay it for around a decade now, and I’m pleased to say it holds up better than I expected. It remains a breezy romp that revolves around dual pillars of simple exploration and a slightly idiosyncratic “combat” system in the form of a ghost-capturing vacuum. It’s fun!
However, revisiting this thing as an adult is fucking wild. A very brief history lesson: Luigi’s Mansion was a launch game for the GameCube, and was the first “mainline” Mario game Nintendo had developed since Super Mario 64. You know, Super Mario 64. The game that reinvented the platforming genre by providing a template for how characters should move through a 3D space. The game that is easily one of the five most influential games of all time. The game that felt like it had raw joy injected into every cartridge by Miyamato himself.
Well, for the follow up, Nintendo made a game where the first boss you fight is a dead baby. Not a joke! Progression is made in Luigi’s Mansion by hoovering up unique ghosts that have escaped the lab of a gremlin-like scientist (let’s not even begin to discuss why this man is holding these spirits captive), and the first boss you face is a deceased child. In Super Mario 64 you jump on the heads of Goombas and soar through the air with wings attached to your bright red cap. In Luigi’s Mansion, you are reminded that infants are not immune to the touch of death. Multiple times.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, you’re forced to upset one dead child by tricking her into thinking that she’s wet the bed. A reminder: this is a fucking Mario game.
I know the GameCube was a bit of a black sheep, and it’s remembered as the console where Nintendo took the boldest swings with their first-party output, but like… this was the game the console launched with? It’s wild. If you haven’t played it before, give it a go. You won’t regret it.
Liam
Beanposting: The Squeakquel
It didn’t actually occur to me when I wrote about Ace Attorney sushi plush memes a few weeks ago that I’d feel compelled to follow up on the idea whenever a new good example dropped. I suppose if I’d given it any thought at all I’d’ve said “of course people are going to keep beanposting, but it’s not like with one silly postcard I’ve set myself up as the curator of some kind of archive dedicated to the adventures of these gay little beans“. Which I think demonstrates that sometimes I still do not know myself very well at all, because there’s a new great beanpost in town, and so of course I feel compelled to bring it to your attention.
The Redditor behind Kazuma Asogi’s violent rodent-sized rampage has returned with a full-blown hamster revolution courtesy of nearly the entire cast of AA Capcoroms joining the rebellion. It seems like someone else recently joined Rachel’s raid on the Capcom Store, and in another one of those great interactions that can only happen on the internet, a deeply in-jokey improv session once again unfolded in the comments section.
And before someone spots it I’ll just own it: yes, that is me getting excited below the line about someone else making the connection re: Ace Attorney Capcoroms looking a bit like Danganronpa’s Dark Devas of Destruction. Very few ideas are not enhanced by the inclusion of Gundham Tanaka, and beanposting is definitely in the majority on that one.
Rebecca
Your boy read a book about an old man dying, and it’s absolutely fucked me up
Every year, I set myself a goal to read 20 books. It’s a fairly modest number, I’ll admit, but with my tendency to read enormous fantasy novels and gaming magazines before bed, 20 is usually a comfortable objective.
I noticed on Monday that I was six books away from hitting that target, and with the end of the year looming, I decided to buy six of the highest rated short novels ever written. I figured it was a stress-free way to wander over the finish line while also expanding my knowledge about short form writing.
The first book on my list was The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy, originally published in 1886. I read it in one sitting after coming home from work, and I’m pleased to let you all know that it absolutely ruined me.
Without getting into it too much (it’s only 64 pages long, making it very easy to spoil) the book focuses on Ivan Ilyich, a successful judge who falls ill with an unknown – and incurable – illness. The book documents his inner thoughts as he succumbs to the illness and eventually dies. It is a harrowing, brutal representation of death that refuses to shy away from the grim reality of something we will all inevitably face. It left me feeling clammy, anxious, and horrified.
I loved it.
I’ve been describing reading it as a bit like this: Have you ever been going through a tough time, but whenever you’re telling your friends and family about it, all they respond with are good-natured platitudes that are ultimately unhelpful? But then one friend takes you by surprise by just telling you how it is. They hear what you’re going through, and they reflect how shit it is right back to your face.
This is what reading Ivan Ilyich is like. It’s uncomfortable and it’s difficult, but it’s honest and true. There’s something beautiful about that, I think?
Liam
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