Looking for advice on how to accomplish this. I have a portable starter pack that tells me the battery has 12.6volts, and normally it has a green light that turns on whenever it's time to turn the engine over, but it never reaches that point.
I saw a YouTube video that said you have to jump it using the starter at the front of the bike, but I can't find the nut because I don't really know what I'm looking for.
There is surprisingly little info on how to jump a scout, specifically. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

CABIN ROAD is the gateway to paradise. But why does this feel like a path to hell? I smash into a tall pine tree that stands in the middle of the otherwise straight gravel road. I've gone around it hundreds of times before. But now, my fingers are firmly gripped on the steering wheel, disregarding all my commands. Have I become paralyzed? A potato is wobbling on the dashboard, having obviously leaped out of the potato crates in the back seat. Jack gets out and strides to the front bumper. His lips press into a thin line as he appraises the destruction and cost of fixing it. Nothing should hold him back from swearing. But he maintains his composure, anger simmering just beneath the surface. The memory of thirty years of marriage fills my mind. I question whether this man has drugged me. A fleeting thought that he might have crashed the car surfaces, but it seems too much of a stretch. I take a deep breath and try to clear my head. In the rear-view mirror, Jack gets an axe from the trunk. He comes and gazes at me from my window, his eyes looking heavy and weary—like two precious pearls inside their oyster-like shells. I straighten and open the window: “Thank goodness it wasn't worse.” “I'll chop it down.” “That’s a pretty big tree, Jack.” Jack blinks several times. “I do have a chainsaw...” “Yes.” I wonder what stories this tree has witnessed during its lifetime. Will we see the marks of our journey on its rings? There’s always something that gets squeezed in tighter, begging to be unraveled. “I'll drive you to the cabin and grab the chainsaw,” Jack says. “Prepare some coffee while I'm gone.” Our short passage to the cabin around the bend is like shifting through the fog of memory. I'm in the kitchen. My fingers clench around the coffee tin can and spoon. Bewilderment engulfs my brain. I spot Jack with his saw. He slips around the corner, the curve of his bottom visible through his tight work trousers. I feel anxious about the crash. Did I deliberately hit the tree? The measuring spoon slips from my hand. It drops onto the floor along with the tin can. I clean up the mess. Could someone drive into a tree on purpose? Accidents do happen after all. It's fascinating to see him take on this role of being so chivalrous. Far away from his academic duties. As the chainsaw outside whines, I scroll through social media on my phone. People arguing about something or other makes me tired. I pick up a copy of Science magazine from the coffee table and scan through an article titled “Quantum Communication Across Interstellar Space,” authored by Jack. As usual, the details go right over my head. I like to amuse myself with the idea that it speaks about communicating with individuals who have passed away. Billy's message pops up. He asks for money for a fishing trip with his buddies somewhere in Lapland. I am more than happy to support him since he’s enlisting in the army soon in July. My big boy. I tell him about the car crash, and he gives me advice about a car repair store. Jack comes back earlier than expected. He plops into his seat, sweat beading on his forehead and the smell of resin emanating from him. He seems disappointed. I pour coffee to the brim. “Did the saw get stuck?” Jack shakes his head and adds sugar to his mug. “It got shattered under the tree. I stumbled...” Silence descends slowly, like dust. “My helmet cracked.” “Do you want me to buy new parts when I go to the store?” “No need.” “But there's pruning and cutting to do first.” Jack takes a bite out of a cinnamon bun. “I can sharpen the axe.” “Ask the neighbors for help, that's what they're for. You can also mow the lawn while I'm away.” “The grass is already short— it'll die off.” “You don't want ticks taking over! Think about your mother's joint pain. She would roll in her grave if—” “Cremated?’ “Yes!” My answer is like a flyswatter, leaving no room for further discussion or quantum physics. Jack is busy chewing on the bun. His regular coffee breaks, which have become part of his daily routine in his sixties, have honed impressive jowls. We enjoy our coffee and stare at the lake. Calm as a mirror. I have a feeling Jack will soon suggest fishing. As I gather my things to leave, I call to him: “Don't hurt yourself. Should I bring more buns?” “I was thinking of skipping the sugar and wheat...” I simply smile in reply. “Can you refuel the car?” Jack asks. I'm already off. The door slams shut in the middle of his sentence, but Jack knows better than to expect a response. I jump into the driver's seat and immediately notice forgotten potato baskets in the back seat, but my mind drifts away before I can do anything about it. As I pass by our old well, I remember that we need to discuss connecting the cabin to a new water source. No matter what it costs, it needs to be done. Why should I agree to be responsible for our running water anymore? I collide with something hard. Airbags abruptly inflate around me, disorienting me as my vision blurs. Struggling to escape from the tangled mess of seatbelts and inflatable bags, it feels like I'm an old person trying to climb out of a bouncy castle. My gaze rests on the scene before me, but my thoughts can't understand it. I have plowed into a tree stump. The tree stretches over the ditch. Nearby the chainsaw lies crushed. The cutting chain is nowhere to be found. I get back in the car. Should I phone Jack for an urgent call? Inhaling slowly helps me stay calm. Why didn’t he mention the tree stump? Someone taps on my window I jump and my neck stiffens up. I reach for the window switch. “I should have told you about...” Jack says. “The stump?” “Didn't you see the tree on the ground?” “I'm sorry. I was daydreaming.” “Great galaxy, Hazel! You're burning through our last savings as if money grew on trees!” Jack is being truly authentic with me. I stare back at him like some big-eyed exotic species from Madagascar that I can't identify in all this chaos. Jack opens the door and starts to put the cushion back in its place. We turn on the engine, giving the accelerator a test ride. “Let's go to a repair shop. I'm sure our insurance will cover this,” Jack suggests. “We can say that we had an accident with a reindeer.” “You're supposed to report it to the police or game warden if you hit an animal,” I reply. Jack pauses for a moment. He then reverses and drives forward again, but when he looks into the rear-view mirror, he slams on the brakes. “I have a better plan.” He retrieves an orange towing strap from the trunk, a burst of determination on his face. He connects the stump and the tow hook. “Get ready. We’re going to take a quantum leap here.” We buckle our seat belts with a single click as we prepare for the inevitable disaster. We had already made so many mistakes together, starting with raising our children—though sometimes failing was just part of parenting. Jack revs up the engine. A sudden lurch forward, then Jack howls in pain as the stump smashes through the rear window, clambering through the seats and lodging itself onto the gearbox, trapping Jack's hand. He veers off toward the ditch. The Milky Way spins around us, potatoes fly in the air and suddenly, all is quiet. We find ourselves upside down—surrounded by earthy potatoes and broken glass. I try to break the silence: “I just remembered: Billy's friend can repair cars at the vocational school much cheaper.” Jack looks so pale, his face almost white. I guess he’s contemplating the next step. Through the cracked windshield, I see the chainsaw chain lying in the ditch. How did it come to be rusting away? Maybe everything will go back to normal if we sit here and wait. It feels almost as if we are flying in outer space, my nerves slowly calming down. But then a sudden stillness strikes that is anything but soothing. “Jack, I’m feeling a bit dizzy…” No answer. “Jack...” I snap open my eyes and the scene in front of me has changed drastically. It’s like I’ve been sucked into some kind of surreal void. I hear a tapping noise on the window. An apology and then a loud thud; a huge rock has been hurled through the glass. A stench of strong aftershave ferments around me. A burly arm reaches across to release the seatbelt. An elderly man growls something crude, nothing like Jack's usual scout-like words. My eyes close as I'm being cradled away, and visions of Jack's mathematics and symbols flicker around in my mind. Is the soul truly free when there is no force of gravity to pull us down? I don't know who my savior is, but I can sense his worry as his face reddens. He is in military garb. I come to as I feel my head thudding against the rubble. Instantly, I yearn to run away, contemplating that perhaps this experience is only a dream, and I'm back in the cabin chamber, tucked securely underneath a cosy blanket. A blanket that grants me the power to perform heroic acts like disappearing in a puff of smoke. “Are you okay?” he speaks in a familiar voice. Fingers brush over my clothes, picking out pieces of glass. My pocket contains an odd bulge—a potato? Suddenly, everything clicks: an aged Billy, wearing a major's rank insignia. How could he have achieved that rank so fast? “Son, what are you doing on this tree ring?” Billy peers at me from across the way, accompanied by a mysterious female figure. “We came to check on how you're doing,” Billy says. “Do you remember what happened?” I raise my head and look around. There's nobody in the driver's seat of the car. “Where is Jack?” I manage. Billy furrows his brows like a detective would when weighing evidence. An image of the classic TV show Columbo flashes through my mind—he could lull suspects into a false sense of security before dropping the hammer of his sharp intellect on their inconsistencies. But I'm not hiding anything here. Though why are modern shows so bad? That's another mystery entirely. “Mom, what were you doing out here? The road is an absolute disaster zone, with the car smashed up in the ditch.” My thoughts swim haphazardly as Billy reads something from my expression, then casts his eyes towards his new girlfriend for assistance. I try to get up but it hurts too much. Instead, I reach into my pocket and feel a sandy-sharp potato there. Maybe I can still wash it off. “I’m fine,” I reply. “I need to get back to plowing the field... baking buns for Jack... buying a chainsaw...” The darkness returns and I feel my body shiver. I'm in the car, traveling down bumps I've known for quite some time. Soon, I’m settled inside the cabin's living room on the couch. The coffee maker is gurgling in the corner of the room. Billy is on a call with a doctor about how to deal with grief and coping alone; it seems someone had died while cutting down a tree last year. He gets furious and threatens to take away the keys from the person he's talking to. It might be a good idea; many people have too many keys that they don't use anyway. My head is spinning with thoughts about Jack's absence. Where did he go? Someone runs water over potatoes while a pot clatters on the stovetop. My temper rises as I wait for Jack's return. I won't stay here by myself without an explanation from him. I call out for Jack until there's no sound left but my coughing voice. I crave sausage soup, and I know I must go to the store. As I try to move forward, I am wading through tar. They guide me to the coffee table. According to Jack, time runs faster the more hunched your back becomes. Let it be and let us sit here, motionless, gazing at the tips of our shoes. Surely, time has slowed down in this moment. Billy reaches out and takes my hand. A handsome, greying gentleman. His girlfriend also places her hand on top of the pile. Her name is Ewa. A beautiful name, something familiar about her. But did I hear her calling me mother? In the yard, a squirrel hops with a cone in its mouth. It freezes and stares at me. I avert my gaze. My hands suddenly look wrinkled. I summon the inner strength that I've been striving to find for an eternity: “Do we have to leave now?” Billy exchanges glances with Ewa and then looks outside. “You don't have to walk this path alone, Mother.” We finish our coffee without saying another word. The wind sweeps across the lake. A pair of swans take flight, and a duet of gentle honks echo across the water. A shivering cold envelops me. Billy and Ewa take me to the car. The potatoes can wait. The sun blazes brightly above us as we travel the cabin road; shapeless clouds dot the horizon and suddenly I sense a presence—as if someone is waving to me. I surrender. I believe I will be warmly welcomed.

Car died while driving it. So.. in an effort to try and start the car, we did a little testing. Battery is good. Had it charged and tested under a load. It seems we have a problem with the front compartment fuse block fuse plate. Using a multimeter, I get 12.37v everywhere on the block fuse plate until I touch the starter cable connection and I get nothing. Could this be the issue? Should I try and swap that out? Also, the ignition fuse looked burnt so I replaced that. After that, we now get a click at the 300 amp relay between the positive battery jumper post and the starter cable post but still no start. I also get a weird prompt on my dash display saying to open and close the drivers and passenger windows. We also hear a weird humming sound after I try to start the car which sounds like it's coming from under the alternator and we have no idea what that is. With no power going to the starter, we're thinking that the front compartment fuse block fuse plate is bad and the 300 amp relay between the positive battery post and the starter cable post is not working properly. Thoughts?

The idea of messaging you, has sent me into a bit of an emotional frenzy these past few days.
I imagine sending you a silly little message. After years of talking, could you imagine? Just getting a "yikes" or "sheesh" from me, out of the blue. I like to imagine you'd have just woken up, still in bed, phone plugged into charger. I can see your furrowed brows, and worried expression, before it cracks into one of those stifled smiles of yours.
You'll roll onto your back, unplug your phone feigned with morning annoyance, but really, you're just so eager to speak with me.
I missed you, you'll type. When can I see you?
Now, of course. I've missed you so dearly, my hands will shake as I erase a hundred typos between messages. I'm already on the flight. Meet me where we had our last cigarette.
I would get there first. I'd sit in that spot, freezing, for hours, if I had to, if you really wanted me to. I'd wait for you to arrive. I'd try not to smile, I'd try to for once not wear my heart on my sleeve, but I crack. I know I do. I smile like a fucking idiot, and you'll mimic me, only a bit more subtle. You were always so good at controlling yourself. So good at only allowing people to see what you want them to see.
This time, I won't get up to embrace you. I won't move at all. I'll pat the emptiness next to me, and offer you a menthol cigarette. You'll refuse, and pull out your Reds. I'll remark your disgusting preference. It will break the ice. You'll laugh. My heart will flutter, shake, break, rejuvenate. In that moment I will both have died and come back to life.
I'll only then return to looking forward, away from you. We'll sit in silence for a while. Just a small while. It's not awkward, nor are we drained on things to say. You just have to catch your breath from coming up those damn stairs, and I wouldn't mind living in that moment for just a second more.
Things will go right this time. I'll control my emotions. I won't get too close. You won't kiss me. I won't look you in the eye too long. You won't graze your hand over mine. This time things will go right.
Except, that was the problem in the beginning, wasn't it? We already fucked it all up.
I worry that if I message you now -- hell, even show you that I am still walking this planet, it will only infuriate you. You'll read my message with a scowl, before you tear into me about how much of a piece of shit I am.
I know, but I don't know.
This week I have been realizing, I never really knew you at all. I know, so fucking much, and yet, so God damned little. Mix that with the alcohol abuse, and drugs, and memory loss, and I just hardly even remember your fucking face anymore. It's infuriating, but some nights, that's what it takes, to fall asleep, to set my phone down, to wash your name out of my mouth before I spill all of our sacred secrets.
I know what I know. I know that, I loved you, so immensely, and that I was too young, and too ignorant to know what to do with all of that love then. I know now, where to put it, and how to manage it into little bite sized pieces. I know that, you loved me, even if you tried not to show it. If you were in love with me remains one of the biggest mysteries of my past. All I know is, you're a liar, and you did love me. You must have. To go that far, with me? For what else?
These questions keep me awake at night. Reaching out to you, has mimicked salvation. While I am more than eager to move on from it all, I fear living knowing that you never loved me at all, would be a worse fate than believing you must have, somewhere deep down, very quietly.
I've missed you, so much, and I've denied that, for so long. I've told myself, for the longest time, I didn't care about you, and convinced myself you must have hated me all of those years. I've only recently learned to accept the little, silent truths scattered about our past, and I feel like I've woken up from a decade long daze.
I will miss you infinitely. Eternally. This feeling will reincarnate through galaxies. This feeling causes spirits to eternally search for something they can never reclaim. I fear I will hang above that cesspool of a city for all of eternity.
I have made so many mistakes. So many things I have done wrong, and out of order, and I've torn my life apart like an angry teenager ripping posters off of the wall. But, would you forgive me? Would you trust me, now? Would you start over with me, and learn all that I've become? Would you allow me in? Would you let me learn about you, the man you've become today? Would you give me another chance?
I'll bite my nails another day. And, another day. A week, or make it two.
I just don't know. You would so easily be able to make sense of this for me. You were my rock. The center of my gravity, which has now been rocked beyond recovery. Will you please, just please, make one last decision for me?
A month, or eternity.
I just don't know.

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Looking for $800 Net.

Obviously, spoilers on the entire game here. For context, I have been playing Zelda since 2014 with Twilight Princess as my first game. Since then I have played Skyward Sword, Breath of the Wild, Link's Awakening, and I am about halfway through Ocarina of Time. Because of my obvious bias towards more traditional 3D Zelda games (I enjoyed Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess the most) I will try to be as impartial as possible.
I tried so hard to like this game. I had my doubts at the beginning, but after watching the new trailer it sold me on the game. I didn't like some aspects of Breath of the Wild, but after seeing the new enemies and hopefully a return to a more traditional zelda game that people missed while keeping the awesome open world of Breath of the Wild I really thought it was going to be great. And some parts of it were, but some parts of it I did not like.
Firstly, I would like to congratulate Nintendo because the physics relating to the Ultrahand mechanic blew everyone away, including me, and it is clear that Tears of the Kingdom has some of the best physics and building of any video game out there. The amount of creativity that has sprung from this game is mindblowing, and I don't think any of us expected for there to be simply so much to do. Not only are there almost 30 devices you can obtain each with their own unique purpose, you can also combine them with almost anything you can find in the game. Want to make a stupidly long bridge that can get you around the temple of time at the start of the game? Why not? Want to skip the main puzzle in the shrine by haphazardly building a flying machine that just barely makes it to the end? Go right ahead. Ultrahand allows for so much creativity and makes the new shrines ten times more enjoyable than the ones in Breath of the Wild. Because of this, there is an infinite amount of replayability in this game and the community will always be finding new things to do with this. Judging from how you all pushed Breath of the Wild to its limits, I can't wait to see what will be done in this game. Ultrahand gets a 20/10.
Additionally, Fuse and Recall are also insanely fun and useful abilities that add so much to the game. While I miss the Stasis rune in particular, Recall and Ultrahand can be used in a similar way if done correctly, and it's so much more satisfying when you do it correctly. While Recall doesn't have as many uses as Fuse and Ultrahand, the game still finds great ways to use it, such as sending a Stone Talus' boulders back at it, or knocking those horrible Horriblins down from the cave ceiling. Additionally, I am extremely happy with how Nintendo fixed Durability with the Fuse mechanic. While the durability annoyed me less than some of the others who played Breath of the Wild, my main complaint was wasting several of my good weapons on an enemy like a Silver Bokoblin or Lynel that had a huge healthbar, and only getting one (or sometimes none) good weapons in return. However, with the guarantee that you will usually be able to get an equally powerful or sometimes even better weapon after killing an enemy by fusing their horns to any random "sturdy stick", I don't hesitate to fight Silver enemies or Lynels anymore and I feel much more free to do so. Both of these abilites get a 10/10.
My third compliment goes to the game's shrines. I disliked Breath of the Wild's shrines. I found them tedious and annoying to do, and often skipped them or looked up the answers online. Especially when your only reward was a piece of heart or tiny fraction of a stamina wheel, I just clicked on them to save them as a travel checkpoint and moved on. Even their design was ugly to me. However, the new shrines are much better. While they are easier than Breath of the Wild's shrines, the rewards are a little less lucrative to balance it out and they are so much more fun to do because of how they creatively use the new abilites and allow for a multitude of different ways to solve problems. Many people do not like the "Proving Grounds" shrines, but I absolutely love them because they are a real challenge and I don't have to worry about losing 50 bomb arrows or several good weapons for a "Guardian Sword ++" and some ancient screws. Even if I die five times trying to complete them, I still have fun. And aesthetically they are so much better, the look of the temple, the texture of the lights of blessing, even the music feels a lot less claustrophobic and drab like the ones in Breath of the Wild did. 9/10.
Fourthly, the Great Sky Island was absolutely amazing and I loved every second of it. It felt just like it did when I played Breath of the Wild for the first time, being plunged into an unknown and untouched environment and having to learn the mechanics of this new game. The Zonai Constructs don't carry the same fear level as Guardians did, but they were still cool enemies to fight with drops that were actually helpful unlike the Ancient Screws and Springs which only became helpful late-game. I obviously can't go through every part of the island, but the parts I enjoyed the best were crossing the huge lake to the west, climbing the snowy mountain to get to a shrine where I unsuccessfully attempted to craft a hovercraft out of logs, going on Minecarts around the island, and fusing random crap to sticks to make the most ridiculous weapons possible. 9/10.
My last compliment goes to the introduction of Gloom into the game. When it is first introduced, the Gloom is absolutely frightening, and plunging into the depths for the first time was beyond scary. Malice was an annoying obstacle that you just jumped across until you got to where you needed to be and ate a few foods, but you are forced to avoid the Gloom in this game because you know that it will be catastrophic if you walk in it for too long because the only cure is an extremely rare flower that can only be found in the sky. I just wish that the lightroots either weren't so common, or didn't heal your healthbar, because it kind of subtracted the fear aspect a little bit. The way it actually destroyed your heart containers in the final battle against Ganondorf instead of rendering them unusable for a little while was another surprise I did not expect, and killing the Demon Dragon with a single heart was the best moment of the game for me. 8/10.
Some other minor things I liked:
• Gleeoks are amazing bosses, better than any of the bosses in Breath of the Wild OR Tears of the Kingdom apart from the Ganondorf fight, easy 10/10
• While the Wind Temple wasn't my favorite, I did enjoy the Rito Village quest in the beginning and the leadup to the Wind Temple where you flew with Tulin to the very top. 9/10.
• Pizza?! I loved the introduction of Tomatoes and Cheese into the game! Shame you couldn't do more with them. 7/10.
• The Master Kohga battles were very good. While he was still easy to kill once he was stunned, it is another instance of Ultrahand and Link's other new abilities putting a creative and spicy twist on an old fight. Autobuild was also a lifesaver. 9/10.
• The second stage of the Ganondorf bossfight was probably the most fun I've had with a boss since Twilight Princess. It felt actually challenging in a way that could only be compared to the Gleeok Battles. It was so hard to even get a single hit into his massive healthbar when he could dodge more than 90% of your shots and destroy your health bar. Probably shouldn't have gone in without upgrading any of my armor but doing that was so tedious :p 20/10.
Now that I've talked about what was great about Tears of the Kingdom, here is the stuff I disliked about the game. While I think that the people who call this game an "overpriced DLC" are not arguing in good faith, I can see their point. Much of Breath of the Wild's structure was carried over into Tears of the Kingdom and it felt like I was redoing the same things I did in the old game, just with a new texture and a slightly different story.
Because of how insanely complicated it must have been to put Ultrahand in the game, it was clear that that was what Nintendo spent most of their time on when making Tears of the Kingdom, going for a more creative approach rather than a return to the traditional like I had hoped. And while this was a perfectly valid thing to do that clearly made a lot of people happy, it just wasn't what I wanted, and the final trailers for the game feel like they were marketing a different game than they were actually selling. When they went above and beyond with Link's new abilities, it left other aspects of the game such as combat, story, gameplay, and the structure of the game itself lacking and awfully familiar, if not the same, as Breath of the Wild.
Now that I've talked about what was great about Tears of the Kingdom, here is the stuff I disliked about the game. While I think that the people who call this game an "overpriced DLC" are not arguing in good faith, I can see their point. Much of Breath of the Wild's structure was carried over into Tears of the Kingdom and it felt like I was redoing the same things I did in the old game, just with a new texture and a slightly different story.
Because of how insanely complicated it must have been to put Ultrahand in the game, it was clear that that was what Nintendo spent most of their time on when making Tears of the Kingdom, going for a more creative approach rather than a return to the traditional like I had hoped. And while this was a perfectly valid thing to do that clearly made a lot of people happy, it just wasn't what I wanted, and the final trailers for the game feel like they were marketing a different game than they were actually selling. When they went above and beyond with Link's new abilities, it left other aspects of the game such as combat, story, gameplay, and the structure of the game itself lacking and awfully familiar, if not the same, as Breath of the Wild.
My biggest issue with this game is the story. I disliked almost every part of it. We start out with a very solid intro scene where we meet shriveled Ganondorf and Zelda disappears. Then we see her disappear as she steals our half of a master sword at the end of the Great Sky Island. However, the game then leads us into a wild goose chase to find Zelda for almost the entire game until near the end when we go inside Hyrule Castle. This was fine in Skyward Sword because Zelda was much more likable and it only took up half of the game. I felt like "I have to save Zelda. I have to." in SS and in Tears of the Kingdom I was like "Let's just get this over already." Additionally, the Upheaval which is apparently the placeholder of the Calamity in BOTW just feels like not a threat at all. The castle rose into the air and a few meteors came down and crashed into Kakariko village. The mud in the water doesn't seem to be affecting the Zora much at all, the Gerudo seem relatively unharmed by the Gibdos, only retreating into an underground bunker, and we have almost no time to see how the rock roast affects the Gorons before Yunobo is saved. The only place where I felt any sense of urgency was in Rito Village where the town was starving and abandoned the children to their fate because they're the worst parents ever or something. I enjoyed saving Rito village. The others not so much. And let's not even talk about the Sages. 3/4 of them we had already interacted with heavily in the previous games, which was another reason I liked the Rito quest so much. Yunobo is still as weak and annoying as ever, nothing has changed with Riju, and Sidon is so boring and lifeless comparing to the other game. As we go into the dungeons we have four conversations that are, quite literally, copy and pasted into each one voiced by the blandest sages ever.
"Come, Come" (Random Sage)
"Did you hear that voice?" (Yunobo, Sidon, Riju, Tulin)
and when we get to the end of the dungeon
"X, I am your ancestor from a long time ago. I was the sage of x. Descendant you make me proud. The monster you killed tried to stop you from obtaining my secret stone. Once upon a time there was a great war where the Demon King tried to kill us and Rauru gave us all secret stones but he was too strong so Rauru sacrificed himself to seal him away. And then Zelda appeared to me and told me that it was the duty of the x to aid you Link."
"So it's my duty to... help you? Now take my scary ghost form with a useless ability (besides tulin) to follow you around the rest of your journey!"
These cutscenes weren't disappointing. I hated them. As a person who loves the story so much they never skip a single cutscene these I physically couldn't watch. Everything about them was awful. The completely dry, lifeless, unneccesary sages which don't even have a name or a face and talk like NPCs or someone from an awful anime episode and say the exact same thing four times over, the empty void we are surrounded in, the cutscene we have to watch four times over, the robotic responses that come from the sages, everything about it was horrible and it feels like Nintendo was trying to reinsert the champions in the game but these are such a worse downgrade from them. At the end of the game I was like "ok... I give this a 7/10" and then the horrible after-credits scene with the four sages came in where they repeated the robotic speech from one of the memories and if that was supposed to be a meaningful scene it certainly was not.
Zelda's sacrifice probably would have meant so much more to me if the rest of the story hadn't frustrated me so much. But it feels like it meant nothing since the Demon King is such a non-threat compared to Calamity Ganon. Calamity Ganon devastated Hyrule, destroying most of the villages and probably killing half of the people there, and murdering 4 of the best characters in Zelda history who meant so much to their people that statues were built for them. In comparison, Ganondorf levitated a castle in the air and added some poo to Zora's domain. It ruins Zelda's moment so much because it would have been so beautiful if it felt like she was sacrificing herself for something meaningful. It frustrates me to no end because Ganondorf was a villain I was so hyped about and he's shriveled about 90% of the game and only appears three times, once in the beginning, once as a vision in Hyrule Castle, and once at the end, and only one of them is fully revived Ganondorf. In fact, we only see this version of Ganondorf for a third of the final bossfight. We need more Ganondorf! At least add a sixth dungeon to the game below Hyrule Castle where Ganondorf appears after, or maybe he appears before we get the Master Sword. We just needed more of Ganondorf and more of him being a threat to Hyrule.
Another complaint are the sages. I already stated that three out of the four sages had already been fleshed out in a previous game and not much was added to their personalities this time around. Why couldn't we have gotten new people? Maybe make Muzu a sage, we always like having an old man around, or give Barta/Bullaria some importance for the Gerudo and hand over the torch to one of those young Gorons that always follow Yunobo around. It would have been so much fun to have new characters. The sages add absolutely nothing to the experience of this game besides showing up in the awful cutscenes and it just feels like they're trying to repeat what they had in the last game. If they're going to do that, at least do it with someone new so it doesn't feel like I have to replay the game again. We already helped these people with their character growth in the last game. We know that Riju is insecure about her place as the Gerudo chief, and we helped her be more respected after retriveing the Thunder Helm and calming Naboris. We know that Sidon feels a sense of duty to his domain after what happened to his sister, and we spend time with him getting shock arrows, obtaining the Zora armor, and travelling around Lanayru with him until we got to Zora's domain. We helped Yunobo gain his confidence after he accompained us by firing himself at Rudania. These characters went through almost no development except for Tulin (again showing what Nintendo did right with Rito Village) because he's a new character.
Finally, the memories. Why did there have to be memories again. It would have been such an easy shift from Breath of the Wild, to give us a new main quest. While I was not a big fan of the time travel arc that Zelda went through, it was still workable, but there was no reason to have these stupid memories again. We saw so much of past Ganon and so little of present Ganon. I don't care what happened to the Goat Man and how the Kingdom of Hyrule was formed. Half of those memories were not essential to the plot and were just filler content. In particular, the one with Mineru just spoils Zelda's sacrifice altogether. Mineru as a whole just feels like such an annoying character and I would have much rathered a sheikah sage or even a korok.
While I criticize much of this game for remaining the same as BOTW, the story was one of the only aspects where it was a clear downgrade. So much of what was shown in the trailers hyped this game to be an impactful, story-filled game and many of these scenes are from memories, which I absolutely hate, and one of the scenes with Ganondorf wasn't even in the actual game, just a scene melded together from a memory and the speech at the end!
And why on earth did they call them secret stones. It was so cringe. It felt like something I would hear from a ten year old's cartoon show and I don't know why they insisted calling them that when we have a much better name for them that is in the TITLE OF THE GAME.
All in all, the story gets a 2/10.
Another issue I have with this game is Ascend and how it affects our experience in the dungeons. I liked the Lightning Temple, the Fire Temple and Wind Temple were okay, and the Water Temple was just plain awful. I saw a post about someone complaining about the puzzles in TOTK being too hard and I saw someone respond "If they think these puzzles are hard, I can't imagine them playing Twilight Princess." And I wholeheartedly believe that. While I'm not trying to make this review a comparison to Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword, games which are completely different from this one, the puzzles in this game were either super easy or required us to do something that no one would have thought of. I was stuck in the Lightning Temple on two different points, one where the mirrors seemed to reflect to nothing in particular (what you had to do was grab a spare mirror from another room and fuse it to the statue so that it would face the right way which was a random solution that I didn't expect but I actually enjoyed) and another where I had no idea how to get to the last terminal and I looked around for 20 minutes until I looked it up online and found that I ascended into a place I wasn't supposed to and I actually had to teleport out of the temple to a nearby shrine, travel back to the temple on foot, go through another entrance I hadn't gone through, go through a really long tunnel to get to the terminal I should have gone to first. In a game which prioritizes open world exploration and being able to do anything you wanted, this haphazard "linearity" inside the lightning temple really ruined the experience of a dungeon I otherwise enjoyed. Which leads me to my point on Ascend. While Recall, Fuse, and Ultrahand add to this game in so many amazing and dynamic ways, Ascend just feels like something they added because they needed a fourth ability and a way to get out of caves. It allows so many dungeons to be cheesed and using it in the Lightning Temple made the experience so much more complicated than it needed to be. Apart from caves, every other place where you needed to use ascend could have been done with Revali's gale (rest in peace) or a bonfire + hylian pine cone, or any of the other devices that came with ultrahand.
The uses made for it in the Great Sky Island and in other places felt forced and the developers could have easily come up with another creative way to do this without ascend. I just wish that Ascend and Autobuild were disabled inside temples because it would have made things so much better. The companions also make the temples much more annoying because half the time all you're doing is waiting for Riju or Sidon to stop standing in a random corner and walk up to you. Especially in the Water Temple where your ability was on a time limit, this was especially annoying. The Water and Wind Temples felt like big sky islands and not dungeons. The Snowpeak Ruins in Twilight Princess and the Sandship in Skyward Sword are both excellent examples about how to turn something unconventional into an excellent dungeon, but these temples fail in so many ways. Not only is it so easy to get around the entire dungeon with a paraglider and Tulin that makes it possible to complete the dungeon in under 30 minutes on your first playthrough, the puzzles were so easy and the Wind Temple's boss in particular was so easy to kill despite it looking so fearsome. The Mud Octorok was actually a great boss that I have no complaints about, but the rest of the temple was really awful, with most of the puzzles simply being chalked up to "redirect this floating water bubble somewhere else so you can get to a terminal." The terminal thing returning was also something that was a huge letdown. There was no reason to continue it from Breath of the Wild, especially when the Divine Beast dungeons were such a huge complaint, when they could have added a system of small keys, miniboss, maybe even a new ultrahand ability similar to the ones we got from the sages to replace having a companion with you that you would be able to use across the dungeon. This would have turned the Lightning Temple from a 7/10 dungeon to an easy 9/10 or even 10/10 and would have improved my outlook on the other dungeons a lot more, particularly the fire temple, which was so great aesthetically but the gameplay and puzzles simply were not. While I liked the Lightning Temple and to a lesser extent the Fire Temple and the bossfights were much better, I found myself enjoying the Divine Beasts more than the Wind and Water Temples, and many of the bosses were such pushovers. The dungeons in this game get a 4/10.
I have a number of other smaller complaints. First is that I really wished there were more food and armor options. A return to the "meat skewers" and "fried wild greens" let me down a bit as I was hoping for more variance on food, especially after they added new items like stambulbs and tomatoes that I thought would replace the existing items. I mean, we had a whole sidequest dedicated to discovering Cheese and there's only three recipes for it! (as far as I know) Additionally, I wouldn't have been upset if they gave us the same effects for armor as before, just with a new name and texture. Like maybe they could have slightly updated the look of the Hylian set like they did with the Champion's tunic, or we could have the full Sheikah uniform instead of the Stealth armor, or a Lightning Helmet that actually looked different instead of one that reused the exact same texture as the thunder helm. New monsters such as Horriblins, Aerocudas, and Boss Bokoblins added some great new fights to the game, and I wouldn't have even cared if they reused the same enemies, but the way they attack is the exact same as in Breath of the Wild, which left the combat a little predictable and I was able to kill a Gloom Lynel first try. The only battles that really challenged me were against the Gleeoks, one of the best bosses in all of Zelda history.
My last issue with this game is that I really don't understand what vibe they were going for. Majora's Mask was twisted and disturbing. Twilight Princess was dark and gloomy. Skyward Sword was bright and hopeful. Breath of the Wild was free and really emphasized nature. But with Tears of the Kingdom, they really seem to be doing five things at once and accomplishing none of them. They try to put an emphasis on the creative aspect by adding things like Zonai Tech to the beginning and adding new technologies like the batteries, factories, skyview towers, and other. Then they also try to make this game dark and scary by introducing some horrifying things like chasms, gloom hands, and underground areas. They made the game seem bright and sunny like Skyward Sword in the beginning with the Great Sky Island and the bright yellow color palette. Then they also try to keep the open-world aspect of Breath of the Wild by keeping this massive open world, but with nothing to do inside it since we've already seen most of the stuff in this game's nature areas apart from the new caves. I don't understand what the developers were trying to make this game feel like, and it feels like they tried to do too many things at once and failed to flesh out all of them. I would have loved to see a restored Hyrule that we could explore and I would have also loved to have a nature-filled world like in BOTW with new plants, foods, caves, animals, and areas to explore, but the Hyrule in TOTK seems like a haphazard mixture of both.
There's no incentive to explore this time around with only 3-4 new plants and animals in the overworld and only a few caves that only have Brightbloom seeds, bomb flowers, and bubblefrogs. I love the caves, but they seem a bit same-y over time and I have no intention to find them all. I can't even ride around Hyrule on a horse like in BOTW or in a car like the developers seem to want us to do because I run into those stupid Zonai rocks that are littered around every 5 seconds for no particular reason. All they do is make transportation annoying and I wonder why they went through the effort to put all of the sky island materials on the overworld by these ugly rocks instead of actually having more sky islands like we wanted. The Great Sky Island was undoubtedly the most solid part of Tears of the Kingdom's Hyrule, so why did they deincentivise sky exploration by having most of the sky materials on these fallen rocks?
All in all, Nintendo outdid themselves with the coding in this game, especially putting a massive title like this on the six-year-old Nintendo Switch. However, it was clear that they spent most of their time coding in these new mechanics and the writers clearly phoned in this time around with the worst story and dialogue I have seen in any Zelda game so far. Maybe putting in a completely new game on Breath of the Wild's massive world was too much to ask, but so much of Tears of the Kingdom either directly copies Breath of the Wild (four dungeons in the exact same lands, the exact same food, combat, armor, and people) or takes the same structure and retextures it (four terminals in a dungeon, memories, shrines, a quest to rebuild a village from scratch, "champions" that pass on their abilities to their successors, and those cursed Korok seeds) that I really found no reason to play this game after 100 hours because there was nothing new left to do besides a multitude of side quests that I didn't feel like doing because I had no attachment to this Hyrule like I did in Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, Link's Awakening, and Breath of the Wild. Maybe I would have liked it more if I was a new player and hadn't played BOTW before, but the amount of content that was unnecessarily copied from the last game into this one really ruined the experience for me. All in all, this Zelda is a C+ for me, a 6.5/10. While it was more fun than the linear and small world of Link's Awakening, it couldn't compare with the story aspect of Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword or the feel of Breath of the Wild.
TLDR: While Nintendo went above and beyond with the new Ultrahand, Fuse, and Recall mechanics, it ultimately wasn't enough for me to save a game that had an extremely lacking story, underwhelming content and dungeons, and a multitude of side quests that was basically repeating everything you had done in 2017. If you're going to argue with me in the comments, please actually read the whole thing first.

For starters I began having severe panic attacks around 13/14 years old. Mostly thought I was dying, medical thoughts etc.. it was awful. My father and grandfather both went through the same thing (probably worse than me tbh). They both take Effexor XR and Klonopin.
Began seeing a psychiatrist, went through years of therapy and ultimately took Zoloft daily and Klonopin (as needed) for years. Stopped shortly after high school at the approval of my therapist, we decided I learned how to deal with my issues well enough and hadn’t had an attack in years. It’s always been there, but I control it and can bring myself back down 9/10 times.
Lately my anxiety (mainly health concerns just random thoughts) have been running wild. I have had some rather odd health issues for someone in my physical shape and eating habits to have. Mostly from injury though. It’s been much harder to deal with, and when it hits me it takes its toll. I’m usually just exhausted for a few days after a spell.
I’m 28 now so it’s been a long time. I remember coming off of Zoloft and thinking I was having like seizures because of the withdraws, it was an awfully weird brain feeling but did go away a few weeks after.
A few of my family members take lexapro and have nothing but good things to say about it. They seem to have encountered anxiety much later in life than me, I am just wondering if it would help with my constant thoughts of stupid medical stuff. Normally I’ll just go run, or work until I’m so tired I go to sleep. I sleep fine tbh, but as soon as I wake up my anxiety is insanely high. If I’m outside and busy that helps a ton. They seem to think I need to be on it. My wife takes Zoloft and has done well.
I do have triggers, almost anything medical related sends me into a frenzy of fighting it for a few days until I can calm down. I can’t even drive by a hospital without feeling sick lol. I’m happy for the most part. I have a great wife, love my home and my job isn’t super stressful like it used to be. I lost my grandmother and grandfather in 2018/2019 and they were my parents. So it’s been hard ever since then, not being able to ask them for advice on how to deal with things. I’ve been on my own which is fine I’m an adult I should be.
I’d love to hear experiences.

Obviously, spoilers on the entire game here. For context, I have been playing Zelda since 2014 with Twilight Princess as my first game. Since then I have played Skyward Sword, Breath of the Wild, Link's Awakening, and I am about halfway through Ocarina of Time. Because of my obvious bias towards more traditional 3D Zelda games (I enjoyed Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess the most) I will try to be as impartial as possible.
I tried so hard to like this game. I had my doubts at the beginning, but after watching the new trailer it sold me on the game. I didn't like some aspects of Breath of the Wild, but after seeing the new enemies and hopefully a return to a more traditional zelda game that people missed while keeping the awesome open world of Breath of the Wild I really thought it was going to be great. And some parts of it were, but some parts of it I did not like.
Firstly, I would like to congratulate Nintendo because the physics relating to the Ultrahand mechanic blew everyone away, including me, and it is clear that Tears of the Kingdom has some of the best physics and building of any video game out there. The amount of creativity that has sprung from this game is mindblowing, and I don't think any of us expected for there to be simply so much to do. Not only are there almost 30 devices you can obtain each with their own unique purpose, you can also combine them with almost anything you can find in the game. Want to make a stupidly long bridge that can get you around the temple of time at the start of the game? Why not? Want to skip the main puzzle in the shrine by haphazardly building a flying machine that just barely makes it to the end? Go right ahead. Ultrahand allows for so much creativity and makes the new shrines ten times more enjoyable than the ones in Breath of the Wild. Because of this, there is an infinite amount of replayability in this game and the community will always be finding new things to do with this. Judging from how you all pushed Breath of the Wild to its limits, I can't wait to see what will be done in this game. Ultrahand gets a 20/10.
Additionally, Fuse and Recall are also insanely fun and useful abilities that add so much to the game. While I miss the Stasis rune in particular, Recall and Ultrahand can be used in a similar way if done correctly, and it's so much more satisfying when you do it correctly. While Recall doesn't have as many uses as Fuse and Ultrahand, the game still finds great ways to use it, such as sending a Stone Talus' boulders back at it, or knocking those horrible Horriblins down from the cave ceiling. Additionally, I am extremely happy with how Nintendo fixed Durability with the Fuse mechanic. While the durability annoyed me less than some of the others who played Breath of the Wild, my main complaint was wasting several of my good weapons on an enemy like a Silver Bokoblin or Lynel that had a huge healthbar, and only getting one (or sometimes none) good weapons in return. However, with the guarantee that you will usually be able to get an equally powerful or sometimes even better weapon after killing an enemy by fusing their horns to any random "sturdy stick", I don't hesitate to fight Silver enemies or Lynels anymore and I feel much more free to do so. Both of these abilites get a 10/10.
My third compliment goes to the game's shrines. I disliked Breath of the Wild's shrines. I found them tedious and annoying to do, and often skipped them or looked up the answers online. Especially when your only reward was a piece of heart or tiny fraction of a stamina wheel, I just clicked on them to save them as a travel checkpoint and moved on. Even their design was ugly to me. However, the new shrines are much better. While they are easier than Breath of the Wild's shrines, the rewards are a little less lucrative to balance it out and they are so much more fun to do because of how they creatively use the new abilites and allow for a multitude of different ways to solve problems. Many people do not like the "Proving Grounds" shrines, but I absolutely love them because they are a real challenge and I don't have to worry about losing 50 bomb arrows or several good weapons for a "Guardian Sword ++" and some ancient screws. Even if I die five times trying to complete them, I still have fun. And aesthetically they are so much better, the look of the temple, the texture of the lights of blessing, even the music feels a lot less claustrophobic and drab like the ones in Breath of the Wild did.
Fourthly, the Great Sky Island was absolutely amazing and I loved every second of it. It felt just like it did when I played Breath of the Wild for the first time, being plunged into an unknown and untouched environment and having to learn the mechanics of this new game. The Zonai Constructs don't carry the same fear level as Guardians did, but they were still cool enemies to fight with drops that were actually helpful unlike the Ancient Screws and Springs which only became helpful late-game. I obviously can't go through every part of the island, but the parts I enjoyed the best were crossing the huge lake to the west, climbing the snowy mountain to get to a shrine where I unsuccessfully attempted to craft a hovercraft out of logs, going on Minecarts around the island, and fusing random crap to sticks to make the most ridiculous weapons possible.
My last compliment goes to the introduction of Gloom into the game. When it is first introduced, the Gloom is absolutely frightening, and plunging into the depths for the first time was beyond scary. Malice was an annoying obstacle that you just jumped across until you got to where you needed to be and ate a few foods, but you are forced to avoid the Gloom in this game because you know that it will be catastrophic if you walk in it for too long because the only cure is an extremely rare flower that can only be found in the sky. I just wish that the lightroots either weren't so common, or didn't heal your healthbar, because it kind of subtracted the fear aspect a little bit. The way it actually destroyed your heart containers in the final battle against Ganondorf instead of rendering them unusable for a little while was another surprise I did not expect, and killing the Demon Dragon with a single heart was the best moment of the game for me.
Some other minor things I liked:

• Gleeoks are amazing bosses, better than any of the bosses in Breath of the Wild OR Tears of the Kingdom apart from the Ganondorf fight, easy 10/10
• While the Wind Temple wasn't my favorite, I did enjoy the Rito Village quest in the beginning and the leadup to the Wind Temple where you flew with Tulin to the very top. 9/10.
• Pizza?! I loved the introduction of Tomatoes and Cheese into the game! Shame you couldn't do more with them. 7/10.
• The Master Kohga battles were very good. While he was still easy to kill once he was stunned, it is another instance of Ultrahand and Link's other new abilities putting a creative and spicy twist on an old fight. Autobuild was also a lifesaver. 9/10.
• The second stage of the Ganondorf bossfight was probably the most fun I've had with a boss since Twilight Princess. It felt actually challenging in a way that could only be compared to the Gleeok Battles. It was so hard to even get a single hit into his massive healthbar when he could dodge more than 90% of your shots and destroy your health bar. Probably shouldn't have gone in without upgrading any of my armor but doing that was so tedious :p 20/10.

Now that I've talked about what was great about Tears of the Kingdom, here is the stuff I disliked about the game. While I think that the people who call this game an "overpriced DLC" are not arguing in good faith, I can see their point. Much of Breath of the Wild's structure was carried over into Tears of the Kingdom and it felt like I was redoing the same things I did in the old game, just with a new texture and a slightly different story.
Because of how insanely complicated it must have been to put Ultrahand in the game, it was clear that that was what Nintendo spent most of their time on when making Tears of the Kingdom, going for a more creative approach rather than a return to the traditional like I had hoped. And while this was a perfectly valid thing to do that clearly made a lot of people happy, it just wasn't what I wanted, and the final trailers for the game feel like they were marketing a different game than they were actually selling. When they went above and beyond with Link's new abilities, it left other aspects of the game such as combat, story, gameplay, and the structure of the game itself lacking and awfully familiar, if not the same, as Breath of the Wild.
My biggest issue with this game is the story. I disliked almost every part of it. We start out with a very solid intro scene where we meet shriveled Ganondorf and Zelda disappears. Then we see her disappear as she steals our half of a master sword at the end of the Great Sky Island. However, the game then leads us into a wild goose chase to find Zelda for almost the entire game until near the end when we go inside Hyrule Castle. This was fine in Skyward Sword because Zelda was much more likable and it only took up half of the game. I felt like "I have to save Zelda. I have to." in SS and in Tears of the Kingdom I was like "Let's just get this over already." Additionally, the Upheaval which is apparently the placeholder of the Calamity in BOTW just feels like not a threat at all. The castle rose into the air and a few meteors came down and crashed into Kakariko village. The mud in the water doesn't seem to be affecting the Zora much at all, the Gerudo seem relatively unharmed by the Gibdos, only retreating into an underground bunker, and we have almost no time to see how the rock roast affects the Gorons before Yunobo is saved. The only place where I felt any sense of urgency was in Rito Village where the town was starving and abandoned the children to their fate because they're the worst parents ever or something. I enjoyed saving Rito village. The others not so much. And let's not even talk about the Sages. 3/4 of them we had already interacted with heavily in the previous games, which was another reason I liked the Rito quest so much. Yunobo is still as weak and annoying as ever, nothing has changed with Riju, and Sidon is so boring and lifeless comparing to the other game. As we go into the dungeons we have four conversations that are, quite literally, copy and pasted into each one voiced by the blandest sages ever.
"Come, Come" (Random Sage)
"Did you hear that voice?" (Yunobo, Sidon, Riju, Tulin)
and when we get to the end of the dungeon
"X, I am your ancestor from a long time ago. I was the sage of x. Descendant you make me proud. The monster you killed tried to stop you from obtaining my secret stone. Once upon a time there was a great war where the Demon King tried to kill us and Rauru gave us all secret stones but he was too strong so Rauru sacrificed himself to seal him away. And then Zelda appeared to me and told me that it was the duty of the x to aid you Link."
"So it's my duty to... help you? Now take my scary ghost form with a useless ability (besides tulin) to follow you around the rest of your journey!"
These cutscenes weren't disappointing. I hated them. As a person who loves the story so much they never skip a single cutscene these I physically couldn't watch. Everything about them was awful. The completely dry, lifeless, unneccesary sages which don't even have a name or a face and talk like NPCs or someone from an awful anime episode and say the exact same thing four times over, the empty void we are surrounded in, the cutscene we have to watch four times over, the robotic responses that come from the sages, everything about it was horrible and it feels like Nintendo was trying to reinsert the champions in the game but these are such a worse downgrade from them. At the end of the game I was like "ok... I give this a 7/10" and then the horrible after-credits scene with the four sages came in where they repeated the robotic speech from one of the memories and if that was supposed to be a meaningful scene it certainly was not.
Zelda's sacrifice probably would have meant so much more to me if the rest of the story hadn't frustrated me so much. But it feels like it meant nothing since the Demon King is such a non-threat compared to Calamity Ganon. Calamity Ganon devastated Hyrule, destroying most of the villages and probably killing half of the people there, and murdering 4 of the best characters in Zelda history who meant so much to their people that statues were built for them. In comparison, Ganondorf levitated a castle in the air and added some poo to Zora's domain. It ruins Zelda's moment so much because it would have been so beautiful if it felt like she was sacrificing herself for something meaningful. It frustrates me to no end because Ganondorf was a villain I was so hyped about and he's shriveled about 90% of the game and only appears three times, once in the beginning, once as a vision in Hyrule Castle, and once at the end, and only one of them is fully revived Ganondorf. In fact, we only see this version of Ganondorf for a third of the final bossfight. We need more Ganondorf! At least add a sixth dungeon to the game below Hyrule Castle where Ganondorf appears after, or maybe he appears before we get the Master Sword. We just needed more of Ganondorf and more of him being a threat to Hyrule.
Another complaint are the sages. I already stated that three out of the four sages had already been fleshed out in a previous game and not much was added to their personalities this time around. Why couldn't we have gotten new people? Maybe make Muzu a sage, we always like having an old man around, or give Barta/Bullaria some importance for the Gerudo and hand over the torch to one of those young Gorons that always follow Yunobo around. It would have been so much fun to have new characters. The sages add absolutely nothing to the experience of this game besides showing up in the awful cutscenes and it just feels like they're trying to repeat what they had in the last game. If they're going to do that, at least do it with someone new so it doesn't feel like I have to replay the game again. We already helped these people with their character growth in the last game. We know that Riju is insecure about her place as the Gerudo chief, and we helped her be more respected after retriveing the Thunder Helm and calming Naboris. We know that Sidon feels a sense of duty to his domain after what happened to his sister, and we spend time with him getting shock arrows, obtaining the Zora armor, and travelling around Lanayru with him until we got to Zora's domain. We helped Yunobo gain his confidence after he accompained us by firing himself at Rudania. These characters went through almost no development except for Tulin (again showing what Nintendo did right with Rito Village) because he's a new character.
Finally, the memories. Why did there have to be memories again. It would have been such an easy shift from Breath of the Wild, to give us a new main quest. While I was not a big fan of the time travel arc that Zelda went through, it was still workable, but there was no reason to have these stupid memories again. We saw so much of past Ganon and so little of present Ganon. I don't care what happened to the Goat Man and how the Kingdom of Hyrule was formed. Half of those memories were not essential to the plot and were just filler content. In particular, the one with Mineru just spoils Zelda's sacrifice altogether. Mineru as a whole just feels like such an annoying character and I would have much rathered a sheikah sage or even a korok.
While I criticize much of this game for remaining the same as BOTW, the story was one of the only aspects where it was a clear downgrade. So much of what was shown in the trailers hyped this game to be an impactful, story-filled game and many of these scenes are from memories, which I absolutely hate, and one of the scenes with Ganondorf wasn't even in the actual game, just a scene melded together from a memory and the speech at the end!
Another issue I have with this game is Ascend and how it affects our experience in the dungeons. I liked the Lightning Temple, the Fire Temple and Wind Temple were okay, and the Water Temple was just plain awful. I saw a post about someone complaining about the puzzles in TOTK being too hard and I saw someone respond "If they think these puzzles are hard, I can't imagine them playing Twilight Princess." And I wholeheartedly believe that. While I'm not trying to make this review a comparison to Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword, games which are completely different from this one, the puzzles in this game were either super easy or required us to do something that no one would have thought of. I was stuck in the Lightning Temple on two different points, one where the mirrors seemed to reflect to nothing in particular (what you had to do was grab a spare mirror from another room and fuse it to the statue so that it would face the right way which was a random solution that I didn't expect but I actually enjoyed) and another where I had no idea how to get to the last terminal and I looked around for 20 minutes until I looked it up online and found that I ascended into a place I wasn't supposed to and I actually had to teleport out of the temple to a nearby shrine, travel back to the temple on foot, go through another entrance I hadn't gone through, go through a really long tunnel to get to the terminal I should have gone to first. In a game which prioritizes open world exploration and being able to do anything you wanted, this haphazard "linearity" inside the lightning temple really ruined the experience of a dungeon I otherwise enjoyed. Which leads me to my point on Ascend. While Recall, Fuse, and Ultrahand add to this game in so many amazing and dynamic ways, Ascend just feels like something they added because they needed a fourth ability and a way to get out of caves. It allows so many dungeons to be cheesed and using it in the Lightning Temple made the experience so much more complicated than it needed to be. Apart from caves, every other place where you needed to use ascend could have been done with Revali's gale (rest in peace) or a bonfire + hylian pine cone, or any of the other devices that came with ultrahand. The uses made for it in the Great Sky Island and in other places felt forced and the developers could have easily come up with another creative way to do this without ascend. I just wish that Ascend and Autobuild were disabled inside temples because it would have made things so much better. The companions also make the temples much more annoying because half the time all you're doing is waiting for Riju or Sidon to stop standing in a random corner and walk up to you. Especially in the Water Temple where your ability was on a time limit, this was especially annoying. The Water and Wind Temples felt like big sky islands and not dungeons. The Snowpeak Ruins in Twilight Princess and the Sandship in Skyward Sword are both excellent examples about how to turn something unconventional into an excellent dungeon, but these temples fail in so many ways. Not only is it so easy to get around the entire dungeon with a paraglider and Tulin that makes it possible to complete the dungeon in under 30 minutes on your first playthrough, the puzzles were so easy and the Wind Temple's boss in particular was so easy to kill despite it looking so fearsome. The Mud Octorok was actually a great boss that I have no complaints about, but the rest of the temple was really awful, with most of the puzzles simply being chalked up to "redirect this floating water bubble somewhere else so you can get to a terminal." The terminal thing returning was also something that was a huge letdown. There was no reason to continue it from Breath of the Wild, especially when the Divine Beast dungeons were such a huge complaint, when they could have added a system of small keys, miniboss, maybe even a new ultrahand ability similar to the ones we got from the sages to replace having a companion with you that you would be able to use across the dungeon. This would have turned the Lightning Temple from a 7/10 dungeon to an easy 9/10 or even 10/10 and would have improved my outlook on the other dungeons a lot more, particularly the fire temple, which was so great aesthetically but the gameplay and puzzles simply were not. While I liked the Lightning Temple and to a lesser extent the Fire Temple and the bossfights were much better, I found myself enjoying the Divine Beasts more than the Wind and Water Temples, and many of the bosses were such pushovers. The dungeons in this game get a 4/10.
I have a number of other smaller complaints. First is that I really wished there were more food and armor options. A return to the "meat skewers" and "fried wild greens" let me down a bit as I was hoping for more variance on food, especially after they added new items like stambulbs and tomatoes that I thought would replace the existing items. I mean, we had a whole sidequest dedicated to discovering Cheese and there's only three recipes for it! (as far as I know) Additionally, I wouldn't have been upset if they gave us the same effects for armor as before, just with a new name and texture. Like maybe they could have slightly updated the look of the Hylian set like they did with the Champion's tunic, or we could have the full Sheikah uniform instead of the Stealth armor, or a Lightning Helmet that actually looked different instead of one that reused the exact same texture as the thunder helm. New monsters such as Horriblins, Aerocudas, and Boss Bokoblins added some great new fights to the game, and I wouldn't have even cared if they reused the same enemies, but the way they attack is the exact same as in Breath of the Wild, which left the combat a little predictable and I was able to kill a Gloom Lynel first try. The only battles that really challenged me were against the Gleeoks, one of the best bosses in all of Zelda history.
My last issue with this game is that I really don't understand what vibe they were going for. Majora's Mask was twisted and disturbing. Twilight Princess was dark and gloomy. Skyward Sword was bright and hopeful. Breath of the Wild was free and really emphasized nature. But with Tears of the Kingdom, they really seem to be doing five things at once and accomplishing none of them. They try to put an emphasis on the creative aspect by adding things like Zonai Tech to the beginning and adding new technologies like the batteries, factories, skyview towers, and other. Then they also try to make this game dark and scary by introducing some horrifying things like chasms, gloom hands, and underground areas. They made the game seem bright and sunny like Skyward Sword in the beginning with the Great Sky Island and the bright yellow color palette. Then they also try to keep the open-world aspect of Breath of the Wild by keeping this massive open world, but with nothing to do inside it since we've already seen most of the stuff in this game's nature areas apart from the new caves. I don't understand what the developers were trying to make this game feel like, and it feels like they tried to do too many things at once and failed to flesh out all of them. I would have loved to see a restored Hyrule that we could explore and I would have also loved to have a nature-filled world like in BOTW with new plants, foods, caves, animals, and areas to explore, but the Hyrule in TOTK seems like a haphazard mixture of both.
There's no incentive to explore this time around with only 3-4 new plants and animals in the overworld and only a few caves that only have Brightbloom seeds, bomb flowers, and bubblefrogs. I love the caves, but they seem a bit same-y over time and I have no intention to find them all. I can't even ride around Hyrule on a horse like in BOTW or in a car like the developers seem to want us to do because I run into those stupid Zonai rocks that are littered around every 5 seconds for no particular reason. All they do is make transportation annoying and I wonder why they went through the effort to put all of the sky island materials on the overworld by these ugly rocks instead of actually having more sky islands like we wanted. The Great Sky Island was undoubtedly the most solid part of Tears of the Kingdom's Hyrule, so why did they deincentivise sky exploration by having most of the sky materials on these fallen rocks?
All in all, Nintendo outdid themselves with the coding in this game, especially putting a massive title like this on the six-year-old Nintendo Switch. However, it was clear that they spent most of their time coding in these new mechanics and the writers clearly phoned in this time around with the worst story and dialogue I have seen in any Zelda game so far. Maybe putting in a completely new game on Breath of the Wild's massive world was too much to ask, but so much of Tears of the Kingdom either directly copies Breath of the Wild (four dungeons in the exact same lands, the exact same food, combat, armor, and people) or takes the same structure and retextures it (four terminals in a dungeon, memories, shrines, a quest to rebuild a village from scratch, "champions" that pass on their abilities to their successors, and those cursed Korok seeds) that I really found no reason to play this game after 100 hours because there was nothing new left to do besides a multitude of side quests that I didn't feel like doing because I had no attachment to this Hyrule like I did in Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, Link's Awakening, and Breath of the Wild. Maybe I would have liked it more if I was a new player and hadn't played BOTW before, but the amount of content that was unnecessarily copied from the last game into this one really ruined the experience for me. All in all, this Zelda is a C+ for me, a 6.5/10. While it was more fun than the linear and small world of Link's Awakening, it couldn't compare with the story aspect of Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword or the feel of Breath of the Wild.
TLDR: While Nintendo went above and beyond with the new Ultrahand, Fuse, and Recall mechanics, it ultimately wasn't enough for me to save a game that had an extremely lacking story, underwhelming content and dungeons, and a multitude of side quests that was basically repeating everything you had done in 2017. If you're going to argue with me in the comments, please actually read the whole thing first.

I want to say that I'm not looking for any "just leave him comments." We're all adults here and if you're not then maybe you're not the right person to give me advice.
So for some context:
I met my husband 12 years ago and we've been married for 4 years. We have a lovely, healthy relationship and its something we both feel very lucky to have. We put a lot of work into our relationship and for the most part - it's great. There's currently this little hurdle that has been bothering me of late.
When my husband and I first met, we were pretty young. We were both in minimum wage jobs and just wanted to travel so we both worked and saved money to go travelling which we did and it was phenomenal.
When we came back to the UK, we both got into office-y jobs that wasn't really what we wanted but it paid the bills and meant we could rent a place and live comfortably.
Now is probably a good time to mention that our work ethics and attitudes to work are vastly different. I came from a working class background whose parents worked non-stop and they put a lot of pressure on me and my brother to work as soon as we could regardless of careework-life balance/goals. It was "work work work."
This in itself is not a healthy attitude but it ensured that I always had enough money to do what I wanted.
My husband, we'll call him Joe for this, grew up very differently. His mum and dad are both self employed and worked whenever they wanted, they were well off thanks to their parents and there was never any expectation on Joe to work.
Joe absolutely hates working. He hates looking for jobs, applying for jobs, interviewing and working generally. He's always tolerated it because we've always needed two incomes.
Over the course of 10 years whilst working full time, I spent my free time volunteering with charities to gain experience so I could apply for a job I love.
This paid off a few years ago where I applied for a job with a children's charity and got a decent paying career and I adore it. With our new circumstances, I encouraged Joe to quit his office job which was making him severely depressed at this point and focus on what he would like to do. If that was going back to education, apprenticeships or internships or volunteering - I said I would support us both so he could do this.
He decided that he would teach himself software engineering as this is something he's always been interested in but he has no formal qualifications or experience but he was determined.
But its been almost 2 years and nothing has happened.
At first, Joe threw himself head first into online courses and bootcamps but this died off about a year ago.
Joe isn't a lazy person - he will do things around the house, take the dog out, go for walks and exercise. He'll do the shopping and the cooking. But he isnt studying anymore and he doesnt work.
And this isnt really what I signed up for when we married.
I know that sounds selfish and ridiculous because you marry someone in sickness and in health and for richer or poorer but I didnt want to be the breadwinner of our family. This puts a lot of pressure on me and although I'm decently paid, its not enough to support us both to do things I'd like to do such as travel, go on holiday, buy a home or have children.
Joe and me have spoken about this in length so he knows where I'm coming from but it doesn't seem to change and if anything, it just keeps adding enormous pressure to him that he isnt motivated and he feels lazy and worthless and "broken."
Joe has therapy twice every week and has done for a year now but I havent seen any practical progress.
I'm just reaching out to see if anyone can offer me any advice. I'm struggling a lot right now and feel myself distancing from Joe because I cant understand his issue. I gave him the space to commit to learning and doing something new but I feel like I've created this house husband that I dont want.
I want to respect him and not resent him but its hard when I'm solely supporting us and he's contributing nothing.
Tldr; husband won't learn and won't work and hasn't for years. Is there anyone in a similar situation that can offer me some advice because I'm feeling distant and resentful.

My girlfriend was at my house with me a few days ago and she spent some time there for a few hours. It was a normal day, but she forgot her weed when she left. She messaged me later the day saying she forgot her weed, but I was at work. I let her know that we can get her weed after I get out of work, but that it was going to be late. I currently live with my parents in the process of moving out, but she’s had issues in my house with my family before for being so toxic, argumentative, and combative over everything, so she couldn’t come in my house without me. My mom didn’t like all her anger issues being around my 15 year old brother, because he has such a strong moral compass and cares about me so he would always try to argue with her about why she was in the wrong. I believe it’s fine my mom didn’t want her in her house, if my mom isn’t comfortable with her being in the house without me she doesn’t have to let her in. Her reasoning was perfectly valid to me. My girlfriend takes this personally though, and believes my mom has absolutely no reason to not like her (close minded). Honestly, I didn’t care if she understood or accepted why my mom wasn’t fond of her, as long as she respected what my mom wanted. Here’s where it went bad
After I got out of work I went to her house to pick her up. I called and sent texts a few times, no answer though. I spent half an hour outside, assumed she was sleeping, sent a text saying that I was going home to sleep, and said goodnight. I go home, go to sleep, and wake up the next day. I woke up to like twenty texts from her. She’s saying stuff like fuck my family and I’m wondering what’s going on. So I get up and talk to my brother, and he told me she’s throwing a fit because after I came home and fell asleep, she saw my messages and still wanted her weed. She tried texting and calling but i was asleep and my phone died, so what she did was text my 15 year old brother to wake me up to get her so she can find her weed. He said he would have to ask my mom to see if she could come in that late. He asked, she said no, and he told her that mom said no and he didn’t want to wake me up anyways since it was so late. She was mad because before they even said she could come inside she already started driving assuming we would just let her in. She was irritated, asking him to just let her in because it would be quick. After being refused again she sent me text messages while I was asleep, saying things like, “fuck your family I’m actually done with them. We don’t have to like each other's family!” For context, I have issues with her family as well so she always makes comparisons. Her mom is physically abusive to her, steals from her daughter (my girlfriend) and other people, and in my opinion, encourages her daughter to do things that I just think are morally wrong. Her mom is currently in jail, and on her last visit, her mom told her where her hidden illegal drugs were and asked my girlfriend to sell them to pay for her bail. I told my girlfriend I can’t stand for that, and her response? She’s just gonna stop telling me about her convos with her mom, cool! This happened during all of this on the night she stayed and forgot her weed, And her sister is also very physically abusive, and uses violence to try to solve all the issues she has with extreme anger issues. Her sister even called me once shouting about how my bestfriend (Her current boyfriend) hates me, and she even said fuck my family herself too and that they raised a shitty son, so no, I don’t like either of them. My girlfriend doesn’t like my family because they tell her she’s toxic, but she always makes comparisons between the two. Anyways, after she said fuck my family she sent texts apologizing saying that she didn’t mean it, she was sorry, she didn’t want it to ruin our plans, and she cant unsend them. Don't know why she couldn’t unsend the messages, it must have to do with my phone battery dying, meaning they were never sent in the first place so they can’t unsend.
When I woke up I was furious on so many levels. I text her back asking her what the fuck is wrong with her. I said she was acting entitled expecting my entire house to wake up on command, drop everything they’re doing for her, and just look for her weed (that might not even be in the house). They’re already uncomfortable with her because of her anger and aggression, she literally could have just waited until the next morning to get her weed. It's not a big deal. The sense of entitlement to think my family was wrong for not letting her in is INSANE to me, and to say fuck someones family because they dont give you want you want is immature and childish. I told her I didn’t want to see her for the day, I wanted her to think about what she did, turned DND on, and went about my day. I had a lot of thinking because honestly, I didn't want her around my family after that. Literally, if someone has that energy about my family I would never want to bring them around them. I hate more than anything when people say stuff behind peoples backs and act fake when around them. She’s going to say fuck my mom then expect to come over in my moms house? Hell no. I thought about what to do, asked a few people, and they said tell her how her actions made me feel and see how she reacts.
So I take my phone off do not disturb to a bunch of missed texts and calls asking me to answer. I just tell her to call me because I don't want to text. She calls me a few hours later, and she literally doesn’t even acknowledge any of this. She leads off the convo asking how my day was, divulges into small talk, and I’m just sitting there silent wondering if she’s gonna say anything. She was literally trying to act like nothing happened. A bit of silence and she starts asking, “Is something wrong?” Like yeah, you blew my phone up saying fuck my entire family in the middle of the night. I told her I was very irritated with what she said, and that she did something I hate more than anything. I told her about how I thought it was entitled, how there were better ways to handle the situation, how my family wasn’t even WRONG. This is also a reason I did not like her family, because they say a lot of twisted things about me behind my back and I don’t need to be around that energy. She then said she was sorry, but began to justify why she acted this way. And honestly this was annoying me. I said you can’t take accountability yet justify your actions to me. Either you were wrong and you’re sorry, or your actions were justified you can't have both. She said it was wrong and she is sorry, but that my family hates her for no reason and went on a rant about this. After awhile she asked if she could come over and I said no, because I don’t want someone who disrespects my family to use them and come inside their house. She said she apologized and I said, saying sorry but then saying you were justified in how you treated my mom isn’t saying sorry. She gets super irritated and says she’s driving to the house to get her weed, while leaving I hear her tell her sister she’ll call her if she needs her and she hangs up.
I’m honestly in disbelief this is how she chose to handle it, but I felt it was only right to call my mom and explain the entire scenario to her. I didn’t tell her my girlfriend said fuck my family at first, but I had to now because she was coming to make a scene, and my mom was livid. I could have not told my mom and just let her in, but honestly, it didn’t feel right. For my mom to smile at her when she said all that. It was wrong. My mom is Jamaican, so she was ready to throw hands with my girlfriend if she pulled up. And surely she did. She said to let her into the house to look for her weed, and I told her I already looked earlier and couldn’t find it. It's not in the house. Then, she threatened to call the cops to search the house, saying I probably didn’t search thoroughly.. My mom told her she can’t search them without a warrant and to try it. All this is going on while my girlfriend is on the phone with her sister who’s shouting at us that we stole her weed, and that I have to send her $90 for stealing her weed. This is embarrassing by the way, because I live in a neighborhood that never has issues like this and all my neighbors came outside to witness this. She says she may have left the weed in my car, I let her look, she doesn’t find it, I tell her to leave. She leaves and still claims it’s probably in the house.
She calls me later and I ask her again, what the fuck is wrong with you? And she literally says my family should have just let her in. I genuinely do not understand how someone can disrespect an entire family, DEMAND to go in the house not ask, say they’re going to bring their physically violent sister to the house, and even try to threaten getting police involved, would expect someone to just let them in their house. Those are all acts of aggression, and a natural defense barrier is the house. Why would ANYONE prohibit entry to their house to someone who did all that? I then told her this relationship can’t work because she’s being too narcissistic, and the entire situation was uncalled for. I said this is over weed, imagine how you’ll handle serious scenarios in the future. I told her, I don't want to deal with it and I already deal with a lot with her. This time was super different though, she kept trying to say my mom was in the wrong and I don’t believe she did anything wrong at all.. Her rebuttal was, “Yeah you act like I have all the problems, I’m not changing for someone who won’t change themselves.” And honestly, I don’t think I have any problems at all. This is my only relationship where I’ve had any issues at all. All my other relationships were never toxic like this, and only broke off due to feelings dissipating. I let her know that's fine, but if someone really wanted to change and better themselves they would just do it instead of making excuses like, “I won’t change if you won’t!” Before I hung up I tried to understand why she did what she did, and she kept justifying it, and eventually I gave up. I don’t get how she thought this was the best way to handle it at all. Like, if your goal was to search your house for the weed, this approach didn’t do anything but make that not happen! I couldn’t believe the person I had so much love for was acting like this, and I had never felt my love dissipate the way it was. I was starting to think my girlfriend isn’t a good person. I started to think she’s an entitled narcissist that will do anything to try to get what she wants, while acting like we have to forgive her regardless of how she acts.
The next day I’m here, she’s been spamming my phone apologizing while still trying to say she won’t apologize to my mom and that she doesn't care. It makes no sense to me. She wants me to just accept her apology, but she can’t even apologize to my mom or my brother for how she acted. She wants to cause a scene like that, wants us to forgive her, without apologizing at all. It makes me so sad, and breaking up is going to be very hard but I feel like I have to do it.
TLDR; My girlfriend said fuck my entire family because she forgot weed in our house and tried to get it at midnight and we wouldn’t let her in. She then proceeded to come to our house, demand we let her in, threatened to call the cops on us for not letting her in, and threatened to bring her violent sister to our house. Now she’s saying she’s sorry and wants to get back together, but won’t apologize to my mom because she says my mom is not justified in not liking her, and that she should have let her in the house to look for her weed.

My girlfriend was at my house with me a few days ago and she spent some time there for a few hours. It was a normal day, but she forgot her weed when she left. She messaged me later the day saying she forgot her weed, but I was at work. I let her know that we can get her weed after I get out of work, but that it was going to be late. I currently live with my parents in the process of moving out, but she’s had issues in my house with my family before for being so toxic, argumentative, and combative over everything, so she couldn’t come in my house without me. My mom didn’t like all her anger issues being around my 15 year old brother, because he has such a strong moral compass and cares about me so he would always try to argue with her about why she was in the wrong. I believe it’s fine my mom didn’t want her in her house, if my mom isn’t comfortable with her being in the house without me she doesn’t have to let her in. Her reasoning was perfectly valid to me. My girlfriend takes this personally though, and believes my mom has absolutely no reason to not like her (close minded). Honestly, I didn’t care if she understood or accepted why my mom wasn’t fond of her, as long as she respected what my mom wanted. Here’s where it went bad
After I got out of work I went to her house to pick her up. I called and sent texts a few times, no answer though. I spent half an hour outside, assumed she was sleeping, sent a text saying that I was going home to sleep, and said goodnight. I go home, go to sleep, and wake up the next day. I woke up to like twenty texts from her. She’s saying stuff like fuck my family and I’m wondering what’s going on. So I get up and talk to my brother, and he told me she’s throwing a fit because after I came home and fell asleep, she saw my messages and still wanted her weed. She tried texting and calling but i was asleep and my phone died, so what she did was text my 15 year old brother to wake me up to get her so she can find her weed. He said he would have to ask my mom to see if she could come in that late. He asked, she said no, and he told her that mom said no and he didn’t want to wake me up anyways since it was so late. She was mad because before they even said she could come inside she already started driving assuming we would just let her in. She was irritated, asking him to just let her in because it would be quick. After being refused again she sent me text messages while I was asleep, saying things like, “fuck your family I’m actually done with them. We don’t have to like each other's family!” For context, I have issues with her family as well so she always makes comparisons. Her mom is physically abusive to her, steals from her daughter (my girlfriend) and other people, and in my opinion, encourages her daughter to do things that I just think are morally wrong. Her mom is currently in jail, and on her last visit, her mom told her where her hidden illegal drugs were and asked my girlfriend to sell them to pay for her bail. I told my girlfriend I can’t stand for that, and her response? She’s just gonna stop telling me about her convos with her mom, cool! This happened during all of this on the night she stayed and forgot her weed, And her sister is also very physically abusive, and uses violence to try to solve all the issues she has with extreme anger issues. Her sister even called me once shouting about how my bestfriend (Her current boyfriend) hates me, and she even said fuck my family herself too and that they raised a shitty son, so no, I don’t like either of them. My girlfriend doesn’t like my family because they tell her she’s toxic, but she always makes comparisons between the two. Anyways, after she said fuck my family she sent texts apologizing saying that she didn’t mean it, she was sorry, she didn’t want it to ruin our plans, and she cant unsend them. Don't know why she couldn’t unsend the messages, it must have to do with my phone battery dying, meaning they were never sent in the first place so they can’t unsend.
When I woke up I was furious on so many levels. I text her back asking her what the fuck is wrong with her. I said she was acting entitled expecting my entire house to wake up on command, drop everything they’re doing for her, and just look for her weed (that might not even be in the house). They’re already uncomfortable with her because of her anger and aggression, she literally could have just waited until the next morning to get her weed. It's not a big deal. The sense of entitlement to think my family was wrong for not letting her in is INSANE to me, and to say fuck someones family because they dont give you want you want is immature and childish. I told her I didn’t want to see her for the day, I wanted her to think about what she did, turned DND on, and went about my day. I had a lot of thinking because honestly, I didn't want her around my family after that. Literally, if someone has that energy about my family I would never want to bring them around them. I hate more than anything when people say stuff behind peoples backs and act fake when around them. She’s going to say fuck my mom then expect to come over in my moms house? Hell no. I thought about what to do, asked a few people, and they said tell her how her actions made me feel and see how she reacts.
So I take my phone off do not disturb to a bunch of missed texts and calls asking me to answer. I just tell her to call me because I don't want to text. She calls me a few hours later, and she literally doesn’t even acknowledge any of this. She leads off the convo asking how my day was, divulges into small talk, and I’m just sitting there silent wondering if she’s gonna say anything. She was literally trying to act like nothing happened. A bit of silence and she starts asking, “Is something wrong?” Like yeah, you blew my phone up saying fuck my entire family in the middle of the night. I told her I was very irritated with what she said, and that she did something I hate more than anything. I told her about how I thought it was entitled, how there were better ways to handle the situation, how my family wasn’t even WRONG. This is also a reason I did not like her family, because they say a lot of twisted things about me behind my back and I don’t need to be around that energy. She then said she was sorry, but began to justify why she acted this way. And honestly this was annoying me. I said you can’t take accountability yet justify your actions to me. Either you were wrong and you’re sorry, or your actions were justified you can't have both. She said it was wrong and she is sorry, but that my family hates her for no reason and went on a rant about this. After awhile she asked if she could come over and I said no, because I don’t want someone who disrespects my family to use them and come inside their house. She said she apologized and I said, saying sorry but then saying you were justified in how you treated my mom isn’t saying sorry. She gets super irritated and says she’s driving to the house to get her weed, while leaving I hear her tell her sister she’ll call her if she needs her and she hangs up.
I’m honestly in disbelief this is how she chose to handle it, but I felt it was only right to call my mom and explain the entire scenario to her. I didn’t tell her my girlfriend said fuck my family at first, but I had to now because she was coming to make a scene, and my mom was livid. I could have not told my mom and just let her in, but honestly, it didn’t feel right. For my mom to smile at her when she said all that. It was wrong. My mom is Jamaican, so she was ready to throw hands with my girlfriend if she pulled up. And surely she did. She said to let her into the house to look for her weed, and I told her I already looked earlier and couldn’t find it. It's not in the house. Then, she threatened to call the cops to search the house, saying I probably didn’t search thoroughly.. My mom told her she can’t search them without a warrant and to try it. All this is going on while my girlfriend is on the phone with her sister who’s shouting at us that we stole her weed, and that I have to send her $90 for stealing her weed. This is embarrassing by the way, because I live in a neighborhood that never has issues like this and all my neighbors came outside to witness this. She says she may have left the weed in my car, I let her look, she doesn’t find it, I tell her to leave. She leaves and still claims it’s probably in the house.
She calls me later and I ask her again, what the fuck is wrong with you? And she literally says my family should have just let her in. I genuinely do not understand how someone can disrespect an entire family, DEMAND to go in the house not ask, say they’re going to bring their physically violent sister to the house, and even try to threaten getting police involved, would expect someone to just let them in their house. Those are all acts of aggression, and a natural defense barrier is the house. Why would ANYONE prohibit entry to their house to someone who did all that? I then told her this relationship can’t work because she’s being too narcissistic, and the entire situation was uncalled for. I said this is over weed, imagine how you’ll handle serious scenarios in the future. I told her, I don't want to deal with it and I already deal with a lot with her. This time was super different though, she kept trying to say my mom was in the wrong and I don’t believe she did anything wrong at all.. Her rebuttal was, “Yeah you act like I have all the problems, I’m not changing for someone who won’t change themselves.” And honestly, I don’t think I have any problems at all. This is my only relationship where I’ve had any issues at all. All my other relationships were never toxic like this, and only broke off due to feelings dissipating. I let her know that's fine, but if someone really wanted to change and better themselves they would just do it instead of making excuses like, “I won’t change if you won’t!” Before I hung up I tried to understand why she did what she did, and she kept justifying it, and eventually I gave up. I don’t get how she thought this was the best way to handle it at all. Like, if your goal was to search your house for the weed, this approach didn’t do anything but make that not happen! I couldn’t believe the person I had so much love for was acting like this, and I had never felt my love dissipate the way it was. I was starting to think my girlfriend isn’t a good person. I started to think she’s an entitled narcissist that will do anything to try to get what she wants, while acting like we have to forgive her regardless of how she acts.
The next day I’m here, she’s been spamming my phone apologizing while still trying to say she won’t apologize to my mom and that she doesn't care. It makes no sense to me. She wants me to just accept her apology, but she can’t even apologize to my mom or my brother for how she acted. She wants to cause a scene like that, wants us to forgive her, without apologizing at all. It makes me so sad, and breaking up is going to be very hard but I feel like I have to do it.
TLDR; My girlfriend said fuck my entire family because she forgot weed in our house and tried to get it at midnight and we wouldn’t let her in. She then proceeded to come to our house, demand we let her in, threatened to call the cops on us for not letting her in, and threatened to bring her violent sister to our house. Now she’s saying she’s sorry and wants to get back together, but won’t apologize to my mom because she says my mom is not justified in not liking her, and that she should have let her in the house to look for her weed.

So some back story first.
This weekend I wanted to make a windows to go sd card for my steam deck so I'd have the option of going into windows (11) for anything I might need it for. After loading it up, I started getting issues of it dying really quick, and reporting absurdly low times for the battery percentage that it was showing. 10 minutes remaining for 80% battery.
I found a thread from about a year ago saying this could happen when you install the apu drivers for windows, with some steps that could remedy the issue. So far it has not worked for me however.
I've only run through one cycle of it, but the instructions say to boot into the bios and let the battery drain completely, as it will not even give a low battery warning light once it's completely drained, then to plug it back up and let it charge completely. After doing this, and turning it back on this morning, it started by showing full battery and 3h50m remaining, but quickly dropped down to around 20 minutes.
I'm going to go through the process of draining the battery again, and charging it up again, to see if that helps at all. It said to change it when it's turned off, but I might let it turn on and charge it with a slow charger to see if that helps at all.
I'd like to avoid an RMA if possible, but if anyone has any other ideas or suggestions, I'd love to hear them, especially if you've run into this issue yourself.

With only days separating us from the Centenary Edition of the 24 Heures du Mans, it's time again for the Le Mans Primer thread! This is the place if you’ve got any questions about the 2023 Le Mans event, no matter how small! There are no dumb questions about Le Mans!

CONTENTS

• The Race
• Session Times
• The Track
• The Classes
• The Legends
• Videos and Documentaries
• Entry List and Spotters Guide
• Endurance Chat podcast
• Broadcast Details
• Social Media
• Live Timing
• Get Involved!

The Race

It all comes back to Le Mans. A century ago, people asked ‘Could a car continue to drive for 24 hours straight?’, an event was made to test that theory, and a legacy in racing, motorsport, and motoring was born. The 24 Heures du Mans is the holy grail of endurance motor racing, and brings up its Centenary edition this year. In its 100 year history, the 24 Hours of Le Mans is recognised as the most prestigious and gruelling test for innovations and improvements in motorsport technology. Technologies such as disk and air brakes, streamlined bodywork, fuel, oil, and lubricant improvements, improvements to engine efficiency and longevity, even things as simple as LED lighting and windscreen wiper blades have been trialled and tested at Le Mans. The normally hot conditions in the middle of June stretch the limits of reliability, with all the teams knowing that in order to beat their competitors, they must first beat the event. A variety of different engine configurations, displacements, positions, fuels, and hybrids have won over the history of the event. So far, petrol-fuelled traditional piston engines have been the most successful. Mazda managed to win using a Wankel Rotary engine in 1991 with the Mazda 787b (oh god listen to that sound!), while Audi was the first to win with an alternate fuel, taking victory in the diesel-powered R10 TDI in 2006. 2012 ushered in the era of the Hybrid, with Audi taking victory in the R18 e-tron Quattro, featuring a flywheel hybrid engine.

Qualifying

The Qualifying format for Le Mans is unique to the event, and called Hyperpole. In this format, all classes are permitted to use the track in the 1 hour qualifying session on Wednesday evening. The top 6 cars from each of the 4 classes then progress to the Hyperpole session on Thursday night, which sets the top of the grid for each class. This means that each class will be segregated on the final grid.

Session Times

• Ligier European Series Practice 1 – Sunday June 4th, 08:00 Local, 06:00 UTC, 02:00 ET, 16:00 AEST – 45 Minutes
• Ligier European Series Qualifying 1 – Sunday June 4th, 09:15 Local, 07:15 UTC, 03:15 ET, 17:15 AEST – 20 Minutes
• Test Day Session 1 - Sunday June 4th, 10:00 Local, 08:00 UTC, 04:00 ET, 18:00 AEST – 3 Hours
• Ligier European Series Race - Sunday June 4th, 14:00 Local, 12:00 UTC, 08:00 ET, 22:00 AEST – 60 Minutes
• Test Day Session 2 - Sunday June 4th, 15:30 Local, 13:30 UTC, 09:30 ET, 23:30 AEST – 3 Hours
• Porsche Carrera Cup Practice 1 – Wednesday June 7th, 09:00 Local, 07:00 UTC, 03:00 ET, 17:00 AEST – 45 Minutes
• Ferrari Challenge Practice 1 – Wednesday June 7th, 10:15 Local, 08:15 UTC, 04:15 ET, 18:15 AEST - 45 Minutes
• Road To Le Mans Practice 1 – Wednesday June 7th, 11:30 Local, 09:30 UTC, 05:30 ET, 19:30 AEST – 1 Hour
• Free Practice 1 - Wednesday June 7th, 14:00 Local, 12:00 UTC, 08:00 ET, 22:00 AEST - 3 Hours
• Qualifying Practice - Wednesday June 7th. 19:00 Local, 17:00 UTC, 13:00 ET, Thursday 03:00 AEST - 1 Hour
• Road To Le Mans Practice 2 – Wednesday June 7th, 20:30 Local, 18:30 UTC, 14:30 ET, Thursday 04:30 AEST - 1 Hour
• Free Practice 2 - Wednesday June 7th, 22:00 Local, 20:00 UTC, 16:00 ET, Thursday 06:00 AEST - 2 Hours
• Ferrari Challenge Practice 2 – Thursday June 8th, 09:00 Local, 07:00 UTC, 03:00 ET, 17:00 AEST – 45 Minutes
• Porsche Carrera Cup Practice 2 – Thursday June 8th, 10:55 Local, 08:55 UTC, 04:55 ET, 18:55 AEST – 45 Minutes
• Road To Le Mans Qualifying Practice – Thursday June 8th, 12:55 Local, 10:55 UTC, 06:55 UTC, 20:55 AEST – 20 Minutes x 2 Classes
• Free Practice 3 - Thursday June 8th, 15:00 Local, 13:00 UTC, 09:00 ET, 23:00 AEST - 3 Hours
• Road To Le Mans Race 1 - Thursday June 8th, 18:30 Local, 16:30 UTC, 12:30 ET, Friday 02:30 AEST - 55 Minutes
• HYPERPOLE - Thursday June 8th, 20:00 Local, 18:00 UTC, 14:00 ET, Friday 04:00 AEST - 30 Minutes
• Free Practice 4 - Thursday June 8th, 22:00 Local, 20:00 UTC, 16:00 ET, Friday 06:00 AEST - 2 Hours
• Porsche Carrera Cup Qualifying – Friday June 9th, 09:00 Local, 07:00 UTC, 03:00 ET, 17:00 AEST – 45 Minutes
• Ferrari Challenge Qualifying – Friday June 9th, 10:15 Local, 08:15 UTC, 04:15 ET, 18:15 AEST – 45 Minutes
• Road To Le Mans Race 2 - Friday June 9th, 11:30 Local, 09:30 UTC, 05:30 ET, 19:30 AEST – 55 Minutes
• Ferrari Challenge Race 1 - Saturday June 10th, 09:30 Local, 07:30 UTC, 03:30 ET, 17:30 AEST - 45 Minutes
• Porsche Carrera Cup Race 1 - Saturday June 10th, 10:45 Local, 08:45 UTC, 04:45 ET, 18:45 AEST - 45 Minutes
• Warm Up - Saturday June 10th, 12:00 Local, 10:00 UTC, 06:00 ET, 20:00 AEST – 15 Minutes
• RACE START - **Saturday June 11th, 16:00 Local, 14:00 UTC, 10:00 ET, Sunday 00:00 AEST

The Track

The Circuit de la Sarthe covers 13.6 kilometres of the French country side. It combines the permanent race components of the Ford Chicanes, the pit straight, under the Dunlop Bridge and through to Tertre Rouge as well as the normal everyday roads of the Mulsanne straight through to Indianapolis and Arnage. The track has gone through many iterations over the years; originally, the cars raced into the heart of the city, turning just before the river Sarthe, before hurtling down the 8.6 kilometre straight. In 1932, the circuit removed the journey into the city, and more closely resembled the track we see today. Here’s a video of Mike Hawthorn touring the circuit with a camera and microphone attached in 1956, one year after his involvement in the Le Mans disaster. The addition of the Porsche Curves and the Ford Chicanes in 1972 added an extra dimension to the high speed, fast flowing track. In the late 80’s, the Group C prototype cars would reach over 400km/h, achieving average speeds of almost 250km/h in qualifying for the entire lap. This is an onboard of Derek Bell’s Porsche 956 in 1983, showing the ridiculous speeds on this configuration of the circuit. This configuration remained relatively unchanged right up to 1990, until FIA mandations required that for the circuit to be sanctioned, it must not have a straight longer than 2km. The 6km Mulsanne straight was cut down into three relatively equal length portions by two chicanes, giving the iteration of the circuit used today. Allan McNish takes you on an onboard lap of the 2008 circuit in this video. McNish is one of the gods of the modern prototype era, winning Le Mans 3 times; once with Porsche and twice with Audi. For a more comprehensive focus on the track, John Hindhaugh’s track walk takes you on a 30 minute exploration of the track, with in depth focus on corners like the Dunlop Esses, Tertre Rouge, Mulsanne Corner, and the Ford Chicanes.
For some modern on boards, check out the fastest ever lap in the Circuit de la Sarthe: Kamui Kobayashi's 3:14.791 in 2017 Q2, and last year’s Hyperpole lap, by Brendon Hartley, setting a 3:24.408
The Dunlop Bridge
The iconic Dunlop Bridge has been a part of the Le Mans track since 1932, making it the oldest Dunlop Bridge at any track. This part of the track requires a good launch out of the first chicane before cresting the brow of the hill, and plunging through the esses out onto the Mulsanne straight. As the LMP cars are much more maneuverable, caution must be taken passing the slower GT traffic, as Allan McNish discovered in 2011.
Tertre Rouge
Tertre Rouge is the corner that launches the cars onto the long Mulsanne straight. Maintaining momentum through this corner as it opens on exit is imperative to ensure maximum straight line speed heading down the first part of the Mulsanne. The undulation in the road makes for fantastic viewing at night, with some magic images of the Porsches throwing up sparks on the exit in 2014. Finally, this was the location of Allan Simonsen’s fatal crash in mixed conditions in the 2013 Le Mans. The Danish flags will fly at the corner in his memory.
Mulsanne Corner
After the incredibly long Mulsanne straight, the Mulsanne corner nowadays features a subtle right hand kink before the tight 90 degree turn. Here, the cars decelerate from 340 km/h down to below 100 km/h, resulting in a brilliant opportunity to overtake. Again, care must be taken overtaking slower traffic; unaware drivers have caught out faster cars attempting to pass through the kink, such as Anthony Davidson’s spectacular crash in 2012 resulting in a broken vertebra for Davidson.
Indianapolis and Arnage
The Indanapolis and Arnage complex is one of the most committed areas of the track. Hurtling down the hill from the Mulsanne Corner, the road suddenly bends to the right, a corner which only the bravest prototype drivers take flat out, followed by a beautifully cambered open left hander taken in third gear. A short sprint leads the cars into Arnage, the slowest point on the track. The tight right hander was the scene of heartbreak for Toyota in 2014 when the leading #7 broke down and had to be retired after an FIA sensor melted and shut off the electronics. Kazuki Nakajiima was unable to make it to the pits, leaving him stranded on the circuit.
The Porsche Curves
At a terrifyingly high speed, the Porsche Curves is the most committed part of the lap. Getting caught behind GT traffic in this section can mean losing phenomenal amounts of time. This was the site of Loic Duval’s horrific crash in practice for the 2014 event. Keeping momentum through the flowing right-left-right handers that lead into Maison Blanche requires 100% commitment and ultimate precision, with severe punishment for getting it wrong. The exit of the Porsche Curves underwent significant change in 2020, with additional run-off added in the middle part of the section. This has turned the treacherous and claustrophobic sweeping left-hander into an open and sweeping corner, encouraging every little bit of road to be used on the exit. What it hasn’t changed is the terrific consequences for making a mistake
The Ford Chicanes
The final chapter in the 13.6km rollercoaster that is Le Mans is the Ford Chicanes. Two tight left-right handers with massive kerbs are all that separates the driver from the finish line. Watching the cars bounce over the kerbs in beautiful slow motion is certainly something to behold, but 24 hours of mistreatment can lead to suspension and steering issues. The drivers have to be attentive until the very end, lest they throw it all away in the last minutes of the race.
The Circuit de la Sarthe requires over 85% of the lap on full throttle, with the cars accelerating from less than 100km/h to over 300km/h five times each lap. The challenge of having a car finish Le Mans is in itself, an achievement.

The Classes

The WEC consists of three classes on track at once, resulting in three separate races on track each in their own battle for 24 Hours. The classes are split based on their car type, with LMH and LMDh machinery facing off in the Hypercar class, purpose built prototypes with a spec engine and gearbox battling in LMP2, and GT machinery racing in GTE. Each class has its own set of regulations, driver requirements, and relevance for the Le Mans event.

Hypercar

The current top class of endurance sportscars is Hypercar, combining cars built to Le Mans Hypercar (LMH) and Le Mans Daytona (LMDh) specifications. Fighting it out will be LMH machinery from Toyota, Ferrari, Peugeot, Glickenhaus and Peugeot, while Porsche and Cadillac will be racing in LMDh cars. The LMH cars are bespoke sportscars, designed to a strict set of requirements dictating maximum power, drag coefficient, and weight, amongst other parameters, intended to limit the cost of the category. LMDh machines on the other hand are based on the future LMP2 chassis offerings, with manufacturers able to develop their own engines and bodywork, aligning with the power and drag coefficients of LMH. As part of cost-cutting, the Hypercar class is also subject to a Balance of Performance (BoP) formula, to level the playing field and ensure good racing! Hypercars are a little slower than their LMP1 predecessors, with lap times around the 3:24 mark for the Circuit de la Sarthe, which is on par with the 2014 LMP1 cars.

LMP2

The second prototype class is LMP2, and provides an excellent platform for endurance racing on a budget. The LMP2 class features a spec drivetrain and gearbox, using a Gibson V8 producing 400kW, and a selection of three chassis to choose from, of which the Oreca 07 has been the chassis of choice. This ensures that the competition in the class is very tight, and often comes down to the drivers and the team’s performance instead of just having the best car. While LMP2 was capable of 3:25 lap times in years previous, part of the ‘stratification’ of classes with Hypercar’s inclusion, the LMP2 class has lost some power and had some weight added. This should put LMP2 at the heels of the LMH pace, but with laptimes outside the 3:28 mark.
LMP2 is the first class that must feature amateur rated drivers. The Amateurs must drive for a minimum of 6 hours in the car over the course of the race. This means that there's an element of strategy of when to use your amateur driver throughout the race, as the amateur driver is generally slower than the Pros. The pro drivers in this class range from up and coming talent, former F1 drivers, and some of the best sportscar pilots in the world, and with 244 cars in this class, LMP2 is sure to be a hotbed of action over the 24 hours.

LMGTE-Am

GT class cars are cars that are derived from production models, and feature some of the most iconic cars and brands battling it out at the top of the field. The GTE cars are on the border of aero dependency, and can lap Le Mans in around 3:45 in a professional driver’s hands.
This year is the last year of the GTE class, and features 21 cars in a Pro-Am category, with cars from Ferrari, Porsche, Aston Martin, and Chevrolet on the grid. Despite the lack of a Pro category, the driver quality in GTE-Am is still incredibly high, with factory drivers, young stars, experienced champions and every level of experience in between on the grid, with each car featuring two Bronze or Silver rated drivers. With two amateur drivers, the strategy considerations multiply. While GTE-Am might be the class focussed on the least over the course of the race, the stories that come from this class are phenomenal, and it's well worth following.
The GT classes feature a range of different cars and configurations, and to equalise each of these against each other, the class goes through a process called 'Balance of Performance' or BoP. The organisers can adjust each individual car's weight, fuel tank, air restrictor, turbo boost pressures, and aero performance to alter performance levels to enable the different cars to race competitively. This can sometimes be contentious as every team will feel hard done by, but it is a necessary evil to having the variety of cars on the grid.

Innovative Car

Each year, there is the option for an Innovative Car, with untested or innovative technology, allowed to enter in it’s own category. In years past, this has allowed for entries from the Deltawing, or a modified LMP2 to allow amputees to race.
This year, the Innovative Car entry is a modified Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Next-Gen NASCAR, run by Hendrick Motorsports. The Next-Gen NASCAR features modifications to allow it to run safely on the Circuit de la Sarthe, and will be driven by multiple NASCAR Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, Formula 1 World Champion Jenson Button, and Le Mans Overall Winner Mike Rockenfeller.

The Legends

Part of the allure of the Le Mans 24 Hours is the history, and the legends steeped in history over the course of its 88 previous editions. The race has had many headline battles in its history - periods of time where two or three teams went toe to toe for years, with the drivers, cars, and brands embroiled in these battles given the chance to elevate themselves above the rest, and show their prowess.
In 2019, we at /WEC, took our normal Le Mans Legends celebrations to a new level; each week, members of the community have been writing reviews on some of the closest, most fascinating finishes in Le Mans history! You can check out these reports below!

• The 1966 Dead Heat by kinkymulsanne
• 1983; Factory Porsche dominates with a 1-2 victory, but only just! by Floodman11
• 1987; The colossal struggle between Porsche and Jaguar (Part 1) by Lagiacrus7
• 2016; FUCK by Cybershrike
• 1979; Boogie Nights meets Days Of Thunder by SolHiemis
• 1991; the Hiroshima Screamer Prevails by AE_Racer
• 2010; the Day the Peugeots All Died by kiwichris1709
• 1999; The Le Mans Turning Point by starzonda
• 2011; The Final Audi vs Peugeot Rivalry by Stuff_And_More
• 1988; The colossal struggle between Porsche and Jaguar (part 2) by Lagiacrus7

Bonus CookieMonsterFL Write-Ups

• 3.5L: The Downfall of Group C
• Airborne Crashes

For a bite-sized history lesson on every Le Mans event, check out this post by u/JohannesMeanAd2, describing every Le Mans in a single sentence!
The early races were dominated by the Bentley company in their Speed 6, who won 5 of the first 7 races. Cars were separated into classes by their engine displacement, and the overall winner was based on distance covered. If two cars had finished with the same number of laps, the car with the smaller displacement was declared the winner. The race wasn't run during the second world war, and comparatively very little information is available on the stories of the early days of Le Mans.
After the second world war, teams such as Jaguar, Ferrari, Mercedes, and Aston Martin became the dominant teams. This era featured the legendary Jaguar D type, the Mercedes Benz 300 SLR, the Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa, and the Aston Martin DBR1. Jaguar won 5 times between 1951 and 1957, followed by an era of Ferrari dominance. Drivers such as Mike Hawthorn, Stirling Moss, Juan Manuel Fangio, and John Fitch became household names as Le Mans became a battle between German engineering and British "garagistas".
Ferrari and Ford was the story of the 60's, with Ferrari winning 6 times straight before Ford won four in a row with the GT40 Mk II, taking their first win in 1966. The story of their rivalry is legendary in it's own right - Henry Ford had almost successfully bought out the Ferrari motor company, only to be knocked back by Enzo himself at the 11th hour. In retaliation, Ford planned to hurt Ferrari where it mattered most; on the track. The Ford GT40 was so comprehensively dominant that it won the 1966 edition 21 laps ahead of the next car back - a Porsche 906/6. None of the Ferrari 330P3's finished the race. This battle gave drivers like Bruce Mclaren, Dan Gurney, and Jacky Ickx their first Le Mans victories, and propelled them to the forefront of motorsport stardom at the height of motorsport's popularity.
The 1970's saw the dawn of Porsche, with the 917k taking the brand's first win in 1970, with the same car winning the following year in the hands of Helmut Marko (yes, that Helmut Marko). It would be 5 years before Porsche would win again, with Matra taking 3 victories in the interim, each at the hands of Henri Pescarolo. Porsche returned with the 936 and the 956/962c dominating the race for the next 20 years. In fact, from 1970, Porsche won 12 times in 18 events, including 7 in a row, and they miiight have been a bit cheeky about it. Amongst these 12 wins, there were 4 for both Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell, and two for IMSA legend Hurley Haywood, as well as the first win for the Joest team in 1984. This era coincided with the introduction, and subsequent destruction of the Group C sportscar formula, widely regarded as the best Sportscar championship regulations of all time. Porsche’s dominance was eventually ended by Jaguar in the XJR-9LM, at the height of Group C’s magic. Ickx's 6 wins at this stage had earned him the nickname 'Mr Le Mans', a fitting title for one of the best drivers in the world at the time.
GT cars became a force to be reckoned with at the end of the Group C era, with classes being split into LMGTP and LMP. McLaren and Porsche had wins in GTP cars, in the F1 GTR and the 911 GT1 respectively, while Porsche, BMW and Peugeot scored LMP wins. 1997 saw the first win for Tom Kristensen, while the following year Allan McNish took his first victory, starting their journeys into the legend books of Le Mans.
The 2000’s ushered in the era of Audi, with all 13 of their wins coming since the turn of the century. GTP was disbanded due to safety issues, being replaced by GT1 and GT2. Audi picked up wins in the R8, the R10, the R15, and the R18, often dominating the might of the Peugeot 908. Audi's dominance elevated not only their drivers to legend status, but also their team managers, car designers, and race engineers. People like Reinhold Joest (team manager), Dr Wolfgang Ullrich (Audisport director), Ulrich Baretzky (engine designer), Leena Gade, Howden Haynes (race engineers) behind the wall and Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen, Rinaldo Capello, Marcel Fassler, Andre Lotterer and Benoit Treluyer have become household names in the sport not only for their wins, but their longevity and domination. Audi's dominance was only broken by a win for Bentley in 2003, running basically an Audi under a British racing green skin, and Peugeot in 2009, before being ended for good by Porsche in 2015. After both Porsche and Audi left the top class, Toyota rose to dominance, taking the last 3 Le Mans events in a row!
Between 2015 and 2017, Porsche added to their victories, now holding a record 19 overall victories at the Circuit de la Sarthe. Audi trail with 13, with Ferrari, Jaguar and Bentley holding the next three positions. Toyota finally took their first overall victory in 2018, and have won every year since. Tom Kristensen is has the most victories at Le Mans, with 9 overall victories over his career with Porsche, Audi and Bentley, inheriting the title of Mr Le Mans.

Videos and Documentaries

• Truth in 24 and Truth in 24 II - The story of Audi’s victories against testing conditions and the might of Peugeot in 2008 and 2011.
  
• Le Mans - made in 1971, this movie follows a fictional Le Mans race in 1970, featuring fantastic footage and sounds of the Porsche 917 and the Ferrari 512 starring Steve McQueen
  
• Michael Fassbender:Road To Le Mans Season 1 - Season 2 - Season 3 - The journey that Michael Fassbender has taken from movie star to Porsche GTE-Am driver, detailing his racing through the ranks of Carrera Cup, Le Mans Cup, and ELMS.
  
• The Deadliest Crash - The BBC documentary on the 1955 Le Mans disaster. For more information, see CookieMonsteFL’s amazing post on the incident
  
• Our Return: A documentary of our road to Le Mans 2015 - Porsche’s youtube documentary chronicling their return to Le Mans and their eventual win.
  
• McLaren at Le Mans: Pursuit of Perfection - The story behind McLaren's 1995 victory
  
• The fastest ever lap at the Circuit de la Sarthe. Kamui Kobayashi's 3:14.791 in 2017 Q2
  
• Mark Blundell’s explosive lap - Blundell was going so fast, he was overheating the blowers in the car. After being told to turn down the engine and abandon the lap, in true racing driver fashion he simply turned off the radio.
  
• Clearwater Racing: Journey to the 24 hours of Le mans
  
• Cetilar Racing: The Italian Spirit of Le Mans - A documentary on Cetilar Villorba Corse's journey to Le Mans in 2018
  
• McLaren at Le Mans: Pursuit of Perfection - The McLaren F1 road car's story and development for the historic LeMans race of 1995.
  
• Ford vs Ferrari / Le Mans '66 - Coming out late 2019, this movie tells (a stylised version of) the story of the battle between Ford and Ferrari at Le Mans in the late 1960's. While there are some inaccuracies, the movie has been widely heralded as one of the best Motorsport themed movies ever made, and has been enjoyed by critics and motorsport fans alike.
  
• Michael Fassbender: Road To Le Mans Season 1 and 2, Season 3, Season 4 – Actor and Amateur Driver Michael Fassbender documents his 4 year journey from Porsche Carrera Cup into the ELMS and finally, to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
  

Entry List

Spotters Guide to be added when released!

Once again, /WEC will have a community spotters guide thanks to the efforts of Ziombel_444! The planned release date is the 6th of June, so keep your eyes peeled for that!

Check out Ziombel_444's other work at Spotters.Guide, and support this great effort!

Endurance Chat

/WEC's podcast, Endurance Chat, will have four episodes in the lead up to Le Mans, as well as a Pre-Pre-Race show in the hours before the event. Watch this space for updates!

• Endurance Chat S8E11 – The Centenary 24 Hours of Le Mans Preview - History, context, and insight into this year’s edition of the Le Mans 24 Hours
  
• Endurance Chat S8E12 - The 2023 Le Mans 24 Hour Hypercar Class Guide – COMING SOON
  
• Endurance Chat S8E13 - The 2023 Le Mans 24 Hour LMP2 Class Guide – COMING SOON
  
• Endurance Chat S8E14 – The 2023 Le Mans 24 Hour LMGTE-Am Class Guide – COMING SOON
  

In addition, Endurance Chat made a series of features detailing the history of sportscars in the late 60’s and early 70’s, at the transition point of GT and Prototype machinery. The series details some of the machinery, events, and drivers in one of the fastest and most dangerous periods in racing history. You can find a playlist to these features here!

Streaming and Television

In the past, the FIAWEC Broadcast has started from Qualifying Practice. We are awaiting confirmation if that is the case this year – Streams for non-FIAWEC sessions after that point will be subject to the organisers of those series broadcasting those sessions.

• Official stream OUTSIDE US ONLY - The Le Mans package gives you access to all WEC sessions (Qualifying, Warm Up and the Race) with a choice of on boards, cross platform compatibility, and up to 5 devices connected at once. Additionally, replays of the event are free after the event. Official comms headed by Martin Haven, Anthony Davidson, and Graham Goodwin, who in my personal opinion properly nail the tone of the event. Has been known to get overloaded and crash however
• Eurosport will likely be broadcasting the event in a variety of locales throughout Europe. This will be updated when confirmed
• Radio Le Mans will be streaming live radio for every session

For American audiences, unfortunately the Official stream is geoblocked for your area. Information on how to watch will be updated when confirmed

• [Official TV Broadcast distribution](COMING SOON) Find out how to watch in your region!

Any further updates on TV or Streaming distribution will be added as they are released!

Social Media

If you're looking for more interaction, you can find most of the teams, drivers and commentators on Twitter, giving you instant interaction with those in the midst of the event.

If someone wants to make a twitter list for the teams/driveetc for this year, that would be greatly appreciated!

Live timing

• Official Live Timing

Be sure to join the discord for alternate timing solutions!

Get Involved!

By far the most fun you can have watching an endurance race is watching it with the official /WEC Discord! It's a lot of fun and a really great atmosphere to watch the race in!
If you want to have a go at picking who you think will be winning in each class, jump into mwclarkson's Fantasy Endurance Contest! It's free to enter, and if you win, you'll get the satisfaction and achievement of being right!
If there's anything you'd like us to add, or need clarification on, please comment below and we'll add it in!`

I need to charge a 12V LFP house bank from a 12V alternator on the engine. I thought I could do this with the Orion Smart 12/12 30 and use VictronConnect app to change the current limit. I'd like to use a Victron Smart product because I have a Smart Battery Sense on the battery so the DC-DC charger would be able to see the voltage drop and charge accordingly.
The wiring, which is not feasible to replace, has a max current of 25A from the alternator to the location where the Orion will be installed. In addition to that, I had wanted to be able to turn it down to say 10A to reduce heating in the wires and connectors when I know the engine is going to be on for enough hours to top off even at the lower rate. This is why I need the current to be configurable.
Right now, I use a Renogy 20A DC-DC charger and it sort of works. It has a 20A limit and a 10A mode you can set with a switch. Unfortunately, because it can't see the actual voltage at the battery, it reduces current too soon and slows down charging. Additionally, it's voltage control is a little iffy and often overshoots. That's why I'd like to switch to Victron.

The attack continues and an opportunity presents itself. Does it work? Or does it have the opposite affect? I hope you enjoy!
Well, today is my last day of vacation. And with any luck my AC will get fixed. The last couple days has been most unpleasant without it. The next chapter will be out on Saturday!
Terran Space Story: The Lieutenant Saga
Academy Days First Previous Next

Chapter 117: Failed to Take the Bait

Minutes Later. March 4th, 2267. 16:35 Paximus System –Outer Asteroid Belt
The CNS Ugley had already racked up twelve pirate kills. Her Captain was aggressive in their push against the pirate forces here. No missiles had yet been expended, just the main rail gun and the other secondary batteries. Against another proper Naval warship that would be a recipe for disaster, but against the pirates in this system the handicap didn’t seem to be affecting them that much.
Her attitude changed dramatically. Her bow flipped up nearly two hundred degrees as she maneuvered hard to port. The main gun snap fired at the right moment. The large tungsten and ceramic mass shot out from the tip of its barrel. To add insult to injury they were firing high explosive rounds. As if piercing the hull at insane speeds wasn’t enough lethality the added explosive charge adds insult to injury.
The fired round’s aim was true. Moments later it intercepted one of the larger pirate vessels on the port side. It was an old Corvette from sixty-some years ago, so heavily modified it barely resembled its past self. Not that those modifications meant a thing to the round that just struck mid-ships.
The ceramic layer and tungsten penetrator easily pierced through the hull armor plates. The round then exploded somewhere in the second deck, after a nearly imperceptible amount of time passed. The damage to the ship’s spine couldn’t hold it together. The poor Corvette was bisected in two by the round.
Meanwhile, the Waukesha was continuing its dreadfully accurate and brutal assault on the pirate base. Two-thirds of the docked ships were killed before they had a chance to join the fight. Over three-quarters of the base's anti-ship defensive weapons have been destroyed.
“Captain, I suggest adjusting our orbit to cross the rings at a perpendicular angle. The poles of that rock still contain defensive weapons,” Ingrid said.
“Rex, do as the lady says,” John said.
“Adjusting course,” Rex said as he keyed in the adjustments to their orbit.
Just as the ship began to angle the forward kinetic shields flared up. The sound of sacrificial relays frying themselves could be heard by the bridge crew. A pirate had gotten a lucky rail gun shot off. Were it not for the angle of the ship and the kinetic shields it was very possible the Waukesha could have suffered noticeable damage.
“Find whoever did that and blast them out of the void,” John said with a clenched fist, “Good thing the bridge is buried in the ship.”
“With pleasure,” Chester said.
“You are not wrong Captain,” Ingrid said, “That round could have made it into one of our forward missile rooms.”
“Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good,” Rex said with a chuckle.
“I’d rather be good than rely on luck to see me survive a battle,” John said dryly.
“Can’t hurt to have some luck,” Chester said, “Where the fuck is that little fucker that shot at us?”
“Sorry Lieutenant, it’s a mess out there. The target is a Shrike-class attack shuttle. Sending you the designators,” Walter said from operations.
“Walter, how many enemy ships remain?”
“The Ugley just splashed another Corvette. All they have left is modified shuttles.”
Chester then added, “And all the weapons batteries left on the station.”
“Them too.”
“Rex, make sure our course and speed are adjusted on the fly. Make it harder for their targeting systems to get a good read on us,” John said leaning back in his chair.
“Consider it done.”
The Waukesha’s variable course setting would cause it to roll and pitch at random intervals and speed up or slow down. It wasn’t a guarantee to prevent damage to the ship. But it makes being struck by enemy fire significantly less likely to occur.
The Confederate Navy learned that lesson the hard way in a conflict against the Alliance. From that point on the variable course settings had proven to be a valuable deterrent in avoiding enemy fire. Not to mention keeping the lives of those inside the ships safe.
“And down goes that Shrike. Fucking punk,” Chester exclaimed from the weapons console.
“Incoming fire from remaining weapons platforms on the station are limited to those that are being manned in person. We may have cut systems or power to them,” Walter said.
“Verify that. Chester, continue eliminating the asteroid’s defenses,” John said, “Am I reading this tactical output correctly?”
“That is an affirmative,” Tess said, “CNS Ugley reports all pirate ships have been eliminated. They are steaming back to assist in the base assault.”
“Continue with the bombardment. Have the CAG refocus the drones on the docking bays. I want a full scan of defensive systems before the Marines set foot there,” John stood up then walked towards the front screen, “Tess, have we received any transmissions from the base?”
“The pirates are broadcasting a general distress call, but it is going unheeded. No commercial or unidentified traffic is heading this way,” Tess shrugged as she answered her captain’s question.
“More than that,” Walter said, “Traffic is avoiding this region altogether. If there are pirates out there, they are ‘noping out’ of this fight.”
John walked over to Tess’s console and pressed the button to hail the Marines onboard, “Captain Taylor. Load your men up. We’ll be launching the step in this assault within the next thirty minutes.”
“Not that I want to be Debbie Downer, sir,” Ingrid spoke cautiously, “But was this attack really expected to draw out the Icarus?”
“Nope. Not directly. But it’s going to generate a hell of a lot of chatter amongst their circles. Plus,” John smiled as he looked back at Walter, “Walter, find me a pirate ship that is currently dead but could potentially be reactivated.”
“Sure thing, sir,” Walter looked very confused as he looked up from his console, “Dare I ask why?”
“Well, if you go out fighting you need a lure to catch a fish.”
Walter immediately put two and two together and determined what his captain was planning, “Say no more. I’ll find a wreck that will work.”
Two more orbits were all that it required to finish eliminating the station defenses. As a result of the two engagements, all lances would need to be replaced. Because of the change of tactics, their lifespan was shortened to just two engagements.
Marty and his team would grumble about doing spacewalks and replacing them but their discomfort and annoyance was a small price to pay to ensure the Waukesha had sufficient missiles should the Icarus appear. John did make a mental note to pay for a good meal or drinks for the engineering team, even if their actions resulted in good practice for maintaining the ship systems.
The Marines from both the Waukesha and Ugley boarded the pirate station at the bottom of the hour. Fighting initially was intense. A great number of pirates never made it onboard the ships the Waukesha had killed while intercepting the base. The pirates had numerical superiority, not to mention fighting on familiar ground.
Unfortunately for the residents of that station, the Marines were wearing power armor. Every last Marine was equipped with a suit. More than half were wearing Broadsword heavy-power armor. The pirates ran into an immovable object in the Marine’s relentless and calculating advance. Morale on the pirate’s side broke after the second engagement.
The few who continued to fight were mercilessly cut down by the Marines. Those that did lay down their arms were treated relatively well, like any prisoner of the Confederacy. Though their fate likely would result in lengthy prison sentences, if they were lucky then they would still have a chance at life.
Multiple prison transports were required to ferry everyone they had captured. The trio of Confederate ships stayed on site for two full days after the engagement began. Six transports were loaded full of women and children, and their destinations were reeducation camps, though the mothers of the children could still be tried for crimes depending on what the investigations come up with. Three more transport ships were used to house the known pirates.
John didn’t really care where they were being sent to be tried. That was a feeling shared by his fellow captains in his squadron. Once everyone had been transported off the pirate base the Waukesha and Ugley commenced a calculated bombing of the asteroid. Dozens of armor-piercing rail gun rounds were fired. The asteroid cracked into several pieces. Gravity would eventually pull them back together in a few hundred years, but the base was forever broken.
Step two of the mission was now complete. It was a long shot, but John sincerely hoped the next step would lure out the Icarus. But what it would do, if his calculations were correct, is inflame the pirate’s mood. He needed them to act irrationally and put an undue amount of pressure on the Icarus. But John was getting ahead of himself in thought. The bait first had to be tossed out into the sea of stars.
7 Days Later. March 11th, 2267. 03:00 Paximus System – Outer Asteroid Belt
John walked onto the bridge just as the shift change had begun. The outgoing shift not only looked but felt bored. Even more bored today than the previous days since the attack. That wasn’t all that surprising though, normally the ship was getting into all sorts of action. Waiting wasn’t the crew’s forte, that was doubly true for their captain.
Brian smiled as he saw John walk onto the bridge, “Before you ask, fuck all happened. The ship is still running quietly and isn’t bleeding any signals still. Engineering really wants to get on the move within seventy-two hours.”
“Thanks, Brian. Did they say why the hurry?”
“Something about fusion balance or some such,” Brian waved his hands as he walked past his captain, “You’ll want to reach out to them to get the specifics.”
“Understood. I doubt we’re going to be able to stay out here for another couple of days anyway. Fleet Command is likely going to order us to move on to a new location soon.”
Brian stopped at the bulkhead and looked back at John, “Don’t suppose it’ll be a nice warm planet with sunshine and beaches?”
Deb laughed as she walked by, “I could use some work on my tan. I’m a little pasty.”
“Sadly no. If the rumor is true, then we’re heading to a system with a bunch of mining bases. Won’t be going near the primary settlement which is on an airless hunk of rock.”
Deion could be heard in the hallway, “God damn, that sounds depressing as hell.”
“You take us to such nice places,” Deb laughed as she headed towards the mess hall.”
“Agreed,” Brian shrugged, “At least this system is the command’s decision and not yours.”
John grinned, “Would that make much of a difference?”
“Yes, yes it would,” Brian turned and waved behind him, “Cya tomorrow.”
“Alright, folks let’s get at her. How does our bait look?”
“Lonely and unfulfilled,” Chester said sarcastically.
“Should we increase the power to the broadcast system?” Tess asked, “We might get a nibble that way.”
John nodded, “Work with engineering on that. We don’t want it to be too obvious.”
The Ugley had managed to find a shuttle that suffered a simple through and through. While a simple wound that resulted in superficial internal damage it was catastrophic as all atmosphere was lost to the void. The crew had no chance to survive such a wound.
To make their bait look more accurate there were a couple of armor plates crudely welded over the wounds. The shuttle never lost power, but the engineering team from the Waukesha was able to get the life support systems operational once again. While on the shuttle they also enabled the communication systems and slaved it back to the Waukesha’s control systems.
Several devices were left behind in the ship to fool any friendly sensors into thinking there was still life onboard the ship. John didn’t know what ship they would lure in, but a bigger pirate vessel would definitely be able to perform rudimentary scans of the shuttle. They needed something to temporarily trick those initial scans.
As for the Confederate ships, the Basilone did what it does best and was stealthily sneaking around in the void undetected. The Ugley and the Waukesha both had found crevasses in a nearby asteroid. Both ships were rigged for silent running. The only way they were able to communicate with one another is direct beam communication, a frustrating system in this day and age but is perfectly silent to outside viewers unless you cross the path of the beam.
Because these large naval ships were hiding in places that weren’t designed for warships to go, a properly janky solution was in place. Several reflectors and amplification devices were carefully spread out on the asteroid's surface. The likelihood of a pirate ship crossing the beam and discovering their hidey-hole was thought to be impossible.
Despite being rigged for silent running, they were able to receive general broadcasts from commercial and civilian ships. The Basilone, along with the rest of the Navy for that matter, could contact the ships directly. Responding to those messages would give their positions away to the more advanced pirate ships. Their prey would undoubtedly be able to detect those types of transmissions.
“What are the odds that the Icarus shows up here?” Tess broke the silence on the bridge.
“Somewhere between zero and zero,” Walter said.
“Not happening,” Chester said, “Getting a nibble from anyone seems pretty unlikely at this point too.”
“Captain, your thoughts?” Tess asked innocently.
“Well, it would be nice if we did lure our that great white whale,” John sighed, “I had hoped we’d get some interest from a pirate ship that we could get some intel from. It’s not looking great at the moment.”
Chester leaned back in his seat and swiveled to look towards the front of the bridge, “What’s the pirate’s reaction going to be to our raids?”
“Impotent rage,” John said, “We’ve been capturing their children and wives for seventy-plus years and besides some gnashing of teeth they’ve not been able to do anything about our policy.”
The universe must have heard John’s sardonic comment. At the precise moment he stopped speaking sensors were triggered. A slip space rupture was forming.
“Holy shitballs, we’ve got a ship translating to real space,” Walter said, “Can’t make out the ship type.”
“CNS Basilone reports slip space rupture danger close to the bait shuttle,” Tess said, “They successfully identified the ship as the Basilisk, formerly an old Alliance cruiser.”
“I want all systems back online, maximum thrust out of here,” John commanded.
“That will take thirty to sixty seconds to online everything,” Chester said, “But already on it, sir.”
As the bridge crew began working furiously to bring their ship back online, John was staring at the tactical readout. Something was off about the Basilisks' energy readouts. Normally there was a brief surge of power output when a ship transitions back into real space, but that power draw remained.
Without warning the Basilisk opened fire on the hapless shuttle. It exploded in a bright green fusion blast. The ship had been entirely atomized in the blast. The squadron was successfully able to bait a pirate into their trap. Unfortunately, the pirates seemed to be prepared for precisely that.
“Systems are fully restored, engines are primed and ready for use,” Ken said over the comms from his spot in Engineering.
“Helen, get us…”
John was unable to finish his sentence. He was watching the tactical readout. Someone, he wasn’t paying attention to who was speaking, was calling out what was happening. John saw the ship abruptly flip over and head directly back to the slip space rupture, which was curiously still active.
The pirates were a step ahead, of sorts, this day. The bait was successful. The pirates thought to put their comrades out of their misery. Or maybe they were enemies. It didn’t really matter; the lure was successful to a point. But no one in the squadron had thought of this tactic.
Hell, John didn’t even know that this was possible. The Naval guidelines surrounding slip space generators forbade such maneuvers from happening. In fact, if you transition from one space to another the Navy requires one to discharge the generators properly which takes two to three hours. What the pirates did was risk blowing up those generators and getting stuck in a place they didn’t want to be.
Though it didn’t seem like it mattered if the pirates gave a damn about Confederate Naval policies. Just as soon as the pirate ship appeared they were back through the portal from whence they came. The bait shuttle was destroyed, and John succinctly summed up their operation.
“Well… Shit,” John slunk into his chair and was forced to taste the bitter pill of defeat.
2 Days Later. March 13th, 2267. 14:00 Slip Space – En Route to the Altair system
John was soundly asleep and getting some much-needed rest. The paperwork following the letdown of their trap made the days challenging. But the final after-action report on both attacks on the pirate bases had been submitted. He had largely shirked his normal duties to resolve the paperwork.
The crew wouldn’t openly tell him this, but they didn’t mind when he hid away in his ready room to do paperwork. That was paperwork that they didn’t have to do. They appreciated John taking one for the team.
“Captain, apologies, but you are needed on the bridge immediately,” Brian said over the comms.
“Be there in a jiffy,” John yawned as he stepped out of bed.
He didn’t bother getting dressed appropriately for a shift. He found a clean T-shirt and quickly threw that on. A pair of gym shorts lay on the ground which he also put on before he looked around for some sandals that he had left in his room someplace.
After eventually finding footwear John made his way to the bridge. His appearance, combined with the rubbing of his eyes and yawning, was a clear sign that he wasn’t expecting to be awake. Or wanting to be awake at that time. The crew members that did see John that morning said nothing but giggled internally at seeing their captain in such a light.
The doors to the bridge opened and John saw through yawns, “What’s up?”
“Play it again please,” Brian said.
Deb keyed a few things into her console. The tactical screen then split into two. A newsfeed began playing back on the right-hand side of the screen.
“This massive pirate fleet, led by the infamous Folly of Icarus, attacked a munitions plant in the Outer Regalia system this morning. Early reports are a bit scattered, and the Confederate Navy has not yet released an official statement, but it appears that a fleet of well over two hundred pirate vessels, the vast majority being heavily modified retired military vessels, led a successful raid on a military installation.”
The newscaster paused for a moment to collect herself.
“The loss of life is estimated to be in the low thousands. Three orbital facilities were utterly destroyed and the primary station, and the space bridge connecting it to the surface, were also destroyed. Loss of life on the surface was minimal as the bridge is located in a coastal region that is lightly populated.”
The video then switched to one the pirates had sent the newscasters. Rene appeared dressed as flamboyantly as he normally did. But gone was the aura of aloofness. His eyes were hardened. John was used to seeing that look, one full of hate and contempt for one’s enemies. In this case, the enemy was clearly the Confederacy as a whole.
“The pirates sent this message. We have not been able to independently identify this pirate. They are claiming to be the spokesperson for the pirate alliance.”
“For too long the local powers have abused and attacked those that wish to live a life of freedom without their interference. Our brothers and sisters get callously murdered by an uncaring government bureaucracy. For those unfortunate to survive such a fate all of the powers use us as slave labor. Our children, infirm, wives, nieces, and nephews get taken from us without due process. They are sent to re-education camps to be indoctrinated into believing the lies espoused by the major powers. All of you are guilty of war crimes against those that simply want to live lives free of influence from such tyranny,” Rene paused and stared at the camera, “The grand pirate alliance struck three installations simultaneously, one in each of your nations. Until such prosecutions cease and our loved ones are returned to us, the grand pirate alliance will commence hit-and-run attacks on commerce. We will grind your lovely systems to a halt. When you finally taste that which you’ve dealt us perhaps you will come to the bargaining table and ask for forgiveness from us.”
John walked over to Deb’s console and pressed a red button to halt the replay. He turned and looked at his bridge crew. They in turn looked at him. All present knew their actions over the past couple of years had fermented this new rebellion.
“Kid gloves are coming off. It’s time to grind another enemy beneath our heels.”

Hey guys... I'm looking to get some recommendations on a good place (other than the dealer) that services BMW's... I have 2012 e93 with a no start condition. I thought I had it on the charger but apparently unplugged it on me and I didn't realize. I tried to charge it back for a few days and that didn't work... I then tried jumping it with my Jump starter... still nothing... and then I tried with my truck...nothing.
The funny thing is I measure 12.4v at the battery so I'm thinking something else might be at fault...

Hi, really confused on a situation with my 07 Honda Fit Sport and wondering what I should do?
I bought the car new in 07 and it has 275k miles now it’s been really solid but around six months ago it started making a terrible noise so I had a mechanic change the idler pulley and put in a new serpentine belt, after this the issue with the sound was completely fixed but strangely I had a check engine light now all of a sudden.
The code was P0420 low catalytic converter efficiency, I know I probably should have gone back to the same mechanic now but I didn’t at the time and for the next 2 months I drove it with this error code thinking no big deal it wasn’t making awful noises anymore.
Then about 2 months of this the battery died on me and so I had it replaced. After this the check engine light was off and it stayed off for thousands of miles and about six months.
About 3 weeks ago the check engine light came on again and is again throwing the p0420 code at me, unfortunately now I actually need a smog check really soon and I don’t know what to do…
I heard catalytic converters are really expensive? Also I’m confused on why it originally turned on and how it got fixed the first time for about six months just by changing the battery, is it really the cat or do I maybe have an issue with something else cheaper that I can fix to get the check engine light cleared and go get smogged. I don’t really have any clue how any of this stuff works but would be really grateful for any helpful advice on what I should do next.
Thanks for reading all of that I know that was long-winded but I wanted to make sure I was portraying the situation accurately.