Jackpot Pointless episode pulled over question blunder

Doctor Who: Book I would’ve aired between the 20th of February and the 18th of June 2004. It would’ve consisted of 19x24 minute episodes, with a bonus live-action 48-minute episode produced at BBC Wales, thus bringing the official episode count up to 21. The season would’ve featured Kimberly Brooks as the Ninth Doctor and Michael Sheen as companion Edward Stone. All important behind-the-scenes information was explained in the last post which you can read here: https://www.reddit.com/DoctorWhoRegenerated/comments/knf3wz/doctor\_who\_regenerated\_prologue/
With that all out of the way, let’s dive headfirst into Episode One.
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The Interloper
Written by Russell T Davies
Being the Pilot Episode, this story is what we in the animation industry like to call “Double-Length”, which is pretty self-explanatory. (It’s not a two-parter before any of you ask)
The story is set in London and the surrounding areas in the mid 1890’s. Edward Stone is a journalist for a London newspaper and lives in a decently sized home with his wife and servants. It’s clear that he’s a high-ranking member of Victorian society and can even be considered as “wealthy”, but he never lets his status nor money corrupt his decision making and we’re shown that he is a kind-hearted man with a definitive perception of morality. He is very patriotic on the other hand and, for the most part, blindly follows whatever Queen-and-Country deems is right.
One day, in the office, Edward accidently eavesdrops on his workmates talking about the recent string of people disappearing off the streets of London. Inspectors from Scotland Yard are on the case, but since almost all the missing people are either hobos or street-rats, the search isn’t their top priority. “Good riddance I say,” one of the men say. Edward understands his colleague’s point-of-view but is disturbed none the less.
On the way home that evening, Edward crosses paths with a young teenage girl who seems to have had a little too much to drink. Edward offers to take her to a nearby inn where the girl can rest and sober up, but on the way there, they’re ambushed by a large Insectoid creature, who they escape from by the skin of their teeth. The Insectoid, after losing its prize, takes a homeless man caught in the crossfire instead, dragging him into the swears. Both Edward and the girl (who introduces herself as the Doctor) are horrified by what they’ve just seen. At least now they now know what happened to all those missing people.
The rest of the episode then plays out like a “jail-break” movie, with the Doctor and Edward planning a rescue mission, much to the chagrin of Edward’s wife. Through many a cartoonish shenanigan, the Doctor and Edward come across the Insectoid base in the swears, which is this large underground dockyard, with hundreds of human slaves forced to load an alien boat with cargo. It’s here that we learn that the Insectoids are actually accountants for the Great Banks of Tan-Sue. Their race were the victims of an accidental genocide, and their lack in numbers have created a backlog in paperwork, which is what they intend to use the enslaved humans to rectify. (The story doesn’t take this twist seriously and it’s all for a good laugh)
While the Doctor distracts the Insectoids, Edward goes around freeing the trapped people, allowing them to rise up against their alien captures. In the chaos, the engines of the Insectoid ship are started, and it races out of control through the River Thames. The ship nearly clips the Tower Bridge, but the Doctor, using the Sonic Screwdriver returning from the TV Movie, is able to make the bridge rise at a quicker pace allowing the runaway ship to pass. Eventually, the ship crashes and sinks, and representatives from the Shadow Proclamation (an Interstellar Police Force) arrive to take the Insectoids away.
Edward writes a newspaper article about the whole affair (with some details omitted naturally) and receives a promotion as a result. Despite that, when the Doctor offers him a spot in the TARDIS, he cannot resist. His wife is more than happy with him going with the Doctor, though she give the Doctor the whole “you hurt him, I hurt you” speech, which leaves the Doctor positively traumatized.
But nevertheless, Edward joins the Doctor in the TARDIS as it disappears, off to find another adventure.
(NOTE: With this episode I tried to write an original story whist recapturing the magic of Rose, the first episode of the Doctor Who Revival in our timeline. That episode was a perfect jumping on point for new viewers, so it makes sense that the first episode of my revival has a similar feel.)
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Outer-Space Takes Manhattan
Written by David Renwick
Upon Edward request, the Doctor brings him somewhere in the future, that place being a small moon approximately 400,000,000 light-years away from Earth. On the moon isn’t a deserted rocky surface like they expected, but instead a large thriving futuristic metropolis. Edward is amazed, but the Doctor is disturbed, and Edward soon learns why when the Doctor explains that while this is a futuristic alien city by 19th century standards, it’s also a perfect recreation of early 21st century Manhattan which seems to be completely populated by normal people who do not seem at all out of place. But how could this place possibly exist?
As it turns out, this whole city is part of a holographic theme-park created by an alien businessman. The Doctor is appealed by the fact that real people are being copied into strange holographic beings that are forced to do everything the businessman wants. She sees this as a violation of Holographic Rights and Interstellar Law (the same way she feels about Miniscope from Carnival of Monsters).
Eventually, they expose the inhuman nature of the park and agents from the Shadow Proclamation arrive to help integrate the holograms back into society.
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The Girl in the Fireplace
Written by Steven Moffat
The TARDIS lands on a derelict spaceship in the 51st Century. There, much to their bemusement, they discover a fireplace from the 15th Century embedded into the ship’s hull, not a replica, but the real deal. Through a series of wacky hijinks, Edward finds himself entangled in the life of Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, also known as Madame de Pompadour, the official chief mistress of King Louis XV of France! The story follows Edward as, while exploring the ship, he comes across various gateways leading to scattered points of Jeanne’s life up until her 37th birthday. Meanwhile, the Doctor tries to figure out what happened to the ship’s crew and why 15th Century France is on a spaceship in the middle of nowhere (also she meets a horse along the way).
It turns out that, a year earlier, the ship had broken down, and the clockwork maintenance droids got to work trying to repair it with the parts they had to hand. This leads to the revelation that, where parts weren’t available, the droid utilize the crew, cutting them up and welding various body parts into the ship’s frames, like eyeballs in the security cameras for example (YOU KNOW! FOR KIDS!). And for some strange reason, these droids believe that only the brain of Madame de Pompadour is sufficient for the ship’s main computer. The Doctor and Edward, however, put a stop to this, defeating the clockwork robots and restoring the timeline back to normal before returning to the TARDIS for another adventure.
And as the TARDIS flies off into space, we linger on the ship’s nameplate. “S.S. Madame de Pompadour”.
This story would’ve played out in basically the same way as in our timeline, except with many things cut to meet the 30-minute episode limit. It would be the first time Edward and the Doctor were separated for a majority of the story, only meeting up about once or twice between the beginning and end of the episode. Being an educated gentleman, and the age of Madame de Pompadour still being rather recent history for him, Edward is just as capable as the Doctor when trying to solve the mystery of the droid’s plans, perhaps even more so. But, naturally, it’s the Doctor who does all the heavy lifting in figuring out their endgame.
Originally, this episode was written with a male Doctor in mind, with him developing a romantic relationship with Jeanne. After the decision to make the Doctor female was made, Steven Moffat suggested keeping the story relatively the same with some light censorship of the Doctor and Jeanne’s kiss, but Nickelodeon forbidden it, stating that any sort of “lesbian” activity being “inappropriate” for the network (it was a different time). So, the script was altered to have Edward in the main role, while the Doctor was subjugated to almost the role of a companion.
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Cannon Fodder
Written by Michael Dante DiMartino
On their way to see Captain Cook’s arrival in Australia in 1770, the Doctor receives a telephone call from the office of UNIT in 2004. The phone call is quick and precise, these been a great disaster and Planet Earth needs the Doctor right away. An alien missile has crashed into the Palace of Westminster, destroying it and the surrounding areas of London within a three-mile radius, killing hundreds of people. The United Nations are out for blood, and they want the Doctor to find out the culprits of this attack on humanity, and whether or not the planet should prepare for war. The Doctor does just that while Edward begins adapting to life in the 21st Century. Not only is he heartbroken to see Big Ben reduced to ashes, but this is when he learns of the events that unfolded between his time and now, including the collapse of the British Empire at the end of WWII. Edward, being the patriotic man he is, is devastated by this revelation, but is happy to know that the Empire technically sacrificed itself to take down the evil that was the Nazis.
Eventually, the Doctor and Edward piece together the whole picture. The laser that struck London wasn’t some great super weapon part of an elaborately planed scheme, but instead it came from a war between two civilizations from across the universe and it had been a stray fire! There is no alien threat to Earth, it was an honest mistake! The Doctor then spends the rest of the episode tried to explain this to UNIT, who are hovering a restless finger over the big red button. Things become so bad that the Doctor, defeated, as no choice but to go back in time and prevent the missile from striking Earth, redirecting it into Jupiter instead. If she hadn’t have done this, Earth would’ve possibly been the aggressor in the planet’s first intergalactic war.
While far from intentional, this story would’ve acted as a commentary on the recent 9/11 terrorist attacks and the reaction that followed. The attacks was barely two years old, and there was a chance that the Production Crew could be accused by still vengeful Americans of spreading “pro-Al-Qaeda” propaganda with a terrorism story that portrayed the attack’s victims as the villains (which is a fair reaction if I’m being honest). Thankfully, no one noticed the parallels at the time, and everyone was able to get away with it, but only be sheer luck.
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The End of the World
Written by Russell T Davies & Bryan Konietzko
This story plays out almost exactly like the episode in our universe, the key obvious difference being that Rose’s role is filled by Edward.
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Blind Life
Written by Robert Shearman & David Maidment
This would be the series’ first proper two-parter, as such this summery will be longer and more in-depth. This would also be David Maidment’s first and only writing credit for the show, who was brought on due to his first-hand-experience with the story's subject matter.
The Doctor and Edward arrive at a small English village in the mid-1960’s. The local railway station, the town’s pride and joy is under threat as a bus company moves in and starts taking valuable business away from them. This, by itself, wouldn’t be out-of-the-ordinary. It isn’t so ordinary however when this exact same scenario is playing out simultaneously across the country. The Doctor soon realizes where they are.
It’s 1963, and these are ‘The Beeching Cuts’.
A quick history lesson is in order, as this is a relatively unknown part of British history. Between 1955 and 1968, the UK Government began working to modernize the country’s rail-network to help it compete with growing competition from the roads as well as bring it up to scratch when compared to other examples worldwide. This initiative, however, ended up being a costly failure as instead of completely overhauling the railways as promised, the plan instead just upgraded them as they already existed. In 1963, a man by the name of Dr. Richard Beeching took over as British Railways chairman. The same year he published a report stating what needed to be done to bring the railways into the 20th Century, suggesting the closure of uneconomical lines and infrastructure and the withdrawal and disposal of steam trains in favor of diesel and electric, both being done in mass and without mercy!
This all happened just as cars were coming into the mainstream, and many rural villages didn’t even have roads coming in their direction, meaning there was almost nothing to use as an alternative to the railway. Many steam engine drivers also face the possibility of a life of unemployment, as many of them are only qualified to drive steam trains and nothing else. Business is stagnating, morale is plummeting, but the Doctor doesn’t care about that for the most part. Her attention has been drawn to something related to the townspeople’s woes, but not directly.
That something is the lone engine that runs the village’s line. The Doctor thinks it’s breathing, the metal of its boiler slowly and industriously heaving in-and-out, invisible to the naked human eye. But the Doctor is not human.
The story follows the Doctor and Edward seemingly going on a wild goose chase investigation this phenomenon, and they do discover that the locomotive from the village isn’t an isolated case. It turns out that an alien race (who are just referred as “Locomotives”), that is nothing more than deprogramed organic matter (kinda like mussy cereal in appearance), are residing within a majority of Britain’s steam engines, as their planet was destroyed in the crossfire of an intergalactic war. They aren’t sentient, though they are live and breathe in the way trees and planets do. They mean no harm to humanity, and only wish to be left alone, but the mass scrapping of steam locomotives also, by default, kills the living organism inside in a slow and brutal way.
The Doctor and Edward begin a covert rescue mission to round up all “living” locomotives and transferring the organisms inside into new bodies. Although, they quickly get on the bad side of one of the Railway Directors, thinking them to be scrap merchants or dirty hippies. Along the way, the TARDIS duo befriend a clergyman who has also caught on to the strange behavior of the Locomotives as was doing his own investigation. In the end, their plan successes and the Locomotives receive new bodies in the form of wind-turbines, flashlights, telephones and other small insignificant forms of machinery. The Doctor also gives a small speech on, while modernization is a necessity for any society, you must always remember to embrace those that came before and not to advance too quickly, as you might overlook the smaller but important things you might be affecting. And with that, they leave in the TARDIS.
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The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky
Written by Helen Raynor
Another two-parter. This one would’ve been near identical to the serial in our timeline, but with obviously many things cut due to the shorter runtime and the character role of Martha filled by a UNIT character that was introduced back in Cannon Fodder. An important thing to note here is that we learn the war that destroyed the Locomotives’ home planet was the Sontaran/Rutan War, and the missile that hit Earth back in Cannon Fodder was also from the same War (though that doesn’t change the fact it was an accident on the Sontarans’ part).
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The Thrills of Science
Written by Michael Dante DiMartino & Bryan Konietzko
This episode would’ve seen the re-introduction of the Rani and would serve as new viewers’ introduction to the Doctor’s people, the Time Lords.
The TARDIS lands on a planet that is nothing more than a barren wasteland, with only a small city of Industrial Revolution-era factories to show that life resides and works on this rock. This city is ruled by a new incarnation of the Rani, who is trying to build her own critical thinking robot servants. Surprising, the experiments seem to be going in the Rani’s favor, that is until she tries to integrate a piece of Time Lord technology into the main power source, which causes the robots to go rogue and quickly overrun the city.
The Doctor and Edward are separated early on in the story. The Doctor takes refuge with a group of bakers that survived the initial robot attack, while Edward teams up with the Rani to take the fight directly to the machines. If that wasn’t enough, the Gallifreyan device seems to have a negative effect on the Doctor, putting her into this intoxicated state, which is played more for comedy rather than drama as one might expect. Eventually, the team defeat the robots by destroying the device which returns them back to normal. However, it’s important to mention that Edward did most of the work in this story.
The episode ends with the TARDIS leaving the planet behind. The Rani also stays behind, returning to her lab and saying something like “I’m sure that my next experiment will be a success.” A quick camera cut reveals she, despite everything that’s happened, intends to repair the device that caused all this trouble!
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Church of the Nimon
Written by Paul Cornell
Across the galaxy, strange people in dark robes wonder the streets of many a planet. Chapels and cathedrals seem to appear overnight, and more and more people are defecting to this mysterious cult. The Shadow Proclimation with the help of the Doctor go in to investigate, but soon discover they’re in way over their heads.
This cult, as it turns out, worships the Nimon, who feed on belief others have of their existence. The more people believe, the more powerful the Nimon become. However, the Doctor creates a "fake" Nimon and "exposes" it and the whole Nimon movement to be a hoax. The cult quick falls apart and the Nimon loose all their power simultaneously.
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Industrial Evolution
Written by Nicholas Briggs
19th century Lancashire: where the white heat of the Industrial Revolution burns hottest at Samuel Belfrage's brass mill, a mill plagued by more than its fair share of work-related injuries.
While Thomas Brewster struggles to secure a fair deal for Belfrage's overworked hands, fellow travellers the Doctor and Edward follow the Copper King to Liverpool, there to discover the unexpected truth about Belfrage's business.
Back in Ackleton, the local MP voices the fears of many when he says that the machines are taking over. He's more right than he knows...
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The Beast Bellow
Written by Bryan Konietzko
Again, very little changes from our universe, except the story would focus on Edward’s reaction to the inhumane practices being done on Starship UK. Edward’s slowly beginning to realize that his beloved British Empire isn’t as morally sound as he once thought.
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The Shakespeare Code
Written by Gareth Roberts
Again, the same, except Shakespeare would be flirting with the Doctor, not her companion.
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The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances
Written by Steven Moffat
This story would’ve been almost identical to our universe, except it would’ve focused more on Edward coming to terms with everything he’s seen thus far. The character of Captain Jack still exists in this version of the story, but his gender was changed at the request of Nickelodeon, who didn’t fancy giving Edward a male love-interest. And before anyone asks, Captain Jack doesn’t join the TARDIS just yet. After rescuing her from her ship, the Doctor and Edward drop her off at the nearest space port in her rightful time period.
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The Unicorn and the Wasp
Written by Michael Dante DiMartino & Gareth Roberts
Once again, it’s the same as in our universe, the only notable difference I can think of is that the ending leads into the next episode.
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Return of the Daleks: Part One
Written by Russell T Davies
As this was the beginning of the Season Finale, this and the following episodes were aired back-to-back on one night, with this marathon being heavily promoted in Nickelodeon’s case. This would’ve also marked the return of the classic Doctor Who monster, the Daleks, which warranted even more promotion on the BBC’s part.
The Doctor receives a call from the Shadow Proclamation, who currently have ships blockading a massive planet that seems to have just appeared out of nowhere. The Doctor and Edward, thinking it’ll be just another quick adventure, go off to investigate. The soon arrive at the blockade where they’re assigned to a landing party that intends to explore the planet and determine whether or not it’s a threat to the galaxy.
The planet is a desert world, completely barren aside from the buried ruins of buildings. Things quickly go south however when, one-by-one, the team is picked off by what turns out to be Robo-Men. There’s also groups of hostile wildlife on the planet, which is another thing for the team to worry about.
Eventually, the Doctor, Edward and two commandos are all that remains of the expedition. They take shelter in the only building on the planet with a roof. It’s a mega warehouse that, surprisingly, is in mint condition. The warehouse houses rows upon rows of computer servers. At that moment, the Proclamation fleet comes under attack by a black oxygen shaped ship. Dalek ships. Their iconic battle cry is broadcasted across the fleet as a reminder of the inevitable.
The Doctor suddenly falls to her knees. Edward runs to her side, but the Doctor pulls away from his grasp. Hearing the Daleks’ voice had triggered some repressed memories, and it’s now that the Doctor discovers the planet’s identity, buried deep within her mind.
Gallifrey.
The camera zooms out of the warehouse, and across the endless fields of sand until it reaches a cave in the cliffside. We zoom into the darkness, finding ourselves in a series of dark catacombs. Leaning against one of the walls is the familiar white and gold silhouette of an Imperial Dalek, lifeless and unmoving. It’s eyestalk twitches ever so subtlety as the episode ends.
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Breached
Written by Robert Shearman
This episode would be the only live-action episode of the season and seemingly the last live-action Doctor Who production ever, so the BBC marketed the hell out of it. This whole scheme was, frankly, a very daring thing to do, as there was a chance they could alienate the audience they’d worked so hard to gain. While that did happen, it wasn’t to the large scale the BBC had feared. More behind the scenes details will be explained after the episode summery.
We’re first shown a recap of the last episode before we zoom out to the growing space battle above, with Shadow Proclamation and Dalek ships ducking and weaving around each other, typical space battle stuff. One of the larger proclamation ships erupts into a great fireball, and with a flash, out of the flames emerges the Doctor Who logo from the TV Movie! The space battle fades away as we transition to the opening titles, which are a recreation to those of the TV Movie.
At the end of another adventure, the Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann) and his companion, Cass Fermazzi (Emma Campbell-Jones), receive a distress call from Gallifrey. It’s nothing too serious, but even so, the Doctor ops to investigate anyway. Once there, they are greeted by Lord President Samael (Derek Jacobi) and Vice President Valyes (John Franklyn-Robbins), who explains that a Time Lord outpost, just beyond the planet’s moons, was destroyed in the crossfire of two warring factions. In an act of impulse, Samael ordered for the ships to be erased from time, but one of the occupants somehow survived, crashed to the planet below and is now being held in the lower levels of the Citadel.
The survivor turns out to be an Imperial Dalek. The prop would’ve been reused from Remembrance of the Daleks but upgraded to be less janky looking. The rest of the episode plays out the same as Series 1’s Dalek in our universe, but due to the drastic change in setting, I’ll have to say more than that.
First off, we quickly learn that this is the first time the Time Lords have ever encountered the Daleks and, though some retconning, have no idea what they’re capable of. The Doctor brings up the events of Genesis of the Daleks during one of his rants (but in a way that wouldn’t alienate new viewers), to which Samael gawks at the notion that they sent the Doctor to change history to their benefit, as it completely goes against everything the Non-interference policy stands for. And that’s when things begin to click into place.
The Dalek, thanks to extracting genetic samples from Cass when she touched it, regains it’s strength and breaks out of it’s cage. It quickly takes out the guards by using it’s “plunger arm” to grasp their heads and “decapitate” them (which we witness via the shadows on the walls, although all references to this scene were cut out of the Nickelodeon and CBBC broadcast). As the story goes on, we see this lone battle-damaged Dalek wipe the floor with the best soldiers the Time Lords have to offer, each kill rectifying common criticisms the Daleks had until that point (e.g., Stairs). For the first time since arguably the 1970’s, the audience found the Daleks terrifying, and a legitimate threat.
With all other options exhausted, Samael orders all Time Lords to the Panopticon in a last-ditch effort to save themselves. Valyes, however, runs into the Observation Chamber before the Doctor had stop him, saying something along the lines of “If you want to kill a weed, you’ve got to go for the roots.” Valyes’ fate is left up to the audience to decide, but it’s obvious to long time fans that this moment leads directly into the events of Genesis of the Daleks. Many a Whovian’s mind was blown that day.
Samael’s plan is simple but barbaric. He’s going to transfer every Time Lord’s consciousness into the Matrix, where they can live out the rest of eternity as beings of pure thought. Since they don’t have any other options, everyone but the Doctor agrees to this, and the ascension begins with all the non-Time Lord Gallifreyans being basically used as meat shields to distract the Dalek.
During the carnage however, the Dalek finds that, for whatever reason, it’s unable to exterminate Cass. But it needn’t mattered though, as once all Time Lords have been uploaded, Samael detonates a bomb underneath the city, with the Doctor just barely reaching the TARDIS in time. Part of the roof caves in, crushing Cass dead. And then, looking down at her body, the Dalek begins to take pity on Cass for reasons it cannot understand. A cavity suddenly opens up in the floor swallowing the Dalek into the dark.
The TARDIS is sent flying uncontrollable into space by the force of the explosions. The Doctor is thrown around the console room like a rag doll, one of the metal girders finally killing him when he’s tossed into it. The violent flight also punctures a hole underneath the TARDIS console, which begins leaking a strange pinkish gas. As the Doctor regenerates, the TARDIS and it’s surroundings begin to change. The leak creates an invisible and undetectable field around the TARDIS that gives it and anything around it a “ceil-shaded” appearance. This has all but finished taking effect once the Doctor’s finished regenerating.
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Return of the Daleks: Part Two
Written by Russell T Davies
And here we are, the final episode of Book One.
This episode follows the A and B Plot structure. The A Plot follows the Doctor, Edward and the Shadow Proclamation trying to fight off the Daleks and Robo-Men, with only mild success. The B Plot, however, is arguably more interesting, as we follow the Dalek from the last episode trying to escape from the Catacombs, all the while recounting the events that lead to this moment. This is what it learns.
When it took a sample of Cass’ DNA to rebuild itself, it unintentionally took a sample of something else. Something that’s now quickly overtaking his body like a plague. Human emotions. Fear, love, pride, mercy. Traveling deeper and deeper into the labyrinth of tunnels and corridors, the Dalek comes across a pathway link into the Matrix. It uses the computer to find the closest exit. But while searching through the infinite databanks, the Matrix shows the Dalek a vision of a sun cooling, expanding, and eventually dying. All is quiet for a moment, before the dead sun becomes the fulcrum of a supernova, leaving in it’s place a smaller new-born star to repeat the cycle all over again.
Meanwhile, back with the Doctor’s plot, it’s mainly just epic action scenes as the Daleks hammer any and all resistance against them. That’s not to say that we don’t learn anything important though. Interrogating one of the Dalek Drones, the Doctor learns that the Daleks’ plan is to destroy what remains of Gallifrey in order to “retain the established system.”
Since the Time Lords have been so secretive and reserved, they are not recognized under the rights and privileges afforded to alien races by Galactic Law, as many thought them only to be a legend. An estimated eighty Time Lords were off world during the Dalek’s rampage, and ever criminal syndicate in the known universe as put a bounty on the Regeneration Cells of a Time Lord in an order to make themselves immortal. One-by-one, rouge Time Lords are being picked off by Poachers, and their bodies harvested for Regeneration Energy to be sold on the Black Market. The Daleks are afraid that, with literal immortality available to the highest bidder, they will quickly fall to the bottom of the food chain, and they want to destroy anything that could trace back to a runaway Time Lord. The Doctor is horrified to learn this, and subsequently breaks down as the Daleks storm the warehouse.
All hope seems lost until several Daleks are shot from behind and destroyed. Edward, stunned, asks the Doctor what that was.
The Doctor says, “There’s only one weapon powerful enough to destroy a Dalek.”
Edward asked, “And that is?”
The Doctor, managing to crack a smirk through her tears and sorrow, says, “Another Dalek.”
The smoke clears to reveal the Dalek from the Catacombs staring down blankly at the wreckage. Without looked at the Doctor or Edward, it cryptically explains that it has seen the birth of a star, formed from the dust of the one that came before. The Daleks’ mission to exterminate all life is pointless, as life is born as quickly as it dies. Life cannot be snuffed out entirely, no matter how powerful the Daleks are. Daleks are meaningless. Daleks are impractical. Daleks are inefficient. And anything inefficient to the Dalek cause…
Must be Exterminated.
The Doctor screams at the Dalek to stop, but it’s too late. Rebuilding itself fully using the remains of its comrades, the Dalek blasts a hole in the roof of the warehouse and takes off to intercept the other Daleks. One by one, the Daleks fall. They had never considered the possibility of one of their own betraying them like this, so not only are they caught completely by surprise, but also have little chance to fight back, as this happens in the span of about two-to-three minutes. Once the land-units had been cleared, the Dalek takes off into space screaming, “EXTERMINATE!” There’s a massive explosion as the local Dalek Mothership goes up in flames, causing a chain reaction destroying the remaining Daleks.
Then… Silence…
A few hours pass, and the Doctor explains the Time Lord situation to the Shadow Proclamation. While they are understanding, there’s nothing they can really do as Time Lords are protected under Galactic Law. The Doctor and Edward return to the TARDIS tired and apathetic. But as the Doctor unlocks the door, she suddenly as an epiphany, and her face lights up for the first time in a long while. The Doctor explains to Edward that if the Time Lords aren’t recognized as people, then they wouldn’t be breaking any laws if they went around “kidnapping” Time Lords. Edward quickly catches on to the Doctor’s plan, and he breaks into a smile too. Before now, his travels with the Doctor were just that, travels. Now it was a rescue mission!
And as they leave in the TARDIS, the Doctor cheekily adds, “No rush though. After all, we’ve got all the time in the world.”
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And that was Doctor Who: Book I. Not the best reboot ever but certainly not the worse. It embraced it’s past while also acting as a jumping on point for new viewers, introducing concepts like Regeneration so that, when it does come time for the Doctor to regenerate, it won’t catch the audience off guard. The season would’ve been praised to high heaven by critics but would receive positive to mixed reviews among the Doctor Who Fandom itself. Many found issue with the new animation format being canonized as being created by a temporal leak inside the TARDIS that the Doctor hadn’t detected yet. This meant that any future live-action Doctor Who productions would be, in and of themselves, a retcon unless they didn’t feature the TARDIS directly.
Halfway through Book I’s airing, and mesmerized by the series’ success so far, Nickelodeon greenlit three more seasons and began talks with the BBC and Paramount about the possibility of a Doctor Who Movie. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Next post shall be Book II, AKA Season 28.
Leave your thoughts in the comments below, whether it be in-universe reviews of the stories themselves, or constructive criticism for me going forward. If I failed to properly elaborate on something, don’t be afraid to speak your mind. Until next time, goodbye.

“I want X for Switch”, “when is X coming to the Switch”, “X is perfect for the Switch!” How often have you heard or said these sentences? Quite a lot, probably, especially about Nintendo franchises. Nintendo fans really like first-party games, and they’re always asking for their favorites to come back. Problem is, even though Nintendo owns dozens of franchises, there’s only a few that are guaranteed to show up during any given console, so fans of smaller franchises are left wondering when they’ll play them again.
Well, today I’ll try to mostly answer these questions. I’ll take a look at several, Nintendo-owned franchises and try to figure out what are their chances of coming to Switch. I’ll be basing myself on this such as release schedule, success of previous entries, popular demand, market niche and internal interest at Nintendo.
However, keep in mind two things. One: Nintendo owns a shit-ton of IPs, and I won’t cover them all. I’ll focus on the ones that have multiple entries, and even then, I might skip a few if I feel I have no meaningful insight.
And two: No matter what I or anyone else says, the chances for any of these games to come back is NOT ZERO. Nintendo is unpredictable and they’ll sometimes bring something out of the blue when you least expect it. This year alone we saw the return of Brain Age (a franchise not seen since 2012), Clubhouse Games (a sequel to a game from 2005), and Famicom Detective Club, a franchise with two games from 1988/89, which then received a remake in 1998 and then nothing until twenty two years later. Granted, it’s another remake, but it is still a modern installment in a franchise twenty two years dormant. If Famicom Detective Club can come back in 2020, so can your favorite franchise. Now, let’s begin, in alphabetical order:
Art Academy
Starting off with a small one. Art Academy is a series of drawing games that started on the DS in 2010 and then released pretty consistently over the following years, with three entries on 3DS and two (well, one and a half) for the WiiU between 2010 and 2016. Already this feels like a franchise with a pretty consistent release schedule, even though it hasn’t been seen for four years now. I don’t think any of the games were blockbusters, per se, but they also don’t need to be. They’re small games, probably inexpensive to produce that seem to do consistently well enough to get new sequels.
There are several obstacles that present themselves to the release of a new Art Academy, but I think all of them are easily overcome. For starters, AA is the type of casual game that thrived during the DS/Wii eras, a Touch Generations game. Since the Switch released, many have noted that Nintendo may want to distance themselves from that era due to the failure of the WiiU, and there may be some truth to that, but I feel like this is starting to change. Again, this year saw the return of both Brain Age and Clubhouse Games, both casual, Touch Generations DS games. I feel like, at the start of the Switch’s life cycle, Nintendo was indeed trying to focus on core gamers, but now that they have secured that core gamer audience, they may be more comfortable releasing more casual fare.
Furthermore Art Academy is developed by Headstrong Games, a British developer that doesn’t seem to do much other than AA. However, in 2017, that team was absorbed into its parent studio, Kuju Games. This move, which happened the year after the last AA game released, may have something to do with the franchsie’s MIA status. But, Kuju games is still active, having released a game just last year, and I don’t see why they couldn’t take up the mantle.
Finally, some speculated a few years ago that AA was dead due to the Switch not having a stylus but, OH WAIT, Brain Age fixed that too!
All in all, even though Art Academy is hardly a hot franchise, there’s very little standing in the way of its return, and little reason to doubt that it will.
Chances: Good
Chibi-Robo!
We may have started on a positive note, but here comes a downer. Chibi-Robo is probably not coming back anytime soon. This cute little robot debuted in his self-titled Game Cube game, developed by Skip Ltd. Like most games by the developer, it was quirky and fun, and not very popular, but had its fans, and Chibi-Robo must have endeared someone at Nintendo, because he kept showing up here and there. He got two DS sequels, though the second one was Japan-only, already a red flag. In 2013, he starred in a 3DS eshop game that was very different from the main games, more of an experimental spin-off, and was not well-received.
But the real final nail came in 2015, with Chibi-Robo Zip Lash! The game was announced to be a 2D platformer, and many fans identified the change in genre (from a unique adventure game to one of the most over-saturated genres in Nintendo consoles) as a total sell-out, and they were totally correct! The developers basically admitted that they did it to try and get more players (red flag). Series producer Kensuke Tanabe then said that if the game didn’t sell well, it could be the end of the franchise (RED FLAG). And then, the unfortunate but inevitable happened. Zip Lash was a critical and commercial bomb, and neither the developer nor the franchise has been seen again. Aside from the inevitable Smash Bros mentions, Chibi-Robo has only been seen on that infamous flaming tweet from 2018 (I told you someone at Nintendo really likes them). To make matters worse, there are increasing signs that Skip Ltd may be going under
So, a struggling franchise makes a desperate move to gain fans, a developer expresses concerns for its future if the game bombs, said game bombs and now the developer may be going out of business? It seems the writing is on the wall.
Now, even if Skip goes under, that is not necessarily the end of Chibi. Nintendo would still retain the rights, as they did for Trace Memory and Hotel Dusk after developer Cing went under. As for whether or not Nintendo would want to give the franchise a second (third? Fourth?) chance, it doesn’t look good
Chances: Very bad
Custom Robo
From one diminutive robot to another, the Custom Robo series is and robo-battle series that began on the N64. It was Japan only, as was its N64 and GBA sequels. Afterwards, Nintendo did try to expand it, releasing a GameCube game in NA, and a DS game in NA and Europe. However, despite the fact that players of these games will attest to how good these games are, they didn’t seem to do very well, and the franchise has not been seen since 2007.
There was one statement of internal interest, when a developer in 2014 said that he heard demands both inside and outside the company for a new entry, but that there were no plans for one, and he was unsure when there would be. Six years on, it seems there still aren’t. In fact, the developer itself, Noise, is also strangely MIA. Though they are officially still active, with their website being updated for 2020, they have not worked on a game since 2015.
Then, in 2018, many fans watched in horror the news that Nintendo let the trademark expire. Some have pointed out that this isn’t as bad as it seems, as it refers specifically to games on optical discs, which Nintendo doesn’t make anymore, but I don’t know enough about the subject to say for certain. Regardless, it’s evident that Nintendo still owns the franchise, as Custom Robo content appears in Smash Ultimate.
On the other hand, one of the series creators, Kohji Kendoh, is still thinking about it. He is working for another developer, and released a suspiciously similar game called Synaptic Drive just this year, as well as talking about Custom Robo in social media. It seems like a Mighty no9/ Yooka-Laylee/Bloodstained situation, in which the owner of an Ip is not using it, so the creator releases a spiritual successor.
Bottom line, there seems to be demand for Custom Robo. A developer saw it six years ago, and the creator is seeing it now. Whether or not thinks this demand is enough to revive the franchise, is tough to say, but doesn’t look great.
Not as bad as Chibi-Robo, though
Chances: Bad
Daigasso! Band Brothers
Here’s a franchise Americans never got. Daigasso! Band Brother is a rhythm game released for the DS in 2004 and stars Barbara the Bat, who has an uncharacteristically risqué design for Nintendo. The game was Japan-only but seems to have been successful, it received a sequel in 2009 (released in Europe, but not NA), and another in 2013 for the 3DS. Despite not having received new games since then, the series is far from inactive. Barbara the Bat in particular, like Chibi-Robo, seems to have fans inside Nintendo because she pops up everywhere. She had cameos in a few other DS games, she was an AT in Brawl and a spirit in Ultimate, she was a costume in Mario Maker, she appeared in a comic strip with WarioWare’s Ashley, and the series has a Twitter account that was super active all the way up to April of this year (more on that later). In 2017, that account even tweeted a comic strip of Barbara demanding a Switch. That was probably not a tease of anything, as it’s been 3 years and nothing, but stuff has happened with the franchise even more recently.
Last year, in 2019, six years after the release of the 3DS game, there were 30 songs added to the game in celebration of the series 15th anniversary. So as late as last year, Nintendo was celebrating this franchise with an in-game event. Now, the servers for the game were shut down earlier this year (hence the end of the Twitter account), and the game was removed from the eshop (as it is basically pointless without the servers), but with recent news that the 3DS has ceased production, it’s pretty clear that the game’s end is a consequence of the 3DS’ end, and not a lack of players. So if the series is alive, but can’t be on the 3DS, it has to go somewhere, no? Bottom line: the games are successful, the series is active, and the character is popular. I don’t know if Barbara the Bat’s next tour will be an international one, but I’m confident it will happen
Chances: Very Good
Dillon’s Rolling Western
DRW is a unique western-themed tower defense game released on the 3DS eshop in 2012. It received mixed reviews, but had a dedicated fanbase, and was successful enough to spawn two sequels, one in 2013, and a post-apocalyptic themed one in 2018. With a game having released just two years ago, its reasonable to say the series is not dormant, so the prospect of a new game is always likely. The developer, Vanpool, who mostly works on smaller scale stuff like this, is both still active and still working at Nintendo.
So, really the only reason to believe the series wouldn’t continue would be if the latest game bombed really hard. It’s hard to say that it did, as sales figures are unavailable, but it was a 3DS game in 2018, probably didn’t set the charts on fire. But then again, unless Nintendo had some really unrealistically high expectations, I don’t think it could have bombed hard enough to kill the franchise that fast.
There’s not much more to say. There aren’t any rumblings of a return, but also no reason to be pessimistic.
Chance: Above Average
Earthbound
Let’s make one thing perfectly clear: There will not be a Mother 4
The Creator of the series, Shigesato Itoi, has said that he would not work on a fourth installment, as he feels the story is complete. Now, normally, Nintendo could just say “screw creative integrity, let’s make a fourth game anyway!” but Shigesato Itoi directly co-owns the series’ copyright so they actually can’t. So unless Itoi changes his mind, or he dies and Nintendo decides to ignore his wishes (neither scenario is completely outside the realm of possibility), Mother 4 is not happening.
So, if new Mother content is made, it’d be either a remake, or Mother 3 localization. We all know demand for this last one is overwhelming, Nintendo themselves have acknowledged it multiple times, but it still hasn’t happened, and it doesn’t seem things have changed. A remake is possible, but don’t hold your breath for it.
Despite the series’ popularity, I think all we’ll see of it is the first two games in NSO.
Chances: Bad
Excitebike
This is a hard one to pinpoint. Excitebike is one of those classic NES games that Nintendo likes to reference all the time, like Ice Climber, Balloon Fight, Wrecking Crew and Duck Hunt. Unlike those, Excitebike actually received sequels and established a franchised. There was a great entry on the N64 and three entries on the Wii, but nothing more since. I can’t imagine the Wii entries were super successful, and there really hasn’t been any word from Nintendo about any interest in reviving the series, either from developers, or the fans. The developer of the Wii games, Monster Games, is still active, and still makes racing games and extreme sports games, but hasn’t worked with Nintendo in 5 years.
Now, one point I see often, and that I’d like to address, is the idea that Nintendo doesn’t want multiple games from the same genre on the same console. I can’t agree. With the exception of the WiiU, every Nintendo home console since the SNES has had multiple Nintendo-published racing games released for it. WiiU didn’t but that console is an exception to many norms. I don’t see why Mario Kart, behemoth that it is, would stop any other racing game from being made, especially when they are so very different (although the fact that MK8 has an Excitebike track doesn’t inspire confidence).
No, I don’t think Mario Kart is the problem, I think is just lack of interest. And though Excitebike is not a franchise Nintendo will ever truly forget, it’s not really revving up for a comeback either. It could happen, it could not
Chances: Medium
Fatal Frame
This horror franchise wasn’t originally a Nintendo product, being released on the PS2 by Tecmo. However, since the fourth game, each title in the series has been published and copyrighted by Nintendo, and this seemingly applies to all future entries, as the series producer said the series’ future is up to Nintendo. So, how does that future look like?
Well, the last game in the series, Maiden of Black Water, was a WiiU game, which means it didn’t sell well, but not as badly as you might think. From all I could find, which is admittedly not much, sales for the game seemed to be only slightly less than previous entries, a gap more than explainable by its console. So, if the series was getting sequels before, the WiiU game’s sales wouldn’t be the reason why there wouldn’t be more. And though Nintendo of America has had to take baby steps into accepting the franchise overseas, Nintendo of Japan seemed satisfied with it, releasing four games between 2008 and 2014.
So sales aren’t an evident problem, what about the developer? That developer is Tecmo Koei, who is not only active and buddies with Nintendo, their current project is none other than Nintendo’s big holiday title. There’s obvious trust there. As for interest, there is a lot. From Koei Tecmo calling it a valuable IP, to the series producer stating multiple times, including this year, that he’d like to bring it to the Switch
Now, this comment pretty much confirms that a new Fatal Frame is not in development as of now, but it has a chance of happening. And remember, the last game is on WiiU, and if we know anything about those, is that they like to come to Switch. And though I don’t see Nintendo breaking their necks to make a new entry, I don’t think they’d oppose it if Tecmo pitches it to them, especially if it’s just a port.
Chances: Good
Fossil Fighters
This game is not Pokémon, or so its fans tell me. Fossil Fighters is a DS game from 2008 where you collect various species of dinosaur and battle with other ~Dinosaur Trainers~ Fossil Fighters in RPG battles. It didn’t receive great reviews, but was successful enough to get a sequel two years later, and another one on the 3DS in 2014. Three games in six years is a pretty good release schedule, and things were looking alright, until that 3DS game came. It was primarily developed by a different studio, and it showed. The game received abysmal reviews, and fan reception was similar. Sales weren’t awful, but not great either.
Since then, the series has been completely quiet. The developer, Red Entertainment, is still active, but hasn’t worked with Nintendo since the 3DS game. As for interest, there hasn’t been a peep from Nintendo about this series at all. No interviews describing vague interest in bringing it bad, no acknowledgment of fan demand, no cameos in other games (aside from Smash, which doesn’t count, Smash has everything). Even fan demand doesn’t seem too high, most of what I’ve seen is a Change.org petition which has been up for a year and has not reached its 2500 signatures goal.
It looks like this series could become a fossil itself. Someday some might dig it up and revive it to use in battle, but I’m not feeling it.
Still not as bad as Chibi-Robo
Chances: Bad
F-Zero
This is the reason you’re reading this.
Oh, F-Zero. If fan demand alone was the deciding factor, F-Zero would be top priority. People want F-Zero, people beg for F-zero, people who have never played, beg for F-Zero. And Nintendo knows this, they’ve acknowledged it. They themselves haven’t forgotten it. Even putting Smash aside, there was an F-Zero minigame in Nintendo Land. There are F-Zero tracks in Mario Kart. They’ve done everything but make a new F-Zero game, but why the hell not?
Well, it’s important to understand that the F-Zero series declined in sales throughout its life. The best-selling game is still the first, and though the following games were fantastic, they sold less and less, and yet, strangely enough, between 2003-2004, Nintendo released THREE F-Zero games. Around the same time, they also released an anime. There are several great articles and videos about what happened to F-Zero, but the best point I’ve seen is that Nintendo tried, in 2003, to really push F-Zero, but it didn’t work. So, with their attempt failed, they let the series sleep, and just never woke it up, even as fan demand increased.
In 2015, Miyamoto commented on the series, and said that, though he heard the demand, he was unsure on what to do with the series, on how to make a new game. Many fans scoffed and said he’d just need to make a modern F-Zero and that’d be great, but I think internal concern runs deeper. Just doing F-Zero failed in 2003, so why would it work now?
That said, I think there is hope. Fan demand is powerful, and more and more we see a new generation of Nintendo developers pushing the company forward. These younger developers are the ones behind new IP like Splatoon and ARMS, and great reinventions of existing ones like Odyssey and BotW. It’s possible that these same younger developers could hear the fan demand, and want to take on the series without the hesitation of their older peers.
It’s been 16 years, but Kid Icarus was gone for 19, wasn’t it?
Stranger things have happened
Chances: I want to believe
Golden Sun
And here’s the other one.
Few Nintendo fans are as vocal and dedicated to their dormant franchise as Golden Sun games. For those who don’t know, Golden Sun was a couple of excellent GBA RPGs released in 2001 and 2002, with a DS sequel in 2010. Such erratic release schedule would make predicting the series’ future difficult at the best of times, but the DS game was seen as a disappointment by many fans and sales were unimpressive. With ten years having passed with no new game, is the series done for? Well, let’s look at it.
In 2012, one of the developers gave an interview in which he straight up said that, if there was fan demand for it, there would “naturally” be a fourth game. We know that developer interview doesn’t immediately guarantee a sequel, but this is also a much more positive statement than Custom Robo and F-Zero’s “We know there’s demand, but we don’t know what to do with it”. This is “If there’s demand, it will happen.” So, is there demand?
You bet your ass there is. And it feels like it is growing. There was a high-profile hoax about a fourth game in 2017 (a similar hoax happened some time before the third game, by the way). The series received notably more content in Smash Ultimate than series of similar standing (quite possibly an acknowledgment of its popularity). And last year, Cory Balrog, director of 2018’s GOTY God of War, tweeted about all the franchises he would trade for a new Golden Sun. Nintendo could hardly have asked for a higher profile endorsement within the industry.
So if fan demand is there, why hasn’t it happened yet? Well, it helps to look at the development history of the series. The first game took eighteen months to develop, considered a long time for a handheld game at the time. And though the eight years between the GBA and DS games may have you believe it took a long time to greenlight a sequel, that’s not the case. Signs point to internal discussion about a sequel to the GBA games as early as 2002, with developers quoted as saying that Nintendo was asking them to make a new one. One of the series producers also said that the series takes a long time to make because of its complexity. After the DS game failed to meet expectations, its understandable that Nintendo may not have been as enthusiastic for a new game as it was before, but it seems like, even if the series is alive and well, the long hiatus would not be uncharacteristic. In that same interview quoted before, the developer even said that a new game would take a long time. In fact, if GS4 had started development shortly after that interview, if it took as long as Dark Dawn, the game would be wrapping up production around now.
Then there’s the developer, Camelot. Aside from Golden Sun, they pretty much only make Mario Tennis and Mario Golf. They release schedule is also super consistent, with a new game every other year, sometimes every year. We already got a Mario Tennis on Switch two years ago so, if not for COVID, their new game would probably have released this year. All things point, then, for the next Camelot game to hit the Switch next year. Smart money would be in Mario Golf, but maybe it is finally Golden Sun.
Finally, I don’t think, as others do, that Xenoblade is the reason GS is not happening. Again, I don’t see evidence to support the idea that Nintendo doesn’t want to publish more than one game in the same genre. Both the GBA and DS had more than a dozen Nintendo-published RPGs, and the Wii and 3DS got RPGs even after Xenoblade released for them. I don’t see why Xenoblade would stop a Switch Golden Sun, especially when they are very different kinds of RPGs. GS is actually closer to Octopath Traveler, whose success was enough to impress SE, why wouldn’t Nintendo want a piece?
Really, I think the biggest obstacle is that Nintendo might want to prioritize the safe investment of Mario sports games over Golden Sun, but the more I research, the more I feel like GS’s chances are higher now than they were at any point in the last ten years.
I feel there’s hope this sun will rise again
Chances: Above average
Kid Icarus
Sorry to keep you waiting.
Kid Icarus was an OK NES game that had a forgotten Game Boy sequel and then nobody cared about it for 19 years until it was unexpectedly revived for the 3DS in 2012. This story is a testament to the fact that, just because its been a long time, it doesn’t mean it will never happen. But in order to know if it will happen again, let’s understand how it happened in the first place.
It’s important to mention that reviving Kid Icarus was not the intent behind KI: Uprising, it was the idea of its director, Masahiro Sakurai. Nintendo had given him a project and Sakurai decided to use an established franchise for it. He briefly considered Star Fox, but decided to use Kid Icarus, for which he probably had a soft spot, considering he had added Pit to Brawl some years earlier. So, there wasn’t an exec at Nintendo who woke up one day and decided to bring Kid Icarus back, they gave the director a project, and, after some deliberation, he decided to use Kid Icarus for it.
That director is currently busy developing Smash Bros DLC, but even after that’s over, he probably won’t revisit Kid Icarus. He has shot down the idea of him working on a sequel or a port. His words were: "For now, my thought is that perhaps we'll see someone else besides me make another Kid Icarus in another 25 years." Yikes. That’s pretty damning. Sure, Nintendo could get someone else to make the game, but if it was only Sakurai that was interested in the series in the first place, what is the hope of that?
Well, that statement is not super accurate. Before Uprising, there was actually a Kid Icarus reboot in development for the Wii. It was cancelled, and thank God for it, as it was an awfully stupid gritty reboot, but it showed that there was interest in the franchise even before Uprising. Naturally, you’d expect interest to be bigger now than before.
The fact that Uprising not only grew the series’ fanbase, but the that there are Kid Icarus characters in Smash Bros, means that the franchise has a permanent place in the interest in Nintendo fans. Smash in particular means that there are 18 million people who know Pit and Palutena and would turn their heads if a new game was announced. Furthermore, Nintendo’s new CEO is interested in bringing 3DS franchises to the Switch after the success of the Switch Lite, especially now that the 3DS is officially dead, so the opening is there for it.
There is definitely demand for a new Kid Icarus game, but it is too sporadic a franchise to be certain, and if it were to happen, Nintendo would have to find someone new to do it. But, in the end, the series is definitely in a better place now than it was 10 years ago.
Chances: Medium
Legendary Starfy
Legendary Starfy was a 2D platformer for the GBA that was apparently really successful, as it received four sequels in the span of five years. Not only that but, like Barbara and Chibi-Robo, Starfy himself was quite popular. He had cameos in Mario & Luigi and Super Princess Peach, music of the series was in Donkey Konga, he is a regular Assist Trophy in Smash and was a costume in Mario Maker. Though the series took until the last game to come to the West, there were plans to bring the first four games too, as well as consideration for expanding the series to the Wii. The series was widely advertised, with animated commercials and tons of merchandise, including plush dolls, CDs, pencils, birthday balloons, casino cards and two manga series. When asked if there were plans for a sixth game, the developer answered “Yes!”, no ifs, not buts, straight-up Yes.
And then… nothing. The series just stopped. And the reason why is: I have no idea. Maybe if the last game bombed spectacularly, but it doesn’t seem to be the case. Sure, Japanese sales declined with each entry, but not by that much. Maybe NA sales weren’t what Nintendo was hoping for, but surely not enough to kill such a steady franchise.
The confusion only grows when we look at its developer, Tose. Now, this is interesting. You’ve probably played a Tose game without knowing. They have worked on over A THOUSAND GAMES, but they never receive credit. They merely assist with development in the shadows. As one exec puts it: "Our policy is not to have a vision. Instead, we follow our customers' visions. Most of the time we refuse to put our name on the games, not even staff names." They are a ghost developer. Even its Wikipedia page admits that the list of games on it is purely speculative. There are probably hundreds more, that we don’t know about.
The only exception is the Starfy series. That series was their vision. So why did they stop? Could they have decided that it was against their vision to make a game of their vision? We can only speculate.
The fact that the series’ end was so unexpected, and its developer so mysterious, means that any speculation about it is a shot in the dark. All I can say is that there’s no particular reason to expect it.
Chances: Not Good
Nintendogs
Here’s a big one. Nintendogs was one of the biggest successes of the casual era, on par with Brain Age and Wii Fit, but unlike those, it remained a multi-million seller during the 3DS/WiiU generation. And though Nintendo may have tried, at first, to distance the Switch from that era, the return of Brain Age and Clubhouse Games indicates that other casual games would follow, and Nintendogs would be a no-brainer.
There is, however, one big problem: the Switch does not have a microphone. While Brain Age on the DS also used the microphone a lot, it was not essential to it. You could easily make Brain Age without it. But not Nintendogs. Issuing voice commands to your virtual pup is integral to the experience. No microphone means no Nintendogs.
But with that said, Nintendo did go to the trouble of making a Switch stylus, seemingly just for Brain Age, so maybe they could make a microphone peripheral. Sure, a microphone would be more complex to make than a stylus, but not inconceivable. They did something like that with the Wii Speak. I’m sure for that nintendogs money, Nintendo would do it.
Worst case scenario, Nintendo releases Nintendogs and forces you to use the NSO app’s voice chat to talk with your dog. You know they’d do it.
There’s also the fact that another developer released a nintendogs clone for the Switch last year, but I don’t think Nintendo gives a shit.
Chances: Good
Nintendo Wars
You may know this series better as “Advance Wars” and you may also know that it is fantastic. In fact, it is one of the highest rated Nintendo franchises on Metacritic, and had a pretty consistent release schedule between 1988 and 2008. All was looking pretty god. But unfortunately the series has been dormant since the last entry on DS. Part of it may be because the series, though originally Japan-only, was never all that popular in Japan. In fact, that last game only saw a limited release as a My Nintendo reward in the region.
There is, however, still demand for the series, both externally and internally. Producers from both Nintendo and developer Intelligent Systems have expressed enthusiastic support for a new entry, although they’ve also expressed some uncertainty on what they’d do with it, similar to the Custom Robo and F-Zero responses.
The developer for the series is Intelligent Systems, who do a ton of stuff and will be discussed multiple times in this post. They used to release multiple games a year, but have slowed down this past game to just one or two games a year, another possible reason why Advance Wars has been deprioritized, especially in comparison with that boogeyman of Advance Wars and Smash Bros fans alike: Fire Emblem. There is real concern that Nintendo might not want to make a new Advance Wars when they could just make the similar but more popular Fire Emblem instead.
That said, IS has already released a Fire Emblem and Paper Mario for Switch, and though we definitely will get at least one more FE during the Switch’s life cycle, there’s enough years left for IS to release some other games, whether they be AW or one of the three other franchises we’ll discuss in the future. Problem is, of those franchises, AW might be the most difficult to produce, and the most risky, so it could probably be lower priority. When asked about the series last year, one IS producer gave a pretty evasive answer, so things aren’t looking too good, but they aren’t hopeless either.
Chances: Medium
Ouendan/Elite Beat Agents
This rhythm series for the DS is widely beloved by those who played it, but its life cycle was pretty limited. One game in 2005, and Americanized version in 2006, and one sequel in 2007. Nothing more since The games were critically acclaimed, but not blockbuster hits.
The series creator said back in 2016 that he would love to create a new game, but nothing else has been said about it. The game’s developer iNis, doesn’t appear to be super active either.
All in all, there is very little pointing to a return
Chances: Bad
Pilotwings
The biggest obstacle to seeing this series of arcadey flight sims on the Switch is that the series has a very specific purpose: it’s a tech demo. All three games were launch titles for their systems and explicitly meant to show off each system’s new tech. The original game was made to show off the SNES’ Mode 7, the N64 game was meant to show off the console’s polygonal graphics, and Resort was meant to showcase the 3DS’ stereoscopic 3D. With the Switch’s release far behind us, and its graphics not really needing a showcase, Pilotwings chances seem low. Granted, Pilotwings doesn’t need to be a tech demo, but it could be how Nintendo views it as.
There is some fan demand for it, but not as much as F-Zero or Golden Sun, and no developer has commented on the possibility of a return. Pilotwings has always been moderately successful, but not enough to justify constant releases. The only glimmer of hope is the comment from Nintendo’s CEO about wanting to bring more 3DS franchises for the Switch, but it’s quite possible that he didn’t have Pilotwings in mind when he said that
Chances: Bad
Punch-Out!!
Another series popular enough to get a Smash character but not popular enough for consistent sequels, Punch-Out is a beloved classic with a consistent fanbase, but with a very erratic release schedule. After the SNES game in 1994, the series lay dormant for 15 years until it was revived for the Wii in 2009 and then laid to rest again. One explanation is that the series was never really popular in Japan. Neither the NES or SNES games were even available as full releases in the country, being instead, distributed as prizes or rewards. And though the Wii game got a full retail release, it sold very poorly. It’s always been a game more for Americans, so it is understandable that the Japanese developers at Nintendo aren’t super enthusiastic about it. That said, it was Nintendo who pitched the reboot in the first place, so they may want to do it again someday.
The developer for the Wii game was Next Level Games, who release a game every three or two years, and they also develop Mario Strikers and Luigi’s Mansion. Having already released LM3, it’s likely they’ll release another game for the Switch some time soon. That could be Punch-Out, but it is just as likely that it could be Mario Strikers, or something else entirely.
Some think that the series use of flagrant national stereotypes would impede it from coming back in today’s political climate, but frankly, I don’t think that’s as definitive a problem. Worst case scenario, they simply make a new cast, just like Super Punch Out, but less racially insensitive.
Another interesting development is that Mike Tyson has been talking about wanting a new Punch-Out this year. I don’t think Nintendo cares what he says, and they definitely don’t want to associate with him again, but it is a pretty high-profile person talking about the series, which is bound to raise interest. Whether that’s enough for Nintendo to consider a new game? I don’t think so. But regardless, Punch-Out is popular enough that the door is never truly closed for it.
Chances: Not Good
Pushmo
This acclaimed puzzle game was released for the 3DS eshop in 2012 and was successful enough to get three sequels. Although it hasn’t been seen since 2015, there doesn’t seem to be anything impeding its return. The developer is our good friend Intelligent Systems, and, of the aforementioned IS franchises still to launch on the Switch, Pushmo, being a simple, but beloved, puzzle game, seems like the safest investment. It likely could be developed alongside another major game.
There is demand for it, and considering Nintendo’s eshop efforts, Pushmo would fit in perfectly alongside Snipperclips and fellow 3DS eshop puzzle star Boxboy. All in all, there’s no reason not to expect Pushmo to come back.
Chances: Good
continued in comments

Title says it all. I'm gonna be making a ranking of pretty much every song by The Killers. By every song, I mean every song that I'm familiar with, any songs I'm not familiar with won't be featured on this list, due to me not being able to effectively rank them. Covers are excluded because they aren't TK songs, and remixes don't count either.
Also, don't get too pissed if a song you like is low or a song you hate is high, it's all just my opinion. I will also include a short paragraph on why I'm putting a song in a certain position. Enterlude and Exitlude are going to be paired up with When You Were Young and Why Do I Keep Counting respectively. Finally, a lot of these are interchangeable to an extent, and most songs can go up to about 5 spots higher or lower.
86: Get Trashed
Big surprise, do I even need to explain this one?
85: Land of the Free
I can't even remember the last time I listened to this song. I pretty much NEVER listen to it, and while the overall message of the song is an important one, it feels all message and no delivery. If anything, this song feels like a political social media post, and has nothing going on to hold it up musically.
84: Out of My Mind
The worst song officially on any album is Out of My Mind. I honestly just find it tedious, doing pretty much nothing interesting musically, and lyrics that are not only awful (I can't get you out of my mind to get you out of my bed), but don't fit on Wonderful Wonderful. AT LEAST Some Kind of Love has lyrics that make sense for the type of album it is, but this is just awful. And honestly, don't be surprised when most of Wonderful Wonderful takes up the next few spaces, that album has aged awfully, and the release of Imploding the Mirage hasn't helped in the slightest.
83: Who Let You Go?
Look, I'm not exactly sure how many people are going to get pissed off after seeing WLYG this low, but I also can't really see many people having it high on their list, so I might as well massacre it. I can take repetition, but holy shit, this song takes it too far. And the thing is, I don't mind the verses, but I never listen to this song because it just frustrates me how pointless it feels. There's a damn good reason this song didn't make it onto Hot Fuss, and I for one am glad it didn't.
82: Some Kind of Love
What is arguably the most boring song in The Killers' discography comes in at 82. It just goes on for way too long, and there's no passionate delivery, the build-up is incredibly lack-luster, and I'd argue that this is the point of the album where any chance at redemption is killed, even if we do get The Calling a few songs later, which is a great song, but I can't even pretend to dance or enjoy this song, and anything this song tries to achieve is done better by other songs on the album.
81: Where the White Boys Dance
For me, WTWBD is definitely the worst song of the Sam's Town era. It just feels completely lifeless, and the lyrics aren't bad, but they feel like Hot Fuss leftovers that they tried to repurpose into a song an album later, but failed, so kept it as a B-side, and shoved it onto Sawdust. And given that Sawdust is an album that I never listen to in full, only having it in my shuffle TK playlist, I find myself skipping it, often midway when I try to give the song another chance, but still skip it because I just can't get behind it.
80: Life to Come
This could be considered a comforting song, but it suffers similar problems to quite a few Wonderful Wonderful songs. It goes on for too long, barely adding anything new to the song, but also the chorus just feels incredibly flat. It's just hollow sentiments that feel vague and non-descriptive, and while I see why someone could like this song, it just really doesn't do much in my honest opinion.
79: The Man
HOT TAKE ALERT! I know that putting The Man all the way down is going to ruffle feathers, but hear me out please. I honestly used to love this song, but over time, it has fallen far. Maybe it's because Brandon can't sell what he's trying to sing, especially when you take into account the fact that it's on an album that tries to be comforting, but doesn't really have the ability to even sarcastically deliver these lyrics, especially since his whole career has been one of sincerity, and it doesn't even come across as a fictional story like on Hot Fuss, simply just Brandon being obnoxious, and making the song enjoyable only enjoyable if you're listening to it ironically. To put it straight, it's all hook and no actual substance. But hey, I guess that hook works for some, since it somehow managed to come first in the recent Wonderful Wonderful survivor, but hooks alone don't work for me, that's why it's coming this low. (Have mercy on please)
78: The World We Live In
I've never really cared for this song, and honestly, before making this list, I expected it to be further down. But I did just listen to Day & Age last night again, and I could see why people would like it, I just find this song to be kinda all over the place, and Brandon's delivery of the chorus feels really flat, and that's before we bring in the weird vocal filteautotune type thing found on the verse that doesn't sound good at all, and I'm not someone who's always opposed to autotune and other vocal effects, but here it doesn't work at all.
77: Have All the Songs Been Written?
I know that many of you would probably have this even lower, and while I don't exactly like the song, it's coming in at 77 after all, I don't find to be an abomination of epic proportions. The lyrics are still super basic and come across as desperate and faux-deep, and the song does barely anything interesting, and is the easily the band's worst album closer, it's also got some decent vocals, and I can see why somebody would really like it, and I don't really have any personal vendettas against it.
76: Glamorous Indie Rock and Roll
Brandon Flowers once called this the worst song he has ever written, and while I wouldn't quite go that far, I don't think he's wrong for hating it so much. The lyrics are stupid, with no actual sentiment or real meaning to them, and doesn't even any form of hook that could possibly make it at least catchy. But at the same time, it's just nothing really, not a failure of epic proportions, and although I don't like the song, it's also not something that I will skip every single time, and it's stupid enough that someone could possibly unironically enjoy it. I think the irony of this song works better than The Man at least.
75: Daddy's Eyes
I'm not saying that Daddy's Eyes is the worst thing to come from The Killers, but honestly, I'd say it's the most forgettable. It's not remembered for being awful, it wasn't as standalone single or a bonus track, just clumped in towards the back of Sawdust, in the part where the covers, remixes and live tracks are. And it doesn't really surprise me that it was put there of all places, as it really isn't a song that anyone needs to rush out and listen to.
74: A Crippling Blow
Eh, this song exists. I get why people like it, but I just don't care for it. It doesn't help that I love Tidal Wave and Forget About What I Said, the other 2 Day & Age bonus tracks, so I end up just forgetting this song really exists.
73: Tyson Vs Douglas
Another song that has fallen on me quite a bit. When I was recently re-listening to Wonderful Wonderful, I honestly just gave up on trying to enjoy this song. There's some great lyrics in the song, but it feels kinda like a generic pop-rock song that feels very out of place on Wonderful Wonderful, and what is up with that awful vocal effect on the chorus? This song hasn't held us very well for me.
72: Shot at the Night
This song isn't quite as low as I would have had it in the past. Although it is still easily my least favourite of the 2 greatest hits OG songs, I am starting to appreciate the song more, especially as I'm growing to appreciate The Desired Effect more, and I definitely tell that both this and Just Another Girl were pivotal in the creation of TDE
71: Andy, You're a Star
I think the reason this song is so low for me is that it just gets outclassed by Everything Will Be Alright. Both are slow ballads with a strong vocal filter, but this one just doesn't have anywhere near as much in the way of real emotion, and I just prefer other songs more. I wouldn't say I dislike this song, but it is definitely my least favourite Hot Fuss song.
70: Here With Me
The lowest ranking Battle Born song is Here With Me. I honestly don't this song as much as some do, and while I don't like that cellphone lyric at all, I'd say that the saving grace of this song is it's 2nd verse. But even then, as a whole, I don't consider Here With Me to be the prime rib of Battle Born.
69: Neon Tiger
Over time, this song has kinda staled on me. And honestly, I think that Imploding the Mirage was the final nail in the coffin for me. One of the things that I initially really liked about Neon Tiger is the way that it painted imagery in my head, but honestly after ITM came along and did it much better, the flaws of Neon Tiger were drawn out pretty quickly. Not an awful song by any means, but it hasn't really aged all that well.
68: Be Still
ANOTHER HOT TAKE INCOMING! I do get why Be Still is a fan favourite, but this song's Achilles heel is that drum beat that starts during the 2nd verse that just feels really out of place, and it doesn't help that it's one song before Battle Born, and comes right after From Here On Out, a song that I do actually really like, and will explain when we get to it.
67: Carry Me Home
I don't dislike this song, but I do honestly find it kinda forgettable. It's not really a song that stands out in any area in particular, meaning this song just kinda floats around my favourites list, and although I initially had it a bit higher, I rarely ever actively seek out the song, I can see why it was left off of Battle Born,
66: Somebody Told Me
Honestly, I still do like Somebody Told Me, and I will jam out to it when it comes on, but really, there's just songs that I like better. Maybe it's because this song kinda just feels a little like Mr. Brightside part 2, but still, I do like this song, and the only reason it's coming in at 66 is because there are 65 songs I like more.
66: Under the Gun
In 66 is another "jam out" type song, and honestly, I'd say that Under the Gun and Somebody Told Me are both similar enough that they are practically interchangeable, but the reason I put this a spot higher is mainly because I guess I haven't heard it as much, so I'm haven't gotten slightly sick of it.
64: Money on Straight
Money on Straight is one the few Wonderful Wonderful era songs that has actually grown on me, and although it's only at 65, it's higher than over half of Wonderful Wonderful, which should say something. There's just something about this song I find so tranquil and exotic, and although I don't revisit it often, it's always a pleasant surprise when it comes up on shuffle.
63: On Top
Less than a month ago, I would have said that this is my least favourite song on Hot Fuss. But it has honestly kinda grown on me a little, and in the future I could see it being higher, but for now I think that 63 is a pretty safe spot to put it.
62: Move Away
I'm honestly kinda surprised how low this song is, but I guess it just hasn't really aged all that well for me. I like the song, but I have found myself not enjoying it quite as much lately. I do still love the bridge however, and that bridge is definitely one the highlights of Sawdust.
61: Deadlines and Commitments
This song, like a lot of Battle Born, helped me out during a really shitty time of my life, which I'll go into more detail further down the track, but it was during that time period when I came to appreciate this song for what it is. It's not a song I'll visit often, but I do find the song comforting, especially during hard times.
60: Human
Oh boy, another hot take. I initially would have had Human higher, but what really made me like the song less is just how much the vocal melody of the verses reminds me of My List. And honestly, it has the same issues with a lot The Killers' single, they are catchy enough to draw you in, but few of them have much of a lasting impact, and the best singles from this band are the ones that sound more like deep cuts. That being said, I still do enjoy Human, it's just not high on "My List" (There's a reason I quoted My List for this song in particular)
59: Runaways
You want hot takes, well guess what, you're getting a mountain of them today! Honestly, Runaways just hasn't ever been one of the standout tracks on Battle Born. It's hard to really put my finger on, but there's just something about that I never really got. I do like the song, especially the bridge, but it's never really been one of my favourites on Battle Born.
58: Jenny Was a Friend of Mine
Can we get a tally for how many hot takes I have put out so far? The reason Jenny is this low is because I don't visit it outside of the context of Hot Fuss. For me, Jenny is very much an album opener, and it feels like that's where it's biggest strength is, not as much in the song itself. Also, I feel that it's so much better live, and the studio version just doesn't compare very well. Yes, I'm one of the people who thinks that back half of Hot Fuss is better, and I will die on that hill if I have to.
57: The Ballad of Michael Valentine
Another song I initally had higher up, but ended up being lower on the overall list. The most off-putting thing about the song is the delivery of the "But I've got the buzz" line, which really hindered my ability to get into the song for a long time, and while I have come to appreciate the song as a whole, it's not one I intentionally revisit too often.
56: Running Towards a Place
The very first Imploding the Mirage song to make the list is Running Towards a Place. RTAP is probably the most simple song musically on the album, and it doesn't really have too much to keep me into the song. However, the lyrics are great, especially on the bridge, and while this is the lowest ITM song on the list, I still do like the song.
55: Heart of a Girl
Look, I know what lyric you are going to point out to me, and while I do find it off-putting, I think that are also so many great lyrics in this song that outweigh that one lyric. For me however, this song just feels like a big hug, as does a lot of Battle Born, and this is definitely one of the most underappreciated songs in The Killers' discography.
54: Run For Cover
This is honestly one of the songs that me into The Killers. I used to have a pretty complicated history with this band, but this was one of the first songs that I was able to properly appreciate. And while I could rank it higher based on nostalgia alone, I don't often seek it out, and I know that there are many songs I like more. Still a great song though.
53: Joy Ride
One that I've very recently come to appreciate is Joy Ride. One of the biggest reasons that I have been able to really enjoy this song is the bridge, which honestly has some of my favourite lyrics from the band. The rest of the song is good, but that bridge is definitely the star of the show.
52: Prize Fighter
Of the 2 Battle Born bonus tracks, I'm definitely more fond of Prize Fighter. Although there's a few random lyrics that are kinda weird, it's also such a unique song in their discography, and I really love the confidence in Brandon's voice in this song.
51: Wonderful Wonderful
Sitting just short of my top 50 is Wonderful Wonderful. Unfortunately, this song hasn't aged as well as I would have like it to. I think it's a very experimental song, and the song gives me strong AFI vibes, which I love, but this used to be a 20 song for me, but here we have another victim of Imploding the Mirage coming along and revealing its flaws. I still like the song, there's just others I like more.
50: Show You How
The first entry into my top 50 is Show You How, and I'm honestly kinda shocked it made it this high. It's a song that has grown a lot on me recently, and although it's a little on short side, it packs quite a bit into 2 and a half minutes.
49: All the Pretty Faces
Another song I am surprised how high it ended up. ATPF has crept up on me a fair bit over the past few weeks, and given that I never really gave this song a proper chance for quite a fair bit, I'm happy to finally understand the greatness behind this song. There's still a few parts I'm mixed on, but damn, ATPF may have one of the best choruses of any TK song.
48: Fire in Bone
I feel bad putting Fire in Bone down here, but I still do like this song, there's just others I enjoy more. Although I'm still not fussed on those heavily distorted vocals in the 2nd verse, there's also a lot of interesting production choices that I think payed off really well, and I still really like this song.
47: The Rising Tide
It pains me to put The Rising Tide all the way down here, as this used to be a top 10 song for me, but over time, it just hasn't held up quite as well as I'd like it to. It still slaps, but it's also kinda simple, and it's not a song that you can really build an emotional connection to.
46: Forger About What I Said
I don't get how this didn't make Day & Age but The World We Live In did. I guess maybe because TWWLI sounds musically a bit similar to the overall sound of Day & Age, but IMO, FAWIS is a much more complete song, and it absolutely slaps. It's kind of on the short side, but like what I said about Show You How, it does a lot in that time.
45: Caution
When it first came out, I considered Caution to be the best lead single the band has ever released. However, as we got to hear more of Imploding the Mirage, it kinda fell off as we heard what else the band is capable of. It's still a good song, but remember what I said back at Human? A lot of The Killers' singles can pull you in quickly, but don't often have a lot in the way of staying power.
44: Smile Like You Mean It
A shameful opinion of my past; I once considered this to be the worst song on Hot Fuss. But for the longest time, I was on the verge of getting it, and one day, I finally got it. This is the type of song that I listen to when it's late at night and I'm tired AF, and honestly, it feels great.
43: Goodnight, Travel Well
Here we have the longest song The Killers have released to date (excluding remixes), the grand album closer that is Goodnight, Travel Well. Yet another song that has grown on me, although not quite as much as some songs have. It's a song that I'll often skip on shuffle, but mainly because I need to be in a certain mood to fully enjoy it.
42: Believe Me Natalie
In 42nd place is the underrated gem that is Believe Me Natalie, and honestly, I feel bad putting it all the way down here. It's a song that I have preached for a long time, and I could definitely see myself putting higher in the future, but really, it's just that I love the songs about it slightly more. From here on out, any of these songs could be a contender for my favourites.
41: The Calling
The Calling is one 4 songs on Wonderful Wonderful that I would say I still enjoy. Although WW hasn't aged well at all for me, The Calling still slaps, and I love it when The Killers get a little more experimental.
40: Blowback
When I first heard the acoustic version of Blowback, I wasn't thrilled by it, and was expecting the final version to be the worst on the album. Boy I was wrong. What really sells this song is the outro, which I think definitely may be a major factor to why I wasn't feeling the acoustic version, but really enjoy the final version.
39: From Here On Out
Although this song is super short, I still love it. Like a lot of Battle Born, it helped me a lot during a really dark period of my life, and this was a song that I associated with a certain person, and I devoted lyrics like "Walk that old lonely road in the shadow of a doubt" to him, and while I still very much cared for this person, I took this song as a reminder that everything will be fine for now, and that if he won't properly speak to me, then he'll be the one who ultimately suffers. Sounds like a really odd interpretation, but it works for me.
38: Peace of Mind
Although I can definitely see why this song wasn't included on Sam's Town, I still think it's a really great song, even if it goes on for a little too long. The build-up is beautiful, and I think it cools down into a really great peaceful last few moments.
37: My Own Soul's Warning
Although I don't think Brandon is right when he says that this is the best song he has ever written, It's still a great song, and a beautiful bombastic album opener. I'd say that the only reason this song isn't higher is similar to Jenny, it feels very much like an opener, and not a standalone track, but it does work as a better standalone than Jenny, and also a better opener, so that's why I'm putting it here.
36: Mr. Brightside
Seriously, do I even need to talk about this song? This song has the power to make British people lose their fucking shit no matter the situation, and even hardcore fans of the band still love this song. I know some might find it kinda sacrilegious to put this down here, but really, I just like the other songs that little bit more.
35: Tidal Wave
When preparing for this list, I did not expect Tidal Wave to be this high up. But honestly, it has grown on me a lot recently, and I think it's a really underrated song that just doesn't get enough attention. Day & Age has some great bonus tracks, and it's a shame that this or Forget About What I Said didn't make the final cut.
34: For Reasons Unknown
The very first Sam's Town song to make the list is For Reasons Unknown. The main reason I would consider this to be the weakest Sam's Town track is due to it being one the most simple musically, and the weakest lyrics. But still, I don't think Sam's Town has a single bad song, and if this is rock bottom, then you've got one heck of an album in front of you.
33: My God
I'm sure I'm not the only one who saw that there was going to be a song titled "My God" and instantly freaked out. But hey, everything turned out alright, and we ended up with this stunning collaboration with Weyes Blood that shows off her impressive vocals on the bridge before breaking into one of the most exhilarating choruses the band has ever concocted.
32: Rut
The highest Wonderful Wonderful song on the list is Rut, and I'm sure many of you may be confused at why I consider this to be the best on the album. Of all the Tana related songs on the album, this is the only one that actually showcases the issues and creates some sort of sympathy, whereas songs like Life to Come and Some Kind of Love just feel like generic "faux-empowerment" songs filled with hollow sentiments. It's also worth noting that Rut has the strongest lyrics of any song on the album, and it's the only song on the album which has actually grown on me with time.
31: Imploding the Mirage
The last song before my top 30 is Imploding the Mirage, the beautiful closing track to the album of the same name. Although completely unlike any album closer the band has put out in the past, I think that it this song works really well. It neatly ties together entire album not with a huge bombastic song, but a simple, catchy tune that sums up everything so great album the album. The finals stop of the journey of the album is one that is sure to put a smile upon your face.
30: Losing Touch
For some reason that I honestly don't remember, I used to HATE this song. These days, I consider it be one of the best songs on the album, and somehow this isn't even their best album opener. It combines the synth and the world elements of Day & Age to create a soaring album opener that I just couldn't get behind for a long time. If you haven't ever really given this song a proper chance, please do so, this is a song that I could see being much higher up this list in a few months.
29: Everything Will Be Alright
Up next is the most divisive song on Hot Fuss, Everything Will Be Alright. Although there are many of us who consider this to be one of the best Hot Fuss songs, it's also a song that never does will in survivor polls, pretty much always being the first one to be voted off. And I can see why. If you listen to The Killers for danceable bops like Mr. Brightside and Somebody Told Me, you're going to be disappointed with this song, but this is honestly a brilliant album closer that ends the album on a very odd, but also beautiful note.
28: I Can't Stay
Up next is one of the most unique songs in The Killers' discography, I Can't Stay, for the longest time, I've wanted them to do more in the vein of this song, and the closest we've really gotten since if Still Want You, a solo Brandon Flowers song, plus the 2nd verse of When the Dreams Run Dry. This is a sound I think that they could do a lot more with, and it kinda upsets me that it may be the end of this sound that has a lot of potential to work well with this band's sound.
27: Uncle Jonny
I get why people might think this is the worst song on Sam's Town, but I also think this song gets a lot of unnecessary hate. Uncle Jonny is a very rough, guitar driven song that explodes into the same brilliant outros that Sam's Town is packed with, and there is no way that I can call this song the dead weight tacked onto the album.
26: Tranquilize
Up next is Tranquilize, the first song on Sawdust, featuring Lou Reed. You probably wouldn't guess it, but Brandon Flowers and Lou Reed work surprisingly well together, with vocals that feel passionate and dramatic paired with vocals that are a little more down to earth.
25: Battle Born
In 25th place is the magnificent album closer that is Battle Born. Although this song does have one of my least favourite lyrics (The "Boys have gone soft/girls have grown wild" line), everything else is brilliant. Reminds me of a Jimmy Eat World album closer, which for those of you who may not know, JEW make stellar album closers, and the closing track is pretty much always one of the best songs on the album.
24: Sweet Talk
Sweet Talk may just be Brandon's best vocal performance to date. It's a track that delivers soaring vocals on top of some great lyrics, and overall, this song is a fucking beast. There's a reason this song is such a fan favourite, and also, another song that took me a while to really get into. You make a whole album of "Great songs that u/RazorBlood6 couldn't get into forever"
23: My List
The next Sam's Town on my list is "My List". Honestly, this song just fits perfectly into Sam's Town. It feels like the perfect slow song to be the calm before the storm that is This River is Wild, but also feels like a companion piece to Bones in a way, as both deal with relationships, with Bones being the more sexual song, and My List tackling romanticism. The two songs fit together perfectly, and from these two songs onwards, the rest of Sam's Town just flows so damn well (not to say the rest didn't, this is just on a whole other level).
22: Midnight Show
The climax of Hot Fuss, AKA Midnight Show is up next. This is the type of song to really bring out all the negatively inside of you. It's the perfect manifestation of one's dark side, and I'm sure all of us feel a little bit more demonic when listening to this song. There's a reason why I consider the 2nd half of Hot Fuss better to be the first, and this is but one shining example of why I think that it is.
21: Just Another Girl
This might be an odd pick to have this high up, but here we are. Just Another Girl is a song that is able to perfectly deliver the feelings of being unable to effectively move on from a failed relationship, and come on, surely you have found yourself in a situation at least somewhat similar to this at least once in your life? This is the perfect song for not being able to move on.
20: Lightning Fields
Kicking off the top 20 is Lightning Fields, and although ITM has only been out for such a short amount of time, I'm already calling this the most underrated song on it. Collaborations can often feel really forced, but this feels entirely natural, and if anything, feels like the perfect sequel to Goodnight, Travel Well, especially after so many years have passed.
19: A Matter of Time
Speaking of underrated songs, here's A Matter of Time. One of the strongest songs lyrically on Battle Born, as well as one of the band's best bridges, this can only add up to greatness. There's so much great going on throughout this song, and the only reason I could think of that people wouldn't care about this song is because it's in between 2 unpopular songs on Battle Born.
18: When You Were Young (+Enterlude)
When You Were Young is the song that feels like just a breath of fresh air. It's a song that you can listen to and escape your surroundings and just feel positive. Even without Enterlude at the start of it, it's still a damn brilliant song, and even if I think it's bottom half of Sam's Town, just look at all the songs that I've put this song higher than on this list. At this point, all the songs are pretty much masterpieces, and it's just which ones are slightly less masterpieces.
17: Leave the Bourbon on the Shelf
The highest non-studio album song on this list is Leave the Bourbon on the Shelf. There's just something I love about this song. Maybe it's the overall mode of anger, frustration and disappointment that lingers in the air of this song, which Brandon somehow delivers so well.
16: Flesh and Bone
One of the band's most powerful album openers, coming in next is Flesh and Bone. If anything, this song should have been released as a single, I reckon it would been very successful. While the entire song is great, that outro is absolutely transcendent. And somehow, I still don't consider this to be the best album opener the band has ever created.
15: Change Your Mind
Here we have a pick that probably won't be popular, but hear me out. The strongest part of Change Your Mind is the raw emotion that is present in both the delivery and lyrics. Sure it may not be the most bombastic song of their career, but it sure is a song that can hit hard emotionally.
14: The Way It Was
Speaking of emotion, here we have The Way It Was, which may just be one of the saddest songs the band has ever written. This is a song that is carried with its emotional lyrics, and sure it's not exactly a danceable song, but sometimes you want more than just a catchy hook, and this song sure delivers in the emotional department.
13: A Dustland Fairytale
3 emotional songs in a row! A Dustland Fairytale is up next, and honestly, when I first became a fan of this band, I thought that this was one of their most overrated songs. That opinion fortunately changed pretty quickly, as I finally got why people loved it so much. Somehow, this isn't even the best song on the album IMO.
12: Bones
I did talk about Bones a little while back where I talked about My List, so I'm not gonna repeat myself too much. If I have to say something however, it would be this: THAT FANTASTIC HORN CRESCENDO!
11: When the Dreams Run Dry
Sitting just outside of my top 10 is When the Dreams Run Dry. The climax of Imploding the Mirage is a fantastic one that feels like a journey. It's a song where the little things just make the entire song. Whether it's a simple lyric or a new instrument subtly added to the mix, everything just feels so great about this song.
10: All These Things That I've Done
The first entry into my top 10 shouldn't require much in the way of introduction. You all know and love this song, and you probably scream out the lyrics every single time it comes on. Of every song on Hot Fuss, I think it's the one that pushed the most boundaries, while still staying in the ballpark of the album, but at the same time, showcasing the band's willingness to grow.
9: This is Your Life
9th place goes to This is Your Life. This song is a very simple and upbeat song, but there's just so much to love about it. Whether it's the tribal sounding backing vocals, the passionate vocal delivery, or the relatable lyrics, This is Your Life is one of the true gems of The Killers' discography.
8: Sam's Town
We have made it to what I would consider the greatest album opener the band has ever created, an opener to a masterpiece of an album. This song is kinda different to a lot of the album, being a largely synth-driven song, that eventually leads into the heartland rock style of the rest of the album. This song sets the scene with a vibe of dissatisfaction, but also with the subtle feeling that things may get better. It establishes many of the central themes of the album, while also establising the beginning of a sound that is different from the band had previously done in the past.
7: Dying Breed
Up next we have Dying Breed. In the lead-up to Imploding the Mirage, this was the song that I truly felt optimistic that this album would be a great one when it was leaked on instagram. Dying Breed is a fantastic song that I'd argue has the best bridge of any Killers song to date, one of their best outros, lyrics that are comforting, yet powerful and descriptive, all that adding up to a song that I think is an absolute masterpiece.
6: Miss Atomic Bomb
Up next is a song that I never disliked, but has grown heaps on me. I talked about Battle Born helping me through a rough time earlier, but here's where I wanna go into a little more detail. Last year, I was in a terrible mental state, and the nail in the coffin for me was when I found that my best friend was ghosting me, lying to me, and was talking about me behind my back. It didn't help that the last time we had talked to each other in person, we seemed to have been able to put down any barriers and just be completely open with each other. This song reminds me of him, and our friendship that was like a flash of energy, going out as quickly as it came. It was merely a flash of light, but it was beautiful. The 2 of us still talk to each other, and the dust cloud has settled a bit, but it's nothing compared the atomic bomb that it once was. That is why I have grown to absolutely love this song.
5: Bling
Up next is Bling. This is a song that paints beautiful landscapes in the listeners head with it's lyrics. You can just picture everything that Brandon is singing about, and if anything, seems to detail the fall from grace, and losing one's way in life, with the ambition of eventually making it, but not really getting there. This is a song that feels like a quest into the desert, with the ambition of finding one's self, carried by Brandon's enthusiastic persona, in order to create something beautiful.
4: Why Do I Keep Counting? (+Exitlude)
If we're talking about growers, then we gotta talk about Why Do I Keep Counting. I never disliked this song, but it has only grown with time. These days, I consider it to be among the greatest songs the band has ever written, and honestly, this song very well could be higher, songs 6 through 2 are pretty much interchangable. There's something so amazing about this song that just makes me feel incredible things when listening to it. It feels like the culmination of everything that has happened over the past few songs, and then asking for the answers to the questions that have been asked on the journey that is Sam's Town.
Oh, and let's not forget about Exitlude, which may just be among the most beautiful album closers ever created. I'm honestly getting emotional just thinking about these songs while writting this. WDIKC and Exitlude come together to create one hell of a finale, and honestly, although I generally consider them both to be one song, either of them on their own could fit in 4th place just as well as them together.
3: Spaceman
The highest non-Sam's Town song on this list is Spaceman. One of the reasons that I hold this song in such high regard is because about a year ago, I was honestly really suicidal. and this was a song that helped me out during those times. But even putting that aside, this song still utterly slaps. We have one of Brandon's best vocal performances, as well as a stellar performance from Ronnie, combined with some brilliant synths that create a brilliant atmosphere. Damn I love this song, and somehow there's still 2 songs that I consider better.
2: Read My Mind
If you were to find a song by The Killers that has the combined highest score of being loved by fans, loved by the general public, and actually being good, this would probably be it. Brandon has said numerous times that this is one of the best songs he has ever created, and he isn't wrong. "I never really gave up on breaking out of this 2-star town, I got the green light, I got a little fight, I'm gonna turn this thing around" is among my favourite song lyrics ever, and if anything, this song encapsulated so much of what makes Sam's Town as a whole such a masterpiece.
Yet somehow, this is only coming in 2nd place.
1: This River is Wild
We have finally made it. The greatest song The Killers have ever written, This River is Wild. I'm sure there are many of you who would have seen this coming from a mile away, but only with good reason am I putting it here. Here we have a song that showcases everything that Sam's Town is about. The lyrics are focused on the central themes of "making it" and finding one's self, but also the fall down. It's a song that carries the passion of finally being able to make it, before inevitably falling. This River is Wild is the epic climax of Sam's Town that absolutely delivers on every single front. We have yet another one of Brandon's best vocal performances, coupled with several of the best lyrics the band has ever written, and an absolutely brilliant build-up that gives way to slower, softer outro, I don't know how much more great stuff I can say about this song. One of the best songs I have ever heard, and the prime rib of a fucking masterpiece of an album. Holy shit I love this song so much. Words cannot describe just how brilliant I think this song is.
​
Welp, that's it. I have ranked every single song by The Killers. Remember that this is all just my opinion, and your list will definitely be different from mine, and don't take it personally if a song you like is low of a song you dislike is high on my list. Thanks for reading, I'll see you round.

Greetings! We are now celebrating Thanksgiving in the Palace. Remember to check out these timed events and claim your Thanksgiving gifts!
Here are the suggestions collected during 11/17/2020 ~ 11/23/2020 (UTC+08:00) and responses from The Royal Chaos Developers Team. We value every opinion and you are always welcome to speak up in RC-Suggestion on Discord.
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Rebekah Wilson 2020/11/17
Bonjour RC, me again. Thanks for responding to my suggestion. Just to reply to your response, I don’t think divisions determined by the number of actives is fair for some servers. 100 actives that are between 5m-8m won’t stand a chance against 100 10m. Why should servers like these be paired up?? Shuffling divisions are fair to all servers. Numbers mean nothin.
Also to respond ”I don’t think learning from each is a bad thing, is it”. OH YEAH IT IS. I never used the word ”learn”, I used the word ”to copy”. To learn is to see things from others and convert into forms that suit yourself. To copy is to exactly take what you see. That’s others’ knowledge and you’ll fail in NA schools due to a behaviour called plagiarism. Looking back to many NA servers especially after s100, many of them haven’t got lion yet, so why not make them a bit easier for them by shuffling divisions.
Queen Elizabeth II
South America Server
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
Hi Rebekah, we appreciate your follow-up on this topic. We have responded to suggestions about shuffling division a few times, and we still hold on to our answer, that we adjust Faction Division only according to the how long these servers have been released, and how many active players in each server.
To answer the second part of your suggestion, if you believe showing others how you make up a team should be hidden from others, there will be too many things that need this change.
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S97 风行者 Wabbit 2020/11/17
Dear RC,
I’m not sure if you’re oblivious or playing oblivious. Obviously merged servers has the best of the best fighters grouped together from all their respective servers. Their members are more or less consolidated and filtered to have the best players across all 2-3servers in one single faction.
Pairing a non-merged up with a merged server is putting the non-merged at a huge disadvantage.
50 active players with 8-10mio might has got no chance against 30 players with 13-20 mio might just for example.
Activity DOES NOT equate to strength.
Please in future be fair and pair all unmerged servers in a division.
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
Hello 风行者，thank you for your follow-up. We are afraid that’s hardly possible to happen, because you see, many servers have been merged, and we set & adjust Faction Division only according to the how long these servers have been released, and how many active players in each server.
If divisions are set like you suggest, “pair all unmerged servers in a division.” can you imagine what will happen?
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[NA- S15] Chiiyo 2020/11/17
What’s up with the price system in this game. Why are y’all over charging for outfits and items??
The price system in this game has skyrocketed for no apparent reason since the beginning of the game. What was once a reasonable game to play with decent prices has now turned into a “We don’t care about our fans...just their money” game.
And yes y’all are trying but for each time y’all do ONE GOOD....
You all do seven bads.
The monthly log in is a good start to fixing things tho. Hopefully the next thing you all work in is prices for items and outfits because asking for $200 on up for outfits we can’t wear irl and item we can’t use irl is over kill. :broken_heart:
P.s: please fix the drop rates in travel for event travels! For goodness sakes 10% chance for a drop is horrible.
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
Hello Chiiyo, could you please explain this part “Hopefully the next thing you all work in is prices for items and outfits because asking for $200 on up for outfits we can’t wear irl and item we can’t use irl is over kill”, with details?
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[EU- S60] KaeXin 2020/11/17
My response:
Not like Team Arena but something of same sorts.
Like normal cross-server events you do some daily tasks to obtain some points and get the first chest. Possibly do somewhat same thing. Both confidantes have to do some tasks etc. like a normal cross-server event and doing these tasks gets you higher ranked. And you will share same prize.
Fx.
A and B are cps. They do their tasks, maybe top up idk and their ranking reaches 3rd cross-server. They both get the rewards for 3rd ranking.
IGN: KaeXin EU-S60
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
Hi KaeXin, thanks for explaining on this. What you are talking about is some event like the Magpie Festival cross-server event. We will see what we can do in our future new events developing.
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[EU- S60] KaeXin 2020/11/17
Can we get the event back where we use all our charm flowers
KaeXin EU-S60
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
That only appears during Valentine’s Day.
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[NA- S247] Erzili 2020/11/17
Since our complaints about having hoarded awakens and other items seem to be falling on deaf ears, or at least, no one can be bothered enough to allow them for exchange in the exchange pavilion because they’re “free,” I’m going to make another suggestion for how to exchange them.
Perhaps make it an svip privilege that there is an exchange shop. In the exchange shop, allow people to exchange awaken gems, pills, array stones, breakthrough stones, and hero shards for things that are still useful to many, like soul stones and new items (e.g. the new heir puzzles and awaken orbs). At each level of svip, the exchange options can improve. For example, have chimera shards for exchange at svip3. Maybe introduce another svip pet, too, to make the rewards more meaningful.
As a corollary to this suggestion, because all of us have so much hoarded clothing crafting material, add embroidery outfits for lower and upper 1, for all levels of vip, and for all levels of svip. Please consider adding some embroidery outfits to mentorship, as well.
Basically, everyone is becoming very disheartened by all the accumulated items we have worked hard for that we simply cannot use anymore, either because there are no new outfits to craft or because the new system is too expensive with too few benefits to justify spending more money. People were willing to top up before when the rewards weren’t all redundant. Now the rewards all feel redundant, and us older players are bored.
NA-247, Erzili
LeiIn 2020/11/19
What do u mean by free material? If u like to mention it as free material then stop giving us these free material on top up events, on top up rewards, make it real free, can? Put your luxury items as top up rewards lah, even the 6 jades top up rewards, because although 6 jades is cheap, it's not considered free anymore, then put the new orb as 6 jades top up rewards, can? Don't give us upgrade pill or awaken stone or godly stone at top up rewards anymore because these are the material we said we have it exceeded then become useless on our inventory, u call it all free material? Can't exchange it out for your new luxury material, is it? Care to take out these all from top up rewards? Because if it's still on top up rewards, it's not free material anymore, RC... U need to update your dictionary....
As I am thankful u chose my suggestion as one of the weekly best suggestions, I started to question what this weekly best suggestion means... I didn't say u have to implement best suggestions to the game, but by choosing it as best suggestions, doesn't it mean at least u consider the suggestion? And see whether there's a possibility or a way to implement it into the game? Otherwise u choose based on what? The longest the suggestion, the better chance to be chosen? As long as it's long long paragraph or so big dream as if a wow wonderful imagination then will be chosen as best suggestion?
Regarding lion, alas I didn't keep record of all your response to the suggestions previously but if it's not a promise then pardon me for keeping my hope high as one day it will happen.. But the part u say as there will be adjustment on Knockout phase rewards, I do hope this time it's not an empty hope anymore... Or please correct me earlier if I again misunderstand it as a sure thing will happen.... But if I understand it correctly, I do hope the adjustment not only be made for victors rewards on each Knockout stage, but also for the losing faction rewards.... Thank you.
SEA S50
LeiIn
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
We are afraid both of you misunderstand what we meant. If an item can only be obtained by paying, then this item can be used, and they are used, as exchangeable item, eg. Fabled Shard Chest I, Dragon Grass, Gold Bean, Treasure Shard, etc.. However, upgrade Pills, Awaken Gems, Breakthrough Stones, Godly Gem, etc, all have their free ways to be obtained.
To Erzili, updating new costumes to Costume Shop in which you can purchase costume parts by Ingots is already on our plan, which was responded in our previous responses. But we do not plan to add costumes to Mentor Shop.
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饭桶 2020/11/18
I think it’ll be beneficial if you guys do more proof reading before you put out something. To me, this conversation makes no sense. I’m sure everyone is grateful that this game is available in English, but it does seem like you are putting minimal care to the English content. Please review ALL of these and edit the responses so they make sense!
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
Hi, thank you very much for pointing this out for us. Our team will carefully review this and see what can be done to improve. We mentioned in our previous response that our team are doing translation review in every update piece by piece, because we still need to focus on new contents update every month, but please trust us that we are doing this.
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Minuette 2020/11/18
Adding to what FangYiShao said, to really emphasize how useless it is for a lot of us to buy the items in pet island, on the highest difficulty I can join, (which is set to be the highest difficulty until you pass stage 9999), the might of the first enemy is 2.97 mil, whereas I’m starting at 13.48 mil. I’m literally a whole ten million stronger than the enemy already, what could I possibly need the might-boosting items for?? The might of the final “Easter egg” boss is only 5.11 mil, still not even half my starting might, let alone the might I’ve grown to with the items we have to take after clearing each boss, plus whatever else I collected in the non-battle encounters. (Note: I did not visit a single shop, all the items I have were gained from clicking through everything else to get to the bosses.)
I personally like the idea of having the pet coins convert to a new currency after we’ve completed Fun Island, which could then be used in a new Fun Island shop to exchange for useful rewards, or maybe even costumes or costume designs, similar to how bet coins convert to battle coins to be used in the bet shop, but if this is an idea that you’ve decided not to implement, would you at least be willing to unlock higher difficulties (that unlock before stage 9999) for Fun Island, with rewards that scale? (So, for example, if you get X amount of crystallized stone for completing the current highest difficulty, the next difficulty added would give maybe X+5, then the difficulty after that X+10.) Or, if you worry that changing how the stage groupings currently are will cause issues, either from a player’s gameplay standpoint, or from a developer’s implementation standpoint, could you possibly add a new island with an overall higher base difficulty that players can choose to challenge rather than the current “Lost Island”? For this, maybe the second island unlocks after defeating the “manipulator” for the first time, and from there the player can choose whether they want to challenge the original “Lost Island”, or if they want to challenge the new one with increased difficulty/rewards. I think that either of these options would be a welcome update to the current Pet Island feature and would allow for older and/or higher might players to 1.), have a bit more of a challenge again, and 2.) get rewards that are useful to where they are in game, rather than receiving the same rewards that players at half their level are receiving.
蓝乄烟雨
NA s74
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
Hi 蓝乄烟雨, thank you for submitting your suggestion. Your idea is great, unfortunately Pet Island is a gameplay we designed for collecting pet materials & equipment quench materials for free. Adding a new difficulty level or even a brand new island is possible, but we currently do not have plan to expand or add a new feature for pet. So right now we would like to keep your idea, but we can not guarantee that this will eventually happen in the game.
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[NA-S138-150] imissboba 2020/11/18
WEDDING LOTTERY
For wedding lottery, can you please make it so the numbers drawn are at least close to the amount of people who came on with invitations? Although this wedding lottery system was great when your game was populated, now its just dumb because every wedding Mu just takes the 1000 ingots (which i'm not sure why, he has enough money himself :Eyeroll:). Please try to adjust the numbers at least, not many go on for wedding anymore, and when there is one, the lottery is just bye bye bye for every number cause most of them be like 56 or something :cat_angry:. Last wedding I went to only had 11-12 guests so that says something :ShibiHmph: . Or make it so that when we get a number its not a number that correlates to when you went into the wedding event, like giving me number 1 because I was the first guest there. If the numbers can be randomized when they do lottery, it can be randomized when we enter the wedding. I want the wedding event to be fun for my friends/server mates who attend when it does happen :/ It's just a mood killer when Mu just be like "hAHa ThAnKs fOr uR geNerOusity! I wiLL bE taKinG tHe GraND PriZe!!" even though none of us want him there.
In game name: imissboba
Server: NA-S149
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
Hello imissboba, thank you for submitting this suggestions. We understand this situation and we will see what we can do.
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[NA-s221] Mai女皇 2020/11/18
Can we keep blessing packs and costume collection around through the holidays? I really appreciated last time when you kept it for a couple of weeks, but then had it disappear again for a while.
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
Hello Mai, both Blessing Packs and Costume Collection are timed events, and they are always released according to our main event schedule.
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[NA- S15] Chiiyo 2020/11/18
Can we get a shop with every outfit, weapon and deco in the game in it, So we can shop from there instead of waiting on y’all? Because no lie.... you all take too long to bring back stuff. By the time you all bring something back people may no longer want it.
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
Costumes, Weapons, Decors, all have certain time for return in events. Adding a shop won’t change that.
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Baeng 2020/11/18
Can we get face sliders like our heirs have for our features? I think this would diversify us a lot more and open up a lot more faces to be used. I don't like the majority of mine for various reasons - Baeng, NA-93
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
Yes, it is a feature that is already under developing.
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Sher28 (130) 2020/11/19
Please let us buy the face, hair, and outfit separately. You can give a discount if we buy all three at once, but it’s not fair to make us pay full price if we have two of the three in a set. Sher28, NA-130
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
This situation only happens when the face is released for free. If the whole costume set is released for free, this costume will be updated to game, like the costume shop we mentioned, so that you can purchase parts by ingots. However, if a costume is released by paying way, you will have to obtain it as a whole.
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offtopic person called blue 2020/11/19
Server merge
Hello, if your going to do a merge, then can you guys also think of the clan balance? some server has like 30 east and 5 west, it wouldn't be fair if there will be way more east then west on the next merge.. like 15 east and 3 west. That is like 45 east and 7 west? I aready seen a server with a similar ratio and it's not fair on the clan with less members.
So I hope there would be a clan balance when your thinking of merging us.
I used west as a example because west is normally the one with less members
IGN: lilinight
Eu40
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
Like Faction Battle division, server merge also puts server active players number and how long these servers have been released as first priority, then we consider clan balance.
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[NA- S253] Hakichi 2020/11/19
Please please PLEASE
Add a "quick synthesize"
Or "synthesize all" button to synth gems. It's extremely tedious and time consuming synthing all of them manually >_< I legit fell asleep in the middle of upgrading my gems too many times because it took so long to do it
Plz and tyyyy
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
Hello Hakichi, thanks for submitting your suggestion. If you only want to save time, the current synthesize all feature should already meet your needs. However, if you need to pick the best gem match for each of your heroes, you’d better insert gems one by one.
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Fahimfahida 2020/11/19
Can you please bring back Treasure shards as rewards for Easter Egg event.
IGN: Fahim15
NA189
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
Yes we did. We hope you got them.
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[NA-S112] 一徐韵一 | XuYuexue � 2020/11/19
Can you make it so we have the option to change the eye color of our heirs? Also for boys, there's a mark on their head and we can't remove it even though it doesn't match with some costumes
IGN: 一徐韵一
NA-S112
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
It is possible for heir color change. We will see what we can do. About the mark on heir head, we will look into it.
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[NA-S318] Sai勿忘我 2020/11/19
Can you add something to Accompany? Like more dates or somewhat? I'm sick just looking at my date crystals growing more and more each time I do a quest or I'm bored. I'll be waiting for the new year one, since I haven't done it yet - but please add more dates or somewhat. >.>
[NA-S318] Sai勿忘我
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
Recent update have been focusing on major gamplays, so developing more accompany dates or banquet stories has not been and will not be our first developing priorities. But you are right, we do have plan to develop more dates for holidays.
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[NA-S138-150] imissboba 2020/11/19
For accompany gifts, can you make it so that we can send all, especially when we unlocked every event related to that gift? I get tired of pressing give 3 when I have over 100 and wanna get rid of it cause I need to get to level 20 intimacy :sob:
IGN: imissboba
Server: NA-S149
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
Thank you for submitting this suggestion. We will see if we can add a Quick All here.
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LeiIn 2020/11/19
Hi, RC, thanks for responding to the suggestion,but I am sorry I failed to understand as why how the whole array system working can be a reason of not considering agi soul stone for slot 4. The array system code was written by your IT team, I believe they have the ability to adjust it. If it is only be suggested by one or two players, then I can see why you don't have plan to add it, but as you may see from the suggestion response stickers, plus I noticed lots player asked for it on this channel previously, I don't understand why it can't change your mind and start to consider giving us agi for slot 4? While you give us atk agi for slot 1, do u really expect us to put our attacker on front line? Slot 1 is on front line leh.. Hp agi on slot 1 I can understand, but u give us atk agi on slot 1 while not plan to give us atk agi for slot 4? What kind of joke is this? Do u mind to explain more about your reason why not plan to do it while lots of your player suggested it?
Regarding the excess material, I believe you didn't get the reason why we asked for exchange event of this material to new material. You sell the events material on flash packs so that we no need top up to win events is a bit useless maneuver. We top up to win events = at least get the jades to spend again on something we need, but now u sell on packs with same price as the top up value = u take away the jades from us...
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
Hello LeiIn, thanks for your follow-up on this topic. Since Array Soul Stone adds attributes like ATK, HP, AGI, etc., these attributes are all carefully calculated and distributed on different parts, hero levels & upgrade & awaken, equipment, pets, array, wits, etc..It’s not that simple that we can directly add a soul stone for slot 4 with AGI attributes. In a word, we don’t think that’s necessary. If you have specific reason why you MUST have a AGI soul stone for slot 4, you may follow up and respond to us.
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[NA-s221] Mai女皇 2020/11/19
I’m very disappointed you guys promised working on clan switch for over a year and then quietly backed out of that idea without really letting us know. While I have said it in the past, I’ll repeat it again. Most other similar games do not restrict players this way. We should be allowed to move around whichever faction we wanted to and our alliance would be connected to that and not just west/east, which more often than not end up incredibly uneven. Even in our newly merged server Clan War was already 40 vs 20 last night and I don’t see it getting better. I hope at least with the possibility of moving servers you don’t tease us about it for a year before quietly dropping the idea again. - 蓝兔丶Mai - sNA221
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
Hi Mai, we admire your insistence but our answer remains the same.
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[NA-S185] Leunan 2020/11/20
Problem: People are separated by arbitrary distinctions made in early game, choosing a clan based solely on NPC interaction in cut scenes.
Solution: Remove the clan tag from players and instead apply it to factions. Have faction leads declare allegiance to Empress or Nian and then mark the faction itself as East or West. Players can be free agents moving between clans and factions this way. And let's be honest RC, any server based "rivalry" tends to stem from the faction level and has nothing to do with clans at all. Let friends play together and be done with it.
If keeping things "balanced" for Clan War is the problem, maybe your team needs to look into adjusting that event so it's not restricting your player's gameplay.
Leunan [NA-S185]

The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
Hi Leunan , thank you for submitting your suggestion. We are considering making a new clan war event recently, just some ideas that may easy the unbalance of clans in some servers. Your idea is good by the way.
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Baeng 2020/11/20
Hey, can you stop locking everything behind top up? I refuse to top up more when I’m sitting on like 1500 jade with nothing I want to spend it on. - Baeng NA 93
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
Hello Baeng, if you are talking about an event with progress chest, we usually have exchangeable items in chests like Treasure Shards, which can be used to exchange for other might boost items at EXCH Pavilion. If you are talking about Sky Orb, it has to be at certain place because of its price. If there is something more you would like to add on this topic, you are always welcome to follow up.
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Ricess 2020/11/20
A 4th arena on kites event please, or after completing all 3 slots an exchange for kites similar to that in peach prayer.
八Ricey八 -sNA308
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
Hello Ricess, each Summer Kites event needs exact 112 Kites, 16 for free and 96 from top-up bonus. There is no extra kites left.
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°·蓝Zhan | 金塊·° 2020/11/20
Dear RC, I don't think it's really necessary to have those bot faction's to be honest. It be better off to remove them instead, because it's a waste of ingots to increase our friendliness so many times! It sometimes give stress and anxiety when we are about to lose an HU! So please remove them!!
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
We suggest you use Please and Alienate Higher-ups properly to maintain a good relationship with the NPCs.
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饭桶 2020/11/20
No matter how many times I think about it, I think it’ll be more fun if the faction battle heaven and earth guards are taken from the OPPOSING team. For example, faction A wants to buy some heaven guards. They’ll be able to purchase heaven guards that has the highest might from faction B, whom they will be facing. Same thing with the earth guards, the might of those will be taken from the average might of the opposing faction. This will make it more fun I think, and the guards you can buy will also be different depending on who you are facing. It makes no sense for a faction with three 20mil members to have even more of an advantage when they already have three 20mil members. Since you barely listened to us when we requested for a decision rotation, I think this would be a decent compromise for now. Also I would like to suggest to at least gift the runner up faction 1-5 lion shards, to encourage more factions to participate in faction battle. One of the most enticing rewards from this event is the lion shards afterall, I think it’s a good time to slowly add some shards to the runner up prize to encourage people to keep trying.
Soju 2020/11/21
Actually RC, I would like to oppose this. Compared to active factions on other servers, it is more difficult for my faction (which isn’t as active, but has a handful of high might players) to win faction battle, so I don’t think it’s a good idea to take might for the earth and shadow guards from the faction that you’re facing. On the other hand, I do think it would be nice to get some lion shards in the semi-finals or finals for the losing team.
On a separate note, I would like to suggest to remove the bot factions or have them hit less, as most of the bot factions do more damage to HUs than the player factions. This is sort of ridiculous, as there is no reason for the bot factions to be attacking 200/250 by alienation while player factions attack 75. Also, please keep the free stuff coming, it has motivated a lot of my friends to come back to play the game. Thanks!
Server NA250
愛Misaki
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
Thanks for both of your making your points on this topic. The situation Soju mentioned is one of the reasons why we added Guard system to Faction Battle. In a word, Guard System is to provide more possibilities for ALL factions.
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Aelaena 2020/11/20
Hi RC, I would like to suggest having a faction reward system where the leader can only access to distribute these rewards (Could be purchased via faction gold). This would encourage players to be more active and also help non-paying players to be able to get items they struggle to build. Example for Rewards can be Duality EQ shards, Flowers, Pet (Lion?) shards, higher lvl gems. Players can collect over time, synthesise and build their desired eq or items over time without needing to spend too much. This would also keep fac morale higher where members feel 'rewarded' for their contributions towards the faction and also give them incentive to contribute to their respective faction further. The higher the faction lvl, more rewards can be unlocked and distributed. You can set a weekly reward distribution limit a member can receive per week. This is just a general suggestion and I'm speaking from a younger server's perspective older servers might have better suggestions in regards to rewards. Kindly pls take into consideration of that. Thank you
Server: SEA-S125
IGN: Aelaena
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
Hi Aelaena, we are considering adding faction rewards during Faction Battle knock-out stages. Faction Leader can distribute these rewards, sort like they distribute faction instance rewards. We are glad you think the same!
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[SEA-S120] MarielSpur 2020/11/20
Is it possible to have Lion pet shards from faction battle? Instead of never getting the chance to achieve 1st place, it may help other factions actually get some kind of reward. So maybe have like 5 shards per battle. I’m not suggesting shards as DEFEAT rewards, just maybe for making it to the next round. For example, winning t16 and making it to t8, the reward could include like 2 or 5 lion shards. This helps us to build a better system of pet formations without having to ‘win’ everything since not each faction will have the opportunity to get 1st.
MarielSpur - SEA-S120
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
Hello MarielSpur, we just responded to Aelaena abou this, we are considering adding faction rewards for faction battle knock-out stages. About Roaring Lion shards’ yield at Faction Battle, we may need some more time to think about it. In the mean time, you may find more ways, uniting other factions, for instance, to get bigger winning chance.
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Chrissytude 2020/11/20
Let people who spend a lot and honestly don’t feel the need to spend any more for themselves buy things for friends. Let me gift Jade and VIP to my clanmates who can’t do it myself. Not only would you get more money out of it, since you seem to like it, I get to power up other friends who might be struggling to do it themselves.
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
Hello Chrissytude, thanks for submitting your suggestion. We did a survey in October asking if you want a costume gift feature in Royal Chaos, and many players said yes to it. We believe it’s highly possible that one day we can make it happen.
PS: Jade and VIP EXP are special resources and they can not be gifted to others.
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ZeldaDragon NA262 2020/11/21
Please give me something to do with these enhance shards. I have enhanced everything
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
Hi ZeldaDragon, thanks for submitting this. We will see what we can do.
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[NA-S135] Rainboom 2020/11/21
I would like to suggest the ability to customise the colour of our name. The ability to have letters/ shapes in different colours/patterns would be great for customising
Rainboom NA-135
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
Could you also tell us where would you like this to display?
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[NA-229] 鸾月 2020/11/21
We used to be able to see decors on our characters on ranking > formation. Now you can only see decors on character profiles. Is this intended or a bug? I personally would like my decors to be visible everywhere, including on the formation page.
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
Hi 鸾月, we will look into this and see if it is a bug. It’s supposed to be seen on both hero embattle and checking others’ formation. Thank you for bringing this to us anyway.
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饭桶 2020/11/21
Please stop putting faction battle finals ON thanksgiving day or ON Christmas Day :DogSpitBlood: :DogSpitBlood: , like can you at least try to accommodate for NA holidays-
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
Faction Battle goes on with fixed time pattern, starting from the first Monday of the third week of every month.
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令Wen 2020/11/21
PLEASE STOP BLACK FRIDAY SUPPER ROYAL MALL RIGHT 1 SECOND AFTER CLAN WAR
I can barely purchase anything before anything is left there...even if I make it early...all those fast fingers get them before I can scroll and tap...the item I want to buy...or increase the maximum amount of items sold in the mall...there's 341 servers...yet only 1 or 3 or 5 of the item to be able be bought....I DONT LIKE THIS ADRENALINE
Emitsha NA S330
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
This is why it’s called Seckill.
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[NA-S173] Wanvessa 2020/11/21
Please find a way to make sure RC doesnt get any bigger storage-wise or, even better, cut down the amount of storage it takes up, as its literally doubled in size since i started playing it!
Ive had to literally delete all other non built-in apps other than rc and 1 msging app otherwise my storage is full, i even have a 64gb sd card but it doesnt fully transfer over to it, and it uses internal storage during updates, so its not helpful T T
I dont wanna have to quit or play on an emulator on pc. I know many other people are leaving because of this probem too!
Wanvessa NA-S173
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
We’ve been optimizing storage recently to make sure the App storage won’t increase largely after every update.
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[NA-S181] NaidaBelle 2020/11/21
Can we do the Zongzi event again soon?
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
Not until next Dragon Boat Festival we are afraid.
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壹塊丶Robin [NA-S261] 2020/11/22
Is that green rice ball event ever going to make a reappearance? I’ve a lot of mats for it stored up, and I’d like to know if I’ll ever be able to use them.
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
Hi Robin, if you have enough materials, you can make Emerald Rice Ball in Accompany gift workshop anytime. If you mean the Cook-off event which themed on Emerald Rice Ball, it was a Qingming Festival themed event which only appears during Qingming Festival.
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[EU-S24] KimPossible「濛濛」2020/11/22
Pls change/ add more outfits for peach prayer... or at least have a mini catalog with options... I literally just got this outfit from peach prayer last week :neutral_face: idk but if you gotta pay 100€ or whatever at least let us get something outta it... and no I can’t memorize all outfit names plus you can’t even click on the chest to review the dress (and I bet I’m not the only one who doesn’t check 24/7 what the outfits are called but yes you could say that maybe I should’ve searched first and this is my own fault but at least add a function and just let us click on it and review it first:neutral_face::neutral_face::neutral_face: like that’s the bare minimum)
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
Hi KimPossible, thanks for bringing this to us. We already noticed this issue and we do plan to optimize it in our future updates. Actually we plan to support costume & decor display at every event. For Peach Pray event, we will also add a [Owned] tap if you already have this costume.
PS: If you obtained this costume when you didn’t notice you had it already, please feel free to contact our customer service team. We’re sure they will do their best to help you out.
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LeiIn 2020/11/22
Can we have the water gun events again? I still have lots of large water gun on my inventory, lol
SEA S50
LeiIn
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
Hello LeiIn, we did think about it, but Summer Joy event is a summer season event, and we think it’s a little inappropriate to have it during cold winter. But do keep your water guns. They will still be useful will this event reappear.
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Kujaku孔雀 2020/11/22
For the Kite event, when we have finished the whole board instead of having to click them one by one. could you have a quick claim button so that it just claims them all with having to click every single on of them.
NA-313
Whisks
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
Hello Whisks, thanks for your suggestion. Yes, we will make that happen.
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S97 风行者 Wabbit 2020/11/22
Hi RC,
Please give us Cross Server Helper for FB?
CROSS SERVER HELPER FOR FACTION BATTLE SUGGESTION:
STORYLINE:
After beating TOP 16, Top 8 and Top 4 Factions, the remaining 2 Factions arrive at the Grand Finals stage for a showdown. Both their armies are more or less injured, and this is the time where they would need foreign support.
MECHANICS:

1. The 2 factions in the finals will be able to hire 2x Cross Server Helpers as FOREIGN GUARDS to assist in the finals.
   
2. FOREIGN GUARDS recruitment will cost the faction 168,000K faction gold (16 Fortune Jades & 8 Night Pearls) for each FOREIGN GUARD hired.
   
3. Leader of the Faction will be required to send FOREIGN GUARDS 18x Cross Server Flowers each in order to 'entice' the FOREIGN GUARDS to pledge allegiance to the Faction.
   
4. Cross Server Helpers assisting as FOREIGN GUARDS are individual mercenaries and their service is not linked to whether their faction is in Top 16 or not.
   
5. Cross Server Helpers can earn the same rewards as the Cross Server Faction that they assist / or they can earn other Cross-Server related items like Majestic Horns, CS Flowers plus perhaps some Glory Coins to exchange FB Costumes etc.
   

RATIONAL:
Since RC is an interactive game, we have also made Cross-Server friends, who more often than not play an integral part of the few reasons that we continue playing the game. Some players may have already lost interest in the game due to their own servers' drama and may find it pointless to play FB in a server that they feel they do not belong in. You don't have a server switch option now in RC, I believe having FOREIGN GUARDS could be a good start.
SEA-S97 风行者

The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
Hi 风行者, we have to say this is a brilliant suggestion, even with background story set. Our team will take time to look into your suggestion. Thank you again!
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令Wen 2020/11/23
How likely or when will my server be merging ? NA330-Emitsha
The Royal Chaos Team’s Response:
Hi, we responded to this question last week that we won’t have server merge until Jan 2021.