Silksong News?! Really? Is that even possible? (Edge Magazine Analysis)

So it looks like Team Cherry is completely opposed to republishing a blog post. I think they are afraid. Your website crashes every time a new post appears. In fact, their website crashed last month on the one-year anniversary of their last blog post simply because Hollow Knight fans were waiting for an update and constantly refreshing the page. But it seems that Team Cherry has found a medium that is immune to server outages: print media. So, our latest batch of

news

about Silksong comes from Edge Magazine. They are based out of the UK and have been around since 1993.

Their 100th issue

even

had the cover drawn by Shigeru Miyamoto himself, best known as producer of the game Wii Music. And now we have issue #354 which includes a Team Cherry interview about Silksong and has two covers drawn by Ari Gibson himself. This article was written by Jen Simpkins, who interviewed Team Cherry previously in Edge issue #329, where they discussed the development of Hollow Knight. But this new article contains a lot of new information and screenshots about Silksong. There is a link in the description where you can purchase a single digital issue of the

magazine

, which I highly recommend so you can read the entire article for yourself.

Buying a copy also helps legitimize indie games as being worth writing cover stories about. One of the first topics discussed in this article is why exactly Team Cherry decided to make Silksong a completely separate game from Hollow Knight, rather than just DLC. And the reason is that Hornet is too tall. The Knight is a small shrimp compared to Hornet, and due to his more acrobatic style, higher jumps, and heavier feel, Team Cherry felt he would be too cramped maneuvering through the halls of Hallownest. Which is a fun thing to think about. Hallownest is already considered one of the largest metroidvania maps out there, and yet it's too claustrophobic for Hornet.

According to William, it took them a year and a half to fully understand how Hornet's height affects the design for her. Another interesting fact is that Team Cherry wants to make Silksong as accessible as

possible

. And by this I mean that people can play Silksong without playing Hollow Knight first. So it seems like Team Cherry wants to have some sort of barrier between the

even

ts of Silksong and Hollow Knight so that new players don't get completely confused. Overall, it's probably a good idea, but honestly I would have preferred if new players had to watch all of my videos before they could play Silksong.

Maybe a password on the opening title screen that asks what my favorite color is or how many guarantees I have. Things like that. Another thing Team Cherry mentioned is that they want Silksong to also match Hollow Knight in terms of difficulty. So the first few areas of Silksong are supposed to be equally easy compared to the first few areas of Hollow Knight. Now, while waiting in line for the Silksong demo at PAX Australia, I saw a lot of people completely destroyed by the Moss Grotto area, but then again, people also had problems with Forgotten Crossroads. So it's a little hard for me to judge whether what I played was actually easier or harder than the first few areas of Hollow Knight.

That said, late-game Silksong probably won't shy away from ramping up the difficulty and giving us some historical connections to Hollow Knight. There has to be. I'm still waiting for a resolution for Bretta. However, it seems that the enemies in Silksong are going to be more sophisticated. We could already see that in the E3 demo, with these simple bell enemies already showing slightly more dynamic interactions. But in this interview, Team Cherry specifically points out that some of Hollow Knight's enemies look very video game, like the sentinels in the City of Tears. With Silksong, they feel that the enemies of the world should be more dynamic and aware of their surroundings.

Ari says they've spent more time focusing on combat than platforming with Silksong because Hornet has more weight and less hover time. But enough of the vague game design decisions, let's talk about what we actually learn about Pharloom in this interview. To give a brief description, Pharloom has been described as a land enchanted by silk and song, and many have visited the land on pilgrimage to reach the shining Citadel at the top of the kingdom. One thing we learned from this Edge article is that pilgrims actually carry a precious thread to the Citadel and that, for some reason, they will attack other pilgrims along the way.

Furthermore, the kingdom is full of doors that can only be opened by paying melodic tributes, although that was something we already speculated. Hornet has apparently become weaker due to the time she spent trapped in the sealed cage we saw in the intro, which could explain why she passes out after the fight with Moss Mother. Ari explains this in a rather alarming statement. "Part of what Hornet is doing is that she has lost the traditional strength of her... and the Weavers, or what's left of them, are helping her restore it." So what exactly is Hornet's “traditional strength”?

Is it just her physical strength? Did he lose his spider sense or something? And then there is "what remains of the Weavers." That does not sound good. From screenshots and the Edge article, we can tell that the Weavers reside in chambers here in Pharloom, possibly behind them, but we don't know. Are they trapped in these places? Or are they hiding so they don't get taken to the Citadel? The floor of this room is identical to that of the Weaver's Den in Hallownest, so it is most likely a place built by Weavers. Since pilgrims carry threads to the Citadel, it seems a safe bet to assume that these insects want silk, so they would probably want to capture the Weavers, which is why some of them are hiding or protected by these gates.

So what exactly are these insects doing with this silk? Well, in my first Silksong video I mentioned the idea that the insects beneath the Citadel are being controlled by the silk in some way, sort of like puppets. And since then, people have pointed out that when enemies die in Silksong, we can briefly see long threads of silk on them. This phenomenon is consistent and definitely intentional on the part of the developers. Another thing I think we can say fairly confidently is that the name Pharloom is quite literal. In this image we can clearly see the silk running in lines, with these bindings that look like hairpins used on real looms.

So the insects of the Citadel are collecting silk from weavers and pilgrims to add to their giant loom, which in turn used to do something that results in the kingdom's citizens being chased for silk. Or something like that, I'm not sure. One thing we do know is that the Weavers grant Hornet the ability to use power-ups, one in particular being the Silk Spear, which allows Hornet to pass through web barriers. I assume this move is the Silk Spear, although it is described as a lunging move, while it is more of a stabbing move. So the Weavers will probably have powers that Hornet will need to reach new areas, in standard metroidvania style.

From the interview we also learn a little more about the structure of Pharloom. Hornet starts in Moss Grotto, as we suspected. But after that, the next area is actually the Bone Forest area that was cut from Hollow Knight. In this area we can find Bonebottom, which is practically the main center of the game, similar to Dirtmouth. Also, the fast travel tunnels are called “Marrow” and this creature we have to tame is called Bell Beast. After obtaining the Silk Spear, Hornet is able to free Bell Beast, who immediately attacks her. But she is defeated, Bell Beast ends up fleeing, which means you won't be able to fast travel on Silksong until later in the game.

Since we're talking about the structure of Pharloom, let's take a look at some of the screenshots provided in this interview. Nothing we see here appears to be new areas. This screenshot of Moss Grotto allows us to see a new enemy. I've seen some people call this creature a moss deer. Now I don't know why, but I think this guy is great. We also see Hornet playing music for this Kratos cosplayer. Why is he doing this exactly? Is Hornet one of those jerks who always brings his instruments to parties and starts playing them? We can also see that Team Cherry has added some new statues in the background of locations we've already seen.

These statues are of insects looking up while holding what appear to be saucers. So what does this mean? Are you waiting for something to arrive from the Citadel? Are they offering anything? Something interesting about these statues is that there's actually a very similar one hidden in Godhome's art assets in Hollow Knight, although this thing doesn't have a face so I don't know if he's looking up or not. We also seem to be getting a lot of footage of Greymoor, which you may remember Team Cherry saying was one of the largest areas they've ever created. Now we don't know if these rooms are actually Greymoor, but I'm guessing because these areas are gray.

I also think this room with the shopkeeper is Greymoor as well, simply because it has a similar floor. In this room, which appears to be to the left of one of the bell cities, we can see Hornet in a swamp-like area. The interesting thing about this room are these strange stalactites hanging from the ceiling. Now these could be tree roots or giant plants hanging from above. These small branches coming out from the sides may be similar to main root systems. Another theory is that they are artificial or, I suppose, created by errors. Whatever they are, I

really

like them.

They remind me of the Lake of Ash from Dark Souls, or the cave seen in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Details like this and the aforementioned statues

really

help emphasize the verticality of Pharloom. We also see this in a new screenshot of that strange Bell City. You basically have to jump on this thing to climb up the vertically stacked bell towers. It seems like a pretty dangerous place to live, but maybe the Pharloom bugs really like parkour. In this screenshot, we get a glimpse of Pharloom's written language. This poster appears to be filled with musical notes and gold pins.

Now, it's

possible

that this is how the Pharloom language is written, indicating how important music is here. We can also see what appear to be some musical notes on the story tablets in Deep Docks. But other glimpses we've seen of Pharloom's language look a lot like Hollow Knight's random scribblings. There are some tablets in Hollow Knight that seem to make sense, like the Stag Station signs. If you look at this long enough, you'll be able to see what it says. So this sign could be specific to this building or in other words, this building is a store that sells musical instruments and pins.

Finally in this image we can see that members of the Citadel caste can also wear silk. Good for them. Going back to the interview, we also learn that getting to the Citadel is not the ultimate goal of Silksong, as once you get there, getting to the top of the Citadel is a task in itself. So the actual amount of time spent in the Citadel will be a larger portion of the game's runtime than we might have thought. So maybe some of the areas we've already seen are already in the Citadel. I think it's possible that this area we've seen several times is located within the Citadel.

What's more interesting is that this room in the Trobbio boss fight has structures that resemble buildings found in the Citadel, if it is the Citadel. So the top of the Citadel could actually be this giant ball. Although I'm starting to think this ball might actually be a cocoon of some kind, at this point I'm just wildly speculating. William mentions that magic is a little more distant in Pharloom, which I have a little trouble understanding. I think he means that a lot more things in Pharloom will look constructed, like traps and mechanisms and such. As instead of a Snail Shaman exploding and the Knight simply sipping the life juice from him, Hornet will actually find items and tools to upgrade his equipment.

But while soul may not be as prevalent here in Pharloom, I feel like this whole thing with silk and song still falls under the definition of magic, but maybe that's just me. We also learned about another mechanic with Rosarios. We've seen before items called Rosario Strings that Hornet can find. Basically, when you die, you lose the rosaries, but if you have rosary threads, they stay. And then you can break them when you need to spend them. It's basically like a more flexible version of Hollow Knight's relics. But now it turns out that you can create rosary threads from your own rosaries.

A seller could charge Hornet 120rosaries by putting 100 rosaries on a string. I think the Geo system in Hollow Knight suffered because players lost thousands of Geo early in the game and became frustrated. And it could be quite some time before the player finds Millibelle. So having this Rosary system that allows the player to easily store their wealth at a small cost seems like a pretty good change to the monetary system. Ari goes on to say that Rosaries can also be made at certain special benches. Speaking of benches, apparently this Deep Docks bench with all these bells is considered a Holy Bench, and Ari has already designed like 100 different benches for Silksong.

Now, this statement attracts quite a bit of attention for multiple reasons. So let's dive into this. First of all, “100 different banks” is probably hyperbole, since 100 is not an exact number. That said, though, how many banks are there in Hollow Knight? If we count the extra breakable bank in Beast's Den, the three banks in the White Palace, and the three non-pantheon banks in Godhome, there are a total of 49 banks in Hollow Knight. So if there are already 100 different banks in Silksong, that implies that Team Cherry has become much more generous with the placement of the banks this time, which I doubt, or Silksong is twice the size of Hollow Knight.

But it's worth noting that many of these 49 banks are no different, as many of them are simply generic banks. So how many different bench designs are there in Hollow Knight? Well, there's the generic one, the toll bench, the benches found inside Trams, the one at Ancestral Mound, the one outside Salubra's hut, the one at the stone shrine, the one near the Unn Lake, the one near Leg Eater, which is more of a corpse than a bank but I'm counting it anyway, the one at Mantis Village, three slight variations found near Nailmasters, the one at the Pleasure House, the one at the shop near Hornet 2, the one in the Colosseum of Fools, the one in the Master's Archives, the one in the Beast Lair, the one in front of the Pale King statue in the Garden of the Queen, those exclusive to the White Palace, the one found in the Temple of the Black Egg, and two different ones found in Godhome.

We can also find two unused benches in the game's art assets. This bench that can be found in a room called “Hornet's room” and a bench literally made up of fucking corpses of pots. Seriously, this is the best bench ever and I'm so mad Team Cherry didn't use it. This brings the total unique bank layouts to 24. Therefore, Silksong could have four times as many unique banks, meaning Silksong could actually be 4 times larger than Hollow Knight. Now I don't really believe that. I guess Team Cherry is simply choosing to create new banks more frequently. So far we have seen 8 banks on Silksong, 6 of which are unique.

So while I'm sure Silksong will have more banks than Hollow Knight, I think a higher percentage of them will be unique. The other interesting thing about this quote is Ari Gibson's exact wording. “As expected, we ended up with like 100 different banks.” The fact that he said “we're done” is pretty interesting. Does this mean they're done making art from the area? The finality implied in this statement could mean good

news

for an imminent launch of Silksong. Now, I don't want to generate too much hype, but Silksong will definitely be out by the end of the week. Regardless, it's obvious that the Cherry team is still interested in paying close attention to details.

For example, they have Jack Vine working on things like making little rings able to roll for a while after you hit them, and I guess he's responsible for little things like making these objects move more realistically. Speaking of these rings, they will be used to indicate that Shakra is nearby, with Shakra being this game's version of Cornifer. These rings will then act similarly to Cornifer's discarded pieces of paper. It's also hinted that we might be fighting Shakra at some point in the future. Which, sadly, never happens with Cornifer. There is also news about fleas, do you remember them?

Well, apparently not only will they be sitting around, but they can also be captured by other insects somehow. So it seems that collecting fleas will require more than just finding a physical location, which will hopefully make them a little more interesting to collect than the larvae, since they were almost always trapped in jars, sometimes guarded by random enemies. Why the fuck does this guy care so much about taking care of this food? Trobbio was mentioned in the interview. It's basically been confirmed that he's a bit clumsy, and his fight is accompanied by silly music. He is also named and voiced by another developer Team Cherry is friends with, Matt Trobbiani.

Matt worked on the game Hacknet, which even included a song by Chris Larkin himself. You can see Matt being interviewed alongside Team Cherry at this Bitsummit event in 2018. So is this guy Matt Trobbiani canonically a klutz in real life? Well, I actually met Matt when I went to PAX in 2019. He said he liked my videos, so at least to me he seemed like a pretty smart guy. Team Cherry also talked about the quests in Silksong. They confirm that there will still be traditional random quests that you can stumble upon like in Hollow Knight, but that there is also an organized collection of quests that the player can find using quest boards.

If you remember, there are at least four different types of known quests: Wayfarer, Hunt, Grand Hunt, and Gather. It looks like Team Cherry only showed a Gathering mission, in which the player collected Mossberries to bring to the Druid of the Moss Temple, which is the guy we saw in the reveal trailer. We can see Mossberries placed in the E3 demo, but it turns out that enemies can simply carry Mossberries with them. Apparently you can also jump into this cauldron, but it's not a very good idea. We see a screenshot of what could be a Hunt or Great Hunt, where Hornet fights a strange creature alongside Garmond and Zaza.

I don't know why, but every time I see them I assume it must be some kind of search, but I guess that's just speculation on my part. And now I think it's time to get into the Hornet tools, as we see a lot of crazy things happening in these screenshots. First of all we can see that the Hornet's HUD adopts three different versions. This is completely new, as none of the 2020 gifs had anything like this. So what are they? Well, the HUD actually changes appearance depending on what Crest Hornet is using. Here in the menu, we see a new shield called Reaper, which has twice as many slots as the Wanderer shield we saw before.

And that Crest design seems to align with one of the HUD changes. From this we can see that there are Crests that allow you to have two weapons at the same time. And in other screenshots we can see this in action. In the E3 demo, the R button was the way to activate a tool. But it's not clear how it would work with two of them. The L and ZL buttons were not mapped in the demo, so they could be candidates for using a second tool or changing the order of the tools. It is also possible to upgrade the tools themselves, as the Straight Pin can later be upgraded to the Tri-Pin.

Apparently, Hornet can even learn to craft new tools based on the tools used by the residents of Pharloom, much like watching an enemy throw a javelin can help her learn how to throw a javelin. Which is right. I'm sure it will make more sense when we see it in the game. You will also add your own touch to them. This is shown quite well in this screenshot. You can see that Hornet is using the same tool as this NPC, except she has that red rope. So what new tools can we see in these screenshots? As we can see here, Team Cherry has finally given Hornet a boomerang.

I know Team Cherry's Australian audience was pretty upset about the lack of boomerangs in Hollow Knight, so this is a welcome addition. Now if they could add a gun, then we Americans will finally feel represented. We have some kind of container filled with an orange liquid substance. I'm sure that's not harmful at all. I think this is some type of pomegranate, perhaps similar to pimpillo. We can also see this longer spear weapon, and a drill type weapon. But then we also see another handleless drill type weapon. Now, according to Ari, there's another mock attack where Hornet "turns into something like a top and descends towards enemies." However, I don't think any of these elements are related to that.

It could be this red drill, but we have yet to see a tool like this directly affect Hornet's movement. In a gif above, we can see another way Hornet's aerial movement can be altered. We can see it gliding through the air and I assume this is yet another part of Hornet's equipment that can be modified, possibly by crests. Maybe you can choose to double jump or slide, or turn into a damn beyblade. We also have a name for this tool. It's called Sting Shard. There are a few other new tools here on the menu, but we still have no idea what they do.

I still think these are passive effects. In this screenshot we can see spikes around Hornet's masks, which could imply that she is also wearing a Thorns of Agony type. But nothing in the interview mentions it directly. But one thing we do know is that Team Cherry is adding side reactions to these tools. By that I think they mean things like how charm abilities would combine in Hollow Knight. Basically, tools will have unique interactions depending on the context in which they are used. There is another part of these crests that I still need to mention, and this is how it looks like you can equip Hornet's abilities on a crest.

In this screenshot, we can see this image presumably of Hornet's spire located in the middle of the ridge. Then, if we look above the tools in the red section, we can see another image of Hornet's needle. So it looks like Hornet's silk abilities can be swapped. Then maybe you can have this big slashing move equipped, or Gossamer Storm, or this stabbing move. And judging by this layout of the controls, these will be called skills. Another interesting change is that the shield we see in the screenshot does not have the colored slots like in the previous example.

Although there is still some color here, I'm not sure what it is. Moving away from Crests, I only have one more thing to say about the user interface regarding the reel meters. It appears these systems have changed since the E3 demo. The bottom spool meter now has a base length of 9 silk notches instead of 8. We can also see that the spool is now segmented. There seems to always be a mark to indicate the first nine notches. But sometimes there are other smaller marks at around 5 notches. It also looks like the silk will shine brightly once it reaches 9 notches.

Except in this screenshot where it lights up at 8. This could be related to whatever mark hit the silk on the reel. We can see that the top spool meter is also segmented in some cases. We can also see in these screenshots that this reel meter no longer lights up once Hornet reaches 8 silk notches. At first I thought maybe it only lights up when you've lost health, basically as an indicator that you can use Hornet's bond ability to heal yourself. So a segmented meter means that with a full silk spool, you could join multiple times as long as you don't reach full health.

But in the gifs released last summer, we can see the meter on and off while Hornet is at full health. So either this gif is outdated or my theory is completely wrong. Regardless, it's safe to say that the segments on these meters, or whether they're illuminated or not, is likely determined by what abilities and tools Hornet has equipped on his Crest. Aside from that, it's possible Hornet could increase his reel length through collectibles like the Soul Vessels from the first game. But I've spent too much time looking at these stupid screenshots and I still can't pinpoint exactly what's going on.

So I'll leave it for now. Now just a few more things to mention. Apparently, the Lace song we all know and love was not the one Christopher Larkin originally wrote. The first song he wrote was a result of Team Cherry trying to explain the history and backstory to him. They ended up using a different piece he had just written as the boss theme. So it looks like Team Cherry is going to let Chris do his thing. Which, given Larkin's track record, will probably be fine. So will we ever get to hear Lace's original song? Well,Turns out I was able to get a copy of the song.

So I'll play it for you right now. We also get an image of what appears to be a new boss. According to Ari, this boss is known as the Last Judge. William then says that this enemy immediately makes the player wonder what his problem is. And then the author of the

magazine

calls me by my name. I'm truly honored to be mentioned in a UK gaming magazine. I remember buying issue #1 in 1993 and thinking how wonderful it would be to have my name in Edge magazine. That was pretty much the reason I started this channel. And now my dream has finally come true.

There is only one problem. They capitalized the “M.” Now, to be completely fair, Jen Simpkins informed me that she had to capitalize the “M” because of something called style guides. It sounds made up, but I think Jen is telling the truth. In fact, Jen seems to be a big Hollow Knight fan in general. She's even aware of the milk song meme she started over on the Hollow Knight Memes subreddit. If you don't know what Milksong memes are or why they exist, well, honestly I don't either. Getting back to the actual screenshot, there's a bit to talk about here.

First of all, being a land without much magic, I'm pretty skeptical that this son of a bitch isn't some kind of wizard. He has a silly headdress and can create giant spirals of flame everywhere. Now, this magical ability could be tied to the rosaries he appears to be clutching. Also, if we look at his eyes, we can see stripes under them. Now, in the early days of this channel, I always linked this to emptiness. But there are plenty of bugs and bug statues in Hollow Knight that have these stripes that don't seem to have anything to do with the Void.

So I think this is more of a stylistic choice. So, this could be related to the Last Judge crying because all of his other Judge friends are dead, hence the name Last Judge. But what exactly does this thing judge? Now we have seen that Pharloom has a kind of prison system, as we can find Grindle locked in a cell. But this bug doesn't seem like a law and order type judge, if that makes sense. Perhaps it will judge whether pilgrims can enter the Citadel or not. And if not, he burns them. It's also worth noting that this bug has a similar aesthetic to the bug Team Cherry showed us in their last blog post.

It also resembles an insect found in the Coral Forest. And it's worth noting that we don't know for sure if these bugs are actually related to the bugs we see in the Citadel. All we know is that this bug is part of a set of scholars guarding a vault of ancient knowl

edge

. So we don't really know for sure if these guys are directly related to what's going on at the Citadel, although it's certainly possible and probably the case. Team Cherry was finally asked about what happens after Silksong. William and Ari talked a little about a non-Hollow Knight related game they had been thinking about.

For now, this project is just a Google Doc that they add to from time to time while working on Silksong. A strong candidate for what this game could be is Fearless Fox, a term trademarked by Team Cherry in 2019. It's not guaranteed that this game is a metroidvania. In the past, William has expressed interest in making a top-down 2D Zelda-style game. But they did make it clear that any game they make will still have big, sprawling worlds and interesting characters to interact with. So what does this mean for future Hollow Knight content? The only Hollow Knight content not directly produced by Team Cherry that we can consider canon is the Wanderer's Journal, which ultimately didn't add much to Hollow Knight's story, as it was just a character experiencing the same things we do.

According to Team Cherry's marketing director, Leth, Team Cherry has been approached by companies who wanted to make Hollow Knight TV shows and comics. Leth explained this on Live from the Abyss, a podcast created by two other Hollow Knight YouTubers: DeepDockProletarian and MyThrel. Leth: We've been contacted by some companies that wanted to make other Hollow Knight media. Whether it's a cartoon, a show, a comic, or whatever... Usually it all comes down to Ari, but no... I don't know. And I understand this. I think it's basically like we don't want to corporatize... DDP: The franchise? Leth: Yeah, not too much.

Basically, it seems like Team Cherry really wants to avoid turning Hollow Knight into a giant franchise with books, shows, and all kinds of crap. And who could blame them? That's a really good way to completely ruin your fictional world and make it less special. I mean, Cuphead's deep and complete story will no doubt be ruined by his upcoming Netflix show, which is a shame. So it looks like Silksong could mark the end of Hollow Knight content for a while, unless Team Cherry decides to create Zote Boat or changes its mind about third-party stuff. But honestly, I think Team Cherry will do at least one other Hollow Knight-related thing besides Silksong.

Call it feeling. Call it speculation. But I feel like William and Ari are very interested in this world, and the fact that they can't stop adding to it makes me think there will be other Hollow Knight content coming out. Or maybe I just deny it. Up to you. And that's all I have to say about this interview. We learned a little more about the Crest system and the design of the world. And we got a little more information about characters like Bell Beast and Shakra. But I think the most interesting thing is how different Silksong has been in terms of development.

Team Cherry had to enlarge rooms and adjust the game's camera just to fit Hornet's playstyle, as well as create more complex enemies for her to fight. I'm a little disheartened to hear that the Cherry team has focused less on platforming, as the Hornet seems very well equipped for that sort of thing. One thing that still eludes us is a full explanation of how exactly some tools alter Hornet's playstyle, other than that they seem to affect his silk meters in some way. Lore-wise, we learned that pilgrims are actually bringing thread to the Citadel and will even attack other pilgrims.

We also learned that Hornet's time in her cage has taken away his “traditional strength” and now he has to find the Weavers to get it back. But there are still a lot of questions about Lace, driver Romino, the Steel Assassins, as well as who's running this entire operation and whether any of this ties into what we saw in Hollow Knight's cliffhanger endings. Yeah, remember those? Damn cliffhangers, man. I swear to God, I hate it when they just cut things off abruptly.