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Slaying vampires is harder than ever
Answers for Globle, Chronogram, and Metazooa from Jan 29 - Feb 4
Abe Train
February 05, 2024
Coming to your inbox every Monday with educational fun-facts and all the answers to Trainwreck Labs games from the past week.
This week, we have…
A fun fact inspired by a recent Fictogram answer
Answers to last week's games
Game updates for Metazooa
Slaying vampires is harder than ever
Buffy would have had an easier time finding vampires to slay if they sparkled like they do in Twilight. Image generated by DALL-E.
Is there such a thing as a typical vampire story? A couple decades ago, perhaps. But that all changed when prime-time television viewers were introduced to Buffy Summers, the hero of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997 - 2003) and Fictogram character #71. But how does one slay a vampire? And do all vampires even need to be slain?
Avid consumers of the genre will know that the game of fighting bloodsuckers has been changing for a while now. For example, Dracula isn’t a fan of garlic, but it does nothing to Buffy’s enemies. Meanwhile, sunlight makes quick work of the slayer’s foes, but only makes Twilight vampires sparkle (much sexier than turning to dust). It seems like the undead are getting more invincible every passing year!
Likewise, whether or not the vampire is a hero or a villain also depends on the story, and this has been changing over time as well. According to TV Tropes, modern vampire stories in popular culture can be divided into cycles:
The malignant cycle (1931-1948): creatures of pure horror
The erotic cycle (1950-1985): evil but alluring
The sympathetic cycle (1987-2001): tragic monsters that were to be pitied, but still feared
The individualist cycle (2003-present day): bad, good, or in between, much like humans.
This trend seems to point to vampires becoming more sympathetic over time, which is probably good for the humans in their stories since the newer ones are also harder to kill!
There are no big vampire franchises dominating the box office and Nielsen ratings these days, but Miley Cyrus slayed Olivia Rodrigo’s “vampire” at the Grammys last night. Eat your heart out, Buffy!
Answers to last week's games
Monday, January 29 to Sunday, February 4.
Globle
| Globle: Capitals
|
Chronogram
| Fictogram
|
Metazooa
| Metaflora
|
Forgeous
 "Portrait of a Woman" by Giovanni Battista Gaulli |  Forgery of week, from Jan 29 |
Gaulli, G. B. (1670). Portrait of a Woman. Oil paint on canvas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/643540
Play Forgeous for Feb 5.
Game updates
Metazooa is now available in Italian! Thank you to the community for translating and testing the game. I’m thrilled that the game will now be available to more players around the world.
Metazooa was also recently featured in an article about learning ecology through gamification from the Sierra Club’s magazine. It was mind-blowing to see Metazooa mentioned in the same article as Animal Crossing and Pokédex. Check it out!
That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading!
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