The Oscars — Solutions

Tár

Feeder Answers

Solution

Every answer clues a word or phrase with a diacritical mark:

ACE OF SPADES MOTÖRHEAD
FEAR AND TREMBLING SØREN KIERKEGAARD
FIFTEENTH BIRTHDAY QUINCEAÑERA
ICE CREAM Á LA MODE
NICE BOY GARÇON
NIKKI AND PAULO EXPOSÉ
TE REO MĀORI
YAMOUSSOUKRO CÔTE D'IVOIRE

Read the letters in the given direction before or after the accented character—that is, "À → 1" means to take the character immediately after the Á in Á LA MODE, or L. This spells out LENTAL REGION GAME, so the answer is NEW POKÉMON SNAP.

Most of these, I hope, are straightforward, at least after seeing the answer, but EXPOSÉ is the name of the underrated Nikki and Paulo-centric episode of Lost, and NICE BOY is the old crossword puzzle trick of secretly meaning the French city of Nice. ICE CREAM has another plausible answer in HÄAGEN-DAZS, but I really needed the L; this has the unfortunate effect, though, that the clue phrase is pretty difficult to Wheel of Fortune if you haven't made that connection.

Avatar: The Way of Water

Feeder Answers

Solution

The labels of the 3x3 grids indicate different avatars of Vishnu (generally by literal translations of the name). In addition, the first three letters of the first word of each answer match the first three letters of one of the avatars.

Dashavatara order Grid label Avatar Answer
1 FISH Matsya MATRIX ONLINE
2 TURTLE Kurma KURDISH LANGUAGE
3 BOAR Varaha VARIABLE INTAKE
4 LION Narasimha NARCISS CAMERA
5 DWARF Vamana VAMPIRE LESTAT
6 WITH AXE Parashurama PARTY ANIMAL
7 DARK/PLEASING Rama RAMSAY BOLTON
8 or 9* DARK/ALL-ATTRACTIVE Krishna KRIPKE MODELS
10 WHITE HORSE Kalki KALE BROWNE

* As I understand it, different Hindu traditions disagree on the eighth and ninth avatar of Vishnu, but most include Krishna in one of those positions.

The 3x3 grids in can be placed in Dashavatara order to recreate the Battleship logic puzzle. In addition, you can place one letter from the second word of each answer in the non-water cells of its corresponding grid fragment.

There's some ambiguity in assigning numbers to the ships in the grid, but the pictured configuration produces a meaningful clue phrase, GAME BLANK ASCENSION, which (combined with the given enumeration) gives the answer ULTIMA IX (part of another series with a notable Avatar).

I like this meta, but it has some issues that could have been resolved with test-solving: First, the assignment of numbers to ships is almost the given order, so I know a few teams that ended up with a slightly garbled clue phrase. Second, that clue phrase proved to be somewhat difficult to decipher; the correct game is on the Wikipedia disambiguation page for "Ascension", so I thought it would be OK, but just trying to solve it with Google is tough. My apologies to solvers who stumbled on either roadblock.

Triangle of Sadness

Feeder Answers

Solution

The answers to given crossword clues are:
Perry Mason title word / Scream actress Campbell CASE / NEVE
Metallic sounds CLANKS
Independence or Groundhog follower DAY
Letter confused with rho P
Develop RIPEN
Late night host Meyers SETH
Ave. alternative ST
Agree / Wall part YES / STUD

Each can be placed in one row of the given triangular grid. After that, the feeder answers can be found reading Boggle-style, with TRI replaced by a single letter:

DAYTRIPS T
AIRSTRIP E
TRINKET H
TRICYCLES A
TRITENESS N
STRIVED U

It's not strictly reading order, but taking the letters in the order suggested by the diagram at the bottom of the page gives the answer TEHANU.

Oof. As originally posted, the crossword clues were much more ambiguous (such as "HTML element" for P or "Thing studied" for CASE); my idea was that solvers would use the feeder answers to narrow down those possibilities, but in practice it turned out way too hard. I'm also sorry for the awkward ordering of letters for the final answer (especially since the answer isn't particularly recognizable); it turns out I'm not a strong enough crossword setter to work fix it. (As it is, all the feeder answers form cycles in the grid so that Qxw would have more options when filling the grid.)

All Quiet on the Western Front

Feeder Answers

Solution

Every answer can have the first letter replaced with SH to form a new word or phrase. The replaced letters are unique, A to L, providing an ordering.

Answer SH- word/phrase Extracted letter Order
AARON SHARON R 6
BACKING UP SHACKING UP K 5
CRIMP SHRIMP P 4
DRUNKEN SHRUNKEN U 7
EYING SHYING I 10
FILLINGS SHILLINGS S 8
GAVE OFF SHAVE OFF A 2
HUNT SHUNT T 9
IED SHED E 11
JIMMY SHIMMY M 3
KOOK SHOOK K 1
LOWER SHOWER R 12

Reading the indicated letters in order gives the answer KAMP KRUSTIER.

I thought this would be one of the tougher metas to spot, but it was the first puzzle solved after this set went live, and one of the first solves for a few other early people. I was eventually vindicated, though, as its currently one of the least-solved puzzles alongside Triangle of Sadness. The flavor text in this case was probably more helpful for experienced solvers, as it hints at cryptic crossword wordplay, and maybe old hands would also expect that one of the puzzles would use alphabetical ordering and specifically look for that?

The Banshees of Inisherin

Feeder Answers

Solution

Every answer clues a phrase in the form of "(monster) of (something)". The phrases are of different lengths so can be placed unambiguously in the given blanks.

Feeder Monster phrase First letter First order Second letter Second order
FOOLISH CONSISTENCY The HOBGOBLIN of LITTLE MINDS I 5 I 5
CUBIC PLANE CURVE The WITCH of AGNESI H 2 N 6
REGULAR ROUTINE CREATURE of HABIT A 6 T 4
LITTLE GUYS WITH BIG GUNS The TERROR of TINY TOWN E 3 Y 7
SWEENEY TODD The DEMON BARBER of FLEET STREET D 4 E 2
WARREN ZEVON WEREWOLVES of LONDON L 7 D 1
NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM The SPIRIT of ST. LOUIS T 1 S 3

Reading the extracted letters in the given order gives THE DIAL for letters taken from the first words and DESTINY for letters from the second words. THE DIAL OF DESTINY is the answer.

I wanted to write something more thematic to the movie, but unfortunately Mark Halpin already wrote the best possible meta about cutting fingers off a few years ago.

Women Talking

Feeder Answers

Solution

First, identify the women pictured. A homophone (give or take) of each woman's name can come before one of the answers to form a common phrase.

Carrie Fisher FORWARD CARRY FORWARD
Scarlett Johansson FEVER SCARLET FEVER
Grace Kelly ANATOMY GRAY'S ANATOMY
Carole King SINGER CAROL SINGER
Shirley MacLaine YOU JEST SURELY YOU JEST
Bette Midler THE FARM BET THE FARM
Jean Smart THERAPY GENE THERAPY
Mary Steenburgen MELODIES MERRY MELODIES
Mae Whitman DECEMBER ROMANCE MAY-DECEMBER ROMANCE

Index into each answer by the number of pictures to get ANDY HARDY COMES HOME.

Top Gun: Maverick

Feeder Answers

Solution

Each movie poster is for a film that is, like Top Gun: Maverick, supervocalic—that is, the title includes each vowel exactly once. The feeder answers are also supervocalic and can be paired with the posters based on the order of vowels. Use the star ratings to index into the answers.

Crazy Stupid Love CAULIFLOWER ⭐⭐ A
About Time A CHORUS LINE ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ R
Deconstructing Harry BERNOULLI'S LAW ⭐⭐⭐ R
Four Christmases LOUIS B. MAYER ⭐⭐ O
Dangerous Minds WAREHOUSING ⭐ W
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir KEYBOARD MUSIC ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ O
Charlie St. Cloud FAIR ENOUGH ⭐ F
Double Impact LOUNGE LIZARD ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ G
Mary Poppins Returns GASOLINE PUMP ⭐⭐⭐⭐ O
Dial M For Murder DIALOGUE ⭐ D

ARROW OF GOD is the answer.

Elvis

Feeder Answers

Solution

The second half of each answer is an anagram of the first half with one letter changed.

X MAX IMA I
S SET TLE L
T BEAT ABLE L
E RESE RVES V
A ARTIS TRIES E

Putting the letters in each column in the order given gives the answer TEXASVILLE.

I'm sorry to use six-letter answers that make the pattern hard to spot, but it was hard to find answers fitting this wordplay that also extracted the letters I needed.

Everything Everywhere All at Once

Feeder Answers

Solution

Apply each transformation given to one of the answers.

Transformation Original answer Transformed Extracted Letter
Interpret the answer as cryptic crossword wordplay BROKEN HEART EARTH H
Remove the antepenultimate letter, then swap the penultimate and final letters DECAYED DECADE A
Swap the first two letters, then insert a biblical abbreviation between the second and third letter MOORE OMNIVORE V
Remove the first letter, insert an N into the (new) fourth position, then replace the penultimate letter with a Best Picture nominee from 2015 or later PLAUDIT LAUNDROMAT A
Insert a state abbreviation in the exact middle of the answer (coincidentally, the answer already ends in a state abbreviation) SEND SECOND N
Replace the answer with the word immediately following it in a Beatles song title ROCKY RACCOON A
Replace the name of a band with its most famous drummer ELECTRIC MAYHEM ANIMAL N
Add caramel (or switch from an American trade name to its global equivalent)* THREE MUSKETEERS MILKY WAY I
Replace a company with (arguably) its most successful product, the one released in 2017 (and fix the spelling) EPIC GAMES FORTNIGHT G
Replace an untruth in the answer with the letter U HOLIER HOUR H
Spell it backwards, then delete every other letter (starting with the first) FREE STATE ARMY MATTER T
Encode the answer with ROT-14 GEM USA S

* In the US, a Three Musketeers bar is chocolate and nougat and a Milky Way is chocolate, nougat, and caramel. Internationally, a Milky Way is just chocolate and nougat, and a Mars Bar has chocolate, nougat, and caramel.

The transformed answers can be entered into the given grid as so:

Everything

M
A
T
T
E
R
A
N
I
M
A
L
O
M
N
I
V
O
R
E
R
A
C
C
O
O
N

Everywhere

M
I
L
K
Y
W
A
Y
E
A
R
T
H
U
S
A
L
A
U
N
D
R
O
M
A
T

All At Once

D
E
C
A
D
E
F
O
R
T
N
I
G
H
T
H
O
U
R
S
E
C
O
N
D

Taking the indicated letters in the order of the transformations gives the answer HAVANA NIGHTS.

The Fabelmans

Feeder Answers

Solution

The answers can be paired off to form items in the title of an Aesop's fable that have exchanged a letter. Take the letter that was changed in the answer and shift by the given amount.

FIRMER VAPER The Farmer and the Viper A +2 C I +3 L
ROG DEFLECTION The Dog and Its Reflection D +1 E R +0 R
CROP WITCHER The Crow and the Pitcher W -12 K P +3 S
FAX GROPES The Fox and the Grapes O -6 I A +8 I

Read across the rows to find the answer CLERKS II.

The Oscars 2022

Solution

Each answer is the title or subtitle of a sequel; take the number of years between the number of years between the release of that work and its predecessor and read as A=1, B=2, etc. (As the introduction text indicates, you don't need to use exact release dates, just subtract the years of release.)

Puzzle Answer Year of Release Previous Installment Year of Release Difference Extracted Letter
Tár NEW POKÉMON SNAP 2021 Pokémon Snap 1999 22 V
Avatar: The Way of Water ULTIMA IX 1999 Ultima VIII: Pagan 1994 5 E
Triangle of Sadness TEHANU 1990 The Farthest Shore 1972 18 R
All Quiet on the Western Front KAMP KRUSTIER 2017 "Kamp Krusty" 1992 25 Y
The Banshees of Inisherin THE DIAL OF DESTINY 2023 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull 2008 15 O
Women Talking ANDY HARDY COMES HOME 1958 Love Laughs at Andy Hardy 1946 12 L
Top Gun: Maverick ARROW OF GOD 1964 No Longer At Ease* 1960 4 D
Elvis TEXASVILLE 1990 The Last Picture Show** 1971 19 S
Everything Everywhere All at Once HAVANA NIGHTS 2004 Dirty Dancing 1987 17 Q
The Fabelmans CLERKS II 2006 Clerks 1994 12 L

* I didn't realize until just before publishing that despite being referred to as the "Africa Trilogy" Arrow of God is not a direct sequel to Things Fall Apart and No Longer at Ease but rather a continuation of the setting and themes.

** This is specifically referring to the films; the Larry McMurtry novels were published in 1987 and 1966, respectively. I hope this didn't mislead any teams; in my defense, the movies seem to be more notable than the books (by which I mean the movies have Wikipedia pages and the books don't).

The final answer, VERY OLD SQL, alludes not just to the mechanic but also the presence of Avatar: The Way of Water (13 years) and Top Gun: Maverick (36 years) among this year's Best Picture nominees.

I had a lot of fun brainstorming answers for this meta (helped along by TV Tropes Sequel Gap article, and not helped at all by various clickbait-y articles that come up when you try to Google "longest time between sequels" and similar). I tried to cover a variety of different types of media and time periods; my big regrets are that Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, John Updike's Rabbit novels, and Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell albums didn't extract to any of the letters I needed. I hope everyone had as much fun solving these as I did writing them!

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