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orionsangel86 · 7 years ago

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I totally agree with you on the meta writer drama. You guys don’t write the show, you just analyze it and come up with varying opinions so it’s not fair that ppl place such high expectations on you all. Also to everyone who reads, while this show is very special to many ppl and we all hold it close to our hearts, at the end of the day... it’s ultimately just a tv show guys. It is not worth fighting and stressing over because it’s just art meant to be enjoyed. Hope you have a good day!

PREACH

I hate bringing up wank. I really do. I’m one of those really annoying people who just wants everyone to get along and everything to be sunshine and rainbows ya know?

But sometimes people let their emotions overtake any logical thought - well, it happens a lot, even to me - and when that happens they fail to realise that what they are posting about is actually really misguided and in those cases, especially when I think it feels like a personal attack against me and others I care about on here, then I wanna say something.

I literally read a post not 10 minutes ago that someone linked me to, where this person was bitching about meta writers for being happy that Cas had died at the end of season 12. They were saying that we can’t be true Cas fans because we were happy about his death. It made me laugh tbh, because of course we weren’t happy for the character to have died and gone through that pain, but this is what I mean when I say that these people cannot separate their emotional response to the characters with the logical, analytical meta response.

Cas’s death made me cry ALOT. 12x23 had me balling, 13x01 has consistently had me in tears every. single. time. I watch it. Even now. If I was to put it on right now, I would be crying my eyes out because I am MOURNING my FAVOURITE CHARACTERS DEATH.

HOWEVER, from a meta perspective, Castiel’s death was the best thing to happen in SPN for a good few years. WHY? Well, here are some reasons:

1. Because we knew he was coming back. I have to stress this point. The ONLY reason I was so happy about Cas’s death was because I knew he was coming back. If I didn’t know that for certain, I wouldn’t have been happy.

2. Because it symbolically makes him a phoenix, and the symbolism around Cas is that he has fought his way out of death, depression, PTSD, and a complete lack of self worth. Cas has come a HUGE way from that scene in 8x08 when he told Dean he was suicidal, to fighting against the cosmic entity DEMANDING to be sent back to earth because Cas had something to live for. It was fucking glorious. I obviously couldn’t have predicted 13x04 at the time of 12x23, but I KNEW from a meta viewpoint, that we were in for a treat.

3. Because it would mean a shit ton of beautiful mourning of Castiel from Dean. Because it would have shown Cas haters that they are SO WRONG when they say Dean doesn’t care. Again, I didn’t know exactly what to expect from Dean at the end of 12x23, other than the hint we got from his DEVASTATED expression. But I knew we would be in for something glorious. What we DID end up getting, was better than my wildest imaginations.

4. Because it would be HUGE brownie points for destiel. Now I know for a fact that meta haters are gonna come along and jump on me for saying that - “aahh look at her she’s such a cas hater, she only sees him as a plot device for destiel *angry shouts and yells bla bla bla*...” But lets be honest here, Cas dying was one of the best ways the show could have given Dean the kick up his ass he needed. Perhaps we aren’t quite done with this plot point yet, but my god the destiel exposition we were given from Dean’s grief over Cas was fucking perfect.

5. Because I knew that by killing Cas off then, it would mean that he would get a happy ending for endgame. Lizzy said something (and got hate for it) back shortly after the season 12 finale, she said that she was still struggling to process how great it was that Cas died when he did, that the show went with that story line when it did, with at least another 2 seasons to go before the end, because Dean kneeling over a dead Castiel with burnt wing prints in the ground was literally Lizzy’s worst case scenario idea for how destiel would happen - in a “kill your gays” kinda way. Make it canon, but steal Cas away for the angst and manpain, leaving Dean alone. Its like the ultimate HORRIBLE ending right? So by giving that ending to us NOW, at the end of season 12, it TAKES AWAY THAT POSSIBILITY. From now on, we know that the show can’t repeat this. They can’t repeat that story line again. So by doing it when they did, and by then bringing Cas back, they have effectively killed off the worst case scenario ending. This makes me live.

6. Because it lead to a summer of glorious PR that was extremely Misha and Cas heavy and basically everyone rallied round to show their love for the character and for the actor and I have never been happier seeing so much Cas and Misha love in fandom and outside of it. It was fucking amazing and I had tears in my eyes so often I’m surprised they didn’t dry out. Plus it really pissed off the bibros/Cas haters. I mean, they were CONSTANTLY on the war path and it was so fucking hilarious. They even speculated that Misha would only come back as Jimmy or some shit like that and when I got told about that I once again had tears in my eyes but for a different reason.

Basically, Cas dying was a fantastic thing to happen at this point in the show. From a meta perspective of course. Also from a story perspective, because the wealth of character development that came from his death was almost astonishing.

From an emotional point of view, yes, it was painful for me, as a Cas fan, to watch my fave die, to watch his body burn on a pyre, to watch his loved ones mourn him. It was so fucking emotional I struggled, but the meta kept me sane. Because I knew it was all worth it. Think of the wealth of Cas positivity we had both in-show and out of show. When for years we have been upset that Cas is always sidelined, always left out of PR, promo’s and photo shoots. Not anymore. Cas’s death made him front and center. I have never had a happier summer as a Cas girl than I did in 2017.

Anyway, sorry for going off on a tangent that was totally irrelevant to your ask, but reading that persons post got me annoyed. People that don’t understand meta and then go and hate on it really piss me off.

You are right though. It is just a TV show. I wish people didn’t get so upset about things - I say this knowing full well I fall into this category myself. I think I am overly protective of other meta writers though, because I see them as my online “family”. They think the same way as me, they obsess over the same things, and pick apart the canon and discover new things about it that make it richer and more colourful. Meta brings so much more depth to the canon TV show, and for me, I guess, it is more than just a show for that reason. It’s a community, a passion, a family and a big part of my life. I love it. I always try not to let wank stress me out, but sometimes I feel I have to defend my turf ya know? Especially when the arguments being made against us are just completely without merit.

#meta meta #wank for ts #fandom problems #castiel #destiel #12x23 #season 12 #season 13 #suicide for ts #asks #anon #Anonymous

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joyofcrime-elinorhigh · 6 years ago

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2017 Year in REVIEW: Part 1

Hello everybody, my name is JoyofCrimeArt and man wasn't 2016 such a dumpster fire? I mean it was obviously the worst year ever in the history of the human race, I mean come on 2016! Why can't you be more like you're younger brother, 2017. I mean he was a great year!

Wait, are you implying that blaming an abstract combination of numbers for all of last years problems...wasn't the most productive way to fix things? I'm shocked. But who cares about the harsh and often depressing reality of our own society? We have more important things to talk about today. Cartoons! Because while the real world has been imploding in on itself the world of animation has been through many up's and downs this year, and that's what I'll be talking about today. In case you didn't see my 2016 Year in REVIEW: (Which you can check out right here #humbleplug 2016 Year in REVIEW: Part 1) let me explain how this is going to work. I have compiled a list of several different notable events that happened in the world of animation over the course of 2017. I will go over these events is roughly chronological order all while giving my thoughts and opinion of each one. I won't be discussing anime or theatrical films for the most part however, as these are topics that I don't keep track of as much. So this list is mostly about television and internet animation. Also keep in mind that there is no conceivable way of me going over every series or piece of animation news that came out this year, so I had to slim it down to the most notable events. So sorry in advance if I glance over anything. At the end of the review, I will rank all the new series that I talked about this year in order from worst to best, give this year an overall grade, and in a new twist I'll be deciding which animation network "won" the year. The winner doesn't have to have the best shows per say. They just need to have a large impact, or show some kind of improvement compared to previous years. Also I feel like I should just point out that this entire concept is completely stolen from online anime reviewer Gigguk's yearly anime retrospect series. He's a big influence on me and my reviews and you can check him out here. www.youtube.com/user/gigguk&nb… Whether you like anime or not, he's worth checking out and he's a LOT funnier than I am. So with all that said it's time to get into this. It's time for my 2017 year in review! We start the year off in a bit of an unexpected place, Youtube, with the first notable series of the year. Hasbro's "Hanazuki: Full of Treasures."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjaCeuL2YaA

You have diabetes yet? Just wait. This is a show that really seems like it went under the radar for a lot of people, probably because of the fact that it was released on Youtube. Hanazuki, (voiced by Jessica DiCicco of Loud House and Adventure Time fame) is a young "Moon Flower" who lives on a small moon out in space. The series follows Hanazuki as she tried to protect her moon from a shadowy blob monster known only as the "Big Bad." She does this by growing "Treasure Trees," magical trees that can only be grown when a Moon Flower feels intense emotion. These trees are the only thing that can ward of the "Big Bad." Hanazuki must learns all about the complexity of emotions if she wants to protect her new home. And the series just get's stranger from there. Now obviously this show is targeted at kids. Really little kids, like five years old at most. More specifically five year old girls...and I frickin' LOVE IT! C'mon, you should all know this about me by now! I...am not the most masculine person on the planet. And I love myself a good "girl power show" And this just right up my ally. This show is basically what you get if you take Star Vs, Wander Over Yonder, My Little Pony, andInside Out, shove it into a blender, and cover it in rainbow sprinkles. It's just to adorable for me to not recommend.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGBSdYGA9II

But not only is the show cute, it's also actually pretty good. Like it's nothing super complex or anything, but it is a show that can appeal to both kids and adults. (I swear!) Hanazuki is a really likable character. If you've read my web comic, Elinor High, you know I love myself any hyperactive cute girl. But what makes Hanazuki stand out from other hyperactive cute girls, you may ask? She got sass! Sure, show's nice most of the time, but she's not always the typical sunshine and rainbows protagonist you usually see in these kind of shows. She get's upset, and frustrated, and she can even be kinda snarky when people tick her off. Not only does this help give her some more depth, but it also helps support the shows theme of emotions. The show has a real Inside Out vibe in terms of how it tackles emotions. The series really plays up the point that ALL emotions are important. Emotions like sadness, anger, and fear are treated as just as vital as happiness, bravery, or love. It's a message that you don't see talked about very much, but I think it's an important one. Another thing I feel like I need to praise is the shows animation. It's flash, but it's TV quality flash. And they really make up with any faults the animation may have by having simply fantastic coloring. Purples, Blues, and Pinks are the colors of the show and it really pops, giving the show this colorful, sci-fi look. Especially when they go to the dark side of the moon, and the animation goes full black light poster. However the show is far from perfect. Like I said, it's skewed young, so don't expect any super complex character writing or anything. Also the Hemka's, these little alien rabbit things that Hanazuki befriends, tend to come off as more annoying then lovable. There not Minion or Rabbid bad, but there in the same category. Also this show tries to be a "lore show" and it's kinda hit and miss. Some things, like the origins of the "Big Bad" and the exploration of the Moon Flowers and there powers are genuinely interesting. But other times it seems like the show is trying to take it'self to seriously. Like when we learn about the character Sleepy Unicorn's tragic, war torn backstory. No that's not a joke, that's a thing in this show. And it's not badly or anything, it's just kinda hard to take seriously when it's about a character who's name is Sleepy Unicorn! Also, I quickly just want to talk about how the episodes we're released. Eventually they switched to just weekly uploads, but at first the episodes were released in nine episode bombs. And these bombs would always fall under the full moon. That's some black magic shit right there! I could go on, but I have a lot more stuff to talk about. This show is not for everyone. It's not going to have a super complex plot or characters, or tackle any heavy themes like some other shows that are out now of days. But if you just like some fun, cutesy fluff like I do, it's definitely worth a watch. Especially since it's free to watch legally on Youtube. But hey, Do you remember those guys from that show, Regular Show? Well they turned there park into a bio-dome. And there still Regular Show.... But there in SPACE!

That's right, Regular Show, one of the defining shows of modern cartoon era, finally came to an end. Just like with the Gravity Falls finale that I talked about last year, I will be going into spoilers, so if you haven't seen the finale yet and want t go in completely blind (which I do recommend) I suggest scrolling past this part and continue reading once you see the words in bold. So (SPOILER WARNING!) Much like the Gravity Falls ending, the hour long Regular Show finale does have it's fair amount of problems. There is a good amount of padding, there are some plot hole regarding how the whole "universe restarting itself" thing is suppose to work. (Like how Benson, Muscle Man, Skips, and co all get destroyed and yet are brought back even though they stopped the universe from resetting. Also, Anti-Pops, despite the shows best efforts, failed to really come off as that interesting or threatening of a villain, for me at least. ...But for the most part none of that matters. Because when you come down to it, plot holes and inconsistency don't matter as long as the emotions resonate, and that's what this special did. It was everything a Regular Show fan could want in a finale. Filled with meta call backs from Mordecai and Rigby being transported back to the first episode (and the final part of the finale having the same title as the first episode) to Pops being sent back to the original student film that inspired Regular Show, it really felt like a celebration of how far the show had come. I don't want to go into HUGE spoilers even though this is the spoiler section, because I want people to watch this for themselves, but a sacrifice is made in this finale and it really sticks. That's something that even the Gravity Falls finale, which is amazing in it's own right mind you, didn't have the guts to do. So I applaud the show for having the balls to go through with the decision. The episode ends with a montage of the characters as they age, ending with a final scene set twenty five years after the finale. I love endings that do this, and it's one of the most emotion scenes I've seen in a finale ever. The ending is made even more powerful by the music chose used for the scene, David Bowie's "Heroes." The fact that David Bowie had just passed away not that long before the finale aired made the ending seem even more bittersweet. I'd say that the Regular Show finale lies pretty close to Gravity Falls in terms of endings. I think the Gravity Falls ending has a better first forty five minutes due to having a better villain and just having a grander feel to it, but I honestly do think that Regular Show has it beat in terms the last fifteen minutes, due to just having a (slightly) more emotional pay off, done mostly without words. I think Regular Show chose the perfect time to end, and I'm glad it ended on a high note. And to celebrate this occasion, Cartoon Network decide to have a Teen Titans Go! Marathon to celebrate Martin Luther King Day...That was nice of them. (SPOILERS NOW OVER!) And speaking of a show going off on a high note let's talk about...the complete opposite of that. Hi, Fairly OddParents!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XgwUp-SO7k

So yeah, let's talk about Fairly Oddparents again. Just when you think it can't sink lower, it does. As halfway through season ten the show had switched from tradition animation to flash. Now remember when I said that Hanazuki was animated in flash, but it's TV quality flash despite being a web series? Well Fairly Oddparents decided to do the opposite of that and have a TV series with late nineties internet quality flash. Seriously, I haven't seen a show with flash animation this bad since like, the mid two thousands at least. I've legit seen web series, like Homestar Runner, that have better flash! It's actually kinda incredible! And just when you think things can't get worse, it does, as the show get's moved to Nicktoons. The retirement home of Nickelodeon shows. The final episode of season ten of Fairly Oddparents ended up airing later in the summer and, from what I can tell, it had no real big final episode. The show has yet to be renewed for an eleventh season, and since it's on Nicktoon now, I really have doubts that it'll happen. It is very possible that that season finale was Fairly Oddparents final episode. I know a lot of you reading this are probably ecstatic at the news that the show is finally over. I mean to many, it was a shell of it's former self. But I'm honestly just kinda sad that it went out like this. Fairly Oddparents was Nickelodeons second longest running show, only behind Spongebob. And it was just got shafted. No fan fair, no special last episode. Nothing. I mean if a show as long lasting as Fairly Oddparents can get treated like this, then who's to say that the same won't end up happening to say Spongebob, or the Loud House, once there popularity starts to dwindle. Like I said in the 2016 year in review, I'm never happy when a show ends because I know every show has it's fans and a lot of people are out of a job, but from a strictly artistic standpoint, it was time for the show to end. And from a business standpoint Nickelodeon didn't have a need for it anymore. Though it is still a bit bittersweet, seeing a show that was a big part of my childhood go. But it's not all bad though, because as one door closes another one opens, as Butch Hartman created a new show for Nickelodeon, Bunsen is a Beast. Is it any better than modern FOP?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yccs2D7WvkA

....Eh, It's about the same really. The flash is a little better...I think. Yeah, if you can't tell, I'm not that crazy about this show. The series follows Bunsen, a beast who transfers to an all human school, and Mikey his human best friend and the adventures that they go on. Honestly this show just doesn't seem to offer anything that new or interesting. Bunsen and Mikey are you're stereotypical happy go lucky idiot protagonist that a lot of Nickelodeon shows seem to have and most of the humor seems to be made up of the same "monster/alien has weird biology/culture/abilities" jokes that we've seen a million times before. There don't seem to be any concrete rules on how "Beast" work, it just seems to be whatever the show thinks is funniest in that exact moment. And rarely does the comedy land. There are a few things about the show that are funny, however. Like the show's villain, Amanda. She's the cliche "character who hates the good guys and the world hates her" character and the cliche "racist villain" character all wrapped up in one package. However, what redeems her at least a little bit is just how over the top and hammy she is. She kinda feels like what would happen if you combined Vicky and Mr. Crocker into one Character. There's also this one really depressed ice cream man voiced by Jerry Trainor. Those two characters can get a laugh out of me. But as for everything else, not so much. The show has also been moved to Nicktoons. So I don't see it getting a season two. So what now, is Butch Hartman's career over? Well not so fast, because as your second door closes another one opens, and in this case that door is Youtube. That's right, Butch Hartman started his own Youtube channel! And I'm not just talking like just a small Youtube channel as a side project or anything. I mean like a regularly updating drawing Youtube channel that has done collaboration projects with the likes of Thomas Sanders, MatPat of Game Theroy, and Ande the Black Nerd. And it's...kinda great. Though full disclosure, Butch Hartman is a fifty year old dad, and it REALLY shows. He's is trying so hard to be hip with the "Youtube generation", and I commend his effort, but it never works. Ever. His channel might be the cringest channel on Youtube, but God damn it he's just so earnest that it's hard not to love. Some videos of his aren't that bad, like his "Danny Phantom: Ten Years Later" series. It's fun and interesting, and kinda makes me want to see a Danny Phantom continuation. But then he has videos like his "Drawing Anime Characters In the Fairly Oddparents Style" series that are just...hard to watch. Like, I own all ten volumes of the Watamote manga and I think I've cringed less reading all of that then watching one those videos. You should check out his channel though. It's...interesting...to say the very least. Meanwhile however, the animation community needed a new show to become the hot new thing. And then, after thirteen years of wait, the samurai returned.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Uxbp18y49E

I already did a full review of Samurai Jack season five, so I'm going to make this brief (Link if you want my in-depth thoughts: Samurai Jack Season Five REVIEW:) Samurai Jack season five has a lot of really good things going for it. The animation is superb, featuring all of the things that made the animation of the first four seasons so amazing, but improved upon with modern animation technicians and the High definition. The series is also dark, while not losing touch with it's roots. The series tackles heavy issues like PTSD, depression, suicide, parental abuse, and does so without coming off as edgy. It feels like a natural progression from what came before, and never goes too dark to the point where it becomes unrecognizable from the Cartoon Network series. There is still that hopeful and optimistic element buried beneath the surface. It shows that you can have a smart and dark adult cartoon without the need for an alcoholic, womanizing, nihilist who hates himself. You can make a dark cartoon about...other things! Amazing, I know. However, the show does have it's fair share of problems, that become more and more apparent as the season goes on. The pacing feels very rushed at points. The romance, while I think could work if given more time, is tacked on. And while everything else is much darker in tone, Aku seems to have become even less threatening than he was in the Cartoon Network days. The show first half is definitely better than the second half. However, despite it's flaws, I still really enjoyed the final season, and am glad that adult swim brought it back. It was definitely one of the more enjoyable cartoon events to happen in 2017. Nickelodeon announced a theatrical Loud House movie for February 2020, and unlike the Adventure Time movie I actually think that this movie may come out. It has a date, the Loud House is still popular as of the time of the announcement, (Though only time will tell if it'll still be popular by 2020.) and it's Nickelodeon, who have more experience with making theatrical films. We don't know the plot yet, by my guess is that it'll involve some kinda government conspiracy. The Simpsons, Recess, whenever a slice of life cartoons get's a theatrical movie it tends to involve some kind of government conspiracy. I may not be a big Loud House fan, but I'll still see this in the theater. In general, if a traditionally animated film comes out in theaters I'll see it just to support the medium. Meanwhile adult swim pulled the biggest animation trolling of the year by airing the season premiere of Rick and Morty on April Fools day unadvertised. Causing the whole animation community to drop everything they were doing to catch it. The ran the episode eight times on loop, preempting the much anticipated Samurai Jack causing a war in the fandoms. Which side where you on? Rick vs Jack. Comedic depression vs serious depression. Wubba lubba dub dub vs EXTRA THICC! Blood would be spilled!

Oh, and Dragon Ball Super was prepted too. And nobody cared. Understandably, many people were asking why they didn't just run Rick and Morty six times, and lets Samurai Jack air as well. And while no official answer has been given many people including myself theorize that adult swims deal with Toei and Dragon Ball Super may have been the reason. However nothings been confirmed. Now I bet a lot of you are expecting me to be annoyed at this given how much you know I love Samurai Jack and how much I...don't love Rick and Morty but honestly I didn't mind it too much. Not only did this make it so the last Samurai Jack aired on my birthday, (I couldn't watch it on my birthday, but still.) But also the sheer number of memes and salt this created gave me much more enjoyment than I lost by being disappointed. Well played adult swim.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiLk619tHgE

An Invader Zim TV movie was announced and, wait really?! For real...like for real real? Okay, just checking. Invader Zim is getting a TV movie, slated to come out some time next year. Geez, between Zim, Hey Arnold, Samurai Jack and Young Justice it seems like every show that got cancelled without a proper finale is coming back! I am hesitant of a lot of these Nickelodeon TV movies, as personally a lot of them feel like there just there for nostalgia sake, and no other reason. But this is one I can get behind. Invader Zim ended without a proper conclusion and the fan base is so loyal so yeah, it deserves a finale. Though personally I would of preferred another season like Samurai Jack, cause honestly I don't know how there going to fit all the dangling plot lines into just ninety minutes, but hey beggar's can't be choosers. And speaking of continuations Cartoon Network made one for there hit show, Ben 10. Everybody love's Cartoon Network's continuations right? Right?!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8Y7pk2qt-I

Well the show got Ben's original voice actor and the shows original creator back, so it must be great right guys? Right? I mean that's all it takes to make a good reboot, right? That's what you all said last year! REMEMBER! Yes, I'm still bitter. Now I know that technically this show came out last year in other countries, but as a privileged while male American I refuse to acknowledge that other countries exist. Now I've never watched anything in the Ben 10 franchise, outside of the occasional episode that I would catch here or there. It was not a show I followed all that much. So I can't really review it in comparison of the old show like I can for say the Powerpuff Girls reboot. However, I can try to review it as just a casual watcher, and as a casual watcher the show is...fine. Not great, not awful, but fine. It's clear from the get go what this show is trying to do. It's the Teen Titans Go-ification of Ben 10. Eleven minute run time, a focus on comedy, a much cartoon-ier art style. Let's not kid ourselves here. However, the show does have something that TTG and PPG2016 lack. It's still a superhero show. And that shocked me when I first saw it. I was sure this was going to be another sitcom with capes, but it's actually a more traditional monster of the week super hero comedy. Kinda like the original Powerpuff Girls show, except nowhere near as funny. One of the biggest changes that even I can notice is the difference between how Gwen is written. Even never watching the old show, I know they toned down her responsible know it all-iness to make her act much more like a kid. I don't know how Ben 10 fans feel about this but I don't mind it to much, as it does make her feel like a more realistic ten year old, at least for me. However I can't praise the show to much. The show, as a whole can be just summed up as fine. The comedy is fine. The action is fine. The characters are fine. And as someone who has to experience with Ben 10, fine wasn't enough to really grab me. However if the show is on and nothing else is on, it works as good background noise, I guess. It's perfectly serviceable. Put that quote on the back of the DVD box CN. Uncle Grandpa ended this year with an unadvertised final episode. Uncle Grandpa was a show that I never super loved, but I did feel like there was a lot of passion that went into it. However, like I said last year, Cartoon Network has a lot of new shows coming out and you got to clear space, and at five seasons it had a good run. And to celebrate this occasion, Cartoon Network decide to have a Teen Titans Go! Marathon to celebrate the Fourth of July. I'm starting to sense a pattern... Meanwhile in the world of the internet, Netflix decided to try to prove that not all video game cartoons are terrible with Netflix's Castlevania.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yy_FWdbnvM0

Now like Ben 10, Castlevania is not a franchise I know very well. All I know is that it's about a family legacy of people who are consistently forced to fight vampires. Also people keep telling me it's not Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, but I'm not incline to believe them! Cause I'm pretty sure that it IS Jojo's Bizarre Adventure and that this is all just a very elaborate Jojo's reference. But moving on, how is this show? I'll start with the pros. The animation is incredible. Like, really incredible! There are some establishing shots that look almost live action there so detailed. Also despite how much the show looks and feels like an anime it is one hundred percent American produced. It's actually made by Frederator Studios in fact. Wait...THAT'S why Fairly Oddparent's flash looks as bad as it does. Frederator took literally ALL of their budget in order to fund Castlevania. It all makes sense now! The show also has this kinda interesting post apocalyptic middle ages aesthetic to it that really remind me of Attack on Titan. I also want to praise Netflix for making an American action show for adults. Outside of Samurai Jack, which had already ended by the time this aired, we don't have many of those. I also admire Netflix for being one of the only networks to be keeping action oriented American animation alive... ...But that's really all the positives I have to say about this show. I'm sorry everybody, I know at this point I might come off as a hipster for not liking so many popular shows, but I just don't like this show. At all. I was ready to LOVE this show, but I just don't. Now I feel like in order to be a fair critic I need to be upfront with my background a bit. I grew up in a quasi-religious family. What I mean is that we were raised to be religious while never actually going to church. But I'm not someone who get's offended when my faith is made fun of if it's done in a clever or humorous way. I am one who is always open for a discussion, and like hearing other points of views. I just wanted to make that clear from the get go. I bring this up because this show has a HUGE hate boner towards organized religion! And it's very distracting! The church in this show is depicted as the most vile, evil, despicable group ever. Now I'm not going to pretend that the church has always been the best throughout history, but it's total overkill. If you're in the church, there's a ninety nine percent chance you're evil. They are the main villains of the first season. But I'm not mad because I'm offended or anything, I'm mad because the corrupt church is such an overused cliche, and they do nothing new or interesting with it. I'm upset because it feel less like I'm watching a show and more like I'm being lectured. It's frustrating because I thought I was going to get a show about fighting vampires and that's not what I got. I don't know Castlevania, maybe this is part of the games. But whether it is or not it doesn't stop from being a major flaw. And it wouldn't be a big deal if the show didn't make it such a big deal out of it. Most of the show is this. They're is a shocking lack of monster or vampire fighting in Netflix's Castlevania. There's some, and when there is some it's really cool. But you have to get past a lot of lecturing to get there. Also the characters are really unlikable. Trevor Belmont starts the series completely willing to let an entire town of people get destroyed by a hoard of demons. And I know part of the point is that he learns his lesson at the end, but that's a really vile place to start you're main character at. And the development to want to save the town comes kinda out of nowhere, and that's probably due to the shows terrible pacing. The character development feels rushed, while the actual pacing of plot events feel dreadfully slow, making the four episode season feel more like the TV movie designed to set the show up more than a proper season. I've never seen a show that was both too rushed and too slow at the same time before this show. But with all of that said, I do have some hope for season two. Like I said, the whole first season felt like a pilot movie to a series. And the ending implies that season two is when the shows going to start getting into the real meat of things. And with the church defeated I'm hoping that we can actually focus on fighting Dracula. Y'know, what this show should of been about from the start! But we'll have to wait till next year to know how it plays out. Also I can kinda look past this but the show is very historically inaccurate when it comes to religion. If they're in Transylvania, then the church should be Eastern Orthodox. And they didn't do much witch burning. Heck, most churches didn't do much witch burning. The grand majority of witches were hanged. Just FYI. But let's move on...

Luna Loud is a bisexual. ...

And Star Vs the Forces of Evil had a TV movie, which is cool! Back in the early to mid 2000's every cartoon had at least one TV movie, but now you barely ever see any. Probably because cartoons now of days have more continuity, and thus don't need movies in order to tell larger plots. But still, it's cool to see them return. As for the movie itself...it was definitely...um... Okay, I'm going to level with you guys, I'm actually really behind on Star Vs. The last episode I saw was the penultimate episode of season one. I didn't stop because I don't like the show or anything. I like it well enough, and from what I hear the show gets a lot better right around the time I stopped watching. It's just that my family lost cable for a while, and then I fell so far behind that I couldn't catch up with reruns, and then I got preoccupied with other stuff...I'll catch up to it someday! It's on my "To watch" list. (Similar situation happened with the 2012 TMNT show. Missed a week once by mistake, tried catching up but got up to the first two seasons.) So i didn't watch this movie, and I have no idea what most people thought of it. But I still think it's cool that the TV movie was brought back. Seriously, outside this and Regular Show what was the last non pilot cartoon TV movie to came out? And multiple episode aired in a row don't count, it has to be marketed as a movie! And on that awkwardly segwayed note, we wrap up the first half of 2017 in animation. But threat not, the fun is only just beginning. So come back next week for 2017 Year in REVIEW: Part 2. What are you're thought on any of the shows/events I talked about today? Are there any that I missed? Leave all those thoughts and more in the comments down bellow. I would love to hear them and start a conversation, Even if we don't necessarily agree with each other. Please fav, follow, and comment if you liked the review, and have a nice day. (I do not own any of the images or videos in this review. All credit goes to there original owners.)

https://www.deviantart.com/joyofcrimeart/journal/2017-Year-in-REVIEW-Part-1-721422027 DA Link

#Review #Samurai Jack Season 5 #Rick and Morty #Castlevania #Butch Hartman

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osakasshitpit · 4 years ago

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My adventures with my PS4 and Night City

Here is what nobody asked for, my thoughts on Cyberpunk 2077.

Well well well. This certainly is a hot button topic right now. The game’s out, everyone is playing it and a fuck ton of people are complaining about it. Me as well. Playing it I mean, I spend the majority of this weekend playing it, actually, and I haven’t lost a word about it online. Full disclosure, I am playing on PS4 because I don’t have a PC that can handle it, let alone a PS5 (those fucking things are almost as rare these times as graphics cards, swear to god). I also could not play right on launch day, for a whole bunch of reasons. First, my Tabletop RPG group plays Thursdays and I’m the game master, so I can’t just drop off of the face of the earth and play Cyberpunk. I know, what a fucking nerd I am. Anyways, if that wasn’t enough, the fucking delivery service was fucking with me. My package didn’t get delivered on Thursday, for unknown reasons. Friday, it was finally due to arrive, but the mailman just didn’t think he should deliver my package. I only found out through tracking that he apparently was there and I wasn’t, despite the fact I was. Fuck that guy. I went to the post office to complain later. It turns out due to the ‘rona and the game being rated for mature audiences only, they could not deliver my package and I indeed had to pick it up from the post office, so I could verify I am of age. Usually, when this sort of thing happens and you gotta pick it up, earliest date you can pick it up is the next day, 10am... which would’ve been Saturday. Luckily for me, I was able to pick it up on Friday, despite the fact I shouldn’t be able to. Well, lucky me I guess. After coming home from work, I put the game in the console and had to wait pretty much the entire rest of the day for the fucking thing to install and patch, so that was a fucking bitch and a half. I played

After all that, I was finally able to at least make a character and play through the tutorial before going to bed.

Saturday and onward, I played roughly 20 hours, I got through the game’s story a bit and did a looooooooooot of side jobs. I played most of that time on version 1.04, the tutorial was on version 1.02.

So after explaining my situation, here are my thoughts.

The short version is, it’s a really good game that is sadly a little rough around the edges.

The long version... weeeeelll.

The game, even on PS4 with admittedly low graphics settings (the game was just not made for the thing and it shows from time to time), can look incredible. Most of that is in the lighting. By night, the city is glowing in this harsh neon tone I simply adore. By day, the city is bright and shiny, like polished chrome. The back alleys are dark, dingy and littered with trash. The city is like a maze made out of roads, alleys and underground walkways. The atmosphere this game has is what I expected and what I wanted, so A+ in that department. They also did an excellent job on the motion capture. When it comes to open world games, I’m pretty used to the shit bethesda sells you, so I was very very happy to see all the characters you meet move and emote like that. There were some rough spots, especially with everyone's favorite sleep paralysis demon Johnny, but over all the animation quality is top notch. It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, though. The texture quality is pretty low, at least on the environment (I think the quality on the characters is pretty okay for PS4). It is noticeable in many areas, but I guess I’m okay with that. I kinda wished the environments had better texture quality but I guess it’s a small prize to pay. What was kind of distracting for me was the visual glitches I encountered. They were not as frequent as many made them out to be, but when they occurred it was very noticeable. Bodies clipping and getting stuck in geometry, being violently distorted as they are trying to get unstuck to the ground I probably propelled them into with a shotgun blast. Things flickering in and out of existence in the distance. Light effects flickering from time to time. And of course, the odd model being rendered in low-res before blending into the high-res model. The later seems to be a major gripe for many a people, but I had this happen like, maybe 10 times? At least I actively noticed it like 10 times. It usually only took about a second or two until the game caught up. It mostly happened when I took a motorcycle to get around. After going like 200 km/h and stopping at my destination, the game sometimes took a few seconds to catch up and render the area properly and granted, it’s a bit of an annoyance but well, it happened rarely enough to bother me. My theory on why this happens is it probably has something to do with how the engine (which is the latest version of their own proprietary engine, the RedEngine) handles Level of Detail. To explain, in short, level of detail is when a game uses lower resolution models and textures for objects that are far away. They look like shit because they are not meant to be seen up close. They are meant to be seen from a great distance. At a far distance, it doesn’t matter if that model has 10000 polygons or 5, because all you see is a few pixels in the vague shape of something. Its a neat trick engines use to render more on screen without using much more power, and everyone is using it. If you have played Breath of the Wild, you might have seen this when you zoom in really close with your shieka slate towards something like a shire or a building that is far away. Anyways, my theory is that due to the way the engine handles this, the game gets confused sometimes and it takes a bit until the high res model loads in, which is why you see low res models up close. It’s bad, but probably just a thing they need to patch out. I have to admit though, that I only played it on a 26 inch 1080p screen so people with larger screens might find these graphical shortcomings more distracting.

One thing I found rather annoying in regards to graphics is that sometimes UI elements take a while to load. This happens very inconsistently so I don’t know why this happens but it does suck.

I’ll be honest though and say what was important for me was less the graphics and more the gameplay, aesthetic/atmosphere and story. I already stated that I think the game delivers on the atmosphere and aesthetics, but what about the gameplay and story?

Well, it’s pretty good I’d say. Gun play is good, Cyberware is integrated well into the game, granting you new perks and abilities and the RPG Mechanics (while not being the most in depth and faithful to how the Pen and Paper Games worked) are also pretty fun to fuck around with. It works like this: You get Stat points you distribute to get bonuses to stuff and that allow you to do certain actions. Some things have a stat requirement to do, like breaking down doors or hacking into a device to collect paydata. There are also dialogue choices that have stat requirements. These are optional, but very helpful. I have to say though, it’s pretty easy to have a jack of all trades that can get past most of these things. You can see that as a positive thing or a negative thing. Outside of that, you have skills that improve when you use them. What that grants you is perk points you can freely distribute among the many, many perks you can acquire. These usually enable you to do some stuff or grand you a pretty nice bonus to something, like being able to carry a lot more shit, increasing reload speed for weapons or granting you a passive health regeneration in combat (which is pretty good). Also, pro tip, if you are playing a netrunner, get the perk that allows you to get RAM back during combat as quickly as possible. Shit is vital for you to be able to actively use your hacking abilities. Netrunning is another thing I liked. So here is the deal. There are two types of hacks: Breaching and Quick Hacks. Breaching is basically breaking into the enemies network and leaving behind malware that give you an advantage. These can be pretty strong and don’t cost you resources, but you have to do a minigame to activate the effects. How it works is that you have this grid with HEX Values. You have to hit a sequence of values to activate a malware. There was some in world explanation onto why, but I forgot. Anyways, You can chain these together to trigger multiple effects and if sequences have some overlap, you might be able to trigger multiple effects at the same time. The catch is, that you can only hit the values by going along the top most row, then the column of the value you hit first, then the row of the value you hit next, and so forth. It sounds more complicated than it is, really. As soon as you hit your first value, the timer starts ticking, so you are encouraged to first find an optimal path and then execute. It is a pretty fun and quick mini game that gives you just the right amount of challenge to make you feel like a hacker when you activate all the effects. I like it a lot. Other thing is quick hacks. These are just programs you can fire off that do any number of things. For devices like cameras, there are a set number of things you can do with a quick hack to manipulate it. I think these also tie into your hacking perks? Not sure. For people and enemies, you have programs you slot into your cyberdeck. These can do all matter of things, suited for stealth and combat. These are extremely useful for a lot of things, like blinding someone momentarily so you can steal stuff right in front of their noses, making their weapon jam so you can either run past someone or fight them without opposition, disabling their cyberware to weaken them, and plain just dealing damage. The promotional material made it sound like you have to play stealth to hack, but that's not the case at all. You can very easily specialize in shotguns or melee combat and hack your opponents to give you an edge in combat. I think it is more suited for stealth because hacking (as far as I got at least) is very focused on 1v1 encounters, but there are some things that affect a whole group of enemies, so you can still use netrunning pretty effectively in the thick of things.

The story is also pretty good. only played till chapter 2, but so far I like it. I can’t say too much and promotional material spoiled a few things about the first chapter but there were still some twists and turns I did not see coming, I’m excited to see where this goes. Outside of that, there are a lot of side missions in the game, which are also pretty good in my opinion. You don’t have dialogue choices that influence the outcome of every quest, but even the more linear quests are pretty enjoyable. At least they usually give you the ability to approach a quest your way. You can’t always solve things with words, but y’know, it is rare that you talk a gang into getting fucked over by you so it does make sense that sometimes, violence is your only way out. For those who want to play nice, there are non-lethal weapons and even guns can be made non-lethal with the right modifications. So, you can play as a pacifist, I guess. I don’t know if that does anything but there you go. What is pretty neat and sometimes challenging even, is that some quests require you to use non-lethal force. Be careful though, some quests can be failed by just walking away or doing them to late or missing dialogue options. If a dude comes to you and says he pays you to drive him somewhere RIGHT NOW, you have to get a car RIGHT NOW and drive him there. If you go away to get a car, the quest fails. I wish they told you that but I guess it makes sense. Thankfully, autosaves are usually pretty merciful and you rarely loose much progress. There was one quest that really fucked me over because apparently I didn’t talk through all the dialogue options when I should’ve. Without spoiling anything, you had to talk to a guy. After doing that, you can go to the guy who asked you to do that and get your reward, but the quest isn’t finished. If you didn’t do a thing before getting your reward, you will fail the quest down the line. You still get paid but... well, I guess you could say you get the bad end for the quest.

Sadly, Quests are also where my main issue with how the game is right now lies. There are some bugs that can render a quest objectives broken, or stuck in limbo. Some of these issues fix themselves after a while or after loading a save before the quest, but it sure as shit is annoying to do things twice because the fucking game wouldn’t let you finish the quest objective. This happened a few times for me. Two side quests got stuck in my quest log, with no quest objective. I think I even got the reward for the quest but the quest just wouldn’t register as finished. That sucks a lot. Twice or so I had to reload a save because I couldn’t progress in a quest because the game didn’t register me doing the objective. One time, during the main quest no less, I couldn’t fulfill the objective at all because the item I needed for that couldn’t be interacted with. That sucks and shouldn’t happen.

There are also the crashes. Thankfully, crashes only happened like 4 times for me in over 20 hours of playtime but still, it’s annoying.

Overall, I’d say Cyberpunk 2077 is a very good game that is plagued by some technical shortcomings, but it is very enjoyable despite all the flaws. I hope they fix these issues soon but by the look of things, they are hard at work on getting shit patched, which I can appreciate. It not as bad as some people make it out to be and it not a scam as some people have called it, it’s just another game that might have needed a bit more time in the oven.

#cyberpunk 2077 #rant

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