#'something fundamentally wrong with this team' is a pretty good one

[sergeifyodorov]

just saw a post so bad i nearly blocked a man

[grimrester]

i am really so sorry to continue harping on about the watcher entertainment streaming service. but this kind of stuff (internet content as a business & marketing it as such) is truly my obsession, and i think i will implode if i don't talk about some of the takes i'm seeing.

i'd like to emphasize again i don't have strong feelings about watcher either way. i like ghost files, i watch mystery files sometimes, i watched worth it back in the buzzfeed days. i don't watch any of their shows religiously.

anyway, here's the main things i keep seeing crop up and my thoughts on each:

"watcher has 25 employees they have to pay, and employing people in this economy is good, so we should be banding together to pay them."

employing people is good if you currently have the capacity to pay them. i checked watcher's linkedin page, and many of their employees were hired within the last year or two. if they hired people they cannot pay with the business model they had before, something is seriously wrong with their internal bookkeeping/decision making. it means they either didn't know they couldn't pay these people long term, or they did know and were content with risking newly hired employees' livelihoods on a huge content pivot in the next year.

of note is that none of their employees' titles have anything to do with managing the finances of the company. they are the size of a small business but have no one aside from the figureheads of the company in charge of their finances.

this is the kind of company decision making that leads to downsizing and layoffs, which can be devastating. but you know what's worse than laying off a portion of your staff? laying off everyone because your business is going under.

"not everyone can afford the subscription, but those who can should pay it to support the watcher team."

no. $6/month for a couple hours of content (depending on what shows you actively watch and the natural fluctuation of their release schedule) is a fundamentally bad value. i can pay that much for a few movies on amazon. i can pay that much for dropout, if i want to support a smaller business instead.

and to be totally frank, even if people do sign up, i don't think they'd get enough to compete with the amount they get through patreon/sponsorships. and the fact that they didn't know how many of their subscribers would realistically sign up is a bad sign.

a pretty good conversion rate of free to paid subscribers of a service or content is 3% (usually accomplished through a free trial). given the very poor reception of the announcement, let's say about 1% of their 3 mil youtube subs pay for their service. that's 30k people paying for their new platform. that's $180k a month in their pocket.

(they currently only have 12k subs on patreon so we are being generous here.)

a sponsorship deal (based on my googling, i have less direct experience with this) is anywhere from $10-50 per 1000 views. they've gotten about 1 mil views on their last few videos. 3 mil subs is nothing to shake a stick at, but let's say they're on the lower end of the payscale at $25 per 1000 views. that's $25k a video, $100k a month if they release 1 video a week. their lowest patreon tier is 5 bucks, so even if all their subs are at that tier, that's another $60k, so $160k total. it's entirely likely they're bringing in much more than that when you factor in merch, adsence, etc.

did anyone on their team crunch numbers on how many people would need to sub to make the switch worth it? did anyone do market research on how many people they could convert to paid users? because if not, if they really didn't have a game plan for this, the subscription service was always doomed to fail.

"this was their only option to continue making the content they want to make, with the production value they want."

i watched their announcement video. a key point in that video is that they have done sponsored videos and that's what used to pay for their content, but they did not like the amount of creative control the sponsor had over the content.

look, i get that's no fun. we'd all love creatives to be able to make whatever they want. but when you are a small business with a team of employees relying on you, you have to think about making money, sometimes at the cost of creative liberties.

and they had so many other options to make money for the projects they want to make without jumping to a subscription platform.

they could have started actually promoting their patreon, and maybe done some restructuring of the tiers. why not a highly produced, special series just for patreon members? or a special high-budget episode of each series, while the main series is lower budget?

bite the bullet and continue taking sponsorship deals on some less-produced shows, while axing sponsorships from the ones the crew feels more passionate about.

schedule larger, blowout-production shows only when they can be afforded. this is what Notorious Amongus Guy streamer jerma does. he saves up for big productions like his baseball or dollhouse streams, so he can really get creative with them.

they had other options and they've tried very little, especially when you compare them to other content house business at similar scales. try guys and good mythical morning both put out significant content with significant staff, and have had to diversify their income streams with auxiliary products, shows with widely varied levels of production, etc. but it seems to be working for them. watcher has merch and that's about it, and seems to only want to increase the production quality of ALL their shows.

really, all this just boils down to a terrible business decision. it's hard to say if the watcher team is working with a consultant or anyone outside of their team, but they certainly don't have anyone internally who is experienced with running a business like this. to me, it seems very much like they got in a room together and did some extremely optimistic income ballparking with no research behind it.

and that might have been fine for three dudes running a channel alone, but if they're a business, they have to start making decisions like one.

[felassan]

David Gaider on Flemeth, under a cut for length:

"I have a type. I admit it. There are certain wells I can return to repeatedly and always find something new to explore. One of them is older female characters. Mike used to rib me about it. Consider Wynne. Meredith. Genevieve. And, of course, the biggie: Flemeth. Why are they a type? I... don't know, honestly. I guess I have a feeling that older men fade, they strive to regain their youth or establish a legacy and we've seen that story a thousand times, but older women? They become free to become something new. I guess I see so many possibilities in that. I had a conception of who Flemeth was, and why, right from the very start. Her creation went hand in hand with Morrigan, as a being whose thirst for retribution hundreds of years ago attracted an entity (slight confession: I didn't know Mythal specifically, at the time, "an elven god" was enough). I also knew where Morrigan was right and very wrong about her. Misconceptions of the truth are built into DA's foundation, and they were fundamental to this mother-daughter relationship I was building. Like many seeds I'd put in the world, however, I had no idea whether I'd ever get to explore it. Knowing that she was a character of possible future importance, if not a major player in DAO, I wasn't much surprised when she was one of the first cuts the art team made in terms of getting a unique appearance. Thus the "batty old woman" players met in DAO. Not as hard a cut as the Qunari, though."

"Going into DA2, I wanted both Morrigan and Flemeth, but we could only have one. So I picked Flemeth. This was the game where she really got to come into her own. I remember the art team coming and asking if it was OK if she got a new model, as it'd be a retcon of sorts. I didn't care. I wanted it. I honestly don't remember whether Kate Mulgrew was cast before or after Claudia. After, I think? All I recall is that Cab came into my office one day and asked if Kate might be a good fit. Asked me, the dyed-in-the-wool Trekkie who had stuck with Voyager even through the admittedly lean years? The squeal I made was un-manly. Cab took that as a "yes". 😅 I didn't get to talk to Kate until DA2, however. Schedules being what they were, we had a tight window to record Flemeth... so I had to write all her scenes before almost anything else in DA2 was written, before I even had a team! Ack! It was OK, though, for the most part. I knew where I wanted to take her, and a big part of it was going to explain her transition - to set her up for the future. So I whipped up a script in, like, two days and off we went. Kate was a marvel in the booth. She adored Flemeth and you could really tell. I didn't get to meet Kate in person, however, until DAI. This came pretty late in its development, compared to when we recorded her for DA2, and we flew down to Virginia (to accommodate her schedule - she was writing her memoir at the time, I think) for a single session. It was going to be *tight*."

"I was a mess. I was finally going to meet Captain Janeway... and yes yes, I know she's also more than that. But come ON. When we sat down, I figured I'd have to talk her through the character all over again. It'd been years since that one session at the start of DA2, right? And even more since DAO. But, no. Kate remembered Flemeth perfectly. I remember sitting there as she told me how much she loved the character, how rare it was to get one with so much texture and possibility. She called out my writing - my writing! - and waxed poetic about how she viewed Flemeth's arc. I... I was floored. 🫠 Then we began recording. One issue that quickly reared its head was how Caroline had to speed through the lines if we hoped to finish. Kate was a trooper, and most takes she'd get it in one (which is rare), but I was alarmed because we weren't giving Kate time to read the VO comments on each line. I brought it up, as there were some lines (so much sarcasm) that required nuance - Kate was getting them, oddly, but I was worried. "Oh, it's fine," Kate said. "I read the comments as we go." "How could you? We're going so fast!" "I'm a speed reader." Oh. OK, then. That certainly explained it. 😁 We got to the confrontation scene with Morrigan and she nailed it. Over and over. More than once, Caroline would make a call and, before I could even interject and say "no, Kate had it right, actually" Kate would explain exactly why she did it that way and why it worked for Flemeth. I was in love. She did the "I will see her avenged!" section all in one go. I got chills. Then we got to the final scene. You know the one. With Solas. It was this beautiful moment. She took it somewhere quiet and sad... and when she got to that last line, we all felt it: Flemeth was dead. Everyone was in tears. I suppose I could talk more about the process. How she started off aligned with Morrigan's original Delirium inspiration, but I didn't pull back her loopy way of talking as much (bet you wondered). I still don't know why it was so easy to slip into her voice, but I'm grateful I got the chance. ❤️"

[source thread]

[storkmuffin]

Unwarranted Thoughts about Mingi (3/n)

The Yungi Of It All part 2

Not a Yungi shipper, but also not anti. Just not involved in that. Most of what I say below, however, fiction and RPF of the non sexual variety, and what is not fiction is opinion. Overall, you are right and I am wrong.

Yunho is Bad for Mingi, Actually

[Yungi fans I am going somewhere with this, just don't kill me.]

Mingi's problem in life is that he's unlikable.

[ducking for cover, please don't kill me, omg Mingtis! I like Mingi *I didn't at first *PLEASE DON'T DOXX ME PLS DON'T KILL MY CAT* but I like him now! I do!]

Being unlikable (wincing) costs Mingi, constantly, even in something as trivial and silly as his fortune telling in that one Wanteez episode, and his unlikability keeps being highlighted because of his proximity to Yunho. Mingi got the meanest possible reading by the fortune teller, by the way.

But if you actually set out what the fortune teller said, word for word? Mingi and Yunho are literally the same person. They are identical in orientation. This is why they're not particularly good for each other. Yet, they are treated completely differently, because Mingi either doesn't mind being unlikable or can't help it (due to autism spectrum, possibly) and Yunho is obsessed with making sure nobody dislikes him & quite often succeeds.

They are both ambitious, rebellious, dominant personalities that find it chafing to be under anybody's command. They are both (along with Jongho) a danger to HongJoong. Yunho doesn't deny it by the way. He jokingly (heehee haha) acts out slicing HongJoong into pieces with a sword as soon as he hears it, smiling cutely with his cute face. And Mingi backs up Yunho - specifically says, Yunho has leadership qualities. (We are going to talk about this problem that Mingi has, of saying things that harm him and only him in service of Yunho, because think about how TONE DEAF THIS IS to say this in front of everyone INCLUDING THE ACTUAL TEAM LEADER). Mingi then says truthfully, about himself, that he's not interested in this leader role, which is both extremely arrogant but also politically suicidal to say if HongJoong was the type to take this sort of thing to heart - Mingi signals that he too can do the slicing and dicing that Yunho just acted out, but he can't be bothered to. The Fortune Teller bitchily tells Mingi it's because he (along with Jongho) are too timid. But he didn't have to choose that word. Timid (소심) is the derogatory way to describe someone that if you liked that person, you might choose to call sensitive or soft hearted or kind.

When it's his turn, Mingi is slammed down as having Delusions of Grandeur, and subjected to derisive laughter, despite the many excellent traits that he has that Yunho lacks. The thing is, the way Yunho is described basically is Delusions of Grandeur: he "doesn't know that the sky is high" and continually seeks to get bigger and larger, with endless greed (욕심). HOW IS THIS NOT A DELUSION OF GRANDEUR? Yunho is also prideful, disobedient, with a huge drive to win at all costs. In other words, he's an arrogant, ruthless mofo with a capacity for cruelty. HELLO?

[Yunho stans pls don't kill me! Omg this is going all wrong. SOS SOS]

The traits that Mingi has that Yunho doesn't are actually pretty fucking damning to Yunho if you want to believe this fortune teller is telling the truth: creativity, analytical intellect, perfectionism, a transformative imagination that will take anger and pain from being ignored or compared to others into something unambiguous and clear (do you mean like, the ability take a complicated and painful personal experience - because the pain of being compared to others and ignored are UNIVERSAL - and crystallize it into a song lyric that millions of people will love, Mr bitchy fortune teller??).

The Fortune teller also says that Yunho's appearance is fundamentally deceptive - he looks kind and gentle (BUT HE ISN'T) and he looks mild and sweet (BUT HE ISN'T). If he wanted to give this reading to Mingi, he would've said, You are a sneaky fuck whose face is a lie. The Fortune Teller also refuses to say what Mingi looks like from the previous era - if it doesn't help that person to hear, he forebears. Given the general rules of 관상 Mingi looks criminal by the way. To a Korean person he actually does have a very scary face - which is the other way he's exactly like Yunho - the face does not match the heart.

OK now I'm going to go off on a bit of a lecture about how Korean fortune telling (maybe all fortune telling?) is supposed to work.

Korean fortune telling doesn't involve laying it all out like a readout sheet from an MRI or XRay machine. The Fortune Teller is supposed to exercise discretion, and be the wise counselor. And from that point of view, you can see the things this fortune teller said to Mingi as being advice to Mingi for himself, and what he said to Yunho as warnings about Yunho to the other members including Mingi.

My conclusion at the end of the Wanteez episode was that Yunho is bad for Mingi, which is why the Fortune Teller steadfastly just doesn't say anything about what they are to each other. He's reading the room. He's reading Mingi. Mingi was already so upset (WHEREAS YUNHO WAS NOT) that Mingi wasn't Yunho's special someone, so being told in the way I'm telling it, This friend you adore so much is actually not great for you, would not be something Mingi could digest in the moment. Yunho is bad for Mingi because he consistently shows up the ways Mingi is unlikable, or less likable, than Yunho is, to Mingi's disadvantage.

Do I have an axe to grind about the norms that govern Korean fortune telling? I do. Ask me about it and I will go off but it's not relevant to this present discussion.

Mingi's Devotion to Yunho Is the Ultimate Luxury in Korean Idoldom and I don't Know WTF Yunho Did to Deserve It (and I suspect He doesn't in fact deserve it)

Whether from being autism spectrum, being in love, or just being a very open person with a lot of confidence (untrammeled Mingi that just feels his feelings without avoidance is a favorite doll for me to consider and mull over), Mingi just really fucking super likes Yunho.

He likes Yunho, admires Yunho, relied on Yunho as a child and is eternally grateful, and thinks he still needs Yunho, and doesn't really bother to moderate his feelings or his expression of those feelings. It was so excessive when he was younger that his mother felt the need to tell him to cool it, to like his friend just a normal amount. Mingi's mom sounds a bit like my mom actually - well meaning, kind, but also merciless and cutting in her phrasing of her kind, well-meant thoughts .

In his relationship with Yunho, Mingi embodies this 사자성어 (Four-Syllable Idiom): 일편단심 (in Chinese script: 一片丹心) : Single minded devotion, but literally it reads The Singular Red Piece From The Heart.

And see, I see now why certain of my mutuals clock Mingi as being autistic. Autists often get very devoted, obsessed with, and go all in on just the one friend. This is both because hyperfixation is how Autists are, but also because it takes a specific kind of tolerant neuro-normal person to get past the irritating, unlikable, unmoderated parts of an autist's behavior to actually appreciate what's really there. Yunho's great talent is finding out what itch people need scratched, and fulfilling it to a certain extent. (This is different from Wooyoung's need to be Loved & Never Alone, or San's need to be Good & Helpful). He saw the huge need that Mingi had, what that need required, and fulfilled it, and is reaping lifelong dividends.

Case in point:

In the December 2024 issue of Dazed Korea, the interviewer asked Yunho and Mingi, "You seem so extremely different. How are you so close?" and this is what MIngi said:

민기 윤호는 제가 본 친구 중에서도 가장 열정적이에요. 예를 들어 뭐 하나 하자고 하면 “오케이, 그래 하자!” 이런 스타일이죠. Go 아니면 No. 또 제가 애매한 걸 싫어해서요. 그래서 잘 맞는 것 같아요

Yunho, among everyone I've ever met, is the most passionate. For example, when I say, Let's do something, he's the type to say, OK let's do that! It's Go or No. And I dislike ambiguity. I think that's why we're a good fit.

It starts out with a compliment about Yunho. It makes him look like such a kind, cooperative friend. (Rather than maybe an inert person without a lot of ideas or motivation of his own.) It ends with a self criticism of Mingi.

Yunho gave what looks to me like a pretty dark answer:

윤호 민기는 제가 말하는 걸 잘 이해하고 따라주거든요. 저도 그걸 느끼고, 민기도 마찬가지고요.

Mingi is great at understanding what I say, and comes along. I feel that, and so does he.

My devoted hound is devoted to me, is what Yunho basically says. My devoted hound and I know how devoted he is. To me.

SERIOUSLY?

This exchange had such the vibe of Mingi assuming that Yunho would be the one to actually pick him for their 'Please Pick Me" Wanteez content, but of course - OF COURSE - Yunho doesn't, leading to this:

Mingi screams, despairs, FALLS TO HIS KNEES, beats the earth, then points and hollers, YOU BETRAYER. Then this big boy toddles over -and he really toddles - to his betrayer Judas with the sweet face to scream out his distress. And Yunho folds in half, laughing.

sorry about the terrible gif - I don't know how to make these better, it's been on my to do list for a couple years to learn and I just haven't had time

Yunho is laughing because it's very funny - Mingi is playing a bit as much as telling the truth - but he's also pleased as fuck that Mingi wants his friendship/love/attention with such single-mindedness. Someone openly absolutely devoted to you is very, very seductive in any situation, but it's got to be especially true in Kpop Idoldom. A terrifying, heartbreaking number of these people, in this field, end up self-murdering in utter despair in the bloom of their youth, even as their careers are going well. Having someone wear his heart (whether for best friendship or sexual love or something in between) on his sleeve for you and only you in this extremely competitive, cold, cut throat world of being Idols? Priceless. Does anyone have this in any other group in Idoldom? I've only studied Ateez and Stray Kids - and this doesn't exist in Stray Kids. Please let me know if they had this in BTS or Shinee or whatever.

The open hearted courage it takes to tell someone, in front of an audience you know is going to be in the millions, "I want you to treat me as someone more special to you than anyone else" as Mingi does in the above bit? (Sorry again for the terrible gif). It's amazing.

To have someone constantly, consistently declare, You are the most important one to me?

What a fucking ego boost for Yunho.

The only other person who gets this sort of thing is Hongjoong from Seonghwa, but I've already gone into why this serves Seonghwa as much as it does HongJoong, and moreover, Seonghwa cajoles, manipulates and dominates Hongjoong in very subtle, intense ways. (ahem, Lego Dom Dungeon ahem). It's not clear to me what Mingi gets, careerwise, out of this open heart surgery he does on himself to express his love for Yunho on the daily.

What Yunho gets out of it is LEGION. Massive. The title of the above clip says, Jung Yunho, How Did You Survive Without Song Mingi?

HE COULDN'T.

With Mingi being how he is, Yunho gets to be the role he likes playing because it's familiar from childhood - the bossy, sensible, smart big sister. He has a dance partner in the way that ballerinas who get matched with a compatible male partner talk about what they're given- the male partner provides a frame, which both highlights their own dance and gives them a safe haven in the vastness of the stage, as well as scaffolding that allows them to climb the heights of the art - which in ballet means literally a body to climb on and gets them lifted off the ground etc. The fact that Mingi provides the 'frame' and Yunho leans into it during the start of the bit they're doing is not a coincidence. Without this 'framing device' that Mingi is willing to provide, Yunho doesn't really have a part to play, because being "the nice one everyone likes" can be played just as well by Yeosang or San, and it's a pretty boring role besides without something extra. Yeosang has this extra thing - he has a spectacularly unusual face AND he's very muscular for some reason underneath the delicate angel eyes AND he's willing to get naked. San has this extra thing too - he's Marilyn Monroe. Does Yunho have this extra thing? Maybe? Hmm??

In the relationship that's visible to me, Mingi is the giver, and Yunho is the taker. The giver may seem like the one that's losing, but actually, the taker is in a more precarious situation, when he is as reliant on the Giver as Yunho is on Mingi. And that might be why, being the clever, ambitious, greedy strategist that he is, Yunho tries to withhold something from Mingi at all times.

The K-Atiny below said, by the way, that Yunho was a whole new person, back to himself, as soon as Mingi came back from sick leave.

@ Yulmuel, in the middle of the page, says "I got into Ateez before Mingi's return, and I just thought of Yunho as being a really calm and quiet guy, but I see now that it isn't true."

Mingi's presence is what allows Yunho to be more interesting, or maybe, closer to his real self.

Tying it all the way back though - you know how the Fortune Teller identified being ignored/ disrespected and being unfairly/unfavorably compared to others as being a major source of artistic provocation for Mingi?

BEING BEST FRIENDS WITH YUNHO SUBJECTS HIM TO DISRESPECT AND UNFAVORABLE COMPARISON NONSTOP.

It also aggravates him, makes him think too much, and worsens his perfectionist tendencies.

But see, whlie Mingi is more obviously the artist and performer - louder (just, sheer decibel-wise as well as being a lyricist and rapper), flashier (as a dancer and a stage presence) - Yunho is actually an artist and performer too, and the thing he wants to do is actually subversive. And that's a fascinating urge that I am not sure Mingi has, quite.

But that's another post.

[justanotherflemethstan]

this is not a drill, this is a thread on the creation of Flemeth from David Gaider!! as kind of the self professed Flemeth stan blog around here, I had to reshare

(alt text and full text transcript of the images included)

Link to the original post

Full text from the images below the cut:

CHARACTERS - DAY THREE: Flemeth

I have a type. I admit it. There are certain wells I can return to repeatedly and always find something new to explore.

One of them is older female characters. Mike used to rib me about it. Consider Wynne. Meredith. Genevieve. And, of course, the biggie: Flemeth.

Why are they a type? I... don't know, honestly.

I guess I have a feeling that older men fade, they strive to regain their youth or establish a legacy and we've seen that story a thousand times, but older women? They become free to become something new. I guess I see so many possibilities in that.

I had a conception of who Flemeth was, and why, right from the very start. Her creation went hand in hand with Morrigan, as a being whose thirst for retribution hundreds of years ago attracted an entity (slight confession: I didn't know Mythal specifically, at the time, "an elven god" was enough).

I also knew where Morrigan was right and very wrong about her. Misconceptions of the truth are built into DA's foundation, and they were fundamental to this mother-daughter relationship I was building.

Like many seeds I'd put in the world, however, I had no idea whether I'd ever get to explore it.

Knowing that she was a character of possible future importance, if not a major player in DAO, I wasn't much surprised when she was one of the first cuts the art team made in terms of getting a unique appearance. Thus the "batty old woman" players met in DAO. Not as hard a cut as the Qunari, though.

Going into DA2, I wanted both Morrigan and Flemeth, but we could only have one. So I picked Flemeth. This was the game where she really got to come into her own.

I remember the art team coming and asking if it was OK if she got a new model, as it'd be a retcon of sorts. I didn't care. I wanted it.

I honestly don't remember whether Kate Mulgrew was cast before or after Claudia. After, I think? All I recall is that Cab came into my office one day and asked if Kate might be a good fit

The squeal I made was un-manly. Cab took that as a "yes". 😅

I didn't get to talk to Kate until DA2, however. Schedules being what they were, we had a tight window to record Flemeth... so I had to write all her scenes before almost anything else in DA2 was written, before I even had a team! Ack!

It was OK, though, for the most part. I knew where I wanted to take her, and a big part of it was going to explain her transition - to set her up for the future. So I whipped up a script in, like, two days and off we went. Kate was a marvel in the booth. She adored Flemeth and you could really tell.

I didn't get to meet Kate in person, however, until DAI. This came pretty late in its development, compared to when we recorded her for DA2, and we flew down to Virginia (to accommodate her schedule - she was writing her memoir at the time, I think) for a single session. It was going to be *tight*.

I was a mess. I was finally going to meet Captain Janeway... and yes yes, I know she's also more than that. But come ON.

When we sat down, I figured I'd have to talk her through the character all over again. It'd been years since that one session at the start of DA2, right? And even more since DAO.

But, no. Kate remembered Flemeth perfectly.

I remember sitting there as she told me how much she loved the character, how rare it was to get one with so much texture and possibility. She called out my writing - my writing! - and waxed poetic about how she viewed Flemeth's arc. I... I was floored. 🫠

Then we began recording. One issue that quickly reared its head was how Caroline had to speed through the lines if we hoped to finish. Kate was a trooper, and most takes she'd get it in one (which is rare), but I was alarmed because we weren't giving Kate time to read the VO comments on each line.

I brought it up, as there were some lines (so much sarcasm) that required nuance - Kate was getting them, oddly, but I was worried.

"Oh, it's fine," Kate said. "I read the comments as we go."

"How could you? We're going so fast!"

"I'm a speed reader."

Oh. OK, then. That certainly explained it. 😁

We got to the confrontation scene with Morrigan and she nailed it. Over and over. More than once, Caroline would make a call and, before I could even interject and say "no, Kate had it right, actually" Kate would explain exactly why she did it that way and why it worked for Flemeth. I was in love.

She did the "I will see her avenged!" section all in one go. I got chills. Then we got to the final scene.

You know the one. With Solas.

It was this beautiful moment. She took it somewhere quiet and sad... and when she got to that last line, we all felt it: Flemeth was dead. Everyone was in tears.

I suppose I could talk more about the process. How she started off aligned with Morrigan's original Delirium inspiration, but I didn't pull back her loopy way of talking as much (bet you wondered).

I still don't know why it was so easy to slip into her voice, but I'm grateful I got the chance. ❤️

[freckles-a-constellation]

The Doctor is a tragic character in the best Greek tragedy tradition.

So y'all know how the most common driving factor for intelligence to develop in species is if they're social? (Octopi aren't very social but let's ignore that real quick, the Doctor's a vertebrate anyway so invertebrate intelligence can probably be dismissed as irrelevant) Because after a point, more intelligence isn't really needed to avoid danger or gather food. But more intelligence does make it possible to communicate more efficiently, form more complex social bonds, eventually develop culture. Cue why social species tend to be more intelligent than solitary ones of otherwise comparable lifestyle. And cue why humanity is the way it is.

Now look at Gallifreyans. (I am purposefully ignoring the Timeless Child thing bc I don't rlly believe it and besides, even assuming it's true, The Doctor is similar enough to Gallifreyans to have flawlessly believed himself/themselves/herself to be one for 13+ regenerations, so anything that can be concluded to be true from analysis of Gallifreyans has good basis to be presumed true about the Doctor, whatever the fuck semantics you wanna use) So, Gallifreyans. A species much more advanced than according to DW canon humanity will ever be. More intelligent than humanity. High levels of education and not on the basis of private tutoring. Lives in cities. Has complex language and technology capable of instantly translating pretty much any language of any other species to be understandable to them. (Hell the TARDIS consistently still translates shit to English for the companions while they're outside it.) Complex social structure. That's one fucking social species.

And it gets better. The TARDIS is meant to be operated by a team of six. And even if River was joking about six, it's still clear that it should at least be more than one. Compare the Doctor steering the TARDIS alone to when he was with Susan. I mean, even those two looked like they could use an extra hand. Have you ever seen a human private use vehicle designed with 2+ pilots in mind? Definitely a species more social than humanity.

And the telepathy thing? Hello? Insanely, mind-boggingly social species.

Now take a being this fundamentally social and do something to them so that they see no recourse other than to take one (1) same-species (as far as he was aware disclaimer ig) companion, steal a ship they have little to no clue how to pilot, leave everything and everyone they've ever known and run without ever stopping for breath, no matter how much they miss home, no matter if it hurts. (And I do believe something must have happened to make him run like that, since the beggining, way before the Time War) Have them be scorned, judged, punished, mistreated and rejected by their species, again and again, for ages. Have them love, again and again, only to always lose everyone they've cared about, through abandonment or death. Have them essentially be forced to exterminate their whole species and believe themselves to be the last of their kind, only to be proven wrong by the whole Master situation, which alright is better, but also in some ways is worse. Have them, once again, form deep bonds with companions and once again lose all of them in various varyingly tragic ways until they have no hope left that anyone can ever truly stay for any amount of time even close to satisfactory, that love can for them end in anything but loss and pain. And they can't even avoid love altogether in an effort to spare themselves the inevitable agony of losing loved ones, because they're incapable of not growing to care for those around them. And they can't be without company either, because their sanity goes straight to hell in a handbasket within like,, 5 minutes of being alone.

Let me remind you this is not a human we're talking about. It's a member of a species much more inherently social than humanity. My point?

The Doctor is literally more lonely than the human brain can comprehend.

[arceespinkgun]

In regards to Marvel Prowl, I think the disconnect about Prowl’s character has to do with the difference between the UK and US comics? Maybe he was portrayed a little different in one of them that caused the origin of the prick personality to come to light. I’m not too sure

Unlike somebody like Grimlock who was written really differently between the US and UK stories before attempted course correction, Prowl never struck me as being particularly different between them. Budiansky's US comics from the very start still featured some level of bluntness and rudeness to him, like I remember Prowl saying he found Bluestreak's prattling annoying. And when Mirage suggested the Autobots just steal fuel from the humans, Prowl didn't say something like, "Stealing from other lifeforms is wrong" but instead said, "Your plan is both simple and simple-minded" lol I do think this abrasive streak led to the prick in-joke, I just personally don't consider a fundamentally good person lacking in social graces or getting stressed out to be a prick.

I do think that UK writer James Hill wrote him as the most angry of all the writers, he's the one who wrote him snapping at Jetfire, but like I said in another post that still reads as pretty mild behavior. Actually, can I just say that this snippet I've put below the cut from "Hunted!" which is one of the annual stories Hill wrote really reminds me of like, the dynamic between TFA Prowl and Bumblebee? XD

"Prowl? How much longer must we monitor these news broadcasts?" Bumblebee's words echoed throughout the cavernous room that he shared with the Autobots' master strategist.

"Optimus Prime instructed us to look out for Decepticon activity," Prowl snapped, his eyes hardly leaving the grey image that he watched flickering across a large video screen, "and that's what we're going to do until he and the others return to the Ark."

Bumblebee moved away from his comrade, his arms slumped by his sides. It just wasn't fair. The other Autobots were on a mission, a mission that would undoubtedly bring them into conflict with the Decepticons. It was a mission that Bumblebee had been purposely excluded from. "It's typical," he muttered, just loud enough for Prowl to hear. "Why's it always me that gets the boring tasks? I bet Jazz never…"

"Look… on the screen!"

Bumblebee hurriedly spun around. On the video screen an unshaven man could be seen standing in the centre of a jungle clearing. Torrential rain battered his frail form and a blanket had been wrapped around his shoulders. A young woman was gently trying to persuade him to enter a nearby Jeep. Prowl remained motionless, completely trans-fixed by this image. Long minutes passed before he spoke. "Can't you see it?" he whispered, almost to himself. "On the ground, a small piece of metal."

"Are you all right?" Bumblebee asked. He was beginning to worry about Prowl. Perhaps the pressures he was under had finally taken their toll on his logic circuits.

Ignoring his friend's concern, Prowl continued to stare at the screen. "Quickly, computer," he shouted, "freeze frame! Now, enlarge the picture." He turned toward his smaller comrade. "According to the commentary I received through this audio link-up," he said, pointing to a heavy cable that connected his chest to the video screen, "that man is Doctor John Butler. He was a member of an expedition team that recently disappeared in South America. The Red Cross found him in the jungle and he's now being treated for shock in a convent hospital."

"That's all very interesting," Bumblebee said, a quizzical expression etched across his robotic features, "but what's it got to do with us?"

The Autobots' tactician pointed fiercely at the computer-enlarged image on the video screen. A small metallic chip was lying in the undergrowth. "That piece of metal is not of Earth design," Prowl exclaimed, "It was manufactured on Cybertron… And if my memory circuits are correct, it was once part of Ravage's armoured hide!"

"But that would mean the Decepticons are active in South America."

"It's more than likely. We'd best inform Optimus Prime." Prowl raised his right arm and spoke into a radio transmitter that he'd previously built into his wrist circuits. "Autobot Prowl calling group leader Optimus Prime." There was no reply. Prowl switched to another frequency. "Prowl calling Optimus Prime." Again nothing. Not even the faintest whisper of a signal. "It's no good," Prowl cried, "something's interfering with the radio transmissions. I'm receiving nothing but static!" Rage swelled within him and he tore the audio link up from his chest in an uncharacteristic fit of anger. A shower of sparks was sent across the room.

"Hey, watch it!" cried Bumblebee.

Prowl marched toward the room's exit.

"So what do we do now?" Bumblebee shouted after him.

"There's nothing we can do," he replied, "except wait."

"Wait!" Bumblebee chased after the taller Autobot, placing an arm on his friend's shoulder. "The longer we remain inactive, the greater any possible threat becomes. Surely the two of us should go to South America and investigate."

"No," Prowl said, as he turned and looked down at Bumblebee. "Such a move is out of the question. We've no idea of the Decepticons' strength or of Megatron's plans. Logic dictates that we remain here until Optimus returns. He'll decide on an appropriate plan of action." "

Twin Twist and Top Spin are in the Ark," Bumblebee persisted, "I'm sure they'd help us."

"For the final time, Bumblebee… No! We are not going to South America." Prowl had never been in the jungle before. It was a dark and primal place that defied logic. It was not to his liking. It's utter madness, he thought. How did I let myself be talked into coming to South America?

[smash-64]

2024 Game of the Year Countdown Honorable Mention: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Nintendo Switch, 2023

I feel like I’ve played this game before…oh, right! I did! It was 2018 and the game was called The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. 

Now that at least one person is furious with me, I have to say that I did not hate my time with Tears of the Kingdom. I just don’t think it lived up to the immeasurable hype that I heard from critics, websites, YouTube, and friends. I don’t think I heard a single person say a single negative thing about this game for two months after it came out. I even heard people singing its praises multiple times on NPR, one of the last platforms where I’d expect to hear video game reviews. 

So, let’s start out with the things I liked after the cut, because this is going to be a super long review, for those interested.

I adored exploring the Gerudo Desert, as I did in Breath of the Wild. The Gerudo are a really fun and interesting group, and I spent significantly more time here than anywhere else. It was nice to see Link welcomed into town as the one male with a hall pass, since that meant I didn’t need to make sure to always don the disguise outfit. (Although it’s silly to put on the full Yiga Clan garb and get tossed into jail!) The addition of a subterranean area in Gerudo Town was also cool and helped add to the lore of the Gerudo having a long history. The bright colors and designs of the town, clothing, and the equipment were also still present and welcome. And seeing Riju grow into her role as leader was both cool, as she packs a wallop with her thunder attack, and reassuring as she was fairly self-conscious and unsure of herself in Breath of the Wild. 

The Yiga Clan are also still around, and I found them more interesting than in BotW. I wish we had a little more from them, but they’re supposed to be in disarray after we crushed them in BotW, so it wouldn’t make a ton of sense from a narrative standpoint.

Music was generally pretty good, especially in the more plot-centric sequences. The classic Zelda swells and melodies bring emotion to the forefront, most notably nostalgia. The credits music ties the whole experience together. Can’t really go wrong with a Zelda soundtrack, although it was a touch less subtle than Breath of the Wild.

Tulin was a really refreshing character that somehow struck a balance between over-eager young bird with skills, and annoying kid. In fact, he’s one of the only kid characters I genuinely enjoyed from start to finish in any game. He’s determined to help his village, prove himself, work as a team with Link, and follow through with his new role once you complete the Wind Temple. 

Finally, the characters themselves all seem to have had a bit of a glow-up, design-wise. Everyone looks great. There’s also a focus on making characters stand out more, with more unique designs and more plot relevance. Some have more of a part to play than others, but there were seemingly fewer one-off interactions in TotK. Many sidequests have multiple parts to them that occur across the map, so expect to see characters popping up more than once.

Something that has undoubtedly stood out thus far in my review is how often I have referenced Breath of the Wild. It is fully unavoidable to review Tears of the Kingdom on its own. It looks, sounds, feels, and plays like Breath of the Wild. I have heard criticisms of Majora’s Mask from some people who claim they couldn’t enjoy it as much as Ocarina of Time due to the reuse of assets, claiming it was too similar, or even lazy (which just proves they don’t know the actual history of Majora’s Mask, but I digress). But even those critics have to recognize that Majora’s Mask shares little beyond the reuse of assets as the game is fundamentally different on so many levels. 

Tears of the Kingdom is so similar to Breath of the Wild, I find it hard to not look at the whole game as anything other than a massive DLC. We’re on the same map. We’ve got towers and shrines all over, and while they’re not in exactly the same spots…they’re not that different and serve the same purpose. Zelda needs rescuing. Ganon(dorf) is the bad guy. Enemies are the same. Controls are the same. It felt like I was playing the same game, maybe just a different post-game story. 

The addition of the sky islands and the ill-lit underworld were so underwhelming to me that I never felt compelled to explore beyond a few minutes, aside from when I was forced to do so. I just didn’t find anything interesting about them at all. It was difficult to even get to the sky islands in the early game, and once I finally made my way there, I was expecting unique weapons and enemies, or powerful ingredients for cooking. I got neither, so I don’t really see the point. Perhaps I missed some massive highlight, but I have yet to hear about anything that would make me seek out some special, far-flung sky island for amazing content. 

The same goes for the dark abyss area, which I heard was this hugely fun land to explore. When I got there, it was just…dark. I couldn’t even see anything off in the distance to entice me into exploring, and the light seeds you get don’t travel very far, nor do they light very much of the area around you, so you’re still stumbling around and hoping to just chance upon something. As a result, I didn’t do much of anything down there at all. 

The Zonai tech was a huge letdown, too. I didn’t exactly adore the magnetism, bombs, stasis, etc. from BotW, but it was serviceable. This new stuff in TotK was downright not fun. When I see people building these huge, elaborate devices with fans and batteries and whatnot, I honestly cannot fathom the enjoyment they’re getting out of it. It got to the point where I just never did any shrines ever again. I’d find one and activate it as a warp point, and never go inside because they were annoying chores. 

The new tech felt gimmicky at the best of times, too, and I was disappointed that the developers clearly focused so much time and effort on it instead of…anything else. Being able to throw random objects onto a sword isn’t as interesting as discovering well-crafted weapons that have a bit of lore or culture behind them. Instead, we just get a couple of very basic weapons and are expected to combine them with random monster parts to make stronger ones, but they always end up looking held together with paper clips and bubble gum.

Perhaps my time playing games from Falcom’s Trails series has bled over and corrupted my ability to fairly assess the storytelling and writing in other games and series; and while there was definitely a bigger focus on story in TotK than BotW, I still found the story to be lacking. Maybe it was just my disinterest, but it came off as very underwhelming to me. I liked individual moments, like Riju standing on her own or Zelda actually playing a part in the plot, but the overall story just didn’t click with me. It all felt like something I’d already done before.

I found the difficulty in this game to be a bit of a mixed bag. I welcomed some of the more difficult enemies and the increase in the number of boss fights, in general, but the final gauntlet was such an enormous leap in difficulty that it was ultimately the thing that made me put the game back on the shelf for about five months. I was getting bored with the game, skipped both the Goron and Zora areas, and was forced to fight their bosses at the end of the game as a result. This was definitely a difficult surprise since I had no tips from the respective champions, and while I did manage to scrape through, I never felt a sense of accomplishment, only frustration and annoyance. I appreciated the option to skip Divine Beasts in BotW, but this felt like a harsher punishment in the endgame.

Even in BotW, I was never one for “proper” Zelda combat, with parries and such, not to mention being moderately underpowered. So brute forcing it was kind of my MO, and TotK very clearly doesn’t want you to do that. As I’ve gotten older, I enjoy Hardcore Gamer Moments™ less and less and I think my favorite thing to happen to video games is the difficulty slider that allows me to choose the type of experience I have. Work and life is stressful and I don’t generally want my games to be the same. Or, at the very least, I’d like the option to choose.

Now, I must admit that when I got frustrated and put the game back on the shelf, I wasn’t really intending to ever return to it because I wasn’t having fun. However, after five months, something changed and I was open to making another attempt. The water and fire temples were extremely unenjoyable experiences, with the very long, drawn-out quests for the Spirit Sage and Master Sword being only slightly less chore-like, and this has essentially always been the case with Zelda dungeons for me. I almost never enjoy them, which explains why the list of Zelda games I like is shockingly short. I actually gave up on the Master Sword quest because it involved expanding my stamina gauge, which meant completing shrines and I hated shrines in this game, so I said screw it.

However, I did beat the game. I sought out the temples I originally skipped, finished them, and headed back to Ganondorf for a second attempt. It was definitely easier, but still a jump in difficulty compared to the rest of the game. I didn’t feel satisfied with the fights, only annoyed that I had to be troubled to finish them at all. 

My last real gripe is just how this game is essentially one massive roadblock. Every single thing you want to do will be locked behind having to complete some OTHER quest first, which is supremely annoying and a complete break from what Breath of the Wild was. I found myself just wishing I was playing Breath of the Wild instead, which cannot be a glowing endorsement for Tears of the Kingdom.

I can’t say I regret playing TotK and I didn’t hate every minute I spent with the game, despite some of my grumblings. It didn’t reach the heights of BotW, but I did spend over a month playing it, when it’s all said and done. I still like the open world Zelda aspect and the art direction is still top notch. Nintendo always puts their A Team on Zelda projects, so it’s never a franchise you can ignore, even if individual games don’t do it for you.

[imgloriaa]

not yashua complaining because he’s not getting enough the views and followers let’s be real here most of his “fans” were most people are from Richard followers and CNCOwners

I’m gonna be completely and brutally honest today, because i feel like it when i feel like a total gemini bitch.

CNCO took something for granted when they decided to disband: in their mind they thought they would come out of that mess unharmed. First of all, they relied too much on their fame status & didn’t realize they weren’t as big as One Direction and their fan base wasn’t as royal as directioners. Then, their decision of when announcing the disbanding. Bringing it out while accepting an award wasn’t a very smart move. In addition to that we should remember Zabdiel was already in talks to release his debut single while still in the band and Richard was hella mad at him and everybody knew something was wrong. All of these contributed to the reason a great portion of the fandom decided to step out. This was the first big mistake they made.

Their second big mistake was egoistically thinking they would have had the same success as One Direction members achieved when going solo. They were pretty confident it would have worked out for every single one of them, while they still had an example in front of them of how, in fact, it didn’t work for Jword. They were basically digging their own grave and didn’t even notice it.

Another mistake they made that costed them more than half of the fandom was their farewell tour. People forgive, but people don’t forget very easily. The farewell tour was not thought through like they made us think it was. Not planning an european leg was hella stupid, but planning 10 shows in Mexico was cruel. They didn’t sold out any of the 10 shows. And they were also forced to cancel some dates of the tour because tickets wouldn’t sell, at that point half of the fandom was gone and the other half was desperately hoping to see them one last time outside USA & LATAM - which never happened.

So, having finally said that, if Yashua is flopping, it’s just a reflection to what is happening to Richard. CNCOwners stopped caring about Richard and, as a result, they stopped caring about Yashua as well. Let’s face the truth: none of the CNCO guys will be able to achieve something as a solo artist because the fandom they thought they had doesn’t exists anymore. All of them were relaying on a previous existing fandom to start their careers - so, they were sure CNCOwners would stream their debut singles no matter what. They ended up not having that. Richard released his album on a platform where people have to pay the music per minute to listen to it, because nobody wanted to sign him - mainly because everyone knows their previous fanbase is completely gone (half of it switched to kpop lmao and the other half is probably like me: we listen to various genres because we can’t get attached to another artist anymore). Zabdiel is nowhere to be found in terms of music. Erick’s debut was lame - his team could have created some hype before announcing the single, but they didn’t. Hype is fundamental. And the song wasn’t even that good. He got a couple of performances booked and that’s it. He’s back in his apartment in Miami doing what he always does. Chris is… do we really think he would actually come out with music? I have lost hopes.

Men. They always manage to screw everything up and never have good ideas. Richard will be out there looking for a regular job or something else (dancing gigs? acting? everything to support one toddler and alimony to his other child.)

That’s it. I’ve spilled my hot tea once for all.

[joshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh]

Sonic Movie 3 Thoughts Wooooooo

Straight home from the cinema, wanted to write my thoughts down, and it goes without saying, but I am spoiling the movie rotten, including post-credits, so yk, decide for yourself if you're clicking.

Okay, I thought the movie was... fine. Not great, leagues ahead of the first one obviously, although in comparison to the second one I think it reaches higher heights and avoids its lowest lows, although is perhaps overall less balanced than the second one? No, that's not quite it. I think the second one did Sonic and Knuckles' arcs better and as a movie was more focused on that so felt a bit more balanced, whereas movie 3 is more exciting and like cooler as an action setpiece but maybe not quite narratively as fulfilling? Something? I don't know, gonna need to weigh that in my mind a little.

I guess breaking it down into more specifics I wanna probably talk Sonic first, because I think he was a bit of an odd link in his own movie. Sonic at this point has his team with Tails and Knuckles, so he needs to be sure he's trusting them and making the right decisions. Eventually of course Shadow hurts Tom and Sonic loses his cool, goes against the team, and pretty much tries to kill Shadow, before doing a "this isn't who I am" thing and calming down, having a heart to heart with Shadow, remembering Longclaw exists, the whole shebang. It's fine, I understand fundamentally that this movie version of Sonic isn't his game self and is going to have more of an active character arc, and obviously in the context of the movie it serves to put him on the same arc Shadow has so they can both grow together. When I spell it out like that even I think it's pretty good, but I think it probably needed slightly more time to feel more convincing? Again it wasn't bad I was just not all that engaged with it, honestly makes me wonder if I even can take this version of Sonic all that seriously, cause at some point I do have to consider that I might just not like him.

Tails and Knuckles are pretty much fine. Tails honestly has more screentime than he did in the second movie it feels, I think he was a better executed version of his character across the board. Knuckles is a little closer to how he felt in movie 2 than he did in his own series, and I appreciate that he's broadly very capable, but also it really does feel like they're doing dumb Knuckles again except warrior mode. Maddie I have basically nothing to say about here but Tom is fine, contributes to Sonic's arc, has his like one speech, they've got an okay infiltration scene together that didn't drag too long and fortunately had Sonic and friends constantly on the mic to remind us who we're watching for. Stone's fine, nice jealousy arc for Gerald and Eggman before the latter remembers that Stone is the only one who ever cared for him and the two reconcile and it's sweet and everything. Eggman's doing the same shtick he's been doing all these movies, with a noble sacrifice at the end that makes me question how he's gonna be used in future. The big thing for him is Gerald being there, and Gerald...

I think Gerald, and by extension the entire backstory relating to Project Shadow, is where this movie goes the most wrong for me. I'll talk about Shadow on his own in a bit, but in the context of Project Shadow, Shadow is an alien who landed on earth as a meteorite and was recovered by and subsequently experimented on by GUN. Gerald is the one leading the experiments. They're not inhumane experiments at all, seems to just be routine tests and making him run to power generators and test his Chaos Energy. Maria is of course also there. When it becomes evident that Shadow is really powerful and they can't necessarily control him, GUN hunt down Gerald, unintentionally destroy the lab, and put Shadow in stasis. Present day, Gerald has managed to remotely awaken Shadow, remotely get Eggman to find him, and they're all gonna work together to blow up the entire earth and also suicide pact themselves in the process, a detail Eggman obviously doesn't know about. The thing is, fuck man, I do need to do that other paragraph next.

Maria doesn't have NIDS. or AIDS. Or some nondescript terminal illness. She doesn't have anything. She's literally just a normal girl. Why is she here at the research lab, which is distinctly on Earth? Just kinda because. Sees Shadow, befriends him, they're really cute, nothing but props there. But Maria is just a normal girl. Gerald basically never interacts with her. Or speaks positively of her. He's on a path for revenge for a granddaughter we're not convinced of his fondness for. I'm not out here to fault this movie for not just being SA2 and even in having said that SA2 doesn't exactly show their relationship very well either, all you have there is a sad old man on his execution day talking about how he was driven insane and is getting his revenge. But like. He's working on Project Shadow because he's a brilliant scientist who wants to use the research on immortality to help find a cure to his own granddaughter's illness. Through that motive alone we get the impression that Maria means a lot to Gerald. That's not there in this movie, at all. Shadow isn't an artificial being as far as we know, he isn't immortal as far as we know, he and Gerald don't really have that intrinsic link to one another that Maria completes, they're not a family. Fuck Gerald's alive but he and Shadow basically don't even talk to each other here. They very vaguely imply that Gerald's whole being 110 years old thing is connected to Shadow (as in have him say he's old and then do the licking Shadow's quill and getting a shock thing) and that's as close as they get. Again I don't think it's automatically a bad thing for them to go their own direction with this story but also the way it's written originally works for a reason and the ways in which they abandon that story only serve to hurt what they came up with instead. Gerald being alive could've worked. The research lab being a ground based facility could've worked. Maria not being terminally ill... I don't think that's salvageable. Certainly not in the form we saw it. But if that's what you're gonna do you need to sell me on Gerald, on his investment in any of this. I don't care about Gerald's revenge, that's the problem.

Anyway, uh, Shadow. He's fine. Good, even. Keanu's voice acting in this is leagues above what he did in the Shadow Gens DLC, I'm glad that wasn't a bad sign of things to come and instead literally just a false alarm. It's his SA2 arc but with the suicidal ideology amped up and Sonic choosing not to kill him being what makes Shadow realise he shouldn't be doing all this either. Sacrifice himself to save the world, post-credits scene shows he's obviously fine, good stuff. I'm honestly surprised how little he gives me to say.

Everything that happens when Sonic turns Super onwards is fucking awesome. First of all, sure, Super Sonic is consumed by rage and is out for blood and tries to fight Shadow. Shadow in base knocks the Emeralds out of Super Sonic with a sick fighting game ult looking ass wrist blow thing. Cool as fuck. Actually seeing Super Sonic fight base Shadow at all was honestly hype as hell in its own right, I think that's a very real sell us on the strength of Shadow. But of course, one Super hedgehog isn't enough. They both go Super. And they fight each other. Unbelievable. Absolutely raw as fuck. Not literally a series first because two Super characters fighting happened a few times in Archie, but close enough to be exciting. Also I mean all in space, btw. And yeah Live and Learn plays. More of the song than I was expecting but not really enough to be completely pogging. Choreography's great, absolutely the best the movies have shown off, one hell of an impression of speed seeing them fly across the literal planet fighting each other. Some sick fucking locations they end up in, tons of wallpapers. Super Sonic getting the edge because he has the fury of god while Shadow's conviction is currently lacking but also Sonic has experience with the form and Shadow doesn't is hype. After they talk things out they grab hands and transform together, it's raw as fuck, another wallpaper, clear out GUN robots by the hundreds, Shadow gets a smorgasboard of Chaos Spears in, I'm having the time of my life. I am barely able to sit down. This is the most excited the room gets. Oh btw it's a packed audience, everyone's wearing a Sonic shirt, families and dudes my age with their friends. Nothing very annoying throughout as a cinema-going experience despite lots of horrible signs at the start. Whenever this movie's 4K blu-ray comes out I am going to torrent that and I am going to steal some screenshots from these scenes because there are wallpapers to be had. Loved this bit. Finale is very good. No idea how Tails and Knuckles got to space but I'm glad they manage to play a substantial part here anyway. Gerald also dies here so like yeah things are just going well for me.

Overall I think, again, solid. Characters are mostly pretty good but unfortunately Gerald is kinda bad and is also very very much the central antagonist despite being kinda bad. There aren't any obvious "please cut this" scenes like in movie 2 except the two Eggmen dance sequence but it was better than the Sonic and Tails one in movie 2 and I mean no wedding scene. Climax is great. Shadow is good. Visuals are good. I think the pacing is pretty much fine, it gets into it very quickly. But it might genuinely have needed another 10 maybe 20 minutes to just flesh out particularly Gerald's backstory a lot more, although really I think they should've just done the SA2 faithful approach. Especially since fuck this is the year of Shadow right? They want to get everyone up to speed on everything to do with him. So why is the movie - the climax of said year - not giving us one of the most important facts about Shadow, that being that he's artificial? God unless the game plan is to cover Shadow being artificial and being partially Black Arms in one go. If we get a Shadow spinoff series is the plan to explain that his origins are he was created entirely by the Black Arms? Fuckin who knows man. I don't think the Black Arms needed to be in this movie I think that would've been a little too busy and a little too muddled for one film, but you gotta get the fact that Shadow was made by Gerald, surely. And Maria needs to be terminally ill! I don't even care that she wasn't actually shot man it's just the fact that she's terminally ill is the entire reason the Project Shadow story works. Whatever. This is the main thing holding the movie back for me.

Also goes without saying but these are indeed "just got home from watching it" thoughts. I haven't seen the movie more than once, I haven't spoken about it to anyone else, I haven't read or watched reviews, nothing. I am quite literally rambling. I don't think this is nearly as coherent as I was aiming for, but I was struggling enough to find the words to where I've given up really caring about being coherent. 6 maybe 6.5 out of 10.

Post-credits! Metal Sonic appears. Is jobbing. Way more Metal Sonics appear. I guess that's one way to make him threatening. Amy appears, takes down like 10 of them, Metal is full on jobber. But hey, Amy looks cute. Part of me wanted Silver too much just in some hopes of getting a year of Silver and a Silver game and seeing his character finally be redeemed in the public eye but yeah no Amy makes more sense and definitely needed to be done lol. We're a long way out from seeing what she'll actually offer these movies in terms of story, but hey.

Think that's all I've got. I'm going to bed.

[lunar-years]

I saw that post and it made me so mad! Jamie was a prick in S1, but Roy was also a prick, the show just sided with him more! I'm not forgiving Jamie's behaviour in S1, but honestly, watching it back he comes across as like an arrogant mean teenager, making himself feel big by taking others down. And thats bad, don't get me wrong. But then you've got a man in his mid 30s, threatening his team with violence constantly, letting himself get riled up to the point of trying to fight a 20 something, and physically attacking a team mate to the point said team mate got a concussion. But thats fine for those people apparently? I love Jamie's arc and its partly due to the fact that he and Rebecca are the only two who were actually ever held accountable for their actions

I'm saying, like!! this show overall has a pretty good track record with ~redemption arcs~ and it's because these characters are at their core good people. They are good people who have made bad decisions or a series of bad decision because of circumstances and struggles in their own lives. Now, of course that's no excuse for their bad actions, and i would never defend those actions, but there's a difference between excusing and explaining! and the show explicitly offers explanations for Jamie's behavior (as well as the others) that show they can be corrected and that do not in any way make the characters irredeemable.

this person in particular was also being flat out ridiculous because they were trying to argue that Jamie only ever got a redemption arc because viewers ended up loving Jamie. Like, first of all Jamie's redemption arc STARTS IN SEASON ONE, which automatically means it wasn't a product of fan response, lmao. Secondly I can tell them as someone who was around during season 2, Jamie was not nearly as widely beloved or as much a fan favorite until the third season. Hell, I know many people who say they didn't care about Jamie at all until Man City! So no, the writers didn't redeem Jamie because "fans are obsessed with Phil" or "because he's pretty." Just, ew.

anyway, the whole point of the show is that we can all learn to be better for and because of the people and community around us. Jamie & Rebecca are able to course correct and change very quickly once the first domino falls because they aren't bad people who need to change fundamentally. They are good people who just need others around who actually believe in them and see the good in them. They just need nudging back onto the right path.

Which is all to say that Jamie doesn't deserve redemption is to misunderstand the entire show I'm so serious. like i don't think that person actually likes Ted Lasso, because.

[providing-leverage]

Fic in Review 2023

This looks fun, thanks to @writer-and-thrasher for the tag

Total Number of Completed Stories: 16, which is great because my goal was 12 (one a month, which didn't happen, but oh well)

Total Word Count: 77,440! Again, I had a goal and surpassed it (getting to 300k on my account) and it feels really good.

Fandoms Written In: So much Ted Lasso, which I discovered after Sunflowers came out and was trending. I saw canon gay characters and went sign me up even if I don't normally like comedy stuff. I'm super glad I did because I've not written so much for a fandom so fast since my Shadowhunters hyperfixation years ago. Other than those 12, I did some PJO, Supernatural, and Batman, and Teen Wolf.

Looking back did you expect to write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d expect: so much less! Ted Lasso brainworms truly won this year

What’s your own favorite story of the year, personally?: I'm super proud of myself for finishing Past and Present Now Embrace, one of my few non Ted Lasso fics. Bianca was a very interesting character and the Percy Jackson universe it a great sandbox to play in.

Did you take any writing risks this year?: I think my trend towards gen stuff, because obviously romantic stuff gets more hits a lot of the time so I've trained myself to sprinkle it in even when it doesn't really need to be there. But with Ted Lasso I really felt like I could embrace the platonic stuff and when I did write romance it was because I wanted to.

Do you have any fanfic goals for the New Year?: I want to write a multichapter, and I'm hoping that multichapter will be either Stranger Ranger or Guard Your Heart. I've also been watching to rework the second and third parts of SSA Sam Singer.

Best story of the year: personally I'm really proud of the Fundamentals of Love and Lying, which is so self indulgent

Most popular story of the year: Get It Off Your Chest for sure, and I think that's all to do with the blurb I used in the summary

Most personal story of the year: Oh for sure it's a rather touching notion which is also probably the one I wrote the quickest. An aroace character figuring out who they are, feeling outside of so many social interactions because they lack romantic and sexual attraction? Pure projection. Also The A Team because yay autism.

Funniest story of the year: While the summary for Get it Off Your Chest is funny, Colin's reasons for picking up lesbians is deeply sad so I can't really say that. Eliza's exasperation with Jamie in Flowers for Dani is pretty funny though.

Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion: Fundamentals took a lot of work but it's also a rarepair I invented the tag for and narrated by a character that is basically an OC, so I understand why it's not everyone's cup of tea.

Most fun story to write: Holy Novelty Socks Batman is pure fluffy crack and made me smile a lot

Story with the sexiest moment: none of them really. Fundamentals and some of the other TL fics have some sex allusion though.

Sweetest story of the year: I'll say Shake It Out, a teen wolf fic from early this year that I'd completely forgotten about. What's sweeter than breaking into your school at night for a date?

“Holy crap that’s wrong even for you!” story: dito on not doing scandalous, but for angst then maybe this fic where I give Dani my caffeine sickness

Hardest story to write: Past and Present Now Embrace, for sure took the longest, with me working on it for over a year. I wanted to get it up before the Sun and the Star came out but that didn't happen.

Biggest disappointment: Not any published fic in particular but I have a lot of drafts I wish had been able to see the light of day this year

Biggest surprise: the community I feel like I've found this year, especially within Ted Lasso. Doing these tag games, trading asks and ideas with other writers, is something I've never gotten to do before and I feel so lucky and grateful for my mutuals.

Speaking of... @orbitalpirate @mearpsdyke @manwholovescabins sorry if any of you have already been tagged

[f0point5]

I loved seeing your insight on Charles Lando Lewis and I feel like your description on them is spot on (in my opinion at least) like charles being the nice ferrari guy more likely to follow team orders and yeah with the fuck boy part I get it there’s only so much ppl in monaco but to have girlfriends that we’re all previously friends with each other that’s too much of a coincidence and ouch // on lando yeah I feel like aside his funny moments from his early days w Carlos we don’t see a lot of personality to dissect aside from his speakeasy extrovertedness it’s like saying a lot without revealing anything // Lewis is definitely a tough nut to crack he’s had to handle being discriminated and basically had to keep up the PR face his whole career hard to say anything concrete correctly even though it’s been a long time since his f1 debut // would love to see your opinion on albon, esteban, daniel, or anyone you find interesting enough to write a story about

Idk how close of friends all the girlfriends were, and I know Monaco is a Petri dish so even if they were just casual acquaintances they’d be seeing each other a lot in social settings. However, man can’t be single it seems. He seems to lurch from one girlfriend to the next and that makes me wonder why he can’t be on his own. I know some people are relationship people but he just seems like he is in need of a constant close support system. Which seems to connect with the vibe I get that he is eager to put his trust in people to guide him, which is why he’s the more pliable Ferrari driver. I just get the vibe that he is always looking for someone to depend on in some sense.

I think Lando is just a balanced guy. His family seems stable, his dad seems lovely, grew up in an affluent home, good education etc. and for me that shows in how he’s just a normal 24 year old guy, like I feel like I meet/know guys like Lando. And maybe that’s why he comes across like he has less facets of his personality, like I’m sure he’s got his issues but I think on the whole he’s a pretty sound, normal Brit.

I just…mmm. I don’t want to get hunted by Cult LH lol so I won’t say too much on Lewis. I’ll just say, he reminds me of Cristiano Ronaldo, that they drink their own Kool-aid and it’s the only thing they drink. Also, Lewis’s outfits just BUG me.

I just think Albon is the cutest. He’s one guy I would trust with anything. He has a menagerie of animals and a lovely girlfriend. Honestly his seal of approval is PR63’s redeeming quality lol. I get such good vibes from Alex. Almost too good for F1.

Esteban is one guy I want to like. His face and the way he talks, he just has a likeability to him. But I think he has a chip on his shoulder that is not even so much part of his personality but sometimes it overshadows it. I just feel like he feels there’s always been something in his way and it has never been himself. And I guess that’s kind of a common mentality for drivers because they have to believe they are the best and everything else is wrong before they consider it might be them, but I just feel like Esteban thinks his whole career should have panned out differently and the reason it didn’t is everyone else’s fault. He says things that make me roll my eyes and say “could’ve should’ve would’ve”. I mean, I do believe Esteban has been a victim of politics of the sport (getting dropped for Lance) but at the end of the day his attitude sometimes makes me think he has an axe to grind with all the people he wishes he could be. But on the other hand, I think if you met him out in the world he’d be a peach, because I do think fundamentally he’s a nice guy.

This is contrasting with Pierre, who is on my mind bc of another ask. Pierre does not strike me as a likeable person, at all. Not that he’s not a nice person once you know him, but I just feel like he comes across as a real sourpuss. Probably means well ultimately but he just seems permanently unsettled. Another one I think who has a fragile mentality, probably a bit too hard on himself and expects too much, and when it invariably doesn’t go his way he goes on a warpath. Any guy who thinks Adrian Newey wants to hear his opinions on how to build a car needs to suck an egg. It doesn’t surprise me that he has a very young girlfriend because i think that’s his maturity level.

Disclaimer : I know none of these people this is just what I get from reading/watch them.

[breath-of-void]

Being a Grumpy Old Man about Nimona

Forewarning, I’m gonna levy some criticisms against a very gorgeous movie with some decent representation and ambitious themes. I’m open to discussion about why I’m wrong, but I’m going to be very opinionated here.

Starting with the things I really liked about this movie:

The art direction was stellar. I loved the way everything looked and particularly Nimona’s eyes. Whichever team drew and animated this thing deserves the payout they get and more. 

I also really like that Bal and Goldenloin are just gay. It’s not a big deal, they simply are because they’re people and people are allowed to be people.

This movie is also pretty funny. I felt like Todd was a bit much in places, particularly in the part where Nimona first turns. It kind of undercut a moment. But the humour was pretty good overall. One of my favourite jokes will always been “I’m not a girl, I’m a shark!”

Now on to the complaints. And it’s really just one complaint: there are no other monsters.

This creates a failing of the movie in two realms, plot and theme. The plot is the lesser of the two evils so I will start with that.

For 1000 years, the Institution heralded itself as the bastion between humankind and monsters. They maintained the wall and had pseudocelebrities in the knights who were also trained and deadly. Where this gets weird for me is that the Director really seems to believe that there are monsters out there in the valley. All the knights, while cocky and pompous, are fundamentally good people and they all truly believe there are monsters out there. But there’s just Nimona.

I understand that the whole “she was scheming and lying to keep power for herself” plot is kind of played out, but it’s played out for a reason. People do that. They leverage the fear of the unknown to maintain dominion over those without the courage or resources to disprove them. But the movie did not have to use that plot if they had simply included a scene of other monsters. Without that, this entire kingdom just seems ridiculous.

Or perhaps if they had lessened the timeline. One thousand years seems like a very long time to be afraid of nothing especially when you have the technology to prove it. But like I said, this was the weaker of the two issues. 

Nimona (the movie) seems to have been going for a theme of “the monster is the other” and judging from a couple other people’s takes, that’s what they got from it. It depicts a culture that hates something they do not understand and reviling someone they think is undeserving of personhood. There is even an implication of the readiness to accept homosexuality vs transgenderism as one may be easier to stomach than the other. And depicting that transgender individuals are more a danger to themselves (via self harm from societal pressure) than to other people. 

Good stuff.

Then we get to Nimona’s sacrifice. 

I don’t think she should have done it. Perhaps she did it with the knowledge she would survive and so she was doing a nice thing for the sake of being nice, but I personally think Nimona should have let them die especially since, in her human form, there’s no way that gun was going to hit her if she just grabbed Bal and flew away.

There’s a couple movies that do this thing where the hated group must first prove that they are worthy of not being mistreated before the group in charge decides to change. How to Train Your Dragon does this, as does Astro Boy and Monsters vs Aliens. That doesn’t make these movies bad, far from it, these movies are great. In the case of Nimona, however, I would have liked to see something different especially how the comic ended.

Brief tangent for the comic.

The comic fixed my lack of monsters issue on page 1. The general vibe is that monsters exist, Nimona is just weird for a monster. We never see these other monsters, but the comic states definitively that they are real and even shapeshifters are fairly common, just that none can do what Nimona can do. 

And the issue of needing to earn personhood is not present as Nimona “dies” trying to kill everyone after the pain and betrayal get to be too much for her. Even after that though, Bal is in her corner, demanding that she not be referred to as a monster. Nimona has killed a lot of people and even at the end, with her mental faculties intact, she chooses destruction; she is still treated as someone who is deserving of love. This was even before Bal finds out that she is still alive. To quote the 12th Doctor “Do you think that I care for you so little that betraying me would make a difference?”

Back to the show!

Why Nimona sacrificing herself presents such a problem for me is that now the kingdom does not have to confront their predjudice. They get to put up a mural and say how much they loved Nimona and how great she was... but they didn’t know her. I believe Bal misses her, but the rest of the people are just putting on airs. 

Especially since Nimona is a whole person. Before the sacrifice, she was not easy to digest. She’s extremely violent, rude and destructive and her powers exacerbate that. And it’s kind of objectively concerning that she can simply become anyone at anytime. But she died and the people can just say “yeah, we fixed racism. It was pretty cool” and they don’t have to grapple with the fact that Nimona is not quiet or personable like they would want her to be. 

Having other monsters fixes this because then the people do have to live with these issues. They have to confront the beings they had been abusing for generations and thefact that they have personality quirks as wild and random as any human. At the end of the movie, there is the illusion of change, but there’s no real way to prove it without it being tested.

In conclusion, there were a lot of things I liked about this movie, but I think they tried too hard to talk about something that they were not commited enough to explore. The question I would ask the movies is: would Nimona still be worthy of personhood if she had not been willing to sacrifice herself for the people who hated her?

Ultimately, the film oversimplifies a complex issue. The Director being the sole bad apple in the Institution and Nimona being willing to let go of her anger first shows a kind of wishful thinking in the eyes of the oppressor, that the hated and the reviled must first prove themselves worthy of love and then that the root of the danger of -isms and -phobias is a single person who can be ousted.

[tacetnix]

The New Year (OOC)

>// What was 2023? In retrospect, in hindsight, it's a year of frustrations. It's a year of being kicked to the curb and being hung out to dry, and at the same time it's a year that's been... reconfirming?

I started the year learning that my IT team was being deleted. That we had two weeks before we were going to be moving to the BioMed project. Up until May, I was doing thankless, menial work scraping medical-grade stickers with a razor, and applying new, shittier labels instead. They wanted us to do more and more, and somehow nothing we did was good enough.

Come my birthday, we were put on extended leave, given one or two days' worth of work with weeks of nothing in-between... and come the end of May, we're told that we were retroactively let go.

I can't express how much I have to thank the friends who helped me get through those few months of rough waters as I tried to scramble and find something new for work.

It just sucks that the only job that took me was working at an industrial paint facility, right next to unrepentant felons who got fired left, right and center for HR violations, sex-on-the-job, and threatened violence against their coworkers. Working in 100°F (~37.78°C) internal temperatures next to a 400°F furnace? Not great. Their attendance policy was draconian, and if I missed four days (even with doctor's notes), I'd be terminated on the spot. I was there for over a month, and thankfully I managed to get some interview for other IT work in the meantime. I was able to leave on good terms with the company, and started work again in another hospital.

Which has been a delight (to be back in the field) with its stresses (being verbally abused by a boss and pushed by higher ups to achieve impossible metrics). Overall, super happy to be back!! It's not perfect, but it's helped me realize I do actually want to stay in this field.

Sometime along the year though, I fell out of love with the main hyperfixation I'd been carrying since 2019: Lancer RPG. I came to realize that the community, the developers, the people they trust to champion it... will never live up to the promises that the game set out for. That at its core, it's a fundamentally flawed game that no amount of hacking or patching will fix. And for a huge amount of the year... that left me in a rut.

And that.. brings me to now.

This is a massive laundry list of shit that's gone wrong this year. But I'm happy. My wife is doing better than she ever has, I was prescribed adderall and it's helped me get things done reliably. It's the first year that I've spent since college that visiting my parents went well, and no (real) fights or personal slights happened... and we actually spent Christmas with them for the first time since... 2018, I think?

I'm devving my own game now, I've learned a ton more programming, and I'm self-teaching myself some app development! All the while I've been hungrily consuming new interests, and feel pretty positive about how everything can go from here!

The pros... don't outweigh the cons, but I'm choosing to look for the future with a smile on my face. I have my ideas of where I'd like to be, and for anything awry with my work... my work-life balance is better than it was when I drove a school bus.

I'm hoping that I'll be able to write more with you all in the coming months... and I also hope that come March, I'll still have a job that I'm working, so I'm not going nuts with stress again!

Sorry to just splurge all over the dash; if you've read this far, I hope you're doing well! Let me know what piece of wisdom you picked up in 2023! Mine is: "Be adamant that you aren't going to do overtime. Never give them an inch, because they'll drag you for a mile."

[whenthechickencry]

Umineko EP4. Replay Part 5

We just started and Ange is already tired of all of this shit, damn.

You sure are making theories Battler! Very wrong ones that were the misdirection of 4 chapters ago but you are trying! I guess Ange led you here so I can't singlehandedly blame you.

Rosa feels guilt from the blood on her hands, and as Rosa would, she instantly lashes out against the person she harmed instead of reconsidering her actions.

I think an important thing to realize about Rosa is that she is a Maria parallel, a Maria if she became older but wasn't allowed to heal from her pain. We know she coped through her toys and imaginary friends as Maria did, and they used that as a way to torture her further. She never was able to grow up from that (not that she had a lot of opportunities when she was thrust into single motherhood at like....26), so she has internalized all her abuse. She was a dumb, weird child who deserved the abuse she got and her life would have been fine if she just was normal. So now she has a child she's pushing her own trauma into Maria and forcibly trying to make her "normal". This scene's laying it pretty thick so it's pretty obvious this is what they were going for, but I think it's important to understand in order to be able to understand the cycles of trauma Umineko loves using and how the issue isn't that Rosa is just an instinctually bad person, as hard as it is to see that sometimes. If you are able to understand Maria as a victim, you need to understand Rosa as the victim she was growing up. Obviously, I am not saying Rosa's NOT an abuser or that Maria should have just forgiven her mom more, I am just pointing out why Rosa's like that.

What's the cry count for me at this chapter again? Feel like it's the 10th by now.

There's like 5 different deeply fucked up things you are admitting to in this one paragraph Rosa.

Of course, while Rosa has real concerns worth talking about, she instead puts the blame on an 8-year-old child instead of like, the misogynistic and irresponsible men....

Maybe you should examine your own feelings instead of assuming the issue is the literal child Rosa!

Man, as a child of similar circumstances it's hard to not feel guilt like this even when it might be unfounded, I can't imagine how much it would have broken if as a child my mother confirmed any of these feelings, also I'm crying again ep4 rocks etc.

I have heard similar statements as this of doing your best, etc, though. At some point, it's just justification for shit, of course, but also it's true that struggling young mothers that struggle with raising a child are in fact really trying in a society hostile to them and with few resources. Obviously, though, it's not the child's responsibility, or even something that is impossible, to make up for this lack of support.

Rosa really fucking hates herself.

Maria heavily compertalizing her Mother into Good Mama and Bad Mama and you can heavily see it in this scene, I think it's important for abuse victims to understand that they are the same person when they are bad and when they are good, if you can't it leads into you thinking, well he was just bad because he was in a bad mood, he isn't like this. He was just drunk. Etc. Granted, Maria is 9 years old and she can't be expected to be able to navigate the complicated situation of an abusive relationship perfectly, no one can.

I can't with this scene aaaaa. At the heart of both of Maria and Sayo's coping mechanisms lies the believes that they are fundamentally unfixable and broken forever.

I think the point of this scene is to show how Maria's more violent and somewhat unhealthy coping mechanisms prevent her from dealing normally with more mundane shit but I am Team Maria here what the fuck Battler if someone woke me up in the middle of the night and then immediately started teasing me i'd also be pissed.

There is something to be said about how the harshest reality, that everyone was bribed, has the most optimistic fantasy where everyone tries to work together and worry for each other...

The times when Kanon is weirdly mean to Shannon always confused me a little before I realized S = K, but they are pretty sad lines once you realize Sayo is calling parts of herself stupid.

We spend a bunch of time discussing the logistics of falling into a pit but the actual reality is they were just lying lol. it was made up. Even if the tunnels are actually real. (but not below the dining hall)

Yeah, I am sure the guy who shut her up to not be emasculated would constantly be telling others how smart she is....

God, can you tell this is Tohya coping about his family situation already?

I wouldn't be surprised if Krauss doesn't actually know here, tbh? I imagine they didn't kill everyone in front of each other like we saw, so I imagine Sayo just divided them in rooms or something.

Lol yeah, I definitely think he know or thinks Natsuhi is alive. I think by this point Sayo just bribed everyone and told them to play along with her game.

Gohda is not very good at this and keeps forgetting the script. This conversation is pretty interesting, obviously, it's hinting at you that S = K and to watch out for when they WERE together, but also it firmly places them as fictional characters aware of the meta.

The hopeful and calming way she describes dying because it's when she will finally feel to have as much worth as a 'human' is so sad... you can feel how deeply depressed she was here....

Shannon in these conversations is always described as the one who would be happy with dying, the one who thinks nothingness is better than the life she has, meanwhile, Kanon is the one who wants more. The one who thinks their life is unfair, who wants a chance at a better life, despite that being 'impossible' to them.

Did you know Kinzo has a fucked up view of women and love? Because the game is making sure you do!

I mean, she's probably not wrong, but damn Ange!

Hmm? I'd forgotten that detail about the daughter.... I think Nanjo mentions having grandchildren a couple times so I think she was alive at the time. I wouldn't be surprised if that is the reason Nanjo needed money, I guess. Considering he even went as far as deleting his medical charts....

The fact that she did this trick on a 6-year-old who definitely didn't know wtf it meant is kind of funny, though I suppose Sayo assumed she would have given it to her caretakers. Well it's framed really negatively here obviously with the Ange perspective, but I don't think her intent was to freak out the survivors, specifically, it was probably more so just furthering the legend of the witch + easing her guilt by giving the survivors money.