#(not exactly but with similar level of awesomeness)

[batri-jopa]

world_of_engineering_75 on Instagram

[thetwilightroadtonightfall]

I am the happiest person on earth right now because I just went out with a friend to grab a late lunch and it was just supposed to be a quick casual catch up thing that turned into a 4 hour conversation in the car about things that happened to us almost a decade ago 🥲

[vaguely-concerned]

the things it adds to both of the characters involved that lucanis used to have a thing for viago could not have been more tailor made to be for me. literally the ideal thing to come out of this game for me personally and specifically and spiritually. I mean I'm teia x viago trash until the day I die and nothing will ever change this (and with the best will in the world and even the power of lucanis' big beautiful soulful eyes, that would never have worked out even if viago DID somehow understand he was being propositioned. which I'm not convinced he did. the mutual 'so. snakes are pretty cool huh. and. knives. also' awkward energy without someone of teia's charisma and people skills involved to mitigate it... it would have been dire), but on so many levels I find it so incredibly charming for what it says about them both that the (one-sided) attraction was there once.

what's more, it means the man about whom this legendary paragraph was written:

Viago was not a typical Antivan. He liked facts—checklists, numbers, precise measurements. Heart palpitations, clammy hands, tight pants—Viago did not like these things. In fact, he would go so far as to say he hated them. Mild curiosity was his favorite mood.

has got some of the hottest coolest deadliest people in thedas down so catastrophically bad it's got them acting unwise. teia had to wait a UST-drenched decade for him to be ready to take his fucking gloves off for her. and she did!! the tetchiest most neurotic least approachable little vetinari knockoff of a man you ever saw has game for days and days and lives rent free in heads for years. in eight little talons viago consistently feels so inadequate up against dante and it's like. man I'm shaking you by the lapels you have what he'll never have. the ability to bewitch body and soul with your terrible personality and long thin legs. do not waste the gift you've been given go get her she's waiting!!!

(lucanis is really good at reading people, so I wonder if maybe he saw through all of that to some of the steadiness and incredible capacity for warmth and tenderness in specific interpersonal relationships you see viago have with teia when he finally opens up enough, and maybe that was part of it. either way it's so perfect that both he and teia have regarded viago with this affectionate intrigued amusement. lucanis still seems pretty fond of him in a 'viago continues to be exactly himself no matter what else happens or goes wrong. comforting universal constant' sort of way, he brings him up quite a lot in party banter.)

you've seen lucanis' game in this day and age, arguably or at least hopefully older and wiser -- can you imagine how catastrophically bad it must have been back when he presumably handed viago, most paranoid man in thedas all years running, a knife like this expressed everything it needed to. people give him so much shit for the cake moment being his big romantic lock-in, but considering where we started that is GROWTH and I for one am so proud of him fhsdkjaf.

also I wonder at what point vis-a-vis that whole Situation teia and viago met for the first time, leading us to ask... just how much was it a matter of lucanis simply being ignored out of a lack of interest on viago's part (tbf, not entirely unlikely). how much was it lucanis truly not managing to make himself understood. (all but certainly. literally how would one understand that. I think it says some sweet things about rook and lucanis' dynamic that they -- somehow -- DO pick up what he's putting down in a similar scenario presumably b/c they know him pretty well by then haha.) how much was it viago interpreting the romantic move as a death threat from one of the most dangerous people alive and freaking out. (1000% and indubitably.) and how much was it andarateia steal-your-girl cantori turning up and thus setting off whatever spectacular, volatile, awesome-in-the-original-sense chemical reaction between the substances of her and viago's souls that goes on to this day and makes everything else kind of a side note at best. a gentle mix of several of these things, perhaps. ...god I love all these characters so much

[what-even-is-thiss]

An overwhelming theme of Greek mythology seems to be that things used to be better and everything sucks now. Which makes sense when you realize that the Mycenaean Greeks stopped doing big society for whatever reason and their great big palaces were left to crumble and the Greeks of the dark age didn’t know exactly why those were there but they did know that they used to be full of people.

And when they lost their trade routes, they lost their access to tin and couldn’t make bronze anymore and had to use iron instead.

Hesiod coined the term Iron Age. He claimed truly he was living in an age of iron but he meant this as a bad thing. Bronze is prettier than iron. We now know that iron is harder and better in many ways but they didn’t know that. Bronze was just better in their minds.

But by the time the Greeks had started writing down their opinions about all of this, life had started to return to a similar level of impressiveness to the way it used to be. Great big walked city states were created. Culture and trade in the Mediterranean began to be awesome again.

But still in the mythos and the literature was that feeling hanging over everything that the current day and age sucks in comparison to the far past. So when almost every Greek myth ends in tragedy you have to wonder if this was just the natural order of things to them. Things get worse.

In reality things don’t universally get worse, not do they inherently get better with every generation.

And is this an age of iron? And if it is, what does that mean exactly? Are we all doomed by the narrative or not?

[dedalvs]

Top 3 Games That Don't Exist Anymore

LEMMINGS (1991)

Absolutely incredible puzzle game (based on the great lemming myth) where you attempt to guide a horde of lemmings to their home. Obstacles get in their path, so you have to give them jobs (building staicases, bashing through walls, digging, through the floor, stopping other lemmings from moving) to help them get home. It was cute, simple to understand, and INCREDIBLY difficult—especially once you got to the difficulty level "taxing".

WHAT HAPPENED TO IT

Folks just forgot about it and it kind of bounced around, never getting picked up when things like the Wii online store came out. After some remixed variants it never got a proper release.

HOW TO PLAY IT NOW

Aside from emulators, there's a free (with purchases) iOS/Android version of Lemmings now. The functionality is similar, and it's definitely cute, but it's not exactly the same in terms of gameplay, sound (the music!), and the levels are different. I'd love to be able to play the original levels again.

BOOKWORM ADVENTURES (2006)

Utterly incredible spelling game. You play a cute little bookworm who has to travel through time and literature to battle beasties by spelling words. The longer the word you spell (and the more value the letters have as in Scrabble) the more damage you do. It's cute, it's educational, it's fun, it's competitive (there are records for biggest word, most damage, etc. so you can compete with friends); it's a nearly perfect game. And there was a sequel, too!

WHAT HAPPENED TO IT

EA purchased PopCap games and then, one day, for apparently no reason, removed it from their online store. And that's it. It's gone. Forever.

HOW TO PLAY IT NOW

You can pirate it, but otherwise, the closest I've found is a mobile game called Letter Quest: Grimm's Journey by Bacon Bandits. The core functionality is there, but it's not really as clever or as cute or as fun. There's an Easter egg for fans of Bookworm, and bless them for creating a very similar game, but it is just not the same.

UNIRACERS (1994)

Also called Unirally, this was am awesome concept that was perfectly executed. You're unicycles that race really fast and do crazy tricks. All the stunts have names, you get points for them, there's track obstacles. It's simple, pure, unadulterated fun.

WHAT HAPPENED TO IT

This absolutely drives me up a wall. Pixar sued the makers of Uniracers because they said their unicycles looked like the unicycle in their short film Red's Dream from 1987. Like ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Thematically, the two things aren't similar at all, and, as the creator of the game said, "[t]here's not a lot of ways you can bring life to a unicycle without looking like the one Pixar did". Like...duh. The judge who made this ruling did irreparable damage to video games.

HOW TO PLAY IT NOW

There's no legal way to play this game, and, thanks to Pixar, there likely never will be. I've never encountered anything similar. It was such a unique play experience.

[michajawkan]

This is always my #1 pitch for PF2, because not only are the ancestry options full of great stuff like goblins and skeletons, every single ancestry ALSO gets a heritage on top of that, so not only can you be a goblin you can then also differentiate yourself from other goblins by being a goblin who's resistant to disease or a goblin who's extra-tough or a goblin who's really good at biting or a goblin from the arctic or etc

and then on top of THAT there's also Versatile heritages, which is how the system handles things like Tieflings and Aasimar and Elementals and things like that

and then even deeper, a lot of versatile heritages also have specific feats that grant a certain Lineage, so if you want you can be a Beastbrood Tiefling Goblin, which is a Goblin who is a Tiefling descended specifically from Rakshasa

and speaking of feats, all of these things give you access to specific ancestry feats that run along their own separate track from your class and skill and etc feats, which leads to a ton of potential variety in flavor and mechanics between characters of the same ancestry without even looking at what their classes or backgrounds are, and I adore this so much

I have seen several posts about your dislike for D&D and I wanna know if it's the same for Pathfinder? I love pathfinder but in my eyes it's just a crunchier D&D. (Though admittedly the "canon" worlds for Pathfinder are far more interesting to me)

Obviously that's a very baseline view of the two but I wondered if it's possible to like one and not the other due to their similarities.

P.S. I hope you've had a good week!

Truth be told, I don't dislike D&D! I dislike people treating it as a universal game when it's a very specific type of game! Note: what that specific type of game is also depends heavily on edition! But regardless, D&D will end up sucking big time if you don't play to its strengths!

Now, my opinion on Pathfinder is basically that Pathfinder 1e leaned in on some of the worst designs of D&D 3.5 (a quirky game that still had a lot to love about it): towards the tail end of D&D 3.5 its designers were at the same time getting really nutty with the design and coming up with some really inventive designs (Binders, Tome of Battle, a lot of individual systems in Complete Champion and Complete Scoundrel) but at the same time they were running out of ideas and they came up with the Worst Type of Feats: feats that made a thing that anyone could theoretically do into a thing now gated behind a feat. Player's Handbook 2 for D&D 3.5 had a few of these.

And Pathfinder 1e for some reason decided to really lean in on this type of feat. I will never shut up about the feat that allows gnomes to request their captors to loosen their shackles.

Now Pathfinder 2e is a much better game in my opinion because it seems to have largely rejected that type of design and focused on being a really crunchy D&D clone. It feels like a better successor to D&D 3.5's design ethos instead of Pathfinder 1e, that was ultimately a collection of D&D 3.5 house rules (some of which imo made the game worse than D&D 3.5!) coupled with following some of the worst design trends of D&D 3.5.

Also I refuse to ever shut up about Pathfinder 1e literally having feats that didn't do anything like Monkey Lunge and Prone Shooter. But anyway Pathfinder 2e actually looks like a fun albeit crunchy game instead of just being D&D 3.5 but somehow blander and with worse rules-writing. (now of course D&D 3.5 also kind of sucked in its own ways, but it kind of sucked in a "hey these example characters don't actually qualify for the Prestige Class they're supposed to be representing" type of way instead of a "our FAQ accidentally made it so you could qualify for the Eldritch Knight Prestige Class simply by virtue of being a Tiefling" type of way)

[lemurballing]

This is stupid:

buuuut it still works cause tangle is awesome :] i direct you to issue 37, where tangle does this:

at face value, heck yeah!! using her tail as a pulley system to tie up the boat?? so clever :) (and being able to wrap her tail around all that after the boat starts falling, before it loses much height - that’s very fast, accurate tail extension! what if she’d accidentally bonked her tail into any of those metal beams down there instead of going between them? she wouldn’t have made it in time if she did bonk!)

but you look closer… and it might not be that clever. in fact, it looks like a mistake.

(at the dark purple question mark, her tail’s path isn’t very clear. i went with ‘repeating the pattern’ around a part of the boat we couldn’t see in blue, which would then wrap around at the angle you see her tail stretch left, out from the question mark.)

it’s wrapped around the whole boat, so where’s the problem…?

the problem is: leverage (or whatever the word is for pulleys & ropes).

in the leftmost diagram, we see the dots - the anchor points of the rope - are at equal height. at a resting point, they will both hold the weight up with their own material integrity; that is, it will stay at the resting height unless the material breaks.

in the middle diagram, the ‘anchor point’ for the right rope has moved lower; the bar it holds the weight up towards is far lower, and the excess is wrapped over to tie to the ground. again, at resting position, it will remain there while the material holds.

in the right diagram, the rope arrangament is the same as the middle one, but now we’re applying pull force to bring the weight upwards. at this level, due to where the right rope is ‘anchored’ on the bar, no matter what force is applied, it cannot raise the weight any higher than that bar - only the rope on the left could pull it higher, or support its weight in a higher position.

applied to this situation:

the blue sections are parts where tangle’s tail can support the boat just by wrapping around and staying in place, pretty much; it’s a net woven around that just needs to not slip. the orange sections are where the only provable anchor point above the boat is tangle herself! (and i will note that the way she’s holding her tail here, her tail is almost certainly not the limb doing most of the pulling - for it to angle so much before and after her grip on it, it can’t be tensed. to better clarify - if you have long hair, and something pulls on your hair, it pulls your scalp. unless you grab your hair with a hand and pull it closer to your scalp, and then all the active tension is redirected through your arms.)

which means that for the boat to stay where it is - above the ‘blue level’ - tangle is actively pulling it higher! pulling the entire weight of the boat up.

so how hard is this - how heavy is the boat? in this panel, it looks like a relatively small boat; maybe a dinghy? dinghies can have those ribbed sides, and are generally round, and it could weigh somewhere between 100-200lbs, and be a little tough to carry…

nope! it is some type of motor boat (perhaps a skiff). you can see a propeller under the ‘cinch’, so it has a motor… and if you look at the rest of the page, it has at least 7 seats (presumably 8), so it has to be large enough to hold at least 7 people!

i’m not acquainted with boats so i had to do some digging - and most of the ones i found at first had consoles/raised walls/less seats than this one, which weren’t exactly a fair weight comparison. i also didn’t want to try to calculate precisely how long this boat is, since the angles are off and hard to calculate from this perspective.

so, instead i looked at a few different types of boat to get rough estimated of weights, and then i’d roughly downsize that based off estimates of how much smaller a boat for ~3ft people needs to be!

i went through a handful of similar motorboats (mostly 1-4 people, but with added physical features to add weight) and found weights between 1,000lb to 2,000lb depending on length (18-22+ feet). a yamaha 195S is 19’5” long, and 2,509lb - but a nitro z18 is 18’8” and 1,700lb. the only good visualizers i found were charts for what motor horsepower to use for what length and weight:

so it was super hard to get a good estimate of the weight here!! like super hard!! so i’m just doing a vague whatever conservative estimate and someone else can do proper math!!!

if you half the length to a presumed 10ft long - which i’m not sure is properly long enough for this boat, i’d guess somewhere between 12-15ft - and then quarter the 20ft weight to try to account for the square-cube law, you get a guesstimate of a boat weighing about 500lb. if you’re conservative with it, maybe 400lb?

which, to keep from tipping out away from the metal cradle, lowering to the level of tangle’s tail wrapped around underneath, & be held upright as tangle is doing, has to be fully supported - and as noted earlier, without real assistance from tangle’s tail’s strength, this is just her arms.

now, you could assume tangle simply wrapped that mystery segment of tail around the cradle bar she’s standing on, and this would allow much more of the boat’s weight to be supported by her tail’s structure… but it’d have to be an awkward angle for her tail to do that and it to not be visible next to her feet or in the empty space to the right, which would also put some more of the strain on her arms/body instead of her tail, so she’d stil be doing a lot!

and especially if you estimate the boat closer to 12-15ft, which is closer to 600-750lb, that gets crazier…

PLUS the fact that she had to hold that weight up for at LEAST as long to ask them to hurry & tie the boat up, AND as long as it took for the others to actually work something up/fix the cradle to hold the boat and relieve tangle of it.

conclusion: this is canon

[brucebocchi]

Ranking 2024 anime, Pt. 2: #40-31

hey, this post is also available on my ko-fi, so please check it out and consider tipping/donating as i do this for free and am currently between jobs. you can find part 1 of the list here. thanks!

Alright, on we go to the list proper. The first post was probably whiplash-inducing, going from a bunch of shorter stuff I loved to whole seasons I hated, but we can only go up from here. I watched a lot of anime this year, as the numbers indicate, so there's a little positivity to be found even in the lower rankings.

As always, OPs are linked in the series titles. Watch them, they're almost all great.

40. Metallic Rouge

One of the biggest disappointments of the year, one which I didn’t think could be outdone (and I’ll get to that one shortly). Metallic Rouge had so much going for it as a Studio Bones original for its anniversary, and managed to fumble all of its promise and goodwill in slow, agonizing fashion. 

It’s a shame, too. Metallic Rouge still looks awesome; the character and mech designs are excellent, the space-cyberpunk aesthetic is undeniable, and the animation can be terrific when it counts. The story, on the other hand, is so completely asinine that I was sick of this show before it ended. I’ve mostly forgotten what even happens, partly because it was that infuriating to keep up with, and partly because I feel like the writers forgot too; the bulk of any actual story felt backloaded into the last two or three episodes because they focused too hard on vibes for a while. I think they were trying to go for some “G-Witch by way of Detroit: Become Human” something or other, but all of it rang hollow. I’m still not sure whether it needed more runtime or better writers. Probably both.

Not worth your time. Just watch the OP and imagine a better show than what we got.

39. Mysterious Disappearances

I’ve thought so little about this show since it went off the air that I don’t really have anything new to say. Looks pretty lousy most of the time, not that interesting, oddly horny, and the plot structure gets kind of cloying after a while.

I know I harped on that last point when I reviewed it at the end of the spring season, but something funny happened after I did. Back in July, I mentioned that I took issue with the formula of “we encounter a paranormal anomaly, it’s identified as a yokai or urban legend, we learn its tragic backstory, our protagonists give it closure, and we move on” because it felt manipulative after I realized that it happened with every arc, and then I went ahead and read DanDaDan, which basically does exactly the same thing but a hell of a lot better. Comparing a middling work like this to DanDaDan of all things feels unfair, but they cover pretty similar ground. Maybe it’s sharper writing, or maybe it’s just a more engaging work. Who’s to say?

I’d also said in my review that Mysterious Disappearances unintentionally gives off the vibe of a poorly-archived mid-2000s series, but I hadn’t realized just how right I was: It turns out that studio Zero-G just went ahead and made up its own ending even though the source material is still ongoing. Better shows did the same this year, but the studio and I seem to have the same level of faith that this anime’s ever coming back.

38. My Deer Friend Nokotan

Honestly? Fuck this show.

I’ve already gone into what I did and didn’t like about Nokotan after it went off air a few months ago and I don’t care to revisit that while it’s still relatively fresh. Not nearly as funny as it pretended to be, yet still not even confident in its own sense of humor. The OP's still a bop (calling it "Shikairo Days" was a genuinely great joke), and a small handful of gags do land, but not enough to prevent this from being a massive disappointment.  At the same time, Nokotan was still somehow not the biggest letdown of the year.

37. Uzumaki

This was the biggest letdown of the year.

When an anime adaptation of the legendary Junji Ito horror manga was first announced in 2019, it was hard not to get excited. Even when I’d mostly fallen out of anime fandom, I knew damn well who Junji Ito was and I knew Uzumaki. Adult Swim was funding the project, a prestige studio in Production I.G. was handling the animation, and they even nabbed Hereditary composer Colin Stetson for the score. Ito’s manga is famously very difficult to adapt well, and it looked like we finally had a project being taken seriously. Delays and radio silence in the ensuing years were disappointing, but I was willing to be patient if it meant everything was being handled right. When the trailer dropped this summer, it looked like it would be worth the wait.

And for one glorious episode, it seemed like everyone’s patience paid off. Uzumaki’s debut episode was one of the most visually arresting pieces of animation I’ve ever seen: The entire look and feel was faithful to Ito’s inimitable style, from the meticulously detailed linework to the stark black-and-white color grading of his manga’s pages. On top of that, the animation itself was absurdly good; the process of rotoscoping 3D motion capture seemed arduous, but the end result was beautifully lifelike for a story where that quality could only serve to instill further terror. Several of the most iconic images from the early chapters looked incredible in hi-def motion. Sure, the pacing was a little fast, but this was a four-episode miniseries. We could deal. This was just too good.

And then came the second episode.

I’m not going to over-elaborate or relitigate every single thing that went wrong here, because it’s a lot. Uzumaki was in development for a long time, and that five year gap between announcement and release included several detriments to the production process, not the least of which being COVID, animation production changing hands between several studios, and new leadership for Adult Swim’s parent company that now favors profit over product, especially when it comes to animation that doesn’t involve DC characters. Plenty of us figured that all of these delays and a run of only four episodes meant that they had the time to hammer out all the issues and give us the best possible product. That, unfortunately, was not the case.

Responding to complaints about the decline in animation in the second episode, executive producer Jason DeMarco (who, to be blunt, has overseen several mediocre-to-awful anime products released under the Adult Swim brand, including my bottom-ranked anime of 2023) claimed in a quickly-deleted Bluesky thread that there is indeed a higher-up to blame and that they were left with an ultimatum to either drop Uzumaki after just one episode, let it go the way of so many other Warner Bros non-releases under David Zaslav’s disastrous leadership, or release the whole miniseries in its half-baked state. They went with the third.

So, what we got was an uneven, often sloppy work; another mediocrity to throw on the pile of failed Junji Ito adaptations. All goodwill established in the first episode is soon undone by wonky character models, uncanny walk cycles, and movement that looks like PNGs being dragged across a background at the most inopportune times. Plenty of viewers, myself included, were willing to overlook the accelerated pacing after the first episode, but that issue was thrown into stark relief by the second when entire chapters of the manga began playing out simultaneously, and one was even reduced to an afterthought for a cheap “scare” at the end of episode three. 

Not that I thought Uzumaki necessarily needed a full 12-episode season for a proper adaptation or anything; Ito’s output can often be light on story, and dragging it out too far risks losing interest. What makes Ito’s stories actually work, though, is a proper sense of setting and space to let tensions rise. That didn’t entirely happen here; while the atmosphere of Kurozu-cho does plenty resemble what we’ve seen from Ito’s pages, and Stetson’s atonal saxophone does a lot of work to raise the level of unease, things just kind of happen. Few things really get the chance to land as intended, in part due to the production quality cheaping out at climactic moments.

This was the last anime I finished this year even though I’d watched the first two episodes after they aired and it went off the air in October. I was looking forward to the last two episodes that little. There are still bits and pieces of great animation and faithful adaptation here and there, but not enough to regain any goodwill from the second episode’s wheels visibly falling off. Maybe it’s finally time to declare Junji Ito’s works unadaptable once and for all. 

Definitely watch that first episode, though. At this point I kind of wish that’s all we’d gotten.

36. Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable!

Straitlaced Nice Guy moves to a new town, laid-back gyaru from his class immediately takes a liking to him, a couple other girls enter the picture, shenanigans ensue, and a slow-burn romance begins in parallel. Nothing special on paper and nothing much more special than that in execution. The setting is lovely, though, and it really made me want to visit Hokkaido one day. Nicely done, tourism board.

If you watched this and were put off by it, I don’t blame you; I probably would’ve been too if I hadn’t decided to read ahead in the manga. I will say this, though: If you liked Hokkaido Gals even a little, read the manga. It’s a minor investment, but if you can get over the halfway mark, it gets surprisingly good and has a really lovely ending. 

The anime, on the other hand? Meh. Doesn’t look super great and didn’t have enough time in 12 episodes to overcome most of the issues the source material had to move past to get to what made it worthwhile. It would take another season or two to get there, and that probably isn’t gonna happen. Great OP, though (I'm starting to repeat myself, I know). Just read the manga.

35. No Longer Allowed in Another World

Boasting one of the most audacious premises for an isekai I’ve ever seen, No Longer Allowed in Another World doesn’t shy away from the implications of an Osamu Dazai isekai, has the dark humor to match, and provides some fascinating commentary on the type of person who tends to consume wish-fulfillment isekai. Unfortunately, the presentation was a little lacking and threatened to lose my attention several times. I think the idea is much better on paper, to the point where I might test that theory and go read the manga.

34. The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic

The next dozen or so anime in the rankings fall into a category of either “well-made anime that I found kind of frustrating” or “middling anime that I kind of enjoyed.” The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic is very much the latter. It’s a standard isekai on paper; demon king, special powers, what have you, but it has a likable cast and laid-back vibe for much of its runtime that made it pleasant enough to watch.

As I said after the winter season, I really liked that Wrong Way spends a lot of its early story ensuring that the protagonist expends the time and effort necessary for him to become the hero he’s meant to be instead of the narrative just handing it to him from the start, which instantly sets it apart from most other wish-fulfillment isekai. It’s far from the best-looking anime I watched this year, but it has a mid-00s throwback look and feel to it that works more to its benefit than in Mysterious Disappearances. Nothing groundbreaking and a little too backloaded, but an enjoyable enough experience and one I’m looking forward to seeing come back. 

The only really upsetting thing about this show is that Atsuko Tanaka (Major Kusanagi, Bayonetta, Kainé), who was tremendous as the intimidating Captain Rose, is no longer with us. She was an exceptional talent with an iconic voice who will be sorely missed, and future seasons of this show won’t be the same without her.

33. Go! Go! Loser Ranger

Though not a bad anime by most metrics, I still consider Loser Ranger a minor disappointment. It mostly looks great, and “what if The Boys was a sentai series” is a killer premise, but the story so far is extremely frontloaded. Almost too much happens in the first four episodes, and then the bulk of the last arc of the season takes place in a goddamn parking garage. I’m still annoyed by that. Still looking forward to season 2, but I wish the debut season had been 24 episodes to avoid the sour taste in my mouth.

Did you hear that echo? Yep, that's me telling you to watch yet another OP. Easily the best part of the show and one of the best of the year. Tatsuya Kitani can't keep getting away with it.

32. Astro Note

2024 turned out to be a banner year for Rumiko Takahashi’s older works making their way back to modern screens, and one of those entries wasn’t even hers.

Astro Note is an overt homage to Takahashi’s less-famous romcom Maison Ikkoku, which ran parallel to Urusei Yatsura for most of the latter’s run. Like Ikkoku, Astro Note follows a down-on-his-luck young man living in a boarding house full of bizarre miscreants who only stays because the manager is super pretty. Unlike Ikkoku, and unbeknownst to our protagonist, said manager is actually an alien who is practically turning the house over to find a secret alien MacGuffin.

This show looks lovely and has a delightful cast and some surprisingly moving subplots, but it’s nothing too special otherwise. There are some fun creative flourishes here and there, like the alien stuff shown in flashback being made to look like an older space opera anime, but aside from a very fun turn near the end of the season, Astro Note rarely rises above the level of simply “pleasant.” And that’s fine, but it doesn’t quite live up to the material it’s aping, and what we’ve ended up with is just a nice distraction. 

I’m so glad I finally decided to read Maison Ikkoku though.

31. Shangri-La Frontier, second cour

It’s been a running joke for me that the more I watch Shangri-La Frontier, the less I’m sure whether I like it or not, and now with 25 episodes in the tank, I’m less sure than ever. The back half of the debut season improved on a few of the things that annoyed me about its first cour by focusing more on the high-quality action and introducing minor stakes to the proceedings, and then everything else surrounding it made it feel no less like I’m just watching a guy playing a goddamn video game, and the stakes still mostly seem to amount to "he wants to be good at it."

You may notice that I didn’t include the second season in this review, and that’s because I flat-out didn’t care to pick it back up. I’d been busy during the fall season and continuing a show I didn’t enjoy that much just wasn’t a high priority. It’s continuing into January, so there’s time to catch it while it airs, but I’m still not in any hurry.

[desiredcaramellatte]

Do you think you could do some crk self aware au stuff?? The tag is painfully dead.. if not feel free to delete lmfao

That aside, during Cookie Odyssey, I was **convinced** that soulstones we're going to come into play somehow, it was like my major theory during ch.2, and nobody could convince me otherwise but it never happened. Giving the soulstones an in lore explanation would've been fricking awesome imo..

Can we get some HCs of the player (or their in game kingdom) basically having a monopoly on soulstones while the cookies are left scratching their heads as to not only how they work, but also how the reader got what is technically a part of their souls.

Write for anyone really, idm that much. I generally like the Creme Republic though-- whether reader is still behind the screen or knows the cookies are self aware is up to you really.

That would be very cool if they actually had a lore explanation :0 I thought the soul jams were soul stones first time I heard about them tbh, they just linked together in my mind, also reader is so real for trading monies for souls

I have never written self aware before so apologies if it sucks-

Anyways enough of my ranting, hcs yes

Self aware cookies & reader

(Who has a soul stone monopoly)

Gingerbrave & friends

Gingerbrave is one of the least confused cookies regarding this, to be honest. Mainly because he doesn't really care enough/doesn't notice to really question it. You gather these little trinkets that make him stronger! Cudos to you from this boy.

Wizard, on the other hand, is confused as hell of this process. Where do these stones come from? Are they truly linked to the Cookie's souls? Does that mean that they are not fully themself and/or complete until they are fully leveled, even if they only materialize with twenty of them?

Wizard just wants to know. He has asked you multiple times over, getting confused by your answers and delving in deeper whenever he can. Exactly WHERE do they come from? He's obsessed with finding out by this point.

Strawberry really doesn't mind. She's a little confused where they come from, but, like Gingerbrave, she doesn't question it too much. She does like to occasionally made theories, but she doesn't really like to share them.

If you're good friends with her she may share some of her theories with you, but none of the wild ones, and only if you ask.

Clotted Cream

WHOLE ASS ENGROSSED. He wants to know everything about the soulstones. Where do they come from? How would one even 'farm' these and how does farming a soul even work?

More specifically, he is trying to find a connection between soulstones and souljam. They do almost the same thing and have very similar names- they're both linked to the soul, and make cookies stronger.

He has spent many restless nights awake thinking about this.

Much like Wizard in that he's harassing you for answers, but he does asks questions more subtly.

Clotted Cream has flipped a few tables (with occasional assistance from Financier) before, mainly when he gets annoyed enough at not having a verifiable answer to this.

Financier

It is what it is. She accepts this. She's got dragged into the theorizing by Clotted Cream.

Chilling, mainly. She doesn't really mind not care. Likely to thank you for doing your best to collect them and to make everyone, including her, stronger.

Black Raisin

Intrigued by the sparkliness of most of these soulstones. Much like a crow, she is attracted to shiny objects. Her crow friends are too.

Black Raisin has a small hoard of soulstones that she's occasionally found, of all different sorts of cookies. The sparkler the soulstone, the likelier she and/or her crows are to snatch and hoard. If the soulstone is just a pretty rock then she'll also hoard those too.

If you really need a soulstone she will likely give one to you. How often and/or how many depends on her connection to you.

She's farming them with you by this point.

Oyster

Yoinks you.

She wants to have conversations about this. She wants to know what they are and where they come from. She will offer you tea and scones while the two of you converse.

When she first found out that her stones are Super Epic, she was very proud of herself.

Probably sends you back with some every time you come visit her.

Captain Caviar

Doesn't believe they exist. They're just rocks. Nothing more.

He will stand by his claim to the death. This WILL be the hill he died on. Captain Caviar does not believe soulstones exist.

Probably has made some propaganda about soulstones being fake. Socks, hats, jackets, you name it, he's likely made it with the words "Soulstones do not exist, numbskull" in big letter on it. Except shirts.

Pure Vanilla

Very much like Oyster. Will likely join in on your conversation time and/or will invite the two of you over for his homemade tea and treats!

Most likely to understand how Soulstones work due to him wielding Souljam, which is the most similar thing to them. Also the fact he has lived for a long time and has gathered many knowledge on the subject.

Probably has a book on the subject somewhere.

He likes to sit and watch the Ferris Wheel Landmark rotate. He likes the motion.

[hxneyfarm]

It’s not that Robin is bitter. She’s not. Really. Bitterness implies anger. She’s not angry. Not at all. She’s… okay, she’s jealous. Just a little bit. And that’s fine. That’s… well, it’s not expected, exactly, because nothing about this situation could have been predicted in the first place so there’s been nothing to expect. It’s not expected, but it makes sense. Who wouldn’t be jealous?

And, like, there’s something else, too. Something a little darker simmering just beneath the surface of her jealousy that Robin’s been having a hard time putting a name to. Not bitterness, though.

Maybe it's because Steve is hers. Yeah, platonic with a capital P, all of that, but he is hers. Back before Vecna, when he was trying to date every pretty girl who walked into the video store, that was different. Not a single one of those girls was a threat to what Robin and Steve have because that's on a different level.

This, though? Maybe Robin feels a little threatened.

Steve's beside her at the counter, his elbows on the glass surface of it as he leans forward to see his own reflection in the tiny compact he'd pulled from Robin's bag. He's clumsily dabbing her concealer on his neck to cover the red and purple marks that make him look more like the victim of a vampire than the love-drunk dweeb he actually is.

So, yeah. Robin's definitely a little bit jealous because where the hell is her great gay love affair, huh? How the hell did her dingus get his first gay kiss before she did? And how has he been able to seamlessly, unconditionally accept this part of himself when it had taken her years to come to terms with who she is?

And yes, she absolutely feels threatened by this burgeoning thing between Steve and Eddie, of all people. Becuase the way Steve and Eddie get along, the way they're so in tune with each other, it's kind of similar to the way Robin and Steve get along. It makes Robin feel prickly, because those silent conversations those two have started having? Those belong to Robin.

What if she loses him to Eddie?

It's irrational, because Steve and Robin were separated at birth or something, and he would never, ever, ever abandon her and she knows it. Knowing doesn't silence her fears, though.

And that sucks, because Robin should be the most supportive cheerleader of a best friend, and she is happy for them, honestly.

But damn. Eddie's almost always around now, and that's fine, it's great, really. Because she likes Eddie, thinks he's great, thinks he's an awesome match for Steve. It's nice to have someone else like her around, someone who can commiserate with her anxiety about being queer in a little place like Hawkins.

Or, it would be nice, if Eddie and Steve could stop sucking face for, like, a minute and a half when it's just the three of them hanging out.

Robin has never third wheeled this hard in her life.

its just a little thing, but hi i'm going to start publishing stuff now i think

[damned-punk]

Kid and Killer are both awesome and they share such a deep bond ❤️. Might not have one without the other. I keep thinking about what it would be like to have a love triangle with Kid and Killer. What would that look like and who would play which role in the relationship?👀🔥🔥🔥😋

☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

I agree, I definitely don’t think you could have one without the other. They are two sides of the same coin, the same soul split in two. That dynamic is what makes the idea of a love triangle so interesting with them because it’d be a constant push and pull, both of them so stubborn and unrelenting so that the other could have their chance with you.

As far as instigating the whole thing, it could result from either of them at any given time though I don’t see them being the type to actively seek out a relationship. It’s far more likely that a mutual attraction spontaneously occurs similar to what happened with Victoria and when it does inevitably happen, Kidd and Killer are locked in before they even fully realize its going on.

Perhaps it starts with some increasingly intimate interactions in the common areas of the ship, maybe some out of place compliments given by a red-faced Kidd or an unusually talkative Killer. If you happened to be a non-member of the crew, prepare to be asked to join and don’t even attempt to decline as they’ve already sunk their teeth deep into you when it comes to that point. They wouldn’t force you to be with them romantically, but they’re very protective of those they care about and would want to ensure your safety from the haven of the ship.

Kidd might notice that Killer has gotten comfortable around you rather quickly, especially if he’s talking more or allowing you to occupy the kitchen while he cooks, but Killer certainly knows that Kidd is smitten way before Kidd is ready to acknowledge those feelings himself. Kidd’s demeanor is far too open and boisterous which makes his ‘subtle’ changes in behavior that much more obvious, especially since he and Killer know every little thing about one another.

If you maintained a level interest in them both, there would be some inner dialog that makes them question whether you’re being friendly or if you’re actually flirting with them as it seems. This is where the mutual pining would come into play (more on that here) as they may grow a bit distant to see if you’ll seek them out on your own. If they didn’t know about each other’s feelings before, it becomes glaringly obvious when they notice that the other is intentionally avoiding you.

They’d slip away to Kidd’s workshop or their cabin to talk about what exactly is going on, from there it all gets laid out on the table. The major issue that you’d face is that they both value the other’s happiness so much that they’d willingly let you go for the sake of the other. Killer is specifically affected by this sentiment as he has such heavy self image issues and wouldn’t be confident that you’d want to be with someone like him in the first place.

When you can’t ignore their sudden polarization anymore, you seek council from some of your closest crewmates who have sat back and watched the whole thing unfold at a painfully slow pace. Any doubts or insecurities you have would be quickly diminished as they’d reassure you that both Kidd and Killer are interested, they’re just silly little guys who don’t know how to properly communicate their feelings. This could be where the option of a polycule is presented. They’re both wonderful men and realistically, who could choose between them?

They would be open and accepting of the idea, but I don’t see their dynamic changing much at all. They’d still be partners in that platonic soul-mate way and you’d be their new little partner, the platonic aspect of their relationship being completely lost when it comes to you.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆

[somegirlontheinternet135]

OH WE ARE SO BACK!!🗣️🔥🔥🔥

Second video here

Whelp, it's happening! Burning Spice is coming to the game & boy we weren't given a chance to breathe!🔥

Like with the previous update my expectations are quite high. ESPECIALLY with Burning Spice Cookie's introduction! His personality so far, his design, his voice!?

All Amazing!! 💕🔥

Also Smoked Cheese reappearance made me SO HAPPY! I was so upset that he didn't come out in, so it was AWESOME TO HAVE HIM COME BACK!!

Safe to say, I'm pretty hyped for this upcoming update & excited to know what round two of Gold Cheese trauma will look like🧀!!

But enough rambling, onto the predictions! Cause I have a few!

(Spoilers Ahead!)

Y'know how I've theorized the connection between Capsaicin and Burning Spice Cookie? Well this update further proves this theory hands down! From what we know from the triple cone cup, Capsaicin is a sweet & friendly guy who tries his best not to hurt around despite the levels of power he has, and who was previously imprisoned for being a possible threat! Who imprisoned him is still a mystery but one thing's for sure; the two definitely contrast one & other despite their similarities. And call me crazy, I think this connection of theirs may be implied further in the story

Now this just be me overanalyzing here but I think the drawings we see in the beginning of the second trailer will play a big role in this update as a means "show don't tell" storytelling. Likely, Golden Cheese will find these drawings in various locations on her journey. Also in a strange way, further feeds in my connection theory(let me explain-)

When first looking at these drawings, I quickly noticed how messy they looked; and sure this could be from a cookie who's never picked up a pencil in those but the drawings themselves don't exactly portray that. They show Burning Spice Cookie in a more negative light, which is weird considering all the cookies we see in trailers so far worship. What only makes the most sense at the moment if they were done by a kid, a kid with knowledge on Burning Spice's true nature

(This is the last one for now) As it's made likely, most the creatures apart of Burning Spice's army are only fighting Golden Cheese to survive; presumably from Burning Spice's wrath. Because of this, there is a chance they'll all turn against him at some point; probably by Golden Cheese and Smoked Cheese's hands

That's All Folks✨^^~

[marshbarks]

if the south park boys were all animals, what's your headcanons for their species and why? can be furry or just normal animals

i've answered smth similar before, but i only did the main 5 + i have alt ideas and reasonings so!!

stan - a dog, of course. a bigger breed, something that he could reasonably say "i'm a wolf" about even though he is literally not a wolf at all. he's extremely loyal and has strong emotions, and as someone who has had a husky for a number of years, i think they have matching personalities and complexities. the ONLY downside to my affection with him being specifically a husky is that it means he doesn't get stupid floppy doggy ears. so perhaps a husky mix. he needs to look wolflike enough to claim being one, but still be like.. a silly puppy! (he could also genuinely be a wolf- like my tsot stan IS a wolf, undeniably- but i think its more fun if overall he is just a dog who is wolfkin) kyle - my first thought is always a sheep or a sheep/goat hybrid, but i've become fond of deer kyle as well! though.. dragon kyle has become very prominent in my things w/ adrian ( :3c ) and i think he's so fucking cool and awesome as a dragon. why is he a dragon?? because he keeps going "i am a human being." when his friends talk about fursonas and he won't make one but he thinks dragons are cool. fox kyle is fairly popular in the fandom but other than a personal attachment to both kyle and foxes making my heart go '!' every time i see it, i don't personally really like fox kyle on a character level? cute for visuals and i think there's a couple fun jokes to be made, but he's not really much of a fox guy to me. eric - cat or raccoon! obviously. there's not really much other choice, i'll be so honest. maybe a big cat or a non-domestic cat, but he's always like a little guy on your floor who stares at you and waits to be petted and bites you when you pet him because youre never doing it right. i think, like stan, he's most likely a cat who is raccoon kin. thinks they're so cool. if he had the warriors books when he was younger (and was actually assed to read them), he'd be so fucking sick about these cats. kenny - mustelid. i've always leaned into ferret kenny specifically! why? good fucking question. i don't know. but kenny is very rodent coded without feeling like a rat/hamster/guineapig/bunny, y'know? has ratlike qualities but doesn't really Fit. would NOT be a mouse. ferret or a weaselly guy feels right. also because it makes me happy butters - a doggy, too! something medium sized, more likely. lab or a retriever type. a Good Boy who is so naive. knows how to listen and wag his tail and be good, gets confused a lot, whatever. arroouou ruuruuruuu arr arruuu [sound of butters sob-barking from good times with weapons]

more under the cut bc this post got big :3

craig - hyena! or a very calm wolf! why? because i think he's cool. mainly the hyena thing is for adrian and i just fully agree because it feels right. the concept of him being a wolf is PURELY to make stan mad. tweek - a birddddd my little tweeter.. ♥♥♥ i just think he's very bird coded. i think a canary sounds good for him, warning of danger (even if it isn't really there). might be hybrid with something else, but he's MOSTLY bird. maybe a gryphon? would be a cheetah in that case i think. cheetah/canary. actually yeah that fucking rules he's a gryphon holy shit. clyde - lion. he's strong and proud (but also kinda a coward!!!! yay!) and i think the idea of clyde being a lion and thinking he's got SO MANY GIRLS THATRE HIS is so funny bc of the way the girls kinda toss him around. tolkien - not a lion. maybe a cat, honestly? he's so.... Normal. he's just such a normal guy. i could easily see him slotting into role as a cat. like your typical american shorthair. very average and normal critter that you gotta get to know to learn exactly the ways his personality works and differs from things. jimmy AND timmy - both parrots or parrot-adjacent birds! this is adrian's suggestion, because parrots are very smart and community focused and care about each other. i think the idea of these two being birds who bond over time is so cute. also because i got the thought in my mind of jimmy helping timmy find sweaters to cover up plucked feathers :( used to be VERY stressed out and then he found a friend and now he's doing a lil better.

wendy - rabbit wendy is my favorite, but i think she could work as a cat. but rabbit makes me happiest. maybe a hare, actually? type thing that looks like she's a little prey beast but will kick your ass into next week if you don't watch out. sigh.. i'm so in love with her.. lets her be small and sensitive while still being able to, at any point, stand up for herself. bebe - liger. pretty and everything, but doesn't quite fit her role like she could. specifically like.. a low-expression one, stripes that only show off in certain light. very low contrast markings. enough to not fit in Perfectly amongst other lions, but not enough to visibly be a tiger. this is to mirror her struggle with brains and beauty and trying to have both without becoming reliant on her beauty- but not disowning or dismissing having 'pretty privilege'. sighhh i love bebe a lot i love her so fucking much. heidi - bunny.. she's just a little rabbit. small and scared. trying to do her part and be good! trying. hybridized with a goat, freaks the FUCK OUT when her horns grow in because she's not supposed to have those. legally i suppose she is a jackalope except she is a bungoat. nichole - bearrr i just think she'd be so cute as a bear.. i don't even have a good reason for this. i associate her with bears and sunflowers. sun bear..... aoawouahghgg.. red - iguana??????????????????????????? i dont know why. that's what my mind said to me.

henrietta - sheep!! one of those multi horned ones. as satantic as an ungulate can be. firkle - cat! if it wasn't conformist to read warrior cats, he'd be kin with scourge i think. would want to be that. purple collar, obviously (personally i think the rainbow is the best choice but firkle would NEVER) pete - big cat of some kind. this thought is undeniably influenced by 6ftkyle's stuff, i love the idea of him being a tiger so fucking bad it makes me sick okay. black and red stripes??/ fuck OFF thats so COOL he would look so sick. people would call him edgy emo and he'd get so fucking MAD. michael - dog. one of those tall dogs with curly fur. de-facto leader type. they also look very distinguished and cool to me. but he's still a dog, y'know? has little quirks that pop out sometimes that you're like ohh you're just a puppy doggy aintcha. mike - dog! chihuahua type. big ass fuckin ears. says he's part bat.

mole - shockingly, not a mole! i think he'd be a cat. like a weird cat who digs holes, but a cat. not your typical domestic shorthair. maybe a forest cat, actually? :thinking:

douglas - cat, but he'd be like.. a catboy. i couldn't see him as full furry. he'd be your nasty dirty grimy indoor catboy boyfriend. he's awesome augh. dogpoo - unsurprisingly, a doggy. i think he'd be one of those breeds that isn't like.. DEAD without care, but needs care to be at their prettiest, so he's always a little fucked up looking and dirty. fur a mess... english for some reason.....

while most siblings can be The Same as their other siblings, i do think ike would be like.. a little hamster...... id ont know why. he's such a little hammy to me.

the cotswalds are designer toy breed dogs. bradley (cartman sucks) is an antelope. gary harrison is an extremely proud golden retriever with perfectly groomed fur. damien is a jackal, obviously. pip is a bunny i think. kevin stoley is a devon rex. leslie is a cat but she looks ai generated. thomas (tourettes) is a pitbull. tammy warner is a fox.

and scott malkinson has diabetes (i think he'd be a cat)

[foodfightnovelization]

Foodfight! The (OFFICIAL) Video Game

Yes, you read the title right! No it's not the fangame I made a couple months ago, this is the real deal, the whole enchilada, the ACTUAL Foodfight! tie-in game! Shortly after ROTTEN: Behind The Foodfight was released, its creator Ziggy, myself, and everyone else in the Foodfight! community thought we'd found everything there was left to find. After all, we'd uncovered the workprint, the novelization, almost all the original footage, Ziggy had interviewed countless people who worked on the movie, some character models had even been found...so that was it, right? But as I hinted at in my last few posts, the Foodfight! story wasn't quite over yet.

Reese, a friend of Ziggy's, had reached out to one of the developers involved in the Foodfight! tie-in game that was set to be released alongside the movie, and shortly after ROTTEN came out, Ziggy also managed to get in touch with them. One thing led to another and we were sent a HUGE 10GB folder of art, documents, models, and footage related to the game. What you see above is a concept submission trailer created to show off the game and what it'd look like, similar to the pitch reel created for the movie itself. Needless to say, this blew our minds! If you've read my previous post on the subject, you'll know that up until now the only thing anyone had EVER seen of this game was a few seconds of grainy footage from E3 2006. To go from that to a whole stockpile of material from its development was INCREDIBLE! To learn more about how this found its way into our hands, I'll direct you to a blog post from Ziggy himself, explaining a little more about the game's developers (and relaying a truly hilarious story about Larry Kasanoff)

However, I want to talk more about the INCREDIBLE plethora of material included in the folder that was shared with us. Ziggy uploaded everything he was sent to archive.org, so I'll link it below if you'd like to peruse the files yourself, but keep reading if you want to know more about what's included!

Just to start off with, the footage from the above concept trailer and the assorted screenshots- doesn't it just look awesome? It's way more visually appealing than the finished movie ended up looking, for one thing, and it's seemingly inspired more by the early pre-motion capture footage than anything that came later on. It's also just mindblowing to finally see all this, to suddenly go from knowing basically nothing about the game to knowing so much about it! And best of all...doesn't this just look EXACTLY like a movie tie-in game from the mid 2000s? I mean, that shouldn't be too surprising, that's exactly what it is, but tie-in games of that era had a very specific look and feel and this just takes me right back to that. Remember the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory game where you're racing around on a trashcan lid, the Spider-Man game where you're running around Oscorp avoiding security robots, or the Incredibles game where you're rushing through a burning building fighting guys with flamethrowers? Doesn't this just look EXACTLY like one of those?

And you might be thinking "it's too bad we only have a few minutes of footage and some screenshots, I wish we could know even more about what the game would've been like". Well, your wish just came true! Buried deep in the files is a copy of the game's design documents, telling us EXACTLY how each level would've played out! (If you're struggling to find it, it's in AUDIO> Final Drop> FF> Docs) So not only do we get to see a ton of what the game would've looked like, we also get to see how the whole thing would've come together, with 26 action-packed levels consisting of a variety of different gameplay types. Looking at several other files, it seems like the number of levels may have been cut down to 15 later in development, but hey, it's fairly common for design docs to be more complex than the finished game. Regardless, reading about everything they had planned...this really is the ultimate stereotypical tie-in game. I mean, just look at some of these level descriptions! Isn't this every movie-based game you've ever played, all rolled into one? You can bet your boxtop if it had made it all the way through development, it'd easily have the honor of being one of the few tie-in games BETTER than the movie it was based off, although considering how the finished film turned out maybe that's not saying much.

Based on what the developers said in the article linked above, it's unclear exactly how much of the game was finished before it was cancelled, and unfortunately it's incredibly unlikely they'll ever be able to compile a build together to send our way. However, there's just SO much included in this folder it's hard to complain. Not only do we get basically a complete picture of how the game would've come together from all the documents, screenshots, audio, cutscenes and footage included, there are all kinds of additional files that are both interesting and incredibly useful.

Not only are there models and environments from the game itself (unfortunately the only character model included seems to be Dex), there are also models of the ENTIRE CAST taken directly from the earlier version of the movie! Every main character is here, from Dex to Sunshine to Mr Leonard, as well as a bunch of other models such as Dan's plane and cockpit. This is HUGE, and I can't wait to see what talented artists will do with all these resources. At the time I'm writing this, someone already ported several of the models into SFM (Source Filmmaker) and another made several animations in Blender!

I'm sure even more will happen soon, but right now this is pretty incredible. Who thought this would EVER happen? That one day we'd have models of every main character, a complete workprint of the movie from 2005, a tie-in novelization, footage of the long-sought after videogame, and so, so much more. In the span of less than a year, Foodfight! went from some of the most obscure lost media of all time to some of the most well-documented lost media of all time. We have so much there's no way I'd ever even be able to discuss it all, that's how far we've come in the past few months.

Seriously, I've barely even scratched the surface of what's in this folder. There are 3D cutscenes from the game, 2D cutscenes, concept art for the planned toy line, footage of prototypes of those toys in action, MORE gameplay footage, previously unseen storyboards not included in the workprint, raw audio of Charlie Sheen's voice sessions from the movie, tons of songs from the game, the entire score from the movie, and that's STILL not everything! I mean, holy chips! I STRONGLY encourage you to download the folder for yourself and take a look...maybe you'll even find something I haven't yet?

I really think that with this folder now out in the public, this is as much closure on Foodfight! as we'll ever get. I know I always say that and then there's some amazing discovery a few months later, but this is just such a huge smorgasbord of material that I don't even think we can count Foodfight! as lost media anymore...okay, we haven't found absolutely everything so it's partially found media at best, but could you really ask for more than all this? We have countless models from the movie, design docs and footage from the planned tie-in game, early drafts of the script, we know EXACTLY what the movie and game were going to be like before everything collapsed... now, if you're so inclined you can take all that and make something out of all of it, but me? I'm pretty satisfied just having the knowledge. Knowing what could've been before it all fell apart, getting to see so much I never thought I'd get a chance to see... right now, I'd say my Foodfight! cravings have been satiated. Unless another monumental discovery is unearthed anytime soon (at this point I wouldn't be surprised), I think there's really not much more to say. If nothing comes up in a month or two, I'll make a post showing off my personal collection of Foodfight! merchandise, an epilogue to the past year I've spent obsessing over this movie. In the meantime, I hope you all enjoy the absolute treasure trove of Foodfight! material that's been discovered! Dig through it all! Make something out of it! There's so much in these files, you could create your OWN Foodfight!, with blackjack and hookers!

[lokiinmediasideblog]

Initial Rewatch ramblings

Thor (2011) starts AWESOMELY. Like the scifi alienesque mystery of these low-paid reckless physicists tracking down phenomena for SCIENCE! And this guy appears out of the blue. Darcy is so real with "I'm not dying for 6 college credits!"

Not doing Jotunheim apologism, but all I could think of is "We need those icy bitches in Antartica so they can make ice and stop global warming." Don't take this seriously. My personal interpretation of the relationship between Asgard and Jotunheim is similar to the US and Imperial Japan in the 1940s ( a larger empire subduing a smaller empire and causing severe damage to the smaller one).

I'm a VERY CYNICAL PERSON. The whole Odin narrating how Asgard brought peace to the ENTIRE universe sounds like clear propaganda and a lie to me. I would have bought it more if it just recounted Asgard interferring and saving Midgard from Jotunheim that one time, but then it gets propagandasque and it cuts to him with kid Thor and Loki (VERY impressionable and vulnerable to propaganda).

Odin doesn't take a hard stance against child Thor's murdery ambitions while right in front of Loki. It's like he doesn't want to dissuade Thor's murdery enthusiasm too much. And it's an interesting priority when one of the kids is a secret Jotun... It comes off as indulging child Thor's aptly childish dreams of battle at Loki's expense.

So the thing from the script isn't there (it was the screenshot from the Loki is eunuch-advisor coded post. You can disregard my post. LMAO. But I had to get that shit out of my head cus it was HAUNTING ME.). Everyone just kinda rolls their eyes at Thor's displays of grandiosity. I'd say the advisor thing is more of how fandom thinks Thor and Loki would make one very good king combined, which puts Loki as the advisor in platonic interpretations.

I find it interesting that when Loki talks to Thor (both planting a bad idea on Thor WHILE ALSO telling him it's a bad idea), he makes sure the W4 hear the parts where he is telling Thor it's a bad idea (to wash his hands of this). And the W4 give in to Thor because they seem incapable of saying no to him for some reason... Istg they'd jump off a cliff if he told them to. Loki knew he was encouraging a bad idea, but also it's not like he made Thor do it. He knew Thor wanted to do it and just needed the slightest form of encouragement to go through with it. It would not have worked on someone not eager for war.

Thor wants to do a show of force so that Jotunheim doesn't mess with Asgard again. I remember seeing something that it's not exactly "illogically dumb" as there is a logic to it, but it is unethical. Because 1. Security break-ins. It's reasonable to want to discourage those. 2. But Thor goes about "breaking their spirits." He's very eager to emulate the Odin of the past. And a bit later it's shown he's WAY TOO EAGER TO FIGHT. To Odin's credit, he tells Thor he can't do that because there's a truce (I think this change of heart was caused by Odin's aging and getting weaker and probably can't fight the way he used to...).

Laufey also respects the truce and warns Thor about what breaking the truce would cause. Thor can't bring himself to accept Laufey's mercy. Loki has to say the words that they accept Laufey's terms and will leave.

Thor IS VERY EAGER to fight. He was ITCHING for it. That bitch bloodthirsty xD He wanted to fight even before he got called "Princess." Look at that smile! ^_^ He's like "Yes! I get to bash giant heads in!" Asking to up the difficulty level!Thor kills a bunch of giants and beasts in battle but Fandral is injured severely.

Laufey is absolutely pissed when Odin arrives and wants retribution/war. Tries to kill Odin, Odin magically teleports them all out of there which is kinda sneaky and something a bit Loki-like.

Thor's banishment. Thor seems to believe lack of war and shows of force have been bad for the realm. It sounds like Odin cooled off in old age (likely due to aging and the Odinforce taking a toll on him) and Thor is disappointed in that. He shuts Loki up the moment Loki makes a sound/move to intervene with a "hruargh!!".

The horror of the banishment. It's just fucked up to kick your son out of everything he's ever known. And do you ever think how much different it'd feel to change into a different species? It also puts into perspective how much more powerful Odin is compared to the rest of the family and paints a heavily skewed power dynamic.

Also during the banishment, Loki's horror is based on "if he treats his favorite like this, what will he do to me if he learns of my involvement with the interrupted coronation and that my arm turned blue instead of necrotic? Am I cursed to be one of them? What am I? "

Sif and the warriors 3 are rather flakey and inconsistent in how they view actions and Loki. Even those that kinda defended him at first from unwarranted accusations of treason. It's also interesting they'd rather trust an enemy king(who'd absolutely benefit from soing distrust in Asgard) than the second heir of Asgard. They'll be glad Loki did something and admit it was good he did that, but then those same ones will go off comparing "Loki on the throne" with being on the brink of war and other horrible things. Why are you so sure Loki on the throne is SPECIALLY BAD compared to others, especially one that nearly caused a war?

Heimdall's the only one with any sort of actual evidence or cause to believe Loki is suspect. And they clearly don't have the same context as him because they think they're in trouble when Heimdall calls for them. Also, this is some Big Brother shit... they feared getting called in for criticizing the king.

The Vault scene confrontation between Loki and Odin is PEAK acting. Good shit!!! I love the little tremble/near stutter in Loki's voice. One of my favorite MCU scenes. The quotes are so memorable!

They go see Odin but are met with a Loki that seems distraught to me. The scene where Frigga gives him the scepter is not there, but the last time we saw Loki he was freaking out over being Jotun and his Odin's well-being as he fell into the Odinsleep and might not wake.

The W4 are really bad at hiding their dislike and suspicion of Loki (Sif has to be held back from attacking him). Loki seems annoyed at his newfound authority being questioned especially after finding out what he is (and the fears that come along with the discovery).

[thecynicalcinephile]

So, About Deadpool and Wolverine,

Whereas this film is definitely hilarious, action-packed, and had my whole theater cheering in places, it is still never the less a modern Marvel movie.

The film opens rather strongly, with one of the most awesome and hilarious setpieces I've seen in a while. Honestly it's worth seeing it in theaters just for that opening sequence. And for a while, through the first two acts, the film is able to maintain a similar level of energy. The second act in particular was absolutely incredible, but I can't say more without leaning into spoiler territory.

I will say, however, once we get into the third act the quality of the writing drops drastically. It's like they knew exactly what they wanted for the beginning and middle but had no idea how to stick the landing. Additionally, for one of the villains in here, something happens at the end of Act 2 that really felt like it was a fitting place to leave them and focus on another villain, but instead about 5 minutes later there's a random change of heart where this interesting character begins leaning into clichéd villainy just for the hell of it. Because of this sudden change, the third act really just feels rushed and unplanned with very little build-up or tension. It would have been much better if they'd taken a different direction.

To put it bluntly, the first two acts are about everything you've come to expect from the first two Deadpool movies, but the third act is everything you've come to expect from the worst of Marvel's modern offerings. I'd recommend seeing it in theaters just for the atmosphere, but keep your final expectations low.