#And the spinoff legit got cut too | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

staliasjeronica · 6 years ago

Text

Riverdale 3.14 Thoughts *Spoilers*

Joking Betty… wow… that’s actually very adorable and I love it. More of this (good) petty Betty please!

Did Archie just get a job? I’m confused… “you gotta pay your dues” makes it sound like he fucked everything up and has to pay money for something but then he’s like “yeah no this kid has been through too much, just sweep and lock up, okay?” But like… what?

Like I’m mad at Cheryl for what she did last episode to my boys, but holy fuck she looks good, and Peaches beside her? WHOO I’M—

LMAO CHERYL’S FACE WHEN THAT ONE GUY CALLS THEM “BITCHES” So like… why weren’t we allowed to see that fight? I fucking heard glass breaking so like… lemme see Cheryl punch at least one ghoulie bitch

Jughead saying that the Serpents don’t cook… as if they don’t have ghoulies, who DO cook drugs. Serpents were always the better gang because the Ghoulies sealed drugs and shit, and Serpents just helped out the community lol

Principal Weatherbee what was the reason for saying “one more strike” twice???

Wait since the fuck when was the speakeasy secret? YOU HAD AN OPENING AND SO MANY REGULAR PEOPLE FROM RIVERDALE WERE THERE??? God this show is so fucking confusing I’m—

Why did they make Archie yell at the kid when we all know he would be soft to a young kid? Is it to make Archosie seem like cute parents? Either way tho… I LOVE ARCHOSIE

POOR RICKY. Imma protect him with my life oKAY

“It’s just me and my dad” EXCUSE ME WHILE I GO CRY.

UGH WE LOVE DAD ARCHIE OKAY

Choni!!! This angst is really… scaring me whoo. That line about the meeting spot… got to me. Like many are misinterpreting it as them breaking up but she’s just saying that it’s going to be awkward if they have meetings for a gang Toni suspended her from in her house.

A CORE FOUR SCENE? WOW I 5GOT THEY WERE STILL FRIENDS SKSKSKSKSKS because Betty never talks to V, and when she does it’s usually her talking shit for literally no reason, and then V apologizes… for no reason. And Betty never sees Archie bc the writers are afraid of Barchie’s power, same with Jeronica lol (I want more Jeronica breadcrumbs please)

If they do lose the Cooper house, she should move in with Archie. And no, it’s not just because I like Barchie and want them together (love you too archosie but you’re going to have to end when Josie goes to the spinoff :(( ) because Archie has room, he’s her best friend, and honestly we don’t need Betty being caught up in the Lodge or Jones family drama.

“You are an attractor?” What the fuck does that even mean, Kevin? Honestly this episode actually makes me ROOT for Betty like that’s a rare thing to me because normally she’s an annoying bitch but like… I like this Betty. The one who’s actually nice, and isn’t a bitch to her friends for no reason, who isn’t trying to please her boyfriend by inserting herself into her boyfriend’s gang. Like, season one Betty. When she was happiest (even though right now… that’s not really a possibility with what’s going on with her family). Give me this Betty, with a not stupid Jughead (which lets me honest right now he’s not able to not be a stupid fucking idiot), and I might be able to say I can tolerate Bughead

Oh wow it was a ghoulie. I never would have guessed. How crazy.

First of all, I love that Fangs calls him a fizzle rock junkie. Like, I know he sold it for his mom but I still find it kinda funny… two… WHEN THE FUCK WAS MY BOY FANGS THE AGGRESSIVE ONE? I swear they switched up Sweet Pea and Fangs’ personalities because they KNOW Sweet Pea would never allow stupid ass Jughead’s ideas and shit and he would fight back. But now suddenly it’s Fangs??? Like… what? I mean I love seeing SP’s soft side and I like the idea of showing Fangs aggressive side but they’re really fucking everything up when it comes to arcs and personalities and shit

LMAO WHY DID I LAUGH WHEN JUGHEAD HIT THE DESK AND SCREAMED “ALRIGHT” LIKE ALL HE HAD TO DO WAS GO IN BETWEEN THEM WHAT WAS THE POINT OF DEFINITELY HURTING YOUR HAND ON THE DESK JUGHEAD. Like I said… stupid idiot lol.

Jughead just needs to cut ties like there’s only two original Serpents left… just give Toni what she deserves (her rightful title) and watch the Serpents go back to being an actual, good gang (good as in not fucked up and withering)

“And now that I think about it, neither do the Serpents” YEAH BECAUSE YOU CAN’T LEAD A GANG. Once again… give Toni her rightful title so she can make the Serpents how they were supposed to be!!! IT’S NOT THAT HARD JUGHEAD.

So like where the fuck is Tom Keller??? Why can’t he help his son? This is BS

Why does this feel like the only scene where Betty legit talks to Josie? Like, one on one? Mmhm

So because I already know that Ricky is Joaquin’s brother (I’ll freak out about that when it comes to it) WHY THE FUCK DON’T ANY OF THE SERPENTS… well… SP or Fangs…. RECOGNIZE HIM??? THEY INSINUATED THAT FANGS DATED JOAQUIN SO LIKE HE SHOULD KNOW HIS YOUNGER BROTHER. What the fuck writers

What kinda crack… Kevin really just walked on fire like it was nothing??? Also if Kevin is doing this does that mean Alice did?

I’m still mad that they kept the murder of the shady man a secret like it was self defense they had nothing to hide! And now it’s being used against her. UGH

TONI COMING TO TELL JUGHEAD ABOUT FANGS.

MY BABY FANGS.

AHHHHHHHHHHHH MY BOY BETTER NOT GET HURT

THANK GOD SWEET PEA AND JUGHEAD PROTECTED HIS FALL!!! Also because I ship Swangs… PROTECTIVE BOYFRIEND SWEET PEA YEAH BOY

“I miss the Serpents” as someone who head cannons Reggie as Sweet Pea’s half brother… love that line for me

DAD ARCHIE I’M—

LOPAZ CRUMBS OH MY GOD

The fact that Veronica thinks of the Pretty Poisons instead of the Serpents really says something. Like, The Serpents are dying, the Poisons are kinda crazy when listening to Cheryl but when it comes to Toni, she knows how to run a gang which is why Veronica went to her and not Jughead. I may ship Jeronica but this was a great idea on Veronica’s part. ALSO MY GIRLS GET PAID!

I know right now Alice is fucking crazy and being manipulated but like… who the fuck would sell their house to an anonymous buyer???

This… is Jughead’s idea? Making Serpents deputies? This is so fucking stupid… it’s official, Archie isn’t the official “idiot” (even though his mistakes were all innocent and well-intentioned) it’s Jughead, he’s the stupid crackhead of Riverdale now

BUT they get paid so that’s good… but still… really? Making them deputies? How fucking stupid is Jughead???

Mmhm and easier way to do this is to GIVE THE SERPENTS TO TONI BECAUSE SHE DESERVES IT. IT’S HER BIRTHDAY. But Jugaloo Jones would rather skin himself than be wrong and prove Toni right

SWEET PEA CLEARING HIS THROAT TO MAKE SURE THE OTHERS RAISE THEIR HANDS I’M—

Lmao there’s my boy! “Do we get to carry guns?”

Still can’t believe he’s Joaquin’s brother. Like, we never know anything about the Serpents until it’s convenient like GIVE US BRITTA BACK SHE’S BETTER AT BALANCING ALL OF THIS SHIT. I heard she’s writing for episode 20 or something so can’t wait for that episode!!!

First of all, WHAT IS WITH PEOPLE USING KNIVES AGAINST ARCHIE??? Also of course at the time we find out he’s self harming and crazy, then he suddenly realizes that’s what Ms. Weiss is telling Archie and then suddenly decides to become crazy.

SECOND OF ALL, FRED!!! Oh this is so sad. We’ll be seeing him for the next few episodes, too… I wonder if they’ll do what they did on Glee and have something happen to him in the show and have a whole episode dedicated to him, or find another actor to play Fred. I mean, I know it’s really really really bad to think of this but if Fred dies in the show too, Archie will… not make it. I think they’re probably going to find another actor, but I don’t know. Whichever they do, though, I’ll be okay with.

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP WITH THE FUCKING “KILL THE RED PALADIN” SHIT!!! Jesus Christ

I made myself sad because I heard “obviously” instead of “I’ll be asleep” anyways time to cry

Choni angst :(

YES TONI. YES PEACHES. YES PRETTY POISONS

WE LOVE AND STAN Veronica Lodge SAY IT WITH ME! WE LOVE AND STAN VERONICA LDOGE

Why did I get déjà vu with that scene at the end though?

So I guess arson runs in the family…

65 notes · View notes

slightly-gay-pogohammer · 6 years ago

Text

random thoughts while playing kh3 under cut to make sure y’all avoid spoilers

i thought the gummyship missions in KH2 were good weLL I WAS WRONG nomura could make an entire gummyship spinoff now and id be pleased

KH3 throwing me two bosses who were once considered extra in KH1 as a tutorial boss made me N U T

i legit got teary eyes whenever i head traverse town’s theme and the orchestra remixes of the first game’s boss this is my life i guess

heartless ansem is hot ok shut up

TOO MANY LIGHTS NOMURA. TOO MANY LIGHTS

please let me play as kairi i swear i wont ask anything just a little training is enough please pleae please kairi

or if yall really are allergic to fun PLEASE LET ME PLAY AS AXEL

i yelled when remi appeared and yelled even more at the cooking minigames despite being SHIT at them id die for that little chef ok

nomura actually made a waifu heartless. the bastard actually did it.

also “face my fears” is hella good and better than both “don’t think twice” and “sanctuary” y’all just hate skrillex

#shut up gio #gio plays #gio plays kingdom hearts 3 #kh3 #kh spoilers

7 notes · View notes

sorio99 · 6 years ago

Text

Deltarune Chapter 1: The Official Undertale AU

At 6:00 AM PST, on Halloween 2018, the official Undertale twitter account released what is essentially a demo for the next game by Toby Fox, deltarune. Between the baffling intro, the odd relationship with the original Undertale, and the implied involvement of a certain missing doctor, everything about this game was shrouded in mystery.

And I loved it.

(Spoilers and Review below the cut)

Part 1: The Story

At first glance, most people assumed this mysterious new game would be a sequel (or possibly prequel) to Undertale. After all, it involves a number of shared characters, the titular rune was prominently featured in Undertale, and even the name “Delta rune” is an anagram for “Undertale”.

However, the relationship between the two is much stranger, and the plots are largely unconnected.

After creating an avatar and having the game unceremoniously throw it in the garbage, you play as Kris (that lovely person up there), the human child of Asgore and Toriel, and younger sibling to Asriel Dreemurr. Right off the bat, about a million questions are raised, especially since later conversations indicate Kris has at least been living with the Dreemurrs’ since they were too young to know their species, but we’ll come back to that.

Toriel drives you to school, though still get there late, and Alphys (who is your teacher here) puts you in a group with Susie, the only student to show up after you, to work together on a group project. However, when she realizes she doesn’t have any chalk, she sends the two of you to go get some from the school’s broom closet. You catch Susie eating chalk, she threatens to eat your face but doesn’t, and you head off to the broom closet.

Then things get weird.

After that, it sort of follows a plot line similar to the original: you fall into another world, there’s a bunch of monsters you can either fight or spare, and you just have to keep going up and to the left to fulfill a prophecy & get to the exit, all while dealing with ambiguously evil characters who are more silly than dangerous. It is, however, a bit shorter, with only about ten unique enemies and only three areas in the whole game. But hey, it is technically just the first chapter, so what do you expect.

Of course, what really makes an Undertale is the characters. Since you’re in a different world for most of the game, the returning characters from Undertale don’t have much of a presence outside the very beginning and very end. Instead, we focus on a handful of new characters, all of whom are pretty well-rounded and developed, with the exception of Kris, our silent, somewhat-ambiguously-gendered protagonist. Susie, in particular, goes through a pretty nice character arc, going from someone who’d casually threaten to rip your face off and eat it, to an actual antagonist at one point, before eventually working her way back to being a good guy and someone you can actually be friends with! It’s definitely the strongest arc in the game so far.

There’s also Lancer!

He’s a villain.

And not a skeleton.

Just trust me on this.

Part 2: Presentation

Just to get it out of the way, the music is fantastic. Of course it is. It’s an Undertale spinoff and, more importantly, it’s made by Toby “Radiation” “I could shit out a better soundtrack than most of you will ever even imagine” Fox.

I will however say that I prefer Deltarune’s sound design in general to Undertale, though. Don’t get me wrong, Undertale still has the better OST (for now at least), but Deltarune’s sound effects JUST beat it out in my books. In particular, I felt like the text sounds for most of the characters was, on average, less annoying than in Undertale. Again, don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate Undertale’s voices, but some of them could get a little ear-grating, especially for characters who talked a LOT throughout the game. Here, with the exception of one returning character (where the irritation was kind of the joke anyways), all of them work really well. There’s even a tiny bit of voice acting from a couple of the more important characters! So, big thumbs up there.

More pressingly, however, are the visuals. In case it wasn’t obvious from the above screenshots (aside from that second one of Lancer, maybe), the graphics have gotten a MAJOR glow up since the last game. Temmie Chang, aka “Most Precious Meme”, is still the main Artist for the game, and Undertale is by no means a bad looking game. However, in general, the games’ art went from “Beautiful and sometimes even breathtaking” to consistently “HOLY SHIT MY EYES ARE NOT EQUIPPED TO COPE WITH SUCH SHEER BRILLIANCE!!!”

You think I’m exaggerating, but I legit dropped my jaw at a lot of this game’s visuals. I mean, just look at this one End-game animation!

I think this one short scene has more detail and frame than Asgore’s overworld sprite got in the entirety of Undertale.

On the slight downside, however, we no longer get the full-body monochromatic battle sprites from Undertale, as enemies appear in battle almost identically to how they appear in the world. Still, with this much more detail in overworld sprites, it’s not even a slight loss.

Speaking of battle...

Part 3: Gameplay

Yep, the gameplay has gotten a major overhaul over the past three years. First, as the screenshot should make obvious, you have a team now! Yep, in addition to Kris, you can get up to three additional party members over the course of your adventure, including Susie!

In general, what you can do in battles with Kris is mostly the same; you can Fight by hitting the button at the right time, Act in certain ways to make the enemies not want to fight you, use an Item really quick, or Spare an enemy who you don’t want to kill. You also have the option to defend, which will lessen the damage you take if you get hit during the obligatory bullet-hell attacks your enemies dish out.

Where things get really interesting, though, is the team mechanics. You see, every character is different, and everyone but Kris can use magic (although some of Kris’s ACT commands kinda seem like magic?). However, only Kris can directly ACT, with other party members only being able to preform certain set spells. So, instead, Kris can command the other party members to perform actions, or Kris can ACT while the others defend, use items, or attack. If you use a Team ACT, the other party member(s) involved won’t be able to do anything else that turn, but said Team ACTs are usually more powerful or potent as a result. The whole thing can set up for actually strategic choices in battle: In Undertale, since most enemies only had one or two ways to spare them, the most strategy you could use on a Pacifist play through was “Which enemy should I deal with first?” Here, you have to figure how you’re going to handle each encounter. Do you have Kris ACT first, then have another party member spare that monster in the same turn? Or do you act WITH that party member, and next turn be able to spare at least two monsters?

In addition to the battle system being reworked, there were a number of smaller, quality of life changes:

You now have three item categories: Items (your standard consumables), Gear (your armor and weapons), and Key Items (your cellphone and a couple other important things).

You can sell at pretty much every shop in the “Dark” world, which makes sense, since you’re mostly selling food, armor, and weapons-things people in this world would need to survive.

Each character in your party uses a different kind of weapon, but all of them use the same armor, and you can give them all two pieces of armor each, so you can stack defense and get extra boosts!

Choices are mostly presented in a cross pattern, so you just have to pick a direction and confirm to choose that option.

THERE IS NOW A RUN BUTTON AND IN THE OPTIONS YOU CAN CHANGE SO YOU AUTO-RUN AND THE RUN BUTTON IS JUST A WALK BUTTON!

And speaking of which, YOU CAN ACCESS THE MENU FROM WITHIN THE MAIN GAME! THANK YOU!

You can also have up to three save files at once, although I’ve heard each file has some minor differences in flavor-text across the game, so be on the look-out for that.

Overall, I feel like I honestly prefer the game play to Undertale. In fact, with the exception of the story (which is mostly underdeveloped because, again, this is basically just a very long demo), I honestly prefer most of Deltarune to Undertale. While it isn’t technically a sequel, per se, it does do what any good sequel should do: use the original as a starting point and just improve almost everything. It’s almost like the Bioshock Infinite to Undertale’s Bioshock, if that makes sense.

(Would that make System Shock 2 Homestuck? Am I over thinking this?)

Now, with the actual review out of the way, we can get to the main event.

Part 4: Co̞͞n̤̠͎̙̥̗n̸̰̜̳͚͓͇͍e̸͈͉̳̺c̭̮̬̖̭̗̳͠t͍͓͘i̖̺͙͇̟̫o̢̰̜̦n͈̮̼͈͎͖̦s͈͝ ̹̙̦͈̯̜A̡̟̥ņ̥͙̗d̛͙̤̦͈̹̪͚ ̺T͍̞h̡̜̝̟̬e͏̱̹̲ͅ ͕̯̰͍̜͇͍D͝oc̜t̸̺̱̯͙̠o̷̱r͈̟̣̤̯

As I mentioned before, this game isn’t technically a sequel to Undertale. None of the events of Undertale seem to have occurred in this universe, including (seemingly) things from before the game even began. This becomes especially apparent after you leave the “Dark” world and can explore town, talking to various people. Character relationships are almost universally reset, there is no mention of the “Underground”, and considering Asriel is still alive and in college, it’s safe to say there is no Flowey in this world. It could almost be passed off as a complete alternate continuity, or even a reboot, if it weren’t for a few...

oddities.

Yep, among the returning characters, Sans makes an appearance, having apparently just moved into town and never having met you before. Despite having apparently met Toriel the night before in the grocery store, and having a business relationship with your teacher, Alphys. Plus, there's the fact that what used to be Grillby’s and the Bone Brother’s house both look WAY too close to there original versions (no other building looks that similar), the fact that of ALL the returning characters, only Sans looks the exact same (no redesign, visible aging, or even new clothing), and the fact that some of Kris’s dialogue choices seem to reference things that haven’t happened in this universe, and other characters notice them acting...different.

Plus, you know, there’s Chapter 1′s ending.

Yeah.

(Plus, as you might have noticed at the top of this part, there’s a monster who is the only one in either game who looks similar to this Gaster Follower)

All of this seems to point to something much more sinister going on. And, for those who haven’t seen it, the tweets leading up to the demo’s release might just explain why.

Now, we aren’t quite sure who this is supposed to be, but judging by their vocabulary and how they type, it’s a pretty safe assumption we’re being chatted to by our favorite former royal scientist. And, sure enough, most people are assuming that this entity is at least some version of Dr. W. D. Gaster. Why is he doing this? What does it all mean? Why was the Delta Rune even slightly relevant to the plot of this chapter aside from there being three prophesied heroes?

Well, I suppose only time will tell.

Until then...

L̴͙̖̠̕è̘̝͚̯̩̘ͅt͔͎͖̝͎̼͘͢ ̷͎̮͘ù̴̹̘̮̰̙̮̮̘͝s̵̷̫̠͎̯͙̥͟ͅ ͍͍̤̟͇͕̺ͅh̨̼̼͕̠ą̶̛̦̫̼v̺͞e̸͎̭̱͍̭͞͠ ͖̩̳͕͔͚͚̝̱s̘̭̩͜͟ơ҉̥͖̯͟m̞̠͈e̷͔͖̭ͅ ́҉̤͔͎̫̣̥̱͚̲ḿ̶̩̼̙̪̻̝̥͟o̗͇̩͇̠͍͟r̡͖͇̤̗͔͈̕͠e̶̝̠͔͈̭̟ ̷̫̬̺̮͔̣F̢̗̘̟̯͈̜͖͕͈͞Ų̴͍̜͚̘̠̞͈͇̀N҉̡̣̺̝̩̘͓ͅ.̷̩̹͓̯͝

S̛̪̦͉͎̙̀h̴͇͈͡á̤̣̫̬l̷̬̤͓͈͟ͅl͚͚̙̦̙̣̱̺ ̳̗̩͍̱̤̦͈̣w̡͔é͔̝̹̻̜͎̞͝?͜҉̣̣̥̫͎͎ͅ

#undertale #deltarune #delta rune #deltarune spoilers #delta rune spoilers #tagged both ways because i'm not sure which is the correct formatting #and no I will NOT stop doing this. ever

8 notes · View notes

hellsbellschime · 7 years ago

Note

There is no correlation between spoilers and narrative. Also how can Carebear troll us like "Klaroline fans will be happy" or jomo was like "majority of fans will be satisfied and I am one of that people?" I mean he likes Klaus doesn't keep his promises? Keeping his promises for Caroline would be the only thing make TO Klaus a bit good. But if he just goes and dies with Elijah, I think the character won't be even remembered for good...

Honestly no wonder why you guys thought you were missing something, that finale makes no sense and also they seemed to have cut some scenes, idk what the fuck they are all on. Also no offense but how can Candice say in every interview that the KC fandom will be happy with it? Woman, are you serious? Should've trust JoMo, at least he said some won't be happy lol

I wonder if they had an alternate ending planned out, maybe one where Klaus lived and really did fuck off with Caroline while Hope stayed and lived her life but he'd check in every now then or something but then decided to change it to this one when the spinoff got the green light? I know some people are talking about an alternate ending being in the DVD or something but there's no way to do that since the spinoff is happening so it would fuck with that.

That’s something that’s confusing the hell out of me too, because I can’t understand how what everyone is saying about the finale actually relates to the spoilers we’ve heard about the finale. Like it legit sounds like they’re talking about something completely different.

#the originals for ts #Anonymous

8 notes · View notes

steve0discusses · 7 years ago

Text

Yugioh: Ep1 S1, a photo recap

So I've been gearing to do this recap of Yugioh for a while--So lets just get started before I get too much farther into it and see if we can get through at the very least S1 of this bizzare show that time has not been kind to.

(read the rest under the cut)

I legit thought we accidentally skipped 5 episodes, but nah, in a voice that may as well be as fast as a warning label on a medical device, we learn some key points that won't come up again for some time: A.) The world nearly ended because of a magic card game. B.) An Egyptian Pharaoh locked it away and C.) the magic is in the form of these ancient artifacts D.) 500 years later Yugi (the boy above) got a hold of one and it gave him vague magic powers (which he seems entirely unaware of) and E.) the world will end again, unless this boy and his hair intervenes.

But lets do a very abrupt jump cut to a very normal classroom. Here we meet all of Yugi's friends.

And also we learn the rules of "Dueling Monsters," A card game that has rules but, according to my bro, there is no reason to discuss them because "everyone in this show cheats" and it's true.

Yousee, Yugi cheats because he gets all of his cards from his Grandpa, an ex egyptologist who works at a game shop. Like seriously this kid shouldn't even be allowed to play other children with cards like that.

Enter Kieba, who's obsession for the same dragon that continually screws him in every card game he's done is only matched by little Yugi's love for agreeing to participate in suicidal russian-roullette style card games.

Wisely, Grandpa decided that he liked his card too much (and his own life, I guess) to trade or duel for his Blue Eyes. Apparently, there are only 4 in the world, and 3 are owned by Kieba himself. So, he storms off and the kids just go back to school? I guess this all occurred just over lunch break or something.

Kieba, who basically owns Wayne Industries but for cards, didn’t even bother to I dunno...move his Grandpa even for the past 30 minutes. I legit thought the guy was dead, but he had some last words before he passed out.

Yuge’s other friends (not including the white-haired teenager Bakura who’s off being sneaky somewhere else) decided to rush grandpa to the hospital, but not with Joey, because they need at least one guy to stay behind and watch Yugi scream “YUGIOH!” turn into an adult, and do dark magic to Kieba just like any normal Tuesday.

And voila, in a beam of light imperceptible to anyone, including Yugi himself, Yugi marches right through puberty, 2 feet taller, with a very deep voice, and a lot more belts than he was wearing just a few seconds ago.

But I noticed something about this episode:

Huh. It never comes up again though, at least not up until I’m watching now. Huh. Totally missed that the first time and I’m not sure why they even bothered to put it in.

Ghost grandpa decides to appear to Yugi in a dream and tell him to use his super OP card that beats a blue eyes and like I skipped most of the dueling because I didn’t play this game as a kid, and it really seems like a number-wang type of game where you just try to get the biggest number and...that’s it. Seems like the worst card game ever made, to be honest.

Predictably, he wins, but then, something a little...extra happens. You know how in Pokemon or some other show when the loser looses they hug it out and learn a big lesson? Well...Yugi just freakin mind-wipes people without their permission.

So the evil part of Keiba gets sent to the Shadow Realm and Keiba is also sent to the hospital.

A nice tidbit I found out about the Shadow Realm is that it wasn’t actually Canon. After the dub was released and in later Spinoffs of Yugioh, it was added in. But when this was originally brought to the US, they had to censor out all the senseless murder our protagonist does, so they instead said every one of his victims went to “the shadow realm” to make it seem less bad (it’s worse)

But nah, in actuality, the pharoah living in Yugi’s head freakin killed him. This kid show is good guys. It’s really, good. There is so much to take in and it’s only ep 1.

#yugioh #yu gi oh #s1e1 #humor #photo recap #recap #yugi #blue eyes white dragon #I'm kinda bummed I missed out on this as a kid but I understand why I was too scared to watch it #yugi's grandpa #joey #yugi's other friends #bakura #keiba

49 notes · View notes

idealisticrealism · 7 years ago

Text

Blindspot 3x03 recap

(Aka the Patterson and Rich show lol)

AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

I LOVED this episode. Cute Jeller, supportive team, and of course, PATTERSON AND RICH BEING KICKASS BESTIES. Can the whole season be just like this ep bc good lord it is totally up there with my fave eps of this show ever and ugh I just loved it so much guys

Which in a way is kind of a bad thing because it means this review is gonna take me like 6 hours on account of all the screaming, but ah well. Worth it.

And to the lovely Anon-- I may very possibly struggle to do these from now on due to my travelling, but I’ll try my best to keep them happening if I can. Thankfully none of the other people in my hostel dorm here in Madrid have minded my hectic late-night typing for the last couple of hours lol...

Anyhow, more gushing below the cut.

Ugh look at this. Our babies are dressed all fancy and having drinks and it’s kinda reminiscent of 1x09 except this time instead of just alluding to their interest in each other, Weller is BLATANTLY HITTING ON JANE, his WIFE, who he is MARRIED TO, and ugh it’s simultaneously delightful and almost nauseating haha. Zapata and Reade definitely agree with the nauseating part, because they’re stuck in the surveillance van being forced to listen to every word. Oh, kids. As the child of two people that love to make jokes about their sex life just to gross me out, I totally understand your pain right now. Lbr tho they probably kind of missed this. And lol I love that Jane giggles and apologises while shooting heart-eyes at Weller. You two are the worst. I actually didn’t expect this scene so early but I’m totally into it. And so Jeller keep an eye on the suspect and his daughter/wife, while Tasha works her hacking skills and hacks his computer. Also awww her cousin asked for Patterson’s autograph, that is so cute and I now love her cousin. I love that Patterson is now super rich and kinda a celeb lol. Hahaha I love that Jane delays the guy by telling him she loves his charity work and then literally like 10 secs later the team is into his files and Weller is arresting him. That would have had to feel kinda like an abrupt turnabout lol

Aww Zapata is checking in on Patterson and making sure she’s okay D: I love these ladies supporting each other. But in what sounds like depressing deja vu of both of the previous seasons, Patterson insists she’s fine to be there. Also her puzzle solving skills clearly haven’t suffered-- she figured out that random specks on Jane’s back could be translated onto a grid and brought together to form words? Dude. Tbh I like that the show gives us a brief explanation of how things were cracked without putting any pressure on us viewers-- we get to just smile and nod and be like ‘yep, sounds legit’ and then move on haha. Now Aunty Hirst has rocked up to hear the deets, considering their suspect is a big fish. And basically there’s some evidence that he caused a train to derail which was previously called in as an anonymous tip, and which made him super rich due to something to do with stocks. Can you tell I have very little understanding of the stock market lol, which tbh is kinda unfortunate considering my father keeps wanting me to invest haha.

Oooh Patterson goes to Reade bc she’s been investigating Stuart’s murder on her own despite there already being a team on it, and she tells him that Stuart had a Siri/google home/Alexa equivalent thing and that she thinks the thing recorded his murder, since they’re sneakily recording everything. Makes you worry about Siri and Alexa, doesn’t it… Anyway she wants Reade to go demand the recording from the company before it’s deleted within 72hrs. Go Reade go! Meanwhile Patterson goes to talk to their suspect’s lawyer, and walks in to find her playing Wizardville. I love that she knows exactly which part she’s at just by hearing the sound effects. Ugh you giant nerd I love you so much. When Jeller show up a minute later (maybe held up in the locker room because of… activities…) lawyer lady insists that the emails are planted by a hacker group who is targeting her client. Lol “Mr Lowie can afford better specialists than the FBI has. No offense”/”Offense taken”. Damn right, Patterson, none of those specialists could hold a candle to you. But uh oh, the lawyer mentioned the hacker group-- the three blind mice-- and Patterson suddenly got all shifty. What do you know that you’re not telling, honey??? Also the lawyer lady is threatening them with a very large lawsuit which is bound to make all of this a little awkward….

RIIIICHHH. God I will never get over the delight of seeing him appear in an episode. Patterson visits him in his office, which is literally just a room for cleaning supplies, and she turns on a radio jammer which has him spitting coffee (if that is coffee) out of his ‘best daddy ever’ mug. So either he stole the mug from Weller or someone, or it’s alluding to a weird sex thing. You never know with Rich. (Yes you do; it’s usually the weird sex thing). Ugh and when she demands to know if he hacked into the suspect’s server he’s all “What?? No?? Who??” and god I just love his FACE. Ennis how do you do this??? God. And then ugh he promises her he’s not lying and ugh I believe it. And then she tells him the tatt points to the 3BM and that the FBI are gonna try to track them down and ugh you can see the ‘oh shit’ on his face. I just love the way these two interact, like they’re legit real friends?? Ugh my babies. I adore Jeller and all, but tbh this is my favourite duo on the show rn. And now Weller wants to see them both and they’re both like ‘oh shit’ lol. And then lol he totally ignores ‘ladies first’ and calls Weller mademoiselle and you can hear that he’s nervous and aaahhhh his joke about the 3 blind mice from the nursery rhyme and then insisting he’s a crime fighter now and I just love him so muuuchhhh and this whole time he and Patterson are both half shitting themselves and ugh I feel like he’s using his ridiculousness to keep attention on him and not Patterson bc she doesn’t like lying to her team and ughhhh they’re such broooos. And Hirst appears to tell them all that they need to catch the 3BM asap because the emails were planted and their dude might sue, and to which Rich suggests a simple ‘I was wrong’ to patch things up lollll. And then Hirst has a picture of the 3BM and Patterson and Rich are all !!!!!!!!! and then it turns out it’s a person in a mouse mask and they’re so relieved lol. Also dude after Patterson, i love Rich’s dynamic with Jane the most. She’s basically like his long-suffering mom hahaha. Back in the closet, Patterson’s freaking out and wants to come clean but he’s all ‘how about no’ lol. Also he says that they dropped out because ‘someone thought it was getting too dangerous’ and he points to her but then jabs his thumb toward himself as he’s speaking and now I’m confused?? Which one wanted to bail?? (Probably Patterson lbr). Ughhhh by the sound of it they were such little Robin Hoods, and ugh I NEED the spinoff about this whole partnership over the last 2 years ughhhhhhh. And hahaha omg “so we make it a little harder for them, if you catch my drift”/”by obstructing justice??”/”drift caught.” UGHHHHH GIVE ME THE SPINOFF. GIVE IT TO ME. I will sell my soul for this I stg.

Meanwhile awww Reade is honouring Patterson’s request and talking to a representative from the kinga company about the recordings, and when she tries to deny it he and Zapata totally roll their eyes at each other haha. These bros. And then she’s texting his gf which feels a little weird, and also she says they hung out ‘last weekend’ but uh wasn’t stuart’s murder less than 72hr ago, and so all the events of last ep including Zapata meeting the gf happened then as well (that did happen in 3x02 right?)? Maybe that was friday and this is monday and she meant to say ‘on the weekend’? Also “You better put a ring on that before I do” LOL I love it. I’m sure it’s just a joking comment but dude could Zapata be bi? Because I would totally be down for that. I like Zapata being friends with Reade’s gf and encouraging them as a couple, since I want Reade and Zapata to remain just bros. I seriously miss Reade/Sarah though. Lbr I’m still totally bitter about that one, Gero.

Patterson found the person in the mouse mask by creating a ‘biometric map’ of the person from the video and using ‘gait recognition’?? Mmmmmkay, sure, I’ll roll with it. Nice little mention of Patterson’s NSA access, though. The woman they find has a bunch of dating profiles and works for Nerd Herd (awww a Chuck reference, I’m so happy) which makes Rich pity her, but uh dude don’t you know she was Miss United States?? And she’s besties with Sandra Bullock, so she’s doing just fine. And ugh when Rich says that they tracked her location, Jane actually praises him and ughhhh look at that parental approval he’s getting, I’m so happy for him. And then haha Hirst wants both Patterson and Rich in on the interrogation and ugh you can just see my poor Patterson getting more and more tightly wound lol can someone just give her a hug before she explodes? Preferably Rich giving her a slightly stilted but genuinely sincere hug. I want it. Nope, need it. Also looks like Jeller now have nothing on their schedule…. time for another locker room rendezvous perhaps?

Lollll their suspect has said like two lines and all I hear is Miss Rhode Island… also she looks so cute in her lil Nerd Herd outfit. I wonder if she ever met Chuck? I mean she’s based on the other side of the country, but still… what if she trained under him over in Burbank before moving to NYC? Anyhow she gushes about how famous the 3BM are and both Rich and Patterson are looking SO UNCOMFORTABLE in their own ways and I’m loving it. Also ugh Hirst’s soft southern accent is so soothing. Could she narrate audiobooks or something bc I would legit buy all of them. Although rn she’s describing bad stuff that the 3BM did and that doesn’t feel right, but then Kathy decides the jig is up and explains how each of those things was actually them helping people/semi-saving the world. Also man this actress is amazing in how she can sound simultaneously kinda deranged but also kinda sweet?? I just want to protect her and her adorable lil face haha. Lol at Rich and Patterson exchanging looks across the room the whole time she’s talking. Subtle, guys. And Rich’s face when she says that the three of them are still best friends?? Maybe he’s starting to think Patterson was right to have made them both cut ties with this wacko. But duuuude why are you so vain, you literally just let her goad you into revealing yourself as one of her former partners. But still, “Oh so by ‘pretty close’, do you mean 100% correct, or?” ughhhh I love the sass. And then Kathy mentions people being in danger and it draws Patterson over, putting all three of the blind mice at the same table for the first time in a year.... And also ever, when you think about it. Also turns out that the wealthy guy might be planning to blow something up to earn money from stocks like he did last time or something, which prompts Patterson to admit to Rich that she has backdoor access into every phone that downloaded her app. Firstly, wow, glad that power is in the hands of one of the good guys. Secondly, that’s a huge show of trust to tell him that, knowing that he could then steal her phone or something and use the access for his own gain. Ugh these bros!! Lol I do love that he gets carried away with thoughts of Hirst’s browser history tho haha. But anyhow by hacking the lawyer’s phone she figured out where the attack was planned to happen, and aawwwww Rich immediately wants to head to tell the team and Patterson is the one holding back. Also LOL: “Hey Gary.” “His name’s Gary? I’ve been calling him Rick…” ugh how is his every line just SO GOOD? I love the thought that he talks to their coworkers as well, probably talks the ear off of anyone who happens to come near him lol. Ugh my baby just wants to be loveddddd. I love the bickering-siblings thing they’ve got going on though, and “Well now who’s obstructing justice??” ahhahaha. Seriously who do I have to bribe to get the show with just these two? And then when she suddenly decides that they need to come clean, he’s all ‘woah no no, gross’ lollll. And then he has a little lightbulb moment about how to solve their problem-- a ridiculous and very conveniently timed anonymous tip lol. Well, tbh the team never really cares HOW Patterson managed to get their intel, only that she gives them stuff they can use/excuses to go beat people up. Aww but Weller trusts his lil team and acts immediately on their intel, prepared to take the fall for it if it turns out to be a dud. He’s very martyr-ish lately, I feel-- but I guess maybe he just feels invincible now that his wifey is back in his lifey?

Turns out the ‘tip’ is legit, and Jeller find our baddies, proceeding to beat the hell out of them in true Jeller fashion. There’s also a bomb, because of course there is, and Rich makes a suggestion only to be smacked down by Patterson and is properly apologetic haha. Jane then actually takes his advice, using the sped-up clock to convince the baddie to disarm the bomb, then takes him out and shoots the guy grappling with Weller by firing through a bottle of oil or something. Nice. She really is a woman of endless talents, a fact that Weller very much benefits from, both in the field and… elsewhere haha. Also Sully’s accent has dropped at least twice in this ep already, someone must be tired lol. Anyway back at the office, Aunty Hirst drops by to tell them all how proud she is. Also I want to marry the way she says ‘Lowie’. It’s just so damn cute. She then tells everyone to go home, and Rich and Patterson have a quiet little celebratory fist-bump (which they have clearly done before AAAHHHHHHH) over the 3BM investigation appearing to be closed. God they’re the cutest.

Oh yeah, forgot about Reade and Zapata for a minute there, too distracted by the other show-stealing partnership haha. They’re putting heavy pressure on the boss lady at Kinga, and I love that she calls him ‘sir’ and that he’s so firm and authoritative with her. This seems more like a true AD of the FBI! And you know Zapata’s pretty impressed too haha. Well done, Reade.

Loll Patterson and Rich meeting in a deserted parking lot and Rich stepping in a puddle and then both of them realising that neither of them actually sent the message that they received. Tbh I just love that each of them got a message from the other telling them to come to a random parking lot in the middle of the night and they both came?? Without question?? Ugghhhhhhh have I mentioned lately that I love them. Also what’s Rich’s sitch at the safe house? Does he have a team watching him that he had to evade to get here, or? And lol she calls him dumbwad and everything is so cute and fun and then RICH GETS SHOT IN THE CHEST. Ngl, I gasped far louder in this moment than I even knew I was capable of. There was a split second of sheer, unadulterated panic before I remembered he’s going to be returning for multiple eps throughout the season and therefore has to be okay. But good lord that one second was an awful experience. I swear to god, if they do ever kill Rich then I’m out. I will walk away from this show, Gero, don’t think I won’t! And ugh the shock and horror on Patterson’s face-- for all he drives her crazy, he’s literally one of her best friends, and she’s already lost enough people around her. And then Kathy appears and even though she assures them (and us) that they’re just beanbag rounds, it’s still freaky as hell to see her shooting them both with a shotgun at point-blank range. My poor babies… Aaaand then they wake in a Saw-esque setting and ugh he pokes her so gently to wake her and they’re so cute when they’re kidnapped. Sounds like it’s a semi-regular occurrence for Rich, whose main concern is that he doesn’t get to be kidnapped anywhere fun lol. Aw, is someone using humour to make their friend feel less scared? “And not the good kind of dungeon” haha. And then he goes for the door and she tries to stop him but too late, he gets zapped by a shock collar and lol my poor baby. “Oh my god, she’s gonna make us play the hunger games, isn’t she??” Which tbh would be pretty interesting between these two. I’m tempted to bet on Patterson as the winner, but then again, the first time we met Rich he did shoot a guy in the chest and was going to have Jeller killed as well, so tbh I think he shouldn’t be underestimated. But ugh it’s so cute that Patterson is desperately trying to get his collar off rather than her own, and then suddenly heeeeeeeere’s Kathy! Who is holding the collar remote threateningly in one hand while sweetly offering them snacks at the same time lol. Sh figured out it was them because of Rich showing off in interrogation and Patterson saying ‘opposite, opposite’ which I did think was a bit of a weird phrase to use lol. And ahhh Patterson calls him Rich and Kathy suddenly goes into Rich DotCom fangirl mode, and tbh I feel you on that one, sister. I would react the same. But now she’s ranting about them being brainwashed by the feds (lol at Rich telling Patterson that she did just sound like weller, awwww) and that she’s ‘saving’ them haha. Then suddenly she whips out a to-do list of hack-tivities, but instead of Robin Hood stuff, it’s more Sherriff of Nottingham stuff this time. Their arguments don’t work, which means it’s hack or zap….

Weller texts Patterson about dinner; everyone’s gathered at his and Jane’s place having drinks and hanging out and ugh they’re all so cute. And Jeller are so casually touchy and he calls her ‘my love’ and I’m seriously caught between finding that corny and super cute. Maybe both. Zapata’s playing Wizardville, which apparently Jane does too, and then they realise Reade must as well and lol Zapata’s innocent little ‘Reade?’ is so CUTE. Weller’s all “You too??” and yeppp, Sully has apparently forgotten what an American accent is haha. Oh well. I love that he goes and snuggles with Jane on the couch (aaawwwww) as they watch Zapata and Reade bicker like it’s a spectator sport hahaha. I love the sassiness omg.

Meanwhile Rich is perfecting his mime-in-a-box routine as he tries to figure out any gaps in their electric prison, and tbh that’s actually pretty brave? He probably got zapped at least a few times doing that. Patterson is trying to figure out how to get word back to the team, but Rich tells her that the only way they’ll get out of this is to go along with Kathy’s plan, because he has ‘a lot of experience with psychotic women who desire him sexually’ and lol at the disgust and annoyance on Patterson’s face and her “What is your point.” Yep, those are siblings right there.

The team are still being cute when Weller gets an email from Patterson saying she’s having dinner with Rich instead, but Zapata notices that it’s signed with her first name, WHICH NONE OF THEM ACTUALLY MENTION. TELL US THE DAMN NAME, YOU JERKS. So I guess that means that Patterson sneakily sent an email when Kathy wasn’t looking? I think that’s what they’re getting at, rather than Kathy covering her tracks by sending that to Weller so he won’t be concerned when Patterson doesn’t show up for dinner. I feel like Patterson totally has the skills to pull that off right under someone’s nose...

Back in the dungeon, the dynamic duo have picked some of the less harmful hacks to start with, including revealing some politician guy as a sex fiend (no surprises there), and Kathy gushes that watching them hack is like watching Picasso paint the Mona Lisa and lolll you can see Rich’s eyes narrow and he really wants to correct her but Patterson is already telling her to let them go, but nope Kathy wants them to crash Lowie’s private jet now, and wow she really seems to have it in for this guy. Also is it even possible to remotely crash a plane? But ohhhhhh crap, Kathy’s brother died in the train crash that Lowie caused. Well, that explains that. She tried to hand them the evidence to put him away, but now she’s taking matters into her own (or the 3 Blind Mice’s) hands. And Rich kinda seems to side with her a little bit after this revelation, causing Patterson to shoot him a look of betrayal and Kathy to beam at him. Oh man I really hope this is a ploy. Ugh Patterson is basically pleading with him not to help Kathy, to stay on their team, the good guy team, and then Kathy zaps her and ugh he’s immediately on his feet but knows he can’t do anything. He has to roll with this if he’s to save either of them and ugh I love himmmmm???

The team is at the office, trying to track down their missing buddies. Again Zapata is the one to see the clue-- the IP address the email came from is in antarctica, just like Kathy’s earlier hacks. They discover Kathy got out on bail, and then that both Patterson and Rich’s cars were found in Brooklyn. I love that they all practically run for the exit. I wonder if they’re remembering the last time Patterson was kidnapped, aka the only unlikable episode of season one?? Better hurry team, go save them! And lol conveniently they find out every place she’s ever worked and one of those happens to be an old zoo, and therefore a nice private place to keep prisoners. How lucky for them….

Poor Patterson is bound and gagged and tries to cry “Rich, no!” as he successfully hacks the jet and sets it on its collision course with the ocean. Or its fake collision course, I hope. And ugh then he and Kathy are dining together and okay why does she respond ‘kinda’ when he asks if it’s foie gras? Is she pulling a Hannibal Lecter rn??? Also I love the little red glow of the collar through his napkin lol. And then there’s a perimeter breach and Kathy is starting to freak out and so checks on the plane, only to see that it landed safely and Patterson looks at Rich in shock and HE WINKS AT HER. Look at my baby all grown up and fighting on the side of good with his lil FBI family who he lovessssss. Ughhh save me. And then omg she flips out and literally smashes the wine bottle over his head and I gasped super loud again bc do you know how hard those things are???? Ugh both Patterson and I are so worried for our bestie Rich, but meanwhile Kathy hacks the team’s car and tries to crash them?? I love their super synchronized dives out of the car lol. And then omg she literally sets everything on fire while crying over their ruined friendship hahahaha. Tbh I’d be pretty devastated if Patterson and Rich didn’t want to be friends with me too lol…. And then omgggg she is literally about to shoot Rich and Patterson tackles her, saving his life and causing herself to be electrocuted. THAT IS FAMILY RIGHT THERE. I hope Rich someday acknowledges what she did for him just then, bc ugh it was everythinggggg. Thankfully the team is there and Reade is clever enough to order Jane to find a fusebox. I love the tasks each of the team takes-- Jane cuts the power, saving Patterson, Reade arrests Kathy, Weller helps Patterson up and is checking her over all concerned, and Zapata FLICKS RICH until he comes around hahahaha. “He’s fine” lol. I love that she’s all blase about it but they would have been genuinely upset if he was seriously injured. Pretend all you like, I know you care!!

Back at base, the rest of the team calls Rich and Patterson into the conference room to tell them that Hirst wants the other mice caught, but Kathy is refusing to give up names (‘she’s a mouse, not a rat’ hahahaha), and when Reade asks why she kidnapped them, Patterson answers that she was a huge Rich DotCom fangirl, which is technically a true statement. Rich says he didn’t know that was even a thing, which is a completely untrue statement haha. And then Reade says how lucky it is that there’s no evidence whatsoever to point to who the other two are because if he knew who they were he would have to prosecute them and ugh the team has clearly agreed that this is a ‘what happens in the team stays in the team’ situation and then even literally discuss how these tattoos are about them as a group, that Roman wants to expose their secrets specifically. But they have no idea why. (Punishing Jane, no?)

Naw look at this domestic Jeller. Jane is cooking her implausible vegan lasagne, and then Kurt tells her he loves her like ten times, which is super cute but still in an Australian accent!! Sully, c’mon, lol. But ugh he runs to the shower and wants her to join and lord I do love me some established relationship… but then of course lil bro has to call and cockblock, and ugh poor Jane is so upset about how things are between them but he’s all ‘grrrrrr must punish you for making me sad grrrrrrr’ and sigh I look forward to a little bit of character growth on his part lol

Oooh Patterson calls Reade and Zapata in to the lab to listen to the Kinga recording that they got, and finds out that it's been doctored, meaning someone is hiding something. And also, through magical genius means, she figured out the tattoo that Stuart was working on relates to Van Gogh’s famous self portrait. Which is super confusing until the next scene where an ominous man threatens the Kinga CEO never to talk about doctoring the recordings, and turns away, revealing… DUN DUN DUN….. he’s missing an ear. Ooooooooohhhhh intrigue. Who is Creepy Van Gogh and what does he want with the team????

#I made it!#just #good thing I'm still a few hours ahead of the states #Blindspot #Blindspot recap #Jeller

17 notes · View notes

miss-musings · 7 years ago

Text

In Defense of TLJ’s Finn/Rose Subplot (SPOILERS)

I’ve seen a lot of criticism about the film as a whole, but of the Finn/Rose subplot specifically.

Now, I have some legitimate problems with the subplot; I’m not saying it was 100% flawless and amazing and completely necessary. There are definitely parts of it that should’ve been deleted, extended or changed.

For instance, I thought the whole “animal abuse” angle was a little heavy-handed; and the sequence where they trashed the whole town could’ve been about a minute or two shorter; and some of the dialogue and shots of BB-8 could’ve been cut down; and how the casino felt a little to “Earth” or “real-to-life” and not alien or foreign or fantastical enough to feel like a Star Wars planet; and how the culmination of the subplot -- ie, Rose (presumably) falling in love with Finn -- was a shot where Rose saves Finn from sacrificing himself for the Resistance, and then when their friends are endangered because she stopped him... as the First Order is literally blowing up their hideout... she takes that opportunity to kiss him. And then collapses. Like, I got the point, and I liked her line about “saving what we love,” but it just felt a little disjointed tone-wise.

HOWEVER.

I felt like this subplot had a lot of positives and gave us a look at some topics/themes/perspectives that I felt like we needed at this point in the trilogy/franchise.

An example: so, in the first movie, the First Order are evil. They raid the village on Jakku, killing everyone. They raid Maz’s place on Takodana, killing a lot of people and causing massive destruction. They blow up several planets. Etc.

But, in this movie, we see the wider ranging impact’s of the First Order’s regime on the galaxy’s population at large. Rose tells us about how her home planet was exploited by the First Order for its resources, and then the regime tested the weapons on its people. On Canto Bight, we see how wealthy some have become because they sell supplies to the First Order (and the Resistance), and the grim and abusive reality that exists behind this facade of extravagance and wealth (ie, the animals and kids who work with them are both maltreated).

I think it’s also important to remind the audience, that while we follow the main plot of the Resistance vs. the First Order, Jedi vs. Sith, etc., like 95% of the people in this galaxy are just carrying on with their daily lives. They’re not pilots or Stormtroopers or Force-wielders or whatever. They’re just everyday people.

Well, somewhat.

This was something that made the Clone Wars series so strong, was that we got to see how people outside of the War itself were living. How it impacted their lives. And it’s another thing that I think makes this sideplot somewhat successful.

It also showed us that the desire to rebel against the corrupt and abusive establishment/status quo is alive and well in the hearts of young children; that like our heroes of all three trilogies, they have the desire to change their lives/destinies... that they have hopes of better lives. Of adventure. Of heroism. Of peace. Of happiness. Just as Luke did when he looked at the Twin Suns in “A New Hope.” That sequence showed us that Holdo was right. Even if their allies didn’t come to save them today (in TLJ), the hopes of the Resistance are alive and well in the hearts of the downtrodden, like the little kids on Canto Bight.

NOW.

The biggest criticism I’ve seen of the subplot is that it was pointless. That it didn’t accomplish anything. That Finn and Rose went all that way, got captured, and then lucked their way into an escape. That they didn’t do what they set out to do, which was turn off the tracking device so the Resistance could escape the First Order. That their plan failed.

But, the defense I have for that is:

Since when did anything in Star Wars go according to plan?

Especially in the original trilogy.

Episode 4: Luke and Obi-Wan try to get the droids to Alderaan, but it’s destroyed and they get captured. And then, while they DO rescue Princess Leia and get away from the Death Star, Luke loses Obi-Wan in the process and then they lead the Empire right to the base on Yavin 4. Great job, you guys. I guess the trench run and blowing up the Death Star went according to plan, but that seems to be more of an exception than the rule. And, plus, you know, had to end the movie on a happy note.

Episode 5: The evacuation of Hoth is somewhat successful. But, Han & Co.’s attempts to escape the Imperial Fleet don’t go so well. They get tracked by Boba Fett to Cloud City, Han’s “friend” Lando betrays them, and then when they try to save Han from Boba Fett, they fail. That whole side plot was nothing but failure. The heroes got captured. Han got tortured, frozen in carbonite and taken. Vader was successful in luring Luke into a trap. Luke got his hand cut off, and his friends had to come back and save him. And Vader would’ve caught them if R2 hadn’t reactivated the hyperdrive.

Episode 6: The infamous “It’s a Trap” line exists for a reason. The Empire essentially lures the Rebels into attacking the Death Star / Endor. When Han & Co. try to take down the shield generator, they’re caught. Lando & Co. get drawn into a gigantic space battle they weren’t anticipating. Yes, it all works out in the end, but that’s because this is the ending and the good guys HAVE to win, because that’s how Star Wars works.

A quick look at the prequel trilogy:

Episode 1: The Jedi’s plan to negotiate fails when the Trade Federation tries to kill them; their plan to escape Naboo partially fails because they have to stop off at Tattooine for parts where they get attacked by Darth Maul. The re-taking of Naboo is mostly successful: the Trade Federation is defeated; the droids stopped; and Darth Maul killed. However, Qui-Gon dies in the fight.

Episode 2: Obi-Wan was somewhat successful in finding out about Jango Fett and Count Dooku, but then ultimately got captured. And then when his rescuers, Padme and Anakin, came to save him they got captured too! And then, while our heroes were ultimately rescued, a they did ultimately kick off A WAR THAT ENCOMPASSED THE ENTIRE FUCKING GALAXY!!! Let’s not forget that.

Episode 3: Obi-Wan and Anakin’s plan to rescue the Chancellor was like a 95% success. There were some minor hiccups, and General Grievous got away, but the Chancellor was saved and Count Dooku was defeated. Then Obi-Wan’s plan to defeat General Grievous is a success. But then his and Yoda’s plans to defeat Anakin and the Emperor, respectively, don’t go as they’d hoped. Obi-Wan DOES defeat Anakin, but leaves him alive; and Padme dies giving birth; meanwhile Yoda fails to defeat the Emperor and the Republic is lost amid the First Galactic Empire.

And then in our new trilogy:

Episode 7: Poe’s plan to get the map from Lor San Tekka goes awry when they’re attacked, everyone’s killed, except Poe who’s captured and has to hide the plans with BB-8. Finn’s plan to escape with Poe is also a partial failure, as they get stranded on Jakku and he’s separated from Poe and believes him to be dead. They successfully get BB-8 off planet and away from the First Order, but then get “captured” by Han and Chewie. Han’s plan to convince the gangs to leave doesn’t work, and they barely escape on the Falcon. The plan to get BB-8 on a “clean ship” at Maz’s also goes badly when the First Order attacks and Rey is kidnapped and the others almost captured. The overall plan to blow up Starkiller and rescue Rey is successful, because this is a Star Wars movie and we need a happy-ish ending in our first part of the trilogy to get people invested in the heroes, but we do lose Han.

Then, with our one spinoff movie:

Rogue One: Jyn and Cassian are successful in finding Bodhi and Galen’s message on how to destroy the Death Star, but there are hiccups in HOW they do it. They get caught in a street battle. They get spotted and almost captured by the Stormtroopers. Then they actually get captured by Saw’s people. Their plan to kill/rescue Galen pretty much fails, as Galen is killed by Rebel bombs when Jyn was hoping to save him, but then Cassian fails to shoot him when he has the chance. And, of course, the big finale is ultimately a success, but at a large price and with several hiccups. Rather than getting in and out by stealth (which I assume was the plan for at least Jyn, Cassian and K2SO) the whole Rogue One team is spotted and a large battle ensues on all sides. EVERYONE ON THE TEAM DIES! Major Rebel leaders are captured/killed. While the goal of the mission was accomplished, it didn’t go ACCORDING TO PLAN.

As I said: plans in Star Wars, especially those concocted by the heroes against a larger force, rarely go as planned.

I don’t see why people are shocked that Finn and Rose were unsuccessful in their mission considering:

1) They failed to find the right the Master Codebreaker considering that they made ZERO effort to be inconspicuous or stealthy while on Canto Bight. They parked right on the beach, despite being told not to, which should’ve told them that the police were going to be called to sic them eventually. And, as we see during their ride later there were plenty of out-of-the-way places where their shuttle wouldn’t have been spotted. They also made no effort to blend in with either their attitudes or their clothes and looked like a bunch of weirdos that I’m surprised weren’t thrown out of the casino for breaking dress code. Like, it should’ve been clear to the audience that these two -- while they might’ve “known” what they were doing -- did not have the capabilities to execute their plans successfully. They were set up for failure. They weren’t necessarily the right people for the job. Or should’ve had other, more or equally capable people on their team, like someone who is good at infiltration / smooth-talking people into helping them.

2) Finn’s knowledge of the First Order’s protocol was enough to be legit, but should’ve thrown up some red flags for us, the audience. It’s been at least a few days, possibly a week or two, since the Starkiller Base was destroyed. I mean, we have no idea how long it was from when Rey brought Finn back to the Resistance Base to when Rey left to find Luke. I’m guessing not more than like a day, considering she’d never even fucking met Poe. And considering that the Rey/Luke stuff if about simultaneous to the Resistance evacuation thing, it can’t have been more than two weeks from when Starkiller Base was destroyed, IMO. So, in those two weeks, or probably less, the First Order has to know (from Phasma, if no one else), that Finn helped the Resistance infiltrate the Starkiller Base. They know that a traitor is working for their enemy and their systems are vulnerable. Surely, they would’ve changed some protocols, security procedures, code clearances, or whatever between Finn’s defection and the Resistance’s evacuation. If not on purpose, then at least by chance. How does Finn know the First Order hasn’t upgraded its coding system since he was with them? Especially given that it’s Snoke’s ship, so you know it’d be upgraded first and/or have a higher security setting than your regular ship.

3) It was clear from the offset that DJ (Benicio del Toro’s character) was interested in helping them only because it suited him at the time. He was very much out for himself, had a questionable moral compass (like stealing the ship on Canto Bight), and was ultimately only interested in the money. Why some people were so shocked or felt so let down when he betrayed them is baffling to me. Maybe if you’re like a 5 year-old. Also, if you rewatch the movie, you’ll notice there’s a little look that DJ gives whenever he hears Poe talking about Holdo’s plan to use the transports to escape. Like a little “Huh, that might come in handy later” look.

4) The entire point of the sequence was to show that the reality behind the war is a lot more “gray” than it is “black” and “white.” As DJ shows Finn and us, there are people who don’t have any allegiance and have no problem selling arms to both sides. There are people whose lives have been negatively impacted by the First Order, or the Resistance, or both. That’s a point that Game of Thrones/ASOIAF series does very well of hitting: that the grander wars tear apart the lives of the “small folk,” who ultimately don’t care who wins or loses so long as their lives are peaceful and secure. Remember that Palpitine rose to power as Emperor on the idea that he could bring PEACE AND SECURITY to the Republic as an Empire, because the Republic had failed and the Jedi had failed, and he was the only one who could help the “small folk” attain the lives they wanted. Or whatever. Sorry, for the digression.

5) There were clear hints throughout the infiltration sequence that Finn and Rose were going to get caught. Like DJ’s “betrayal,” I don’t get why people were so shocked by this.

NOW.

All that being said, I do agree that the overall effect on the story was missing. Finn and Rose, at the end of the day, accomplished nothing either as people or as a story element. Yes, narratively, it helped world-build and gave us some good thematic material (grayness in a world built on “black” and “white,” light and dark, etc.). But, they didn’t DO anything, even as they were escaping. I guess Finn killed Phasma, but that’s about it. Holdo tearing through the Supremacy could’ve killed Phasma and it wouldn’t have made much difference. We didn’t see Finn maybe planting seeds of rebellion/resistance in the minds of his fellow Stormtroopers. We didn’t see them steal any like piece of equipment like a Master Key or some kind of important file that might’ve come in handy later in this movie or in the next one. So, in that sense, yes, the sideplot was weak and pointless.

At the end of the movie, all it did was bring Finn and Rose closer together.

But, then again, you could say the same thing about the Han and Leia sideplot in Episode 5. What difference would there have been plot-wise if Han and Leia had been captured right after leaving Hoth than later on Cloud City? Han probably still would’ve been tortured and then taken by Boba Fett. Luke still would’ve been lured into a trap. Leia & Co. probably would’ve still failed to save Han, etc. In a way, you could argue that THAT whole sideplot was filler only to:

buy time for Luke to train with Yoda so he could stand something of a chance against Vader in the Cloud City duel

do some world-building (asteroid field, giant worm thing, Cloud City, bounty hunters, Lando, etc.)

bring Han and Leia closer together as part of a romance subplot

show us their desperate flight to escape the Empire, only to seemingly succeed and then ultimately fail by getting captured.

Hey, wait a minute.... isn’t that exactly what this subplot did, too?

It was filler (as was the Resistance’s arbitrary 18-hours of fuel limitations or whatever) to buy time while Rey was off training with Luke / having Force-bond sessions with Kylo Ren.

It did some world-building (Canto Bight, master code breakers, kids who are Rebels at heart, animals and humans who can’t live in peace because of the war, etc.).

It brought Finn and Rose closer together as part of a possible romance subplot.

It showed us their desperate plight to save their friends only to almost succeed and then ultimately fail by getting captured.

Congratulations, everyone, you just watched Rian Johnson subtly rewrite The Empire Strikes Back and give it to you in the guise of a new storyline.

THIS is probably the REAL reason everyone hates the subplot, even if they don’t consciously realize it. In the same way everyone seemingly hates on TFA for being too much like A New Hope, this movie was tonally and sometimes plotwise too much like The Empire Strikes Back.

And while some of that is appropriate and expected, we the audience have a right to be angry when movie franchises repeat themselves too much to the point of being uncreative.

Anyway, I’ve rambled about this enough. I just wanted to defend the subplot because, while it has problems, I think it has merit to the overall darker and more desperate tone of the movie, the world-building both on a physical and a thematic level (the grayness), and allowed for some nice (but cheesy) character moments.

SO.

TL;DR : Does it have problems? Yes. Is it too similar to The Empire Strikes Back’s subplot when you really thing about it? Yes.

But does that mean it’s total garbage? No. Or even if it is:

(Side note: after writing all of this out, I stumbled onto this article that touches on the same topic, and one of the same things that I brought up, but in a little more detail. Read if you want. I don’t care.)

#the last jedi #finn and rose #rose and finn #finn x rose #rose x finn #tlj #the last jedi spoilers #star wars #star wars spoilers #tlj spoilers #canto bight #star wars episode 8

5 notes · View notes

sillyfudgemonkeys · 6 years ago

Note

Im curious as to why you hate Makoto for ripping of p3pfemc's looks but consent to Royal-chan for the same thing? ( I know you hate Makoto for a lot of other reasons, like her personality and such, but it seemed like you disliked her since prereveal/release?) If Royal chan ended up being a completely unrelated character to femc, will your opinion of her change ? (no hate really, i jst wanna know. \V/m )

It's no prob! In all honesty I didn't even think about this kind of question, but the answer came right away, so I guess time for a not so deep reflection.

So like full stop, if Poniko isn't connected to the FeMC and it's just Atlus messing with me, yeah I'mma be PISSED. Will I rip on her looks like no tomorrow? Maybe, depends on how it’s handled (like how bad they burn me, and even then I might wait for a spinoff cause they might go into the connection there rather than Royal). I think it's obvious I went harder on Makoto because I don't like her for other reasons, and so any small thing about her annoys me (tbh Yusuke's design annoys me too, but not as bad cause....I kinda just don’t care about him and who he’s copying as much, but I'll get to that in a bit)

Anyway I think we need some historical context, because I think it’s important. When Makoto (and Yusuke) where first shown......FeMC had been ignored for A LONG time. We had a non-canon play (which no one really talked about), and that was it. No game related stuff, not even featured in the game where people were getting ripped out of timelines. FeMC were BURNED. I’ll be honest, when Yusuke appeared......While the parallels between P2 were obvious (not just with him) he reminded me of Minato as well. It annoyed me we had to have the token blue hair character since the rule had been made since the P3 era (kinda enforced with some black haired characters from P1/2, combining P2 games together that is, if you want to include them), Atlus said they’d be trying new things..... but like....whateves. But my association with him as Minato increased....when Makoto came along.

Ngl I wasn’t pleased with the reveal of the last three girls (even didn’t like Haru, for ironically now what I love as an alt rewrite for her as, as I thought she’d be a mean and person full of herself due to calling herself ‘beauty thief’....Yeah all types of crazy here, I do love sweet Haru tho. And the reason for my opinion changing on the alt non-canon personality rewrite is just I.....see the appeal in it for the group dynamic now, while at the time I was afraid of disliking any of the characters or having them be disliked by the fandom.....which big laugh now haha :’D .....I want my happy P5 self back ;w;). Anyway back to the three girls, ngl one of the reasons I wasn’t happy was how they just dumped 3 more characters on us (too big a cast so can they handle it?, silly has to do more VA videos, I want the smaller cast back oh god don’t screw this up, and so on and so on). As for the characters, while Haru’s appearance in the trailer mislead me on her personality (for whatever reason)..... I just.....there was something about Futaba and Makoto I didn’t like. Futaba just rubs me all the wrong ways for reasons I can’t describe for back then (maybe the fact she looked like she’d be a troll and she kinda is), but Makoto it was clear...... She was ripping off FeMC’s look. The brown hair and red eyes.....the fact that Yusuke looked like Minato.....it felt like they were trying to draw them as expies of the P3MCs. And it pissed me off. I didn’t want an unrelated character look and remind me of the FeMC, I wanted FeMC herself! Why are you stealing her look????? And while some FeMC saw this and rolled with it as a joke (Hamu/Minty/Shin dressing up as Makoto/Yusuke/Goro to get into P5), other’s didn’t know who the FeMC was and thus.....didn’t see the blatant expy/rip off design. Seeing people be like “her character design is so original and cute and blah blah blah”.....it annoyed me....obviously (it didn’t help she grew in popularity doing absolutely nothing too, so initially it was all about her looks, and then I’ve been told a lot of her fans, at least male, has been mostly them saying the like her design and her hair and her eyes, and no everyone who likes Makoto is an FeMC fan so....yeah.....I mostly hear how it’s just about her design so I’m very focused on that in regards to her specifically BECAUSE of the fans). And yeah I know it was a bit petty/shallow reason, but I didn’t outright hate her atm, she was stepping on my toes badly but I was holding out till the game (where it finally cemented my hate for her, and now I legit hate her for petty, shallow, deep, and complex reasons). And lordy lord lord, it did not help Makoto’s name was Makoto, because that was a name some FeMC fans gave Hamuko (cause Makoto Yuki was the closest ‘canon’ name we’d get to P3MCs, and some people adopted it for both MCs cause it was gender neutral, so Niijima coming along and taking THAT away sucked ass, and I know different kanji, it still sucked tho). It just....felt like Atlus was spitting in FeMC fan’s face..... But anyway, I kept it in....for about....2ish years. Even when I was trying to stay positive.......and even when I was slowly starting to come out with negative opinions. I tried to keep it in.

Finally I decided to make it framed as a joke, because I started to see Makoto ripping off more characters than just FeMC (FeMC, Aika, and Naoto in the detective novel to be precise, but what got the ball rolling was realizing that it was Aika who Makoto ripped the hair and motor vehicle from with the FeMC’s color scheme). That’s where my brain started going other places than just being restricted to FeMC, and I started being more critical of Makoto’s design outside the FeMC (tho that still burned me). Because, imo, it’s not original, it annoyed me people would say she was original when she was really just a Frankenstein rip off of other characters (other loved characters, FeMC and Aika were pretty popular in their own right). It only continued to cement in my mind that....anything ‘original’ about Makoto was a farce, she just copies while the original gets left behind.

Tldr; FeMC had been snubbed for years, along comes two design expies that remind you of P3MCs (3 if you wanna include Goro/Ken but Goro looks different enough imo), Makoto is named Makoto (a name some used for FeMC), and Makoto is praised for her design for being original and blah blah blah when it’s not (for multiple reasons besides the FeMC, kinda more the fans reactions fault but I was already having design issues so it just bugged me more when they’d say these things). So yeah it felt like Makoto stole aspects of the FeMC, and it’s not like FeMC has a lot for herself, which really just stepped on my toes. Combined that with legit hating the character when I finally get to see her in action (and it’s because of her actions and writing that I hate-hate the character, but prior to that it was just her stepping on my toes while trying to keep an open mind into liking her), the stuff said before gets amplified more than before.

But months later, after the first post of me ripping on Makoto for taking FeMC and Aika’s design (tho my later posts were in drafts I just didn’t post them till later), something amazing happened on Aug 4th. FeMC finally came back to us. And holy shit obviously I was happy, but it doesn’t dismiss the fact I was aware of how much of design rip off/expy Makoto was, and it wasn’t just FeMC anymore. But gdi if the fact that the FeMC wasn’t being ignored anymore didn’t change the outlook for me as an FeMC fan. FeMC was back, she’s loved, care was put into her character in PQ2, just.....skdfalf;a so happy ;w; But also so hopeful, she was acknowledged again, she had been cut from the 20th anniversary event in official art, and that hurt us, but now she’s back back. And she was a main character in PQ2.....which leads to you questioning, what next?

Which brings us to Poniko, the one post hopeful outlook. Obviously she’s not starting in the same place as Makoto. Poniko has been revealed post-PQ2 FeMC....which means Atlus isn’t ignoring Hamuko (in fact a lot of the creators were stating they WANTED her back), we know the creators do love Hamuko. There’s also the fact.....Poniko looks less like an expy like Makoto (who imo looks like Soejima trying to emulate Kaneko’s art style, esp the eye shape, same with Yusuke too). Poniko? It goes beyond ripping off a design, she looks like she’s almost fully lifted from Hamuko, it just looks like Hamuko wearing a different outfit. Just straight up copy and paste. And would I have been pissed if she was revealed alongside Makoto? Maybe, or I might be theorizing that she is Hamuko herself like now (tho I think it’d get more push back due to Hamu being in Atlus’ basement for so long so it just being claimed as delusional and unlikely), or both (and then pissed when it’s revealed it’s not Hamuko). It’s just....she looks SO MUCH like Hamuko it can’t be a coincidence, and after PQ2 it feels less like one as well. Just.....the posture, the cinematic parallels, the hair color, the eye color, the eye shape, the eyelashes, the face structure, the way she stands.....Poniko just screams “I AM Hamuko” not “I just look like her because.” And it helps that other people in the fandom also see this too, some are hoping she’s a new person, but it seems people at least acknowledge that very obvious similarities between Hamuko and Poniko (while that didn’t really happen with P5 with Hamuko/Makoto).

And....tbh I feel like I might sound like I’m splitting hairs (at least with the words I’m using). And it might sound weird that I think Makoto ripped off enough Hamuko it pissed me off, but Poniko just.....is a copy and paste of Hamuko, just straight up Hamuko in a different outfit and hairstyle but it doesn’t. But it’s the historical context I think that sheds that light. And the fact Poniko might just BE Hamuko, and so it’d make sense if that was the case for them to look like each other (while it doesn’t make sense for Makoto to look like Poniko).

I guess it also helps that I personally had the headcanon Hamuko and Minato weren’t related (just strangers on the bridge in two separate cars), and they both survived the bridge accident but one became the leader of SEES and the other went on to live and do their own thing (until maybe a spinoff game pulls them back in). And while I.....well recalling it now I considered a reincarnation once in a hc scenario (opted for time travel forward cause that makes sense 8U I won’t go into it I had my reasons 8U), but looking at the 1st year symbol on Poniko (and reincarnation in other MegaTen works, I mean c’mon reincarnation is in the title) it feels plausible. And it works for Poniko because of the time the incident and the time to be reincarnated takes place (1999 being the accident and April 1 2000-April 2 2001 being the time frame she was born), which wouldn’t ever work for Makoto because she was born in 1998 (so even if I HAD considered Makoto it wouldn’t have worked, esp since they never tell us she jumped grades, it’s not possible....and while I’m all for hc and grey areas, this is something that WOULD be explicitly told because it’s not common in Japan and Atlus has been explicit about characters not in the ‘right’ grades before, just an fyi there 8U).

I dunno I feel like there’s distinct clear reasons that I can fit them into separate categories. And yeah if Poniko isn’t Hamuko I’mma be burned too, BUT I’mma wait till a spinoff post-Royal before I get pissy.....cause I don’t expect clear answers to other past games in another game’s mainline entry (I only expect shallow shoutouts tbh). So yeah, just so you know where the deadline for my expectations are.

3 notes · View notes

zaggitz · 5 years ago

Text

My Games of the Year 2019

2019! Pretty dang good year personally, pretty dang garbage globally. Semi decent in terms of games? I feel like there were some hot bangers but they were all pretty spread out and far between. It probably doesn’t help that I worked a LOT this year, which means I ended up playing I think the least amount of new games in this year since I started making these lists. 2020 looks to have an even slower start but I know there’s new consoles on the way, E3 is gonna be a wild ride y’all.

As previously stated, I did not play a lot of games this year, but the ones I did I think were pretty good.

First off, I figured I’d list my games of the year for the past decade(links to the respective lists provided onnce I started doing them.): 2010: Super Mario Galaxy 2 2011: Dark Souls 2012: La-Mulana 2013: Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds 2014: Bayonetta 2 2015: Trails in the Sky SC 2016: Trails of Cold Steel 2 2017: Trails in the Sky The 3rd 2018: Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age And now 2019:

10. Pokemon Sword It's that classic Pokemon formula only streamlined to take merely half the time(and half the Pokemon oops!!) In all honesty I really enjoyed my time with this game and the fact that it tried to be as tight as possible and didn’t waste your time felt really refreshing. I just wish it had a meatier postgame. I don’t mind the reduced dex but the lack of legendaries to hunt really sucked any wanting to play more out of me after seeing the credits.

9. Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening It's that classic weird Zelda game, only prettier and with even better music. The touched and fixes to the gameplay alongside the amazing atmosphere provided by the new graphics and revamped sound track make this the definitive version of a true classic.

8. Resident Evil 2

Mr X is literally the scariest thing I've had to deal with in a game in years and I twitch uncontrollably whenever i hear loud footsteps heading my way in real life now. I still need to sneak back in and do a second playthrough before RE3make hits next year(????fuck yes????)

7. Devil May Cry 5

It only took like 15 years but we finally got a new genuine Devil May Cry game and its the best one yet??? It capped off a lot of the plot threads from 4 and felt like a complete game with tons of love put into it and I'm so glad Capcom is having this renaissance the past couple of years if this kind of stuff is what we have to look forward to.

6. Judgement Fantastic spinoff to the Yakuza games, same great setting, amazing new cast of characters. Probably would have been higher on the list if it didn't give me cat noise ptsd from having to find all the hidden cats during investigations.

5. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Score another win for people getting to revive genres/series they used to be huge players in. Playing this game feels like being pulled right back into the mid 00s and I mean that in the best way possible.

It oozes so much mechanical personality out of every poor, the soundtrack rules and it scratches that 100% completionist itch the way only a true IGAvania can.

4. Fire Emblem: Three Houses I only played Blue Lions but this is already my favorite fire emblem I've ever played. There's basically not a single character I didn't like and I found the Blue Lions plot to be extremely emotionally gripping and satisfying overall.

The exploration of its themes of ptsd, growing up in war times, racism, classism and all the social struggles that come with these things is second to none when it comes to this series, and I can’t wait to dive back in for another playthrough soon.

3. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice This game fucking rules as hard as it is hard. I love From Soft's version of feudal Japan and I really hope they get some dlc or a sequel to flesh some of their ideas out because they are super fascinating.

I try to be very thoughtful about why I like the games I like but man this game is just plain old rad and fun and hard and some guy cuts a portal to hell out of his neck and you fight his super powered grandpa after he climbs out of the portal. It’s a good video game.

2. Trails of Cold Steel 3 Basically any other year this would have been my go to number one contender. I love this game and this series to bits but i think it spends a little too much time backpedaling on its payoffs in order to keep all the reveals for the final act which, while incredible, is pretty exhausting by the time you get there.

New Class VII are some of my fave characters in the series, Ash and Altina especially. I really loved them pulling back plot threads like Hamel that have been simmering in the background for almost two decades now. The music as always is fucking incredible. By the end of the game it truly feels like the beginning of a culmination for so many years of built up plotlines and then oops it cuts to black.

Well, I guess I’m really looking forward to CS4 then!!

1. Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers I always enjoyed this game in the past mostly as a side game to kill time but the beauty of having a game run this long means that it has just as much time to get you invested in its world and its characters. The fact that this expansion starts by taking all of that away and throwing you and your band of misfit allies into completely uncharted territory, devoid of all resources and external allies, is just the faintest tease at how spectacularly bold this expansion is.

Despite the fact that this game takes place in a whole new world mostly divorced from the main political arcs established so far, it goes maybe the furthest in terms of huge metaplot shattering and affecting reveals. By the end of this game I sympathized and understood the villains of this game in a way I never imagine I would be able to.

The character writing is superb, the menagerie of side characters you’ve come to know over the past three games finally get a chance to shine as they are stranded in the strange alternate universe mirror of the main game. Before this game I liked one or two of the Scions quite a bit but found the rest of the team to be pretty forgettable. By the end of Shadowbringers each and everyone one of them stand as some of my favorites in any jrpg I’ve ever played.

The villain of this expansion is just straight up the best most well written, sympathetic and relate-able foe from any FF game so far. Hell, even outside of Final Fantasy I have trouble thinking of another villain who I shed legit tears for when they finally passed on.

The game’s music is incredible and otherwordly, the changes they made to the classes (that I play) were all rad and Ardbert is my Husband of the Year all Years.

I’ve always played this game pretty casually without massive investment but I'm here for the long haul after this expansion.

1 note · View note

thejpfdude-blog · 7 years ago

Text

The Upcoming Winter 2018 Shows I’ll Be Watching

HAPPY NEW YEAR everybody! What better time than now to talk about the new season’s shows in the annual pre-seasonal post where I describe the shows I’ll be watching/giving a chance from the coming Winter 2018 season! Always a fun time, and fun to look back at and see how wrong/right I was about a show.

A reminder of the usual thing I say in these posts:

I might watch some other shows that are good or drop some shows if they aren’t good, but that’s for the future.

Like always, I’m organizing these shows into three categories: Full Chance are shows I’m giving the whole season towards, Short Leash are shows I’m giving three or so episodes towards, and One Shot are shows I’m giving one episode towards. As we progress towards categories, expect less words for each anime as I lose interest in writing. Also a reminder that MAL links to the shows are on the titles for those interested.

Some words about next season: I know everybody is hyping up Spring 2018 to be THE season for anime (just look at that lineup), but I think the Winter 2018 season has some potential gems. With each passing season I’m getting more and more picky with the shows I keep, let alone give a chance. Even with that, there are 20 anime below, and that doesn’t even include a few I’m sort of interested in but decided to not watch because I already have a lot on my plate. Plus the fact that I’m pretty dang excited for a few of these shows, which might end up backfiring on me in the end because Sturgeon’s Law. Oh well, that’s life.

All right, let’s get this show on the road, starting with...

Full Chance Shows

Dagashi Kashi 2: I legit can’t believe this got a second season. The first season of this show was way back 2 years ago during the first season I started watching seasonal shows, and even then I knew this show wasn’t really that special. Basically the problem with the show was that it was a candy infomercial at its core: the characters and their stories/development were overshadowed by “lol look it’s candy”. The only great thing the show had going for it was the character design, which got nullified for this season since a whole different studio is handling it (Tezuka Productions instead of feel).

But there’s good reason to hope that this installment of the show will be better than the first season. The biggest reason for that is that this time around, Dagashi Kashi is a short anime. Not one of those 3-minute blazers, but a 15-minute half-length short. After hearing that, I had some hope for this show: the first season at times felt like it dragged on with its skits. Hopefully cutting the length will help immensely with that. Plus, there’s a new character which might potentially add more spice to the mix. So you never know, this second season might be pretty good. Or it could be bad. Either way, I have no expectations given how the first season went.

Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san: A bit of (unrelated) backstory: I know this only because the anime club I’m in had the manga as one of the readings for the manga social. Otherwise known as Skilled Teaser Takagi-san, the show is basically about a middle schooler named Nishikata who gets teased by Takagi, a girl who sits next to him in class. In revenge Nishikata tries to tease Takagi himself, but it always ends up backfiring, resulting in Nishikata being teased yet again. From the little snippets I’ve seen/heard about, the show should mostly be comedic with the cute moments and max smug. I’ve seen complaints that it’s very repetitive and that there is no romantic progression, but the second point seems kinda null when you realize there’s a spinoff of the original manga, which is about something I won’t mention explicitly here (go look it up if you’re curious). With that in mind, I’m not expecting too much, just some occasional cute and funny moments that may or may not be repetitive.

Mitsuboshi Colors: Uhh... yeah. Now before you call me a lolicon, let me tell you what this show is about. Basically just three kids living their daily lives exploring the town and all that.

...Wow that doesn’t make it better does it. Well, whatever. The show’s looks to be a relaxing slice-of-life, and that’s something I’m about (as long as it has something else to it like comedy). Fun fact: the manga shares the same author as Hitoribocchi no ○○ Seikatsu, a manga I’m reading right now that I’m really enjoying. Just a random fact, but it’s a good sign that the source at least has good roots.

From the comments I read about it, Mitsuboshi Colors looks to be wholesome, with similarities to Ichigo Marshmallow. Also apparently the kids are savage af, which is both realistic (kids that age are too real) and right up my alley. Overall sounds like a good time, and though I’m trying not too expect too much, I’m wouldn’t lie if I said this was a show I’m excited for.

...So yeah. Pls don’t call the FBI. Yet.

Poputepipikku: I have nothing to say about this show. Seriously, go read the MAL description (or lack thereof) and watch the PVs, and tell me you know what this show is about.

The only basis I have is the 4-koma this is based off of, which has translations somewhere in the web as well as video adaptation things here. I guess if you want a sense of what this show is about the videos are the best way to figure that out. Basically what I get is that this show is one huge meme.

So yeah I’m super down for it. Bring it on. Absolutely no clue what it is, but sure. I like memes. The danker the better.

Saiki Kusuo no Ψ-nan 2: I’m probably less excited for this show than I should be, I admit. Towards the end of the first season, the show felt a bit stale since they added more and more new characters which made it feel like a “too many cooks” situation where it felt like they were running out of ideas with the old characters. I’m a tad worried about this second season because they’re adding even more new characters, as if we didn’t have enough in the first place. Though if there’s anything to be hopeful about, it’s that they’re keeping the format of 5 shorts a week. Definitely the better format than just a compilation episode at the end of the week.

At the end of the day though, this show made me laugh almost every episode, and that’s a rare thing nowadays (DAE sadbois). So yeah, I’m still pretty excited this got a second season and hopeful that the new characters add more depth to the show. Guess we’ll see.

Violet Evergarden: OOOH. It’s time. It’s time to be hyped, but then tell myself to keep that hype down. Because it’s here, ladies and gents. The one I’ve been waiting for ever since May 27, 2016, the day the CM came out (this one). Now is the animation going to be as good as in the CM? Hell no. But man, I’m not gonna lie: I’m super excited for this one. Like SUPER excited.

There’s a bunch of reasons for that: the biggest reason is the involvement of Kyoto Animation. I admit I’m a KyoAni fanboy: I’ve watched most of their shows and with the exception of Musaigen no Phantom World, I’ve liked all of them (and even Musaigen started getting good towards the end). Of course the animation in Violet Evergarden is going to be high quality (that’s a given), but the story is apparently top-notch as well, something a bit unprecedented with works adapted by KyoAni. Most of the LNs/manga that KyoAni adapt are... a bit lacking. From K-On to Chuunibyou to Free, all of them weren’t the best source material. Though most of them were good enough to win Honorable Mention in KyoAni’s annual light novel competition, none won the Grand Prize. And that was the case for the first few years the competition ran: no Grand Prize winners. Until Violet Evergarden won the Grand Prize. Sure says something about the LN’s story. Combine that with KyoAni’s ability to fit a source material to an anime format well, and you get the biggest hype train since One Punch Man.

But what about the plot itself? That was a mystery to me until now, and after doing some research into the story it looks like it’s about a robot/cyborg who formerly was fighting in the battlefield who now works as a “Auto Memories Doll” who “carries peoples’ thoughts and memories and converts them into words“. Apparently it’s similar to Kino’s Journey only with more drama/interesting characters (so most likely episodic). Which I’m down for since I enjoyed Kino’s Journey (well at least the old one). Also small side note: minimal romance until the end, which is fine since I think a romance subplot would distract from the main storyline.

So yeah, I’m on the hype train. But with this big of a hype train, anything less than a 9/10 would be disappointing. So to prevent that from happening, I’m trying to keep myself in check by thinking about the last time I got onto a hype train, which was Mahoutsukai no Yome. And look how well that turned out... “on hold” (though I may pick it up... 5% chance). AKA anything can happen, and because of that expectations are “low” -- but let’s be honest I’m hyped for this. Let’s go.

Yuru Camp△: Let me get the joke out of the way now: LOL DAE READ AS “YURI CAMP”?????

I’m sorry.

Anyway, if there’s one word to describe this, it’s COMFY. The best way I’ve seen this described is a combination of Non Non Biyori and Yama no Susume. And having seen both shows, I can see the maximum comfy this will provide. The plot is simple: cute girls doing cute camping. Slice-of-life + comfy + CGDCT = good stuff for this guy.

Though doing further research, there were some things that turned me off a bit. One is the following words: yuri undertones/subtext. Those two (three?) words have the potential to ruin the show, though it depends on how strong they are. If we’re talking Hibike Euphonium levels, we’re doomed. If we’re talking Love Live levels, we’re fine. Though I wish CGDCTs nowadays shouldn’t feel like they need yuri undertones, if it’s not too overbearing I can just brush it off.

Another thing that concerns me a bit is the studio handling this: C-Station, which doesn’t have the most inspiring list of shows made. Now they’ve done a few full-length shows, but I’ve never heard of them before, so it’s... unknown how they’ll be able to handle Yuru Camp.

A final, nitpicky thing is past experiences. Watching the PV made me feel comfy, something I didn’t feel since... Flying Witch. Which, while comfy, was also boring. Who knows, maybe Yuru Camp will actually have humor to it so I don’t fall asleep while watching it. But generally comfy = boring for me (with an exception being Non Non Biyori), so it’s something to be wary about for me personallly.

Though negatives aside, this show has great potential and it’s one of the handful of shows I’m excited for. Let’s get comfy.

Short Leash Shows

Citrus: Hoo boy... if I have to be honest, I’ll be super surprised if I end up finishing this show. This is one of the few times where I read the source material beforehand, so I can share my experiences and tell y’all what to expect. And let me tell you... expect this show to be bad. I know it’s being really hyped because it’s yuri, but holy melodrama Batman. Now I admit I’m not the biggest fan of yuri, and I haven’t read much works in the genre. But still... even I know there’s a lot of better works out there with the yuri, most of which haven’t gotten an anime adaptation.

There are two main problems with this show. The first is the characters. Specifically one character, the student council pres/stepsister. Her actions make absolutely no sense, and are the driving force of the questionable moments in the manga. Which brings me to the second problem: the drama, which stems from some of the weirdest problems that shouldn’t even be problems. I’d state an example, but that’s spoilers that I kinda want to avoid. This image sums up the manga well in my opinion (thanks to /r/animemes). Add the fact that the yuri isn’t even that good, and you got a dropped manga, one of the few I dropped (my manga list for reference).

With that in mind, I feel kinda bad for the people really hyped for this show. Then again, most of them are hyped for the yuri, which... I don’t blame them to be honest given the lack of good yuri anime out there. Still... have some standards y’all. Expect this show to be one of the “most disappointing” shows out there.

Darling in the FranXX: Basic facts about this anime: Trigger and A-1 Pictures are collaborating on it and it’s a mecha show. In terms of actual plot, the MAL summary is a pretty good idea of what we should expect. Because otherwise, nobody knows since this is an anime original. Looks interesting enough though, so might as well give it a few episodes and see what’s up.

Gakuen Babysitters: So this looks pretty cute. Basically we got a guy and his brother who gets taken in by a chairman of a school, later becoming the school daycare’s new babysitter. Tragic backstory aside (the guy loses both his parents), the manga is apparently diabetes-level of adorable, which I’m down for. Cute things are cute.

Hakumei to Mikochi: Small girls (9 cm tall) living small lives. That’s basically it. Such a small anime deserves a small description. So I’ll say this: looks to be comfy and laid-back. I’m about that.

Koi wa Ameagari no You ni: And here’s the winner of the “Questionable Plotline of the Season”. We got high school girl who falls in love with her 45-year old manager. AKA the problem I had with Blend S taken to the next level... you would think. But I think if the show does it tastefully, it won’t be too bad. And apparently that’s what it is: a feel good slice-of-life/romance with interesting characters. Plus the fact that it’s not the older guy being all lovey-dovey this time, which helps a lot. This should be an interesting one to keep an eye on, both in terms of the anime itself and the reception towards it.

Random side note: I honestly think it’s kinda sad when the top comments of /r/anime’s thread for the PV of this all talk about Aimer and how they’ll watch the show because of her only. Seriously... that’s some weak reasoning for watching an anime, when only a minute and a half out of 23 minutes is the thing you’re watching for. You don’t see me watching Eromanga-sensei because ClariS did the OP. Just a bit of a personal gripe.

Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san: As you can kinda tell from the title, the show’s about a girl named Koizumi who really likes ramen, and goes to various places to eat their ramen. I have no idea what to expect given there isn’t much info out there about this, but I guess I’ll expect lots of ramen to be eaten. The way this is laid out, I’m hoping it’s a short, because otherwise it’ll drag on for way too long.

Sora yori mo Tooi Basho: Next to the obvious shows like Violet Evergarden, this is the one show I’m seeing /r/anime announce as a dark horse AOTS candidate. But doing further information, I’m kinda confused as to why. It doesn’t really fit the standards of the typical show that /r/anime really loves (Made in Abyss, Houseki no Kuni, etc.) considering it looks like it’s just a CGDCT about girls going to the South Pole. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a dark turn that happens given the setting of Antarctica, nobody really knows given this is another anime original. But hey, I’m not complaining. I like CGDCTs. And this season’s got a bunch of them, like...

Slow Start: This one. Plot doesn’t reveal anything special, just about a girl who started school a year late. That’s it.

Background-wise, though, this show has good potential. Same director as GochiUsa, same magazine as a lot of CGDCT anime, etc. I’m not expecting much from this show, but there are points for it to be good.

Takunomi.: Like Osake something something from this season, we have another show about adults drinking. A 15-minute short, has potential but like the shows above I’m not expecting much.

One Shot Shows

Death March kara Hajimaru Isekai Kyousoukyoku: Holy moly, I had the biggest case of deja vu while watching the PV for this show. Just look at the MC for this show: the most generic MC I’ve seen, so generic it literally looks like the MC for that isekai smartphone show that came out a few seasons ago. Heysus Christos, what is this baloney. Seriously, compare these two: here and here. I’m honestly more impressed than anything.

Anyway, the show looks to be your standard generic isekai. Yay. My favorite.

Märchen Mädchen: It’s kind of an isekai... I don’t know, at this point I’m tired, just read the summary. I like the eyes. That’s all I really have to say about the show.

Ryuuou no Oshigoto!: Yeah the summary says it best. A moe Sangatsu no Lion, though I’m sure the only similarities it has with the show is the theme of shogi.

Sanrio Danshi: One big commercial for Sanrio characters. At least that’s the vibe I’m getting. Also shades of shounen-ai. Eh.

And that’s all for this really long post! Thanks for reading! Quick announcement: the newest version of The Week in Anime is probably gonna be delayed a few hours since I’ve been busy being on vacation (yes I’m busy even now). Apologies for that, but it should be a short post anyway since there were only three shows to watch.

Anyways, thanks again for reading, and I’ll see you in the next post very soon!

0 notes

agilenano · 4 years ago

Text

Agilenano - News: We’ve encountered several Steven Spielberg productions in past installments of this series, where Steve was able to turn his talents at producing blockbuster features toward the small screen for mini-epics in the superhero vein

His efforts are far from through, and we will have “close encounters” below with some late episodes of Tiny Toons, as well as several from his next animated showcase, Animaniacs. Also in today’s mix, a panther of odd color, a duck of odd strength, a cat of odd appetite and another of odd bad luck. Odds are, you’ll find something below to your taste. The Just-us League of Supertoons (Warner, Steven Spielberg, Tiny Toon Adventures, 9/15/92) returns Plucky Duck and Hamton Pig to their super alter-egos of Batduck and Decoy. Taking off on DC’s “Justice League”, Batduck receives a call on the hot line from Buster Bunny, alias SuperBun, informing Batduck that the Just-us League has an opening for a new member, and would he like to stop by tonight for an interview. Trying not to appear too anxious, Batduck replies he can probably pencil them in. En route, Plucky dreams of the merchandising opportunities that will come with being a League member, while Hamton dreams of fighting crime alongside the greatest heroes of all time. Plucky, having no interest in the work side of the coin, reacts to Hamton’s dream, “That’s right. Burst my bubble, you little killjoy.” They arrive at League headquarters, leaving their vehicle in the hands of parking valet Montana Max – who in reality is again Wex Wuthor, with another nefarious plan. Inside, Plucky is introduced to the other members besides Buster – Babs Bunny as amazon Wonder Babs, Beeper as Little Dasher (a parallel to the Flash), Sweetie Bird as Pink Canary, Calamity Coyote as Teen Arrow, Shirley as Hawk Loon, and Fifi La Fume as Scentanna. Buster asks what superpowers Batduck brings into the mix, and Plucky boasts of his fearsome image, marvelous gadgets – and he’s also a heck of a clog dancer. The League members lose interest quickly, having been under the impression that he possessed some genuine super power (a bit of a writing slip-up, as the inclusion already in the group of Teen Arrow would mean at least one other member relied upon gadgetry rather than super abilities). Plucky and Hamton are given a thumbs down, and placed on the reject list. Despite resorting to a little groveling, Plucky, along with Hamton, trudge dejectedly back to the parking lot. At this inopportune moment, crashing through the ceiling with a jet pack comes Wex Wuthor. The League is equally unimpressed, knowing that he has no superpowers either. Maybe not now – “But I will once I steal yours”, Wex boasts. He presses a button on his suit, and the League is caught in a stun ray. With another button, he announces that he has invented a “super power transfer thingy”, with which he will absorb the combined powers of the League to become the world’s most powerful criminal. Who should come wandering back into the hall but Plucky, stating that he forgot to get a validation on his parking ticket. Wuthor turns the stun ray on Plucky, and declares he will absorb Batduck’s powers first. Plucky receives a jolt from the second button – but as the process is completed, Wuthor falls out of the sky, and wobbles around shakily, as Buster advises him that all he absorbed were the powers of an egotistical green duck. Plucky adds, “Although no one could absorb my ego all at once”, giving Max a swift kick and landing him in a heap on the floor. The League hails Plucky as a hero, and Plucky narrates that as a result, Batduck and Decoy became “key” men in the Just-us League – in other words, the new parking valets. The Return of Batduck (12/19/92) was actually a pilot episode from the Tiny Tons spinoff, “The Plucky Duck Show” – which died quickly, as no other new episodes appear to have been produced, and the show was merely a schedule-filler compiling old Plucky cartoons from the run of the regular series. A bit too much placed into this half hour for a thorough description, but we’ll try for a flavor. Plucky has landed his own television series (much to the nearly-bored surprise of Buster and Babs), and is attempting to put on a showgirl filled musical extravaganza (though he tumbles down a tall staircase, knocks over giant statues of himself, and collides with his lead showgirl – who is actually Hamton Pig in disguise). Buster and Babs goad him in the wings with a copy of Variety, indicating that Tim Burton is casting a new Batman movie, but getting Plucky’s goat by reminding him he has his show to do instead. Plucky’s ego of course soars through the roof, realizing to himself that he’s feature material, and type-cast for the part in view of his old Batduck roles. He abandons the show and attempts to get on the Warner lot. Hamton is recruited to pose as his agent to make him look legit (though Hamton can’t get agent’s lingo right, quibbling about the improper grammar of the phrase, “Let’s do lunch.”) Little did us kids know when watching this episode that we were being introduced to a character from a series yet to come – Ralph, the security guard from “Animaniacs”, makes what is probably his debut appearance, nine months before the series premiere. As usual, he is no-nonsense about keeping the riff raff like Plucky off the lot, and wraps Plucky up in a string, then uses him as a yo-yo for various tricks, climaxing in “around the world”, as he tosses Plucky into orbit. Plucky does manage a re-entry which finally catches him up with Hamton, and together they plot how to reach Burton’s office (a dark castle shrouded in thunder and lightning on the opposite side of the lot). Plucky produces a map of the studio sewer system with which they can take an underground route to the castle. Hamton is curious where he got such a map, and Plucky points to Art Carney as Ed Norton, selling such maps in the same manner as maps to stars’ homes, with his trademark “Va Va Va Voom”. Hamton asks if there are rats in the sewer. Plucky scoffs that there are no rats, no alligators, no nothin’. At that moment, they are passed by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Plucky continues as if he were still in mid-sentence: “…to speak of!” He then breaks the fourth wall, asking the audience, “How many saw that coming?”, and a show of hands raised in front of the camera lens gives the indication, just about everybody. After a string of various celebrity encounters, Plucky finally makes it to Burton’s office. Burton is turning down another applicant, who’s got the “dark” part all right, and a snazzy costume, but just isn’t quite the type – Dracula. The sight of Plucky is enough to make his staff exit screaming, and Burton almost jump out a window, but Plucky appeals to him as a comrade, reminding Tim of his animation background. “We’re cut from the same cel.” To prove it, he zip-pans Burton to a “This is Your Life” studio, and reintroduces him to his horrific high school doodles, who take life and swarm around him. That’s all that Burton can take, and he relents to give Plucky a screen test. Plucky retrieves his and Hamton’s costumes from the old “Duck Cave” set. Hamton activates an inflate-a-duck apparatus to pump muscles into Plucky’s suit – but explodes him instead. Nevertheless, Plucky makes the screen test appointment next morning, repeatedly blowing heroic exits by swinging into walls, dangling helplessly by a plunger grappling hook from the nose of a gargoyle, and using six devices from his utility belt to suspend himself from six buildings at the same time – only to pull all of the buildings down atop himself. Yet Burton gives him the role he was auditioning for – though it’s not quite the one he expected. As Plucky pushes his way through back sets, he encounters someone too big to push – a caricature of Michael Keaton – as the real Batman. Tim welcomes him to the set, and introduces Plucky as his new stunt double! Plucky takes a licking and barely comes out ticking, and bemoans his fate. “Vanity, thy name is Plucky”, he groans, discarding his cowl, and sadly remembering that he could have been on his own show right now. Buster Bunny informs him that actually, he’s still on his own show. “What? How much time is left?”, asks a panicked Plucky. “About ten seconds”, replies Buster. Plucky climbs the tall staircase again, and attempts to resume his musical production number – but a prop mockup of the bat signal falls from the rafters and flattens him, for the iris out. No clip from BATDUCK… but here’s a rare Fox Kids promo he appears in: Pink Pink and Away (1/13/93) marks the premiere of the 1993 revival of “The Pink Panther”, and the first of a 4-episode arc returning the Panther to the role of Super Pink. Unfortunately, the writing and timing are no match for the DePatie-Freleng original, and the episode comes off surprisingly lifeless and lacking in energy or originality. Pink (in talking Matt Frewer mode) takes a few routine pratfalls battling a completely redesigned Dogfather and his mob, first in an ATM robbery, then a diamond heist from a museum. He also saves a wise-guy kid/video game whiz who almost joins the Dogfather for a life or crime, until a double-cross leaves him in the museum jewelry case as substitute weight for the stolen diamond. Pink ultimately foils the robbery by using a spear from a cave man exhibit to bring down a dinosaur skeleton on the crooks. Junior goes straight, and swears to be like Super Pink – donning a duplicate outfit – but then soars off into the sky like a real superhereo. “He’s always doing that”, says his Mom, and soars into the sky after him! Pink tries to make the same exit – and flops on the ground, scratching his head in puzzlement. Super Pink’s Egg-Cellent Adventure (10/17/93) deals with theft of a giant egg, developed to solve the world’s food shortages by a little Germanic professor from the “Super Schmarty Society”. Pink (the building janitor) witnesses the egg‘s theft by a Sumo wrestler and his ninjas, and sees “a job for Super Pink”. They trail the crooks to a chow mein shop, where Pink flies up to a roof skylight (even though the door was open all the time), using the jet power from a giant shaken cola can strapped to his back. Finding a grocery list including ingredients in humongous quantities, he and the professor tail the villains to the only place large enough to fill the order – a “Super” market. The professor attempts to help in the chase by inventing a pair of jet skates he attaches to a shopping cart. The invention goes haywire, leaving management to call for cleanup on nearly every other numbered aisle. The chase leads into a railroad train, and a fight which is seen in blackouts as the train goes through various tunnels – with the last light-up showing our heroes tied back to back. The Sumo announces he’ll show them what he has in store for the egg, and takes them to the roof of a tall skyscraper, where the ninjas place the egg teetering on the ledge of the roof landing. Below in the street, a giant bubbling bowl of liquid and equally giant place setting awaits. Pink realizes that the ingredients list adds up to – egg drop soup! The Sumo states that it is written that he who makes the biggest bowl of egg drop soup shall rulse the world. Panther yawns that he’s read that fortune cookie too. Seeing the crooks’ giant package of soy sauce, Panther whispers to the professor to give it a kick – spilling the slippery stuff on them, and allowing Pink to slip out of his bonds. The crooks are ultimately subdued, but the egg falls off the ledge, with the professor foolishly diving for it and also helplessly falling. Pink produces the professor’s jet skates and puts them on, then grabs two of the ninjas’ swords. He takes off from the roof, using the sword blades as wings, and dives under the professor and the egg, catching them on his back for the rescue. The egg is returned to the auditorium of the society – but doesn’t stay intact for further presentation, as it hatches, producing in the fashion of “Horton” a professor-bird, who runs after the professor, calling him “Daddy” with Germanic accent. “I just love happy endings”, says Panther. The End of Superpink? (10/14/93) begins in unusual artistic form, in a fight scene between Pink and villainous The Wriggler, set against backgrounds where every splash of color is seen in a wide spaced print-style dot matrix. This is because the entire incident is happening only in the pages of the “Super Pink” comic book that Pink has just finished drawing. He tries to drum up customers for the publication at a comic-book convention, but faces the challenges of the reigning super-celebrity, the towering, cleft-chinned Captain Chaos. Vying for press attention from a magazine photographer, Captain Chaos manufactures situations of peril for a junior fan’s kitty kat to stage a daring rescue – but has to deal with the interferences of Pink trying to be legitimately heroic. When Chaos throws the cat into a runaway blimp, he fires a grappling hook to scale into one of the conveyance’s gondola windows – but gets stuck in the porthole. Pink rescues both of them in complicated chain-reaction fashion, including use of a teeterboard and souvenir yo-yo to launch himself skyward to save the day – while the cat takes liberal swipes with his claws at Captain Chaos’s defenseless chin. Pink winds up the center of the magazine story, while Chaos’s only picture is of his butt sticking out of the gondola. Chaos reappears as a chef serving celebration cookies to Pink’s new fanbase, who mob him for the cookie tray. Pink shrugs his shoulders to the reporter: “He needed the work.” Power of Pink (10/29/94) goes altogether too far out. It differs from the others by actually giving Pink temporary super powers, unexplainedly drawn from another food-grow machine of the professor which without explanation instills super energy into a pickle. It also features another caped hero (Amazing Man), who actually is a giant rat in disguise, using a Superman style “Magnetic Telescope” to pull the moon closer to use its gravity to rearrange buildings into giant laboratory mazes for the humans to run. (So why is he posing as a superhero in the first instance?) None of it makes sense, and the situations lack in either cleverness or genuine laughs. Not a recommend. Eex Men (Nelvana, Eek the Cat, 10/9/93) – A completely misnamed episode, as it has nothing to do with the Marvel franchise its title infers, but is a straight Superman-style parody. The opening credits to this show often began showing Eek in a supersuit, rescuing his 300-pound girlfriend from a burning building – but barely able to lift her through the skies, and with his cape on fire from the flames. Yes, the credits were merely a dream. But this time, he gets to do it for real in the episode. Gary Owens (or a very convincing sound-alike) provides narration to give this episode special super-effect. Superpersonman is the reigning hero of the area. Receiving signals in his Bunker of Goodness of the impending approach of super villain and friend of no-one Garbage Man (a burly alien who wears a trash bag over his head), Superpersonman does what any intelligent visitor from another planet would do – telephones his girlfriend Ultra Babe for a quick getaway vacation. But before leaving with his packed suitcases, he realizes he can’t leave the city unguarded, and determines to deputize someone by passing on his cape to them, thus making them feel obligated to take the terrible beating that was intended for himself. Enter Eek, conveniently on a mountain-climbing excursion past the Bunker. Superpersonman, in slow mental spurts, improvises the lamest excuse for his departure – helping his mother get over her case of the plague – and Eek, living by his motto “It never hurts to help”, acquires the cape, and immediately falls off the mountain cliff. He lands in front of a fast food stand (“Ed’s Gopher Guts”), and the “E” falls off its sign onto Eek’s chest, providing the proper alphabetical insignia. The first sign of crime spotted by Eek is two country-bumpkin types fleeing a bank with sacks of money. (No, for once they’re not tellers or bank presidents.) Eek gives them what they deserve – advice. “Hey, you robber guys. Didn’t anyone ever tell you it’s wrong to take something that isn’t yours?” “Well, no, actually, no one ever did”, respond the robbers. Eek takes them back to the bank, and they politely apologize for the mistake, and promise they’ll never do it again. Meanwhile, Garbage Man’s ship parks in a municipal parking lot next to a football stadium. He enters the stadium and turns on a water hose to flood the stadium during a big game. He visits the governor’s mansion, and sets all the clocks an hour backwards, causing the governor to miss an inspection of an “untested and possibly faulty” nuclear power plant, which is started up without him, erupting in a mushroom cloud. Meanwhile, Eek runs into his neighbor Sharkey the shark-dog, who as usual puts the bite on Eek. But with Eek’s new powers, Sharkey’s teeth shatter like glass. He runs to Elmo Elk the dentist, and receives a steel set of dentures – which bend in all directions upon his second chomp on Eek’s paw. Sharkey returns the bent dentures, pulling them down around Elmo’s waist like a hula skirt. Eek begins to notice the effects of Garbage Man’s reign of terror, and reverses the crimes – by blowing the radioactive cloud from the nuclear plant back into a small laboratory bottle – allegedly before those runaway isotopes could have any nasty effects. The lab assistants wave a happy goodbye – although their hands have mutated into ferns. Eek next drains the football stadium dry by sucking up the water in his cheeks – then uses the water to put out the fire of a newly-erupting volcano. Garbage Man observes that Superpersonman may have grown stronger – and furrier – than the last time they did battle, and thus attempts to round-up a variety of weird and improbable minions for an invincible army. They do little to assist, as Garbage Man’s ship, with his minions inside it, is towed from the parking lot for exceeding the maximum parking limit. Eek finally meets Garbage Man, and in his usual peaceful way, asks him in the name of niceness to quit his shenanigans before someone gets hurt. Although no one’s laid a paw on him, Garbage Man cowers as if his very life had been threatened, and pretends to surrender – at least until he can reach the refuge of a getaway helicopter, from which he jeers that he will return and have vengeance. His exit is spoiled, as the copter crashes into a building. He tries it again on a bicycle – and runs into a tree. Once more he departs – on a city bus, but sticks his head out the window for one last taunt, and gets knocked cold as his head collides with a telephone pole. Superpersonman and Ultra Babe return from vacation. Eek, having no idea who Ultra Babe is, assumes she is the mother with the plague he’s been told about, and spills the beans to Ultra Babe on everything Superpersonman did. Babe, shocked that Superpersonman would burden a poor kitty with his job, tells him she’s through with him, and smacks him a super-blow, leaving him in a dazed heap. She invites Eek to Paris for a French dinner – complete with real French Fries – and the two fly off together, as she tosses Superpersonman’s rolled-up cape to the winds. The narrator indicates that it is unknown what became of the cape – but not for long, as a caped Sharkey flies into the shot, holding an American flag, to fight for truth, justice – and whatever sharkdogs fight for. The Cranial Crusader (Warner/Steven Spielberg, Animaniacs (Pinky and the Brain), 3/10/94) – This one’s a bit of a plot stretch – What makes the usually ingenious Brain think that proving himself the world’s greatest crimefighter is his ticket to getting the public to let him take over the world? Nevertheless, that’s the premise. This time, instead of Acme Labs, Pinky and Brain are kept as experimental mice in the crimefighting lab of an ersatz bat-cave, owned by that champion of justice, the Caped Opossum. Such hero leaves “calling cards” with a silhouette and his initials at each scene of his victories against the forces of evil. Though he regularly makes the 11:00 News, the news report reminds him that one arch-villain remains unthwarted �� Johnny Badnote (a mad musician, with some attributes of the Joker, but equally likely to have been inspired by the appearance of Liberace as a villain on the original Batman show – said to have brought in the highest ratings in the show’s run). Brain decides to capture this uncapturable foe, leave his own calling card to steal the spotlight from the Opossum, and become the nation’s favorite hero. Pinky, addicted to the Opossum’s comic books, claims to know everything there is to know about being a superhero – and is inducted into service as the Pink Wonder, while Brain takes on the super-identity of the Cranial Crusader. They hijack the Opossummobile and head to a shady warehouse district where Badnote’s hideout is suspected to be. From a vantage point on a high cliff, Pinky suggests using the vehicle’s prehensile tail-grappling hook device to lower the car into the valley below. They hook the tail onto a tree, and begin to lower themselves down on an attached cable. Unfortunately, Pinky has failed to notice that the cable crosses a railroad track – and an oncoming train severs it in two. Brain commands Pinky to fire reverse thruster rockets to break their fall – instead, Pinky ignites forward thrusters, accelerating the car into a crash dive – and a battered wreck. Still, Pinky manages to activate the car’s super-sniffing device (a sort of elephant’s trunk under the hood), which sucks them to the side of one of the warehouses and through the wall. It s the lair of Badnote, who shakes his head at the would-be do-gooders. “Miniature crime fighters. I’ve got to get out more often.” Badnote places the pair into a death trap – the swing of a metronome progressively pulls the pin from an egg-shaped music box which is really a grenade, designed to play a farewell tune, then explode. The explosion will be the downbeat for Badnote to play a pipe organ solo – with the pipes being missiles which will launch upon his hitting the keys, to blow up the capitols of the world. Pinky and Brain are squeezed together inside the diameter of the grenade’s firing pin. Brain is upset enough about this hopeless situation – but what peeves Pinky is that Badnote has left Pinky’s comic book below the base for the grenade, where it will be the first thing damaged by the explosion. Pinky extricates himself from the firing pin, pulling the comic book out, but toppling the grenade in the process (as well as prematurely pulling its pin). The grenade takes several bounces off various musical instruments in Badnote’s collection, then rolls directly under Badnote’s feet as he listens for his downbeat. He gets to hear it all right – in way too high fidelity. Brain pulls Pinky to safety before the explosion occurs, taking care to leave his “C.C.” calling card with his silhouette behind. As the explosion finishes off Badnote’s plans, the impact topples an ink bottle within the lair – which leaves extra blotches of ink on Brain’s calling card, transforming the silhouette into the shape of the Opossum, and the second “C” of the initials into an “O”. When the nightly news report hits, everyone thinks the Opossum was responsible for Badnote’s downfall! Brain abandons all thoughts of superherodom forever, and sets his thoughts toward planning for tomorrow night. Pinky, drawing a comic intended to document the Crusader’s exploits, pens into Brain’s dialogue balloon, “Try to take over the world”. Also from Animaniacs, Super Buttons (5/2/94) is a feature for Buttons and Mindy – a recurring segment spoofing “Lassie”-style heroic dog shows, with wonder dog Buttons laboring endlessly to keep brainless toddler Mindy out of harm’s way – and inevitably aiming all the harm at his own sorry carcass, while never getting the credit for his many rescues. (Basically, this was Spielberg’s tweak of the situations he was used to getting Baby Herman into in the Roger Rabbit cartoons – which itself was a derivative from Popeye’s many rescues of Swee’pea (consider the similarities between Roger Rabbit’s “Rollercoaster Rabbit” and Popeye’s “Thrill of Fair”.) Unfortunately, the Buttons episodes became regularly formulaic. Parents would always leave Buttons in charge of Mindy. Mindy would always be playing some mindless game in the yard, attached to a waist harness to keep her from wandering. Mama would bid her so long, and Mindy would always call her “lady” instead of Mom, ending with standard catch-phrase, “Okay, I love ya. Bye Bye.” Something would attract Mindy’s attention, causing her to get free of the harness and wander away. Buttons would follow, and be exposed to a string of perils. Mindy would find someone to ask an endless series of “Why” questions to, then leave them with her catch-phrase above, finally wandering back to the yard herself. Buttons would be found wearily returning, and get the blame for letting his guard down in watching Mindy. But Mindy would give him a hug, which was supposed to make everything all right. With so many elements identical from episode to episode, the Buttons cartoons, despite occasional clever peril gags, quickly became one of the most repetitious, and sometimes tedious, elements of the show (with the other possible runner-up of Chicken Boo, to be discussed in a later article). This attempt at a new twist doesn’t do much to push the “buttons” in a new direction. The intro is new, allowing for some parody of the Superman exposition. Everyone in the family (Buttons, Mindy, and the parents) are cast as caped superheroes, predicting the Incredibles. Buttons is first seen on a dog race track, as the narrator states, “Faster than a speeding Greyhound.” Buttons indeed passes every dog on the track – but runs head-on into a Greyhound bus traveling the other way. “More powerful than a doberman pinscher.” Button does intimidates a doberman into a dark alley – but once standing in the shadows himself, Buttons finds himself surrounded by dobermans – which is another matter altogether. The “It’s a bird, it’s a plane” bit happens again, with one addition after the crowd realizes it’s Super Buttons – “And he’s not housebroken!”, which causes the crowd to run for cover. The usual plot formula ensues, as Mom and Pop announce to Mindy that they’re taking a little time off from fighting for truth, justice, and the American way. When Mindy again calls Mom, “super-lady”, Mom questions whether Mindy has gotten into some Kryptonite. Mindy escapes her harness by expanding her chest and bursting the straps, then flies into the sky after a small bird. Buttons follows her into a storm cloud – and offers assistance by holding an umbrella over her head. A lightning bolt is attracted to the umbrella like a lightning rod, leaving blackened Buttons to fall into a trash dumpster. The rest of the gags don’t particularly fire off well, including a crossing-busy-city intersection peril where Mindy merely tosses an oncoming bus out of the way, a bank robbery unwittingly foiled by Mindy, while Buttons finds room after room of lit TNT sticks, and a City-Hall encounter with a mutant spider-person (a villain, not a hero – no treading on Marvel territory here). The standard ending, and we’re done. Arbuckle the Invincible (Film Roman, Garfield and Friends, 11/10’94) shares some plot basis with Ducktales’ “Superdoo!” discussed in a previous article. An alien spaceship provides the bauble responsible for providing Jon with super-powers. Two (or perhaps I should say one, as they are joined at the torso) aliens are dispatched to Earth on a mission (though one questions the assignment – “Did they ever get intelligent life there?”), to retrieve a sample of shredded and processed bovine tissue, strewn with aged lactile substance – in other words, a cheeseburger. Encountering a meteor shower, they engage an invisible force field deflector on the nose of their spacecraft. However, one of them turns it off just a bit too soon, as a last meteorite collides with the ship, knocking the glowing deflector orb off the ship’s nose and causing it to fall to Earth. Below, Jon is attempting to hook up a rooftop aerial to get clear reception for a big game. Garfield is sure he’ll see the game clearly – they have great reception in the hospital! He and Odie relax on chaise lounges as ringside seats to watch Jon fall. From above, the orb enters Earth’s atmosphere, and lands with a plunk in the rear pocket of Jon’s trousers. Jon is knocked off balance, and takes the predicted dive off the roof – but merely bobs along a foot or two above the ground as if floating on a cushion of air. A surprised Garfield and Odie “follow the bounding Arbuckle” to see why he isn’t a mangled wreck. Jon is as surprised as they, and announces that he suddenly feels – indestructible. Garfield insists he must have a broken something-or-other, but Jon decides to take this new power to a place where it can be best put to use – a talent agency (lifting from the Three Stooges’ “Souperman”). Unlike the Stooges, Jon successfully demonstrates his abilities to the agent, by having him break a baseball bat over Jin’s head, then drop a ten ton safe upon him, which is merely deflected to crash through the floor. Jon is signed up to perform a stunt of being run over by the railroad’s 4:15 commuter special (which always runs on time at 5:30). As the event is to be televised, Jon decides to spruce himself up – by changing his suit (a bit of the Jetsons here, too). As Jon leaves the house, with the orb still in the pocket of his other trousers, Garfueld and Odie witness the aliens slithering from their ship down the chimney. They intercept the aliens inside, who explain they are seeking their lost deflector, finding it in Jon’s bedroom. Garfield realizes the orb was the source of Jon’s power – then he and Odie perform simultaneous delayed shock takes as they remember what’s about to happen to Jon. At the railroad tracks, Jon signs autographs before the big stunt – and is surprised when the point of a fan’s pen turns out to be sharp enough to prick his finger. A bit slow on the uptake, Jon begins to suspect there may be a flaw in his powers. But it’s too late to back out, as several stagehands are already tying Jon to the tracks, and his manager claims to have already cashed an advance check. Jon struggles helplessly in his bonds, while Garfield and Odie encounter a locked gate and realize there’s no way to reach Jon in time for a rescue. Always practical, Garfield decides not to make the trip a total loss, and escorts Odie to a hamburger stand for a bite to eat. Who do they encounter inside but the aliens, sampling the “bovine tissue”. “Small planet, is it not?” say the aliens. Garfield points out Jon on the restaurant’s TV, and asks if there is any way to save him. The aliens pull out a small remote, and suggest a simple molecular dissolve. At the tracks, as the train zooms toward its target, the ropes binding Jon are suddenly disintegrated, and though the train runs over him, Jon is never touched, and emerges unharmed. In a complete plothole, just to keep Jon from becoming a financial success, the writers unexplainedly have the agent trudge through the shot, informing Jon without explaation, “You’re not getting paid”. (So what happened to the agent’s advance check?) Meanwhile, Garfield and Odie happily chow down at the hamburger stand with the alien, Garfield wishing he had an indestructible stomach, anticipating the effect a few more of these burgers will have upon him. (This episode would lead off the very last show of the Saturday morning series starring Lorenzo Music, and the show’s opening credits commemorate the event with Garfield’s last off-the-cuff comment from the corner of the screen – “After seven seasons we’ve pretty much said everything you can say in this spot.”). Super Strong Warner Siblings (Warmer/Steven Spielberg, Animaniacs, 9/9/95) – The Warner Brothers (and sister) provide a riotous and wicked sendup of then-current juvenile hero squads in “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” and “Voltron”, with a few additional elements common to other Japanese manga-style live and animated shows of the day. The show opens peaceably enough, with the Warners coming out from behind the show’s logo after the stock opening credits, and complimenting the behind-the-scenes work of their cameraman with almost winning then an Emmy – topped with rewarding him with a bag full of money, just because they’re in a good-natured mood. Far away on an alien planet, they are obseved by an evil sorceress in outlandish costume (including a crown made of a buzzard’s nest), who shouts every dialogue line with rage and non-stop syllables, even when there’s nothing particular to be angry about. (A parallel to series villainess Rita Repulsa from the Power Rangers.) She teleports a squad of ninjas to finish the Warners. Back at the lot, it’s just a typical day, as the Warners entertain a group of children with a song about serendipity. A little girl applauds them, and Yakko presents her with another sack of money. A boy next to her mildly points out, “Hey, I liked your song, too.” Yakko hands him a consolation prize of a fat-free yogurt. The ninjas materialize, and the Warners go into action. Hurtling into a series of choreographed jumps, set to a typical-sounding superhero theme song, and punctuated by repeated unison shouts of “Right”, the Warners assume defensive kung-fu positions, The ninjas fly through the air with feet outstretched in power-kick mode. The Warners respond by each pulling out giant tennis racquets, and each score a “smash” upon their respective opponents into a sound-stage wall, where a crew pasting a billboard of the show’s logo plasters the poster completely over the villains, covering them without a trace. The sorceress spouts more curses on her planet, and casts a spell to magnify a common garden insect into a massive monster. The creature begins devouring and tearing up studio buildings, and destroying others by merely stumbling into them. Meanwhile, the Warners are still busy helping mankind, addressing a meeting at the Center for Advanced Mathematics with equations that will change the world. A distress signal comes in on their Warnet-shield shaped wrist-receivers. They go into their choreography again, receive instructions from a bodyless floating hologram of Otto Von Scratchensniff in the studio psychiatric ward, and lampoon another staple of the day with characters assuming “power of” one species or another, except with odd choices. “Power of the blowfish”, shouts Yakko. “Power of the anteater“, shouts Yakko. “Power of the platypus”, chimes in Dot. They leap into the studio water tower, transforming it into a giant robot. The studio logo from the roof of a sound stage becomes a shield, while they morph a shield-shaped executive board room table into a fighting sword. Their robot battles fiercely with the giant insect, stomping through and destroying sound stage after sound stage, and setting on fire what little is left. They finally pick up the insect in an old wrestling show “helicopter spin” hold above their head, and hurl him into the side of a building, where his powers wear off and he becomes small enough for the giant robot to squash with one foot. Studio mogul Plotz appears, shouting, ”Look what you’ve done to my lot. Do you know how much it’s going to cost to rebuild it?” Rather than reach for a sack of money, Yacko hands Plotz a fat-free yogurt, and Plotz faints dead away. The Warners close with a final warning to kids to just say no to fighting giant bugs, and wave goodbye for the iris out. Superhero Huey (Universal, The Baby Huey Show, 10/21/95, Steve Loter, dir.) – Our scene opens as usual, with out “hero”, Baby Huey, watching his “hero” Buff Duck on TV. The opportunity almost arises for a direct steal from “Willoughby’s Magic Hat”, with a damsel in distress tied directly between two trains approaching in opposite directions on the same track. But Buff Duck does it the easy way, and merely lifts the damsel from the tracks in vertical flight while the trains collide. Papa Duck watches with a bit of disdain as Huey declares Buff is his “one true hero.” Papa asks, “Don’t you have any other heroes, Huey?” “Duh, Mama!”, replies Huey. Growing more expectant of a compliment himself, Papa asks, “Any others?” His ego receives a crushing downfall when Huey replies, “Casper!” “Any living, breathing heroes who happen to be related to you and are sitting right in front of you???” says Papa, his temper rising to a boiling point. “Duh, nope”, relies his dense son. An ad for a Buff Duck super costume inspires Huey to assemble his own super-outfit out of a pollowcase and red flannels, dubbing himself Super Huey. (Cleverly, his “H” insignia on his chest is a shape duplicate of the familiar Harveytoons “H” logo.) Mama reminds Papa that Huey can’t wander off alone to fight crime, so suggests a begrudging Papa spend some quality time with his son. Huey decides Papa can be his “kickside” – Mallard Boy. He converts Pop into costume by ripping his trousers off, leaving him in polka-dotted shorts, then tying a cape on him and slamming a cooking pot on his head for a helmet. Huey searches the backyard. “Hey, crime! Come out, come out, wherever you are.” He spots a kitten stuck in a tree. To keep Huey out of danger in the tree, Papa volunteers for the task. He corners the kitten on a tree limb, when Huey intervenes by bending the end of the limb down, and lifting the cat off to safety. Of course, Papa is still on the limb as Huey allows it to spring back into shape. Papa is catapulted into orbit around the globe about 3 revolurions, and comes down in the middle of an arena with banner reading “Reporter’s Convention”, where he lands face first buried waste deep in the ground, while everyone snaps his picture, making headlines reading “Duck Butt From Mars.” Huey’s next deed of good-doing is to help an old lady across the street. However, as Huey isn’t old enough to cross streets himself, Papa again has to volunteer. He gets halfway into the intersection, and finds traffic so fierce, he climbs aboard the old lady’s shoulders to cower in fear. Huey provides his own super-strength solution, by lifting one end of the asphault strip of crosswalk clear off of the ground, then flipping it like a carpet, allowing Papa and the old lady to ride on the crest of a concrete wave to the opposite corner. The lady lands safe – while Papa again winds up face-deep in the sidewalk upside down – with more reporters taking pictures. Papa’s had enough, and is about to break the news to Huey that superheroes aren’t real, when Heuy spots a helpless snail slowly crossing the tracks in front of a speeding train. This is a job too dangerous even for Mallard Boy, let alone Huey, and Papa tells him to forget it, as there’s no hope for that snail. As he speaks, a railroad crossing gate abruptly lowers, smashing Papa into the ground again (at least head-up this time). Unable to stop his son, he watches helplessly as Huey steps onto the tracks, and strikes a heroic pose with one hand outstretched to stop the train. The scene is nicely played for drama, rapidly intercutting between the speeding train, brave Huey, and sweating Papa. Of course, being the super-strong lummox he was born to be, Huey succeeds in holding the train motionless, picking up the snail from the tracks with his other hand, Papa extricates himself from the ground, runs to the scene, and orders Huey to get away from that train. “Okay, Papa. Hold my snail”, replies obedient Huey. As he is handed the snail, Papa sees the shadow of the train about to be let loose looming over him, and knows where this is going. CRUSH! Papa is flattened, but his hand holds the snail up out of danger. Huey makes the headlines, and receives a hero’s parade, together with Papa in partial traction. Holding the snail in one hand, Papa asks his son, “So, Huey, who’s Buff now?” Before he can receive his belated compliment, he forgets what he is holding in his hand, closing his palm, and crushes the snail into a gooey mess, splatterings from which coat the camera lens to black out the scene. However, we continue to hear Huey’s voice, finally saying, “You are, Papa!” More ducks next week, plus some more exotic species, including a meerkat, beavers, a catgog, and even a giant chicken, just in time for Thanksgiving! The post Reign of the Supertoons (Part 7) appeared first on . #BabyHuey #TinyToons #PinkPanther #AnimationTrails

Agilenano - News from Agilenano from shopsnetwork (4 sites) https://agilenano.com/blogs/news/we-ve-encountered-several-steven-spielberg-productions-in-past-installments-of-this-series-where-steve-was-able-to-turn-his-talents-at-producing-blockbuster-features-toward-the-small-screen-for-mini-epics-in-the-superhero-vein

0 notes