#Gambit Part 2 Review

[homestuckreplay]

Prankster's Gambit: Alien Edition

Well, there was no Homestuck update yesterday, but I did watch Mac and Me, so that was basically a double hit of bad things. This movie sucks ass. If you are looking for a bad movie to watch with friends and make fun of, I would recommend it, but there is literally no other reason to watch this movie. 

Unless you are John Egbert, I guess - and I would LOVE to hear what he likes about this movie. My guess is that 1) he really wants to meet a friendly alien, and 2) he respects that this specific alien has the prankster’s gambit. Similar to Ghostbusters, where John loves the ghost who just eats food and hangs out with humans, John can totally imagine himself in Eric’s shoes - hanging out with Mac and befriending him even when other people are scared of him. 

I also wonder if John wishes he had a sibling. As a kid in the 2000s, other kids in his neighborhood probably don’t play outside. The idea of sharing his house with someone who’s more on his level, where they can mutually prank each other and share solidarity against his dad must be really appealing to him. (On p.92, we learn that ‘DAD will enjoy the prankster's gambit on that exchange, as is usually the case.’ John would love a more even stakes, equal opportunity prankster’s gambit with a sibling and/or alien).

All three of John’s movies so far have dealt really heavily with family, but this is the first that’s about siblings. John’s mom has never been mentioned, and I’d guess she hasn’t been around since John was really young, and that’s why John doesn’t have any siblings (at least not that live with him, depending on what happened to his mom). His dad either doesn’t want to remarry, is too busy clowning, or wants to focus on spending time with his son instead of going out on dates.

There’s also 3) Mac is the character John relates to. Mac is an alien kid who finds himself dropped in a suburban neighborhood and has to learn the ‘rules’ of living in it, despite being wanted by the government. I don’t think John is literally an alien or wanted by the government, but I can see how he’d relate if he feels like he’s struggling to fit into ‘normal’ life, and is scared of the consequences if he fails to do so. The movie ends with Mac and his family just becoming a very normal American family, driving a car and drinking Cokes, seemingly accepted by everyone else as part of the neighborhood. John wishes it would be so easy to fit in.

SPEAKING OF THE COKES. These aliens are constantly drinking Coke, and I know it’s product placement, but I was so worried about them the whole way through. That cannot be good for them. They must have completely different digestive systems and sustenance needs than humans do! When Mac ‘didn’t feel so good’ I was like, yeah, all you put in your body is Coke! These aliens need a doctor, or a nutritionist, or some sort of…. ectoBiologist?

Final thoughts: I think John’s dad also showed him E.T., and John’s review was ‘this isn’t as good as Mac and Me’.

MOVIES WATCHED: 3/11

MOST RECENT MOVIE: Mac and Me (1988) - Rating 2/10

[canmom]

Animation Night 169: Sex. 2.

So. Storytime.

Two years ago, we had a joke. "We should totally show some hentai on Animation Night 69." we said. Having said that, we were honour-bound to totally commit to the bit. Teaming up with @mogsk, I wrote a massive post on sexuality in animation and the history of 'hentai', from the hentai seiyoku discussed in 20th-century sexology journals to the modern subcultural kaleidoscope.

It is, genuinely, one of my favourite posts I ever wrote in this project. It's definitely not perfect - the sections on BL and the lolicon boom are especially weak, but still! There's no way I'm beating that.

Mogs, meanwhile assembled a perfectly pitched playlist of animation dealing with the theme of sexuality, from classic oldschool BL like Kaze to Ki no Uta to charming little comedies like Oruchuban Ebichu, and a scattering of actual h-anime like Weather Report Girl. For my part, I led with the genuinely classic film Kanashimi no Belladonna (Belladonna of Sadness).

So somehow - somehow! - we managed to make the idea of getting together with your online friends to watch a bunch of anime about sex just... plain fun and uplifting, to the point that @footsteps-on-the-dance-floor will tell me years later how much she enjoyed it. Not to mention, we got a pretty good cross-section of the different dimensions of sexuality in animation as well!

I didn't even get banned on Twitch.

This week, the counter has drawn the sex number. So can we do it again? Well, my friends, we're gonna try~ Tonight, @mogsk and canmom present: the long-awaited sequel to sex. Sex, 2.

This time we're narrowing our focus a bit. One of the distinctive elements of eromanga, by the analysis of Kimi Rito in The History of Hentai Manga, is how particular images get encoded as signs that can be reused by other mangaka, and these signs can become the seed for particular subgenres. So, our selection tonight is in part designed to give a brief cross-section of some of these visual tropes.

So let me introduce you to our program. CWs: sex, obviously; also a couple of these films (Cleopatra, Parade Parade) cw for rape. Here's the programme, read on for brief descriptions of each item and a lil cultural context~!

Cleopatra (1970) - oldschool Tezuka weirdness

Boku no Sexual Harassment (1994-5) - 90s salaryman BL

Interspecies Reviewers (2020) - monstergirl sex comedy, and an instance of the trend of recent cable TV h-anime

Agent Aika (1997-9) - panty shots to the most ludicrous degree

Comical Psychosomatic Medicine (2015) - ONA comedy framed as fetish education

Parade Parade (1996) - futanari + yuri

Golden Boy (1995-6) - 90s sakuga and a classic comedy

Queen's Blade (2009) - kyonyuu

Colorful (1999) - panty-centric comedy skits

after that: if you still have energy, I might take requests~

[n.b. a lot of these are TV series - we will only really be getting a 1-2 episode sample of each one, for runtime's sake.]

Cleopatra (クレオパトラ), 1970

Last time we led with certified classic, genuinely moving and good as hell film Belladonna of Sadness. This was part of a last gambit by the struggling Mushi Productions, the studio of Osamu Tezuka, credited with inventing TV anime back in the day with Astro Boy. Long before there would be such a thing as an h-anime subculture, Tezuka experimented with creating erotic animated films based on history and mythology.

Belladonna is the best remembered of the three, and with good reason. Tezuka was largely not involved by this point. The others, though... are some plain fucking weird movies, I'll tell you that much. So tonight we'll be watching Cleopatra (1970). I may have shown you the trailer before - this is the Caesar trampoline movie. That is only the beginning.

I recently finished reading Osamu Tezuka's manga Ayako, written in 1972-1973 - not long after this movie, actually, during Tezuka's gekiga phase. I'm sure it's common knowledge by now, but Tezuka was one horny old guy! Ayako has all manner of skulduggery: incest, murder, gangster stuff, more murder, etc., but the core story is about a girl who is imprisoned in an underground cell for 20-some years by the machinations of her family. As she grows up, she ends up in an incestuous relationship with her protective brother - and once she finally escapes, she is highly agoraphobic but also throws herself at nearly every man she meets.

It's very much a story of the sins of the past echoing down into the future, shot though with post-war history and gangster movies, but its central fixation is the figure of Ayako herself: the soft cloistered object of obsession and attraction. Whether they want to protect Ayako, seek absolution from her, fuck her, or exploit her.

But it's also in places a really wacky manga, with a lot of very comical contrivances or hyper-cartoonish panels with extreme squash and stretch. It's a completely different way of displaying action.

I think this gives me a sense of the sort of wavelength Tezuka was on when he draws a scene where Cleopatra is tied down by stakes and a bunch of guys line up to rape her while she shouts at them defiantly. It's all very theatrical, a huge contrast to the much more internally oriented Belladonna. Just a plain strange movie, but it's one I've been fascinated to watch for ages.

Whatever we make of Cleopatra, we'll jump into the program that Mogs drew up! Once again she's come through magnificently.

My Sexual Harassment (僕のセクシャルハラスメント), 1995-6

Our next act is some old school yaoi! One day I'll get to do that big effortpost on the history of BL, but not this day. In any case, Boku no Sexual Harassment is an OVA from the mid 90s about a young man called Junya Mochizuki trying to fuck his way up the company ranks for the sake of himself and his partner Kazunori Honma. In particular, he has an affair with his boss, Mr. Honma, running across the whole OVA.

This is perhaps best known for an infamous scene involving corn. It's here as a window into this period of BL - not quite as high-mindedly aesthetic as its 80s predecessors, and with its erotic focus being on like... 90s salarymen, which is quite a specific thing!

Interspecies Reviewers (異種族レビュアーズ), 2020

Next, a series which has the dubious distinction of proving too steamy for Crunchyroll. Interspecies Reviewers enters the general milieu of modern videogame-inflected fantasy anime, a comedy dancing along the line of whether it's too overtly porn to air on TV. The story tells of a group of fantasy characters who are the clients of monstergirl sex workers, hoping to encounter as many different species as possible. This is a frame device for a series of episodes focused around what it would be like to have sex with various kinds of monstergirl.

This is an example of a recent trend in TV anime, namely very overtly sexual cable TV anime such as High School DxD, which have in a way come to fill the gap left by OVAs. This is a niche that also includes the likes of Goblin Slayer and Redo of Healer. In contrast to those series' "big grimdark plot with a side of rape" approach, Reviewers is light-hearted fantasy sex comedy mixed with (if you live in China) a certain amount of actual porn, which fansubbers have kindly spliced back in to the censored release for us.

Agent Aika (AIKa), 1997-9

The panty shot is one of the more popular visual tropes in eromanga, to the point that Even a Monkey Can Draw Manga dedicates a whole two page spread to the history of the trope. (Surprisingly, I can't find any more substantial account in Kimi Rito's History of Hentai Manga).

You'll see it often enough in anime, overtly or subtly, and certainly in the early works of Katsuhiko Nishijima, who debuted in 1986 with Project A-ko, a classic Kanada-inflected OVA that still bears signs of its hentai roots. But there is nothing that takes the panty shot to the same extreme as Agent Aika (1997). The degree to which the camera in this action anime contrives to show panties at a machinegun rate... it crosses over into a level where it feels less like outright fetish material and more like experimental art.

This is a series that is only coherent through the erotic focus. And yet, it's not generally categorised as porn. Nobody actually fucks. Lines are very arbitrary...

Comical Psychosomatic Medicine (アニメで分かる心療内科), 2015

This ONA adapts a gag manga series themed around the idea of an education series on fetishes, paraphilias, and so on - not so different in concept from Peepoodoo and the Super Fuck Friends, from the sound of it! The ONA is produced by Shin-Ei Animation, a venerable studio known for beloved characters like Doraemon; it's a bunch of five minute bite-sized chunks which I plan to sprinkle in between the other stuff we watch as a palate cleanser.

Parade Parade (パレードパレード), 1996

Having warmed you up sufficiently, this is the point in the evening where we pull out the futa porn.

Parade Parade is an OVA by the studio Pink Pineapple, one of the giants of the 90s erotic OVA scene - I wrote about them a bit last time. It's a relatively "tasteful" example of the futanari (二形) trope, literally 'two forms', referring to basically a character with a mostly cis woman-typical body except for a penis (generally in addition to a vulva), which she will typically use in penetrative sex. This is typically represented as either the result of magic, an intersex condition, or just a fantasy world where it's not unusual.

Depending on your subcultural corner, this might be further distinguished from other niche variants of dickgirl (e.g. a futa must have both sets of genitals).

In anime and manga, the futa trope apparently traces back to the introduction of American trans porn magazines to Japan, inspiring mangaka such as Kitamimaki Kei to start drawing futanari characters. Futanari manga first spread through dōjinshi in the 80s, and became popular in eromanga in the 90s, before circling back to the West. So actually yeah I guess this one is on us trans girls! I always assumed it was like, an independent invention. The more you know...

Here we have succesful idol Kaori, who's secretly intersex - and only her girlfriend Yuko knows. She's very careful to let nobody know, for the sake of her career, but a rival lesbian idol is about to find out...

Golden Boy (1995-6)

Now here is a true classic.

Golden Boy is a comedy series about a wanderer named Kintaro, who dropped out of uni to travel around Japan getting into sexual escapades. Each episode, he runs into someone and hopefully falls for them while coming across as an idiot pervert, but gradually reveals that he's actually a decent and resourceful guy - and yet, having found love, there will always be a reason he must move on. A setup to hang all sorts of plots, carried by some honestly unreasonably impressive animation from the realist school, most notably Mitsuo Iso. It's just... very very well done.

The above clip did the rounds on here a while ago (I think maybe the dubbed version), and we will indeed be watching episode 4 to put that in context.

Queen's Blade (2009)

So this is a studio ARMS OVA - the guys who did stuff like Mezzo Forte with Yasuomi Umetsu - a fantasy story about a warrior tournament. But for our purposes it's standing in for the 巨乳 kyonyuu subgenre - meaning 'huge boobs'. So if you wanna do the meme in Japanese, that's the word you need.

This has a rather specific history in eromanga, recounted by Kimi Rito in The History of Hentai Manga. Per Rito, the popularity of the term dates back specifically to 1989, where it was used to promote porn star Kimiko Matsuzaka, as well as Western gravure porn magazines. Gradually displacing other terms like 'D-cup', the onomatopoeic ボイン boin and portmanteau デカパイdekapai, kyonyuu soon became cemented as the term for a type of character design. It grew in popularity in the space opened up by the bishōjo genre established by the lolicon boom.

So under the pen of mangaka like Kei Keitamimaki (him again!), designs with massively exaggerated boobs became very popular, defining a subgenre of their own. Artists would sometimes express anxiety over whether they would be 'allowed' to draw such extreme designs, but it became widespread in seinen magazines. Gradually, these genre boundaries dissolved and boob size started to become a symbol of characterisation.

Queen's Blade is a fairly longrunning series but as far as I understand, it's broadly a silly ecchi anime about women with very large boobs fighting to become queen. It's not the most comical example of this trope necessarily (nothing can really beat High School of the Dead's supersonic bullet dodging tits) but it's pretty up there.

Colorful, 1999

Colorful is a comedy series of brief (~7 minute) skits about boys trying to see panties and suffering many consequences. As a late 90s anime it's got some interesting stylstic Y2K stuff - look at that rotoscope clip! - as well as strong animation from people like Norio Matsumoto of Naruto fame.

So!

Mogs's encylopedic knowledge of weird obscure horny anime once again coming to the rescue: I'm fascinated to see where this night will take us. And whether I'll still have a Twitch account tomorrow.

I realise this is a much later start than we'd like with such a big programme, but I hope you will come join me for some weirdly educational sexy animation! Dip in and out or stay for the whole programme, the choice is yours - see you at twitch.tv/canmom, going live now, programme starts in about 30 minutes at 22:30 UK time!

Animation Night 169 is gonna be a little postponed - we'll be going at 7pm UK time on Tuesday (29 August) at twitch.tv/canmom! Hope to see you there! I will try to write a little more interesting info as we lead up to that~

[aerithium]

Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit Review!

Spoilers Ahead!

★ Score: 8.5/10 ★ Date Finished: September 8th, 2024 ★ Final Thoughts: Another amazing installment into the Ace Attorney franchise. I was nervous about this game because its direct predecessor is kind of just average in comparison to other entries. But this game really shines through by the end. The first and second cases aren't anything to write home about at a surface level. They come off as vaguely unimportant and boring at certain moments, but they drop multiple hints that more is at play for this overall story. The third case makes things more interesting, playing as Gregory is a fun twist and coordinating the past case to the one Miles is currently working on is clever. At times it would get confusing due to various switches between perspective and a few things looking identical for very logical reasons. Regardless, the game does well enough to make sure the player has a good understand of all that is transpiring before them. The fourth case was probably my favorite in the game, yes its your typical "important supporting character get amnesia" but what can I say its typical for a reason. The game plants seeds of an overarching force at play during previous parts of the game, but these are when they really start to sprout. Finally the last case is when these sprouts bloom and everything unfolds in front of you. The last case can also be hard to follow at times, there is so much going on that its easy to get lost or confused but it all makes sense in the end. This case holds a lot of interesting reveals and plot twist, I was completely hooked. This game does some amazing character work, probably some of the best in the series. There are so many genuinely complex characters in this game, with Edgeworth finally facing a true choice on his path as a prosecutor, Courtney's slow transition from your opponent to a great ally as her intentions come to light, Sebastian Debeste finally finding his own feet and standing up against his ass-hat father, and lastly Simon Keyes being the grand reveal at the end and playing the villain really damn well (in a reveal I can only hope surprised others more than me lol). The music in this game is also fucking great, probably some of my favorite tracks are in here.. but at the same time there are a few that are a little harsh on the ears, but it balances out. I am glad this game is finally out by legal means in the US but I think there is really something special about getting to experience the fan translation, there is a lot of community love put into this game and you can tell.

[whomstwedointheshadows]

Hello, yes you Nandermo shippers, would you like to come along to delulu land?

I have some thoughts on the clickbaitiness of Paul Simms. Reading the transcript of the Nandermo moment (all hail @kyrilu for doing the damn thing on our behalf) and there’s two follow up segments to frame the Nandermo comment from a PR/fuck-around option.

1) the Kiss card was brought up by the interviewer, seemingly pulling the writer ms back to the topic of the panel, segueing to important, pre-planned questions.

I’m not sure where the information about the existence of Nandor+Guillermo+Kiss was first published. Regardless, this had to be a pre-cleared question. Behind the scenes, these media panels absolutely clear questions and topics in advance.

2) Vulture is posting reviews and materials very, very shippy of Nandermo. This was the ship friendliest possible room full of media explicitly gathered to drum up buzz for the new season. It wasn’t a random instagram stream about their writing process. The interviewer confirms the infidelity theme-then there’s going to be some backtracking to make it ‘sooo not sexual’ - the headline is not ‘Nandermo Infidelity Cofirmed’ now it’s ‘That Moment Wasn’t Sexual’

[sidebar: I have no idea how the strikes affected the usual publicity cycle and what impact that has on numbers, other than it definitely did. I would imagine those conversations and reactions to their ‘material’ has some sway/inspiration over the next season, from a producing standpoint or the general glee of a creator reading responses. It’s incredibly fortunate for the show there was already a season in process to come back and make due to the two season renewal. At the time of planning this panel it was not known when the actors strike would end, which I imagine changes the plan for promo cycles, especially one they were already adapting. My guess is the season 5 actors promo was completed based on our media, but any ‘soft power’ that comes from writers work/networking/teasing was altered. We missed anything they planned/reacted/tweeted while the show was airing. TLDR: this panel is coming after a long period of not rattling sabers from the writers.]

I put all of this here to say, as much as I don’t know about the business-side of show business, everyone was explicitly in that room to generate media and attention and demand for the show. That’s the actual point of the event, which absolutely has an impact on word choice. They’re comedy writers, with a flair for dramatic also doing the business part with a streak of evil teasing their audience.

Alrighty, foundation established, the big question and the Best Fan Interjection:

I salute you, sassy audience.

3) The WORDS

Word choice: hook-up

Does ‘the greatest romance on television’ have a one-off hook up, or does it get wrapped in plot and Have Significance and Pay-Off for all of the tension? What’s the most entertaining way in service of the show that’s worth losing the Will-they-Won’t-they dynamic? Can they subvert expectations in a way that makes the writers feel smart and like they’ve spent years building it is worth the investment from the audience? I have theories about A Secret Third Thing for absurdity being the direction they prefer on wwdits. It’s got be a big gambit to land to anyone’s satisfaction.

For an in character analysis of the infidelity not being sexual- I’m just going to put the concept of ‘honor’ and what being a familiar is in vampiric society, that this interpretation is absolutely fair as a breach of trust between Nandor and Guillermo. This response reads as truthful about that specific plot line ignoring everything fucking sexual about vampires, vows and penetration. Yes, he’s right- they didn’t fuck nasty on camera, it was just an intimate betrayal that maps really well giving someone you admire power over you, but realizing what they think is best for you, best for them, and what you want are all different things. That’s another story specific to this plotline. Also super common in anti-sitcom divorce tropes.

Would there be an entertaining story if Nandermo went all-in right now, for these characters? Or would it erase development and stagnate in a hierarchy?

I do think writers feel a responsibility to their stories and their audiences, even if the audience doesn’t like parts. I think WWDITS is a very smart show that loves/hates vampires and sitcoms, and it is always going to choose the highest setting on the dial for dark comedy on a subverted sitcom trope, which means while it can be an absolute riot with horrendous implications so it has to pull back enough for the next episode to be in the format with a new conceit.

There’s toxic co-dependent idiots Nandermo, and then there’s cruel, abusive, worst impulses working against each other being explicit, which kills the heart of the show.

4) What’s the Job?

WWDITS Audience: I don’t think the writers actually think it’s a little group of queer fans getting over invested on Nandermo. In fact, I think they are aware of the past Queerbaiting Sins of Network Television based on their serious storylines for queer characters. I think the archetypes and themes of the show specifically court that audience, and each season has only been more to those tastes by laying a solid foundation to explore what hasn’t been the focus of storytelling in the past. I think writers are a tricksy bunch and they’ve got a team who takes the dynamics seriously enough to tell the story of getting to a better place for the characters and entertainment. Hell, there’s a writer from Frasier on the panel who talks about slow burns.

Knowing that shipping has a long history, everyone is absolutely working from previous playbooks on how to tease and shape a story.

Even if a ship goes canon, absolutely no one is going to confirm it before it happens.

[Trickster storytellers, those liars, always wanting us to see their work unfold rather than spoil the ending. Even when they foreshadow or use dread, it’s just so they can feel smart about their lies when we look back, damn writers, emotional vampires. ]

While I shouldn’t underestimate the power of a straight white guy to mansplain some homophobic spice to ‘deeper than sex’ queerness, looking at the media of the actual show, the romantic ship framing is not in question. I’m of the persuasion it’s been great queer representation by having complex queer characters with varied ambitions and obstacles, often their choices driving the story for comedic/dramatic effect, of very selfish, horrible people.

That established, especially because the show has increasingly grown to be more visibly queer, the characters also have to be compelling to watch in their individual journeys even if a ship goes canon. However, no one would be satisfied if the fulfillment of a Nandermo ship was at the cost of the whole household or the characters themselves. The ‘Sunrise, Sunset’ and ‘No One Ever Really Dies in Shadows’ principles lead to an educated guess even if Nandermo becomes canon and carry their own plotlines, the episodes of the show are still going to be the dark, twisted ensemble shenanigans with sucker punches of heart. We love our djinn-curses in the narrative.

So, if ‘you don’t want what you think you want’ has relevance, I see it as these characters are not at their most compelling to get together-yet, as individuals or in the narrative of what the show wants to tell. That relationship wouldn’t be fulfilling or funny or fair- not that the characters deserve happy endings or an easy road, but to the journey of accepting and receiving love as part of the theme, seeing the love that matters/already exists ties into the conflicts around immortality/meaning. Haven’t we Good Omens fans learned that a kiss is not always the kiss we want?

For a Nandor in Space perspective, central to the vampire in western culture are themes of love/cruelty, class consciousness, the erotic other, transformation/stagnation/decay, inescapable time, the beast beneath the human face, inescapable temptation/indulgence, and cost/callousness of piety.

That’s some inherently kinky romantic shit right there, that necessitates crossing boundaries and abandoning norms. Even if the journey is actually murder-accessory to get what I want at all costs to this guy’s shampoo makes me realize this is a boundary I will not cross today because it reminds me of my own humanity.

[bloodpen-to-paper]

Review Blurbs: Deadpool and Wolverine

Is this late as shit? Yes. Am I sorry? Yes. Is there a point to this part of the post? Probably not.

--General Thoughts--

-If there's one thing Deadpool does best, its their music montage openers. I was jamming out so hard to the "Bye Bye Bye" sequence, it's the best gag of the DP movies imo

-Aspect of the movie I didn't think I'd like as much as I did was the music score. Both the featured songs and most surprisingly the original score were hype (big budget productions like MCU works aren't really known for their soundtracks save for central themes and they haven't been getting me as much since Portals in Endgame, but the LFG theme absolutely fucks). Props to DP for always going out of its way to do fun stuff with the scores like with Holy Shit Balls in DP 2

-It warmed my heart when all the people Wade had met were there for his surprise party. And how he carried their picture and said he only had 9 people in his life but those 9 people were his world. Most emotional part of the movie for me personally

-Bringing in Johnny Storm instead of Cap was fucking genius. When he said "flame on" and shot into the air just like the old days? 10/10 Welcome back Mr. Storm

-I was tweaking the hell out when Elektra, Blade, Gambit and Laura came in omg I don't care if its lazy fan pandering I'm the fan being pandered to and I fucking love character cameos (fuck Twitter for spoiling the Gambit cameo for me but at least the rest were a surprise)

-Blade going "there's only one Blade and will only ever be one" and DP looking straight into the camera... nice (Blade is getting a movie in 2025 for those who didn't know)

-Someone on the Deadpool writer's team really likes Juggernaut. Like really likes Juggernaut. Good for them

-I'm wondering how many people were confused by the appearance of Lady Deadpool (never in all my years did I think we'd get her on the big screen, hell yeah)

-The storyline was more consistent and interesting than I thought it would be, DP fucking around with the TVA and the Void was not something I expected (and him using the "worst" Wolverine to save his timeline was actually really sweet and a compelling plot point for this new Logan)

-The humor was also great, my expectations for Marvel works have been pretty low for a while so this really was an awesome surprise for how much I enjoyed it

-I hate retcons unless there's a really damn good reason so I'm glad they kept that the Logan Wolverine is dead (the bit of DP finding his skeleton and throwing a tantrum was great)

-There were issues with some of the emotional beats but the ones that hit really had that Marvel touch that I've missed, especially when Nova was in Logan's mind and suddenly made the voices in his head cut off into dead silence, I got chills (very Multiverse of Madness-esque, I loved it)

-I've seen people shouting it out and yeah they're right, we finally got practical effects! I'm glad the movie committed to costuming and practical effects instead of CGI (CGI can be great but Marvel has really been lacking). And eventually Wolverine's classic suit actually grew on me, the yellow from him and DP's red compliment each other really well visually (long live the ketchup and mustard duo)

-"You got the wrong guy" "You were always the wrong guy... 'till you weren't" god this line... this is what I expect out of a Wolverine plotline, and it shows how much of an influence Logan had on Laura. This really felt like a love letter to Wolverine

-I love Jennifer Garner and I'm so glad she got to play Elektra and give a proper homage to the character, as well as Tatum's Gambit and the og Blade (you don't understand I am obsessed with this Elektra what is it about Marvel girls in red help me)

-Also adored them getting Wesley Snipes back for Blade to pay him homage, his performance really felt like a man out of time when he played Blade exactly as he did in 1998, and it gave a certain nostalgic feeling even for someone like me who didn't watch the og Blade (I believe the word is "anemoia"). Hard to describe but it felt special, you don't get the chance to pull off something like this in cinema too often and I'm very happy they pulled it off here

-The actors knocked it out of the fucking park. I forgot how much I loved Ryan Reynold's DP since it isn't always comic accurate but holy shit this movie made me fall in love all over again, and Hugh Jackman killed it as always (the scene where he put his head up to Wade's gun was phenomenal). Chris Evans' Johnny Storm was almost jarring from how long its been since he was cemented as Captain America lmao but the man's still got it, Rob Delaney as Mr. Paradox was very fun to watch, Emma Corrin had an insane amount of facial control for Cassandra Nova, and Jennifer Garner actually stole my fucking heart with Elektra

-LAURAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. I love Laura Kinney so much holy shit was I happy to see her here. They did her so well, she's matured a lot and was wise enough to get through to Logan and tell him what he needed to hear, while also being just as aggressively feral in combat as she was in Logan because who is Laura Kinney if not someone who shouts war cries before slicing a dude's ankles off? (and the sunglasses, girl I hadn't even thought about those). The details show how much care they put into paying homage to Laura and doing her justice, probably the best written character in the movie for me next to the literal main characters. She was different, and grown up, but still so Laura, the same rowdy kid we loved in Logan. So happy to see my not-so-little devil child back in action <3

-The car scene.

-Genuinely curious about the increase in search results for the Honda Odyssey and if sales were affected after this movie, if anyone finds that data get back to me

-The scene where Wade meets Dogpool/Mary Puppins and she's licking his mouth and you think he's allowing it cause he's distracted and then a moment later he opens his mouth more and you realize he's very aware there is a dog shoving its tongue in his mouth and he lets it happen cause he's a goddamn freak while keeping eye contact with Nicepool the entire time had me fucking cackling (its some gross humor that hits for me)

-DP introducing Logan all nervously to Blind Al was... an interesting choice. Very heterosexual of them.

-Deadpool throwing in an "I'm genderblind" joke went over so many people's heads

-The credits montage was so damn sweet. For some reason the MCU seems to hate the X-Men and the clips made me feel like the people behind this movie really cared for the old Marvel properties (Elektra, Blade, and especially the X-Men). It got me when they started showing Fantastic Four, X-Men and First Class BTS footage, those were some of the first Marvel movies I ever watched and First Class was what really got me into the X-Men, it made me really happy seeing flashes of it all <3

-The MCU will never be Earth-616 GIVE IT UP FEIGE

--Criticisms--

-Tonally and structurally, the movie was kind of all over the place (not horrifically so, but the structure definitely could've been better). They put a lot of time into character cameos, some of which weren't necessary (sorry Sabretooth)

-Certain emotional moments would abruptly cut off into the next scene and it was very jarring (the moment when DP is pouring his heart to Logan at the TVA felt rushed, as did multiple other moments)

-They ran the meta jokes into the fucking ground, I would've made them more sparse so it didn't lose its flavor. I love a good fourth wall break but they overdid it (DP headbutting the camera and the withered remains of the Fox logo were great bits, but after that the jokes kept happening and it lost its effect)

-Nicepool was... meh. Felt like his bit overstayed its welcome and then I was just bored (though I did laugh at "The Proposal")

-I realize the humor parts that didn't hit for me were when the movie overdid a certain bit, if they kept it in moderation it would've landed better for people who aren't the biggest on DP's style of humor imo. Not all the humor hit for me, but more of it hit than I expected so cheers to that

-Some of the fight choreography felt a bit bland, and others were hard to keep track of cause of how fast-paced it was. Thankfully there were multiple fight scenes and some were great so it wasn't the worst issue, but this is a Marvel action movie so it does stand out to me when its off

-Gambit felt off to me and I think its cause Channing Tatum was so focused on getting the Cajun accent down his acting was a bit stiff, no hate to him cause that shit's hard but its a lesson in how putting on accents can really affect your acting ability (British actors who do other accents have to study and practice for years)

-Cassandra Nova was... interesting. Not sure why Marvel leaned so goddamn hard into the "creepy woman who eerily taunts you" trope because that very much is a trope and it can be very annoying (*cough cough* male writers *cough cough*). She was most fascinating when she acted like an actual person and outside of that she felt very tropey, I would've wanted more personality

-In lieu of the above, I was heavily disappointed with how Cassandra's arc went. When she let DP and Logan go and got the info from Pyro about the Time Rippers, I really thought they were building her up to be a big villain down the line (and we'd see her in other MCU properties, maybe something with Dr. Strange or Wanda, or even a way to introduce more X-Men). She became more morally gray in the second act and I thought we'd have a interesting and complex anti-hero/villain but then they reverted her back to her prior trope and killed her off by the third act. Hugely wasted potential and given how dirty they did Wanda it left a shit taste in my mouth for the MCU's female antagonists (especially considering how well done Sylvie was in Loki)

-Hate how they did Vanessa. Her character motivations were inconsistent from the previous movies, and it felt like the writers didn't know where to go with her and DP yet keep making the them a couple. Vanessa and Wade not lasting because of his immortality is interesting, it could've made for a very impactful lesson on how you need to enjoy what you have and fight for it even if it won't last, with DP finding community among a fellow regenerative hero (Logan), but they just didn't go anywhere with that. And the breakup was meant to be a huge thing for Wade to try and want to be better but it feels unearned when Vanessa just... gets back with him? Cause he saved the world? It's very "get the girl" with no thought to how or why Vanessa would've changed her mind and its fucking annoying. Alternatively, Wade fighting tooth and nail to save Vanessa and her not getting back with him but them rekindling their friendship like Eddie did with Anne in Venom could've been such a great display of men and women bonding despite a lack of romance, but the movie decided to do the most lazy comphet shit possible and give Vanessa no character to make her get back with Wade

-And another thing Wade failing to get into the Avengers because he wanted to keep Vanessa from breaking up with him and Happy not being convinced could've been a phenomenal message on how motivations need to be about wanting better for yourself to do actual good in the world but then it never happened

-Not to mention it pissed me off when the movie made such a stance on how Wade's whole world was his friends and he'd do anything to save them, yet had his entire motivation towards the end being just to save Vanessa (his whole fucking montage when he was getting anti-mattered was about Vanessa and no one else). What happened to Blind Al? Peter? Negasonic and Yukio? Colossus? They just not as important anymore cause they're not a romance option? Fuck off Marvel.

-I noticed the distinct lack of intimacy between Negasonic and Yukio and before anyone whines, no its not necessary to have explicit intimacy for them to be a romantic pairing, but for the love of god use your braincells cause I know for a damn fact they never kiss or anything so its easy for the censorship countries to translate them as just being friends. Disney is goddamn spineless and I swear to god every problem I have with this movie can be traced back to them

-I feel like a Deadpool movie is quite literally the one movie they can afford to make a joke when it comes to you-know-who from the first movie but I'm sure they had their reasons

-Felt like Logan's backstory and guilty complex was built up a lot just to have it be that he wasn't around when the X-Men got killed cause he was drinking, kind of a disappointing payoff (I think it could've worked, just wasn't feeling it much from this execution)

-Would've liked more scenes with Deadpool's loved ones throughout the movie, they had so little screen time it kinda fell flat when they were brought up as motivation for Wade. We're supposed to rely on the previous movies to show us why they matter but even sequels need some basis as a stand-alone, or there would be absolutely no reason to watch it if you haven't watched the others

--Final Thoughts--

Overall, great movie. The issues I had with it didn't take away from my enjoyment, and if anything the reason I have so many criticisms is because I was so invested to begin with. I thoroughly enjoyed it the whole way through, Deadpool and Wolverine was every bit as gimmicky and campy in the best ways that you'd expect from a DP movie, and I'd highly recommend it for anyone that wants a bit of gratuitous action and a good time.

[electronickingdomfox]

"The Klingon Gambit" review

Novel from 1981, by Robert E. Vardeman. I don't have much to say about this one, neither praise nor a rant. Perhaps there's no worse fate than indifference? This novel is a return to the more episodic format of the old Bantam novels. Basically a rehash of "The Naked Time", with a bit of "This Side of Paradise" (as far as Spock is concerned), and Klingons in the middle. I don't think the plot has enough substance for a novel-length story, so a lot of times I had the impression of reading the same thing over and over, as if the author had to fill pages but didn't really have anything new to say.

Anyway, the writing's fine, and lets Kirk shine as a clever diplomat, always with an ace up his sleeve to avoid a confrontation. While the rest of the crew is infected by some virus of silly, Kirk seems to be the only one that keeps his cool (some scientist should study this man one day; he seems to be immune and special in every single way...). It's hard to judge the rest of the characters, since they're purposefully acting weird through most of the novel. Spock swinging between totally emotional and totally Vulcan was well-done, without being over the top. Though McCoy seems to me a bit too disrespectful and insulting (and I'm not entirely sure this is due to the strange influence affecting the ship). I'm also not sure about his reluctance to save an injured Klingon's life, on the basis of him being the enemy. The way I see it, McCoy is first a doctor, then a Starfleet officer. There's also a return of that weird idea from earlier novels, that Vulcans are completely unable to feel any love or sexual urge outside pon farr. I don't know why this notion was so widespread, when a full Vulcan like Sarek was seen in the series having a loving relationship with his human wife, while Stonn and T'Pring had an affair outside marriage.

As for the plot, it's very simple, so I'm just going to gloss over it without spoilers. The Enterprise finds a Vulcan science ship adrift, and everyone's dead aboard, without any discernible reason. The ship was part of an archaeological expedition on the nearby planet of Alnath II, led by a famous Andorian scientist. As there's also a Klingon ship orbiting the planet, the Klingon become the main suspects for the Vulcans' deaths. However, the lead scientist insists that the Klingons have only been a nuisance, as far as their activities disrupt his investigations of the ruins. Kirk doesn't have any proof that the Klingons are guilty (and they also have some rights over this planet in particular, since it doesn't belong to the Federation). So he enters into a tense situation with the Klingon captain, where none dare to attack the other, and break the Organian peace treaty. Things get worse when the crew of the Enterprise start acting irresponsibly, and almost mutinous. Everyone seems to just do whatever they want, disregarding their duties. Scotty becomes obsessed with improving the engines, and starts dismantling half the ship for spare parts. Chekov becomes too trigger-happy and anxious for battle. Uhura daydreams about M'Benga. Spock swings between his human and Vulcan sides, and is at times overrun by feelings of love for his female assistant. McCoy becomes paranoid about machines and technology, so he switches to primitive medical treatments... You get the idea. The answers, of course, lay in the planet below and its mysterious pyramid. Kirk has a showdown with the Klingons as well. The resolution is nothing special really, though there's a little surprise about the origin of the alien, deserted city.

Spirk Meter: 2/10*. Kirk seems more aware about Spock's mood swings than anyone else. And he's a bit distressed about Spock possibly reciprocating his assistant's feelings. There's also a scene where Spock loses his shit on the bridge and starts crying, so Kirk bitch-slaps him, to make him come to his senses, even at the risk of suffering the Vulcan's violence himself. And Spock catches his wrist and all that (it's very similar to the scene in "This Side of Paradise").

For his part, McCoy wants to go live in a farm with Jim. And he's awfully interested in Spock staying more human, and you know, loving and horny all the time. As you will, Doctor...

*A 10 in this scale is the most obvious spirk moments in TOS. Think of the back massage, "You make me believe in miracles", or "Amok Time" for example.

[ulkaralakbarova]

The wife of an American doctor suddenly vanishes in Paris and, to find her, he navigates a puzzling web of language, locale, laissez-faire cops, triplicate-form filling bureaucrats and a defiant, mysterious waif who knows more than she tells. Credits: TheMovieDb. Film Cast: Dr. Richard Walker: Harrison Ford Michelle: Emmanuelle Seigner Sondra Walker: Betty Buckley Wino: Dominique Pinon Le Grand Hotel Manager: Jacques Ciron Williams: John Mahoney Shaap: Jimmie Ray Weeks Peter: David Huddleston Edie: Alexandra Stewart Kidnapper: Yorgo Voyagis Taxi Driver: Djiby Soumare Bellboy 2: Roch Leibovici Desk Clerk: Dominique Virton Gaillard: Gérard Klein Bellboy: Stéphane D’Audeville Hall Porter: Laurent Spielvogel Hall Porter: Alain Doutey Tourist: Louise Vincent Hotel Detective Le Grand Hotel: Patrice Melennec Restroom Attendant: Ella Jaroszewicz Florist: Joëlle Lagneau Florist: Jean-Pierre Delage Cafe Owner: Marc Dudicourt Waiter: Artus de Penguern Desk Cop: Richard Dieux Inspector: Yves Rénier U.S. Security Officer: Robert Ground Marine Guard: Bruce Lester-Johnson U.S. Embassy Clerk: Michael Morris U.S. Embassy Clerk: Claude Doineau Blue Parrot Barman: André Quiqui Rastafarian: Thomas M. Pollard Dede Martin: Böll Boyer TWA Clerk: Tina Sportolaro Extra (uncredited): Angela Featherstone Taxi Driver Who Hands Over the Matches to Dr. Walker (uncred: Roman Polanski Bellboy 3: Alan Ladd Film Crew: Casting: Bonnie Timmermann Original Music Composer: Ennio Morricone Assistant Art Director: Gérard Viard Writer: Gérard Brach Writer: Roman Polanski Producer: Thom Mount Director of Photography: Witold Sobociński Costume Design: Anthony Powell Casting: Margot Capelier Editor: Sam O’Steen Additional Writing: Robert Towne Stunt Double: Vic Armstrong Production Design: Pierre Guffroy Production Sound Mixer: Jean-Pierre Ruh Sound Re-Recording Mixer: Jean-François Auger Sound Editor: Jean Goudier Hairstylist: Jean-Max Guérin Makeup Artist: Didier Lavergne Supervising Sound Editor: Laurent Quaglio Producer: Tim Hampton Additional Writing: Jeff Gross Sound Effects: Jean-Pierre Lelong Sound Re-Recording Mixer: Dean Humphreys Assistant Art Director: Albert Rajau Choreographer: Derf La Chapelle Stunt Double: Wendy Leech Movie Reviews: JPV852: Movie starts off well enough with the mystery element but afterward tonally felt a bit off (veered into moderate comedy at points). Ford is fine as was Emmanuelle Seigner, though I wonder if this could’ve used the eye of Brian De Palma rather than Polanski. **3.25/5** kevin2019: “Frantic” is an engrossing and well made film that easily builds up a genuine sense of mystery and intrigue from the very beginning. It is incredibly well crafted throughout with an immediately interesting opening gambit and Roman Polanski is a seasoned director and he knows precisely how to create a natural and rhythmic momentum to the proceedings and to then successfully maintain it at a certain level without any evidence of indecision on his part in terms of how the film ought to proceed in order to achieve its maximum potential and effectiveness. This results in a splendid film that effortlessly retains a compelling quality until the very end and it provides the perfect showcase for the romantic city of Paris even though it also makes you pause for thought about visiting there on Valentine’s Day.

[badassbutterfly1987]

2024 Book Reviews (January-June)

5 stars

Doomsday with My Dog (Yu Ishihara, 2022): Post apocalypse manga with a teenage girl and her shiba inu companion traveling across Japan. Format a bit like the daily Garfield comics, it's overall a good time and worth a read especially for dog lovers. Also the epilogues to each volume consistently made me cry (in a good way).

The Nursery (Szilvia Molnar, 2023): An undeniably rough read about a new mother experiencing post-partum depression while trying to care for her infant daughter while her husband has to return to work and leave them alone for most of the day. As someone with complicated personal feelings about pregnancy/childbirth/parenthood, it was unsettling to read about the portrayal of depression and intrusive thoughts. Warning for brief thoughts of harming her child and the specific discomforts post-pregnancy.

4 stars

Ninefox Gambit (Yoon Ha Lee, 2016): Did I understand half of the scientific worldbuilding? No. But I did adore the Cheris-Jedao dynamic and the secondary characters were interesting. There are a bunch of twisty flashbacks in the climax/aftermath that would make a second reading worth it.

3 stars

River of Teeth (Sarah Gailey, 2017): Fun but too short to have much depth. Decent heist, decent characters, decent diversity.

Alone in Space collection (Tillie Walden, 2021): Wish I had stronger feelings because these are clearly personal comics.

Stolen Gods (Jake Page, 1993): A fantastic premise with an unique character. The first in a series about a blind sculpturer who is also an amateur investigator (think Sherlock Holmes). Its approach to Hopi culture and the bullshit of art collectors/museums being resistant to returning cultural artifacts seems well-researched. Can't say much about the blind representation; some scenes clearly take it into account while others seem lacking (one would expect the use of a white cane or seeing eye dog and not just relying on people around him as a guide).

2 stars

Rain Will Come (Thomas Holgate, 2020): Neo-noir thriller with a great premise but mostly doesn't deliver. Some good moments but otherwise felt like I wasted time reading this when there are better versions in the genre.

Ash (Malinda Lo, 2009): I like the premise. I wish I liked the actual story better. It has the right bones but ultimately didn't click with me beyond the first third and part of that is that I'm not sure what the book is trying to be about. Is it a character study? Is it a love triangle? Is it about the main character overcoming institutional sexism, homophobia, or class differences? There's pieces of all of that but no depth and little vibrancy. Kaisa as the main love interest has some sweet interactions with Ash but that's about it. Sidhean has more presence by virtue of being a mysterious fairy with uncertain motives but aside from a last minute reveal, there's no more depth beyond that. The conflict resolution made me have a "wait, that's it?" reaction.

Nonfiction:

The Mask of Benevolence: Disabling the Deaf Community (Harlan Lane, 1992): Decent look at the poor treatment of the Deaf community by hearing people. Tends to be dry and meandering, probably better books if you want to learn about the history of the Deaf community.

Act Natural: A Cultural History of Misadventures in Parenting (Jennifer Traig, 2019): fascinating idea, wish it was better structured and less distractedly snarky. Also have to take everything with a grain of salt because I caught two notable mistakes in the first 50 pages; otherwise gives the impression of being well-researched.

Pageboy (Elliot Page, 2023): an intimate and personal memoir about Elliot Page's difficult experiences in Hollywood, struggling with depression and dysphoria, multiple messy relationships, and coming out twice.

Kinfolks: Falling Off the Family Tree (Lisa Alther, 2007): the author's memoir about growing up in Tennessee and researching her possible Melungeon ancestors. While the subject is interesting, it takes a while to get to the point.

A Fire Story (Brian Fies): Conveys the experiences of the author and other families during and after the 2017 California wildfires that destroyed their homes. The art style is simple and conveys a lot of emotion

[tangleworm]

NOMIA Devlog 6 -- Actually Deckbuilding

I've implemented card rewards after each battle! It feels nice to be approaching a proper vertical slice. (does having a Roll card officially qualify my game as a soulslike?)

I've also made a battle log system so players can review what happened.

Designing the card reward mechanic was an interesting challenge -- we have two characters, each with two decks of cards. How do we let the player incrementally build these decks while not overwhelming them with complexity?

My goals were to:

Lean towards many simple choices, rather than few complex choices -- let depth emerge from the sum.

Not overwhelm the player with too many choices in a row, because that feels the same as making a single overly-complex choice.

Encourage balance in how much each character is developed.

I could think of three ways to handle it.

1. Shamelessly Copy Slay the Spire, But Four Times

It would certainly ensure that characters are developed equally, but even thinking about this many choices in a row makes my head hurt. Would we need to make four choices after each fight? Would we only get to make these choices after every 4 fights? Would these choices rotate in a round-robin format, and potentially rob the player of a critical choice if they happened upon a boss battle at the wrong time in the cycle?

None of these options seemed appealing.

2. Shamelessly Copy Slay the Spire, But Twice

I could see an advantage to separating Actions and Gambits; it would make sense to gain a Gambit every battle, but less so an Action every battle, because they'd rapidly clog your hand. I could reserve Actions as boss-battle rewards, or maybe an option at a rest event.

However, because Mighties rely more on Actions, doing so would leave them to stagnate between these "big" events. It would also reduce the excitement of each draft if you really wanted a new Action and knew you wouldn't ever get one, and it would increase the frustration of finally arriving at an Action draft and disliking every choice.

3. Shamelessly Copy Slay the Spire, But Once

By mixing all four decks into the pile, I'd have to manage some probabilities to encourage balance:

The left card has a high chance of being a Mighty card, while the right card has a high chance of being a Magical card. The middle card is equally likely to be either.

Whoever has drafted fewer cards has an increased chance for their cards to appear in any slot.

Actions are much less likely to appear than Gambits, but they could potentially appear any time.

The result of this tuning is that if cards were picked entirely at random, the heroes would fairly split how many cards they each get to draft, and they'd each have a healthy division of Actions to Gambits. But, if the player really wanted to, they could create an absurdly off-kilter build -- and isn't that part of the fun of a roguelike?

By managing probabilities on the game side, I can spare the player much of the complexity, while still being able to tune the card spread behind the scenes. Anyone who wants to get super deep into the mechanics can still get a "feel" for how cards are rewarded, but the player's mental load is lowered significantly by only showing the information they need in the moment.

This system also dovetails easily into other event types -- I'm planning on having ones that let you specifically mulligan your Actions, and other ways to fine-tune your build.

[pathetic-gamer]

Graduation Day, baby!!! RSoS Alumni run complete!

shall we do a run recap?

okay FIRST OF ALL this took so much longer than expected (because i just kept Not Playing) and also was honestly a little harder than anticipated lol

This was pretty fun, but idk if it's my favorite of the gimmick roster runs Ive done. there are definitely things I would do differently if i did it again, like classed, but also stuff like the fact that i forgot to recruit Caspar and so lost out on Mercie's paralogue lol

We can get into that later though - let's review the stats:

MVP: tie between Constance and Annette, with 15 each!

Most battles: again, Coco and Annie with 999+ each

Most kills: Coco, with 673 kills

Longest battle: Chapter 22 (52 turns 😭)

Final classes:

Mercedes - gremory

Annette - gremory/dark flier

Constance - sword master

Lorenz - bow knight

These are the builds approximately as they sat for most of the run (shoutout to 130 avo coco)

I will say, I kinda fucked it up a little bit by letting Annette and Mercedes use viskams (hacked item from the AM Fhirdiad map that people sell via travelers at the Monastery). It trivialized a lot of things that maybe would have been more interesting if I hadn't had them around.

Now some reviews/recollections:

I think one of my biggest mistakes was making Constance my dodge tank sword master and Annette my battle mage - I should have switched their roles up or messed around with something different entirely.

iirc, my original thought process behind that was that Constance has higher speed. But! they actually have the same speed growths, and Annette has better strength, dex, and charm. There was no good reason for doing it the way I did other than the fact that I love Annette and I like when she gets to cast spells, since "meta" people always shove her into a dancer or support role lmao

A lot of the run boiled down to patience, going oh so slow and steady around the maps. Constance didn't start really being able to kill enemies on her counters until about part 2, which meant it was her chipping away and then Annette sweeping in and out on her pegasus sniping them from 6 tiles away (s/o thyrsus)

Lorenz was the strongest person for most of the run, but also the slowest. I invested a lot in his ability to just tank damage, but that was not very helpful, turns out. So I struggled to figure out how to use him for a while... That said, this was the first run where I've ever actually used him at all (or seen his supports lmao) and I will say I'm enlightened now. He's a great character.

notable stuff from part 2:

Despite all that posturing about not knowing how to use him, losing Lorenz for half of Part 2 was significantly more impactful than I had thought it would be. But then when he finally got back, he had to play catch up and couldn't even get right back to work smh. It also didn't help that he was already a little underleveled because I had put my attention on leveling up Mercie and Annie as much as possible before Hunting by Daybreak.

The biggest challenge in part 2 was, in fact, chapter 22, where I discovered that I simply couldn't take Edelgard’s last health bar, like, mathematically, just due to the reality of everyone's stats. I asked for help on reddit and was alerted to the sacred shield gambit which I fully had no idea existed, which also sparked running through all the other support gambits I hadn't paid attention to. fun stuff in there!

ultimately, i hired a couple new battalions, gave Mercie the dance of the goddess gambit (which I already had and which I have used before but I had forgotten about it lol), deployed my only two non-run-required units (Marianne and Felix, adjutants kept around for paired endings), and broke my own rules to let them help - mostly blocking stairwells and in Marianne's case healing and chipping away at enemies with Viskam. Felix did also get to tank Edelgard’s ranged attacks and help finish off some monsters, though.

So with the two of them, plus Byleth and Dimitri, we have the rest of the roster:

Byleth - Cavalier (blessing gambit)

Dimitri - Cavalier (sacred shield gambit)

Marianne- bishop (stride gambit, plus healing)

Felix - wyvern rider (just hanging out having a good time w the broskis)

speaking of paired endings, I had planned for Marianne/Lorenz and Dimitri/Mercedes but ended up with Marianne/Dimitri and Lorenz/Mercedes. Surprised, but into it!

(all of the battles and victories listed for Marianne and Felix come from the final battle)

And there we have it! the former student of the Royal School of Sorcery have saved the world and everyone in it 👍 they will pass their group project

Royal School of Sorcery Debate Team DESTROYS Enemies with Facts and Logic

that's right fellas - we're doing the RSoS run

I actually started this a while ago, but never posted about it!

Rules:

Azure Moon, maddening/classic, ng+

Can only use characters who attended the Royal School of Sorcery before attending the Officer’s Academy

Byleth and Dimitri are allowed to help by doing things like use gambits, and finish off stragglers

I reserve the right to turn down the difficulty lol

Units and classes:

Annette, gremory or perhaps dark flier or even wyvern rider

Constance, mortal savant

Mercedes, gremory

Lorenz, dark knight

Notes:

Nothing major to note. Currently at Chapter 7, and everyone is doing pretty well so far. MVP has actually been very evenly distributed. I've classed Felix into armored knight so he can proc guard for Annette lol it's been useful.

I'm very worried for Chapter 13, since Byleth and Dimitri are going to have to hold their own until Mercedes and Annette show up. I want to be able to keep Ashe alive, too, so it's going to be tough. Thus, I'll have a pre-chapter 12 save so I can turn down the difficulty if I can't manage it lol

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

Tbh I'm kinda surprised to read that so many people seem to think of Engage as a better entry than 3H in general. The most comments/reviews I saw were praising the gameplay but were often not so fond of the story and/or the characters, and many think it's a step down from 3H. IMO both games have their flaws, different ones at that. I'm not sure if you can even compare them that much bc I feel they focus on different things, with Engage more leaning towards combat and 3H more an storytelling [1]

[2] and lore. It certainly has more touching moments, especially AM was a real rollercoaster of emotions in part II. That being said I don't think the story or characters in Engage aren't nearly as bad as many make them out to be. It has some anime-cliche moments, is sometimes chaotic and feels a little rushed at some points. It's not mind-blowing or anything new, but it's ok. I do like that Alear is not the typical confident hero, though. Gameplay-wise I like both games but I do prefer the

[3] variety of maps in Engage. Overall I think they are both good games, even if I think Engage won't be as popular in fanworks as 3H still is, or at least not that long. But... even though it's completely off topic... the biggest surprise for me was how popular Griss, at least on AO3, compared to other characters. Wtf? lol but to each their own I guess :) Do you have any favorites or even ships from this game?

I think it's because a lot of reviews are explicitly interested in gameplay over story/characters. Usually it's the diehard fans who regularly post about FE content who have mixed feelings on it that are different between gameplay/story. I've definitely seen some fans talk about not enjoying the story as much as Houses', and those reviews who balance their reviews on gameplay/story seem to always be the ones YT regularly recommends to me since they post about FE so often.

Personally I don't think even the gameplay is extremely comparable because they have vastly different combat concepts. Generally I'd say the two games come down to personal preference. I don't think Engage's gameplay is particularly bad so much as it just isn't as fun for me. It's definitely a bit convoluted though, but so was Houses' (like, I rarely used gambits or battalions because of all the menus and I did just fine in gameplay without paying much attention to those).

Both of them honestly just also have too much to do outside of the main content. It's fine not to have it be totally linear, but it's not an experience like Fates where you get some bonuses really quick and get to take a break from the maps. In PoR you get a break and get to manage your units and go through conversations separate from supports and it's a really simple few menus that are easy to get through every chapter. Houses and Engage both have way too much going on outside of main battles and that exhausted me pretty fast. Too much to do, too many menus, too much going on in the maps... All that extra stuff is tiring for me and I just play the games very simply lol. Neither was better than the other for me, honestly.

The characters are a bit bland sometimes, but they're not like, horrendous lol. Some reviews seem to insist they're like, the worst thing FE has ever done with its characters. It wasn't that bad, but I do get bored of them sometimes (mainly because all their conversations have to do with the same things and you don't really learn much about the characters from them).

But then, like I've said before, as a hardcore AM fan, Sylvain and Felix were better in their supports than in the main story because they had a similar problem in the main story. All their lines were the same old stuff and it was tiring that they were clearly better characters than the main story dialogue would give them credit for. Houses definitely had a bit of a similar problem. Bernadetta and Marianne were also pretty one-note characters, though Marianne progressed a bit. Raphael was also very one note, and so was Caspar. See what I mean lol, Engage didn't start this trend. Houses, Fates and Awakening had similar problems, where most of its cast didn't have much depth.

I think Alear didn't have much of an effect on me because FE4 is my favorite game and FE5 is my fourth favorite, and both those games had lords with an extreme lack of confidence. FE5 forget it, my poor baby boy literally locked himself in a room because of a "bad decision" (i hate you august and you were dragon dad's biggest mistake im sorry dragon dad but it's true) that got someone killed and needed a whole paragraphs-long pep talk. He's my favorite lord next to Ike and Dimitri, because they're very outside of the traditional super kind, let's save everyone and be nice people forever, type of lord. They're all angry, revenge driven people, and also people who refuse to accept any kind of injustice and don't accept bullshit. They're very kind, but equally balanced imo. It's not like Marth who is just waaay too far on the sliding scale of kindness lol. Ike would feed a hungry homeless person (he did, canonically, pre-story and during the story) while stabbing some villain at the same exact time and being like 🤷 well you were a piece of shit. Good for my favorite lords because they'd all do that LOL. My scared baby boy will stab you in FE5, but in FE4 his promoted class allows him to wield all weapons in the game except holy weapons and dark magic, so he's a good contender for "do not piss off". :D

I'm probably the only person willing to defend the maps in Houses lol. Since it's a story from different perspectives but it's the same story, it makes sense to reuse the maps. Some of them are unique depending on if you visit that location in another route or not, but if the characters have to visit a certain location in the story, you get the same map so I don't actually mind that. It's not like FE8 where the split routes led the main characters on different paths to reunite (again lol), but a story that has the characters going through the same outlets to reach their destinations.

Somehow I'm not surprised by Griss being super popular since it's one of those whacky unexpected fandom things lol. He's unique at least, and I guess people probably find him very funny. Wouldn't be surprised if it's like a me-and-Jarod thing lol.

My favorite character overall is Alfred, and good for him for staying my favorite from his first trailer appearance to the end of the whole game lol. ALSO good for him for having the only one of two explicitly romantic endings, and you could even argue Kagetsu uses a lot of romantic terminology on the regular anyway so it comes off as more normal for him, versus having a character who isn't normally like that just toss platonic love out the window immediately and being the only one to do it!

Other than him I guess I'd say Diamant and Ivy are my other favorites, and Jean, Yunaka and Panette are below them. Good for Engage for giving me favorites who are equally male and female lol, usually my favorites are all male because the writing for women in fictional media generally just sucks.

Am I the only one who would consider Jean a favorite? Probably lol, nobody seems to like him. Poor boy.

Ships I'd say are Diamant/Alfred as my top one, Alfred/Alear as my equally top one (really I think it's the player pandering that might put it below Diamant/Alfred? It'd be a LOT cuter if it wasn't so player-directed), then some assorted ones would be Diamant/Ivy, a little bit Fogado/Yunaka, and a tiiiny bit Louis/Chloe. ...Oh also Emblem DimiClaude. >:D You weren't getting out of that one!

[goatatemynametag]

I posted 269 times in 2022

17 posts created (6%)

252 posts reblogged (94%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@codealiaswave

@archwrites

@thesokovianaccords

@roboticonography

@formerlyir

I tagged 31 of my posts in 2022

#wow - 1 post

#i dont like it - 1 post

#fuck john landau - 1 post

#fuck ticketmaster - 1 post

#no i am totally not listening to nebraska on repeat and wallowing in my disappointment - 1 post

#im not upset - 1 post

#but i am so happy - 1 post

#idk probably not lol - 1 post

#seriously where the hell has reading comprehension gone? - 1 post

#leave me the fuck alone - 1 post

Longest Tag: 91 characters

#its been nearly ten years since my.....experience with the one and only roommate i ever had

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

I started reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo over break and

what a fucking terrible book

2 notes - Posted January 4, 2022

#4

Just gave $1000 to the New Orleans Abortion Fund, which helps people access abortion in not just New Orleans but other areas of the Deep South.

I'm just....I'm so sick over this.

2 notes - Posted June 24, 2022

#3

I didn't go to therapist school or anything

but I'm pretty sure telling someone an incredibly personal story of tragedy during your second session together

is highly unprofessional

3 notes - Posted February 3, 2022

#2

Do you ever have a fic written for you by a dream?

The other night a dreamt a X-Men Evo College AU where Rogue and Gambit meet in a bar. Rogue is there for open mic night and sings "Violet" by Hole.

Now here's the weird part

Gambit is there as captain of the college hockey team

3 notes - Posted September 20, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

I got braces today

(yes again, at 35)

and I forgot how much they make your teeth....itchy-tickle? tickle-ish-itch?

4 notes - Posted November 15, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[dispatchdcu]

Captain Marvel #44 Preview

Captain Marvel #44 Preview #captainmarvel #caroldanvers #MARVEL #marvelcomics #comics #comicbooks #news #mcu #art #info #NCBD #comicbooknews #previews #reviews #Amazon

Captain Marvel #44 Preview:   “REVENGE OF THE BROOD” PART 2! The Uncanny Carol Danvers returns to space – and to the X-Men?! A mysterious degraded message from Rogue has arrived at the same time that Carol’s emergency beacon begins screaming with cries from Binary, and that cannot possibly be a coincidence. Carol assembles a team of allies, including Polaris, Gambit, Wolverine, and Psylocke, bent…

[introvertbard]

@scruffylookingpiratecaptain I don't know if you read reviews of the stuff you've worked on or not, but here's my sad fangirling over the themes of failure in Deadpool and Wolverine!

I really need to sit down and get Part 2 out for how Gambit/Channing being yanked around for ten years just hurts my heart, and how Worst Wolverine starts out a miserable/traumatized failure and finally gets dragged into redemption against his will, but thanks to my undiagnosed ADHD, I have like five other projects.

Anyway, Gambit is my boy now. I can barely understand that bitch, but I love him now and he needed that X-Men movie ten years ago.

Channing said he'd do some terrible things for Gambit, and I'm like, "SIGN ME UP FOR THE CRIME, MOTHERFUCKER. WE'RE BOTH ACTORS: THE BEST COVER STORY FOR DOING WEIRD SHIT IN PUBLIC! WE WON'T EVEN BE LYING WHEN WE SAY 'IT'S FOR THE GAMBIT MOVIE,' IT'S JUST NOT THE USUAL MEANING PEOPLE WILL THINK OF!!!"

disclaimer: it is 1:30am and I have work tomorrow. I probably won't be in a criminal mood in about 8 hours

Deadpool and Wolverine musings, Part 1 - On Deadpool knowing he’s Deadpool, the Worst Wolverine, and a Hero That Never Was: How the theme of failure in "Deadpool And Wolverine" hits too close to home for another would-be actor.

--- So now that I've processed Deadpool and Wolverine, it really hurts to see the theme of failure and being “the one who’s WATCHING people be awesome” woven through the story. You probably know someone like me, dear readers. I have big dreams, but no big friends or big bank account to pull them off.

The Deadpool franchise’s nature as a self-aware side of the Marvel Universe folds painfully into my own experiences as an artist.

As usual for Deadpool, the start of the movie is a wild ride: We open on him desperately digging up Wolverine’s grave from the end of “Logan,” because Deadpool needs Wolverine’s help--and he’s in serious denial that Wolverine died. Turns out that yes, he did. And Deadpool ends up fighting some furious Time Variance Authority soldiers… with Logan’s decaying skeleton. To the hilariously unfitting song of “Bye Bye Bye” by NSYNC.

Millennials, we can feel old now. I remember when NSYNC was rolling out their CDs in the early 2000s, and when I decided I was too cool for NSYNC anymore, I threw that shit away. Apple is now laughing at me for buying this one song again, twenty years later.

We then get plunged into an explanation of why Deadpool is desperate for Logan’s help, and boy howdy, does he need HELP.

--

Wade and Vanessa started having relationship issues between Deadpool 2 and this movie, so he tried to sign up for the Avengers to give his life purpose. In his interview with Happy Hogan (HELLO, SIR, IT’S GREAT TO SEE YOU AGAIN!!! WADE, SHUT UP ABOUT HAPPY BEING A CHAUFFEUR!!!), Wade says he wants to be an Avenger because “he needs it.” Why? Deadpool sure loves the battles that the Avengers are known for, but I don’t think he wants to be an Avenger JUST for violence or glory. There’s one MORE thing that the Avengers are known for: Being friends. And with it, being LOVED.

The running theme in Deadpool’s movies is his nagging insecurity and loneliness. In the comics and movies alike, he is constantly trying to join the X-Men or the Avengers, but his main problem is… Deadpool himself! You are your own worst enemy, as the saying goes.

He’s ruthlessly good at killing, loves his gallows humor, and he’s reckless as hell. The usual expression that someone’s weird/crazy is “having a wire (or a few wires) loose,” but Deadpool’s like an electric rat-king of jumbled wires. (A cash register at my work has one of those bad boys. I am constantly worried if it’s okay.) Later in the movie, Wolverine thinks Deadpool has ADHD because of how insufferably chatty he is, and while Deadpool’s constantly called “crazy” because other characters just don’t like him, fan speculations and writer depictions abound on what KIND of mental disorder he might have.

As TV Tropes would put it, Deadpool is “The Friend Nobody Likes.” Other heroes tolerate him because he’s skilled, but not many LIKE HIM. And he is all too aware of it, especially in the films, so by the time of Deadpool and Wolverine, he WANTS to be a hero.

As I mentioned before, he says to Happy that he NEEDS to be an Avenger.

But Happy tells him, “The Avengers don’t do the job because they need it, they do the job because people need THEM. Understand the difference?”

Many Avengers fans understand the core of the Avengers, and of the superhero genre as a whole.

I did not miss the shots in Happy’s office of notable objects in the main Marvel Cinematic Universe--and maybe Wade was looking at them, too. We call those “Easter eggs” because people will scour the film for them.

-Tony’s very first heart reactor, with the engraving of “Proof that Tony Stark has a heart.”

-One of Captain America’s old shields.

-Old pieces of Iron Man’s armor.

-A photo of Tony himself and Peter Parker.

Then comes the hurt-y part: “Please, Mr. Hogan, I don’t want to spend the rest of my life like an annoying one-trick pony.” Ouch, Wade. I am all too familiar with the sense of failure, and feeling like I annoy everyone by existing.

So Happy says to Wade, “The problem might be that you’re reaching a little too high. Aim for the middle and you’ll never miss. I think you got a good heart, I believe what you’re saying, but not everyone’s the world-saving type. Shoot for the middle and you’ll never miss.”

And after he’s rejected, Wade officially breaks up with Vanessa. WHY, motherfuckers?! THEY ARE MY POWER COUPLE!

So with no Vanessa and no Avengers, Wade becomes increasingly insecure/depressed, and he leaves the Deadpool work behind and takes a car-sales job with his former X-Force teammate Peter to pay the bills. If that is not an allegory for the constant misery of being an artist who doesn’t know anyone important, and doesn’t have the money to make knowing important people EASIER, I don’t know what is.

I spent years trying to get people to read my novel drafts on Wattpad so I can get them cleaned up and published for real, and then I could be a REAL FUCKING WRITER. And that wore me out, because I’m not a marketer and I’m already introverted. I spent years not being able to afford updated headshots to audition for shows, so I could finally be a REAL FUCKING ACTOR and do something that wasn’t a college production… but after I finally got new headshots, guess what happened? I’M STUCK AT MY DAY-JOB TO GET MONEY.

While I’m trying to be a real fucking actor and a real fucking novel writer, I’ve combined them into an unholy sandwich, by writing a superhero story that deconstructs the idea of “who gets to be called a hero, and who’s just a gangster/vigilante?” It involves the Tagalog deities being stuck in California as undocumented immigrants.

I feel like I asked every Filipino theater I know of about workshopping this script or giving it a reading or two when the draft is done. Like, I’m Filipino-American and I’m writing about Filipino mythology and Asian-American superheroes--I don’t expect people to spring a whole production onto the stage when I say go, but surely people would want to check my script out or keep tabs on me? Something to get the ball rolling?

But that involves having GOOD luck, and I don’t seem to have any. The theaters who bothered to answer me say it sounds cool, but they don’t have the resources, or how this script is expensive to pull off, so I’ll need to find someone willing to take a risk and fund my production.

I wanted to fucking laugh at those folks, because that means THEY’RE not willing to risk things for me. I want to laugh because if I don’t, I’m gonna murder something.

As Deadpool said in his very first movie: "Fake laugh, hiding real pain."

PEOPLE SAY THEY CAN’T AFFORD ME? WHEN I SPENT YEARS HUMILIATING MYSELF, ASKING IF SELFIES WERE OKAY TO USE FOR AUDITIONS, BECAUSE I COULDN’T AFFORD TO UPDATE MY THEATER HEADSHOTS?

This one time, I could have gone to Canada for a writing conference. It was about how Filipinos and the Filipino diaspora use their culture and spirituality as inspiration for their work. I sent them an email about my poetry and writing, and I didn’t really think they’d answer me, so I was pleasantly surprised when someone DID answer, and they thought my work sounded beautiful!

But then they said I’d have to get to Canada, pay the attendance fee, find a hotel and get from a city (either Toronto or Ottawa) to the buttfuck wilderness of a regional park, where the conference was actually being HELD.

So I said (politely), “Oh, I didn’t realize you wanted to hold a conference in Canada, but had no way to… GET NON-LOCAL SPEAKERS TO THE CONFERENCE. I figured you’d be handling at least some of the costs. I won’t be able to go, then.”

One of my friends, bless her heart, started a GoFundMe on my behalf. It went nowhere, so neither did I, but she tried. Another of my friends said it felt really messed up that they wanted me to pay the attendance fee AS A SPEAKER.

In my only bout of less-bad luck, I submitted some angry decolonizing poetry about the Tagalog gods to a show halfway across the state, and the team absolutely loved it… but that was before I had updated headshots. When the recent Facebook memories with a photo of the brochure showed up, I got to see my fucking Facebook selfie smack in the middle of everyone else’s nice, professional headshots, and that really stings.

I wish I was like Deadpool, and I had some time-traveling friends to go back and replace it with one of my REAL headshots. But I can’t spend all my time cringing, so I’m not only writing my stories, but saving up to pay 50-100 actors for a table reading.

I GET ONE SHOT AT GETTING MY SCRIPT OFF MY LAPTOP AND INTO THE WORLD. ONE SHOT THAT’S GONNA HURT MY BANK ACCOUNT. MAXIMUM EFFORT IS MY STATE’S MINIMUM HOURLY WAGE, MOTHERFUCKERS.

And that’s probably going to be my only shot. I don’t know anyone in theater professionally, because I never got a chance to WORK WITH anyone professionally.

For my script, I have three or five Filipino actor “friends” (more like acquaintances) whose shows I’ve watched a few times, so I told them how I have a superhero script that I’d love to get a reading for when the first draft’s finished, and I will pay everyone for a table reading in a couple months. And if they have ten or fifteen more friends of varying ethnicities, please ask them if they think my script sounds cool as well.

I hope I didn’t sound too desperate.

I try not to outwardly beg, but I don’t have a good gauge on that. I was the only Filipino in my theater class for years, so I never knew how to TALK about my extremely Filipino-oriented urban-fantasy, or if my stuff was ACTUALLY good or just weird. I went to open mics for a short but lovely few months, before I had to stop.

I couldn’t even afford MONTHLY TRIPS to read my work. Not only for no pay, but I had to pay AN ENTRY FEE and deal with the parking in this driving hellhole of a state. And then being a BROKE Filipino who still lives with my mom and works in food service? I always feel like I’m begging for scraps of attention.

I love art.

I love making art.

But with so many things depending on who you know--whether you can afford to go to shows, or go to school, or go to parties so you can FIND people to know--art really makes you feel shitty and poor sometimes.

My friends and about twenty or so Wattpad reviewers like my work, and they say I’m a great writer. It always makes me feel nice.

But when I try to get someone IN POWER, someone with MONEY, to check out my work and say the same things, that’s where I start feeling like Wade in the Avengers Tower--so close to the heroes I’ve heard about my whole life, seeing the things they use, the photos of people they love--and begging the doorman to let me be a hero, too.

[thecraggus]

Our new Craggus' Trek Trek Phase II Omnibus - Vol.23 call plan comes with unlimited Data #StarTrek #StarTrekTheNextGeneration Here's your weekly Omnibus Edition of Craggus' Trek Trek Phase II covering Season 7 episodes 4 to 10: