#THAT and how a lot of the characters felt underbaked

[skeletons-in-ur-closet]

not the blog for this ik but i finished arcane s2 and i have Thoughts

[specialagentartemis]

ykw i am having so much fan watching you be a hater, that i’ve decided to ask for more. PLEASE give us a rant about a book you hated.

Haha aw I'm honored. And uh I hope you don't have any particular attachment to Becky Chambers. Sorry in advance.

But A Psalm for the Wild-Built won a Hugo and I do not get the love. Book 1 was nice enough, yeah. Book 2 had me tearing my hair out.

Sibling Dex is a restless Tea Monk who serves the God of Small comforts on the science-fantasy planet of Panga. I genuinely love the idea of a tea monk - part therapist, part confessor, travels around to the different towns, mixes tea blends for people, lets them talk about their worries and fears and stresses, and gives them, if not advice, then sympathy and a listening ear and some calming tea. This is meaningful work but they're unhappy. After doing this for a while they're still unsatisfied with their life, so they go into the woods searching for self-actualization, and meet a robot named Mosscap, a wild robot that lives in the woods. See, hundreds of years ago, all the robots "woke up" and became sentient one day, then they staged a quiet rebellion against humanity's greed and industrialization by walking into the woods and never coming back. Now, the continent is split in half: humans stay on the Human Side, and robots stay on the Robot Side. The Robot Side is kept wild and humans are discouraged from going in there because humans can't be trusted not to ruin Nature. The rpbots are welcome to come to the Human Side, they just never have. Dex is the first person in a While to venture into the woods of the Robot Side, and the first human since the great walkout to see a robot. Mosscap gives Dex a lot of philosophical pep talks about not pushing themself so hard, about allowing themself to just rest and appreciate the world without feeling like they need to be Providing A Service to justify their existence. It's a nice theme. Underbaked, imo, but nice. Relateable.

Book 2 was a goddamn mess.

Book 1 mostly takes place in the wilderness of the woods, so it's okay if the nice utopian human community Dex comes from was sketchily-built. It Just Works, and everyone Is Just Nice, this is a science-fantasy parable. There were some issues I had with it - like the strict ideological and physical divide between Nature and Humans, and the fact that Dex's religion seems to be the Only Religion In The World, and it's vaguely secular-humanist with the gods being not "really" gods but names given to primordial forces and philosophical concepts, and the religion not really making any demands of its adherents in any way except to become their best selves and devote themselves to what they like... it's potentially interesting, but overall kinda lazy. It felt like Becky Chambers was aware of the idea that having an enlightened-atheist sci-fi utopia is Problematic, so she made there be a central religion, but she also didn't want it to have any of the ~icky~ things religions have, like belief in anything supernatural, or dietary restrictions, or creeds, or codes of behavior, or expectations to make any kind of sacrifice in any way. All the gods "ask" is that humans observe and appreciate the world. But whatever.

In book 2, Dex and Mosscap return to Dex's society, and the book seems to want to explain how the world works, and oh my GOD is Chambers not prepared to do this.

"Observe and appreciate" is all anyone is asked to do. Book 2, A Prayer for the Crown-Shy, is an ode to ultimate virtue of Doing Nothing. There's this attitude I see in a LOT of utopian fiction, where the author is bluntly just not a good enough author to imagine a utopian society where people act like people, so in the world of Panga, utopian society is achieved through 1) homogeneity 2) no one giving a crap about anything.

As far as I can tell, there is the one religion. Most people are Fine with this. Most people are Fine with anything. There are no characters with distinct personalities. There's no money, except there is, except it's not real money and no one will deny you anything if your balance is in the red, even though your balance is available to be seen by anyone - this does not cause any kind of shame or pride or competition in any way, and Dex doesn't understand why it might. There are no hierarchies or governing bodies, people just volunteer to step up when things need doing (this is portrayed as great and not deeply concerning). There are different communities, but in them, everyone is uniformly nice, friendly, and helpful at all times. There are some parts of nature, like the seashore, where people are not allowed to go because they'll ruin the environment, and this is accepted as correct and necessary. Most people live in hippie, pro-recycling, high-tech, end-of-history green communities; there's one group they visit, however, that doesn't trust technology, and lives in a vaguely sci-fi-Amish way. You might think, Dex travelling around with a robot, this might cause conflict! It does not. The people from this community calmly explain their anti-technology position, Dex calmly explains their pro-technology position, and they politely respect each other. "Not bothered either way" is a phrase that turns up in various permutations a lot and is held up as the good, mature, responsible way to be.

There's a scene where they catch a fish for dinner, and instead of killing it, the scifi-Amish guy says "We let the air do that for us, and they let the fish slowly suffocate to death in the air while they all look on solemnly and sadly. This is portrayed as a deep, beautiful moment of them witnessing and honoring the final moments of a living being's life. And not. y'know. them torturing a living being to death so they can keep their own hands clean.

This is what I mean about the valorization of passivity: observing is all you are ever obligated to do. Letting a fish die in the air is better than killing it quickly and humanely, because doing things gets your hands dirty, while letting things simply happen is the Correct way to do it.

At the end, Mosscap and Dex blow off all their promises and appointments and just hang out at the beach chilling out instead, because do what you want forever, you don't have to do shit. This is the happy affirming ending. Mosscap you fucking said you'd meet with the city leaders as the robot ambassador to the humans, did you tell them you were blowing off this commitment because you didn't feel like doing that anymore??? Did you even let them know??????

It is SUCH a baffling book. The theme wants to be "you are more than your job, you deserve to just Be" and ends up feeling like "you don't have to do anything ever, and no one can make you do anything you don't want to do if you don't feel like it, and you don't owe anyone anything and searching for a purpose in your life is just making you stressed out so chill at the beach instead."

The thing that drives me crazy is like. Mosscap cheerfully tells Dex about robots that spend twenty years in a cave watching stalactites form because they think it's beautiful, and those robots are just as much a valued part of society as anyone else. Appreciating beauty and wonder is good enough, you don't need to be productive. And I'm just. fuckin. like. Humans are not robots! Robots don't need to eat or sleep! Humans need food, and clothes, and shelter, and medical care, and if we don't have SOMEONE working to provide that, we Die! Nice as it would be, we CAN'T just all do nothing forever until we feel like it! We can't do that!

And at the same time, the book bizarrely treats wanting a purpose in life as like... almost disordered. If you are seeking a purpose in life it's because you just haven't let go of your guilt and relaxed enough. It's bizarre. Valorization of passivity. Humans aren't meant to be in nature so we just Shouldn't. Doing nothing and having no strong opinions is the most self-affirmed you can possibly be. Letting a fish suffocate is more moral than quickly breaking its neck or spiking its brain. Someone else will do it. Who, if we're all supposed to be resting and only doing what we feel like? Don't worry about it.

"The heart of this book is comfort [...] There is nothing in it that can hurt you." YOU LIAR BECKY CHAMBERS THE FISH SCENE STILL DISTURBS AND UPSETS ME TO THIS DAY

[brucebocchi]

Spring 2024 anime, Pt. 2: Mixed bags and the gems

hey! i also post this on my ko-fi! this is very much a labor of love, so if you liked what i wrote consider throwing a few bucks my way! also you can find part 1 right here! thanks!

Yes, hello, I'm still here. Between work and AI: The Somnium Files -nirvanA Initiative-, I was struggling to find the time to get this out, but here we are! Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go actually watch some anime again.

As always, the OP for each show is linked in the title. Watch them! There were some damn good ones this season.

Let's-a go:

Mixed Bags

Astro Note

I’m going to kick off this section by first stating that on the whole, I’m much higher on the anime in this section this season than I was last time: Nothing that I watched this season disappointed me nearly as much as Metallic Rouge or The Witch and the Beast, nor bored me to tears like The Unwanted Undead Adventurer. This truly is a collection of mixed bags; anime that I found enjoyable or interesting but still left me wanting in one way or another. “Good But Could Have Been Great” is too unwieldy anyway.

Astro Note was eye-catching from the jump: This is very clearly an homage to Rumiko Takahashi’s beloved romcom Maison Ikkoku, with character designs by Carole & Tuesday’s Eisaku Kubonouchi. The colors are soft and bright, everyone looks unique and has a wide variety of hilarious facial expressions, and the OP is a fun time right out of the gate. You come for the lovely visuals and Takahashi homage, and you stay for, uh, not much else.

Takumi, a down-on-his-luck young chef, answers a job posting at a boarding house that promises its residents breakfast every day. It turns out that Mira, the odd but beautiful new landlady, is a dogshit cook and tried to attract a new one with a plagiarized job posting. Takumi doesn’t really care because she’s, like, really pretty, so he takes the job and moves in. He’s soon beset by a cast of wacky characters that includes an enigmatic unemployed salaryman and his precocious son, an indie idol who looks like a hard-drinking Futaba Sakura in her downtime, a nosy neighbor, and a rich, handsome romantic rival. We’re already approaching Maison Ikkoku territory. 

Shortly after moving in, Takumi believes he overhears Mira saying that she’s a widow, which would firmly plant Astro Note’s flag right in Ikkoku’s turf, but it turns out that Mira is in fact an alien from the planet Wid, meaning she is of the Wido race (this is as good of a localization as you can ask for; in the original Japanese he heard “miboujin,” not knowing that she’s from the planet Mibou). So we’ve got some Urusei Yasura sprinkled in for good measure. Her adorable poodle, voiced by Junichi Suwabe (Sukuna himself!) is from the same planet and helping her find a MacGuffin, hidden by the previous owner, that would help her take over as queen. There’s also some blossoming romance!

The alien stuff made for an interesting wrinkle, and it went a long way toward characterizing Mira as an endearingly odd but curious woman, but it often played out in wacky hijinks caused by alien spies, which felt like a designated make-the-plot-happen button more often than not. It paid off splendidly in the last couple of episodes, and I loved how all of the flashbacks of Mira’s mother looked like grainy Showa-era space operas, but getting there took a lot of “oh no, chase that Thing!” sequences. I found myself tuning out on those until they finally became plot relevant.

The central romance was fine, if a little underbaked, but what kept me watching Astro Note was the smaller moments with the ensemble characters. There were moments with both Wakabayashi the salaryman and his son Ren that slapped the apathy right off my face, and a side plot with Takumi and a person from his past was incredibly sweet. I did also love the massive turn the plot took in the last couple episodes, to the point where I found myself almost wishing that the show up to that point was different.

And that’s Astro Note in a nutshell: A lot of good pieces mixed with some filler, weird pacing, and an overall uneven experience in a nice-looking package. A fun little distraction but nothing entirely memorable. If I can give this show one major positive, it’s that watching it finally convinced me to read Maison Ikkoku, and for that I will forever be grateful. Read Maison Ikkoku.

Go! Go! Loser Ranger

I keep running notes for everything I’m watching as the season rolls on, and sometimes I’ll indulge in other reviewers’ early takes and jot down some insights that might spark from hearing outside perspectives. During Gigguk’s opening remarks on Go! Go! Loser Ranger in his early Spring season roundup, I made a note that the easiest way to summarize this show for a western audience is “basically The Boys but with the Power Rangers instead of The Seven.” And then he said pretty much the exact same thing five seconds later. I just want the record to show that.

Indeed, this is a sentai series with some spice. 13 years ago, the invading forces of evil were soundly defeated by the Dragon Keepers, a real-life sentai squad. In the present day, the Dragon Keepers now sit atop a massive organization protecting earth, and also dominating the entertainment industry: Every week, they hold an exhibition match against the remaining rank-and-file footsoldiers, skull-faced shapeshifters known as Dusters. In order to keep their lives, the Dusters were forced to give up their freedom and serve as the farcical Putty Patrol for what is ultimately a pro wrestling show. Sick of being a jobber and effectively a slave, one of the Dusters, known simply as Fighter D, decides the best way to destroy the Dragon Keepers and free his brethren is to do so from within: He’ll morph into a human shape, join their Rangers program as a cadet, and personally slay each of the five Keepers.

Fighter D is quickly found out, though. One of the recruiters, the lovely but mercurial Yumeko, isn’t nearly as dumb as he thought, but she fortunately has the same aim and quickly puts him to work trying to steal the Keepers’ insanely powerful weapons, the Divine Artifacts. He’s also found by the Dragon Keepers and manages to escape, though badly wounded. He’s found in a cave by Yumeko’s hanger-on, the upstart Ranger cadet Hibiki, whose family was badly fragmented by an unknown monster. While he still believes in the Keepers and shares their ostensible goal of protecting humanity, he believes that there needs to be major changes and agrees to let D impersonate him to infiltrate the Rangers. He’s soon embroiled in a prolonged examination trial against higher-ranked Rangers that soon turns into a fight to the death, made only more deadly by the inclusion of a female Duster and the same monster that killed Hibiki’s parents and paralyzed his sister.

Yes, that’s a lot, and everything up until that last sentence was just in the first four episodes. I’ve said repeatedly that I’m willing to be patient with introductory seasons for action-oriented shonen series, because those do usually take a minute to start cooking, but the first season of Loser Ranger is bizarrely paced. The first four episodes were an intriguing introduction, but they might have served better as a movie to kick off the season, because the overwhelming majority of the remaining eight episodes were pretty much just a bunch of people fighting in a fucking parking garage. I was under the impression that the first season was going to be 24 or so episodes, for some reason, so I was willing to be patient with it.

Maybe I should've been patient enough to wait until the second season, because I found myself getting whiplash between fascination and utter boredom. I still don’t know if I even like this show. There are so many moving parts, and many of them are fascinating, but to get bombarded with them so early and so often, only to then keep most of them in the background in favor of way too many new characters fighting in, again, a goddamned parking garage, frustrates me in increasing measure the more I write about it. I really wanted to like this show more than I did.

The production values are seemingly all over the place too. The OP is another Tatsuya Kitani banger, the voice cast is deep and talented (especially for the English dub, holy hell), the puppet outros are a hoot, and the animation is mostly fine. I’m rarely one to complain about CGI in anime (the ED for this show is entirely 3DCG and it fucks), but a lot of it in Loser Ranger, especially as an obvious means of cheaping out on having to hand-draw and -animate the Dragon Keepers’ slightly-elaborate costumes, is baffling. You could make a generous case for it representing them as larger-than-life personalities, but in execution it’s just kind of uncanny. The show looks and sounds fine overall, but little things like that just take me out of it.

I’m going to withhold judgment until the second season, but for now I can’t say I’m too impressed by the debut. Maybe just watch the first four episodes and put a pin in it until season 2 drops.

Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night

I’m beginning to worry that Metallic Rouge’s catastrophic narrative failure may have permanently made me nervous about any original anime to follow. It’s an unfair comparison to make, especially considering it aired at the same time as the bombastically audacious Bang Brave Bang Bravern, which I consider one of the best of the year so far and even one of the better anime to air so far this decade. At the same time, though, the millisecond I start to suspect that an original anime is losing its footing, as soon as the one synapse fires that tells me that this show may not be able to stick the landing, I start to get cynical. The good news is that Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night isn’t even in the same time zone as Rouge’s disappointment. The bad news is that it still never fully lived up to what it could have been.

Right from the jump, this felt like Doga Kobo flexing in between seasons of Oshi no Ko with yet another gorgeous showbiz anime. The debut episode is one of the best I’ve seen in some time; an immaculately animated and brilliantly storyboarded mission statement showcasing the self-doubting illustrator Mahiru and the disgraced ex-idol Kano meeting and finding new inspiration in one another’s work (if you’ve been reading Beat & Motion, this may sound familiar, except they’re both high school girls). It was a masterclass in depicting powerful self-expression and the spark of a truly fateful encounter. What followed was also pretty good, but...

Mahiru and Kano band together (pun intended) to form the multimedia collective JELEE, also enlisting social-outcast musical prodigy (and Kano stan) Mei, and NEET VTuber Kiui along the way. We see a lot of the nitty-gritty of trying to get a new act off the ground, as well as the reality that any new artist or creator nowadays is, ultimately, at the mercy of the internet. It was a treat to watch these four all come together, as was seeing the emotional bonds they forge with one another while also navigating their own personal issues, but it frequently came at the expense of an actual plot. That sort of thing is fine, I do love me some good slice-of-life, but I feel like the show planned on something a bit grander. While we’re focused on so many of these really lovely moments of character growth and interpersonal drama, everything about JELEE’s ascent, y’know, the main plot, just kind of happens, and before you know it everything turns out okay and the season’s over. It really felt like the writers had a big plan but ended up just laying down the tracks while the train was already in motion.

As mentioned, I’m not nearly as down on the anime in the “Mixed Bags” section this season as I was three months ago, but just thinking about how the plot sagged around the middle and rushed towards its ending leaves me frustrated. Unlike JELEE itself, Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night feels like less than the sum of its parts. This show feels like an unfinished jigsaw puzzle; what you can make out of the image is gorgeous, yet not only was it never completed, but someone clearly put a few of the pieces together wrong as well. There are plenty of themes in the story and character writing that could have blossomed into something amazing, like impostor syndrome, finding community and identity through fandom, young sapphic love, gender identity, and so many more, and it may have been possible to resolve at least a couple of these in 12 episodes, but Jellyfish seemed either incapable of or uninterested in actually getting there beyond a few vague overtures.

I know I sound harsh here and I didn’t mean for this review to be mostly complaints; I did very much like this show, but I wanted so badly to love it. And it probably isn’t entirely fair of me to grade this show based on what it could have been instead of what it is, but so much was plainly left on the table that I’m not really left with another choice. I still recommend it much more strongly than anything else I've put in the Mixed Bags section so far this year, but be forewarned that you may be let down. This is a pretty goddamn good anime that could’ve been pretty goddamn incredible, but it just couldn’t get there.

Mysterious Disappearances

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I know what I’m about. If a new series rotates around a protagonist who looks like that, I’ll at least give it an episode or two.

Sumireko is a former child-prodigy novelist, now in her late 20s working at a bookstore with the sharp-tongued Ren, as she continues to fail at getting published again. On the eve of her 28th birthday, Sumireko accidentally takes home a book that was droplifted in the store, and shortly after reading it aloud she finds herself reverted into the body of a child. Suddenly struck by inspiration once again, she disappears from work for the next week, furiously typing away at her next novel. Ren manages to find her and tells her that she’s under a curse: The book is an otherworldly object known as a Curiosity, and its power can be deadly to those who use it. Though Sumireko is desperate to hang on to her newly-regained youth, Ren manages to smooth-talk her into changing back and handing over the book. Now aware of an extradimensional threat to daily life, Sumireko teams up with Ren and his little sister Oto to track down and neutralize more Curiosities before they cause widespread havoc.

This series is alright, if questionable in a lot of areas. I recognize that I’m not entirely the target audience; while I love a good supernatural mystery, each of these Curiosities is rooted in East Asian mythology and contemporary urban legends, very few of which I was familiar with going in. To those on that side of the world (or to Westerners with that specific special interest), I’m sure it hits different, but I got lost on a couple of occasions. Mysterious Disappearances also runs into the same pacing issues that I found with The Witch and the Beast last season, where the plot structure is effectively episodic, but each mystery can last a few episodes at a time, so if you’re not particularly invested in the subject at hand, you’re SOL for another week or two.

This show also just plain doesn’t look very good. The animation is nothing impressive and there’s something off-putting about the overall look that I can’t quite put my finger on. It looks retro in ways that probably weren’t intentional, like a 20-year-old digipaint anime that was upscaled from 480p. The audio element is great, at least; the music, sound design, and cast are all fantastic (between her turn as Sumireko in this one and her supporting roles in Reincarnated as the 7th Prince and Kaiju No. 8, Fairouz Ai has put in great work this season), and that’s a good thing because this one isn’t a looker.

If you couldn’t already tell from how the main character looks, Mysterious Disappearances is undoubtedly horny as hell, but often distractingly so. I do have to praise Sumireko’s design to an extent; for a large-chested anime lady, she at least hews closer to how a tall woman with somewhat appropriately large breasts would actually be built and how her clothes would actually fit. She looks like a more realistically-proportioned Nami. There’s no shortage of anime characters with gigantic boobs, but few that make me actually go “oh, this woman definitely has back problems.” There are a lot of slow-tilting shots up female characters’ legs towards their chests to the point where I tuned the dialogue out because I couldn’t believe they just kept on doing it. I skimmed through the manga, and though there is far more semi-gratuitous nudity as compared to the anime, I still somehow found the latter much more distracting with its attempts at fanservice. I also don’t really care for how the “camera” looks at Oto and her middle school classmates either; I found myself just getting nervous whenever a scene focused on them.

For its problems, there’s at least a series of solid emotional cores here. Similar to Sumireko’s desire to regain her youthful creativity, the wielders-slash-victims of these Curiosities are largely vulnerable individuals who are trying to make the best of their lives in spite of past traumas like bullying, neglect, and disability. All serious issues, no doubt, and the story tries to handle them as well as possible, but once you see through the pattern of “awful thing is happening, we get to know the character, then we learn their tragic backstory and there’s a tearful resolution while we move closer to advancing the overall plot,” it can feel a little cloying in the long run. Not that those resolutions can’t be potent; I really liked the endings of the stories of the missing hairdresser and the rogue VTuber, but as a plot formula it can ring hollow.

Mysterious Disappearances is a fine if unspectacular series of supernatural mysteries with an okay overarching plot, and your mileage may vary depending on your existing knowledge of East Asian occult and superstition. It’s also not that fun to actually look at, even if you happen to be into tall redheads with huge racks. Uh, not that I would know.

The Gems

Girls Band Cry

When Bocchi the Rock! made its unexpectedly earth-shattering landfall a couple years ago, it was inundated with a deluge of comparisons to the previous landmark girls-in-a-band anime, K-On!. It felt a bit trite at the time, and feels even more so in retrospect; each show is its own thing and they both stand on their own merits. And now here’s my dumb ass, reviewing a new girls-in-a-band anime, desperately trying not to compare it to Bocchi.

It’s really not a fair comparison either way; the focus being on an all-girls rock band is really the only thing they have in common. Rather than Hitori “Bocchi” Gotoh, a perpetually-anxious recluse looking to join a band so she won’t have to get a real job after high school, we have Nina Iseri, who is… difficult. Nina has just moved to Tokyo after running away from home, but her train arrived too late for her to get her apartment key, and to make matters worse, her phone’s dead. While charging at a local coffee shop, she finds out that Momoka, the now-former frontwoman of her favorite band, is playing on a nearby street. After some ups and downs, they decide to form a band together, and butt heads more than a couple times.

Along the way, they recruit more members, each with their own issues: Subaru, the drummer, is struggling with the expectations placed on her by her grandmother to become an actress, Tomo, the keyboardist, is exacting and a little too opinionated to keep a steady role in a band, and Rupa, the bassist, is a soft-spoken foreigner who remains a cheerful enigma despite losing her parents. And Nina and Momoka are both flat-out stubborn in ways that do not mesh well with one another. There are a lot of yelling matches and many angry tears shed as the band Togenashi Togeari comes together: yes, the “Cry” in the title isn’t just for style points.

I will say that it’s refreshing that Girls Band Cry does not sugarcoat what an absolute pain in the ass Nina can be when she’s dug in: She ran away from home because she’s utterly convinced of her own righteousness, and it’s your damn problem if you think otherwise. She is avoidant and oppositional-defiant, and everyone else just has to deal with it. She may not pick her hills well, but by God will she die on them. Props for having a protagonist this openly messy and unpleasant. Plenty of musicians, or really anyone working in a group for that matter, can be abrasive and stubborn, and TogeToge’s growing pains are a necessary element of their development as a band. 

I know the bar isn’t very high for 3D computer-generated anime when it doesn’t come from Studio Orange, but this is easily one of the best-looking 3DCG anime I’ve ever seen. Between this and Trigun Stampede, I’m blown away at how expressive characters can be in CG, and how they react to what’s around them in real-time more consistently than you’d see in most 2D animation. Speaking of which, Girls Band Cry isn’t entirely in 3D; much of the OP as well as several flashbacks and background characters are hand-drawn, and they look so goddamn good that I’m almost left wondering what could’ve been. Not that I’m disappointed in the slightest; when the 3D animation hits, it REALLY hits in gorgeous synaesthetic waves that so perfectly depict an intersection of sound, light, and emotion. Hell, even the transition cards are huge eye catchers. Not everything looks brilliant all the time; the pets in particular are uncannily low-res and almost look like they got plucked out of KamiKatsu.

Of course, this is a band show, so the audio element has to be on point as well, and I’d say Girls Band Cry is up to snuff. The anime is part of a larger multimedia project, and the entire main cast consists of audition winners performing under mononyms, and they knock it out of the damn park; they’re pretty goddamn great for supposed newcomers. The music is a blast as well, not just in performance scenes but in the background as well. Togenashi Togeari already existed in the zeitgeist as a virtual band before this show went to air, so they already had a small discography out there before the show went to air and I’m looking forward to digging into it.

Infamously, this show isn’t particularly easy to watch. Not in the thematic sense, but literally: You cannot legally watch it in English anywhere in the West. Despite its popularity, Girls Band Cry was never picked up by any Anglosphere-based streaming platforms, for whatever reason, and the only official English subtitles out there are from an Indonesian streamer. So, much like the days of VHS trading and the early internet, we’re forced to rely on community translations. Far be it from me to encourage piracy (lol), but if you can find a good fansub, Girls Band Cry is very much worth your while. Pinkies up, motherfuckers.

Kaiju No. 8

I don’t watch Demon Slayer or My Hero Academia, so this was my designated Shonen Jump action show of the season, and it came with a ton of buzz: The way I see it, if I can pick up a volume of the manga at Target, the inevitable anime adaptation is gonna be a big deal. I’ve not read Kaiju No. 8 yet, but I’d say the anime lives up to a good amount of the hype.

Japan has had to handle a constant threat of kaiju for many decades now, and as a child the way-too-aptly-named Kafka Hibino made a promise to his best friend Mina that they would both grow up to lead the Japan Anti-Kaiju Defense Force in charge of eliminating the threat. A couple decades later, she’s a national hero as a captain in the Force, while Kafka is in the private sector at age 32, cleaning up the enormous corpses and viscera Mina and her division leave behind. He hasn’t given up on his dreams, by any stretch; Kafka has failed every single enlistment application he’s submitted since he came of age, but he just keeps on trying.

Kafka and his work kohai, the upstart JAKDF hopeful Reno, manage to survive a kaiju attack at the end of a shift with minor injuries, but when they’re in the hospital, a potato-sized flying kaiju shoves itself down Kafka’s throat, causing him to transform into a kaiju. Fortunately, he’s able to change back to his human form just in time to pass the first round of Defense Force exams, with Reno warning him not to let anyone in on his secret during practical exams.

Kafka is pathetically weak in his human form and is repeatedly shown up by the daughter of the Defense Force’s director general, the young hotshot Kikoru (Fairouz Ai once again), but he manages to save her life when a training exercise goes haywire and forces him to transform and share his secret with her. Reno and Kikoru get in, no problem, while Kafka manages to squeak in as a cadet. Of course, without exposing his little-big kaiju secret, Kafka can’t do much to help in terms of actual combat, but he does frequently act as an unofficial tactician in directing his squadmates on the battlefield and, in a very smart writing decision, applying his professional knowledge of kaiju anatomy to help them identify and target weaknesses. 

And from there we get a whole lot of early military training and bonding, and not just with Kafka, Reno, Kikoru, and their division’s vice-commander, the giggly Hoshina: There’s also, uh, Man-Bun! And Muscles! And Shark Teeth! And the Token Women! You know, those guys. Yeah, this is ostensibly an ensemble cast, as any good battle shonen should be, but I really didn’t get much from anyone outside the main few characters other than identifying features. I’m sure we’ll get more out of them in subsequent seasons but I have little to work off of right now.

The main three are great, though: Kafka definitely has shonen protag brain even at his age, but he’s still necessary representation for schlubby guys in their 30s who still have hopes and dreams (we exist and our stories matter), and for as serious and focused as Reno likes to think he is, he makes a great tsukkomi whenever Kafka starts acting up. Kikoru is already an icon as well; she’s basically Asuka Langley Sohryu for the zoomer generation. I feel a little weird about the fact that she’s literally half Kafka’s age and still acts kinda tsundere around him, but this is a shonen at the end of the day.

I have some small nagging issues with the story here and there, but nothing that outright ruins the show for me. Like plenty of others, I’m far more fascinated with the ins and outs of how Japanese society adapted to living with kaiju threats outside of just military preparation and response; Kafka’s initial job in kaiju cleanup was actually really neat and I’d have loved it just as much (and possibly more) if the series had just focused on that. I want some damn world building! I also am not crazy about the focus on the Defense Force’s powerscaling in the form of “Unleashed Combat Power,” but I also just plain don’t care about powerscaling to begin with. Wasn’t the entire point of power levels in Dragon Ball Z that it’s pointless to define someone’s fighting spirit by a number? Maybe they drop it later.

This show looks pretty darn good! Production IG clearly put its A-team on this one; the character animation is cartoonishly bouncy and expressive in ways we rarely see outside of Trigger productions, and the big-ass kaiju are all mercifully in outstanding 2D (though I wouldn’t complain about CG; the OP is entirely in 3D and looks exceptional). The silliness of the animation really came through in one of the funniest scenes in any anime I watched this season. Some of the textures can look a little distractingly muddy at times, but hey, these are big ugly monsters we’re looking at. Make those bastards ugly.

On a certain level, I can appreciate the effort put into this show to try to make it a crossover success; the manga is popular and kaiju films remain one of Japan’s greatest cultural exports. Streaming new episodes on the fetid corpse of Twitter was certainly a decision. I can also appreciate wanting to load up the soundtrack with popular Western artists; my problem is that they went with acts I actively avoid like YUNGBLUD (with writing by Imagine Dragons!) and OneRepublic. Suffice to say, I don’t care for the OP and ED on a musical level, but I know that I’m coming at this with a conscious bias. I’m sure they’re hits over in Japan, and for all I know there are music fans over there with the same tastes and disposition as me who think that some Japanese acts I learned about through anime like, say, Bump of Chicken or Queen Bee, are “coworker music” or whatever. I’ll live.

Kaiju No. 8, at the end of the day, is another battle shonen with guns and big monsters, but sometimes that’s all you need. I’ll be coming back for the next season.

Train to the End of the World

Spring 2024 was a banner season for girls anime. From the veteran director/writer duo that gave us cult hits like Squid Girl, Shirobako, and Prison School (and individual credits on a laundry list of classic and cult-favorite anime across the board) comes an original anime that’s not quite Cute Girls Doing Cute Things, nor Cute Girls Doing Amazing Things, but Cute Girls Being Fucking Weirdos in a Weird World.

7G technology has arrived in Japan and immediately wreaked unknowable chaos. Geography, flora, and fauna have all warped beyond recognition, and in the town of Agano, every human above a certain age has become a talking animal. Shizuru, a still-human high school girl, has been looking for her best friend Youka ever since they got in a fight two years ago and the latter ran off, just before the 7G cataclysm. She finds out that Youka has been spotted in Ikebukuro, and with the help of a babbling train conductor who managed to briefly turn lucid, learns to operate a two-car commuter train to get the hell out of dodge. Just before Shizuru leaves, train stocked with Agano’s famous goya melons, she’s joined by her classmates: The soft-spoken Nadeko, the temperamental bookworm Akira, and the rambunctious gyaru Reimi. Youka’s dog, Pochi, also joins for morale purposes. Along the way, they see just how warped Japan has become, with locals in the various towns ranging from mushroom people to zombies to Lilliputians to characters from their favorite anime, and more.

Try as I might, a summary does not do Train to the End of the World justice; this show is as offbeat as offbeat gets. It makes no bones about how flat-out weird it wants to get and actively revels in it. It’s not really interested in making the girls into a new generation of moe icons either; they are unabashed weirdos, in the ways that really only high school girls can be, and they handle the bizarre situations foisted upon them in similar fashion. They get into arguments about dumb shit, hurl insults at strangers, and occasionally just talk about poop. The writing in this series is fascinating, and it really shouldn’t come as a surprise coming from someone who also has script-writing credits for classics like Cowboy Bebop and Ranma ½ on her resume. The dialogue is punchy and comes at a breakneck pace in ways that you really only get in original anime like ODDTAXI.

Train to the End of the World is an incredible dichotomy unto itself because it clearly comes from a very literate way of thinking but has a blast being really goddamn stupid sometimes, in the best ways. It draws on a lot of inspirations of the epics of yore, gleefully cites the western literary canon, and ponders the future of the human race, and then has the girls negotiate their release from a Gulliver’s Travels situation by threatening to flood a park with urine. It is at once Homer and Homer Simpson. This show is funny in ways that are hard to articulate; comedy is so intrinsic to the show that it only has so many laugh-out-loud moments, but much more often I found myself shaking my head and remarking “this show is fucking hilarious.”

As a complete story, Train to the End of the World isn’t exactly generation-defining, but that’s perfectly fine. It’s an experience more than anything. It has really nice character moments and some heartwarming stuff in there, but I was mostly there for the weird shit. The ending was just okay, but I didn’t feel any poorer for having seen it; I’ll dive right into the cliche and say that it wasn’t about the destination but rather the journey. I had an absolute blast for the whole ride.

Now that I’ve made you read all of this, I’m going to go ahead and admit that I haven’t seen Squid Girl, Shirobako, or Prison School, but I kind of have to now, because I was bowled over by this show. This series revels in surrealism, so your mileage may vary, but it’s at the very least worth checking out. It may not have a lasting impact outside of some similar cult favoritism, but this was still my personal favorite new anime of the season.

Wind Breaker

A few weeks into the Spring season I felt like I was missing something. I gave Wind Breaker a shot and I realized about halfway into the first episode that what I was missing was just some dope-ass fisticuffs.

Haruka is a bit of a delinquent. His hair and eyes are heterochromic, and because he’s judged so harshly for his looks, he decided to lean into it and become the nogoodnik everyone thinks he is. He’s moved to a new town to join the local high school Furin, where he hears he’ll have to fight his way to the top, but as soon as he arrives in town he sees a young woman being harassed by a group of creeps. He takes them out on his own and in return receives a free lunch from the cafe she runs despite his protestations. After she teases him more than a little (his ass is NOT used to positive attention), the creeps return with more goons in tow, and Haruka is backed up by his new classmates. To his surprise, the locals shower the Furin boys with praise, and he then learns that Furin’s gang, Bofurin, exists solely to protect the town from outside threats. And Haruka thinks that is the coolest shit ever.

From there, Haruka gets to meet more of the Bofurin boys, and because of his standoffish personality, rebuffs their praises from the fight. Again, his ass is NOT used to positive attention. We get to learn the hierarchy of Bofurin, and it’s not exactly as Haruka expected: This is not a might-makes-right dogpile at all; it is a structured organization that protects its own and puts its community first. Soon enough, though, they happen upon one of their middle schoolers being hassled by a neighboring gang, and they organize a tournament on hostile ground to resolve their differences.

I am an absolute goddamn sucker for the “delinquent with a heart of gold” archetype, and Haruka is just a big ol’ tsundere from the opening minutes, so Wind Breaker hit like fucking catnip for me. For a show about gangs of delinquents, this could actually be a good example of positive masculinity if you look at it in a certain light. It’s very heavy-handed with the message that nobody can achieve greatness on their own and that surrounding yourself with the right people can change your life for the better. It’s not a rare theme in Japanese media by any means (it’s a central theme of the Persona series as well as another ultra-popular shonen series I’ve been reading in secret), but I really appreciate it being delivered through the lens of channeling brute strength and fighting prowess specifically to protect the vulnerable.  

At the end of the day, though, it’s really just about guys bein’ dudes.

The production values on this are phenomenal and I have to commend CloverWorks for turning in yet another banger. The cast is deep and plenty talented (there’s a lot of Jujutsu Kaisen in there, and it should surprise nobody that the goofy, silver-haired leader of Bofurin is voiced by Yuichi Nakamura). The animation, shot composition, fight choreography, and lighting effects are all absolutely gorgeous, and it’s clear that they see this as a potential franchise. At least, I would certainly hope so, because what we actually got from the first season left me a little hungry. The tournament arc was juicy, and it went a lot longer toward introducing the ensemble cast than the two other action shows I just talked about, but it lasted about an episode too long for a 13-episode season, and the ending came at an awkward time. I was left wanting, but what I want is a second season, so I guess it did its job.

The issues with pacing and the weirdly-timed ending meant that Wind Breaker was a bit of a fence case for me between this section and the last, but my memories of watching it are almost uniformly positive, so into The Gems it goes. This show rocks. Dudes rock.

[queenlua]

this is probably egregiously cringey and/or STEMbrained of me, but, i think it'd be pretty fun/interesting to make a workbook / writing workshop-type thing with the following format:

* you're given a detailed, just-the-facts, beat-by-beat summary of some story.

* the story, as given, should sound pretty mid. scenes that feel extraneous, unclear overall theme, etc

* you sit down and write out "how i would fix this story if i were the author." which plot threads feel underbaked & do you draw them out more or just cut those threads, do you add/remove any characters, do you change anything to ramp the tension up/down, etc

* if it's a workbook, maybe there's an "answer" "key" of sorts in the back where a couple solid genre authors share what they did. obviously there wouldn't be a Correct Answer™ but i imagine you could glean some interesting insights from seeing both (1) what those authors considered to be Problems To Be Fixed and (2) how they fixed them.

* if you're doing this in a workshop format, you hear how everyone else fixed their stories. hopefully at least one person in the room is kinda good at this lol

like, i feel like in writer's workshops i've been in before, you hear a LOT of talk about individual sentences and style stuff, which is good and valuable knowledge to have! but there's a lot less talk about plot structure, partially due to limitations of the workshop-as-implemented, i think—it's impossible to talk about The Structure Of An Entire Novel if ppl are only ever reading it in 5k word increments. so... why not operate on 1-5k word summaries instead

i'm basing this largely on my experience with this one particular creative writing prof, where like, i got a decent amount of value out of workshop time... but by FAR the most valuable time was whenever i camped in this dude's office hours to be like "hi, sorry, i'm accidentally writing a novella again" (i... i was the bitch who submitted stuff that blew past the word limit for workshop... multiple times... i'm sorry) "and also i'm stuck on this one plot beat, can i tell you what my story is & hear how you'd fix it?" and like. damn. for a dude who wrote a lot of quiet stories where nothing happened, he had pretty strong instincts for How Genre Works, & i always felt like i walked away with some new trick for thinking about story structure

but i'm not sure i've had an experience like that anywhere else!

which seems like a shame. like yeah i've read Save the Cat and similar "plot structure"-y guides but they always feel unhelpfully... abstract, to me? like the thing where you're learning some new technique in a math class and it's like ok that's nice and all but i don't actually *know* it until i watch someone work a few problems and then work a few problems myself. i want to see all the tedious scratchwork and such, i am too stupid to learn it otherwise lol

[aihoshiino]

chapter 156 thoughts

Chapters Since The 143 Kiss Happened And Went Entirely Unacknowledged And Unaddressed Count: 13

Aqua Hoshigan Status: N/A

I'm gonna be real with you gamers I don't have a lot to say about this one LOL. Typically these Mem chapters come at the top or bottom of volumes as transitions between phases of the story so getting one slap bang in the middle of what will be volume 16 is a little jarring, as are the contents of it. Despite making up 1/3rd of the current B-Komachi, Mem is pretty underutilized across the whole manga so while it's nice to see her be given a proper arc capstone chapter all to herself, it feels underbaked. I almost suspect that the beats of this chapter may have been intended to serve as the bones of a Mem mini-arc at some point but with only so much time to spare before the manga ends it was crammed into this one chapter. Without any room to breathe, none of its beats hit.

Mem and Frill being friendly enough for solo hangouts is cute, though! One of the things I did like about the Movie Arc was the way it mushed the wider supporting cast together into a more closely knit social circle and I like seeing that reflected in moments like this. It helps add to the sense of them being people living their own lives who have things to do outside of dealing with Hoshino Family Drama.

The story swinging back to deal the elephant in the room that is Mem's real age is also potentially juicy but - say it with me, folks! - lacks the build up it needs to really be worth taking seriously. Prior to this, Mem's age has mostly been played for laughs when it has come up with no real indication that it's something the manga wants us to take seriously. In that way, the slightly blase framing of it here does better suit as a resolution than suddenly taking it deadly serious was but it does just end up feeling like something Akasaka added to the manga not because he felt it was an important part of the story but because it was next on his checklist of things to tie off before the manga ends.

This can really be felt in the way this chapter really fails to dig into why Mem even had to lie in the first place - there's the off-handed acknowledgement of Mem wanting to be an idol and her age potentially being a barrier in that regard but it doesn't actually dig into this premise of Mem's age being a problem. In a series whose proclivity for infodumping about the ills of the entertainment industry is practically a fandom joke at this point, it feels uncharacteristically restrained for it to not take this opportunity to talk about how this attitude is born from fetishizing, commodifying attitudes about youth and supposed 'purity' and the ageism and misogyny many adult women in the entertainment industry all over the globe have to deal with.

In general, OnK has been pretty toothless the last few arcs when it comes to the cast having to actually navigate the industry's toxicity. The way Ruby's struggles with idolhood are held up as comparable to Ai's is one major symptom of this that I'll probably go into at some other point, but we also see this in characters like Kaburagi and Shima-D too - despite being objectively pretty scummy individuals in terms of both their behaviour within the industry and their interpersonal relationships, the note the manga seems to have ended on for both of them is a sort of 'aw shucks he didn't mean none of it' wishy-washiness where it's unwilling to hold them accountable.

This toothlessness adds to making everyone's immediately acceptance of Mem's lie ring so deeply hollow. No scandal, no negativity, no nothing. An utterly frictionless resolution that feels as though it added nothing to the plot point it was tying off. Again, it would feel weird for this to become a big dramatic beat when the story has so consistently treated it like a joke but this half-baked conclusion leaves me feeling lukewarm at best.

To not end this on a sour note, I will say I really like the note this ends on of Mem deciding to shoot for university and I like Ruby finally giving Mem even a shred of props for the backbreaking amount of work she put into B-Komachi's growth. Appreciate Mem more, you little gremlin!!!

Speaking of Mem's JD dreams though, I've heard some speculation so far that Mem shooting for university is an indication that she's also going to be leaving B-Komachi but… eh, I disagree. Mem talks about how much the group means to her and her revealing the lie here feels like a step to try and protect her place in B-Komachi and ensure she can keep performing with them.

Break next week to no one's surprise… did y'all know the volume 15 release in Japan says volume 16 isn't dropping until December? Wild.

[skyeoak]

Tmagp 30 thoughts

Vocal performances all slayed. 10/10

I think there’s a lot of good and bad in the finale! But overall, it feels underbaked. (Or overplotted/overplanned?)

I’ll save my finalized thoughts on the hilltop center to see if it’s developed in further seasons, because uh, hmm. Jonny said in the live drop that carousels of horrors were his favorite to write, but they sure are not realllyyyy my favorite to listen to. They’re kind of thematic scattershot. And yeah, one of my critiques about TMA is that I don’t love how we only rarely see how the fears combine and interact. Having multiple creepy things in a curiosity cabinet -com shopping center doesn’t really solve that problem for me.

The idea of a character turning a blind eye to an obviously creepy job is still interesting, especially in how it parallels the staff of the OIAR. But that’s kinda the start and end of my interest in the custodian? It feels like this story could have been shrunk to 1/3 length and had a better effect. I just feel like this should have been a midseason statement, and the finale could have focused on having some sort of action or tension. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting the finale to have a statement at all, to be structurally in line with early TMA. Maybe a full statement/story from Celia, giving the non-TMA audience some idea of why she thinks there’s nothing to go back to in her universe. Hell. Maybe she could just. Tell Sam, uncompelled. I would have loved to see her try to convince him to jump. Convince him that her new life matters more than his (perceived) failure of one. Instead… this is another episode where I feel like the double meaning titles weigh down what the statement could be. And it’s the season finale.

I wondered early on if the finale for this season would feel more like setup for future seasons, and yep. Yep it did. It just felt like there was this inherent tension between the stakes of the story, which are already at interdimensional travel, and the level of danger it feels like everyone is in. Not to mention how Celia just drops a list of alchemical balance things out of the blue. Magnus Protocol is in a tricky situation: they need to set up a new conflict and new characters, and at the same time, Magpod has already done mega-apocalypse hellscapes and so TMagP might feel the need to go bigger. (Imo I don’t think sequels always need to raise the stakes but I understand that’s industry standard). It’s also tackling alchemy, a notoriously complex subject that’s probably hard to explain to an audience in any way that feels natural. You can’t just throw murder worm lady and screaming main character in the finale and call it a day. There’s a lot going on, less time, and I don’t know if the characterization this season was consistent (/consistently good) enough to hold the full weight of it all.

OKAY, WHELMED THOUGHTS OVER, now for the good! Surprise surprise, it’s all the little character payoffs!

Gwen and Lena’s confrontation was EVERYTHING. Gwen is kicking anthills, and Lena is so content to let her stand in them while the ants crawl up her legs. I won’t lie though, I’m not sure if this plotline will be interesting to me. I think it depends on how fast the OIAR staff can get Gwen to actually be on their side.

Sam deciding to protect Celia by pushing the archivist into the void is SENSATIONAL CHARACTER PAYOFF. (This is my interpretation of the scene, audio was super unclear once again, and there was a line change from transcript to podcast that made this super ambiguous in the actual canon audio.) My poor guy has ZERO self esteem, and still wants to be a hero. He probably realized that if what Celia just told him was true, an archivist could actually kill her on the spot. My guess is that (tma spoilers) this balanced the rift not because Celia replaced her own missing soul (plenty of folks got sent through hilltop road in that same incident) but because an archivist+a person were pulled through to replace Jon and Martin. Truly excited to see where they end up, and if this archivist gets developed more as a character next season. Also the implications of interdimensional balance on what happened at the end of TMA are… interesting.

Oh Alice. Everything in this intricately balanced house of checking up on people and soothing them and deflecting tension with jokes is about to come crashing down. I’m so sorry this is happening to you.

And yes, this is a super lukewarm episode review but I do wanna say I liked this season a lot, and TMAGP is still a cut above a LOT of horror I have read/listened to this year. I’m hoping seasons 2 and 3 will either steer further into a direct TMA sequel, angle OR steer clear and become their own thing. TMAGP is stuck uncomfortably in the middle right now. Just be the good parts of her. But completely new.

[plusultraetc]

I'm having a normal time which is why I literally teared up during the first ten minutes of You're Next bc I am so proud of that kid :')

movie spoilers under the read more!!

DEKU HAD AN ALL MIGHT MOMENT. That was honestly all I could think when he stopped that trio of villains at the beginning like it was nothing. That whole sequence was so well done and I was sitting there with tears in my eyes and a huge stupid grin on my face like I AM SO PROUD OF YOU. I saw the movie with a friend who is familiar but not at all caught up with the series and I think talking about MHA with her and having her perspective so fresh in my mind made me kind of emotional about how far these characters have come.

I'M SO PROUD OF ALL OF THEM ACTUALLY. 1-A killed it in this movie. Keeping up that hopeful, heroic spirit on patrols. Prioritizing comforting & rescuing people over confronting villains. Seamless teamwork. The kids are alright!!!

Bakugou was so funny in this, we were genuinely wheezing laughing every time he spoke. Also he and Todoroki 🤝 'destroy everything,' guys PLEASE.

Midoriya was lowkey a mess in this movie but in a fun & funny way. He and Giulio were an enjoyable duo even though I found Giulio's characterization a little wobbly throughout (I still really liked him, and not just because his cybernetic eye was SICK. I was and am and forever will be OBSESSED.)

EVERYONE had a long-lost relative in this movie. Shinsou. Kirishima. Aizawa (x3). Nomu. Everyone. This is our Italian relative family reunion academia. That being said NEW SHINSOU BACKSTORY JUST DROPPED FOR ME SPECIFICALLY.

MIRIOOO!!! I did not know he was in this, when I tell you I clapped (I remembered at the very last moment that I was in a movie theater and it was the softest clap you've ever heard in your life). Hawks said he sent a hero into the fortress and I went from ?? to :D so fast.

Aizawa was not in this movie (though Mirko was, preserving the all-important Nine Lives timeline even though I am... kind of confused about when this takes place in canon) but he was there in spirit & ✨thematic relevance✨ Once again we have a character with a nullification quirk whose job it is to stay close to a character with a dangerous, uncontrollable quirk. I definitely will be chewing on some of the ideas Giulio & Anna raised but for now, if I had a nickel for every time a character with a nullification quirk lost an eye and a leg...

Todoroki's dream. Listen. Listen. The second Touya spoke I grabbed my friend's arm and just kind of clung there like a miserable little barnacle. And SHOUJI'S DREAM. Such a brief flicker of a scene and yet it knocked the wind out of me.

But my favorite dream sequence was Midoriya's. Baby Izuku!! All Might!! YOICHI!!! When the vestiges showed up immediately to snap him out of it?? You can never and I mean NEVER brainwash this haunted ass quirk!!

UNEXPECTED BIRD BROS SCENE. Hawks was in this movie way more than I expected (my Hawks cardi summoned him obv) and I was delighted, but then we get a super quick Tokoyami team up?? Truly blessed, tysm.

The pros in general,,, So many cameos by so many faves, including Mt. Lady, Ryukyu, Mirko, AND VLAD. HE DIDN'T EVEN DO ANYTHING BUT I CHEERED. Vlad babe you literally just have to show up and I will be thrilled.

I really enjoyed how thoughtful certain elements of the movie were. Just little things--I knew from the second I saw Anna's flowers to look out for a rose on Dark Might's suit when he ditched the cape; the little nod to 1-A having a lot of experience with cancelling quirks; OFA and Giulio's cybernetics being disconnected from Deborah's quirk. A lot of things felt very underexplained, but I liked these little inclusions.

Overall both Dark Might's quirk and his motivations were incredibly underbaked to me, but honestly I didn't even mind bc I was having such a good time. I will let so much slide in the name of fun and this movie was so fun. 100% recommend.

I had a couple of other notes but this is already So Long. Anyway I needed this movie so much & could absolutely see myself rewatching it in the future, thank u You're Next

[serenityfails]

part two of my DATV thoughts, now that i've finished the game. i think i'm gonna focus on my feelings about specific character arcs in this one.

VARRIC: i touched on this in my previous post but varric isn't really a character in this game, it's just rook and solas's shared projection/idea of who varric was. which i do think is actually an interesting concept. i just think it's noticeable, once you learn that fact, that everyone just moves on instantly. i don't need the game to indulge me with hours of clothes-rending mourning, i just don't believe his death would go totally un-remarked upon.

HARDING: i need a lot more selling on the idea that she cares really deeply about her dwarven heritage. it's possible i missed some important banters or something on this subject from her, but as it stands i didn't feel, based on who she was before, that it really mattered to her that much. she's a surface dwarf, born and raised-- she certainly had some thoughts about that in the descent DLC, but the vibe i got was "yeah those guys don't associate with the likes of me, but fuck 'em, I'm Fereldan", not "gee i wish i could reconnect to The Stone". even just some tidbits about her family. she brings up her mother all the time-- something about her mother feeling a sense of loss there, or something emotional to link her thematically to the titans.

lacking that connection, it felt even more glaring that they straight up PUT VALTA IN THE GAME, because that's HER story, not harding's. it just doesn't line up for me personally.

i like the idea of anger vs joy in concept, and i liked the idea that harding actually had a lot of animosity towards solas that she felt ashamed of. but i think that animosity should have started from a more personal place (maybe what happened with corypheus and the inquisition, then varric) and blossomed from there into the wider question of the titans. if that was the intention, i didn't really see that in the final version.

BELLARA: She's Fine.jpeg. i think it would have been good to get a clearer idea of who/what Anaris is, because i did feel like that aspect of her story was underbaked and her brother's death was foreshadowed so hard it was basically haus of decline's "i think we're gonna have to kill this guy, steven" comic, but that was an issue i had with multiple character plotlines. i like her and Neve's relationship and i will be sexualizing it. thank you.

NEVE: i can't really take her Dark Knight bit seriously but that's okay. (she's Crime Boss Batman in my game now, and her boyfriend is the leader of the Crows, so good for her.) I like how she plays off the other characters more than I think I like her in isolation. i also feel like i was missing some of her backstory, but maybe you get more if you romance her?

LUCANIS: i want him to be a bigger mess. he's too well-adjusted. i say this having hardened him in my game... i was cut off from romancing him but i still feel like he was taking everything too well and being too reasonable about everything. i want a bitch with messy hair and yellow teeth scrabbling around like a fucking goblin okay he's been imprisoned under the ocean for a YEAR and he's POSSESSED make him get FREAKY WITH IT. he lives in a pantry but he always looks like he just stepped off a magazine cover. i can't jerk off to this

DAVRIN: they could not possibly have told you any more clearly how precisely his entire plotline will play out from mission one, so it was boring in that respect, but i enjoyed all the Wardeny lore of his questline so i'm okay with it. I also called the monster being Isseya so i get a gold star for being a big fucking nerd. His romance has moments of juice and then peters out a lot at the end, which is tragic. I actually enjoy his perspective as a Dalish elf that felt confined by that life and left it on purpose, but I think we don't get enough of a sense of the Regular Old Dalish vs. the weirdasses in the Veil Jumpers to feel the weight of that choice.

EMMRICH: i love this bitch he's so fruity and fun. it's deeply cute that he's genuinely shocked and hurt people find necromancy creepy and weird. i razzed him about it once and he got so genuinely sad about it i was like omg... baby.... i'm so sorry peepaw!!! Hezenkoss is the best villain in the game because she's just like what fucking ever no relatable motivation no grey morality it's mad science time!!!!!!!! my friend said she "made a bone Jaeger out of rich people" and you know what. she was right to do that. #womeninSTEM #supportwomenswrongs

i let manfred die. in the moment, i was actually just super mad at the game for so blatantly foreshadowing WE ARE GOING TO KILL THE CUTE LITTLE SKELLINGTON that i was like fuck you, the skeleton dies. i felt bad about it after. but also emmrich becoming a lich was REALLY funny so i don't feel THAT bad.

TAASH: there is a good character in there underneath the corporate mandated HR meeting. another point where the script needs less handholding, more time to breathe, and more in depth exploration of the qun's take on gender, which in the past games i have found genuinely compelling, and gender in thedas in general (which the games already have a patchy track record on).

i was also mad at the game for so clearly flagging their mom's death, and it seemed so reversible because like... hi we have a party full of mages with healing magic what exactly is the issue here, BUT WHATEVERRRRRRRRRRR. (mommy, why didn't aerith use a phoenix down?)

i also have to apologize to Taash for completely ruining their life and making it hard to connect to anyone ever again by killing off Harding. i think it's crazy Harding got to spend her last months on the planet getting the daylights fucked out of her by someone who is at a rough estimate ten years her junior and twice her size, though, good for her.

post is already too long. i will post about my feelings on Solas, Lavellan, and Mythal some other time.

[ploppythespaceship]

Doctor Who Series 14 / Season 1 Review

Man, it feels good to be enjoying Doctor Who again. I haven't been keeping up with the show in years, but I caught up to see Tennant's return leading into Ncuti's run and I am so glad I did. This season is far from perfect, but it gets a lot of little things right and is consistently fun to watch, even if a lot of the details fall apart.

What I Liked

Ncuti Gatwa is simply phenomenal. He settles into the role so quickly and so easily, bringing such a fresh energy to the character. I love how distinct he feels, too -- when you're playing the fifteenth iteration of a character, it can be hard to find a new spin on things, but he's done it. He's also a fantastic actor, getting to show an incredibly wide range in just a few short episodes. I truly think he'll be remembered as one of the best Doctors.

Millie Gibson is also very good as Ruby, and her dynamic with the Doctor is a lot of fun. I appreciate having another Doctor/companion relationship that isn't romantic. They're just best friends, and it's very cute.

The show looks great. It's very clear that they've had a budget increase -- the costumes, effects, etc. are noticeably improved since RTD's first run.

Murray Gold's return as the composer is extremely welcome. His stuff isn't quite as bombastic as before (or maybe the episodes just have better sound mixing), but keeps a lot of the same leitmotifs. The result is a more subtle score that perfectly suits each scene.

Mel is so cool now. She was one of my least favorite classic companions, so seeing her worked into these storylines and feel more compelling is an unexpected delight.

What I Didn't Like

Ultimately, I think the season is just too short. Council of Geeks has an excellent YouTube video on this -- because there are only eight episodes, and a lot of them are going for bigger ideas and weirder premises, it feels like we don't really settle into a status quo.

The Doctor and Ruby's relationship also isn't as developed as much as I would like. If you pay close attention to the dialogue, there's actually a six month gap between "Space Babies" and "The Devil's Chord" -- we could have used another episode or two in that time period to really flesh out the beginnings of their friendship better. Instead the show jumps straight to them being best friends, without really showing us why that is.

I don't think the mystery box format of this season really worked. The mysteries were built up to such an extent that no answer could really be satisfying, and the finale really almost entirely on the big reveals that ultimately didn't amount to much. Ruby in particular feels like an underbaked companion, and I hope she gets more time to get properly developed.

Individual Episode Thoughts

Space Babies — This is easily the weakest episode of the season. It's not bad by any means, but it does remind me of some of the sillier episodes of RTD's first run. It felt like we were speedrunning the companion introduction, when things could have been slowed down and spread across a few episodes to feel more natural. The baby VFX also do not work and fall very firmly into uncanny valley territory.

The Devil's Chord — This one makes very little sense, but is entirely saved by Jinkx Monsoon being so iconic as Maestro. If you just go along for the ride, it's a ton of fun.

Boom — This episode is proof that Steven Moffat truly is at his best when he's writing self-contained stories under someone else's guidance. I don't think it's as iconic as Moffat's previous stories, and I felt like Ncuti was getting a lot of dialogue that better suited Matt Smith, but the entire concept was interesting and the execution was solid. Also, Ncuti acted his ass off without even being able to move.

73 Yards — Honestly, I'm mixed on this one. The setup is fantastic and eerie, and I enjoy the exploration of Ruby's character, solo from the Doctor. I like her experiencing this inexplicable thing, and deciding to find purpose in it to help others. But the story does fall apart for me at the end when it doesn't explain anything. I don't need every single thing handed to me, I understand the value of leaving things to the imagination, but the fact that the episode's last impression is "wait what?" does leave a bit of a sour taste. That being said, I do respect how weird and different this episode is, and how much discussion it prompted afterward.

Dot and Bubble — The trailers looked like a Black Mirror ripoff, and I was prepared for a shallow "social media bad" episode. Instead, we got something far more nuanced about the dangers of trapping yourself in a bubble of like-minded people and refusing to ever look beyond it. And the ending reveal that it's a society of white supremacists is so, so well-handled, because all the clues were there for you. If you're like me and didn't piece it together until the very end, it really challenges you to ask yourself why you didn't notice sooner. Also, another episode where Ncuti acts his ass off. My personal favorite episode of the season.

Rogue — Another with mixed feelings. Rogue himself is tons of fun, and I enjoy his dynamic with the Doctor, even if parts of it are pretty rushed. I really hope he comes back. The episode plot itself is serviceable but nothing special. My main complaint is the severe lack of Ruby. Her relationship with the Doctor doesn't feel sufficiently established, so the emotional beats don't really land.

The Legend of Ruby Sunday — This was an underwhelming finale, unfortunately. The first part barely even qualifies as an episode. It launches right into starting to answer the season's mysteries, but does so in an uncompelling and heavy-handed way. The Sutekh reveal is pretty epic in isolation, but...

Empire of Death — The Sutekh reveal doesn't really lead to anything satisfying. He doesn't have the presence of Toymaker or Maestro, he's just a CGI dog monster. This second part finally answers some questions, some of which are vaguely interesting, but it's happening in a plot so dull and so dry that I just can't bring myself to care. The episode is also just confusing? The plot points don't seem to flow naturally together, like multiple stories were smashed together with little rhyme or reason. The resolution is some of the most nonsensical nonsense that Doctor Who has ever come up with. Then we get to the reveal of Ruby's mother, which is so forced and it becomes clear in retrospect that things were added to seem more mysterious than they really were. And capping it all off is the Doctor's farewell to Ruby, which falls flat because, as I've said, their relationship is rather undercooked. It really does end the season on a downer, which is a shame because so many of the preceding episodes were pretty good.

[lethargicmouse]

lizzie and tommy (:

I’ve always been a fan of Lizzie. I found her character so interesting, solely because I found her to be so tough, but also have so much love and femininity to her. However, I also liked Grace– she was strong and cunning and dang she fell for a gangster! However, I felt her character was underbaked (because she literally died. Great for Tommy’s character development– bad for Grace). What prompted me to write this all out was me running out of Lizzie and Tommy fics to read and turning to Tommy and Grace fics. The first (and frankly only one I read), was Thomas Shelby laughs in his sleep, or at least he used to.  by @i-just-look-at-pictures on AO3, and it really fleshed out Grace’s character for me, it filled in the holes in their relationship that the show didn’t cover. It made me realize how stark (haha), the differences between both relationships are. Grace gave us the forbidden love, marriage trope, love at first sight type deal whereas Lizzie gives us the redemption arc (literally RUBY.) and a slow burn. 

In my first watch-through of Peaky Blinders I loved Tommy and Grace’s dynamic– and I still do; however, after watching it back it was not the most healthy thing on the planet. But really what relationship with a man like Tommy can be? For me Tommy’s love for Grace was an obsession– she was a perfect posh girl and man, how could a girl like her fall in love with a guy like him?! But she did, because Tommy really liked her so he was soft Tommy with her. (That is why she fell in love with him, not like May who liked him for the thrill of a gangster– no shame on May, though. She is a strong woman who knows who she is. And I would totally fall for a hot gangster, too.) Grace challenged Tommy in ways women hadn’t before (excluding Polly because she’s more like a mother figure to him); however, she accepted him for the dirty gangster he was and didn’t try to fix him (because she was just as dirty as he was. Also, a lot of people say that Grace was Tommy in girl form– but helloooo ADA?!). For me, this is neither good nor bad, well maybe a little bad. Like I said before, Grace challenged him, but not in the ways that I feel like could’ve benefitted Tommy as a person, but then again Tommy wouldn’t have dared to soil his perfect Grace with the dirty dealings of the illegal business. So it was a fault all around, really, in my opinion. Grace could’ve thrived in the illegal business dealings (she’s a smart girl!), but it was the illegal business that was her demise. (I don’t believe for a second Lizzie had any intention of starting a war, and she didn’t start it. John did. Lizzie just wanted a normal life. But did she really like Angel, orrr was he a distraction from Tommy? We all know the truth.) Tommy ruined Grace, but look at how her death ruined him. Her apparition (originating from the stupid drugs) is the personification of his guilt. Grace doesn’t call him to the afterlife– his guilt for his gang business does! 

Lizzie however, was different. She was involved in the dirty business from the beginning. She knew who Tommy was pre-war, and she knows who he is now. And look at how she hoisted herself up out of the gutter. She took those typing classes to stop whoring. She tried to get out of it with John (but we all know how that went– and I personally don’t think that was Tommy keeping Lzzie for himself, that was Tommy protecting John). She took the initiative to clean up her life and Tommy just aided her in the fact by giving her a job (truthfully, all he has ever helped her with was money). Regardless of all that, I truly believe (and it’s evident–blatantly obvious even) that she was in love with Tommy from the beginning. Two of my favorite Tommy and Lzzie scenes are as follows: the one where she asks him to pretend like they’re ordinary people (kills me every time. Hurts my soul. My poor baby Lizzie girl.) and the typewriter scene where he offers her the job (the manner in which he went about it was stunning. I would’ve died.) 

As the story goes, Tommy goes back to Lizzie relatively quickly after Grace dies (excluding the Tatiana madness). I’ve seen posts that blame Lizzie for this, that she jumped on Tommy after Grace died because she was jealous. I have no doubt in my mind she was jealous– but she has enough decorum to withhold that and act like a lady. Lizzie grounds Tommy. Yes, they were toxic (My property? Not cool. Infidelity? Not healthy! Telling her to abort the baby? Nooo thanks– and she was so excited! “A piece of me and you” CRYING); however, I feel like they understood each other on another level. They’ve known each other for what, 15+ years? And they’ve been married for what, 8 of those years? Gosh, they know each other inside and out. Their relationship, obviously, is very sexually based. Lizzie was a whore for pity’s sake, and Tommy himself is probably the biggest whore on the show (literally seducing poor Jessie Eden for personal gain?!). I’m sure Lizzie was able to read Tommy like an open book and vice versa! Just look at how they push each other's buttons! Him telling her he still pays her for it, and her giving him the bullets in the mud. Neither was a good situation– a) that’s a horrific way to push someone when you know that bothers them b) that is not how you deal with a suicidal person. But look at all that harm and trauma we see they cause each other because of years of hurt from each other and others.  This is where we see Lizzie break for the first time, in my opinion. For her family comes first, even over her one-sided love, and Tommy was willing to break that family. 

Lizzie’s two best qualities (but perhaps it was also these that lead to her demise) were her unwavering loyalty and her ability to care. The former is probably why I relate to her so much. Even after Tommy screwed up her first chance at a normal life with John, left her to get raped at Epsom, told her she was property, let Diana publicly humiliate her, mocked her attempts at divorce, told her to abort their child, (I’m sure there’s more) she stayed. Because she freaking loved him and cared for him. He trusted her as a secretary to have a foot in both businesses, but he never trusted her like he trusted Grace (which is completely ironic to me because Grace betrayed all of them. But look at how much he is like Lizzie in this way. Forgiving personal transgressions because you love them sooooo much.), because he trusted Grace with his head– not the business. Lizzie was the opposite. Her loyalty to him was intertwined with her ability to care. Like the man himself said, “It was you who stopped my heart from breaking”. I’m not the best writer, but aniray conveys this perfectly in their fic A Bit of Soft (In a Broken Place). Lizzie is always there for him and cares for him. She fulfills his needs. Her ability to care was shown really, though, with the children. Charlie calls her mum (which I know a lot of people don’t like– but she took the child of the woman who she probably was jealous of and genuinely loved him as her own) and Charlie’s bond with Ruby is so adorable. Lizzie was meant to be a mom! And Tommy gave her that. And like I said earlier when Tommy was willing to give up his fatherly duties to be reunited with Grace, Lizzie reminded him of his duties at home (albeit in a not-so-nice way). Because that’s what really important to her. The well-being of those children. And that’s what finally drove her to leave, was Tommy’s craziness about Ruby’s illness and his lack of presence at her death. There is no doubt in my mind Tommy loved Ruby, and he really went to the ends of the earth to save her. But when he wasn’t there to hold her hand (and Lizzie’s hand) as she died, that’s what did it. Not the infidelity, not the sham of a marriage, not the drugs (she knew what she signed up for. A marriage for looks. She was ok with being the one who cared more.), but the lack of care (in the way she thought, and really it was the way that he needed to be, mattered). This is also why she couldn’t have been the black cat. A) She wanted to get as far away from her whoring days so she isn’t talking to Mosely B) she loves Tommy too much (to her own disgust) to betray him like that C) it’d hurt her family D) She was for sure at that violin recital! She wouldn’t’ve missed it for the world!

But really he did love her, Lizzie– definitely like he loved his family (she was family), and I think he definitely had the potential to be in love with her. He’s now realizing that she was essential to his life (because he likes nice, soft things). However, Lizzie (thank goodness) has realized he’s never brought anything good into her life (excluding Ruby, her angel), and the hurt outweighs the crumbs of kindness and left him. She doesn’t deserve him. Like I said earlier Lizzie, I believe, will be the catalyst for his redemption (Just look at how Ruby saved him!). Yes. They are toxic and their relationship in the show is most certainly not healthy one bit! But, there is potential for love. 

Here’s some fic recs that really illustrate their relationship:

For me all of these authors are amazing, I just stick to Lizzie/Tommy really. No Tommy/Alfie for me. All are on Ao3

@aniray:

* a lot of these are things that happened in the show with alternate happenings. The third one down though is stunning though. Like bro, it’s canon for me! 

Open Hands

A Touch of Change

A Bit of Soft (In a Broken Place)

A Different Kind of Love

Into the Mist

Slipping into Dreams

Everything

@deadendtracks :

*these two are series

Get it wrong, get it right

Possibility of a Blade

justrosey:

Someone is digging your grave right now, someone is drawing a bath to wash you      clean

No more canaries in the mine

@divinekangaroo:

*series

The Last Second Ending

Emma_Perlman:

*series that’s au after season 6! Redemption! Strong Lizzie!!

The Siren Sings

@xxsparksxx :

*series

Armistice

@emjenenla :

Even though you don’t mean to hurt me, you keep tearing me apart

ANYWAY! Please talk to me about them I'm losing my mind.

[doomerpatrol]

Comic Log: Wonder Woman by Greg Rucka

I read a few different Wonder Woman runs of the early 2000s, and none of them particularly landed for me before Rucka came on board. They all felt like they were being purely imitative of George Perez's classic time on the title, as the compassionate warrior in an alien world, without meaningfully adding to what he'd developed.

Not so with Rucka! Rucka manages to toe the line between innovating and honoring, by having a strong concept, consistent and progressive characterization, and compelling emotional and thematic stakes.

The concept here is Diana is running the Themysciran embassy to the US, which introduces a charming staff as her supporting cast, and establishes a tension between her roles as hero, Amazon, and diplomat. It also gives her so much more room to breathe as a character - she has substantive relationships with her embassy staff (who are generally charming if a little underbaked), but unlike Perez's imitators she no longer feels primarily like an outsider trying to adapt to a new world. She's a lot more down-to-earth. Which makes sense - she's been here for years at this point! This setup reminds me a bit of Dan Slott's She-Hulk - office hijinks with a colorful supporting cast - but less pointed towards comedy and more towards political drama with some light comedy. I think that's a good genre meld for Wonder Woman, and a unique direction to take the character beyond mythology punch-ups.

Meanwhile, the overarching thread of the narrative centers on a new antagonist, Veronica Cale, who is basically Lex Luthor if he read Sheryl Sandberg. Cale is a pretty interesting if detestable character whose hatred of Wonder Woman springs from a sense of envy and desert, and a cold willingness to treat other people as purely means to an end: allying herself with the detestable rapist Dr. Psycho, upgrading Silver Swan with brutal cybernetics that will kill her, tossing her friend and partner Leslie aside after being caught for that last one. She makes a pretty strong foil to Diana. She's my favorite new addition to the cast aside from Ferdinand the minotaur chef, but unfortunately, she drops out of the narrative a touch awkwardly. More on that later.

As all this is going on, mythological conspiracies are playing out behind the character's backs, including the resurrection of Medusa, and Athena and Ares (now in kind of goofy, contemporary dress) jockeying for power against Zeus on Olympus. I liked how this created parallel politicking between the mortal and immortal worlds. @radiofreederry pointed out to me when she read this run that it was within a wave of sort of "hip," millennial takes on Greek mythology in the early 2000s - American Gods came out two years prior, and The Lightning Thief would be released while the run was ongoing. I like, conceptually and textually, what's done with that idea here - it's just that the designs are a little silly. Athena playing chess with her owl is really funny, though.

Aside from that nitpick, I quite enjoyed the artwork of Drew Johnson in the run's first half. Johnson's layouts are generally utilitarian, rarely going for huge splash pages or especially complex or creative paneling, but this dovetails nicely with the more dialogue-driven writing relative to other superhero books of the time. His designs and artistic tics remind me a little of Mike Wieringo in their cartoony qualities, though where Wieringo's characters were often very rounded, Johnson's are a bit sharper and leaner (see below). It's later taken over by Rags Morales and a couple other alternating artists; I don't like any of them on the book quite as much as Johnson, but they're all fine.

Unfortunately the story goes a little off the rails at around the two-thirds point to make way for the Infinite Crisis event (sigh). Not disastrously so, as there remains some sense of cohesion compared to how so many other comics lose their way as they wind down or feel the hammer of the dreaded crossover event. But it definitely feels more constrained, as we pivot from Diana navigating the thorny political situation around Themyscira/US relations - juggling the manipulation and antagonism from Cale, different factions of the Olympian gods, Circe, and the obligations of her relationships with her support staff - to Diana as representative of her people after she executes Maxwell Lord. Some of this stuff is a little played out, but Rucka manages to at least justify its more cliche moments - noting that it's not about whether she did the right thing but rather the perception of the act - "optics" has kind of been a major theme of the work, the ways in which the powerful will try to sink Diana's mission of compassion, and so although the Infinite Crisis elements are crowbarred in, they still *fit*. Just stiffly.

The book wobbles a bit here, and certain elements like Cale, or the arcs of the supporting staff, don't get resolved in an entirely satisfactory way - if at all. But, as far as Diana's character arc goes, I think the book still recovers some of its footing in those last few issues. It's unfortunate that it got cut short by editorial nonsense for an exhaustingly bad event, but at least it doesn't totally lose its way.

Favorite Arc/Issue: Sort of a toss-up for me between "Down to Earth," which sees Diana releasing her book and then having to navigate the conservative backlash engineered by Cale (which is shockingly pointed for a 2000s-era cape comic, honestly), and "Stoned," which sees Medusa unleashed on the White House.

I'm hoping to read Rucka's "Rebirth" era Wonder Woman as well, see how that stands up in comparison!

[narukouzumakinamikaze]

More thoughts on blood of Zeus

Was it revealed who cut Herons thread?? It doesn’t make sense for it to be Hades, nor does it make sense for it to be any of the other gods.. was it Gaia who did it because she wanted to release the last titan?

Poseidon is such a weird character in this because he acts like such a bitch.. we get it, he’s scared of Hera. Why is that his only character trait.

While I do like that Hades was motivated by love, he felt incredibly passive. I did say that it felt underbaked, and it’s because a lot of the time the series focused on him, he’s not actually doing anything. Half the season he’s giving exposition to Seraphim to try to convince him. And the other he’s letting Demeter walk all over him.

I also don’t like when they make Hades hate the underworld. If I’m remembering correctly, hades doesn’t actually hate the underworld. He’s pretty okay with it. Instead of having him hate it, just stick to his story with Persephone and wanting her to be with him permanently.

I also feel like Demeter wasn’t given any blame at all in Hades and Persephone’s predicament. She’s the entire reason why they have to split up every six months. So why does it seem like Zeus is being blamed for that, when it’s all Demeter fault. I really want Persephone to cuss her out and tell her how toxic and hypocritical she is.

Zeus’s trial served no purpose. I’m disappointed in Hera for once again allowing herself to be embarrassed by Zeus. But the whole reveal that Hera was the reason Zeus gets to rule the heavens added nothing and went nowhere. What’s the point of this revelation?? That Zeus shouldn’t be the ruler of the heavens??? This trial did absolutely nothing and I don’t understand the point of it.

The funeral games also served no purpose. They said the winner of the games gets Zeus’s ring and a clue to the stone to be the next ruler of Olympus.. so why is it that despite what the games was introduced as, that’s not what they ended up being. Zeus gives Heron the ring and that’s it. These games were pointless. It could have simply just been the gods grieving, but nope.

Speaking of the games, Ive seen people say they feel like Ares character changed. And I can kinda see what they mean. He didnt have much of a character in season 1, but he didn’t seem to be a hostile asshole like he is in season 2. Also, the whole thing with Persephone didn’t feel in character. At all.

I will say that I can understand his anger and hatred of Heron because he’s the result of what happened between his mother and father. I do wish they explored that anger more, and why he’s been so hostile, but they needed an asshole God and Ares fits that bill. Wish they gave him more scenes with Aphrodite as well.

Hera felt off. I don’t like how she allowed the other gods to speak to her that way. Yeah she feels bad but she’s still a powerful god who will not tolerate disrespect. After all they’re all riding for Zeus who was the cause of everything. She should have called them out in following someone who clearly does not care that his actions have consequences and yet they’re upset at her for reacting to his actions..

Herons character continues to be a disappointment. I’m not mad he’s the child of prophesy, I’m just mad he’s bland and boring. There’s nothing interesting about Heron and the series doesn’t do much to make him interesting. It thinks we should care because he’s the son of Zeus.. but Zeus has many sons, so he’s not special in that regard.

And here’s the thing, he could be interesting. They tried to make him a complex character by not wanting to save the men that tried to rape his mother even though other people will die in the process. That’s actually really interesting to explore because it deals with complicated feelings of doing what’s right and doing what you feel is justified. But instead of exploring these feelings Alexia just says some words and those feelings are gone.

The series also tried to make it a point that Heron needs to learn to forgive Seraphim.. the issue with that, is that that is based strictly upon what Gaia is telling Heron to do, not something that Heron wants to do. So it feels fake and phony that he wants to forgive him and wants to save him, because he’s not doing it on his own free will. He’s doing it because someone told him too.

And the thing about Heron and Seraphim, is that I will always be on Seraphim’s side, because he suffered more than Heron ever did. He was 100% right in killing his uncle and his sons. No he didn’t need time give them for what they did. They deserved to die and I’m glad seraphim killed them. I hate stories that says revenge is bad.

And then we get to Herons power.. he really is a Mary Sue lmfao. But they try to force this idea that Heron having this power is scary and he’s scared of being corrupted by it. That would work if we knew anything about Herons personality. Is he the type that can be corrupted? I don’t know because the series didn’t give him a personality.

Now that I think about it, I think they’re trying to parallel him with seraphim… someone pointed that out, and now that I think about it, that’s most likely what they were trying to do.

Problem is, is that it made sense with seraphim. It doesn’t make sense with Heron. At all. Like I said, seraphim suffered more than Heron ever did. His power doesn’t come from having a God for a father. It came out of desperation to survive. Seraphim ate the giants flesh, not because he wanted power, but because he needed that power to survive. Heron was just Born with it, so he never had to actually suffer to gain that power.

Speaking of my favorite character Seraphim.. I said it before but he’s still the most interesting and best written character in the entire show. Even when they forced a love interest on to him, he’s still better written than anyone in the series. Honestly, I think seraphim is their favorite character and they know that seraphim is liked more than Heron so they put all their thinking into his character. Because even when it misses, like with the love interest, it’s still better written than anything going on with Heron.

Anyway, I’m tired of this idea that Seraphim needs to be redeemed. He did nothing wrong and I’ll stand by that. Electra deserved to be killed by him. She was the worst.. nah but seriously, I feel like Seraphim’s actions in the first season wasn’t explored enough for my liking. Why was he going around converting people? What was the purpose of that? Was it the demon blood? Did he want to create his own kingdom? Why was he changing people? Because that never gets answered or explored.

I would have liked if they explained why. They gave him the speech claiming that the world was so messed up that people weren’t free. So why not go into why he was changing people. One of the prominent things about Seraphim’s backstory, is that he ate the giants flesh in order to gain the power to fight back against those who were causing problems. So why not have that be his thing. All those who converted did so because seraphim gave them the power to fight back against their oppressors and the ones who did them wrong. They were all victims of something.

That would be something that Hades would like about seraphim. So why not have that be the thing that bonds them together. The desire to right what’s wrong. Hades whole thing is about being just and fair. So he’ll allow Seraphim to get another chance at life as it’s not fair he died due to the gods meddling. No strings attached to his new life, but Seraphim has to help him with one thing that doesn’t require him much problem.

I would also add a scene of Electra and Seraphim having a talk and why she never once asked Zeus to bring him to her and to call her out on how she pretended she cared, but didn’t do anything to make sure he was alive and well and took Zeus’s word over being a mother. He needs to call her out, because how dare the show say she’s one of the only two people that prayed for him over the women who actually saved him and the one who took care of him.

Heron and Seraphim’s episode could have been done so much better if instead of a forced love interest, it was his caretakers that Seraphim went to go see. It wouldn’t make sense geographically but I would have made it work. This way they can speak about their mothers. Have seraphim reveal part of his backstory to Heron and have heron reveal his and what he had to deal with. How he hates the man who killed his mother but he also has conflicted feelings because that man is his brother. Have seraphim reveal the men who killed his mother were his cousins and that he also killed his uncle who tried to kill him as a baby and that he doesn’t regret what he did, because they deserved it. He asks Heron if he believes Seraphim deserves it, and Heron answers that he doesn’t know, because he knows that a big part of the reason his mother is dead, is because of Hera.

I really love seraphim and I want him to be happy.

The ending was weird. Why was Gaia so mad??? She’s acting like the gods were perfect before and didn’t backstab one another.. Poseidon does it the most. Her reasoning was weird. I feel like she was the real villain and wanted a reason to unleash the titan.

[fostersffff]

Visions of Mana: An Underbaked Anniversary Cake

Going into 2024, Visions of Mana was far and away my most anticipated game of the year. Following the Trials of Mana remake from 2020, it appeared to be everything I was hoping for: a game not inherently bound by being a warts-and-all remake of a 1995 Super Famicom game, with the same visual style as that remake, and (seemingly) budgeted scale/scope-wise in accordance with how insanely well the remake sold. From the reveal, I also got the sense it was meant to be an anniversary game, which I thought made perfect sense: make a big game that pays homage to Adventures, Secret, Trials, Legend, and whatever other Mana games they'd care to reference, and determine a new direction for the franchise!

As we got closer to the release, I got a little apprehensive. I think at some point I learned that this was not actually being made by the developers of the remake, who instead have been working on the Romancing SaGa 2 remake. Instead, this was being handled by a NetEase subsidiary, Ouka Studio, who hadn't seem to have made anything before this; not necessarily a red flag, but definitely an odd choice. Then the demo came out, and while it didn't sour me on the game, I noticed that I had a lot of the same kinds problems with it that I had with Trials of Mana back when that demo came out. Of course, I ultimately loved Trials, and even if the worst came to worst, they make this, and then if it does well, the them gets to make a sequel and iterate!

Then Ouka Studio was literally shuttered the day Visions of Mana came out, so that won't be happening either. And sales have reportedly been underwhelming.

In addition to my standard inability to focus in on anything, I felt like I was kind of pushing off playing Visions because I was worried about being disappointed. Streamers I watch whose opinions I generally line up weren't hostile, but even at best the reception seemed lukewarm. And of course, that only applies to the streamers who actually played it, because they like the Mana series as much as or even more than me. In the course of less than a single year I literally went from WE'RE SO BACK to IT'S SO OVER with regard to the Mana series. But I've now rolled the credits, and drank in as much of it as I care to experience, which is mostly everything.

Visions of Mana is a good game with good ideas that was made by a studio that either didn't have the time, money, experience, or any combination of those three things to bring all of those good idea to fruition. They hit on a lot of what I (and I imagine other people) broadly love about the Mana series, but a lot of the experience is brought down by whatever it is they were missing. And, to be blunt, it feels like they were missing a lot.

But what Visions of Mana was not missing, was a bratty disabled dragon girl with a Southwestern U.S. accent who travels with a baby version of the franchise's iconic sparkledragon, and who also gets to be the party's pugilist.

So that's a feather in the game's cap!

(Spoilers for Visions of Mana, as well as Adventures of Mana (Final Fantasy Adventure), Trials of Mana... the Mana series in general, beneath the break)

The Good:

The game looks absolutely gorgeous. HACCAN's character designs combined with some really stunning and complementary environmental design make this game just incredibly pretty, top to bottom.

One of the things I was most concerned about whether or not they'd land was the story. It's not perfect- the only thing in this game that's perfect is Careena- but I felt that it falls in line with what I consider the be The Tone of the Mana series, which is a kind of gentle melancholy (that has admittedly gotten more diluted with each new entry).

The biggest strength of the story for me, and what I was worried about right up until the end, was that they didn't undermine Hinna's death. Basically everything surrounding that was handled exactly how I would've wanted it, from the party not really absolving Val of responsibility for Hinna's death but trying to be sympathetic, to the game actually making a point of Val having to talk to Hinna's parents about the fact that she died, and most importantly, not letting her (and Eoren and Lyza) come back at the end to do a quaint little Happily Ever After (even though there is a happy ending on a longer timescale).

I actually thought the party came together pretty nicely as a group! This is something I've noticed ever since I replayed Chrono Trigger a few years ago, where after your RPG party hits a certain size incidental dialogue among characters just falls out (because it would be a lot to write), but this game has a fucking ton of unique incidental dialogue for every area in the game. It's actually kind of staggering how often your party will just banter amongst themselves.

Careena is obviously my big favorite, but really the whole party is pretty charming. Special nod to Palamena's endearing but often awkward affinity for alliteration that no one ever points out.

I like all the things that make this feel like an anniversary game! Bringing back iconic bosses like the Mantis Ant and Fullmetal Hugger, having a little plot dedicated to Vuscav, the ships being named Primm and Dyluck, and even trying (not necessarily succeeding) at tying the franchise together by having Visions's world of Qi'Diel be a result of the fracturing of Fa'Diel.

The developers knew enough to allow you to snap the game over your knee if so inclined via powerleveling. I think once I unlocked the class that allowed Careena's Class Strike to ignore a percentage of defense, I made a beeline for the high level ruins and then managed to get myself to like Level 54 while the story was still at Level 30, which trivialized every encounter from then on. I'm Love Avatar Strength.

The Bad:

The music is just... nothing. "Generic" is such a shitty way to describe the work of the composer and so many talented musicians, but I don't think there's a single song in this OST that sticks with me except maybe the Nemesis (open world mini-boss) battle theme, because it's the only one that feels like it has any energy to it. The thing I honed in on the most was the difference between the Sanctuary of Mana theme: in this game, it sounds like music you would hear in "A Jungle Area", which is kinda what it is, but it is quite literally The Most Important Place Ever, so just having the music be "A Jungle Area" is odd. Compare it with the music for the same kind of area in Trials of Mana, where the song "Decision Bell" really immediately strikes you with the fact that this is The Most Important Place Ever, with the choir and heavy ringing bells.

Complimentary to the nothing music is the fact that this game is actively harmed by having the big "open world areas" that are not "open world" in any meaningful way and are instead just very large with very little in them. For as cute as the pikuls are, they didn't really make exploring those areas more fun, and I found myself often just not using them because the animation for summoning them and dismounting took too long. I'd actually argue this game would go up a whole point if those areas were cut down while maintaining the illusion of being huge with good environmental design.

For as much as I like the story's overall tone and how the characters interact, the biggest problem with the story is the entire concept of the Alms. It's revealed once you make it to the Sanctuary of Mana that the sacrifice of the Alms is necessary to give the Goddess and the Elementals enough energy to stave of Daelophos's curse. But there's not really any implication that there's anything special about the chosen Alms in terms of how much energy their corestone provides, it's largely just the elementals going "hey I vibe with this person, let's go with them". Considering how many character stories are precipitated on "well I'm honored to be chosen for this duty, but…", and how many NPCs are like "YO IT'S SO BASED TO BE THE ALM, I HOPE I GET TO BE THE ALM!!!", you'd think it would either be A.) voluntary or B.) they'd lean into the idea that by and large people aren't comfortable with the Alms, and maybe all the people talking about how cool it is to be an Alm are lying through their teeth (like Careena's beau Shiriu seemed to be (but wasn't actually)).

The only characters who really sincerely object to the idea of the Alms sacrifice are Eoren and Passar, and while there's significantly more nuance to Eoren's bad deeds than Passar's, he's dispatched immediately once Daelophos shows up. A lot of this could've been handwaved with a few extra lines here and there about how only the corestones of specific people can actually resonate enough with the Elementals to sustain them, which is kinda sorta implied, but as it's written it's just like "it has to be this character for Story Conflict"

Last note on the Alms: it's very strange to open the game with Eoren and Lyza, and end the game with Val abolishing the need for Alms, and have the emotional centerpiece of the game be Hinna's death being brought about by not wanting to be an Alm, only for the game to either not square the circle or play dumb about how horrible it is all the previous Alms had to sacrifice themselves. Like, the game has a lot of major "Alms bad" points but doesn't really make a push for how bad it was all those years.

The Rest:

The gameplay goes here, because it's not bad, but more than anything else I feel it's best described as "underbaked". See, they honed in on the fact that something that everyone liked about Trials was all the classes, and all the different costumes (originally just recolors) characters got as they got new classes, which is clearly what led to the Elemental Plot system. All five characters have eight unique classes that have a special power tied to them, and to spice things up further, three different weapons that are divided among the classes, per character. But this is where the time/money/experience issue really rears its head: there's maybe three or four attack strings per weapon, so even though Val's sword, greatsword, and lance movesets feel totally different, none have very much depth to them. And then, even if I didn't like how the lance felt, was I just going to not use the special ability that creates a time bubble?

Also, on that note: kinda get the sense Aesh was meant to be a party member, but they couldn't whip up eight more classes and three more weapon movesets, and meaningfully differentiate the classes' abilities from the other 40 classes in the game. So he's just around sometimes!

One last nit to pick with the story: the post-credits scene is a homage to Final Fantasy Adventure/Adventures of Mana, where Fuji has to become the new Mana Tree/Goddess of Mana, and Sumo vows to be her guardian for all time. This is the dynamic between Visions's Goddess and Khoda, and so once Val dies of old age, he takes up Khoda's vigil and becomes Hinna's guardian, as she becomes the new Goddess of Mana. But... why? During the entire final boss fight I was waiting for Daelophos to destroy or otherwise critically injure the Mana Tree, like what happens Adventures and Trials, and they again could have hand waved it as "since Daelophos used Hinna's corestone, she was able to integrate herself into the Tree to help it stay alive", or something. Literally anything!

I was weirded out by the choice to have new Benevodons except for Zable Fahr. This is fine, since a lot of them as introduced in Trials were pretty whatever design-wise, (except, of course, for Zable Fahr), but my understanding was every Mana game after Trials that referenced them were consistent that those specific entities were THE Benevodons. Selaphia is a more interesting Benevodon of Light than Lightgazer the Giant Eyeball, but Tor Mane the Giant Frog seems like a weird replacement for Dolan, especially since the you once again fight the Benevodon of the Moon in an ancient castle that was populated by beastfolk.

Putting Kaiji Tang on notice for his performance as Morley, because I just could not get a sense for whether or not he was trying to do an Inigo Montoya thing. That's honestly probably more on the voice director because I know Mr. Ichiban Kasuga does good work, but Morley was the roughest voice in the game.

I feel like I wrote a lot to not say much, which is maybe appropriate for Visions (also because I didn't take notes/pictures so I'm flying by the seat of my pants). It's in the miserable "mid" range where I can't bring myself to come down on it too hard, because it doesn't do anything unforgivably wrong, but it rarely achieves any great heights. It's also difficult to recommend Visions of Mana to anyone who isn't a fan of the Mana series already, especially in a year that's been as packed with other good video games- especially with so many RPGs, and especially Action RPGs like Granblue Fantasy: Relink, which based on the bit I've played of that seems to do everything Visions of Mana wanted to do.

At least I'll always have Trials.

[oodlyenough]

Maybe it's tad early since you're still in the 5th game but whats your opinion with the new characters for the 2nd triology?

HMM. I'm going to assume you just mean the major ones and not the one-off victim/defendant types.

Honestly I think my overall impression so far (mid-AA5) is that they're varying degrees of interesting but underbaked. Some of this I expect to change as I finish 5 and 6, and some I expect... won't.

This got really long so here's a cut. Spoilers for AA4 and a bit of 5.

Trucy

I like Trucy a lot, probably my favourite of the lot, although in no small part because she's so tied to Phoenix, whom I am still more invested in than any of these other people lol. They hinted at Trucy having more complicated feelings under her very cheery, performative persona -- Phoenix comments he's the only one who knows how she "really" feels -- but it doesn't seem like we the player are ever going to get to know more about that, so :P.

It's weird that she's basically dropped into a cameo role in AA5 and been more-or-less replaced by Athena -- like -- objectively that's just a jarring transition. But for Trucy lmao I guess she's probably having a better time now, going to school and doing magic and not having to partake in case stuff anymore.

Klavier

I love Klavier, in that I am always having a good time when he's around, I find him hilarious. But as a character I think he's really underwritten. They haven't really spent any time giving him much in the way of motivation or depth or emotional response to any of the insane things that happen to him, he's just there to flirt and have a laugh. Like Trucy, he's pretty personally involved in all the events in AA4 but you'd never know it bc he very rarely reacts to them. I don't understand why the conclusion of 4 was that he quits music instead of law. He loves music. Aside from "horny", music is his entire personality. We aren't given a reason he's passionate about or interested in law nor does it seem to be tainted by Kristoph at all even though rationally it should be. So that's just... weird imo.

But I like him, he's prob my fave prosecutor after Franziska and Edgeworth. He's the kind of character I can see fandom having a lot of fun elaborating on. In AA5 he comes across like a depressed burnout, and I like that even though I think it was totally unintentional from Capcom lol. It's like when you see a celeb on tv and think "huh are they ok?" and then six months later you hear they've checked into rehab. Hang in there buddy.

Apollo

Apollo is very likable but so far has not much going on in the way of character. In AA4 I thought he felt more like Phoenix's courtroom avatar than a participant in the story, because even when he is personally implicated like with Kristoph or Thalassa, he either doesn't know or doesn't react. (Are you seeing a pattern...? lol) Unlike Trucy and Klavier, I believe Apollo will actually get more material in DD and SOJ, for better or worse, so we'll see how that changes things. I like him, but don't currently feel invested in him. If they had started DD with just Athena and Phoenix I'm not honestly sure I'd be upset about it. Sorry, Apollo.

Ema

Ema's not a "new" character although adult Ema feels pretty different to kid Ema, in a good way. Kid Ema was fun but forgettable to me -- adult Ema fucking rules lmao my favourite detective for sure, I wish we got to keep her. Cranky and competent and disillusioned. I loved her.

Kristoph

Kristoph was fun but overhyped by fandom imo. I liked him and his weird gay frienemyship with Phoenix, and in the pantheon of AA villains I see why he's pretty memorable, the 7 year gap is very rich material. But his motivations were silly and I anticipated so many better ones that didn't materialize at all lmao. I thought he was going to be some criminal mastermind building his defense empire on falsified evidence ... he just did it once and then panicked for 7 years?? Kristoph wants what Dahlia Hawthorne has.

Athena

Athena still feels like I've only just met her, so I don't have a solid opinion. I like her though. There are not enough women practicing law in this stupid franchise so I was predisoposed to like her, and I like her overzealous energy and stuff. I don't love mood matrix as a minigame, and I don't know what her tragic backstory is yet btu I know one exists, so the jury's out on that. I wish DD would just let me play her more often.

Blackquill

Blackquill is doing nothing for me lmao which, tbh, is what I expected. I find him tedious and his design is ludicrous to me I hate it lfhadhflkhfl he looks like he belongs in a different franchise. I know he's a fan fave and he's going to have some big sad backstory too, so maybe he'll win me over, but right now he's a big eye roll. I think his prison gimmick would at least be more fun if every time he cited his friends from jail they were easter eggs from previous culprits or something. Feels like a missed opportunity for gags.

Fulbright

Fulbright is... fine. Probably my least fave detective. He gets a laugh out of me once in a while. Maybe my opinion will improve as the game goes on since I fucking hated 5-2 and it's all I've really seen him in so far lol.

Misc

I think that's all the big characters I've met so far? For the one-offs, I liked Valant a lot he cracked me up. Zak was nasty and I'm not entirely sure if the game realized it or not. Thalassa continued the noble Ace Attorney tradition of hands-off motherhood. I don't have much to say about Junie as a character but I do love Athena's unfortunately-one-sided gay pining.

[macgyvertape]

BG3 Act 3 thoughts and liveblog part 1

I couldn't stop comparing DOS2 act 3 and BG3 act 3, since act 3 is a bit underbaked in both games compared to the other acts, but wow BG3 just has so much more polish and content.

The prologue reveals my character is a Bhaalspawn, I feel like it's just so widely known at this point

Defining character moment for Astarion “the problem with what Cazador has done is he did it to me”. Since Asatarion really wants this she’d help him sacrifice his “siblings” what matters to her is that Astarion is safe, but she’s worried about the unknown details but is still planning as if its possible. The dialogue options of “a killer isn’t worthy of respect” is fucking laughable my character would never say that lmao. 

When the narrator was saying you have a bunch of options what will you do, for my character it felt best to say “when the moment comes I’ll do what feels right”, since she's more of an opportunist

Ooof that fight with the gith was rough even on easy mode.

My character wanted The Emperor to prove he was the protector, but then tried to read his thoughts anyway. She’s also very grateful Lae’zeal wasn’t around when this happened considering Orpheus is real and a renegade mindflayer has him prisoner

Learning that the protection against the Absolute comes from Orpheus being trapped really puts a damper on my character’s plans to not get rid of the tadpole and associated powers. It's too dangerous to count on Orphues being imprisoned. Also the Emperor was a successful power player in Baldur’s Gate, so she’s more wary of his plans and agenda than the fact he is a mindflayer. 

My character did turn down the Emperor’s offer to evolve her, sorry she just is too attached to how her body looks. She also thinks this is a line in the sand she’s not going to persuade her companions on, unlike the tadpole powers. (personally it's the fact that it messes up your teeth, huge personal squick). I guess had my character take on so many parasite powers it gave me a fucking 21 score roll to not evolve. 

EDIT: the next day I got spoiled on the Emperor’s seduction scene and it’s friendly manners being all a front; real fucking surprise pikachu face moment for me. That my character who manipulates, lies, and seduces people might encounter someone who emotionally manipulates, lies and will seduce people. I didn’t fully trust it and thought it might have its own agenda, but still I was a little too trusting that there might have been some genuine emotion. Like DAMMIT I was rewatching Felix rvb scenes before I started the game and he has a line “Funny how an act of sacrifice like that [getting hurt] buys you so much trust”. Which is exactly what the Emperor did, where it knelt down and made a big show of how it trusts me not to hurt it and when it calls on us for that dramatic rescue that while genuine was an excellent opportunity for it to be revealed. Apparently the 21 roll is because I used so many tadpoles which the game treats as buying into The Emperor’s promises. Its repeated lines of “just like you” and “i’m on your side” to establish common ground and then presenting itself as a criminal with “a heart of gold” in its backstory. I/my character was skeptical on some details considering it also presented itself as a major power player, but bought into it’s use of “allies” when what he meant was “pawns”.  

Gale had the comment “you’ve not taken this power for yourself… why offer it to me” and I wish I could respond like what Astarion said, that don’t want to sacrifice my body. Astarion had a whole lot to say on the subject but Karlach only had 1 line about being surprised I hadn’t taken the power/transformation. Funny to see how other companions had lines about how they hadn’t done any tadpole powers and they weren’t about to start now. 

My character’s made an enemy out of the undead lich Gith queen, whom only Orpheus can oppose, and there’s an entire Gith resistance working to free him as well. So that really kills any plan of using the Absolute for herself because she’d be better off with Orphues fighting the Gith queen

Really Astarion and my character have come so far from act 1 where he was warning me about how easily Cazador could kill me to now where he’s saying if Cazador comes for him he’ll strike back and he’ll have my character along with him 

The one group my character has been consistently nice to with no promise of reward is kids, so at this point she’s just resigned to them showing up at camp as long as there’s someone like Withers, Halsin, or Wyll to keep them from getting hurt. 

My character is helping the strange ox yet again. It won’t reveal what it is but she’s really curious, and it hasn’t seemed to kill people, so she’ll help it because it might be a useful ally in the future

I love Biscotti what a GOOD DOG (love the animal writing in this and DOS2)

I think its funny that for a while I was thinking that Astarion wasn’t that pale, but in the bright light of Baldur’s Gate he really is. I think it's due to my monitor that has super high contrast

Surprised Halsin has the most dialogue in the refugee area mostly about how he’s rapidly becoming disillusioned with the city, and I tried a earlier save without him and the other companions like Astarion or Karlach don’t speak up if he’s not there.

Community meme about Gortash: I can excuse him being the chosen of an evil god and using his power to found a murderous evil cult but I draw the line at him and his PMC making surveliance cop robots. Bane is just the god of cops and Gortash works for Boston Dynamics

I like to think a bunch of the companions have been a positive force on my character so she’s helping the refugees in her own manner (lots of intimidation), and wants to see the Tiefling refugees make it after all the struggles. That there were explosives in toys justifies her being nosy and helping

Karlach really wants to go to the circus, unfortunately my character is a vicious murderer lmao. Thankfully she’s great at [persuading] and charming. Astarion, Halsin, and Karlach seem to be the best “go to the circus” group

Incredibly cool to hear my bard character perform along with the other bard in the circus

The dinosaur and the magic cat in the circus are being mistreated, Halsin is right to be mad about it. I used Astarion to pickpocket the key, then mage hand to open both cage doors

My character doesn’t like clowns and after she felt that murderous urge there’s no way she’s getting on stage. I watched the different versions of sending Halsin or Karlach up on stage but sending Astarion up on stage really is the best version. Role playing it as after he made that comment about clowns being a horror and with how both Karlach and Halsin approve of picking Astarion while he doesn’t approve if you pick someone else; its some light hearted group teasing of a guy who usually has a joke at others expense “You love the spotlight, don’t you… here’s your big chance”. Yeah he says he’s going to kill me but he’s not seriously upset.

Astarion and my character both enjoy killing clowns, see we’re great together

My bard character was pissed about the Djinn scamming with the spin the wheel game so of course she went back to rig things to get the jackpot. 

Ok so my character gets her meteorites back, that she’s a Bhaalspawn, she’s not surrendering to the D!urge or worried about atoning, but that she’s being encouraged to slaughter her line and that its the woman who hurt her before is a opportunity for power and revenge coinciding nicely

For now the only person my character is telling is Astarion, this is a big thing to confess and she wants to play this close to the vest for as long as possible. While she did have earnest suspicions since the oubliette, she’s more afraid about standing up to a god and the loss of control. I personally like how Astarion comforts you after that dialogue a lot more, especially the way he says you must try to beat Bhaal and not become a slave.

[gaydiation-poisoning]

This was originally gonna be a reply to a moot but it's going on too long so I'm gonna make my own post, incoherent rant inbound

To me BOTW's story was a poorly paced mess of underdeveloped characters, unrealized themes and boring cutscenes.

I adore the game, haven't spent 2000+ hours in it and completed all shrines three times over for nothing,

The world and details were utterly incredible, easily the best open world I've ever played in, but to me, the story was told so badly as to ruin what were otherwise fantastic character concepts.

I enjoy a lot of the theming and symbolism, the Silent Princess stuff in particular was just...mmm delicious I wanna eat that part of the narrative

It's such a good story, but sparse short cutscenes that show very little beyond basic character introduction, and then having 80% of a characters' growth be shown in fucking reading in game books (some of which are behind a FUCKING PAYWALL) rather than through playing the damn game is just like...objectively bad video game storytelling, at least for a game like this

BOTW tried to tell a complex story with nuanced characters but it did it in a game where the focus physically could not be on those characters, resulting in what felt like an underbaked mess that was missing massive pieces

And I can feel people arguing that "Well LINK is missing pieces of his memory so the gaps in the narrative are acKCHEWALLY GOOD" Like

Okay

Sure

If that works for you that's great, all power to you, but it's still not good storytelling.

There tends to be a general (but not rock solid) rule of writing, 'If this isn't the most interesting part of your character's life, then why aren't we seeing that?' I feel like BOTW gets hit hard when stepping on that particular rake.

You're getting bits and fragments of a really cool narrative that...ultimately means very little in the end. Trying to make a complex narrative work in a game where it's possible to leap out of the tutorial area and book it right to the final boss equipped with nothing but your skivvies and a stick is REALLY HARD and it's VERY EASY to make your story lackluster and cause it to suffer in order to accommodate that non linear playstyle. And boy does BOTW's story suffer.

Simultaneously trying to tell this narrative that's deep and complex while also having to work around the fact that the player might not even do the story stuff caused that story to have a sort of...non presence in the world, a much weaker presence than it deserved at the absolute least.

To me BOTW's story does not fit a nonlinear Zelda game, and honestly probably would have worked much better in a more traditional linear one.

It was such a good game, with such a good story, but it's disjointed pacing and resulting lack of major impact resulted in it utterly failing to get me invested. Which is so insanely frustrating.

Which is impressive, considering my ass is a constant Zelda lore junkie who will leap on the smallest story details and devour it, and yet I cannot see the supposed storytelling brilliance half the fandom seems to

Follow up reply on how these problems relate to totk eventually???