#WILL GIVE CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE THOUGH. IT GOT ME INTO 3D MODELLING

[zeezu-ix]

switching college courses!!!! goodbye game design you were. somewhat good to me HELLLLOOOO ILLUSTRATION <3

[crusherthedoctor]

Can we have some unpopular Sonic opinions?

I tried to cram in a lot, so I hope this satisfies you. :P I tried to stick to the ones that I haven't brought up quite as often, since by this point, we all know that I think IDW's storytelling is dire, SA2's story is overrated, X Eggman is an embarrassing portrayal (at least from season 2 onwards), Blaze shouldn't be handcuffed to Silver, Shadow's backstory had issues with or without the Black Arms, Neo Metal Sonic looks silly, etc. But anyway, here we go:

- Knuckles may be tricky to incorporate into plots that don't relate to Angel Island, but making him obsessed with his duties is no better than having him forget about Angel Island entirely.

- I like Marine, and never found her annoying. Oh, I understood what they were trying to do with her, but I honestly wasn't put off by her, and found her Aussie lingo more endearing if anything. Since her debut was during the period in my life where where I couldn't stand Sonic himself, I instead thought he was irritating (and hypocritical) for getting annoyed with her for doing shit he would often be guilty of.

- Silver is just as guilty of being shoehorned into games and plots as the Deadly Six are. Having more fans than the latter is irrelevant, since we're still talking about a character who constantly has to time travel in order to be present.

- Speaking of Silver, if he has to stick around, please do something different with him. They've pulled the doomed future routine multiple times now, and it's been boring every single time. I wasn't interested when it involved Iblis. I wasn't interested when it involved Knuckles drinking the edgy Kool Aid. I wasn't interested when it involved a council of dumbasses... give it a rest already.

- The Tails Doll can work as a mildly creepy thing, with maybe more to it than meets the eye when it's time for a boss fight or what have you. But the memes about him stealing your soul are just dumb, and I thought it was dumb even back in my teenage youth.

- “Eggman is supposed to be clownish!” Yeah, well he's also meant to be a genuine villain with a 300 IQ. These qualities don't have to be mutually exclusive.

- “Sonic is supposed to have attitude!” Yeah, well that's not the same thing as being an absolute cunt. Sonic was only ever meant to come off as having an edge compared to Mario. He was never meant to be a GTA-tier protagonist.

- Rouge is not a villain, and never was a villain. Literally the whole point of her role in SA2 was to reveal that she was working against Eggman and Shadow the whole time, albeit using sneakier tactics to do so. You'd think all those people who exult SA2's story would remember this, but apparently not. She barely even qualifies as an anti-hero, since aside from stealing the Master Emerald, she rarely does anything morally questionable otherwise. She's got a lot more good in her than people give her credit for.

- Captain Whisker is a better Eggman Nega than the actual Eggman Nega. And as far as robot characters in this franchise go, Johnny's design is pretty underrated.

- I don't like Iblis or Mephiles, but I DO like Solaris, and it annoys me that it was out of focus for most of the story due to all the time spent on its less interesting halves. Had they kept the backstory with the Duke and his experiments, and worked from there, I think they could have provided an interesting contrast with Chaos (since Solaris can also qualify as a monster with a sympathetic backstory) instead of recycling the surface level schtick.

- Black Doom may technically be just as bad as Mephiles, Nega, Scourge, Mimic, etc, since he's yet another villain with one-note characterization and fucked over Eggman. But because he never gained a disproportionate fandom, he doesn't annoy me to the same extent. It's easier to ignore him by comparison, and his Dr. Claw voice and face shaped like a lady's delicate part make him enjoyable to mock.

- Likewise, while Lyric is also on the same level as these other villains, it's easier to dismiss him because I was never invested in the Boom games anyway, and being an obvious alternate universe (compared to Sonic X or IDW, which retain the Modern designs and plot elements), it never had an effect on the main series. I also unironically like his design, and if nothing else, at least this snake didn't start a hypnotism fetish across the internet.

- Sally - and the rest of the Freedom Fighters for that matter - have had their importance in the franchise severely inflated. They may have been lucky to be the face of popular media (SatAM and Archie), but they're not these magnificent entities that the game characters are but a speck of dust in comparison to. Having a “legacy” doesn't make them more entitled to shit than any other character, old or new.

- Conceptually, the treasure hunting gameplay is one of the better alternate gameplay styles IMO. But it was let down in SA2 by its one track minded radar (the levels may have been big, but I don't think that would have been an issue on its own if the radar was better). If they brought it back and made it more like SA1's treasure hunting, I'd be all for it, although it would probably be better suited for a spinoff title.

- This goes for a lot of games, but when it comes to 2D, I prefer sprites over models. Not that the Rush models are bad (though the ones in Chronicles sure as fuck are), but the sprites in Mania and the Advance trilogy are just so charming and full of character.

- I actually like Marble Zone. Yeah, the level design is a bit blocky, but I love the concept of an underground temple prison, mixed with lava elements in a zone that otherwise isn't a traditional volcano level.

- I also like Sandopolis Zone. Again, completely understand why it's not the most popular zone around, but I've been a sucker for the Ancient Egyptian aesthetic since childhood (you can thank Crash 3 for that), and Act 1 is visually stunning.

- I prefer the JP soundtrack for Sonic CD over the US version overall... but I also prefer Sonic Boom over You Can Do Anything.

- SA2's soundtrack isn't bad by any means - I love Rouge's tracks, and The Last Scene is one of my favourite pieces of music - but as far as variety goes, it's a step down from SA1's soundtrack.

- If Sonic X-Treme had been released, it probably would have been unenjoyable and confusing. Whatever your thoughts on SA1, it was probably the better option between the two as far as Sonic's first legitimate translation into 3D goes.

- I have no qualms with Modern Sonic and the other Modern designs and characters, but I also fully acknowledge that changing gears from Adventure onwards - and doing it with a great amount of fanfare - was always going to create one of the biggest divides in the fandom, and fans shouldn't act surprised that this happened. The fact that they felt the need to hype up a new design and direction in the first place (compared to Mario, who has mostly been the same since the beginning, with only the occasional minor change with little fanfare) also indicates that they weren't confident enough in Sonic and his universe being the way it was, which often gets ignored by all the “SEGA have no confidence!!!” complaints you see with their recent games.

- Unleashed did not deserve the incredibly harsh reviews it received back in the day... but it doesn't deserve its current sacred cow status either. It had more effort put into it than '06 to be sure, and I can respect that, but much of it was misguided effort, and even if you like the Werehog, you have to admit that the idea came at the absolute worst time. The intro cutscene may be awesome, as is the Egg Dragoon fight, but 2% doesn't make up the entire game. Chip was also quite annoying, and I wasn't particularly sad when he pressed F in the chat at the end.

- On the other hand, while Colours definitely has its shortcomings, and people have every right to criticse those shortcomings, a lot of its most vocal detractors tend to have a stick up their arse about the game because people actually enjoyed it, and it had a gimmick that people actually liked. Yes, it may have been the first game to have those writers everyone hates, but then SA1 was the first game to give the characters alternate gameplay styles and have other villains upstage Eggman, so...

- Forces is absolutely not on the level of '06. It's nowhere close. A game being flawed does not make it the next '06, clickbait YouTubers. Or should I say, the game they want to retroactively apply '06's reception to, since they've been trying hard to magically retcon '06's own quality...

- To echo @beevean, ALL of the 3D stories have their issues. SA1 is probably the most well-rounded of them on the whole, but even that one isn't perfect.

- To echo another opinion, although I do love SA1, I'm not crazy over the idea of a remake, and would prefer them to just take Sonic's gameplay from SA1 and work from there. Because with a remake, you're stuck in a hard spot: Do you keep it the way it is bar the expected graphical upgrades, and risk accusations of not doing anything to actually improve the experience? Or do you try to address past criticisms, and risk the wrath of the fans who will inevitably go on a #NotMyAdventure crusade about it? What people fail to consider is that the Crash and Spyro remakes were accepted gracefully because their original iterations were still unanimously beloved for the most part, whereas SA1 - and especially SA2 - have always been divisive, and have only gotten moreso over the years.

- People take their preferences for the character's voice actors too seriously. I have my own favourites like anyone else, but I don't make a big deal out of it.

- And with fandom voice actors, they usually focus too much on doing a basic impression of their preferred official voice actor, and not enough on the acting. So you end up getting a lot of fan voices who sound like decent impressions of Ryan Drummond or Jason Griffith on the surface, but they sound utterly empty beyond that impression, because there's no oomph or depth to the actual emotions. They think about the actor rather than the character, when it should really be the other way around.

- The thing with Ian Flynn is that he is capable of telling a decent story, and he can portray some characters well. But he's proven time and time again that everything will go off the rails if he's given too much freedom (ironic, given how quick he is to point the finger at mandates when something goes wrong).

- Ian Flynn and Shiro Maekawa are not the only people in the world who are allowed to write for Sonic. I understand that one should be cautious when seeking out new writing talent, but for all the fandom's accusations of playing it safe, they sure aren't in a rush to experiment outside of their own comfort zone.

- And of course, the big one: You don't fix the franchise's current problems by crawling back to its previous problems. It's much more helpful and constructive to discuss the good and bad alike with each of the games. Less “THIS GOOD, MODERN BAD”, and more “This could work, but maybe without that part...”

[ordinaryschmuck]

What I Thought About The Mitchells vs. the Machines

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is up there as one of the best installments of the MCU. Sure, the action and CGI sucks, and the season finale could use a bit more polish, but there is so much more of what it does right. It brings up an engaging discussion through Karli; the bromance between Bucky and Sam is incredible; Zemo's surprisingly a riot, and U.S. Agent is a character whose inner psychology is something I would like to study. Plus, the series really dives deep into the themes of race and the realistic hesitance that comes with making a black man Captain America. It's easily an 8/10 series that is worth an in-depth discussion.

But f**k that s**t, because I'm talking about The Mitchells vs. the Machines instead!

I know it might be questionable that reviewing a movie starring a predominantly white family of idiots saving the world instead of the TV series about the powerful journey of a black man taking the mantle of an American icon...but this movie is fun, alright? And yes, I'm going to spoil it to explain how. So if you still have a Netflix account, I highly suggest you check it out when you have time.

Because, random people on the internet who most likely won't read this, this Ordinary Schmuck who writes stories and reviews and draws comics and cartoons is going to explain why The Mitchells vs. the Machines might just be my favorite film of the year (steep contest, I know).

WHAT I LIKE

The Animation: Let's get this out of the way right here and right now: If a single person ever tells you that this movie has awful animation, or the worst animation they have ever seen, just go ahead and assume that person is an idiot. Because holy hot cheese sticks, does this movie look amazing!

Say what you want about most of Sony Pictures Animation's movies, but you have to admit that they nail making a CGI movie looking like it could be in 2D. And The Mitchells vs. The Machines is the peak of that style. Every character in nearly every frame looks like they could work well if the movie was hand-drawn, and I love it. I am addicted to seeing films that look 2D with a 3D makeover because there has to be ten times the amount of effort to get that look just right, what with modeling each character in unique ways to nail that style wherein a hand-drawn film, you could just, well, draw it. Not to mention that the cell-shading and certain hand-drawn elements also add to the aesthetic.

Plus, there is so much attention to details, such as most of Katie's character model being covered in sharpie, or how you can see a hint of Eric and Deborabot 3000's drawn on faces even though their black screens are showing something else. Seriously, you can listen to any criticism this movie gets, but don't you dare let someone get away with telling you that it looks awful. It doesn't. It's incredible, and I SO wish that I could have seen it all on the big screen.

The Comedy: On top of being incredibly well-animated, this movie is also incredibly funny. Like, really funny. I shouldn't be surprised since it's made by the same people responsible for Clone High and The Lego Movie, but yeah, I found myself laughing, chuckling, and snorting with nearly every joke in the film. Not every joke works, to be fair. But because of the fast-paced humor, the bad jokes are almost immediately followed up with better ones soon after. What's even better is that the writers know when to take a break with the humor and let some surprisingly compelling drama take over. And even then, when there are jokes during the dramatic moments, they add sincerity to the scene rather than take anything away. Looking at you, The Amazing World of Gumball...I mean, I love you, but sheesh, you need to learn to let a solemn moment play out.

Anyways, the comedy is hilarious. And while I won't spoil every joke, I will go over some bits that might have gotten to me the most.

Katie Mitchell: Let's just go ahead and add Katie Mitchell to the list of characters I highly relate to on a personal level (which is getting longer by the minute, hot damn). But jokes aside, I really like Katie. Her love and desire to make movies is something I identify with, and her goal to just go to a place where she feels like she belongs is easy to understand. Trust me, if I found out there was a group of weirdos who like the same things I do and enjoy the things I make, I’d be willing to pack everything I have and go to them as fast as possible too. Plus, I feel like a lot of us can relate to a character who lives in a household where people question if our career goal is something we can make a living with. I remember two years ago when I told my aunt that I wanted to make my own animated series, and her reaction is a little too similar to Rick's when Katie showed him her movie. They mean well, but sometimes it's for the best to have a cheerleader rather than a critic, especially if that person is family.

Now, Katie isn't perfect as her enthusiasm can get a little annoying at times, and her desire to leave can be conceived as a little too harsh as well. Still, she's pretty cool and serves her role as a protagonist pretty well...also, if the movie gets a sequel, let's hope she and Jude become cannon by then. GIVE KATIE A GIRLFRIEND, DAMN IT!

Aaron Mitchell: But as great as Katie is, it's this goober that earns the reward for my favorite character. At times it looks like Aaron is nothing more than a source of comedy, but he handles some dramatic moments really well. Partial credit goes to Michael Rianda for that one. Yeah, having a child actor would have made Aaron sound more like a kid, but no other voice could have fit him better than what Michael offers as he comes across as weird but never obnoxious.

Also, let's give the writer points for making a character who is clearly neurodivergent. Yet also refraining from having him be annoying or useless to the rest of the cast. No one ever really disrespects or belittles Aaron and instead chooses to work with him rather than against him. Especially Katie, who forms a solid sibling bond with Aaron as a fellow weirdo. It's genuinely sweet to see, and I loved every minute that the writers showed that just because someone acts on a different wavelength doesn't mean they shouldn't be treated any less because of it. You get that with Katie, a little bit, but I see it much more with Aaron, for some reason. And I love him every minute, so that’s a win.

(Plus, I may or may not have had a dinosaur phase when I was younger, so go ahead and add him to the list of relatable characters too.)

Rick Mitchell: This is probably a character you will either love or hate, and I can see both sides of that argument. Because on the one hand, I really like Rick Mitchell. His motivation is clear and understandable from the first set of home videos with him and Katie, both near the beginning and the end. Sure, he messes up a lot, but he is still a man who cares deeply about his daughter, as well as his entire family. He gets to the point where he would make great sacrifices for all of them, especially Katie. Plus, it's just pleasant seeing a cartoon dad who isn't a complete idiot or overprotective regarding his daughter's love life.

However, there are times when Rick comes across as an irresponsible d**k. When he does things like smash the family's phones without telling them or giving them screwdrivers for "presents," you're either gonna find that funny or you won't. Personally, I enjoy Rick and his antics, and I have no problem with irresponsible cartoon dads. As long as they don't cross the line toward Modern-Peter Griffin territory, I've got no problem with dads like Rick, who I believe has never even got that bad. Still, some people might think differently, and I can't blame them. Because after getting great cartoon dads like Greg Universe, I can understand if some people won't be interested in characters like Rick Mitchell.

Rick’s and Katie’s relationship: Alongside the top-notch animation and gut-busting comedy, Rick and Katie's relationship is what I consider the movie's most essential asset. These two are the main characters of the film, and as such, they develop through each other. And what's crazy is that they have very conflicting goals. Katie wants to escape and be with her people, where Rich just wants one last chance to have a good memory with Katie before she leaves. To do so, they first have to understand each other. Katie has to learn why Rick is so desperate to spend time with her, and Rick has to realize why Katie is, well, Katie. What I love most about it is that they try. These two don't spend the entire movie arguing and being at each other's throats until a sudden "Oh" moment in the end. No, there are actual moments when they genuinely try to understand one another and fix their relationship. It's nice to watch, and I especially love when it cuts to Linda and Aaron celebrating each time Katie and Rick get closer to each other. When recommending this movie, I'd say come for the animation and comedy, stay for the phenomenal relationship building.

Monchi: There are probably people already comparing Monchi to Mater or the Minions due to being a comic relief with nothing else to add...but gosh dangit, do I love this little gentleman. Maybe it's because I'm a dog person, but I find Monchie to be incredibly adorable, and I will fight anybody who disrespects this king of kings. Probably not physically, 'cause I'm a wuss, but I will verbally. So WATCH IT!

“HeLlO. i Am DoG.”: Have I mentioned that this movie is funny?

Rick’s videotapes of him and Katie: And right there. Rick's motivation for everything is set in stone through a solid case of visual storytelling.

PAL: The writers do almost everything they should have with this character. PAL might not have the most creative evil plan in the world, but to me, a villain can have a generic scheme as long as they're funny. Thankfully, PAL is funny. Not only is the idea of a smartphone ruling the planet hilarious in all the right ways, but Olivia Colman delivers such a great cynical energy that the character needs. The way PAL reacts to people explaining why humans are worth living is just the best, and her flopping around in a fit of rage successfully gets to me.

If I had to nitpick, I'd say that I wish PAL had more of a meaningful resolution to her character. The movie builds up that she makes a big deal about Mark dropping her, so it feels weird that neither of them really get any actual closure with each other. I'll get more into that in the dislikes, but I wish PAL had more of a fitting end than just dying after accidentally getting dropped in a glass of water. Other than that, she's a great comedic villain for a comedic movie.

PAL MAX Robots: These guys are the funniest characters in the movie. Half of it is the bits of visual humor, while the other half comes from the solid line delivery from Beck Bennett. Especially with Bennett's and Fred Armisen's Eric and Deborahbot 3000. These two are definitely the comedic highlights, as nearly every line they say is both hilarious and kind of adorable at times. And just like with Monchi, if you dare disrespect these characters, I will fight you. Because they are funny, and I will not hear otherwise.

PAL demonstrating what it’s like to be a phone: Have I mentioned that this movie is funny?

(Don't disrespect your phones, kids. Otherwise, they'll try to take over the world.)

PAL turning off the Wi-Fi: Again, have I mentioned this movie is funny?

“I love the dog. You love the dog. We all love the dog. But at some point, you’re gonna have to eat the dog.”: It's the sick jokes that get to me the most. Everyone booing Rick afterward is just the cherry on top.

Attack of the Furbies: Have I. Mentioned. That this movie. Is funny?

Seriously, if you haven't lost your s**t during every second of this scene, then you never had to deal with the demonic entity that is a Furby. In a way, I commend you. But you also don't get to appreciate the comedic genius of all of this. So I also weirdly feel bad for you.

The Mitchells deciding how to celebrate: You don't have a real family if you spend more time arguing about how to celebrate after saving the world than you do about how to save the world. I don't make the rules. I just abide by them.

The PAL MAX Primes: There's not much to say about them. The PAL MAX primes look and act pretty cool, are brilliantly animated, and raise the stakes while still being funny at times. I love 'em, but I don't have much to analyze with them either.

The origin of the moose: ...I'd make the "I didn't need my heart anyway" joke, but to be honest, it's still shattered after WandaVision.

(For real, though, this is a really effective scene that establishes why Rick makes a big deal with the moose and why he might feel hurt that Katie is willing to disregard it completely)

The Theme of Technology and Social Media: There's a theme about how family is important, and working hard on making things work is worth the effort. But that's a bit too generic for my tastes, so instead, I'm gonna talk about the equally important message this movie has about technology. Because as twisted as she is, PAL makes a great point. The technology we have today helps us in a variety of ways. It's especially useful with sites like YouTube, allowing content creators like Katie to reach out and share their voices. The only issue with technology is how people use it. Take note that the main reason why the Mitchells stand a chance against PAL is by using her own tech against her. Yes, over-relying on all the advancements around us can be dangerous, but if we're smart with how we use them, we can get by just fine. This movie isn't about purging all technology like most robot apocalypse stories are. Instead, it's about using it correctly and not being helpless sheep the second the Wi-Fi gets turned off. Which might just be the most unique thing this movie has going for it story-wise (more on that later).

The Climax: The Mitchells vs. The Machines has everything that I think I climax should have. First off, it utilizes callbacks and jokes that I wouldn't have thought twice on actually coming in handy for how the Mitchells win the day. But showing that Monchi causes the robots to malfunction turns a pretty "eh" joke into a solid case of foreshadowing.

Second, everyone does something. Some characters do more than others, sure, but the fact that every Mitchell, even Monchi, has a hand in beating PAL and her robots is a great sense of writing to me. It shows that you really can't cut anyone from the main cast, as they each add value to how they are essential to the plot. Even Aaron, who arguably does the least in the climax, still manages to be the catalyst to what is easily the best scene in the movie. Speaking of which...

Linda Kicks Ass: By the way, that's the actual name on the soundtrack. I'm not even kidding. Check it.

Anyways, for the most part, Linda seemed like a decent cartoon mom. She's insanely supportive but still has the common sense to keep her foot down, like agreeing with Rick to stay safe in the dino stop the second the apocalypse starts. A pretty fun character, for sure, but nothing too noteworthy...but the second she loses her s**t, Linda Mitchell frickin' SKYROCKETS to the best-cartoon-mom territory! Believe me when I tell you that seeing her slice and dice robots like a middle-aged female Samurai Jack is as awesome as it is hilarious. Does it make sense how she can suddenly do this? No, but at the same time, who gives a s**t about common sense?! Because this moment was epic, and I don't think I'll ever get tired of watching it over and over again.

Rick Learning How to Internet...Again: I consider this the funniest moment in the movie. Trust me, the Furby scene is a close, close, CLOSE, second...but I think this scene was funnier.

The final goodbye: This is what I'm talking about when I say humor adds to the dramatic moments. The Mitchells saying "I love you" in moose is pretty funny, but it's also a sweet moment given that this is absolutely how this family of weirdos would say goodbye to each other. And, yeah, I got a little misty-eyed during this scene. Especially when Rick saw Katie pocketing the moose. That s**t just cuts deep, man.

Alex Hirsch Voices a Character: ...That's it. I look up to Alex Hirsh as everything I want to be as a creator, and the fact that his name is on this movie fills me with joy. He's also a story consultant, so that can also explain why the movie turned out as great as it did...although there are some imperfections.

WHAT I DISLIKE

Katie-vision: What's Katie-vision? Well, throughout the movie, we get to see how Katie views the world as there are these hand-drawn elements that look like effects Katie would add if she was the one who made the movie. At times it can be subtle and cute, like when this little beating heart appears when Katie is talking with Jude and her other friends. It's when the movie is in your face with Katie-vision does it get annoying. Like showing how Katie is lying about being certain she can drive up a vertical ramp or signifying what is the Rick Mitchell Special. Even if you justify that this would be how Katie would edit the movie, it still doesn't change how obnoxious these moments can be. For instance, Monchi is justified to be essential for the plot, but that doesn't mean people won't hate him...I'll still fight them if they do, but that's beside the point.

I can totally accept this being a personal issue, as I'm sure some people enjoy it. As for me, I think Katie-vision works best when used subtly instead of crudely.

The Meme humor: It's something similar here. Because some people like meme humor...but I don't. To me, it just dates your story if you reference memes even once. Now, a show, movie, or book being partially dated is nothing new. We Bare Bears, a series that I love, reference memes, apps, and social media constantly. Yet, the show still has a timeless feel to it as it doesn't rely on those references too much. The Mitchells vs. the Machines doesn't rely on memes as much either. But even then, that doesn't make a difference about how annoying that gibbon monkey joke was. Seriously, what the f**k was that? And how is THAT the joke that gets used twice!?

Underutilizing Mark Bowman: It really bothers me how this guy barely does much. I mean, Mark Bowman is the main reason that anything happens in the movie. Because he mistreated PAL, Mark acts as the catalyst for events to come. So the fact that he could have been written out the second PAL takes control doesn't make sense to me. It's worse since I could see more potential with his character through his relationship with PAL. These two could be anti-Rick and Katie, as Mark and PAL show what happens when people disrespect their family. So separating them halfway through the story, and keeping them as such, is a huge mistake as it results in neither having a proper resolution to their arcs. Like I said, Rick and Katie develop through each other, and the same could have happened with Mark and PAL. It doesn't, making it something that I can't help but feel disappointed about.

The Poseys: These are characters I feel like work better with multiple appearances. Sure, they only have the one joke about being a perfect family, but at the same time, you can make a joke like that work. Look at Yvonne from Shaun of the Dead (Which might just be my favorite movie). That's a bit-character whose only purpose is showing how better she is than Shaun despite being in an eerily similar situation. But she works well as we constantly see how great she's doing in every instance we see her. The same could be done with the Poseys, as using a similar joke for one scene is underutilizing great potential to make an already good movie into a better one.

Plus, if you're gonna shoehorn in a romance between Aaron and Abby Posey, the least you could do is have more than one scene developing that...just saying.

Katie’s and Rick’s “Oh” Moments: I want to make it clear that I actually like these scenes. They're well written and effectively emotional. My problem is that they also happen two seconds apart. There's nothing wrong with having a character realize the error of their ways through a tear-jerking moment. It's a popular tactic for a reason. And given how both Rick and Katie are the protagonists, they both need their own "oh" moment. But you gotta space them out, as it makes things easier to see the emotional manipulation that you're clearly trying to pull on the audience. They work, but putting them back to back is an issue easily solved with at least two minutes of padding, not two seconds.

Katie’s Death Fakeout: This is one of the few instances that a joke doesn't work in the movie, made even more annoying with the fact that I could see the punchline a mile away and kept thinking, "Just get to it already." I'm pretty sure no one bought this, especially when Katie didn't look like she could have gotten killed in any way after throwing PAL. It's poorly handled and proof that even the funniest comedies have a stale joke every now and again.

Nothing New is really being done here: Keep in mind that in terms of style, this movie is incredibly innovative. And here's hoping future animated projects can take notes. But narratively speaking? Yeah, there's nothing really new that this movie is offering.

A story about how technology will be the death of us? Been there.

A story about a group of idiots miraculously saving the world? Done that.

A story about a father forcing their teenager on a road trip so they can spend quality time with each other, thus ruining the teen's chance of hanging out with their girlfriend? Believe it or not, I have seen A Goofy Movie...multiple times...both as a kid and as an adult.

Now, I have no issue with a movie's plot being a bit by-the-books, and in some cases, cliche. If done effectively, and if I still have a good time, I don't think there’s much to complain about. And there isn't with The Mitchells vs. The Machines. The problem lies with that I'll forget this movie along with the dozens of others like it in a couple years. Which might just be the biggest issue any film can have.

---------------------

Overall, I'd give The Mitchells vs. the Machines a well-earned A-. It has nitpicks, sure, but it's still a blast to watch. It might not be innovative or groundbreaking as movies like the last Sony Pictures Animation movie, Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse. However, it is fun. And when the world is burning down around us, it's nice to have a fun movie that can distract us from all of it. So feel free to log in to Netflix the next time you're in the mood for a film that is great for the whole family. You won’t be disapointed

(And I will talk about The Falcon and the Winter Soldier pretty soon. I just needed to get this out of my system first.)

[miraculouscontent]

Ask Explo--

...you know what, you’re right. Name change effective immediately.

Askplosion #10:

(unrelated to everything by the way but I DEMAND THE ANON WHO MENTIONED “REMARRIED EMPRESS” A WHILE BACK COME FORTH AND ANSWER FOR THEIR CRIMES. IT’S SO GOOD BUT IT’S UNFINISHED AND I’M HOOKED, HOW DARE YOU)

Asks responding to previous posts:

It’s okay! I figured that was what it was but it’s been so loooong.

Ah, wow.

Um, that’s definitely not a part 2; I think that’s more like a four-parter/five-parter or something.

Sorry! No can do!

That’s totally fair!

I think the reason I so quickly agreed with it is like--

I’ve been watching the Inuyasha sequel and it’s not like I don’t think the narrative’s apparent punching bag Moroha (who is fourteen years old) shouldn’t be punished when she does something wrong/sneaky/manipulative, but they punish her as if she’s Miroku (who was eighteen years old).

Basically, I want the punishment to take the age into account, or at least only affect Marinette on a more personal level and not be “Heart Hunter” where they take totally understandable feelings of heartache (remember, it wouldn’t have mattered which miraculous she took because Hawk Moth got the Miracle Box and Fu regardless; even beyond her emotions, I feel like she chose the best option available to her considering which temps she knew the location of) and then punish her for them by memory wiping Fu and taking away all of her temps and giving Hawk Moth the grimoire translation.

Yes!! I really wanted to respond to this one, thank you! (It’s this one and then there was another one talking about Luka and Adrien, then talked to me about how I refer to Luka as “soft” but not in a bad way; I unfortunately don’t remember the whole thing.)

Ahaha, and yeah, I feel you. Anti-salters are a very strange conundrum I still haven’t figured out; like, I get not liking salt, but...

I mean, when I don’t like certain content, I just blacklist it. If I end up seeing it anyway due to cross-tagging or a lack of tagging, then I just blacklist the person themself. You won’t see me going after people for that very reason; I only see what people send/ask me if it’s content I don’t like.

I’m glad you’ve found some peace in this blog! Hopefully it continues to be that way for you in the future!

(and yay, a fellow INTJ!!)

New Asks:

There are female writers? ;P I just assumed they were all locked in a closet until the male ones were like, “okay, pretend to help us here, we need one female writer to claim girl power.”

As for Ladybug all like, “Cute, isn’t she?” I think it was rhetorical (she could also be messing with him but “Glaciator” tells us that she didn’t know he crushed on her so who knows). The writers do this thing where Marinette is all panic-y and occasionally self-conscious as herself, but then as Ladybug, she suddenly gets a bit of an ego. I think it’s meant to be there in order to make Chat Noir look less... idk, “obnoxious” when he starts boosting his own ego; trying to balance the two by giving them both big heads, so to speak.

Honestly, I feel like Adrien needs less screen time. :|

Even when he’s not on-screen, characters are usually talking about him, or you see his face in Marinette’s room/somewhere in Paris. I’m become so jaded by the guy that I don’t even think it’d matter if they remade the series and gave it a “totally good and interesting Adrien.” That’s how badly the show has made him out for me; “Adrien Agreste” the character is just... sigh, I’m so done with him.

And yeah, this whole idea about, “Marinette is [x], we need more AAAAAADRIEN!” comes off really bad, lol, especially when Adrien has very little going for him.

(this ask ends off like there should be a part 2 but there isn’t one in my inbox, so sorry if there’s meant to be something else!)

The exact lyrics according to the wiki:

My wish for a cat who's in love, with our own Ladybug. Is that he'll get what he's always wanted! She doesn't know she loves him, only sees Adrien, But Christmas miracles always happen!

Yeah, especially nowadays, those lines bothers me. Not only does it imply “true selves,” but that it’s Chat who should be getting what he always wanted and Ladybug is the one with a problem.

Like, excuse me?

Probably Stormy Weather, even in the first episode. Ladybug and Chat Noir couldn’t even touch her until they arrived on top of the TV station.

+ With all those effects and shots, it made it feel more action-y than typical episodes.

Marinette, Aurore, Luka, Anarka, Jagged...

basically any name that I haven’t really heard before (”Luka” makes me think of Vocaloid but the Luka there was female), or a name that relates a lot to the character (like “Aurore” for “aurora” since she loves weather things).

dfjbghfkdgfdgnjfdg this anon really like, “I NEED ANSWERS!!!”

It’s as if these characters hit 18 or something and just grow overnight, I swear. I’m hypothetically fine with some more variety in character height (it’s not like the show tries to be realistic, after all), but maybe don’t give us official heights if they’re gonna be this weird/inaccurate.

Especially when they change it just for the sake of a shot anyway. If you watch “Simon Says” when Ladybug and Adrien stand next to each other while looking at the picture of Adrien’s mother, the very next close-up has an obvious difference in their heights from what you just saw.

They’re 3D models!!! This shouldn’t happen!

I... honestly never thought of the “less threatening” thing! Dang!

And yeah, Marinette isn’t helpless or incompetent, but because of the Adrien crush, it makes her that way at times since she’s always falling on him and--

...ugh, actually, yeah, don’t wanna think about those implications. Hard pass.

Gross.

I’m not familiar with that one, though Astruc deletes his tweets all the time (there was one tweet where he confirmed that Luka was poor and it only exists in screenshots now because it didn’t get archived and he deleted it almost like he realized that he was pointing out the blatant classism in the show, oops).

Yeah though, I haven’t seen anything like what you’re describing. Sorry!

It’s okay! Sorry for having you clarify but him choosing and Marinette deciding to never give it back are very different things.

I don’t recall Chat Noir having much purpose in the final fight (in terms of both contributing and actual fighting; I know Cataclysm broke the object to release the akuma but was it needed?) so Marinette might either go cat-less or get a temp. Plagg could also be helpful in his own right because he’s small and blends in with the night, so he could hypothetically sneak up on the bad guy.

Afterwards, there’d need to be a new cat, but Adrien would also have to reconsider his actions and really think about what happened. I could also see Plagg going to Adrien’s house, half to apologize for giving the idea to Adrien that Adrien leave without telling Ladybug, but also half to call him out for giving up without consulting anyone. Adrien is a lot of conflicting things (see Adrien’s passivity compared to Chat Noir’s recklessness) so he’d have to find a middle ground within himself.

Marinette might carry Plagg around in her purse for a while and let Plagg have a say in who he goes to. Plagg might grieve for a bit over not having Adrien around (even if Adrien was flawed, Plagg didn’t ask for any of this so Marinette is doing her best here).

O-oh.

That’s always the rough patch with “endgame ships.”  Once it’s obvious to the audience that they’re endgame, no more effort needs to be put into them.

The other thing too is how Kagami, for example, is friends with Marinette. Even once Adrimi sinks, she’ll presumably stay friends with her. Luka, meanwhile, is Juleka’s brother.

They have lives outside of their love interests. Adrien is so into Ladybug that he doesn’t have that; I mean, Nino is Adrien’s best friend like once in a blue moon.

The entire class is just watching an episode and then calling on raised hands to answer what was wrong with what they just watched.

“Everything?”

“I mean, yes, but I’m sorry, you have to be more specific to get credit.”

I think Aeon herself is fine. It’s mostly just her transformed and that transformed name that I have a problem with (she doesn’t even look uncanny so I don’t get it). I heard there was something wrong with the name “Aeon” but searching the name doesn’t give me anything I would qualify as such so I have no idea. I just wish she was given a little less “I’m programmed to--” (makes her seem less sentient) and more “[anything that doesn’t have to do with pushing the love square]” because I feel like they might’ve done the latter to make her more “likable”? I think fans of anything usually like the “matchmaker” character provided it’s for a ship they like. Also strange that they make her a robot but Max and Markov don’t extensively interact with her, but that’s a nitpick and not a criticism of her character.

...I’m rambling, my bad lol.

(Ohhh, she was supposed to be a mummy? Like, foreshadowing her “dying”?? That went right over my head but I guess that’d be where the name Uncanny Valley came from? No clue.)

Best case scenario is probably the middle or the end of Season 4.

And yeah, it really doesn’t matter to me what they do with the love square. Marinette had gone through too much suffering and the show goes out of its way to show how much stress Marinette is being put under (and also keeping Luka away during episodes like “Gamer 2.0″ even when it makes sense for them to be there, as if trying to make sure Marinette doesn’t have enough moments with him to forget Adrien).

Like, ah, yes, I totally believe that Marinette is in a position where she can make reasonable decisions about her love life while all circles of her life are on fire.

If the Sonic movie of all things can have an interracial couple, there’s no reason why this show can’t, just saying.

And, even with Marinette, she’s white-passing (according to what basically everyone says, I’m really awful about recognizing race so this isn’t my field; I wasn’t aware that Ondine was Asian, for example).

Does Nadja count? Manon’s dark-skinned (I’m still not over the fact that all the kids in this show are dark-skinned; it’s not like it’s a problem from a representation standpoint - though all the kids are also all generically bratty/whiny so there’s that - but the percentages in this show are weird) while Nadja is really light-skinned, meaning either a dark-skinned husband or Manon is adopted.

Though I guess the problem then is that we don’t know, so there’s no established couple there.

Non-Miraculous Asks:

w-who gave you the right to say such things????

Uhhhh, that might be too broad of a question, I’m sorry!

I know this isn’t satisfactory, but I will say that my favorite genre is Fantasy/Romance (it’s why I adore Red Shoes so much; by the way, an anon asked for my opinion on that a while back and I will get to it! I’d need to watch it again to get screenshots) and my least favorite is probably Tragedy/Horror.

I don’t think I’ve watched enough to really be able to say? I’ve kind of been all over but I’ve never fully gone through any of them outside of Miraculous. I’ve seen bits of Sailor Moon, Tokyo Mew Mew, Star VS the Forces of Evil (don’t know if that counts), and I meant to watch Yuki Yuna is a Hero but never got around to it. I saw the entirety of Puella Magi Madoka Magica but you guys know how I feel about that one.

Maybe Cardcaptor Sakura by default then? It was definitely not perfect but I liked some of the character dynamics (I also have a clipcut of it - basically where I go through a series/movie and cut out parts I don’t like so it’s only good stuff - so I’m cheating a little) and the male love interest was a tsundere type that I actually ended up liking, which is really rare.

!!! That sounds sweet~ I know Sailor Moon is popular so I’ll definitely take your word for it on that one.

I would also accept a “reincarnated”/”destined lovers” trope if maybe the ship themselves are the one who set it up in the first place. I have a Lukanette AU, for example, where they basically got together and then prayed to the shrine of the renewal god that they’d “always be together,” which ended up allowing them to reincarnate over and over (as if they set up their own soulmate AU ;P) and continuously find each other.

Though I guess that’s not technically a “meant to be trope,” but still, it’s a form of it but where it was totally consensual on both sides.

Also, I finally thought of a show that ended with the ship I wanted: Gargoyles. I didn’t see the entire series, mind you, but I saw most of it and Goliath and Elisa were just... quality, I adored them.

+ With Beauty and the Beast being my favorite Disney movie, they fit right in with my tastes.

I forget that AangToph (I think the “official” name for the ship is Taang, but don’t quote me on that) exists sometimes, maybe because I’ve never shipped Aang with anyone; I’ve got no problems with the ship though.

Ugh, and this is what I mean when I talk about people who set up these reasons behind people shipping something based on what they saw a few people do. It’s like, “you only ship Adrimi/Lukanette to spite Adrienette!!”

Meanwhile, me having shipped all three at one point and then dropped off the love square.

Also, me shipping Zutara has nothing to do with it being dark/edgy because I’ve never seen it that way (intriguing, sure but dark and edgy? lol) and also avoid dark/edgy ships like the plague.

I still laugh at people who are like, “you can’t ship it because it’s not endgaaaaame!” as if shows can dictate how and why I enjoy something. Like sure, if you want to let a show/movie spoonfeed you how you’re supposed to feel, then by all means, go ahead.

I suppose people may be theoretically happier that way, but it doesn’t make for an analytic mind.

I legitimately thought that “AssClass” must’ve been the actual name for something until it registered with me what it actually meant.

And eh, I guess it depends on the comparison and how accurate the comparison actually is? Like, comparing Puella Magic Madoka Magica to Miraculous... they’re not really close at all, but comparing... idk, Bunnyx to Homura or the concept behind “backfiring wishes”... maybe?

-

(note that the rest of this post is more Puella Magi Madoka Magica salt so you can stop reading here if you’re not interested in that; I’m not sure if this is all the same anon but I don’t mind letting people vent so I let them go off~)

why can’t we just have nice things

I agree, and I give a little eyeroll every time it’s like, “oh, this person had [miraculous]”

+ even just in general, I feel weird about any show that mentions/implies that real world famous people are [x] or [y] in their show. It breaks my immersion; real world locations are one thing but when it’s specific people (unless they’re made up characters like Santa Claus) or games just--break me.

I also don’t know what to think when there aren’t magical boys but you have these magical girls in this frilly outfits/skirts. The demographic is girls so I presume the reason must be like, “you can look pretty and still beat people up” (;P) but having so many magical girl shows without a hint of a magical boy makes me suspicious that it’s for fanservice. Sailor Moon has Tuxedo Mask but I also don’t know what that guy did outside of the meme of him doing nothing so I’ve got no clue.

(edit: I should correct myself that I’m not talking about Sailor Moon specifically; I don’t know magical girls that well, though I do know there are ones clearly intended for fanservice (you could say that for anything, to be fair, but still). It’s just that I see things like super short skirts or very “questionable” shots and I’m just like, “hm”)

Hmmm, good question. I feel like there has to be a lot but I’m also the type who doesn’t watch a lot of TV lol. I’m just familiar with cliches and tropes and such.

The reason I try not to use “ism”s of any kind is mostly because it’s too broad. Like, you know how the English language only has one way of saying, “I love you,” but other languages like Spanish have multiple?

It’s like that, and sometimes I think it’s too easy to throw those words out there. A “small” (possibly completely unintentional/misunderstood) offense is sexism, and then a “large” offense is called the exact same thing. I’d rather go into why something is sexist than just call it that, y’know? The only exception I make is “classism” because I feel like that’s not as... I dunno, divisive?

Anyway, for that same reason, I can’t answer firmly that, “Madoka Magica is sexist.” I will however say that it makes me uncomfortable with how the show makes out the girls being emotional because they’re young and female and then proceeds to make their life a living hell before they’re old enough to properly answer to it (I know that’s the point but that kind of makes it worse?). It doesn’t help with how all the girls have different personalities, so it’s not like you have only “crybaby girls” who are being taken advantage of; it’s basically like... all girls.

Not helped is the fact that their soul gem not only deteriorates naturally, but it can also do so faster if the girl falls into despair, which then turns them into a monster (and I know it’s kind of like an akuma thing, but the fact that it’s only girls is... I dunno, it comes off wrong?). It seems cheap that the soul gem deteriorates no matter what so it constantly needs fed even if the girl is consistently happy.

I would probably opt for the show being centered more around Kyubey being new to this or something - like, magical girls are a new thing - and then have Kyubey being surprised because they presumed that the soul gem would deteriorate naturally since “emotions are powerful but destructive to the person having them,” but then all the girls team up and help each other work out their problems. Maybe the reason magical girls are usually alone isn’t even because of the grief seed (I think that’s what it’s called?) thing not being able to be shared, but because Kyubey intentionally separates magical girls so they can’t do what the main group is doing, but Madoka is so into the idea that, “We shouldn’t have to be alone,” and so she’s constantly pulling all the girls together, which keeps them healthy.

Maybe Homura’s backstory could be that Madoka originally was more sheepish and more afraid to put herself out there, especially since she was a magical girl (who are encouraged to go it alone), which is why their soul gems were both deteriorating; they were friends but kept more of a distance, or maybe they were a team but that’s all they were. Then Madoka gives Homura the last grief seed to save her and that’s what inspires Homura and makes her see Madoka as something more than a teammate, which is why Homura actively tries to save Madoka specifically (which then encourages Madoka to want to keep everyone together as friends).

In the case that Kyubey doesn’t separate them out of concern of fRiEnDsHiP, but for another reason altogether, and then it’s ultimately their own downfall when they allow the girls to hang out and realize that it’s doing a lot of good for them.

“cute and innocent”

That was exactly it. It’s on Kyubey’s trivia section on the Puella Magi Madoka Magica Wiki.

Before the anime's first dark plot twist aired, head writer Gen Urobuchi said on his Twitter account that the "Kyu" in Kyubey's name comes from the English word "cute". This was a lie meant to further mislead fans into thinking that Madoka Magica is an innocent happy show. In a later episode, it was revealed that "Kyubey" is, in fact, short for "incubator".

In my personal opinion, a spoiled plot can’t be “ruined” if it’s a good plot. If you told me that Kagome was trapped in the Modern era for three years and then decided to stay with Inuyasha at the end of Inuyasha, it wouldn’t/shouldn’t decrease the value when I finally see it for myself because it’s good. That’s not to say that everything should just be spoiled right out of the gate, but it’s saying that maybe your plot isn’t good if you have to rely on shock value to make it work??

I FEEL THAT “ASSIGNING IT TO THE WHOLE GENDER” THING SO BAD. It just adds to my “the girls all have varying personalities so it’s not like Kyubey’s only after emotional crybabies or anything” salt.

I have no idea about any of the stuff about the writers so I can’t confirm or deny them. I will very much agree on the target audience thing though, especially with the whole “keeping the dark plot a secret” because really? Who is this for then? Like, the first two and a half episodes are for one demographic and then the others are--???

I dunno. Me personally, I just like feel good stories. I do like some good conflict and drama (for context, Remarried Empress is basically a webtoon that gives you things to feel salty about and then makes its own salt fic as its plot, allowing for endless streams of feels and catharsis, so I’m definitely not against drama), but there are other times where I just want to feel good watching something.

I feel like the show expects the characters to be selfless/perfect and then punishes them even though it’s their writing that’s causing them to act out. I can’t really talking about “out-of-character” but sometimes it’s just obvious where “we did this because we needed a plot/conflict.”

Like, hello? We don’t need the main characters screwing up; why can’t we just have some feel good thing where they take the day for themselves (seriously, imagine a Miraculous episode where Chat Noir actually tells Ladybug to take a couple days for herself, like maybe someone else gets the earrings for a few days as a temp while Marinette gets to breathe; IMAGINE IT). Not everything needs to be high-stakes to be interesting and you need those calmer moments so that the action-packed ones feel more intense.

SAYAKA DESERVES BETTER.

I feel like the magical girl genre as a whole can be way more complex than it’s made out to be. I think people hear the word “magical girl” and think “cute girls in short skirts talk about girl problems and fight evil with the power of friendship and accessories.”

Ugh, just the mention of Rebellion makes me sigh internally.

Congrats on working on your own magical girl story! I hope it goes well for you!

I know it’s not technically a magical girl show, but there was also Totally Spies that Astruc worked on to some degree (I think there was some characters who were based on/a loose reference to the mains from that show but I don’t remember exactly).

The thing about the female characters suffering is that they could make for good lessons on positively directing one’s emotions (like Usagi from Sailor Moon, for example, maybe having a problem with taking her anger out on her friends, but learns that she can save that rage for the bad guys; “Gamer 2.0″ from Miraculous could’ve done that, honestly, by having Ladybug absolutely WRECK all of her gaming opponents in “violent” (cartoon violence obviously) fashion). It’s just a shame that it’s not taken advantage of.

Sayaka??? Selfish???????

*does not compute*

(Also, I wasn’t tired of them, don’t worry! It was a little overwhelming in my inbox but it’s me who’s allowing all the asks to flow in so the blame isn’t on you lol.)

I’m not sure where this obsession came from with, “you have to be selfless and you’re not allowed to use your powers for yourself.” It’s like the world’s going to end if a character leaves to go Self-Care or something. I think what happened is that shows got this idea that promoting only the giving of others is great and it’s not important to take time for yourself (even with “Gamer 2.0,” it was still Marinette playing games with everyone else, and they treated her dedication and seriousness like a bad thing when she literally did not have time to waste and they didn’t give a reason why it was good for her to take a break, only that she should).

This usually leads to the “demonization” of characters who sport a lot of self-confidence or any sort of ego. It works on both sides; Marinette is a punching bag because of her anxiety and occasional lack of confidence, but if she had an ego as Ladybug, there are parts of the fandom who deem her “obnoxious” (i.e: “Reflekdoll”). There’s a delicate balance between “be confident” and “be humble” and it’s a tightrope act.

[bo-jangle]

Attack On Titan thoughts..... SPOILERS

Okay I watched AoT when it first came out and stopped after season 1 due to my hatred of Eren/liking the side protagonists more than him.

The reason I decided to watch it again is 1. I know I would like it 2. I read the most recent Manga chapter and wanted to see how they got from A to B. I will also say I'm a person who could give less than a rats ass about spoilers and so I went to fandom wiki. I ended finding/learning all kinds a shit about the plot. And fuuuuuuck it's fucked up.

Season 2 definitely was a step up compared to S1 for me(but it's also been years since I watched it sooooooo). The ending credits is what caught my eye. These fuckers legitimately put manga spoilers in for the manga. This shit that was in the end credits wasn't even out in the manga yet! What fucking mad lads! And to mention the song! At first I thought it didn't match with AoT, but the more I watched and read the story, it fits perfectly. To me season 2 was a masterpiece.

Season 3 was really good! So like I said before I stopped watching for a long time due to me hating Eren. Well S3 made me like him. He's grown and change so much as a character. The amount of change he went through was so much! Especially when he learned more and more about his father, Grisha. And let's not forget about Zeke. The dude is so intelligent and I can't wait to see more about him(also his beast titan is just a super ugly arangatang).

Season 4 just came out, but is looks super promising. My only critique with it, is that it seems all the 9 titans will be completely in 3d. It isn't a bad thing, but I do like it when they mix up the 2d and 3d. A lot of 3d modeling doesn't usually bother me, but it just makes me think of the ending of Naruto Shippuden and so it makes me a bit nervous. But if they pull a Demon Slayer then it should be fine.

So Ymir Fritz story is so messed up. In the anime it has only been touched upon a little, where in the manga it has been explored. But! In chapter 135 we see Ymir at the pig pen! I hope this means we'll be exploring even more of her life. Like I would love to see her without a shadowed distorted face. I personally kinda imagine her looking a lot like Historia. I also want to see more of her relationship with her daughters. Not the king, fuck that guy. He had this girl hunted, then when she turned into Titan he had her make bridges and roads. Then after that, he was like now you can bear my children. Like gross dude. This girl could've been his like daughter or even granddaughter at her age. Then when she dies, he tells their daughters to eat their own mother's corpse. Like homie WTF! You sick bastard. He wanted to keep the titan gene so bad and it ended destroying his own people down the line.

A big thing though that I think would be cool, is that Armin seeing more about Ymir. He is currently in the mouth of a titan suffocating and he saw Ymir. I so desperately want home to incorporate a plan that involves Ymir.

Anyway! If you read this holy hell thanks!

[atsushishelteredinmoonlitjasmine]

Fire Emblem: Awakening Thoughts

As of the date May 20th, 2020, I finished my playthrough of Fire Emblem: Awakening on its one year anniversary of when I got it. It is now June 5th of writing this. This post will be my thoughts and feelings on Awakening, much like the KH3 Grievances and Blessings post last year. Let's get into some history between me and Fire Emblem before I go into Awakening.

As I've said before, Awakening was both my first Fire Emblem game and my first Tactical RPG. Smash Bros. was where I had heard of Fire Emblem but it wouldn't be until Ultimate came out that I would start to get interested. It was because of my friend's preference for Lucina that got me into playing as her in Smash and that's pretty much how she became both one of my mains and a favorite. It honestly wasn't till I listened to the Smash remixes of Id, Conquest, and Lost in Thoughts All Alone that I decided to play Awakening and then Fates. So thanks go out to both Smash and my friend Eric for converting me to Fire Emblem trash!

Much like the KH3 Grievances and Blessings post, I'll be going over every aspect of Awakening I can think of, from the graphics to the gameplay to the story. I'll even include a Best/Worst Girl and Boy of both generations because that kind of thing seems to matter to some people, along with my reasons for why X is Y. Keep in mind that whoever I choose as those categories, it is just my opinion and you're free to disagree with me. I say this because I know that, no matter what I say, some diehard fans will get pissed at me and come at me for daring to shit on their favorite character. I already know some people are gonna get mad because they think X should be Best/Worst and that'll be fun to see (You can interpret that as sarcasm if you want).

Listed below are Awakening spoilers, so if you want to play the game and don't want to be spoiled, now's your chance to stop reading. I know Awakening came out in 2013, meaning 6 or 7 years ago, but there may be some people who haven't gotten around to playing it yet so I want to be courteous to them. Here are my thoughts on Fire Emblem: Awakening!

First off, the graphics. I think they looked really nice for a 3DS game that came out in the early 2010's and I believe this was Fire Emblem's first fully 3D game as well so that's really impressive. The in-game models were nicely detailed, the in-game sprites were nice looking, and the prerendered cutscenes were beautiful. This doesn't mean they're not without their faults, though. I wish the in-game cutscenes were more animated because it's easy to tell when an animation's been used over and over again, I feel as if the in-game sprites have some dissonance with official art, and there are times where expressions or animations for the prerendered cutscenes have looked pretty awkward. In terms of the first and last point, I'm giving IntSys some slack because, as I stated earlier, they were developing a game for the 3DS, a powerful handheld device but it's still a handheld, and this was FE's first 3D game so there may have been issues transitioning from 2D sprites to 3D models. I'll explain what I mean by my second point. I've looked at Cynthia's official art and when I see her face, I tend to see what I'd call a baby face, pudgy cheeks and all. Her in-game sprite, however, her face is sharper, more mature, if that makes sense. Maybe it's the pigtails throwing me off or it's just a difference between two art styles, I don't know. I'm not an artist so there's not much weight behind this but I'm just saying there's somewhat a dissonance between official art and in-game sprites.

Secondly, gameplay. I loved how easy it was and how I could switch between a simple and complex UI if I wanted to see which attacks could hit or what the enemy's stats were. This may sound stupid but I honestly thought it'd be way more difficult due to this being a Tactical RPG. I know strategy's a big part of Fire Emblem but strategy's not a big problem if you're like me and you grind to hell and back. Speaking of which, I played on Easy Casual mode so that might be why it seemed so simple from the get-go. Just to give you an idea of how much I grinded, I put in 200+ hours and that mostly consisted of buying a shitton of Reeking Boxes, spawning Risen on some of my favorite grind spots, and fighting them over and over again. I went through the 3 basic classes each character could have, maxed out their default class one last time, promoted them to their advanced class, and maxed out those classes 2-3 times over. I have a video on my Twitter that shows the stats of these characters and most of them are over 220 (The shapeshifters 300). Needless to say, I loved each and every fucking crit I got. Cordelia even got what I call a miracle crit, which means she got 2 crits in one round and after the enemy attacked, she got another 2 crits. Level grind ain't a joke in this game.

Thirdly, the music. Considering it's part of why I got into this game in the first place, I loved it. As I'm writing this, I'm listening to the OST and it sounds so much better when you don't have the ambient sounds and you're not listening to it through the 3DS speakers. The song that hit me the most and just gave me the overwhelming feels was Id~Sorrow as it played in Chapter 21. It fit so well with the tone of the scene and I just sat there for a few minutes, letting it play in the background as I did shit. Other notable mentions are Id~Purpose, Destiny, Conquest, and the song that is just ellipses. If the music is this good in Awakening, I can't wait to see what's in store for Fates!

Fourthly, the voice acting. For a game where most of the voices come in forms of clips, I thought they were good. Each of the actors tried their best to convey their characters in the clips they were allowed to have and I think it shows. The only critique I have, and it's not the actors' fault, is that some of the characters' voices don't fit them. I'm not saying they miscast these characters, it's more like the direction was off, if that makes sense. Let me bring up Cynthia, Kjelle, and M!Morgan as examples. I don't think it's a stretch to say that, sometimes when you look at a character, you kinda imagine what they'd sound like before you hear their actual voice, right? I already brought up Cynthia's looks so I imagined her voice to sound very high-pitched and maybe a little childlike. I hear her voice and, while she's high-pitched and some of her voice clips do go into that childlike territory, she's nasally sounding and more mature. Kjelle is a complicated case in that, her voice fits her appearance (minus the armor) but not her personality. Her personality is similar to Sully's so I figured her voice would sound gruffer and not...cute, if that's the right word. M!Morgan's, I think, everyone can see the problem with. He's supposed to be the youngest of the kids, right? Since he's the only third generation character and all that? I think he just sounds a little too old for the supposed baby of the kids. Again, I'm not saying the voices are bad or that the delivery/emotion was bad, I just think the direction in which they were voiced don't fit some of the characters. Maybe I'm just thinking in terms of archetypes or something.

Now we move on to the story. I can't say as to whether it was good or not, mainly because I spoiled myself on it way before I decided on playing Awakening, so I don't think I can say much to the quality. The least I'll say is it's serviceable. I'll admit, the one thing I was shocked by was the appearance of the Grima Avatar because I thought Grima was inside Robin the whole time and I didn't think he'd have a separate vessel. I straight up thought Grima!Robin was either my mother or a twin I wasn't aware of so I'm giving credit to the writers for surprising me. Anyway, I think the only flaw I have with the story is with the pacing. I thought the first half was fine, it wasn't too fast or too slow. It was the second half that the pacing couldn't find a middle ground. Now I'm going to say that this half was stretched out over months of my playtime so whatever I say next might be exaggerated because of my procrastinating ass so... I feel like the Valm arc was way too slow and the Grimleal arc had so much trouble finding a middle ground. The beginning of the Grimleal arc was quick but Grima himself decided that I had to finish 2 and a half chapters before I finally got to beat him and you have to deal with constant reinforcements before you kill off the target. I think if it weren't for my overleveled as fuck units, I wouldn't have finished Awakening in time for my birthday.

Just for shits and giggles, I'm gonna say what I picked for my choice with both Luce's judgement and Grima's fate. I picked the self-sacrificial choices, which means I accepted Luce's judgement and allowed her to kill me and I dealt the final blow to Grima so Chrom didn't have to. While I knew the outcomes of both choices and them ultimately not meaning anything, I wanted my Robin to reflect what I would've done and I'm a very self-sacrificial person. Because I made Chrobin happen in my playthrough, which meant Luce was my daughter, I believe that, if my child who came from an apocalyptic world told me I was the reason for that happening and that she came back through time to stop that future from happening so she and the others wouldn't suffer, I would've let her kill me. Parents would and should do anything for their kids and if my death possibly gave my daughter the chance for a better life, I'd take it in stride. As for me dealing the final blow to Grima, if it was to save everyone I loved, I would've done it. Although there's some feelings of wanting to give a big "Fuck you" to Grima and to permanently end the problem so any future descendants wouldn't have to deal with it. This section may sound more philosophical and personal than I usually write but I think it deserved it.

Now we're on to Supports and who I chose to be together. I don't think it's wrong to say that this is where the characters really get to shine and it's because of the Supports I love these kids and how much I'm going to miss them when I move on to other FE games. As for the "canon" couples, I mainly went with characters that I thought would complement each other and this was one of the few things I tried to choose for myself. I tried my best to go for pairings that weren't fan favorites but I'm also not very connected with the fandom as of writing this so I may be completely wrong in which ships were favorites or not. So here are the pairings I got for my playthrough!

Chrom-Robin

Frederick-Sumia

Virion-Miriel

Vaike-Nowi

Stahl-Sully

Lon'qu-Cordelia

Ricken-Lissa

Gaius-Maribelle

Gregor-Cherche

Libra-Panne

Henry-Olivia

Lucina-Inigo

Owain-Cynthia

Brady-Nah

Kjelle-Laurent

Severa-Yarne

Obviously, there are some characters missing from this list and I can explain why. I didn't recruit Kellam and Tharja and it's because your girl is a dumbass. Kellam, I thought, was already on my team, he was just labelled as an ally so I didn't need to recruit him. They really should've made that clear. Tharja, on the other hand, was an even bigger dumbass than me because she decided to charge after Robin, who happened to be in front and was way overleveled, and got her ass promptly beaten with a crit. I regret not getting Kellam but after hearing how awful of a person Tharja is and how many fans are willing to put aside emotional abuse and stalker-like tendencies to have a chance to fuck her, she can stay buried in the sand where I electrocuted her ass. Unfortunately, this does means Noire didn't pop up in my recruitment list and that fucking sucks. The only characters left I didn't have a pairing were Gerome and Morgan. I think Gerome wouldn't really care for a romantic partner because he's all about not wanting to create ties in this time and shit and, since I see Morgan as the baby of the kids, I figured he'd be a little too young to be in a relationship. Despite that, I wish I got him and Nah together because I found out after she was shipped with Brady that Morgan's the only S-Support she'll say "I love you" to and I was immediately filled with regret.

Before I move on to the Best/Worst contest, there's something I need to bring up because I can see what sensible fans have shown now. This game is HELLA gay. Like, holy fuck, how many instances are there where you have two characters of the same sex and they have dialogue that seems to have been written with romantic intent but the writers decide it's meant to be platonic? Maybe I just have this weird line of thought on how straights are because there's no fucking way some of these gay moments would be a thing with even the most accepting straights. Maribelle calling Lissa darling and other pet names, Robin blushing from some of the girls and even mistaking Flavia's proposition for a marriage proposal, Severa looking at Kjelle's abs, the list goes on. I'm not straight because I'd be doing some of this shit with a potential girlfriend if I could! Why did it take IntSys until 3 Houses to implement LGBT+ pairings when this game is right here?! At least this game doesn't have the weird student/teacher relationships 3H has and believe me when I say that, if it weren't for the fact I could give less of a fuck for 3H, I wouldn't play that game for that reason! Anyway, Awakening is hella gay and it should've been the first LGBT+ FE game instead of 3H.

The Best/Worst contest... As I said in the beginning, there'll be a Best/Worst Boy and Girl for both generations because that's fun and it seems to matter a lot to some people. Repeating what I said, this is just my opinion and you're free to agree or disagree with me. One rule I'm putting in is I will try my best to not pick fan favorites. Don't get me wrong when some of the crowd pleasers are good but there are other characters that deserve just as much love as the fan favorites so this is why I'm putting in this rule. Without further ado, here are the rulings!

1st Gen

Best Boy-Lon'qu

Best Girl-Panne

Worst Boy-Virion

Worst Girl-Miriel

2nd Gen

Best Boy-Owain

Best Girl-Cynthia

Worst Boy-Inigo

Worst Girl-Severa

Let's see how many people I piss off with these judgements. So, my reasoning: Best Boy for 1st gen was a big toss-up. I kept wanting to choose between Chrom, Frederick, Stahl, and Lon'qu because they really endeared themselves to me but I chose Lon'qu in the end because he's honestly such a dork (I mean, all of them are) and I gotta admire how he tries to overcome his fear of women and try being there for his wife and daughter if he happens to have one. There's also the fact he has to literally psyche himself up to talk to women if you check in with him in the Barracks and I'm just like "Fucking hell, that's adorable and I GET it". Best girl is Panne because believe me when I say that the moment I see this woman and hear her voice, I'm immediately gay for her. Then she transforms into a giant rabbit, kicks so much ass, and I'm in love. Funny story, I'd talk to my friend about my progress in Awakening on Discord and the moment he asks me who best girl was and I answered Panne, he called me out for being a furry. Granted, I would've automatically said Luce but I'm trying not to pick fan favorites so I get his criticism. If a woman like Panne existed in real life, bunny ears and tail and all, I'd probably become a furry for her, no questions asked. As for worst boy and girl, Virion and Miriel are characters I honestly don't give much of a fuck about. Not that they're bad, I just don't care about their archetypes, if that makes sense. Miriel I found to be boring and Virion's of the Casanova archetype and I've always kinda hated that archetype so that's why they're on the ranking.

Oh boy, 2nd gen. So, best boy being Owain. This boy is going to kill me. He's so adorable and sweet and he's just a good boy. There are literally Tweets on my Twitter where I just gush about him and he deserves so much love. He's just a sweet boy who loves his parents so much and is so proud to be their son and how he manages to rope his cousins (Luce and Morgan) into going with his fantasies and how they just go along with it! Owain is a cinnabun and I want to protect him and love him. Anyway, best girl being Cynthia is sorta the same reason as Owain. She's just so bubbly and happy and just adorable. Yeah, she may get carried away with showboating but I just love her earnest desire to be a hero. I think everyone can see why I paired Owain and Cynthia up. Now for the worst. Inigo and Severa are probably the only characters in this whole game that straight up got on my fucking nerves and for different reasons. Outside of his supports with Olivia and Henry, Inigo's constant flirting with the girls and Robin and inability to take no for an answer just rubbed me the wrong way. I actually put out a Tweet saying how Inigo's like an r/niceguy and I still think he is one. Course, this doesn't mean I didn't have my fair share of laughs from him. I fucking died at his and Gerome's A-Support where he ends up pathetically crying after the emo loner got more game than him and Gerome has to comfort his ass, that was hilarious. It also helped the fact that Liam O'Brien, who I've only heard him as the brooding emo loner role, voiced Inigo as the complete opposite of that and I had a blast. Severa, on the other hand, was...really unpleasant. There's a reason I hate Tsunderes with a passion and it's because they're unnecessarily bitchy towards everyone they know, even if they have no reason to be. Severa, however, was somehow worse because she went out of her way to be horrible to people. My dislike for her was cemented the moment I saw her and Cynthia's C-Support and she chose to make fun of her, despite Cynthia minding her own business and Severa just going "fuck it". However, I should express that I understand why Inigo and Severa are the way they are and that's why I'm not being as harsh on them as I could be. They still have their good moments and I can appreciate them while also raking them over the coals.

So that concludes my review/experience of Fire Emblem: Awakening! Despite some moments of frustration and annoyance, I had fun playing this! I mean it when I say I'm gonna miss these kids but I had plenty of time to spend with them so it's time to move on to newer lands. Next up on the list is Fates and I think I'm siding with Hoshido first. It's funny how, despite me spoiling the story for myself 3 separate times, I still can't remember much, if any, of it so that may say something about the quality. I also know Fates is pretty divisive among the fandom but the thing I know it for is the weird pseudo-incestuous ships it has so that's going to be fun! Hopefully, I'll get around to playing as one of my other mains in Smash, my water horse dragon Corrin, sometime soon and I'll be sure to let everyone know when my journey will start!

[championfrita]

Pokémon Sword and Shield Review

So...I've taken some time to fully play Pokémon Shield. Now, I know this is pretty delayed, and I got the double pack so I wanted to play Sword first to see if how I felt was really accurate or if I was being too harsh. That said, let's talk about my experience with the Galar Region.

Initial Impressions

Overall, I was excited to play Shield at first. Everything was bright and exciting and the characters were easy to recognize and not overly generic.

The first few hours of this game, well it's a slow burn. And I do mean SLOW. Even with the text set to Fast and me taking things at my own pace it took me at least a good couple hours to reach the Wild Area. Furthermore, this game has an infernal amount of handholding, even when given the option to say "I know all this already" it still gives a brief explaination for almost anything and STILL makes you sit ALL THE WAY THROUGH the catch tutorial.

It's 2019 and older players still don't get the option to skip this. Come on GameFreak.

That said, the longer I played the more I began to notice...how should I put this? Blatant laziness?

The Wild Area

Now, the CONCEPT of the Wild Area in theory is amazing. It's still not too bad as is, but there are definitely flaws. For starters, the same tree has been copy pasted all over the place to make up 90% of the foliage.

More than that, though, despite the Wild Area having a good selection of Pokémon and a fairly varietied environment (desert, lakes, forest) it feels oddly...empty. There are no real secrets to speak of, no hidden areas, no easily missed items. Everything is all right out there to see and spread pretty far apart. I don't know if it's a lack of Trainers or the fact that I don't have an Online membership so I played alone, but the Wild Area feels like it just needs something MORE.

Dynamax Raid Battles, even when done alone, are fairly fun and sometimes challenging with the turn limit. Radiant AI Trainers spawn in to assist you if you're playing alone so there's no worries about having to take one on with just one Pokémon.

Camping, which can be done anywhere but is introduced to the player here, is an absolute treat. Have YOU played fetch with a unicorn? I have, and I love it. The wide variety of curries you can make with different ingredients is nice, and your Pokémon even get EXP boosts if you play with and feed them while camping.

The Pokémon

Honestly, I'm really not impressed. The Galar Dex of new Pokémon feels painfully small, so much so that playing Pokémon GO and catching a few Unova Pokémon made me yearn for the days when we used to get regions completely FULL of new Pokémon. Remember when you had to wait until AFTER the main game to start catching Pokémon from past gens? I...well, this might be an unpopular opinion, but I LIKED that.

That said, using a sparse selection of Galar Pokémon and Galar Regional Variants on my team definitely made the Gym Challenge more difficult. I picked Scorbunny, because Fire Types, and honestly didn't really care for it or its evolutions at first. Cinderace has really grown on me though and I like Pyro Ball as a move. It's flashy and powerful and that suits me just fine. Most of the new Pokémon's DESIGNS were good and I liked them, there just really weren't ENOUGH of them.

I'm fairly pleased with the regional variants as well. It was difficult to adjust to Ponyta and Rapidash being Psychic Type, but I really liked having them on my team. At the same time...Meowth not evolving into a Persian doesn't really sit right with me.

I'm all for branch evolutions, but Perrserker honestly just looks more like a giant Galar Meowth than anything. I played this with only the info given in the few scattered trailers I'd seen, so I was genuinely excited to see what a Galarian Persian would look like only to end up with Perrserker. The Typing is phenominal, and I think it's great to see a Steel Type Meowth for a change, but I just don't like where they went with it. Eh. Ces't la vie, moving on.

The Story

It's weak. Straight up, the story in this game is poor. There were so many directions they could have gone. I really liked the idea of Rose being this charismatic chairman hype man for the League and being the bad guy. I saw it coming, but it was a nice change to see just based on his personality. Still, it feels rushed. His motivations are really one dimensional and glossed over. Like, "Oh, here's the bad guy. Go get him." It worked in Gen 1 because Giovanni was a MOBSTER. He was MEANT to be a bad guy straight to the core in general, but Rose just doesn't have that vibe.

Not only that, but the "Bad League Members" are kinda meh. That feels REALLY lazy. They didn't even really get a decent uniform change when they started taking on the name Macro Cosmos in Rose Tower. They got black glasses. That's it. Just that. The fight with Eternatus feels painfully rushed and shoehorned in too, almost like they thought "Oh no, we need to give them a big nasty boss to fight! Let's just throw a random monster at them and say Rose summoned it. Seems like a solid plan."

I DID like the after story with Piers though. It really solidifies that older brother sort of nature with him, even if he tries to hide it most of the time.

The Characters

I liked Hop. As a character he's really fun and I like how they gave him this over excited very grand gestured sort of personality. He's really just happy to be ANYWHERE as long as it's with his Pokémon and you. His admiration for his big bro might come off strong and make him seem a little flat at first, but he's overall portrayed as a good kid and I like him.

Leon on the other hand...well I hated him for most of the game. His design is great and he looks fabulous, but he just has the most cocky, obnoxious, pandering personality 90% of the time. Still, I have to give credit where credit is due and recognize that he IS actually a multifaceted character. He showboats not just because he's too confident but also to give the crowd a show and put people at ease in times of danger. Not only that, but his recognition of his little brother's accomplishments and his graceful acceptance of defeat when you beat him reveals a really well written character.

I don't DISlike Sonia, and I have no problem with Prof. Magnolia sitting on the sidelines, but she can be a little...irritating at times with the way she speaks about and to people. The Gym Leaders, aside from Piers, feel a little...light.

I mean, most Gym Leaders don't have detailed backstories, but these ones feel paper thin personality wise as well. I had to look at the official GUIDE just to be sure what the relationship between Melony and Gordie even WAS because you only seem him in her Special League Card in Shield and that tells you nothing about him. The only real leaders that stood out to me were Piers and Raihan, and while I was iffy about his design at first I LOVE Raihan. He has so much more personality and ferocity than any of the other leaders. And the social commentary about him needing to constantly take and post a selfie, even after losing, is a nice touch.

The Galar Region

Is very linear. Like, VERY linear. Even when you take a branching path it either loops back around or gives you a free ride to wherever you have to backtrack to. I hope you like Hammerlocke, cuz you're gonna be visiting there several times.

I know that the region is based off the UK, and maybe my Americanized idea of cities is different (idk, I've never been to the UK), but a lot of the towns in this game feel really small. Like, almost smaller than some of the towns in Hoenn small. Maybe it's a lack of significant interactable buildings, but despite many of them having multiple floors you typically can only access one and that's kind of a disappointment. The hotel in Wyndon won't even let you get in the elevator, and while I get that Alola also did that, it's kind of jarring when the hotel in Motostoke WILL let you see other floors.

That said, I kind of expected more than ONE Wild Area. The one we DID get is fine, and I appreciate what it is and lets us do, but I honestly thought there would be multiple places to really explore outside the standard straight lines. Pokémon has never been a franchise to shy away from puzzles before so I expected this to not be any different. Unfortunately, I was wrong.

Moreover, many of the environment pieces are just UGLY. A lot of the ground textures are reused 3DS assets, and those copy pasted trees I mentioned earlier? Also 3DS assets. How do I know? They're pentagonal instead of round. In other words, they have five sides. Why? Because the 3DS hardware couldn't handle complex environmental shapes that well so they could get away with it, but now that we have nice round berry trees the contrast becomes painful. The Wild Area is so ugly the first time you see it is at NIGHT. They were so aware of what they did they hoped making it darker would hide the lazy flop instead of showing off how bad it was.

It isn't like they COULDN'T fix it either. Look at Ballonlea and Glimwood Tangle. They're absolutely beautiful and very well done. The modeling with them is fantastic and I love the glowing effects. They absolutely could've made the poorly done areas look amazing, but for some reason they didn't and the game suffers some as a result.

Other Thoughts

The Gym Challenges...they were not fun. Like, honestly some were ok. Herding Wooloo was easy, but they really didn't feel like anything I would expect from a Gym. The water puzzle in Nessa's Gym was fine, and I personally liked the spinning cup ride, but the rest just felt like agonizingly long padding because they couldn't come up with anything. Look at Circhester's challenge. It's a dowsing rod gauntlet where you have to avoid falling in pits in an artificial blizzard. It. is. SO. SLOW. That said, Spikemuth having just a Trainer gauntlet instead was kind of awkward. I reached the end and asked myself "Was that it? Is this it? Is this all there is to Spikemuth? Just one giant alleyway and a Pokémon Center?"

Raihan's three trials of worthiness challenge? It was more difficult than the battle AGAINST RAIHAN. Speaking of, I beat Hop, Marnie, Bede, all the Gym Leaders, Rose, Oleana, and Leon on my first try every time. While it was more difficult with my specific Pokémon choices, it really wasn't much. And can I just say that the Gym Badges are kinda lame? I get what they were going for, but the designs of each piece could've been really unique and intricate and instead we got glorified stamps.

I liked a lot of the general features of the game. Camping, clothing shops, League Cards. I love designing League Cards, even if I'm the only one who's ever gonna see em. That said, the clothing choices were really narrow based on what we got in Sun and Moon. The variety of different items was pretty small, though I loved all the punk leather stuff but WOW IS IT EXPENSIVE. Like Lumiose Boutique expensive. AND WHY IS THERE NEVER A REDHEAD HAIR COLOR THAT ISN'T JUST AUBURN RED? There are actually A LOT of redheads with LIGHT RED hair (that's more a personal gripe than anything, I know).

A lot of the music felt almost like rehashes of older BGMs. Like, Postwick, Route 1, and Wedgehurst all sound like they have remixed Hoenn music. A lot of the other music tracks just don't feel fitting for the areas or for Pokémon games in general. I like parts of the Slumbering Weald music and I like the Gym Music, but the opening of Slumbering Weald feels awkward and like it doesn't fit a mysterious forest we're not allowed to be in.

I know I've complained a lot, but there were some things I genuinely liked. A lot of the Pokémon designs, place names, and other radiant decor and parts of the region are actually subtle and not so subtle references to cultural points of the UK. Skwovet and its evolution for example are a gray and red squirrel respectively and are a nod to invasive species, which is neat.

In Conclusion

Is Pokémon Sword and Shield amazing? No. Is it bad? No. Sword and Shield fall into that mediocre middle ground of being ok but nothing to write home about. Could I have done without them? Sure, they aren't some world ending imperitive must play. They're ok, and they make for a fine jumping on point and a fine little adventure if you have spare time. Have other mainline games done it better? Heck yeah, but that doesn't mean Sword and Shield haven't done a few good things too.

Overall, it sort of feels like GameFreak bit off more than they could chew, or were afraid to make changes because of unfamiliarity with the Switch's hardware and software limitations. Pokémon Let's Go had a lot more effort, but it also was much safer and had a much easier to work with art style to everything. Chibi proportions are a lot easier to fake than a more realistic counterpart. Things can be not perfect and it's less noticable than with more realistic proportions, and I think they were afraid to push back the deadline any further for the inevitable backlash despite that being what they likely needed. The DLC may change my mind, but as it stands, just the fact that they feel they can JUSTIFY their laziness with DLC packs really upsets me.

I give Pokémon Sword and Shield a 5/10.

It's just, OK.

[magic-mitchell]

Okay, since you offered, hi, I'm curious about the basic plot, characters, and context for the memes? IDK, I adore other people's campaigns.

HELLO THERE I’m glad you asked!!!

So

We are an all-drow party hired by the Archivists (a group of wizards, scientists, scholars and researchers) to look into a deadly magical plague that’s been sweeping the land. We’ve discovered that drow specifically are immune due to the nature of its origins, and long story short we’re on our way to commit regicide in the name of ending the plague.

The party consists of

* Theodore (@novasiri), a tiny snarky alchemist who keeps his cards very close, whose beloved homunculus of thirty years was recently obliterated, and he’s not been in a good mood because of it.

* Reloneth (@agent-underdark), a cleric, formerly a fiend warlock, doing his best to turn it all around and do some good. He dads everyone in the party (except the paladin, kind of, because, in a delightfully gay turn of events, they are dating). He recently talked to his god for the first time since learning said god was indirectly responsible for the plague and directly for the creation of the Princes of Chaos, which he regrets. Relon is still processing that the gods aren’t perfect and can have regrets.

* Rhylaonar (@leidensygdom), a paladin, and an unlikely one. He’s seen a lot of character development from being a thief stuck with a holy sword to an actual missionary of justice, and he’s dating Relon.

* Cato (@sleebyfrogs, that’s me), a warlock roped into a pact to try and get rid of a terrible curse (though the pact was just... kind of like a second curse on top of that). He and his patron have had a rollercoaster of a relationship in which he was eventually freed from service, his patron turned mortal, and they may or may not be very, very obviously crushing on each other. He recently nearly died and then got frostbite as a direct result of his own stubbornness and pride.

* Athaso (@athaso, formerly, as his player unfortunately had to drop out), a mysterious flirty rogue with a history as an assassin. Last we saw of him, he threw his evil mother out a window to her death, took Cato to bed with him and disappeared off the radar completely.

Uhhhhh oh man my memory is a disaster if any one of the above players wants to add to this post with some of the best moments and dialogue you are more than welcome and encouraged to do so

Meme context (in reference to this post):

* “Are ya sciencing/withholding information son?” - We have tons of these Relon dad memes for every occasion. Literally any time he asks a dadly question it’s a race to apply it to the template, I’ve got it saved to my desktop for easiest possible access

* “How to break ass” - I don’t remember the exact context for this but breaking ass is what Rhyl does most often and best, for the most part. I think his player needed some placeholder book titles for a 3D model assignment XD

* Tide pod diagram - Rhyl and Relon could not for the life of them roll high enough intelligence to understand how our new Stones of Farspeech worked (Rhyl has negative int and Relon is like a grandpa with technology). Someone said the stones looked like tide pods and now it’s just canon. The one with the teeth is our employer, whom we have one line to (our DM @messyjester’s poor Credence, who is a lot more handsome and lovely than our shitpost doodles will ever give him credit for) and the other is Rhyl’s nephew Velanzus, whom we have another line to. Rhyl often calls him just to check in, it’s very sweet.

* Team Rocket - we have some NPCs who lowkey have this dynamic (Cato’s sister Malcice and Jess’ Kazimir). This file is saved on my computer as theWorst.png

* Rhyl Astley - “Rhyl make a roll” “a Rhylroll, if you will. Or maybe a RickRhyl”

* “I am 225 so drinking is yes” - I have no idea where the original image comes from was but Rhyl likes to drink a little too much and he 100% would do this

* “Relon fucked a dragonborn” - early one so I’m not sure I totally remember the context but I think Relon said something that got badly miscommunicated and quickly out of hand. For the record Relon insists he has not

* “I am a dumb bitch with expensive tastes” - this one kind of speaks for itself, Cato likes finery and will complain incessantly whenever we have to camp outside/be somewhere cold/be somewhere hot/watch our budget instead of buying new clothes and rich sweet foods

* “Rhyl’s fucking himboness” - we forgot to factor in Rhyl’s paladin aura into a Frightened save and when we retrospectively remembered it brought Relon’s roll up to the required DC

* “It’s free Rhyl estate” - we went back to the guild he used to be a part of and he asked if his room was still there and if he could stay in it again and I had the perfect joke

* “Cohen has cursed me for my hubris and my neurological function is never good” - Cato’s former accomplice stabbed him in the back by walking him into the trap that got him cursed (and then directing him into a pact when he asked for help). The curse affects his memory and specifically his ability to remember instructions and anything he’s read, or draw conclusions on how to learn from his mistakes (he’ll remember the event and understand the logical next step if it’s brought to his attention, but he won’t be able to connect the two no matter the explanation). And it’s getting worse.

HKSVIGSGSKHLSJOHS that’s a hell of a lot but I love this campaign so dearly and I’ve missed it so much, thank you for asking!

[oscar-isaacs-number-one-bitch]

“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” Movie Review

When Sony decided to allow Marvel Studios to put Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, many were relieved, citing Sony’s missteps with their previous two Amazing Spider-Man live-action outings as sufficient evidence that Marvel Studios would better handle the character in their universe and that it was time for Sony to let go of the character. Sony would maintain creative control of the property, but they would no longer be able to make live-action Spider-Man films, at least not ones featuring that character (hence their Venom franchise, which is off to a surprisingly lucrative start). Without the most popular version of their largest tentpole franchise to bring in the big bucks, Sony would have to innovate with a fresh new idea if they hoped to keep it going.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, then, is Sony’s first ever feature-length animated film with the title character, only this time, there’s a slight twist to their usual formula: there are six of them. Yes, in this iteration, there are six Spider-people all running around New York City at once, trying to save the world. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, shall we? The film begins by giving us a glance into the life of Miles Morales, a scrappy Afro-Latino high school boy from the streets of Brooklyn who’s not super jazzed about going to a Charter school due to having won his spot in a lottery. When a radioactive spider from another dimension bites him during a little subway adventure with his Uncle Aaron, Miles gains the powers of Spider-Man, and following a tragic event involving an inter-dimensional portal built by Kingpin, five other Spider-beings show up in his universe, all seeking a way to get back home. With very little training from a roughed-up Peter Parker and a whole host of family issues to deal with, Miles must train to become a new Spider-Man, and send all these other Spider-people home before this universe is damaged forever (and that’s about as much as I can say without giving away spoilers).

I loved this movie, a lot. Of course, there’s always a market of people like me waiting for a new Spider-Man story (the original 2002 film is what got me into acting, after all), so I may be going into this with the tiniest bit of fanboy-ism running my energy levels, but as a film critic attempting to give as objective a review as possible to any material I happen to view, I still genuinely loved this movie. In fact, I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say that this is perhaps the third or even second best Spider-Man film ever made (theatrically), and that’s not hyperbole. As much as I enjoyed Homecoming, I think it’s a far stronger high school comedy than it is a Spider-Man movie, and to that film’s credit, it works well enough for what it had to accomplish in terms of the MCU’s full-length introduction to the character. Into the Spider-Verse, though, truly understands the fundamental staples of what makes the character compelling, those being guilt, consequences, and most importantly, differences.

Part of what works best about this film, which was written by Phil Lord and produced by himself and the other half of his creating team, Chris Miller, is that it doesn’t see the differences between the different Spider-beings as reasons why other kinds of people can’t occupy the costume or wear the mask. One of the most prominent lines in the entire movie is Miles telling the audience that anyone, no matter who you are, can wear the mask. And instead of having anything to prove anything, or thinking that it owes anyone an explanation as to why there’s a black Spider-Man this time, or a Spider-Woman, or an anime Spider-girl named Peni Parker, or even a literal Spider pig called Spider-Ham (voiced by my favorite stand-up comedian of all time), the script just assumes that this is normal because it should be. Anyone being able to wear the Spider-Man mask, not despite but because of their differences, is one of the film’s main themes, and the script takes pride in that rather than treating it like a chore to get over and done with (which a surprising amount of films do).

The film is also genuinely funny, with trademark Lord & Miller humor sprinkled in just the right amounts throughout the film’s runtime, the recaps of each Spider-person’s origin providing some of the most consistent and uproarious laughs of the bunch, particularly during the recap of Peter Parker’s backstory. Part of what makes the story in Into the Spider-Verse not just fun, but compelling as well, is that even within this humor, there are real life lessons being taught, sometimes ones that even adults need to learn from. And that’s what makes a great animated film great, when it can transcend that line between children and adults and have something everyone can learn from and take away from the experience of watching it. So many animated films this year have failed to send messages as compellingly as this one, and yet Into the Spider-Verse makes it look so effortless that one wonders why other films fail to do it so often (it’s because it’s not effortless; it’s genuinely hard to make a movie, but the people who worked on this really put in the effort and it shows).  

The voice talent work in this film is fantastic, from what I’ve already mentioned with Jake Johnson as Peter Parker and John Mulaney as Spider-Ham, to Shameik Moore as Miles Morales, to Hailee Steinfeld as Gwen Stacy (she’s having a great weekend for early screenings, huh?), to smaller parts like Brian Tyree Henry as Miles’ father and Mahershala Ali as his Uncle Aaron, and of course, the great Nicolas Cage as Spider-Noir. Each performance is full of heart and fun, and there are many moments where one feels that only that actor’s voice could deliver that line in that way, and it is perfect. Perhaps the only true flaw in the movie is Kingpin’s characterization (since he kind of acts like a cutout cartoon character still despite what they give him to work with, but then again it is animation), but that has more to do with the writing than the voice casting. Major kudos to the casting directors on this one.

And yet in all of this, I have yet to mention the animation, which is astounding. Each time an exaggerated sound effect or a narration happens in the film, a little comic book style text or text box appears on the screen to accompany it, and it feels genuinely conceivable that someone could have written this film as a comic book with every panel brought spectacularly to life. One would think the hybrid style of 3D modeling made to look like a come-to-life comic book panel should have been by now one of the most obvious techniques in animated history, but then again, we just got CG-Lego hybrids only 4 years ago and photoreal animation from Jungle Book only 2 years ago, so maybe there’s still more to be realized in this medium (I, for one, can’t wait to see if there is).  

I was looking forward to this movie from the moment I saw the first trailer drop, but what I didn’t expect was that I would genuinely love it this much; the more I reflect on it, the more I find right with it, and the less it’s very few flaws bother me at all. This is perhaps the greatest Spider-Man movie since Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2, and by far the best animated film of this year – certainly the most unique in terms of animation style, story, humor, and charazterization. Lord & Miller are one of the world’s greatest creative forces in the cinematic landscape, and if there were any movie this year I actually wanted a sequel to, it’s this one (stay for both credits scenes; it’s 100% worth it).

I’m giving “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” a 9.1/10

[blackkudos]

Iman

Iman Mohamed Abdulmajid (Somali: Imaan Maxamed Cabdimajiid, Arabic: ايمان محمد عبد المجيد‎; born 25 July 1955), professionally known as Iman ("faith" in Arabic), is a Somali-American fashion model, actress and entrepreneur. A pioneer in the field of ethnic cosmetics, she is also noted for her charitable work. She is married to David Bowie.

Early life and education

Iman was born in Mogadishu, Trust Territory of Somaliland. She is the daughter of Marian and Mohamed Abdulmajid. Her father was a diplomat and a former Somali ambassador to Saudi Arabia, and her mother was a gynecologist. She has four siblings: two brothers, Elias and Feisal, and two younger sisters, Idil and Nadia.

For her education, Iman attended high school in Egypt and later lived in Kenya, where she studied political science at the University of Nairobi.

Iman is Muslim, and fluent in five languages: Somali, Arabic, Italian, French and English.

Career

Modeling

While still at university, Iman was discovered by American photographer Peter Beard, and subsequently moved to the United States to begin a modeling career. Her first modeling assignment was for Vogue a year later in 1976. She soon landed some of the most prestigious magazine covers, establishing herself as a supermodel.

With her long neck, tall stature, slender figure, fine features, copper-toned skin, and exotic accent, Iman was an instant success in the fashion world, though she herself insists that her looks are merely or typically Somali. She became a muse for many prominent designers, including Halston, Gianni Versace, Calvin Klein, Issey Miyake and Donna Karan. A favorite of Yves Saint-Laurent, he once described her as his "dream woman".

During her 14 years as a high fashion model, Iman also worked with many notable photographers, including Helmut Newton, Richard Avedon, Irving Penn and Annie Leibovitz.

Iman credits the nurturing she received from various designers with having given her the confidence to succeed in an era when individuality was valued and model-muses were often an integral part of the creative process.

She is signed to TESS Management in London.

BusinessIman Cosmetics

After almost two decades of modeling, Iman started her own cosmetics firm in 1994, focusing on difficult-to-find shades for women. Based on her years of experience mixing her own formulations for make-up artists to use on her, she had a personal hand in the final product and also acted as the commercial face of the company.

As of 2010, Iman Cosmetics is a $25-million-a-year business. It is centered on $14.99 foundations in 4 formulations and 14 shades, and is among the top-selling foundation brands on Walgreens' website.

In spring 2012, Iman signed fellow Somali designers Ayaan and Idyl Mohallim, founders of the Mataano fashion company, as brand ambassadors for her cosmetics line.

Global Chic

Due to her marketability and high profile, Iman was approached in 2007 by the CEO of the Home Shopping Network (HSN) to create a clothing design line. Inspired by her childhood in Egypt and modeling time with Halston, Iman's first collection introduced embroidered, one-size-fits-all caftans. Today, her Global Chic collection is one of four best-selling items among more than 200 fashion and jewelry brands on HSN, having evolved into a line of affordable accessories.

CinemaTelevision

Iman twice appeared in Miami Vice, playing Dakota in Back in the World (1985) and Lois Blyth in Love At First Sight (1988). Also in 1988, she appeared as Marie Babineaux on an episode of In the Heat of the Night.

In the mid-2000s, Iman spent two years as the host of Bravo TV's fashion-themed show, Project Runway Canada. In November 2010, she along with friend and colleague, designer Isaac Mizrahi, also began hosting the second season of The Fashion Show, a series Bravo started to replace its former hit Project Runway that now moved to the Lifetime network.

Film

An occasional actress, Iman first featured in the 1979 British film The Human Factor, and appeared in the 1985 Oscar-winning film Out of Africa alongside Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. She then portrayed Nina Beka in the 1987 thriller No Way Out with Kevin Costner, Hedy in the Michael Caine comedy Surrender the same year, and later played a shapeshifting alien named Martia in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). Iman also dabbled in some comedic roles, appearing in The Linguini Incident in 1991 opposite her husband David Bowie, as well as the 1994 comedy/romance film Exit to Eden.

Video games

Iman makes a cameo alongside her husband David Bowie in the 1999 Windows 9x and Dreamcast 3D adventure game, Omikron: The Nomad Soul, developed by the video game company Quantic Dream. She appears as one of the numerous Omikronian citizens the player can "reincarnate" into.

Philanthropy

In addition to running her global beauty company, Iman is also actively involved in a number of charitable endeavors. She is currently a spokesperson for the Keep a Child Alive program, and works closely with, among others, the Children's Defense Fund. She also serves as an Ambassador for Save the Children, and has been active in raising awareness of their relief services in the greater East Africa region. Additionally, Iman works with the Enough Project to end the global trade in conflict minerals, having played a key part in the public campaign against blood diamonds through her termination of her contract with the diamonds conglomerate De Beers over a conflict of ethics.

Awards

Over the course of her long modelling and philanthropic career, Iman has received many awards. On 7 June 2010, she received aFashion Icon lifetime achievement award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), a special prize reserved for "an individual whose signature style has had a profound influence on fashion". Iman selected her friend, actress and former model Isabella Rossellini, to present the award. Wearing a gown designed by Giambattista Valli with four giant diamond bracelets on each arm, Iman thanked her parents "for giving me a neck longer than any other girl on any go-see anywhere in the world".

Personal life

Iman first got married at the age of eighteen to a young Somali man with whom she had fallen in love. The marriage ended a few years later when she moved to the United States to pursue a modeling career. In 1977, she married American basketball player Spencer Haywood. Their daughter, Zulekha Haywood, was born in 1978. The two divorced in February 1987. On 24 April 1992, Iman married British rock musician David Bowie in a private ceremony in Lausanne. The wedding was later solemnized on 6 June in Florence. They have one daughter, Alexandria Zahra Jones, born 15 August 2000. Iman is also stepmother to Bowie's son from a previous marriage, Duncan Jones. Both children bear Bowie's legal surname. Iman and her family reside primarily in Manhattan and London.

http://wikipedia.thetimetube.com/?q=Iman+%28model%29&lang=en

[pixelgrotto]

The horrific Resident Evil playthrough, part nine

If there’s one word that can be used to describe Resident Evil: Revelations, it’s “solid.” This is kinda funny, since most of the game takes place on a body of water - or more specifically, a ship floating in the middle of the ocean. This is a good setting for a horror game that, interestingly enough, was used in Ubisoft’s Resident Evil 4 clone Cold Fear and the negatively reviewed Game Boy Color spin-off Resident Evil Gaiden, which I’ll get to eventually.

But going back to my main point, RE: Revelations is a very fine playable experience. It features the over-the-shoulder viewpoint and gunplay that’s been the series norm since RE4, but has a confined, ominous setting more reminiscent of the earlier Resident Evils. Just like the Lost in Nightmares DLC of Resident Evil 5, which saw Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield infiltrating a spooky European manor that bore more than a passing resemblance to the original Spencer Mansion, it seems that Revelations was engineered to combine new school Resident Evil with old school Resident Evil, creating a combo to please all the series veterans who complained that the sunshine of RE5 had made things decidedly un-scary, while still not alienating newer fans. 

There’s a lot of decent stuff in this combo, starting with the front and center return of Jill Valentine. While Resident Evil was a franchise that always did a great job of female representation in its earlier entries, as the games have gotten more bang shoot ‘em up, the main protagonists have increasingly become dudes while the ladies have been delegated to support roles. This falls into the trope of “action games star guys to empower male players while survival horror games star women to make male players want to protect the protagonist,” so it’s nice to see Revelations buck this trend. Jill does spend the entirety of the game in a skintight wetsuit that’s contributed to a lot of cringy fanart, but to Revelations’ credit, she is never sexualized throughout the entire campaign. The two other main females in the cast - Jessica Sherawat, a BSAA member who’s kind of a skank and rocks a ridiculous costume that’s missing an entire leg, and Rachel Foley, a "secret agent” who looks like a Twitch titty streamer - don’t fare nearly so well, but at least Jill is done right. 

Jessica and Rachel aren’t the only new characters introduced into series lore - Revelations has a whole ton of fresh faces, and since the game is divided up into 12 hour-long chapters, it seems like the devs were also inspired to make everyone seem reminiscent of someone in a television show. You’ve got the BSAA boss who seems based on every CSI boss ever, two funky dudes named Keith (finally, a playable black guy) and Quint who buck the trend of these games only starring highly attractive models, a whole bunch of bioweapon-stealing terrorists, a bad guy with a goatee who looks like he wandered in from the Metal Gear Solid party down the hall, and the best newbie of all - Parker Luciani, an Italian BSAA member who looks like Russell Crowe and fills in the same kind of “dad” role that Barry Burton occupied in Resident Evil 1.

Weaving these TV drama-esque characters together is a plot that trades zombies for mutated human/sea creature hybrids, which is an excellent combination since the sea is home to pure terror. The story twists and turns in a mostly understandable way until chapter 11 or so, when it suddenly devolves into deus ex machina cliches and faces the same problems as a lot of Japanese games that are trying to be too witty for their own good. (See: the vast majority of Final Fantasy titles.) It’s not a bad tale, and it plays things straight in the same way that Resident Evil 5 did, but is somewhat less memorable in the long run since it lacks a proper baddie like Wesker to really stick out in your mind.

And that’s probably the only issue I have with Revelations. There’s nothing really wrong with the game, but that means that it’s also oddly forgettable in some ways, and definitely feels like the side story Nintendo 3DS gaiden that it was originally developed as when compared with its recent predecessors. It lacks the super engaging pacing that Resident Evil 4 had, for instance - while RE4 was the sort of game that made me want to stay up late playing just one more hour, I was okay to take a break and go to bed after each bite-sized bit of Revelations. And while Revelations provides a decidedly more focused single-player experience than Resident Evil 5, the strange racial miscalculations of that title and the Hollywood-influenced (but genuine, I believe) portrayal of Africa just make RE5 more interesting, in my opinion. This isn’t to say that Revelations is dull - it’s just that it’s sandwiched in between other series entries that I simply find myself having more to say about. Sometimes when you’re the third child who does his thing well enough, yet is overshadowed by the perfect big brother (RE4) and an annoying at times, compelling at others second sibling (RE5), this sort of phenomenon can happen.

But lest we end on a meh note, I will give credit where credit is due - the many new faces that Revelations brings to the increasingly complex world of Resident Evil are mostly welcome ones, and the game does a solid (there’s that word again) job of bringing back the terror that used to infuse the series in an era when the scares were slowly being forgotten. Though, part of me wonders if I would have enjoyed Revelations even more if it had brought back fixed camera angles, too... Hmm, nine games deep into this series playthrough and it appears that I can finally choose a side in the great debate over which style of Resident Evil I kind of prefer. Make mine fixed camera angles! All screenshots taken by me. For more, check out this Twitter thread showing my step-by-step progress through the game.

[elizas-writing]

Movie Reviews: Justice League

So it finally comes to this. After many films that ranged from okay to complete trash with only one universally accepted success, the DC Extended Universe released Justice League. There was a lot going against this movie with how many duds that came out before and a post-production hell which changed up a lot of the story, especially when Zack Snyder left due to a family tragedy and Joss Whedon took the reigns.

The end result? It’s... good. There are still annoying things which hold me back from really liking it, but I’m more optimistic on the stuff that is done well cause it feels like DC is finally getting on track in making a great comic book movie universe.

Some spoilers to be discussed as I find they are important to explain my ambivalence towards this movie (though... to be honest, if you haven’t predicted the obvious, I’m not sure what else to tell you).

After the death of Superman, the world is left vulnerable to mysterious alien attacks. But the one that threatens to destroy the Earth is the terrifying Steppenwolf, who tried to conquer the planet once before with powerful objects called the Mother Boxes, and he hopes to find the Boxes again to finish what he started. This quickly gains attention of Bruce Wayne (Batman) and Diana Prince (Wonder Woman) as they finally decide to contact the metahumans from Lex Luthor’s files and form a team to stop Steppenwolf. Things get a little messy at first to persuade the likes of Arthur Curry (Aquaman), Barry Allen (Flash), and Victor Stone (Cyborg) to help them save the world, but they eventually come together for the good of the world, and set plans in motion to get the Mother Boxes before Steppenwolf can.

It definitely seems like a busy film with the introduction of three new characters without any origin stories. But surprisingly, they’re still well-developed and very likable without needing a super detailed origin story. Barry and Victor have very short and simplistic backgrounds which really don’t require entire movies to develop. You can very easily pick up on the dialogue and character interactions what their lives are like, and honestly that’s all you need. And it works well with these two given that they got their powers by accident with Barry getting struck by lightning and gaining superhuman speed and Victor dying in an explosion and being brought back to life with cybernetic enhancements.

Ezra Miller is perfect at bringing out the young adult wide-eyed awkwardness of Barry Allen. Despite his questionable life choices, especially using his speed for petty crimes, he does have a heart of gold and making ends meet to get through school to eventually help his imprisoned father. He’s not cut out to be a hero like Batman and Wonder Woman, but he learns to adjust over time and be a valuable member of the team.

Victor, as played by Ray Fisher, comes across as the brooding loner who wants nothing to do with the world, but you totally understand the complex situation he’s in. Not only did he feel like his father should have let him die, but now he has so much information at his fingertips he can barely handle, and it grows every day. And given all the crap Superman went through, who’s to say anyone wouldn’t respond to him with fear? But he’s not a total stick in the mud as he spends more time with the others and opens up and starts to accept himself, cybernetic enhancements and all.

I think the only hero who could have probably done well with an origin story before Justice League would definitely be Aquaman. He’s great to watch (not just as eye candy), and you can tell Jason Mamoa is having a lot of fun being a badass. There are brief mentions of his backstory, but I think it would be nice to see more detail in how he got to where he is. It would make more sense as his arc continues in Justice League, and he finally assumes his proper role as an Atlantean protecting the Earth. I know he’s gonna get a solo film soon, so maybe they’ll address it more then, but it would have been nice to see before making the giant ensemble film.

When I heard Joss Whedon was writing the screenplay and took over post-production after Snyder left, I was incredibly worried. Not just cause I’m not a fan of Whedon’s writing (though that certainly doesn’t help), but I was worried he was going to make this way too much like Avengers and just copy the same stuff he did before. While the story is eerily similar to the first Avengers movie (though when have DC an Marvel not copied from each other, even before film) and there’s a lot of Whedon’s comedic one-liners, it doesn’t really feel like it’s totally copying Avengers.

While Steppenwolf doesn’t have a lot of character development, there is a solid motivation, and the Justice League doesn’t deal with too much silly drama about their differences-- they really try to stay focused at the task at hand whenever they’re on screen. And the film, surprisingly for a DCEU film, moves at a faster pace than normal and doesn’t drag. It’s only two hours! And even though it feels like they skipped some origin stories, they did their damnedest to be sure all the characters and relationships got the proper development so you would care what happens to them. There’s more comedy than usual, but not so much that it feels like a comedy-action flick like a typical Marvel film-- it stays more grounded in the action and drama. And there’s still at least one or two of the typical Zack Snyder big speech moments but they don’t take up too much time, and the story is allowed to be simplistic and just let characters speak normally.

That being said, I did mention there are annoying parts which still bug the hell out of me.

First off, the Amazons show way more midriff than I remember, and you can tell they did not keep the same costume designers. Cause less armor means less likelihood of death, I guess. It doesn’t even look like they tried to keep similar designs.

A lot of the special effects are hit-and-miss and sometimes look way too fake. Stuff like Flash’s scenes are done really well, hell, superhuman speed in comic book movies is always fun to watch. But there were a lot of times where it looks like it should belong in a video game, not a high budget Hollywood film. It really gets hard to be sucked in when I can obviously tell when it’s a 3D model and not the actor.

They also made Batman a giant dick and tried to create conflict between him and Wonder Woman because she basically vanished after Steve Trevor died. Cool Whedon, just couldn’t get your hands on Wonder Woman and not have a man criticize her for having feelings for the first person she ever loved romantically. And let’s be real, Batman of all people is the last one who has any right to criticize Wonder Woman given that a recurring joke around his character is mimicking him screaming “My parents are dead!!” That and in this universe he also lost Jason Todd. Holy shit dude, you should know better than this! I know it gets resolved and everyone else points out Batman went too far, but it was tension that wasn’t needed to begin with.

But even more annoying than that is the big “spoiler”: Superman is brought back to life. Again, if you didn’t see this coming even though he was in almost all of the marketing, I don’t know what to tell you. I give them credit they actually try to give him some character this go around, and he doesn’t distract too much from the new characters, but it tracks back to my biggest problem: We still have to remember Batman v Superman. They had one chance to do the Death of Superman, they did it way too soon before I could even start liking the guy, and I felt nothing. They only just started DCEU, of course they can’t have Justice League if Superman stays dead, therefore he’s going to be brought back to life anyway. Had BvS not come out before this or they at least delayed the Death of Superman, I would honestly love Justice League so much more. But all the dumb choices in that movie are constantly lingering in my head as I watch Justice League and it’s super distracting. There’s no way they can fix it unless they wanted to start their movie universe from scratch.

Also is no one else around the world going to question how Clark Kent and Superman are miraculously alive and not connect the dots that they’re the same person? No? Well, I’m sure there’s going to be an extended version with at least an hour of unused footage where that major plot hole will be explained.

I guess I shouldn’t be too shocked given DCEU’s track run of films. I think trying to not create a disaster like BvS is such a low bar to accomplish now, and they somewhat learned from their mistakes. But I still really liked everything else. I loved the new characters, a superhero team that’s mostly functional, and an easy story to follow that’s well-paced. In many respects, they’re finally getting on par with MCU and will probably only go up from here, and I think I’ll be more excited now to see DCEU films. But it’s not enough to undo the damage of their previous films, and they are stuck with this universe. The annoying parts I mentioned are really annoying, but everything else is too damn good to miss out.

If you’re even the slightest curious to see how Justice League turned out, I guarantee you’ll get a few good things out of it. You just gotta be willing to sit through a little more bullshit. Check it out, form your own opinion, and enjoy some great action.

[travelererrant]

Let’s Talk About “Mighty Gunvolt BURST”

So as nearly everyone who knows me could probably tell you, I despised “Mighty No. 9”. I thought it was garbage because of all the wasted potential, the decent concepts that never got the attention they needed, the abysmal voice acting, and the buyer's remorse I felt because I kickstarted it. It was not one of my proudest decisions.  Needless to say, my expectations for “Mighty Gunvolt Burst”, a crossover game between Mighty No. 9 and another indie game called “Azure Striker Gunvolt”, were exceptionally low. I didn’t think it was going to be that good, but I had ten dollars to spare, and I needed an extra game for my Nintendo Switch. And you know something?

It was definitely worth every cent.

Now technically you can choose to play as one of two characters, and from what I’ve played of it, both of them actually have a different playstyle in what types of weapons they can use, and some of their abilities are different. So I’m currently only writing from the perspective of someone who beat the game as Beck, and only played about twenty minutes as Azure. Beck was the protagonist of “Mighty No. 9”, and I wanted to see if this game could give me any hope that the Mighty franchise has a chance to become something better.

The story is pretty weak, and honestly you don’t need to know or care about it to enjoy the game. It’s pretty obvious it was just tacked on as a way to justify the crossover premise and why you’re fighting enemies from the otherwise mediocre “Mighty No. 9”. It’s Mega Man styled platforming, with interesting challenges and mechanics put into each stage, some bottomless pits and spikes that can instantly kill you (but in a relatively fair way), and a boss with a specific weakness to fight at the end. You beat the boss, and you get the chance to get their power. Yes, the chance to get their power.

 One of the key gameplay elements of “Mighty Gunvolt Burst” is the ability to customize your weapon’s shots. I’m not just talking about how much damage it does, what elemental affinity it has, or what it looks like. You can actually customize how many bullets you get to have on the screen, whether or not they ricochet, if they can pierce enemies or terrain or both, if it bounces along the ground, crawls along it, homes in on enemies, if it just disappears or explodes or bursts into smaller bullets; there’s just so much you can do to your custom weapons that it’s almost overwhelming. Heck, the customization for each weapon can also give you some passive upgrades, such as being able to detect secrets, resist knockback, have more invincibility frames, do more damage overall, or even resist damage. There’s so much to actually do with it. You’ll definitely spend the majority of your time experimenting with what works for you. Though it can be a little annoying to have to go into the menu each time you want to switch weapons, as opposed to a quick switch button.

 Now to keep you from becoming an overpowered god of customized destruction, you do have a limit on how much you can have equipped at once. You start out with about 1000 CP, but can collect items to permanently increase it as you progress through the game. At the end, I had about 8500 CP, and several different kinds of weapons that could be used for any situation, which came in handy for the traditional Mega Man styled boss gauntlet, where you get to have a rematch with the bosses to show how powerful you’ve become. As opposed to how lame it was in “Mighty No. 9” (in that it didn’t even exist), you actually feel like you’ve made an enormous amount of progress. I felt like a proper badass when I breezed through the bosses at the end without relying on the healing items the game had given me.

 That does not mean the game is without its flaws. As I said, the story and characters are pretty forgettable, and neither are they really required. The true final antagonist, however, is an annoying little piece of memery. Surprisingly, the language he uses is still pretty relevant, but in that very annoying “LOOOOOL EVERYTHING I SAY IS RANDOM INTERNET REFERENCE”. In a slightly creative twist, he actually “livestreams” the final fight and uses the comments in his chat to attack you. But the comments themselves go from “LOOOOOL” to “OwO what’s this”, and just made me feel dumber for reading them. I’ll give the game credit, it made me want to kill him that much faster. As I mentioned earlier, the lack of a quick switch button can sometimes stop the otherwise fast-paced gameplay and ruin whatever groove you might have had before. The game implements something called a “burst” system, where if you kill an enemy up close, it does a little extra damage and gives you a score multiplier of some kind, and it ends when you die or kill an enemy from far away. It’s not something I ever really used, and some of the enemies feel like they’re placed a little too far apart to make it feel like a rewarding system. It felt tacked on, and it’s probably only something speedrunners will use if they want to go for that high score

 Unfortunately, the game can feel especially slow and frustrating at the beginning because your shots can hardly be customized, due to both a lack of CP and options to choose from. This can be alleviated by the fact that you can quit a stage at any time and keep whatever collectibles you found during it with no penalty whatsoever. So if a boss is giving you trouble and you don’t feel like your weapons are strong enough, you can go do another stage and find stuff to make it more powerful and give yourself a better chance. There also aren’t any lives, as any deaths that happen will just deduct from your overall score and ranking at the end of a stage. So if you really want, you can just keep throwing yourself at a boss until you feel like you’ve mastered dodging their various attacks.

 Speaking of bosses, they are actually really fun to fight this time around. Mostly. I think only one or two bosses made me genuinely angry at how frustrating they were to fight, and the first boss is deceptively easy compared to the rest, but that could honestly be because I hadn’t customized my weapons in the right way. Once again, the game encourages you to find upgrades in the levels and experiment with what works for you.

 The overall look and design of the game is actually pretty damn solid. The pixelated enemies look a lot nicer than the 3D models in “Mighty No. 9”, and the music was definitely more memorable this time around. I don’t think I’ll be humming these tunes much, but I appreciated the fact that it felt like a lot more effort was put into the score this time around.

 The game also has a ton of replay value. Each stage has about five or six secret items to find in it, and they’re actually decently hidden. I had to replay one stage about five times because I didn’t realize there was a hidden area right near the beginning that had a customized shot hidden behind it. Once you’ve beaten a stage, you get to choose one of three “Rare Items” to unlock permanently: you can increase your CP by 300, unlock the boss’ elemental affinity for your custom shots, or a sticker that you can use as your weapon icon or as your profile icon. I honestly skipped getting the sticker most of the time and just replayed each stage for the CP and boss element. I didn’t mind replaying the stage though, as I usually needed to find an extra secret or use the stage to help me get used to a new weapon that I had just customized.

 Overall, I was very impressed with how fun this game was to play, and how satisfying it was to have a custom weapon that made me feel like a complete god of destruction. I enjoyed replaying the levels, and part of me wants to go back and try to get the highest score I can for each level. You see this, Keji Inafune? This is what a proper Mega Man game should feel like! I should want to go back and try taking on the bosses in a different order, use different weapons, want to find any secrets that might be hidden in the level! Fun fact, Inti Creates were apparently the ones responsible for the gameplay in Mighty No. 9, so y’know what? I feel like they just redeemed themselves.

 If you own a Nintendo Switch, this is a game that I’m going to officially say is a must-have title. Please, do yourself a favor and pick it up today. It’s a welcome burst of fun that makes me think there’s hope for the Mighty No. 9 series.  

[scrawnydutchman]

My Top 10 favorite animated features

So in case it somehow wasn’t obvious to the followers of my Blog and my other social networking (follow me on twitter @Tomjvank and subsribe to my youtube channel @TomboTime), I friggin LOVE animation. Quite possibly the world’s most innovative, commercialized and yet surprisingly underappreciated art form all at the same time, the movement of pictures is, always has been and always will be an accessible and yet enlightening art form that speaks of human imagination, interaction and character on a level unachievable by any other art. Whether it’s 2d hand drawn, 2d rigged puppet, stop motion or 3d, animation is always a wonder to behold, and while there are DEFINITELY terrible animated products out there the stuff that’s good far outweighs the bad. Also, while animation trends may come and go with 2d being out and 3d being in and so on and so forth, truly triumphant works of art remain relevant and timeless for their audiences, however big or small, for their entire lives. So we’re going to look at my current 10 choices for my favorite animated features.

Before we go into it, let’s clarify some things: While there are very innovative giants on this list, this should not be considered the best animated films EVER. This is completely my opinion and is based on many subjective variables such as, but not limited to; the impact they had on me as a kid, how many times i rewatched them and what I remember about them. Not to mention how quickly they came to mind when writing up this list. Of course I’ll be considering more objective variables such as the impact they had on the industry as a whole, but expect a pretty bizarre order. These are NOT in order of objective quality, they are in order of how much they impacted me personally. without further ado, let’s get started.

10. Fantastic Mr. Fox

So fun fact about this list; Akira used to be in this spot when I first made it. But upon completion of this blog I suddenly remembered one of the most charming, unique and well delivered pieces of stop motion ever put on film. I don’t have anything against Akira, in fact I think it’s brilliantly made and lovably eerie and action packed and I appreciate the impact it had on the industry. But I only really thought of it when I couldn’t think of anything else at the time. I remembered this movie suddenly afterwards and realized I made a mistake. It seems silly but it’s true. Fantastic Mr. Fox is a lovable retelling of Roald Dahl’s novel of the same name but adds quite a bit of charm not previously there. A wonderfully dynamic cast of some of the most popular and talented actors around brings to life this unique, distinct and delightful romp of which frankly, nothing else is like it. Plus it’s incredibly funny with surreal bits reminiscent of Wallace and Gromit as well as some nice deadpan delivery and an attitude adults will especially enjoy (in fact I think this movie would entertain adults more then kids, but that said it IS child friendly). Also this movie has the funniest outburst of anger ever put in a movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6xoL76TbnQ

Check it out; it’s a cussin’ good time.

9. The Thief and the Cobbler (THE RECOBBLED CUT)

Emphasis on “The Recobbled cut”. This movie is nothing less then a tragedy incarnate. I mean that in the most sentimental way possible. It’s difficult to wrap up this movies 30+ years of development hell in a single paragraph, but I’ll see if I can do it.

Basically this was SUPPOSED to be the animated magnum opus of legendary animator Richard Williams (who is one of the most innovative animators in the industry who wrote the fabulous educational book on how to animate called The Animators Survival Kit and is also the animation director for a film coming up later in this list). He began production on this film in 1964, but due to budget complications it was going in and out of production for 3 decades. To make things worse, Disney got word of Williams’ passion project about the animated retelling of an Arabian Night and decided to create their own commercially viable version of it and release it before he could so they could take credit for the idea (And that’s where Disney’s Aladdin came from). What followed is a bunch of heavily edited, alternatively named versions of the same movie including an infamous Miramax version in 1995 that decided it would be a good idea to give an intentionally silent protagonist the voice of Matthew Broderick that frankly, would not shut the hell up throughout the whole thing.

But then there began production of “The Recobbled Cut”, which is the closest to Richard Williams’ original vision that utilizes unfinished cels and linework to tell the story the way it was meant to be told. I emplore you, WATCH THIS VERSION. In fact, here’s the link to the vimeo right here:

 https://vimeo.com/156616168 

It’s artistically spectacular, wonderfully surreal and colorful and the motion is nothing short of enchanting. It’s so good it managed to land a spot on this list in spite of being unfinished (though that does keep it quite a ways below). Not to mention it features the last performance of legendary actor Vincent Price upon release. I can’t recommend it enough, especially since we can’t let all of Richard Williams’ hard work go to waste.

8. The Nightmare Before Christmas

 Ah yes. Hot Topic regulars rejoice! The film that only did okay in the box office but has one of the most active and passionate cult followings I’ve ever witnessed, and rightfully so. An enchanting stop motion romp with unforgettable visuals, music I’ve memorized all the lyrics to, lovable characters in both personality and design as well as a beautifully simple yet original storyline, this movie is simple childlike joy. It’s not particularly complex or thought provoking but dammit, it just has an irresistible charm. Plus it proves that high quality entertainment that takes risks and goes in over it’s head CAN be profitable long after release. I mean think about it; this movie sparked an entire franchise of cult merchandise still relevant several years later AND IT’S JUST ONE MOVIE. that’s a hard feat to recapture. plus it’s a technical marvel with hundreds of unique faces for Jack and iconic setting and cinematography. I get warm just thinking about this movie.

7. Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Good God, speaking of technical marvels. THIS is the highly innovative work of Richard Williams I was referring to when talking about Thief and the Cobbler. The movie that jaw-droppingly meshes wonderfully slick and fluid animation with live action in a way that feels like an hour and a half long magic trick and meshes it with a funny and original noir movie premise, this critically acclaimed masterpiece is the ultimate love letter to cartoons. Hundreds of little historical references to the medium scattered around the movie, little in jokes, plus the utilization of some of the most iconic and memorable cartoon characters to ever be shown on screen ALL from different companies ALL in the same movie. How surreal was it to see Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny on screen at the same time?? Not to mention hilarious performances from the live actors, particularly Christopher Lloyd. This movie had a concept presumed to be impossible at it’s time, but the animation crew had SUCH attention to detail that in one of the scenes where Roger and Eddie are wrestling they bump a live action lamp, and the real lamp that’s actually there ACTUALLY EFFECTS the lighting of the Roger Rabbit character model in real time. That’s where the animation phrase “bumping the lamp” comes from in the industry. click on this link to see what I’m talking about:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EUPwsD64GI

Overall, it’s a wonderfully done love letter to everything great about cartoons you simply can’t miss out on.

6. Howl’s Moving Castle

Wouldn’t be a very well informed animated feature top 10 if I didn’t have at least ONE Studio Ghibli movie on this list. Most people would pick either Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke when referring to best animated flicks done by Ghibli if not best films of all time. And while I DO like and appreciate both those movies a lot, there’s a connection I have with Howl’s Moving Castle that I don’t have with other Ghibli films I can’t really explain. I don’t know why this movie impacted me more then those other ones did, it’s considered fantastic and among the best of Ghibli for many fans, but most wouldn’t put it before Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke. I think the main thing is I went into both those other movies expecting it to live up to all the hype put on them by the people around me, and while I DO certainly agree they both deserve all the praise they get, Howl’s Moving Castle is the one I wasn’t told anything about and so it left me with the most surprises and curiosity. The movie has great animation as Ghibli always does, with BREATHTAKING settings, wonderfully fluid and constantly morphing animation and an overwhelming amount of imagination and whimsy. It’s everything great about Ghibli and it’s an unexpected favorite for myself. Check it out!

5. The Incredibles

For the first 3d animated entry on this list (and only . . . spoilers) what better studio to celebrate then Pixar? Pixar can be credited for paving the way of mainstream animated features for establishing beautifully realistic and thoughtful movies that really capture what the medium is capable of. In my opinion, The Incredibles is the perfect example of what the studio is capable of and is my favorite work of theirs. To be fair I’m probably pretty biased as I’ve loved Superheroes for the vast, VAST majority of my life, but that bias doesn’t change the fact that this movie is action packed, dramatic, thought provoking, philosophical AND goddam hilarious in a way that Pixar hasn’t recaptured in quite some time. This movie celebrates everything great about the Superhero genre while also challenging it and mocking it in a delightful way. I remember reading on the back of the box that someone (can’t remember who) said this movie was X-men, James Bond and Indiana Jones all rolled into one and . . .yeah, that pretty much sums it up. Wonderful textures, great color scheme that knows how to reflect the mood of every given scene, and the faces . . OH MY GOD the faces in this movie are SPECTACULAR. Wonderfully detailed, you can see every hair and every tooth, they just feel so organic, like the facial muscles are really there, and are so funny to look at. Not to mention this is the only Pixar movie that actually makes sense to give a sequel to at this point (Cars 3 . .  . .really??)

4. The Emperor’s New Groove

Okay, so Disney was coming sooner or later. It’s pretty obvious to put SOMETHING made by them on here and EVERYBODY has their favorites. They’ve made so many classics that they can fill an entire list of their own. But for the sake of diversity and a little unpredictability I’ve narrowed my Disney picks down to two selections (foreshadowing). My first is this comedic marvel. Witty, slick, and exploding with personality, The Emperor’s New Groove is an entity that came into fruition by complete accident in the middle of the production of an Incan inspired epic called Empire of the Sun with the leaving and replacing of directors and writers . . . .and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Every casting choice in this movie is spot on, 99.9% of the jokes in this movie are a dead ringer, and it’s a miracle of bizarre and unpredictable decision making creating something great. Disney has a habit of recycling old storytelling tropes, characters and, well . . . straight up animation when budgets are tight. Disney Princess movies are comparable and often times predictable, but Emperor’s New Groove is a breath of fresh air and entirely it’s own entity that cannot be recreated. Also, I shamelessly listen to this movies opening song on the regular. WHAT’S HIS NAME?!?!

3. Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Ladies and gentlemen, the second entry from Disney Studios on this list and the only other one from Disney studios. Now I have to come out and admit that this movie is pretty problematic and objectively, I don’t think it could be considered better or even on par with previous entries on this list. It’s not as tightly written as Emperor’s New Groove, it’s not as well paced as the Incredibles, It’s not as Whimsical as Howl’s Moving Castle. But what this movie gets right, it gets REAAAALLY right. For starters, the scale in this movie is HUGE. the stakes are incredibly large, the choir is captivating, the villain is a maniacal perverted badass, and it’s arguably the darkest entry Disney has ever done (either this or The Black Cauldron). It has stunning angles, great lighting, SOOOO MANY character models on screen at once in certain shots. It has a bit of a tonal problem in that it shifts between happy and very dark jarringly, and with the exception of a FEW jokes it isn’t very funny due to ineffective comic relief (the Gargoyles) but the things this movie does so incredibly well is what stuck with me since I was a kid. I would play this movie at least once a day for a while as a kid and as an adult I identify with it a scary amount. The epic scene where Quasimodo is breaking the chains is etched into the deep crevices of my subconscious. Also character design in this movie is great, with Quasimodo being effectively ugly but easy enough on the eyes to still remain sentimental.

2. Kubo and the Two Strings.

Okay, so anybody who knows me in real life knows that for like a month I would not shut the hell up about this movie. But for those of you who also saw it, can you blame me?? This epic is a technical innovator that brilliantly captures the atmosphere of Japanese culture right down to the nearest detail and has a refreshing yet familiar story that feels so much like ancient folklore; making something that’s been around for generations suddenly seem new. I could go on and on about this movies achievements: the thousands upon thousands of unique faces for the protagonist, the seamless integration of CGI and stop motion, the largest stop motion puppet to ever be featured on film and the first 3d printed puppet to be featured in a movie, it’s SO refreshing to have a movie this challenging and risk taking again. Studio Laika deserves all the praise  they can get for this masterpiece. A lot of people have problems with the story and to be fair, I had my issues with it for a while too, but honestly it’s only as contrived as a Japanese myth, which is what it’s trying to replicate anyway. It’s definitely a style over substance movie, but the style works SOOO well that you can’t deny how friggin impressive it really is, plus the substance is serviceable enough and tells it’s story in a way lets you put variables together as you go along. Plus the casting choices for this movie are SURPRISINGLY good, especially Matthew Mcconaughey. I initially thought he would be the thing that holds this movie back but he’s a surprisingly helpful and charming character that completes the dynamic in this movies trio. I love movies that can take bizarre decisions and make them work, in case you couldn’t tell from my entries.

Honorable mentions before we see number 1: Spirited Away, The Prince of Egypt, Aladdin, The Iron Giant, Princess Mononoke, Akira

1. Song of the Sea

My pick for the number one spot was a real toss up between Song of the Sea and Kubo and the Two Strings. Most likely because they are actually incredibly similar. They’re both highly immersive in their culture, they are both recent releases that unfortunately didn’t do nearly as well in the Box Office as they deserve, and they feature child characters that defeat their antagonists and save their respective days through the use of love and kindness. But ultimately I decided Song of the Sea should be my pick for the number one spot. For one, it’s story is a lot tighter; much simpler, much less contrived and a hell of a lot more nuance. This movies greatest strength in terms of storytelling is it’s allegories and how it presents them, with every main character somehow being a reflection of some ancient celtic tale. It’s story and characters are great and believable and heartwarming, but it’s true strength is it’s animation. Brilliant use of simple geometric character design, wonderful sense of depth perception, brilliant background design that highly resembles Irish aesthetics and architecture (which makes sense because this movie was produced by the Irish studio Cartoon Saloon) which also has lots of adult jokes and imagery scattered around out of sight for the kids btw, and Miyazaki levels of enchanting imagination and color use. If you haven’t seen this yet, drop whatever you’re doing and watch it now. Not only is it in need of some long overdue attention but it will make you a better person by the time you are finished watching it. 

So those are my current picks for my top 10 favorite animated flicks. There are so many classics out there I have yet to see so sometime this list might change, but until then this is what it looks like. If there are any flicks here you haven’t checked out then by all means give them a watch. They most certainly deserve it.

[cobrienba1b]

Easter Summary

Character Modelling

Over the holidays, I have not done a whole lot on my modeling project, this is mainly because I went home for the holiday but I couldn’t bring my computer with me and my laptop wouldn’t be able to run Autodesk Maya. However, what I did do for this particular project was have a look at the animals I was basing it off and see if I could get some inspiration from it, also to study the texture. After this I decided to make one final concept piece that does differ from my previous iterations a little bit, it is a little smaller than the 3D render but I plan to redo it anyway so it should be fine.  I feel like this work is going ok at the moment, however as there was a large amount of time where I could barely do anything for it, I feel as if I am quite far behind, as well as this, I am planning to make another iteration, but I'll need to be extremely quick since there isn't a lot of time left and I have yet to finish my other projects AND my showreel. Pros: I managed to get my Whilla concept design done as well as do a little bit of research for it. Cons: I did try and get the Whilla concept done a lot earlier on but I did get an art block which prevented me, mentally from being happy with any of my artworks and caused me a lot of stress, so I took time out to take a break and then went back to it. I also feel like there is so much more to do in such little time so I am going to have to sort out priorities. I am going to try and go through the brief and make a checklist to tick off everything I have done and plan when to do the rest over the remaining days.

Lip Sync

Over the Easter break, I have done some researching and concept work for this project, I have looked at lip syncing tutorials to see if there were any other techniques I could pick up and see if I could incorporate it into my own work. I also had finished my live-action reference, I didn’t want to completely imitate the head movements, I just wanted to try and get as realistic mouth movements as I could, I could also base a lot of my mouth chart. I feel like this project is going quite well at the moment, there isn’t a lot of time left but I feel I can get one more iteration done as well as a revised mouth chart in time for hand-in.  Pros: I’ve given myself plenty of concept choices that I can choose from if I wanted to give some changes to the second iteration. I also can use tips and tricks I have seen in tutorials.  Cons: There isn’t a lot of time left and where I don’t have TV Paint (or even the money to buy it) I can’t do anything at home, University is the only place I can animate this so I tried to get as much done as I could before Easter but after the break I am going to have to spend long hours after class to get it done and focus on other projects. Overall I am happy with where this project is going, it is going to be difficult to try and redo everything before hand-in with enough time to put it all into the showreel. Next week I am going to try and time manages everything so I can get it done without burning myself out.

Show Reel

I haven’t done much on my showreel this break, mainly due to the fact that I am wanting to wait until I have finished everything before I start placing it all into a showreel, as well as this, I am going to try and take some time to redo some of the BA1a projects to make it look good for the showreel. I did do some research work in the holidays though, I have gone through youtube and looked for 3 good examples of showreels, I tried to go for 3 showreels that I could credit for different factors and I then wrote about them and posted them. This is quite good for the project since this can give me tips, tricks, and inspiration for what to put in my very own showreel. I would feel a lot better about this project if it didn’t have the same deadline as the others since I am one to work on projects and keep working on them, perfecting them right up until the deadline but with this project I am not able to do that because I have to then work on this AFTER I have finished everything else. Pros: I have gotten some research done in this project and I am safe to say that I have done everything required for this project apart from the actual showreel itself, as well as this, I have gotten the premiere induction done as well so I know my way more around the software.  Cons: I haven’t got a lot of time to get this finished, as well as that, I have to set this task at the very last part since I can’t do it until I have got all of my video files at the ready.  Overall I can’t do a lot on the project other than research, this week I am going to try and get the file up and ready with the music ready also, and also to see if I can animate a title and outro card for when I have finished everything.

Mystery Box

I haven’t done anything on my mystery box this holiday since I haven’t been able to use Maya to tweak anything. The final render is completed and where I could make changes to it, there is at least a passable version that I can keep at the sidelines just in case I can’t finish the final iteration in time. Next week, I am going to try and set some time aside to make some tweaks to the animation and then give it one final render, however, as of the holidays, I couldn’t do much. 

[the-fitsquad]

Time To Defragment Your Laptop

Life style Articles

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Final week in Ft. Collins, Colorado, HP hosted myself and one other journalist for an exclusive “VIP tour” behind the scenes of its workstation R&D facility and an advance unveiling of the newest member of the Z Workstations household. Are HP’s Z-workstations excellent? BOXX gives custom workstation solutions for the industries listed under. Take a look at our complete seating ranges, created to cater for all elements of the business, and marvel at their ergonomic functions, their practicality and the top quality of their finish.Office chairs and desk chairs are an essential part of your office furniture environment. Privacy screening to workstations can be provided employing modular, free of charge-standing or desk-mounted screens. For instance, architects might use CAD software program to create overhead views of building floor plans and outdoor landscapes.

It comes in a wide selection of various configurations, my base recommendation being the model that has an Intel Core i5-6600U CPU with eight GB of RAM, a dedicated Nvidia GPU and a 256GB PCIe SSD which are some of the fastest storage devices up to date. HP Z38c Curved Show.and why not have a giant curved screen to go with the workstations. – PAWs should be utilised for managing the operating method and applications that give Directory Synchronization and Identity Federation for cloud solutions such as Azure AD Connect and Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS). The graphics functionality is reduced by around 20% on battery power (8313 vs. 6711 points in 3DMark 11). The most demanding tasks are usually repeatedly running extended (couple of hours simulated time) Simulink simulations at small sample times (couple of microseconds) and plotting and otherwise processing (fairly basic like averaging, root mean square, and so forth.) the data.

Get the job done with desktops offering excellent worth with vital functionality and security characteristics for small and developing companies. They can come configured with NVIDIA Quadro K2200 graphics cards, but most leave the graphics card up to you, and come sans graphics option. As opposed to the modular HP Elite Slice , the Z2 Mini is upgraded in much the identical way as any other desktop tower is: by opening it up and installing the elements. Featuring the most current Intel® Xeon® processors with up to 22 cores per CPU and 4 video cards. By this mode, Lasswell indicates that in order to appropriately analyze a media item, a single need to appear at Who made the solution (the individuals who ordered its creation), Who was it aimed at (the target audience) and What had been the preferred effects of this item (to inform, to persuade, to sell, and so on) on the audience.

Its Intel Atom dual core processor delivers the quickly processing speeds required to each exploit Sextans-RT software. Sophisticated Micro Devices continued its year of recovery on Thursday, unveiling a new line of microprocessor chips referred to as Ryzen Pro aimed at desktop workstations. The optional HP Z Turbo Drive PCIe Strong State Drive reduces boot up, calculation, and graphics response times, even with 4K video! This is the case of South Africa, and African nations, and all the African and other men and women in the Diaspora. But by getting filing cabinets, desks, and other office things refurbished, companies can save their challenging earned income and outfit their offices with high top quality products. Both the ThinkStation E30 workstation and ThinkCentre M81 desktop are optimized for rapidly commence up and shut down time beneath Lenovo’s Enhanced Experience (EE) two. for Windows 7 program.

Front workplace management might request the guest to make a partial payment to reduce the outstanding account balance. If you need further short-term CAD specialists alongside versatile computer software licences and hardware, our CAD group is happy to assist. Quadro brings desktop-class performance to mobile workstations to enable incredibly powerful, thin and light form aspects. Even though credit card transfer settlement brings a guest account to zero, the amount of the charge need to be tracked until payment is in fact received from the credit card Co. With higher core count and memory capacity, this workstation is designed for professionals looking for mainstream functionality and inexpensive energy. I was also pondering about BOXX Workstations as well, they look are professional people supporting engineers particularly.

Modular workstations add style and color to your office along with providing it a specialist look. Seat Style Atmosphere (SDE) is software that’s totally integrated into industrial 3D CAD systems, for designing and manufacturing revolutionary transportation seat systems and interior components. Contemplating all these above points, 1 can get an correct list of things that are needed to setup the perfect office making use of designer office furniture or wholesale workplace furniture. The benefit of on-line chatting is that it has enabled individuals to stay in continuous touch with their social circles throughout the day. Not surprisingly, ergonomic principles have begun to increasingly influence the style of modern day workstations from footrests and shelving space to the more apparent redesign of items such as office chairs and personal computer desks.

The 64 bit Psyborg Extreme Workstation comes with the NVIDA Quadro FX 4600 SLI capable skilled graphics with 768 MB of graphics memory and the Windows Vista Ultimate 64 Bit Operating Method. The Application Licensing Service reported that the grace period expired. With the introduction of the new Xeon 5500 Series, it really is an thrilling time for workstations in common, because performance is about to go by way of the roof, especially when users are multitasking or running multithreaded applications like 3ds Max. HP’s professional graphics line-up is perfect for users who are operating organization essential applications primarily based on OpenGL and DirectX® who call for stability, reliability, great performance, extra assistance, and application-distinct features and optimization for issues like complicated design modeling, dataset manipulation, visual effects and visualization.

Of course our mobile workstation PCs provide lightning-quick graphics options in packages beginning under 5 lbs ThinkPad P Series laptops are the ideal workstation laptops. Manageability: Most workstations will provide tool-totally free access to the components with their circumstances becoming made to suit 24×7 workflows (that means additional fans). In the globe of computers, networking is the practice of linking two or much more computing devices together for sharing information. Dell Cost-effective 15-inch mobile workstation has enhanced efficiency features. These are strong mitigations, but workstations can nevertheless be vulnerable to certain attacks even if the credentials are protected by Credential Guard or Passport. I am organizing to develop my first pc. It would be mainly used for some light gaming and CAD for college.

&sup2 The full selection of AMD FirePro and NVIDIA Quadro Skilled Video Cards is accessible with every workstation – pick a technique above to configure. We enthusiasts might boast about Core X-Series processors from Intel or Ryzen Threadripper chips from AMD but for the specialist workstation market, Intel’s Xeon household of items have been laying waste to the competition for years. But on the other hand if you are searching for 1 that just runs most of your each day commonplace applications, you do not have to be so certain about either the graphics card of processor speed. 8, 2011 – To address the wants of an evolving workforce that demands anytime, anyplace access to company applications and data, Dell right now announced 24 new company computing solutions and form elements, such as laptops, tablets, desktops and workstation computers in one of the biggest-ever introductions in the company’s history and component of 39 new options launching in the next year.

Eventually, Industrial Computer Workstations will streamline and safeguard your provide chain, resulting in productivity improvements, a reduction in charges, minimal incidents of downtime and fewer workplace accidents involving IT equipment. Our selection of HP workstations, like the z7420 Xeon E5 model, is the excellent addition to any workplace space, net café, or occasion demands. The integration of telephony, computing and media (broadcasting)technologies, and thence the integration of the companies, markets andthe social interactions linked with them. By centralizing user Blade PCs, IT organizations obtain VDI- like positive aspects with higher availability, ease of management and power efficiencies in a dense data-center-friendly solution. An Intel® Xeon® processor, HP Z Turbo Drives, and NVIDIA® Quadro® graphics.

Our range of desks encompasses every kind of design, with each practicality and aesthetic appeal in thoughts. For the ssd I would go for some thing a bit larger overall performance, one thing like the Samsung 850 pro would have more efficiency even with smaller files (which cad usually is) though the difference isn’t that big. A final point about China-Africa instruction is that it is even harder to calculate the big number of Africans who are acquiring expertise in Chinese firms, big and tiny, from Senegal to Ethiopia, and from Egypt to Zimbabwe. Appear for terms like professional laptop” or mobile workstation,” which normally indicate that the laptop is going to offer a lot more horsepower and larger-end choices. In our chart at the beginning on the page, we selected the best gaming desks out of the numerous alternatives out there.

The answer is simply because Intel created a superior CPU register architecture, which permits for quicker application execution, via more effective routing of information amongst their CPUs’ internal registers, and more efficient CPU directions and information allocation in between CPU cores. It really is going direct from you to a school so when they open on day 1 there will be computer systems for the teachers and youngsters. In fact, I was operating SONAR on a dual-Xeon Gulftown method a few weeks ago at Game Developers Conference, and SONAR was utilizing all 24 threads. Hopefully the info supplied so far will support you realize that obtaining CAD software in the organization and operating it on inappropriate hardware just to save a couple of hundred a year in hardware costs compared to purchasing a CAD workstation can price a enterprise tens of thousands or much more in lost productivity and profitability in reality over a period of years.

Operations on this object are invalid. Although most models these days are touchscreen, several also supply application that produces a virtual keyboard you can kind on. Some mobile devices are made to supply a physical keyboard that slides out from the telephone – whilst you might choose this classic technique of typing alternatively of the sensitive touchscreen technologies, be conscious that it will make your phone bulkier. The HP Z620 workstation also caters to the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) market, which depend on higher functionality, expandability, and ultimate reliability in order finish their projects (e.g. BIM and CAD) on schedule. “Adobe is thrilled with our collaboration with HP, which we know will additional fuel creativity and give Inventive Cloud members a lot more power and freedom to create wherever inspiration strikes,” Mala Sharma, vice president and basic manager of Creative Cloud solution, marketing and advertising and neighborhood at Adobe, said in the release.

Our main objective is to offer great value, high-quality server and storage solutions, we understand that every company has diverse needs and as such are in a position to offer you un-equaled flexibility in designing custom server and storage options to meet our clients’ requirements. Our workstation help consultants offer free of charge aid with installations and problem solving for Macintosh or Windows Computer desktop and laptop computer systems, computer software, and peripherals such as printers and personal digital assistants. Our buyer service personnel are seasoned, hands on individuals that will operate with you to suit your individual personal computer workstation furniture needs throughout each and every step of the process. It does not genuinely matter if you happen to be in company and have a network or a roomful of PCs or laptops, or whether or not you are just an person user at house, it is inconvenient to unhook your system and drive to a personal computer repair location in your town if you do not need to.

Even if you happen to be only making use of AutoCAD for 2D Drafting and Annotation, you will want at least a decent graphics card. The Software program Licensing Service reported that the item identification information is not offered. Projects like Carpool Karaoke might fit greater into the app, something that’ll aid Apple push a lot more exclusive video content going forward. Lenovo made the ThinkStation C20 and C20x workstations with the ultra-compact, quantity-crunching efficiency needed to drive financial markets. As a side note, when I timed the export, I produced positive I wasn’t performing anything else in Final Cut Pro, since the program is developed to slow background processes if there is one thing going on in the foreground. Not only does this laptop provides a fantastic efficiency and a lot of security characteristics, it also has a strong aluminum uni physique frame, which tends to make it durable.

Rather, duties ought to be split among the personnel a front desk agent could execute posting, a night auditor the verification and a cashier the settlement. Expand your power Take your business to the next level of efficiency, expandability, and no compromise reliability in 1 full package. The hotel ought to handle the credit of its guest to also insure a healthy money flow. Pc Workstation will prove familiar and intuitive because of its user-friendly interface and ease in pulling reports. As suppliers of hardware to many of our customers, we frequently supply new CAD workstations and laptops kind a variety of suppliers. This will considerably improve efficiency for CPU rendering, whilst decreasing efficiency for most non-rendering tasks, such as making, editing, and animating models.

The Software Licensing Service reported that the name specified for the Active Directory Activation Object is also long. Numerous engineers, architects, and designers discovered their trade at a time when CAD was not in use. If you want Windows on a telephone, rather of utilizing Windows 10 Mobile, you would just use “Windows 10” with components that make sense for a phone device. The third step in producing an ergonomic workstation is setting up your show device(s) properly. Thanks for this Kristen, my back is always sore, think its time to invest in an ergonomical chair! 512GB or 1TB PCIe SSD: High efficiency storage, more rapidly than SATA III SSD. • Because charges are normally incurred at remote points of sale, and guest and non-guest folios are maintained at the front workplace division, posting of different guest and non-guest charges shall be performed.

And to design and style and generate these cars, Morgan turns to HP Z Workstations. Globe-class workstation elements like the highest memory capacity available2. The HP Z840 is a high-end, dual-socket, professional workstation with two octo-core processors, prodigious expansion space, and ISV-certified graphics for your multi-million-dollar projects. These web applications help, streamline and usually facilitate an array of business processes relating to finance, human resources and academics. The ClearCube architecture centralizes processing energy in the datacenter so users get full multi-core overall performance without having the heat or fan noise of conventional desktop PCs. Expanded hardware help: One particular of the best pain points expressed by our Windows Insiders was the limits on taking benefit of the raw energy of their machine.

Although there’s much to be mentioned for the communal nature and exchange of suggestions that comes with setting up camp in the kitchen of one’s hackerspace, the time sooner or later comes for most businesses to do organization behind closed doors. Believe about it: You can still write a novel on a typewriter, shoot photographs with film, or play music reside and record it with a DAT deck, but really couple of organizations can get their work carried out with no PCs. With a warm matte grey finish, X-shaped legs and an innovative channel at the rear to hide cords, the Cruz Desk creates a stylish and functional perform space for the contemporary home office. Good post, if not for this I would’ve been below the impression that HP was out of the workstation laptop business as their internet site is so convoluted.

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