#a game that starts off in such an inclusive manner makes everything more enjoyable

[justanartsysideblog]

Guess who started playing The Arcana? Decided to draw my MC, Elishiba. Their familiar is a coati named Hrindri. 

[number-1-kuaidul-fanboy]

Punch Out Wii Boxers Ranked

Thought I’d give my opinion on this since I’ve already expressed biases towards/against certain characters. I will be including Donkey Kong and Doc Louis but not Little Mac (because he is the objective best). The list will go from 15: the worst, to 1: the best. Before I start, I’d like to say that all of these characters are good, well-crafted characters, it really just comes down to personal bias who you prefer. And with that, let’s get started:

15. King Hippo

King Hippo is barely a character. Everything he “says” (there are apparently translations) just boils down to being hungry and he has no personality outside of that. I don’t hate him, but I don’t really care about him. His fight is also pretty boring all things considered. The contender fight is pitifully easy once you know what you’re doing and his title defense fight can go on for a long time and get very monotonous. At least his music’s kinda cool.

14. Super Macho Man

As someone who lives in America, I hate Macho Man with a burning passion. It’s not because I’m “patriotic,” it’s actually kind of the opposite. I’m not offended by his stereotype because it’s mean, I’m annoyed by his stereotype because it’s accurate. I deal with people like this on the daily: in the news. His catchphrases are obnoxious (except sometimes when they’re cut off. That’s kinda funny, admittedly) and he’s egotistical even compared to some of the others. He’s the type of person I actually want to punch in the face so I thank Punch Out for giving me that opportunity but I still hate the character. His match is fine. It’s a bit too easy in both contender and title defense compared to Soda and Bull but hey, at least they tried. His music’s alright.

13. Donkey Kong

Don’t get me wrong, I love Donkey Kong’s inclusion in this game. I think it’s amazing that Nintendo made a match for one of their most famous characters and the fight against him is very unique and challenging to win by KO. That being said, I never really played Donkey Kong so I don’t really have the connection to this character that others do. So yeah, great cameo, not one of my favourite fighters.

12. Bald Bull

Sorry, Bald Bull fans, but I’m not the biggest fan of this raging lunatic. In fact, he kinda creeps me out. People make jokes about Great Tiger being a furry (which he is), but Bald Bull straight up acts like a bull to the point of literally assaulting the poor referee. It’s kind of gross. To that same point, he is also completely shameless about his horrid anger issues which is personally not fun to watch. I get that he was driven mad by the paparazzi (or whatever that cutscene was trying to convey) but it’s still pretty over the top. I’m also not a big fan of his fights. It’s not too terribly difficult in contender mode (except the stupid bull charge) but it’s downright ridiculous in title defense. I firmly believe that his title defense match is the hardest in the entire game, yes even more difficult than TD Soda and TD Sandman. I cannot express with words how much I despise the star punch gimmick. Getting the star punches is frame perfect, making it feel like luck, and getting hit once makes you lose them all. And you need those stars to even knock him down. Seems a bit extreme for the middle fight in the world circuit, doesn’t it?! I was at this fight for hours and was over the moon when I finally managed to beat him. Also, his music kinda sucks. However, I put him over Macho Man because despite everything I just said, I don’t actually hate Bald Bull. I hate his fights but I don’t hate him personally like I do with obnoxious american.

11. Soda Popinski

Oh boy, Drunk Man. I don’t really see many reasons to like him but not any to hate him either, apart from his stupidly difficult fight, that is. I actually find it pretty easy in Contender. There’s a lot of strategies to knock him down really fast and his pattern is pretty basic. As for title defense, did they really need to make it that ridiculously hard? Yeah, there are tricks to make it easier and he has a set pattern but getting into the rhythm of that pattern is incredibly difficult and one slight mistake sets you back to two stun punches. It’s beyond frustrating. And yet the game deems him and Bald Bull to be easier than Macho Man. Why? As a character, Soda is just kinda there for me. It’s fun to make jokes about his steroid soda at least. Also, his music is for some reason one of my favourites tracks in the game. It’s just so epic.

10. Bear Hugger

Alright, now we’re onto the characters I actually like. Bear Hugger is a fun character. He’s one of the more exaggerated stereotypes though I can’t really say for sure whether this one is accurate or not but I’m guessing the maple syrup and hockey stuff at the very least is. I also love the squirrel. It’s implemented into the fight kind of oddly, but it makes his title defense fight pretty enjoyable. It’s a difficult fight but not one I’ve lost recently. The contender fight is fun too, it’s definitely one where I get to spam a ton of star punches. His music is good too. Not much to say on Bear Hugger, he’s fun but I like the other characters more.

9. Disco Kid

Kinda sad that the Wii version only introduced one new character to the roster but at least it was a fun character. Disco Kid’s matches are not a challenge. Contender mode, title defense, he’s one of the easiest fights in the game. He makes up for that by being incredibly over the top flamboyant and cocky, this time in a fun way. I like that he dances throughout his whole fight, I think it’s cool when every little aspect of someone’s match ties into who the character is. Disco Kid is a flamboyant dancer and that is perfectly shown through his mannerisms in the fights. I especially love how in Title Defense, he’s not really bitter or determined to beat Mac he’s just like, “Oh a dance club? This is cool, might as well work this stuff into my boxing routine.” It’s pretty excellent. I’m not a huge fan of disco, but his theme music is pretty good.

8. Aran Ryan

If there’s one thing I’ve seen since joining this site, it’s a lot of Aran Ryan. People on here really love this guy and even many of the YouTubers I’ve seen play this game say he is one of if not their favourite character in the game. Personally, I think he’s a little overrated. However, I do still like him and see why other people like him. He’s sort of a “love to hate” kind of character with him being a complete psycho that’s probably a sadist and a masochist considering how he seems to enjoy being punched and beating the hell out of everyone. It’s fun in a twisted way. His fights are also both pretty fun. Everyone really likes the cheating aspect and yeah, it’s pretty ridiculous that he can literally bring in a weapon and get away with it. However, it also makes his fight stand out from the others. He’s so horrible that he’s just fun to beat up. It’s also the only world circuit fight in title defense that I don’t hate with every fibre of my being. So yeah, fun character, with excellent music might I add.

7. Glass Joe

Here’s another favourite here on Tumblr. To be honest, the fact that people on here liked Aran Ryan didn’t surprise me at all. In fact, it seemed perfectly in character. However, it did surprise me to see how many people liked Glass Joe. I thought he was kind of underrated before but now I see that he’s getting the love he deserves. I love how even though Glass Joe is in every way a french stereotype, he also directly defies the stereotype of the french being quick to surrender. He lost one hundred times and still didn’t give up, becoming determined to defeat Little Mac after earning the headgear. It’s unironically really admirable. Glass Joe’s fights are never a challenge. Contender, title defense, champion’s mode, motion controls, he’s always kind of a joke. However, he is meant to be a tutorial fight for new players and this game gets much more challenging as it goes on, so it’s understandable. They did do a good job at making him more challenging in title defense, but it was still pretty easy at least in my opinion.

6. Von Kaiser

Von Kaiser’s a little underrated in this fandom. Maybe I’m speaking from bias, since I have so many headcanons about him but I really do think he’s a good character. He is just as much of a coward as Glass Joe and isn’t a much better fighter (his contender and title defense fights are both incredibly simple) yet Von Kaiser has a significantly better record than the rest of the minor circuit and even Bear Hugger, with 23 wins and 13 losses. He must’ve gotten those wins from somewhere and I doubt they were all from Glass Joe. That combined with the fact that Kaiser is the oldest boxer in the game (42) makes me think he was once a great boxer but has now passed his prime and refuses to give up, sort of like Glass Joe, but a little more tragic. Regardless, it’s fun to speculate. And I feel kinda bad for Von Kaiser, I mean the dude gets beat up by kids and basically goes mad after being beaten by a seventeen year old boxing newbie. Also, his music is pretty intense despite the fact that he’s treated like a joke by the game. Like Glass Joe, they did do a good job of making Kaiser more difficult in title defense by giving him a one hit KO and plenty of fake outs, though I don’t particularly struggle with either of those.

5. Sandman

Sandman is scary as hell. None of the other boxers really intimidate me, even the one with ridiculously difficult fights, but Sandman is a different story. Everyone else in the game has some kind of silly quirk even when they are serious but this guy is deadly serious about boxing. I mean, they introduce him by showing him beat the shit out of everyone you just faced before, some of which the player may have struggled with. It’s a great introduction for a final boss. His fight in contender is certainly the hardest in that mode and while I didn’t struggle with his title defense fight as much as TD Soda and TD Bull, it was still incredibly hard to beat. And unlike TD Soda and TD Bull, he actually has final boss vibes, so he does deserve his rank (unlike some other characters). Similar to Aran Ryan, his fight also requires the player to be more on offense, at least in my experience.

#4 Doc Louis

Doc Louis is severely underrated in this fandom and just in general. I love how encouraging he is to Little Mac even when he loses repeatedly, I love his silly tips that more often than not are cheesy dad jokes or puns. He’s just a good wholesome dad that loves his chocolate. I love him. Sadly, I have not played Doc Louis’s Punch Out so I don’t really have a perspective on how the fight is apart from videos online but it does look pretty fun, and it’s freaking Doc Louis. How can you not love him?

#3 Piston Hondo

This guy is also kind of underrated, maybe because he’s a bit vanilla? I don’t know, but apart from Sandman, he is undoubtedly the most serious about boxing. It’s actually a bit scary. I mean, this dude can catch a sword in his bare hands and outrun the bullet train, he could easily become champion after Little Mac retires. In fact, for me at least, his title defense fight is the most challenging fight in the major circuit for me. Yes, harder than Bear Hugger and Great Tiger. Those fake outs and speedy Hondo Rushes kept getting me. So yeah, very dedicated to boxing. He’s also just very respectable in general, keeping a calm demeanor throughout the fight and even bowing to show respect. He also doesn’t laugh at you when you get knocked down like literally everyone else does. (Apart from Don, but he still taunts you by asking if you want more.) Yeah, he gloats, but he’s a good sport. It’s nice to see someone who plays fair amongst a crowd of cheaters.

#2 Don Flamenco

Yet another character I’m surprised doesn’t get more attention in this fandom. I dunno, maybe my opinions are just weird. That being said, Don Flamenco was always going to be one of my favourites as he is the only foreign speaker in this entire game I can understand without subtitles. Though even if you don’t know spanish, Don’s character is still very clear and very amazing. Like, I’m sorry, but his contender intro is the best sequence in the entire game. You know immediately what he’s all about and it’s just so beautifully over the top to see this try hard dance his way into the ring with a rose. Actually, “beautifully over the top” is a great description for Don Flamenco in general. He hits every note of the “Spanish man” stereotype in the first few seconds you see him: being a bullfighter, getting all the girls, dancing the flamenco, and just being handsome in general. I don’t know if that last one is an actual stereotype but it’s undeniably true. And none of that is a bad thing. He is a positive figure, if a little cocky, and all of these things that the game could make fun of him for (the NES version certainly does), are actually shown in a positive light. I’m not too fond of bullfighting being shown in that light but it is very popular in Spain so… eh. Also, I do like that Don Flamenco fights like a bullfighter in the ring, baiting you into “charging” or attacking before countering. It’s a nice detail. However, it does make the fight a little too easy. In contender mode, even without doing the infinite, I barely have any trouble with him. He’s easy to get stars off of, his attacks are not that hard to dodge or counter, and if you do the infinite combo, you can destroy him in seconds. In title defense, he is more difficult for sure, but he’s the easiest fight title defense fight in the major circuit. That being said, holy cow is he amazing in title defense as well. He was already over the top in contender but in title defense, after one loss might I add, he acts like it’s the end of the world and becomes completely emo. This could’ve been completely obnoxious or stupid but in my opinion, it makes him very entertaining. He’s just so fun to watch in general, I love his epic music, and I love this angsty telenovela character. Amo al personaje Don Flamenco. El es tan entretenido y guapo. Necesita más amor. Because I mentioned that I know spanish earlier and the first first thing people always ask me is to speak some so there you go. Onto number one.

1. Great Tiger

If you’ve seen my other stuff here on Tumblr, you probably knew this was coming. My very first post on Tumblr, as well as the second, was about Great Tiger and I have tons of pictures of him in my likes. I guess I just have a thing for charming arrogant divas. Seriously, while he’s not as over the top as someone like Disco Kid or Don Flamenco, Great Tiger is a total diva and kind of a show off. He’s always using his clones to glorify himself or taunt you, which would normally be annoying but for some reason, it’s not in his case. And it’s not because I don’t know what he’s saying, the inflection in his voice makes it clear enough that he’s trash talking (and I’ve looked up translations). It’s because Great Tiger has a sort of cold determination, like he is ready to destroy you first, glorify himself after, probably the reason he doesn’t have a taunt, unlike nearly everyone else in the game. He is completely focused on the match and very cool-headed as well. He’s very respectable, even when he’s literally telling you to go drink your mother’s milk. On a side note, I looked up those translations as a kid and I still can’t get over the fact that that is something he actually says. Like, what on earth Nintendo? Still, it’s kinda funny to me. Anyways, I love Great Tiger’s fights. His contender form is fun and I love that intermission scene where he switches places with Doc, showing what a likeable douche he is but his title defense form is my favourite in the game. I really love the magical element, what can I say? The flashing jewel is like a game of Simon put to boxing, I love that he teleports all over the place, the Magic Rush is gorgeous bullshit, and the fight keeps me on my toes but not to the point of being impossibly hard. It’s also fun to experiment with certain elements of the fight, because it can be incredibly varied depending on what you do. just really fun. Whether I do the special knockout or play through the whole fight, I have a fun time fighting Great Tiger. It also helps that his music is spectacular, my favourite in the game. I dunno, those bongos just feel so good on the ears. Great Tiger is also just really interesting in general, and I feel like there’s a lot of unanswered questions about him. How does he have magic? (I know the NES version has an explanation for this but the Wii version does not and is substantially different.) What is the extent of his abilities? Is the jewel the source of his power? It seemed to be directly linked to his corporeal clones in title defense. Is he even of this world? I don’t know, but damn it’s fun to speculate on. I’d love a story just about his backstory, how he got his magic, how he became a boxer, I care about that stuff. So yeah, Great Tiger is the most interesting character in this game, and that’s why he’s my favourite. (I also low-key crush on him, but that’s subjective :)

Anyways, hope you enjoyed my list, it was kinda long, but I have a lot of opinions on this game and this is a good place to put it.

[katieskarlette]

Shadows Rising: A Reaction Post

Short, mostly non-spoilery version:  I liked it overall.  I give it a solid B, maybe a B+.

I was disappointed in how little Nathanos and/or Sylvanas content there was, but I think proclamations of the ship’s doom are premature.  

I’m intrigued by the first rumblings of new character development for certain characters, especially Anduin, Alleria and Turalyon.

I was rooting for Talanji so much.  She’s great. Zekhan is a cinnamon roll too pure for this world.  Sira was kind of boring. Fairshaw is so darn heartwarming I can’t stand it. I like Bwonsamdi more now. The lack of Wrathion is unsurprising but unfortunate. Nothing new with Tyrande but she’s already poised for major development in Shadowlands.

Much longer, spoilery version below.

This ended up being more of a ramble than an essay, but there’s a lot of disjointed thoughts pinging around in my head, so let’s dive in.

Overall, I enjoyed Shadows Rising.  Was it the best book ever?  No.  Not even the best Warcraft book ever.  But it was an enjoyable read.  It’s always a treat to get into the heads of characters we mostly know in passing from in-game events.  There are internal, emotional beats that cannot easily be explored in the game, and the books are a way to build the world and the characters in a more introspective, slow-paced manner.  I like that.  (That’s not to say there are no action scenes, because there definitely are.)

Talanji, Jaina, Zekhan, and Anduin were all written well and sympathetically.  Maiev’s only in a couple scenes, but she felt off to me.  Nathanos was very in-character, in all his snide, sour glory.   Flynn and Mathias are great together.

The pacing was fine.  The descriptions were good, and it all felt grounded in the game world (i.e. landmarks, ambiance, the ridiculous amount of stairs in Daz’alor...)  Each of the Horde leaders got a moment or two in the spotlight.  Despite a fair amount of chapters about Anduin, Alleria, Turalyon, and Jaina, it still felt like a Horde-centric book to me.  Not that that’s a bad thing.

Prologue:  Gayness detected on page 8!  And it’s even something I kind of inadvertently predicted.  In my reaction post for Before the Storm I wrote, “ In this book alone, it would have been so easy to have that blacksmith bringing a helmet as a gift to his long-lost Forsaken husband instead of friend.”  That’s basically what we have here.  I don’t know if they were married, and neither were blacksmiths, but the Westfall moonshiner describes one of the Forsaken slain in Arathi as “the best man I ever knew and loved.”  Tada!  See how easy it was?  Add Jago x Wilmer to the growing list of LGBT rep in Azeroth.  (Even if they’re super minor characters in the long run, it’s still great to see.)

There might be some kind of parallel to be drawn between Alleria failing Anduin (by not finding/killing Sylvanas) and Nathanos failing Sylvanas (by not killing Bwonsamdi) but my brain is too overloaded from binge-reading to articulate it right now.  Both failed their king or queen, but both were also given nearly impossible tasks. 

Alleria and Turalyon are definitely being set up as antagonists.  We are clearly supposed to side with Jaina on this, and be uncomfortable (if not outright horrified) at their torture methods.  It’s especially disturbing how they use their respective void and light powers to accomplish their goals.  I mean, on one hand it’s great that both sides of the great cosmic divide can work together, and their marriage seems stronger than it was for awhile there, but yeesh...can you not torture people?  I know, ends justify the means, slippery slope, greater evil, blah blah, but still...that’s not okay.  It’s yet another sign that the Light is not necessarily good (or the void necessarily evil).

I welcome conflict within the Alliance, though.  That’s been the Horde’s thing for long enough.  Time to see how the blue side deals with its rifts.

In chapter 2 Nathanos is annoyed when a dreadtick flies by his head.  What, was it too similar to a bird for his liking?  Heh. 

All that time in Nazmir, and we didn’t get to see a single crawg!  Harumph.

It took three chapters and 39 pages to finally get something from Nathanos' perspective, and he was much more scarce going forward than I had hoped.  The bits we did get from his perspective were great and in-character, but I wanted to get into his head more.  Most of his scenes were from the POV of Sira or the troll villain instead, and while Apari was a good character I find Sira to be pretty one-dimensional. 

I kind of got paternal vibes from Nathanos toward Sira, though.  He was like, “I’ve been undead a lot longer than you; I know how to handle the bloodlust and such.  Get it out of your system at appropriate times but learn to control yourself.  There’s more to (un)life than slaughtering people.”  She herself, though, was just “Rawr, I hate everything and want to kill anything that moves.”  I mean, I get that she’s been through some traumatic stuff, but I didn’t find myself invested in her at all.

Page 42, as a bunch of trolls are about to be slaughtered:  "Hungry birds circled, expectant of a big meal, and Nathanos so hated to disappoint."  WHAT?  Nathanos wanted to do something nice for BIRDS?  I know, the phrasing fits with his dry, sarcastic sense of humor, but considering the running joke about him hating birds, it still made me go, “Huh?”

Chapter 5 (and later on, as it turns out):  Zekhan having a soft spot for kids is too precious for this world.

Page 51:  Thalyssra's eyes were "sparkling as she gazed across the room at Lor'themar."  Awwwwwww.   There was a surprising amount of ship fodder in this book overall, with Lor’themar x Thalyssra, Turalyon x Alleria, Fairshaw, and Zehkhan x Talanji all getting a moment or two (or more.) 

Chapter 6:  Anduin says, "Turalyon, take Alleria Windrunner and investigate these deaths."  You know, Alleria...YOUR WIFE?  I don't think you need to say her last name there, genius. 

While I’m being snarky about the editing, there were at least two times where the word “grieves” was used instead of “greaves.”  I spotted a couple other little things that a better editor (or one with more time, maybe it was rushed, I don’t know) would have caught.

Chapter 7:  More matter-of-fact LGBT inclusion for minor characters, this time a lesbian troll couple who want to marry.  Yes, thank you Blizzard, keep it up.

Chapter 8:  If you’re going to make the “Zappy Boy” nickname for Zekhan canon, having Bwonsamdi be the one to wink at the camera and use it was a great decision.  I can totally imagine him saying it.

We learn the name of Varok’s wife/Dranosh’s mother:  Remda.  Although I read elsewhere that the vision Zekhan saw of the Saurfang family in the afterlife was just Bwonsamdi’s B.S., it was still cool.

Chapter 13:  Nathanos wearing cologne?  Love it.  And it’s not even to cover up the rotting smell, because apparently his new body doesn’t stink like some undead; it just doesn’t smell like a living person, either, and some find it unnerving.  So he wears cologne.  That’s such a delightful little detail, and surprisingly considerate of him.

Sira complaining about bugs:  "We'll be eaten alive."  Uh no, you'd have to BE ALIVE for that to happen. Tsk.

Nathanos being called "the pale rider" makes me think of old cowboy movies.  Like, “You greenhorns better clear out; the Pale Rider is comin’ to town and there’s gonna be trouble.  Go wake up the sheriff.”  

Sira says that while on the voyage to Zandalar the dark rangers liked to tell the tale of how Nathanos was promoted to Ranger Lord by Sylvanas.  I'm surprised he lets them gossip like that!  His quests in vanilla made it seem he wanted to keep those parts of his past on the down-low, at least from the player.

Chapter 14:  Thrall's second kid is Rehze.  *blink*  Reh-zee?  Rez?  Ruh-zay?  I guess she’s not named after anyone.  After he named his son Durak (sort of after Durotan) I assumed he’d continue the pattern with kid #2.  Maybe she’s named after one of Aggra’s relatives.  (Later I read on Wowpedia that the author actually said she dislikes the “fan service” trend of naming children after other characters so she just picked a random orcish name.  I don’t think it’s fan service, because lots of real-life people do it, but okay.  Fair enough.)

Speaking of orcish names, there’s an orc page helping out the council named Gunk.  Like, what you clean out from under your fingernails after gardening.  Gunk.  LOL

Aww, that’s no fun...Maiev's wearing a cape trimmed in white fur, not daggers.  What happened to her impeccable/deadly fashion sense?

Chapter 16:  Zekhan starting to clap at Talanji's speech and then stopping and shrinking back when he realized no one else was applauding was so freaking adorable.

Chapter 17:  Fairshaw, full steam ahead!!!  Their chemistry is everything I hoped it would be.  Learning a little about Flynn’s tragic past was both fascinating and heartbreaking.  (We learned his mom’s name: Lyra Fairwind.  R.I.P.)

Chapter 18:  Proodmoore keep has a gallery with floor to ceiling oil paintings of the Proudmoore family, extended family, and beloved friends.  It now includes Anduin.  I can’t help thinking that, in a different timeline, Arthas’ portrait would have been there.

Will wonders never case?  Ji Firepaw actually gets to do stuff!!!  GASP!

"Thrall understood that to other humans Wrynn was said to be pleasing-looking, but to the orc, Anduin simply looked like a small, pink boy swallowed by clunky armor."  So it’s canon that Anduin is good-looking in-universe.  But LMAO at Thrall’s description.

Chapter 22:  From Shaw’s POV, "These odds ranked pretty low...  Maybe just above the time he had relied completely on a shoddy network of spies embedded in a cheese business."  OMG leave Elling Trias alone!  He did his best!  LOL

Shaw wanting to hang out in a mountain meadow and whittle bird calls (perhaps even with a special someone) was so touchingly normal.  That’s the kind of characterization that the books are so much better at than the game.

I actually like Bwonsamdi more after reading this.  Not that I disliked him before, but I didn’t have a strong sense of him due to not playing Horde as much in BFA.  He’s a well-done gray character:  not good, not evil, insightful but a smartass, part of the great cycle, out for himself but also taking his duties seriously (saving troll souls from the Maw.) 

I’m not entirely sure that we needed as much from Thrall’s POV as we got.  I mean, sure, he’s a familiar character with ties to a lot of others, so it was easy to drop him into situations, and his ties to Jaina made cross-faction communication easier, but he didn’t seem as relevant to the lore of Zandalar and the Shadowlands as some other characters.

Maiev seemed OOC, especially in the Stockades scene.  I know one of the themes of the book was “people change,” and I suppose I should be happy that she has a more moderate viewpoint nowadays, dialing back the Lust For Vengeance Meter from eleven to maybe a five or a six, but it didn’t feel like Maiev.  Especially because her message of “maybe don’t go overboard with this vengeance thing” was aimed at Tyrande, of all people, someone who Maiev has had quite legitimate reasons to dislike for a very, very long time.  I could see her maybe mellowing out a little in front of fellow Wardens, but Tyrande?  Eh, it didn’t feel right to me.

No surprises from Tyrande in this.  She’s still steely cold, vengeance-obsessed, consumed by anger.  Not that I blame her, but it’s not healthy.  I know we’ll be exploring her situation more in Shadowlands, so this was more of a reminder/reinforcement of where she is right now.  It was kind of funny how Thrall, Baine and Calia tried to talk to her and she just gave them the stink eye and the silent treatment, though.

I’m fine with Anduin exploring his dark side a bit more, as long as they don’t go overboard with it.  I like him as an earnest, good-hearted character.  It’s only natural to test your limits, though, especially in times of crisis.  Power corrupts, and he’s got plenty of it, both politically and magically, so I can understand Jaina and Mathias being a bit uneasy.  Add to that the increasing themes about the Light not being as benevolent as we originally assumed, and there’s potential for interesting plot there.  In the end I want Anduin to stay firmly on the side of good, empathy, compassion, etc., but a deviation into the shadows along the way isn’t a bad thing for the story.

I imagine every single person who read about Anduin sneaking off to the Lion’s Pride Inn in Goldshire smirked about that place’s reputation on certain RP realms.  I was surprised he didn’t find scantily-clad elves and draenei dancing on the furniture.  And then it turns out Jaina was there, too.  Awkward!

Why, oh why couldn’t we have had a scene with Anduin and Wrathion hanging out (incognito, of course) in a tavern?  That was their thing in MoP, and now with Anduin desperately wanting to get away from his duties for awhile and soak up some tavern ambiance it would have been perfect.  Let Anduin show off the best taverns Stormwind has to offer.  Even though Wrathion was as much a guest at the Tavern in the Mists as Anduin was, he acted like he owned the place and Anduin was his guest, so let them turn the tables and have Anduin play host.  There could be jokes about how he better not punch Wrathion again or they’ll get kicked out for starting a bar fight.  They could have still seen the young recruits, ran into Jaina, etc.  But Anduin really needs a buddy to hang out with right now.  

And you can’t tell me after Nya’lotha fell Wrathion just disappeared again and never at least visited Stormwind to tell grandiose tales about how he stabbed an Old God, it was so heroic, and he wasn’t scared at all, and those mean adventurers were so quick to believe he’d been corrupted, but he hadn’t, and did you know Azshara was there?  And then N’Zoth almost won but KERPOW LAZERS and oh Anduin you should have seen it, etc. etc. etc.

I should be used to being disappointed about Wrathion’s absence by now, but there are SO MANY MISSED OPPORTUNITIES!

Sigh.  Moving on.

Being exposed to spoilers meant I wasn’t fooled by it, but it was still a deft bit of writing to have the dark rangers drink poison when cornered by Horde soldiers, then mention Nathanos having a vial in his coat, which he drinks when defeated--making the unspoiled reader assume he’s killing himself--only for it to be a kind of liquid hearthstone attuned to Sylvanas.  Had I not known that he survived the book I would have freaked out there.

So, like, was Bolvar just sitting there on the ground awkwardly eavesdropping while Sylvanas and Nathanos talked/argued?  Or did he use that time to sneak away unnoticed?  LOL

Which brings us to the epilogue that’s caused so much hand wringing and wailing from my fellow Blightrunner shippers.  It wasn’t the openly sentimental interaction between them that I had hoped for, but I honestly didn’t read it as the doom of the ship.  A bump, at worst.

[If you’re not interested in the relationship between Nathanos and Sylvanas, or if you’re one of those people who simply hate his character, you can skip the rest of this post.]

First of all, Sylvanas had just broken the Helm of Domination.  That was a hugely significant thing to do, both for her personally and in the cosmic scheme of things.  Her state of mind at that moment had to have been in a turmoil.  So if she was a little distracted and tense, I think that’s quite understandable.

Second, I saw other fans being upset that she threatened/wanted to strike him.  That’s not how I read it at all.  “Sylvanas could strike him, scream and hollow out his soul, but it would not correct the failing.”  She’s not saying she wants to do that, just that she could.  The instinct to lash out in violence is ingrained in all the undead; death knights have to do it or they go mad.  So for her mind to go there in a moment of high emotion seems natural to me.  She doesn’t actually attack him or verbally/physically threaten him.  People say things like “I could have killed my brother for eating the last slice of cake” or “I could’ve strangled my co-worker when she spoiled the ending of the movie” and it’s not literal.

Third, she doesn’t say “go away, I never want to see you again.”  She says “Go where you will, Nathanos, but do not be idle” and “I expect you will return to me with means to prevent [Bwonsamdi’s] meddling.”  So essentially she’s saying, “Fine, go home, regroup, come up with Plan B, and if it’s not possible to destroy Bwonsamdi at least concentrate on countering him.”  Also note that she still considers the operation to be theirs, not just hers:  “This was a blow, but one she felt sure they could overcome.”  That tells me she expects to work with him in the future.

Fourth, and granted this is before she learns of his failure, but she’s clearly happy to have him there when he first arrives.  “’My champion,’ Sylvanas purred.  ‘Your timing could not be better.  Tell me of your victory as we take these first steps together.’”  She wanted to cross into the Shadowlands with him at her side.  Hell, that’s bridal imagery...crossing the threshold together, and all that.  The only reason she tells him to go is because his work isn’t done and she still needs him on Azeroth.  But she explicitly says “I expect you will return to me.” 

Fifth, in the line from her POV about how “the unjust ladder of their lives must be dismantled,” the “they” she’s referring to is all of the denizens of Azeroth, true, but I think there’s also a tinge of bitterness there as she looks back on her own life, and her life with Nathanos.  Destiny has not been kind to either of them.

Sixth, she says “My path lies ahead” as she prepares to cross into the Shadowlands.  It’s a reminder of the scale of the forces she is trying to manipulate.  When faced with the potential fates of all the souls in the universe, her own regrets are insignificant.  She can’t stay on Azeroth any longer, even if some part of her does want to just chill out on a beach somewhere with Nathanos and watch his blighthounds chase seagulls.  She thinks “It would not be easy, but then, her mission required great sacrifice.”  Like leaving him behind.

Even this part can be interpreted different ways:  “She heard the note of hope in his voice, fragile as a fledgling dropped from the next.”  Putting aside the humor of comparing bird-hating Nathanos to a fledgling, we don’t get a value judgment about the comparison.  Sylvanas doesn’t think about him sympathetically, wanting to protect him in a vulnerable moment, but she also doesn’t think, “Geez, what a pathetic weakling.”  It goes back to that bit in Warbringers about how she can’t kill hope.  And she can’t.  Here, again, no matter how bleak things are, no matter how displeased she is at his failure, he still has hope.  And she needs that, whether she believes it or not.

When she “flicked her fingers, as if ridding herself of a speck of muck” that can be interpreted as her thinking of him in a derogatory way, but she was also talking about Bwonsamdi in the same breath so I can choose to believe that’s who she was being dismissive of.

I don’t know.  I get that some of the language is discouraging.  She describes him as having “blubbering lips” and she’s definitely not happy with him.  But these two have been through a lot, and their bond has remained strong.  I’m sure this isn’t their first fight, or the first time he’s disappointed her.  This isn’t the end for them.  Just another bump on a very long highway they’ve traveled together.

...

OMG this has turned into a monster of a post, rambling all over the place.  I hope it’s coherent enough to follow.  I’m just in lore overload at the moment (and enjoying every second.)  I know I’m forgetting things I wanted to talk about, too, but I’m going to go ahead and post it as it is.

[extraupdate-blog]

Why I Became a WordPress Blogger

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Why I Became a WordPress Blogger

Until currently I actually have continually favored the unfastened Blogger program supplied with the aid of Google at blogspot.Com over different strategies of running a blog. Why? Because it is so easy to installation and use, and monetize. However, Blogger has its obstacles. The most significant of that is that you do not personal your blog so you can not promote it in case you need to. And you may want to sell it at some point if it will become treasured due to the amount of income it’s far generating. It is possible to register your very own domain call and host a Blogger weblog in this domain but I determined this technically extra complex to set up.

I have usually been reluctant to take the adventure into WordPress running a blog because in advance variations appeared so confusing in particular whilst it came to trying modifications to the setup. It is feasible to install a unfastened weblog at wordpress.Com however, as first-class I can consider, there are limits on the usage of the weblog for marketing and consequently a limit on what you could earn with it. All the weblog aficionados propose using WordPress mounted in your very own domain and now I am starting to see why.

Contrary to what I imagined, I now find it’s far quite clean to install WordPress on a registered area. One of the demanding situations seems to be to discover an appropriate topic for the weblog, one that is appealing without the colors and design is dominating. The less dominating the layout the more likely your blog traffic will see your advertising and marketing, assuming you are the usage of your blog to generate some extra cash or maybe full-time profits. By suitable, I also mean a theme that’s well optimized for the search engines and which allows easy and ultimate inclusion of advertising and marketing which includes AdSense inside the posts.

But what has subsequently satisfied me to apply WordPress with my domain names is the ready availability of unfastened plugins. Plugins are small software programs which can be without problems brought to the running a blog software program to increase the alternatives to be had. I specifically favor a loose plugin referred to as Quick-Adsense which makes embedding a variety of different types of advertising and marketing anywhere in any publish a simple remember. There also are a whole host of paid plugins that could allow such things as automobile inclusion of articles, and Amazon and Clickbank advertising.

Blogging Tips For New Bloggers

1. Be Creative! The best part about blogging is that it is absolutely you! You can explicit your self, your thoughts, and your opinions. But not simply that, the entirety of your blog represents you. Get to recognize the gear, widgets, and options you have to trade the layout, coloration, background, text. Make your blog undeniably you!

2. Change it up! Not simplest can you find a perfect format, you can alternate your appearance and themes as regularly as you like! Go with the seasons! Go with your temper! Add and trade up your pictures, song, and different factors to maintain things upbeat and exciting.

3. Try multiple blogs. You don’t have to stick to one weblog. Say you have got a blog that every one your friends and the owner family realize about, and there are positive belongings you can’t say or write about because of who would possibly read it. Or say you began this blog with a positive topic or tone so that you can not write approximately different matters because it would not suit the weblog. Well, why no longer have two? You may even use a pen name and be completely anonymous on the second blog. You may want to have a deep, intellectual weblog and a brilliant, enjoyable weblog. You ought to have a dark, moody blog and a witty, expert weblog. Who says you may most effective express one aspect of your self?

4. Blog at the side. Perhaps you’re no longer a large blogger and, although you enjoy an occasional submit, you do not have the time or energy to update very frequently. Try a social network in preference to a weblog community. Most social networks, like Facebook and MySpace, have the possibility for blogging, however, there are different activities as well. From games to easy fame updates to messaging pals, you may preserve an account without having to constantly write weblog posts. Yet, you may still get a threat to put in writing a put up wherein your friends can see it whenever you want!

5. Look around! You can continually get ideas from other seasoned bloggers. You can get a notion on what to put in writing approximately, the way to layout your blog web page, and even ask questions from pro bloggers everywhere on the Internet. Check out Technorati.Com or perform a Google Blog search to discover all forms of blogs on the Internet.

6. Stay secure! Keep in thoughts that your posts are completely open to the general public. You ought to be cautious how a great deal identification information you put up on your website. Even in case you installed small bits of records here and there, all someone could do is examine all your entries to piece together quite a few statistics about you! You are in reality loose to apply a pen call and fictional names that might supply away from your area, college or paintings call to keep away from sharing an excessive amount of private records. In many cases, this will probably be encouraged.

7. Join the community! There are many bloggers like you out there who’ve some exciting stories and posts you might be inquisitive about! From the house page of your weblog host issuer, you may regularly search for weblog with comparable subjects or pastimes. You can study and touch upon other people’s posts and join their websites to get updates once they publish once more. The greater you hook up with others, the more they’ll connect with you, study your posts, and join you!

Building a weblog is comparable to building a business. Compared to the brick and mortars, a weblog is taken into consideration a low barrier to entry task; all that is needed is a computer, huge band, annual renewal expenses in your area, and internet web hosting costs.

This low entry barrier means which you do now not have tons to lose if the business does now not paintings nicely. However, on the other aspect, the low access barrier approach that loads many other entrepreneurs will be running in the equal niche as yours and it way more competitions. In low access barrier corporations, the dedication, persistence, and perseverance inside the preliminary years are what will distinguish the long time gamers from the not critical ones.

When God created man, He never assumes him to be best. You can in no way studies sufficient and put together enough to start a mission.

If you examine, most of the learning, in reality, comes after you started out a venture. Mistakes will emerge. Glitches will show their ugly head. Only then are you capable of tweak and mind hurricane to find answers to the issues?

So in place of troubling yourself with the nitty gritty technicalities, just begin your blog. It’s the adventure that matters.

Well, I fall into this lure all the time. I remembered when I started eBay, I gave up the task in the first month. Even now when I started out running a blog, I feel low after I do not see the site visitors. Fortunately, for me, I even have a mentor and my family to cheer me on.

We ought to be organized to set an extended time frame for our blogs to take off. If you can, forget about approximately the time frame and simply construct it passionately. After all, we aren’t restricted via problems like capital and budget whilst we construct our blogs. Find yourself a small group of bloggers to exchange ideas and to cheer ourselves on.

With a solid salary every month, many would find ourselves less stimulated to keep building our blogs. After all, we’re still quite well off and God knows while our blogs will take off.

You see, an enterprise man psychology differs vastly from those of the personnel. The former strives on uncertainties in which as the latter lives on false ‘stability’. A business proprietor will take calculated chance to search for new possibilities whereby a salaried guy will sit up for the give up month for his pay test.

Reprogram your mind set. Better things wait for individuals who dared to take a risk and who persevere in what they have started out.

All religion and masters train us to be thankful for our day by day ownership. Be grateful to the ones who have lifted us up in our hour of desires.

Sadly, many people didn’t have a look at this familiar reality. Look at what number of vintage humans are deserted by their youngsters. You can not just take things without any consideration and suppose that the world owes you a dwelling. Everything works underneath the law of motive and effect. If you need to be successful, supply a thought to those who have furnished you the important equipment.

Imagine these scenarios. Your next door neighbor will be stepping into an excessive end bungalow in a fancy residential place tomorrow. Your cousin has simply bought a brand new Hummer. Your ex-university mate is now the boss of a conglomerate with 1000 personnel.

The inexperienced eyed monster in us will certainly experience green with envy and might even start to bad mouth those high achievers. Instead, people with an educated thoughts might study the fulfillment memories and find a manner to combine other humans’ fulfillment into their very own schedule.

Bear in thoughts, the lessons in which you could study from each a success character you recognize. Usually, these human beings are individuals and are simply waiting to pass on their treasured talent to the right individual with an inclined mind to return their manner.

Learn how to weblog from a success web sites like Problogger.Internet, JohnChow.Com and many extras. Now, there’s no motive to be jealous, proper??

Many humans were given crushed when they gave too much notion about whether their blogs could be successful, how properly their blogs compared to the competitors and stuffs like blog marketing, search engine optimization, area registration, solving technical system faults and more.

Life is ready tackling and getting to know from each little struggle. Break up the procedure, and let us do one issue at a time. You should check on a website these days. Research for an internet host the next day. Engage a web host in three days. Stop and relax if you are careworn. Continue with the installation of WordPress after you have got rested.

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New Post has been published on Atticusblog

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Save 5 Percent on All 2018 Ireland & Britain Guided Vacations

Save five percentage on CIE Tours simply-launched 2018 vacations! The excellent expenses of the 12 months are to be had on all 2018 guided vacations which include their maximum famous locations and new smaller organization excursions! Book now because they’ll promote out rapid!

United kingdom of great Britain and Ireland’s

Whether you’ve yet to discover the magic of Ireland, Scotland & Britain or are returning to countries you’ve fallen in love with, now’s the time to ebook your 2018 excursion. CIE Tours make it clean for tourists to immerse themselves in the destination place with extraordinary access and real stories, and continually at a super fee. Highlighted tours provided as part of the early booking merchandising, include:

• Taste of Scotland: 5 or 6 days, now from $1026

An ideal advent to vibrant towns and majestic surroundings of this charming country. The tour begins in Glasgow, maintains on via the Highlands to St Andrew’s and ends in Edinburgh. Guests can experience a whiskey tasting, the iconic Loch Ness cruise and a traditional festive Scottish night.

• Irish Gold: eight or nine days, now from $1425

Enjoy remarkable lodges with incredible amenities and meals on this tour. Experience a conventional Irish night time in Killarney and high-quality dining in Dublin. Start and stop the tour in Dublin, with overnights in Galway, Killarney, and Waterford.

What is the Percentage of Married Men Who Cheat Again?

I get requested this query quite a bit. Women who are considering looking to keep their marriage after their husband has cheated are trying to gauge how probable it’s far that he’s going to repeat this conduct and cheat again. Because handling this once is extraordinarily difficult, however, many humans fear that handling it extra than once goes to be impossible. So, it’s comprehensible which you want to understand the probabilities of your husband cheating once more. I will go into this in more detail within the following article.

Once A Cheater Always A Cheater? Is This True No Matter What?: When infidelity came about to me, I observed that many (however not all) of my pals had no religion in my potential to rehabilitate my marriage completely. Many advised me that I would probably never be able to absolutely consider my husband once more considering maximum guys who cheat come to be repeat offenders. We’ve all heard the announcing “once a cheater usually a cheater.” But how actual is this? And are there various factors that determine who is going to repeat culprit? Does getting counseling and doing the right matters make it more likely that the husband may not cheat once more? I even have exclusive critiques on all of these questions, but I can tell you what studies and statistics imply. Here’s a look at a number of them.

Statistically, speak (and probably to no person’s wonder) men have extra possibilities for infidelity than women. And the numbers seem to back this up. There is much research about husbands and wives who cheat, however most research imply that husbands are barely more likely to cheat than better halves. The numbers that I discovered range anywhere from 22 to 37 percentage of the husband being untrue and everywhere from 14 to 22 percentage of wives having affairs or dishonest.

So even as those numbers show us that there are masses of dishonest spouses accessible, they do not inform us how a lot of those parents are repeat offenders who have cheated extra than once. The numbers that I could find suggest that best 15 – 20 percent of those who cheat accomplish that again and grow to be repeat offenders. This is higher facts that many of us count on and I find that many human beings are stunned to realize that best approximately 18% of divorces are due to infidelity. I even have discovered than greater humans than I would have ever thought are capable of keeping their marriages after one partner cheats.

Safeguarding Your Marriage From Repeat Cheating: Many couples are able to discover and then address what went wrong so that they do now not ought to undergo this trouble again. Many humans anticipate that cheating and affairs are primarily based totally on intercourse, but this just isn’t always generally true. Often, it has greater to do with a lack of self-worth, a lack of impulse manage and a feeling of being disconnected, misunderstood and unappreciated at the part of the partner who cheated.

Should We Share In Britain’s Olympic Joy?

Don’t get me incorrect, it is extremely good to see Great Britain having carrying success in the Rio Olympics, following on from the benchmark set within the 2012 London Olympics. However, if we dispense with the satisfied sloppy tone for only a second it turns into apparent that now not all will proportion inside the obligatory joy of Britain’s Olympic achievement. For starters, you have to bear in mind the huge funding made in the run as much as the 2012 London Olympics and, even though the National Lottery has been a primary source of investment for athletes, many might argue that the nine.3bn of presidency funding (possibly to be lots higher in reality) could have been better spent in a rustic with such a lot of financial troubles, which includes a countrywide debt of one.7 trillion kilos, yes 1.7 trillion pounds.

great Britain united a kingdom

Moving away from the rate, permit’s take into account in which the achievement has been? We’ve had extremely good triumphs in Rio and London in biking. In my opinion, cycling is a mode of transport rather than a game. Is it any marvel that the British are so appropriate at it while each day you spot the subsequent Bradley Wiggins flying down the pavement in the direction of pedestrians and awaiting them to leap out of the way. Perhaps, Sir Bradley’s mob in no way study their motorway code or learned the fact that biking at the pavement is unlawful, under segment seventy-two of the Highways Act 1835.

Countries of great Brittainn

Further medal successes have are available rowing, equestrian, capturing, hockey, diving and trampolining. Unfortunately, I fail to get overly enthusiastic about those events although I suppose they will be classed as sports in a few regard. I handiest desire that the desperation to do well in those greater difficult to understand activities isn’t always a complex manner to cowl up for the woeful presentations we have seen via the English soccer team over the past two many years

Major Considerations While Choosing a Hotel for Family Vacations

Taking your circle of relatives for their dream holiday is constantly a priority for every determine. However, it could get tricky with the present day hectic life. What’s extra, you have to take into account new locations as soon as kids come into the photograph. Issues that didn’t count number formerly like a pool inside the resort, and pet policy amongst others, all become a massive difficulty.

All inclusive vacationsBahama’ss

One of the maximum critical issues whilst planning is of path accommodation. Your desire can either make or break the whole affair. If you want to drag off the great family vacation this 12 months, right here are some of the principle considerations to issue:

Consider Your Needs First

Traveling as a character and doing so with the entire circle of relatives differs substantially. Your resort choice ought to be guided through what you need to do at some stage in your live. For example, if your children have various pursuits, it’s miles critical to list them before booking into any established order. If they love water sports activities, a great facility with a pool is right but in the event that they love trekking, you have to locate an established order this is near such sports.

Location is Everything

To enjoy memorable moments all through a vacation, study the nice vicinity. The desire of place can make all the distinction among a fascination stay and a depressing one. Consider whether your children might be great with a place within the middle of a busy town or if a serene long term rental lodging is the nice. Whatever you do, make certain you find an area close to the metropolis’s main sights for clean get right of entry to. You need to also appearances out for different centers inside the location inclusive of restaurants, parks, and circle of relatives fun sports.appearance out for different centers inside the location inclusive of restaurants, parks, and circle of relatives fun sports.

Hotel Amenities and Services

When seeking out holiday accommodation, the idea is to discover a home-away-from-home revel in. Whether you’re seeking out a 5-star facility or low price range lodging, make certain there are facilities to make everybody secure. Look for on-website online shops, Wi-Fi, cable TV, swimming pool, laundry services, complimentary breakfast, children’ entertainment provider, spa and health club amongst different facilities to make every person at ease.dirt cheap all inclusive vacations.

Childcare Options

A right lodge catering to households ought to have invested in on-web page childcare centers. These encompass kids’ clubs, babysitting services, food and other alternatives to guarantee your children have a laugh even when you are enjoyable interior.

Research Online

There is a lot of statistics available on-line approximately lodgings in each town. Most visitors bring together both the positives and negatives and these will help you are making an informed choice. Take some time to learn as plenty as you may about the exceptional of provider, popularity, prices, facilities presented and lots more.cheap vacations all inclusive united states.