#and my boss has been super understanding which is great but again i just want to feel normal and be able to do my work

[belovedspector]

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[nenoname]

Gravity Falls DVD Commentary Highlights

(just a huge, and I mean huge, dump of random quotes that stuck out to me, which I sorta separated into characters+their relationships and it's probably gonna be obvious that Stan is my fave lmao

I dunno how to make this legible for anyone but whatever, just take all these rando character tidbits. Stan Twin pranks! Sonployee essays! The concept for a post-Weirdmageddon episode that Alex insists is just too miserable but I want it anyway! The Pines family making me cry!)

Stan

"We love the idea of Stan [in Boss Mabel] having a minute to uh, having a context where we want to see him be his worst self and seeing his big brash personality in like a setting that everyone can understand, because the Mystery Shack is a little bit ungrounded because he's in his world of his characters, but seeing him out in the outside world is funny weird."

We really enjoyed the fact that he's as awful as ever and he's rewarded for it. We like those anti-morals where Stan uses his terribleness to succeed incredibly well.

I think it was a little hard for people to understand in the writer's room at the beginning of the series was that, even though Stan is following a lot of these tropes of being a miser, he's not grumpy. Like he actually loves being himself. He really revels in it like even though he's got some kind of sorrow inside, his kind of day-to-day like he's more about just the uncle who loves to hear himself and make dumb jokes than he is somebody who's mean or cruel or cynical per se.

The [NWHS] storyboards managed to make Stan this awesome action hero while still keeping him Stan. Like I like the fact that he steals a wallet in the middle of it. He steals a wallet, he smashes somebody against the wall, he sasses him but he also has this just great Inception moment. And it's because we're building to a big question about “who is Stan?”, I felt a moment of seeing him be kind of awesome further increases your “who is this guy?” He keeps going back and forth between like “oh geez my back” and you're like “all right that's the Stan I know” and then like “whoa, he just did an awesome jailbreak! Is he some kind of super villain? Who is he really?

There's more of Ford in Stan than I think Stan realizes that I think only comes out in certain moments.”

Why did Stan keep a clipping of himself titled “grifter at large”? I think he thought he looked cool in that picture. “You know I kind of have a Clint Eastwood look in this grifter at large photo. I think maybe I'll use this as an About the Author one day. I gotta hold on to this one. You know what, I'm a criminal but I'm a nostalgic criminal! Loving the past is my greatest crime now!”

I know how Stan feels in this [Principal talking to his family] scene, when somebody comes in and says like “You know what? There was a race you didn't know you were running and you're already behind, way behind.” 

And you know even though Stan is a guy who looks like he's having a fun time, I always, in my gut, thought of him as somebody who is a huge well of sadness, a loss of human connection. And that need to please, that trying to get laughs from the crowd and constantly telling dumb jokes and you know putting on a big show in the Mystery Shack, he's trying to get from them the affection that he never got from his family and lost with his brother.

Stan has been waiting for years to have a reunion with his brother. He's always felt like a screw-up. Stan once again had an idea of how he thought things were going to go. He thought that his brother was saying “I need your help” for the first time. He's going to go up there, they're gonna have some drinks, they're gonna catch up and instead he ended up shoving his brother into another dimension and running out of food and money. It's sort of his worst nightmare. But this was Stan's entire character, from the very beginning of the series, was built around this idea that he's living with this tragedy. He's a guy who outwardly seems like he doesn't appreciate family but in fact wants it more than anything in the world and feels like maybe he's not worthy of it and would do anything to prove that he is.

Seeing Stan figure out what he's good at felt important to me. Like he's never been good at anything in his life and he makes a stupid hokey joke and it suddenly turns into a profit. I felt like without [showing how the Mystery Shack was created], I was missing something and understanding why he would do this, how this would be the solution to his problem.

We would like the idea that Stan appears to win through dumb luck, that it's sort of Intelligence versus Guts but Stan wouldn't actually bet everyone's life on a dice roll. He's a cheater! At the end of the day, I believe Stan has been thrown out of Vegas for counting cards and for weighing dies and I believe he could con his way out of any game, particularly for an obnoxious wizard like this. The idea that Stan would gamble everyone on pure chance is like no. No, he's got a plan. This is the guy who escaped prison using gravity leaps, he's got a way out.

The one big thing [The Stanchurian Candidate] does is really highlights Stan's inferiority complex compared to his brother. Part of what he's doing is he's trying to be an important man here and this episode is actually a pretty good setup in many ways for Weirdmageddon Part 3. When we see Ford they're all going on this rescue mission to rescue Ford and this episode shows you just how much Stan wants to be the hero like the reason that he can't shake Ford's hand when they're in that circle.  The cold open of this where he sees everyone loves Ford and now that Ford's back, he's the best. Stan's like “well, how about I run for mayor!” It's just to boost his ego and make him feel better about himself.

Dipper and Mabel

“Straight man protagonists are really hard to write because every other character had a comedic hook. We understand that Soos is kind of this weirdo, his brain is in another place. Mabel has this exuberance and sees the best in every situation and is very creative. Stan is a crooked conman. Dipper is… the normal guy and a character like that can often feel like they don’t have agency, start to feel just reactive.

Waddles is Mabel's only love that lasts the summer. Mabel is very prone to love at first sight and Waddles is able to love back with Mabel's degree of love.

[In Sock Opera] Mabel's in love with Gabe, Dipper's in love with the Author and they're both willing to do something crazy to get get closer to that thing

There kept being layers of adjustment to make it, “okay what would it take to get Dipper to make a deal with Bill?”  1: He would have to not understand the rules of the deal. He's been tricked, he thinks he's just giving a puppet, he didn't know was himself. Classic genie rules, you get what you wish for in a way you didn't expect.  2: There's a little ticking clock that just started, which if he doesn't do it by now, he's gonna lose all this.  3: Bill rightfully points out that Mabel has been kind of not sacrificing for him and he maybe needs another ally right now  4: He was sleep deprived and actually you'll notice that Dipper blinks right before Bill arrives and that's our way of suggesting that that countdown might not have even existed

I think Dipper and Mabel are of equal exact intelligence but Dipper's insecure. He sees his accomplishments as a way to make himself better and thus is motivated to focus on things that are accomplishment type things. And Mabel is very confident and likes having fun and when she's having a good time, she has a little tunnel vision for the people and the things around her. That's one of her biggest flaws. She's actually really, really sweet when she notices and understands your pain but not when she's doing a bit, when she's doing a scene, when she's doing a gag.

Ford

Originally [the fake Author] looked a little bit more like an oddball wacky inventor and I felt he had to be pretty idiosyncratic. There's certain color things about him you'll notice. He's more or less got the color scheme of the Journal, you know maroons and golds, so that you kind of feel instinctively like maybe that's him. A lot of these motifs though we would end up using in Ford's design, as well the gloves and the coat and all that but much cooler later on but preparing you, it's Ford Lite. 

Now this is there's no logical reason that Ford would break [the warnings about the portal] up into all these books this way but up until this point he's been shown as this sort of all-knowing mysterious Puzzle Master that it felt appropriate, even though it's not logical.

It works for the storytelling so when Ford wrote that, that's when he was super sleep deprived. He realized that Bill had betrayed him, he was starting to have a hard time differentiating between fantasy and reality, he was losing sleep and scribbling all sorts of lunatic serial killer looking stuff about the end of the world.

In Time Traveler’s Pig, we see what should be a young Stanford Pines even though again, the design's a little off but we knew big sideburns, bushy hair. Although that Stanford looked a little bit more swole than this guy and that's one of the what we thought were very subtle clues in season one that helped a lot of fans figure figure everything out way too soon.

[Using the memory gun on the agents scene] needs to show that Ford's really awesome and so we could get rid of the agents and show that Ford can pretty much handle anything that Stan can't and also call back to our memory ray all in one.

There was a lot of fan speculation when we first met Ford. Generally when television shows introduce a new mysterious character late in the game, they turn out to be a villain like 9 out of 10 times. They turn out to be a villain or they're there to get killed off to show the stakes of something and like we could have made Ford evil but I always felt that that would be less interesting. The point that I was trying to get to is that Stan and Ford had this relationship that fell apart and it was both of their faults and I thought that if I'm Stan, I'd be more frustrated if Ford is actually a good guy. It would drive me insane if he's pretty reasonable, pretty rational, better at me than everything.

So we've flirted with this brief moment where it seems like he's a villain and we worked really hard to make it so that like his eyes are being covered by the reflection of the light. His dialogue is ambiguous enough here that for a moment you believe what Dipper believes, which is “maybe he's possessed by Bill.” You just saw him shaking Bill's hand, what is he supposed to believe?

I like that Ford has this photo with him, he had for a really really long time all the way through multiple dimensions. And he's probably told himself- I almost imagined if McGucket found that photo in his coat while they were working on the portal or something, like “What's this here?” and Ford would say “oh yes, that's a photo of a very important moment! That's when I…  that's when I first decided I want to be an inventor!” There would be no reference to the real reason he's keeping it. “This is me and my brother.” It would be like, “oh yes I was thinking about science as a horizon, a frontier to reach towards– you know like a boat, like a ship, like science! It's about science!”

Soos

You choose family. That you create over the course of your life and if that somebody earns being your family, like the Mystery Shack. These kids and Stan, they’re Soos' family and he's happy about that.

I feel like Soos gained something out of [Blendin’s Game]. He gains the knowledge that like “I'm tired of thinking about this man who I'm missing, who doesn't care about me. I'm going to concentrate on the people in front of me, the people that are my true family.”

Soos is a fan of the show even though he's in it. He's a big fan of Gravity Falls and [NWHS] killed him.

I always knew what I wanted Soos’ end to be Soos running the Mystery Shack. I imagine that Soos is actually way better at giving tours than Stan is because he loves all that stuff truly and he believes it. That's part of the difference. Stan’s like “um, all right suckers, this stagnant puddle is the befuddle puddle!” while Soos is like “yeah, one time I looked in there, I think i saw like a cyclops dude. Like, I really think I saw one! Like it might have been a reflection combining my pupils, but like?” and people are like “Whoa, really??”

McGucket

They hired a bunch of people and then they erased their memory. That’s my explanation for why there's like such amazing inventions that would take whole teams of people. McGucket secretly hired a number of contractors and erased their minds. Like I think of McGucket as being like a really sweet nice guy completely in over his head who just like “oh well, once I've erased one guy's mind, I gotta erase ten more guys’ minds to cover it up” and it just sort of builds into like “I guess I'm kind of this kingpin of crime and I'm starting a cult I didn't mean to. Whoopsy daisy!”

When we get to Ford and see their backstory and see their relationship, it just makes all the stuff that happens with the portal and what happens with Ford and all that more poignant that he had someone there who was not only his friend but also a voice of reason and telling him to stop and that he wouldn't listen to him, as opposed to Ford being down there on his own with nobody to bounce off, anybody to say “hey wait a minute, is this a good idea?”

“McGucket was the assistant and he was maybe this assistant who was sort of put upon and Ford kind of brought a college buddy together with him. You know Ford as somebody who lost Stan, and even though he rejected his brother, he kind of needs that other person and he tried to find that in this kind of sweet prodigy and he just pushed him too far.

[The test scene] is meant to show sort of what it was that McGucket needed to erase, what it was that drove him to madness. It was partially seeing the Nightmare Verse and the way it messed with his head and also partly just realizing that this thing has apocalyptic consequences and he doesn't want to be a part of it. And if he can't destroy it or talk Ford out of something, he can forget about it.

Because If Ford's weakness is pride, McGucket's weakness is weakness. He's got a kind heart and he can't stop people, he can't destroy things. I mean he should have basically knocked Ford out with a wrench and take this thing apart piece by piece. He's the one who understood how to build it but I think he's kind of a follower and I think he's the kind of person who could get suckered in by a cult leader. He’s the kind of person looking for instruction and he really respects Stanford and can't bring himself to uh, he's like “I just got out of a bunker! I don't want to go work for another guy down in another bunker! This is my third doomsday cult this year!”

Stan and the kids

Stan and Mabel have such a different life perspective it seemed natural that at some point they would get to a major conflict

Seeing Grunkle Stan and Dipper bond like, I sort of believe that both of them are bad with women and both of them would rather believe there's a giant conspiracy than that they have they just can't get ladies 

Can this idea about Mabel's relationship with Waddles actually reveal a rift between Mabel and Stan where Mabel and Stan actually get along pretty well in the series you know? When they they're both such strong stubborn personalities that when they conflict, they conflict hard like in Boss Mabel. But this idea that Waddles is sort of a metaphor for what Mabel loves and Stan loves Mabel but he doesn't really think that anything she thinks is necessarily smart or right. He loves her like “guys she's my sweet niece but she doesn't know anything you know? She doesn't know anything about a pig” She forgives a lot with Stan but like Waddles sort of represents like the purity of her deepest love and the idea that Stan would threaten that is genuinely a shock

In the previous season it ends with Dipper giving up his journal and there was a lot of argument about “oh is it lame if he just gets his journal back?” Another thing we struggled with, we knew that Stan knows the importance of this journal he wouldn't give the journal back to Dipper so it was a bit of a convolution we'd written ourselves into a corner. We wrote ourselves out, we said “okay he's photocopied it. he's giving it to Dipper because he knows that Dipper's really precocious and he'll never stop asking.”

“We knew that we wanted everything to come to a head when the kids are going to discover Stan's secret and they're going to discover it in such a way that they only get little bits and pieces and they have to decide for themselves based on the limited information. Is Stan's a good guy or if he's a bad guy? Ultimately that decision will be a decision of heart versus mind. And Dipper's mind, Mabel is heart and they're fighting with the scraps of information they have.  Should we trust our heart about how we feel about this guy over the course of the summer and everything we've been through or should we trust the clues? That seemed like a believable way to get Dipper and Mabel to begin a rift between them that is resolved by the end of the series.”

The way Stan acts in [NWHS] is like, to me part of what feels so grounded about it is like I'm a child of divorce and like I know that when parents or parent figures know that hard times are coming for the kids. They kind of lay it on thick they're like who wants ice cream you know what I mean? Like Stan being extra nice to them at the beginning is like it's kind of a realistic thing that that adults do when they know like big changes are coming.

I felt it was really important that we added the scene where they're at maximum bonding. They're up on the roof, they're shooting firecrackers. Stan knows in his heart that when his brother arrives everything is going to change in ways he can't predict and he's really savoring this moment because he knows, even if things goes completely smoothly, which they don't. the kids are still going to be mad at him, especially Dipper for basically lying.  They had this big meeting after the end of Scaryoke where of course Dipper also crossed his finger but Stan crosses his fingers and says “oh I'm telling you everything” and he knows that the kids are not going to be happy about the fact that he's been keeping this all from them because they've done amazing things together already and he should have trusted them before now. 

This act break is them saying, “wait, Stan might be a random grifter who maybe killed our real uncle!” That's pretty heavy for any show let alone a cartoon show.

What that would mean for them if all this stuff is true is so much further than just like, “oh he lied to us about a couple things.” It's just like, “no he's straight up just some random dude that we don't even know uh and the guy that I've been pining for this whole time is dead!”  We really try to stack the deck so it's like Mabel's perspective and Dipper's perspective are both kind of racing to see who gets in front and there'll be a moment where it's like yeah you kind of buy with Mabel she feels good about about Stan and then this scene is the most you’re ever with Dipper where we discover this huge crazy curveball and this feeling that you have looking at this newspaper and looking through these fake IDs this is how Dipper feels all the time.  If you want a window about what it's like to be Dipper, this moment where a giant conspiracy reveals itself out of little pieces and seems to suggest that no one is trustworthy like that's that's where Dipper lives and this to him confirms every bit of suspicion and every bit of paranoia he's ever had and he's willing to run with it. 

I love these characters so much that, for me I was like “I need to see Stan saying goodbye to the kids at that bus. And I don't want him to be some guy who isn't Stan, who doesn't even remember the kids.” That would be really dramatic. It might make you cry more but to me it doesn't actually mean anything. Their relationship which they've built, he was willing to sacrifice his memories to save them. That's how much they meant to him but because he was willing to do that, I think he deserves to get him back.

Stan and Ford

But I think Stan's hope is, that in Stan's mind this is going to play out one way which is that; he's going to free his brother, his brother's gonna come out of that portal after 30 years. Stan's probably imagining that Ford is weak, emaciated, wrapped in a blanket, that he'll stumble forward, through a beard. through blurry eyes, he'll be “my brother, is that you?” He'll embrace Stan, he'll hug him, he'll say, “all these years I thought I was goner but you saved me! I was wrong to mock you, I was wrong to call you the stupid twin! Dad was wrong about you! You're the greatest man and let's be friends again and who are these niece and nephew?” Like that was what Stan was kind of hoping. He knows it's there's a million things that could go wrong, including potentially the destruction of this dimension, but he so desperately needs to believe that he can make up for the problems of the past. He's hoping for this but he knows that things are going to change

When I started the series, I always knew Stan had a twin but all I knew about Ford from the jump was that he's everything Stan Isn't. So Stan is a guy with a huge chip on his shoulder, he's kind of a loser at life. There's somebody who is a winner at life or at least was a winner in all these ways that Stan wasn't.

We realized that in order to bring out the maximum amount of frustration in Stan, [Ford] needed to have a bit of a heart. Like here we see him being kind to the kids, he's not he's not all bad which is what's so infuriating to Stan. The idea that he would quickly get along with the kids when he can't get any respect from them. Ford is designed for what would bring out the most amount of conflict in the family. What would be Dipper's hero, what would be Stan's rival and who's somebody that we could empathize with. I mean, it’s  hard to empathize with a character that comes out and punches one of your characters in the face, basically before he almost says anything.

You see that at this age, that all the stuff [in their room] that would cross over, that would appeal to both of them. It's not just like “there's science stuff here” and then there's “what Stan would be into.” but no, they both like all this.

There was also a version [of ToTS] where early on, they'd rigged the school water fountain. They did sort of like a caper, it was science and a scam together when they were in elementary school but we decided to save the science for the science fair stuff.

We played around with the idea that you would see them working together doing little science games or pulling little pranks. There was actually a scene that some of it was even storyboarded where they're in a treehouse together and Crampelter and his friends have tracked them down and are begging for their lunch money and Stan and Ford have used their jerkiness and geniusness to rig up like a water balloon throwing machine that knocks Crampelter in the head. I remember him saying, “oh no, my old-timey paper crown!” We were really hanging a lampshade on all these sort of Little Rascal cliches.

Ford's not a villain. You know he's getting in Stan's face and saying “I want my life back” but hopefully by the end of the episode even though you don't root for his perspective, you understand his perspective where it's like Stan ruined his science project, Stan shoved him into the portal, Stan took over his house. He’s not completely unreasonable to want it back and he's not completely unreasonable about his request. He says “okay you've got till the end of the summer” and Stan's little look there tells you everything you need to know about how he feels about the situation.

We needed pressure to be at the point where Stan and Ford recognize their lifelong rivalry and Ford does a sincere apology to Stan and almost more importantly, he acknowledges Stan's intelligence. He says “you wouldn't have fallen for Bill's nonsense.” He recognizes that his brother has a kind of intelligence he doesn't.

I always imagined that as kids, Stan and Ford were like this dynamic duo. They were getting into scrapes and like planning pranks and with Stan's creativity and Ford's genius that they were an unstoppable awesome team, before life turned them against each other. I imagine that as kids they were always swapping glasses and tricking their parents so that they could get double presents. And this is a move they did back in New Jersey constantly. We had to figure out who's gonna make a sacrifice and how and even though it's Stan who agrees to be “I'll be the one erase my mind, it's fine, it's worth it”, it's a sacrifice for both. Ford at this point is willing to get his brother back and he has to lose him again. 

Stan and Ford, when they can finally work together, do bring out the best in each other. They just have been missing it for so long.

Post-mind return, Stan and Ford get along and that scene where they both threaten the bus driver gives a hint of what would happen if their powers were combined. We've never seen them working together as adults, they would be a really formidable duo.

Pines Family

[The Blind Eye has] such a great scene between Mabel and Wendy. We don't have a lot of scenes that are just them hanging out and she can kind of be like the cool older sister. Mabel's so obsessed with boys and Wendy's just like "yeah, whatever. They're a dime a dozen."

“in the storyboard, the postcard that Soos is holding up from New Orleans actually said Vegas and at the last minute we got really worried that people were gonna see that and think that that was a clue that Stan was Soos's deadbeat father. And because like our audience, we've trained them to look for clues and to connect dots, they start connecting dots that are not connected. And I called a late retake because, and I see people be like, “wouldn't that be cool if Stan was actually Soos's father” and I hate that headcanon. Whoever's listening and you think “that's a great idea!”-- that's a terrible idea!! Because it means that Stan ran out on his kid and then came back in his life. And weirdly pretends to not be his dad. It flies against the moral of this entire episode which is like, you know this guy who is Soos’ blood relative like cast him out and didn't come back and didn't make time for him and all these people did. These people are Soos’ real family and to say “Stan would be Soos' real father more if he was genetically–”, I'm like “no, no forget that!” Like relationships are about what you do. To me friendship is thicker than water and family is something you can create so I really didn't want anyone to think that we were suggesting that because to me, it actually wasn't just the wrong idea, it was like thematically against what the show's about.” "

"[In NWHS] Every character faces their worst possible choice, which is “Mabel must choose between Dipper and Stan” and “Soos must choose between Stan and the kids,” like “guard that thing with your life. I'm not going to explain to you why.” I believe that Soos would do anything to guard Mr Pines's secrets and these are the only two characters that could possibly make him doubt Stan, these two kids that he loves so much."

"For [DD&MD], you want to set it up as being like [Ford]'s like the coolest toy that's down in the basement that Dipper really wants to play with and he is not allowed to play with him."

"The first three quarters of the series are sort of about Dipper's crush on Wendy and this final quarter is sort of about his crush on the Author. He's such a fan of this guy and he's so used to being denied that which he's a fan of and he's never found anybody who cares about his nerdy stuff. Mabel doesn't care, Stan doesn't care, Soos cares but on a different level. He's so hungry for the approval of somebody like Ford This idea that they would bond over a nerdy board game felt like sort of the way to do this big idea in a sort of grounded way that I like better than like Ford presented Dipper with the Five Trials of the Genius Boy. “I passed these when I was your age! Can you do it too?” and it's like nope he just likes the same dork game that he does."

"The arrival of Ford is creating the two sets of twins starting to pair off between the Brainiacs and the Maniacs"

"Actually I enjoyed that [Ford putting the die in a cheap plastic case] got a little bit of a reckless side because it shows you the Stan part of him. The Stan part of Ford, the little bit that likes a little bit of danger, he likes a little bit of risk. If he would show that side, it would be in when he feels at ease, with a kindred spirit. Around Dipper he’d be like “isn't this pretty cool?” He'd never be that irresponsible around Stan.  I like that Dipper is sort of a little bit of a Achilles heel for Ford as well. Ford has certain blind spots and Dipper exacerbates some of those just because he's willing to encourage, he's willing to “yes and” Ford towards whatever dumb idea he might have."

"Dipper, Mabel, Stan and Ford, they're all characters who need each other. Without Dipper, Mabel's just in a fantasy land. Without Mabel, Dipper is just sort of just spiraling into misery, spiraling into his own neurosis and not being pulled into those social situations, not growing as a person."

"You want [Stan] to be true to our various awful grandfathers, so I feel like for the most part you know that [being shitty to women] a plausible thing for Stan to do, that you only forgive because you know he's not a role model. Nobody wants to be like Stan. The kids never look up to him. The only person who looks up to Stan is Soos and Soos is enough of a comedy character that you understand the joke is “oh this guy thinks the worst way to live is good.” And then at one point you realize why. We made it clear why Soos looks up to Stan is because he gave him his job. He gave him a father basically, he’s essentially Soos’ father. And of course Stan who's had a life of just chaos and disappointment, the only person who would be a surrogate son is [Soos] but also Soos has the biggest heart in the world. So only the biggest heart in the world could forgive all of Stan's many flaws and also if Soos can love Stan, then maybe there's something in there worth loving, then maybe we can too."

"Stan, even when he's sweet, he still has to threaten to murder his niece and nephew."

"I do think the value of [Stanchurian Candidate] is that we're learning just how important it is that [Stan]’s seen. At this point, the kids have become a surrogate family. At the beginning of the show, they were just kind of a little nuisance and then he kind of tried out getting the family from them that he never got from his brother and the idea that he would lose them to his brother is his greatest nightmare and the only way he can really express that is by trying to be impressive to them and trying to be his brother's rival."

"Ford offers Dipper this apprenticeship because Ford sees Dipper as somebody who's special like himself. That Ford's great flaw is arrogance. He believes that there's special people and everyone else and that you can be held back by your siblings. That human attachments are actually weaknesses. The song and dance that he's giving Dipper right now is the exact song of dance that he gave McGucket back when they were younger which is like “sure you could continue working on your job and computers but you and me are different. We're better than everyone else, we have a path that no one else can understand. Only us can do this.” And it’s a very seductive idea for Dipper but he starts to be a little insecure here. He’s kind of “I can't believe it” and he's sort of right to be suspicious because Dipper is a smart kid but Ford's projecting. Ford loves Dipper because he sees someone who tell him yes to everything. He'll never challenge him and if Dipper had taken Ford's apprenticeship,Dipper probably would have gone the way of McGucket, turned into a kind of insane paranoid hermit with no friends, just kind of losing his mind. Like it's a seductive offer but also ultimately Dipper needs to learn not to try to grow up too fast."

"This entire time Dipper's been having this journey of self-discovery and seeing his future as this wonderful thing that he can't wait for. Mabel has been, piece by piece, seeing her idea of the summer fall apart."

"As Ford and Dipper's relationship grow stronger, Stan and Mabel also find much more sort of connection. They both feel like the sibling that's getting kind of sidelined."

"I think [amnesiac!Stan] would be hardest on Soos, second hardest on Ford but Soos would show it. Probably third hardest on Mabel, fourth hardest on Dipper just because where their hearts are. Dipper's not heartless, that's a testament to just how heartbroken those other characters are."

Series goal+ The Finale

"So our idea was; the memory gun can erase a concept as designated by the dial. It stores it. It records you and it keeps that recording and that if you watch that recording things start to come back a little bit, that it hasn't actually completely erased it from your mind. It's more sublimated somewhere where it's really really hard to reach and in the series finale, my concept of Bill is that; if he hadn't gotten in all those forms and fought Stan, Stan is the one that destroyed Bill. Were it just the mind eraser itself that he would be sublimated somewhere but he was weakened in the mindscape and destroyed in the mindscape. But Stan's memories were being sublimated and by looking at the scrapbook in the same way that McGucket's memories come back, they start to come back to the surface."

"I think part of what makes [NWHS] work also is that it has the strongest ticking clock. Yeah, I mean. it has a literal ticking clock. Also the sun is going down it's also, the town is starting to drift apart as the characters are starting to drift apart. There's just such a sense of Doomsday and even though we have like a three-part apocalypse, to me nothing feels as apocalyptic as this episode now."

"The entire purpose of [ToTS] is that Stan and his brother have had this huge rivalry that remains to this day and threatens to tear apart Dipper and Mabel and briefly does, and then Dipper and Mabel are able to find their way together, which is meant to repair Stan and his brother's past."

"Here we're teeing up the rest of the conclusion of the series which is just “whoa this is different. The status quo is shifted and is it going to shift us?” and that was the mission of this entire story was shift. Shift things such that it pits Dipper and Mabel against each other so that they can ultimately make things right and fix their uncles’ trauma in the process."

"“Let's try to set things into motion such that all of these characters who we love, who love each other are placed at maximum odds”. So Ford's entire existence in the series is basically a wrench in the relationships between Stan, Dipper and Mabel, that Stan has had a sibling who he didn't get along with and they've grown up having this horrible rift. Dipper and Mabel are these two twins who love each other but are very very different and are at this sort of volatile growing up moment where if something goes wrong could they turn out like Stan and Ford."

"[The convincing Gideon] scene works for me because it sort of represents the full completion of Dipper's Wendy Arc. Even though he's talking about Gideon and Mabel, he's really talking about himself. That idea that you can't force someone to love you but you can strive to be someone worthy of loving. It really does come down to like be the best you, you can be and the right person will see and feel that."

"It was gonna be W1, W2, W3 and then some kind of goodbye story. I remember it being something vaguely about some sort of other time travel. Bringing Blendin back because he just kind of vamoosed in the middle of this big story. There was that discussed like time traveling back to the first day when the kids arrived. The challenge was thinking of a valuable arc. So like each episode needs to have like a new problem and a new resolution and I was trying to brainstorm what's something that could feel valuable for like a final episode after the apocalypse, after Stan's mind has been erased and he's in the process of getting it back. "

"The thing I remember I wrote one out it was it's the last day of summer. Dipper and Mabel are packing uh they're planning to go home, they're feeling like nostalgic, they kind of don't want to leave. Blendin shows up and he explains that there's all these time bubbles left over, these weird anomalies because of all the time business and what Bill has done and just to watch out and be careful. Then Dipper and Mabel actually accidentally trip into one of these bubbles that are sent back to the very first episode or actually beyond the first episode, their first day in Gravity Falls um and somehow this was meant their character arc was to go from being like a little sad that they're going to leave Gravity Falls to seeing what it was like on the first day. When they were scared to be in Gravity Falls. The idea is like their first day they're like “oh Grunkle Stan, he's this weird old man and we hate living in this house and like we missed our place of comfort back home! And this is a kind of scary new adventure that we don't like.”  The kids see their own growth and realize like “the way we felt about going to Gravity Falls like we don't think we can handle it, is how we feel about leaving.” That feeling of going into a new experience means that something new and exciting is going to happen you're going to grow. There was some thought that maybe over the course of that episode, Stan would get his memory back and something that the kids had done in the past would help him in the present, get his memory back.

"What's supposed to be happening here isn't that Stan's entire memory reappears in an instant. It's supposed to be a couple days of work and we see the beginning of that process when he looks at the scrapbook and then we're kind of jumping ahead a few days. maybe a week of just intensive memory therapy with Stan before he gets there."

"When we were trying to crack the half hour episode after Weirdmageddon, it felt like we were just kind of wallowing and Stan not having his memories. It was a very depressing thing. And we didn’t get to have Stan for the last episode, which was like “it's a great it's great i think you get the emotion like in this episode. It tears you apart when you see it. You could last a little bit longer on it. But going much longer, then you just feels like well what are we doing? Why are we just kind of wallowing in our own sorrows for no good reason.”

"When we had discussed the idea of an episode beyond this episode, a fourth episode, it was basically 20 minutes of [amnesiac!Stan]. This is so intense, you might think you want it but good lord, this is enough."

"Bill singing “We’ll meet again” was something that just felt like the perfect reference because this is kind of an ending about endings in a lot of ways and we know we know Bill's going to be defeated. We know that people like Vill and have grown attached to him and for him to sing “We’ll meet again” is sort of the perfect mysterious way to say like “I might be going, I might not be going.” It’s a reference to Dr Strangelove, a movie that famously ends with nuclear apocalypse and the song “We’ll meet again” so it's for those pop culture savvy. It's already tinged with a kind of a fear and an irony and the apocalypse built in, so it's perfect on a number of levels."

"The concept of the Zodiac as existing in our current canon is this idea that the prophecy was that friends and enemies would need to come together, seemingly impossible alliances would need to be made to stand up to Bill for this prophetic moment. You know that characters like Gideon who was who used to be an enemy, characters like Pacifica, like Robbie, that we've reached the point where thanks to the kids’ kindness and growth, they are now friends with Pacifica, they've resolved Robbie's jerkiness, they've helped McGucket with his memory. They've even overcome this issue with Gideon in W1 and so it seems like friends and enemies have all been restored, leaving only one thing which is Stan and Ford have to shake hands. And their pride once again is what dooms the entire world but they get so close."

"It's clear Stan, even though he's being stubborn here and holds things up, he's ready to do it.  He clasps Ford's hand and then Ford can't help but correct his ignorant brother with something that doesn't matter at all after professing how important all this is and how important it is to put pettiness aside, he's the one who ends up being petty in the end."

"I like that Stan [during the deal] is just thinking “all right, think white, think white, think white.” He's like “think about nothing but sitting on your lazy boy.” "

"Stan and Bill had never interacted in the series up until this moment  because he had just been taken over when he was asleep. We'd seen a lot of Ford and Bill, but Stan and Bill has never happened. And Bill sort of represents all the mystery and weirdness, and Stan is the guy who just wants to have a good life and protect his family. He's the one who never invited Bill in but he's willing to take Bill out."

"If Mabel's going home with a pig, Dipper's going home with this symbol of his friendship with Wendy. And even Stan he's wearing that Mabel sweater. That's a visual symbol of; he's softened up, he's embraced family, he doesn't need to be the tough guy all the time."

[ganondoodle]

not sure if i have talked about this before but i also really hate how gorons are treated in totk

they are one of my fav and i know they are unpopular and were always kinda slot into the "big fat stupid rock people" role, but i do think totk is one of or the worst case yet; all regions get some life threatening event (ignoring how stupid it is to put the issues you need to solve in the exact same spots as in botw with most changes being also reversible so the actual changes to the environment of the map are largely some small rocks sprinkled about) and they get .. drugs (haha)

like i dont wanna downplay anything but their problem being that they are obsessed with eating (>_>) some drugged rock that makes them mean and lazy (even if the reason is fine ... if i remember right and didnt make up that they had to dig elsewhere for food bc of death mountain losing its lava flow, the execution is my problem -like the vast majority of this game is a ok to great idea with passable to horrible execution of it) and arent even a danger to you (which i thought at first when you approach goronia the normal path and two gorons start to walk towards you if you come near saying creepy shit- i thought they are gonna attack me or lure me into a trap but again .. only to find them wanting me to pay to be let through (i think??) and all other drugged ones are largely just ... eating or lying around ........

like it would have been cool if that drugged rock stuff made them actually agressive, like the friendly easy going rock people being turned into something akin to a starved animal after eating poison bc they were at risk of starving sounds alot more .. impactful and scary (even if it would still be about food, which idk about you but the only kind of fatter npcs, even if non human, being made all about food is .. hm, aside from other possibly bad implications from this, but im trying to roll with the idea of it)

and then poor yuno being put in a stupid (stereotypical?) wrestler outfit and hes LITERALLY being mindcontrolled is so ...... ugh (again, idea is ok but- you get it) and then him being told by two CHILDREN that that obviously not zelda might not be zelda and it not only being the only time that idea is openly said until its "revealed" that hhhwhat?? it was a fake one?? in the mid battle of the "story" and he doesnt even believe it (both bc haha hes stupid and cant understand such a thing and also link not being able to tell anyone ... even his friends ....... ) is just so disrespectful, its ok not to be the smartest guy in the room (tho in totk pretty much anyone is made so much dumber for no reason...) but it being so clearly the gorons that get treated like this just annoys me so much, you know no one of the other races would be treated like that

(not to reach a little but it also plays into how koga is portrayed, like i love him to death and there are things that largely the gameplay only implies of him not being that incompetent, but hes clearly meant to be laughing material, the boss of the band of 'evil' assassins being lazy, incompetent and 'childish' is funny right?? and although i hc that the either super thin or super beefed up appearance of yiga members are just an appearance like their disguises of normal people to seem more unified and less indentifyable- that is still only a hc and then koga being the only character that is visibly fatter (aside from ... the gorons and .. king dorephan??) it puts a pebble more onto the pile of pebbles of little annoyances)

also yuno saying, post mid "story" battle, that no one actually knows anything about ganondorf aside from him being evil and it going complete ingored and never mentioned again feels like the type of thing a games does when they are critized for soemthing and instead of changing it they put a line in the game essentially saying "yeah we know but we are not gonna do aynthing about it lol" (like thinking of the line ashe from league of legends, whos design has been critized alot bc shes running around in a stupid tiny dress in the snow lands of their world, got when her dialog was updated that made her say sth like "yes im wearing a little dress in the forever winter land, deal with it lol" which perhaps was supposed to be a joke but it just feels like a "lol we know, fuck you")

[dyns33]

Bullet Train

I'm in my Brad Pitt's moment, so here's a Ladybug x female reader story.

He was the unluckiest man in the world.

Maria could give him all the nicknames she wanted to ward off fate, matched with lucky charms and incantations, Ladybug knew he was unlucky.

All the work with Gary was not intended to change that.

The sessions only helped him accept this reality.

Part of him considered that maybe it was karma. He had done a lot of harm, in his work, and sometimes outside of his work. He had chosen to do evil, because he could have decided to be a dentist or a hot dog seller instead of an assassin.

Even if Gary wasn't there to give him hope, Ladybug still wanted change. This was why he now only accepted simple contracts, without violence, or almost none.

That way, maybe he would end up being a little less unlucky.

Stealing a suitcase from a train should have been easy. No need for a gun. No need for violence. Almost no need for luck, the suitcase waiting for him quietly in the suitcase compartment.

Ladybug just had to take it, wait for the next stop, and get off the train.

Super easy.

The easiest job of his entire career.

And it had absolutely nothing to do with the stupid nickname Maria and the others had decided to give him for his return to the field.

It didn't take long for him to realize that it wouldn't be that easy.

There were other people on the train, a lot of people, who also wanted the suitcase. Getting it was the easy part. Now he had to survive and escape.

Since no one yet knew who had the suitcase, he decided to play the normal passage, who had nothing to do with this mess. If he tried anything more complicated, his bad luck might play tricks on him.

He then approached another passenger who was returning from the bar car with an iced tea, pretending to crash into her by accident.

"Oh ! Sorry, so sorry ! Are you okay ? I'm really sorry, I can go get you another one."

"No, it will be fine. Thank you."

"I insist. I wasn't looking where I was going, I'm really stupid. My therapist says that I need to pay more attention to what's around me, focus on the present moment. He's very gifted, he has a lot of very intelligent sentences."

"I have no doubt about it."

"Please let me make it up to you. Your sweater is soaked. I'm confused, really. Let's sit down, I must have some tissues in my jacket."

This was how Ladybug met Y/N.

He didn't really like involving civilians in his missions, but sometimes it was necessary. He would make sure nothing happened to her. She wouldn't even know that she had spoken with a dangerous criminal, to help him escape from several dangerous criminals.

No, they were just going to have a good time talking, until the next stop.

"This Maria shouldn't make fun of you, it's good to see a specialist when you need one, and there's no reason to be ashamed of it."

"Exactly !" Ladybug exclaimed with joy. "My boss doesn't understand this at all. It's very nice of her to say that my old self was great, but I didn't like it. I wanted to change, and Gary helps me a lot."

"I don't know what you were like before, but you look calm and happy. You still need to look ahead, but I think you're on the right track."

"Sorry again about the iced tea. I can definitely buy you another one if you want."

“No, thank you, that’s nice Mike.”

Ladybug didn't know why he said that his name was Mike. Maybe because it was classy, and he needed to give a credible name, and it was quite close to his real name, which he wasn't allowed to give.

They had only been talking for fifteen minutes, and he felt a real connection with Y/N. He couldn't explain it, but she listened to him, and what she said was clever, and he really wanted to know her better.

It had been a real chance to meet her.

The bad luck was that it happened during a mission.

The agents had every right to have a life. They could even be honest about their work with their family, if they signed certain documents. But under the current circumstances, there was little chance that he would be tolerated for him to keep in touch with Y/N.

Too risky.

The job was to get in and out of the train, taking the suitcase, without being spotted.

"You travel a lot ?" Y/N asked him with her soft voice and sparkling eyes, showing that she was really interested in what he was going to say.

“I think I’ve been everywhere.”

“It’s impossible, I don’t believe you !”

"Oh, but it's true. My job requires me to go everywhere. It's beautiful and tiring. A little depressing too, you end up getting bored and no longer impressed at all. Gary always told me take the time to admire the place where I am, as well as the people around me."

“That’s good advice.”

“I'm applying it right now, and I think yeah, it's really good advice.”

Y/N smiled, biting her lip slightly. How long had it been since he last flirted ? Outside of work anyway, not to get out of a complicated situation, even if he spoke with Y/N to get out of a complicated situation.

Now that he thought about it, it must have been several months, and the last attempts had been disasters, like all the relationships he had tried to have. He was also unlucky in love. Ladybug never stood a chance.

He was about to ask Y/N a question to show her that he was also interested in what she had to say, when his phone rang. Maria, of course.

"My boss." he sighed, waving his phone. "I have to answer."

“You don’t have to get up.”

"Unfortunately, I have to. Confidential informations."

“I can watch your place and your things if you want.”

It wasn't a good idea to leave the suitcase. Someone might take it, hurting Y/N. But he also couldn't walk around on the train with the suitcase, while he was answering the phone. It was difficult to defend yourself with a phone in one hand and a suitcase in the other.

"… Okay, but could you put my suitcase between your leg and the wall ? It's very important, I don't want anyone trying to take it."

“Sure, no worries.”

No one could see the suitcase there, so Ladybug was reassured and he went to answer Maria with a calm and satisfied mind. It only took two minutes, he calculated. The time to tell his boss that everything was fine, he had the suitcase, and he would soon get off the train.

She was calling to tell him he would have to get off the train soon.

Ladybug wanted to thank her for wasting two precious minutes with Y/N, who he would never see again, but he restrained himself. That would have wasted even more time, and he shouldn't have to go through the hassle of solving a problem. Gary would have been proud of him.

When he came back to sit down, Y/N asked him if everything was okay, handing him back the suitcase.

"I have to get off at the next stop, which makes me very desperate. I wish I could have spent more time… on the train…"

With you.

Well, he hadn't flirted in a long time, but Ladybug had enough experience to know that this sentence was way too quick and ridiculous.

"I understand. I'll stay there, but it won't be the same."

Maybe not. But too late, the train was already starting to brake, and they entered the station.

He asked her if she really didn't want an iced tea. Y/N gave him a beautiful smile, wishing him a good end to his trip to Tokyo.

They left each other like this, without exchanging numbers. She had seemed like she wanted it, but probably she was waiting for him to propose it. Unfortunately he didn't have the right to do so.

Ladybug then went to the meeting point where he had to give the suitcase to his contact. Super easy mission, no problem, no need for a gun at all.

This was what he said as he gave the package to the man waiting for it. That didn't make him smile. He smiled even less as he opened the suitcase. Ladybug didn't even know what was supposed to be in it, he hadn't asked.

Later, Maria would tell him that there should have been a lot of money, and a USB stick had very important information regarding a mafia gang.

"… It's for you." the man said in a monotone voice, handing him a piece of paper which he took out of the suitcase.

"What's this ? A secret code ?"

"No," the man said, and it sounded a lot like a way of saying 'idiot'.

It wasn't easy to tell if he was an idiot or not from reading the paper. Maybe a little bit. Like it was not easy to tell if he was as unlucky as he claimed.

The message was short and simple.

'Thanks "Mike". Call me for an iced tea' with a number next to it.

Out of all the passengers he could have chosen to hide with, Ladybug had chosen one who wanted to take the suitcase, and he had literally given it to her for two minutes, which was enough for Y/N to empty it.

He wondered if Y/N was her real name. They had to have the same rules when they were on a mission.

Really, Ladybug didn't have much luck. But he got Y/N's number without even having to ask, so maybe he wasn't the unluckiest man in the world, but just a little.

He would talk to Gary about it at their next session to see what he thought about all that.

[soyouareandrewdobson]

Level 1: Let's-a-go easy with some illuminated Mario!

What I want to explore at least partly over the course of Nintendo-vember is the fact, that Dobson was biased with a capital b when it came to videogames and Nintendo. To be more specific, Dobson not only hated people who played anything but Nintendo, acting like PS3 users are the scum of the earth (which we can see examples of a lot near the end of the month), but he was also very opinionated what counts as “the true and honest” depictions of his favorite Nintendo characters.

Again, something more explored down the line soon, but to give at least one example for how even the slightest “deviation” from Dobson’s own interpretation can result in him getting pissed, only for things to backfire on him in some sense (partly a cosmic one) let me turn back time a bit to the November of 2017.

Almost 6 years ago, it was announced that Illumination, the studio behind the Despicable Me movies and some really shitty Dr. Seuss based works, would head the animation work on Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros movie. And people were pissed.

Many of them believing that the studio would ruin their favorite videogame character and produce something that was of great disservice to him. And that was something people claimed, before even the voice cast was announced and everyone had a mental breakdown over Chris Pratt voicing Mario.

For your sanity though, don't click on the vidoe of that fat slob from Boston who is more of a disservice to animation than Live Action Disney is currently

Now to be fair, I am myself aware of the quality of Illumination up until the Mario movie came out. The Despicable Me and Minions movies, plus Secret Life of Pets, having been the most successful endeavors of the company, while also creating some rather annoying, though in my opinion funny cartoon slapstick characters. But honestly, I never thought that Illumination doing the Mario movie, could possibly be the worst thing to ever happen. At the very least, even if the company had fucked up royally with Dr. Seuss related content, they actually have some understanding of cartoon slapstick in their work and can in my opinion create some very colorful movies. And let us be real here, Super Mario has never been the most “adult” or deep franchise on the planet. So as long as Nintendo would keep them on the leash (which they did in the end) I doubted the movie would be utter shit. I at least did not expect it to be the Teen Titans Go of Nintendo, dumb like Boss Baby or unfocused and insulting like Wonder Park.

And lo and behold, the movie came out and minor things aside (like using Take on me as a pop song in the background at one moment) it captured the essence of Mario, was very colorful and a smash hit. To the point it was up until Barbie came along still the most successful movie of 2023 and is the third highest crossing animated movie of all time. With the place actually being the second, if the Lion King remake from 2019 wouldn’t be technically considered animated. Heck, you could actually call it the most succesful animated movie of all time currently, if you also decide to look at the list in such a way, that "sequels"/continuations ofalready established IPs don't count.

What I am trying to say is, in hindsight, many people should have just simply tried to be calm and see where things were heading.Give Illumination the benefit of the doubt. Particularly if they decided to first think about what was likely going to happen and analyze the pro and cons of Illumination doing the movie.

But fuck using your brain when your name is Andrew Dobson.

Dobson took genuine offense to the idea of Illumination doing the movie and as such made a “mock art” of what Mario would likely look in their art style.

There was just a tinsy winsy problem with it. The artwork in itself….

Turned out to be better looking, than most things Dobson did at the time.

No, seriously. Considering the lack of a decent art output at the time aside of shitting on nerds via SYAC strips, this, for what is obviously meant to take the piss out on Illumination’s art style reserved for the Minions, actually looks rather decent. Sure, Mario looks like a tic tac, but for a “quick” sketch, it looks nice. Mario looks -unlike Dobbear in 95% of the strips- actually happy by the way he smiles as well as very cartoonish. And considering that the blood and soul of Mario is kinda in the cartoonish nature of the game series -as evident by how ridiculously Mario Wonder is currently- Dobson in my opinion captured here the soul of Mario better than he did in other pics he did way back in the earlier 2000s.

Though to be fair, these pics look decent enough and at least Dobson was experimenting with different styles back then. Perhaps his cartoonish style would have worked best with Nintendo, if he refined it just right.

Which you know, kinda defeats the “purpose” of the picture if you ask me. I mean, it is obvious Dobson just did it to vent and piss on the fact that a company he considered “inferior” to other animation studios, would bring his favorite videogame character on the big screen for the first time since that Bob Hoskins movie. But if he wanted to mock the idea, he failed. Simply because in his sketch he doesn’t really “highlight” why Illumination being behind Mario would be bad. Not helped by the fact Dobson lacked giving more context why in his opinion that was a bad idea. And the few posts he did, painted him just as hating Charles Martinet and believing Charles would be the main voice of the characters in the movie

An as stated earlier, in hindsight, any “criticism” or fear Dobson might have had, proved in my opinion invalid in the end. The movie was not only a success, but it also paid tribute to his “precious” Mario is from Brooklyn background.

Frankly, the only thing I can see in the pic I would criticize is that Dobson a) gave Mario four fingers despite the fact he should know by now he has five (though that may be a cartoony jab at the Minions. Though even that jab is half assed, cause if he wanted to emulate their design, he should have given Mario three instead of four digits) and b) Mario being likely completely bald under that cap. The later just doesn’t fit entirely. Which, considering the Minions are mostly bald, may have been the intention by Dobson, to create an uncanny effect. Unfortunately, the rest of the artwork balances it out mostly, so on average the sketch ends up being visually more pleasing than anything.

Honestly though, the picture’s existence does highlight one thing more than anything: That Dobson would rather create something out of spite and hatred, rather than a genuine sense of enjoyment. That and if Ilumination being announced as a company to animate the movie, I wonder how he reacted in light of the casting or other Mario related news. Like can you imagine how livid he must have been when Mario+Rabbids by Ubisoft was announced and became popular?

[athetos]

I’ve been very low energy and haven’t been able to play live a live much this week so I’ve only gotten the oersted ending so far but thoughts:

Shifu’s chapter was much better than I anticipated, I actually didn’t know about the twist even though it was implying that ending, well done, though I wished I put all my training into the one character and not relatively even between all three.

Oboromaru’s chapter is the best, loved the influence it seemed to have on Undertale, plus so many secrets! Just had a ton of fun with it, could definitely see myself replaying it. Also, his skill set is fantastic, very versatile and powerful.

Sundown’s chapter was tooooo short i loved it it should have been longer, it was a great change of pace but i also understand why it could only be that long. Never occurred to me i could run and thus spare mad dog which sucks because i really wanted to spare him.

Pogo’s chapter was the most boring… the crafting system was interesting but mostly unnecessary, the not having actual dialogue didn’t entertain me much, relied too much on toilet humor or awooga a woman humor. It was fine but felt too long and the superboss just seems like a “but why??” Situation instead of something that feels more appropriate to the setting + reward.

Cube’s chapter was a mashup of 2001 a space odyssey and alien, 2 of my favorite movies of all time, and while it’s obviously not close to that kind of caliber I still loved it, even if the tropes were pretty standard. I’m just a sucker for scifi horror. Captain square was a cool diversion but I wish there was more combat with cube themself. Characters had me weirdly attached to them even though they’re nothing unique.

Akira’s chapter felt like watching a goofy dark scifi anime and while again it quite obviously didn’t meet the heights of, I don’t know, the actual Akira film, it was still fun, and I liked the characters. Lots of side quests and diversions that were cool they had at all. Had some annoying moments but overall fond of it.

Masaru’s chapter was another nice change of pace, I felt it was one of the easier ones but for an episode that’s all about battles, the battles were entertaining, well, entertaining for fights with your typical fighting game heavily stereotyped fighters.

Oersted’s chapter felt generic at first but kept my attention, characters were great to use in battle so that helped. The demon’s lair was pretty confusing even with the map, but got interesting after that. But then when you’re exiled there’s no marker for where to go and I explored the damn lair in full two more times hoping to stumble upon something until realizing I had to be captured again. Annoying. I feel the ending could have been super cool with oersted becoming odio but the execution was meh, it didn’t make total sense to me and felt a bit out of nowhere, there weren’t really any clues if you ask me, but I’ll give it a pass.

Oersted’s bad ending was very, well, what you would expect for a bad ending, but playing as all the past bosses was a blast. The battles were all very easy which was slightly disappointing but I think the point is you should be overpowered because you’re a giant dinosaur or a dude with a huge ass gun, and you want to feel powerful! Not many games let you play as a boss like that so this was great

In short I think this game was very ahead of its time, fun and creative and I’m so glad it got this remake. As a teen I heard about this game and became very intent to play it, I just felt like it would become one of my favorite games but it always kept falling behind on my backlog so I’m very glad I’m playing the hd version since it adds so many QOL features and the graphics are gorgeous, the music is beautiful, etc. yeah if you like jrpgs and want something that feels fresh and has variety I recommend this game a lot

[nikki-rook]

I’m going to ramble on about my life here, by no means do you need to read it

Last night was my companies holiday party, that I was involved with planning. It’s really the first big offsite party this group has had as we continue to grow. It went well I’d say, other than the caterer not labeling what the food was so my friend and my boss didn’t know what to eat with their gluten and other sensitivities.

I didn’t get to sit with the friends I’m getting closer and closer to because my boss wanted me and my immediate coworkers to sit with her, which was fine, but I might have had more fun with them.

Eventually they did come sit next to me and chat which made me happy, that they got up and came to me. I have issues okay? I think I have actual trauma (which is likely a horrible use of that work but I’m going with it) around having friends and I’m just not very good at it. I’m often the only one trying to initiate things, I feel like I get too weird, and people don’t care about me as much as I care about them. I get too in my head as well. These two are wonderful, and we are sarcastic with each other and give each other shit and they have, on occasion, hit me for me saying I don’t have friends. One day I hope to get into the more sincere conversations with them and finally have them over. I just want friends who I can talk to about everything, have over on a moments notice because I’m having a bad day, and be comfortable in their homes and them in mine and everything just becomes a second home. Will that happen? I have no idea.

I spent most of the night very happy. It’s been a great year, seriously. I’ve never been higher in a career, never been more appreciated and seen by my boss. I got promoted, moving the position up to October rather than January so I could apply and get it because I was already doing the work. Then because my boss didn’t win the fight on my salary, she gave me a one time top performer award bonus. I love what I do, and the people I work with. It can be frustrating, and the higher ups can be too demanding, but we are a team. I sat at the party just looking at everyone, happy to see they were all having a good time. We all have a sometimes demanding and frustrating job, I was happy we were able to put this party together for them.

My husband was less than thrilled when I got super self conscious and freaked out about dancing. Honestly, the music was not what I wanted and I felt like I couldn’t dance to it. I’ve gotten so used to Latin dances and the things we dance to when we go back to his home country that I don’t know how to dance to other stuff. And let’s be honest, that was a lot of popular songs that people sing to rather than dance to. And this just makes me so worried, we leave in a week for a two week trip for the holidays and this is exactly how it goes him sad and frustrated and mad with me when I’m around his family. God I so badly don’t want to feel that way on this trip but it’s already happening here. Sigh. Whatever. I did dance for about the last hour, in which I mostly felt uncomfortable but the people we were dancing with were having a blast.

Other than pissing off my husband, I think it went well. I walked the art museum we were at with my friends and chatted with them. I just didn’t want it to end. And it did. And I got extremely sad the moment it did and I do not understand why I have such happy lovely times followed by me wanted to burst into tears. I don’t get it. I want it to be college again, where we all hang out and have fun, stay up all night, and fall asleep on each others couches. But we are adults (Albite my friends being 7 and 6 years younger than me) and life and jobs and other friends and family get in the way.

I’m trying to handle this making and having friends thing, developing crushes (the only word I can think to use) on these people doesn’t help my mental load. But story for another decade I guess.

It’s been a year, and it’s not over. I hope next year is full of more time with friends and doing well at work still.

Last New Year’s Eve, I spent the evening in bed, crying. Because my in laws were here and they don’t speak English and they ended up playing a card game that wasn’t fun to me when you can’t speak with the people. And when I suggested we split into groups, that was denied, and I went and cried my way into 2023. But look now. This has been one of the best years. Yeah, my mom was hospitalized (but actually fixed!!) and my foot has been feeling terrible. But I went to Europe for the first time! I got back on tumblr! I started making gifs which brought back my sense of creativity and I’m drawing again! I’m feeling motivation to make art! And I’ve made good friends, and done great at work. Maybe I should spend more new years eves crying, bringing the better stuff along.

Here’s to an amazing last two weeks of 2023, here’s to new friends and a great year. And here’s to an amazing and lovely 2024.

Hugging every single one of you here especially if you read this. Tumblr has been my home away from life for the last six months, and I’m so happy to be back.

Rant. Over.

[tokiro07]

Once again vaguing so as to maintain my "talk no shit on what people like" policy while also being able to vent about what is, quite possibly, my least favorite game of all time

This is...the single most tedious gaming experience I've ever had. I thought at first it was just that the controls were unresponsive due to some hardware limitation on the Switch port, but even ignoring that, what the game is literally asking me to do is absurdly repetitive

The actual challenge is decent, though a lot of my deaths have been pretty cheap in my opinion, either blindsiding me due to how poorly contrasted all of the background and stage elements are or landing cheap shots because I frequently respawn on top of enemies or directly in their line of fire. If regular stage hazards didn't actually cause damage and instead just reset me, like in say Hollow Knight, I would find this a lot more bearable, but because I lose health to the platforming and not just the combat, I often don't have enough health left for the combat, which wouldn't be a tremendous issue if the enemies weren't spongey as hell!

The fact that I keep needing to redo long platforming segments because every mistake drains my extremely shallow health pool or because long-winded enemies keep getting placed along the path makes for a ludicrously slow and repetitive experience in what seems like it's meant to be quite fast-paced

The boss fights compound on this by having multiple lengthy phases that end up feeling predictable because they go the same way every time, and generally have oddly long cutscenes to load in the new movesets. I understand not letting me skip phases I've beaten before, I can't think of too many games that allow that, but the earlier phases of any given boss fight become sooo boooring after you've beaten them 50 times, and the latter phases that throw a ton of bullshit at you when, again, you're constantly fighting against the controls themselves just become super annoying!

At the very least, don't put a long, empty path between a checkpoint and the final boss! I should be able to just walk straight into the boss fight from the checkpoint, not hold down a button to carry me there with enough time to think "maybe I don't want to try again." Which is what happened, by the way! I'm writing this now because the game gave me the opportunity to say "y'know what? Literally fuck this" and throw my system down to complain about how dogshit this game is!

And people like this game! It's getting decent to great reviews from what I can find! No one has any of the problems that I do, which again, made me think that it was just the particular port I'm playing, but no, these are all structural issues with the game's design! How is no one else upset about this??? How is everyone else able to accept this??? These are practically ancient design flaws at this point, relics of arcades past, why am I still being asked to put up with this in 2024, and why doesn't anyone else care???

I see what people like about it, I really do, it's just that those elements a) have been done a thousand times better in the games that this game is clearly trying to emulate, and b) are getting bogged down by other design decisions that I don't believe would have been too costly to fix

The only reason I'm still playing this game is so I can have a complete understanding of the sorts of design decisions I should avoid if I ever make my own game, and literally every single minute I spend playing it makes me regret that line of thinking. I have never been so abjectly miserable playing a video game before when this is supposed to be a fun hobby. The only solace that I can take aside from the game being quite pretty is that at least I'm not brain-dead bored. However, in a way that makes it worse, cus if it were completely unengaging I could at least turn it off and not feel like I'm missing something. Instead though, I'm mad, and that makes me feel like if I turn it off and never look back that I let my inability to meet the game at its level beat me, like I wasn't good enough to do it. I know that's a fallacy, since again I'm at the final boss (or at least the Normal Ending final boss, I can tell there's a True Ending I haven't done the work to unlock yet), but if I can't beat it right at the end it's just going to weigh on my mind for the rest of my life like when I didn't finish Magical Vacation

The real question is whether or not I should go ahead and collect everything for the True Ending now so I can just do the final boss fight once and not worry about it, OR should I get the Normal Ending then watch the True Ending online? Both feel wrong and incomplete, but like I said, I hate this game and want it to be done so I can at least feel some semblance of catharsis

Either way, I hope to be done this game no later than tomorrow so I can delete it from my system and actually play something that brings me joy

[callmearcturus]

oh god where did i leave off. oh fuck i left off with THAT? oh geez sorry

in my defense, the music in the next area is great so i didn't want to leave and i'm almost to the boss i think? Reverie, Yukiko, and Kanji make a DEADLY team, and while I am Big Mad at Yosuke:

he starts every battle first and has tentafoo/Cause Panic. so. he's just maddeningly useful, idk what to say.

Huh I somehow thought the other character was next but it's Rise time!

Man. I like Rise a lot. Out of all the romance options she's the only one I'm considering at all because she's neat. Rise is an idol who is taking a break from the business to return home to Inaba and recuperate. And right from go, she is just on another level from everyone else.

She knows about the Midnight Channel (though doesn't understand it's a supernatural hit list yet) and is aware of the dangers around her. The Idol business in all its forms across the world fucking Sucks and it's clear to see it's had an effect on her, like emotional stretch marks from having to mature really fucking fast. She's been in her late 20s since she was 13 and it shows.

Oh and she's working in her family's tofu shop for the time being.

/googles ganmodoki

oh i would try this in a fucking heartbeat. Also, Yosuke, bro, what do you mean you don't eat tofu. Like... no tofu ever? I'm American and I eat tofu. It's good.

(I do genuinely want to eat more tofu but I cook for a whole household and they are less willing to let me experiment with tofu. Please pity me. 8C I heard if you squeeze out all the liquid or even freeze them first, they become really easy to fry? Anyway. Sorry, I cook a lot.)

Anyway aw shit Rise inadvertently reveals to Dojima that we're working this case. Worse, Dojima is not immediately angry or confrontational about it. OH NO, he purposefully avoids being confrontational about it.

Instead he puts Adachi on our tail.

Look at that man's face. Does this motherfucker have a single candle on behind those eyes.

Which leads to discovering a stalker who Adachi arrests as the murderer.

GODDAMMIT ADACHI. Whatever, it gets him out of our fucking hair.

buuuuut in that time, Rise got got. goddddddfuckingdammit.

An idol who's shadow self is on some level genuinely an exhibitionist. Whoo boy that's... a lot. Also, out of all the shadows, I find Rise's the most creepy, weirdly? Maybe because Idol Culture scares the shit out of me and I don't even remotely understand the appeal. It's like this terrifying black box of concepts I can't divine anything out of.

In TV World, I feel SUPER BAD for Teddie. I keep flying through these dungeons in one or two days and not really coming back to the TV World to see him. Which is a shame because I genuinely love Teddie! I think he's top three characters for me right now.

I was trained in the unhallowed halls of Tartarus, I know how to curbstomp a dungeon, okay? I wish I was around more for Teddie. 8C

YOSUKE HANAMURA WE ARE GONNA STEP OUTSIDE IF YOU MAKE TEDDIE SAD, DO YOU HEAR ME?

i just went from Big Mad to cackle in like a minute. CHIE OH MY GOD. "Aw buddy, you're sad? Yeah, you can hit on me, I'm cool with that!" i'm dying. it kind of says a lot about Chie's opinion of Teddie vs everyone else since she's the one who shoved the boys into the river at camp.

She has standards, is what I'm saying, and I respect them immensely.

say what

omg yes yes yes yes yes yes lemme see it what is it

STAR SOCIAL LINK: GET. THE STAR IS SO FUCKING GOOD FOR TEDDIE TOO! The Star comes after darkness has fallen and you are lost in the night with no sense of direction. It is the pinprick of light in the distance, the hope that gets your feet moving again after the despair has settled in. It is not a promise of warm or answers or completion, but it is sign that the story is not over, that you aren't over, and encourages you to follow to the next page.

TEDDIE IS GREAT FOR THE STAR, AAAAAAH!!!!!

[beevean]

The post SOTN stories (except OOE and maybe PoR) have the nasty issue of wanting to look more story driven but without putting in the effort

Yeah sure the characters talk more, we have an official timeline detailing canon down to a t, but the actual story beats were almost always the same just presented in a bit of a different light

Oh no the good guy has turned bad except not really he was being controlled!

Oh no the local Belmont is unavailable!

Oh no my wife died and this gives me motivation to do the things I do!

The actual stories, when you go beyond the interesting ideas and premises, were pretty damn paper thin and CoD is the worst offender of this because 90% of the backstory is secluded to 2 pretty obscure mangas that are so different in general writing style when compared to the game itself that I find it pretty much impossible to connect the two, if not downright dishonest to, say, call Hector a compelling character beyond his general idea because the manga did this and that while the game itself aka the main material

It would be like Sega releasing a Mephiles centered side manga that miraculously does a great job with him, but with there being such a huge disconnect between the 2 medias and their respective interpretations can you really make a generalizing judgement on the character which includes his secondary yet superior iteration? Or isn't it better to just consider them 2 different versions of the character that, while officially canon to each other, might as well be two different versions of the same character?

You really come into my house to stab me like this :P

I agree that the stories in the games are paper thin, and rely on clichés. There is a lot of work that you have to put in when it comes to interpreting characters and finding parallels. Sara is maybe the most blatant example of this: I see how her fans go insane over the idea of her becoming unhinged with hatred when stuck in the VK, forced to kill demons for a millenium and feeding on their dark force, holding a grudge over Mathias/Dracula. Which is great! What an interesting idea, the holy weapon being powered by a woman's rage, herself being the driving force of the Belmont who cursed his descendants to hunt the night for the rest of time! But then in canon she's just the girl you have to save and then the girl who died to make Leon angry - somehow she's both the Damsel in Distress and the Dead Motivational Wife. So yeah. There is a shitton of potential for analysis, but canon only gives you the barest hints. And if you're here only to play as the badass protagonist and don't really want to put in the work, yeah the plots are weak at best and annoying at worst.

As for CoD... I half agree. I can't say that the mangas don't count only because they are separate, but I wish they were more easily available, because without them, the story in the game doesn't have the proper emotional impact. Both LoI and CoD are so obviously rushed and low-budget for their scope, and I guess the mangas were the easiest solution to include stuff the devs couldn't in the game proper (I still believe Joachim was meant to be much more than a mere boss). LoI is even worse because its prequel is pretty much lost, which shows why these mangas should have been preserved better.

I don't really understand what you mean with the writing style being too disconnected. I think the worst part of the mangas (aside from their obscurity lol) is that, while they overlap in the general sequence of events, they're obviously written by two different people and so the shades of the characters' personalities are different. Was Isaac a smug BDSM king with one hell of an inferiority complex? Or was he more levelheaded and proper before losing his mind? You decide which version is your favorite one, because we don't know which version is "more" canon. You can mix and match if you want, but again, that's you putting in the work.

And well, I am super biased but I do see a connection between the Hector of both mangas and the one from the game ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ both of them, especially the PtR one, flow nicely into what we see on screen. I just wish the game was a little clearer on how Hector is normally vs. the effect that the Curse has on him. I can infere that his real personality is how politely he speaks to Julia... but was it intended, or am I once again working for the writing?

[imabasicbishh]

I gotta say I love that RE gets new fans with the remakes, but with some of these newer RE fans have also brought in the concept of “stans”, which I am now completely categorizing in a different group from fans. I am a huge Ada fan, but these Ada stans on Twitter are making it hard to enjoy Resident Evil content on there.

In Stan world if I want say I don’t like Ada’s new voice, or prefer OGRE4 Ada over the remake, or don’t love her new outfit then apparently “I have no right to call myself a fan” if I vocalized these opinions. I am Asian American myself and I did not enjoy Lily Gao’s performance as Ada. In my opinion, she had a few passable lines, flat and awkward delivery majority of the time, no chemistry with Leon, and most importantly NO charisma. Doesn’t matter how much much time Ada had in any form of RE media, she has always had presence and impact. In RE4’s main game, Ada didn’t have that many scenes either (although technically more than the remake), but even to people who didn’t bother to play Separate Ways, she always left an impression.

When the first RE4R trailer of her speaking dropped A LOT of people didn’t like her voice acting from the beginning. Then Ada stans would say “you can’t judge based on one line, wait until the game comes out” (as if that would somehow make her delivery better?), then the game comes out and a lot of people still didn’t like her performance, now it’s “she barely had any screen time, wait for Separate Ways”, moving the goal post again. Or it’s “she’s suppose to sound flat because she’s now a serious mercenary” Like was Ada not already cold and serious in RE2R?? I don’t remember her “sounding flirty” in that game at all, that was literally one of the reason people didn’t like RE2R’s Ada, for not being as nice as she was in OG2. Now there’s this belief that most people only didn’t like it because of some RE influencer and blamed her to take accountability for the harassment and bullying Lily Gao got, then the next day the Ada Stans go on to harass, bully, and passive aggressively hate on accounts that ship Cleon to the point they end up closing their account. I super ship Aeon too but jeeze. It’s just so hard to take seriously, but I guess that’s the current state of fandom culture now: “can’t take the toxic behavior of me defending my fave, then gtfo”.

Lily Gao 100% did not deserve to be harassed, I put all blame on Capcom. If they wanted to cast a new Asian VA for Ada they should have put in more effort to finding THE BEST fit person for the job, not the most convenient. I wish there was more noise on Patricia Ja Lee being Jill Valentine’s previous VA and mocap, because there’s a VA who did a great job, maybe they should have just gotten her to be Ada, but doubt Capcom considered any Union VA. Capcom in general after the VA Union strike have been cheap, and Capcom USA especially have been lazy. They have no respect for VAs, you expect me to believe they didn’t cast Lily Gao for convenience sake after not even bothering to bring back David Vaughn for RE8’s Chris Redfield and reused Jeff Schine instead?

Look, you can like Ada’s new voice, but to not understand why others genuinely don’t like it makes no sense to me.

Capcom nerfed Ada so hard in this remake but every Ada stan can make so many justifications for Capcoms shit decisions, writing for her, and having one of the weakest VA performances despite being a main character and one of the most iconic female characters in video games? The only time “Ada Nation” can band together for anything is when Ada is left out of stuff so long as she girl-bosses and serves cunt right? Who cares she has less screen time, who cares there was no Assignment Ada and she’s not in Mercenaries at Launch even though all that was included in the Game Cube release, who cares they gave Luis Ada’s moment of saving Leon from Krauser, who cares she was left out of all the promotion of RE4R, who cares that she keeps telling Leon to leave Ashley for whatever reason when she never interferes with how Leon does his job in the OG. Leon literally throwing real knife stabs that could actually kill her, he hasn’t seen her in 6 years, he has no idea if she could block them or not, but I guess all that is suppose to be visually appealing than him being able to disarm her. Oh Ada can’t black flip kick the gun out of Leon’s hand bc it’s not realistic but Leon can jump around like he’s Cloud Strife in the saddler boss battle? And Ada offered a ride to Leon at the end and not Ashley, I don’t know how Ada stans can see where it implies that Ada offered a ride to both of them? And why do we have to read in between the lines when they could have had her ask if they were both coming in the script? They had no problem putting that badly written scene of exposition with Wesker at the end to show players how much of a “good and reformed” person she is. I wouldn’t give Capcom that much credit. Why does them improving Separate Ways, which should already be expected of a remake, justify cutting/downgrading everything else?

You can say you like her new outfit more than her OG, but then to go and say it’s more practical now, when really it’s still unpractical as hell too. Say you like RE4R Ada but then to say she’s less sexualized than OG4? Lily Gao implying she characterized Ada to be less sexualized, when her Ada basically offers Leon sex if he drops his mission and leaves Ashley. Past Adas has never propositioned anything like that before EVER. Like ok RE4R Ada doesn’t wear a cocktail dress now, but instead now has hella ass shots for days, they made her boobs larger, and gave her character model boob physics, all of which wasn’t in OG4.

Had to get this off my chest, if you made it this far congrats lol. This is just all my opinion, you don’t have to agree with me, I’m sure a lot of you don’t.

[malepresentingleg]

Bed Friend episode 8 thoughts

Firstly it really did have a finale vibe, I wouldn't have been mad if they wrapped it up here and I hope they pull off the extra two episodes well.

But I was mad about how Krit was handled. Not only did King invade Uea's privacy by watching that horrible video, he also spread it to the whole office??? I would never want a video of my assault to be passed around like this, especially if I was a private person like Uea. This just. yuck. I didn't like that it was presented as a great savior move, I didn't like that it wasn't even acknowledged that it might be stepping out of line and I didn't like that Uea wasn't mad about it at all. Literally just this episode he gave emphasis about asking his permission before doing anything so ...??

Then again when they were back at the office and everyone was talking about it like 😬😬😬 why can't people be more sensitive?

And then King also outed their relationship to all the coworkers which ??? You can't just fucking do this Jesus (but also, looking forward to Jade barking in front of the office heehee )

The Lampang dating montage was cute af, yes please more of that :') so glad they finally had an honest conversation about their feelings!!!

But also, Uea's being a little shit about all the waiting thing which - GOOD. I hope he's the BIGGEST shit about it, it's what he deserves:')

Glad the big boss is a sensible dude (except when he put his hand on Uea's shoulder ldkjssf).

Their conversation where Uea tells him about his past trauma was just incredible. The way King just sits and listens and looks sympathetic but doesn't interrupt, letting him finish and then saying he's going to support him? *chef's kiss*

Also yes!!! Get meds and improve your mental health!!!!!

This is such a positive change from the novel where pretty early on Uea mentioned he went to see a psychiatrist about his phobia of the dark, tried to take meds but it didn't help so he stopped.

I don't know how I feel about the extra plotline they're doing with Uea's stepdad... I'm glad that this time at least King ASKED if he can do something about it, and I understand the importance of getting justice for the victims!! BUt also after Uea's last visit home... oooof he's supposed to never interact with them again

All in all, I'm glad for the way their relationship is going, super mad about King's disregard for Uea's privacy >:( and glad about the start of the healing process :' )

I'm also not really into the Boom storyline which feels very redundant and unnecessary at this point, Uea can just say he's not interested/has a bf (which I thought King already made common knowledge to everyone this episode....).It might just be there to help Uea admit his and King's relationship status and the preview is being dramatic with jealousy on purpose, but we'll see..

[stormethecat]

I saw the Mario movie yesterday and honestly it was really good! I give it like an 8/10.

Unfortunately I missed the first couple minutes or so of the movie because the theater was lined up with people, so it took a bit to actually get in haha. My friends and I all went dressed as Mario/Luigi too, which was awesome.

(spoilers under the cut)

tl;dr the Mario is very good and I want to see more

I was kind of expecting Chris Pratt's Mario to be not great, but surprisingly Fred Armisen's Cranky Kong was even worse. The only voice in the movie where I was like "wow this really doesn't fit." Now that I've seen the full movie rather than just the trailers I can tell that Chris Pratt at least tried. I still think that someone else probably would have fit better, but he wasn't horrible. Like even Charlie Day as Luigi and Seth Rogen as DK were pretty much just their regular voices, they still kinda fit somehow. Keagan-Michael Key's Toad and Kevin Michael Richardson's Kamek were spot on. Anya Taylor-Joy's Peach was serviceable—she sounds like a girl. And Jack Black's Bowser was freaking amazing. If I could tweak it a little bit to be pitched down slightly and maybe more growly then I think it would've been absolutely perfect, but as is I think he did a fantastic job. Charles Martinet as Giuseppe (basically Mario's design as Jump Man from the original Donkey Kong arcade game) was so great, and casting him as the Mario Bros' dad was a great choice.

The score was brilliantly done, the direction of having Koji Kondo as a composing consultant was an excellent choice, wouldn't have had it any other way. While I figured at least one pop song to show up, I think five has more than I was more than I was expecting. I'm not exactly bothered by it, but it was very noticeable haha. Also I wasn't expecting (yet not surprised) by the full on musical number that Bowser did performed by Jack Black. It was great lol, well done and got me to laugh. Also the DK rap was a welcome surprise, although Grant Kirkhope went uncredited which kinda sucks. Plus all the sound effects were great too.

The story wasn't intricate, and I keep hearing this as a complaint, but it's a Super Mario Bros. movie so idk what people were expecting on that front. It was a really fun ride from start to finish and I actually already want to watch it again. It's a great kid's movie and all the details, references, and easter eggs they put in for the fans of the series are greatly appreciated too. I wasn't expecting them to show so much of the Mario Bros' family or Peach's origins (which is to say not much, but I wasn't expecting any at all. And I also wasn't expecting them to show where the blue shells come from, so that's neat. I'm mildly disappointed at how large a chunk of the movie Luigi was captured. I understand they wanted someone to get captured because that's kind of Bowser's thing and they probably wanted Peach to shine on her own and do girl boss things, but I'm just disappointed that he was in a cage for like most of the movie.

The animation was also really well done if you were worried about that. I've seen some critics complain about that, but it almost feels like they watched a different movie as far as that point goes. The lighting was spectacular, the screen was almost always packed with detail, and the characters were expressive.

One last tiny gripe: Hearing the koopas being referred to as turtles more than once felt off to me. I know this complaint is such a nerdy one, but Nintendo has always gone out of their way to specifically call them koopas and not turtles. I usually only ever hear people call them turtles when it's someone who only vaguely knows about Mario. Having Mario call them turtles kinda makes sense since he's from Brooklyn transported to the Mushroom Kingdom, but Peach and even Bowser himself referred to them as turtles which was weird to me.

[to-be-frank-i-dont-care]

OMG SHUT UPPPPPP!!!!! I just saw your account under studyblr and I can’t believe I found someone with my DREAM major. Please tell me how you like it so far (if you want)!!😊😊

Hi friend!! Sorry I haven't answered this, actually the same day you sent this I got dropped from the vet clinic I was interning at so that's the main reason I haven't answered yet lol, because I've been trying to process that for the past few days (and also had finals to deal with :P )

But just to clarify, I'm not a vet tech just yet - I have two years left of school unfortunately before I can graduate and take the VTNE but I can tell you how the program is going at least!! I'm about to start my fifth semester (out of 9) and it's gone pretty well so far, though my study motivation has gradually dropped throughout each semester so I'm gonna really try to lock in this coming semester lol. Whenever you start, DEFINITELY make sure to study a few hours a day!! Especially because there is a ton of information you have to learn, and it can be difficult to remember it all, so I think the best thing is just to review it over and over and over till you're pretty much sick of it. (Something I haven't been doing a great job at, but I definitely need to because before I know it I'll be taking the VTNE, heh). So yeah, definitely be sure to study A LOT!!

Also, the program I'm in is an online one, which...I would NOT recommend doing online tbh (could just be my experience though :) . I chose online because I thought it might be less stressful/expensive, and it's definitely more affordable, but the program I'm doing (and most online vet tech programs, from what I understand) requires you to take what they call "mentorships," and in each mentorship you have to film and submit a certain number of videos with ultra-specific criteria. This also means you have to find a vet clinic willing not only to teach you, but to also let you film videos with signed supervision from a DVM or LVT, and as an introvert that has been a nightmare 😭 The clinic I was interning at was...not the best environment, especially for a student. I started seeing and experiencing a lot of red flags the longer I was there till they finally dropped me without warning, so my experience in the field so far has been pretty sour and discouraging. However, I'm currently seaching for a new clinic that will be more healthy to be in, so I'm not giving up or anything!

But, I will say, vet med is a super difficult field to go into mentally, emotionally, and physically. I follow a ton of vet tech accounts on instagram and have read a lot of things about it online, and have therefore discovered that most techs don't last long in the field before burning out. LVTs are in super high demand right now because so many of them burn out quickly due to rotten clients, toxic workplaces/bosses, super low pay, compassion burnout, trauma from abuse cases and euthanasias, and a whole lot more. I knew this before I started my program, and still it was really, really hard to get used to, along with my first experience being in what I would probably say it's safe to call a toxic clinic. I guess it was a good thing I had such a terrible experience straight off because now I'm prepared for any similar experiences in future, but again, it's a really tough field to be in. I'm not saying this to scare you off or anything! Just that it's going to be really difficult some days, and you're going to come home sobbing at times and won't be able to shake images from your head for a while. But they do fade, and they do get better, and you grow and learn from them and become even more inspired to help. And there are definitely a lot of great clinics out there, so not all of them are toxic either :) (though I've heard many are because of stress/overwork/burnout, so I imagine you do have to be choosy in finding a good one)

But anyway, my very little experience in the actual field itself so far was mostly fun aside from all the above. In the few months I was at that clinic before it really started going downhill, I was shown various procedures/tests/etc and got to do a lot. I did very much enjoy all the things I got to do, and I think you will too, so keep working towards it! I'll have to make an update post sometime once I've found a better clinic, and I hope this post hasn't scared you off at all 😅 Just again, I would (personally) recommend finding an in-person program to do, because that way you'll be doing all your stuff on-campus instead of having to call/email all these random clinics till you find one that's willing to accept/teach you (unless you're an extrovert who's okay with that, lol, or unless you want a more affordable option!). Anyway, I'm sorry this is so wordy and rambly and I wish you the best of luck in your studies (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ If you have any more questions feel free to send them! :)

[allistemporary]

So it’s been 2 years. … what’s up lol

It’s November 26 2024, I no longer am a real estate agent and I’m still with John. Things have changed a lot.

Let’s start with John:

It’ll be 5 years in January. Kind of exciting, kind of anxious about it. We’ve been ring shopping, thinking about what moving in together really looks like. Turns out I was wrong, and marriage is on the horizon for us. Eek. … not a bad eek, just like EEK IM AN ADULT. I do feel like I pushed him into this so I’m still a little insecure about it all if I'm being honest. In July I had a major emotional breakdown and all I knew is that on that day at that time all i wanted to do was leave and never come back. and I blew up at him and he took it surprisingly well. and he gave me a LOT of grace and I understand his fears and anxiety much more. i just wish he'd be a little more vocal when he's feeling like its going off the deep end. i do find myself asking him things like, does if give you anxiety if i …. or is it too much to mention …. don't love that.

But overall we’re doing well. It feels like we’re in the same book, in the same chapter, same page just maybe different paragraphs. Which is great because for a while there for me it felt like we were in different libraries. I’m super excited to be going to Costa Rica with him in Feb/March!!!! We’ve traveled a little together but never anywhere so far or for so long. I’m really excited.

Health wise, I’m pretty much the same. Still fat. Getting more motivated to be better but it’s so hard man. I work as a treatment coordinator at Gordon and Prince now and while it’s not like a hard job physically (duh) it’s so mentally taxing. And I KNOW that a long walk after work would probably be really good, like reeeaaallly good for me … I just am so tired dude. Blood work came back just fine, a little higher than last year but I’ve also had a really shit diet with lots of fast food this year. Definitely need to change that. Not that I’ll be able to afford to eat out as much considering the cost of living lately + what’s to come with the second Trump admin. Oh yeah Trump won again. Hard week for the mental health when that happened. Cried a couple of times almost had a lil menty b, But it’s okay! It’s been okay, it’ll keep being okay. I’ve survived every bad day I’ve ever had.

And dad….Totally out of my life. Cut him off. We ran into him at Tanger outlet last fall? Summer? Idk sometime last year. He was with Debbie because DUUUHH. Of course he was with Debbie she says sarcastically. It was just an awkward situation and then he didn’t reach out. And I wrote him a very strongly worded and firm text and gave him 24 hours to respond and he didn’t. He didn’t respond. Didn’t even try. So I won’t either, I’ve got too much to focus on and worry about to add another thing to my plate. Best wishes to him, just very very far from me. Shrug.

Mom and Max are doing well. Mom would love if John would just propose already. And I mean he kind of did … like in conversation, but he hasn’t truly honestly proposed so I think she’d really like that. Max’s health has been kind of roller coaster ride this year. I do treat him with kid gloves a little but I feel like I need to. I hope he’s going to have a better year in 2025 than in 2024. And I hope my mom will have a more peaceful and restful year in 2025. I think she’s doing really well, but she holds a lot close to the chest so sometimes it’s hard to gauge. I hope she finds some company that isn’t us because I’m leaving the coop in the next year I hope. And Max is just getting busier and busier. Kind of breaks my heart to think of my mom just being alone all the time. I’m not crying your crying.

And work. Like I said earlier, I work at Gordon & Prince. It’s a dental office, I kind of love it. Or at the very least I enjoy my job, my work environment, and my boss Kammy is pretty great to me. It’s a dysfunctional office like every single other one in the US I’m sure but I feel like everyone at work for the most part just wants everyone to do their job and do it well. Which I feel like doesn’t exist across the board at most other jobs.

And yeah I quit real estate in 2022. I had one client left and Ernesto fired me for “not having the same values”which I mean … duh, I’m not trying to cheat my way up the ladder. So yeah. UBH is still a loser real estate office and that’s too bad for the agents there but I could not care less. Good riddance. Don’t wish them ill but definitely don’t wish them well. Sorry about it. Sore subject if you couldn’t tell.

Overall, I think im okay. I hope the next entry is something similar, about more progress in some direction. Hopefully a healthier me physically! Mentally I’m doing way way way better than I was 3 years ago. It’s pretty great to say that I’m actually really happy. I haven’t said that in a long time but I’m at peace and I’m happy and I’m loved and I’m grateful to be here. I remember being younger and being so unhappy that I thought I’d be gone by age 25 and look at me now. I’m almost 29, I did it! I’m so proud of myself! I can really say that, I’m so proud of myself.

[hopelessfragility]

Okay I think I’m ready for an update again haha

1. Mobile app is out - it’s amazing but user acquisition is a lot harder than I thought it would be. To be fair, I’ve been lazy. I need to pay for marketing at this point but I’m also cheap.

2. ESE is dead. To us at least. Turned out that it was may more work than it was worth for us. We’d be essentially doing free labor for a while and with two kids and 5 other jobs between the 2 of us, there was just no way.

3. Our girls are perfect lol. They are both so smart, so independent, so ambitious and most importantly they’re obsessed with each other. Norah is trying so hard to communicate and Noelle is testing boundaries. Norah say mama which describes me and food. She also says baba which describes everything else 😅 but she’s so smart. She points at the things she wants and brings things to you as well as leads you to what she wants. Noelle is in the “I do it” phase; where she wants to do everything herself lol. The only thing that’s been a bit hard to get used to is Noelle walking into our room all hours of the night unannounced. I miss privacy lol.

4. I’m on the CUSP of a new job!!! I’m praying so hard that this is for me. I’ve been doing the interview process for the past 2 months now and I officially will know either tomorrow or early next week. This will be an interesting move in my career. I’m taking a SMALL step back in title but I’m gaining more in salary and at a MUCH bigger company. Fortune 20 🤫 so I’m praying very very hard for the opportunity.

In terms of the old job, it got tougher. They fired my boss and another one of her direct reports. So essentially the buck starts and ends with me and my direct report. The difference is they’re not paying me for now the even more responsibilities I own. It’s also a boys club with no diversity. I work almost exclusively with men (senior leadership-wise) and I am the only black person left. Basically I’m over it so even if the is new job doesn’t work out, I have to go.

5. The addition is happening. Very very slowly. We finally got things submitted to the city in JULY. the whole process has been so off putting. Our architect is so unhelpful and hard to work with it. Our general contractor has proven to be even worse. The city has been quick though. They rejected our plan with thorough notes so hopefully we can resubmit in the next couple of weeks. It’s honestly depressing to even talk about. The good thing is we’ve saved a little more than half of the cost of the Reno in all this time, thank God. And my husband is working towards at least 2 more bonuses outside of his normal bonus period so we are praying on that. Hopefully all will fall into place soon.

6. I had made a new friend (kind of) and then they kind of turned into a networker. I wanted to use the term “user” but that’s not entirely true. Their sole purpose is to promote themselves and their family’s businesses, which is understandable but that’s just not how I roll. I wanted a real friend. So essentially I just kind of distanced myself after they skipped my daughter’s birthday party. Idk I just don’t have time for no authenticity.

7. Exercise has been great! I’ve been consistent for most of the year only skipping a week here or there. I’m running an average of 2.5 miles each class and I’m getting stronger and faster. I’ve lost a killer amount of weight which has been a huge ego boost. However in the last month I’ve gained a little less than 10lbs. Not great but it’s for sure my diet. Im still super proud though.

That’s it for updates for now! I hope you all are well!