#anyway that's what I call *character development*

[louisferrignojr]

i'm gonna go ahead and say something very controversial but i'm not interested in another "buck feels abandoned" arc re: eddie moving to texas. please be aware this is coming from a person with abandonment issues and easily triggered RSD. i get it.

when i say i want some fucking character development for buck, this is what i mean. it's been 8 seasons. we cannot be doing the same shit over and over again, and yes, as much as 911 has an ongoing theme of "your past catches up to you and triggers you unexpectedly" and "grief and trauma are never fully resolved" which are all good and make for interesting storytelling. i cannot reconcile with the idea that a 33 year old man is gonna feel "abandoned" by his best friend moving back to his hometown to be with his son to repair the relationship he damaged. like that's fucking common sense. of course eddie needs to do this.

like, will buck be sad? sure. your friend moves away. you miss them. you're allowed to sulk a little bit. but as a fucking grown up, you want what's best for them, you want to support them — and we saw it in the episode, he immediately put his baking-to-cope aside to help eddie with his facetime appointment — and the sadness only showed on his face when eddie wasn't looking, because that's what you do when you're a mature adult.

now, with tommy? that's different altogether. that's the person you're wanting to build a future with abruptly ending your relationship and leaving you hanging, wondering what the fuck happened. the fact that he's trying to stop himself from calling tommy is, at the very least, a sign that he has questions he wants answers to, he wants closure, he's open to reconciliation. this breakup would absolutely bring up old wounds of being left behind. not that i trust the show to give us anything meaningful, even if they do get buck and tommy back together — but this is how i see it anyway.

[melaniepilled]

the storyline is brilliant. (most) characters are well-developed. the animation is gorgeous. the soundtrack, though a bit on the nose, is pretty cool. HOWEVER:

what's with the copaganda? like come on, lesbian cop? all those corny scenes trying to make the viewer empathise with this cop or that cop? i dont need to see the poor fate of a cop's daughter to know cops are human beings with loved ones. that's nowhere near the point. it's disrespectful as hell to pair scenes of, idk, a cop's suffering with a zaunite's suffering to be like: we're all the same, guys! no, you're not 😭

all that shit with marcus was so annoying like they want us to think he had some noble motive for his corruption. lmao? like, sure, at the end his kid's life was threatened by silco but what about before those five minutes? didn't he team up with silco of his own accord for YEARS?

idk, man, i think the showmakers could've made the point of "silco threatened this cop into doing this woo scary" without all that corny sad music and 1000 scenes of poor helpless enforcer marcus. I DON'T CARE omfg.

now back to the lesbian cop. GIRL was that necessary? seriously, the best queer rep you can imagine is a female cop? argh. ew. be for real.

any way, who even is caitlyn kirraman? noble girl felt caged by noble expectations blah blah blah overused trope blah blah. she wanted to 'see' the real world and the best she could do was join the Brutal Oppression Force to get some hands-on action in harming the real world? huh?

on one hand, i can believe an almost-princess wouldn't know the reality of this oppression but man. come on. it's so cliche. sheltered rich kid joins a police or police-adjacent service with pure intentions only to learn the service is only at the disposal of the elite? jeez, never heard that one before.

AND she could have been mildly tolerated is she wasn't so intent on throwing her power and status around. and for what? pumping the undercity with toxic gas to faciliate her witch hunt?

annoying. negative rizz. could have done way better. every time caitlyn kirraman appears on screen i have to stifle a groan of frustration.

and what's with the uniform? the rest of the character designs were so good you can almost forget it's arcane League of Legends and then there's ... this.

anyways, i want to complain about one more character before i can move on to other things.

this mf. he's so blank. no personality. switches his motives every episode. i don't even think he's meant to be a real character. what's his deal? characterless mf sorry i dont even have anything to say forget it

overall, the way arcane tries to equate the harm done by this or that zaunite to the harm done by topside is ... suspicious, to say the least. i DO think zaunites have a right to take up arms against topside and i feel no sympathy for poor helpless enforcers or noble councillors. womp womp

anyhoo. on to the good shit. arcane is like 20% action and 80% political intrigue and if i had known that i would have watched it ages ago. nevertheless, all the side characters and sub-plots are highly entertaining and if not for them arcane would be nothing.

characters i liked!

jinx and vi are ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ that's sisterhood for ya.

viktor my man. he was sexier when he was dying.

ekko my cutie patootie

silco is a weirdo and an edgelord that being said he is pretty interesting

sevika. so hot. answer my calls sevika please

let's talk about my fav girl now

MEL MEDARDA. soft-hearted girlboss fighting her warmongering mother. do i think she's selfish and does not care about her 'people' as much as she says? yes. but she does have principles. also, i have no idea what her sub-plot is going to lead to. it's cool. she's cool. love to see a beautiful girl suffer xoxo

that's all i will say for now. this post is already super duper long. i havent even talked about jinx and vi. meow. bbye.

[max--phillips]

Okay here goes

First, the spoiler free stuff:

Ridley Scott knows how to make a fucking film.

If I don’t see fics of Acacius x reader x Lucilla I will begin biting

If you are going in it for Pedro, I will warn you his character is very important but kind of… idk, shallow is too strong of a word, but not very fleshed out. I don’t think that’s an issue in the greater scheme of the movie though, it makes sense in the plot and doesn’t feel out of place or bad in the universe.

If you are going in it for Paul Mescal, you will not be disappointed.

Please watch the first movie first. The story will not make any fucking sense if you don’t.

Just the right amount of flashbacks and footage from the first movie . Chefs kiss

Ridley Scott really said “all emperors and tyrants are nasty little freaks with terrible vibes”

Oh also if you’re squeamish about gore and stuff like. It’s a movie about gladiators so set your expectations accordingly. There is an instance of a disembodied head used as a prop. So y’know

Okay, spoilery stuff below the cut

Arishat was hot :( rip

Monkeys at the beginning? Terrible. 0/10 did not enjoy that. Also did not enjoy seeing and hearing Mr. Mescal BITING ONE

I love Ravi I would watch a whole movie just about him tending to gladiators’ wounds quite frankly. Give me that story

We love to see bisexuality on screen (even though that wasn’t a social identity at the time but we’re not here to talk about that) what with the concubines and drunk as fuck Macrinus

Speaking of drunk as fuck Macrinus: that whole scene was so fucking funny. They’re like that meme about people getting high. You know the one

Speaking of Macrinus—Denzel Washington stole the show. When TIME magazine pushed a story to me today headlined “Gladiator II Belongs to Denzel Washington,” I was like, pshhhh, nah. But it really does. It’s not about him? But it’s his fucking show.

The politics . THE POLITICS

It feels a little heavy handed right now but that wasn’t probably how it was intended, given it was made before. Y’know. The election. But the whole dream of Rome being a place where everyone is equal and cared for but you can only whisper it or it’ll shatter? Yeah.

Oh, right, Acacius: that dude is so tired he does NOT want to be there. Let him go home to his hot wife. Alas, his hot wife is the way she is and like… no good deed goes unpunished.

And I fucking called it with my text post a few months ago. Two (2) movies now where Denzel Washington (either directly or indirectly) kills Pedro Pascal. Brilliant

Admittedly selfishly I would’ve liked to see more of him. But it felt like the correct thing in the context of the story. If he didn’t die then, if he wasn’t the inciting event for the uprising of the people of Rome, it wouldn’t have made sense and it would’ve just been fan service and “look, we got Pedro Pascal!” at that point.

I would’ve liked to see a more in-depth exploration of the change in relationship between Lucius and Lucilla—it seems like they went from Lucius screaming at her to get out to them hugging it out without any real development between the two of them specifically. Obviously a lot had happened in the world of the movie at that point but nonetheless

Macrinus shooting Lucilla was his Icarus moment. There was no coming back from that. “But what about Geta” “but what about Caracalla” no. It was Lucilla. If she’d gotten got by the praetorian guards or something else, it would’ve been fine. But because it was Macrinus there was nowhere he could go from there other than [checks notes] getting his hand chopped off and then gutted in a dirty irrigation ditch.

Remember kids, the people in power who are causing all of the things going wrong in the world have names and addresses and are mortal <3

Also another takeaway from the movie: imperialism, religious extremism, ableism, and authoritarianism will be the end of us all <3

Anyway. Good movie. Can’t wait to watch it again in my own home with subtitles so I can actually like… process everything everyone was saying LMAO and take better reaction notes.

I’m still sitting in the theater parking lot it’s been like 30 minutes LMAO okay thanks for coming to my tedtalk or whatever

[ariblair]

Does anyone else feel like almost every character's potential just gone into waste in season 2 of arcane?? Like Jinx was suicidal in s1 and was ready to die, only to regain her will to live thanks to Isha vander and vi, only in the end to lose two of them and sacrifice herself. Her whole arc was about her thinking she wasn't worthy of anything, and the end just... proved it. Heimerdinger learnt about the problem of zaun and what his inaction has lead to, and the second he comes to a better dimension he stays there and enjoys life, not even trying to go back and help his people until ekko shows up. Viktors story was developing unbelievably fast, dude died like 3 times in season. Caitlyn's arc is super inconsistent in s2, she goes from normal to a dictator who uses deadly gas on civilians to normal again and was never called out for her actions. Even if her mother was killed her actions are unforgivable, and not even once does she get penalized for that. Don't even get me started on piltover/ zaun conflict which was completely forgotten. Like it's that old tale about rich and poor being not so different from one another. Piltover actively repressed Zaun, made life of their people a living hell and not even cared, but as soon as they themselves got into a trouble they're went "Guys we're not so different". It feels like all those conflicts from s1 were just forgotten and thrown away by writers, cuz they had to fit in a massive story into one season. Anyway those are my thoughts on s2, i think i will reconsider some of those later when I'll get over the shock....

[katboykirby]

Okay 🤷

I'm coming from the standpoint of someone who has both worked in the mobile game industry on the writing/game development side of things, and also as someone who personally knows and regularly speaks to staff at Solmare. All I'm doing is offering the perspective that comes with having that experience.

You personally seeing lots of posts about a particular topic, because it's a popular point of discussion in your circle, does not mean that the topic is popular or widely discussed outside of your circle. I'm not saying that no one is having these discussions, but I absolutely promise you that it's not as many people as you seem to think. And like, that's fine? Not sure why that's even an issue or anything, but okay?

Again, "this is badly written" is completely subjective. Your personal opinion on a piece of media is obviously fine, but it's not in any way universal or objective. To be honest, it's kind of a weird choice to even bring up because (in addition to it's subjectivity) it's simply not all that related to the original point that was being discussed? This specific post is about people being upset over optional monetization in the game, not about story quality. That's absolutely a conversation that can happen, but it's not the point of THIS post?

I don't know where I've been defending Solmare? In my original post I literally outlined multiple points of feedback and criticism, and examples of what I think they could have done differently and what they can still stand to improve. I also link directly to the contact page for their Support Team specifically so people can easily send their own feedback.

Ultimately, my main point was this: the new feature isn't perfect and Solmare could have done several things differently that would have improved the rollout and made people happier. BUT, it's also not the atrocious garbage fire that people are treating it as. There's harassment and abuse being sent to the official OM accounts, multiple people are saying that "everyone should boycott Solmare" and just overreacting in general. Which is a lot of drama over what is, essentially, a pretty standard and inoffensive item bundle being added to the shop.

The new feature is very normal for live service mobage (especially gacha) and "optional paid bonus content" is EXTREMELY common in this genre of games. In-app purchases for goodies and extra fluff exist in basically every gacha game ever, and OM isn't doing anything different. Obviously it's totally okay to not like it! And if you don't like it, you can just totally ignore it. It doesn't impact the game either way.

You're paying $30 and getting a long Devilgram story, a character phone call, exclusive premium artwork, and a stack of 300 DP on top. That's all. It's not mandatory, it doesn't lock any actual game progression or Main Story behind a paywall. It's just a totally optional goodie bag in the shop that you can completely ignore if you don't want to buy it. It's more than fair to criticise the pricing scheme, but some players are acting like the gave devs personally hacked into their bank accounts and stole their life savings.

Anyway, I'm probably not gonna keep replying like this because this post has gotten ridiculously long, lol. You're more than welcome to DM me if you wanna keep discussing stuff, but I might just disable reblogs because I wasn't expecting this post to get so much attention.

Going to play Devil's Advocate (ha) here for a moment, as someone who has experience working in the industry & game development:

Remember, every single time that any new feature is added to the game (even if that new feature is "just a new artwork and phone call") it means that Solmare is -

Paying artists for the new artwork

Paying writers for the new scripts

Paying the voice actors to record the new voice lines

Paying the game devs, coders, debuggers, etc, to actually implement the new feature into the game without breaking anything

Paying for QA

Paying the translators for all the different language versions (Obey Me is currently available in 4 different languages)

Paying the localisers for all different language versions

Etc, etc

This is all on top of the monthly costs of keeping a live service mobage like OM running smoothly. Anything that isn't paid for by the players is being operated at a loss. This isn't a flaw with OM itself, this is a fact that exists on an industry-wide level.

Secondly, while any concerns about the price are entirely valid, I think that a lot of people are glossing over an important point - Solmare is not charging you $30 for a Date Ticket. Solmare is charging $30 for a BUNDLE, which includes the Date Ticket as well as 300 DP. So this is similar to all the other sales bundles that have been rolled out in the past.

And the price is consistent with the standard price for DP in Akuzon. It has always been about $30 for 300 DP, so the price has not actually changed or been increased. This is an optional, $30 bundle for 300 DP that essentially includes the Date Ticket as a bonus for free.

You're totally justified if you don't want to spend $30 on this. I'm definitely not arguing that. While I think that this feature isn't as bad as some people are saying (I never would have expected any new features to be totally free) I do think that Solmare could have rolled this out in a better way than they did.

I think that most, if not all, of the complaints would disappear if they simply offered different bundles for different price tiers. This is something they've already done in the past, even! Just give people alternatives, like...

$1.39 for the Date Ticket by itself

$10 for 100 DP + Date Ticket

$20 for 200 DP + Date Ticket

$30 for 300 DP + Date Ticket

And so on. I think this probably would have alleviated many people's concerns, and would have made the new feature more accessible for more players.

Now, I don't think that harassing the official Twitter account is the way to go about communicating your thoughts. There's a difference between genuine constructive criticism/feedback given in good faith, and needlessly rude hate comments. "Fuck you, hope your game goes broke" doesn't help anybody, and will only make Solmare less likely to listen to the EN fandom. They've dealt with a lot of harassment from Western fans before, including death threats, and you aren't communicating anything useful or constructive by sending hate to the EN social media account.

Solmare has a Support team that you can email, if you have feedback and you actually want to reach the JP game devs. If you want to let them know that you want other/more affordable options for the new Date Ticket feature, this is the best way to do that. Just remember to be civil, since harassment and hate mail are extremely likely to simply be thrown out before it reaches the hands of anyone in charge.

[waterlinkedgirl]

Musical Touken Ranbu: Michinooku ~ Hitotsu Hachisu (Michinooku ~ A Single Lotus)

Here we go! Only a few days after the archive release and toumyu's ninth anniversary (congratulations!)

Michioku, or Michihasu, is a myu I have many conflicting feelings about, both positive and negative. However, I do believe that with the right amount of care in the next Mika-related story myu, the negative can still be cleared. Plus, I'm glad about a lot of things being re-established. The writer does need to step up her game a little on the plot-writing side of things, as well as the understanding-and-respecting-past-myu side of things, but as long as she does, this can still be given a proper place within what was already established.

Keep in mind that these are only the subtitle files, timed and tled to the DMM senshuuraku and the bluray respectively. The archive version will have a talk at the start, so the starting times of the subs will have to be delayed accordingly.

You can find the subtitles and my TL notes document here!

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

the doctor isnt neurodivergent or autistic or adhd or nonbinary or genderqueer or asexual. what the doctor is, is Not From Here

[hauntingofhouses]

i didn't liveblog episodes 8-10 + bonus epilogue cuz i was lazy <3

but anyway here are my thoughts on those final episodes + the overall season:

i forgot how much i hated jaune's voice so i FELT THAT when jaune said "WAS THIS WHAT I ALWAYS SOUNDED LIKE" i felt that. i felt that deep in my bones. crwby bring back dilf jaune NEOWWW

im so intrigued by the whole blacksmith/tree lady/person/thing and all the lore we got about the two brothers and their experiments in the ever after before they moved on to create remnant. where are they now? off in some other realm messing shit up? calling themselves "gods" but theyre the most messy characters in the whole show i swear

loved the whole ruby finding herself sequence

i never cared much for neo or torchwick before but v9 made me actually find them interesting. neo's whole castle in the ever after was cool and i love how a crazy realm like the ever after works to somehow amplify neo's overactive imagination semblance

the way weiss was into jaune had me lowkey shipping them idk i just find it funny. but again they shouldve kept jaune as a dilf <- biased dilf-liker

even though i didn't like the mouse named little, i could appreciate his role in the story by the end, especially in regards to the relationship with ruby, considering he seems to symbolise the more naive and optimistic version of ruby from earlier seasons. also me finding little annoying tracks considering i also did use to find ruby annoying as well (SUE ME but dont worry i dont think so anymore and i like where ruby's character is at now)

the ending was really sweet with all of them returning to remnant hand-in-hand

i loved the bonus epilogue ending and it's sad it got cut due to all the constraints the show's faced but i hope we will get to see something like what was shown pan out in v10. also the epilogue gave me MUCH needed qrow content cuz i've missed my stupid bird man. i love that he cried at seeing the mural of ruby, but i wish they would acknowledge that yang is ALSO his niece yknow??

the mention of vacuo's "history of colonisation" is very interesting to me and i cannot wait to see more of this setting!

seemingly no development was made this volume in regards to how to beat salem and nothing is even hinted about that in the epilogue either so im really just wondering how the gang's gonna pull this off. i do understand that this volume was a much needed moment of respite for the characters tho, and appreciate all the development we got in that department

CONCLUSION:

it was fun and i can't wait for v10!! hopefully i'll remember everything that happened so far by the time it releases LMFAO. also it really cemented my love for nuts&dolts AKA tragic doomed yuri but on the bright side bumbleby is alive and thriving ❤️

rwby volume 9 liveblog

thanks to @kkglinka i am watching rwby again. i just finished rewatching previous episodes as a refresher, and man i realise i slipped up when i mentioned my fav character was salem lmfao i was thinking of CINDER. girl is such a bitch i love her.

but anyway. new volume. here we go.

starting with episode 1 ruby finds a talking mouse and the tone from the season finale of v8 has drastically shifted LMFAO.

we then cut to blake and weiss who've found each other but no sign of yang. then immediately have some antics with a whole rat pack who ambush the two.

okay now ruby's here and the three of them reunite. yay! not a very happy reunion, theyre all more confused and unsettled than anything and i cant blame them. im confused as hail too.

OKAY new monster??? doesn't look like a typical grimm and it talks, seemingly narrating what it does. i love the vibe, very creepy, love that.

AND YANG!!!!

omg i'm lowkey disappointed that blake's first reaction upon the monster running off isn't to jump into yang's arms. like girl talk about a delayed reaction but fine okay she's just being cautious making sure the monster is thoroughly chased away.

THEN GF HUG!!!!! i love them. i miss them a lot. feeling lots of feelings

but then okay plot and weiss revealing everything that happened after they fell since she was the last one of them who fell down the bridge.

AND UGHHH RUBY'S REACTION TO PENNY 😭😭😭 my nuts&dolts heart 😭😭😭 why must they keep HURTING me this way

okay and blake mentions her gut feeling again. THEYRE IN A FAIRY TALE !!!!!

okay the new opening reveal slaps and looks like neo is gonna be a very prominent character this season. jaune will be showing up soon too no doubt, and a mysterious silhouette. and then OH allusions to alice in wonderland? the girl is alice? she's brown? i'm here for this.

aight bring on episode 2 baybey

[treasureplcnet]

someone on the bodies production team you have to release more layout/bts pictures of charles whiteman's flat please. this is a great start but i need to know him better. particularly if it's got about as much mould as a second year uni house and if he owns as many chairs as it seems LOL

[sammy-the-dead-dumpster]

there are two wolves inside of you

[cerealmonster15]

ok now that you've said it, im gonna ask for it. Azul X Cater, either friendship or romantic could be fun. Cater helping Azul relax without the stuffy business stuff and raising his confidence levels callin him cute or w/e? And Azul helping Cater with getting him super cool items to post on his magicam / putting spicy menu items in the monstro lounge for him to eat (not for like the art idea but like just in general on how the ship might play out)

HEHEHEHE THAT'S REALLY CUTE :3 they could be a power couple, i can see it in my mind's eye...

azul acts all confident but i think if a cute boy got close and batted his eyelashes at him he'd get flustered and fold in an instant lol

[widevibratobitch]

when i say i am obsessed with him

[imaginaryanon]

ohhh, da fandom, how i've not fucking missed you lmaooo the new game's release is still a month away but already i'm reminded exactly why i became convinced i'd never want anything to do with that franchise again. jesus christ. except this time im 30 and hopefully better at tailoring my online experience to not exhaust me & make me pissed and anxious (even if half of da tumblr is like. already laser-focused on making this a shit experience for everyone who stumbles upon their fuckass posts huh hfgjhjhjd)

anyway i'm listening & learning & blocking even MORE tags & not looking at SHIT until i play the game myself <3 For Real this time. "oh but surely it's just an innocent opinion and not a spoiler or anything--" that is the devil talking. all posts abt veilguard rn are full of shit, on account of The Game Isn't Fucking Out Yet How Are You Guys Already Having Novel-Length Opinions (TM)!!!! anyway i simply don't need that kind of energy in my life

i enjoy these games too much to be chased outta here by deranged drama i'm not even a part of again 😭 get fucked & god unbless

[crystalleoi]

5C

[kirkwallguy]

decided i will remain neutral on the combat until i actually play it but realising all the people comparing it to ac odyssey were doing so favourably made me go ohhh. perhaps this one just isn't designed for me.

[crystalkitty1220]

Man I wonder where the leader of the fear realm could've gone, it's alMOST LIKE NEVIN HAS AN