#at least it was a good spoiler but I'd been making a huge effort to avoid spoilers for that show one way or the other

[phoenixcatch7]

Season of revival has started today! I've avoided spoilers for the most part, but I have kept up to date with the beta, so here's what I think so far:

The scenery and setting is phenomenal. I managed to avoid pretty much every spoiler for the new season area, the aviary, so I got to experience it first hand, and can I just say STUNNING??? The amount of clouds they've put everywhere is so atmospheric, in both senses of the word XD. It feels like a ghost town, with the dim fog in the streets and all the nooks and crannies. The light spilling from the windows of the barber and the mannequin shop look so cozy and inviting ^^.

The depiction of it all, too, is awesome! The steward is so well animated, with no face or fingers (or shoulders, really) they managed to convey a quiet and resigned devastation, seeing his once beautiful aviary now empty and desolate.

The rhythm guide was a delightful surprise! Now it seems they've decided to take up hair dressing??? I mean... Follow your dreams, but it's a bit of a weird choice of profession for a travelling troupe master. Maybe their parents were hair dressers? It'd certainly explain the styles the rhythm troupe has lol, especially the famous owl hair that remains one of the most coveted in the game XD!

I always love good depictions of the mountain, and the aviary frames it perfectly no matter which area you're in.

And the lore implications!! I know nor care nothing for the war, or elder names, or the king, but I love digging up tidbits all the same. It looks like the aviary was the original main gathering place of the kingdom of the sky, and yes, I know it was the pre release Home before we got the current one, but it just feels... Like a home? Like the Shire from lotr ^^. I can't wait to see what that huge tower is for!

In terms of emotes, or cosmetics, though...

They aren't very good. There's staggeringly few this season. Literally all the good items are behind the pay wall this time, which is a shame because usually tgc leave at least one really good item for in game currency! There's about two items per mannequin - and it is mannequins, not even actual spirits!!

The hair bow is so pretty, not quite to my personal liking but it's going to be so very wanted lol. There's one cape I really wanted, the orange one with tassels, but you bet its behind the season pass. And the long boots? Please, I love long boots, why must you do this T-T. The short boots just don't have the same energy. The purple cape, one that feels related to rhythm (?)... It looks flat to the point of feeling unfinished. It doesn't look fully rendered. We know tgc has been capable of much better fur for a long time now, heck the towels from days of sunlight are amazing, and the straight lines on the cape make it look like it's just made of polygons lol. There's no texture on any of it.

There's no new props or instruments to my knowledge. There's been no beta video, no youtuber showcase of either I could find. Could we not at least have some maracas or something?? I'd love a new instrument! A triangle? A rain maker? Cymbals?? A KAZOO???

It's very obvious where tgc spent their effort and time, but seriously, I can't be mad. This season seems to be, either on purpose or not, a response to a lot of players, especially older ones, getting so easily burnt out by the amount of back to back time limited yada yada get it while you can content. Seriously, I think the last season ended just last week, and only because it's a Monday today! And both during the second half of the last season and during the gap between the two, we've had two days events. TWO. there hasn't been a day where there's been a a chance for a breather for over a month. It's back to back to back! Heck, I got burned out a year ago, and it sucked!

This season might be the breather we need.

There's a beautiful and open area to explore, filled with interesting nooks and crannies and places to have pretty photo shoots or make silly or aesthetic videos or maybe even a picnic. There's what look to be secondary realm portals through a tunnel (oh, and there's a defunct map stone too, if you're looking), including an eden gate! That seems to be the only one still active, you can hear it if you get close enough. The implications....

Despite the decent cosmetics being behind the pass, there's nothing I want nearly enough to shell out for, not that I've done it before. But I'm at least usually very tempted! There's really... Very little this season brings to the table outside of the new area it gives us straight up, but I think this is good. I think this is a chance for people to catch their breath, to not have to allot time to candle running and quests, to make sure they maximise every day on sky to get all the cosmetics. I think it's okay if you don't want to get them all this time.

Though we don't know if it's even possible they'll come back as travelling spirits, it's likely the currency will change from seasonal to candles or hearts once it's over. Probable, even.

I can't wait to see the aviary once we've brought it back to life, but I do hope there's a way we can slip back in time to relax in the quiet, misty, still area we have now. It's just beautiful.

[popculturebuffet]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem Review and Analysis: This Films What Makes Me Feel Alright

Hello all you happy turtles! It's time to grab some pizza and party sized cool ranch doritos and pull your old high school sketchbooks out of some ancient backback in your closet, it's time to talk TMNT: Mutant Mayhem. As a massive TMNT nerd who was beyond hyped for this film coming from the powerhouses of both Point Grey Pictures and one jeff rowe, how did the film stack up? How did it spin kick on it's own? And why did they think Bebop nipple piercings were a good idea? All this and more under the cut, with FULL SPOILERS so if you haven't seen the film, you've been warned.

A New Coat of Ooze: Mutant Mayhem's story of how it came to be is oddly familiar: a massive movie company who has an iconic IP has no idea how to use said IP on it's own, and taps creators who have had some recent noticable and well loved succeses to make them a hit.

If that sounds familiar.. it really should as it was sony's creative desperation to get something spider-man centric only they would get profit from out that lead to Into the Spider verse and i'ts sequel. So it's funny and endearing to me that a film that wouldn't of gotten away with it's utterly unique and grungy art style without spider-verse.. happened for pretty much the exact same reasons.

Like with spidey, Paramount.. really didn't know what to do with TMNT for a while. And it's weird because when they first aquired the heroes in a halfshell from mirage, they had a pretty solid plan: the 2012 show, while messy as it went on, started out really promising and was a huge hit. The IDW comics prior to it were a massive hit for the company and are STILL around today, having outlasted other long term idw liscenses like transformers and having kept a consistent continuity for a decade while also leaving room for crossovers with ghostbusters, the mighty morphin power rangers, the goddamn batman and now street fighter.

So what went wrong? Simple.. they tried WAY too hard to mimic the transformers formula with their theatrical film, Ninja Turtles, not only not getting that audiences were tired of "Micheal Bay makes a weirdly sexual comedy about your childhood and it may have robots", but what really made the franchise work. The sequel from what i hear is slightly better but it just wasn't enoguh. Not helping is they quickly lost their shit on the tv front, as after the 2012 series concluded, they launched the creative, hilarious, and gorgeous Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.. which proceded to last only two seasons because it wasn't an instant hit, aka the same issue most nick shows fell into, not helped by the fact that Nick also seemed to pick up Cartoon Network's bad habit of hating action shows. We DID at least get a really good Rise film that gave the series a nice epilogue, but it's still sad it sputtered out so fast.

So Paramount turned to something they really weren't using.. their film animatoin department.

Paramount Pictures Animation is neat to look into as it had a steep rise.. then fell right off a cliff. It was a bit spottier at first, producing two of the charlie brown films, Bon Voyage Charlie Brown (And don't come back) and my beloved Race for Your Life Charlie Brown... mostly for this theme song.. okay ENTIRELY for the theme song.

And scattered experiments like Cool World, which was so good Ralph Bakshi punched a man over what they'd done to his idea, Bebe's Kids, and Beavis and Butthead Do America.

It wasn't till the late 90's and the nick boom they really started seeing success with the rugrats movies, jimmy neutron, spongebob and even the failures like Hey Arnold and Wild Thronberries were still neat. And yes i'd like to talk about any and all of these films at some point, they made up my childhood etc etc.

Eventually they got a cushy partneriship with dreamworks, still releasing the ocasional original effort like Rango, Barnyard and TinTin (The last of which I WILL be covering next august, I simply didnt' have room in pirate month this year. Once dreamworks left.. it seemed like Paramount genuinely had no clue what to do with the animation divsion. We had things like Sherlock Gnomes or Wonder Park, and the ocasoinal spongebob movies but it's clear that with Nick constantly cutting itself off at the knees they had no idea what to do. The closest they got was the turdtastic loud house movie and the totally awesome Rise of the TMNT films on netflix, but they just had no idea what they were doing. I mean it's telling that their trying to get extra paw patrol tickets by promiting a double feature with saw X. I.. I wish that was just some stupid joke I made as it's comedy gold. Eventually they came across an idea: Stay the course in focusiong on ips they own.. but bring in someone who knows what their doing to create something truly jawdropping.

So for Mayhem Parmount brought in two proven successes. The first were producers Point Grey Pictures, helmed by friends, writing partners and permenant teenagers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Rogen has made quite the name for himself as a producer. While Point Grey started as mainly a way for Rogen to produce comedies starring himself and a pre-outing as a sex monster james franco, over time Rogen has proven to be REALLY good at making adaptations, with point grey having had a hand in both the Boys, which I haven't seen but seems to be a MASSIVE improvment over the original comics , which isn't hard but it's still nice they tried, and Invincible, one of the best superhero shows PERIOD and a fantastic adaptation that changes what needed it, moves around pieces and ultimatley creates something really special. So tapping him to adapt a big property like this was a no brainer. He even had animation experince thanks to Sony Pictures Sauage party and while this was Point Grey's first family production, it's clear it wasn't too hard for Rogen to adapt. As for their director they picked a hell of one: Jeff Rowe. For those not familar with him Rowe helmed the Mitchells vs the Machines, sony's first post spider-verse success and the film that helped codify the 2d on 3d style that spider-verse made popular and peanuts pioneered. And it was clearly just ont hes trength of word of mouth alone as Rowe went right from machines to mayhem and only got better. From interviews, the two worked really well together: Rogen was hands on but didn't make the mistakes lord did of being way TOO hands on, simply pitching neat ideas, adding to the film and clearly being heavily involved, while still letting Rowe steer the ship. Rowe in turn learned to have a good work life ballance and give his employees one, preventing the kind of nightmarish working conditions present on other flims such as, sadly, Across the Spider-Verse.

For the direction of the film Rowe was a fan of the franchise as a kid, specifically the toys. He recalled a really sweet story about he and his dad spent a saturday trying to find Tokka and Rahzar and really loved the toys designs and uniquely grungy astetic. As such Rowe really didn't lean into or heavily research the rest of the franchise. Which set off my alarm bells when I read it in a review close to release: after all a LOT of bad adaptations come out of the person adapting it not giving one iota of a shit about the source material. Eventually though I realized I was .. over panicking. What jeff meant was more "I don't want to be overly reverent to the material and see what we can do on our own with the basic concept' rather than "THE TURTLES ARE GOD YOU FOOLS GODS. GODS I SAY!". There are still little nods in there and bits taken from other series; There's a mention of the turtles taking in a knicks game (something that happened in out of the shadows), April's design borrows heavily from her design from Rise while still being unique, Donnie has glasses like the bay movies, there apparently was a miyamoto usagi sticker on a notebook (thanks tv tropes for noticing), and there's a TON of refrences to the 87 continuity as it's clearly the one rowe knew best. And while I do get a LITTLE tired of that being the one continuity most creators seem to lean on the most, I don't hate it and plan to binge the whole giant thing soon I just feel there's a LOT more turtles to pull from, paticuarlly the idw comics, the nods are neat stuff like them having their belts form that series, the various obscure mutants. The Ninja Rap even shows up. Rowe and Rogen clearly love them some turtles.. they just wanted to do something new with it and I completely love and respect that. The biggest swing and the one that's paid off the most was leaning on the teenage aspect. Rowe and Rogan were baffled that no other version of the franchise had done the obvious: Have actual teens voice the turtles. There are reasons for that: For the various tv shows it's simply easier to know the va's wont' age out of the roll, and to the 2012 and rise series credits, they both still tried to make the turtles feel younger and had va's that still made them sound sorta like teens, paticuarlly rise... but it's not at all a bad concept and i'm shocked it took this long for someone to try it.

Another aspect was having the boys all record in one booth. Rogen had the idea.. but Rowe had to explain that it'd be a sound mixing nightmare.. but eventually agreed to it when they tested it out and he saw how much having the four actors playing the turtles riffed off each other and just how much material they got out of the boys adlibs. It adds a natural feeling to the boys conversations: it feels like four teens riffing who just happen to be turtles. It was indeed an audio nightmare.. but the nightmare was worth it and Rowe was greatful and apologetic to his sound crew.

The final bit was simply taking from teen movies, the film even outright has the boys watch Feris Buller's Day Off, which gives me one of my faviorite lines in the film, courtesy of Raph: "Being in high school means you can hyjack a parade whenever you want. "

There's more to get into as we go but with the film opening decently and paramount being so confident in the film pre-release they announced a two season tv show and a sequel, the future looks bright for the green machines. So now we've seen how the pizza gets made let's see how it came out

Perfectly Sketchy: Rogen and Rowe's "Teenage Energy" philosphy went into the design. Rowe wanted to find a unique look for the film, but it was a bit of a puzzler at first: There's SO many incarnations of the tmnt, which one do you pick for this? Do you go with the mirage comics, the 87 cartoon? 2003? the next mutation if you huffed some paint? In the end Rowe decided

Instead he made a brilliant decision: if the film was going to feel teenagery, then why not have it look like the sketches teenagers make in their notebooks? It's an idea that just oozes brilliance and still fits the franchises history like a razor decked claw glove. Part of what made the early comics stand out was it's sketchy, frank miller-esque style, and the toys stood out for largely echoing that as much as you could in three dimensions at the time. So it still fit.. but did something entirley new with it. As as a result the film has a look that simply nothing else has: porportions on most things are off, the backgrounds arne't hugely detailed , did you when you were a teen?, but still pop gloriously, and the characters all have SOMETHING that would be off model anywhere else. One of the thugs in the turtles first act of vigilnate justice, for instanc,e has a weirdly crooked head with indents. It's a look that's perfectly stylitic, fits the series history, and it's a kind of weird that perfectly complintes a series that was already having our heroes fight space dinosaurs by the third issue. I especially love how the shurikens are not even yet still throw perfectly and Mikey's hey arnold head. It's a look that pops with creativity and the crew really took to playing with. It's a style that will, much like spider-verse lead to this, undoubtly lead to more unique swings and I cannot wait to see what people come up with as a result

Protecting a World that Hates and Fears Them

The film's core comes from a rather genius decision to simply pick apart a key part of the franchise... the fact Splinter keeps the boys isolated from humanity for most of their lives and encourages them to stay hidden. Now credit where it's due some continuties justify it well enough: sometimes splinters hiding from shredder, or already had a sweet rent free sewer apartment he set up for no reason, trying to find his lost son and complete his family while avoiding a mutated alley cat or simply was waiting till the boys could defend themselves. They often have a lot of enemies... but even that shouldn't mean they can't get an education or have friends. April and Casey stick by them no matter what. They should be able to at least try for a normal life or the idea of them WANTING more than hidnig all the time should really come up more. The only ones that have really tapped into this are the IDW continuity which is just now having the boys integrate post armageddong game, out of the shadows which from what i've read has a throughly intresting subplot about the boys wanting to become human and leos' resistance to the idea (which also makes him come off as a bit of a jackass honestly as it's not his choice and "We're turtles end of story" is not an excuse). We've had the turtles say move into an apartment but this is the first to just flat out ask: why CANT the boys at least try to live with humanity instead of under them? And if so why did splinter keep them apart?

It's part of what really grounds the boys in this incarnation and makes them feel so damn real. The other of course was the decision to have actual teens play them and riff off each other. We get them making unteiotnally douchey digs at each other, such as the other three mocking Leo attempting a batman voice, casually talk about how they'd like to meet drake or have brunch with tom brady, which leo no you can do better man, or do some goofy shit while april marvels at their stupidity.. and then double down when told it might make people like them less. By making the biggest attempt so far to make the turtles FEEL like teens instead of young adults, an evolution the franchise has been undergoing since the 2012 cartoon and honestly reaches it's apex here, it makes us feel for them that much more; These are just kids who simply want to be loved and accepted, like any teenager. That awkwardness, wanting to fit in, wanting to simply belong.. it's one of the most painful parts of a teen and transplanting that to the tutles wa sa brilliant move. One of the earliest scenes is what sells this the most: the boys going to see Ferris Buller's Day off.. and just wondering what it'd be like to be normal. That lost shot of them sadly returning to the sewer... looking on screen at something they only wish they could have... it's so heartbreakingly beautiful.

The reasons WHY Splitner restricts their time in the outside world and refers to humans as "the demon scum of the earth. They lust to destroy that which is diffrent than them"

Giving Splinter a deep fear of humans is a brilliant move. It's something that really coudln't be done in most incarnations as he's been the pet of a martial arts master who treated him well, said martial arts master living in a sweet sewer apartment after being clumsily blamed for murder, got reincarnated as a rat after dying in ancient japan, a martial arts master who turned his back on his heritage because his clan let his family die, became a movie star, fucked a spider lady, had said spider lady put him in gladatorial games, then got depressed after becoming a rat but gladly adopted his sons. Here they strip that away and we're left with a splinter who was just a rat who was yelled at by other animals, shooed by humans just for trying to survivie and whose only friend was a cockroach.. who he ended up eating after humanity killed the poor guy. Finding the boys also abandoned in the sewers and covered in ooze, as oozual, not only made him into a rat man.. but also gave him the one thing he never had: a family. We also get a REALLY adorable montage set to de la soul's eye know that makes me REALLY glad the copy right hurdles around them are gone so we don't have another spider-man no way home situation because the song both slaps and has a nice soothing tone that really fits. We'll get more into the music on i'ts own later, I just really love this montage.

It also makes what follows..

We see that Splinter GENUINELY tried to go out into the world.. and the result was humanity throwing things at him despite carrying 4 small children and said children nearly being hit by a car. It's a really unsettling sequence. While yeah everyone going "rat man" and throwing things is a bit on the nose... given how a LOT of humanity acts to LBGTIQ+ persons, People of color, diffrent religions I could go on but i'm depressed enough as is, it's not really that much of a stretch that they'd throw things at a rat just trying to show his sons the world. It reminds me a LOT of the x-men and it's honestly weird to me that the othe rbiggest mutant franchise int he world HADN'T taken a page from them sooner.

It gives the film nuance: Splinter IS objectively prejudiced, leo even says so directly, but you can see how those prejudices formed and why he's so terrified for his own kids. He's worried a world that hates and fears them will also hate and milk them.. a runner that while awkwardly phrased, I don't think Seth or Jeff have heard of the term milking before, is hilarious, especially the usual refrain of "we don't even have nipples. " He just wants them safe and happy and you can tell he really does love them. He taught them the martial arts to protect them.. and the how is also really clever and a really fun idae: instead of "I learned it from a book" Or "I happened to be owned by a ninja master" or "I was reincarnated" we instead get him teaching them.. via martial arts films, instuctional videos, and the ocasional youtube thing. I love it because it honestly makes way more sense than it should as shown in the animation: splinter watched the films, learned the movements himself and then taught the boys. It's also a nice bit of meta text as Jackie Chan himself is a practicing martial artist who makes martial arts films and did his own stunts. One of his films is apparently even in the montage. It's one of my faaviorite takes of the film.

One of my faviorite scenes is Splinter's biggest pet the dog moment: the pizzza party. Splinter brings in a bunch of pizza hut pizzas

It's neat because it both clearly misses the point, Splinter really dosen't seem to get that simply bringing down a bunch of pizzas to have a human style prom and having kelvin captain kirk cutout won't fill the void inside. I mean I could think of a lot of uses for a chris pine cutout, i'm not saying it's a bad gift and it's sweet he's trying SO HARD to get his boys to open up and Jackie Chan just nails the dad energy on this one. It's just clear that they don't want to stay there there whole lives as safe as that is.

What brings it to it's head is one of the films more brilliant decisions. Originally, while I haven't found many specifics the film had other antagonists: Baxter Stockman was originally the boys teacher (they went to school during the course of this film in this draft) and became the fly again, while Shredder was TCRI"s heavy in earlier drafts. Both were nixed, the former likely due to abandoing the school plot and the latter for the entirely on the mark decision that it was just too much. Shredder.. is THE arch enemy to the turtles. The one constant in every universe. So it makes way more sense to save him for a sequel and let someone else take the reigns. As Rowe has teased Shredder's going to be a bit of a wakeup call: just as the boys think they have it figured out .. in comes shredder to kick their asses. Which really has happened A LOT across the franchise, with it being a regular tradition that the shredder beats the shit out of the turtles the first time they fight. Even in IDW where they do rally and turn the fight on it's head.. he still easily handles them all one on one before they rally as a team. It makes sense to save their ultimate test for a sequel while still giving them one hell of a trial by fire

Instead we got Superfly, who better fit into the fantastic racisim narritive. If the boys want to get love and acceptance by fighting for a world that hates and fears them x-men style.. it only makes sense they have a magneto on that other end.

Like Magneto Superfly has a tragic backstory behind his hatred of mankind.. Superfly was the creation of Baxter Stockman and what they did with Baxter both completely floored me.. and drove me to tears. Instead of what he is normally, either a put upon target coerced into villany who strikes back at both the turtles and those who wronged him, or a narcsitic monster who will gladly do whatever he wants and kill anyone in his way, here... Baxter is just a deeply lonely old man who just wants a family. At worst he steals from TCRI.. but given we see their a horrifying company who wants the mutants as weapons and will gladly torture teenagers for a buck, it's not hard to side with him. It's really nice ot see a heroic baxter.. and sad to see him go so quickly.

It puts Superfly's hatred in perspective: like splinter he saw just what huamanity does and how his kind is treated and grew up having to raise his younger siblings. Like Splinter he seems to really love them. And like splinter his attempt to take his siblings topside.. went horribly wrong with them being chased by an angry mob for just..c oming to a snack bar. But it's right after that we get the clear diffrence: Splinter just ran in fear and while he trained the boys ot protect themselves, he just wants a line between himself and humanity. Superfly.. wants them all to pay. He wants to mutate the world that killed his dad and drove him and his siblings into hiding. The only way they can be accepted.. is if humanity is mostly gone and what's left are enslaved.

IT's that sadistic streak that ultimately defines him as a villian: the turtles just want to be accepted, splinter just wants to be loved, the rest of the mutant "cousins" just want a home and have been indocrinated and browbeaten into thinking there isn't another way. Superfly.. wants things his way: he wants blood, he wants revenge and if anyone stands in his way no matter their age or being his family he will kill them. It's that anger inside that makes him a true monster.

And that extends to his own family. Superfly's an abusive parent to Splinters flawed but loving one: The rest of the mutants turn stone quiet when he subtly/notsubtly threatens the turtles if they happen to disagree, and during the chase not only are they all desperate to get the thing back but Wingnut in paticular gets the most telling line

Wingnut: Superfly's almost here and he's not going to be as nice about this! Leo: You're not being nice! Wingnut: He'll be less nice!!

While the other mutants SEEM jazzed during the bowling alley scene, it's very clear later none of them were that enthused about the idea. Both sets are afraid to speak to their parental figure.. but the diffrence is clear in motion: the boys hide from splinter because they know he'll say no, it's a standard teenage thing and as seen with the pizza party when Splinter finds the various knick knacks they've picked up on their heroic journey, his response is to try to bring the surface to the sewer. It's awkward as hell and dosen't remotely work.. but it's still a sweet gesture and you still feel bad for him when the boys quickly leave to finish their half assed plan. Splinter ultimately wants what's best for his kids and even if he's not always right in carrying that out, I never doubted he actually loved his children.

This all brillantly comes to a head towards the end: While Splinter plans to just.. isolate the turtles after their nearly milked, the one time he seems GENUINELY angry the whole film, he still wants to save April, the one good human, who warned him the boys were in danger in the first place.

This leads to a touching bit in itself: the boys COULD fight the other mutants, their trying to do a genocide after all.. but instead the boys.. just talk them down. I mean i'm used to this kinda thing by now, most animation these days is about forgivness, but it still works: earlier when meeting each other the turtles gladly bonded with their cousins, who i'll talk about in more detail later: Mondo and Mikey were both chill, raph finally found some people who liked to hit stuff, presumibly while blasting Limp Bisikit, it was really sweet. THeir relutance to stop them added a nice dimension to things: they UNDOUBTLY want to stop superfly's plan.. but they genuinely like their cousins and see them as good people in a bad situation. Likewise the cousins are utterly destraught at the fight afterwords and miss the turtles. These are simply at the end of the day teens 20 somethings and whatever scumbug is who just wanted to not be chased iwth torches.

So it's utterly heartwarming when the turtles and splinter simply offer their home. They may not have humanity.. but they'd have each other. It's also YET ANOTHER idea that seems obvious in retrospect but most turtle series never really thought of: why.. can't other mutants stay with them? They usually order suplies and stuff descretley anyway or in this case take them out of nescsity, if they can afford pizza for 5 people reguarly, why NOT let other smove in. I mean I get it meta wise, you dont' want to overcrowd things. But it's a nice thought i'm glad gets realized: that the boys aren't alone and now have a whole new family to lean on.

And of course Superfly can't take that. To him there's only one way to go: never stop making them pay. I'll also say I like just how poweful superfly is: he's got strength inunerablity, and super smarts, which I thought was a nice touch. I assumed he woudln't have baxter's intellegence and I'm glad to be wrong. He's only stopped and only then breifly by sheer numbers.

What follows is a LITTLE on the nose, with superfly just.... saying outight he and splinter aren't so diffrent, down to both having said "You'll be safe if you just LISTEN TO ME".

That part.. dosen't quite work for me. What does work is the animation on splinter during the struggle between everyone else and superfly.. the dawning realization of what he is as Superfly states the obvious and his determination as soon as Superfly says "the diffrence is i'm not a punk". Superfly just wants to get revenge on a world that hates and fears him.. Splinter just wants his sons to be happy. And he finally realizes that even if there's a lot of risk involved, they DESERVE to live out there with everyone else. There is something better than hiding or murder.

I also like how Superfly.. drops the pretense: once his plans done he just goes on a massive kaiju attack: I also like how fucking horrific his form is: the whale part's a bit goofy at first.. but then you see how much STRENGTH that gives him as he destroys it. Even if we get the ocasional joke (I didn't need that horse is gold), for the finale Superfly is just a nightmarish, imposing threat that threatnes to run our heroes lives and also maybe end them. The glee he takes in crushing the boys alive... it's fucking terrifying.

I also love the bit of the boys panning... seeing all the destruction.. and seeing the media blame them too. Their trying to HELP people.. and get blamed. I'd suggest moving to krakoa but a lo tof shit has went down and living with one old man full of fear and regret is what started this whole caper. And the boys.. fight on anyway because it's the right thing to do. Despite all the hate... someone has to stop superfly. And in doing so.. April makes sure they get the glory and praise they deserve anyway.

Finally I love splinter's turnaround right before the final fight... where he admits he was wrong.. but hasn't FULLY turned around on humans. He's simply realized he can't let his baggage with humanity weigh down his sons. And it pays off brilliantly during the time square fight, as when Splinter is downed.. someone helps him up. And what I love is that while it COULD just be someone who saw April's newscast clearing the turtles and other mutants.. it's left ambgious. As far as we know it was just a nice guy and gal helping an old man up regardless of if he was a giant rat or not. It dosen't paper over all the films flaws with the rat man mob scene but it does help quite a bit.

The film brillantly tackles prejudice and I like how unlike most films.. there's no easy answers. Our boys have to do something big and loud to get accepted and it's not guaranteed to shield them, as seen with the stingers. THey find friends , activites and get what they want.. but it's likely not the end.. but that's okay. The important thing is for the first time the turtles are out of the shadows and into the sun. And it suits them. Seriously this last twist was brilliant and i'm shocked it took a tmnt this long to just.. let them be public since 87, and since media has evolved, it means when we get to the series we can actually explore what that means: how will they adapt? will everyone accept them? will april realize Leo is into her and it wasn't just a friend thing? there's a lot of questions I can't wait to be answered.

Change is Constant

I didn't have a good segway so.. CHARACTERS! MY WHEELHOUSE. LET'S GO.

Starting with the boys, their more of a package deal here. They still have unique deisgns, takes on the cores of their personalities, all you'd expect from a good tmnt adaptation.

What changes it up a bit is the recording together: while most sets of turtles have great chemistry, this one.. really feels like their brothers thanks to the shared recording: they talk over one another, dunk on each other and goof around. This has always been a thing, and part of the franchises charm, but how they do it here feels more real, helped by the fact they clearly took some adlibs in. Both the BTS bit where they try to comfort Donnie only to both mangle the lyrics and writhe in pain and the bit with the new york accents both sound like the boys just started riffing on the prompt given, didn't stop and they rolled with it because it was comedy gold. It also means a LOT more pop culture refrences.. but it works. It dosen't feel like too much

Admitely I don't know how current the refrences are to ACTUAL teens, but they work well enough and don't feel like their horribly date the film. Plus it'd be.. weird to have a turtles work that didn't reflect it's era in some way, as all 4 cartoons and most films and comics reflect their time either in writing or in the general vibe.

The downside to this is the turtles indvidual personalities, while present.. get kinda underplayed. Leo and Raph make it out fine enough: After the radience that was Rise Leo and ben schwartz being at his peak slacker doofus (while also still being badass), we're back to Leo being Teachers Pet. But thankfully like the 2012 film they play with it: like that Leo his brother's don't really respect him as a leader, but rather than the usual raph snarling at him like wolverine, here it's more just their his brothers, they woudln't respect him anyway and benig their dad's mouthpiece just makes them ignore him harder. He's the dutiful son but he's simply outnumbered. Raph dosen't get a ton of spotlight, but gets enough to be a fun little murder baby and probably my faviorite of the 4. Instead of the usual brooding loner, sometimes ultra violent sometimes just sassy, often both, here he's more an obnoxious older brother who picks on leo the most, is happy to do dangerous stunts and badly needs therapy. He's essentially Reese from malcom in the middle as a ninja turtle. He still loves his brothers and loves a good scrap, but he's got some issues to adress.

Mikey and Donnie likewise aren't bad but kinda one note: Mikey gets it the worst: he's a bit goofy.. but since they ALL are this incarnation it dosen't stand out as much. He gets some nice bits and one hell of a impariment shot, but not much else.

Donnie fairs better, but suffers from the unintended consequences of a good choice. As part of grounding things a bit, Donnie isn't a super genius. He's just a snarky little otaku who does really like tech, but on the resonable level of a teenage boy. As a result he dosen't get as much to do as most donnies as he's not hotwiring shit as often or making super lasers. It works for me, it's intresting to have a donnie whose just a normal kid who happens to be really nerdy, but it means plotwise he dosen't have as much to do as Raph as the ringleader to the boys mischief or Leo as the leader of the band during hero stuff. I get why: they only had a hundred minutes and it's remarkable they crammed as much in as they did, but it's something I really hope the series can course correct. I don't mind the boys riffing and hope it continues, but I also hope we get them more as their own people too.

As a final note I love Leo's crush on April. IT feels like a better realized version of the Donnie one from 2012. Instead of waffling over wether april notices or just dosen't want to turn him down which..

And then having it go from cute to "spiraling obessive dickhole", here April notices something's weird, but is clearly more intrested in the "giant talking turtles who can help my rep" thing and thus dosen't really pry. It only REALLY crosses into that at the end when he transparently asks her out.. and she waits till prom to ask "wait this is a friend thing right". But that could be nerves or her being just as scared of her feelings as he is with his. It also helps that while he's intrested in april romantically the two do bond: out of the four he' sthe most empathetic at her barf reputation, priortizes her not out of his crush but because she asked for their help and later works with her at her club. It's still somethign the series could work on, but for "a way to both mine jokes and get leo to go against his dad's wise council" it works fine. It's better than "how dare you ruin my ship you bastards" and "Mikey stop being a sex creep. "

So moving on to April herself, I mostly like this version. She's the third time this franchise has gone with a teen april and the third to have her POC. I've liked the turn to teen april as instead of being a big sister to the turtles, and essentially another authority figure when they already have their dad, she's on their level and it opens up fresh possiblities. Mayhem is the first with this take on april to have her be a reporter again, and it's honestly nice to see that work at a school level, having her TRIED to be on their equivleant of channel one.. and end up puking. And i'm not a barf joke man but walking back into the theater after a bathroom break to see her ralphing to "UnwritteN" may be one of my faviorite cinema moments of 2023, up there with walking back into Barbie to find she and ken now had cowboy outfits they'd apparently stolen.

I also love how it gives her a personal stake: she just wants to be loved same as the turtles and like them realizes this isn't WHY to do this. She also provides a nicely needed straight man to the goofier brothers without being reduced to the old sterotype of "Joy killing female foil. ", something her fellow teen aprils and most aprils in general have thankfully achieved. April is just a person and reacts with annoyance to the boys because their going on a 4 minute tangent saying new york sterotypes while mike does a rumpshaker.

We do have to unpack that mostly though and that comes from April being kind of a dick at time's. She's pressuery when the boys are undercover with SUperfly's gang.. even though she can HEAR what their saying.. and thus hear that he's clearly indocrinated the others and that the boys may not want to harm THEM. I get her not wanting Superfly to succeed, his plan is fucking horrible, but even for a teen it's weird she dosen't see the nuance. She can also be a bhit short with them, though the latter I acknolwedge in hindsight as being like the boys: she's a teenager and teens aren't perfect. This is still a great april and continues Ayo's streak this year of great voice acting roles.

The other mutants are great. I was worried: While the cast for them is fucking stacked and Seth called in a lot of his rolodex to fill it out, and himself as credit where it's due he tends to show up in shit he produces and bring his absolute best rather than showing up because he can, i've seen plenty of films fall flat because they tried to add too many characters from the source. Just this year I felt one of the biggest issues with Transformers; Rise of the Beasts is that they tried to jam so many autobots and maximals in, a total of 10 but didn't bother to give any of them but optimus, bee and mirage an actual character.

Here while the characters are one note, they have charming designs and work more as a unit like the boys, but are still friendly and likeable enough that your fond of them like the turtles and happy when they join the family. The breakout is easily natasha dimoscu's wingnut. I already loved wingnut, but this is easily the best verison: she's cheery kind and gets some great subtle jokes, the wifi one is fucking great as is her swiping Donni'es akira voices. All of them are pretty charming though. The only one to not really feel like a character is Hannibal frog, a sad waste of hannibal burgess, but everyone else gets something fun to do: Bebop and Rocksteady are rageholic morons who then get a sweet character arc as they realize their rage is because Superfly ENCOURAGED them to be constantly angry, and it's fun to see a version of them that's genuinely heroic. Not so fun is Bebop's pierced nipples.

I am genuinely baffled by this design choice. I don't doubt Bebop would get pierced nips, it' sin character. But why Seth thought anyone would want to see that, why he made HIS CHARACTER HAVE THEM, OR WHY HE MAKES IT SO PROMINENT will be a question that will haunt me for years to come. Or until we get creators commentary to explain why he hates viewers eyes. For the record I have nothing against nipple piercings, I just question why anyone thought giving them to Bebop was a good idea. OR their so large or

I also like Scumbug and i'm happy to see Splinter in his first relationship where his partner hasn't died horribly or put him in gladiator games. I did not need to see them make out with clone high level tounge. I"ll let this discord conversation with my good friend @kammieceleek handle the heavy lifting.

I mean their a cute couple but please, NEVER AGAIN. NEVER AGAIN. NEVER AGAIN. NEVER AGAIN. NEVER AGAIN. NEVER AGAIN. NEVER AGAIN NEVER

Anyways capping us off we have TCRI, who are decent enough. I like remaking them as this sort of paramilitary goon squad that shows the worst of humanity. Cynthia herself.. is fucking great. I like that to anyone familiar with Krang, it's DAMN obvious who she either is, or is a stand in for, with the name, apperance and Maya Rudolph somehow doing the Pat Fraley krang voice and tics while also doing a thick german accent. She's a brillaint combo of over the top hammy.. and an utterly sadstic monster, shocking the boys just for speaking, not carring that they don't really belong to her, and willing to kill them just to get her super weapons. She's what a remade krang should be: still over the top.. but also dead seriously terrifying. My only complaint is she's a bit OBVIOUS as a sequel hook. Like Rowe was really banking on that sequel and i'm never a fan of when films do this when they don't KNOW this story will continue. It is clearly, with the film slowly picking up more and more money and more than enough in merch, but he coudln't of known that.

So with that we just have one bit of buisness to wrap up

Yo Jeff Drop the Verse

The soundtrack for this flim is liquid gold. It's so good to my ears and full of such nice cuts. Guardians cemented my love of needle drops in film in tv: If you can pull it off well do it. And this film does it so damn good. The film skews to hip hop, likely due to wanting a "Tony Hawk Pro Skater" vibe, which really does fit teendom well. I will admit it's also pretty explicit here and there, so kids may be disapointed to find they can't stream these songs, but it's still a stacked selectoin

So before I break it down track by track, something I regret failing to do with spider-verse as like this reveiw it was massively behind, I whipped up a playlist as Parmount's own leaves out several tracks. While I get the what's going on bit being left out as that bit is a good suprise why it has'nt been added weeks out from the film I don't know. You can find it here

Ante Up is a song i've heard maybe once or two here, but is a perfect gag for the opening grocery run, while still showing off just what our boys can do.. even if their doing it for some party sized cool ranch doritos. Which is still a great reward.

Danke Scheon shows up in the clip of feris buller. This dosen't really count but I do think the film is a perfect fit, since John Hughes was an inspiration for this film, and it's an idealized version of the freedom the boys desperately want. Not a John Hughes film I was ever a huge fan of, but it works and that "You can hyjack parades whenever you want" joke is so damn good.

Now we come to a track I wasn't familiar with but is easily my faviorite now: Eye Know. I"m glad more films are using De La Soul's music, mostly because it makes ME want to know them better as I haven't heard much and even after really enjoying three is the number, thanks to the weird rights limbo it wasn't avaliable to stream ad nauseum when No Way Home came out. Thankfully just a few short months ago, the whole De La Soul catalogue is up. This song is a really gentle, really fun love song with one heck of a chorus, and it nicely meshes with Splitner raising his adorable little children. It's one of my faviorite scenes of the movie.

The next track is another perfect selection but for something more hilarious and badass: While Push It To the Limit verges on a parody of training montage music it works for one where we find out the turtles and splinter learned ninjitsu from movies,, instructional tapes and whatever they could scrounge up. HOw their learning is awesomely rediculous, so it needs backing that's cheestastic.

Love is an Illusion by Ronnie Walker was nice for Leo falling for APril. It's a really crisp, dreamy love song so it fits.

Okay look i'ts only there for a second, but I can't tell you how much I love Ninja Rap making a cameo on this soundtrack. The soundtrack is cheesy good and one of the more iconic ninja turtle songs for a reason. It's not as good as say Pizza Power or the various awesome theme songs, but it's goofy fun that fit the film it was in. It's also one of Vanilla Ice's better songs, though that isn't huge compettion especially since he made a weird as fuck sequel I still can't comprehend that was also compeltely ninja turtle free for some reason.

Cavern By LIquid Liquid is fun, a nice chill beat to meet turtles to.

Dance by ESG is already a fun song and fits the boys going full blast on their plan well. THat's.. about it. THankfully I have more for unwritten. I'm not a fan of Vomit humor most of the time unless you have a paticuarlly inspired twist like say. a mad scientest making everyone in the room vomit at a bar as a thought experiment leading to an image like this

That's just beautiful. But i'm just not a gross out guy, so this gag working for me was a lot... setting the most embarassing moment of April's life to FUCKING UNWRITTEN, a song I heard 998 times over the course of the 2000's as every fucking movie and tv show overused the hell out of this throughly mid song, it was transedeant. First and only good use of unwritten. Well done.

Now we come to what's easily the best musical bit of the movie. And it has some steep competition from Eye Know and another song we all know is coming, but the No Diggity Scene is just one of those sequences that once you see it you know "This shit is iconic". This is a scene that's now etched in tmnt lore and for damn good reason. It's also a brilliant way to get up to the chain to superfly and have a few weeks of sluthing and our heroes getting better pass as our heroes easily blaze through some goons and those shots of EACH turtle getting to burst in and lead the assault?

And look I admit this montage hits a sweet spot that was also started by guardians: setting an action montage to music that somehow fits despite having no right to. In this case a mellow smooth as hell jam perfectly complmenting some frantic action. So fucking smooth.

Wake Up in the Sky grew on me as let's face it, a song that has bruno mars saying fly a dozen times nad saying he's super fly works. I just don't like it a lot because trap is'nt something that fits me musically. I prefer more intricate beats or at least a really solid one thorugh the whole thing. The more relaxed beatwork here isn't for me, but I can't deny it fits Superfly's big debut well.

Fitting me much better is the use of Shimmy Shimmy Yay for the bowling scene. It's fucking great, a song that's never not awesome and that's also a bit low key while being way more my speed.

The use of BOTH major versions of What's Up? .. is an easy close second for best use of music int he film and one of the most brilliant masterstrokes. And this all comes to Seth Rogen. When the chase scene wasn't quite working, he suggested the slackcircus version of he man. It's also awsome in that the song's themes of isolation PERFECTLY fit what the mutants are going through. So not only did they manage to stick one of the best meme songs in human history in a feature film.. but they did so with it being ENTIRELY relevant. The switch from the 4 non blondes version to slackcircus is fucking genius and the song adds nice manic energy. It'll also hopefully give this song a rightful ressurgence as the heman cover is , while hilarious, also GENUINELY good. The original ain't too shabby either.

The boys version of butter is hilarious and got me to listen to the original which is alright. Mr. Lonely isn't a bad song, and perfectly fits Splinter's mope session.

Finally we have can I kcik it, an objectively awesome song. It fit the trailer perfectly and it fits our ending as our heroes are finally allowed to mingle with the surface adn get their happy ending beauitfully. A beautiful ending to a beautiful film.

So overall mutant mayhem is fucking awesome. If you haven't seen it after all this go see it, support the hard workers who made this film possible by supporting the ongoing strike and thanks for reading.

[foundry-fabrications]

Happy 5-Year Anniversary!

Hey folks! 5 years ago to the day I posted my first ever homebrew creation for the masses to enjoy (or ruthlessly tear apart), a little brew I lovingly called The Goo of Primordial Chaos. It would be fitting to have gone and reworked it for such an occasion (it certainly needs it), but alas, I haven't. I could have, and I've tried a few times, but honestly I don't really know what to do with it. So, I'm just not going to, and it shall remain a relic of the past and a reminder of humble beginnings.

Other than that, I have nothing special planned to celebrate, at all. So instead, I'd just like to take a moment to look back at my time here and take a trip down memory lane.

2018-2019

When I first got started doing homebrew for the Foundry, I hadn't been doing it for very long. Hell, I hadn't been playing 5e for long either. But inexperience didn't stop me from taking a stab at it. At the time, I had boundless creative energy and all the time in the world. I committed to doing one brew a month and that came pretty easy. Most of what I was making were conversions of other things, so they were easy to churn out at a regular pace. But I did quite a bit of original stuff too. The Medic was my first ever released class, and my Hellraiser supplement kicked off my now yearly tradition of doing a big project for spooktober. Around that time, I started a Patreon and got my first commission in the Awakener class. The first version of my Mourner was also released. I also hit 2k followers, which is insane to me still. Oh yeah, and I totally tried to jump to another platform when Tumblr became a dumpster fire for a bit. Forgot about that. Other than that, pretty good for my first year!

2019-2020

Kicking off my second year, my Corpseweaver class was released for Halloween, which is still one of my favorite things I've made. For much of the year I was still going strong with monthly releases and even putting out some pretty big projects. But the biggest project I put out that year, or at least the one that took the most effort, was a commission for John Carpenter’s The Thing. It was around this time that I started kicking around the idea of opening up commission to the public, not just my patrons. Spoiler alert, I shouldn't have. I also hit 4k followers that year. Still wild.

2020-2021

This was a huge year, but things did not begin well for me. The year began with Flesh and Bone, my Necromorph supplement, which was an utter train wreck. That monstrosity came together in a panicked 3 weeks after October blindsided me and was the first time I had ever tried to make a custom style for the Homebrewery. The mad dash to meet a frankly arbitrary deadline yielding a worse brew started to show the cracks in my process and was an ill omen for things to come. I kept up the monthly releases for a while longer, and put out some great stuff in that time if I do say so myself, but in July I hit a wall and just couldn't do it anymore. Since then, I've had a “post it when it's done” policy, and I don't intend to change that. I also stopped taking commissions from patrons after getting super overwhelmed and not handling it as well as I should have, BUT then proceeded to start taking commissions from the public. Other notable events included changing my name from 5e Foundry to Foundry Fabrications in an effort to expand into other games, not just 5e, I updated my logo to fit the rebranding, and I started a Discord server that burned hot, died fast, and is a desolate wasteland now. Otherwise, it was pretty much business as usual.

2021-2022

Year 4 began innocently enough, aside from the cultural faux pas regarding a certain Native America spirit that shall not be named that I later had to apologize for. Other than that, it was pretty much business as usual. But then in April came my crowning achievement. After 6 years of development, I finally released my Engineer class! I still can’t believe that this thing I've been wrestling with for years is finally real and for all the world to see. Kind of hard to top that

2022-2023

Another year, another spooky project, this time a much-needed rework of my Corpseweaver. And all was great, for a time. But then January rolled around and WotC dropped the shitstorm of the century on us with the whole OGL debacle. I, like a lot of people, did not take very well and went so far to abandon everything D&D, a rash decision I still regret making, even if I did come back to the game I love so much. But I bounced back pretty easy and jumped right back into making stuff, not that I’ve released much this year. But that’s future talk! We’re here to reminisce!

So yeah, that’s my history here in a nutshell. If you’re still here, thanks for listening to me ramble. What a wild ride it’s been, and I’m so glad I could have you all at my side and along for the journey. Thanks for sticking with me for 5 years, and here’s to 5 more! As always, stay safe, don’t forget to love each other, and I’ll see you all again soon.

Oh, one more thing, I’d love to hear from y’all in the replies! How long have you been with me, and what’s your favorite piece of content I’ve produced?

[patchun]

Can't get Cyberpunk Edgerunners out of my head so I'll try to share some thoughts. There will be major spoilers.

First of all, I hated the show. But to pinpoint *why*... is something I'm struggling with.

Probably the best place to start is the ending. The ending of this show filled me with a huge flurry of negative emotions. Not quite sadness, not quite anger, not quite disappointment... just a tangled mess. And shows that end and make me sad are some of my favorites. Obviously not everything has to have a happy ending. But I dunno, something about the execution just felt wrong.

I think a large part of it is the fact that the last 3-4 episodes, I was repulsed by our protagonist. Roided out David is so... boring. Like, I get it, he got mods and got the same body type as the previous dude, but with all of the horrible experiences David had had with cyberpsychosis at that point, you'd think that he would LEARN, and choose not to go down the same path, ya know?

Lucy mentions that he's "following" (previous dude's) dream now, but what the hell kind of dream was that? Was it just "have a gang, and split the proceeds equally"? I don't know, maybe that was it, and maybe it didn't need to be explicitly stated, but I had a hard time justifying David's actions with everything he had seen.

That said I guess it's not like people always learn the same way from what's happening. It was emphasized that David felt like he was special, but such a mentality I don't think was adequately reflected in part 2 (roided) David, who has more or less become a boring basic bitch of a man. He's solitary and mysterious, but oh Rebecca is into him ig because he has muscles now. Weird and a little gross.

It's just not at all the same as a Simon situation, where he grew from his grief and aged. Roided up David post timeskip is... just, in my opinion, a bad character.

If he was trying to get Lucy to the moon, we should have seen some kind of effort for that, maybe a little scene that shows him depositing some money into a savings account specifically for that. That would at least have given me a little reason to cheer for him, despite his means. But we don't see that. So we just end up with a boring muscly dude that, for some reason, Rebecca rides to her fucking death with.

I'm not even going to say I like Rebecca, I didn't get much from her, but she was at least the most tolerable character in the second act. So yeah, when she was killed by Adam Smasher, it pissed me off.

I like the idea of this big bad who outdoes David, who believed he was special, in every way. But we know nothing about Adam Smasher or why he's working with this megacorp. I'm guessing he's actually a character in the Cyberpunk games, so maybe I'd understand better if I had played that disaster, but nah fam. And then, speaking of megacorps, it just felt like David could have had loftier goals! He's got this incredible military machine... does he not want to break down the system a little bit in his blaze of glory? I mean, David is stupid, he's an idiot, so I guess he's not that self-aware, so whatever.

Which brings us to the last scene of Lucy on the moon, seeing non-roided David with her. I did cry. It was sad. But it was a sadness that was equally as angry. There are sad endings I like. But this was a sad ending I did not like. It just felt avoidable, it felt like Lucy and David could have been together if he wasn't an idiot, and it didn't make sense to me that she wasn't pushing him harder to back off from the implants.

All that said, I guess David is best looked at as an impulsive character who lived his way and died his way. Maybe that's what he would have wanted, maybe he went out exactly as he would have liked to. That's not a trait I have. So I can't really relate. Maybe that's why I didn't like it.

oh also trigger can't make any good shows ever and that's sadly just a fact.

[tekutiger]

FFXIV Patch 6.51 !!

Good Gods a lot has been happening. I finally have a moment to stop and post something 😅

I've been tending to my own personal island, traversing a new island, braving a crazy new event that Manderville added to the Gold Saucer with these hyperactive beans?

I'll be posting a lot of screenies below, some potentially spoiler-y so... unfold the cut if you're interested.

(I'm more or less posting these for sentimental/archival purposes but) Fall Guys Event!

Very anxiety inducing at first but once I got the hang of it, not so much, and rather fun 😎. Ngl though, I did stop queueing after getting all the glamour and pets I wanted, and reaching one win 👑

I need to hop back in for a couple more things but my router is literally dying and I'm waiting for my ISP to come out to fix the issue first. A lot of people, including myself, are learning from this event that the snapshotting sucks. So, I'd really prefer to have my net fixed before attempting to queue more.

Oh!! Something I wanted to throw out there for people who don't want to run this a whole lot but want to put the Fall Guys furniture to use. If you just buy ONE piece of each thing, you can place multiple of that furniture item on your island. Go crazy and make a "fun space". I've been considering doing it, lol. Just food for thought 😋

Island Sanctuary!

I'm not even remotely done here yet. I've hit Rank 20, got the Felicitous Furball glamour, and the 100k crowrie mount/bike, but there's a 200 Felicitous Voucher mount that is going to take agesssss to acquire. I've seen some people with it already. Likely bought the vouchers off the MB or traded with friends. The going rate for those vouchers on my server is 90k-95k each (atm). Buying all 200 of them would make the mount 19m (currently). I'll be patient and slowly earn them, lol 😋

Aloalo Island!

Okay, I'll just be transparent here. I love the Variant Dungeons 🥰. Maybe Zenos wasn't wrong when he was blabbing on about how I'm an adventurer looking for a challenge, or a test of skill. I feel like Variant Dungeons do that decently enough to keep me in a good place (don't get rusty), but don't push me too much to be annoyed (*cough*fliptables*cough*). I'm not a raider- I'm not OP. But I do like a little push or a challenge here and there.

So, for me, I see these as fun, with rewards that are worth the time and effort.

I cannot say the same for the Criterion version of them however. I haven't done them and I see a lot of people raging over the terrible rewards. If it's that many people, it's worth looking into and from what I have heard, they're right to be upset.

If you need raid gear to do Variant Dungeon and the reward gear is under or on par with the raid gear that's needed to do it- that's a huge no. I don't have all the facts or experience to know first hand how true that is though 🤷🏻‍♀️

Posting these 👆🏻 because this is my favorite path. I've always loved mimics and had this slight obsession with them since I played Ragnarok Online many years ago (my first MMO ever).

Silly little treasure chests, you're so evil and cute 💝

(Coulda sworn I got a screenie with the parasol but I cannot find it 🙃. Same with the new hair on my female bun... might edit it in later but probably not.)

Edit: (I'm editing one in at least 🙃)

❘✧༻༺༻༺‿︵‿༻༺✧*̥˚‿︵‿ °∘❉∘°‿︵‿*̥˚✧༻༺‿︵‿༻༺༻༺✧❘

World of Warcraft: Retail (The War Within, Worldsoul Saga)

So, totally unrelated to FFXIV, but also related in a way... my BFF's BF talked her into playing WoW again, and she talked me into playing WoW again, lol (with the help of the cinematic). It's been FOUR years since I've played.

The reason I say it's "related in a way" is because I want to still play FFXIV at the same time and upkeep my FFXIV 'muscle memory'. I started doing the Loporrit Dailies recently - need to continue doing that. I still need to hit Series Level 25 in PvP - so I'll continue doing those daily. I need to continue getting my Island Sanctuary Felicitous Vouchers. And lastly, I began doing the weekly Custom Deliveries for Anden and Margrat. I intend to finish those for the Glamour and Mount. (It boggles my mind how people can say "I'm bored" in FFXIV. There's SO MUCH to do, always. Just admit that you're not bored, you're lazy 😑.)

If the muscle memory thing doesn't make sense, here's an example: It's when you drop/neglect one game for so long (let's call it Game A) to start playing another (Game B), that you completely forget the controls or lose the reflexes you once had for Game A, because you're too consumed living in Game B. I do not want that.

Just thinking about returning to WoW, I feel a bit overwhelmed. All of us used to play Horde for the majority of our gametime (my BFF and her BF, & some of my other friends who've quit). But before I quit, I was trying to make the permanent swap to Alliance (played Alliance for about a year). She's still playing Horde with her BF so I won't be playing with her unless I continue to play Horde. I'll need to find an Alliance server. It'll be cool if I can find a guild that has people who play both WoW & FFXIV. I need to look up which addons I'll need. I fear for all the crap I left in my inventory LOL.

But mainly. When I saw that new cinematic with Thrall and Anduin my heart broke. Anduin has gone through so much trauma in the time I have been away. All I could think about was "Wtf did they do to my King?" And now I feel like I'm crawling my way back and I'm over my head on how to do it. I need to know what happened to him.

(In BfA,) Azeroth turned into a joke and I was isekai'd away Anduin, I'm so sorry 😭. I'll bring some of the light back with me and give it to you, from Eorzea 💖

(FFXIV x WoW collab, when?)

[niuxita21]

I go on ONE YT binge for fanvids of my newest obsession (*cough*) and get royally spoiled for another show I haven't started watching yet FUCKING ALGORITHM

[tsukidrama]

hiii!!

ooh avoiding the spoilers is a huge mood. and aot is easily one of the worst fandom for this, i got spoiled like half of the story when i started watching it, it was so irritating.

i watched some episodes of what we do in the shadows (4 or 5 i think) and you're right it’s so great so far!! the new characters are as good as the previous ones, and the episode with the werewolves was really funny lmao, also laszlo’s topiaries omg. guillermo has to be my favourite so far. do you have a favourite in the show? and thank you for the heads up!!

hey friend!

thank you for your understanding and the nice message the other day! i'm still in a funk unfortunately but an effort is being made.

GIRL I BET... that's one of the reasons i'm really glad to have started up with attack on titan years ago. it was horribly painful to wait through every hiatus but at least i never got spoiled. it's so complicated, there are so many layers to the spoilers for that series.

god the werewolves are so funny. my favorite overall episodes from season 1 are episodes 6 and 9 "The Baron's Night Out," and "The Orgy." but every episode has at least a couple of lines that make me laugh out loud. picking a favorite character is hard because i love them all for different reasons! but if i had to pick a favorite:

Nandor! he's this notorious war lord but 99% of the time he walks around with 3 brain cells in his head that Guillermo has custody of. plus the two of them are so cute (for the most part lmao) and i love how Nandor had 37 wives but still can't talk to a woman to save his life. he has a lot of existential crises too and i relate!

i’m definitely watching the movie over the weekend! aah i’m glad then 🥰. english teachers are the backbones of our society but WOW she must have loved you at this moment omg and her keeping the essay must have been so gratifying!! this is all making me even more excited to watch the movie, especially if there are parallels. i’ll keep you updated!!

aah i hope you enjoy! whenever or if you ever get the chance i'd love to hear what you think about it! it's not much of a happy story but it's the kind that sticks in your head forever.

you're right about English teachers though! i've always had good ones, but the teacher i had my last 2 years of high school really stepped up for me. that lady is genuinely a saint. i used to skip other classes just to talk to her, and the summer before my final year i went on a trip to Europe with her that she sponsored.

thank you for the details!! 3 and 4 are going to be interesting but girl i can’t wait for 5, this is going to hurt and we're all here for it (and 6 too because i want annie to go better while the rest is for your writing). kittens!! i can’t believe annie is going to be a mom (or grandma?). super-spy annie is also something to look forward to, and i know i’m going to love pieck already. only good things planned!!

in case anybody besides me forgot what i had said: "3) Paradis peace ambassador trip 4) Papa having a lady friend (or does he?) 5) rock bottom mental health and a very bad night terror, then finally the long awaited 6) Annie goes to therapy!"

omg do you love pain?? you're either going to love me or hate me once shit gets real. i mean, there's going to be a fair amount of comfort written in as well. i'm trying to build up the suspense in these next couple of chapters so that it doesn't feel like a gut punch.

i think Annie is the kittens mom too! she'll definitely insist on keeping all of them. there's enough space on the farm and she couldn't bear to split up the family. the super-spy arc is going to be a little farther down the line but i'm super excited to write it!!

Pieck actually will show up in chapter 6! briefly, but still significant.

aksdjld yes!! if you ever post the playlist i’m totally here for it 👀, and i totally get it if you don’t want to post it because of the 🤢 shippers so if you don’t what’s the style of music in the playlist? have a nice day! - j

heh, honestly i probably will post it. i got another anon asking about it, so i just need to come up with a better name than anti-****** or else i'll probably get death threats. it's basically songs about women who are in unhappy boring relationships, or singing about wanting to date girls/break up with their boyfriends. OF COURSE.

AND THIS CLIP TOO sorry about the weird editing on top but it was the only clip i could find that had the whole monologue and the lines afterward lkasjfhlCSJNDV iconic and wildly enough fits so well

[thenoirblogger]

Trouble Is My Business" Pictures

Front cover

Back cover

Spine

Two Blu-ray disc collection

"Trouble Is My Business" Copy

"Trouble Is My Business" Review (Posted on 06-30-2018)

Jennifer Montemar (Brittney Powell) and Roland Drake (Thomas Konkle)

What a lot of people don't realize is how much energy, creative effort, time and money are required to produce a movie/film. Being a video creator myself, it's a ton of work....but the final results are incredibly rewarding. Producing movies is a natural passion; It's an art; It's a visual form of storytelling, be it true or fictional. Ever wonder why these made-for-web projects are getting all the viewership and praise? Peek through the over-hyped movies marketed every 6 yoctoseconds, and you'll find that there are a chock full of independent, low-budget and under-recognized movies that the film industry *wishes* they made. Ladies and gentlemen of all ages, I present to you this: Trouble Is My Business.

The story is about a detective named Roland Drake, played by Thomas Konkle, whose sexy client Katherine Montemar asks for help in snatching a diamond—the Orlov Diamond—that belonged to her family. Along with detering the corrupt, mob-laden black market, Drake contacts those who may have connections as to where this may lead to while keeping innocent and anonymous. During his journey are a bunch of people intercepting his path trying to get him killed, like corrupt police officer Detective Tate, played by Vernon Wells. The movie overall gives off that classic film noir—the early days when the story and the dark life of gangsterism were the goings-on (still goes on today).

There's a bunch of things that go on in this movie that mentioning some parts are enough to ruin the entire thing. While, yes, movie/TV/video game reviews generally contain spoilers, it is a rare instance that a movie this good challenges us not to spill the beans too much. A mention of one or two things can ruin the next plot, but however, if you've watched enough gangster films, murder mysteries and/or the James Bond series, you'll find that this isn't just another movie in contrast to those titles. It's a story with sudden twists and hairpin turns, it'll drop your jaw. I was in awe at the transition from scene to scene.Roland Drake played by Thomas Konkle

"Well, I can't say no to a lady."

— Roland Drake

This is likely one of the classic lines in this movie—a modest detective reluctantly accepting the meeting with a beautiful woman needing his help. This happened twice to Mr. Drake with two women who happen to be sisters. I won't say anymore beyond that.

"I don't like a man with a sense of humor. I find it almost as unattractive as a woman with one."

— Evelyn Montemar

This made me smirk, but should inform you the kind of people—family—who are incredibly serious protecting prized possessions in the underworld. Gangsters do not have a sense of humor, since their operations involve not saying anything to where CIA or FBI could spot suspicious activity going on.

However, in my world above, women love men with a sense of humor and vice versa. Laughter is the best medicine, and is part of the universal language around the world.

"Just because you read accusations in the newspaper doesn't make them true."

— Jennifer Montemar

I feel this should tie to the skepticism people ought to adopt in the real world. Ever wonder why some news reports are served as "distractions?" Think about that.

Jennifer (Brittney Powell) and her mother Evelyn Montemar (Jordana Capra).

Roland Drake (Thomas Konkle) and Jennifer Montemar (Brittney Powell) in bed.

Bert The Cabble (Paul Hungerford) and police officer Ostrowski (Steve Olson).

Lew MacDonald (David Beeler).

As for the movie, you can tell the budget put into making this. It uses a lot of green screen, but remember, that this isn't focused on special effects compared to, say, space movies or scenes featuring explosions and flying (hello, Transformers, Star Wars and Superman fans). This movie is heavily focused on the story giving homage to the old, black & white movies when technology was so limited, movie producers worried more about the story and the acting. It's not like that today—promoting A-list actors to give low-rated movies some financial leverage. Give me a break....

The story overall is like a roller coaster ride: Once you're in it, buckle up because there'll be some surprising twists and turns. Just don't fall off the ride.

Blu-ray Disc Features review:

There's only two options on the Blu-ray menu: Play Movie and Play Trailer. There's no option for Scene Selections which may bother some Blu-ray fans. Whether you want that option or not, it gives the viewer a requirement to completely watch the film from start to finish, and there should be nothing wrong with that.

Trouble Is My Business Blu-ray menu - Black and White and Color

You may wonder why there are two discs: One for color and one for B&W. Why not put the same on one disc? I figured that they wanted to preserve the video quality putting them in separate discs. Putting two of them in one disc sacrifices the quality of the film which, as you know, will turn off a lot of movie/Blu-ray fans (let's not forget that a Blu-ray holds 25GB of data and a DVD only holds 4GB). The Black & White version of the movie gives that authentic mid-1900s feel, catering to those who dig the classic film library. As for the audio, there is no option on the Blu-ray as it is strictly 5.1 Surround. Majority of movie fans, depending on your audio system, prefer 5.1 audio anyway, but if you have a simple stereo system, it works just as well.

A movie specializing in detecting lives of crime finding truth in-between the lines while extracting secrets from a bunch of sketchy people and a family is what makes this a unique story-telling experience. I really want to talk about the film but, again, it'll spoil too much. It was so good we screened the film twice (perhaps again, after this review).

I want you, the viewer/fan, to enjoy the roller coaster ride this film brings especially when you arrive at the ending. The best way to describe it—I can't believe I'm doing this—I'll quote the bridge and chorus from the hit song "I Knew You Were Trouble" by Taylor Swift:

And he's long gone

When he's next to me

And I realize the blame is on me

'Cause I knew you were trouble when you walked in

So shame on me now

Flew me to places I'd never been

So you put me down

— Lyrics from "I Knew You Were Trouble" by Taylor Swift

Enjoy that scene as it will raise eyebrows.

While this movie just released on Blu-ray as recent as this month of June (2018), some of you may have obtained this packaging:

Scanavo Blu-ray case packaging

I've personally never seen this packaging. From all the Blu-rays we own in our SHOWSOTROS! video library collection, this is a huge first. I thought it was an imitation but after doing research, this Blu-ray case is by a company brand Scanavo. I feel these cases are uncommon, but unveiling it on this review, expect studios and networks to invest and do business with them showing up more frequently at your local video and electronics stores. (Yeah, I was scared for a second fearing I got a pirated copy. You'd have to be a serious low life to still produce pirated copies in this modern age.)

It's been a long while, for me at least, to finally watch and enjoy something that grips you from start to finish. Now that we've brought this amazing piece into the spotlight, we'll likely see more of this story-telling style. Because of how much the story stacks up, it's good enough to turn into a TV series (you heard it from us first, Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, Amazon and many of you TV writers/producers reading this). Actually, you know, turn this movie into a TV series because we'll definitely tune in.

This Blu-ray release is still hot, fresh and new. Grab your copy as we strongly recommend this movie!

Shop for more Blu-rays and DVDs like this at WBShop.com:

Official Shop of Warner Bros

© 2008-2019 written and reviewed personally by Kris Caballero.

"Trouble Is My Business" Ratings

Our Rating:

100% 0%