#at this point the bad subtitles are part of the experience

[astrabear]

Me: I'm going to be watching an Italian movie with one of my online friends tomorrow morning [goes on to say a bunch of other things]

My roommate: I wonder who could possibly be starring in this Italian movie? Whoooo could it beeee?

[karmaphone]

was gonna reblog that post about reporting incorrect subtitles but that final longass addition pisses me the fuck off of course translations aren't going to match exactly you chud that's not what was even being discussed

[femsolid]

I watched the movie Strange Darling tonight. Great rating on IMDB. Positive reviews all around. It was sexist propaganda à la Gone Girl. I'm sure it'll be called a feminist movie.

The story is about a serial killer hunting down his last victim. During the first part of the movie we see a young, skinny, blond woman being chased by the killer, a big man with a rifle. She's in pain and has lost an ear. The man is not hurt and every time he appears on screen, some big scary music plays, telling us "he's the killer!"

Then we see a flashback of their first encounter. They're on a date, drinking in his car, she gives him a lecture about how a one night stand can be a life or death situation for women, so women aren't prudes they are careful, but he can't understand that because he's a man. Unlike in real life, he patiently listens and doesn't object nor scream Not All Men. A little feminist lesson. She then tells him that her "kink" is to be strangled and beaten in bed... okayyyy what was the point of the feminist lesson exactly? He's flabbergasted and reluctantly agrees to indulge her. Because we all know it's women who want to be abused, men are just following our lead and have no sadistic bone in their bodies. She starts crying and tells him to stop during it, she tells him that just because she said yes at the start doesn't mean she can't say no later and he should respect that. He feels bad, and suddenly she starts laughing, she was just messing with him pretending to have boundaries and stuff, what a turn on! She toys with him, keeps inviting him to have sex and then says no at the last second because women are just twisted provocatrice, I guess. What a tease! She's giving him "mixed signals." Then she drugs him and tortures him, and we discover that she's the serial killer, and he's a cop! HA! You thought women were abused by men? You thought her little feminist lessons were sensible? You were wrong! Never trust a woman! Men can be victims, too! The reason we didn't see his injuries at the beginning of the movie was because she tortured him with a knife on his chest. See? Men have hidden scars. Don't assume they are the abusers! Since he's a cop, he has a secret gun and manages to escape her by shooting her ear off. She runs from him, and he chases her, and we're back to the beginning of the movie. He catches her eventually, handcuffs her and calls her a cunt.

She still manages to kill him, right as the police arrives because he called for backup. She puts her pants down and lays on the floor ass naked, crying, pretending that he tried to rape her, and she defended herself. False rape accusations, guys! Don't be fooled by women playing the victims! There are two police officers that arrive: a woman and a man. The woman is immediately sympathetic to the fake rape victim, something her male partner questions. She responds "it's obvious what happened", takes the handcuffs off the killer and helps her get up, while the male cop tells her to wait because things don't look right. Blinded by her female solidarity and her defence of rape victims, the stupid female cop doesn't follow the procedure. She tells the male cop that just because she has a vagina doesn't mean she's wrong, another little feminist lesson rendered voluntarily ridiculous by the fact that we all know she's gravely wrong and will likely get both of them killed. He tells her it has nothing to do with her vagina, he speaks from experience because he's older. Eventually the truth is revealed, the victim is the killer, the male police officer calls the killer a bitch. The killer lets the female officer go because she helped her, and kills the male.

The entire movie had a clear message that we all know too well by now: men are the real victims, don't trust women who report abuse, feminism is laughable. I mean, the propaganda wasn't even subtitle or anything. The killer spends a good portion of the movie in lingerie too. Instant classic. True cinema. Would you be surprised if I told you this movie was directed and written by a man?

[vertical-sekai]

Last up for the groups formations! It won’t be the last of me though :)

How did day.light form?

Formanon💫

Yay! Glad you're sticking around a bit, Formanon!

As for day.light well...

I feel like I should preface this with the fact that it has major spoilers for a certain Vivid BAD SQUAD plot line that peaks in An4/Light Up The Fire. If you know, you know.

(I know most people already know of said twist, especially because of how spoiler-happy people are in this fandom [which always ends up at my expense], but I'd rather put this warning here if there is Anyone who DOESN'T know the horrors of An Shiraishi lore)

Inspired by national idol Haruka Kiritani, Minori worked hard every day to become an idol that could spread hope— just like how Haruka gave her hope, too. Accruing countless failed auditions, only one obscure talent she had to learn for her auditions caught her eye even after failing; Art.

Minori started drawing fanart of Haruka after realizing how much fun it was, occasionally getting swept up in daydreams about Haruka finding her art, recognizing her talent, and making her a member of ASRUN. She posts her fanart to PicShare, under the username Harurin.

She's worried about how Haruka hasn't been able to show up in that much ASRUN content as much as the other members recently, but has hope that Haruka will pull through whatever is holding her back. Mai's absence concerns her, as well...

One day, while looking at an official music video for ASRUN on Smile Video, Minori accidentally clicks on a different song.

This song intrigues Minori in an unsettling way. The song is very different from the peppy vibe of ASRUN's music, and is a lot more melancholic... listening to it, Minori can't help but relate to the song's feelings of trying your best and not succeeding, and admires the hopeful message at the end, even if the song makes her a bit sad.

Minori, after a bit of digging, finds out that this song is by a producer called n○ne, with the vocals and lyrics being done by someone called RAN. While the video has no illustrations, it does have animated subtitles and effects done by a person known as Amia.

After listening to more of their music, Minori decides to post some fanart of their songs, portraying her own experiences in context of them.

Shortly after, Minori receives a very excited DM from RAN herself, asking if she wants to join their group...

And that's how day.light forms.

......

So let's go back.

Nene, unable to conquer her trauma by herself, eventually has her anxiety heightened to the point where she starts struggling to attend school. As a consequence, she begins online school in her first year of high school. During middle school, Nene started composing out of neccesity— a part of her screams that she still needs to do something related to musicals or music, at least, even if she can't bring herself to sing anymore. This led to Nene posting music online as n○ne.

An, finding nobody in Vivid Street with the same passion to surpass RAD WEEKEND as her gives up on finding a partner, and tries to pursue her dream alone.

While struggling all by herself, Ken decides to tell her the truth about Nagi's death, not wanting to hurt her any further than he already has by continuing to lie to her.

An, after learning this, doesn't know if she can surpass RAD WEEKEND, but with Nagi's dream in mind, she doesn't want to give up, either. She realizes now that her dream is unobtainable by herself and goes online to find a partner or teammate, realizing she can't ever compromise on her dream. This ends up with her finding Nene and making music with her.

While Nene is unable to perform onstage with An for various reasons, Nene gives An permission to use their music to fulfill her dreams... supporting her the best she can.

Mizuki makes an edit using one of their songs later on, leading to An recruiting them as well... (An is very fond of recruiting people, lol)

So this stuff all leads to day.light forming!

[stupid-fucking-storm]

Watched Cinderella’s Castle and had a very underwhelming experience. Review and LONGGG rant under the cut.

Minor spoilers.

First of all, I thought the pacing was really, really bad. I also thought the tone of the story was really weird??

Obviously it’s Starkid, they love putting things in odd tones, but there was not one song or moment that really made me feel anything for these characters. In fact, the most I felt for any of them was Lauren’s throwaway cousin character, who was killed pretty much immediately.

This was not at all the fault of the performers, who were doing The Most with the script they were given. Performance-wise, in fact, it was very good. Aside from Jeff Blim, who honestly made me completely dislike him due to this show. I’m sure he’s a fine guy, but he constantly writes music for his falsetto which he seems very proud of but is …never… on pitch. I’ve grown increasingly bored with his score and lyric writing through Nightmare Time and this show was the embodiment of that.

The absolute worst part of the show was the incessant background music—something they carried over from Nightmare Time as if we enjoyed that. I certainly didn’t, it made Nightmare Time a tough watch for me. Plunky little notes like synth improv, absolutely separate in tone from the dialogue, plague every scene. This is especially bad in the second act to the point that I actively stopped trying to understand or care about the scene because the background music was suggesting that I shouldn’t. Keep in mind this was during what I think was an important exchange between Bryce and Curt’s characters. Honestly, I could not tell you. I don’t watch musicals with subtitles on so I can be surprised by dialogue and make it more akin to watching the performance live. This was a mistake. This was a long stretch of dialogue, too, completely nullified by the dumb background music. I mean, think Nightmare Time improv synth but with none of the recognizable motifs. That’s what it was. For almost the entire show.

As I mentioned, the music was again by Jeff Blim. I was worried when this was announced because of how boring, same, and uninspired his stuff has become, but I wanted to give it a chance. When it was announced as a pop rock musical, I got more pessimistic. I was unfortunately correct.

There are about 2 songs that I enjoyed, and one that was very good for the first 15ish seconds. Almost every song’s tone was completely wrong for the scene/what they were conveying. And not in a fun, we’re-doing-something-unconventional way, which Starkid has done really well in the past.

Angela fucking killed as the stepmother, but her singing range is very limited. Everyone knows this and that’s fine!! I’m begging Jeff to stop writing music for her that’s outside of her range. It’s not like they didn’t know who they would cast. I think it’s been stated that Starkid still have to audition for their roles, but with such a small cast I’m sure Nick/Jeff/Matt have an idea when they’re writing.

Mariah and Lauren did great performances as the stepsisters. I wasn’t expecting Lauren’s elf voice and thought that was a little off the mark. She still slayed, it’s Lauren.

The problem is, these characters had so little depth that none of them really had an arc at all. There was not much for the actors to do or build on to make me care about them. Let me be crystal clear: I LOVE STARKID. Fucking love it. Even I couldn’t give a fuck about anyone’s character in this show but Lauren’s throwaway character and Angela’s villain—and probably mostly because I’ve grown very fond of Angela’s acting and performance recently on Smosh.

I’m not saying anyone did a bad job. They did their best with what they had. My issue is entirely with the writing, the music writing particularly, and the pacing, which was god-awful.

Now, the puppets.

This was the part of the show I was most excited for. Starkid hasn’t done puppets for a while! And I loved the Starship puppets! Horror/weird looking puppets?? Sign me up!

Unfortunately, this also left a lot to be desired. I enjoyed the puppet for Crumb and the frog, and Joey is an especially EXCELLENT puppet actor. But the troll puppets were really lack-luster. Seeing the actresses so clearly beneath them, still in their elegant dresses when they were supposed to be fully these ugly monsters, was very immersion-breaking. Even attaching a dark cloth to them to hide their bodies and a screen over their faces would have done A LOT. This was really disappointing. So was the weird voice effect on Angela’s troll. Only because she was already doing a voice, and it was delayed just long enough for it to be jarring and disrupt my ability to follow what she was saying. (Fyi, I do not have any sort of processing disability or disorder.) Still, her performance was really great and I’m happy to see her in a main role.

I didn’t find James’ character charming or funny, which may be an acting thing or may be a writing thing, I’m not sure. I’ve never been a huge fan of his, and I found his interpretation of the character to be pretty bland and literal. I would have liked to see some hints of a real person under all the crude jokes the prince makes—but this is likely due to writing issues/tone issues.

Curt was great, there was not a lot for him to do. Kim SLAYYYYYYYED her song and it was the only one I really liked. But she did not act in this show and was really underutilized, as probably the most vocally talented person in the cast. JLB was not in this show, which I didn’t realize and was saddened by. I think she would have brought a great energy to it. Jon’s performance was sweet and he was obviously having a good time. Let the man sing more often. Bryce slayyyed the vocals but the acting was ehhh. Again, not a lot of depth. Her whole thing felt really rushed due to writing and pacing. The fact that I can’t remember if anyone else was even in this, without looking, is a little sad.

Overall I’m very disappointed. The tone, pacing, and background score were quite bad. The set design, music, and characterization was bland. The costume design was good—I found myself commenting on the outfits frequently. Some of the puppets were good, others confusing. After watching it, I’m really, really not excited about “The Lands That Are” and am terrified for another Hatchetfield wearing out its welcome.

In conclusion: To watch this for $15 is fine but I’m certainly glad I did not fly to see this in person, which I had considered doing. I will always support Starkid, but if they keep hiring Jeff for the music, I am going to continue the decline in passion I have for it, which started when Nightmare Time did. I’m hoping that they’re able to mix the background music to non-existent or extremely quiet in the YouTube version after enough feedback, and that the next musical is more inspired and—GOD—not fucking pop rock again.

[littlerocks]

After watching 7x08, I shed I don't know how many tears for bobby's story, his past and I just want to hug him tightly and take away all the pain he has felt over the years. Comuqnue after seeing bobby's past, literally I think bobby and buck saved each other, bobby found in buck a son, buck found in bobby a father, and their bond that they have is wonderful. Anyway I don't talk too much about 7x08 because I'm waiting for the Italian subtitles to understand better ahahhaha

Anyway talking about the images 7x09:

I'm too happy for them that they received recognition for what they did, risking their lives to save bobby and athena but also all the other people, and a thank you to hen and his instincts that will always be taken into account from now on hahaha.

Obviously some people "complained" from what I read about the fact that tommy in the picture didn't have the medal, and so that implied that he wasn't part of the 118, like he wasn't important and whatever that kind of crap, honestly me to laugh because literally it was because of him, that bobby and athena and all the other people were saved, in the sense he could very well give up not flying them, because first there was a hurricane and it was dangerous, I guess; then you didn't even know if it was true, and then first of all I think he would have risked his job as well as the others rightly, so I think that even though physically he is not part of the 118 because he doesn't work there anymore, he nevertheless still helped them, also because because he used to work before there; I think he knows chim and hen and even bobby well and so he knows that if they say they help them do something that actually you didn't know if it was true, he knew though that they were right, it still makes it clear that all in all he is still part of the 118, so the fact that there are commeti saying that he doesn't deserve the medal, or that what he has done is not important, is bullshit, I understand not liking the character but to deny that he doesn't deserve recognition, on the work that he has done, seems to me to be going too far.

However, my opinion, for me buck in addition to being happy of course to have a recognition on the rescue he did together with his team (including tommy) for me in part he is also happy because he is also with tommy, in the sense he is happy that he is living this experience together with tommy, his fiancé, not as a mere spectator but literally as a member of the team that helped him rescue the people. Also in my opinion if he could, he would make like a poster saying "this beautiful guy standing next to me is my boyfriend," with the arrow ch pointing to tommy. I have no certainty but also no doubt that he would do that ahahah

Also less bad that Tommy smiled, because if he wouldn't have done so, everyone would complain about the fact " eh you see Tommy is a serious person who doesn't even smile, while buck does, so you see they don't fit in so they don't go well together", so thanks Tommy who smiled at least they can't attack you on this (just kidding hahaha) anyway everything aside, I'm now completely in love with Lou's smile, I have a crush on him, and also for the smile

However I expect a kiss between Tommy and Buck in the barracks eh (it would be wonderful) and then another date between them. Anyway, I saw that the actors from 911 Lone Star met the ones from 911, so can it be a new episode together? However, if that were the case, I want to see tk and buck talking together and then he says "you know, I got engaged to a guy" and tk says "my nose for understanding if he's a queer person is never wrong" AHAHHA, and then like, buck ago see the photos in tk of tommy and tk of carlos and their wedding, I would like it too much see

Image obviously with the two boyfriends and their biggest fan: Chim/Kenneth Choi, he will protect them from everyone AHAHAHAHHA

I don't know what to expect in 7x09, I just want Bobby to return to having serenity and I sincerely hope that that fire is like a dream that he has, imagining a fire in his house as if it were his fear of not being able to save his family again, having failed to save his father, his first family and even now his second family, as if this were his greatest fear. So I hope it's something he figures out himself and I hope Bobby eventually gets well again

To conclude, it has nothing to do with the above, I think this competition thing between "buddie, "buck and tommy endgame", "buck must be with eddie" or "tomy and buck don't have a bond while eddie and buck do", I don't understand about all this competition, what if we lived it and enjoyed it regardless of what happens? Obviously everyone has their own theories, ship, endgame okay it's fine, it's fine but honestly living these let's say competition on who buck is better with eddie or with tommy, just because some people hate that buck is with tommy makes me a little bored, or who hate Tommy regardless, I don't know it creates a tension in the fandom, yet we could just be happy and that's it?

However, I love Tommy's character, I haven't seen much of him, but that little bit was enough for me to love him

[room-surprise]

Dungeon Meshi Anime Review, Season 1, Episode 7 review

Another great episode (Kabru!!! Kabru!!!)! Once more I have very little to say except that I liked it. Great animation, great music, great voice acting in both Japanese and English.

No weird anachronisms in the dub script, though I will say there were actually a few lines of dialog pertaining to the plot that were easier to understand in the Japanese subtitles, some nuance got lost in the dub but was clearer in the Japanese, and normally it's been the reverse until now.

A few more thoughts (and possible spoilers) under the cut:

I think they are being a BIT too faithful to the manga at points, they are leaving Laios' nose off and not finishing it a lot in this episode, which is something Kui did a LOT in the early manga and stopped doing later as she got more experience with drawing his character. There's no reason for the anime version's nose to just not get drawn except that they're trying to imitate the manga panels, which I think isn't necessarily great, since the earlier art just wasn't as good as the later art in my opinion.

The character designs in general have been averaged so that the designs overall look closer to Kui's end-of-manga style, so doing early manga style choices with only Laios looks weirdly out of place.

Obviously sometimes the nose is left off for comedic purposes, but it was happening in all kinds of shots in this episode, and it looked like the animators just didn't want to bother.

They cut out elements of Kabru's party's story in order to fit 3 chapters into this episode. Hopefully the missing parts will be included in the future episode when Kabru and his party return, and we'll get to see them interact, since most of the character development they get IN the story happens in those scenes.

If they just completely cut those scenes and don't include them later, it'll leave Kabru and his party really underdeveloped, as well as not telling anime viewers some worldbuilding stuff that would be really nice for them to know.

Though the animation and pacing was generally good, moving so quickly past Senshi's sadness over having to kill Anne felt like a disservice to that plot beat.

Also might have been nice to have a longer moment to focus on Senshi and Marcille bonding, though what they did was adequate.

The fight with the kraken was good, however, the nuance of "we can't attack the kraken because it's under the water and we are on top, and it can hit us from any direction but we can't hit it back" was sort of lost.

This made using waterwalk on the kraken seem to come a bit out of nowhere.

Also the kraken didn't really struggle or move after getting stuck on top of the water, which might have helped show that it wants to stay underwater and being up top like that was bad for it.

Other than that, a really solid episode.

Some predictions for upcoming episodes and adaptation choices:

Next episode will be the Falin flashback and the first undine fight and then following episode the 2nd undine fight + tentacles Then combine the frogs with the dragon planning. Maybe also the necromancy chapter? Or they put that at the beginning of the actual dragon fight episode...

OR

They just do the Falin flashback as fast as possible, and do all the parts of the undine together. So, that'd be 4 chapters in one.

[justforbooks]

Off-White: The Truth About Antisemitism by Rachel Shabi

In this sharp and engaging book, Shabi addresses the need to understand and confront antisemitism at a time when it is being downplayed by parts of the left and exploited by others on the right

When I started to read Rachel Shabi’s new book, I felt a profound sense of relief and recognition. As she writes: “The left has ceded the space on antisemitism… and the right has smartly and strategically filled that void.” As someone who has been involved for years with various causes where leftwing people gather, I wholeheartedly concur. It’s more than time to take back that space. The downplaying of antisemitism by the left has led to some racism being given a free pass, and it has also resulted in a depressing lack of empathy around the Jewish experience and a weakening of potential solidarity.

It has been hard to talk about this for a long time, for fear of detracting from what feels like more pressing anti-black racism. But now, when charges of antisemitism are being used by defenders of Israel to head off criticism of horrific crimes against Palestinians, it often feels pretty much impossible. Still, not dealing with it is not doing anyone except racists any favours, and many of us will feel grateful to Shabi for stepping out into this maze.

While the book is subtitled The Truth About Antisemitism, it quickly becomes clear – if we didn’t already know – that there is no simple truth here, but rather a host of interconnected and complex stories. Shabi, who was born in Israel to Iraqi Jewish parents, and whose previous book explored the experiences of Israeli Jews from Arab countries, is a good and careful guide through many of these thorny paths.

She is sharp on the ways that antisemitism differs from other kinds of racism, and how that can make it difficult to confront. Our paradigm of racism is so often that it targets “people of colour in order to subjugate, segregate, colonise, enslave and kill them”, and we expect it to be baked into political and social structures in myriad instances of inequality. Antisemitism does always not fit into that model, not least, as Shabi says, because Jews, by and large, in most places today “don’t face that kind of structural racism”. As other writers have also pointed out, this makes Jews both white and not white – as the title has it: Off-White – depending on the situation.

But antisemitism can be as harmful as any other racism, and spawned the genocide whose trauma still echoes down the generations. Shabi is honest that, while she doesn’t personally share this sense of trauma, she recognises that for many Jewish people it is still present, and the assumption that they should see themselves as “white” “can flatten out the sense of paper-thin conditionality that feels ever-present for many Jewish people”. Any Jew brought up in a family still dealing with the ghosts of the past, would agree that leftwingers need to do better at accepting this all-too-real sense of vulnerability, “without dismissal, disbelief, or bad faith”. For sure, the Holocaust is currently being weaponised to head off criticism of Israel, but we don’t get past that simply by denying the reality of Jewish anguish. As Shabi says at one point: “There has rarely been a more urgent need for us to stretch our compassion, to hold Jewish trauma even while a savagely catastrophic war is inflicted on Palestinians in its name.”

The horror of the Holocaust also needs to be recognised in order to understand Israel’s founding, which is not just a simple tale of colonialism. Shabi quotes Edward Said saying “the Palestinians are the victims of the victims, the refugees of the refugees”. Recognising the complexity of Israel’s past and present means that “decolonisation cannot involve drawing up rigid lists of the indigenous and the colonisers”. This may seem obvious, but Shabi’s reminder to readers that Jewish life and Palestinian life must be treated as equivalent is, sadly, a necessary counterbalance to those on the left who seem to believe that massacring civilians in a gruesome attack can on some level be justified when those people are Israeli Jews.

Another part of the book that I found particularly valuable is its exploration of the way the right is using antisemitism now. I’ve found it really disconcerting to see xenophobic rightwing commentators in Britain suggesting that Jews should make common cause with the far right against Muslims. Are Jews meant to be grateful that at some point we got promoted from being the darkest stain on western civilisation to its frontline defenders? It’s good to see that phenomenon explored along with the mad fringe of Christian Zionism, and the bizarre friendships that Israel is trying to make with some of the worst authoritarian governments in the world.

What’s even more disconcerting than the newfound friendship between some Jews and the right is the growth of crazy conspiracy theories that build on old antisemitic patterns of the super-powerful Jew. It’s vital that we are ready to call out and bring into the light these conspiracy theories, which often centre on the “great replacement” – the idea that Jews are trying to orchestrate the replacement of white people through immigration – and are becoming frighteningly widespread.

I ended the book invigorated by Shabi’s engaged clarity, and would have liked even more. For instance, I would have been interested in more discussion of antisemitism in Muslim communities. Having travelled in Saudi Arabia and Iran, I’ve been struck by the shocking antisemitism that I’ve encountered, which can go way beyond anti-Zionism. Muslims in Europe also tend to hold more antisemitic attitudes than the population as a whole. It may be true, as Shabi suggests, that antisemitism across the Middle East has been imported from western traditions of racism, now fanned by western support for Israel, but it would still be useful to have more discussions about how this is playing out in Muslim communities and what can be done to challenge it.

As Shabi herself says, this book is not intended to be the end of this discussion, but a vital part of those overdue conversations that are needed in order to build greater solidarity in this time of crisis. We need to be more confident in separating justified criticism of Israel from antisemitism, and this timely and valuable book should help to build that confidence. Because her key message is a vital one – that the fight against antisemitism is an essential part of the fight against all injustice and dehumanisation.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[miloscat]

[Review] The Legend of Korra: A New Era Begins (3DS)

A cromulent companion game.

Platinum's console/PC Korra game was accompanied by a 3DS release. Well I say accompanied; unlike that game, Activision only bothered to release this one in North America. Now I finally have a chance to play it thanks to custom firmware! I know developer Webfoot Technologies best for their Legacy of Goku GBA games, and now here they are with another handheld game based on an animated licence. But how does this tactics RPG stack up against its action sibling?

Despite the new subtitle, this game is built on the same story as the console game. Creepy old guy blocks Korra's bending, the alliance of Triads/Equalists/dark spirits, returning to the Spirit World via the South Pole. But this version has some additional details, like the inclusion of Amon's lieutenant as a miniboss, Korra seeking the advice of spirits in Republic City's spirit wilds only for them to turn dark and attack, or visiting Wan Shi Tong's library for help relearning spiritbending (complete with a boss fight against the big owl himself!) I also enjoyed entering the cosmic universal energy dimension for little puzzle challenges when Korra was regaining her bending powers. In addition to these additions, a big change in how things play out is the extended cast joining her on the adventure, an upside to the shift in genre.

From the start, Bolin and Mako are with Korra, then Tenzin and Kya join in, and finally Lin making for a team of six bending powerhouses. Bumi and, sadly, Asami are still conspicuously absent. But the extra tag-alongs make for actual conversation and more convincing bridging exposition in cutscenes, more appropriate elemental tutelage as Korra relearns her bending styles, and some choice quips. For example, we learn that Bolin named his fists Juji and Roh-tan after Nuktuk's animal sidekicks, and that he has become genre-savvy as a result of his mover career: "when there is fog, something bad happens."

There are understandable presentational drawbacks that offset this. Gone are the full animated sequences, replaced by brief motion comic-style cutscenes. There’s no voice acting either, which is fair enough. And gameplay just cannot look as flashy when you’re just moving sprites around a grid.

To be fair, the sprites look very good. And you get an adorable graphic of Korra riding Oogi on the menu screen. When it comes time to make an attack, the game cuts to a short (and skippable) 3D sequence showing the results, complete with decent little models doing mocapped martial arts moves. The spirits and the main antagonist Hundun can look a bit goofy in these but the mecha tanks are pretty cool if low-detail. The latter in particular have hilariously tiny sprites on the battle map, a stark contrast to their humongous chungus depiction in Platinum’s game.

The tactical gameplay is competent for the most part with decent map designs. The controls and interface can be a bit clunky but they get the job done. There’s a shield mechanic that’s a neat twist, as well as an elemental weakness system that lets you bypass the shields. I liked how each character had their own niche: Mako has many ranged attacks, Lin and Bolin get area effects, Kya can heal, and Tenzin can replenish mana energy points which I had him doing almost every turn once he learned it.

Any attack or even healing and support moves get you experience points which is nice, and every other level-up you get to choose between two skills. These can be new moves or passive bonuses but choose carefully because you can’t change them later! I found myself with a Korra who only knew waterbending for the vast majority of proceedings, and you only get one shot at each other element. Everybody was max level (15) a few stages before the end, but if you’re having trouble with a battle there’s a training stage you can do freely for some extra XP and money (used for buying healing items). You can’t replay completed levels though, even though you get graded on side objectives.

I was pleased by this little tie-in. I’m not a huge expert on tactics RPGs but this one seems good for intermediate gamers like me, not too punishing. There’s some amount of crunchy depth to the elemental system and using each character effectively. And as a Korra fan it’s nice seeing the characters and world rendered in a different style, especially those cute sprites. Not to mention the slight expansions to the storyline. If you’ve got a 3DS, there’s no reason not to head to your local flea market hShop to pick this up!

[pommunist]

the recent stuff from the now fired "volunteer" twitter admins where they were given an insane amount of work to do (outside of updates: collecting art for the museum, collecting clips, subtitling clips, acting as translators, update multiple streamers at once, etc), often that work having explicit deadlines? like... a worker?

if they hired them as volunteers (which they did) then they shouldnt have been given the workload they were, to the point of many suffering extreme burnout. and they had to pay for their own subs to avoid ads for quicker updates or for streamers that locked their vods?

(also the apparently complete segregation of the different admins teams (for the server made to "connect people across cultures"?) reeks of trying to avoid something like unionization of the updates teams)

(see @/IdrisCarstairs on twitter (former qsmpPOR admin) for a google doc documenting a lot of these.)

just read the new testimony !

and I totally agree with what you said, volunteer work is not bad by nature but it is when you have all the charge of salary work for none of the compensation

Antoine gave his mods as an example when he first talked about the admins situation : his twitch mods are all volunteer but whether they mod and how much is totally up to them, he never asks them anything directly and if they want to take months long break they can, because they’re volunteers ! Those who were present in chat all said they were perfectly content with it being as it is.

I’m sure that if the work conditions for the admins were better, maybe they would have never complained and would have been happy to just be an active part of the QSMP project. U can see it in Bobbys admin testimony : he was just hired to play an egg on the server, did just that and so he had a good experience.

and YEAH the twitter admins being separated by languages is just so ????? to me like not only does it go against what the QSMP is but also it would have made their work easier if they could have shared information

[sealbirdy]

A long Gravity Falls feelings rant because I am full of emotions rn.

This rant is mostly about my experience with the show and what it meant/means to me as someone who's watched it since pretty much the beginning, not really the show itself. I Also won't go into any plot details of the show or the book.

I just finished reading book of bill, and also with everything happening tonight I'm just so full of emotions, I just need to get it out somewhere.

First of all, the moment I found out about the whole website thing that's happening, I was already super hyped. I felt like I was back in my teenage years eagerly waiting what's happening next and theorizing with other people about what's goin on. Even my boyfriend commented that it was nice to see me so excited about something (I've been having kinda a hard time lately so this was a nice surprise for tonight). Then someone gave me a link to a pdf file that had the whole book of bill and my night just got better. I do want to get the actual book at some point too, but I don't really have the money rn.

At first I was just kinda reading the book quietly to myself, but then there was something that made me laugh so much I wanstd to readi it for my boyfriend too, and ended up reading almost the whole book to him out loud. I skipped a few parts (my eyes couldn't focus and some of the pages in the pdf file were kinda blurry) But I'm going to read the whole thing once I get my hands on the actual book). My boyfriend was aware of gravity falls existence before and had seen a few episodes, but wasn't really in the fandom like I was growing up. (I made him watch it with me after we started dating though and he liked it).

I had so much fun and got really into character while reading out loud. I even noticed a couple things that seemed like they could be references to some things that happened in the fandom back in the day, and had to stop reading just to explain them to him lol (I'm so happy to have found someone who would just sit there while I read almost the whole book to him lol and actually seems interested when I explain stuff to him). It was the most fun I'd had in a long time. And then a bit after I had finished the book, I got super emotional over it (I'll explain why at the end of the rant)

I've watched gravity falls since pretty much the beginning. My mother got us disney channel in 2012 and I still remember seeing the first trailers for gravity falls and being intrigued by it immediately. I also remember being super annoyed by episode two because sometimes if felt like it was the only episode they aired lol. Even now when rewatching the series, I still skip it because I got so bord of it as a kid lol. My boyfriend and I share this sentiment and also skipped the episode when we watched gravity falls together. He didn't really watch the show as much in the long run, but even he remembers that episode being shown over an over again and it getting really boring lol.

At one point I started watching the series from online, because it felt like the fastest way to see new episodes (every time I watched disney channel it always seemed to be the same episodes over an over again). I mostly watched them from youtube with bad quality, but I wasn't really aware of other sites to watch it from. I still remember the moment I saw dreamscapers for the first time, because I almost screamed when bill was finally revealed, after wondering about the zodiac wheel image for too long. the quality was horrible, because I was watching it in the middle of the night from my tiny phonescreen, but that moment has stayed in my memory clearly through all these years. Eventually my mom got rid of disney channel (sometime after season 1 ended), which meant I had no choise but to pirate it. It's actually a huge reason why I finally learned english, since obviously the pirate sites and youtube uploads obviously didn't have subtitles in my language. I stayed up so many nights just watching the episodes and at one point always had Sock Opera playing in the background when i finally went to sleep. some of my favorite Christmas presents to this day were a gravity falls necklace and a pillowcase (both had the bill cipher zodiac wheel image on them). I wore that necklace every day and even when i slept for so long, until it broke. the pendant itself fell somewhere and I never found it again. I still have the pillowcase though, and I actually have it on my pillow rn lol. I even felted a bill cipher out of wool at some point (pretty sure I still have that somewhere too).

At that point some of my classmates had started bullying me for liking the show. Well looking back on it I'm pretty sure they had tried bullying me before too, but I never really realized it so it didn't affect me. But since gravity falls was suddenly really important to me, now they could use it against me. It was mostly just them insulting the show and characters in different ways to my face, which as an adult doesn't sound as bad, but to me the show meant everything and they were clearly saying those things to me, because they knew it affected me. But if there's something I'm proud of my younger self for, it's that I never let it affect my love for the show itself, and I never started hiding how much the show meant to me.

I ordered myself journal 3 after I had already moved out. I hadn't really engaged with the series or the fandom in a long time, but the moment I finally held that book in my hands, I felt so much joy. I wanted that book so bad when it first came out, and that moment made my inner child cry of happiness.

And that's kind of what I felt after I finished reading the book of bill today. I really feel like it healed some part of my inner child/teenager. Especially when my boyfriend let me read it to him out loud and I could just get into character while reading. Even though I to get bullied a lot for something that meant the world to me, I can now still enjoy that thing, and even share it with someone who will just sit and listen for like two hours while I read the book to him, and also listen to my side tangents if I something reminds me of some random thing that happened in the fandom (that he wasn't even a part of) back in the day.

There's been multiple shows and franchises I've been obsessed with during my life, but only two have stuck with me in this way through the years. One being Gravity Falls (and the other one fruits basket).

I just feel so grateful rn. Grateful for Alex Hirsch for creating the show in the first place. Grateful for my younger self for continuing to the series even if I got bullied for it. Grateful for my boyfriend for being such an amazing partner. If you read this far, thank you for reading my sleep deprived ramblings lol (it's like 5am so sorry if I repeat some stuff multiple times).

[hel7l7]

no hate but why do you speak dutch

This ask is so old and I swear this is my fave anon ask ever.

I speak Dutch because I was born in the Netherlands and still live there. The English language is beautiful in the sense that most of our generation speaks it and uses it to communicate on the internet. But there are still other languages out there.

The idea of being born in an English speaking country blows my mind. It seems so weird to have so much popular media in mostly your own language and have the internet using your language for basically everything.

When I was in my teens and started learning English in school I really got into it. Everything felt limitless. I could now speak to people on the internet even if they weren't from my country. I understood movies and series without needing subtitles. Soon me and my friends got this phase were we only spoke English over text and wrote stories in English. Speaking/writing English is in some ways easier for me because it doesn't feel mine. Hel7l7 is English. Hel7l7 is also some sort of persona outside of who I actually am. Hel7l7 is safe. It is where I can express myself and be who I am. But there is also a distance.

And English will always be my second language. English words will always feel a little further away from my reality. And even though I'm not too bad at it, I still always have to think more or differently when I'm writing English compared to when I'm writing in Dutch.

And I didn't want to go back to writing Dutch. For many years I believed my only true potential was English art. I hated my own language. Read books in English and ended up writing my own diary in English. But I think that in growing up there's a point where you realize your mother tongue isn't that bad. That there's also beauty and art to be done in your own language. Recently a friend of mine had this discussion after I stated that my English writing was just better than my Dutch writing. Which they believed to be complete bullshit. Writing in your own language is just scarier. I feel much more vulnerable writing in Dutch. It is scarier, I feel naked, more raw, it feels like that really shows the way my thoughts form in my head. Putting that on paper without a language barrier that molds everything in something just a bit less vulnerable is really hard.

But lately I feel like I do want to go back to experimenting with my own language. That this might be a next step in being closer to myself when I make art. And this is terrifying.

I think your question might be coming from the fact that lately there have been little snippets of Dutch words on this account. This might seem a bit weird since 99% of my following does not speak Dutch. But currently it is part of my art process. And since this art page is basically one big chaotic diary I think this sort of is part of the process that I'm in now.

And no worries. I won't turn this account into an all Dutch page. -B.

[lavenderjewels]

I have a lot to say about the latest jjk episode but it’s mostly “that was so cool” to “I am so sad” that i don’t feel like making entire in-depth posts about it so im just putting a list here for myself

manga and episode spoilers

There’s certain parts where I’m slightly torn between the anime and manga. I said this last episode, but this episode captured the feelings and intensity of the manga while making it completely different. The animation went more stylistic and it changed things to be more abstract. Which is great! If things are going to be different, I want it to be a fresh experience. Still though, some scenes (the Uraume encounter, Malevolent Shrine, etc) were drawn beautifully in the manga and I love the expressions and details there. So I’m happy I read the manga too

The ost over the fight,,, incredible. The bell (?) chimes were the cherry on top

I already know my friend is going to complain about this episode’s animation since they hated parts of last ep, but honestly I love whatever was happening this episode. The choice of colors and direction was unsettling and (naturally) felt otherworldly. Mahoraga and Sukuna are both “divine” in their powers and presence, so making the world plunge into distorted chaos was great to see. The manga page used paneling to show Sukuna’s slicing, so the messy painted look to this ep was suuuch a good choice to do instead

To add onto that point, imo this season adapts the style of the manga a bit better than season 1, especially when the animation looks rough or has solid colors. I love s1’s animation almost as much, but some of the way the characters were animated (gojo without his mask, kenjaku, etc) weren’t my favorite. Jujusanpo is perfect though

That train scene was FUN

It is frustratingly clear in hindsight that Sukuna wanted to have Megumi’s technique. Although I do think he appreciates Megumi’s personality and strength to some degree (let’s ignore the torment Megumi is going through in the manga). Wayyy more than Yuuji at least, so no wonder he wanted to possess Megumi instead

Malevolent kitchen was definitely a choice the people subtitling made

I get the opening song at the end, but I don’t love it. I still was shocked, so it wasn’t that bad.

Yuuji broke my heart and that Yuuji to Sukuna transition at the start,,, 🫠 incredible that it just does not get better for him

[quodekash]

An Analysis of Soren (and maybe other stuff too)

(sorry for bad photo quality that will inevitably come up)

I feel like people have said/thought that it took his father betraying everything and all the stuff that happened to him in seasons 1-3 for soren to properly be a good person (if no one’s thought or said that ever… I’m here to prove it wrong anyway). But I would like to say that soren has always always ALWAYS been a good person. He just didn’t realise he was on the wrong team.

(ID: A photo of a paused moment in The Dragon Prince. Subtitles say “They’re here” (assassins are here to kill the king). Callum is in the middle of the image, and behind him is Soren, who is holding his shoulder defensively. End ID.)

Assassins came to kill the king, and his immediate reaction? Protect the only person in this room who can’t defend himself in a fight. And I know Soren’s a crownguard so it’s like part of his job, but Callum’s not blood royalty (as Soren often points out) and he still protects him. And I have a feeling he’d do that for anyone at all, he’d see danger, assess the people in the room, and immediately defend those who can’t defend themselves.

soren always felt like his dad didn’t treat him right (one day I’ll make an entire post on this alone cos there’s so much to talk about there), but he probably thought neglect was normal, or made excuses for V*ren.

Soren is kind to everyone, no matter their gender, race, age, social status, whatever. Yeah, he bullies Callum but, as he says, Callum had a good dad and Soren never did (again, I’ll talk about this another time), so Soren projected it on to Callum, which is no one’s fault (except for V*ren). Yeah, he hates Rayla and elves when they first meet, but that’s bc a) he’s been taught all his life that elves are the enemy, b) he thought rayla had kidnapped Ez and Callum, c) they killed his king, and d) he just didn’t know any better. And yeah he annoys his sister a lot but that’s his job and he shows how much he ultimately cares about her (he was ready to flipping k!ll Callum cos he thought he’d hurt Claudia)

he is kind, and good, and noble, and doesn’t get enough credit for it, isn’t appreciated for his pure and lovely heart.

That was the… “Soren is a good person” segment. Now we’re on to the “holy bajoolies Soren is impressive” segment.

and it’s something that I’ve never properly understood. He’s literally a crownguard at 18. He’s above all the guards in Katolis, yet he’s barely an adult. Everyone else would surely be like 25-40 (idk if that’s historically accurate, don’t quote me on that) with years more experience and stuff than Soren has, and he’s higher up than all of them (note: and he still treats them all the same way he treats everyone else: with kindness).

But why is he crownguard? Is it because his dad is influential to the king? Maybe, but he’s a very very skilled swordsman, and it seems like the other guards genuinely respect him. And I can’t see Harrow showing any kind of favouritism, (remember the Lady Justice dream). So that means he genuinely earned that place somehow, and there probably would’ve been more than physical tests but also mental tests to make sure he’s smart enough to like know who to trust and when to expect an attack at unexpected times and everything else being crownguard would entail. Which means Soren is not only more talented and brave and skilled than anyone gives him credit for, but he’s also so much smarter than anyone ever acknowledges.

(ID: Soren from The Dragon Prince. Text says “Soren” and underneath in smaller text, “youngest crownguard in history”. End ID.)

[tuesdaytothursday]

I want Netflix to survive just long enough to produce and release their adaptation of One Hundred Years of Solitude.

It will be a train wreck because, while the individual events and locations can easily be adapted to the screen, I am convinced that the way the story moves, which is integral to the emotional effects of the novel — much more so than any other book I've read so far — will not work on the screen. I'm curious how they will try to address the challenge of the book's loop-back-loop-forward movement.

There are many — please forgive me — cinematic moments in the story, of which the most memorable for me is when someone is wrongly murdered by the captain of the guard at a theater. But these moments and scenes work as text, as the revelations of the narrator, who keeps jumping around the history by association. There is no root narrative to return to in the way that there is for a lot of jump-around movies and TV shows I've seen. The thread is the narrator or, more accurately, the narration, since the narrator does not work as a character.

There is also surprisingly little dialog for a book that is about 400 pages long, so (a) there isn't another technical part of the book to focus on, and (b) I wonder how much spoken dialog the show will have. I wonder if the experience will be different for someone like me, who does not know Spanish, reading the subtitles as it unfolds.

I cannot convey how much I love the book. It is my favorite and whenever a friend asks for book recommendations I make sure to mention it. I have read it 7–10 times over the last 12 years. Even though I expect the show to be bad, I am excited to see what they try to keep, what they try to change, what they do with the massive list of characters, how they show the town and the swamp and the mountains.

At this point no adaptation can touch how I feel about the book, the story, the characters and their haunts. I'm just really god damn curious to see what the show runners will attempt, where they might succeed, and where they absolutely will fail.

[abysskeeper]

Trick, mistake, secret and skin

This 100% did not start with me thinking Trick was one of the words

Yeah ok, my secret is that I'm always on my bullshit about Trick too. Another readmore because I uh...always always ramble hard about my girl.

skin: How comfortable is your OC in their skin? Do they grapple with anything that lives inside them—a beast, a curse, a failure, a monster? How do they face the smallest, weakest, most horrible version of themself? Are they able to acknowledge it at all?

So, the key to writing Trick in any way, shape, or form is that she is, 99.9% of the time, never comfortable in her own skin and always contending with some type of monster writhing beneath her skin. Is she confident and capable in her abilities? Yes. Willing to lead and make the tough decisions? Yes. Self-assured and secure in who she is? No, never.

Is it a contradiction in a lot of ways? Yes, but the girl's a mess of martyr complexes and insecurities. She almost always, honestly believes she is the most horrible version of herself (a coward and a monster), and though she would only call herself as such in a conversation where it's directly referenced, she never denies the accusation and does all she can with her actions to try and make up for her perceived shortcomings. In reality, the worst version of herself is the girl who gave up for a time (there's usually some point in her history where she went selectively mute and actively tried to kill herself), and in that regard, Trick often pretends that girl actually succeeded. She rarely acknowledges that time existed, ashamed as she is by it, and on the rare chance it does come up...well, the ensuing conversation isn't pretty.

As for the monsters beneath her skin, it varies by verse, but she's usually contending with some type of darkness or beast that's a thinly veiled allegory for her rage, desperation, and trauma (because I'm like that). A few examples, in no particular order:

Pack-verse: In Trick's original universe (a dystopian urban fantasy/sci-fi mashup), she's a wolf shapeshifter who was experimented on as a kid, which ultimately resulted in the line between human and beast blurring within her. Meaning, she has a tendency to go partial-to-full werewolf when deeply upset, among other differences (improved senses, heightened instincts and reflexes, etc). She's terrified of her capabilities and tries to repress herself as much as possible, which only backfires. The whole character arc there is about her coming to terms with who she is and what happened to her, and accepting that that side of her (the rage, the desperation, the trauma) is not actually a bad thing (and is actually more heightened because of her human choices, not the animalistic ones).

SWTOR: I took the Jedi Consular story and ran with it. The effects of the Force plague linger after chapter 1, even after Morrhage is defeated. I figured that lending out your soul to protect fellow Jedi against a Dark plague probably means you don't get everything back properly, even if you did everything right. She doesn't suffer from corruption so much (I actually believe she's not corruptible because she learned the shielding technique), but she's almost constantly, subconsciously using the shielding technique on herself to battle off the bit of Darkness she inherited from those she shielded. Other parts of her are missing altogether. It causes her a lot of chronic pain, but over time she learns to deal with it...until chapter 3 when she secretly starts shielding the Children and accidentally inherits some of the Emperor's power. KOTFE and KOTET are the worst time of her life, and she never knew so much relief as when the Emperor finally died in EOO.

BG3: My new project and current brainrot. Trick's issues are a little different here, as she's dealing with divinity instead of darkness (her backstory fic I'm working on is literally subtitled "You've Been Touched by Something Holy"). Instead of dealing with darkness, she's dealing with the fact she's literally been touched by the God of Death and bares the scars (both physical and emotional. I'm using this as an excuse to finally make this a valid design and not just metaphorical) that set her apart from her peers. It's still very much a metaphor for her rage and grief, but has a new and exciting flavor that I'm still working out all the kinks of.

secret: What's one secret your OC never wants anyone to know about them?

Again, depends on verse, but Trick always has at least one, world shattering secret she's keeping to herself. Generally, no matter in what iteration, there are deaths in her past she doesn't want anyone knowing about. The numbers and her exact involvement often vary, but she always feels a sense of guilt for people she either directly or indirectly killed through her actions and/or inactions. Otherwise:

Pack-verse: Her primary secret she wishes no one knew is, exactly, the number of people she's been responsible for killing as an agent of the government. However, that isn't a secret she can hide, as most people know and/or remember her committing those crimes. Instead, the secret she's trying most to hide is the aforementioned experimentation and ensuing consequences. She doesn't want anyone to know just how monstrous she really is, and how utterly disgusted she constantly feels about herself.

SWTOR: She tries to take the fact she was born an Imperial slave to the grave, but it does come out eventually to the Republic or Alliance. Instead, the one thing she will take to the grave is what happened to her as a result of the shielding technique. She'll never speak a word about the non-corruption corruption (thus, she'll never ask for help) because she fears how people will view her or treat her if they ever knew. The only exception is Cipher Nine, sometimes, but that man can and will both take a secret to the grave and never once consider betraying her trust.

BG3: The fact she died and was resurrected by a God. It's kind of hard to avoid in full, given the golden scarring is a dead giveaway of something divine happening to her, but she doesn't easily share the full story. And having died and being resurrected stands in direct contrast to being a cleric (and unrealized Chosen) of Kelemvor, nevermind the fact it was Kelemvor who asked her to live and resurrected her in the first place. It's complicated.

mistake: What's the worst mistake your OC ever made? What led to them making it? Have they been able to fix it? How have they moved on?

Trusting Torren, in every verse. The worst mistake she ever made is trusting her...ex? Abuser? Mirror image and narrative foil? All of the above?

Regardless, Torren is always her worst mistake. She tried so hard to fix him, but he was one of those people who couldn't be helped, and did nothing but manipulate and use her further because of her goodwill. People got hurt and died because of it, no matter the verse. She got hurt (usually assaulted), no matter the verse. Torren is always the worst mistake, no matter what, and the only reason she ever trusted him was because she was young and naive and just wanted to help.

Usually Trick rectifies it by, eventually, killing him. It's the only way she feels like she can rectify everything he's done (to her and to others), and it is her burden to bare alone (though sometimes Tav insists on doing the honors). Even after he's dead though, it takes a long time for her to move on from everything that happened. When she has Tav, he usually helps facilitate her moving on quicker, but she can get there on her own with enough time away from the situation and a metric fuckton of painful self-reflection.