#basically the cast was very good and actually i liked a lot of the aesthetic choices

[shredsandpatches]

Just watched the 2008 Teatro Massimo Palermo Mefistofele with @skeleton-richard and while there are a number of staging choices I did not love (LET. THE. ANGELIC CHORUS. GO. ONSTAGE.) I gotta say that Ferruccio Furlanetto's cry of "Faust! Faust! Faust!" at the end is gonna stay with me for a long time.

[superectojazzmage]

Just back from Alien Romulus and hoooo boy oh boy. Review/analysis.

Easily the best Alien movie since the first two, which isn't saying much, yeah, but it is legit a really cool and well-made movie, competing with Late Night With The Devil, Longlegs, and Cuckoo for title of my favorite horror movie this year.

In a lot of ways it's about harvesting the few good ideas from the post-2 movies that were squandered and doing them right, plus getting the series back to it's healthier roots, kinda the movie equivalent of someone doing physical therapy to get back in the saddle after an injury. This means it's not quite brand new ground like some may hope for and I've heard some people feel it gets a little derivative at points because of it. I can kinda agree and certainly understand that criticism, but I feel it does what it's aiming for really well and sets things up for future works to go in even crazier directions. Furthermore, it takes a lot of time to try and weld together the disparate post-2 movies in a way that brings the series back to a little coherency.

The atmosphere is really intense and cool, swinging between lovecraftian dread and build-up and high-energy chaos. The aesthetics and special effects are gorgeous, taking full advantage of the progress that technology has made since 2 plus really digging in to the used cassette future vibe of the older films. The characters are likable and actually intelligent (or at least understandable) in behavior like in the first two movies, so you care about what's happening to them instead of just waiting for them to get munched. The action and kills were really cool and creative, the cinematography in general was off-kilter in an awesome way - there's a definite attempt to make the movie feel claustrophobic and intimate. Fede Alvarez did a fantastic job in general, I'd love to see him do more with the series.

It REALLY cranks up the series' psychosexual, freudian, and sexual assault subtext, arguably to a point where it's just plain text. So if you're sensitive to stuff like that or if this is your first go at Alien, be warned for that.

More specific notes go under the header for spoilers. Highly recommend you go in as blind as you can.

Andy and Rain were wonderful leads, their dynamic was fantastic and Calie Spaeny and David Jonsson both turned in great performances. I direly hope they join the first two films' casts as "major" characters for the series going forward.

The effects to make Daniel Betts look like Ian Holms were quite possibly the one and only time the special effects failed. It looks very wonky, which is sad because Betts does a really good job copying Holms' mannerisms for Ash while still making Rook feel like a distinct character.

In addition to the usual themes of sexual unease, genetics, and parenthood, this movie adds in some really interesting themes of familial legacy, the rise of new generations, foundations, etc.. Andy and Rain are like Romulus and Remus of myth, orphaned and left to fend for themselves but growing into founders of a new age - both in-story with their carrying the XX121 substance and evidence of Weyland-Yutani's misdeeds to Yvaga and out-of-story with them being the protagonists of a new era for Alien. Likewise, the Offspring is the first example of an entirely new species, neither human nor alien but taking from the lineages of both through Kay and Big Chap, a Romulus-like founder of it's breed that will later bear fruit in Resurrection with the Ripley clone and Newborn.

I'm really not kidding when I say above that the psychosexual undercurrents are taken to the extreme here. This movie basically sees the ways the original film subtly pin-pricked at those themes, says "fuck that", and deliberately rubs it in your face in a way designed to make sure you can't ignore it. It wants you to be grossed out and to squirm in your chair and it knows exactly how to make it happen.

Alvarez noted in the lead-up to release that he took a lot of influence from Isolation and you can definitely see that in how he depicts the Xenomorphs and the general aura of the film. He further described it as a kind of halfway point between the first and second movies and you can also see that; it has the Lovecraft-style tension and horror of the first, balanced with the energy and action of the second, and it does a really good job finding a middle ground between Ridley Scott and James Cameron's styles while also doing it's own dance.

I mentioned way back at the start how the movie basically harvests the good ideas from 3, Resurrection, Prometheus, and Covenant and gives them the room they deserve while dumping the bad. It does that in both terms of themes/style and continuity/lore. Concepts that those movies bungled like xeno-human hybridism, the black goo, genetic engineering as a focus, and so on are done here more creatively and competently. Themes that those films tried and failed to tackle are handled with significantly more grace. It has the atmosphere and characterization of 3 but none of it's baggage and needlessly depressive tone. It has the body horror and weirdness of Resurrection without taking it to the zany, embarrassing areas that movie went. The effects and creativity of Prometheus and Covenant without any of their awful writing and clumsy messages. Alvarez takes on kind of an Al Ewing-esque "repairman" writing style here.

The Xenomorphs are absolutely deranged in behavior compared to most portrayals, attacking like either cruel sadists or raging chimps and rarely bothering to take hosts. I'm not sure if such a reading was intended, but I got the vibe that the idea is Xenos raised without a queen or hive grow to be basically sociopathic like how real world predatory animals grown without parental figures become feral and dysfunctional. Which would also explain a lot about how the Xeno in the original movie, Big Chap, acts there.

The Offspring's design is fucking wicked and I love it.

One of my few major criticisms is that Big Chap died off-screen instead of getting more to do. What was the point of having him be alive at the start if he wasn't gonna be used beyond a backstory point to set up the main story?

All in all, a very impressive effort and a great return to form for the series that I recommend highly.

[lovelytayforce]

since you're doing hcs

HCs for the 13 primes in 200 words or less so it's challenging 🫢

Bro thinks Imma FOLLOW THE RULES WHEN RULES ARE MEANT TO BE BROKEN Anyways, ladies and non binaries; let's get this show started!

I've actually written very small vignettes for the 13 for a RP for the people who are out of the loop, no they aren't published but maybe one day I can post em if someone asks nicely 😘 I'd have to explain the context of it all but basically I made this whole sim area based off of Elysia realm; that game mode left a lasting impact on me and it made sense for the Prime's to enter their wisdom as data that embody who they are when they are updated for wisdom is not given, it's earned through mistakes and strife in life. Anyways let's start from the top with my favorite of the Primes: Onyx Prime He doesn't get a lot of screentime which sucks cause he's like THE SHEPARD of the group: He should be guiding Optimus more than Alpha Trion does come on writers THATS HIS WHOLE THING LEADING! (IDW was Shockwave so that doesn't count) I need more of his friendly and kind hearted personality to shine in the main series so BADLY and like again I'm the Predacon addict; let him be my token PREDACON 😭 Anyways onto HCs - with his Triptych Mask; I often give him the aesthetic of opening doors to many places across the universe since he's so spiritually connected to nature and life as it is, he basically has a "Tunnel of light" that can not only guide him but the souls of dearly departed or maybe a lost living soul looking for a reason to keep going forward. - He wanted to live peacefully on Cybertron for a very long time but alas Cybertron wasn't the best place for predacons and maximals with their connection with nature and as transformers I feel he would gladly take the call to transform, adapt and evolve for the betterment of their people - Also, he smelt that functionism bs a mile away and decided to cut his losses while he could. His kids come first! - Can be considered the most motherly and emotionally aware of the group, he's got a good head on him which is why he's so well liked 💙 - He's best friends with predaking in all continuities idc they always find each other - Despite being apart of the Well of Allsparks, he has a physical form but it takes a lot of energy to stabilize so don't expect long talks at night. Onto my second favorite- Quintus Prime! Can I just mention how beautiful this design is? He's so pretty I love him 💙

I never really agreed with him being unimaginative considering he created life but I understood the perfectionist plights he held as for idealism, where his concepts really that unrealistic? I loved questioning that because despite his good intentions he made probably one of the worst species alive but it brings about a funny thing about life; you can't mold individuals with free will to your vision. One way or another this would have unfolded considering many would do anything to reach their god much less creator to understand their purpose in life. okay no more philosophy, lets move on to those hcs~ - After many of his failed attempts at making allies for Cybertronians he withheld himself in the land of his daydreams casting aside his perfectionist habits, he paints. He creates for the joy of it, for within a dream nothing can escape his control. It gives him time to think things out and truly understand how life exists and the beauty of nature that once puzzled him that his brother Onyx knew so well. It's a slow process but it opens this scientist's horizons beyond anything even primus could anticipate! You already know whose my next favorite is if you know me and my love for Transformers Cybertron and Armada those shows were my CHILDHOOD BRO Let's set the timer for Vector Prime! ⏰ YOU'LL ALWAYS BE ICONIC QUEEN THE FIRST PRIME I EVER STANNED OPTIMUS PRIME WHO /jk

I subscribe to the majority of his Ask Vector Prime answers which as follows: He's a fan of the dinobots He used to "boogie down" with a disco ball. Despite having traveled far and wide, he could not see why kids loved Cinnamon Toast Crunch. If he had to choose a beast mode, it would be a large sea mammal. Everyone he ever cares about will grow old and die in what, to him, is just the pulse of a spark. Sometimes, he feels alone even when he's in a crowd. His favorite human movie was Back to the Future, due to the performance of lead actor Eric Stoltz. He revealed himself as a Point One Percenter (after the Shroud).

Please read what this man talks about on tfwiki, he's a national treasure who brings me joy during my great depression. Anyways onto my own hcs 🥰

He's a stickler for being on time! Don't you dare be late! You're wasting his precious time!Vector Prime - The clock that always strikes on time!He's the first POP (Point One Percenter) and was the mold for many POP's in the future such as Skywarp As a being held by the constraints of time, even though he wants to save as many universes as he can, he simply cannot; he's stuck between a physical form and a form distorted by the whims of time and space what little control he has is simply a delicacy that must be treasured with the utmost care. He keeps small trinkets from his favorite universes and planets and leaves clocks around for the sole purpose of helping those looking for his helping hand. Also, I just think it'd be neat to find a giant clock and if you strike right for midnight he'll appear!!

The rest are in the reblogs. 👏🏽

[canmom]

so hades 2 huh

it's fun! i am more convinced after actually playing it than i was in the runup to it. the green colour palette looked a little drab in the videos but it works better for me fullscreen in game, and I really like the second zone's design. the major aesthetic change does go a little way towards making this feel like 'new Supergiant game' instead of just a rehash of the first game.

the difficulty floor is higher than the first game. i think it's well-tuned to go into if you've beaten that one. so far i've played 6 runs, seen the first boss in 5, and and beaten her in 2 of them; yet to get more than about halfway through the second zone after that tho!

the new mana mechanic is kinda interesting, lots of tradeoffs to make. it's a bit more granular than the cast in the first game; you use it to do powered up versions of your attacks, and spending it also charges up the Call-equivalent.

i'm increasingly intrigued by the setting, and i really like some of the side characters like arachne. i think the time skip was a good decision - the story of Zagreus et al. was definitely done. the epilogue ending of the first game was way too neat.

still, starting a revenge plot in media res is curious. especially when Nemesis lampshades the lack of personal motivation. compared to Zagreus's very pressing and relatable motivation (run away from my abusive dad), Melinoë's motivation is a little more abstract - this seems to be deliberate. but it does a fair bit to sell the sort of 'desperate resistance base' setting. it definitely seems rather like they're setting up a twist down the line. but it lacks the immediate emotional hook of the overbearing patriarch in the first game. curious to see how it will work once I've seen more of the story.

as far as the new gods, I'm fascinated by the decision to make Hephaestus and Hestia both be Northern - probably Yorkshire. it's always fun hearing regional UK accents in games. they do also both feel like responses to the criticism that Jen Z never designs fat characters lmao. still, they are good designs. both have satisfying mechanics. Selene also has a really good design I think.

the other gods' mechanics have naturally been redesigned to fit the new game. still broadly the same themes, e.g. Zeus will still be lightning based, but different interpretations of what that means, so for example you have 'hitting an enemy produces a lightning blast behind them' as the primary Zeus mechanic instead of chain lightning. which definitely keeps things fresh. Melinoë's kit has a lot of directional attacks and, with the Cast now being an AOE which slows/freezes enemies, there's a lot more emphasis now on positioning enemies to set up AOE attacks which is interesting.

the witch stuff is quite fun in an admittedly slightly cheesy way. it's definitely pull on aesthetic currents which aren't at all Ancient Greek, like the pointed hats. but hey! I can get into it, it's not like the game's aesthetic has ever been all that strictly historical. even if I am still scratching my head at 'so mote it be'. apparently it's an archaic word meaning 'may', i.e. 'may it be so'.

of course the main thing is, the actual moment to moment gameplay is fun. it flows just as the first game did, and it's just as addictive with the way it spreads out story breadcrumbs. the vfx and such look great, the movement is already super tightly tuned (tbf it's basically the same as the first game with the addition of a new 'hold dash to sprint'), and there's a already good variety of enemy mechanics.

there's some obvious placeholders for some of the UI art and character portraits (notably none of the keepsakes have been drawn yet), but overall it's surprisingly polished for an early-access build. all the voice acting is already there - it's fun seeing the Supergiant voice cast return in new roles.

the meta progression element... there's some neat ideas, like an upgrade system with a limited set of slots that very much calls to mind NieR Automata's chip system. so there are some stronger tradeoffs to make; it's not as simple as 'spend resource, get better' as it was in the first game. and it's clearly possible to advance quite far even without a lot of meta resource investment. so far it definitely feels like my main limit is skill, and I'll progress further once I learn more of the enemy patterns and figure out what builds I like to play.

(though I guess the idea with this kind of game is that the power ups quietly boost you and make it feel like you're getting better a lot faster than you are just learning the game lmao)

overall, it's just really fun to have another Supergiant game to sink my teeth into haha. I still wish they'd continued their streak of coming up with new IPs each time, because they'd come up with fantastic settings, but there's plenty of interest here still.

also the more I work in game dev the more I can appreciate just what a ludicrous amount of polish there is in Supergiant's games. I can only imagine the amount of work it must have taken to tune the feel of everything this tight.

[theteasetwrites]

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon | S1E1 Thoughts

Okay I am gonna list all my positive and negative thoughts regarding each episode (I know no one asked but I feel like this is the only thing I am somewhat “qualified” to talk about ad nauseam on here).

⚠️ SPOILERS AHEAD ⚠️ do not read below the cut unless you’re okay with spoilers

Positive Thoughts

Norman’s acting is so good like?? Listen we all know he’s not Laurence Olivier and he doesn’t claim to be but goddamnit he nails the subtleties of Daryl’s expressions and conveys his emotions really well I think! I’m very impressed

Daryl hot

Obviously the cinematography, setting, and aesthetics are really cool. It’s both gritty but pretty!! I love the gothic architecture and how OLD everything looks, which is only exacerbated by the apocalyptic feel

Everyone in the cast is so good in terms of acting (well, I mean… Laurent is certainly there but he’s a child so we’ll be lenient)

Daryl hot

The walkers are great as usual. I love the burners. Really interesting! I’m kind of wondering if the “experiments” the people on the ship refer to relate to the burners? Maybe they’re making them like that idk.

I love the religious imagery. We have had cults and stuff in TWDU before but I don’t think we’ve had this Catholic vibe going on. I’m a sucker for anything nun related because I have a weird infatuation with them, so I’m all for it.

DARYL BATHTUB SCENE??? They put that in for the girls and the gays and we are LIVING for it

Daryl hot

Daryl is so reminiscent of early seasons TWD era with his witty lines and snark remarks. I feel like we don’t get to see this side of Daryl very often anymore, but now that he has his own show and is THE main character, we get to see those sides that have been neglected again. I also love how much he sort of scoffs at the nuns and their religion. Atheist Daryl we love to see it

It’s cool seeing people in France dealing with the same things our characters have dealt with since the beginning. It’s interesting to see these new parts of the world in this universe for sure

Daryl hot

I honestly just love thinking about how when Daryl gets home he is gonna have such a crazy ass story to tell everyone! It’s gonna be so cute to see him telling all the kids about how heroic he is and ugh yessss

Daryl deserves his own show. He deserves to be THE main character. People who said he can’t lead a show? Nah. Reconsider

I also love that Daryl MIGHT potentially save the world. Cool asf. And if anyone from the original series should save the world, I think it’s him.

Daryl hot

Negative Thoughts:

Okay. I have some very petty/subjective critiques. I realize a lot of you guys probably disagree with me but that’s okay! Don’t read my negative thoughts if you aren’t prepared to be annoyed with me lol. Once again, a lot of these are super petty/nitpicky

First thing that bothers me is that Daryl says he is from the Commonwealth. No. He is from Alexandria, thank you very much. Well, at least he should be. He should’ve been living at Alexandria imo but the finale didn’t really make it explicitly clear where he was living in that year time jump. Basically I just hate the Commonwealth because I have zero attachment to it and it’s just a stupid ass place that I wanna forget about

Daryl seeing Carol in his haze 🙄 … just annoys me solely because Carol annoys me. They could’ve just shown Judith because that would’ve made more sense to me. But don’t get me started, I don’t even want Carol in season 2. Anyway.

Laurent isn’t terrible but he’s kind of annoying in that “I’m so smart I know everything” way. Just very annoying smart kid at school who everyone hated vibes. Plus I just don’t think it’s realistic that he would be THAT smart just from being raised in a convent of nuns

I also fail to understand what they’re doing with Laurent. Is he just some kid that the nuns think is the messiah or is he ACTUALLY the messiah? Like are they gonna throw in a whole other supernatural religious element? Because Laurent conveniently knows Judith’s line from the finale “you deserve a happy ending too.” Right down to the letter. I find it cheesy as hell because I’m so tired of these blatant in your face parallels that are trying to be clever, which always involve children too like we get it children are basically the duck tape of TWDU. Don’t know what to do for this plot? Throw some kids in there!

Neither Positive nor Negative Thoughts:

I don’t trust the nuns. I think they’re gonna use Daryl to get what they want and they don’t really care about getting him home. Worse, I think it could be possible that Isabelle won’t let him get home. She already tried to keep him from using the radio. I’m not saying I hate her character or anything (I actually like her so far… as long as she stays friendly and not… overly friendly), I just think she’s way too invested in this “messiah” stuff to actually care about Daryl so I fear she will take advantage of him. We shall see.

Ok, those are pretty much all of my thoughts!

[pavlovianpanic]

so, i guess i should probably clarify a bit about what curses i'm referencing and how i handle the creature aspect of until dawn because the two coincide so heavily.

to start, i like until dawn, as in i am a fan of until dawn, so i can love it for what it is while quietly correcting a few things. that being said, i actually like to take out a lot of what they've established to leave a more confusing narrative. a purposefully confusing narrative for both us and the characters.

something i like about horror is leaving some things unclarified, leaving the audience guessing, even leaving the characters wondering what just happened. it follows the idea that we aren't quite sure what we were dealing with ... but we had a hell of time along the way.

so, the curses: i split it into two ways — the land itself was already cursed, which i leave sort of vague, but that's what we see affecting people pre-disposed (the miners, for example) to this curse before the main cast comes into the picture.

additionally, the washington family already came "pre-cursed" of something else entirely; their greed (thus, their hunger — it's never enough). i'm more focusing on the washington family here than the overall lore, which i don't really want to start getting into and rewriting as a whole.

i leave it to imply that this could have either started with robert washington or already existed in their bloodline long before robert was even born. the culmination of the washington family coming to the mountain sort of "marked" this family for life.

even if they could escape their own generational curse, they can't escape what's been activated for them. there's a really great quote from bsi by elizabeth where she says "what i have done cannot be undone. i cannot stop what i have put into motion." <- i think that's very applicable here. the events of what has been done before them will continue to unfold long after them. this quote can literally be used for any of these characters, from robert to josh to matt to mike to any of them.

this is why, while hannah is experiencing a creature transformation (thus what we see), she is also suffering "a hunger" that pangs from her own cursed line — that hunger of greed, of envy, of needing more, and of doing anything to survive. she is a survivalist. hannah isn't just falling to something outside of her control, but also something internally imprinted on her DNA.

which is what i have also happen to josh in his creature!verse. a transfer, if you will. it makes sense that the good older brother should take the pain of his sister. they share this same curse, this same "source", thus the same possession (being possessed by their hunger, their own innate and taught need for more).

aesthetically, i like the idea of a body essentially starting to shift into a super predator — the teeth, the jointed limbs to run on all fours, more animalistic. it's the distorted corpse aspect i'm featuring, the thinning of the hair, the loss of skin pigmentation (as the user has technically died, more they do not control their own body, thus it's almost vampiric), glassy eyes (thus shifting their vision into that predator vision we see in-game), the lengthening of the nails — which is where josh is sort "caught" between the two, once again ushering him into a new era of duality (as duality is a huge character arc of his, basically his whole arc arguably). again, i'd argue this is almost bordering into vampire territory. just not twilight vampires and more ... 30 days of night vampires? almost?

i've considered if they can even go out in sunlight, we only really see them at night ever, but that would be stretching more into comparing what lore was established over what i'd like to keep or edit. i'm not here to rewrite until dawn, just to be clear. i do have some inferences that josh is sunlight-avoidant in that verse, though.

as for why or where or even when this curse began? we don't know. that's the beauty of it. we're just as clueless as the cast, which also would make it much more difficult to fight them, which goes along with relying a lot on that diary for information. it's a transference of basically "here's what works, what doesn't, here's what we know" kind of vibes. trial and error. but as for the source? again, it's a cursed land. no one from "that time" is alive to give good faith one way or the other, so i imagine it's just a lot of rumor and speculation.

they're called creatures, monsters, and sometimes my characters might even call them vampires because ... they have no idea what is even going on. they're ignorant, and that's kind of the point imo. even josh's family is shown to disregard the land to build their dream vacation home. not even their real home, a vacation home. so ... in general? this cast? is not made up of respectful people. just look at how they treat and talk to each other if you need more evidence of that.

[anghraine]

I decided to watch Rings of Power and I still like it! General thoughts on the first episode:

This episode does a lot of heavy lifting to introduce everything in a somewhat rough and often disconnected, but engaging enough way.

The voice-over exposition at the beginning is obviously echoing the PJ FOTR one, but it's more awkward and sort of generically high fantasy. I still like it better because a) no Númenóreans were harmed in the making of this voice-over, b) retaining the Finrod-Galadriel age gap while simultaneously leaning into their sibling bond is really cute, c) Finrod using a heavy-handed metaphor in which the greatness of SHIPS figures largely seems entirely in character and also very Telerin (Eärwen's son!!!), and d) the overall story of how Valinorean Elves ended up in Middle-earth is so highly editorialized that it feels like the self-serving Noldor version of the story, which amuses me.

I enjoyed the introduction of present-day Galadriel. She's clearly the most impressive and competent person in the company she's leading while also being kind of unhinged, which I appreciate in a female protagonist. Good for her.

And I like that she's clearly this ancient being and her fixation on FIGHTING EVIL FOREVER is, in part, a product of being old and immortal and stuck in a singular mode of being. However, she's also right and the comparatively young people around her are being condescending assholes (like Gil-galad, but especially that one guy who semi-mutinied against her and is prodding her on the ship).

(Oh, and she has great hair. I actually don't care if the entire wig budget went to her specifically.)

The only one who seems to really feel bad about their dismissive treatment of her is Elrond, which tracks. The hints that he isn't seen as quite an equal ("Elf-lords only") feels silly, but it's not a huge deal for me. And I like that he and Galadriel are bros alongside the tension in her relationships with basically everyone. S2 Celebrían plssss

I still think the complaints about costuming/hair, and incessant comparisons to costuming in PJ!LOTR/WOT/whatever are largely pretty absurd. I particularly liked Arondir's armor and how dissimilar it is from the aesthetic of the Lindon Elves, everything Galadriel wears, and the weirdness of the ritualistic armor removal as they approach Valinor. The Elves spontaneously bursting into unsettling song was odd but extremely on-brand for Tolkien, so it was fun to see it actually done onscreen.

I also think the show is quite beautiful in general and a pleasure to simply look at (no, not only because of the budget).

I don't like how heavily and visibly made-up the main female characters are, however, especially Bronwyn (who also has my least favorite costuming of any of the mains tbh). It reminds me a bit of how Padmé Amidala's heavy and perfect make-up in her death scene in Revenge of the Sith always distracts me from the pathos of the scene. God forbid she wasn't hot as she died, you know? I don't care about middle-aged and older men being cast as Elves, but I'd like to see more older actresses, too!

The Harfoot stuff has an interesting mixture of cuteness and underlying menace. It doesn't interest me as much as what's going on with Galadriel, Elrond, and Arondir/Bronwyn, but I like Nori quite a bit and the whole aesthetic they have going, so I don't mind spending time with them, even though it's kind of detached from what's going on everywhere else.

Speaking of Arondir, the Southlands stuff is interesting because there's so little to work with in terms of canon (even if they had rights to everything) and the canon that does exist wrt them is super racist. So having the textual racism towards Southrons actually be brought up in-story, and rejected by an Elf protagonist who is being played by a Black man, is like ... there's a lot going on there and other people are probably better equipped to talk about it.

Personally, I would have liked to see Arondir fall in love with Bronwyn rather than being presented with it as an established thing, especially with the conversation about how this almost never happens etc. His actor does a great job with what he's given, though, and I laughed at the other Elf who is like "do you know how rarely romances between Men and Elves ever happen? do you know they always END TRAGICALLY?!"

Arondir: mmhmm

Other Elf: THEY DIED, ARONDIR

Arondir gives off big "distracted by drawing hearts around Bronwyn's name in his Trapper Keeper" vibes in that conversation and, idk, it was just really entertaining to me.

Bronwyn herself is all right thus far. I did really like the moment when she's talking about how she's from the allegedly creepy village and the people there are her relatives and friends. By and large she seems the most normal person in the cast, honestly.

I also enjoyed how deeply ominous the "approaching Valinor" music was, lmao. A bit overkill by the end, but I rather like the idea of Valinor being scary if you're not supposed to be there.

ETA: cutting between the different plots via the Middle-earth map is a bit silly as well, but functional enough. Interesting to see Calenardhon on the map before Gondor even exists!

[deconstructthesoup]

All right, okay, poll's done, I've given myself permission to ramble about my ideas for a next-gen season of the Unsleeping City and there is no going back!

So, the story would theoretically take place about fourteen years after the end of UC2 (which would, yes, make it slightly harder to write as it'd be set in the actual future of our world, but I've never once made anything easy on myself), making our cast a combination of teens inspired to take on the world and young adults desperately attempting to keep them under control. I'm not sure who the antagonist would be (though, finding out that there's literally a warlock subclass called "Ghost in the Machine" where your patron is a full-blown rogue AI has definitely given me some ideas), but I do know about the characters:

Langston Brown is now sixteen years old---though, with the combined factors of his parents being in their early seventies and him quite literally being a spirit that's meant to safeguard the past, he's very much an "old soul" kinda guy who doesn't keep up with the trends and marches to the beat of his own drum (I'm imagining Riz meets Gunnie in terms of aesthetics and personality). He is aware of the magic of the Unsleeping City, but he's kind of just accepted it as something that's normal and that he doesn't really need to be that involved in... that is, until his draconic powers start manifesting, and Kingston and Liz finally give him the talk. Langston is, of course, very thrown for a loop about being an incredibly important part of the Unsleeping City, especially since he's fairly introverted and humble, but it soon becomes clear that he's going to have to accept his abilities to save New York. Obviously, Langston's a Draconic Bloodline sorcerer, and though he'd look human most of the time, it'd make sense for him to at least mechanically be a dragonborn.

Alejandra "Al" Matsui has been raised in the Gramercy Occult Society her whole life, but rather than become a wizard like her mom---or a paladin like her dad---she's learned more from J.J. and is incredibly interested in mixing science with magic, becoming an Alchemist artificer. She's inherited her dad's love of helping people, and her primary motivation is to use her knowledge of alchemy to become a magical doctor---kind of in the same vein as Kingston, except she's very much of the mindset that everything can be solved with science, magic, or a combo of the two. Al tends to put herself under a lot of pressure, and the fact that she has big ideas and fully intends to execute them all means that she's more than a little overwhelmed at all times... not that she'd show it.

Catherine "Cat" Lee, on the other hand, is completely carefree, energetic, and an absolute ray of sunshine. Being an indestructible aasimar and the daughter of not one but two First Fists, she knows how to handle herself in a fight, and having La Grande Gata basically be her guardian angel since birth means that she walks around NYC with almost no fear at all. Cat's a cheerleader and a total social butterfly, but her boundless enthusiasm and badassery makes her think that she can automatically handle anything entirely on her own, and she's still learning that being physically indestructible doesn't mean that she doesn't have limits. But she's got her best buds Langston and Al, and she's absolutely positive that together, they can not only take on New York, but the entire world. As for class, I initially had her down as a Sun Soul Monk, but after watching the final UC2 Adventuring Party and hearing Emily say that Cat would probably do something different than her parents, I think she'd absolutely be an Oath of Glory paladin---with a couple levels of Divine Soul sorcerer thrown in there for good measure, of course.

Coming from the exact opposite vibes of Cat, Jessica Lisowski is now twenty-eight, working part-time at the Met and part-time at Gramercy, and is the most tired, burnt-out, and cynical she's ever been. Against Iga's advice, she's been keeping her mundane and magical lives as separate from each other as possible, and the stress of maintaining a strict double life has caused her to lose a lot of the childlike wonder she used to have for magic, now just seeing it as something that helps her get through the day at best and an actual danger at worst. It definitely doesn't help the fact that both her mother and her brother have their whole magic-and-reality thing balanced out pretty well, and the only thing keeping Jessica from cutting herself off from the magic entirely is the lasting friendships she's made at Gramercy---including her friendship with Al, who she's been helping out and mentoring since Al was old enough to cast her first cantrip. And to stay in line with the "closed off from everyone around her" vibes, Jessica is a School of Abjuration wizard. Debated School of Illusion, but I think it fits.

Adding another experienced-adult-type to the party, we've got Matt Kugrich---grandson of Rat Jesus, nephew of Wally Claus, and freelancing vampire hunter. Inspired by his dad's own efforts in taking down the more corrupt vampires running amok in New York, Matt's been giving him a hand... though, he's mostly been working through the Dream Team, and David may or may not exactly know what his son is up to. Since we don't really know a lot about him in canon, I like to think that he's got a little bit of a smartass vibe to him, but he's also very down-to-earth, relaxed, and a go-with-the-energy kinda dude. For class, the idea of Matt being a Swarmkeeper ranger with Urban being his favored terrain, vampires being his favored enemy, and his swarm being entirely composed out of rats in honor of Kugrash came almost immediately---and if we're going with the whole "vampire slayer" thing, I think it'd make sense for him to also be a Soulknife rogue. (As funny as the idea of Murph just playing an older version of Cody for this hypothetical next-gen season is, Kugrash has grandkids, and I think they deserve the spotlight. I'd say that Delia probably has some UC ties, too.)

And rounding out the roster with the only OC in the bunch, we have Riley Conlan-Park---a young faerie who was found wandering around the Fairyland amusement park as a little kid with zero memory of who they were or where they came from, and after several months of trying to figure out who the hell this kid was, they were subsequently adopted by Pete and Maddie. When the story starts, they're fifteen years old---though they've been out of high school for a few years due to skipping several grades---and have decided that their life passion is a solid mixture of DJing for underground parties and digging up dirt on companies like Gladiator through the power of hacking. Riley has a lot of confidence, both earned and unearned, and they prefer to just let loose and be the crazy, irresponsible one rather than stop and actually let themselves think deeper about their past and all their underlying issues that they've worked very hard to keep shoved down---and they're pretty sure they can live like that forever. Of course, all that poking around in the dark web will awaken something in the Unsleeping City, and it doesn't take long before Riley makes a connection with something... other in their trips through the backrooms. Mechanically, they're an Eladrin who relies on the Umbral Arcana to make themselves look human, and class-wise, they're a College of Creation bard and a Ghost in the Machine warlock.

And, uh... that's what I got, now I gotta go to sleep.

[cozy-autumn-moth]

So after having a thought about Pahkitew Island I’ve decided that it’s a flawed season and that maybe if people like this I’ll write a sort of rewrite/fanfiction of it. This post will be my ideas for what the rewritten characters would be like. So…I hope people like this

Beardo

-Is very introverted and has a hard time making friends.

-Makes videos on social media doing beatbox covers to songs he likes though he isn’t noticed much.

-Works as a DJ for parties. Is really good but he doesn’t feel like he’s doing enough.

-Before knowing he was joining Total Drama he originally thought he was going to be the DJ for some rich dude and took the job as a chance of notoriety.

-Craves friendship and notoriety more than anything and the one thing he plans on accomplishing while on the show is to make at least one friend.

Leonard

-Leonard loves LARPing! It’s essentially become a special interest for him and though he knows the whole thing isn’t real he still tries immersing himself in that fantasy aesthetic.

-Is kinda annoying at times but means no harm, he just really badly wants to talk about his hobby.

-Originally signed up for some sort of show regarding LARPing but was instead brought to Total Drama.

-Though it wasn’t in his plans he still tries to prove himself in the game, despite the fact he’s pretty terrible at physical activity…especially to the caliber Total Drama provides.

Rodney

-A farm boy who's the oldest of five younger brothers in a decently strict family with two pretty decently old parents.

-His family isn’t the richest at all and thus being the oldest and strongest he was usually tasked with all the heavy lifting and taking care of everyone.

-Is homeschooled by his parents and generally pretty isolated. That being said, while he isn’t an outcast he’s very bad with communicating, especially towards people he likes romantically.

-Rodney gains crushes on people easily, and while he doesn’t pursue them it’s obvious he’s crushing hard.

-Was trying to find ways to make money quick so he was one of the few people who knew he was going on Total Drama because he auditioned for it straight up unlike the rest of the cast.

Amy and Sammy

-These two are identical twins whose relationship is highly strained. Amy is the older twin Sammy is younger by a couple of minutes.

-Amy is the twin who is much better with sports, fashion, and other physical bodily things.

-Sammy is the twin who is far better with music, drawing, and general abstract things, though her talents are far less recognized compared to Amy’s.

-The two usually don’t talk and have never really interacted much outside of arguments.

-Both girls really wanted to go to camps but their mom just put them in one camp together that did both of the things they wanted. This later came up to be a secret application for Total Drama that both didn’t know about until they got there.

Ella

-Ella is a very sweet and nice girl who has found a passion in music.

-She’s had a rough life for these past 16 years so she’s found that singing has made the hard times a lot sweeter.

-She really idealizes this princess lifestyle where she’ll be able to achieve a happily ever after.

-She’s basically replaced her brain with her heart. She doesn’t usually think things completely logically as she wants to do what makes her happy. Thus her emotions are really potent.

-Wanted to practice singing and wanted to go to a camp for it. Was sent to Total Drama instead.

Topher

-Topher is a guy who has idolized Chris McLean and other famous celebrities and show hosts for…basically most of his life. Thus he’s tried replicating this charm since he was young.

-He’s a great public speaker and persuader in general. Though he never uses this skill for anything productive other than to have people do what he wants.

-He’s never had to work for anything in his life. He usually just has other people do it on the count of his good looks and persuasive speaking.

-Despite that he’s actually quite envious of other celebrities and is really entitled. Believing the world be served to him on a platter.

-Parents forced him into a club for public speaking against his will. Though instead he got to go somewhere much better.

Dave

-Dave is a self described normal kind person. He is not a normal kind person as he believes. He’s not necessarily a horrible person, just very insensitive and actively neglects to think before acting.

-He also comes off as a faux hipster of sorts as he usually feels he’s super intellectual and smart when he’s really just kinda trying too hard.

-He isn’t adverse to apologizing or proving when he’s wrong, but that’s only when literally everyone is dogging him.

-He is a minor germaphobe and refuses to get dirty.

-He thought that going on some sort of retreat would be a good sort of a detox from the people in his everyday life. Turns out he was being put on Total Drama.

Max

-Max was profusely bullied for a long time in his life and at a certain point decided enough was truly enough. Thus he started to become far more aggressive and seemingly threatening, it’s not working.

-He isn’t a bad kid at all, he just doesn’t like to be pushed around by people and thus isolates himself to seem more mysterious, threatening, and evil then he actually is.

-He’s good with children and has a lot of hobbies that he doesn’t tell people out of fear of being judged.

-Highly uncooperative and very averse to niceness. Secretly really wants it and to be admired.

-He was trying to go to a science camp to try and learn some different things that can be seen as cool and badass. He was instead sent to Total Drama.

Scarlett

-Scarlett in nature is highly unemotional, pragmatic, and highly dangerous.

-Scarlett is very smart, almost to the point of being considered a child prodigy, though people just mistake it and think it’s plain introversion it’s actually something deeper.

-She’s very bad at expressing herself along with her needs. She’ll do lots of unnecessary things to get her point across.

-She has never been tested for anything do to her parents not wanting the stigma of what they considered a messed up child, this makes her an enigma to most everyone.

-After a major issue back home her parents tried sending her to a camp for mental health to get her treated in, she was instead brought to Total Drama.

Jasmine

-Jasmine is a natural born leader who is skilled within the field of survival and nature.

-She has issues regarding femininity due to being strong and having more masculine interests than other girls her age.

-She’s generally been described as a mom friend by many, she embraces that and tries to help people out as best as she can.

-Wanted to join a survival show to test her skills. She kinda got that on accident but it was way more than she expected.

Sugar

-Sugar is a girl who despite her looks and appearance, is smart and quite conniving.

-She lives in an environment where everyone is adept at lying and playing an act. It’s very hard to know when she’s being genuine.

-The only things that she makes known of her real self is her repulsive habits and general country heritage. Other than that her personality can change from nasty to sweet on a dime.

-Sugar was trying to search for more opportunities in the spotlight. She signed up for a pageant show but instead was put into Total Drama.

Sky

-Sky is a girl with only one dream, and that’s to eventually become a future Olympian.

-She only lives with her sister, after an accident regarding her parents. Her sister is an Olympian and she usually likes to train with her and she looks up to her more than anything.

-She’s generally seen as over ambitious a lot of the time and she pushes herself to limits even she can’t reach sometimes. But she sees that if she doesn’t push herself she can’t accomplish her dreams.

-She tried to join a camp that’d help enhance her skills, instead it was Total Drama.

Shawn

-Shawn has major and irrational anxieties about most things for a very unknown reason.

-After watching Total Drama once before and seeing Ezekiel in a feral state once he’s begun to think that zombies are real and he’s going to die. He’s also believed many other things like end of the world hoaxes, lizard people, and other weird conspiracy theories. None beat the zombie thought though.

-He’s learned to not trust people out of fear they’ll become zombies themselves, it’s very unhealthy.

-Shawn was convinced by a very fake zombie survival camp ad and was stocked to learn more knowledge to survive the apocalypse. He was instead taken to Total Drama.

[empirearchives]

NAPOLEON - Official Trailer (HD) - YouTube

Do you see this bullshit, your majesty? Seriously, I'd like to know your opinion, because I don't think it looks very good. Basically, it seems like a truncated and simplified version of the 2002 French miniseries with Christian Clavier, and that one already suffered from having to cut corners in terms of time allotted to various historical events...

Yup, I definitely think it’s going to be oversimplified. Napoleon deserves a 10 hour series *minimum* to get anywhere close to grasping the whole scope of his life and legacy. But they can’t really do that with a single film 😅 Unfortunately, I think they have to cut a lot of stuff.

I have a lot of thoughts about this trailer.

About Napoleon:

I’m not sure why he’s mumbling so much. It seems like the actor is intentionally acting stiff and I don’t know why. Napoleon was described by his contemporaries as “energetic” and “electric”. Not mumbling and rigid. He should be very charismatic.

My guess is that the reason they are depicting him in such an emotionless way is because they want to portray him as a tyrant who doesn’t have any remorse or feelings and only cares about power. But I’m hoping they show more to him and his character in the actual film. Fingers crossed.

His age is wayyyyy off. He should be in his 20s, the age he was in the 1790s. 34 when he became emperor. Not 50s or whatever the actor is. That’s the age Napoleon was when he died.

About Josephine:

Okay I have a lottttt of thoughts but I feel that I need to see the film first before I make any judgements. First off, I like the actress they casted a lot (despite the fact that she’s younger than the Napoleon actor). I’m really intrigued with how they are characterizing her. I like that they are not depicting her as completely submissive and without any influence. I was worried they would try to portray her as powerless, which I don’t think she was. Instead it seems like they are doing the exact opposite. I had difficult time understanding everything in the trailer, but I think Josephine in the film told Napoleon that he was a “little brute that would be nothing without me.”

Um…… that’s an interesting take.

There’s a lot of little things I’m curious about, such as the depiction of Brumaire, the pyramids, etc. I guess we have to wait until it comes out to see those scenes in its entirety though. I’m also really excited to see their depiction of Talleyrand!!

The cinematography is really cool!! I noticed some shots which match real life paintings, which I love! 😊😊

The trailer actually gives me some hope that it might be a really good film despite the issues. I am hopeful but cautious! If it ends up being bad, at least we will have some more aesthetic shots to enjoy lol

[ohwyrmm]

I see why ur the CEO of PulseDragon DANG ur good at this. What drew you to the pair in the first place?

Returning to the top now that I've typed this out it's honestly a bit wordy so apologies in advance =0= 🎶 thank you for asking btw I like talking about them

Since inception (and I've been a fan producing Han76 content since OW1 release, though those accounts I posted it on no longer exist), I've always felt that the two of them are ultimately two sides of the same coin.

A lot of the very early lore simply casted them both as very jaded, tired, angry, and lost. I felt that perhaps it would not ever be realistic for them to completely be free of that (within the narrative), but that they would benefit from having someone to be lost with. Alone together is better than alone apart.

Over time, and as lore has been expanded upon and elaborated, a lot of parallels have continued to be drawn between the two of them: both totally out of their depth, neither loving or craving the violence of their lives, operating out of a type of perceived duty that they MUST fulfill rather than any personal desires to be in the fight (think Lucio to some extent, where the fighting and the valor and the helping people is the beginning and the end).

We know more now about how Jack never really wanted to be Strike Commander (Bastet) and how much of his continued presence and elevation (much to his own detriment) within the Overwatch organization had more to do with his looks and pleasant personality than any desire he had to stay (Valkyrie, Bastet, Declassified). We know that he wanted a family (Bastet) and that he's TIRED and lost. He joined the military early in his life and that basically ripped any dream of him ever being normal away, even if he didn't know until decades later.

Hanzo is much the same. Ultimately his decisions are his own but he is a victim of circumstance like Genji was (hence why Genji forgives him now, beyond his own journey for inner peace). We also know that he craves a normal life, and he alludes to settling down soon (voicelines). Much like Jack, his continued presence in the narrative is led by regret rather than any interest in fighting (Where Honor Lives, voicelines, and the Dragons cinematic). I would like to think that healing would be possible for both of them to some degree; and I believe that they could be good for each other. They both do ultimately crave normalcy and love.

They contrast a bit as well in a way I think is nice, with it being understood to some extent that Hanzo is actually a bit shy (not in the commonly presented way where he's a quivering waif, but rather that he simply clearly does not have a lot of experience dealing with people on a purely personal level for a 40 year old man), whereas Jack commands a bit more attention (essentially a retired politician). I think that this adds good layers to how they can interact.

On a purely aesthetic level they tend to work as well, both have a distinct blue theming that makes them pleasant to see together. Their silhouettes look very nice together, and they carry themselves (in terms of stance) in a very similar way.

...

Nowhere else to put it but it also amuses me to no end that they have a similar sense of humor. I think they would make each other laugh.

[beeejayy]

Hi I made an essay on why Soul Eater is good. It's very basic so I didn't actually get into the DETAILS like uh my favoritism towards certain characters

Soul Eater is an anime that came out in 2008. It’s very unique with its animation, soundtrack, premise and amazing characters. I’ve watched this anime many times, it’s probably my favorite one and has been my obsession for two years.

The main cast consists of seven characters, it never feels overwhelming either. The series revolves around a partnership of weapons and meisters. Weapons are demons who can transform into weapons and meisters are humans who can wield the weapons and see souls. They all go to an academy run by Lord Death, who is literally Death and their goal is for weapons to eat evil “kishin” souls to stop the world from being overruled with chaos and madness. Their main goal specifically is to eat 99 souls and one witch soul which gives them the power to be one of Lord Death’s personal weapons. But throughout the show that gets interrupted when an evil witch who was undercover as faculty in the school tries to cause her own chaos.

The animation is smooth, especially during fight scenes. As well as the artstyle, it is different from usual anime. It’s a mix of the original manga creator, Atsushi Ohkubo’s developing art style since it progresses a lot in the manga. The aesthetic is amazing too, from the beginning Soul Eater has a halloween vibe, it even crosses to horror in some ways. Even the characters are nods and parodies of famous halloween things. For example characters like Professor Franken Stein, Sid who’s a zombie, Naigus who’s a mummy, Witch Medusa, Free the werewolf and much more.

The soundtrack is also amazing, it really can hype someone up. It has elements of punk, rock and rap. There’s always some kind of music playing and it fits the scenes and during fight scenes it gets even better.

Each character is unique, not just with their halloween references but also the fact they all are likable, even Medusa who is in general an amazing villain. The main character, Maka Albarn is one of the best female leads in a manga and they really are what make the anime rewatchable for me. I’ve watched it so much, drawn thousands of fanart for it too. Each character has a compelling dynamic with each other, it’s fun and even comedic!

The comedy and story is also a big part of why Soul Eater is so rewatchable, besides the characters. The story has Maka trying to prove herself as a meister as well shows her compassion and stubbornness to be one of the best meisters ever. The rest of the cast have their own episodes and their friendship with each other is fun to see.

Visually it's beautiful. They even play with scenes and do different types of visuals, especially when it needs to show the madness of the story and characters or fights is when they really go out. When the meisters fight with their weapons it really shines. Mostly when Maka uses her scythe partner Soul Eater himself. Just from the first intro it can compel anyone to want to watch it, at least for me it’s multiple times. Right now I’ve been rewatching the show with different friends too.

In my genuine opinion, I think it’s the most compelling and enthralling anime I’ve seen. I’ve not been able to stop thinking about it for about two or so years. Soul Eater is amazing. Thank you for reading my essay on why it’s so captivating.

[snalz-artt]

forgot to post this doodle SAY HELLO to the shittiest bbc ghosts/mcyt au ever conceived, thankyou @/luigra for helping hehe

i have A LOT to say so its going under the cut this is soso silly

basic bbc ghosts plot: A young woman inherits a huge mansion estate in england from a dubious familial connection and moves in with her husband. They plan to renovate the manor and guesthouses to make into a hotel/venue, but when she falls out a window and almost dies, she comes back to life with the ability to See Ghosts. With the house being very historic, there are quite a few interesting characters (the falling out the window thing might be their fault, actually). Hijinks ensue.

———

CLEO: Cleo is the Allison of the story, she inherits the house and falls out the window, now.. undead(?) they can see and interact with the cast of Ghosts they’re now stuck with. Making ZombieCleo one of the Alive characters was too funny, sorry.

SCOTT: Scott is Mike!! Cleo’s best friend/partner/chosen soulmate (like in double life), he Cannot see the ghosts but completely trusts they exist.

They get up to various antics as they try to renovate and market the place, usually while being hindered or helped by the ghosts. I haven’t thought of a good pun on the name Button House yet though..

The ghosts are not all from any specific series, but a selection of ghosts/dead characters from multiple mcyt sources ^^

JOE: Joseph Hills takes the role of Thomas Thorne. He is a dramatic regency era poet who mostly follows Cleo around, trying to impress her with his… unique poetry, that was considered before his time. Their ghost theming comes from Beetlejhost of course.

RANBOO: Ronald Booth is Pat, a 1980’s Scout Leader. To be honest, this is just because Ranboo is very associated with the 80’s aesthetic and can fit the silly yes-man subordinate role, and of course was a ghost on the dsmp (Boo).

BDUBS: Bdubs is Robin!! A caveman who lived on the land well before the house was built. He’s seen it all, which fits Bdubs’ storyteller theme!! This is also just a fun visual choice because instead of wearing animal furs he gets to wear a big mossy coat. He also talks in a quite a unique and funny way which could replace how Robin talks like. Yknow, a Caveman. There was also a tiny bit in.. last life? Where bdubs was a ghost? (We were running out of ghosts at this point.)

SLIME: Charles Slime is Humphrey Bone, a headless tudor nobleman!!! Slime has a pretty constant track record of dying dramatically in mcyt (dsmp, epic smp, slimecicle cinematic universe) hence getting to be a ghost here. He has a lot of comedy that i think fits pretty well with being a ghost and with the visual humour of having your body separate to your head <3

FLIPPA: Juanaflippa as Jemima!!! I had to get one of the Eggs in here, even if i dont know much about qsmp at this point its just too perfect for one of them to be Jemima, since we have Charlie why not have Juanaflippa ^^ This can fit the common bbc ghosts fanon of Humphrey being found family for Jemima, with Charlie and Flippa’s father-daughter relationship. Creepy little singing ghost girl!!!

QUACKITY/MEXICAN DREAM: Yeah ok we were really running out of mcyt ghosts at this point, if you dont know anything about the dsmp you would probably think im making this up- uh, quackity plays him, he died and became a very prominent dsmp ghost. He takes the role of Julian as a 90’s politician character (like quackity/md in el rapids etc) here. I GUESS.

GHOSTBUR: Im pretty sure that while alive Kitty didnt blow up a country or whatever but the innocent and kind character of ghostbur fits the role of Kitty pretty well, with both having poor/inaccurate memories of their lives and being very sweet. A georgian noblewoman! Instead of Kitty he’d be called Willy or something. That way one of the ghosts can still have an innuendo name. Thats important.

JIMMY: Jimmy (James) as Mary. A stuart era peasant who got burned in the witch trials. He could still have the power to make people smell smoke, i think it fits the canary thing a bit. AND SPOILERS FOR BBC GHOSTS, Mary being the First Ghost of the main group to get.. sucked away is just too perfect. While never explicitly being a Ghost, Jimmy has such a connection to death that i think im justified.

PIX: Pixie as Fanny!!! He used to own the house many years ago and is now a ghost that really wants it to be perfectly historically preserved. Pix was a ghost in empires s2 and an archeologist who wanted to preserve history of course, so this fits the really proper and old fashioned personality of Fanny pretty well. Also her love of animals fits pix having the ghost cat and the dodos…

SCHLATT: Schlatt as The Captain, a repressed gay ww2 Captain who never actually saw any combat. He can fit the leader role that the Captain does, especially the fact that he just assumes himself the leader, and the others kind of don't take him seriously. Schlatt was a ghost, Glatt, on the dsmp! He will be a bit less.. nice? Than the bbc ghosts captain, but could still have a good bit of development.

bonus convex as the plague ghosts, vex are kind of ghosty, right?

[zarenillia]

[The following will NOT contain spoilers for TEVI, but is a lengthy rant with basically no direction. Viewer Discretion Is Advised]

There were issues with TEVI's story, and I fully enjoyed it regardless of them, and the music is really incredible.

But the gameplay. Oh boy the gameplay (somewhat affectionate).

To start with, I like the crafting system. Not only is it pretty good game-wise, but it really helps emphasize that component of Tevi as a character.

I like the orbitars, they have some really good options, and their whatever it is Burst Gauge thing is pretty neat too, although can be a bit confusing to try to switch around to the one you want while you're busy fighting, as it's desire to add more quality detail over Ribbon's ui actually kind of hurts it. In RR, Ribbons attack options are color coded, and while switching them not only does the bar near your health change but there's also a prompt near your character. In TEVI that's still pretty much the case but since they're icons that are color coded to the two orbitars themselves, trying to swap between them without looking near your health bar can be a bit frustrating when you use the wrong one. C1+C3, S1+S3 look functionally alike, though C2 and S2 are a little more distinct in terms of icon of the others of the same type. Granted you'll never really be confused on if you're on S or C (which I was on S for most of the time, holy fucking shit does S1 kick ass).

Supposedly ranged builds are pretty powerful, but I mostly used melee, using charged shots to add damage, as one generally did in RR outside of 0% runs, especially as that seems to be encouraged in TEVI due to the amount of sigils that change attacks at certain combo levels, and combos in general are a mostly melee thing, unless you're using basic shots and then you're probably using mana and depriving yourself of charged shots. But maybe magic sigils fix that problem, again I mostly did melee so I wouldn't know. Maybe I could try doing a magic run, it seems like a game I'd like to play again as I did with RR.

Speaking of which, Cocoa Mode 2.0 with Cocoa 2.0 in Vena. Please. I need this. I loved Cocoa's playstyle. I loved her bombs. I want it back. And I'm sure we'll probably get it back since they're working on DLC.

In terms of character design, while I do miss the very gay all girl cast of RR, I do love TEVI's characters (yes even the men, they're good characters), and I do find it hilarious (and comforting to an extent) that despite the changes in theming and in character aesthetics, TEVI continues RR's tradition of not allowing characters to wear pants. Well, quite a few do, but for the most part everyone is still pants-less. Yet also with significantly more details to off put that so the game also doesn't feel as sexualized as RR does. Like just compare Tevi to Erina. They're both wearing bunny suits and have ears, and yet Tevi has a lot of details that put that off to the point that you might not even realize that's what it's supposed to be, with the belt and pouches, the leg strap, whatever the hell she's doing with like some kind of coat or jacket. The characters also feel a lot more developed in TEVI. I mean RR's cast had character to them, but most of it was based on character tropes and "oh yeah she's hella gay, but for Character D, unlike Character C who's gay for Character B who seems gay for Character F but will probably come around to C eventually." But none of them have character moments like what happens throughout TEVI's story. Which I would love to go on a tangent about, and might on a separate post, but not yet (see: top of post).

Also, voice acting???? I do like it, even though I don't really understand Japanese at all, it does still add tonal indications that really emphasize the energy of not only what people are saying, but also of the character themselves. If a character is feeling really emotional, on the verge of crying, you can feel that in the VA, if they're starting to get annoyed, you can feel that. If they're very currently not taking their job seriously and are basically on a vacation, you can feel that in their energy. Along with the words themselves and the character sprites to go along with it, character dialogue feels so much more advanced than in RR. TEVI's story can be a little dark, and sometimes you can hear the effects the events are happening on the main 3 through their voices. There's times you can hear Tevi's voice cracking with just pure unadulterated rage and anguish, and I love that. You can hear characters falter as they realize the full scope of what was happening just outside of their vision all their lives, all the things they never knew, were never told. And I think the VA work really contributes positively to that, even if you don't listen to the full thing. You can hear it in just the first couple words of each dialogue.

I guess that kinda concludes my rant. Standard recommendation that you should play both TEVI and Rabi-Ribi, and I look forward to the DLC of TEVI and eventually when RR2 comes out. Unless you hate metroidvanias. Then they may not be for you. Ender Lilies and Ender Magnolias (which is still in EA during the posting of this) are also pretty good. Hollow Knight and Cave Story+ too. Also Dust: An Elysian Tail, Lost Ruins, Touhou Luna Nights.

Also BASED ROLEO BASED TRANS RIGHTS LMAO

[noellevanious]

thoughts on soul eater manga so far after reading it for two nights at work (currently around the middle of after Arachnophobia reforming)

TL;DR: i might keep reading but i'm not sure (i'm getting burnt out from it 100%), but right now i'd say it holds up pretty well - and would recommend it if not for just how fucking frequent and insistent the creepy voyeur shit is. I get it dude. you think its funny and definitely not creepy to have jokes about dudes pulling up girl or female-presenting character skirts.

(full thoughts under the cut because i typed So fucking much):

really good story and fun dynamic and aesthetic that is hampered so fucking much by Classic Shitty Mangaka trappings ie girls getting their underwear exposed, obsession with girls that want to Get Married, women in skimpy outfits, the usual kinda shitty stuff.

Lots of great characters. Aside from the generic/stereotypical Bad quirks (Wants to get married, desperately wants to ask somebody out, Embarrassed because she's Not Sexy and Buxom), there's a lot of really fun personality in all of the characters.

It's actually a bit more of a comedy than i remembered. it's surprisingly pretty consistently funny

the story is oddly breakneck which is both a blessing and a curse. It's entirely possible it's because i was basically binging it, but as soon as medusa freed it feels like it hasn't let up. It's good because i feel like there's always something new or interesting, and Ohkubo (the mangaka) is great at drawing really impressive landmarks and setpieces, but it feels weird that the school basically turns into an afterthought

It's kinda surprising how so far both Crona and Death the Kid have their mental illnesses portrayed really respectfully. With kid it's always a bit of a joke, but his OCD feels very genuine in a way that goes beyond "haha every now and then he gets too upset because things aren't In Order", especially the bits where Liz and Patty have to basically keep him from spiraling into a depression because of it. Crona is obviously a knock-out-of-the-park, but I am amazed at how much focus is put on their issues with being raised in an abusive upbringing and trying to escape from it.

On the other hand - it feels like the characters that aren't Maka, Soul, and Black*Star don't get any character development, and it has the issue other popular shounen manga has where instead of trying to develop the already large cast more, Ohkubo keeps throwing more one-note characters in. It kinda works in his favor - Kilik especially kicks ass and I'm glad he becomes a Notable character - but it's easy to get tired of the same characters going through the motions

Mifune is easily the best character in the entire series so far, but Free is a blast and I enjoy him whenever i see him, especially his dopey werewolf form and whenever he chants "wolf wolves wolf wolves"

[utilitycaster]

i think you've talked about this before, so i apologize if you're repeating yourself, but i've only ever played dnd once, so while i've picked up a lot of knowledge from just watching CR, i'm having a bit of trouble fully wrapping my head around why laudna's multiclass is mechanically bad. (storywise i get; combat not so much.) i know it takes longer for her to get access to higher-level spells, and i know that part of the problem is that a lot of the spells she is taking are more based on self-defense than either support casting or direct offense, but i feel like there's something more strategic i'm missing about sorlock being a weak build.

Sure! As with all mechanical posts there is a degree of personal opinions in here which I'll try to call out when I'm getting really into my own preferences, but sorlock really is generally not that great and I think it's mostly popular because of coffeelock posts.

The biggest one is that warlock, specifically, in 5e has a different spellcasting system than all the other casters. You only get a couple spell slots, all of the same level, and they recharge on a short rest. If you're a warlock multiclass, you add these on to your other spells. This is different from how a full caster multiclass works - if Laudna had been a sorcerer/bard, to give an example, she'd actually have the exact same spell slot configuration as Imogen or FCG - she just wouldn't have access to 5th level spells. She could still upcast lower level spells to 5th level, however. But she's not, so instead she has one lone 4th level spell and a glut of low-level spells. It's not even that she's not picking great spells; I'd have to do a deep dive into her spell list but it's decent (just as fighters only need one sword you really do only need like 2-3 good damage spells; it's just cooler if you have more) and warlocks are built to be fighting with cantrips anyway. It's that she's got a jack of all trades/master of none situation going on in a caster-heavy party with another sorcerer no less, so she's not adding a ton.

Sorcerer is one of the most specialized classes, and, in my opinion, by far the weakest of the casters. You get very few spells compared to other classes (tied with warlock; less than bard, of the known-spell casters, and less than what your average druid, cleric, or wizard can typically prep). Your spells include some arcane utility but you don't have the freedom of choice or versatility of a bard (more spells known and imo a better-curated list for a more defined support role) or a wizard (as many spells as you can find and transcribe). Meanwhile, warlocks also don't get a ton of known spells. However, what warlocks do get is invocations which often grant you cool abilities or even at-will low-level spells. Laudna only has 2. A 10th level warlock would have 5. Basically what I'm getting at here is that all multiclassing is a trade-off, but warlock is a class that's really built to be a warlock and with a handful of exceptions (hexadin) doesn't multiclass super well, imo. A dip into warlock of one level for eldritch blast is pretty good; more than that and you start to not really get a full return on your investment unless you're a really strong subclass.

Which is the other thing: her subclasses are vital to her aesthetic but neither of them is particularly strong as a general multiclass. Either would be fine on its own, but Strength of the Grave is a niche case, Eyes of the Dark is fine but with this party casting Darkness is rarely useful (honestly Darkness is a spell that seems cooler than it is), and hound of ill omen looks cool but is mechanically not terribly impressive. Form of Dread is legitimately good, to be fair. Honestly, I think she should have had a single-level dip in one or the other.