#everything else is also kinda underwhelming

[li-esonthefloor]

ugh i miss.... sai.... procreate brushes just arent the same...............

sai was so 🥺🥺🥺 ugh it was wonderful

i never want to draw on my computer again but it was wonderful....

[rmbunnie]

Another little inconsequential red hood thing and I'll admit that I'm decently biased but it irks me to see the whole "Jason can't shut up about his death/he makes his death everyone else's problem" take really frequently because he simply does not do that enough for it to be a thing in like any actual Red Hood story.

It's a thing you see sometimes in modern annuals/comics with large casts, particularly if a writer doesn't seem super confident with writing all of the characters that they're working with or if he's just a background character in this one, because with comics it's quicker to reduce a character to recognizable landmarks than to try and work out a whole new complex voice if you don't really need to, so it's tire iron, Jane Austen, Joker, and death, and it's all written out in dialogue because every character in a group event can't have their own internal monologue, but like. That's pretty much it. UTRH is the establishing event for Jason Todd post death so of course a lot of it is about his death, although it's arguably about the lack of response to his death more than his death itself, and he certainly makes it Bruce's issue but one beef doesn't make a trend. Plus if his death is anyone's issue beyond his own Bruce and Joker are like the number one guys whose issue it is. He THINKS about his death a ton in Lost Days, but it doesn't really reflect externally on any of his interactions besides with Joker, which again, that's justified and relevant beef. Teen Titans 29 is more about his place in the hero community/feeling like he was an outsider even before the bomb/Tim being the new robin than about his death, and side note, that being counted as an attempt on Tim's life also bugs me. He beat him up and then left of his own volition. That's not an assassination attempt its called a fight, albeit a sneaky and unfair one. But anyways. I can't speak on Battle for the Cowl because i haven't read it, both that and Batman and Robin 2009 don't really compel me, but it's entirely possible that's an outlier to my point seeing as I kinda sorta haven't read it and don't care to lmao. Even New 52 (although HIGHLY unpopular) and Rebirth/Dawn of DC/Whatever we're doing now Red Hood content don't really have him talking to people about it besides the occasional little quips. He might make stances that were developed because of his death other people's problem, like in the Mia Dearden Green Arrow situation with the "getting involved in other people's business" issue, but acting like he makes specifically his death everyone else's problem is ignoring all of the perfectly valid actually canon things he makes other people's problem. Most of the unpleasant traits he brings to the table are a result of his death and the sense of abandonment and betrayal that came with it, but that doesn't mean he's bringing his death into it when he acts unpleasantly any more than he's bringing his birth into it when he shows up in the first place. The consequences do not equal the event. All this to say it's irritating when people say the character is grating because he doesn't stop whining about his death when that kinda just indicates to me that they're working off fanon based on fanon based on kinda mid batman annual.

[dutybcrne]

Love the idea of Kaeya and Albedo hooking up precisely (1) time, no strings attached or anything, bc Bedo wanted to try out sex for the sake of EXP points and he knew that not only would Kaeya be absolutely THRILLED to indulge but also be 10/10 down to try out damn near anything Bedo would be curious about, too

[lurkinggirlie]

Elain & Azriel are EndGame

Azriel’s bonus chapter: semi-essay on my thoughts

This post will be a long one. The shipwar has been going on for far too long, and there's a possiblity that we'll be getting closure soon. So, I want to put my thoughts out there. For Obvious reasons, I could be very wrong, but this is what I think based on canon text: (Ignore any errors..I haven't edited this, and I'm sure there are many posts like this that are way more articulate)

Elriel are endgame. If they’re not then Azriel is kinda pathetic and having him end-up with anyone else is bad writing and character assassination. (Which we sadly won’t put past sjm but I don’t think she would..at least I hope)

1- Elain has no other love interest. Yes, Lucien is her mate but we have hinted at a broken/rejected mating bond for the longest time when it comes to these two so having them accept it eventually is going to be quite underwhelming, repetitive and boring. Even Lucien seems to have given up/isn’t interested in bridging that gap between them, which we’re told in both acofas and acosf. Unless you want to count the longing pointed out by Cassian, although Cassian also pointed out that Lucien was also uncomfortable when he mentioned his mate. To add on, there is no sexual tension between the two, and we know how important that is for sjm’s couple. You can't keep whining "but Elain isn't giving him a chance, if only she gave him a chance, then maybe this and maybe that" Elain is not a seprate entity, she is what SJM writes, Sjm could have written that but she did not yet and I'm not sure if she will. It feels too late at this point, she had already shown us that Elain has feelings for someone else aka Azriel. The author doesn't have to spell everything out for us to understand to what's going on. Sarah usually makes it clear who's endgame. and she literally is. So, it would be very sudden and out of the blue if Lucien and Elain were to end up together when she had never shown it before. When even Azriel pointed this out “I think Lucien will never be good enough for her, and she has no interest in him, anyway” people can say Rhys killed elriel, that the bonus chapter ended them. But this line right here tells us otherwise! First we know Azriel and Elain can read each other so well that they don’t need words, and then Azriel tells us this. He’s literally telling us that Elain does not want Lucien.

We also cannot compare elucien to Feysand or Nessian in the “enemies to lovers" department, because these two seem to hardly care about each other. For obvious reasons she wouldn’t accept or reject Lucien in a book that isn’t hers. But if they do end up together I’d feel robbed that she had more sexual tension with Azriel than she did with Lucien. And we know that Nessian and Feysand had sexual tension before getting together. Most of what we got from Elain and Lucien was awkwardness, and discomfort. Not a single spark. Furthermore, it would feel like Azriel was just leading Elain own. Plus their romance (Lucien and Elain)  would not feel organic, only getting with Lucien because she felt rejected by Azriel, which doesn’t give epic romance no matter how sjm tries to spin it. It would always make Lucien seem like the second choice.

2- Azriel regifting the necklace was a dickhead move, and offensive to both girls. Anyone thinking the regifting of the necklace ended elriel or started gwynriel is delusional and clearly doesn’t know how the romance genre works. (should’ve thrown the gift in the Sidra like Cassain did) I can’t believe Rhys isn’t paying Azriel enough that he felt the need to return the necklace to the shop instead of throwing it. Senstive Illyrian baby indeed. 

3- Rhys saying stay away from Elain (can we take a moment to appreciate how sexy Rhys was for pulling rank, he really made the ship more interesting now) and Azriel actually listening to him?? When he told him you can’t order me to do that. shit would be underwhelming if Azriel actually stayed away? Hello? Secret relationship potential ? Hello? Forbidden romance potential  ??? The tropes would be epic. Sjm had never done that. And I’m not saying she will, but this is how I see it playing out. + Azriel saying it was a mistake to Elain, and Elain apologizing?? The fact she was confused/hurt and probably thought she misunderstood the whole situation? SHE IS BABYGIRL?? Regardless, Azriel saying it was a mistake and it being a mistake is NOT it. This is not how romance works most of the time. This is such a basic romantic trope, why are a lot of people misinterepting it? Elain deserves better, and sjm isn’t about to hurt Elain’s feelings without making it up to her. And she’s definitely not making Azriel end up with another girl before he fixes that shit. I will be needing a proper apology to Elain.  

4- Whenever people think of the bonus chapter they weigh in Azriel’s feelings far more than Elain’s. It’s clear that Elain and Azriel’s feelings are MUTUAL, ignore the bonus chapter and it’s right there in the actual book. I don’t think Elain got the memo that Azriel had  a conversation with another girl after he hurt her feelings which made him realize he’s in love all of a sudden. *sarcasm*  that would be very out of character for Azriel. 

5- His chest sparkling at the thought of Gwyn getting the necklace was so??? I have been saying he’s for the streets and yes this was out of pocket. So, I understand people shipping them. However it could mean anything really, you can't continue saying that Gwyn in the bonus has to mean something, and that that spark must mean somethig but continue to disreagrd every single Elriel interaction like they mean nothing. Because for it to be taken as romance we’d have to ignore the beginning of the bonus, the feysand’s bonus acosf/acomaf/acowar and acofas. + we could easily take this in a platonic way, which is how I viewed it when I read the bonus. Not everything has to be romantic. And sjm will NOT introduce a new guy to make him end up with Elain since we already established Elain doesn’t want Lucien and Lucien doesn’t want her either. 

6- I know that a lot of people have theories about Gwyn being a lightsinger and all of this happening because of her powers (While I do think this is very smart, it wasn’t something I thought of so I won’t talk about it). I do think it’s possible, and all the theories I saw were really cool but idk where sjm is going with this, so to make it simple I do think it could be because she’s his student, she went through a lot it could simply be platonic happiness that a girl who went through so much is going to be happy about something. Even if it was a secondhand necklace specifically picked with ANOTHER girl in mind PLUS I do think sjm wanted drama, and for people to doubt elriel cuz now they have all these obstacles, so Gwyn would be the easy choice, but the second choice regardless. The relationship would feel icky and I genuinely cannot see the potential gwynriels keep talking about. I would take the ship a lot more seriously if a) he didn’t regift her another girl’s necklace b) there was more to them in the actual book. c) he wasn’t still upset about it 3 days later… 

7- There’s a high possibility Gwyn never even got the necklace..

He gave it to Clotho not Gwyn, he didn’t want his name mentioned, and then said if any other girl would like it to give it to them: the aim was to get rid of Elain’s necklace. It’s sort of a parallel with Cassain throwing away Nesta’s present.

I think it’s possible that Azriel went there because he knows how much the girls in the library have suffered, especially since his mom did too, it's possible he thought "okay this is a pretty necklace, I don't want to hold onto the reminder of what could've been, so instead of throwing it let another girl be happy about it. At least it won’t go to waste”

Clotho could tell there was something wrong, like maybe she sensed the energy and decided ayeee let me keep this aside for him, he might come back and ask for it. 

The bonus did not happen at the end of the book 

If Azriel was truly in love with Gwyn now /or he wanted her/ or more between them was going to happen/ or they were mates according to some theories we could have AT LEAST gotten more after the bonus. 

We know the bonus happened after solstice.

Nesta mentions that Azriel was stone-faced and more aloof than usual, he wouldn’t even give her a smile. That was 3 days after the necklace situation. I think it would’ve been a great opportunity to highlight any attraction between Azriel and Gwyn.

Maybe he sees the necklace around her neck, maybe Nesta and Emerie compliment Gwyn’s necklace, or Gwyn telling them she doesn’t know who it’s from, maybe they tease her that someone might have a crush on her. Nesta could’ve pointed out that Azriel was looking at Gwyn’s necklace.or looking at Gwyn in some sort of way. Literally anything. 

Anyone pointing out the way Azriel and Gwyn looked at each other. A charged glance perhaps. Literally ANYTHING. We only got him looking at her with admiration which is very teacher coded. 

If sjm hadn’t made Nesta realize Azriel had a thing for Elain then maybe gwnyriel would’ve been more appealing to me. But no, Nesta noticed. This doesn’t mean nothing people.

aside from that we got nothing romantic, but a part of the fandom still acts like we need to exile Elain because she’s coming between Gwyn and Azriel’s epic love story.

Not everyone has access to the bonus.  

The Azriel chapter was only in ONE store in the US, but Feysand’s bonus chapter was in 3 stores in the US and UK. I don't know but something tells me it’s more important.  Soooo if SJM would do a love interest switch she would not do it in a bonus chapter, and wouldn’t be highlighting the Az/Elain interactions in ACOSF as much as she did. 

Feyre’s chapter focuses on Elain, it literally tells us Elain is next once we’re done helping Nesta. EASY MATH. and the Azriel bonus also focuses on elriel/Azriel’s feelings. ENDGAME MATERIAL RIGHT HERE. 

But the girls swear up and down that Gwyn and Azriel’s book is next because of a secondhand necklace. 

Let’s assume elriels are the delusional ones (like so many of them say), how do we explain these. 

Casual readers who usually read books and aren’t on the internet and aren’t looking for bonus content (wish that was me)  (lord knows I skipped every bonus chapter in throne of glass and crescent city and I wasn’t confused about anything. Not even once) so they’d expect answers for 

The Charged glance between Azriel and Elain

Azriel following the sound of Elain’s laughter. 

Elain looking away when Azriel smiled at her during family dinner, Cassian god bless him that idiot could NOT piece all of that together. BUT it was still highlighted through his POV ???

His secret to tell never hers (and we do learn of that secret in the bonus but people who didn’t read it could only guess so they’d want a confirmation) and sjm did say in one of her lives that Nesta learns of one of Azriel’s secrets (she looked all giddy about it)... and that Azriel is going through some shit right now…and we learn why from the bonus chapter. 

Cassian being confused that it seems like Azriel moved on from Mor

Nesta pointing out that Elain moved on from Graysen

Cassian wondering why Elain is lying about where she’s going. (I viewed this as her avoiding Azriel but idk) 

Azriel’s protectiveness of Elain. He gives mate behavior without the mate part. (I will hit him on the head though omg let my girl do something)

Elain willing to look for the troves even when Nesta wasn’t, the girl wants to do something  (her journey is coming next) 

Nesta wondering if Elain is training with Azriel or the twins (who are spies that were trained by Azriel !!!) 

Feyre telling Azriel that Elain got him beat for secret keeping. Sure it might sound delusional but Elain keeps being compared to Az/being a spy and maybe this could be a thing. 

Elain speaking back to her sisters about them treating her like a child?? Hello finally 

The way Elain’s mother only treated her like a pretty doll which shaped up Elain’s whole life??? I want this from Elain’s POV sooo bad 

In conclusion, we’re not pausing Elain’s story so Azriel can end up with a side character in a spinoff about an og side character, we’re sticking to our og side characters for now.

Azriel being over Mor because of Elain, and Elain moving on from Graysen because of Azriel only for Elain to get over Azriel to be with Lucien (who we got nothing from aside a mating bond..) and for Az to get over Elain and questioning fate for her…only to end up with gwyn…like I don’t think anyone could take Azriel’s feelings seriously if this happens. Shit will be too goofy.  Because if he ends up with Gwyn who says he won’t move on to the next pretty girl he sees afterwards.

To add to that, what plot would we have for Azriel and Gwyn. We'll get more Valkyries training, more healing journey so the plot would have to be paused for this. Nesta’s book was mostly about her healing journey and friendship, while it was nice I don’t want a repeat for the next book. Especially since we know the Rite took a toll on Gwyn, she went back to the library, wasn’t even sure she would make it to Nessian’s mating ceremony. This doesn’t give the protagonist of the next book to me. Or "I thought it was pretty obvious"

Elain’s healing journey had started in ACOWAR, she got her friends in ACOWAR. Now is their TIME to do something!! She is next. 

Closing thoughts on what I think would happen based off each ship happening: 

If elriel happens = new sjm couple dynamic/interesting plot. Fresh sjm protagonist that is unlike sjm's others + we don’t ignore all the foreshadowing and hints. We follow the love triangle we set up in the og trilogy + finally get a rejected mating bond. And instead of warrior training we might get spy training and instead of physical power (as far as we know) we get something more mental. Again this is very new for sjm + there’s a lot to Elain’s power that we don’t know and since Azriel was the one who found out what she was, I think it would make more sense for him to know how to help her. Imagine the sexual tension during training..yes please. I hope sjm doesn’t rob me. Elain is really mysterious, we got Nesta’s inner thoughts before her book but we still haven't gotten a peep about Elain’s inner thoughts and I’m just dying to know more. AND THE STAKES!

1) Rhys forbidding Azriel from Elain, 2) Elain’s mating bond,3) Azriel’s self doubt and how he doesn’t think he’s good enough. 4) The blood duel and the political mess we could get into. (Lucien probs won't but what if Beron would, the breeding potential, A seer must be a powerful thing she can see things others can't and I think that’s valuable. If Eris thought Nesta was valuable as cauldron made and there was no potential there, so The Autumn court probably feels even more entitled to Elain) We have high inner and outer stakes. I have a feeling SJM will fumble all this potential but a girl can dream 

If elucien happens = another successful mating bond + “enemies”  to lovers sort of but they won’t ever be mean to each other so maybe not enemies, just dislike and awkwardness to friends to lovers?  We ignore the hints about a rejected bond and in mating bonds we trust. We also ignore all the elriel hints, and their mutual feelings. We follow the love triangle set up in the og trilogy. I don’t think Lucien could train her in anything? Maybe self defense, Idk Sarah could pull something, but I don’t see Elain leaving her circle of friends but neither do I see Lucien settling in the night court and leaving his own friends. There are no stakes but Elain’s and Lucien’s awkwardness around each other + Elain’s feelings for Azriel. Elain’s and Lucien’s plot connects though so at least there’s that, SJM could ship them off on a mission together and make them get closer. Forced proximity sort of thing. 

If gwynriel happens then = we lost the whole plot, ignored the foreshadowing and hints found in the actual book. Mentor to lovers, civil with each other. Azriel has to move on from Elain first though and that could be icky. Healing journey, more Valkyries training. So we pick up from where we left off in acosf, and we’d see Azriel trying to get her to come out of the Library, or he goes to visit her there until she agrees to come out again. Maybe if Gwyn is a lightsinger then idk more training with Azriel? Again, no stakes but Gwyn’s trauma and Azriel’s self doubt oh and also his feelings for Elain. But that’s it, Gwyn as of now does not connect to the overall plot with the troves (she’s not made therefore she can’t use them) or koschei. So I don’t see us making her go on a mission like that. I’ve seen a lot of gwynriles saying Gwyn has spy potential idk where, but she could barely keep a secret for Nesta so I highly doubt she’d be keeping secrets for the IC. 

Ps: the original koschei plot is 3 sisters marrying 3 very powerful wizards and like idk 3 sisters 3 brothers…we can have a retelling ya know 

[bibibbon]

MHA chapter 430

Finally the last chapter has arrived and ... Well it's underwhelming at best.

I already knew I wasn't going to like this chapter considering how things went in previous arcs but I just feel underwhelmed and indifferent.

So Izuku loses his quirk and then becomes a quirkless hero. I don't know this seems so.... Underwhelming no that's not the word so bleak, gloomy and sad?!?! I also hate the concept of iron Izuku with a passion!!!

Ochako starts a new quirk counselling campaign. This is good but it took that long?!?! I guess hawks was incompetent

All might and izuku parallels/foils will be forever going and I love that izuku used his analysis skills for the kid and I suppose hori tried to go with everyone can be a hero one way or another because the title of a hero isn't just based on the job heroics but how someone helps and saves people but I think that failed in execution.

I sense a change to momo's costume design. I like it

Wait so even ✨I can't stop twinkling✨ yuuga became a hero?!?! I thought he dropped out of the hero course and went to do something else.

Wait didn't shigaraki say he wanted to destroy everything??!? Shigaraki's goal never actually developed into a proper one where he wanted to destroy society and the aspects that hurt him. Well it kinda of did since he wanted to kill all might/destroy the pillar of society but that wouldn't cure the corruption and all that hurt others and shigaraki so why is Hori using it as a way to make it like shigaraki destroyed and izuku rebuilt?!?!

Kota is going to UA!!! Eri is going to a different high school in general

The leauge got a horrible end and the only thing we do know is that spinner wrote a book, compress is out of prison and read the book and that's it.

Well best thing that came out of this chapter was that

No ships were confirmed!!!

Bakugo didn't become number one and was just eluded to dropping down the ranks for his aggressive behaviour

Izuku managed to beat the fast food worker allegations and became a teacher and a pro hero

I think horikoshi forgot about izukus father but there was no point in seeing a deadbeat like that anyway.

[moii3]

My Candy Love New Gen Ep.7 Review!

Spoiler Ahead, Obviously

Another day, another short episode. I think off the bat, im dissapointed with how short the episodes are. I really think they need to get it together with the amount of content. It's just not enough and it doesn't help that we have to wait for almost a month every single time for a new ep.

I just had to point this out because since i've been replaying the Eldarya TO, i just started to appriciate how beemov games used to have longer, more filling, structured episodes and stories compared to now. Maybe this is too early for me to say since we are only 7 episodes in. Who knows? Maybe Beemov will actually start to have an enemies to lovers arc between the writers and the new gen game. Anyways..

The ep starts out with Candy complaining to my love Elenda (and soon the whole office) about how difficult it is to live with her annoying mom and sister. Seriously, we see from the flashback that Candy's mother basically insinuates that she didn't think she would have to live with her adult ass daughter in her house. Both Tasha and the Mother(i forget her name) were pretty rude abt it in my opinion. Instead of talking with Candy about house rules they just go on like nothing happened, and make it clear that she is just a guest. Not a part of the household.

Mentioning of TikTok was thrown in one scene for good mesure lmao

As they all hear the story, Devon decides everyone in the office should help Candy look for an apartment. They apperantly don't have anything else to do the whole day.

It almost feels like a little bit Mary Sue-ish. Everyone taking turns wasting their free work hour trying to find Candy an apartment, making it a competition seems comical and unrealistic. (not everything has to be so realistic but it's just ridicilous atp). They are literally racing to find this rich adult woman a place to live...

When it comes to the actual apartment hunting, Thomas's route was a roller coaster 😭. Since apperantly no one rents apartment to stinky stinky singles, LI s jump in to save the day, pretending to be our partners during the apartment showing.

Thomas had both me and the realtor gagged the whole time.

(sorry for the whack screenshots)

I was cringing big time

ma'am please be quiet...

A bit awkward? You're telling me..

Just as we think we are over with this, leaving the apartment, he kisses Candy.

I saw some people saying they didn't like how this kiss came about and i have to agree. He calls it "our little ritiual" , apperantly to convince the realtor. We know that's bullshit and it was kind of an excuse to kiss her. I don't like that Candy is in a cornered position to accept the kiss and it felt kind of unneccesary, no matter how hyped everyone was about it.

Like if this is the dude we will eventually gonna fall in love with& date, it's kind of a bummer that their first kiss had to be "fake". I know they thought of it like a little romantic game Candy had to play to get close to Thomas but i really think even for this it was kinda underwhelming.

I also saw other illustrations from different routes and Roy's has to be my favourite. I wish it was more romantic like that and actually made sense. Anyway..

Anyways, after they leave the house, Thomas gets back to the nonchalant attitude again (obviously) which, gagges Candy again.

Like i said, i don't really like how this kiss happened and i think even for Thomas this was kind of crazy.

If i was the realtor, i would honestly block their numbers and hope that Thomas wouldn't show up at my house to wear my skin the very same night. He deserves some kind of compensation.

I'm gonna keep doing these reviews no matter who reads them, this is for me and my ranting. But i hope you like it! Oh, I also will rate these episodes out of 10.

For my first rating on this series, I'm givinf this episode an underwhelming 5/10

Best part is that this ain't even about the house anymore, even realtor knows he fucked up and they are not gonna choose this house.

Until next time, xx

[enden-k]

Oh my god I just got Aven's scheduled text and it just reminded me. While we as players saw and understand Aven's whole thing, Trailblazer and like literally everyone else has NO idea what his whole thing was about. Maybe Acheron (and part of me thinks Ratio knows) but. God. NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT KAKAVASHA

yes!! thats why they introduced the pov thing this time (tho we had smth similar with dan heng but i kinda zoned out after some time on the luofu bc it felt a bit underwhelming and confusing after belobog sorryy aa), bc things were happening outside of our usual pov (trailblazer) so avens whole part is completely unknown to the trailblazers and only acheron (who understood his plan immediately when he addressed her in the fight to draw her sword, i love her sm) and dr ratio (i think they spoke in little, abstract ways bc they were watched, aventurine DID tell him that "three chips [cornerstones] are enough", that he "will create the grandest death" and win back his "freedom and power" [be free from the IPC when everything goes as planned and he "dies"] ) actually know what happened/what he had planned - the rest of the cast (us and the trailblazing fam) have no clue. no one knows about kakavasha indeed, its just with aventurine alone 🥹 takes a bit to fully realize augfh also the others know of the face he puts on but we as the players saw it all, the aventurine behind it

[snapscube]

i don't know if you said so on your recent Web of Shadows stream, but what are your thoughts on Insomniac's more casual style of web swinging vs. the more difficult, physics-based web swinging? I've been avoiding Spider-Man 2 footage, so I haven't seen any web swinging, but I'd love if they could incorporate some risk/reward aspect to make swinging more engaging.

i think there's been a big push from spider-man game fans to re-contextualize Insomniac's web swinging as underwhelming and too casual that's kinda unnecessary and does it a big disservice. THAT IS NOT TO SAY that there haven't always been people who don't prefer the very low skill floor and relatively low skill ceiling of those titles, and that's also not to say that it isn't a fair assessment when looking at swinging mechanics in a vacuum. something like Web of Shadows ABSOLUTELY has a lot more rewarding moments of web swinging because of its higher skill floor, and when you really get a feel for the mechanics you can pull off some crazy stuff that it feels like insomniac's take isn't even dreaming of.

HOWEVER, i reiterate, this is all totally true and not exactly in Insomniac's in favor when examined in a vacuum, but in reality these mechanics DON'T exist in a vacuum. they're very important yes, they're how you're gonna spend a majority of your time in game yes, so it's important that they have a baseline level of fun and satisfying enough risk/reward to sustain an entire playthrough, or maybe even multiple. but Insomniac's swinging mechanics are in service of a game that not only does MORE with its open world than many others previously, but also does pretty much everything else a LOT better. Insomniac's take feels a lot more like it's in service of creating a much more approachable Spider-Man sim, where you don't have to necessarily "figure out" the swinging mechanics as much as you might in WoS or in SM2 (PS2) because there's a lot of content they want you to be spending more of your time on, and they need you to feel like you are playing an extremely capable and seasoned version of Peter.

playing through even just the opening of Web of Shadows on stream this week really drove home how much the world just feels so empty in comparison. the swinging was admittedly more fun at times!! but that kinda ended up being the saving grace of an experience that otherwise is feeling very bare-bones. and ultimately, as much as i PERSONALLY like mechanics with a bit more physicality, and i don't necessarily think that needs to be at odds with a larger amount of other content, i think my point is that i don't necessarily consider the swinging a FLAW of the Insomniac games, just a representation of the design philosophy of this take. and the design philosophy happens to be one i really appreciate. they want you in there DOING stuff, sure swinging around idly is fun and it's a great way to get you from point A to point B in a more exhilarating fashion than a lot of games even come close to, but these games have a much wider target audience and i don't know how much the average person cares more about the physicality of swinging as much as they care about it being an easy way for them to..... *sigh* feel like spider-man while traversing a larger set of activities.

THAT BEING SAID.... the improvements so far in Spider-Man 2 look SO SO SO GOOD and they will come MUCH appreciated. It looks so much faster. I straight up might turn on fall damage for my playthrough, which IS a new option they added. it's gonna rule.

[spitblaze]

Hello, Mr. Lev, sir! They added Octopath Traveler to GamePass, and I've been itching to play it after seeing how much it has enraptured you. Any advice or anything I should know going in?

Oh absolutely, lemme lay out some stuff:

Gameplay-wise, this game is very strategy-based and often grind-heavy. If you wanna slap some mods onto it to make the gameplay less tedious in terms of exp/jp gain, I would not blame you At All. If you're into that kinda stuff (like me) it's a LOT of fun utilizing strategy to take down beasts, but if you're not, I say there's no shame in watching a playthrough instead.

You will see people talking a lot of shit on this game. These are typically people who got their opinions from people who already do not like RPGs and went into a game mis-marketed by Square Enix, who is already well known for botching the marketing on everything they produce except Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. The game is a pretty consistent 7-8 out of 10, it's not the best thing they've ever made but it is not even CLOSE to the worst thing theyve put out and people get wayyy too mad about it for some reason.

Don't, like...go in expecting super deep inter-party interactions. You get plenty of them, like 3-4 per chapter after everyone's chapter 1 (in order to get them you need to have the specific character they wanna talk to in your party. After a major plot beat the move is usually to go to the tavern and swap people out until you see the party banter icon in the corner, but if you don't wanna do that they're all available on the octopath wiki). It's annoying that there's not more of them but for me what really makes my brain like to gnaw on it is that the characters are all strongly written but there's a *lot* of space left in the air to be filled in, and if you mesh with the characters and the storytelling you'll find that it's so easy to fill in the blanks yourself.

If you don't vibe with one, that's fine. Two is generally considered the better of the two for the technical improvements and more inter-party interaction, but there's no right answer in terms of which one is narratively better. It's alllllll subjective

btw invest in Therion early. hes good as a dodge tank and a magic user but the OT1 Thief movelist is actually kinda nuts. He doesn't have to be the one you start with but if you do I apologize in advance for the funny purple thief brainrot

Same with Tressa, parts of the Merchant movelist may seem underwhelming at first but once you get to the point where money is easy to come by and you have A Certain Secret Job, it's VERY hard to justify leaving her at home for tough fights.

also you should play Live A Live. its not quite right to call it OT a spiritual successor but it takes some strong cues from it. also the remake on switch is really good

That's all I can think of in this moment. I'm sure other people have their own stuff to add, and I don't think I can add anything else myself without getting overly biased so. ye, don't be discouraged by individuals saying it sucks, play octopath, if you like strategy-oriented turn-based games then there is a good chance you will like it i think!

[putschki1969]

2024/05/30 Blog post by Wakana アフタートークイベントのこと！〜自撮りチャレンジは続く〜

❗This is Fan Club EXCLUSIVE content❗ ❗PERSONAL USE ONLY❗ ❗Do NOT SHARE on other sites❗ ❗Join her FAN CLUB! Check out my detailed TUTORIAL ❗

After-Talk Event！〜The Selfie-Challenge Continues〜

I was asked a lot about my nails during the online after-talk event on the 17th, so I'm going to post a few photos of my nails! I asked the nail artist to paint my nails in colours which aligned with my releases from the past five years. Funnily enough, I got so engrossed in talking with the manicurist that I ended up getting my fingers painted in the wrong order! ＼(^o^)／ By the way, when I decided to take some pictures, I really struggled to figure out how to get both of my hands on a photo. I eventually thought that a mirror would probably be the best idea. For some reason, decided to include my face, even though these pictures were meant to be about my nails😎This way, it automatically became part of my continuing selfie challenge! ＼＼\\٩( 'ω' )و //／／Let's go! The truth is, ever since I uploaded my first selfies, the back of my phone has been decorated like this with Kid-sama and Conan-kun, but maybe no one had noticed it before? Unfortunately, when I tried to get all of my fingers in the frame, I ended up covering the faces of Kid-sama and Conan-kun's. It may look like I'm purposefully trying to hide Kid-sama from you, but I really just wanted my fingers to be the focus of the pictures. No matter how many times I tried, I couldn't get all my nails in the frame, so I was ready to give up and tried smiling a bit. (At this point, I think everyone is just super curious about Kid-sama and Conan-kun's faces.) And this is how the nail edition of my selfie challenge ended.

Hello, this is Wakana (0￣▽￣0)／

Taking pictures of your nails is hard! (Am I the only one struggling with this?)

Well, it was a lot of fun chatting with everyone who participated in the online after-talk event on the 17th😊 It was my first time looking back on a live performance together with all of you so I was a little nervous😳💓 On the way to the studio, I was a little overwhelmed by the number of people in the city, I felt a little dizzy🌀💫 It was very soothing to interact with you through the comment section🥰Thank you...🥰 During the broadcast, we looked at photos from the live performance and reflected on the setlist. I also shared some stories from the rehearsals and a couple of backstage anecdotes from the day of the live. Occasionally, I would also read through everyone's real-time comments and react to them. It was only five days after the live performance so the timing was perfect. Everyone's memory was still fresh so I was very happy to hear your thoughts😆It was a refreshing experience✨

During the event we also played a mini-game called "Following the trajectory of my 5-year solo career!" It was a pretty difficult game in which I had to arrange a number of photos from the past five years in chronological order within three minutes😂 I had to judge those pictures based on what I was wearing and while I was able to figure out most of it, I also made a few mistakes 😅I was quite confused whenever I got multiple live photos from the same year. And I got my dress colours mixed up with all those Classical Live photos... 👗 I played three rounds of this game and if I managed to get 2 out of 3 right, I would receive a reward from the staff members. It was really exhausting 🤣 I asked everyone to participate in the comment section, you were amazing!! ! You knew everything right away 😳 Your memory is so much better than mine 😂 At the end, I got 2 right and my reward was a big smile from my staff members!! ! ! Yup, that's it〜〜😂 Kinda underwhelming but still, thank you! 😂

I also read the messages everyone had submitted in the Fan Club section "Bokutachi no (=our) VOICE"📖 You shared your thoughts in such a detailed and articulate manner... I don't really know anyone else who is able to express their thoughts so meticulously 😭✨I'm really grateful 🥺 The messages bring me so much joy and strength that I will still go and read them sometimes. 💪💪💪 By the way, I addressed a lot of your comments during the event but for some reason the comment that stuck with me the most was "When you pulled out the chair, it sounded like the roar of a lion!" 🤣🤣🤣Thank you for this hilarious comment! It really was the sound of a lion roaring!!

Thank you to everyone who participated in the after-talk event!! !Last but not least, I'll post all the live photos that were shown during the stream＼＼\\٩( 'ω' )و //／／ (Photos by Ushijima Kosuke)

Well then, until next time~☆( *'▽'*)/

＊＊＊Wakana＊＊＊

[legallybrunettedotcom]

i want to know everything omg! what are your favorite characters on gossip girl? who do you hate the most? and what your opinion about this show in general. 💓

I really need to do a rewatch, I probably forgot a lot of plot points, but... Blair was always my favourite, my number one girl. I didn't like Serena, I think I just didn't like Blake Lively, and I hate to be that person that's like oh she always had bad vibes, I knew it from the start, but idk I just never got the hype around her and her acting was so bad. I think I end up disliking a lot of characters on any tv show just bc I hate the actor's acting choices, like why are you doing that face? that was so unneccessary lmao. I think I also maybe projected onto Blair a bit, like someone who is always trying their best, putting in 110% and someone else just swooping in and winning with zero effort, but... let's not unpack that here. Them together are obviously one of the best frenemies put on screen and I suppose both the tension and love that can exist in female friendships was portrayed really well imo so I don't really want to point fingers at either of them as like the root cause of the friendship problems, like one of them being the shitty friend and other the martyr. Like sometimes you are a shitty friend and sometimes your friend is the cunt, that's not the end of the world. I can see the same thing happening now that there's been a sort of SATC renaissance if i can call it that (even though SATC is a show that is consistently popular, like I don't think it has ever fallen off and then had some sort of resurgence but ygwim) where ppl are aggressively hating Carrie, like she was the devil. Plus I find it difficult to look at fiction through real life eyes, like asking why would this person do this? well they did it bc this is a show and we need an inciting incident to move the plot forward yk?

Blair and Chuck were made for each other, I loved their dynamic. With that said, Chuck is obviously not a good guy. I think at the time, as a kid, some things flew over my head, but looking back he is scary and creepy and you'd feel unsafe in his presence. I suppose he was entertaining, like you got this 15, 16 year old kid talking about stock exchange and dressing like Hugh Hefner, it kinda is funny. Even though I was rooting for Chair (was that their ship name I can't remember) endgame, I did actually enjoy Blair and Dan together, I think it was a cute moment and they worked well together. I don't think their relationship was for shock value, they actually had kind of a proper enemies to friends to lovers arc. I liked Dan, but also looking back... kind of a creep as well, his obsession with Serena was weird and the reveal of him as GG was disappointing. I gotta admit I never watched the show with anticipation of GG being revealed, I personally was like ok if it happens, happens, if it doesn't, fine. I never was interested in looking for clues on who GG might be. I think the show would've been fine ending without that reveal tbh. Definitely one of the more underwhelming and disappointing show finales out there.

I loved Jenny, I loved Juliet, I think she was the best antagonist. I kinda didn't care about Nate that much. I loved that the show delved into the life and drama of the parents as well, sometimes more entertaining than teenage lives. Honestly, can't say I hated anyone, which... funny considering I opened this with a politer version of calling Serena a bitch lmao. But despite GG being looked at as a silly teen show, I think all these characters were pretty complex and no one was really entirely good or entirely bad. I think what carried that show was great costumes, great set design and charismatic actors. I actually read some of the books and yk they're fine, can't remember much of the details, but I think actors made it much more than it is on paper, which also I feel is a sign of times. Like not to lump these actors with actual movie stars of the past, but we can definitely see an actor is not a star anymore, they're a product. The show had a lot of plot holes, but... idk I can't say I'm intense abt plot holes unless it's truly insanely dumb and demeans the audience.

I don't know if you've checked out the reboot, I watched like first half of first season and it wasn't good. They tried to fix a lot of problems of the original, especially in matters of diversity and class consciousness, but the problem with a lot of "socially conscious" media nowadays is that their writing ends up consisting of slogans instead of yk actually good writing and dialogue. The original was quite scandalous for its time, like I've seen ppl say their parents wouldn't let them watch it. It was like SATC for teenagers. The reboot didn't have that edge, but I also don't think this is a uniquely GG problem, I think it's just the times. Television doesn't connect us anymore. Which I know is ironic saying this on Tumblr, on a fandom site, in an era where there are so many streaming platforms producing many many many tv shows and programmes and it all being actually more profitable than films, BUT you can't tell me our relationship to TV is the same as it was 20, 30, 40 etc years ago, or even just 10 years ago.

But yeah, all in all, I love the show, I love the fashion, I love the bitchiness and I think it came at the right moment in my life. If you want to share your own opinions feel free to do so, my inbox is always open. Like I said, haven't seen it in a long time, so my memory isn't super fresh, but I think I'm due for a rewatch. <3

[stinky-bus]

I’ve only gotten into the stranger things fandom in the last 3 months but it’s actually swallowing me whole, and it’s so bittersweet. I haven’t even gone in to actually watch the full show, and there’s a good number of reasons why.

I really wish I had been in this fandom earlier, if not during season 2 and 3, at least during season 4 when it got so big and so popular. I didn’t think much of it then, but now, as I learn about all these characters who I love and am starving in content for, it’s kinda sad seeing that I joined the party super late. Also the fact that I’ll only be in the fandom for the least season, which probably won’t have as big of a following as the last one, and once it’s over everyone will leave. It’s great because there’s so much content to consume and I could look at st things for days, but considering it’s almost 2 years after season 4 and season 5 isn’t set to come out for another 2 years, I’m stuck in this weird spot. I’m hyperfixated on this show, and I’m just now discovering how much I love every detail that goes into this, from the character dynamics to theories to how they write and film it, I fucking love it. And no one else has been talking about it or will talk about it for a good while. I’ve loved looking at the characterization of Steve, and the dynamics of the party/the fruity four, I’ve loved it so much. But I wish I could have experienced this when everyone was talking about it. None of my friends are really into it anymore, and the ones that used to be have understandably fallen out of interest. I know season 5 will be great, and I’m so excited for it, but I can’t help but feel like season 4 was its peak with how big and popular it was, and how just genuinely fucking good everything was about the whole show. I worry that not only will the final season be somewhat underwhelming or stray from the path a bit (with the whole marvelification of st) but that less people will care. Anyways love this show with all my heart, but it makes me so sad thinking about it!

[beef-unknwn]

Rating unicorn academy ships bc I'm bored let's go

SophiAva. Goated. Lone wolf x friendly puppy. They're so silly. I want to SQUEEZE them very lots

IsaVal. Also goated. They flirt by asking each other to stupid competitions noone else cares about. That one scene in the Fairy Moon episode. You know the one.

SophiVal. It's decent. They had like one moment in the first episode of the first season then several surprisingly pulling moments in the last few episodes of the second season. The "Everything I do, I do for my family" "Everything I do, I do for my family" scene broke me immensely. Still, it felt ever so slightly forced there at the end. Only slightly tho

Anyone with Rory. Ew straight people 🤢 Just kidding i love straight people. Anyways I hc Rory as aro so ships with him are kinda just meh to me. Sorry or whatever

Anyone with Layla. Ermm......... You guys might hate me for this but.. Layla might be the most underwhelming character in this series. She remained a trope for me while other characters were built on and became interesting. That one episode with Glacier's previous rider didn't really make her any less a trope for me sorryyyyy. That one moment in the Fairy Moon episode and her leadership skills in the penultimate episode felt... too little too late. Anyways WHOEVER HC HER AS ARO I'M COMING FOR YOU. STOP HCING AUTISTIC CODED CHARACTERS AS ARO WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU. /hj 😊

Anyone with Jacinta and/or Delia. Who? Oh the Legacy girls? Yeah no idgaf about them. They were kinda interesting but generally only good for short gags and jokes. Sorryyyyy againnn

That's all the ships I'm willing to rate. One-off characters like Danny or the pranksters i do NOT give a rat's booty cheeks about

Okay bye I'm going away for like a year again 👋

[kaylinalexanderbooks]

Character voice

Thanks @willtheweaver here, @mysticstarlightduck here, @mk-writes-stuff here and here, @writingsfromspace here, and @diabolical-blue here, and @imsoveryveryconfusedatlife here!

As these built up, they got long. I'm tagging @elsie-writes @cherrybombfangirlwrites @leahnardo-da-veggie @winterandwords @tabswrites + anyone else who would like to do this!

All of my responses are below the cut

"This is not the day I die."

Lexi: "I don't think I'm gonna die today. We will totally survive this. We will be fine." (Secretly kinda scared)

Maddie: "Hm. I don't think I'm gonna die today. It'd feel a lot different, I think."

Ash: "I am not dying today. Trust me on this."

Gwen: "I don't think there's a way to know if I'm gonna die today, but I'm not giving up yet."

Robbie: "Pfft, haven't died yet, have I?"

Akash: "Nah, I'll be fine. I ain't dying yet."

Jedi: "I, for one, prefer the optimistic approach. I do not think I am going to die today."

Carmen: "It's impossible to determine the day one dies, in most circumstances. However, it's highly unlikely I will die today. Don't be an idiot."

"One could say I've failed this task successfully."

Lexi: "Hey, from an optimistic perspective, I think this failure was an absolute win! Totally worked out."

Maddie: "I mean, positively thinking, this kinda worked out. Yeah, we failed, but I think this was a success, in a way."

Ash: "If you want to look at it optimistically, I think this failure worked out."

Gwen: "Think of it this way: the only way to go is up. We can fix this. We can only improve it we fail, so I think we actually won. From a certain perspective."

Robbie: "Personally, I think this failure was actually a total win. Think about it. There was no way it could've been worse. I think I failed it successfully. I win at failure. Now, next time, it'll be a better win!"

Akash: "Did I fail miserably? Yes. Was it fun to watch? Also yes. Did it work? Yes again. See the pattern? I can fix this."

Jedi: "You are correct in that this did not go as planned. However, I prefer to believe that everything worked the way it was supposed to. In a way, we were successful."

Carmen: "Wallowing in failure won't do anyone any good. It's pathetic, actually. I did not fail, I was merely successful in different ways."

That was a little optimistic of everyone.

"All the souvenirs in the world, and you bought that?"

Lexi: "That's an interesting souvenir you have. Are you uh...sure you want that?"

Maddie: "Why would you buy that souvenir? Wasn't there a nicer one?"

Ash: "That's the souvenir you bought? I don't like it honestly. Sorry."

Gwen: "Oh. Interesting souvenir. [Several seconds] Oh, you're buying it? Isn't it... expensive? Maybe you could get something cheaper?"

Robbie: "Woah. Um. Quite the souvenir. [Cringe] Mhm. Sorry, um, lost my words for a second. It's just so.... *gestures* interesting. Yeah. That. Great for you. Awesome pick. Uh..."

Akash: "I don't...think that souvenir is best for you. How 'bout...that one? Of all the souvenirs you could get, y'know? You only get one."

Jedi: "Oh. I see you got a souvenir. Er, why, if I may ask, did you decide on that one?"

Carmen: "Why would you pick that souvenir? It sucks."

"We went all the way out here for this?"

Lexi: "That's all there is? That's what we wasted the day for?" (Anxiety of the schedule being ruined is building)

Maddie: "Seriously? I could've been doing other more fun things."

Ash: "Well, this was a waste of time."

Gwen: "No offense, but why did we have to come this far for this again? I don't understand how this is that important."

Robbie: "Well that was the most anticlimactic thing I've seen. The suspense was building and now it's gone! Man, you gotta work better on your payoff."

Akash: "... seriously? Dude, I did not have to come out here for this. I have other things to do!"

Jedi: "Well, that was certainly... unexpected. Slightly underwhelming, actually."

Carmen: "You're telling me you dragged me out here just for THIS?! What is wrong with you?!"

"You can't do that!"

Lexi: "Wait, that's not allowed! I don't think you should do that! It could be dangerous!"

Maddie: "Wait, you were going to do that without me?"

Ash: "Oh, no, you are not doing that without me."

Gwen: "I'm not sure you should be doing that? You could get hurt. Maybe in trouble."

Robbie: "Woahwoahwoahwoahwoah you can't do that! That's like, I dunno, probably dangerous or something?"

Akash: "Dude, don't bother. You'll just get in trouble, it's not worth it."

Jedi: "I would advise against doing that. It is impossible to do it without something going wrong. Besides, it would be a bad idea."

Carmen: "DO NOT DO THAT!! HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU?!" [she would probably say this even if it was the first time]

"That sounded better in my head."

Lexi: "I thought that would sound better out loud...."

Maddie: "You know what I mean!"

Ash: "That did not sound right."

Gwen: "That...sounded a lot worse than I intended."

Robbie: "Oh WOW that sounded better in my head what happened???"

Akash: "I... thought that would sound better. Man, I was wrong. I sound like an idiot now."

Jedi: "That-- *rubs back of neck* did not sound the way I wish it did."

Carmen: "Oh, figure out what I meant!"

"You're going to get yourself killed!"

Lexi: "Stop it! You can't die! I won't let you!"

Maddie: "Y'know, you could get killed doing that."

Ash: "You think you're going to die. And you probably will."

Gwen: "No! You're gonna get killed if you do that! I'll do it."

Robbie: "No. Nononono. You're gonna die if you do that, and I can't allow that to happen."

Akash: "Absolutely not--you will die if you do that, and I can't allow that."

Jedi: "You must not do that. It is suicide if you do. We cannot allow you to die."

Carmen: "What is wrong with you? Do you not realize that you will most likely die from that? You're such an idiot."

Your prompt: "This is a perfectly normal amount of sugar." [I was thinking in the context of making coffee but you can make it applicable to whatever makes sense]

[blessedshortcake]

My opinion on the finale episodes below the cut. Obviously spoiler warning lol

First of all. I see people say it was really underwhelming and i kinda have to agree? It wasnt a Bad ending or a lazy one or whatever words have been thrown around tho imo. I feel like with all the hype about how "painful" and emotional itll be from the VA and from everyone, we all just expected more tragic outcomes or something.

I am dissappointed because of that as well. I liked how Simon finally reflected a bit and had some self awareness about their situation with Betty. I loved that he didnt become Ice King again or that they didnt do some actual time travel to "fix" stuff. I also liked that they didnt necessarily made him a bad husband (?/boyfriend?) he kinda just never realised that Betty has been putting more into their duo than he was.

That doesnt make him innocent tho b4 someone comes at me. He was a bit too self absorbed but i dont think he was entirely selfish either. He was a person who made mistakes and didnt realise them. The line where he said smt like "i wish we could have talked like this before" also makes it pretty clear to me that Betty never really spoke up about these things either. Golbetty had to make him aware and tbh? I think that was more Golb than Betty.

The whole Scarab ordeal felt a bit. Ehhhhhh I dont know. His anger reaction to things suddenly becoming "canon" (lmao) was very nice to see but him being allowed to wreck havoc like that for a good while felt more like an excuse to bring the others into this world. I dont have a problem with it btw i just dont see the point why we need Farmwold Jay and Little... I forgot her name damn. Also whys Babyworld Finn here 😭 (i get it, he was in the tank, i dont mean literally i mean Why)

As much as i was soooo mad when LSP freed the scarabs it was very in character. I like how it was a thing that he likes animals from the start so it wasnt senseless stupidity, it was something he would do even tho it was the wrong thing to do. Made me pause and lay down to stare at the ceiling in frustration for a solid minute i cant lie, still in chacter tho.

But alas. I like how in the end it all didnt turn magical (completely since ig its partially magical with Cake and everything else) and how Cake finally cooled down about the crown. IM ALSO SO HAPPY THEY KEEP IN TOUCH WITH SIMON OVER THE PHONEEE!! But yea him wanting to move was so real and I hope he does lmao he deserves it.

I only kinda wish they made him reconnect with Marcy a bit more. I am actually pretty dissappointed that we dont know if he ended up reaching out to her more or not. I understand his situation with not wanting to spook her, i actually feel that bit in a soul connecting level good god, but idk. Im at least happy he is Literally in therapy now

(Kinda makes me wonder tho if he spent the time between the end of AT and the start of FC with no like therapist or psychologist. Just rawdogging his mental illness about everything. Mood tbh but like did he? Did he??)

Anyway despite my slight dissappointment i am actually pretty happy with the outcome. I really liked the theories and the ideas of how Simon may make FC magical or what he will become but tbh this is probably the best outcome. Everyone got a happy/hopeful ending (minus Farmwold Finn ig who im atp assuming is dead. Also Star Marceline and PB) which i am really REALLY happy about.

I gotta say I already wanna write fanfic about these guys so inspirational effect granted. Woooo.

Tldr

I was kinda dissappointed because it was overhyped about how emotional it will be when it really wasnt but other than that I am really happy about how the ending turned out save for the alternatives staying in FC

Edit: I SEE PEOPLE TALK ABOUT THE WHOLE SHOW DONT TELL THING AND TBHHH??? TTTTBBBHHHH??? YEAH. IT WAS ALL JUST TALKED ABOUT LIKE WHAT ABOUT SYMBOLISM? MY GOD.

Also Simon had like 10 minutes to get closure with Betty which was horrifically rushed but again, when your wife turns into Basically God you kinda dont really have a choice to chit chat. Still not happy about it but again, could have been worse. Could have been much worse.

[glass-needles-and-futurisms]

I keep thinking back to Muse playing Survival at the closing ceremonies of the 2012 London Olympics, and I keep saying that one of these days I'm just gonna spew all my feelings about how it's not just one of my all-time favorite Muse moments, but also a hilarious, if perhaps unintentional, moment of social commentary.

I still remember our postgrad professor showing those same closing ceremonies in class, explaining the not-so-subtle propagandistic purpose the entire spectacle served on the global stage. (For those who don't know, the 2012 Olympics closing ceremonies were essentially a three-hour star-studded tribute to UK music and pop culture.)

Picture this: you just sat through about two hours of the UK's various national exports - One Direction, the Spice Girls, the Pet Shop Boys, George Michael, Ed Sheeran, Annie Lennox, erm, Russell Brand. You've just seen live performances of Bohemian Rhapsody, Imagine, Wonderwall, and Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, alongside tributes to David Bowie and Freddie Mercury. And you still have Queen, Take That and The Who to go after this.

Interestingly, that class glossed over what an afterthought the Muse performance felt like by comparison. You could argue a lot of extenuating circumstances: the controversial reception of Survival as the official London Olympics theme song, the infamous NBC debacle where it inadvertently got cut from the US broadcast of the ceremonies, or the simple fact that this far into the festivities, a fairly straightforward stage performance* by a band with slightly less name recognition than Coldplay was pretty underwhelming.

* Not sure if this is common knowledge, but apparently this performance was mostly playback with the exception of Matt's vocals. Which also makes this an underappreciated entry in the annals of Muse miming shenanigans.

But something becomes very apparent once you actually reach this part of the show: Survival is fucking bananas. I'll never forget that one internet commenter calling it the world's most epic villain song that doesn't know it's a villain song. I mean, just look at the lyrics:

Life's a race / and I am gonna win

And I'll light the fuse / and I'll never lose

And I choose to survive / whatever it takes

You won't pull ahead / I'll keep up the pace

And I'll reveal my strength / to the whole human race

This is how the song starts! You can sort of see the logic behind making it the Olympics theme song. And then it gets weirder from there:

Yes, I am prepared / to stay alive

I won't forgive / the vengeance is mine

And I won't give in / because I choose to thrive

Yeah, I'm gonna wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin

Good grief. No wonder it's called "Survival". The song makes slightly more sense in the thematic context of The 2nd Law, the album it was released on. But on its own it's just.... yeah.

And this performance ramps up the insanity even more by just taking the piss. Between Matt Bellamy peacocking in a sparkly suit and Union Jack t-shirt, the batshit guitar solo, the pyro, the backing choir, and the fact that everything onstage (including the grand piano) is pretty much just for show (and wobbling like mad), Survival feels cheesy and irreverent in a way that makes you suddenly hyper-conscious of how tightly orchestrated everything else you just saw (including the Monty Python and Mr. Bean stuff) was. Remember that this was all broadcast to an international audience of millions.

Pairing the sheer pageantry of the ceremonies thus far with the actual lyrics of Survival kinda puts everything in an uncomfortable new light. Then it dawns on you that you pretty much just watched an accidental three-hour love letter to British imperialism. (Okay maybe that's overselling it a bit but it's still pretty funny.)