#furry rewind 2022

[d0vegum]

Art summary!!!

[denimbex1986]

'The Doctor has always had a complicated relationship with time and space, and never has that been truer than in the case of “The Star Beast”, the first of three episodes marking Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary.

It’s a new show starring an old Doctor – David Tennant, who becomes the Tardis’s 10th AND 14th custodian. Meanwhile, as the franchise recovers from the disastrous tenure of Chris Chibnall and forges a new future, it is turning to a past showrunner, Russell T Davies. As if that wasn’t enough to put fans in a spin, “The Star Beast” is an unabashed homage to heartwarming 1980s escapism such as ET – with a thoroughly modern twist on gender identity.

Confused? Tennant seems to be. He emerges boggle-eyed from the Tardis in present-day London at the start of this enjoyably light-weight and wholesomely hokey helping of Who.

Davies would never say so out loud. But he’s clearly trying to undo the damage of the Chibnall era. During that time, Who got caught up in convoluted storylines and viewers fled for the cyber-hills. That back-to-basics strategy comes as a relief after the episode is preceded by a Marvel-type intro. It features Doctors past and present and the word “Whoniverse”. The glitzy flourish is presumably aimed at international fans tuning in via Disney + under a new deal between Broadcasting House and the Mouse House.

As he zigs and zags between the need to rewind from Chibnall and appeal to Disney + subscribers, the obvious temptation for Davies is to mess with the magic of Who. But no. Aside from a slightly tweaked theme tune, his new Who could not be more old school. The storyline is so straightforward that an eight-year-old could grasp it; which is precisely the audience Davies had in mind, as he explained to journalists this week.

Yet if uncomplicated, “The Star Beast” never talks down to the viewer. It has lots of action and lashings of intergalactic banter. Plus, there’s a genuine twist halfway through when a key protagonist is revealed to be the opposite of who we thought they were. Shocks are turning into Davies’s forte. When Jodie Whittaker’s 13th Doctor regenerated in January 2022, the expectation was the character would return as the already announced 15th Doctor Ncuti Gatwa. That will happen a little later. The Sex Education actor will make his bows in a Christmas Day special. But until then, the Doctor is back in the capable clutches of the excellent Tennant, who returns to the frontline of time-hopping tea-time telly with a visible spring in his stride.

He’s materialised in Camden just as an alien spaceship whooshes over London. Mysterious forces have summoned the Doctor and reunited him with beloved side-kick Donna Noble (a fantastically caustic Catherine Tate). Whovians will know the Doctor previously wiped Noble’s memory of him. That was to prevent her mind from shattering after she plugged into his brain to defeat baddie Davros. With that part of her consciousness still sealed off, she is puzzled to meet this jittery stick-insect with quizzical eyebrows.

She is accompanied by her daughter Rose (Yasmin Finney), revealed later to be transgender. It isn’t simply a character detail. Rose’s non-binary identity plays a crucial part in an exciting denouement. It involves her mother coming to terms with the Time Lord data dump she downloaded during her earlier adventures (it’s complex – but what do you expect of Doctor Who?)

Rose is a budding artist who specialises in fluffy toys. She is soon playing hostess to an unexpected new furry creature, “the Meep”, who has turned up at her house. Voiced by Miriam Margolyes, the Meep is adorable with tassels on – and it looks like the episode is going to turn into Davies’s love letter to ET.

There is some of that. As the Doctor tracks down Noble and the Meep, a duo of insect-like Wrarth Warriors have landed and are apparently using brainwashed soldiers to hunt Rose’s furry chum (Ruth Madeley cameos as a scientist with paranormal military corp, Unit). Then comes that bombshell. The true villain is actually the Meep, whose adorableness is a ruse.

The Doctor uncovers this truth in a fake courtroom sequence, for which he dons a barrister’s wig. Whittaker’s Doctor had many winning attributes: she was funny, gutsy, compassionate and ill-served by some atrocious storylines. But she could not have carried off the zany humour with which Tennant delivers in this scene. He’s hilarious throughout – while also coming to terms with weird new feelings of human warmth (presumably a hangover from Whittaker’s 13th Doctor).

It’s great fun, and you have to feel for Gatwa, who will have his work cut out when he takes over the Tardis. It will be like going on after Freddie Mercury at Glastonbury. Tennant captures the essence of the Doctor. He really does feel like a time-traversing alien trying to pass for a human, and it will be a daunting act to follow. Still, that’s a worry for another day. For now, Who-heads will be relieved and delighted to know that, after the lows of the Chibnall years, the Doctor is back to his eccentric best.'

[gascon-en-exil]

This is the same person who allegedly leaked Nintendo's entire 2022 lineup, and predicted a Fire Emblem Echoes in the first half of the year. I'm still not inclined to treat their word as definitive until we hear anything official, but have some silly prediction opinions nonetheless:

FE remake duologies, ranked in order from best to awful:

1. Jugdral (FE4 + FE5) - It's about time these two got the love they deserve. I don't care that they're as mechanically distinct as any two FEs could ever be, just make them completely separate experiences and it'll still work. Graphical and musical updates, the usual quality of life updates, full voice acting, a time rewind especially for FE5, and leave the existing story and characters (including all the incest) intact while expanding in places that need it most. Also have this include more Quan/Finn subtext and Diarmuid and Tristan being gay, possibly for each other. IS did so well with Dimidue in FE16 - give me more gay knights!

2. Elibe (FE6 + FE7) - Would be pretty straightforward to remake unless they attempted some weird eugenics baby data transfer between games. I'd be nowhere near as hyped as I would be for Jugdral remakes, but officially localized Binding Blade would be nice and the usual modern updates would be welcome too. Just...don't make Mark into a full Robin/Byleth-esque Avatar, please. (Given how disproportionately popular Lyn is, that's definitely happening.)

3. Tellius (FE9 + FE10) - Controversial opinion maybe, but I don't think either of these games needs a full remake, especially not one that's supposedly more ambitious than FE15. Basic Switch ports with added menus for extra features à la FE1 would be all they really need, with a better system of data transfer being about the only other thing I could think to add.

4. Archanea (FE1/11 + FE3/12) - The Japanese fandom might appreciate this option, but surely even they must be getting tired of remakes of Marth's games. We'd finally get an officially localized version of the War of Heroes, but you know that IS would pull more from New Mystery and would undoubtedly include Kris...who might even get retroactively elevated to full Avatar status, capacity to sleep with the entire cast included. IS will give Kris the opportunity to break up the original lord couple and S rank Marth or Caeda, and the internet will rage for years over whether this is sacrilege or giving fans what they want. Can we not?

Prediction for the "trying new things" original title:

Avatar, possibly silent - can S rank everyone although possibly not always romantically, has a small array of same-sex S ranks that satisfy absolutely no one

An obviously fetishistic hook for the Avatar romances: Fates went all in on (pseudo-)incest, Three Houses did teacher/student, and furries are probably out after Tellius, so let's say...feet? None of the characters wear shoes, and one of the features of the obligatory free roam base area will be a place where you can give them pedicures. Dialogue assures us that this is not sexual in any way.

Multiple routes and another sloppy attempt at moral greyness that fans argue about approximately until the next original FE comes out; it will be very apparent that character archetypes and whole story beats have been copied from one of the older games....Sacred Stones, maybe? That one hasn't been mined dry yet.

Characters are again arranged so as to make for easy Heroes banners, and dominate the mobile game's roster for a good 2-3 years (even though IS weakly attempts to push tie-in banners for the remake as well)