#he should also give them mini versions of the doll found at the beginning

[asexualautistic]

everything he sells comes with a little handmade jacket and mask the size of the object

the context is discord server tomfoolery the idea is hoody (and mini-hoods) taking everything in tim's bathroom and selling it back to him for a fair price

[looneyllama-archive]

Fixing Raggedy Ann and Andy: a Musical Adventure

I recently discovered this gem of a film, and I’ve fallen in love with these funky little rag dollies! Raggedy Ann and Andy: a Musical Adventure has stunning animation, incredible music, and charming characters. That said, I can certainly see the flaws in the story, characters, and musical structure of the film, so I’ve written up what I would change to make it stronger.

Under the cut, because this got looooong.

• Theme: this film is actually not far off from having a solid story, if you think of the film being about love and happiness, rather than about the literal adventure. Every character’s goal is to find happiness. The captain thinks that claiming Babette as his bride, as if she’s a pretty trophy to show off, will make him happy. The Greedy follows a similar line of thinking, as he believes finding a sweetheart to add to his collection of sweets will make him happy. Even though both are desiring people, they demonstrate the idea of finding joy in ownership, rather than in interaction. Babette and the Camel are both trying to get home, with the former wanting to go to Paris and the latter wanting to join a camel caravan. They place all of their hopes for happiness on finding a certain place, instead of trying to make the best of where they are. Sir Leonard Looney thinks that joy comes from playing pranks on others and laughing at them. Finally, Raggedy Ann and Andy know that happiness comes from being with your loved ones.

• Characters: to start, notice that I left King Koo Koo off the list of characters discussed in the theme section. This decision is due to the fact that his goal is confusing; he also tries to find joy in the misery of others, but that’s to serve another goal, making himself bigger (which just ends up being disturbing in the film). I say that this character should be scrapped entirely. In terms of theme, Sir Leonard makes him redundant, and in terms of plot, it’s not difficult to write him out (more on that later). The other major character that needs an overhaul is the Captain. I get what they were going for; he’s supposed to be desperately lonely inside his snowglobe—even though he seems to have an entire pirate crew—which is why he kidnaps Babette. At the end of the film, he’s supposed to be redeemed, but he still comes across as acting creepy toward Babette, and he never even apologizes! I would tweak this character. First of all, he should be entirely alone in the snowglobe save for Queasy; this doesn’t justify his actions, mind you, but it at least makes him a little more sympathetic. Most importantly, he needs to come to the realization on his own that what he did was wrong. Instead of having him complain to Queasy in the brig about losing his “prize,” have him admit that he messed up; he can’t cure his loneliness if he treats other people like trophies, rather than showing them respect. The Captain also needs actually apologize for his actions—it’s hardly fair to have Babette apologize for causing trouble, but then for the person who started the whole mess to get off scot-free! Additionally, to lessen the creep factor, I would also have him no longer be “in love” with Babette at the end of the film, but instead show him respecting her as a friend.

• Songs: I love most of the songs in this film, but there certainly are too many—there’s 19 songs on the soundtrack! The first fix is to eliminate all of the Twin Penny jingles. These mini-songs are unnecessary, always bringing the story to a screeching halt and interrupting the flow of dialogue. Also, the Twin Pennies get the first song of the film, which hardly makes sense! That brings us down to 16 songs. The second obvious fix is to get rid of any background songs, or any songs that aren’t actual musical numbers in the film. That scratches “A Miracle” and “the Abduction & Yo-Ho,” which are both played behind dialogue during the kidnapping scene; the latter song doesn’t even end properly! I would also include “Camel’s Mirage” among these songs, and change that to an instrumental version, since the lyrics don’t contribute much impact anyway. 13 songs now. If we apply the change I made under the characters section, the elimination of King Koo Koo, we can get rid of "Hail to Our Glorious King” and "It's Not Easy Being King,” bringing us down to 11 songs. The final fix would be to combine songs whenever there’s two back-to-back. The film already does this anyway, having the final song “Home” transition into a reprise of “Candy Hearts and Paper Flowers,” so it wouldn’t be difficult to do it for a few other songs. The first instance of this is “Rag Dolly” and “Poor Babette.” Since “Poor Babette” is a pretty weak tune anyway, let’s just make Babette’s lament into another verse of “Rag Dolly!” Just switch it to a more dismal sound and change the lyrics—I’m thinking something along these lines: “Oh, I’m just a poor dolly, stranded so far from Paris / such a miserable dolly, trapped in this strange nursery / I feel melancholy, knowing I can’t get away / so this French dolly, scared and alone, has no choice but to stay.” The other two songs I would combine would be “Hooray for Me” and “You’re My Friend.” This one is even easier, since both songs are already call-and-response; just rearrange “Hooray for Me” as follows: “Hooray for me! Hooray for she! / Babette of Paris! She’s captain, see! / What joy, what glee! What joy, what glee! / When our voyage ends / once we’ve crossed the deep blue sea / we’ll reach Paris! We’ll reach Paris!” That makes our final count 9 songs: “I Look, And What Do I See,” “I’m No Girl’s Toy,” “Rag Dolly,” "Candy Hearts and Paper Flowers,” “Blue,” “I Never Get Enough,” “I Love You,” “You’re My Friend,” and “Home/Candy Hearts and Paper Flowers reprise.”

• Setting: now, I love how surreal the settings are, but I’ll readily admit that it doesn’t make much sense. The film says that Ann and Andy just go into the woods, and yet they run into a Taffy Pit and a Looney Kingdom out there! To help with suspension of disbelief, I say that instead of going out the window to chase the Captain, they go into Marcella’s drawings.

• Plot: with all of these changes in place, let’s play out the story! The beginning goes the same until we get to the Captain’s escape. Ann still helps him get out, but instead of him already having a ship and a crew inside the snowglobe, he goes up to one of Marcella’s drawings, a pirate ship on the sea, and orders the crew to jump out and help him kidnap Babette. The pirates then escape into a drawing of a starry sky over a desert sticking out of Marcella’s backpack. Ann and Andy follow them in, and the meet the Camel. He was abandoned in the lost-and-found at the school and ended up climbing into the drawing to look for his caravan. He agrees to help Ann and Andy, but gets distracted by the camels in the sky; the three ride right off the edge of the page and into a different drawing, this one showing candies and sweets galore. The encounter with the Greedy plays out as in the original film, and the trio escapes into another drawing, this one showing a castle. They run into Sir Leonard Looney, who intends to keep them in Looneyland for his own entertainment, but they get him and the other Loonies distracted by throwing pies and escape into the sea drawing. Sir Leonard is the one who calls up Gazooks to pursue them, hoping to get the last laugh. The three use the H.M.S. Koo Koo to get onto the ship and find Babette has become Captain. Crucially, we see the Captain showing remorse for his actions while he’s in the brig. While Babette is tying up Ann, Andy, and the Camel, the Captain spots Gazooks sneaking up on the ship through a porthole; he breaks out of the brig and gets on deck to warn Babette. Babette realizes she’ll have to give up on reaching Paris to keep her new friends safe. She commands her crew to turn the ship around. Gazooks attacks, tickling all of the crew as well as Andy and the Camel. While they’re being shaken around, Andy and the Camel drop joy buzzers and gum balls that got caught up in their clothes/wrinkled knees in the Taffy Pit and the Looney Kingdom. Ann, Babette, and the Captain pick up these items, and use them to load up a cannon and fire at Gazooks. The explosion knocks the toys out of the drawing. The Captain lands on a shelf by his snowglobe, but the Camel goes out the window and lands on the ground. Ann, Andy, and Babette nearly fall as well, but manage to hang onto the curtain. Ann is terrified for Babette, who will shatter if she falls. Just as the three think Babette is going to drop, Marcella comes in. She grabs her silly dolls, scolds them for playing near an open window, and puts them back in their proper places before leaving again. (I’m writing this scene with the original stories in mind; the original Marcella always seemed fairly aware that her dolls were getting into trouble behind her back, and would just scold them and save them as necessary.) The dolls are relieved to be home, and we get the Captain’s apology, and show him respecting Babette as a friend, as well as quite an impressive pirate Captain herself! Meanwhile, the Camel is left outside. He sees the caravan once again, but unlike in the original film, it leads in the opposite direction of the house. He stares at them longingly, but forces himself to turn away, and goes for the playroom window instead. Of course, he’s welcomed into the family, and we get our happy ending at last.

If you made it this far, please let me know what you think of my fixes, and what you would change about the film!

[twdeadfanfic]

Golden Cage, Pt.1

Daryl Dixon x Reader

Summary:  The reader is one of Negan’s wives, kept against her will in the golden cage that is the Sanctuary. When they brought Daryl in, she can’t take to see more suffering, and she tries helping him, until she gathers enough courage to ask him to help her run away from there. 

Set in season 7, 8 and (sort of) 9. Angst, Hurt/Comfort, there’s some fluff in here sometimes too, and also language, violence, and all those twd kind of things.

Disclaimer: For me, and as much as I love the actor and I think him an interesting character, Negan is a villain, and in this story, he’s certanly the villain in Reader’s life. So if you don’t like to see portrayed Negan like that, then please don’t read instead of sending hate...

Chapter 1/24 Updated twice a week, posting Monday and Thursday

If you want to read more of my Daryl Dixon stories (long series, mini-series, one shots...) check my MASTERLIST on the description of this blog.

My new long series, I hope you all will enjoy it, let me know your thoughts. Let’s get to it!

.....................................................................................

You rushed to the infirmary, ready to do your job. Negan and his Saviors had just come back and you’d heard they were bringing someone injured, though you didn’t know if it was a Savior or someone else who they’d gone to terrorize. For whoever’s sake, you hoped it was one of Negan’s.

Rushing into the infirmary, you didn’t miss once again how inconvenient and plainly silly was to work in there and help the doctor while wearing that fancy, little black dress and high heels. You really needed to sit down and tell Negan you needed working clothes, but whenever you brought it up he drove the conversation to wherever he wanted it. As always.

You knew you should be grateful, you were the only one of Negan’s wives who had a job besides pleasing the man, but still, there was so much more you wanted to be doing, so much else…

You knew that the reason why you were allowed to work was that you were a nurse, the only one in the Sanctuary somehow, so you were beyond useful working on something else that wasn’t looking pretty and warming a bed, especially when you first arrived and they still hadn’t got a doctor.

You also knew that being a nurse was the reason why Negan had set his eyes on you in the first place, when he first came to terrorize your little community, in which you’d lived since the beginning. Negan had made an offer, the community would collect stuff for him and he’d let them keep living there peacefully, but also you needed to go to the Sanctuary and work there.

The deal was made and you moved to the Sanctuary, where they still hadn’t gotten anyone with medical training, and began working as a nurse. That was only at the beginning though. Negan had soon started to drop comments about how your people didn’t collect enough stuff, how he should do something about it…how maybe promoting you to be his wife could help the situation…and so you’d married the man, but had been allowed to also keep working.

That had been quite a while ago, and by now your little community was gone. Negan said it wasn’t him but walkers. You never knew for sure, and you weren’t sure you wanted to know. Nothing forced you to be his wife and his nurse now, but you didn’t know what to do. You’d never been anything but a nurse, not even in your community, you weren’t sure you could survive out there on your own.

Besides, you knew Negan wouldn’t let you go. Maybe he wouldn’t care about losing a wife, he had several, though something told you it’d hurt his pride, but he’d never lose a nurse. You guessed you could maybe divorce the man, he always said you all were free to not be with him if you didn’t want to, but none of the wives had ever done that, and you weren’t eager to be the first and find out what Negan might do about it.

Especially not now…

You focused your mind back to the present and to the man that was being dragged into the infirmary by Dwight, who pushed him roughly onto the gurney. The man was covered in sweat, his skin pale and hot. He’d been shot on a shoulder and you could see he’d lost blood. You weren’t sure if he was conscious or not, his eyes were open but he wasn’t saying anything, wasn’t moving.

“Just make sure he doesn’t bleed out, but nothing else. He hadn’t earned it yet.” Dwight was instructing the doctor.

“We have to remove the bullet, clean the wound and make sure it doesn’t infect, suture it probably, bandage it properly, probably we should keep him here for the night, and he’s lost some blood, so…” You began to list and Dwight shook his head.

“Only thing you have to do is make sure he doesn’t die. His arm can fall off for all we care, but he has to stay alive.”

You glared at him, wondering where the man who’d been one of your first and only friends in that place had gone, because you couldn’t see it on him anymore. The doctor began working on removing the bullet from the man’s shoulder, not anesthetics or painkillers, as they seemed to want the man to suffer too.

You could see the man trying not to make a sound, seeming like his mind was far away from there, but when the doctor began removing the bullet, he couldn’t help but cry out. You hated it. It was cruel and unnecessary, but you knew you couldn’t do anything about it. Still, as you held him still, you reached out and took the man’s hand, squeezing it tightly, hoping it’d be even a tiny help.

When the doctor finished, you thought the man was unconscious, but when you went to brush his long, wild hair out of his face, wanting to see if they had hurt him anywhere, he flinched away from you.

Once the doctor assured the man wouldn’t bleed out, Dwight dragged him out of there. You followed him towards the cells at the basement, where he pushed the man into one, and you watched as he unceremoniously ripped the clothes off the man. You wished you could do something, but you didn’t know what, and you knew these were Negan’s orders, though Dwight seemed to be enjoying it.

“He’s going to die of an infection,” you said when Dwight locked the door behind him, leaving the man inside the cold darkness of the small cell.

“That’s up to him…he joins us? Then Negan will give him anything he needs. He doesn’t…” Dwight shrugged, talking loud enough for the man to hear him through the door. “Then he dies in there. Negan really wants him, though, so Daryl here only has to play his cards right.”

“Who is him? What happened?” You only knew Negan had gone to talk with a new group of people…this was his way of talking, you knew.

“Ask your husband.” Dwight began walking away.

“I can’t, he’s busy with your ex-wife.” You snapped. You knew it was cruel, but you were mad at the man. Dwight didn’t say anything, just kept walking away.

*

You’d lied to Dwight, Sherry wasn’t with Negan, and you went to tell her everything that had happened. You knew she could see how Dwight had changed too, but you also knew she still loved him. Apparently, she’d met Daryl, the prisoner, before, somehow. He’d helped her, her late sister, and Dwight, that time they tried to run away. And to repay him, Dwight had robbed him. You decided not to comment on it.

Later that day, you dared to bring up the matter to Negan as you found yourself in bed with him, asking him what had happened with that new group. He prided himself in not lying to you, though you were pretty sure he was giving you an adultered version of what had gone on. It involved murder anyway, two people of that new group had died. As Dwight had said, he wanted Daryl to work for him, and apparently, he needed to break him first or whatever.

“If you really want him then you should let the doctor tend to him,” you tried to reason. “That wound looks pretty bad. On the worst case, he dies in there of infection and the only way you have him working for you is as a walker. Best case, you have him working for you with a messed up arm…”

“Damn doll, you really trying your best on this. Gotta love that sweet heart of yours.” Negan gave you one of those smiles that made you shiver because you couldn’t depict if there was something hidden behind. “Or is it that you like them with long hair and covered in dirt now?” He chuckled.

“Yeah, sure.” You scoffed, shaking your head as you tried to look amused and not let your nerves betray you. Not because you were interested in the prisoner like that, but because if Negan might just suspect it, you didn’t think things would go well for you. He was possessive of the things he owned, whether he cared for them or not. “Just concerned about someone’s health. I’m a nurse, you know?”

“Alright then, sweetheart, you win. The doc can check that shoulder that has you so worried tomorrow. Anything for my girl, you know I can’t deny you anything, you’ve become the spoilest wife.” He smiled like that again and you forced yourself to smile back and stop the shiver that ran through you as he pulled you closer to him.

*

You wondered if maybe Negan had been lying, but the next day he walked you into the infirmary where you found Daryl sat down on the gurney, the doctor tending to his shoulder, Dwight next to him.

“See, this is what you could have if you join us,” Diwght was saying to Daryl, and you rolled your eyes when you saw he was wearing the winged vest he’d stripped off the other man. “Negan treats his workers right.”

“I do.” Negan grinned, dangerous gaze fixing on Daryl, who was silent and looking at the ground. “Although you have to thank my sweet wife for this, I wanted to wait for a few days until we treat you with this. But she has a gentle heart, you see.” Negan wrapped an arm around your shoulders and you tried not to squirm, it always made you uncomfortable when he claimed you as his wife in front of others. Which he did as much as he could.

Daryl’s head was still hanging low but you thought you noticed his gaze shifting up briefly to you, but then he was looking at the ground again.

“So what is going to be, Daryl…Daryl, it sounds right, doesn’t darling?” Negan smiled at you and you just nodded. “You joining us?” Daryl was still silent and looking down, and Negan let out a sigh. “Alright then. Dwight, drag him back to his hole.” His arm was still around you and he walked you to the door. “Sorry, sweetcheeks, you tried.”

*

You didn’t see Daryl again for two days. You knew Dwight still kept him in that cell, fed dog food if he was fed anything, having a song playing again and again so he couldn’t rest…it wasn’t the first man Negan kept prisoner, but he was trying his hardest with this one.

You couldn’t believe you were part of this. You shouldn’t have said yes to Negan when he asked you to be his nurse, you should have died with your people, but you were trying to protect them.  But they had been gone for months now and yet you still were there…you were scared Negan would kill you if you tried to leave, and you might be a coward, but you never dared to try, especially not after what happened to Sherry and Dwight.

You were walking back to the wives’ rooms after doing some routine check ups to some of the workers, when you saw Daryl being dragged by a couple of Saviors, led by Dwight. He seemed unconscious and like he had taken a hell of a beating.

“What the hell happened?!” You rushed to them, but you stopped before you could get too close and check on Daryl, the way in which one of the Saviors looked at you making you take a couple of steps back.

You knew they wouldn’t hurt one of Negan’s wives, especially not you now, they’d be punished, but still…Some Saviors, not many, were there because they didn’t know what else to do,  but others looked scary and dangerous, and seemed to truly enjoy their job. That was one of them. You looked as they dragged Daryl back to his cell, feeling like an useless coward.

You waited until you thought none would be around and then you made your way to Daryl’s cell, finding Dwight not far from there, keeping his eye on it.

“Tell me what happened,” you demanded.

“He tried to escape, he was caught.”

“Tried to escape? You can’t even close a cell properly now?” You spat.

“We left it open on purpose, Negan’s idea, see what he would do, teach him a lesson if he tried to escape.”

“Did any of you really think he wouldn’t try to escape?!” You scoffed, you couldn’t believe it. “Do you see what you’re doing to him here?!”

“Why do you yell at me, it was your husband’s idea, go yell at him, come on.” Dwight raised his eyebrows at you, he knew you wouldn’t and you knew it too. “Pretty sure Negan knew Daryl’d try to escape and was hoping for it.” You felt sick to your stomach but decided not to say anything else about it.

“Let me check him, I’ll grab a first aid kit from the infirmary.”

“No.”

“Yes. He looked half dead.”

“He’ll survive. Negan wants him like that. And I’m close to breaking him.”

“When did you become a monster too?” You glared at Dwight, feeling a lump in your throat at all that cruelty. You knew Saviors were bad, even though you had been pretty sheltered from it all, but still, you couldn’t believe they’d treat a person like that. “You’re going to let me check on him or I’ll tell Negan about those meetings with Sherry on the corridor.”

They did nothing but talk and smoke, but still, you knew how Negan would react. You’d began covering for Sherry since she became a wife when she wanted to talk to Dwight, and eventually you’d ended up doing it for other wives who had a boyfriend or a husband outside too. You liked to help, but it was stressful. You’d never thought you’d hold it against any of the other women, use it against them, and there you were…you felt awful, but you didn’t know what else to do.

“You wouldn’t do that to Sherry.” Dwight shrugged as if he didn’t care, but you could notice him getting nervous.

“I’ll say it’s you who won’t stop coming and wouldn’t let Sherry alone until she talks to you…” You bluffed.

“Negan won’t believe you.”

“Okay, let’s find out.” You turned to walk away and Dwight grabbed your arm.

“You think you’re on a high horse but you’re as bad as him,” he spat and you tried not to show how that hurt. “You get in there, Daryl’ll kill you, and then Negan kills me.”

“I won’t let him hurt me, if he tries something I call for you.” You hadn’t thought about that, it was a good point, but still, you couldn’t just leave the man like that. “Let me in. Or I tell Negan.”

Dwight glared at you but finally he nodded. “Five minutes.”

“Ten.” You slipped off your heels and ran to the infirmary, bringing a first aid kit and a lantern. Dwight opened his mouth as if he were going to try and say something to change your mind, but then he just shook his head and opened the door of the cell, closing it behind you when you walked in.

...............................................................................................

And this was the first chapter! I’m sorry if they are short, I’m going to kept them short for a little while, and then they’ll become longer, promised! And yeah, Daryl and the redader didn’t get to speak, I’ll make you wait a couple of days for that, I hope I left you hanging! I kind of wanted to introduce her and the story, see what you think, so if you could let me know your thoughts, it would be lovely.

As always, thank you for reading, drop me a comment if you have time, and excuse my english and mistakes since it’s not my first language.

If you want to be (un)tagged let me know.

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[sally-mun]

BIRTHDAY PARTY TIIIIME!

TIME TO TALK ABOUT MY AWESOME BIRTHDAY PARTY~ below the cut since it’s a biggie!

So as is tradition in our household, I’m sequestered in my room while the party is set up downstairs. I mostly spend the day watching Dance Moms (shut up) and playing Animal Crossing, amusingly to get my birthday party there as well. Eventually @fini-mun​ comes to my door and summons me, and says if I want to record it I should start. I got my phone out and recorded the “First-Person Leda Experience” as I called it. I’m glad I did, because THIS WAS AN EXPERIENCE.

So right outside my door is this chufty motherfucker:

Deebs explains that this is a time machine that’s powered by imagination, and we’re going to take a journey through time. At this point I’m a little puzzled, because the time traveling thing makes me wonder if the theme is Doctor Who, but this clearly isn’t a Tardis so I guess not??

Turns out, I’m correct that it’s not a Tardis; it is, in fact, a Time-A-Tron. Deebs first says we’re going to go into the future and encourages me to turn the dial clockwise. And, well...

WELL THAT DOESN’T BODE WELL. Deebs and I abort this idea and I turn the dial the other way. It turns out, we were going back to the 80′s and 90′s! This was SUCH a great idea for me because I whine all the time about how much I miss these two decades, so I’m very excited to do my time warp!

Deebs sends me on ahead to go back in time, mentioning that they’ll catch up because they want to check out that apocalypse first. So, I head through alone.

There’s a pretty cool warpy swirl on the door ahead of me to give me the full time vortex experience, then I head downstairs. There’s lots of 80′s and 90′s themed swirly banners hanging from the ceiling, balloons with various animal prints all over the floor, and garland in the kitchen doorway featuring boom boxes and sunglasses and lightning bolts and all kinds of nostalgic icons! My friends are waiting for me and I quickly realize they’re dressed for the past too: Jay is wearing overalls and Ivan is wearing a Metallica shirt.

As I’m descending the stairs music suddenly starts -- music from the 80′s radio channel on our TV, and I can’t help myself from bopping around, so the camera got a little shakey at this point (sorry, future!me). We have a little mini dance party at this point while waiting for Deebs to catch up. I even flip my phone around to do my best at filming myself dancing, and upon reviewing the video as I write this I KINDA DID SHOCKINGLY WELL.

(Yeah I normally don’t post pics of myself but I just HAD to show off how well I did for filming myself completely blind.)

I also used the opportunity to teach my young friends the Hand Jive, proving once and for all that even in my prime I am nothing even remotely resembling “cool.”

So finally Deebs rejoins us, and now also has a great retro shirt! It’s got “Totally Rad!” written on it with lots of color splashes. Deebs then explains that in the future Water World is how the world ended, and as a result the survivors elected Kevin Costner as Godking due to his experience making the movie.

We then move into the kitchen and review the food: McDonald’s chicken nuggets, which I loved as a kid and still do to this day! Macaroni and cheese, for the same reason! Little weenies wrapped in bacon, which I only discovered last year but are fucking delicious! Faygo Red Pop, which I practically drank intravenously as a wee one! And of course, ZEBRA CAKES!

The plates and other food vessels are all retro and neon, and I can see that the party’s goody bags (which have become a tradition of our parties at this point) are all very neon as well.

Then Deebs brings out the cake: A DIRT CAKE~ I haven’t had a proper dirt cake since I was like 12 years old!! Deebs even went the extra mile and got rock candies and gummy worms to mix in to enhance the delicious dirtiness~ Deebs also mentioned worrying about having gotten the recipe right, but I pointed out that there are like a thousand “recipes” for dirt cake and there’s no single right way.

I’m so excited and already having such a good time, and I make a passing comment that I’m glad I wore a neutral shirt since it’s not something that would clash with our time traveling. Deebs says it’s funny I should mention that, then hands me a present and tells me to go to the bathroom and change. I obey, and I find that I’ve been given this shirt to wear!!

IT’S SO AMAZING AND I LOVE IT!! It’s like THE essence of what I love about the 80′s~

We all get food and go sit down to hang out, and Deebs mentions we should watch a retro movie. My mom starts flipping through the TV guide, and I can hardly believe my eyes: Coincidentally, THE WIZARD IS ON!! I direct my mom to go to that channel, and it’s actually still pretty close to the beginning of the movie. I just CANNOT believe that this happened to be on during my party, I’m fucking stoked.

We watch the movie and make some pretty great commentary over it, though I notice that one of my guests is spending a lot of time on her phone and the other is preoccupied with a book he brought. OH WELL, THIS IS MY PARTY AND WE’RE WATCHING THE WIZARD. DEAL WITH IT. Besides, I can’t fault them TOO badly because let’s face it, most of us just watch that movie for the game battle at the end anyway. (Speaking of the ending Deebs and I got each other going and eventually concluded that the actor playing the host of the game tournament spiked several small children into the floor. It’s a long story.)

So once we’re done eating Deebs hands out the goodie bags, and holy shit they’re amazing. They’re so smartly put together: A slap bracelet, a pencil and mini-phone book (because we don’t have cell phones yet so this is the only way to save numbers!), some Pop Rocks and Bazooka gum, and we each got a miniature version of a classic 80′s toy of some sort: Mini Rock’em Sock’em robots for Jay, a mini Rubik’s cube for Deebs, a mini Etch-a-Sketch for Ivan... and guys, I nearly rocketed through the roof when I saw I got A MINI LITE-BRITE!! I legit lost my mind for a minute, I didn’t even know this EXISTED as a mini and I was SO EXCITED because I fucking loved my Lite-Brite as a kid and I couldn’t believe Deebs found something like this for me!!

So after we have dirt cake and the movie wraps up, Deebs brings me the rest of my presents, and I was not prepared for how many there were. The gifts carried through the theme very well, as I got some new classic Sonic dolls, an officially licensed Genesis controller for the PC, and 80′s/90′s-themed card games! Ivan was also very shrewd in getting me a couple of Rurouni Kenshin graphic novels, as I’ve not only mentioned to him several times that it’s my favorite anime but also that I have a very, very strong preference for 90′s anime in general!

After that Jay had to leave, so Ivan, Deebs, and myself went up to my room to unwind from the excitement by watching Youtube for a while. We did what we call a “friend pile,” aka where we all try to cram onto my little-ass twin bed and just sort of watch TV and cuddle and hope our limbs don’t all go numb. We took turns suggesting videos to watch, which exposed us all collectively to a lot of new stuff. Some of the videos were fucking insane.

All in all, it was a pretty fantastic day XB I’m very satisfied with my time traveling adventure! Thank you SO SO MUCH to @fini-mun​ and my friends for showing me such a great time!!

[geekysweetie]

Kingdom Hearts 1.5 and 2.5 HD Remix PS4 Videogame Review

Title: Kingdom Hearts 1.5 and 2.5 HD Remix

Platform: PS4 (note this release combines various Kingdom Hearts games originally found on the PS2, GBA, Nintendo DS and 3DS)

Genre: Action Roleplaying Game ARPG

Publisher: Disney + Squarenix

Where to Buy: $49.99 on Amazon (at time of this writing)

Overall: 68/80 85% B “Very Good Game for Girls”

Geeky: 3/5 The games have fun gameplay, good graphics for the age of the games, and a great soundtrack. However, the Disney segments can be a bit too kiddie for some more serious gamers, and although the entire series is about the juxtaposition of light and dark, the light hearted disney characters can sometimes take away from immersing yourself in the deeper darker story of Sora and his friends.

Sweetie: 5/5 – This game is cuteness overload by combining well loved Square and Disney characters. It also has a surprisingly deep, relatively dark (for a Disney product at least), and mature storyline, which evolves and grows deeper and darker from game to game as characters grow and evolve.

Gameplay: 10/10 Kingdom Hearts is an action RPG. You play as Sora, a young boy who dreams of leaving his home town on a tiny island. When the game begins you are asked to choose a weapon. You may choose between shield, sword, and magic wand. You’re also asked which weapon you will give up. This allows you to customize your fighting style to match your preferences. You’ll also be asked a few questions. These questions do not have any significance on the story, but they do have a large impact on how quickly you will level up throughout the game.

A tutorial will give you a taste for how combat is in each of the games. You can run, jump, push and pull objects, climb, and use your chosen weapons as you chain attacks, dodge, defend, and parry to take down your foes. Enemies will drop small glowing orbs which can offer XP or sometimes restore health or other benefits. You will have to run around and touch the drops, because they do not get added automatically.

After settling into the game, you are allowed to freely explore the island, interact with NPCs, and engage in several minigames, such as fighting or racing with your friends on the island. You will see many familiar faces from both Squaresoft and Disney franchises.

Fairly early in the game, Sora gets his wish of leaving the island, and the rest of the game is played through traveling between different worlds, each representing a key franchise from Disney or Squaresoft. There are numerous battles to fight, areas to explore, sidequests, mini games, and hidden goodies. In fact, to find everything, across all games will take you almost 300 hours (and you’ll be awarded with an extra ending in each game). There’s plenty of content here to sink your teeth into, even for the most seasoned of gamers.

The action based combat is fun and snappy, while the mini games and interaction with a wide variety of characters gives you a break from the hack n slash combat, creating a well balanced game that equally values action as well as adventure.

Story: 8/10 I find it jarring at times how the story jumps between worlds, and I sometimes cringe at some of the Disney characters (and I consider myself a Disney fan! But it can really take away from the story, just when things are getting interesting to flash back to Goofy or Donald, especially with their well known silly voices and all). This can all make the story less immersive. However, at the heart of the story, you have a coming of age tale and a love triangle between 3 best friends. You watch throughout each game as Sora and his friends evolve and grow and change and how their friendships and relationships change as well. The story from each game is directly related from one game to the next. We’ve already watched Sora age by 2 years (and gotten a glimpse at a very young Sora as well). When Kingdom Hearts 1 starts, Sora is 14. By the end of Dream Drop Distance, he is 16. Many speculate he will be 16 or 17 in Kingdom Hearts 3. We witness Sora’s changing emotions as he transitions from adolescence to young adulthood. The main theme song in Kingdom Hearts 1 even hints at this with the lyrics of the chorus stating “Don’t get me wrong, I love you, but does that mean I really have to meet your father? One day when you’re older you’ll understand what I meant when I said No, I don’t think life is quite that simple.” Those lyrics perfectly describe the relationship between Sora and Kairi. An innocent love, a boy who still quite often views love/girls as “gross”, and a boy embarrassed by his emerging feelings of love for Kairi. And we witness not only how friendship can grow to love, but also how platonic friendships can change to rivalries when two boys love the same girl. The depths of both Riku and Sora’s love for Kairi is perhaps the best thing about the story.

I recently picked up Kingdom Hearts 1.5 and 2.5 HD Remix. I had played the original KH1 and KH2 on Playstation 2 but that was over 12 years ago now. And I had not played the other side games.

Every game in Kingdom Hearts is connected, and contains the same 3 characters, Riku, Kairi, and Sora, and the story gets deeper and more complex as the games go on as more is revealed building upon back stories and prequels and sequels and spin off games. It can be intimidating for someone new to the franchise to pick up the games now with almost 15 years of games to catch up on.

Many people recommend the following order to play the games in to get the most out of the story:

Kingdom Hearts 1 (1.5 remix) Re: Chain of Memories (1.5 remix) Kingdom Hearts 2 (2.5 remix) 358/2 Days (1.5 remix) Birth By Sleep (2.5 remix) Re:Coded (2.5 remix) Dream Drop Distance (2.8 remix sold separately) 0.2 Birth By Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage (2.8 remix sold separately) X Back Cover (2.8 remix sold separately.) Unchained X (free mobile game, available separately) Kingdom Hearts 3 (sold separately – coming soon)

So you will need bare minimum to purchase 3 games

Kingdom Hearts 1.5 and 2.5 HD Remix Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Kingdom Hearts 3

And optionally download and play Unchained X on your cell phone.

Some of the “games” above are actually “cutscenes” because they could not emulate the nintendo DS “touch screen” on the PS4. So each of these nintendo remakes are movies which reuse old, and add new cutscenes to tell the story.

You can alternatively purchase and play these Nintendo games separately. But you should be fine with just the cutscenes from an understanding the story standpoint.

Characters: 10/10 I really enjoy watching Sora and friends evolve, age, mature, and change over the course of multiple interconnected games. I also really do enjoy seeing favorite characters thrown in from Final Fantasy and Disney. It’s a strange mashup but it works surprisingly well. If you are either a Disney or Squaresoft fan you will love the cast of characters in these games.

Graphics: 7/10 – Taking into consideration the age of the games, I think the graphics are beautiful and memorable. They are vibrant, full of color, detail, and fun. The character designs blend Disney’s whimsy and charm with Squaresofts more stylistic approach. Sora also reminded me of a brunette Cloud wearing Mickey’s big “clown” shoes. The bobble headed appearance of the characters, makes them cute, but it’s almost a bit too juvenile, given that even when we first meet Sora and friends in KH1, they’re already teenagers. I feel like they look like Precious Moments dolls, and about 7-10 years old because of the proportions of their heads to bodies. — Luckily, the artwork does improve in later games.

Take a look below:

Sora from Kingdom Hearts 1 (Does he look 14 to you? Not even close in my opinion).

14 Year Old Sora in Kingdom Hearts 1

Sora from Kingdom Hearts 2 (He is supposed to be 15 here, looks about right.)

15 Year Old Sora in Kingdom Hearts 2

Sora from Kingdom Hearts 3 (Speculated to be 16 or 17 here) (meh this design is alright, I expected to see something like Final Fantasy XV quality here. There are very few details in the hair/face and almost no shading on the clothing, it just looks kinda flat/plastic-y… not what I’d expect from a PS4 title. He does look a tiny bit more mature, slimmer face, etc.)

Music: 10/10 I’m a big Utada Hikaru fan, and I love the opening theme “Simple and Clean” – as I mentioned, I feel the lyrics foreshadow the coming of age story and changes that our little island buddies are about to experience. She also sings “Sanctuary” the opening theme of Kingdom Hearts 2. And it has been confirmed that she will also be involved with the opening for Kingdom Hearts 3. My favorite Utada Hikaru song though will always be “First Love”. The Japanese versions of the tracks are also quite catchy even without knowing the lyrics or understanding Japanese. The background music is also fitting and full of adventure and wonder.

Voice Acting: 6/10 – The voice acting is definitely hit or miss for me. Some characters I think are perfectly cast, and others way off mark. Some give pretty convincing performances, while others are too overdramatic and/or the opposite, lack any feeling or emotion in the deliverance of their lines. The iconic Disney characters also can tend to annoy and detract from the story with their overly cartoonish voices for which they are so well known.

Replay Value: 9/10 Although the games are linear, there are multiple games in this “bundle”, and each game has a secret ending, usually only uncovered for completing all side quests, or playing on the hardest difficulty settings, which will take you around 270 hours total according to How long to Beat. Even if you don’t want to go for the secret endings, you’re still looking at over 130 hours of gameplay just for the main stories of each game. For just $40something, that works out to around 30 cents per hour of entertainment. Therefore your return on investment is quite high in this title, even if you might only play each of the games once.

Overall: 68/80 85% B “Very Good Game for Girls”

Kingdom Hearts 1.5 and 2.5 HD Remix PS4 Videogame Review was originally published on GeekySweetie.com - Geeky & Kawaii Anime, Tech, Toys, & Game Reviews & News