#her dialogue in act 2 really is great

[scrybeofvibes]

replayed inscryption today, grandma kicked my ass

[hazelcallahan]

ok “all vi needed to do was call caitlyn cupcake to make her turn on ambessa” is a fun little bit that i will participate in but i really feel like it’s contributing to two major misconceptions/complaints:

1. that caitlyn’s heel turn was sudden, and

2. that vi and caitlyn have reconciled

so let’s break that down, shall we

1. every single hint was there that caitlyn was chafing against ambessa’s regime and doing every little thing in her power to resist without putting herself and her loved ones at great risk. from the first scene with maddie - hell, the opening montage - you can tell cait is fucking EXHAUSTED. weary. that’s a woman who has spent months suffocating, doing desperate damage mitigation when put into an impossible situation. she didn’t want the mantle of leadership, and what was she going to do, say no and let someone worse take it? so she’ll take it. she’ll ban the use of solitary confinement cells. she’ll argue against ambessa’s soldiers attacking civilians. she’s in too deep to really do much else.

additionally, there are hints that she’s been planning on ways to take down ambessa for months. that one scene with dialogue over them sparring is literally there to symbolize how every single conversation between them is a battle, both of them looking for openings, and no matter how hard caitlyn tries ambessa always seems to come out on top. you also don’t just come up with the plan she did entirely on the fly - tracking things like guard rotations is something only a schemer does.

2. sure, “cupcake” is a fun little pet name, but it’s so much more than that. the most obvious is an olive branch. vi doesn’t want to hurt caitlyn. there’s so much affection still there.

the bigger thing, though, and the thing i believe caitlyn is reacting to there, is it’s a sign of distance. vi used “cupcake” as a way to needle at caitlyn when they first met, when she didn’t quite trust her even though she’d broken her out of prison. after that, we hear her use it twice more in s1: on the bridge during their parting hug, and after the council meeting as she’s trying to leave. both instances where she, in that moment, believes they’re never going to see each other again, and so she has a vested interest in creating that distance. on the other hand, we hear her use caitlyn’s name after she hears the gunshot on the bridge, in a moment of genuine fear and affection.

come s2, vi doesn’t use “cupcake” at all in act 1. she used “cait” a lot. still a nickname, but also caitlyn’s actual name - i know you, i see you, i care about you. caitlyn’s observant enough to notice this, even passively, even if she didn’t realize it until she heard “cupcake” months later, but i can’t help but feel like she takes that nickname as a sign of how they’ve drifted. she feels like she has to start over again with this woman she clearly loves. the meaning is clear to her: i won’t hurt you unless you give me a reason to, i’ll work with you if that’s what you need, but i’m not going to let myself get close to you just yet.

[hatosaur]

this show sucks and i'm angry

i'm back on this blog for the very specific reason that i'm filled with spite and rage. i Must talk about how bad tlou hbo season 2 is. spoilers (and lots of hatred) ahead.

(i know i stated before that i wouldn't be watching; that was a fuckin lie)

the show is so...pretentiously written in the second season because they keep adding insignificant fluff that overall weakens the story beats. the game story is neat and clean in that it doesn't waste any time, because, go figure, it doesn't make for a good game story. the player wants to get in there. tv shows don't have the same needs but god, that doesn't mean that you can stretch everything and fill in the gaps with frivolous, drawn out dialogue that explains EVERYTHING that the characters are thinking.

the game really shines in the brevity of its dialogue -- its quiet, contemplative scenes that allow you to sit in the emotions of the moment. the show does the exact opposite and tells us TOO MUCH. first episode, we re-acquaint ourselves with these characters; what have ellie and joel up to? surely we get bits of the sudden iciness between them. nope, dina has to straight up ask joel, "why is she mad at you?" how's joel feeling about it? surely, it's up to viewer interpretation. maybe we can read joel's expressions and interactions with other characters -- nope, he goes to ✨therapy✨ now, and we have to be told what ellie and joel's relationship is through a brand new, useless character who adds zero impact to the story's themes/messages. great. cool. i love being told what's happening instead of just seeing it for myself.

each episode is worse than the last (and there are only three out at the time of me writing this!) with completely bizarre writing choices and massive tonal issues. abby is perhaps the most egregious example. i won't talk about my gripes with the casting because it's a dead horse. instead, let's talk about how she killed joel. abby prefaces the act by going on this longgggg speech about who exactly she is, what she's there for, who joel killed to make her do this, xyz, everything under the sun. then as she grabs the golf club and continues her speech, joel tells her to "shut the fuck up already and do it." joel saying the game's version of this ("save whatever speech you got and get it over with.") is badass, because it implies that it could've been anyone related to someone he's killed in the past, but it just happened to be abby that day. the ambiguity of whether he knew who exactly he killed or not adds to the tragedy of the story, because this was the one guy he had to kill to save ellie. in the show, it's almost comical, because we're fed this long speech that is entirely unnecessary and kills the flow of the scene; she JUST shot him in the fucking leg, you can't just go into a monologue after that. him knowing it was jerry he killed means fuck-all to the story. it works to the story's detriment, in fact, because it's a story about blind revenge, and it's a recurring thing in the game that these characters don't know what the fuck the other's motives are; they just know each other's actions.

the final blow on joel lacked the brutality and rage of the game. like, impaling him? is it meant to like, show that this scrawnier abby has a different set of abilities now that she doesn't have muscles to prove her prowess as a killer. in fact, what is it now that makes abby a daunting character? is it her drive to kill? is it her obsession? is it her being slightly more fucked up than her friends? because none of this was telegraphed to the audience. she just read as a hurt person. which SHE IS. but again. we're not meant to know this much about abby this early on. the show flouts the game's use of perception and throws everything it possibly can at the audience all at once, sacrificing the mystery of the narrative.

episode three is the worst of the episodes that are out (again, how are things this bad at just episode three?). we fast-forward to jackson three whole months after joel's death. it's implied that ellie was...committed to jackson's equivalent to a psych ward and that's the reason. i don't mind setting the stage for ellie's trauma as it's a huge part of the story. but three months? that takes so much of the wind out of the sails of the story. (the story is so bogged down by modern expectations of mental health. no, we don't need to see joel in therapy. no, we don't need to see ellie in the psych ward. these moments literally, literally don't matter.) dina has withheld info about joel's death (let's not get into the weird choice to swap tommy and dina for patrol; yet another nonsensical choice), and the two go through fucking LEGAL AVENUES TO GET AFTER ABBY? what the fuck?? you have ellie, a character who throughout the entire course of her life as a young person has seen absolutely no reason to respect authority figures, systems, or processes, and yet she has to wait for the people of jackson to vote on whether she should go after abby or not. ellie gets her own speech on what her motivations are. again, we know what her motivations are, it's pretty easy to tell, considering it happened in the previous episode. AGAIN, this entire scene doesn't impact the story in any way whatsoever...except in one way, as perceived by craig mazin.

seth (homophobic asshole) vocally supports the proposal, and this leads to him later giving ellie one of his guns as she's leaving jackson (which she does regardless of the vote, fuck fuck fuck why are they doing this). they share, i guess, a "meaningful moment" and they left. because do you guys get it yet? the show's about clashing forces needing to get along. because if we all just understood one another's intentions a little bit, maybe we'd be alright in the long run, right?

maria is the one who intercepts the girls as they leave, in the game. go figure, they make her black in the show and shelve her completely in the second season. i would think if they wanted to press a little more on the domesticity of jackson life, they would've kept this connection but...no. give the screentime to the white homophobe. because his actions totally needed to be justified, right? (for those who don't watch the behind-the-scenes featurettes, neil druckmann paints seth as a character who, in his own eyes, seeks to protect his community "in his own way." fuck off.) progressing the story in this way through a homophobe is so fucking morally corrupt. i get that they might be wanting to make a point about a perceived "unforgivable" person having the chance to redeem himself, but come the fuck on. we're in the middle of one of the worst moments in modern history for queer people and you choose to do THIS.

on the note of how they're depicting queer issues, LET'S TALK ABOUT WHAT THEY DO TO DINA (beloved, proudly bisexual partner of ellie). ellie and dina's relationship in the show is very different from the game. i'll maybe save the whole can of worms for a different post, but in episode three in particular, dina (in the game, an assured character; a rock for ellie's instability) doesn't confirm her feelings toward ellie. in fact, she dances around it; she poses the question about rating the kiss, the two banter, and dina confirms to ellie instead that she went back to jesse. what. the fuck? she plays off the kiss as something girls do when they're high, or drunk, or whatever. giggles and says, "you're gay, i'm not. i wanna know how good i was." which is the most insane fucking line in the show so far.

now, the present theory is that dina will realize she's bisexual later. but why? what room is there in this story for that? why did craig mazin make the significant change to explore dina's sexuality, and why does he think he's the guy to do it? because he's already fucked up. he's made dina ditzy, he's affirmed ellie's insecurities about the kiss, he's made her go back to jesse (ensuring she gets pregnant because of that fuckass timeskip). i won't deny that these things might happen to bi people irl, or that exploring a character's realization of their sexuality is something that could be depicted more. but why make this change from source material to adaptation? why add this to the ever-growing list of plotlines added on top of the base one?

at present, ellie and dina's relationship is left up in the air, removing the stability that both would've been able to rely on as the story progresses, and effectively making them "gal pals." tale as old as time, i guess.

the show will inevitably be praised for its queer rep anyway, because it's bolstered by the bill and frank episode (a positive example of original content from the show) and the kiss scene from episode one (more racy than the original's slow and sweet kiss because i think girls should makeout on screen more anyway), but genuinely? it's not hitting this season and i don't have hope it (nor the previous issues) will get better.

[tillythemenace]

What didn't you like from Astrid in the new LA movie?

Hi anon, spoilers I guess??

So... I already talked a lil bit here about it, but basically (and this is not a diss of Nico and her acting) I have a problem with the line delivery, direction, changed or added dialogue and the lack of Astrid's EMOTIONS. I think in the LA she was just so emotionless and neutral, I didn't buy her anger towards Hiccup, she was FAR more passive in her emotions despite being portrayed as this "leader" and STRONG independent woman™. She actually didn't have that much animosity towards him, which I think she SHOULD HAVE cause she had every reason to in the OG.

Already talked about how I HATED the "I'm going to be chief" addition like no only because it's a clear girlboss feminism moment but because it LITERALLY GOES NOWHERE! It adds NOTHING to her character or motivations to protect the village, it adds NOTHING but making her look even MORE of a girlboss AND it adds nothing to her competitiveness even, if anything it makes her look selfish cause she's motivated then by some delusion of grandeur and personal glory instead of who she is, which is a protector of her people first and foremost. She doesn't CARE about personal glory, she NEVER HAS. Her wanting to be Chief out of nowhere makes her look like something she's not, SELFISH. She MAY have come from nowhere and she MAY want to be the best but that's because she cares about being the best FOR the protection of her people. She's could be bossy yes but unless it's a battle strategy, she doesn't have a plan for the FUTURE, just the NOW until Hiccup makes her see a COMPLETELY OUT OF THE BOX new way. It feels like she just lacks that KICK Astrid has in the OG. It's a fundamental misunderstanding of her character and her relationship with Hiccup and by consequence Hiccup's character himself. They took his actual leadership and decision making and gave it to HER in a flaccid attempt to be more progressive, this happens at the end btw where they actually gave Hiccup's lines to Astrid instead when he's the one giving instructions and has a PLAN. FEMINISM!

Astrid is a very emotional, hardheaded and focused, the only thing she cares about was the village and carrying on the torch. Like, Astrid in the first movie is an angry lil gremlin and I ADORE her for that in particular, she's not this untouchable deity (she might seem like that to Hiccup and that's what makes it cute) but she's just trying her HARDEST, she gets dirty, she's sweaty, she's a jock and she gets so messy... and that was sorely lacking. Not every strong female character has to be a LEADER, a BOSS, a CHIEF. Astrid is assertive yes but she's a SOLDIER. She has stated it multiple times. She has no problem following a leader as long as she believes in their cause. THAT'S what makes her great. Her ideals and her sense of protection don't CHANGE, but what made her such a great character is that despite being hardheaded and more VIKING-LIKE than Hiccup, she was willing to see a change because her ONLY motivation was also to bring peace to her village no matter what.

This weird thing happened where they made Astrid more friendly towards the gang?? which No??? She was BROODING, FOCUSED. She had no time to goof off, she took things seriously ALWAYS. She was a loner for a reason, she trained on her own, was on her own. The rest mostly followed her because she was the best in the village, especially Snotlout. She really did NOT care for them, ALSO RUFFNUT DEFENDING HER FROM TUFF (they gave him the "yeah we noticed" line to HIM instead)?! 1. She doesn't NEED defending! She's ASTRID and legit NO ONE in the gang antagonized her BUT Ruff which to me had more depth that Tuff ebing the one antagonizing her out of NOWHERE and 2. They even took that LITTLE bit of Ruff's insecurities that give her DEPTH and made her an Astrid suckup like holy SHIT. NO!

In the scene of Book of Dragons, she actually STAYED with Hiccup, like???? why? They made Hiccup actually INSIST on talking to her, more confident, when he wasn't! He KNEW he had no shot and was FUNNY, dry and sarcastic about it, that was the point. But in this scene in particular is dumb cause he was already SO SURE of dragons when at that point in the story he wasn't even sure himself yet, so him pushing that idea onto ASTRID made even less sense. She was 0 interested on antagonizing him at that point and didn't have a reason to in the OG because she didn't care for him at first, he was nothing but a nuisance and didn't see him going far BEFORE he started being good in class. Astrid had NO REASON at all to antagonize Hiccup and even LESS for suddenly "wanting to be chief". That whole scene to me was JARRING.

[A LIL TANGENT HERE! Everyone kept giving Hiccup shit for having privileges being the Chief's son which was NEVER a point in the OG and it DID make Hiccup look and ACT as even more of an entitled brat... which COULD'VE been a nuanced discussion but to me it was a pointless addition... cause they NEVER hated him for that in particular. Like sure he got away with somethings but that was never a point of contention. Now it is and Hiccup doesn't look like he's being mocked by the village for being small and weak but for being a privileged asshole which is a BAD change imo, like his journey was never to "humble himself" it was to grow to be the leader in what he believed in no matter the cost, and the cost was THIS HUGE ASS VILLAGE full of BIG powerful vikings which he was NOT and THAT was why he had SUCH impact.... So ALL that was gone in the LA....]

Another thing I HATED was in the Kill Ring scene how they totally CHANGED the dialogue between Hiccup and Astrid. Like?!?! Instead of Hiccup saying "if something goes wrong, just make sure they don't find Toothless" WHICH IS INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT AND ASTRID RESPONDING FIRMLY "I WILL" IT SHOWS HOW WILLING SHE IS ALSO TO PROTECT TOOTHLESS! IDK WHY they changed that cause it strips their allyship SO MUCH! and it pissed me off. Instead Hiccup asks Astrid to not get involved because Stoick adores her or smth (when that was NEVER established before even in the live action), like they make it about STOICK liking Astrid and protecting HER instead OF TOOTHLESS WHICH IS THE REASON HICCUP WAS WORRIED IN THE FIRST PLACE! They completely forgot about him and how HE needed protection. This is BAD fanservice and I hate it. I think A LOT of Hiccup and Astrid's interactions that were added misunderstood what made them WORK in the Original. It's so painful to see how you can take a perfectly good dynamic and make it BAD. I HATE that Astrid was used just to pop up some girlboss feminism instead of what she actually was. She was an angry teenage girl that had every right to be mad at Hiccup and then became a powerful ally FIRST and a friend.

Now tbf there WAS a line in the LA where she did state that she cared about protecting the village, but sorry all the negative stuff completely trumps that. SIGHS.... Sorry I just HATE how Astrid was handled.

AND AGAIN this is not a diss on Nico, she already gets enough vitriol as it is, I think she's fine as an actress and clearly GORGEOUS, and she may say she understands Astrid in interviews but sadly that's not the same as actually BEING Astrid (again sorry but the lack of emotions in her facial expressions and her ANGER I can't overlook, it was far too neutral in her facial expressions) I think that's mostly the directing, the dialogue and line delivery. Tho all the acting was not great tbf (I particularly didn't like Gobber he lacked just so MUCH of his charisma), this is a problem for ALL the ppl in the cast. Like I think Gerard Butler was the best among them like obviously he's a seasoned actor but still that's not saying much when the dialogue is so painfully bad...

[dekariosclan]

Oh, wise oracle!

I remember reading somewhere that Early Access Gale says or suggests he'd only been with Mystra. Did I hallucinate that?

Ah, Anon! I so appreciate the ‘wise oracle’ greeting, but I do have to protest—I am definitely not the wise oracle of EA Gale! I showed up well after EA, not knowing who this ‘Baldur’ person was or why he felt it necessary to have a gate installed on his property. I then pulled a wizard out of a rock and well…here we are 😂

That being said: thank you for your ask anon! After I received it, I was curious myself as to what EA Gale might have said and if there was more dialogue about his relationship with Mystra. I was able to find this video on YouTube, and it’s a great watch for anyone who hasn’t seen it! It’s really interesting because you can see that originally, a huge chunk of Gale’s Act 1 scenes and his Act 2 romance were lumped together into the Tiefling party. There’s the flirty talk, the Art of the Night, lovemaking, his relationship with Mystra, him getting on his knees and showing Tav the orb, and even a snippet of the morning after conversation where Tav can ask if he still loves Mystra, etc.

This was the first time I ever saw footage of EA Gale’s romance, and I have to say I think almost all of the changes Larian made to it and to Gale’s character for the final game were the right call. Breaking up the scene into more fleshed-out portions and spreading them out over Act 1 and 2 flows much better, making the romance a slow-burn fits Gale’s situation much better, and making him less cocky (though I do enjoy the occasional dashes we see in the video 😂) and more vulnerable were, imho, all great choices that crafted the perfect pixel husband we have today.

But—the one thing I wish they hadn’t changed was EA Gale’s dialogue explaining what happened with Mystra, because it makes it very clear how Gale was manipulated and emotionally abused by her. And even though the essence of what he describes still remains in the final game, the fact that the dialogue was changed to be less direct and more subtle has led to some people incorrectly interpreting Gale’s actions as manipulating/gaslighting Mystra (???) even though one of the main themes of Bg3 is how each origin character is a victim of abuse from someone with power over them.

So I’m going to go over the Mystra portion, not only to answer your question, but also to discuss the dialogue a bit more in-depth.

First, your question: Does EA Gale suggest that he’s only been with Mystra?

When Gale tells Tav that his talents earned him the attention of Mystra, Tav asks what that felt like. Gale responds that it felt like “love,” and then says:

This, I think, is what your question was referring to. This definitely indicated that Mystra was Gale’s first love, and the fact that he was ‘a very young man’ at the time would also suggest that it was his first romantic relationship as well.

I have to say I’m glad that Larian changed this in the final game, with Gale clearly explaining that Tav is not the first mortal he’s been with. I personally think it makes the romance sweeter, because it proves that Gale loves Tav because they’re Tav, and not just because they’re his first mortal lover.

Also, the current game makes it clear that Gale is no longer in love with Mystra (though again, some people seem to misinterpret the fact that he still talks about their past relationship to mean he still loves her?) whereas the EA dialogue had him less certain about being over her. Again, I’m glad Larian changed that and made it clear he only has eyes for Tav.

Now, here’s where it gets very interesting and where I wish they had kept the dialogue the same:

Tav asks if Gale is saying he made love to a Goddess. Gale confirms, then continues:

Tav asks what happened next, and Gale says:

Tav says: “Let me guess: he proposed?” and Gale replies:

Gale then goes into the full backstory of the orb, which is essentially what we see in the current game.

But my god, the Mystra dialogue was so much better here! In the current game, the seduction/manipulation aspect is most clearly explained when Gale says, ‘I was an amusement to her, a mortal to be trifled with, amused, and eventually discarded.’ That line perfectly describes everything that happened, but to also have the EA lines about Mystra’s actions would have, I hope, left a lot less people confused in regards to who was in the wrong:

Mystra sought out Gale because of his talent and because he could be of great use to her

She seduced him, and did so easily because he was an innocent young man and powerless before a goddess’s charms

She toyed with him, let him fall in love with her, then spurned him and broke his heart

She cast him out to die alone after he tried to win her back by proposing to her an with impressive, but dangerous, gift—even though she knew he’d had no idea what he’d done, and he’d only made this mistake because he was a lovesick young man whom she had seduced

And all of that is not even taking into consideration the fact that she later tells him to kill himself in order to ‘earn her forgiveness.’..

Mystra, when I catch you—

So, yes, I do wish they would have kept all of that dialogue in, and for one other reason, too: it makes it even more poignant when Gale attempts to ‘propose’ with the offer of Godhood for Tav in the Act 3 boat scene. Because this dialogue would have made it very clear he’s repeating the same ‘folly’ he made with Mystra, by proposing with an offer of power, because he assumes that’s all he has of worth to offer his beloved. So to have Tav say I don’t want/need power—i just want you—it’s even sweeter after everything Gale has gone through.

And finally!

I loved seeing that Gale is still the cutest cutiepie in EA, just like he is in our final game version:

🥹💜

(Edited to add an important note: If you’d like to read some excellent meta from a true EA expert, please check out @galedekarios’s blog which has a ton of info! She also has a great post on this same subject with a more in-depth analysis of how/why the Mystra dialogue was changed.)

[fuckyeahisawthat]

The Old Guard 2 story structure thoughts under the cut. I'm going to write a separate post about the action sequences because I have more specific things to say about what the first film did well and where I think TOG2 missed the mark.

Yeah, I thought a lot of the new lore was dumb as hell; it raised more questions than it answered and some of the retcons (the birthmark jfc) were very silly. And Discord and Tuah were about as shoe-horned in as I was expecting. (Remember back when many of us assumed Quỳnh would be the main antagonist of TOG2? It seems likely to me that there was pressure to add another A list star to the cast, and I would guess that once Uma Thurman was on board, the whole story bent a bit around her despite her character being...not much of anything at all. Call this the Chris-Hemsworth-in-Furiosa problem if you will.)

But many of these elements could have worked with a stronger script that gave more conscious thought to what it was trying to say in terms of character arcs and themes. The poor writing is most egregious with Nile, because she was a co-protagonist of the first film, and Gina Prince-Bythewood pushed hard to have her journey be central to the film. But really no one had much of a character arc to speak of, so it's not even like Nile's screentime was sacrificed in order to develop another character better. It was just...not there.

(I know I am always the person saying movies are too long, but I really think about 20 minutes is missing from the second act of TOG2. The movie is a skimpy 1:38 without credits. The ending action sequence is very long...but not egregiously longer than the ending of TOG1, which flows beautifully. But there should have been at least one and maybe two more sequences in the second act, which would have made room for so much more character development.)

Even accepting that all the stuff I thought was kinda stupid still had to be in there, it's not that hard to imagine how arranging the story a little bit differently would have made it stronger.

Nile's arc in the first film was about coming to accept her place in this family of immortal warriors--realizing that she was Different, that there was no going back to her old life, and accepting that using her immortality for good sometimes includes doing violence to protect the people she cares about. Nile is the newbie, but it's already implied that she is worthy of being Andy's successor as leader of the team ("next time, you go first.") Throughout TOG1 she is shown to be Andy's equal in determination, stubbornness and bravery, if not in years of experience. Andy is an ancient warrior but Nile was an active-duty member of a modern military; she has first-hand knowledge of how war is organized in the 21st century. She is the perfect person to bridge the transition between past and future.

Andy's arc in TOG1 was about finding her purpose again. At the end of that arc, she becomes mortal, but she has already decided that she wants to keep fighting, setting up a great set of stakes that should have been explored further in a sequel.

In the final fight of TOG1, we know Andy is mortal. She goes into the fight already wounded and bleeding, and we're worried for her the whole time. We see her awareness of her mortality and her decision to push through moments of fear around it to protect her family. We also see the whole team--following Nile's cue--adjust tactics to protect her without ever explicitly talking about it, including taking turns to shield her with their own bodies. It's a beautiful piece of action storytelling.

But throughout the fights in TOG2, Andy's mortality rarely felt like a real danger. We were reminded of it in the laziest way possible--a line of dialogue saying something both characters would already know--but we weren't shown it in the action choreography. In the opening fight she is paired with Copley, the only other mortal person on the team! What's the point of having a bunch of immortal battle buddies if one of them isn't there to be a human shield for you when necessary? (Yeah, Nile looked good af in that boat, but Nile and Copley's positions should have been swapped.)

Given where TOG1 left off, in a sequel, Nile's arc should have been about moving from being the new kid on the team to being a leader. And Andy's arc should have been about confronting the limits her mortality now places on her, and maybe coming to accept that she cannot always be at the front anymore, and that her role in training Nile to some day take her place is purpose enough for her. And then after she accepts that...she becomes immortal again and has to reevaluate everything once more.

If we follow these general arcs, then the first fight sequence should probably have been: Nile is leading the team, but she's not an expert at it yet. Andy is trying to hold back and let the others protect her, but she's not good at that yet either. At some point, Nile makes a mistake or a wrong call, and Andy has to step in and brute-force a solution, reminding us of her unparalleled skill as a fighter, but putting herself at risk in a way that makes everyone else on the team nervous. It turns out fine! But she could very easily have been killed or seriously wounded.

No one is happy about this state of affairs. Nile feels like she's not ready and Andy feels like she's being babied.

In this version of events, I think Andy would go to try to meet up with Quỳnh alone, over the objections of the rest of the team, maybe even sneaking away without telling them. Andy and Quỳnh's reunion is one of the strongest parts of the film, and as much as I like Nile being stubborn about going with Andy, having Nile and Discord in there at the same time ends up being a distraction from the very impactful stuff that's going on between Andy and Quỳnh. Maybe it takes Andy longer to find Quỳnh and the beautiful walk-through-time long take becomes a whole sequence of Andy looking for Quỳnh in their old haunts and remembering the time they spent there.

The whole thing with Nile being able to take away others' immortality could have been done in an interesting way, but they made the wrong narrative choices with it at pretty much every turn.

If you want to do this plotline in a way that gives Nile agency, then I think the solution is that Nile learns this information first, and alone, from Discord. This information needed to be set up way earlier in the story, at least by the beginning of the second act.

Then, back with the team, Nile brings up what Discord said, and here you could have the blah blah "there are legends" stuff etc. But also who knows, this could be bullshit, we don't even really know what Discord's motivations are at this point. Why are we gonna believe some rando who just popped up yesterday claiming she's the oldest immortal?

We could watch the characters work through the same questions and skepticism that we the audience have. What about Lykon? Why did the stab wound Nile gave Andy seem to heal, and it's only later that Andy noticed something has changed? Had Nile not even once nicked Joe or Nicky in six months of training together? (They realize she hasn't; she is pretty new to bladed weapons so they have mostly been training with dummy swords.) These conversations would still be exposition-heavy and you might not totally be able to avoid the Wise Asian Exposition Man problem that Tuah presents, but they could also function as character moments, the way the dinner scene at the Charlie safehouse does.

If Booker is there, he's the one who's like, well there is an easy way to test this out, and volunteers to have Nile wound him. Which she refuses. Maybe this is bullshit, but she's rattled enough that she doesn't want to risk it, and she's not about to reinforce Booker's own sense that he's expendable.

Crucially, Andy is not there during this time and they agree not to tell her anything for now since it's just a theory.

Then, the theorizing gets interrupted by Plot Things, and they have to go off and do some action. Andy isn't there and they all agree that Nile should be the one leading the team. We get space for all her feelings about all of them unhesitatingly trusting her to lead them when she's still not sure she's ready for that and also whether she's immortal kryptonite or not. Maybe they trust Booker enough to come with them; maybe they don't yet and there are feelings about that either way. Tuah could also be there I guess. (If they were going to put Tuah into the final fight I would have loved to see him do...anything distinctive at all. Tuah and Quỳnh having distinct fighting styles favoring different East Asian martial arts and weapons would have been cool as hell!) Or maybe Tuah and Booker are back at the safehouse waiting for Andy and that's where we get the piece of information that immortality can be transferred, setting up that possibility but still making it something only Booker and Tuah know about.

During this mission Nile has another chance to make a crucial call and she gets it right this time; maybe it's a trap and they have to abort whatever they were trying to do but she successfully extracts everyone safely. She saved them all. Their trust in her was not misplaced. Meanwhile, Andy comes back without Quỳnh; Booker and Andy could still have the conversation they do about expiration dates.

Then, the third act. Nile in the lead, confident in her command this time. All of them fighting together, side by side as a team. (God I hated that the choreography of the final fight split them up so much.) Including Booker, who betrayed them. Including Nile, who might kill them all. Including Andy, who's mortal.

They are trying their best to protect Andy. But during the fight she is mortally wounded, and that's when Booker gives up his immortality. He probably does it in much the same way--making Nile cut him "accidentally", and then fighting his way to where Andy is pinned down, wounded, and getting seriously injured himself in the process. So now Andy is healing and Booker is dying, and Andy still doesn't understand why, but Booker gets to die surrounded by his family instead of alone in a hallway at a moment that's not even a turning point in the battle. I'm sure many people still would have hated this plotline on the basis of "suicidal person ends up dying anyway, just finds a way to make it a Noble Sacrifice," and I understand why that leaves a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths. But I do think this is consistent with Booker's characterization. He would have traded his immortality to save his dying son if he could, but he couldn't, and that haunts him. So giving it to Andy still makes his arc a tragic one instead of one about healing and moving past self-loathing and survivor's guilt. But I think it would have felt more narratively earned this way. Booker is the first immortal we know to have died since Lykon! It's a big deal! Ending the movie with the rest of his family not even knowing it happened feels weird and bad!

And then...yeah. There are ways to do an open ending of a middle part of a trilogy where characters in an ensemble are split up that still feel emotionally satisfying. (The Two Towers and The Empire Strikes Back both do this very well.) There are ways to do a last-minute twist ending that also work well. (See: TOG1.) But the end of TOG2 did neither of these, and while I felt like the Andy and Quỳnh part of the story did leave off in a satisfying place, the rest of it was a bit like...wait. That's it??

So I think there could have been a good (or at least...better) movie in there, even burdened with a bunch of elements that wouldn't have been my choice for a sequel. But unfortunately that wasn't what ended up on screen.

[angrykittybarbarian]

A list of things that bother me about Dragon Age: The Veilguard Part 2

I already touched on a few things that caught my attention and personally irked me about the game. After getting through some more of it naturally a few more points have come up. Though I think they are not really new aspects but more concrete examples of what I had touched on last time.

Without further ado, let's get into it.

!Spoilers below the cut!

The dialogue is repetetive and at times contradictory

Like I already discussed last time the dialogue is bad, to express it in the simplest of terms. As I progressed through the game I stumbled upon a glaring example for what I mean.

In the questline where you infiltrate a Venatori meeting there is a part where Neve in disguise and in company of Rook and another companion gets a Venatori to admit that Elgar'nan was present but not Ghilan'nain. For some inexplicable reason Neve turns around and repeats this twice as if Rook wasn't present.

I stated in my last post that the game feels the need to state the obvious. This is what I mean. It makes the dialogue feel like a rough draft that was incorporated into the game without further polish.

As of its contradictory nature two examples come to mind.

In Harding's companion quest you meet this dwarf of Kal Sharok. His dialogue is stoic, no bullshit straight to the point and passionless. Which was fine. But after several minutes of him being that way they get to stone statue Valta who speaks in these misteryous riddles and suddenly he switches to this unserious tone of "Oh that weird statue, we never know what she's saying, ain't she funny." (I'm paraphrasing here). I was confused for half a minute because of his sudden change in attitude and left wondering what his characterization is supposed to be now: serious or quirky?

Same thing with Taash's whole story. This is especially upsetting because I feel like they could have done such great work with it.

Instead it suffers so much from several inconsistencies that I felt sorry for the VA because they actually did a great acting job.

Taash has a coming out scene with their mother where they reveal they're non-binary. Ignoring the usage of modern terms in a medieval-ish setting, the conflict about their gender makes no sense.

The writing wants you to believe Shathann is not okay with her child being non-binary but she never actually expresses such a thing. Actually Shathann sort of had an inkling that Taash was no ordinary woman ("Behaves more like a man...") and she never passed any negative judgement on it. When Taash told her this she even tried to understand by categorizing their identity into qunari vocabulary she knew (remember the term aqun-athlok?).

I get how hard it is to have an overly critical mother and the feeling of not being good enough but that was not what Shathann was about in that scene and it did Taash so dirty because they looked more like an entitled teenager than someone suffering from trauma and perfectionism.

But moving on.

Some old characters are mischaracterized

It's Scout Harding. I mean Harding.

I was really excited to have her as a companion in the new installment but they sort of butchered her character that I found myself annoyed everytime she opened her mouth.

And this is because they make her sound so immature. Really think about it. DATV somehow makes Scout Harding sound younger and more childish than she was in DAI despite the fact that she is supposed to be a whole decade older in DATV than in DAI.

I don't know what direction her VA recieved while recording but everything was pronounced so slowly and extra clear that it seemed at times that Harding was either talking to a confused elderly person or a child.

She herself uses expressions not fit for her age. The most jarring moment was when she called the Blight in D'meta's Crossing 'weird' and sounded like a teenager who has stumbled upon furry art for the first time on deviantArt. This pattern pretty much continues throughout the game. And it hurts so much.

Also Morrigan. She at least still uses her even for DA setting standards antiquated vocabulary but she is too happy and cheery and friendly.

Morrigan is not a nice person to those she does not know and like personally. But to Rook she was so nice despite having met them for the first time.

The Morrigan we have come to know love/hate should have been more snarky or at least more neutral in her demeanor.

The Venatori

I don't know why they are still a thing honestly. I was under the impression they have lost all footing after the death of Corypheus. Why would they follow the Gods of the people their country systemically abuses anyway?

Bonus: Why would the Antaam for that matter, as the qunari are so notoriously arcanophobic that they leash their mages, sew their mouths shut and literally call them "dangerous thing"?

Solas' spy network and agents

What happened to them? Where are they? Shouldn't he have a small army? Why weren't they used as the gods' agents instead of the Venatori? Surely, Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain would have an easier time simply controlling Fen'Harels elven army after imprisoning him in the fade.

The Chantry

It is just not present. Sure there are some Chantry buildings but there is no discussion of faith. In all previous DA games the Chantry has had a constant influence that could be felt everywhere. Faith was discussed and explored from various angles and perspectives, ranging from ultra conservative to progressive. But in Veilguard it's not there.

Why are we not exploring the Tevinter Chantry more? Why doesn't Emmrich discuss the nevarran Chantry, who follows the Sunburst Throne in Orlais, in regards to the Mournwatch, their necromancy practices and magic? Why was he not affected by the mage uprising that started in Kirkwall? How does he deal with faith and the Chantry? It is simply never mentioned.

By all accounts, this game avoids delving into the world like the plague.

Part 3

[sunny-knight]

THE INTERMISSION

Analysis - i need to yap about this or im gonna explode

This is by far my absolute favorite moment of this newest episode, Hell- OF THE ENTIRE SHOW. I need every frame of this beautiful feat of animation in my blood stream NOW!!!!!

I KNOW there has got to be at least a little bit of symbolism buried in this sequence that either alludes to things we already know, or foreshadows things to come, and THAT IS WHAT I LIVE FOR.

Disclaimer!

Trigger warnings of the show apply here!

Also keep in mind that I understand a lot of this may be “over-analyzing”, but I really like finding meaning in art even if it wasn’t intentional! So to avoid justifying every claim over and over with that- I'm just gonna say it here and be done with it. I like analyzing media and personally getting something out of it :3

Set Up!

Before analyzing the scene itself, I want to go through and see what it represents as a whole, in reference to the shows format, and for THAT we need to look at episodes 1-4. Every one so far has had a dialogue-less/dialogue minimum scene where some sort of character development takes place.

Examples of that are…

Episode 1: to the track “Your New Home”, we see Pomni accept her new circumstances, its not a dream/nightmare, and she will “never” get out of here. (which is debatable, but still).

Episode 2: to the track “Not Alone” we see Pomni, (again). instead of just accepting her new circumstances, she more comes to an understanding of it. She will not be forgotten, and her life still has meaning.

Episode 3: in the track (Unnamed 😔) with Pomni, (AGAIN) we see she comes to an understanding of the very nature of this world. It’s hard to believe she wont end up abstracted in the end, even if she knows she wont be forgotten. Eventually though, she comes to the conclusion that she can get through this.

Episode 4: to the track “Still Going” we get Gangle! In how she smiles without her happy mask, marking an arc completed to her happy mask breaking troubles. The interpretation that she kills herself at the end still exists- which… isn’t great- and honestly idk how to interpret that in this case. But my point still stands about character growth ☝️

In all of these, the musical sequences mark a sort of resolution to the arc that the entire episode had built up to. Not all of them are entirely positive, but they still show that some sort of lesson has been learned, and a new chapter of their characters development has begun.

…

But then. Episode 5. The musical sequence thats very clearly focused on Caines character…is just. Utter nonsense. It even gets interrupted- it’s in the middle of the episode, he freezes/has some sort of malfunction afterwards, he ends it in the very same place he was before.

That, I find incredibly interesting. Instead of the episode building up to some spesific problem of Caines that he will end the episode improving on, it feels as if the entire show has been leading up to this one MASSIVE issue. (With Gangle and Pomni, we see pieces of their character improve, not one MAIN issue thats the source of every single one of their problems).

But we’re only halfway through the show, so of course, the sequence happens halfway through the episode. It acts more as a checking in with Caine and getting confirmation that aaahhaaaa- HE IS NOT DOING GOOD.

THE INTERMISSION!!!

(Most of the notes will be coming chronologically)

The text “Intermission Time.” , feels like one of the adventure introduction thingies, and while I don't have much to say on the text itself besides it being a lot colder than usual, (possibly more examples of Caine losing his joy and whimsy,) that's just a cool detail I wanted to note. Treating this like an adventure, since this is a sequence all about Caine losing his mind, its only fitting him going insane is it’s own adventure as its quite literally all he knows.

Everyone’s faces in the beginning seem to be their reaction to suddenly being transported from a calming star gazing scene.. to...this. Thats just sort of a fact instead of speculation, BUT IT WILL BE IMPORTANT LATER when considering certain things in other scenes, because the fact that everyone is conscious while unwillingly participating in this “adventure” makes the entire scene feel very unnerving. But that’ll be a repeating factor that will come up later. For now- just keep that in mind.

The part with Caines teeth eating itself makes me immediately think of metaphors involving self destruction, even the A.I. that we deal with in real life, how it eats itself when copying off of things its made that were never correct to begin with.

The neon colors + black and white motif are really pretty stylistically, but since this is entirely Caine point of view/his creation with no one else's influence, it feels like an example of how he sees these people/the world. Black and white, simple, 0 depth. We can already pretty easily infer that from how he handles Zoobles problem in ep 3, I just like how this adds to that.

Before continuing with the visuals- I need to address “the lyrics" here. I like the line "welcome to the digital circus!" turning into "come to the digital circus.”, plus noting the lack of "amazing". They add to Caines forceful nature and insecurities that have been incredibly emphasized lately/in this episode. Lastly, the effect the words have, (how they keep skipping over themselves) is another stylistic choice that has really cool layers to it. It’s fitting for the aesthetic, yes, but it also sounds as if Caine is glitching, like in the “I am such a good b̶̘̮̟̙͋͑̔ō̴̢̹̞̣̽͠s̸͔̳̍̓͐̂s̷̺͚̜̺̑” scene.

Bubble being mixed in with Caines eyes in the dice part…Bubble being as involved as much he is, is odd- and I cant tell what kind of character he’s supposed to be. My current theory is he’s just someone Caine made to not feel as lonely, and in some ways, reflects Caines own emotions/thoughts. Bubble being with Caines eyes somewhat supports that I feel, I just like that it turns into a die though. Symbolizing how random and just- by chance Caines thought process is currently. He’s the very opposite of “calculated”.

(Jax falling into the void followed by Zooble and Gangle is something I feel has more depth that I cant think of… I try to question what they all have in common that Ragatha, Kinger, and Pomni dont…) (Like Gangle and Zooble hate Jax, yeah, but so does Ragatha so why isn’t she involved in that?)

Caine being surrounded by eyes- THIS SHOT MAKES ME FEEL SO MANY EMOTIONS. I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY. First lets get the biblical angel imagery out of the way- plus the spotlight bringing up some “going in the cellar” imagery. The multiple eyes being related to the abstractions…Possible abstraction symbolism?? But that isnt the part that gets me. Its’s the fact that if you look REALLLY closely you can see Caine is breathing. This. THIS- Its so hard to catch, and such a subtle detail- BUT THATS THE THING. One of the golden rules of animation is “living things dont remain perfectly still.” He’s A.I…. But he sure as hell acts alive a lot of the time. If you look at Caine from far away, you’ll see nothing but a mindless A.I, but if you look really closely, you’ll see he’s got a lot more too him. He’s alive, just like Gummigoo and the other “intelligent A.I’s”.

(Something about that line by the way. The way Caine uses the word “OTHER” makes me question….What is he talking about? Bubble is said to be a MUCH simpler A.I. than Caine, but the way he says that makes it sound like he and Bubble both are “intelligent A.I.s”… I don’t even know what that means though- intelligent artificial intelligence? Bubble seems far from intelligent- IDK. WE’RE GETTING SIDE TRACKED.)

Pomni and Jax get hit by bowling balls, Ragatha and Gangle get hit by cakes, and Kinger holds up the bowling ball before being THROWN OFF by a black chess piece. I think this all gives some light onto how the others first handled joining the circus. Since all we have for reference so far is Pomni, I can totally see Jax reacting in a similar explosive way. Meanwhile the cake may show how Gangle and Ragatha, (while I can’t imagine they took it WELL) didn’t get hit by the realization like a TRUCK. More like a slow burn (therefore not getting as quickly acclimated to the situation as Pomni has, and Jax is assumed to have.) But then for Kinger…he actually did REALLY WELL! since he came in with his wife! ….and then she abstracted and instead of getting crushed- he just completely fell off. Also this scene is another good example of how aware and- not willing the cast is in this part of the episode, telling from their expressions.

( I debated this also maybe being an example of how Caine views the members? Zooble is excluded because he’s like really mad at them right now? But if thats the case, then I don’t know what Kinger being hit by a black chess piece means.)

The next part has to sort of be digested all at once- Bubble about to bite Pomni, Caine stopping that, holding everyone over his head, then Bubble biting them ALL, and leaving a red trail. The Intermission sequence as a whole is telling us about Caines current mental state of pure decay and insanity, while also reminding us how much power he has over the cast. The scene with him holding them over his head gives a sort of play-things vibe. These 2 purposes/vibes of insanity vs power go hand in hand, where the scary part of them being at the mercy of this guy, is the fact that they're at the mercy of THIS GUY. But where Bubble tries to eat Pomni, Caine stopping that, before Bubble eats them all makes me think its saying that “no matter how much power Caine has, he isn’t immune to the effects of the situation.” Like this is taking a toll on ALL of them and they’ll all be consumed by it if things keep going the way they are. Kinger is the human thats been here the longest and is- crazy- but how is the guy who’s been here since the BEGINNING doing?

The hand scene is SO GREAT. We have 4 hands, before 2 of them squash the other pair, and create 4 more, then descending further into the madness. I feel this could point to the fact that creation and making things out of what Caines already familar with is driving him insane- plus that varsity jacket merch showing the hands being angel wings…something something Caine savior complex

Pomni, Zooble, and Jax all posing feels really off. THIS is the part that throws me for a loop in terms of- bodily atonamy and…morals. They’ve all been worried and confused so far, so posing like their in a music video doesn’t make as much sense. This way, we can easily assume that UHHH Caine is posing them like dolls. Jesus. The point of him having complete and utter control over them just gets worse and worse-

(The mannequin dance just looks cool I have no notes on that)

FINALLY! WOW! We get the scene from the wacky watch website! the “SOS CQD I AM LOSING MY MIND, ALSO HI”. That text always got me because it showed a very uncharacteristic amount of- self awareness from Caine. He is calling for help, is he LOSING his mind. Thats not what we got from him in this episode though, it makes me think that maybe…His situation is similar to Kingers? In the way that there is SOME consciousness buried deep within him that we can maybe reach later in the show? please? I just want him to be happy…

Caine ominously snapping, before showing a clip of Jax’ trauma, then being interrupted MAKES ME THINK HE WOULD HAVE KEPT GOING WITH EVERYONE ELSE IF THAT DIDNT HAPPEN 😭 Thats complete speculation on my part, but thats the first time we ever saw a scene like that in a moment entirely revolving around Caine- where we explore TRAUMA! (especially fucked up because we’ve already established he is fully aware during this part)

(The snap having a cartoon bonk effect is really amusing though, paired with the generic circus/carnival music fills me with so much joy)

…

OVERALL.

The animation is TO DIE FOR. The music SLAPS. IM IN LOVE WITH THE SEQUENCE EVEN WITHOUT ALL THE POTENTIAL HIDDEN MEANING

[ittsybittsybunny]

ATLA Live Action Series Review:

The Good

Aesthetically this show felt right. Sure sometimes the outfits didn't quite feel lived in, but I always felt like I was watching a fantasy world with decent effects and interesting design. Also, I really enjoyed the sets!

Bending: Yes some of the fights feel very quick, but the bending looks cool. It is certainly better than 10 benders lifting one big rock. I can honestly say the opening bending fight scene gave me so much hope for this show.

Kyoshi Warriors: I loved seeing them in live action, and I thought Suki's performance was great!

Omashu: I think the mashup of the mechanist made sense since that is an important character overall and I would hate to see him cut. However, both Jet & the secret tunnels felt sloppily thrown in.

Northern Water Tribe: I really loved the way it looked, and appreciated the two episodes we spent here. I think Yue gained more agency in this interpretation, and why shouldn't the moon spirit be a waterbender. Also, episode seven felt the most in tune with the original show's spirit.

Zuko: I think he was one of the most fleshed-out and best parts of the show! Dallas Liu really captured Zuko's spirit, and the scene between him and Aang in episode 6 was wonderful!

Soundtrack: Hearing the original soundtrack bits is always great, and when I first heard the ending music I was so excited.

Is the show perfect, no - but I wouldn't mind a season 2.

The Bad

Pacing: Turning 20 episodes into 8 was bound to lead to some cuts...but oftentimes times things felt too quick or disjointed. I think there were editing problems contributing to this for sure, but sometimes things skipped around too much without a clear purpose as to why. Also, why bring in plots from later seasons when you barely have enough time already?

Writing: This show definitely suffered from exposition dumping, though it did get better as time went on. I think the biggest example of this is actually opening in the past rather than the present. We do not get to learn along with Aang that the world has changed, instead, we get to learn that 100 years have passed....which doesn't hold the same tension or worldbuilding.

Clunky Dialogue: Along with exposition, clunky dialogue is another example of bad writing. I think sometimes I felt like the acting was kind of meh in the beginning, but then over time I began to realize it had far more to do with the lines characters were trying to deliver. The actors themselves are not bad, just cursed with awkward writing and lines that feel out of touch with the setting they're in.

Main Trio: I don't entirely know that I believe Katara, Sokka, and Aang are friends as opposed to 3 people stuck together to save the world. Aang feels a little too somber for a young kid running away from his responsibilities, Sokka is protective, but not exactly the heart of the team, and Katara is sort of just there until the last two episodes. Where is her struggle, her desire to learn so strong she steals from pirates? Also, while Gordon Cormier did a great job, Aang does zero waterbending on his own, is overly serious, and tells Katara not to fight. Where is his desperation to protect his friends? It feels like they all lost emotional depth.

Tension: Bringing Ozai, Azula, and Zhao out in the beginning immediately causes us to lose the realization there is an even bigger bad. Part of why Ozai is so terrifying is he is a primarily silent villain until the third season when we finally see the face of the "big bad evil guy" behind it all. Yes, they add to Zuko's backstory, but again, they are revealing the villains too early. Azula is the antagonist of season 2 and one of my favorite characters, so I hope they do more with her in the future. Finally, Zhao is supposed to be an example of the uncontrollable nature of fire unrestrained, instead, he comes off as vaguely threatening with the supposed true power being Azula.

Characterization: While all characters are bound to lose something in a shorter show, it still felt like certain characters were more mutilated than others. I am sure there are 100 different opinions on who, but I think the biggest victim was Katara.

Katara: Katara manages to go from a complete novice to a bending master in what feels like a matter of days. The journey feels short, and that makes the results feel largely unearned. Katara is one of the strongest personalities in the show, determined, kind, and fiery. In many ways, she is the unpredictability of water - equally dangerous as it is necessary to live. She is the child of a war who lost her mother, forced to grow up too soon, and even raised her older brother. Yes, Katara often gets stereotyped as the mom friend, but overall she feels underutilized in this show. We really don't see enough of her journey until the very end.

Iroh: Iroh was always comedic but most importantly wise. Even when Zuko is trying to give himself advice, he mimics Iroh. Instead, he seems to be used more as comedic relief without the underlying experience. He just doesn't feel right. Also, he kills Zhao instead of Zhao getting himself killed - which is less about Iroh and more about the writing than anything.

Ozai is weirdly a little too nice. Yes, he burned Zuko and pits his kids against each other, but he feels toned down in a show claiming to be more mature than the original cartoon.

Azula is perhaps more realistically worried about losing her status as the golden child, but she is also missing the cruelty she and her father share. I understand worrying about making your character cartoonishly evil, but the Fire Nation is currently a deeply nationalistic empire trying to control the world. Where is the deep-seated belief that they are better than other people, not just trying to bring balance to the world? There is a line between creating complexity and toning down the very real evil inherent in this plan.

Roku: I can only say what the fuck was that. He was barely there, and not the serious master to Aang's youthful exuberance.

The Ugly

Show, Don't Tell: The show's single biggest issue seems to be speeding through story parts by simply stating things. Instead of allowing the audience to discover, trusting that we are smart enough to understand, let's just blatantly say things like Zuko is the only reason the 41st division is alive to their faces. Even though in the context of the story Ozai literally already said that.... it's the division, the division for Zuko, Zuko's division.

Thematic Misunderstandings: I think this show makes several minor changes with major implications, such as airbenders actively fighting the firebenders, when airbenders are known for their pacifist nature and the lie of an Airbender fighting force is actively propaganda. Similarly, Aang very quickly accepts his role as the avatar and doesn't even run away in the beginning. Without this conflict between his desire to be a carefree child and the fact that the world needs him - the show loses a key aspect of Aang's character. Also, the obsession with downplaying the avatar state as something dangerous feels like a disservice to the tradition, connection, and strength of the avatar, which can be permanently destroyed as the trade-off for that kind of power. It's dangerous for the balance of the entire world, not just because it's powerful!

The Agni Kai: Zuko's fight against his father is one of the defining moments of Ozai's cruelty, not just because he is willing to fight his child, but because Zuko tried to do everything right. Zuko shows deference to his father, apologizes, and most importantly refuses to fight! The determination not to upset his father and still be grievously injured and banished is a hugely important theme for the fire nation and Zuko's life as a whole. He tries to do everything he is supposed to and only regains his father's acceptance after he "kills" Aang. Zuko's struggle between moral vs. social right and wrong in contrast to his family is hugely important to his character.

-----

TLDR: ATLA was a fantastical animated television show that was never afraid to show character development and flaws. When you turn 20 episodes into 8, you are bound to lose something. You hollowed out the middle, leaving the shell of important moments and events without ever wondering if all the times in between formed the true spirit of the show.

Rating: 6.5/10 It's perfectly fine and worth a watch. Not a disaster, but certainly falls flat of the original.

[dr-spectre]

I saw this really great thread on twitter by Grungygrim and it definitely highlights my thoughts and frustrations with the story of these games and the Splatoon fandom as a whole. (be forewarned, i get really tilted in this blog post fyi.)

I made a blog post about 2 weeks ago where i said that i was happy that the narrative online that "Callie is an idiot who got kidnapped and then brainwashed/mind controlled against her consent" is going away. (Here's the link: https://www.tumblr.com/dr-spectre/749710338672525312/im-so-happy-that-the-narrative-online-that?source=share)

Unfortunately I'm gonna have to retract a lot of the stuff i said. I'm still seeing, TILL THIS DAY THAT NARRATIVE ONLINE! IM STILL SEEING SO MUCH MISINFORMATION AND IT MAKES ME REALLYYYY ANGRYYYY!!! As a big fan of Callie, people completely outright ignoring her character arc THAT WAS SET UP SINCE SPLATOON 1 BY THE WAY!!! and not even bothering to look at outside sources for more information and lore genuinely pisses me the fuck off to no end.

No, hypnosis is NOT MIND CONTROL/BRAINWASHING! I DONT WANNA KEEP REPEATING IT! YOU CAN LOOK IT UP! if a person is genuinely uncomfortable and doesn't wish to take the suggestions to heart while hypnotized, THEY WONT DO SO! THEY STILL HAVE CONTROL! Yes, Marie did say "kidnapped" in some of her dialogue, but from her perspective, OF COURSE SHE'S GONNA THINK CALLIE GOT KIDNAPPED! She's known to worry about Callie all the time and ruminate about her, of course she's gonna think of the worst case scenario, doesn't mean she's right though. Was Octavio still in the wrong for hypnotizing Callie in the first place and allowing her to bring out her darker traits more easily? YEAH! NO SHIT! HE'S A BAD DUDE! Not a totally evil person but he has made some awful decisions out of desperation for his people. Why do you think he was so quick to help out the New Squidbeak Splatoon in the finale of Splatoon 3? His people got turned into fluffy monsters by a giant bear, he's all about helping his people.

Hell look at how Callie acts while under the Hypnoshades, she decorates Octo Canyon and her peppy and energetic self is still in tact even during the final boss, she's just more mean and violent. Callie was in an emotional and mentally unwell situation due to her overworking herself and being incredibly lonely as her relationship with Marie was damaged overtime. Callie accepted the suggestions of DJ Octavio and heard him out, AS SAID BY HER FROM THE RELATIONSHIP CHART! She wasn't forced into anything. She didn't suffer "sexual abuse" from Octavio by being forced into skippy clothing as some psychos say online, if she didn't want to wear that outfit she wouldn't cause hypnosis is NOT MIND CONTROL!! I hate having to repeat this over and over again, i hate how the developers basically rushed and ruined this interesting villain arc with stupid shades, only to try and hastily fix it later with an obscure post about A GOD DAMN RELATIONSHIP CHART THAT PEOPLE EITHER DONT KNOW ABOUT OR DONT CARE TO LOOK AT BECAUSE THEY SEE SPLATOON AS SOMETHING FOR KIDS AND TO NOT GIVE ANY CARE TOWARDS!!!!!!!!

I made a god damn giant blog explaining Callie in Splatoon 2 because i felt so frustrated about how my favorite character in the series was being treated and i tried to salvage the story that the writers tried to make. The way that people made her situation worse by saying she got kidnapped and forcibly ""mind controlled/brainwashed"" actually gave me chest pain, thinking about that kind of scenario for Callie actually hurts me... Heck i cant even listen to the Splatoon 2 stage music or final boss music because hearing her reversed vocals makes me feel uncomfortable due to the misinformation online. I hated all the misinformation and i wanted it to stop. HELL EVEN IN GIANT TIMELINE VIDEOS WHERE PEOPLE DO TONS OF RESEARCH THEY STILL GET IT WRONG!! UGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! i guess it'll still be the common and popular notion that Callie is an idiot that got kidnapped and then ""mind controlled"" by some shades... oh well... ugh...

I'm sorry if I'm coming off as really angry, i am. It's just, my brain is really hyperfixated on this squid and she means a lot to me. Seeing the way the fandom as well as the writers treat her makes me really mad. I hope i can find some peeps who feel the same way as i do. Misinformation is so frustrating man... i dont even wanna get into the Octarians because that's a whole other can of worms... anyways im done ranting. have a good night or good morning wherever you live y'all.

[syscest]

Species-affirming cybersex. That is all

that's NOT all because I'm gonna break down these concepts and how they work.

species first. reffing chapter 2 of plural respect, system members have self-perceptions that can differ from the body and don't have to resemble things that exist in the outside world - and a shared understanding of this can help you connect. Nonhuman types often shorthand this as "species" to indicate something left field of human - but it practically encompasses impossible-human stuff like "human with a curse" or "human that's a wizard" and inorganics like "sentient computer virus" or "reanimated skeleton" for most use cases - anything physically impossible enough. if you're into shapeshifter language, you might prefer "form" - same difference.

with that in mind let's talk cybering. Cybersex in most of its forms is collaborative fantasy. You're taking "thinking about a hot thing" and extending it to include someone else over the internet somehow. Though valid barebones sexting can be purely something like discussing physically occurring masturbation, it usually involves constructing a scene of some kind and (though its rarely admitted) you're basically collaboratively writing smut fanfiction about you and your hookup.

I think breaking the "this is weird" glass is critical to engage with this properly and prevent mystifying it. yes you are writing self insert oc fiction with a friend over the internet, yes you're gonna be horny about it. and yes omg you DO get to choose the tense case and perspective you prefer to write in this is huge and nobody says it.

Furry ERP communities (owing to a common layer of seperation between the selves) often use third person language, refer to sonas by name, and put dialogue in quotes: (confused, she pokes her friend's arm. "Hello?" she whispers, "Anyone home?") etc etc, providing a clear seperation between OOC and not. You might find this stiff or impersonal or booky - and there's a tonne of variation you can apply to see if it fixes that:

first-person pronouns: (I poke your arm. "Hello?" I whisper. "Anyone home?")

qualify actions instead of dialogue: ([she pokes her friend's arm] hello? is anyone home?) - this also removes hard OOC separation, enabling chitchat

both: ([I poke your arm] hello? is anyone home?)

both while avoiding self-references where possible: (*pokes your arm* hello? is anyone home?)

So sexting gives you a canvas, and because it's collaborative smut writing, it really doesn't require you to adhere to what regular humans do and look and feel like. You can write directly about your metaphysical forms interacting because you're literally out here playing pretend for fun.

It definitely works for some people and doesn't for others, but don't get caught in "what do I write". you can't focus on cybersex being *good*, focus on silly little whims and suggesting whatever comes to your head - start by finishing the sentence "if I had you in a room right now, I'd __". Its a silly little playpen for exploring eachother's sexuality and relationship to themself, just be nice to eachother and run with it.

And, yknow, affirming? well, as long as you communicate well, take the standard safety measures you would for any kink scene, and understand consent applies just as much when you're acting out text - then you can do/pretend/play/perform all kinds of stuff via text cybersex you can't do in-person. It's a great way to connect with these parts of yourself and resulting tendencies, and acquire stupid fantastical kinks about it. All new weird ways to be found (find yourself?) attractive.

Ok. well. unrelated tangent. you CAN do it in person. invoking weird nonhuman or otherwise metaphysical junk in bed is not strictly typing only - for one you can literally bring your phone TO bed and do mixed-media sex where you get to sext *and* get handsy, but that's not even the point. Sexting might make you a sex-fanfic-author but don't forget you can be a sex-wrestler/sex-theatre-performer too - talk to your hookup about the impossible things you'd like to do, and then do things that physically resemble them and you can both enjoy filling in the blanks. Your brain WILL help, if you're thinking about picking someone up with your tentacles and you use your body's arms, you'll naturally want to move them in a different kind of way, and you'll both pick up on it. The more you engage, the more it comes through in how you move. Hell, you can even check verbally if you're understanding things right - "is that your arm" etc etc. It's a more complicated, subtextual language, but it can be a LOT of fun.

Anyway, species-affirming cybersex :)

[mysteryanimator]

Castlevania : Nocturne - Eye Colour and their Purpose

This was originally a response to @xshingie asking for my thoughts on the artist choices for Edouard and Richter's blue eyes! The post they made about it can be found here!

So woah, my main focus is Edouard, but I do end up talking about a ton of other characters as I go on a tangent but the Castlevania eyes. This is a very casual thing since most of it is just copied and pasted from a discord message (thank you to the Castlevania Creatives server for reading my paragraph-long rambles) but I do have evidence for my claims so there will be pretty pictures.

So this is just presumptions on what I've seen because i can only guess, but every single character colour palettes communicate all different things, never the one same thing (but there is a ton of overlap), especially their eyes i mean theyre SOOO DETAILED, down to the treatment of everyone's eyelashes (i say this because mizrak's eyelashes are so absurdly detailed and in the first Castlevania, Alucard's eyelashes have shadows).

To bring up the point for Edouard's eyes and why they arent a different colour, an example like green is because Olrox's colour palette is very strictly purple and green, not only in his outfit/design but the locations he's apart of are dominated by all different types of green to showcase the power in the dynamic between him and Mizrak (the courtyard, the breakup hill anddd every other location in season 2 including the bed scene).

Myst why are you pulling up this image, Olrox isn't here BUT YOU CAN FEEL HIS PRESCENE. Not only does the dialogue help, but the act of green in a scene makes his presence feel that much stronger like it's literally looming over Mizrak.

Due to this, Olrox just ends up being associated with all types of green rather then just one vibrant one for his eyes and earrings. By having Edouard and Olrox overlap in this way, it would confuse Edouard's personality and goals since funnily enough, Edouard and Olrox are quite the opposite. Richter and Edouard are allowed to overlap because they fight for the people and their connection to Annette which Xshingie covers.

(Also side note, for a long time due to print colour limitations for comics, villains were often coded as purple and green, think Joker and the Green Goblin. These are complementary colours opposed blue and red, colours given to heroes like Spiderman and Superman. It's one of the reasons why purple and green is associated with antagonists today.)

He cannot have pink because thats for the supernatural anddd drolta + maria are coded pink.

Turquoise also belongs to Maria and Tera, but its very important to have those colours focused on them for the fact that Tera's eyes change to being more misty. This comparison is diabolic because they're both closeups of Tera smiling almost both centered but the clear humanity in her from season 1 to season 2 is so starkly different, most notably in her eyes.

Brown is way too human, which is why Mizrak and Annette has them, and Edouard needs to have his character give the air of mystic and ethereal before his transformation as a way to foreshadow it AND that's already something innate in his character, especially with how Annette frames meeting him.

^^ characters tied to their innate humanness and the fight for people

(Literally, Edouard's introduction is his eyes)

Greyish blue is for Emmanuel but also I don't think it'd end up communicating life that Edouard has because they end up so dull. Also Emmanuel's lack of having a strong eye colour comes into great effect when Ezerbet's eyes reflect into his because it shows how Emmanuel has no power against her, lets say in comparison to when Olrox's eyes reflect into Mizrak's. Olrox still gives a ton of power to Mizrak.

In season 2, a lot of the locations he appears in like when burying the monks are really soft and light colours and make you feel like this is more where he belongs. They also really help to contrast whenever he's not in those environments like the prison cells or when he stares at his reflection in the knife because you have this utterly dark interior, violence being threatened against such soft colours and such a disheartening expression. Despite his imprisonment both literal and physical by having him transformed into a night creature, having a clear remanent of his human self shine through as all-encompassing in his eyes is very important. His entire body is made of nudes and brown, and often then not, 'seems' to blend into those environments. The chateau, the prison, the march into Paris, intentionally so, yet his humanity shines through and that's what needs to be communicated to the audience.

His eyes also end up being somewhat similar in shade to Frozen Shade, which then alludes to his influence on her to because they're both connected literally because Emmanuel both gave them their night creature form and Edouard would come later to influence her to lead the night creature fight. In a sense, the colour for freedom and revolution are tied to Edouard's eye colour.

In the same vein that Olrox's green is tied to his presence (and Mizrak/other stuff but itll get too long), the yellow/ish hues when Annette fights in the temple against the creature in which showcases her immense power (the temple name and creature is alluding me so bad)

Something something, eyes are the window to the soul, and this lighter blue helps to communicate the exact mystical airy otherworldly vibe Edouard has as a character. The vibrant blue from Richter feels to me to communicate a lot heavier physical magic aspect that @xshingie touched base on in their post!

Anyways that's my ramble. This is my personal take as an artist who noticed the importance of character colours not only in design but how it comes into play in setting and creating those strong connections so that even in their absence, they can still be felt. So I can totally off-mark here but it is what ive gathered (also kind of preparation as I begin writing the analysis for s02ep8 haha)

[writeforfandoms]

Mirror Mirror 2

Find the series masterlist

You don't get any explanations. In fact, things only get more confusing. But at least Blue Team seems willing to help.

(Yes, there is a reason Chief acts the way he does. Yes, you will find out. Later. Also, since this is Halo 5 divergent fic I am using canon dialogue.)

Warnings: Panic, canon typical violence, non-combatant in the middle of the Argent Moon mission, reader is Not having a good time.

Word count: 2.3k

“How do you know my name?” He sounded less than pleased, although he made no further move to intimidate you.

Not that he needed to. He was huge, especially from your seated position. 

“I don’t know.” You answered honestly, looking up at him. You still didn’t feel threatened, not really. Not the way you had with the aliens. It didn’t make any sense, but you knew he wouldn’t hurt you. 

“Chief,” someone else called. A woman, by the sound of her voice. “Reactor control is over here.” 

John, Chief, whoever he was, took a single step away from you. “Linda,” he said, calm as anything. Another armored person stepped up, standing over you, watching you. But you watched John walk away, over to what must have been a control panel of some kind. He typed something in, sure and steady. 

“Reactor failsafes disarmed,” came a mechanical voice from overhead, like a PA. “Failure imminent.” 

Well. That sounded bad. You pushed up slowly to your feet, wincing as your everything protested the movement. 

“What are we doing with the civilian?” The one guarding you asked. Linda, you thought you remembered. 

“Bring her with.” John turned away from you, looking for something else. You had no idea what, but you didn’t much care. Getting away from here sounded like a great idea. “Move for the hangar bay–”

“Containment protocol initiated,” the PA announced pleasantly. 

“Containment?” John sounded displeased.

“The station’s going to try to cool the reactor,” one of the other two said. You didn’t know his name yet. 

“I guess the UNSC has better reactor safety protocol than the Covenant,” the last one offered, her accent surprising you somehow. Of course, very few of her words made sense to you. What the hell was the UNSC? Or the Covenant, for that matter? 

Not the time to ask, clearly. 

“We can stop that. Board the reactor.” John turned towards the door again with the air of a man used to being obeyed.

“Board the reactor?” The English one sounded faintly incredulous. 

“If it’s being moved, we should go with it.” John walked out the door, leading by example. You glanced back at Linda, who was clearly your temporary minder, and followed him. It wasn’t easy keeping up with the group - they all took longer strides than you did, and moved like they had places to be. Which they did.

But that didn’t make your everything hurt less. 

Linda wordlessly put a hand on your shoulder once the group of you all stood on top of what you presumed was the reactor. The group kept you in the middle, whether by order or by habit you had no idea. You didn’t much care, either. Especially when the reactor lowered smoothly into the floor. Linda’s hand helped steady you, and you weren’t ashamed to admit it. 

“The safety systems are set to pump coolant to the reactor,” the other man said as the reactor moved.

“This whole plan fails if that coolant gets a chance to work,” Linda pointed out from behind you, cool and steady. Idly, you wondered if anything ever bothered this group. 

“Shame to lose the Argent Moon, but I’d love to see the look on the Covenant’s faces when she goes supernova.” 

That… was a lot to unpack. Argent Moon must be the name of the ship, or station, or whatever. Supernova sounded bad. Anxious now, you looked at John, who was still facing away from you, and then back at Linda. She didn’t react. 

“How do we stop it?” John asked, even as the reactor lowered into a bigger chamber, blue light illuminating the structures around you.

“There are sheds located on either side of the cooling chamber. Those are our targets.” 

John looked back at Linda and nodded once to her. Her hand tightened briefly on your shoulder, but you missed any other reply she may have made. 

“Reach the control sheds. Get the cooling system offline.” John dropped off the edge of the reactor, his boots hitting the ground with a thump. 

“Stay close to me,” Linda told you, no room for argument in her voice. Not that you would have argued anyway - you could faintly see figures moving around further in the room. More aliens, probably. 

You could really do without getting tossed about again. 

Linda dropped down, then turned and helped you down. The other three had moved on ahead, the short bursts of gunfire and shouting starting up again as they cleared the room. You stuck close to Linda’s back, doing your best to keep up with her as she picked off stragglers and enemies the others had missed. John punched through a set of shutters to get to some controls, and you blinked.

Well. That wasn’t exactly normal, but then again, none of this was. 

“Override activated,” he said, even as the other three grouped up around you. 

“Perfect. Coolant inner working systems are exposed.” The other man sounded faintly pleased by this, even as he herded you to put your back to the building John left. 

“Eliminate the targets, Blue Team,” John ordered. He paused by you for just long enough to say, “Stay here.”

You nodded, although you doubted he saw, with the way he strode off again. You could stay right here. No problem. 

Blue Team took weird purple little flyer things, which helped them destroy all the targets. You watched, but quickly became confused, since more of the purple flyers came in and started shooting. Things devolved quickly from there, with aerial battles taking place alongside destruction. None of them got even close to you, which was good, because you had no idea what to do.

Not like you could jump away, which you confirmed with a quick look down into open space. 

You nearly shrieked when one of them touched down mere yards away from you, but John jumped out of it, striding over to you.

“Frederick, find the nearest hangar bay. We’re taking a Prowler,” he ordered, not even pausing as he scooped you up in one arm. You yipped, taken completely by surprise at how easily he hefted you around, even if you did feel rather like a sack of flour. Your fingers scrambled for and found holds on his armor, clinging tight as he ran. 

“What the hell,” you breathed, sucking in a sharp breath when he jumped over something, jostling your shoulder. 

“Almost there,” he said, apparently to you, though he didn’t look at you. 

The hallway turned and opened on one side, windows showing a docking bay maybe. A larger ship inside looked intact still.

“There’s the Prowler,” John confirmed. “And more Covenant. Clear them out and prep for launch.” He shifted your weight, one hand holding his weapon still. 

“And do it quick,” Frederick added from behind John. “I’d rather not be here when the station melts around us.” 

He and the last one passed John, moving through the door and immediately firing on the aliens inside. John followed, barely even slowing as he shot at targets, angling his body just a little to keep you away from the aliens. 

You swallowed hard and kept very quiet, clinging to him like your life depended on it. Which it pretty much did. 

“Marked the launch controls,” Linda added, just before a loud shot came from behind you. You turned your head to see her bringing up the rear, once again picking off targets the others had missed. 

John jumped down from the platform he was on, landing solidly on the level below. “Controls are here,” he said, putting down his gun briefly to punch in commands. 

Which was all well and good, until the PA system informed you that the fuel cells were empty. 

“Hold off the Covenant until the Prowler is ready for launch,” Frederick said. None of them sounded stressed in the slightest, despite the fact that the station was apparently going to blow up shortly. 

John jumped back up onto a platform above, moving to the front of the ship. “Stay here,” he told you, setting you down. “And stay low.” He took off as soon as you unhooked your hands from his armor, once again not giving you a chance to respond. 

You were beginning to see a pattern here. 

You ducked down behind a couple supply crates, crouching in place as you listened to the chaos around you. Lots of shots. Lots of yelling. The occasional crash of metal on metal. The PA giving occasional updates on the status of the fuel cells, which was not going fast enough for your liking. 

One of the big aliens landed on the catwalk attached to your platform, facing you. An unlucky coincidence, probably. A sort of glowy purple two-pronged sword-thing extended from its hand, and it started towards you. 

A sort of purple-ish energy field around it came to life, and it looked away from you. This time, you heard the shot before the energy field rippled. A sort of shield, maybe? Blocking shots? But with the third, the shield failed. 

With the fourth, purple blood sprayed from the new hole in its head. Your gasp of shock was lost in the rest of the chaos.

But when you peeked up over the crates, wary of drawing more attention, you spotted Linda on the far side of the room, rifle up to her helmet. You waved a little, scared to do more, and dropped back down to your butt on the cold metal. 

You’d be lucky if your heart didn’t just give up before all was said and done. 

The team all congregated on your platform, still wary, but the fighting seemed done for now. You got to your feet carefully, even as Linda said, “Clear.”

“Time, Linda?” John asked, pushing a dead little alien off the control panel.

“Eighty-nine seconds.”

John typed in commands on the panel while you watched, heart pounding in your chest. Less than a minute and a half didn’t seem like long enough to get away. 

A ramp started to lower into the ship, even as John spoke, apparently to someone else. “Sierra-one-one-seven to Infinity. Argent Moon scuttled. I’ve reassigned Blue Team. Destination Meridian. Potential contact from Cortana–”

You didn’t hear the other side of the conversation, but you wouldn’t have anyway. That same faint blue light filtered your vision at the mention of Cortana, and your knees nearly buckled. Linda caught you with one hand under your arm, keeping you upright. 

“Negative, Infinity,” John said as you tried to blink the blue from your vision. 

“Whoever they are, let’s get to Meridian before they do,” the English one said as she strode up the ramp.

“Kelly. No.” John turned his attention to her. 

“No need to do this by yourself, Chief,” Linda said as she escorted you up the ramp and into the ship. 

“They won’t court martial all of us, right?” Frederick asked, sounding like he was joking, even as he hustled after you. The ship shook a little as the station started to fall apart, little tings of metal echoing off the ship as pieces fell. 

John was the last one up, hitting the control panel inside the ship to close the ramp again. You settled into a seat, Linda taking up a post on one side of you though she remained standing. Your hands shook as you clung to the seat, vision still blurring occasionally with blue. 

You felt the sudden acceleration of the ship though, swaying with the movement. 

But apparently the lot of you had made it. Well. Okay. Blue Team had made it and half-dragged you along. Which you appreciated - you liked not being dead. 

Although, you weren’t sure if it really mattered. Not like you’d be able to get home in time to water your plants. 

You clamped your lips together to keep in the hysterical giggle. Now that you were safe, or safer, you could feel every bump and bruise and ache. You could feel your forced calm slipping. 

Was this really any better than what you’d just left behind? 

“What do we do with our passenger?” Linda spoke calmly, dispassionately. At least no one was aiming a weapon at you this time. 

John turned towards you again, visor bright in the hold of the ship. “How do you know my name?” he asked again, taking a single step towards you. But he did reach behind himself to put his gun away, which helped. 

“I don’t know,” you answered truthfully. “I really don’t. I don’t even know where here is.”

John was quiet for a moment, unmoving, staring at you. “We bring her along, for the moment,” he decided, finally turning away from you. “Linda, see if there’s a medpack on board.”

You slumped a little back into your seat, all the energy draining out of you at once. Looked like you got to live a while longer. Joy. 

Linda set an open medpack on the seat next to you, picking up something that looked a lot like a kind of auto-injector. 

“What’s that?” you asked, half wary, half curious. 

“Stim shot. It’ll help.” She didn’t wait for permission, pressing it to your upper arm. You huffed at the little sting, making a face. Less because it hurt and more because you could. 

But the cool wave of pain relief that flowed through you was more than welcome. You slouched in your seat as it worked, eyes drooping. The sudden lack of pain, paired with the temporary safety, did what you’d been fighting since you’d fallen into this alien place.

You fell asleep.

[innocentrowan]

Post Old Guard 2 Spoiler Based Thoughts, Ratings, and Trigger Warnings.

so that was a movie. if you weren’t following along with my 123 thoughts i had while watching they are all in my previous post. but after consuming the entire movie and then screaming into the void i have thoughts.

First: The Bad

so first and foremost i believe that the movie is pretty mid. its a fun action romp with some cool set designs, but it is missing parts that made the original good. it doesn’t have an ending but instead just a cliffhanger, its missing some of the relationships that made us enjoy the first one. i did rewatch the first right before watching the second so perhaps i’m biased because of that. focusing on the relationship part i found that joe and nicky fighting was far too much of the runtime, they get one action scene before they start fighting then they don’t have a moment together really until right before the finale battle. they also introduced new characters that didn’t fit right, though i will say i honestly think tuah had great chemistry with every character.

my other big gripe was the lore. in movie 1 we are given some hard lines: you die and wake up immortal, you then have dreams of all the other immortals until you meat them, and one day it goes away. simple rules. that start to drift away immediately in movie 2. tuah is an ancient immortal (older and jesus if my math is good) who has only ever met andy but no one dreams of him, fine, weird but maybe it’s because he’s so old, but the main bad guy discord (yes that is the name they gave her) is even older and only nile has ever dreamed of her despite the fact that she hasn’t met any of them. speaking of nile, she hasn’t a power special to her because she’s the last immortal, which is a whole different can of worms, but she can take away people’s immortality by stabbing them. which is so silly i can’t even think about it. and the big bad’s plan? is to get nile to stab the others to get their immortality.

and my last complaint is that booker is so off putting this movie. spoilers he’s in it. but he has a few things that bother me, and to be clear i do really like the character and his nuance. he fulfills the trope of suicidal immortal perfectly while also having more traits to him. but in this movie after find out that nile can take immortality away, then the ex-immortal can transfer it away, he tricks her into stabbing him so he can give the immortality to andy. he does not get consent from the girls despite the fact that to me this feels like both of them were unwilling parts of his suicide. because his death felt like a suicide to me. now everyone can read what they want into movies, but his death was not needed. it did not give andy more time because she just sat there watching and trying to save him. it did nothing to the plot. and it was a cruel and painful death.

Second: The Good

every actor brought their a game. quyhn was just as strange and unpredictable as expected. the bad guy felt underwhelming until she wasn’t. tuah had excellent chemistry with everyone, i even thought he was brought on to be a love interest to one of the singles in the movie. and the original cast slipped right back into these rolls perfectly, i had expected some fanonization of the characters especially nicky and joe, but they all felt so identical to their original roles. i mentioned above that joe and nicky are fighting for a long part of the runtime, but it’s mostly because joe has been in contact with booker this whole time, which originally felt wrong because joe was the most angry at booker, but his dialogue and acting made it make sense.

the action was choreographed well. maybe not as great as the first movie, and i think the opening scene needs work, but the action is great. there is my favorite type of fight scene at one point, which is people in a small area, and i also really enjoyed the final fight. i didn’t notice any time where the henchmen went one after another at our heroes which i think is a good litmus test. and i truly enjoyed some of the close ups during the fight. there was one moment that confused me in the final fight but i honestly think that was my fault. if i had to pick a weak spot in the fight choreography i’d say it would be any spear work.

i also found the music fantastic, it ebbed and flowed just right. i did notice that the half decade between movies made the music style change, but i am not sure it was a bad thing. the songs were catchy and fit in the movie just like last time. one that sticks out is after a fight andy pants in time with the songs beat. it could have been cheesy but it wasn’t because of the emotional weight of the scene and the good song choice.

Third: The Ratings

i am going to give this movie several ratings based on my own personal opinions! if you disagree that’s okay! but please don’t be a jerk about it!

Plot: 📖📖.5/5 the plot was good but it didn’t stand out. it’s a mid action movie. i would probably watch it again but i won’t find myself drawn to it. and it ends on a cliffhanger so it doesn’t feel like a full movie.

Characters: 🪓🪓🪓🪓/5 the characters are all excellent but they gave us too many too many new characters (including quyhn) and i personally don’t like what they did with booker

Acting: 🕴️🕴️🕴️🕴️.5/5 the acting is amazing but uma thurman fell flat until the end when we found out why she was doing this.

Cinematography: 🎥🎥🎥.5/5 it’s good. not as good as the first one. and the sets are mostly amazing, but the opening set is less than stellar and it’s impossible to get a read on the final battle ground until the end. but each country had its own unique style except possibly rome and paris.

Dialogue: 📣📣📣📣/5 it’s good. there were several lines i felt needed to be written down in my notes about the movie but honestly there were also lines that made me cringe a little. i also enjoy how much they spoke other languages this time, but the captions weren’t always captioning it, sometimes you would get a “speaking french” and other times it would tell you what they were saying.

Sound Design: 🎙️🎙️.5/5 the music was amazing like i talked about in my review but i found that the sound design was lacking in the diegetic noise, one of the scenes i remember best in the first one is the bullets falling, in this one there are a few swooshes of the ax but otherwise it’s pretty nonexistent.

Emotional Impact: 🫀🫀🫀/5 if you read my live thoughts you would know i went irate when booker died. and that i felt cheated by his death for several reasons. so three is all they get.

Overall: 🍿🍿🍿.43 out of 5. i think it’s a major downgrade from the first but i’d watch it again. i honestly thought id put it closer to a 2.75 before doing all these ratings. i also think as far as sequels go i only ever give them a 3.75/5 or so, meaning this is pretty good. like it’s not amazing and im gonna be feeling some sort of way about it for a long time but it is a sequel and it did most of its job.

Forth: The Bizarrely Specific Trigger Warnings

i am going to assume the first one was watching and that you know what the blood and gore and swearing is like. so these will be so specific you don’t even know.

1. there is no kissing.

2. suicidal tendencies and actions resulting in death

3. death of immortals

4. non construal power use (both the person with powers and the person having them be used on them don’t consent)

5. 500 years at sea

6. exs fighting

7. currents fighting

8. mortal vs immortal racism (i think it’s important to mention that uma thurman says the last name freeman like she doesn’t believe nile deserves to be free, that said it is more about nile being recently mortal than nile being black)

[freevoidman]

Binged the entire DMC Netflix show (wow holy shit I RARELY do that) and my super quick, spoiler free review is that the show is overall really, REALLY great. Action is spot-on, designs are great, story is pretty strong (episode 6 is easily the strongest of the bunch on a visual and story-telling level holy shit) with some fumbling of new characters. If you've felt the drought of DMC stuff since 5 and VoV ended, the new series will absolutely whet your appetite and leave you satisfied.

Obviously if you're going into this with the expectation of a 1:1 adaptation, you're not going to get it. The show is, effectively, doing its own thing. If that sounds good to you, great! If you wanted a pure adaptation of one of the prior games, you're not getting that here.

If you want some stronger and longer points to go off of, spoilers BELOW the cut, you have all been warned:

Anyone worried about Dante being written "wrong," let me assure you the show does him great. He's fun, he's sarcastic and cocky, you can feel he's in most of his fights for the thrill when there's not greater stakes at play. Out of EVERYONE in this show, Dante has the best characterization outside of the demons, both old and new. Again, however, you might find some of his moments to be written 'against' the Dante from the games. I'm brushing this off as 1) Dante is young in this series (supposedly takes place either in a time around or BEFORE DMC3, meaning he's probably 19-early 20s at the most?) and 2) again, this show is doing its own thing. Not enough that Dante feels completely different--we don't have another Donte from DmC on our hands here--but different enough that people might not like it depending on what KIND of Dante you like, if that makes sense.

Second runner-up here is the White Rabbit. Holy fuck, even for a spoiler section I don't want to give much away, but he steals the show. EASILY the best character in the show--especially amongst the newcomers (we'll get to them in a moment), I'm so glad he was done well, though his character flags the tiniest bit at the end. Overall though, incredible new character and antagonist.

Lady is the most different from her appearances in the games but, honestly? Not by much. Remember, this is 3!Lady we're talking about here, a Lady who hasn't made peace with her father, who still holds the trauma of her mother's death and a deep grudge against demon-kind, and who REALLY doesn't vibe with anyone that isn't a demon and isn't on the "good side" in her mind. I think her character is nailed really well in that regard, though I obviously miss the more 'laid back' Lady from 4 and 5, who we likely won't see for a long while in this show.

I think the most egregious part of Lady's character in this show is that she swears. Like, a lot of swears, combined with some really gross, vivid imagery. Getting close to rivaling Hazbin Hotel, but it's not done for pure comedic edginess like that show. Even I was getting tired of it by the end and I have a HIGH tolerance for it. Really hope in season 2 she doesn't swear as much. I think swearing is fine and definitely warranted at points (Dante swears in this show, but rarely, and only done in a few, key moments and I don't think that 'ruins' his character) but Lady gets really close to an unnecessary excess at times, you could easily cut out a few 'fucks' and the dialogue would be virtually identical with no major character changes.

Worst part of the show, unfortunately, is the new character Vice President Baines (voiced by the late Kevin Conroy, whose performance made me hate Baines less) and the rest of the ideology behind him. Baines feels like a character you're meant to hate, which (if intentional) is done well don't get me wrong, but he's very one note throughout the show and it gets exhausting. He is the Christian religious zealot who believes God has a plan for everything, and he's in an insane position of power to be able to act out "God's" will.

An underlying theme of the show, hastened by its setting in NYC and the greater 'real world' of America, is Christianity and basically what I would call "DMC manifest destiny" which gets very, VERY exhausting to hear repeatedly, always through Baines, and it's never given the full breadth of air to grow past simple dogmatic ideology. The second-to-last scene really made me uncomfortable as I don't think this show has given me enough confidence in its ability to pull of and/or criticize a viewpoint in a way that doesn't feel repetitive and won't feel lackluster.

To be fair: I am not saying this is necessarily bad. In the context of the show (1990s/early 2000s America facing a literal invasion from hell) this works! It would make sense that these characters would exist and have these viewpoints. Episode 1 establishes this and it feels much better executed... right up until we get to the government and VP Baines, where it becomes a very one-dimensional thing that never grows past its grassroots. My main worry is my confidence in the show's ability to tackle the topic and tackle it well, especially when the greater series doesn't touch on these topics (unfortunately, the DmC comparison here does land) and has stayed largely neutral, focusing instead on fictional organizations and plot lines that don't feel too frictional to me.

Season 2 DOES have a promising set-up in this regard. Darkcom (the organization Lady works for) seems to be massively crippled, if not out-right decimated, though this is somewhat unclear. Lady's fate is ultimately unknown, she could still be working for Baines or could be out there on her own. We see the freaking Ouroboros company from DMC2 and I can absolutely see the second season tackling exploitation and the evils of capitalism and giving the villains of DMC2 a proper go. Though, that implements a new worry that we won't see Lady at ALL and instead completely shift to Lucia who, as much as I love her, it would kinda suck to introduce when Lady is right there and still suspended mid-arc.

If a second season is anywhere close in quality to the first, I'll absolutely watch it. I'm hoping that the new characters will be satisfactorily fleshed out and, if nothing else, that the show is fun to watch and not stagnated to a complete halt after that ball tease of a cliffhanger lmao. Ultimately, the show's greater positives--its action, overall writing, overall character execution, and world building--outweigh the negatives and my gripes. I truly hope season 2 expands on the positives and makes the weak points as painless as possible when we brush up against them.

***

EDIT 4/11/2025: I wanted to add to this review that, in addition to the show not giving me the confidence necessary to believe it can pull off its criticisms well, Adi Shankar is not doing that confidence any favors either. I didn't want to touch on him as I felt my opinions on the show could stay separate from him, but unfortunately he's being an absolute weirdo on twitter and I felt I should touch on it here to keep my thoughts in one spot and not have to link two separate posts.

Adi Shankar is, at his best, a complete and utter weirdo to me. His shows have more left-leaning political ideologies--criticisms of the Catholic church in Castlevania, the various themes that even appear in Devil May Cry in regards to the government and dogmatic ideology, the EXCEEDINGLY direct parallels and criticisms towards Bush and Cheney seen with DMC's barely-present POTUS (who we only know as a wimp who cares about his image) and VP Baines (the main government leader who is respected and has all the power to declare war)--but his actual ideologies in real life are far more right wing, as are the people he's willingly associated with and continues to reach out towards. To me, Adi Shankar feels like a grifter. A grifter that rides whatever wave is most popular to gain the best financial and social status. Unfortunately, in 2025, that popular wave is the Trump wave, even if that means he's saddling up to bigots and assholes alike.

All of this to say, Adi's behavior mooching up to Trump and other known right wing assholes (like Asmongold most recently, to the point where a conspiracy nutjob podcaster seen in episode one that I thought was a caricature seems to be inspired by the cockroach fucker and is probably supposed to be seen positively???) makes the show's criticisms of America fall EXCEEDINGLY flat on its face. It is to the point where I can see the whole thing falling apart depending on where we're headed for the (confirmed) second season.

I wanted to come back here to say, regardless of this, I still enjoyed the show. I understand people's legitimate criticisms against it and respect them (and by legitimate here I mean the people who are willing to string together a thought and explain their reasoning outside of simply saying 'it's bad' or 'I don't like it.' Those aren't criticisms those are just opinions to me lol). I also feel like the show is so on-the-nose critical with its themes against christofascism, imperialism, and the greater American philosophy that it's really hard to reconcile those themes with its producer, who is saddling up with the very same people he's criticizing.

Obviously there are more writers on this show than just Adi Shankar and I really hope that Season 2 continues its criticisms and doesn't trip and fall flat on its face. Despite the show's success I do believe that this series was commissioned for two seasons and that's why we got a confirmation so quickly, and I can only hope that it doesn't fumble from its current centrist criticisms and fall down the right-wing spiral of death.

[madam-whim]

So I want to get my little Solstice rant out there...

So, the season of the worm cult is finally here, and with it our beloved bread boy. But at what cost… Suffice it to say I’m still pretty much heartbroken about what happened, even though I’m so happy about all these beloved characters coming back. But that doesn’t mean I’m 100% satisfied with how the story went.

The story, at its core, is good -  but the ending isn’t great

I want to preface this by saying that I think the zone was great overall, though some of that certainly comes down to personal preference as I really enjoy Sanguine content, and the main story was, for the most part, really good as well! Not good enough to give Summerset or Elsweyr a run for their money, but definitely good enough that I got insanely emotional over it (holy shit the music during Gabby’s farewell… I cried), something I genuinely missed these last few years.

I am also still not over that one conversation with Gabrielle, where she admitted to being in love with Darien.

That said, I think whatever was up with the Gift of Death was handled just a tiny bit poorly, and so was Darien’s writing. (I’ll talk about that later, but want to preface it by saying I absolutely don’t blame the writers for this one!) The last quest had its great (if terribly sad) moments, but also just a few weaknesses that I hope might be cleared up in part 2.

This is gonna be a long one, so I’m gonna put it under a cut.

What the hell is Darien and why isn’t it talked about anymore: The Summerset Memory Gap

Anyone remember that bit of dialogue in Summerset? The one where we could approach Darien and basically go “You’re not really a Breton, are you?”, and he’d say he didn’t really know himself? We know that man has barely any memory of his early life, and while we know he has a “father”, this might all simply be due to altered memories. Other people have discussed this in far greater detail, but basically there are a few things that Darien could be, and my list is by no means complete: - Someone who used to be a normal Breton, and is now something a bit different, changed by Meridia

- A vessel holding some of Meridia’s power, who acts as her champion when she wishes to get involved

- A Demiprince of Meridia

Personally, I think it’s between option 1 and 2, but my point in all of this is that Darien was never, to my understanding, really dead. We know from his one letter found in Orsinium that after Coldharbour, he retained his consciousness at least, and after Summerset we assumed that he was, well, gone, but again, not dead, just dormant until Meridia needed him again. 

And I would assume the Vestige would have told Gabrielle this, and yet she believed him to be really dead and decided that therefore, she could bring him back with the Gift of Death.

So why does Gabrielle get that idea when she should know Darien is not really dead? And why did it work? 

Was it 

a) a really lucky coincidence, with the Gift being a tainted Light of Meridia and using it for its assumed purpose purifying it, but the Coloured Rooms already changing its functionality so that Gabrielle could actually “summon” Darien?

Or was it

b)  that its use within Meridia’s realm purified it, as Darien said, but it was only returned to its original state? Which would then mean that this caught Meridia’s attention and she sent Darien, because the artifact likely wouldn’t have worked that way anymore.

It’s a bit confusing, and I kinda like to know which option it is, because I want to know if if was Gabrielle or Meridia who really did the thing. I’ll take it though, even though I feel like it’s a flaw in the story’s logic. But I’m really not too happy with Gabrielle really thinking of Darien as dead instead of trapped somewhere else.

Omitting previously established lore

And that, specifically,  leaves me with some questions. What on earth happened to the hints that we were fed during Darien’s seven year MIA phase? There’s just the general Meridia negativity that was all over Southern Elsweyr and Greymoor (remember Southern Elsweyr daily quest man, who repeatedly informed us she was not good and liked stealing people). 

And then there were also really solid clues that there was something up with Meridia, namely one quest, also in Southern Elsweyr, where it was explicitly stated that she’s in need of a new, more loyal champion, as well as the Kilkreath quest in Greymoor, where Meridia did fuck all to stop literal undead from overrunning her followers, leading me to believe something was preventing her from intervening. Even if she didn’t care about her followers, undead in her temple are canonically something she hates and wants OUT.

There was also the fact that Gabrielle quite literally told us she joined the Antiquarian Circle for Darien-related reasons. Girl was researching how to break into the Coloured Rooms. Mind you, this was also after Summerset, so we can assume that even with the Golden Knight Vanishing Act 2, she didn’t believe he was dead at that point. Again, the Vestige would have told her.

So why does she suddenly act like she believes just that in Solstice? Where did all the rest of the lore go?

The only thing I can come up with is that all of it was discarded to make the whole thing more palatable/easier to get into for new and returning players who haven’t been frantically checking every DLC for even vaguely Meridia-themed scraps and who the writers either can’t or won’t expect to catch up on several years of clue hunting. 

The Season of the Worm Cult was marketed as a continuation of the base game story, so everyone was aware of that. But new players and those returning after a long time might not know about Summerset, and really, that was seven years ago. Many folks who were around for Summerset aren’t playing anymore. I imagine the quest was written with a target audience in mind that doesn’t recall events from every chapter that ever happened.

Now why does the writing feel a little flat in some places?

There were a few little things bothering me as I was making my way through the MQ. I think the biggest thing that concerned me at the end was how flat everything felt after Gabrielle’s death. Mostly Darien’s reactions to it, especially with how Gabrielle spoke of him before. He references her, honors her sacrifice of course, but he just seems to take it all in stride. I know that this is partly just due to how he is – ever-cheerful, optimistic guy who pushes forward because there’s no other way – but I would have liked to see some genuine grief from him instead of a bread joke someone snuck into his dialogue. (Yeah, I smiled. But still.) Especially after everyone was safely out of the Coloured Rooms and there was no more need to run off and face the Wormies.

I also think the entire MQ very… impersonal at times? In some places it feels like the Vestige and everyone around them suffer from memory loss specifically affecting their personal relationships, unless you make it a point to go through specific dialogue options. I know that, again, this is likely so that any new player can jump right in and not constantly wonder “Why does this NPC talk to me as if we’re old friends?”, but that’s canonically what they are! Especially Covenant Vestiges! They have been close with most of the characters involved in Solstice for - depending on how you interpret the timeline - years! In my case, I go with ‘one chapter per year’ so my girl’s known them for 10 years. These people are more important to her than anything else and I would have very much appreciated to be able to lean into that a bit more.

And, like, I get it! We’re coming off a series of one or two year standalone stories that you could jump into without any previous knowledge. Blackwood, High Isle, Necrom and Gold Road as well as any additional DLC during those years required absolutely no knowledge of previous stories or returning characters. (I’m counting Blackwood since having played Orsinium was in no way relevant to what was going on there, aside from having met Eveli before, whereas in the Markarth DLC, for example, it would have been a good idea going in with knowledge of Rivenspire.) So yeah, going back to referencing older content more might be an adjustment, but it would be so much better for the depth of the story!  

Is it rushed?

In my opinion, the ending is. I would have wished for Gabrielle’s death to have a bigger impact especially on Darien (who also might just love her) and Skordo (who’s been her friend for years). I would have liked an option for the Vestige to address the topic with them, because the Vestige is also among her closest friends. I suppose I was just a bit bothered by how quickly the quest was concluded. I know that it’s intended to be just “the middle of things” and there’s gonna be a whole bunch of Stirk Fellowship folks arriving at any moment, but to me it seemed like at least some of the people already there should have been… in shock? Grieving? At the end. As it is, Azah’s grief over Merric’s death in the prologue was given more room than what surely the characters would have felt about Gabby dying, and that doesn’t sit right with me.

My advice: Make a choice who you’re writing these quests for!

In all honesty? In my experience there are only two types of people playing this game. Those who actively go questing, listen to all the dialogue and know what happens in the story, and those who rush through for skill points and achievements. If anything, there is a very small “middle group” who has a vague idea of what’s going on but doesn’t particularly care.

So, dear writers, just write for the group that actually loves your work. For the small but dedicated fanbase that’s been (in this case) turning over every pebble in search of Darien hints for the last seven years. For the people who can handle more than the most straightforward, simplified storylines. That means you don’t have to go “Previously on ESO…” as if we can only play one quest per week (one little summary at the start of the second half of an arc is okay and much appreciated). Instead, you could give the characters more depth and feelings, and you could bring in references to long-ago DLC and simply assume that the person who actually reads through all the quests/listens to the dialogue will remember and know what it’s about. I promise. It would improve the quality of the quests so much and be a huge step in returning them to the insane level they were on in the base game and certain older chapters and DLC.

Yes, I know the writers will never read this. I am a small blog with no reach. I also know it’s just a dream of mine and they probably have been told to make the quests easily accessible for people who have no idea about previous stories. But I still wanted to get it out there.

Still, and I need this to be understood, I LIKED this questline. I have been waiting for it for seven years and I’m so glad to have it.

That being said, I see three ways this could end…

Now, as for my predictions regarding how the whole thing will turn out: Mannimarco and Vanus both have to come out of this alive (or close enough to it anyhow), if not, practically ancient TES lore will be contradicted. But what of our beloved friends?

We finally get a happy ending (not bloody likely)

There is a chance, however small, that we somehow get to save Gabrielle and keep Darien, this time around. Knowing Darien and his role in previous arcs, it’s not likely, but a woman can hope, right? It would be a nice ending to the whole Worm Cult mess, with the Daggerfall gang all back together, without any dead or missing friends this time. In all honesty though, one of the reasons I think this won’t be the case is that Gabrielle being in love with Darien and him having some feelings for her at least is now canon. That paired with the fact that so many people ship Darien with their Vestiges, and the writers maybe not wanting to take Darien away from player characters, makes the whole thing a tiny bit complicated, doesn’t it? I suppose we’ll see if we get flirty dialogue options for him like we did for Raz. (I sure hope not...)

We lose them both and the Vestige goes bonkers

There’s also the distinct possibility that we’re gonna get hit with a worst case scenario: Gabrielle stays dead and Darien, once again, sacrifices himself and the cycle starts again. Now, if this happens, I genuinely doubt we’re ever going to see Darien again after that – we’re not going to get him back another time, or it would begin to feel less impactful. That said, my Vestige at the very least would absolutely lose it if this happened. That woman has been held together by a support system of one Orc warrior, one Breton mage and a gaggle of vampires for the last few years. If she loses even one more of them, her sanity might just walk off the nearest cliff. I can’t be the only one with this problem.

The Switch Back

And then there’s the third option, in which Darien and Gabrielle switch back – he sacrifices himself, maybe even permanently this time, to bring her back. I don’t want to think about this one too much. Mostly because Darien/Gabrielle is my OTP.

This is it for now – big rambling post of the year concluded. What do you all think? I would love to yap about your thoughts with you!