#i assume scrooge but isn’t that fucked LOL

[delladuck]

so who got della’s life insurance?

[sarcasticsra]

I cannot stress enough how much everyone should watch Starkid’s A VHS Christmas Carol if you haven’t seen it yet. It’s pretty short, only about 45 minutes, and it’s truly one of the best adaptations of A Christmas Carol that I’ve ever seen.

No, seriously. I think it has even surpassed The Muppets Christmas Carol for me. That has been my favorite Christmas movie since I was a child. My mom and sister and I used to watch it every Christmas Eve. I still love it dearly and it is an amazing adaptation that I’ll defend to my death, but you guys. You guys. A VHS Christmas Carol is just THAT GOOD.

It’s done in the style of 80s music/videos, which is delightful. It’s an opera, so it’s all sung through, which I love. And it’s so good!

Let me enumerate the ways. Spoilers to follow. (Can you spoil A Christmas Carol? Once a story becomes public domain does that exempt it from spoiling? Idk, lol. Spoilers for the show, anyway. Also for Avatar: The Last Airbender. …I promise there’s a path.)

1) Bah Humbug! - Song number one and it goes hard right from the start. It is everything an opening number should be. Dynamic, sets the tone, and an incredible fucking bop. The interactions between Scrooge and Fred and Scrooge and Bob are done so well, too. You so quickly get a sense of their characters. Obviously we know their characters because this is a story that has been told many a time before, but it does it so well that you would immediately get them even if you were an alien who had never in your existence been exposed to A Christmas Carol in any capacity. That’s impressive to me. It’s not relying on the familiarity of the story to do its character work.

2) 3 Spirits - I love the tone of this song. This is a Marley with true regret and pain who is absolutely pleading with Scrooge to take the chance he’s being given. It’s less “scared straight” and more, “I need you to understand this like you’ve never understood anything before.” Marley becomes a character in his own right as opposed to merely a backdrop for Scrooge to react to. That’s a theme with this adaptation. Characters who are pretty flat in a lot of adaptations seem so much more like real people in this one. Also, whoever decided to cast Meredith as Marley here is a fucking genius. She’s so goddamn talented and she really shines here. The emotion, the weight. Gah. Beautiful. The interplay between Marley and Scrooge is incredible as well; these are two insanely talented performers breathing a new life into tried and true characters, and you really feel the relationship between them.

3) I’m The Ghost - Christmas Past is so pointed and snarky and incredible, making Scrooge come to certain realizations. “Huh, little boy left all alone. Oh, your sister died so young. Didn’t she have a son though? Why are the employees so happy, this party didn’t cost much? Thinking of something? Okay, last stop, buckle up, it’s all your own doing.” I love it so much.

4) That Scrooge - You guys. You guys. They’ve done what I assumed was impossible. They’ve done what even the Muppets couldn’t. It’s a Scrooge-Belle breakup song that isn’t the most unbelievably boring and bland thing you’ve ever heard in your life. Belle is a fucking person! She has a personality! She’s very clearly stating her case, that he’s changed and she doesn’t like it and does he have anything to say? No? Okay, bye! THE EMOTION IN THIS SONG. Scrooge starts singing not just with her but to her! All the things he didn’t say before! And then he starts singing angrily about/at his past!self for being an idiot! You actually FEEL THINGS about this relationship. It was a deep love and losing it super fucked him up! I have never before seen Belle/Scrooge done as well as this one (1) song handles it.

5) Christmas Electricity - Get ready to have this song stuck in your head for ten thousand years. This song is, I believe, the standard classical definition of “a fuckin’ bop.” It’s so high energy and exciting, you really can understand how Scrooge gets so caught up in it himself. You also see more of Fred in this song and, again, he’s a person! He has specific motivations for why he keeps reaching out to Scrooge. Corey’s Fred is hands down one of the best performances of this character full stop. He took what is usually a bit, side character and made him a full human with understandable thoughts and feelings. They gave the Fred-Scrooge relationship such incredible emotional weight because of it. I think that’s one of my favorite aspects of this adaptation.

6) Priceless - Here we see the Cratchits enjoying their Christmas with an incredibly sweet song about having little but feeling like they have a lot. I really like the way this song feels a bit cheesy (goes with the whole 80s vibe) but they also feel like a real family with some silliness and some sweetness and Bob’s wife having very strong opinions about Scrooge that he’s too polite for. Also “listen to this key change out of the bridge” goddamn just show off constantly how freaking talented this entire cast is, why don’t you.

7) The Final Ghost - I probably have too much to say about this song. It’s my favorite, which considering this entire show is pitch fucking perfect, is really saying a lot. Dylan Saunders is truly one of the most talented performers I’ve ever seen, and his Scrooge is so, so good. It really shines through here. His interactions with Christmas Future show him mirroring Bob from earlier (he has a line that’s almost an exact quote of a line from Bob in Bah Humbug!), correcting himself, and trying to be respectful/humble. Subtle displays of emotional growth even before he gets to the truly scary parts. The song is of course a darker tone, as is correct for this part of the narrative, perfectly setting up the finale song. We get Scrooge overhearing about a funeral no one cares about, the same man being robbed after death, and this death bringing actual happiness to people. Throughout it all so far Christmas Future only speaks in a wordless melody, as is apt. Scrooge asks for tenderness connected to death and is shown the Cratchits mourning Tiny Tim, which breaks him, and he asks who the dead man was from earlier. Still wordless, Christmas Future leads him to a cemetery, and that wordless melody perfectly transforms into an eerie, ethereal, “Ebenezer Scrooge.” The fucking amount of sheer EMOTION Dylan packs into Scrooge pleading for his soul, that he is changed, and the final bit of narration… fuck, you guys, it’s so good. I love all of the “scene” parts of this song so much. It all builds so perfectly.

7a) The narrator. - This isn’t a specific song, I just want to call out how excellent the narrator is through the whole show and how perfectly the narration ties the whole show together. It’s one of those things where it goes unnoticed because it’s so perfect, but if it were bad you would definitely notice. You need it to be there and understated or a lot a falls apart, but it can be such hard balance to strike. This show nails it.

8) Christmas Day - The finale! And what a finale it is! The energy is a perfect contrast to the song before it as Scrooge delights in being alive and having time to make things right. His joy is palpable as he goes about his day, buying Bob a huge turkey, making an incredible donation to the charity he blew off the day before, and showing up at Fred’s. Guys. This scene. Especially when I watch the live, but even sometimes just via the soundtrack, this scene just fucking perfectly, beautifully guts me. You know how in Avatar: The Last Airbender, Zuko has to go on his whole narrative arc to eventually join the right side, and along the way sort of betrays his Uncle Iroh, aka the only good father figure he’s ever had, because he’s a traumatized teenager, and eventually he meets back up with him and starts stumbling out an apology and Iroh just sweeps him up in a hug without a word, and you sob because it’s perfect? That is the energy present in this, what, 15-second scene, just this incredible emotional buildup and payoff accomplished in a scant 45-minute runtime. It’s truly wondrous. The finale, as all true finales should, calls back musically to previous character beats, and ends on the perfect bookend to the opening number. It’s just so, so immensely satisfying.

Tl;dr - this musical has made me feel more Christmas-y than I have in a long, long time, and I have listened to little else in terms of music since I watched it two weeks ago. (It was literally the only music I had listened to since then until right now, and that’s only because I’m in a van on a road trip to my sister-in-law’s for Christmas. While I would have been perfectly content to listen to this soundtrack on repeat for the entire 8-hour drive, I also recognize that the four other people in this van do not have my particular flavor of hyperfixated ADHD brain and probably would not appreciate that, heh. Thus I played it once and then other music. Compromise!)

But yes. Seriously. It’s so good. Gah. Go watch it!

[1000-rat-corpses]

im playing birth by sleep and

im not sure how the fuck im supposed to take these characters seriously when the cutscenes barely show any character depth or explanation for anything, we just have to assume these kids are best friends bc TERRA WOULD NEVER DO THAT, and also aqua and terras voice actors are horrible jesus you’d think kh would have a decent budget but aqua, lord, while she has i guess some personality in her voice her lines are still delivered terribly and terra is just laughable. only ventus sounds good (thanks Jesse McCartney) and even then in cutscenes any time he runs off they hit the button on the soundboard to make him go ‘unh’ and its the same ‘unh’ each time and its really out of place sometimes lol its weird.

then theres the whole no explanation for the armor and space hoverboard like terra just suddenly henkei’s into some armor and summons a hoverboard and flies off, then ven follows suit - we had no prior introduction to this concept? so we’re just left to assume ‘oh i guess this is normal and a thing they can just do’ despite this never having been normal in a previous kh game and ven looks visually confused when terra henkei’s and flies off (tho i guesss you could chalk it up to him just being surprised terra ran off?)

anyway i know its a psp game but good lord the controls suck and the command board is like....i dont have the attention span for indepth mini games in my game just to unlock more skills....

then theres ven’s personality. it’s fine. he’s fine i guess. but everything is so incredibly shoe horned and rushed. he just immediately ‘hey i know im on a time crunch here and im looking for someone who clearly isn’t here but i’ll help you wit this asinine task bc it’ll make a disney princess happy’

and then scrooge mcduck is there handing out disneyland funpasses??

anyway with how big shit important this game is to the overall kh3 storyline i expected more from it lol

[threelxttledxcklngs]

((Gooood morning tungle, I live, and so I’ll be giving my thoughts on Kingdom Hearts: Re:Coded and Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance in the cut below. Got a lot of thoughts on DDD so it could get lengthy uwu

I...probably don’t have to say this, but below the cut are spoilers for both games, mostly for DDD.

Starting off with Re:Coded, from my understanding, it’s the most hated game in the fandom, and I don’t really understand why? I guess I can understand the platforming being an issue, but I really liked everything else about it. The gameplay was ever-changing, making the worlds unique, even though you visited them all before in literally every other Kingdom Hearts game, the story was a little plot-break, but not to the point where it was completely useless to us, and, uh, hello??? My son(s) have a bigger role than shops??? Always a fan of that. I love my blue baby duck son uvu. 

But seriously, I love how the story of this game isn’t completely required to the overarching plot of the series. What I mean is: in any LoZ game, you can just pick it up and play it, and you won’t be lost as to what’s going on. Kingdom Hearts might actually cause your brain to explode if you tried to do that. Except maybe Re:Coded. You can either pick up Re:Coded and play it without even touching the other games, or you can just not play it at all, and you won’t be missing much. The most important development in the story is what leads into BBS (I assume at least), and when Maleficent talks about the Book of Prophecies. Not to say that Kingdom Hearts’ method of overarching storytelling is wrong or bad, but as someone who wanted to play the game when it first came out, it can be frustrating to have to catch up now, nearly 15 years later. Ultimately, I really just like the plot of this game in general as well, but that may be just because it reminds me of this show that used to be my hyper fixation as a kid: Code Lyoko.

Basically, I think Re:Coded is shat on more than it deserves to be, and it’s a good game that anyone can play, be they a hardcore KH player, or a casual gamer. 

Now for KH:3D DDD

Okay, I’m going to get the negatives out of the way first, as per usual, because there are some things that seriously bother me, but don’t worry. Once I’m done shitting on the game, I’ll clean it up, I think I have more positives than negatives. 

Truthfully, most of the negatives are from me personally. You see, the 3DS is my favorite system I think. Probably because much like Scrooge’s No. 1 Dime, the 3DS was the first major purchase I ever made on my own, earning money from my own job. I got my 3DS in 2013 with a little game called Kid Icarus: Uprising.

This is an image that is produced by this game. I know damn well what this baby is capable of. Kid Icarus Uprising was released on March 22nd (23rd outside of Japan) 2012. Kingdom Hearts 3D was released March 29th, 2012. So very similar release dates. You’d expect that the same company that made this possible on the DS 

Would produce the same kind of quality that KI:U would have on the *3DS.* Right? Right? In the opening cutscene, we get some amazing looking clips like this

So the gameplay must look awesome, right?

Look how awful it looks!!! It looks so terrible!! Terrible in comparison to how it should look!! Like I said, I know what my baby can do, and it can produce some amazing quality!! Look at the difference between the basic gameplay of KI:U

And then a serious cutscene on KH:DDD

It looks like DDD was planned and programmed for the DS, but then moved to the 3DS at the last second!! Seriously?? Pokemon X/Y looked better than this!!

It’s disappointing to say the least. Fortunately, there is an HD Remake that looks worlds better, but I still can’t help but feel disappointed in the low graphics quality. 

Sora is also way dumber than he should be, and I find it an odd choice that Riku became the Keyblade master over him, but not necessarily a bad one. 

And there’s one thing that demands an explanation. Well, two, technically, but I’ll settle for one of them. 

In the end, while Riku is still asleep, Sora, Donald, and Goofy are all having a tea party. Why. And why is Sora wearing this?

LITERALLY, WHY??? FUCKING WHY??? YOU CANT JUST NOT EXPLAIN THIS!!

Now that I’ve gotten all the negatives out of the way: THE SOUNDTRACK THE SOUNDTRACK THE SOUNDTRACK THE SOUNDTRACK!!!!! Oh my GOD, this soundtrack is amazing!! This is by far my favorite version of Traverse Town, and Traverse Town might just be my favorite hub area in Kingdom Hearts thus far. Traverse Town and The Grey Area. Traverse Town and Prankster’s Paradise both look super fun as well!! I also like the addition of Neku and the gang, and once I’m done with the KH series, I’ll be checking out The World Ends with You.

The addition of Flow Motion also makes the game look super fun, and all the worlds are different!! Something sorely lacking in most of the other KH games. I was really getting tired of hearing the same songs and going to the same worlds over and over and over again, especially in the case of the Colluseum, where you literally just...keep doing the same thing over and over and over again? Maybe that’s fun to play, but I’m at the disadvantage of watching. All the worlds I guess maybe with the exception of The Grid and Riku’s version of Prankster’s Paradise but shoosh are unique, new, and fresh! It’s so refreshing!! And the Country of the Musketeers???? And Fantasia’s world? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA MADRE DE DIJOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That was quite the surprise lol. Oh! And the travel method, where you drop between the worlds, looks super fun!!

LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I AM SO HAPPY FOR AXEL/LEA IM SO GLAD HES ALIVE AND WHOLE AGAIN!!!!!!!!! 

AND HE HAS A KEYBLADE??????????? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

SON SON SONS ONS!!!

Ultimately, there are only a few Kingdom Hearts titles that I can actually play. 358/2 Days, Re:Coded, and Dream Drop Distance. 

358/2 Days doesn’t look very fun, Re:Coded, although I do enjoy it, isn’t something I’d want to go out of my way to play, but I’d gladly take it if someone offered it to me as a gift, or even for a cheap price. Dream Drop Distance? I want it. 

I legitimately want to get Dream Drop Distance to play on my 3DS, it looks fun super fun, and ultimately, that’s an element in any video game that’s more important than story. 

Oh, and if you’re curious about my thoughts on the story of KH3D, I’m told that it’s super confusing, but like...I understand it? It’s something I’ll have to go back and rewatch to be able to explain it, and I really just don’t feel like doing that, but I understand it. I think. At the very least, I don’t see why everyone is saying it’s so confusing. I mean, the overall goal of the Organization beyond “let’s make 13 Ansems/Xehanorts” is a little blurred. Obviously, there’s some connection between that and the X-Blade, otherwise the naming scheme would be different. Lea became Axel, Sora became Roxas, Ansem became Xemnas, all the member’s names are anagrams of their previous names, with an X added. Makes me wonder what mine would be, considering there’s only one vowel in the name I usually go by. Going by my full name, it’d probably be Zaxibeth or something, and that sounds badass. 

I’m getting sidetracked. So far, DDD is probably one of my favorites in the series, but I have a feeling, based off the one screenshot I keep seeing floating around on Tumblr with Goofy, Sora, and Jack Sparrow, that III will change that.

~ Double Z))

[deltoras]

Rae-Today at 9:53 PM

So I just finished watching the Count of Monte Cristo anime

And like

I HAVE A FEW QUESTIONS FUNIMATION

Bladesong-Today at 9:53 PM

LOL

Rae-Today at 9:53 PM

Have you seen it?

Bladesong-Today at 9:53 PM

no I have not O:

Rae-Today at 9:54 PM

Do you plan on seeing it?

Bladesong-Today at 9:54 PM

talk to me about it O: I wanna know what's up

Rae-Today at 9:54 PM

Coo

Everyone's gay

Just a little bit

Some of them more than others

None of the girls though

THIS ANIME

PROUDLY FEATURES

MALE HOMOSEXUALITY

TRANSEXUAL

AND THAT'S PRETTY NEAT RIGHT

THE TRANS ISN'T USED AS A BUTT OF A TON OF JOKES SO THAT'S COOL

Anyways

So it's super good

Many plot twists

Fucking mind blowing

Bladesong-Today at 9:55 PM

sEE NOW YOU GOT ME INTERESTED

Rae-Today at 9:56 PM

QUESTIONABLE FEELINGS OF SHIPPING THE COUNT WITH ALBERT

WHOSE AGE WAS UNCERTAIN UNTIL THE LAST 4 EPISODES

AND WHEN WE FIND OUT HE'S 16 I'M LIKE "LOLNO"

Affairs out the ass

Like

Every single person has had an affair at least once

Albert's BFF is gay for him

SPOILER ALERT

I said that too late sorry

Anyways

So this banker doesn't like touching his wife more than once every decade

So he pays this politician who's an absolute womanizer to do it for him

And he's like "coo coo" so he does it lots

And the wife is coo with it because the guy is young and hot and a ginge

REPRESENT

anyways

And then eventually the ginger is like "Naw man I don't wanna fuck yo wife" and fucks off somewhere

Last scene he was in he was like

In a library

So I assumed he was there for the next 8 episodes

Oh but he poked his head out once for a wedding that didn't happen

AND OH BOY

LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT THAT WEDDING

So this guy gets hauled out of jail by the count to fuck up the banker's famiy

And he's all too willing to do that

And he does just that

By like

Fucking the wife

Just once though

Rae-Today at 10:00 PM

and like

their daughter was engaged (forcibly) to the general's son

(But then they fell in love anyways? So it was cool)

But then the general and banker aren't cool with each other anymore

And the banker starts to lose all of his money

Like

100% of it

All

Bladesong-Today at 10:01 PM

omg see this is some interesting shit and now I'm interested to watchu its ur fault lmfao

Rae-Today at 10:01 PM

And he hurriedly gets his daughter to marry the count's jail bird that fucked his wife (but he doesn't know any of that shit, he thinks he's an aristocrat)

I CAN RUIN IT FOR YOU SO YOU WON'T?

BECAUSE I AM JUST 2 STEPS AWAY FROM A MIND-BLOWING FACTALOID

Bladesong-Today at 10:01 PM

GIMME MORE

Rae-Today at 10:02 PM

Kay so the guy is gonna marry the banker's daughter (who isn't chill with that plan) and it's after the marriage is announced that the guy is like "I'M GONNA GO FUCK MY SOON TO BE MOM IN LAW"

And so he goes and like

Calls her mommy

LOL

And she's like "Call me Candice" or whatever her name is

And he's like "Uh *boobgrab*” and then it fades out

Bladesong-Today at 10:03 PM

JKYGKJHKJNKJN

Rae-Today at 10:03 PM

SO WEDDING DAY YAY

AND THE GENERAL'S SON IS LIKE "NO I LOVE HER" AND DRESSES UP IN A MAID OUTFIT AND RUNS AWAY WITH HER

Bladesong-Today at 10:03 PM

LMFAO

Rae-Today at 10:03 PM

And then buttfuck mcgee gets arrested because

He frauded on a ton of shit

And was a larson

And murdered

LOL

So come trial time

BUT WAIT IT'S NOT HIS TRIAL

IT'S THE TRIAL OF A VERY WELL-RESPECTED PROSECUTOR

HE'S BEING TRIED FOR TRYING TO MURDER HIS WIFE AND KILLING HIS SERVANT

Which he totally didn't do but he's getting dinged for it

And he's playing it cool, being his own advocate like a badass

And then As a character witness

They bring it buttfuck mcgee

And he's like "MY CHILDHOOD WAS AWFUL"And the prostitutor guy is like "so?" and buttfuck says "YOU MY DADDY! YOU HAD AN AFFAIR WITH THE BANKER'S WIFE AND SHE GAVE BIRTH TO ME AND THEN YOU PUT ME IN A COFFIN AND BURIED ME ALIVE"

AND THE BANKER'S WIFE IS THERE ALL SCANDELOUS

AND SHE'S ABOUT TO SAY SOMETHING BUT THE GUY GIVES HER A LOOK AND SUDDENLY SHE REMEMBERS HE WAS BALLS DEEP IN HER PUSS THE OTHER NIGHT SO SHE CLAMS UP

Bladesong-Today at 10:06 PM

ODJDDKJKJ

Rae-Today at 10:07 PM

And then the prostitot and the insest boy have like

A heart to heart

And they hug it out

And then insestuous stabs prosticute

with a needle from his hair

That's poisoned

Bladesong-Today at 10:08 PM

wHOA

Rae-Today at 10:08 PM

So anyways

Fast forward 2 episodes

General's son and the count are like

Battling morals (heads up, son is losing)

He's trying to convince the count to give up his revenge spree (although he's SO LATE LMFAO JUST SO LATE EVERYONE ELSE IS SCREWED EXCEPT HIM)

And the count is like "Nah dawg I'm not the count anymore I'm this demon that has been heavily referenced throughout the entire show but now I'm fully manifested inside him."

And the general's son is like "I KNOW WHAT YOU REALLY WANT" and like

Hugs it out

But then he goes "Sike Imma kiss you" and kisses him

And the count is just

Bladesong-Today at 10:10 PM

HBJHFFD

Rae-Today at 10:11 PM

So repulsed by the pedophilia moment

that he starts to fucking die

Bladesong-Today at 10:11 PM

UHUIHUYYTRDED

Rae-Today at 10:11 PM

AND AS HE'S DYING

HE'S LIKE "COURTNEY! COURTNEY GET ME MY SWORD! I'M GONNA STAB HIM. HE GOTTA DIE"

and the general's son is like "I PROMISEI'LL LIVE ON

AND BE STRONG

AND I'LL HONOUR YOU

BECAUSE YOU'RE MY BFF"

Meanwhile, homedawg who was totally gay for the general's son FUCKING DIED FOR HIM BY DUELLING THE COUNT IN HIS PLACE BECAUSE HE KNEW THE COUNT WAS GONNA KILL HOME SLICE BUT HE WAS LIKE "I CAN'T LIVE LIFE WITHOUT YOU SO I'D RATHER DIE FOR YOU" AND HE NEVER EVEN GOT AN ACTUAL HUG EVER

THEN THIS ASSHOLE

GOES AND KISSES DEMON FACE

AND KILLS HIM

Bladesong-Today at 10:13 PM

UGTFYCRDR

Rae-Today at 10:13 PM

But yeah that's about it

Oh yeah

There's a scene where the count whispers shit in this one lady's ear after talking to her about poison flowers

And then the next scene is her fucking finger banging herself to thoughts of it

And then

The count gives this guy like

Bladesong-Today at 10:14 PM

FINGJSND

Rae-Today at 10:14 PM

29837429849872349872934 dollars of gold

in a spaceship

Bladesong-Today at 10:15 PM

A SPACESHIP

Rae-Today at 10:15 PM

and as he's floating away in space because he can't pilot ithe gets naked

and rolls in the gold

Bladesong-Today at 10:15 PM

what the FUCK

Rae-Today at 10:15 PM

LO

LGuy straight up is grinding the gold bars between his legs too as he's kissing some other ones and I'm like "okay guy"

I mean

Same

But just

Priorities, man

Bladesong-Today at 10:16 PM

IS HE SCROOGE MCDUCK

Rae-Today at 10:16 PM

Probs

He's a ginger too but I like to think he dyes his hair

But yeah 10/10 would watch again