#i know most iterations focus on the two of them but god damn i love their relationship every single time

[lesbianturtle]

i just found this scene very sweet

[xxe123spiderfreakxx]

FOR THREE. LETS GOOOOOOOOOOO

SHADOW AND ROUGE ARENT BESTIES ARE U FUCKIN KIDDIN ME (like he looked at her when she was frozen in time and he had like barely a reaction and my heart hurt UNGH)

that being said i do live rouge's voice and seeing her get to play in the space with all the characters and act like a pal that still does crime obvs but isnt always this sexy kitten but is still flirty and hyper femme! <333

and i love rusty rose and thorn so much ;-; i think black rose has yet to super interest me but that would make sense that it's hard to keep up the anty for every iteration of the main group.

That being said, I wish we had an evil/deeply gray Rouge or Big iteration like with Nine, Rusty and Dread (tho Dread is kind of wasted potential /:). I liked that Prim was more about her survival at first and turned her back on Thorn and Sonic, but obvs time constraints.

Again I'm mainly cranky that a lot of the screen time this season was a bombardment of the Eggman family like I'm sorry...those are characters that work in short burts pls let the furries get more time I'm begging.

The stuff happening between Sonic vs. the alternates of everyone, Sonic vs. Shadow and Sonic vs. Nine specifically is so interesting and messy and I don't know why that took a backseat, ESPECIALLY SHADOW ALMOST ENTIRELY, for most of the season.

Like like like is this eggman prime or...? also as funny as that giant eggman at the end was, it was still like, in the moment for me, so irrevelant to the drama happening with Sonic and Nine that i was like laughing nervously?

like i wasn't super hyped or invested in that moment until sonic went into prime!sonic or whatever his new super form is with the purple eyes. like i was like oh there's really a big eggman right there huh?

hm.

like ik marketing will never leave eggman out but god damn it should sometimes. and I love eggman but im realizing how much he takes away when there's promising seeds and ideas happening that get shortened, cut or strangled by having to insert him in all the time.

Like the season ending so well is the build up to Sonic and Nine's relationship going up in flames and much more dramatic than Sonic fighting more Eggman robots. Like I'm sorry, he functions best as secondary to the mobians and his screen time really should reflect that.

Like, are u really throwing visual stimuli on screen for the old sonic folks and the baby ones and some quick cheap jokes about boomers and white liberal millenials? cuz why else is that fam eating up so much time??

also when sonic did this so quick and ran i nearly pissed and shitted myself laughing that cut was righteous.

like grr!! there were good jokes and moments this season- if they focus on the stronger parts of season 2 for season 3 (and take as long as u want if it means it'll be good pls god fucking pay writers and artists well or i will literally wolf out and eat u alive) it'll be a kick ass season!

and ik it's probs treats for the sonadow fans and not a promise of a follow through on it but wow they were so fruity with each other this season i got embarrassed for them like ????? u guys are really acting like this and not thinking anyone knows what u are??? GAH

it almost tricked me for a second that something more could happen. but if shadow continues the amount of screen time he's had the last two seasons in the next season(s) then sonadow is the least of my concerns. probs wont be much of shadow at all, and that fucking sux cuz he's so cool in this show.

for the popularity of shadow in the fandom u would never know given the superficiality of his involvement in projects since his game flopped.

like prime and the sonic 3 movie gave me hope that would turn around but I'm like uh oh are they wiggling shadow at the doorway to get us in and shafting us once they got our cash? ugh.

being cynical sux but never again. voltron was my 9/11 fjxjjxxjdhdhhdhsj

my thoughts (screenshotted from my tags on other posts djdndj) on season 2 of sonic prime bc i didn't realize how many thoughts i was having until i saw posts and im losing it

(spoilers under cut off)

[belliesandburps]

Followup with MGS4 Peace Walker and 5?

History has a funny way of repeating itself. :P

This one's actually gonna be long, so I'll cap it here to spare those uninterested in non-kink posts the burden of having to scroll past this fanboy rant. 'XD

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

3. It's Okay

Soooooo...not a controversial opinion to say that I don't think MGS4 is GREAT. I adored it when it first game out, and I still enjoy replaying it from time to time. But good lord, so many of the interviews shed light on a LOT of this games problems.

Some backstory is required. Hideo Kojima was done with MGS by this point. He planned to move on and leave the series to the younger generation. But then, there was a lot of internal conflict and struggle to determine what MGS4 should be after Fukushima quit (AND was rumored to have been murdered by the Yakuza...how that rumor started...and became a SERIOUS rumor that millions believe, I do not know...). So Kojima came back, course corrected, and the end result was kind of a giant mess.

I'm not talking story because, there's just way too much to unpack. But as a game, MGS4 can't decide what sort of video game it wants to be. It had a brilliant idea that had never been done before with its Battlefield Stealth, which were the best parts of the game. And then they get dropped two acts in, and what gets replaced in their stead is not nearly as fun.

The game had substantially less boss fights than its predecessor, and a lot of them were mechanically simplistic or just didn't let you get creative with how you fought them. And we later learned there were a lot more bosses planned, more gameplay sequences planned, and an entire other PMC group that got canned in favor of the Scarabs so Shadow Moses could be guarded by machines instead.

There's a lot about MGS4 that I love. I think the first two acts are amazing, ESPECIALLY Act 2. I think the mechanics are great. REX vs RAY is criminally fun. The sheer buffet of insane weapons gives the game a good amount of replay value. And the graphics still hold up to this day!

But what I finally realized is that the game juggles way too many ideas and doesn't give any idea the time they deserve to flourish. Battlefield Stealth could've CARRIED MGS4. But it gets dumped before we can get our moneys worth. A disguise sequence could've been really creative, having to juggle different identities with OctoMask every time one identity is burned. But it's only used once and wasted because it's only used for a terrible tailing mission that doesn't let you actually explore the European City. And too many of the action set pieces are kind of bland except the bosses and piloting Metal Gear.

MGS4 should've been MGS4. Not MGS's "Best Hits."

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

1. LOVED it!

I know this is unpopular to say, but I'll say it. Peace Walker is one of the best Metal Gear games ever made. I adored almost everything about it. The gameplay improves on MGS4 in most ways because it doesn't juggle a billion ideas all at once. It's MGS4 stripped down to stealth action from start to finish, and that's all I wanted. The level design is great. The insane volume of guns changes the entire feel of combat in later post-campaign gameplay. The mission select options mean you can jump into all the parts of the game you enjoy the most. There's TONS of bonus missions that are really inventive and fun to replay. And the story is one of the best in the series. It's straight forward, very tight, characterized well, and is the best iteration of Big Boss to date.

Peace Walker's also the FUNNIEST MGS game by Kojima as well. There's so much more personality and levity to everything, to the point where Big Boss often feels like an MCU character. That might sound bad, but it's really not. That corniness fits MGS PERFECTLY, and I'd argue is tonally spot on for this series. MGS doesn't need to be dark, gory or explicit. It's a silly series that's about giant robots, corny bad ass super agents with an anti-nuke message.

The only downsides to Peace Walker are the QTE's and the boss fights. This was a feature that only ever appeared in this game and for good reason...it was fucking terrible. So basically, you had cutscenes that forced you to do various QTE's or else get dinged on your ratings at the end, even if you played perfectly. Fairly minimal, but then, you get to Strangelove's torture. And this is the single most rage-inducing part of any MGS game ever made. It's an insanely physically painful button mashing sequence that will leave your fingers raw and your PS3 triangle buttons jamming. And the ONLY way you can replay one of the best missions in the game (the prison escape where you have no items) is by redoing that sequence over and over. And the boss fights? While inventive, they're all just grindy bullet sponges with no personality, no stealth tactics, and no room for creativity the way you can get creative with every other MGS game's bosses. This was the biggest disappointment for me because the stealth and combat mechanics of PW are great and would've been SO good against human enemies like what Portable Ops had. Instead, every boss is a mini-Metal Gear all voiced by the VOCALOID AI from the mid 2000's, and each one takes forever to destroy. It sucks because PW had a TON of bosses, but only a few of them are any fun, and that's only if you have weapons that are strong enough that they don't take ages to destroy.

But asides from the bosses, the REST of the game is so damn good that I don't even care because that's just one element to a much larger, grander game. Which is even more impressive when you consider PW was originally on the PSP before the PS3 port. And this game has more content and replay value to it than most games I've played since.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

1. LOVED it!

Hooooooookay...so, I've rambled about my storybook romance with MGSV for YEARS now. (Just ask @twistedtummies2, he's been subjected to my fanboying of this game more than anyone in existence XD) But there's a reason I regard this game as one of my all time favorites and the best MGS game to date.

It's REALLY freakin' fun.

Kojima had been re-energized by the time he got to MGSV. He'd been working on the game around the time he finished Peace Walker in 2010. He KNEW it was his final MGS game and wanted to do something completely different...

...He wanted to make a game where the central focus was on...waaaaait for it...the gameplay...

MGSV was designed to be, what he described, as a toybox. You have these missions that all take place in structurally unique outposts like any level in MGS. And the missions are designed with the structure needed so that they all feel different, but all remain so open ended that you can play them countless different ways.

MGSV's game model is everything GTA SHOULD'VE been. It fully embraces the open world freedom and incorporates that into the missions flawlessly. And it plays in such a way that stealth and combat both feel like they were the primary point. In MGS, combat is usually a last resort. But with MGSV, you can fly into an outpost blasting away on your helicopters mini-gun, shoot up the bad guys, rescue your target, throw them back into the chopper and fly away while "The Final Countdown" blares on your choppers loud speakers.

Every method of gameplay is valid and the controls, the enemy AI responsiveness, it's all, bar none, the best I've experienced in ANY video game. Sneaking around feels tight and tense and combat makes you feel like Jack Bauer on adrenaline. (I mean, he IS the voice of Venom Snake)

And I really like the story for the most part too. Its weaknesses are really glaring. Namely, the "Fun" of MGS is completely devoid in the story (which is really odd since it's FRONT AND CENTER in-game). Venom Snake only has maybe six minutes of dialogue in the entirety of this 30+ hour long game. And the way Skull Face gets completely undercut right at the home stretch is something I have NOT stopped bitching about for almost six years, and my friends can personally attest to that.

That and the ending feels too abrupt.

We know that Kojima got fired by Konami's VP and said VP scorched the entire production company after that and made a series of dickheaded decisions that pissed off a LOT of fans, burning much of the good will Konami IP fans had towards the company. But that had nothing to do with MGSV's abruptness. That was the plan from the start because only Kojima would think to end the entire series on a plot twist like that.

And I think the issue isn't the twist at all. In fact, I LOVE the twist. The issue is that the game should've continued beyond it so Venom Snake could cope with the truth and realize how badly he'd been screwed. I think even people who hated the twist could've been won over if there was a little more to the games epilogue than Episode 46.

Also, the games boss fights were a tad underwhelming. Not the fights themselves, I LOVED all five of the games bosses.

Oh? There were twelve?

No. I meant what I said. Because so many of the games bosses are rematches against the same bosses. All MGSV has is the Skulls, Quiet, Eli, The Man on Fire, and Metal Gear. They're great bosses that do everything the best MGS bosses always did; give you tons of options, incorporate combat AND stealth, have varied attacks AND even have multiple methods to sneak around the boss and avoid the fight completely. But for a game as long as MGS, you need more variety. And frankly, the bosses NEED more personality. Skull Face should've had more XOF assassins acting as the bosses in the game along with the ones we have. Elite assassins like Quiet, with their own powers and specialized weaponry so the fights feel completely different from the ones we have. And oh yeah, SKULL FACE HIMSELF SHOULD'VE HAD A GOD-FUCKING-DAMN BOSS FIGHT!!!!

Buuuuuuut those issues don't even matter if for all the games issues, I still replay it frequently when it's almost six years old.

So yeah! There's the massive rant you totally didn't ask for! :D

[derekscorner]

Between KH2 and KH3, which game did you like more, both story and gameplay-wise?

Ah is this that KH2 vs 3 debate I hear is ongoing? Well if you’re in for a sit I can answer that.

Gameplay:

From this angle I quite bluntly find KH2 Final Mix more fun. I’m not going to argue what was arguably better or worse, gameplay preference is a matter of…well preference no matter how many wish to deny this fact.

Not that you do but I”m sure some lover or hater of one will see this and try to retort. o3ob

Anyway; I felt Kh2 final mix was more technical and “harder” if I had to describe the feeling. Like 3 KH2 is normally overly easy but when put on critical mode it’s technicalities shine.I had to learn tactics, I couldn’t spam X or △, and I learned uses for summons. Which I found ironic since the 2 summons are far more useful when you dont initiate their moves.

Like if I let Stitch wander the screen he’ll deflect projectiles and keep my MP full. Chicken Little is a great early Magnet substitute and Peter Pan+Tinker Bell gives you a Phoenix Down.This was an improvement to KH1 in which only Tinker Bell was a spell with decent combat use. 1′s other summons had more supplemental uses imo.

KH3′s summons were nearly win buttons I felt. Simba in particular, while damn spectacle, felt broken. I never bothered to learn them as I didn’t need them. Which I’m sure they have their own uses but I’m not really fond of many control schemes for them so I opt out of it.

In terms of the magic system I felt 2 and 3 were opposites. In KH3 magic is far too powerful, something many have noted. And while you dont ‘have’ to use it that’s not an excuse for a problem. You should choose not to use it not force yourself to ignore it for challenge.

KH2 on the opposite spectrum made magic nearly useless I felt. Many enemies didn’t stun nor have elemental damage. Fire’s AOE animation was good for early Critical game and Blizzard helps that first Hollow Bastion visit but many enemies shrug the base spells off later.In contrast, KH2′s Magnet and Thunder spells can be OP. Reflect in of itself is practically the only spell you’d ever need to use due to it’s nature.

So while many have long rants on either’s magic system I dont really think one trumps the other. each one is equally flawed with issues I dont see ever being addressed.

In terms of keyblade combat I preferred KH2′s because I felt like Sora was automated in 3. I spam X cause I’m a scrub at timing presses (DMC5 is helping me overcome that) and due to this I noticed real quick that Sora’s combos just felt really automated.

Like I’d press X for one hit and get three. In contrast, KH2′s combat is harder. Sora animates combos as fast as my lazy ass can spam X and I’m not floating around like a final fantasy god.

I’m not really sure how to put this feeling into words but I do feel Kh2 keyblades are funner or snappier to combo whereas in KH3 I’m playing a watered down FFXV with it’s hold/press X for combo string.

Both games are so similar outside this issue that I dont see no reason to list likes or dislikes. If anything, from here, KH3 had great quality of life changes. The menu system was easier on the eyes and I’d be a damned soul if I didn’t admit I like switching keyblades mid-combat.

I also really appreciate KH3 finally using Re:Coded’s keyblade ideas. It’s been there since that DS game yet no one every expanded on making keyblades unique since. It was a very foolish step backward to me.

I love that keyblades level up, I love that each one has a preference and the only way that could’ve been better is if they adapted Coded’s system entirely and gave each keyblade (or most) it’s own unique combo.

KH2 quite frankly just falls short in a hindsight perspective since keyblades were “stat sticks” and you only ever chose weaker ones for an ability. Which, back then, was a huge step up from KH1.

So KH3 wins in this area I also dont really hate on Kh2 for it since KH2 is a product of the era. This idea of keyblades growing with you didn’t happen till Re:Coded.

As for Shotlocks…I dont like them. I hated them in BBS and I hate them here. It’s not even a comparison to KH2 type of opinion. I hate Shotlocks, I never use shotlocks so I’m going to skip those.

I mean sure, KH2 had limits but the only limits I use are Knocksmash so I can’t exactly praise KH2′s half of that either.

And when it comes to Forms vs Transformations I think both have pros and cons the other lacks. For example, some Transformations are really cool, I love the hammer weapons or the dual pistols.

I also believe the staff transformation is what KH2′s wisdom form should’ve been in terms of how it does magic or basic attacks.

That said, I also really dislike many second forms keyblades have. I never evolve the pistols into the bazooka, I never turn the hammer into the drill, I have those second forms. It’s to the extent I prefer keyblades that have one form such as the staff.

I’m also not fond of the Kingdom Key’s 2nd form change. It’s a neat throwback and I love the outfit recolor but I dont find it fun to use.

Between the two games my favorite forms are Valor Form, Anti-Form, and the Staff Transformation. Odds are I wont use anything else unless I feel particularly bored.

I might use others more often if KH3 forced me to rely on them for tactics but as of right now it does not. This may change with 3 gets it’s Critical Mode DLC. Similar to how KH2FM forced me to rely on forms I hate like Wisdom or Final.

As a concept I will admit that I dislike transformations. I dont like the idea of keyblades becoming magical swiss army knives. KH3 pulled the idea off better than I expected but I dont like it all the same.

The only, and I mean only, thing I felt KH2 did better was tie forms to a meter. In KH3 the commands appear randomly (and often) and I dont gain consequences for using them.

In KH2 this was tied to your Drive Gauge. You had to plan what you used and this is an issue I felt KH3 had as a whole. Rather than shotlocks, I’d have preferred that Focus Gauge to be reserved for my summons and forms so that I could have better control of what I picked and to reduce how broken they are in-game.

The rest is miscellaneous opinions so I’ll rapid fire:

Gummi Ships: always hated them, BBS did Gummi Ships best. Point goes to KH3 here since I can at least skip most of it.

Minigames: I’ve never found a KH minigame fun. No one wins here

Worlds: KH3 wins this aspect too. World towns have actual people in them and when it uses original plots the worlds are quite good. I also appreciate the power to explore and soft platform again. It gives me a more immersive feeling than later titles ever have. (although I feel KH1 was still better than both here)(entirely because of how many small details/cameos/secrets a KH1 world had compared to sequels)

I dont really have a more technical opinion than that. I do however think Arendelle was a horrendous world and I hate to even be there. For a myriad of reasons….reasons that would be a rant post of it’s own.

Lil Chef: I never use the food. I dont care if it’s a good spot for ingredients. If I want to cook stuff I’ll do some irl or play FFXV.

Enemies: KH3 used nobodies more than KH2 did and I find that a damn crying shame. I also felt Unversed were underutilized. KH2 still takes the point here due to the combat points I mentioned above.

KH3 fodder is prettier and can be more elaborate but KH2 is funner to play and destroy them in so KH2.

The Disney Rides: I don’t use them, they break the game. I do like the choo choo though since it’s situational to specific battles. KH2 has nothing akin to these so there’s no comparison, I just wish the rides could be disabled or that they worked more like the train. (set to key fights)

KH2 vs KH3 Commands: Eh both aren’t that good. KH3 spams you commands to shift through and KH2 has so many for spectacles sake that the games get easy. There is no winner here, if anything KH2 should’ve restricted these like KH3 restricts the Train ride summon.

Final Fantasy: I dont like FF games but I consider the ones of Kh1 part of the main cast. Their alternate KH selves are important to me. The lack and fading of FF over the years is quite honestly something I dislike and 3′s total lack of them is inexcusable to me. KH2 takes this point since I got to at least meet Leon and crew again.

Then there’s the story.

Anyone that’s followed the blog or met me knows I strongly dislike the direction of KH’s story. It’s not a matter of things others debate, I do not like it. I hate it and I’m still teetering on quitting.

I wont even go into the points cause I’ve made a whole series of posts about my story gripes. I wont link them since this isn’t a shameless plug, I just want to iterate that my issues with the story has driven me to make 20+ tangents plus the older more angry rants.

Others liking it is fine I think, I get easily annoyed if someone tries to excuse something out of nostalgia or adoration, but generally anyone that likes it while admitting faults or agreeing to disagree is fine. (you do you folks)

If I had to rank them I feel KH2 is where a lot of issues started and I feel a lot of issues got worse after since the sequels tried to “fix” that mess. If left alone KH2 would’ve been a poorly written entry and a good stopping point for any disillusioned fan.

KH3 as a contrast tied up everything after 2 up til 3 itself. I do not consider the story good, the pacing is very jarring because it lacks a mid point, it’s weighed down by all the BS prior to it.

I do not feel attachment for the “trios” of the series, I find the repetition of them annoying. I find it a shame most have more dev time than the originals they’re cloned based on.

And I frankly dislike Xehanort as a villain. He’s not interesting, his motives seem to switch with several report entries and I dont eve get the satisfaction of ending him like I did Xemnas or Ansem.

I was entirely indifferent to the entirety of this game’s narrative as I played it. Something that worried my friend @blackosprey because I was so tired I could not even care enough to hate it.

I did fine the trios reunions well done. I dislike them for a list of reasons but they were coming back anyway, their fates sucked prior, so those were well done. I finally felt hype when the LW appeared (only to vanish, fuck you nomura) and in the final battle.

The ending was confusing to me. So many got a happy ending so I fail to see the logic of Sora vanishing. The Luxu reveal, which I found fucking hilarious, was the only sequel bait needed.To have Sora just up and die felt like a stupid decision and I’m sure many more found it insulting.

And when mentioning Luxu I dont mean it in a sarcastic fashion. I genuinely find him funnier in retrospect due to this retroactive change. Nearly every line or scene he’s said is now funny as hell because he’s this ancient troll. I consider it the first legitimately earned twist Nomura has made in ages.

Still, KH2′s writing and story isn’t great either. I could rant why, I have ranted why, but despite it’s flaws it was an “ending” to me.So if asked 2 or 3 I will pick 2. The writing in Kh2 is bad for lots of reasons but if I ignore the Ansem reports it’s no a story about Xehanort.

Ignoring one KH2 report let’s me live this simpler story of Sora and a scientist gone mad and the journey to stop him. It had a lot of stupid things or one of the worst “twists for twists sake” moments ever in the ‘two ansems’ reveal.

But still, I can play Kh2 and be in a KHverse where Xehanorts, Keyblade Wars, Ceremonies, timelines, sleeping worlds, data world abuse, and clones upon clones dont exist.

It’s not nostalgia so much as everything I came to dislike was post KH2. KH3 was all about these things I dont like. My favorite for key and nostalgic reasons is KH1, my pick of the question is Kh2.

KH3′s best assets that can’t be contested was it’s graphical evolution. I played KH3 three times back to back due to this, I came away from KH3 wishing KH1 or 2 looked like this. No game prior contests the look.

So all in all, as I reread this, it’s largely a mixed bag. Neither game is grand but I prefer KH2 because combat is more fun to me and it’s not tied down by a narrative and mythology I’ve come to hate.

I can play KH1, CoM, and KH2 and never be annoyed about something I loved going in a direction I hated.

[keyofthetwilightsalt]

Salt: Honestly. After thinking of VLD as a whole. The series, the fandom, the staff and cast. I just feel like absolute shit in the end.

Like here I was, being hyperfixated on this show and the characters, and having a good time for a short while, but then everything went to shit. And as a shipper. A Sheith shipper to be exact. I had to witness and experience constant harassment, bullying, false accusation, death threats, Suicide baiting, cp, gore spam in the inboxes, and unfair callout posts that falsely accuses to both Sheith/Shaladin shipper and VLD staff alike of P//dophilia and incest in it. Also, having the Sheith tag be barren of anything for a while other than spam. The whole thing is just awful.

And going through that whole bs for three years? I obviously do feel like complete shit especially after getting the most awful ending to a series I’ve just wasted three years for. Like! Yeah. I ship Sheith. Whatever. I never even thought that ship would ever be canon, but seriously. Watching the interactions of those two in season 8 was just sad. Even though I know now the ship isn’t canon, it just feels like a waste to watch them interact for seven whole seasons just to see them drift apart. Like, why didn’t they tie their relationship properly? It’s the last season after all, so why make them treat each other like they’re strangers in the end?

If they want to make their relationship more brotherly, why not give them one last confirmation that they are important to each other instead of them ignoring each other for the rest of the season? That’s kind of insulting to be honest especially with the epilogue where Shiro got married to random dude #568097. Like, why isn’t Keith shown properly in Shiro’s wedding? Aren’t they close? Shouldn’t Keith be shown to us instead of be blocked by Shiro to show that he is the closest friend to Him that we get to see his face in Shiro’s wedding?

I thought they were friends. I guess the whole “they will now get even closer” was just a scrap idea and in the end they just became fellow associates after all that.

And how they treat Shiro in this. I hate it so fucking much. You know? After what they did with Shiro in this season. I want him to be a Paladin again. I hate how he’s put to the side and in the sidelines for the rest of the season. Why isn’t he in the frontlines? Why haven’t we see him use his arm again? It just felt like he has outlived his use as a character and that makes me really, really, really upset. Like. He is one of my favorite characters along with Keith and he’s put to the side like that. I’m upset about that. Especially when He should’ve been hanging out with Keith and the rest of the team.

Yeah. I’m so fucking salty about that.

And about Allura and Lance.

I was upset about that, too.

I honestly didn’t think Allura would die. So, when they decided to kill her off I was actually kind of mad. I don’t know. I just find that part out of no where. And I thought Lance and her could end up together instead. They did tease them from the very beginning, so, I thought it’d end well. Also, Allura’s other iterations of her didn’t die, so this caught me off guard. And that part where she gave into the darkness?! Like! Why?!

And what they did to Lotor?! I am fucking pissed! Thought they’re gonna do something with him, you know?! But, in the end, he really died and he just show up as a hallucination, then a flashback and then he ended up as a deformed corpse. Beautiful. You know? I had so much hope for his character! People say he was going to have a redemption arc like Zuko and yeah, I do love the idea. But, I also love to see what kind of Villain he’d be since his other version of himself is always a villain. Like, Loki for example. Or Azula. But no. He just died.

And Lance? I did like seeing him show his vulnerable self, but making him suffer like that is just awful. Especially with the epilogue making him be a farmer....? I thought he wanted to be a fighter pilot?! But, I guess that’s fine! Because we only always have to fill in the gaps we always get in the whole series.Like with Keith almost killing himself by crashing into a barrier and nobody knows about it! >_>

I’m just really pissed. Also. This whole fandom pisses me off. Like. Antis act like they are relevant when really. They’re just whiny peices of shit who thinks they’re in the right when really, they’re part of the fucking problem.

Then there’s shippers. Always fighting over which ship is canon or whatever the hell. But really, it doesn’t fucking matter. So, they’re also part of the problem.

Then there are people who accepts everything that is given to them and gets angry when the majority of people doesn’t like what they are given, because what is given to them is honest to god fucking crap.

And then there are people who gets angry for not getting canon ship confirmation and hiding said anger behind false morale. Like gay rights.

I’m looking at Klance by the way.

When season 7 happened, I’ve seen comments like:

“Hmmm, Maybe Shiro is going to show Lance his bisexuality, so that’s why they gave us Shiro’s Sexuality!”

“Dear staff, I believe you should make Klance canon, because they are the most plausible to be good rep.”

“How dear you kill Adam! He should have lived so Shiro and him can get married!”

So yeah. I am so sick of this whole fandom. And to be honest with you, The Sheith side with the saltiness being blocked is like heaven sometimes. But, when I see salt get seeped into the tags. I just seethe because of what is said.

I agree. The Sheith side isn’t innocent either. And they’ve definitely have become just as angry as the rest of the fandom is. But. At least it’s not completely awful.

Sure, I’m completely aware that it feels like we’re more biased towards Keith and I agree it’s biased and wish this fandom can focus on Shiro in the same way, but being as angry and as salty as I am right now in this post, it’s not helping.

And now. I’m going to rip on DreamWorks. Since season 7 happened. I feel like they delayed season 8 just to add in on a haphazardly made epilogue and some cuts in it. Since we were promised an open ending, what we got was obviously not an open ending. And it’s an ending that is just as, if not most unsatisfactory, most disappointing and incredibly anger inducing ending that is reminiscent of Naruto Shippudden.

God, I am still angry about that one. So, yeah. I do believe we were supposed to have a better version of season 8, but in the end, what we got is an awful version of the season that was delayed out of fear. And that pisses me off, because, as a student screenwriter, looking at all of this as a whole makes me angry.

So, from what I got from this is, screenwriters can’t write freely and had to fight to get the acceptance to write certain things. And so, the screenwriters are constantly uncertain if they’re allowed to write things in so, they had to put it to the side and try to write around what the higher ups want, but the screenwriters really do want to write in that idea so they had to fight tooth and nail to get the approval, but if they fail they have to scrap the idea.

But, then. Season 7 happened.

And now that the idea of Shiro being gay, the higher ups didn’t want to get chewed out again, so, they went and made Shiro marry some random guy and call it a day. Like, wow. That is the laziest thing I’ve ever seen. It’s not 2013 anymore. Sure, there are homophobes and all that, but still. Making LGBT people accept the scraps like they’ve always have is just sad. Especially in 2018- 2019 when it’s the intention of going after the Woke brownie points with the LGBT after the success of Bubbleine and Rupphire, too. All of it makes me so god damn angry.

Three Fucking Years of this shit. I want to be done. But I still love Sheith, so... until I find something better. I’m still here.

But I guess, I want this whole fandom to know this from me.

Fuck all of you.

[apocryphalfemme]

Veritas Revelata

A One-Shot for Pharmercy Week 2018.

You thought I had an AO3?  You guessed wrong darling.  So until I can post this there, enjoy my little contribution to Day Seven of Pharmercy week!  Read on below the cut.  Enjoy!  (I’d love any helpful feedback.)

“Instead, she opts to focus on the photo she has taped to the inside edge of her visor.  It’s a faded Polaroid of herself as a small smiling child, embraced by a much younger iteration of a particular Swiss Doctor.  The beaming smile on the young woman’s face brings warmth to Fareeha’s soul.  It’ll be easier to die remembering simpler times.  For some reason, as she closes her eyes, she thinks it’s appropriate her last thoughts should be of Dr. Angela Ziegler.”

Or

A brush with death forces Fareeha to realize just how important Angela is to her.

Her retrograde thrusters have failed.  She hurtles through the air far too quickly, wholly unable to slow down.  In front of her, the grotesque bulk of the gyrating Omnic tears across the skies of Siberia, moving to fly in the direction of St. Petersburg.  At the ludicrous speed at which it’s going, it’ll reach the city in just over 10 minutes.  Heaven knows what it’ll do when it gets there.  And she’s the only person left in the air, her strike team all either stuck on the ground, or knocked out of the sky.  Admittedly, the situation seems hopeless.  Impossible, even.  But when has Fareeha Amari ever let the impossible get in the way of getting the job done?  She’s damn well not going to let it stop her today.  

Violently, she twists in midair, and lets loose the main thrusters with everything she has left.  Screaming through open sky, bits of her damaged flight suit begin to peel off and fall to the Earth.  Her HUD flashes with a myriad of colorful warnings as she slams through the sound barrier and keeps on accelerating.  The poor Raptora was never meant to go this fast.  Nevertheless, she is rapidly catching up with the Omnic monstrosity, starting to gain on it as she angles through the troposphere.  Her HUD gives one final screeching protest before visuals die as she hits terminal velocity.  Doesn’t matter.  She doesn’t need visual pathing anymore anyways.  She’s on a direct collision course with the Omnic’s computational core now.  The crash is not going to be pleasant though.  She makes an effort not think about it as she gets closer.  Seemingly in spite of that effort, the Raptora system cheerfully chirps in her ear as she nears her enemy.

“Warning.  You are about to suffer terminal impact in 5 seconds.  Alter your course of action.”

“Yes, thank you, I had noticed,” Fareeha groans.

“In 4 seconds.”

She should do something about the user interface if she survives this.

“In 3 seconds.”

At the very least, she should make it less snarky.

“In 2 seconds.”

Maybe teach it a few puns?

“In 1 second.”

Perhaps Angela would help her with the reprogramming.

“Impact.”

The Omnic moves.  It’s only a few feet, but the damn thing drops in the sky and what should have been a direct collision becomes a desperate skitter across the machine’s surface.  Emergency air brakes deploy and are promptly snapped off by both speed and friction.  A wing and attached propulsion jet are torn from her back and spin into the void.  Fareeha scrabbles wildly for purchase, catching herself thanks only to her prosthetic arm, which claws into the Omnic to leave long gouges in the metal, revealing sparking circuits.  

Well shit.  

This wasn’t the plan.

Dangling from the face of the machine, Fareeha takes stock of the situation.  Her rocket launcher was lost in the botched impact.  Her other weapons systems are long gone.  And, most insultingly, the damn thing hasn’t even reacted to her presence, opting to instead continue through the air towards St. Petersburg.  Evidently, it doesn’t think her much of a threat.

“Big mistake you hunk of scrap,” she mutters.

Fareeha twists to reach the fuel canister on her back with her free hand and removes it.  Only 1/2 full.  While Raptora’s fuel is particularly potent so as to carry her weight, she fears it won’t be enough.  But it’s all she has.  After dragging herself up to the command module, she nestles the canister in the gouge she left with her prosthetic.  She takes the last explosive charge she has left, originally intended for her rocket launcher, and jury rigs it to blow in 30 seconds.  

Atop the Omnic, Fareeha breathes a small sigh of relief.  She did it.  But as the timer begins to tick down, she realizes she didn’t actually think about what she’d do if she made it this far.  Survival had kind of been pushed to the wayside as she‘d run out of options.  Damn it all though, she‘s not going to die with this accursed machine if she can help it!  So Fareeha does the next most sensible thing.  She jumps.  Falling, she begins to pick up speed as she hears the thing fly away from her position.  Hurtling through the sky once more, she stretches out to slow her descent before flipping in midair to watch the Omnic speed to its timely demise.

The explosion is magnificent.

Finally, Fareeha feels at ease.  Strange, considering she’s plummeting backwards through open sky.  To be fair, her thoughts are indeed a little scattered.  This is completely understandable, considering there’s a very real chance she’s about to die.  But despite this, Fareeha feels a bizarre sense of calm.  As she hears air whistle through the twisted metal of Raptora, she finds she has very little inclination to flip back around to meet the ground on its way up to meet her.  No.  She’ll be on the ground one way or the other soon enough, whether she wants to or not.  

Instead, she opts to focus on the photo she has taped to the inside edge of her visor.  It’s a faded Polaroid of herself as a small smiling child, embraced by a much younger iteration of a particular Swiss Doctor.  The beaming smile on the young woman’s face brings warmth to Fareeha’s soul.  It’ll be easier to die remembering simpler times.  For some reason, as she closes her eyes, she thinks it’s appropriate her last thoughts should be of Dr. Angela Ziegler.

...

When she was a child, Fareeha had had something of a puppy crush on Angela.  And just about all of the old Overwatch had known about it thanks to her mother Ana’s gentle teasing.  But Angela was a good sport.  She had always been more than happy to play when the younger Amari was visiting the base, even when the adolescent Doctor should’ve been working on filing reports and whatnot.  They’d had no end of silly fun together.  Fareeha still had several fond memories of adventures just the two of them.  But the universe had seen fit to intervene and cast the two down incredibly different paths.  With Fareeha’s enlistment, Ana’s death, the fall of Overwatch, and the vilification of those who survived, Angela and Fareeha were torn apart for a good many years.  And while juvenile notions of intimate affection may have faded with the passage of time, Angela nevertheless always stuck firmly in Fareeha’s thoughts, no matter where she was or what she was doing.

Several long years later, Fareeha received the fateful call.  She jumped at the opportunity to join the new Overwatch.  It had been a dream for most of her life.  It was the best reason she could think of to leave behind her life at Helix.  That being said, she would be lying if she said she hadn’t also thought fondly of the added possibility of reunification with the good Dr. Angela Ziegler, her dear friend from her youth.  So Fareeha left the deserts of Egypt behind and made for the warmth of Gibraltar.

When she stepped off the dropship however, Fareeha’s cheeks had flushed for reasons besides the Mediterranean heat.  Old glimmers thought long since forgotten promptly flared to sucker-punch her in the stomach as Angela shook her warmly by the hand.  The woman was breathtaking.  Disheveled, sleep deprived, overworked, overstressed, and more than a little irritable, but breathtaking.  Fareeha found there was a whole new reason she was glad to have joined Overwatch.

And as the months have trickled by, a beautiful friendship has blossomed between them.  As more and more faces both old and new join them, Fareeha and Angela have found themselves spending increasing amounts of time together.  Not just in administrative capacity, but in a personal capacity.  They’ve rather rapidly became both the best of friends and profound confidantes.  Through their time together, Fareeha has come to trust Angela implicitly.  Sometimes more than she trusts herself.

Of course, gentle teasing has also begun to take place.  Some things never change.  Usually, one of Lena or Genji will make a good-natured crack at just how much time the Doctor and the Captain spend in one another’s company.  Angela usually just sighs, and Fareeha shoots back slyly with some godawful pun at the perpetrator’s expense.  It’s all in good fun.  Everyone knows that, in truth, she and Angela are just…

Just…

What exactly?

It is a little unclear, even to Fareeha.

Certainly, she’d had a little crush when she was younger, but…  

They’re friends.  Nothing more.  Surely.

Right?

...

Fareeha’s a little surprised when her eyes open.  She hadn’t exactly expected her body would ever function again, to be honest.  She’s also a little annoyed at having awoken.  She was having the nicest dream about... Fareeha feels her cheeks flush the deepest shade of beetroot as she remembers her Ziegler-themed stupor.  

Embarrassed, she props herself up on her elbows.  Time to focus on the present.  Where is she?  By the looks of things, she appears to have crash landed in the middle of a forest.  Good god, how fast must she have been traveling to have left behind the tundra completely?  Better question, does her team know where she is?  She can only hope.  Either way, she owes her survival to the thick layer of trees above having broken her fall.  That being said, it seems to have broken a few other things as well.  Fareeha gives a quiet moan as she realizes that the Raptora suit is mangled.  The blue metal of the flight suit lies lacerated and crumpled around her.  Oh well.  It’s only a machine.  It can be rebuilt.  She, on the other hand, is not so easily reconstructed.  

Fareeha turns her attention to herself.  Spine?  Intact.  Still has feeling in her body.  That’s good.  Head?  Definitely concussed.  Still attached to her shoulders though.  That’s acceptable.  Body?  Amazingly, her left arm is fine.  Her prosthetic is… oh.  Mutilated.  Reduced to a lump of metal bolted to her arm.  Ugh.  Still replaceable at least.  Legs?  As Fareeha pushes herself further up on her remaining good arm, searing pain shoots into her body.  She gasps at the shear intensity of the feeling.  Her right leg is undoubtedly broken, but at least the bone hasn’t pierced the skin.  But her left leg is… Her left leg has disintegrated.  No better than a bloody, pulped jelly.  Damn it.  It’s doubtful even Angela could save it at this point.  

At the thought of Angela, Fareeha collapses defeatedly backwards onto the ground.  How long has she been unconscious for?  She’s not sure.  Any amount of time seems too long.  The Doctor must be sick with worry by now.  The last thing she wants is to make Angela worry on account of her own bravado.  It doesn’t help that Angela is certainly going to blame herself for the loss of the leg, even when she couldn’t have done anything about it.  The thought makes Fareeha ache.  And what if she were to die out here?  She dreads to imagine the guilt she’d inflict on all the members of Overwatch for her own rash actions.  But she worries about none more so than the Doctor.  This thought fixed in her mind, Fareeha steels herself.  She has to make it out of here.  For Angela’s sake.  

She scrabbles her helmet off with her good hand, then reaches inside to pluck her comms system and the Polaroid from the padded interior.  Tucking them into her waistband, she then sets about pulling herself from the wreckage.  How is she going to do this?  She can’t walk, that’s for sure.  But the metal of the flight suit is fairly loose around her.  Escape is quite possibly just within her reach.  Seems she’s only got the one course of action then.  She braces, then pushes off with her good hand, launching herself to the right and rolling.  She barely stifles a scream as her legs squish painfully underneath her in the process of pitching out of the blue scrap metal.  But she does it.  She escapes the impact site.  

Tumbling to a stop on hard frosted moss, Fareeha groans again.  This is not how she’d wanted to celebrate mission completion.  She had, in fact, harbored a shy hope that after the mission, she and Angela would have been able to… something.  Anything.  Honestly, any time spent with the Doctor seems, in Fareeha’s opinion, the best reward imaginable for a job well done.  Sheepishly she wonders if Angela feels the same way about spending time with Fareeha.  The idea that she might indeed feel similarly burns hotly in Fareeha’s soul.  It’s enough to propel the soldier onwards.  Grabbing some nearby branches, she uses her belt to rig a makeshift splint around her still salvageable but broken right leg.  No easy task with just the one hand.  With the aide of a large stick serving as an improvised crutch, and no small amount of colourful cursing, Fareeha finally stands.  She’s more than a little dizzy.  But she’s standing.  From her waistband she takes the Polaroid and stares at the little image for several long seconds.  

“I’m not dying out here,” she whispers softly.  “Not today.”

With grim resolve, Fareeha hobbles into the unknown, photo clenched in hand.

...

Their first mission alone together was, frankly, brutal.  Fareeha had been excited to share in the company of the good Doctor, or at least, watch Angela do what she does best.  But what should have been a simple case of humanitarian outreach had turned into an unabated shit-show with the arrival of a small cadre of Talon agents.  They just hadn’t been outfitted for that sort of engagement, as their team had consisted of a host of civilian doctors and Angela.  The only other Overwatch representative was Fareeha, who had been tasked with running guard duty.  And with Angela preoccupied with her medical responsibilities, she was the only one who was properly equipped for such combat.  

But between the two of them, Fareeha distracting enemy fire from the air while Angela shepherded the evacuation of the refugee camp, they had managed to help everyone escape without a single casualty.  Well.  No civilian casualties at least.  Because as Fareeha had roared low over the camp in Raptora, making one last pass for stragglers, some damnable Talon sniper had landed an unbelievably lucky shot.  The bullet absolutely shattered her right arm, and Fareeha only made it back to the waiting dropship by virtue of a Herculean effort and unfathomable amounts of adrenaline.  

When she crashed at the base of the loading ramp, Angela had known something was very wrong.  Whatever assistive synthetic muscles are in that Valkyrie suit are something else, because within seconds the smaller woman had sprinted to the impact site, slung Fareeha over her shoulder, and was hustling back through the craft’s doors to take Fareeha to the med bay, all while while ordering take-off.  Talk about Fast-Response.  Fareeha doesn’t wholly remember the details of that flight back to base.  Excruciating pain, elephantine doses of drugs, and countless hours in the air bleed together to create an unremembered haze.  The aftermath of the flight though, she will remember forever.  In any other scenario, with a full suite of medical equipment, Angela may have been able to save her arm.  But in a paltry dropship medbay, with all her supplies left abandoned at the refugee camp, Angela had been forced to amputate the arm to save Fareeha’s life.  

She awoke two days later in the small hours of the morning, head groggy, eyes fogged.  And while her stump - oh, that was a strange thought to have, her stump - certainly ached, what actually pulled her from her stupor was the disheveled mess of blonde hair seated to her left, the head held in trembling hands, the soft crying filling the sterile room.  A little unsure of herself, Fareeha had reached out with a shaky hand, and caught ahold of Angela’s shoulder.  The Doctor’s head had snapped up, and she split into the most relieved, tearful grin Fareeha has ever yet seen.  Abruptly, Angela threw her arms around the solider while apologizing profusely for not being able to save her arm.  At the time, words had failed Fareeha in her drug and pain fueled daze, and she could only stare dumbfounded into the worried blue eyes in front of her.  There had been much to process after that mission.  More strongly than anything else however, Fareeha remembers how right it felt to have Angela in her arms.

...

Night begins to descend on Siberia as Fareeha stumbles over the thick layer of frost in the murky half-haze of twilight.  She’s absolutely freezing.  How the hell can it have gotten so cold so quickly?  In her mind, the heat of Gibraltar tantalizes, a now distant memory.  Oh what she wouldn’t do to be back at the Watchpoint.  Out here unfortunately, all she has to keep her warm are the tattered remnants of the jumpsuit she wears to prevent chafing while piloting Raptora.  Certainly not useful for practically sub-Arctic conditions.

For the umpteenth time, she buzzes her comms.  She’s lost track of how many channels she’s flipped through during her agonizing trek, trying desperately to let someone, anyone know where she is.  All she’s heard is static.  No responses, no search team, no random signals even.  Just… nothing.  They haven’t given up on her, have they?  It’s a smoldering, painful little thought.  Again, Fareeha wonders how long she was unconscious for.  It couldn’t have been long enough for a rescue attempt to have been called off.  They wouldn’t do that.

Angela wouldn’t let them.

Not for the first time that day, thoughts of Angela make Fareeha’s heart promptly spark.  Why is it that every time she thinks of the long-suffering Doctor, her spirit soars?  Even simply picturing the woman in her mind, Angela brings Fareeha joy.  She grins at memories of Angela asleep at her desk.  Remembers and relishes the many long, thoughtful conversations, that more often than not last late into the night.  Melts at the sound of her laugh.  Turns pink in remembrance of the way her collarbone softly curves beneath her customary turtleneck, sloping down to undoubtedly softer breasts.  The way that Angela…  

The realization hits Fareeha like a freight train.  

Of course.  Of course she has feelings for Angela.  Of course she has feelings for her best friend.  For the person she trusts most in this world.  For the only person with whom Fareeha has ever felt like she can truly, truly, be at peace.  Suddenly, Fareeha feels like she could lift off the ground by virtue of sheer happiness.  Who needs Raptora?  She’s flying on elation, she…

Hang on.  What is that?  Is that a break in the trees?  It is.  Has she found a road?  Better yet, found civilization?  Rallying joyously, Fareeha presses forwards, advancing toward the lazy shafts of light slanting through the pines.  She can do it.  She’s going to do it.  She’s going to make it.  She’ll be able to tell Angela in person how she…

Oh.  

Shit.

As she breaks the tree-line, the Siberian tundra suddenly stretches endlessly into the distance afore her.  Enormous, long rolling stretches of frozen nothing.  She’s managed to walk f**k knows how many kilometers on ruined legs back the way she from whence she crashed.  Back to the most godforsaken place on Earth.  There’s no way they’re going to find her.  Woozy from blood loss, Fareeha collapses despondently against a tree before sliding to the ground.  Damn it.  Damn it!  Got her hopes up for nothing.  She really thought she had a chance for a second there.  Her mind begins to fog.  She shouldn’t have pushed herself so hard to walk.  Wretchedly, she stares down at the Polaroid in her trembling hand.  

“Sorry Angela,” she mutters.  “Don’t think I’m going to make it after all.”  

The photo slips from her fingers as Fareeha slips into unconsciousness.

...

People are always surprised when they learn Satya plays the violin.  Though the architech may not initially strike people as having the sort of time necessary to devote to the mastery of a musical instrument — considering the fervor with which she pursues her work — it turns out she is in fact quite the virtuoso.  She plays to relax, to ease the strain from her mind, often playing long into the night after rough days.  There had been one particularly such rough day last month, full of political drama and ethical argumentation.  The legality and the future of the new Overwatch and all that.  The unending meetings had left the members of the team terribly ragged.  That night, quite a few of their number opted to get absolutely shit-faced.  Nothing builds camaraderie like group inebriation.  That being said, Angela and Fareeha decided it wouldn’t be appropriate for them to engage in such behaviour considering one was Chief Medical Officer, the other a Captain.  

So together, the two had escaped outside into the warm night air of Gibraltar.  Leaning against the railing, they had talked.  Just… talked.  Made bad jokes.  Traded witty repartee.  Gently flirted.  It was wonderful.  Then, they were unexpectedly interrupted by the dulcet tones of Satya’s violin.  Another soul who had had forgone the temptation of drink that night, the music she’d begun to make was filtering outside and onto the balcony.  The moment was simply too perfect.  Pushing off the railing, Fareeha gave Angela a rakish grin and extended a hand in invitation.  

“Care to dance, Doctor?”

Angela flushed a deep shade of crimson at the offer, a fact that still gives Fareeha pleasure.  But with no small amount of enthusiasm, she indeed took Fareeha’s hand.  As the strings of Satya’s violin sang, Angela and Fareeha waltzed beneath the light of the stars.  They danced through the night, giggling to each other.  To be fair though, what started as coordinated movement slowly devolved into a gentle slow dance.  Eventually, they stopped moving entirely.  The world disappeared as they stood together in the night air, arms wrapped tightly around each other, Angela’s head buried in Fareeha’s shoulder.  Fareeha didn’t even notice when Satya stopped playing to go to bed.  She’s not sure how long they stood out there in warm embrace.  She never wanted to let go.  When Angela began to softly snore however, she’d scooped the woman into her arms, and carried her off to her quarters through the now empty halls of the Watchpoint.  

As she tucked the Doctor into bed, Fareeha was struck by how serene Angela looks in her sleep.  Dr. Ziegler spends her days burning the candle at both ends, stressing and worrying for the Overwatch family without concern for herself, often only finding respite in unconsciousness.  The thought tugged at Fareeha’s heart.  She wished the Doctor would take better care of herself.  She wondered if there was anything she could do for her.  At the moment, the best thing seemed like sleep.  So Fareeha rose to depart.  But as she made to leave, Angela rolled over in her sleep and began to mumble quietly.  Sleep talking.  Shamelessly, Fareeha’s lips pulled into a smile and she strained to hear the words being spoken.  Most of it seemed to be nonsense mixed with medical jargon.

But all of a sudden, she could swear that she heard Angela whine a little, then murmur,

“…Fareeha…please...”

She’d been flushed down past her chest as she hurried out of the Doctor’s quarters.  

...

She is dragged back from the abyss of memory and into consciousness once more when she hears the comms system crackle to life again.  This time however, the machine has burst into activity of its own accord.  Harsh static hisses in the air, interrupting the frigid tranquility of the Siberian morning.  Is someone trying to contact her?  Possibly.

She waits.

*kkzzzRSSHHHHH*

Is that it?

*HHSSSSSRZ*

It’s not enough that she has to freeze to death on her lonesome, the universe has to continue to taunt her mercilessly?

*HSsshRKZZZ*

Suddenly, fragments of a cockney accent break in amongst the fizz of static, and Fareeha snaps into focus.

“Ca…” 

*KRSHHHH*

“…do you hear me? Captain Amari, come…”

*KRKshhHHHHh*

“...come in!”

Fareeha scrambles for her mic, pulling it clumsily up to her lips.  “Oxton?  I... I hear you, I’m here.”

“Captain?  Oh blimey, we’ve been searching for you for hours, we -“  Suddenly, the British woman is interrupted.  “Hey!  Gimme that back-”  

Her voice is replaced by the musical lilt of a Swiss accent.

“Mein Gott, Fareeha?  Fareeha, are you there?  Where are you?”

Still quite delirious, Fareeha feels herself break into a silly grin.  “Angela?  Is... is that you?”

“Yes, it’s me Fareeha!  Please, where are you?  Tell me where to find you.”

Fareeha’s brain finally kicks into gear.  “I’m… not sure.  But I can rig my comms to emit a pulse on this frequency so you can triangulate my position.”  As she speaks, Fareeha fiddles wearily with her communicator until it begins to give off a slow, steady radio pulse.  “There.  Angela, I... I don’t think I can last much longer.”

“Oh scheiße.  I’m coming for you Fareeha.  Don’t fall asleep!  Please, hang on!”

“Angela, I...”  

Fareeha trails off as her vision starts to fade again.

Stay awake.  Alright, she can do that.  She singlehandedly took down a rogue Omnic.  She made it this far on broken and pulped legs.  She needs to talk to Angela.  She can sure as hell stay awake.

And she tries.  Oh, does she ever try.  

But exhaustion and delirium are a devious couple of bastards, and together they gang up to push poor Fareeha over the edge.  She groans and slaps herself a couple times.  But it is to no avail.  Despite her best efforts, she sinks down onto the icy ground.  Dammit.  She’d really been hoping to see Angela again before she died.  

And what on earth is that infuriating noise?  

  Somehow, it sounds reminiscent of the pounding vibrations of whirling helicopter blades.  That, or it’s her own pulse hammering in her ears.  Either way though, it doesn’t really matter.  She’s tired.  So very, very tired.  Try as she might, her eyes begin to droop closed.

The last thing she sees before blacking out entirely is an ashen-haired woman borne aloft on golden wings, flying to her side with arms outstretched.  Desperately, she calls Fareeha’s name.  

An angel.

Fareeha decides she’s probably hallucinating.

... 

Ow.

Cognizance swirls murkily in Fareeha’s head.

She’s pretty sick of waking up woozy and confused, not totally sure of her location.

 Where is she?

Bedridden in a cold, clean medbay room.

She’s missing a limb.

And to the left sits Angela.

Wait a minute.  Haven’t they done this already?

Slowly, Fareeha begins to process her surroundings in the here and now.  Awareness invades her consciousness like a virus.  Everything hurts.  Alright.  Okay.  They have indeed been here once before.  Only this time, Fareeha has lost her leg, and Angela is… snoring.

Her head lain on the side of Fareeha’s bed, the Doctor is fast asleep, hair freed from the usual high ponytail to spill wildly across her shoulders.  She’s… she’s beautiful.  Tranquil in slumber.  Seeing Angela in propria persona is more than Fareeha had thought she’d ever see again.  It makes her heart flutter.  Gently, Fareeha laces her fingers with Angela’s and squeezes just a tad.  The sleeping woman groggily wakes.  She appears exceptionally disheveled.  How long has she been by Fareeha’s bedside?

As their eyes lock, Fareeha can’t help but smile as she speaks.  “Hey.”

“Hello,” Angela replies, a little sheepishly.  For a long moment, silence stretches between them as they simply gaze at each other.  “How are you feeling?”

“Better, now.”  Words to be said swirl in Fareeha’s mind.  But anything she thinks to vocalize seems disingenuous.  What can be said, in moments like this?   The truth.  Only the truth.  

“Started to think I’d ever get to see you again for a minute there.”

“You didn’t think I was just going to leave you out there, did you?” she replies, concerned.

“No, no, I-“

“I’d move heaven and Earth to bring you home, Fareeha.”  She tightens her grip on Fareeha’s hand, seemingly unaware she does so.  The sincerity in her tone is shocking.

“Angela…”

“Look, I know it’s unfair of me to ask, but please don’t do something like that again.  I couldn’t bear it if you were to…“  Her voice cracks a little as she trails off, eyes beginning to well up.

“No, Angela, I promise.”  Fareeha places her newly repaired prosthesis on Angela’s cheek.  “I’ll be more careful.  I… I could never do that to you.”

“Thank you,” Angela whispers.  For another long moment, nervous silence fills the room.

Eventually, Angela clears her throat and removes herself to retrieve the holopad from the base of Fareeha’s bed.  “Well, your EKG looks fine and your leg is healing up as well as can be expected, so I think the best thing for you to do is get some rest.”  Reluctantly, she stands to leave.  “I’ll leave you be, and-“

“Angela, wait.”  

“Yes, Fareeha?”

“While I was out there, I… I realized something.”

The Doctor cocks her head in query, smiling softly.

“I realized…  I’m trying to say that I…  Oh damn it.”  What is it that she’s trying to say?

The truth.  

“When I was stuck out there, the only thing I could think about was how badly I wanted to be with you here.  How much the idea of leaving you alone hurt.  How desperately I wanted to hear the sound of your voice just one more time.  You’re the most important person in my life, Angela.  I’m in love with you.”

Angela’s eyes widen.  Her jaw drops just a little.  She stands slightly dumfounded, staring at Fareeha.  But only for a merest breadth of a second.  Without warning, the holopad falls from her hands as she flies to Fareeha’s side.  

For the first time, their lips meet, and enthusiastically introduce themselves.

Fareeha’s not sure how much time passes until they break apart, gasping for air as they rest their foreheads together.  

There will be other conversations to be had.  Other things to decide.  But right here and right now, in each other’s arms, they’re together.  They’re finally together.  It’s all that matters.

[tr4shythoughts]

Alright, so with the actual ending of Dragon Ball Super coming, I wanted to get something like this out there before hand. The show as a whole has many fans split, and I just wanna talk about some of the things that the show did right and did wrong. 5 things to be exact for each. Now, why would I do it now and not wait till the end? Because I’d rather talk about the ending in its own capacity and not let that sway my opinion on the rest of the show yet. So yeah, here’s five things I think Dragon Ball Super did right, and five things I think it did wrong.

NOTE: I’m going to alternate between one good thing and one bad thing, so it’s gonna go every other number. Good? Good.

1. Tournament of Power

If you ask me what the best arc is in Dragon Ball as a whole, I’m going to tell you that it’s the Cell Saga, specifically the Cell Games. But if you’re going to ask me what the most enjoyable arc was, I’m going to tell you right off the bat it’s the Tournament of Power. Bold move having someone say that a Super Arc was more enjoyable than any Z arc. While the Sayian, Frieza and Cell Saga’s might have been some of the most tightly written arcs in the series with some of the most memorable scenes, the Universal Survival Arc has been all about sheer enjoyment and fun of the original Dragon Ball, with a nice mix of the urgency and threats of Z. We’ve gotten character moments up the wazoo, including but not limited to: the best Kamehameha in the series courtesy of Ultra Instinct Goku (which we’ll get more on later), Master Roshi earning the respect of the gods after putting in work, the culmination of Vegeta’s character arc and his beatdown of Toppo, Gohan’s return to the spotlight, the Android’s back in action and much more. Add along the fact that you’ve gotten some great characters from it such as the Universe 6 Saiyans, Jiren and Toppo, Universe 9 and more, and you set the stage for just one of, if not the most fun arc in the Dragon Ball Franchise

1. Recapping the Movies

It’s no secret at this point that Dragon Ball Super went through a lot of development hell. When the show was first conceived, half the crew was working on the One Piece movie Gold at the time, so they were left with little time to make anything unique and special. They had basically no animation team on top of it, so what did they do? They spent the first 27 episodes recapping Battle of Gods and Resurrection F with bad pacing and terrible animation. We all know about the infamous Episode 5 and how bad the F Arc was handled, so I don’t need to go too in depth with that. Basically, these first 27 episodes were a shame, because it was a chance to get this series off on the right foot. It was the first Dragon Ball series in almost 20 years, and they needed to make a splash in order to really get people on board and supporting this series. Sadly, they didn’t do it, and a lot of fans dropped off before Super could even truly get started. If you’re starting from the beginning, my suggestion is watching the two movies I listed first and skipping the first 27 episodes. You’ll be better off for it.

2. The Return of Fan Favorites

I want to bring up first that I’m not a fan of shows bringing back old characters for nostalgic purposes with no reason for them to be involved (despite being super hypocritical and wanting both Raditz and Cell back in some fashion). However, Dragon Ball Super managed to do it right with two different characters. While Frieza’s first go around was a cash grab, his reappearance in the Universal Survival Arc was godly. At first, like most fans, I was very skeptical of this. I didn’t know what else they could possibly do with this character and was really unsure as to why they brought him back again. I felt like they were doing it just to make another quick buck since, you know, Frieza. But, in the Tournament of Power I’m not gonna lie... he’s been my favorite character alongside the next one I’m going to talk about. Whenever he’s on screen, he’s been the most entertaining character in Universe 7. He’s still cunning, he’s still eating shit, and he’s just being a dick, but a lovable one. He’s the Frieza we all know and love, the one from Namek but with a new twist to him. His interactions with Goku and Gohan have been great, and I’m so glad that he’s been a major player in the finale like I predicted. Next we have Android 17, who once again, I was skeptical about after his introduction. The fact that he was on SSJ Blue’s level was a bit ridiculous, but my worries faded in the Tournament. He was easily the MVP with his durability, versatility, and character as a whole. The scene were he interrupts Ribrianne’s transformation is still one of the funniest gags in the show to me. The Tournament really made me love the Androids a lot more, especially 17. To keep this a bit shorter, Roshi, Krillin and Tien also getting good stuff as well was amazing, and finally seeing Gohan back was a treat too. All in all, Super handled it’s reintroduction of character’s really damn well and has me excited to see more of them.

2. The Ending of the Goku Black Arc

The Goku Black Arc as a whole was actually really damn good. While Zamasu and Goku Black might not have had the best of motives for their characters (since their archetypes have been done so much and better in other places), they were threatening, enjoyable and in all honesty felt like real Dragon Ball villains. With great moments sprinkled into the arc as well as the return of Future Trunks, it had the makings of the best arc in Super by far by the time it was wrapping up. That was until the ending... To keep things brief and logical, Merged Zamasu basically wrecked the timeline, so Goku called in Zeno to help them. Seeing this, Zeno destroyed the timeline as a whole and Future Trunks’ world now no longer exists. He lives in the regular timeline now, but far ahead in the future. Basically the arc ended by destroying the thing they were fighting for the whole time, and it came across as unfulfilling and just a bad cop out. It left a sour taste in my mouth as well as a lot of other peoples, and that was furthered by the fact that they simply could’ve had Future Trunks live in their time period right after. Sending him away felt stupid to me in all honesty, and those feelings amplified after seeing the Tournament of Power. The arc itself is still good and fun, but the ending really makes it a disappointing arc as a whole.

3. Goku and Vegeta becoming the teachers

While most people are really split on them, I adore the Universe 6 Saiyans, especially Caulifla. Call it waifu bait or whatever, but she’s great and I’m glad we got her. Some of my favorite interactions with the Universe 6 Saiyans is how they play off of Goku and Vegeta, and how they’ve basically both taken up new students. We started to see it with Vegeta and Cabba in the U6 vs U7 Arc with how Getes managed to get the other young Saiyan Prince to go Super Saiyan, and that carried over to the Tournament of Power with his wish to see Planet Salada and meet Cabba’s father. With Goku and Caulifla, it was exclusively in the ToP, but the two played off of eachother so incredibly. They were two peas in a pod with their love for fighting and growing stronger, so seeing them just get all giddy when they fight was super fun. We probably won’t see too much more of them in the future, but in all honesty I would love more of this. Hopefully we get a Planet Salada Arc in the future should the show return in some way, shape or form. I’d love for a Caulifla vs Goku rematch for fun and just to see them spend more time with eachother.

3. The Goku and Vegeta Show

Does it make sense that Goku and Vegeta are the two main characters at this point and are the main focus of Super? Yes, 100%. Does that mean it’s a good thing? Not so much... See, the Piccolo effect hit the main cast hard in Z once Goku, Vegeta and Gohan could go Super Saiyan, and once Goten and Trunks could do it that got worse. However, the rest of the Z Fighters still had a chance to get in on the fun and carve out some moments for themselves in some capacity. In Super, that’s not the case at all. The rest of the Z Fighters, and even Gohan, were shunned from getting anything major this go around aside from in the ToP, and even then they were outshined by the stronger, more efficient Saiyans, Frieza Clan and Androids. Goku and Vegeta are great and all, but I would’ve liked to have seen more with everyone else, especially as the show felt like it was transitioning back to skill over power.

4. Whis

I wanted to try and avoid brining up just one specific character for one of these, because using a spot to talk about one character instead of what the show does as a whole felt like a cheap cop out. But, the more I thought about it, the more I knew Whis needed that solo spot. The importance of his character cannot be understated, and how he’s presented, written and executed as a whole is fantastic. He’s the perfect teacher for both Goku and Vegeta, and the joy that he gets out of training them is really the best. He’s insightful, smart, funny, and plays off the rest of the cast extremely well. I can’t think of a lot to say about him other than the fact that he’s a real joy who added a ton of new lore to the franchise, and that in itself is awesome if you ask me. I hope in future iterations he plays just as prominent a role as he’s been playing now.

4. Lackluster Antagonists

I use the word “antagonist” here because aside from Frieza and Goku Black/Zamasu, everyone else has really been just an antagonist and not a bad guy. They’re an opponent for our heroes to fight, but not bad. That being said, I want to talk about how they’ve been a bit underwhelming. Jiren’s backstort was weak compared to the buildup to it, however as of late we’ve seen a more charismatic side to him that does improve his character. However, as a whole for the longest time we knew him as the silent strong type who was going to come in and wreck everyone’s shit. That’s not enough, especially when you have a backstory that makes him Jiren Uchiha. The charisma was needed earlier like in the manga, so what we end up getting here is an antagonist that’s just bland and boring in the eyes of many. With Zamasu, I touched on how his archetype was done better elsewhere before, and that’s still true. While the arc itself is enjoyable and I myself like him, he’s still not the best of villains and comes off as really icky at times with his motives. Like, to me at least he  feels like a whiny brat revolting against the world because he’s going through some phase. To top it off, the lack of a proper villain for most of the arcs does really add to that need to have one. Super missed an opportunity to really make one that could’ve been special. I think the closest we got was Goku Black in all honesty.

5. Ultra Instinct

Ultra Instinct is by far in my opinion the best form/mode the series has come out with, and I’m not talking in terms of strength. In terms of appearance, style and just use, it’s hands down the best next to the Kaio Ken. It was foreshadowed almost 80 episodes before it appeared in canon, and its payoff has been godly. We’ve gotten some of the best fights in the series from it, and it does something that no form since the Kaio Ken has done: focused solely on martial arts. While you do get a power boost, that’s not where it’s main focus comes from. It’s all about letting your body move on its own and react naturally to its surroundings, the most martial artsy thing I can think of. It has a cool design (although I prefer it more than the Goku Blanco edition) and just is amazing to watch. It’s by far one of the best Shonen power ups I’ve seen, and that’s pitting it up against Full Cowling and Gon’s Rage

5. It doesn’t feel like Dragon Ball at times

This is probably the hardest thing to explain without completely undermining my point. Dragon Ball Super in itself is very enjoyable if you ask me. It’s not spectacularly written or has the best fights in the series, but it does go back to its roots in a way Z never did, and I think it’s a great blend between what the original and Z did best. That being said, it takes a while to get there. Between the development hell I talked about and the other factors, it just feels like at times it’s missing the thing that makes it feel like Dragon Ball. We’ll never get the original feeling of setting out on the journey with Goku for the first time, or the intense, life or death fights of Z again, but what we need is a series that was handled properly from the get go and gives fans as a whole what makes the series so good. The fights lack at times, and the first three almost four arcs don’t feel very Dragon Ball-esque to me. Aside from a couple of things, it felt like it was trying to emulate it instead of executing its own ideas while retaining what made the other series so great. All in all, this isn’t a bad thing. It’s a good thing Super is ending, because now it allows them to start fresh and build off of this series with hopefully a continuation once the movie comes out under the same name or a different one. All I know is if it happens, I’ll be there to support it.

[jf3co]

Ok - so this one comes with a bit of preamble, duly noting I am usually the first one to say “no disclaimers” when someone begins to prattle on making apologies or priming the audience before they begin to read. I do so, in this case, not because I feel I need to make an apology or level-set in any way, but that I think you need to be clued in on the circumstances as to why this story was conceived. There was playwriting group in Philadelphia who used to host this thing called a “Bake Off” where you have to include a series of ‘ingredients’ in a writing. The ingredients that need to be ‘baked’ into the play are not released until a few days before the play is due. So you have, in essence, less than a week to write a complete play. Now here is the best part – they HAVE to perform the play. They set a day aside with some stage actors and perform each and every submission. I was out with some friends when I heard about this group and drunkenly threw down the gauntlet by stating that I will write the stupidest and most-uncomfortable short play to perform... ever! The following, my friends, is the result.

Instructions: To be submitted for the 2010 “Bake Off”, the following ingredients MUST be included: 1) LUCID DREAMING  2) A PIGGY BANK THAT CONTAINS SOMETHING OTHER THAN MONEY 3) A GAME-WINNING HOME RUN MUST AT SOME POINT BE HIT.

THE TRAGIC BALL - by Joe Friend

CHARACTERS:

Betty Ann - Young adolescent. Pale and sickly but graceful.

Frank - Married aloof geneticist. Late 30’s. Fit. Well-groomed.

Lulu - Frank’s wife, also a geneticist. Mid-thirties. Fit. Well-groomed.

Roger - Friendly neighborhood lab animal.

Announcer - Sports announcer’s voice (off stage) bleeding over from the stadium.

Greek Chorus - A 3-15 member traditional Greek chorus to read in tandem, monotonously throughout.

SETTING: A city block of row houses alongside a sports stadium. The block is quaint and well-maintained but contains a few empty lots in varying degree of reconstruction.

TIME: Fall. Evening. The present. The night of the last game of the World Series.

SYNOPSIS of SCENES:

Act 1 / Scene 1 - Parodoi | Omniscient

Act 1 / Scene 2 - Empty lot, scattered construction equipment. | Fall.  Evening.  The present.

Act 1 / Scene 3 - Omniscient | Omniscient

Act 2 / Scene 1 - Apartment bedroom. | Fall.  Evening.  The present.

Act 2 / Scene 2 - Omniscient | Omniscient

Act 3 / Scene 1 - End of block, stadium’s edge. | Fall.  Evening.  The present.

Act 3 / Scene 2 - Exodus | Omniscient

ACT ONE SCENE ONE - The Greek Chorus travels up the sides of the stage from the orchestra pit, evenly distributed, and meets off to the side, lining up just outside the edge of the spotlight.

GREEK CHORUS: And here we look in on the tragic plight of mankind, brought to light before us in the shape of a young girl. The same dark play played out again and again on this fair blue stage. Will mankind ever offer nothing but amusement to the Gods? Will mankind ever transcend the feeble frailty and futility of their destiny? Will we find in our young heroine the strength of conviction; knowing not the ego required for hubris, knowing only the innocent will to survive against insurmountable odds? We are here to represent. We are here to represent and bear witness. We are here to represent and bear witness and observe the fates’ cruel hand.

ACT ONE SCENE TWO - The lighting centers on Betty Ann, in a plain dress, wandering a construction site in an empty lot between the rowhouses. She is stepping carefully and appears to be looking for something. She stands up straight, arches her back and cups her hands to her mouth.

BETTY ANN: Rooooooger?

Betty Ann pauses, listens and rights to call again.

BETTY ANN: Rooooooger!  … Roooooger! … Roooooger!

Betty Ann continues to step around carefully, calling occasionally. The focus shifts from her to the chorus. Betty Ann continues the act of calling, merely pantomiming it. Then she stands there, as if in a lucid dream, frozen in time.

ANNOUNCER (offstage, barely audible): And that’s another swing and a miss to bring us to the bottom of the 7th of game 6 of the World Series…

ACT ONE SCENE THREE - The light comes up on the Greek Chorus, now in focus, off to the side.

GREEK CHORUS: A girl afflicted. A girl laden with the future disease of all mankind! A pair of noble researchers determined not to let humankind go down that dark path! Oh, the humanity!

ACT TWO SCENE ONE - A tastefully decorated mid-sized apartment bedroom at sundown. The blinds are drawn and amber light is filtering in through the slats. Frank and Lulu are in bed together; they are fully-engaged in a passionate lovemaking session, could be better defined as hardcore fucking.

LULU (Panting, out of breath): So whattadya got for me, Frank?

FRANK: You can have a hard dick or a punch in the mouth? But seeing how I have a hard dick up in you, maybe a punch in the mouth is more appropriate?

Thrusting mercilessly, Frank cocks his fist back mid-thrust.

LULU: Lay it on me Frankie…

Lulu grins up at him sheepishly in anticipation. Frank delivers a monster overhand to Lulu's forehead. She goes cross-eyed. Frank continues his merciless thrusting. Lulu's eyes come back in focus and she regains her clarity. Frank pauses, out of breath, then makes his way down past her belly button.

LULU: So, I finished up cloning the strain iterations, complete with the reverse codec, based on your most recent isolation sequencing data… and, well, seeing how they all – and I mean all of them – cultivated nicely – quite a promising batch – mind your manners, young man – ummm…. ahhh (!)… I went ahead and matched them directly against Roger’s fluoresced targets. He seemed to tolerate the procedure well-enough. Well, well-enough. Minor problem though…

Lulu pauses speaking. Frank picks his head up. Lulu blushes.

FRANK: Well?

Frank waits with his head between Lulu's legs.

LULU: Well despite all of the hard work and research we put into attempting to cure this disease, Betty Ann’s bouts with lucid dreaming are not only becoming more pronounced but also of a longer duration. If these indicators are any harbinger to the progression of this disease, and if my calculations are correct, we need to administer the experimental cure that we’ve fostered inside of Roger for the last 3 years within a weeks’ time or we risk losing Betty Ann completely to a dream-state brought on by this affliction forever… and, if we lose Betty Ann we risk losing the 3 years of development we put into perfecting this antigen matched specifically to her. I think this puts a serious time-constraint on our ability to cure this disease. Well, for her at least. Roger is indeed Betty Ann’s last hope – his genetics having been altered in utero and spliced to be complimentary to Betty Ann’s and the fact that he is just now reaching maturity… we really only have one chance to save her life before she ultimately succumbs. And that means that, given the rate of the disease proliferation among the general population, another 70% of the infected population will also progress to perpetual lucid dream-state before we have enough retrograde retrovirus matched, cultivated and matured before we can administer the cure. So the cure within Roger will only work for Betty Ann. And Betty Ann does not have enough time for this to not work. And the fate of all of humanity ultimately rests on this genetic splicing test being 100% successful and effective!

FRANK: Yes, well we knew that going in… we took this risk before we picked up and moved here so close to the disease vector. Honey, I hope you’re not holding this one too close to your heart. But I know we can do this! I know it will work!

LULU: Well, Frank, to be honest, it gets worse.

FRANK: How so, darling?

LULU (pauses): That little girl is an asshole. I - don’t - like - her. 

FRANK: What?!? How can you say that about a little girl? She’s 10 for Chrissakes!

LULU: Trust me, she’s an asshole, I know. Little miss know-it-all skipping around in her pigtails, innocence incarnate in her immaculate dresses. I’m glad we’re not her parents.

FRANK: Now honey, calm down a minute…

LULU: No Frank, you calm down! You don’t know. I was home one day… in the living room… mopping. She prances up to our porch… looks right in the window (I don’t think she saw me)… then the little bitch proceeded to pick each and every last one of the flowers out of our window box! I honestly don’t even care to save her… if it wasn’t for the hard work, potential fame from our cure, not to mention the financial windfall invested in our little genetic piggy bank, I just as soon watch her rot.

FRANK: That little fucker! The utter nerve… well, once we have our cure, we’ll move far from here and can afford to buy all the flowers you could possibly want.

Frank remounts Lulu and they continue fucking.

LULU: I’m finding it harder and harder to focus though… I would rather plant those flowers on her cold, shallow grave.

Lulu places a palm to her forehead. Frank is coming to a climax.

FRANK (shouts): UNAGI!!!

Frank rolls off, breathless. Lulu looks exasperated possibly a bit annoyed.

LULU: Frank, darling, we are not without our quirks… the peyote weekends, motorcycle trips…

Lulu rolls over onto her belly.

FRANK (interrupts): Our full-on conversations while fucking?

Frank rolls over onto his belly.

LULU: Yes, those and YOUR punching me while we are fucking… these… Frank… these things are to be expected and given leeway in the consideration of and compromise for our unrequited love, devotion, and admiration for each other.  But, if there is one thing that I cannot abide any longer, not for an instant, it’s you shouting the Japanese word for freshwater eels as you ejaculate.  Damn it, you know I have food consistency issues!  I simply cannot abide it.

FRANK: Shit, I’m sorry babe… I just get caught up in the moment.  I will get better at this.  Will you make fun of my genitals for a little bit?  (pauses) Oh and honey, where is Roger anyway?

LULU: You mean he’s not out back?

FRANK: He is not.

LULU: That little bitch let him out of his pen again!

FRANK: Motherfucker!

ACT TWO SCENE TWO - refocus on the Greek Chorus

GREEK CHORUS: Two people, joined of desire, travelling along fates’ worn path, that be it not for their shared love of life and humankind, would surely be ignorantly and blissfully entwined for all of eternity; a paradigm of the Gods’ good graces, the pinnacle of true human spirit and endeavor.

ACT THREE SCENE ONE - The far corner of the empty lot, at the edge of the stadium parking lot.  Betty Ann stands rigid in a lucid dream. Roger is rooting in the corner.

BETTY ANN (haltingly, coming to): Roger?

She spots the pig at the edge of the construction site, rooting around the fringe of the stadium parking lot.

BETTY ANN: Roger, You’re a bad little piggy-wiggy, rooting around in the dirt!  Come over here this instant.

Betty Ann rushes over to where Roger is foraging.  She levels down, nose to snout.

ANNOUNCER: …and Mocha Latte CRUSHES a fast ball to high center field… this one is not stopping folks… and it’s… IT’S… IT’S OUTTA HERE!  This World Series is OVER BABY with a colossal game-winning GRAND SLAM HOME RUN!  It’s awesome baby!

The fly ball comes down hard, pegging Roger directly in the head, killing the pig instantly.  He keels over.

BETTY ANN: Roger!  Roger?

Betty Ann suddenly stands rigid, locked in another lucid dream.

ACT THREE SCENE TWO - The light comes up on the Greek Chorus, now in focus, off to the side; will cross slowly to the other side of the stage then exit.

GREEK CHORUS: And so we now depart this scene, played out many times before us, born of iron will, raw desire and ending in tragedy; we retreat back to our place of observation, our omniscient solitude, our, uhhh, our… dude, don’t you think it’s weird that we’re all saying the same thing at the exact same time? Shhhh! Hey wait, check it out, look… Scrapple Daiquiri, Scrapple Daiquiri, Scrapple Daiquiri! Knock it off, Andy… no, I’m serious. Bob, you try! Listen, asshole, you know we’re not supposed to break rank – we could get into a lot of trouble for this. Who is going to punish us? We’re omniscient! Yeah, but still, there needs to be a modicum of restraint applied and, ideally, a level of control… we can’t exactly stroll across the stage all simultaneously shouting “We are Hitler’s youth!  We are Hitler’s youth!  Rama Llama Ding Dong!” I guess I see your point… anyway, apologies, I tend to get a little over-stimulated. It’s been a while since I had work. Today was a lot of fun. And I mean A LOT of fun. Tons o’fun… oh yes, tons o’fun. We should totally Facebook each other! Yeah, I don’t think so – I’m a bit of a lone wolf myself. You guys, fuck all this noise… the Super Bowl will be on soon – let’s go have a beer… have several beers.

EXIT

[vskpop]

May 2017 ⋅ Not so fresh

Lonely - SISTAR

 Why does this keep happening?! Can girl groups stop releasing amazing songs that are THEIR LAST EVER BECAUSE THEY ARE DISBANDING?

AL1 - SEVENTEEN

Forgive me, God of k-pop, for I have sinned. I said I wanted dark Seventeen and another Highlight, but now that I have it I really don’t want it at all.

I will preface everything I’m about to say by reiterating that Seventeen are probably my favourite third generation group and that I like Don’t Wanna Cry and the mini album in general.

However, the truth is my expectations were too high and I was disappointed by this comeback. As much as I love Woozi, Don’t Wanna Cry is the most unoriginal thing he’s ever produced. It isn’t just that it sounds like a Chainsmokers song: some parts are almost identical to Closer, and not in a good way, if there even is a good way to be Chainsmokers copycats.

The more I listen to the song, the more I like it and I love how Seventeen made it theirs, but this doesn’t change that this song doesn’t feel remotely as unique and personal as their previous releases.

I’m still mostly ok with Seventeen moving away from their bubbly, cute image, but not if it means rounding down to the blandest, trendiest thing they can come up with. This is pretty much the same complaint I had about Winner’s Really Really: it annoys me that a group with a specific identity would abandon it to go as generic as possible.

What made the comeback bearable for me is how beautiful and elegant their live performances are: it’s always hard to make thirteen people look good on a tiny stage, but with this choreography Seventeen have really outdone themselves. I don’t know if I’m more in love with Woozi’s, Joshua’s or Jeonghan’s solo moments, not to mention The8 starting his section with a somersault because why not. A good thing - even though not especially to my taste, obviously - is the rest of the album goes well with Don’t Wanna Cry, rather than being jarringly different and going back to “old” Seventeen. The performance team delivers a banger as usual with Swimming Fool, and for once the vocal team’s song Habit is a lovely powerballad (instead of being the most boring song in the album).

It’s not coincidental that the “American” sound of the song came with a video filmed around Los Angeles. I’m not sure where they got the idea of going the minimalistic, tumblr aesthetic route with their video and the performance styling. It’s not my favourite, but I don’t hate it either: it matches the song concept and it isn’t an insult to the human eye.

Overall this is a good comeback, but it’s hardly what I wanted from Seventeen: I find myself missing the pastels and the happiness, which is what made me like them in the first place. On the other hand, I guess I’ve seen worse rebranding (see iKON) and at least it’s clear how it makes sense for them to change direction. I’ll keep my hopes up for the repackaging.

New Kids: Begin - iKON

Now for something I really, really, really hated: iKON’s so-called rebranding. New Kids: Begin is their first comeback after a year and a half of touring and postponing. As the “new kids” suggests, this release should signal a change in direction for iKON or, as their promotional material said, a “new beginning” and “new style”.

I couldn’t imagine what a new style for iKON would look like and ...it doesn’t. It’s not a new era at all. They look and sound like an uninspired, inferior version of what they did in Rhythm Ta and Anthem. They’re doing exactly what they were doing before, but they’re not doing it well.

Both title tracks, Bling Bling and B-Day, are on the nonsensical bravado banger side of iKON’s repertoire.

Even after trying to make myself like it, I really detest Bling Bling. The instrumentals are ok for the first minute, but after that things get way too repetitive and boring, especially because entire song is rapped (or sing-rapped) and the singers get no space to add some texture to it. It could have been a better song, but it was over for me the moment I heard Junhoe being autotuned out of existence.

B-Day has a lot of YG’s recent material mixed in: it has the atmosphere of Bobby’s Holup, and the trippy melody of Big Bang’s Bae Bae and Fxxk It. It’s a much more interesting and captivating song than Bling Bling, which is why, obviously, it won’t be the promoted track.

The “bling bling” theme feels incredibly out of fashion; every time they say “champagne” I shudder. The big shiny cars feel far from anything that iKON would do - just think of the beat-up they were driving in Dumb & Dumber.

This kind of concept only worked when they looked like idiots playing dress-up. Even Bobby, who is the clear inspiration for the concept (last year’s Holup! music video is B-Day and Bling Bling), seems slightly uncomfortable with the part he’s been given. The other members don’t get to show off their vocal skills in the best cases, and seem on the verge of walking out in the worst. The videos are awkward, and the live performances are a secondhand embarrassment extravaganza.

YG didn’t even try to hide the fact that they’re trying to make iKON into the new Big Bang; the issue is that Big Bang did the crazy bangers with cryptic, super-high-budget videos when they were eight years into their career and not at their sophomore release.

It makes no sense for YG to rebrand them as this high-rolling, pseudo hip-hoppy group when so much of their success depended on how they mixed genres and looked like your average silly classmate, which is why the goofier parts of both videos work so well.

I can hardly find something that works well in this comeback. The songs are mediocre, the styling and concept are abysmal, the rebranding is ridiculous. The members that aren’t the two rappers basically disappear in the background (not that this is B.I or Bobby’s fault, to be clear). As much as I love them, they are mediocre dancers: I am baffled that they would focus their comeback campaign on the fact that “hey, they’re dancing now!” when literally nobody asked them to, and they did perfectly well without choreos being a predominant part of their image.

This is supposedly the beginning of a series of 2017 iKON comebacks, and I have a terrible feeling about them if this is the road that they’re taking.

I also want to mention how idiotic I found the fact that, a year and a half after debut, the members of iKON got new “English-sounding” names when everyone had already learned the Korean ones. I will never in my life call Jinhwan “Jay” or Yunhyung “Song”. NEVER.

199X - TRIPLE H

I’ll start by saying that the video for Triple H’s debut 365 Fresh is all sorts of no-no and comes with the biggest trigger warning I think I’ve ever issued for a k-pop video. It’s ironic that the only part I found refreshing (spoiler: it’s the threesome!) was the one that caused a stir and not, say, the sexual assault, the attempted suicide or all the other things that were glamourized when they really shouldn’t.

Anyway. If Triple H is another attempt from Cube to save whatever is left of the company, I will gladly take it. I’ve loved Hyuna for a long time, even through all of her basically-naked performances, and it is well documented that E’Dawn is one of my favourite members of Pentagon ...and I guess I don’t hate Hui.

365 Fresh hardly has anything fresh about it: it sounds almost exactly like Bruno Mars’ 24k Magic, and even that was not exactly original material. The good thing is that, even if it’s something we’ve all heard before a million times, it doesn’t lose its earworm power in this iteration. It’s the perfect summer song, especially in comparison to Hyuna’s summer comeback from last year.

Hui’s voice really manages to balance out Hyuna’s and E’Dawn’s timbres, and overall the balance of singing, rapping and hook-repeating works amazingly well. It was one step away from being too repetitive.

Hyuna’s charisma doesn’t need an introduction, but it’s cool to see Hui and E’Dawn hold their own. It’s especially surprising to see E’Dawn in the role of the beefcake, when that’s the last thing one would think of him seeing him next to the rest of Pentagon (for me he’s always been the one most likely to be involved in a drug scandal, if anything). I love that Hyuna got to wear actual clothes for an entire round of promotions.

It was surprising to me that they wouldn’t just come out with one single, and I thought the rest of the mini-album would be a bore; I was glad to be proven wrong. In just a handful of song, they incorporate a ton of retro references and stay interesting and cohesive throughout. My favourite has to be 80’s-flavour ballad Girl Girl Girl.

Signal - Twice

 The more I like a Twice song, the more everyone else will hate it, and I ve learned to live with this fact ever since Knock Knock. I’m so delighted that, while they’re still not straying too far from their signature sexy baby concept, Twice managed to pull off such an unusual song.

I don’t remember the last time I’ve heard such a prominent bass line, and I love that the structure of the song is not super-conventional. It’s hard to think that in general they are one of the most traditional girl groups in k-pop (not that that’s a bad thing).

I saw a lot of criticism about the fact that it’s not a vocally complex song (when have Twice ever had virtuoso songs?!) but I would give that up any day for a more equally split song: girls who never got to speak like Sana, Tzuyu and Mina got actual parts and all the others will be just fine.

I’m also happy to see that for once the video has a proper story, rather than being about just them being pretty. I loved the 70’s outfits and the alien storyline, and I thought even the superpowers part was done really quirkily. On the other hand, I was fairly annoyed that JYP had to stick the damn schoolgirl concept in there when it was completely superfluous.

I also love Three Times a Day and Only (which, by the way, was written by Yeeun) from the mini-album.

/

Rapid fire round

 Cactus - A.C.E.

I know it’s been done before, but whenever a k-pop group goes full 90’s eurodance, it always feels like the first time. I wouldn’t have given A.C.E. a single listen if the song hadn’t been called Cactus - the best title of the year - but I’m so glad I did, even just for their already iconic performances in short shorts.

  Puppet - Marmello

In a world of cute concepts, I don’t know how successful a girl band will ever be, but I will enjoy it while it lasts. I can’t bring myself to pretend it’s not a super-conventional and predictable song, but I’m so happy to see some girls playing instruments I don’t even care (and yes, I checked, they can actually play them).

 Shangri-La - VIXX

What an amazing mini album VIXX put out. I haven’t been particularly into them at any point except when they came out with Dynamite, and I don’t think I ever will, but I love every single song on Shangri-La. I’ve been complaining about k-pop really converging on the Chainsmokers/tropical trend, but it really works well mixed with VIXX’s style. Also: THE FAN DANCE.

  More songs of note

Beautiful - PENTAGON Bomb - PSY ft. Bobby & B.I

Dance Dance - DAY6 

Eclipse - Kim Lip (LOONA)

So Good - Taeyang 

Strays

• My favourites Dreamcatcher cover my other favourites’ song, Winner’s Really Really 

• The Japanese video for BTS’ Blood Sweat & Tears is really really (get it?) good 

[intoabrownstudy]

Sonic Review of 2017 (so far):

I listen to a lot of stuff. I devour audio content. Be it new music, podcasts, radio, bird song. Quality is the only prerequisite. I have been meaning to start commenting on what I listen to and so David requesting that I submit something in print has been the stimulus to sit down and collate. The idea for future weeks is to present audio highlights on a week-to-week basis, but this submission is a summation of the best bits of sound so far this year. I’ll be covering the podcasts and radio programmes, the albums and individual tracks, and the live shows that I have made an impression on me so far this year.

So here goes. The descriptions will be fairly brief this time around, as I’m going to cover six whole months, but here’s what I have enjoyed sonically so far in 2017, starting with my favourite albums so far this year:

There are 11 here; these are albums that have made an impression on me and that I have continued to listen to. I’ll say a few words about what to expect from each them, as well as a little bit about why I have chosen them:

San Fermin; Belong

My favourite. From soup to nuts, a consistently wondrous collection of tunes that hop from genre to genre effortlessly. Beautifully arranged and performed.

Highlight: the emotional-charged title track, Belong.

Fleet Foxes; Crack Up

New music from Fleet Foxes that’s not a minute too soon. Essentially, it is more of the same acoustic sound and the divine close harmonies we have come to expect from the Seattleites. There is definitely more chances taken in the way the album is produced, so there is enough to distinguish this album from their others. Gorgeous.

Highlight: Third Of May/Odaigahara

Cigarettes After Sex; Cigarettes After Sex

This album travels at it’s own glacial pace. Majestic, with definite nods to New Order.

Highlight: Apocalypse. No K. No Apocalypse. No K.

Roger Waters; Is This The Life We Want

Not being the most ardent fan of Pink Floyd, I hadn’t been in too much of a hurry to listen to this album. But I am so glad to have got round to it. Roge ain’t happy with how things are just now, and he’s going to tell you about it. I was just as riled by the end. It’s also an old-fashioned album in the sense that this tells a story with each tune morphing into the next.

Highlight: Picture That

Kendrick Lamar; DAMN.

Goodness. Where do you start? After I had seen Old Country For Old Men, my immediate impression was that I knew it was brilliant, but I wasn’t sure how I’ll be able to prepare myself to see it again. I had exactly that same thought after listening to this utterly overwhelming piece of documentary. Mesmerising. 

Highlight: DUCKWORTH.

Public Service Broadcasting; Every Valley

Continuing with their M.O. of sampling old public information announcements; this time focusing on the fate of the Welsh Coal mining industry. This may not sound too exciting or indeed, to some, even interesting, but somehow, again they are able to tug at the heart strings with tape recordings, empty spaces and fine musicianship.

Highlight: Progress

Father John Misty; Pure Comedy

Lyrics so dry, I was on a drip by the end.

Highlight: Total Entertainment Forever

Com Truise; Iteration

The slightly 80s-tinged instrumental EDM is making a bit of a comeback following the Stranger Things soundtrack. this is some of the best electronica so far this year.

Highlight: Memory

London Grammar; Truth Is A Beautiful Thing

The vocals are the main event here, ably supported by the stark production surrounding them.

Highlight: Routing For You

Run The Jewels; Run The Jewels 3

Certainly gets the heart pumping. Lyrically charged ebullience.

Highlight: Legend Has It

The xx; I See You

Somewhere between the minimalist production of The xx’s previous releases and the more poppy output of Jamie xx, this album offers very judiciously-deployed samples of Hall & Oates and stonking vocal performances.

Highlight: On Hold

-o-

One of my favourite things to do is to collate new tracks that I hear from my various sources into quarterly playlists on Spotify. I am phutch1977 on Spotify so feel free to follow. Below is a link to what individual tracks I have enjoyed between January 1 and June 30 this year. I’m going to pick out a couple of my favourites:

https://open.spotify.com/user/phutch1977/playlist/4HDLGq11dknFaTLwBIJQ2v

UNKLE (feat. Mark Lanegan and ESKA); Looking For The Rain

Thumping beats with swooping orchestrations and one of my favourite baritones. Ticks a great many boxes for me does that.

Young Fathers; Only God Knows

Off the new T2: Trainspotting soundtrack, which incidentally is a thoroughly captivating watch, it highlights the changing of the guard of what is current within the British music scene. See also, Slow Slippy, Underworld’s remix of their classic, Born Slippy, that became so synonymous with the first movie.  

The War On Drugs; Holding On

An exciting amuse-bouche for what is to come from their new album released later this year. Sounds like more of the same, which gets two thumbs up from this reviewer.

-o-

These are the podcast that I have gone back to consistently and those that I look forward have a new episode showing up each week: 

Revisionist History; http://revisionisthistory.com/

This is the second series of Malcolm Gladwell’s attempt to revisit and/or reinterpret an event, a person or an idea from the past that he feels has been overlooked or misunderstood. At time of writing, there are 4 episodes of the new series available, but so far he has covered topics as diverse as terrorism, civil rights and rich folks addiction to golf. I like how he picks out something relatable to the present day. The first series is also worth digging out.

S-Town; https://stownpodcast.org/

This is produced by the same team that created the Serial podcast. I didn’t actually fully embrace Serial, however this series did I great job of hooking me in. The focus of S-Town shifts continuously throughout the series, and just when you think it has run out of puff, there is a new revelation that makes you do whatever the equivalent of page-turning is with a podcast. All of the episodes were released at the same time, so you could genuinely binge-listen to this story. Brilliantly put together and extremely poignant right now, S-Town is fantastic.

30 for 30 Podcasts; https://30for30podcasts.com/

Short and sweet. If you’ve seen the supreme sports documentaries on ESPN, well now there are some for your ears.

The Political Party with Matt Forde; https://soundcloud.com/thepoliticalparty

I have a bit of a crush on Matt Forde. In this podcast, he does a few minutes of super-topical (and super-funny, which doesn’t always happen concurrently) stand-up and then interviews a prominent political figure from either side of the aisle. Matt Forde, a stand-up by trade, is able to really humanise his guests with his very disarming style and focus on a side of their personality that doesn’t usually shine through in more formal interviews. He even managed to show that even William Hague is a right craic. Really good fun.

Special mentions:

The Adam Buxton Podcast; https://soundcloud.com/adam-buxton (especially The Steve Coogan episode)

Song Exploder; http://songexploder.net/ (especially the Fleet Foxes episode)

This next section are still podcasts but are based on actual live radio shows:

James O’Brien’s Mystery Hour; http://lbc.audioagain.com/presenters/6-james-obrien/368-the-mystery-hour-free

This is the pure sharing of knowledge. It’s the audio equivalent of when you used to have to write into a newspaper, before Google, if you had a question you wanted the answer to, and wait two weeks for it to be answered. This show rewards and celebrates acquired knowledge. The minutiae of life attempted to be explained.

Russell Brand on Radio X Podcast; http://www.radiox.co.uk/radio/podcasts/download-the-russell-brand-on-radio-x-podcast/

Russell Brand reminds me so much of Peter Cook. Previous forays into cinema might show that it may not his medium, but radio may very well be. He is just allowed to explode for a couple of hours on a Sunday, riffing on everything and nothing. Sublime stuff.

Johnny Vaughn on Radio X Podcast; http://www.radiox.co.uk/radio/johnny-vaughan/highlights/download-johnny-vaughan-on-radio-x-podcast/

Again, Johnny Vaughn is just so good on the wireless. Lightning quick. And there is a more sport-focussed show at the weekends called The Kickabout which is also hilarious.

Loose Ends; http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qjym/episodes/downloads

So happy that the BBC made the decision to start podcasting this live show with its wide ranging guests from film, stage, literature, comedy and all parts in between with excellent musical guests who perform live in the studio. Everyone is encouraged to contribute and interject throughout the show, even if the focus isn’t particularly on them at that time. Clive Anderson is the perfect host for this kind of format.

Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4 Podcast; http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02pc9pj/episodes/downloads (especially the Dead Ringers episodes; not so much The Now Show)

A lot of the time, the comedy writing doesn’t match the performances when it comes to impressionist shows. For Dead Ringers, they are definitely on a par with each other. Highlights are Jeremy Vine and Andrew Neill’s exasperated utterances of “Diane Abbott..?!?!”

All Songs Considered Podcast; http://www.npr.org/podcasts/510019/all-songs-considered

Bob Boilen has my job. That is all. Great new music in a handy hour-long package.

-o-

And finally… I have been lucky enough to get to see a good number of live shows so far this year. Here are a few of my highlights:

Kate Tempest @ The Casbah

She performed her second album, Let Them Eat Chaos, in its entirety, from track #1 to track #last. Performed from the heart, you could hear a PBR tallboy drop such was the respect for performance. Amazing. Amazing.

San Fermin @ The Casbah

The sound created by this very talented bunch will live long in the memory. They simply crushed it. And there is a horn section. Even the sax solo was well done. Highly recommended.

Timber Timbre @ Soda Bar

Obviously there to push their new album, Sincerely Future Pollution, but I would have liked for them to have played more off their eponymous first album. Lively, intimate show.

Blossoms @ The Casbah

Stockport’s own. I felt very old watching these fresh-faced whippersnappers. Great set and went down a storm.

I’m excited that I have more shows lined up for the rest of the year. Public Service Broadcasting play the Soda Bar. I’ve managed to secure a ticket to see Fleet Foxes at The Observatory in September, as well as an outdoor show with Future Islands & Explosions In The Sky on the same bill. And the great Elbow are in SoCal in November, so I’m going to see them in Santa Ana. All very thrilling.

-o-

Hope you find something interesting out of all this. Going forward, this will be hopefully a little more concise, listing a few highlights of what I’ve enjoyed listening to week by week. I’d also be very interested in your own suggestions, be that podcasts, radio shows, albums, tracks or live performances.

open.spotify.com/user/phutch1977/

twitter.com/IntoABrownStudy

tumblr.com/IntoABrownStudy

[battleborntap]

First Person Shooters as a genre have been around since Doom was released in 1993, and ever since, it has been widely considered one of the most liked genres (at least by Americans). With a wide variety of games and an even wider variety to the genre itself, let's take a look at some of my personal favorites!

Please note, these games all take place in the first person perspective, and have one of their main mechanics involving firing a gun or weapon of some kind. Games like Mirror's Edge and The Stanley Parable are omitted on the grounds that they are more First Person Puzzle Solvers rather than shooters, despite having the ability to shoot in these games. Also, I will only be doing one game from any given franchise, simply because I could pack this list with four or five sequels easy with all the games I've played. And finally, I can't say this enough, this is all based on my personal favorites and opinions. If you don't agree, that's fine! We all have our favorites, but this is simply a way for me to talk about mine!

So, without further delay, here are my Top Ten Favorite First Person Shooter Games!

#10. CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS (2010)

Of course a Call of Duty game made it onto this list, and MAN what a game it is! Call of Duty: Black Ops released on Ps3 and Xbox 360 in 2010 to much fan praise, and is often considered one of the last good Call of Duty games. While I am quick to argue that point (Advanced Warfare brought a focus to story for the first time in years and Black Ops 2 had probably, in my opinion, the best multiplayer in recent history), The original Black Ops had all three main modes (Story, Multiplayer and Zombies) on point for the launch of the game.

While the Multiplayer may not have aged well for the game, the Story mode is simply wonderful, and unlike the rest of the Black Ops series, YOU CAN UNDERSTAND WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING IN THE STORY! If you have to read a plot summary to fully understand what the hell happened in it, it's not a good story. As for Zombies, simply letting players become former presidents and fighting time traveling nazi zombies...what more do i need to say?

Overall, it's an impressive game by all accounts. It helped to prove that Treyarch had what it took to keep delivering on the CoD formula, and while it wasn't World at War 2 like me and several others had hoped for (Still hoping for it, personally), it was a great game to play all the same.

#9. DOOM (2016)

Doom is the grand daddy of all First Person Shooters, and the latest iteration into the franchise really does not disappoint. With brutal carnage kills, impressive graphics, and a return to what made the franchise fun in the first place, DOOM (2016) is easily one of the best games of that respective year.

The story is as basic as it comes; Hell has invaded Mars, and you were about to be sacrificed when s**t goes sideways. You escape, get a Master Chief Power Armor ripoff, and fight through rooms and hordes of Demons to try and prevent Hell from getting to Earth...You know, like the last three Dooms!

The combat in this is where it truly shines, giving you the ability to kill enemies when they are weakened with brutal finishing attacks. The weapons are all fantastic, and the enemies are tough, but manageable. The real problems are outside the story; Multiplayer seems tacked on and rushed, while SnapMap, the mode I was really excited for, is basically just Corridor maker, the more. Still, the story itself is fun as all hell...

#8. BIOSHOCK (2007)/ BIOSHOCK INFINITE (2013)

This one might seem like a bit of a cheat, but hear me out...I personally feel that these games are very much the same thanks to something called "Service to the Brand."

Let me ask you this. Why do people in Bioshock use plasmids? They are a part of a world where everything has gone to Hell, and now they need to do whatever they need to survive, including injecting themselves with chemicals to give them super powers! Now why do they do it in Bioshock Infinite use vigors, which are basically plasmids?...There's really no reason is there? The reason they use them is because the last two games released had Plasmids, and it wouldn't be the same game without them!

This is a common problem with sequels that differ from their original game, and honestly, the only reason I decided to lump them together is that, aside from story and some situations you encounter, they are basically the same game. Well crafted gun play with elemental magics, expertly written dialogue and story, and an all around impressive and fun universe to explore, these games fill me with a sense of wonder each time I play them. If I had to choose one, it would have to be Infinite, but it's by such a slim margin that I felt it best to lump them together. My list, my rules...

Also, We don't talk about Bioshock 2...just...no.

#7. STAR WARS: BATTLEFRONT (2015, Fight Me)

I know the original Battlefront games are well regarded and adored. I know many of the people who played this felt betrayed and hurt by the micro transactions and lack of content. I know it just feels like Battlefield with a Star Wars skin...But you know what? I don't care!

Star Wars: Battlefront is the Star Wars game I wanted to play when I first put the original Battlefront into my PS2. Was I disappointed by the lack of content? Sure. Did it feel like a cash grab on EA's part because they has acquired the license? Of course, it's EA. But I still enjoy the hell out of it.

The game play is fun and engaging, as well as more balanced than some large scale shooters. The available content, while infuriating that it's behind paywalls and a slow progression system, are rewarding and fun. The Heroes are overpowered, but not too much. Overall, I feel the game is good for one simple fact; for the first time in years, I felt like I was in the boots of a Stormtrooper.

Also, you occasionally get a Wilhelm scream to occur when you kill someone...so there's that.

#6. LEFT 4 DEAD 2 (2009)

How do you make a sequel to a decently balanced multiplayer zombie shooter? Change only who you play as and what their main quest is, then add more! That's exactly what Valve did with Left 4 Dead 2, and it worked great.

Playing as four new survivors with fun personalities, the game introduced three new special infected to deal with on top of the five introduced in the last games, the addition of choosing melee weapons instead of pistols, and helped to balance old issues and new ones that made the game well rounded and just plain fun to play ,whether you were with friends or a few randoms online.

Then Valve went one step further; They added in new content through DLC, some of which included the original five levels from the first game, where you can play as the first four survivors in the first five campaigns from the original game, but with the new enemies, weapons and everything! In general, Left 4 Dead 2 is just a damn fantastic game is you AXE me! HAHA!!

            I'm sorry...

#5. HALO 3 (2007)

Bungie hit pay dirt with the Halo franchise, and the third installment in the game is where all that effort peaked. Great gun play, multiplayer modes, and engaging story line that (mostly) resolved the conflicts of the last two games and more, the game was damn impressive on Xbox 360 when it came out, leading to it becoming the fifth best selling game on the console!

This was one of the big games me and my friends played for days on end, sometimes literally. It's one of the first games to give me a true love for shotguns in first person shooters, and the rest of the games since haven't felt as impacting to me. They've been fun to play, but this was the last game that made me truly enjoy the franchise in a nostalgic sense.

Maybe I'm just getting old? Maybe...

#4. PORTAL 2 (2011)

Portal 2 is much like Left 4 Dead 2; change little to nothing about the game, but improve the writing, add more content, and fix some bugs from the previous game. Unlike Left 4 Dead, however, this game didn't have a multiplayer mode in the original, so this one added one!

While the first game was a series of puzzles linked loosely together by an uncaring, vindictive god/computer named GLaDOS yelling at you and calling you names, the second game is a series of puzzles linked loosely together by an uncaring, vindictive god/ computer named GLaDOS yelling at you and calling you fat before you overthrow her and put a mentally inept ball in her place who slowly begins destroying everything around you, shoves GLaDOS into a potato and sends you both into a 1950's version of the labs you were exploring to be yelled at by a 1950's style billionaire voiced by J.K. Simmons!

The puzzles introduce familiar and new concepts, keeping them fresh well into the game. The dialogue is on point through out, with minimal dialogue feeling out of place or forced. The humor is even better than the first, allowing for visual gags more than the first game did and a few running jokes to boot. Ultimately, an impressive sequel to an already impressive game.

Also, this game made me fear/ hate certain birds...just sayin'

#3. BORDERLANDS 2 (2012)

how do you top a game that had literally a bajillion guns, a rapid fire sense of humor AND a cell shaded art style set in a semi-unique world? MORE GUNS! MORE HUMOR! MORE CELLS SHADED! AND A VILLAIN!

Yeah...if you really think about it, the first game didn't really have a main villain. Sure you had some minor ones, like Baron Flynt and Mad Mel, but they were more like sub-bosses than anything. Borderlands 2 had plenty of sub-bosses, but also gave us MOTHERF**KIN' HANDSOME JACK, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THE BEST VIDEO GAME VILLAIN OF ALL TIME EVER PERIOD! With an actual story to get through, a villain to thwart, tons of fun new characters and old returning ones, as well as giving personality to the playable characters and the first games characters who act as NPC's this time around, the game did everything it needed to and then some.

This game established Borderlands as a franchise that's here to stay, and with follow-ups including The Pre-Sequel (Not bad, but not great) and Tales from the Borderlands (Fantastic Story, weird execution thanks to it being a TellTale game), there's no doubt in my mind that Borderlands is here to stay...

Can't really say the same for Battleborn...which is sad cause I kind of liked that one...

#2. OVERWATCH (2016)

Honestly, how could this one NOT be on this list? What is easily one of the best new franchises in YEARS, Overwatch brought exactly what it needed, and we keep getting more! With new characters and game modes being added, as well as regular balancing updates and more, the game shows no sign of slowing down.

If I had one complaint, it's that the game doesn't have a story mode. That said, we get plenty of information about the world and its characters thanks to digital comics, animated shorts, in-game dialogue and costumes, and a few other means. The roster is rich with diversity and ranges from easy to play to hard to master, and overall just is a fun time for everyone.

Hell, hte game hasn't even been out for a year yet and already we have three new characters, a new map, a new game mode and additional features like being able to make your own game mode ADDED IN FREE OF CHARGE! That's doing it right!

HONORABLE MENTIONS

The following five games are all fantastic in their own right, but didn't quite make my top ten. To save time, I'll only do a quick sentence or two for each, so please enjoy!

COUNTER-STRIKE: SOURCE - One of the first first-person shooters I played. Good combat and lots of customization both in game and in the variety of game modes.

GOLDENEYE 64 - A fun multiplayer title with an okay story mode. Best played with friends split screen...No Odd Job, please?

KILLZONE - I like to think of this as Sony's answer to Halo, but with space Nazi's instead of aliens. Regardless, it really made you feel like a soldier in an army instead of a lone wolf like most FPS games.

DESTINY -  Bungie's follow-up to Halo after leaving their flagship behind, the online, MMO hybrid was engaging, but didn't have much staying power if you didn't have a dedicated group to play with. With that and a lack of a real story, it felt like this was a half bake idea that will hopefully be more fleshed out in the sequel.

TITANFALL 2 - Improving on some of the pitfalls of the first game (Like console exclusivity), this is fun, fast paced, and in general a good game to play, especially if you have a friend or two in tow. Also, the story mode grabbed me with it's tutorial mode...so that says something.

Now, without delay, Here's Number 1!

#1. TEAM FORTRESS 2 (2007)

What started as a Quake mod eventually became the military themed hat simulator free-to-play sequel that Valve won't let you forget about. Tons of games release on Steam with some tie in to this, usually being a hat themed after whatever you're buying.

That said, once you get past the confusing as all hell economy the game has, there's a fun and engaging "Hero"-based shooter underneath. With nine classes to choose from, nearly limitless combinations for cosmetic customization and weapon loadouts. The story to the game is don similarly to that of Overwatch (Animations, comics, in game items, etc) but unlike Overwatch, many of the comics, animations and such contribute to the overall story of the game instead of just add little references to it.

The story itself is long, convoluted and silly, and perfect for the style of game it's trying to be. Overall, it's the game I've spent the most time in since I bought it back in 2007 (That's right, some of us PAID for this game), and it's easily my favorite First Person Shooter!

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed! Wat are some of your favorite First person shooters? Let me know in the comments below, and until next time, I'm McNutty891! Have fun!

source : http://ift.tt/2oGhx4Q