#i mostly wanted to have a place with HD pages

[cirilee]

btw, we have a neocities website now - and i made cast doodles :D

Here's the LINK

[cynicaldesire]

Dragon Age: Veilguard - The imprint of the correct answer still visible on the page if turned in the light

"In my most flattering recommendation I can compare it to a time when one of my students erased their correct answer and turned it in blank, preferring to be wrong by omission than the possibility of being wrong on accident. The imprint of the correct answer still visible on the page if turned in the light."

I beat Veilguard last night. I was more than a little displeased. I prefer Inquisition for a lot of reasons. I put about 73 hours into this playthrough, completed all the sidequests I could. There were treasure chests I didn't loot and Dread Wolf statues I didn't follow and Evanuris shrines I didn't tap and all my factions were at 3 stars but not 3200 strength, but I cleaned out my quest log between conversations with Solas.

My husband wants to be more favorable, respecting Bioware and their work, but also not wanting to reward them for a less-than-stellar entry into their catalog. He wanted to give it a 7.

Thoughts below the cut. Mostly neutral to negative, but I'll still give the game like a 6.5.

My husband wanted to play it but he has a lot of work and other games to play, so I bit the bullet and started playing it for him to watch to save him the time. He ended up playing the Dragon Quest 2 HD remake and scored that lower than the original as well.

My first major issue with Veilguard was that it's not designed for spinning hard drives. Nor is it designed for keyboards. It's a console game. Thankfully, I was able to connect a PS5 controller to the PC and that made it a lot more comfortable to deal with. The spinning disk issue manifested as massive load times and texture pop-in. Most of the time this was kinda funny, easily mitigated by faffing about on my phone. It warned me that the game was designed and optimized for an SSD, which is my OS drive, but HDDs are so much cheaper, that's what I have for my games. Apparently that isn't optimal anymore. The speed of technology has caught up to me, I suppose.

Before we played this, my husband played Yakuza 8. That game not as good as Yakuza 7, suffering from spending too much time with a previous protagonist and trying to weave together two stories that needed their own games to breathe in properly. Characters were lambasted or just felt wrong. There was way too much content. It was generally an unpleasant experience. But one of the major failings is that it relies on the players having been in the series, it doesn't explain much. The game expects you to know Kiryu and his reputation, overshadowing the protagonist of Ichiban and his story.

DA:V does something similar in that it doesn't spend a lot of time explaining the world of Dragon Age/Thedas to you. If you're playing Veilguard, you are here because you're a fan of the series. I mean, Inquisition has been GOTY and out for long enough and gone cheap enough that you should've, at some point, played it, right? Veilguard is a direct sequel after all.

The story goes on for a very long time, your companions all have quests with multiple parts, but I don't feel like I got to know any of them. The one guy I chose to romance, I chose because of the very first outing you have with him and then it was all downhill from there. The performances for a lot of the other companions are all over the place. Some of them are really great, some are flat, some are only good for certain lines. The stories are middling to bad, and we don't get enough of it to make it any better.

The romance scene I got right before the big suicide mission at the end, my partner had to stay up all the time to avoid a demon taking over his body, so the big romance scene was him almost falling asleep, some flirty banter, and then a massive load screen because I don't have an SSD.

There were a lot of times when I would go in to talk to a companion, there would be a brief back and forth, maybe some approval, and then load screen because I was done.

"What a quest" became my shorthand for my disappointment.

There was also one thing that left a bad taste in my mouth, re: romance. The companion I chose to romance had flirty banter with another, and their performance was so much better with each other than anything thrown my way. "Stop flirting!" I yelled as I took them into the last mission, having already romanced one of them. It felt like it was canon for them to get together, which made me feel like a fifth wheel.

The gameplay was fine. There's a jump button and jumping puzzles, but the game is very forgiving. "Thanks, Sticky" was my way of acknowledging those moments I should've missed and didn't. But, the killboxes for falling were whack because sometimes I would try to drop off a ledge onto another one, but I'm not supposed to so instead, massive load screen. Though you don't die if you fall into deep water (can't swim) or fall off a ledge, you just get a load screen and appear back in a safe spot near where you fell.

Combat was fine. I played an orb and dagger mage. Either I suck or the staff was just too slow. And you only get 2 companions to go out with you, so I had to choose wisely. I ended up choosing a warrior and a rogue to maximize my detonation potential. Which is another thing. Each party member can apply a debuff and other party members can detonate those. Each companion can apply and detonate so there's basically a triangle. You don't have to, of course, but it is nice to be able to utilize the triangle.

Max level is 50. I reached that real easy. Got the factions to 3 stars (max) as long as I did all the sidequests. One of my companions, I had to make a decision early on in the game that they didn't like, so I was punished by them never reaching max "bond" (level), but whatevs.

My husband described the bulk of the game that I played for him to watch (I played while he was at work from time to time) as a Mass Effect. I'd agree with that. He was very disappointed in the romance scene. "The sex scene just failed to load," he joked. Bioware got real infamous for the first Mass Effect because of "a blue titty" I reminded him, and he agreed that he didn't understand why Bioware would shy away from it now. Especially after Baldur's Gate 3.

Anyway. This just makes me wanna play Inquisition. Go back to my Cullen romance. Maybe romance Solas, since he's such an important part of this game.

Speaking of which, the story was shoddy and weird and full of holes. There were so many points that didn't make sense, choices made that I didn't fully understand. The twist near the end was pretty rad, but it felt like a lot of hours of dialogue and quests to not say much.

Anyway, 6.5/10, would not recommend.

[darkcircles4lyfe]

fyi: I’m staying away from leaks

If you want to know my thoughts about recent events, here they are:

So idk if I’ve ever mentioned this before, but when I started watching and reading bnha I made a point not to engage with the fandom until I was caught up, because I didn’t want spoilers. When I finally made it to the current chapter, it was around the end of the first war. That’s when I started looking at what other people were saying, and that’s when I found out about when/where leaks were. I’ve been tuning in ever since, for a few reasons that I only rarely stop to interrogate. First and foremost: I’ve liked the extra time to prepare what I want to say if the chapter contains a major revelation or cliff hanger I want to write about. It’s satisfying to punctuate my Sunday morning with a fully fleshed out essay I can immediately post. Then of course it’s also fun to participate in the Moment that leaks create, especially because they unfortunately tend to make the officials feel like an afterthought. And let’s not lie to ourselves—a major reason we tune in is because of FOMO. Everyone else is doing it. You don’t want to be left out of the conversation and not know what’s going on. I especially wanted to know ahead of time about lines that might get butchered in the official English translation. It was nice knowing that Horikoshi didn’t write that “Swiss cheese” line, right? These are some understandable reasons.

But since the routine got disrupted a little, I kinda got slapped in the face with enough clarity to start asking myself: what would I actually get the most enjoyment out of? Because when I heard the (now outdated) news that leaks were no more, I was actually relieved. So. That’s cause for some reflection. I’m like, man, what if I did tune out of social media entirely, wake up on Sunday, have my nice little home cooked breakfast, and read the new chapter for the first time over a cup of tea. What if I experienced the surprises as I turned the page and they stared me in the face, with Horikoshi’s beautiful artwork in HD.

Sure, I’d need to catch up after the fact if there’s any translation fuckery, but that’s okay. That’s doable. Bless the folks who take the time to comb through the Japanese and explain the nuance to everyone else. This is tangential, but I’ve also started thinking even more about how satisfying it would be to edit my own versions (for personal use only of course). That’s a… long-term goal, but maybe it’ll take care of my annoyance with the ‘official’ blunders and bad dialogue. The point is, idk if making myself aware of that stuff should be my #1 priority, above even reading the chapter in the first place. If anything it just makes me more pissed off and fixated on what might be wrong. Which is valid… but distracting. I should prioritize having fun as much as I can.

The other thing is, I’m kind of a social media lurker anyway. I don’t say much in the moment, and I don’t post often. On twitter I mostly just engage in other people’s comments. And it’s not like thousands of people are waiting to hear what I think. Like I said, my personal incentive is to get a head start on analyzing so I can pull together a long, thoughtful response in a more timely manner. But I don’t have to do that. I might as well just embrace my cryptid tendencies—you get my two cents whenever I feel like crawling out of my well.

I don’t want to moralize this whole thing, ask you to think about how the sausage gets made, but I will say I’m looking forward to finding out about big moments without seeing them in the form a short summary tweet first. I mean, c’mon… leakers know how to build hype to an extent but it’s still no substitute. It’s like listening to a sportscaster on the radio instead of watching the game. As we get closer to the end, I just want to savor it!

[mar64ds]

Can I know what's exactly sam and max and where should I start watching/play/reading it? Your posts make me feel curious and the energy of these two fill me with good vibes

Sam and Max is a comedy series about two guys solving strange crimes, they are married too, it's a lot of fun

It started with comics but then had a tv show and lots of videogames adaptations

-If you search 'sam and max comics' they are pretty easy to find

-The whole tv show you can find on youtube, there is even hd upscales

They have five videogames, you can either play them yourself or watch playthroughs on youtube, your choice

-The first game is Sam&Max Hit the road, an old pixel art game made by Lucasart. It's very short but this game is famous for having extremely difficult puzzles, unless you have a guide it's going to be almost impossible

-Then there is three seasons of Telltale games: Sam&Max Save the world, Sam&Max Beyond time and space, Sam&Max The devil's playhouse. They have remastered the first two seasons and they are working on the remaster of the last season right now, it's meant to come out this year apparently. My advice is to play the remasters, they look better and have removed a couple of bad 'jokes' from the original, as well as giving a black voice actor to a black character that used to be voiced by a white man

The first season starts slow but gets better as episodes go, it's a silly season, it has 6 episodes, the other two seasons have 5 episodes. The second season has a lot of highs and a lot of lows, when it's good it's good when it's bad it's bad, it feels like it has less of an idea of what they wanted the story to be but i suppose that doesn't matter much with sam&max. The third season............... oh, well, let's just say it gets a little less silly sometimes, there are high stakes here, there are tense emotionals moments, if you like these two characters you might cry. But truthfully, it's also a very dumb game with dumb adventures lol

-Then we have a VR game, I wouldn't buy a VR set for it, just go watch a playthrough. The gameplay is not that good and i'm pretty sure the devs are cryptobros, so just enjoy seeing sam and max talking to each other and to you for a couple of hours and then move on

I think it's important to warn that some stuff in this franchise hasn't aged well, some because it was the 80s/90s (comics, tv show, hit the road), others because some writers wanted to be edgy family guy writers i guess even though that's not the humor sam&max is supposed to have (the telltale games). No excuse for either of those though, it sucks that stuff is here at all and it would be bad that i talk about how much i enjoy these characters and not warn that there is bad stuff here from time to time. From the top of my head i remember the comics, show and Hit the road have racist caricatures of indigenous people (the comics have a one page comic long that includes this, hit the road has bigfoots that are kind of meant to be that as well and i would skip episode 3 of the cartoon altogether + edit: i forgot to add that there are characters in season 2 episode 2 of the telltale games that are also racist indigenous stereotypes), the telltale games have a bunch of fatphobia (mostly towards sam), ableism (mostly with a character named timmy, honestly skip the cutscenes once he shows up, you can skip dialogue in these games) and racist comments and stereotypes (like making max say a bunch of conservative stuff for no reason when he canonically kills n*zis and white supremacists in the comics. Caricatures of mexican people in s2 and romani people in s3, you could say the way they write black characters can be a bit stereotypical too but it's not my place to talk, but just a warning overall). There is more and if anyone wants to add more warnings go ahead

It's a fun franchise with fun characters, especially the main duo, when it's good it's really good, but when it's bad it's really bad, it's important to be critical about it. Wether you want to give it a try or skip this franchise altogether it's your choice, i'm always here to give the information necessary for newcomers of the franchise

[anamazingangie]

House of the Dragon : Stills / Screen-cap Resources

Making this mostly for my discord as per usual, but some people have asked me where I get my files for edits. not tagging this with anything since the more people who know about these, the more they will be targeted for takedown...but i'd like other fans to enjoy them as much as i have, too.

Stills: [these are photographs taken during production rather than images pulled from footage, so they tend to be higher quality and have better lighting without the various filters]

Section of Randomess is amazing - free, no ads, great quality, easy to download, but does not update frequently.

Warner Brothers Media very well organized, search by episode, date, etc. all very official as they literally make the show. however these are intended for use in press releases, and you need to have a press account to download the files. still, you can look at all the previews.

MovieStillsDB updates very frequently, has the largest collection of images released by official sources spanning all the various international hbo media accounts. you do need an account to download, and credits, but the most "expensive" credit packages still come out to less than 10c per a photo.

Kinorium this kind of has everything in one place which is nice, but the quality is lower. i usually use it to find an image i like, then right click and 'search image in google' to find a higher resolution version. stills gallery [kinorium]

poster gallery [kinorium]

promo gallery [out of costume] [kinorium]

they have tabs for BTS photos and screenshots too, but they are very incomplete.

Stock photo websites i am CHEAP and these are EXPENSIVE so i don't have a lot to say about them, but the big ones like shutterstock and almay usually have a selection of high resolution images too.

Posters: [branded promotional material to build hype]

Cinematerial i think this is the sister site to moviestills, similarly you can browse everything but need credits to download, and they have the same pricing system. still it's pretty great because they have every variant of each poster including international ones, and they offer very high resolution copies.

also, see above for poster gallery [kinorium]

Screencaps: images pulled ['captured'] from the episodes

there are probably dozens or even hundreds of sites with screencaps, but my favorites have been these two

Cap-That very thorough caps from every episode that can be viewed and downloaded individually in 4K, or downloaded in zips for each episode in standard HD.

and i do mean very thorough. each episode has on average four thousand images.

comparatively the zips from another site [lostintimegraphics] have about one thousand images per an episode.

what makes them "special" in addition to few ads (comparatively) is that they brighten the thumbnails on each page, a MUST to see wtf is going on in some parts, given how dark the show is.

when you click on the thumbnail and download the file, it is unfiltered/as appears in show, it just makes it easier to find the file you want instead of wading through a sea of black thumbnails.

So-Obsessed i think this is managed by a single person and i give them MAJOR props for that. they not only have 4k screencaps of HotD, but also every episode of Game of Thrones.

they are sorted by episode, there is no download a zip option, only individual files. they also have a stills gallery. there are no ads, which is wonderful.

the only reason i prefer cap-that is because they have 3x times the number of images for each page. despite both sites being comparably thorough, on so-obsessed there are 120 pages for episode two, and on cap-that there are 40.

you also can't right click/open in new tab/download images, you have to use their toolbar. it's well designed, just slower for me who is accustomed to the other method.

ok, am done. if you're wondering why the fuck anyone would want screencaps or stills, personally *i* like using them for edits to entertain me in the offseason, see here.

what other people do with them...that's between them and god.

[yestolerancepro]

Happy Halloween from the Tolerance project-Halloween Special The Micheal Myers Saga

Introduction

On this spooky day I thought I would share something suitable detailed below is deleted scene from the Tolerance film that hit the cutting room which featured a famous face from a horror franchise that started in 1978 and is still going strong today. You can find the original trailer for Halloween by clicking here  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5ke9IPTIJQ&list=PL17vqAEJv6CV1syq4_fFKgBwSqGdJzH9z&index=272&t=3s 

If you want to watch a video review of the original Halloween from Oliver Harpers You tube Channel click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTuwz-X6VuA&list=PL17vqAEJv6CV1syq4_fFKgBwSqGdJzH9z&index=295&t=26s

If you want to find out more about the making of the original Halloween film click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPvUaH5rJLk&list=PL17vqAEJv6CV1syq4_fFKgBwSqGdJzH9z&index=269

To watch a video called What Happened To John Carpenter's Halloween? click here( What Happened To John Carpenter's Halloween? - YouTube

To watch a video called deconstructing John Carpenters Halloween 1978 click here (26) HALLOWEEN (1978) John Carpenter - Deconstructing - YouTube

If you want to watch a video that covers the Halloween Franchise as a whole but dont want to go down to the bonus material section at the bottom of the page click here (11) WTF You Need To Know: Halloween Franchise - YouTube

45 years of Halloween (1978)

This year marks 45 years since the release of the first Halloween film was released in 1978 this first article from people magazine where actress Jamie lee Curtis credits the filn with starting her acting career to read the article click here Jamie Lee Curtis Marks 'Halloween' 45th Anniversary with Touching Tribute (people.com)

This 2nd article highlights the best bits of Halloween 1978 to read it click here thanks to the coming soon website Halloween at 45: The Best Parts of John Carpenter's Slasher Classic (comingsoon.net)

Overview

Halloween is a 1978 American independent slasher film directed and scored by John Carpenter, co-written with producer Debra Hill, and starring Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis (in her film debut), with P. J. Soles and Nancy Loomis in supporting roles. Set mostly in the fictional town of Haddonfield, Illinois, the plot centers on a mental patient, Michael Myers, who was committed to a sanitarium for murdering his teenage sister on Halloween night when he was a child. Fifteen years later, having escaped and returned to his hometown, he stalks teenage babysitter Laurie Strode and her friends while under pursuit by his psychiatrist Dr. Samuel Loomis.

Filming took place in Southern California in May 1978. The film premièred in October, whereupon it grossed $70 million, becoming one of the most profitable independent films of all time. Primarily praised for Carpenter's direction and score, many critics credit the film as the first in a long line of slasher films inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) and Bob Clark's Black Christmas (1974).

To watch the orignal trailer for Psycho (1960 click here (2) Psycho (1960) Theatrical Trailer - Alfred Hitchcock Movie - YouTube and a trailer for Bob Clarks Black Christmas click here (2) Black Christmas (1974) - Official Trailer (HD) - YouTube

It is considered one of the greatest and most influential horror films ever made. In 2006, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Halloween spawned a film franchise comprising thirteen films which helped construct an extensive backstory for its antagonist Michael Myers, sometimes narratively diverging entirely from previous instalments.

The Screenrant film website recently published this article on the preferred order you should watch all the Halloween films in read it by clicking here Watch All 13 Halloween Movies In This Order (screenrant.com)

Concept.

After viewing Carpenter's film Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) at the Milan Film Festival, independent film producer Irwin Yablans and financier Moustapha Akkad sought out Carpenter to direct a film for them about a psychotic killer that stalked babysitters

To learn more about Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) click here (12) What Happened To Assault On Precinct 13? - YouTube

. In an interview with Fangoria magazine, Yablans stated: "I was thinking what would make sense in the horror genre, and what I wanted to do was make a picture that had the same impact as The Exorcist."Carpenter agreed to direct the film contingent on his having full creative control , and was paid $10,000 for his work, which included writing, directing, and scoring the film. He and his then-girlfriend Debra Hill began drafting the story of Halloween.

There is an urban myth that the film at one point was supposed to be called The Babysitter Murders but Yablans has since debunked this stating that it was always intended to be called (and take place on) Halloween.[18] Carpenter said of the basic concept: "Halloween night. It has never been the theme in a film. My idea was to do an old haunted house film.

Creating a memorable villain and that famous mask

In devising the backstory for the film's villain, Michael Myers, Carpenter drew on "haunted house" folklore that exists in many small American communities: "Most small towns have a kind of haunted house story of one kind or another," he stated. "At least that's what teenagers believe. There's always a house down the lane that somebody was killed in, or that somebody went crazy in." Carpenter's inspiration for the "evil" that Michael embodied came from a visit he had taken during college to a psychiatric institution in Kentucky.There, he visited a ward with his psychology classmates where "the most serious, mentally ill patients" were held.

Among those patients was an adolescent boy, who possessed a blank, "schizophrenic stare." Carpenter's experience inspired the characterization that Loomis gave of Michael to Sheriff Brackett in the film. Debra Hill has stated the scene where Michael kills the Wallaces' German Shepherd was done to illustrate how he is "really evil and deadly".

Because of the low budget, wardrobe and props were often crafted from items on hand or that could be purchased inexpensively. Carpenter hired Tommy Lee Wallace as production designer, art director, location scout and co-editor. Wallace created the trademark mask worn by Michael Myers throughout the film from a Captain Kirk mask[53] purchased for $1.98 from a costume shop on Hollywood Boulevard. Carpenter recalled how Wallace "widened the eye holes and spray-painted the flesh a bluish white. In the script it said Michael Myers's mask had 'the pale features of a human face' and it truly was spooky looking. I can only imagine the result if they hadn't painted the mask white. Children would be checking their closet for William Shatner after Tommy got through with it."Hill adds that the "idea was to make him almost humorless, faceless—this sort of pale visage that could resemble a human or not."

Casting

The cast of Halloween included veteran actor Donald Pleasence and then-unknown actress Jamie Lee Curtis. The low budget limited the number of big names that Carpenter could attract, and most of the actors received very little compensation for their roles. Pleasence was paid the highest amount at $20,000, Curtis received $8,000,  Nick Castle who played the adult Micheal Myers in Halloween earned $25 a day.

In an interview, Carpenter admits that "Jamie Lee wasn't the first choice for Laurie. I had no idea who she was. She was 19 and in a TV show at the time, but I didn't watch TV." He originally wanted to cast Anne Lockhart, the daughter of June Lockhart from Lassie, as Laurie Strode. However, Lockhart had commitments to several other film and television projects. Hill says of learning that Jamie Lee was the daughter of Psycho actress Janet Leigh: "I knew casting Jamie Lee would be great publicity for the film because her mother was in Psycho." Curtis was cast in the part, though she initially had reservations as she felt she identified more with the other female characters: "I was very much a smart alec, and was a cheerleader in high school, so [I] felt very concerned that I was being considered for the quiet, repressed young woman

Jamie lee Curtis and Donald Pleasence who would return as Laurie Strode and Dr. Samuel Loomis.in later episodes of the Halloween Series.

Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Stroude would return in Halloween II (1981) Halloween H20 20 years later (1998) Halloween Resurrection (2002) and the three films in the Halloween reboot trilogy Halloween (2018) Halloween Kills (2021) and Halloween ends.

If you want to know how Jamie Lee Curtis performances as Laurie Stroud in the viarous Halloween films are rated you might like to read this article by the ScreenRant website Every Halloween Movie Starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Ranked (collider.com)

This article from the Collider film website explains why Laurie Strode as played by Jamie Lee Curtis is not featured in every Halloween film Why Is Jamie Lee Curtis Not in Every Halloween Movie? (collider.com)

Donald Pleasence would play Dr. Samuel Loomis in 4 more films in the Halloween series. hHe would appear in Halloween II (1981) Halloween 4 the return of Micheal Myers (1988) Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers 1989 and Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995),

Pleasance died on February 2, 1995, nearly eight months before The Curse of Michael Myers was released The film was dedicated to his memory.

To watch 2 tribuites to Donald Pleasance click here (18) a Donald Pleasence tribute - YouTube and here (18) Halloween 6 Cast & Crew Tribute to Donald Pleasance - YouTube

The Collider website published an article rating Donald Pleasense's performances as Samuel Loomis in the Halloween sequels to read what they had to say click here Every Halloween Movie Starring Donald Pleasence, Ranked From Worst to Best (collider.com)

Nick Castle would only play Micheal Myers the once other actors would play the role over the next 13 films if you want to keep track of them all the Game Rant website produced this useful article telling you who played Michael Myers in each film you can find it by clicking here:  Who Played Michael Myers In Each Halloween Movie? (gamerant.com)

To watch a reunion with John Carpenter the Writer and Director of Halloween with the orignal Micheal Myers click here Watch Halloween’s John Carpenter Reunite With The Original Michael Myers Actor (yahoo.com)

To read an article about what Nick Castle thought was the most painful moment was about playing Micheal Myers in the orignal Halloween click here Halloween's Original Michael Myers Reveals 'Most Painful' Moment | SYFY WIRE

Music score creating that famous theme

 Instead of utilizing a more traditional symphonic soundtrack, the film's score consists primarily of a piano melody played in a 10/8 or "complex 5/4" time signature, composed and performed by Carpenter. It took him three days to compose and record the entire score for the film. Following the film's critical and commercial success, the "Halloween Theme" became recognizable apart from the film. Critic James Berardinelli calls the score "relatively simple and unsophisticated", but admits that "Halloween's music is one of its strongest assets". Carpenter once stated in an interview, "I can play just about any keyboard, but I can't read or write a note." In Halloween's end credits, Carpenter bills himself as the "Bowling Green Philharmonic Orchestra", but he also received assistance from composer Dan Wyman, a music professor at San José State University.

To listen to the famous main theme click here (18) John Carpenter - Halloween 1978 (main Theme) - YouTube

Halloween the novel

A novelization so beloved that it spawned a commemorative re-release in 2023, Curtis Richards’s Halloween hit shelves on October 1, 1979, almost one year after the film dropped in theaters. Telling the story of “the most frightening night of the year,” the novelization extends John Carpenter’s script and combines it, somewhat, with the events that would come in 1981’s Halloween II. (That movie still got its own novelization, though, as did Halloween III.) There’s a richer backstory in this for Michael Myers, with an opening that suggests he carries an ancient Druid curse cast that stems from Northern Ireland. Readers also get to experience some of Michael’s perspective along the way, so some might feel a bit more empathy for him—even if he is a knife-wielding maniac.

Halloween the Television version

If you had watched the original Halloween film at the cinema and then settled down to watch it again on its television premeire in America in August 1981 you would have seen a very different film.

In 1980, the television rights to Halloween were sold to NBC for approximately $3 million. After a debate among Carpenter, Hill and NBC's Standards and Practices over censoring of certain scenes, Halloween appeared on television for the first time in October 1981.[79] To fill the two-hour time slot, Carpenter filmed twelve minutes of additional material during the production of Halloween II. The newly filmed scenes include Dr. Loomis at a hospital board review of Michael Myers and Dr. Loomis talking to a then-6-year-old Michael at Smith's Grove, telling him, "You've fooled them, haven't you, Michael? But not me." Another extra scene features Dr. Loomis at Smith's Grove examining Michael's abandoned cell after his escape and seeing the word "Sister" scratched into the door. Finally, a scene was added in which Lynda comes over to Laurie's house to borrow a silk blouse before Laurie leaves to babysit, just as Annie telephones asking to borrow the same blouse. The new scene had Laurie's hair hidden by a towel, since Curtis was by then wearing a much shorter hairstyle than she had worn in 1978.[80]

To watch the additional footage click here(18) Halloween (1978) - TV Version Scenes - YouTube with thanks to Stacy Langenkamp

The Original Halloween film was also included on a Screenrant list of Franchises which peaked with the first film they said this about Halloween (1978)

John Carpenter's Halloween introduced the world to babysitter killer Michael Myers and is considered one of the most influential horror movies ever made. The movie became the first entry in the Halloween franchise, which now includes 13 films, with character backstories that became increasingly convoluted and contradictory. However, despite the criticism that later entries may receive, the original movie is largely responsible for the popularization of the slasher genre itself. It would act as the blueprint for countless imitation films about seemingly unstoppable lone serial killers.

Halloween II the sequels and John Carpenters orignal plans

Even after John Carpenter's low-budget slasher movie grew into a massive hit in the years that followed its 1978 release, the director was hesitant about making a direct sequel. Still, he returned alongside his Halloween writing partner Debra Hill for Halloween II, but Rick Rosenthal directed.

To watch a video about Halloween II (1981) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yv3N2ECEP7U

To watch a video called Halloween II Makes Michael Myers A Slasher Icon (80s Horror Memories Ep 8) click here (5) Halloween II Makes Michael Myers A Slasher Icon (80s Horror Memories Ep 8) - YouTube

To watch a video called Does Halloween II stand the test of time click here (5) Does Halloween 2 Stand The Test of Time? - YouTube

Following the 1981 sequel, the Halloween movies went into an entirely new direction, with Carpenter envisioning an anthology plan that would leave Michael Myers behind. Considering Michael Myers' death in the Halloween Ends ending, the next project in the Halloween franchise can follow Carpenter's anthology plan that started in 1982 by genuinely telling new stories outside of the core villain.

Rather than bring back Michael Myers to terrorize *Haddonfield yet again, Halloween III: Season of the Witch dealt with ancient supernatural rituals and science fiction while focusing on an entirely new cast and setting. The project was meant to transform the Halloween franchise into an anthology series, following a new story on Halloween night for each installment. Carpenter, who made the anthology plan with Hill, intended to leave Michael Myers in the rearview to develop fresh stories. Now that the story of Michael Myers has been on display for decades, the Halloween franchise can take another shot at Carpenter's plan to develop non-Michael Myers stories in the vein of Season of the Witch.

*To find out where the Haddonfield filming location is click here Halloween: Where Is Haddonfield? Filming & Movie Location (screenrant.com)

To watch a video about the making of Halloween III Season of the Witch click here (128) 10 Things You Didn't Know About Halloween 3 Season of the Witch Re-Uptoad - YouTube

Further reading

This article from the Collider website explain what made Halloween 3 season of the witch so differant from the other films in the franchise The Halloween Movie Without Michael Myers Goes Darker Than the Original (collider.com)

Season of the Witch has garnered a cult following, but it wasn't a success upon release, causing many to wonder why the movie left out Michael Myers. The franchise quickly brought back the killer, and he served as a mainstay antagonist for every subsequent sequel, remake, and reboot installment.

Michael Myers would return to the Halloween Franchise with the aptly titled Halloween 4 the Return of Michael Myers in 1988

To watch a video about Halloween 4 the Return of Micheal Myers click on the link below (43) 10 Things You Didn't About HalloweenIV - YouTube

To watch a video called WTF Happened to Halloween 4 the Return of Micheal Myers click here (43) WTF Happened to Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers? - YouTube

To watch a video called Halloween 4 real slashers click here (43) HALLOWEEN 4 (1988) - Real Slashers - YouTube

Halloween The Tolerance connection

The reason for this deep dive into the Halloween series of films is due to this deleted scene for the Tolerance film that was first published in part 3 of my producers commentary for the Tolerance project Tumblr pages.

Deleted scene

Next up is a small extension to the Mr Grosenberg scene in the Job Centre. It is another of Robert's dreams. Perhaps the director felt that it slowed the story up too much, or it did not add anything or perhaps the fact that Grosenberg had a voice like a Helium balloon was enough!

Props list for this deleted scene includes Ski mask Overalls big knife

Robert is looking at Mr Grosenberg. Mr Grosenberg is looking bewildered at Robert’s face, but what he cannot see is Mike Myers standing behind him, wearing a ski mask and overalls, and holding a gigantic kitchen knife. Mr Grosenberg turns to see the knife looming down on him and he holds up his hands to protect himself, as the knife swings down at his fingers.

Bonus Material

A word about the bonus material anything that I haven't managed to fit into the narrative of my Halloween blog I have included here :

Documentaries

Halloween 5 The Revenge of Micheal Myers

To watch a video called Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers - Awfully Good Or Just Awful? Click here (43) Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers - Awfully Good Or Just Awful? - YouTube

To watch a video called WTF happened to Halloween 5 click here (43) WTF Happened To Halloween 5? - YouTube

This video details a version of Halloween 5 we never got to see with a differant killer other than Micheal Myers you can here about it by clicking here (13) Halloween 5: Jamie As The Killer - WTF Happened to this Unmade Horror Movie? - YouTube

Further reading

Halloween 5 the Revenge of Micheal Myers came top in a list on the What culture website in article called 10 bad movies that killed Horror Franchises you can read what they had to say by clicking here 10 Bad Movies That Killed Great Horror Franchises – Page 10 (whatculture.com)

Halloween 6 the Curse of Micheal Myers

To watch a video called Halloween 6 WTF happened to this movie click here (43) HALLOWEEN 6 (1995) - WTF Happened To This Horror Movie? - YouTube

To watch a defence of this film titled Halloween 6: Defending An Enjoyable Yet Messy Entry click here (43) Halloween 6: Defending An Enjoyable Yet Messy Entry - YouTube

Halloween H20 Twenty Years later

To watch a video called WTF happened to Halloween H20 click here

(11) WTF Happened To Halloween H20? - YouTube

To watch a retrospective review of Halloween H20 click here (11) The Story of Halloween H20: 20 Years Later - A Retrospective - YouTube

Further reading

According to this article one of the moments in the Halloween Franchise came from Halloween H20 Twenty years later you can read about it by clicking here The ‘Halloween’ Franchise's Best Moment Led to a Major Showdown (collider.com)

This article from the Bloody Disgusting Horror website explains why Helloween H20 is one of the best horror sequels ever made to read the article click here 'Halloween H20' 25 Years Later: Horror Legacy Sequel Done Right (bloody-disgusting.com)

According to this article on the Collider website Halloween H20 had the best ending of any film in the Halloween series This Earlier Halloween Movie Has the Best Ending in the Franchise (collider.com)

Halloween: Resurrection

To watch a video called Halloween: Resurrection - Awfully Good Movies click here (43) Halloween: Resurrection - Awfully Good Movies - YouTube

Halloween 2018 Reboot

To watch a video called WTF to Halloween 2018 click here (43) WTF Happened to Halloween 2018? - YouTube

Further Reading

According to this article on the Collider website Halloween 2018 is the highest grossing Horror film of all time click here What Is the Highest-Grossing Slasher Movie of All Time? (collider.com)

Halloween Ends 2022

You can see the trailer for Halloween Ends by clicking here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_mAWKyfj6c&  or watch a short review of the film by Oliver Harper which features on his You Tube channel by clicking here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmyW0uriBso&list=PL17vqAEJv6CV1syq4_fFKgBwSqGdJzH9z&index=296&t=57s

Further Reading

the above link looks at the Halloween 2018 Reboot trilogy as a whole The Underrated Brutality of Rob Zombie's Halloween Films | SYFY WIRE

Unmade Halloween sequels a trio of videos that detail unmade Halloween sequels First this one titled Halloween sequels you never knew about does exactly what it says on the tin ha ha lol (13) The Unmade Halloween Sequels You Never Knew About - YouTube

A video detailing a Halloween and Hellraiser crossover (13) Hellraiser vs Halloween: Why It Went Unmade - YouTube

And lastly this one a Halloween film called Halloween Returns (13) HALLOWEEN RETURNS - WTF Happened to this Unmade Horror Movie - YouTube

Trailers

A collection of Halloween trailers can be found by clicking here thanks to Rotten tomato trailers (43) Every 'Halloween' Trailer (1978-2022) - YouTube

Notes

First of all thank you to wikipedia for a lot of the background notes including the Overview casting and concept notes Google images for the pictures thank you to following for the Halloween themed videos via Youtube Minty Comedic arts and Joblo Horror originals as well as the Collider and Screenrant websites for the various links to Halloween themed articles   

Pictures

orignal poster for Psycho 1960

Original Poster for the Bob Clark film Black Christmas 1974

Orignal poster for Assault on Precinct 13 1976

4CThe original Halloween film poster from 1978*

5 Halloween the bookcover from 1978

6Micheal Myers as he appears in the Halloween series

7Donald Pleasence as Doctor Samuel Loomis

8 Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode

9 William Shatner as James T kirk the inspiration behind the Micheal Myers mask

10The Halloween Soundtrack album

11 Orignal film Poster for Halloween 2

12 Orignal filmPoster for Halloween 3 season of the Witch

Tolerance film pictures

Actor Tony Green playing Mr Grosenberg

Filming the Mr Grosenberg scenes Tony Green and DOP Ian Medley

*According to this article on the slash film website film website the poster for the orignal Halloween film (1978) has a creepy hidden detail and it happened by accident to find out what it is click here Halloween's Original Movie Poster Has A Creepy Hidden Detail - And It Happened By Accident (slashfilm.com)

The poster for the orignal Halloween film also featured in a Collider film website article called the 25 best movie posters of all time ranked landed at number 13 in their list the poster they had this to say about the poster designed by Robert Gleeson

While it could sound like a bold claim, it may well be the case that horror movies tend to have more iconic posters than any other genre of movies out there. That's not to say all horror movie posters are automatically great or even good, but there are countless beloved ones. The blunt, strong emotion-heavy nature of the horror genre just translates well to bold, memorable images placed on posters, and the wonderful straightforwardness of the original Halloween's poster, for example, demonstrates this excellently.

A slasher movie classic that helped establish John Carpenter as a great director and Jamie Lee Curtis as a star, Halloween is all about a dangerous individual breaking out of a psychiatric hospital and going on a murderous rampage during the titular holiday. The poster uses one of the most recognizable icons of Halloween - a jack-o'-lantern - and pairs it with a hand holding a knife, all against a pitch-black background. The title's Halloween, there's a carved pumpkin, and a scary-looking knife. What more do you need to know?

[pauloalmeidabrsposts]

Wanna buy a new notebook? Check out some info about the right configuration of the machine

Nowadays people are searching for a notebook with a great configuration that can help them use it in a lot of situations. In fact, a good portable computer has some advantages in comparison to a regular one. In both cases, the user can act on some different tasks, like browsing the internet, writing emails, watching videos, etc.

Still, before you buy a new machine, it is extremely important to get to know some information about the notebook. You have to understand some terms like RAM, SSD, and the generation of the processor. This will indicate if the portable computer has the right configuration according to your own needs.

The cost benefit is a characteristic that can guarantee that you are buying a product with everything you need with a low budget. This is a moment which requires some understanding of how the machine works, and if it has the tools you are searching for. So, it is necessary to obtain some information about the product.

The good news is that if you want to buy a good notebook you can search on the internet for more information and data about the portable computer easily. They are presented in e-commerce sites and grand technology corporations pages. You can compare the machines, their price, their configuration and choose the best for you.

The ideal notebook

First, it is important to understand why you are buying a notebook. Is it for studying? Playing video games? Will you use it for your professional activities? To watch movies? Maybe you need a top of the line computer, or one to use in a park. A basic disposable can help a lot with a great number of tasks.

Before acquiring a notebook, take a look at some information like the cost, processor, RAM memory, storage memory, video card, the screen and its resolution, and so on. If you need a machine only to study, there's no need to get a computer with the best performance, a basic one will do the job.

By the way, the notebook processor is like the brain of the machine. It can make the device faster and smoother, but it will increase the price exponentially. It will help to search on the internet, play video games and with heavy softwares. If you have the money, don't think twice, buy it! It is worth it!

RAM memory

Regarding the RAM memory, this is the place where the apps, softwares, applications and the operational system will get the fast data on the notebook. The more memory you get, the faster your machine. It is important to say that the minimum of RAM in a computer is 4 gigabytes. This means that a product with this configuration can do a lot of tasks with a low price.

Indeed, if you can buy more RAM do it. The reason for this is that a 8 gigabyte machine is a basic configuration for today's tasks. We are seeing some technology innovation like never before, so, if you wanna use the best tools on the market you need to acquire a machine that can run it.

Internal storage

One of the most important configurations of the notebook is related to their internal storage. In this case, a machine with an SSD is required. The reason behind this is that it is faster than the conventional HD. The minimum capacity is 128 GB. It is important to notice that it will be used mostly to run the operational system Windows.

If you can get a good SSD with a great capacity, you will be able to store a great quantity of photos, videos, documents and a lot of softwares and applications. So, it is worth it,. then again, a notebook with great cost benefits can help you on a lot of tasks and can be used for professional activities.

Video card

Also known as graphics card and GPU, the video card wil process everything that is visual on your notebook. For example, it will help you to watch videos, photos, effects, and play video games if you want to. It can be integrated or dedicated. The more advanced the video card, the more expensive the machine is.

By the way, the size of the screen is also important. A 15-inch model can go on the schoolbag, it is not so heavy, and can be used to work or to study. A bigger display has its own benefits, is more expensive, but can be used in different ways, so you need to watch your necessities before buying a notebook with these characteristics.

Conclusion

Before acquiring a notebook it is necessary to check out their configuration, the computer specifications. Be warned, it is common on the market to get a great number of machines with the same characteristics but with different prices. It is important to know your necessities and how much money you want to spend.

[cosmiclatte28]

Friendship, Love, Courage

MY FIRST EVER COLLAB!! HOSTED BY THE WONDERFUL @danishmiilk

Characters: Renjun x reader, NoMin!

Fluff romance

Warning : mentions of “stealing”, quite a broken trust but its ending nicely

TW : Stress (?)

HERE WE GO!! I worked so hard on this (even had 2 other friends checked on this and they approved this thanks to both of you #they’re_not_in_tumblr

word count : 12 pages idk how much but come on finish it for me 🥺🥺🥺 thanks

tagging @yutahoes @neopalette @full-hd-sun @swagmonsterofficial @nini-eexxo @hen-marks99 At this point I'm just tagging my moots coz this was my first attempt of collab and i deadass worked so hard on this... it better be read by someone even if they don't like it but they read it 🤭💖 @superm-net @multifandomnet @trashlord-007 @ahsshilee-me @charmingyong

You smile shyly when the cute prefect in blue robe tosses a small smile to you when you pass by him on the moving stairs. He continues his tour of guiding the new wizards and witches into the magical castle, telling them stories, showing them the common room, and helping them adjust to the new living area.

You gasp when you feel a slap on your shoulder, quickly you turn your head to face the now annoyed friend standing beside you.

“Really (y/n)? You’re once again frozen in place when that honey boy you adore walks by.” Jaemin, in his green robe, slicks his blonde hair away while throwing some flirty smile to the younger girls passing by the two of you. They chuckle and blush at his action, unaware of the fact that Na Jaemin already has his eyes on someone.

You glare at him, quickly covering his mouth before catching attention of the living paintings hung on the walls. No, not even the paintings should know about your feelings to that cute Ravenclaw prefect.

“Shut that big mouth of yours please. Don’t you know the walls have ears here?!” you dust off your red robe and continue walking to the dining hall. Shaking aside the cute smile of Huang Renjun away from your head. You’ve met Renjun from the first day of school, he was pure blood with the Hatstall incident at his sorting ceremony. The sorting hat spent a good five minutes pondering if he should be in Ravenclaw or Slytherin. Alas the house of the witty won the cute half-blood. As much as you wish to get sorted into the same house as his (mainly because he is cute), once the hat is on, it sorted you to the house of the brave. You’re still happy though to be one of the brilliant half-bloods in the Gryffindor house.

Renjun was very nice of you, when you first felt lonely in the big school (funny how you, a Gryffindor can feel lonely eh? But that’s your life). When you were struggling to find your way through the halls you had to thank Renjun for accompanying you whenever you had to move classes. But your relationship with him is purely just as close as a stranger. Renjun never sits beside you, nor does he hang out with you, he sits with his own smart gang. For two years he purely just helped you get around the halls. Instead of befriending Renjun, you become friends with the two wizards in your batch, the generous Hufflepuff who helps you ace your Herbology class: Lee Jeno. He is your first bestie, and since he enjoys your loud and fun personality, he calls you one of his friends.

The handsome blonde in green robe by your side earlier is your other best friend, Na Jaemin. A pureblood descending from the Slytherin family. You don’t know how Jaemin wants to be friends with you, a Gryffindor, but here you are. If Jeno helps you with herbology, Jaemin is there for you in potion classes. Though at first you think Jaemin is just using you to help him pass transfiguration and magical creatures. Turns out it was the total opposite, Jaemin is interested in Jeno, and the only person he sees is nice enough to be his wingman is you.

You don’t mind this though since you’ve seen how sincere Jaemin is when it comes to defending you and cheering you up. You know it’s just his ego that doesn’t let him say he is being friends with you because you two click. Screw anyone who made the unwritten rules that a Slytherin and Gryffindor cannot be friends. Well you understand since he is a Pure Slytherin. No one expects Slytherin to befriend Gryffindor even worse a half blood.

Back to the mean time, you walk with Jaemin on your side to reach the library where Jeno has reserved a place for you two. It’s your fourth year in Hogwarts which means you and your friends have to start preparing for the O.W.L test to be taken in your last fifth year. Although the three of you are gifted with brilliant heads, no one can slack their O.W.L and expect to pass. Here you are, limiting your free time and getting your ass dragged by Jeno to always study when you have free time.

“I miss playing quidditch.” You whisper after one hour of sitting down in the library and sticking your nose into the lines and lines of scribbles.

Jeno snickers, “You miss quidditch or you miss being in the same air as Renjun?”

You slap his hand that lays on the table and the young boy groans, “You’re evil! You could be in Slytherin, gosh thank heaven you’re not there or you’ve turned me into a stone.”

Jaemin just smirks, well he likes this side of you. The semi-evil part in your innocent-like façade.

“Dramatic, Lee Jeno. I love flying on the broom and chasing the balls.” You lied and if someone had given you the Veritaserum, Jeno’s guess was right. Your team likes to practice with the Ravenclaw’s team; don't ask why when your team captain is clearly flirting with the Ravenclaw’s captain.

“Come on, no one will buy that lie. It’s been four years of secretly crushing Renjun, why don’t you try to at least “befriend” him.” Jaemin sets aside his book and rests his chin on one of his hands.

You focus back on your book, trying to not fall into Jaemin’s hypnotizing eyes that can make you spill truths. “I am his friend. He never calls me an enemy.”

“Yeah not like that, I mean bring him here to our group study, ask him to sit with you during mealtimes. Invite him to join us when we’re strolling around Hogsmeade.” Jeno whispers.

The three of you shut up when a shadow appears on your table and drop a pile of books.

“Excuse me, mind sharing the table? The place is full and yours is the only one available.” A soft voice greets three of you and like robots, you turn your heads slowly to widen your eyes and gasp when the guy of your gossip is standing here.

“Oh Renjun, yes you can. Please,” Jaemin kindly brings his books to his side and you throw him a death glare. Well, the available space is the one on your side.

“Thank you, hey (y/n)! It’s been a while,” Renjun smiles at you. You just smile and nod, well yes you rarely see him in class, mostly because your schedule didn’t match his and both of you stopped playing quidditch.

You swear, that was the longest one hour in your life. Renjun’s soft sweet fragrance of sweet baked vanilla from the side is enough to make your heart beat faster, not to mention how cute he looks with his glasses when he is focusing on the charm textbook. You know if this guy is going to sit here all day, none of the materials written in the book will be planted in your brain. Still, Jeno and Jaemin had the audacity to invite Renjun into your small study group.

“Hey Renjun, next time why don’t you join us to study for O.W.L?” Jeno asks when all of you clean up your belongings and head for dinner.

Renjun’s smile lights up and he laughs nervously, “Well if that is okay with three of you, I don’t have any friends to study with yet.”

“You’re most welcome here! Just ask (y/n) later about our meeting times. Jeno can help with herbology and I can help with Potions. You can help us with charms! (y/n) here is the queen of transfiguration.” Jaemin welcomingly says all of this. Though most people may be blinded by his sweet words, you want to smack the life out of him when you see his glinting eyes taunting you.

You want to object, saying that his schedule won’t work with yours, but the cat has your tongue and all you can do is stay quiet as Renjun thanks Jaemin for inviting him to the group.

With that, Renjun chooses to walk around the grounds for a while before dinner. Your heart is bursting any second whenever he looks up to glance at the sky and you can see his perfectly sculptured face. No, it is not awkward, he casually talks with you about how he also misses quidditch, he also shares funny stories of the first-year students getting lost in the hallways just like you. Is he teasing you about getting lost in the hallway? Well since it is Renjun you just smile, had it been Jeno or Jaemin their hairs would already be in your hand.

“They’re just like you. Looking so cute when they’re lost and confused, afraid to miss their class.” Renjun stares at you and you laugh.

“I know, it was hard okay memorizing this big hall! Not to mention the moving stairs.” You finally feel less nervous and you can start talking with less stuttering.

“Well, if you’re ever confused just call me. I’ll assist you again like back then.” He chuckles and you laugh.

Well, you sort of have to treat Jeno and Renjun for a butterbeer maybe, thanks to them you finally get to walk around and talk with Renjun on the ground after four years.

That night on the paved grounds. You sit down while playing with your wand, swishing it while practicing some chants (without actually doing it). You sit on one of the grounds, leg straight while you lean on one of the pillars there. There is a soft footstep coming to you and someone took the opposite part of the pillars. You turn your head to catch Renjun’s body mirroring yours, but he is holding a book.

“Complicated.” He shrugs coyly.

You toss your head to the side and smile "Renjun, how did you find me? " Your easy-going Gryffindor traits show up and Renjun calmly looks up from his book to look over his shoulder to you too. “Maybe from this?” he offers you a Marauder’s Map and you gasp.

“How can you have one?” you want to take it from his hand, but he is faster.

Before you can ask more questions, Renjun diverts the topic and asks you about the group study. "So, are you sure your Slytherin and Hufflepuff boys want me to be in the group?" Renjun bashfully asks you this.

You laugh "They're more than happy when you accept their offer. Truth is we all suck at the hard charms. We need a tutor and we also need one more friend to make the space full. You're on our first list."

"I am honored to be first in the list, and I also like having friends to study with. So, tell me what the schedule is." With that, you wave your wand to bring you a piece of paper. "Accio schedule." The schedule paper lands on Renjun's slender fingers from your small pocket and the soft looking boy runs his eyes through the timetable. "Great, I can adjust my classes for this." You feel your heart can't take it anymore when he looks into your eyes deeply.

"So, see you tomorrow afternoon." You stand up trying to leave the ground, since the sleeping hours are coming, but his hand reaches for your wrist. "Sorry, do you want to go watch the quidditch practice between our team tomorrow? It's after lunch." Renjun scratches his neck. You nod "I will!" He smiles "Great, see you! Good night."

You raise your eyebrow "My hand" And he gasps as he lets go of your wrist. "Sorry" Both of you laugh and you finally go back to your room. Things were great, you and Renjun slowly became closer.

You hate the silly rules of staying over your own common room. Like dang you want to meet Renjun in his common room, but you know you’re not the smartest one to unlock their password. Not to mention you are not ready to have eyes pierced on you as you enter the room (if you ever succeed)

So, you end up only able to meet Renjun when he sees you on the hallway and with Jeno and Jaemin. He sometimes appears to you in the garden and you once found him chilling on the school’s astronomy tower in the middle of the night. He’s daring enough to leave his bed and you found him stargazing.

After your one encounter on the astronomy tower, that becomes your regular meeting place with Renjun.

Like tonight, both of you sneaked out of your beds, tiptoeing perfectly through the stairs. Somehow escaping the ears of Mr Filch and voila both of you are smiling ear to ear as the moonlight glows through your faces.

You sit on the porch, suddenly regretting your stupid head for forgetting the scarf. The wind is pretty harsh, and you try to hug your body. Renjun is busy watching the sky through his binoculars. You gave him your binoculars when you discovered he also loves space and the galaxy.

“Want to look at the stars?” Renjun looks at you and hands you the binocular. You nod your head while trying your best to not shake from the cold, but it is cold.

“Silly, forgot your scarf?” he unwinds his own blue silver knit scarf and steps closer to wrap it over you.

“What about you?” you feel worried about his condition. Renjun only shakes his head, “I wore warmer clothes. Also, you shouldn’t fall sick. You need to prepare for your O.W.L tomorrow. Just watch the sky.” He quickly changes the topic when he sees your annoyed face of bringing up O.W.L

You take his advice when he pushes your body to face the sky and you bring the object to your eyes. He was right, the night sky is always mysterious and calming, somewhere out there two of you believe another universe with aliens exists.

Renjun secretly watches you in admiration. He never expects to get this close with you, physically and mentally. By now, he knows your most embarrassing story, your favorite food, and your favorite star.

“Renjun! Quick make a wish!” you tug on his sweater and pull his hand when your eyes catch a shooting star.

Renjun is quick to realize your hand is still squeezing his arm, but he closes his own eyes and makes his own wish. You wish with all your might, things will be better for you and Renjun. You want him, you love him and basically, you’re so ready to risk everything just to get him. Creepy? No, that is love.

“So, what did you wish for?” he whispers near your ear, you see him shivering so you naturally take off the scarf and try your best to share it between both of you.

Renjun’s cheek blushed, “Didn’t think of that. You sure are smarter at things like that.”

You giggle “About your question, don’t you know a wish should remain secret or it won’t work.”

The young man scoffs, “You believe that?”

You nod “Well I thought you do too.”

Renjun smiles, “Fine. I will also keep mine.”

You can no longer hold back your yawn and you realize if both of you stay in this cold air, you’ll need to call in sick and that is not happening. Not when you need to catch up on all class materials.

“See you Injun-ah,” you wave as you drape the scarf back on him. He smells your sweet musk perfume and something tingles Renjun’s mind.

He remembers he had smelt that same hint of scent somewhere, but where. In confusion, the Ravenclaw walks back to his room. Only when his head hits his pillow does he finally remember where he encountered that smell. None other than that silly amortentia potion class. Take a whiff and you’ll know who that special person is.

“Tell me again how he always managed to find you?” Jaemin asks you about how Renjun always finds you. Both of you are sitting in the garden, taking a whiff of fresh air.

You sigh, you know you shouldn’t be telling him this, but you think Jaemin can keep secrets.

“He has a Marauder’s map.” You whisper under your breath.

Jaemin’s eyes lighten and his jaw drops. He really looks glowing with happiness like he won a lottery.

“(Y/n)~” his sing-song tone comes out and you mutter a curse under your breath. Oh no, he is going to ask you something. Which is true.

“Is it possible if you borrow the map from Renjun? Just for a second.” He pouts and draws random lines on your arm. You pull your hand away and slap his hand “What are you thinking? Go borrow by yourself.”

He drives his eyes to his feet, “I really need it, but I guess Renjun won’t let me borrow it.”

You scoff “You know it already. I never even touched it Jaem, it’s really precious after all.”

Jaemin, a total charmer, looks you in the eyes with his sickening puppy eyes “Please, I need it to meet Jeno secretly too! He seems tired but he is hiding it from us…”

“Your point?” you cut the crap out of him.

Jaemin smiles and you see his cunningness really popping up when he bribes you to help him “Point is, can you just take the map from him for a while and then I’ll use it to find Jeno, then you return it to him. Simple!”

You groan “How is that simple? That’s stealing!”

“Borrowing, just that he won’t realize it’s ever gone from his hand.” Jaemin shrugs his shoulder

“It’s not an honest game. You said ``borrow not steal and return.”

“Then try borrowing it from him, he doesn’t talk to me about the map so it’ll be weird if I ask him about that. He will be mad at you for spilling secrets and I know you love him so much.” He smirks, knowing that he won your internal battle.

You sigh, Jaemin really traps you in the mouse trap eh?

“Fine, let me try to borrow it from him. What will I get in return?”

“Woah you're so calculative! I thought we are friends and friends help each other?”

You really regret not joining Jeno to study with Renjun, this Slytherin man is really cunning… luring you to leave the library to “take in the fresh air” but ended up dealing with a dangerous project.

“Okay if you insist, I’ll say if the map worked, I’ll be able to accompany Jeno and he will be happier and you want to see Jeno happier right? Also you’re my best greatest courageous friend, isn’t this like a challenge?” he stares at you with great compassion plus hitting your chivalry ego and since no one is there to slap you, you nod your head.

“Okay Jaemin.” The Gryffindor spirit of not thinking about an action carefully is here.

Jaemin smirks and waves you goodbye after slipping a small tube of potion to your hand. He disappeared like that and you start to think of a way to talk with him about the map, while staring at disbelief for the Felix Felicis in your hand. Dang that Slytherin boy really is questionable.

You spend the afternoon thinking of a way to get Renjun’s map and you finally choose to ask him slowly.

“Renjun! What are the things you always keep in your bag?” you ask randomly but Renjun and you did this a lot of time, so he doesn’t smell your smoke.

He thinks for a while, “Nothing much, books and the map, some quills and chocolates? Why?”

You nod “It’s okay, just curious.”

He doesn’t pester you about it, only talking more about different things.

“Hey, tomorrow is Sunday. Mind to just sit and enjoy the day off? We sit in the fountain courtyard.”

Your brain finds a chance to take his map and so you nod your head.

--

You drop the Felix Felicis potion on your breakfast tea that Sunday morning and you meet Renjun who is looking so good in his casual outfit.

You’re nervous, though luck is favoring you, you are still battling yourself whether you should just snatch the map or ask him nicely.

After talking about different things and driving his attention to other things, you inch closer to Renjun and stare at his lips. Somehow your brain is focused on his lips and oh did you forget you took a potion this morning?? Because your silly head wants to kiss his lips so bad and luck is really on your side.

“Why are you staring at my lips? You really like them don’t you?” Renjun boldy asks, something so uncommon about him.

You gulp and blush, but your heart secretly wants to kiss him.

“Come here,” he pulls your hand closer and once your shoulder crashes with his, he kisses you right in the middle of the day when everyone can see you two sharing a slow kiss.

Your head almost stops working but suddenly Jaemin’s shadow appears in your mind and you quickly put your hand into Renjun’s bag. You didn’t know the lucky potion could be this wonderful because once your hand enters the bag you find the paper already.

Renjun was so focused on the kiss that he didn’t notice your hand slipping the map to your pocket. Only when you’re done did you finally break the kiss.

He blushes and you chuckle “That was intense.”

Yes the kiss was intense but the reason your heart beats super-fast is because of the action you just did. Stealing.

“I love you Renjun,” you whisper, feeling a bit sad for lying to him… but you don’t want to be embarrassed after what you did go well.

“I love you too, I didn’t know our feelings were mutual.” He innocently rubs his burning face and you want to die from lying with him.

“Renjun, sorry for suddenly leaving, but I have to go, I got something to do.” You stand up from the grounds.

“Huh? Oh okay I guess you look rushed.” He stands up too, “Where do you have to go? I can walk you there.”

You shake your head and reject his offer, “No, it’s personal. If you don’t mind, I’d rather go by myself. Bye Injun! See you!” you run away from him and disappear before he can even bid his farewell.

The ravenclaw just shrugs his shoulders and returns to his common room. When he kisses you earlier, he feels so fuzzy and fireworks are popping in his heart. As weird as it sounds, the kiss made him come up with a new imaginative creature.

Yes, Renjun is a ravenclaw who enjoys imaginative creatures. He is talented in drawing, so he spends his time sketching and naming creatures he has in his head. Though you may ask how a Ravenclaw believes in uncertain things with no concrete proof, Renjun has been hiding this guilty pleasure from anyone.

He hums as he sits on his chair and starts arranging his paints. The sun is angled perfectly at this time and he is more than excited to paint the new love creature he has in his mind.

On the other hand, you are running to meet Jaemin.

“I solemnly swear I am up to no goods.” You tap your wand and open the map to quickly find Jaemin.

There he is, somehow lurking in the dining hall. Weird.

You pocket the map and make your way to him.

“Use this quickly. I don’t know how long it takes for Renjun to notice.” You stuff the map into Jaemin’s pocket.

His eyes twinkle “Oh gosh you did it. You do this for me? Thank you!” he taps your shoulder and flies away “I’ll return it to you once I am done. Promise.”

You just wait for him with anxiety crawling in your heart. Something about stealing, lying, and using potion is just not settling well in your Gryffindor heart. You let out a deep breath, and relax a bit.

Only that it didn’t even last long and things are going downhill from here.

While you wait nervously in the dining room, you find yourself face to face with a fuming and disappointed Renjun. “You stole the map, didn’t you?!” he holds back all the anger inside to avoid reaching for your collar.

You gulp, of course he noticed. It’s been almost two hours. Couldn’t Jaemin find Jeno, bring Jeno to return the map to you then go disappear somewhere. Why should you wait for this long.

“I-“ you stutter “I’m sorry.” You apologize, your heart tells you lying more will just bring you to a deeper pit.

Renjun shakes his head, “You stole but I’m hurt you tricked me! Did you mean the kiss or not?”

Your eyes widened, he was just confused about the kiss? Oh how cute. You want to open your mouth, but it looks like the cat got your tongue again and Renjun was faster in assuming things when he is angry.

“You know what? I don’t care about your kiss, I don’t even care about your explanation. Give it back.” His palm opens up to you and you bite your lips “It’s not with me.”

His eyes would pop off from his head “You what? You lost it or gave it to someone?”

Damn Ravenclaws and their quick brains.

“I’ll give it back to you, I promise.” You reach out for his hand, but he snatches his hand away to his chest before you can appeal to him.

“You know what? I found it already.” He looks over your shoulder and sees Jaemin coming to you with a troubled face.

“And by the look of Jaemin’s face, I guess this is not my day.” Renjun sounds super sad and you hate yourself for actually starting all of this. He was in a super good mood earlier and you ruined everything. Now will you ruin your friendship too? and love interest.

You heard Jaemin apologizing (something so uncommon) about something and the next second, you don’t hear anything from Renjun’s lips, just an eerie silence between them and suddenly the man in blue sweater runs away from you and Jaemin.

“I may or may not have accidentally been caught by some other Slytherin, and they wanted to see the map. It ripped.” Jaemin mutters slowly and you feel your world has stopped turning and you should just leave Hogwarts before facing Renjun.

--

Renjun left both of you and there’s nothing you can do. There is, but your brain stops working and your Gryffindor heart cowers and runs away. You sit devastated on the ground and Jaemin copies you.

“We can try to fix this map,” Jaemin tries to cheer you up but you shake your head “We can’t. Even if we can, I don’t think the bond of our friendship can be fixed.” you pull your knees to your chest and put your chin on them

“I’ll find a way to fix this. I promise, I broke the map so let me take the blame for this.” Jaemin stands up with the ripped map and he casts the repair charm.

You just stare at it soullessly. Well the map did come back into one piece, but Renjun’s disappointment can’t leave your head.

“I am sorry (y/n).” Jaemin sincerely apologizes to you and you just hum a silent reply

“Look, I believe Renjun will forgive you. He might not forgive me, but I deserve this. This is not your fault. I made you trick him. I am the guilty one.” your best friend tries to cheer you up, but your mind keeps on thinking Renjun.

--

That young ravenclaw did come into dinner, well he has to as he’s the prefect. But when you leave your chair to tap his shoulder and talk with him, he already leaves with the big group and you find yourself alone, losing your chance.

You ask around where he is, and everyone says he’s in the prefect bathroom enjoying a long bath. You hate how he has a hideout you can’t come to. So, the only thing you can do is wait.

You think of ways to apologize and how he can forgive you. Should you do his chores? Should you do his essays? gosh no he’s smarter than you. Should you buy him some new paint and drawing books? He likes to draw right, but you bite your lips when you remember your allowance this month was finished for good when you bought that new broom.

You go to the toilet, and come back to ask where he is on a passing Ravenclaw, only to curse when they said he is already in the common room.

Great, now you really won’t be sleeping tonight.

“Hey (y/n), I handed him the map already and asked sorry.” Jaemin suddenly taps your shoulder when you are walking to your room.

You just nod “Lucky you, looks like he is not that disappointed at you. Must be because he is afraid you’d turn him into a frog.” you try to tease Jaemin but even your own joke doesn't taste good in your tongue.

Renjun tries his best to avoid you, or more likely avoid hearing your apology or explanation about what happened that day. It’s as if you’re a deadly plague! He did show up a couple of times to the group study meetups, but he never talks to you about anything other than asking your question about the lesson or when the boys ask him about his nerves about the test.

You feel sick from all of the studying, but most of your stress comes from Renjun’s constant ignorance towards you. He did talk to you about other things, he explained to you the lessons you’re still struggling with but he never speaks of that day as if it never happens. Though some people like that better and just brush it off, like Jaemin for example. You’re not satisfied with this. You need his real acceptance of apology or you can’t feel ease in your heart.

You tried all you can, sending him a message filled with handwritten apology, a chocolate of his favorite brand, a chocolate frog, some badly drawn apology painting, a poem, and even try to bring up the conversation whenever you meet but he always finds a way to smile and drive the topic to another thing.

His playful gaze can still be felt by you and he still helps you occasionally in classes you struggle in. He even helps until the last days of the O.W.L test and the guilt in your heart is just piling up.

--

“Good luck on your O.W.L '' Renjun one night smiles at you after cleaning up the books and quills. You gasp “Thank you, you too and Renjun I am sorry.” you finally get the chance to utter your apology intimately without anyone else near you.

Renjun sighs “You’re still sad about that?” you bite your lips and nod “I can’t take it off my head.” The man in blue robes chuckles and messes your hair “Silly. Stop worrying about that. Just focus on your studies okay so that you can pass this O.W.L” you turn red from his action, heart beating super fast upon seeing his cute smile and hand touching your head.

“Alright, I need my sleep. You go to bed too okay, see you for breakfast tomorrow.” he tucks a hair away from your face and bops your nose. You see him walk away after saying good night and when you want to go to your room, you notice a blue scarf he left on the chair.

“Renjun forgot this.” you wrap it around your neck because you have lots of stuff to bring back and slowly you walk to your room, enjoying how his scent softly brushes your nose when the wind is blowing in your direction. You feel calm now that Renjun told you not to worry about it and seeing how he’s back to playing with your hair makes you feel less guilty.

“I’ll return this tomorrow,” you mumble to yourself only to wrap it tighter to your neck when you sleep.

--

The O.W.L this year is nerve consuming and stressful. You and the other students are all squeezed and no one is having their energy other than studying, eating and sleeping. You’ve talked less with the boys, you’re busy isolating yourself in the study room or just in the garden to study and focus on yourself. You also forget about Renjun’s scarf and he seems to forget it too, judging by how he is using another scarf.

All of you made it through the excruciating exam and finally you’re packing your suitcase.

“Are you ready to go home?” Jeno puts his face into your face on the morning of the beginning of the holiday. You have a beaming smile on your face and you happily hug him “Thank you for your help! I did my O.W.L nicely because of your help!” Jeno only chuckles and laughs at your remarks. He only plays with your hair and pushes you away only for you to hit Jaemin’s chest and the cheeky guy is not ready to catch you. You close your eyes, preparing yourself to hit the hard ground and be embarrassed for the rest of the year in Hogwarts, but you didn’t hit the ground. You open your eyes and see Jaemin already standing next to Jeno, eyes running through the hall as he winks and waves his hand to the passing students. So, who is holding you?

“Hoah easy Jeno, you pushed her too hard!” A soft voice you missed. A voice that sounds so cute when he whines or complains. A voice that has been whispering all day all night in your head. Renjun.

“Renjun! Sorry.” you brush yourself as you stand up and tidy your looks. Suddenly feeling conscious if you’ll look good. Renjun smiles, he has his trunk by his hand too, looks like every one of us is going home this Christmas.

“It’s great to see you before the long holiday, (y/n)!” Renjun pushes a small smile and you are busy reaching into your backpack for something. “I need to return this! You left it in the library last time.” you hand Renjun the neatly folded blue scarf which surprises him. “Oh it’s with you! I thought I lost it.”

You laugh “Sorry, I forgot to return it to you.” you extend your arm to him. Renjun quickly takes the scarf and opens it, the next thing you know is that he inches closer to you, wraps the scarf softly on your neck and his lips hover above your own lips. When you look into his orbs, you see how he’s waiting for your permission and while Renjun still has his hand holding on to the scarf on your neck, you close your eyes and feel him pull you by the scarf and seal your lips with a long quiet kiss.

You feel butterflies in your stomach as he gently keeps his hands moving to secure your neck and your heart is thumping so hard.

“I forgive you, go enjoy your Christmas.” Renjun sincerely laughs and kisses your cheek “So, from today is it day one?”

You nod “Day one!” Your heart feels light, the heavy guilty feeling in your heart is gone, his kiss shows how he is not angry at you and you feel his passionate and sincere desire to have you as his significant other.

Jeno and Jaemin pretend they don’t see both of you, just waving their hands to any passing students, telling them to send owls, saying they’ll see them next year and all the season greetings.

“Alright, my train is leaving love. I’ll see you next year. Send me an owl , okay!” Renjun pinches your cheek that’s super red from his sudden actions. You just have a big smile on your face as you nod and wave “See you soon!”

Jeno and Jaemin help you put your stuff into the car your brother has sent to pick you up. You thank the boys, hugging them for being here with you through ups and downs and you’ve made peace with Jaemin. That guy promised you he’ll bring you back your favorite candy from his hometown.

As you sit down in your car, head looking back to the majestic and mystical castle, you smile when you remember how Renjun pulls you into a very sweet kiss and that’s enough to show you how he’s not mad or disappointed at you. You were overthinking, but that’s you. That’s something about your gryffindor heart, always wanting to be responsible for your faults and it feels good to finally see Renjun saying he forgave you already.

Magic and love. Might work side to side, might not. Whichever that is the potion or your attitude, Renjun loves you the way you love him too and that’s what matters.

end

[agendratum]

Hi hello, thank you for so much excellent content always! I was just wondering if there's a central place you watch all of these BL series, or if they just have to be tracked down individually through whispers and secrets?? Thank you for any help pointing me in the right direction, and have a nice day! 💖

ok so i took 3 years to answer this but hi!! thank you! if you still curious about this, then here's a short answer: there is no central place

long answer: it really depends on what bl series you're talking about.

if you mean thai bl series, because that's what i've been watching most recently, then if we talking about watching something legally, some of them, like kinnporsche and love in the air, are posted on iqiyi under a paid subscription. but then gmmtv's series, like bad buddy and not me, can be found for free on gmmtv youtube channel.

if we're talking pirating, for whatever reason, don't want to pay, can't pay, don't like subtitles that don't let characters say the fuck-word, don't like cut versions of things (this is mostly about c-dramas i've seen tho), then again, not really any central source. a lot can be found on dramacool, but not all. also a lot of series on dramacool are posted in low quality which can be a turn-off. other than that, yeah, you go around, you try looking yourself for stuff, you find websites, the ones that are not as questionable as some others, and preferably not blocked in your country, or you ask around and someone will tell you and will lead you to a place where you can watch the series you wanted in hd, with no cut scenes and with all the f-bombs your heart desires

if we're talking kdramas, i.. haven't watched a single one legally so far, i just look for shady websites and shady websites give me my series.

and if we're talking cdramas, i found that A LOT of them actually are posted for free on youtube by their respective networks. again, with bls especially, but not only, you might encounter situations where youtube versions are censored, which means that pirating is still the answer.

a little lifehack tho, usually you can look up the series on mydramalist and on every series' page there is a "where to watch" section that pretty accurately lists all the legal sources for said series that exist.

[rivalsforlife]

Phoenix Wright: The Truth Reborn: Oh No We’re Doing This Again

hi.

Nearly two months ago, I wrote an essay summarizing and making very wild conclusions about the second Takarazuka Musical. I did this about two and a half years after watching the first Takarazuka musical. As such I did not have the full context for many things from the musical and was relying mostly on my memory, which blocked many things from this musical for my own safety. However, just this week, I decided to rewatch it, because I enjoy tormenting myself. I said I wouldn’t write anything on it. Here I am writing something on it.

Here’s the youtube thumbnail so that you know what you’re getting yourself into. And here, of course, is the link. This is the HD version which may be slightly more pleasant to watch. Maybe.

It was not quite as cringe in a funny way as the second musical to me, and therefore this essay may be less funny, but I feel like I’m doing a disservice to people by providing a summary of the second musical while completely neglecting the first. Quite possibly doing this is even more of a disservice. I just eagerly await the day that the third musical is translated because *that* will be the day that I finally shuffle off this mortal coil. Either way, I want to write this stuff down so that I never have to watch the musical again out of curiosity.

The following essay will contain major spoilers for both the first and second Phoenix Wright Takarazuka musicals, as I will be using many points from this musical to argue my thesis of the second musical. ... like you were going to watch them anyways. 

This one broke 8k. I’m dead inside.

Introducing The Director

Again another disclaimer that I don’t have anything against the actresses or the theatre troupe. I DO have something against Suzuki Kei, who I recently learned is the writer and director of all three of the Ace Attorney Takarazuka musicals, and is quite possibly my mortal nemesis.

This man is the one who brought this monstrosity into the world.

This man, allegedly, cleared the first four ace attorney games *seven times* before sitting down to write these musicals. He played these goddamn games seven times and did not take in a single word. The man clicked through them mindlessly while watching a badly written legal romance drama in the background and got them completely confused. I genuinely have no idea how this man could have played these games more times than even me and yet managed to get so many characters (MAYA!!!!) completely and utterly wrong. This haunts me every day, truly.

This man played Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations, and Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney seven times. SEVEN TIMES EACH!! and was told to create a musical based on the series. He played these games seven times each and you know what he said?? You know what he said?? “This sucks, I’m getting rid of all of Phoenix’s backstory, butchering half the characters, and writing Phoenix/Lana fanfiction, but also rewriting all of Lana’s backstory so that she was Phoenix’s childhood friend, and you know what, I’m changing her name for good measure.”

I think this man played the games seven times each and then hated it so much and was so sick of it he tried to write something that destroyed as much of the series as possible while still being vaguely recognizable. And then somehow it became a massive hit because people like me see this and go “what the actual hell” and watch it, or people who haven’t played the games see this and go “wow what a great musical!” and then he wrote TWO MORE, destroying EVEN MORE every time in his wake, until finally, finally, he stopped after making Edgeworth straight and time traveling into the past to face off against a corrupt Gregory. I guess that was the last straw.

I have to issue a disclaimer here that for legal reasons this is a joke. I don’t actually hate this man and would not punch him in the face if I met him because that would be rude, and he is entitled to his wrong interpretation of the games. I don’t know what his thought process was. But allegedly he did play the games seven times according to the wiki. This whole essay here is satire and not slander and I don’t want to offend this guy if he somehow stumbles across my nonsense tumblr post. At the same time: Suzuki Kei blink twice if you need help.

Anyways half the reason that I’m making this essay is because I want to share my fake ao3 page for this musical. The other half will become apparent later.

Sorry if that’s illegible because of tumblr quality it’s not really important. All you really need to know is that it’s a fake ao3 screenshot for the musical. Also in the author’s note I said he played the games four times but it was actually seven I just remembered wrong because I didn’t want to believe it.

at this point you may be like “Grace shut up and get to the actual musical” and okay, fine, let’s start this nonsense. Also note that I may be referencing things from my essay on the second musical very frequently; I’m not going to force you to go read that though because the fact that you’re reading this is enough of a torment already.

The Musical Begins

Unlike the second musical, this one opens with some narration from Phoenix.

Transcript:

Phoenix: I’m reviewing a particular case at the moment. To me, this case... is one I’ll never forget.

Immediately I think this is important because it establishes that this whole musical takes place in a flashback that Phoenix is reflecting on. Why is this important? Because we know, by the time of the second musical which takes place three years later, Leona is dead.

Knowing that Leona is inherently doomed to die of her Sad Woman Disease paints this whole musical in a different light. It’s not Phoenix reflecting on how he got back together with his lover; it’s Phoenix dwelling on their past together, and the opportunities they had, before her life was so cruelly and inexplicably taken away. We don’t know if Phoenix’s reminiscing takes place before or after Leona’s death... but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was after.

Phoenix, still in the present, starts to sing. “A wave appears on the horizon like a mirage, it trembles, then vanishes. Your voice, carried upon the waves, fades upon the shore, erasing the splendor of the past.”

This line actually shows up in the second musical, sung by Lucia about her imprisoned fiance quite possibly. It’s kind of hard to tell what the meaning of these songs even are. They’re too abstract for me I think. But this line appears very frequently in the first musical when Phoenix is thinking about Leona.

Then we enter the flashback time.

Phoenix inexplicably yells at a newspaper saleswoman. This is not relevant to anything whatsoever. Then Larry barges in to the office, looking for Maya. Phoenix describes him as “A real trouble maker, but you just can’t hate the guy”, the latter part of which I think many people would disagree with. 

Well, afterwards, Maya comes in. Phoenix describes her like this while making exaggerated “can you believe this shit” gestures.

Transcript:

Phoenix: She’s as ditzy as they come. Oh, and about the outfit... Apparently she comes from a family of spirit mediums. Try not to make fun of her, okay?

Suzuki Kei personally has it out for Maya and I can never forgive him for it. Maya in these musicals is here for pure comedic relief but it’s not even comedic because I just get so angry. How can you play the trilogy seven times and think this about her?? The girl who figured out DL-6?? The girl who told Phoenix to sacrifice her life in order to find the truth?? The girl who put on a brave smile in order to try and cheer up her younger cousin even after she saw her own mother murdered right in front of her eyes?? That Maya Fey?? Ditzy as they come??????

Ugh. Moving on.

Maya and Larry run off, leaving Phoenix to watch the American Broadcast.

Important things to note here are the Godot mug, the little line up of what I think are the messed up little ace attorney figurines beneath the screen, and the fact that while this broadcast is supposedly from and to America the screen is actually not at all showing America. Like literally almost everywhere in the world except North and South America.

The broadcast says that Leona Clyde, age 24, was arrested for murdering the senator Robert Cole! Leona Clyde -- that’s Phoenix’s ex-girlfriend! He runs off to the detention center.

She is not happy to see him.

Leona: Mr. Wright... I’m not the woman you once knew.

Let’s Play A Matching Game

Sorry for the abundance of screenshots that are going to be throughout this section. Phoenix convinces Leona to let him defend her. Some of the conversation seems... familiar.

Leona: No one would defend someone who admits to killing a senator. I’m waiting for a court-appointed attorney.

Edgeworth: Every defense attorney I’ve talked to has turned me down.

Phoenix: In that case, let me defend you.

Game Phoenix: Let me defend you.

Leona: Don’t be ridiculous!

Edgeworth: Don’t be ridiculous.

Phoenix: I’ll never accept that you’re a murderer. Let me prove your innocence!

Game Phoenix: Huh? Isn’t it obvious? I’m going to prove that Miles Edgeworth is innocent.

Leona: I’ve already confessed my guilt.

Gumshoe: He confessed that he did it! In court!

Leona: It’s foolish to think you can win this case.

Edgeworth: My case is near hopeless, Wright.

Leona: (in response to phoenix offering to defend her) No you won’t! Don’t ever come here again.

Edgeworth: Look, just go away, and leave me alone!

Phoenix: You of all people should know. Once I decide to do something, I see it through to the end.

Edgeworth: Once you start on something, you always see it through, don’t you?

Leona: I never thought that you’d be representing me.

Phoenix: Ah, who could have guessed this day would come?

Edgeworth: Not me.

Phoenix: You believed in me. You saved me. And this time, I swear... I swear I’ll save you!

Game Phoenix: Edgeworth believed in me, and I believe in him. I’m the only one who knows the real Edgeworth. I’m the only one who can help him.

I could’ve done a few more, but tumblr is already threatening to murder my laptop.

So long story short, Phoenix manages to convince his lover to let him be the defense on the case. Then immediately after swearing to save Leona, he starts singing a song, which I’m not screencapping because this is enough:

“As long as there are people in this world, there’s only one path I will follow! As long as there is love in this world, there’s only one path I will believe in!”

Edgeworth sings this in the second musical after saying that he returned to California because of Phoenix. Phoenix sings it now after swearing to defend Leona. You draw your own conclusions.

And then we finally get the opening credits. Eleven minutes in.

Just Pretend This Is Narumitsu Fanfiction

Following the credits, we see a beautiful beach. Couples (exclusively heterosexual, of course,) dance and embrace in the background for some time, before revealing Phoenix and Leona, in the Even Further Past, before the LSATs or whatever the ace attorney universe’s excuse for law school exams are.

Phoenix establishes his absolute hatred of change, an important characterization moment.

Phoenix: The view here never changes, huh?

Phoenix reminisces on when they were kids. Leona’s parents were both lawyers (they’re both lawyers) and sometimes they would be like lawyers with her when she was a kid. This inspired her to also become a lawyer after their tragic death of Sickness. They never specify what the sickness is that caused two people who must be relatively young to die while Leona was in her early twenties at the latest. It may be whatever sickness claimed Leona’s life later. Sad Woman Disease. (Sad Man Disease for her father, I guess?)

Phoenix also talks about why he’s becoming a lawyer.

Phoenix: Watching you chase your dream inspired me to become a lawyer too.

So, it’s not “my childhood friend looked sad in a newspaper” because I guess that makes no sense or is too gay or something. But this is another important piece of Phoenix characterization. His entire life so far has been focused around Leona. They’ve been friends since they were kids, and then Phoenix decided to become a lawyer solely because Leona was becoming a lawyer. Not even to try and get back into contact with her after she moved away or anything; just because he’s so obsessed with her that he wants to have the same career as her, then they can run a Mom & Pop Law Firm or something, years in the future, after years of happy marriage and a few children or like whatever the hell.

Well, there’s a few steps they’ll need to get to that. At this point Phoenix still hasn’t confessed his feelings for Leona. He does so here, on this beach.

Leona tries to protest.

Leona: But I’m pushy, selfish, and only care about my goals... You’d get fed up with me.

Phoenix: That’s what I’ve always admired about you. That’s who I’ve been chasing all these years. That’s the only person... I love.

Sooo, Phoenix, your type is pushy selfish people who only care about their goals...? In the first, older lower-quality video translation it was “only care about my work”, too. Hm. Things to think about.

They sing a little duet together. Then we go back to present-day of what’s technically still a flashback. Whatever. Murder is happening.

Back To The Murder

So some plot things to establish: Leona is the legal counsel of Governor Miller, who is running for president in the AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. After the flashback so that Phoenix has some time to change clothes, they show an interview of him talking about the murder.

Governor Miller: I vow to forge a peaceful country with my own two hands, and to prepare myself for whatever may lie ahead.

Reporters: Through thick and thin, he’s a friend of the people!

The Takarazuka musicals are not very good at hiding their killers.

Phoenix: Oh yeah... It’s almost time for the presidential election, isn’t it?

NEVER FORGET, WRIGHT. THIS IS AMERICA. LAND OF THE FREE! god what even was that line.

Anyways, we meet Gumshoe, who is incompetent once again. Maya runs around the crime scene, picks up the murder weapon, puts her fingerprints all over everything, moves things around, all while Phoenix is like “lol get a load of the world’s stupidest girl” or whatever. But who cares about that.

It’s time to get to the only valid part of this musical.

Edgeworth’s Gay Little Villain Solo

You may have seen this one before.

Edgeworth arrives, but not really. It’s like Phoenix heard Edgeworth was prosecuting and immediately entered a dream-like state, where Edgeworth is heralded by the sound of trumpets in Great Revival. He’s played by a different actress than in the other two musicals, since I think she retired in between the six or so months from this musical to the second. She still plays the role well, though, or as well as can be when you’re written in an ace attorney Takarazuka musical.

Shrouded in scarlet solitude... it’s Edgeworth.

Yes, those are six Edgeworths. Yes, they pick Phoenix up and carry him around and dance with him. Yes, it was probably not meant to be at all homoerotic.

He sings a song that’s called “My rule”. I only figured this out later, but it’s loosely based on a “catchphrase” of his in the Japanese version - in game 1 he says something along the lines of “All I can do is get every defendant declared guilty! So I make that my policy.” In DD in his dramatic anime introduction before the trial, he says “I intend to question the defendant with all I have. For that is a part of my creed.” “So I make that my policy” and “For that is a part of my creed”, to my understanding, are both translated from the same line, which I think is like, “sore ga watashi no ruru”, “That is my rule.” (If I’m wrong, please correct me.) In this song he sings about how he’ll reduce all criminals to ash and such, basically talks about his game 1 prosecuting strategy as “my rule”. 

It’s very fun and probably if you want to only watch one number of this musical, it can be this one. It starts about 26:10 in the video I linked.

Once the musical number is done, Phoenix and Edgeworth stare at each other, and the background fades into the courtroom, so court begins. I feel like I should note that Phoenix has not picked up any evidence or talked to any witnesses in this investigation except for Gumshoe, since Maya just moved some things around and then Phoenix had some weird fever dream about Edgeworth which presumably took up the rest of the day.

The Trial, Day 1

Edgeworth: Consider it a prelude to the poignant Greek tragedy that’s about to unfold.

Maya: The real tragedy’s your pompous attitude!

Those are the only screenshots I took of this trial day. Here’s a summary, though:

The trial starts off with Leona confessing, Phoenix says “no I think she’s innocent”, and since ace attorney doesn’t care about the defendant’s wishes he’s allowed to proceed. For some reason Leona lets him do this without complaint. 

Gumshoe is the first witness, he claims to have caught Leona red-handed at the scene of the crime, standing over the corpse. Phoenix tries to claim that since Gumshoe didn’t see Leona committing the crime, he didn’t actually catch her red-handed, to which Edgeworth responds “What do you think being caught red-handed means?” 

Once Gumshoe is dismissed, Lotta takes the stand. She has a photo of the actual moment of the crime, where Leona is holding a knife in the air in front of the victim. 

The Takarazuka musicals like to do this thing where the image is blurry and zoomed out, but then Phoenix will go “I’VE NOTICED A CONTRADICTION” and it zooms in really far as the resolution increases drastically in order to show you the contradiction that is impossible to spot for yourself, because they don’t want people figuring out the mystery in this musical based off of a video game where you have to solve the mystery yourself. Anyways Phoenix zooms in on this photo and sees that there’s blood on Leona’s hand, presumably before she stabbed the victim. How did it get there?

Edgeworth suggests the victim was stabbed multiple times. Phoenix says the autopsy report contradicts that. Edgeworth, uncharacteristically, does not update it to suit his argument. 

Phoenix concludes that this photo is not showing the moment Leona stabbed the victim, but the moment Leona removed the knife! ... Which somehow casts doubt on her having been the one to stab the victim. Because as everyone knows, anyone wanting to kill someone would never remove a knife, it’s not like they’d bleed out faster that way, or anything.

And this whole contradiction is confusing because presumably if the victim was stabbed and then the knife was removed, they’d know that happened, because then the knife would not be found stuck in the victim’s body, since the victim was only stabbed once. So this shouldn’t be news to the prosecution that someone removed the knife after stabbing. But the investigation was headed by the most incompetent version of Gumshoe ever, so. sure. I guess no one knew.

That at least manages to extend the trial another day.

This Totally Has To Be Illegal

After the trial, Phoenix goes to talk to Governor Miller, aka Mr. Totally The Real Killer. Phoenix asks him why he decided to hire Leona as his legal advisor.

Basically, it’s because her parents were both renowned lawyers. Her father was a Chief Prosecutor, and her mother was a defense attorney. ... a prosecutor and a defense attorney couple... who does that remind us of...

Phoenix points out that just because her parents were good lawyers, it doesn’t mean she’d necessarily be one. Miller says that, sure, but she is actually really talented, and her law school marks were spectacular. Phoenix says “WHY WERE YOU LOOKING AT HER LAW SCHOOL MARKS”, like it’s somehow? suspicious? for a government official hiring legal counsel to look at their law school marks?

Apparently it IS suspicious because Governor Miller freaks out and asks if this is an interrogation. Before Phoenix can press much further, he gets a phone call, and leaves Phoenix alone in a big room.

So naturally Phoenix behaves like a fully grown adult running a law firm.

If all he did was sit in the chair, lift up a desk lamp, and poke his finger on a pen, that’s one thing. But then he leans over, OPENS THE GOVERNOR’S DESK DRAWER, and finds a knife that’s just sitting there casually. It looks like a butter knife. It’s not anything major. Maybe the dude just wanted to butter his toast?

I mean I know Phoenix will dig around in stuff whenever in the games, but he has no reason to suspect Governor Miller at all, much less dig through his drawer probably full of confidential government documents to lift up a knife that he thinks is suspicious. It’s not even covered in blood or anything?

Naturally Governor Miller’s assistant comes in just then, and Phoenix puts the knife. in his breast pocket. 

bud. It may look like a butter knife, but putting knives up against your chest is not a great idea. Much less stealing a knife from a governor? 

Well, in his panic, he accidentally knocks over a bunch of books on the desk. The governor’s assistant helps him pick them up, and they find a photo. Look a little familiar?

The photo has the assistant, the victim Robert Cole, Governor Miller, and the victim’s brother who died in an incident two years ago. He’s the “Neil Marshall” of this musical, and he died in what was essentially the SL-9 incident. Same general premise, except it occurred in the courthouse, and the names are different.

AND FINALLY WE REACH THE END OF ACT 1. They do a musical number here which is a weird sort of mashup of the main opening credits song, Edgeworth’s Villain Solo, and the love duet between Phoenix and Leona. They are all such different songs that it sounds a little weird.

ACT 2, FINALLY

The act begins on a sour note with Maya playing with the knife and showing off her characterization, which is one of the most infuriating Maya characterizations you’ll sometimes see around the fandom by people who don’t like Maya.

Maya: Let me whip up my special spirit channeler hamburgers!

sigh.

But then we’re saved (?) by the arrival of EDGEWORTH, who is presumably just here to chat. He asks Phoenix if he’s defending Leona in hopes of winning her back, then says to keep out of it, since it’s a very important case and he can’t understand the gravity of it.

Then Phoenix says this.

Phoenix: Would you be saying that if you were the one on trial? The defendant is in a dark prison, reaching out for hope... Can you imagine the loneliness and sorrow of being ostracized?

CAN YOU IMAGINE IT, EDGEWORTH? CAN YOU IMAGINE IF YOU WERE ON TRIAL AND I WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO WOULD DEFEND YOU AND BELIEVED IN YOUR INNOCENCE??

Edgeworth responds to this by essentially rehashing his speech in Turnabout Sisters about how he needs to find all defendants guilty because he can’t guarantee their innocence and all that. Maya gets upset and leaves so that Phoenix and Edgeworth can talk about their childhood in private.

Phoenix once again complains about how people change since nine years old.

Phoenix then says that he has something Edgeworth doesn’t: the POWER TO BELIEVE! Then Maya comes in and tries to spike Edgeworth’s coffee, so he leaves.

The Class Trial

Phoenix explains a bit about Edgeworth and his backstory to Maya. Namely, the class trial. Phoenix was accused of stealing lunch money, Edgeworth stood up for him, but instead of Larry, Leona stood up for him. I guess Suzuki Kei thought “oh the class trial, if Leona stood up for him, it would be so romantic, because she’s a woman, and he’s a man”, or something like that. 

Edgeworth wanted to become a Great Lawyer Like His Father! But then he turned cold as ice.

Phoenix: His father got too deeply involved in a case... and paid for it with his life. Edgeworth saw him murdered. He was never the same again. I bet he couldn’t forgive the criminal.

Yeah I bet he couldn’t ever forgive the person he thought killed his father all these years, Phoenix. I bet he really hates that person, Phoenix. I bet he has nightmares about that person killing his father or something, Phoenix.

Phoenix: He vanished, then returned without his mercy or compassion. He had become a monster. When he lost his father, he also lost the ability to believe in others.

So like... one of the most chilling things about this musical is that they never actually solve DL-6. This probably roughly takes place 15 years after DL-6, since they were about the same age when the class trial started, and at least Leona is 24 now. The next musical takes place three years from now, and in it, Edgeworth refers to von Karma as his mentor, implying he’s still around and doing things.

So, in addition to everything else going wrong with this musical, DL-6 still happens, but von Karma never frames Edgeworth for it fifteen years later. The statute of limitations runs out, and von Karma forever gets away with his crime. And Edgeworth has no idea.

What changes did they make to DL-6, though, you may ask? I’m desperate to know as well. In the third musical, which I’ve watched because I hate myself but am unable to fully understand because I don’t know much Japanese, there is a scene where Miles flashbacks to DL-6. It’s abstract, but he makes gun-throwing motions at Gregory, followed by a gunshot sound.

Therefore, in this musical’s internal canon, either Miles Edgeworth shot his father, or he believes he did for the rest of his life.

... moving on.

Phoenix: But he still has his humanity. It’s still there, deep down inside!

At least, if nothing else, Phoenix still believes in him. Even this Takarazuka Musical couldn’t touch that.

The Feenie Sweater

Right after this, Larry barges in, and Phoenix leaves him alone with Maya. The musical tries teasing Larry/Maya, but fortunately, Maya’s having none of it.

Maya: You’re barking up the wrong tree.

Props to this musical for not being as bad as it could have been.

After this, the two sit down on the couch, and Maya asks for more gossip on Phoenix and Leona. Larry launches into a story, which turns into a flashback that ends up being narrated by Phoenix halfway through. This one’s about Phoenix and Leona’s relationship.

This is an interesting line in here, “I’ll guide you to the future”, for it loosely referencing the sort of love ballad Phoenix sings with Lucia in the second musical which is about “I’ll take you to that radiant future”, and he later sings to the memory of Leona right around the time of his big spiral into despair.

I’m sorry if you haven’t read my other essay and just said “wait what” to what I just typed.

Leona was getting ready to move to New York to defend the weak “in the big city”. This is rather strange wording because it implies that California does not in fact have a big city. She says some things in her conversation with Phoenix that probably plant some of his later issues.

Leona: This is the first time we’ll be apart since we were kids.

Leona: We promised we’d always be together.

Leona: I’ll be waiting. Waiting for you to come to me.

Haha. Sure would be a shame... if something were to happen... and they wouldn’t be able to be together anymore...

So some dancers wearing black come in and take off their outer jackets, to symbolize the passage of time. They circle around Phoenix and Leona. In this, you can just barely see, Phoenix is wearing a pink sweater beneath his jacket.

“Oh,” I think to myself, “Is that the Feenie sweater? Are they including it here as a reference to the games?”

Then the dancers keep moving.

THAT IS NOT THE FEENIE SWEATER. That is a pink sweater with a sexily drawn woman on it.

This is the other half of the reason why I decided to go through with making this essay. 

This is so incredibly funny to me. Suzuki Kei Who Has Played The Games Seven Times has seen the hand-knit bright pink sweater with a giant red heart on it seven times. The sweater Iris, Phoenix’s girlfriend, lovingly knit for him that he wears all the time even though it is one of the tackiest, cheesiest items of clothing to ever exist. And so, when the costume designers were designing the clothes for College Phoenix Wright, they asked themselves: “Should we include the Feenie sweater?”

and “NO,” someone must have shouted, “NO, we can NOT include the Feenie sweater, it is PINK and it has a HEART on it and it’s TOO GIRLY. Phoenix Wright is a MANLY MAN. He would not EVER wear something PINK with a HEART on it.”

“BUT,” someone else said, “it’s a REFERENCE to the original games, where he DID wear a pink sweater with a heart on it! We MUST include it to pander to the fans!”

“WAIT,” a third person interjected. “I have a BRILLIANT IDEA. We can keep the pink... But to make it VERY CLEAR he is a heterosexual, masculine male... we put a sexy woman on it.”

And Person Three Got A Raise.

Thank god we’re finally halfway done this musical.

We Just Have To Go On With Our Lives Now

There’s plot or something happening. Leona breaks up with Phoenix inexplicably over the phone. Probably because of that freaking sweater. Imagine wearing that. God.

Eventually we go back to Phoenix talking to Leona, and he asks about the Jack Lyon case, which is the rip-off version of the Joe Darke case. Leona is pretty cagey about it, but Phoenix proves that she was there in the gallery that day. Leona refuses to answer, claims again that she killed the victim in her case, and leaves.

This makes Phoenix sad, so he starts singing.

Phoenix: I want to bring you back! I believe in you.

If this sounds familiar, it’s the part where I started absolutely losing my mind in the second musical because this line had never shown up before then, I’d forgotten it was in this musical, and Phoenix was screaming it alone in a red room, so I thought he was like desperately resorting to a necromancy ritual in hopes of bringing Leona back to life.

Instead, this line actually has CONTEXT, though it does just end up enforcing my theory. This is Phoenix mourning what he used to have with Leona, wanting to bring the “old her” back, because he’s devastated that people sometimes change. There are several flashbacks of their college days where he’s wearing his Sexy Woman Sweater. He does succeed in winning her back at the end of this musical. Before she dies, of course.

Phoenix in musical 2 still believes that he can bring back what he used to have with Leona... even beyond death. That’s something affirmed by this musical. I’m very grateful to it for somehow managing to enforce my nonsensical theory.

Doctor Ema

After this, Phoenix returns to his office, and meets with someone new.

That’s right! Only now, halfway through the musical, do we actually get to meet the Ema-equivalent to Leona’s Lana-equivalent. Her name is Monica Clyde. She has little rainbow heart stickers on her briefcase, which is the closest thing this musical has to acknowledging that gay people exist.

But what does this little briefcase contain, you may ask? Scientific investigation tools? No.

A full surgical toolset. Because you never know when someone’ll get sick, or when someone will need an entire operation in front of you. I guess.

So yes, Monica Clyde is not a forensic scientist in training, but a doctor! She decided to become a doctor because of her parents, who passed away of The Sickness, and so became a doctor in order to save lives like theirs.

Once more this has much darker and deeper implications than the musical is even aware of, because Monica is so anxious about treating sick people that she carries a full surgical toolset around with her at all times, scared to lose someone like she lost her parents... and then sometime in the next three years, Leona, her big sister, is going to die.

Of what? The strange Sickness that claimed her parents? A car accident? A botched spur-of-the-moment surgery? Whatever it is, Monica was unable to save her, even when she’d been training her entire life for it.

Monica is not mentioned at all throughout the second musical. It’s as if she does not exist.

Because unlike Ema of Rise From The Ashes, Monica is not at the heart of this story. She is, primarily, a plot device here to make Leona not trust Phoenix so that he can angst about their relationship. 

What a mess this world is.

The Trial, Part 2

Rather than try to prove Leona’s innocence, Phoenix wants to link the current case to not-SL-9, the Jack Lyon case. He does this by showing this picture.

Senator Cole, the victim, is in this picture. His younger brother whose name I’ve forgotten, the victim of not-SL-9, is also in this picture. They are brothers. It is apparently novel that they are in the same picture, and somehow makes their cases linked.

As well, Governor Miller is in the picture. I guess you could say like... Governor Miller’s legal counsel is the defendant, so that’s another link? Even though the Governor would presumably know a Senator, so this isn’t an unusual group. Right now Phoenix has absolutely nothing to prove that these two cases are linked other than “hey, these two victims are brothers”, but apparently it works. So they spend a lot of time talking about not-SL-9, since Leona has confessed to the murder on day 1 and there is absolutely nothing indicating that she can’t be immediately declared guilty.

They hid the fact that Monica was a hostage in this not-SL-9, meaning that some of the case records were forged. Here’s Edgeworth’s reaction when this comes out.

Edgeworth: This is an outrage! I’m the most influential prosecutor in America! There’s nothing I don’t know!

In RFTA, when Edgeworth learns he’d been using forged evidence to give a man the death penalty, he is devastated, his entire worldview is shaken, he sees himself as a monster who could end up becoming horribly corrupt if he isn’t stopped.

Musical Edgeworth goes “I DIDN’T KNOW SOMETHING???”

It’s certainly strange characterization, but I guess Edgeworth is further behind in his character arc than in RFTA, so... ugh. Fine. 

Phoenix calls Monica out as a witness to prove she was involved in the case. This causes Leona to panic, and try to dismiss Phoenix as her attorney, like Lana in RFTA, but Edgeworth interjects to call Monica in anyways. He and Phoenix have a little moment.

Edgeworth: You said to believe in others. I suppose I’ll try believing in you. Try to keep up.

Phoenix: Edgeworth!

So Monica comes to the stand to testify. We get to see this picture of Monica being held hostage, and not-Joe-Darke’s incredible eyeliner.

Lots of it is very similar to the actual RFTA, except instead of the victim being stabbed on the knight with the giant knife, he’s instead stabbed with a regular old knife. Leona still refuses to admit to what really happened, until Edgeworth convinces her to believe in Phoenix.

Edgeworth: Your attorney is a runaway train with a one-track mind. Yet he placed all of his faith in you. Believe in him. You owe him that much.

Leona testifies, and says that when she found the victim, he was stabbed with a scalpel.

Here is where things get weird.

Scalpels Can’t Kill People

So basically earlier in this trial, they talk about how Leona knew that the knife that stabbed the victim was double-edged despite being buried in his chest. The judge questions if this means Leona killed him, but Phoenix is quick to say no, she was searched when she entered the courthouse and couldn’t have concealed a knife.

Yet, Monica was able to bring in her surgical toolkit which contains several sharp knives, scalpels, scissors, etc.

This is the first major contradiction.

Leona continues to say that when she found Monica, and the scalpel stabbed in the victim, she also ran into Governor Miller, who if you haven’t been able to tell yet is the Gant-equivalent of this musical. He offered to help her with the cover-up, etc.

The next bit goes a lot like RFTA. Phoenix accuses Governor Miller, who barges in, says Phoenix has the decisive evidence in his pocket. This is the “butter knife” that Phoenix took from his office when he dug around in confidential documents and stole it for no particular reason. It has Monica’s fingerprints on it! ... And Phoenix’s and Maya’s too probably because they were handling it without gloves, but they don’t mention that part.

Leona cries about how she shouldn’t have trusted Phoenix because he was apparently now blaming Monica, Monica looks terrified, she and Leona have some good sister moments but it’s not as good as it could be if the story was actually about Leona and Monica like how RFTA was about Lana and Ema. But Phoenix has the decisive piece of evidence that can turn this around.

It is this:

Phoenix: Scalpels are made for medical incisions, not stabbings. So how did it stab the victim?

...

...

...

... What?

So like. Yes, scalpels are made for medical incisions. Medical incisions often involve cutting through flesh, very easily. As a result, they are sharp. Extremely sharp. As in: their purpose is literally to stab people, very specifically.

Yes, they’re easier to control, so that surgeons don’t regularly stab people how they’re not supposed to be stabbed, but it’s not like, impossible to stab someone in a killing way with a scalpel? Admittedly, I have never tried to kill someone using a scalpel. And I do not have experience using a scalpel for surgeries because I am not a surgeon. But I’m pretty sure, if you take a sharp scalpel, and you stab someone in the chest with it with a reasonable amount of force... they die.

Like, is this a particular kind of scalpel that is not very sharp? Is the problem that the blade doesn’t match up with the initial wound? But even then, we don’t have the original unforged autopsy report or even a picture, so how would Phoenix know what the original wound looked like to say it didn’t match up? And even then why wouldn’t Phoenix say that instead of SCALPELS CAN’T STAB PEOPLE???

This is his decisive contradiction and it makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE TO ME!!!

Well Darn I Guess Scalpels Can’t Kill People

This is such a decisive piece of evidence, that scalpels can’t kill people, coming from the man who thought “caught red-handed” does not involve being caught standing over a corpse with blood on your hands, that it causes Governor Miller to confess.

Unlike Gant, who created the murder with Neil Marshall both to ensure that there was decisive evidence to convict Joe Darke, a serial killer who had not left any decisive evidence behind, and gain control over the prosecutor’s office in order to pull similar stunts to get criminals convicted using false evidence, Governor Miller does not have that as his motive. After all, he’s not a police officer. Instead, he ended up accidentally killing not-Joe-Darke, and then set up the incident in order to get Leona on his side. As her parents were both influential lawyers and very respectable, having her and her parents’ reputation on his side could help him become President of America Where This Takes Place.

So, let’s just take a moment to run over some of the things that made the original Rise From The Ashes great, in my opinion. Just for fun.

1 - The heart of the story between the Skye sisters. Lana closing off to protect Ema, Ema wanting to get through to her sister and get back to the way things used to be. Phoenix, in this story, is more of a bystander to this plotline rather than in the heart of it himself.

2 - Edgeworth’s Character Development. Basically RFTA creates an interesting transition between Turnabout Goodbyes and JFA. It causes Edgeworth to re-evaluate everything he knows about being a prosecutor. So quickly on the heels of Turnabout Goodbyes, it crushes the last bit of hope in him. It compares him to Gant, who also hates criminals, and forces him to wonder if his hatred of crime will one day lead to him being a criminal himself. He’s already convicted one person on forged evidence; how many others could there be?

3 - The Ends Justify The Means. ... wait come back, don’t leave. What I found neat about this case was also Gant’s motive. At one point he was presumably an honest person who hated crime and wanted to stop criminals. But over time in the police force, he became corrupted. He wanted to have all criminals convicted. So what do you do when you don’t have the evidence to convict them? Joe Darke was a serial killer who has killed several people and may have killed more if he’d gone free. The only way to stop and convict him was by using forged evidence. Other criminals could hide evidence to get away with their crimes, so people like Gant would make it up to catch them; but then when do you stop? What happens if there’s no evidence because someone is truly innocent? When does the line between “this person is a criminal and I want to stop them” and “I just want to convict everyone I’m dealing with” become blurred? This is also something he shares with Edgeworth and helps to advance his character.

All three of these things are either lessened or outright ignored in this musical. Leona and Monica’s story takes a backseat to Phoenix and Leona’s Love Story, with Monica only showing up halfway through, and mainly as an excuse as to why Leona is withdrawn. Edgeworth doesn’t seem to blame himself for the forged evidence he used, and doesn’t have a crisis questioning his morality over it. And Governor Miller’s motive is purely power. Unlike Gant, who would have become Chief of Police whether he solved SL-9 or not, Miller needed Leona to win the presidency. And instead of asking her to help him with his campaign like a normal person, he just blackmailed her instead.

... How do you play the games seven times and miss this much?

The Case Finally Ends

god. we’re almost there.

The case ends, Leona is declared not guilty but will still face trial for covering up murders and such. Probably less of a sentence than Lana because she was not involved in ongoing police corruption? Either way she’s dead in three years, so she’s got something a bit more concerning coming up.

She’s led away. Phoenix sings a bit about Leona before being interrupted by Edgeworth... who has something important to tell him.

Edgeworth: You awakened within me those once-cherished emotions I had discarded. I see visions of a distant, nostalgic past.

So basically this is the unnecessary feelings of the musical. Something along the lines of “seeing you again and fighting for my former ideals is making me question many things about myself.”

How does Phoenix respond?

Phoenix: Edgeworth... Try talking normally for a chance.

Sure, we were all thinking it, but that’s a little cold, Phoenix.

Edgeworth tries a smooth recovery.

Edgeworth: I don’t do... idle chit-chat.

This doesn’t accomplish much. So he leaves to allow Leona to visit with Phoenix alone. He’s got to go change for something more important coming up.

Leona and Phoenix decide that they’re going to get back together once Leona is done her sentence! They make a promise that is very funny if you know she’ll be dead in three years.

Phoenix: I’ll be waiting. For you.

There are a lot of hugs here, I’m not screencapping them all. There are also several moments where their faces get very close together and like, their nose brushes the other’s cheek or something, but they never actually kiss. Is it because the actresses weren’t comfortable with it (valid), or they thought kissing would be too much for the musical (sure, whatever), or since both characters are played by women the show staff did not want two women kissing on stage (probably the real answer)? I don’t like watching kisses, but I kept bracing myself for one and then it never happened, so.

Phoenix ends the main part of the musical with one last musical number starring my personal favourite piece:

Phoenix: I want to bring you back! I believe in you.

I like to think that at this point, this is present-day Phoenix, after finishing his reminiscing, still desperately wishing he could bring Leona back from death.

But alas, he cannot. And so, after one last daydream of them dancing together on the beaches of California, singing about their love, the musical ends.

Dance Time!

This starts at exactly the two hour mark, if you’re interested in watching what is, once again, one of the only fun parts of this musical.

Seriously, Edgeworth’s actress kills it here, when I first saw this I went “oh, this is why I saw so many people being gay for her on twitter.”

Edgeworth’s song is an encore of “My Rule”, so it’s lots of fun. Afterwards Phoenix gets another fun piece.

Then we get to the love ballad part, which I can probably overanalyze, I feel like I haven’t done enough ridiculous over-analyzing in this essay in comparison to the other.

Uhhh so the fog represents how Phoenix feels lost in this world without Leona. You can see it in the second screenshot separating the two of them, representing the barrier of death between the two of them. Idk it’s midnight I’m getting worn out from having to think about this musical for so long.

But his mourning over Leona’s death becomes even more apparent in the credits, where Phoenix sings that one line again:

Phoenix: I want to bring you back! I believe in you.

I’m not fixing that screenshot, I think it’s oddly fitting, in a way. That’s me right now.

Then at the very end, he sings this song.

Phoenix: I’ll spend... this eternal life... soaring through... the heavens!

Technically, this refers to his name Phoenix, but let’s dig a little deeper. He spends the rest of his life soaring through the heavens... the heavens that Leona went to after her untimely death, perhaps?

Overall, the musical becomes much more interesting when you just see it as a prequel to the second musical. This musical establishes many core concepts of Phoenix’s character: his refusal to believe in the concept of things changing, for one, and also his extreme dependency on Leona who he was never separated from since they were kids and where he based his entire life around her dreams and ideals. All he can think about is her. And in the end, he promises to wait for her in California.

Yet, to paraphrase Miles Edgeworth, all that is waiting for him is her death. Their dream of opening up a Mom & Pop Law Firm will never come true.

Thanks again for bearing with me even though this wasn’t as funny!

[pathfinderunlocked]

Soul-Siphoning Wraith - CR5 Undead

This is a modified wraith for when you want to assault the PCs with a whole bunch of evil incorporeal spirits at once and keep them running around.

Artwork by Feig Felipe Pérez on ArtStation.

This is a more wraith-like version of the Soul Siphoner that I posted several weeks ago, combining a soul siphoner’s slow full-round reach attacks with a wraith’s abilities (plus a few new tricks) for a more complex monster.

Soul-siphoning wraiths are not very dangerous by themselves.  If they manage to latch onto a PC, they can do some damage, but as long as the PCs keep moving, the soul-siphoning wraiths will be mostly neutralized.

This makes them a good minion to put in a fight alongside other creatures, especially at higher levels when the PCs might have three or more attacks per round that require standing in place.  The touch attacks and ability drain remain dangerous at high levels, and the players will have to forego their full-attack actions in order to avoid them.

They mostly stay in the air 10 feet above ground level, meaning they have to be 15 feet away from a target horizontally to attack it.  This keeps them out of reach of most melee attacks.  On rounds when they need to move closer to an enemy, they either use the total defense action or double-move to get as close as possible.  Incorporeally flying down into the ground near an enemy, so that they can take a five-foot float up out of the ground and attack on the next round, is a solid strategy.

Pair them with some kind of enemy that creates difficult terrain, grapples targets, or otherwise hinders movement, and you’ll have a good fight.

If you want to support this blog, now there’s an easy way to do so through my Ko-Fi page!  https://ko-fi.com/lockez  

Soul-Siphoning Wraith - CR 5

This ghostly creature is little more than a dark shape with two flickering pinpoints of light where its eyes should be. It stretches out tendrils darkness in your direction, and makes a grasping motion, as if trying to grab you, though it’s too far away to do so.

XP 1,600 LE Medium undead (incorporeal) Init +7; Senses darkvision 60 ft., lifesense; Perception +10 Aura unnatural aura (30 ft.)

DEFENSE

AC 18, touch 18, flat-footed 15 (+5 deflection, +3 Dex) hp 47 (5d8+25) Fort +6, Ref +4, Will +6 Defensive Abilities channel resistance +2, incorporeal Immune undead traits Weaknesses sunlight powerlessness

OFFENSE

Speed fly 60 ft. (good) Melee incorporeal touch +6 (2d6 negative energy plus siphoning reach (DC 17)) Space 5 ft.; Reach 20 ft. Special Attacks create spawn, shadow corruption, siphoning reach

STATISTICS

Str —, Dex 16, Con —, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 21 Base Atk +3; CMB +6; CMD 21 Feats Blind-Fight, Combat Reflexes, Improved Initiative Skills Diplomacy +10, Fly +7, Intimidate +13, Knowledge (planes) +7, Perception +10, Sense Motive +10, Stealth +11 Languages Common, Infernal, Necril

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Create Spawn (Su) A humanoid slain by a soul-siphoning wraith becomes a wraith in 1d4 rounds. These spawn are less powerful than typical wraiths, and suffer a –2 penalty on all d20 rolls and checks, receive –2 hp per HD, and only drain 1d2 points of Constitution on a touch. Spawn are under the command of the soul-siphoning wraith that created them until its death, at which point they lose their spawn penalties and become free-willed wraiths. They do not possess any of the abilities they had in life.

Lifesense (Su) A soul-siphoning wraith notices and locates living creatures within 60 feet, just as if it possessed the blindsight ability.

Sunlight Powerlessness (Ex) A soul-siphoning wraith caught in sunlight cannot attack and is staggered.

Unnatural Aura (Su) Animals do not willingly approach within 30 feet of a soul-siphoning wraith, unless a master makes a DC 25 Handle Animal, Ride, or wild empathy check.

Siphoning Reach (Su) Creatures hit by a soul-siphoning wraith’s touch attack take 2d6 points of negative energy damage, and must succeed on a DC 17 Fortitude save or take 1d2 points of Constitution drain and 1 temporary negative level. On each successful attack, the soul-siphoning wraith gains 5 temporary hit points. The save DC is Charisma-based.

The negative level lasts only until the target moves outside of the soul-siphoning wraith’s reach or the soul-siphoning wraith is slain, at which point it ends.

Slow Attacks (Ex) A soul-siphoning wraith has a 20 foot reach with its melee touch attack, but it can only use this attack as a full-round action.  It cannot make attacks of opportunity.

Shadow Corruption (Su) As a swift action, a soul-siphoning wraith can create an area of shadow corruption with a 5 foot radius on the ground, centered within 60 feet of the soul-siphoning wraith.  Creatures in the area at the time which succeed on a DC 17 Reflex save can immediately move out of the area into an unoccupied space adjacent to the shadow corruption.  If a target takes this movement, it cannot take a 5-foot step during its next turn.  If it takes an action to move during its next turn, it subtracts the distance it moves from its total movement.  A target cannot move out of the shadow corruption in this way if it cannot take a 5-foot step.

Creatures standing on the ground which start their turn in an area of shadow corruption, or pass through it, must make a DC 17 Fortitude save or take 3d6 negative energy damage, and if they take damage, must make a DC 17 Will save or become confused and immobilized with fear for 1 round.  The effects of the failed Will save are a mind-affecting enchantment fear effect.  The save DCs are Charisma-based.

Areas of shadow corruption disappear after 10 minutes.

[dzamie]

VLC YouTube Ripping Tutorial

I keep seeing posts about how Spotify is crap, don’t pay for streaming, yada yada, and every time, someone suggests a different ad-filled, data-harvesting website that’ll probably get taken down within a few months, all for just getting some songs locally.

Well, don’t worry, I have a better solution. The VLC media player is a free, open-source audio/video player with literally zero ads and can easily download whatever YouTube or Soundcloud you want! (and possibly some other sites, but I can’t get Twitch to work and don’t use the others)

So! Let’s download the Magic School Bus intro as an example.

1. Start VLC

[a VLC media player window, with nothing in the playlist]

Mine goes to playlist view by default, but yours might go to player view (looks like a traffic cone on a black background). Either way is perfectly fine.

2. Copy the YouTube video link

[YouTube video link for “The Magic School Bus theme HD.” The link has been right-clicked, and “Copy Link” is selected]

You can also just go to the page and copy from the address bar, but that’s a whole other page load and I’m too lazy to wait for that.

3. Open the YouTube URL

[an “Open Media” window, open to the “Network” tab. In the text box, a YouTube video URL has been entered]

You can find this in Media > Open Network URL, or just press Ctrl+N for the shortcut to this window.

Alternatively, you can just press Ctrl+V rather than menuing:

[a smaller “Open URL” window, with the same URL pasted in the text box]

Now just press Enter! Or click Play, whatever.

4. Copy the “Location” of the video

This looks complicated, but don’t worry, almost none of it matters.

[window titled “Current Media Information,” with a bunch of mostly-empty text boxes, a thumbnail of the Magic School Bus opening, and a box at the bottom labeled “Location:” with what looks like a bunch of random letters and numbers]

You can get here by pressing Ctrl+I or going Tools > Media Information. Ctrl+J also works, it just puts you on the Codec tab instead. As long as you see that “Location” box, you’re good.

Then, just select all of the Location (press Ctrl+A or right-click > Select All) and copy it. It’s important to select ALL of it, because just double-clicking won’t give you anything.

5. Convert!

[the Open Media window again, but this time the text box has the Location text instead of a youtube video URL, and the “Play” button now says “Convert / Save”]

By pressing Ctrl+R or going to Media > Convert/Save, you get this dialog. Put the absurdly long Location in the network URL box. You can also do this in the Ctrl+N Open Network window, but you have to click the little arrow next to Play to choose Convert.

[window labeled “Convert.” The Location text is in the Source text box, “Audio - MP3″ is selected as the Profile, and a path to asdf.mp3 is in the “Destination file” text box]

If you want the video as well, just click on the Profile dropdown and choose one of the Video - MP4 profiles rather than Audio - MP3. There’s two of them, but at least one should work.

Then just click “Browse” and choose a place and name to save to and press Start!

6. Success!

[a file named “asdf.mp3″ among a number of other asdf-named files. Part of a VLC window shows that “asdf.mp3″ is playing]

Now you can listen to Magic School Bus whenever you want, however many times you want, for absolutely free, with no “upgrade to Spotify Premium” or other ads, and there’s not a DAMN thing Google can do to stop you!

[demi-shoggoth]

COVID-19 Reading Log, pt. 15

This batch is mostly comfort reads for me; monster manuals and books I’ve read before. Unfortunately, one in particular was decidedly uncomfortable.

76. The League of Regrettable Superheroes by Jon Morris. This book is a survey of weird superheroes, mostly from the Golden Age. The book is full color, with a short article explaining/cracking jokes about the hero on one facing page, while the other facing page is a comic page or cover. The book lumps everything from 1970 on as “the Modern Age”, but I get that splitting that up gets into both fragmentary returns (there are only two or three 90s heroes, for example). Also covered are some intentional joke character—Squirrel Girl, for example. There are some characters in here I genuinely want to read the comics of, like Mother Hubbard, who’s a rhyming, potion brewing witch who fights fairy tale gnomes and giants.

77. Lusus Naturae by Rafael Chandler. The book is written for Lamentations of the Flame Princess, a game with all the tastelessness of FATAL but a higher art budget. It’s supposedly a monster manual for horror-inflected games, but the tone varies wildly from over the top gore to robots to standard post D&D fantasy to a genuine comic book supervillain. The gore is really truly over-the-top; the first monster is kind and pleasant, except when it liquefies human children to mix with resin and sculpt into plinths. This kind of crude shock value is nearly omnipresent in the book, as well as a ton of forced impregnation, sex-obsession and general toxic misogyny. A lot of the monsters don’t seem fun even in a horror context—they rely on damned if you do, damned if you don’t gotchas, where killing them only makes things worse. In addition to the deeply unpleasant material, the mechanics also show huge gaps between concept and execution. For example, the ideologue is a monster said to be an entire pocket universe, and it attacks by destroying whole solar systems within itself. It has 5 HD and that attack deals 1d12 damage. The worst book I’ve actually finished for this project. I feel like downloading it has put me on some sort of watch list.

78. The Legion of Regrettable Supervillains by Jon Morris.  Supervillains are more my speed than superheroes, anyway. This book is very much of a piece with its predecessor. Some characters in this book are villains that battle heroes from the other one. For example, 711 is a superhero whose alter ego is locked in prison, so he sneaks out to fight crime; his enemy Brickbat (he dresses like a bat and throws bricks at people, of course) appears in this one. There are several fairly prominent Marvel characters who show up in this book—Stilt-Man, MODOK and Batroc the Leaper all make appearances. Again, because I like supervillains, I feel like there’s a few strong candidates who got left out of this one. No Armless Tiger Man? No mention of the Outsider that fought Silver Age Batman? (The Outsider, btw, was a silver-skinned monster who could communicate telepathically and control objects from miles away. Also, he was undead Alfred the butler. Too bad Michael Caine never got to play him).

79. Endless Realms Creature Compendium, project lead Kirsty Garbe. Read in an attempt to wash the foul taste of Lusus Naturae out of my mouth, this book mostly succeeded. Endless Realms is a RPG that falls into the category of “fantasy heartbreaker”; it clearly wants to be the next D&D, plus more. The “more” in this case is more mechanics like Fire Emblem and more furry player races. Lots of elemental rock-paper-scissors mechanics, and these mechanics provide the fuel for many of the monsters. There’s elementals for each element, corrupt spirits for each element, and dragons that represent both pure elements and mixes thereof. The book wears its influences on its sleeve—it pinches myconids from D&D, boggards from Pathfinder, and some of its gem dragons have the personalities of their respective Steven Universe characters. The book’s creativity is strongest in the creatures of the Dream realm, many of which are truly weird and alien. All of the art is done by the same artist, Jennifer Elliott, which lends a unified vision to the project. Plus, she’s put all of her art online for free if you want to check it out. That’s how I heard of this book in the first place.

80. Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake. This book, about the relationships between fungi and other life, has been getting a lot of press lately. The book is mostly themed on the topic of symbiosis, of which fungi are well attuned, through sub-topics such as lichens, mycorrhizal associations with roots and human uses of fungi. The author has a sense of awe and wonder about biology, which I appreciate. There are both color plates and black and white illustrations (drawn with ink-cap mushroom ink!), all of which are lovely. My one complaint with the book is the absolute gung-ho nature of the author about hallucinogenic mushrooms and consciousness expansion—the potential hazardous effects of LSD and psilocybin aren’t even mentioned once, and even ergotism is basically glossed over.

[m39]

History of the Creed - Part 5: Assassin’s Creed: Liberation

This review would have been earlier if I hadn’t had problems with the Internet.

Before we start, here is a fun fact: This is actually the first time I played Liberation. So my opinion may end up differently if I’ll play it in the future. Also, I didn’t get every collectible, since everytime I play the game for the first time, I tend to skip around 50% of the optional stuff to see how the main story ends.

So, without any further to do, let’s get it started.

ASSASSIN’S CREED: LIBERATION (Original release in Europe: October 30th, 2012 (original version on PSVita), January 15th, 2014 (HD version on PC))

Played on the remastered version, released on March 29th, 2019.

Liberation is an interesting case of a game. As shown higher, it was originally released for the handheld-console, PlayStation Vita, as a side game along with AC3. It was later released on the main consoles due to the fans’ petition, adding some content into it, and changing some of the more irritating stuff in it. The remaster I play is based on the latter version. Time to find out if I liked this game.

STORY

Now the plot is rather… how to put it… kinda’ messier than AC3 due to the jump cuts in the Animus console or how the fuck this version of the Animus is called. Here’s how it goes:

You are Aveline de Grandpré, an Assassin and the daughter of the French merchant and the slave woman. She wants to free slaves and stop the local Templars and their leader, The Company Man, from doing... whatever Templars want to do.

So, uhm… yeah, that’s all I can understand from it. The (probably) only thing that stands out is how Liberation is also an in-game product created by Abstergo, but I’ll talk about it later.

CHARACTERS

Aveline is… fine, I guess? I can see why many people like but me? I’m not so sure about it. She wasn’t really annoying but I can’t really see her standing out.

Other characters were doing a nice job. Aveline’s mentor, Agaté, was the most interesting out of all of them, while captain Carlos Dominguez was the funniest character, mostly due to his drunken antics. Also, I liked Connor’s cameo in one of the missions.

As for the Templars, they were underwhelming. Surely, most of them were interesting but I feel like some of them didn’t have enough screen time. The Templar before the confrontation with the Company Man might be the best out of the bunch.

As for the Company Man, well, this character’s identity is kind of interesting but I’m not gonna talk further due to spoilers.

GAMEPLAY

One of the biggest cases of Liberation is that Aveline can change her outfits into three different personas. Each one has its own advantages and disadvantages. Assassin’s Persona will let you freerun, use bigger weapons, and have more health for the cost of constantly being at the first level of notoriety. Lady’s Persona will let you bribe or charm other guards to let you pass, but you can’t have any weapon outside of the hidden blades, your health is lower, and you can’t freerun. And Slave’s Persona will let you slip through the guards while carrying a crate and have a small weapon to defend yourself, but any suspicious activity like climbing will slightly increase your notoriety meter and you have the same amount of health as Lady’s Persona. The last Persona is my favorite one, probably because I can freerun and my notoriety isn’t constantly on level 1. Also, you can easily decrease your notoriety.

Speaking of notoriety, it’s almost exactly like in AC3 with three levels of it and the same ways to decrease it (however, the printers are replaced with the Witnesses). What’s different from AC3 though, is that in Liberation, notoriety is for each of the Personas, that is, it only increases for the Persona you are dressed as, and each way to decrease the former corresponds with the latters. So tearing down the wanted posters decreases the notoriety of the Slave’s Persona, bribing the corrupted magistrates for the Assassin’s Persona, and killing the witnesses for the Lady’s Persona. I’m not gonna lie, I kind of like the idea of it.

You also have a Whip. You can use it in combat to pull enemies closer and make yourself pass through some of the larger gaps. Honestly though, aside from traversal usage, I had no need of using it while fighting.

There are also Chain Kills, which, after filling up, will let you automatically kill up to three targets in a short time. I find this ability useless since you are easily capable of fighting even without it. I used it only once for the tutorial and that’s it.

I mostly liked the locations in this game. In terms of main ones, New Orleans was good but nothing special, while Louisianan Bayou was fine but more annoying. Good thing the trees are stacked up in such a way that it didn’t make me want to use canoes.

Oh yeah, there are canoes in Liberation… I hate canoes. It’s hard to get on canoes. It’s hard to get off canoes. It’s hard to control canoes. The canoes are ass, and I don’t want to talk about them anymore.

To put it in the nutshell, Liberation in terms of gameplay has some stuff that I would remove and many things are just the things from AC3 but still, I had some fun playing it.

ACTIVITIES

I think you already know the drill with this series. In terms of collectibles, there are Alligator Eggs on the bayou (collecting enough of them will give you a hat that scares the alligators away), Diary Pages of Aveline’s mother, Mayan Statuettes in Chicken Itza, and Pocket Watches that can be bought out of friendly smugglers. Also, each Persona have their own individual collectibles: Assassin has the Assassin Coins, Lady has the Jeweled Brooches, and Slave has the Voodoo Dolls.

As for the side-missions, like with collectibles, each Persona gets its own set of five missions. There are also missions where you recruit people for your ship crew, kill business rivals to later buy out their shops, help one of the slaves, heal people who are frenzy on bayou fever, and rob the camps that belong to the impostor’s acolytes.

There is also a matter of Citizen E. As I said earlier, Liberation is also an in-game product created by Abstergo itself, and while playing Aveline’s story you will notice the glitches during some of the cutscenes. These ones have been censored to convince the general public that the Templars aren’t as bad as they look at first. That’s when the Erudito comes in. After completing some of the main missions, in some places there is hidden the Citizen E. Killing them will play the rest of these cutscenes.

In my opinion, this stuff is fine, but I feel like in some places it becomes more obvious that it stagnates. I have mixed feelings on how some of the collectibles can be earned only by a specific Persona. I really enjoyed Citizen E stuff though, due to the award it gives.

GRAPHICS

The graphics, from what I’ve seen, are on the same level of quality as AC3 most of the time. Sure, in some parts is worse, since it started as a Vita game but still, it was good in other parts. As I said at the beginning of the review, this is the first time I played Liberation so I’m not gonna compare it to its previous version.

SOUND

The sound effects were on the same level as AC3 so, it was good. Although the enemies sound somewhat too loud which can get annoying.

The music (composed by Winifred Phillips) was fine most of the part. My favorite one was the one that played in Chicken Itza.

STABILITY

Framerate, for most of the time, was constantly running at 60 FPS except when synchronizing viewpoints for some reasons where it drops to 30 FPS.

The bugs I encountered during my playthrough were actually worse than in AC3. One time, Aveline didn’t appear in the cutscene, so all this time I was watching nothing but her voice. Other time when the game faded to black when I was changing my Persona, it didn’t return to normal, fixed only after I exited and returned back to the game. Another time it straight up just crashed (I think it was during one of the Business Rival missions)! Sure, Assassin’s Creed 3 wasn’t a diamond in terms of bugs, but at least those bugs weren’t so severe as the ones in Liberation.

SUMMARY

Assassin’s Creed: Liberation has many problems: some of its mechanics are redundant, the story and its characters could’ve been better, and the bugs that I’ve encountered were worse than in AC3. Did I still have fun while playing it? Yes, I still had some fun. And I can understand that this game was developed as the handheld console game first that was later ported for the home consoles and PC, but still, if I had to rate this game, I would say it’s just an okay game. Would I recommend it to the other fans? I honestly don’t know. There is some spoiler stuff about the Company Man in Black Flag, but I feel like you won’t miss that much if you skip Liberation.

But oh well, at least the next game on the list is better than this one. Better prepare some ship for the next game. It is the type of game that some certain Vaska will enjoy.

See you next time.

Bye!

[hooned]

Hello 👋 is it okay to ask you 5 questions? 😂 7, 11, 19, 41, and 47 please. Thank you 😊

hello, love!! 💙 ofc ofc bb it's okaaay!! thank you soooo much for playing with me bb!! 🌷🥰

7. Who are your top 3 gif makers? check out my other answers for this question here (links for the other two are in that post as well) BUT THIS FANDOM JUST HAVE SOO MUCH AMAZING CONTENT CREATORS!! so here's more of them bb!! 💙

@untouchabyeolman : nickaaaaa!! her gifs are so smooth and soo clean!! and the fact that she just started learning how to make them a few months ago?? queen of geniusism. 🥰 i love her works and gifs soo much!!!

@metawin : jaaay and her gifs?? a+!! toptier!! wow!! amazing!! they're so smooth?? and hd?? and i'm in awe really. 💙

@gunsatthaphan : doreens gifs!! i recognize them always when they appear on my dash!! they have distinct coloring and the quality?? wow. A+!!! ✨

11. What is that one set you made that just won’t die? i answered this one here, love. but this set is also one which yall give so much love i am surprised whenever it shows up in my activity page,, thank youuu soo much!! 🥰

19. What is your giffing process like? i answered this here my love 😚

41. What is your least favorite part about your gif making process? ahhh definitely waiting for vapoursynth to finish rendering the clip. coz i have to close all tabs and all folders just for it to go faster haha. during this part i mostly just browse through twitter or tiktok to kill time 🥳

47. Any advice for novice gif makers/people who want to start making gifs? just enjoy what you are doing!! also hmm notes will affect you. it will,, no matter how hard we try it not to. it will make you feel like your work is not good enough sometimes BUT!!! whenever you feel so, just remember why you decided to make gifs in the first place 🥰 it's to bring joy to yourself first, before others. so as long as you are happy, you are doing great. you are not serving anyone other than your own happiness so never let people dictate you what you gif or what not to gif,, when to gif and when not to gif. 🥰💙

— gif making questions 🍃

[theseerasures]

Frozen 2 Reactions, Pass #2

went to see the movie again yesterday, which helped solidify a few more thoughts percolating in the back of my head. i don’t think this one will be QUITE as long as the first, but everything’s going under a cut anyway because i’ve met me

tbh most of this is just me dunking on Elsa

one of the things that i think both helped AND hindered the movie is that they really did make an effort to make the sequel its own separate story from the original--hence the timeskip, the retcons, and so forth. on the positive end of things there’s obviously a much lower barrier of entry for the like...three people who never watched the first movie, and the characters get to feel more grown up while remaining (thanks no doubt to the writing team remaining much the same) consistent enough that the changes to their personalities still make sense. it never feels like it’s retreading old ground, and if fans want to connect the new ideas and themes to the older material (and i count myself among those, what with my first fic in almost four years being about exactly that), there are plenty of kernels with which to do so.

on the other hand: some of the new plot stuff really just DOESN’T work with what’s already been established. chief among those is the idea that ~~~the story of the enchanted forest with requisite creepy lullaby~~~ is a well remembered bedtime story for BOTH Anna and Elsa?? like what does this imply about their childhood? that their parents told them this same bedtime story over and over again, but separately in their own respective rooms? that Elsa got charming bedtime stories about magic-based conflict and war???

(”yeah papa!!! please tell me again about how magic can not only kill people but also SUNDER AN ENTIRE LAND FROM REALITY, that story’s my favorite!!! looking forward to some really spirited nightmares tonight!”)

or are we supposed to assume this is like. the thing bad Batman writers try to do where everything poignant that has ever happened to Bruce happened the night his parents were murdered? that Elsa and Anna remember the story only because it was the night of the Accident (tm)? because that’s...also stupid, i gotta say.

i love that Elsa’s verse in this song start with “the winds are restless” bc it’s exactly the way i imagine her starting conversations with her hapless subjects. “good morning, Your Majesty! how goes the kingdom?” “the winds are restless” “...” “...” “...yes. that was...something i noticed as well”

Local Sisters Make Every Time They See Each Other in Town a God Damn Event

ever since @professorspork pointed out how stupid the “and i promise you the flag of Arendelle will always fly” line is in Some Things Never Change i haven’t been able to stop laughing about it. it’s just such a BLATANT telegraph: “whooo!!! yes! Arendelle!!! we all love that place and want to save it, and you can tell because the song said so!”

the Friends shot of them all walking back to the castle and Anna has kicked her heels off is great though i love it

also love the multitude of shots where it’s Elsa and someone else and we get a peek at her silent reactions to whatever the other person is saying. not since Legolas have we been blessed with so many memeable dumb faces

“ah yes, Mama’s words! cuddle close, scootch in! you remember her saying that all the time right Elsa?? after all it’s not like you have any decade-long baggage about not being able to be near anyone, most especially family members, because you were deathly afraid that you’d instantly murder them”

more thoughts on why Into the Unknown stands out so vividly in my mind: the first movie’s songs by and large did a VERY good job of moving plot around while still exploring character emotion. Do You Want to Build a Snowman moves us through ten YEARS of story, while still leaving space for long, unsung moments where we just get to process what’s going on between the sisters as they grow up. For the First Time in Forever catches us up with the sisters, gets the gates open, and has Anna meet Hans at the end, a pivotal moment for both her and the plot. Love Is an Open Door has them get engaged and sets up the rest of the story. Let It Go is Elsa’s big character shift and sets up the goal for the other characters: the ice palace is where they all need to go to bring back summer. the FtFTiF reprise begins the endgame. the other songs are all more fluff pieces that JUST serve to introduce characters, which is why they’re...not as good, and most people don’t really care about them, but we can accept that they’re there because the strength of the other material.

with Frozen 2...Into the Unknown is pretty much the ONLY song that fits into the first category: Elsa works through her conflicted feelings about wanting to explore the unknown, AND wakes up the spirits (sidebar: her pure joy at using her powers to communicate with the spirits is SO GOOD, guys. it gets me every time). the other ones just kind of transporting their singers into the Emotional Expression Dimension for them to do their thing. sometimes the songs transport them to the next plot point while they’re singing, but nothing really happens DURING them. i can give Some Things Never Change a pass on this because it’s supposed to be about stasis (and because i’ve bitched about it enough on other fronts), but much as i love Lost in the Woods and Next Right Thing for their character exploration they’re really just music videos to get us to the next scene. Next Right Thing is particularly egregious about locking the plot in the boot--the ENTIRE sequence is just Anna climbing or slumping against random rocks until the song ends and she can actually move the story along. one could make an argument that Show Yourself does get stuff done, but it’s still mostly Elsa running around in a cave for three entire minutes before we get to that point

i don’t think Get This Right is perfect but it DOES pull off the multitasking well, and it would have not only resolved the torturously stretched engagement subplot early on but creates a nice thematic echo to Love Is an Open Door: she really knows Kristoff, she really loves him, and she proposes. it’s her choice.

Kristoff’s line about question of how/question of whether works great for highlighting his continued insecurities, but again: either we’re supposed to think he’s wrong and Anna has ALSO been thinking in terms of how and she’s just been too busy in sister-drama-land, and this whole plot should have been resolved early, or we’re supposed to think that Anna really ISN’T on the same page, in which case they...probably should have a serious conversation about where they see their relationship going and not just get engaged at the end because Elsa made a new dress

as soon as an HD version comes out i demand a gifset juxtaposing Anna slumped against a rock with Anna slumped against Elsa’s door at the end of Do You Want to Build a Snowman, because this whole sequence is where the distance between sequel and original really WORKED. Anna is singing about how alone she feels, how she’s never felt such darkness before, when we know that that’s...not true. she's felt pretty close before--not long ago that was her whole LIFE. it’s natural for her to feel this way, because being knocked off your happiness always hurts more than never having it in the first place, but we the audience get to have faith in her, because we remember. eventually she does too, and now she knows exactly how resilient she can be, exactly how strong she’s ALWAYS been.

the animated faces are SO GOOD. we see Anna flicker through seventeen feelings at once when Kristoff rescues her from the dam: delayed fear, relief, and--this is the crucial one for me--horror that she survived, because that means she’s going to have to live with the fact that Elsa didn’t.

Elsa riding into the sunset of her sapphic life is great obviously but every time i see it i worry that the movie is going to end with the same face smear effect as the Prisoner of Azkaban movie