#it would just make more sense that way but eh. whatever nomura wants i guess

[gotmilk5101520]

Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia Watch Episode 7 To Catch a Changeling

How to catch a changeling for idiots.

“All right”

“Do your worst”

The Sword of Daylight. A weapon to kill trolls and cutting watermelon.

“What is this mockery?” Me seeing stupid shit.

“You want to take it for a spin?”

*Cries in Troll*

Yeah, no one will notice.

“Ridiculous garment” Agree.

“Sorry. Draal was training Jim”

“Draal?” “Training?”

“Yeah, he sorta made a home in my basement to look out for the place”

“Of course. When a troll is defeated in combat, it’s completely natural for them to take refuge in the victor’s domicile” So, this happened before?

And it’s gone.

“It was, eh... It was out of focus, and i did forget to turn on the flash” Once again, i went back.

And the flash was on.

Have some Jim is done with this bushigal face.

“I’ve not left the Heartstone in a century” This is what it’s like to be force to go somewhere, cause they say it’ll be worth it. But it’s really not. Wow Vendel is becoming the most relatable character in this series.

“I hate conspiracies”

“That is why i am dedicated to rooting them out” If Trump hired Blinky to root out all the conspiracies of him Blinky will end up making them worse for Trump. #LetTrumphireBlinky

“If it’s everyone, it must be a conspiracy!” I would say Donald Trump, but that would be insult to Blinky.

“Later”

“Oh, no. Claire”

“Claire? A changeling?” Changeling Claire au.

“No. When i thought i was gonna die, i wrote Claire a letter, too, and told her everything”

“Everything?’

“Everything” And what is this “Everything” you speak of? What did you write?

“There you are!” Mission: Avoid Claire. Mission Fail.

“You didn’t run into Miss. Janeth yet, did you?”

“Is she mad i couldn’t make rehearsal yesterday?

“Something kinda came up”

“Heh heh” Good of the episode to put flashbacks in for me, so i don’t have to do it myself. Also Jim implies that last episode happened yesterday (Out of universe, yeah it did) But i thought about it and today would be Monday, and yesterday was Sunday. Jim and Draal’s fight happened on a school day meaning that it was Friday. Jim and Toby getting arrested and Jim making the letters were on a Thursday, and Jim and Toby finding out about Nomura was a Wednesday. And then the school trip to the museum was a Tuesday.

“Steve filled in. That’s what understudies are for, right?”

“Uh, you haven’t heard?

“Steve isn’t the understudy anymore. You are”

“She’s tired of you never showing up”

“So she made Steve Romeo. And trust me, Steve isn’t happy about it either”

“As i was saying, every algebraic equation requires balance”

“Not unlike, say, actors in an ensemble!”

“For instance”

“Every piece of this equation plays an important role”

“That is, unless variable X”

“is a zero”

“X has no role”

“X doesn’t show up”

“X lets the equation down”

“Then, the entire play-”

“I mean, equation- falls part!”

“It becomes impossible!”

“Mr. Lake”

“How would you solve this mathematical problem”

Yeah i’m at a lost.

“Promoting Steve to Romeo wasn’t your idea. Plus, he’s been trying to leave” “Tell me about it. After class he told me off. Steve told me off. Steve. Of all people”

“And, honestly, i’d rather be on stage with you”

I’ve seen that face before. Marinette made that face, too, when Adrien touched her shoulder at the end of The Evillustrator.

New meme template.

“So, we find another changeling”

“Stop saying that so loudly”

“Do you mind?”

“Whatever” Like i said, his name is Changeling.

“Ailment or curse?”

“Oi, numbskull! I;m supposed to answer it!”

“But i already did answer it” Wait are Rot and Gut like one troll sharing a body or no?

“You’re gonna need a gaggletack”

“Unfortunately, you see, we’re a bit short on those. Very hard to get”

“But i got a bag of them right here”

“What in the world? If you’ll excuse us for one moment”

“Ey, what are you doing? I’m trying to drive up the price over here”

“I thought we were trying to help these nice lads” Rot doesn’t understand Capitalism. Good boy.

“Gaggletack?”

“Rare artifact”

“Exceedingly rare. An object of great mystery”

“It’s a horseshoe”

“Made of pure iron”

“Why would you put such a precious thing on a horse’s foot?” Great, what other things are “Rare artifacts” to trolls?

“Beware. Changelings are swapped with their human counterparts at birth. So, it is likely these troll-pretenders have dwelt amongst you for decades”

“They could be anyone”

“Used car salesmen”

“Tax collectors”

“Television executives”

“Donald Trump”

“Yes, especially Donald Trump”

Nope.

Nope.

“Shall i hear more, or shall i speak-”

“Steve!”

“Hey! Who did that? And can i leave the play now?” “No”

Another new meme template.

Nope, nope, and nope.

“You, uh, try this out on Mr. Strickler?”

“Come on. You really think he is one?”

Yes.

So close.

“Here you go, Mr. Strickler. Here’s your horseshoe back”

“Thank you, Miss. Nunez, but that belongs to Mr. Lake”

“Oh. Well that would explain the flying horseshoes” Wait “Flying horseshoes”? You mean Claire noticed the horseshoe that hit Steve earlier?

“So not going to ask” Jim should look on the bright side of this. Claire touched the gaggletack, that means she’s not a changeling, and that the real reason she invited him to her house was not to secretly kill him. Oh wait. That’s not till later.

“Claire” “Still here” When people forget you’re here too. Trust me, i know that feeling.

“You’re still coming home with me, right?”

“Oh, right!”

“Claire and i are gonna go too her house... for math stuff”

Toby is surprised by how that escalated quickly. And it’s not even the second half of season 1 yet.

Series creator, director of The Shape of Water, and the man that said “Monster Fucker Rights” Guillermo Del Toro. Voicing a dentist.

“For the glory of Merlin”

“Daylight is mine to make babies ogle”

“He really likes you” Jim would be a great dad. Wink wink Claire. Wink wink.

“Wonder what he’s thinking about right now” “No idea what’s going through my brothers mind right now” “I’m going to get kidnapped next episode and you will never see me again for a long time. Goo goo”

‘Wow, this novocaine you numbed my mouth with is really strong”

“I can’t even feel my hands”

“That’s because i didn’t inject you with novocaine, dear”

“I hit you up with a potent paralyzer”

“Why would you do that?”

“Well, it’s not everyday someone comes in with a gaggletack” The moment i saw this.

“Why don’t i take that, sweetie? It’s not very hygienic” I knew she was a changeling.

“See, the equation only contains powers of X that are non-negative integers”

“Does that makes sense”

“Is it supposed to?”

“Nah. That’s why it’s called algebra” Algebra never makes sense. It makes Kingdom Hearts make sense. #ReplacealgebrawithKingdomHearts

“I realized you’ve got a lot more going on than people think”

“I do”

“I do?” You may now kiss the bride. Okay guys, Jim and Claire are married.

“You can’t just write a letter like this and not expect a conversation. If you had written something like “I’ve most likely been slaughtered by a troll” I would’ve said: Understandable, have a nice day” “Wait, really?” “No! You are lucky, you’re cute and everything” “I... Uh... It’s... Wait what?” “Nothing”

“You have to battle monsters?”

“Saving the world in which we know? What monsters are you battling? Are they fuckable?” “Well- Wait what?” “Uh... What monsters are you battling?”

Have some Claire being done with her (Not yet, almost, but not really, not for another season) boyfriend’s bushigal.

“I mean, we all have stuff we’ve got to go through”

“But are you in some kind of trouble?”

“I... Yeah! Metaphoric”

“I was...”

“In an exploring stage”

“Not successful” Let it be known that Claire thinks Jim has depression, if not suicidal tendencies. And i did not get this from the wiki or TvTropes.

“There’s some sentimental stuff at the end which i thought was... kinda sweet” Umm. Can we read the full letter? I want to know what he said.

“Really?”

“If you ever need someone to talk to about “the monsters” you can talk to me”

“It can be our secret” Yeah. There are going to be a lot of secrets you two will be sharing. Also, you two could’ve kissed here as well. But whatever you tried i guess.

“Halt, changeling!”

“Or else my giant friend will tear you limb from limb!”

“Maybe later” These things always happens.

“Oh, it burns!”

“Oh, it’s just a painting” Paintings don’t kill trolls confirm.

Huh. After an entire episode of using it on everyone, and making me think it didn’t work, it actually does work.

“What’s that?” “Laughing gas”

*Laughs in Troll*

“Laughs in Troll*

“Hello? Wait how did you get my number?”

“Hey! What’s up, Nunez?”

“Hey Colby”

“Someone named Woby?” Claire can’t remember Toby’s name.

“Fighting monsters again?”

“Who are you, Jim Lake” Claire is getting sus.

Imagine walking into this.

“Perish, you worm!” “Wait, before you kill me, i have something to ask. You know Nomura, right?” “Yes” “Well she has a history with a troll named Draal. Do you know what their history is?” “No, this is the first time i’m hearing about it” “Oh, okay. Thank you. You can die now” “You’re welcome. Wait what?”

“Do you have some magic artifact that can clean this mess?”

“Yes. I believe it’s called a Tobias” Translation: “Clean it yourself”

“It appears Nomura has gotten her way”

“Another changeling has been chosen”

“And look who it is” “Enrich? Enquran? Enquin?” “Oh, for the love of. It says Enrique!” “Oh. Who’s that?” “Claire Nunez’s little brother!” “Which one is Claire again?” “The one you haven’t met!” “Well no wonder i don’t know who that is. I never met them”

Anyone is a changeling. Maybe i’m a changeling.

So who’s the worst babysitter? Jim or Marinette?

[hinasaki]

KH Thoughts because I finished the game a few days ago

Starts with no spoilers, then goes in depth.

Okay so non-spoilery thoughts first:

Pacing was…. Bad. We’ll get how later. 

There was a lot of variety in the combat system - like there was a lot I could do, but because there was so much it started to get stale very quickly? Like every other second I’m getting a prompt for a combo attack or a form change or an attraction attack. I loved the forms tbqh but the attractions ended up feeling… dull after seeing them all a million times. I feel like they would have been more enjoyable if they triggered less often. Also stunlocking frequency was way the fuck too high. It was easy to stunlock bosses and just whack them to death. On the flipside, it was easy to GET stunlocked, which was frustrating.

I’m conflicted about tying some abilities to certain boss battles. On one hand that’s good because it lets you do things like no exp runs or whatever without missing out on stuff like Curaga. On the other hand it gave me level anxiety? Like I didn’t get Curaga until REALLY late in the game, so I was worried the whole time that I was underlevelled and about to get destroyed (which never happened).

Gummi ship is bad. It’s always been bad but this was the worst yet. The controls were clunky as heck and there was no point in upgrading the ship. Kudos for trying something new with it but it didn’t work so uhhhhh no thanks.

There were SO MANY mini-games and gimmicks. I didn’t even touch Classic Kingdom and I was still annoyed at the amount of mini-games. Camera was cool but often didn’t register on the characters in the shot. Cooking is another mini-game and probably fun if I’d bothered to spend any time doing it. Game itself is really pretty but there’s not much incentive to stop and enjoy the scenery beyond looking for emblems. 

--

SPOILERS AHEAD

REALLY, STOP READING IF YOU DON’T WANT SPOILERS

I’M WARNING YOU AND LEAVING LOTS OF SPACE

READY?

OKAY, spoilers below--

--

The game was short. I’m not usually one to complain about game length but for a game that was supposed to be the end of a saga it felt… rushed. The Disney stuff was very separate from the KH stuff. There wasn’t any FF stuff at all. I feel like it would have been better if they’d interspersed the KH stuff between the worlds because everything happening right at the end made endgame feel very rushed.

Speaking on that, I feel like the game banks overly much on us having our own investment in the other characters already. What should be emotional moments are glossed over. Wayfinder trio reunited after a decade? Sure, we’ll do that mostly offscreen. Sunset trio has the closest reunion to satisfying but even then it feels… off. It’s mostly just Xion crying and some hugging. Are we also not?? Going to talk about Ven and Roxas basically being twins??? They look at each other awkwardly but that’s about it.

Sora’s story in the Disney worlds felt like it didn’t matter. Okay sure we’re looking for “the power of waking” but it’s a flimsy-ass excuse when we could have been actively investigating the whereabouts of our missing members. It’s kind of the same complaint I had about FFXV actually: that the viewpoint characters have too limited perspective on what’s happening in the wider story. Honestly it felt at times like it would be 500% more interesting to be focussing on what Riku was doing rather that going on Sora’s irrelevant tour. Like I legit forgot what the point of visiting the Disney worlds was. I shouldn’t forget. That’s bad writing.

On a similar tangent - what the fuck was the point of Kairi? Axel/Lea gets shafted to a lesser degree (also… why are we back at Axel… I still don’t understand why the insistence there. Sentimentality for Roxas and Xion? So they match? Maybe spend some more time on this and it would make sense!). She has one scene before endgame and mentions she and Axel are gonna fight to end their training. Which we don’t see. Then she does SFA in the endgame and “dies” for man-angst. What happened to “I’m tired of waiting and being left behind”? What happened to “I’ll fight too”? Sure Kairi hasn’t had too much of an active role in previous entries but this felt…. Worse.

Similarly, they gave Aqua the idiot ball far too often for my comfort. Oh Aqua’s weak after being in the realm of darkness for 10 years - okay! But this literally isn’t an issue for any of the male characters and their various situations. Whenever anything bad happens Aqua immediately gives up in this game. That’s not Aqua. That’s bullshit. I might have accepted it if they’d spent time on it and had a whole arc on her regaining hope but they didn’t so it just sucked.

Xion has like 1.5 scenes and mostly is there to cry. Namine doesn’t show up until the end cutscene. Nomura write women well challenge.

Endgame goes on for a million years. Underwater Xehanort fight is bad. I did like the scene with Eraqus. “The Final World” is terrible and I hated it. Gathering bits of Sora was boring. Same for chasing the Lich. The first time was cool! The subsequent 6 went from meh to boring. Time travel is still stupid and Nomura needs a gotdamn editor.

Ending was…. Eh. I liked everyone hanging out but how did Sora find Kairi? What happened there? We got hints on a “price” for using the power of waking but like… okay. Feels like we lost a good few hours of story there.

Epilogue was okay I guess because it was literally just a hook.

Anyway it kind of felt like after sitting in dev hell for so long once they started it SE wanted to rush out the game. It doesn’t have any of the emotional resonance that I loved so much about the other games. Some things were fun! Like the mechs in Toy Box. A lot was pointless, like the entire ship upgrading thing in the Caribbean.

Even the worlds themselves were mostly underwhelming TBQH. There was the whole mention of Toy Box being a copy of the real toys’ world and that just… didn’t go anywhere. The Caribbean had a whole ocean that you had no real incentive to explore. Frozen made me climb the same damn mountain three times. Also, Disney, no one over the age of 10 likes Olaf. Stop trying to make it happen. Corona was fun but I felt like I was just running through so much without being encouraged to look around. BH6 was GREAT but the city was underutilised - it was a huge map and I hardly spent any time there. I’m probably forgetting other worlds but that kind of hammers home my point - they were forgettable. There were some great things I remember from the old games - climbing Oogie Boogie’s treehouse in KH1, the first time I made it to Hollow Bastion, the Traverse Town music, Christmas Town in KH2, the animal forms from Pride Lands, the entirety of the World that Never Was. I could go on.

You can’t go to Radiant Garden. We don’t see the restoration team at all. It’s a world they spent a lot of time building up and showing off in previous games and not being able to go there felt really bad.

TL;DR I feel like the game had potential but felt super rushed, tried to over-complicate its plot, didn’t spend time on emotional moments, and completely failed its female characters. BYE