#it’s honestly iconic that max getting attacked was the moment they said enough is enough. we need to collectively FIGHT BACK

[rhaenella]

✨GPDA✨ vs. FIA (2024)

[akiisame]

Genshin impact guide - how to into artifacts

How to into artifacts and team set.

A guide by me for my kawaii @stupidneko and whoever is in need.

Okay, so, as a word of introduction before well start with this long ass post, I’ve never wrote anything like this so be patient with me.

ALSO ENGLISH IS NOT MY FIRST LANGUAGE SO SORRY IN ADVANCE FOR ANY MISTAKES

In my personal opinion artifacts are more important than the characters themselves, they can turn every 4* into a main dps (yes, even amber). 50% of your DMG will come from items, then the other 50% will come from weapon, talents and the character itself, but this is a story for another post.

First let’s take a look at what kind of artifacts do we have. Each and every character have 5 slots for artifacts:

Flower of life - or just flower, for short

Plume of death - feather

Sand of eon - time watch piece

Goblet of Eonothem - goblet

Circlet of Logos - head piece

Each of the pieces have two types of stats: main stats and sub stats. The first two pieces, flower and feather, always have the same main stat.

For flower it's HP

And for feather it's ATK

Then for the rest of them it can be anything, from good main stats like this:

(The following items have high stats because most of them are on max lvl)

... to less of a good stats, like this:

Goblets also are the only artifacts that has the possibility to have element DMG bonus as the main stats:

While head piece are the only artifacts that can have CRIT DMG and CRIT rate as a main stats:

... but they too can have less of a good stats like healing bonus or DEF.

Now, to the sub stats. They can vary from less appealing stats like HP, DEF and Elemental Mastery:

To a great stats like CRIT DMG, CRIT rate and ATK:

Unfortunately that's where the tricky part comes in. You cannot chose which substats the item will have. They will randomly appear. All that's left is to cry and pray.

But how do you get more stats on your item? That's simple, you need to level it up! We call it 'enhancing'. Depending on the rarity of your item( they vary from 1* (one start) to 5*(five stars) ) there are different max lvl cap. I'll mostly focus here on the 4* and 5* items. Max lvl cap for 4* is lv16 and for 5* is lv20.

Every artifact you'll get is always lv1. To enhance an artifact you'll need mora and another artifacts. The main stats will grow with each level, but the substats will update every 4th level (so for 5* item new substats will appear on 4th, 8th,12th, 16th and 20th level). Let's take this 5* feather: Bard's Arrow Feather

As all feathers it has ATK as a main stats and quite decent substats. You can enhance it by giving it other artifacts. You can also auto add artifacts of given level (1*, 2* or below, 3* or below and 4* or below)

Or you can chose items manually if you click on the gray '+' icon. Once you do it, there will be a list of artifacts you can use for enhancing. Only items that are not given to any characters will appear here.

Let’s enhance it up by one lvl (there’s limit of pic so I can’t show it ksmosjnwk). As I said, the main stats got better, but the substats didn't change because that was only the 1st level. So now let's enhance it to lv4. Once we choose enough artifacts to enhance it to lv4 we’ll see an information that one new substat will appear. (It doesn’t always have to be new substats. Sometimes the substats that the piece already have can get a boost).

Let's see what I'll get:

... Yea, I'm going to cry.

But for real now, that's how the artifacts work. Depending on your luck you can get a great items or a depression.

Usually people always aim for artifacts with ATK and CRIT as a both main and substats, but that all depend on you team composition.

But Akii, how do I chose good artifacts for my characters? How do I build my team?

I'm happy you asked. We can have up to 4 character in the team. Usually people aim for a team consisted of one main DPS, one healer and two supports, but ofc that all depends on your style of the game and your needs.

What is the most important in building your team and deciding on artifacts is the characters talents themselves. You absolutely have to check their talents and passives before giving them any artifacts, cause for some of them items with HP as a main stat could be actually good (like Barbara, since her role is only healing she doesn’t make more than 100 dmg on her normal attack but she heals a TONS).

Let's take my team for example, I’ll explain what their talents do and choose artifacts accordingly:

Razor as my main DPS

Qiqi as my healer

Xingqiu as my support

And Xiao that is none of the above but I just got him so I really wanna use him lmao

Usually I'd have Bennett in my team that would work as both healer and support, but yea, Xiao happen. Anyway, back to the topic

Since Razor is my main DPS I am focusing mostly on the DMG he can do. That's why when choosing artifacts for him I was aiming for the one with ATK/CRIT.

I do believe right now is a good moment to introduce artifacts sets. Each artifact has its own sets. There are plenty of sets to chose from. Now, the question is, does it matter from which set the item comes? Yes, it does.

Every set has all 5 types of artifacts to offer (a flower, feather, time watch piece, goblet and head piece). Depending on how many of the pieces from the same set you'll have you can get different stats. Let's take everyone's favorite Gladiator's Finale set. If you equip 2 pieces of Gladiator your get additional 18% of your base attack. IT'S A LOT!

But if you equip 4 pieces of Gladiator your normal attack (the single mouse tap, not the skills or the hold tap) will be increased by 35% IF your character has a sword, polearm or claymore (so it doesn't work on characters with books and bows, sorry Amber).

As I was saying, since my Razor is my main DPS and his role is to hit, not deal Electro DMG, I gave him 4 pieces of Gladiator's Finale just so he can have these additional 35%. But his head piece belongs to Wandener's Troupe. Why? Since every character can have 5 different artifacts, and the set's bonuses are only up to 4 pieces, the last one can belong to any other set. I chose Wandener's because it have CRIT rate as a main stats, so it's perfect for main DPS character. (The last piece doesn’t have to be the head piece, it can be any of the other 4 pieces).

You can check the character stats and the difference in the artifacts by going to your character menu and then clicking on the ‘details’.

For example here are my Xiao stats calculated with all the artifacts he has right now on him:

And here I have my Xiao without any artifacts and with 1* weapon:

DO YOU SEE THE HUUUGE DIFFERENCE?

Next we have Qiqi, my healer. One would think that, if she's a healer, then it would be good to have a set that is designed for healers on her, right? Wrong.

Let's take a look on Qiqi elemental skill (You can check your character skills by clicking on ‘talents’ in the character menu):

(APPARENTLY TUMBLR WONT ALLOW ME TO POST MORE THAN 10 PICS IN ONE POST SO ILL HAVE TO PASTE THE INFO FROM WIKI, THANKS)

When Qiqi hits a target with her Normal or Charged Attacks, she regenerates HP for all party members and all nearby allied characters. Healing scales based on Qiqi's ATK. Regenerates HP for current character at regular intervals. Follows the character around, dealing Cryo DMG to enemies in its path.

It's says that the heals she gives is based on her overall ATK. Which means the more ATK she has the better her heals are. That's why, in my personal opinion, it's better to focus on raising her ATK and energy recharge. Ofc, there's nothing wrong in having for example 2 pieces of Maiden Beloved (set's name designed for healers, 2-Piece Bonus: Character Healing Effectiveness +15%) on her. If those pieces main stats will be ATK then this will work amazing, but unfortunately I don't have any artifacts like this.

Next are supports, Bennett and Xingqiu. Since their role is not dealing DMG, but more of a supporting you can give them sets of a 2 pieces. Let's take a look at their elemental burst:

Bennett:

if the health of a character in the circle is equal to or falls below 70%, their health will continuously regenerate. Regeneration scales based on Bennett's Max HP. If the health of a character in the circle is higher than 70%, they gain an ATK Bonus that is based on Bennett's Base ATK. Applies the Pyro element to characters within the Field.

Basically you just ult and switch to your DPS (or whoever you want honestly). If the character you switched to (or Bennett himself, his ult works on him too) HP is below 70%, they will receive heals. If their HP is above 70%, the incoming healing with cease and they will get attack bonus based on Bennet BASE ATK (only when you have him c0, so with no constellations. On c1 (his first constellation is unlocked) there is no HP restriction, so his ult buffs the attack no matter of your character current health). So it’s not the same case as Qiqis. Base attack is the base amount the character have with weapon equipped but without any artifacts on, so the only way to rise base ATK is to maximize character level and to give them weapon with high amount of attack. Then we should focus on giving him as much of an energy recharge as we can so he can load his ult faster. Then it’s up to you whether you wanna make is a healer or side DPS. In healer case you should focus on rising his HP amount by giving him artifacts with that stats and substats cause, on the contrary to Qiqi, the heals he gives are based on his own max HP, not his ATK. In side DPS case you can focus on the overall dmg he makes.

Now let's take a look on my Xiao. His role is a dps, just like Razor. So one would think that it would be the best to max physical DMG on Xiao too, right? Wrong.

Let's take a look on Xiao's elemental skill and Elemental burts:

Skill:

Xiao lunges forward, dealing Anemo DMG to opponents in his path.

Burst:

Greatly increases Xiao's jumping ability. Increases his attack AoE and attack DMG. Converts attack DMG into Anemo DMG, which cannot be overriden by any other elemental infusion. In this state, Xiao will continuously lose HP. The effects of this skill end when Xiao leaves the field.

Both of them covert the DMG into Anemo DMG. Which mean that no matter the physical DMG bonus, if he doesn't have any Anemo DMG he won't be as useful as he could be. That why my Xiao has 2 pieces of Gladiator and 2 pieces of Viridescent Venerer that gives him +15% of Anemo DMG bonus. (y’all have no idea how long it took me to write this thing correctly lmao)

As the last piece i used Wandener's head piece again to give him that additional CRIT rate. (yes, his Anemo DMG can be scaled with CRIT rate, too). Ofc my Xiao still lacks a lot of power we can see on some videos on yt.

Okay Akii, I understand how does the artifacts works and what to which to chose when thinking about the character role, but how do I actually get the artifacts?

That's actually the hardest part. You can get them from domains. Each domain have two sets of artifacts at the same time, which means depending on your luck you'll get the artifacts from the set you want or the artifacts you don't want BUT can use for enhancing later on! Gladiator's and Wandener's don't have its own domain, but can be achieved by fighting bosses like cubes or regisvines and from weekly bosses like Dvalin, Andrius and Childe.

Now that you know everything you need to know about artifacts you can go and start doing the domains...

only to waste all of your resins and get tons of shit artifacts with DEF as a main stats and then start crying after your one good artifact with ATK as a main stat and CRIT as a substat gets shits like HP, DEF and more HP after enhancing. Have fun <3

[neokad]

Touhou VI: The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil - or my first journey into a bullet hell game

Touhou is that one pew pew game series with cute anime gals, right?

Source: https://pixiv.kurocore.com/illust/54033795

Just like what I think are many people, that’s pretty much all I knew about the franchise as a whole! And to be honest, for a long long time, I was AFRAID of going any closer to anything Touhou-related! Because of them being bullet hecks, they seemed like the most frustrating and unfun games I could possibly be playing! But then... time passed... Fast forward to somewhere in 2020: I was watching the biyearly Games Done Quick event, and one of the first runs showcased during it was none other than Touhou Luna Nights! But while the speedrun itself was very impressive, the thing that really captivated me was well... everything else! Even though this was only a Metroidvania fangame, IT LOOKED LIKE SO MUCH FUN! The graphics, the special effects, the mechanics... everything just seemed like a dream!  In spite of that, I only picked the game up and played it about a year later, thanks to a Steam sale! And to keep things short, I ADORED it. It was a bit too short, but everything else was spot on, and even better than I thought it would be from what I saw at GDQ! But that’s sadly a review for another time :(  Because I literally fell in love in this game, well... I thought “screw it, I’ve been morbidly curious for years now, let’s actually try a freakin’ Touhou game!” 

And so, after some research I’ve learned that the sixth game - the first one released on Windows PCs! - was the one that served as inspiration for Luna Nights as a whole - its characters, music, stage aesthetics and more! It just seemed natural to settle with this one~

How did it go? What did I think about it? Well, that’s why we’re here: those are my thoughts about Touhou VI: the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil.

Now for a pointless history lesson: as I said earlier, Touhou 6 was the very first game published for Windows PCs, all the way back in 2002! The five previous games were actually exclusive to a Japan-only machine, the NEC PC-98, a line that prevailed strongly in Japan before Microsoft conquered the world. As such, it’s really the first game that’s still relatively accessible today, as PC-98 emulation is... not really a stable thing yet -_- So even though this wasn’t quite true, it’s as if I started my journey into Touhou with the original! And once I started playing, I was honestly surprised at one thing once I hit the title screen: this game actually has lots of options to make the experience easier or harder!

I know that being able to change your starting lives, starting bombs, choose your overall difficulty and such isn’t groundbreaking at all, but honestly? I didn’t expect things to be so customisable in a bullet heck game series - a genre that’s known for being merciless to players! I did decide to go on Normal to have the “intended” experience, but things aren’t as daunting as you may think!

This game also allows you to play as not only Reimu, the poster character of the franchise, but also Marisa! Both of these girls also boasts two different weapons each, with their own strengths, weaknesses and bomb attacks! Again, I genuinely did not expect so much breathing room even though looking back... I feel like I should have : P

Once I actually started playing the game itself, there’s yet another thing that surprised me: the difficulty curve... it’s... manageable??

Now granted, I’m a person that plays a *lot* of games, and on top of that, I play lots of action games as well, games that require quick reaction times, good pattern reading and so on so forth. So there’s a chance my judgement on the game’s difficulty might be wrong or biased... but to me? Embodiment of Scarlet Devil actually has a good difficulty curve! The first stage of the game has many enemies that can shoot many bullets, but they’re slow, predictable and relatively easy to avoid because you have lots of space to maneuver around! On that same train of thought, Rumia, the first stage’s boss, certainly doubles down on the number of bullets she can throw at you. But, their patterns are once again pretty slow and predictable, making things much more comfortable at the start of your adventure!

But hold on a minute here, how does this game actually plays? Well, this is where I need to let out a horrifying truth:

Touhou is actually really, REALLY fun.

At first it does seem like a pretty standard shooter: you shoot at things, dodge bullets, collect power ups to boost your weapon’s strength, and make sure you don’t die too much in order to reach the final boss in good shape. However, what I ended up loving about Touhou are its many, many mechanics that spice things up beautifully! The first one I wanna focus on is “Grazing” and it’s actually pretty simple: if you do your best to get close to a bullet or a laser without touching it with your (very small!) hitbox, you graze that bullet! Not only will a satisfying sound effect play out each time you graze something, you will also gain points each time you do this maneuver, making it essential for a high score, and especially, to gain extra lives faster!  Secondly, there’s bombing! I am totally repeating myself here, but while each character has a different kind of bomb to their disposal, they each function in relatively the same way: you get to launch a strong attack against your opponents, get invincibility frames, and on top of that, get rid of any bullets that are currently on the screen! I love bombs in this game because they create a great balance: you can totally use them for offensive purposes, buuuut they also serve as a great defensive clutch if you just find things too difficult at the moment.  Bombs even have two extra layers to them! When you will get hit and lose a life (and believe me, you will) your bombs will get refilled back to three, urging you to not hoard them too much even if you’d prefer to save them for a tougher part. Because if you die, you might just “waste” bombs in a way! However, here’s an advanced kicker: if you manage to hit the bomb button just as you are hit by a projectile (8 frames within death I think!) you not only are able to save yourself from losing a life, you also won’t lose a bomb at all, either! This is a very difficult trick, but a very cool and potentially important one if you plan things out in the heat of battle ^^

Then there’s a mechanic that, to my knowledge, got introduced in EOSD: the POC, as in Point Of Collection! Now, as you destroy the many enemies after Reimu or Marisa, they naturally drop many power ups and point icons, and because there’s many of these you’re bound to miss them. However, this is where the POC comes in: if you are at full weapon power, you will earn the ability to collect every icon on the screen! This makes sense and is actually very smart, because most players - myself included - tend to hug the bottom of the screen as bullets are more scarce and slower here. BUT reaching that POC close to the top of the screen is a great way to incentivise players to risk things in order to get a massive amount of points and gain extra lives way faster! And finally, as soon as you do reach that max power, the game will automatically wipe every single projectile off the screen, so it’s even possible to time when you’ll get your final power boost to make things easier on yourself!

All of those mechanics together make Touhou EOSD a pure joy to play! It’s simple on the surface but has such interesting mechanics and risk-reward elements that can push you out of your comfort zone, but never forces you to! And sure enough, I got addicted~

Even though I did say that the game had a good curve and started off not too difficult, it does not mean that your journey will be easy: even early game bosses such as Cirno and Meiling took me lots of practice to get consistent at, by studying their patterns and testing out which strategies worked the best for survival. And eventually, even Patchouli and Sayaka’s stages will test you out with lots of predictable-yet-deadly bullets to test out your screen reading skills and even reflexes.

Touhou may be more accessible than I thought, but do not be mistaken: on Normal, this game will still challenge you, and I absolutely love it for that <3 

Another thing that helps this game out is - please pretend to be surprised - the music. Touhou has always been known for bringing some very good tunes all around, but besides Luna Nights’s incredible soundtrack, I actually never got to listen to any of them besides Bad Apple and one fanime opening my bestie sent me one year ago. And well... it’s true!

The game uses some very artificial, even out-of-tune instruments for its music, but strangely enough, it REALLY works! It gives the music a very nostalgic, warm feeling that’s hard to describe, but it works so well at making those songs catchy as all heck! It also helps that the compositions themselves are pretty strong and surprisingly complex for its genre, too! I would pick a favourite theme to show off, but the soundtrack’s just really consistent and good all around!

Sadly, I mostly cannot say the same for the game’s presentation. This game is a PC app from 2002 and it sadly somewhat shows. I’ll even bring a special mention to the in-game portraits, which are hilariously HORRIBLE! Thankfully dedicated fans have made a patch to improve the game’s visuals so that they’re more in line with later titles, but at base it’s really not the prettiest gem visually...

...except for the spell cards, the bosses’s strongest attacks, which are genuinely gorgeous multicolored motives that will struck you in awe before you are inevitably destroyed by them, it’s great! My favourite is the one you get from Meiling’s mid stage encounter, pictured above!

Before wrapping up this long, long post, I do wanna add this: the game will unfortunately only give you the good ending only by playing on Normal and above, and only if you beat the game without using any continues. This is called a 1CC, or 1 Credit Clear. Even if I don’t think the bad ending’s actually that unsatisfactory, I did want to get better at the game! So I practiced for many hours a day for a couple of weeks, memorized each boss’s patterns, learned where to graze, when to optimally reach the POC to get as many points as possible... this game pushed me to get better with an incentive, a reward waiting at the end, on top of the satisfaction of simply cheesing what used to be so difficult at some point and... well, I think this is the proof of a well-crafted game right there. After many failed attempts, I finally managed to 1CC this game (pictures below!!) and it was, genuinely, one of the most satisfying moments in my gaming life <3 

So... yeah. I might be a Touhou fan now. Welp.

Touhou VI: The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil was such a pleasant surprise for me: I expected a game I’d find somewhat boring at best and frustrating at worst, but I ended up having a very, very good time, and honestly? It’s not as hard as you’d think it is! You can beat a Touhou game, so long as you are interested in practicing and getting better, and I promise it’ll feel rewarding in the best of ways <3

I just wanna say thank you to Luna Nights and Team Ladybug, because without them, I would have never been curious and then surprised by how cool this game is. Thank you <3 

And many thanks to you, the reading, for staying until the end! Thank you for reading!

[everydreamtilldawn]

Endgame Thoughts *Spoilers obviously and a whole lot of venting*

OK Endgame, here we go! The absolute disrespect to the audience, the actors, the characters, and all the other creators who put so much work and care into building characters and stories for the other movies and shows which led up Infinity War and Endgame. The Russos are so far up their own asses with how good they think they are. I'm so done with their pure spoiler free excuses. Not letting actors know what scenes they're in, who they're with - wasting oscar winning actors on their own bloated egos insisting adults can't be trusted not to cause a PR scandal over their fanfic. Those assholes put themselves into the canon as "the first canon gay character". Oh, Mr. Unnamed Guy 32 is the first gay character out of all these hundreds of people on screen? Oh Mr. Russo well we all better get on our knees and kiss your gay dick in thanks then you ass faced worthless shit for brain. What a fucking insult. Who has the actual nerve? Who actually has an ego so big they don't actually see the lgbt community and their issues as something to take seriously within their narrative - its like their heads have been under a rock the past few years thinking of only their wonderful, unbeatable movie that they have no idea gay people are main characters now and have their own movies elsewhere in the world. We're not nameless, background characters you dicks. The fact that 10 years led up to this is like spitting in the face of your audience and telling them exactly how little you actually care about them except for their money. Every bit of Endgame highlighted and emphasized the flaws that was the monstrosity that was Infinity War. Starting there - I will never get over the fact that the end battle of Endgame so clearly shows how awful the previous movie was. I think I've told you all the problems I have with IW before but to emphasize again - the "we don't trade lives" concept is still something I'm furious over. The fact that grand old captain america wasn't willing to kill Vision for the UNIVERSE but was ok with a few hundred Wakandan's dying for Vision to maybe live? Bullshit. AND that final battle? WTF so we're supposed to believe that in the... five?... ten minutes? after being snapped back to life all those people got off their asses? I can't even. They expect us to believe that when you put all those geniuses, warriors, battle proven tacticions, strategists and spies in a room that they still make all those obvious mistakes when they know the UNIVERSE is at stake? Where was that army of sorcerers in battle one? Why did Wong or whatever his name is really HAVE to protect that one sanctum even knowing the fate of the UNIVERSE was at stake? They had hours to plan. HOURS. If not days?!?!?!?!?! They went to different countries, they had time to sit and plan. They had time to call in the world's resources to prepare, to gather armies. Instead they fought with Wakanda and a handful of superheroes - why??? They literally knew the stakes, the only reason they didn't have the huge army battle scene in Infinity War is because Marvel wanted another movie. They wanted to make billions on Endgame cause they knew audiences would come back if they shock value killed half the universe and then brought them back for battle two but uhhhhhhh.... On your left was a great badass scene and all. But they had max like ten minutes to gather forces who legit just came back to life. Who sent out that distress call btw? Why did all these people NOW have a plan of attack and were gathered in preparation to fight?

Was it badass? Was the shot of Captain America alone against an entire army not iconic? OF COURSE. I loved that scene. I loved the women gathering around Peter and racing to fight against the army as one. It was legendary. There were some really funny, badass, and wonderful moments. But it was a bad story. It was bad writing. Working my way down from character murders that least upset me to most. Black Widow. She finally came to life in this movie. She was a leader, she had emotions, she was more than a catsuit, a sexy smile and a witty comment. I adored her. I despise her death. I hated that in the end she was still another pretty face lying sexily at the bottom of a pit for the life and will of a man. I’m half okay with her death, because it was almost justified. In this story where she was finally a fully-fledged and fleshed out person – she had wants and goals and those centered around protecting her family. The character she was in this movie didn’t even begin to exist until Endgame and it’s a tragedy that she was murdered before she even reached her full potential. But she did want to sacrifice herself so the universe could live again. She wanted Clint to go back to his family. She wanted to give her life for the only thing she loved. BUT Clint was the true perfect mirror for this narrative. Thanos sacrificing Gamora will never be okay. Gamora said it herself – that wasn’t love. That was glorifying abuse. Thanos never should have been given the soul stone under the ridiculous and unclear rules of the soul stone. Honestly, I’d believe Red Skull is just fucking with everybody at this point with how ridiculous those rules are. No way is what Thanos did love. I will come back to the Russos glorifying and being okay with child abusers when I get to Tony and his father. Clint would have been the mirror to Thanos in that moment. Instead of a father killing his daughter, it would have been a father dying for his daughter. His relationship to his daughter is even highlighted at the start of the movie and in his time travel moment. Clint hated who he’d become, he was ready and willing to sacrifice himself for his family and at that point he deserved it. As shown later with Tony – the theme of fathers sacrificing themselves is a relevant theme. So why Natasha in that moment. Why not the father? Why not the narrative mirror? Why the only woman on the team, the one who has grown to be a real person in the narrative and one who is now LITERALLY IMPORTANT TO THE STRUCTURE OF THE WHOLE WORLD AND THE UNIVERSE? She became the leader of the Avengers and expanded their reach across galaxies by communicating and coordinating with Rocket, Nebula, and Carol. She had a world to rebuild by coming home. It’s not like they’re going to give Clint his own redemption movie where he makes up for his half assed arc to becoming his Ronin character arc. I’m half okay with it, but I also think it was the completely wrong choice of which character to sacrifice.

THOR. The insult to Taika Waititi. The insult to Thor, Thor: the Dark World, and Thor: Ragnarok. The insult to Thor the character. Hell, the reversal on Thor -2.0 from Infinity War. Years of movies, years of work building this character. Them saying that not only does Thor, who finally learned to be the God of Thunder without his hammer, who took up Odin’s role and finally accepted his place as King, needed to be.... fixed?!?!?! They gave him back his eye for starters which reverses the whole meaning of him losing it in the first place. Of assuming the role of Odin, of King, of being Thor. Then they give him the axe and then the HAMMER. Thor moved on. Thor accepted himself. Thor in Ragnarok is proven to be stronger without the hammer than he was with it. Giving him the axe, making him obsessed with getting his hammer back, reverses three movie of character development. AND THEN. Making him FAT. Making him STUPID. Making him threaten children, abandon his people, abandon his duty, fall into a depression completely unlike his character who is a hardened warrior with deep emotional depth and understanding – a fucking soft hearted genius in his own right who was able to easily give forgiveness to Gamora and understanding that being the daughter of an abusive monster isn’t her fault. They have the audacity to spend a whole movie making fat jokes about him and decide to reverse him back ten year’s worth of character development. Oh hardy har, we’re such good writers. We understand posttraumatic stress and the mindset of heroes – look he’s drinking beer, and an alcoholic, and eat a salad you fat fucks. WTF. It wasn’t funny. It was mean. It was unnecessary. It was out of character like the Russos came up with it high on crack and refused to let it go. Thank god Chris H is a good enough actor not to show how insulting it must have been to have his character be paraded around in bad cgi and treated like he’s an idiot. Did the Russos not watch the other movies in the canon? Did they not care that Thor had become this deeply complex character who loved his people, would do anything for them, was ready to be King and lead – NO I guess they just don’t care. Like everyone who sat on their asses during the battle in Wakanda. It would have been amazing for Thor to have gone back in time to see his mother as the true and worthy King at last, if his final arc had been around idk his apprehension at how to lead his people after failing them, after them dying down to a few hundred. Having everything he could have been overshadowed by the Russos need for a running joke the entire movie is so very insulting. It shows just how little they think of the audience’s intelligence.

CAPTAIN AMERICA. The insult to women’s agency. I truly at this point think the Russos are lying fucks who have no respect for women. They’re sexists assholes. The insult to the entire team of Agent Carter. The insult to Peggy fucking Carter, the most badass woman who built herself up, who built Shield, who moved on, who had a life, a husband, children, who died in peace and was put to rest. Nope. Forget about everything she did. The Russos plot line is more important. Steve Rogers started out the movie saying how important it was to move on, and what does he do? Not move on. Lets highlight the insult that throwing in “the first gay character” is when facing the cowardice of switching Steve Rogers from being so obsessed with protecting Bucky Barnes that he threw away the shield, became a fugitive, and left the family and team he’d built in the future to chase after Peggy Carter who he HAD MOVED ON FROM. He kissed that one random blonde girl he had no chemistry with. He said goodbye and buried Peggy. Peggy had a life, she was happy. Did she miss Steve? Was she sad he “died”? Yeah. But now she doesn’t get a choice between the future she could have had and the one where Steve buts in and I guess Bruce didn’t have a discussion with Steve about splitting the path of time into multiple realities cause the Russos decided to fuck their own established logic and leave Steve in a new version of the past – where almost all the infinity stones are returned in their non-original forms, loki is fucking off with the tesseract and Thanos/his entire army/and Gamora are all in the wrong time never to forge the original war in the first place? They didn’t put a single scene between Steve and Bucky reconciling the past few years, Bucky’s dusting or the fact Steve was gonna go and never come back after ALL THAT. After Winter Soldier and Civil War, Steve said fuck Bucky, fuck the avengers, fuck this future that doesn’t have Iron Man, I want to go dance with a woman who HAD A LIFE WITHOUT YOU YOU ASSHOLE. I was touched by the old man Steve returning to give Sam the shield. I thought it was wonderful, I cried a little. But what about Peggy? What about the timeline? What about the rules????? Fuck it, there’s a gay character now and Thor is fat, the rules don’t matter anymore I guess.

Tony Stark.... deserved better. He is the true, real hero. The only hero. I don’t care about anyone else. Excluding his own 3 movies and Homecoming, Tony’s character was done so wrong in the Avengers movies by the writers, the audience and the other characters. So many people wrote him off as the person he pretended to be instead of the person he was. They saw selfishness and ego instead of the amount of sacrifice, the effort he gave into making the world a better place. He was such a good person. He grew so much. He gave his life for a world that never loved him, but that he never stopped loving. Natasha and Tony were the only people with something left to lose, but they were the ones who sacrificed themselves for a cold, uncaring universe and they deserved better. Tony finally had everything he never thought he would deserve – a wife, a daughter, a peaceful life at rest. All his wars were finished. He had everything to lose and he went into the endgame with the one condition that he would not give up what he had gained. And still they killed him. It was the only acceptable death for a hero like Tony Stark, but that doesn’t mean he deserved it. That doesn’t mean his daughter grows up without her father. That doesn’t mean its okay for that abusive, negligent asshole that was Howard Stark to get a last hoorah and be “redeemed” by a final conversation with his son. No. Tony had multiple arc, multiple points in his life where he had to rise above Howard and all that Howard stood for, all the ways Howard had hurt him and held him back. He was better than his father – going to be a better father than his father. Thanos and Howard will never, ever be men who should be looked upon as having loved their children enough for them to die in exchange for the greater good. It was so very satisfying for Tony to finally have it out at Steve for everything and I wish that scene had been longer. Tony deserved to live.

Final points. The timeline stuff, again, was bs. They insisted on not messing it up and still they messed up everything. The greater implications of all that is... astoundingly idiotic. Along with, why not just have Tony’s life ending snap send Thanos right back to the past along with the infinity stones to their rightful places and memories erased? If the infinity stones can do anything, such as kill half the universe, why not correct the flaws of the plot? I thought it was stupid that the only reason the time heist failed was because Nebula didn’t think about mind melding with her past self. The fact that’s even a thing... that happened. Really. The whole movie shouldn’t have existed let alone be three hours. They set such a great tone with the opening scene. It was tragic and heart wrenching and then seeing Natasha finally realized and the world broken. I can forgive dues-rat-machina bring Scott back cause I love Scott, but the time heist threw out all the tension. I didn’t feel the stakes, I felt like they stepped sideways into a whole different genre. That middle plot didn’t feel like a movie worth ending an era on. It felt cheesy and underdeveloped. Again – they had forever to plan. There was no time limit pushing them to go to the past immediately. They could have taken the time to think this out, cover every possible option – and they did. They’re shown doing that. So how, for the second time in these two movies, do these brilliant geniuses, tacticians and strategists believably fail to predict the outcome. And uhhhhhh did snapping all those people back account for the post snap casualties? Cause we saw helicopters flying into buildings, cars crashing, we were told that wars broke out and people went kinda crazy as they had a right to. The snap resulted in post snap causalities by the billions across the universe – had to have. So did all those people come back? What happens to the people who moved on and now have a 5 years younger mother/father/sister/brother/friend/loved one/wife/husband/etc to deal with who just blinked and suddenly half the people they care about are now five years older and the whole world is different? The sheer amount of housing and food crises that are about to begin post “snap 2: the snappening” are insane. And I get that its no fun to think about that in the fun of a big super hero battle and all that. But next movie will probably have zero mention of all that as shown by Peter’s entire class just moseying along on a European vacation in the next Spiderman. So Peter’s entire class got snapped, came back, and went on with their lives? The rest of the world’s infrastructure repaired itself in the time frame of Peter still being in High School? Yeah, right. But still – the fact that there’s an hour and a half of the movie that pauses all the tension and drama to be a comedy is just... whatever fine. It was funny. It was kinda cool, but it didn’t belong and it wasn’t necessary. Ok, I think I’m done.

[f4liveblogarchives]

Fantastic Four Vol 1 #141

Tues Jul 30 2019 [06:02 PM] Wack'd: So Reed, Johnny, Ben, Wyatt, and Medusa reawaken in Annihilus' chambers, where he reveals he's also kidnapped Sue, Franklin, Agatha and...Ebony [06:02 PM] Umbramatic: hi ebony [06:02 PM] maxwellelvis: Whomst? [06:02 PM] Wack'd: I am very curious to what end Annihilus needed Agatha's cat

[06:02 PM] maxwellelvis: Ohh, the cat [06:03 PM] Umbramatic: kitty [06:03 PM] Wack'd: Ebony has had absolutely no baring on the plot ever [06:03 PM] Wack'd: And now this poor kitty's in the Negative Zone [06:03 PM] Umbramatic: inb4 they're secretly a flerkin spy [06:04 PM] Bocaj: Ebony is a witch's familiar and so has WEIRD MAGICAL POWERS SOMETIMES [06:04 PM] Bocaj: like turning from a cat into a cat that is bigger than that [06:05 PM] Umbramatic: are they ever in a hat [06:05 PM] Bocaj: Its plausible [06:05 PM] Umbramatic: or using a bat [06:05 PM] Bocaj: The official stats for Ebony from Marvel are pretty bananas [06:05 PM] Bocaj: Intelligence, Speed, and Fighting Skills 2; Strength and Energy Projection 4. And Durability maxed out at 7 for some damn reason [06:05 PM] maxwellelvis: Nine lives, baby! [06:05 PM] Bocaj: I should hope nine lives applies. Because in the Vision comic Agatha kills Ebony to eat leaves from her stomach guts [06:05 PM] maxwellelvis: What kind of voice have you been imagining for Annihilus? [06:05 PM] Wack'd: Pitch Richard Horvitz' Zim down two octaves, change “s” sounds to “z”s, and add some digital distortion--that's how Annihilus sounds in my head [06:06 PM] maxwellelvis: Myself, I think either Horde Prime or the Dalek Emperor is my mental Annihilus voice [06:07 PM] Bocaj: I don't have an actual voice in mind but in my opinion Annihilus and Ultron should both sound like piss babies [06:10 PM] Wack'd: So anyway, exposition exposition exposition, fight fight fight. [06:10 PM] Bocaj: As ya do [06:11 PM] Wack'd: Really Annihilus just goes over the details of their last encounter, explains how he kidnapped Agatha, and then puts Reed, Johnny, Ben, and Medusa in some kind of machine using robot tentacles [06:11 PM] Umbramatic: lewd [06:11 PM] Bocaj: :notentacle: [06:11 PM] Wack'd: MEANWHILE [06:11 PM] Bocaj: AT THE HALL OF JUSTICE [06:12 PM] Wack'd: Alicia is flying to Europe! [06:12 PM] Wack'd: By sheer coincidence, Ben has missed the phone every single time she tried to call to tell him [06:12 PM] Wack'd: And by the time he called her, she was already en route [06:13 PM] Wack'd: This has made her a little bit worried about their relationship, but apparently the reason she's going to Europe is to do something that will remove all barriers between them and marriage [06:13 PM] Umbramatic: ominous [06:14 PM] Wack'd: She's going to get her vision back! Obviously there are massive problems with this line of thinking but honestly I'm just glad she's taking initiative and it's not the dudes working on a cure for her behind her back [06:14 PM] Wack'd: He seems trustworthy!

[06:15 PM] Wack'd: We now return to the main story, already in progress [06:16 PM] Wack'd: This was inevitable

[06:17 PM] Wack'd: So the five set up camp and are promptly attacked by monsters [06:18 PM] Wack'd: Which they handle with ease, which means their powers are coming back, which--

[06:18 PM] Wack'd: I'm not really sure how this tracks [06:19 PM] Wack'd: I mean yes obviously he's going to drain Franklin of his powers, but we knew that, because he abducted him

[06:21 PM] Umbramatic: BABY POWER [06:23 PM] Wack'd: So Johnny uses his flame to tunnel back into Annihilus' keep [06:23 PM] Wack'd: Fight fight fight [06:25 PM] Wack'd: They kick Annihilus basically by not giving him a chance to get to his feet and retaliate. Just a very comprehensive pummeling [06:25 PM] Wack'd: Reed removes Franklin from the power drainer which can't have helped [06:26 PM] Wack'd: We've gotten some vague hints of Franklin's power before but I think this is the first indication of how damn game-breaking the kid is

[06:27 PM] Umbramatic: something something infinite cosmic power itty bitty living space [06:27 PM] Wack'd: So! Agatha poofs everyone back home [06:28 PM] Wack'd: And then [06:28 PM] Wack'd: This happens

[06:29 PM] Bocaj: "You said you wanted me to take a more active role in raising Franklin!" -incoherent Sue noises- [06:30 PM] maxwellelvis: Welcome to one of Reed's most infamous moments. [06:30 PM] Bocaj: So I didn't misremember Reed lobotomizing his kid [06:30 PM] Bocaj: Its just a weirdly common occurrence in comics for some reason [06:31 PM] Umbramatic: oh [06:31 PM] Wack'd: I will say, in fairness to Reed [06:32 PM] Wack'd: As far as he knows he had a matter of seconds between a choice to annihilate the solar system or lobotomize his kid [06:32 PM] Wack'd: It's an extremely cruel moral calculus but he's...not wrong? [06:32 PM] maxwellelvis: On the bright side, if it was this or risking Franklin turning into an Anthony, or like Tetsuo, and shooting his kid with that gun, he probably made the right call. [06:33 PM] Wack'd: Especially because the moon and Mars are inhabited in this universe. Titan. [06:33 PM] maxwellelvis: Well, probably not Titan anymore. I think by this time Thanos had destroyed the Titans. [06:33 PM] Aleph Null: a tit from titan [06:35 PM] Bocaj: I don’t like situations contrived so that Reed doing a shitty thing is the Only Way [06:35 PM] Bocaj: It’s a very specific feeling [06:36 PM] Wack'd: It is definitely a bad scenario that Conway built [06:36 PM] Wack'd: Like, as a storytelling choice, I'm not really here for it [06:36 PM] maxwellelvis: He seems to like that trope [06:36 PM] Umbramatic: it's a bit dumb yeah [06:37 PM] maxwellelvis: Earlier that same year he'd offered an even more sadistic choice to Spider-Man [06:37 PM] Wack'd: But you go to war with the Fantastic Four you have, not the Fantastic Four you want--and I'm not really buying this as a huge black mark on Reed's record [06:37 PM] Bocaj: That’s fair enough [06:38 PM] maxwellelvis: and Reed shooting his own son like that carries a similar energy to me. [06:39 PM] Wack'd: Moving on? I guess? [06:40 PM] Wack'd: This is Buscema's last issue for a good long while and he'll never be the "main" artist again [06:40 PM] Wack'd: So I should probably say something about his three-year run [06:41 PM] Wack'd: He doesn't really have the same visual inventiveness as Kirby, but Thomas and Conway never really demand that of him? He does a pretty good job taking the excesses of Kirby's style and recreating them in a manageable way [06:42 PM] Wack'd: His expression work is far better than Kirby's ever was--no more Johnny nightmare faces or dull surprise [06:42 PM] Wack'd: His poses are dynamic and lively--the Buscema punch is a classic for a reason [06:44 PM] Wack'd: He's a strong visual storyteller who can do the things asked of him really well, but doesn't really bring much personal style to the proceedings--which as a hired hand on a 70s comic probably made him a perfect fit [06:45 PM] Wack'd: He'll be popping back in from time to time, but it's here he needs closure [06:45 PM] Wack'd: I hope I've provided some [06:46 PM] maxwellelvis: I think he gets into his groove a while after this. [06:47 PM] maxwellelvis: This run relied on a lot of returning villains so he didn't have much chances to stretch for anything or really make his mark on it, and he's coming in right off of the King, right? [06:47 PM] Wack'd: Romita Sr has four issues between them [06:47 PM] Wack'd: But more or less [06:47 PM] maxwellelvis: Ahh [06:48 PM] maxwellelvis: Because I've seen his work in other comics, and those have quite a different feel to these FF comics. [06:48 PM] maxwellelvis: Stuff like his Silver Surfer run, where he created Mephisto [06:48 PM] maxwellelvis: And I think this run on FF is also before Buscema was able to make his definite stamp on pop culture by creating the iconic look for Conan the Cimmerian, and, for better or worse, Red Sonja [06:48 PM] Wack'd: Now entering: 1974, and the Rich Buckler era

[bluerosesburnblue]

Liz Liveblogs Bravely Second: Final Thoughts

Alright, as promised, let’s take a deep dive into my experience with Bravely Second. I’ve done the postgame, not really much to talk about. All it really is is unused dungeons that appeared in Default, but not Second, repurposed to hold missing enemies with a set encounter rate. Game’s been 100% completed besides some of the Ba’al bestiary entries, which I’m working on. (And by 100% I mean all Bestiary entries completed, all item/equipment journal entries completed, all character levels and job levels maxed out, all songs unlocked in Chompcraft, and all Titles collected.) So, now that there’s nothing left to do but hope for the best at Fort-Lune, I’ve taken some time to organize my thoughts and gone back through the liveblog to see if any of my opinions have changed

Speaking of the liveblog, I saved it in a word document when the Tumblr purge happened, just in case, and that thing ended up being 98 pages/53823 words long. So wow. That’s more than the entirety my college thesis paper. Kinda nuts how much I can write when I’m motivated. So now I’m gonna write EVEN MORE

Major spoilers for Bravely Default, Bravely Second, and also Undertale follow below

I suppose I should start this post by talking briefly about my history with the series, since I only liveblogged Bravely Second and don’t think I’ve said much about Default before

I beat Bravely Default about three years ago (shortly before November 8, 2015 if the email I sent to my best pal anheiressofasoldier, who I will not tag as she’s avoiding Bravely Second spoilers, is any indication). I binged the game while at college, because I wanted to be able to play Bravely Second when it came out (...whoops). Around the time I really started getting into the game, indie darling Undertale came out, and I spent a lot of my time bouncing between playing Bravely Default and having Undertale playthroughs going in the background while doing schoolwork/grinding in BD. I learned one thing about my tastes during that time: I really love meta plots in games and the way that they both utilize the system’s capabilities to mess with the player and integrate the player into the story, expanding the lore and fostering the sense that you, behind the screen, really are a part of this story and a member of the world of the game, just like all of the other characters. It is a fascinating story mechanism, and it’s a surefire way to get me invested in the narrative

Makes it kind of funny that the Undertale spiritual sequel/AU, Deltarune, came out just as I was finishing Bravely Second. I guess the two series will always be tied together for me

For those unaware and who also don’t care about spoilers, Bravely Default and Undertale are both RPGs with similar twists at the end. Namely that you, the Player, are a full-blown character and active participant in the world of the story. And also that saving the game is an in-universe thing. Bravely Default reveals during its final boss battle that another realm exists, the Celestial Realm, and when it’s depicted the game uses the 3DS camera to show the player’s face, creating the narrative that the villain, Ouroboros, is attempting to break out of the “game” into the “real world,” and the entire plot of the game has been revolving around this fact. It is also revealed that “The Celestial” has been keeping Tiz alive and guiding him, and when he severs the bond between himself and the Celestial, he collapses and the game ends. You, the player, lose control of the character because he breaks your bond, which means you can’t play anymore

The first hint that there may be more to Undertale’s story of a human falling into the Underground land of monsters is during the final boss of a Neutral run (necessary to get the Pacifist ending and the first ending most people see), where the main villain, Flowey, abruptly crashes the game. Booting it up again causes the intro to glitch out and the save file to show what appears to be Flowey’s own save file. When accessed, the player is loaded into a black void with nothing but a save point. Accessing that causes Flowey to delete your save file (not unlike what Providence tries in Bravely Second), which begins the final fight against him. During the fight, he makes use of Save States to reload you back into the way of his attacks. This messing around with the player’s save data is only the first part of the game’s meta twist. Another reveal happens at the end of its Genocide route, where the player actively guides their character into eradicating every last monster in the Underground. You have to actively stay in each area of the game and kill everything you see until every enemy encounter becomes a blank screen with the message “But nobody came...” There’s no way to just accidentally end up on this route. Like, I cannot stress that enough. Very few people actually see the Genocide route, but its reveal is integral to understanding the overarching story

The final boss of the Genocide route is designed to actively screw with the UI (which is what I referenced when fighting Providence). His attacks change the shape of your action box, where you’re intended to dodge attacks in bullet hell segments, around. Some of his attacks are in the menu, hitting your icon in the text box and the buttons to select your action for each turn, constantly damaging you. There’s no downtime in this fight. You have to always be moving, because now he’s attacking your safe zones, just like Providence’s Bravely Second attack. There is no safe place from damage against these bosses. The trick to beating Undertale’s Genocide boss is to wait him out and dodge his attacks until he’s tired, and then use the time he’s asleep to move the action box into the menu to access your commands. Then, at the very end, you’re taken to a void and speak to a child you’ve never seen before, who informs you that you’ve both been controlling the main character of the game, Frisk. In a Neutral or Pacifist run of the game, this child is content to let you take control, and in fact may not even awaken as an entity possessing Frisk at all. In a Genocide run, however, they get so gung-ho about killing that they take control from you at various points. Noticeably, in the Genocide route, “Frisk” seems to act on their own a lot in cutscenes, something that they only do occasionally in other routes. The Mysterious Child informs you that they are the Fallen Child that the player named in the beginning, and that they also believe that they are some manifestation of... I don’t know how to phrase this. Game addiction? Completionist tendencies? They call themself “the feeling you get when your stats go up” or something along those lines. They ask you to destroy the world of Undertale with them and move on to the next game, where you’ll do the process over again together, killing all enemies and the “beating the game,” over and over until there’s nothing left. Accept their offer and the games ends there, the game’s world is erased. Refuse, and the Fallen Human informs you that you were never in control and attacks the player directly, causing damage numbers to be displayed across the screen and the game to crash instantly after. Booting it up again in either situation leaves you with nothing but a black screen with wind noises. 10 minutes after booting up that screen, the Fallen Human will offer to reset things so long as you sell them your soul. Accept, and every time you play a Pacifist route again the happy ending will play, before showing Frisk abruptly becoming possessed by the Fallen Human

I’d hazard a guess that what takes Undertale from being a goofy, lighthearted game with fun jokes and a lot of emotional moments into a ridiculously fascinating game to analyze is that reveal. The realization that the Player is a character takes that game’s story from good to great in a very short amount of time. Everything changes. And that’s exactly what happened to me with Bravely Default, which suddenly went from a cute throwback game to nostalgic RPGs (of which I have played none so there really isn’t any nostalgia there for me) that I genuinely enjoyed both the story and gameplay of to a brilliant game that I couldn’t get enough of. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that seeing that plot thread in Undertale is what made me appreciate its appearance in Default and hope that the lore there would be taken up a notch in Second. And honestly, I’d say it did. Gameplay-wise, it doesn’t go nearly as hard into it as Undertale does, but I don’t think it really has to. It’s not the same game, it just draws on similar themes, and I think it does that really well with the 3DS hardware. And to the Bravely Series’s credit, its integration of the Player into the narrative is done very well

So with all that said, what do I think of Bravely Second as a product? I had expectations, obviously. I expected to get more lore about the Celestial and the Celestial realm and was not disappointed. I went in spoiled on quite a few things, namely:

Anne is Airy’s sister, and is evil and works for a purple-ish pyramid named Providence

Ringabel is in it. Or at the very least, Alternis takes his helmet off. But it was probably Ringabel

The Kaiser’s real name is Denys Geneolgia

Obviously I knew who the asterisk holders were, since I had a list, so that spoiled Yōko as an antagonist to an extent, as well as a few tricky methods to beat bosses, namely Rev

A general overview of some sidequests, mostly Profiteur vs. Holly, Barras vs. Einheria, and Khamer vs. Alternis. You know, the controversial ones

Tiz/Agnès, Ringabel/Edea, and Yew/Magnolia are endgame ships

There is one time loop in the game. Not a world change, but a genuine time loop

I didn’t even pay much attention to pre-release info for Bravely Second, but try as I might, I can’t ever seem to completely avoid spoilers 😓. Oh well. The good news is that none of them really ruined the experience for me

Bravely Second is something that I haven’t seen in a long time: a good sequel. Good GOD have I seen games ruined by their sequels. Maybe I’m just bitter about the sequel hook in TWEWY Final Remix, which makes it seem like the writers have no idea what to do with a sequel, despite having a rich world to set it in. SO MANY sequels just rehash the first game, contradict its ending to get rid of everyone’s happy endings, or else try to explain things that didn’t need explanation (and explain them poorly at that). Bravely Second completely destroyed any of those worries for me. Everything feels like an expansion of the world and characters, done tastefully and with nothing but love for the first game that it’s expanding the lore of. I really felt the heart that went into making it while playing the game, and I have so much respect for the people who made it

Now, it does hit some similar plot beats, like the betrayer fairy who turns out to be working for an extradimensional being looking to mess with both the Celestial Realm and Luxendarc, but I love the twists it made to the formula. Bravely Default was a deconstruction of nostalgic JRPGs, where the helpful guide turns out to be working for the villain and tricked you into doing their dirty work, and instead of saving the world you were dooming it. Bravely Second then takes that plot and flips the perspective on it. They make the person being led by the fairy to open the Holy Pillar the villain, and he believes that he’s saving the world just as vehemently as the party did last game. Which almost makes him the perfect sympathetic villain, since he serves as a counterpoint to the main party who can understand exactly how he got into that position once the full extent of it has been revealed

At no point did I feel that Bravely Second’s added lore hampered the game, or ruined what I knew from the first game (I can easily ignore how silly it is that “oh all of the asterisk holders you killed last game were actually alive!” because I understand how much extra effort it would have been to design all new holders for old asterisks just to justify their inclusion in the game. It also might backfire for fans of the original characters who’d want to see their old favorites included.) Bravely Second’s lore expansions are only ever beneficial to its narrative. The expansion of the Celestial lore and the Plague, largely footnotes in Default, are turned into driving parts of the narrative in ways that only seem to make the world feel larger and older. Lived in. I can only hope that Bravely Third, or whatever it end up being called, keeps up the trend

And Bravely Default didn’t have the happiest of endings, with Ringabel getting a second shot to save his version of the party, but at the cost of abandoning the friends he’s made on this journey. Tiz is comatose, Til and Olivia are still dead, Edea is alone, and Agnès is left to reform her entire religion while fully believing that one of her friends is gone forever and the love of her life may never wake up. I am extremely grateful for being able to take that bittersweet ending and make it a happy one

On top of the amazing graphical upgrades, which stay true to the feel of BD while making everything feel grander, and the tweaks to the battle system to allow for minor enemy variation and the Another Round feature, which gives some incentive to carefully managing BP consumption, and some really fun new jobs, and I’d say I like Bravely Second even more than Bravely Default! (And browsing the internet, it seems like that’s an unpopular opinion. Dunno why, might be the fact that Second is goofier in its first half than the overall tone of Default and relies less on nostalgia for old RPGs). Bravely Second is where I feel the series went from a neat homage with some interesting gameplay innovations to a real adventure with its own unique world and story to tell

So what about the main characters, then? I’m gonna consider the main characters Yew, Magnolia, Edea, Tiz, Altair, Denys, and Anne, as they’re the ones who arguably drive most of the plot

Yew Geneolgia is the character that I was most worried about when I started playing this game. I was really expecting him to just be “Tiz but Younger” and I was happily surprised by what I got. If the liveblog didn’t make it clear, I LOVE YEW. He is such a genuinely sweet boy, who’s chipper and nerdy and so dedicated to his loved ones and I can’t help but relate to him. He’s like the perfect little brother I always wanted (I love my actual younger brothers but they ain’t perfect). His growth is incredible. He goes from a scared kid singing off-key to himself in the woods to keep calm to staring down the god of the realm of people that act as gods to him and telling him to get lost, all without ever losing his kind and dorky nature. He learns the importance of taking your mistakes and growing with them. His sense of familial duty is so wonderful to see, and he serves as an excellent foil to last game’s lead character, Tiz. We went from a low-class farmer and dutiful older brother to a high-class noble and dutiful younger brother, and the flip in perspective with the lead characters only serves to highlight the flip in perspective on the story as a whole. Yew is a Good Boy™ and I couldn’t ask for a better lead character in the game, especially since he’s not even on the cover of any version of the game? Bravely Second is Yew’s story and it’s a damn good one

Magnolia Arch is... honestly kind of underwhelming? She was marketed as the big female lead of the game, she’s the star of the teaser at the end of the international version of Bravely Default, she’s on the cover of some versions of the game! And I... uh... I like her just fine, but I don’t feel like she really served much purpose. She’s got a nice design, I like how sweet she is and her sense of curiosity as a newcomer to Luxendarc, but I don’t feel like she had much... point? She really feels like she was just there to introduce the major plot point of the Ba’als and be a love interest for Yew. I just can’t think of anything she really contributed to the game besides that. I don’t hate her by any means, I just wish there was a bit more to her than minor worldbuilding, especially with all of the buildup she got

Edea Lee is the person I would call the actual female lead of the game, just a different part of the game than Yew is. She’s the protagonist of the sidequests (sans the Yōkai quest, where she gets slightly lesser billing than Yew, but is still a major focal character.) Also, like Yew, she had little marketing. I really respect what they did with Edea. She was one of the most developed characters last game, having her whole arc where she learned to see the shades of gray in morality. So where do you go from there? How do you keep the character interesting without contradicting or repeating their character development from the last game? And my god did they do it with Edea. I love how she legitimately seems to have grown up in Second. She’s learned to see the complexities of situations and acts as a mentor figure to Yew, while still retaining her spitfire qualities... in the main story at least. Her development is actually about taking what she learned in the last game and applying it to a leadership role (which is what the sidequests are supposed to do, but really fail at in execution. More below.) She gets a different arc that complements her arc from last game, where she takes what she learned and now has to figure out how to apply it to a new role. The focus is less on learning to be a decent leader and mediator. It’s a continuation of her character, and it works really well. Ultimately, I’m happy with what we got of Edea (in the main story not... not necessarily Sidequest Edea, who may as well be a different character impersonating the real Edea for how much they have in common)

Tiz Arrior has a similar dilemma to Edea, and a different solution. What do we do with a character who’s already had a full game to be developed? Edea got a new arc that extends off of her first one, taking it in a new and mature direction. With Tiz, however, they decided that he would remain flat in Second, since he got the development in Default and seems content with where he is, personality wise. Like Edea, he’s placed in a mentor role, which I do really enjoy, but Tiz’s real strength in this game is how they used him for worldbuilding. He’s the perfect avenue to explore more of the lore surrounding Celestials, being the closest character to them thanks to his bond with one in the last game. So what does Bravely Second do? What it does best. It takes plot beats from the original and flips the perspective to give the player a new and better understanding of its world and characters. In this case, they take Tiz’s Celestial bond from the first game and give him a new Celestial to bond with, who is more than happy to exposit on his world and the world of Luxendarc. Like Magnolia, I feel like Tiz is much more of a worldbuilding device than a character in Bravely Second, though unlike Magnolia I can excuse this since Tiz already had a whole game that he was the main character of to be developed. We already like Tiz, so he has nothing to prove to us, and it feels good to see him get his delayed happy ending. Weird, though, how the two characters shown on box art for this game have the least impact as characters, though I suppose you could argue that they’re both tied to the main plot though other means. Other means such as...

Altair. Oh, Altair. You weird vegetable-loving alien man. He really grew on me, actually. I find it really interesting that despite constantly stating that the player is a Celestial and implying that the real world is the Celestial Realm, Altair comes in and almost seems to contradict that. Through him, we learn more about the Celestial Realm and, by extension, who and what kind of entity the Player is in this story. Is he aware of who we are? Who knows! He’s a good avenue of lore that I’m fond of. And if Yew is the emotional heart of the main story, then Altair is the emotional heart of the climax. His bond with Vega is what drives a lot of the overarching plot, and it’s a sweet romance. I dunno, I like Altair. I wish he was a little more meta-involved, and gave a little more info about the Celestial Realm, but he did good for what he needed to be. Team Dad’s good

Denys Geneolgia is tied for my favorite character with Yew and I’d talk about him but I already did and nothing’s really changed about my opinions since then, though the rewritten talk with Anne might need to be changed since she apparently doesn’t even know the player exists on the second loop, somehow. Oh well. I wouldn’t be upset if he was a party member in Bravely Third though *wink* *wink*

Anne is cool. Anne is a good foil to Airy, and my rage at realizing that she’s been playing the player since the beginning of Bravely Default is definitely a highlight. She’s a good foil to her sister from the last game. I mean she’s basically Airy taken up to 11 and without the pretense of being a good guy in this game. No, she got that out of her system last game and is in full blown Manipulative Bitch mode this game. She’s a fun villain to have on screen. Very punchable. I’m not sure if there’s much more to say about her, though. I would have loved to see her interact with the player more than the one scene where she taunts us. Just really rub it in that even though we’re a god in Luxendarc, she still managed to deceive us. Maybe expand on her relationship with Airy a little more, focus a bit more on her status as a foil to Denys. She’s a good antagonist, I just would’ve done more with her

We’ve covered the good, so what’s the bad? The sidequests. I’ve gone on a lot about the sidequests but I cannot stress enough how much I disliked all but the Chapter 6 sidequests. They are so formulaic, and that formula actually hampers the story they’re trying to tell with them. The sidequests are Edea’s spot to shine, and I can so clearly see what they were trying to do with them. They’re training Edea for her role as the Grand Marshal of Eternia, where she will end up facing two forces that oppose each other and have to make a decision about her nation’s involvement, which becomes evident during the Templar quest, which all of these seem to be leading up to. The problem, though, is that they’re trying to set up Edea as a mediator and then outright contradict that by having her just choose a side with no thought of compromise, desperately try to validate her choice as the only correct one, frequently claim that the other side’s argument has no merit, and then beats them down to make them agree with her. I mean, what!? That’s not mediating! That’s not my Edea!

By forcing us to make a binary choice, they completely gloss over any moral ambiguity in the situation, and the epilogues always focus more on how Edea feels about her choice, and not the impact that the choice has on the world as a whole. I can somewhat understand why they wanted to implement a choice system into the sidequests to make use of the second loop, but good gracious does it NOT WORK. And it doesn’t help that at least half of, if not 2/3 of, the sidequests try to make a situation morally ambiguous that really shouldn’t be? Or that has a clear correct answer? And all the rest are just really petty disagreements and none of them expand upon the world or characters in any meaningful way. Edea’s sidequest story of becoming a great mediator to make her father proud and grow into the role of Grand Marshal could have gone somewhere if that was a consistent thread between them and not a concept that solely exists in the Templar quest that tries to make the rest look good with hindsight. They really were the worst part of the game. The narratives weren’t enjoyable and the gameplay was just repetitive. Meet two bosses from the last game, listen to grievances, go through old dungeon from last game, pick a boss to fight, meaningless resolution. Rinse. Repeat. But in all honesty, the poorly written sidequests are my only big criticism of the game, and they’re entirely skippable to the average player. (I don’t recommend that you skip them because they offer useful jobs, but you certainly could if you wanted to)

Overall, I’d give Bravely Second a solid A. It is, unquestionably, one of the best games I’ve played in a while. Which is almost word-for-word what my final verdict for Bravely Default was in the email mentioned at the beginning of this post. This series consistently manages to suck me in and keep me invested in its world and characters. I adore it. I love the Bravely series so much and I’d happily buy whatever they come out with next so long as they never try that sidequest stuff ever again. Ever. (Though playing the game is probably gonna mean buying a Switch. Mmmm.)

Moving forward, what are my hopes for the hinted at Bravely Third? Ringabel’s certainly been teased a bit, so I’d hope to see him make a return. Especially as a playable character. I’d love to see his role with the Planeswardens expanded on and what their impact on the lore is. I could easily see Magnolia returning as a playable character, too, just for that little bit of extra development that she desperately needs and her implied relationship with the Planeswardens. I’d really love it if they brought Denys back and made him a playable character, finally giving him an actual, well-crafted character arc. Not to mention that his ties to both the Sword of the Brave and the Eye of Foundar make him an excellent candidate for the plot that the end of Bravely Second teased (also gives me more Geneolgia brothers content).

Story-wise, Bravely Default was centered around parallel worlds (or space), and Bravely Second explored the concept of time, so perhaps we could see alternate Realms/dimensions in Bravely Third. It would be interesting to see them expand upon the lore of the Celestial Realm, especially now that there are characters aware of the Player’s existence, such as Denys and Magnolia. Having Deneb around could also be an interesting choice, as she’d certainly know what the cataclysm in the Celestial Realm was and the capabilities of the Celestial Beings, since she is one. I’ve seen the idea of Deneb as a party member thrown around, and I wouldn’t be against it. Maybe if the whole party was made up of people aware of the Player’s existence, we could have more Player-party interactions. Dialogue choices in cutscenes for us, maybe, where we can talk directly to the party

I wouldn’t be against a Ringabel-Magnolia-Denys-Deneb party. I think that could work really well. Just a team composed of blond boys and silver-haired girls

I love Yew Geneolgia to death, but I think I’d keep him as a side character. He’s already had his story, though a look into what he did after Bravely Second would be much appreciated. Show me my son who reformed the Crystalguard and became the most well-loved member of House Geneolgia in history! At least give me a good sibling reunion! Give me the hug between Denys and Yew that I was robbed of in Bravely Second!

Don’t undo any of the happy endings everyone got. Tiz and Agnès are happily married and retired, and Ringabel and Magnolia make it back home safe to their significant others post-Bravely Third

I guess I’d also kinda like to see a good Cryst-Fairy around at some point. I like the idea I’ve seen around of the Player having their own fairy servant. That could be fun to play with. Maybe with those Party-Player chats I mentioned our dialogue choices could be telling our fairy what to tell the party. Speaking through our own, personal Cryst-Fairy, if you will. Though again, if we’re still expanding the lore, maybe they could go into the state of being of Cryst-Fairies more. Anne gave us a bit to work with, so I suppose I just want more elaboration on how they’re all siblings, how they feel about being siblings, etc. Maybe there’s a good fairy and a bad fairy in the same game and they bicker like real siblings

Also, can they give us confirmation as to whether Yōko was a Luxendarc native or not? And if not, can we see her home realm? That’d be cool. I’d like to see the Yōkai world please

I guess that’s really it, though. For now, that’s all I have to say on the Bravely series! Again, I’d like to give a huge thanks to everyone who’s read through the liveblog and/or commented on any of the parts of it. Seriously, you guys rock and I don’t know if the liveblog would’ve gotten as big as it did if it wasn’t for you guys and the support you provided. If any of you guys want to chat, don’t be afraid to hit me up. My ask box is always open

So! I’ve been Liz, this has been Liz Liveblogs Bravely Second, and I hope to see you all again if/when Bravely Third drops so we can all get lost in the world of Luxendarc together one more time!

[soulspideys]

A Review of Tom Holland’s Complete Filmography

According to imdb

I had a lot of free time, so I decided to watch every movie Tom has acted in, according to his imdb page. I review each film, some with separate spoiler-free reviews.

spoilers under the cut

Arrietty (UK dub)

Not much to say about this one, so both reviews will go together. Tom plays Sho, the sick boy who finds Arrietty and her family. Quite similar to the Disney version, though a little less childish and fun. An enjoyable viewing; I find both English dubs interchangeable.

The Impossible (2012)

Wow. For my spoiler-free review, I just gotta say: watch this movie!! The whole cast is phenomenal, and Tom really does carry the story. He’s a 12-year-old boy on Holiday with his family when a tsunami hits, and we watch his struggle to get his mother medical attention and reunite with his father and little brothers. For such a young character, it is truly remarkable to watch him steal every scene. Definitely recommend!

Spoilers: I cannot stress enough how amazing this cast was. Of course, the movie had its flaws, with three of the main cast being portrayed by children, but it was still remarkable. The way Tom shows Lucas’s character development was remarkably done, and every time Lucas breaks or begins to scream, you’re reminded how young these children are. Ewan McGregor, as always, played his role to the best of his ability, and as he showed a mourning dad desperate for information on his family, you could feel your heart break with him. Naomi Watts, of course, was phenomenal. Just an all around remarkable film, and one that really showcased some of Tom’s strong suits. Quite graphic throughout, but if you have the stomach, I highly recommend taking the time to watch young Tom act his heart out in crisis.

Moments (short film, 2013)

mmkay so this is just a short youtube film, but it’s pretty great. It has Tom doing a voiceover with a montage of a boy and girl in a relationship. Heartbreaking, sharply done, and quick, it’s worth the four minutes of your time.

Locke (2013)

This one’s about a dad on a car ride and how his life kind of falls apart over the course of a few phone calls. Though Tom has a very small part in this film (it’s just his voice for like five minutes, max) he does it well. You understand the relationship between he and his father, and he sounds just a like a teenage kid waiting to watch a match on tv would. The whole film isn’t really necessary if you’re just watching for Tom, but it’s actually really remarkable. Would recommend, just be aware this isn’t a “Tom” movie.

How I Live Now (2013)

ALRIGHT, BUCKOS, STRAP IN! I have my fair share of complaints with this movie, but Tom’s character (Isaac) is NOT ONE OF THEM! Basic plot: an edgy™ American girl comes to stay with her cousins in England, and WWIII breaks out and they get separated and she’s trying to find them. It’s enjoyable, Saoirse Ronan does a great job playing her character, and I’m glad I actually watched it.

Spoilers: She falls in love with her eldest cousin, and that’s a main instigator of the plot. GROSS. But it’s her middle cousin, Isaac, that really made this movie tolerable. Tom plays a 14-year-old kid that really just wanted his cousin to enjoy her stay without letting her walk all over him. He and Daisy exchange banter, and he never lets her negativity get to him. For the first half an hour, he spends all his screen time trying to make light of situations and caring for his family. Then, they kill him off after seeing nothing of him for 40+ minutes. NOT. COOL. Daisy tenderly buries his glasses after finding his dead body, but they don’t really mention him again until the little sister is like “lmao where’s isaac???” He deserved far better. I will probably watch this movie again, but it really goes downhill when you take his positivity and warmth from it.

Tweet (short film, 2015)

Another short youtube film. This one stars Tom’s youngest brother, and is very witty and cute. You get about thirty seconds (max) of Tom onscreen, but he actually directed this! V v adorable, I recommend those two minutes of cuteness.

In the Heart of the Sea (2015)

Ahhh, the origination of the iconic Quackson meme. Won’t lie, I was a bit disappointed by this one. The movie is based off a book that is telling the “true story” that inspired Herman Meville to write Moby Dick. Tom plays the young version of the sole survivor of the ship Essex that was attacked by a white wale and marooned for months. A rowdy period piece full of action and high tensions, it’s a good popcorn movie.

Spoilers: The pacing was really weird. They spend the first hour of the movie sailing around on a nice boat, hunting whales, and bullying the new kid (Tom). The captain is jealous of the first mate so he makes dumb choices. Tom’s character (Thomas Nickerson) thinks the first mate is the coolest guy ever. And suddenly!! WHALES. FIRE. TENSIONS. There’s literally like fifteen minutes of whale smashing, half an hour of floating around and starving and cannibalism, and the last fifteen minutes are split between angsty old Nickerson and everyone making it home fine. The idea was interesting, and the cast did wonderfully, it just felt like the production was a bit rushed. Would still recommend!

Captain America: Civil War (2016)

I’m not really gonna review this, we probably have all seen this. I just wanted to put it here so it’s all his films. Tom’s great. The ideal Peter. A quality beeb. I’m so sorry that I said beeb. WOW I LOVE THIS SPIDEY!

Edge of Winter (2016)

Okay!! I was really excited to see this one, and it was perfectly mediocre. A quick summary: Bradley (Tom) and his little brother are left with their dad for a week or whatever. Their dad finds out that their new step-dad is planning on moving the family and freaks out. Horror movie cliches ensue. An interesting concept with a pretty decent cast, but lacking in certain areas. A mellow horror, much more of a thriller.

Spoilers: Tbh Luc and Richard felt a bit flung in, and there was a lot of unrealistic things. Like... Brad drives a car for like a mile one time and then at the end he’s fine driving miles and miles to get away. Also what happened to their dad?? It’s never discussed at the end. And ik this is about Tom (don’t get me wrong, he was great) but can we discuss the little brother??? Honestly the two brothers pretty much carried the film and they did amazingly! If it had the proper score, I feel it would have boosted the film’s quality tenfold. Altogether, an enjoyable movie to watch when you want something freaky, but not too bad.

The Lost City of Z (2016)

Quite possibly my least favorite movie on this list, but that might just be me. Percy Fawcett is an explorer that becomes obsessed with his search for the lost city he calls “z” in the amazon forest. Despite ridicule from his superiors, he dedicates his life to it. His family feels he has abandoned them, but still support him. It’s literally 2 hours and 20 minutes of this dude looking for native inhabitants of “amazonia.” There are long, sophisticated scenes of dialogue. This is a movie you need to pay close attention to in order to capture completely. 

Spoilers: It’s probably bc I was watching the movie for Tom, but I was disappointed. We get maybe 20 minutes of Tom, the majority of that just squeezed into the end. Tom’s character development felt rushed and flimsy. Robert Pattinson’s character was great, and honestly, why did we not get more development from him??? It was a lot of dialogue with not a lot of movement. Probably like a 5 or 6 out of 10. Just a bit of a mess.. The best part was probably what an early feminist his wife was.

Pilgrimage (2017)

okay so this movie isn’t technically out yet but it’s online illegally (ssssh.....) and I really wanted to see it. I was prepared to dislike it bc people kept talking about how dark it was, but it was actually very enjoyable. Definitely gory and v intense, but all the same, a good story. Possibly the best showcase of Tom’s talent yet (other than hoco obs). Be warned: it can be very hard to watch at times, but stays true to its story.

Spoilers: ok so tbh sometimes it felt like the movie couldn’t decide who it wanted its main character to be. We see Mr. French Richard Armitage Princey a lot, and the herbalist, and the French Priest dude, and definitely a lot of The Novice (Tom), but it wasn’t until the end when it becomes clear that we were watching through the eyes of the Novice. Where Edge of Winter’s big climax failed to feel high-stakes when it was, Pilgrimage does the opposite. During the final scene, I went “oh, yeah, this is the climax!” and it felt v high stakes. Definitely dark and gory and intense, but an intriguing and fascinating film to watch if you have the time.

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

Wowowowow i love tom and he’s so good and i can’t wait to see more spidey YEET!!!

thank you for reading, let me know if this helped, and i will probably continue to add to this as more of his movies come out :)))

[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

Shadowhunters, 3x13 Beati Bellicosi -- Review

Welcome to another Shadowhunters episode. I know this review is coming a little late. But what’s a girl to do? 3B has had such an underwhelming start that it’s an actual chore for me to talk about this show. Plus, I fear my reviews are getting quite repetitive. I honestly don’t know what to say about this show that hasn’t been said a million times before. This week we have Shadowhunters 3x13, Beati Bellicosi.

I would like to preface this review with saying that I am NOT a huge supporter of this show. I do enjoy certain elements of it but I’m not what would be classified as a devoted fan. For me, Shadowhunters is not a good show and I do get very critical of the show in my reviews. Honestly, for me, I watch the show because 1) I’m too curious not to and 2) I find that this show can be so bad its funny and that’s how I reap enjoyment out of it. I am not at all invested in this show or its characters anymore. I’m just watching to see what happens. If you’re a die hard fan and you lash out at everyone who has a different opinion than you, you might want to skip these…I’m just saying. My reviews may not be for you. If you do decide to be a total troll, well then pay attention to the below disclaimer.

This is going to be an honest review of my thoughts and feelings regarding this episode. If you’re the kind of Shadowhunters fan where you only want to hear positive things about the show, this is not the place for you. If you decide to stick around and get offended by what is said, then that’s on you. I warned you. Just know that if you send me any rude comments or messages, I will 100% ignore you. I find that’s the best way to deal with bullies. I work 14 hour days. Do you really think I want to waste my incredibly valuable free time dealing with derogatory comments? Hell no. This review will consist of my honest opinions. Opinions are never right or wrong. I’m not telling YOU how to think and feel. I’m telling you what I, quirky and socially awkward me, think and feel. So please, lets discuss with dignity and respect. If I’m critical about this show, it’s only because I want it to get better. There is, in fact, a difference between hating a show and being critical of it. I do not hate Shadowhunters, I am being critical and analyzing the flaws as I would with any other show. There are positives but there are also negatives. It’s great if you want to promote positivity with this show (and I encourage you to do so) but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to point out the things that are legitimately wrong with it. Also, keep in mind that despite the fact that I do like the books, me being critical of this show has nothing to do with my fondness for the books. I don’t really care if the show deviates from the source material as long as the changes are good, it makes sense, and it doesn’t create plot holes within the confines of the world the show has created. My problems with this show are problems I would have with any show or book for that matter. I think it’s perfectly reasonable to take issue with a show that has plot holes, shoddy world building, and inconsistent characters. There will be spoilers for the books and movie.

This episode was more of a filler kind of episode which really just left me asking, “why?” There’s already so much going on and this show only has 10 more episodes, they can’t afford these kinds of fillers. Things need to hurry up and start happening. Seriously, I don’t understand how this episode can have so much going on and yet nothing also happens at the same time. But by this point, I know full well how the Shadowhunters Writers Room works. The majority of the season is always filler, filled to the brim with inconsequential moments and the last two episodes of the season is when plot actually starts happening and it’s always unsatisfactory due to them not actually using the entire season to properly arc a plot and a character’s development.

The Mary Sue Comes Home

Mary Su- I mean, Clary is finally brought back home to the Institute in all of its anticlimactic glory. I still retain my stance from the previous review that it was completely pointless for Clary to start the series off with Jonathon if she was only going to be rescued in the very next episode. But anyway, everyone is super happy that Clary’s back except for Clary it seems. I mean, seriously, the energy Kat was giving off in these reunion scenes felt like she was giving an obligatory hug to these people who she supposedly loves as if they were family. These people thought she was dead, that they would never see her again. She thought she was going to die, she had no way of knowing if she would ever be able to escape Jonathon, she thought she might never see any of them ever again. How about once more with feeling, Kat?

Upon Izzy greeting Clary, she makes a comment on how she’s going to chop Jonathon to bits and pieces and again, I’m left asking myself, “What exactly has Jonathon done to require that level of rage?” He killed a couple of dudes she barely knew. Sure, he injured Max but Max made a complete recovery with no consequences. I can understand wanting to bring Jonathon in to receive justice, maybe even rough him up a little bit, but this whole “kill on sight” angle doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense. In the books it did, because Jonathon did things that legitimately left a mark on these people, their vendetta was deeply personal, but that doesn’t exist in the show. It’s like I keep on saying, if you’re going to deviate from the source material, that’s fine, I don’t have a problem with that. But you can’t deviate and then expect to continue with the book’s plot as if nothing happened. By making that change, the entire context for that particular plot has changed, the entire plot now has to change to account for that deviation. Izzy is then later filled in that chopping Jonathon into bits and pieces would result in also chopping Clary into some Mary Sue bits and pieces so she understandably backs off. Alec then mentions that he’s put out an alert to all the other institutes that Jonathon needs to be captured alive and again, I’m just wondering, what has Jonathon done that would evoke every shadowhunter’s ire in this show? In the books, it made sense because he was responsible for a demon attack in Alicante that killed dozens of shadowhunters (men, women, children, elderly) but no such thing happened in the show so again, “why?” Why would they care about enacting death upon this guy? I’m also very confused about why other Institutes would pay any attention to Alec’s proclamation. It’s been made abundantly clear that the Clave doesn’t trust Alec, in fact, they weren’t even the ones who put him in charge of the Institute. Jace gave the title to Alec so again, “Why?” Why would they put any credence on this kind of proclamation? Especially, since the Clave was all for executing Clary literally a week or so ago. But whatever.

Continuing on, everyone seems to be super chill about Clary being linked to a super villain and the only one who seems to be worried about it is Clary. But in the end, even she stops worrying about it. I suppose they’ve as well gotten used to the convenient writing so they feel this isn’t something to worry about, they have absolute faith that the writers are going to pull something out of their asses. It was weird that Clary is so ready to get rid of the mark, she exclaims constantly that she can feel Jonathon underneath her skin and then all of the sudden, just in time for the episode to end, she decided out of the blue she’s not going to worry about it. And we get the Clace sex scene. Which was just really yuck to me. First of all, they started it all with that iconic Jace line from the books which just does not work in the show’s context, it’s unearned and it felt extremely awkward and cheesy. Second of all, Kat and Dom have 0 romantic chemistry so I wasn’t feeling anything in the scene, there were more sparks in Dom and Alisha’s scene. And thirdly, Jonathon and Clary are linked and it’s being heavily implied that they can feel everything the other feels. So it’s really gross thinking that while Clace is having sex, Jonathon is on the other side of the bond feeling everything that Clary’s feeling. It’s like a really weird non-con threesome, it’s gross and I wish to scrub it from my mind. And I’m just going to put it out there that the “morning after” scene was incredibly awkward. Like, if you didn’t have enough evidence to show how little chemistry Kat and Dom have just look at that scene where Clary is draped on Dom’s chest. Neither of them looked comfortable in the slightest and it certainly didn’t look like they just had sex.

We did get a little bit of a lore drop in which we find out that arch-angels Michael and Lucifer supposedly had the same bond and it was somehow broken. And I’m really just wondering again, “why?” Why did they have that sort of link? It makes more sense that this mark was caused by demonic influence as opposed to angelic influence. But whatever. I feel like that phrase pretty much sums up Shadowhunters in a nutshell. “But whatever.”

Izzy’s Drug Addiction

Yup, the drug addiction plot is still happening. I’m all for Izzy getting some character development and even seeing scenes of her legitimately working through this addiction and not getting some miracle cure with no consequences like she did last time but again, “why?” We don’t have the kind of time for this plot. We have ten episodes left for the show to wrap everything up. Please, Writers, you NEED to trim some of this fat. But Izzy tells Magnus that she had a relapse (sure it was to save Simon but it’s still a relapse) and Magnus makes sure to tell Alec right away and she and Alec have a conversation about it while on a hunt. And the hunt leads to them finding out shadowhunters are being killed for some reason? The show’s starting to really Bourne it up and I don’t really understand why. Again, it’s just something where I’m like, “Is this really necessary?”

Do Luke and Maryse Even Have a Ship Name?

This is a legitimate question because whether you like it or not, they are a thing that’s happening. Laryse? Is that they’re ship name? I have no idea. Beyond these reviews, I don’t spend a whole lot of time in this fandom. I still wish Luke’s endgame could’ve been Jocelyn. Thematically, it works better. But whatever. Jocelyn’s dead so I suppose we have to make do with Maryse in order to give Luke that romantic endgame. I just wish we had a better foundation for it. I don’t entirely hate the idea of them, it’s the execution of them I dislike. They feel like such an afterthought and just something the writers feel obligated they have to do as Luke is technically a main character and he needs to end up with someone and hey, since Maryse is currently single, why not her? I don’t really like the idea that she’s only here to be Luke’s love interest but whatever. As an idea, I could’ve liked them if they were more of a slow burn but that’s clearly not happening here. But they’re investigating something and that leads them to having an extremely forced kiss in typical Shadowhunters fashion.

The Next Pack Leader…Maia…Maybe?

That depends greatly on whether she still has a pack left. This part of the story revolves around the new pack leader being kind of a douche or at least that’s what the show is trying to make it seem like. Me personally? I’m not entirely realizing why this guy is supposedly a douche. He’s trying to ensure his pack isn’t in a situation where they get caught alone by vampires and then killed. Seems like a pretty solid leadership decision to tell your pack to not be out during the night hours. Granted, he could be a little more understanding of Bat’s work situation but at the same time, like I said, it’s a good protection measure against the threat. I didn’t really see how he was this horrible leader who was only doing this to exert control over others. But whatever. Show, you do you.

When Maia complains to Luke about the situation and Luke tells her he has no plans on coming back to the pack as he was a terrible pack leader (you’ll get no arguments from me on that front) Luke then tells Maia that if she wants to help, she should become the next leader. Maia is scared of fighting the leader but Luke basically tells her to organize a coup within the ranks of the pack.

As Maia plans for this, she decides to break up with Simon as she doesn’t believe that she can be a true alpha leader and have a boyfriend at the same time. Feminism at its finest, I guess. Who ever heard of a woman having a career and a love life? I know, it’s absolutely unheard of. And I guess she’s also just going to throw away her plans of becoming a marine biologist, as well. The whole reasoning for the break-up was extremely weak and even moreso when Simon reveals that he’s in agreement with it as he feels like they’ve just been growing apart. And I’m just like, “in what way?” She was gone for at most, a week and before the Jordan crap, they were practically unseparable. But again, whatever.

Now while all of this is going down, Heidi is basically using Jordan and vampires and manipulating a war between them and the episode ends strangely with Jordan dying and Maia fleeing with Jordan and locking themselves up in a freezer, I guess. Brilliant plan, right? Locking yourself in a place you have no escape from. Apart from the vampires and werewolves being beyond dumb with this super obvious manipulation, I dislike that someone who’s character arc was all about becoming strong enough to take over the pack, runs away from fight leaving her family to be slaughtered. This was a huge disservice done to Maia. Her arc has always been about her feeling helpless and then becoming strong to take over the pack when she realizes she’s not helpless and she can fight. But character arcing? In Shadowhunters? Please.

As I said before, it’s truly amazing how this show can have so much and yet so little going on simultaneously. This episode was really bland and ultimately I just didn’t care what was going. And it routinely left me with asking the question, “why?” This episode gets a C+ for me. I’ll hope for a better episode next time. But I’m not too terribly hopeful as I have an ask in my askbox currently letting me know this upcoming episode was a disappointment.

[elmerinolatino-blog]

The last blog

Aka caipirinha-flavoured tears, aka saudade de brasil

And there we go, before you know it 6 months have passed and you’re back in a country where summer means ‘take a jacket and a vest if you plan to spend the day outside’. What a time it has been. But before a little reflection and nostalgia, let me inform you about my last 3 weeks in South America, the country that wanted me to leave with a bang (or a few). On to Brazil, or: a masochistic journey of hell

Last time I wrote I had just climbed a mountain in the middle of the night with -15 degrees en a freezing cold icy wind. Traumatised as I was, I decided to make a run for Brazil as my time was running out. First stop: Rio de Janeiro. I had not really planned a trip and in my mind it wasn’t thaaaat far away and could be done by bus, because much cheaper. God was I wrong. I put myself on a 17h overnight bus that would get me to the lowlands of Bolivia where I could connect to a train (again, 17h) to the border. Bolivia style, we left and made an instant break to onload more baggage. And then another one, because the bus boys were convinced there weren’t enough passengers on the bus already. And then another. And then another. By that time I had calculated that we had 4h max to be delayed or I would miss the train. So I got a little mad and made sure we kept going. We made 3 stops again in the morning, of course, and made it just in time for the train. On the train I was exceptionally bored because they played some shitty concert on the screens in the wagons, so I decided to make most of my time and hang out with the train restaurant ladies. At first I tried teaching them a card game I know as ‘stressing’ where you have to pick up and play cards fastfastfast. Well, that didn’t work… I don’t think the ladies understood stress as a concept. So I tried a card game I know as ‘lying’, where one lady was an instant star and where the other lady got so nervous at the idea of lying that she quit the game (oh sweet soul). Sadly that meant that I had to retreat to my seat and quit the game too. The travel went on… (remember at this time I’m still travelling smartphoneless). In the morning we reached the border, where I had read that it takes hours to stand in line and that sometimes they’ll tell you that you have to wait until the next day. Luckily it was not that bad, I waited an hour with a British guy who overstayed his visa but worked his blue eyes and got away with it. On the Brazilian side (yes!) I could have taken a bus straight to Rio, but this gringo decided that the bus was quite expensive and that I would just break up the journey and get cheaper buses. Sadly in Brazil it doesn’t work like that, so I ended up paying more and getting a 6h minivan, a 20h bus to Sao Paulo, a metro to the other bus station and finally, another 6h bus to Rio de Janeiro. Once I got there I had bendered my way through buses and trains for 3,5 days and I was ready to die. Luckily there was caipirinha, and I decided to get drunk instead. Rio, meu amor...

Oh Rio. Finally there I was, the cidade maravilhosa, the city so famous you kind of know it without even having been there. What an icon, and what a deception when I made my first walk through Copacabana, because the buildings were not that pretty or iconic. Honestly that first morning in Rio I did not understand what all the fuss was about. Ok there’s a beach but it’s filled with bodybuilding airheads so what? Only when the sun set and I found a viewpoint I understood what Rio’s magic is about. You have a large city to give you the excitement you need, there’s the hills for your portion of nature and activity, and the beach for relaxing and sunset. That night Rio went full charm-attack on me when met up with a guy I met on the bus, and was kidnapped to a party by his friend to a very artsyfartsyparty in a beautiful old colonial villa slash cultural center. The music was great, and there was a huge tree, very nicely lit, from which hung a shower of tree-roots (what the hell is the english word for this). Adding to all of this, it was full of artyfarty queery boys making out with eachother, plus it was “winter” and we were in shirts outside. Man, I had officially reached paradise.

The next days Rio kept living up to its promise. I went to a really good drag show, had a tour through the center, a beautiful mix of modernist and colonial buildings, and went to a boat party. The boat party in particular was great as everybody was completely drunk, and combined with the boat’s sways from left to right it was like being in a rollercoaster in which you were able to shake your booty (and there was a lot of that happening). Before I knew it, Rio had thrown me into a caipirinha-fuelled bender which was great fun but resulted in me with an almost-constant hangover. Luckily I also found some time to hike up to a hilltop and do a favela tour. The last thing was a bit weird because it felt like disaster tourism, but ok, I am also a little urbanist and I want to see every sort of urban landscape possible. Seeing as favelas are a very interesting sort of urbanism (all the alleys, verticalism, the street life) I could rationalise myself to do it. Apart from those things I went to walk the city a bit with a Colombian guy (mistake) after my center tour. This guy decided I was his new personal photographer and made me photograph him in 3 of the same poses on every fucking streetcorner, including “please can you do another one”-s. So now if you want to hire me for your wedding please do, I am broke and consider myself qualified.

Oh yeah, Rio is also an artistic city.

Sampasampa, a blitz trip to the metropolis

After Rio I had planned a visit to São Paulo, Sampa, the biggest city of South America and… the biggest gay pride in the world! In the bus I crafted myself a little necklace of paper flowers, added some extra flower necklaces (more is more, remember kids), some coloured feathers and some glitter (for which the same concept applies my dears, learn from this, it will make your weekends sparkly and amazing. MORE IS MORE). So expecting a big celebration of gayness, I found that my hostel was full of gay guys who ignored me, and the next day, I found that there was not a grain of solidarity in these boy’s minds. During a political speech by a drag queen during the parade there was really zero interest in what she said, which made me outraged. Especially with the homophobia and transphobia in Brazil that people told me really is an issue, how can you set your mind solely on getting drunk and scoring guys? Ignoring this annoyance, I decided to then just go with the flow and set my mind on getting drunk and making out with half the parade. I got by with a little help from my new friend caipirinha, and accomplished both goals.

Having a Marylin Monroe moment on a metro raster.

The next morning I woke up in a state of terror, disgust, disappointedness and hungover chaos, my body was figuratively loop-screaming FUCK YOU in my ear and  I decided I had to take myself away from a place with a party. I remembered how drunk I had come back to the hostel, had tried to practice my yoga headstand thinking I wasn’t thaaat drunk and of course had fallen over. Messy times. I decided to get a bus for Brasilia and spend some days honouring my degree in urban planning. I had a walk through a rainy, 18 degree São Paulo, went up a skyscraper, had a bibimbap in the asian hood and then dashed on to my new destination. Being a good student: urban planning monument Brasilia

Brasilia is Brazil’s 1960s new capital, a city built from scratch with modernist principles. Brasilia was interesting, like a museum, but nothing more than that. It is a prime example of megalomaniac building from a totalitarian view of society, of the idea that the built environment can reduce the complexity of the human to a network of highways and pre-planned public spaces. A rigidity that shows in many ways how it doesn’t work. First of all, Brasilia was planned to accommodate 500,000 government workers and supporting workers. The idea that the city could grow was not planned for, so nowadays, there are numerous satellite cities, some of which are connected to the city only with highways (which makes the city hell for pedestrians). This boy took a bike out one day and had to cross 4-lane highways to even get through the city, on paths that were formed in the grass by people who also had chosen to ride a bicycle but had not found a path to do so. But even in the central city, if you are a pedestrian, you are the last priority. Want to cross the 6-lane highway from the central strip of grassy fields (really they:re not much more than that) to a ministry? Take the pedestrian crossing 500m further, cross, and walk 500m back. So basically it’s like walking in a museum with deathtraps.Second of all, public transport is ooovercrowded. The bus station is full and needs to be expanded. So there goes your perfectly planned futuristic city where you thought there’s no need for any other infrastructure but for the car, because everyone would have a car. Nuh-uh. They built a metro too but it only takes half the planned city. Why?! And then third of all, informal economies. The bus station is full of people with blankets selling random stuff. And of course. It’s Brazil, so this was bound to happen. Anyway, getting way too elaborate about this. Conclusion: Brasilia is interesting but we do not need the city planning from the 60s again.

However we do need recycled dinosaurs and planet-like buildings in our cities.

An idyllic ending

After Brasilia I took a bus ride to Recife. 2 days again. God, why do I do these things to myself? Anyway, when I asked about the north of Brazil people told me: “ahhhh, the north… it’s great, the people are so full of life there..” and it turned out to be true. The place breathes culture, a love for outdoor life, and life is so colourful. And Recife is a biiiiig city. But it is somehow so relaxed, set on the sea, with palms, with that humid warm wind that I recognised from the Carribean, with old mouldy factories with vaguened paint… and even better was my stay in Olinda (oh, linda…) where the town was full of beautiful little coloured colonial houses, carnaval puppets in the windows of the neighbours, and amazing views of the Miami-like skyline of Recife. I spent a few very relaxed and beautiful days there, and felt like I should have stayed to write a book about the richness of life. I mean, one evening we were in the hostel and a weird artist comes up to us to sell us some art pieces he made. Another day I was drinking a caipirinha on the street (yes I was quite the alcoholic again) and a woman starts having a massive drunk monologue to a random dude asking for money. One evening we’re outside watching over the skyline as two cats start fighting in the street below. A woman comes out with a broom, hits the cats with the broom, and walks back into the house in full attitude mode murmuring something like: “fucking cats…”

It was these little things that made life so rich and colourful the last few days and then before I knew it, it was time to say goodbye. In the queue of the airport it hit me and I had to shed a few caipirinha-flavoured tears. Fuck me, what an incredible ride. My last thoughts in that momennt were this: Latin America you have completely seduced me and bankrupted me, and when I can, I will be back. Adios meu amor... Back on the mother continent, a reverse culture shock

And then I got back. I had a stopover in Lisbon and it was terrible to see so many badly-dressed white people. I mean, who still wears those shirts from C&A with white and blue horizontal&vertical stripes and without arms? Unacceptable. It was really that terrible a sight that I thought I would have a hard time resettling and would tumble right into a post-travel depression. But now I’m back, spending a month in the Netherlands after a few days of visiting Berlin, and really, life is quite fine (now that it’s summer). I had a walk through Berlin the first day being back and it was as if Berlin was eager to have me back. Not even 5 minutes after I began my little flaneuring, I encountered a man on a bike making hawk sounds. 2 minutes later a girl asks me the way, laughing, because she lost her phone and is useless without Google Maps. I feed the swans, and ducks, in Kreuzberg’s canal. And I rediscover a drink I totally forgot existed, Club Mate! The joy I felt at that point was off the charts. And then I also got that pure Berlin experience of eating a falafel and having half the ingredients falling down my buttoned-open shirt. I could have missed the moody cashiers in the supermarket though. What a customer service to not greet the person right in front of you… and there were some other annoyances that made the first days back a little bit of a love/hate thing.

Having said all of that, after a few days of feeling weird and slightly reverse-culture-shocked, I learned to appreciate life in the Netherlands again too (but of course with the usual frustrations). One great thing, the bike paths are so perfectly manicured and it makes getting around on a longboard amazing. The other day I even saw a road with bike lanes on both sides, PLUS a two-way separated bike lane on the side. Only in the Netherlands. And it is so nice to be in a place where people say hi and bye to the bus driver. Apart from that, I’m now doing a minijob where I’m visiting many places in my childhood neighbourhood for surveys about recycling. It’s quite interesting and frankly quite mind-expanding to visit homes and find so many different people you didn’t know, and didn’t know had such diverse lives. And almost everyone, also the place where the ‘white trash’ (according to mom and dad) of the hood lives is nice, and recycles. So life is good at the moment. But, I have just one thing to say to white Europeans who are too inhibited to dance on the street during a party: MOVE YOUR ASS. Your mother didn’t give you your ass for nothing. And yes and there’s a reason I say this: I found a jazz festival in Rotterdam last weekend and was absolutely stupefied to find that all the people around me (who were enjoying the music quite obviously) were only awkwardly nodding their heads to the beat and moving extremely conservatively. After the 5th time of the singer trying to get people to dance, people would dance. A little bit. Beh! If I have learned one thing this journey it’s that political situations can be fucked up and so can be your national or personal history. But there is never, never, NEVER a reason not to shake your booty and make life colourful. Sweet readers, take this to heart. I hope you have enjoyed my stories as much as I have enjoyed living them, and writing about them. In fact, I have enjoyed it so much that I want to take some time for thought and think of how I can keep meaningfully writing. Mis amores, unos besos con sabor de flores.

Yours now slightly Latino,

The boy you know as Elmerino