#like....you gotta EARN that shit just as the protagonist does

[fyeahnix]

"good girl" is such a simple, but effective piece of dialogue. If you REALLY want that shit to hit, use it sparingly.

[bthump]

I think I have diagnosed Griffith with 2 things after reading the manga, but am curious to know what you think

1. ⁠Narcissism. His entire worldview revolves around him. He thinks he is the protagonist. When he states that he can only respect another person who has their own dream and would do anything to make that dream a reality, he is putting a tremendous amount of weight on his "respect". And when someone actually does what the fuck he claims will earn his respect, he doesn't give it, because in the end it breaks his ego. In the eclipse, it's unearthed that deep inside, all along, he believes that all of the individuals in his army exist, living or dead, to serve him. That they died purely for him, not even considering that they yearend a life that was better then what they had, and surviving the front could have granted that. He never felt for a second that he actually owed anything else to anyone else.

2. ⁠Sociopathic tendencies: Griffith lacks true empathy. He views the world, and it's moral balance as a ledger, that he can add and subtract pros and cons to equal the karmic balance in his own eyes, and as such he "Greater goods" a ton of stuff that the fandom excuse or don't even consider prior to the eclipse, like burning the queen to shreds and sending guts on an assassination mission. He sells himself off to Gennon for the "good of his army", but this is just Griffith making ends meet to continue his ambitions of conquest, all of which are for his purpose. He excuses great amounts of evil because he is a narcissist and a sociopath. Other people's genuine state of being are not within his comprehension, and their situation is meaningless to him.

I gotta be honest, I'm pretty surprised you don't already know my opinion on this, since like my whole Fandom Brand is being a Griffith stan who thinks he's a genuinely good, empathetic person as a human lol, and I feel like I discuss that all the time. If you're very new around here and haven't really read many of my posts yet, then yeah, fyi we have deeply differing takes on Griffith.

And just as a warning, around this corner of fandom you're pretty much just going to see exasperated disagreement with this opinion, because it's what the majority of (English speaking) fandom tends to think about Griffith and the people who follow my blog tend to be pretty tired of it.

If you're genuinely interested in my own thoughts though, I'll link a few posts that explore my take on Griffith's personality in some depth:

Do I think Griffith is cruel

How Guts is not a better person than Griffith

Quick take on the Eclipse sacrifice

Griffith and power/control

The meaning of the Promrose Hall speech

Why Griffith lost his shit during the second duel

How Griffith both parallels and contrasts Gambino

Griffith's feelings for Guts are positive

Griffith's entire internal conflict throughout the Golden Age examined at great length

And just as an additional note, I generally don't engage with media through a psychiatry lens. Diagnosing fictional characters with personality disorders isn't my kinda thing unless the text is heavily implying it, because I view characters as tools that exist to help construct the meaning of a story, not as real people. If the narrative isn't interested in clinical psychology, then neither am I, basically.

But needless to say if Griffith was real I don't think either of those diagnoses would fit him, based on my layman's understanding of sociopathy and narcissism, for reasons I've discussed a lot in those linked posts, among others.

[jailforwriter]

The Oracle (and why prophesy in storytelling doesn't have to suck)

You know what most people hate to see in their Fantasy stories? Prophesy. You know what's really fun to pick apart and analyze and makes for some delicious dramatic irony when handled properly? Prophesy.

How come? Well, for one, The Chosen One trope is a little overused. Readers tire of it quite quickly nowadays. Does that mean that it's bad and you should avoid it at all costs? Haha no. We're not Sith. We don't deal in absolutes. What it does mean is that you'll have to get really clever to justify that choice, narratively speaking, and that even then, some readers might still dislike it on principle. The inevitability of prophesy can often deter from our enjoyment of it, and we run the risk of it falling flat if it's not engaging enough.

Which is why I'm advocating for Prophesy Lite™️ (aka The Oracle character archetype) and its untold engagement potential! This business is no longer about ancient scripture handed down from generation to generation coming to wreck your protagonist's shit (boring). All the wrecking shall henceforth be done by one annoying creep only (fun).

By assigning The Oracle this role, we get to pump them full of all sorts of interesting human quirks, such as being a manipulator who purposefully miscommunicates messages, or being a bad public speaker who accidentally miscommunicates messages. Think the three witches in Macbeth. Either way, we're in for a great deal of misinterpretation and ethical conundrums, neither of which would've been half as fun from an ancient stone slab, now would they?

So what does The Oracle do, exactly?

Tergiversate. Like, everything, all the time. They're there to lead everyone down the wrong path via the three most annoying "s" words: semantics, sophistries, and symbolism (derogatory). They may or may not get high on fumes while doing so, Pythia-style, but there are a handful of things on the job description that they must comply with to qualify for the position:

Know stuff: mystical stuff, not just any stuff. The kind of stuff your character couldn't just find in the library. We're talking divine wisdom and esoteric truths of enlightenment here.

Foretelling: okay, so they know stuff. Now, we need them to make that everyone else's problem. For that, they need to prophesize.

Insight: this is the main reason why we didn't just use a cool ancient rhyme. It's because our dear Oracle can offer their own biased advice – riddled with deceit – and make everything worse.

Enigmatic: they gotta be at least a little weird, okay? They're one with the universe from 9 to 5, there's no way they can just integrate into society whenever they want because we need them to. Bonus points if they talk weirdly, too, so no one quite understands what they mean at any given moment, leading to even more hilarity.

Pals with God (optional): ideally, yes. In practice? Well, just imagine all the fun stuff you could have them do if they're only pretending to be a phone for the Sky People.

Why did this merit a whole human person?

Are you still not convinced that this human being couldn't just have been an email? Fine, let's look at other ways in which they could earn their keep:

Ethical spouting machine: remember how we established that they can introduce their own biased interpretations into their prophecies? Well, they also happen to have a mouth, and can therefore cause great emotional turmoil in your protagonist if they decide to pick their moral compass apart with it.

Manipulable: you thought your protagonist was the only one who could be manipulated? Ha ha. No. Your Big Bad is pulling at the Oracle's strings and they don't even know it! Or do they? Idk man, it's your story. Sounds real interesting though. I'd read that.

Potential allyship: unlike a slab of carved stone, this Oracle may establish cute lil' bonds with your other characters, making whatever you choose to do with them have emotional stakes, and we should always raise the emotional stakes where we can.

People grow: and your Oracle is a people, so we can certainly have them grow better. Or worse. Negative growth is also growth. They're a cool villain waiting to happen, is all I'm gonna say.

Subverting expectations since circa 4000 B.C.: I know Pop Culture has made us hate the term "subverting expectations", but contrary to what Hollywood seems to think, it can be done properly. One such way is via the Oracle, who, if we write them that way, can be less ominous and more babygirl. They maybe even down to help our protagonist avoid what should've been an unavoidable fate.

There you go! You can have your proverbial cake and eat it, too, so long as you make that cake (prophesy) very intricate and its baker (prophet) a little wacky. Thanks for reading!

Happy writing!

[demonfox38]

🔥 castlevania

God. Incoming fireballs.

Obviously, the greatest of the "Castlevania" TV's show's sins was Season 3. But, I also want to nominate Sin #2 as making the dullest interpretation of Carmilla known to the entire goddamn series. You could have had a giant, naked woman riding around on a skull, crying flaming tears while her catgirl girlfriend mauled people to death. Or, Necromancer Barbie shaking her titties at the protagonist and laughing her ass off at their futile struggles. But, no. We had to rip off what turned out to be one of the most disappointing media mistakes all to get cash. Boo. I'm not renewing my Netflix subscription to see the next "Castlevania" show. Frankly, it would not break my heart if it fell apart in production.

I hate that Alucard's hair color has drifted from white/platinum blonde to a honey blonde in the popular consciousness. Like, yes, it used to be black (and still can be, if he's hot about it.) And yes, I get that it makes him look more like his mother. But, I'm all about an interpretation of Alucard where people look at him and go, "What the fuck is that, and why is it kind of hot?" And that's just harder to do when you've got the color palette of the average Japanese stereotype of a European/American dude.

Writers are cowards for not including Grant Danasty in subsequent projects. But also, I could easily write him out of the story. Just got up to the tower where he's hanging out, accidentally kill him in monster form, then have Trevor go "Oh, fuck! What the hell?!" and move on. He can be removable, but goddamn, does it show how little writers have played the actual games or have any sense of geography when they talk about him.

Honestly, I don't like watching most "Castlevania" speedruns. Mostly, because they have broken into clipping and arbitrary code execution to get the fastest times. If it's glitchless, I'm cool with it. It's otherwise dull to me.

It's a shame that "Aria/Dawn of Sorrow" never went full tilt with Shintoism or Japanese mythology in their games, but I'm glad Igarashi's doing it now with the "Bloodstained" series.

I don't trust Konami to do anything with the "Castlevania" property outside of whoring it out when they want cash. Frankly, that's their attitude with all of their properties, but that's the one that hits me closest to home. Some executive in that company has earned a special place in hell for not cultivating and keeping their design teams happy and in house.

I get the feeling that every time Igarashi was made to put a Belmont in his "Castlevania" games, it came at the cost of him cursing and swearing a lot. Like, "Shit! Fuck! You want more of these guys? May I please use someone else?"

If you don't get that Dracula's Castle is both alive and a character, you have no business handling anything with the series. It needs to be as charming and hostile as its master. If you don't get why people might want to hang around it, you've gotta leave.

It is Dracula's Castle. It is not "Castlevania." "Castlevania" is the English name we're stuck with for the series. Dracula's Castle is the place.

We probably shouldn't ever get a 1999 "Castlevania." It will never be sick enough.

We also shouldn't get a "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night" remake. At least, not until modeling can match the sprite work for fluidity and personality. And frankly, losing the original voice acting is a disaster unto itself. (Yes, I am not pleased with the PSP dub.)  

Okay. I think this enough for now.

[choosingfreedom-a]

──  VILLAINOUS ATTRIBUTES !

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[chibimyumi]

Hi

I hope you're doing well

I have questions if you don't mind

Who do like Axel von Fersen in Marie Antoinette or Axel von Fersen in 1789 les amants de la bastille and also do you like Marie Antoinette in Marie Antoinette or in 1789 les amants de la bastille

Thank you for answering my questions

Dear Anon,

I am doing well, thank you very much! I hope you too.

Hmmm, as a quick answer I would say I prefer both Marie and Fersen from ‘Toho MA’, but the full answer is slightly more complicated.

Firstly, it is almost unfair to compare them to each other because in MA they are the main characters, whereas in 1789 they are main-support or secondary-mains at best.

Secondly, MA has a far bigger focus on the characters because that is what drives the plot, while the opposite is true for 1789, which mainly sells a spectacle. I myself am more fan of subtle and deep story-telling rather than spectacular shows, so the MA versions of Marie and Fersen are more to my liking.

Thirdly, the quality of the characters also depends greatly on the cast. My first view of MA is the A-cast, and therefore my impression of the characters is that they are incredibly well written. After comparison with other casts however, I started to wonder whether it was just the A-cast being too good, and the musical itself being ‘fine’. (In short; I’m not fully sure how much I’d ‘clearly’ have preferred MA Marie and Fersen were it not for A-cast. Click here for a comparison between the two casts written by my friend @wildandwhirlingwords)

But, I shall go into more detail for both characters why MA’s version appeals more to me - someone who enjoys character writing most.

🌹Marie Antoinette🌹

M.A. 2018

In my opinion Marie Antoinette is better in MA because you see her journey and her motivations. We all know that the historical Queen screwed up majorly, but in MA we see why, and in what ways she indeed had very little other choice from her own perspective. She was a flawed foreign woman in a time and place where flawed foreign women were hated most.

In the beginning of the musical the King comes tell Marie that she’d have to live more economically. Marie is clearly not very enthusiastic to hear that, but she also never protests. She just asks ‘why’ and then accepts the answer - albeit broodingly. More importantly however: we need to keep in mind that despite being called Madam Deficit, the historical Marie Antoinette was actually quite economical at first because the Austrian court where she comes from was way less extravagant than the French. It was after her marriage into French royalty that she became more extravagant, because she was criticised for “not being a proper royal” by the French. According to the court, the 14 year old Marie was “a peasant unworthy of becoming Queen.” When you’re that young and criticised by your entire new life, you do everything in your power to make sure you can actually have a life; you adapt. So when Marie was then suddenly told to stop ‘adapting and be a proper Queen worthy of the French”, we can see why more is at stake than “Karen needs to deal with only 10 dresses a week.”

Something else that adds depth to her character as opposed to her 1789 counterpart is that as the story progresses, Marie actually grows. She becomes more mature and more serious, and you see in her how all the events have a clear toll on her. From her own perspective, she really was trying very hard, but anything she tried was inadequate to improve the situation. What she didn’t know is that no matter how hard she tried, the situation was already un-salvageable before she was even born. The populace AND the court had already decided to hate her for being an unintelligent foreign woman from an enemy state, after all. This is an insight most historians nowadays agree on.

In a later scene where Margrid confronts Marie, she asks the Queen: “what makes you think you are better than us?” Marie confirms nor denies, but replies: “I am merely Queen as I was appointed by God.” When she adds: “All I know is duties, you are free,” there is also a clear sense she genuinely doesn’t know why she was appointed by God, but as she is now, all she can do is her best. She is still ignorant, which was a genuine problem about her. She does not know the hardships of not being from the top rank, allowing her say something as insensitive as: “at least you’re free.” But again, despite her ignorance, her feelings are sincere. From all the unfair expectations she was made to live up to from age 14, you really do see why ‘a life without duties’ seemed so much more appealing to her.

1789 - The Lovers of the Bastille

Marie in 1789 is more of a side-character, and the musical itself just is not very character/story driven as MA is. 1789 has the tendency to take the tropiest of tropes and stay on surface level with the characters. Ouki Kaname is an incredibly good actress and she tries her best; but she cannot do more than the script gives her to work with.

In this musical Marie is not portrayed in a very relatable or sympathetic light. She is extravagant because she has escapist fantasies, but we don’t really see what she’s escaping from. The sympathy from the audience is supposed to be drawn from the tragedy that she’s married to the King but is in love with Fersen. Oh, and she has a son but he’s mortally ill. Meanwhile however, you don’t see how her life is so bad she needs to escape... and you also don’t see Marie really being worried about her son than an occasional: “Oh Ill again? Sucks I guess. Gotta cry my eyes out on my lover’s lap, AHHH FERSEN 💗” It was not until her son had already died that Marie woke up, but the lack of portrayal of Marie’s perspective and the pacing really makes one legitimately wonder whether the child did not just die of Marie’s neglect. And about the forbidden love ...we’ve seen enough love triangles with star-crossed-lovers... I don’t know about you guys, but I am numbbbbb to this “problem”.

When Marie receives message from Olympe that she finally gets to meet her lover after a long separation at the Palais Royal, one of the first things she says is: “is that not the place where revolutionaries and prostitutes are gathered?” This immediately sets up an empathy-barrier between her and the common people. This Marie clearly views herself too good for people who do anything to get by; why would you care about her then? Because Marie’s story is not fleshed out you don’t see parts that can make you go: “oh, the revolutionaries really hate her for reasons beyond her control, she is in danger.” Or “she was raised by a puritan society, making her hate on sex-workers; that’s part of her character flaw.” Instead it’s just this Diva being quite judgemental.

Ouki was trying very hard to make the focus about her own safety, but with the script being what it is... she’s still a mostly unsympathetic character who is a martyr of forbidden love.

There is one scene where we see her take on a much more mature and responsible role. That was the first time I personally felt like Marie from 1789 is an actual human being with feelings and personal difficulties. But in great part this is Ouki’s acting... (the other cast didn’t do much for me). What is also important is that Marie was ‘humbled’ because her son died. Marie did not have much of a personal growth, and then she changes to a more sympathetic person because of an external factor just... feels less earned.

In the finale Marie appears again in her execution clothes, and the way Ouki appeared really felt like a punch in the gut. She sings “as a recompense for our griefs, people have learnt forgiveness.” However, the story skimped over the characters so much I was left to wonder: “who learned to forgive whom?” Do you think the people forgave you? Or was there somebody you hated but now learned to forgive? What was your grudge? Do you understand the angry mob’s grudge?

The finale of the musical treats like after the heroic sacrifice of the protagonist (Ronan) the oppressive monarchy was replaced by a good democracy, and a Reign of Terror will DEFINITELY not happen under Robespierre or something. But if you’ve had a BIT of European history you just know it’s a blatant lie. So the finale just feels too simplistic, and this simplistic feeling was in part presented by Marie’s very empty, lip-service-y line.

⚔️Hans Axel von Fersen⚔️

M.A. 2018

Fersen is a bit harder to compare which version is better, because honestly, depending on who plays Fersen in MA, Fersen is either the most generic Hollywood sweeping-lover-hero, or a diamond mine to excavate. In the same post linked above by my friend, she explains in detail the differences between TashiroFersen and FurukawaFersen. K-musical fans, don’t @ me, but from what I can tell, the Korean Fersens are also very... typical.

In this post I have discussed Furukawa’s Fersen in great detail, so I shall skip over these for this post. But to summarise, when portrayed by Furukawa at least, Fersen in MA is very nuanced and restrained. Even if we do not fully credit Furukawa however, then at the very least the script allows enough space and material for an actor to flesh him out so phenomenally well (I think Tashiro and some other actors just.... really missed out on the potential).

Fersen in MA incredibly memorable because the main atmosphere of the imminent doom awaiting everyone is carried by him in a way nobody else does. The moment Fersen enters you feel the tension that the musical wishes to tell. Fersen has seen revolutions, he’s seen the power of anger; he knows shit is going to hit the fan because he’s familiar with this trajectory. 

Fersen has excellent self control because he knows how a lack thereof would hurt Marie’s reputation and escalate the growing chaos. You can see very clearly how Fersen does want the intimacy, but to him duty and the grander picture has priority. In all the small actions from Fersen you see how he is a savvy intellectual through and through. (More about reservation later).

In contrast to 1789, we also get to see so much more of Fersen in MA because he is the narrator and a main character. Throughout the musical he’s been trying to de-escalate the chaos and even though his plans were actually well thought-out, the problems were just simply too big for any one person to solve. When Fersen mourns Marie there is a clear sense that he is not really surprised, just really upset that things had to come so far. Instead of singing something accusatory to the angry and hungry people, he sings: “fate, why did you give her everything, only to show her hell in the end?” Fersen truly understands why the people were duly angry, but that not taking away his sorrow of losing Marie who he knows is a better person than people make her out to be.

Also in great contrast to 1789, the finale of MA is rather grim. It does not suggest hope or that all problems will eventually disappear. The story for these people have ended, but the problems and the world will continue to our days, and days far beyond ours. It gives a feeling that the world of MA is so extensive that we - the audience - are part of it. In the finale when we see Fersen again, he also stays in tune with this feeling. “How can the problems of the world be solved, what is true justice? We remain clueless” he sings, and the way he looks into the unknown distance is almost a reminder to us that nobody has reason to stop worrying and fight for justice.

1789 - the Lovers of the Bastille

Now if we were to compare MA’s Furu Fersen to 1789′s Fersen, we see a stark contrast between the two. Where Furusen was incredibly reserved and hyper aware of everything, 1789′s Fersen is just the over-romantic lover who had been pining for his love. For a moment Marie realises she probably should not be cheating on her husband and backs away. Fersen however, is the one to make further advances, actively pulling her back to his side.

When he embraces Marie you see how he is just dreaming and indulging, something Furusen would never do. Furusen might hug Marie, but not without sh*tting 50 colours. 1789′s Fersen is the sweeping Romeo that most of history makes him to be, and little more. But again, Fersen plays but a very small role in 1789, so it is also unfair to compare him to MA’s Fersen.

Regardless of whatever nuance might or might not be there however, it is also just quite hard to like this Fersen because he is ‘just another privileged aristocrat who is just needy’. When making out with Marie in Palais Royale they find out that Ronan fell asleep there drunk. Ronan simply complained that Marie was too loud and woke him, and Fersen immediately shuts him up, and then draws his sword at him for ‘speaking rudely’.

First of all Fersen and Marie, if you’re gonna do a clandestine meeting, you CHECK your surroundings. Second of all, FERSEN Ò.Ó, this peasant is untrained and weaponless; you can’t just unleash your high-ranking martial arts at him with a shiny sword. This is EXACTLY the reason the revolution happened; the people were sick of the suppression of the powerless by the powerful. UGHUM. It truly is mind-blowing to consider how 1789 Fersen and MA Fersen are both...Fersens.

This Fersen is not very involved with the revolution from either side. He just proposes to help Marie and the King escape once, but got dismissed immediately. The following time we see him it is in the finale.

There he stands, a knight in shiny armour singing a really hopeful phrase to a relatively upbeat and hopeful music: “do not rely on force, but seek for hope and courage.” Here again unlike with MA’s Fersen, you don’t really feel like this Fersen has experienced anything. It was like he was an employed special guard, told by his boss there’s nothing he needed to do, his boss is dead, and oh wellll, moving on!

Conclusion

Because Marie and Fersen in MA are main characters whose stories are fleshed out, it really is very unfair to compare them to their 1789′s counterparts in a race of ‘who is better’. In the end of the day, 1789′s aim is to sell a spectacle, and it realllly is a phenomenal piece if you’re there for the spectacle. The choreography, songs, stage, everything is masterpiece-level. So if you’re there for the spectacle you get exactly what you went there for. The story and characters however... not so much. If one is more drawn to a direct, glittery spectacle with hands-down-amazing-songs however, they’d probably find Marie and Fersen from 1789 more enjoyable. If you’re into first and impressive impressions, the MA counterparts might demand a BIT too much attention and patience to get into.

Related posts:

Introduction and character analysis Fersen ‘MA’ 2018

Comparative commentary on MA Cast M and Cast A

[thankskenpenders]

So, about the movie...

At long last, a week after it came out, I was finally able to see the Sonic movie. The Daytona 500 being held across the street from my favorite theater and conflicting work schedules had been keeping me away, but now I’ve finally seen it. And it was...

Decent!

Which is way, way, way, way, way better than a movie with this awful premise has any right being. That’s for damn sure. I enjoyed my time at the theater. I don’t know how they did it, but they did it. If you like Sonic and haven’t already seen it, you will probably get a kick out of this film. If you don’t like Sonic (or Jim Carrey), there is very little in this movie for you

Okay, now that that’s out of the way, it’s time to break that whole movie down. This will contain full spoilers for the Sonic movie

This movie kinda gave me deja vu because it’s set up so similarly to the Bumblebee movie. Both open with a slavishly faithful CGI sequence on another planet to ensure long time fans that the creative team gives a shit, but a conflict sends the title character to Earth. There, they form an emotional bond with the human lead as they’re pursued by the bad guys, who are working with the US government and tracking the energy signature of the title character. This setup worked extremely well for Bumblebee, because it’s so similar to the usual plot of Transformers. For Sonic, it was... a mixed bag. But it worked better than I expected

(This shot does not happen in the movie.)

That opening though, huh? Green Hill Zone looked great, and I was pleasantly surprised to see they did, in fact, use the Hyper Potions track from Sonic Mania in the actual film. (The piano rendition of the Green Hill theme used later was also lovely.) Longclaw was also interesting. I’ve seen one person bring up all the bird-themed ruins in Sonic 1 and 2 as a possible source of inspiration for the character, and I think that’s a valid take. And man, the echidnas! I wasn’t expecting that AT ALL. I guess that was probably the Knuckles Clan or something? I would never, ever picture them being alive during Sonic’s lifetime, but like... I guess Knuckles had to come from somewhere, right? If they do another movie with Knuckles, will the rest of his kind have died out?

Sadly, though, this sequence felt like it was over in a heartbeat. We barely see Sonic’s life on his home planet, and we’re expected to feel emotional over Longclaw’s sacrifice when she only gets like three lines before Sonic is sent to Earth. This is a common theme with the film--it goes for these big emotional beats that it just does not earn with its rapid fire pacing

Anyway, then we fast forward and Sonic’s a teen. This is actually kind of an interesting one if you’re constantly neck deep in Sonic Character Analysis like me, because it’s a pretty different take on the character. It’s hard to give them credit for doing something somewhat fresh with the character, though, because like... how much of that was intentional, and how much was just Hollywood writers trying to squeeze a generic action-adventure movie out of Sonic? (Honestly, it’s probably mostly the latter.)

The closest other piece of Sonic media to the movie would probably be Sonic X, a story in which Sonic isn’t really the protagonist. The Sonic of the anime is fairly emotionally distant. He cares deeply about his friends, and does nice things for them, but he’s totally fine with running off on his own for extended lengths of time, and he doesn’t really talk about his feelings. He’s not the character the audience is meant to sympathize with, but is instead this cool older kid who Chris wants to impress. This is pretty much in line with how Sega likes to depict the character. He cares about his friends, but he’s also cool with being a loner. It feels like he only runs into them incidentally, usually when Eggman is causing trouble, and then when the crisis of the week is taken care of he’s back to going on his own adventures. There’s a reason why one of his catchphrases is “long time no see”

The Sonic of the movie is the polar opposite. His main conflict is that he’s lonely and desperately seeks friendship. He’s also an overly-eager, extremely earnest goober. He literally flosses twice. (Which I loved.) I’ve seen him compared to Silver, and honestly, that’s not a bad comparison. I did like it, though! I don’t mind Sonic being a more emotionally open character, like he was in a lot of older Western media. I mean, he cried in like the second or third episode of SatAM

It’s just that, like many things in the movie, it feels less like a deliberate creative choice and more like a logical string of decisions to make when writing a generic action-adventure film for general audiences. Sonic’s the only one of his kind on Earth, so of course he’d be lonely. He has to have some sort of arc for audiences to connect with him, and if he’s gotta be accompanied by James Marsden for the whole movie, well, his arc’s gotta be about them becoming friends

I’ve gotta say, though: Ben Schwartz is great as Sonic. As much as I like Roger Craig Smith, I wouldn’t complain if he became the new main voice of the character. And thanks to the redesign, he looked great. I can’t imagine how nightmarish this movie would’ve been if Sonic wasn’t cute

My main fear with this movie, though, was that Sonic wouldn’t really be the protagonist. As a fan of Transformers, I know all too well that the cost of doing a full CGI character usually means that said character can’t really be the star of the film. Optimus and Bumblebee aren’t the stars of the Transformers movies--they’re supporting characters who are primarily present for the sake of the action scenes. The humans are the real stars in those movies, and the robots are barely even characters. I was terrified that Sonic would be the same, with the actual character I paid to see taking a backseat to James Marsden The Cop

I’m not quite sure if they struck the right balance there, but they did better than I worried they would. Sonic is central enough to the film and gets enough screentime that you can easily say he’s the protagonist. BUT there is absolutely too much of Tom and his family. The human cast is fine, the performances are fine, and there were a few good jokes, but every time the movie tried to get me to care about Tom’s life I was bored out of my mind. It’s just so trite and passionless. The other characters barely felt fleshed out at all, including Tom’s girlfriend (wife?) and Agent Stone. The little girl who gives Sonic the shoes had some cute moments, though

I do, however, love the part in which James Marsden is walking around in a San Francisco t-shirt, to remind us that he’s planning on moving to San Francisco... which then becomes the excuse for Sonic to think about San Francisco and accidentally send his warp rings there, which becomes the excuse for the buddy road trip aspect of the film. And as much as that was a focus of the marketing, the actual road trip part is like... maybe 20 minutes of the movie? There’s like three scenes with Sonic and Tom on the road and then they’re in San Francisco for act 3. The movie tries to act like they’ve formed this deep bond and I just did not give a shit. I don’t care about the cop. All Cops Are Bastards, and that absolutely includes Tom, whose dream in life is to join the extremely corrupt San Francisco PD

The whole excuse for Sonic having to sit in the passenger seat of a car going the speed limit for a good chunk of the movie is also, just. Stupid. If he doesn’t know where San Francisco is and time is of the essence, just... give him a map?

And then there’s Jim Carrey. I was worried about this one. The previews tended to highlight his most Jim Carrey Being Wacky moments, and as fond as I am of movies like The Truman Show and Bruce Almighty, that’s just. That’s not Robotnik. I was pleasantly surprised by the actual movie, though! I thought he was pretty good. I’m not sure what incarnation of Eggman I’d most compare him to, but like... it was close enough, and he was entertaining enough. I’d pay to go see another movie with him as Robotnik. Sure. (Especially with how he was looking at the end of the film.)

There were some other little interesting tidbits here with Eggman, although again, a lot of that is less “let’s do a new take on Eggman” and more “let’s do a marketable movie with Eggman in it, which requires us to explain some stuff.” Like him straight up just being a normal human from Earth, with none of the confusion present in the current “two worlds” canon of the games. Or him apparently being an orphan who was bullied in school, and who trusts machines more than other humans. It’s a safe way to depict the character in a Hollywood movie, but I thought it worked

The way they got to his nickname was kind of funny, though. Like, obviously they didn’t put Jim Carrey in a fat suit, and thank god for that. So instead of mocking his weight, the nickname is derived from the egg-shaped robots he uses. Which made sense, I guess. It at least felt logical for this incarnation of Sonic, who had annoyingly been calling Tom “Donut Lord” the whole movie, to make up the nickname “Eggman.” (Said robots, by the way, were a weak point of the movie to me. They just didn’t have that Eggman whimsy and felt very safe and very Hollywood. Honestly, though, if they had just made Robotnik’s ship grey and slapped some hazard stripes on it, it’d probably be fine.)

As a whole, I thought the humor of the movie was... okay. Sonic had a lot of good moments thanks to Schwartz’s great performance, as did Robotnik. There were just so many weird lines, like James Marsden telling Robotnik that he was breast fed, or the agonizingly long child trafficking joke with Sonic in the duffel bag. Stuff like that

The action was great, though. They definitely owe a lot to the Quicksilver scene in that one X-men movie (I forget the one), but they had a lot of fun with Sonic’s powers and it felt extremely true to the character. Seeing him do one of his Smash poses during the San Francisco fight was great. The action scenes were an absolute delight

And then the ending. Oh, that ending

So, I had already heard that Tails shows up in the stinger before I saw the film. And when I heard that, I expected it to be like, the classic Tails origin story. Maybe Sonic would return to his planet, and run into this precocious kid who decides to follow him around... but no! Not at all! Tails is already the Tails we know and love. He’s already an inventor, he’s already tracking down Sonic. I’m shocked that Sonic actually stayed with Tom instead of running off to have new adventures, but hopefully this is a sign that more characters will be brought into the fray if they make a sequel

And boy, they better make that damn sequel. This movie had a great opening weekend and a positive reception. They have no excuse not to. GIVE US SONIC AND TAILS GOING ON AN ADVENTURE

Other stray thoughts

Holy shit they put Sanic in the movie

The Sega logo animation meant that Kiryu from Yakuza was in this movie for a few seconds

The pixel art credits sequence, which featured both the Sonic 2 special stage and Get Blue Spheres as well as the Eggman logo screens from the Studiopolis Zone boss, was cute

The Saturn logo could be seen on the diagram of the other habitable planets

Robotnik had a label for “Badniks” on his circuit breaker. I wonder if the drones in the movie are intended to be Badniks, or if we’ll see actual ones if a sequel gets made

Also, was it implied that Robotnik committed war crimes for the US government

One of the government guys who I think only got one line was played by Garry Chalk and as such sounded exactly like Optimus Primal

I can’t tell if Sonic getting a red race car bed was an intentional shout out to the Archie comics or if it’s just a coincidence, but I loved it

A dude about my age wearing a Sonic Mania t-shirt literally stood up and clutched his head in shock when Tails showed up

After the movie a very excited kid got his mom to take his photo with the Sonic display in the lobby. Afterwards he was so excited that he flossed

I can’t believe they talked about Olive Garden so much

[coffee-n-bagels-comic-universe]

January 3rd or One's Beginning is another's end (Daughters of Darkness)

This passage contains potentially: Explicit Language, Depictions of Violence (including mentions of blood), Smoking, Slang and maybe some bad translations.

Summary: An introduction to the world of the Daughters of Darkness, through the eyes of series protagonist Kirby 'Gluttony' Lucifarian. The first day and night, from her perspective, of them working for the WWF.

Kirby's POV:

Tuesday. The first day of being 'on the job', Tuesday the third of January 1984. Damien got us into the WWF. … Damien, managed to get us into the quickest rising wrestling promotion, popularity wise. To be honest with you, Damien's given us free reign to get to know people, for now. I don't know anyone here. I've heard of people here, such as the most famous giant in the world, and … Hogan.

I'm not here because I earned it, I'm here because I'm a necessity for the team. That's how I view it. That's how I've always viewed it. Vickie needed someone to make fun of and, well, I'm the easiest choice. Then, in the midst of a darker path of thought becoming clearer in my mind...

WHAM

Both me and the figure I waltzed into thudded to the floor, "Oh, my good lord. I'm so sorry are you o..."

I looked at the figure before me, taking in how much trouble I had created in the last three seconds.

Taller than myself.

Head covered by a wild afro.

Around double my weight.

André.

André the giant.

Flat on his arse … because of me.

Oh … Shit.

"Are you alright, Mademoiselle…"

I could tell he was searching for a name but didn't know it. Too frightened to even speak I glanced away. I noticed his shadow move.

"Mademoiselle?"

His footsteps came closer, he sounded … worried, as if he didn't want me to get fired for this.

"Mademoiselle?"

He picked me up, not off the ground, but so I could stand. I whispered out a small 'thank you', or rather 'merci'. His hands still on my shoulders, he smiled sweetly and nodded, as if to beckon forth more words from me.

"I'm Kirby, or rather, Gluttony. I'm new around here."

André grinned, putting his arm around my shoulder, pulling me closer before stopping upon seeing how much taller than every other woman in the company I am.

"Are you, uh …" he searched for the words

"A giant, yes, technically a giantess."

I feel I should summarise the next hour or so, but, André took me on a tour of the backstage area and we talked, about everything. Within an hour I had gained a new friend, a genuine friend, someone who didn't care about my height or looks. I know the only reason he didn't care is because he knows what it's like to be stared at just because you aren't 'normal'.

By the time André's tour had ended it was time for Vickie and Damien's interview with Mean Gene, which I was to attend. I said a goodbye to André and rushed off to perform my usual role.

The Enforcer, or rather, the intimidation device, that's my role in this group, to scare people, that's all I do. Before joining the group I was part of another group back in England, The Celtic Warriors, I was part of a championship winning tag team. Now what am I, a damned intimidation device, a human scare tactic.

The Interview:

Gene's first question for us, actually, Damien and Vickie (whilst I stood behind them and looked 'menacing'), was 'How are you doing so far?'

Damien began, "You know something, Gene, my girls have yet to have a match, but we are doing absolutely fine. In shape, ready to rock, ready to roll. Gene, every one of the Daughters of Darkness are doing fine."

Vickie followed suit, "Just look at us," She gestured to me and then herself, "Don't we look marvellous, Gene."

Gene smirked, "You could say that again, miss?"

"Pride, though you can call me Vickie."

Damien glared at the smaller man, almost as if he was daring him to try and flirt with her.

Gene readjusted and focused in on the prospect of new women in the WWF and the possibility of more matches. "Uh hum, yes, now how soon do you girls think you'll be seeing a match on the cards?"

"Soon, Gene, Soon." Vickie stated, ending the interview by walking off.

The first night after 'work' was surprisingly normal, Damien and Vickie went off in their rental car, taking Holly and Eli with them whilst the rest of us stood around backstage for a while.

Billie brought a pack of cigarettes and a lighter out of her purse, lighting one up and walking over to me, sitting down on a box placed near by and blowing the smoke away from me she spoke up.

"What's up with you, Tall-ass."

"Thinking."

"Dangerous pastime hermana."

"I know, hermana"

"You collect phrases, don' cha?"

"They may come in handy, Billie, one day."

"You going to the gym tomorrow?"

"Of course. Gotta train. Gotta … gotta settle in somehow, right?"

"Right, mi hermana, I'll see you around, alright?"

"See ya, Billie."

She waved back at me as she walked away.

Billie was the only person who knew that I 'collected' those little phrases that seem like nothing until spoken. Language isn't my strongest aspect, more often than not I'm silent and I try to avoid other peo-

"Hey! watch where you're walking man!" I yelped out, shocked back into the present moment. Instantly regret flooded my mind as I realised who had barged past me to get out of the building.

Big John Studd.

One of the most disrespectful 'giants' in the world of wrestling. famous for being the one man who pisses André off more than anyone else, including the Iron Sheik.

He sneered back a quick, "Who gives a fuck." and continued to stroll away.

That … that fuckwit. Who does he think he is. I felt a gentle hand place itself on my shoulder. I turned, expecting to see Eli or P.G, I was face to, well, chin with André.

"Forget about him," He started, with that same sweet, friendly smile from earlier, "Damien said you may need a ride back to the hotel. I don't recommend you walk back now, too dark out for a young lady such as yourself."

The way his R sounds turned into faint W's and he missed off or faintly implied H's was calming. Almost in the same way that hearing a parents voice would calm a child after a nightmare.

"Oh, uh, it's okay André, I was going to get a taxi."

He nodded in response, somehow both downhearted and curious, as if he knew that I was either lying to him or if I did get a taxi, the immense pain my back would be in the following day. André sauntered off, leaving me, once again by myself.

I don't mind being alone, in fact most of my life I have been alone, always the outcast, it was only when I got into wrestling that it started to change.

I picked up my bag and started walking, buttoning up my shirt up to the top of my chest, my near-neon orange shirt covering down to my mid-forearm, hiding any noticeable tattoos, except the one on my wrist, when I turned eighteen, I got a small, runic 'R' on my right wrist, in remembrance of my uncle Rory, the tallest of my dad's brothers.

It took about an hour to get to the hotel, an hour of walking through a city I'm not familiar with, when I eventually got to the hotel I went straight to my room and locked myself in. All alone, I could practice or train if I wanted, so I did.

I took off my black shirt, shoes and belt and I stood in the middle of the hotel room and practiced punching, then I switched to doing my warmups and working out, push-ups, planks, squats. By the time I finished it must've been around midnight, maybe one or two am. I got some sleep, waking up at six, getting changed into some fresh workout gear and headed straight to the gym.

You meet all sorts of characters at a gym, or so I've been told. Back in England I would go to my parents house and use our home-made gym to work out. Not an option that I have anymore, however, the moment I got into the gym, I felt like I was in a whole new world, as if I was just getting into the business all over again. I scanned for any faces that I knew, Mr Fuji, Tonga Kid, Sgt Slaughter, Don Muraco, Lou Albano, Iron Sheik, Freddie Blassie, Tito Santana, Jimmy Snuka, Bob Backlund, Gene and Pat, David Schultz, and … who is that?

I walked over to David and this mystery guy, nodding at David and heading to the heavy bag next to them.

"Mornin' Gluttony, André's been talkin' about ya."

"Oh really, Mr Schultz?" I tried to keep my breath noises to a minimum as I continued to hit the bag.

The mystery guy snickered, quickly shutting up after Schultz glared at him.

"C'mon girl, you know you can call me David. An' yeah," He stopped punching and instead leaned on the heavy bag in front of him, forcing the other guy to hold it still "Giant's been talking about him havin' a new friend and how much he likes ya."

"He's a good man, it's good to have friends in new places. Who's your pal, David?"

He smiled and slung his arm around the shorter man, "This here, this is Roddy Piper. He's like you."

I tilted my head slightly to try and make him explain further.

"You are Scottish, right?"

"I'm a quarter Scottish. Anyway, Piper, Do you speak Gaelic?"

"Uh, no, I can play the bagpipes however." his eyes lit up slightly, a sort of mad fire behind a haze of brown or maybe dark blue.

"Well, I'll see you around I guess, I've gotta warm up for later though."

I tried to block the two men out and focus on my own workout but Piper seemed to stick around a lot longer than David. He was still there when my workout ended.

"What do you want?"

"You're a quarter Scottish, you're also a giant. How do you fight? Show me." He seemed to get more energetic the more he talked.

"Right now?"

He nodded, "Right now, c'mon."

He led me to a ring that some other wrestlers were using to brush up their skills.

From the looks of the ring, it was actually used for boxing.

Roddy entered the ring the same way as most six-foot-two guys did, through the top and middle ropes. I tested the ropes, and seeing that they had just enough slack, used them to jump over the top rope.

"I've never seen a girl do that before."

"Mistake number one, I'm a woman, not a girl. Mistake number two, you expected a giant to be normal."

He scoffed out a laugh and got ready to lock up.

We locked up and Piper hit me with a knee to the stomach.

I got him back with an Irish whip into the corner, accidentally winding him by being too stiff.

"You're gonna pay for that, lass." He snarled out, already getting pissed off.

I sized him up, trying to see how high I would have to get myself in order to dropkick him to the mat.

Piper tried to hit me with a running high knee strike but I countered with a dropkick, taking us both down to the mat and slamming my face into the mat.

The mat was a lot harder than I was used to, it felt like I had rammed my head straight into a cinderblock, I started breathing heavier than before.

I rolled over and put my arms up, making an 'X' with my forearms. Piper stopped and walked over.

"You alright?"

I shook my head.

He knelt down and pulled me up into a sitting position.

I hesitated, knowing I had to take my mask off to see what was wrong but truly not wanting to. Piper managed to unbuckle the straps of my mask and winced as he saw what was underneath. My mind went slightly mad not knowing if he was wincing at the injury I had caused myself or the fact that, compared to the rest of the D.O.D, I'm truly the worst looking, beauty-wise, that is.

Hitting my mouth so hard on the canvas of the mat below us, I had managed to hit my mask in a way that the bottom edge, which curved under my chin, cut into my flesh and made me bleed.

I put my hand up to the cut and Piper quickly held my arm by the wrist and shook his head, "Don't you dare."

By the time I received medical aid, which consisted of cleaning the cut and putting a band-aid on it, Piper had given me back my mask and asked if he could work out with me sometime. Knowing that he was currently on a different show, I said sure and we had split ways.

END OF ONE'S BEGINNING IS ANOTHER'S END / JANUARY 3RD

[iheartsunset]

Papa Louie Prudence HCs

(Nobody asked for these, but I gotta show love to my 8 year long favorite character)

Edit 9/23/20: Sorry I didn’t realize Pickles was a girl, last time I’ll ever listen to the forum lmao anyways I’m about to fail a test tomorrow even though I’ve studied nonstop, but that’s probably just how science goes

-Prudence Carmichael-Wagner is 22 years old and lives in a fabulously rose colored loft in Tastyville. She doesn’t plan to leave her job at the Pancakeria any time soon, but she is studying hard to become a veterinarian. She is the half sister of the famous Rudy Diamond; the daughter of Arugula Bank’s owner, Anselm Wagner; and his ex-wife, Lola Carmichael, the headmaster of Eclair Academy. Prudence has a strained relationship with her emotionally manipulative parents who care more about her achievements than her wellbeing and tried to avoid them whenever she can. Prudence’s mother loves dropping by her loft unannounced, which makes Prudence upset and anxious.

-Prudence can mostly be described as a kindhearted socialite with a strange obsession with the color pink. She is very hospitable and doting on everyone around her, making her seem like more of a mother/older sister figure. She also carries assorted sweets and mints in her purse for both emergency consumption and to cheer up anyone who’s sad. Prudence does also have a habit of panicking at first under pressure, but has learned to adapt very quickly. Prudence also loves to volunteer and help those less fortunate than her. But call her a dumb blonde and we’ll see how many teeth you have left afterwards (as a result of either her purse or Rudy’s fist).

-Her and Rudy were born on the same day only a few hours apart. Many people joked that the two were twins due to their shared birthday, blonde hair, blue eyes, and close relationship. However, she didn’t know that her father and Rudy’s mother, Carla, (his chief financial officer) had an affair that led to Rudy being born. After this was found out by Lola, Carla’s reputation was ruined and she relocated with Rudy to Powder Point, much to Prudence’s dismay. After reuniting years later when the Cheeseria opened, the two found out about the affair and realized they were siblings. They share a close bond now, but still have terrible relationships with their parents.

-As previously stated in Cooper’s headcanons, she is in a polyamorous relationship with him and Taylor. She met Taylor at their shared night school and met Cooper at their shared workplace. While her feelings for either of them weren’t very strong, Taylor’s heartfelt confession made her fall for both of them hard, thus starting the third most wholesome relationships in Flipline’s history (Penny and Alberto have the top spot filled and second place is definitely Olga and Edoardo). She loves to buy them roses or chocolates and see how flustered they both get when they’re delivered. Prudence’s parents definitely don’t approve of this relationship, but she actually doesn’t care this time.

-She and Trishna’s parents were very close in business growing up, so they both quickly became best friends, along with Rudy. She is three years younger than them and is still stuck attending high school. While Trishna isn’t too close to Rudy anymore, she and Prudence still hang out and text all the time. If Trishna is somewhere, then Prudence is probably nearby or at least on the phone with her. Trishna also offers Prudence discounts at Fashion Flambé, but Prudence always declines saying that it feels weird to not pay the full price if she didn’t have any coupons.

-Prudence was given Pickles as a gift from her father. However, he said that she could only keep the dog if she would have good grades and continued with being a debutante, meaning most of her effort was for Pickles’ sake. When she earned a C on a test, Pickles was almost taken to the pound, but she quickly entered them in a dog show to make up for her “mistakes”. The dog show started out as sort of survival, but Prudence continued doing it since she and Pickles actually enjoyed it.

-She and Trishna both attended Croquembouche Preparatory Academy along with Alberto, Penny, Joy, Roy, and Mindy. Prudence was notably crowned prom queen her junior year, all around tennis and cheer star, student body president her senior year, and salutatorian. She also joined multiple clubs. Unbeknownst to her classmates, having to keep up with these high expectations from her family and teachers almost broke her from the stress. However, a pep talk from Vicky allowed Prudence to drop many clubs and sports and take it easier in school, much to her parents’ dismay.

-Allan has thought that Prudence would play a very good Sandy, but Prudence can’t really sing well. She would, however, make for a good Elle Woods (as in the movie version) or any kickass Barbie protagonist (which is all of them, I stan Barbie). Prudence can dance amazingly, but she just doesn’t fit Cha Cha’s sassiness and overall nastiness. She’s a great cheerleader, so she’s a good fit for Patty Simcox, but then again Patty also sucks, so looks like Prudence is just a background dancer.

-She thinks of Johnny as her father, Hank as he other father, and Vicky as her mother. She also considers Trishna, Scarlett, Utah, Clover, Nevada, and Mindy her sisters. Chuck, Marty, and Greg are her brother figures. Rudy is also thought of as her brother, but he’s also her actual brother, so it’s actually very accurate.

-If you smell pickles on the bus, it’s because Prudence opened her big ass jar of them and started eating it. I personally hate pickles, especially when people eat them on some sort of vehicle. Sure you can eat pickles ain’t nothing wrong with that, but I’m not tryna smell pickles when I’m trying to get to school.

-Prudence is a master at fashion and makeup. However, she mostly wears simple cropped shirts and jeans everywhere for comfort. Her only standout accessories are her purse (since she carried Pickles in it) and her bow (she had to find some way to be twinsies with pickles, and she wasn’t wearing no dang collar).

-She and Maggie are both queens and often converse about how to maximize their joint slay. They also love finding examples to disprove the dumb blonde stereotype.

-She likes to get the good dog food for Pickles, but she sometimes gives her some pickles or vanilla ice cream. Cooper and Taylor spoil her with other types of human food when she’s away, though. Not chocolate or any of that kinda stuff though.

-Prudence likes to sit in the stands and drunkenly cheer really loudly for Cooper and Taylor, which actually encourages them even more. Dang they’re just all so cute together like aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

-She basically lives at the mall and salon, earning her closer relationships with their workers. She and Kaleb like to drink tangerine pop together and she always gossips with either Mindy or Vicky. Sometimes she takes Cooper and Taylor to get their nails done together. Taylor prefers his nails in ultramarine with white flowers while Cooper likes a classic French manicure better.

-Rudy can’t dress for shit and neither can Johnny, so she tries to help them both out together outfits better. They’re very close to her, but none of them take her advice and she is very sad. She hates flannel, but whatever makes him happy, she guesses.

-My favorite girl and has been for most of my life. I love her so much.

[medea10]

My Review of Rinne

(a.k.a. Kyoukai no Rinne)

How did I get into this anime? Let’s just say the creator of this series, I’m a fan of. Rumiko Takahashi is the creator of this series as well as several other well-known anime series including Ranma ½, Urusei Yatsura, Maison Ikkoku, and my personal favorite InuYasha. That alone was reason for me to get heavily interested from the get-go. But because of the time it came out, I had too much on my plate to pick up one more anime, so I put it on the back-burner for a few years. And despite the mediocre score and listless hype over this, I’m still interested to see what Rin-ne is all about.

As a child, Mamiya Sakura has been different from other children. When she was a child, Sakura ended up in the afterworld and returned to the world of the living after a day of wandering around. After that incident, she gained the ability to see ghosts/spirits. Fast-forward to the present where she’s a high school student and meets a Shinigami named Rinne Rokudou. Rinne is a half-human (which is rare in the afterworld) and works as a Shinigami like his parents and grandmother before him. He can be seen by regular humans, but if he wears a special cloak, he becomes invisible to everyone. This makes it easy to put spirits to rest without being seen by humans!

Both Rinne and Sakura are able to see what others cannot and this often helps Rinne when he takes on a mission. Throughout the series, Rinne ends up taking on random spirits every episode with a cute mascot that often helps him (Rokumon), a love rival (Tsubasa Jumonji), a girl who likes him (Ageha), and several other colorful characters in the human and afterworld. Check out the afterlife. Just be sure to bring your checkbook, nothing’s for free!

BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: Sentai Filmworks is the licensor of this series and by the looks of it, this series has already been released in video formats and has no dub to speak of. So I’m going to assume there will be no dub to this in the future. This is kind of a blessing to me! Because if I’m watching a Rumiko Takahashi series, I would highly prefer hearing the voice actors of Vancouver! That’s right, if this series doesn’t contain Richard Ian Cox, Kelly Sheridan, Brad Swaile, or Brian Drummond, the dub will be scum.

Okay, I admit that’s mean. I grew accustomed to the other Takahashi classics that if this got a dub, I would have flipped if I saw the Texas voice actors on this.

As for the sub…where oh where could Kappei Yamaguchi be? Oh where, oh where could he be? One way or another, we are going to hear him. And we do! BUT, he’s not a main character this time. That honor goes to Kaito Ishikawa. Everything in the last three years has gone to this guy. And who am I to complain? I friggin’ love him in nearly everything he’s in. Yeah, this series does have a lot of familiar voices, including several that have been memorable characters in Takahashi’s other series. Kappei Yamaguchi (who is well known for InuYasha and Ranma) is featured as well as Satsuki Yukino (well known for Kagome on InuYasha) Here’s what you might recognize these folks from.

*Rinne is played by (known for Kiawe on Pokemon SM, Genos on One Punch Man, Mitsuo on Golden Time, Urie on Tokyo Ghoul :re, Sakakibara on Assassination Classroom, and Naofumi on Shield Hero)

*Sakura is played by Marina Inoue (known for Sonia on Pokemon Journeys, Armin on Attack on Titan, Yoko on Gurren Lagann, Jessica on Umineko, Kyouko on Skip Beat, Wataru on Hayate, and Rei on H.O.T.D.)

*Rokumon is played by Hitomi Nabatame (known for Serena’s Mother on Pokemon XY, Yukiji on Hayate, Margery Daw on Shakugan no Shana, Saori on Oreimo, Nanao on Bleach, and Raynare on High School DxD)

FAVORITE CHARACTER: I have a guilty pleasure for Kain’s cat, Suzu. She’s just so care-free that she fucks up at least 98% of the time she’s shown on this show. And I gotta admit that she makes me laugh whenever she’s on the screen.

DISLIKED CHARACTER: You would think I would pick that snot-nosed brat (Shouma) introduced in season two for this list. Or Kain for that matter! Both of these boys annoy the living fuck out of me whenever they’re in an episode. But then Rinne’s father peaks his douchey head in.

Oh wow, horrible parent alert! Sabato Rokudou is Rinne’s father and holy shit what a bloody scumbag. He’s on the same tier as the parents from Hayate the Combat Butler. Yeah, that bad! As we all know, the after-world is a capitalist society and everything has a price. This guy has been stealing his own son’s money since he was a little boy. Add to that, Sabato fills his son with false promises (including meeting his own mother). Even in his current age, Sabato finds ways to steal money from his son when he’s trying to earn means while living in the world of the living. Even putting him in a million yen in debt! And just causing life to be miserable for Rinne whenever he comes by! Tamako, how could you birth such an inconsiderate bastard into being?

Nice to see my prediction from when I wrote my Worst Father’s of Anime list over a year ago came true. Sabato remained a dick-head throughout all three seasons. Amazing! I guess the only nice thing about him is that he’s not going to be in a relationship with Ichigo while she’s still a child.

SHIPPING: So Kyokai no Rinne is following the same protocol as a lot of Rumiko Takahashi’s other animes. So we have the male and female main protagonist that’s going to be the main ship (even though it seems more friend-zoned most of the time). There will be a reoccurring girl character to cause friction between this main ship because she loves the male protagonist. And we have to add several boys after the main female’s heart too.

And just for good measure, let’s add a boy interested in the male lead and a couple of secondary ships that may or may not happen.

Hey, InuYasha and Ranma ½ had the same setup. Rinne is just following suit!

Rinne x Sakura has pretty much setting sail since the end of season two even without a full-on confession from either one of them. Rinne has had feelings for Sakura since season one. Sakura on the other hand, I can’t get a grip on what she wants in terms of a romantic partner. I want to say she’s oblivious to the advances of Jumonji or Ageha’s jealousy, but on the other hand, I feel like Sakura just doesn’t care what happens romantic wise. But the fact that she’s constantly helping Rinne might be a big, fat clue.

Rinne x Ageha is that one-sided ship that you know is never gonna happen (along with Sakura x Jumonji), but it doesn’t stop die-hard shippers from supporting it until their final breaths. I am actually impressed that Ageha doesn’t hold a grudge against Rinne because his father kinda brain-washed Ageha’s sister into giving Sabato money all the time. Several other characters hate Rinne for that alone, yet Ageha is still devoted to loving Rinne.

I do wonder that once Rinne x Sakura are a sure-thing if Jumonji and Ageha are going to hook up.

Rinne x Matsugo was one of the wildest ships I could have imagined. First of all, Matsugo’s debut episode came with a hint of love-hate. But by the end, Matsugo went from hating Rinne over a misunderstanding to going all “Bros before Hoes” on us! After that Matsugo stopped at nothing to get Rinne. Even blowing off the one girl that actually likes this obsessed freak!

Kain x Renge is actually the one ship that doesn’t revolve around Rinne because both Kain and Renge hate Rinne’s guts. Renge likes Kain, but also has to hide some pretty heinous things from him like working for Rinne’s father as a Damashi-shinigami. And as we all know, Kain has a vendetta against Sabato, his family, and anyone affiliated with Damashis due to his own family situation. Kain unfortunately sees Renge as an ally or a friend. He wants her to continue her studies since Kain can’t go to school. Dude ain’t got time for a side-chick! He’s gotta work for a living because his mother gives all their money away to Sabato.

That guy seriously grinds my gears.

RUMIC WORLD EASTER EGGS: Rumiko Takahashi has been around for quite some time and many of her creations have become quite well-known. That’s why when Rinne came in anime form, fans took to the forums to gab about how Ageha is the spitting image of a one-shot villain from InuYasha or that Sakura’s mother has a resemblance of Lum or that Jumonji looks like a modern-day Miroku (minus the perverted charm). Every now and then, we get a special little easter egg shown from Takahashi’s other works. Most notably, Lum shown on the currency and carnival prizes that have a lot of figures from Ranma ½!

My favorite easter egg was of course during a next episode preview where Sabato and Tamako (who are voiced by Kappei Yamaguchi and Satsuki Yukino) end up doing some dialogue that’s…

…You all know what this is…

END OF SEASON ONE: So the final episode, Sakura was able to have something she hasn’t been able to obtain in over 10 years. Three days of peace without having to be bugged by a spirit. As a reminder, Sakura as a child visited the other world and after that experience, she’s been able to see spirits. Tamao gave Sakura some candy to eat so that she would be like every other human around her and not see spirits every waking second.

This couldn’t have come at a worse time for Rinne as he had to take out over 5,000 spirits in the middle of an A-1 run. And because Sakura accidentally opened the barrier containing these spirits, they were trying to come after her. So Rinne had to get rid of all 5,000 (and lose money in the process with special tools). It took three days, but Rinne was able to do that. And because Rinne had his special coat on (where normal humans are unable to see him), Sakura wasn’t able to see him until the candy wore off. Even though Sakura got a whole bag of those candies, she hasn’t used them again.

At the end of the episode, Rinne and Sakura break the fourth wall by announcing that a second season was coming!

SEASON TWO: Oh thank you Jesus, the opening and ending themes aren’t bland bags of genericness like the previous season. Great improvement, especially when you get one of the best singers from Love Live to do the opening theme! Good on you!

Music ranting aside, this season we are introduced to a lot of new characters in the human and spirit world that are going to be seen more often than not. Starting things off, apparently Ageha has a cat employee (much like the relationship between Rinne and Rokumon). Except Ageha and Obero’s relationship is a lot more dysfunctional. Kain also has a cat employee named Suzu. She’s more spazzy compared to Kain’s serious demeanor. Actually, there are several cat characters introduced this series and even a few episodes dedicated to them later on.

One more thing I should mention about this particular season is that we got to see Sakura have a little more growth here. For a while I found her too plain for my taste, but this season we see her become a Shinigami (for a day) and we even get possible love interest with the finale. Now let’s head over to that part.

END OF SEASON TWO: The final two episodes consisted of Rinne being invited to a high school mixer in the Afterworld by a former friend, Matsugo. The thing is Matsugo used to hold a vendetta against Rinne due to a misunderstanding from their childhood. But unlike every other misunderstanding from this series, this one was resolved within an episode or two and Matsugo’s buddies with Rinne again. Actually, Matsugo’s feelings are teetering from childhood friend to full-blown bromance.

How do you get rid of a nuisance who can’t take a hint? Bring Sakura with you to the mixer and have her pretend to be your girlfriend! The big problem here is that Rinne is putting food and money over Sakura. And if you were in Rinne’s shoes, you can see that these two are more important than a girl. Rinne is poor as fuck! If he gets a chance at winning some money or food, absolutely fuck everything else! Unfortunately, Sakura caught wind of all of these ulterior motives and started to question her own relationship with Rinne. And I gotta hand it to Sakura, because if this were an old-school Rumiko Takahashi female protagonist like Akane or Kagome, Rinne would have been destroyed in a matter of seconds. Sakura doesn’t cuss him out or show a resting bitch-face. Actually, she never does! But by the end of this two-parter, Rinne realized that Sakura is pretty important to her, maybe even more than other things.

At the end of the episode, Rinne and Sakura break the fourth wall again by announcing that a third season was coming!

SEASON THREE: Much like the previous season, we’re continuously introduced to new characters that serve some sort of purpose, a new love triangle involving the main or supporting cast, and 2-3 filler stories an episode. However, in the mid-point, we get introduced to 2 new characters that answer some questions that have plagued many of us since the beginning.

You know how nearly every male protagonist of Rumiko Takahashi has a missing mother? Whether it be due to premature demise or she’s a crazy-bitch like in Ranma ½, the mother figure is usually M.I.A. Otome was Rinne’s mother, but she disappeared when he was a baby. Only now, her scythe returns suddenly. Add to that, a mysterious little girl named Ichigo moves into the area (and just like Sakura, she can see spirits).

Long story short, Ichigo is the reincarnation of Otome (Rinne’s mother). I can get over this whole Kikyo/Kagome crap because this is a Rumiko classic. But I just feel ewwie whenever I see Ichigo and Sabato. Thankfully Sabato has no intention of doing anything creepy to Ichigo. He has some standards, so he gets a point with me there. The reason why Otome disappeared was because she wanted to hide her old yearbooks from Sabato, which lead to her being caught up in a stampede of wild animals that lead her to the wheel of reincarnation. And the reason why she was trying to hide these old yearbooks was because she didn’t want Sabato to know the ugly truth.

That she is really two years younger…than her mother-in-law.

Dude…I know Tamako looks extremely young to even be a grandmother…but damn, Otome goes to these lengths to lie about her age.

ENDING: We don’t really get any kind of monumental moment or climax until the very final episode since all of the episodes between Ichigo’s reveal and the finale were mostly just side-stories involving spirits/demons of the day. The final episode had Rinne, Sakura, Renge, and Jumonji taking part of a school festival at Matsugo’s school. But it mostly takes place in a test of courage cave. Apparently this feature is notorious for causing many couples to break up and people can’t turn around otherwise they’re disqualified. But if you make it all the way through, free food! And you know Rinne is not going to turn down a chance to get free food.

But we get another moment much like the end of season two where Rinne has to choose between food and/or money or Sakura. Actually, Rinne ended up choosing Sakura. And unlike a bunch of other pissed off couples, Rinne and Sakura’s relationship (or lack there of) is doing pretty well.

So we end with no love confessions on any front, no happy ending for Rinne in hitting a Shinigami lottery or some crap like that, and no hope in a fourth season.

*sighs*

This was…just an okay anime. I can see why people just think this is okay or mediocre. With me, there were several things that bugged. First of all, I found several things in the anime that felt very inconsistent. Especially when it came to the spirits plaguing the human world! There are some scenes where something out of the ordinary happens and it plays out like you would expect like people freaking out. But then you get these moments where, okay, why are regular humans seeing this? The annoying narrator likes to point out the obvious in literally every episode. Why, didn’t we establish the obvious earlier?

Speaking of the narrator, could you be any more annoying?! How many times are you going to remind us of things in the series? I know there are useful moments with the narrator like when he’s describing all the different items Rinne and other Shinigami use to put a soul to rest. But then there’s this repetitive nature to the narrator where he constantly reminds you of shit you’ve known since episode 1. It’s useful when you want to remind the audience at the beginning of each season, but not every couple of episodes. WE ALL KNOW RINNE CAN’T BE SEEN BY HUMANS IF HE’S WEARING HIS CLOAK! SHUT UP ALREADY!

I’m not sure if the anime covered everything in the manga as I have not picked up the books…yet. I’m sure the manga has gotten a little further with many of these potential ships like Rinne x Sakura to hope that maybe one day we’ll get something from them. I’ve spent a good year and a half trying to grasp at what I really think of Sakura Mamiya. First of all, she’s a huge improvement in the main female role. When you compare her to the other girls from Takahashi’s works like Kagome or Akane (who eat Carnation Instant Bitch every morning), Sakura is quite pleasant.

But then you see Sakura showing no other emotion besides satisfied, meh, and let me put on my surprise face. She hardly ever gets mad. I’m not saying go on a rampage like Kagome when she yells at InuYasha, but for fuck’s sake, tell Rinne off every now and then. Christ-balls, he’s put food and money over you so many times you’ve earned a few yells. And he constantly borrows money from you and you know he’ll never pay you back!

The story is mostly the spirit of the day trope. In later seasons however, we get two or three mini stories an episode dealing with some sort of spirit with no personal growth involving any of the main characters. Rinne gets ahead during the episode, but gets smacked back to where he began and we repeat the same thing in the next episode. So yeah, it got boring when we’re stuck in a slump like that. I even had high hopes in season two when we got that one episode where Sakura was a Shinigami for the day. I thought Sakura was going to evolve a little bit after that, but alas that was not the case. We go right back to the spirit(s) of the day trope!

But I always felt drawn back with several of the colorful characters. I always enjoy Rinne’s grandmother, Tamako. Kain’s cat, Suzu is the silliest thing ever and I love her dearly. Masato will always suck and it’s a joy to watch him fail at everything. And call me a sucker for boys fighting over the girl, but whenever I see Rinne and Jumonji get jealous at each other, I enjoy it. Not on levels like Inuyasha and Koga, but good enough here.

So, I would give it a couple of episodes to make your own decision if you want to drop it or continue watching Rinne.

In the meantime, I’m gonna wait patiently for that InuYasha sequel that’s coming out in October. Thank Arceus Rumiko Takahashi gave us something in 2020.

If you want to check out Rin-ne, all three seasons are available on Crunchyro…

Uh-oh! As of this date and time, Rin-ne is removed (along with 76 other titles) from Crunchyroll’s site. Glad I finished before they got rid of it! Just watch it on HI-DIVE.

Now then! That took a good 18 months to get through. Hopefully the next anime is a lot shorter than that one. What’s next on my Sentai block?

Suffering!

Huh? Does that mean Re:Zero? Or Akame ga Kill?

Nope.

Oh, Made in Abyss! But this looks cute and innocent, how could this possibly be…?! Almost had you all fooled! Looks can be deceiving. Yeah, this anime is gonna hurt.

[monkey-network]

An Unfortunate Critique of Spiderverse Part 2 (of 3)

Want Part 1? Here you go. Otherwise, enjoy the show.

Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse was a fun award-winning 2018 animated film with a basically unanimously positive fandom, regarded generally as both a masterpiece Spider-Man film and a remarkable animated film overall. And while I do not disagree with that, it definitely earned its spoils, it pains me a bit to bring up the reason(s) why I can’t call it the masterpiece that many claim. I like this film, but I don’t love it as much as others and I wanted to express why. And I will see to be critical, not cynical. Fair enough?

Part 2 ~ The Spiderversal Stakes

To get a little personal real quick, I’ve been at this whole reviewing/analyzing for plenty of years now and I say the hardest part of doing these type of critiques, aside from not coming off as a cynical bitchlet, is conveying yourself properly. You don’t want to give people the wrong idea about what you want to get across.. Which is why this part is hard to express because there’s a lot to mull over and I don’t wanna bore ya. So with that said, I got a problem with the plot, but first lemme talk about my favorite Spidey film, Spider-Man Thre-

Sorry but we gotta talk about this

When you think about how the storyline of 3 plays, you’ll feel exhausted by of how much was thrown in (Venom, Sandman, the New Goblin, Emo Peter, etc.), the movie had to seriously juggle a lot in a little over a couple hours. Then again with all that, it never felt like the movie was inconsistent with the focus. It’s campy as hell but I felt it still had that good modicum of serious that Raimi’s 1 and 2 pulled off just as well, a quality balance. You grasped everything it threw at you by the end. Now Spiderverse, minus the credits, is an hour 45 minutes and it felt like the two points of the story, setting up the multiverse and Miles’ uprising as a heroes, were at rubberbanding odds with each other.

When I see Spiderverse, Miles’ story mostly overshadows the tension that came in the multiverse getting fucked up, and that the final fight of Miles and Kingpin is the only time where I felt shit got serious. Otherwise, the whole aspect of the Spidermun slowly dying because they weren’t in their realities and the multiverse colliding felt much of an afterthought for most of the film. Narratively, it has a good pace of doing what it needs to do, but on the look back the journey didn’t stick with me as well as I thought. 

If I can bring in some previous examples, the likes of Kung Fu Panda and The Lego Movie had better stakes because it felt like the two storylines (the protagonist’s upbringing and the villain’s scheme) were prominent throughout the films once they got going. Po wasn’t just training because he wanted to be better and found the ways to do it, he was training hard because the villain was on his way and the defeat of the Furious Five showed he meant business. The Lego Movie takes a step further by having Emmett and the gang be on the run, we see the villain’s increasing impact as we go along, giving us on the fly experiences that provides Emmett’s “leap of faith” type breakthrough while the villain finally goes all out with his scheme. It helps make the stakes and optimistic breakthrough of overcoming them both escalate and converge naturally.

You know, not doing what Kingdom Hearts 3 did

Not saying Spiderverse doesn’t naturally converge its two storylines well, everything about it was clear, but the effects of the Super Collider come off as very infrequent and thus made the escalation disjointed. The whole “cellular decay” bit with the Spidermun could’ve been a great way to add some tension, like “Oh shit, this could be disadvantageous in the fight at Aunt May’s house. Put our heroes on the ropes.” It doesn’t happen, in fact the fight felt like it disappeared the moment Aaron and Miles were on the roof. It felt like a slight inconvenience than a matter of winning or losing everything, even in the climax. Same with the whole “reality warping” idea, it would’ve been very cool to see reality start to deteriorate or change around our characters, make the news media go “Oh shit, what’s happening?” or put the Spidermun on a little edge instead of them just solemnly waiting for a little anime girl to heely her way in with the flash drive to save the world. As great as the scene was, the “leap of faith” felt disconnected where I say a scene of Miles noticing the glitches from the hotel after he was living in the moment for once would’ve been a great transition to the climax. Show that he’s ready and amped to be the new Spider-Man, but knows there’s no time to lose. Have the life-threatening factor be more of a looming presence. If not that, might as well not add it in, especially at the last minute. I mean it’s possible.

Like what happened to Liv? We don- we don’t see her after everything is over. Is best villain just gone now forever?!

I talked previously of how Peni, Spider-Noir, and Spider-Ham were wasted in the film, but they were but a fraction to the whole idea of the quantum warping and how it felt like an afterthought until near the end. And as I mention Doc Ock, it mostly felt like the villains just come and go. Prowler is the exception, but I completely forgot Kingpin fucked with reality to get his family back. Shit, I forgot Scorpion and Goblin were in the movie. I’m not saying we needed the know how of everything, but I figure better time to conveying their stance in the film would make them more memorable. Spider-Man has great villains, and most of the films knew how to mix their presence in with our hero’s life fluently. If the major world ending threat wasn’t much, it didn’t help that most of the villains here supporting that threat were flash in the pan at best.

like a majority of blockbuster villains

Now off the bat, as I mentioned before, I am not a fan of movies that notably wink and nudge that a sequel is around the corner. I’m okay with things being open-ended but I draw a line at a film being forced to feel lacking because it’s relying on a sequel to pick up the slack. There are exceptions to this of course, but great films should be able to stand on their own and not be codependent on sequels to make them better. With my talk of the B-team and the whole reality warping aspect of the film, the Spiderverse part of the title feels like setup for the sequel and while there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, it doesn’t help when half the 1st film feels minor and somewhat forgettable in my case. Miles’ story was great but it’s like we had to flip flop between his story and the setting up for more. And it’s that story rubberbanding that leaves a less satisfying note to me compared to not only other films in general, but other Spider-Man films where even when a lot is thrown at me, each of the Raimi trilogy felt conclusively satisfactory as both a whole and individually.

It honestly makes this ending pretty mixed in my eye

But on this note, I don’t wanna end on a sour grape, not when the 3rd part is gonna end this whole critique off more optimistically. So as much as I harped the whole setup Spiderverse aspect, the silver lining is that this felt like the first few hours of Kingdom Hearts 2 with Roxas. This is a weird comparison but it does feel like Miles is at the twilight of his life in this film. We get some great action but his involvement in the film is kept at arms length while the other Spidermun are stepping well. It’s only after Aaron’s death, the dejection, and Jefferson’s uplifting words and this shot in particular where we can finally say...

Spider-Man has Awaken Again

I can step on anything in this movie but it’s where Miles gets his groove and is there for the other spidermun in the climax when I say that it’s a give and take. This movie isn’t perfect, and I can’t say it is my favorite Spider-Man film ever, but it definitely knows what it wanted to do and I can’t give them enough credit. I said before, but this film certainly has its ambitions and while not everything lands well with me, what they get right is what they handle in spades. The best about it all is where part 3 is gonna pick up. Stay tuned...

Otherwise, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy your day.

[smuthuttpodcast]

Fetch is iconic because to read Fetch is to suffer. I say that with the warmest regards to Tam. It's an example of the medium as both a challenging, cathartic, and escapist one.

Name/Handle/Alias

@secretreylo SecretReyloTrash

About how long would you say you’ve been rooting for Reylo?

When it comes to smut I tend to go two directions: "Shipping" it or a hypothetical "They'd Be Hot Together". I've been on that TBHT train since TFA, but not contributing and only casual browsing of smut because that's what TBHT is for. Spring of 2018 was when the mediation of how to realistically get these two together, the meta aspect of shipping, really started to appeal to me because of stories I was reading ("Lilies" by diasterisms was my first Soft Ben and I loved him) and I gave writing it a try with Perfumed in Obsession, a story that is 100% mediation of opposing viewpoints. I fell very far, very fast into it.

What did you think of the way Rise of Skywalker handled Rey and Kylo’s relationship?

Really gross. TLJ was a very sensitive text. It's not about physical force; it's about persuasion. Understandable viewpoints, where they both offer so much of themselves and it still doesn't work, and that's really heartbreaking and compelling. TROS felt like it had taken several steps back. Kylo was more of a bullying, negging presence when before he'd respected Rey's power and autonomy before, he just had hopes about what she'd do with it. now he's controlling. He withheld crucial information about her trauma, which is deeply wrong. He was a generic villain and Rey was physically fighting her way out. Their ending wasn't given space to breathe or feel like something was happening, and then he drops dead in her arms. A lot of simpering was done on the filmmakers part about what he deserved by Rey doesn't get anything she deserved. Their only interactions before the Exegol Disaster are only focused on drudging up pain and hostility, so there's no moment where they "see" each other that matches TLJ. The final battle there is some grasping at recognition, but it's really imbalanced towards Ben's redemption, Rey being rewarded for essentially waiting out his bad boy phase, and nothing to address her anger and grief and darkness. It tipped the scales way out of Rey's favor, and she's an important character!

Do you think the film understood why you, and other people, felt like Rey and Kylo had something together? Did it get their chemistry?

No, it really felt like the conversations between them were missing the point. Negging, withholding, leveraging. These were two flawed but honest people (at least with each other) who had a lot of circumstantial baggage that kept them apart. Ironically a lot of the "hero" and "villain" posturing gets stripped away and they are shown as their truest selves through the bond. Finn never sees this side of Rey. Snoke never saw this side of Ben. It's a relationship that mattered because it was so nuanced that way. TROS Rey being stalked by Kylo in his Supreme Leader Helmet seems antithetic to the sincerity of the relationship. It's telling that one of Rey's lines is a generic, cliche whisper of "No": it falls horribly flat because a conversation can't just be "Yes." "No." "Yes." "No." I constantly bring up TLJ in my answers because it's what solidified my love for this ship, but their conversations that Rain wrote were a compelling back-and-forth that filled in their arguments with detail that made the arguments appealing. What about the handling of Kylo’s redemption? Was it something you had to think through in your stories?Here's the thing. I wanted Bendemption to be painstaking, bittersweet and maybe not even completed in full by the ending (but explicitly in the works). Here's where the mythology of TROS gets really wonky, and why I think fans are so upset: If Ben was mentally infiltrated and groomed by the most powerful Sith Lord in the Galaxy for 9 movies, can we actually have a nuanced conversation about what he deserves? No. We all just want to wrap a shock blanket around him and let him have a nap, which, fun fact, is the actual ending of the Exegol Metlife Stadium Battle. My point here is that TROS took his accountability, his toxicity, and his choices and rendered them meaningless. It is way too extreme. What does he have to atone for if Palpatine ruined the lives of every Skywalker so thoroughly that he never stood a chance? I adore the self-sabotage of his character. I adore that he is his own antagonist. I adore that he faces consequences for his toxicity and that his love for someone leaves the ball in his court to Fix His Shit for the potential of his own goodness. But you take a situation and make it so tragic where he was so weaponized and powerless that I'm actually impressed he only killed Han. I liked when his actions actually had weight. I adore him for how his emotions compromise his happiness and how damaging it is that he doesn't deal with them because I see so many parts of myself. Step one or writing Redemption was always facing those emotions. I love writing Ben throwing himself at his father's, his mother's, and Rey's feet and just letting these repressed emotions out, and their capacity for forgiveness sheltering this change. It didn't need to be completed by TROS but it needed to be started. 

What did you think of where Rey landed at the end? There had been a lot of excitement around Star Wars having a female protagonist. Do you think she lived up to the promise of her character?

Rey's ending devastated me. It was a period of active mourning that went way beyond Ben's death for me. You know when you pick one phrase when you cry and just fixate on it? "She's alone" was mine. For days. That was all I asked for from this series. For Rey to find her home. Rey was stripped of so much, and most insulting was the fucking Skywalkers playing keep away with her own backstory until it was convenient for them made it seem like they were the actual villains. Why did she have to go in ignorant? Why did we retcon a girl coming from a shitty family and excelling despite that? Symbolically, now she as a character is most alike to Shmi, and that makes bile rise in my mouth. A single woman on Tatooine, dressed in her Virgin Whites, waiting for the Force to decide what to do with her? Smhi. It's Shmi. Here to immaculate concept some more important sacred Skywalkers. Because if she's a Skywalker, there's gotta be more, or what was the point? Thanks, I hate it.

There’s criticism of the movie that argues it’s akin to “fan fiction” and that is has too much fan service. As fans and fan-fiction writers, how do you react to that?

No; it's too corporate. Fanfiction has a love for the source that constitutes the FREE effort to write for it. I think the comparison to fan fiction labors under the assumption that fan fiction is lazy and bad: when the most popular stories that do incorporate high levels of drama earn them through painstakingly hard work. Fetch is iconic because to read Fetch is to suffer. I say that with the warmest regards to Tam. It's an example of the medium as both a challenging, cathartic, and escapist one. It had very real feelings and a happy ending that was earned in a trial by fire. TROS instead was pure studio interference. It was trying to please *everyone* instead of someone earnestly saying "this is what I love." There is no joy. Just cynicism and punishing people who were sincere. I can't validate its need for me to love it. It's desperate and sad. 

Are you still writing any Star Wars fanfic? Tell us about it! (Don't forget your Ao3 handle!)

Yep. I will be updating my newest story "The Witch and The Holocron" every Saturday. It is the closest I will get to a Miyazaki Movie. I'm still on my WIPs: Soldiers in Petticoats is due soon, Virtue Rewarded requires an extensive amount of time but it's in progress, I really want to pre-write my Romanov Imposter AU before posting but I'm excited for it. I'll be around. We all know how bad I am with WIPs but I'm still enjoying writing. We'll just pretend TROS never happened. 

Thank you Secretreylotrash! you can find their writing here: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BadOldWest/pseuds/SecretReyloTrash

[calliecat93]

Top 10 Favorite Female Characters

Happy International Women’s Day everyone! For many years now, there have been a lot of strides made in women’s rights. It’s still far, FAR from perfect, but we’ve still made many strides and fiction is no exception. So I thought, in celebration of today, I’d talk about some of my favorite female characters of all time. I had a LOT of options and narrowing it down was tough, but I think I made a pretty good list. So let's get on with it~

10. Kimberly Hart/The Pink Ranger (Power Rangers)

I don’t talk about Power Rangers a lot on here, but let me tell you all. Kimberly is one of the first female superheroes I ever saw, and I love her so much. She begins as a one-dimensional valley girl type, though still a good-hearted person. She’s the token girly-girl while Trini was more of the token tomboy. But Kimberly over time developed form being the least willing to be a Ranger, to devoting herself full-heartedly to her duties. She could kick just as much ass as her fellow rangers, and look pretty while she did so.

Kim was a fantastic character, especially in a boy-aimed tokusatsu adaptation. There have been many other great Pink Rangers since her time. Heck my actual favorite Pink Ranger of all time is Jen from Time Force. But the reason Kim is on here and not here? Kim is the one who started it all. She and Trini defined kickass female Rangers and none of the ones we have now would have existed without the original ladies. And as much as I also liked Trini.. well... I think that Kim is the clear stand-out among most female rangers, especially since she lasted so long. I was so sad when she left and especially how Zeo screwed her character over with that stupid Dear John letter to Tommy as well as how the 2017 movie wrote her because it just made her incredibly unsympathetic and unlikeable. But she left one Hell of a legacy and I love her.

9. Hermione Granger (Harry Potter)

Despite my feelings about the author in recent years, Harry Potter is still a series I grew up on and love. Albeit I’m one of the few who got into the films more than the books, but still. The one thing that got me into the series? Hermione. She begins as a bit of a snooty know-it-all, always rubbing her knowledge int he faces of others and coming off as kind of a brat. But we soon see that she really doesn't know how to make friends and is a serious student and good person. Once Harry and Ron befriend her, we see how much of a brave, loyal, and determined girl she is, using her brains and talent in academics to get all the info they need. They would have died multiple times without this girl.

Hermione is someone we grow up with and kind of the representative of young girls. We watch her as she struggles with her status as a Muggle-born witch, how her pursuit of knowledge can overwhelm her, and of course what happens when she realizes her feelings for Ron. I... am not a huge fan of the pairing for many reasons, but her frustration and struggle feel very real. She makes mistakes, some more called out than others, but she does genuinely strive to do good And through it all, she is loyal to Harry and to the fight against Voldemort, growing to be proud of who she is and of her heritage as a ‘mudblood’. Even n the final book, where she’s forced to erase her parents memories to protect them, Ron abandoning her and Harry, and getting tortured by Bellatrix, none of it stops her from fighting for what she believes in.

Looking back now, Hermione has her problems both in the books and the films. Some of Ron's better moments got lost because the writer favored her which I can see whyt hat annoyed many people (I’m not one of them, but still), and the whole House Elf plot in the book has some... not great implications. But it doesn't stop Hermione from being a strong female character who is intelligent, brave, and Emma Watson’s strong performance really helped bring her to life. She ain’t perfect, but I still grew up watching her and I will always be grateful for that fact.

8. April O’Neil (TMNT 2012)

Screw the people who hated on her, April is awesome!

Really April in any incarnation of the Turtles is awesome. 2k3, Rise, the films. heck despite her being kidnapped every episode, even OT April was determined as Hell and you wouldn’t get in her way! But since I’m only picking one here, I gotta go with her 2k12 self. Her 2k3 self is also a close contender, but this was the version I spent the most time watching and for any of you who have follow me long enough knows, I spent a LOOOOT of time defending her from ship haters.

Looking back now, yeah there are some problems. Her limited screentime in S1, some of the Kraang stuff got rushed/crammed in, her missing mom story went nowhere, her being Donnie’s love interest. there’s plenty of problems. But those are more story issues than actual character issues. The last one especially si more an issue with Donnie’s character than April since she herself was NEVER defined by the ‘love interest’ card. She never existed for that purpose, and it shows especially by the end.

April began as a helpless, but very determined girl hoping to save her father after their abduction in which only she got saved. She spends most of her time getting intel for the Turtles while undergoing training from Splinter. She slowly, but gradually, grows into a capable kunoichi who can hold her own and gradually becomes an equal to her reptilian companions. She’s friendly, takes shit from no one, and she is probably the biggest Determinator in the entire series where ven when utterly helpless, she will STILL be defiant until the bitter end. he goes through Hell, and every single time she finds a way to pull herself together and forge on.

Despite how I fell off the series by the end, I was very happy with where April ended. From a girl just wanting her life back, to accepting her reality and making it her own. She trains herself in both ninjutsu and her new psychic abilities and becomes a kunoichi in her own right with them. She was even able to hold her own against Shredder! This girl became a badass and while there are issues here and there, I think she by far had some of the best development in the series. She remains my favorite character in 2012, y favorite April, and she has more than earned her spot on this list.

7. Avatar Korra (The Legend of Korra)

Another character who got unnecessary hate! Oh wait, that happens to every female character ever. Silly me!

Korra is what made LoK so great to me. She is a bull-headed, somewhat arrogant girl who has devoted her entire life to being the Avatar. She is the anti-Aang, so much so that she is terrible at Air Bending. But she’s also a very determined girl and went to Republic City to make Tenzin train her. Over the course of the series, we see how despite her arrogance, she is a good person who is truly devoted to her duty and genuinely wants to protect everyone. But she’s faced with her own vulnerabilities and flaws as a person as she has to learn to allow others to help/guide her and learn from her mistakes. And HO BOY does she make MANY mistakes.

Over four seasons, we watch Korra grow.  She’s faced with the fact that she is vulnerable in S1 and while she doesn't fully overcome it, she does so enough to face Amon despite knowing what’ll happen to her. In S2, she faces the worse of herself but in doign so, truly improves herself and puts things right while letting go of most of her arrogance. S3 has her a much more well-rounded person trying to do what’s right, but it ended in her torture, poisoning, and she is just broken by the end. S4 has her slow recovery both physically and mentally and the road is long, hard, and just painful. But by the end, she accepts what happened and is able to find the balance to restore her power, return to her duties, and save the world from utter calamity.

I related so uch to Korra, moreso than I did Aang. She got a lot fo hate for her attitude and... well, not being Aang. But she grew so much and I loved how much of a badass and fully layered character she was. Yeah, she wasn’t Aang, that was a good thing. I loved her form the beginning, and I loved her even more by the end. She’s a great example of a female protagonist and shows that yes, a female action heroine CAN work. The Avatar franchise has many outstanding female characters (Katara, Toph, Suki, Azula, Asami, Jinora, Kuvira) but to me, Korra beats them all and I love her.

6. Wonder Woman

Well I couldn’t leave off the most well-known female superhero of all time now, could I?

Wondy is awesome. I first saw her on Superfriends back when Cartoon Network reran it. While it is a super campy show, Wondy was a true hero who stood equal to her male companions and was just as capable of saving the day as them. She was pretty much the only main female, so of course she was the one I was drawn to and I loved seeing her in action. But she could fall into the Damsel in Distress role cause... well, girl and lie I said, Superfriends is super campy. But I took what I could get int hose days!

Fortunately, Wondy has had much better media rep since... and in fact before with the Lynda Carter series. I hadn’t seent hat when I was a kid and while it’s cheesy, Wondy was still a badass there who easily held her own. Her Justice League DCAU self was when I really fell in love with her. Kind, beautiful, righteous, and an utter powerhouse. Seriously, I think she kicked more ass than anyone in both the original and Unlimited series. She has two animated DC films, which are both pretty dang good. Bloody, but good!

But of course, we have the Gal Gadot film. This was the film that arguably has saved the DC Cinematic Universe, and for good reason. While I’m not a big fan of Wondy being a demigod, she still showed why he’s so good. She’s a true hero wanting to do good, and in a setting like World War One, that is hard to find. She’s caring, devoted, strong, and is just a shining example of a true hero. She inspires hope in a cinematic universe that thrived off of grittiness, and Thank God we have her. I can only hope that the sequel holds the same quality, but nothing will take this away.

Wonder Woman is awesome. They screw her up sometimes, both ina nd out of comics. But there is no doubt that she earned her spot as a beloved feminist icon, as well as her spot here on this list.

#5. Kim Possible

You do not know how obsessed with this show I used to be. It is probably my all-time favorite Disney animated series of all time. Why? Because of it’s clever writing, fun humor, great action, and of course it’s characters. Kim especially.

She is the girl who can do anything, and she lives up to that claim. She’s a cheerleader by day, crime fighter by night, and she handles those worlds flawlessly... for the most part. She’s tough, smart, and a badass who uses her cheerleading skills to aid in her crime-fighting. She faces mad scientists, monsters, and everything in between and she ALWAYS comes out on top. 

She’s now flawless, mind you. She’s bossy, smug, and can over-react when she faces things that she can’t do such as cooking or.. really anything normal/standard teen problems. She’s especially bad at maintaining dates. But whenever she faces a problem, she finds a way tog et through it whether it be with help from Ron, or finding her own way in solving it. She doesn't cry or mope about things like... well, the live-action film has her do. No, she gets up and finds solutions while still saving the day in the process. That is what makes her great, she’s a character before she’s a girl. Hence why she is a great female protagonist 

Kim is someone I strived to be like when I got that age... with varying success. But hey, it just proves that Kim Possible can indeed do anything. Call her, beep her if you wanna reach her, and she’ll be there. just like how she’s here for this spot.

4. Ruby Rose (RWBY)

MY DAUGHTER!

When I first got into RWBY, I wasn’t sure what to expect. But the first character I fell in love with? Little Red here! I adore this girl to pieces. She gets a lot of flack form some for being ‘flat’ and ‘underdeveloped’ and I don’t have time to go into every reason why that’s not true. You can read this for some examples of why shes awesome. But let me summarize the gist of it as best as I can.

Ruby is a teenaged girl striving to be a Huntress like her mother, wanting to do good in the world like the heroes in her storybooks. Over time, as he overcomes her own flaws and the burdens of leadership, she learns how colossal of a task doing good truly is in a world that is harsh and cruel. She loses friends, her school gets broken apart, and the world seems to become more and more divided. And she’s right int he middle of it. So what does she do?

She gets up and continues on.

She decides to fight because she wants to help. She wants to make the world a better place because that is what a Huntress is supposed to do. She puts aside her own feelings in hopes that she can help do something. Even as she is pulled more and more into the true realities of her world, she stands firm and continues on. And when everyone else seems broken and on the verge of quitting? She grabs the reigns and pushes everyone forward herself.

Ruby may be a somewhat standard protagonist, but her determination and quirkiness help her stand out. She’s goofy, naive, and a socially awkward klutz. But she’s still a good-hearted person who always tries and in a world full fo monsters that thrive on despair, this is a very admirable trait. She’s gone from a girl afraid of being viewed as special, to taking the lead int he war against Salem all because it is her duty as a Huntress to protect everyone. She inspires those around her and also inspires me. She’s what got me to stay with this show, and I have yet to regret it.

RWBY has MANY great female characters. Weiss, Blake, Yang, Maria, Nora, Penny, Winter, and many others. But Ruby was always going to be my first pick. What can I say? I adore this girl~

3. Blossom (The Powerpuff Girls)

The Powerpuff girls was, and remains, my favorite cartoon of all time It was funny, action-packed, great characters, and great animation. I adore all three of the girls. Bubbles is cute but certianly no pushover, and Buttercup can be a jerk but she kicks a LOT of ass. But the one who I always loved the most was the commander and leader of the group, Blossom.

Blossom is the most mature of the girls, being very intelligent for her age. She’s smart, confident, and a natural leader. She’s also rather bossy, full of herself, and can be obnoxious at times with her egg-headed nature. From what I can tell, she was the leat liked... which sucks for me. I loved Blossom because of how smart she was and because of how good of a leader she was. Sure she had the occasional slip, but she was usually fairly reasonable, strategic, and always tried to look after her sisters and break up their spats.

I still remember the episode that made me love her. It was Princess’ introductory episode. In it, Blossom tried her best to be as reasonable with her as she could, trying to give her the benefit of the doubt since she was new and probably didn’t know how to make friends. It especially makes since if you’ve seen the movie and know how much the girls themselves struggled. But once it became clear that Princess really was a despicable little brat and she pounded her sisters, Blossom was pissed but still calm unlike the other two. Due to this, she easily thrashed Princess, destroyed her power suit, and gave her the mother of all The Reason You Suck speeches, telling her what being a hero truly means and how she’s nothing but a spoiled brat. It remains of my favorite PPG moments ever and after how much Blossom tried to give her a chance, it was very deserved.

Sadly, Blossom hasn’t gotten the best rep in other incarnations. Her PPGZ self while fine... wasn’t Blossom. Like... at all. And the less said about the 2016 series the better. Still, I remember how much I looked up to the original Blossom and enjoyed seeing her kick butt every Friday. I even still have one of my old dolls that I cherish to this day. Allt he Powerpuffs are great, and I will love them forever.

2. Sailor Moon/Usagi Tsukino (Sailor Moon)

Speaking of childhood heroines!

Ah Sailor Moon, We’ve had a long history, you and I. The first show I ever kept up with. The first fandom I ever got into. The first anime I ever got into. nd of course, the first heroine I ever truly loved.

Usagi (well... Serena when I was a kid, as the 90′s) is someone I still hold close to my heart. She is a klutz, crybaby, and far from an ideal heroine. She can be rather immature and at times selfish, preferring to sleep or eat sweets than worry about her Sailor Senshi duties. But as he grows, we see that through it all, she is a pure, caring young girl. I think the manga/Crystal anime did a MUCH better job at portraying that side to her, though the 90′s anime presented her more heroic side as well. They just sometimes forgot that he was past being a crybaby...

Usagi loves everyone. Her lover Mamoru, her fellow Senshi, just everyone. She doesn’t like fighting, but she will if she has to. She goes from crying in the middle of fights to being able to face God-like entities with just a magic crystal. Despite not having wanted to be a Senshi to begin with, she accepts her destiny and tries to save everyone, even her enemies. It just shows how despite her flaws as a person, she is a true hero who can always be relied on.

Sailor Moon did a lot when it came out. it helped revolutionize the Magical Girl genre, helped give anime a standing in America, and showed how femininity is not a weakness. There’s many other great female characters (Ami, Rei, Makoto, Minako) and all are their own character. But Usagi has always been the one I loved most and so she claims the Number Two spot.

Honorable Mentions

Sakura Kinomoto (Cardcaptor Sakura) Katara (Avatar: The Last Airbender) Twilight Sparkle (MLP:FIM) Agent Carolina and Kaikaina Grif (Red vs Blue) Lois Lane (Superman: The Animated Series) Hawkgirl/Shayera Hal (Justice League/Unlimited) Gosalyn Mallard (Darkwing Duck) Webby Vanderquack (Ducktales 2017) Rapunzel (Tangled franchise) Anna (Frozen) Cinderella, Ariel, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Tiana, Moana (Disney Princess) Kida (Atlantis: The Lost Empire) Meg (Hercules) Esmerelda (The Hunchbakc of Notre Dame) Jane (Return to Neverland Princess Elena (Elena of Avalor) Hikaru Shidou, Umi Ryuuzaki, and Fuu Hohouji (Magic Knights Rayearth) Nami (One Piece) Misty (Pokemon) Winry Rockbell (FMA) Ran Mouri (Detective Conan) Kagome Higurashi and Sango (Inuyasha) Pretty much all the Pretty Cures Nancy Drew Katniss Everdeen (The Hunger Games) Ms. Frizzle (The Magic School Bus) Daphne Blake and Velma Dinkley (Scooby-Doo) Calico ‘Callie’ Briggs and Felina Feral (SWAT Kats)

And I’m sure there’s more, but we’re gonna be here all day if I keep going. So let's go ahead and get to Number One. Which tbh... this was a no-brainer.

1. Mulan

Yeah, this probably shocks no one. I’ve talked about Mulan like... a billion times by now. But there was no other option for me.

Mulan is my favorite movie of all time, and the title character is my favorite character of all time. She’s a young woman who wants to bring her family honor, but struggles to do so in the ways she’s expected. She goes to war in her father’s place to save his life, and she struggles even more. She’s someone who doubts and is ashamed of herself, but over time she decides that she’s done hating her refection and tries to prove her worth. She not only becomes a better soldier and earns the respect of everyone around her, but even after she’s unmasked, she goes on to save all of freakin’ China! The whole country, including the freakin’ Emperor, bows before her because of this. You do not get more respect than that.

I’ve only grown to love and relate more to this story as I’ve grown older. I’ve learned to not define myself by society expectations, but just as who I am. Mulan struggles with expectations, family, warn, and most of all her own insecurities. She wants to see something worthwhile when she looks into the mirror, but she always just feels shame. But by the end, she puts it aside and becomes the best version of herself. She returns home with more than enough to honor her family... and her father tosses it aside to hug her. He’s just grateful to have her home, the greatest girl and honor. She’s someone who we watch grow and her journey hold sup even today. Argubaly even moreso.

Mulan was a film that changed me. Shaped my beliefs and values into what they are now. Even today, I see it as a flawless movie, and Mulan a flawless heroine. he’s a perfect example of a female protagonist, or heck just a protagonist in general. I love her and because of how much she shaped my five-year-old self into who I am now, se is my favorite female character of all time.

And that’s that! Well that was fun! Thank you all for reading and to all thw women out there, whether you were born as one or made the choice to identify as such. Whether you love men, women, or whoever. Whether you care about love or not. I hope you all have a lovely day and stay true to who you are. Happy International Women’s Day everyone~!

[sibyl-of-space]

Finished a binge re-play of Ocarina of Time (3D) for the first time in a very, very long time. Long-winded thoughts below.

Disclaimer: I played the original n64 version (red blood Ganondorf and all) ad NAUSEUM as a kid. It was by far in my top 3 most-played video games, and if you all know me you know that I don’t play a lot of video games, I play the same few over and over and over and become obsessed with them. As such, OoT is not new to me. I also played the 3D version once before, but it was over the course of several years when I was in college and that was a no-lens-of-truth run for the heck of it. I have not touched either since though, so this is the freshest eyes I’ve had on the game since I was probably about 6-7 years old seeing it for the first time. Do keep in mind though that I already knew virtually all the easter eggs and secrets and story and progression and had a vague recollection of the vast majority of dungeon concepts/puzzles before going in, because this game was my entire world for many formative years.

This game has really excellent dungeons. I ranked them below because I was inspired by my friend ML’s ranking (in fact a desire to rank them myself is what caused me to binge replay this in the first place), but honestly I found all of them engaging. My least favorite was ice cavern but even ice cavern has a really cool atmosphere and an interesting concept, it’s just a bit tedious and bottle management gameplay is not particularly fun to me.

1. Spirit Temple - unlike Shadow which uses invisible walls as a mechanic to trick you, Spirit subverts every single mechanic and puzzle you've encountered so far to really throw you. It's extremely clever. The ambience and overall design is also just excellent.

2. Forest Temple - gameplay wise it is fine but as the first adult temple it REALLY sets the scale and tone for the latter portion of your adventure; the vibe in this temple is just so fucking cool. The sacred forest meadow honestly does come off as sacred, ancient, and haunted but in an ethereal way as opposed to a spooky way. Ooh, I love it.

3. Ganon's Tower - the concept is excellent and the execution is solid, the medallion portion is interesting but the gauntlet up to Ganondorf with increasingly loud organ music and hallways filled with bats and just cool fights and great atmosphere makes this one of the sickest final dungeons I can think of. I was starting to be like "eh maybe the medallion rooms are a bit underwhelming" and then I got hit with the fakeout room in Light that just won me over with how cheeky it was. All the medallion rooms felt a bit like Spirit temple with how they played with expectations, which (ironically?) made the spirit portion actually the least good.

4. Gerudo Fortress - I'm counting mini dungeons and the whole espionage thing is just SO much fun. Break into a thieves’ hideout, jump across rooftops and shoot people with your bow to sneak past them?? WHAT IS NOT TO LOVE?????

5. Water Temple - okay I gotta say this replay really sold me on water temple. It's a cool concept and a fantastic atmosphere, and 3DS quality of life changes (boot swap ease of access + very clearly visually marked water level change rooms) made me actually thoroughly enjoy playing it. Also Dark Link is rightfully hailed as one of the coolest, if not the coolest, miniboss(es) in the game, so extra points there.

6. Bottom of the Well - Shadow's invisible wall mechanic is much more interesting when you can't see through them and everything is a potential trap. Falling down to the basement does get frustrating but that room where you light torches to open coffins and a FLOATING GIBDO EMERGES makes up for it, holy crap. Shadow Temple is underwhelming because Bottom of the Well already did what it tries to do but better.

7. Dodongo's Cavern - hey man I like blowing up dinosaurs this dungeon is just solid 0 complaints

8. Fire Temple - Fire Temple is also solid I just a) am so used to the original music that this version feels empty and lacking atmosphere by comparison, and b) find the above temples cooler. Shout out to dragon whack-a-mole boss fight though.

9. Shadow Temple - this suffers from being the only temple I really had completely memorized (I think my weenie friends* must have made me beat it for them as kids) so playing it this time was really just going through the motions; it didn’t get the chance to win me over because I remembered all of it and nothing particularly stuck out to me as being super clever. The boat ride, however, is sick as hell.

(*disclaimer: I was also a weenie. Shadow Temple scared the absolute pants off of me. But I clearly played it enough times that the entire thing was etched into my memory regardless, so.)

10. Deku Tree - does its job as tutorial dungeon, nice atmosphere, thats about all there is to say.

11. Jabu-Jabu's Belly - redeeming feature is using Ruto as a projectile. Throwing her at the ceiling switches will never not be hilarious. Honestly not a bad dungeon, merely gross and I like the other ones better.

12. Ice Cavern - I used to dread Ice Cavern; this time around I just found it tedious. The atmosphere is successful - it really feels cold and chilling - but not appealing enough to make up for it being dull and kind of annoying. Has the potential to be really cool if the blue fire were used in a more interesting way than “fill your bottles and dump them elsewhere.”

BUT, I feel it would be a complete disservice to my younger self and my younger self’s reasons for playing this game so much, if I focus completely on dungeons and disproportionately on gameplay in a review. Because while gameplay is a huge reason I kept going back to it (hard to want to go back to a game if it isn't fun to play), that’s not what made me love it so much, and a replay has given me fresher eyes to enjoy everything else it has to offer.

Ocarina of Time creates a world and a story that I deeply cared about, and revisiting as an adult, I find if anything I have more take-aways than I did previously. I have always really enjoyed coming-of-age narratives when done well, and this is a coming-of-age narrative done REMARKABLY well. You see dumb bratty kids doing dumb bratty kid things and then see the mature people they’ve grown into 7 years later; the game does not make the mistake of projecting a personality onto a voiceless protagonist, but it does imply a narrative arc for him (and you) regardless just through how strong and cool and awesome you get by the end and all the rad shit you’ve accomplished over the course of the game. It manages to very, very successfully make its story about other characters who DO have personalities, but also make you as the blank slate mc cool guy hero very much have a part in that story that feels very earned and satisfying.

Link doesn’t have a personality. You can project whatever the hell you want onto him or nothing at all. Ocarina of Time makes that *work*, because it doesn’t try to frame him as either ~adult in a child’s body~ or ~child in adult’s body~, it just lets you experience the literal growth from a kid who has to jump to reach ledges and has to thwack things twice with a slingshot and tiny sword, to an adult who can LAUNCH MASSIVE PILLARS INTO THE AIR and one-shot previously difficult enemies, and interpret that however you will. I think the most powerful example of this is going back in time again after doing several adult temples, and entering the bottom of the well, where you see enemies you’ve previously only encountered as an adult, and feel confident that you can tackle them as a child, too.

I really love these kinds of narratives. Where the growth of the main character is purely in the sense of you as the player becoming more adept and stronger, and the context of the story makes that mean something, but the game doesn’t try and pretend the avatar itself has a 3-dimensional personality.

I also think the balance between narrative and gameplay is excellent once it hits its groove. The beginning is very hand-holdy (Navi taught me how to open a door after I had already opened a door elsewhere because she’s scripted to do it at a specific door even though you can technically get to a later one first. lol), and I very firmly believe that with Saria’s Song as a device that lets you seek advice when you want to, it is completely unnecessary to have Navi yell at you what she thinks you should be doing. That said, the game doesn’t stop you from doing whatever the hell you want, and the number and depth of dungeons makes exploring and killing stuff by FAR the meat of the game, over the story. There is a suggested dungeon order, but you have some freedom if you’d rather do them a bit out of order, and there is a LOT of fun side stuff you can do and get rewarded for.

Most of that side stuff is an excellent way to highlight the humor in this game. If you beat Malon’s horse race record she mails a literal fucking cow to your house. Your house in Kokiri Forest. You just show up and there is a fucking cow in your house. That is the funniest thing that has ever happened in a game in the history of forever, sorry. You can race the running man, and all of the other sidequests in the game make you think there is a beatable goal you’ll be rewarded for, and the fucker just goes “lol good try but I beat you by one second. :)” You can blow up the Gossip Stones and they turn into rocketships and launch into space. After you beat the game, and have a really poignant moment with Princess Zelda where she sends you back in time, there is a completely out of nowhere dance party featuring the entire cast in celebration. The game does not try to explain this. It just gives you a dance party, and after such a bittersweet finale and such a fun and engaging game, a no-context dance party is exactly what it needs. A line o Gerudo doing the can-can? Thank you, yes please.

There is SO much that this game does not feel any need to justify in-game, that it simply puts in there because it is fun or cool or both, and I appreciate that so much. There are easter eggs out the butt (still haven’t bothered catching the Hylian Loach and I have still NEVER found the sinking lure despite following every guide in existence). Most of the temples imply some sort of greater history that is not even the slightest bit touched on. It has a very cohesive “core” game that has a start-to-finish suggested progression and a matching narrative, and it has absolute mountains of random shit outside of that it in no way pretends to justify. It explains just enough to give it ground to stand on, but no more, leaving you with more questions than answers. That ambiguity drove me nuts as a kid, but now, I think it’s also why I kept coming back. I wanted answers the game wouldn’t give me so I felt compelled to try and find them myself.

Ocarina of Time’s ending is incredible in ways I am just now able to appreciate. First of all, Zelda is like “I’m gonna send you back in time now” and pulls up the Ocarina and instead of playing the Song of Time which everything in the game implies she should, she plays Zelda’s Lullaby and hesitates just enough on the last note as you are sent back in the past - oof, that’s a good moment. The entire game you’re told about how the Kokiri can’t survive outside of the forest and suddenly they’re at Lon Lon Ranch having a dance party. You walk away from the Master Sword and seal it back in the temple, but nonsensically are then able to meet Zelda in her garden as if nothing had happened, meaning she sent you back so far it erased not just the adult timeline but also everything you accomplished as a child too? So many questions, but the fact that it does not even bother to answer them and just leaves you with such an open-ended image of you and Zelda as kids, calling back to that very early moment after the first dungeon in the game, and you can interpret for yourself what exactly that means.

I’m getting rambly (HAHA as if I’m ever not) so I should wrap this up shortly. Ocarina of Time’s ending is why I am so vehemently opposed to the concept of a ~Zelda Timeline~. The ending is nonsensical if you try to apply concrete logic to it. This game proposes ideas and makes me feel a certain way about them and the ending succeeds in providing just enough closure to make me satisfied and just enough open-ness that makes me want to keep coming back to it to experience it again. It’s not an open-and-shut piece of history of a fake world, it’s a really remarkable journey thats ambiguity is what allows it to feel so very magical.

Ooh boy I can’t wait to replay MM again, but that is a game I’ve never stopped playing, so it’ll be anything but fresh. It hits different right after completing OoT, though. The only way to follow up on a story like Ocarina of Time is to be even MORE batshit, ambiguous, and loose with your definition of how time works.

[eggoreviews]

Top 10 Coolest Game Protagonists

There’s a lot of games out there, and with them, a lot of people you gotta play as. And I know the word ‘cool’ is kind of relative, but here’s the 10 I reckon get the T-shirts for the kickarse club. Oh, and one character per franchise. Hope u agree with my picks!

Spoilers ahead!

10. Ren Amamiya (Persona 5)

The general rule of life that I’ve learned is, no one is as cool as this guy is when they’re like 17. Joker, or Ren Amamiya as he’s known in the P5 anime, gets himself arrested and put on probation for basically nothing at the beginning of the game and spends the rest of it slowly building a lovable group of friends, dating someone way out of his league (or, you know, age range if you went with the teacher) and becoming the leader of an internationally recognised group of thieves who change the hearts of the wicked. Ren pretty much has his shit together from day 1, and I think we were all a bit jealous. Plus, look how cool he looks in that persona costume.

9. Asher Forrester (Game of Thrones)

This may seem like an extremely odd choice, but those who’ve played the Telltale Game of Thrones will know exactly what I’m talking about. In a game that revolves entirely around the disgraced Forrester family, Asher is arguably the most disgraced of the lot. Asher is exiled from his hometown of Ironrath after his dad catches him trying to have a cheeky affair with Gwyn Whitehill, the daughter of a rival house, and instead now spends his days wandering about Westeros being a mercenary with his equally awesome also mercenary friend Beskha at his side. During his stint in Game of Thrones, Asher kicks the arses of a group of bandits, negotiates with Daenerys and rides back to his besieged hometown with a bloodthirsty band of freed slaves in tow. He’s funny, he’s a bit reckless, but he definitely stands out as the coolest member of the Forrester family.

8. Kratos (God of War series)

Kratos is pretty much iconic at this point. He’s stoic, strong, has a much more in depth character since the reboot came out and then managed to run away with Game of the Year against the likes of Red Dead 2. Kratos, the bald angry axe guy turned quiet, collected father figure (but he still has an axe), Kratos doesn’t tend to be too subtle about how cool he is, but that’s because he doesn’t need to be.

7. Emily Kaldwin (Dishonored series)

I debated giving this spot to Corvo, but I think Emily just about beats him out mostly because of the huge development you see in her throughout the games. After witnessing her mother’s death and being kidnapped by aristocrats for their own personal gain in the first game, she’s rescued by Corvo (oh, and then she’s kidnapped again. And rescued again) and eventually becomes empress. Then she gets dethroned anyway, and immediately jumps into kicking the behinds of everyone involved with the coup in excellent fashion, with the aid of her flashy new Outsider powers. So yeah, Corvo is undeniably brilliant, but I thought Emily wielded that folding sword just a little better.

6. Leon Kennedy / Claire Redfield (Resident Evil 2)

And here they are, the first day cop and the college student who really aren’t having a good day, but still tackle the apocalypse head on with the aid of lots of guns and a motorbike. I couldn’t decide which of these guys to give the spot tom, so they get to share. Considering the sheer amount of zombies, horrible mutants and crazed scientists they have to sift through during their unwanted journey, I’d say it would be a little insulting to leave them out after everything they go through. Plus, I think it’s pretty much bi culture at this point to want both of them to step on you, so Leon and Claire were mandatory picks.

5. Lara Croft (Tomb Raider series)

The mother of all adventure game protagonists has come a long way since polygonal temples and triangular boobs, and nowhere is this more clear than in the reboot trilogy, which has given as a brilliantly gritty rendition of Lara Croft that makes her much more badass than she ever was beforehand. Now that her character has been much more fleshed out, the iconic status really feels like it has some important character depth to back it up, and no list like this would be the same without her.

4. Joel / Ellie (The Last of Us)

Oh, look I’ve broken the rules again! But I really couldn’t pick one or the other, so both of the trauma bonded duo that made us all cry back in 2013 get a spot on my list. They both went through pure, bleak hell and maintained most of themselves throughout it all. Joel, who lost his daughter within the first hour of the spore outbreak, has been living in Understandable Man Pain mode ever since, but then Ellie comes along, and the two basically becoming an unstoppable, bandit killing team. And nowhere does both of their pure cool factor come out better than during the stint of the game’s only proper antagonist, David, where both Joel and Ellie get some shining character moments that make you truly see how awesome they are for making it through. Looking forward to seeing them both again in the sequel!

3. Samus Aran (Metroid series)

More than anything, I feel just a bit sorry for Samus. I can’t imagine fighting the same purple dragon pirate who killed your parents for over 30 years is doing much good for her mental health at this point. But it’s fairly clear that she can handle it. Samus has been shooting the hell out of anything that opposes her since 1984, whether that be a huge brain in a tank or literally the Wii Fit Trainer, she’ll gun it down without a thought. And as one of the very first female protagonists in gaming, along with having a sick ass power suit, she has to be here.

2. Bayonetta (Bayonetta series)

She can summon demon limbs basically at will. She has guns on her feet. She can slow time and kick your arse, and then speed it up again and continue to kick your arse. She’s one of the last surviving umbra witches and still somehow pulls off librarian glasses with the witch motif. When Bayonetta graced our screens, I think Morrigan from Dragon Age knew when to relinquish her Best Witch crown.

Before I unveil my pick for objectively the coolest game protagonist since Pac Man, here’s a few that didn’t quite make the cut:

Cloud Strife (Final Fantasy VII)

Solid Snake (Metal Gear Solid series)

Booker DeWitt (Bioshock Infinite)

Aloy (Horizon Zero Dawn)

Link (The Legend of Zelda series)

Clementine (Telltale’s The Walking Dead series)

Sam (Until Dawn)

Commander Shepard (Mass Effect series)

Arthur Morgan (Red Dead Redemption II)

1. Geralt of Rivia (The Witcher series)

My number one pick is the only game character I’ve seen who pulls off the ‘gruff, stoic dude’ so extremely well that he doesn’t lose any of his complex, interesting character in the process. Geralt earns most of his kickarse points from being a no-nonsense monster hunter, who always keeps his head and know he has the upper hand in pretty much every encounter without flaunting it. But on top of that, he’s light, funny, sarcastic and has a great level of emotional depth. Oh, and he’s pretty much immortal. This guy defines cool.

So there’s my picks! Drop in at some point in the near future for a countdown of my personal top 10 LAMEST game protagonists, so we can see the flipside and take a look at the considerably less badass side of playable characters. See you then!

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Z 200

So we’re finally in the last leg of DBZ.   The previous episode offered a glimpse of it, but Episode 200 is where we get to see the whole thing.   Starting with this episode, the OP was changed to "We Gotta Power”, complete with a new animation focusing on Gohan as an 18-year-old high school student.    The implication was that Gohan was taking over the role of the main character due to Goku’s absence, but that idea didn’t last very long, if that was ever really the idea at all.   

For the next dozen or so episodes, though, Gohan is definitely the protagonist.   Seven years after the Cell Games, he’s enrolled in a brick-and-mortar school.   This is never fully explained beyond Chi-Chi’s belief that his home schooling curriculum was no longer enough.    What changed?   Did Chi-Chi want him to socialize more?  Or were there no correspondence courses left for him to tackle?   

The reason I bring this up is because there was a very good reason for home-schooling Gohan: the nearest classroom is hundreds of miles away in Orange City.    It’s a quick commute for Gohan on his father’s Kinto’un, but it’s still a long way to go for a diploma that Gohan’s only a few months away from earning anyway.  

Oh, and it’s not Orange City anymore.    This is it’s first appearance, but this is Mr. Satan’s hometown, and in honor of his glorious victory over Cell, the citizens renamed the place “Satan City.”

You’d think a town famous for being the home of a world-saving hero would be light on crime, but actually no.    Satan City is riddled with crooks.   Pretty brazen ones too.    I can’t tell if the crooks in this arc are just nuttier than usual, or if this standard Dragon Ball hyperbole.  

Gohan’s been here a couple times before to set up his enrollment in the school, and he’s run into criminals every time he’s been here.    It’s to the point where he’s more annoyed than disturbed.  

So he foils these guys’ bank robbery, but to avoid unwanted attention, he turns into a Super Saiyan first, figuring the transformation will disguise him.   He does the cool spot where he catches and crushes all the bullets they shoot at him...

Then he wrecks their getaway car with a ki wave.  Once they’re down, he changes back to normal and acts like another innocent bystander.   Then this girl shows up and demands to know who did all of this.

One guy in the crowd recognizes her as Videl, and he tells her that the guy who stopped the crooks was wearing an Orange Star badge, signifying that he’s a student at Orange Star High School...

...Just like Videl.

Speaking of school, it’s almost time for it to start, to Videl goes to class and starts asking around about the “Golden Warrior”, which is the unofficial name Gohan has earned for his vigilante activities.   

On the left we have Sharpner, who’s some sort of jock, and he’s got blonde hair, so Videl figures he’s as likely a suspect as she’s going to find.    But Sharpner’s too busy training for sports to do any crimefighting.   On the right is Erasa, who’s also blonde, but Videl never bothers asking her.   

Then Gohan shows up, and the teacher introduces him to the class.     People can say that Gohan didn’t do anything during the seven year gap, but this teacher knows what’s up.   Perfect scores on several subjects.    Gohan was plenty busy all those years.   

Erasa invites Gohan to sit with her because she finds him cute.   She also informs Gohan that Videl is the daughter of Mr. Satan.    Videl recognizes Gohan as the kid she saw at the bank robbery, but doesn’t connect him to the Golden Warrior.... yet.    Erasa tells Gohan about the Golden Warrior, and he realizes that his disguise has backfired.    Too many people have seen him fighting crime here, and if he’s not careful someone will figure out that it’s him.

What threw me off watching this in Japanese was when this teacher started speaking.    In the dub, she has a thick German accent, and it’s an English class, but it’s an English class for English speakers, so she’s talking about prepositions or some crap like that.    In Japanese, she’s teaching a foreign language course, so she reads English out of a book.    So for a hot minute this lady speaks English, and she sounds really fluent, which really took me out of the story for a second.   

But the gag here is that these kids are all having a side conversation during the lesson.    Videl’s friends are satisfied that Gohan’s not blonde enough to be the Golden Warrior, but Videl isn’t so sure, since his outfit matches the description, and she’s heard of fighters who could change their hair color, because her father encountered Super Saiyans at the Cell Games.    But her dad dismissed this as a trick, so she’s not sure what to make of it.  

So the point of all of this is that Gohan is trying to make a life for himself in peacetime, and he’s convinced that he can’t reveal his true strength around anyone, which is why he doesn’t want anyone to connect him with this Golden Warrior business.    But he’s too clueless to avoid slipping up in other ways, like when Erasa asks him where he lives, and he tells her he’s from a village hundreds of miles away. 

This English lesson also serves as a way to reintroduce Mr. Satan to the story, since the textbooks feature him.   Gohan reads aloud how Mr. Satan won the 24th Tenkaichi Budokai, and I think this is the first mention of this.   Prior to this episode, Mr. Satan was said to be a combat sports champion, but it was never specified just what competition he had won to earn the title.   Also, everyone kept acting like the 23rd Budokai was the last one.   I suppose it’s possible that the 24th tournament could have been held after the Cell Games, but I think it’s commonly accepted that it happened before the Cell Sagas, and Mr. Satan’s world championship accolade was in reference to that victory.  

Anyway, here’s the champ sneezing in his dojo.    See, there’s this superstition in Japan where if you sneeze, someone must be talking about you somewhere, so whenever Mr. Satan sneezes, he observes that this must be true, because he’s so famous.  

Never mind that shit!   Here comes Freddie Mercury!    I’m pretty sure this was unintentional but you never know.   I don’t much care because HOLY SHIT THIS GUY LOOKS JUST LIKE FREDDIE MERCURY AND IT’S AWESOME.  

What makes this so great is how there’s absolutely no self-awareness to it.   The dub of Dragon Ball Kai seemed to play with the idea a little, but there’s only so much you can do, since this character is a no-nonsense gym coach making these kids play baseball.    And that’s perfect, honestly.    If there were a bunch of Queen references worked into this scene to beat you over the head with it, it would be dumb, but as it is there’s really no way to tell if this is a coindidence.   

During the game, Gohan resolves to hold back his true strength, since Chi-Chi and Bulma warned him that it might cause trouble if people knew the truth.    That’s kind of sad, actually.    It’s not until we get to this episode that we realize that Gohan hasn’t had much of a normal life.   To him, fighting super-battles is pretty typical, and he really doesn’t know how to even pretend to be a regular guy, no matter how badly he wants to fit in.  

But it’s also kind of sad because he is half-Saiyan, and while he was raised as an Earthling, he really doesn’t have a way to express that aspect of himself.   This is where Goku’s absence is most sorely felt.    Yeah, Gohan can manage without him, and he can get through school somehow, but you’d figure it’d be nice if he could go home and his orange space dad could tousle his hair and then they’d horse around in the woods until dinnertime.

Anyway, Gohan’s so determined to keep his strength a secret, but when he goes to catch a fly ball, he ends up floating in midair while he decides what to do with it.

Then he throws to the catcher, and he’s so thrilled that he didn’t kill the guy that he doesn’t realize that he jumped like fifteen feet in the air a minute ago.

Also, Gohan knows nothing of baseball, but that’s fine in my book.   Baseball is the fucking worst.   He stands on the opposite side of the plate from the way he’s going to swing, but Coach Mercury doesn’t mind.    Gohan can swing any way he likes in this class.

But Gohan’s plan is not to swing at all, since he’s concerned that he’ll hit the ball too hard and expose his secrets.    But Sharpner throws a fastball at his head, thinking it’ll give Gohan a scare.     Trouble is, Gohan doesn’t even try to dodge it, probably because he doesn’t see it as a threat.    So he gets hit in the damn face with a baseball and just no-sells it.  

But Gohan’s thrilled because this means he can go to first base without having to hit the ball.   So thrilled that he doesn’t notice how shocked everyone is.   

EVEN FREDDIE MERCURY IS AFRAID

Videl wonders what all of this could mean.    How could someone so goofy be so handsome... I mean strong.   Strong.    Yeah, that’stheticket.

After gym, everyone wants a piece of the Gohan pie.    Sharpner invites him to join the boxing club, since he’s stronger than he looks.   I was setting up a “Sharpner’s also thirsty for Gohan joke” just now, but now that I think about it, maybe that’s not such a silly idea after all.    I do know that Erasa’s into him, since she asks him to give her a ride home, but Gohan explains that his “car” only has room for one.  

But Videl follows him after school, and she only ever sees him on foot.    How very dreamy--suspicious!    Get ahold of yourself, Videl!

But Gohan notices her stalking him and he gives her the slip by jumping on top of a building at super speed.   “Gosh,” Gohan says, “I never realized so many people wanted to rock my bod.”

Then he flies home on the Nimbus, and to be honest I just included this screencap because I love the color scheme.