#quality animal fodder

[crisscross-sonicsauce]

Can we talk about how good the animation looks?!?!?!

I was expecting MUCH lower quality because it's a show, but the quality looks almost identical to the movies!!! Incredible!!! A million kudos to the animation team!!

Here are some awesome shots that I thought looked particularly beautiful :D (reference fodder >X) )

[rawmeknockout]

pls can I get a lonely cassette!reader being taken in by soundwave???? i need that man carnally and i need to be inside his boobs even more 💥💥💥

The city is burning. It's been on fire for days, the skyline you loved nothing but smoke and ash, and there is no relief in sight. Metal melting into itself and the surroundings, buildings merged together, until it looks like a great beast crying in agony. Fighting to pull itself out from it's own destruction. Your cassette-player is among those trapped under the rubble, squeezed beneath concrete and metal. Perhaps it's fortunate, then, that you know he's dead. You were his only companion, and now you're alone. It gives you comfort knowing he's not the one in your place.

There is no one coming to save you. The Decepticons and Autobots have torn Cybertron apart, your home just collateral among the list of casualties. It had filled you with rage when you saw the way they would cast anything in the way to achieve victory, but your anger is hollow now. You're not even sure you can feel anything at all. All you can think about is where you will find energon next.

There are no more relief stations near you, no more safe encampments that can take you in. All neutral parties, all crisis servants, have been pushed to the very edges of Cybertron where there is still just a bit of energon to mine. It wouldn't matter if you could get to them, anyway. Most have picked their side and will push recruitment if you come looking for aid, ensuring you will be safe if only you will be their fodder.

And you can't leave your home. Even when it is unrecognizable, the bright city lights long since blown out. This is where you want to be, the only place for you. You slowly duck and trudge between buildings, dirt settling in your joints and making the ache of your frame worse. You scan for any sign of energy, a leak of oil even, but it is bare here.

So lost in your HUD, you don't hear the clink of pedes on concrete, the glitching of your processor getting worse and more obstructive by the cycle. You try tapping at settings on your helm, but the static clears minimally. A giant blue mech stands in front of you when your vision clears of errors. You jump back, stumbling over your pedes to stay upright, and lean back to take in the intimidating bot before you.

His face is covered and his visor is red. So red against the white and blue of his paintjob. The blue gleams beautifully under the muffled sunlight, just barely able to break through the ash covering the sky. He must be important, or was. You could have never afforded a polish so uniform and bright. His chest is a window into a docked and rather comfortable looking cassette. You could laugh from how fortuitous this oasis is.

The purple of his insignia almost misses your awareness, but it is an ugly symbol and it hurts your optics to look upon it. You should be angry, but there is nothing. Perhaps this meeting is Primus' mercy, no matter how cold.

The large mech kneels in front of you, his helm still looming above your own, as his servo comes to rub dirt away from your faceplate. You don't shy away, despite the true dirtiness being in his allegiance. It's nice to feel a friendly touch. You eye his tapedeck enviously, like you want to rip the mech out of there and settle in its place. It's a horrible feeling that leaves a pit of shame in your tank. The fear and grief has turned you into an animal hungry for any sign of salvation.

The intimidating mech pulls from his subspace a wrapped packet: energon rations. Meager and half-eaten, it wouldn't be the best you've ever tasted, but you're grateful for the pity. It's hardly two bites before you're done. Despite the quality, it's the sweetest energon that's ever touched your glossa. Lubricant tracks down your cheekplates.

And despite it all, you want to live. A feeling that builds in your chassis and sings in your spark. You want to live, you want to leave this place. You don't care what you have to do. All you want is to tear free of the rubble and rip yourself from the metal melting down around you.

"Inquiry: Free to dock?" You grasp the opportunity with firm servos.

[thecoiledserpent]

Can I also donate things for every planet? Or is it essentail only for the weak ones?

I dont have a problem donating things like every week for every planet when I can ofc.

:)

that's lovely! the best remedy is to feed animals, whether said planet is weak, malefic or maraka. you can't donate just about everything, but the following stated things can be, for everyone. other then that, i have a list of remedies to be done for the planets on my masterlist, check it out, it has some useful things. following animals can be fed in accordance with the planet to be remedied:

sun: birds can be fed with wheat grains, or cows with chapatis and jaggery

moon: respect mother first and foremost, otherwise no remedy will work. offering water to thirsty animals, or flour balls to fish, or feeding white cows (anything, but jaggery and chapatis are the norm)

mercury: feed green parrots, or free parrots from their cages. feeding cows with green fodder or green leaves is favourable, too. freeing little birds or parrots is highly beneficial and recommendable, especially if mercury is beneficial but afflicted in the chart. never keep little birds in your home, which will trap them.

venus: feeding cats milk, or offering candies to little girls. (don't be suspicious, please 😭 something good quality, preferably; doesn't have to be anything expensive, though). feeding fishes is also favourable.

mars: feeding gram (chana dal, small yellow pulses) or jaggery with chapati (or without it, it just makes it easier) to monkeys or cows

saturn: feeding black cows, or black dogs with buttered or oiled chapatis. feeding black dogs with milk or dog food is fine, too. just serve them, usually street dogs are better. looking after black or blue coloured fishes works, too.

rahu: feeding fishes with flour balls or fish food, or ants with a mixture of flour and grinded sugar. please offer this to ants at tree roots, to avoid making a mess and getting ants killed due to people stepping on them accidentally. looking after black or blue coloured fishes works, too.

ketu: adopting dogs or rabbits is recommended for ketu, but it is important to give them appropriate attention. if that is not possible, then feed cows and dogs with whatever you can.

i understand that in western countries it is not possible to have access to cows, in such a case, don't fret, simply do other remedies. but if its possible for some of you, then prioritise feeding cows with whatever's recommended, it always helps.

[aurora-313]

Heyyy,

I've tried and tried again to find the bright side of the ending and the Canon couples but I just can't. I don't even like the kids and thier designs are lacking. On top of that, I'm also dreading the day we get to see them in the anime🤦‍♀️

I've given up on the anime. It's glorified fanfiction, and honestly, nothing Kubo can do can really salvage it. Short of ripping Bleach apart from the very first arc and rebuilding it from scratch.

Franky the thing that I fail to comprehend is how Bleach went from "Monster of the week", where the monsters were fundamentally human in their hatred, desires, miseries and pains, to "let's kill/overthrow God and destroy reality".

Implausibly massive leap for a world that only consists of 3 towns and an empty void, wouldn't you say?

The dissonance is so jarring that it breaks suspension of disbelief. The cardinal sin of storytelling. That's why I don't enjoy TYBW. That's why the epilogue and the hell arcs make no impression on me.

A damning indictment of TYBW's quality as an arc is how forgettable it is. Remove it from the story entirely, and absolutely nothing would change.

There's a cult following in the west, sure, but that's all it has. Manga sales during TYBW tanked in Japan. Viewing figures in japan are in the toilet. The only thing keeping it afloat are diehard groupies who are easily distracted by shiny lights and crappy effects to hide how poorly composed it is.

The arc was utterly forgotten until the 2020 trailer dropped.

The storytelling is jank AF and the main villains are forgettable crybabies.

It's funny. By and large, I feel more emotional connection to three relative scrub Hollows from the shinigami sub arc, characters that only had a dozen chapters between them and viscerally hate them for how human their sadism is, but my eyes glaze over at the Sternritters. I barely remember any of their names.

The Quincy are boring. Yhwach is boring. There was an opportunity to salvage him by playing into the manga evidence he was a grifter who conquered, cursed, enslaved, and ate his way into power... but no. They replaced that with basic bitch daddy issues.

Then, there's artificially inflating Chad and Orihime's importance. The problem is that they're pathetically powerless humans by comparison.

Observe their first encounter with Quilge. Weak in the grand scheme of things, Quilge was casually stripping chunks of flesh off them. Compared to the feats the other Sternritters pull off, what can Chad and Orihime really do? Realistically. What CAN they do? The answer is nothing and worse than nothing.

Chad and Orihime, civilians who use reishi-based attacks, against an army whose been training for years-to-centuries, who dominate reishi as easily as breathing. No amount of training can change the fact they're a stupendously bad match-up against the Quincy. They realised their presence is pouring oil on a fire and thought the solution was to pour even MORE oil on the fire.

Tbqh. Ichigo should've put his foot down and told them to leave with Riruka and Yukio. Chad and Orihime simply cannot keep up with Ichigo anymore. Ichigo had left them completely in the dirt after Soul Society, and the rest of the series is Chad and Orihime in denial about that.

Why does Ichigo have to go through this exhaustive humiliation of a character arc, thanks to his elders leaving him to stew in ignorance, while Chad and Orihime got a free pass? And are ultimately rewarded for living in denial.

Want them to grow? Have them confront and accept Ichigo simply doesn't need them anymore. Have them accept their place isn't on his battlefield but protecting their mutual home. Have them accept they are mortals tangling with gods and demons, and they are in way over their heads.

The only plausible reason Ichigo DOES keep them around is cannon fodder.

As for the endgame ships; I don't want to talk about them, except that Ichigo should have categorically refused to have children on principle. After the shit his heritage put him through, why would Ichigo subject another child to that?

[redstringraven]

alright, so after a thorough replay of the space-arc and a slightly less thorough comb of the invasion-arc here're some loose observations and thoughts regarding triceraton tattoos. i'm not touching triceratons featured in fast forward because... i don't have interest in that fjkldjks. my apologies.

this is mostly for myself, but you're of course more than welcome to use it as a resource, reference, whatever tickles your fancy. if i missed something, feel free to tell me!

there does seem to be some pattern with rank, so i'm gonna start with "low-rank" and make my way up the ladder.

citizens

we don't get to see a lot of triceraton citizens, and basically all of them are background fodder save for zed and raz (the games commentators). from what i can tell, none of them have tattoos on neither their eyes nor their arms--on the ones with bare arms, anyway. it's probably safe to assume they don't have them on their chests because those seem all-star specific.

rebellion

this is where the tattoo thing gets a bit weird--as in, i don't know if they're actually facepaint that can be removed, or if these are all citizens or green soldiers who've not earned their military tattoo yet. traximus still has his tattoo, but none of his rebellion soldiers have the ones we'll later see on every soldier as well as prison guards. it's definitely possible citizens joined the rebellion, but trax had also mentioned in the arena that he still had friends in the ranks. are they not there? did they remove their tattoos? am i over-analyzing a cartoon beyond what the creators considered? (it's that one).

you can click on the screenshot to make it a little bigger but the bottom-left shot shows an actual solder beside a rebellion soldier, the former's tattoo is barely visible but there. their concept art doesn't have a tattoo, and i didn't see any in-show who had one... but, i did more skim through the invasion-arc, so it's possible i missed one. lemmie know if i'm wrong.

prison guards

all prison guards seem to have a single, thick red-line tattoo over their right eye. the ends point toward the backs of their heads. not much to talk about here. the two in the second-to-bottom-left screenshot are missing theirs, but i'm going to assume this is an animation error.

--also, sidebar, i don't think the blue ""tattoos"" prisoners have are remotely the same type of thing, so i don't think that'd apply to my confusion over none of the rebellion soldiers having tattoos.

soldiers

here's once again where the definition of 'tattoo' gets a little blurry, because if tattoos are a sign of rank and then your rank changes... what do. maybe since triceratons already have advanced technology--and tough skin--they have... a solid form of tattoo removal. again, though, i don't think their tattoos are the same as the ""tattoos"" prisoners receive, so i doubt they'd just peel off?? if that were possible, you'd also think they would have removed traximus's tattoo after he was thrown into the games as another way to shame/derank him, too.

so, your basic and most common soldier seems to have two narrow maroon lines over their right eye. the ends do not point in any direction, they're just lines. they're thin enough that they can be very hard to see if the camera's at a distance, but they're still there--just hard to capture in a screenshot partially due to the quality i'm working with.

next is an ensign soldier, which is basically a low-ranking officer. i think we only see one of these guys (he's leading the group who find the turtles as stowaways at the beginning of s2ep3, the big house). his tattoos are once again over the right eye, maroon/purple, thicker than a soldier's tattoo, and the peak of the outer-most line has a point. for a moment, i thought that maybe you'd build on the tattoo as you ranked, but traximus and mozar are gonna kind of throw that theory out the window when we get to them.

there's also this guy from s2ep5, triceraton wars. he's labeled as "strike team leader" on his concept art, and getting a visible shot of his tattoo in-show is very frustrating and not helped by the fact it looks like they goofed his color palette, too. his tattoo is over the right eye (like the previous soldiers), red, and it's a curved line with ends that hook toward the front of his face. it's the most similar to traximus's tattoo that we see.

...also, this episode eludes to the fact that "slag" is a triceraton swear word, as zanramon uses it both as an exclamation of frustration and calls the strike team "slag brains". he could also just be calling them all stony waste matter, tho, so. do with that what you will.

there's also THESE GUYS from the invasion-arc in s3, and they confuse me because the invasion-arc not only introduces this new uniform design i don't see anywhere in the concept art that i've collected, but these soldiers have like. no tattoos. and it can't be an animation error because their lack of tattoo was consistent for any wearing this suit design. monza ram steals this suit from one of the soldiers, and looted soldier who reports back to zanramon later doesn't have a tattoo.

i wonder if these guys are like... more engineers than they are soldiers. we mostly see them in the docking bay or in the control room where the boys learn don's location on the homeworld. they're just armed because they'd stand in the way of anyone attempting to infiltrate the homeworld (or escape it), but i don't think i saw any of them leave the vessel itself.

gruell

gruell is an odd one because he has the same maroon tattoos as your common soldier--two narrow lines over the right eye--but he additionally has a tattoo on his right arm. it's of course possible that other soldiers also have this tattoo and that it's just hidden by their sleeves, but if tattoos are a show of rank or status you'd think it'd be somewhere more visible? maybe arm tattoos are additional signals of status when soldiers are in their civvies or something.

regardless, gruell's arm tattoo is the only of its kind we see: it appears to be red ink: an upright triangle that breaks into two longer lines where the top line hooks up toward the triangle and the bottom line hooks down toward another triangle, albeit this one is upsidedown. i'm not sure if this is meant to be an abstract design with the usual triceraton fondness of triangles and jagged lines, or if's maybe a representation of a bi-ringed planet? homeworld before they blew it up oopsie-doopsy? who knows.

monza ram + the all-stars

okay, if there are ANY anomalies on this list, it's these guys. none of them have anything resembling the soldier nor prison guard tattoos we've previously seen.

monza ram is the most unique; he doesn't seem to have any body tattoos, but he does have two thick red tattoos (or one big tattoo?) that rises from his jaw on both sides of his face and breaks into two spikes, one ending before it reaches his eye and the other 'cutting through' the eye and peaking on his brow. it covers the back third of his face, right in front of where his frill starts.

the other three all-stars have a much more narrow tattoo on either side of their face that looks like a jagged scratch, another narrow tattoo across the backs of their necks, then an extremely long one that seems to wrap diagonally around their back and end on their pecks. this is the only instance of tattoos that aren't maroon or red, too, as one all-star has blue tattoos and another has brown.

we unfortunately don't really know anything about the all-stars, just that they seem to be separate from the gladiator slaves, are undefeated (before the turtles), and after they lost their first fight zanramon had them imprisoned, where traximus would later free and recruit them. none of them have soldier tattoos. i know the triceratons love battle, so i wonder if they're more like the career tributes in the hunger games. they volunteered to be gladiators rather than were made to be them. eh. *shrugs*

commander mozar

title revoked because i said so, mozar is frustrating because he doesn't have an eye tattoo that we can see. those marks under his eye-patch are more likely from the injury that cost him his eye since they're a darker color than his skin tone, but where shit gets tricky is that traximus was a commanding officer before he was gladiator'd. so, it's possible that mozar has a tattoo identical to trax's under that eye-patch, and we just can't see it.

important to note, however, that his right eye--the eye where all other soldiers have had a tattoo--is bare. that's where the whole... building on your tattoo as you rank up theory kind of falls to the wayside. he technically SHOULD have one, but he doesn't.

he also has an arm tattoo, but it's on his left arm. again--he might also have one on his right arm, but it's sleeved. his left arm is only visible because his prosthetics must require a shorter sleeve. the tattoo on his arm is red: the top piece is a crescent shape lying on its side so it opens upward, then a long line that dips into a crescent shape so it frames the crescent above it, and finally an upsidedown triangle under the lowest point of the middle curve. this is much more of an abstract design than gruell's, idk what this could be.

traximus

as with mozar, traximus complicates the ranking up theory because he also lacks any tattoos on his right eye; his tattoo is on his left eye, and it appears to be reddish, zig-zagging down from his horn, across his brow, down over his eye, back along his cheek and then down to the corner of his mouth.

he doesn't have an arm tattoo on his right arm like gruell does, and if he has a tattoo on his left arm like mozar, it's covered by either his commanding officer sleeve or his gladiator armor. if mozar's tattoo has any connection to his ranking as a commander, it's possible trax has it, too. we just never get the chance to see it. pity.

the council

the council is a main indication that tattoos might be less a show of social status and more military or warrior specific, because none of the council members have visible tattoos (ignore mozar, he forgot to wear pink last wednesday idk why he's sitting with us). kind of helps me lean a bit more into my engineer theory from earlier.

prime leader (zanramon)

no visible tattoos. none whatsoever. pathetic. let's be real, he'd probably start crying before the needle even grazed his skin.

if you've made it to the end: thank you ONCE AGAIN for coming along with me on one of my dives into triceraton bullshittery. i'm sorry, i will do it again.

[wesleysniperking]

One Piece Film: Red and What It Meant for Usopp

Part 3 (TL;DR)

(beware spoilers!!!)

I want to emphasize that although Usopp didn't receive a specific foreshadowing in "One Piece Film: Red" tailored for the Wano arc, I believe this absence actually serves as a setup for his future growth. Koby's foreshadowing in the film, and the way Oda often gives Usopp his moments to shine in unexpected and spectacular ways, suggest that Usopp is being reserved for something bigger. Usopp's character is known for his flashy yet unassuming nature, which means he needs more than just one significant scene in Wano.

It hurt to see certain trade-offs in Wano that negatively affected Usopp's reception among fans. While Robin and Nami had fabulous, queen-like moments, especially Robin, it was frustrating to see Usopp pushed to the background. This might be a bias on my part, but like in project management, there are always trade-offs. Fans have speculated that Oda faced challenges with his original team and the impact of Covid, which led to Wano feeling rushed and congested. As a result, out of the project's time, cost, and quality, quality seemed to be the aspect that suffered.

I understand Usopp's role in Wano from the standpoint that it simply wasn't his time to shine. However, I'm critical of how this affects fans' perception of him. It’s irritating to see Usopp become the fandom’s punching bag because he didn’t get a fair trade-off. This situation, I hope, will be rectified with future developments where Usopp gets the spotlight he deserves, demonstrating his growth in a way that silences the critics.

Another point I’d like to make is that the movies often highlight and make callbacks to certain qualities of Usopp that we've seen in the past, both pre-time skip and earlier post-time skip. For instance, in "One Piece: Gold," we see the creative and smart problem-solver Usopp, who might run away at first (“Usopp Dash!”) but always comes back to save his friends. This is reminiscent of Little Garden and Alabasta Usopp, particularly when he outsmarted Baccarat, who had the Luck-Luck Fruit.

In "One Piece: Stampede," there’s a scene where the Big Bad insults Luffy’s friend (Usopp), calling him weak. Later, Usopp drags Luffy to safety, apologizing for not being able to get the treasure, which evokes the Water 7 vibes when Usopp is beaten by the Franky Family. Despite his initial setback, Usopp comes through in the clutch to help Luffy save the day, similar to his role in Enies Lobby. Some fans believe that "One Piece: Stampede" might have been one of Oda's planned endings for the series before he decided on another direction.

Then, there’s "One Piece: Red," which brings back memories of Dressrosa when Usopp unlocked Observation Haki to save Luffy and Law. These movies showcase Usopp’s potential and remind fans of his core qualities.

This makes me entertain a fan theory that Oda uses the anime to explore scenes he couldn’t convey as precisely in the manga with just drawings and dialogue.

I want to emphasize that Usopp still has much more to offer. It isn’t the end for him despite his lesser role in recent arcs. It frustrates me when people criticize Usopp harshly, especially when the rest of the Straw Hats are seen as bada**es while Usopp is labeled as "doing nothing." Seriously? Usopp isn’t fodder and never will be.

Some fans argue that if nothing significant happens for Usopp in Elbaf, they’ll lose faith in his character. This criticism is misguided. Power-ups from this point on are likely to happen in battle, and it’s not just about training but showcasing noteworthy skills in crucial moments.

Usopp is likely always practicing his Observation Haki and creating new weaponry off-screen. The problem isn’t that people abhor him, but that they don’t articulate their frustration well. They might say, "he doesn’t get enough screen time anymore," or "he’s not utilized to his full potential." This still hurts, but if people expressed their thoughts more maturely, there would be fewer arguments with Usopp fans.

Yes, high expectations might mean that people care about Usopp and want what’s best for him, but some people have a really bad way of expressing that and it often looks misguided.

Coming to a close, Usopp may not get enough screen time and might have been put on the back burner for a while, but good things are in store for him. The final saga is here, and all the Straw Hats are together now. Old villains are reappearing, and Usopp’s story is likely to come full circle, especially when he meets his dad (it wouldn’t make any sense if he didn’t!). Speculation aside, these theories mean something—they mean something to me.

Usopp's big moment has been delayed because, for it to be impactful, it has to be meaningful. People claim he regresses after moments of growth, but perhaps Oda is creating a false illusion to build up to a long-awaited moment that will cement Usopp's growth, allowing him to truly embody his dream of becoming a brave warrior of the sea. So, again:

In order for it to stick, it has to be meaningful.

Thank you.

Part 1

Part 2

video to gif credit (original video DBX96)

[harlequinchaos]

Tears of the Kingdom tips for surviving the new economy and whatnot, under the cut (in case of spoilers)

Adventuring Tip: STEALTH IS YOUR FRIEND

Once you get to Kakariko Village you can buy the Stealth Suit (Highly recommend doing the connected sidequest to bring the cost of the shop down). This makes it so you can walk up to fish, bugs, and creatures without them running away (if you sprint they'll still run) this is AMAZING for collecting these things as everything seems way more sparse in totk. No more chasing frogs for you my friend.

Food Tip: Critical Meals

Cooking between 11:30pm-12:00pm on the night of a blood moon gives you:

+3 hearts recovered to your dish

+1 level to whatever effect is present in your dish

+5:00 duration to the effect

Rupee Tip: Go Spelunking!

One of the biggest features in totk are the new caves systems that are literally everywhere. Oftentimes you'll find ore deposits and rare ore deposits and find Amber, Opal, Rubies, Sapphires and Topazes. Sell them for cash (I recommend saving sapphires, see below). If you see a wall of breakable rocks, usually it will drop rusty claymores and rocks for you to make more crude hammers. But a bomb flower or zonai time bomb work too (DON'T BLOW YOURSELF UP). Additionally, a cave will be marked with a ✔️ once you kill the bubblfrog inside.

Battle tip: Ice is OP.

Frozen enemies take double damage from your next hit, so try to always have a Magic Rod/Scepter with a sapphire fused to it, fusing a sapphire to a regular weapon works as well, but you're not aiming to hit the enemy with the source of the ice. Freeze > pause and switch to your strongest weapon> hit the enemy > switch back to your ice weapon > repeat to stunlock the enemy, works on everything that isn't a Lynel or Boss. Using Ice Fruit or Blue Chuchu jelly works too, but stuff is more rare in this game.

Relatively Easy Rupees:

You'll need:

-Bow & arrows (the stronger the bow the better)

-Sheild (for sheild surfing)

-Cold Resistance Armor (to survive)

-Speedy Elixir (optional, but it'll REALLY help)

-Access to Snowfield Stable (Hebra Region)

What you're gonna be doing is big game hunting in the snowy field north of the stable. All winter animals are capable of dropping Raw Gourmet Meat which is the best quality, including moose, the bears and the wolves. Sheild surf to get around quicker and then go for headshots with a bow and just hunt the animals for their meat. You'll want the speedy Elixir because you have to be pretty quick between the meat dropping and freezing. Once it's frozen it counts as a meal, but you literally get hundreds of rupees by selling 5 Raw Gourmet Meats cooked together.

Item Management: Brightbloom Mushrooms are the new Apples:

Going off of the previous tip of exploring the cave systems, you'll find Brightbloom Mushrooms almost more than anything else. Eventually you'll want to stop collecting them, but they're the perfect source of quick food fodder. Just cook a bunch together for quick hearts (and the glow effect which is nice in caves).

Advanced Combat Tip: Muddlebuds

If you've been to The Depths, one of the native plants are the Muddlebuds. These make it so enemies will attack each other when thrown (or attached to an arrow). I recommend wearing the stealth gear, sneaking up to a pack or finding a vantage point, and hitting the strongest enemy in the group with a muddlebud arrow. It'll start to attack it's allies, allowing you to sit back and enjoy the show. Note: enemies will still target you if they see you (hence the stealth/vantage point)

These are just a few tips, feel free to add more, and try not to be too spoilery for people who haven't played or haven't gotten far yet!

[phantasmiafxndom]

Out of all the animes you’ve watch what ones are your favorites

...you know what, you get the serious answer. I used to track my anime watching, so out of the 450+ completed ones on my list, here are some of my top recommendations! (In terms of quality, more so than what I've spent the most time dwelling on.)

. . .

One Piece — I haven't technically watched all of this one, but after falling back into the fandom after an 8-ish year break, I really can't understate the quality. One Piece's story is amazing, and I'm consistently impressed by the author's characters/worldbuilding.

Dominion Tank Police (1988) — I have FEELINGS about the villain in this one... Overall, 80s sci-fi vibes mix with themes of ethical responsibility and societal peacekeeping, and the "don't you just want to go apeshit? :)" protagonist (who's also extremely aromantic-coded) is a hilarious, yet wonderfully earnest little menace!

Kyousougiga — I've been rewatching this one recently, and the sheer detail in every scene is STUNNING. I keep having to pause to mentally scream about the symbolism, and tbh, knowing the plot from my original watch is only improving the experience.

Tekkon Kinkreet — This one's a movie, not a series, but SKLJKHS IT HAUNTS ME. Absolutely chilling, by the time the big plot twists roll around... Beyond that, the overall aesthetic/vibe is impeccable, and the exaggerated, messy art style only adds to that.

Kemonozume — Monster/human forbidden romance with stunning art and a great soundtrack. The plot started out a bit confusing, but all of the scattered story elements came together nicely in the end!

The Tatami Galaxy — The "get your shit together and start enjoying your life" anime. It's plenty good as just a story, but I got some excellent life lessons out of it too. Solid mix of comedy, drama, and charismatic-yet-extremely-bizarre characters interacting.

Monster — Excellent slow-paced, psychological horror packed with ethical dilemmas, traumatic backstories, and so many Extremely Depressed Men. In other words, there's a very good reason why Johan Liebert used to end up on so many "best anime villains" lists.

Paranoia Agent — I have nothing but praise for Satoshi Kon's work, in general, and Paranoia Agent has been my favorite of the ones I've seen so far. Compared to his movies, it really benefits from the extra space for plot development, and the big emotional twist hits hard.

Revolutionary Girl Utena — A true classic. <3 There are enough tumblr essays about this tragic yuri masterpiece that I won't go into detail myself, but yes, it's every bit as good as you've heard.

Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail — The entire Black Lagoon series is excellent, but Roberta is my special girl. Unfortunately, the OAV adaption compresses the manga's version of her arc pretty heavily (and the altered ending is kind of dumb), but I still have to recommend it. Babygirl's breakdown is a REAL mess kjshghs

Claymore — Excellent pseudo-medieval fantasy with badass female characters, lots of body horror, and top-tier monster design. The manga is MUCH better than the anime after a certain point, however.

Kuuchuu Buranko — An episodic series about an eccentric psychiatrist interacting with his troubled patients. The mixed-media animation style and bizarre characters are what sold it for me, along with the exploration of mental health through storytelling tropes.

Cannon Fodder — An artistic short movie that's twenty minutes of aesthetic experience and fascinating worldbuilding implications. I love the vibe, and the "one, long horizontal frame" style is neat.

Flowers of Evil — The art style. The VIBES. The whole thing is incredibly eerie and off-putting, with a plot that's pretty much: "congrats! two shitty teenagers are tearing each other's lives apart!".

[mangora]

Gen 1 fans stop saying cringe culture is dead and then making fun of every other type of fan for being bad or cringe challenge. I love you Pahkitew Island I love you Zoey I love you Emmas I love you Sky and Ella and Leonard and Beardo I love you Max and Sugar and how long you stayed in the game I love you fankid OCs I love you Lightning and Cameron finale I love you Vegans and Cadets and Geniuses and all your yuri potential I love you All Stars I love you Mal I love you background characters and joke characters and elimination fodder characters I love you wacky suspension of disbelief bullshit concepts that make no sense I love you Ridonculous Race I love you Ripper I love you crack ships and rare pairs I love you Juliayne and Nemma and Carritty and Skasmine and Scarella I love you fan series’ including ones with bad audio quality and choppy animation and most of all I love you having fun and doing what you want so long as you’re not hurting anyone god bless our troops (people who do not care about duncney or whatever Cody is doing)

[thefloatingstone]

After looking into the writers predicament and how it all led to the strike it made me realize that perhaps one of the reasons for the decline in quality media is becuase writers have been given less and less incentives to create good content, do you have any thoughts?

I don't think it would be exactly incentive. I would think in a certain amount of cases it would be down more to demotivation. Generally, writers for film and TV and such genuinely WANT to make a good story and, much like fanfic writers and fanartists, will do their best for very little thanks simply because it's what they DO. But not ever show or movie is going to be a passion project, in fact most of them won't. And if you're working for Disney especially, who owns 38% of all film (not counting TV and other media) so you most likely WILL end up wroking for Disney, you are going to have a TON of studio meddling on every level of writing.

As I mentioned in the other post, Mr Rick And Morty (sorry I don't know his name and I'm too lazy to check) wrote the story for the Dr Strange and the Multiverse of madness at LEAST twice when the movie's FIRST story and script was scrapped by a previous writer. The first script he wrote was heavily rewritten and changed and reworked by the studio. and then the studio just THREW OUT that script and he had write a brand NEW script 2 weeks before shooting started using all the props, sets, outfits and CG segments they had already made. And the thing is this is now STANDARD PRACTICE in working on a big budget Disney film.

Part of the reason the Barbie movie is written as well as it is, is because Mattel were almost completely hands off with the film's writing. (the only changes I heard about was them censoring one Barbie saying the word "Motherfucker" which they censored in the film by putting a Mattel sticker over her mouth) and various other things like the removal of a narration in one scene and one or two jokes were cut. You know! NORMAL screenwriting practices!

But Disney is so paranoid and controlling with literally everything they put out it is a death sentence for any kind of creativity. Even ignoring the fact that they hire brand new writers who they can control and push around easier, I imagine even if you were NOT a new writer just happy for a big break, it must be extremely demotivating to try and write a good story when you know Disney is just gonna shred it to ribbons.

This is absolutely not the ONLY reason of course. Velma's writing is so godawful because people who had only worked in live action cable comedy thought they could do the exact same thing for an animated show and it would work without knowing anything about the medium they were working in because they were arrogant, lacked restraint, and had gotten where they were thanks to being friends with the right people. HGS is so badly written because Raye Rodriquez had shopped around his story idea to EVERYONE and got rejected by all of them until Crunchyroll needed fodder to justify opening up its own studio to create "originals". Many times modern cartoons are badly written because the actual people writing the show are animators who haven't had any formal training or education in creative writing.

There are a thousand and one reasons for WHY something ends up badly written. But as for why we have gotten SO MUCH that is badly written recently I would chalk up to studio execs and the business side of Hollywood choking the creativity out of the writing process in an attempt to maximize profits in the short term.

That's an EXTREME simplification but that would be my opinion. Hell the only reason AI writing is even a conversation regarding film and TV is because it's the kind of thing these studio execs are SALIVATING over the thought of. A writer they have 100% control over that they don't have to pay and don't have to deal with all that "creative vision" or "artistic expression" bullshit which they don't like because it represents risk to sure fire income.

because most Studio Execs are businessmen who have no concept of creativity whatsoever, have no idea what being creative even means, and yet they think because they know how to make money in a corporate sense, they know how to monetise creativity to maximum efficiency.

It's like a fisherman getting rid of all the fish in the sea because they're getting in the way of him monetising the ocean.

Anyway this ask is a mess because this is a complex issue I am trying to express a simplified opinion on. But I hope you get what I mean.

[diskmess]

Brainbloodvolume

(CONTENT WARNING for animal death)

THE (RE)DISCOVERY

I’m only twenty-eight years old, and I’m going gray. I think it’s because I spend roughly fourteen hours every day being worried. It’s certainly not for a lack of trying to manage the worry. I’m constantly scolding myself, trying to center my attention on something life-giving instead. This, of course, gives birth to new worries: I worry that I will become the worry. It usually becomes me. 

If stuck is what you say Well, that is what you've made

In eighth grade, when I was about thirteen years old, I listened to Brainbloodvolume in its entirety at least once a week. It was the last album I needed to collect from Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, my favorite band at the time. They were a watershed influence for me as a young bass player.

I initially discovered them in my late uncle’s CD collection. He was about as old as I am now when he died. My dad ended up with his CDs in a tray. I’d occasionally pull out some dusty piece and give it a spin. I once happened to spin The Neds' debut album, God Fodder, and the opening track floored me. I played it back several times. I brought it in to my guitar teacher because I needed to know what made the guitar sound so springy. He told me that a guitar wasn’t making that sound, it was a bass. I checked the liner notes: there were, in fact, two bassists. The trajectory of my life as an occasional bass player was changed forever. 

I eventually collected all of their albums on CD. I have no doubt that I was their biggest fan in the entire United States. I also doubt that anyone else within a two-hundred mile radius of me was listening to them in 2008. The people who know them are usually some flavor of British and deep in their fifties by now. They might be about as gray as I’m going to be in my thirties.

As I brushed my teeth one morning, staring at my gray hairs in the mirror, songs from Brainbloodvolume kept popping into my head. I decided to listen to it on my way to work.

I wondered if anyone had uploaded the album to YouTube. When I searched for it, I was shocked: I did. I uploaded it fourteen years ago, in dog-ass quality. I couldn’t believe it was still there. I forgot I ever uploaded it.

I played my old dog-ass CD rip, filtered through Windows Movie Maker, through YouTube circa 2009, and again through NewPipe in 2024, atrociously artifacting its way through my car speakers and into my ears. I drove.

I saw a bird fall over on the other side of the road. It flapped its wings pathetically against the pavement, spinning in circles. I knew it was going to die. A car was going to hit it. I pulled into a nearby parking lot so I could turn around. I had hoped I could scoop the bird off the road before it got run over.

A man sitting on a bench in the lot started throwing up without even a hint of shame. He simply opened his mouth and let it flow out. When he finished, he crossed his arms, closed his eyes and returned to listening to music on his Beats by Dr. Dre. By the time I turned around, three cars had passed in the direction of the bird.

I pulled out of the parking lot and saw roadkill in my rear-view. I went to work.

THE EXPLORATION

See what you find digging in the dirt —

Any exploration is really just an exploration of the past. I will not attempt to prove this. I will barely elaborate. Hell, I’m just going to be honest: I don’t think I believe this, even a little bit. I am fresh off listening to this album for (God only knows) the 357th time in my entire life, maybe the 20th time in my adult life. That, back there, is the sentence that fell out of me the second my hands touched the keyboard.

I am going to pretend it’s true, just for the next little while. I’d like to invite you to do the same. You can say no.

Any exploration is really just an exploration of the past:

I drag my feet through the mystery muck that the Me of yesterday left behind. It’s a rotten legacy. Only the Present Me knows what I really need. Past Me has to burden himself with procuring those things. He has to go out through all the muck and break his legs looking for something good, and he probably won’t find it, and he’ll probably have to turn around and walk all the way back, and by then he'll have his hands full of new muck. It’s a rotten legacy, but I can’t be upset.

Let’s explore.

I am about thirteen years old. I am approximately four hours into a nine-hour bus ride to Boston for a school outbound trip. I grab my portable CD player. I flip through an enormous stack of jewel cases in my backpack and pop in Brainbloodvolume. This is my first time hearing the album in its entirety. I saved it just for this trip — my favorite band’s final album. The opening track contains a soft, quiet opening that was not present in the music video for the song. I’m floored. Of course I’m floored.

There is a sudden jump in volume as soon as the real song begins. I don’t see it coming. I jolt upright and scramble for the volume, my face burning red in embarrassment. I see a chaperone motion for me to turn it down. It was audible outside of my headphones.

I spend the next forty minutes or so in deep concentration. I stare at the ceiling because I do not want to look at my neighbor. I do not close my eyes because I do not want to look like I am asleep. I do not close my eyes because I want to look like I am listening to music, and that is what’s special about me. I do not close my eyes because I know that everyone is looking at me and deciding whether or not I am worth anything at all, and I know that I will accept their decision no matter what, so I look awake, and I look awake because I am enjoying my different, secret little music more differently and secretly than everyone else, and I play the bass and I write songs and one day I will be a little famous but not too famous because I don’t want to be “mainstream” or “sell out,” and when I look awake while listening to my different and secret music, You, You who is looking at me right now, will be able to tell that I love music very much and that it’s my destiny to make music, and God will know it, and it’ll be okay when I go off losing my homework and daydreaming during class and screwing up at home and doing a terrible job at the family business, because You saw me then and understood that I’m Just Not Built For This Stuff, but I have music, and one day I’ll be past This Stuff and beaming my great terrible beacon right in the eyes of everyone else who’s Just Not Built For This Stuff, and they’ll know that they can get through it because I got through it.

A bump in the road causes my CD to skip at the climax of the last track. After the album ends, I turn to a teacher who I think is maybe one of the “cool ones.” I remark mildly on the frustration of my CD skipping. I want someone to ask what I was listening to. I want to be seen. I anticipate the teacher’s response.

“Ah. Bummer.”

He turns away. Years later he gets fired for being a pedophile.

Years later I know some things differently. I am going gray. I do not care if I am seen or not. I grow no fruit from any wisdom, and I do not imagine handing it down to some younger and gone version of me.

It’ll be okay.

One day I will see Me in the corner of my rear-view mirror, shrinking away as I get to work, and I'll understand that I’m Just Not Built For This Stuff, but it’ll be okay because I have

[highfantasy-soul]

NATLA - Episode 2: Warriors (1/4)

[Masterlist of my NATLA thoughts]

An explanation of what I'm doing here and my history with ATLA.

Of course, full spoilers ahead.

<previous/next>

Starting off with one of Zuko's tantrums was such a good choice. In the first couple episodes of the animated show, Zuko's frustrations at having lost the Avatar blow up all the time and it was great to see that represented - with the additional depth of him explaining exactly why he was so upset: the greatest warrior of all time was a 'coward' and ran. It gives the audience a great view of what Zuko values and how his expectations have been rocked, and therefore his world view being shifted. Iroh comes in to ease his discomfort and reassure him that it was Zuko's positive qualities that helped him find the Avatar and there is hope that he'll find him again. Hope is such an important theme in the whole series and I'm glad the live-action is focusing on it just as much for the 'villains' as they are for the 'heroes'.

For anyone still complaining about 'expositional dialogue', go back and watch S1E3 of the animated show, specifically (though really just rewatch the entire thing) and come back and tell me that wasn't waaayyy more egregious expositional dialogue than the live-action. Like I said in another post: expositional dialogue is NOT BAD, especially at the beginning of a fantasy story. We have to figure out the basics of the characters somehow and 'showing' isn't always possible or the best choice. Scrub the idea that 'telling instead of showing is bad writing' out of your mind, because it's almost guaranteed you're thinking of that advice so incredibly incorrectly that it's ruining your ability to consume media like a normal human being.

I like how Sokka and Katara are taking whether or not to leave their village for good seriously - especially Sokka, he was put in charge - it makes sense that he'd have to be convinced that abandoning his people is the best thing to do. In the first episode of the animated series, when Katara first discovers Aang is an airbender, she's ecstatic that she's finally found a teacher - and even makes to abandon her village in her desire to go find herself a master so she can learn more waterbending - we see that desire here at the beginning of the live-action episode 2 where she tells Sokka she can't just abandon this journey she's started - yes she wants to save the world, but she also wants to see where her waterbending journey can take her.

Also love the change that Gran Gran gave Katara the waterbending scroll - one that had been passed down in their tribe for generations before having to hide it from the fire nation. This hearkens to real-life examples of invaders trying to destroy the cultures of the indigenous population and them having to hide ancestral artefacts so they wouldn't get destroyed. While the pirates are a fun little side-quest and there's some excellent Zutara fodder there, I think it's a lot more impactful to have Katara learning waterbending from a cultural artefact right from her own family rather than a scroll stolen from who-knows-where. The pirates really only come back up to 'kill' Zuko at the end of the season, so that was easily folded into someone else having the blasting jelly.

Aang giving Gyatzo as good of a burial as he can was also a wonderful touch. This is all fresh for him - giving the Air Nomads he grew up with a respectful send off was the least he could do. It shows that Aang thinks about the little things, the small acts he can do to show respect and care for the world - just like the peaceful, nature loving monk we know from the animated series.

The real plot of the whole show isn't revealed in the animated version until we meet Bumi in episode 5 - I think it makes sense that, starting at the end of episode 1 of the live-action, we already get what the show is going to be about. It isn't until episode 7 of the animated series - when Aang sees the burned forest - that the idea of 'figuring out how to be the avatar' is mentioned and even after that, it's not until episode 8 where the comet time line is established and Aang even begins to think about learning to waterbend. But still, the goal of 'master the Avatar state and learn the four elements' is pretty vague and there are a lot of ways to accomplish that. Introducing the timely need to get to the Northern Water Tribe to help them with the fire nation attack gives the plot direction and purpose while still allowing for many events to happen along the way. The meandering quality of the first half of the animated season 1 is one of the most criticized parts of the OG series and the writers didn't even know what the story was going to be when they wrote those, so it makes sense that with the hindsight of the whole series in mind, the live-action would give it a bit more direction. Putting one time-sensitive task in front of Aang at a time also helps with the story structure, so I get why they first made the goal 'Northern Water Tribe', and only after they complete that timed goal will they introduce the comet.

It's great to see Iroh's love of food and interacting with the average people in every place they travel to is still a big part of his character. And Zuko sulking behind him telling him they don't have time for all this is just ripped right from the animated series. Dallas Liu and Paul Sun--Hyung Lee brought those aspects of the characters to life beautifully. Something I've seen is people upset that Zuko isn't as 'cool and calculating' as he is in the animated version and while I agree Zuko did have many of those moments, he was also rash and bullheaded too. I think the live-action really wanted to stay truer to the reality that these are kids - they're going to act more like kids than the animated counterparts did. Animated Zuko (and Azula for that matter) many times don't read as 14 and 16, respectively. They read as full-on 20-something year olds. The live-action is giving Zuko a bit farther to grow where it's Iroh being the strategist at the moment while Zuko is the driven child desperate to regain his honor. Also, just love all the complaints that the live action is so focused on telling not showing then complain that Zuko didn't say 'honor' once when…every single word out of Zuko's mouth and action he took SHOWED that he was fighting to regain honor. People need to pick a complaint and be serious about it.

[ego-osbourne]

Iren (CW: Blood, Cannibalism)

//click for better image quality//

Was going though some of my WIPs and pulling out individual doodles from sheets that wouldn’t be touched again, just so these drawings don’t get left to collect dust. I’ll separate my finds into a few posts. Firstly, though:

Meet Iren! I’ve mentioned him a few times before in regards to Rakell. He was Rakell’s old husband, and they met on some uh.. less-than-convention means, lets say.

Warning: Things ahead tread heavily into NSFW territory. Content warning for talk and show of violence and cannibalism.

Rakell was drafted into the Oblivion Crisis to act as a foot soldier / cannon fodder during the attack. He was very disenchanted with the whole idea, bored of his position and tasks, and quickly found himself distracted very early into his service. He was deployed with a few other dremora to attack a small town in Cyrodiil, and he ended up giving chase to a fleeing bosmer. What he thought would be an easy attack would eventually turn into a month-long chase as the wood elf outran and outsmarted him time and time again. Rakell was thrilled to finally have something intriguing and challenging to do, and he gave into the chase, far from angry about the bosmer even leaving hints and taunting him as he followed his trail.

Eventually, the chase came to an end after the elf got into an accident that injured his leg, making him much slower and much easier to catch up with. Instead of killing him, though, Rakell assisted in healing his leg and got to know the bosmer. His name was Iren, an old elf without a family, having lived much of his life traveling and escaping trouble just like he’d done with Rakell. He settled in Cyrodiil once his age started to make his traveling life difficult, until the Oblivion attack. Iren was extremely calm and easy-going, living serenely and happily even as he was being hunted, and Rakell found it charming. Not wanting to return to his duties, and not wanting the hunt to end, Rakell helped patch up Iren’s leg completely and gave him a head start on a new hunt.

Rakell and Iren would continuously do this, finding each other again and spending longer and longer days with each other, eventually forming a romantic bond and agreeing not to kill each other. However, things weren’t bloodless. Iren always seemed to get into trouble because of his cannibalistic habits, and invited Rakell to participate with him. The dremora did just that, and the two of them lived out nearly two decades together, marrying in a small shack they built together, in the privacy of the woods where they hunted animals and the unlucky bandits that passed by them.

They would also, of course, perform their acts on each other. Iren had a wish that he wouldn’t die of old age, but rather in a glorious exchange of gore, and he asked Rakell to carry out that wish. One night, Rakell fulfilled that promise, and killed Iren in one last act of “love,” but regretted his actions nearly immediately upon the elf’s death. He made a grave for him by the shack they used to live in and visits it occasionally.

Iren was Rakell’s first and only love at that point, and continuing on he had trouble distinguishing love from hunger because of it. Rakell kept the ring and kept partaking in cannibalistic habits as a twisted symbol of gratitude and remembrance to his late husband.

[oneatlatime]

Haybending

I got bored today and started daydreaming. The results:

In Bato of the Water Tribe, Aang haybends. Obviously he airbends a bunch of hay, but let's dig into haybending a bit.

As I understand it, Hay is a bit of an umbrella term for a bunch of animal fodder-producing plants, which means that haybenders bend more than just one plant; they can bend a bunch. That implies that they are bending what plants are made of rather than a single species or genus of plants. Hay is made of cellulose. Cellulose is what (I think) practically all plants are made of, and there are some bacteria that deal with it (?) as well. Biology class was a while ago.

What things are made of cellulose?

How about natural fibres? Cotton, hemp, flax/linen, burlap. (Not animal fibres or petroleum-based ones.) A cellulose bender could therefore bend all natural textiles (and blends so long as the natural content is over some percentage threshold, but I have yet to see evidence of petroleum or plastics in Avatar). It would certainly be useful in a fight if you could make your enemy's clothes trip them up/detain them. Everyone wears clothes made at least in part of fabric. Unless you rock the all leather look or just never wear clothes, you'd have no way of protecting yourself from a cellulose bender. Imagine the wedgies. Imagine how much easier it would be to put clothes on squirmy toddlers if the clothes were on your side.

What about making textiles? Would a civilisation that could cellulose-bend even bother inventing the loom? Imagine the heights of artistry that would go into cloth where each and every thread was conducted into place individually and simultaneously. I bet they could produce cloth while holding their threads floating in the air. A bender wiggles his fingers and what look like piles of tangled thread soar into the air and arrange themselves into a paisley-patterned button-down. Can you imagine the quality of tailoring you could accomplish if you had power over individual threads? Would you even invent sewing or tailoring if you could shape each individual piece to fit, then join them without seams? Can you imagine the implications for embroidery?

What about paper? Would a cellulose-bending civilisation ever invent ink? They could bend cellulose into paper, then instead of writing/printing text on paper, they could bend the cellulose in the paper into the shapes of the letters. Might not be faster than regular writing, but certainly more economical than how we currently produce braille books. You could literally throw the book at your enemies. Bend whole libraries.

Wood is made of cellulose too. Wood houses, carts, ships, bridges, all would be manipulable. Wooden shaft on the enemy's spear? Tie it in a knot. Woodcarving would be possible without tools. Who needs carpentry when you can bend a house out of a forest? Could you bend a bowl out of a tree and then put it back after dinner? If your cart had wooden wheels, could you propel it? If you're camping in the woods, could you bend a grass or branch hammock and then put it back the next morning? Could you obscure your tracks?

Can you imagine what a beast a rope-bender would be in combat? Canvas is made from hemp or cotton; a sail-bender could ground a whole fleet of sailing ships. A seaweed bender could ground propeller ships. You could knit without needles, crochet without a hook, open the curtains without getting out of bed. You could weave a basket on the spot, so long as you're near grass. Near-infinite biodegradable packaging at your fingertips. You could juggle coconuts without touching them.

And what about applications on plants that are still living? For more benign uses, imagine shaping your garden with a wave of your hand. Make vines climb trees, tree branches go where you need shade, weave elaborate living fences from shrubs. You could make a tree grow in the shape of a chair, then cut it down and use it in your dining room. What about forests? Could a cellulose-bender make a forest get up and walk? If you needed to move your herd to a different field, instead of a sheepdog or a cattle drive, could you just bend the wooden fence with the animals still inside and shuffle it to new ground? Hunting would be easy - just spot what you want to kill and then turn all the surrounding grass into snares.

And this isn't even touching the implications on agriculture.

[manicpanicpixienightmare]

I actually REALLY liked the live-action Fullmetal Alchemist movie. The CG blends in well with the setting, and they’ve toned down the anime-ness of the story so that the tone is more appropriate. I wouldn’t recommend the dub (not that it’s ever particularly ideal for live action), though the sound mixing is a little more balanced with the dub. They have Ed voiced by the same alleged and very probable sexual harasser, and ironically his audio quality is the worst out of all of them.

The changes they made to the plot to get a self-contained story in one movie meant that I was surprised by some events which was delightful! What a wonderful thing to experience my favorite show with surprise and whimsy! I’m excited to see how the next movie diverges from the material I know, although my partner and I need to get through the last ten or so episodes of FMAB because I don’t want to accidentally spoil him. I would have had to lie to him and say stuff in the movie was from ‘03 to not spoil him. The changes they made streamline some key plot points and unlock information for some characters earlier than in the shows. I wish I wasn’t burdened with prophecy because the writers show their hand a little bit in terms of things that won’t appear (and alludes to certain characters not being very present).

The costume design was great. I wish we got a closeup of Winry’s shoes because from afar they looked like historically-aligned boots and I would like to see them. My minor quibbles are that they had Winry in a floral dress that would have been difficult to manufacture with the technology level they have in-universe and they have zippers on their clothes about a decade too early. I could choose not to pick that nit, as I noticed a zipper on Winry first and she has the most anachronistic wardrobe of the human characters used in the show. Alas, it’s a design feature for everyone.

Overall I recommend it if you’re a fan of the franchise and especially if you want more canon fodder for the perfect version of Fullmetal Alchemist that lives in your head :)

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

By the by, regarding all the recent DreamWorks developments: KUNG FU PANDA 4 almost out, THE WILD ROBOT trailer out, the recent release of ORION AND THE DARK (still have to watch it, it's part of my animation ketchup alongside Pixar short SELF and a few other things), etc.

I have no reason to speak of this new MEGAMIND "movie" that's really just a pilot movie to a streaming series made by DreamWorks Animation TELEVISION. Not worth the energy, nothing for me to really talk about. I see some people on twitter all abuzz about it, with considerable fury. How DreamWorks fucked this up so bad! And how DreamWorks is so "inconsistent", how the WILD ROBOT is going to be an "apology" for this MEGAMIN- roflmao are you **serious**? Are you SERIOUS right now?

Different studio, number one... This would be like someone grilling Disney in spring 1994 for THE RETURN OF JAFAR, and suggesting that THE LION KING made up for that or whatever. Do these people hear themselves when they talk? DreamWorks' TV division has been making all sorts of lower-budget streaming fodder for years now, and they've only ramped it up in the recent years. These are the equivalents of the Disney DTV sequels and spin-off things.

But also, there are a concerning amount of animation fans out there who seem to look at DreamWorks - like any big studio - like it's one person. One author directing every movie. A "Mr. DreamWorks" fellow that directed everything from THE LAST WISH to TROLLS BAND TOGETHER to this MEGAMIND direct-to-streaming thing. If "animation is cinema" to you, then you ought to understand WHO is exactly working on these things... Not the buildings where they're being made. And think twice before you use THE LAST WISH as a meter that TROLLS 3 or *heck* any DreamWorks movie needs to live up to. Never mind that each filmmaker has their own aims. Maybe TROLLS 3 or whatever isn't made for *you* specifically, and that someone else out there really likes it. And that's fine. DreamWorks can make fantasy adventures about swashbuckling cats for general audiences, and movies for 6-year-old horse girls, and a lot in-between. Something for everyone!

I know, it's a bit hard for some people because animated features are literally branded like that. It's never Joel Crawford's PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH, it's DreamWorks' PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH. Ditto Walt Dohrn's TROLLS BAND TOGETHER or Kirk DeMicco's RUBY GILLMAN, TEENAGE KRAKEN, Mike Mitchell's KUNG FU PANDA 4. THE WILD ROBOT is getting an extra level of love because it's from a pretty well-recognized animated movie director, Chris Sanders. Some other directors in animated movie-making don't have that pedigree nor level of love, that household name status... They tend to be overshadowed by the studio name, the BRAND.

But I look past that. And each production has its crews, its circumstances. I can only imagine what the people working on the MEGAMIND thing had at their disposal, ya know?

I also get that a legit DreamWorks Animation theatrical MEGAMIND 2 is something a lot of fans wanted. I get that. It's okay to feel that, even as a direct-to-streaming movie and show, there was a downgrade in quality here. But like a lot of various fandoms, I feel it's expressed with the tact of a freaked out horse, kicking its back hooves all over the place. I generally tend to ignore things like this, I kinda know what I'm getting myself into. I grew up in the '90s, when it was not only Disney direct-to-video sequels everywhere, but tons of other stuff too. There was a FERNGULLY 2 and a SECRET OF NIMH 2 and BALTO 2 and a SWAN PRINCESS 3, 4, 5, 6 just kept going, and seemingly a gazillion LAND BEFORE TIME sequels. In addition to other weird random animated bin fodder. And I remember as a kid, them just mostly being... Whatever, for me. That's this MEGAMIND thing. It's not for me. I didn't bother with that BAD GUYS Christmas special, either.

Especially when there are other things for me to worry about in life. I just genuinely don't enjoy ranting about these things, or getting all upset about them. Even when I kinda want to (like with, say, TRON: ARES, a film I'm largely unhappy about), I have to tell my 31-year-old self "No... No..." I try to be fair in my criticism most of the time, especially when talking about - say - recent Disney Animation films or whatever. So yeah... No reason for me to dive into MEGAMIND TV Movie Thing. I guess this was my James Rolfe GHOSTBUSTERS No Review I Refuse moment, lol.