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demonfox38 · 1 year ago

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Completed x2 - Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Sega Saturn version)

Madness may be doing the same thing over and over again, but hey. At least I'm having fun doing it.

If economics were indicative of what my favorite video game of all time is, "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night" would win bar none. Just off of the top of my head, this is how many times I've made purchases of this title alone:

US PlayStation Copy - $6.00 (disc only from a now defunct GameStop location in 2006, so don't get too optimistic)

Japanese PlayStation Copy - $38.00

PSP Copy of "Dracula X Chronicles" (contains a unique SOTN variant) - ~$40.00

PS3 Digital Copy - ~$5.00

Xbox Live Digital Copy – Free (promotional; probably was a tie-in to "Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night" being released)

Additional copies for friends - ~$5.00

US PlayStation Copy for my sister - $50.00

Sega Saturn Copy - $140.00 (2016 in Akihabara; keep the date/place in mind)

This probably isn't even the sickest I could be in collecting copies of this game. Hell, I've been hung over at a stranger's house with access to their Xbox 360 and thought about purchasing it there as well just so I could distract myself from being sick.

For this particular situation, we're going to talk about the Sega Saturn variant of "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night." While I had heard about this one before, I hadn't thought about hunting it down. Content differences aside, I didn't have a Sega Saturn, nor has the Sega Saturn emulation scene been particularly stellar. But, on the one time (and hopefully not last time) @jeannettegray and I were physically in the same place, she happened to find this in the retro game store we were in. At first, I protested. It'd be irresponsible to buy something like that, right? And then I caved because, as established above, I'm kind of a bitch (submissive) for this game.

Fast forward to 2023. I've gotten into the anime series "Lupin the Third" (again, thanks JG!) I've been accumulating some "Lupin" games because they're fairly uncontested in the grand scheme of video game hunting. Considering that at least one is a staple on the bad/weird video game tournament Kusogrande, that should tell you about how well they normally go. But, I did happen to watch a match for the Lupin the Third game "Sage of Pyramid," which seemed to be generally well received! So, I found a copy of it on eBay in a three-pack with two other "Lupin" archive titles. To make a long story short, I ended up with a Japanese Sega Saturn, plus a few extra games.

I know. Between this and the Nintendo Wii U purchases this year, you've really got to ask what's wrong with me.

"Castlevania: Symphony of the Night" is a title I have previously reviewed, so I’m not going to bang too much about the shared properties here. Game good; game great; game arguably one of the best games ever made. The Sega Saturn port occurred about one year after the original PlayStation release by Konami Computer Entertainment Nagoya (KCEN), a branch office (and notably, not the original developer pool from KCET.) While KCEN mostly made either portable versions of console-based Konami games or movie-licensed games, KCEN is notable in "Castlevania" development for both this and "Castlevania Legends," the GameBoy title with female lead Sonia Belmont. Which means that they:

Chugged women-respecting juice like water.

Got everything they did chucked into a historical/narrative paper shredder.

Given this development, the Sega Saturn version of "Symphony of the Night" is in a weird place. It has more content—particularly, in additions to Maria Renard's presence and playability—but is often looked down as an inferior product. In particular, some of the most ridiculed items include load times, transparency implementation/workaround issues, and sprite quality. And boy, did I see some actual, verifiable hardware issues. But, despite that, I do think this variant has some serious charm to it. At least, I'd be way more likely to come back to this version than the PSP version.

Look, if I buy a Sony PSP, you have the right to hit me…up for donations for a charity.

Before we can talk about this game, I think we need to talk about the Sega Saturn itself. Like, the poor bastard only seemed to have success in Japan. (Being $100.00 more expensive than its competitor will do that to you.) It was the kind of non-successful entity that when I heard the Nerve Tower recommending the Sega Saturn version of "Baroque" above all other versions of the game, I felt nothing but mockery for the sentiment. My opinion on the console changed somewhat after tending to a minor memory issue for the console. See, with old consoles or games dying, I'm used to having to buy oddball components and then getting help from my dad in resoldering them into place. With the Sega Saturn? It was simple as buying a new CR2032 battery (from a Wal-Mart! Imagine that) and just popping it into place.

Let's just say I have a lot of appreciation for a console that is easy to manage.

Now, if it were as easy to program as it was to fix, I doubt the Sega Saturn would have floundered as much as it did. I haven't done a great, deep deal of reading into coding for this console, but it seems like working with it required a great deal more knowledge than just popping in some C++ and plugging away. I suppose comparing programming for the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation is somewhat like the difference in operating a racecar versus an average sedan. In the right environments and with the right skill level, the former will out-perform the latter. But, at the end of the day, whatever is easiest to handle and cheapest to purchase will be used by more people.

Granted, "Symphony of the Night" should have been a natural slot-in for the Sega Saturn's library. While its best-selling titles were in 3D, a significant chunk of its library contains 2D sprite-based fighters. Weirdly enough, "Symphony of the Night" could qualify for this with its visual presentation and its control style. It's just…well…from what I can tell, this was KCEN's second and last Sega Saturn title. I don't think the experience or confidence was here for a perfect port. Hell, even notes from the developers themselves are frequently lamenting development delays.

Also—Yoshinori Suzuki is the realest for having a reference to Goblin music in his note. I'm more team Suspiria when it comes to Goblin music, but I have full faith that band could slay a "Castlevania" composition.

Okay. Enough sympathy for the devil! Let's get down to the game itself.

The objectives for this port of "Symphony of the Night" match up to the original base game. If you've got SOTN down 200.6% elsewhere, you'll easily hit 210% here. Does the math not add up? Well, it never really did. But, in this case, the first noticeable change is the addition of two new areas per map side. These new areas are respectively dungeon and garden-flavored, both of which make sense in terms of an addition. Neither add a great deal of room content to the game (capping at about 6 rooms for the garden and 3 for the dungeon), but they do provide some benefits, including:

A bridge piece between the Marble Gallery and Underground Caverns

New enemy types

A new boss fight

Access to the Alucard Spear (which, granted, is more important for Lecarde family lore than anything. But it's nice to pick up!)

These areas (and the castle's entrance) also sport some new tunes. Okay, maybe just "Chaconne C Moll" and "Guardian" are wholly originally. But, it does contain pairs of dance and jazz mixes for the "Vampire Killer," "Bloody Tears," and "Beginning" themes. Sure, they're the most 90s-sounding compositions on this planet. But, goddamn if that isn't exactly what I wanted from a "Castlevania" game.

I know. Real trash-core behavior on my part. At least give the "Beginning" remixes a shot before you take another one at me.

Item distribution and placement has also been slightly tweaked from the base PlayStation game, although it is generally in the player's favor. (For example: the Sword familiar is just below the save room of Orlox's Quarters instead of being in a hidden ceiling space.) About the greatest addition of note here is a cape called the Rainbow Robe, which cycles through palettes to create a constant color swapping effect. Very cool. There are also some different familiars than what is present in the US PlayStation version of the game, but about all that is unique there is getting a Half-Faerie that sings if you get her some lyrics. Which…thanks? I guess?

Honestly, the big content augment to the game is Maria Renard. Not only does she become a boss for Alucard to fight (having him prove his strength to her), but she's also playable! And holy shit, does she kick ass! Like, she generally kicks ass, but my God. Literal ass kicking here! Kicked my ass as a boss. Kicked everyone else's ass when fighting them in her mode. I'm not kidding when I say that only three bosses posed a threat to me while playing her. (For those of you that want to attempt this playstyle: it was Orlox, the "Castlevania III" trio, and Galamoth that gave me the most trouble.) If you've got Alucard's Dark Metamorphosis and Soul Steal input commands down, congratulations. You can absolutely slaughter the game as Maria.

It's wild. In her mode, she's got:

A chargeable magic attack as her primary attack

A triple and high jump

An evasive somersault (while Alucard doesn't even have a slide mechanic, so LMAO)

A base kick attack (for when you're storing up magic)

Access to standard "Castlevania" subweapons

Combo commands for summoning all four Celestial Beasts whenever you've got the MP (granting on-the-go healing, two massively damaging attacks, and a limited-time familiar)

A variety of martial arts attacks, and

Access to a full invincibility-granting move! (Like, you've gotta do a full clockwise input + a charge to do it, so it does require some serious skill to use. But still!)

Talk about a power fantasy! Like, no wonder people talk about the reset to Maria's move pool in the PSP version of "Symphony of the Night" being a downgrade. She's an absolute beast here.

Begrudgingly, I can see why Maria's abilities were augmented in later releases. To some extent, I think the IGA team was trying to keep in lockstep with the "Rondo of Blood" version of her, especially considering that the PSP game is primarily a remake and re-release of that game. And, okay, yes. She was originally designed as a tiny Belmont alternative. But in the Sega Saturn SOTN version? With her input pool and abilities? She's an Alucard alternative. Hell, her heal move maps to one of his recovery abilities (Genbu to Dark Metamorphosis), and her primary devastating spell is also the homewrecker in his (Seiryuu to Soul Steal.) She wasn't designed out of nowhere. She was just pulled from a different man's ribs.

I guess if nothing else, the PSP sprites of her are prettier. So…there's that.

Oh! Prettiness. Guess that leads back to the overall aesthetic quality of the game (or potentially lack thereof, depending on who you ask.) Personally, the biggest issues I had here were not so much with sprite distortion, but with load and lag. This game doesn't have the same load-in grace going between new areas or loading in boss fights as the PlayStation version does. It seems like it struggles greatest with particle effects, although bosses with multiple chunks and entities to them can also cause severe rendering delays. Hoo boy, does it not like a bunch of stuff on screen all at once! The Beelzebub and Legion fights in particular bring out the greatest lag in the system, so be prepared for that when/if you tackle them. Even Galamoth has some lag (although, I was using that to my benefit when possible.)

In terms of transparency compensation, the Saturn version does well enough to skirt around some issues. The trailing movement sprites are still following you, so A+ there. Some magic spells were altered to use white instead of using transparency, which honestly? I thought that made some look very pretty (Tetra Spirit in particular!) About the only place I could point at and scold was the hidden cavern behind the waterfall in the Underground Caverns section. In the PlayStation version, it is smoothly revealed as the player steps into it. In the Saturn version? It's like someone flicked a light switch on. Honestly, it would have just been better to let the player always see it, if that's what revealing it was going to look like.

Also, killing Fire Demons is particularly ugly in this game. It's just a lazy, nonsensical sprite swap (as opposed to the color cycling in the PlayStation version.) The Marionette deaths are pretty funny, though!

There was one point where the lack of full implementation actually impressed me. Anti-spoiler at this point, but the final boss fight with Dracula has a much different feeling in the Saturn version. Not that the move cycles he has have even remotely changed. It's the background! In the PlayStation version, it's a bit psychedelic—maybe more like something you'd see in an "Earthbound" or "Star Fox" ending fight. In the Saturn version? 100% black. Cheap? Sure. But, considering Alucard is fighting his father in a realm between the living and the dead—in a complete abyss—it honestly grew on me. Like, yeah, ha ha! The devs couldn't figure out how to do the funky color/texture cycling! But also? Absolute darkness works, too.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the bodily injuries I'm currently nursing post playthroughs as well. Like, my left thumb was taking some abuse from the default controller's D-pad, so I ended up playing through portions of Maria Mode using an HSS-0104 Virtua Stick. (Like I said—I spent some stupid money on this console.) I just ended up pushing the injuries from my thumb to my shoulder blades. 😅 I can't completely blame the game on that, though. I should know better than to do 8+ hours of gaming in a day.

By the way—I did confirm something switching controllers. It seems like this "Symphony of the Night" variant likes to pick up on Up button presses more than in the PlayStation version regardless of the controller used. At least, I was pulling the Fireball / Byakko spells more than intended. I also found myself thinking less in terms of hitting every button in a combo, instead just smearing into cardinal directions. Like, the Saturn seems to have more of a slide detection to it than I anticipated? It's the difference from going down + down-forward + forward to down and forward while smushing your thumb up. You just kinda go legato, not giving a thought about the intermediate inputs.

Okay, verdict time!

Did I enjoy the Sega Saturn port of "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night?" Absolutely! While it has its oddities, I hesitate to call this product inferior. It's definitely not as tight of an experience as the standard PlayStation version, but what is here is cool. I would put this in the same category as "Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow" in that if you can't vibe with the main game for some ridiculous reason, it's got awesome side-modes to back it up.

Would I recommend other people play this game? Of course!

Would I recommend other people buy this game?

Look. I know when I'm being ridiculous. This experience personally cost me somewhere between $300.00 to $350.00 USD. Like, what the fuck. Madness! It would have been worse, had I actually bought this game this year! I mean, as of writing, this game, complete in box, is trending at $219.15 USD on PriceCharting.com! Shit, I might as well tell you to buy an arcade cabinet for how ridiculous this could get! And then you've got to weigh the pros and cons of taking systems out of their native countries, what international buyers are doing to the Japanese video game market, the risks of transporting stuff that far, and so on. It's not something you can just say, "LMAO, do it!" about.

But, what I will say is that BizHawk has a pretty good Sega Saturn emulator. And also, I might have written some documentation on how to get BizHawk set-up for Sega Saturn emulation. Chances are you're smart enough to figure out the rest.

#post game evaluation #castlevania: symphony of the night #sega saturn

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iloveabunchofgames · 2 years ago

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March 2023 Game Awards

#JakeReviewsItch Game of the Month Archives

You know how this works: Every day, I review an Itch.io game, and on the first day of each month, I give prestigious awards to the previous month's games. There is no reason we need to acknowledge that I've been on hiatus for more than two weeks. We can just pretend that everything is normal. This month's award categories come courtesy of Steve Kim, whose Tweet was the first hit when I Googled, "1 like = 1 game". Thanks, Steve! He also has a long-abandoned Tumblog, which is pretty fun if you want some silly goofs about things that were happening on Giant Bomb 5+ years ago.

March's Games:

Akurra 🖤 Akuto: Showdown / Akuto: Mad World 🖤 The Alabaster Donut Farm 🖤 Alfal's Grove 🖤 Alien Life Lab 🖤 All Haze Eve 🖤 All You Can Eat 🖤 Alone With You 🖤 Alt-Frequencies 🖤 Ambidangerous 🖤 Amelie 🖤 Amethyst Hearth 🖤 An Airport Game 🖤 An American Werewolf In LA 🖤 An Outcry, prologue 🖤 Anarcute 🖤 And All Would Cry Beware! 🖤 And Yet It Moves 🖤 Angry Video Game Nerd I&II Deluxe 🖤 Animal Lover 🖤 Annwn: the Otherworld 🖤 Anodyne 🖤 Anomalies 🖤 Another Lost Phone: Laura's Story 🖤 Antecrypt⚡ 🖤 Antistatic 🖤 The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human 🖤 Arachnopunk

1 - Very first video game. Akkura

Ah, the first of March 2023. Who could the forget the day I played the mostly decent demo of a Sokoban game?

2 - Your favorite character. The cute cute cutey l'il aminals from Anarcute

Bunnies and froggies and foxies and even platypuses! They're all cuuuuuuute, and they cheerfully work together to topple fascism!

3 - A game that is underrated. Animal Lover

I went back and forth quite a bit before settling on Animal Lover's score. It's currently the highest-rated 3/5, but maybe it should have been a low 4/5.

4 - Your guilty pleasure game. Anomalies

There were quite a few big, worthwhile games in March; games that take a lot of time and effort to review fairly. Anomalies is a procedural generation toy that turns a bunch of numbers into a random mess of polygons. It took very little time and effort to review, and I feel guilty about how much pleasure I got from that.

5 - Game character you feel you are most like (or wish you were). The Angry Video Game Nerd from Angry Video Game Nerd I&II Deluxe

The character I wish I were? No. The character I feel most like? He chooses to play bad games and complains about it on the Internet. Hello.

6 - Most annoying character. Right Stick from Ambidangerous

Trying to play both characters in a two-player co-op game on one controller? "Annoying" is putting it mildly.

7 - Favorite game couple. A man and his diner from All You Can Eat

In a month with a number of solid dating sims, none touched me quite as much as the story of a man who'd spent ten years living in a diner to get the most out of an all-you-can-eat coupon. It's a love story for the ages.

8 - Best soundtrack. Anarcute

Its infectiously poppy sound fits the look and feel of the game perfectly, but I'm listening to it now, removed from the game, and this is working, too. It's music that's suitable for writing, dancing, or smashing the state. I must remember to bump these tunes in my headphones next time I go Rollerblading.

9 - Saddest game scene. Putting it together in Another Lost Phone: Laura's Story

A moment that will come to different players at different times, so I won't go into any more detail. I'm still feeling it, weeks later.

10 - Best gameplay. Angry Video Game Nerd I&II Deluxe

Originality is great. You know what else is great? Mega Man. Castlevania. Contra. If you're going to steal, steal from the best. AVGN does just that, and it's a blast to play.

11 - Gaming system of choice. Steam

In mid-March, I wrote about my beef with Steam. Here's the link, though you can safely skip it. I don't believe I made my point very well at all. In a nutshell, I think Valve's monopoly over computer games stinks. For all its frustrating issues, though, Steam's controller support is an invaluable tool.

12 - A game everyone should play. All You Can Eat

All You Can Eat is what indie games are all about. It takes one idea—What if an adventure game were presented as a newspaper comic strip?—and turns it into a funny little thing that takes, like, half an hour to complete. Short, simple, and totally ingenious.

13 - A game you've played more than five times. Alien Life Lab

I've played through Alien Life Lab twice, which is close to five times.

14 - Current (or most recent) gaming wallpaper. Anarcute

I used care about the background on my computer, but some time in the last decade, Windows gave me the default scuba diver image, and then I changed it to an image of my choosing, and then it reverted to scuba again, and after two or three times, I just gave up.

I'm pretty sure my last desktop wallpaper was a picture of Synergy, the hologram computer that allowed Jerrica Benton to become Jem. What would everyone think if I gave up on writing about video games and turned this into a full-time Jem fan site? Anyway, Anarcute is cute. I don't think I have to explain this.

15 - Post a screenshot from the game you're playing right now. Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl

"Has anyone ever successfully copied Super Smash Bros.?" I asked in my Antistatic review. Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl answers that question: Yeah. I guess?

16 - Game with the best cut scenes. Alone With You

You'll see them 10,000 times, each, and get sick of them long before that, but there's no denying that this game's a looker.

17 - Favorite antagonist. Conservative politics and corporate overreach from Alt-Frequencies

If only such powers were confined to sci-fi video games.

18 - Favorite protagonist. Laura from Another Lost Phone: Laura's Story

The entire game is built around empathy for a stranger who's lost her phone, and it succeeds. I don't love Laura. I don't hate Laura. I don't want to be Laura. I understand Laura, and that is powerful.

19 - Picture of a game setting you wish you lived in. The level based on the Crossfire commercial from Angry Video Game Nerd I&II Deluxe

You'll get caught up in it!

20 - Favorite genre. Let's treat this as an excuse to talk about how much interactive fiction I played in March

Another Lost Phone: Laura's Story and Alt-Frequencies easily top the list, both of which are discussed elsewhere in these awards. If you haven't gotten the message yet, allow me to be direct: Play them. Now. Animal Lover is sweet, funny, and well-written. It's not at all what I expected from a dating sim about people who have been cursed to spend eternity as animals, only returning to human form when a clumsy, anxious young woman gives them a kiss. Amelie is a bit shallow and underdeveloped. The plot is unoriginal, it seems visually incomplete, and calling this fiction "interactive" stretches that word's definition to its limit. In spite of all that, I actually had an okay time with it. Amethyst Hearth is a cheesy Christmas rom-com turned visual novel by way of RPG Maker, and also the love interest is a robot. It's such a bizarre novelty that I couldn't help but give it a passing score. My review of An Outcry, prelude was so negative the game got pulled from Itch.io, and yet, it's stuck in my mind more than most of this month's games. "Kekekaykaykikikoo" and "they got a visit of terrific birdness" are powerful phrases. And finally, there's Arcade Spirits, a dating sim that takes place in an alternate-near-future video game arcade. I was severely messed up by a bad antidepressant prescription toward the end of the month. Is that the reason I didn't like this game? I don't think so. I could revisit it and update my review with new, sober opinions, but that period was a miserable experience, and I'd rather leave it in the past.

21 - Game with the best story. Another Lost Phone: Laura's Story

These categories are a little heavy on story, no?

22 - A game sequel which disappointed you. Akuto: Showdown

It's a bummer that it stripped features from Akuto: Mad World. It's cool that it focused on one mode and made it better. The best part is that you get both games for the price of one on Itch.

23 - Game you think had the best graphics or art style. Anarcute

No, but really, where is the merch? These characters need to be toys. And key chains. And erasers. They need to be printed on shirts and folders and... Just put them on everything. Who do I need to call to set up a meeting with Sanrio?

24 - Favorite classic game. Angry Video Game Nerd I&II Deluxe

AVGN contains remasters of two games that are, themselves, homages to classic games.

25 - A game you plan on playing. There Swings a Skull

And if that goes well, I might have a date with An Outcry. Oh, plus the hundreds (thousands?) of games that are already sitting in my Itch library.

26 - Best voice acting. Alt-Frequencies

Alt-Frequencies is played by switching between radio stations, recording and playing back snippets of speech. It wouldn't work without quality acting. I don't get the impression this game had the budget for top-tier vocal talent, which makes its accomplishments even more impressive.

27 - Most epic scene ever. Angry Video Game Nerd I&II Deluxe

28 - Favorite game developer. Accidental Queens

I will follow the developers of A Normal Lost Phone, Another Lost Phone: Laura's Story, and Alt-Frequencies wherever they want to take me. The Lost Phone games follow the same format, telling worthy stories in a lightly interactive but effectively non-linear format. Then Alt-Frequencies comes along, trading the phone interface for a time-looping, call-in radio sim, and that's brilliant, too. I can't wait to see this team continue to stretch and grow.

29 - A game you thought you wouldn't like, but ended up loving. Alien Life Lab

It's so janky. It seems bad. Maybe it is bad. I've played through the whole thing twice and loved it both times. I don't understand.

30 - Your favorite game of all time. Donkey Kong

This has nothing to do with the Itch games I reviewed in March. I've just always loved playing Donkey Kong on a proper arcade cabinet.

Thirty categories, and I didn't find a single place to mention Antecrypt⚡. Let that be my parting thought. Antecrypt⚡: It's worthy of mention.

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ruiniel · 2 years ago

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Hello!

Sorry right back for this late comment/reply, but here I am!

(the scar reasoning)

It's... I don't wanna say 'easier' in that sense since any art form presents its own set of challenges, but you're definitely fortunate in the regard that you can alter the lore as needed to suit the story and not be overly concerned if it diverges too much from the source material. ☺ My mindset has difficulty finding that middle ground. 😅

Hah I see where you're coming from, trust me I do. When I started fanfiction writing for the Tolkien fandom, I didn't know much about the reception or the kind of fandom it was overall, especially concerning acceptance of skewing canon (even though with Tolkien, the term 'canon' is so debatable it's hilarious).

I also started my journey on fanfiction dot net, which, in hindsight, I realized later did Not represent the majority of the Tolkien fandom in terms of acceptance. You had reviews such as 'I like this story and this was a good chapter even though you have made Legolas a brunette, instead of a blonde.' (Me: uhmm, okay) or 'However, I have to say that I really dislike (my fem!OC). [...] I sincerely hope her attitude changes, otherwise it will be very difficult to continue reading with such an unsympathetic heroine.' (Me, who's always loved building Tolkien fem!OCs and roots for them being represented with different facets and a personality outside heteronormative/gender role expectations: uhmmmm, okay). Needless to say, I don't stick around that site anymore but it was a great place to start where I made an awesome friend.

My point is, you do you on divergence... up to you!

And I also wrote Speaker instead of Scholar, brain go derp! 🤪 *Highly embarrassed*

Oh please I once wrote 'appendices' when meaning 'appendages' (not betaed). Only noticed after I posted. I eventually got out from under the shamecouch

Another random one but I may even slightly HC that Al might be infertile due to being a hybrid, but the possibilities are something I intend to look further into at some stage and are currently just a small thought.

Yes! I've also played with the concept of Castlevania dhampir fertility here and I've seen the infertility HC used in fic. Other HCs in the Castlevania universe say a dhampir can have children by either humans or vampires, since they are 'both' in a sense. Again, I believe personally that a headcanon is a headcanon. I consider a headcanon something that goes into the realm of 'don't like, don't read' - meaning, if you don't agree with it, move on and find something you do like. I will never debate a sensibly concocted HC (barring any -phobia inferred within it).

Ah yes, bottom line: Do as you please. 😁 For you personally, though, how far is too far? Just curious.

I write fluff to darkfic so no major boundaries here. I keep art outside of the realm of morality as I personally believe it doesn't belong there. But, I will say I'm not a huge fan of romanticizing certain actual harmful activities/concepts in stories. 'Do what you like, but tag well and mindfully.'

Could he be turned, though, do you think? 🤔 Fully, I mean. Always found it a little curious that, for a series centred around vampires, we never get an onscreen turning.

I've never thought about this, haha! But, at least in the show-verse, I do remember Godbrand talking to Isaac and saying Alucard is nearly as powerful as his father. Perhaps the human side and vampire side don't cancel each other out, since they thrive in communion within him.

Alucard's upbringing is also of insane interest to me, such as, would his vampiric side have prompted cravings while he grew up, even if he'd never even tasted it? But that's a rabbit hole for another time! Far too many thoughts and questions on it!

Indeed! You can take from both the show-verse and the game-verse on this one, depending on what you like. It's great to explore in fic! Also, I brought Carmilla into it here dlkfjs

Seriously, thank you ever so much for indulging me here!!! It is such a treat to login and read all your responses! 🤗

Thank you as well for the replies, and Happy New Year!

Hey, dearie~ Apologies for the random Ask, but am curious as to your thoughts on a particular subject (and… may or may not need them for fic reasons 🤐): Does Alucard actually consume blood? Human and/or animal.

Aside from those stores in his keep under Gresit (which are… bizarre in and of themselves, honestly 🤔) and a comment to Trevor about 'killing and eating' him which could be interpreted in different ways, there doesn't appear to be that much canonical evidence to support the idea. Took my noob ponderings to the world wide web, but with little success. Most offered info from his game counterpart, which states that he apparently has consumed in the past but dislikes the taste? 🤔 If correct, one could fill in the gaps with info from similar sources as such, of course, but I personally still enjoy reading others' takes on the question. 😁

And it's naturally a fun idea that the fandom seems to eat up; him drinking from his partner 'cause c'mon, you have a half-VAMPIRE boyfriend/husband! Bu~ut, what if he doesn't like blood? What would the reason be? HAS he perhaps consumed in the past but no longer does? Share with me your wisdom!... Please. If it's not too much trouble. 😊

Hi! Finally got to this, thanks for asking! This'll be a long-ish one.

From your note I take it we're mainly interested in 'show-canon' here, and that’s the lens I’ll filter this through but I'll refer to other media from the Castlevania universe on this topic.

Yes, as you wrote, the show-verse interpretation of him has some references to hematophagy:

The presence of these in Alucard's private Keep:

Considering Alucard was in pretty bad shape after the first confrontation with Drac, and IF we assume those contain blood, it seems implied it was used in some manner as part of a healing/reanimation system OR, maybe, as sustenance during his Sleep ... The provenance of it? We (I) don't know, the show doesn't focus on that.

Alucard heals speedily when wounded as evidenced in the show a few times, and the fact that the chest scar remains after Dracula fights him in season I suggests to me just how close to kicking the bucket he might've been, if we think about who wounded him in the first place. So, maybe this was a one time case of needing this extra support? But don't know. In the speculation business here.

Just a fun thing, they make me think of these health bars in the games:

2. Again as you mentioned, the 'kill you and eat you' banter. It's hard to tell but my take is Alucard simply played on Trevor's preconceptions there to get a laugh out of it, since he was aware of the prophecy as shown when he asks Sypha here 'do you know the whole story?'

(can we pause to appreciate Sypha's blush for a moment aww)

And (I think) that when he saw them and heard their reason for coming, he likely knew, hence the 'do you care, Belmont?' questions. But he's a bastard(affectionate) and why not test a Belmont out because he can.

3. Adding what he told Sumi and Taka in season III:

Now, the statement might've been an extrapolation as a part of training, but do with that what you will.

It's a fun idea to eat up(har har) because blood drinking, or the symbolism of it - taking of one’s life force, has often been depicted as having a sensual side in certain literature genres and other media if the intent is not murderous (aka not a 'drink them dry' situation). It represents a physical and visceral connection between the (usually) willing giver and taker on a much deeper level than other pleasurable physical interactions let's say. It involves a huge amount of trust from one party, and the validation of that trust by the other.

I won't go into the wider discussion of the vampire myth origins and how it changed from its folkloric roots around the 19th century, though there is a lot to say. But the concept of vampirism has been around for millennia - as far back as Mesopotamia. Suffice to add that the contemporary Lestat-Dracula-Alucard types, the elegant, decadently flawless depictions of the vampire are a product of literary works gaining popularity at the time (rotting thanks to John Polidori, Sheridan Le Fanu and the like). Also! The term dhampir is not a Castlevania invention, but has its origins in Balkan folklore, with the same meaning.

Most offered info from his game counterpart, which states that he apparently has consumed in the past but dislikes the taste? 🤔 If correct, one could fill in the gaps with info from similar sources as such, of course

Right! The gameverse/Castlevania universe has some other references to it too, some I remember:

In SOTN he can activate a spell called dark metamorphosis, which in summary heals him if coming in contact with (enemies') blood

Soul steal is another spell in the games that Alucard (and Dracula) can master, which is just that: healing by draining 'souls'/the life energy of those around them, dealing damage and healing themselves.

While neither of these are straight up 'blood drinking' they follow the trail of vampirism - draining the vital essence of the living.

And since we're here, lumping this together. A spinoff radio drama (Japanese) taking place after SOTN events deals strongly with Alucard and hematophagy. In Nocturne of Recollection Maria Renard is living with Alucard after the SOTN events (... nothing suggested they’re in a romantic relationship, mind you, at least it didn't seem like it to me).

The Villain of the story (incubus Magnus) appears to Maria and suggests Alucard won’t be able to control his thirst at one point around her, saying something like (paraphrasing) “why do you think he keeps a human around”.

She doesn’t believe him, but then asks Alucard about it, who admits he has consumed human blood in the past, but obviously doesn’t anymore. In the past he turned an old servant/friend (Lyudmil) into a vampire, which is strongly implied. It's also suggested that he struggled with his vampirism and legacy. I like to reference these bits in any ‘dhampir turns someone’ fic since it’s still in the Castlevania universe and Why Not.

Going back to the animated show, I’ve seen (and used) some common tropes in CV series fanfic:

drinks blood in dire circumstances: he’s gravely injured, usually beyond healing abilities for some reason and someone offers up blood to help him heal/get back on his feet

Sensual, usually blood kink/blood play, mostly in smutfic

My headcanon of show-verse Alucard is he can drink blood, but he doesn’t need to, since we've of course seen him eat plain ol' human food. Nor is he interested, I see him presented as leaning more towards the human side of his legacy here. Anyway, this was the mile-long ramble, I likely missed some things but in the end it's up to you how you want to interpret it as an author, how much you want to keep to the fandom universe or expand beyond it.

I'm a strong proponent of 'it's canon if it works for me' in fanfiction writing tbh, and I've written AU show-verse Alucard drinking blood for various reasons/with various effects. Looking forward to how you apply it for fic purposes!

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ash-and-books · 2 years ago

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Rating: 3/5

Book Blurb: Full of court intrigue, queer romance, and terrifying monsters—this gothic epic fantasy will appeal to fans of Samantha Shannon’s The Priory of the Orange Tree and the adult animated series Castlevania. Remy Pendergast is many things: the only son of the Duke of Valenbonne (though his father might wish otherwise), an elite bounty hunter of rogue vampires, and an outcast among his fellow Reapers. His mother was the subject of gossip even before she eloped with a vampire, giving rise to the rumors that Remy is half-vampire himself. Though the kingdom of Aluria barely tolerates him, Remy’s father has been shaping him into a weapon to fight for the kingdom at any cost. When a terrifying new breed of vampire is sighted outside of the city, Remy prepares to investigate alone. But then he encounters the shockingly warmhearted vampire heiress Xiaodan Song and her infuriatingly arrogant fiancé, vampire lord Zidan Malekh, who may hold the key to defeating the creatures—though he knows associating with them won’t do his reputation any favors. When he’s offered a spot alongside them to find the truth about the mutating virus Rot that’s plaguing the kingdom, Remy faces a choice. It’s one he’s certain he’ll regret. But as the three face dangerous hardships during their journey, Remy develops fond and complicated feelings for the couple. He begins to question what he holds true about vampires, as well as the story behind his own family legacy. As the Rot continues to spread across the kingdom, Remy must decide where his loyalties lie: with his father and the kingdom he’s been trained all his life to defend or the vampires who might just be the death of him.

Review:

Vampires, polyamorous relationships, family secrets and so much more come together in this story about an outcast hunter who finds himself between a warmhearted vampire heiress and her infuriatingly arrogant fiance. Remy Pendergast is the only son of the Duke of Valenbonne, he is an elite hunter and is an outcast by his fellow Reapers. His mother is rumored to have been turned by a vampire while giving birth to him making Remy’s own origins suspect in the eyes of society leaving others to hate him for being a part vampire and different. Remy has done everything in his power to fulfill his duty to his father and to the kingdom of Aluria, even when they barely tolerate him and even at the cost of his own body. When a terrifying new breed of vampire has been discovered it is up to Remy to investigate it. However, there are also two new vampires in town to work on the allegiance with the humans, the Vampire Lord and his mysterious fiancee rumored to be gifted with mysterious powers that even leave her ostracized by vampires. The more Remy spends time with Xiaodan Song and Zidan Malekh, the vampire couple, the more he begins to realize that he has complicated feelings about them... and that they both want him to be part of their relationship. While dealing with these new feelings he is also dealing with the question of what happened to his mother and his own family legacy. Someone is creating new breeds of vampires and someone is responsible for killing his mother and Remy will get down to the bottom of it. The story sort of ends on an open-ended ending and I don’t know if there will be a sequel or not but there is potential for it. What I really liked in this book was the depiction of polyamorous relationships, the relationship between the three in the book was sweet and I really loved the way they all treated and cared for one another. Xiaodon and Zidan were my favorite characters and their relationship was everything. Remy took a while to grow on me but in the end he did. I found it interesting how there was a big scientific angle on the vampires in this book.

*Thanks Netgalley and Gallery Books, Gallery / Saga Press for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

#book review #bookish #fantasy romance #silver under nightfall #rin chupeco #poly books #poly couple books #lgbtq #lgbtq books

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fbfh · 4 years ago

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I think you've horribly misread the situation [shitty roommate pt 2] - leo x reader

wc: 2.3k

genre: contemporary drama, you're definitly going to get second hand embarrassment, cozy fluff

pairing: leo x reader, attempted isabella x leo

reader: gender neutral, they/them

requested: hell yeah

warnings: mild swearing, roommate tries to steal your man once again, mentions of various mainstream vampire media (twilight, the vampire diaries etc.), brief mention of castlevania (even though i haven't seen it yet lol), breif mention of videogames and assassins creed, very mild delusion (roommate is secretly convinced leo is a vampire that's in love with her), attempted age gap relationship (she's 17 and leo's 19, he shuts that down real fast), very bad poetry

summary: You and Leo are both looking foward to spending a long weekend together, and Leo is determined not to let anything interrupt it, even if it means turning down your roommate's attempts to seduce him in the kitchen.

a/n: absolutley no hate or shade or judgement to anyone who has the same or similar traits as isabella!!!!!! at her core she's annoying because she's the antagonist, not bc of any isolated trait or traits

also she's shitty cause she keeps trying to steal your boyfriend?????

Edit: I forgot to mention before, but this is a college au where you're both still demigods, so you went to camp and on quests and stuff together

This weekend is going to be all about recharging. Recharging from the ridiculous back to back closing and opening shifts at work, recharging from having to redo that stupid project twice because your professor couldn’t decide on a clear way to define the criteria, and recharging from Isabella having her townie friend Regan over almost non stop to “completely shake up her look” as she put it.

Between the constant presence of someone you’d barely consider an acquaintance and Big Time Rush’s self titled album blasting on repeat out of her giant airpod shaped speaker, it’s been harder than usual to get in some effective self care. You have no idea how many more times you can hear the phrase “I’m going for Jade West meets Elena Gilbert, with just a little Buffy Summers” before you lose your fucking mind.

Thankfully, the hard part is almost over. There’s some minor holiday tomorrow on friday, so you and Leo both have a three day weekend ahead of you, which you intend to spend entirely together. You planned ahead, frontloading homework, chores, errands, and everything you could think of to remove anything that isn’t cuddling or playing video games and watching netflix together from your horizon.

This includes going straight from work to the grocery store to stock the fridge and get any snacks you and Leo want. You had texted him a while ago asking for anything he was craving, and head into the store with a concrete list. After a while, you circle around some aisles, avoiding the check out.

“I feel like I’m forgetting something,” you muse, knowing it’s untrue, but hoping to trigger a memory anyway. You can’t put it off any longer, finally checking out and heading back to your apartment. You’d be lying if you said you weren’t avoiding Isabella just a little.

You know bringing in all these groceries would be way easier with Isabella and possibly Regan’s help, but you just don’t have the social energy to talk to anyone, much less her, right now. By some miracle, you bring everything in yourself, and hope to get it put away before you see Isabella.

You turn to the freezer, putting away the ice cream. When you turn back around, you’re suddenly met face to face with Isabella, who has opened one of the boxes and is picking at a pastry.

“Hey girlie,” she says, elongating the hey.

“Hey,” you reply lethargically, putting the last of the groceries away. She looks at the pastry in her hand like she’s just noticing it.

“Sorry, I can’t help it, I’m italian.” She smiles, endeared by her own behavior. You have no idea what being italian has to do with asking before you open a box of your roommate’s food, but this really isn’t out of character for her. She brings up the fact that she’s half italian more than Lele Pons blames her behavior on being latina.

She’s wearing sweatpants that say chaser on the leg in red and gold varsity font, and a tight tee shirt that says “it’s okay to love them both” with silhouettes of the male love interests from one of the vampire shows she always watches. You collect the plastic bags to put in recycling, and see a piece of paper on the counter.

It reads as follows:

Drowning in my mind

No one hears me cry

Who was I before society

Before society put me in a pink dress

And handed me blonde hair dye

And told me to lose ten pounds or be labeled a freak?

The happiest people cry the most

Let the lyrics be your story

But I’m not like the other skinny blonde pretty girls

I’m

Different

-b.g. xox

You hold back a sigh.

“I think this is yours.” you say, handing it to her.

“Oh, it’s just some of my poetry I left lying around, that’s so embarrassing.”

I know, you think, you do that all the time.

“Did you read it?” She asks, hopefully.

“Nope.”

“Thank god, that would have been so embarrassing. My poetry is something really… deep, and personal to me.”

“Uh huh. Hey, I’m going to be doing a lot of self care this weekend, so-”

“Oh!” she interjects, eerily similar to Phoebe Buffay - you guess she’s been watching friends again - “I wanted to ask… is Leo coming over later?” Her voice is riddled with subtext, the expression on her face a little too invested in your answer.

“Uh, yeah. I told you the other day we’re spending the weekend together…”

She cuts you off again, a sudden, intense look on her face.

“When will he be here?”

You check your phone, scrolling through your recent texts.

“By 7 at the latest.” It’s around 6:40 now.

“Oh my god, I have to change,” she rushes back to her room, presumably digging through her recent additions to her closet.

You’re frozen for a minute after the interaction, left with a furrowed brow and the beginnings of a headache. You blink, then choose to reschedule processing why she feels the need to change for your boyfriend to a more convenient time. That’s enough of that for today. You don’t care what else happens, you’re not talking to anyone besides Leo for at least the rest of the day. You retreat to your room to finally shower and change into something comfy. As you pass by Isabella’s room, you hear her talking to Regan.

“...There’s something almost… supernatural about him.”

You bite back a laugh.

“Do you think he’s a…” Regan begins, ending the sentence with something too quiet to hear, but you’d bet almost any organ she said vampire.

So close. So, so close, and yet… here you are.

Not much later, Leo texts you to let you know he’s here. You read his text, and run out to hug him in the living room before even typing a reply. He picks you up, and spins you around. The embrace is warm and fulfilling and familiar, and you wish it would last forever.

“Hi, Sparky.” you murmur into his neck.

“Estrella…” he says, rocking you back and forth gently and pressing a kiss into your jawline, “I missed you so much.” He punctuates the sentence with another kiss, this one to your lips, and you smile more genuinely than you have all day. You’re about to agree when you remember the good news you’ve been saving to tell him in person.

“Guess what I got on sale for like, half off,” you start, excitedly, continuing at his invested expression, “the Assassin’s Creed bundle I showed you!”

“No way,” he starts, and you nod.

“I’ll go get everything set up, drinks are in the kitchen!” He watches you retreat into your room, disbelieving how he could possibly get someone as perfect as you to fall for him. He’s not going to question his luck. He grabs a couple caffeinated sparkling ices, and meets you in your room, setting down his bag and grabbing some comfy clothes to change into.

As you both get settled in, you fill each other in on all the ridiculous shit you’ve been through this week. You finally conclude the bizarre - yet somehow standard - Isabella escapades.

“So I will be avoiding all contact as much as possible,” you laugh.

“Yeah, no shit,” he agrees, “Consider me your human buffer.” You thank him, hugging him again and pressing a kiss to his lips.

The next couple hours are spent cuddling and finishing season 4 of Castlevania. Both reeling from the season finale, you agree this is a good place to take a break, get some food, and decide what game you should start with. It’s already 10pm, which most people would consider too late for dinner, but you have all weekend to fuck up your sleep schedules.

“Let’s review,” Isabella says, holding up two red lipsticks. She turns to Regan. “Which one?”

“That one,” Regan says, pointing to the one on the left, then turns to her list, and continues. “Here’s what we know; we’ve never seen him eat, and he never seems tired. He’s really smart-”

“Almost too smart,” Isabella adds, selecting black rose dangle earrings from her jewelry. Regan agrees, and continues.

“He’s almost hypnotically attractive, and his smile is a little too dazzling.”

“There’s something… supernatural about him. Like he’s not… all human.”

Regan writes this down.

“Plus he’s always wearing black and red, and those flowy button up shirts? It’s all adding up, Ree. That dream that someone was outside my window, the ring, everything…” She says, referencing the black and red cocktail ring she’d found with her stuff when she’d first moved, “I’m not saying it’s definite, just that… there’s a chance.”

“What about…” Regan says hesitantly, nodding toward your room.

“Please,” she scoffs, “he’s only with them to get close to me, like Damon and Caroline. Edward couldn’t have just approached Bella out of the blue, he had to infiltrate her friend group first, to seem less suspicious. Not to sound mean or anything, but they really don’t seem like the type someone… like him… would choose.” her voice gets dreamy when she mentions him.

In spite of having seen most mainstream vampire media almost as many times as Isabella, Regan still considers her the expert on these things, and decides not to point out that Edward didn’t infiltrate Bella’s friend group. Maybe it comes up in one of the retellings she hasn’t read yet.

“So, what now?”

Isabella sets down her lipstick, and turns to her friend.

“I tell him.”

Regan’s eyes widen.

“You’re going to tell him you know?”

“No… not yet. It’s too soon, we don’t have enough evidence. I’m going to tell him I know he’s in love with me, then once he’s secure in our relationship... we’ll see where it goes.”

She stands up, assessing herself in the mirror. She chose her outfit carefully; short red dress with black roses and black mesh collar, black rose bracelet to match her earrings, snug faux leather jacket, and black stiletto ankle booties with a very skinny heel, the zipper on the outside gold, not silver. She fluffs her wavy hair and turns towards the door. She looks back one more time, holding onto the doorway.

“Wish me luck.”

Leo enters the kitchen, seeing Isabella already there, leaning against the counter seductively. She’s wearing an outfit and jewelry this late at night that makes Leo wonder if she’s going to an emo tea party. He puts the takeout in the microwave. She’s still staring at him.

“Uh… hey.”

She lets out a dainty giggle, looking him up and down.

“... Hi.”

At a loss for words, and really wanting the awkward silence to be over, he continues, “Did you need something?”

“What I need,” she walks closer to him, tracing her finger over his collar, “is you.”

What the fuck?

His brain seems to stall for a moment, and she uses this opportunity to continue.

“I know why you’re here. I know that you’re only using them to get closer to me. I know-”

“Woah-”

“That you’re in love with me.”

Okay, double what the fuck.

She takes his stunned silence as shyness, and steps closer, putting her arms around his shoulders.

“You don’t need to play so coy, I-”

This time she’s the one that gets cut off. He grabs her arms and gently steps away, trying to make it abundantly clear that he’s not into this.

“Woah, okay, slow down. First of all, you’re 17 and I’m turning 20 in a couple months, so that’s a hard no. Second, I don’t know where you got this idea, but I am not dating them to get closer to you. We’ve known each other since we were like, 15, and have been through everything together. I’ve only known you for a couple months. I love them. Probably more than I’ve loved anything ever. I thought that was pretty obvious.”

He doesn’t want to be mean, he really doesn’t, but he can tell from the look on her face that she still thinks this is all part of some game.

“So why don’t I ever see you eat? Why are you so smart, and always up at night? I know what you are.”

He has to physically hold back a laugh. He takes a step back, and places his hands on the counter.

“Isabella, I have adhd. And I’m literally an engineering student. Why wouldn’t I be smart and have a shitty sleep schedule?”

She starts to protest, and he pulls out the reheated take out from the microwave.

“And for the record, I do eat.”

Exiting the kitchen quickly and retreating back to your room, he hands you your food.

“I got the game set up!” you say excitedly.

“Nice!”

You take one look at his face and can tell something happened. He sees this, and continues.

“I just had a very… interesting interaction with Isabella,” before he finishes the sentence, your head is already in your hands. You let out a groan.

“What did she do?” you mutter from behind your hands.

He pulls you into his lap, rubbing your back.

“I’m not totally sure,” you laugh, “but I think she thinks I’m secretly in love with her…” you’re both laughing before he can even finish the sentence.

“No…” you laugh, “no fucking way…”

“Believe me, I put an end to that as soon as it started.”

“Oh, I do.”

He runs his hand over your back, and you’re quiet for a moment.

“You know,” he continues, “I think getting our own place has definitely moved up the priority list.”

You couldn’t agree more.

#leo valdez x reader #leo x reader #leo valdez #leo valdez imagine #heroes of olympus #heroes of olympus x reader

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danwhobrowses · 4 years ago

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Castlevania Season 4 - My Thoughts

So we return, for the end Well, the 'end', there's possibility for expanded universe stories they say but for our current trio this is how we finish it

I've just binged it all so it's fresh in the mind, so I'm gonna look at the ups and downs of it all

You can also look at my review of season 3 if you'd like

Spoilers for Season 4, Watch it and get back here

So yeah, another great season, it had its downs but a lot of it had its ups too, which we will get to soon - but first let's get the negatives out of the way

What wasn't so good Nothing is perfect, and while a lot of these will be negatives they are mostly small negatives, stuff I felt could've been done a little bit better.

Saint Germain's heel turn could've been hidden So Saint Germain turning bad under the deception of death was a good way to establish conflict and pull back the rebus thing he mentioned in Season 3. But I kinda wish we didn't immediately know that he had broke bad, like we could've been super sly and coy about the fact that he's back and this time encountering Alucard only to be the orchestrator, like imagine the shock we could've had with learning what he was doing in the Castle then getting the flashback which drove him to it.

The rules of the ring change Last season Hector made the foolish decision of trusting Lenore, and while he got to bed a sexy vampire it had cost him all his freedom and the ring would prevent Hector acting against the coven of four sisters. But come this season it turns out that Hector was easily able to scheme against the sisters and invite the downfall of Camilla. Was a bit weird to establish that last season only to ignore it in the next.

The Patented Slow Start Castlevania has had a bit of a knack for starting slowly and Season 4 kinda did the same, things only really kicked off halfway through. Now of course we had to establish things; Trevor and Sypha being exhausted, the plans to resurrect Dracula, Alucard taking in the village and whatnot but we did linger on it a bit too much.

Striga's 'Day Armor' doesn't get enough time Striga took an ambush like a champ with a specialized armor that allowed her to fight in daylight. It was awesome and striking and looked absolutely badass...but that's the only time we saw it. It was just a shame really, granted it ended up that this was Striga's only time to fight, but we could've then used it for other characters, like the ambush dude who had his armor picked apart by the trio, or the Slavic vampire, just felt we could've done more with it.

CGI is sometimes a little shoddy The animation quality was mostly excellent, but that made it very glaring when some of the 3D rendering kinda hit an uncanny valley. I think the one that was most iffy was when Varney jumped into the mirror and then the mirror fragments just kinda wiped into the ground - even though Isaac's mirror tore a hole in the air - it was just a bit off-putting at times.

Couple of things left behind So when we ended it felt like we wrapped a lot of things up...except 2 things. One, where is Saint Germain's unnamed kickass lover? We caught her silhouette just walk away so we know she wasn't killed by Death, she's just 'out there' now. We also never got back to Targoviste, whose survivors must be wondering how to function since Sypha their only hope kinda disappeared on them, they'll also learn that their royals are dead, so it would've been nice to wrap that up.

Our heroes decide to use weapons sparingly In terms of arsenal we knew that our trio had a lot. The weird thing is that in some fights they just wouldn't use what would've been handy to them. There's of course Chekov's god dagger - which we didn't get too much explaining on - but Trevor would often just not use his Morningstar or Vampire Killer at times, even against two vampires, Sypha also seems to have forgotten how to use her wind magic or used her ice buzzsaw extremely sparingly and now Alucard can suddenly have bird wings...which could've been useful in prior fights.

We still lacked intelligent Night Creatures, and the badass vampires were underused So I still feel like it was very missed that the sentient night creatures of Season 1 didn't return still, especially since they were death's creatures. The one's dialogue with the priest is still among Castlevania's best and it's a shame we missed out on seeing more of it. In addition, the Ambusher's squad of vampires looked pretty cool, but like Dracula's council ended up just being swatted away after one fight, the same can be said with the Slavic vampire that was rolling with Varney. They didn't even get the pre-battle slaughter that Dracula's council did, Godbrand got more than these guys and that's a shame.

We don't get Bloody Tears or the Full Opening So the music was good, but we didn't get Bloody Tears again. For the final chapter of this saga it would've been better than using the opening song when the trio were together. Speaking of the opening song, we could've had the full length opening that we loved to see, small stuff but it would've elevated it.

Sypha is pregnant, because...because! So Sypha being pregnant is sweet, but it wasn't really needed aside from the throwaway 'trefor' joke which Alucard did better. Also that baby has gone through a lot, it's not like Sypha's been skipping in a meadow these past few weeks. Also they really gloss over how Trevor knows this and she doesn't

Some of this could've been done in a Season 5 This is more the fault of Netflix I'm guessing, since it does feel like after Season 3 we had much more to tell, but it did feel like some of the characters skipped a load of development. At the end of Season 3, Hector was beside himself in the fact that Lenore enslaved him, Isaac was still very bent on killing everything, Camilla is soaking in her genius and Alucard is more closed off than ever, but in Season 4 Hector is much more content and now has some legitimate connection to Lenore, Lenore is treated as sympathetic, Isaac is eating berries with a new outlook and Alucard decides to rescue a village because they asked, also he has a shield now. It does feel like half of what Season 4 had could've been in a Season 5, and then Season 4 could've built between having the growth be showed; Lenore feeling left out and confiding in Hector, Isaac deciding to bury the dead and rebuild the city, Trevor and Sypha having some friction in their relationship and Alucard not helping someone in need and then regretting it. As I said, this is probably not the show's fault, they were likely told that Season 4 would be it and they had to make do with it but in a vacuum it would've been nice to have had a little more build.

What was Awesome about it So I could easily just say 'the rest of it' but I guess I can afford to be a little more detailed.

Great Animation Aside from the CGI at times the animation was a top grade of excellence. I mean I watched the current My Hero Academia episode which really was pushing its budget and still I'm impressed by this animation, the artwork and settings were excellent too.

Downside: You're turning into Trevor, Upside: You get a strong warrior woman as a love interest While Alucard could've used some more time to go from emotionally scarred by 'the twins' to sympathizing with the town's plight, his character dynamic with Greta was great. Greta herself proved an excellent late addition being both a capable fighter, a strong independent leader and someone who was more than just an Alucard love interest. If you don't like strong women you're doing it wrong basically, and Alucard realising how he's turning into Trevor was some lightheartedness to Alucard combatting his loneliness and depression.

The Dialogue remains just as enthralling as the combat One of Castlevania's great strengths especially in seasons 1 and 3 were their use of gripping dialogue, the philosophical confrontations of different parties envelop the characters in greater depth thanks to the excellent script, primarily for Isaac and his chat with the bug man. The Slav Vampire also had a fantastic monologue.

Characters remain complex After four seasons it would've been easy to make some characters one dimensional, including the side villains, but Castlevania kept with the morally grey. The psycho noble clung hard to her delusions but her motives remained pure, as much as she was someone on the heroes' side she also infuriated Sypha, Saint Germain was driven to evil out of desperation but he still believably made amends in the very very end, Striga, Lenore and Morana were all on the side of the villains but had doubt about the scope of Camilla's ambition and made them consider their very nature. Simply put, it bodes well when characters have struggles that affect their motivation.

Layered Scheming 'Bring Back Dracula' was a simple premise, but the show did really well in connecting the channels between 3 plot areas, Trevor and Sypha learned of the plot by continually walking into scholar vampires attempt it, in Season 3 it was via a Night Creature in Isaac's name to start it all too, this connects to the Hector & Isaac story through Varney who schemes with the former to enact the plan, but this also connects to Alucard's story thanks to Saint Germain also plotting too. It was a clever way to entwine all three separate stories which would eventually bring things together.

Action still kicks a lot of ass Castlevania has good action? In other news water makes things wet. But still we got some great brutal action we've come familiar with in Castlevania. It could've been easy to go overboard like other shows had, which'd zone in on one thing like gore or nudity but Castlevania remained consistent in their action, looking for new lengths of creativity that never pushed its bounds. Of course building up to the final battle where we took it up a notch for the crescendo. Also I continue to call her Sypha 'Fatality' Belnades because god she kicks ass.

Isaac and Hector grow up It could've been easy and satisfying for Isaac to just roll up to Styria, take his revenge on Hector and leave, acting in both anger and mercy. But instead the characters grew beyond it, Isaac finally decides to heed what the shopkeeper and ship captain were saying rather than the crazy witch, Hector accepts his fate but works to try and make amends his own way. When the two finally cross again we see that both have accepted their humanity and instead of working for someone else they look to seek their own happiness, they forgive humanity in a way and it saves themselves. Their understanding to 'let Dracula rest' also grants them payoff from being Dracula's loyal commanders.

Camilla goes out swinging Where was this Camilla hiding huh? Brutal, Lightning powers and a crimson sword, I mean the wardrobe seems to be a bit less than last season and not battle-suited but dammit did Camilla grip you in her scenes. Her desperation and madness in taking over the world set her up to her downfall where she was betrayed and overwhelmed by Isaac's forces, but rather than let him have the satisfaction she kills herself. It could've easily fell flat because Camilla had just been sitting around like a vampire Cersei Lannister last season and end up proving her frustrations right by having a man take her life but instead she took control of her life and went out strong.

The bittersweet ending of Lenore At the end of season 3 the scheming Lenore claimed herself 'the diplomat', but having been shelved and fonder of Hector than usual it opened the door to explore her own grasp of control. The theme of enduring being prominent in this season for all the arcs we had. We learned the tragedy of Lenore's situation though, as a child of war diplomacy was her escape, she isn't comfortable with peace or total control, she can only live for conflict. While she does like Hector, she ends up valuing her own freedom in the end; and though we could've given more time to earn that sympathy we still accept it as she decides against a quiet life of surveillance freedom with Hector - ironically as Hector has lived under Camilla's captivity - and instead chose death. It was a much more poetic death than gruesome as well, after mulling how she mourned her sister because she understood the nature of greed she elected to make a choice rather than live without making any, looking at the sun for once and getting one last banter with Hector before immediately fading to dust. In a show that almost prides itself on hypergore and graphic deaths, this one was perhaps the most tranquil deaths of the show.

Striga and Morana overcome the greed Which leads to the final two of the four sisters. Camilla consumed herself with greed and died fighting for it, Lenore had no greed but also had no freedom so chose to die in order to be free, but lovers Striga and Morana were not in Styria for Isaac's attack, they were on the outskirts fighting and seeing the struggle firsthand. Their conflict over how they agreed and disagreed on certain aspects of the fight was intriguing, with the intermission of Striga on a tear in her swanky armour to tilt the tone to Striga's side of the argument. A Soldier and a Politician, both agreed though that Camilla's ambitions only worked on paper, so when confronted with their castle overrun and their sister dead it became a matter of duty or survival. Instead of dying in a good fight, Striga looked past her desire of battle and agreed to follow Morana in living, and Morana gave up any political power she could have under an empire to be a mercenary. They didn't overreach, and it spares them their lives in a surprising conclusion where the 'bad guys' still kinda get to live happily ever after.

The ReHumanization of Alucard Alucard has always been a fan favourite, but in the world of Castlevania he still acts as an outcast. While helping the village and getting close to Greta helps bring out some positive emotions in him, it's his dedication to saving the people that gives the show some of its lightest moments, especially when he toys with the kids. In a way it's what he wanted from the twins, but they had lived to not trust and wanted to kill rather than survive, and he grew a community out of it. Allowing the town to settle is the ultimate payoff for Alucard too, because it fulfills his mother's dream, now there are people who know the knowledge that his father did.

Bringing the old band together We all knew that Trevor and Sypha were gonna reunite with Alucard sometime near the end, I mean it's a shame they ditched a city that cannot organize themselves but they were kinda needed in the castle. What's best is that the moment came in it was like they never left, perfectly in sync and bantering off each other, when they fought the top level vampires it was their teamwork and synergy which made them overcome - which is great battle narrative too because alone they were getting beaten. It's just the stuff you love to see.

Trevor is tougher than Death The final battle being Trevor vs Death was a proper Attack on Titan-esque boss fight, just peeling away at the enemy and trying not to get hit. As well as a feast for the eyes it proved to be an entertaining climax - in spite of the limited info we got on the magic 3-piece dagger - and in a way it paid off Trevor's character journey. When we first met him he was an outcasted drunk that wanted nothing to do with the world let alone his family, but now he's here fighting death to save innocent people, his half-vampire buddy and his pregnant speaker magician girlfriend, being willing to give his own life for something bigger than himself, and succeeding...thanks to Saint Germain who owed him a favour and one very clever unsung hero of a horse. To tell you the truth when I saw the trailer I was expecting Sypha to have died and Trevor to be pulling her out of hell by fighting death, but this still worked really well and was perhaps a bit more logical to the canon they set.

Death is temporary, Dracula is forever With all the attempts to revive Dracula one had to work eventually. But back at Season 3 I'm sure we all thought about what would Dracula's reaction be anyway. I mean, yeah he's dead but his wife is there, you really wanna be the guy who ripped him from his wife a second time? It worked though because the people loyal to Dracula never truly understood his grief, they only wanted to further their own agendas through him. So when Dracula does come back in the final scenes with his wife, we see that Vlad Tepes is no longer the vicious killer he once was, not for now anyway. Reviving Dracula may make people think that Trevor and Sypha's actions in Season 3 and 4 were worthless because he still revives but you do have to remember that they do still save a few lives and make a few less night creatures. In addition if they want to expand the universe long into the future they can bring Dracula back in older and disillusioned again if they see fit.

He has many faces, but you still know him At about episode 8 I was really ramping up to tear into the Alchemist and Varney for being practically useless characters, but then the show went and hit me with a great twist by having both characters being guises of Death itself, the proper big bad of the season. It was a fantastic twist which validates the characters, because it was super suspect that the alchemist know where the girl was and said you can't look at her rebus, and that Varney felt like a beta Godbrand but still managed to slither away from the fights. His design was excellent too, the crown was really menacing.

A Surprise Happy Ending! Like, could any of us imagined that? The fight ends, Trevor and Sypha live happily to make a family, Alucard has his friends, a girlfriend and a community that appreciates him, Isaac has his own kingdom, Hector doesn't get the girl or a finger but he still has his freedom, Striga and Morana have each other, it mostly wrapped up very neatly and was earned, a satisfying end which closes the chapter on our trio.

Conclusion

It is sad to see great shows end, Castlevania's use of anime-style animation with gore and a strong voice cast has done extremely well, especially for a show who only got 4 episodes for a first season. It did feel like Netflix didn't give it a chance, but it pulled it off big time and escaped Netflix's cancel hammer long enough to bring a satisfying story, and one can hope we see more of this style and universe either in more Castlevania stories or even the rumored Devil May Cry adaptation.

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sapphire-mage · 2 years ago

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Okay! I finished! Story time!

Read more if you want to read a brief shit talk from me about Tommy T!

So, I watched a lot of G4 when it was around, and that definitely included Electric Playground (the review show Tommy did with Victor). I think Victor is still doing it, but solo. I never watched it beyond what was shown on G4.

This show was the reason I learned to take ALL reviews with a grain of salt, cause the show had some SHIT TAKES! Which Hbomber even points out.

The game review I'm discussing is Silent Hill 3.

Mind you, I wouldn't say, from a gameplay standpoint, this is the strongest game in the series, but from a story and sound point, it's excellent. It's a lot of people's favorite. It's my favorite. And it's considered to be one of the three 'great' Silent Hill games (or four, if you're cool and include Silent Hill The Room).

And you're probably thinking, "What? Tommy thought the game played like shit."

No.

He hated the game for footstep noises.

...FOOTSTEP. NOISES!

Which yeah! The game had a sound situation where every step Heather, the main character, took, she would make the exact same footstep sound. Her clonking boots would repeat where she walked or ran.

MIND YOU: This sound DID change depending on what she was stepping on. Wood steps vs metal steps vs metal grating steps vs sludge/blood steps. All different, but it WOULD repeat the same step for each of those separate floor types.

Also mind you, these footsteps would often be muffled by music, ambient noises, monsters screaming at you, monsters chasing you, random sounds of crying or screaming, and god knows what else that was trying to scare you.

And his entire negative review... was just that.

Mind you: This is from Team Silent. A team with such a legacy in our current era of horror games! A team that was known for masters of sound and music. Just... Listen to this! No jumpscare coming. No scary monster. Just bloodstains on the floor, an eerie sound of a wheelchair wheel, and a recording from an old TV from 9 years ago.

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This eerie moment of the game would be followed by basically nothing but a puzzle to solve. There were no monsters here. That wheelchair thing was just there to unnerve you, AND IT FUCKING WORKED THANKS TO THE SOUND TEAM!

This bring me to another game EP would review: Advent Rising!

I have no real opinion on this game. I never played it. I'm sure it's good.

But when the EP review came out, Tommy sang FUCKING PRAISES THROUGH THE MOON! And you want to know the reason why? Because every footstep sound had a different tone to it, making each sound different!

And while I'm not saying that isn't worth praise...

GUESS WHO DID THE SOUND FOR ADVENT RISING!?!

This level of self-adoration CONTINUES when you consider the fact that, for Video Games Live, a concert that I admit I have gone to three times for three groups of people, ALWAYS INCLUDES ADVENT RISING TO THEIR PLAYLIST!

The VGA Live playlist is usually random, especially depending on if they have a female or male vocalist sometimes, or if a certain area requests it more. They had ones they recognized they could never skip like Mario, Zelda, or Sonic, but anything else was usually randomized.

BUT NEVER ADVENT RISING!

Everytime I saw that show, Advent Rising was one of the games they perform! EVERY! TIME! Never saw Silent Hill. Caught Castlevania twice. Caught Chrono Cross once.

They'd do Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts pieces on all three, but hilariously, he wouldn't pay for the rights for Square games to show footage during the concert. So instead, he'd use Disney movies for the KH bit and fan-made art or cosplay pictures (request to use them questionable) for Final Fantasy.

And mind all of this... Video Games Live has an official CD. You want to see the Discography!?!

Every concert, everyone had to sit through six and a half minutes of Tommy (assuming it's Tommy's) music. I've never played Advent Rising, but because I saw this show three times, I've listened to nineteen and half minutes of Advent Rising music.

And this has irked in the sense that Advent Rising hasn't had that much of a following beyond Tommy. I don't know, now or in the past, anyone who loved that game. I just know its fame because of Tommy. The fact that this is his love child in concert has made Advent Rising 'his game' which he didn't even program.

And the fucking sucks, because it means two things:

For the crime of 'footsteps', Tommy felt the need to shit on Team Silent, a team that was already falling apart and having a crisis despite their amazing work and despite Konami being assholes. And all because he wants to emphasize how much better of a sound and music composer he thinks he is.

An entire game, Advent Rising, gets to be reduced to his own little trophy of "How Good of a Composer I Am", overshadowing everyone who worked on that game and gave their blood, sweat, and tears (except Orson Scott Card, fuck him)!

And I have had these 'bad vibes' about him tucked away for nearly 15 years, and HBomberguy just validated every bad feeling I've ever had about him.

I'm glad time has gracefully shown Team Silent in a better light, and many of them are getting more credit for such amazing sound, visuals, design, and storytelling. And god... I really hope Tommy actually composed those Advent Rising songs. CAUSE I DON'T KNOW ANYMORE!

As someone who already knows a decent amount of Tommy Tallarico... I'm about to start the HBomberguy video.

#I don't hate on anyone and I usually keep these things to myself unless it proves to be an active threat to someone's health #But my bad vibe detector is poignant #Youtube

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popculturebuffet · 3 years ago

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Final Space Season 3 Review: “How Far Are You Willing to Go to Fix It?”

Hello all you presumably weeping from that finale people! And it’s time for me to return to Final Space, to examine the good, bad and the triclops of season 3. I initially planned to just review the season as it came out, doing each episode one at a time as it came out and just adding it to my regular schedule. That lasted only three weeks as the combination of the Season’s return to being far more serialized like season 1 made it harder to dive into the characters when I didn’t know what direction they’d be taking, the series airing late on saturdays meant i’d have to cover it on Sundays, aka what I usually kept as a slack day if I got behind. So I tapped out, but I still wanted to TALK about the season, so i decided to just talk about the season as a whole once it ended, especially since my Close Enough Season 2 review worked well enough and Invincible ended before this season did giving me a tryout to doing a whole season review again, to see if I could hack it. I could and thus will probably be doing more of these from here on out.. not for every show, I still like covering some weekly, as i’m currently doing with owl house, it just allows me to cover shows that are either more comedy based or in this case more serialized, particularly streaming shows. It’s the reason I'm also now doing Close Enough as entire seasons.

So before hand for those who didn’t read my previous reviews, since i’d rather this stood on it’s own: I loved final space from the animatic, as they showed one along side the other shows in TBS aborted animation block. You know the one they tried made up of Close Enough (Which got shunted to HBO Max which worked out better anyway), Tarantula (Which you probably didn’t know existed and I still have not seen) and the Cops which was produced by Louis CK so you can tell why that was swiftly destroyed and buried behind 10 tons of concrete. So the series came out, it was well liked by a lot of people, disliked by some too and in general seemed like my cup of tea. I simply.. never drank it. Not having cable I assumed it would just show up on a streaming service I had. Then when it ended up on VRV I just told myself I'd get the week long trial and binge it then.. and never got around to that either. Yeah as you can probably tell I have a bad problem with procrastinating when it comes to watching shows. That’s why fine shows such as Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, Kid Cosmic, M.O.D.O.K., Harley Quinn, what I haven’t seen of Doom Patrol, what I haven’t seen of Wonder Over Yonder, Stranger Things, Transformers War for Cybertron, Castlevania (Though that one’s continued to sit thanks to one of i’ts co creators being a dickhead and breaking my heart with his shitty behavior coming to light), and Craig of the Creek have just sorta sat in my queue. I just tend to forget to watch a show till it’s piled all the way the fuck up my queue and I hope to change that at some point.

Cut to the Summer of 2019. I was watching my surrogate nephew during that summer but had to come in early in the morning and thus had a few hours to myself where I could watch whatever and noticed on Adult Swim that Final Space was coming back. My course was clear...

So I did... granted I caught up on season 1 AS I caught up on season 2 but still it was a hell of a good time. This series is excellent. Even with my problems with season 3 i’ll get into shortly, it’s still a damn excellent show with thorughly loveable and layred characters who for the most part develop nicely, great animation, one of the best voice casts in the business (In addition to Rogers and his friend Coty Galloway we also have the likes of Steven Yeun, Ashly Burch, Ron Funches, Conan O’Brien, Tika Sumpter and David Motherfucking Tennant), and a tone that at it’s best ballances heartbreaking character drama with some of the best humor in adult animation.

It’s also honestly a great Guardians of the Galaxy Cartoon. I’ll freely admit to not having checked out the Disney one, and with it’s washed out colors i’m not in a huge hurry. But this show is at it’s core a ragtag bunch of misfits and outlaws, most of whom aren’t stable on a good day, being thrust into the position of the unvierse’s saviors. That speaks to both the original Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning run AND the utterly fantastic movies, feeling like a nice mix of both having the Gunn Movies goofy humor and the comics ongoing plot about a cosmic horror lurking just beyond a breach that threatens all reality.

So yeah with all that i loved it and the two year wait for season 3 was painful, since it ended on the massive cliffhanger of our heroes entering final space, and Gary reuniting with Quinn, only for Invictus to creepily show up in the background. it also made crossovers difficult as I really DIDN’T know what would happen to everyone. As this season ALSO ends on a cliffhanger i’ve just sorta given up on things making 100% sense with canon now, but that’s not the point. The point is I was hyped going into this season all the way baby. So the question was did this season live up to that? The easiest way to answer that is under the cut... well the easiest answer would be yes and no but that dosen’t make for a good review/deep dive into the season now does it? So join me after the read more won’t you?

Changing For Better and for Worse So to start us off let’s talk about the changes between seasons. Season 3 returns to the more serialized style of season 1 as while Season 2 had an overarching story, it was a bit more episodic from week to week, especially early on, likely due to network mandate. This is likely due to Season 2 having far more network interference: the move to Adult Swim first run in season 2, while better for getting the show an audience, also lead to FAR more network notes and stress, leading to bits Olan was unhappy with: he wanted the Lost Spy just to focus on Gary and Little Cato’s plot and was forced to add in the clarence plot, something I can agree sucked as said plot was not very good and in hindsight likely wasn’t because they were forced to add it. He also apparently didn’t like the literal Pissing Contest scene, which I can get as it’s a bit broad.. but I still love it for i’ts sheer ridiculousness and how it’s throughly rooted in character: apparently ventrxians are still cat like enough they piss on things to claim them as property, which is batshit enough, but everyone deciding to buy into this premise, with Gary willfully wizzing along with his future sun leading to an all out piss war? That’s just... it’s beautiful man.

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Added bits like Nightfall just.. not getting involved in this, Ash’s galaderial style boast, HUE just standing there and getting peed on, everyone taking a hydration break and of course the button of ash cheering at getting UTI just... I can’t gush enough about this entirely weird and entirely literal pissing match apparently.

Point is it’s clear from the return to a more seralized story that feels like one LONG story across 13 episodes instead of smaller stories building up to a big finish like most cable animated shows that both the show got more creative control back and that Olan feels more comfortable telling the show as one big season long story that segues into the next one big season long story. And i’m fine with that honestly. Other shows such as Frisky Dingo and Bojack Horseman have done wonders basically being one long story and in the era of streaming, where Season 3 will no doubt drop at some ponit on HBO Max, it’s perfectly designed for those who like to binge the hell out of a season in one go. It made covernig it week to week too difficult to keep doing that, but i’m wholly for it and if it’s what Olan wants for the series i’m all for it.

It also worked far better for this season’s plot line: Last season was more of a treasure hunt, so it could easily flow as individual episodes eventually stacking up. This season is about our heroes desperately trying to survive in the most hostile environment imaginable. It fit perfectly to go back to one big arc as we genuinely DIDN’T know if the cast would make it out and it helped with the tension: we honestly wouldn’t know if anyone was safe till likely the very last minute of the season.. and as we saw.. they STILL weren’t.

This leads me into another major change: the tone. With things have escalated and our heroes now stuck inside Invictus’ home turf the mood was often extremley bleak. The show never lost it’s humor mind: Gary’s freakout when finding out he’s in the origin place of the KVNS, Avacato and Gary’s ho yay reaching an ALL TIME HIGH with them standing shirtless in a field together via psychic connection, the entire bit with Little Cato not realizing Gary and Quinn were about to have sex (”Go.. go play with grandma!”), the cookie turret, I could go on> The show had enough humor to help with the dark tone and ballance it out.

The only real issue with the darker tone was that , much like fellow bleak as hell show that still had some good goofy bits Bojack horseman the tone was a LOT to take at times. While Seasons 1 and 2 were still dark and still had moments that punched you in the emotional balls such as Avacato and Nightfall’s deaths, they were far more ballanced and there was far more of a sense of hope. Here.. it’s very clear our heroes are one step away from death at any moment, are often desparing and loose a LOT over the season with no real victories. Every win comes at a cost and while it works dramtically god was it draining to just watch these characters I truly cared about constnatly LOOSE everything they care about and instead of ending in triumpth it ends with Mooncake probably dead and Invictus triumphant and our heroes marveling at the horror they’ve unelashed. It’s just.. a LOT to ask to have the season be so overwhelmingly grim for our heroes.. and have it STILL end with our heroes starring down a lovecraftian version of galctus whose hearld not only was my faviorite character but killed the series kirby-esque mascot.

I still want to emphasise this dosen’t make the show BAD or anything and Olan is within his rights to ask a lot of us. I still care about the cast and still feel they can somehow fix this despite the odds massively stacked against them. And honestly i do prefer an ending that’s nightmarish with little hope over Bojack horseman which would constantly set us up that things would get bette ronly to knock us back down again. Worse before it gets better is better than “It’ll get better.. we promise... “ while laughing behind your back. Still love that show too by the way. I just hope there’s a little more hope next season to help ballance out the utter hell our characters go thorugh like seasons 1 and 2 to make the bitter but wonderful medicine go down easier is all.

But if you want an actual problem I had with the season, i’m glad to point you to was the weaker team dyanmics. Part of what drew me to the show were the interesting interpersonal relationships: Season 1 started it off great with Gary as the clear center and having a unique dynamic with everyone in the cast, but Season 2 is so great to me in part because it evolved that: it was no longer just about gary and everyone played off each other well. You had a LOT of intresting balls in the air: Clarence and Gary hating each other’s guts, Clarence’s kids loving him dearly, Ash’s weird friendship and pseudo relationshpi that cycled firmly back to friendship this season with LIttle Cato and her bonding with nightfall, Little Cato and Fox having a rivarly thanks to racial tensions, HUE’s bitter snarking turned romance with Ava, everyone but apparently fox being annoyed with KVN... there was a LOT of good character stuff in the season and the cast of characters just really bounced off each other well comedically and storywise.

This season dosen’t lack that entirely as theirs still tons of good dynamics, if it did I wouldn’t think of the season all that positively but it feels like there was less effort put in to make this version of the team squad feel like a choesive team/family. While there were still existing dynamics carried over: Gary and everyone, Quinn with Gary and HUE, Little Cato with Ash and his Dad, etc, there didn’t feel like a lot of effort to bring in new ones. Fox is killed off WAY too soon, something i’ll go into more when I talk about Ash, Sheryl only starts getting dyanmics with everyone 2/3 of the way into the season for no adaquate reason, and Biskit is just kinda thrown in there and dosen’t really have a solid relationship with anyone except Gary. They just don’t feel like a cohesive group. Sure their disfunctionl and frankly disfunctional group of outcasts who are like family is my jam, but those setups usually also have clear dynamics like the JLI or the crew of the lost light. Here there’s something.. missing that wasn’t missing last time, a sense of warmth. IT’s easily the second weakest part of the season.

Finally before we get into characters we have the pacing of the season which is also a bit weak: it feels like things are a bit too sped up to the point it often feels like they jump from one plot point to another. They throw a LOT of things at you: ash aging up, ash turning to the dark side.

Gary’s complicated feelings with his mom, Tribore’s bullshit, The KVN Net Quinn’s final space poisoning, everyone getting final space poisoning, Bolo dying, clarence dying, my baby boy dying, my baby boy blob dying, lttiel cato being a prince, Lord Commander.... it’s not like some of those plots don’t lack merit they do but their tryign to cram ALL of them into 13 episodes. It felt like Olan got a bit too overambitious and overexterted himself trying to fit ALL of this into 13 episodes and some of it suffered. I get being afraid that you won’t get everything in on a network bad at giving shows more than three seasons I do, but when your actively planning for and sequel baiting for a fourth in the finale you can afford to slow the hell down a little. Even She Ra, as heavily seralized as it was, still found time for character exploration in it’s darkest and most intense season with the final one. And that was the same number of episodes, the same run time, more characters to juggle, and a whole series to wrap up.

So we move on to characters and to get this out of the way one of them is easily the biggest issue I have with the season

Tribore Can Fuck Himself:

Yeah that wasn’t subtle but my feelings towards this annoying triclops aren’t. I didn’t mind him in Seasons 1 and 2. In season 1 he was comic relief that turned out to be secretly badass and in season 2 he had some truly funny moments, especially his subplot in “Arachnatechts” where he keeps circling back to the same bar and ends up acomplishing nothing for the main plot.

But this season he became INSUFFERABLE. While his new son Quastranastro was fine, though I think the “gag” of him speaking only spanish isn’t funny at best and is midly offensive at worst, and has a great dynamic being more serious than his dad, Tribore himself just felt unnecessary. His plot leading people out of final space accomplished nothing other than making sure he was on the other side to reactivate the bridge.. something that could’ve happened anyway by simply having him gather refugees off screen or giving him maybe one subplot. Instead he takes up the subplots of at least three episodes in a season that as seen above BADLY needed the room for more character interaction and better story pacing.

While the show does have other comic relief characters in KVN and Biskit both serve actual purposes: KVN is invunerable and can fly so he can be useful in a pinch, and proves invauable in the season’s climax, and said invunerablity is a nice set up for the KVN Net. Biskit is both more entertaning and provides a tech guy for the teach squad, something they really didn’t have before. They had scientests sure but no one who was a gadgeteer genius. They needed a rocket racoon type.

Tribore.. adds nothing. He has no character arc, isn’t funny enough most of the time to support things, and just shows up randomly to eat up screentime. The last two seasons he provided backup this season he.. opens a door. A roll which could’ve been honestly left to Clarence had the let him live or even to that one guy wtih the ass arm who liked him a lot whose name I don’t know how to spell. Tribore feels MEANINGLESS this season and clashes badly with the far grimer tone and stakes without providign levity or an escape beacuse your just wanting to get BACK to the characters you care about no matter how bleak their situation is. Part of why the last part of the season is so good is he’s GONE. HOPEFULLY Olan dials him back next season because while I could take the series other flaws as the good was enoguh to counterballance I can’t take another season of this dickhead parading around.

Child Of Darkness and Light:

So we go from the character I hated most to my faviorite. Ash was an instant faviorite to me along with her brother Fox so naturally her turn to the dark side dark phoenix style is a mixed bag for me. The concept, despite robbing me of the character I knew isn’t bad: Ash slowly sucummbing to her worst impulses, her rage and impuslviness, and listening to the worst person possible at the worst possible time. It honestly reminds me of the Dark Phoenix Saga and frankly, for all the faults I have with how this storyline was executed it’s STILL a better and more gripping Dark Phoenix Saga adaptation than either of the x-men movies that tried that.

For those of you who wonder what a Dark Phoenix Saga is or if it relates to that shitty last X-Men movie the latter answer is yes, obviously and the first is that it was a storyline in the X-Men comic books. And as some of you may know I bring up X-Men a lot in this blog so the comparison coming to mind was inevitible really.

It focused on Jean Grey, one of the original X-Men and at the time a young woman in her 20′s or so who nearly died saving the X-Men from a spaceship crash only to be reborn as the godlike Phoenix, having powers far beyond what she could ever have dreamnt of before and said power scaring her a bit. Eventually after some other stories she and The X-men got in a fight with Magneto and assumed the X-Men were Dead because Beast told her no one could’ve surivived that despite the fact you know, his mentor faked his death, the x-men have surivived deaths lots of times and molten lava really isn’t a match for Storm, Cyclops or Banshee’s powers. Then again the X-Men likewise assumed Jean was dead for the same reasons despite her having the powers of a god so maybe everyone just hit their head real hard in that storyline.

Point is Jean was mentally gaslighted and manipulated by Jason Wyngarde, aka Mastermind, an old foe of the X-Men hoping to join the Hellfire Club, a bunch of fancy assholes in victorian dominatrix gear who wanted to conquer the world. His intent was to turn her into a living weapon totally enthralled with him by both seducing her in the present using a glamour and making her frequently think she was in the past, endulging her darker impulses so she’d be more useful.

As you can imagine fucking around with the emotions of a god backfired badly for the asshat as eventually, as his killing Cyclops, Jean’s boyfriend, in her head durin ga psychic sword fight, long story, this naturally pissed her off enough to break his control and drive her insane. The jump was a bit abrubt but the resutls, jean turning her costume dark and turning into a vengeful dark goddess who ate an entire solar system, were horrifying as they were decently set up, ending tragically in Jean killing herself while lucid via a space laser, again long story, to end this nightmare. Of course later retcons would reveal this was a clone of jean made from her memories and etc but that’s not the point.

My point is a saga with a tragic ending starring a young woman given too much power too fast and manipulated by a creepy dickhead, if not sexually this time thank fucking christ, who wants to use said power for their own ends.. sounds familiar don’t it?

So the setup is right the character is sorta right and the concept is right.. so why dosen’t any of this feel right? It’s simple.. they kinda forced it a bit too much.

It started out okay: Ash finds out her powers come from invictus and confronts him, with Invictus giving her three days to decide who side she’s on, aging her up a few years while also giving her a second eye and a nifty new outfit and haircut. It’s not a bad concept: a lost of innocence and the hard choices we face as adults via metaphor. It’s good stuff.

And it continued to be good through the next step but not without serious issues of it’s own: Invictus had taken Fox, something I was eh about as it meant Fox would have no real time to interact with Avacato or Quinn. But I figured hey we’ll get some good evil ron funches, and he’ll be back eventually right?

God DAMMIT Olan. Yeah I was not okay with this.. and not just because I genuinely loved the character, love Ron Funches and had hoped season 3 would flesh him out more. Instead while it did give him a gripping backstory.. fox died 5 episodes in, tragically and with no real chance of coming back like Avacato did.

Admitely I do like the idea of Invictus setting up a self fufilling prophecy: saying Gary will kill fox then forcing gary to do so using his evil magic whatever it is. And the death scene itself is genuinely gripping, with Gary pleading “No please no”, Ash’s horrified and devistated reacton and an ambigoius moment wher eyou genuinely can’t tell if Fox came back in the last few seconds.. or Bollo was right and he was truly dead.

The problems however are sadly all too present for the scene’s momentum to hold. The first it again wastes a character we barely got to know despite being around a full season and having an interesting personality and backstory, and who never really got to interact with Avacato or Quinn before his death. The second.. is that it makes Ash come off like a moron. Look I get Ash is impuslvie and prone to anger, it is a thing with her. But she’s NOT dumb. A bit unhinged and violent sure but dumb no.

The problem is, especailly after rewatching the scene for the above gag.. .the scene MAKES her come off as really dumb. Invictus tells her Gary will kill fox eventually.. and then MAGICALLY Fox shows up in the dream world with her and is being all sweet despite last being seen possessed, is trying to convince her the creepy horn demon who gave her powers and transformed her on two seprate occasoins neither with her consent their cool now, and is suddenly stabbed by Gary who was VISABLY SCREAMING HE DIDN’T WANT TO DO THIS WHILE PURPLE ENERGY COURSED AROUND HIS ARM SWORD.

It just makes Ash into someone as gullible as Knuckles the Fucking Echidna and it hurts my brain a lot

The next step in her arc is with Forgiveness, probably the best episode of the season but one that makes her arc confusing as Ash rushes off in anger.. and finds Evira, a genderless blue space being that she hits it off with. They smash stuff and have a gay old time, subtly revealing that Ash is presumibly the queer character Olan mentioned before this season, and helping Ash let go of her anger by appreciating the beauty of the world. It’s really good stuff. And incredibly gay which as anyone whose been on this blog can attest to is something I can always get behind as I have tons of queer ships and this quickly became one of them.

The problems are not in this scene itself. .but it’s aftermath. Ash apparently forgives Gary only to turn around which is realistic enough, sometimes people don’t let go of things that easily and just hide it, but the show dosen’t hint at it so it comes off like it comes out of nowhere. More importantly despite introducing a gay romance for Ash... Evira vainshes. They never appear the rest of the season and while they’ll likely be back next season, it comes off as accidental queer baiting as a result. The fact Ash goes EVIL by the end of the season also comes off bad. I don’t think any of this was intentional, I just think Olan done goofed and didn’t think of any implications of this. The fact both of the episodes featuring Ash’s full heel turn aired during pride does not help. That said it’s still a better pride tie-in than “There’s Room For Everybody Under the Rainbow” or “Beat Up this bisexual for prizes”

And I only say fully confirmed because....

So after an episode with Sheryl where ash is tempted but seemingly rejects invictus and even helps exorcise a gary.. we get The Leaving. The Leaving is where this arc goes from decent, with ash tempted by her own self hatred and doubts to go to invictus.. to her deciding HE WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG! I’M TAKING LITTLE CATO, BYE!

It just feels fucking abrubt. Her resenting Quinn is an intresting idea but they didn’t develop it enough to feel natural and while her being upset at finding out Avacato lied would be a godo catalyst, the other episodes just don’t give me enough evidence she’d turn this quickly. Her wanting to leave WITH Little cato to get them away from Gary and Avacato makes sense. Little Cato is the only person on the Galaxy 2 she has left and she wants to protect him. I liked that. .but her suddenly going to invictus and trusting him just makes no sense. He took her brother in th efirst place! I don’t mind her having some doubt, maybe invctus actually works to convice her but no. invctus gets a hearald soley because the plot says “whelp ash goes evil about here.

Her actions in the finale also just feel.. off in places. While I like the idea of her reveling in her power and not feeling powreless, again it’s not all bad and the confrontation with Gary and Avacato is hella tense, with her genuinely wanting to help Little Cato and the two dads forced to confront her..It’s just spoiled by everything around her: HUE aburbtly turns on her instead of trying to help her too, not tha thtey were close but still, Gary only says “I’m sorry we failed you” and dosen’t try to save her at any point... it just seems like everyone but Spidercat, Thunderbandit and Mooncake wrote ash off the moment she came back and instead of using that for drama they just kinda ignore it.

Her killing Mooncake also feels.. forced. Like “okay we have to have her be evil now”. But it just dosen’t feel like she’s far gone enough when episodes ago Mooncake is the person who got her ot return home. It’s just aw eird 180 to spite gary when again GARY DID NOTHING WRONG AND YOU SAW IT AND COME OFF AS A MORON FOR NOT SEEING IT. Even getting I myself can be iratoinal COME ON. It’s just a sad waste of a good arc and my favorite character, especially since Ashly Burch, whose come to be one of my favorite voice actors, brought her goddamn a game all season and is the only thing that made this arc’s ending tolerable is her good voice acting. And even she strained to make this work at all. Gah.

Dying is Easy Baby, Living is Harder

Going from the worst character arc to the best character arc, we have Avacato. I was utterly floored when Olan brought him back last season, his return being easily the biggest swerve of the season. I was optimsitic Olan would do something good with it and had good reason for this.. and was throughly right.

Avacato easily had the most gripping arc of the season, with us learning on just the depths of who he used to be: a remorsless killer who simply killed because it’s what he was good at, a butcher with no purpose.. until Lord Commander came knocking and offered something better... a cause.. a better galaxy and all the killing he could ever want to make it so.

So Avacato gladly killed the king and queen of ventrxia who trusted him dearly.. only to change in one moment. .finding their baby son, HIS son, among the wreckage and taking him in, never telling his boy what he’d done out of shame. With this one hell of a reveal the entire character is upended. As Avacato puts himself in the finale “You saved me”. By raising this kid he went from a butcher for a monster.. to a loving father who’d do anything to protect his adopted son and try and attone for his past. He knows he can’t possibly even the scales but he can damn well do his best anyway.

And while this was already great in it’s debut, setting up a time bomb to go off any time in the season, it hit it’s peak with the best scene in the season and possibly the series: With Gary at his lowest, his guilt over Fox’s death swallowig him, Avacato picks this moment to confess. The resulting acting from Olay and Coty is just.. majestic.

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Seriously just the quivering in his voice , the sheer pain as he tells gary what he did, Gary’s utter HORROR at what his best friend did, that no matter how much he loves Avacato.. what he did to his son outweighs that and both snapping at each other: Gary calling him a coward (not unfairly), and Avacato saying “You murdered fox”. Just the raw emotoin in the acting and animation here.. I don’t have enoguh words. It’s freaking beautiful. The only reason this isn’t the best scene of the year is because it’s not over yer.. and because “I’d Have You Dad” happened. But it’s damn fucking close to that scene in terms of emotion and the fight that insues is just brutal, two friends, frayed emotoinally and at their lowest ponits just wailing on each other for catharsis. I cannot praise this scene enough.

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Or it’s direct followup, whcih I consider part of it. Olan... really shined this season as Gary. While he was decent to start, a bit shouty but fine he hit his stride last season and just climbed higher this season, with this speech being his peak (though the zombie gary scene is a close second). This speech is raw, emotional and speaks to who gary is. He dosen’t mince word at what Avacato’s done or how much it’s going to hurt Little Cato when he finds out the truth.. but he forgives his friend. At Avacato’s lowest, curled up in a ball begging his best friend to cast him aside for this.. Gary refuses. He knows what his friend did was terrible.. but he knows he’ll do his damndest to fix this and did what he did. That he can be better for his boy and deserves better than to be thrown out. More on gary in a bit.

So while Avacato starts to recover the strain of things eats away at him till he breaks down to Gary after Little Cato asks about his mom. Unfortunately Ash was listening, all that happens.. but the real shining moment is in the finale. Faced with what he did, his past sins coming back to haunt him and Ash ready to stand as his executioner, he tells him what he did... but what Ash can’t grasp in her anger.. is that Avacato still loves his boy, that he did something terrible, he killed his birth parents, he lied to him his whole life.. but he loves that kid. Little Cato saves him and while he may not deserve his son.. he loves him more than anything and always will. And that coupled with Gary’s words reunites father and son. The road no doubt won’t be smooth now the truth is out there.. but it’s bound to be damn excellent and I can’t wait to see it.

And the Rest:

So breaking down the rest of the cast, as those were the two bigger arcs, we start iwth Gary. As I said moments ago, Olan is at his fucking peak this season, a season that puts the poor guy through the wringer as he finds his girlfriend dying from poisoning, finds out his best friend/boyfriend murdered someone, has a well meaning gesture to stay behind nearly kill him, has to fight zombie versions of himself, has to watch as an alternate version of himself slowly dies, watches his best hope get beheaded, his son get kidnapped, his surrogate daughter go to the darkside because he was forced to stab her bother, and to put the cherry on the crap sunday, watches his other best friend die horribly by said surrogate daughter’s hand’s ushering an elder god into his universe.

So yeah he gets a LOT of good character stuff here. Besides all the stuff from forgivness he also gets a hell of a moment taking in Quinn’s pain for her knowing it might kill him but doing so anyway and one in the finale tellnig ash “Sorry we failed you”. It just shows off that beneath the lairs of weirdo and cookies lurks one of the most heroic, kind, and noble characters i’ve seen in a cartoon. He’s gone from blowing up ships by sheer incompence and semi-stalking a woman he barely knew to a loving father, partner and friend who takes every loss to heart and tries his damndest to make sure it dosen’t happen again. Gary is at his best here.

Quinn got some much needed fleshing out this season. Her horrifying past with her awful bitch of a mother who forced her into a corpse room and her self hatred over not saving her sister (something that is not at al lher fault to begin with), make for some compelling television. It gives her “I have to do it all by myself” characterization that was so damn annoying in season one context, that she has to.. because she has an inbuilt martyr complex. The season also deconstructs it heavily, with the KVN Net fiasco being entirley on her shoulders and Avacato rightly calling her out.

They do and don’t fix her relationship with Gary from Season 1. See my problem there is it escalated pretty quickly from him trying to stalk her to a deep relationship. Here they do give them some time to breathe and the actors have genuine chemstry.. but it still is hard to to take this relationshpi seriously when you realize they’ve been together exactly two months, and that Gary spent at least 6 months hunting for a way to save someone he barely knew. It’s not bad there are really precious moments between the two, I just wish we got some more depth as to WHY they like each other that isn’t just...

Finally there was this weird thing where Olan seemed to think Nightfall IS this Quinn... he .. he does remember he set up last season that Nightfal lisn’t a version of this unvierse’s Quinn right? But we weirdly get her assuming she’s going to become nightfall without eve rmentioning that and Nightfall somehow predicting what she’d do. I dunno it just feels off.. I don’t mind ruminating on if a chracter will become a future version of herself but the timelines have diverged enough that shoudln’t be an issue.

HUE got the shaft this season, being relegated to the computer, but he was still a delight when he showed up and I get his shunting to the computer was to help weed down the cast as even with Fox killed off way too quickly our main cast still consists of 9 characters WITH HUE and that’s not including important side characters like Tribore, Bolo, Quastronastro and Kevin. The reveal in the finale however was awesome enough to make up for it and i love his bulky new body. Gonna come in handy at the end of the world i’ll tell you what.

KVN is KVN. He’s mildly annoying at times, utterly hliarious at others. He’s always been this way but unlike Tribore he’s more tolerable. While like Tribore no one in the main cast really LIKES him, unlike Tribore KVN suffers enough phsycial punishment and scorn from everyone else on a regular basis to even it out.

Sheryl was a good addition.. but they sadly took their sweet time doing anything with her, with Sheryl getting maybe a line or two or a big damn heroes moment early on. Thankfully as the season went on we got a few nicer character moments from her: Gary finding out she really came to protect HIM and has lost her obessive and destructive desire to get John back, really truly being there for her son. While I wish they’d focused more on Gary adjusting to his mom actually loving him now, this was still nice. But with the rest of the episodes she got nice character moments with everyone that showed she really had changed: She has a nice team up with Avacato, tries to help Ash sympathizing with her drifting nature but hoping she’ll make the right choice, and gets a great moment with Quinn in the finale encouraging her that she isn’t entirely nightfall and that...

All in all I liked her even if she was underused.

Little Cato was great this season, Steven Yuen was graet as always but he was kinda put off to the side. His dad’s arc grappling with the fact he killed LC’s parents is more about Avacato than his son, and LIttle Cato is really just a supporting player in most other characters arcs. It’s not a bad thing though as he got plenty of focus last season and will no doubt get more next season. Unlike the abrupt death of Fox I don’t feel they wasted Little Cato and he still had plenty to do he just dind’t have an arc of his own and again with what he know snow, that’s clearly going to change. Yuen also got some great work in, showing that even though he’s now been nominated for an oscar and has a major starring role as ...

He’s still got it in the roll that really made me a fan of him after I became aware the guy existed thanks to a failed attempt to make a movie out of Chew.

Mooncake is Mooncake. Like KVV he dosen’t really cahnge.. but he sure can die though. Jesus that was crushing.

Biskit was a nice addition to the cast. While like KVN and Tribore he’s clearly comic relief that dosen’t really suffer emotionally, he seperates himself for both by both being extremley funny after a while and extremley useful, providing a tech person where the team had none before and having some fun gags including his apparently having merch in the ship’s gift shop, and telling Little Cato about his seminar “If you have to ask you can’t afford it!” He was just a fun little ball of crazy in a period of immense darkness, my only beef being I wish they explained his two episode abseence. He NEEDED to be absent for Fox’s death and the mourning after, but they could’ve explained why offhand.

Moving onto supporting we have Bolo who was great if underultized. Look i’m always up for some keith david.

So naturally i’ve always loved Bolo and he got some awesome moments, though I am curious why he and gary having beef went nowhere. Otherwise he was good. His Cookie Guardiian on the other hand...

But yeah Bolo was great he just didn’t get to do much after the first few episodes beyond get highlandered.

Kevin Van Newton was a good addition, with Tom Kenny really getting to flex his crazy old man muscles again and the twist Nightfall contacted him was genius. He was a ncie cranky old man and while his death was tragic he was around just long enough to not overstay his welcome. Don’t have much else to say about him so heres a present barfing nutritious neco wafers on children

Invictus.. isn’t the strongest vilian to me. Their terrifying, have great powers and great skill.. but we don’t know WHAT they are, why their doing all this, or what thier goal is which makes them just come off as a generic god level monster. It’s part of what made the Ash arc not quite work: Invictus just dosen’t have the personality to come off as convincingly decptive so Ash comes off like an idiot for trustnig the demonic voice that already stole her brother. I will say the animation for Invictus is damn terrific and the zombie gary’s are just genuinely terrifying. Seeing our loveable heroic goofus reduced to decayed deranged fanon fodder for our main bad guy is utterly horrific and always terrifying and I can’t wait to see even more next season. Hopefully next season makes invictus a better villina.

Thankfully we got the series BEST villian back.

David Tennant is back as the Lord Commander and my god I missed his presence. He��s still a depraved, utterly terrifying monster but now has an intresting dynamic with invictus: forced to serve someone else and left on the receiving end of someone else being a shitty boss. He’s just a delight.. the character hasn’t changed really at all but that’s fine with me.

He also WINS for a while, getting his titan body, a shocking twist I did NOT SEE COMING. The horrifying image of this monster even MORE powerful and emerging from earth’s remains.. that’s fucking iconic. His tearing up Invictus’ minions and telling him “Now to rmeind you who I am was awesome”. Sadly intead of overthrowing invictus.. he ended the season put in a box.

Hopefully he finds someway out as i’td be awesome to see him and the team squad

Finally we have Clarence. While he only had one episode I felt Conan acted his ass off here and he got an emotional sendoff. I generally never expected to forgive the little fart nocker but here we are. I also did love the gag of bringing back every minor character from season 2 and the dewinters to plauge our hero as he tried to save everyone and his tearful final moment tugged at the heart. That being said the one complaint I have is no one saw his sacrifice yet Ash behaves as if she knows her father died

Final Thoughts:

So on the whole the season isn’t BAD. It has plenty of tension, the music, animation and voice cast are top notch and it had some great character work.

I do feel the season coul’dve been BETTER though, with the lack of real work on team dynamics, sloppy pacing, sloppy treatment of ash and sloppy joes on top of a certain green asshat wearing a fetching beret really held the season back from being as great as it could’ve been. This show is still one of the best out there but I hope it can get back to it’s best self next season. But I will gladly line up: even if I had trouble with this season I will always love this show. It’s back to back for life and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

If you enjoyed this review, consdiering becoming a backer RIGHT HERE. Even if you can only kick in a buck it not only helps but gets you access to exclusive reviews, my discord, and to pick a short when I do a shortstacular, my celebration of a character from the theartical short’s day’s birthday. You also help me reach stretch goals: 20 has been changed from monthly reviews of darkwing duck to reviewing, also at a monthly or more if I feel like it pace, THE OWL HOUSE. all the episodes but the two i've already covered all for everyone if you pony up 5 bucks along with 2 Ducktales mini as well as a brucey bonus Danny Phantom: The Ultimate Enemy review, while 25 will have me reviewing 3 MORE disney movies (The Recess, Proud Family and best Kim Possible Movies), and allow you the backers to pick a review. And the best part is like this review EVERYONE, wether you can afford to pay or not, gets the review. So if you end up liking this review and want more, hop on. And if your consdiering becoming a 5 dollar backer and thus helping meet my next goal automaitcally you not only get a review a month but if there's a reward down the line you'd rather swap one of the current ones for the 20 dollar tier with let me know. If it's within reason i'll gladly do it.

#final space #olan rodgers #adult swim #tbs #gary goodspeed #avacato #little cato #quinn argon #tribore menendez #ash grayven #fox #clarence #invictus #the lord commander #lord commander #david tennant #sheryl goodspeed #bolo #keith david

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catravandece · 3 years ago

Text

I posted 840 times in 2021

50 posts created (6%)

790 posts reblogged (94%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 15.8 posts.

I added 403 tags in 2021

#woh - 147 posts

#me - 38 posts

#it speaks - 37 posts

#lotr - 34 posts

#dramas - 30 posts

#venom - 30 posts

#castlevania - 29 posts

#word of honor - 22 posts

#twofs - 19 posts

#star trek - 17 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#au the morning after soft birthday tang yi gets a spring loaded glitter bomb in the mail bc msf was too heart eyed to remember his evil plan

My Top Posts in 2021

im no thoughts head empty just modern day shl xie wang post-zhao jing takedown. he took over their house and zhao jing’s assets but delegates taking care of shit to his scorpion buddies, mostly just wanders around doing whatever strikes him like redecorating all the bedrooms or paying off some random kid’s tuition. when he gets really voided out he crashes at luo fumeng’s place to hang out with qian qiao. they bake cookies and platonically make out until he feels better. one day he crosses paths with ye baiyi again for the first time since the business coup or w/e and they inexplicably can’t leave each other tf alone, first they’re fighting, then they’re fucking, xie wang calmly admits to himself he’s caught feelings and drags ye baiyi kicking and screaming into a weird kind of domestic bliss. they get a cat that loves xie wang and ye baiyi moves his sword collection into one of the guest rooms where they make wenzhou sleep during visits

45 notes • Posted 2021-07-02 03:59:46 GMT

chief phupha come get ur man he’s literally on fire

50 notes • Posted 2021-03-06 05:26:46 GMT

matching icons for u and ur bad buddy

128 notes • Posted 2021-11-29 04:52:05 GMT

nie mingjue does NOT have pickup truck energy thank you very much it is painfully obvious that he drives a 2009 soccer mom hatchback. plenty of seating for huaisang’s weird friends and trunk space for huaisang’s art projects and all wheel drive for huaisang’s inevitable brushes with death on his learner’s permit.

251 notes • Posted 2021-08-15 05:53:08 GMT

jin zixuan had to die bc mxtx knew with his newly acquired Dad Energy he had the power to fix absolutely everything. given the opportunity dude woulda resolved the yunmeng bros fight, gotten the wen remnants and wwx a nice farm to live out their days and educated lwj on the benefits of proper communication all while mitigating jgy’s seething bloodlust thru Baby Playtime and fatherly sincerity. my mans was too powerful rip

2650 notes • Posted 2021-02-06 20:40:36 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#my 2021 tumblr year in review #sakdsfcdnaslmdcs thank u tumblr for reminding me of Evil Prankster Meng Shao Fei #u can rly tell i had the drama feels this year huh #it speaks

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astrovian · 4 years ago

Audio

Richard Armitage interview on BBC Radio Somerset for Uncle Vanya (25/10/20)

Full transcript under cut

Now the moment you’ve all be waiting for, particularly if you’re female – some proper eye-candy on this show okay, not just me. ‘Kay, some proper stardom. Richard Armitage has been in so much television okay, let’s give you a bit of an idea as to what he’s been in over the years. Of course, he started off in North & South back in 2004. He was Lucas North in the British TV drama Spooks. He was in Castlevania, he was in Robin Hood. He’s done so much work for The Royal Shakespeare Company. But for lots of you, you’ll have seen him in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit. Here’s him talking a little bit about his role.

[Clip from The Hobbit interview – I play a character called Thorin Oakenshield, son of Thráin, son of Thrór, the last King Under the Mountain. There’s a direct descent from the royal line, which is myself, Thorin, and Fíli and Kíli, who are nephews by my sister]

Now, I’ve never seen The Hobbit, but whenever I think of Richard Armitage, it’s always- he was the guy in the last couple of episodes of The Vicar of Dibley.

[Clip from The Vicar of Dibley]

Brilliant, from Dibley to the valleys of New Zealand. Fantastic. Really pleased we can say we can speak to Richard Armitage on the show this afternoon to talk about his brand new film. Good afternoon, Richard. Thanks for joining us on the Sunday show. How are you?

I’m very good. How are you?

I’m great, thanks. Now, I say good afternoon, but you’re in New York, so it’s good morning to you over there.

Good morning. Yes.

Now you’ve done so much TV and film it’s ridiculous. If I sat here and listed out all the stuff you’ve done, we’d be here all day. However, we’re chatting about the latest one. Am I saying it right – Uncle ‘Van-ya’ or ‘Va-nya’? I’ve always said ‘Va-nya’.

You can say either, I mean a lot of the actors in our play were sort of from the North or from Ireland, and so we were calling him ‘Van-ya’. Sort of has a nicer ring to it, doesn’t it?

Yeah, let’s go with Uncle ‘Van-ya’. Yeah, now this is the-

Uncle ‘Van-ya’.

Now this is on Tuesday, you can see this from Tuesday onwards. Give us a bit of backstory. You were doing this as a play, but then Covid hit and it all had to change, is that right?

Yeah, we were in the middle of a, of a sixteen-week run and we’d-, we got through about ten weeks, and then we came in on a Monday morning and theatres were closed and we, we all had to go home. But it was something that we knew was coming, obviously Broadway had closed the week before us, and uh, so the chance to come back, even in a really still very difficult working environment, to, to sort of re-stage the play for film was something I think we were all incredibly grateful for.

Because not every play’s doing that – lots of plays have closed and we don’t know when they’re gonna re-open. But it must be a great thing to have because not every play was having that, were-, you know some of them were still just waiting for their moment to open up again.

Yes, and I mean National Theatre Live and Digital Theatre, they do film theatre, but they usually do it with a, with an audience in place, and that’s part of the, the thrill of it. But we had to- or, Sonya Friedman and her team had to sort of re-imagine what it might be like without an audience, and so this is a kind of hybrid film really, it-, we’re still in a theatre, but we’re much more kind of involved in the play and the camera comes into the stage and we see a little bit more than a regular production. But yeah, I feel very lucky that we were able to do this.

So it’s not like if you, if we had gone and seen it before it closed we’re obviously sat there looking on, but in this, in this version, the camera’s on the stage with you, you’re pretty much right in with the action, aren’t you?

You’re right in there, and I think that’s one of the, one of the y’know, unusual experiences, that that’s often not possible because you can’t, y’know, disrupt an audience’s viewpoint, so we tend, y’know, we tend to see theatre and hear an audience. Which, we lose the sound of an audience and that was very important with this play because the play is a comedy and y’know, the audience participation is, is really quite important. But it’s still a-, an interesting experience without the audience. In fact, there’s this sort of sadness for the audience’s lack, y’know.

Your character, you’re Astrov, is that right?

Yeah, I am. I’m the doctor.

Tell me a bit about him. What’s he like?

Well, he’s a bit of an outsider to this, to the family. Um, he’s, um, turned to drink because he is traumatised by losing patients, um, he’s working in a, in a region that’s suffering from an epidemic. At the same time, he’s recognising that his small corner of the world is being depleted environmentally, and so he’s, he’s, he’s an environmentalist. He’s planting trees and trying to sort of sustain his natural habitat, and he has a theory as to what, y’know, why people are sick and why our society is sick. And so, in terms of relevance, I think it, it sort of rang a lot of bells. Um, but he, y’know, in terms of his journey through the play, he finds love. Y’know, he talks early on in the play about not feeling anything because he’s been so battered down by his, his work, but he finds love and, um, is rejected. And you know, that’s the tragedy of Chekov, is that everyone’s in love with the wrong person.

And Chekov plays are very well-known, and they’re incredibly written as well. For you as an actor, to say you’re doing Chekov in the West End, or in this case in the cinema, that must be wonderful.

Yeah, it always sounds very kind of, um, highbrow, but Chekov didn’t write that many plays, and he’s also – y’know, he was a doctor as well himself. So there’s always a doctor in his plays. He writes about people, and I think that’s what attracts actors to this work. He doesn’t, he’s not so focused on the plot, he’s very much about the human experience and how we attract and repel each other. And he’s also a great purveyor of comedy and, y’know, finding fun with our, our flaws, and I think people will watch this after living in lockdown for six months, watching these people in a house that can’t get away from each other and are, y’know, ripping shreds, tearing shreds off of each other and, and kind of going out of their heads, and I think audiences will understand what Chekov was all about.

And this is available from Tuesday, unclevanyacinema.com, but you’re over in New York, so are you on the next project already, or are you doing something over there?

No, this is, this is where I, I live when I’m not working. But I’ll be back in, in England next year, I’m working on another Netflix show, so that will be good.

Now, when I said that Richard Armitage was coming on, it was- oh, the ladies, they go mad you know, ‘cause you’re so damn good-looking. And all these people, they’re on about the blimming Hobbit and all that sort of stuff, which is fantastic. But for me, do you know what thrills me most about you?

Go on.

You’re the guy that married Dawn French in The Vicar of Dibley. That’s the first thing that comes to my mind-

*Laugh* I knew you were gonna say that.

I know that for a lot of people it’s The Hobbit, and I know how big those sort of things are, and I know how good this, this new film is, but for me, you say ‘Richard Armitage’, he’s the guy who was nearly cheated on Dawn French.

Thanks for that.

No, not on-

He wasn’t cheatin’ on her.

He wasn’t, but she thought he was. But you’ve done so much-

Maybe they’ll re-run it at Christmas, who knows.

Oh, they re-run it all the time, Vicar of Dibley. Can’t move for it.

Do they?

Oh, they can’t move for it. UK Gold, it’s on every half hour. I hope you’re getting royalties for all these repeats.

I do too! I didn’t know it was on.

Oh, it’s on all the time. On all the time! But when you, when Covid’s out of the way as such, do you go back on stage with this, or has that sort of run its course now as a play, and you’re just gonna, it’s new life is now in the cinema?

I, yeah, I don’t think we’ll get the chance to go back, and I think that’s to do with the theatre is now being handed over to the fantastic David Tennant who’s gonna perform there-

Of course.

And the set is gonna be taken away, so I think this was a last chance to, to sort of discover the, this play. But I’m thrilled it’s on film, y’know. Film is forever, so…

That’s a good thing. I will just- if I don’t do twenty seconds on, twenty seconds on The Hobbit, the people will go mad. Great thing to be involved in, is it still something people ask you about?

It’s massive, I mean it was such a huge part of my life as well. Life-changing, y’know, going to New Zealand and working with one of my cinematic idols, y’know, Peter Jackson and that whole cast was, was phenomenal, and y’know, one of my favourite childhood books, so I, I couldn’t have asked- it was a dream come true really. And I, uh, still have incredible memories of that time.

So, Uncle Vanya, okay, is out from Tuesday, unclevanyacinema.com, but to be honest with you-

.com!

I’ve just been doing some googling, and if you just type in to any search engine ‘Uncle Vanya’, it comes up as the top listing. I mean there’s some great reviews for it as well-

Brilliant! And have you been to the cinema in this time?

I haven’t!

Are you getting out and going?

No, I haven’t been, that’s what I’m thinking, I should go and do it.

Give it a shot! I’ve done it, I did it a few times while I was there, and y’know, if you do obey all the rules and let the cinema take, y’know, do what you’re ‘sposed to do, wear the mask, it’s fine. It feels like normality. I mean, it’s like a Tuesday afternoon when there’s not that many people in there, but it’s still, y’know, still worth it.

I’m not minding that you see, ‘cause you’re guaranteed-

No.

-not to be next to someone who’s gonna be eating their popcorn in your face.

Chewing their popcorn.

Yeah.

Exactly.

That’s it. Or you get the couple in the back getting off with each other. I’m quite glad to be on my own there watching.

*Laugh*

That’s absolutely fine.

Is that what happens in cinemas in Somerset there?

Oh, it does, it does. Not-

*Laugh*

-not as much as I’d like. Well, look, Richard, it’s been a pleasure to speak to you, you are a gentleman, and I’ll give you a big plug again, Uncle Vanya comes out on Tuesday, unclevanyacinema.com, the reviews are great, it’s got five stars everywhere. Thanks so much for your time.

Thanks Andy.

#@netflix give us the show info you cowards #also imagine going to the cinema and richard armitage is just casually sitting near you #richard armitage

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hezjena · 4 years ago

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2020 - Fics in Review

Ahh thank you so much @sidhelives for tagging me, which was actually amazing, because I was thinking that I hadn’t written a lot this year… but turns out I really had! And also booo, for making me do so much maths. An I pass the curse of having to do maths onto @piecesofsolaswriting and of course to anyone who wants to do it! <3

Overall Stats Total Words Written: 153340 Total Completed Fics: 9 Average Words Per Month: 12778

Ongoing Fics and Series

Rituals of the Dalish - Dragon Age Els Lavellan/Solas - 35 new Chapters - 94047 And I completely edited it from 1st person to 3rd… which took a long time

Make No Mistake - Dragon Age Merrill/Fem!Hawke - 9153

Writer’s Block - Dragon Age Varric/Cassandra - 4345

The Cottage on the Amaranthine Coast - Dragon Age Els Lavellan/Solas - 8247

Completed Fics

Fever Dream - Dragon Age Els Lavellan/Solas - 16115

Presumption - Dragon Age Els Lavellan/Solas - 2645

Elfroot Tea - Dragon Age Keeper Deshanna Character Study - 2382

Malfeasance - Dragon Age Merrill Character Study - 6,049

Midnight - Dragon Age Merrill/Marina Hawke - 2138

Come to the Table - Dragon Age Celene/Anora - 2,450

Fluff on their Own Terms - Dragon Age Varric&Cassandra - 1386

Holding Out For A Hero - Dragon Age Cassandra/Fem!Hawke - 1014

Hunger - Castlevania Striga/Morana - 2305 words

Fic I spent the most time on:

That would have to be Rituals of Dalish, my long fic that just keeps going. I even took five months out over the course of the year to edit it twice. Which was a slightly insane undertaking, but I’m really happy with how it has turned out and am inspired to keep writing!

Fic I spent the least time on:

It would have to be Come to the Table, I saw the prompt, and fell into a writing black hole. I just got hit with a bolt of inspiration lightning, typed the whole first draft up on my phone in a couple of hours (my wrists hated me) and had it edited a few hours after that. The whole experience took maybe six hours in total.

Favourite thing that I wrote this year:

It’s going to be a toss up between Fluff on their Own Terms - a cracky fic about Varric writing a terribly smutty version of Swords and Shields Two, in order to annoy Cassandra and Malfeasance, which couldn’t be more different. A dark look at Merrill’s backstory that tackles her difficult relationship with Marethari and was written because of Cryptographic_Delurk’s gorgeous prompt.

Favourite things that I read this year:

Ohhh the list is so long… I have read so much this year. I guess I’m going to stick with five, that seems like a good number. Although I know I’m missing so many good ones, and I apologise to everyone who I’ve missed <3

Vindicated - PiecesofSolas / @piecesofsolaswriting

An absolutely fantastic Solavellan fic, that has drama, intrigue and excitement. That I even got the absolute honour of proofreading this autumn. Vindicated is just so fun, it’s so easy to get lost in the pages and lose hours to this fic, it’s just soo good.

Though the Truth May Vary This Ship Will Carry On - Cryptographic_Delurk / @the-cryptographer

Probably a cheat, because it was a gift, but it’s a truly beautiful look at Isabela that I just want everyone to read. In places it is dark, but doesn’t shy away from any of the darkness - which I live for. I have read this so many times and it still hits right between my ribs. Utter perfection.

The Queen of Peace - @beaubashley

So I read the prequel to this, Good Grief last year and it has haunted me with the absolutely beautiful plot, writing and story. It lives in my brain completely rent free. The sequel utterly lives up to the first and is so good, heartbreaking, tragic and is in my humble opinion, the epitome of Solvallan Hell.

The Coolness of Your Shadow - Viscariafields / @nug-juggler

I had to mention this one, not only did it make me realise that I adore Bethany/Alistair - but it’s so well written and sweet that I’ve read it a couple of times just because I wanted to re-experience the absolute joy that is reading this fic.

Carrion for Crows (Remastered) - Alexis_Trvlyn

This one gets an honourable mention, as at the time of writing this, there are just two chapters posted. But I read a lot of Carrion for Crows and absolutely loved it, gritty and dark and a delicious reversal of Solavallen. And now it is being rewritten, bigger and better and probably even more delicious. And I just cannot wait.

Things I want to work on in 2021:

Ohhhh, if I said finish Rituals I might cry. But maybe if I say I’d like to at least finish Act Two, that is a more reasonable goal. Beyond that I have a to-do list a mile long, and a reading list even longer. And I’m sure I’ll get to both eventually, haha. I want also want to work on emotive writing and I think I’m about getting a good handle on emotions, but I want to push myself harder and try to get it down.

Conclusion

2020 was a mess. I don’t think I need to say anymore on that, but I’ve been able to deal with so much of the mess by living in Thedas - and I have made so many good friends in the community and I’m just really grateful for everyone. To 2021 being better!

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demonfox38 · 4 years ago

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Completed - Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

Oh, my language is going to be vulgar on this one.

So, I'm a crusty millennial who likes old garbage. Most of the media I like is old enough to drink and be a member of the US congress, but probably couldn't be due to the country that produced it. Now, I'd like to think that I've got good reasons to like older media, particularly when it comes to video games. It's a bit hard for my NES to bug me for microtransactions/DLC and emanate the screams of children and man-children alike. But, as much as I like my retro junk, there's one thing I'm very, very happy about regarding modern video games. The variety of game types now-a-days is a blessing. It's rare that someone is stellar at all game types, and I sure have my weaknesses.

It took me a long time to realize that I could be good at video games, and I wholly blame the glut of 1980s platforming games on that.

Look, platforming is not a forgiving genre. Particularly, back in the day where you had characters dying in 1-3 hits before factoring in death pits. It existed then for the reason that fourteen million instakill indie horror games exist now. Instantly killing the player is a lot easier to code than, say, having to track a health bar or their new position as an enemy swats them into a different room. Sometimes, a coder's gotta do what they can to keep themselves sane.

But, from a player's perspective, this style sucks!

Getting good at a platforming game requires practicing the same levels over and over again, developing a sense of your character's inertia and limitations. Without a save state or a warp to narrow in on a particularly troublesome location, it's hard to get learning to stick. You could lose a lot of games and time trying to put it all together. And some poor little character is always suffering because of your ineptitude! Such failure feels like a fork in an electrical socket. Succeeding in these circumstances requires a great deal of emotional resilience and a contrary attitude. And you know what? That's just not something I had as a kid. In fact, one could say I had my aggression and competitive drive scolded out of me. I'm just now getting that back.

So, yeah. I had a little trouble with "Zelda II: The Adventure of Link."

"Zelda II" is part of a trifecta of NES games that get routinely shit on by retro reviewers. Like its peers "Super Mario Bros. 2" and "Castlevania II", this game is generally considered an inferior game due to an extreme change of gameplay and appearance from its predecessors. And you know what? That attitude sucks. I'd rather have a variety of different games with a cast I like than have them pigeon-holed into one genre. In "Zelda II"'s case, however? The game mechanic shift was so extreme that I can easily see the ire it raises. Hell, I felt it. I wouldn't go so far to say that it's the worst Zelda game ever, but man, does it have structural defects.

In "Zelda II", Link's goal is to save an ensorcelled Zelda from eternal slumber by picking up a Triforce chunk that was pitched into a fuck-off palace way at the edge of Hyrule. (No, not the Zelda from the first game. Another Zelda. Same Link, though.) To do that, he's got to slap six gemstones into various temples across the countryside. Naturally, that includes picking up his trusty sword, leaping into battle, and then maybe straight into a death pit.

That's right. This Zelda is actually a Mario.

Further complicating the matter is a sharp switch in battle style and item accruement. While the previous Zelda game was about room management and ranged combat (or at least, as much as that was allowed), this game is all about jamming Link's dinky sword into an enemy's face and running off as fast as he can. Now, Link can learn a few tricks to help with the slash and dash, like directional stab mechanics and spells. But, as far as getting new weapons to help you? Sorry, bud. No bombs or boomerangs here. Well, except for the assholes throwing boomerangs at you, anyway. You just can't steal them.

The game encourages polishing the player's skill with Link through a level system. After acquiring XP through good ol' fashioned monster murdering, Link can cash his points out, improving his life, magic, or attack power. As the player levels him up, stats become more costly to improve. If Link gets a total game over before you use your XP, it is wiped out. Alright, fine. Fair, I guess. But, I wouldn't recommend looking at Japanese footage of this game if you don't want to give yourself a migraine. It turns out that as a part of some rebalancing, the level-up system was stacked to try and keep players from dumping all of their points into a single stat early into the game. Particularly, attack. Considering how painful and annoying enemy logic gets in this game, it's such a drag to learn that Japanese players literally could cut their way right out of that struggle. Thanks for dicking with the game design again, American publishers.

I guess we got better looking sprites and sound effects out of the deal? Hooray for wiggly Barba.

Even with leveling mechanics and a handful of heart and magic containers, this Link feels much frailer than the original Zelda's Link. Like, it's hard to believe he's supposed to be the same guy. Even at max health and defense, you could get Link wiped out with 8-32 hits (as opposed to 16-64 hits from the first game.) Exacerbating that is a life system that can yoink those health bars at any pit's whim and Link's range/health restoration being tied to a limited pool of magic. It feels like you're playing with a ceramic replica of the original character. You can make it work in a fight, sure, but you'd rather have a sword than a shard of a broken teapot.

If you don't have a bushido-level acceptance of death, you're not going to make it very far in this game. I'm not being hyperbolic. You have to accept that you are going to kill Link. You're going to watch that little fairy boy fade to black as the world flashes around him, and you're going to see that a lot. You're going to toss his bitch ass into the river to get a game over and restock your lives because fuck if you're going to wipe out inside a dungeon and have to start your bitch ass back at Zelda's temple again. That little counter on the main menu isn't how many times you have wiped out. It's how many times you've clawed your way out of the abyss with a middle finger raised.

Oh. Minor epilepsy warning on boss and Link deaths, by the way.

Having gone full bleak there for a moment, there are a few pieces of knowledge that can help slow down the cycle of life and death:

There are towns with nice ladies in red dresses and orange robes that will heal your ass for free. You should talk with them a lot.

There are classes of enemies that will drop items after they have been killed six times. Most of the time, this is a magic bottle that restores MP. Sometimes, it's a bag of experience. No monster will drop anything to heal your HP.

Also, some enemies are literal rat bastards that steal your XP. Some also give you no XP on killing them. Yeah. I know. Annoying.

The Life spell is in Saria. The downward stab is in Mido. (I realize these are very strange sentences if you're more familiar with "Ocarina of Time.") Getting these can make a night and day difference in surviving the game. So, keep that in mind.

You do get a spell that will turn you into a fairy. You can use it to game pits and sneak past lock doors. Just don't abuse it too much. It's expensive.

The dungeons have this little statue in front of them that you can whack with your sword. In most locations, it'll drop either a magic bottle or an Iron Knuckle. Game entering and exiting a dungeon as much as possible to restore yourself to full vitality.

You can get into random fights on the overworld (represented either by a little black blob or a more threatening human-sized blob.) Staying on gold roads will mean these encounters produce no enemies.

Also, you can use those random battles to override forced platforming sections. Not that I would recommend cheating in such a fashion. 😉

The game will give you a level up after you plug a gemstone into a dungeon. If you're close to leveling up anyway, turn around and grind up to the top, cash in what you've got, and then go pitch that gem.

Link has a crouch, not a duck. You think pressing down on the D-pad will evade projectiles aimed at your face, but it does not. Crouching is only good for blocking floor-level garbage. It's best not to think of the down button as much as possible, really. Only use it to pick up crap off the ground and cheese the final boss. Otherwise, jump.

I know that I said earlier that "Zelda II" is mechanically like a Mario game, but you know what other perspective might help? Try and play Link as a Metroidvania Castlevania character. There's an attack style in games like "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night" and "Aria of Sorrow" where you walk, jump, and attack in such a way that you never stop moving forward. That's what you've got to do. Walk, jump at an enemy, bonk on forehead. (Depending on how fast you press the attack button, you may need to delay swinging your sword just a teeny bit. At least, I had a bad habit of swinging too early.) With any luck, when you hit the ground, you will be able to keep on moving. You do not want to get stuck playing "poke-the-hole" with your enemies, particularly with how turtle-y some of them can get.

So, the game's a brutal bitch, but I don't want to spend the entire time shitting on it. Let's talk about improvements.

Honestly, I like the sprite style of the side-scrolling sections better than the previous game. Everyone/thing has more room to be rendered, so they look clearer. I can't say the monster or dungeon design here is my favorite, but hey. Easy to see. Yippie. Could have used a map though. Maybe some more tile textures in the dungeons?

NO. STOP. BE NICE.

There are more people around that want to help Link out. Like, whole towns filled with helpful healing ladies and dudes that will teach you magic and the occasional sword strike. Most of their conversation makes sense (although, there's a memetastic fault in translation regarding a character being named Error instead of what I'm assuming should have been Errol.) People good. Want to help people. People help me.

Except for towns where some of the people are monsters, and one of the times they overlapped a healing lady to get text box priority, and then they killed me. Boo.

I'M SORRY. I HAD A HARD TIME.

The music variety is pleasant. Only a few tracks have escaped the game to go into use elsewhere, but there's only one that I'm really iffy on. The NA release did a fine job transposing what they could using a different sound chip, and there are striking uses of the sample channel being used in ominous situations.

But…like…I struggle to see where fighting through this game is worth it. And maybe it comes down to the final boss. Like, the penultimate one? Absolutely cool. A bitch to fight, but I can't knock how massive and intricate its sprite is. But, the final boss? I suppose it comes down to personal tastes, but I find mirror matches/rivals to be exceedingly dull. Like, good for you. You know how I fight. I do too. Come back to me when you know the weaknesses of my style and use a fresh set of skills to throw at me.

Like, it's not the worst ending in the Zelda series. (My vote for that would go to "Link's Awakening.") You do get Zelda saved. But, given that the final boss is some kind of dark clone of yourself…it begs a lot of questions. Was there any concrete plan for the forces of darkness in Hyrule, or were various monster tribes just scuffling around, being dicks without any overarching plan? Were some monsters trying to keep you out of the Great Palace for a good reason? Would there have been any threat of Ganon reviving at all if Link just…sat on his ass behind a castle for the next century or managed his anxiety in a different way? Why does the manual bother to separate Zeldas and the game does not? Oh, wait. The Japanese intro correctly distinguishes this and the American one does not. Why am I not surprised? What's the difference if you don't see the Zelda you saved from the first game, anyway?

This game is a lot of work. I had to psych myself up to play it every time, and by the end, I was rattled enough by my nerves that I literally camped in my bathroom for a few minutes just to make sure I didn't get sick on the couch. Very stressful. And I'm not sure that stress was worth it, frankly. Life's hard enough as it is right now. I literally have a stress rash on my neck from the shit I'm going through in real life. No, you did not need to know about that. But maybe you need to know that I've been having a hard time lately, and this game did nothing to alleviate me from the stresses of reality. And what's the point in checking out from reality if a fantasy world is just going to make me miserable, too?

There are better games to play in this style. Hell, there are better games on the NES in this style. You know what you should go play? "Faxanadu." It's uglier than "Zelda II", sure. An absolute idiot when it comes to basic mathematics. But it's very chill about platforming and death. And maybe I just want to chill the fuck out for a while.

#post game evaluation #zelda ii: the adventure of link

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