#the end credits not only can have good music and visuals some times

[ducklingpia]

⋆˙⟡ Lads boys as a K-pop boy band headcanon⋆˙⟡

I couldn’t stop thinking about Lads boys in their K-pop ERA after seeing their chibi performance so here it is. I’m brain-rotting I need to get this out I'm sorry if it’s too silly 🧍🏻‍♂️

── .✦ Xavier

Position: Oldest hyung/ Main visual/ lead vocals

He will be the first member to get introduced

The internet WENT CRAZY after that

Has a nickname “Nation’s first love”

Everyone assumed he’s the maknae because of his baby face and cute image. He always looks so cute without trying.

Is actually the oldest

Usually has really calm personality. Doesn’t talk much but becomes the most chaotic duo when paired with Rafayel.

Zayne has to keep his eyes out for these two every time they are near each other.

Master of ‘aegyo’ can do the cringiest aegyo with absolutely no shame.

In terms of skills, he got a very soft- mellow singing voice. I think he will be the type to do well at what he was told to do. Can sing pretty high note. His dancing is also really good. He usually slays if he had enough practice. But can’t really do free style.

Mostly just being chill on stages. He doesn’t really give it his 100% if it’s not his part. Sometimes he will slack off a little bit when he’s in the back (Caleb is NOT happy about it)

Lowkey a musical genius, Got credits in 85% of the songs.

I think this is where his passion lies. He composes most of the songs for the group.

Xavier is the composer& producer while Rafayel& Sylus will be in charge of the lyrics.

The first one to go on collaboration.

Like one day some big name solo singer will release a song and it’s - Prod. Xavier ???? 😭

And that song will blow-up bc it’s catchy as hell?? 😭😭

Everyone were confused

All the members were confused

Also lowkey a social butterfly.

Has the most friends outside the group and also senior friends in the industry.

One time the group were on variety show with the most famous host and he was like “Yo Xavier, did you eat the pears my mom gave to you yet?” and all the members were like “Huh??”

Apparently he and Xavier went out for a drink 3 days ago??

“But you told me you were busy when I ask you to go drink with me that day?” – probably Sylus lol 💀

I think he will go on the production route after the group disbanded. Will become the most respectable producer in the industry and keep a low-profile. He will produces hits after hits for other singers.

── .✦ Zayne

Position: Leader/ Sub-Vocals / Lead Dancer

I think everyone can agreed that he will be the perfect leader of the group

Gives off Dad energy in the group despite being the middle child.

Got Street-casting due to his handsomeness. The staff had to run after him and insists he comes to audition the next day.

Went a bit viral in his trainee days while he’s outside the building. He secretly got photographed and everybody were wonder who’s this super handsome boy was.

So he already has fans even before debut.

I think he will have a pretty low-baritone voice when singing. His singing skills are decent but doesn’t really stand out when first debut. But he will improves significantly later down the line and takes Xavier’s lead vocal spot.

His dance moves are really sharp and clean but sometimes can be a little bit stiff. Doesn’t do much facial expression during performance.

He made it up with his INSANE face card tho

The Unofficial visual. His face card and auras always served.

I HC that him and Caleb will spend their time practice choreographs together a lot and became really close.

Taking good care of everyone, He’s the main cook in the dorm.

Manager’s favorite boy, Also all the staffs love him

The only member who can wakes Xavier up and get him out of bed on time (Xavier is terrified of him but will never admit it)

Has a soft spot for Rafayel. Constantly checking after him and make sure that man doesn’t injured himself doing something silly during promotions

Him and Rafayel ended up having the biggest shippers in the fandom

Half of the female idols have a crush on him.

The first one who got into acting career. He got the male-lead role in a classic romance drama plot and absolutely ATE. Became a new star phenomenon.

Constantly winning ‘The actor you wanted to introduce to your parent on this holiday’ poll

Has perfect chemistry with every co-stars he works with. The video clips about how he treats his female lead like a gentlemen always went viral.

Will have a successful acting career after the group disbanded.

── .✦ Rafayel

Position: Maknae / Main Vocals / lead dancer / Center / Ace of the group

I HC him to be that all- rounder member who can do everything and slayed it all.

A golden maknae. Naturally talented in everything he puts his mind to, Fast learner, only takes him 1-2 times to remember choreographs or lyrics. (kinda like JJK from BTS)

Really passionate member but get bored easily. He will learn new talent skill in every comeback and moves to the new one.

Extremely charming and charismatic while performing. No matter who your bias is, your eyes will always drip to him on stages

Has THE MOST angelic voice. Singing is like breathing for him. Can sing a really, really, really high note.

His voice is also really unique, you can recognize his voice immediately in every songs he’s in.

His dancing skills are excellent too, his movements are really elegant and fluid. Can do free style no problem but sometimes he will unintentionally tweaks the movement and became out of sync with the rest of the team

REFUSED to call Caleb ‘Hyung’

Always insist that Caleb is also the maknae too lol

These two are always bickering or play fighting in the background in every behind the scene videos

HATES doing aegyo but it’s his duty for the Maknae. Easily get embarrassed by it but always trying his best (All the fans think he’s very good at it)

He got the most Anti fans in the group

Like this man will get hate comments in every corners of the internet?

He’s not bothered by it in the slightest tho

And due to that reason he also got the most overprotective& loyal fan base

Most likely be the first member to have a solo career

Everyone thought he will comes out with dance- poppy album but he releases a full on slow-indie sounds???

Surprisingly the album is so chill and easy to listen to plus his insane vocals the album ended up topping no.1 on several charts

I think he will continued his solo career after disbanded and appears as a mentor/ judge in several survival shows.

He will becomes a really good mentor, although he can be a bit scary and cut- throat in his comment sometimes.

── .✦ Sylus

Position: Main Rapper

The second oldest after Xavier, but everyone thought he’s the oldest at first

Kinda broke the internet when he get introduced too.

Has that uncle energy in the group. Always in the background supporting the maknae-line when they’re about to get into trouble.

Has the most male fans

Also has the most Solo stans

Doesn’t do much in the performance. Both his singing and dancing skills are below other members but ALWAYS serves face.

Also HIS VOICE.

Has the opening line in the song when he would say some words and everyone will be like ‘oh my god’ (it’s kinda like that felix guy from Straykids)

70% of his rapping skills came from his voice. He does improves a lot overtime tho

Start writing his own verses in the song due to Xavier encouragement and developed a song-writing talent.

Opposite from Zayne, Half of the male idols have a crush on him.

Surprisingly really good at variety shows.

Every time the group were on red carpet event. He will be in the headline on every reports the next day bc of his insane face card.

Win that “most handsome man in the world” poll every years

Him and Rafayel are the English speakers of the group when promote overseas

Has the BIGGEST international fan base. Goes viral every time the group went overseas

He will dip his toes into acting career a little. Mostly playing the 2nd male-lead or the villain.

One time he play the villain in this movie, they went on promotional activities and everybody is shipping the female- lead with him instead of the male lead?? 💀

He just has this chemistry & sexual tension with everything including the wall pls 👏🏻

The first member who got a brand-deal with this big fashion house, also ended up walking the runway (I’m thinking Prada)

Randomly dropped his solo mixed-tape one day and the fandom went WILD

I think his mix-tape will not be as commercially successful as other members bc it’s not the easiest to listen to, but it will later became a cult classic and got critically acclaimed.  

── .✦ Caleb

Position: Main Dancer/ Sub vocals

I HC that this man is born to be a dancer

Probably learned how to dance since like 4

Staged kid. Perform on stage since he can remembered.

Got discovered by the casting staff when he performs at some random festival.

Has the least lines first debut but always got the solo break dance or center part in the performance

Joined the group really young, probably at the same time as Rafayel

He was the smallest in the group at the time up until like 15

Then on one summer when he turns 16 he went from 5’7 to like 6 fts ??? 😭

Rafayel is pissed

He continued to grow and became the tallest member … yeah, the giant maknae

Doesn’t really has much fans like other members when first debut.

But on the 2nd comeback, he has a bit of glow-up and the concept fits him SO WELL. Everybody agreed he owned that era. they gains a lot of new fans from that comeback bc of him.

Has A LOT of Noo-na fans

He used to follow Zayne around everywhere when he was younger. So Zayne still sees him as that lil brother despite him being so big now.

Became insufferable when playing games especially when paired with Rafayel, These 2 get competitive af.

Get along well with every members but prefer to hang around either Zayne or Xavier the most.

Pretty awkward with Sylus at first, but they became gym buddies as times went on

Easy- going boy most of the time but became really scary when practicing. He will catches even the most subtle slacking from the members through the wall mirror.

Will got quiet and silently staring at that member with the most cold-heart eyes.

I think he will developed a passion for teaching and coaching, probably open his own dance studio and work behind the scenes like Xavier after disbanded

That’s all I have babygirls 🫦 . Please give me your own Headcanons if you have any 🙏 waiting for somebody to brain rot together!! 👀

[iwouldexistwithoutyou]

Talor Smith in "The Lobotomy Room" October 29th 2010 Credit: Erin Raby "The Ridges" were a band from Athens Ohio and more specifically Ohio University that I was lucky enough to be attending college at while they were playing shows. In Athens there is a decommissioned Asylum that was named the "Athens Lunatic Asylum", it is known by locals as "The Ridges". The concept of this band (as I understood it) was that they were the ghosts of those who died in that asylum, returned to serenade us with their ghostly songs. Their sound I describe as "Ghost Folk", they incorporated cello, violin, brushed drums, and guitar into their sound and had three core members Victor Rasgaitis, Talor Smith, and Johnny Barton, but they very often would invite guest musicians on stage with them to play as well. Their songs were good, I mean their songs were damn good. Their music evoked a mood that I haven't quite been able to find since and I highly recommend giving them a listen. This album I've linked here was actually recording within the building "The Ridges". At the end of this post are some old photos (their photoshoots were also beautiful) where you can see the theme they were going for captured visually. One of my favorite things they ever did that sadly I just missed was when they played an eerily lit concert in the actual building of the asylum that is their namesake. They also did really cool video promos for their upcoming shows that are awesome performances in their own right. The last time I saw them was at a show in Dayton Ohio at Blind Bobs in 2013. The ridges stopped playing shows sometime in 2015 and their website domain was released in 2017. I am not sure why they stopped playing but most likely as all bands do it became too much work to keep up with their careers evolving. I hope you'll enjoy the ghosts of the past with me, pour yourself a whiskey, light a candle or two, and give "The Ridges" a listen. You won't regret it.

"I can't sleep alone You don't know the feeling You don't sleep alone Your bed isn't freezing" "You never existed, so you don't have a soul You don't have a soul, so you can't be a ghost You can't be a ghost, so you can't haunt my home You're just a figment of my imagination" "When I invented love I never meant for anyone to get hurt It seemed like a good idea After all it was only a word"

[theclownghoul]

Gratuitous

Opinion piece & analysis

I really hate how Jinx’s suicidality is portrayed in S2, largely in Act lll but we’ll talk about all of it.

In S1 we have about three moments (by my count) that show Jinx harming herself or trying to end her life. Hitting herself in episode 3, being careless with the staples in episode 7 and pulling the pin on the bridge also in episode 7. There is also a line she says to Vi “You’re the reason I’m still alive” in episode 9 which given other things she says in that moment could be interpreted as other ideations.

What makes these moments different from S2 episode 9? Well none of the three main writers were credited to those episodes other than the dialogue in S1 episode 9. Most of them are communicated through animation only. They also just feel different, they’re vulnerable, other things are the focus and her doing these things is just a reaction to those feelings. There was something to get from the scene besides a showcase of her pain.

Episode 9 of S2 is not that. It’s gratuitous, it’s a spectacle, it’s gory and somehow losing all its impact. There’s the music which is not what I’d call tasteful or subtle. It’s making an impression, wants to force a feeling or reaction. Make you sad or horrified and oh, I was horrified but not the way they wanted.

Even the way she digs her nails into her cuticles in S2 episode 8 isn’t really meant to show us anything about her. It’s meant to affect the audience.

In comparison I almost appreciate how people have read her pulling the pin in S1 episode 7 as trying to manipulate or take Ekko out too instead of being a completely clear cut attempt. Because it at least shows that there is enough going on with the character’s mindset that we can speculate on her motivations and how she’s reacting to all the emotions that came from fighting her old friend. If you look at her face it’s sadness and regret (S1 is also better at story through facial expressions since there was forethought). You’re free to have your own reaction, not the one that’s set out for you.

I have mixed feelings about her fight with Vi now and telling Vi that she’s okay to go out by her hand. It feels closer to the moments in S1 than later in episode 9. There’s more going on, we’re meant to consider multiple layers of both her and Vi’s feelings in the moment. It’s a non explicit parallel to the Bridge and does show a pattern of behaviour. It’s also not credited to any of the main writers.

The scene from the opening of episode 9 as a whole, is it romanticization? Heard differing opinions on this and I honestly don’t know where I stand. One one hand it shows how empty she feels and how everything has come crashing down despite trying and it communicates her emotions through the images and music. On the other the scene is meant to be visually appealing while also showing her detonating the bomb very explicitly, like you see her blood. I’m sorry but this is some 13 reasons shit. None of this is helped by the fact that Isha was killed purposely to get her in this state.

I had way more emotions about the actual story in the scene with Ekko in S1 and the scene with Vi in episode 3. Originally I liked this scene but I just can’t really remember why exactly, especially when compared to the earlier ones. The other scenes aren’t lacking in any way when it comes to showing her despair so I’m lead to believe it’s a stylistic choice in line with S2’s music video focus.

Then there’s Ekko… what did he do to deserve this? I’ve said before that if he had to he would save her but the reason he had to was because this scene sounded like a good idea. Saw someone say why is it his responsibility to save her and yeah why? He’s her romantic interest? Not from her perspective at this point and that’s a terrible reason anyway. Not only are we shown her blowing herself up in detail, being inflicted with it but he also has to see that, multiple times. Please don’t make me think too long about it… then we don’t see what actually changes her mind and actually see their bond. That also doesn’t give me a lot of faith is what they think is important to show.

Then she sacrifices herself at the end to “break the cycle” which no one is actually clear on what is meant by that and the same damn song is playing. It’s weird.

I’d like to compare it to the Poison sequence from Hazbin Hotel since that scene faced backlash for romanticizing abuse specifically in that scene. If I can describe what makes Poison not exploitative and what makes Wasteland so then I can safely say they are different and there is something deeply sinister about Jinx’s scene.

Poison benefits internally, inside the context of the story from being visually appealing and pretty. That tells part of the story in and of itself and eventually it cracks, mirroring how Angel feels in the scene and in his situation.

Wasteland benefits externally, it’s done for the audience as I’ve been saying. There is nothing about Jinx’s mindset or actions that we get a better insight into from the stylistic choices. We know “she loves a spectacle” but that’s the only internal explanation that I could make. Even if they wanted the cutting of her hair and the burning on the last drop but the framing could have easily been different.

Think about the staple scene for contrast, it has no interest in being something other than what it is, brutal and disorienting, just as she is feeling in that moment. Jinx would behave that way whether there were “eyes” on her or not. Poison is the same, Angel “performs” to keep his thoughts at bay regardless of an audience. Wasteland only exists in its current form to entertain.

The final “sacrifice” also falls into this, solely focusing on eliciting a reaction from the audience and making a spectacle of sadness. There is no resolution to Jinx’s earlier conversation with Ekko, we don’t see her reflect, we don’t see a change. We have no reason to believe she’s in any way in a better place. Her decision to give her life for Vi’s isn’t particularly fleshed out and this as a conclusion to her arc is bizarre at best and offensive at worst, suggesting she had to remove herself from her loved ones lives, something she simultaneously feared and was tempted by.

I probably shouldn’t feel the need to make such a caveat but I am aware that the could be a matter of preference when it comes to how scenes like this are portrayed but the way this scene was done continues to strike me as odd. I can’t help but think it maybe intentionally or unintentionally is playing into the “sacrifice” message where, it may be a sad thing but Jinx had to die. And that’s a horrible thing to say.

[angelpink610]

You guys wanna know when the things I wished for, hoped for, visualized and manifested actually started to appear to me, to become my reality? When I understood and learned how to ENJOY THE PROCESS!

Let’s yap a bit… ;)

Us as immediate people in an immediate society end up focusing entirely on the results, we only see the things we wish for as results, as finish lines. What we fail to do is see the start line and the path that leads to the end.

I don’t want to sound corny, but it’s really all about that Hannah Montana movie song “The Climb”. We only think about how fast we will get there, how life will be when we get there, how happy it will be when we get there. Well, here’s the thing: if you’re not happy and grateful throughout the way, don’t even expect to be happy on the finish line. Our goals are not essentially what make us happy, they’re proofs of our capacity and work. What actually makes someone’s life happy and amazing, is the way that person behaves and conditions their mind WHILE chasing all of these dreams. It’s all about your methods, it’s all about your feelings, your reactions to the world, the way you act towards people. Don’t think you’ll be happy and achieve the greatest things when you live your life and answer to the world bitterly, in a rush, not paying much mind to it.

I know this is obvious, but just so that no one is confused and comes for me after: I’m not saying every day is going to be incredible, I’m not saying that you’re not allowed to be sad, angry, uncomfortable, jealous, disgusted. These are all perfectly normal and human emotions, and everyone should feel them—it just shows you’re alive. This concept of being 24/7 happy and grateful and “Oh my God, everything’s incredible all the time” it’s just not sustainable nor healthy (+, obviously, not real). What we should do, instead, is allow these emotions to be felt, and then act upon them understanding why they’re there and how we can soothe them, or make them a little less strong. For example, understand where your anger comes from, is it truly someone’s fault, why are we feeling it. Not block it, not try to stop it from being felt—but understand it. And then, after thinking (even meditating, if you like) about it, let it go, and let it be felt still, if you think it’s the right thing. Don’t ask too much of yourself always, sometimes we really just need to scream for a second on our pillow or shed a tear in our room. It’s perfectly alright and also healthy!

Have fun, make friends, create good memories with these friends, study, live your life to the fullest. Meet new people, go to new places, discover new music, books, art, movies that make you feel something. Laugh with people you love, create memories through pictures, do some risky things, you don’t need to always be so careful about everything. Some lesions make us stronger. And while you’re doing everything else, manifest your dreams, work towards it, put in the effort, visualize, believe you’re worth and destined for that, acknowledge you already have everything you need to get there and that, actually, you are already there.

Learn to actually live your life on the way to your dreams, not just survive the path. When you look at life with gratitude and love, life looks back—and you’ll feel it.

As always, you’re free to agree or disagree with me on the various topics I talk about. It’s my own experience and the way it’s been for me. Feel free to also share your stories on comments and/or reblogs! I’ll love to see it.

That’s it for today’s yapping session. Love, Seiko ♡

♡ borders credit: @anitalenia

[apocalypse-shuffle]

BLACK NOIR | EARVING (the boys)

—

“Pandora’s Melody” (Black Noir x Fem!Reader)

| It’s your first Christmas Benefit since working for Vought and you’re starting to chafe a little at all the rules. Least the music’s finally getting good tho.

| SFW, office rules, workplace discrimination(?), Vought International’s dress code policy & casual disregard of The Crown Act

| Pic Source: The Boys (s1)

| 800+ words

“Don’t fuck this up,” Ashley had said, sweaty handkerchief that was far too drenched to mop anything else up clenched tightly inside her fist, and a closed lip smile straining her spotty red painted lips.

And for your part you’d smiled back, nodded your head like a heavily - and repeatedly - hit bobble head; eager to keep your position and even more desperate not to be seen as the unfriendly black girl lest you lose your job.

To your credit it’s not until far later in the evening when everybody’s inhabitions are totally fucked, the camera crews and reporters are gone, and even most of The Seven have left to do things far less beneath them than attending a company mixer that you loosen the hold your heart’s keeping on Ashley’s words just…a bit.

Suddenly the music gets a little less mind numbingly fucking boring too and your mood gets a little less sullen, and even with your mandatory three inch heels shackled to your feet you finally begin to feel the music. So bobbing along, and finally downing the singular glass you’d been nursing the whole evening, you find yourself searching out whoever’s creating the new and far more engaging melody.

Your heart almost stops when you realize it’s Black Noir at the piano, gloved fingers flying over the keys, quite literally the only hero still bothering to attend this thing.

When a quick glance up shows that even Mr. Edgar’s no longer in attendance - though never unseeing you’re sure - you start talking mostly out of shock. You’ve never really been this close to any of the hero’s before now.

“Good - ah - good choice,” you murmur, “Hapless is really just such a downer for a Christmas Benefit.”

Muscles tense and breath short, fingers clasped together behind your back like a vice, you wait a beat for his reaction.

When all he does is kind of glance your way though you nearly breath out a sigh right in front of him before catching yourself, and you feel so free that for a second you want to take your hair down from its “more professional” slicked back bun so you can really feel the music through you.

Instead you untuck your dress shirt to quell the urge. Fuck, your pantssuit was starting to feel increasingly more suffocating the longer you worked here. At this point you felt like you’d end up buried in the damn thing then forced to partially exist as a pantsuit wearing ghost for the rest of your forever unrest for good measure—

—annnd think positive thoughts. The music is good, you want to sway. You settle for keeping up your subtle head bop and adding a few soundless taps against your thigh to the mix.

After he doesn’t slice you in half - or some other such gruesome death dealing action - you take another few moments to identify the song Noir himself has begun playing.

It’s lovely, and as much as you want to close your eyes to visualize the song’s name a bit better in your mind you opt not to so you can continue watching the way that Noir plays.

It’s more graceful than you’d expect (but considering the way you’d seen him train that was a little foolish of you). The silent hero’s fingers move across the keys like a true virtuoso, hands gliding from note to note with hardly a thought but still exactly right. In the entire time that it takes you to place the song he doesn’t miss a single beat and doesn’t lose his tempo; not a thing about how he plays looks or even sounds off.

Normally you’d be remiss to label anything perfect, but if there were ever an exception…

…Noir’s playing was perfect.

A small smile stretches your plush lips.

Delightfully so.

“The Minute Waltz,” you say after finally placing the song, only shuffling in place a little.

Which is how in the next minute you end up seated next to him after his head had snapped to you - and honestly you’d half figured he’d stopped minding you by that point so you’d been plenty surprised to find out otherwise.

Black Noir had stared you into submission with exactly one incline of his head to convey his invitation in any clear manner until, with held breath and a prayer, you’d sat down beside him where he’d made room on the piano bench.

Then it’s touch and go as - with your heart firmly in your throat and hoping to god you don’t screw anything up - Noir takes to eventually wanting you as more than just a captive audience. He plays a few simple chords, pauses, then looks over to you until after not too long you begin copying him.

By the end of the function your heart’s settled and you can slowly, but steadily, get through the entirety of Gymnopedie No.1 - with Noir pushing the pedal of course.

He even gives you a little silent round of applause once you’ve played through it on your own.

Like that, Noir at your side and surrounded by all the drunk limp dicks you work with tripping and throwing up over themselves, is the first time you feel like a real part of Vought.

NOTES: Hope you enjoyed!

Um, I just wrote this tonight at random and with a cold so if there’s mistakes no there isn’t. Also, it’s Christmas and I figured I had a themed fic in me tonight so here you go and Happy Holidays (I guess)!

Don’t question how the Reader-Insert knows the names of these songs, it doesn’t matter.

btw: if you’d like to leave a comment I’d very much appreciate it!

[qsycomplainsalot]

So I watched Furiosa

Furiosa Road: a Star Wars Story. It wasn't likely to live up to Fury Road, and it didn't. It would have been a tall order. While it was well worth paying to see in theaters, I was still a little disappointed; I'm going to explain why, without spoilers, and then after a very visible cut I'll comment on a few specific things in the movie.

First of all it felt long, but not two hours long so I guess it speaks to its quality. Going through the cast, everyone did a good job, although I wasn't blown away by the on screen chemistry of Anya Taylor-Joy and Tom Burke. More on that later. Chris Hemsworth as the overarching antagonist is this movie's standout performance, in a way that I'm somewhat conflicted about. More on that later too.

Overall it feels as if, after making Fury Road a trim and thrilling movie, the creatives behind it strung together all the piles of amazing ideas they had left on the cutting room floor into another complete movie, but not a very cohesive story with a beginning middle and end with enough connective tissue to captivate an audience. There's no shortage of props, costumes, characters, stunts and just straight up visuals, although the music is not up to the standards set by Fury Road. What's really missing is a tight knit script.

I'd say watch it if you like the franchise, otherwise I'd just wait for it to release on small screens.

My biggest complaint with this movie is that it's split between two relationships, between Hemsworth as Dementus or Tom Burke as Jack with Furiosa, when really with how it's paced it could barely afford one. I am just completely confused by people saying Jack and Furiosa's relationship was the highlight of the movie, it was vague, bland, and Jack died before I could really care about him. All this relationship did was explain how Furiosa became so good at driving a war rig, despite the fact that by this point in the movie she'd fended for herself just fine, presumably using what she'd been taught by the vuvuzela tribe. Likewise Dementus as a character is extremely simple, in a good way, and is the a better representation of time passing in the movie than literal text onscreen telling you it's been fifteen years or some such. It's on the nose, but Chris Hemsworth is acting his heart out and it's always a joy to see him on screen. He's spiraling his way through the movie in a perfect exemple of what Furiosa must avoid becoming. So knowing that, the main plot should be about Furiosa having to lose her way home (the star map tattoo on her arm, which we know she lose by Fury Road) and choose to stay at the Citadel to kill him, setting up a bitter ending where she's gained nothing and is stuck killing more people instead of letting go of revenge and going home. Unfortunately Furiosa: the video game: the movie very much lives in the shadow of its 2015 sequel, and so the plot is split further to set that up. I've talked about how it hurts the pacing and how much screentime the other characters could have gotten, but I think it actually greatly diminished the ending. The end of Furiosa has her catch up to Dementus, bind him and beat him up, asking him to give her her childhood and mother back, only for Dementus to refuse to play along in anyway. He tells her that revenge achieves nothing, that he knows from personal experience and that she can kill him however she wants, that he doesn't particularly care. I don't do it justice it's a pretty good end to his arc this movie. Instead of Furiosa killing him there and then and validating that speech for a cohesive theme to the movie (keeping the hope stuff for Fury Road where it works), the history man voiceover tells us that although the true end of Dementus is disputed, Furiosa told him the truth, that she kept him alive with a peach tree growing out of his dick ?? And then she brings the peach to Immortan's wives in the Citadel, and then the credits are interspersed with shots from Fury Road. I can excuse the impossibility of keeping someone alive while a tree is growing on them for the sake of Mad Max movies very much being wasteland fairy tales, but I think directly linking Furiosa: Road One with Fury Road like that is both pointless and very hamfisted, on top of being a big disappointment when it comes to Dementus' character. Like the guy was clearly fucked up from losing his daughters just kill him and be done with it. Anyway yeah I don't think I'll rewatch this movie nearly as often as I rewatch Fury Road. Shoutout to the Octoboss though, he's the Most Valuable Sidecharacter of this movie.

[gabriel-the-messenger]

Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon

Please play this game I am begging on my knees

Whats not to like:

1

Big robots fighting with oversized weapons

2

A lovely photo mode for all the screenshots you would ever need

3

Endless mech costumisation

4

Endless LOGO and DECAL constumisation

(This logo took about 3 hours of my day but I regret absolutely nothing)

5

Not one. Not two. But THREE great stories (with NG+ and NG++)

6

"621, the Balam Corporation wants you to burn down this orphenage for a handful of COAM. It's just a job, all of it. Stay focused on the job 621"

7

Handler Walter my beloved🥰

(He's actually just a disembodied voice in the game, credits to u/Count15 on Reddit for the fanart)

Also, shoutout to the lady in my head that calls me Studmuffin (love you Ayre)

8

Coughing baby vs hydrogen bomb (i.e : if you're gonna commit war crimes and/or throw away your humanity, do it in style)

9

(this one is just for you @zealfruity, if you're anyone else you can scroll past this one)

You can make a Transformer!

(This one is by iiiveliii on TikTok. I haven't found any great Starscreams, meaning YOU should be the first!)

10

If you're not @zealfruity, welcome back! So, for my last and final point:

THE MUSIC

If you weren't already enamoured by the visuals of this game, wait t'ill you hear its soundtrack.

These are two examples I cherry-picked from my favorites, but there's nothing more atmospheric than fighting giant robots while having these bangers in the background.

CLOSING REMARKS

AC6: Fires of Rubicon is an amazing game. It takes about 50-60 hours to complete (including NG+ and NG++), but I've sank more than 100+ hours into it as of writing this post. It offers an experience unlike any other, letting you not only build and costumize your massive war machine to your heart's content, experimenting with many different playstyles, but also let's you experience an amazing story with many hidden facades (in true FromSoftware style (did I mention this was a FromSoft game? Dark Souls FromSoft?)) and fight interesting and varied bosses.

Be warned, I have struggled on quite a few bosses, and even the tutorial boss is considered a "filter". However, when you do beat these ennemies, you feel a rush unlike any other.

I've spent all this time writing this and yet I haven't even talked about PvP, and thats because my enjoyment of it varies extremely depending on who I'm fighting. Some people run builds based around the meta (which I personnally find a bit boring, but if that's your vibe then go all out), but I find the truly entertaining matches to be players who aren't afraid to experiment, bringing unconventionnal weapons or builds and trying out interesting strategies. Some also throw all of that out of the window, and I've had quite a few matches end up with me and them simply throwing our weapons out and punching each other to death.

All around, I obviously could not recommend this game more. It's a good 9.5/10 for me, with my only criticism is that I wish there were more long-range and ballistic weapons (I'm a sucker for the sound of bullets ricocheing).

[carlyraejepsans]

i feel like uty improves on things undertale did but it doesnt have the same strong foundation as the original. like all the qol tweaks and secret shit and meta flowey are all super impressive but as a whole i agree i didnt find it cohesive or consistent

eh, sorry but i don't really think UTY "improves" much of... anything from Undertale? you can make an argument for the visuals, which are more detailed and certainly better animated, but i would argue right back that undertale's rougher, retro, "kinda ugly" graphics are a deliberate design choice on Toby's part that he stuck to for a reason. not to mention, even in their ugliness, the original main cast managed to display more variety in shape language and size than the entire UTY one, which seemed unable to break past the "tall, skinny, anime proportioned humanoid" figure for anyone beyond the occasional side NPC (which, credit where it is due, DID have some really creative designs).

the secret shit is part of my critiques, actually! while conceptually cool, i don't think they appropriately distributed their story and lore at all. i feel like if we got to the end of the pacifist run and were wholly confused as to why dalv was even a character in the story, the whole "human attack" backstory was... not delivered properly. now, there's no problem with having secret lore, gaster is right there. but if you DO have it then it shouldn't be... yknow... tied to the main backstory conflict that literally set the story in motion? lol? it felt like a game with dataminers in mind, rather than players. which was unavoidably detrimental to its storytelling.

the bullet patterns and attack designs were very visually creative but what they improved from the original in their cleverness they tanked with their execution. WAYYY too unfair, counting too much on memorization and giving you no time to accustom yourself to the mechanics (shout-out to the gun tutorial that... didn't teach us how to shoot. at all. we figured it out on our own in the axis fight LMFAO)

the meta flowey stuff was a fun idea that only really delivered in the neutral run and didn't amount to enough anywhere else to justify his presence in the game imo. like, i lost my shit during his fight too, don't get me wrong, i like when fan stories let him be a little FREAK. but everything else was just so... wasted? i almost didn't see the neutral ending at all because the way pacifist handled flowey disappointed me so much.

uhhhhh running was a good addition and the music fucked hard. can't say anything against those two, nossir. not sure it'd go so far as to call them improvements tho, just nice touches

[girlacticrailroad]

series review: pluto

Ai-oon, the girlfailure of our dreams.

Pluto was a fun series to follow week by week, not just for the twists and turns, but for the extra layer of meta suspense on top: Could Snap25 somehow turn this trashy book into a masterpiece?

Okay, to be fair to Chao Planoy, I haven’t actually read the novel, so I shouldn’t judge. But among GL fans her work is controversial, to say the least, and Pluto—a messy tale of romance, mystery, and deceit—seems like an especially tricky work to adapt, with its dubious use of disability as a plot device, among other issues.

Nevertheless, backed by a big-time company (that sweet GMMTV money), and with two popular actors in the lead roles, Pluto promised to be one of the most ambitious Thai GL productions yet. Watching Pluto can feel a bit like watching acrobats walk a tightrope over an abyss. Every week I held my breath and wondered: Can they pull it off? Can the creative team make this adaptation work?

Pluto is the most visually striking Thai GL to date.

To their credit, they come *so* close! I don’t want to be too hard on them—by all accounts, they improved on the source material a lot, and most of the flaws are only glaring in hindsight. Let’s start with the good: Pluto looks great. It doesn’t have the extravagant sets and costumes of The Loyal Pin, but it’s more visually interesting; there’s an artsy flair to the cinematography that goes above and beyond what the story requires. On a storytelling level, Pluto is certainly one of the better GLs out there (although let’s be real y’all, the bar is not sky-high). The characters are fairly nuanced, and the plot is...well, unlike TLP, it’s not boring, that’s for sure. The acting, for the most part, is fabulous. Namtan is the standout as twin sisters Ai-oon and Ob-oom, two demanding roles that run the full gamut of emotion. She absolutely nails both, all without overacting or hitting a false note. It’s a bit scary how good she is. Film in some ways has the even more challenging role, since May is written less consistently imo, and her motivations are less clear, but she does her best with the material, and has lots of fun with May’s devious side. (Side note but it’s pretty funny that she has now played “girlfriend of comatose twin who dates conscious twin impersonating comatose twin” twice.) Also, that scene in the haunted bougie bathroom at the end of episode 7? Wowee.

Not a wholesome thought in this head.

It’s tempting to blame any issues with Pluto on the source material, but considering the liberties that were taken in adapting the book, I don’t think Chao Planoy can be held responsible for everything. What I think Pluto might be lacking, in the end, is a director. Technically the “Snap25 Team” is credited as director of the series, and I’ve heard they have a very collaborative style, working closely with the actors to develop the story. On one hand, I love that! And the egalitarian approach of crediting the whole crew is super cool. On the other hand, when you’re dealing with a story this nightmarish to navigate, it might have been smart to put someone with a clear vision in the driver’s seat. Because baby the tone of Pluto is all OVER the place. Sometimes the drama is lowkey and naturalistic, and sometimes the soap opera dial is cranked up to 11. Sometimes the writing is subtle, and sometimes a character will turn to the camera and say, “That’s emotional abuse!” in a scene about emotional abuse. Sometimes there will be a dream sequence/musical number with like seven costume changes in the middle of an otherwise down-to-earth episode. The whiplash is wild.

Namtan and Film display their mastery of the “down bad” stare.

There’s an inherent challenge in translating Planoy’s work to the screen, and there might not be a perfect way of going about it. Do you soften the characters, like Gap did, or lean into the toxicity, like Affair? Do you tone down the melodrama or embrace it? (You can watch the ongoing series Us struggle with this dilemma on a weekly basis.) Pluto’s problem is that it kind of tries every possible way of going about it. The instinct to make the characters more grounded and realistic is a good one, and makes the drama more relatable, but then you have to deal with these relatively normal people doing the unhinged things that the plot demands of them, and also with how seriously we should take all this as an audience. For me, the cracks didn’t really start to show until the last few episodes, or at least I was entertained enough to ignore them, but from then on it became clear just how much of Pluto was stuck together with masking tape. May’s behavior, especially, is increasingly bewildering. The dramatic scene in episode 11 where Ob-oom asks her sister to choose between her and May is a fan favorite, I know—but May’s reaction to being abandoned by Ai-oon makes no sense to me. Why is she sobbing like her only child was murdered in front of her eyes? Why isn’t she furious? Any sense of character consistency or emotional logic flies out the window for the sake of a big tearjerking climax, because someone thought the show needed one. A sharper directorial focus could have fixed at least some of these tonal problems.

Okay how tf does Namtam always look so damn good when she cries though? Girl stoppp

The lack of focus extends to the story, too. Pluto tries to be about a lot of things—disability, childhood trauma, forgiveness, atonement, justice, why you should never date a cop no matter how good she looks in that uniform—but can never decide what matters most. As a result, all the themes and subplots end up feeling underserved. The clearest victim is the Pang/Jan/Phim love triangle. To this day I’m not sure how they made me lose interest in a lesbian polycule revolving around potted plants. Three gorgeous potted plant enthusiasts one of whom is played by Earn my beloved? Um, hello??

How is this not riveting??

I love side couple drama, and I wanted to love this subplot so bad. I do love Jan, but I’m not sure how much of that is residual affection for Charoen, Earn’s character in 23.5. Sadly she’s not given much to do here, and the subplot as a whole feels weirdly disconnected and superfluous, like it’s just there to fill screentime.

So many other plot elements are potentially interesting but ultimately superficial. May’s lectures on disability rights and universal design are well-intentioned (and a vast improvement over the treatment of blindness in the original novel, I’m sure), but nonetheless sound like the screenwriter is quoting directly from a pamphlet distributed by a disability advocacy group. I’d be willing to forgive some stiff writing for the sake of raising awareness—I don’t think art always needs to be subtle about things like disability rights—except that the script, after insisting that blindness is not a limitation, then wants viewers to rejoice at the restoration of May’s sight, and even implies that her blindness was a punishment she had to endure.

The childhood trauma angle is another missed opportunity. The past exerts a powerful influence over all the main characters, and there are so many flashbacks emphasizing this point, but we never see the parallels underlined in a satisfying way. How was growing up with an abusive dad different from—or similar to—growing up with a caring but overbearing grandmother? What about growing up fabulously rich vs. growing up poor? All we really learn about May’s experience of growing up in an elite family is that she got homoerotically bullied for it. How do these different upbringings still reverberate in their lives?

When your anti-bullying PSA is awkwardly hot.

The flashbacks end up exacerbating the tonal whiplash because the childhood scenes are some of the most bonkers, like when baby Ai steals a picture book from her sister and just motherfucking burns it. That destroyed me. Later we see May’s cartoon villain father snatch a picture book out of her hands and berate her for reading too much. These are parallel scenes...sort of? But what on earth is the picture book doing as a symbol? And doesn’t that align Ai-oon with May’s dad?

Speaking of Evil Dad, I’m not necessarily 100% opposed to giving him a redemption arc—forgiveness is a theme of the story, and it can be interesting to explore the idea of atonement through a character who seems irredeemable—but you have to lay a little groundwork for it! We get absolutely nothing from this dude. He’s the worst man ever until one day he decides not to be. Show us a glimmer of remorse before his change of heart, at the very least.

And speaking of symbols, I wish I could say the Pluto metaphor was a successful attempt to tie up the themes of the series, but I honestly could not tell you what Pluto is meant to represent, despite multiple characters monologuing about it.

Pluto is a metaphor for the way my head spins when I think about May’s dad’s character arc.

I wonder if Pluto needed to be longer, to take the time to properly address all these themes, or if it just badly needed restructuring. So much time is wasted on the “Who was May’s first love?” mystery, and on May’s upper-crust friends, that could have been better spent on the hilarious “May helps edit Ai-oon’s bad erotica” subplot, or on developing the other side characters. There are some lines toward the end that suggest Phim may have originally had a larger role that got whittled down. Are there deleted scenes out there somewhere? I demand the footage! And, off topic, but while I’m listing random complaints, why are all the visual effects so godawful? The opening credits are an actual travesty—whoever is responsible should never be allowed near Adobe Protools again—and the car crash scene looks like it was done by an unpaid intern.

Here’s a spicy screenshot for reading all that, you’re welcome.

Um, so Pluto is kind of a mess, in other words, but at least it’s a glorious one! Mostly. Everyone involved (except the aforementioned vfx department) is amazingly talented and deserves a better story, although they certainly try their damnedest to save this one. I would love to see what this cast and crew could do with a stronger vision to guide them, or maybe just with some source material untainted by the pen of Chao Planoy. Which is why I am absolutely rabid for Girl Rules lol but we need not get into that here!

[clay-tries-his-best]

! atsv spoilers !

when i sat down in my theatre seat to see atsv im telling you i was being the most autistic fuck you've ever witnessed. you could practically see the sparkles in my eye, dude.

the spot. my godddd he's so silly. the marketing ploy to make him seem like the side villain from the trailers was so fucking smart. I really thought that Miguel was going to be the main villain considering him fighting miles in pracgjcalky every trailer ever and being in the post-credits scene of itsv. and miles dealing with having to be everywhere at once was very realistic and gave me the classic "oh my god this poor boy this is painful to watch". oh and gwen's beginning scene of the drums just gave me the feeling that the movie was going to be fantastic. like, betrayal, amazing visuals, more gwen?? already a wonderful start. also the fact that the spot's whole reason to turn into a major villain is that nobody, not even the person who caused his disfigurement, would take him seriously- like- HUH???? perfect. wonderful. bro just wanted miles to pay attention to him for a little while.

Pavitr and Hobie were also really great additions to the spider team. Despite the fact that Hobie's accent was so thick and deep that I couldn't understand what he was saying a good third of the time, he still managed to work his way into my top 5 characters of the movie. THAT is good character building. At first I thought he was going to be the stereotypical love rival, considering his first mention was miles getting jealous of him and gwen being friends. I was worried that was how the story was actually going to go when he upstaged miles by breaking done the collider force field, but hes actually a really chill and cool guy. pretty sure he even roots for gwen and miles, so that's pretty funny. Pavitr was also super funny with a great character design. " Chai means tea, you're just saying tea tea! " was probably one of my favorite lines / jokes from the whole movie. His world was also very pretty and SUPER detailed. Props to every artist for Mumbatten.

Miguel and Peter B.'s dynamic was really fun to watch as well. This cryptic emo ass mastermind vampire who has watched people die and destroyed a universe next to this middle aged man in a pink fuzzy bathrobe who's oogling over his daughter. also, the line where Miguel said " I've had the right amount of you today " to peter b instead of " I've had enough of you " like the normal saying goes was kinda queer. just saying. but yeah, great villain, and I do want to see him in the final battle against spot, but I eventually don't want him to be the one to beat spot, y'know? If it was to be anyone, it's obviously going to be miles. Whether it's just miles or miles and gwen or miles and the gang gwen assembled at the end of atsv (WHICH HAD SPIDERNOIR YESSS SPIDERNOIR FANS LETS GOOOOOOO I HAD THE STUPIDEST SMILE ON MY FACE WHEN I SAW HIM IM TELLKNG YOU), in the end it's still gotta be miles.

the collider scene with the spot was really cool. spot may be silly, but he's not dumb enough to be " saved " by his archnemesis who only cared about him when he was about to become a transdimensional eldritch horror. boss move. his final form was really pleasing to look at because you can just see the detail that went into it. Looking at some screenshots, I noticed there were a lot of eyes and I'm pretty sure I saw a version of spiderman (original world 1610 peter, possibly?) staring at miles / the audience. despite him not showing up for another hour, hour and a half, I wasn't mad. If a movie can avoid showing the main villain for that long and still have them integrated properly, just, wow. blown away. oh and this part made me even more interested because his beginning ost, spot 1, I think? his random beats and tunes sounded more silly and disorganized and clumsy, like him trying to take the atm. near the end, he got spot 2, which was more shrill and frightening. I'm not musically trained, and I could still tell that it was scarier, and to me, they sounded very similar. To not have too far of a difference between the two and stroke two entirely different chords is just. ugh. wow.

don't even get me started on prowler miles... RAHHH THE CHARACTER AND WORLD DESIGN FOR UNIVERSE 42!!!! it was so beautiful and scary and breathtaking because there is. no. spiderman. when miles's mom didn't know what he was talking about and gwen wasn't really outside, it hit me like a brick in the head. and alternate aaron??? hello??? he made me physically uncomfortable because of how terrifying his face was. i couldnt even tell if he was wearing makeup or he was just that dramatjcally shaded. the turn miles does to see that it was his dad painted on the wall instead of aaron.... GRAHHHHHH

as an aspiring artist, I can say nothing but wow. that movie, the fact that it was 2 HOURS AND 20 MINUTES???? HELLO??? DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH WORK THAT MUSTVE TOOK??? unbelievable. and you know that sony felt bad for making us wait on a cliffhanger, so they probably were around 3/4 done with atsv and started working on beyond, so we didn't have to wait as long as we would've if they finished atsv and then started beyond. I'm so glad that those 5 years in the Sony team paid off, because that. was. amazing. my depression is vaporized. im going feral, going wild, going insane. i will not think of anything else until beyond is out. can't wait to see my bbg spot have his villain moment in March 2024!!! <333

[t00thpasteface]

hey! i was just curious if i could use your art in an artist study? i looked over your faq and i didn't see any mention of it so i just wanted to ask. it's okay if the answer is now, no pressure :)

(⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴗ⁠ꈍ⁠) sure, if you credit me! i would be incredibly flattered!!

now that being said, i would also like to share with you some artists whose work i've enjoyed doing studies of! i find it's very useful to "follow the money" with artists you like, and go along the chain of inspiration to see how ideas and styles can change from person to person.

vincent van gogh is my BIGGEST inspiration in terms of color and composition! his unique style of brush work is what he's best known for, but i recommend looking at his works holistically too, and seeing where the eye is led and how he plays with light, color, and mood. if you want to go further, he was very inspired not only by prior impressionists, but also by japanese ukiyo-e artwork— try comparing "starry night" to "great wave off kanagawa" and seeing the similarities in the grand, sweeping movements they convey.

i'm sure i've said this a million times, but genndy tartakovsky has probably my favorite cartoonist style. it's at its peak in samurai jack— opinions are mixed about the narrative quality of season 5, but if nothing else, the art direction is absolutely jawdropping. one of my favorite scenes is the bit in the tomb, where jack is hiding in a sarcophagus, because the music and visuals are paying homage to a scene at the climax of "the good the bad and the ugly"!

in a totally different direction from those two... i'm a huge fan of gil elvgren's pinup girls! i've had a few different pinup calendars over the years, and at the end of the year, i like to cut up the pages individually for mini posters— i've covered pretty much all my available wall space in his illustrations. i love it when artists don't feel the need to sacrifice expressiveness for realism; his girls are SO DARN CUTE and they all look like they're having so much whimsical, cartoonish, flirty fun!

here's a post where i talk about more inspirations!

here's a post listing some other tumblr artists i like!

i'm also just very heavily inspired by 50s-60s print illustration... things like advertisements, "clip art" (which you had to physically clip out of a book and paste onto the page), and of course, tv cartoons. one big trend i love with that "googie" art style is how incredibly limited the palettes were, and how efficient the economy of line was. as much as i love the bold, blocky, dynamic shapes of styles like tartakovsky, who takes insp

also, please remember i'm entirely self taught and am NOT an expert, so just be aware of that if you see any weird stylistic choices in my work... i admire the work of a lot of professionally trained artists, but that doesn't mean i have any training or real right to go around teaching people stuff. i'm just some guy from a big crazy family full of artists, only some of whom went to school for it.

okay, that got way longer than i meant it to, SORRY! here's a pic of my cat Carmen as a thanks for reading this far ^_^

[classicanalyzer]

What If Season 3 - What If... What If? Thoughts

"It's beautiful." Uatu

"No, it just is. You are a Watcher now. You make no judgments. Only observations." The Eminence

"Then what is the point of just watching?" Uatu

"Well, only with time can a Watcher begin to understand that for themselves. If I am certain of one thing, is that your conclusion will not disappoint." The Eminence

"Thank you. I will never fail you." Uatu

The finale certainly was the finale of all time. While it isn't devoid of any good moments, it is a disappointing end to the series (for now provided the show gets revived). However, every episode before the two-part finale has been consistently amazing.

I really love Uatu and the Emmience's student and mentor dynamic in the opening, and you understand why Uatu wants to show Uatu how he views the Multiverse after three seasons of watching. It's great to see a main antagonist reformed rather than be killed like the previous two seasons (Strange Supreme did reform but he did die).

I really do like how Uatu saved a lot of people off-screen, even ones who don't have a massive role in their universes. It showcases his growth throughout the show.

Infinity Ultron finally fulfilling Tony's dream for him is pretty heartwarming, even if it took the death of everyone in his universe for him to have that epiphany. The way the Emminence easily dispatched him showcases how the Order of the Watchers is on a completely different scale of power compared to Uatu, who needed the form the Guardians of the Multiverse to stand against Infinity Ultron.

This finale is mainly just one big fight. There are a lot of Kirby dots which is visually noice and the fight is at least visually done.

Seeing Doctor Strange Supreme help out the heroes is a really good capper to his story by showing how he is the universe he restored now.

Every time the Executioner speaks, I can't help but be reminded of Ardyn's voice.

I had forgotten that Uatu was always referred to as the Watcher until he redeclared his name.

It's a big disappointment that Captain Carter died since I was actually excited to see more of her universe. I really wanted to see what her universe's Civil War would've been like, even if it was a glimpse. This also applies to Kahhori, Byrdie, and Storm's universes. Also, I really hope they don't become Watchers forever since I do want to see more of their universes. I'm also not comfortable with the idea that at least Carter just abandoned her universe to go around the Multiverse.

Honestly, I wished the whole episode leaned more into the trial aspect than just being another fight. I don't really have a lot to talk about because of how much of it was just one big fight scene. My thoughts on Episode 7 are a bit more negative since the follow-up didn't really satisfy the questions I have from the last episode. The end credits showed us a lot of episode concepts I wished we could've seen, but alas the show had to end just when it was really getting amazing.

Laura Karpman and Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum really nailed the music in this show. I hope Laura's score in Brave New World lives up to Henry Jackman's scores, and I really hope she reprises Sam's theme from Jackson's score.

Overall, Season 3's episodes have been mostly pretty strong, similar to S2, except for the two-part finale. My favorite episode is definitely Episode 6, and my least favorite episode is Episode 8. I'll miss this show, and I really hope it gets revived in the future. I also hope the Marvel Zombies show is better than the episode it was based on.

"With some mysteries, sometimes the only answer is another question. You see... Time. Space. Reality. It's more than a linear path. It's a prism of endless possibility, where a single choice can branch off into infinite realities, creating new phenomena beyond what you could possibly imagine. I am Uatu. I see all these vast new realities. Open your eyes, dare to face the unknown and ponder the question... 'What If?'" Uatu

[themosleyreview]

The Mosley Review: Moana 2

I know I'm not in the only one that remembers the days when Disney would release a sequel to their highly successful animated films straight to VHS and DVD. Don't get me wrong, there were a couple sequels that actually deserved a theatrical release, but instead became cult classics. The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, An Extremely Goofy Movie and Aladdin and the King of Thieves were among the best and one of their songs is always in my head. On the other hand, alot of the major Disney Classics received the sequel treatment that didn't need to it and ended up getting a lesser quality film. Well, this film is a mixture of both circumstances. It was great to revisit the main two characters and although their accompanied by a few great songs, the qaulity of storytelling has taken a dip and it needed a little more time on the fire. The plot may have been straight forward in the beginning, but half way through it loses focus and becomes over crowded with characters that really don't add to the growth to the main heroes. At least the acting from the leads continued to be fun and dazzle.

Auliʻi Cravalho continues to be a powerhouse of a performer as Moana. Her strength, comedic timing and heart once again shines the brightest. Her connection to her family was always at her core and her scenes with her little sister Simea, played wonderfully by Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda, were the sweetest moments. Aside from her fully developed adventurous spirit, I hate to say that there really wasn't that much more of a growth for her. Sure she gains a bit of a new ability, but that’s about it when it comes to the challenges she faces. Dwayne Johnson returns as Maui and he was just as fun and action driven as you'd expect. He sort of loses a bit of intelligence for me because of his unwillingness to learn from his past mistakes, which he makes again in this film. You can be the fun loving action hero all day, but at some point you gotta learn to negotiate a bit more instead of fighting everyone first. The chemistry between Moana and Maui is still electric and reaches a new emotional depth by the end. I just wish the film just focused on them on the waters again. Hualālai Chung was good as the fan boy artist of Maui, Moni. He had his moments to shine comedically with some great art. Rose Matafeo was energetic and a bit annoying as Loto. I loved her ever creative mind in building the best ship, but man did she need to stop cutting everything. She was more destructive and clumsy than helpful. David Fane was good as the grumpy old man, Kele. He was a sour grape for the majority of the film and honestly didn't add much than just cynicism to journey. They all join Moana's crew and I honestly stopped carrying about them shortly after they got on the boat. Awhimai Fraser was great as Matangi, but I felt her character was all over the place. She was a mysterious villain that could've been more sinister and manipulative, but she comes off as a new fun possible ally. It was disappointing as she has a great aesthetic, but no real depth.

The score by Mark Mancina and Opetaia Foaʻi was great, but this film was really missing the magical collaboration that Lin Manuel-Miranda brought to the first film. The musical numbers were good, but weren't as memorable. Moana and Maui both get to shine in their respective moments, but Moana's new anthem, Beyond, was outstanding and fulfills that same energy that How Far I'll Go produced from the original. Visually, this is one of the most gorgeous animated films of the year as the color pallete is varied in epic proportions and the animation of the water was magical. Overall, the first film remains prestine while this film was lacking the same polish and focus. Its a safe sequel that doesn't really go anywhere in character growth and falls into the trap of over crowding the film with useless side characters. There is a mid credit scene that could have potential if they actually focus on a singular goal. Let me know what you thought of the film or my review in the comments below.

[veebs-hates-video-games]

It really is nice finally having a genuinely good Mana game for the first time in over 20 years, not counting remakes. Even counting them I only really thought the Trials one was particularly noteworthy because of how much stuff they improved, especially compared to playing the original with the extremely iffy fan translation when the patch first came out over 20 years ago. The others have been fine but haven't really offered much over the originals aside from looking a little nicer and not needing a console from the 90s to play them legit.

Anyway, as someone who got started with the series as a kid in the 90s, Visions of Mana is a lot of fun.

The people who worked on it really did their homework figuring out what makes the series work and made something that feels like it belongs right next to all the others. It's very much a 90s action JRPG with modern sensibilities and quality of life features, and an actually good translation (which is mostly worth mentioning with how questionable most of them were back then, even from big companies like Squaresoft).

They really captured the visual style of the series and somehow made it work in real time in 3D, full of bright colors and lush landscapes and all the silly little quirks of the Mana games like turning into a snowman when you get frozen. The music's pretty good too and calls back to a bunch of themes from previous games while introducing some new ones too. I don't think most of them will stick in my head for decades like some of the originals, but it's still pretty enjoyable.

Also enjoyable? All of the characters. The story isn't super deep, but it's got the kinds of themes the series likes to go for, and it gives lots of opportunities for the main cast to play off each other in fun ways. I liked them all, but I think Palamena (the squirrel queen who just wants to pretend to be normal but doesn't know how) and Morley (the sad catboy who blames himself for the loss of everyone he knew) ended up being my favorites.

It's kind of funny that the previous game in the series I played was the Trials remake, where the main character I played was the glass cannon magic user who's a princess and the biggest brat the series has ever seen. Then I came here and mostly played the glass cannon magic user who's instead a queen and just wants to be friends with and help everyone. Good contrast.

One of the devs mentioned in an interview that one of the things that inspired the world design was Xenoblade, and it shows (in a good way). Large areas, but not open world, fantastical landscapes with plenty of verticality, running around collecting glowing dots that give you minor resources along the way to wherever you're going, usually something or other in every random corner of the map you poke your way into, and specifically like XC1 a lot of kind of uninspired side quests to go kill or collect however many of whatever. I still did most of them, but most of them are really not the highlight of the game.

Combat's fun though, which is good because there's plenty of it along the way. Could be a little better and a little tighter, and I'd love better feedback on stuff like whether I time dodges right or not, but there's enough variety and customization that you can probably figure out something fun that works for you.

Really the only part that I didn't really like was in the post-game stuff. I liked that they used it to tie together and wrap up a few random side things from the main story, and it was good enough most of the way through, but the final boss of that side quest storyline was probably the single least fun thing in the entire series for me so far. It's not even that hard, just incredibly tedious and designed to counter any of the ways I like to actually play the game. Kind of wish I'd just stopped after the credits and ending, because having that as the last thing I did instead made me like the game very slightly less.

Anyway, it was nice to have something that starts with a vaguely similar premise to the pilgrimage in FFX but then turns out to actually be something I like instead of just getting progressively worse as it goes on like FFX did for me. It kinda sucks that the reward for the people who made it was getting their entire company shut down at the same time the game launched. Hopefully they all find work somewhere doing something interesting, because they're clearly good at what they do, and hopefully Squenix keeps making stuff like this for people like me who've been sick of what they're doing with stuff like FF for years at this point.

[otakween]

Digimon World 4 - Final Thoughts

Whelp, that was...something. This game is objectively bad, but I still had a good, brain rotting time. It falls into the "game to zone out on the couch to" category. The lack of much story, characters or dialogue means I got in some quality podcast/music time as well. It's pretty similar to Digimon World 2 in its crappiness, but I found DW4's gameplay more satisfying. I think DW2 has the more appealing art style though, so they even out to the same rank basically. Full thoughts below!

Notes:

So this is loosely based on the Digimon X-Evolution CG film I posted about before. I was disappointed to see that the opening credits are just a hodge podge of scenes from said movie. That's pretty boring and lazy if you ask me. I picked Dorumon to control in honor of the film's protag (and since it would be a more novel experience).

I found any weapon aside from the guns to be a colossal pain to use, so I just used guns and guns alone for the entire game lol. At least I was able to get tech points quickly that way!

This game has the most unbalanced difficulty levels ever. It's either stupid hard or stupid easy. Luckily, the stupid easy moments are far more frequent. Every time I fought a boss I braced myself only to just button mash my way to the end in like a few minutes. Most of them were jokes. On the other end of the spectrum, the beginning of the game was weirdly hard because I would get mobbed by enemies and massacred in like two seconds (this is when I realized I should be using the guns lol). It's hard to have much strategy because most battle moves you can do (spin attack, charged attack, block) suck control-wise. My strat for most of the game was either the ole "shoot and run" or just to get up on a high ground where I was invincible. The latter move kinda felt broken and was part of what made the game stupid easy.

Thank God I emulated this game. Although it's mostly easy, there are definitely moments where it's easy to die. Some dungeons will lock you into the tightest corners and then just spawn like a jillion enemies out of nowhere (the Otamamon and Infermon were the WORST). Some of the harder bosses had some pretty cheap moves too. Save states were the VIP, as usual.

The plot of the game is really basic and the writing is just as wonky as DW2. Basically all you need to know is that there's a virus that's bad and you need to get rid of it. It doesn't get any deeper than that and there are no twists or turns. Ophanimon, Seraphimon, and Leomon are the only characters with significant dialogue (none of the bosses talk) and they really don't have anything interesting to say (I did like Ophanimon and Seraphimon's models tho)

The dungeons were definitely better than DW2 in terms of visuals/layout, but the enemies felt super repetitive. You get maybe 3 types of enemies per dungeon and then you just fight those same 3 again and again and again.

The dungeons are unreasonably long slogs with no way to save in the middle of them. I had save states so I was okay, but sometimes a dungeon would take me over two hours?? Like wtf. I know kids have a lot of free time but some of them aren't even allowed to game for 2 hours straight!

Of course, I played this single player. I actually think it'd be really fun as a multiplayer game? Like, that's probably what it was actually built for. There are actually some moments where you can't go to certain parts of dungeons without a buddy :'(

The bosses were mostly big bads from the series/movies which was fun. Made it awkward when I defeated them so easily though lol

All of the walkthroughs for this game suck lol. The one I used for the majority of the game the guy literally kept writing "I don't remember what happens in this dungeon. Just go through it." LOL thanks for nothing, bud. He said "I don't remember" sooo many times it was comical.

I poked around on the internet looking for info for this game and it seems the general consensus in the fandom is that it's pretty abysmal. Still, there are people like me that got enjoyment out of it regardless.

The little noises Dorumon made when attacked were very cute

I never bothered with digivolution. You don't get digivolution until late in the game and if you digivolve it reverts you to levl 1. Nuts to that!

I also didn't bother with any side quests because they sounded extremely not worth it (some of them don't even have a reward?)

I was pretty under-leveled at the end of the game (barely scraping level 30) but I felt like I had infinite healing basically because I had so much MP. That's another aspect of the game that felt broken.

The ending of this game was SO anti-climactic. I defeated the boss, returned to the hub world expecting a cutscene, and then it went straight to credits. No dialogue, no thank you, nothing. I had to go around and talk to people to get some thank yous but they didn't sound that appreciative really lol. Where are my flowers!? 😭 This took me over a month of tedium!

One part of the game that I did find pretty hard was the Storm Train where you have to get to the end of a train track while hitting the right levers while simultaneously fighting of a ton of enemies. If I had to do that without save states, I probably would have given up lol

I never really regret beating a video game, even if it kinda sucked. It's especially nice to check off another game in a series (even though the World series isn't really connected). I give Digimon World 4 a 5 out of 10.

[disappointingyet]

A Complete Unknown

Director James Mangold Stars Timothée Chalamet, Edward Norton, Monica Barbaro, Elle Fanning USA 2024 Language English 2hrs 21mins Colour 

Curly-haired bloke buys an electric guitar. Lots of people, some supposedly responsible adults, act like someone had chainsawed their children 

Here’s why I think this film following Bob Dylan from 1961 to 1965 exists:

Bob Dylan remains a undimmable hero to the Baby Boomers, controversial in his prime but now less, uh, complicated than many of his peers, and has some traction with the succeeding generations, too

Music biopics continue to do good business. Last year’s Bob Marley: One Love made no discernible cultural impact but picked up $180m worldwide at the box office 

Timothée Chalamet is now indisputably a movie star and has the bushy mop of hair needed to play Dylan

With Walk The Line and Ford v Ferrari, director James Mangold has shown he can recreate the 1960s in a way that’s both handsomely cinematic and feels alive* 

Here are four works whose existence meant I was doubtful that there was any artistic need for A Complete Unknown:

Don’t Look Back – DA Pennebaker’s extraordinary fly-on-the-wall documentary shows us snarky, sarky, sulky, sparky Dylan at his peak in 1965

No Direction Home – Martin Scorsese’s comprehensive (3 hours plus) doc taking us from Dylan’s childhood up to 1966, framed with footage taken from Eat The Document, Pennebaker’s long-lost follow-up to Don’t Look Back. Many of the key figures in A Complete Unknown, including creaky old Bob, contribute

I’m Not There – Todd Haynes’ ambitious attempt at reinventing the biopic, with assorted Dylan personas filmed with different actors (Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, Richard Gere and more) and in different styles. It doesn’t all work but often does and the concept is a great one

Inside Llewyn Davis – Dylan himself is only glimpsed but the Coen brothers’ somehow both loving and brutal portrait of folk-boom-era Greenwich Village captures the moment without that getting in the way of a terrific character study

Leading to the resulting question: could A Complete Unknown add much that those four films don’t already have? We’ll get back to that.

The first thing to say is that James Mangold, as expected, delivers a pretty, visually satisfying film rich with, but not suffocated by, period detail. Here, 1964 feels organically different from 1961 without people shouting ‘Have you heard the Beatles?’ (I mean, we do get lots of Walter Cronkite on the TV updating us on the Cuban Missile Crisis, March on Washington etc, but I think in the context of this story, that’s fair enough.)

The second is that Chalamet is really good. It’s unsettling when you get to a song playing over the closing credits and suddenly clock that he doesn’t actually sound like Dylan, when for the running time of the film, at least for me, watching him act as Dylan had fooled my brain to hearing him as Dylan. 

And indeed, almost the whole gang are immaculate. Monica Barbaro, as many people have said, is remarkable as Joan Baez – the cast all did their own singing, and pulling off a decent Baez seems like a steeper technical challenge than wheezing the Bob way. Ed Norton made me feel sympathy for folk ideologue Pete Seeger, a figure who I’ve never really warmed to. Will Harrison is perfect casting as Dylan’s ever-present mid-‘60s sidekick Bob Neuwirth.** The only stumble is Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash, but Cash is a tough ask, and maybe I’m just chronically anti-Holbrook because of the godawful Narcos. 

That’s all lovely, but still: does this amount to more than either one of those TV movie musician life stories but with top-end talent and production, or one of those West End biog musicals? In narrative terms, the film takes us from Dylan hitchhiking his way into New York to visit his hero Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy) in hospital, meeting Seeger there and beginning a rapid ascent through the folk scene until he feels he’s outgrown it, all leading us to the notorious 1965 Newport Folk Festival.

Meanwhile, women find him initially irresistible but learn that they can’t get him to open up emotionally and that he’d rather write songs than talk. 

While it’s thankfully not doing the cradle-to-grave thing, the five years covered were still too packed with stuff happening in the world and in Dylan’s career to squeeze in, making it feel like we’re just skimming the surface as we race through time.

So maybe it’s a film of ideas and ideals, maybe it’s a film about an impatient young man outgrowing his mentor, maybe it’s a bad boyfriend movie. And in all those cases, you can’t spend too long digging into them because Mangold urgently needs to show us people singing again. 

As with Ford v Ferrari, I’m not convinced Mangold has a sophisticated grip on the ideas he’s playing with. After this film, I’m no closer to understanding why quite so many fans felt so violently betrayed by Dylan. (I’m broadly clear about why Seeger and folksong collector Alan Lomax – the true villain of this film – were so narked.)

If this a bloke and his mentor pic, it’s not operating at Paul Thomas Anderson levels. And if you want bad boyfriends, you’d probably be better off with something like Passages.

But of course, the underlying aim here, like the aim of most music biopics, is to let the audience indulge in a couple of hours spent with their hero, even if (as here) the movie seems to think that hero was a bit of a prick. In the sense that the songs are all diegetic, this isn’t what most people would describe as a musical. But it is a film whose ability to deliver pleasure is fully dependent on having people sing for us as often as possible. 

And that’s where I come back to the fact that so much footage exists – it’s easy to watch what actually happened at the Newport Folk Festival. And, yes, that’s on stage, but with Dylan at this time, we also have Don’t Look Back and the fragments from Eat The Document – you can see him interacting with fans, other musicians, the media… and yes, strumming away in hotel rooms. It’s all there. 

I went to see A Complete Unknown with a mate of mine who loves a bit of Bob (she is, it should be said, on the saner side of Dylan fandom.) She really enjoyed it. I also enjoyed it as an object, as a texture, as something I can see will work really well when you rewatch individual scenes. I’m just not sold that it fully hangs together as a piece of narrative, nor is it any way radical enough to be a film that rejects the need to tell a story.

*My view, though, is that much as in the narrative June Carter through sheer force of will saves Johnny Cash, Reese Witherspoon through sheer force of will gives the movie emotional life

**Along with a bunch of other things, Neuwirth was the link between the Dylan scene and Warhol’s Factory