#the production is clearly trying to do something stylized here

[robot-roadtrip-rants]

@ghostinthegallery I was in the mood for the Carmen liberetto for some mysterious reason so I looked up the Toreador song and stumbled on to this extremely bisexual performance:

and sharing that with you felt like the right thing to do

[warsamongthestars]

( image is taken from Wookiepedia; Rancor Battalion page )

Alright, these are three of the four known members of Rancor Battalion, stationed on Kamino. (As a battallion is a 1000 soldiers roughly, that means we've got several hundred implied to exist. These ones in particular are just the Commanders of the battalion )

Commander Havoc, is the far right in the Blue. Far Left? That's Commander Blitz

But the one in the middle is Commander Colt. You'll know him from Early TCWs, where he was the Commander who graded Domino Squad's performance on their graduation test of the Citadel, and as the poor bastard who got skewered and kissed by Asaaj Ventress.

Now the reason I'm bringing them up because they are CF99 related.

( CF99 "Clone Force 99". Unfortunately I cannae separate my views of the Bad Batch without immediately running into "The Bad Batch" TV Show... which I fucking hate. So this is a case of me just, trying [key word] to focus on the thing I love without having to deal with the published fanfiction about it [by too much], and maybe inspire some folks along the way as once again I scream "I FOUND A THING AGAIN" )

TCWshow is the origin show of the Bad Batch, and that's clear from the cut material of their season 6 arc. (Yes, it was meant to be season 6 in production order. What we got from released Season 6 were actually stuff made for Seasons 5 and Seasons 4 respectively )

That means, to find the backstory we need to move forward, we go through TCWs first.

Let's start.

Commander Colt, on the right, has a full one skull painted face and he primarily favors dark gray and deep red trim.

As we know, the jawless skull is a prime symbol of the Bad Batchers, and most of paint used by Colt are also used by CF99.

This suggests that Commander Colt was actually a prime, if not main, influence over the Bad Batcher's lives. Particularly, Hunter, who has clearly painted half a stylized skull on his helmet. While the CF99 skull is more stylized than Colt's--the Skull motif had to be inspired by something.

And since we're provided with no obvious alternative (and could probably fanfic plenty of alternatives instead)--the most clear connection here, in show, is with Commander Colt.

( This also helps the slow developed parallel between Domino Squad and CF99. Both are "bad batches", both were given a helping hand by Maintenance Clone 99, and were influenced by Commander Colt. Though its pretty obvious that Commander Colt had more hand with CF99 than Domino ever received. )

[ Side Tangent: This also means that the Bad Batch's association with Ventress is out of character and out of place. She murdered their favored Commander from cadethood, and assaulted him as he died via her kiss. ]

It should be noted that most of Rancor Battallion Commanders (nearly) all have gray faceplates, which makes the helmet appear to be or have a "skull".

This is Commander Havoc, wearing the Blue that was been adopted as 501st colors.

( Its pretty clear that Rancor Battalion does not, in fact, follow the paint cultures of deployed legions. They are either semi-following the now defuncted paint-rank system from "Attack of the Clones", or they have decided "Fuck it, we do what we want"... Either works, hell, both can work simultaneously )

The reason I bring Commander Havoc up, is that the CF99 ship is (was) known as the "Havoc Marauder". And it can be just as easily inferred that its not just the act of causing havoc and chaos, but that it was named in honor of Commander Havoc.

( This is, of course, mere speculation... But fuck it, its fun speculation.)

Commander Havoc's most significant story contributions, before being killed during the (third) Battle of Kamino, was defending 99; and that small contribution could've been enough to name a ship after him.

So y'know, more fun to be had.

ADDENDUM:

I know I did a whole a thing about Clone Names, and I'm still kinda confused but also find it really fun, about Commander Colt's name. Like, is he named after the horse? Are there horses in Star Wars? Is there an anime call a colt? Is the baby form of a rancor called a colt? Or is it the colt single action army revolver? I mean, star wars having combustible revolver weapons with projectiles and gunpowder wouldn't shock me... But Colt Revolvers are named after American Gun Manufacturer Samuel Colt. So uh, does--does this mean Mr. Colt was in Star Wars at some point? Is there a planet called Connecticut where he comes from. Maybe its the swedish origin of colt, which means "half grown animal" or "young boy". Is... Is Sweden in star wars. Is there a planet called Swedish. Its stuff like this, which both makes it both confusing and so fucking funny. Cos now we gotta ask some serious questions, that may or may not result in a parody. ( Name things what you want in your fantasy, so that it can absolutely result in confusing sets of questions like this. Simple Confusion is the best part. )

[voiceless-terror]

Ink (TMA Fanfic)

For TMA Gerry Week 2021 Day One

Pairings: Jonathan Sims/Gerry Keay/Martin Blackwood

Rating: T

Summary: Art’s how Gerry shows his love- a few snippets where he does exactly that. No powers-au, Gerry and Martin own a bookstore. Takes place in this universe but can be read alone!

He’s getting used to having people who want him around.

Gerry’s had friends, sure. Once he left the institute and began working odd jobs, he realized how much he genuinely enjoyed having company. He still isn’t the most social of creatures, but he does enjoy a night out with old coworkers who enjoy his stories and laugh at his jokes. But now, with Jon and Martin, they want him around all the time. Even after they started dating, even after he moved in, he was always waiting for the other shoe to drop. It never does, though. And Gerry, in spite of himself, begins to relax. Begins to feel at home. 

He’s laying on the couch, scribbling in his notebook when Martin surprises him with a peck to the top of his head. “Whatcha drawing this time?” He was very excited when he heard Gerry liked to draw, immediately asking to see his notebook or anything he’d done. He’d only recently shown him some of his work; he knows Martin would never make him feel embarrassed, but, well. It’s another part of himself no one’s ever been interested in. Until now.

“Jon,” Gerry responds, leaning into the touch. It’s an amateurish attempt in his opinion, just a rough sketch. But he’s got the proportions down and he never forgets a face. Couldn’t forget, in Jon’s case. 

“That’s…” Martin trails off, peering closer at the page. “That’s really good. You’ve even got him smiling!” It’s not that Jon never smiles; he smirks and laughs and snarks. But he’s managed to capture that rare, bright grin that makes Gerry’s heart skip a beat.

“Mhm.” Gerry nods slightly, pen tapping against his sketchpad. He turns around, seeing the naked fondness in Martin’s eyes and has a particularly wicked thought. “Y’know, this is how he looks when he’s watching you.”

Martin sputters, turns a lovely shade of red. “W-What? Really?”

“No,” Gerry smirks. “It’s the way he looks at the Admiral.” A groan and a light smack to the shoulder prove his joke is unappreciated. “Sorry, sorry! I’m sure he also looks at you that way-”

“You’re an ass.” Martin rolls his eyes but oh-so-gently picks up his hand, pausing to inspect the ink-stained fingers. “A very talented ass.” His mind blanks as Martin kisses them one by one.

Thoroughly distracted, he never gets around to finishing that sketch.

_______

Painting, as it turns out, is a lot harder than it looks. Still quite fun, though.

They’ve just found the perfect space- a little out of their price range, but Gerry’s got savings and Jon was willing to part with a bit himself. Martin fretted over his ‘meager contribution,’ as his savings were depleted in the final months of his mother’s care. Ridiculous that he would ever think his contribution meager, considering he’s the one who scouted for locations and did all of the paperwork and stayed up late, agonizing over their finances. Some days, Martin’s the only one keeping them sane. Gerry and Jon are due to remind him of that.

Which is why they’re handling the decorating. Jon claims to have no artistic talent, but he does have a knack for making places seem like home. There are boxes filled with knick knacks and rugs and pictures, all waiting to be hung somewhere once Jon’s finally settled on a layout. Gerry’s left with painting the walls, labeling the different sections in whatever way he sees fit. He’s currently at work on the horror section, painting a stylized eye above the tarp-covered bookshelf when he hears the sound of the bell; Martin must be back from the store. They’d run out of appropriately-sized nails and after a minor freak out, he’d been on his way.

“Find what you were looking for?” he calls, listening as Martin’s footsteps grow closer, the crinkle of bags in his hand. “Here to save the day?”

“I wouldn’t call it saving,” Martin snorted, setting them down on the ground with a thump. “But it’ll certainly help. That looks nice.”

Gerry pauses, considering his work. He really needs a darker green for this. “Thanks. It’s a work in progress.”

“I’m sure it’ll turn out great,” he murmurs distractedly, and Gerry turns to look back at him. The lines of his face are more pronounced than usual, as are the shadows under his eyes. A sure sign that the stress is getting to him. Gerry understands, and he’s not much for being particularly sappy but he does what he can to help.

“Hey,” he calls down to him from his ladder. “C’mere. Need your opinion on something.”

Martin sighs, but heeds the call. “What is it? You know I’m rubbish with this art stuff-”

“It’ll only take a second. Come closer.”

“What am I supposed to be looking at-”

“Closer.”

As Martin huffs and leans towards him, Gerry darts his paintbrush out, drawing the quickest of hearts on Martin’s cheek before he can pull away. 

“Gerry!” Martin startles and his hand reaches up to wipe at his cheek.

“Don’t smear it, it’s a heart.” He pauses, going for his gravest voice. “Because I love you so much. I’ll be devastated if you ruin it.”

“I don’t appreciate that.” Martin sighs but drops his hand, his face softening already. Exasperation has never been paired with fondness, not when it’s aimed at Gerry. Another thing he’s starting to get used to.

“Shame. It looks good.”

Martin goes home with a heart on his other cheek as well. He looks ridiculous. Gerry loves it.

_________

When Jon’s particularly stressed, Gerry leaves him post-it notes.

Often he leaves before Gerry even wakes, so he’s got to do them the night before. A little cat here, a little caricature of Bouchard there. He leaves a variety, depending on his mood. Jon always gives him a kiss when he gets home, a soft ‘thank you for the note,’ and that’s all he needs, really, to keep doing it. He likes making Jon smile.

Martin’s gone grocery shopping and Jon’s pulling a late night again, so Gerry’s alone in the flat looking for something to do. There’s nothing on Netflix worth watching (or at least, worth watching by himself) and he’s not in the mood for his latest novel, so he decides he’s going to be productive, make a list of all the things he has to do this week. Jon’s always going on about lists, though he leaves them everywhere and never seems to accomplish everything on them. Maybe it’s the act of making them that’s relaxing. It’s worth a try.

He makes his way over to the second bedroom they (mostly Jon) use as an office. He’s sure Jon’s got a little notepad here that he can use, and he wants it to look as official as possible. He opens the left hand drawer but only finds Martin’s receipts, and on the right he finds a plain-looking notebook, a little worn with use. Maybe that’s what he uses-

Gerry opens it. Pauses. Blinks. Feels something heavy and thick form in his throat.

It’s his notes- his stupid little sketches, his ‘have a good day at work’s, his smiley-faces and little hearts. Each carefully placed on page after page with an accompanying date, neat and tidy, like a little scrapbook. Mum used to throw out his ‘doodles,’ as she called them, told him his time was better spent on actual art, but Jon’s kept all of them. Like they mattered. Like they were important. He sets it back down on the desk and just stands there, heart beating hard in his chest.

Gerry’s tearing up like some sort of moron so he’s distracted and doesn’t hear Jon come home, doesn’t hear his usual grumblings and sighs. Doesn’t hear him until Jon’s right behind him, startling him with a hand on his arm. “Sorry, I was just- Gerry, are you alright?”

Alright. Alright. It’s a word that doesn’t encompass everything he’s feeling. Wanted, embarrassed, a little overwhelmed. And so, so happy. 

He turns around and grabs Jon in a fierce hug, overcome with affection and eager to hide his stupid tears as he squeezes Jon to his chest. “You’re adorable, you know that?” he says, peppering kisses to the top of his head despite Jon’s weak protestations. “Real fuckin’ cute.”

Jon melts into his embrace, even as he complains. “I’ve got no idea what you’re on about, Gerry,” he says into his chest, the words muffled. “You’re being absurd.” Jon’s just about the only person he knows that uses ‘absurd’ on a daily basis. It’s insufferable. Gerry loves it.

“Just let me hug you, you little ogre.”

_________

Sometimes, Gerry’s the one who’s got to be up early. Doctors appointments are a bitch, and after a brief scare last year, it’s important that he keep up with them. Martin helps him schedule, marking the appointments on the calendar with a bold black marker that can’t be missed.

This morning’s particularly brutal, with an eight o’clock appointment an hour’s commute away. Jon went to sleep at a reasonable hour last night and he needs the rest; Gerry knows if he wakes Martin, he wakes them both. Jon’s never been good at sleeping alone. 

He’s stumbling blearily around the kitchen, about to put the kettle on when he notices it. On the table is a post-it note; he doesn’t remember leaving one for Jon last night, but he’d been rather tired, so who knows? Gerry putters around, fixing his tea and nibbling at toast when he finally spares it a glance. 

It’s not for Jon. It’s for him.

Good luck at your appointment! It reads in Martin’s familiar, neat script. Accompanying it is a small doodle that has to be Jon’s; it’s not particularly good, but it clearly shows a little Gerry, makeup and all, with a plaster on his cheek and a heart over his head. It looks like Jon spent time on it. Spent time on some stupid little post it note to make Gerry smile. 

He puts it in his pocket. Takes it out a few times in the waiting room, stares at it. Everything looks fine, the doctor says at the end of the appointment. He’s so lucky.

He’s so lucky.

ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29635833

[entamesubs]

Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS Blu-Ray: Episode 5

Google Drive ONLY (for now)

Support us on ko-fi

Blu-Ray episodes will come out one at a time every Friday, until I’m done with the full first season (1-13).

The next episode should be up on September 3rd, barring surprise events. We’re out of the RR era and into tempsubs now!

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Please use either MPV or MPC-HC to view the Blu-Ray episodes. I do NOT recommend using VLC.

Please check the post for episodes 1&2 to see why.

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!! This is NOT a final release !!

Nor are any of the files on Google Drive. They will be polished and edited one more time before being put up on Nyaa. Stuff I decide on changing halfway through these episodes will eventually be changed for Nyaa release.

Until that happens, the Google Drive folder is more like a “final draft” than a finished product. I will not be going back to change font, styling, or certain wording until I’m done with all the other episodes first.

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Extended Translation Notes

Typesetting changes

The same as my post on them here for episode 62.

TL;DR

Bahnschrift -> Gandhi Sans Bold.

Athelas -> Berlin Sans FB Demi Bold (for Luke)

White text, black outline, colored shadow for summoning chants for the sake of readability

Bakuro’s font is Lato Black. It’ll be the default font used for most summoning chants unless it’s a special or important character, in which case I’ll stylize it differently.

These are what the subs should look like:

If they don’t look like these images, please reblog or reply to this post with a comment. I’ll try to fix it before final release.

Minor wording changes “Rules” -> “Format”

They very clearly say “rules” in English over the course of this episode, but in the midst of translating this I realize that a more appropriate localization may be “format” because that’s what we would actually call something like Rush Duels in English.

Rather than “rules”, it’s very clearly a new “format”, which makes more sense for English speakers. When the final version is released on Nyaa after I’m done with everything here, I’ll probably scrub through previous episodes to switch “rules” to “format”, unless it’s fine as it is in context and makes sense.

You may see one or two “rules” in the subs for this episode; they were kept intentionally. Otherwise, we’ll mostly be using “format” whenever they refer to Rush Duels like this again.

Rush Dragon Dragears -> Striking Dragon Dragias -> Multistrike Dragon Dragias

So if you haven’t noticed, Dragias’ name has been on a wild rollercoaster ride since the start of this series. A lot of people are used to Dragears as it was the initial translation by YGOrg. This is not really wrong, by the way.

The reason why there is so much switching is due to localization. With the official release of the SEVENS Puzzles & Dragons collaboration event for global servers, we learned that the TCG name for Dragias is “Multistrike Dragon Dragias”.

This also backs up an earlier-released pillow set with English monster names, so you can expect to see “Yamiruler, the Dark Delayer” and “Prima Guitarna the Shining Superstar” in the subs after finalizations are made.

Why? Because I believe in using the TCG names as that is what people will be most used to once the game releases here in the West (and yes, it is coming). I have already been using TCG phrasing for various other terms, like “tribute summoning” instead of “advance summoning”, or “spell card” instead of “magic card”.

As we get more news on the TCG release of Rush Duels, I will be changing card names accordingly.

Light Bullet -> Light Blast

Some more minor Dragias changes. This is the name of his first attack. I felt like “blast” was a lot more accurate than “bullet” which is just the literal translation of 弾 (dan).

Bakuro’s lines

RoadRush:

“Rush Duels [have] got very shallow rules, where even I, who has difficulty remembering things, can remember them easily.”

Original Japanese: 「ラッシュデュエルは覚えたての僕ですら簡単に勝てるほどの底の浅いルールだとね｡」

This is just a straight-up mistranslation. Unfortunately, this is not what Bakuro said.

It should be something more along the lines of “Rush Duels are so shallow that even I, someone who’s just learned it, can grasp it so quickly”. Bakuro does not have a faulty memory.

覚える can mean “to remember” or “to memorize”, however its second definition is also “to learn”. What makes this definitively “to learn” is the presence of the ending たて (-tate), which is used to signify when it’s someone’s “just done” something.

In this case, Bakuro has “just learned” Rush Duels.

廃刊 (haikan) “ceasing publication”

When Bakuro is defeated, he says these words. Earlier in the episode, they were translated as “shut down”, but the word specifically means “ceasing the publication of some news or article” which also includes things like magazines.

The reason the subs say “report... over” instead of “ceasing publication” or “shut down” is because I just felt like it was a really weird set of words to say out of context. I instead opted for something that makes more sense in English, like Bakuro who’s just finished reporting from the scene, therefore “report over”.

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For people interested in the raw BDMV vs encoded final video comparisons, click here. (Click the image in the center to swap between “raw BD” and “encoded”).

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Credits

Translation, timing: entame Proofreading: angelthinktank (Yona) Encoding: PelvisBass

[bananaofswifts]

By : Callie Ahlgrim and Courteney Larocca

Taylor Swift released her eighth studio album, "Folklore," on Friday.

Swift surprised fans by announcing its release just one day in advance — and less than one year after the release of her acclaimed seventh album "Lover."

"Most of the things I had planned this summer didn't end up happening, but there is something I had planned that DID happen," she wrote on social media. "And that thing is my 8th studio album, folklore. Surprise!"

She described "Folklore," stylized in all lowercase, as "an entire brand new album of songs I've poured all of my whims, dreams, fears, and musings into."

Much of the 16-song tracklist — 17 on the deluxe edition — was cowritten and produced by The National's Aaron Dessner. Smaller pieces were cowritten by Bon Iver, Jack Antonoff, and someone named William Bowery. Antonoff also produced five songs.

Insider's music team (reporter Callie Ahlgrim and celebrity and music editor Courteney Larocca) listened to the new album on our own, jotting down our initial thoughts track by track.

Almost immediately, we were forced to reckon with the fact that "Folklore" might be Swift's best album yet — potentially even better than "Red," which previously seemed like it couldn't be topped. We were stunned with the mature, poetic, stunningly understated collection of new songs.

Here is what we thought of each song on "Folklore" upon first listen. (Skip to the end to see the only songs worth listening to and the album's final score.)

"The 1" is the best album opener Swift has had in years.

Ahlgrim: "I'm doing good, I'm on some new s---" is a wild way to begin a new Taylor Swift album. This is going to be different.

This is easily the best intro song she's released in years. "The 1" far surpasses "I Forgot That You Existed" on "Lover," "...Ready for It?" on "Reputation," and "Welcome to New York" on "1989" in terms of sheer quality.

It's also an engaging scene-setter; I find myself gently rocking back and forth, eyes closed, smiling without realizing. It's only the first song and so far, I am totally grasping the woodsy aesthetic of this album. I'm already ready for more.

Larocca: I would argue that there hasn't been a strong album opener on one of Swift's albums since "State of Grace" on "Red" in 2012. "The 1" breaks that curse.

I was vibing from that very first piano note, but when Swift comes in and warmly delivers the first line of the album — "I'm doing good, I'm on some new s---" — it became evident this project wouldn't be anything like the rest of her discography.

As far as "The 1" goes as a standalone song, it's incredibly solid. Swift has a breezy attention to rhythm as she paints a tale of a the-one-who-got-away romance. I truly, truly love it. This might end up being an all-time favorite track.

"Cardigan" is beautifully influenced by Lana Del Rey.

Ahlgrim: I heard "Cardigan" first because I watched the music video before I listened to the album.

Right off the bat, I was struck by the Lana Del Rey melody in the chorus; I jotted down "folksy 'Blue Jeans.'"

Swift has actually cited Del Rey as an inspiration in the past, so this makes sense — and that particular shade of nostalgic, haunting glamour really works for Swift's voice, so I'm overall very impressed with this direction. I am more than amenable to a "Red" meets "Norman F---ing Rockwell!" album experience. On my second time around listening, sans music video, "Cardigan" already feels richer coming after "The 1."

This time, I'm struck by small lyrical details like "Sequined smile, black lipstick," a clear callback to her past eras, and "Tried to change the ending / Peter losing Wendy," an effective way to evoke young love and innocence lost.

I also think the song's central refrain, "When you are young they assume you know nothing," is clean and sharp and — especially given Swift's public struggles with sexism and years-old contracts — extremely poignant.

Larocca: I had the thought that Swift listens to Lana Del Rey after hearing "Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince" on last year's "Lover," but now I know for sure that Del Rey is an influence on Swift.

While "Cardigan" isn't what I thought this album would be like sonically, I'm overjoyed at how clearly singer-songwriter this album already is. I've been waiting years for Swift to make a lyrical marvel set to acoustic, warm, folksy instrumentals and it's here.

(And while I expected something different sonically, I am not mad at all by the backing instrumental choices here.)

"The Last Great American Dynasty" proves Swift is a natural storyteller.

Ahlgrim: Personally, I love Storyteller Taylor, so this is quite literally music to my ears.

There are so many delicious details here to unpack. The first verse, with its subtle sexist whisperings about Rebekah Harkness ("How did a middle-class divorcée do it?" and "It must have been her fault his heart gave out"), is a truly savvy way to set up for the song's eventual reveal.

Rebekah spent her time partying with friends, funding the ballet, playing card games with Salvador Dalí, somehow "ruining everything" — and her Holiday House was "free of women with madness" until Swift herself moved in.

That twist in the bridge is poetic genius. When the final chorus adjusts to the present day, underscoring the parallels between Rebekah and Swift, I'm forcefully reminded of an iconic bridge when Romeo finally proposed and changed everything — but Swift has evolved past daydreams of pure white dresses and fathers giving permission.

Larocca: I'm immediately taken back to 2012's "Starlight" when "The Last Great American Dynasty" starts. Thankfully, this song ends up being a lot better than "Starlight," which always felt more like a filler track on "Red" to me.

I love a lot here: the casual use of "b----," the acute attention to detail ("She stole his dog and dyed it key lime green"), and every version of this line: "There goes the maddest woman this town has ever seen."

I had a marvelous time listening to this song.

"Exile," featuring Bon Iver, is one of Swift's most successful duets to date.

Ahlgrim: Swift and Bon Iver, aka Justin Vernon, are two of the best songwriters alive today, so this song was destined to be breathtaking.

Swift has historically had difficulty allowing her voice and vision to coexist with a featured artist; her collaborations often leave me feeling like she should've just delivered the whole song herself.

But Swift and Vernon were able to weave their lyrics together so gracefully, I was left feeling grateful for his presence. His rich, rustic tone and those iconic hummed harmonies lends the regretful song an added coat of sincerity.

The production here is generally fine, but the layered instrumentals in the ending really bring the song together. I love a dramatic exit.

Larocca: When I see a "featuring Bon Iver" on a track, I instantly assume Vernon is going to come in with his high falsetto. So it was almost jarring that the song starts with Vernon sounding like a lumberjack dad who hasn't left the woods in a decade.

That didn't end up being a detriment, though. Swift sounds delicate on her verse, and their vocals contrast nicely later on the track.

This one also brings to mind her collab "The Last Time" with Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody. The line "I think I've seen this film before and I didn't like the ending" is also reminiscent of "If This Was a Movie."

I'm obsessed with the clear influences Swift's previous discography had on these tracks, which have also so far felt completely unique to her catalog.

"My Tears Ricochet" is an extraordinary display of Swift's songwriting powers.

Ahlgrim: First of all, "My Tears Ricochet" is an incredible song title. Let's take a moment to appreciate that.

In fact, pretty much every line of this song is arresting.

Much of it feels both familiar and rare, like you know exactly what Swift is singing about, but hadn't thought to put it in those words before — which is, in my opinion, the mark of any good piece of writing but especially a breakup song. You can relate to the emotion, if not the particular details. You can hear the pain. It almost plays like a funeral march.

What a gift it is, what an exhilarating experience, to feel like you're listening to a poem being recited in real-time.

Larocca: Any true Swiftie knows that track five is reserved for the most vulnerable moment on the record, so I went into "My Tears Ricochet" ready to be sad.

I am endlessly impressed with how Swift managed to bake the word "ricochet" into this song so effectively. She also ditched her traditional song structure for this one, and instead built the track from peak to peak, utilizing clever lyrics along the way to tell an epic, devastating story, almost obviously calling back to the most beloved track five of "All Too Well."

I'm calling it now — this one is going to age like a fine wine. As all of Swift's best breakup ballads do.

"Mirrorball" is several strokes of genius.

Ahlgrim: This song gives me intense Clairo vibes, and I mean that as a very high compliment.

It's so fun and refreshing to hear Swift slip into different musical styles, and this shimmery take on alternative-bedroom-pop highlights her soft vocals and nuanced songwriting supremely well.

Also, my Leo sensibilities are fully under attack by this bridge: "I've never been a natural, all I do is try, try, try / I'm still on that trapeze / I'm still trying everything to keep you looking at me." Oof! Just tag me next time.

Larocca: This one is so pretty! Swift's vocals sound better than ever as she spins on her highest heels across a glittery daydream.

"I'm a mirrorball / I'll show you every version of yourself tonight" might be the thesis statement of this entire album. So far, "Folklore" feels both diaristic and vague; detailed and completely anonymous.

Fans will be debating for years whether this album is about Swift's own life, or if it's simply really great storytelling pulled directly from her own mind. In the end, it doesn't really matter.

Because as all of Swift's best songs do, these songs will attach themselves to listeners in completely new ways, showing them elements and stories from their own lives.

"Seven" is pure whimsical magic.

Ahlgrim: This is playing make-believe in the garden when you're too young to feel self-conscious; it's poetic and nostalgic and full of awe in such an unpretentious way.

I wouldn't change one thing about this song. Swift's whispery high register sounds divine, and at this point in the tracklist, her rhythmic delivery in the chorus hits like a shot of espresso.

Right now, I'm wondering if it's possible for Swift to maintain this intrigue and momentum for another nine songs. There hasn't been a misstep to speak of, and I remain wholly beguiled. Can it last?

Larocca: The beginning of "Seven" sounds like Swift listened to Marina's "Orange Trees" on repeat before showing up to her songwriting session. Fortunately, "Orange Trees" is the only song I like on Marina's "Love + Fear" so I will gladly accept this inspiration.

Swift continues to impress with both her vocals and her sense of rhythm on "Seven." I also personally love space imagery so the line "Love you to the moon and to Saturn" is a standout line.

"August" will go down as one of the best songs in Swift's extensive repertoire.

Ahlgrim: I'm immediately catching hints of Phoebe Bridgers and girl in red in Swift's delivery. And I simply adore the idea that Swift has spent the last few months sitting at home, daydreaming about summertime humidity and listening to music by queer indie-pop girls. 

In an album full of songwriting expertise, this song has some of Swift's best lines yet: "August sipped away like a bottle of wine / 'Cause you were never mine" actually hurts me.

In my notes, there simply sits this valuable insight (yes, in all-caps): "WANTING WAS ENOUGH. FOR ME IT WAS ENOUGH TO LIVE FOR THE HOPE OF IT ALL." This song has my favorite bridge on the album so far.

In terms of production, "August" is exquisite. It's lush and layered without feeling overwhelming at any point. It builds to the perfect level then recedes, like a wave. 

Also worth mentioning: It can now be considered a historical fact that any time Swift mentions a car or driving in one of her songs, it's a perfect song.

Larocca: While listening to "August," I texted Callie and said, "I can't wait to finish the album so I can relisten to 'August.'" It's an instant favorite. 

This is also the first track on the album that seems directly inspired by our current state. Not because she's expressing fear or singing about being bored at home, but because she so easily slips into a reflection of a relationship that ended years ago with a newfound wave of wistful nostalgia. 

When quarantine started, it seemed like a million lifestyle articles came out explaining why everyone suddenly felt compelled to text their exes and why we're so invested in looking back instead of forward right now. 

"August" validates those feelings with zero judgment, letting its listener know that yes, it's totally normal for you to be overanalyzing that quasi-relationship you were in back in college that never made it past graduation. Am I projecting? Maybe, but that's debatably what Swift's music is best utilized for.

I'm also going to be thinking about this song's bridge and outro for the rest of my life.

The National's influence can be felt on the stunning "This Is Me Trying."

Ahlgrim: "This Is Me Trying" quickly strikes a more sinister tone than its predecessors — still nostalgic and wistful, but carrying an edge, like a threatening secret.

Ironically, this one was co-written and co-produced by Jack Antonoff, not Aaron Dessner, though I can really hear The National's influence here. I'm getting strong wafts of songs like "Pink Rabbits" and "Dark Side of the Gym."

Based on Swift's own words, we can speculate that "This Is Me Trying" is a fictional tale, built around the image of "a 17-year-old standing on a porch, learning to apologize." And, as previously stated, I'm a big fan of Storyteller Taylor, so I'm into it.

The song's darker tone mingles really well with Swift's imagery; when you're a teenager, and you make a mistake, it can feel like the end of the world.

Larocca: "This Is Me Trying" is precisely what I imagined this album sounding like when I found out Swift collaborated with the National's Aaron Dessner and Bon Iver.

But I'm glad she was strategic about her use of echo and also finally paid attention to the tracklisting from a sonic standpoint. This haunting soundscape is reminiscent of 2014's "This Love" and comes in right when you need it after the yearning daydream of "August."  

I'd also like it to be on the record that the line "I got wasted like all my potential" ruined me and this song is a win for that lyric alone.

"Illicit Affairs" is a glowing example of what sets Swift apart from her peers as a songwriter.

Ahlgrim: The expert songwriting on "Illicit Affairs" reminds me of the as-yet unseated queen in Swift's discography: "All Too Well."

Swift is a master of wielding specific details like weapons: "What started in beautiful rooms / Ends with meetings in parking lots," she sings. "Leave the perfume on the shelf / That you picked out just for him." These are the sorts of images that set Swift apart, and they're especially strong when she punctuates their delivery with a little growl in her voice.

This song has real power. I have chills.

That power is magnified in the third verse, similar to how "All Too Well" builds to a crescendo: "Don't call me 'kid,' don't call me 'baby' / Look at this godforsaken mess that you made me."

Certainly, "Illicit Affairs" is more restrained than Swift's iconic arena rock ballad, but goddamn that last verse hits hard.

Larocca: The way that she says "him" in the second verse shook me out of my skin in the very best way. And "Don't call me 'kid,' don't call me 'baby' / Look at this idiotic fool that you made me" will go down as one of her best breakup lines of all time.  

It's been a minute since Swift delivered a painstakingly beautiful breakup ballad, and the fact that this album is littered with them is, simply, a gift.  

"Illicit Affairs" has growing power and will likely become one of those tracks that fans form a strong emotional attachment to over time.

"Invisible String" is Taylor Swift at her most Taylor Swift.

Ahlgrim: "Invisible String" is a feast of Easter eggs and callbacks.

"Teal was the color of your shirt" reminds me of the line about Joe Alwyn's blue eyes on "Delicate," and her reference to a dive bar is similarly familiar. "Gave me no compasses, gave me no signs" recalls the push-and-pull on "Exile."

"Bad was the blood of the song in the cab" is undoubtedly a reference to Swift's 2015 single "Bad Blood," while "One single thread of gold / Tied me to you" feels like a nod to Swift's description of love's "golden" hue on the "Lover" album closer "Daylight."

This song is sprightly and sparkly and certainly nice to listen to, but its real strength lies in these details.

Swift is weaving many different stories on this album, many connected by a sort of "Invisible String," tying different pieces of her life and your life and other lives together. It ends up feeling like a growing plant with far-reaching roots, or a sentient treasure map.

Larocca: I'd be lying if I said there weren't multiple points throughout this album where I worried that Swift and her boyfriend Joe Alwyn had broken up. 

Thankfully, "Invisible String" is a rosy, wide-eyed ode to love. The plucky guitar paired with Swift's soft vocals is a sound I want to live in, which is fitting since this track feels like coming home. 

Every small detail, from the nod to Alwyn's time spent working at a frozen yogurt shop in his youth, to the color imagery that paints every inflection of Swift's adoration (especially the single thread of gold) come together to lay the holy ground Swift's relationship walks on. 

Also, the image of Swift mailing Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner gifts for their expectant first child brings about an unbridled sense of joy.

"Mad Woman" is yet another highlight.

Ahlgrim: Every time I think I've heard the peak of this album's songwriting potential, Swift manages to surprise me. 

Case in point: "Do you see my face in the neighbor's lawn? / Does she smile? / Or does she mouth, 'F--- you forever?'" Whoa.

And another, for good measure: "It's obvious that wanting me dead / Has really brought you two together." I texted Courteney, "Did she really just say that??"

This song is sublime on its own, but the way it ties back into the perception of female freedom and "madness" on "The Last Great American Dynasty" makes it even better. "Mad Woman" is definitely a personal favorite so far on this album, if not in Swift's entire catalog.

Larocca: "Mad Woman" will forever hold the honor of being the first song in which Swift says "f---" and for that, we should all be thankful. 

I was also so wrapped up in the storytelling of this album, that it took a minute for this to even register that this is likely about the Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta / Kanye West and Kim Kardashian West ordeals of Swift's past. These callouts used to be so obvious, that I greatly appreciate the subtlety and restraint here. 

It almost feels like these feuds were a lifetime ago, but this track does an excellent job at showcasing how anger and pain can leave an indelible mark on you. Swift went mad years ago, and that's just an accepted part of her narrative now. 

But for the first time, her rage sounds like freedom.

"Epiphany" doesn't stand out.

Ahlgrim: There are some really interesting vocal moments on "Epiphany," but so far, this is the only song I haven't felt captivated by. It's a bit snoozy, and a bit too long.

This song clearly references war, the loss of a loved one, and the coronavirus pandemic, which makes it lyrically intriguing at best — but distressing at worst. I don't mind letting the overall effect waft over me, but this won't be a song I revisit outside the context of the album.

Larocca: "Epiphany" is the only track on "Folklore" that didn't immediately grab me. It's essentially a war drama in song format, so some people might like it, but I truly couldn't care less about war movies or war songs! So it's not my favorite, but it makes for pretty background music. 

"Epiphany" does have another benefit though: Now, whenever some random dude erroneously claims Swift "only writes songs about her exes," fans have a clear song in her discography that they can point to and be like, "That's not true. This one's about war." 

That's not to say Swift needed that — anyone who has been paying attention understands she's quite possibly the best songwriter of her generation.  

This just happens to be further proof of that fact.

"Betty" is a charming callback to Swift's country roots.

Ahlgrim: "Betty" is like the best, sauciest song from Swift's 2006 debut country album that no one got to hear. It has sonic and lyrical similarities to hits like "Our Song" and "Tim McGraw," plus some name-dropping stuff like 2008's "Hey Stephen," plus a little harmonica thrown in for good measure! I love that for us.

"Betty" also appears to complete a three-song story, recalling details from "Cardigan" and "August" to close the loop on Betty and James, a couple in high school with some infidelity issues.

Looking back, it feels like "Cardigan" was told from Betty's perspective, while "August" was told from the perspective of a sort of "other woman" character. Now, we get James' side of the story. This is high art, folks! This is peak Storytelling Taylor!

"Betty" is also, like, very gay? I know it's easy to assume that James is a male character, but Swift herself was named after James Taylor, so she could be referring to herself. The song also references someone named Inez; James and Inez are the names of Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively's daughters.

Plus, in retrospect, the idea of whispering "Are you sure? Never have I ever before" during a summer fling seems pretty gay to me.

I'm not saying the story of Betty and James would be better if it was written about sapphic lovers, but I'm not not saying that.

Larocca: This one is gay, and if you try to tell me otherwise, I will simply ignore you. 

But Courteney, it's from the perspective of a guy named James. James and the other character, Inez, share the same names as Reynolds and Lively's kids (will leave it up to you to decide if that means their third daughter's name is Betty). James is their daughter. Get out of here with your antiquated ideas about which names connotate which genders. 

To me, the James named in this song is a woman and a lesbian and this song is for the gays. I will not be saying anything else or accepting any feedback on this opinion, thank you.

"Peace" is honest and raw.

Ahlgrim: This song's intro sounds like LCD Soundsystem had a baby with "The Archer." The gentle guitar riff is also lovely.

With Dessner's echoey production, Swift's voice sounds like a warm little fire in a cave — fitting, since she sings in the chorus, "I'm a fire and I'll keep your brittle heart warm."

OK damn, I'm getting really emotional. This songwriting is beautiful and haunting. "Peace" perfectly captures the ambient dread of feeling your partner slip away, of wondering whether love can be enough. 

Larocca: If you're a "Call It What You Want" stan, you're going to love its mature older sister "Peace." 

I will hereby forever be thinking about the parallels between "But I'm a fire and I'll keep your brittle heart warm" with "He built a fire just to keep me warm" and between "Family that I chose, now that I see your brother as my brother" with "Trust him like a brother."

Also, "Would it be enough if I could never give you peace?" has the same emotional impact as when Swift changes the lyric in "The Archer" to "I see right through me" and that's meant as the highest form of compliment. 

Swift's vocals are so crisp, that guitar riff is so stunning, and these lyrics are so gut-wrenchingly vulnerable. A perfect song, through and through.

"Hoax" is unlike any other album closer in Swift's catalog.

Ahlgrim: I don't know if Swift is going through a traumatic breakup, but if she isn't, the woman is one convincing creative writer.

The National makes some of my favorite music to cry to, so when I heard Aaron Dessner had co-written and produced much of this album, I knew I was in for some glossy cheeks. Until now, I think I've felt too captivated by Swift's artistry to really let myself get there.

But finally, "Hoax" is making me cry.

This is heart-wrenching stuff for anyone, but for a fan and student of Swift's work, this is like reading a friend's diary entry.

"Don't want no other shade of blue, but you" must be a reference to "Delicate," in which Swift sings: "Dark jeans and your Nikes, look at you / Oh damn, never seen that color blue." Later, she croons, "You know I left a part of me back in New York," perhaps regretting the move to London that she detailed throughout "Lover." 

"You knew it still hurts underneath my scars / From when they pulled me apart," recalling the public shaming she endured and demons she exorcised on "Reputation." "But what you did was just as dark." Like I said before: Whoa.

Personally, I love having a good cry set to moody music, so I appreciate Swift's soul-bearing. "Hoax" is one gut-punch of an album closer.

Larocca: Swift has a habit of ending her albums on an uplifting, hopeful note and I always eat it up. But if "Folklore" hadn't made it clear by now that it should be consumed differently than any of her previous works, "Hoax" brings that message home.  

Instead of reveling in all the ways that love has made her stronger, happier, or more whole, "Hoax" deconstructs everything Swift has learned about love and leaves a bleaker picture about how maybe even the best of relationships hurt. 

But at its most tragic, this love still isn't something Swift will ever let go of: "Don't want no other shade of blue but you / No other sadness in the world would do."  

Finishing a Taylor Swift album has never been so devastating.

Final Grade: 9.7/10

[kcwcommentary]

VLD4x03 – “Black Site”

4x03 – “Black Site”

Interesting to note that both this episode and last episode were directed by Steve In Chang Ahn. I haven’t yet seen any other instances within a single season of a person directing back-to-back episodes, so I wonder what this suggests about the production of season four. Also, this episode was written by the show’s Story Editor, Tim Hedrick, which becomes relevant to my criticism of this episode in a bit.

We open with Haggar/Honerva – it is really cumbersome to differentiate with the two names, and I do think this show expects us to do so. She is distraughtly staring into a magical reflective energy bubble (because apparently basic mirrors can’t be bothered with when you’re a space witch) at the brown skin face of an emaciated Honerva. She still has a clawed, purple Haggar hand though. I remain uninvested in Haggar, so the emotion of inner turmoil that the show thinks it’s giving us with her here makes me go ugh. She changes the color of her face to purple, indicating that this is a choice she is making. She is Altean, and it’s been a while since we’ve seen an Altean change their appearance (Allura first revealed this ability in 1x12 “Collection and Extraction,” though such a significant ability has never since been relevant to the story, which seems like a big narrative underuse for something so powerful).

The Druids are still torturing the Galra commander of the base from 3x06 “Tailing a Comet,” who says it must have been Lotor who attacked him. This is a change, since he wasn’t naming anyone when he was tortured at the end of 3x06. I really wish shows would stop aggrandizing the imaginary idea that torture produces true information. Haggar comments, “No one can completely wipe a memory away,” which of course is a narrative double-voiced reference to herself in the guise of referencing the commander. The show tries to write Haggar as being the bad person who doesn’t remember being Honerva, but I really hate that because it’s done to absolve Honerva of her terrible behavior, behavior that began long before she became so poisoned that she lost her memory and started calling herself Haggar. That this show thinks it depicts Honerva to be a good person with no bad behavior – they basically try to absolve Honerva with a Devil-made-me-do-it excuse – disturbs me.

The Castle Ship is landing on Olkarion, carrying more refugees. Coran identifies them as “a few hundred more souls looking for a new home.” Shiro reidentifies them as “a few hundred more soldiers in the fight against the Galra.” It bothers me that the show conflates being a refugee with being willing to fight in war. By definition, war refugees are people who are trying to escape war. But even if Shiro is accurate, and the refugees depicted in this show are willing to fight in the war, the show never shows them fighting. I never get a sense that this billion-member Voltron Coalition contributing to the war is ever any more than a few dozen people.

Pidge returns. Everyone happily runs to meet her. Of course, I still can’t help but to compare this to how everyone reacted in 4x01 “Code of Honor” to Keith returning. Pidge has brought Matt with her (because apparently he can abandon his post as a rebel and come with her). Pidge introduces Matt to everyone, including Allura.

The first time I watched this episode was the weekend after season seven was released. I had gone through the two weeks between San Diego Comic Con and the release of season seven so happy that the show was finally going to have some clear queer inclusion through the revelation about Shiro and Adam. But then, before I could start my viewing marathon to get caught up on the show and watch season seven that weekend, discussion of the realities of the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it level of inclusion and the use of the bury-your-gays trope with Adam’s character was happening online. So, by the time I was watching this episode, I was in an aggravated mindset. And then I saw this scene.

The blatant, over-the-top depiction of Matt’s attraction to Allura infuriated me. Watching it now, I can just see the scene as yet another instance of heterosexual privilege, in which the depiction of a man attracted to a woman is not subtle or hidden. It’s glaring. The double standard makes me feel ill. Matt’s behavior is over the top and feels like a celebration of the dominance of men being attracted to women in American storytelling. I can easily imagine that those responsible for this scene – writer, director, executive producer – they all are so ignorant of the privilege afforded to the perspective of men attracted to women that they were (and still remain) clueless to how obnoxious this scene is and how obnoxious they were in creating it.

And of course, Lance is jealous. I haven’t been interested in Lance’s jealousy over Allura before, I’m not interested now.

Matt sees Shiro. This is part of this scene that I really like. Matt holds out his hand to shake Shiro’s, calling him “Sir.” I appreciate that Matt has such clearly depicted respect for Shiro. Shiro shakes his hand briefly before pulling Matt in for a hug. Shiro is not a boring commander-guy character, and moments like this prove it. He has a significant softer side. He deeply cares about the people with whom he serves. Recontextualizing this knowing that this is the clone, he still feels so warmly about people that he wants to hug them, so again, he’s clearly not an “evil thing.” He also expresses a willingness to continue the search for Pidge and Matt’s dad.

And the scene ends with Lance continuing to be jealous.

Zarkon is being put into some new armor, complete with constant quintessence vials built in. Haggar complains to him about Lotor, and Zarkon responds by condemning Haggar’s elevating Lotor to the position of authority that he’s in. “It’s time to relieve my wayward son of his duties,” Zarkon says. This is only beginning to hint at the abuse that Zarkon and Haggar have inflicted over the millenia on Lotor. That this show writes Zarkon and Haggar to be abusive and then ends the show by demanding we absolve and forgive them for their abusive behavior is infuriating. This element of the show’s plot is an insult against every one of us who have been abused by a parent.

There’s a longer-than-it-should-have-been scene of Pidge giving Matt a tour of the Castle Ship. All the information in it is information we viewers have known for a long time, so it’s not adding anything new to the show. Because of that, it’s mostly a worthless scene. The quick cut and tonal shift of the voice acting of “This is our cow,” from Pidge, however is funny.

Lotor’s people are busy working on building another part of the Sincline. Lotor’s been summoned back to Zarkon’s throne. Given how he talks to his generals, he couldn’t care less about Zarkon resuming as Emperor. Narti accompanies Lotor.

There’s a scene with Allura and Coran and the cow. It’s supposed to be funny.

Lotor meets with Zarkon and Haggar. Zarkon relieves Lotor of his position and speaks with clear disdain. Zarkon says both, “Your short reign will be regarded as a black spot on the Galra Empire for years to come,” and, “You are no longer needed.” This is just a glimpse at how he has treated Lotor over the millennia, and it’s already clearly abusive. Lotor’s face as he walks away reaffirms his comment in the earlier scene that he doesn’t view holding the throne right now as being necessary for his plans.

Haggar says, “I sensed a powerful energy on [Lotor] when he entered.” Well, that’s vague writing. She creeps around and stares at Narti. The camerawork clearly focuses in on Narti, not Kova. After departing, Lotor detects and destroys a tracker that’s been placed on his ship.

Between milkshakes and now Hunk lounging with food, none of the Paladins in this episode seem like they’re busy dealing with a war. Large parts of season four have this odd casual tonal quality to scenes and plots that feels so off in an ongoing story about a war.

Referencing an element to the episode 2x07 “Space Mall,” Lance sits in the dark playing the video game he and Pidge bought at the mall. The game is stylized after old 8- and 16-bit RPGs. Given my own history with such games, I genuinely feel nostalgic seeing it depicted this way. Coran and Allura interrupt because they want more milk. So, we get another long scene with the cow. We do learn that Lance knows how to milk a cow, which is not an everyman skill. Coran and Allura react in horror, so we can conclude that Alteans aren’t similar to mammals (why do female Alteans have breasts then?). It’s like they’ve never seen someone consume something extracted from an animal before, but I can’t believe that the two of them are so socially isolated that they’ve never encountered someone who does, even if they themselves do not. I imagine that the writer and director did this scene without much of any thought to the anthropological implications it contains. They just thought it was funny. To me, it just feels out of place. Again, it’s so casual.

Lotor returns to his generals. Axca reports the second “comet” ship is complete. Again, the camerawork focuses on Narti, not Kova, and we see that Haggar is watching Lotor through her. How she can be doing so through Narti, who we know is blind and has no depicted eyeballs, I don’t know. “No!” Haggar says in some raspy, desperate voice upon hearing that Lotor is building ships. She hears the word “comet” and jumps to the conclusion that it’s the same kind of “comet” Voltron was made from. This is another instance of this show having people jump to conclusions because the show needs them to, not because it would be logical that they would make such a conclusion. It’s a cheat, a shortcut in writing.

Haggar tells Zarkon, who assumes Lotor is keeping them secret so that he can use them against the Empire. Again, this feels like a jump to a conclusion, but it also could be that Zarkon is a megalomaniac, so he thinks everything is about him. He orders his fleet to “hunt down Prince Lotor.”

Pidge, Matt, and Hunk do something to improve the Castle Ship’s ability to track Galra ships. They also decipher Galra communications that they had previously been unable to do. They learn Zarkon is alive. They also can see Zarkon’s fleet moving toward Lotor’s base. There’s a team meeting. Pidge finally says she thinks she can upgrade Voltron as a whole with the cloaking technology she’s been using for ages on the Green Lion. She says she’s been working on it for a while but that she can’t pilot the Green Lion and operate the cloaking at the same time. That makes no sense whatsoever since she can pilot Green and use Green’s cloak simultaneously. It’s more contrived writing to put Matt in Green with Pidge.

Lotor’s base is attacked. Voltron shows up, cloaks, and observes from a distance. Lotor moves so that he, his generals, and the remaining part of the “comet” can escape on the two Sincline ships created so far. “How did they find us,” Axca asks. “We must’ve been tracked,” Zethrid responds. Lotor then jumps to the conclusion that it’s because of Narti. The camerawork clearly focuses on Narti, not Kova. Since Kova was with Lotor just as much as Narti was, there’s no reason for him to assume Narti and not the possibility of Kova, especially since Kova originated with Honerva/Haggar. But Lotor jumps to the conclusion that it’s Narti’s fault because the writing is again cheating, and he kills Narti.

This terrible writing was a portent that we can only see in hindsight of how badly the conclusion of the clone plotline would be written. Just like with the clone of Shiro, the show here instantly writes Narti to be worthy of death. No consideration of her innocence. No recognition that she’s being used by Haggar. It’s the same with the clone. The writers of this show think that if you lose your agency, that you are worthy of death. The writers would probably react to this criticism of Narti’s death by saying Lotor’s a villain, but since they do to the clone of Shiro the same thing for the same reason, they reveal through their writing choices that this is how they think. If someone deprives you of agency, you are “evil” and deserve to die.

Also, what message does it send that this show introduced Narti as blind and could have given us an interesting character of diverse representation, but instead they use her as death fodder, with the narrative placing the blame on her instead of on Haggar. It started most definitively in 3x07 “The Legend Begins,” but the writers of this show wrote with the purpose of absolving Honerva/Haggar of her behavior for a long time on this show. I guess it should be no surprise that that absolution is the climax of the series. Writing is about making choices. Every moment like this is a choice. And this episode was written by the show’s Story Editor (at this point in its production) Tim Hedrick.

Lotor doesn’t explain himself, as he walks away after killing Narti, and none of his generals have any reaction. Narti is a woman with whom Axca, Ezor, and Zethrid have been working closely for a long time now. And none of them react to seeing Lotor kill her. None of them demand to know why.

Lotor and his remaining generals leave on the Sincline ships. Despite the hugeness of space, his two relatively small ships fly so closely to Voltron that Voltron sidesteps Lotor’s ships at he last minute. There is literally no reason for this to happen except the writing is contrived. The show wants an excuse to end Voltron’s cloaking. Why Voltron, seeing Lotor’s ships coming at them, having more than enough time to move out of the way, only does so at the literal last second possible is senseless. Again, contrived.

Voltron destroys dozens, maybe even hundreds of Galra ships.

Zarkon issues an Empire-wide message: Lotor is deemed an enemy of the state, and Zarkon wants Lotor killed on sight. This ordering Lotor’s execution and dying in combat with Lotor in episode 5x02 “Blood Duel” are the only significant things Zarkon does in the show after the battle at the end of season two. There’s very little reason for him to have survived the end of season two. And here he is, ordering the execution of his son, and that’s one of his endless horrible actions that he’s absolved of by the show in the final season.

A lot of blame for the bad storytelling in this show goes to the show’s executive producers, absolutely. But I don’t absolve the show’s Story Editor either, especially when he’s the writer of an egregious episode like this.

[letterboxd]

Self-Defense.

“Tone is fun. Tone is like a fingerprint, and I’m trying to figure out what mine is.” —The Art of Self-Defense writer/director Riley Stearns tells us about his singular new film.

Leaning heavily into ideas centered around manliness, Riley Stearns’ new film The Art of Self-Defense feels pretty loaded. Although it’s clearly presenting itself as satire, the hot-button nature of its subject matter heightens the whole affair.

Set in what appears to be sometime in the 1970s or 1980s, or a cellphone-less present—you can never be quite sure—the film stars Jesse Eisenberg as Casey, a meek office drone who is violently mugged one evening. After recovering, he begins taking karate lessons at a local dojo and falls under the influence of his charismatic sensei, a man named… Sensei. Sensei is played by Alessandro Nivola in a hilarious performance that itself justifies seeing the film, but it’s worth it for several other reasons too, not least of which is a great turn from Imogen Poots, playing a fellow student.

Destined to be polarizing, The Art of Self-Defense affects a vibe that feels influenced in equal parts by Yorgos Lanthimos, Charlie Kaufman and Wes Anderson. For Stearns, who also helmed the 2014 cult-recovery feature Faults, a black comedy described by Letterboxd members as “terrific”, “inventive” and “original”, The Art of Self-Defense continues a never-ending exploration of tone, “the most important part of filmmaking”.

Letterboxd caught up with Stearns earlier in the year to talk jiu-jitsu, ambiguity, violence and the Coen brothers.

Writer/director Riley Stearns.

What was the impetus for you telling this story? Riley Stearns (writer/director): I think I started just worrying: what would happen if I got in a fight? What would happen if I got mugged? What would happen if I was with somebody I loved and something happened and I couldn’t defend them? And I just really didn’t know the answers to those questions. So I started looking into taking martial arts classes, and jiu-jitsu in particular is what I settled on. It was really out of fear initially, and now I do jiu-jitsu because it’s fun. It’s a hobby, it’s a sport that I like and it keeps me in shape. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done for myself, but it really started out of fear.

When I started writing the movie, I’d been doing jiu-jitsu for a little while. I wanted to make a movie in that world, but I realized I could take my experience and my fear and put it into the story, and I thought people might relate to that. And the really interesting thing is some of the guys I’ve shown it to have felt like they saw themselves in the character, even though for me, it’s a stylized and exaggerated version of myself. I see myself in the character, obviously, but I feel proud that they see themselves too.

Is this film’s time period deliberately ambiguous? Deliberately ambiguous, yes. I wanted to kind of be able to just mix technology. I happen to think that analog technology is more interesting-looking, and it adds a certain production design quality to the film that I really like. I don’t want people to have to think about the timeline too much. If you’re thinking ‘why is it ambiguous?’ that’s one thing. But thinking ‘oh there’s an iPhone 7, so this happened at that time’, I think it dates a film unnecessarily. I also try to stay away from cellphones just in general too. Because if you don’t have ’em and they’re never touched on, then you can’t use them, and that’s great, because it helps propel story. But yeah, it’s definitely an ambiguous timeline.

Having said that, your film delves into a subject that there’s so much discussion around right now in society: masculinity (and toxic forms of it). Is that a coincidence? I started writing this in 2015. I think the conversations were happening then, it was just a smaller version. Recently it has really picked up, [with] the #MeToo movement, and there’s people questioning and saying ‘no we’re not gonna take this anymore’. I think that’s amazing, but this was already something I was looking at doing for myself. Just saying, like, I’m a white guy and I’m middle-aged and I grew up in a middle-class family and this is my perspective, and so this hopefully is how I can help. It’s karate and it’s got action and comedy and all that, but I do think there’s a message at the heart of it. At the end of the day, it’s entertainment, for sure, but I don’t want to make something that’s pure entertainment. I want to make something that says something, at least. That was my goal.

The character of Sensei is really something else. What were your conversations with Alessandro Nivola like? For some reason I came up with this image that kind of started with Sensei: he’s the kind of guy who would wear sandals with socks. That’s who Sensei is. He’s a sociopathic character in the film, but he also is just a dork, too. I think he was the kid who was beat up in high school, probably started taking karate to be able to defend himself, thought it would make him cool. And at the end of the day, karate’s not necessarily the coolest thing in the world anyway. Anybody putting on a gi, you don’t look cool doing it. What you’re able to do from the martial art is one thing, but you don’t look cool in the gi.

I think Sensei just wants to belong. He wanted to belong to a group, and no group would have him so he kind of started his own, so he’s got his school, all these students look up to him, and he’s just pretending to be the cool person he always wanted to be. And he also just happens to be kinda crazy too. But yet, Alessandro had fun being that guy, just embracing the quirks of the character and not going the expected route.

There’s a declarative, deadpan tone to this film. Did you talk to your cast about tone? Definitely. ‘Deadpan’ is a word that’s used, and I think I accidentally slip into it here and there, but I like to say ‘literal’. In real life, we kind of hide the truth a little bit to be nice or friendly, and we don’t always express exactly what we’re thinking. I like to think that in the world of The Art of Self-Defense, everyone says exactly what they’re thinking. It’s either black or white, there’s no gray. And I think that helps inform the acting at times. Just saying what you think, and also a lot of times with quote-unquote jokes in the movie, I don’t think they work as well if you play it as a joke. But if you don’t play it as a joke, you play it dead serious, that’s where the humor lies. And we were really able to find that on set.

It’s hard to say that it’s a natural-feeling film, but I didn’t want it to feel so stylized that it takes you out of it. I wanted you to feel like this is just maybe a dimension over from us, a minute shift, but it’s enough that it makes things feel slightly off but it gives it its own world. I like building worlds, even if it’s not in some grand Avatar kind of way. Just hone and feel an atmosphere.

For me, tone is the most important part of filmmaking. I would rather have a nailed-down tone. I don’t know that I’m ever gonna achieve that; it’s always gonna be a battle to figure out what is perfect, but that means more to me than doing some really cool camera move. Or having some big explosion or something. I look at the Coen brothers and I say, like: how are they able to do exactly what they want to do with every single movie, and how does it feel like a Coen brothers film for me every single time? That’s an aspirational thing for me down the line; I want to get to that point where I know exactly what I want, we’re able to achieve it every time, and everyone’s on the same page. Tone is fun. Tone is like a fingerprint. And I’m trying to figure out what mine is.

Violence is a big part of this film. Were you trying to approach violence in a specific way? Um, not necessarily. I think that our society, in the United States especially, nudity and sex is so “horrible” to put on film, but everything gets away with violence. And I think that to a certain extent, that’s not a great thing, but I do happen to find a certain style of violence… when it’s used in a certain context. The films of Yorgos Lanthimos or… who else…

Paul Verhoeven? Yes. There you go. Haneke. There are ways of approaching violence that don’t glorify it, and I do think that there is humor in violence, but I know at the end of the day I’m making a movie. In real life, I’m not a violent person. I don’t like violent things. But being able to explore it is interesting in the context of the film. Maybe it’s the shock of it. Maybe I’m just being clichéd or whatever. But I do happen to find [violence] an interesting tool to be able to use. There are moments in the movie where we show the violence and there’s moments where we have it off camera. And I think being able to decide that may be too much, or being able to say, this is just doing it for shock and not adding anything to the discussion.

Something I definitely did in conceiving the way that we shot it, anything with fists or feet, like punching, very analog fights, all of that could be very bloody. But the moment we used weapons or guns or anything, I wanted [scene description redacted to avoid spoilers] to be almost not bloody at all. I didn’t wanna glorify the gun violence. But with the karate side of it, we just went balls-to-the-wall. So there’s also a little bit of that too, knowingly adding more to certain elements that you want to enhance. I don’t think people need to see [scene description redacted]. That’s not entertainment to me.

‘The Art Of Self-Defense’ is in US theaters now. Comments have been edited for clarity and length.

[upthehillask]

(1/2) hey maria! I admire your art so much and was wondering if you have advice for a struggling semi-beginner artist such as myself...I can draw ok if I'm using references, the only problem is it has to be HEAVY referencing, like basically copying the exact photo or drawing, or else it sucks. I really want to make fanart for books/podcasts and create ocs, but every time I try to get the image in my brain onto paper, it's like the detail completely disappears and I'm drawing blobs basically!

(2/2) I’ve tried using references JUST for positioning and to make sure my proportions are correct, but that doesn’t work either because I’ll literally just end up drawing the exact reference photo! It’s like it’s impossible for me to think up of stuff on my own? That sounds really pathetic but what I mean is, I don’t know what to draw unless it’s right there in front of me on the screen/page. I’ve been struggling with this for ages, and I’d really appreciate any insight you have! Thanks

Well I don’t know if it’s going to be helpful or not helpful for you to know that you described by whole experience? I’m the kind of person who learns through imitation, and maybe you are too, and that’s nothing to be ashamed of because everyone learns differently! Your brain doesn’t visually know everything as much as we’d like it to, so referencing is inevitable if you’re going for perspective, anatomical, and proportional accuracy.

So here are some of my thoughts: (long post)

1. I’ll share my own experience first. When I decided to start learning digital art, I drew a few pieces, hated them with my soul, and concluded that I won’t learn if I don’t imitate first. So I started using references very very closely. I would copy everything except maybe things like hair and color choices. Those were my earliest drawings, Dramione mostly. It was annoying to be dependent on references but I had fun drawing, and more importantly, I learned a lot in the process! Copying forces you to really study how bodies work, faces, clothing, angles, etc. So as time went on, I learned to integrate more detail and start making changes. Which means that, while you may be frustrated to have to use references now, as long as you push yourself to also make your own decisions, you won’t need references forever if that’s your goal.

2. And that’s my other point. You won’t be able to depend on references forever. For me when I started drawing, I would be content with what references offered me. But after months and months of drawing, you’ll start running out of references you’re content with, you’ll start wanting to liberate yourself and draw things you may not find references for. So you will be forced to rely on your brain and imagination to make things the way you want to. And it will be okay, because after gaining enough knowledge and skill from imitation, you’ll be better equipped to make independent decisions.

3. What I do most of the time is use not a single reference but a bunch of them. Say, I’d use one pic for character’s head, one pic for torso, another for his arm and hand, maybe one more for something specific, like a specific shirt or whatever. I put it all together to create my own composition. This helps with two things: 1) it forces you to apply your knowledge to be able to choose (or create) your own references; you may not be drawing yet but you still need to think about angles, perspectives, proportions, etc. 2) it allows you to make the drawing your own! There’s a difference between copying one single photograph and constructing your own frankenstein reference. It may make you feel better about using references, because while they’re part of the process, you are still relying a lot on your insight and ingenuity, making independent choices, and are able to call the result completely your own.

4. Just to repeat: the more you do this sort of stuff, the more you’ll learn, which means that gradually you’ll be able to depend on references less and less! For me, I started out copying, but now after 3 years of practice, while I still use references (because I choose to), I can make my own changes to poses, clothing, faces, expressions, all kinds of stuff. Things aren’t gonna change overnight and you know it!

5. Now. If you don’t want to have any dependence on references, then focus on your style instead. Obviously, no matter the style, you still need to have enough understanding of how human bodies work and look to be able to illustrate it, but if you choose a style more simplistic, then you won’t need to worry about detail and accuracy that much. For instance, I always use references BUT the latest marauders set? Didn’t look at a single reference (well, I only checked a couple of my earlier drawings to make sure there’s enough consistency in character designs). But clearly the style is very different there, more simple, more stylized. And that justifies any inaccuracies in anatomy! So if getting things right is too much pressure, consider experimenting with style!

Okay. I think I said everything that I wanted to say. Basically, you will need to experiment and practice more, but at the end of the day, listen to yourself, figure out what works for you best, and accept that. I’d LOVE to just draw anything I want out of thin air, but that’s not the life I’m living lol so I’m accepting it and trying to improve through whatever ways I find the most productive for me personally. Just make sure to give credit where it’s due, because if you’re copying a very specific photograph in obvious ways, see if you can at least find out who the photographer is and that sort of stuff.But anyway. Da Vinci didn’t draw Mona Lisa without a reference, and it’s okay if you need one to draw your OC too :) That doesn’t make you less of an artist. Being able to take one thing and turn it into something completely new is an art of itself in my opinion.

[ruffsficstuffplace]

The Viridian Vanguard (Part 32)

Elsewhere in the Grove during the duels, Weiss was in her nest, Penny snuggled up to her chest, Cheese and Winter’s summons around her for company, menial tasks, and/or food as she watched holos through Penny’s projector. (The quality was far superior than her comm-crystal’s.)

“I feel it… the purity of their love…!” screamed the monster of the week. “This is it… the power, of YURI!”

A wave of purple-black miasma shot out of the monster, washing over the convention floor, reality itself beginning to warp and change as bright, prismatic energy was sucked out of them.

Hina gasped. “Akane, Aoi, look! All the couples, the anime and manga, even the doujins and the fan art—they’re all losing their gayness!”

“You monster!” Aoi screamed. “Do you know how long that slow-burn was between Diya and Nene?! This is an affront to all of Girls Love!”

“You’re going down, Yarama!” Akane screamed as she whipped out her spear, Hina and Aoi doing the same with their weapons.

“Piper, this show is so fucking stupid...” Weiss muttered.

“Would you like to change to something else?” Penny asked through an annotation on the holo.

“I didn’t say I wasn’t enjoying it!” Weiss said.

A fight sequence began, the tables and displays being torn up and destroyed from the empowered monster, the heroes trying their best to spare the panicked, confused convention goers, and the merchandise, too, if they could help it.

“Face it, Spiral Hearts!” the Yarama cried. “The power of women loving women is just too strong!”

“That is true…” Hina replied “… but it’s not as strong as the true fans of yuri, those who make and support new content for fans everywhere, not filthy parasites like you! Akane! Aoi!”

“On it!” they both cried, before they all joined their weapons into one giant cannon. “For the love of all that makes our lives worth living… SPIRAL PIERCER…!”

The projection suddenly stopped, Penny’s eyes flashing green.

“What happened?” Weiss asked amid the disappointed growls and groans of the summons.

“It seems there was a serious accident during Jaune and Pyrrha’s training!” Penny replied, untangling herself from Weiss’ arm, then hovering towards the window. “I’m afraid my medical expertise is needed on-site, apologies, Weiss.”

“Don’t you just have first-aid equipment right now?” Weiss asked as she sat up.

“Yes, but I still have my treatment database, patient history, and high-precision scanners,” Penny replied. “I’ll inform you of any new developments as soon as I can!”

Weiss sighed, frowning as she watched Penny fly out the window and out of sight. One of Winter’s summons gently prodded her on the side, and gestured to her comm-crystal charging on a dock in the corner; she turned to them and shook her head. “You’ll have to find out what happens next later, I’ve got a hunch I need to investigate,” she said as she stood up. “Help me get dressed, everyone!”

The summon sighed, before everyone available either fetched Weiss’ garments from the closet, or helped her put it on. “Cheese, you’re coming with me,” Weiss said as she scooped what remained of him from his plate, now just a small blob no bigger than her hand.

c:

“I’m heading out to the training grounds!” Weiss said as she passed by Winter in the living room.

“Don’t try to squeeze in more exercise when you’re supposed to be recovering, I really did mean that was the only time I’d carry you back!” Winter replied, not looking up from the Nivian-Actaeon book she was reading.

“I won’t, sheesh! It’s been what, four years since that happened?” Weiss said as she opened the door.

“I know you, Weiss, it takes a long while for you to give up on something you’ve put your mind to,” Winter replied as she turned the page.

Weiss shook her head as she shut the door behind her, called for the elevator before taking a bite out of Cheese.

He was down to just his soulstone by the time she arrived, by which point Jaune was securely strapped to a spine board and being carried away by Taiyang and Nora, Ren and Penny following them with medical supplies.

Futher away, Yang was on a bench, comforting the rather glum looking Pyrrha sitting beside her. After a few moment’s consideration, Weiss stepped over and asked, “May I ask what the hell happened to Jaune this time?”

“We were dueling, and I accidentally threw him far harder and further than I intended,” Pyrrha replied. “His landing was… ugly.”

“Should I…?” Weiss asked uneasily.

“In short: he looked a human pretzel,” Yang said. “Just so you know, the un-pretzeling process wasn’t pretty, either.”

“Uh... huh...” Weiss mumbled. “Do you need me to stay, or should I just leave…?” she asked, thumbing behind her.

“If your brain is functioning enough again for Pit Fighter business, sure!” Yang said.

“I’ve made quite a lot of progress on the weapon choice front, it’d be a shame to waste this time,” Pyrrha added.

Weiss nodded, and sat down with them. “So how’s it going, exactly?”

“If we’re being thorough about it, I’m halfway through the process,” Pyrrha replied. “I still haven’t explored any of the Fae firearms that weren’t almost-complete replicas of AFA armaments, but now I know for sure that I have a solid idea of what I’m looking for in melee weapons.”

“And what would that be?” Weiss asked.

“Something versatile with reach, coupled with a shield and elemental mediums for an all-rounded offense or defense,” Pyrrha replied. “Weiss’ temporarily limited powers aside, both of you are highly specialized fighters, and I’d rather not lose a good chunk of our effectiveness, or expose glaring weaknesses in our defenses should one of you be downed, or otherwise indisposed. Whether it’s defending against attacks from any range, leading a charge into our enemies, or wreaking some elemental havoc, I’ll be ready for it.

“That being said, I haven’t seen what Fae ranged weapons can bring to the table, and if the melee weapons were any indication, they should be quite the learning experience.”

“You should probably join us at the firing range later, Weiss!” Yang said. “Get a feel for how the Fae deal death from a distance.”

“I’d rather not,” Weiss replied. “After all that training at the Terrace, my arms will definitely become too sore to even hold a gun as soon as I’m hit the recoil.”

“I meant in a mental, tactical sense, see what you might go up against in person!” Yang replied. “You’ve barely seen anyone really use a ranged weapon outside of all-out war where tracking who fired what was the least of your worries. Plus, the special ammo will give you a great idea of what happens when you mix elements up—nothing wrong with your using pure, but you miss out on useful things like Melty Wash that way.”

“’Melty Wash…?’” Weiss asked.

“Melty Wash,” Yang repeated, nodding. “It sounds just as stupid in Actaeon, don’t worry.” She winced as her stomach growled. “Ugh, all this drama made me forget how hungry I am—come on, let’s go get some grub and a nap, then on to lighting shit up!” she said, getting up.

Weiss shrugged. “Alright, fine, I’ll go!” she said as she hopped up. “I figured I needed to get out of bed and do something productive today, anyway...”

Jaune was left in the cabin he bunked in, Taiyang and Penny stayed behind to take care of him and keep him company. Everyone else had lunch and rested a while, before discussing Pyrrha’s firearms training.

As elementally-infused ammo, alchemical grenades, chemical weapons and the like needed to be specially ordered by and used under the supervision of a senior watcher or other qualified individual, and Qrow was far too drunk at the moment, they started out with the standard Fae firearms.

In contrast to the practical, sleek, and streamlined AFA guns Pyrrha was used to, the Fae practically made it a point to have their guns as flashy and embellished as possible. Every one of them seemed to have as many engravings, stylized components, and decorations as they could possibly add without compromising function too much, like an iron sight made out of some long-dead predator’s skull, the gun barrel coming out of its jaws

Metal and wood were the materials of choice for most of them, all manner of colours, grains, and sheen from the varieties, mixtures, and treatments, with the rest of the parts made from bone, rock, crystal, plant fibers, and whatever else the Fae could get their hands or hand-equivalents on. There was barely any built-in magitech to be seen, no small-form targeting systems, recoil adjusters, or ammo management systems, just physical springs, levers, hammers, revolvers, and whatever else.

And almost all of them were powerful, even the quietest guns having massive impact.

Thip. Crack. Thip. Crack. Thip. Crack.

Pyrrha fired her “Fang Gun” into a log target, each bone projectile lodging an inch or two deep into the wood, splinters flying out from the holes, the cracks clearly audible to Weiss even as she watched from well away to the side.

She stopped after six shots, putting her rifle down and massaging her arms. “Not the kind of gun you fire just for fun, is this?” she asked Ren.

“Not unless your idea of ‘fun’ is accuracy competitions, or clean hunting kills,” Ren replied calmly. “Shall we focus on lower-caliber weapons that are easier to fire for sustained periods, such as repeaters? Most every Fae firearm hits the user almost as hard as they do the target.”

“No,” Pyrrha replied, picking the gun back up, and aiming for a farther target. “I suppose I’ll just have to learn to make every single shot a hit from here on out!”

Ren nodded. “One well-placed bullet’s all you really need, most of the time.”

“And the rest?” Pyrrha asked.

Ren smiled. “Two bullets.”

After Pyrrha started getting used to the intense recoil, and firing far less frequently than she would have with human guns, they started planning which weapons she was to try out, how she was going to test them out, and who would be involved.

Everyone except Weiss donned a set of armour; a small arena was built by a copse of smaller trees with the help of deployable cover, ballistic shields, and the foliage; and several dozen crates of ammo were carted out of storage, their contents transferred to smaller boxes set around the area, or to loaded into all manner of belts, bags, and quivers just waiting to be strapped on.

Before Pyrrha’s first live-fire exercise, however, Ren wanted to demonstrate how Fae opponents would be using firearms themselves, exchanging his usual sickles for two “Shredders,” Fae-style SMGs.

“The first thing you need know is, except for heavy weapons like Hailstorm cannons or extreme long-distance weapons like Shardslingers and Farslingers, Fae tend to prefer shooting on the move, and most can shoot quite accurately and survive getting shot at also,” Ren said as he loaded one of his guns with a clip.

He dashed towards some training dummies, shredding their canvas coverings with short, accurate burts. He maneuvered around their cover and shot them from behind, slid on the ground to slip through tiny gaps and holes in defenses, even leaped off a ledge and fired the last of his clip in mid-air.

“Predicting your enemies movements and firing where they will be in a second is a helpful skill in lower ranks, and absolutely vital as you move up,” he said as landed, pulled out his second shredder and loaded them both.

“The second is that, thanks to our biology and engineering advancements, dual-wielding guns isn’t as stupid and dangerous idea to us Fae as it is to you humans,” Ren said as he adjusted the stocks, shortening them and fitting them over his forearms. “In fact, it’s actually quite popular inside the Pits, both as a stylistic choice and a significant combat advantage.”

He calmly crossed a bridge lined with target dummies, both guns blazing and ripping apart targets on both sides, casually bending his arms further and more dramatically than any human could to shoot behind his back, over his shoulders, and even under his leg.

“And the third and arguably the most important is: we Fae are far, far more mobile and agile than any of you are right now, or will be in the immediate future, so do consider any way your enemies can outmaneuver and flank you,” Ren said as he holstered one gun, replaced the empty clip with a drum magazine.

He moved towards one of the “bases” in the arena, a tight cluster of trees with platforms rising up two stories above him, a small sniper’s nest on the third. Several dummies stood behind cover, well-protected from any shots angled upwards, free to pump Ren full of bullets if they were actually armed and alive.

Then Ren started jumping from branch to branch, running up and along the trunk and the walls, swinging from the ropes or running on top of the ziplines, raining metal hell down on all of them from above and behind.

Ren zipped down from the base, gracefully landing back down to the ground. He unloaded the empty drum, turned over to Pyrrha and Weiss said, “Generally speaking, never forget to look up. Now, any questions or concerns?”

“None,” Pyrrha said, smiling as she put on her helmet. “Let’s get shooting.”

“Oh yeah!” Nora cried as she shot out of her seat. “We about to get all John Woo up in here!”

Note: Aside from the tendency for special ammo and the like to deteriorate over time, to the point of being unusable or dangerous to use, it’s also expensive to produce, and capable of causing severe injuries to folks and damage to property that oftentimes require urgent, specialized treatment, thus the many hurdles to legally acquiring and using them. Due to the nature of the Keeper and her team, restrictions are a bit looser and relatively easier, but not by much.

The shardslinger is the non-elemental version of the farslinger. Though they use many similar designs, the key difference is in the loading mechanism and the insides of the barrels, with the latter being specially treated and much, much, MUCH more expensive, to be able to handle the severe wear of high-power elemental mediums. It’s not unknown for substandard barrels to simply explode or melt during stress testing.

This chapter was coded “Shooty Shooty Bang Bang.” The next chapter is coded “John Woo-ing It Up In Here.”

[mysnarkyslytherinsecret]

Hi friend, here’s my thoughts on the subject. Feel free to partake of them what you will.

1) I like him because he fucked up and he decided to atone for fucking up and it’s intense and miserable and everyone hates him but he still does the right thing even though it’s hard.

2) I don’t excuse the use of a slur, but I also don’t think that using a slur makes you bad and evil forever. I don’t think that being racist in a racist society and then realizing that it’s fucked up and making a change (he specifically lambasts Phineas from using the term as headmaster in book 7) means that one is still evil and bad forever. One of the problems with marking people as evil and irredeemable because they said a word is that there’s plenty of people who know well enough to disguise their racism and bigotry who *will* talk to that person you just told they are bad forever for saying a Word and tell them poisonous lies about who’s superior and who is inferior instead of hopefully helping them to understand why using that language is harmful and hurtful and helping to deprogram racist belief systems. Also, the memory includes the part where Snape immediately freaks out and apologizes and even camps out in front of the Gryffindor tower to apologize for saying it. He knows he fucked up.

3) Snape is not a real person. The children in his care are not real people. Hogwarts is a deathtrap that, were it to exist IRL would have been the deaths of many students. The moving staircases, the dementors. The woods full of murder spiders. The list goes on. This is a fun book with stylized characters with exaggerated personalities for comedic and dramatic effect. Snape’s role in this story is very similar to other characters in other books such as Mr. Krup from Captain Underpants. He’s not meant to be a realistic character. There are many canon examples in which other professors and adults place the students in unsafe or behave in abusive or cruel ways. This is because this is a story and their actions serve the narrative flow. Also, fun fact. My coworker went to an actual English boarding school in the 70’s and he has some pretty horrifying stories of caning, hazing and peer on peer bullying. Whatever you think of Hogwarts, please understand it’s tame in comparison to what really went on in schools like that at the time.

4) I specifically like him because he isn’t a pure saint. I love messy dirtbag characters and those who submit themselves to pain and suffering to atone are just *chefs kiss*

5) I don’t hate the Marauders. I have actually written them many times in my fics as nuanced characters. They are all products of a very problematic racist society.

6) I am capable of civil conversation about this topic but I also don’t think that you should have to change your mind about how you feel about Snape. There’s clearly something powerful in how you react to his character and it is not my place to make you change your innate response.

7) I don’t think that a cruel nickname, especially if someone doesn’t want to be called it, is ok. Even if it seems innocuous. It’s like calling someone by their deadname. A name that is not of your own choosing or consent does psychological damage. It feels dehumanizing. Do I think that Snivelus is the worst thing ever? No. I am pretty sure trying to strip Snape’s underwear off and expose his genitalia to a group of students while choking him upside down with soap is probably worse. But it still sucks to be called a mean parody of your name because it boils down to “I hate you and think you are worthless” and that kind of sentiment has no place in a learning institution.

In the end, you like what you like and you take things from the story that are deeply personal. Maybe for you, Snape is the bad guy who reminds you of this jerk teacher you had. It resonates badly and you pull in all this other information to associate with him. That’s ok. But please understand that many of the people who identify with Snape have been ostracized, neglected, forced into situations at a young age that they couldn’t cope with, and above all, they have Sinned in a way that the Woke Dunking crowd and the Shitty Bigot crowd would not be happy with. There is nowhere to go to be seen or validated. Stuck between the perfect angels and the worst of the devils, how do you choose for yourself what you want to be? The longer you live, the harder it is to keep those ivory robes pristine, and so you might fade to black or potentially find yourself settling as charcoal gray. The world is complicated. There’s a reason we don’t burn people when accused of witchcraft or listen to the lynch mob. There’s just this innate human tribalism that gives the brain such a zingy sense of power and pleasure at laying someone else low. Either through bigotry or one-upping one’s wokeness factor, it’s all just a big pointless way to soothe the ego and pretend that there are rules and things make sense.

But they really don’t. You need to understand that. Literally anything can happen. The rules are things that people create but those rules can be broken, changed, outdated, expanded upon.

So yeah, I like the character of Snape. His existence soothes me. It tells me that I don’t always have to be nice and mess up but I can still be good. Even if nobody knows or notices. There are ways to work towards forgiveness even if it’s a long journey to get there. It’s a step at a time.

I have some questions for Snape fans/stans

please note, i just want to have a civil conversation. If I see any rude stuff and hate being thrown around you will be blocked :)

i also haven’t read the books in a hot minute, so most of what i remember is from the movies, so im sorry if i’m missing something

and if any of y’all want to say i’m only doing this cause y’all like Snape. Well you’re correct, i can’t these answers out of an Anti.

How come you like him? (i don’t mean that in a rude way, I just don’t see why because i don’t like him)

Why do (some) of y’all excuse Snapes using of a slur just because “it slipped out.” (if i, a white person, said the n-word, even if it just slipped out, I would still be called racist.)

Why do (some) of y’all excuse Snapes abuse towards literal children? who are like 11?

Why do (some) of y’all act like he’s a pure saint?

For the ones who hate the marauders- Do y’all only hate the marauders because they bullied snape? or is there another reason as well? (this one is just out of my own curiosity)

Would you be willing to have a civil conversation with me about my reasonings as to why I personally don’t like him? (if so, i won’t be rude about it, and i hope you won’t as well)

Can we come to a somewhat agreement that the Snivellus name is yes, a rude nickname, but it’s funny. Like- it sounds like a pokemon. Like Snivy (Kind of update- I wasn’t aware of what the name meant, I thought they just made it up cause it sounds similar to his name(that wouldn’t make it any less okay, i know)And im sorry for saying it was funny. I just found humor in it because i love pokemon and it was similar to Snivy (a favorite of mine)

i honestly don’t hate all Snape stans. Like my best friend is one, they love him, we kinda just agree to disagree and then move on and talk about something else we agree on (like the Weasleys lol). But yea, there’s not a lot of Snape conversations in our friendship lol.

[zachsgamejournal]

PLAYING: Wavetale

I thought this would be the perfect game for me. While I may not be wrong, it’s far from a perfect game. Overall though, I enjoy it!

After beating Watch Dogs 2--I was ready to start my next game. But I wanted something less time-intensive as WD2. I love the game, but there’s a lot of time involved. Not knowing whether my next gaming experience would be good or bad, I at least wanted it shorter. Wavetale supposedly clocks-in at 5 hours. PERFECT!

The game is a 3D adventure game that’s more Mario 64 than Ocarina of Time. So much of it reminds me of other games (other games that I love). Graphically, the art style and reminds me of Rime and Mega Man Legends. Good games, so I’ll allow it. The flooded world and mysterious shadow stuff reminds me of Submerged: Hidden Depths. And in a way, the ocean based open world reminds me of Bowser’s Fury. And then clumsy ambition reminds me of Ary and the Secret of Seasons.

I enjoy all the games that Wavetale reminds me of. And instead of seeing it in competition with those games, I welcome it whole-heartedly. derivative or original, it’s all good and I’m having fun.

Where the game instantly wins me over is the story and competent cinematic camera work. Whoever made this has a good sense of storytelling. The characters are eccentric and unique, and there’s plenty of mystery to enjoy. As I explore levels, I meet characters that need some help: lost hammers, ax, thread...whatever. Helping them gives me little glimpses into their lives. I appreciate that they just give me a few brief lines of dialog without trying to over explain everything. And the tidbits they do give are just enough to be interesting and emotional.

The context is post war, of some sort, with a flooded war. Fog (which is extra bad) is held off by the lighthouse. The lighthouse is powered by sparks--which are...creatures? I’m not sure if I’m enslaving innocent creatures for power, or if I’m helping anthropomorphized electricity fulfill its ambition. But something went wrong and my main character meets a shadow girl living under the sea. In a cute cinematic, the main character is able to walk across water because the shadow-girl’s feet stick out as stepping stones. Clearly there’s a connection here, but it’s not yet defined. Ultimately, this allows the character to walk and surf on water.

It’s pretty clever.

The gameplay is decent enough, but the product feels rushed. I’m glad this game is free cause I’d be frustrated if I paid for it. I noticed at the beginning of the game, my character was floating inches above the ground. It appears there were some collision issues they didn’t get around to fixing. For the most part, the platforming: jumping, gliding, moving--are pretty forgiving and fluid. But sometimes the “hover” activates too easily, especially when I’m trying to double jump. So far, falls haven’t killed me--so consequences are mostly loss of time. The game is sadly not super polished. The graphics are stylized, but feel more like a cheat than style at times.

Ultimately, the game is relaxing. There’s enemies and jumps--but with minimal challenge and consequence. I liked submerge because it was about exploration and not surviving a billion battles and unforgiving level design. Even with baddies, this game is in the domain as far as fun-vs-challenge.

Look forward to playing more. And beating this soon...cause I just bought about 5 more adventure games...

[megsblackfirewrites]

Intimate: Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Jack fiddled with his tie the entire way to the theater. He felt like a dressed up showdog, all pampered up to make everyone think he was the most attractive person around. Gabriel looked stunning beside him in the black and ivory suit he was wearing; Jack felt like a vagabond sitting next to him in warm blue and white.

“You look fine,” Gabriel soothed, almost like he had read Jack’s mind. “All eyes will be on you, my darling.”

“Not with you beside me,” Jack snorted in amusement. “What person would look at this plain old white boy when they have you walking around?”

Gabriel smiled as he tipped Jack’s chin back. “I cannot take my eyes off of you, mi sol,” he purred before kissing him.

“That’s what you always say,” Jack murmured against Gabriel’s soft lips. “How is today any different?”

Gabriel just chuckled and kissed him again. Jack settled against him, accepting each kiss with a sigh of contentment. Gabriel pulled him closer, careful not to ruffle their suits too much.

They were travelling by themselves to the theater since they’d had to fly into L.A after visiting Jack’s father. It had been a nice vacation, one that they both needed, and it got them out of the city for a while. Now they were back for the reveal of the movie at a film festival curtesy of Ana Amari.

“Here we are,” Gabriel smiled as the limo came to a stop. “Ready for your close up?”

“Hush,” Jack blushed as the door was opened.

Cameras started flashing as Gabriel emerged. Jack scooted over and left the limo behind him. He could see people looking at him curiously, but no one said anything as he trailed after Gabriel. He almost yipped as Gabriel came to a dead stop to speak with a reporter.

“Sorry about that,” he apologized with a smirk. “I should give you more warning.”

“I’m used to it,” Jack rolled his eyes before he tried to step around Gabriel to continue on. Gabriel reached out and dragged him over for the interview, smirking more as Jack let out a frustrated squawk. “This lovely lady was just asking me how difficult it was to work with my co-star.”

“Excruciating,” Jack snorted as he straightened up and tried to fix his shirt. “You’re incredibly frustrating to deal with.”

“Oh, you wound me,” Gabriel shot him a dazzling smile.

“Keep it up and something else will be wounded,” Jack shook his head and continued walking.

“Asshole,” Gabriel shouted after him, laughing with the reporter.

Jack smiled as he headed inside. He showed his invitation to the man at the door and was escorted to a table with Ana Amari and her daughter.

“Ah, Jack, you made it,” Ana smiled. “Where’s Gabriel?”

“Soaking up the limelight,” Jack shook his head before smiling at Ana’s daughter. “Fareeha, right?” he asked as he held his hand out.

“Yes,” Fareeha smiled. “I helped Mother put the film together. You and Gabriel were amazing to watch. It wasn’t easy deciding what stayed and what didn’t.”

“I’m glad that it was entertaining at least,” Jack smiled.

Fareeha nodded happily before she sipped her water. They were off to the side, seated at a table two levels up from the stage. It was a good place to watch the rest of the auditorium and admire the number of people that had gathered for the film festival.

Gabriel sat down about ten minutes later and gave Jack’s knee a fond squeeze. He greeted Ana warmly, settling back in the chair as Fareeha gave him a shy smile. They talked about the festival and what Ana hoped to achieve here, but Jack was only half-listening. He was more focused on Gabriel’s close contact, the way he kept his hand resting on the inside of Jack’s thigh and kept shooting him sweet smiles.

He was disappointed when the Master of Ceremonies walked out onto the stage and Gabriel pulled his hand away to clap. Everyone applauded him, cheering as he raised his hands for silence. He gave a rather generic speech welcoming everyone to the festival and promised a week of entertainment.

“Let’s start the night off with a look at a Wadjet Production,” the MC smiled. “Ana Amari, if you would like to come down and say a few things about the piece?”

The auditorium cheered as Ana got to her feet and made her way towards the stage. She fixed her shawl before stepping up to the microphone, sharing a brief cheek-kiss with the MC. She smiled up at the auditorium before she started her speech.

“Everyone here knows what it is that I try to achieve with my projects,” she said. “I like to experiment with different styles in order to tell a story. I find it adds a touch of class when implemented correctly. Now, I’m not going to claim that everything I make is a perfect work of art, but I think all of you are going to enjoy what I have to offer this year.

“When we think of couples, we think of many things. Most adults stray down a particular path and the media is saturated with sexual images. Now, I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with that, just that there needs to be some variety to how a relationship is depicted. In ‘Intimate’, we see our couple in the most emotionally important area of their lives; their bed. So, in fear of giving everything away, this is ‘Intimate’.”

Everyone applauded as Ana stepped out of the way. The screen behind her lit up and soft music filled the auditorium. The bed that they had filmed in appeared on the screen and Jack blushed a little. There was a sped up shot of one of the interns making the bed, setting everything up in the familiar place. The intern vanished and the room went dark.

The door to the room opened and Gabriel’s wide back appeared. He stumbled in, filling the auditorium with his deep booming laugh. Jack followed quickly after him, laughing and kissing Gabriel until they tumbled onto the bed. Jack heard several startled gasps as they realized they were going to be watching a gay couple on screen.

“That was so much fun to edit,” Fareeha whispered. “I didn’t know which take I liked more!”

Jack smiled at her as his laugh filled the auditorium. He looked up in time to watch Gabriel pull him down onto the bed and cover his neck in kisses. It had been one of the last scenes they had shot and Ana had exploited their comfort with each other to no end. He squirmed in his seat as the on-screen Gabriel started peeling the on-screen Jack’s shirt off.

They kissed over and over again as they stripped out of their shirts, holding each other close. Gabriel squeezed Jack’s hand and brought it up to his lips as the screen went dark and the stylized title card appeared. The title card faded out and “Staring Gabriel Reyes and Jack Morrison” appeared afterwards.

“How long until that turns into Jack Reyes?” Gabriel teased gently.

“Ssh,” Jack pushed Gabriel’s knee. “Don’t you start.”

Gabriel smiled at him as the screen faded back in. Jack leaned over and watched their onscreen relationship play out. He found himself in tears almost instantly, watching as his onscreen counterpart was unintentionally hurt by Gabriel. He stormed out of the room with Gabriel on his heels and Jack’s jaw fell open.

“She filmed that?” he whispered as he watched his housecoat clad counterpart storm down the hallway.

“Apparently,” Gabriel replied with a smirk. “I forgot how cute you are when you’re mad.”

“Fuck you,” Jack snorted.

Gabriel leaned in close and kissed his ear. “I’d rather fuck you, mi sol,” he purred into Jack’s ear.

Jack felt heat rush up his face as the screen went black. It faded in to show Gabriel lying in bed alone. Jack shifted closer as he watched the onscreen Gabriel roll restlessly in bed. The scene cut away to Jack curled up in bed staring at the wall. Slowly, the scenes cut back and forth to the two of them being restless without each other until Jack crawled into bed beside Gabriel.

Jack smiled at the reconciliation before the film turned into a series of photographs of Jack and Gabriel holding each other. Then a pillow fight. Then kissing. Then just lying together. Then a shot that was clearly supposed to be Gabriel giving him head that he did not remember taking. He glanced at Gabriel nervously and saw that he was holding back a laugh.

“That was a joke shot,” he whispered. “Remember? Ana told me to do something that she would never use in a hundred years in this piece just to get you to loosen up and I pretended to be in love with your dick.”

Jack turned bright red because he definitely remembered that part. Apparently, Ana had decided to use the take after all.

“I have such a porn face going on too,” Jack whined and covered his face. “That’s so embarrassing.”

“It’s cute,” Gabriel teased and kissed his cheek.

The film ended on their lazy morning shot; Gabriel’s arms around his waist with his face against Jack’s neck with Jack’s hand resting on Gabriel’s cheek. The scene panned out to take in the bed before fading to black. The auditorium erupted into applause as the credits started rolling. They shouted in delighted surprise as a sultry looking Gabriel appeared on screen with his name appearing below him. Jack nudged him before he turned bright red as his own image appeared on screen, smiling and pressing his face into the pillow.

“You’re adorable,” Gabriel whispered as he kissed his cheek. “I love you.”

“Love you too,” Jack smiled and leaned against him.

“You two are adorable,” Fareeha said and nodded her head rapidly. “I don’t know how anyone can handle looking at you and not get cavities.”

Jack blushed more and hid his face in his hands as Gabriel laughed.

“Ooh, shiny,” Gabriel teased as Ana set the awards on the desk in their hotel room.

“For the best portrayed couple in the entire festival,” Ana smirked. “Where’s Jack?”

“Getting us some lunch. Lazy day and I didn’t feel like putting pants on,” Gabriel shrugged as he lounged in his pajamas.

“But you made him get dressed,” Ana shook her head. “You are terrible.”

“Very,” Jack chirped as he walked into the room with two plates of food. “What’re those?”

“Your awards,” Ana chuckled. “Everyone loved how you two portrayed the couple in the film. The judges said they could feel the chemistry just oozing between you.”

“Oh wow,” Jack grinned widely as he set the food down. “That’s definitely going on the mantle place, eh, Gabe?”

“Definitely,” Gabriel agreed as he watched Jack examine the award. “We also have to be there tonight for the final awards. If ‘Intimate’ wins anything, we’re all expected to go up.”

“Which means I need to take a shower,” Jack nodded as he set the award down and hurried to his luggage to gets his clean tuxedo out.

Gabriel didn’t want to say that Jack looked perfect already; Jack would just tell him that he was lying while preening under the praise. Ana left them to get dressed, smirking knowingly at Gabriel as he got to his feet. He pretended not to notice.

After reassuring Jack that he looked perfect for the fourth time in the span of a minute, he all but picked his boyfriend up and carried him down to the limo waiting for them. Jack was jittery and nervous, but Gabriel wasn’t surprised. It was his first awards show after all. If he was nervous just going to the opening show, he was going to be a mess by the time they got to their seats.

He was very proud of his love for not bolting as soon as the cameras started flashing around them. He kept a confident smile on even though Gabriel could see the sweat drooling down his neck. They managed to get inside without getting stopped as there were more famous celebrities gracing the awards show.

“I’m a wreck,” Jack whispered as they sat down beside Ana and one of her interns.

“Ssh, mi sol,” Gabriel soothed and squeezed his hand. “I’m right here.”

Jack smiled and leaned on him as the MC stepped onto stage. They were much better at their job than the one at the opening ceremony, but they had been doing it longer. Gabriel remembered him from his first film festival with Ana. Awards were handed out for every category imaginable and Gabriel clapped and cheered as quick speeches were given.

“And now, for the Independent Movie category,” the MC smiled. “We had a lot of great talent this year, so choosing three finalists wasn’t easy. So, here they are. ‘Over The Hills’, ‘Intimate’, and ‘Last Rain’.”

Clips played for each film and Gabriel knew it was going to be a close call. They were all artistic films, exactly what indie consumers loved. Jack’s hand tightened around his and he could feel Jack tensing up beside him as the MC lifted the envelope and started to open it.

“And the winner for the Independent Movie is,” he said before opening the envelope. “Intimate!”

The auditorium filled with applause as Ana stood up. Jack clutched at Gabriel’s arm, grinning widely as he giggled nervously. Gabriel pulled him close and kissed his cheek before hauling him down after Ana with Fareeha and the intern at their heels.

Ana gave her customary acceptance speech, thanking her entire staff and the cast for their astonishing work. She was incredibly humble with her work, but smiled as she praised everyone else. She glanced over her shoulder at Gabriel and smirked.

“And I believe my star couple have something to add,” she chuckled.

Jack looked at Ana in confusion and Gabriel grinned. Oh yah, she knew.

“Jack,” Gabriel chuckled and took his hand. “Knowing you these past few months has been an experience.”

Jack turned to look at him and tears started filling his eyes. “You aren’t,” he whispered. Gabriel grinned widely and Jack tugged at his hand. “Gabi!”

Gabriel smiled as he took both of Jack’s hands, ignoring the nervous bouncing he had started to do. “Jack, I’ve thought long and hard about this,” he said. “And when I think of not having you in my life, it’s a nightmare.”

He knew the cameras were all zoomed in on them, but he didn’t care. The world had narrowed down to those watery blue eyes and trembling lips as Jack struggled to keep himself together.

“Jack Morrison,” Gabriel said as he slowly got down on one knee. “Will you marry me?”

Tears started pouring down Jack’s face as he nodded his head rapidly. “You’re an asshole for asking me in front of this many people!” he added as Gabriel pulled the velvet box out of his pocket.

“I thought it would be fun,” Gabriel teased as he slipped the golden band over Jack’s finger and got to his feet. “Now everyone knows that my heart belongs to you.”

Jack let out a wet laugh before he eagerly kissed him. “You are going to be the death of me,” he whispered. “I love you so much.”

“I love you too, Jack Reyes,” Gabriel grinned.

Jack shivered and shook his head. “We’re still going to talk about that one, mi luna.”

Gabriel smiled as he kissed Jack again. The headlines were going to go nuts with an engagement like this, but Gabriel didn’t care. All that mattered was that Jack was in his arms and going to be his husband. All he had to do was talk Jack’s father into letting them have the wedding at the farm and to let all of Gabriel’s extended family be invited. It was going to be pure chaos, but so long as he had Jack, he didn’t care.

Enjoy the content? Consider buying me a ko-fi.

[aion-rsa]

How Wonder Woman 1984’s Practical Effects Set it Apart

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Going back to Themyscira is one of the most anticipated aspects of Wonder Woman 1984. For many fans, the Amazons were the highlight of the original film and an all-Amazon movie can’t come soon enough. The physical prowess and the pure joy of seeing so many women not only in combat, but engaging in fight choreography that’s developed around their physical attributes/gifts/features, is a rare and wonderful thing. The resulting actions sequences were unlike anything on screen before: highly stylized yet clearly effective. 

Heading into WW84, director Patty Jenkins and her team (which now includes Gal Gadot as a producer) had a reputation to uphold, and then some.

“There was just no way we’re going to take any shortcuts,” Gadot said during a WW1984 press conference. “And we’re just going to raise the bar and give everything we have because we knew people were so invested with the character and cared so much about her.”

One of the biggest opportunities for action on an epic scale is the so-called Amazon Olympics, an extended opening sequence from Diana’s childhood, where she competed against some of Themyscira’s best in a triathlon of sorts involving an obstacle course high in the air, swimming, and archery on horseback. Lilly Aspell returns to play young Diana who’s now 10 years old. She did at least five months of training to run the obstacle course, which she actually runs through herself. Some of the more fantastical elements are enhanced with green screen and CGI for her safety, but all of the running, jumping, climbing, and swimming is Lilly herself.

If the Amazons were the high point of the first movie, the unequivocal low point was the final fight in the third act, a messy overlong CGI spectacle that felt out of step with the spirit of the warm, character-driven movie audiences had fallen in love with up until that point. While no one mentioned it by name in interviews, it’s not hard to imagine that’s what Jenkins is keen to avoid when she talks about avoiding CGI action – or when Chris Pine refers to “cataclysmic computer graphics explosion nonsense.” 

As star Gal Gadot put it: “Patty really made a point about wanting to have a minimum amount of CGI in our movies. So most of the stuff that you’re going to see is real people doing the real thing. Whether it’s us or the stunt people, it’s real people. So it took much longer. You have to prep and to rehearse much longer.”

Gadot calls WW84 “the hardest movie I ever got to shoot by far” but also says it was worth it.

“[The first movie] was received in such an amazing way that there was just no way we’re going to take any shortcuts. And we’re just going to raise the bar and give everything we have because we knew people were so invested with the character and cared so much about her,” said Gadot. “When you see it in the movie … you can just tell that it’s the real deal. You can see by the face expressions that it’s real. You can see the weight and the movement and the speed.”

Practical effects have major advantages, and directors like George Miller and David Leitch, who directed female starring action movies Mad Max: Fury Road and Atomic Blonde, respectively, are big fans. But there are disadvantages as well.

“The hardest parts were just how demanding the shoots were and how physical it was, because it was very important for Patty that we do minimum amount of CGI,” Gadot told Den of Geek and other outlets during a recent press event “So most of the stuff that you see—the running on Penn Avenue, the Amazon sequence, the fight with Cheetah—most of it, it’s real people doing it for real. And for the obvious reasons, it took longer to shoot and it’s very tiring on your body. But then you see the result and I was so satisfied with it cause I was like, ‘Oh my God, you can see the difference. You can tell the difference between real action to CGI action. You can see it in the way that we move, that we hold, our faces, our bodies.’ So that was the hardest part. The rest of it, honestly, Wonder Woman feels like a second home for me.”

There’s a decent amount of wire work in the film which, as Gadot pointed out, isn’t exactly new so much as something that’s fallen a bit out of favor with the rise of CGI. 

As fans of the comics know, and the trailer has alluded to, Diana and Barbara have a relationship of sorts before Cheetah enters the picture. Gadot, Jenkins, and Wiig discussed the unique nature of their climactic altercation at a press conference for WW84.

“And I think Gal and I talking about this from the very start,” recalls Jenkins, “saying, ‘However they would fight, it would be completely different. And they’re friends.’ Right? Or at least they have this friendship in the past. It’s not about punching in the face … They’re both trying to literally get the other one under control. … So, narratively, it was fascinating, and then how it would work spatially was fascinating, and then executing it was long and laborious and wild.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this before,” Gadot says. “It’s not like when you see women try to fight like men. No, we’re females, our bodies are different, the way we move is different and this is how we do it. And just to see it, it was so great.”

Each part of the set was carefully designed around the needs of the fight choreography. Eagle-eyed viewers might pick up on a railing or two that play key roles in how the performers bring the action to life. 

“We designed what we wanted something to feel like and look like and what the moves were. And then we had to build. There was no stage big enough in the world so we had to build the stage,” Jenkins says. “And then we had to build all those things. And then we have Cirque du Soleil performers practicing them and showing us what things are going to look like. And then these guys have to end up doing it. And so it was incredible, but it was fun to really aspire.”

Of course many fans are simply worried how Cheetah herself will look. As Cinema Blend helpfully points out, while Cats and WW84 were made around the same time (and filmed in adjoining studios) Kristen Wiig looks significantly better than the cast of that delightful little monstrosity. 

“Finding the right blend of prosthetics and CG to make that transformation was… it took a ton of (research and development),” Jenkins told Cinema Blend. “It started from the day I started it, and we didn’t complete it until the day we finished. It was so complex trying to figure how to pull off that character. I would lose so much sleep over it. Honestly. Because I was like, it could go so wrong. The first thing I did when I got on to the movie was that they said, ‘We can do this all CG. We can put hair on people.’ And I was like, ‘Show me the best example of that.’ And I saw it, and I said, ‘That’s not good enough. If that’s where our technology is, that is not good enough.’ … Cats was shooting on the stage next to us, and I knew that they were going through the same thing. And then I heard that they were just going to do it in CG. And I was like, ‘I hope it works out for you!’ But I’ve never been so thankful for the process I went through.”

It’s worth noting that while they were filmed at the same time, WW84 is coming out a full year after Cats. The VFX artists who worked on Cats were famously mistreated, rushed to put out an inferior product in order to make financial and awards show deadlines (the latter of which they missed) and then many were laid off and their work publicly derided, an all-too-common occurrence in the industry. Nevertheless, Jenkins once more opted for practical effects as much as possible, and held off on incorporating CGI until absolutely necessary.

“I didn’t want Kristen’s face to become some animated bizarreness. So then we ended up doing tons of prosthetics. Real work. And we only took over certain parts of her body. The rest of it is prosthetics.” 

Perhaps most importantly, the action in WW84 is an extension of characterization and moves the plot forward—one of the biggest advantages of using practical effects and a reason actors often cite when they insist on doing as many of their own stunts as possible. The opening sequence in Themyscira illustrates a lesson that shaped who Diana is as a person. Her relationship with Barbara informs her tactics in battle. Her stance on violence and war in the first film—a tricky but welcome one for the genre—is refined here, and directly impacts how she fights. 

Wonder Woman isn’t just a demi-goddess who punches her way to victory—how, who, and when she fights matters, both behind the scenes and within the story.

The post How Wonder Woman 1984’s Practical Effects Set it Apart appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[growinstablog]

Creating an Engaged Instagram Community Around Your Brand

On one level, Instagram is about showcasing what you have to offer, promoting your content or products, and driving traffic to your website. It’s about branding and positioning and being seen. But, if you’re searching for real success on Instagram (and let’s face it, who isn’t?), then building and maintaining a community is paramount.

Did you know that on average, your Instagram posts will only reach 10% of your audience? Seriously, 10%! It’s nothing 😬. As on Facebook, engagement is key to growing your reach, and creating a community around your brand is a sure fire way to get more engagement.

If you can get people feeling involved and invested in your Instagram community, they’ll be more likely to comment on your posts, like your photos, watch your Stories…this will naturally result in more engagement, which means your posts will start to appear higher up in the feed (so more reach and more engagement!). It’s a perfect cycle that keeps on giving!

But not only that: creating an engaged Instagram community will actually help with all those other things mentioned above. It should actually be your starting point. Rather than chasing likes off the bat, it makes more sense to spend your time attracting the right people to your Instagram account, and then cultivating a culture that people want to be a part of.

When done well, focusing on your community is going to result in a loyal following more likely to buy from you and recommend you to other people. But how do you get to that point? Here a few things to keep in mind when it comes to creating an engaged Instagram community around your brand.

Creating an Engaged Instagram Community Around Your Brand

Be clear about who you are and what you have to offer

Lay out clearly what users can expect if they follow you on Instagram. Make sure your bio description summarizes what you do, but also gives a sense of your branding and/or personality. Your feed should also be on brand and express what you do or who you are from first glance. If you’re a fashion blogger, for example, it’s easy(ish) to position yourself and make it instantly clear what you do. Your feed will likely be full of stylized fashion shots displaying products and conveying a certain lifestyle.

If you’re a digital product with nothing ‘concrete’ to display in your feed, however, it’s going to be trickier. But, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible!

Brian Peters, Digital Marketing Manager at Buffer, shared some advice at SMMW18 about branding a digital product on Instagram. He recommends that if, like Buffer, you don’t have a product you can hold and present in a real-life context, just think about which part of your brand is the most visual. For example, Buffer employees work remotely, so their Instagram features employee travel pics, photos of coffee shops around the world and so on. You just have to think outside the box!

Buffer’s Instagram Feed

Ask your audience questions

Everyone likes to be asked questions about their opinions and experiences, both on and off social media. Asking even simple questions to your Instagram community can really help your engagement and make them feel involved with and connected to your brand. Try asking a question in your captions and encourage people to leave a comment, or ask your viewers a question in your Story and include a poll sticker so that they can reply. To take it a step further, go Live! Hosting a Live Q&A on Instagram is a brilliant way to bring your audience into the fold and show them that you really value your community and are willing to give back. For ideas on how to use video to engage your community, check out this post on creating better Instagram video content.

Reply to comments (as much as possible)

Another easy way to give something back to your community is to reply to comments. It sounds simple, but it can be difficult keeping track of comments if you already have a pretty big account. Even if you don’t have much time to commit to this, setting aside 20 minutes a day to reply won’t go unnoticed. To organize comments and replies and save you time in the long run, sign up for a 14 day free trial of Iconosquare and check out the comment tracking feature.

And, on the topic of commenting…

Be human (no robotic responses that sound automated)

Standard responses save time, sure, but you don’t want to seem like a cold, lifeless bot when interacting with your community! Speak to your followers as you would a friend, and let your personality shine! If someone has taken the time to write a personalized comment, do the same in return. Obviously, if some comments are just an emoji or a single word, there’s not so much you can say back – just like it and move on to the next. And don’t worry if you can’t get through them all. It’s better to reply to as many comments as you can and miss a few than not to reply to any.

Instagram Strategist & Iconosquare Ambassador Tyler J McCall (@tylerjmccall) takes the time to respond to his community personally

Feature UGC (without sacrificing the aesthetic of your feed)

UGC is the perfect way to showcase your communities’ creativity and appreciation of your brand, and to humanize your feed – especially helpful if you’re promoting a digital product. The only problem with UGC is that you can’t be too specific when asking Instagram users to contribute something (unless you have something exciting to offer in return). And unfortunately, this means that you can’t fully control the aesthetic of your feed. If you’re going for a polished, highly curated feed, regularly sharing UGC just isn’t going to work for you. The solution? Bring together the best of your UGC in a carousel post! You can shine a light on your community without interrupting the visual flow of your feed. Everybody wins!

UGC featured on @thenorthface

Reward your community

Finally, show your community you value their contributions by offering them something they want. Maybe it’s a discount on a particular product, or maybe it’s a free trial of a service. Just bear in mind that this offer should be exclusive to your Instagram community, otherwise it loses its impact. You could tell people to watch you go Live to find out a special discount code, or you could share a time-bound promo code in an Instagram post (time-bound so it’s less likely to be widely used outside of your Instagram circle).

If you keep community at the forefront of your mind when planning your Instagram strategy, your going to see your account grow in the best possible way. It’s all about quality not quantity when it comes to interactions, and building a genuinely engaged community on Instagram will have a wider impact on the success of your brand overall. Hopefully you’ve found these points helpful and are ready to switch your focus to building a new community, or growing the community you already have. 🙂

What’s your experience of building a community on Instagram? Do you have any tips to help others get started? Share your advice in the comment section!

https://growinsta.xyz/creating-an-engaged-instagram-community-around-your-brand/

[marvelandponder]

I’M SCREAMING

We’re 3 months away from this glitter-bomb and they gave us some stuff to scream about. I think I’ll do just that. I took my sweet time putting this together, I know, but there’s a fair bit to unpack and a lot to be excited about so, let’s go through it all!

Animation

Okay, so first things first: people are calling this a 2D movie and that’s not really that accurate.

It certainly has some 2D elements, like the backgrounds, but the style of animation only makes the characters look 2D, when in fact they’re 3D models.

You can tell in how they move. If I were to give you a still screen shot, you might guess that it was from a 2D animation, but in motion, you can tell what it actually is: cel-shading.

I had a hunch that’s what it was so I asked a storyboarder who worked on the MLP movie (and the show) if I was right and she said: 

The program they’re using is ToonBoom, which does rigs with 2D toon shaders, among other things!

You know, I don’t often call things, but I fucking called it. Let me have this. Just to give you a quick definition from Wikipedia:

“Cel shading or toon shading is a type of non-photorealistic rendering designed to make 3-D computer graphics appear to be flat by using less shading color instead of a shade gradient or tints and shades.”

3-dimensional figure with cel shading, has the effect of making it  look 2D. Typically seen with thick outlines on the outside and little to no outlines on the inside:

(Team Fortress 2 itself isn’t normally cel shaded, but that’s a great example a fan made of what cel shading usually looked like when I was growing up)

Cel shading without outlines, as seen in Wind Waker. 

Like I said, just seeing this still image, it looks 2D, but watching it move, you can tell there’s a 3rd dimension to the character with the features and lineart mapped out onto the models to make it look 2D

Which by the way, is really unique for a major release! I don’t know about anyone else, but I was excited that MLP: The Movie seemed to be 2-D since there hasn’t been a domestic 2-D animated movie since Winnie the Pooh in 2011. 6 damn years! While I maybe would’ve ideally liked a completely 2-D animated movie, the backgrounds and the cel shading works in really neat ways, and it will definitely make the movie stand out 

The purely 3-D objects seem unfinished at the moment (but that’s not out of the ordinary, CGI seems to be one of the last processes). It needs texture or shading or something, and I can tell because most of the ship looks too soft (too much like a model) to be metal. I really think this will be fixed for the final product, but that’s probably the most jarring part of the style at the moment

Not all of the 3-D looks unfinished, but the best looking parts are still the painterly, 2-D stuff (look at those towers; they’re really stylized, but you can tell they’re 3D in a more 2D environment)

THAT DIGITALLY PAINTED VERSION OF CANTERLOT THOUGH:

The light effects are definitely 3-D in the fireworks and rainboom

Oh, and speaking lighting, so much of it looks so pretty! There are one or two times when the colours are slightly off, but the majority of the time it looks freaking gorgeous

You can kinda see by looking at Rarity that the shading is juuust slightly off here (kinda like they were for the teaser trailer), but then you look in the background and see this BEAUTIFUL background and Twilight all upset and worried about this invasion, and it feels like such a nitpick to worry about what will probably still be cleaned up before it hits theaters

We also get some really great expressions, so they’re not really limited by the 3D models underneath (if I’m right about that)

Also, just as one last little note here, the style is detailed enough to see little things about the characters we didn’t know up until now, like the fact that the spines on the side of Spike’s head are translucent, or that the colours of RD’s mane aren’t 100% perfectly separated

Overall with the animation, I’m so impressed not only by how gorgeous it is,but by how willing they were to take a risk and incorporate a 3D element in the form of  (I think) cel-shading. This only really matches the creative spirit of the MLP team, though. Whether or not you agree on how well they always execute everything, they always try to step up their game with every new season and push themselves to be and do better.

And while I will say that if some of the more 3D parts (yeah, I’m talking about the zeppelin/airships mostly) aren’t fixed for the final release, I would have a bone to pick with them, but I have faith that we’ll be seeing a much smoother integration of that 3D on the big screen.

Story and Character Details

I really appreciate that they didn’t outright spoil anything too big. It’s definitely a well-cut trailer! We basically only know about the same information we did before, with just a hint or two as to things like who the true villain is.

Just based on the focus given to these characters in the trailer (and what I know of the Storm King’s characterization in the first Movie Prequel comic that was just released), seems like he’s not as big of a threat as the commander of his fleet, Tempest. 

It’s a kind of villain we haven’t seen on the show or even in EQG, and not only that, but 

She’s got a fantastic voice actress behind her, so she can pull off the deliciously evil vibe well without, say, reminding us too much of Chrysalis or other powerful animated villains from Disney classics

Plus her design with the broken horn and her magic sparking up out of it is instantly intriguing to me: for such a powerful presence, it’s awesome to see her weakness (and most likely shady past) is always on display---especially for a commander character, that’s just really cool

Grubber seems to be pretty standard so far, nothing he’s done has really impressed me quite yet, but I’m hoping his best stuff is saved for the movie itself

The sky pirates (or skyrates) look like a lot of fun, and in context I can see how well the bipedal birb pirate blends with the universe (the bipedal designs were the ones I had the most trouble with)

On top of that, we have sea ponies at last! And they’re far more adorable than I ever could’ve hoped

The original sea pony designs from G1 looked a lot more like sea horses, with curling tails and fins on either side, but I think the meraid-ish look is both more marketable for Hasbro and more appealing to look at (the original sea ponies always seemed like a joke in the fandom to me, I admittedly never understood why people would actually want it in G4)

And a-ha! Good queens do exist! Poor Celestia and Luna. Always a princess, never a queen.

Oh, and Seaquestria? It’s freakin’ beautiful. I LOVE the rich blues and purples here. If you haven’t had a chance to check out the 360 image of the underwater palace complete with an excellent piece of background music, treat yourself.

The Mane 6′s sea pony designs are pretty dang adorable. I don’t have anything interesting to say, I just like the cute water horses, okay?

Minor Details and Incidentals

I’ll start out by saying Twilight’s narration in the trailer is pretty standard, but still heartwarming (mostly because I already know and love these characters though). It sort of reminds me of the bits of narration from the How to Train Your Dragon movies, although those had a bit more character to them. 

The what could possible go wrong? line, though. It just makes me laugh thinking of all the flashbacks we could have to the series. 

I guess she’s talking about that festival specifically that she’s organizing, and in that way it’s a show of character development (in a similar way to the character development on display in A Flurry of Emotions, where Twilight is told she’s late and doesn't have a panic attack or worry about what could go wrong... too much), but it’s still hilarious to contrast the idea that nothing could go wrong in Equestria to... literally all of the show. 

AJ and RD protecting their friends even before the others have gotten over the shock of whatever they’re seeing tho

Starlight and Trixie get a bit of screen-time together and it’s adorable. Starlight might be stuck in Canterlot for the duration of the adventure, but I’m glad to see her included. Characters like Discord who might be too hard to explain to new audiences are understandable losses, but even if Starlight’s cameo is brief, it’s good to see her role acknowledged

In terms of music, Sia’s looking adorable so far, and Lukas Graham’s as of yet unreleased Off to See the World sounds pretty catchy (it’s the song at the end of the trailer), so they’ve got talent behind the vocals!

Jumping back to little details, it’s neat how sea pony magic has a very distinct look from unicorn/alicorn magic. Also, the bubbles are really cute

And, okay, I just wanted to take a minute to appreciate how serious this ponk is. Can we all just stop and take a look, because in this scene Twilight’s saying how she’s the one Tempest is after, and she should probably face this alone, which seems to be our Princess of Friendship’s big dilemma in this movie, and Pinkie’s clearly trying to tell her she’s crazy

Gotta love that they didn’t just go for hyperactive comic relief Pinkie Pie; they don’t seem to be boiling down these characters to just one trait (which is partially why I loved the moment where RD and AJ defend the girls; RD’s ego will no doubt be on display throughout the movie, but you’ll also see she’s ready to lay down her life for her friends)

And hey, lookie here! Canterlot got a make-over... and a contractor. There’s more pink than there typically is and it doesn’t necessarily match what we’ve seen of it in the show. Especially places like the throne room:

And you know, I’m a little torn on this detail? It’s beautiful, and I’m digging the starry night mosiac they’ve got going on back there, but it would’ve been nice to see the throne room we know and love rendered in this new style, you know? I’m gonna miss the deep magentas and the stain glass windows of the Mane 6′s accomplishments. I know that’s mostly the fangirl in me, but I like seeing continuity nods back to the show (like hey look: Cadence gets a cameo!)

Unless Canterlot gets destroyed and subsequently rebuilt in the season 7 finale, in which case I’ll shut my mouth

Speaking of which, I still have to wonder exactly when this will take place in the series, or if it exists slightly to the left of canon like the Equestria Girls movies (which, I mean, I consider canon, but still). I know there’s ties into the comics, but I wonder if/when the show will acknowledge the events of the movie... I guess only time will tell

And for now, I think that about wraps it up! All in all, I’m beyond excited to see this thing, as anyone could’ve guessed. 

It should also be noted that a lot of kids movie trailers focus on the fun, comedic portions of the movie, so while I do think it’s mostly going to feel like this, I’m also looking forward to the more character-driven feelsy parts. As we well know, you can never get the full scope of a movie from just the trailer, but it’s usually especially true for kids movies.

Even just from what we have seen, it looks like we’re in for a ride. Can’t wait to get on.

Hey, if you’d like more MLP stuff, you can click right here to see my editorials or here for episode reviews. And if those links don’t look pretty enough, have the last three things I’ve done right here:

Parental Glideance Review, Celestia/Daybreaker Editorial, and LGBT+ Editorial

Year of the Pony

[c7thetumbler]

Quick Game Reviews: Games I played 2019

Hey All! We’re doing this again. Just a quick run down/impression of every game I played in 2019 (not necessarily released this year), and whether or not I recommend it and how much.

I don’t really do much creatively now a days. Or at all really so this is just a thing I’ll do.

Let’s get going; there are 55 individual items on this list this year, and 2 of them are trilogies, and then there’s Pokemon in there too, so you know there’s a rant coming! That’s a lot of ground to cover.

... I forgot how to do the tumblr bars that I use to separate sections so it’s just gonna be one big thing separated by just pictures instead after this keep reading split. There’s a lot of games.

Sonic Forces [Steam]

Coming off of Sonic Mania, this certainly served as a wake-up call as to what the Sonic franchise currently is, and how important it is that you have designers that know how to use the mechanics they’re building. It’s not “Bad”, but a lot of parts of it are. Modern Sonic stages are short but fun, the avatar stages had potential but fell short when they focused on the more tedious aspects of combat while platforming, which made the Avatar + Sonic stages a midway point between “Eh” and “Eugh”. Classic Sonic stages were just straight up really bad; They feel weird to play and don’t have any flow going to them whatsoever, which is really bizarre given they had the Sonic Mania team and didn’t work with them to build good levels, and how Sonic Generations at least understood parts of what made Classic Sonic good.

Not a terrible Sonic experience, but an incredibly skippable one at best. Play Colors and Mania instead.

Gizmo [Steam]

Gizmo is a “Prototype” of a 3D platformer that never came to be. As their steam store page suggests, they really love the genre and there’s a lot they wanted to do with it, but they realized that it was out of their scope so they packaged up the level they had and released it for free on steam. Honestly, it’s a really good start and I had a lot of fun with the one level they made; I really wish they could’ve made the full game but absolutely massive props for releasing what they did.

It’s free, like 3D platformers in any regard? Try it.

Suzy Cube [Steam]

Another 3D platformer, but this one’s in the vein of Super Mario 3D Land. Actually... It really IS Super Mario 3D Land in most ways. Definitely not a bad thing; if you’re going to emulate another platformer SM3DL is a good way to go, but that’ basically the experience here; SM3DL but with simpler design and controls, a little floatier as well. Levels are linear but there’s some good stuff in there, though the bosses are very repetitive and do take their sweet time near the end.

Like SM3DL? I Did, and this is more of that, so go ahead

Octopath Traveler: Wayfarer’s Edition [Switch]

I spent a few hours on this and only got to 3/8 characters (this is very little into the game). I can see a JRPG fan loving this, but to me the few mechanics they did introduce where definitely interesting in battle, but were a bit overwhelming and disparate outside of it. This isn’t bad; they definitely mostly allow for different interactions between you, the world, the NPCs and all those interacting with each individual character uniquely, but I wasn’t really in a mood to piece together a great, well-fleshed-out world.

JRPG fans will like it, and while I’m not one of them I can see there’s a lot to like here

The Marvellous Miss Take [Steam]

A Stealth game where you wander the halls of various galleries (levels) and try and steal all your art back without getting caught, as one of I believe 3 different characters (I only got two). Again, I’m a bit out of my element here. I’m not a huge fan of stealth games, as one mistake usually means tossing the whole experience out, but honestly this is a very well stylized, neat take on it so it’s some fun for sure.

A fun romp for Stealth fans, and there’s a lot of missions and variations to take on.

Donut County [Steam]

Donut County is a game not unlike Katamari Damacy where you gather objects to get larger to gather larger objects. Where it varies however is that each level is a linear “puzzle” where you try and figure out how your hole interacts with the environment and what order you need to make things fall in it. It’s a fun experience, but missing any sort of replay-ability or nuance, so the Katamari comparison really ends after the immediate premise. That being said, it’s funny, well-stylized, and a nice little time. The interactions you have with the various elements on screen and the whole are interesting and make for some interesting puzzles and funny situations, but it can’t or at least doesn’t really go very deep with it.

A fun, quirky indie experience. Worth a shot if you want a charming, funny game to have a short but interesting time with.

Ittle Dew 2 [Switch eShop]

Ittle Dew 2 is an incredibly good Zelda-like. Like, very incredibly good. There’s a whole lot to explore, there’s tons of secrets, every part of it oozes charm and character. There’s tons to do and get, and there’s absolutely no shortage of difficulty. There’s even a whole lot of super-secret, incredibly difficult content that ranges from “Oh that was nice to stumble on” to nightmare-inducing monsters in hidden dream worlds accessible only via looking it up or remembering every detail you stumble on and piecing together a series of steps that rival ARGs. That being said, it’s satisfying just to beat alone without going that hard, but man, finding the rest is a whole new experience.

I can’t recommend this enough. This is an excellent, well-made adaptation on the top-down adventure model

Nippon Marathon [Steam]

This is an interesting little game, but for me it fell very short. It’s definitely a better multiplayer experience than single, but it stands on it’s premise: you’re a character running an incredibly bizarre race as if you’re in a Japanese gameshow. It’s funny and weird, and honestly not a bad premise... but for me, it fell on it’s face when you finally figure out how everything works, and suddenly you realize how incosistant and random parts of the games that shouldn’t be are. Platforming is weird, CPUs range from obnoxious to completely useless, and the story itself loves to put like 5-9 cut-scenes between actual gameplay.

Fun with Friends, but only very shortly. I’d just recommend Mario Party honestly.

Super Dungeon Boy [Steam]

This is a pretty standard, level based indie pixel platformer. You can decide whether or not to use checkpoints, when to activate them, and find quite a bit of secrets. Honestly, it’s not bad, but it doesn’t really do anything particularly interesting and I found it overstaying its welcome near the end.

It’s not bad, but you’re better off with some more notable Indie 2D platformers.

Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy [Steam]

As a big fan of classic 3D platformers, it was a crime that I never got into Crash back in the day. I did try and get through the original Crash on an emulator years later, but honestly I’m glad I waited for this. This trilogy faithfully recreates the original 3 crash platformers, for better or for worse. I loved playing through Crash 1; It’s playstyle is a product of its time, but it’s still really fun and has a lot of secrets. Crash 2 expands on that, adding even more levels and secrets while keeping the core gameplay the same. Crash 3... Did the thing that a lot of series of the time liked doing: focusing on minigames rather than the actual platforming. 2/5 levels in each of the worlds were normal levels, the rest were underwater, auto-runners, races, etc. Additionally, 1 clearly got the most love, 2 did a pretty good job, but 3 was less polished overall. Looks like they ran through the games and were running short on time near the end, and the Spyro trilogy sees this too. It’s a shame, but I digress.

Worth the purchase for classic-lovers, but parts of it needs to be enjoyed with that time of game design in mind as well; There are a few unintuitive secrets and minigames that don’t hold up in the modern age. 

Grapple Force Rena [Steam]

So I’m a big fan of GalaxyTrail, the indie company behind this game and Freedom Planet because of how good the latter was. Before Sonic Mania, I would’ve called Freedom Planet the best 2D Sonic game. It’s a great experience that gets its core gameplay and is genuinely a fun time, but has moments where it falls on its face before picking itself up again. Notably Boss fights and Story in FP were pretty jarring against the rest of the gameplay (Boss fights could get PAINFULLY hard, story meandered and got weird). Overall I was excited to play another game from them.

Grapple Force Rena has similar problems with it’s Boss fights being pretty bleh, it’s story being quite bizarre (but not bad, just weird), but with it’s gameplay being pretty good still. Not FP good, but good. I’m thinking this is just something the designers need to work through; Bosses doing things off-screen and being unpredictable is a common theme, but their level-design is really good so I’m still looking forward to their future work.

Another 2D Indie-platformer with a fun gimmick, good for a nice time if you’re in the mood for it.

Deep Rock Galactic [Steam]

You and some friends pick one of 4 up-gradable, customizable mining classes and launch onto an alien planet infested by bugs to complete various mining objectives, usually mining a certain amount of special minerals or destroying specific bug targets. The mines are procedurally generated which is neat, and the humor’s pretty funny, but at the time it could get pretty repetitive.

You can also get overwhelmed really fast if you’re not careful, but honestly like Left 4 Dead that has it’s own charm in some ways. It’s all about who you play with. I wouldn’t be opposed to revisiting this one day if/when it has enough content.

It’s a lot of fun with friends, but you may get bored of it after a few missions and you run into the same patterns and environments in the randomizer.

Wargroove [Steam]

This was an attempt to try and get into the strategy genre again for me. It’s definitely a charming, well-polished game, but I found after a couple levels its slower pace and more strategic elements (literally the point of the game) just wasn’t for me (I’m very bad at strategy games (dumb)). There’s definitely a lot here for those who are into the genre, but I have a feeling with how much buzz was generated over this the people who would like it know they would. 

A well-made take on Advance Wars and grid tactics games, but definitely not for me

Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing [Steam]

I picked this up because I remembered how fun its sequel was, that the sequel to that is coming out this year (later in this very post), and that I never beat it on the 360. Definitely a fun game in its own right, and you can see how well it was expanded on in the sequel, but it also has a variety of its own issues. Mainly, Super Monkey Ball stages are geometric, really bad levels, and there’s a pretty small amount of levels overall. Overall though, the challenge mode is a lot of fun and this would be a fun multiplayer racing game.

Also doesn’t run/upscale well on modern PC, so make of that what you will. Overall this didn’t age well; maybe on console where it runs without PC variables messing with things, but this in and of itself was Sega’s first, admittedly very good, step into the kart-racing genre.

It’s great, but just get the sequel, Transformed. It does everything better, rivaling Mario Kart 8 and beating it in some areas even.

Risk of Rain 2 [Steam]

I played this when it first “entered” Early Access, so it’s probably an even better experience now. It’s a good time running around, learning each character and power-up, and figuring out how everything interacts for sure, but it can also get very frustrating very quickly. additionally once you start looping it gets pretty dull; you’ve basically seen everything the game has to offer after your second loop. This is a pretty common problem for a lotta proc gen games though. It’s a fun 3D combat romp with interesting ways of expressing variety, but I’d wait until it gets more content if it hasn’t already

Yoshi’s Crafted World [Switch]

This game gets a lot of praise, and honestly I can see why. It’s the essential 2D Yoshi experience with a cute theme and a whole lot of things to do and collect. I definitely enjoyed my time with it, but I found myself burned out about halfway through. It was very strange.

Levels each try and have one new mechanic in them, and the play with the foreground, background, flipping levels and all that is neat, but together it just kind equates to more sub-areas than really anything effective there. Additionally the styling is somewhat inconsistent (Why are some characters like Piranha plants and shy guys just kinda normal when everything is made of crafts? How come the Yoshis are just fuzzy yoshis, is that supposed to be felt?), and even some of the color tones hurt my eyes during extended play. That being said, while I preferred Wooly World, this really is a great 2D Yoshi experience and worth a pick-up. I believe it even has a demo.

Sea of Thieves [Windows 10 Store, Gamepass]

Gamepass was a buck for 3 months so I gave this a pick-up with some buds. I really enjoyed my experience with it; the random sea monster fights were really intimidating (at first) the quests they added in the update this year were pretty entertaining, and PvP can sometimes be fun.

... But then you get a game where you spend the entire 5 hour session fighting with a group of griefers who only want to sink your ship and then find you again when you respawn, meaning you get 0 gold for it. They needed a lot more variety for combat and sea monsters as well. Megaladons were scary at first, but eventually they just turn into a nuisance, and the Kraken is pretty vanilla as well. All in all, it’s a fun experience with a group of 3 friends who are into it as well, but the lack of goals and directions can turn you off pretty quick if you can’t make your own fun of it.

Snake Pass [Windows 10 Store, Gamepass]

This one is honestly pretty fun and I didn’t give it enough time at the... time? Good words C, doesn’t matter only King’s reading at this point. Hi King. 

Anyway, the game controls surprisingly well once you get the hang of it. Oh I should explain it. Hey this is a game where you control the head of a snake and then use the rest of it to grip onto ropes, platforms, sticks, vines, etc. to traverse a level. It’s pretty fun, and there are a lot of collectibles to keep you busy too. Again I didn’t finish it, but it definitely seemed pretty doable and didn’t overstay its welcome. I’d give this a hearty recommendation overall, but the controls very much make it not for everyone.

Team Sonic Racing [Steam]

I’m gonna be contrasting this one with the next one, Crash Team Racing, quite a bit here. First though, after S&SASR:T (nice acronym), my hopes were high on another racing game from these guys, especially one that narrowed its focus down to just Sonic since that would allow it do depth instead of breadth. In some ways I got what I wanted; mechanically the team stuff is really fun and interesting, and the racing itself holds very well. Thematically just using wisps for items is also pretty good... but...

The roster, level, and car variety kinda suck. There are only 4-5 teams, some of them don’t make any sense, and with Sonic’s gigantic roster that’s a crime. They did the small roster in order to have unlockable parts (I believe it was 30 per car?), but honestly that just allows you to min-max or play what character you want without actually playing different styles. Half the levels are re-used, and the single-player mode is really not much better than the first game in the series. That being said, it’s a shame they didn’t go hard on the roster and marketing, because this game shines with how much better it plays than most other Kart racers and how deep the team mechanics can go. I really want to recommend this one, but since there’s no competitive community and the online is dead, I really can’t say it’s even better than the last game in the franchise, which is better for a casual dip into because it’s best mechanics are pretty surface level and quick to get.

Crash Team Racing Nitro Fueled [Switch]

This game has the opposite problem than the last one: way too much characters variety, not enough depth. I get that this is a remake, and that they had to stay faithful in some regards, but to me this just didn’t age well at all. it feels stiff, you can get screwed over at the wrong time and throw the whole race, the challenges can be very unforgiving for that reason, and holy funk the loading times. I averaged 40 second load times on the Switch, and yeah it’s not the most powerful console in all existence, but that’s just gross. They did an update that improved it a little after I had finished playing but I have no interest in going back.

This is faithful, colorful remake as far as I can tell, so if it’s for you you already have it and likely love it. As a modern day kart racer, building off what the genre’s learned for the past 20 years? Mario Kart 8 and Sonic Transformed blow it out of the water.

Super Mario Maker 2 [Switch]

How many games are left- oh jeez I’m not even halfway done. Why did I save this all for the end of the year.

Super Mario Maker 2 improves on the original in almost everyway, with the exception being that the online is still pretty not good and you should be able to download and edit other peoples levels. The Single-Player campaign is a very welcome addition, I’m not a huge fan of the 3D world style but it’s there and okay, and multiplayer can be fun. When it works. Very rarely.

The lack of amiibo costumes also kinda sucks, but honestly with how much content there already is and how well they supported the last game, this game really should’ve been something I revisited constantly. However due to my own personal “journey” (personal character traits that are generally negative and get in the way of me actually doing and enjoying things), the creative spark I had that made me really want to create and share levels just isn’t there, so this fell off my radar pretty fast after several frustrating moments both making and playing.

It’s still a fantastic game, and I would heartily recommend it. But don’t go into it expecting modern day QoL online features..

Earth Defense Force 5 [Steam]

Fight giant ants, Frogs, aliens, and God. Get all sorts of crazy, hilarious weapons and robots.Play with friends for best experience. 10/10

Basically the same exact game as the last one, and they changed the song you sing to be worse. 1/10

Look it up on Youtube and you’ll know basically immediately if this is the game for you. It’s obscenely long and repetitive, think Hyrule warriors level of repeating content, so if you’re not into it, you’ll never even beat one run.

Evoland Legendary Edition [Steam]

This is a cute idea that’s done relatively well. You go through the whole game “unlocking” very basic features which match up with the general progression of adventure -> RPGs through the years, getting more and more complex as the game goes on. It’s nice, it’s funny, it doesn’t try to be to intense or in some cases polished (and indeed that’s the point sometimes).

It’s not really anything groundbreaking, but I had a smile on my face as I went through it so if it’s on sale and you want some nostalgia based humor, you can’t go wrong with this one.

Minit [Steam]

This was one I was expecting to be a short, rather bland idea that I would think “Oh, that’s cute” and then walk away from. And I mean it was, but it was also surprisingly well done and polished, which is odd to say about a 2-color game where the gimmick is dying a lot.

It’s true though; you pick up the cursed sword and from then on it’s a classic top-down adventure game ala Zelda where you have 60 seconds (one minute) to do something in the world to progress. This can range from moving an obstacle, finding a new item, setting a new spawn point, or just learning something new. It’s pretty fun and very clever. Honestly a really fun little adventure. Again, short but very sweet, and there’s a lot of replayability for secrets and speedruns if you’re into that

OKAMI HD [Steam]

I’ve always heard great things about this game, and honestly I can see it. But like... it felt like 45 minutes of cutscenes back to back before the game even starts, and after that it is not afraid to stop you even more to explain. I get it’s an older game, and I’d probably have really liked it back in the day on the DS, but oof, this could’ve used some modernization. It’s a pretty game, but I couldn’t get very far. It definitely tells more than it shows, and I don’t have that much patience, but there’s definitely an audience for it so I’d use someone else’s recommendation to determine whether or not you want to pick this up

Speebot [Steam]

I have a lotta platformers on my list this year. This is another puzzle platformer, you play as a little robot and try to get to the end of each winding level. Some have powerups like an umbrealla that lets you go further, a jet pack to jump higher, etc. Each level has a collectible or something along those lines, and honestly it’s not a bad game by any stretch.

But with all the other platformers I’ve played, and with the weird angle this one sticks to it’s hard for me to recommend, especially when you hit the “final” level and find out there’s a lot more game but you can’t beat that level until you go back and find everything. Again; not a bad game, but you can do far better in this genre.

Dr Mario World [Android]

I really wanted to like this game because I like Dr. Mario, but man they did a whole lot wrong. For starters: gacha needs to die. It’s gambling in Mario, so focused on kids. even its advertisements were very kid focused, so they should feel ashamed of themselves for that. They only kinda get away with it because the gacha does incredibly little past getting a slight advantage in Multiplayer vs, but we’ll get to that.

The story mode starts out fine. Pills move up, you need to clear all the viruses in the set amount of turns, your score is determined by your combos & pills remaining, etc. That part’s not bad until you get later in the game when you realize oh, some of the viruses are random, and so are your pill colors, so sometimes you just lose a level and that’s it. Getting all the stars on a single level later in the game turns into spending all your stamina and hoping for good stuff and luck on your character’s abilities getting proc’d, which since most of them are useless that doesn’t happen often. That’s when this feels more like a cheap puzzling phone game than it does a well-tested, polished experience like what I typically think of with Dr. Mario. So it doesn’t at all feel like a Dr.Mario game despite trying really hard to be, and with how hard games on mobile already pretend to be Nintendo games, it feels like one of the cheap knock-offs.

Multiplayer vs is a little better in feeling like Dr. Mario, but WAY WORSE when it comes to luck and character choice. Each character has an attack (how many rows you send over to the other side)  and defense (How likely your character will block rows sent over). Winning strat is to go HARD on defense (best you can do is ~75% chance of defense without more buffs iirc), or go full glass cannon and win fast. Peach for example can buff up to 76%, maybe even 80% with the right gacha rolls, which allows you to more or less consistently rely on your own skill for clearing the board. But she’ll only send over one row at a time, where say Bowser can send over 4. Sure, odds are he’ll miss, but he’s going to try several times and it only takes one landed shot to kill you. If you clear all your viruses, 3 more rows appear for each player, but if it’s time with an attack, hey look, 7 rows and whatever pills were floating are now landed, so you just immediately lost.

This is a bad game, and not even a Dr. Mario experience. Skip it; you can do better on mobile in this genre, or just pay for a game that’s worth your time.

Slap City [Steam]

So I’ve not played much of this, in fact I got it recommended by a coworker, but this guy is a comp melee player and said this game slaps. that was really funny C so it’s a 2D platform fighter filled with wacky characters from the studio who brought you Ittle Dew 2 (which you should play) and Princess Remedy (Which is free, and you can also play). It’s unique in that it knows it’s ridiculous, and it doesn’t have characters that feel like smash bros character clones. It’s physics are pretty interesting too, so I can say This is like smash bros, but in its own unique way, and you should give it a go if you’re itching for smash you can play on PC

Pokemon Masters [Android]

Another cruddy gacha game! This time with your favorite pokemon characters who are finally given personality that the games themselves never did well enough because GameFreak can’t do story. Is that unecessarily harsh on Gamefreak? Maybe, but maybe they should make better games that are actually better games! Anyway, this one isn’t made directly by Gamefreak and I’m letting my anticipation of reviewing Shield spoil this one.

So when this was first announced I thought it was going to pair with pokemon Home, and be the “Battle Frontier/ Stadium” that would constantly be updated and supported along with the mainline games, as well as add new interesting challenges and challengers while allowing each individual character and battle type to shine.

What it ended up being was a gambling simulator that you can grind the same 3 missions for weeks and weeks to level up your duos enough beat the main story. Like, I’ll give them credit for not doing stamina and actually writing the characters, and the core gameplay isn’t bad, but don’t waste your time with this; it certainly loves doing so for the sake of convincing you to drop more money on it to get it to stop.

Dragon Quest Builders 2 [Switch]

Surprise hit this year. Honestly massive props to King, who is again the only one reading this so Hi King, for recommending me this for my long flights to and from CA this year. I played it for weeks afterwards, and even wanted to 100% it. It’s like what if you took minecraft but actually made it so your villagers were people with personality who had lives and could maintain and use all your rooms, which could be given specific purposes. Why yes, this is a kitchen that you can use in conjunction with a dining room to make a restaurant supplied by the storage room filled with crops from the nearby farm you don’t even need to maintain after you set everything up!

My only complaint with this is you can hit the villager cap very quickly, and that the story can overstay it’s welcome (it was like 60 hours for me). It’s on Steam now, and I suspect modders will help out with those complaints though, so now they just need to add switch save cross-play and JEEZ people need to get this game so we could all build a massive self-sustaining utopia. Get the Steam version because it’ll eventually allow you to mod out the restrictions, but to me this is Minecraft but better in every way. i can’t recommend this enough in that regard.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna, The Golden Country [Switch]

So last year I had problems recommending Xenoblade II- wait was it last year or the year before? Doesn’t matter; I still do, but I finally decided to give this game DLC/Prequel a go. To my surprise it’s... in the same boat, but for different reasons. Let me explain:

I want to recommend XBCII for the plot, but I can’t because it’s so heavy in fanservice, anime tropes, and genuinely bad jokes and writing that the parts I want to focus on are undermined, and the parts I want to say are so bad it’s good are as well. This prequel I want to recommend because the plot sets up weird elements and makes the main game make more sense, but one of the main characters’ motivations still make no sense with their actions in the next game and you really do need to have played the original to get it. I will say, the ending of the prequel’s tone sets up and contrasts really nicely with the tone throughout the original. Also Rex is a complete idio-

I want to recommend XBCII for the combat, but it doesn’t work until you get 85% the way through, which is 60 hours of your time that I can’t ask of you if I can’t even play games for an hour when they frontload their tutorials. This prequel has better, more streamlined combat, but in someways it removes aspects of the combo system that really brought the original together (at the end), and the only super amazing fight is the final battle, which is again a long ask.

The Prequel definitely improves the QOL, getting rid of the gacha blade system for set party members, and really doesn’t waste your time there, but it’s also lacking in its world in that you only explore 3 titans, half of one isn’t present, but I don’t know what I expected with DLC.

Anyway, play this if you enjoyed Xenoblade Chronicles II, but as a standalone or intro into it, it’s another difficult recommendation for me to give.

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening [Switch]

Remember on WiiU when games that were remakes were priced less than the $60 asking price, even though they added a fair amount of content? I miss that.

Anyway, it’s Link’s Awakening that’s been heavily stylized and has a number of QOL improvements. It looks very pretty and plays well (drops frames a lot though which is strange), but it doesn’t add much other than a dungeon maker mode which doesn’t work online and is incredibly bland and limited, as well as a hero mode which is pretty straightforward there; just a hard difficulty with some knobs turned to make it so.

Link’s Awakening DX is available right now to buy on the 3DS eshop for like $6, and is a very close experience. I can’t say the graphics, QOL improvements, and single very underwhelming feature addition justify a $60 price tag. If it ever goes on sale for $30, sure, but it’s Zelda so don’t hold your breath.

Bomber Bother [Steam]

TRANS RIGHTS. ARE HU-MAN, RIGHTS

clap clap

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair [Switch eShop]

This is a very interesting, well-designed game from the 3D overworld to almost every 2D level that was clearly lovingly crafted that I would heartily recommend...

HOWEVER. It has one major flaw: It’s first and “final” level, The Impossible Lair, and that’s it’s premise.

It is incredibly unforgiving (I get that’s the point), very unfair (Again, I get that’s the point) and you’re supposed to lose it. A lot. And when you do, the villain who cheated laughs in your face and plants a big EPIC FAIL stamp on screen. You know; disparaging the player for doing exactly what they’re supposed to do.

The main crux is that you once the game kills you and decides that was your fault, you run through many actually good levels that change depending on the 3D environment around them that you can manipulate to unlock additional hits to take into the impossible lair. Problem is even after you get all 48 hits, you’ll find that one mistake can cost you several hits at once. Because the level is garbage and incredibly unfair. This aint the Dark Souls of platformer levels; this is the incredibly hard Mario Maker level with a 0.000001% clear rating because it dropped thwomps on you out of no where near the end of the level. Only throughout the level. With changing physics and underwater sections.

You get the point. If you can stomach playing an incredibly bad level, which unfortunately was the main draw of the game, the rest is a very solid Donkey Kong Country style platformer. But also: Tropical Freeze exists on Switch right now, and while it doesn’t have the 3D overworld gimmick, it doesn’t have that bad level problem either, sooooooooooooooooo weigh those options.

Ring Fit Adventure [Switch]

This was a surprising announcement and release, and not just because the premise was crazy and weird, but that it was actually by itself a good game. You run through a world using the Joy Con strapped to your leg and jump, blast, and manipulate air using the ring, which is actually pretty good at reading your inputs, as well as putting up enough resistance to put up a work out. The RPG mechanics itself are pretty straight-forward, but they work for doing reps and working up a sweat.

I can’t speak for how good this is at losing weight; I have a terrible track record with exercise which always kills it no more than 2 weeks in, and every review I’ve seen (not that many admittedly) says it’s good for working up a sweat and they didn’t gain weight, but they also didn’t see any loss. That being said, I’m sure this pairs excellently with diet and is fun in it’s own right. It’s a surprisingly great, charming game all by itself, and a good way to keep in motion, but don’t expect it to work miracles on it’s own.

 Mario Kart Tour [Android]

This is the most Pay-to-win, exploitative, disgusting gambling game aimed at kids using a beloved franchise video game I’ve ever seen. Do not buy this, and if anything actively encourage Nintendo to do better.

Well, that was easy.

....

So I guess justifying that, fine whatever. Each course has a small number (sometimes only one of each) of characters, karts, and gliders that are in focus, and without the right ones in the second half of each “tour” you won’t be able to get enough stars to get the gifts in the tour, which allow you to play the gacha for the EXTREMELY LIMITED characters in focus for at most 2 weeks, usually only one. Additionally you get a pitiful amount of rubies (rolling currency) each tour anyway.

You can do some challenges on the side for more stars, but it’s calculated in such a way that you absolutely must do those challenges to get enough stars to get all the gifts anyway, and half of those require specific characters as well. Often times the characters which are on sale in the weekly $20-$40 character packs, which is disgusting. Also, rolling the same character/kart/glider (we’ll say items now) increases the “Skill” of that item, which maxes out at a level of 6. Now that doesn’t mean 6 duplicates will max it out and you won’t roll them again; each skill level requires more and more dupes to complete. For rare characters which you have to pay over $200 to guarantee you’ll roll, you’ll need to do it at least 10 times.

Sad about how little rubies you’re getting? Excellent news! The bonuses other games usually give out to get you to keep playing are locked behind a subscription service. for only $4.99 a month, you can play a free-to-play game that actually wants to hook you on paying for the gacha. Since it’s a much better experience when it actually wants to care about your existence (now that you’ve proven you have a credit card and are willing to drop money on this game), you’ll be duped into going on forums and explaining how actually the subscription pass is an amazing deal! Praise Nintendo, as you spend $60 in a year for a version of Mario Kart that doesn’t play well, is completely random, and doesn’t reward you for skill as much as it does taking your money.

Do not even download it. This will be a case study in the future when we review how developers used the psychology of sunk cost and addiction to sell virtual items to the masses using brands they trusted.

Evoland 2 [Steam]

So whereas the first game was just a quirky little game that was having fun with a gimmick, this game appears to be an actual, fleshed out JRPG with some puzzley, platformer elements thrown in. Which is cool, and I don’t necessarily mind. There’s still some charm going on with the style changing and the mechanics of traveling through time in both the mechanics and the story.

But it’s a very different game in tone and execution. It’s for sure not a bad experience, but a more traditional JRPG one, which I wasn’t in the mood for when I picked this one up

Spyro Reignited Trilogy [Steam]

This has a lotta similar beats to the Crash Trilogy: The first game is well-done, the second is even better, but the third one is a little less polished and the presence of minigames is... disappointing. That being said, I liked this one a whole lot better than Crash. The music is fantastic, The level design for the most part is really well done, It’s got it’s own style and charm, and the gameplay itself holds up surprisingly well. Unlike the Crash Trilogy, I actually was very happy to 100% all three games. Whether you’re new to classic Spyro or want to relive it, it holds up very well in this trilogy. Protip: you can just delete the movie files for the startup logos and intro to immediately get into the game menu. 

That being said, in some aspects they were a little TOO faithful. All the characters existing in multiple places at once and feeling really stilted wasn’t really needed and they could’ve done better there. The skateboarding minigame is buggy and awful as all hell, I would’ve liked to have seen the speedway courses more fleshed out, and honestly I think it would’ve been cool to see a new level or two just to show that the developers can match the magic.

I mean that’s the point of these, right? To gauge the interest in re-introducing classic Spyro formula for future games? And not just a cash grab working of nostalgia for those sweet sweet moneybags?

Anyway, Activision making you sign a 42 page disclaimer before playing single player games is pure nonsense, what is that abou-

Luigi’s Mansion 3 [Switch]

This game is really good. I was a little worried after Dark Moon that it’d be incredibly linear, and to be fair... It kind of is. But in a good way, where you can explore a bit as you go through, and even revisit past areas with the knowledge gained from future floors for goodies, and honestly at this point we know I’m a sucker for collectathons so yeah.

Gameplay-wise it build on Dark moon’s mechanics while adding a few clever ones of its own. It’s incredibly well done and Next Level Games really made a gigantic effort to make each character express themselves in their own way, even if they were clearly somewhat limited for like Peach or Mario (Kinda weird how they seem to express themselves via their Spin-off like out bursts of “yahoo” and “Oh my” but that’s nitpicky af). The game is packed with secrets and is really funny and clever about them, as well as containing subtle nods to not just things present in the original but also how the original was structured for the longtime fans of the series. As a single player game, it’s a genuinely great time.

As a multiplayer game? It’s pretty good too. Scarescraper was a fun mode in Dark Moon and I’m glad to see it back, and for a few rounds it’s genuinely a fun time. Like all Proc Gen games though, you start to get a feel for what happens where and it becomes pretty easy to complete each floor and even carry teams which otherwise wouldn’t have succeeded. In that way, I’m both a little happy the Multiplayer will be getting DLC to add more variety, and dissappointed that it wasn’t there in the first place since right now Scarescraper is a carbon copy of how it was in Dark Moon. But I mean, it’s fun and they didn’t have to do it, so it’s definitely still worth a play.

Basically this is the best Luigi’s Mansion experience, and a must-have on switch. Next Level Games is a wonderful studio, and I’m happy to see them knock this out of the park.

If only that 3DS remake of the original was on switch instead tho

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games: Tokyo 2020 [Switch]

It’s really weird how this series plays out. It’s a pretty fun game in it’s own right, but what doesn’t make sense to me is their character choice. Clearly this is a fanservice series; Mario & Sonic characters duking it out in a friendly setting where nothing really matters to either franchise, and a little story that provides historical info about the olympics at the same time. It’s fun, for sure, but why does it limit some characters to just single events? Fan favorites like Diddy, Rouge, Rosalina, and Espio (and boring characters like the koopalings or the deadly six) really don’t have a reason to be limited in such a way, especially when they were used in previous games, so why do it? It’s quite strange.

Additionally the game could use a lot of QoL updates, none of which should be new. It’s essentially a mini-game compilation, and a lot of them are a lot more complicated while only being like 2 tries long, so being able to easily shift between them would be nice. Or at least have clearer explanations as to how to play or what each character does.

That being said, the classic style games are pretty fun, and the events are also pretty good once you get the hang of them so it’s a fun experience worth trying with some friends casually if you’re into that.

Human: Fall Flat [Steam]

So this one’s an old one, but so are a few others on this list so it’s fine. This is one of those games where the controls being wacky and strange with the physics is the draw. Again, normally don’t go for this, and I’m sure I’d get over it very quickly in single player. Multiplayer though? Incredibly fun. Highly recommend this with a couple friends and the steam workshop for some wacky skins for a fun evening.

Tiny Barbarian DX [Steam]

I dunno what possessed me to play this one. It’s another indie retro-styled platformer, and this one specifically seems to be structured like Ghosts and Goblins. It’s pretty difficult, but not overwhelmingly so. That being said I didn’t get very far, so take my experience with the first level with a grain of salt; it looks like it gets pretty tough later in the game.

It’s another indie 2D platformer that doesn’t really do much other than be difficult and have some basic combat mechanics. Not bad, but not really noteworthy there either.

Untitled Goose Game [Switch eShop]

This game stands really hard on its premise, which is completely fine because the premise of living out being an asshole goose is an amazing one and all power to it for doing it. You feel like an asshole goose every step of the way, including when you can pointlessly flap out your wings to look like a bigger asshole, which mechanically does absolutely nothing.

The puzzles are clever, though a few of them take a bit too much waiting or setup for my tastes. It certainly is an enjoyable time, and it doesn’t overstay its welcome being only a couple hours long at most. It does offer speedrunning challenges and secret tasks however, similar in replayability to Journey so that’s going for it as well. God I love Journey.

Anyway, you know about this game already, if you laughed at its premise you’ll like it.

Fighties [Steam]

I didn’t spend very long with this one, but I think I still get it. It’s a Platform fighter with 1-hit-to-kill, each of the MANY characters (very few of which are available at the start) have their own gimmick. It’s like towerfall, but less polished and with a ton more character variety, but since it doesn’t do a great job of explaining it and there’s more complexity in an otherwise simple game. It’s a simple concept, but it’s done way better in games like Towerfall.

New Super Lucky’s Tale [Switch eShop]

All the platformers on this list. So this is from my understanding the best version of this game, the original being a VR game for Xbox. Going into it I knew this was a game that was basically an intro for newer/younger players into 3D collecting platformers, but I was pleasantly surprised by how incredibly polished it is. Everything feels really good to play, and there are a few moments when the gameplay is like “eh, not so sure about that”, the marble levels and auto runners specifically, but everything else is so good I have to say this is an absolutely wonderful experience.

For those who have played 3D platformers before, yeah this game is pretty easy. But it’s never really boring though, something other games have an issue with if they’re too straightforward. Finding the collectibles never really blows you away in challenge, but still feels rewarding, and at the end of the game there’s a whole section similar to Champion’s road that puts everything you’ve learned to the test in some particularly challenging levels, with a really tough collectible to find in each. It’s not groundbreaking, but it’s a very well done platformer in its own right and worth a pickup for those who love that formula, or those who haven’t been exposed to it somehow.

They do try a little hard with the plot at the end though with an avengers style ending and that was a little corny. It’s fine tho.

Pokemon Shield [Switch eShop]

Here it is peeps. The big ol rant. The part where I call this game a gigantic pile of trash.

Like the picture, get it, it’s garbador but really big. because this game is garbag-

So I’ve already ranted for what feels like 9 long essays about this on twitter so I’ll sum up as best as I can here. Or at least shorten it. This game is by far the worst in the franchise, and here are my points:

This game is the shortest in the franchise, ranging at most 21 hours to beat the story, pretty bad for a Pokemon game let alone a JRPG

There are only 10 routes, all of which are linear and there are no “dungeons” like Team rocket hideouts, winding caves with multiple floors and interlocking paths.

The Gym challenge is the whole game. The antagonists whole plotline is introduced and then resolved just before the champion’s fight at the end in under an hour, again with no “dungeon” or build-up

Characters will often times tell you about all the interesting things they’re doing when you’re not around, stuff that in previous games you would be doing, before telling you to go back and just worry about the gym challenge. The most egregious of which is when Leon’s like “WHAT’S THAT COMMOTION OVER THERE!?”, runs off screen <fade to black pointlessly>, you go follow him through the next load zone just off screen, and are presented with a newspaper article of Leon defeating a Dynamaxed pokemon by himself right before where you’re standing and had to walk through anyway. The game is littered with similar moments, from Sonia putting together what happened in the past, to Hop beating you to the end of every route.

Only 3 legends, only 2 of which you can catch and doing so is mandatory

Battle tower is pathetic

Despite being on a cartridge that is MANY TIMES larger on a system that can save data orders of magnitude faster, you still have the same amount of pokemon storage space as previous games. Worse, they made no effort to make the UX of navigating the PC better and searching still doesn’t work like a search should

The wild area feels like an Early Access concept that wasn’t fleshed out properly, There’s nothing to discover other than Pokemon soulessly wandering around at most 20 feet away from you due to draw distance

The UX, and really the whole formula hasn’t changed at all, and fights take obscenely long because GF seems to think they’re developing for a Gameboy game still and animations and each individual line of text need to occur painstakingly slowly one after the other

Gigantamaxing, arguably the most interesting part of the game, is OBSCENELY rare to get specific pokemon for, and is honestly a post-game thing. It took me longer to roll a GMax Hatterene than it did to get 3 shinies. Having no way to G-max the pokemon you already have the adventure with is completely counter to the series’ core

Taking out all the online functionality they’ve had since gen 4 (a gen that had way more content), just to sell it back to you in a phone app that won’t be out for another half a year is a crime. The existing functionality, which requires a subscription already to use and doesn’t even properly work is a pathetic joke when the DS games had this solved first try in 2006 without a subscription

GF still doesn’t know how to make characters behave like humans, doing the classic turn in place, play same animation, talk, turn in place, animation, talk, walk off screen, fade to black because we can’t even unload characters properly thing

The intro to Pokemon cutscene, Hop’s in battle dialog, Piers singing, and many of the cutscenes with Leon all feel like they need to be voice acted. But aren’t, for whatever reason, which feels INCREDIBLY tacky and something I’d expect from a unity indie company

This game has less content overall than the first Pokemon games on the 3DS, and is arguably less polshed than the GBA ones in terms of their actual gameplay

All of this, and it’s clear that it’s a rushed, unfinished 3DS game. Only you get the privilege of paying $60 for it instead of $40, $120 if you want both versions which is a whole nother rabbit hole of “How are they getting away with this crap”

Notice: I didn’t mention Dexit once. That’s because the premise for the backlash is set on only being able to transfer pokemon that are already in the game, but I feel like I need to point out something people seem to miss, surprisingly? ... Pokemon Home isn’t out. It won’t be for 3 more months. Meaning you can’t transfer your Pokemon at all. This game isn’t even feature complete, and given that it’s one of Nintendo’s flagship franchises and isn’t supported by the cloud save feature, which again you need to have a subscription for to play a lot of the main features of this game, is another kick in the face from GF. Pokemon Home, or some sort of Switch-compatible storage system, should’ve been ready when LGPE launched last year and available to NSO subscription owners as a substitute for their inability to save progress. The fact that we have to wait until March to pay for another separate form to store Kilobytes of data on top of the subscription and insane markup on the base game is exploiting the franchise even more.

This is the worst game in the franchise, the most expensive game in the franchise, the most barebones game in the franchise, one of the buggiest games in the franchise, and the game in the franchise that cares the least about your time or previous experiences with it. I would say skip it, but it’s already sold way more than it has any right to, which is why I bought it as well. TPC and GF know this will always sell, so why put in the effort to top themselves with the highest grossing media franchise of all time. The sunk cost fallacy has my over 20 years of collecting hostage, get out while you can.

Halo The Masterchief Collection: Halo Reach [Steam]

This is unfortunately another game that serves as an example as to why I struggle with Multiplayer games. I’m unfortunately so far behind my friends that I consistently land bottom of the board, and there’s only so many times that happens before playing the game jut feels bad for me. That eing said, there’s a lot to like about this game in that aspect so I can’t hold it back because of my own personal struggles.

As for the campaign, it definitely feels like a game from it’s time, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I had fun with it, though i can’t say I’d do it alone or grind it out. It feels rather short, and I guess Reach isn’t a good starter point; just canonically the first in the series. It’s it’s own FPS experience and it’s unique in its own ways, so it’s worth a shot to try it out f you’re unsure where you are. But it’s also Halo, Xbox’s flagship title, so you probably also already know if it’s for you.

Sonic Forces: Speed Battle (Android)

So the mobile games this year aren’t reviewing well, and with my trek back to CA for the holidays I thought I’d give this one a go. It plays a lot like Sonic Dash; you auto-run forward, collect rings and power-ups, however this time there are a large variety of characters with different attacks to choose from. And you’re fighting other players. It’s pretty neat.

Monetization wise, it’s technically gacha, but not intentionally. You get character by getting enough of their “cards” to unlock them, and you get their cards via either random in-game chests which you unlock by playing/waiting (or watching ads), or you can buy packs that just flat out have the cards you need. The only “Gacha” in there is by technicality, you can buy red rings (premium currency) to buy the chests you normally find quicker, but those won’t have special characters usually. I like this model a lot better; If you want to pay money for a special character, you can just buy the character. If you want to play free, you’re not at any disadvantage because limited characters aren’t in a gambling banner, you do quests to get there cards.

That being said, after you play for a couple days it loses most of its charm. There are a lot of characters, but their abilities are near-identical, just with some bonus flair that has more minor effects. After playing 50 30-second ish matches, you get the picture and there’s not a whole lot of strategy left. There’s potential here, and the monetization model is definitely a lot friendlier, but overall it’s a pretty bland experience once you understand the core gameplay.

So when is that chao garden mobile game that ties into new sonic games gonna come ou-

The World Ends With You: Final Remix (Switch)

This is one I’ve been meaning to play for a long, LONG time but was never in the mood to get started on it. I knew it was a JRPG with really quirky plot & mechanics and a cult following, and boy do I need to be in the mood for that in order to actually get through them. They have a huge tendency to offload a crapton at the front and I’m very easily turned off by that, unfortunately.

As I was here, again, unfortunately. I can see why people like it, but I gave it a couple hours, argued with the controls,  got frustrated with the puzzles (getting stumped on the puzzle in the screen shot for 20 minutes before backtracking and realizing the game locked the solution I already knew behind an NPC I had already talked to was not great) and decided it was a “try again another day” sorta thing. I did this to Xenoblade Chronicles as well, and now I can’t recommend it enough and automatically buy every game in that franchise, so it’s no dig on this. I don’t have any valid opinion on this yet.

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD (Switch)

I don’t think I like Super Monkey Ball everyone! The first 3 worlds were fine, world 4 was starting to show some nonsense, and then world 5 and 6 had me going full “THAT WAS GARBAGE, I WAS ROBBED.” Cobalt Caverns has 2 levels specifically where it’s a straight crapshoot whether it works or not, and given that there are 6 playable characters one of those levels is straight impossible if you pick the wrong one.

I mean it’s fully possible that I “Don’t get it” of course. That the level that flings your character through a course at super speed that you have very little input in, which ejects your ball at random is in fact deterministic and possible with every character. That the course where you cross a winding downhill tightrope that doesn’t have the checkerboard pattern so you can’t see it tilts enough to make light characters fall off every time is in fact really clever.

But I don’t have the patience for it. Granted, I know Monkey ball is an arcadey, high-score experience and not one where you just go through the levels once and have a reasonable expectation of being able to complete them with relative, linear ease. But it just rubbed me the wrong way. I imagine if you know you’ll like Monkey Ball’s replayability, you’ll love this, but if you’re unsure then I’d say it’s not a game for the impatient.

Kero Blaster (Steam)

This is one that I’ve been meaning to pick up for a long, LONG time. Cave Story is probably one of the most important indie games out there, it was a ton of fun, and with recent resurfacing of Nicalis hate for doing Pixel dirty on the rights to the game and its characters, I figured now was a good time to try it. Especially since I liked its demo, Pink Hour, well enough last year.

It’s... Fine, for sure. nothing particularly wrong with it, but nothing really great about it either. I was okay with my time with it, and it felt like cave story. But it lacked a lot of the secrets, unlockables, story, etc. and the shop system really wasn’t as fun a system to replace it. That being said, it’s clearly supposed to be replayed since you unlock the first achievement and a new, harder mode after you beat the final boss, so there’s more there for sure. It’s a short, well-contained experience with some secrets to replay for, but overall nothing truly ground breaking. But you should be getting this to support Pixel rather than buying another version of Cave Story he won’t even get money for. And then Play Cave Story right now as well anyway, because Pixel still has it up on his site available for free. 

Brawler 64 (N64 Controller)

So I know it’s not a controller, but all my N64 controllers are trashed and I needed it to actually play some games so I’m just gonna review them here. These controllers are nice. I’ve always wondered why it was so difficult to find really good N64 replacement controllers that were designed sensibly so a human with two hands could actually use it. And that’s what this is! pretty neat.

Aesthetically they nailed the look; mix of grey and then the classic N64 colored see-through plastic, which is a controller look I miss but I understand not wanting to show internals now that they have moving parts. Buttons all are sensibly placed and it feels comfortable to hold. Only two gripes I have with the controller:

1. It feels really light, and a a result the handles feel a bit cheap. I feel like a hard enough grip could crack it, though I’m not sure that’s the case and I’d have no reason to grip that hard anyway

2. the trigger buttons (Z-button replacement) is analog despite being a digital input on the original controller. This makes no sense; I love a good analog shoulder button, but since the Z-Button is only digital, it would be way more satisfying and responsive to just have it clearly click to indicate the button’s being pressed.

Despite that, these controllers fix the main gripes with the original N64 controller and will probably last me a very, very long time. I’d recommend them as a good replacement

Pummel Party (Steam)

So this is a very “violent” but property generic version of Mario Party available on Steam, up to 8 players and compatible with online. Honestly, I only played one game but it’s pretty fun! I’m not sure how it evolves as you learn more mechanics; Mario Party can vary wildly in how that happens with sometimes it being a good thing to know the advanced mechanics and sometimes it revealing the flaws underneath and making it unfun past the first couple games, or with people who don’t.

But this was fun. Lots of weird items, they clearly tried to do something differently and balance out some stuff with the death mechanics. Some of the controls for the minigames are ehhhhh (should devote to encouraging a keyboard and mouse OR controller, rather than middling between them) and we saw a few repeats in a 25 turn game which was surprising, but we may have been unlucky. Definitely pick it up with some friends if you had a need for Online Mario Party

Gato Roboto (Steam)

God this game is adorable. It’s a super fun, condensed Metroidvania adventure that’ll run you under 3 hours, but it’s well made and look great, even with its 2-tone color scheme everything looks clear and pretty. Sound effects are great too.

The experience itself isn’t particularly ground breaking, but it wasn’t trying to be so that’s fine. I managed to find all the pick-ups, and not once was I like “Oh god, it’s a miracle I found that” or “I never would’ve guess this did that.” Everything was clear, it was crisp, and it was fun. Plus it’s got nice support for speedrunning; I was almost tempted but that’d be a fun reason to stream and I can’t have fun so that’s off the table. I highly recommend it; it’s just a short but seat and well-made Metroid game and sometimes that’s hard to come by without other new mechanics getting in the way.

Momodora III (Steam)

Got this one in just under the wire (hours before 2020). There’s a lot of small indie platformers on this list too.

So if you’ve played the much more, erm, advertised sequel, this game is a lot less metroidy and a lot more linear. You can go back and discovere secrets, but there’s not a lot (as far as I can tell), and it gets pretty tough in places. Even still though, I got 87.5% in under an hour and 5 minutes and beat the final boss (there’s seemingly a secret one tho).

So gameplay wise it’s fun, it’s pretty solid, and it has a few moments where you’re just like “Oh, that enemy throws instant death bombs, so uh, don’t die.” Overall though a quality experience, a lot of replayability if you love the first playthrough as well.

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Best Game I played in 2019: Ittle Dew 2

This one was a bit tough here, so I’mma have an honorable mention section that’s basically equivalent. But this game takes the Zelda formula and polishes it while still being quirky and its own thing, then takes it WAY further with all the secrets, bonuses, power-ups, and dear got the nightmares you find. If you’ve ever enjoyed any Zelda game, ittle Dew 2 is a must-play for you as far as I’m concerned.

Best Game that Actually Came out in 2019: Luigi’s Mansion 3

This one’s easy. Next Level Games put so much polish and charm into the franchise while putting a lot of wit and depth into each room on the hotel. It’s not without flaws, but it more than makes up for them by being it’s own thing while building off both the previous two Games

Honorable Mentions: Dragon Quest Builder’s 2 & Spyro Reignited Trilogy

For just being like, great goddam games. Seriously; DQB2 kinda blows minecraft out of the water if only it had less town limitations and multiplayer server support. And Spyro aged pretty well with this trilogy, so I can’t not love it being a 3D platformer collectathon enthusiast.

Honorable Mentions That Are Quick but Great Experiences You Should Play: Gizmo, Minit, & Gato Roboto

I find I like short, simple experiences a lot more these days. These are that; well-made games that are far from overstaying there welcome definitely worth a go if you have a few bucks (or free I guess since Gizmo is a free unrealized demo) and an hour or two you just want to enjoy.

Also, Bomber Bother’s just really funny and free and spawned from a great cause so like why not.

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And that’s all! One day I’ll actually like make a good game, or do something interesting, or leave Texas! Or any number of things other than typing out my opinion online that nobody even asked for for that sick dopamine rush.

mmmmm

C ya!